taken in and Encouraged But because all lies not on those that have Power to impose but much also upon Private Christians Sixthly Hence also it follows plainly That Persons and Churches that are better than others are to own others if Built on the true Foundation for true Christians and Churches and those that are worse than others are to own those for true Christians and Churches that are better than they and to love them as such Some perhaps will say yes if they be in different Kingdoms but not if they be in the same But why not though in the same Kingdom Who made the distinction Seventhly That Persons and Churches Built upon the large and true Foundation of Faith and Love are to strive to hold Communion one with another The stronger and better with those that are weaker and the weaker with those that are better It 's a great Errour to think we may separate for every cause as the Jews did in their Divorces and that there 's no true way of Reforming but by Separateing Therefore they do ill that will not Communicate with Churches where they lawfully may at least sometimes and they do yet worse that will hold no Communion with the best Churches where the best Doctrine Worship and Spiritual helps for Souls are Eighthly That Persons and Churches that own others for true Churches may be oblig'd not to hold Communion with them in the Publick Worship of God at least not constantly Not at all because such Churches may practice things that are unlawful and make them the Conditions of their Communion or Persons may think such things unlawful which are not and while their Errour continues they cannot joyn with them without going against their Conscience Not constantly because such Churches may use many needless inconvenient and suspicious things tho' they that dissent will not say they are absolutely unlawful or may stick in their weaker beginnings or go backward and deny them the use of those Spiritual means which Christ hath given for the promoting their Salvation Ninthly That there may be true Christian Love between those who do not hold Publick Communion with one another because they may both be built on the true Foundation of Faith and Love And it 's a fond imagination to which yet many are too subject to think that those that will not joyn with them cannot love them or that we must needs want love to those we cannot joyn with To think so is a great mistake See Dr. Owen of Evangelical Love disown'd by all Sober Persons and a cursed Root of bitterness and I fear defiles many 'T is a sad thing to see this in so many and is a sign that most build their Religion more upon lesser things wherein the Life of it lies not than on those main things wherein it lies If any say this will cast out Discipline and many choice Truths of Christ and introduce Erroneous Rotten Doctrines I say it will not for tho' People that are weak and disorder'd may be true Christians and Churches it hinders not but that others may and ought to seek after Discipline and Truth and grow in the ways of God And they do ill whoever they are that shall hinder this And a great part of the Evil and Misery of the World lies here To clear these Things yet more fully If the Church of God be built upon such a large Foundation it plainly follows First That they Err greatly that make every useful Truth to be a Fundamental one and they much more that make their Great Errours to be of the Foundation on which the Church is built The Romanists do so by their Creed of the Council of Trent affirming none can be Saved that own it not And they also that set up Opinions of their own to be Fundamental as those do that hold Diocesan Episcopacy and Ordination by it so necessary that there can be no true Church nor Sacraments nor Salvation in an ordinary way without it and whoever else among us that make any of their Opinions so absolutely necessary Secondly They Err greatly that hold all great Errors to be Damnable Heresies and all sinful Divisions to be Damnable Schisms Thirdly They Err greatly that say People are Baptiz'd into a Particular Church or Party and that therefore they forsake their Baptism if at any time they cease to Worship God with that Church or joyn with any other For we are all Baptiz'd into the Faith of Christ admitted into the Universal Church that 's built on this large Foundation and by one Spirit Baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12.13 But are there any that say so I wish there were not Fourthly From hence it follows that it 's a Great Sin to confine the Church of God to any one Party of Christians whatsoever and cast off others from belonging to it Many are much inclin'd to impropriate Christ to their Party Mead on Ezek. 37. v. 19. as it 's said the Donatists of old did but we must not Unsaint the whole World to Consecrate our own way and they Err greatly that set up particular Churches in opposition to others and so as to disown other particular Churches that are true parts of the Universal Many are apt to destroy God's Invisible Church by their Disputes about the Visible which was appointed for the good of it and to destroy many particular Visible Churches by their strange Notions of Particular or National Churches Fifthly that those of the Church of England that will never joyn in Worship with the Dissenters on the one hand and those Dissenters on the other hand that will never joyn with them act against the plain light of this great Truth And thus many that differ most in other things agree in this Dividing Principle and are great hinderers of the Peace and Edification of the Church amongst us The Non-Conformists are accused that they perswade People not to go to the Publick Churches This is very untrue of most of them But it 's most certain that abundance of the Conformists make it their work to dissuade People from going to hear the Non-Conformists tho' unblameable in their Life and Doctrine and followers of Peace with them They do it publickly with much vehemence in their Sermons and privately in their Discourses Some of them say if any do they renounce their Baptismal Covenant some on their Death-Bed have solemnly engag'd some of their Relations never to hear any of the Dissenters and some of them have Preach'd in great Auditories that a Heathen may be Saved but that a Non-Conformist cannot not to mention other things And who then are the People that seek for Peace and who violently oppose it Sixthly Hence it follows not That If we may joyn with a Church sometimes we are bound to do so always Many build much upon this and that People sin greatly if they do not But this is a great Mistake For it follows not that what we may do sometimes we must
Mercy though we press after all Truth make us large and wise in both and to Practise this which hath been owned by many but observed by few Thirdly Hence it follows that the true Unity of the Church lies not in Uniformity as many through Custom or Interest strongly imagine For the true Unity of Christians lies in their Hearts and Souls the multitude of the Believers were of one Heart and Soul and all that believe and obey the Great things of Christ Acts 4.32 are truly United to him and to each other tho' they differ in useful things taught by Christ and much more if in unnecessary things impos'd only by Men And the Apostles pressed not Uniformity in outward Rites but this inward Unity one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all Eph. 4.4 5 6. John 17.21 and through all and in you all And Christ our Lord whose Prayers were always heard prayed that his Followers might be one which was never granted if their Oneness lie in outward Uniformity 'T were well if only some Fops said there can be no Unity without Uniformity in lesser Things Many Great and Worthy Persons stick too much in that Conceit notwithstanding the Clear Demonstration to the contrary But Unity in them is none of the Fundamentals nor hath Christ laid our Unity on them which are so many that Men would never agree in them Besides many Churches that had true Unity had divers Forms of outward Administrations and so may have yet Socr. l. 5. c. 2â— Soz. l. 7. c. 29. Spond anno 633. n. 10. and Uniformity in Worship was but late brought in In Spain not 'till the year 633 in the Fourth Council of Toledo and in many Kingdoms to this day and among the Romanists themselves there are varieties of Rites and Customs tho' they agree in the main and divers Orders of their Religious to whom People of all sorts resort are exempted from the Bishops Further People may have great Uniformity and no Unity They may sit together in the same Church say the same words and use the same gestures and yet have their hearts full of Malice and Enmity and usually the bitterest Enemies of true Religion and Godliness are most earnest for a Unity in needless Ceremonies and formalities It sticks much with many that there can be no Decency or Order without Uniformity in Ceremonies 1 Cor. 14.33.40 and that those who obey them not are Contentious and go against the Custom of the Churches of God But this cannot prevail against a clear Demonstration It 's certain all things must be done Decently and in Order Nature teaches this tho' St. Paul had not mention'd it But cannot things be so done without a great many needless Commands of Men Cannot Baptism be decently and in order Administred without the sign of the Cross or the Lord's Supper without Kneeling or a Surplice What if some will stand with their faces towards the East some otherwise and most with their Eyes towards the Minister that Officiates Luke 4.20 as Nature seems to teach All sorts are for Order and Decency and Believe God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace But it 's said they that obey not such Orders are Contentious and go against the Custom of the Churches of God 1 Cor. 11.5.13.16 Not so but they that needlesly impose them are Contentious and go against the Custom of the Apostle and the best Churches that impos'd no such things And the Custom there mention'd for Women to have their Faces not their Heads only covered was a laudable thing in the Judgment of all and the contrary to it seem'd then to be even against Nature as well as against the Mind of the Apostle * Tertul. de veland virginibus c. 17. quae si fuerit in pectore cognoscetur in capite faeminarum And if any of the things pressed now by some were of that Nature they would be very Contentious that would not obey them And therefore all true Protestants at home and abroad for to be sure they hold the Fundamentals are one and have a true Unity tho' otherwise they differ in many things and to their shame quarrel too Which is a wonderous Comfort to all good Men that bewail these Contentions and labour to have them more United Fourthly It follows hence plainly that none may endeavour by Craft or Force to Root out and Destroy those that Build on the large and true Foundation if they err in useful Truths or will not joyn with them in the solemn Worship of God or at least not constantly but only some times And they sin yet more that set themselves chiefly to destroy those that seem most seriously to Build on the true Foundation of Faith and Holiness For if such be true Christians and Members of Christs Universal Church and ought to be Cherished and Received into Particular Churches without having other useful Truths much less unnecessary things imposed on them then for certain they may not be destroyed by Vexations Fines Imprisonments Dragoonings or Death Those that are true Christians by Profession much more if in reality though they Err are to be cherished by Particular Churches and not to be so used Especially when our Holy Religion is not to be Propagated by Force or Violence nor even Hereticks and Schismaticks as many hold are to be proceeded against in that manner but only by Spiritual Censures and Weapons Fifthly It follows hence That this and other Nations cannot be happy unless we Build on larger Foundations than we have done and more than most of the Lutherans or Calvinists and others of the Reformation have hitherto done The Misery of these parts of the World formerly and to this day comes in a great measure by going against this plain Truth All generally run upon this that there can be no Union or Quiet unless we agree almost in all useful Truths taught by Christ nay and in all things too appointed only by Men And the hands of many who have Eminently owned this great Truth have been chief in this Trespass as King James Arch Bishop Laud and others The Romanists have mightily darkned and opposed this great Truth and few of us are yet throughly freed from those Principles wherewith they have long corrupted the World And Dr. Henry Moore spake not much amiss though he was sharply Censured for it by Dr. Beaumont when he said His Apollogy added to his Mystery of Iniquity 1664. our Church is not quite emerged out of the general Apostacy and that the Reformers having separated from the great Babylon have Built less and more tolerable ones but not to be tolerated for ever And it will be the glorious Work of great Princes to cause the Publick Constitutions about Religion in their Dominions to be large and good and such as a great Part of the Holiest and best Christians may not be Excluded and Trampled upon but
do always for in many cases we do things sometimes for several Reasons which we will not may not do always Hundreds of Instances might be given and strong Reasons too By this Rule we should be bound constantly to Communicate with the worst Churches that we think we may Communicate with sometimes but if we could sometimes Communicate with the Greek Churches in their way would we always do it if we could do otherwise Or with the Lutherans would we always do it Or if the Lutherans could joyn with us as the Synod at Charenton in France permitted them to do would they do it always Or if the Nonconformists can joyn sometimes with Churches where there are corrupt and unprofitable Ministers scandalous and malicious People divers bad impositions and an exclusion of some things that Christ hath given for the Churches benefit must they do so always Besides this would tempt the Nonconformists wholly to leave the Conformists Churches for the Conformists argue thus All Churches that may be sometimes Communicated with ought always to be Communicated with But the Conformists Churches say the Dissenters may sometimes be Communicated with therefore they ought always be Communicated with But the N. C. hereupon will argue thus Those Churches we may not always Communicate with we may never Communicate with so say the Conformists But the Conformists Churches may not always be Communicated with say the N. C. Therefore they ought never be Communicated with And this Arguing will be stronger with the N. C. than the other because they are more strongly perswaded they ought not always to joyn with the Conformists than that they ought to joyn with them sometimes But this Principle is deeply laid in the hearts of many N. C. Reformation but not Separation and they say tho' they cannot Conform they must Preach and strive to save Souls and in their places to reform what 's amiss tho' they say the Conformists Churches are not unlawful to be Communicated with They own them as true Churches and would help on the work of God that is done in them and believe the Conformists also should own them and be glad of their assistance 7. Seventhly That Wickedness in Heart and Life against Christ's Commands destroys the Church as well as Errours against his Truths For a profession of Obedience to Christ is as necessary as a profession of his Truth and a sincere Obedience is as necessary to make one a true living Christian as an unfeigned belief of the Truth It 's wickedness that tears the Church of God amongst us and abroad more than any thing and Love which includes Holiness Unites it most and builds it up 1 Cor. 13. It 's not so much difference in Judgement that causes our Divisions as the wickedness and hatred of the Power of Godliness and those that own it tho' of the same way with them and it 's wickedness that chiefly leads People into bad Opinions They therefore go against the Foundation of the Church that neglect it and countenance the debauch'd World Mr. Baxter's Book of Cain and Abel or the formal dead World and those that hate God The great Enmity lies here between the Godly and the Wicked the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent and they do not build up but pull down the Church that take part with these Luke 12. Our Lord came to send Fire on the Earth not Peace but a Sword And whence is this but from the wickedness of Men that Fights against him 8. Eighthly That Persons may be true Christians tho' they Err and go much against this main Truth * Yet he that hateth his Brother is a Murtherer and no Murtherer hath everlasting life abiding in him 1 Joh. 3.15 Tho' they be Ignorant or Err in divers useful Truths and be Zealous for their Errours Tho' they Practice divers things in their Lives and in the Worship of God which they ought not Tho' they impose their Errours and Practices on others as necessary to Communion with them Tho' they Vex Fine Imprison Banish and use Cruelties against those that differ from them Tho' they say those that joyn not with them are no true Churches nor can be Saved And much more those that own others for true Christians and Churches and Persecute them not tho' they dare not hold Communion with them when they might and ought For many of these tho' they sin and many of them very greatly may not be in a state of Damnation for they may do such things ignorantly through Custom Weakness or Temptation and may have in their Hearts true Faith in Jesus Christ and Love to him and his Saints and be saved by a General Repentance The Lutherans generally will not joyn with the Calvinists nor our Conformists with the sober Dissenters nor the Anabaptists with either and who dare say that all of those are in a state of Damnation Thus we see what need all sorts of Christians have of this Charitable but true Principle and they especially that are so forward to impose upon others and exclaim against them and Fine Trouble and Punish them too But though some of these may be Saved it highly concerns such to look well to themselves that they be of that number and not like those Jews of old that strove to make the Scriptures serve their Gain and Ambition Grotius on Mat. 21.38 thereby killing the Heir that they might be Great and Rule the People 9. Ninthly Hence it plainly follows that this is the only true way to build up the Church of God Not for People to Conform to all things in the places where they shall live nor to require all to agree to all things taught by Christ or invented by Men and root out all that comply not nor to make forms of Agreement in such words as several Parties keeping their Opinions may agree in as Melancthon Bucer and others in the beginning of the Reformation did but plainly to lay down the great Things of the Gospel wherein we agree omitting other things wherein we differ and bearing with each other and mutually loving and assisting each other These Large and Sure Foundations will certainly lead us to this and all that can be said against it is but the effect of Prejudice or Interest The Lutherans and Calvinists by this means might have United and a miserable Breach have been prevented 'T is not so small a thing we aim at as an Union between the Presbyterians and Congregational for wherein almost do they differ Nor only with the Godly Episcopal Men at home but with all every where that build on the true Foundation and hold nothing that overthrows it as gross Idolatry and damnable Heresies do To approve what is good in all and to cleave to what we judge best To Communicate with others at least sometimes and if we cannot do that yet to love them as the Servants of Christ and seek their good What mischiefs have been in the
Christian World for want of this Of old to pass by many others year 192 Victor Bishop of Rome who Excommunicated the Churches of Asia for not keeping Easter on the Lord's Day year 257 Stephen Bishop of Rome who Condemn'd Cyprian and his Followers for re-baptizing those that had been Baptiz'd by Schismaticks year 663 The Saxon Christians in England who so oppos'd the Scotch who kept not Easter after the Roman way that they would not receive Consecration from them nor the Eucharist nor give it to them nay and question'd the Baptism Administred by them year 692 The Latine and Greek Churches separated about Fasting on Saturdays eating Blood Unleaven'd Bread in the Eucharist c. Their Quarrel encreas'd under Photius upon the Nice Dispute of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son and not only by the Son tho' the Superiority of the Bishop of Rome over the Bishop of C. P. was in the bottom years 1054. 1213. 1274. Leo IX Excommunicated the Greeks and Humbert wrote against them And the Latins when they took CP Imprison'd and cruelly us'd the Greek Priests for not using the Roman Ceremonies and the Greeks abhor'd them scrap'd the Altars where they had said Mass c. An Union was made at the second Council at Lyons but the Greeks so oppos'd it at CP that Michael Palaeologus the Emperor who procured it was so hated that when he died he was not suffered to be publickly Buried year 1439 And Union made again at Florence but Marcus Ephesius and Geo Scholarius oppos'd it and it came to nothing year 1564 The Roman Church is yet grown higher enjoyns the Council of Trent and the Creed of it and Damns all that own it not 'T were well if by these Miscarriages Protestants both here and abroad had â—ntâ—â—â— more Wisdom and had avoided those Contests that have been among them God grant we may be Wiser for the future 10. Tenthly This must needs be most agreeable to Princes and Rulers that unfeignedly endeavour to Promote the Kingdom of God Not to say there 's a Moral impossibility of Peace in a State without a strict Uniformity in the Church Not to force Men to the same Opinion and Practice in all things and to vex and destroy all that differ from them whether upon right or mistaken grounds This Course hath been long taken by most and will not do and no wonder for it 's not of God not according to the clear Truth laid down in Scripture by our Great Teacher sent by God nor according to the Rules of true Wisdom For what Wise and Great Prince would be at the head of a Party only and tempt all others to hate him What great Things can he propose to do in the World or have any hope to effect Whereas the other way is of God speaks Universal Goodness and can be grievous to none but to blind Superstitious People and to such Mean and Wicked Persons whose United Carnal Interests lead them to Sacrifice the welfare of the World to their particular Lusts which at length oft ends in their own ruine But when God shall arise to do good to the World which we hope he will tho' we deserve it not he will raise up Heroick Princes and enable them to break the Yoaks of Superstitious and Designing Men and promote Truth and Love who shall Cherish the Good Protect the Peaceable People of all sorts from their Mistakes by all fair means and tread down none but those that Fight against these things And it 's evident that Statesmen oft-times have Larger and Righter Thoughts than many that pore on Books and refine upon Religion and oft prove like the Princes that delivered good Jeremiah from the hands of those Priests and Prophets that would have destroyed him for speaking the Truth which God sent him to do Jer. 26.10.16 This main Principle and the Plain Consequences from it may be displeasing to divers but it is a Great Truth of God and will prevail in his due time FINIS ERRATA PAge 1. line 28. after Holy Scriptures add a Colon p. 2. l. 14. after Gods Church add a Colon l. 49. for chose read chuse p. 4. l. 8. to such as necessary add a Comma at such p. 5. l. 10. for any useful read many useful l. 39. for Muolin r. Moulin p. 6. l. 6. after themselves add a Comma p. 7. l. 12. for others ore r. others are