the dangerous guilt of Adding to the Word of God under pretence of strict expounding it and defending its perfection and extent 3. By the same Rule as they deal thus by one Text as the second Command they may do so by all And if all or much of the Scripture were but thus expounded I leave it to the sober Reader to consider what a body of Divinity it would make us and what a Religion we should have 4. It altereth the very Definition of the holy Scripture and maketh it another thing That which God made to be the Record of his holy Covenant and the Law and Rule of Faith and Holiness and the General Law for outward Modes and Circumstances which are but Accidents of Worship is pretended by men to be a particular Law for that which it never particularly medleth with 5. It sorely prepareth men for Infidelity and to deny the Divine Authority of the Scripture and utterly to undo all by overdoing If Satan could but once make men believe that the Scripture is a Rule for those things that are not to be found in it at all and which God never made it to be a Rule for he will next argue against it as a delusory and imperfect thing He will teach every Artificer to say That which is an imperfect Rule is not of God But the Scripture is an imperfect Rule For saith the Watch-maker I cannot learn to make a Watch by it saith the Scrivener I cannot make a Legal Bond or Indentures by it saith the Carpenter I cannot build a House by it saith the Physician I cannot sufficiently know or cure Diseases by it saith the Mathematician Astronomer Geographer Musician Arithmetician the Grammarian Logician Natural Philosopher c. it is no perfect particular Rule of our Arts or Sciences The Divine will say It tells me not sufficiently and particularly what Books in it self are Canonical nor what various Readings are the right nor whether every Text be brought to us uncorrupted nor whether it be to be divided into Chapters and Verses and into how many Nor what Metre or Tune I must sing a Psalm in nor what persons shall be Pastors of the Churches nor what Text I shall choose next nor what Words I shall use in my next Sermon or Prayer with abundance such like Only in General both Nature and Scripture say Let all things be done in Order and to Edification c. Spiritually Purely Believingly Wisely Zealously Constantly c. He that believeth it to be given as such a particular Rule and then findeth that it is silent or utterly insufficient to that use is like next to cast it away as a delusion and turn an Infidel or Anti-scripturist 6. This mistake tendeth to cast all Rational Worship out of the Church and World by deterring men from inventing or studying how to do Gods work aright For if all that man inventeth or deviseth be a forbidden Image than we must not invent or find out by study the true meaning of a Text the true method of Praying or Preaching according to the various subjects Nay we must not study what to say till we are speaking nor what Time Place Gesture Words to use no nor the very English Tongue that we must Pray and Preach in Whereas the Scripture it self-requireth us to meditate day and night to study to shew our selves workmen that need not be ashamed to search and dig for knowledge c. Do they not err that devise evil but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good Prov. 14. 22. I Wisdom dwell with Prudence or subtilty and find out knowledge of witty inventions Prov. 8. 12. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words Eccles. 12. 10. Banish study and you banish knowledge and Religion from the world The Spirit moveth us to search and study and thereby teacheth us what to judge and say and do and doth not move us as I play on an Instrument that knoweth not what it doth 7. This Opinion will bring in all Confusion instead of pure reasonable Worship While every man is left to find that in the Scripture which never was there and that as the only Rule of his actions one will think that he findeth one thing there and another another thing For it must be Reality and Verity which must be the term of Unity Men cannot agree in that which is not 8. Yea it will let in impiety and error for when men are sent to seek and find that which is not there every man will think that he findeth that which his own corrupted mind brings thither 9. And hereby all possibility of Union among Christians and Churches must perish till this Opinion perish For if we must unite only in that which is not in being we must not unite at all If we must all in singing Psalms agree in no Metre or Tune in the Church but one that Scripture hath prescribed us we shall sing with lamentable discord 10. And hereby is laid a snare to tempt men into odious censures of each other Because studied Sermons printed Books Catechisms and Forms of Prayer are Images and Idolatry in these mens conceits all Gods Churches in the world must be censured as Idolatrous And almost all his Ministers in the world must be accounted Idolaters Children must account their Parents Idolaters and disobey them that would teach them a Catechism Psalm or Form of Prayer Our Libraries must be burnt or cast away as Images And when Ministers are diminished and accounted Idolaters if Satan could next but perswade people against all the holy Books of the Ministers of Christ such as Boltons Prestons c. as Images and Idols had he not plaid a more succesful game then he did by Iulian and doth by the Turks who keep the Christians but from humane Learning 11. Hereby Christian Love will be quenched when every man must account his Brother an Idolater that cannot shew a Scripture for the hour the place of Worship the Bells the Hour-glasses the Pulpit the Utensils c. or that studieth what to say before he Pray or Preach 12. And hereby backbiting slandering and railing must go currant as no sin while every Calvin Cartwright Hildersham Perkins Sibbs c. that used a Form of Prayer yea almost all the Christians in the world must be accused of Idolatry as if it were a true and righteous charge 13. And all our sins will be fathered on God as if the second Commandment and the Scripture perfection did require all this and taught Children to disobey their Parents and Masters and say your Prayers and Catechisms are Images and Idols c 14. It will rack and perplex the Consciences of all Christians when I must take my self for an Idolater till I can find a particular Law in Scripture for every Tune Metre Translation Method Word Vesture Gesture Utensil c. that I use in the worshipping of God When Conscience must build only in the air and rest only on
motion of God and as if this bringing it to their mind would warrant their exposition Whereupon I advise men to know the necessity of the spirits ordinary sanctifying work and not to despise mens pretences of revelation but yet to believe none against Scripture As to the ground of this passage it is such as is not disputable with me being matter of sense so impossible is it for me to escape all the heinous accusations of this brother It is not many years since I have had several persons with me two or three out of one County that brought me books written for the Press and urged me to procure them printed and shewed to the King in which were abundance of Scriptures abused to many daring predictions of things presently to come to pass and all upon pretence of Visions and Revelations and the setting of such an exposition on their hearts And the men were ignorant melancholy and crazâ—d persons and the Scriptures almost all falâ—ly interpreted and the predictions fail And all of them had the fifth Monarchy notion without conference that I could learn with any about it When I lived in Coventrey Major Wilkies a Learned Scot lived in the house with me who professed to have lived many years in a Course of Visions and Revelations and had abundance of Texts set upon his heart and expounded to him by Vision most for the Millenary way and for Prophecies about our times and changes and some against preciseness many of his expositions were considerable some palpably false some of his predictions came to pass and some proved false He was of a hot melancholy temper and as I heard after distracted If this brother had known how many if not many score of deeply melancholy persons have been with me that have had some of them prophecies most of them almost in desperation and some of them comforted by such or such a Text brought to their mind which was of a quite different sense and impertinent to that which they fetcht from it and some of their Collections contrary to the rest he would take heed of doing Gods spirit so much wrong as to father poor crazed peoples deliratioâ—s on it And this is as common I think among the Papists themselves that meddle less with Scripture than we do What abundance of Books be there of the phantasmes of their Fryers and Nuns as Prophecies Visions and Revelations which the judicious Reader may perceive are but the effects of melancholy and hysterical passions improved by ignorant or deceitful Priests But what is the Charge against me here Why he saith He calls them poor fanciful women and melancholy persons that ordinarily receive comfort by suggested Texts of Scripture Answ. This is the 16th visible Untruth Indeed here are are two gross untruths together 1. He changeth the subject into the predicate and then affirmeth me so to have spoken I said It is ordinary for such fanciful and melancholy persons to take deep apprehensions for Revelations and if a Text come into their mind to think it is by an extraordinary motion of the spirit And he feigneth me to say that they that ordinarily receive comfort by suggested texts are melancholy Is it all one to say It is ordinary for melancholy persons to pray to fear to erre c. And They that ordinarily pray fear erre are melancholy Again Brother this is not well 2. He feigneth me to speak of them that ordinarily receive Comfort when I have no such word but speak of them that would draw others into error and separation by confident asserting false expositions of Scripture as set on their mind by revelâ—tion from the spirit This is not well neither He addeth If this be not to sit in the Chair of Scorners what is This needeth no answer For saith he is not this the very language of holy men Answ. Alas brother how impertinent is your question The question is Whether this be the language of no melancholy person or of none but holy men and that as holy Is it not the language of many â— Popish Nun and Fryer that pretend to Revelation Have not I heard it with these ears from multitudes in melancholy and other weakness that have perverted the Texts which they alledged Have I not read it many books of Experiences Is he a scorner that saith that a man may speak the same words mistakingly in melancholy which another speaketh truly Do you well brother to trouble the World at this rate of discourse For charges on me I pass them by And for his saying that the bare recital of their usual words is fitter for a Iester than a judicious Divine and when he hath done to be so angry that they be not all ascribed to Gods spirit I will not denominate such passages as they deserve lest I offend him Lest you deny belief to me I intreat you and the Reader to get and read a book published by Mr. Brown as is uncontrolledly affirmed who lately wrote against Mr. Tombes against the lawfulness of Communion in the Parish Churches concerning the experiences and strange work of God on a Gentlewoman in Worcester whom I will not name because yet living and God may recover her but is there well known This Gentlewoman having been long vain and a constant neglecter of publick worship was suddenly moved to go into the Church while I was there preaching on Rom. 6. 21. The very Text struck her to the heart but before the Sermon was done she could hardly forbear crying out in the Congregation She went home a changed person resolved for a holy life But her affection or passion being strong and her nature tender and her knowledge small she quickly thought that the Quakers lived strictlier than we and fell in among them At last perceiving them vilifie the Ministry and the Scripture her heart smote her and she forsook them as speaking against that which by experience she had found to do her good And desiring to speak with me who lived far off opened this much to me But all these deep workings and troubles between the several waies did so affect her that she fell into a very strong melancholy Insomuch that she imposed such an abstinence from meat upon her self that she was much consumed and so debilitated as to keep her bed and almost famished Mr. Brown and others were her instructers who were very zealous for the way called The Fifth Monarchy and having instructed her in those opinions published the whole story in print which else I would not have mentioned I shall say nothing of any thing which is otherwise known but desire the Reader that doth but understand what melancholy is better than the Writers did to read that book and observe with sorrow and pitty what a number of plain effects of Melancholy as to thoughts and Scriptures and actions are there ascribed to meâ—r Temptations on one side and to Gods unusual or notable operations on the other side In the end he saith And
praying by habit Marvel not if it burn you within and without and when your own passions have scorched you other mens hatred of your prayers as you hate theirs do trouble you also And if you hate the quenching of these fires even when the Churches by them are all on a flame as sober men as you will be of another mind I tell you again brother you greatly wrong and dishonour God if you think that he layeth so much upon that which he never gave any law about or spake one word for or against as to tell the World that he hateth all prayer that is put up by a form or book And that he that denyeth this speaketh meanly of prayer The Lord teach you to know what manner of spirit you are of which request I shall reitâ—rate for you instead of praying with your earnestness The Lord rebuke him Have you the bowels of a Christian and the spirit of Christian Love and Unity and can you think that God hateth for that was my word all the prayers of all the Churches and Christians in the World that use a form Even of all the Greek Churches the Armenians Abassines Jacobites Syrians Copâ—ies Lutherans and Calvinists of all the English publick Churches and the prayers of such holy men as Dr. Preston Dr. Sibbes Mr. Perkins Mr. Hildersham Mr. Cartwright Dr. Stoughton Mr. Whateley Mr. Bolton and all such as they that used some the Liâ—urgie and some other forms And that God hateth the prayers of all Christian Families and Christians that use a form Do you dislike adding to God's word and will you adde to it so boldly as to say he hateth that which he never once forbad If you would make your reader think that I make God indifferent to all modes and words in prayer you would abuse him For though I never heard a man swear in prayer I think you curse in prayer a little before and I have heard many rail in prayer and traduce men for truth and duty and vent their own errors But I beseech you promote superstition no more and feign no Divine Laws which you cannot shew us And teach not this unhappy age to feign things necessary that are not and paint out the most holy gracious God as the patron of every one of their fancies Your words Doth not God regard the manner of our addressing our selves to him Must we not pray in the spirit Do still make me pray that you may know your spirit Do you well to intimate that I say the contrary When I maintain that God so far accepteth them that worship him in spirit and truth that he will accept their prayers with a form or without and hateth neither yea hath left both indifferent to be varied as mens occasions and use for either vary as he hath done a form or notes in preaching It is an easie thing to turn formalist either way by thinking God loveth our prayers either because they are in the same words or in various words The second part of this Exception calleth me a trifler that doth neither believe the Scripture nor himself but tries to abuse c. Because I say about a Liturgie 1. Certainly in Christs time both Liturgies by forms and prayers by habit were used 2. That it is like that the Pharisees long Liturgie was in many things worse than ours And yet Christ and his Apostles oft joyned with them and never condemned them Answ. 1. Let the Reader observe whether ever Christ his Apostles or the Pharisees medled with the Controversie about the lawfulness of forms Whether ever Christ condemned them 2. Let the Reader note that when I say that Certainly forms were used I say not whether in the Synagogue or Temple or House nor do I say that they were other forms than Divine But when I say that it is like in many things the Pharisees Liturgie was worse than ours I mean that it is like though not certain that part of it was of humane invention and used publickly And 1. The word Liturgie as Martinius and other Etymologists agree hath three significations 1. The largest is for any publick office of ministry and specially of distribution 2. For the publick service of God in reading teaching praying c. 3. For stated orders and forms of that publick service To which Bellarmine addeth a 4th as the narrowest sense of all viz For the sacrificing offices only which is no usual sense Now the second and third being the now-Common sense I thought there had been no question about them That the Jews had a Divine Liturgie in both senses as a service and as a prescript form I proved in my 5th Disput. of Liturgies many years ago 1. In the Temple they had most punctual prescripts for their sacrifices of all sorts and their offerings and the manner of performance and the actions of Priests and people about them In the Synagogues Moses and the Prophets were read every Sabbath day And the Psalms were purposely penned many of them and recorded to be Prayers and Praises for the publick and private worship and were committed to several Church-officers to be publickly used And David and Solomon appointed the Instruments Singers and order manner in which they should be used A form of prayer for the Priests is prescribed in three benedictions Numb 6. 23. Hezekiah commanded the Levites to sing Praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Sâ—â—r 2 Chron. 29. 30. 1 Chron. 16. 7. On that day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hands of Asaph and his brethren Exod. 15. The song of Moses is a form And Rev. 15. 3. the Saints are said to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Most Expositers think that the Hymne that Christ sung at his last supper was the usual form If not it was a new form Moses form at the moving and resting of the Ark is set down Numb 10. 35 36. Deut. 21. 7 8. There is a form for the people to use Iudg. 5. Deborahs song is recorded so is Hannahs praise 1 Sam. And Ioel 2. 17. there is a form for the Priests in their Humiliation And Iohn taught his Disciples to pray And when Christ was desired to teach his Disciples as Iohn had done his he gave them a form Now let the sober Reader judge whether the Jews had no form or Liturgie of God's appointment If he say I thought you had meant a humane form I answer If you will think that which I say not and choose rather to revile than observe what you â—ead I cannot help it 2. When I speak of a Probability afterward I do mean of a humane Liturgie of which I will now only say 1. That it seemeth very improbable to me that the Pharisees who so abounded with Traditions should not so much as have any humane forms of prayer or praise 2. When Christ speaketh of their long prayers I desire them on both
liberty to preach the Gospel but that it was a burden which they should cast off as soon as they had liberty so to do And I knew some who urged them to declare their Repentance for their former conformity and to have confessed it to have been their sin But I never heard of any considerable number of them that ever did it or that changed their minds And though Ministerial Conformity as to Engagements is now much altered many of them that are yet living do again confâ—rm And though I then was not nor yet am of their mind my self yet I would not shun Communion with the Reverend members of that Assembly Twisse Gatâ—ker Whittaker and the rest if again they werâ—â—sers of the Liturgie among us 3. But what if in all this I be mistaken and if Communion in the Liturgie prove unlawful should you be so impatient as not to bear with one that in such an opinion differeth from you As I write for my opinion so do you for yours And why should not you bear with my dissent as well as I do with yours My judgement commanded me First to exhort all sober Christians to draw neerer and to lay by those principles which drive them from each other as not to be Communicated with And Secondly where that cannot be obtained to bear with one another in our several Assemblies or Churches and to manage them with Love and peace This was my exâ—â—rtation And the time once was even when the five Dissenting brethren pleaded their cause with the Assembly at Westminster that this motion would have been accepted or at least not judged so great an injury as now it is O brethren do not expose your selves and cause so much to the censure of impartial men and of posterity as to let them know that you are grown so high or that in the very day of our humiliation these terms seem so injurious to you as these exceptions intimate Mr. Nye and Mr. Tho. Good win were so friendly with Dr. Prâ—ston as to publish his works when he was dead And I verily think if you had been acquainted with such Conformists heretofore as he was and Dr. Stoughton and Dr. Taylor and Mr. Downam and those forenamed and abundance more you could not choose but have thought them both tolerable and lovely if you had not thought it lawful to Communicate with them Much more you should have endured such as the Non-conformists of that age who used Parish Communion and pleaded for it against the Separatists in far sharper language than ever I used to you as their books against Johnson and Cann and Brown and Ainsworth do yet visibly declare If you think their Reasons and mine for the Lawfulness of Parish Communion to be insufficient so do I think of yours against it I have read divers that charge the Liturgie with Idolatry Did I ever lay so heavy a charge on you Did I ever say that it is unlawful to have Communion with you as you say it is to have Communion with others Why then should you not bear with lesser Contradiction when others must bear with far greater from you Will you proclaim your selves to be the more impatient You will then make men think that you are the most guilty You say of such men as those before named your worship is Idolatry and it is unlawful for any Christian to hold Communion with you in it and all that are present and joyn with you are guilty of the Idolatry I do but say that you make the Case more odious than it is and injure others by this charge What a world are we come to when those that you count unworthy of your Communion must not take your charge of Idolatry as too sharp and yet you that should be most patient take it for a heynous crime and injury to be told that you wrong them and that you judge too hardly of them and that their Communion is not unlawful Nay is it seemly for thâ—se men that have said and done so much I say so much for Liberty of Conscience and would never consent to the Westminster Assembly to declare against it even as to those parties whom you counted very erroneous your selves to be yet so impatient of our liberty to tell the Church our judgement about the Lawfulness of other mens Communion Is it meet for them who are offended with those that silence us and restrain us of our liberty to be so tender as to shew by such language as this Excepter useth and by such unjust fames as some others have dispersed how little themselves can bear dissenters I know that displeasure and impatience in the divers parties is expressed different wayes But O that yet you would consider how near of kin the principles are and how much defect of Love and Patience there is in you as well as others 4. And I intreat you to mark but what your own objection intimateth You could endure it if I had only pleaded for Peace and Concord among the Non-conformists But doth not this intimate that Peace and Concord in it self is desirable among all those that should agree and be united Why I am as well able to prove that all true Christians should have Peace and Love and Concord for the strength of the Universal Church as any of you all are able to prove that any one Party should have Concord in it self The Episcopal part would have all possible Concord among those that are Episcopal and the Presbyterians among Presbyterians and the Independents among Independents and the Anabaptists among Anabaptists no party is for Divisions among themselves till the particular temptation doth prevail And yet I am not pardonable for motioning that all sober Christians as Christians may have all possible Love Peace and Concord among themselves Brethren I am sure that Christs body is but one I do not despise all those words of Christ and the Spirit which I cited in my book I know that the diversity of knowledge and gifts among true Christians should not make diversities of Churches 1 Cor. 12. When I know this and cannot choose but know it why should any be angry with me for knowing it I know that the Godly Conformists and Non-conformists in England should be united as well as each party among themselves I know that our division gratifieth the Papists and greatly hazardeth the Protestant Religion and that more than most of you seem to believe or to regard I know that our division advantageth Profaneness and greatly hindereth the success of Ministers on both sides I know that it greatly pleaseth Satan and buildeth up his Kingdom and weakneth the Kingdom of our Lord His own mouth hath told us so And shall I not believe him As in our Worcestershire Agreement heretofore we proceeded on terms which excluded not the Episcopal so in our desires and terms of Concord we must still go the same way and shut out none from our Love and Communion whom Christ receiveth and would
God hateth every sin in every prayer but he hateth the avoiding of prayer and of due communion much more He hateth every disorder in extemporate prayer And yet he more hateth that Censoriousness and Curiosity which would draw men to forsake the substantials of Worship or Christian Love and Communion on that pretence Gods Jealousie in his Worship is most about the heart and next about the substantials of his own institutions and of Natural Worship and least about the phrase of Speech and order while it is not such as is grosly dishonourable to the Nature of God and to the greater things And though God under the Law expressed his jealousie much about Ceremonies yet that was not for the Ceremonies sake but to controll gross irreverence and contempt of holy things as in the Case of Uzzah the Bethshemites Uzziah Aarons Sons and to keep up an esteem of the Holiness of God and to restrain sacrilegious presumption And under the Gospel it is neither this place of Worship nor that neither this Mountain nor Ierusalem but Spirit and Truth that God most looks at It is not whether you pray by a Book or without by words fore-studied or not by words of your own contriving or of anothers that God is now jealous of For even when you want words he accepteth the groans excited by his Spirit Rom. 8. 26 27. If Christians should plead Gods jealousie about his Worship as Censoriously against thelr own prayers as they do against other 〈◊〉 and Churches in this case they would turn prayer into the fuel of despair and torment For God is so jealous of his Worship that he hateth all the sinful dulness emptiness wandrings vain repetitions confusions unseemly expressions of all your secret prayers and all your family prayers And yet I would advise you neither to think that God therefore hateth you or the prayer it self nor yet to fly from God and prayer nor family Worship where it is no better done Gods jealousie especially under the Gospel is to be minded for to drive us from our sloth and carelesness to do the best we can but not to drive us from him or from prayer or from one another These are Satans ends of minding men of Gods jealousie as he doth troubled souls to drive them to despair And others may scruple joining with your weaknesses and faults in Worship on pretence of Gods jealousie as well as you with theirs What if twenty Ministers be one abler than another in their several degrees and the lowest of them doth weaklier than the Liturgick forms Doth it follow that only the ablest of all these may be joyned with because that all the rest do worse It is granted that we must offer God the best that we have or can do But not the best which we cannot do And many things must concurr and especially a respect to the publick good to know which is the best QUEST II. Quest. 2. DOth not the Covenant make it now unlawful to hold Communion in the use of the Liturgie Answ. To hold Communion in the Liturgie Ordinarily where we cannot lawfully have better and extraordinarily where we can have better is a thing that we are bound to by the Covenant and not at all bound against For those of the Independent way who think as Mr. Eaton writeth that the Covenant bindeth not I need not here say any thing as to their satisfaction For others I say 1. There is no word in all the Covenant expresly against the Liturgie 2. If there had been any word in it against Communion with the Churches that use the Liturgie it had been sin and against our duty and therefore could not bind 3. The judgement of Protestants is that Vowes must not make us new duties of Religion but bind us faster by a self obligation to that which God binds us to without them Therefore though if we should Vow an indifferent thing it would bind yet this could not be taken for the Covenanters intention 4. And it is commonly agreed that if we Vow a thing indifferent it bindeth us not when the indifferency ceaseth which may be by the Magistrateâ— command or by another mans necessity or change of Cases Else a man might before hand prevâ—â—t most of the Magistrates obligations and his Pâ—reâ—ts and Masters too and escape obedience and might say with the Pharisees it is Corban or a devoted thing 5. It remâ—â—neth therefore that no man of us all hath need to go or ought to go to the Covenant to know what is his duty in the worship of God but only to the Scripture seeing if Scripture make it noâ— a duty the Magistrates Law will make the doing of it a sin And if Scripture make it not a sin the Magistrates command will make it a duty But when we know what is duty or sin in our case we may go to our Vows next to prove that it is a double duty or a double or aggravated sin but no otherwise Therefore let the Scripture only decide the first case whether it be lawful or not 6. The Covenant or Vow expresly bindeth us against schisme But the renunciation of Communion which I now dispute against is plaine schisme Therefore we are bound against it by that Vow 7. The Covenant bindeth us against all that is contrary to the power of Godliness and found doctrine But the separating which I plead against is certainly such 8. The Covenant bindeth us to Unity and the nearest Uniformity we can attain But as the world goeth now this Communion is the nearest and needful to express our Unity 9. The Covenant bindeth us to Reformation according to Gods word and the example of the best reformed Churches But to prefer no publick worship or a worse before the Liturgie is deformation and prophaneness And it is greater Reformation to prefer the Liturgie before none than to prefer extemporate publick worship before the Liturgie And all the Reformed Churches in Christendom do commonly profess to hold Communion with the English Churches in the Liturgie if they come among us where it is used Therefore it seemeth to me to be perjury and Covenant-breaking either to prefer no publick worship before the Liturgie or to refuse occasional Communion with the Churches that use the Liturgie as a thing meerly on that account unlawful QUEST III. Quest. 3. WHether the Case be not much altered since the old Non-conformists wrote against separation then called Brownisme And whether we have not greater Light into these Controversies than they Answ. 1. The Case of Ministers Conformity is much altered by a new Act which requireth subscribing new things Declaring Assent and Consent to all things prescribed and conteined in and by three books and by some other things But that part of the Liturgie which the people are to joyn in is made better as is shewed before And if we are returned to the same state that they were then in we are under the same duties that they were under And let
countenance the Prelates in Church-Tyranny and Usurpation and invite them to go further and to make more burdens of Forms and Ceremonies to lay upon the Churches Answ. Without medling now with the question what guilt it is that lyeth on any Prelates in the points here mentioned I answer on your own supposition 1. That it is the King and his Laws which we obey herein and not the Diocesans 2. How openly and fully have we declared our utter dissent from the things which you suppose that we shall countenance them in Our Writings are yet visible Our Conferences were notorious And is not the loss of our Ministry and the loss of all Ecclesiastical Maintenance and the pinching wants of many poor Ministers and their numerous families and our suffering Volumes of reproach confinements c. a signification of our dissent The case is somewhat hard with abundance of godly faithful Ministers Few that never felt it themselves can judge aright what it is to want a house to dwell in a bed to lye on to have Wives that are weak natured to keep in yearly patience under all such necessities which the Husband can bear himself to have Children crying in hunger and rags and to have a Landlord calling for his Rent and Butchers and Brewers and Bakers and Drapers and Taylors and Shoo-makers calling for money when there is none to pay them there being no fifth part of Church-maintenance now allowed them in the Frost and Snow to have no fire nor money to but it And yet all this is little in comparison of their restraint from preaching the Gospel of Salvation and the displeasure of their Governours against them if they preach And is not all this yet an open signification of their Dissent from the things which they so far deny complyance with If some of their Accusers on both sides were but in the same condition they would think it should go for a sufficient notification of dissent 3. We perswade no man to any one sin for Communion with others no not to save their lives If the thing be proved unlawful to be used and not only unlawful to be so imposed we exhort all to avoid it 4. Yea if an over numerous aggregation of things which singly are lawful should make them become a snare and injury to the Church we would have all in their places sufficiently signifie their dissent or if the number shall turn them into a sin in the users we would have none to use them Though we would not have men censure or contemn one another much less destroy one another foâ— a matter of meats or dayes or shadows yet if any will by false doctrine or Imperiousness say Touch not Taste not handle not and will judge us in respect to Meat or Drink or Holy Dayes or the New Moon or Sabbaths Col. 2. 16. 21. We would have all men to bear a just testimony to the truth and to their Christian liberty 5. But if the defects of publick Worship be tolerable and if Providence necessity and Laws concurr to call us to use them when else we must use none or do worse here Communion doth become our duty And a Duty must not be cast off for fear of seeming to countenance the faults of others We have lawful means to signifie our dissent It is not in our power to express it how we please nor to go as far from the faulty as we can to avoid the countenancing of their faults But we must do Gods work in his own way And we must disown mens sins only by prudent lawful means and not by any that are contrary to Christian Love and Peace or a breach of any Law of God 6. Paul was not for countenancing any of the falsehoods and faults which he reproveth in any of the Churches especially partiality sensuality drunkenness at the very Sacrament or Love Feasts 1 Cor. 11 c. And yet he never bids them forsake the communion of the Church for it till they shall reform There were other wayes of testifying dislike 7. I must not countenance an honest weak Minister or Master of a family in the disorder or defects or errors of his prayer or instructing And yet if they be tolerable errors or defects I must not forsake either Church or family-Worship with him that I may discountenance him 8. There be Errors on the contrary side which are not without considerable danger which we are obliged also to take heed of countenancing I will instance but in two one in Doctrine and the other in Practice 1. There are men otherwise very honest and truly godly and of holy and unblameable lives who think that the Scripture is intended by God not only as a General but a particular Law or Rule for all the very Circumstances of Worship yea some say of the common business of our lives and that the second Commandment in particular condemneth all that is the product or invention of man in or about the Worship of God and that to deny this is to deny the perfection of the Scripture and that all written Books and Printed are Images there forbidden and that all studied or prepared Sermons as to Method or Words whether in Notes or memory are forbidden Images of Preaching and that all provided Words or Forms written or in memory of our own or other mens Contrivance or Composition are forbidden Images of Prayer and all prepared Metre and Tunes are forbidden Images of Praise or singing and that no man that useth any such preparation or form of words in preaching or prayer doth preach or pray by the help of Gods Spirit and that if Parents do but teach a Child a form of words to pray in they teach him this forbidden Imagery yea Idolatry I hope the number is but small that are of this Opinion and that it being commonly disowned by the Non-conformists no justice or Modesty can charge it on them but only on the few persons that are guilty of it But yet I must say that we are obliged to take heed of Countenancing this Error as well as of Countenancing Church-Usurpations For 1. When a few men of eminent integrity are of this mind it proveth to us that many more may be brought to it and are in danger of it Because meer Piety and Honesty is not enough to keep men from it Yea when men otherwise eminent also for Learning and great understanding are of that mind as they are poor ignorant unlearned persons though very godly are not out of the danger of it 2. And if it prevail what abundance of hurt will it do 1. You may read in the new Ecclesiastical Politician how it will exasperate the minds of others and give them matter of bitter reproach and for the sake of a very few how many that are blameless shall be aspersed with it and the cause of the Non-conformists yea with many the Protestant yea and the Christian Religion rendred contemptible and odious by it 2. It draweth men into
consented not to this at all Are we made by it the by-word and hissing of the Nations and the shame and pitty of all our friends And yet is all this to be justified or silenced and name of it at all to be openly repented of I openly profess to you that I believe till this be done we are never like to be healed and restored and that it is heinous gross impenitence that keepeth Ministers and people under their distress And I take it for the sad Prognostick of our future woe and at best our lengthened affliction to read such writings against Repentance and to hear so little open profession of Repentance even for unquestionable heinous crimes for the saving of those that are undone by these scandals and for the reparation of the honour of Religion which is most notoriously injured To see men still think that their Repentance is the dishonour of their party and Cause whose honour can no other way be repaired To see men so blind as to think that the silencing of these things will hide them as if they were not known to the World That man or party that will justifie all these heinous Crimes and still plead Conscience or Religion for them doth grievous injury to Conscience and Religion I have told you truly in the book which is bitter to you that Gods way of vindicating the honour of Religion is for us by open free Confession to take all the shame to our selves that it be not injuriously cast upon Religion And the Devils way of preserving the honour of the Godly is by justifying their sins and pleading Religion for them that so Religiousness it self may be taken to be hypocrisie and wickedness as maintaining and befriending wickedness For my own part I thought when I wasted my strength and hazarded my life in the Army against these fore-named Crimes and afterwards preached and wrote against them so openly and so many years that I had not been so much guilty of them as you here affirm But if I was I do openly confess that if I lay in sackcloth and in tears and did lament my sins before the World beg pardon both of God and man and intreat all men not to impute it to Religion but to me and to take warning by my fall which had done such unspeakable wrong to Christ and men I should do no more than the plain light of nature assureth me to be my great and needful duty EXCEPT II. ib. There is daily much greater prophaneness and the Consequent of prophaneness Immorality acted by those 4 whom yet Mr. Baxter never mentioneth but with honour As if no sins or miscarriages were to be blamed but theirs who are unable to defend themselves Answ. 1. IF this were true I were much too blame it being the very usage of others against my self which I have great reason to complain of 2. But if it was possible for you to believe your own words that I never mention them but with honour I shall think that there are few things that you may not possibly believe Reader if thou peruse the book and yet believe this Author I am not capable of satisfying thee in this nor will I undertake it in any thing else Are these terms of honour Pref. p. 18. How long Lord must thy Church and Cause be in the hands of unexperienced furious fools c. Do I honour them when I so much display their sin And when in the scheme in the conclusion I describe it And when I tell you of many of such Ministers and that it is a duty to separate from them or disown them And when in the history of Martin I tell you how neer it I am my self as to such as Martin separated from And when I cite Gildas calling such no Ministers but enemies and traytors c. Were you not very rash in this 3. But what if in this book I write neither against the prophane nor the Iews nor the Mahometans Is it nothing that I have written the greater part of above fifty books besides against them 4. What if there be Prophaneness to be reproved doth it sollow that we must not be reproved also Must we not repent because they must repent 5. O how hard is it to please all men What man in Eagland hath been less suspected to be a flatterer of such as he moaneth than my self or more accused of the contrary that hath any reputation of ministerial sobriety Ask the Bishops that Conferred with us at the Savoy 1660 Ask your self that read our Reply then Ask any that ever did Converse with me whether ever I was suspected of flattery or dawbing with men sins 6. But seeing you so far honour me as to vindicate me from other mens accusations I shall confess that it is my judgement both that we should honour all men 1 Pet. 2. 17. especially our superiors and also that in our eyes a vile person should be contemned while we honour them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. 4. EXCEPT III. He alloweth himself a great and masterly liberty to call his brethren fierce self-conceited dividers feaverish persons c. Answ. IF there be none such or but a few I will joyfully confess my error But if all ages of the Church have had such and if this Kingdom have been so troubled by such as all men know and if they yet live in this sin to their own trouble and ours why should it be contrary to meekness to mention it Should I hate my Brother in suffering sin to lie upon him Every paragraph almost inviteth me to remember Christs words to the two fierie Disciples and to say O how hard is it to know what manner of spirit we are of Tell me Reader whether this be not true that if I had called the Bishops sacrilegious silencers of a faithful Ministry murderers of many hundred thousand souls perjurious proud tyrannical covetous formal hypocrites malignant haters of good men c. I might not very easily have come off with many of these angry brethren without any blame for want of Meekness Nay whether they would not have liked it as my zeal when as such a gentle touch upon themselves doth intollerably hurt them Is there not gross partialitie in this Note also that these brethren that plead for Libertie do call it a masterly Libertie in me thus to name their faults And do you think that they would not have silenced my book if it had been in their power Note then whether the silencing imperious Spirit be not common to both extreams EXCEPT Ib. He useth the same frothy and unsavoury words that others prophane Prayer and the name of God by and which at the best is that foolish talking or jesting which we are commanded not so much as to mention Eph. 5. 3 4. Answ. THE words are I am only perswading all dissenters to Love one another and to forbear but all that is contrary to love And if such
an exhortation and advice seem injurious or intolerable to you the Lord have mercy on your souls Is the matter of this prayer unlawful Or can he prove that I spake it jestingly when I took it to be the serious prayer of my grieved heart Or may we use no words as Lord have mercy on us c. which others use unreverently Or is it true doctrine that this is the foolish talk and jesting forbidden Eph. 5 What proof is there here of any one word of all this EXCEPT IV. p. 2. He doth very often and needlesly insist on many things that may tend to advance his own reputation The instances are added Answ. 1. I Confess Brother I am a great sinner and have more faults than you have yet found out But I pray you note that all this still is nothing to our Controversie whether we should advise men against Church divisions as contrary to Love 2. If a humble Physitian may put a probatum to his Receipt and say I have much experience of this or that I pray you why may not a humble Minister tell England that I and you have had experience of the hurt of divisions and of the healing uniting power of Love Did all the Independent Church-members whose Experiences are printed in a book take Experience to be a word of pride 3. And is it pride to thank the World for their Civilities to me in mixing commâ—ndations which I disown with their censures What! to confess the remnants of their moderation notorious in matter of fact the truth of which you durst not deny in the midst of their many false censures and calumnies 4. Or to tell you how unable I have â—ound back-biters to prove their accusations in doctrinals to my face 5. Or to tell you that some even Independents perswaded me when I was silenced to write sermons for some of the weaker Conformists such as are too many youths from the University to preach Where lieth the pride of these expressions Is it in supposing that there are any Conformists weaker than my self Whether think you this brother or I think meanlier of them Or set our selves at the greater distance from them 6. When I plead against charging forms with Idolatry I say that for my self it is twenty times harder to me to remember a form of words than to express what is in my mind without them If this be not true why did you not question the truth of it If it be why is it pride to utter it as a proof that I plead for Love and not for my own interest Is it pride to confess so openly the weakness of my memory I never learnt a Sermon without book in my life I think I could not learn an hours speech sufficiently to utter the very words by memory in a fortnights time And is it pride for a man to say that he can easier speak what is in his mind Truly brother I was so far from intending it as a boast that I meant it as a diminâ—tion of the over-valued honour of present extemporary expression and to tell you that I take it to be so far from proving that your prayers only are accepted of God before a form as signifying more grace that I take it to be an easier thing for an accustomed man that hath not a diseased hesitancy to speak extempore what is in his mind than to learn a form without book And that they thaâ— do this do serve God with as much labour and cost as you do Do I boast or do I not speak the common case of most Ministers when I truly say That when I take most pains for a Sermon I write every word when I take a little pains I write the heads but when business hindereth me from taking any pains I do neither but speak what is in my mind which I suppose others as well as I could do all the day and week together if weariness did not interrupt them I seek by these words but to abate their pride that think themselves spiritual because they can pray or preach without book Like some now neer me that account it formality and a sign that a Preacher speaketh not by the Spirit if he use notes or preach upon a text of Scripture but admire one neer them that cries dâ—wn such and useth neither 7. Is it pride to say that thâ—se darker persons whom I have been â—ain to rebuke for their over-valuing me and my understanding would yet as stiffly defend their most groundless opinions against me when I crost them as if they thought I had no understanding If you do think that you cannot be over-valued or are not so do not I. And I thought my rebuking men for it had been no sign of pride And brother I am confident if you your self did not believe that my understanding and consequently my Writings are over-valued you would never have written this book especially in such a stile against me yea in the end you profess this to be your design to undeceive those that had a good opinion of me If those on the other side had not thought the same my late Auditors at Kederminster had never had so many Sermons and that by persons so high nor would so many books have been written to the same end even to cure the people of this dangerous vice of over-valuing me The matter of fact being so publick invalidateth your exception 8. The last expression of my pride is that I give this testimony even to Christians inclined to divisions that if they think a man speaketh not to the depressing of true and serious religion they can bear that from him which they cannot bear from one that they think hath a malignant end and that on this account in my sharpest reproofs my own auditors have still been patient with me Enquire whether this be true or not Whether I have not preached twenty times more against Divisions to a people that never once quarrelled with it than I have written against it in the book with which you so much quarrel And is this probatum given against malignity a word of pride too You proceed in your Charge that I have great thoughts of my self and have learned little of Christian or moral ingenuity and am unfit to be a Teacher of it to others Answ. 1. Do you not yet perceive that you also have a silencing spirit when you and those that you separate from are agreed that we are unfit to be Teachers because we gainsay you why do you pretend so great a distance even in the point of imperious severity 2. O how hard is it still to know our selves and what manner of spirit we are of Is it pride in me to think that I am righter than you or to express it Why brother do not you think as confidently that you are righter than I and do you not as Confidently utter it I differ no further from you than you do from me And why is it not
party when you preach to them of the tendency and effects of sin and error you would easily see the fault in them Your talk of a prostituted Conscience I forgive But if you must not be told of the dangerous tendency of an unsound doctrine lest you seem to be reproached you will leave your selves in a sad condition when your cure is rejected as a reproach EXCEPT XXXIX Answered Very good You grant that if the same spirit be restored to the same words they will be as good as they were at the beginning But what spirit was that brother that first took up the forms and words that now we speak of It was not only a spirit of miracles tongues or supernatural inspiration Why do you say then that no man can restore the same spirit to them and we cannot believingly expect that God will do it because we have no promise for it It was but the spirit of Illumination and Sanctification And have not all Christs members this same spirit Judge by Rom. 8. 9. 1 Cor. 12. Eph. 4. 3 4 5 to 16. You have here then by consequence given up your whole cause You grant that If the same spirit be restored which first used the prayers and responses and praises of the Liturgie it is very true that they may be used now But the same spirit is in all the truly faithful Ergo by all the truly faithful they may be used now EXCEPT XL. p. 20. Answered You say It is unbecomingly done in Mr. Baxter to compare Cromwell to the Tyrant Maximus who dedicated a flattering book to his son Answ. 1. Maximus is by most Historians made so good a man of himself that I more feared lest many would have made me a praiser of Cromwell by the comparison 2. He is called a Tyrant because he was a Usurper And do you think that Cromwell was not so when he pull'd down both King Parliament and Rump Nay Maximus was chosen in England by the Souldiers at a time when pulling down and setting up by Souldiers was too common and when his predecessors had little better Title than himself Therefore I pray you judge not too roughly of Maximus But Cromwell did usurp at a time when the case was otherwise Our Monarchy was hereditary by the undoubted Constitution and Laws of the Land and our Parliament by an Act was to sit till they had dissolved themselves and he had by solemn promises obliged himself to the Parliament as their servant and had fought against and kill'd the King among other things on this pretence that he fought against his Parliament and would have pulled them down which thing he actually and finally did himself Sir God is not well pleased with the justifying or palliating of these things though men may be tempted to do it in faction and for a divided interest 3. It is publickly known that I did openly and constantly speak the same things all the time of Cromwell's Usurpation Why then is it unbecoming now Among other places see my book of Infant Baptisme pag. 147 to 152. and 269 270 c. Where the passages spoke with caution are yet fuller than all these that displease you If Cromwell's party endured me then cannot you endure me to say one quarter as much now 4. What if I had done otherwise Shall such a suffering Preacher as you teach us all that its unbecoming to Repent 5. That I dedicated a flattering book to his son is your 31st Untruth For common sense here will discern that you distinguish between the Book and the Dedication And two books at once I directed to him The books were one against Popery and the other against the English Prelacy and Re-ordination and the imposing of the Liturgie and Ceremonies And there is not one syllable of his son in all the book save in that Dedication Nor did I ever see him speak to him or write to him else nor hear from him But only hearing that he was disposed to peace and against such turbulent Church-destroying waies as you here plead for I thought it my duty then to urge him to do that which was right and just EXCEPT XLI Answered Having my self been bred up under some Tutors and with acquaintance that kept up a reputation of great learning and wisdom by crying down the Puritans as unlearned fellows when themselves were more unlearned than I will here express on the by I said that I had known such and also that there were some such now who having clumsie wits that cannot feel so fine a thred nor are capable of mastering difficulties do censure what they understand not And that many that should be conscious of the dulness and ignorance of their fumbling unfurnished brains have no way to keep up the reputation of their wisdom but to tell men O such a one hath dangerous errors c. To this he saith that if Ben. Johnson or Hudibras had writ it but for Learned Mr. B. mortified Mr. B. judicious Mr. Baxter to fall into such levity will I hope warn all to take heed how they over-value themselves left God in judgement leave them to themselves as he hath evidently done this poor man c. And he concludeth with an invitation of me to a second and more seasonable retractation Answ. I heartily thank you for your pity and for any zeal of God though it be not according to knowledg And for my retractation I suppose you would have called it a third You quarrelled not with my suspension of my Aphorisms of Justification And for my retractation of my Political Aphorisms I have no more to say to you and others of your mind but that you would better consult your own peace and other mens and your innocency too if you would meddle with your own matters or with that only which concerneth you And to conclude 1. I unfeignedly forgive you all the revilings and other injuries of this your Book 2. I intreat you to review what is against God and his Church against Faith Love and Peace and to repent of it in time 3. I beseech you to give over this pernicious flattery of Professors and daubing over their ignorance injudiciousness pride and divisions 4. I intreat you to be more impartial towards dissenters and let not your Judgment be blinded by your passions 5. To help you to impartiality I beseech you consider how you tempt the Bishops to think it no harm to silence men that bold and do such things as you have vented and done in this book 6. I beseech you to that end better to study your self and to know what manner of spirit you are of Besides all the intimated Untruths here are 30 or 31 gross Untruths in matter of fact which I have set before you For my self it is not the least part of my Non-conformity That I dare not lie by publick Declaration to say I Assent and Consent where I do not Now shall a man aggravate the crime of such things
against mâ—n iâ—â—hey 〈…〉 〈…〉 are men from Loving their enemies 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ssing them that curse them and doing good to them that hate them and praying for them that despightfully use them or falsely accuse them and persecute them that they are hardly kept from hating those that Love them and cursing those that bless them and hurting those that would do them good and falsely accusing and despightfully using and persecuting those that pray for them And yet lest they should not be flattered in their sin and that yet they may judge themselves the children of our heavenly father they will do all this as Acts of Love to the Church and Truth and to the persons souls and will Love them as is said with a hurting a reviling a slandering a cursing and a hating and malicious Love O that the God of Love would pitty and undeceive the selfish and passionate sort of professed Christians and teach them to know what manner of spirit they are of O that he would rebuke the evil spirits that are gone foâ—th The spirit of Coveâ—oâ—sness and Pride 〈◊〉 Hypocrisie and Religious Imagery Oâ— Self-conceitedness Of Malice and Wrath Of Back-biting and False accusing before that both Christianity and Humanity be turned into Devilisme 2. Tim. 3. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and earth be more conformable to Hell O that the spirit of Light would make us of one mind and the spirit of Love would mortifie both mens malignant and religious passions contentiousness and malice and cause us to Love our Neighbours as our selves That as the envious and striving wisdom from beneath hath caused Confusion and every evil work so the wisdom from above which is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated might bring forth Mercy and good fruits without partiality and hypocrisie that we might edifie the body of Christ in Love Eph. 4. 16. and frustrate the hopes of the enemies of our peace who wait for our total dissolution and triumph already in our Divisions when it is their own Mill which grindeth us into powder But God can make their Oven to bake us into a more Christian and salubrious Consistency that I may use Ignatius his â—llegory but it must be first by â—ermenting us with unfeigned Love and then we shall be Lovely in his â—ight and the God of Love and Peace will be with us 2 Cor. 13. 11. Amen POSTSCRIPT THat the Excepter may yet further be convinced that it is not any Party of men called Independents or Anabaptists as such that I here speak against As I did in my opposed Book declare that I thought them both and all others that hold the foundation and disclaim it not by Heresie or wicked lives to be such as the Churches should receive into their Communion and that it is their duty to hold Communion in the same Assemblies notwithstanding their difference and that it is not the Opinions which denominate them that I write against but only the Love-killing and Dividing principles which are among them which make them fly with censure and alienation from their brethren that are as meet for Church-Communion as they and oft break them into pieces among themselves so do I yet again here declare the same And not only so but that if it were in my power when their Communion with others cannot be procured they should yet be tolerated in their separation it self and enjoy Communion with themselves alone in their separated Congregations under the Laws of Peace being not tolerated to turn their preaching or worship into a reviling and reproaching of the Orthodox to the destruction of Christian Love And I should not doubt but the Communion of the Orthodox Churches maintained in Constant Synods together with the special Countenance of the Christian Magistrate and the daily experience of Believers which would still make the aged sort forsake them would suffice better than violent severities to repress the evil and to give victorious Truth opportunity to do its proper work And to silence this calumny yet more I do renew the Profession which I have often published that my own opinion is so much for Independency as that I think no Church is made by God to be a Ruler to other Churches under the name of a Mother Church or a Metropolitane or Patriarchal but that all these are humane forms And that Councils are not the proper Governours of the particular Pastors but are for Communion of Pastors and Churches directly by way of Consultation Consent and Agreement As I have heretofore declared that Bishop Usher professed his judgement to me Though I confess that the Pastors in Council are still the Guides of the people as well as singly at home and by their Consent lay a stronger governing obligation on them And that the General Law of Unity and Concord doth consequently bind the several Pastors to concurr in all things Lawful Consideratis considerandis with the Confenting Churches And even Dr. Hammond is for Independency so far as to say that every such regular assembly of Christians under a Bishop such as Timothy was an Oeconomus set over them by Christ was the Church of the Living God Though he adde such again every larger circuit under the Metropolitane c. Yet he confesseth And such all the particular Churches of the whole World considered together under the supream head Christ Iesus dispensing them all by himself and administring them severally not by any one Oeconomus but by the several Bishops as inferiour heads of unity to the several bodies so constituted by the several Apostles in their plantatiâ—â—s each of them having an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a several distinct commission from Christ immediately and subordinate to none but the supream Donor or plenepotentiary So far he on 1 Tim. 3. 1â— e. To this do but adde what Bishop Bilson of subjection largely sheweth and other Bishops as well as he that Metropolitanes and Patriarks are not of Divine but humane institution ad accidental to the Divine constitution of Churches And also what Ignatius saith of the Unity of Churches and description of a Bishop that To every Church there was one Altar and one Bishop with the Presbyters and Deacons and so every communicating body or Congregation that had an Altar had a Bishop as Mr. Mâ—de on this of Ignatius sheweth and then you will see how far Independency is owned by others as well as by me And for further silencing the calumny let it be noted that the Churches in New-England are commonly called Independent or Congregational and yet they are against Separation and do find by experience that Separation is as perillous a thing to Independent free Churches as it is to Diocesane Churches and somewhat more Because they use not outward force to preserve their Unity and because one single Congregation is sooner dissolved by division than such a thing as a Diocesane Church is And therefore no men should be more willing to suppress Dividing Principles and