Some of the brethren of the Nonconformists have been of the same Judgment whatever this or their practice now is Memorable to this purpose is that saying of Mr. Baxter to his People of Kiderminster I ever loved saith he a Godly peaceable Conformist better than a turbulent Nonconformist and should I make a party or disturb the peace of the Church I should fear lest I should prove a Firebrand in Hell for being a Firebrand in the Church And by all the interest I have in your judgments and affections I here charge you that if God should give me up to any factious Church-renting course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step It is an unhappy degree of wickedness to be a ring-leader in any schism Every accessory is faulty enough but the first Authour abominable Those who either by his example suggestion advice connivence or otherwise are taught to doe ill increase his sin as fast as they do their own Whosoever shall break one of the least Commandments and shall teach men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven An unruly beast breaks the hedge and feeds in forbidden Pasture the whole herd follows but the owner must answer for all the trespass that is committed Therefore is Ieroboam so often branded in holy Writ with this note of infamy Ieroboam the Son of Nebat that made Israel to sin His fault lived when he himself was dead and 't is often said by Divines that his torment increased in Hell according as his sin increased upon earth and that the wickedness of Israel will not be taken off from his Soul for ever It was shame enough to Israel that they were made to sin by Ieroboam but O the miserable Estate of Ieroboam that made Israel to sin his pretence was fair enough but that was no excuse to the foulness of his crime nor is it any mitigation to his present torment Let the Authours of schism in the Church pretend what they please to Religion and Truth yet how they can have the true love or power of either in thier hearts or lives that seek not the Church's Peace and Unity withall I cannot understand The Holy Ghost in Scripture joins both together Love truth and peace And speak the truth in love He follows neither that persues them not both It was an unquestionable Maxime amongst Christians in the ancient Church which is no less a truth now than ever non habet Dei charitatem qui Ecclesiae non diligit unitatem The Love of God abides not in them who do not love and keep the Unity of the Church Nay the practice in question tends not onely to the dividing and distracting the Church but even to the dissolving and destroying her being It puts the members of the body of Christ out of joint and causeth a Luxation of the parts and so hinders that spiritual Nutrition thriving and growth in grace that ought to be in the body of Christ. For as in the natural body of man if a member be separated from it it can receive no nourishment or growth nay if there be but a dislocation of a part so that it be onely out of joint it will not thrive or prosper but wither and consume till it be set right again so the mystical body of Christ can never increase with the increase of God if either there be not a right Union of the joints to the head or if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ligament and bond that knits and fastens one member to another be broken Now this Union of the members the Apostle saith is made by the Ligament of Love which he therefore calls the bond of perfection because as it unites Church-members among themselves so it is the cause that they communicate mutual help to the profit and preservation of the whole The members of the Church then being made so loose and set at such distance so divided and distracted one from another some hurried this way and some that it must needs argue that this bond is either quite broken or much loosned And if it be a truth which Philosophers affirm that every natural body desires no less its unity than its entity I fee no reason why the spiritual and mystical body of Christ the Church should not in like manner desire its unity since if it be and continue thus unhappily divided it cannot long subsist in its entity As a tottering wall of stones heaped up together without mortar or binding is easily shaken and thrown down so must the Church be soon brought to ruine if this distracting and dividing course be suffered and practised By concord and good agreement among Christians the Church grows and is enlarged So by their discords and divisions it will in short time perish and come to nothing Say I this onely Or say not the brethren of the Nonconformists the same He that is not the Son of peace is not the Son of God saith Mr. Baxter all other sins destroy the Church consequentially but division and separation demolish it directly Building the Church is but an orderly joining the materials and what then is disjoyning but pulling down Believe not those to be the Church's friends that would cure and reform her by cutting her throat Pro Ecclesia clamitant saith St. Cyprian of such they cry out for the Church but contra Ecclesiam dimicant their practice is a fighting against the Church And that not by open and professed hostility but by secret and unseen Policy Their pretences are friendly but their actions mischievous their voice like Iacob's but their hands like Esau's Thirdly it hinders the Communion of Saints that holy and sweet fellowship which all the Members of Christ's Church ought to have both with Christ their head and each with other When in the natural body of man the members are joined to the head and one with another they have by virtue of that Union Communion also and do impart bloud spirits and life from one to the other So in the mystical Body of Christ the members being joined to the Lord and one to another there will be a sweet Communion among themselves in heart and affections joy with them that rejoice and forrow with them that weep prayer each for and each with other the multitude of them that believe will be of one heart and one soul. Now one of the closest bonds of Union amongst Christians is in their communicating together in holy duties We are then most one when with one mind and with one mouth we glorifie God together When holy David would set forth the greatest intireness of facred friendship he described it by walking to the house of God in company together The end and effect of our joint partaking in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is to seal up this Unity As by one of the Sacraments we
Christ's presence and blessing with them all in ways so abominable to God and so apparently destructive to his intire body the Church which he hath purchased with his most pretious bloud 3. Where were then the threatnings of his withdrawing from our Assemblies upon just occasion God hath said Your Sabbaths your Calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even your solemn Meetings my Soul hates them they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them And I hate I despise your Feast-days I will not smell in your solemn Assemblies i. e. I will not accept with Favour as I did Noah's Sacrifice their solemn Assemblies In another place the Holy Ghost useth the same expression I will not smell the Savour of your sweet Odours It is a Judgment saith Ainsworth opposed to that blessing promised in v. 12. I will walk among you God threatens to deny his presence to their Assemblies and one reason is given by a Divine of the Presbyterian Judgment Because they were not any way of Divine institution but of their own invention and therefore all along they are called your or thine Now shew me where Christ in all the Old or New Testament doth either command or allow any such Ministry and attendance on it as is in question and then I shall acknowledge it to be the Ordinance of God and that this promise belongs to it but not till then In the mean time I may well without any digression retort upon the objectours and tell them that in my Judgment they are far out of the way either of obedience to Christ's Command or of hopes of enjoying his blessing promised who in resorting to such kind of Meetings for which they have neither a command nor promise separate and withdraw themselves from the publick assemblies and attendance on his worship and ordinances there where God hath assured us of his presence and blessing and whither he hath enjoyned us constantly to repair For as that Minister who shall upon any pretence whatsoever of his own forsake a Congregation over whom he was placed by God and goe to another without any lawfull call is like Ionah who being sent by God to Nineve sinned greatly in going to Tarshish though he had preached never so duely and diligently there So those People who in any measure neglect the publick for those private assemblies are like Micah who in the time of the Iudges when there was a publick Ministry in the place which the Lord had chosen for that purpose instituted a private worship and ministry in his own house a certain peculiar Levite being called and set apart for that work And no wise man that shall reade his story will think it safe to follow his example Well may such a Person flatter himself in his course and say in his heart as he Now I know the Lord will doe me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest But as Iunius hominis imperiti sermo est in pietate parùm instituti That saying of his shews him to have but little wit less religion and that he was but in a golden dream or Fool 's Paradise all that while though he thought himself wiser and in a better case than his neighbours But this was done when there was no King in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes otherwise so abominable an act could never have passed so clearly as it did By such I would be soberly and soundly resolved of this demand Are the People of England in their present state and condition assembling themselves together in publick places appointed for God's worship under the teaching and ministry of their lawfull Pastors that are set over them by Authority a true Church or true Churches or not If they say no they doe that which God blessed be his name hath not yet done unchurch us and lay us under a judgment which he hath not yet laid upon us viz. a divorce from Iesus Christ. Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not Through the infinite goodness of the most high we have wherewithall to consute that unchristian and uncharitable judgment of theirs since we have both the matter and the form of a true Church The matter is a multitude of rational Creatures that profess saving truth contained in the word of God Simon Magus and the Eunuch upon their profession were admitted Members of the Church and Members do constitute the body The form of a true Church is a gracious call into the dignity of the Children of God so as that Christ becomes â—nited to them As the form of a man â—s the Soul united to the body so the â—orm of a Church which is his body 〈◊〉 Christ united to it We have the â—ord and laws of Christ and those he â—akes effectual for the convincing of â—ll and conversion of some And this 〈◊〉 an irrefragable argument to evince 〈◊〉 Church to be a true Church even in the judgment of the Presbyteriaâ— Divines themselves For to those of the Independent way that separated from them these are their words We beseech you to consider whether ye did not receive the work of conversion from sin to God which ye presume to be wrought in you first of all in those publick assemblies from which ye now separate And if ye found Christ walking amongst us how is it that 〈◊〉 do now leave us If the presence 〈◊〉 Christ both of his power and grace be with us why do ye deny your presence Are ye holyer and wiser than Christ Is not this an evident token that we are true Churches and have a true Ministry because we have the seal of our Ministry even the conversion of many Sons and Daughters to God Doth not the Apostle from this very ground argue the truth of his Apostleship 〈◊〉 it not apparent that our Ministers are sent by God because their Embassage is made succesfull by God for the good of Souls Did ye ever reade of true conversion ordinarily in false Church Will the Lord concur with those Ministers he sends not Doth not the prophet say the quite contrary Jer. 23. 23. And therefore either renounce your conversion or be converted from that great sin of separating from us Again where there are the infallible marks of a true Church there is a true Church But we have the infallible marks of a true Church viz. the word of Christ truly taught and his Sacraments rightly administred First for the word of Christ. The Church is according to the proper signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a People called forth from the rest of the world called to be Saints Now the best note to know a People called is by the voice calling this was ever an infallible mark of Christ's Church First among the Apostles who were called out from amongst others by the word of
the borders of our hearts that so meeting together by Troops with primitive Concord in the publick places of our Assemblies being banded together with a kind of holy Violence we may with one mind and one mouth lay Seige to the throne of Grace and give God no rest such Forces are to him most acceptable till he fulfill this gracious promise that we perish not in our divisions Lord grant that all they that confess thy holy name may agree in the truth of thy holy word and live in unity and godly love through Iesus Christ. Amen ARGUMENT IV. THat cannot be the Ordinance of God conducing to the Salvation of Souls which is not onely contrary to good and wholsome Laws destructive to Gospel-Order and destitute of Divine Promise but is also contrary to Gospel-commands For God is not contradictory to himself instituting or ordaining that in one place of his word which he forbids in another but throughout the whole Scripture he reveals one constant and one uninterrupted Tenor of sacred truth But the practice in question is contrary to sundry Gospel-commands as will easily be made out by instancing in two or three instead of others The first I shall mention is that in St. Peter Let none of you suffer as a Murtherer or as a Thief or as an evil doer or as a busie-body in other Mens Matters The word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the proper and genuine construction of it signifies a busie Bishop in another Man's Diocess or a busie Presbyter in another Man's Parish that takes upon him to meddle in another Man's Cure and to be doing in matters that are committed to another Man's Charge that is so well at leisure and hath so little to doe of his own that according to the Proverb He thrusts his Sickle into another Man's Harvest The Apostle reckons such a one among Murtherers and Thieves and other evil doers that so he may easily be known what he is by such as the Holy Ghost sorts with him Now Murtherers and Thieves and other Malefactors are made the Companions of such who without a special concession or commission undertake to meddle in other Mens Parishes with the Souls not committed to their Care and Charge and the Apostle gives equal Caveat against them all I know not therefore how such busie-bodies can acquit themselves of the other two sins also mentioned in this black roll Of the latter their guilt seems to be too evident in taking up wandring Sheep from their Folds when they ought rather to send them home to their own Shepherds in setting their mark upon them owning them for theirs and calling them by the name of their Church when as in truth they have no more Property or Interest in them than the Emperour of Vtopia hath in the Pleiades or the poor Athenian in Horace had in the Ships which he saw on the Sea and called his own though he had no other right to them than what his extravagant and distempered fancy did create For what warrant have they to meddle with other Mens Flocks Of the former I fear also they will scarce be found altogether guiltless For truly the Souls of their Proselytes after they have been their followers a while seem to be so mortally poisoned with Schism and Separation profane contempt and neglect of the publick worship and ordinances of God with despising of all Authority good Laws and Government and many other dangerous evils and so metamorphosed that from being Sheep as before they seemed to be they turn Wolves and are ready to worry their own Shepherds as is found true by too sad experience in all places where these men intrude themselves The Apostle doth elsewhere reckon up idleness as another Companion of this sin They learn to be idle wandring about from house to house and are busie-bodies Again Working not at all but are busie-bodies And indeed this is the Root from whence this vice springs 'T is true in the former place the Apostle makes it muliebre vitium the womens sin but it is no wonder to see idlers of the other Sex also to become esseminate and medlers in other folks matters when they have none of their own to be doing about An idler is well at leisure and if he will not serve God in his own station rather than he shall doe nothing Satan will find him employment in setting him to thrust his Sickle into his Neighbours Corn. They made me keeper of the Vineyards but mine own Vineyard have I not kept Here are Vineyards opposed to her own Vineyard false Churches to true For The Vineyard of the Lord of Hoast is the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant Plant. When men keep not their own Vineyard the keeping whereof is committed to them of God the Spirit that works in the Children of disobedience will set them to plant and keep Vineyards of his The Vine whereof is the Vine of Sodom and of the Fields of Gomorrah their Grapes are Grapes of Gall their clusters are bitter What account these Husbandmen will make hereafter to him that is the Lord of the Vineyard for such kind of dealing I wish they may in time seriously consider e'er it be too late so to doe Neither may we omit to observe how the Apostle in the afore quoted place doth as it were unchristian such a busie Person and seems to make him no better than a Pagan or Infidel For he puts a vast difference betwixt the sufferings of a busie Presbyter and those of a Christian. If a Christian suffer let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in this behalf But if such a busie-body suffer as 't is as much pity he should goe scotfree as any of his Mates in the Text he hath as great cause to be ashamed as a Thief or a Murtherer The Second Gospel-command I shall instance in is that of St. Paul to the Thessalonians Study to be quiet and doe your own business Quietness is here enjoyned under the notion and quality of an Art or Science for we are commanded to study it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seek with an holy ambition thinking it an honour to live in peace The quietness there commended to our ambitious endeavour I conceive to import not a quietness from motion but from commotion or troubling of others a contented calm conversation opposite to tumultuous turbulence and restless intermedling with things wherein others are concerned But how shall we attain to be masters of this Art of quietness The means most available that way the Apostle prescribes in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to doe our own business letting other mens matters alone to themselves For a man then not to content himself with his own affairs but to mix himself with other mens and without any lawfull appointment or allowance to thrust himself into another's Place and Employment is contrary to that
ought not to be shew'n in the observation of the Laws of our Church now as hath been to the like Laws and Canons in former and purer times Especially if we enquire into these four things 1. What Power the Church hath to make Laws Canons and Constitutions 2. Who were the Authours and Composers of these of our Church 3. What is the subject matter of them 4. What hath been the judgment of Divines of unquestionable learning judgment and piety concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature Concerning the first That the Church hath a maternal power to decree and make Laws to bind all her children is such a clear truth as no sober person I think will question By Church I understand not all the number of the faithfull but those that have the lawfull rule and government of the Church Which is the sense that our Saviour Christ useth it in when he saith Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church for there is Ecclesia collectiva and Ecclesia representativa I take it in the latter sense By Laws I understand not any new Article of faith or any thing contrary to what God hath commanded in the holy Scriptures For it is a true maxim whoever was the Authour of it Potestas descendit non ascendit None have power in those things that are above them but in those things which are beneath them So the Church hath no power in those things which are above her but in those things which are below her Now all Doctrines of faith and other things already commanded of God are above the Church and out of her reach so that the cannot meddle with them by any Law de novo otherwise than to see them duly obeyed and observed But as for things of an indifferent and adiaphorous nature serving to external order and decency in these she hath power to ordain and make Laws and Constitutions though not contrary to yet other than what are already made in God's word holding still as near as the can to the general rules of Scripture The doctrine of Salvation is always in all places the same and can never be changed But external rites and order are alterable and variable according to the diversity of time and place and the variety of the minds and manners of men The Church of the Jews had power of ordaining other things than what were expresly set down in God's word and that for perpetual observation She ordained the two days of Purim as perpetual festivals Moreover Iudas and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israel ordained that the days of the dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu with mirth and gladness This feast was instituted by Iudas Machabeus and his brethren when Antiochus Epiphanes was expelled out of Ierusalem the worship of God restored and the Temple prophaned by the Heathen again consecrated which was about 167 years before the Coming of Christ. Which feast was yearly kept ever after and our Saviour Christ himself honoured it with his own presence And if the Jewish Church had that power why then hath not the Christian the like And that the Primitive Church of Christians had and did exercise the like power is plain to any that shall reade Act. 15. and 1 Cor. 11. Secondly The Authours and Composers of these Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical were the reverend learned and godly Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons and other Clergy-men of every Diocesee within the Province of Canterbury met together neither with multitude nor with tumult but lawfully and duly call'd and summoned by virtue of the King's Majesties Writ and receiving legal confirmation of that which was done by them So then the composers of those Canons were such persons as were ordained of God to rule the Church and to order what in their Wisedom should be thought convenient to whom in all things not contrary to God's will revealed in his word we are commanded obedience Luk. 12. 42. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Thirdly The subject matter of these Canons and Consitutions is of such things as concern External order decency and edification which God hath not particularly determined in Scripture but hath left to the rulers and governours of the Church to ordain and appoint within the compass of that general rule of the Apostle Let All things be done unto edifying and in order In which place those things that concern the external polity of the Church are generally expressed but the particulars are not mentioned but left to the wisedom and liberty of the Church Fourthly What have been the judgment of Divines of whose learning and piety and Church of God never yet since their times made the least doubt or question concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature They have always thought them sacred and venerable and their observation an act of Religion and Obedience to the general commands of God Instead of many take a few testimonies of Divines of the highest rank both foreign and domestick Two I shall quote out of learned Zanchy Quatenus hae leges consentaneae sunt cum Sacris Literis aut saltem non sunt dissentaneae Eatenus verae sunt Ecclesiasticae eoque admittendae nos illis obedientiam debemus ac reverentiam So far forth as these Constitutions are agreeable with the Scriptures or at least not disagreeing with them so far forth they are truly Ecclesiastical and to be received and we owe reverence and obedience to them And he gives his reason in these words Si Consentaneae sunt hae leges verbo Dei qui illas rejicit verbum Dei rejicit Si non repugnant contemnit Ecclesiam Dei qui illas contemnit Contemptus autem Ecclesiae quam Deo ingratus sit apparet cum aliis ex locis Sacrarum Literarum ubi illam magnificat tum maxime ex Evangelio Mat. 18. 17. If those Laws are agreeable with the word of God he that rejecteth them rejecteth the word of God if they are not contrary to the word of God he that rejecteth them despiseth the Church of God and how odious a thing unto the Almighty it is that any should despise his Church as it appears in many places of Scripture where the Church is magnified so especially in Mat. 18. 17. whrere God hath commanded that that person should be accounted as an heathen man and a Publican who hears and obeys not the Church Hear the same Learned Authour again Credo ea quae a piis patribus in nomine Domini congregatis communi omnium Consensu citra ullam Sacrarum Literarum Contradictionem definita recepta fuerunt Ea etiam quanquam haud ejusdem cum Sacris Literis authoritatis A SPIRITV SANCTO ESSE Those things saith he which have been concluded and received by the Holy Fathers gathered together in the
in that regard forbid us to minister to our Church I see not by what warrant in God's word we should think our selves bound notwithstanding to exercise our Ministry still except we should think such a Law of Ministry to lie upon us that we should be bound to run upon the Swords point of the Magistrate or oppose Sword to Sword which I am sure Christianity abominates 2. Yea suppose the Magistrate should doe it unjustly and against the Will of the Church and should therein sin yet doth not the Church in that regard cease to be a Church nor ought she therein resist the Will of the Magistrate nor doth she stand bound in regard of her affection to her Minister how great and deserved soever to deprive her self of the protection of the Magistrate by leaving her publick standing to follow her Minister in private and in the dark refusing the benefit of other publick Ministers which with the good leave and liking of the Magistrate she may enjoy 3. Neither do I know what Warrant any ordinary Minister hath by God's word in such a case so to draw any such Church or People to his private Ministry that thereby they should hazard their outward Estate and quiet in the Common-wealth where they live when in some competent measure they may publickly with the grace and favour of the Magistrate enjoy the ordinary means of salvation by another And except he hath a Calling to minister in some other Church he is to be content to live as a private member untill it shall please God to reconcile the Magistrate unto him and to call him again to his own Church From which words of this learned Non-conformist it may easily be gathered that those persons who are now by the unquestionable Legitimate power of the Kingdom for their Non-compliance with the present legal Establishment in the Church deposed from their Ministry if they contain not themselves in quietness and silence as other private Christians do and ought but will without a Call of Authority undertake still to preach the word and draw People after them to their private Ministry they are condemned by the most sober and judicious of their own party and the case of them and their followers is adjudged to be far different from that of the Apostles and primitive Christians their practice unwarrantable by the word of God and manifestly tending to Sedition and Schism But what speak I of the single Testimony and Judgment of one man of that way and perswasion though a learned and judicious one whenas we have extant to the World the like verdict agreed upon long since by the joint consent of sundry Godly and learned Ministers of this Kingdom then standing out and suffering in the cause of inconformity and published by Mr. William Rathband for the good of the Church and the better setling of mens unstable minds in the truth against the subtile insinuations and plausible pretences of that pernicious evil of the Brownists or Separatists For in the 4 th page of that Book First they justifie themselves against the objection of that faction in yeilding to the suspensions and deprivations of the Bishops acknowledging their Power to depose who did ordain them and their own duty to acquiesce therein and in quietness and silence to subject themselves thereunto in expressions so full to my present purpose that I should have transcribed them for the Reader 's satisfaction were it so that I had not been prevented by the reverend and worthy Authour of the Continuation of the Friendly Debate As to that place of Scripture Act. 4. 19. 20. which they acknowledge to be very unskilfully alledged by the adversary they make this threefold answer to shew the difference betwixt the Apostles case and theirs First they say they that inhibited the Apostles were known and professed Enemies of the Gospel Secondly the Apostles were charged not to teach in the Name of Christ nor to publish any part of the Doctrine of the Gospel Which Commandment might more hardly be yeilded unto than this of our Bishops who are not onely content that the Gospel should be preached but are also preachers of it themselves Thirdly the Apostles received not their Calling and Authority from men nor by the hands of men but immediately from God himself and therefore also might not be restrained nor deposed by men whereas we though we exercise as function whereof God is the Authour and we are also called of God to it yet are we also called and ordained by the hands and ministry of men and may therefore by men be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our Ministry I cannot think that any of the Learned sort of the Non-conformists now are ignorant of these things nor that if their hearts were known their Judgments differ in this case from that of their ancient brethren but I fear the busie upholders and promoters of Conventicles in our Age notwithstanding their prohibition by Law to preach at all sin against their own light and conscience in so doing But I proceed 4. Now Laws being thus made against all such unlawfull Meetings and all such His Majestie 's Laws being no way contrary to God's word all his Subjects stand bound in the obligation of obedience to them and that for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Tit. 3. 1. And under pain of Damnation if they wilfully resist and disobey Rom. 13. 2. And therefore it is that in the Schools they call disobedience to the King's Laws Sacrilege for though the trespass seem to be directed but against a man yet in that man whose Office and consequently his person is sacred God is opposed and his ordinance violated The King's Laws though in themselves in regard of their particular Constitution they put no special obligation upon us under pein of sin and damnation yet in a general relation to that God who is the original of all Power and hath commanded us to obey Authority their neglect or disobedience involves us in guilt and exposeth us to Sin and consequently to Damnation Civilibus legibus quae cum pietate non pugnant eo quisque Christianus paret promptius quo fide Christi est imbutus plenius Every Christian by how much the more he hath of the grace of faith by so much the more ready he is to conform to the Laws of men which are not contrary to the Laws of God All power is of God That therefore which Authority enjoins us God enjoins us by it the Command is mediately his though passing through the hands of men Hoc jubent imperatores quod jubet Christus quia cum bonum jubent per illos non nisi Christus jubet When Kings command what is not disagreeable with Christ's Commands Christ commands by them and we are called to obey not onely them but Christ in them But is not suffering obedience And if men are willing to submit
a prophane contempt or neglect of any part of publick worship for every imperfection and blemish nor to separate from a Church though never so corrupt so long as the Word Sacraments and Doctrine of Salvation may there be enjoyed Corruptions of a Church are commonly by Divines distinguished into two sorts They are either such as concern the matter of Religion which the Apostle calls demnable Heresies in fundamental points of Faith and Holiness which tend to the destroying of the very being of a Church Or else such as concern the manner of Religion in circumstantials and ceremonials which are matters of lower concern and inferiour alloy Such as to use the words of Learned Bp. Davenant Non continuo ad fidem fundamentalem spectant sed ad peritiam theologicam fortasse ne ad hanc quidem sed aliquando ad curiositatem theologorum belong not to the fundamentals of Faith but skilfulness in Divinity and not to that neither but rather to the curiosity of Divines Now errours even in fundamentals may be in a Church upon a double account either through infirmity and humane frailty the best of us knowing but in part in this Life God allows no separation in such a case The Church of Galatia through infirmity was quickly turned to another Gospel and erred even in matters fundamental holding justification by works and was fallen to the observation of Iewish Ceremonies which St. Paul calls beggarly Elements Their Apostle was become their Enemy and that for telling them the truth He was afraid of them lest all the labour he had bestowed amongst them was in vain and was fain to travel in birth with them again yet he owns them and writes to them as a Church notwithstanding Or else vitioso affectu immorigeroe voluntatis out of malice when men know they doe amiss and yet persist obstinately in so doing In such a case separation may be with a good Conscience When St. Paul had preach'd in the Synagogue of the Iews and they would not believe but began to blaspheme and speak evil of the ways of God then he withdrew and separated from them So that it must be no small matter that must be a sufficient ground to any one that means to keep a good Conscience to warrant his withdrawing from the publick Congregation in any part of God's worship If a man have not discretion he may easily run himself into a great evil of sin whilst he seeks to shun a light inconvenience and in avoiding that which he thinks to be superstition he may soon become really Schismatical and prophane which is as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Suppose there were some evil mixtures in our administration of Church-worship yet in the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves this is not a sufficient ground of a negative much less of a positive separation For say they the learned Authour before mentioned that is Camero tells us that corruption in manners crept into a Church is not a sufficient cause of separation from it This he proves from Matt. 23. 2 3. And he also gives this reason for it Because in what Church soever there is purity of Doctrine there God hath his Church though overwhelmed with scandals And therefore whosoever separateth from such an Assembly separateth from that place where God hath his Church which is rash and unwarrantable And in the next Page they say He that will never communicate with any Church till every thing that offendeth â—e removed out of it must tarry till the great day of Judgment when and not till then Christ will send forth his Angels and gather out of his Kingdom every thing that offendeth and them that doe iniquity And though to excuse themselves from the guilt of Schism they that do separate may pretend that they make not aâ— open breach of Christian Love wherein the nature of that great sin doth consist Let their own words answer themselves We grant that to make up the formality of a Schismatick there must be added uncharitableness as to make up the formality of an Heretick there must be added obstinacy But yet as he that denieth a fundamental Article of Faith is guilty of Heresie though he add not obstinacy thereunto to make him an Heretick so he that doth unwarrantably separate from a true Church is truly guilty of Schism though he add not uncharitableness thereunto to denominate him a complete Schismatick How unjustifiable then is the separation which some make themselves and cause others to make in these days from our Churches which in their Constitution for Doctrine Discipline and Worship are the envy of Rome and the admiration of the rest of the Christian World where there is nothing Idolatrous in Worship nothing Heretical in Doctrine nor Antiscriptural in Discipline where there is nothing taught believed or done but what is agreeable with the word of God or not contrary thereunto And to speak in the words of the learned and godly Dr. Henry More a Church so throughly purged from whatsoever can properly be styled Antichristian and is I am confident so Apostolical that the Apostles themselves if they were alive again would not have the least scruple of joyning in publick worship with us in our common Assemblies Separation from it can be no less than the fruit of Pride or bitter Zeal which tends to strife And where envy and strife is there is confasion and every evil work I have heard some Church-forsakers when they have been told of their Apostasie and falling off from the Church whereof they were Members excuse and please themselves in this that they are not Apostates from the Faith they hold the same Doctrine and believe the same Creed we do Though in that they doe no more than Papists doe But in the mean time they consider not That 1. This is an improvement and aggravation of their sin so far is it from excusing the fault to depart from a Church wherein they were born and baptized and which by their own confession continues sound in the Faith Separation is allowed by no Divines no not by the Presbyterians themselves but either in case of cruel Persecution damnable Heresie or down right Idolatry They then that separate from a Church where there is neither of these have the greater sin 2. That the hainousness of the sin of Schism doth not consist in renouncing the Faith but in the breach of Christian Charity without which all Faith is nothing A man may be very Orthodox in his Judgment and yet be a damnable Schismatick if he break that Union which ought to be religiously kept amongst Christians in God's worship especially And because this breach is manifestly perfected in refusing due Ecclesiastical Communion together therefore that separation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called Schism 3. That the breach
quietness which Christians are to study a manifest breach of this great Gospel-command and consequently inconsistent with the ordinance of God A Third Evangelical precept is that of our blessed Saviour Whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you doe ye even so to them It is a principle both natural and divine enjoyned by our heavenly Law-giver as a ground and rule of all equity amongst men Lactantius thus comments on it Radix omnis fundamentum aequitatis est illud vide ut ne facias ulli quod pati nolis sed alterius animum de tuo metieris This is the root and foundation of all equity for a man to be carefull no to doe that to another which he would not suffer himself but to measure another man's mind by his own Now I appeal to the hearts and consciences of those Ministers that thrust themselves now into other mens Congregations and Parishes and there in private houses gather together a company of disciples and followers of the more giddy and unstable sort of People for such they are for the most part that not content with the publick labours of their own Pastors flock to private Conventicles and set up a course of Preaching and other Ministerial Acts whether if they were Pastors of Congregations as sometimes they were and had a charge of a flock of God's People committed to them for whose Souls they and none else must be accountable they would take it well or permit it if they could otherwise help it that a stranger should thrust himself into their Parishes and lead away a number of their People to private Assemblies in corners to a dependence on them for teaching and other duties which they obtrude upon them as the worship and service of God even to the forsaking and loathing of that which is publickly established for waiting on them in private And whether when those men were in their Pastoral charges and in the late time Anabaptists Familists and other Sectaries did the like as they themselves now doe set up private Conventicles in several Towns and Parishes they did not account themselves much injured thereby and made their Pulpits sound loud against it nay oppose it by all means they possibly could Which is a truth sufficiently known to all that have been hearers of them or know their practices Neither will it suffice them to say those whom they then opposed were Persons heterodox in their judgments and corrupt in their opinions For 1. So may these House-creeping Preachers be also for ought any one knows If it be sound Divinity they Preach it is avowable and publication is a fair Argument of truth Truth seeks no corners it is onely ashamed to be hidden as the Sun to be clouded or eclipsed The desire of Secreâ—ie and Privacy renders their Doctrines suspicious of falshood and errour In the dark gross faults are not perceived and they are evil-doers onely that are said by our Saviour to hate the light While men doe nothing but well they need not conceal and hide their doings The very Heathen as a Divine of ours observes did worship their Gods sub dio without Roofs or Coverings in a free openness and where they could in Temples made with Specular Stone that was transparent as Cristal so as that they that walked without in the Streets might see all that was done within And even nature it self taught the natural man to make that an Argument of a man truly Religious aperto vivere voto that he durst pray aloud and let the world hear what he asked at God's hands which duty saith he is best performed when we joyn with the Congregation in publick Prayers St. Austin hath made that note upon the Donatists that they were clanculary clandestine Divines Divines in corners And in Photius we have such a note almost upon all Hereticks as the Nestorian was called Coluber a Snake because though he kept in the Garden in the Church he lurked and lay hid to doe mischief And truly so long as the Preaching of the Gospel is not persecuted and there is no prohibition to the contrary as sometimes there was it seems to me to be contrary to the very nature of it herein differing from the Law that it is not confined to any one Nation or Place nor is subject to bonds or restraint to be shut up in private houses and taught in secret and not rather to be published in Churches and open Places of free and common resort The command to the Apostles was Go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life And accordingly was their Practice Act. 9. 20. Act. 13. 14. 44. 'T is true the godly in times past had their private Meetings in Deserts Mountains Dens and Caves of the Earth But the case is not alike with us as with them The times then were of most bloudy Persecution when neither Preacher nor Professour escaped the Fire and therefore were enforced to conceal themselves and privately to enjoy those Comforts and discharge those Duties and Exercises of Religion which they could not publickly be suffered to doe But those who set up and frequent private Meetings now may enjoy the preaching and reading of the Word prayers to God confession of Sin profession of Faith and benefit of the Sacraments in the publick Assemblies of the Saints Yea they are not onely allowed but commanded by Authority so to doe but they will not Those Teachers then that in these Halcion days of the Gospel creep into corners to vent their Doctrines discover themselves to be either First Seditious and Schismatical seeking to make Parties and Divisions in the Church Or Secondly Proud and Arrogant preferring their own Opinions and Doctrines Assemblies and Persons before all other Or Thirdly False and Erroneous for all damnable Heresies and Doctrines of Perdition which pervert and destroy Souls are thus brought in underhand privily by such as creep into the Church of God by stealth At least they are destitute of that means of justification and defence of the truth which our Saviour Christ had and which all Christ's Ministers in a setled Church ought to have viz. to appeal to the publick Audience That which is publickly Preached may be proved and tryed but not so well that which is taught in obscurity 2. What the Judgments and Opinions of these Men have been and that in all those things wherein the Peace of the Church and the Salvation of Souls of Christians are concerned I mean the Doctrine Discipline and Worship as it stands established in the Church of England the World hath had sufficient knowledge and experience by the late bloudy Wars and Persecutions raised thereabout 3. Lastly The question is not as hath been said de facto what Doctrine these men deliver in their private Conventions but de jure what right they have to Preach any in other Mens Parishes as they doe Such a Person
no wise take well at their hands viz. that they should put themselves under the Ministry of another they will grow to such a degree of strangeness to him as to shun common neighbourhood and acquaintance with him yea they will easily account him their greatest Enemy as Ahab did Elijah or the Galatians did St. Paul because he doth not flatter them in tha◠which how wicked and unlawfull soever it be is therefore the sweeter to them because forbidden and enjoyed as it were by stealth For stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant though the end of such ill gotten delight be in the depth of hell What esteem can they have of their Minister's Person or Office which are look'd upon by them as either needless or indifferent if not tedious and burthensome What regard to his Doctrine which as experience shews us is and will be so lightly set by that some will wholly forsake attendance on it others come to hear as there is too much cause to doubt more out of curiosity than necessity and as some have not been ashamed to confess rather to 〈◊〉 as those that listned to our Saviour's Sermons to catch him in his discourse than to learn or to practise And so the Pulpit which is God's Tribunal is made their bar and they become not doers of the Law but Iudges What dependance can a People have on their own pastour in his discharge of ministerial Duties amongst them where some are reduced into a perfect revolt from him other brought to a loose indeterminacy in Divine worship and Church-communion and all to a Lukewarm indifference what Ministry they enjoy and Church-Assemblies are made matter of Complement rather than necessity Usurpation and intrusion as it shall never want store of friends and favourers among the ignorant and unstable vulgar be it never so unjust so the more abbettours and maintainers it hath in any place the greater must the defection needs be from him to whom they own their adherence And thus will that golden chain of relation that is and ought to be betwixt a Pastour and his People by this means be wholly dissolved and those put asunder whom God bath joined together For as it is in a marriage it is not the having of an Husband that makes the Wife honest chast and undefiled but her loving her Husband and keeping her self wholly to him otherwise the Wedlock bond is broken so in this union betwixt Pastour and People it is not the having a Minister that maintains and upholds the relation and conjunction that God would have to continue between them but the acknowledging of him keeping to him and depending on him in the Lord for all ministerial Acts to be performed by him among them otherwise the knot of unity that ought to be betwixt them is untyed Now here I could tell the Reader so lamentable a story of the truth of this sad effect which upon mine own experience I have found of this usurpation and intrusion I am now disputing against that if he be such a one as hath any fear of God before this eyes any zeal for his house worship and service or any care of the Unity and Peace of the Church it would make both his ears at the hearing of it tingle My Parish was a Virgin pure and undefiled free from all invadours and underminers of her Chastity till about four years since when the Act of Parliament for the removal of such of the Nonconformist ministers as refused to take the oath therein prescribed out of all Corporations sent or occasioned one of them not to preach but to inhabit amongst us Before whose coming there was not a Congregation in the Country that I know for so many People being near 1000 souls more entire more unanimous more constant at all parts of publick worship more free from all inclination to schism separation or any of the raigning Epidemical faults of this Age. We had then what happiness we could desire and it seems greater than we deserved When the ground all about us was wet with the showres of schism and prophaneness we like Gideon's fleece were dry But because we gave not God thanks sufficient he suffered Satan to erect Altare contra Altare for so went the style of the ancient Church for schism which in our modern Dialect is a Conventicle against the Church Now that Congregation which was before entire is now miserably divided and those that lived under the oversight and teaching of one lawfull Pastour as a chast Wife under the guidance of her own Husband according to God's Holy Ordinance are gone aside to others and admit of the unlawfull embraces of strangers I could tell the Reader of some of those people who were formerly constant attendants on all parts of divine Worship that are now by this means totally gone off non fugati sed fugitivi as say the Brethren of the Presbyterian way of the Independents and for the space of several years have not set their foot over the threshold of God's house yea so far are they withdrawn and to so high and impious an abhorrency of God's publick Worship are they brought as to detain their very Children from publick Baptism They are modelled as they call it into a new Church-way for the enjoyment of Ordinances And no wonder for the Scripture tells us that besides God's Church Satan will have his too There is Ecclesia Credentium and Ecclesia Malignantium according to that of David odi Ecclesiam malignantium I have hated the Congregation of Evil doers And Tertullian tells us faciunt favos vespae faciunt Ecclesias Marcionitae Wasps make Combs but empty ones Schismaticks and Sectaries make Churches but false ones Singuli quique coetus haereticorum se potissimum Christianos suam esse Ecclesiam Catholicam putant saith Lactantius Of others I could relate that upon this sad occasion are in part revolted from the publick Assemblies of the Saints and though they live near enough to the Church yet come thither but now and then and that to hear a Sermon onely and to no other part of divine Service To satisfie curiosity I suppose rather than Conscience wherein they seem to discover much of Hypocrisie but nothing of Piety For I would demand of them doe they well or ill when they come If well why then come they not at all times when they may If ill why then come they at any time What moves them at any time to approach the place where God's honour dwells Is it because he hath commanded it or to doe him any service thereby I ask him again whether hath not he commanded the publick Service of the whole day as well as a part A Lamb at the Evening as well as a Lamb in the Morning Of every Lord's day as well as of one now and then Why else did the Lord call the Sabbath of old an holy Convocation As if
potest The thing that a man cannot obtain by himself alone praying together with the multitude he shall obtain and why so for although not his own worthiness yet concord and unity prevaileth much When the whole Church joyned together in their devotions for St. Peter's enlargment Omnipotence exerted it self in a series of Miracles that their Prayers should not be unanswered Tunc est efficacior sanatior devotio quando in operibus pietatis totius ecclesie unus est animus unus est sensus Prayer is then more holy and effectual when in the works of piety there is but one mind and one meaning of the whole Church Besides God hath promised as hath been before shewed to be more comfortably present in our Church-Assemblies than in any other houses or places whatsoever If it had been all one to pray in a private house or in the publick assemblies of the Church St. Paul and the Godly Christians with him would never have put themselves to an hazard of their lives in times of hottest persecution by meeting together in multitudes in a place where there was an House of Prayer or where they were wont to assemble together to pray For it is read both ways The first pleaseth Tremelius best the latter Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim orationem oratorium significat The word signifies both Prayer and an House of Prayer The House of Prayer is a Court beautified with the presence of celestial powers there the Almighty doth sit to hear and his Angels intermingle with us as our associates and attend to further our Suits With reference hereunto the Apostle requires so great care to be had of decency in the Church for the Angels sake saith Mr. Hooker Sixthly it begets ill thoughts of his Majesty's most gracious Government as if he were a persecutor and suppressor of true Religion and an enemy to piety and godliness These meetings about in Barnes and private Houses look not as if we lived under a Christian Protestant Prince as if King Charles were upon the throne but as if Nero Dioclesian or Queen Mary were alive again and did rule Conventicles saith Bishop Lake make shew as if you had not freedom of Religion and thereby you derogate from the honour of the King 's most Christian Government and wrong your Pastour casting imputation upon him that he cannot or will not instruct you as he ought And indeed it lays the Axe to the Root and tends to the undermining and destruction of all Government and Governours Do not the Histories of all Ages give in evidence to the evil tendency of these private seditious and unlawfull meetings In the late years of war and confusion those meetings were effectually made use of by all parties as the great Engine to pull down the powers then in being By these means Presbytery did in a great measure prevail to the forceable and irregular throwing down of the legally established Episcopacy So by the same means Independency Anabaptism Fifth-monarchism hath been prevalent over and against Presbytery So that it is a wonder the Governours of our Church and State have not a more watchfull and jealous Eye upon all such illegal Schismatical and seditious conventions It is a sure rule of our Saviour A Kingdom divided cannot stand It was a principle of Machiavel divide impera divide and take all Whatsoever may be divided may be destroyed When a society is broken it may soon be brought to confusion 'T is Satan's way to destroy by dissolving unions Infirma est securitas ab alienis dissidiis nec unquam stabile est regnum vbi inter se discordant ii qui reguntur This practice then that tends so much to dividing tends as much to destroying both Church and State Seventhly Where this liberty is either taken or given there is or may be dissenting from yea contrariety of Doctrine to what is taught in publick And that can no way conduce to edification in faith and holiness but to the greatest confusion that may be The whole Church should be as the whole World was in Noah's time unius labii of one Language the building else will prove to be but a Babel and the Ministry for destruction and not for edification which is so far from being God's Ordinance that it is quite contrary thereunto This made St. Paul so earnestly to importune the Church of Corinth to speak all the same things And truly such is the condition of the Upholders and Masters of these unlawfull Assemblies in these days that there is great danger of their prevarication now and then in Doctrine and of suiting their discourses to their hearers palates I say they are under a very great temptation to gratifie mens vices by indulging their prejudices For as a worthy Prelate of our Church hath well observed Where Ministers depend upon voluntary benevolences if they do but upon some just reproof Gaul the conscience of a guilty hearer or preach some truth which disrelisheth the Palate of a prepossessed auditour he streightway flies out and not onely withdraws his own pay but the contribution of others also So as the free Tongue teacher must either live by air or be forced to change his Pasture Thereupon it is that those Sportulary Preachers are fain to sooth up their many Masters and are so gagged with the fear of starving displeasure that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors as being charmed to speak either placentia or nothing This is a truth easie to be apprehended For if even when the Laws enforce men to pay their dues to their Ministers they yet continue so backward in the discharge of them especially if never so little displeased at just reproofs and lawfull endeavours to reform their vicious lives how much less hope can there be that being left to their own free choice they will prove liberal or bountifull in their voluntary Contributions if never so little cross'd upon the like occasion by their new Masters Lastly it opens a door to all Errours and Heresies and is the ready way to bring all Religion to nothing For saith the Apostle when people heap up to themselves teachers to satisfie the itch of their Ears they will turn away their Ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables in a short time Elsewhere the Holy Ghost joins order and stedfastness together Though I be absent in the flesh yet am I present with you in the spirit joying to behold your order and stedfastness of your faith in Christ. It is impossible for men to be stedfast in Religion who keep not God's order How come so many in our days to fall from their stedfastness some to Anabaptism some to Quakerism and some to Atheism but by breaking first that order in Religion that God hath set If Souldiers in an Army keep their order every one abiding in