between us whether Men should wait for farther objective Revelations or Additions to the written Word or whether we should condemn the Errors of the Enthusiasts herein we are agreed in all this 5. Nor is the Question de Officio whether it be the Duty of all Men to look out after the written Word as far as they can and rest in it 6. Nor is the Question whether the Scripture only have the proper Nature of a Rule to Judge Controversies by 7. Nor yet whether Scripture be of necessity to the Church in General 8. Nor whether it be necessary as a means to the Salvation of all that have it 9. Nor whether it be the only sufficient means of safe keeping and propagating the whole Truth of God which is necessary to the Church 10. But the Question is of every particular Soul on Earth whether we may thus assert that there is no Salvation for them unless they know Christ by the Revelation of the Scripture And I cannot assent to the Article for these Reasons 1. It seems a Snare by the unmeet Expressions 2. We cannot be certain of the Truth of it 3. It is not of so great necessity as that all should be cast out of the Ministry though in other things Orthodox that will not own it 4. Much less is it a Fundamental Nor dare I judge all to Damnation that are not herein of your Opinion 5. It seems to me to be injurious to Christianity it self 6. And to the present intended Reformation 7. And to the Parliament 8. And to our selves 1. For the First of these Reasons It is confessed by some here that a Man may be converted by the Doctrine of the Scripture before he know the Writings or their Authority and that you intend not to assert that the divine Authority of the Scripture is that primum credibile which must needs be believed before any Truth therein contained can be savingly believed And it is thought by some that your Assertion is made good if it be but proved that all saving Revelation that is now in the World is from Scripture originally and subordinate to it and not co-ordinate But the obvious Sense of your Words will seem to many to be this that the particular Knowledge of that Person who will be saved must be by Scripture Revelation as the objective Cause or Instrument even under that Consideration either in the Mind of the Speaker or Hearer or both If it should be said that the Revelation which converted this or that Sinner did arise from the Scriptures a Thousand Years ago But hath since been taken up as coming another way and so there hath been an Intermission of ascribing it to the Scripture as to those Men by whom it was carried down this will not seem to agree with your Expressions And seeing many others must be Judges of your Sense who shall have Power to trie Ministers hereby you enable them by your obscure Expressions to wrong the Church oppress their Brethren and introduce Errors And so it seems you frame a â—nare 2. And you will put every poor Christian in these Places where Christ's Faith is known to many but by Verbal Tradition into an Impossibility of knowing that they have any true Faith because they cannot know that it came from the Scriptures 2. That we are not certain of the Truth of this Assertion nor can I be Judge 1. Because there was Salvation from Adam to Moses by Traâ—â—â—ion without the written Word and there was a considerable space of time after Christ's Assention before the Scriptures of the New Testament were written The first Christians were savingly called and the Churches gathered without these Writings by the preaching of the Doctrine which is now contained in them And though that be now necessary to the Safety of the Church and Truth which was not so necessary when the Apostles were present yet it is unproved that there is more necessary to the Salvation of every Soul now than was in those Days And it is considerable that it was not only the preaching of the Apostles but of all other Publishers of the Gospel in those Times that was in suo genere sufficient for Conversion without Scripture Yea and to the Gentiles that knew not the Scriptures of the Old Testament 2. If there be no Salvation but by a Scripture Revelation then either because there is no other way of revealing the Marrow of the Gospel or because it will not be saving in another way But neither of these can be proved true Ergo for the latter 1. The Word of God and Doctrine of his Gospel may save if revealed supposing other Necessaries in their Kinds For it sufficeth to the formal Object of Faith that it be veracitas revelantis and to the material Object that it be Hoc verum bonum revelatum but it must be truly revelatum though not by Scripture Ergo 2. God hath promised Salvation to all that truly believe and not to those that believe only by Scripture-Revelation nor hath he any where told us that he will annex his Spirits help to no other Revelation 2. For the former That there is now in the World no other way of revealing the Marrow of the Gospel but by Scripture or from it 1. It cannot be proved by Scripture as will appear when your Proofs are tryed 2. The contrary is defended by most learned Protestants 1. A Praecepto another collateral way of Revelation is commanded by God Ergo there 's another 2. From certain History and Experience which speak of the Performance of those Commands and the Instances they give of both are these 1. Ministers are commanded to preach the Gospel to all Nations before it was written and a Promise annexed that Christ would be with them to the end of the World In Obedience whereunto not only the Apostles but Multitudes more did so preach which was by delivering the great Master-Verities which are now in the written Word This Command is not reverst by the writing of the Word And therefore is still a Duty as to deliver the Gospel Doctrine in and by the Scripture so collaterally to preach the Substance of that Doctrine as delivered from the Mouth of Christ and his Apostles 2. Christ commanded before the Gospel was written to baptize Men into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost for the Pardon of Sin upon repenting and believing and for the hope of everlasting Glory upon a holy Life This was done accordingly both before and since the writing of the Gospel And so the very Sum and Kernel of the Gospel and indeed all the true Fundamentals and Essentials of the Christian Faith have been most certainly and constantly delivered down by Baptism as a collateral way distinct from the written Word which is evident in the very Succession of Christians to this Day 3. Another means hath been by Symbols called Creeds and Catechising which was mostly by opening the Creeds As Reverend Bishop Usher hath
on the Wax is caused by that on the Seal Therefore I do more of late than ever discern a necessity of a methodical procedure in maintaining the Doctrine of Christianity and of beginning at Natural Verities as presupposed fundamentally to supernatural though God may when he please reveal all at once and even Natural Truths by Supernatural Revelation And it is a marvellous great help to my Faith to find it built on so sure Foundations and so consonant to the Law of Nature I am not so foolish as to pretend my certainty to be greater than it is meerly because it is a dishonour to be less certain nor will I by shame be kept from confessing those Infirmities which those have as much as I who hypocritically reproach me with them My certainty that I am a Man is before my certainty that there is a God for Quod facit notum est magis notum My certainty that there is a God is greater than my certainty that he requireth love and holiness of his Creature My certainty of this is greater than my certainty of the Life of Reward and Punishment hereafter My certainty of that is greater than my certainty of the endless duration of it and of the immortality of individuate Souls My certainty of the Deity is greater than my certainty of the Christian Faith My certainty of the Christian Faith in its Essentials is greater than my certainty of the Perfection and Infallibility of all the Holy Scriptures My certainty of that is greater than my certainty of the meaning of many particular Texts and so of the truth of many particular Doctrines or of the Canonicalness of some certain Books So that as you see by what Gradations my Understanding doth proceed so also that my Certainty differeth as the Evidences differ And they that have attained to greater Perfection and a higher degree of Certainty than I should pity me and produce their Evidence to help me And they that will begin all their Certainty with that of the Truth of the Scripture as the Principium Cognoscendi may meet me at the same end but they must give me leave to undertake to prove to a Heathen or Infidel the Being of a God and the necessity of Holiness and the certainty of a Reward or Punishment even while he yet denieth the Truth of Scripture and in order to his believing it to be true 6. In my younger years my trouble for Sin was most about my Actual failings in Thought Word or Action except Hardness of Heart of which more anon But now I am much more troubled for â—nward Defects and omission or want of the Vital Duties or Graces in the Soul My daily trouble is so much for my Ignorance of God and weakness of Belief and want of greater love to God and strangeness to him and to the Life to come and for want of a greater willingness to die and longing to be with God in Heaven as that I take not some Immoralities though very great to be in themselves so great and odious Sins if they could be found as separate from these Had I all the Riches of the World how gladly should I give them for a fuller Knowledge Belief and Love of God and Everlasting Glory These wants are the greatest burden of my Life which oft maketh my Life it self a burden And I cannot find any hope of reaching so high in these while I am in the Flesh as I once hoped before this time to have attained which maketh me the wearier of this sinful World which is honoured with so little of the Knowledge of God 7. Heretofore I placed much of my Religion in tenderness of heart and grieving for sin and penitential tears and less of it in the love of God and studying his love and goodness and in his joyful praises than now I do Then I was little sensible of the greatness and excellency of Love and Praise though I coldly spake the same words in its commendations as now I do And now I am less troubled for want of grief and tears though I more value humility and refuse not needful Humiliation But my Conscience now looketh at Love and Delight in God and praising him as the top of all my Religious Duties for which it is that I value and use the rest 8. My Judgment is much more for frequent and serious Meditation on the heavenly Blessedness than it was heretofore in my younger days I then thought that a Sermon of the Attributes of God and the Joys of Heavenâ— were not the most excellent and was wont to say Every body knoweth this that God is great and good and that Heaven is a blessed place I had rather hear how I may attain it And nothing pleased me so well as the Doctrine of Regeneration and the Marks of Sincerity which was because it was suitable to me in that state but now I had rather read hear or meditate on God and Heaven than on any other Subject for I perceive that it is the Object that altereth and elevateth the Mind which will be such as that is which it most frequently feedeth on And that it is not only useful to our comfort to be much in Heaven in our believing thoughts but that is must animate all our other Duties and fortifie us against every Temptation and Sin and that the Love of the end is it that is the poise or spring which setteth every Wheel a going and must put us on to all the means And that a Man is no more a Christian indeed than he is Heavenly 9. I was once wont to meditate most on my own heart and to dwell all at home and look little higher I was still poring either on my Sins or Wants or examining my Sincerity but now though I am greatly convinced of the need of Heart-acquaintance and imployment yet I see more need of a higher work and that I should look often upon Christ and God and Heaven than upon my own Heart At home I can find Distempers to trouble me and some Evidences of my Peace but it is above that I must find matter of Delight and Ioy and Love and Peace it self Therefore I would have one thought at home upon my self and sins and many thought above upon the high and amiable and beatifying Objects 10. Heretofore I knew much less than now and yet was not half so much acquainted with my Ignorance I had a great delight in the daily new Discoveries which I made and of the Light which shined in upon me like a Man that cometh into a Country where he never was before But I little knew either how imperfectly I understood those very Points whose discovery so much delighted me nor how much might be said against them nor how many things I was yet a stranger to But now I find far greater Darkness upon all things and perceive how very little it is that we know in comparision of that which we are ignorant of and and have
and the Rule of his Faith and Life And repenting unfeignedly of his Sins he did resolve through the Grace of God sincerely to obey him both in Holiness to God and Righteousness to Men and in special Love to the Saints and in Communion with them against all the Temptations of the Devil the World and his own Flesh and this to the Death If therefore these things were Believed and Consented to by him and if these things do essentiate our Saving Christianity and so be sufficient to make us all one in Christ why should some different Modes and Forms of Speech wherewith these great Substantials may and do consist obtain of Men to think him Heterodox because he uses not their Terms And why should such Distances and Discords be kept up amongst us whilst we all of us own all the forementioned Articles and are always ready on all sides to renounce whatever Opinions shall appear to overthrow or shake such Articles of Faith and Covenanting Terms with God and Christ And I cannot but believe that all Christians seriously bound for Heaven and that are fixed upon these Truths are nearer each to other in their Judgments than different Modes of Speech seem to represent them Of such great Consequence is true Charity and Candour amongst Christians 3. The Reverend Prelates and the Ministers and Members of the Church of England may possibly distaste his plainness with them and think him too severe upon them But 1. they are no Strangers to his professed and exemplified Moderation Who valued their Worth and Learning more than he did Who more endeavoured to keep up Church Communion with them by Pen Discourse and Practise though not exclusively Who more sharply handled and more throughly wrote against and reprehended total Separation from them than himself And what Dissenter from them ever made fairer and more noble Overtures or more judicious Proposals for a large and lasting Comprehension with them than they knew he did And who more fairly warned them of the dismal Consequences and calamitous Effects of so narrowing the Church of England by the strict Acts procured and executed against so many peaceable Ministers who thereby were silenced imprisoned discouraged and undone And how many Souls and Families were ruin'd and scandaliz'd by their imposed Terms another and that a solemn and great Day will shew e're long 2. Our Author never yet endeavoured to unChurch them nor to eclipse their Worthies nor did he ever charge their great Severities on them all He ever would acknowledge and he might truly do it that they had great and excellent Men and many such amongst them both of their Laiâ—y and Clergy 3. He thought what I am satisfied is true that many of them little knew who and what was behind the Curtain nor what designed nor great Services were doing to France and Rome hereby 4. And his great Sufferings from them may well even as other things abate their Censuring if not prevent too keen Relentments of these Historical Accounts of them 5. And to leave these things out was more than Mr. Baxter would allow me or admit of Pardon one who acts by Order not of Choice 4. That such copious and prolix Discourses should be here inserted about Things fitter for oblivion than to be remembred may seem liable to Exceptions and Distast from some viz. such Discourses as respect the Solemn League and Covenant the Oxford Act c. Things now abandon'd and repealed by Act of Parliament for Liberty of Conscience But 1. those pressing Acts are yet upon Record and so exposed to the view of Men from Age to Age. 2. They represent Dissenters as an intolerable Seed of Men. 3. All Readers will not readily discern what here is said by way of Apology for those of whom such Acts took hold 4. Hereby Dissenters will appear to all succeeding Generations as a People worthy of nothing but National Severities and Restraints Whence 5. their Enemies will be confirmed in their groundless Thoughts and Censures of them 6. This will not lead to that Love and Concord amongst all Protestants which God's Laws and the Publick Interest and Welfare of Church and State require 7. Those things abode so long in force and to such fatal dreadful purpose as that the Effects thereof are felt by many Families and Persons to this day 8. And all this was but to discharge some of no small Figure in their Day from all Obligations to perform what had been solemnly vowed to God Surely such as never took that Covenant could only disclaim all Obligations on themselves to keep it by virtue of any such Vow upon themselves but to discharge those that had taken it from what therein they had vowed to God to do till God himself discharge them or that it be evident from the intrinsick unalterable Evâ—â— of the Matter vowed that no such Vow shall stand is more than I dare undertake to prove at present or to vindicate in the great Day However a Man 's own Latitude of Perswasion cannot as such absolve another nor eo nomine be another's Rule or Law But 9. if these long Discourses be needful pertinent clear and strong as to the state of that Aâ—â—air their length may be born with 10. The Author thought it needful to have this set in the clear open Light to disabule all that had been imposed on by false or partial and defective History in this Matter and to remove or prevent or allay Scandal and Censure for time to come 11. And if such things be also published to make our selves and others still more sensible of what we owe to God and to our most gracious King and his late Soveraign Consort and our then most gracious Queen Mary not to be parallel'd in any History that I know of by any of her Sex for All truly Royal Excellencies and to his Parliaments who have so much obliged us with freeing us from those so uncomfortable Bonds what Fault can be imputed to the Publisher herein Shall Gratitude be thought a Crime though more copious in the Materials of it than may every way consist with the stricter Bounds of Accuracy 12. I am apt to think and not without cogent ground that very many Readers now and hereafter would with the Author have thought me unfaithful to themselves and him had I not transmitted to Posterity what he left and as he left it for their use And I hope therefore that the Reader will not interpret this Publication as the Product of a Recriminating Spirit God himself knows it to be no such Birth Thirdly The Publication 1. The Author wrote it for this End 2. He left it with me to be published after his Death 3. He left it to the Iudgment of another and my self only by a Writing ordered to be given me after his Death as my Directory about the Publication of his other Manuscripts which are many and of moment And if thâ— rest entrusted with me about their being printed one or
through all my Life to be an unvaluable mercy to me For 1. It greatly weakned Temptations 2. It kept me in a great Contempt of the World 3. It taught me highly to esteem of time so that if any of it past away in idleness or unprofitableness it was so long a pain and burden to my mind So that I must say to the Praise of my most wise Conductor that time hath still seemed to me much more precious than Gold or any Earthly Gain and its Minutes have not been despised nor have I been much tempted to any of the Sins which go under the name of Pastime since I understood my Work 4. It made me study and preach things necessary and a little stirred up my sluggish heart to speak to Sinners with some Compassion as a dying Man to dying Men. These with the rest which I mentioned before when I spake of my Infirmities were the Benefits which God afforded me by Affliction I humbly bless his gracious Providence who gave me his Treasure in an Earthen Vessel and trained me up in the School of Affliction and taught me the Cross of Christ so soon that I might be rather Theologus Crucis as Luther speaketh than Theologus Gloriae and a Cross-bearer than a Cross-maker or Imposer § 33. At one time above all the rest being under a new and unusual Distemper which put me upon the present Expectations of my Change and going for Comfort to the Promises as I was used the Tempter strongly assaulted my Faith and would have drawn me towards Infidelity it self Till I was ready to enter into the Ministry all my Troubles had been raised by the hardness of my heart and the doubtings of my own Sincerity but now all these began to vanish and never much returned to this day And instead of these I was now assaulted with more pernicious Temptations especially to question the certain Truth of the Sacred Scriptures and also the Life to come and Immortality of the Soul And these Temptations assaulted me not as they do the Melancholy with horrid vexing Importunity but by pretence of sober Reason they would have drawn me to a setled doubting of Christianity And here I found my own Miscarriage and the great Mercy of God My Miscarriage in that I had so long neglected the well settling of my Foundations while I had bestowed so much time in the Superstructures and the Applicatory part For having taken it for an intolerable Evil once to question the Truth of Scriptures and the Life to come I had either taken it for a Certainty upon Trust or taken up with Common Reasons of it which I had never well considered digested or made mine own Insomuch as when this Temptation came it seemed at first to answer and enervate all the former Reasons of my feeble Faith which made me take the Scriptures for the Word of God and it set before me such Mountains of Difficulty in the Incarnation the Person of Christ his Undertaking and Performance with the Scripture Chronology Histories and Stile c. which had stalled and overwhelmed me if God had not been my strength And here I saw much of the Mercy of God that he let not out these terrible and dangerous Temptations upon me while I was weak and in the infancy of my Faith for then I had never been able to withstand them But Faith is like a Tree whose Top is small while the Root is young and shallow and therefore as then it hath but small rooting so is it not liable to the shaking Winds and Tempests as the big and high-grown Trees are But as the top groweth higher so the root at once grows greater and deeper fixed to cause it to endure its greater Assaults Though formerly I was wont when any such Temptation came to cast it aside as fitter to be abhorred than considered of yet now this would not give me satisfaction but I was fain to dig to the very Foundations and seriously to Examine the Reasons of Christianity and to give a hearing to all that could be said against it that so my Faith might be indeed my own And at last I found that Nil tam certum quamquod ex dublo certum Nothing is so firmly believed as that which hath been sometime doubted of § 34. In the storm of this Temptation I questioned a while whether I were indeed a Christian or an Infidel and whether Faith could consist with such Doubts as I was conscious of For I had read in many Papists and Protestants that Faith had Certainty and was more than an Opinion and that if a Man should live a godly Life from the bare apprehensions of the Probability of the Truth of Scripture and the Life to come it would not save him as being no true Godliness or Faith But my Judgment closed with the Reason of Dr. Iackson's Determination of this Case which supported me much that as in the very Assenting Act of Faith there may be such weakness as may make us cry Lord increase our Faith We believe Lord help our belief so when Faith and Unbelief are in their Conflict it is the Effects which must shew us which of them is victorious And that he that hath so much Faith as will cause him to deny himself take up his Cross and forsake all the Profits Honours and Pleasures of this World for the sake of Christ the Love of God and the hope of Glory hath a saving Faith how weak soever For God cannot condemn the Soul that truly loveth and seeketh him And those that Christ bringeth to persevere in the Love of God he bringeth to Salvation And there were divers Things that in this Assault proved great Assistances to my Faith 1. That the Being and Attributes of God were so clear to me that he was to my Intellect what the Sun is to my Eye by which I see it self and all Things And he seemed mad to me that questioned whether there were a God that any Man should dream that the World was made by a Conflux of Irrational Atoms and Reason came from that which had no Reason or that Man or any Inferiour Being was independent or that all the being Power Wisdom and Goodness which we conversed with had not a Cause which in Being Power Wisdom and Goodness did excel all that which it had caused in the World and had not all that formaliter vel eminenter in it self which it communicated to all the Creatures These and all the Suppositions of the Atheist have ever since been so visibly foolish and shameful to my Apprehension that I scarce find a Capacity in my self of doubting of them and whenever the Tempter hath joyned any thing against these with the rest of his Temptations the rest have been the easier overcome because of the overwhelming cogent Evidences of a Deity which are always before the Eyes of my Soul 2. And it helped me much to discern that this God must needs be related to us as our Owner
our Governour and our Benefactor in that he is related to us as our Creator and that therefore we are related to him as his own his Subjects and his Beneficiaries which as they all proceed by undeniable resultancy from our Creation and Nature so thence do our Duties arise which belong to us in those Relations by as undeniable resultancy and that no shew of Reason can be brought by any Infidel in the World to excuse the Rational Creature from Loving his Maker with all his heart and soul and might and devoting himself and all his Faculties to him from whom he did receive them and making him his ultimate End who is his first Efficient Cause So that Godliness is a Duty so undeniably required in the Law of Nature and so discernable by Reason it self that nothing but unreasonableness can contradict it 3. And then it seemed utterly improbable to me that this God should see us to be Losers by our Love and Duty to him and that our Duty should be made to be our Snare or make us the more miserable by how much the more faithfully we perform it And I saw that the very Possibility or Probability of a Life to come would make it the Duty of a Reasonable Creature to seek it though with the loss of all below 4. And I saw by undeniable Experience a strange Universal Enmity between the Heavenly and the Earthly Mind the Godly and the Wicked as fulfilling the Prediction Gen. 3. 15. The War between the Woman's and the Serpent's Seed being the daily Business of all the World And I saw that the wicked and haters of Godliness are so commonly the greatest and most powerful and numerous as well as cruel that ordinarily there is no living according to the Precepts of Nature and undeniable Reason without being made the Derision and Contempt of Men if we can scape so easily 5. And then I saw that there is no other Religion in the World which can stand in competition with Christianity Heathenism and Mahometanism are kept up by Tyranny and Beastly Ignorance and blush to stand at the Bar of Reason And Judaism is but Christianity in the Egg or Bed And meer Deism which is the most plausible Competitor is so turned out of almost all the whole World as if Nature made its own Confession that without a Mediator it cannot come to God 6. And I perceived that all other Religions leave the People in their worldly sensual and ungodly state even their Zeal and Devotion in them being commonly the Servants of their Fleshly Interest And the Nations where Christianity is not being drowned in Ignorance and Earthly mindedness so as to be the shame of Nature 7. And I saw that Christ did bring up all his serious and sincere Disciples to real Holiness and to Heavenly mindedness and made them new Creatures and set their Hearts and Designs and Hopes upon another Life and brought their Sense into subjection to their Reason and taught them to resign themselves to God and to love him above all the World And it is not like that God will make use of a Deceiver for this real visible Recovery and Reformation of the Nature of Man or that any thing but his own Zeal can imprint his Image 8. And here I saw an admirable suitableness in the Office and Design of Christ to the Ends of God and the Felicity of Man and how excellently these Supernatural Revelations do fall in and take their place in subserviency to Natural Verities and how wonderfully Faith is fitted to bring Men to the Love of God when it is nothing else but the beholding of his amiable attractive Love and Goodness in the Face of Christ and the Promises of Heaven as in a Glass till we see his Glory 9. And I had felt much of the Power of his Word and Spirit on my self doing that which Reason now telleth me must be done And shall I question my Physician when he hath done so much of the Cure and recovered my depraved Soul so much to God 10. And as I saw these Assistances to my Faith so I perceived that whatever the Tempter had to say against it was grounded upon the Advantages which he took from my Ignorance and my Distance from the Times and Places of the Matters of the Sacred History and such like things which every Novice meeteth with in almost all other Sciences at the first and which wise well-studied Men can see through § 35. All these Assistances were at hand before I came to the immediate Evidences of Credibility in the Sacred Oracles themselves And when I set my self to search for those I found more in the Doctrine the Predictions the Miracles antecedent concomitant subsequent than ever I before took notice of which I shall not here so far digress as to set down having partly done it in several Treatises as The Saints Rest Part 2. The Unreasonableness of Infidelity A Saint or a Bruit in my Christian Directory and since more fully in a Treatise called The Reasons of the Christian Religion my Life of Faith c. § 36. From this Assault I was forced to take notice that it is our Belief of the Truth of the Word of God and the Life to come which is the Spring that sets all Grace on work and with which it rises or falls flourishes or decays is actuated or stands still And that there is more of this secret Unbelief at the Root than most of us are aware of and that our love of the World our boldness with Sin our neglect of Duty are caused hence◠I observed easily in my self that if at any time Satan did more than at other times weaken my Belief of Scripture and the Life to come my Zeal in every Religious Duty abated with it and I grew more indifferent in Religion than before I was more inclined to Conformity in those Points which I had taken to be sinful and was ready to think why should I be singular and offend the Bishops and other Superiours and make my self contemptible in the World and expose my self to Censures Scorns and Sufferings and all for such little things as these when the Foundations themselves have so great difficulties as I am unable to overcome But when Faith revived then none of the Parts or Concernments of Religion seemed small and then Man seemed nothing and the World a shadow and God was all In the begining I doubted not of the truth of the Holy Scriptures or of the Life to come because I saw not the Difficulties which might cause doubting After that I saw them and I doubted because I saw not that which should satisfie the mind against them Since that having seen both Difficulties and Evidences though I am not so unmolested as at the first yet is my Faith I hope much stronger and far better able to repel the Temptations of Satan and the Sophisms of Infidels than before But yet is my daily Prayer That God would
increase my Faith and give my Soul a clear fight of the Evidences of his Truth and of himself and of the invisible World § 37. Whilst I was thus employed between outward Labours and inward Trials Satan stirr'd up a little inconsiderable rage of wicked men against me The Town having been formerly eminent for Vanity had yearly a Shew in which they brought forth the painted forms of Giants and such like foolery to walk about the Streets with and though I said nothing against them as being not simply evil yet on every one of those Days of Riot the Rabble of the more vicious sort had still some spleen to vent against me as one part of their Game And once all the ignorant Rout were raging mad against me for preaching the Doctrine of Original Sin to them and telling them that Infants before Regeneration had so much Guilt and Corruption as made them loathsome in the Eyes of God whereupon they vented it abroad in the Country That I preached that God hated or loached Infants so that they railed at me as I passed through the Streets The next Lord's Day I cleared and confirmed it and shewed them that if this were not true their Infants had no need of Christ of Baptism or of Renewing by the Holy Ghost And I askt them whether they durst say that their Children were saved without a Saviour and were no Christians and why they baptized them with much more to that purpose and afterward they were ashamed and as mute as fishes Once one of the drunken Beggers of the Town raised a slander of me That I was under a Tree with a Woman an ill-fam'd Beggar of the Town All the Drunkards had got it in their mouths before I could find out the Original I got three or four of them bound to the Good Behaviour and the Sot himself that raised the Slander confessed before the Court that he saw me in a rainy day on Horseback stand under an Oak which grew in a thick Hedge and the Woman aforesaid standing for shelter on the other side the Hedge under the same Tree and that he believed that we saw not one another but he spake it as a Jest and the Company were glad of the occasion to feed their Malice So they all askt me forgiveness and I desired the Magistrate immediately to release them all There lived at Kinver an ancient prudent Reverend Divine Mr. Iohn Cross who died since Pastor of Matthews Friday-street in London This godly Man had been the chief means of the good which was done in Kidderminster before my coming thither when I came I got him to take every second day in a Weekly Lecture It came to pass once that a Woman defamed him at Kidderminster openly and told the People that he would have ravished her Mr. Cross being a wise Man sent one before to desire the Bailiff and Justice to call her to Examination and he came after and sate in a common dark coloured Coat among many others in the Bailiff's Parlour as if he had been one of the Magistrates The Bailiff called her in and she stood impudently to the Accusation The Bailiff askt her whether she knew the Man if she saw him which she confidently affirmed He askt her Is it this Man or that Man or the other Man or any there And she said O no God forbid that she should accuse any of them Mr. Cross said Am not I the Man and she said No she knew the Man well enough And when they had told her that this was Mr. Cross she fell down on her knees and askt him forgiveness and confest that one of his Neighbours who was his great Accuser at the Bishops Courts had hired her to report it But the Good Man forgave them all § 38. And here I must return to the Proceedings of the Parliament because the rest will not be well understood without connoting the Occasions of them which were administred When the Londoners cried to the House for Iustice and honoured those Members who were for the punishment of Delinquents and dishonoured those that pleased the King a Breach began to be made among themselves And the Lord Digby the Lord Falkland and divers others from that time forward joyned with the King being not so immoveable as many of the rest whom neither hope nor fear nor discontent would alienate from the Cause which they thought well of Yet others were tried with the offer of Preferments The Lord Say was made one of the Privy Council Mr. Oliver St. Iohn was made the King's Sollicitor c. But as this did not alter them so others of them would accept of no Preserment left they should be thought to seek themselves or set their Fidelity to Sale When the Earl of Strafford was Condemned and the King desired to sign the Bill many Bishops were called to give him their Advice and it is commonly reported that Archbishop Usher and divers others told him that he might lawfully concur with the Judgment of his Parliament proceeding according to Law though his own Judgment were that their Sentence was unjust But Dr. Iuxon the Bishop of London advised him to do nothing against his Conscience and others would give no Advice at all When the King had Subscribed and Strafford was beheaded he much repented it even to the last as his Speeches at his Death express And the Judgments of the Members of the Parliament were different about these Proceedings Some thought that the King should not at all be displeased and provoked and that they were not bound to do any other Justice or attempt any other Reformation but what they could procure the King to be willing to And these said When you have displeased and provoked him to the utmost he will be your King still and when you have sate to the longest you must be dissolved at last you have no power over his Person though you have power over Delinquent Subjects And if he protect them by Arms you must either be ruined your selves by his displeasure or be engaged in a War Displeasing him is but exasperating him and would you be ruled by a King that hateth you Princes have great Minds which cannot easily suffer Contradiction and Rebukes The more you offend him the less you can trust him and when mutual Confidence is gone a War is beginning And if it come to a War either you will conquer or be conquered or come to Agreement If you are conquered you and the Common-wealth are ruined and he will be absolute and subdue Parliaments and Govern as he pleaseth If you come to an Agreement it will be either such as you force him to or as he is willing of If the latter it may be easilier and cheaper done before a War than after If the former it will much weaken it And if you Conquer him what the better are you He will still be King You can but force him to an Agreement and how quickly will he have power and
Conversion of their own Children was the chief means to overcome their Prejudice and old Customs and Conceits 19. And God made great use of Sickness to do good to many For though Sick-bed Promises are usually soon forgotten yet was it otherwise with many among us And as soon as they were recovered they first came to our private Meetings and so kept in a learning state till further Fruits of Piety appeared 20. And I found that our disowning of the Iniquity of the Times did tend to the good of many For they despised those that always followed the stronger side and justified every wickedness that was done by the stronger Party Though we had judged the Parliaments War to be lawful and necessary to save themselves and us from the Irish and their Adherents and to punish Delinquents in a Course of Law while we believed that nothing was intended against the King or Laws yet as soon as ever we saw the Case changed and Cromwell's Army enter into a Rebellion against King and Parliament and kill the King and invade the Scots and fight against the King that should have succeeded c. we openly disowned them and on all just occasions exprest our abhorrence of their Hypocrisie Perjury and Rebellion except two or three idle drunken Fellows that thought to live by flattering the Times this was the Sense of all the Town And had I owned the Guilt of others it would have been my shame and the hinderance of my work and provoked God to have disowned me 21. Another of my great Advantages was the true Worth and Unanimity of the honest Ministers of the Country round about us who associated in a way of Concord with us Their Preaching was powerful and sober their Spirits peaceable and meek disowning the Treasons and Iniquities of the times as well as we they were wholly addicted to the winning of Souls self-denying and of most blameless Lives Evil spoken of by no Sober Men but greatly beloved by their own People and all that knew them adhering to no Faction neither Episcopal Presbyterian nor Independent as to Parties but desiring Union and loving that which is good in all These meeting weekly at our Lecture and monthly at our Disputation constrained a Reverence in the People to their Worth and Unity and consequently furthered my Work such were Mr. Andrew Trisham Minister of Bridgnorth Mr. Tho. Baldwin Minister at Chadsley Mr. Tho. Baldwin Minister of Clent Mr. Ioseph Baker Minister in Worcester Mr. Henry Oasland Minister of Bewdley Mr. William Spicer Minister of Stone an old man since dead Mr. Richard Sergeant last Minister of Stone Mr. Wilsby of Womborne Mr. Iohn Reignolds of Wolverhampton Mr. Ioseph Rocke of Rowley Mr. Richard Wolley of Sallwarp Mr. Giles Wolley Mr. Humphrey Waldern of Broome Mr. Edw. Bowchier of Church-hill Mr. Ambrose Sparry of Martley Mr. William Kimberley of Ridmarley Mr. Benj. Baxter of Upton upon Severn Mr. Dowley of Stoke Mr. Stephen Baxter Mr. Tho. Bromwick of Kemsey Mr. I. Nott of Sheriff-hales with many others to whom I may adjoyn Mr. Iohn Spilsbury and Mr. Iuice one of Bromsgrove and the other of Worcester Independants and very honest sober and moderate men who were all of them now silenced and cast out though not one of them all had any hand in the Wars for the Parliament or any Military Employment only Mr. George Hopkins of Evesham was in the Army a worthy faithful Minister also and no other of our Association that I know of besides my self in all the County 22. Another Advantage to me was the quality of the Sinners of the place There were two Drunkards almost at the next Doors to me who one by night and the other by day did constantly every Week if not twice or thrice a Weak roar and rave in the Streets like stark-madmen and when they have been laid in the Stocks or Gaol they have been as bad as soon as ever they came out And these were so beastly and ridiculous that they made that Sin of which we were in most danger the more abhorred 23. Another Advantage to me was the quality of the Apostates of the place If we had been troubled with meer Separatists Anabaptists or others that erred plausibly and tollerably they might perhaps have divided us and drawn away Disciples after them But we had only two Professors that fell off in the Wars and one or two at most that made no Profession of Godliness were drawn in to them They that fell off were such as before by their want of grounded Understanding Humility and Mortification gave us the greatest suspicion of their Stability And they fell to no less than Familism and Infidelity making a jest of the Scripture and the Essentials of Christianity Though they so carefully hid it that we could never possibly have known their Minds but from the Alehouse and Companions with whom they were more free And as they fell from the Faith so they fell to Drinking Gaming furious Passions horribly abusing their Wives and thereby saving them from their Errours and to a vicious Life So that they stood up as Pillars and Monuments of God's Justice to warn all others to take heed of Self-conceitedness and Heresies and of departing from Truth and Christian Unity And so they were a principal means to keep out all Sects and Errours from the Town 24. Another great help to my Success at last was the fore-described Work of Personal Conference with every Family apart and Catechising and Instructing them That which was spoken to them personally and put them sometime upon Answers awakened their Attention and was easilier applyed than publick Preaching and seemed to do much more upon them 25. And the Exercise of Church-Discipline was no small furtherance of the Peoples Good For I found plainly that without it I could not have kept the Religious sort from Separations and Divisions There is something generally in their Dispositions which inclineth them to dissociate from open ungodly Sinners as Men of another Nature and Society and if they had not seen me do something reasonable for a Regular Separation of the notorious obstinate Sinners from the rest they would irregularly have withdrawn themselves and it had not been in my power with bare words to satisfie them when they saw we had liberty to do what we would It was my greatest Care and Contrivance so to order this Work that we might neither make a meer Mock-shew of Discipline nor with Independants un-church the Parish-Church and gather a Church out of them anew Therefore all the Ministers Associate agreed together to practice so much Discipline as the Episcopal Presbyterians and Independants were agreed on that Presbyters might and must do And we told the People that we went not about to gather a new Church but taking the Parish for the Church unless they were unwilling to own their own Membership we resolved to exercise that Discipline with all Only because there are some Papists and Familists or Infidels
among us and because in these times of Liberty we cannot nor desire to compel any against their Wills we desired all that did own their Membership in this Parish Church and take us for their Pastors to give in their Names or any other way signifie that they do so and those that are not willing to be Members and rather choose to withdraw themselves than live under Discipline to be silent And so for very fear of Discipline all the Parish kept off except about Six hundred when there were in all above Sixteen hundred at Age to be Communicants Yet because it was their own doing and they knew they might come in when they would they were quiet in their Separation for we took them for the Separatists For those that scrupled our Gesture at the Sacrament I openly told them that they should have it in their own Yet did I Baptize all their Children but made them first as I would have done by Strangers give me privately or publickly if they had rather an account of their Faith and if any Father were a scandalous Sinner I made him confess his Sin openly with seeming Penitence before I would Baptize his Child If he refused it I forbore till the Mother came to present it for I rarely if ever found both Father and Mother so destitute of Knowledge and Faith as in a Church Sense to be uncapable hereof Of those that refused to come under Discipline some were honest Persons who by their Husbands Parents or Masters were forbidden Many were grosly ignorant many were prophane and scandalous and many were kept off by the Example and Perswasions of some leading Persons who were guided by the higher sort of the Prelatical Divines who though they could say little or nothing against what we did yet their Religion being too much made up of Faction and Personal Interest they disowned our Course as unsuitable to the Interest of their Civil and Ecclesiastical Sidings and Designs About six or seven young Men did joyn with us who were addicted to Tipling and one of them was a weak-headed Fellow who was a common notorious Drunkard We could not refuse them because our business was not to gather a New Church but only to know who owned their own Membership and who would disown it and withdraw themselves But we told him that he was a notorious Drunkard that we must presently admonish him and expect his humble penitent Confession and promise of Amendment or else we must declare him unfit for Church-Communion He lamented his Sin with great aggravation and promised Amendment but quickly returned to it again We admonished him again and again and laboured to bring him to Contrition and Resolution and he would still confess it and still go on I warned him publickly and prayed for him several days in the Church but he went on in his Drunkenness still At last I declared him unfit for the Churches Communion and required them to avoid him accordingly for this was all we did whether you will call it Excommunication or not endeavouring to convince him of his Misery and of the necessity of true Repentance and Reformation If any shall here ask me Why we took this Course and did not take all the Parish for Members without putting the Question to them and what Benefits we found by such a Course of Discipline I answer first to the last Question 1. We performed a plain Command of Christ and we took Obedience to be better than Sacrifice and be our best kind of Worship and the pleasing of God to be the greatest benefit 2. As is said before we kept the Church from irregular Separations which else could never have been done 3. We helpt to Cure that dangerous Disease among the People of imagining that Christianity is but a matter of Opinion and dead Belief and to convince them how much of it consisteth in Holiness and how far it is inconsistent with reigning Sin and so did vindicate the Honour of Christ and the Christian Faith 4. We greatly suppressed the practice of Sin and caused People to walk more watchfully than else they would have done These and many other great Benefits accrewed by it to the Church But if you ask what good the Offenders themselves received by it I shall tell you the truth according to my Experince All sober godly well-minded Persons if they once fell into any scandalous Action as scarce two of them ever did yea the very Civil and Younger sort that were tractable did humbly confess their Sin and walk more watchfully But those that were cast out of our Communion were enraged and made much more Enemies to Godliness than before though we exercised as much Patience and Tenderness towards them as Reason could desire The Drunkard before-mentioned after his Ejection when he was drunk would stand at the Market-place and like a Quaker Cry out against the Town and take on him to prophesie God's Judgments against them and would rage at my Door and rail and curse And once he followed me as I went to Church and laid hands on me in the Church-yard with a purpose to have killed me but it fell out that he had hold only of my Cloak which I unbottoned and left with him and before his Fury could do any more it being the Fair-day there were some Strangers by in the Church-yard who drag'd him to the Magistrate and the Stocks And thus he continued raging against me about a year and then died of a Fever in horrour of Conscience Three or four more we were forced to cast out one for Slandering and all the rest for drunkenness and though their wit and the honesty of their Neighbours and Relations made them live quietly yet their Enmity was much encreased and they themselves so much the worse as convinced the strictest Religious sort that Excommunication is not to be used but upon great Necessity And indeed how can you expect that he who will stand it out to an Excommunication should be bettered by any ordinary means When private Intreaties and vehement Exhortations and Warnings before others and at last before the Church and earnest Prayers for them and all that we could say or do for many Weeks or Months together would not make most of them so much as say We are sorry for our sin nor any of them leave their common Drunkenness how should Excommunication do them good If you say Why then did you use it I answer For the sake of the rest more than for them for all the Reasons before-mentioned and many more which I have laid down in the Preface to my Universal Concord We knew it to be an Ordinance of Christ and greatly conducing to the Honour of the Church which is not a common prophane Society nor a Sty of Swine but must be cleaner than the Societies of Infidels and Heathens And I bless God that ever I made trial of Discipline for my Expectations were not frustrate though the ejected Sinners were hardened The
on it and made it larger and fit for common use This Book pleased Dr. Hammond much and many Rational Persons and some of those for whom it was written But the Women and weaker sort I found could not so well improve clear Reason as they can a few comfortable warm and pretty Sentences it is Style and not Reason which doth most with them And some of the Divines were angry with it for a Passage or two about Perseverance because I had said that many Men are certain of their present Sanctification which are not certain of their Perseverance and Salvation meaning all the Godly that are assured of their Sanctification and yet do not hold the certainty of Preserverance But a great Storm of Jealousie and Censure was by this and some such Words raised against me by many good Men who lay more on their Opinions and Party than they ought Therefore whereas some would have had me to retract it and others to leave it out of the next Impression I did the latter but instead of it I published not long after § 160. 5. My Book called R. B's Iudgment about the Perseverance of Believers In which I shewed them the Variety of Opinions about Perseverance and that Augustine and Prosper themselves did not hold the certain Perseverance of all that are truly sanctified though they held the Perseverance of all the Elect but held that there are more Sanctified than are Elect and that Perseverance is affixed to the Elect as such and not to the Sanctified as such which Bishop Usher averred to Dr. Kendal before my Face to be most certainly Austin's Judgment though both he and I did incline to another From hence and many other Arguments I inferred that the sharp Censures of Men against their Brethren for not holding a Point which Austin himself was against and no one Author can be proved to hold from the Apostles Days till long after Austin doth argue less Judgment and Charity than many of the Censurers seem to have I never heard of any Censure against these Papers though the few Lines which occasioned them had so much § 161. 6. Before this I had published two Assize Sermons entituled True Christianity one of Christ's Dominion and the other of his Sovereignty over all Men as Redeemer The first was preached before Judge Atkins Sir Tho. Rous being high Sheriff The second before Serjeant Glyn who desiring me to print it I thought meet to print the former with it § 162. 7. Also I published my Apology against divers that had printed Books against many things which I had written It consisteth of five parts 1. An Answer to Mr. Blake 2. An Answer to Dr. Kendall 3. A Confutation of Ludiomâ—us Colvinus 4. An Answer to Mr. Crandon 5. An Answer to Mr. Eyres The first Mr. Blake a reverend worthy Man of my acquaintance in a Treatise of the Covenants had written much I thought mistakingly against me and though I replyed without any sharpness it was very displeasing to him Dr. Kendall was little quick Spirited Man of great Ostentation and a Considerable Orator and Scholar He was driven on farther by others than his own Inclination would have led him He thought to get an Advantage for his Reputation by a Triumph over Iohn Goodwin and me for those that set him on work would needs have him conjoin us both together to intimate that I was an Arminian while I was replying to his first Assault he wrote a second and when I had begun a Reply to that meeting me at London he was so earnest to take up the Controversy engaging Mr. Vines to persuade me that Bishop Usher might determine it and I was so willing to be eased of such work and to end any thing which might be made a Temptation against Charity that I quickly yielded to Bishop Ushers Arbitriment who owned my Judgment about Universal Redemption Perseverance c. but desired us to write against each other no more and so my Second Reply was supprest As for Ludiomaeus Colvinus it is Ludovicus Molinaeus a Doctor of Physick and Son to Pet. Molinaeus and publick Professor of History in Oxford He wrote a small Latin Tractate against his own Brother Cyrus Molinaeus to prove that Justification is before Faith I thought I might be bold to conâ—ute him who chose the Truth and his own Brother to oppose Another small Assault the same Author made against me instead of a Reply for approving of Camero and Amiraldus's way about universal Redemption and Grace To which I answered in the Preface to ther Book But these things were so far from alienating the Esteem and Affection of the Doctor that he is now at this Day one of those Friends who are injurious to the Honour of their own Understanding by overvaluing me and would fain have spent his time in translating some of my Books into the French Tongue Mr. Crandon was a Man that had run from Arminianism into the Extream of half Antinomianism and having an excessive Zeal for his Opinions which seem to be honoured by the extolling of Free-grace and withal being an utter stranger to me he got a deep conceit that I was a Papist and in that persuasion wrote a large Book against my Aphorisms which moved laughter in many and pity in others and troubled his Friends as having disadvantaged their Cause As soon as the Book came abroad the news of the Author's death came with it who died a fortnight after its birth I had before hand got all save the beginning and end out of the Press and wrote so much of an Answer as I thought it worthy before the publication of it Mr. Eyres was a Preacher in Salisbury of Mr. Crandon's Opinion who having preached there for Justification before Faith that is the Justification of Elect Infidels was publickly confuted by Mr. Warren and Mr. Woodbridge a very judicious Minister of Newbury who had lived in New-England Mr. Woodbridge printed his Sermon which very perspicuously opened the Doctrine of Justification after the method that I had done Mr. Eyres being offended with me as a Partner gave me some part of his opposition to whom I returned an Answer in the end And a few words to Mr. Caryl who licensed and approved Mr. Crandon's Book for the Antinomians were commonly Independants No one of all the Parties replied to this Book save only Mr. Blake to some part of that which touched him § 162. 8. Because my Aphorisms had so provok'd so many and the noise was very loud against them to make the Passages plainer which ofended them about Justification Sanctification Merit Punishment c. I wrote a Book called The Confession of my Faith about those matters which I gave the World to save any more of them from misunderstanding my Aphorisms and declared my Suspension of my Aphorisms till I should reprint them intending only to correct two or three Passages and elucidate the rest But afterward I greatly affected to bring them into a small
the several Articles which I did in a small Book called Christian Concord In which I gave the reasons why the Episcopal Presbyterians and Independants might and should unite on such Terms without any change of any of their Principles But I confess that the new Episcopal Party that follow Grotius too far and deny the very being of all the Ministers and Churches that have not Diocesan Bishops are not capable of Union with the rest upon such Terms And hereby I gave notice to the Gentry and others of the Royalists in England of the great danger they were in of changing their Ecclesiastical Cause by following new Leaders that were for Grotianism But this Admonition did greatly offend the Guilty who now began to get the Reins though the old Episcopal Protestants confessed it to be all true There is nothing bringeth greater hatred and sufferings on a Man than to foreknow the mischief that Men in power are doing and intend and to warn the World of it For while they are resolutely going on with it they will proclain him a Slanderer that revealeth it and use him accordingly and never be ashamed when they have done it and thereby declared all which he foretold to be true § 170. 15. Having in the Postscript of my True Catholick given a short touch against a bitter Book of Mr. Thomas Pierce's against the Puritans and me it pleased him to write another Volume against Mr. Hickman and me just like the Man full of malignant bitterness against Godly men that were not of his Opinion and breathing out blood-thirsty malice in a very Rhetorical fluent style Abundance of Lies also are in it against the old Puritans as well as against me and in particular in charging Hacket's Villany upon Cartwright as a Confederate which I instance in because I have out of old Mr. Ash's Library a Manuscript of Mr. Cartwright's containing his full Vindication against that Calumny which some would fain have fastened on him in his time But Mr. Pierce's principal business was to defend Grotius In answer to which I wrote a little Treatise called The Grotian Religion discovered at the Invitation of Mr. Thomas Pierce In which I cited his own words especially out of his Discussio Apologetici Rivetaini wherein he openeth his Terms of Reconciliation with Rome viz. That it be acknowledged the Mistress Church and the Pope have his Supream Government but not Arbitrary but only according to the Canons To which end he defendeth the Council of Trent it self Pope Pius's Oath and all the Councils which is no other than the French sort of Popery I had not then heard of the Book written in France called Grotius Papizans nor of Sarravius's Epistles in which he witnesseth it from his own mouth But the very words which I cited contain an open Profession of Popery This Book the Printer abused printing every Section so distant to fill up Paper as if they had been several Chapters And in a Preface before it I vindicated the Synod of Dort where the Divines of England were chief Members from the abusive virulent Accusations of one that called himself Tilenus junior Hereupon Pierce wrote a much more railing malicious Volume than the former the liveliest Express of Satan's Image malignity bloody malice and falshood covered in handsome railing Rhetorick that ever I have seen from any that called himself a Protestant And the Preface was answered just in the same manner by one that stiled himself Philo-Tilenus Three such Men as this Tilenus junior Pierce and Gunning I have not heard of besides in England Of the Jesuites Opinion in Doctrinals and of the old Dominican Complexion the ablest Men that their Party hath in all the Land of great diligence in study and reading of excellent Oratory especially Tilenus junior and Pierce of temperate Lives but all their Parts so sharpened with furious persecuting Zeal against those that dislike Arminianism high Prelacy or full Conformity that they are like the Briars and Thorns which are not to be handled but by a fenced hand and breathe out Tereatnings against God's Servants better than themselves and seem unsatisfied with blood and ruines and still cry Give Give bidding as lowd defiance to Christian Charity as ever Arrius or any Heretick did to Faith This Book of mine of the Grotian Religion greatly offended many others but none of them could speak any Sence against it the Citations for Matter of Fact being unanswerable And it was only the Matter of Fact which I undertook viz. To prove that Grotius profest himself a moderate Papist But for his fault in so doing I little medled with it § 171. 16. Mr. Blake having replye to some things in my Apology especially about Right to Sacraments or the just subject of Baptism and the Lord's Supper I wrote five Disputations on those Points proving that it is not the reality of a Dogmatical or Justifying Faith nor yet the Profession of bare Assent called a Dogmatical Faith by many but only the Profession of a Saving Faith which is the Condition of Mens title to Church-Communion Coram Ecclèsiâ and that Hypocrites are but Analogically or Equivocally called Christians and Believers and Saints c. with much more to decide the most troublesome Controversie of that Time which was about the Necessary Qualification and Title of Church-Members and Communicants Many men have been perplexed about that Point and that Book Some think it cometh too near the Independants and some that it is too far from them and many think it very hard that A Credible Profession of True Faith and Repentance should be made the stated Qualification because they think it incredible that all the Jewish Members were such But I have sifted this Point more exactly and diligently in my thoughts than almost any Controversie whatsoever And fain I would have found some other Qualification to take up with 1. Either the Profession of some lower Faith than that which hath the Promise of Salvation 2. Or at least such a Profession of Saving Faith as needeth not to be credible at all c. But the Evidence of Truth hath forced me from all other ways and suffered me to rest no where but here That Profession should be made necessary without any respect at all to Credibility and consequently to the verity of the Faith professed is incredible and a Contradiction and the very word Profession signifieth more And I was forced to observe that those that in Charity would belive another Profession to be the title to Church-Communion do greatly cross their own design of Charity And while they would not be bound to believe men to be what they profess for fear of excluding many whom they cannot believe they do leave themselves and all others as not obliged to love any Church-Member as such with the love which is due to a True Christian but only with such a Love as they owe to the Members of the Devil and so deny them the Kernel of Charity by giving
Assurgency to the attempting of difficult thing and so my Mind may retire to the Root of Christian Principles and also I have often been afraid lest ill-rooting at first and many Temptations afterwards have made it more necessary for me than many others to retire to the Root and secure my Fundamentals But upon much Observation I am afraid lest most others are in no better a Case and that at the first they take it for a granted thing that Christ is the Saviour of the World and that the Soul is Immortal and that there is a Heaven and a Hell c. while they are studying abundance of a Scholastick Superstructures and at last will find cause to study more soundly their Religion it self as well as I have done The better Causes are these 1. I value all things according to their Use and Ends and I find in the daily Practice and Experience of my Soul that the Knowledge of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Truth of Scripture and the Life to come and of a Holy Life is of more use to me than all the most curious Speculations 2. I know that every Man must grow as Trees do downwards and upwards both at once and that the Roots increase as the Bulk and Branches do 3. Being nearer Death and another World I am the more regardful of those things which my Everlasting Life or Death depend on 4. Having most to do with ignorant miserable People I am commanded by my Charity and Reason to treat with them of that which their Salvation lyeth on and not to dispute with them of Formalities and Neceties when the Question is presently to be determined whether they shall dwell for ever in Heaven or in Hell In a Word my Meditations must be most upon the matters of my Practice and my Interest And as the Love of God and the seeking of Everlasting Life is the Matter of my Practice and my Interest so must it be of my Meditation That is the best Doctrine and Study which maketh men better and tendeth to make them happy I abhor the Folly of those unlearned Persons who revile or despise Learning because they know not what it is And I take not any piece of true Learning to be useless And yet my Soul approveth of the Resolution of Holy Paul who determined to know nothing among his Hearers that is comparatively to value and make Oftentation of no other Wisdom but that Knowledge of a Cruchfied Christ to know God in Christ is Life Eternal As the Stock of the Tree affordeth Timber to build Houses and Cities when the small though higher multiâ—arious Branches are but to make a Crowns Nest or a Blaze So the Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ of Heaven and Holyness doth build up the Soul to endless Blessedness and affordeth it solid Peace and Comfort when a multitude of Schoolâ—Niceties serve but for vain Janglings and hurtful Diversions and Contentions And yet I would not dissuade my Reader from the perusal of Aquinas Scotus Ockam Arminiensis Durandus or any such Writer for much Good may be gotten from them But I would persuade him to study and live upon the essential Doctrines of Christianity and Godliness incomparably above them all And that he may know that my Testimony is somewhat regardable I presume to say that in this I as much gainsay my natural Inclination to Subtilty and Accurateness in Knowing as he is like to do by his if he obey my Counsel And I think if he lived among Infidels and Enemies of Christ he would find that to make good the Doctrine of Faith and of Life Eternal were not only his noblest and most useful Study but also that which would require the height of all his Parts and the utmost of his Diligence to manage it skilfully to the Satisfaction of himself and others 4. I add therefore that this is Another thing which I am changed in that whereas in my younger Days I never was tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture or Christianity but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ and this was it which I called Unbelief since then my soreft Assaults have been on the other side and such they were that had I been void of internal Experience and the Adhesion of Love and the special help of God and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion than I did when I was younger I had certainly Apostatized to Infidelity though for Atheism or Ungodliness my Reason seeth no stronger Arguments than may be brought to prove that there is no Earth or Air or Sun I am now therefore much more Apprehensive than heretofore of the Necessity of well grounding Men in their Religion and especially of the Witness of the indwelling Spirit For I more sensibly perceive that the Spirit is the great Witness of Christ and Christianity to the World And though the Folly of Fanaticks tempted me long to over-look the Strength of this Testimony of the Spirit while they placed it in a certain internal Assertion or enthusiastick Inspiration yet now I see that the Holy Ghost in another manner is the Witness of Christ and his Agent in the World The Spirit in the Prophets was his first Witness and the Spirit by Miracles was the second and the Spirit by Renovation Sanctification Illumination and Consolation assimilating the Soul to Christ and Heaven is the continued Witness to all true Believers And if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Even as the Rational Soul in the Child is the inherent Witness or Evidence that he is the Child of Rational Parents And therefore ungodly Persons have a great disadvantage in their resisting Temptations to unbelief and it is no wonder if Christ be a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Gentiles foolishness There is many a one that hideth his Temptations to Infidelity because he thinketh it a shame to open them and because it may generate doubts in others but I doubt the imperfection of most mens care of their Salvation and of their diligence and resolution in a holy Life doth come from the imperfection of their belief of Christianity and the Life to come For my part I must profess that when my belief of things Eternal and of the Scripture is most clear and firm all goeth accordingly in my Soul and all Temptations to sinful Compliances Worldliness or Flesh-pleasing do signifie worse to me than an invitation to the Stocks or Bedlam And no Petition seemeth more necessary to me than Lord increase our Faith I Believe help thou my unbelief 5. Among Truths certain in themselves all are not equally certain unto me and even of the Mysteries of the Gospel I must needs say with Mr. Richard Hooker Eccl. Polit. that whatever men may pretend the subjective Certainty cannot go beyond the objective Evidence for it is caused thereby as the print
the more Christian and Orderly managing of this our Brotherly Agreement and Association we do agree First That every Man at his entering into this Society tender us a Certificate of his Painfulness in the Ministry and of his Godliness in Conversation under the Hands of two godly Ministers at least not of the Society and of two or three godly Christians known to some of the Society And that all the Certificates be brought into and kept in the Hands of one of the Brethren that by common Consent shall be appointed thereunto Secondly That every Man that cometh into this Society and Agreement be desired to express his willingness in case of any Miscarriage whereby he shall give just occasion of Offence unto the Society to submit unto the Reproof and Determination of the whole or the major part of the Society so farforth as their Reproof and Determination shall be warranted by the Scripture Thirdly That our Meetings be constantly begun and ended with Prayer to be made by the Moderator pro tempore who at the first Meeting is to be chosen for the Meeting next following and so continually for the better ordering of our Meetings and Debates Fourthly That no private Matters be propounded in our General Meetings but by the Moderator and that not while any Publick Business is in debate without the leave and consent of the whole Society or the major part Fifthly That any Brother that shall be willing to joyn hereafter into this Society may upon the same Terms be freely accepted into this Brotherly Agreement The Independant Churches also in Ireland led by Dr. Winter Pastor of their Church in Dublin associated with the moderate Presbyterians there upon these Provocations and the Perswasions of Col. Iohn Bridges my Neighbour And they sent us together their Desires of Correspondency with which our Answer is here subjoyned Honoured and Beloved Brethren in the Lord IT hath pleased the good hand of Heaven to bring into our Parts our much esteemed Friend Coll. Bridges in much Mercy to us all and by him as also by several other hands to give us some acquaintance with the State of Christ's Affairs among you which very much obliges us to Sympathise with you according to the several Administrations of Providence as becomes the Relation of Fellow-members and Subjects in Christ's Kingdom His Return into your Parts affords us an Opportunity to signify the same and how much we desire to manifest it by real Demonstrations through the good Will of him that dwelt in the Bush. In order thereunto we thought fit to testify our Willingness to contribute our utmost through his Assistance to the maintaining of a Christian Correspondency between us that we may mutually receive and give the Right Hand of Fellowship in a Season of so much need Whilst the common Enemy is still labouring to divide and destroy the Friends of Christ in all parts it concerns us nearly to be so much the more industrious and active in the promoting of Christ's Interest against his Power and Policy the bitter Fruits of unchristian Divisions we have too much tasted of and through the Lord's Goodness have reaped already some Benefit from our brotherly Association whereinto we entered not long ago The present Condition of God's People in Foreign Parts as among us calls a loud for a more cordial Union and Communion among all such who desire to fear his Name It 's therefore our Hearts Desire not to be wanting in our Faith and Prayers Resolves and Endeavours to the fulfilling of those exceeding great and precious Truths do eminently centre in these latter Days that Christ's Friends may receive one Mind and Heart to serve him with one Lip and Shoulder We are thereby much encouraged to request your Christian Assistance and Brotherly Correspondency that we may all be the better able in our several Stations and Relations to promote more vigorously the Interest of Christ and of his People After the sad shakings of this Land and his many turnings of things upside down the Lord is pleased to promise us a little Reviving and to open a Door of Hope even in the Valley of Achor Your favourable help is therefore earnestly craved that Ireland may once more partake of the glad Tidings of Heaven and the wants of many Thousand starving Souls may be seasonably supply'd with the Bread of Life The particular of our Affairs Coll. Bridges will give you a more exact Account of and will be ready to convey to us the Signification of your Christian Compliance with our longing Desire To the Blessing of the most High we humbly recommend the care of the several Nurseries of Christ among you that the Plants of his House may flourish in his Courts through the Supplies of Christ's Spirit in whom we cordially desire to be and appear Your affectionate Brethren in the Bonds of the Gospel to serve you through Grace Sam. Winter Pastor of the Church in Dublin Claudius Gilbert Pastor of the Church at Limerick Ed. Reynolds M. J. Warren M. Will. Markham Tho. Osmonton M. In the Name of the associated Churches of Christ in Ireland Dublin 5. M. 8. D. 1655. Iuly 5. These for the Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter Pastor of the Church of Christ in Kiderminster to be by him communicated to the several Churches of that Association Our Answer whereto was as follows Much honoured and beloved Brethren in the Lord WE received your welcome Lines from the Hand of our faithful and much honoured Friend Coll. John Bridges It much rejoiceth us to hear of your brotherly Affeciation and the Success and more that your Hearts are enlarged with such Desires for the farther promoting of this healing Work and that you thus breath after the Union of the Saints It doth not only rejoice us on your own behalf and on the behalf of that desolate Land where you abide but also on the behalf of the Churches in general because we seem to discern the gracious Thoughts of God unto his People in sounding a Retreat to their unbrotherly Contentions by sending forth that Spirit of Love and Peace which we know must build us up if ever we are built When God was pulling down and laying Waste be witheld this Mercy and let out upon his Churches a Spirit of Contention Bitterness and Division which hath gone on to demolish and break in pieces and made our own Hands the Executioners of those heavy Iudgments which have laid us so long in Shame and Sorrow and filled our Enemies Mouths with Scorn While this evil Spirit that made desolate did prevail Division seemed aimable and dividing Principles seemed glorious Truths and all Motions to Reconciliations were unsavory things and rejected as a Defection from Truth or Zeal and as a carnal Compliance with the ways of Darkness and even those that were zealous for Truth and Holiness were too many of them cold for Peace and Unity reading those Scriptures which so earnestly press them as if they read them not never
observing or laying to Heart the strict Commands of the Lord herein as if there had been no such Passages in our Bibles But blessed be the Lord that beginneth mightily to awaken the Hearts of his Servants and cause them to observe the Truths which they overlook'd and at last to lay to heart the Duty so much neglected We now hear from many Countries of this Nation the Voice of the Spirit of Peace our Brethren begin to get together and consult of the means of reparing our Breaches and in many Places are associated and though the Work be but beginning and mightily resisted by the Enemies of Holyness and Peace yet are we in great Hopes that these Beginnings do promise more and that God hath not awakened us to this Work in vain And now by the Tidings of your Concord we have received an increase of these our Hopes and Consolations Go on dear Brethren as One in the Centre of Unity and prevail in the Strength of the great Reconciler This is the way that will prevail at last and however it be thought of by others will certainly be comfortable to ourselves in the review when dividing ways will be all disgraced and look with another Face than now they do He that is for Vanity and Love is likest to have his Approbation who is one and who is Love Our Hearts are with you and our Prayers shall be for you that you may abundantly reap the Fruits of Concord in the Conviction of Gain-sayers and the farther Confirmation and Edification of your own Your Motion for a Correspondency we gladly entertain and shall rejoice in the Assistance of your Advice and Prayers and willingly to that end communicate our Affairs We are now upon a joint Agreement to bring all the ancient Persons in our Parishes who will not do it in the Congregation to our Houses on certain Days every Week by turns to be catechised or instructed as shall be most to their Edification A Work that requireth so much unwearied Diligence Self-denial and holy Skill and wherein we are like to meet with so much Resistance and yet doth appear to us of great necessity and use that we earnestly crave your Prayers for such Qualifications and Successes The State of your Affairs we partly understand by the Information of Coll. Bridges We heartily pray the Lord of the Harvest to send forth more Labourers among you and could we contribute any thing to so good a Work we should willingly do it But able Ministers fit for the Work with you are too few and many of them so weak of Body that they are unfit for Travel and most of them so engaged to their Godly People and the People so impatient of a Motion for their remove that the Work will be very hard but we hope to be faithful in our Endeavours whatever be the Success Brethren we crave your Prayers to God that we may be faithful and Successful in his Work as also that Brotherly Correspondency which you motion might abide and we remain Your Brethren in the Faith of Christ Rich. Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kiderminster Jarvis Bryan Teacher of the Church at Old Swinford Henry Oasland Teacher of the Church at Bewdeley Andr. Tristram Teacher of the Church at Clent Tho. Baldwin Minister at Wolverly In the Name of the associated Ministers meeting at Kiderminster August 12. 1655. To the Reverend our much honoured Brother Dr. Winter Pastor of the Church at Dublin to be communicated by him to the associated Churches in Ireland These They wrote us also a Second Letter which I here subjoin Reverend and much valued Brethren YOUR Affectionate Letter in Answer to ours by that Honourable Person we have received and do desire that these Lines may testify our Thankfulness to you for your loving and free Acceptation of our Desires of a Brotherly Correspondency Those Pantings of yours for the Peace and Union of the Saints we doubt not will be to your Comfort at the great Day of your Account God is not unjust to forget your Work and Labour of Love Go on therefore dear Brethren in his Strength whose work it is and of whose Power and Presence you have had so great Experience We trust as our Hearts are with you so our Prayers shall not be wanting for you at the Throne of Grace We thank you for your Ioy at our Association and Success and that we still breath after that happy Work Surely if after our long Experiences of those woful Desolations that Divisions and Dissentions have involved the Saints in our Hearts should not be enlarged after Union and Peace that must repair our Breaches we should have Cause to suspect our Union with and Love to our Head We are not ignorant how much the Self-love and Pride of some and the misguided Zeal of others of approved Sincerity have advanced the Design of the grand Enemy by over eager and unbrotherly Bitterness even in matters circumstantial Neither are we altogether ignorant how subtilly that old Serpent and Deceiver hath laboured by a pretext of Love to swallow up Truth it being for a while the only Cry Love Love yet not the least hint of Truth which had most need of their Charity being miserably torn and mangled To which our Charity leads us to attribute the Praise of many of our Brethren as being unwilling to buy Love with the Loss of Truth It is the Apostles Advice that the Truth should be spoken in Love and that we should contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints But Thanks be to the Lord God of Truth that hath preserved his Darling from the Devourer making the way of Love exceeding aimable because of Truth so that we trust it will not lie untrodden by the Lord's People through circumstantial Differences whilst all hold the Form of wholesom Words considering one another and walking together in what they are agreed and waiting upon the Lord for the revealing of that wherein they differ perfection being reserved for another World That there are any Beginnings and that by you we hear of more we earnestly desire our Hearts may be duly and thankfully affected therewith praying the God of truth and Peace to uphold his Truth and to shower down plentifully the Spirit of Love and Peace that at the Lord is One so his People may be One. Your present Work we are in some measure sensible of its Necessity and Weightiness Wherefore our Prayers shall be for you that the Lord whose Servants ye are and whose work it is would be with you to counsel encourage strengthen and prosper you in it as we crave your daily Prayers for these Infant Churches that our God may vouchsafe his Spirit and Presence to us whose lot is cast in this Wilderness having many Enemies to conflict withal from within as well as without your Advice and brotherly Assistance we request as we shall have Occasion and Opportunity to communicate our Affairs to you Lastly the deep
is a Peace of Actual Communion in the Worship of God as Members of the same particular Church Thus we owe not to every Christian though sincere in the main 3. There is a Peace which is among the Members of all particular Political Churches in the World as related to each other and obliged to hold Communion as far as is necessary for the Common Good 4. There is a Peace which is common to all professed Christians Members of the Universal Church though perhaps of no particular Political Church 5. There is a Peace to be kept with sober Heathens or Infidels 6. And there is a Peace to be kept with Enemies both of us and the Gospel as far as we can I shall give you my Thoughts about the present Question in these following Propositions Premising that 1. It is not the Peace of bosom Friendship that the Question intendeth and Ergo we need not stand on that 2. Nor is it the Peace that is due to Enemies or that is due to Infidels and those without but it is the other sorts due to the several sorts of Christians Prop. 1. We may not have that Peace which is proper to Christians much less that which is proper to Christians in Church-Order with any that deny the Essentials of Christianity Prop. 2. As for those Anabaptists that in zeal for their Opinion do endeavour the Extirpation of the Ministry or of those of them that are against their Opinions or any other way do attempt that which would tend to the ruine or great damage of the Church we may not have that Peace and Communion with them as with inâ—ffensive Brethren but must admonish them as scandalous and gross Sinners and avoid them if after due admonition they desist not and repent not Prop. 3. Those that deny the Divine Institution or present Existence of Ministry or Worship and Ordinances or governed Churches are uncapable of being Members of any true Political Church and Ergo we cannot have such Church-Communion with them and because their Doctrine is of heinous Consequence as tending to the destruction of all Church-Order Worship and Communion we must reject them if they shall teach it after due Admonition Prop. 4. As for them that think it unlawful to have Communion with us unless we will renounce our Infant Baptism and be rebaptized we cannot have Communion with them in that Case though we would because they refuse it with us Prop. 5. We cannot lawfully disown the Truth of God nor own their Errours for Communion with them nor may we yield for any such Ends to be rebaptized Prop. 6. We may not lawfully be Members of a Church of Anabaptists separated on that Account from others nor of any other unlawfully separated Church nor ordinarily Communicate with them in their way of Separation though we might be admitted to it without any other disowning the Truth or owning their Mistakes Except it were in a case of Necessity as if such a Church were removed among Infidels or gross Hereticks where we could have no better Communion in worshipping God Prop. 7. If any one that Erreth but in the bare Point of Infant Baptism or other Errours that subvert not the Christian Faith shall yet take it to be his duty to propagate those Errours it will be the duty of every Orthodox Minister when he hath a Call and findeth it Necessary to defend the Truth of such Errours and to endeavour the establishing of the Minds of the People and not to let them go on without Controll or Contradiction lest he be guilty of betraying the Truth and Peace of the Church and the Souls of the People who are usually sorely endangered hereby The like must be done by Private Christians privately or according to their Places and Capacities So much for the Negative The Affirmatives follow Prop. 1. The Common Love which is due to all Men and the Common Peace which must be endeavoured with all must be held or endeavoured as to them that deny the Essentials of Christianity But as is before said this is not it that the Question doth intend Prop. 2. It is our Duty to do the best we can to reclaim any Erroneous or Ungodly Person from his Errour or Impiety that so they may be capable of that further Love and Peace and Communion with us which in their present state they are uncapable of Prop. 3. Those that believe not some Points that are necessary to the Constitution or Communion of Political Churches if yet they believe in Christ and worship God so far as they know his Will and live uprightly may be true Christians and so to be esteemed even when they make themselves uncapable of being Members of any Political Church Prop. 4. Some Anabaptists and others that make themselves uncapable of being Members of the same particular Churches with us or of local Communion in God's Worship may yet be acknowledged to be Christian Societies or truly particular Political Churches though in tantum corrupt and sinfully separated I mean this of all those that differ not from us in any Article of our Creed or Fundamental of Christian Religion nor yet in any Fundamental of Church Policy As e. g. those that only re-baptize and deny Infant Baptism or also hold some of the less dangerous Points of 〈◊〉 or Pâ—lagianism but withal hold all the Fundamentals necessary to Salvation and Church Policy or Communion Prop. 5. If any Person disclaim his Infant Baptism and be Re-baptized and then having so satisfied his Conscience shall continue his Communion with the Church where he was a Member and not separate from them and shall profess his willingness to embrace the Truth at soon as he can discern the Evidence of 〈◊〉 and shall live 〈◊〉 and inoffensively under the Oversight of the Church-Guides 〈◊〉 may not Exclude such a one from 〈◊〉 Communion but must continue him a Member of that particular Church and live with him in that love and peace as is due to such Prop. 6. If such an one should also mistake it to be his Duty publickly to enter his Dissent to the Doctrine of Infant Baptism and so to acquiesce and live quietly under the oversight of the Ministry and in the Communion of that Church he ought not to be rejected Prop. 7. It is our Duty to invite those called Anabaptists now among us to loving familiar Conferences of purpose 1. To narrow our Differences as far as is possible by a true stating of them that they seem not greater than they are 2. And to endeavour if possible yet to come nearer by rectifying of Mistakes 3. And to consult how to improve the Principles that we are all agreed in to the Common Good and to manage our remaining Differences in the most peaceable manner and to the least disturbance or hurt of the Church Here come in two more Questions to be resolved 1. How should such an Attempt be managed 2. What hope is there of Success For the first I shall
set all in joint again by Violence and secure the Peace of Church and State And neither Pope Prelate nor Council should take this Work upon them which is his And therefore Magistrates should be Wise and Holy and fit for so great a Charge as they undertake It must be still noted that all this was when Diocesanes were put down and few saw any probability of restoring them and many religions Persons dreaded such a Restoration § 50. When Cromwell's Faction were making him Protector they drew up a Thing which they called The Government of England c. Therein they determined that all should have Liberty or free Exercise of their Religion who professed Faith in God by Iesus Christ After this he called a Parliament which Examined this Instrument of Government and when they came to those words the Orthodox Party affirmed That if they spake de re and not de nomine Faith in God by Iesus Christ could contain no less than the Fundamentals of Religion whereupon it was purposed that all should have a due measure of Liberty who professed the Fundamentals Hereupon the Committee appointed to that Business were required to nominate certain Divines to draw up in terminis the Fundamentals of Religion to be as a Test in this Toleration The Committee being about Fourteen named every one his Man The Lord Broghill after Earl of Orery and Lord President of Munster and one of his Majesty's Privy Council named the Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher When he because of his Age and Unwillingness to wrangle with such Men as were to join with him had refused the Service the Lord Broghill nominated me in his Stead Whereupon I was sent for up to London But before I came the rest had begun their Work and drawn up some few of the Propositions which they called Fundamentals The Men that I found there were Mr. Marshal Mr. Reyner Dr. Cheynell Dr. Goodwin Dr. Owen Mr. Nye Mr. Sydraâ—â— Sympson Mr. Vines Mr. Manton and Mr. Iacomb § 51. I knew how ticklish a Business the Enumeration of Fundamentals was and of what very ill Consequence it would be if it were ill done and how unsatisfactorily that Question What are your Fundamentals is usually answered to the Papists My own Judgment was this that we must distinguish between the Sense or matter and the Words and that it 's only the Sense that is primarily and properly our Fundamentals and the Words no further than as they are needful to express that Sence to others or represent it to our own Conception that the Word Fundamentals being Metaphorical and Ambiguous the Word Essentials is much fitter it being nothing but what is Essential or Constitutive of true Religion which is understood by us usually when we speak of Fundamentals that quoad rem there is no more Essential or Fundamental in Religion but what is contained in our Baptismal Covenant I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and give up my self in Covenant to him renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil He that doth this truly shall be saved or else sincere Covenanting could not entitle us to the Blessings of the Covenant And therefore it is that the Ancient Church held that all that are Baptized duly are in a Justified State of Life because all that sincerely give up themselves in Covenant to God as our God and Father our Redeemer and Saviour our Sanctifier and Comforter have right to the Blessings of the Covenant And quoad verba I suppose that no particular Words in the World are Essentials of our Religion Otherwise no Man could be saved without the Language which those Words belong to He that understandeth not Credo in Deum may be saved if he believe in God Also I suppose that no particular Formula of Words in any or all Languages is Essential to our Religion for he that expresseth his Faith in another form of words of the same importance professeth a Saving Faith And as to the Use of a Form of Words to express our Belief of the Essential it is various and therefore the Form accordingly is variable If it be to teach another what is the Essence of Religion a dull hearer must have many Words when a quick intelligent Person by few Words can understand the same thing I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost expresseth all the Essentials intelligibly to him that hath learned truly to understand the meaning of these Words But to an ignorant Man a large plain Catechism is short enough to express the same things But as to the Use of Publick Professions of Faith to satisfie the Church for the Admittance of Members or to satisfie other Churches to hold Communion with any particular Church a Form of Words which is neither obscure by too much Conciseness not Tedious or Tautological by a needless Multiplication of Words I take to be the fittest To which ends and because the Ancient Churches had once a happy Union on those Terms I think that this is all that should be required of any Church or Member ordinarily to be professed In General I do believe all that is contained in the Sacred Canonical Scriptures and particularly I believe all explicitly contained in the Ancient Creed and I desire all that is contained in the Lord's Prayer and I resolve upon Obedience to the Ten Commandments and whatever selfe I can learn of the Will of God And for all other Points it is enough to preserve both Truth and Peace that Men promise not to preach against them or contradict them though they Subscribe them not § 52. Therefore I would have had the Brethren to have offered the Parliament the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue alone as our Essentials or Fundamentals which at least contain all that is necessary to Salvation and hath been by all the Ancient Churches taken for the Sum of their Religion And whereas they still said A Socinian or a Papist will Subscribe all this I answered them So much the better and so much the fitter it is to be the Matter of our Concord But if you are afraid of Communion with Papists and Socinians it must not be avoided by making a new Rule or Test of Faith which they will not Subscribe to or by forcing others to Subscribe to more than they can do but by calling them to account whenever in Preaching or Writing they contradict or abuse the Truth to which they have Subscribed This is the Work of Government And we must not think to make Laws serve instead of Iudgement and Execution nor must we make new Laws as oft as Hereticks will mis-interpret and subscribe the old for when you have put in all the Words you can devise some Hereticks will put their own Sence on them and Subscribe them And we must not blame God for not making a Law that no Man can misinterpret or break and think to make such a one ourselves because God could not or would not These Presumptions and
call it self and such Men Holy Dare you read what I have written of their Holiness in my Key chap. 34. Detection 25. or procure them to answer that and the rest there 2. Are all that are Holy the Rule or Rulers to all others when you have conversed among the Papists one seven Years if Delusion leave you Reason and impartiality you will be more capable of comparing them with your own Parents and such as you lived amongst here and judging which were the more holy 3. As Catholick signifieth a Member of the Church Catholick or such is hold the Catholick Faith so other Churches are much more such than Rome As it signifieth the universal Church Rome is none such The same I say of Apostolick Those that are most exactly of the Apostolick Faith are to be called Apostolick but Woe to us if we were in that no better than Rome 14. You may see now what pitiful Grounds you have for flying into a Pest-house as a City of Refuge or for 〈◊〉 all the cleanest Rooms in the House of God and 〈◊〉 your self to that Room that hath the most leprous infected Persons in it as if it were the only Church of God And for Novelties O that the whole Case 〈◊〉 there be tried and let that Church that hath introduced most Novelties in Faith and Discipline and Worship be most rejected as unclean Were you impartial the several 〈◊〉 of our Religion might put that part of the Controversy 〈…〉 you For our Rule of Religion is only the Holy Scripture if you shew 〈◊〉 that we misunder stand it we shall renounce that misunderstanding but to misunderstand Scripture is to make a new Rule no more than to understand your Councils And you know the Scripture is no Novelty but the Eldest Your Rule is Councils and Papal Decrees which are new contradictory and endless and you never know when you have all and when your Faith is at its maturity and no more to be added under pretence of Determinations If you dare read my 24th 25th and 35th Decection in my Key you may see quickly who are the Novelties One chief Reason of my abhorring Popery is that I am absolutely certain of its Novelty Madam I must take the freedom to say That when your Priests dare neither Dispute in your hearing upon all the provoking offers that I made not yet will answer the Books that I have written nor yet give you leave to read them they have imprisoned your Soul in the partiality of a Sect and while you are so unfaithful to your self if you be miserable because you would not make use of the Remedy and deluded because you are resolved or obliged from coming into the Light your Friends will have an easier account to make for you before God than your self as having discharged their Duty when you wilfully refuse yours What you read formerly against Popery before you doubted or heard their Fallacies was as nothing I suppose for I do not think you observed or remember the stress of the Argumentation which you read We will have leave to pray for you though we cannot have leave to instruct you and God may hear us when you will not which I have the more hopes of because of the Piety of your Parents and the Prayers and Tears of a tender Mother poured out for you and your own well-meaning pious disposition I have known some such Piety bred among us carried by mistake into their Church but little initially bred there Though they pretend that Persons of Charity and the Spirit of God with us must go to them to receive it I would I knew whether you can say by true Experience I felt no true Love of God in my Soul before but as soon as I turned Papist I did and have now the Spirit of God and his Image which before I never had Sure the Change of an Opinion about your Pope and Church is one thing and the Renewing Grace and Love of God and Heavenly mindedness is another I fear not your Prayers bringing your Delusions and Idolatry in your Mother's Chamber as to her self while she walks uptightly with God Nothing that I find in your Manual or the Mass-Book will ever have that power For the Liberty of your Religion which you say you hope for on the Grounds of the King's Declaration I have no more to say but 1. That I never loved Cruelty in any and it hath increased my version to Popery that I still observed that lying and uncharitable cruelty have been the two Hands by which it makes such a bustle in the World 2. And that i◠Italy Spain and Austria Bavaria c. would grant Liberty to Protestants we should see more Equality in the Expectations of it here but if you get Dominion as well as Liberty it will be no Evidence of the Truth and Goodness of your Cause Our God our Rule our Hope our End and Portion are the same in the Inquisition Prison and Flames as in Prosperity We have a Kingdom that cannot be moved and Treasure that none can rob us of It is for that and not for Worldly Prosperity that we renounce all Sensuality Heresie Superstition Idolatry Tyranny and false Worship and desire in Pure and Spiritual Worship with Faith and Patience to wait for the Coming and Righteous Judgment of the Lord. Who with the Spirit of his Mouth and the brightness of his Coming will destroy that wicked One the Son of Perdition 2 Thess. 2. Madam I rest your Servant for and in the Truth of Christ Rich. Baxter London Ian. 29. 1660. Since the Writing of this I am informed that Mr. Iohnson is the Person that you would have had to Dispute for you and that did now and formerly Dispute with Dr. Gunning If so I like your Condition or Religion never the better for your denying it◠when you confessed he feared not any injury from me Our Religion is more a Friend to Truth For the honourable Lady Anne Lindsey at Calice This. § 87. When the King was received with the General Acclamation of his People the Expectations of Men were various according to their several Interests and Inducements Some plain and moderate Episcopal Men thought of Reconciliation and Union with the said Presbyterians yea and a Reward to the Presbyterians for bringing in the King The more Politick Men of the Diocesan way understood that upon the King's Return all the Laws that had been made in Nineteen Years viz. since his Father's departing from the Parliament were void and so that all their Ancient Power and Honour and Revenues would fall to them without any more ado and that they had nothing to do but to keep the Ministers and People in quietness and hopes till Time should fully do the work Some few Presbyterians thought the King would favour them as well as others for stirring up the Soldiers and City to restore him In London I found that Mr. Calamy for his Age and Political Understanding and
Believers that the Covenant of God is made and not that we can find to all that that have such believing Sureties who are neither Parents nor Prâ—parents of the Child Ans. Repentance whereby they forsake sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the Promises of God c.  20 Quest. Why then are Infants baptized when by reason of ther tender Age they cannot perform them  Ans. Yes they do perform by their Sureties who promise and vow them both in their Names  In the general we observe That the Doctrine of the Sacraments which was added upon the Conference at Hampton-Court is much more fully and particularly delivered than the other parts of the Catechism in short Answers fitted to the memories of Children and thereupon we offer it to be considered First Whether there should not be a more distinct and full Explication of the Creed the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer Secondly Whether it were no convenient to add what seems to be wanting somewhat particularly concerning the Nature of Faith of Repentance the two Covenants of Justification Sanctification Adoption and Regeneration Of Confirmation The last Rubrick before the Catechism  ANd that no Man shall think that any detriment shall come to Children by deferring of their Confirmation he shall know for truth that it is certain by God's Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved ALthough we charitably suppose the meaning of these words was only to exclude the necessity of any other Sacraments to baptized Infants yet these words are dangerous as to the misleading of the Vulgar and therefore we desire they may be expunged Rubrick after the Catechism  So soon as the Children can say in their Mother-tongue the Articles of the Faith the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments and can answer such other Questions of this short Catechism c. then shall they be brought to the Bishop c. and the Bishop shall Confirm them We conceive that it is not a sufficient qualification for Confirmation that Children be able memoriter to the repeat the Articles of the Faith commonly called the Apostles Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments and to answer to some Questions of this short Catechism for it is often found that Children are able to do all this at four or five years old 2dly It crosses what is said in the third Reason of the first Rubrick before Confirmation concerning the usage of the Church in times past ordaining that Confirmation should be ministred unto them that were of perfect Age that they being instructed in the Christian Religion should openly profess their own Faith and promise to be obedient to the Will of God And therefore 3dly we desire that none may be Confirmed but according to his Majesty's Declaration viz. That Confirmation be rightly and solemnly performed by the Information and with the Consent of the Minister of the place Rubrick after the Catechirm  Then shall they be brought to the Bishop by one that shall be his Godfather or Godmother This seems to bring in another sort of Godfathers and Godmothers besides those made use of in Baptism and we see no need either of the one or the other The Prayer before the Imposition of Hands  Who hast vouchsafed to regenerate these thy Servants by Water and the Holy Ghost and hast given unto them the forgiveness of all their sins This supposeth that all the Children who are brought to be confirmed have the Spirit of Christ and the forgiveness of all their sins Whereas a great number of Children at that Age having committed many sins since their Baptism do shew no Evidence of serious Repentance or of any special Saving Grace And therefore this Confirmation if administred to such would be a perillous and gross Abuse Rubrick before the Imposition of Hands  Then the Bishop shall lay his hand on every Child severally This seems to put a higher value upon Confirmation then upon Baptism or the Lord's Supper for according to the Rubrick and Order in the Common-Prayer-Book every Deacon may Baptize and every Minister may consecrate and administer the Lord's Supper but the Bishop only may Confirm The Prayer after Imposition of Hands  We make our humble Supplications unto thee for these Children upon whom after the Example of thy Holy Apostles we have laid our Hands to certifie them by this Sign of thy Favour and gracious Goodness towards them We desire that the Practice of the Apostles may not be alledged as a ground of this Imposition of Hands for the Confirmation of Children both because the Apostles did never use it in that Case as also because the Articles of the Church of England declare it to be a corrupt imitation of the Apostles practice Acts 25. We desire that Imposition of Hands may not be made as here it is a Sign to certifie Children of God's Grace and Favour towards them because this seems to speak it a Sacrament and is contrary to that fore-mentioned 25th Article which saith That Confirmation hath no visible Sign appointed by God The last Rubrick after Confirmation We desire that Confirmation may not be made so necessary to the Holy Communion as that none should be admitted to it unless they be confirmed None shall be admitted to the holy Communion until such time as he can say the Catechism and be confirmed  Of the Form of Solemnization of Matrimony THe Man shall give the Woman a Ring c. shall surely perform and keep the Uow and Covenant betwixt them made whereof this Ring given and received is a Token and Pledge c. SEeing this Ceremony of the Ring in Marriage is made necessary to it and a significant Sign of the Vow and Covenant betwixt the Parties and Romish Ritualists give such Reasons for the Use and Institution of the Ring as are either frivolous or superstitious It is desired that this Ceremony of the Ring in Marriage may be left indifferent to be used or forborn The Man shall say With my Body I thee worship This word worship being much altered in the Use of it since this Form was first drawn up We desire some other word may be used instead of it In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost These words being only used in Baptism and herein the Solemnization of Matrimony and in the Absolution of the Sick We desire it may be considered whether they should not be here omitted least they should seem to favour those who count Matrimony a Sacraâ—â—â— Till Death us depart This word depart is here improperly used Rubrick Exception Then the Minister or Clerk going to the Lords Table shall say or sing this Psalm We conceive this Change of Place and Posture mentioned in these two Rubricks is needless and therefore desire it may be omitted Next Rubrick  The Psalm ended and the Man and the Woman kneeling before the Lord's Table the Priest
operate a qualitative change on the Receiver's mind or heart is not necessary to the being of a Sacrament nor yet that it be instituted to do so by 〈◊〉 or Physical Operation per modum Naturae without Intellectual Consideration and Moral Operation The First will be granted that the effecting of such Qualities is not necessary to it And as to the 2d Observe that we grant as followeth 1. That Sacraments by Investiture or Delivery of Right as Instruments convey all that Relative Grace which the Covenant of God doth give immediately to Consenters 2. That it Morally worketh also Holy Qualifications by Man's Considering-Improvement 3. And that with the use of it though not by the Instrumentality of it God may Physically or Miraculously without any second cause give qualitative grace to Infants or whom he please in a way to us unknown But that this last is not Essential to a Sacrament I am now to prove 1. All that is essential to a Sacrament is found in the Sacrament as used by the Adult Yea they are the more notable and Excellent Subjects to whom it was first administred and the Case of Infants is more obscure and non notum per ignotius sed ignotius per notius probandum est But the Sacrament as administred to or used by the adult doth necessarily contain no more than 1. mutual covenanting 2. The Instrumental Conveyance or Confirmation of the Relative Grace of the Covenant or Ius 3. Moral Aptitude to work holy Qualities 4. And that it be Symbolum Ordinis id est Christianismi 1. This is proved as to the Baptism of the Adult 1. They make their solemn signal Profession of Federation Consent Reception c. 2. God by his Minister doth invest the Receiver in his Right of special relation to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and in his right to Pardon Reconciliation Justification and Adoption and Right to Glory 3. It is a Means adapted to work Morally on the Will by the just Considerations of the Understanding 4. It is the Symbol of Christianity called Our Christening 2. The same I say of the Lord's Supper and therefore crave leave not to repeal them 1. That Sacraments are acts of Solemn Mutual Covenanting none deny that know what Christianity is The Uninterrupted Form of Baptizing in all Ages proveth it 2. That God by their Instrumentality delivereth the Adult their Ius or Relative Grace or right to present Pardon c. is not denyed 3. That they are Moral Instruments of Holy Acts and so of Habits in the Adult neither Papist Arminians Lutherans or Calvinists deny And above all the Arminians should not deny it who I think acknowledge no means but Moral if any other Operations on Man's soul. 4. And that they are Tesserae vel Symbola Christianae Religionis none that I know of do deny But that they are instituted to operate on the Adult any any otherwise than Morally and this Essential to them I deny upon three Reasons 1. There is no Scripture that asserteth it Et quod Scriptum non est Credendum non est about such Matters 2. Else not only the Armenians but the greatest part of Christians should deny the Sacraments who deny such use and operations of them And specially all those Protestants who dealing with the Papists opus Operatum largely write to prove that Sacraments work but Morally 3. And the Nature of the thing sheweth it impossible without a Miracle For the Grace to be conveyed is the Act or Habit or Disposition of Love to God and the Conjunct Graces with that Antecedent Light of knowledge and faith which must excite it And how but Miraculously Water in Baptism should be an Instrument of conveying holy Love or Knowledge no Man conceive For 1. Our Love of God is not put into the Water 2. If it were the Water doth not touch the Soul 3. If it did Corporal Contact or attingencie would not cause Love The same is said of the â—ucharist And the truth is many Papists are by Protestants mistaken in their Doctrine de Opere Operato who speak but as distinguishing it ab Opere Operantis And when they have puzled themselves to tell what the Indelible Character given by Ordination is they can satisfactorily carry it no higher than with Durandus to say it is a Relation that is A fixed Relation to the Vndertaken Work and a power right and obligation to it And they that tell us as Ioseph Anges c. that Ordination is a true Sacrament though sinfully used when given to an Infant and a Bedlam and that none hut Durandus denieth it a false Doctrine no doubt quia deest dispositio recipientis yet can tell us of no more that it doth convey to the Infant or Bedlam-Priest or Bishop but a Relation Nor can they that say Receive the Holy Ghost assure us that any more is given by Ordination And so of Baptism And if they say that If the Water be not the Instrument of given-grace to the Adult yet it may be to me other means let them tell us if they can what they mean and what means besides a Moral means it can be If they say that if God give not grace qualitative or Active by it as a means yet he giveth grace with it without any second cause I answer God can do so no doubt He can give grace while we are hearing though inconsiderately without any use of the Word heard And so in the time of baptizing without any causality of Baptism But he that will assert as in any Miracles and Immediate Operations as Sacraments must bring very clear proof of his assertion Sure we are that Faith and Repentance are prerequisite in the Adult and therefore the Sacrament is not so much as the Time of first-giving them by Institution And we are all agreed that in the Sacraments Sacred truth and Goodness Christ and his Gracious benefits are objectively set before us as Moral means of our Information Excitation and increase of faith and hope and love And when we are sure that the Word and Sacraments are instituted for one way of giving gracious Acts or Qualities he that will add another must prove it 4. And the case being thus with the Adult the instance of Infants will not prove the Sacraments no Sacraments to the Adult the Noblest Subjects And though God may immediatly or Miraculously at the same time give holy Habits or Acts to Infants yet it is past Man's Conception how Water or Words should be any Cause of them any more on them than on the Adult as aforesaid And he that will say that yet so it is though We know not how as the Papists do about Transubstantiation must first prove that it is so indeed We grant that the Parents are to use it Morally in dedicating their Children to God and believing and Covenanting for them And that God useth it as his investing or delivering sign morally to give the Infant all the Relative Grace which
think it a heinous sin to conform yet do it or Suffer for your Dissent Q. 6. Was it not an Act of Christ's Wisdom Mercy and Soveraignty to make the Baptismal Covenant which the Church explained by the Creed to be the Stablished Universal Test and Badge of his Disciples and Church-Members And did it not seem good to the Holy Ghost and the Apostles Acts 15. to Impose only necessary things And is it not a Condemning or Contradicting God needlesly to take a Contrary Course Q. 7. Is not Christ's way and the first Churches most likely to save the People's Souls and yours to damn them For you will confess that Christ's few evident necessary Conditions of Christianity would save Men if Bishops and Rulers added no more But if a multitude more which you count Lawful are added then the Nonconformists to them are in danger of Damnation for the Crime of Contempt of your Authority So that consequently you make all your Impositions needful to Salvation and so make it far harder to be saved than otherwise it would have been Q. 8. What hindereth any debauched Conscience from entering into your Ministry who dare Say or Swear any thing while he that feareth an Oath or a Lie may be kept out And against which of these should you more carefully shut the Door Q. 9. If Agreement be desirable Which side may more easily and at a cheaper rate yield and alter you or we If you forbear Imposing an Oath Subscription Declaration or Ceremony it would not do you a Farthing's-worth of hurt If we Swear Subscribe Declare Conform we take our selves to be heinous and wilful sinners against God You call that Indifferent which we believe is Sin Q. 10. Do you not confess that you are not Infallible yea and subscribe that General-councils are not even in matters of Faith And yet must we subscribe our Assent to every word in these Books or else be Silenced or Suffer Do these well consist Q. 11. Dare you deny that many of your Silenced Brethren Study as hard as you to know the Truth and have as good Capacity And are they not as like to be Impartial who suffer as much by their Judgment as you gain by yours Judge but by your selves Doth their kind of Interest tempt you more than â—our own to partiality Q. 12. Is it not gross Uncharitableness and Usurpation of God's Prerogative to say That they do it not out of Conscience when you have no more from the nature of their Cause Motives or Conversation to warrant such a Censure And they are ready to take their Oaths as before God that were it not for fear of sinning they would Conform Q. 13. Do your Consciences never startle when you think of Silencing 1800 such Ministers and depriving so many Thousand Souls of their Ministry 1 Thess. 2. 15 16. Q. 14. Can you hope to make us believe while we dwell in England that the People's Ignorance and Vice is so far Cured or the Conformists for Number and Quality are so sufficient without the Nonconformists that they should rest Silent on supposition their Labours are unnecessary Q. 15. Is not the loss of a Faithful Teacher where through Paucity or Unqualifyedness of the Conformable he is necessary a very great Affliction to the People And Do the Innocent Flocks deserve to suffer in their Souls for our Nonconformity Q. 16. Could not Men of your great Knowledge find out some other Punishment for us such as Drunkards Swearers Fornicators have which may not hurt the People's Souls nor hinder the Preaching of Christ's Gospel Q. 17. Seeing at Ordination we profess that all things necessary to Salvation are in or provable by the Scripture Do you not confess that your â—nventiunculae are not necessary to Salvation And is the Nonconformist's Ministry no more necessay Q. 18. How say you That only Christianity is necessary to a Member of the Universal Church and so much more be necessary to the Members of particular Churches and the Universal consist of them Q. 19. Did any National Church Impose any one Liturgy or Subscription besides the Creed or any Oath of Obedience to the Bishops for 300 400 500 years after Christ's Nativity Q. 20. Can you Read Rom. 14. and 15 and not believe that it bindeth the Church-Rulers as well as the People Q. 21. Did the Ancient Discipline not enforced by the Sword for 300 years do less good than yours Or was any Man Imprison'd or Punish'd by the Sword eo nomine because Excommunicate as a Contemner of Church-power in not repenting for many Hundred years after there were Christian Magistrates Q. 22. Hath not the making false Conditions of Communion and making Unnecessary things necessary thereto been the way by which the Papists have Schismatically divided Christians Q. 23. Should not Bishops be the most skilful and forward to heal and the most backward to divide or persecute Q. 24. Could you do more to extirpate Episcopacy than to make it hateful to the People by making it hurtful 25. Would you do as you do if you loved your Neighbour as your selves and loved not Superiority Q. 26. Were not those that Gildas called no Ministers such as too many now obtruded on the People And was not the Case of the Bishops that St. Martin separated from to the Death like yours or much fairer § 257. A little after some Great Men of the House of Commons drew up a Bill as tending to our Healing to take off our Oaths Subscriptions and Declarations except the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance and Subscriptions to the Doctrine of the Church of England according to the 13th of Eliz. But shewing it to the said Bshop of Winchester he caused them to forbear and broke it And instead of it he furthered an Act only to take of Assent and Consent and the Renunciation of the Government which would have been but a Cunning Snare to make us more remediless and do no good seeing that the same things with the repeated Clauses would be still by other continued Obligations required as may be seen in the Canon for Subscription Act 2. and in the Oxford-Act for the Oath and confining Refusers And it 's credibly averred that when most of the other Bishops were against even this ensnaring shew of abatement he told them in the House that had it been but to abate us a Ceremony he would not have spoken in it But he knew that we were bound to the same things still by other Clauses or Obligations if these were Repealed § 258. But on Feb. 24. all these things were Suddenly ended the King early suddenly and unexpectedly Proroguing the Parliament till November Whereby the Minds of both Houses were much troubled and Multitudes greatly exasperated and alienated from the Court Of whom many now saw that the Leading Bishops had been the great Causes of our Distractions but others hating the Nonconformists more were still as hot for Prelacy and their Violence as ever § 259. All this
see the Examples of Tyranny and rash Excommunication let him read Iohn's Epistle to Diotrephes and the pious Admonitions of Irenaeus to Victor The Examples of Schisms we have in others not a few To which Optatus Melev prudently ascribeth three Causes Wrath Ambition and Covetousness But how many score Canons Interdicts and Bloody Wars do prove all this XXVIII And had not these Vices conquered Common Reason with Christianity in such men it were a Wonder that so unprofitable and causeless a thing as forcing all Christians to Unite on the profest Approbation and Practice of all the needless Things which such impose and denying them Communion and Peace on the Terms that Christ prescribed for all his Servants to own and love each other on should be thought a sufficient Justification of all that Dividing Cruelty of which it hath been guilty And that Church-Grandees should make such Schisms as are yet in East and West and then hate and persecute the Sufferers as Schismaticks Saith Grotius on Luke 6. 22. Scitum est Veterum Iudaeorum cujus Maimonidememinit siquis Innocentem à Communione arcuerit ipsum excidere jure Communionis And Dr. Stillingfleet on Archbishop Laud and before him Chillingworth conclude That if a Church deny Communion to her Members on those Terms that give them Right to Communion with the Church Universal that Church is guilty of the Schism Were it not more Christian-like easie and sweet to joyn all in the practice of the Laws of Christ by which we shall be judged with the needful use of edifying Order and Circumstances that all Sizes and Ages of Christians might live in Unity and Love than to cast out all that cannot Unite on Terms so far beyond meer Christianity as most Churches on Earth require When the Volume of Councils and Canons were unknown and plain Familiar Discipline was used in the open Church-Meetings Christians were less divided saith Grotius in Luc. 6. 22. Apud Christianos Veteres praesidente quidem Episcopo Senioribus sed Conscia Consentiente Fratrum multitudine morum judicia exercebantur If Christians be partial hear an impartial Heathen Ammianus Marcellinus who scandalized with the murder of Men kill'd in the Church for the Election of Pope Damasus concludeth how well it would have gone with Christianity if those great Roman Prelates had lived like the poor humble inferiour Bishops See his words But if Paul's full Decision on Romans 14. will not bring us to necessary forbearance no Plainness not Authority will serve Numb IX An Act for Concord by Reforming Parish Churches and Regulating Toleration of DISSENTERS I. THE Qualification requisite to Baptism in the Adult for themselves and in one Parent at least or Pro-Parents for Infants is Their understanding Consent to the Baptismal Covenant in which they are solemnly devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as their God and Father Saviour and Sanctifier Renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil so far as they are adverse And the requisite Qualification of the Adult for proper Church Priviledges and Communion in the Lord's Supper is That they forsake not the said Covenant or Christianity but publickly own it not rendering their Profession invalid by any Doctrine or Practice inconsistent therewith And that they understandingly desire the said Communion II. The Christian Churches have universally taken the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments as delivered by Christ for the Summary of the Christian Belief Desire and Practice expounding the Matter of the Baptismal Covenant Therefore all Pastors shall Exhort all Housholders to learn themselves and teach their Families the words and meaning of the Baptismal Covenant and of the Creed Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments And shall also thus Catechize such themselves as need their help as far as they or their Assisstants can do it III. No Minister shall Baptize any Person Adult or Infant till the Adult for themselves and the Parent or Pro-Parent who undertaketh the Education of the Child as his own have there professed their Belief of the Christian Faith and their fore-described Consent to the Christian Covenant in which they are to be solemnly devoted to God And such they shall not refuse Nor shall the Pastors admit any to the proper Priviledges of Church Communion and partaking of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but those who have made Profession that they resovedly stand to their Baptismal Covenant in the foresaid Belief of the Christian Faith and Desire and Obedience to Christ. Which Profession shall be made in the Church or to the Pastor before sufficient Witness or to the Diocesan or some other Pastor who shall give Testimonial of it And if any shall go from the Parish-Church Pastor to be Confirmed by the Bishop or received by any other Minister without the Certificate or Consent of his own Parish Pastor the said Pastor shall not be obliged to admit him to Communion till to him also before Witness he have made the said Profession IV. Because in great Parishes and Cities where Persons live unknown and as Lodgers are transient and too great a Number desire not Communion and many Communicate only with other Churches and it is needful for Order that all Pastors know their Communicating Flock from the rest the Pastor may for his memory keep a Register of the stated Communicants of his Parish and put out the Names of those that deny or remove or are lawfully Excommunicate or that wilfully forbear Communion above fix Months not rendering to the Pastor a Satisfactory Excuse But occasionally he ought not to refuse any Stranger who hath Testimony of his Communion with any other approved Christian Church V. If by the Pastor's knowledge or by just accusation or same any Communicant be strongly suspected of Atheism Infidelity or denying any Essential part of Christian Faith Hope or Practice or to live in any heinous Sin the Pastor shall send for him and enquire of the Truth and if he be proved Guilty gently instruct him and admonish him and skilfully labour to bring him to Repentance And if he prevail not shall again send for him and do the same before some Witnesses And if he yet prevail not or if he wilfully refuse to come or to answer him shall open his Case before the Church Vestry or Neighbour Pastors and if he be present there admonish him and pray for his Repentance And if yet he prevail not to bring him to the profession of serious Repentance he shall declare that he judgeth him a Person unmeet for Church Communion till he Repent and shall till then forbear to give him the Sacrament But when he professeth serious Repentance shall receive him But if after such oft Professions he continue in such heinous Sin he shall not again receive him till actual Amendment for a sufficient time to make valid his Profession VI. Ordination to the Priesthood shall be a valid License to Preach And every just Incumbent being the Pastor Overseer or