preserve the Unity and Charity pleaded for and now let all Mankind judge whether Mr. H's Comment does any way abate the force of the Apostles Exhortation to Unity or rather whether it does not greatly promote the same by censuring and exposing those Practices that are destructive thereof Nay this very man in the next Paragraph page 12. confesses that the Apostle aimed not at all different Opinions in meer Notions and Speculations which is the very same assertion he has treated so scurrilously in Mr. H. he says the Apostle meant only those different Opinions that break Communion but how come different Opinions to have that effect but by being made Conditions of Communion and must not the fault then lye upon those that make them so For had that been forborn the Communion might have been preserved entire still as has been before shewed He derides Mr. H. for not knowing that a perfect Conjunction in the Catholick Church and Communion of Saints is required of all those that are to come to a World of Everlasting Perfection And all the sober part of Mankind will deride him for so confus'd and gross an Assertion for if that be true then must none be saved who are imperfect in Faith or in their partaking of the Lords Supper or imperfect in Prayers and in obedience to Ecclesiastical Rulers in all things pertaining to a godly Life page 5. parag 3. for these things make up the Communion of Saints as he himself tells us and then 't is time for T. W. to look about him for I fear the last would exclude him though he could pretend Perfection in all the rest He acknowledges the Corinthians were accused of that which Mr. H. calls Schism for admiring one Minister above another But why of that which Mr. H. calls Schism does not the Apostle himself call it so as positively as Mr. H. but it was not convenient to own that because he had told us that diversity of Communion was the formalis Ratio of Schism and if so the Corinthians could not be charged with it either therefore the Apostle falsly accused the Corinthians or this mans Notion of Schism is false and here we hold the point and have brought it to a fair Issue if this man has a mind to quarrel with St. Paul he may take his course but he may do well to consider he engages himself against the Spirit of God and who ever contended with his Maker and prospered He accuses Mr. H. of scandalizing St. Paul in saying he preferred Soul Salvation before his own Credit but I am assured St. Paul would not take this for a Scandal for he was ever willing to sacrifice his Name and Reputation to the blessed Interest of Christ and the Gospel I wish this man were chargeable with no grosser Scandals than these It is very unfairly insinuated That Mr. H. thinks it as great a Crime to silence him as it would have been to have silenc'd the Apostles He is far from making any such Comparison but it will be found criminal enough to silence the least of Christs faithful Ministers for what is done to them he takes as done to himself and for him to say Mr. H. is no Minister is purely precarious and shall be granted the first hour that he has proved it and he cannot reasonably expect we should acknowledge it before Mr. H. in his little Book has this Expression It appears That narrow-spiritedness which confines Religion and the Church to one way and party whatever it is to the condemning of others that differ from us in little things is the bane of the Christian-Church a Sentence to which all those will subscribe who either understand or wish well to the common Interest of Christianity what fault then will T. W find with it He tells us Religion is the Bond of Unity that is to say where there is no true practical Religion there can be no real Church Unity Is not this the meaning If it be it will turn abundance of our fierce Contenders for the Ceremonies out of doors He asks Did you ever know a Religion without Bounds and Rules for all of that Religion to be confined to even to a Punctilio Sir we know no Religion but what 's contained in the Word of God nor any necessary Bounds and Rules but what are there laid down and we find none there obliging to exact Uniformity in your Ceremonies nay on the contrary we find Rules laid down for mutual forbearance in such things and for denying our selves in what we might lawfully do when the doing of it would offend tender Consciences and if we must suspend our own Act and Freedom for fear of such Offence it can never be lawful for us to force our Practice upon others and whoever do so observe not the Rules nor confine themselves within the Bounds Religion has fixed but are convicted by the Word of God of schismaticating Practices how eager soever they may be to fasten the brand upon others If this mans way of living had not made him more conversant with L'Estrange's Observators than with the Sacred Scriptures he would never talk at such an odd rate concerning the Rules and Bounds of Religion as he does He enquires whether They of our Conventicling Communion have not Rules of their own making by which they are distinguished and confined To give him a plain Answer We utterly disclaim making any Terms of Communion but what Christ has made we desire no more but a credible Profession of Faith and Holiness in order to admission to the most solemn Ordinances we require no Oaths Subscriptions Declarations of assent and consent to Canons and Homilies and Liturgies of humane Composure and if there be any thing that distinguishes from other Parties it is the Gospel Simplicity of our Worship and the absence of those little Toys others value themselves so much upon and as protesting for Scripture Sufficiency in Matters of Doctrine distinguishes Protestants from Papists so in Matters of Government and Worship it distinguishes us from you and thus by leaving the Bounds of Church Communion as wide and large as Christ has left them we escape the reproach and guilt of that Narrow-spiritedness which would retrench the same and yet after all are far from thinking all true Religion and Christianity and Salvation confined to those of our Perswasion Now comes our Citizen to cast in our Teeth all the Irregularities and Distractions of the Civil Wars the old thread-bare Cant which has been a rare pretence for all those Brutal Excesses that have been acted upon us for these many years wherein has been the most horrid Misrepresentation of matters of Fact that were ever advanced in the same Age wherein the things were done The true causes of that War are so well known to all the World and have of late met with so publick and Authentick a vindication that they need not my Apology All our Historians even those that are most devoted to the Court
is referr'd not to the Judgment of T. W. or of an Interessed Party but of all the unbyass'd part of Mankind upon a fair hearing which yet we could never obtain Mr. H's design was to create a good agreement betwixt Parties that had been so long and learnedly contending and in this I know of no professed Adversary he has but T. W. and whether his design be not more honest than this mans and his management more rational will be speedily tried Our sincere Lover before he finishes his Preface makes his honours to three sorts of Readers the Church-man the Dissenter and the Sceptick and he does it with as good a grace as can be expected from a man in his circumstances As for the true Member of his Church he 's assur'd of him that he has been taught the Candour to cover the faults of a weak Brother be the performance never so vicious Zeal for the Church will consecrate and make it pass with applause amongst such as himself and if they be but pleased he 's satisfied for to humour them was all he design'd Now to the Dissenter if he be one that has not sacrificed his name to the factious so as to divest himself of all Christian temper humility and consideration But what a strange supposition is this Is there ever a Dissenter in the World that is not devoted to Faction and stript of Humility They have formerly condemned us in the lump 't is well our Friends have learned to distinguish Well if there should chance to be such a creature he is desired to consider his desperate condition how humble considerate of a Christian temper and yet in a desperate condition this is as great a Riddle as the former In good earnest if a man may be in a desperate condition with all these Virtues I would desire T. W. to consider what the condition of that man is that appears to have none of all these The Dissenter however bids me thank him for his weak endeavours to snatch him as a firebrand out of the fire but I am also to tell him his weak service comes too late for it has pleased God to move the King and Parliament to do it who have already by their gracious Indulgence pluckt a great many Brands out of the fire of these mens rage and fury in which they and their Interest were almost consumed a blessing which we doubt not all the Angels congratulate to us excepting those whose business it is to accuse the Brethren and to raise storms and tempests in the World His last Address is to the Sceptick and if the Sceptick be obstinate and perverse an obstinate Sceptick is almost as great a Riddle as a humble Dissenter It has been the way of some men to represent all men as Sceptical and Atheists that have had larger Souls themselves and would not joyn with them in unchurching the greatest part of the World for the sake of a Mitre and a few Ceremonies and yet many of these Scepticks have as true a veneration for the Clergy and Church as T. W. himself for it can hardly be imagin'd that man can have any real value For an Office whose life does openly confront the great Ends thereof And now he takes leave of his Reader and turns him to Mr. H. himself and upon the first salutation blames him for not chusing the true Standard whereby to discover Schism Mr. H. chose no other but the Sacred Scriptures which being the great Law for the Government of Men must certainly be the truest Touch-stone of Sin and Duty and if the Schism this man would charge us with be not so according to the Standard of Scripture we shall not much dread the guilt or danger of it This is a hopeful beginning of Controversie to decline the sufficiency and propriety of Scripture as the Standard of good or evil But will this man assign a better yes the ninth Article of the Apostle's Creed I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints But by what Standard must we discover the true notion of these words Who must tell us what the Unity of the Church is and what the Communion of Saints Must not Scripture be our Rule And must you not then come to Mr. H's Standard at last a happy Omen when the first Paragraph contains a plain affront both to Scripture and common sense But let us see how he goes on He offers to our consideration the Origination and first Existence of the Catholick Church which was before the day of Pentecost but how long before that day he does not tell us If a man pretends to acquaint me with the Origination of the World and tells me it was before the Babylonish Captivity I shall count him a ridiculous trifler but I suppose he means it was immediately before or a little while before the day of Pentecost and here indeed is a discovery worthy of its Author But had God no Church then amongst the Jews must they be excommunicated too for what cause pray Not for want of Ceremonies or a Pontiff I hope The man told us in his Preface the Angels in Heaven were the most glorious Members of the Church How must we lay these things together Were the Angels originated at the day of Pentecost had they their first Existence then or did the Members of the Body exist before the Body let the Citizen or any of his Cabbala solve these Riddles and I 'le promise him he shall be my great Apollo That the Apostles and Disciples were the Church we do not question nor the power Christ gave his Apostles to Preach the Gospel to all the World and he well observes that Christ's commission and charge That in every Nation they that believe might be baptized and so made Members of the Church How well they have observed their Commission who refuse to admit of Church-Members upon their profession of Faith unless they will also comply with some significant Rites of their own that are alien to the Scripture Rules some men may do well to consider and whether to deny Gospel-priviledges to those that in the Judgment of Charity are Believers be not to assume a greater power than that which this man calls the Universal Power given to the Apostles whereby they become guilty of the worst sort of Tyranny because the Liberties hereby invaded are of all others the most sacred and invaluable It is plain from this mans confession that to be a Disciple or Believer would make a man a Member of the Church in Apostolical times and we cannot but assent to that excellent saying of the now Bishop of Worcester It is pity that which would make a man a Disciple of Christ then should not be sufficient to make him a Member of the Church now but we have no reason to doubt the contrary and if such a person should be clave errante shut out of the Communion of a particular Church God would still look upon him as his
then must all the Successors of the Apostles have the same power the Rule is known à quatenus ad omne It is plain by this that Apostolical Succession in the sence of those times was not any such fine Aerial Thread as this Man speaks of but Conformity to the Apostles model in Government and Worship and those that best observe that are in the truest sence the Apostles Successors whether the Line has been broke by intervening Hereticks and Schismaticks or no. We all grant that for Persons wilfully to withdraw themselves from such particular Churches as are framed according to Scripture Rules and impose no new or needless terms is to act Schismatically because such wilful Separation when no cause is given cannot be without breach of Charity with our Fellow Christians which is the Scripture Notion of Schism and this Mr. Henry himself grants and calls it Separation for Separation's sake which T.W. might have taken notice of had he designed fair dealing But this is not at all proved to be our case We earnestly desire Episcopacy may be reduced to its proper Sphere that every particular Church may have its Bishop and Presbyters and so power within it self to admonish suspend and reject scandalous Persons we desire the Rules of the Gospel may be carefully lookt into and a Model of Government and Worship taken from thence such as may be likely to answer the great Ends of Church Societies that nothing may be imposed but what is either expresly commanded or has a natural and proper tendency to promote that which is so then would the Worship of God appear like it self rational grave and majestical becoming reasonable Creatures to offer and a Being of perfect Simplicity and Spirituality to receive nor would we as we are accused under pretence of Spirituality reject the natural decorum of an Action in Divine Worship but only lay aside those Formalities that are over and above natural decency which in civil converse are counted foppish and daily grow out of repute betwixt Man and Man and are no where so improper as in the Service of God It is certainly a very odd Custom these Men have taken up against us if they find in any of the Fathers the word Bishop they presently transfer it a Diocesan Prelate if they read of Breaking off from the Communion of the Bishop it must be immediately applyed to the practice of Dissenters in England When alas till the Extent of Power way of coming into Office and Charge terms of Admission c. be proved to be tantamount to what they now are bare words will conclude nothing at all And yet without so much as offering to prove any thing of this T.W. will needs perswade Mr. H. to confess himself a Schismatick and so out of the Catholick Church and possibility of Salvation Though we need not concern our selves to soften or extenuate the fault of Schism no such thing being proved against us yet it may not be amiss to take notice how this eager Man over-shoots himself in these matters he first makes all those Churches Schismatical that do not agree with the Primitive Catholick Church in Faith Worship and Government without adjusting the measures of such Agreement as if every little difference made a Schism which would bear hard upon all the Churches at this day in the World And when he has done this he cuts off all these Schismatical Societies from being parts of the Catholick Church or under a possibility of Salvation It must needs follow from hence that Popish Churches to say nothing of others must be Schismatical for they vary notoriously from the Primitive in Faith Government and Worship as I suppose this Man will grant all those Churches therefore since this Variation were no parts of the Catholick Church that is no Churches at all and by consequence according to him their Bishops must be but Lay-Impostors their Ordinations null and void the Line of Communication broken the Apostolical Power lost and all England in a state of Damnation and all this is the Effect of over-great earnestness to prove the Dissenters Schismaticks We have with a great deal of Patience examined T. W's Notions of the Church of Communion and Unity and whether there be any thing observable in them besides Ignorance Confusion and Contradiction is left to the Judgment of the Reader That which remains is to view the Remarks he has made upon Mr. H's Book The Instance of Eldad and Medad was never designed to run of all four but thus far 't is to the purpose as it proves that God has not limited his People in Religious Actions so nicely to the publick places as some would pretend and that even good Men are apt too severely to censure such actions when managed out of the usual Method before they fully understand the reason of the thing and that meek and humble Men like Moses who are more concerned for the Substance than Circumstances of Religion would not deny the Church the advantage of those Gifts which God has bestowed upon Men even though the exercise of them might seem to derogate from their own Grandeur those general Inferences naturally follow from the place and the application of them is not improper as this Man fancies whatever the Office of this Man was to be yet doubtless this Act of prophecying was of a Sacred rather than a Civil nature and though under that Oeconomy the Priests were principally engaged in the Ceremonial part of Worship yet in the Moral part the Prophets often bore a share which was discovering the mind of God to the People and pressing them to Obedience and it is to this rather than the Priestly Office that a Gospel Minister succeeds If these Men demand we should give as signal proof of our Authority to the Bishops as Eldad and Medad could to Moses I hope we may expect that the Bishops should give as signal proof of their Authority as Moses could do but if extraordinary Commission need not be pretended in the one case we suppose there 's as little need of it in the other and we are ready to give satisfaction to all the World of the ordinary Warrant which consists in suitable Qualifications enquired into and approved by such as the Scripture calls Bishops Upon Mr. H's bare mentioning of the Worshippers of the Diana of their own opinion T. W. charges him with saucy Language but Mr. H. needs not come to this Man to learn how to speak the reflection Mr. H. made was general that there are such cannot be denied and let it fall where 't is due but why must this of Necessity be spoke of the Bishops such an invidious innuendo in the last Reign might have cost a Man dear of which Mr. Baxter is a memorable Instance But T.W. will answer for the Bishops and they are certainly very happy in such an Advocate that if the Punctilio's of Opinion do not cause a separate Communion they will not censure that for