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-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
mine § 29. Saith he I had at large proved the necessity of one Catholick Communion to make one Catholick Church and instead of answering the proef he asserts the contrary upon his own naked authority and that must pass for confutation Ans. Could a man have spoken more untruly that had studied it 1. While he tells us that by Communion he means Union did I ever deny it No nor ever met with a Christian that denied it 2. Yea I said more than he That besides Union some Communion in transient acts is necessary which he placeth not his Communion in Is not this an hardened Disputer Who can doubt but Union and Communion is necessary to one Church But the doubt is wherein it doth consist whether in Essentials Integrals or Accidents and what these be We are far more for Catholick Union and Communion than you We are for Communion with all true Christians even those that you represent odious and excommunicate and ruin and you are for Communion with a Sect that will honour you and obey your will We know that to have one God and Christ and Holy Spirit one Faith and Hope of Heaven one Baptism and a true Love to one another and to be all under one Law and Covenant of Christ and in our several Assemblies to read the same Scripture use the same Sacraments and the same Rule of Prayer the Lord's Prayer and Praise this is a most excellent Catholick Communion We believe that true Christian Unity is the Unity of the Spirit that is mental in Faith Hope and Love but that it must be held exercised and preserved in the bond of peace Eph. 4 3. And therefore if any Christian take it for a sin to joyn with us in the circumstances of Worship if we can we 'l alter them to satisfie them If we cannot we will gladly allow them to worship God together in their own circumstances and there we will love and pray for one another We will not cut men off from Christ or the Catholick Church and damn them for not swearing or saying that they will obey us and that there is nothing sinful in any of our Government Liturgies Forms or Ceremonies Our Union is in greater matters common to all Christians and not in wearing the same fashions and reading the same forms and obeying the usurpers of the power of the Keys that are Lay-men c. And as for having obligation and right to Communion with all other Churches which is all that I can gather he placeth it in save obeying the same Bishops and Canons we make no doubt of such right to be used in due order And therefore we condemn all Church Tyrants that deny men their right And we do not believe that our right is in the power of Prelates to take from us unless we forfeit it and cast it away And we grant obligation to due Communion as well as right and therefore will be no such Separatists as you are that refuse Communion with Dissenters in their Churches yea condemn all that do but call them Churches And seeing no man is obliged to sin we disown their crime that will not let men preach nor communicate unless they will make a solemn Covenant to sin The Catholick Communion that he seems to aim at is to receive and reject the same persons in every Church that are received in or rejected by any one We are for as much of this as is needful to the purity and peace of the Church But we do not believe that all the Christian World is bound to take all the godly persons for excommunicate who shall be excommunicated here according to the 5 th 6 th 7 th 8 th c. Canons of the Church of England nor to silence all Ministers that you silence When we were newly silenced 1662. some great men were imployed to affirm That if we would go and preach to the Americans it was an excellent work and they would bear our charges I told them that our lives would be spent e're we could learn their Languages as fit to preach to them But it seems if we had gone Catholick Communion would have silenced us there too and have obliged the Americans if we converted them to reject us What if Bishops excommunicate men for not paying the Civilians their Fees or for not repenting of a truth or silence us for not assenting and consenting to all in their book must all the World reject us in conformity to them It 's an heinous crime for any one man to draw a Nation to sin with him but much more to engage all the Christian World to sin with him yea and that on pretence of Catholick Communion Christ saith by his Spirit in his Apostle Him that is weak in the faith receive and receive one another as Christ received us If Bishops silence and excommunicate even them that ate strong in the Faith must all the World disobey Christ to obey them If you grant that clave errante they bind not must we take their bare words that claves non errant or must we become Tryers and Judges of all the World that they will judg And how shall all Churches receive the same that some receive when you know not whom you receive your selves Are all the score thousands that are in some of your great Parishes in your Church Must all the World take all the Sadduces Hobbists Infidels and Damners that dwell in your Parishes into their Communion No nor all that come to the Altar when the Priest knows not who they be and never saw them before Do you use to write Testimonial Letters for every one of your Communicants when he travelleth into other Parishes or Diocesses Any man save a Nonconformist that had rather take the Sacrament than lie in Goal is admitted unless some rare Minister stop a notorious scandalous man till the Court absolve him If you make a Prison of your Church and say to all men Chuse this or Newgate c. must all the World receive such because they chuse the Church-Prison rather than the other And if we cannot possibly know which of our Neighbours be of your Church and which not in the same Parish e. g. Martins Giles c. how shall we know who hath right to Communion all the World over You must needs cast us on believing the Bishops words when as 1. They use not to give the World such notice 2. If they did we know not forreign Bishops credibility in France Spain Italy Poland Germany c. they most separate from one another § 30. P. 50. He proceeds He takes that for granted which I can never grant him That the Churches which are divided from one another by separate and opposite Communions may yet be all united to Christ for Christ hath but one Body one Spouse one Flock one Church and if we be not Members of this one Church as no Schismâ—ticks are we are not united to Christ Ans. 1. The Lord have mercy then
Union of Soul and Body makes a man and an Embryo before it be organized 2. The Union of the Body maketh it capable of the Souls further Operation 3. The Union of the Organical chief parts as Heart Lungs c. to the rest make it a true humane Body compleated to the nutriment and action of Life 4. That it have Hands and Fingers Feet and Toes and all integral parts makes it an intire Body 5. The due site temperament and qualities of each part make it a sound Body 6. Comely colour hair action going speech c. make it a comely Body 7. To have all parts of equal quantity and office would make it uncomely And to have the same hair colour c. is unnecessary at all 1. The Union of King and Subjects as such makes a Kingdom 2. That the People be agreed for one conjunct interest and Government maketh them a Community capable of Politie or Government 3. That there be Judges Maiors and Justices and subordinate Cities or Societies maketh it an Organized Body in which Kingly Government may be exercised to its end the common good 4. That no profitable part be wanting Judge Justice Sheriff c. maketh it an entire Kingdom 5. That all know their place and be duly qualified with Wisdom Love Justice Conscience Obedience to God first to the Sovereign Power next to Officers next c. maketh it a sound and safe Kingdom 6. That it be well situate fertile rich eminent in Learning Skill c. maketh it an adorned beautiful Kingdom 7. That all be equal in Power and wealth is destructive and that all be of one Age complexion calling temper degree of knowledge c. is impossible And that all have the same language cloathing utensils c. is needless at least VII Jesus Christ is the only Universal Soveraign of the Church both of vital influence and Government nor hath he set up any under him either Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical or mixt Pope Council or diffused Clergy that hath the Power of Legislation and Judgment as governing the whole Chorch but only Officers that per partes govern it among them each in his Province as Justices do the Kingdom and Kings and States the World nor is any capable of more VIII To set up any universal Legislators and Judge Pope or Council is to set up an Usurper of Christs Prerogative called by many a Vice-Christ or an Antichrist and as bad as making one man or Senate the Soveraign of all the Earth and to attempt the setting up of such or any forreign Iurisdiction in this Land is to endeavour to perjure the whole Kingdom that is sworn against it in the Oath of Supremacy and sworn never to endeavour any alteration of Government in Church or State in the Corporation Oath the Vestry Oath the Militia Oath the Oxford Oath with the Uniformity Covenants And if any should endeavour to introduce such a forreign Jurisdiction who themselves have had a hand in driving all the Kingdom to all these Oaths against it I doubt whether all the Powers of Hell can devise a much greater crime against Clergy Cities and all the Land Good reason therefore had Doctor Isaac Barrow to write against it as he hath done and to confute Mr. Thorndike and all such as of late go that pernicious way by the pretence of Church Union and Communion As if one universal Soveraign and Legislator and Judge were not enough to unite Christs Kingdom or man could mend his universal Laws and could not stay for his final judgment and Churches and Kingdomes might not till then be ruled without one humane universal Soveraign by necessary and voluntary agreement among themselves XI To be a true Believer or Christian or the Infant seed of such devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost according to the sense of the Baptismal Covenant uniteth each Member first to Christ himself directly and consequently to his Body or Church and this coram Deo as soon as it is done by heart consent and coram Ecclesia regularly as soon as he is invested by Baptism which Baptism when it may be had so is regularly to be administred by none but an authorized Minister or Deacon but if through necessity or mistake it be done by a Lay-man the Ancient Christians took it not for a nullity much less if the Baptizer was taken for a Minister by mistake being in his place and if no Baptism can be had open covenanting is vallid X. The Papists and their truckling Agents here have here hampered themselves in a fatal contradiction To make themselves masters of the World they would perswade us that Sacraments only regenerate and sanctifie and that God saveth none by any known way and grant but by his Covenant Sealed by the Sacraments and that he authorizeth none to administer this Covenant but Prelates and their Priests and none can validly have it from other hands And so if you will but abate them the proof of many things that stand in the way Heaven and Hell Salvation and Damnation are at the will and mercy of such Prelates and Priests But unhappily they cannot retrieve their old Opinion but maintain that Lay-men and Women may baptize in necessity validly and that Baptism puts one into a State of Salvation XI As he that swears and keeps his Allegiance to the King is a Subject and Member of the Kingdom though he be no Member of any Corporation so though he disown a thousand fellow Subjects yea though he deny the Authority of Constable Justice Judge so he that is devoted to Christ truly in the Baptismal Covenant is a Christian and a Member of the Universal Church though he were of no particular Church or did disown a thousand Members or any particular Officer of the Church XII All faults or crimes are not Treason A man that breaketh any Law is in that measure Culpable or punishable but every breach of Law or wrong to fellow Subjects or Justices as it is not Treason so it doth not prove a man no Subject though some may be so great as to deserve death and make him intolerable And so it is in the case of our Subjection in the Church to Christ. XIII To own Christs Instituted species of Church Officers is needful to the just Order Safety and Edification of the Church as to own the Courts of Judicature Justices c. in the Kingdom but to own this or that numerical Officer as truly commissioned is needful only to the right administration of his own Province XIV As Christ did his own work of universal Legislation by himself and his Spirit eminently in the Apostles and Evangelists who have recorded all in Scripture so he settled Churches to continue to the end associated for Personal Communion in his holy Doctrine Worship Order and Conversation with authorized Ministers subordinate to his administration in his Prophetical Priestly Kingly and Friendly Relations And thô these may not always or often meet in
Col. 1.18 19. He is the head of the body the Church In him all fullness dwells 2.3 In whom are hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledg 9. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily 17.19 The body is of Christ the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministred knit together increaseth with the increase of God 3.3 4. Your Life is hid with Christ in God when Christ our Life shall appear 11. Christ is all and in all 1 John 1.2 The Life was manifested and we have seen it 4.9 We live through him 5.11 12. This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life We are in him that is true in his Son Iesus Christ. These and many other signifie that Christ is fitly likened both to a Head and to a Soul to his Church and is not a dead Head but a living and that the word Head includeth the Soul operating in the Head for the Sense Reason and Guidance and increase of the body And that he doth operate by the Holy Ghost who is one God with the Father and Himself confirmeth it Even as Christ is said to be quickned by the Spirit and by the Spirit to offer himself to God and to justifie us c. which is far from proving that he did it not himself Chrysostome and Basil and Ambrose need not to have been at so great care to prove that it is Christ himself that is called The Spirit and the Lord the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.17 18. against the Arians It will prove him God that as he the word in making the World moved on the Waters by the Spirit which is one with him so he doth by his Spirit which is one with his own Godhead sanctifie Souls I hope you are not against the Filioque Briefly He that giveth to his Church and every true Member of it Spiritual Life Light and Love illumination Sanctification Strength increase and Consolation as appointed by the Father to do all this by himself and by his Spirit is the form Essentiating the Church as much and more than the Soul is to the Man But such is Christ Ergo If I were of their mind that anathematized the Nestorians Eutychians Monothelites as damn'd Hereticks for their unskilful words I should much more Hereticate a Doctor in our Age that will say That if Christ be the Head of the Church he cannot be to it as a Soul a forma informans denominans But I am not of that mind 3. But when this Doctor added If Christ be not the Head of the Body the Church must be without a Head or have some other Head than Christ which I suppose is the Reason why he talks so much of a constitutive Regent Head of the Church Reader Can you tell what he means by which is the Reason Which of the two meaneth he that I suppose the Church without a Head When I so oft and largely prove Christ to be the Head Or is it that I hold some other Head When my Book is to disprove it Which ever it be I do not think refusing such a Pastor as makes no more of the Ninth Commandment is a damning Schism The Sin of Church tyranny goes not alone § 20. P. 45 He proceeds But the organized Body is the constitutive matter of the man though other Philosophers used to call the Body a constitutive part but to let that pass Ans. You had not the Wit to let it pass Durst I have accused you of what you bewray and accuse your self Reader Is not the Matter a Part And is not the Form a Part of the man And doth that man speak plainer that barely calleth either of them a Part and tells you not which Part it is Matter or Form If one of his Pupils should say Sir you should not call the Soul the Form but a Part nor the Body the Matter but a Part what would the Boys say to him § 21. He goes on Thus an Organical Church is the constitutive Matter Of what Of Christ or of his Church or of some third compoundâ—d Ans. 1. Did I say An Organical Church or an Organical Body When Aristotle saith the soul is entelechia corporis physici organici doth he say Hominis physici Organici But you are an enemy to vain Philosophy and distinction 2. What if I had said an Organical Church as I sometimes do an Organized who knows not that ex penuria nominum the words Church Kingdom City Family School c. are ordinarily used equivocally sometimes properly for the whole Church Kingdom City c. as a Governed Society including Matter and form united And sometimes improperly for the Material part alone the Kingdom as distinguisht from the King the Church as distinct from Christ and from the Bishops and so of all the rest And when I so oft told you that the Organical Body of Christians is the Matter of the Church and Christ the foâ—m as far as these terms fit Bodies Politick could you not find in such words Of what it is the Matter of the Church of Christ. § 22. He adds But that these parts be duly placed and united is forma Corporis non Hominis which what it means I cannot tell unless that a man would be a man though the several parts of his Body did not stand in their right places nor were united to one another so they were all united to the Soul Ans. Do you not understand what it means What if I had so accused you Whether it be long of your Tutor or You I know not But 1. If you know not the difference between forma Corporis and forma Hominis some body is too blame Forma dat esse nomen The Soul giveth Being and Name to a Man He is no Man without it Do you think it gives Being and Name to the Body What if Lazarus his Body in the Grave were without its Soul is it not Corpus a Body What if such a Body as Mâ—ns had only the Soul of a Brute were it no Body What if Drâ—â—elius made his Engines move constantly by the Sun or Fire Is it not an Engine materially organized before the Sun or Fire move it Hath not a Wind â—â—ll or Water mill its mechanical form which is but the Organization oâ— dâ—e matter when Wind or Water move it not But to what purpose is it to talk to one that tells us he cannot understand it 2. But the addition is shameful misunderstanding Doth he that saith Organization is forma Corporis say that one may be a mâ—n without it This is below puerility Did I not maintain that as Aristotle haâ—h his three principles Matter Privation and Form and by Privation meaneth the Dispositio receptiva of the matter so Politick Bodies by similitude to natural have And that Organization is
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
Divine Institution § 10. YOur Third Reply is no better than the rest viz. That because Divine Institution makes Rites and Modes necessary therefore Humane Institution maketh such parts of false Worship XXI Error for want of Divine Institution I cannot imagine how so worthy a man could mistake so widely but by studying only what to say for his Cause and never thinking what may be replied God's determination can make any indifferent thing a Duty And doth it follow that therefore he hath left nothing to man's determination God's choice of Ierusalem for his Worship of the Tabernacle-shape of the Priests c. made these necessary Is therefore man's determination of the fixed places for ordinary worship of the form of the Temple of ordained Ministers false Worship God made it a duty to sing the Psalm Deut. 32. and other since Is it therefore false worship now to make Hymns for publick use Christ taught his Disciples a Form of Prayer may you therefore not teach your Children or Scholars any Christ chose a Text Luke 4. and preacht and that on a Mountain in a Ship c. Therefore we may chuse a Text and Place c. God appointed anniversary Fasts and Feasts Is it therefore false worship to keep the 5 th of November or the like God determined of the Priests maintenance Is it a sin now to determine of Ministers maintenance If God should institute and command all the words of your Church-Covenants Prayers Sermons they would become necessary Are they therefore sinful if man determine them If God had made all the Articles of your Savoy Confession or all the Laws of the Land they would have been necessary Are they now all unlawful because Man made them That which God hath commanded is no false Worship But God hath commanded the Churches to determine undetermined Modes and Circumstances needful in genere so as all may be done to Edification decently and in order and not causelesly to cross the Customs of the Churches of God and to obey those that are over them in the Lord. D. O. 4. Prayer and Praise are not the things prescribed and enjâ—yned in and by the Liturgy It is so far from it that thereby all Prayers and Praises in Church-Assemblies meerly as such are prohibited but it is its own forms way and mode with their determination and limitation alone that are instituted prescribed and enjoyned by it But these things have no Divine Institution and therefore are so far false Worship § 11. HEre are two more strange Mistakes 1. Are there so many Prayers enjoyned and the people called on with a Let us Pray and yet is not Prayer enjoyned There is some secret meaning in this For doubtless you would never else affirm it and expect that all men renounce their Sences XXII Error you can mean nothing less than that their imposed Forms when used as commanded are no Prayers which is another Error If so then all the Prayers of the Church of God for 1300. years at least that we read of were no Prayers And then you desire no part in the Prayers of any Churches on Earth at this day save New Englands or a few Separatists What wonder then if you be left without the Benefit of all those Prayers Is this the Communion of Saints in the Catholick Church 2. And are there no Praises enjoyned Are none of their Psalms Hymns and Doxologies the Praises of God when used You suppose that Christ will call them None or else you durst not And is such a Slander of Christ and the Universal Church no sin Your next Misreport is that by the Liturgy all Prayers and Praises in Church Assemblies are prohibited This is too Rash Where is there a word forbidding them XXIII Error This can have no Sense but that either none are Church-Assemblies that have a Liturgy or that nothing commanded in the Liturgy is Prayer and Praise in a Church-Assembly But if this be your meaning it is both ways untrue 1. Is there no Church on Earth out of England Or do they forbid any out of England to Pray and Praise God 2. Do they forbid the Dutch and French in England to Pray and Praise God 3. Do they forbid all Prayer and Praises in the Pulpits in the Parish-Churches 4. Have you proved all the Parish-Churches in England to be No Churches Where is your Proof how much soberer were the old Brownists 5. Have you proved that Commanding Men to Pray in such words is forbidding them to Pray when you set a Psalm for Praise is that to forbid all Praise Is not omnis modus entis modus and includeth the Thing D. O. 2. Argument That which was in its first contrivance and hath been in its continuance an Invention and Engine to defeat or render useless the Promise of Christ unto his Church of sending the holy Spirit in all Ages to enable it unto the due discharge and performance of all Divine Worship in its Assemblies is unlawful to be complied withall nor can be admitted in Religious Worship But such is the Liturgical Worship That the Lord Christ did make such a Promise that he doth make it good that the very Being and Continuance of the Church without which it is but a dead Machine doth depend thereon I suppose will not be denied it hath been undeniably proved § 12. TTo your Second Argument I answer 1. To the Minor Do you mean that this was the Intent of the first Contrivers and Continuers or only that it had this effect contrary to their Intent The first seemeth your Sence which is another misreport XXIV Error For 1. You know not who the first Inventor was 2. You know not all the Continuers 3. And so high a Charge is to be taken for a Slander till it be proved 4. Are you sure that you lay not this Charge of Malignity on the Men of God that made the Iews Psalms and on Christ that composed a Form of Praying and Baptizing and on Paul that commands Hymns and imposed on Timothy a Form of Sound Words And if you meant it but of the English Liturgy you could never prove that our Martyrs and Confessors that made it had so malignant an End But you speak it of Liturgical Worship in general which obligeth you to prove almost all the Pastors for 1120. years and more to be such Malignants And it s easily disproved whether you meant it of their Intent or of the Effect by assigning the true and better Intent and Effect They did it not to render useless the Spirits help but 1. To be useful where such Abilities were wanting It was the antecedent disability of Men that occasioned Liturgick Forms 2. And it was to be a help subordinate to the Spirits help to those that have it but in part as Spectacles to dark Sights and Sermon Notes to weak Memories 3. They are really a great help to many and therefore not made only to hinder them When fitter and more
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
prayer which yet the people should by joyning in make their own were they sound which they are not bound to do by Sermons And no man of understanding can chuse but suspect that weak ignorant Ministers will be shewing their weakness in the highest Duties and so must suspend their consent till late 4. That less care will be taken in speaking to God than in speaking to Men while most sober Ministers study their Sermons 5. That when to avoid disgraceful words and manner of praying men must decree that no such weak or unready men shall be Ministers the number that can do it better will be so small as that most Churches on Earth must be so deprived of Ministers and all publick Worship if that take place 6. That by this means young ignorant men that by use can speak fluently and fervently in prayer shall be followed by the people when many great Divines judicious and holy that have not that readiness of utterance shall be rejected as having not the Spirit 7. That as all mens bodies and minds be not in the like quickness and fitness at all times but sometimes clouded by Fumes or Weakness the publick Worship shall be as mutable uncertain and various as mens Tempers are All these on both sides are so great inconveniences that tho both Formalists and Fanaticks have derided me for it I have formerly said and still say That I believe that the best way to avoid both sorts of Evils is To have meet set Forms which shall be owned by the Church as their professed desires not being so long as to take up too much time from freer Prayer much less to forbid it which Calvin wisely ordered for France and Geneva And now as you have Historically told us the ill Consequences of a Lturgy I shall first tell you It is a Mistake None of these arise from a sound Liturgy but from the using that alone and not using also free Prayer with it And next I shall add some more of the History of Separation from Churches that have Liturgies tho it be as displeasing to me as it is necessary to the People I will pass by the Histories of Muncer and Munster and of David George in Holland and of Henry Nicols and the Familists which were the Off-spring of Separation And the sad Conflicts which they had against the sober Nonconformists and their sad Divisions among themselves in Holland and how many of them went further to Anabaptistry and more when Brown their Leader here turned Conformist It is only what I have lived to see that I briefly mention When the Parliament began 1640. there were few Separatists known comparatively in England But when they were encouraged by hope of Success they began to stir and shew themselves and two sorts fell in with them and quickly increased them that is 1. The exasperated Sufferers 2. Women and weak young Men who thought it a great honour in Religion to go far enough from Persecutors and formal or ungodly Ministers not seeing the Danger on the other Extream Holy and Learned Iohn Ball foresaw the Danger and wrote his Book called The Trial of Separation and after two more one against Canne and another against two New England Ministers The Assembly being called even sober and excellent Men that were for the old Conformity in case of Necessity but not otherwise Five of their number differing from all the rest save two more wrote for Independency This Controversie began the great Breach while the Five Dissenters stood stifly for a Liberty that Men might gather New Churches out of the Churches of the other Ministers of as many as should come to them in all places and should have all Church-Power in those separated Churches The other did not what might have been done skilfully to heal the Breach tho they did much The two Parties drew others into the Division Those called Presbyterians were the more quiet because they thought the Dissenters few Independency might have been tolerated but Separation was that which would not be endured when nothing was imposed in Doctrine or Worship which the Dissenters excepted against The Separaters finding themseves few were the more industrious especially to get Interest in Parliament and Army In the Parliament they could never get near the Major Vote but they had some whose Policy and Industry made up what was wanting in Number And by them they got the Army new modell'd all Parliament Men thence put out and Cromwell put in Power Second in Name and First in Deed He placed his Interest as Constantine did in owning the persecuted Christians who had no other outward help but him in declaring himself to be for Liberty in Religion and the Protector of all godly Men that suffered for Conscience-sake or feared it whereby the Dissenters that feared lest the Presbyterians would Master them came in to him and he got enough to Head his Army and great numbers also of Common Soldiers who were for Separation and being Men of other Parts and Interest than those tâ—at Fight only for Pay would not run away but Conquered almost where ever they came I lived in Coventry quietly and with godly understanding Men who thought all the Accusations against Fairfax's or rather Cromwell's Army as turbulent overturning Men had been Slanders After Nasâ—by Fight being near them I went for Novelty to see them There some sober Men among them told me how they had discouraged all the Orthodox Ministers save one or two and were deserted by them and turned Preachers themselves they that had most Self Conceit being the Speakers and in a word foretold me what Changes they would attempt against King Parliament and Ministry I went home and told what I saw and heard and being Invited by some of the soberest to the Army I told an Assembly of Ministers my willingness to venture Life and Labour among them to undeceive as many as I could The Ministers consented to my going Dr. Grew and Mr. Simon King yet living were two of them There Cromwell having notice of all before I came gave me no opportunity to come near himself or the Chief in Power But where I came I did my best For I found the Separatists half Arminians and the other half contrary Antinonians agreeing to use their Power for the Changes that were after made The Scots and Presbyterians they designedly and bitterly reproached The Book called Marâ—in Mar-Priest and other such tell you their Dialect Their usual Titles were The Priest-byters the Drivines the Sinners of Westminster the Dissembly men and such like The godly able Ministers were more scorned by them than formerly I had heard among the Drunkards What they did after this England and Scotland felt They cut off the King they cast out Eleven Members from the Parliament After that they cast out and imprisoned the Major par which was the House of Commons and cast out all the House of Lords then by these they made the People take an Engagement against
and godly Ministers in the Parish-Churches and some have such as I would never own or encourage in the Ministry by seeming to own them Some can remove their Dwelling and some cannot Some had Liberty the last year that cannot have it this year without more hurt than their benefit will compensate In these Cases where God hath not at all tied us to a Book or no Book to this Church or to that he that can truly tell which way he shall do and get most good or hurt may by that better know his Duty than by these Arguments or Mens Censures But verily my chief Reason for Communion in publick is the very same which you bring against it Even the avoiding of hainous Scandal I have told the World 1. That Scandal is not displeasing men but laying before them a temptation to sin 2. That if the Separatists be the best Christians they are farthest out of the danger of Scandal It is the worst that are easiliest tempted to Sin and so whom we should be most fearful to scandalize 3. And it 's a greater Sin to scandalize many than few 4. And worse by scandal to tempt men to the mortal Sins of persecuting or scorning godly men than merely to tempt them to some small mistakes or to grieve them 5. And to scandalize our Rulers is worse than to scandalize Inferiors Caeteris paribus And now I tell you I the rather joyn in Publick 1. Lest I should harden thousands in the Opinion That we take that to be unlawful which is not and that we are for sinful Separation and that we separate from and unchurch almost all Christs Church and that we are Enemies to Order and Peace and Concord and that we are unruly enemies to Government and giddy ignorant self-conceited people 2. And so lest we breed throughout the Land such a contempt of Conscience in Gods service as they have of Quakers and thousands by this should be alienated from the Reverence of serious Religion and Youth should be educated to the like contempt under these temptations 3. And lest if any in Church-matters be guilty of sinful Extreams on the other side in Oaths Professions Ceremonies or Practices we should harden them therein by tempting them to think that we have no worse against their way than the Use of a Liturgy 4. Lest the Conceit that we are but a company of giddy Fanaticks encourage any contentious Preachers to render us odious and rail at us in the Pulpits to their own shame and the widening of our Breaches 5. And lest the same Error should tempt any Bishops or Magistrates to think they do God and their Church and Countrey service in silencing imprisoning reproaching and ruining Gods faithful Servants without cause and bring the Land under Gods wrath by persecution Are these no Scandals or not greater than offending or displeasing the dissenting Separators to say nothing of ocsioning our Reproach in all the Foreign Churches which have a Liturgy If against all this the displeasing your mistaken Flocks should prevail then their weakness and error would constitute them our chief Governours D. O. Argument 9. That Worship which is unsuited to the spiritual relish of the New Creature which is inconsistent with the conduct of the Spirit of God in Prayer is unlawful For the Nature Use and Benefit of Prayer is overthrown hereby in a great measure Now let any one consider what are the Prâ—mises Aids of the Holy Spirit with respect to the Prayers of the Church whether as to the Matter of them or as unto Ability for their performance or as unto the Manner of it and he shall find that they are all rejected and excluded by this Form of Worship as is pretended comprizing the whâ—le Matter limiting the whole Manner and giving all the Abilities of Prayer that are needful or required This hath been proved at large § 25. TO your Ninth Argument I answer 1. O! confine not the New Creature to those of your Opinion Do you think none of the Old Nonconformists or Conformists none of the Reformed Churhes and no Church on Earth for a Thousand years had any of the New Creature When you have affrighted People with telling them it is heinous sin and returning to Babylon and also by long disuse made a Liturgy uncouth to them do not ascribe all their averseness to the New Creature which is from prejudice and disuse For my part when God taught me first to pray I had no averseness to a Form When I heard it charg'd with sin I began to be averse to it When I had studied the case I was cured of that aversness but never reconciled to the forbidding of all other Prayer nor to the faults of any Forms And who knoweth not that Man 's culpable Nature loveth Novelties and are hardly kept in lively Affections under any thing that is very often said A Book or Sermon tho never so good affecteth us not so much after many times reading and hearing as at the first We must not lay this weakness on the New Creature tho it should teach Imposers to suit the Remedy to the Disease and give children such food as is not too displeasing to their Appetites And yet I find not the generality of Appetites even in your Flocks is against the Forms of Psalms being not prejudiced against them It is not true that Liturgies are inconsistent with the conduct of the Spirit in Prayer It is a Mistake also XL. Error That this Form of Worship rejecteth and excludeth the matter of Prayer whenas the Visible Book tells all the contrary Do all those words express none of the Matter of Prayer It is untrue That it rejecteth and excludeth the Manner as to the chief part For the Lord's Prayer is a perfect Form for Matter Order and Method And the Psalms read and sung are for Matter and Manner neither evil nor excluded And sure there is much of the rest laudable If all Matter and Manner be rejected and excluded then the Martyrs that used it and all the Churches on Earth almost have no Church-Prayers But again I tell The use of Forms and the forbidding all other Prayers are Two different things which you ill confound D. O. Argument 10. That which overthrows and dissolves our Church-Covenant as unto the principal end of it is as to us unlawful This end is the professed joynt subjection of our souls and consciences unto the Authority of Christ in the observasion of whatever he commands and nothing else in the Worship of God But by this practice this end of the Church-Covenant is destroyed and thereby the Church-Covenant it self broken For we do and observe that which Christ hath not commanded And while some stand unto the Terms of the Covenant which others relinquish it will fill the Church with confusion and disorder § 26. TO your Tenth Argument I answer 1. What your Church-Covenant is I know not But if it profess subjection to nothing in Worship but what
whole Countries and Churches are in Sin which we cannot cure and have no government of the case of commanded Communion much differs from that which is with single Offenders and that is in our Power to chuse or refuse 4. Some Object that the 5 th 6 th 7 th and 8 th Canons have excommunicated us already Therefore we separate not but they cast us out Ans. Let them that are concerned in those Canons defend them if they can and justifie themselves for it 's past my skill But we are not bound tho excommunicate to execute them on our selves Let others do it if it must be done FINIS POSTSCRIPT REader Upon the review of what I have here written I think meet to repeat the Occasion and to say somewhat of the Matter and the Manner of this Writing The last sheet of my Reasons for Communion being Printed and the opposite Twelve Arguments suddenly sent me as being in many hands and such as would frustrate all that I had written if they were not answered For the sake of such as have not skill to see Truth from Error and are led by Prejudice and Names I durst not in Conscience let them pass unanswered they being of such dangerous tendency and so exceeding erroneous and fallacious But being put by the stay of the Press to do it suddenly I see Reason to say more lest I be misunderstood And First of the Cause which I write of in its self and its consequents 2. The Season of it 3. The Manner as to the Authors whom I gainsay and confute and the manner of confuting them 4. My Reasons for the writing of this Confutation I. I am not writing against Episcopacy Presbytery Independency or Rebaptizing I am so far from judging any part of them to be men rejected by Christ or to be cast out of the Church or denied leave to worship God in their own Way or persecuted for it that I would do any lawful thing for their just Liberty Yea so far that it is only the contrary principle and endeavours by which they strive against and condemn one another and call aloud to their followers such I mean that are for the opposed Separation to avoid one another as ever they would scape the guilt of Idolatry or wilful sin And if I see one man in the streets beating all about him I cannot keep peace without resisting his unpeaceableness I am not justifying all that is required to Conformity nor all in the Liturgy Let them do it that can Mr. Warner speaketh untruly when he talks of my change herein and as if I went to the Parish-Churches for some worldly end I have been at no Church since August was Twelvemonth nor am ever more like to be unless the Church come to my bed-side or my door Is Mr. Warner so lately born that he never saw nor heard of our joynt endeavour when the King came in 1660. to have prevented these Confusions by getting a Reformation of the Liturgy at least before he said he knew not what of one whom he knoweth not he should have enquired whether I have not to this day since then 1660. held constant Communion with good Ministers in the Parish-Churches But with bad men and well-meaning honest men Satan doth most of his Work in the World by untruths and fallacies Most that think they do God Service by speaking evil of me falsly believe and perswade one another That I do write against them for not coming to the publick Churches and that I am an Accuser and Plaintiff against them for this and that hereby I animate men to afflict them with many other such untruths Whereas I have written over and over and over That I perswade no man either to or from a publick Church till I know his Circumstances And that I doubt not but it's one man's duty and anothers sin Were I under one intollerable for Ignorance Heresie or malignant Wickedness who did more hurt than good I would not seem to own him as a Minister any more than Cyprian did Martiall and Basilides or Martin Ithacius Idacius and the like or Gildas the Priests whom he describes or the ancient Churches Heretical Bishops Abundance of Circumstances make various the Cases of particular men Yea tho those Dividers renounce Communion with one another while I blame them and lament it I renounce Communion with none of the Parties no tho they revile and hate me Only 1. I will not commit any known sin with them while I communicate with them in all things else and own them as true Christians tho faulty 2. And I will not prefer worse before better if I know it tho I renounce neither It 's ordinary for Two Women fighting and scolding in the streets to turn both their railing against him that would quiet them And I expect the like The Cause that I write against is this Reader understand it or meddle not with what you understand not 1. That God's Worship saith D. O. 〈…〉 That all that is in it and belonging to it and the manner oâ— it is falâ—e Worship if it have not a Divine Institution in 〈◊〉 That all Liturgies as such are such falâ—e Worship and not the English only used to 〈◊〉 Christ's Prâ—miâ—e of Gifts and God's Spirit 2. That this Worship is Idolatry say some or so false and unlawful say the rest That it is a denying of Christ's Fidelity and it is a going to Idols Temples or at least unlawful to joyn in Communion with such as use it And therefore they perswade all as they will avoid Idolatry or false Worship and sin to avoid Communion with such Churches 3. And suppose that they truly instance in many things amiss in Order Ceremony Forms Impositions Defects because these are sinful he sinneth who communicateth with the Church which useth them his presence signifying his approbation specially if commanded to that end 4. And so Renunciation of Communion being the Excommunication which one Church hath power to inflict on another the sum is I write against the unjust Excommunicators of one another Their Executions are divers but their Principles and Spirits too like tho few of them know or will know what manner of Spirit they are of The uppermost Schismaticks like the uppermost Millstone are the Active and the nethermost the Passive part between both which Truth and Peace is broken and the Church pulverized Both Parties have not power to burn the Excommunicate or lay them in Goals or defame them without open controul But the nethermost Party in this agrees if not exceeds the other That they renounce Communion with the whole Church on Earth for 1200 or 1300 years and with almost all Protestants as well as others now Whereas the Pope was taken to be intollerably arrogant when he excommunicated and interdicted but rarely a whole Kingdom or one King but not all the Church on Earth 2 That the Pope and his Prelates excommunicate the Greeks and such as they call but Schismaticks and
in the Liturgy 30. It greatly moveth me to see That as Church-dividers by Oppression do tear East and West by making false terms of Communion by their Canons so the Passive-dividers take a like way that is make false impossible Terms of Union and Communion censuring all that communicate with other Churches on such Terms as they mistakingly think sinful making men guilty of the faults of Worship by their presence What is their Censure of us and Anger that we write our reasons but as much as to say we must all Unite on their Terms or be judged Dividers and Corrupters So that they are at the old game Rom. 14.1 2. one part despising and the other judging 31. By the reason That we may not write our reasons against them it follows That Magisterially they must not be gainsaid tho they mistake and mislead others remedilesly 32. The History of the Church sheweth that the Separation opposed is a cause that God never blest but ended still in worse 33. If the Principles that caused it be not cured a continual War against Love and Communion will be kept up from Age to Age. 34. Historical Truth is of great use to Posterity And as God needeth not our Lie his Cause feareth not Truth 35. God himself recordeth the faults of his Servants and hath made Repentance necessary to Pardon It 's Impenitence that is impatient of Evidences and Conviction 36. The History of our Faults and Confusions is published over and over by Adversaries and it 's impossible to conceal it The Booksellers Shops and their Talk and Sermons abound with it If a deaf man hear not this must it not therefore be spoken And when the generality of the innocent are falsly accused it is the fittest season to confute the Accusers 37. It cost me dear to attempt the preventing of such Confusions Almost Two years Travel in that Army in heat and cold whither I went for no other end It cost me the ruin of my Health and after the wilful dissolution of all Power and Order cast me into those Groans and Tears which I can never on Earth forget And must I not after all that disown the things which I opposed at so dear a rate 38. If men of Name and Piety write that which tendeth to cast honest Souls not only into scruples but into a way of opposition to Unity Love and Order to their own and the Churches detriment and danger it is Cruelty not to try to help them And what way is there if we must not not give our Reasons against the snare and error 39. To say That it will but enrage them and make them worse is to be uncharitably censorious as if they were so partial passionate and proud as not to endure to be contradicted nor to hear us give a Reason of our Judgment and Practice and defend it against Error I can bear it without alienation from them in Respect and Love if they say That I am erroneous or bad or whatever they will censure me If they cannot bear my true Confutation of Church-dissolving and Love-destroying Principles and Errors that proveth them not better than I in Judgment and Charity If I yet please men I am no longer the Servant of Christ. Carnal Policy in complying with sin never was blest of God tho for some Job it seemed to be needful If a man going out of the World may by silence betray the Truth on pretence of despairing of success even with godly men and let Peter lead Barnabas into dissembling Separation in reverence of Peter's Name then Paul was too blame and who then shall ever own Truth or Duty or try to save the Church from danger if he must not do it till the mistaken do consent Or if a pretence That the Disease is uncurable shall excuse us and godly men must be taken for Dogs and Swine that must not have God's Truth given them lest they tread it under foot or turn again and all to â—end us 40. Either this Doctrine of renouncing Communion with all Churches that use Forms of Liturgy as Idolaters or false Worshippers and Adversaries to the Spirit and the Office of Christ and that Churches must covenant to obey none but Christ in any thing duly belonging to Worship or any manner or accident of it I say Either this must be confuted or not If not Christian Love and Communion are given up as hopeless and Christ deposed by denying his Kingdom or Church And why strive men about Ceremonies when they have renounced the substance and pull'd down the house and threatned all that come not out of it â—ut if it must be confuted 1. When if not now must it first take deeper Root and deceive more Both Extreams already are silencers of all that would undecieve them And those that accuse one sort of silencers are the other sort themselves and cannot bear a Confutation 2. And who shall do it I confess I am liable to do this and all amiss in Manner But if others would do it that wish it done I would have forborn The Truth is Again I say I am willing to save many the cost of it who are not so fit as I to bear it I have cast my Reputation over-board long ago with both Extreams I am not like ever again to be considerably serviceable to the Church I am Independent and neither have preferment to get or lose nor any Church these Three and Twenty years with whom I should be solicitous to keep any Reputation for their good The Dust or the Souls in Heaven feel not the Reproaches of men on Earth How could I lay down my Life for TRUTH LOVE and UNITY if at so cheap a rate I would sell it or desert it and go away sorrowful But many others of my mind I hope may live to serve God longer and their peace with mistaken froward persons may be needful to their desirable success I do therefore voluntarily take the Thorn into my Foot and let God do with my Reputation what he please The Names of the Ministers who as Commissioned did consent to the use of the Liturgy when corrected were Dr. Anth. Tuckney Dr. Conaut Dr. Spurstow Dr. Wallâ—s Dr. Maâ—ton Mr. Calamy Mr. Arthur Iackson Mr. Case Mr. S. Clerke Mr. Maâ—th Newcomen Dr. Horton Dr. Iacombe Dr. Bates Mr. Cooper Mr. Rawlinson Dr Lightfoot Dr. Collins Dr. Drake Mr. Woodbridge and Ri. Baxter named in the King's Commission But Dr. Lightfoot and Dr. Horton came not to us but they conformed after as did also Dr. Edw. Reignolds and Dr. Worthâ— who joyned with us and were made Bishops and one or two more were distant The Names of a greater Number of London-Ministers who gave the King thanks for his â—eclaration may be seen in the Printed Thansgiving Of all that met only Two refused to subscribe Mr. Iackson and Mr. Crofton lest the Subscription should seem an Approbation of so much of Prelacy as the Declaration stablished and so be a