This will dishonour Christ to take in Erronious Persons if they hold and practice the Essentials of Christianity R. No But it 's for the Honour of Christ to be so Compassionate and extend his Grace so far as to receive such and his Churches are made for the curing of such and therefore the Pastors of Churches should not be such though the People may If we have not the Errors of such may we not have sins as provoking as their Errors If many besides those that are most Orthodox have true Faith and Love and the Spirit of Christ why should they not be Received In the House of God there is Room for all of several Perswasions that have the Wedding Garment Ob. The Apostle saith Gal. 5.2.9 Behold I say unto you that if you be Circumcised Christ shall Profit you nothing c. R. True 2 Pet. 2.1 2. Tit. 3.2 For they added to the Foundation somthing that destroyed it Such are to be Cast out and all that shall bring in Damnable Heresies A Heretick after the first and second Admonition is to be Rejected Ob. Our Lord severely threatens Churches for suffering those that taught the Doctrines of Balaam Rev. 2.14 15.20 and of the Nicolaitans R. True For those were great sins against the Plain Commands of Christ and such Persons were not to be Born 1 Cor. 5.5 but be proceeded against by Church Censures as the Incestuous Corinthian was Ob. To what end then serve the Confessions of Faith of our and other Reformed Churches in which are many useful Truths besides those that are absolutely necessary if all are not to be kept out of their Churches that will not own them R. They are useful to shew the Truth those Churches have attained to Tim. 4.6.7 Heb. 5.12 1 Cor. 3.1 2 12. Acts 20.27 Mat. 28.20 and which they are to promote For it 's plain we must go on to Perfection and not be always Babes yet Babes and imperfect ones are not to be kept out We are not to stay only on the Foundation but must Build Gold and Precious Stones upon it and make known all the Councel of God and teach the Baptized all that Christ hath Commanded But we must not imagine these Confessions were made that all who are Ignorant or differ in any thing from them should be kept from Communion with them for there are several degrees of knowledge and of means to get it They that have more are to own it and they that have less are not to be rejected as cut off from Christ Where God gives much he requires much and where little he requires but little Our Practice confirms this for the Articles of the Church of England are not required to be Subscrib'd unto by Private Christians but only by the Minsters who are to teach others and ought to have more knowledge than they And some say that they Subscribe them not as Articles of Faith but of Communion that is they will hold Communion with those that hold them which seems scarce tolerable in Ministers tho it may be enough in private Persons that Subscribe them not Against Fisher §. 14. And Arch Bishop Laud saith our 39 Articles are not declared to be Fundamental but onely not Erroneous or Superstitious nor imposed under Pain of Damnation but for a peaceable Consent And whereas the fifth Cannon Excommunicates all that hold them in any part to be Erroneous or Superstitious it s to be understood of those only that affirm it boldly and publickly and not of those that hold it privately Secondly That no Churches may impose Ceremonies and Unnecessary Things upon such that they may be received into Communion with them For if any useful Truths Revealed by God may not be impos'd on those that hold the necessary Fundamental Truths to the end they may be admitted into Communion with them much less may Ceremonies and Things invented by men and not appointed by God especially when they are suspected or judged unlawful by many be imposed on them for that end This is plainly unlawful and is the Cause of abundance of Divisions and Offences If any say the Rulers of the Congregation or Church as we use to speak may appoint divers things never appointed by God Thorndike of Relig. Assem ch 9. p. 212. and many with him if indifferent and not sinful in themselves and require them to be owned and practised by all that shall be suffered in their Communion and that they that oppose such things resolutely are not to be born with but opposed because such are Enemies to Publick Order that it 's not lawful to Dispence with Publick Order for their sake that are Weak for so there will never be any Order It 's clear by what is laid down they may not and that these and all other pretences are Vain For if Persons holding all necessary Truth Rom. 14. clear for this Daven on Col. 2.20 The Naked Truth c. may and ought to be received without owning many useful Truths revealed by God then they that hold all necessary Truths and many other useful Truths too ought to be received without owning or practising such things as were never appointed by God and they judg though perhaps Erroniously to be sinful or at least very doubtful and Inconvenient For if many of Gods useful Truths are not to be pressed as Conditions of their Communion much less may Ceremonies and needless Laws of weak if not worldly men be pressed as necessary to it Mr. Chillingworth is clear in this and 't is a wonder Arch Bishop Laud and King James before him were not so but acted quite against this Principle which they highly own'd * K. Cha. at last saw this Anno 1642. Answ to the 19 Propos would have tender Consciences exempt from such Ceremonies at are judged by some sober men to be indifferent and by others absolutely unlawful 'T is related in the Life of Mornay du Plessis that in the Year 1591. he Discoursed with an English Bishop how ill it was for them in England to Silence and Punish Ministers for not using the Ceremonies and that in the Year 1608. he wrote to the Lord Carew our Embassadour to excite King James to procure an Union of all the Protestant Churches and said the King stood too much upon petty differences among his own Subjects and pressing the Ceremonies upon them And in the Year 1615. du Moulin was sent to the King about means to Unite all the Reformed Churches But our great sin and misery is that many who are for a great largeness as to useful things taught by Christ are for great strictness as to Ceremonies and things taught only by Men. A Notorious Practice against this plain Truth Some possibly are too strict in pressing the necessity of many useful things taught by God as Conditions of Communion but large as to things indifferent prescribed only by Men. This is a far less Fault But the God of
taken in and Encouraged But because all lies not on those that have Power to impose but much also upon Private Christians Sixthly Hence also it follows plainly That Persons and Churches that are better than others are to own others if Built on the true Foundation for true Christians and Churches and those that are worse than others are to own those for true Christians and Churches that are better than they and to love them as such Some perhaps will say yes if they be in different Kingdoms but not if they be in the same But why not though in the same Kingdom Who made the distinction Seventhly That Persons and Churches Built upon the large and true Foundation of Faith and Love are to strive to hold Communion one with another The stronger and better with those that are weaker and the weaker with those that are better It 's a great Errour to think we may separate for every cause as the Jews did in their Divorces and that there 's no true way of Reforming but by Separateing Therefore they do ill that will not Communicate with Churches where they lawfully may at least sometimes and they do yet worse that will hold no Communion with the best Churches where the best Doctrine Worship and Spiritual helps for Souls are Eighthly That Persons and Churches that own others for true Churches may be oblig'd not to hold Communion with them in the Publick Worship of God at least not constantly Not at all because such Churches may practice things that are unlawful and make them the Conditions of their Communion or Persons may think such things unlawful which are not and while their Errour continues they cannot joyn with them without going against their Conscience Not constantly because such Churches may use many needless inconvenient and suspicious things tho' they that dissent will not say they are absolutely unlawful or may stick in their weaker beginnings or go backward and deny them the use of those Spiritual means which Christ hath given for the promoting their Salvation Ninthly That there may be true Christian Love between those who do not hold Publick Communion with one another because they may both be built on the true Foundation of Faith and Love And it 's a fond imagination to which yet many are too subject to think that those that will not joyn with them cannot love them or that we must needs want love to those we cannot joyn with To think so is a great mistake See Dr. Owen of Evangelical Love disown'd by all Sober Persons and a cursed Root of bitterness and I fear defiles many 'T is a sad thing to see this in so many and is a sign that most build their Religion more upon lesser things wherein the Life of it lies not than on those main things wherein it lies If any say this will cast out Discipline and many choice Truths of Christ and introduce Erroneous Rotten Doctrines I say it will not for tho' People that are weak and disorder'd may be true Christians and Churches it hinders not but that others may and ought to seek after Discipline and Truth and grow in the ways of God And they do ill whoever they are that shall hinder this And a great part of the Evil and Misery of the World lies here To clear these Things yet more fully If the Church of God be built upon such a large Foundation it plainly follows First That they Err greatly that make every useful Truth to be a Fundamental one and they much more that make their Great Errours to be of the Foundation on which the Church is built The Romanists do so by their Creed of the Council of Trent affirming none can be Saved that own it not And they also that set up Opinions of their own to be Fundamental as those do that hold Diocesan Episcopacy and Ordination by it so necessary that there can be no true Church nor Sacraments nor Salvation in an ordinary way without it and whoever else among us that make any of their Opinions so absolutely necessary Secondly They Err greatly that hold all great Errors to be Damnable Heresies and all sinful Divisions to be Damnable Schisms Thirdly They Err greatly that say People are Baptiz'd into a Particular Church or Party and that therefore they forsake their Baptism if at any time they cease to Worship God with that Church or joyn with any other For we are all Baptiz'd into the Faith of Christ admitted into the Universal Church that 's built on this large Foundation and by one Spirit Baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12.13 But are there any that say so I wish there were not Fourthly From hence it follows that it 's a Great Sin to confine the Church of God to any one Party of Christians whatsoever and cast off others from belonging to it Many are much inclin'd to impropriate Christ to their Party Mead on Ezek. 37. v. 19. as it 's said the Donatists of old did but we must not Unsaint the whole World to Consecrate our own way and they Err greatly that set up particular Churches in opposition to others and so as to disown other particular Churches that are true parts of the Universal Many are apt to destroy God's Invisible Church by their Disputes about the Visible which was appointed for the good of it and to destroy many particular Visible Churches by their strange Notions of Particular or National Churches Fifthly that those of the Church of England that will never joyn in Worship with the Dissenters on the one hand and those Dissenters on the other hand that will never joyn with them act against the plain light of this great Truth And thus many that differ most in other things agree in this Dividing Principle and are great hinderers of the Peace and Edification of the Church amongst us The Non-Conformists are accused that they perswade People not to go to the Publick Churches This is very untrue of most of them But it 's most certain that abundance of the Conformists make it their work to dissuade People from going to hear the Non-Conformists tho' unblameable in their Life and Doctrine and followers of Peace with them They do it publickly with much vehemence in their Sermons and privately in their Discourses Some of them say if any do they renounce their Baptismal Covenant some on their Death-Bed have solemnly engag'd some of their Relations never to hear any of the Dissenters and some of them have Preach'd in great Auditories that a Heathen may be Saved but that a Non-Conformist cannot not to mention other things And who then are the People that seek for Peace and who violently oppose it Sixthly Hence it follows not That If we may joyn with a Church sometimes we are bound to do so always Many build much upon this and that People sin greatly if they do not But this is a great Mistake For it follows not that what we may do sometimes we must
LARGE AND SURE FOUNDATIONS Matth. 16.18 Upon this Rock will I Build my Church LONDON Printed in the Year 1693. THE PREFACE THESE Papers were drawn up some time ago and are the result of Setled Thoughts for many years They are made short and plain and cast in amongst others if possibly they may help to unite us in Interest and Affection and to make the Publick Settlement of Religion at any time more Large and Strong to our great Advantage every way Some hopes of this are raised by the Inclinations of many and the several Pieces lately Publissh'd to this end as besides many that I may not have seen or heard of The Heads of Agreement assented to by the Vnited Ministers Free Thoughts occasioned by those Heads Mr. Barker's Sermon on John 21.17 at the Consecration of the Arch-Bishop of Cant. The Grand Question Writ as 't is said by Dr. Woodroff Dr. Sherlock's Sermon before the Lord Mayor Nov. 4. 1688. To which I may add the Spirit of the Church Faction for it is that only and not the Church that violently opposes all Reformation The Design of laying down this great Principle and the Inferences from it is That Persons who have Power may not impose Vnnecessary Things but give all the Liberty that may be this being most pleasing to Jesus Christ and most for strengthning the Publick Settlement That People may joyn with others in the Worship of God as much as may be and not give way to Scruples and Opinions that make them separate needlesly Imposing and Opposing needlesly ruin us much That if People cannot joyn with others constantly yet that they will do it sometimes both those that cannot approve what is publickly injoin'd and they that injoyn those things or in their places practise them That if any cannot do that yet that they will own those they cannot joyn with if they build on the true Foundation for true tho' distemper'd Churches of Christ and unfeignedly seek their good That if they cannot do that through some strict Notions of a Church they are possessed with yet they will own that many amongst them may be sincere Christians and love them as such And that all kindness may be shewed to all Men even to all sorts that Err and are deceived according to the Will and Command of our Lord Jesus Christ whose Kingdom shall stand for evermore But if God for Holy ends shall yet suffer Narrow Foundations and their Wicked Consequences as he doth Plagues and Wars to continue amongst us and in the World why should we complain We are Wanton Humorous Foolish and should be undone without often and sharp Corrections and our God hath used to carry on his Kingdom by the Testimony and Sufferings of his People tho' he sometimes gives them rest that they may multiply Rev. 12.11 Acts 9.31 thereby to set forth his Power and Glory To him we chearfully submit yet endeavouring according to our duty in our places that Princes and People may be found in his ways Isa 61.11 and that Righteousness and Praise may spring up among us and before all Nations Some Passages out of BOOKS that came out since these Papers were drawn up THE Pious and Famous Mr. Robert Boyle who lov'd no Practice that seem'd to lessen the Christian Religion The Bishop of Sarum's Serm. at his Funeral Decem. 1691. p. 25. p. 27. thought pure and disinteressed Christianity a Bright and Glorious thing Hated those Opinions that seem'd to him to destroy Morality and Charity had a most peculiar Zeal against all Severities and Persecutions upon the account of Religion and was observed seldom to speak with more heat and indignation than when That came in his way Union Pursued Printed 1691. in a Letter to Mr. Baxter concerning his late Book about National Churches that Presbyterians and Independants may both be Vnited with the Church of England to which is added a small Tract lately put out called A Draught for Accommodation Dr. Patrick Bishop of Ely Complains Serm. before the Lords Nov. 26. 1691. on Deut. 4.9 p. 12. that many were kinder to the Papists than to the Protestant Dissenters that the Papists their sworn Enemies made them their Tools to destroy each other We to repent truly of this and take heed lest our Affections that seem'd to be disposed to Reconciliation be again alienated one from another We ought to have a greater kindness for Infidels p. 15. than many of us had lately one for another Did we not begin to reflect with grief upon our Zealous folly p. 17. Did we not resolve to be Friends upon some terms or other and to joyn together for our mutual Preservation And do we now break out again into the said Outrages Do our Spirits boil up with anger at the very mention of Reconciliation c. His Prayers for Charity Peace and Vnity The Prayers Appointed for the Publick Fast in the Year 1692. The Church of God is Built on Large and Sure Foundations THE Blessed God whose tender Mercies are over all his Works hath a Company of People in the World call'd his Church which he purchased by the Blood of his only Begotten Son Acts 20.28 and calls by his Word and Spirit to know and serve him so as to set forth his Glory here and obtatin Everlasting Salvation This Church or Congregation of God for so the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Signifies is call'd by several Names as the Kingdom of Christ the Flock of Christ the Body of Christ and is oft call'd a House and said to be built upon a Foundation Isa 28.6 1 Pet. 2.4 5 6. And this House of God being very great must needs have a great and large Foundation Solomon said the House he was to build for God was great and the Foundation of it was Great and Costly how much Greater must the Spiritual House of God be which reaches over all the World Not only through Pontus Galatia Asia Cappadocia and Bythinia which sounds great but through all Nations and Ages It s Foundation must by no means be narrow vile or weak Now the Foundation of this House is JESUS CHRIST and the great Truths Concerning him reveal'd to us by God in his Word not Humane Reason 1 Cor. 3.11 Eph. 1.20 21 22. nor the Traditions of any Men whatsoever but the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Corner-stone in whom it grows up into a Holy Temple for a Habitation of God through the Spirit Yet all things reveal'd in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are not the Foundation upon which Christ's House or Congregation is built for many of those things are for the Superstructure and Perfecting of it but only the Great and Main Things concerning Jesus Christ our Saviour which are necessary to be believed and practised by all and therefore the Churches Foundation is Large and sure This is manifest every way First From the Holy