man were not bound to lay any restraint on himself nor suppress sensual inclinations nor deny them proper and natural satisfactions As far as we know to live always in this world and body was the Original state of mankind without any expectations of a more divine and spiritual life p. 98. Briefly p. 272. The Divine Spirit is the principle of Immortality in us which first giveth life to our souls and will at last raise our bodies Ans. His Opinion in this is not without the consent of some very learned and good men And if he had held only that immortality is proper to the spiritual so far as it is immortal blessedness who would contradict him But seeing it is the undistinguisht immortality of the Soul that he speaketh of I shall in this with submission declare my Dissent and Reasons § 35.1 I confess that as I said it is an Allay to his damning Sentence of thousands of God's faithful Servants For it seems by Damnation he meaneth but Death and the loss of Heaven in which the Soul is dead as well as the Body and so he judgeth us not to any other Hell But then all the Infidels Atheists Murderers Perjured Adulterers and Drunkards find the like kindness from him if it will prove such It seems all their Souls are mortal and die as Beasts And so the fear of Hell or any pain after Death is dismist by him to all the World 2. I believe not this because God is the righteous Governor of the World and ruleth by means suited to the end And we find that the fear of a future positive punishment is so natural to the Conscience of man that the World is mostly governed by it And God ruleth not man by meer deceit 3. We see that even the fear of Hell is not sufficient to restrain no not professed Christians and Preachers from Perjury Persecution Sensuality Worldliness and Wickedness What a case then would the World be in were they delivered from those fears Men would be worse than Toads Adders or mad Dogs to one another 4. The Philosophers yea most and almost all the Infidel and Pagan World to this day were convinced of the Immortality of the Soul So that even the Lord Herbert de verit numbereth it with the Notices of 〈◊〉 5. I have in divers books given I think satisfactory proof of the Souls immortality not now to be repeated both Natural and from Revelation And if he preach the contrary I crave his patience with those that scruple taking him for their Pastor 6. But as Laâ—iantius and Arnobius plead against the Platonists for the Souls Mortality by Nature I do confess that there is nothing in Nature that will prove that God cannot annihilate it as he can do any Angel nor that it is immortal without dependâ—nce on God nor that will prove infallibly that God will annihilare no Soul But all that we pretend to prove by Nature is 1. That there is nothing in the Nature of the Soul that hath a tendency to annihilation or dissolution of it 2. That God who maketh all things suitable to their use seemeth to intimate that he will not dissolve or annihilate it by making it of such a durable Nature 3. And his Government affords us yet stronger moral Arguments 7. As God made Adam's Soul of an immortal Nature so sin changed not his Essence but his Quality and Relation And tho it made him mortal in the dissolution of his humanity or composition and liable to pain it did not turn him into an Animal of another species nor acquit him from all future suffering God having made his Soul naturally durable or immortal man's merits were but to determine whether it should be immortal happiness or immortal misery God was not bound to change man's Essence to shorten his suffering because man vitiated it 8. If one should preach that Christ came to make Humane Souls immortal that were all naturally mortal it would make Faith so hard a Work as would greatly hinder the conversion of the Infidels It would be an hard thing to believe that Christ maketh Saints of another species from all other men as men are from Brutes And if ones Soul be naturally mortal and others by the Spirit immortal it would seem a specifick difference And Philosophers and Mahometans who can say so much for the immortality of the Soul would despise Christians as less Orthodox than they 9. I have elsewhere proved that the Iews held the Souls immortality except the Sadduces He that said Good Master what shall I do to inherit â—tâ—rnal life spake but their common Opinion as did all they that believed that any rose from the dead 10. It seems by the History of Henoch and Elias that if man had not sinned he should have been so translated For God had said Increase and multiply and the Earth would not have held all Humane Generations 11. Christ expresly saith There shall be a Resurrection to condemnation John 5. and that the wicked shall go to everlasting punishment Matth. 25. and that their worm never dieth nor their fire is quenched c. But if the Soul be not immortal there can be no Resurrection It will not be the same man but another new made And shall a new soul suffer for anothers sin Luke 16. in the case of Dives and Lazarus tells us Christ's mind of this 12. Yet I confess that the Resurrection of the Body was not promised before the Fall nor yet plainly threatned but seemeth to be the common effect of Redemption in its first instance as it was for all Mankind viz. That man being filius mortis Christ would first as a common Saviour restore his Nature and then set him in the way of Tryal for its happiness or misery as God at first made his Nature and then tryed him accordingly But it seems had there been no Saviour the body should have continued dead being but the meer instrument of the sinning soul and the immortal soul be immortally unhappy 13. Therefore in this if the Doctor mean not better than he speaks but thinks indeed that the Spirit only is the Principle of the Souls immortality I differ from him but not with contempt acknowledging that these things are weighty and of difficulty But I am loath to be less Orthodox than Heathens and Infidels or than the vain conceited Rabbins who as Buxtorfe and others tell us do hold that good Israelites go to Heaven and bad Israelites to Hell and all others die like Beasts Did he so hold of good and bad Christians it were too gross or of those that are called by the Gospel and some believe and some refuse The Papists most commonly hold That unbaptized Infants are in some such neutral state shut out of Heaven but under no positive pain But if the Doctor preach so of the Adult and all tho he seem to abate of his severity to the Dissenters he will do no service to the Church 14. The Terms
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
for reading the Psalms Chapters Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue c. But I have come into so few of their Churches that do any more than the common Pulpit work sing a Psalm Pray and Preach there that I have in that respect preferred the Churches that do all that and add all the Liturgy besides more than you use D. O. Argument 6. That which hath been and is obstructive of the edification of the Church if it be in Religious Worship it is false Worship For the end of all true publick Worship is edification But such hath been and is this Liturgical Worship For § 21. YOur Sixth Argument is but a Former repeated To the Major I grant it All that is bad is so far false To the Minor 1. And such is all your Errors and all the Disorder ill Reflections slovenly Expressions which any weak Minister useth and the faults that all men have in some degree D. O. 1. It puts an utter stop to the progress of Reformation in this Nation fixing bounds unto it that it could never pass 2. It hath kept multitudes in ignorance c. 3. It hath countenanced and encouraged many in reviling and reproaching the holy Spirit and his Work 4. It hath set up and warranted an ungifted Ministry 5. It hath made great desolations in the Church 1. In the silencing of painful Ministers 2. In the ruin of Families innumerable 3. In the destruction of souls It is not lawful to be participant in these things yea the glory of our profession lies in our testimony against them § 22. TO your Reasons 1. It 's not the use of a Liturgy that hinders Reformation but the abuse of it and forbidding other ways of duty 2. The same I say of keeping men in ignorance Use all other means and the Liturgy with it and it will keep none in ignorance Some Helvetia Ministers who endeavoured to have practised my Reformed Pastor in personal conference told me That there the common people go customarily almost every day in the week to a Sermon without Ceremonies or Liturgies usually with a Bible in their hands and continue as ignorant as those here that have no preaching 3. I think it was not the esteem of a Liturgy that made Quakers and Separatists here revile and scorn the best Ministry I think in all the World 4. Nor was it the Liturgy that set up and warranted such ill-gifted Teachers as Mr. Erbury Dell Den Paul Hobson Chillington Lilhurne Prince Wallwin William Sedgwick no nor Mr. Saltmarsh who wrote for comfort That Christ hath repented and believed for us and we should no more question our Faith and Repentance than we would question Christ. I pass by multitudes of Army-Preaching-Soldiers such as those in Major Bethel's Troop in the same Regiment that I was with against whom one day in Amersham-Church I was put to dispute from morning till near night to save multitudes whom they drew every week to hear them from their absurd Errors and at last they turned Levellers and Cromwell was put to hunt them to death The like I was put to with Brown an Army-Chaplain and an Arrian that maintained That Christ was not God in a Church at Worcester And this life I had with them long Was all this caused by a Liturgy 5. The desolations made in the Church malignant men would make with or without a Liturgy What may not be abused The Authors must answer for it Such as aforesaid Iewel Grindal Usher c. Preston Sibs Bolton and a Thousand such made no such havock It is not lawful to partake in persecution but we must partake in much good which bad men will abuse to persecution An excellent forreign Church hath decreed to reject all Ministers that are not 1. For the Antiquity of the Hebrew Points 2. Against Universal Redemption Our Learned Author here was for both these tho men abused them to persecution D. O. Argument 7. That practice whereby we condemn the suffering Saints of the present Age rendering them false Witnesses of God and the only blamable cause of their own sufferings is not to be approved But such is this practice And where this is done on a pretence of liberty without any plea of necessary duty on our part it is utterly unlawful § 23. TO your Seventh Argument The Major meaneth either Saints that suffer for well-doing or for ill-doing If the Anabaptists should be suffering-Saints I would be none of those that they suffer by But yet I would not be for Anabaptistry for fear of condemning them as the cause of their own suffering By that Rule I must own every error or sin that any Saint suffereth for 2. The Truth bids me say more than I am willing to confute this Error I have heard Army-Officers say That they believed abundance of the Ten Thousand Scots killed at Dunbar were godly men And yet you were one that publickly in Pulpit and Print accused them and did not justifie their cause for being Saints Do you think none of the Ministers in England were Saints that refused the Engagement and were sequestred for that and not keeping Fasts and Thanksgivings for Blood Are you sure that Christopher Love beheaded was no Saint Or did you therefore own their Causes To your Minor It is a gross Mistake to say That going to the Liturgy maketh the Refusers the only blamable cause of their own sufferings What! XXXVIII Error are you one that acquit all their Prosecutors if it be but proved that the Refusers are mistaken Who could have suspected this What if Presbyterians Anabaptists and such others err as you believe they do If any would therefore silence imprison banish or hang them dare you justifie it and say That the Dissenters are the only blamable cause of their own sufferings Sure you consider not what you wrote You thought not so 2. But are there no Saints that go to Common-Prayer Why do not you distinguish Saints I hope there are many times more Saints and wiser that separate not than that do And are not you as faulty for saying They sin as they for saying You sin if their cause be true This soundeth as too much of a Sect. 3. The Truth is Repentance is so hard a work that I see both Extreams fly from it on a proud pretence of Constancy and that they may not confess that they have erred It was the grand Argument that bore down me and others when we pleaded with some Bishops to have prevented our Divisions by some alterations Oh then it will be thought that we erred and gave cause for old complaints And now we must none of us hold Communion with the Parish-Churches lest some Saints that separate should be rendered False Witnesses of God and blamable But were not the old Nonconformists and Conformists as real Saints as the old Separatists and a Thousand for One And do not you now make them all as False Witnesses If really you have fathered any Love-killing dividing Error on God
is to hold that some Church is perfect in Understanding Faith Hope and Practice without Ignorance Errour or Sin that is not to know what a man or a Christian on Earth is XXIII Much less do all Churches agree in unnecessary indifferent accidents nor ever did nor ever will or can do XXIV The measuring out Churches by limits of Ground Parochial or Diocesan is a meer humane ordering of a mutable accident and no Divine Determination And if all were taken for Church members-because they dwell in those precincts it were wicked But if it be but all in those precincts that are qualified Consenters it is usually a convenient measure But such as in many Cases must be broken XXV If a Church with Faithful Pastors be well setled in a place first where there are not more than should make up that one Church it is not meet for any there to gather a distinct Church thô of the same Faith without such weighty reason as will prove it necessary or like to do more good than hurt 1. Because Love inclineth to the greatest Union 2. Because a Great Church is more strong and honourable than a small if the number be not so great as to hinder the Ends. 3. And the Ancient Churches kept this Union XXVI If Magistrates make such Laws about Church Accidents as tend to further the Churches wellfare or are so pretended and not against it we must obey them But if they will either invade Christs Authority or cross it by making Laws against his or such as are proper to his Prerogative to make or invade the Pastors Office and the Churches proper right given by Christ or determine Accidents to the Destruction of the Substance the Church Doctrine Worship or Ends these bind the Consciences of none to Obedience but Christ must be obeyed and we must patiently suffer XXVII Self-interest Self-Government and Family-Government are all antecedent to Publick Government which Ruleth them for the Common good but hath no Authority to destroy them No King or Prelate can bind a man to do that which would damn his Soul nor to omit that which is needful to his Salvation All power is for Edification They are Gods Ministers for Good XXVIII As it belongs to self-government to choose our own Dyet and Cloaths and Wives and Physicians thô we may be restrained from doing publick hurt on such pretences And it belongs to Family Government to educate our own Children and choose their Tutors Callings Wives c. so it more nearly belongs to self-government to choose the most safe and profitable means of our own Salvation which no man may forbid us and to avoid that which is pernicious or hurtful and to Family-Government to do the like for our Children XXIX It is false Doctrine of those late Writers who tell us that only Sacraments sanctifie or give right to Salvation The whole Tenor of the Gospel tells us that men are brought to Faith and Repentance and to be Christians and Godly men and by Faith to be justified by the Preaching of the Gospel and that Gods word is his appointed means of Salvation which his Ministers must preach skilfully instantly in season and out of season to that End And if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost XXX The Gospel saveth not like a Charm by the bare sound or saying of the words nor the Sacrament like an Amulet But as a Moral means specially blest by him that instituted it to work on man as Mâ—n by informing his Mind perswading his Will and exciting his Affections as Men are wrought on in other Cases which methinks those called Arminians should least deny who are said to lay more of the Spirits operation on Moral suasion than their Adversaries yea and those that account it Fanaticism to expect any other gift of Prayer from the Spirit but what is given morally by use And the contrary Doctrine feigneth God to Work even constantly by Miracle And as the Papists make every Mass-Priest a Miracle Worker in Transubstantiation so do they that make the bare saying over the Words and doing the outward Acts in the Sacrament to save us ex opere operato and the Pastoral teaching and oversight of an ignorant drunken Lad or Reader to be near as great a help to Salvation as the Ministry of a wise skilful Holy and exemplary Pastor and the clear affectionate Preaching of Gods word And that tell us as Mr. Dodwell how sufficient a man is to administer the Sacramental Covenant that understands what a Covenant is in matters of Common Conversation XXXI If a Wise and Skilful and Conscionable Ministry be as needless to Edification and Salvation as some Men pretend it is as needless that they should study to be such and vain to Glory that they are such and that the Church of England hath such a Ministry and vain to expect that men should pay them any more respect than I owed my Master that never preacht but once and that drunken and divers very like him Or that they should use this as an argument to draw men to hear them XXXII If the King or Law should settle a Physician of his or a Patrons choice in every Parish it were well done if it be but to have help at hand for Volunteers But if he command all to use them and to use no other before them or against them where unskilful or untrusty men are placed no man is bound to obey this command No mens Law can dissolve the Law of Nature nor disoblige a man from a due care of his Life nor bind him to cast it away upon Obedience to ignorant or bad and treacherous Men. And a mans Soul is more precious than his Health or Life and he is bound to greater care of it and is no more to trust it on the will of his Superiours How vast is the difference between an ignorant rash Physician or Pastor and one that is wise experienced and trusty They that scorn Men for going for greater edification from one to another do not so if a man prefer a skilful Physician to one that kills more than he cures or a skilful and careful Tutor for his Son yea or a Farrier for his Horse XXXIII If one Preacher be not for Edification to be greatâ—â— preferred before another then One Book is not And so it 's no matter what Book they read or value and what a Student will this make And what a Trade for the Booksellers And why then should their own Books be so valued And why then do they silence hundreds or thousands and forbid them to preach on pain of ruine thô no false Doctrine be proved against them if they think not that the difference is very great XXXIV When Councils hereticated and condemned Thousands or Hundreds of Priests and Bishops whom Christian Emperours and Princes owned as Orthodox they did not then think every Patron Prince or Prelate a competent Judge with what Pastor Men should
they cannot change their mindes 1. Whether they will be damned as Excommunicate and practical Atheists that give over all Church Worship 2. Or as damnable Schismaticks for worshipping God in Churches when they are excommunicate 3. Or as perfidious Lyars that will make false Confessions Profession and promises to get off an Excommunication When Mr. Dodwel numbers those with Schismaticks that suffer themselves to be excommunicate if they have no other means in their Power to hinder it it seems these great Enemies to absolute reprobation do think all Christians being unavoidably born to imperfection of Knowledg are as unavoidably born to damnation whenever Prelates or Priests please thus to precipitate them LXXXVI 2. Particularly 1. The first and second Canons ipso facto excommunicate all that say that any manner of Obedience and Subjection within his Majesties Realms and Dominions is due to any usurped and foreign Power By this all Papists and all pretended Protestants such as Dr. Barrow confuteth who hold any manner of Obedience and Subjection due to Pope or Foreign Councils are Excommunicate 2. Those that say that the Book of Common Prayer containeth any thing in it repugnant to the Scriptures are ipso facto excommunicate Which now by the new Laws are interpreted of the present Books 3. In this all are excommunicate who say the Mis-translations in Psalms Epistles or Gospels of which many instances have been given to be any thing repugnant in the Scripture 4. And all that say It is against the Scripture to deny Christendom to all Infants that have not such Vowers in their Names and for their Education as we call Godfathers and Godmothers thô the Parent who is forbidden it offer his Child by Sponsion 5. And all that say it is against Scripture to deny Christendom to all that refuse the Covenanting transient Images of a Cross. 6. And all that say that it is against Scripture for all Ministers to profess that it 's certain by Gods Word that baptized Infants without exception so dying are undoubtedly saved when no word of God is cited that saith it and adding to Gods word is dreadfully threatned and when it 's certain that all Ministers are not certain of any such thing and I think no one 7. All are ipso facto excommunicate that say It is against Gods Word to deny Church Communion in the Sacrament to all that dare not take it kneeling for fear thô mistaken of breaking the second Commandment by Symbolizing with Idolaters that are seeking to reduce the Nation to their Sin and that live round about us 8. All are excommunicate that say it is against Scripture to pronounce all saved that are buryed except the unbaptized self-murderers and the excommunicate while thousands of Sadducees Hobbists Infidels Papists Perjured Adulterers Drunkards c. dwell among us 9. By the fifth Canon all are ipso facto excommunicate that say Any of the Articles are in any part erroneous or such as they perhaps as doubters may not with a good Conscience subscribe to and consequently all the aforesaid Conformists that think the sence erroneous while they subscribe those words and shall affirm e. g. that Canons are made necessary to Salvation thô the matter cannot be proved by Scripture contrary to Art 6. Those that contrary to Art 8. say any thing in Athanasius Creed may not be subscribed Such as Bishop Taylour that against Art 9. deny Original Sin Those that say contrary to Art 10. that the Word no Power excludeth Common natural Power or maketh Nature to be Grace Those that write against our being accounted righteous only for Christs merits and say that another subordinate Righteousness is named many hundred times in Scripture contrary to Art 11. Those that contrary to Art 13. say that works done before the Inspiration of the Spirit may make men meet to receive Grace Those that with Dr. Hammond write for works that are not commanded but counselled and Free-will-offerings contrary to Art 14. All they that take Infants and new baptized Persons to have no sin contrary to Art 15. All that say that after we have received the H. Ghost we cannot depart from Grace given contrary to Art 16. Those that deny the Doctrine of Election in Art 17. Those that say any on Earth may be saved by diligent living according to the light of Nature without knowing the name of Christ contrary to Art 18. Those that contrary to Art 19. reject that Description of a visible Church which reacheth to such as our Resolver damneth All that contrary to Art 20. say that the Church may not enforce any thing to be believed for necessity to Salvation besides the Scripture even those that say it 's necessary to Salvation by avoiding Schism to believe that all imposed Tyths Covenants Practices and Ceremonies are not sin All that contrary to Art 21. say that General or other Councils may be gathered without the command and will of Princes and deny they may erre and things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither Strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they are taken out of Holy Scripture Those that deny Art 23. that those are lawfully called and sent into the Ministry who have publick Authority given them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords Vineyard are chosen and called hereto for want of Canonical Succession Those that contrary to Art 24. would have Gods Worship performed to them that understand not the language to avoid the Schism of having many Churches in a City Those that take Confirmation or Penance or the other three for Sacraments of the Gospel contrary to Art 25. Those that contrary to Art 26. would not have it believed to be the Peoples duty who know the Offences of Bad Ministers to accuse them All that contrary to Art 27. are against Infant Baptism as agreeable to Christs Institution All that contrary to Art 28. say the Body of Christ is given and taken and eaten in the Sacrament otherwise than in a Spiritual manner by Faith All that say that in some wise the wicked are Partakers of Christ in the Sacrament contrary to Art 29. All that contrary to Art 30. say There is other satisfaction for Sin besides Christs Blood All that say that Men justly Excommunicate may be reconciled and received by the multitude without open penance which is ordinary contrary to Art 33. All that contrary to Art 34. think that a General Council may ordain such Traditions or Ceremonies as shall in all places be one or the like and that every Particular or National Church may not abolish those Ceremonies or Rites which the General Council or Colledge ordained Many things in the Book of Homilies especially against peril of Idolatry are blamed by many Conformists contrary to Art 35. All that contrary to Art 36. say that the Book of Ordination wants some things necessary All that contrary to Art 37. think that Pope or foreign Bishops have any
Communion of all Forreign Pastors the validity of whose right to their places we have not just notice of our Task would be impossible or our Communion narrow And if forreign Bishops will become so pragmatical as to make themselves Judges of other Kingdoms which party of Competitors are the truly called Pastors when they cannot try them or will take the words of one party against the other because they are uppermost it is just to disregard their Judgment tho they do it on pretence of Communion XII If men will turn a voluntary consultation for concord into the Nature of a Law tho they call it but Communion the Church should not own their Usurpation As the Princes of Europe are bound to do the best they can to promote by their concord the interest of Christ and may well hold Diets or Meetings for that end yet no man calls that Diet a Kingdom nor hath the Major Vote a power to bind the Minor to consent when the reason of the thing doth not bind them So is it in the concord of forreign Churches All are bound to agree in what Christ commandeth But in circumstantial determinations no man is bound further than the End and Reason of the thing requireth Communion here is not Subjection XIII There is an Excommunication which is a governing act This no Church or Bishop can use over others And there is a meer renunciation of Communion which equals may use XIV If any Bishops or Councils Usurpers or not excommunicate men unjustly or forbid them Communion unless they will sin such prohibited men must obey Christ and not forbear Church-Worship and Communion where they can have it specially if they are many Schismatical imposing Church tearers must not be encouraged by sinful obedience to them Whomever they call Schismaticks God will judg them as Schismaticks themselves and their revilings and persecutions are self-condemnation I doubt I weary the Reader with oft repeating the same thing to make them plain against perverters § 24. Let us follow him further p. 47. he saith But how to apply the Copula in a Proposition either to the union of Soul or Body or of Christ and his Church I cannot tell and shall never be able to learn till I meet with some new Baxterian Logick as well as Grammar and Metaphysicks Ans. And yet you will think your self wise enough to stir up men against us for our ignorance while you are raging confident Are you resolved to read no Logick that 's already written One would have thought it should have pleased one that pleads for Unity As it is no Proposition but made so by the Copula uniting the terms as Subject and Predicate and the Union maketh one the Predicate so it is no Man and no Church by the bare existence of Soul and Body or of Christ and Believers without the uniting of both together that so the Soul may become in actu the forma hominis and Christ the forma Ecclesiae Homo Animal rationale are no Proposition without a Uniting est Is not this plain § 25. P. 47 48. Granting that there is no Universal Government but Christ he 's again at it that there is somewhat more than Organization and all the Essentials of Christianity and Union with Christ to make the Church One and thereupon feigneth me to say That which maketh this Body to become a Church is no union among themselves and leaveth out the rest of the Sentence but their common union with Christ As if their common Union with Christ were not an Union among themselves If I have not made this plain enough That 1. the Church hath the Unity of the parts to make it a capable Body or Matter 2. That it hath a consequent Union and Communion after it is a Church 3. But that it is only the Union of adapted Matter and Form that makes it essentially the Church of Christ in the proper political sence then I despair of making it intelligible that forma dat esse nomen And if that which maketh it the Church do not thereby make it hoc unum then eus unum non convertuntur and unum must have a distinct cause from eus § 26. He adds I should rather think that the Unity of several Churches makes them one Church and does not only prepare and dispose them to be one Ans. Their Unity in Christ doth make them one formally And this is the informing Unity among themselves But all other Unity is but preparatory or consequential to the formal unity I told you out of Dr. Barrow and may see in Rod. Goclenius Martinius and many more beside Metaphysicks in what abundance of loose sences things may be called One We deny no such Unity no not in an heap of Sand. But of formal political Unity why would you never tell us what it is but Union with one King that makes many Cities one Kingdom Do you rather think they are One Kingdom by any other Union among themselves Yes if you take Kingdom materially and equivocasly but not else Dare you say That they are the Church of Christ without their Union with him as the Form Or dare you say That all Christians united to Christ as their Head and Form are not eo nomine one Polity or Church And what 's the reason that all this while you will not name that thing else that makes the Church one Do it if you can § 27. P. 49. Falsly saying that I have not told him what Union of the Churches among themselves is necessary he feigns an Union in Christ the Center consistent with as great distance as the two Poles Ans. What base thoughts hath this man of Christianity Is it a contemptible Union to have all one Faith one Hope one Baptismal Covenant and so one God one Lord one Spirit and one body of such and all the Twelve parts of Union and Communion before named 2. Were it not worth the labour for this man to tell us what the more near and excellent Union is which he hath a mind to set up Paul saith I tell you of a more excellent way when he speaks of the Union of Love even Love to God and our Saviour first and to all his Members as united in him Out of all this man's books I cannot find what his nearer Union is unless it be to unite in such as he that is in obedience to their Wills and so Subjection to them be this high Communion He saith over and over the general word Catholick Communion but what he placeth it in let him find that can § 28. He saith This is a pretty easie way of determining Controversies to out-face all the authority of Scripture and Antiquity by a dogmatical assertion without offering the least Reason or shadow of Reason to confirm it Ans. Reader find one word of Scripture or true Antiquity that I contradict or that ever he shewed that I contradict and judg who giveth Reason and take not his word or
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
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