a continual sorrow and trouble unto us so we acknowledge it to be our Duty and shall be willing to undergo any blame where we are found defective in the Discharge of it unto the utmost of our Power to endeavour after the strictest Communion with them in all Spiritual things that the Gospel doth require or whereof our condition in this world is capable In the mean time until this can be attained it is our desire to mannage the Profession of our own Light and Apprehensions without Anger Bitterness Clamours Evil speaking or any other thing that may be irregular in our selves or give just cause of offence unto others Our Prayers are also continually for the spiritual Prosperity of this Church for its increase in Faith and Holiness and especially for the healing of all breaches that are among them that belong thereunto throughout the World And were we not satisfied that the Principles which we own about the right Constitution of the Churches of Christ and the Worship of God to be observed in them are singularly suited to the furtherance and Preservation of Vnion and due Order among all the members of this Church we should not need to be excited by any unto their Renunciation But our main design in all these things is that both they and we with them may enjoy that peace which the Lord Christ hath bequeathed unto us and walk in the way which he hath prescribed for us And these things we mention neither to boast of nor yet to justifie our selves but only to acknowledge what is our conviction concerning our Duty in this matter And might there any sedate peaceable unprejudicate endeavours be countenanced and encouraged for the allaying of all occasional distempers and the composing of all differences among them who belong to this Church of Christ so as that they might all of them at least in these Nations not only keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace but also agree and consent in all wayes and Acts of Religious Communion we doubt not but to manifest that no rigid adherence unto the practise of any conceptions of our own in things wherein the Gospel alloweth a condescention and forbearance no delight in singularity no prejudice against persons or things should obstruct us in the promotion of it to the utmost of our power and ability Upon the whole matter we own it as our duty to follow and seek after peace unity consent and agreement in holy worship with all the members of this Church or those who by a regular profession manifest themselves so to be and will with all readiness and alacrity renounce every principle or practise that is either inconsistent with such communion or directly or indirectly is in its self obstructive of it Secondly The Church of Christ may be considered with respect unto its outward Profession as constitutive of its Being and the formal Reason of its denomination And this is the Church Catholick visible whereunto they all universally belong who profess the invocation of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ their Lord and ours under the limitations that shall be mentioned afterwards And this is the visible Kingdome of Christ which on the account of its profession and thereby is distinguished from that world which lyeth in evil and is absolutely under the power of Satan And so in common use the Church and the world are contradistinguished Yet on other accounts many who belong unto this Church by reason of some kind of profession that they make may justly be esteemed to be the world or of it So our Lord Jesus Christ called the generality of the professing Church in his time The world saith he hateth me And that we may know that he thereby intended the Church of the Jewes besides that the circumstances of the place evince it he puts it out of question by the Testimony which he produceth in the confirmation of his Assertion concerning their unjust and causless hatred namely It is written in their Law they have hated me without a cause which being taken out of the Psalms was part of the Law or Rule of the Judaical Church only Now he thus terms them because the generality of them especially their Rulers although they professed to know God and to worship him according to his Word and the Tradition of their Fathers yet were not only corrupt and wicked in their Lives but also persecuted him and his Disciples in whom the Power and Truth of God were manifested beyond what they were able to bear And hence a General Rule is established that what Profession soever any men do make of the Knowledge and Worship of God to what Church soever they do or may be thought to belong yet if they are wicked or ungodly in their Lives and Persecuters of such as are better than themselves they are really of the World and with it will perish without Repentance These are they who receiving on them a Form or Delineation of Godliness do yet deny the Power of it from whom we are commanded to turn away But yet we acknowledge that there is a real difference to be made between them who in any way or manner make profession of the Name of Christ with subjection unto him and that Infidel world by whom the Gospel is totally rejected or to whom it was never tendred In the Catholick visible Church as comprehensive of all who throughout the world outwardly own the Gospel there is an acknowledgment of one Lord one Faith one Baptism which are a sufficient Foundation of that Love Union and Communion among them which they are capable of or are required of them For in the joynt Profession of the same Lord Faith and Baptism consists the Union of the Church under this consideration that is as Catholick and visibly professing and in nothing else And hereunto also is required as the principle animating that Communion and rendring it acceptable mutual Love with its occasional Exercise as a fruit of that Love which we have unto Jesus Christ who is the Object of our Common Profession And setting aside the consideration of them who openly reject the Principal Fundamentals of Christian Religion as denying the Lord Christ to be the Eternal Son of God with the use and efficacy of his death as also the Personal subsistence and Deity of the Holy Spirit and there is no known Community of these Professors in the world but they own so much of the Truths concerning one Lord one Faith and one baptism as are sufficient to guide them unto Life and Salvation And hereon we no way doubt but that among them all there are some really belonging to the Purpose of Gods Election who by the means that they do enjoy shall at length be brought unto everlasting Glory For we do not think that God by his Providence would maintain the Dispensation of the Gospel in any Place or among any People among whom there are none whom he hath designed to bring
will that answer our Duty or give us peace in our latter End Shall we profess the perswasions of our minds in these things and indeavour by all Lawful means to accomplish what we desire shall we then escape the severest censures as of Persons inclined to Schisms and Divisions Yea many great and wise Men of the Church of England doe look on this as the most pernicious Principle and Practice that any can betake themselves unto And in reporting the Memorials of former times some of them have charged all the calamities and Miseries that have befallen their Church to have proceeded from Men of this Principle endeavouring Reformation according unto Models of their own without Seperation And could we conscientiously betake our selves to the pursuit of the same Design we should not especially under present jealousies and exasperations escape the same condemnation that others before us have undergone And so it is fallen out with some which might teach them that their measures are not authentick and they might learn Moderation towards them who cannot come up unto them by the security they meet withall from those that do out go them Shall we therefore which alone seems to remain proceed yet farther and making a Renunciation of all those Principles concerning the Constitution Rule and Discipline of the Church with the ways and manner of the Worship of God to be observed in the Assemblies of it come over unto a full Conformity unto the present Constitutions of the Church of England and all the proceedings of its Rulers thereon Yea this is that say some which is required of you and that which would put an End unto all our Differences and Divisions We know indeed that an Agreement in any thing or way right or wrong true or false will promise so to do and appear so to do for a season But it is Truth alone that will make such Agreements durable or useful And we are not ingaged in an inquiry meerly after Peace but after Peace with Truth Yea to lay aside the Consideration of Truth in a disquisition after Peace and Agreement in and about spiritual things is to exclude a regard unto God and his Authority and to provide only for our selves And what it is which at present lays a Prohibition on our Consciences against the compliance proposed shall be afterwards declared neither will we here insist upon the discouragements that are given us from the present state of the Church it self which yet are not a few Only we must say that there doth not appear unto us in many that steadiness in the profession of the Truth owned amongst us upon and since the Reformation nor that consent upon the Grounds and Reasons of the Government and Discipline in it that we are required to submit unto which were necessary to invite any dissentors to a through Conformity unto it That there are daily inrodes made upon the ancient Doctrine of this Church and that without the least controle from them who pretend to be the sole Conservators of it untill if not the whole yet the principal parts of it are laid waste is sufficiently evident and may be easily proved And we fear not to own that we cannot conform to Armianism Socinianism on the one hand or Popery on the other with what new or specious pretences soever they may be blended And for the Ecclesiastical Government as in the hands of meer ecclesiastical Persons when it is agreed among themselves whether it be from Heaven or of Men we shall know the better how to judge of it But suppose we should wave all such considerations and come up to a full Conformity unto all that is or shall or may be required of us will this give us an universally pleadable acquitment from the charges of the Guilt of want of Love Schism and Divisions We should indeed possibly be delivered from the noyse and clamour of a few crying out Sectaries Phanaticks Schismaticks Church-Dividers but withal should continue under the censures of the great and at present thriving Church of Rome for the same supposed Crimes And sure enough we are that a compliance with them who have been the real causes and occasions of all the Schisms and Divisions that are amoâ—gst Christians almost in the whole world would yield us no solid relief in the change of our condition Yet without this no Men can free themselves from the loudest outcries against them on the account of Schism And this sufficiently manifests how little indeed they are to be valued seeing for the most part they are nothing but the steam of Interest and Party It is therefore apparent that the Accommodations of our Judgments and Practices to the measures of other men will afford us no real advantage as to the imputations we suffer under nor will give satisfaction unto all Professors of Christianity that we pursue Love and Peace in a due manner For what one sort requireth of us anonother will instantly disallow and condemn And it is well if the Judgment of the Major Part of all sorts be not influenced by Custome prejudices and secular Advantages We have therefore no way left but that which indeed ought to be the only way of Christians in these things namely to seek in sincerity the satisfaction of our own Consciences and the approving of our hearts unto the search of them in a dilligent attendance unto our own especial Duty according to that Rule which will neither deceive us nor fail us And an Account of what we do herein we shall now render unto them that follow Truth with Peace CHAP. II. Commendations of Love and Vnity Their proper objects with their geniral Rules and measures Of Love toward all mankind in geneâ—al Allows not salvation unto any without faith in Christ Jesus Of the differences in Religion as to outward Worship THe Foundation of our discourse might be laid in the commendation of Christian Love and Unity and thereon we might easily enlarge as also abound in a collection of Testimonies confirming our Assertions But the old reply in such a Case by whom ever were they discommended evidenceth a labour therein to be needless and superfluous We shall therefore only say that they are greatly mistaken who from the Condition whereunto at present we are driven and necessitated do suppose that we value not these things at as high a Rate as themselves or any other Professors of Christian Religion in the world A greater noyse about them may be made possibly by such as have accommodated their name and notion to their own Interâ—sts and who point their Pleas about them and their pretences of them to their own secular Advantage But as for a real valuation of the things themselves as they are required of us and prescribed unto us in the Gospel we shall not willingly be found to come behind any that own the name of Christ in the world We know that God hath stiled himself the God of Love Peace and Order in the
Church because they are eminently from him and highly accepted with him And as Love is the new Commandment which Jesus Christ hath given unto his Disciples so he hath appointed it to be the bond of Perfection unto them which nothing else will ever be however finely invented for them or forceably imposed on them Without this Love in what relates to Church Communion whatever else we are we are but as founding brass and tinkling Cymbals And all Vnity or Agreement in outward order not proceeding from and animated by this Love are things wherein neither Christ nor the Gospel are much concerned An indeavour also after one Mind and one Judgment amongst all Believers for a help unto us to keep the Vnity of the spirit in the bond of Peace we acknowledge to be indispensably required of us And therefore where any Opinion or Practice in or about Religion or the worship of God do apparently in themselves impair the Gracious holy principles of Love and Peace or obstruct Men in the Exercise of any Duties which those Principles require or lead unto it is a great and weighty prejudice against their Truth and Acceptation with God As therefore we shall not boast of the prevalency of these Principles in our minds seeing that though we should know nothing to the contrary by our selves yet are we not therefore justified so we are assured that none can justly condemn us for the want of them unless they can make good their charge by Instances not relating to the peculiar Differences between them and us For what doth so will neither warrant any to make such a Judgment nor carry any Conviction in it towards them that are judged Upon the whole matter we shall not easily be diverted from pursuing our claim unto an equal Interest in these things with any other Professors of the Christian Religion although at present we do it not by enlarged Commendations of them Much less are we in the least moved or shaken in our Minds from the Accusations of them who having the Advantage of Force and Power do make a Compliance with themselves in all their impositions and self-interested Conceptions the sole measure of other mens exercise and actings of these Principles We have a much safer Rule whereby to make a Judgment of them whereunto we know we shall do well to attend as unto a Light shining in a dark Place But now whereas all these things namely Love Peace and Vnity are equally dear unto us yet there are different Rules prescribed for the Exercise and pursuit of them Our Love is to be Catholick unconfined as the beams of the Sun or as the showrs of rain that fall on the whole Earth Nothing of Gods Rational Creation in this world is to be exempted from being the Object thereof And where only any Exception might seem to be warranted by some Mens causeless hatred with unjust and unreasonable persecution of us there the exercise of it is given us in especial and strictest charge which is one of the noble singularities of Christian Religion But whereas men are cast into various conditions on the account of their Relation unto God the actual exercise of Love towards them is required of us in a suitable variety For it is God himself in his Infinite Excellencies who is the first and adequate Object of our Love which descends unto others according to their Participations from him and the especial Relations created by his Appointment whereof we shall speak afterwards Our Duty in the Observance of Peace is as unto its Object equally extended And the Rule or Measure given us herein is the utmost of our indeavours in all ways of Truth and Righteousness which are required or may have a tendency thereunto For as we are commanded to follow Peace with all men under the same indispensible necessity as to obtain and observe Holiness in our own Persons without which none shall see God so as to the measure of our indeavours unto this End we are directed if it be possible and as far as in us lieth to live peaceably with all Men. The Rule for Vnity as it is supposed to comprize all Church Communion falls under many Restrictions For herein the especial Commands of Christ and Institutions of the Gospel committed unto our Care and Observance falling under consideration our Practice is precisely limited unto those Commands and by the nature of those Institutions These being the things we are to attend unto and these being their general Rules and measures we shall with respect unto the present state of Religious Affairs in the world amongst those who make Profession of the Christian Religion plainly declare what are our thoughts and Judgments what we conceive to be our Duty and what is our Practice submitting them unto the present Apprehensions of unprejudiced Persons leaving the final Sentence and determination of our Cause to the Judgment-Seat of Jesus Christ. Love toward all Mankind in general we acknowledge to be required of us and we are Debtors in the fruits of it to the whole Creation of God For he hath not only implanted the Principles of it in that nature whereof we are in common Partakers with the whole Race and Kind whereunto all hatred and its Effects were originally forreign and introduced by the Devil nor only given us his Command for it enlarging on its grounds and Reasons in the Gospel but in his Design of recovering us out of our lapsed condition unto a Conformity with himself proposeth in an especial manner the Example of his own Love and Goodness which are extended unto all for our imitation Mat. 5 44 45. His Philanthropie and Communicative Love from his own infinite self-fulness wherewith all Creatures in all Places Times and Seasons are filled and satisfied as from an immeasurable Ocean of Goodness are proposed unto us to direct the exercise of that drop from the Divine Nature wherewith we are intrusted Love your Enemies saith our Saviour bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despightfully use you and persecute you that you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven who maketh his Sun to rise on the Evil and the Good and sendeth rain on the Just and on the Vnjust Now all Mankind may be cast into two Ranks or Orders For First there are those who are yet without Christ being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World such we mean as are either Negatively or Privatively Infidels or Unbelievers who have yet never heard the Sound of the Gospel or do continue to refuse and reject it where it is proposed and tendred unto them And there are those Secondly who have in one way or other received the Doctrine of the Gospel and do make profession thereof in the World To both these sorts we do acknowledge that we owe the Duty of
God we can with confidence and much assurance of mind own as dear a valuation of Love Unity and Peaceableness in the Profession of the Gospel as any sort of Professors whatever And we are perswaded that our Principles do as much tend and and conduce unto the improvement of them as any that are or can be proposed unto that end For we either do or are in a readiness to embrace every thing or way that the Lord Christ hath appointed or doth bless thereunto We doubt not as hath been before acknowledged but that there have been many failings and sinful miscarriages among all sorts of Professors who separate or are rather driven from the present Publick worship There is no question but that in them all there are some remainders of the bitter Root of corrupt affections which under the various temptations and provocations they have been exposed unto hath brought forth fruit of an unpleasant relish It is no new thing that irregular prejudices should be found acting themselves in Professors of the Gospel It hath been so among them from the Beginning And we hope that where there is or hath been any guilt of this nature that the Reproofs which have been publickly given unto it with what Spirit or Intention soever mannaged may be useful to the amendment of them who have offended But for our own Parts we must bear this Testimony unto our sincerity that we not only condemn but abhor all evil surmises among Professors all rash and uncharitable censures all causless aversations of Mind and Affections all strife wrath anger and debate upon the account of different apprehensions and practises in and about the concerns of Religious worship Much more do we cast out all thoughts of judging mens eternal state and condition with respect unto such differences nor do we nor dare we give countenance unto any thing that is in the least really opposite to love Peace Unity or Concord amongst the Disciples of Christ. And as we shall not excuse any of those Extravagancies and intemperate Heats in words or otherwise which some it may be have been guilty of who until their Repentance must bear their own Judgment so we will not make a recharge on others who differ in Perswasion from us of the same or the like crimes nor indeed need we so to do their Principles and Practises contrary unto all Christian Love and Charity being written as with the beams of the Sun And we do not complain of our Lot in the world that the appearance of such things iu any of us would be esteemed a scandalous crime which others that condemn them in us indulg in themselves without the least check or controul The Law of this condition is put upon us by the Profession which we do avow Only we are not willing that any should make advantage against us by their Pleas for Love Unity and Concord as if indeed they were for Peace but that we make our selves ready for warr Could they convince us that we come behind them in the valuation and secking after these things by all ways and means blessed by Christ to that purpose we should judge our selves with a severity at least commensurate to the utmost they are able to exercise against us whilst free from malice and evil designs Only we must adde that there is no true measure of Love to be taken by the Accessions that men can make towards them who depart from Truth If it were so those must be judged to abound most with it who can most comply with the practises of the Church of Rome But we are perswaded that such Discourses with the application of them unto those who differ from their Authors do proceed from sincerity in them only as we fear somwhat leavened with an apprehension that their Judgments and Practices being according unto truth ought to be the Standard and Measure of other mens perhaps no less sincere and confident of the Truth than themselves though differing from them And hence it is unhappily fallen out that in the Reproofs which some do mannage on the foundations mentioned and in the way of their mannagement many do suppose that there is as great an appearance if not evidence of evil surmises ungrounded temerarious censures of self-conceit and elation of mind of hard thoughts of undue charges on and the contempt of others and in all of a want of real love condescention and compassion as in any things that are true and to be really found among Professors blamed by them For these things both as charged and recharged have a double appearance Those from whom they proceed look on them in the light of that sincerity and integrity which they are conscious of to themselves wherein they seem amiable useful and free from all offence whereas others that are concerned viewing of them in the disordered Reflections of their opposition unto them and the disadvantage which they undergo by them do apprehend them quite of another nature And it is a matter of trouble unto us to find that when some are severely handled for those Principles and ways wherein they can and do commend their Consciences unto God and thereby apprehending that their Intentions Purposes Principles and Affections are injuriously traduced and perverted they fall with an equal severity on them by whom they are reproved though their Reproofs proceed from an equal Sincerity unto what themselves profess and expect to be believed in Especially are such mutual Reflections grievous and irksome unto Men when they apprehend that in them or by them Professed Friends do industriously expose them to the contempt and wrath of Professed Adversaries CHAP. IV. Want of Love and Vnity among Christians justly complained of Causes of Divisions and Schisms 1. Misapprehensions of Evangelical Vnity Wherein it doth truly consist The ways and means whereby it may be obtained and preserved Mistakes about both 2. Neglect in Churches to attend unto known Gospel-Duty Of preaching unto Conversion and Edification Care of those that are really Godly Of Discipline How neglected how corrupted Principles seducing Churches and their Rulers into miscarriages 1. Confidence of their place 2. Contempt of the people 3. Trust unto worldly Grandeur Other causes of Divisions Remainders of corruption from the General Apostacy Weakness and Ignorance Of Readiness to take offences Remedies hereof Pride False Teachers UPon the whole matter it is generally acknowledged that there is a great Decay of Love a great want of Peace and Unity among Professors of the Gospel in the world And it is no less evident nor less acknowledged that these things are frequently commanded and enjoyned unto them in the Scripture Might they be obtained it would greatly further the Ends of the Gospel and answer the mind of Christ And their Loss is obstructive unto the one and no less dishonourable unto that Profession which is made of the Name of the other For the Divisions of Christians occasioned chiefly by false notions of Unity and undue means
from him Instead hereof some have invented bonds of Ecclesiastical Vnity which may outwardly bind men together in some appearance of order whilst in the mean time they live in envy wrath and malice biting and devouring one another or if there be any thing of Love among them it is that which is meerly natural or carnal and sensual working by a joynt consent in delights and pleasure or at best in Civil things belonging unto their conversation in this world The love that is among such persons in this world is of the world and will perish with the world But it is a far easier thing to satisfie Conscience with a pretence of preserving Church Unity by an acquiescency in some outward Rules and Constitutions wherein mens minds are little concerned than to attend diligently unto the due exercise of this Grace of Love against all Oppositions and Temptations unto the contrary For indeed the exercise of this Love requires a sedulous and painful labour Heb. 6. 10. But yet this is that alone which is the Bond of Perfection unto the Disciples of Christ and without which all other pretences or appearances of Unity are of no value with him Secondly This Love acts it self by forbearance and condescention towards the Infirmities mistakes and faults of others wherein of what singular use it is for the Preservation of Church Peace and Order the Apostle at large declares 1 Cor. 13. Fourthly The Lord Christ by his Kingly Authority hath instituted Orders for Rule and Ordinances for Worship to be observed in all his Churches That they be attended unto and celebrated in a due manner belongs unto the unity which he requires among his Disciples To this end he communicates supplyes of spiritual ability and wisdome or the Gifts of his Spirit unto the Guides and Rulers of his Churches for their administration unto edification And hereon if a submission unto his Authority be accompanyed with a due attendance unto the Rule of the Word no such variety or difference will ensue as shall impeach that Unity which is the Duty of them all to attend unto In these things doth consist that Evangelical Church Vnity which the Gospel recommends unto us and which the Lord Christ prayed for with respect unto all that should believe on his Name One Spirit one Faith one Love one Lord there ought to be in and unto them all In the possession of this Vnity and no other were the first Churches left by the Apostle And had they in succeeding Generations continued according to their Duty in the preservation and liberty of it all those scandalous Divisions which afterwards fell out among them on the account of Pre-eminences Jurisdictions Liturgies Rites Ceremonies violently or fraudulently obtruded on their Communion had been prevented The ways and means whereby this Vnity may be obtained and preserved amongst Christians are evident from the Nature of it For whereas it is Spiritual none other are suited thereunto nor hath the Lord Christ appointed any other but his Spirit and his Word For to this end doth he promise the presence of his Spirit among them that believe unto the consummation of all things And this he doth both as to lead and guide them into all Truth necessary unto the Ends mentioned so to assist and help them in the orderly performances of their Duties in and about them His Word also as the Rule which they are to attend unto he hath committed unto them and other ways and means for the compassing of this end besides the due improvement of spiritual Assistances in a compliance with the holy Rule he hath not designed or appointed This is that Gospel-Vnity which we are to labour after and these are the means whereby we may do so But now through the mistake of the minds of men with the strong influence which carnal and corrupt Interests have upon them we know how it hath been despised and what hath been set up in the room thereof and what have been the means whereby it hath been pursued and promoted We may take an Instance in those of the Church of Rome No sort of Christians in the world as we have already observed do at this day more pretend unto Vnity or more press the necessity of it or more fiercely judge oppose and destroy others for the breach of it which they charge upon them nor more prevail or advantage themselves by the pretence of it than do they But yet notwithstanding all their Pretenâ—es it will not be denied but that the Vnity which they so make their boast of and press upon others is a thing utterly forreign to the Gospel and destructive of that Peace Union and Concord among Christians which it doth require They know how highly Unity is commended in the Scripture how much it is to be prized and valued by all true Believers how acceptable it is to Jesus Christ and how severely they are condemned who break it or despise it These things they press and plead and make their advantage by But when we come to enquire what it is that they intend by Church-Vnity they tell us long Stories of Subjection unto the Pope to the Church in its Dictates and Resolutions without farther examination meerly because they are theirs Now these things are not only of another nature and kind than the Unity and Concord commended unto us by Jesus Christ but perfectly inconsistent with them and destructive of them And as they would impose upon us a corrupt confederacy for their own secular Advantage in the room of the spiritual Unity of the Gospel so it was necessary that they should find out means sutable unto its Accomplishment and Preservation as distant from the means appointed by Christ for the attaining of Gospel-Vnion as their carnal Confederacy is from the thing its self And they have done accordingly For the enforcing men by all wayes of deceit and outward violence unto a compliance with and submission unto their Orders is the great Expedient for the establishment and preservation of their perverse Union that they have fixed on Now that this Fictitious Vnity and corrupt carnal pursuit of it have been the greatest occasion and causes of begetting fomenting and continuing the Divisions that are among Christians in the world hath been indeniably proved by Learned men of all sorts And so it will fall out where-ever any reject the Union of Christs Institutions and substitute in the room thereof an Agreement of their own Invention as his will be utterly lost so they will not be able to retain their own Thus others also not content with those bounds and measures which the Gospel hath fixed unto the Vnity of Christians and Churches will have it to consist almost wholly in an outward Conformity unto certain Rites Orders Ceremonies and Modes of Sacred Administrations which themselves have either invented and found out or do observe and approve Whoever dissents from them in these things must immediately be branded as a
utterly cease and become disused Hence Members of the same Church began to converse together as men only or at the best Civil Neighbours and if at all as Christians yet not with respect unto that especial relation unto a particular Church wherein their usefulness as Members of the same Organical Body is required Hence some persons looking on these things as intollerable and not only obstructive of their Edification but destructive unto all really useful Church-Communion we ought not to wonder if they have thought meet to provide otherwise for themselves Not that we approve of every departure or withdrawing from the Communion of Churches where things continue under such disorders but only shew what it is that occasioneth many so to do For as there may sometimes be just cause hereof and persons in so doing may mannage what they do according unto Scripture-Rule so we doubt not but that some may rashly and precipitately without due attendance unto all the Duties which in such Undertakings are required of them without that Charity and Forbearance which no Circumstances can absolve them from make themselves guilty of a blameable separation And these are some of those things which we look upon as the General Causes or Occasions of all the Schismes and Divisions that are at this day found among Professors of the Gospel Whether the guilt of them will not much cleave unto them by whom they are kept on foot and maintained is worth your enquiry For so doth it befall our Humane Nature apt to be deceived and imposed on by various Pretences and Prejudices that those are oftentimes highly guilty themselves of those miscarriages whose chiefest satisfaction and glory consists in charging them on others However if these things do not absolutely justifie any in a Secession from the Churches where unto they did relate yet they render the matter so highly questionable and the things themselves are so burdensome unto the minds of many as that Divisions will thereon undoubtedly ensue And when it is so fallen out to design and contrive the reduction of all unto outward Vnity and Concord by forcing them who on such occasions have dissented and withdrawn themselves from the Communion of any Church without endeavouring the removal of these Occasions of their so doing and the Reformation of those abuses which have given cause thereunto is severe if not unjust But when the Lord Jesus Christ in his Care towards his Churches and watchfulness over them shall be pleased to remove these and the like stumbling-Blocks out of the way there will we hope be a full return unto Gospel-Unity and Peace among them that serve and worship him on the Earth In this state of things where-ever it be found it is no wonder if the Weaknesses Ignorance Prejudices and Temptations of men do interpose themselves unto the encrease and heightning of those Divisions whose Springs and Occasions lye elswhere When none of these Provocations were given them yet we know there was enough in Professors themselves to bring forth the bitter fruit of Differences and Schisms even in the dayes of the Apostles How much more may we fear the like fruits and effects from the like Principles and corrupt affections Now the Occasions of drawing them forth are more Temptations unto them greater Directions against them less evident and powerful and all sense of Ecclesiastical Authority through its abuse and male-administration is if not lost and ruined yet much weakned and impaired But from the darkness of the minds of men and their unmortified affections as the best know but in part nor are they perfectly sanctified it is that they are apt to take offence one at another and thereon to judge and censure each other temerariously and which is worst of all every one to make his own understanding and perswasion thereon the Rule of Truth and Worship unto others All such wayes and courses are against us in the matter of Love and Union all tending to make and increase Divisions among us And the Evil that is in them we might here declare but that it falls frequently under the chastisement of other hands Neither indeed can it well meet with too much severity of reproof Only it were desireable that those by whom such reproofs are mannaged would take care not to give advantages of Retortion or self-justification unto them that are reproved by them But this they do unavoydably whilst they seem to make their own Judgments and Practises the sole Rule and measure of what they approve or disallow In what complyes with them there is nothing perverse and in what differs from them there is nothing sincere And on this foundation whilst they reprove censuring rash-judging and reproaching of others with pride self-conceitedness false Opinions irregular practices in Church worship or any other concerns of Religion backbiting easiness in taking up false reports with the like evils as they deserve severely to be rebuked those reproved by them are apt to think that they see the guilt of many of the crimes charged on themselves in them by whom they are reproved So on all hands things gendor unto farther strife whilst every Party being conscious unto their own sincerity according unto the Rule of their present Light which is the only measure they can take of it are ready to impeach the sincerity of them by whom they suppose themselves causlesly traduced and condemned This evil therefore is to be diligently watched against by all that love Unity Truth Holiness or Peace And seeing there are Rules and Precepts given us in the Scripture to this purpose it may not be unmeet to call over some of them One Rule of this nature and import is that we should all of us study to be quiet and to do our own business in things Civil and Sacred Who will harm men who will be offended with them whilst they are no otherwise busied in the world And if any attempt to do them evil what need have they to be troubled thereat Duty and Innocency will give peace to a worthy soul in the midst of all storms and whatever may befall it Now will any one deny or can they but that it is the duty and ought to be the business of every man to seek his own edification and the saving of his soul Deny this unto any man and you put your self in the place of God to him and make him more miserable than a Beast And this which no man can forbid no man can otherwise do than according to that Light and knowledg of the will of God which he hath received If this therefore be so attended to as that we do not thereby break in upon the concerns of others nor disturb them in what is theirs but be carryed on quietly and peaceably with an evidence in what we do that it is meerly our own personal duty that we are in the pursuance of all cause of offence will be taken away For if any will yet be offended
Duty and not so much as a shadow of Authority for it would be left unto us For what is allowed in case of a sudden emergency upon an Offence taken by the whole Congregation at the wickedness of any which is instructed beforehand that this ought to be no matter of offence unto them as it may be it cannot be proved ever to have been observed in any one Instance so the allowed exercise of it would yield no relief in this case And if any one should extend the Rule beyond the interpretation that is put upon it by the present current administration of Church-Discipline there is no great question to be made what entertainment he would meet withal for his so doing And it is to no purpose to come into the Church as it were on purpose to go out again And if instead of dealing with the Souls and Consciences of men in the Name and Authority of Christ as Stewards of his Mysteries any can content themselves to be Informers of Crimes unto others we desire their pardon if we cannot comply with them therein And this is the Sum of what at present we are pleading about It is the duty of Ministers of particular Churches to judge and take care concerning the fitness of them according unto the Rules of the Gospel and the Nature of the Duty required of them who are to be admitted into the Fellowship of the Church and thereby unto a participation of all the holy Ordinances thereof This Charge the Lord Christ hath committed unto them and hereof will require an Account from them Upon the neglect or right discharge of this Duty Consequents of great moment do depend yea the due attendance unto it hath a great Influence into the Preservation of the Being of the Church and is the Hinge whereon the well-being of it doth turn But the power of exercising Ministerial Authority in a just attendance unto this Duty we must renounce in our conformity if we should submit thereunto For we have shewed before that after we have conformed we can pretend no excuse from what is enjoyned us or forbidden unto us by virtue thereof all being founded in our own voluntary act and consent Hence the guilt of this Omission must wholly fall on us which we are not willing to undergo There are we know many Objections raised against the committing of this Power and Trust unto the Ministers of particular Congregations Great Inconveniences are pretended as the consequents of it The Ignorance and Unfitness of most Ministers for the discharge of such a Trust if it should be committed unto them the Arbitrariness and partiality which probably others will exercise therein the Yoke that will be brought on the people thereby and disorder in the whole are usually pleaded to this purpose and insisted on But 1. This Trust is committed unto some or other by Christ himself and it is necessary that so it should be Never did he appoint nor is it meet nor was it ever practised in the Primitive Church that every one should at his pleasure on his own presumptions intrude himself into a participation of the holy things of the House of God The consideration of Mens Habitations with their Age and the like are of no consideration with respect unto any Rule of the Gospel Either therefore it must be left unto the pleasure and will of every man be he never so ignorant wicked or profligate to impose himself on the communion of any Church of Christ or there must be a Judgment in the Church concerning them who are to be admitted unto their communion 2. From the first planting of Christian Religion those who preached the Gospel unto the conversion of the Souls of men were principally intrusted with this Power and it was their duty to gather them who were so converted into that Church-Order and Fellowship wherein they might partake of the Sacred Mysteries or solemn Ordinances of the Christian Worship And this course of proceeding continued uninterrupted with some little variation in the manner of the exercise of this Power and Duty until Corruption had spread it self over the face of the whole professing Church in the world But still a shadow and resemblance of it was retained and in the Papal Church it self to this day particular Confessors are esteemed competent Judges of the meetness of their Penitents for an admission unto the Sacraments of their Church And who shall now be esteemed more meet for the discharge of this duty than those who succeed in the Office and Work of Preaching the Word whereby men are prepared for Church-Society And as it is a thing utterly unheard of in Antiquity that those who dispensed the Word unto the Illumination and Conversion of men should not have the power of their disposal as to their being added to the Church or suspended for a time as there was occasion so it is as uncouth that those who now sustain the same Place and Office unto the several Congregations attending on their Ministry should be deprived of it 3. If there be that Ignorance and Disability in Ministers as is pretended the blame of it reflects on them by whom they are made And we are not obliged to accommodate any of the Wayes or Truths of Christ unto the Sins and Ignorance of men And if they are insufficient for this work how come they to be so sufficient for that which is greater namely to divide the Word aright unto all their Hearers But we speak of such Ministers as are competently qualified according to the Rule of the Gospel for the discharge of their Office and no other ought there to be And such there are blessed be God through the watchful care of our Lord Jesus Christ over his Church and his Supplies of the Gifts of his Spirit unto them And such as these know it is their Duty to study meditate pray ask Counsel and advice of others perhaps of more Wisdom and Experience than themselves that they may know how in all things to behave themselves in the House of God Nor will God be wanting unto them who in sincerity seek direction from him for the discharge of any Duty which he calls them unto Other security of regular orderly and useful proceedings in this matter Christ hath not given us nor do we need For the due Observance of his Appointments will not fail the attaining of his Ends which ought to be ours also 4. The Judgment and acting of the Church-Officers in the Admission of persons into the compleat Society of the Faithful is not arbitrary as is pretended They have the Rule of the Scripture which they are diligently to attend unto This is the entire Rule which the Lord Christ hath left unto his Church both for their Doctrine and Discipline Whatever is beyond this or beside it is not his nor owned by him What is not done according to this Rule is of no force in the Consciences of men though it may stand until lawfully recalled