8. And will you give the Papist Disputants so much Encouragement, as to confess
to them, that among us there is not any hopes of Unity, or loving Christian
Church Communion. I have been longer than I intended upon these Reasonings:
but it is because I would not neglect you, but someone of them at least
may stick upon you, of which success (your lives declaring you so honestly, impartially,
and happily disposed to Love and Peace) I make no doubt. And now
to your Objections, which should have been my whole Task, but that I would
make sure the Issue.
And 1. to your first Argument, I answer, 1. It is against you, and overthrows
your Cause: for as ordinarily Women were admitted to the Passover, without
Circumcision, but not without the Covenant: and as in extraordinary Cases offered
(as of all
Israel
40 years in the Wilderness) the Males also were admitted
uncircumcised, so much more may it be now in case of Baptism.
2. Either the Ordinances and Examples of the Jews about Circumcision, afford
us Arguments for regulating our Baptism and Communion, or not: If not,
then you urge them in vain: If they do, then they prove the Duty, if not the
Necessity of Infant Baptism.
3. Ceremonies have not so much laid on them under the Gospel, as under the
Law. Mercy before Sacrifice is the Gospel Canon.
Ad 2
m
,
2. That Command
Matth.
28. commandeth the baptizing of Disciples:
I doubt not but it commandeth thereby the baptizing of Infants, who are Disciples,
and made Disciples, while proselyted Parents enter them into the Covenant
of God, according to his express unrepealed Law and Promise.
2. But suppose it did not command Infant-Baptism; nay, suppose it had consequentially
forbidden it, it proves no more than that it is a sin, not a nullity.
3. But suppose it had made it a Nullity, how are you guilty of other men's omission
of Baptism by holding Communion with them, when you may at your
Enterance declare your dissent from them in that point. Your Argument would
lead you to avoid Communion with all Churches in the World, even the re-baptized,
that held not all that you take to be the Institutions of Christ: because you
are bound to hold them. But when you have leave to do your own Duty, if you
will shun all that you think do not theirs, you will abhor Catholicism.
Ad 3
m
,
1. As to
John
3. 5. doubtless that Text speaks of more than the visible
Church, even the Mystical and the Triumphant. And therefore if you will from
thence exclude Infants from Baptism, and the visible Church, you must needs
shut them all out of Heaven, but
Christo dissentiente,
you shall have none of Christ's
consent.
2. It is both Water as the sign, and the holy Covenant and Cleansing of the
Soul, as the thing signified, that are convincingly meant in the Text. But
how? one only as a sign, and the other as the thing signified: and therefore not
as equally necessary in point of means, though equally commanded. Alas, how
easily understand we such Speeches among Men. If a General say to the Rebels
(I will spare none of you that will not come and list himself under me) every Body
will understand, that becoming a Soldier (and the Military Engagement or Sacrament,
as the Oath was anciently called) is the thing here signified to be absolutely
necessary: and the Listing or Colours, but as a sign for Order, and in
Cases of Necessity dispensable, and regarded but in order unto the thing signified.
Your Arguments from personal Inconveniencies are none.
Ad 1
m
,
1. Do not you startle to hear the Catholic Church called the World?
and a retirement into its Communion, called a Returning to the World? I have
read
(Come out from among them)
that is, the World; but not (Come out of the
Catholic Church).
2. And do you not startle to hear them call their way
Strictness,
and the other
Looseness?
If they mean a sinful strictness, so every Vice, or many, may have a strictness.
Malice hath a strictness, and Covetousness and Oppression hath a strictness,
and Superstition hath a strictness. But if they mean it of a holy strictness, are
not they the strictest that are likest to Christ, and most conformable to his Will,
and most accurate in their Obedience? And is not Love the
new and great Commandment?
Are not your People loose that are so far from holy Love and Catholic
Communion.
God is Love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.
They
are strict then in opposing God, and the Unity or sweet Communion of the
Members of the Lord. Is it an honor to be strict Sinners and Destroyers of the
Church and Holy Love? Let some take heed, least they be too strict to come into
Heaven among so many Millions of Souls that never owned any but Infant
Baptism (which is, I think, since Christ many hundred to one, that is there,
that never were against Infant Baptism) whether do you think Christ or the Pha
•
isees
were the stricter, when they condemned him for
eating with Publicans and
Sinners,
and his Disciples for
breaking the ears of Corn,
and him for
Sabbath-breaking,
&c. Sure he more accurately observed his Father's will, even the blessed Rule of
Love and Mercy, though they were more superstitious and strict, was it the weak,
or the strong Christians,
Rom. 14. &
15. that were the stricter about
meats,
and
drinks,
and
days?
The weak superstitiously, but the strong did more strictly adhere
to the Law of Christ. Do you think that Man that shall say Christ died
but for half the Saints themselves, to be ever the better for that strict Opinion?
If you are for such forbidden strictness of Practice, why do you not answer it
in your Opinions about Grace?
&c.
2. You have cause to be much humbled before the Lord for bringing your
People into this Snare and Misconceit, and
ergo
should not be guilty of continuing
them in it, nor make the fruit of your Sin an Argument to go on Impenitently.
3. So great a Truth and Duty as Christian Catholic Love and Communion, is
not to be bawked for fear of danger. Tell you of it plainly, and trust God with
the Issue. It's doubt, those that will turn
Quakers,
that is Infidels, or near, rather
than be reduced to Catholic Love and Communion, are never like to come to
good, if you keep them where they are. It's a fearful thing that any Man should
think the better of his Spiritual state, because he flieth furthest from the Catholic
Love and Communion of Saints, that is, from the Church, from Christ, from
God, from Heaven.
Ad 2
m
,
Your Communion with differing Saints, is not a sinning against your
Opinion about Baptism, nor a leaving your station. You may own your way,
and yet own Catholic Communion.
Dear Brother, I think the Lord of Love and Peace is laying hands on you, and
will have you away out of your dangerous Schisms into the Paths of Love and
Peace. It is Uncharitableness and Separation that hath made the Rebaptized so
odious throughout the World. Love breedeth Love, as Heat breedeth Heat.
The Christian Charity that appeareth in your Lives, I sensibly feel draws out my
own Heart in love to you. All God's Saints will love you, if you will but turn
into the way of Love. I hear that the Rebaptized in
Ireland,
that grew to the
reputation of Turbulent in their height, begin now to be thought more peaceable
and tolerable than some others there, that being lately in the Saddle, possessed
their Prosperity and unquietness. O! if days of Persecution come, it will
cut your hearts to think how you have refused Communion with your Brethren in
days of Peace. If we all lay our Heads and Hearts and Hands together for God's
Church and Cause, it will be too little. My motion to you is, That you will
join with us for a Brotherly Agreement between the Men of your mind and ours:
The Articles shall be but these three.
1. That all that can, being satisfied in Conscience with their being Rebaptized,
shall continue loving Communion in the Church.
2. That those that cannot be brought to this, but will hold separated Churches,
shall acknowledge us true Churches, and profess their Brotherly Love and distant
Communion.
3. That we all agree on some Rules for the peaceable management of our
Differences, without hardening the Wicked, ensnaring the Weak, hindering the
Gospel, and wronging the common Truths which we are agreed in. If this motion
take with you, I will send you a Form of such Agreement: and get as many
as you can of your way to Subscribe it; and the Associated Ministers of this
County, I doubt not, will Subscribe it; and we will do our parts to lead the
World to Peace. Seek God's direction, and return your Resolution to
Your faithful Brother,
Rich. Baxter.
Novemb. 6. 1658.
To Mr.
William Allen.
I Received yours of the 9th past, wherein you are pleased to endeavor my Satisfaction
touching the Passages in your
Key,
which I wrote about, as if I
had taken Offence at them. I do acknowledge I was a little troubled; But I
can truly say, so far as I know my own Mind, I was not troubled so much for
my own sake, as for the sake of others, who I was afraid would make worse use
thereof, than ever I am like to do, and so receive more prejudice thereby: For I
am not thereby set back a Hair's Breadth in my earnest desire to general Communion;
but do fear the general Inclinations of some others thereto are weakened
thereby, and an Advantage taken by such who have a mind to oppose an Agreement;
and the Minds of many prejudiced against your worthy Proposals for Government,
and the reading of them. As for Example, I was within these five
Days, commending your wholly Common-wealth (and truly I desire with all my
Heart a Government exactly calculated to your practical Model) and there was
one in Company, who is Author of a small Piece, called,
A sober Word to a serious
People,
that took occasion to give a dash to my Commendation, and to weaken the
Reputation of your Writings, as if you were easy in suggesting and asserting
things upon Surmises, or very slender Information. Instancing what you say of
himself, in
p.
332. of your
Key,
as insinuating him to be such an one as did not
think as he wrote, but to be a Designing Jesuit: When as all that know him,
and have known him a Tradesman here in
London,
and in public Employment
for many Years, would be ready to acquit him in their Thoughts, from any such
thing; which indeed I believe: And I am informed that one
Stubbs
of
Oxford,
(who is said to have written Sir
H. V. Vindication, &c.
how true it is I know not)
is employed to scrape together such things out of your Writings, as may any wise
reflect Disparagement. The which things I still inform you of, for no worse end
than that you might avoid occasion towards those that seek occasion, and that the
Devil may have no Opportunity given him to hinder the Propagation and Fruit of
your worthy Labors.
As for Sir
H. V.
I did not intend to interess myself in the Vindication of his
Principles by that touch of him in my Letter, for I do not know but that I am at
as great a distance from them as you may be, and am heartily glad to hear that his
Interest and sway in the present House is much fallen. I am not without a deep
Sense of our Danger, and that the preventing of near approaching Confusion and
Blood, under God, depends much upon the speedy and well Settlement of the
Militia through the Nation, if it be not too late. I cannot but have a jealous Eye
upon the Quakers, as well as the C. and Popish Party,
&c.
Sir,
I suppose my Brother
Lamb
will suddenly be with you, if he be not already,
and therefore I shall earnestly entreat you to caution him against Extremes,
to which his temper doth much addict him. I hear Mr.
Gunning
(and what he is
I presume you know) giveth out that Mr.
Lamb
is come over to them. And
my Brother
Lamb
hath been too apt to let fall odd Expressions, showing how far
his Thoughts incline him to hold Communion with Papists, as those that wish
him well do affirm. And he hath oft been speaking to me, how hard a thing it is
to justify our Separation from
Rome,
and to condemn it among ourselves. I
thought good to give you this hint, as being persuaded you may improve it for
his good, who I hope will much regard your Advice.
All against Infant Baptism, are not esteemed Anabaptists; for then
Turks
and
Jews
would. Nor could you intend it in that Sense about King-killing; for then
there would have been no place for the
Vanists
to have been another Party distinct
from them. Nor does an after owning of their Act who took off the King,
prove them to be Agents in it, that had no Hand in it when it was done.
These times have discovered as abundance of Wickedness in some, so of Weakness
in all sorts of good Men in one kind or other. O that God would pardon
what's past, and reduce his People into right Order.
Pray, Sir, excuse these confused Lines, the Fruit of Haste and Diversion of
Thoughts. I had left at my House this Day, a large Manuscript, Intituled
Romanism
discussed;
or,
An Answer to the Nine first Articles of
H. T.
his Manual of
Controversies,
&c. Written by Mr.
Io. Tombes.
The
Printer
that left it with my
Wife in my Absence told her, that Mr.
Tombes
desired me to write to you, to prefix
an Epistle to it; but I have not spoke with Mr.
Tombes,
nor the
Printer
about it;
or if I had, should be loath to be so bold to desire such a thing, unless I knew how
acceptable it would be to you. Sir, the good Lord keep you and him who is
YOURS,
Affectionately to serve you,
Will. Allen.
London, July 12.
1659.
To his very Worthy, Good Friend, Mr.
Rich. Baxter,
in
Kidderminster.
I Take myself exceedingly beholden to you for your last, it is so plain and purely
Friendly. And though I seem by my Reply to excuse those things,
which I take it for a kindness to be told of, I beseech you believe, that I speak but
my Heart, and the truth of my meaning. The Author of the
Sober Word
I commended:
I never talked of his being a Jesuit: His Assertion forced me to conclude,
that either he was of a very lamentable Understanding, or else he wrote not as he
thought: One of the two must needs be true. Judge you whether a Christian of
good Understanding can believe that Christ came at the end of Four Thousand
Years to gather him a Church, and settle Ministry and Ordinances for Eighty or
a Hundred Years only, and so to permit them to be extinguished! Is not this the
next Step to Flat Infidelity? Is not a Christ that comes on so low a Design, and
settles a Church of so narrow a Space and short Continuance next to no Church?
I must profess, if I believed this to Day, I should be an Infidel to Morrow: Besides
the plainness of Scripture against it. But that this Author is no Dullard, is
apparent by his ingenuous Writing: I meet with few that err so far, that write in
so clear and judicious a Style; So that I still profess, be he what he will, I much
value the clearness of the Author. Being then in a necesity of Judging him either
lamentably weak (and worse) or else to be one that thinks better than he writes,
Reason and Charity commanded me to judge the latter to be more likely: And that
likelihood is all that I have asserted. But if he had rather that I judged much
worse of him (
viz.
that he hath as contemptible Thoughts of the Kingdom and
Design of Christ as he expresseth) if I may know his Mind I shall consent. Will
you do me the Favor as to tell me his Name?
To your other Objections: 1. Not Infidels, but yet all Christians with us,
that deny Infant Baptism are commonly called Anabaptists, and in that Sense I
did intend it: But so as that I distinguish between Anabaptists and mere Anabaptists;
some are only Anabaptists, and those I distinguish from other Parties of
their Mind; some are Anabaptists and more, and those are commonly denominated
from the greatest Differences. The greater Error in the Denomination is to
carry it before the less. And yet (
E. G.
) a Quaker pleading against Infant-Baptism,
ceaseth not to be an Anabaptist, because he is a Quaker, but yet is to be entitled
from the worst. And this distinguished from mere Anabaptists: This all
know is the common Custom of Speech, and a Man should not be well understood
that departs from it.
2. An after owning proveth guilty, though not Agents: But I know well of
abundance in the Army (more than you mention that pleaded against Infant Baptism
before, and I can easily prove that (even the best that ever I knew of) the
Anabaptist Churches petitioned for Justice on the King, and labored for Hands
from others to it. I am loath to Name Men publicly, and stir in this, least it
occasion Offence: But I entreat you freely give me your Advice in it. I purposed
not to have answered
Stubs
's Vindication, and the Ministers commonly were
the Cause by dissuading me, saying none regarded it, and that I should exasperate
Sir
H. V.
against them all for my sake. But now I am told that some very honest
Anabaptists take it for granted, that I have written Untruths of Sir
H. V.
and
that I owe him a Recantation, and they question History that speaks against them
for my sake. Hereupon I have changed my purpose, and writ a plain Confutation
of
Stubs
's Vindication. Now I crave your Advice in Three Things, 1.
Whether indeed it be best publish the Answer I have prepared or not (supposing it
true and satisfactory). 2. Whether I were best take any Notice of the Offence of
the Author of the
Sober Word,
and say as much to him only as I have here done?
3. Whether I were best take notice of the Anabaptists Offence? I pray deal freely
with me, and if it may be by the next Post; for I shall delay for your Advice,
because you know the Minds of these People better than I. My own Thoughts
are, 1. To publish that against
Stubs,
as necessary. 2. To say nothing about the
Anabaptists because I must name Pastors and People that petitioned for the King's
Death, and such things that are utterly unsavory to me and unseasonable, and will
increase Displeasure; and I had rather bear their Displeasure as it is, than increase
it. 3. And as to the
Sober Word,
I am indifferent.
I received yours but a little before Mr.
Lamb
's Departure; but my own
Thoughts had led me to harp on the same String that you directed me to. I was
very glad to find you jealous of that Extreme (that is in itself much worse than
Anabaptism in our Thoughts that dissent from both): But I hope yet that he hath
no liking of Popery or Formality, but only Charity for the Men. I told him not
of anything concerning him in your Letters, but only afterwards I told him that
I heard Mr.
Gunning
judged him of his Mind, but told him nothing whence I
had it.
As to Mr.
Tombes
Book, I shall much refer it to your Advice. 1. I resolved
not to meddle with it unless he signify his Desire (for it would be an abuse of him
to meddle with his Works without his Consent; I should not take it well myself:)
nor unless I first see the printed Sheets (which we ordinarily see before we write
Epistles) but on these two Suppositions I should do it, not only willingly, but
gladly: 1. Because I would further any Work against Popery that is solid; and
am troubled that no more turn their Studies and Labors that way. 2. Because I
would have the World see that Mr.
Tombes
and I can agree against the common
Adversary, and for the common Truths. But one thing only a little scruples me
(which I charge you to conceal from him and all Men) A great Scandal hath
been long raised of him by Colonel
Clieve,
who about two Years ago put it by
Letters into my Hands, and I caused Mr.
Tombes
to have the Knowledge of it,
but otherwise stifled it as well as I fairly could. But now Colonel
Clieve
hath
made it very public, and told it the Commissioners for Approbation, who greatly
resent it,
&c.
If you know not of it, you shall know no more for me. Now
whether under the heat of this Scandal, the prefacing to his Book will savor well,
and do more good or harm, is a thing that I am willing to be advised and ruled by
you in; (supposing that he desires the thing and hears not of this my Scruple;
which you should not have heard from me, but that it's public). My Confidence
of your Fidelity makes me thus free and bold with you.
O, Brother! Must we be all divided in this Day of Peril, when we are ready
to be assaulted by the common Enemy? O pray, and strive for Love and Unity;
and if my Ignorance and Rashness hath done anything against it, pray that I may
have Pardon and more Grace. I rest
Yours unfeignedly,
Rich. Baxter.
July 18.
1659.
To my Loving Friend, Mr.
William Allen
in
London.
I Received yours of the 18th Instant, and was very glad to see you took so well
that which I looked on as somewhat rude in myself, and was troubled after the
Letter was out of my Hands, that I should give you any occasion of Trouble,
by meddling so far as in my Letter I had done. As to Advise in the Particulars
you mention; I count myself very incompetent for such Consultations, and do
know you are so well able to make Judgment in such Cases, that if I should undertake
to grati
•
y your Desire, it would signify little. As for your answering the
Vindication, I do acknowledge Your Resolution herein is attended with Difficulties
on both Sides. If you do it not, you lie under some Imputation, and it will
be taken for granted you cannot vindicate yourself. If you attempt it and should
not do it to the Satisfaction of Impartial Men, the latter Art would be thought
worse than the first, unless you should do it only by way of Apology, showing
by what you were induced so to write, as in your
Key
you have done. But my
thought is you had better never attempt it than not to carry it clearly; and if
you do that, I confess it will be more than I did expect.
And on the other hand, whether your Confutation be f
•
ll or
•
aint, when it
comes abroad, it will provoke both the Principal and his Adherents, many of
whom are honest Independents and Anabaptists, prizing him upon a Civil Account
(at least in great part) for his great Accomplishments for Civil Affairs, and
so indispose them to consider and receive your many worthy Proposals and Directions,
tending to gather such as were too much scattered. And how far you
may by such a thing exasperate him and his Confederates against not only you,
but other Godly Ministers for your sake (the thing you mention) is considerable.
But then again if it shall be supposed that he is that way disposed and in Resolulution
engaged to the length of his aim already, and whether he be or no I cannot
say, I would hope otherwise) then it will be considerable whether it will not
be a good piece of Service to weaken his Interest so far as relateth to his Counsels
about Church Affairs, by discovering his weakness and unfoundness in things of
that Nature. And how far your intermeddling this way (I mean in relation to his
unsoundness) in your own Vindication, may draw on you a Suspicion of Uncharitableness
(if you should do it) is hard to say. He is now in place of Power
(whether upon better Terms than
Nero
or those under him will not be the Question;)
but how far it would have beseemed a Minister of the Gospel, and publicly
to have discovered the then Rulers Unsoundness, would be a Question. I
do acknowledge also that a great deal of Care and Tenderness of due belongs to
the Reputation of your Person and Name in relation to your place and Office in
the Church, as well as it does to another in respect of his place in the Common-wealth.
So that if you could heal the Wound which the Author of the Vindication
hath endeavored to make, without wounding the Name, or touching the
public Authority now vested in him (Sir
H. V.
) I think the case would be clear.
But then this I think would be without dispute, that if you find cause to print,
that then you carry things with all Christian Sweetness, evidencing your Tenderness
to the Names of Men so far as may possibly consist with your Faithfulness to
a greater and better Interest. And I have heard the Author of the Vindication
blamed by several of Sir
H. V.
his Friends, for his Edge and Bitterness. The
less of that appeared, the more is gained in any Personal Contests: I shall pray
the Lord to direct your Thoughts, but do not think myself wise enough to be
positive in this Advice. As for that which concerns the Anabaptists Offence, I
in
•
line much to think the safect will be not to meddle in it for the present: And
if you think good to Communicate your Knowledge of the Churches of the Anabaptists;
their petitioning for Justice to be done upon the late King, I shall as I
have Opportunity, acquaint them what you have in readiness to make good your
quarrelled Assertion, but that tenderness to them, and Christian Peace, hath for
the present bound your Hands.
As for the Author of the Sober Word, whose Name is Mr.
John Jackson,
•
ormerly
Grand Treasurer for the Excise, I think from the beginning of it to the
Change of Government, and now in Commission for bringing in all Arrears of
Excise,
&c.
you will not need, I think to do anything publicly, I meeting,
him last Night at the Militia (where he and I had occasion to be) I thought good
to acquaint him with so much of your Letter as concerned him: And in return
he hath promised me a piece of his, which he will desire me to send to you for
your further Satisfaction touching him as to be no Jesuitical Designer: I think it's
made against the Quakers.
For that which concerns Mr.
Tombes
his Name, I had heard of it more particularly
than you express; and am troubled that so little hath been done by himself
towards his own Vindication, unless more hath been done than hath come to my
Ear. I question whether he will make it known so as to be communicated to you
to be his desire that you should write an Epistle,
&c.
If he should, a Work of that
nature may receive your Countenance and Attestation, if it deserve it, without concerning
yourself in his Morals. You have (if my Intelligence be right) in your
County, and in the County of
Gloscester,
armed Designes brought almost to the
Birth, and are like to put you suddenly into Trouble, if not made Abortive.
Endeavors are on foot for Prevention: some Reserve of Horse and new Arms
have been made. I believe it concerns you, and such as you, to be mindful of
your own Security, by contributing your help towards the Maintenance of the
Public Peace. If things are bad now, I believe they are like to be much worse
if a turn should come by the Hand of War. Sir, Narrowness of Opportunity
hath produced the too much undigestedness of these Lines. That the Lord
may preserve you, and fill you with the Spirit of Wisdom and of Power, is the
sincere desire of
Yours faithfully engaged in true
Affection to serve you,
Will. Allen.
London, July 23.
1659.
To the Reverend and his worthy good Friend Mr.
Rich. Baxter
in
Kidderminster.
I Thank you for yours of the 13th currant, which I have: and I do confess
that the several Tempers and Interests of Professors of different Perswasions
considered, a wise Man can have no great hopes (whatever his desires be) of any
General Accord. And to answer your desire in some account of the progress of
the Meeting on foot for Agreement. Be pleased to understand, that however the
Work went on merrily whilst Generals only were dwelt on, yet it's almost put to
a stand when we come to some Particulars which were thought necessary to be
descended to. That which hath troubled us most, hath been about sending forth,
or furnishing the Nation with Preachers of the Gospel. Though we all agree,
1. That it's all our Duties to promote such a work: And 2. That the Persons
employed in it, must be godly, sound in the Faith, and apt to teach: And
3. that they ought to pass under some trial for Approbation; And 4. that a convenient
Maintenance for them should by all meet means be procured; yet by
whom and how they should be so approved, as to be made capable of holding
the Parish places, we cannot hitherto agree. It was propounded at the Meeting
this Afternoon, as an Expedient to issue this business, that considering that Patrons
of Parish Livings claim a Right of Presentation, the People of Election, the Magistrate
of approbation, and the Eldership of Churches, or Churches themselves
by them, and Power of Mission and Ordination: And that since the Magistrate
hath been still wont to betrust his Claim of Approbation in the Hands of Presbyters
of one kind or other; and Presbyters of all Perswasions hold themselves obliged
to further the propagation of the Gospel abroad, and claim a share in sending
Preachers for that end; I say, these Things considered, and to satisfy all
Claims, and yet to make a competent Provision for the spreading of the Gospel in
all the Parishes, it was proposed, 1. That the Magistrate might be desired to betrust
his Claim of Approbation in the Hands of a convenient Number of Presbyters
of the three denominations indifferently, in several places of the Common-wealth,
that none might be bound up by the Power being engrossed by one or
two Parties. 2. That no Person presented by a Patron, or chosen by the People,
should officiate as a public Preacher, in any Parish, without an Instrument
of Approbation first obtained under the Hand and Seal of at least three or more
of the Presbyters aforesaid. 3. That such an Instrument obtained should invest
the Preacher with power to receive such Maintenance as is or shall be settled by
the State, or raised by voluntary Contribution of the People. But alas, it was
thought by some, that to interess the Magistrate in such a Claim, will not be
found in the Scriptures; and to have a Hand in the investing of a Preacher with
power to sue for Tithes (whether it were known, whether he would so use it or
no) is a thing not to be endured. And I doubt the Party that propounded this
Expedient, is like to be looked shy on by his Brethren the
Anabaptists
for his labor,
as fit rather to be ranked among the
Presbyterians,
as hath been hinted to
him.
The business of Maintenance was moved by the Presbyterians again and again
to be laid aside, they would trust the Providence of God with that, and that
something might be resolved on about the Magistrates Approbation, in which we
might agree, without which it was not thought probable to procure so much as
opportunity of a fixed abode to preach in most places, nor if there could, would
the Churches be able to supply the want of the Magistrates Countenance or Power,
in procuring Maintenance. I may not enlarge to acquaint you what was offered
on the by for the Magistrates Power (the Dispute of it hath hitherto been
declined) only something was hinted, That if Christ is King of Nations, as well
as of Saints, then those that rule the Nations for him, are as such charged with
the care of his Interest, and so with his Ministers as those in special, by whom it
is to be promoted. There were some pretty large Concessions at last made by
some of the Anabaptists, who I confess were not so steady in their Debate, as
would have been wished, unless it were in too much shieness of granting too
much. And the unhappiness is, that some not leastly crochical among the Anabaptists,
nor most peaceable, do interess themselves most in the management of
this Treaty. Indeed this Meeting was almost brought to a period this Night
without any good Conclusion; but my Lord
Goff
(as some call him) and some
others; did earnestly move that that wherein they had agreed, might be improved
for common benefit; and (which was agreed to) that three or four of each
Perswasion should meet privately, to see what could further be done, and that
there should be no further Public Meetings, till they were in a readiness to call
them. I must acknowledge to you that I am many times sadly affected, to hear
and see the strange Confusions that swarm in this City about things both Civil and
Divine; and the height and confidence of many is wonderful, that I am ready
to wish with him for
the wings of a Dove to flee into the Wilderness
to be at rest. And
truly, by several hints which I have picked up, I cannot but expect the acting
of some further force to some Alteration or other, and what will be the end of
these things! It will become such as have any true sense of the Interest of Religion,
to be encouraging and stirring up one another to stand together, and to bear
up against the several Assaults which on every hand almost are made against it,
that if it be possible to prevent that no Man take our Crown.
Sir, I was desired several Weeks since by Mr.
Jackson,
Author of
The Serious
Word,
to send you a couple of his Books against the Quakers, that you might see
(I think) how Orthodox he is, and far from Jesuitism. I have now performed
his desire by the hand of Mr.
Pearsall,
by whom also I have sent you Mr.
Rogers
and
Needham's
piece; and a Copy of my Retraction, which I must thankfully
acknowledge was helped on much by your hand, and therefore if any good
redound by his Publication, you are like to have a large share in the reward.
You will, Sir, I hope, excuse my prolixness; I shall now put you to no further
trouble, but beg your Prayers for Wisdom how to carry it towards those, that at
least at first will be somewhat provoked against me, for attempting the raising of
the Wall of Separation, though I have done it with as much moderation and care
to prevent offense, as I well knew how, and have very much Peace and Satisfaction
in my own Spirit in what I have done.
SIR,
I am entirely yours,
Will. Allen.
Sept. 30. 1659.
To the Reverend and his worthy good Friend, Mr.
Richard Baxter,
Minister of the Gospel
in
Kidderminster.
SInce I saw you, I have perused Mr.
Rutherford
's Piece upon the Covenant;
which ministers yet further occasion, as I apprehend, to second my former
motion to you of handing the Doctrine of the Covenants in a more distinct manner,
then hath been done by any I have yet met withal. For if that which is
proper to each Covenant were handled apart by itself, and the appropriate design,
end and use of each of them respectively, were but plainly set forth so far
as the Scripture will guide therein; I cannot but think it would be of as great use
as any one thing you can undertake; and it is not my opinion alone. For want
of which it hath happened, that Men have interwoven and confounded one Covenant
with another, and great Mistakes have thereby been committed by many
in stating the Terms of the New Covenant, and the true Notion of Justification
by Faith: and through such Mistakes a great part of the Apostles Epistles
have been obscured, instead of being expounded. As for instance; Whereas there
may be a sixfold opposition easily observed in the Apostles Writings, in reference
to the Doctrine of Justification, (which being attended to the scope and meaning
of them, will plainly appear) there hath been a seventh most insisted on; which
is not, I think, there to be found. And this hath come to pass for want of understanding
the difference between the two Covenants, and for want of a distinct
consideration of the several false Opinions of the then present Jews about
Justification, which the Apostles in their Writings engage against. The Oppositions
I mean, are these:
1. As the promise of Justification and Eternal Life upon condition of Faith in
the Promise relating to the Messias before he came, is opposed to the Promise of
Temporal Felicity upon condition of a due Observation of the Law of
Moses,
Gal.
3. 11, 12.
2. As the Promise of Justification and Life upon condition of Faith in the Promise
to
Abraham,
is opposed to the Error of the Jews, who held that Promise
to be made to
Abraham
upon condition of Circumcision, and to them as his Seed
upon condition of a Litteral Observation of the Law of
Moses, Rom.
2, 3, and 4th
Chapters,
Gal.
2, 3, and 4th Chapters.
3. As the Promise of Justification and Life upon condition of Faith in Christ
as crucified, is opposed to the Error of the Unbelieving Jews, who held it promised
to their Litteral Observation of the Law of
Moses,
without Faith in the
Death of Christ,
Heb.
8, 9, and 10 Chapters.
4. As the Promise of Justification and Life upon condition of Faith and Gospel
Obedience only, is opposed to the Opinion of some Judaizing Christians,
who held the same to be promised upon condition of Faith in Christ, and a Litteral
Observation of the Law of
Moses,
jointly,
Gal. 5. Acts
15. 1, 5.
5. As the Promise made to
Abraham
's Spiritual Seed, is opposed to the Opinion
of the unbelieving Jews, who held it made to his Natural Seed as such: Or
which is much the same; as the Promise made to Persons so and so qualified, is
opposed to the Jewish Opinion of an absolute and unconditionate Promise made
to them in Person, as they were the Offspring of
Abraham, Rom.
9. 6, 7, 8.
Rom.
2. 28, 29.
6. As Justification by Faith, accompanied with Gospel Obedience, is opposed
to the Opinion of some Professors of Christianity, Gnostics or other Solifidians,
who held Justification by Faith alone, without reference to or necessity of a holy
Life,
James
2. 1 Epist.
John, Jude
3, 4, &c. These are the things to which the
Controversal Part of the Apostles Writings in reference to the Point of Justification,
do relate.
But beside these, there is another insisted on, as if it were still included and intended
in the Apostles reasonings against Justification by Works of the Law, and
that is an Opposition between Faith and all Works in reference to Justification,
as well such as consist in Gospel Obedience as the effect of Faith strictly taken,
as those which are properly Works of the Mosaical Law. Whereas such an
Opposition seems to be not only without, but against Scripture Evidence. For
Gospel Obedience, as an inseparable effect of Saving Faith, is as well as Faith, and
together with Faith, opposed to the Works of
Moses
's Law in point of Justification.
For so I take it to be, where it is said,
Circumcision
(which by a Synecdoche
is put for the Works of the Law)
availeth nothing, but faith which worketh by love:
which is as much as to say, which worketh by keeping the Commandments of
God, and by fulfilling the Law: for so Love is said to be. Yea, Evangelical Obedience
(as comprehending Faith, no doubt) is by the same figure of Speech
as before, opposed to the Works of
Moses
's Law; where it is said that
Circumcision
is nothing, and Uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping the Commandments of God.
The like Opposition again is made between the Works of the Law and the New
Creature; which consists in a new frame of Spirit, and cannot be considered
without new Obedience, in will and resolution at least,
Gal.
6. 15. This Opposition
which some make between Faith and Gospel Obedience in the Point of
Justification, seems like unto that (if not the same in
Jude
) which was made by
the Gnostics, and which
James
opposeth in his Epistle, rather than any which
the Scripture anywhere maketh. And truly this Opinion, together with another
as groundless as this, hath, I fear, been a great Underminer of the Power of Religion
in the Hearts and Lives of Men, and a Betrayer of the Souls of many;
and that is, that by Faith without Works the Righteousness or Obedience of
Christ is not only virtually, (which we all hold) but formally
imputed to us for righteousness:
so that we are reckoned to have obeyed in his Obedience. Which, I
think, hath not been the Doctrine of a few called
Antinomians
only, but of so many,
that not long since he could hardly be counted Orthodox, that did not hold
so too. And it is to be feared that many that have been of these Opinions, have
thought themselves good Christians, and in a justified state, though otherwise of
ill Tempers and of bad Lives. Whereas did they understand that the design of
the New Covenant is to restore the Human Nature gradually to that rectitude
and perfection from which it fell; and that the terms of it are so laid, that no
Man can have any ground of confidence of enjoying the Saving Benefits of it,
further then he knows that he sincerely endeavors in the use of means to recover
that rectitude, and to be
perfecting holiness in the fear of God;
they would be delivered
from that delusive Confidence, and consequently be put upon such sincere
endeavors, or be deprived of the comfort of that delusive Confidence, by which
while they are under it, they support themselves. All which considered, (if really
true as I apprehend them to be) what I have humbly moved to you, cannot
but be a most worthy Work, and of great acceptation to very many, as well as
of general and of most important use unto all. And in case you resolve on it, I
think to use as much brevity as will consist with plainness, and as much plainness
as the nature of the thing will bear, will be generally most acceptable and most
profitable, and the more inviting to be read.
I have made bold herewith to send you some Papers, which sometime since were
written for private use, and for trial of what might fairly be made out touching
the Subject Matter of them. To the end you may be them see some of the things
more fully expressed, which are but hinted in this Letter: as also to desire your
Judgment, Whether the main scope of them be Matter of Truth, or Matter of
Error? And in particular I desire your Thoughts, Whether that perfect Obedience
which Mr.
Truman
insists on, or that sincere Obedience mentioned in these
Papers, was the Condition of the first Covenant? And whether the first Covenant,
as such, did threaten Eternal Punishment to the Transgressors of it; and
the Curse of what Covenant it was that Christ redeemed us from, in being
made a
Curse for us?
For touching these things, I confess myself not well resolved. The
hanging on the Tree was but a Temporal Curse, and was not all that Christ redeemed
us from. And when you have a fitting Opportunity, I pray you return
them to
Your obliged Servant,
Will. Allen.
London, May 27.
1671.
Those of the Separation that are more moderate do blame Mr.
Bagshaw,
and
think you need not answer him; and his Temper is to have the last word. If you
think otherwise, a calm Answer will be best.
I Received your Preface, by which you have been pleased to add unto all former
Obligations wherein I stand bound. I have moved Mr.
Simmons
about
printing the Copy, acquainting him with your Preface, but not with the Author
of the Papers: but I perceive he hath no mind to undertake it; since when I
have not spoken to any other. Sir, It hath been sometimes on my thoughts to
draw up something against Separation more then what is in my Retractation,
at least to be published after my death, if surviving Friends should think fit, but
have
•
orborn to publish anything of that nature hitherto, partly to avoid suspicion
of strengthening the hand of Severity against the Separatists, to the doing
of hurt to whom I would not be in the least accessory: and likewise to avoid the
suspicion of being acted therein by Carnal Motives. However something I have
now prepared, and herewith sent you, presuming yet once more to give you the
trouble at your leisure of casting your eye upon it. And do pray that you will
please to correct, or direct me to correct what needs correction: and to give me
advice, whether it will be best to make it public, or to forbear. I confess, I have
been induced to do what I have done at this time, upon occasion of the Indulgence,
as conceiving it not less necessary nor less seasonable (to say no more) than it was
before. And your motion of reprinting my Re
•
ractation, had its share in inclining
me to this present Undertaking. As I have been taken in the Snare of Separation
for a time, so I was in that of
An
•
inomianism,
about 37 or 38 years ago, not
long after my first coming to
London;
as not being able to withstand the Insinuations
of it, and yet to retain the Opinion of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness
in that Notion of it, in which I had been instructed; and never fully recovered
myself till I heard Mr.
John Goodwin.
The Experience of what I suffered
myself, and occasioned others to suffer by my running into those Errors, hath
put me upon doing more to warn others against them, or recover them out of
them, then otherwise I should have thought fit for me to have done. You may
perceive in part how frail my memory was, by my often blottings and interlinings.
Excuse me for this time, and you are never like to be troubled with any of my
Papers more, whether I live or die. The good God that hath, out of good will
to the World, made you so meet to be serviceable to it, continue you long in it,
and still strengthen you to succeed, and prosper you in his Word: So prays
Your very much obliged
Servant,
Will. Allen.
London, June 29.
1672.
I live next the
Green-Man
in
Prince's-street
by
Stocks-Market,
and not at the
Bottle
in the
Poultry.
I This Day received and read your Book and knowing so well the Author's Experience,
Judgment, and Sincerity, it hath made a great change upon my
Judgment;
viz.
Whereas I once thought that some Men's Usage of this poor
Kingdom and Christ's Ministers, and the false Reports and Representations made
of them, did show not only Charity, but common Honesty and Humanity, by
which the civil differ from others, to be with such Men very low; I find now my
better Thoughts of those Men much revived, by finding that so good a, Man as
you, can in any Measure in such a time and place so far mistake the case as you
have done. But long Experience hath acquainted me with more of the Cause
than perhaps you have observed yourself: That is, 1. All Men's Capacities are
narrow, and we cannot look every way at once: Our thoughts are like a Stream
of Water which will run but one way at once, and carry down all that's moveable
in that Stream. When you were for Anabaptistry and Separation, it's like the
Stream of your Thoughts, run all that way, and you studied more what was for
you, than what was against you: and now the Sense of your Error hath turned
your Thoughts the contrary way, I may judge by the Effects, that you think
more what may be said against Nonconformity than what may be said for it.
2. And Experience makes me take it for granted, that to judge hastily before they
fully understand or hear the Cause, is the common Disease of Man's depraved Intellect,
which few are cured of in any great Degree. I would not be guilty of
it while I blame it, if my Frailty can avoid it, and therefore I will suppose that
you have more Reasons for what you say, that I yet understand, and shall only
as a Learner, desire you to help me to understand them.
And 1. Seeing almost all your Book is against
Anabaptistry
and
Separation,
I desire
you to acquaint me why you entitled it,
An Address to the Nonconformists?
when it is certain that the ignorant Multitude, who have some such Thoughts already,
will hence be more persuaded that the Nonconformists are commonly for Separation;
which being a Calumny, I suppose you thus indirectly propagate it for some
Reason which I know not. Falsehood and Hatred are so befriended by common
corrupted Nature, that they need no Books to be written to encourage them. If
a Philosopher wrote against
Manicheism
and called it
An Address to the Christians;
Or a Papist wrote against Anabaptistry and Separation, and called it
An Address to
the Protestants,
the Intimation were unjust.
Quest.
2. Will not the Conformists think that you prevaricate, in pretending
to plead for a
National Church, p.
101. and when you explain yourself speak but
of a
[Church Inorganical]
that is equivocally and ineptly so called: seeing
forma denominat,
and the Word
Church
in the common Controversy about
[National Provincial,
Diocesan Churches]
is taken for an Ecclesiastical Polity and Society, and
not for a mere Community: A Family without a Master, a School without a
Schoolmaster, a Kingdom without a King, and a Church without a Pastoral Regiment,
are equivocal improper Denominations
a materia;
when you knew that
the Nonconformists have long asked which is the true constitutive Ecclesiastical
Head of this National Church? When you were upon the Subject it would have
done well to have told them; for an accidental Head (the King) they confess as
much as others.
Quest.
3. When you plead so much for Parish-Churches, are you therein a Nonconformist,
and is your Address to yourself? or do you take the Word
[Church]
there also equivocally and improperly? If so, you should have said so. The Prelatists
grant with
Cyprian,
that
ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia;
and with
Ignatius,
that to
every church there is one Bishop with his Presbyters,
&c.
No King, no Kingdom;
no Master, no School nor Family; no Bishop, no Church: Therefore the Prelatists
hold that we have no true proper Church below a Diocesan, and that Parishes
are not Churches but Chapels, or
parts
of a Church, and this is not the
least part of our Nonconformity, how hold that Parishes are, or should be true
Churches, and not only parts of a Church
in fini ordinis,
without any proper Bishop.
Tell me better I pray, which side you here intend to take.
Quest.
4. Seeing
p. 111. &c.
you very well plead for the Power of Kings in
Determination of Parish-Bounds, and Church Orders, as under the Jewish Polity,
and the new way of the Conformists is so far contrary, as that they hold
that if a Bishop command one Time, one Place, one Translation, Metre, Ceremony,
Utensil,
&c.
and the King another; that the Bishop is to be obeyed before
the King, because it belongs not to him, but to the Church. Is it the New
Conformity in this that you are for, or for the old, and the Nonconformists who
in this Agree.
Quest.
5. Some Words
p.
124, 125. move me to ask you, whether such
Anabaptists
as you formerly taught and joined with, or the ignorant irreligious vulgar, as
you then accounted them, were the better People? If the Religion of them that
mind little of God or Life Eternal, further than to join with the Church, be the
true State of Regeneration and Holiness, were it not more worth your Labor to
write a Book against that which now we take for Holiness
(seeking first God's Kingdom
and Righteousness):
But if other Wise and Pious Sectaries be better than impious
Churchmen, were those times so much better than these as you describe
them, in which there was not one counted Religious (
e. g.
from 1625. till 1637.)
for Three that, I say not for Ten or Twenty, that are now in most places that I
have known.
Quest.
6. And I add, hath not
Scotland
kept out Sects without our Conformity,
more effectually than Conformity here kept them out?
Quest. 7. P.
129. Had you nothing but
[Suspicion]
and
[Opinion]
to oppugn?
and must that be granted you? and yet have lived so long where you live.
Quest.
8. Because you talk so much of
[Shism sinful in itself]
without ever
telling us exactly how to know it, I pray tell me if Mr.
Sangar,
Dr.
Manton,
and
such others should say to these Parishioners [we are in the Relations which we
were truly and justly stated in, and because the Magistrate hath given others the
Parish-Churches and the Tythes you separate from us, and come not to our Assemblies;
therefore you set up a sinful Schism, as some did in the Churches of the
Roman Empire, who adhered to Pastors put in by the Emperors, while the People
adhered to their former Pastors] How shall I answer them better than they do
you.
Quest.
9. Your Question
p.
157. moveth me to put you to think it over again,
whether you think indeed as your Words import, if all the People of
England
these fourteen Years past had heard no Sermon but in the Parish-Churches, and
so had heard none of the 2000 Nonconformists (or near) that were silenced even
in all those Parishes, where the reading of the Liturgy is the far best and likeliest
means of the Peoples Good, and in all those Parishes, where not one of very
many hath any Church to hear in; I say, do you think that there would have
been more Persons truly converted and saved by this means? If you think that all
these 1800, or 2000 Men's Preaching hath done, and doth more harm than good,
had it not been a directer way to have written to them to convince them of it,
that they might cease? of which more anon.
Pag. 161.
You say,
[If instead of this each Christian of you had kept to Parochial
Communion, and each outed Minister had kept their Residence among them, and Communion
with them as private Members in the Parish way, and had also in a private Capacity
joined with those Ministers which have succeeded them in doing all the Good they could in
the Parish, as by a private Application and Improvement of the public Labors of their
Minister, together with Catechizing and other personal Instruction and Exhortation
privately administered to the several Families in the Parish,
&c.
]
Quest.
10. Will you do us the Favor as to answer first those Books that be written
to prove our Obligation to Preach such as
Ios. Allen
's
Call to
Archippus, and
my
Sacrilegious Dissertion,
&c. was not that to have gone before such Advises as
this? If you say Dr.
Fullwood
hath done it, I beg of you to tell me what Arguments
of his you think have done it (while he yields the contrary).
Quest.
11. Would you have all those Ministers take this course that must lie in the
Common Goal if they come within five Miles of the Place? can they do it in
Newgate?
If you say that the Act of Consinement had not been made but for
Conventicles, we have Proof of that, nor is the Occasion now any Remedy
for the future.
Quest.
12. Do you not know that Conformists will not endure us in this private
Diligence which you speak of? I will give you in the end an Instance from the
Parish where I live.
Quest.
13. Do you well know what sort of Ministers are in too many Parishes of
England?
I will not imtate the
Gloscester
Cobbler in gathering up their Faults;
but only ask you if for Instance Mr.
Corbet
that was turned out of
Bromshut,
had
stayed there where Mr.
Hook
the Patron hath often told me, that their Preacher
was formerly an
Ale-seller,
and was so common a Drunkard that he would be
drunk in the Pulpit, could you have advised him to do nothing but apply this
Man's Sermons, as you say? When I was young the first place I lived in had four
Readers successively, some Drunkards, all my Masters; the next place had in my
time an old Reader that never preached, (as had most of the Churches round
about us) his Curates were successively three Readers, of which one never Preached,
one Preached and was a Stage-Player, another (my Master also) a common
Drunkard, never preached but once, and then he was stark drunk: when the
Old Man's Eyesight failed (that was the chief Incumbent) he said Common-Prayer
by rote, and one Year a Day Labourer, and another Year a
Taylor
read the
Scriptures, and we had no more. What Mr.
Dance
and Mr.
Turner
were at
Kidderminster
and
Mitton
Chapel, I suppose you know.
Quest.
14. Would you have those Ministers take the Course which you describe, in the
Parishes, where the generality of the People must be then untaught? You know,
I suppose, that a Man that must go but from House to House can speak but to few
Persons in a Year: 1. If all Families were ready and willing, how little a part of
great Parishes would be taught? 2. People are commonly poor, and from Morning
to Night about their hard Labor, and cannot hear us. 3. They are unwilling that
we should come into their Houses, and see their Disorder, and Poverty and Uncleanness.
4. Many Ministers are so Valetudinary that their cold Houses would destroy
their Health to talk with them there but an Hour. 5. By this way we must be almost
continually speaking, and he that can preach once or twice a Week cannot preach
four or five times every Day, without which it would be next to nothing: One
may preach to Two Thousand at once in Public, when to say the same to those
Two Thousand by One or by Four at a time, must take Five Hundred Sermons.
6. By this means Ministers (were there Bodies able) must do nothing else: and
whereas most have little or no maintenance of their own, what time will you allow
them to labor with their Hands to get Bread for their Families? how shall
their Rents and Charges be paid? 7. Or if they must beg or live on others Charity,
where shall they have it, if they take your Course? If they teach but few, few
will relieve them; if they stay from Cities and Corporations in poor Country Villages,
few are able, if willing to relieve them. Some that have done so, and
Preached too, have yet been put to keep Wife and Children upon little besides
brown Rye Bread and Water. By what Law is both
Silence
and
Famine
made their
due? 8. You know doubtless that in such Parishes as
Stepney, White-chapel, Algate,
Giles Cripplegate, Sepulchers, Giles in the Fields, Andrew's Holbourn, Clement Danes,
Martins,
&c. it is but a small part of the People that can hear in public: I suppose
there may be Twenty or Thirty Thousand untaught in the Parish whence
Mr.
Read
is gone to Goale for teaching. The People say that this Parish hath
Fourscore Thousand Souls; suppose it be less, when scarce Two Thousand can
hear well in the Church. Are you risen up now so near the Silencers Opinion as
that you would have all these Souls untaught and
America
transplanted into
London?
Is the Gospel grown so indifferent to you, in Comparison of your
〈◊〉
indifferent? can they believe without hearing, and hear without preach
•••
? I
am not yet grown so desperate a Gamester, as to cast away so many thousand
Souls to the Devil at hap hazard, for fear of hearing [Schism, Schism]. Why
should Preachers be sent to the
Americans
rather than to St.
Martins,
St.
Giles,
and
such like places?
Quest.
15. How will you absolve us from our Ordination Vow? even Papists
say the Character is indelible: we were not ordained
pro tempore,
or on Trial: If
a Man may forbid us preaching to all, save four among a Thousand, or Forty
Thousand, or Fourscore Thousand, why not also to those Four? If to all Corporations
and Cities (where Churches only were planted at first) why not also to the
Villages? If where Souls need the Number of Twenty or Ten Teachers, all may
be forbidden save one, why not that one also? How many hundred Years did
prohibited Pastors teach and guide the Churches? I beseech you clearly satisfy us
what it is that disobligeth us all from God's dreadful Charge, 2
Tim. 4. 1. 2. Before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
and his Kingdom to preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season,
&c. And
why we may not as well be disobliged by Man's Prohibition from relieving the
Poor that else will perish? Yea, our own Children?
Quest.
16. Might not
Daniel
then have forborne Praying, and may not, yea,
ought not you if forbidden, forbear praying in your House, reading the Scripture,
or exhorting, and admonishing, and teaching others in your place and
Converse?
Quest.
17. Is it likely to be of God which is so pleasing to the Flesh, the Papists
and the Devil, as our ceasing to preach the Gospel would be?
Quest.
18. Is it not the great Mark to know all false Sects and Sectmasters by
that they are still for that which hindereth the Gospel, and hurteth Souls. The
grievous Wolves, though in Sheeps Cloathing, devour the Flocks: the Thorns and
Thistles have Pricks instead of Grapes and Figs: And if the silencing one faithful
Minister in the Churches Necessity be a heinous Crime, what are you turned
to, if you would have near Two Thousand silence themselves? They that silence
us by a Prison, cause not our sin, because it is not voluntary but forced; but you
would make us the sinful Doers of it ourselves, which is far worse.
Quest.
19. Is it the way to prevent our threatened Judgments to call us all to Repentance
for preaching the Gospel these Fourteen Years, and to call us all off from
preaching it for the Future, that we might not call Sinners to Repentance for their
Sins? (how glad would the Papists be if you could prevail but with a few that
most molest them?) what a Life have I to repent of if this must be my Repentance?
and at how cheap and easy a rate, might I have prevented it? must I that
have hazarded my Life for many a single Sermon now repent of all? what then
can I take Comfort in of all my Life?
Quest.
20. Is it not as sinful to Write and Counsel when prohibited, as to Preach?
and must we repent of all our prohibited Writings to? If God bless out Preaching
and Writing to the good of many Souls, doth it not forbid us to repent, or
at least make it very hard to us? can I honestly wish all undone again?
I pray you hasten your convincing Reasons to keep me out of Prison, and further
Guilt if this be criminal.
Pag. 197, 198, &c.
You speak principally to me, which bids me further ask
you,
Quest.
21. Whether we did profess that our private catechizing alone did all
that Good, without our public preaching or rather with it? If not, whether you
did not unhappily hence collect our Unhappiness?
Quest.
22. If I were able in this Parish, or the last I lived in (or the ejected
Pastor who liveth near me) to go from House to House, it would be many Years
before he or I could go over half the Parish. And do you think that to be taught
once a Year, or in many Years, is enough to counterwork Sin, the Devil and his Instruments?
Would you have no more, except for Two or Three Thousand of all
the Parish.
Quest.
23. But are you not too suspicious when you talk of
shrewdly suspecting
(p.
198, 199.) those that support the Ministers, unless they would do it to them
that cease Preaching? You must needs know that in most Country Parishes the
People cannot support them; and others far off are less apt to feel the Wants of
distant Persons; and Charity would have gathered but this: It is their Supporters
Judgment and their own, that not the Loyterer, but the Labourer is worthy
of his Meat (at least); and that to cease Preaching till Men's necessity cease is a
heinous Sin: and a Man may forbear rewarding and encouraging heinous Sins,
without the Guilt that you seem to suspect.
Quest.
24. Why do you think that the Ministers do not do their best in private
(as well as in public) to those that will receive them
•
Read
Ios. Allen
's Life, inquire
better in
London
whether Mr.
Sangar,
Mr.
Caughton,
Mr.
Reed,
Mr.
Doelittle,
Mr.
Turner,
Dr.
Anesly,
Mr.
Vincent,
and such others, do not labor as well in Private
as in Public? for my part, I am not now able, must I therefore do nothing?
is it a Sin to speak to Two Thousand at once, and a Duty to speak to them one
by one, doing that a whole Year, which I can do in an Hour?
You say,
p.
205. you speak not to
all alike,
but to all in their several measure you
speak: And you will say all Parishes be not so great, nor all Ministers so bad as some
in public, nor so unable,
&c.
I answer, 1. Nor do we behave ourselves in all
places alike: Not only I, but other more eminent Ministers of
London
(many)
go to the Parish-Churches, especially in the Country, and countenance honest
public Ministers to the utmost, and communicate ordinarily with them. And
many Ministers in the Country do as you advise, in living in great Love and
Communion with the Parish-Ministers, save that they cease not Preaching as you
would have them, and they gather not distinct Congregations; but must the same
course be taken in
London,
where the Fire hath burnt the Churches, and half and
more of the People have no Churches to go to, through the greatness of the Parishes:
Should such a famous City be Paganised by the Persuasions of Godly Men,
as for the promoting of Unity and Godliness? If you say, that most Ministers
settle where the Churches are not full, and not in the great Parishes. I answer,
1. That is because they are driven out of the great Parishes by force. 2.
And People cannot come out of the great Parishes to them, where they are, or
else to the public Churches the better when their Absence maketh room.
Pag.
182. You say If those formerly or more lately who desired some Alteration
in the external Form of Administration used in our Church had not run so
high as to assert things unlawful, which by all their Mediums they could never
prove to be so,
&c. Quest.
25. Why then did not their Charity or yours show
the weakness of what we took for Proofs, nor ever answer our three last large
Writings given in to them?
Quest.
26. You (truly) contradict many Writings of the (unanswerable) Conformists,
who say that at
Worcester
House, or in that Treaty we professed all that
we opposed to be lawful, and only inconvenient? which of you shall the ignorant
believe?
Quest.
27. Know you not how much is added since? Will you join with them
that build up a double Wall of Separation, and will by no entreaty take down
one Stone of it, and then cry [
Schism,
and
Separation
].
Quest.
28. Did you ever see or hear our Reasons to prove that
〈◊〉
which we
took for such? If not, how can you judge so peremptorily of them?
〈◊〉
of
of the eight Points that at the
Savoy
we undertook to prove great Sins, and of
〈…〉
that I take for heinous Sins (should I commit them) which are now in my
Thoughts, I will only beg the Charity of your Arguments to prove
〈…〉
of these very few following, least by the number I discourage you.
Quest.
1. How prove you it lawful to
Assent
and
Consent
to a doubled
〈◊〉
that
Infants baptized and dying before actual Sin, are saved?
not excepting any Infanfant
of Pagan, Turk, or Atheist, or Insidel? Were you certain of this by God's
Word heretofore? Are you certain now? O then help us to certainty by your
Proofs. May not a Man be baptized that is not certain that the Gospel is true,
if he believe it so far as to venture Life and Soul, and all upon it?
Quest.
2. How prove you that I may assent and consent that no Parent shall be
Godfather for his Child, nor enter him at all into God's Covenant, by speaking
one Word of Promise or undertaking (nor saith the Canon may he be urged to be
present) but that the only covenanting Undertakers or Promisers shall be our God-fathers
and Godmothers, who perfideously promise what not one of thousands
(that adopt not the Child) ever make any Man believe that they have any intention
to perform, and tempt Anabaptists to take us all to be unbaptized, as not being
covenanted for by any that had Authority to do it by God's Law.
Quest.
3. How prove you it lawful to
Assent
and
Consent,
to deny Christendom
to all Infants, whose Parents will not have them dedicated to God by the Transient
Image of the Cross? or will not have such God-fathers the sole undertaking
Covenanters, but will openly enter their own Children into that Covenant them
•
selves? especially when the Liturgy saith, 1. That these Infants are certainly and
undoubtedly saved, if baptized. 2. And denieth them Christian Burial if they
die unbaptized. Prove that a Minister may Assent and Consent to deny them
Christendom and certain Salvation, because of this Judgment of Godly Parents.
Quest.
4. Prove it lawful to deny Christian Communion to all Christians that
dare not receive Kneeling, or that are Excommunicate for not paying the Fees of
the Court, or all that a lay-Chancellor using the Power of the Keys doth Excommunicate;
and to assent and consent so to do (to the first at least).
Quest.
5. How prove you it lawful to assent and consent to deny Christian
Communion to all that are not
Confirmed by the Bishop,
or willing to be so? though
he were never so willing to own his Baptismal Covenant, and do all that a Christian
Man should do. When the Reformed Churches have written so much against
the necessity of such Confirmation.
Quest.
6. How to prove you it lawful to assent and consent that all the Atheists, Infidels,
Heretics, and Wicked Men, yea, every individual Person in
England,
except
the
Unbaptised, Excommunicate
and Self-murderers shall at their Burial be Ministerially
pronounced Saved;
viz. That God of his Mercy hath taken unto himself
the Soul of this our dear Brother out of the Miseries,
&c. as you read. And when we
are stifled in a Goale ourselves as Schismatics, unless a Man (usually) excommunicate
us, they will pronounce us saved.
Quest.
7. How prove you it lawful deliberately to publish your
Assent
and
Consent
to that little gross Falsehood, the Rule to find out
Easter-day.
I will trouble you with none of the many greater things. If you say that you
mean not to justify all these and such like, 1. Will not common Reason think so
by your Words, do they not imply it? 2. If you think our Nonconformity
our Duty, what meaneth your Address to us as such, and your Counsels aforementioned?
and how cometh our Silence and forsaking the Preaching of the Gospel
to be our Duty during the need of so many Thousand Souls?
As for unwarrantable Separation and Accusation of the Parish-Churches,
and Liturgy, we are many of us as truly (though not as far) from them as you.
If what I have written displease you, it will but tell you that I prefer Truth and
Conscence and the Churches Good before my very dear and much valued Friends
Opinion or Will; and the Welfare and Peace of his own Soul, before the pleasing
of him: I am past doubt that you do in Sincerity seek the same thing that I
and others do, that is, the healing of a divided People, and the Cure of those
Distempers which have drawn many to sinful Separations. Three sorts of Schism
we disclaim as well as you: 1. Making Factions and Parties in a Church to the
Hindrance of Love, Peace, and Concord. 2. Separating from a Church on the
Account that its Communion is unlawful, when it is not so. 3. Much more separating
from a Church as no Church, and a Ministry as none, when it is not so.
In none of these respects do we separate or divide from the Church or Churches
that we should hold Communion with. 1. We separate from the Catholic
Church; 2. Nor from the Church of
England,
as accidentally headed by the King.
3. Nor as a number of Churches associated for Concord; 4. Nor as a mere Community,
part of the Church Universal; 5. We separate not from the Parish-Churches
that have true Pastors, either as no Churches, or as holding Communion
with them in ordinary public Worship to be simply or commonly sinful:
6. Nor would we make any Division in the Churches by unjust contention: but
that
there are Separatists
that do so, and deserve all your reproof, and need all your
Admonitions we doubt not: But by overdoing (the ordinary way of undoing) I
doubt you have lost your labor, and much worse. Not but that all of us have
great cause to thank you, if truly you do detect any guilt of ours, as well as others:
but if you have done much to increase the Schism, and made yourself guilty of it,
you have crossed your own end, notwithstanding your good meaning.
1. We are not for building up any Walls of Separation; some Masters of Schism
are.
2. We think that no Human Churches have power to abrogate the Privileges
or Duties of the Churches of Christ's own institution. Some Schismatics think
otherwise.
3. We hold that Christians should live in holy Love and Peace, when tolerable
Differences of Opinion placeth them in divers Congregations: but some Schismatics
think otherwise, and make such a peevish unreasonable noise against all
that do not meet with them, and subject themselves to them, as that their Clamour
is the scandal to the Infidels, Atheists, and Papists, making them believe
that we are mad, or all in pieces, when we differ but in little things: and so they reproach
the Frailty of Human Nature and the common Imperfection of Believers
with calumniating Censures and Accusations, as if they were a greater evil than
they are.
4. We hold that Love and Tenderness and Self-denial should pardon honest
Christians, for choosing such Pastors, as are really most serviceable to their Salvation,
and their own Experience find to be so, rather than unsuitable Men
(to say no worse) that are thrust on them against their wills: and that other Ministers
should be glad, if they will live peaceably under
others,
and profit by them,
though they choose not
them:
but some turbulent Self-seekers are of another mind
and way.
5. We think (as is said) that the Parishes are or should be true Churches, and
we hold Communion with them as such: but some Conformists un-Church them,
and make them but parts of a Church, and hold no Communion with them otherwise.
6. We go upon certain and plain grounds in determining what Schism is (as
the three sorts
e. g.
aforesaid) but so do not many Schismatics that yet cry down
Schism.
1. Some of them make it Schism not to obey the Pope as Universal Monarch.
2. Some make it Schism not to be subject to a true Universal Council, as the
Collective Head of the Church, when there neither was, is, or ever will be such
a thing in the World; much less the rightful Head of the Church.
3. Some (with Bishop
Bramhall
and his Advocates, and others) would have the
Pope to be
Principium Unitatis,
and Patriarch of the West, and so it shall be Schism
not thus to submit to him.
4. Some (as Mr.
Thorndike
) would have these Councils and Canons to rule us
for Concord which were till the time of
Charles the Great.
5. Some are for Concord on the reception of the four first Councils, some of
six, some of eight,
Grotius
of all well expounded.
6. Some hold that its Schism to disobey the King's Church-Orders, and to refuse
any Bishop or Minister that the King or a Patron choose for us.
7. Some hold that it's Schism to obey the King in the
circa sacra,
as aforesaid (in
choice of Pastors, Time, Place, Translation, Meter,
&c.
if the Bishops or Bishop
be against it, and command the contrary; and that these must rather be obeyed.
8. Shme hold that it's Schism to separate from a Parish Church as no Church:
others think it none.
9. If the Archbishop command one thing, and the Bishop another, and the
Parish Pastor another, and a Parent another, (as when to Communicate, and in
what Gesture, Habit,
&c.
) they are not agreed what Disobedience here is the
Schism.
10. Some take it for Schism if a prohibited Minister speak to God in Prayee,
or to the People in teaching them, in any words but what Bishop or Bishops
write them down; or if he obey not a Bishop never truly chosen by the Clergy
or the People even in every commanded Form and Ceremony.
11. Some think it Schism if we hold Communion with those whom a La
•
-Chancellor
Excommunicateth, or if we deny our Communion to those that he
absolveth, yea if we publish not his Sentence as in the Bishop's name, that perhaps
never knew of it.
12. Some say it is Schism if we preach in another Man's Parish, be there never
so great need, without his consent.
13. Some say it is Schism if we preach without the Bishops license, though we
have the King's, or at least be Ordained even by the Bishops.
14. Some say, that if we be licenced, it's Schism to preach to above four in an
unlicensed place.
15. Some say, if Person and Place be licenced, it is Schism to preach without
the Common Prayer.
16. Some say, that if the Bishop command us
rebus sic slantibus
to preach or
meet only at midnight, or twenty miles off, or but once a month, or if they
forbid all God's Public Worship (which yet Mohammedans offer him some) it is
Schism not to obey.
But if the Bishop do but say the word, we may meet daily without Schism:
and the Place, Person, Exercise that before was Schismatical, if he do but license
them, are presently lawful. So that the Bishop's word against the King's (yea,
against God's command to
preach in season and out
) can make a thing Schism and his
word can make it none again in a moment.
17. Whether it be Schism to go to a better Minister in another Parish in the
same Diocese, though we separate from no Church (in their sense, the Diocesan
being the lowest proper Church) is not well agreed on.
Feigning Schisms is making Schism by turbulent noise and
〈◊〉
Accusations.
We that impose on no Man, and that obey them in lawful things that we
for Universal Love and Peace, even with that meet in different Assemblies, and
in different Forms; we that hold Communion with all true Churches as aforesaid,
and yet because we can be but in one place, at once do choose the best, obeying
God's Command, [
Let all things be done to edification
] and knowing best what
edifieth ourselves, we suppose are farther from Schism, than those that as from
the Throne of Authority pronounce Schism, and never help us to understand the
sense and reason of their words; but use it as for the advantage of their Cause:
And as one lately writeth,
Have led that Bear so long about the streets, till the Boy:
lay by fear, and do but laugh at it.
Nor are there many more effectual Causes of
Schism, and that harden true Schismatics against all Conviction, then when it is
seen, that Men of Contention, Pride, and Worldly Interest, first make the Schism
by sinful or impossible terms of Unity, and next falsely call the most Innocent, that obey,
not their Domination, Schismatics, and the greatest Duties (even Preaching
where many and many thousands have no Preaching, nor no Public Worship
of God) by the Name of Schism, as if we must let
London
turn Heathens for fear
of being Schismatics. Dear Friend, though these things have these Forty years
had my deep, and I hope impartial thoughts, and I dare not for a thousand Worlds
think to do otherwise than I do in the main, yet I shall heartily thank you if by
true light you help me to see any Error which I yet perceive not.
And seeing Experience hath justly taught you to dread Anabaptistry and Separation,
think further, 1. Whether they that forbid Parents to enter their Children
into Covenant with God in Baptism, and lay all that Office on those that have no
power to covenant in their names, nor show any purpose to perform what they
promise, and deny Baptism, as aforesaid, to the Children of such as submit not to
this and the Cross, be not
quantum in se
Destroyers of Infant Baptism (which is no
Baptism if there be no Covenant).
2. (Again) Whether they be not Separatists that both un-Church all the Parish-Churches
quantum in se,
and also deny Communion with the Nonconformists
Churches, as null or unlawful, even when they had his Majesty's Licence? Be impartial
against Antipedobaptists and Separatists. I constantly heard and communicated
with the Parish-Church where I lived; but the Conformists usually fly from
the Nonconformists Assemblies as unlawful: but if both sides were heard in their
Charge against the other, I know which would have the more to say. Accept
this freedom from the unfeigned Love of
Your much obliged Friend,
Rich. Baxter.
May 13. 1626.
The Instances promised you.
I. WHen I was cast out at
Kidderminster,
(and you know what a Minister was
there) I offered, while the Indulgence of the King's Declaration continue
•
d,
to have been the Reading Vicar's Curate, and to have preached for nothing,
and could not prevail: I was by the Bishop forbidden to preach in his Diocese; and
when I offered him to preach only Catechistical Principles to some poor Congregation
that else must have none, he told me,
It was better they had none than me.
My
presence at
Kidderminster
was thought so dangerous, that Force was assigned to have
ap
•••
hend me, and had I stayed it must have been in the Jail, and many another for
my sake. When I was forced away, at
Venner
's Rising I wrote but a Letter to my Mother
in-
•
awe, and it was way-laid, intercepted, opened, and sent up to the Court,
though there was nothing concerning them in it, but some sharp Invectives against
the Rebellion, which my Lord Chancellor acknowledging, caused my Lord
Windsor
personally to bring me back my Letter: so that I durst not write to them of
many years. My Neighbors I had persuaded to do as you advise, to join in the
Public Church, and help each other as private Men, and for so doing, (repeating
Sermons, and praying and singing a
Psalm
) many of them lay long among Rogues
in the Common Jail, and others of them impoverished by Fines.
II. When I came to live at
Acton,
I drew all the People constantly to Church
that were averse; sometime I repeated the Parsons Sermon, and sometimes taught
such as came to my House, between the Sermons. When the Reverend Parson saw
them come into Church, he would fall upon them,
&c.
—And not being able to
bear my little Endeavors for their Instruction, he caused me to be sent to the
Common Jail, (not one Witness or Person being suffered to come into the Room
while I was examined and committed.)
III. I am now in a Parish where some Neighbors say that there are Fourscore
thousand Souls; suppose they be fewer: Not above Two thousand of all these can
hear in the Parish Church: so that it's like above Sixty thousand have no Church to
go to, no not so much as to hear the Scripture or the Common-Prayer. Here I need
not tell you what Prohibitions I have had, and what my Endeavors to teach a few
Publicly, have lost me and others: And lately, because one that preached for me
did (without my knowledge) at the importunity of a Parent, Baptize a poor man's
Child, when they told him it was in danger of death, the Curate of the Parish
came to my House to expostulate the matter: when yet many are baptized by Papist
Priests, for want of others to do it, as they say. I never myself Baptized a
Child, or administered the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper these fifteen years, but
ordinarily received it in the Parish Church at
Totterridge,
and elsewhere, (one of the
first times that I received it in private, a Bullet was shot into the Room among us,
and came near to the Heads of divers of us). I never gathered any Church from
among them; and yet have been usually the first sought after to be imprisoned or
ruined in each assault: and was put to sell my Goods and Books to save them from
Distress. Near me, in the same Parish, liveth Mr.
Gabriel Sanger,
the late Incumbent
Pastor of the Parish, a Man of Age and Gravity, great Moderation and Peaceableness,
and far from Faction or Turbulency; who preacheth but to a few in his
own House: And where should he use his Ministry, if not in so vast a Parish where
so many Thousands are untaught, and where he is not sure that his old relation is
dissolved, though the Tythes and Temple be given to another? One Mr.
Grove
(that oft heard me) being lately dead, and his Widow sick, she sent for Mr.
Sanger
to visit her, who after a short Instruction prayed with her: while he was at
Prayer, Dean
Lampley
the Parson (or Vicar) of the Parish came in, and heard him
at Prayer, staying till he had done in an outer Room, and as soon as he had done,
as Mr.
Sanger
affirmeth, came in upon him, and fiercely asked him, What he did
there? He told him, Nothing but what beseemed a Minister of the Gospel, to visit
the Sick when he was sent for. And to the second Expostulation, told him, That
he thought he should be thankful to him for helping him in such a Parish. To
which the Doctor answered, That then he should have done it according to the Liturgy:
fiercely adding,
Get you out of the Room.
At which when he demurred, he
more fiercely took him by the breast, and thrust him, and said,
Get you out of the
Room:
which to avoid unpeaceableness he forthwith did. I saw not this, but I
think no Man that knoweth Mr.
Sanger
will question the Truth of his deliberate
Affirmation of it.
In what Parish of
England
should a Man expect leave to visit the Sick, when
sent for, rather than in St.
Martins?
From what Minister in
England
should one rather
expect leave than from Dr.
Lampley,
who hath so many Thousands more than
he and his Curate and Lecturer can suffice to teach and visit? and who, I hear, is a
very worthy Man, and a Teacher of more than ordinary diligence, and especially
excelleth almost all that I hear of in Constancy in the needful Work of Catechising,
for which, though I know him not, I do much honor him. And what Minister
in
England
may expect leave to visit the Sick, or privately help the People
•
if not
Mr.
Sanger,
who was lately the Public Incumbent himself, and is a man as unlikely
to stir up any Man to Envy or Wrath, as most that ever I knew: I will not
parallel my own Case with his: If I be unworthy of such liberty, might not such
as he be tolerated so far?
This being our Case, will you be the Man that shall tell us and the world, that
we should have kept our Residence, and joined with the succeeding Ministers in
private helps, and how well we and Religion had then sped, as if you had not lived
in
England?
to make Men think that the Parish Ministers are willing of this.
Yet I will again say, Necessity is laid upon me, and woe be to me if I preach
not the Gospel, though Men forbid it. And if I either give but to one poor
Man, when I might give to a thousand, or teach but one ignorant Sinner, when
I might teach a thousand, how shall I look my Judge in the Face, who gave me
that terrible warning, 2
Tim.
4. 1, 2. as well as
Matth.
2
•
. And did I think that
ever you would have been one that should publicly have persuaded us to this.
When it is the grand Work of Satan to Silence the Preachers of the Gospel, and
the great Character of all sorts of his Agents (one way or other, on their various
pretences) to effect it: Papists would silence me: Prelatists would silence
me: Quakers, Anabaptists, Antinomians and Separatists would silence me! and
would my dear and judicious and experienced Friends silence me also! Alas, how
many Difficulties have we to overcome! while our weary Flesh, and too cold
Love, and the Relicks of Sloth and Selfishness, which loveth not a laborious
suffering Life, doth hinder us more than all the rest. But the Judge is at the
Door.
Number V.
I Find that in a Book of yours, defending Schism against Mr.
Halis,
on pretence
of opposing it, you were pleased to think many Passages in my Writings
worthy of your Recital to your ends: I thank you that you chose any
Words for Peace, which some may make a better use of than yourself: But I
think if you had referred Men to my own Books to read them with what goeth
before and after, they would have been more easily understood. I understand by
your Book that you think that you are in the Right; which is the most that I have
yet learned out of it, unless it be also that you think the Nonconformists be not yet
hated and afflicted enough; or that he that
sweareth,
must ascend by treading upon
him that feareth an Oath. I am in some doubt least you have wronged our
Prelacy by so openly proclaiming the Enmity of so great a Man as
Hales
against
them, and by enticing Men by your Noise to read his Book which you contradict;
which if they do, I doubt your Confutation will not save them from the
Light. But the Reason of my troubling you with these Lines, is only to crave
some Satisfaction about two or three Matters of Fact in your Book, which would
seem strange to me, did I not find such things too common in Invectives
against the silenced Ministers, and did I not know that is part of Satan's Work
to persuade the World that no History hath any certainty of Truth, that so sacred
History may be disadvantaged.
I. One is in these Words,
p. 101. When they had in the gand Debate given in their
Objections to the Liturgy, some of the Brotherhood had prepared another Form, but a great
part of their Brethren objected many things against that; and never as yet did (as I hear
of) agree upon any other, nor I think ever will.
I crave the Justice of you to tell us,
which was that you call the Grand Debate, and who those were that dissented:
or what Proof you have of any such thing: Either you knew what you say, or
not: If not, and publish it in such a manner, while you are accusing others of Sin?
What is this to be called if you did, it is yet far worse; either you speak of the
Westminster
Assembly, which made the Directory, or of the Commissioners in
1660. Not the first sure, for none, I think, was yet ever vain enough to pretend
that they thus drew up another Liturgy. It must needs then be the latter: Of
which this is past denial by any but the—
1. That the King's Commission under the Broad-Seal authorizing to make
some
[Additional Forms].
2. The late Archbishop of
Canterbury,
Dr.
Sheldon,
when we came according to
appointment, to try by Friendly Conference, what Alterations each Party might
yield to for our desired Concord, without any injury to their Consciences, began
with a Declaration, that we being the Plaintiffs, they would no farther proceed
or treat with us, till we had given them in entirely in Writing, 1. What we blamed
in the Liturgy, and our Reasons of it. 2. And what we desired as better.
Mr.
Calamy
and others said, [This was plainly to deny the Conference which we
were commissioned for] and they would there have broke off, had it not been for
me who requested them rather to yield and undertake it, than give them occasion
to charge us with Tergiversation and Refusal of any lawful thing; though I easily
saw that the Motioner thought thereby to break us as disagreeing when we came
to perform the Undertaking: While others drew up their Exceptions against the
Liturgy, they appointed me to draw up the
Additional Forms:
But remembering
the Bishops Words
[What we desired instead]
I drew up a
Liturgy.
It must needs
be very imperfect, being done (in necessary haste) in Eight Days: Dr.
Reynolds
only thought that we should be blamed for offering a whole Liturgy instead of
Additional Forms.
] I told him, 1. It was but to be added to the old if reformed.
2. And they might cut off all that they thought superfluous upon debates, even
all that the Bishops should except justly against; for we did but offer it to them,
professing we were ready to alter anything upon their Reasons: Hereupon
Dr.
Reynolds
yielded, and it was oft read over among us, only the Prayer for the
King being thought too long, Dr.
Wallis
was appointed to draw up a shorter;
which he did, all the rest standing as I wrote it: It was agreed to without one
dissenting Vote; nor had we one Objection sent us in by any other. I was appointed
at a meeting with the Bishops at the
Savoy,
at once to deliver them
them this
Liturgy, A Reply to their Answer to our Exceptions,
and
A Petition for Peace
and Concord,
all which they had appointed me to draw up, and had examined
and consented to. We waited for an Answer to all, and never had an Answer to
any one of them; but they kept them and said nothing of them: I was especially
desirous to have heard their Exceptions against our Liturgy (when they thought
we would have disagreed among ourselves) and urged some of them to it, and
could never get a Word of Answer, or Exception, which made me wonder, as
well knowing 1. How very willing some were to have found it faulty. 2. And
how hard it is in necessitated haste to write such a thing that shall not be liable to
many Exceptions: Yea, when
Roger L'Strange
after wrote against us, he saith little
at all against the Liturgy, save that we left Men at too much Liberty; to which
we then said, That imposing and restraining was not our work, but the Bishops,
who we supposed upon Debate, would have too much done it. Now if this
full
Concord,
and no
Answer
or
Exceptions
from them that extorted this Work from us,
be agreeable to the Report you make, or if you have dealt here like a Minister of
Truth, I pray you help me to discern it. The Book with the rest was printed long
ago, most of them by some poor Scriviners, that being used in transcribing, had
got a Copy, and did it for Gain.
II.
Another Passage is
P. 293. No sinful Act being required to make ministerial Conformity
unlawful, [which if there had been, they or some others would and ought to have
discovered it, and then, I doubt not, it would by Authority have been taken away, but
that being not done].
Here I desire you to satisfy me in a few things: 1. When even our Public Reply
and foresaid Petition, against the old Conformity were never answered to
this Day, is it ingenuous to take this for a Consutation, barely thus to say
[it is
not done]
should I say
[it was never yet discovered that Episcopacy is lawful]
would
you not have called me—as long as
Saravia, Bilson, Hooker, &c.
are unanswered?
2. Do you not know what abundance of old have thought they discovered the
sinfulness of Conformity (
Bradshaw, Nicolas, Ames, Parker, Jacob, Cartwright,
&c.) and what
Aloundel, Salmasius, Gersom, Bucer, Didoclave,
&c. have written
against Prelacy, and some of late against our Conformity, (
Cawdry, Hickman,
and others, yet unanswered): And is this your dry Denyal a rational Confutation?
3. Would not your Words make the ignorant believe that we have the Liberty
of the Press, and may do it if we will? and do not the Act of Parliament, and
the severe Searches of the Press, and the Printers Refusal show how false such an
Intimation is: It may be some small Pamphlet may with much a do creep out;
but so cannot anything that is full and satisfactory: Our Cause is a mere Stranger
to our Accusers; (it seems even to such as you) because we cannot have leave to
print it: A few have heretofore when the watch was less strict got somewhat out,
to little purpose (Mr.
Hickman
's was beyond Sea): But nothing that may make
us well understood. And is it fit work for a Minister to blame Men thus Publicly
for not doing Impossibilities.
4. It must be supposed that you know these things, 1. That the Law forbids us
to deprave or speak against the Liturgy upon grievous Penalties. 2. That the Canon
excommunicateth us
ipso facto,
that is,
sine Sententia Iudicis,
if we do but say
that there is anything that a Man may not with a good Conscience conform to.
3. And that our present Governors are against it. 4. And that for doing it we
are sure by Conformists to be called
disobedient
to Authority, and Seditious. 5.
And that we are so accused by you commonly for Preaching when forbidden,
which is as much our vowed Duty sure as Writing. And do you now tell us that
we ought to discover it if there be any sinful Act Commanded:
Will you warrant us
against the Charge of Disobedience, or do you drive us on that, which if we do,
you know we are already judged to excommunicated Jailes and Ruin. We have
long begged of Parliament men that we might but once have leave to speak, for
ourselves (which we never yet had as to the new Conformity to this Day); and
yet we might petition for such leave; and they tell us these Fifteen Years almost,
there is no hope, it will but ruin you. I have offered two of the most eminent
Bishops to beg it of them or any on my Knees, that we might but once publish
the Case and Reasons of our dissent. And is it not enough to be Fifteen or Sixteen
Years ejected, silenced, scorned, accused, as unworthy to be endured, and
to be silently Patient, and never answer for ourselves, nor have the common
Justice of being heard, but we must have the additional Abuse, to be told that
we ought to do it:
Yea, many of the Conformists (O, with what a Face!) have
published to the World, that we take not the things which we refuse for Sins, or
da
•
e not say so of them; when even the far easier Conformity 1660. We did by
Word and Writing declare to be sinful, and in our Pet
••
ion for Peace (Printed)
protested that did we not take it to be sinful, and hazarding our Souls,
&c.
We
should never have stuck at Conformity to them. And it is no small Number of
Sins so hei
•
ous which we suppose since imposed, that we dare not so much as
name them, least we displease you, and make you say that we render the Conformists
such heinous Sinners! But I will allege your Authority when any of us
are next blamed for discovering the
•
einous Sinfulness of Conformity, as we yet
believe it would be to us.
If you say that the Licensers would license our Writings, if we did it with Sobriety:
1. You know that the Canon and Law is against it. 2. I shall then in
Justice challenge you to make it good, and here promise you an account of my
Nonconformtiy whenever you will procure it licensed.
6. And which way got you so strong a Faith as to be past doubt
that did we discover
any sinfulness, it would by Authority have been taken away.
] Make this true yet
(after near Two Thousand Ministers have been near Sixteen Years ejected and silenced,
and many killed by Imprisonment, and the People of the Land divided
and distracted by the training Engines) and you shall have the Honor of being
the greatest healer of our Breaches, that ever rose in the Days of my Remembrance:
But if it be not true—
III. The Third Passage is
p.
69, 70. throughout; These are great things to be
spoken so boldly: 1. Do you suppose your Reader one that never read Church-History?
What Work the Bishops made for
Arianism,
for
Nestorianism,
for the
Eutychians,
and
A
••
phalites,
against
Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.
for the
Monothelites,
about the
tria Capitula for Images.
against Emperors and Kings, setting up the
Pope, and decreed the Deposition of all Princes that obey him not, and making
Loyalty to be
Heresis Henriciana:
How the River
Oronte
at
Antioch
hath been coloured
with the Blood, and the Graves of the Monks and People that fought it out
in the Streets for the several Bishops, what work they made at the first Council
at
Constance,
the first and the second of
Ephesus,
the Council at
Calcedon,
and many
another? How many Ages they were, and yet are the Army of the Pope, to subdue
Princes and Nations, Truth and Justice, and set up the Evil that now reigneth
in the Christian World. How even against the Popes Will, they made the
best King and Emperor,
Ludovicus Pius,
as a Penance, resign his Crown and
Scepter on the Altar, to a Rebel Son, and sent him to Prison. He that ever read
but
Baronius, Binius,
or other Episcopal History will pity you, can you name one
Presbyter for very many Bishops that have been the Heads or Fomenters of
Heresy, Schism, or Rebellion? and yet Presbyters were more in Number than
Bishops?
Innumerable Bishops
saith
Binius,
were in the
Monothelite
Council under
•
hilipicu
•
.
Of all things that ever befell the
Christian
Church, I scarce know any
thing comparable in Shame and Mischievous Effects, to the horrid perfideousness,
Contention, Schism and Pride of Bishops; Cursing one Year by Hundreds all that
were of one Opinion, and another Year all that were of the contrary, as the
times and Interest, and Emperor changed. And if
Arius
or
Novatus, Arius
and
Donatus
(which are all you name were the Beginners of any Schism, how many
hundred Bishops were the Promoters of them all, save that of
Arius
against themselves.
And is it any honor to Episcopacy that
Arius,
and
Arius
(an
Arian
)
were not Bishops when they were said to be Seekers of Bishoprics, and to divide
because they could not obtain them. Sure they were Prelatical Presbyters: what
honor were it to Episcopacy that you are no Bishop, if all these, and such things,
were vended by you in hope of a Bishopric or some Preferment.
I will never
whilst I breathe trust a Presbyter that sets himself to get Preferment, no more than I will
trust a—
But did you know, or did you not, that as for
Novatus
and
Novatian,
one of them was an ill-chosen Bishop of
Rome,
and the other a Promoter of
his Prelacy? and that as for
Donatus
there were two of them, one of them a Bishop;
and that the Donatists Schism was merely and basely Prelatical, even whether
their Bishop or
Cecilianus
should carry it? and that their Re-baptizing and
Re-ordaining and Schism was because they took none to have power that had it
not from their Bishop, as being their right, (like our Re-ordainers). And are these
Instances to prove what you assert?
Were it not for entering upon an unpleasing and unprofitable Task, I would ask
you, 1. Who that
Iuncto
of Presbyters was that dethroned the King? was it they
that petitioned and protested against it? 2. Whether it was not an Episcopal
Parliament (forty to one, if not an hundred) that began the War against the
King? 3. Whether the General and Commanders of the Army, twenty to one,
were not Conformists? 4. Whether the Major Generals in the Countries were
not almost all Episcopal Conformists? (The Earl of
Stamford
was over
your Country). 5. Whether the Admiral and Sea-Captains were not almost
all Episcopal Conformists? (As
Heylin
distinguisheth them of Archbishop
Abbots
mind, disliking Arminianism, Monopolies,
&c.
) 6. Whether the Archbishop
of
York
were not the Parliaments Major General? 7. Whether the Episcopal
Gentry did not more of them take the Engagement (and many Episcopal
Ministers) than the Presbyterians? 8. Whether if this Parliament, which made
the Acts of Uniformity and Conventicles, should quarrel with the King, it would
prove them to be Presbyterians and Nonconformists? 9. Whether the Presbyterian
Ministers of
London
and
Lancashire
did not write more against the Regicides
and Usurpers, and declare against them, than all the Conformists, or as much?
And the Long Parliament was forced, and most of them cast out before the King
could be destroyed: And when they were restored, it made way for his Restoration.
And Sir
Thomas Allen,
Lord Mayor, and the City of
London's
inviting General
Monk
from the Rump into the City, and joining with him, was the very
Day that turned the Scales for the King. But all these are Matters fitter for your
better Consideration than our Debate. I rest
Your Servant
Rich. Baxter.
July 26. 1678.
To Mr.
Long
of
Exeter.
Numb. VI. A Resolution of this Case; What's to be
done when the Law of the Land commands Persons to
go to their Parish-Church, and Parents require to go
to private Meetings.
Quest.
THE Law of the Land commandeth me to go to the Public Churches; the
Canon commandeth me to go to my own Parish-Church, and not to another
Parish: Both forbid me to go to Conventicles and silenced Preachers. My Father and Mother
forbid me to go to the Public Churches, and command me to go constantly to a silenced Minister
in Meetings forbidden by the Law! But specially not to go to my Parish Priest, (saying
he is an insufficient and drunken Railer) but to a Neighbor Parish, if I will not obey their
first Command! Am I now bound to obey my Parents, or the Law, and Canon?
Answ.
It is an hard Task to a Minister of Christ, either so to practice or so to
speak, as shall seem to accuse his Rulers and the Laws; but when the saving of our
own or other Men's Souls requireth it, there is no remedy. Our own silence, if we
ceased Preaching, and our
practice
contrary to the Law in Preaching or Praying,
which is forbidden, do against our wills unavoidably intimate that we suppose great
sins to be commanded us: And whether we preach or be silent, while we
Subscribe
not, Declare not, Covenant not,
and
Swear not,
and
Practice not, all that is required of
us,
this cannot be hid: Though our cautelousness and fear of accusing our Governors
or the Conforming Ministers, have given some Men occasion to affirm, That
we take not Conformity for a sin:
or
that no considerable persons among us dare say so
(we
spare the Authors, whose published Names are dishonored by themselves, when
prefixed to
such words,
as he that will but read
our Petition for Peace,
and
our Reply
(unanswered) delivered to the commissioned Bishops 1660. will say did ill beseem
a Doctor, a Preacher, a Christian, or a Man). We profess from the first to this
day, that it is a
great sin
in us to
forbear our Ministry,
or to
exercise it
in a
forbidden
manner,
especially when such doleful Divisions and Calamities follow it, if it
be not
sin,
that is required of us: and if it be not,
many and heinous sins,
our peace in suffering
will have some less reason to that, than we have thought it had.
Therefore being urged, I cannot in Conscience deny a plain Answer to this Question.
But I despair of satisfying those Men that must have that which
Augustine
said he
hated, viz.
A short Answer to a long and hard Question;
and that cannot away with
distinction, when distinct matters must be spoken to. Let such Readers cast this Answer
aside, as being not suited to their Wits and Dispositions.
1. We must distinguish between an Infant or Child in the Parents Family, and
one that is at Age, or gone out of the Family.
2. Between a thing that
is either Duty
or
Sin
or
Indifferent,
in itself by the Law of
God, and
Men's thinking
it to be so, or not so.
3. And particularly between a Minister
justly silenced,
and People
justly prohibited
to meet, and those that are
unjustly silenced
and forbidden.
4. Between the Prohibition or Command of the
Civil Magistrate,
and of the
Bishops.
5. Between the
Command
of Laws or Parents, to hear such and such Ministers,
and their
Prohibition not
to hear others, nor join in such Assemblies.
6. Between an Act of
Formal Obedience
to a Command, and an Act of
Prudence
moved by the good or hurt that will follow.
7. Between guilt of
Divine Revenge,
and guilt of
Human Punishment.
I make use of all these distinctions in resolving your Doubt by
〈◊〉
following
Propositions.
I. There is no Power but of God, and none above God, nor ag
•••••
, or any
of his Laws. All Laws are null to Conscience, as being no Acts of true Authority
thereto, that are against the Laws of God, in Nature or Scrip
•••
e.
II. Though only Rulers be Judges publicly to decide Controversi
••
, and punish
Offenders, every rational Man must judge discerningly of his Duty, what God's
Law and Man's require: else we were not governed as Men but
〈…〉
nor were
accountable for our Actions to God, any further than whether we obeyed Men:
And else all under Heathens, Mohammedans, Papists, Hereti
•••
,
〈◊〉
be of the Kings
Religion. And then if the King and a Usurper strive for the Crown, we must
not be Judges whose part we must take: All which are intolerable Consequents.
III. Every true Minister of Christ is in his Ordination devoted and consecrated
to that Sacred Office during Ability and Life: And it is from the Law of Christ
that their Authority immediately ariseth; as the Lord Mayor's from the King's
Charter; though Men elect, and the Ordainers invest them in it by delivery. And
as he that crowneth the King cannot depose him, or he that marrieth Persons cannot
unmarry them, no more can any depose a Pastor, and dissolve his Obligations
to his Office, but in case of such Crimes as God's Law deposeth him for, and enableth
them to do it: Of which Bishop
Bilson
of
Obedience
speaketh soundly, too large
to be here recited.
IV. For a Minister of Christ to forsake his Calling or Work, while
his Vow
and
the true
••
cessity of Souls
continue his Obligation, and this merely because he is
unjustly
forbidden by Man,
is to be odiously
perfidious
and
sacrilegious,
and a
Deserter
of his
great Lord and Master's Work, and a
Murderer of the Souls
which he neglecteth, as
verily as Parents murder their Children whom they give not food to. And
no Murderer
hath Eternal Life,
were it but of the Body or Temporal Life; such being as
Cain,
of him that
was a Murderer from the beginning;
and contrary to Christ, who
came to seek and save the lost.
V. The unjust forbidding Christ's Ministers to preach his Gospel, is a sin so exceeding
heinous, as that no Christian should either concur in the Guilt, or be so
scandalous as to seem to do it. Had I lived in
Germany
when many hundred Ministers
were ejected, and thereby the Churches cast into division and confusion, and
Protestant Preachers turned against each other, about the Form or Book called the
Interim,
while
Melanchthon
and some good Men partly conformed to save the Churches
from ruin, and
Illyricus
and more were Nonconformists, I would not for all
the Riches of the World appear before God in the Guilt of those three Men that
did Compile that Book
(Julius P
••
ug, Sidonius,
and
Islebius Agricola
) or of those that
for it silenced or banished Christ's's Ministers. 2
Tim. 4. 1, 2. I charge thee before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and
his Kingdom, Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort,
with all longsuffering and doctrine.
1. Thess. 2. 15, 16.
Who both killed the Lord Jesus
and their own Prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary
to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their
sins always, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. When they persecute you in
one City flee to another.—Shake off the dust of your feet against them. It shall be more tolerable
for
Sodom
and
Gomorrah
in the Day of Judgment than for that City,
Matth: 10. 14,
15. and 23. 22.
VI. God hath set up more
Governments
in the World than
one,
and each hath its
proper works and bounds; and one may not destroy the other. There is
private
Self-Government, Family-Government, Church-Government,
and
Civil-Government:
each
have their
proper Ends
also, though all have
one common End,
the pleasing of God.
The
King
in his
manner
and
measure
and to
his Ends
(the Public Good) is the Ruler
of all Persons, all Families, all Pastors and Churches, all Physicians, School-masters,
&c.
that is, to see all these do their
own duty;
but not to take their Work from them
upon himself; not to take all Men from
Self-government
of their Tongues, Passions,
Actions: not to take on him the part of Parents, Pastors,
&c.
And no Prince's
Laws will acquit a Man before God from his Duty in any of these Relations while
he is in them.
VI. God hath much conjoined
Interest
and
Duty:
No Man is so much concerned,
whether I be saved or damned, as I am myself:
And therefore my own Choice and
Self-government is first and chiefly to be used for the saving of my own Soul, without
which no Man else can save me. Therefore I am more concerned than any Magistrate
is, to the Counsel and Conduct of
what Pastor
I commit my Soul and I
have the
nearest
and
first power
in the
Choice.
There is great Controversy in the
World, Whether Subjects have a
Propriety
in their Estates, which is not at the will
of Princes? And it is commonly affirmed, That
Propriety
is
anticedent to Regiment,
which is but to order it for common good, and not to destroy it. But I had rather
quit my Claim to Propriety in all my Worldly Estate, than of my
Salvation,
or the
necessary means
thereto. If the Law commanded me but to use a Physician
that I thought unskillful in my Disease, and his Medicines pernicious, I would choose
a better if I could, though the King and Laws forbad me, and I would refuse the
obtruded Physician and his Medicine: so I would do if they commanded me to
marry an utterly unsuitable Wife: And I should judge that as these matters are more
my Interest than theirs, so they belong to my
Self-governing power,
and not to their
Civil Government. And next myself, while I am young, my Parents being naturally
endued with stronger love to me, than Magistrates are, the Choice in such
Cases more belongeth to their power than to the Magistrates.
VII. Accordingly it was for Seven hundred, if not a Thousand years, the currant
Judgment of the Christian Churches, that a Bishop must be set over a
particular
Church,
by the
Election
or
Consent
of all the
Clergy
and
all the People,
and that he
was no justly called Bishop that came not in by the
common consent of the Flock:
This
is not only proved in the ancientest Writers, even
Clemens ad Corinth,
and others
commonly; but by many Canons, and even the Popes Decretals, for many hundred
years, and the contrary is an undoubted Innovation.
VIII. It is certain that neither Civil nor Ecclesiastical Rulers have their
Power for
destruction,
but
for edification,
2 Cor. 10. 8. and 13. 10. Rom. 13. 1, 2, 3, 4. Even
Parents that give life and being to their Children, are justly destroyed if they destroy
them. It is no singularity of Mr.
Humphrey,
that hath lately written, That
Laws against the Common Good bind not in Conscience to Obedience: It is the
Judgment of the greatest Casuists;
Greg. Sayrus, Fragosus,
&c. in whom you may
see many others: The
terminus
entereth the definition of relations. It is not Authority
(Ius regendi)
which is not for the Ends of Government, the Common
Good. The Magistrate may
order
the preaching of the Gospel, and other means
of Salvation; but not forbid them, and destroy them. If he do this, it is not by
Authority received from God; as Bishop
Bilson
afore-cited often showeth, and Bishop
Andrew's
in
Torturâ Torti.
I have more power from God to use needful
means of my own Salvation, than any Man hath to forbid me the using of
them.
IX. It is not another Man's saying, [
That much preaching or praying is not needful
to me,
] that will make or prove it so, or ex use me from it. And there is so vast
a difference between a found, skillful, and experienced sively Teacher, and one that
is ignorant, heretical, a mere artist, dead or dull, that readeth a Cento as a Boy
saith his Lesson, that no Man can make it my Duty to commit the Pastoral Care of
my Soul to the latter, when the former may be had without a greater hurt than
the benefit will compensate. Nor will other Men's Crosses, Opinions, or Appetite
herein, suffice to satisfy me against my Sense, Reason, and my own and other
Men's Experience.
X. Yet a
tolerable l
•
ss
must be born rather than public Order violated. And seeing
our Laws and Church-Canons allow any Man when he will to change his Bishop
or Pastor or Congregation, if he will but change his Dwelling, the losses of
this must rather be born, than any greater real detriment to our Souls or to the
Public Good. But Wives, Children, and some others, cannot remove their Habitations.
XI. An Infant or Child in minority in his Parents House, as he is not to be supposed
to understand the Laws, so
caeteris paribus
he seemeth to me to be more obliged
to hear the Teacher that his Parents choose for him, than one that is chosen by
the Magistrates. As in his Diet, and the choice of a Physician when he is sick, so
here. The Magistrate is an Officer of
Power, Wisdom,
and
Love,
but principally
of
Power.
The Pastor is an Officer of
Power, Wisdom,
and
Love,
but eminenty of
Wisdom.
The Parent is an Officer of
Power, Wisdom,
and
Love,
but eminently of
Love:
And the works of Love to his Children eminently belong to his Care and Government.
XII. Yet when Children have the true use of Reason, to discern what God and
Man command them, they must obey neither Parents not Princes against God.
XIII. In the
circa sacra
or Circumstantials of Religion, so much as should be
commonly agreed on by all or most Churches for the Common Good, the Prince
by the Counsel of the Pastors, is the Judge of, and is to be obeyed before the Bishops;
unless he leave it only to the Pastors own Consent, and then their Consent
in Synods must be much regarded: (of which
Grotius de Imperio Sum. Potest.
hath
written excellently, notwithstanding Bishop
Brumhalls
discommendation). But in
the Circumstances that are not to be universally agreed on, but belong to the Pastoral
Office to vary
pro re natâ,
the present officiating Pastor is the Judge, and to be
followed.
XIV. Rules are to be obeyed in all lawful things belonging to their Office to
command: but all lawful things belong not to their Office. Whether I shall eat
once or twice a day, or once in two days? what Meat I shall eat, and how much?
what Ho
•
se I shall ride on? what Wife I shall marry? what Physician, or Teacher
I shall trust, and what Medicine I shall take,
&c.
belongeth more to myself, as is
said.
XV. Intolerable Ministers justly forbidden to preach are bound to obey, and the
People forbidden to hear them, should forbear: But it no more follows that the
Case is the same to all others, than that a true Man may be hanged because a Thief
may: If we be unjustly forbidden to Preach while Ability and Men's need continueth,
we must neither obey, nor rebel.
XVI. A Man may go further in obeying the Civil Power that only sets up
Public
Teachers
or
Catechizers,
if they be unworthy, than those that set up
Church Pastors,
to whom we must commit the Pastoral Care of our Souls, (if they be unfit) and
receive the Sacraments from them: Of which Mr.
Philip Nye's
Papers now printed
may satisfy you.
XVII. On some occasions it is lawful to hear an unmeet Minister; And his Sacramental
Administrations may not be Nullities, or invalid to the Innocent Receiver:
We lose not our right, when he loseth his reward: But it is not lawful to encourage
any intolerable Person in his usurping of the Ministry, either by ordinary
attending him, or by committing the Care of our Souls to him: that is, 1. To such
as are intolerably unable in Knowledge or Utterance or Practice; 2. Or to such
as are Atheists, Infidels, or true Heretics; 3. Or to notorious Malignants, that do
more harm than good.
XVIII. Though its a hard Question how far other Vices disoblige us from submitting
to such a Ministry,
e. g. Perjury, Renouncing, Reformation
and
Repentance,
great Errors, Drunkenness, Idleness,
and such like; yet 1. He that can without greater
mischief than benefit, have a better, should undoubtedly prefer him. 2. And a
Man that feeleth the need of a better to his own Soul, and knoweth how much a
Scandalous Ministry wrongeth Christ and the Church, is very unfit to be persecuted
or troubled for preferring his Soul's benefit before a Human Parish Order: For
Cyprian
and an
African
Council, in the Case of two
Portug
•
l
Bishops, have labored
to prove out of Scripture, That
A Libellaticke, and so such like scandalous Sinner, is uncapable
of being a Bishop or Pastor, and ought to be forsaken by the People, though the Neighbor
Bishops own him.
2. Pope
Nicholas,
and the Canons of some Councils,
Command
that no one hear Mass of a Priest that liveth in known Fornication.
And may not a
Christian be
tolerated
in being but as strict against Vice as the
Papists
and
Councils
are;
and being of the opinion of so holy a Martyr as
Cyprian:
and erring (if he err)
but as he and that
African
Council did.
XIX. All this is but Preparatory: To the Case, I say, you must distinguish between
the
Command
and the
Pr
•
hibition
of your Rulers and your Parents.
1. The
Command
of you
Prince
is the Command of a
lawful Power;
and to hear
honest
tolerable
Ministers (such as we have many) in the Pub
•
ick Assemblies, is a
lawful Command
(whatever some say without profit against it) and therefore you
ought to obey it.
And your
Parents
are a
lawful Power
(for the many Reasons which
I publicly named) expressly mentioned rather than Princes, in the fourth Commandment:
And to
Hear
and
Communicate
in the
Assemblies
of
Orthodox godly Christians
unlawfully prohibited by Man,
is a
lawful Command,
and
ought to be obeyed.
Both
the Powers are lawful, and both the Commands lawful, and both must be obeyed
as far as you can, at several seasons: But you cannot be in two places at once.
2. Intending no dishonor to Authority, I must not betray Truth and Souls,
while it is my Office to resolve their Doubts proposed; with submission to better
Information, I am past doubt, that
both the Prohibitions
in your Case here are
lawful,
and
neither of them
to be
formally obeyed.
That is, in general to take any true Ministers
of Christ for no Ministers, or Christians for no Christians, and Churches for
no Churches, and so to avoid them, or to take their Communion for sinful when it is
not, is a heinous sin: He that thus avoideth lawful Communion as unlawful, reproacheth
the People and Worship of the Lord, and in a degree doth as it were
Excommunicate all those Churches, judging them unworthy of Communion. And
if it be a great sin rashly to Excommunicate one Christian, what is it so to Excommunicate
whole Parishes, Cities, Counties, or Congregations? Your Parents
forbid you to hear in Public: It is an
unlawful Prohibition
of a lawful thing commanded
by the King and Laws, and you are not to obey it. You say the
Laws
for
•
id
you to join with any
Nonconformable
Ministers and Christians in other Assemblies
than the Parish Churches: If they do so, I humbly conceive that it is an unlawful
Prohibition of a thing that God to some commandeth, and therefore is not
to be formally obeyed. God commandeth us not to forsake the assembling of our
salves,
Hebr. 10.
He chargeth all true Ministers, to preach his Word, and be instant,
in season and out of season;
and woe be to them that are truly called, and not
lawfully deposed, if they
preach not the Gospel,
when there is need. He that shall
say, That now in
England
there is
not true need
of the joint Labors of all faithful
Ministers of Christ, Conformists and Nonconformists, will but show that ignorance
or unconscionable indifference in the Matters of Salvation, as will warrant all wise
Men to suspect his Counsel, and all that know the Falsehood to reject it. Christ
requireth all his Servants to live in purity, love and peace; and consequently not to
reject Communion with each other as unlawful, when it is not so, nor to go any
further from each other than they needs must; nor unjustly to judge one Man, much
less Christian Societies. He that in the days of the Emperors of various Opinions
(
Constantius, Valens, Theodosius
Junior,
Zeno, Anastasius,
the
Leo's
and others, that
were some for Images, and some against them, would have called the Pastors and
Assemblies
unlawful and unfit for Communion,
because they were
forbidden,
would
have been a
guilty Separatist.
And so may he be that
separateth
from
forbidden Assemblies,
as well as he that separateth from
commanded ones
(by men). And if God command
Love and Communion of all Christians, as they have occasion, as being one
Bread and one Body, what God commandeth and conjoineth, no Man may forbid
or put asunder. Therefore I conceive you owe Obedience to
both the positive
Commands, but to neither of the general Prohibitions of Communion.
XX.
But you cannot obey both at once:
I answer; Obey both as far as you can;
and obey neither when it tendeth to your destruction. If Parents bid you join
with Heretics or Rebels, obey them not. If others bid you commit the Pastoral
Care of your Souls to intolerable Men, obey them not. But where formal Obedience
ceaseth, Prudence must direct you about material Obedience. It is Obedience
when we do it in Conscience to the Authority: It is Prudence when we gather our
Duty from the End. Avoid that most that bringeth the most intolerable Consequents,
and prefer that which tendeth to the greatest Good. Some dwell where
there is no Competition, all the Ministers being only of one way: Some when the
•
ll Consequents are more on one side, and some where they are more on the other.
And Rituals give place to Morals:
Go learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and
not sacrifice.
You shall answer for your own Souls: Neither Parents nor Princes have
an absolute or a destroying Power over them, nor any that divesteth you of the
Charge or Government of yourselves. Prudence therefore in such Cases must look
to
Order,
to
Public Good,
and to your
own Edification,
and preserve
all
as far as you
are able; and God will accept you if you do your best, though interess'd Factions
•
e offended with you.
XXI. It is a great Doubt among Casuists, Whether and when the Breach of Human
Laws oblige Men to any other than
Human Penalties?
So far as God is offended
and his Law broken by the breach of Mans, so far Punishment from God
also is deserved; but no further. And a Council at
Toletum
hath an express Canon,
that lest Subjects by the Churches Laws should have their Souls ensnared in
Guilt towards God, it is declared that their Provincial Canons bind only
ad poenam,
non ad culpam,
to bear the Penalty, but not to conclude men Sinners. The Expressions
want skill, but the Meaning is manifest.
XXII. The Persons belief that an evil Course is lawful, maketh it not lawful to
him: The
esse
is before the
scire:
If God's Law have forbidden or commanded;
Man's Error may ensnare himself in sin, but cannot change the Law of
God.
XXIII. Some that I love and honor, that have heretofore been ensnared in Anabaptistry
and Separation, in the sense of their Error (as is usual) warp to the
contrary Extream, and fear not the
dreadful guilt of persuading Christ's faithful Ministers
to lay by the Sacred Office which they are devoted to;
yea, and would
blind us
to
believe
there
is no need,
save only to speak to
particular persons privately;
whereby
they should be a
year
in speaking to those whom they may speak to in an
hour,
and
few be able to do it, and perhaps be thrust out with wrath by the Parish Ministers,
as
creeping into Houses to seduce silly women,
or reproached and suspected for it.
They say truly, that he that hath gone
their former way
of unjust Separation, is like
one that an travel seeth here a Leg and their an Arm lie in his way, and therefore
should fear to go on in danger. But I tell them further, he that readeth
Church History
and
Councils,
what work
Church Tyranny
and
striving to be greatest,
hath made
with Kings and Kingdoms, Churches and Families, and the Blood of an hundred
thousand Christians, for about a thousand years at least, is like one that in his travel
seeth here a hundred Carkasses, and there an hundred, and there a stream of
Blood, and there a City ruined, and there a good King surrendering his Crown as
an Act of Penance (as
Ludovicus Pius
did), and there the Streets covered with the
Blood and Carkasses of Monks and others, and then cast into the Rivers, by the wars
and broils of contending Bishops (as at
Antioch,
&c) and if this Man will go on, he
overcometh another kind of warning than [
here a Leg and there an Arm
]. Read but
the History thoroughly, and judge. But what will not Ignorance make men say?
XXIV. Some think that if Sacramental Communion only were left free, it would
alone heal most of our
English
differences. I confess, I that think Men may be forced
to hear and be catechized, do think the great Privileges of Sacramental
Communion, and a sealed Pardon, should be given to none by
Cramming,
or as a
Drench;
I mean, to none against their wills: none but Volunteers or Consenters
being capable of so great Benefits according to Christ the Donor's mind: But
this requireth many Cautions, and belongeth not to the Case in hand.
Numb. VII. A Letter of Mr. Baxter's about the
Case of Nevill Symmons.
I Think not the Confuting of any of the Calumnies that are cast upon me by
Backbiters (whether from Ignorance or Envy) worth any great care or labor,
were it not for the sake of the Guilty themselves, and others whom they
may draw into the same Guilt, or hinder from profiting by my Labors, in the
Calling that God hath placed me in. But I will not despise all these so much, as
not to think them worthy the labor of a few Lines.
It is not long since some Gentlemen at a Coffee-House affirmed, That I had
killed a Man in cold Blood with my own Hand, that is, a Tinker beating his
Kettle at my Door, and disturbing me in my Studies, I pistoll'd him, and was
tired at
Worcester
for my Life. But these Gentlemen were so ingenuous as to ask
Forgiveness, and confess their Fault, and one of them openly to my Vindication.
Though Dr.
Boreman,
Parson of St.
Giles's in the Fields,
that in a printed Pamphlet
led the way, never did so. (Yet lived three or four years Suspended, or
supposing himself Suspended, and so died). Another (caracterized
James 3.
)
reporteth that I am so hot a Disputant, that at a Gentleman's Table, I threw the
Plate at him that I disputed with. The whole Story feigned; nor did I ever
know the least occasion for the Report. The greatest Reproach that's laid on me,
is by Conformists for not Conforming, or not giving over my Preaching and
Ministry: And if they accuse me for not turning Papist, and for not giving over
Prayer as they did
Daniel,
it would have the same effect with me.
But now comes a new one (my Sufferings are my Crimes) my Bookseller,
Nevill Symmons,
is broken, and it is reported that I am the Cause, by the excessive
Rates that I took for my Books of him; and a great Dean (whom I much
value) foretold that I would undo him. Of all Crimes in the World I least expected
to be accused of Covetousness. Satan being the Master of this Design, to
hinder the Success of my Writings when I am dead, it is part of my warfare under
Christ to resist him. I tell you therefore truly all my Covenants and Dealings
with Booksellers to this day.
When I first ventured upon the publication of my Thoughts. I knew nothing
of the Art of Booksellers. I did as an act of mere kindness, offer my Book called
The Saints Rest
to
Thomas Underbill
and
Francis Tyton
to print, leaving the
Matter of Profit without any Covenants to their Ingenuity. They gave me Ten
pounds for the first Impression, and Ten pounds apiece, that is, Twenty pounds
for every after Impresion till 1665. I had in the mean time altered the Book by
the Addition of divers Sheets: Mr.
Underhill
dieth; his Wife is poor: Mr
Tyton
hath Losses by the Fire 1666. They never gave me nor offered me a Farthing
for any Impression after, nor so much as one of the Books, but I was fain, out
of my own Purse, to buy all that I gave to any Friend or poor Person that asked
it.
This loosening me from Mr.
Tyton,
Mr.
Symmons
stepped in, and told me, That
Mr.
Tyton
said he had never got Three pence by me; and brought witness.
Hereupon I used Mr.
Symmons
only. When I lived at
Kidderminster,
some had
defamed me of a covetous getting many hundred pounds by the Booksellers.
I had till then taken of Mr.
Underhill,
Mr.
Tyton
and Mr.
Symmons
(for all save
the
Saints Rest
) the fifteenth Book, which usually I gave away; but if anything
for Second Impressions were due, I had little in Money from them, but in such
Books as I wanted at their Rates. But when this Report of my great Gain came
abroad, and took notice of it in print, and told the World that I intended to
take more hereafter; and ever since, I took the fifteenth Book (for my Friends
and self) and Eighteen pence more for every Rheam of the other fourteen;
which I destinated to the Poor. With this, while I was at
Kidderminster,
I
bought Bibles to give to all the poor Families: And I got Three hundred or Four
hundred pounds, which I destinated all to Charitable Uses: At last, at
London,
it increased to Eight hundred and thirty pounds, which delivering to a worthy
Friend, he put it into the Hands of Sir
Robert Viner
(with an Hundred pounds
of my Wives) where it lieth settled on a Charitable Use after my Death, as from
the first I resolved: If it fails I cannot help it. I never received more of any
Bookseller than the fifteenth Book, and this Eighteen pence a Rheam. And if
for after Impressions I had more of those Fifteenths than I gave away, I took
about two third parts of the common price of the Bookseller (or little more) and
oft less: And sometimes I paid myself for the printing many Hundreds to give
away, and sometimes I bought them of the Bookseller, above my number, and
and sometimes the Gain was my own necessary Maintenance; but I resolved never
to lay up a Groat of it for any but the Poor.
Now, Sir, my own Condition is this: Of my Patrimony or small Inheritance,
never took a Penny to myself, my poor Kindred needing much more. I am
fifteen or 16 years divested of all Ecclesiastical Maintenance: I never had any
Church or Lecture that I received Wages from: But within these three or four
years, much against my Disposition, I am put to take Money of the Bounty of
special particular Friends; my Wives Estate being never my Propriety, nor
much more that half our yearly Expence. If then it be any way unfit for me
to receive such a Proportion as aforesaid, as the Fruit of my own long and hard
Labor, for my Necessary and Charitable Uses; and if they that never took
pains for it, have more right than I, when every Labourer is Master of his
own, or if I may not take some part with them, I know not the reason of any
of this. Men grudge not at a Cobbler, or a Tailor, or any Day-laborer, for
living on his Labors: And why an ejected Minister of Christ, giving freely
five parts to a Bookseller, may not take the sixth to himself, or to the Poor, I know
not. But what is the Thought or Word of Man?
Dr.
Bates
now tells me, that for his Book called the
Divine Harmony,
he had
above an Hundred pounds, (yet reserving the Power for the future to himself):
For divers Impressions of the
Saints Rest,
almost twice as big, I have not had a
Farthing: For no Book have I had more than the fifteenth Book to myself and
Friends, and the Eighteen pence a Rheam for the Poor and Works of Charity,
which the Devil so hateth, that I find it a matter past my power, to give my
own to any Good Use; he so robs me of it, or maketh Men call it a Scandalous
Thing. Verily, since I devoted all to God, I have found it harder to
Give it
(when I do my best) than to get it: Though I submit of late to him partly upon
Charity, and am so far from laying up a Groat, that (though I hate Debt) I am
long in Debt,
&c. &c. &c.
Numb. VIII. The general defense of my Accused
Writings, called Seditious and Schismatical.
1. MAtter of Right cannot be determined without foreknowing the following
Matter of Fact.
I. There is an Enmity and War, through all the Earth, between Christ and Satan:
Christ and his Soldiers strive for Light, Love and Mercy or Beneficence.
Satan fighteth for Darkness against Light, and for Harred against Love, and for
Hurting and Destroying against Mercy and Good Works. All Christians in Baptism
are Vowed and Listed in this Warfare to Christ against Satan: All Ministers
are vowed in their Ordination to be Leaders in Christ's Army, and to preach
the Gospel according to the Holy Scriptures. In all Ages and Nations Satan hath
woefully prevailed against this
Light, Love
and
Mercy,
by hindering Preachers,
partly by Persecution, and mostly by Corrupting them. Till Christ came as the
Light of the World, the Darkness of Ignorance and Idolatry overspread the Earth.
Three hundred years all Princes were against the Gospel: when
Constantine
owned
it, the rest of the Empires of the World long resisted; and to this day, all that receive
it are but a sixth part of the World. And in the Christian Empire and
Churches, the erroneous and corrupt Princes and Bishops took up Satan's Silenceing
Work:
Constantius
and
Valens
and the
Arian
Bishops almost extinguished the
Orthodox Light: The
Goths
did the like. The
Macedonians, N
•
storians, Eutychians,
and the Parties for and against the Council of
Ephesus,
of
〈◊〉
,
the
•
ria
Capitula,
the
Mon
•
thelites,
the Adoration and Use of
•
mages, and the Councils for
and against
Photios
and
Ignatius,
&c. left but few Bishops of Note in the Eastern
Empire that were not by turns Condemned and Deposed by the contrary side when
it was upper most. The Pope himself was an hundred years at once, renounced by a
great part of
Italy.
II. But the corrupt sort of Popes out did all others: They Silenced the Christians
that reproved their Crimes, and murdered (say Historians) above a Million,
calling them
Heretics. Hunnericus
and the
Gothish
Arians had before killed many,
and cut the Tongues of some that after spake by miracle: but the Pope made
more general Desolation. In the Wars between many Emperors and Popes, Bishops
that were for the Emperors were damned as
Henrician
Heretics, and decreed
by Councils to be burnt when dead. General Councils decreed to Excommunicate
and Depose all Temporal Lord's that would not Exterminate as Heretics,
all that were against Transubstantiation, and such like. Divers Popes did so notoriously
do Satan's Work, that they interdicted the Preaching of the Gospel, and all Public
Worship of God, to
England, France,
and other whole Nations, for a Quarrel
with the King.
Robert Grosthead,
the holy Bishop of
Lincoln,
wrote to
Innocent
the Fourth, That the
hindering
of the
preaching
of the
Gospel
was next the Sin of
Lucifer
and
Antichrist,
the greatest in the World, and not to be obeyed by any
Christian, whoever commanded it. As Reforming Light arose, Papal Silenceing
and Cruelty increased, till Inquisitions, Flames, Massacres, in
Spain, Low-Countries,
Bohemia, Germany, France, Ireland,
and
England,
had made those Mu
•
ders
and Devastations, which no true Christian dare own.
III. At this day, the Light of clear found Doctrine is obscured, and such
Preaching silenced or ceased in most of the Christian Churches on Earth: Besides
the bloody Persecutions which met those honest Jesuits and Friars that preached
in
Congo, Iapan, China,
and other Heathen Lands: In
Abyssinia, Egypt, Syria, Assyria,
Armenia,
there is very little Preaching at all; yea, want of Printing keepeth
them without the holy Scripture, which is rare and in few hands.
Turkish
Oppression
hath so debased the
Greek
Church, that sound Preaching is rare among
them. In all the Empire of
Muscovy
Preaching is long ago put down, lest Men
should preach Sedition. Among most Papists and Protestants beyond Sea, it is turned
too much into Invectives against one another. This is the Success of Satan's
War.
IV. Being vowed do
•
bly to Christ (in my Baptism and Ordination) I had
been a
〈◊〉
Traitor against him,
〈◊〉
I had not hated this Sin, and done my
part in my place against it. There is no Age or Land so good, where Christ and
〈◊〉
, Light and Darkness have not this War: and Secular Interests or Quarrels
are made Satan's Advantages, who pretendeth to great Power in Disposing of the
Riches and Honors of the World. This War ended not in
England
with Queen
Mary
's Regin. The unhappy Differences of
Frankford
came over with the Exiles:
One Pa
••
ty running into Extreams against Episcopacy and the Liturgy, and the other
forbidding not only them, but all Ordained Ministers, to preach or expound
any Doctrine or Matter in the Church or elsewhere, without further Licence. I
lived to see so much of the Effects of these Differences as grieved my Soul: Excellent
Preachers, and of Holy Lives, mistakingly censorious against some lawful
Things, and Silenced for it; some flying to
America,
and some absconding here.
I saw the diseased Passions and Divisions thus caused; and how much it extinguished
Christian Love: At last we all saw it break out into the Flames of an odious
War. And even the Usurpers, that by Silencers pretended their Provocation, fell
into the Crime which they Accused; and cast out many Learned Bishops, Doctors
and Preachers, for refusing their Covenant, and their Engagement, and their
Way of Worship, and for being against their War. Thus Satan's Silencing work
went on.
When Experience and Smart brought most Men to their Wits, and they had
found that a divided Kingdom cannot stand, and that returning to Love and Unity
must be our Recovery; I labored with Ministers of each side with all my
power for Agreement, on such Terms as we were then capable of: and that was
to join in the amicable practice of all that they were agreed in, and to bear with
one another in the rest (which were no necessary things): On these Terms
Worc
•
stersh
•
re
and seven or eight other Coun
•
i
•
s quickly agreed:
Ireland
professed consent:
More were closing: But the
Divisions
of the
Usurpers,
and the
begun Reconciliation
of
the
Peace-makers
(or
Pretenders
) presently restored the King.
Men were then variously affected, between hope of
Unity
and fear of
Discord,
and of the old
Silencing dividing
Work. That we had one lawful King to Unite
in who promised his help hereunto, and declared his Judgment for necessary Indulgence,
and that Lord's and Knights printed their professed Renunciation of Revenge,
and Doctors professed Moderation, did greatly raise Men's hopes that there
would be no more such Divisions, as should Silence faithful Ministers. But they
that knew how hardly Love and Moderation are restored, after the Exasperations
o
•
so odious a War, and how few conquer Worldly Interest and old Opinions,
and do as they would be done by, feared that still the Silencing Work would
be carried on. I was certain that good Men would not be united by coming all
over to the Opinions of each other: which Party soever was in the right in all the
Points called
Indifferent
by some, and
Sinful
by others, I knew the Difference
would continue: And it doth so. I knew that those that were most obedient to
God, would not do that which they judged he forbad them. I knew that if for
this they were forbidden to Worship God in Church-Worship, they would not
forbear, till Suffering disabled them. I knew that there were so many such, and
the Suffering that disabled them must be so great, that the Land thereby must
needs be divided into the
Afflicting
and
Afflicted Parties:
And the more conscionable
the more constant would they be: It were well if most
understood
all things
necessary:
But that all should understand all
indifferent
things (that might be commanded)
to be indifferent, I knew would never be, if all the Land were Doctors.
It was easy to know what Exasperations of Mind all this would cause, and what
a Conque
••
Satan would make here, against
Light, Love
and
Mercy,
that is against
Christ.
In the deep Sense of this Danger I set myself to try, whether Terms of
Possibl
•
C
••
cord
might be obtained: The
London
Ministers joined: The King greatly
encouraged us; First by his Declaration at
Breda,
and that against Debauchery.
Next by Personal Engaging us in a Treaty with the Bishops, and his Promise
that he would draw them to meet us, if we would come as near them as we could.
Then by his gracious Declaration, and the Testimony there given of our Loyalty
and Moderation. Then by his Commission to treat for Alterations of the Liturgy;
〈◊〉
the Bishops denied the Need of any Alterations, and dashed all our Hopes: And
〈…〉
and Parliament cast by the King's Indulgence; and issued all in
〈…〉
Uniformity.
I was the more earnest to have prevented this, because I knew not but that
most of the whole Ministry of the Kingdom might have been Silenced in one
day: I knew what was said against much that is imposed: And I knew that near
Ten thousand Ministers had Conformed to what the Parliament had imposed, and
most taken the Covenant, and used the Directory and not the Common Prayer.
And how knew I that only Two thousand would stick at the New Impositions, and
Seven thousand obey them (and Assent and Consent to the New Book which they
(mostly) never saw, it coming not out of the Press till too late).
V. While I was engaged in this Treaty by the King, the Bishops denied all
further Debates with us, till we had given them in Writing all the Faults that we
found in the Liturgy, and all that we desired instead, or as Additions: So that we
did by Authority and Demand, write and deliver (as our Proposal before, so) our
Desires and Reasons of the mentioned Alterations, and a long and humble Petition
to prevent the foreseen Breach, and our Reformed Liturgy, and Reply to their contrary
Reasons: which some Scribes for gain after printed; I knew not who, with
abundance of Errata.
VI. After this 1663. the King revived our hope in part by a Declaration of his
Judgment and Purpose for our Leave to Preach and Worship God.
VII. In this Case I continued Silent as to any further Suit or Plea, keeping constantly
in the Communion of the Parish Churches where I lived, till in 1668. I was
imprisoned for Teaching a few ignorant Neighbors, whom thereby I drew with
me into the Church, and was delivered by righteous Judges.
VIII. The Lord Keeper
Bridgman
near that time, called some of us as by
the King's pleasure, to Receive and Treat of some Proposals offered for Comprehension
and Indulgence; and appointed Bishop
Wilkins
and Dr.
Burton,
to Treat
with Dr.
Manton,
and Dr.
Bates
and me, which required that we opened to them
our Case. We came to a full Agreement, which Judge
Hale,
then Lord Chief
Baron, g
•
eatly approving it, drew up in an Act to be offered the Commons;
who Voted to receive no such Act: and defeated the King's Offer and our
Hopes.
IX. In 1672. the King again declared not only his Judgment, but Resolution
for our Leave to Preach, and gave us actually Licenses: But many Church-men
opposed it, and called it
Schism,
and dissuaded us from using our granted Liberty,
and said we were bringing in Popery by it: And the Parliament was against it,
and caused the King to reverse his Licenses. And in this time I wrote my Books
against our Silencing in Defense of the Liberty granted by the King, though they
were after printed.
X. After this, Bishop
Gunning
of
Eli
urged me to declare the Reasons of our
Nonconformity; and said, He would Petition the King to force us to it, that we
might be Answered, and not keep up a Schism, and not tell for what. I told him,
I would beg leave to do it on my knees, but durst not, lest they that called for it
could not bear it.
XI. And the Right Reverend Bishop of
London
urged me to the same; and said,
That the King took us as
not Sincere,
because we so long forbore Conforming, and
declared not our Reasons. To whom I gave the same Answer.
XII. The Earl of
Orery
told me Bishop
Morley
proposed some Terms for Concord
to keep out Popery, and urged me to draw up for the said Bishop what we
must have granted: which I did, and had the Bishops frustrating Answer.
XIII. Another time Dean
Tillotson
and Dr.
Stillingfleet
moved us to a Treaty for
Concord, as encouraged by Bishop
Morley
and others: And we gave them all our
Desires
in terminis;
which they seemed to consent to, if the Bishop had not rejectect
it.
XIV. After this I wrote a Book of the
True way of Universal Concord,
and directed
it to to Bishop
Morley
and Bishop
Gunning,
as the Men that I meant that had frustrated
our hopes. On which Bishop
Gunning sent
Dr.
Crowther
to invi
•
e me to a
Conference; and our
•
Debate three days was,
Which is the true way of Universal
Concord?
which he maintained to be by
Obedience to the Legislative and Judicial Governing
of the College of Pastors.
I drew up the Sum in three Letters to him, maintaining
Universal Communion,
but denying all
Forreign Jurisdiction,
and the possibility
of
one Human Soveraignt
•
, Monarchical
or
Arist
•
cratical, over all Kings and Churches,
and
all the World.
XV. After and under all this Discourse, Pulpits and Press, by Men not to be
despised, openly accused us as
Contr
•
ving
and
Designing
a
Rebellion,
by
continuing Nonconformists
when we had nothing to say for it.
So that now our
Silence
past almost into
a
seeming Confession of an intended Rebellion.
Now I appeal to Reason and Conscience, to Christianity and Humanity,
Whether all these Calls of Kings and Bishops, Friends and Accusers, justify not
a Serious Account of our Case, after Fourteen or Seventeen Years accused Silence.
XVI. Yet after all this I
durst not,
I
did not
write either any
Justification of our
Scruples,
or any
Reasons
to prove the
Imposit
••
ns sinful
(save that I gave the Reasons
for our
not ceasing to preach,
and against a spurious sort of Diocesans of some Inn
•
vato
•
s
Description) But only ba
•
ely
named
de facto,
what it was that we feared as
sin,
protesting over and over not to accuse the Law or the Conformists.
XVII. And that which on all these Provocations I have done in many Books,
is but these two things:
1. To
beg for Concord,
and
prove,
and it never was nor will be had, by forcing all
to profess consent to numerous, dubious, unnecessary Things, but only on Terms
few, plain,
and
necessary,
in which all sound Christians are agreed.
2. To beg
for mercy
(not so much to many hundred suffering Ministers, and many
Thousand dissenting godly Christians (such as no Nation under Heaven, out of
his Majesty's Dominion, hath better that I can hear of), but specially for many
score thousand needy, ignorant, untaught Souls: For I wrote with respect, 1. To
the
Case of the wh
•
le Land,
before I knew that Seven thousand of the former Incumbents
would stay in. 2. To the
Case
of
London
in the
dreadful Plague,
when infected
Men cried for help, and had no Teachers, the Pastors being fled, and the
Nonconfor
••
sts prohibited: And about a dozen that ventured (and as
Grosthead
spake,
ob
••••
ently disobeyed
) saw wondrous Success of their Labors in the Penitence
of the
••••
ghted humbled Crowds. 3. To the
Case of the Fire
that the next year
burnt
City and Churches,
and many years but few Capacious Tabernacles were built,
so that Public Worship mostly ceased: And hundred Thousands of undone Persons
should then have had special Comfort and Counsel: But the Nonconformists
were forbidden still. 4. I had special respect to the
Case
of
Great Parishes,
such as
Martins, Giles, Stepney,
and many more, where Ten, Twenty, Forty thousand
persons have no room in their Parish Churches, and
Mohammedans
use some Public
Worship). And what shall all these Persons do? who by Custom excused by Necessity,
grow to live willingly like Atheists. In my Poverty I built a Tabernacle
in
Martins
Parish, and though I have the Bishops License to preach in
London
Diocese,
I could not be suffered to use it, though I would have had the Liturgy there
used: And I thankfully and gladly accepted of Dr.
Lloyd
's Consent to take it for
the Parish use. 5. I never begged leave for any to preach, but loyal, sound, peaceable
Men; and that only where there was plain Necessity, and for nothing of Salary,
and only under Government and Laws of Peace. And I thank God that all
the Passions, Provocations, Temptations and Trials that have risen, have drawn to
Plots, or Rebellion, or Disloyalty, no one Person that I can hear of, of all those
that I was acquainted with, and for whom I then begged for Liberty and Mercy.
And most of them are gone out of a Malignant World, to their Everlasting
Rest.
XVIII. The contrary minded, while they cried down Division as well as I, left
us but these three impossible ways to cure them.
1. To make all Men and Women so much wiser than themselves, as to know all
their Things called
Lawful
to be so indeed: (when we can get too few to understand
their Catechism).
2. Or else to get all that fear God to obey Men in doing what they think God
forbiddeth, and leaving undone what they think he commandeth.
3. Or else to punish those that will not do this, to utter Disablement, Extirpation,
or Death. The two first ways I was sure would never prevail: And I knew
that the third would cost so dear, as that no Ceremonies, Forms, or unnecessary
Oaths or Covenants, would finally bear the Charges of it: The Blood of the faithful
is of hard digestion, and
Judas
his Conscience hath an awakening Day, when
his Companions in Guilt will cast him off: And God essemeth such Blood precious:
And when the Jobb is done by it, it leaveth an Everlasting Odium on the
Doers, and Shame upon their Cause: And their own Successors disown it, and say,
If we had lived in the days of our Fathers, we would not have been Partakers with
them in this Blood: And they build their Sepulchers whom their Fathers slew, and
Saint them that were despised (as
Martin, &c.
) And the Moderate must come after
to heal all, by crying Shame on the Cruelty of their Predecessors, as
Salvian,
Clemangis, Erasmus, Espencaeus, Cassander, Grotius,
and such others do; and say as
Tertullian, Solitudinem faciunt & pacem vocant.
But the final Reckoning will pay
for all.
Some say, We and other Countries have lived in Peace on the Terms that you
call impossible.
Answ.
It's true, of some kind of Peace: So they do in
Spain, Italy, Turkey, Moscovy,
&c. keep Men so ignorant, that they shall not know Duty from Sin, nor
trouble their Heads about God's Law, and in Satan's Darkness you may keep Men
in his Peace; and they will venture their Souls on the Opinion of them that can
hurt their Bodies. But when Christ battereth this Garrison of Satan, he breaks this
Peace. And I knew that in
England
many score Thousands would never return to
this ignorant Peace.
XIX. As I was sure that there was no hopes of Peace, in any but the way of
plain Christianity, so I found that all the wisest, and famoustest Lights of the
Church, and greatest Peace-makers, had still been of the same mind. The Primitive
Churches for Three hundred years did lay their Unity on this ground; and
by Degrees Divisions grew up as needless Impositions grew.
Nazianzen, Hillary,
Vincentius Lerin,
&c. and since
Erasmus, Ferus, Cassender, Grotius, Acontius, Bergius,
Junius, Usher, Hall, Da
••
enant, Chillingworth, Hales,
&c. go all this necessary way.
And when my dearest Friend, the Lord Chief Justice
Hale,
was not far from death,
I wrote to him to leave his Judgment in Writing to the World, of the true way to
Heal our present Breaches: And he left for me to that use three small Tractates before
written, which I published; showing that all our Divisions and Calamities
come, by making that to seem part of Religion which is none, and that to be necessary
which is not so.
XX. But lest any racked words of mine should be interpreted to be for
Sedition
or
Schism,
these being the things that my Soul abhorreth, I wrote near Twenty
Books almost wholly against Schism and Sedition, and all the Principles and
Reasonings that favor them; on all Extreams: I was discouraged a while to find
that the Stream of Philosophies, Politicks, Canonists, Casuists, Papists and Protestants,
and the greatest Lawyers that I could meet with, agreed that the People
are the Fountain of Civil Power, and give the Sovereign what he hath; and many
such Notions: I feared to contradict such a stream as this. But being satisfied, I
first confuted it in
Harrington
1659. and then punctually in
Richard Hooker
(though
dedicated by a Bishop to the King) and then in many others of all sorts. And
for Church-Concord, no Man living hath written half so much as I. And now
after all, I am singled out as accused for that which I have written near Twenty
Books purposely against, and above an Hundred in which this Doctrine of Love,
Unity and Subjection hath it due part.
XXI. The words which are misinterpreted as Seditious, by feigning me to
mean worse than I speak, leave me and all Writers to the mercy of Mistakers,
which are most that have ignorance and ill-will. I mean no more than I speak:
If other Men say that my words signify more, they thereby make them
theirs,
and
not
mine:
God only is the Judge of secret Thoughts. Human Converse hath
made these Rules of Exposition: First, That words be taken in the usual sense of
Men that Treat on the
Subject
that they handle, unless the Speaker otherwise expound
them. Secondly, That the whole Scope and Context must expound particular
words. Thirdly, That an odd strained word is not to be taken contrary
to the Author's Declaration of his Judgment in many whole Copious Volumes;
such as I have written against Disloyalty and Schism.
XXII. Almost all the most approved Writers speak far more sharply without Sedition.
The words of
Nazianzen, Eusebius, Chrysostom, Hillary, Salvian,
and many
Fathers: the words of
Petrarch, Clemangis, Alvarus Pelagius, Erasmus, Jansen,
Glandav. Grotius, Jewel, Bilson,
I am ready to cite, far more sharply speaking of
the Sins of Civil and Church Rulers than ever I did: besides such as
Gildas, Grosthead,
&c.
XXIII. By such Accusers measures I am condemnable if I say but the
Lord's
Prayer,
or the
Common Prayer
when I am commanded.
They may say that I accuse
the Church, when I say, that [we
have left undone
the things that we ought
to have done, and done the things that we ought not to have done; and there is
no health in us.] And that I mean Rulers, when I say [Deliver us from Evil]
and [Forgive our Enemies, Persecutors, and Slanderers, and turn their Hearts]
and [From our Enemies defend us, O Christ; Graciously look upon our Afflictions:
That we thy Servants being hurt by no Persecution, may evermore
&c.
That God will defend us in all the Assaults of Our Enemies, That the Evils
which the Craft or Subtilty of the Devil or Man worketh against us be
brought to naught]. If at the Sacrament a Minister say, [If any be a hinderer
of God's Word—Repent, or come not to this Holy Table, lest the Devil enter
into you as he did into
Judas,
and fill you full of all Iniquities, and bring
you to Destruction of Body and Soul].
What Remedy have I, if any will say
that I mean Rulers by these words as Silencers and Persecutors? Yea, or when I
read all the dreadful Passages against Persecutors in the Gospel. There is bound up
with our Bibles and Liturgies a
Prayer for Families,
which saith, [
Confound Satan
and Antichrist, with all Hirelings and Papists whom thou hast already cast off
into a reprobate sense, that they may not by Sects, Schisms, Heresies, and Errors
disquiet thy little Flock. And because, O Lord, we be fallen into the latter days
and dangerous times, wherein Ignorance hath got the upper hand, and Satan by
his Ministers seeks by all means to quench the Light of thy Gospel, we beseech
thee to maintain thy Cause against those ravening Wolves, and strengthen all thy
Servants whom they keep in Prison and Bondage. Let not thy Long suffering be
an occasion to increase their Tyranny, or to discourage thy Children,
&c.]
The
Homilies have many Passages liable to hard Interpretations. The use of none of these
is Sedition.
XXIV. From 1650. to 1660. I had Controversies by Manuscript with some
great Doctors that took up with Dr.
Hammond
's and
Petavius
's new singular way of
Pleading for Episcopacy, which utterly betrayed it. They held that in Scripture
time all called Presbyters were Diocesan Bishops, and that there was no such
thing as our Subject Presbyters, and yet that every Congregation had a Diocesan
Bishop, and that it was no Church that had not such a Bishop, and that there
are no more Churches than there are such Bishops: And so when Dioceses were
enlarged as ours, the Parishes were no Churches, for no Bishop had more than
one: And that Subject Presbyters are since made, and are but Curates that have
no more power than the Bishop pleaseth to give them. Dr.
Hammond
in his Vindication
saith, That as far as he knoweth, all that owned the same Cause with him
against the Presbyterians, were come to be of his mind herein. And we know
not of four Bishops then in
England.
And the
Et caetera
Oath and Canons of
1640. and the Writers that nullified the Reformed Churches Ordination and Ministry,
and pleaded for a Forreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and for our Re-ordination,
all looking the same way, I thought they knew the Judgment of the few
remaining Bishops better than I did, and sometime called it,
The Judgment of the
present Church here,
that is, of these Church-men, and the
English Diocesans:
but
proved that the Laws and Doctrine still owned as the Churches was contrary to
them, and took the Parishes for true Churches, and the Incumbents true Pastors,
and the Diocesans to be over many Churches, and not one alone: whereas the
Men that I gainsaid overthrew the whole Sacred Ministry among us, and all our
Churches as of Divine Institution: for our Presbyters, they say, were not in
Scripture times: Our Parishes are no Churches for want of Bishops: our Diocesans
are no Successors of such Apostolic Men as were over many Churches, ours having
but one: And they are not like those that they call the Scripture Diocesans,
for they (say these Doctors) had but single Assemblies. These Men I confuted
in my
Treatise of Episcopacy,
and other Books. But the Scribe or Printer omitting
my Direction, to put still
[The fore-described Prelacy and Church]
instead of
[The
English Prelacy and Church]
I was put to number it with the
Errata,
and give the
Reader notice of it in the Preface and Title Page, and have since vindicated the
Church of
England
hereform.
XXV. I hear the angry
Protestant Recusants
say, [
It is just with God that he
that hath done more than all others to draw Men to the Parish-Churches, and
hath these Thirty years been Reconciling us to the Papists in Doctrinals, and is
now called
Bellarminus junior
for his Arguments for Liturgies and Forms; and in
his
Paraphrase
hath so largely and earnestly pleaded for Charity to Papists, as not
Babylonish or Antichristian, should be the first that should suffer by them, and
that for this very Book that so extraordinarily doth serve their Interest
].
To which, I say, take heed of mis-expounding Providence: that Error hath
cost
England
dear. If I be put to doath by them, I shall not repent of any of
those Conciliatory Doctrines and Endeavors; I have reviewed my Writings, and
am greatly satisfied that I suffer not for running into either Extream, nor for any
false Doctrine, Rebellion, Treason, or gross Sin; but that I have spent my Labor
and Life against both
Persecuting
and
causeless Separating:
And that I shall leave
my Testimony against both to Posterity; and for what could I more comfortably
suffer? It is by decrying their Persecution and Cruelty that I have angered the
hurtful Papists, and by confuting their gross undoubted Crimes, more effectually
than you do by the Name of
Antichrist, Babylon,
and the
Whore:
And if their
Cruelty on me should prove my Charge against them true, I shall not be guilty of
it. Nor will their Sin abrogate God's great Law of Love, even to Enemies, and
if
it be possible, as much as in you lieth, live peaceably with all men; follow peace with all men:
blessed are the peace-makers,
&c.
The disorderly tumultuous Cries and Petitions of such ignorant Zealots for Extreams
under the Name of
Reformation,
and crying down all moderate Motions about
Episcopacy and Liturgies, and rushing fiercely into a War, and young Lads
and Apprentices and their like, pricking forward Parliament Men, had so great a
part in our Sin and Misery from 1641. till 1660. as I must give warning to Posterity
to avoid the like, and love Moderation. I repent that I no more discouraged
ignorant Rashness, in 1662. and 1663. but I repent not of any of my Motions for
Peace.
XXVI. I am sure that my Writings (besides Human Imperfection) have no
guilt of what they are accused, unless other Men put their sense on my words,
and call it mine: and say, I
meant
the
Rulers
when I spake of Popish Interdicts, Silencings
and Persecutions. And by that measure, no Minister must speak against
any Sin, till he be sure that the Rulers are neither guilty, nor defamed of it, lest
he be thought to mean them: and so our Office is at an end. If the Text and the
general Corruption of the World lead me to speak against Fornication, Perjury,
Calumny, Lying, Murder, Cruelty, or any Vice, must I tell Men whom I mean
by Name? I mean all in the World that are guilty: And why must my meaning
be anymore confined when I with the Text speak against Persecution, and unjust
Silencing the faithful Ministers of Christ, while I say, that Rulers may justly Silence
all that forfeit their Commission, and do more hurt than good.
XXVII. Can any Man that hath read Church-History, Fathers and Councils,
be ignorant how dolefully Satan hath corrupted and torn the Church, by the Ambition
and Tyranny of many Popes, Patriarchs and Metropolitans, while the
humble fort of Bishops and Pastors have kept up the Life and Power of Christianity?
Or can any Man that maketh not Christ and his Church a mere Servant
to Worldly Interest, think that this should not by all true Christians be lamented?
Let such read
Nazianzen
's sad Description of the Bishops of his time, in striving for
the highest Seats, and his wish that they were equal: And the same wish of
Isidore
Pelusiota;
and the sharp Reproof hereof by
Chrysostom:
Great
Grotius
expoundeth
Matth.
24. 29. of the
Powers of Heaven shaken,
thus, [
It is the Christian Laity,
who after the Apostles times began to be marvelously shaken, by the Tyranny of
the Prelates who loved Pre-eminence, and to Lord it oyer the Clergy by rash
Excommunications, and a daily increase of Schisms. He that will see the Examples
of Tyranny and rash Excommunication, let him read
John
'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
professed 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 Schismatics:
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, easy and sweet, to join 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 mere 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 killed 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, inferior
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, Savior
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
Privileges, and Communion in the Lord's Supper, is, That they forsake not the
said
Covenant
or
Christianity,
but publicly 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 Householders 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 Privileges 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
willfully 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 inquire of the Truth; and if he be proved Guilty, gently
instruct him and admonish him, and skillfully labor 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 willfully refuse to come, or to answer
him, shall [
open his Case before the Church Vestry, or Neighbor 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 Rector of his Parish Church, shall
as such have power to Preach to them without any further License, and to judge
according to God's Word, to whom and how to perform the proper Work of
his Office; on what Text and Subject to Preach, in what Words and Order to
Teach and Pray. But if Canons also be made a Rule, they shall not oblige
him against the Word of God: And if for Uniformity, or some Men's disability,
he be tied to use the Words of prescribed Forms, called a Liturgy, he shall
not be so servilely tied to them, as to be punishable for every Omission of any
Collect, Sentence or Word, while at least the greatest part of the Service appointed
for the Day is there read; and the Substance and Necessary Part of the Offices
be there performed; no, though he omit the Cross in Baptism, and the Surplice,
and deny not Communion to those that dare not receive it kneeling. And if
any worthy Minister scruple to use the Liturgy, but will be present, and not
Preach against it, he shall be capable notwithstanding of preaching as a Lecturer or
Assistant, if the Incumbent Pastor do Consent.
VII. No Oath, Subscription, Covenant, Profession or Promise shall be made
Necessary to Ministers or Candidates for the Ministry, besides the Oath of Allegiance
and Supremacy, and Subscribing to the Sacred Canonical Scriptures, and
to the ancient Creeds, or at the most to the Articles of the Church (excepting
to them that scruple the Twentieth, Thirty fourth and Thirty sixth, as they speak
only of Ceremonies, Traditions, and Bishops), and the necessary Renunciation of
Heresy, Popery, Rebellion and Usurpation: and the Promise of Ministerial Fidelity
according to the Word of God: Or at least none but what the Reformed
Churches are commonly agreed in.
And let none be capable of Benefices and Church-Dignities, or Government in
the Universities, or Free-Schools, who hath not taken the said Oaths, Subscriptions
and Renunciations.
VIII. Let none have any Benefice with Cure of Souls, who is not Ordained
to the Sacred Ministry by such Bishops or Pastors as the Law shall thereto appoint
for the time to come: But those that already are otherwise Ordained by other
Pastors, shall not be disabled, or required to be Ordained again. And let no
Pastor, by Patrons or others, be imposed on any Parish Church, without the consent
of the greater number of the stated Communicants. And at his Entrance,
let some Neighbor Ministers in that Congregation declare him their Pastor as so
Consented to and Ordained, and preach to them the Duty of the Pastor and Flock,
and pray for his Success.
IX. If any Pastor be accused of Tyranny, Injury, or Mal-administration, he
shall be responsible to the next Synod of Neighbor Pastors, or to the Diocesan
and his Synod, or to the Magistrate, or whomsoever the Law shall appoint;
and if guilty and unreformed after a first and second Admonition, shall be punished
as his Offence deserveth; but only in a Course of Justice according to the Laws,
and not Arbitrarily: Nor so as to be forbidden his Ministerial Labors, till he be
proved to do more hurt than good. And if the supposed Injury to any who is
denied Communion be doubtful, or but to one, or few, let not, for their sake, the
Church be deprived of their Pastor; but let the Person, if proved, injured, have
power to forbear all his Payments and Tythes, to the Pastor, and to Communicate
elsewhere.
X. Because Patrons, who choose Pastors for all the Churches, are of so different
Minds and Dispositions, that there is no certainty that none shall be by them Presented,
and by Bishops Instituted and Inducted, to whom godly Persons may justly
scruple to commit the Pastoral Conduct of their Souls, whose Safety is more to
them then all the World: And because there may be some things left in the Liliurgy,
Church Government and Orders, which after their best search may be
judged sinful, by such godly and peaceable Christians, as yet consent to the Word
of God, and all that the Apostles and their Churches practiced: And Humanity
and Christianity abhor Persecution; and Human Darkness and great Difference of
Apprehensions is such, as leaveth us in Despair of Variety and Concord in doubtful
and unnecessary Things; Let such Persons be allowed to assemble for Communion
and the Worship of God, under such Pastors and in such Order as they judge best;
Provided.
1. That their Pastors and Teachers do take all the foresaid Oaths, Professions
and Subscriptions, before some Court of Judicature, or Justices at Sessions, or the
Diocesan, as shall be by Law appointed; who thereupon shall give them a Testimonial
thereof, or a written License of Toleration.
2. That they be responsible for their Doctrine and Ministration, and punishable
according to the Laws, if they preach or practice anything inconsistent with their
foresaid Profession of Faith, and Obedience, or of Christian Love and Peace.
3. That their Communicants pay all Dues to the Parish Ministers and Churches
where they live.
And if such People as live where the Incumbent is judged by them unfit for the
Trust and Conduct of their Souls, shall hold Communion with a Neighbor Parish
Church, they shall not be punishable for it; They paying their Parish Dues at
home: Nor shall private Persons be forbidden peaceably to pray or edify each
other in their Houses.
XI. Christian Privileges and Church Communion being invaluable Benefits,
and just Excommunication a dreadful Punishment, no unwilling Person hath right
to the said Benefits; Therefore none shall be driven by Penalties to say that he is a
Christian, or to be Baptized, or to have Communion in the Lord's Supper: Nor
shall any be Fined, Imprisoned, or Corporally and Positively punished by the Sword,
merely as a Non-Communicant, or Excommunicate and Reconciled, but as the
Magistrate shall judge the Crimes of themselves deserve.
But if Non-Communicants be denied all Public Trust in Churches, Universities
or Civil Government, it is more properly the Securing of he Kingdom, Church
and Souls, then a punishing of them.
But all Parishioners at Age shall be obliged to forbear reproaching Religion, and
profaning the Lord's Day, and shall hear public Preaching in some allowed or tolerated
Church; and shall not refuse to be Catechized, or to confer for their Instruction,
with the Parish Minister; and shall pay him all his Tythes and Church
Dues.
XII. The Church Power above Parish Churches, Diocefan, Synodical, Chancellors,
Officials, Commissaries,
&c.
we presume not to meddle with: But, were
it reduced to the Primitive State, or to Archbishop
Usher's
Model of the Primitive
Government; yea, or but to the King's Description in his Declaration 1660. about
Ecclesiastical Affairs, and if also the Bishops were chosen as of old (for Six hundred
years and more) it would be a Reformation of great Benefit to the Kingdom,
and the Churches of Christ therein: But if we have but Parish Reformation, Religion
will be preserved without any wrong or hurt to either the Diocesans or the
Tolerated: And if Diocesans be good Men, promoting serious Godliness, and the
Sword or Force used only by the Magistrate, Dissent will turn to Love and Concord.
But if they may Suspend, Silence, or Excommunicate, Arbitrarily, or according
to their present Canons (which Excommunicate
ipso facto,
all Men, Magistrates,
Ministers, and People, who do but affirm that the Book of Common Prayer containeth
anything repugnant to the Scriptures, or that there is anything unlawful
to be Subscribed in the Thirty nine Articles; or Ceremonies, or that there is any
thing repugnant to the Word of God in the Church Government, by
Archbishops,
Bishops, Deans, Arch-Deacons,
and
THE REST THAT BEAR OFFICE IN THE
SAME
] without excepting so much as Lay-Chancellor's use of the Keys.) And if
Men Excommunicate must, as continuing such, be undone and laid in Prison, we
must be content with our Peace with God and Conscience, and good Men, and that
we did our best for more, and mourn under the calamitous Effects of the Public Enemies
of Peace, whom the God of Peace will shortly judge.
To the Right Worshipful Sir E. H.
THE Healing of Christians endangered as we are by our own Diseases, is
one of the greatest Works in this World, and therefore not to be marred by
haste, or for want of due Consultation and Advice. Three ways are now pleaded
for among us: Of which two are Extreams, and much of our Disease.
I. One is by the forcing Prelates, who would have all forced to full Conformity
to their Canons, and other Impositions; and none endured, be they never
so wise, or godly, or peaceable, who think anything in them to be sinful. This
way was long tried heretofore; and these last Twenty years, it hath shown us
what it will effect: The Shepherds have been smitten, and the Flocks scattered,
about Two thousand godly Ministers Silenced, adjudged to lie in Jail with
Rogues, and to utter Ruin by paying Twenty and Forty pound a Sermon,
&c.
The People hereby imbittered against the Prelates, and alienated from their Party
as malignant Persecutors, and as
Gnelphes
and
Gibelines,
all in discontent and
dangerous contention, and on both sides growing worse and worse. And is this the
only healing way?
II. The other Extream is those that are too far alienated into unlawful Separations;
whose talk is earnest against that which is called a
Comprehension,
that is,
such a Reformation of the Parish Churches as may there unite the main Body of
the faithful Ministers: And they had rather the things which we cannot there
consent to, were continued unreformed, that so the best People might be still alinated
from them, and driven all into their Tolerated Churches. Concerning
this way, I offer to your Consideration,
1. Is it the part of good Men thus to be guilty of that which themselves account
intolerable Sin, and that in many Hundred thousands, desiring it might not
be reformed, and this on pretence of promoting Godliness; when once their Leaders
drew it up as a Fundamental, That [
he that alloweth others in known sin cannot
be saved
].
2. It is certain that there is no way so orderly and advantageous to the common
Interest of Christianity, as Reformed Parish Churches.
3. The most of the People that most need the Ministry, will come to the Parish
Churches, and will grow worse and worse if they have not faithful Teachers;
and we shall please a few good People till they are worn out, and for want of a
serious believing converting Ministry, a Generation of ignorant Malignants will
succeed them. And we shall come short of the main end of the Ministry.
4. So many good and scrupulous People will leave the Parish Churches, as
will set the Nation (or rather
London
) in an even balance, and increase the envy
of the other part, and one side will talk more contemptuously of the Parish
Churches, and the Parish Pulpits will daily ring with Reproach against them, so
that the Common People, who will be in the Parish Churches, will increase their
hatred against the Tolerated, and they will live in a mutual and wordy War.
5. The violent Prelatists will by this have their ends, and will triumph over them
in these Confusions, and say, Did not we tell you what would be the Effect of
Alteration and Toleration?
6. When it is intended that this be but the Introduction of a better Settlement,
the next Attempt will by this be disabled, and they will say, You see that they
are never satisfied, but are still changing, and know not where to rest.
7. The next Parliament having Experience of these Confusions will recall and
and abrogate all their Tolerations. These things are easily foreseen. And you that
were One of the Eleven excluded Members, know what such Hands have formerly
done.
III. The middle true way therefore is
Parochial Reformation.
This is necessary
in itself: This is consistent with the Interest of those that justly desire Toleration.
In a well constituted Christian Nation, tolerated Churches should be but as Houses
of Charity,
Zenodochia;
Hospitals for the Aged, Weak, Lame, Blind and Sick. It is consistent
with the just Episcopal Interest, and indeed is its most necessary support,
for want of which a Succession of godly Adversaries will be against it to the end.
Let us have Christ's true Doctrine, Worship and Church-Communion, and let
General Bishops over us keep their Baronies, Lordships, Wealth, and Honor. And
we will be responsible to them or any Rulers for our Mal-Administration. But let
them have no Power as Bishops, but of the Church-Keys,
Et valeat quantumvalere
perest:
Let them teach and reprove us, and if they do injuriously pronounce us
Excommunicate, we will bear it: But keep the Sword only in the hand of Magistrates,
and be not the Lictors of Anathematizers and Horners by your Writs
de Excommunicato capiendo.
The Truth is, Civil and Church Government will be
well done, if we knew how to get still good Men to use it. And the chief Point
of Political Wisdom is to secure a Succession of such Men. Give us but such Diocesans
as
Grindal, Jewel, Usher,
&c. and let them be but Pastors, and not armed
with the Sword, and who will expect that they should hurt us? If Kings, that
choose Bishops, and Patrons, that choose Incumbents, should be always certainly
wise and holy Men, and lovers of all such, they would choose us such: But if
they be not (and Christ tells you how hardly the Rich are saved) they will mostly
choose such as are of their mind, or as Favorites obtrude; and bad Bishops
and Priests are the mortal Disease of the Church: And if I tell King and Patrons
that the Clergy and Communicants should have a Consenting or Dissenting Vote,
and so the Door should have three Locks, (the Consent of the Ordainers, Communicants,
and Magistrates) I cannot hope that they should regard me. But I
will repeat what Mr.
Thorndike
saith, (a Man as far as most from the Nonconformists)
Treatise of Forbearance, [It is to no purpose to talk of Reformation in the Church
unto Regular Government, without restoring the Liberty of choosing Bishops, and the Privilege
of enjoying them in the Synods, Clergy and People of each Diocese: so evident is
the right of Synods, Clergy and People in the making of those of whom they consist, and by
whom they are to be Governed, that I need make no other reason of the neglect of Episcopacy
than the neglect of it.
]
As for them that must needs have all our Cure dispatched in fewer words than
this half Sheet of Paper containeth, they are unfit Men to do so great a Work, and
will do it accordingly, if at all: Statute Books and Councils are much greater.
Sir, though Experience depress my Hopes, the Case exciteth my Desires, which I
here offer you; not for myself, who am not capable of any Kindness from King,
Parliament, or Prelate
•
that I know of, unless it be to do me no harm, (and much
I a
•
sure they cannot do me) but for Public Good, which is the great Desire
of
Your Servant,
Richard Baxter.
Nov. 9. 1680.
The Reasons of these several Articles.
I. WE cannot treat of the Government and Concord of Christians, till we agree
what a Christians is, and who they are who are the Subjects. So for
the II
d
.
III. 1. If Ministers be commanded to Baptize those Children who are brought by
no Parent, or Pro-parent, who taketh the Child as his own, and undertaketh his Education,
it will cast out Multitudes of faithful Ministers, who know no right that
the Children of Atheists and Infidels, as such, have no Baptism.
2. This Article for owning the Baptismal Covenant is but what the Liturgy
pleads for: But when it is said [
We shall admit none to the Sacrament but those that are
Confirmed, or desire it
] it supposeth that they must give us notice of it.
IV. This is only for a liberty to help memory in great Parishes, where it is impossible
to remember all the Communicants; and avoid confusion by the unknown.
V. Without this much power in the Parish Minister, the thing must be undone,
it being impossible for the Diocesan alone to do it; and the ancient Discipline will
be unavoidably cast out of the Church: But if the Bishops will not yield to this
much, that will instead of an Appeal from the Incumbent, take the whole Work of
Public Admonition and Censure on themselves. We shall submit to the Obliteration
of all those underlined Words, and thankfully use the Power of Suspending our
own Acts, and that also under the Government and Correction after mentioned.
VI. 1. How is he by Office a Teacher, who hath not Authority to Teach?
2. We ask none of the Bishop's Office for him, but his own: We leave him under
Government, and responsible for his Mal-administration.
3. No Man's Ministry is safe, if he may be Suspended for not saying his Lesson as
prescribed just to a Sentence.
4. This will make no Alteration in the Public Offices of the Churches.
VII. Christ hath made the Symbols of Christianity and Communion: And he
that in these Things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of (wise)
Men,
Rom.
14. 18.
2. Needless Oaths and Covenants and Professions are more useful to Satan, as Engines
to tear, than to the Church as means to Concord.
3. But if under the Pretenses of Renouncing Heresy, Popery, Rebellion and
Usurpation, Men will draw up ens
•
aring words, against the Law of Nature or
Scripture, it is no such Snares that will heal the Churches. To say [I renounce
all contrary to this Profession] is enough. To the Renunciation of Popery there needs
no more than the Oath of Supremacy itself, if to the renunciation of [
Forreign Jurisdiction
]
were but added [
Civil or Ecclesiastical
].
4. If the Church Articles were more exact it were better.
VIII. 1. Those that cannot submit to a Legal Ordination, must be content with
Toleration.
2. The questioning of those already Ordained, need not make a breach, as long
as no Patron is forced to present such, nor the major part of Communicants forced
to accept them; nor the minor, if they dissent, forbidden their Communion
elsewhere. And this quarrelling at each others Ordination is endless. As the Bishops
say on one side, [None should be Ordained without a Bishop]; so they say
on the other side, [1. The chief Minister of every Church is a Bishop: specially of
a City Church. 2. That Ordination is valid which is better than the Papists;
(For 1. we Re-ordain them not: 2. Our Bishops claim Succession from them:)
But the Ordination used here after 1646. is better than the Papists: For 1. Theirs
is to an unlawful Office, to be Mass-Priests: 2. It is into a false Church (that is, as
headed by a pretended Universal Head). 3. And it is from the Pope, who as such
hath no power: They profess themselves his Subjects. 4. And the Roman Seat
hath had oft and long Intercisions. 5. They say that Ordination is valid which is
better than the
English
Diocesans: But,
&c.
1. The
English
Diocesans is derived from
Rome,
which wanted power, and was as aforesaid, false and interrupted. 2. They
have neither the Election or known Consent of the Clergy or People, but are chosen
by the King. And the old Canons for many Hundred years null such Bishops.
3. It is meet that the Temples, Tythes, and Pastoral Office go together to the
same Men: and therefore that the Patron, Communicants, and Ordainers do all
agree; But if they cannot agree, the Patron or Magistrates Judge who shall have the
Temples and Tythes.
Memorandum,
Here wants the Reasons of the rest of the Articles: if not something
more to the Eighth Article.
FINIS.