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
there to meet the Divines of the other party according to promise with their Proposals also containing the lowest Terms which they could yield to for Peace we saw not a Man of them nor any Papers from them of that Nature no not to this Day But it was not fit for us to expostulate or complain § 98. But his Majesty very graciously renewed his Professions I must not call them Promises that he would bring us together and see that the Bishops should come down and yield on their Parts and when he heard our Papers read he seemed well pleased with them and told us he was glad that we were for a Liturgy and yielded to the Essence of Episcopacy and therefore he doubted not of our Agreement with much more which we thought meet to recite in our following Addresses by way of Gratitude and for other Reasons easy to be conjectured 99. Yet was not Bishop Usher's Model the same in all Points that we could wish But it was the best that we could have the least hope I say not to obtain but acceptably to make them any Offers of For had we proposed any thing below Bishops and Archbishops we should but have suddenly furnished them with plausible Reasons for the rejecting of all further Attempts of Concord or any other Favour from them 100. Before this time by the King 's Return many hundred worthy Ministers were displaced and cast out of their Charges because they were in Sequestrations where others had by the Parliament been cast out Our earnest Desires had been that all such should be cast out as were in any Benefice belonging formerly to a Man that was not grosly insufficient or debaucht but that all that succeeded such as these Scandalous ones should hold their Places but these Wishes being vain and all the old ones restored the King promised that the Places where any of the old ones were dead should be confirmed to the Possessors But many got the Broad Seal for them and the matter was not great for we were all of us to be endured but a little longer However we agreed to offer these five Requests to the King which he received Agreed to be verbally requested of the King 1. That with all convenient speed we may see his Majesty's Conclusions upon the Proposals of the mutual Condescentions before they pass into Resolves and if it be thought meet our Brethens Proposals also 2. That his Majesty will be publickly declare his Pleasure for the Suspension of Proceedings upon the Act of Uniformity against Nonconformists in Case of Liturgy and Ceremonies till our hoped for Agreement 3. That his Majesty will be pleased to publish his Pleasure at least to those that are concerned in the Execution that till the said expected Settlement no Oath of Canonical Obedience nor Subscription to the Liturgy Discipline Ceremonies c. nor Renunciation of their Ordination by meer Presbyters or confessing it to be sinful be imposed on or required of any as necessary to their Ordination Institution Induction or Confirmation by the Seales 4. That His Majesty will Cause the revoking of the Broad Seal that is granted to all those Persons that by it are put into Places where others have Possession to which none before could claim a right that is such as they call dead Places 5. That his Majesty will be pleased to provide some Remedy against the Return or Settlement of notoriously insufficient or scandalous Ministers into the Places from which they were cast out or into any other § 101. While we waited for the promised Condescentions of the Episcopal Divines there came nothing to us but a Paper of bitter Oppositions by way of Confutation of our for mer Proposals We were not insensible of the unworthiness of this dealing and the Brethren at first desired me to write an Answer to it But afterward they considered that this would but provoke them and turn a Treaty for Concord into a sharp Disputation which would increase the Discord and so what I had written was never seen by any Man lest it should hinder Peace The Bishop's Answer to the first Proposals of the London Ministers who attempted the Work of Reconcilement which was brought them afterward instead of their Concessions before expected and promised When we looked to see how much they would abate of their former Impositions for the attaining of Vnity and Peace we received nothing but this Contradiction Concerning the Preamble § 1. WE first observe that they take it for granted that there is a firm Agreement between them and us in the Doctrinal Truths of the reformed Religion and in the Substantial Parts of Divine Worship and that the Differences are only in some various Conceptions about the Ancient Forms of Church-Government and some Particulars about Liturgy and Ceremonies Which maketh all that follows the less considerable and less reasonable to be stood upon to the hazard of the Disturbance and Peace of the Church § 2. They seem to intimate as if we did discountenance the Practice of those things which in Principles we allow which we utterly deny In sundry Particulars therein proposed we do not perceive what farther Security can be given than is already provided for by the established Laws of this Realm whereunto such Persons as shall at any time find themselves agrieved may have recourse for Remedy § 3. 1. We heartily desire as well as they that all Animosities be laid aside Words of Scorn Reproach and Provocation might be mutually forborn and that to Men of different Persuasions such a Liberty may be left of performing Christian Duties according to their own way within their own private Families as that yet Uniformity in the publick Worship may be preserved and that a Gap be not thereby opened to Sectaries for private Conventicles for the evil Consequents whereof none can be sufficiently responsible unto the State § 4. 2. We likewise desire that every Congregation may have an able and Godly Minister to Preach Catechise administer the Sacraments and perform other Ministerial Offices as need shall require But what they mean by residing and how far they will extend that Word and what effectual Provision of Law can be made more than is already done concerning the Things here mentioned we know not § 5. 3. Confirmation which for sundry Ends we think necessary to be continued in the Church if rightly and solemnly performed will alone be sufficient as to the point of Instruction And for notorious and scandalous Offenders provision is made in the Rubrick before the Communion which Rules had they been carefully observed the Troubles of the Church by the Disputes and Divisions here mentioned had been prevented § 6. 4. There cannot be taken a more effectual Course in this behalf than the Execution of the Laws already made for the due Observation of the Lord's Day which in this particular are very much stricter than the Laws of any Foreign reformed Churches whatsoever Concerning Church-Government § ◠They do not
and Government in Ecclesiastical Affairs is evident to the World and this little part of the World our own Dominions hath had so late Experience of it that we may very well acquiesce in the Conclusion without enlarging our self in discourse upon it it being a Subject we have had frequent occasion to contemplate upon and to lament abroad as well as at home In our Letter to the Speaker of the H. of Commons from Breda we declared how much we desired the Advancement and Propagation of the Protestant Religion That neither the Unkindness of those of the same Faith towards us nor the Civilities and Obligations from those of a contrary Profession of both which we have had abundant Evidence could in the least degree startle us or make us swerve from it and that nothing can be proposed to manifest our Zeal and Affection for it to which we will not readily consent And we said then That we did hope in due time our self to propose somewhat for the propagation of it that will satisfie the World that we have always made it both our Care and our Study and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it And the truth is we do think our self the more competent to propose and with God's assistance to determine many Things now in difference from the time we have spent and the Experience we have had in most of the Reformed Churches abroad in France in the Low Conntreys and in Germany where we have had frequent Conferences with the most Learned Men who have unanimously lamented the great Reproach the Protestant Religion undergoes from the Distempers and too notorious Schisms in Matters of Religion in England And as the most Learned amongst them have always with great Submission and Reverence acknowledged and magnified the Established Government of the Church of England and the great countenance and shelter the Protestant Religion received from it before these unhappy times so many of them have with great ingenuity and sorrow confessed That they were too easily mislead by misinformation and prejudice into some disesteem of it as if it had too much complyed with the Church of Rome whereas they now acknowledge it to be the best fence God hath yet raised against Popery in the World And we are perswaded they do with great Zeal wish it restored to its old Dignity and Veneration When we were in Holland we were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom we had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon us would permit us to have and to our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them Persons full of Affection to us of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they have been given out to be of Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such Alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which the Indisposition of the Times and the Tenderness of some Mens Consciences had contracted For the better doing whereof we intended upon our first Arrival in this Kingdom to call a Synod of Divines as the most proper Expedient to provide a proper Remedy for all those Differences and Dissatisfactions which had or should arise in Matters of Religion and in the mean time we published in our Declaration from Breda A Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as shall upon mature deliberation be offered to us for the full granting that Indulgence Whilst we continued in this Temper of Mind and Resolution and have so far complyed with the Perswasion of particular Persons and the Distemper of the Time as to be contented with the Exercise of our Religion in our own Chappel according to the constant Practice and Laws established without enjoyning that Practice and the Observation of those Laws in the Churches of the Kingdom in which we have undergone the Censure of many as if we were without that Zeal for the Church which we ought to have and which by God's Grace we shall always retain we have found our self not so candidly dealt with as we have deserved and that there are unquiet and restless Spirits who without abating any of their own Distempers in recompence of the Moderation they find in us continue their bitterness against the Church and endeavour to raise Jealousies of us and to lessen our Reputation by their Reproaches as if we were not true to the Professions we have made And in order thereunto they have very unseasonably caused to be printed published and dispersed throughout the Kingdom a Declaration heretofore printed in our Name during the time of our being in Scotland of which we shall say no more than that the Circumstances by which we were enforced to Sign that Declaration are enough known to the World That we did from the moment it passed our Hand askt God forgiveness for our part in it which we hope he will never lay to our Charge and that the worthiest and greatest part of that Nation did even then detest and abhor the ill usage of us in that particular when the same Tyranny was exercised there by the power of a few ill Men which at that time had spread it self over this Kingdom and therefore we had no reason to expect that we should at this season when we are doing all we can to wipe out the Memory of all that hath been done amiss by other Men and we thank God have wiped it out of our own remembrance have been our self assaulted with those Reproaches which we will likewise forget Since the printing of this Declaration several Seditious Pamphlets and Queries have been published and scattered abroad to infuse Dislike and Jealousies into the Hearts of the People and of the Army and some who ought rather to have repented their former Mischief they have wrought than to have endeavoured to improve it have had the hardiness to publish That the Doctrine of the Church against which no Man with whom we have conferred hath Excepted ought to be reformed as well as the Discipline This over-passionate and turbulent way of Proceeding and the Impatience we find in many for some speedy Determination in these Matters whereby the Minds of Men may be composed and the Peace of the Church established hath prevailed with us to invert the Method we had proposed to our self and even in order to the better Calling and Composing of a Synod which the present Jealousies will hardly agree upon by the assistance of God's blessed Spirit which we daily invoke and supplicate to give some determination our self to the Matters in difference until such a Synod may be called as may without
that all the Snares that ever they could lay for us never procured them just advantage once truly to say that we disagreed among our selves For though there were enow at a distance who could not have agreed to all that we did yet we so far left them out though to the displeasure both of the Prelatists and them that no discord was found in any of our Proposals or Debates which cut some of them more to the heart than all that else we did to their displeasure § 209. By this time our frequent crossing of their Expectations I saw had made some of the Bishops angry above all Bishop Morley who over-ruled the whole business and did interess himself in it deeplier than the rest and was of a hotter Spirit and a readier Tongue But that which displeased them most was the freedom of my Speeches to them that is that I spake to them as on terms of Equality as to the Cause yet with all honourable Titles to their Persons For I perceived that they had that eminency of Power and Interest that the greatest Lords were glad of their favour did expect that the presence of so many of them should have awed us into such a silence or cowardliness as should have betrayed our Cause or at least that their Vehemency and Passions and Interruptions should have put us out of Countenance But I intreated them to give us leave with the due honour of their Persons to use that necessary liberty of Speech to them as beseemed such as are very confident that they plead for the Cause of God and the happiness and healing of a bleeding Church and that upon the warrant of the King's Commission And I must say that though they frowned at my freedom of Speech they never once accused me of any unmannerly or unreverent Language § 210. When we were going to our Disputation Dr. Pierce asked whether he that was none of the three deputed by them to that Service might joyn with the rest And we told that we cared not how many joyned the more the better for if any one of them could see any Evidence of Truth which the rest did overlook it would redound to our Benefit who desired nothing but the Victory of Truth § 211. And before he began with them he would fain have had one bout with me himself Whereas I moved them to some Christian Charity to all those Consciencious Christians that were to be put away from the Communion of the Church if they did but scruple the lawfulness of kneeling in the reception of the Sacrament though I still profest to them that I held it not unlawful my self when the Sacrament could not be otherwise had Dr. Pierce offered himself to a Disputation to prove that let them be never so many it is an Act of Mercy to them to put them all from the Communion of the Church I easily perceived what advantage his Confidence and Passion gave me and I intreated him to try his skill but his Brethren would not give him leave I earnestly entreated them to give him leave but to try one Argument but I could not prevail with them being wiser than to suffer his Passion to expose their Cause to Laughter and Contempt But yet he could not forbear to cast out his medium and tell us how he would have argued viz. That they that receive the Sacrament being in judgment against kneeling in the Act of Receiving do receive it Schismatically and so to their own Damnation Ergo it is an Act of Charity to keep them from the Communion of the Church Where note That our Dispute was only whether the Legistators should by Laws or Canons keep them away and not whether a Pastor supposing such Laws existent should keep them away And therefore by making it damnable Schism antecedently to our Laws he must needs mean that some Foreign Laws or General Councils do prove it Schism or else the Custom of the Universal Church And as to the first I did at large there prove that the Twentieth Canon of the Council at Nice and the Concil Trull and the most ancient Writers do unanimously decree against kneeling and make it universally unlawful and that by Apostolical Tradition to adore kneeling on any Lord's Day in the Year and on any other Day between Easter and Whitsunday and that no General Council hath reversed this till meer Disuse and contrary Custom did it And for Custom the Protestant Churches concur not in that Custom nor are they Schismaticks for differing from the Papists and others that do so nor is it better for them all to be without any Church Communion than not to kneel in the Act of Receiving Nor do the Papists themselves make every Man a Schismatick that followeth not the Custom of their Church in every particular Gesture unless he separate from their Church it self much less do they pronounce Damnation on all such But if it were the Law of our own Land or Church which he thought made it Schism then he might as well have so argued for sitting or standing and against kneeling viz. That it is Charity to make a Law is keep all from Church◠Communion that will kneel because when such a Law is made it is damnable Schism to kneel But the very truth is I perceived so little Compassion to Souls in the zealous and swaying Managers of these Controversies and so little regard of the Scruples and Tenderness of Godly People who were afraid of Sinning a◠that I scarce thought among Protestants there had been any such Whether they would have abated one Ceremony if they had had an hundred more to keep all the Dissenters in three Nations from being cast out of the Ministry and Church I know not but of those they have they would not abate one which made me oft think that their Spirits are much more like the Papists than their Formal Worship and Discipline is so much do they agree in destroying Men for their Opinions and Ceremonies sake and in Building the Tombs of the Prophets and over-honouring the dead Saints while they go on to hate and destroy the living And it made me oft remember Bishop Hall's Character of an Hyprocrite who boweth at the Name of Iesus and sweareth by the Name of God and would set all the World on fire for a Circumstances And it made me remember what that learned godly Minister Mr Spinage hath oft told me and many others and is still ready to justifie upon Oath that being heretofore familiar with this Mr. Thomas Pierce and saying once to him These Men that you so abhor are very godly Men and have much Communion with God he brake out into this Answer A pou on this Communion with God And it made me think of Augustine's Description of the sottish Worldlings that had far rather thus were one Star fewer in Heaven than one Cow or one Tree the fewer in their Grounds So had these Men rather One thousand eight hundred godly
peaceable Reformation among us than to break down This Partition-Wall for there is nothing provokes more than this doth to deny such Churches to be true Churches of Christ. For do but think with your selves and I will give you a familiar Example You come to a Man whom you think to be a godly Man you tell him He hath these and these Sins in him and they are great ones It is as much as he can hear though you tell him he is a Saint and acknowledge him so but if you come to him and say besides this You are a Limb of the Devil and you have no Grace in you this provoketh all in a Man when there is any Ground in himself to think so or in another to judge him so so it is here Come to Church and say You have these Defects among you and these things to be reformed But if you will come and say Your Churches and your Ministers are Antichristian and come from Babylon there is nothing provoketh more Therefore if there be a Truth in it as I believe there is Men should be Zealous to express it For this is the great Partition Wall that hindreth of twain making one Then again This is that which I consider and it is a great Consideration also I know that Jesus Christ hath given his People Light in Matters of this Nature by degrees Thousands of good Souls that have been bred up and born in our Assemblies and enjoy the Ordinances of God and have done it comfortably cannot suddenly take in other Principles You must wait on Christ to do it In this Case Men are not to be wrought off by Falshoods God hath no need of them no rather till Men do take in Light you should give them all that is comfortable in the Condition they are in we should acknowledge every good thing in every Man in every Church in every thing and that is a way to work upon Men and to prevail with them as it is Philem. v. 6. That the Communication of thy Faith may become effectual acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Iesus It is that which buildeth Men up by acknowledgment of every good thing that is in them Lastly The last Inconvenience is this It doth deprive Men of all those Gifts that are found amongst our Ministers and in this Kingdom that they cannot hold any Communion or fellowship with them So that I profess my self as Zealous in this Point as in any other I know And for my part this I say and I say it with much Integrity I never yet took up Religion by Parties in the Lump I have found by tryal of things that there is some truth on all Sides I have found Holiness where you would little think it and so likewise Truth And I have learned this Principle which I hope I shall never lay down till I am swallowed up of Imortality and that is that which I said before To acknowledge every good thing and hold Communion with it in Men in Churches or Whatsoever else I learn this from Paul I learn this from Jesus Christ himself He filleth All in All He is in the Hearts of his People and filleth them in his Ordinances to this Day And where Jesus Christ filleth why should we deny an Acknowledgment and a right Hand of Fellowship and Communion My Brethren this Rule that I have now mentioned which I profess I have lived by and shall do while I live I know I shall never please Men in it Why It is plain for this is the Nature and Condition of all Mankind if a Man dissents from others in one thing he loseth himself in all the rest And therefore it a Man do take what is good of all sides he is apt to lose them all But he pleaseth Christ by it and so I will for this particular Thus far Dr. T. Goodwin prefaced and commended by Thankful Owen and Iames Barron worthy and peaceable Men deceased The Transcriber craveth judicious Resolutions of these two Questions 1. Whether it be lawful to be a fixed Member of a grosly Schismatical Church that is guilty of such separating from slandering almost all others as is here reproved when Communion with better may be had Quest. 2. How far others are bound to reprove and Testify against such dividing Principles Ministers and Churches especially after and under doleful Experience of their sinful calamitous Effects Dear Brother I Have felt that in my own Soul and seen that upon my Brethren for these two or three Years last past which persuadeth me that God is about the healing of our Wounds having communicated more healing Principles and Affections and poured out more of the Spirit of Catholick Love and Peace than I have perceived heretofore Love is arisen and shineth upon the Children of the Day and your congealed Stiffness begins to vanish and a Christian Tenderness to succeed The Prince of Peace erects his Banner and the Sons of Peace flock in apace It is a shame to be the last but a misery to be none God will bring his divided distracted Servants nearer together and it is Pity he should be put to bear down any resisting Saints among the Instruments of Satan and that any of their Carcasses should be found on the Ground when he conquereth the Enemies of Peace The Lord is about revealing to his Servants the Error of their Consoriousness Harshness Uncharitableness and Divisions and how grievously they have wronged him and themselves by departing so far from Christian Love and Unity He will let them see how much of the Cause was secret and undiscerned Pride and Self-conceitedness and want of Holy Christian Love while little was pretended or discerned but Strictness and Obedience He will shew them more fully wherein the true Nature of Grace and Holy Obedience doth consist and teach them by the Impress of his Spirit what he so emphatically commanded them by his Word to go learn what that meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice It 's pity we should not understand the meaning of Words so plain but it 's Sin and Shame as well as Pity that we have studied them no better after such a Memorandum and Command as this But many of God's Servants have in the Points of Unity and Peace been like those miserable Souls that are described to have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not Hearts and understand not these blessed Precepts of Love and Unity though none more plain and frequent and urgent for the time was not come that they should be recovered and healed though this Defection be not in the Essence of Christianity but the Degrees nor for Perpetuity but a Time yet it 's sad that such a Spirit of deadness should so far prevail that Men inquisitive after Truth and zealous of Holiness should least understand the plainest nearest frequent Precepts and so little feel their Obligations to such weighty Duties that the Lord is pleased to stir upon their