Advice to the Churches of the Non-Conformists

There will speedily be Published, An Answer to Dr. Scott 's Cases of Conscience against the Dissenters, about Forms of Prayer.

Sold by A. Baldwin.

The Publisher to the READER.

CHildren of Strife there are, who will be straightway saying of the Author of this Letter, as Ahab said of Ben-hadad; Mark and see, how this Man seeketh Mischief. But, it's agreed that thou thyself be judge what Mischief he seeketh, if thou canst first prevail with thyself to think as follows:

Sick our Nation is; Heart-sick of Impiety against Heaven, and of Animosity against one another. Sick and incurable by the President and whole College of our Physicians, King, and Parliament. Sick, and more like to die than live, unless Vixons do take better ways to Healing, than gnawing their Tongues, and refusing to repent; fretting against their God, and their King, and everything but Themselves. In a word, Unless the CHURCH (as we must still speak) do revert to her old Orthodoxy, the DISSENTERS to their old Purity, and BOTH of 'em to the religious Love of their Savior, and of one another. If this may not be, the Fire will devour the great Deep; Contention will destroy our populous Country, Amos 7.4. Indeed,

Our State on this Earth is one, but Weak, and Tempted. Religion, as all other Sciences, hath it's Problems and Abstrusities. Our Bernard's see not all things. Yea, and the most of good and honest Hearts are Shortsighted, and cannot see to the Well's bottom. No, and (what is much worse,) it is to be said of the most Intelligent, and Devout too, All mind their own things: Are too too much swayed by Domestic Interests; insomuch, that Peter 's and Paul 's will clash. The best of Viators will fall out by the way. Offences will come. And Earth will, never while it stands, be quite so kind and quiet as Heaven. But,

Notwithstanding this, Peace must be followed. Peace with Truth, and for the sake of Truth. Necessity is laid upon us; necessity of Precept and Means. Nor want we Encouragement: For our Savior hath Bought it, Prays for it, and Promises it. Yes, and makes it easily attainable by all good People, though' of different Persuasions. It's not more easy for our Eyes, and Hands, and Feet, to keep from Mutiny, than for real Christians to have Peace among Themselves. Because, as they are Members of one another, so are Christ's Servants: Members of one another in his one Mystical Body, and acted by one and the selfsame Spirit. So that an Arch-Bishop Usher, and a Presbyterian, Mr. Baxter; a Bishop Wilkins, and an Independent Dr. Harrison, do naturally Love without Dissimulation, as naturally as the Sun does shine, or the Fire burn. Wherefore,

The Learned and Holy Author of the following Pages, seeketh Truth and Peace: Forgive him this Wrong. It appears not what other Pardon he needs. His Style is formed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . As of Old Moses did, he laboreth to Quiet and Part fairly the Striving Israelites; not offering to smite any but the Egyptian, and the most Merciless; and that but by Argument neither. In short, it is engaged on his behalf, that he shall publicly Retract whatever Error he shall be found to have erred. As far off as he stands, there are some who hear him saying, (as the grand Exemplar of Patience said unto the Temanite,) Teach me, and I will hold my Peace! Cause me to know wherein I have Erred.

A LETTER of Advice TO THE Churches of the Non-conformists IN THE English Nation, &c.

WHen the Cardinal of Lorraine was offended at the Great Ramus, who had been his Favorite, for becoming a Protestant, this Great Martyr assured him, that he had been infinitely beholden to his Eminence, the Cardinal himself, in that from him he had learned the very Principle upon which it was that he became a Protestant; even this, That of the Fifteen Ages, which had ran out since the Ascension of our Savior, the first was the Golden Age; and the rest grew still worse and worse, the remoter they were from That; wherefore, said he, Aureum seoulum delegi.

The same Consideration that made this Great Person become a Protestant, hath produced the Churches of Nonconformists, which have been sprinkled thro' the Realm of England, and the Dominions thereto pertaining. He that would in the Doctrine and the Discipline of the Church, behold a Conformity to the Golden Age of Christianity, must come to the Churches of Non-conformists, which have needlessly been sometimes Distinguished into Presbyterian and Congregational, but are now, I hope, losing the Distinction, in that more Christian Name of United Brethren. While those things in the Church of England, whereunto you, my Brethren, are Non-conformists, were evidently introduced, after the Golden Age of Christianity (except so far as Golden Chalices could make one) was expired, and not until the Apostasy which the Holy Spirit of Christ expressly foretold, had begun very sensibly to operate; you may challenge all sincere Students in Antiquity, to mention so much as one thing ordinarily practiced in your Churches, for which you have not the Countenance of the Earliest Antiquity. You need not have recourse to Eyndwood, and Gallic, or Spanish, or Saxon Councils, for the Explaining and Maintaining of the Things used among you: Clemens Romanus, and Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, or, if you will. Cyprian, shall be your Defenders. Yet after all, I know that you are of the Opinion with the Ancient last mentioned, Consuetudo sine veritate est vetustas error is; and, that you will allow the Speech of the Great Lord Bacon, to pass for a true Translation of Cyprian, Antiquity without Truth, is a Cypher without a Figure. That which indeed gives a Figure to your Churches, is this, That the Holy Spirit of Christ, speaking in the Oracle of the Holy Scripture, is the only Authority, which 'tis your Profession and Endeavor to follow, in the regulating of all things among them. Yea, though' 'twill doubtless be a fault in you, to think that your Churches are come to a ne plus ultra in Reformation, and that their Works are perfect before God, yet there is in them that Conformity to the Directions of the Son of God in his Word, which has caused a Considerable Person, among the Conformable Sons of the Church of England thus to express himself, (in his Judicious Book about The Interest of the Princes and States of Europe) That, should the Nation be at once emptied of one whole Generation of Non-conformists, so long as the reading of the Bible is suffered, another will Unavoidably and Immediately spring up.

Now albeit these two Considerations may be enough to fortify you against all Discouragements in those Methods of Christianity, which you have espoused; and while you have the Word of Christ, with the purest of Christian Antiquity Harmonizing to it on your side, you need not be anymore moved, than a Church fair as the Moon, from keeping the Ordinances of Heaven, by unreasonable Noise and Clamour; nevertheless I know there is one Cry, whereby some of you are sometimes Discouraged.

You have a Just Veneration for that Venerable Name, THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND; and a certain Party of Men, in the English Nation, unjustly Monopolizing that Name unto themselves, try to persuade you, that you are no part of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND, but miserable Schismatics; yea, and it is well if you can escape the Fate of Infidels, when once that scandalous piece of Bigotry, lately advanced, shall obtain, That where there is no Episcopal Ordination, there is no true Church Minister, Sacrament, or Salvation. If then you may be persuaded and convinced, that you are a true Part of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND, and as Genuine Sons of the Church, as any that call her Mother, it may be hoped not only that you will be established in the Course of Religion, which you now embrace, but also that the Prejudices of your Angry Brethren, whereby you have been sometimes opposed, will be happily extinguished.

I am now therefore to undertake your Satisfaction in that Point, which I find particularly the Famous Baxter in his Treatise of National Churches, expressing in these words:

And it will be strange if this be denied by any Man, that has heard of that ACT OF PARLIAMENT, by which you enjoy your present Liberty to Worship God according to his Directions, and your own Consciences. God, by a wondrous Revolution, brought unto the British Throne, a King and a Queen, who have signalized their Truly Royal Dispositions, to protect all Disciples of Christ, without regard unto Different Opinions in the Circumstantials of the Common Faith: An Illustrious KING, who hath on all Occasions discovered the Heroic Resolution, which on the greatest of Occasions he once expressed unto the Scotch Commissioners, Never to be a Persecutor: A Renowned QUEEN, who perpetually manifested such Princely Desires of Union among all Good Men of diverse Parties, as once particularly she uttered unto an Eminent Person, from whom I had it; In as much as a Man cannot make himself to believe what he will, why should we persecute one another? I wish I could see all Good Men of one Mind; but in the mean time I pray let them however Love one another. The Gracious God blessed the Nation at the same time with a Parliament, who understood and considered the Real Interest of the Nation in this respect. They considered, that the Non-conformists are a People of so great Account in the Nation for their Number, their Virtue, and their Trade, that it were a no less Foolish than Wicked thing, and all of a piece with the French Madness, to propound their Extirpation. They considered, that the Non-conformists ever joined with the Sober Part of the Nation in the Defense of its Liberties, against the Encroachments of Arbitrary Government, while their worst Enemies were generally as bad Enemies to the English Liberties, and were the Men that stickled with might and main to introduce the Arbitrary Tyranny, now so happily cast out. Their Majesty's, (whose Royal Assent unto an Act for the utter Extirpation of Prelacy in Scotland, hath restored Prosperity with Satisfaction to that Kingdom ) concurred with this Renowned Parliament in an Act of Induigence, by which the Non-conformists, who Subscribe the Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England, are as much allowed, (though' there be not so much allowed unto them! ) as those that conform to all the Ceremonies, yet wanting a Reformation in it. Wherefore by Act of Parliament, your Churches are now as legal Parts of the Church of England, as if you all used the invented Sacrament of the Cross, or bowed at the Name of Jesus. 'It is true, the Ecclesiastical Benefices are still engrossed by the more Conformable and Ceremonious Clergy; and let a Man be never so Learned, never so Loyal, and never so capable of serving the King or the Church, yet, except he will engage to serve the Mitre, he is not thought worthy of any Preserment, or Employment; nevertheless the Law of England, which is all that has given the Church of England its political Constitution, has also made you the True Members of it: And His Majesty, who is the Supreme Head and Governor of the Church of England, hath declared you to be such Members of it, as are worthy of His Royal Protection: Yea, by Law, your Churches are not only protected with a Penalty on all that shall give you open Disturbances, but Rewarded also with the Exemption of your Ministers from civil Encumbrances. But if this happy Revolution had never happened, yet so long as the Church of England will by reasonable Men, be reckoned no other than the Body of Christian People in England, I hope none will deny you to be part of that Church; for, I am sure, none can deny you to be as much a Christian People as any upon that Island. The Monsters of late so horribly multiplied, who Deride, and Blaspheme, and Cast off the holy Religion of CHRIST, are not of your Communion. And, besides all this, if the Church of England confess, and assert yours to be True Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, I do not see how it can question your being true Parts of itself. It will not be for the Honor of the Church of England, that it should be said, There is a Visible Church of Christ in England, which is no Part of it. Now the Church of England has given us this for the Nineteenth of its famous Thirty Nine Articles: The Visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful Men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things, that of necessity are requisite to the same: And that the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments administered with all that is of necessity requisite unto them in your Congregations, I suppose 'tis incontestable. That Man who denies it, must be far gone in Bigotry and Impudence.

But that you may more particularly apprehend your Claim to be the very CHURCH OF ENGLAND, I will in several Particulars describe to you the True Church of England, and make it evident, that those things wherein you are Dissenters, are maintained rather by a New Church, (and I had almost used a harder word) than by that, which the honorable Name of the Church of England originally belongs unto.

We will begin, as 'tis fitting we should make our Beginning, with the DOCTRINE of the Church. 'It is most certain, That the Doctrine of the Church of England contained in its Thirty Nine Articles, is that which a great Part of the Clergy, now engrosing the Name of the Church of England, explode the literal sense of. There are certain glorious Truths held by the True Church of England. e. g.

Behold, Sirs, the Faith of the True Church of England! A Faith, which when it is betrayed by any Church, Christianity itself is betrayed, and such a Church becoming offensive to the Almighty Lord Jesus Christ, cannot be far from Marks of his Displeasure set upon it. And, I am very sure, that this Faith is nowhere maintained with more Purity and Constancy than it is in the Churches of the Non-Conformists: Doubtless 'tis a Mystery unto you, my Brethren, to find these Articles commonly and publicly reviled with pretended Confutations in the Writings of those very Men that have subscribed these Articles; and being by their subscription qualified for Benefices, run away with the Name of the only Church of England. Your Simplicity, doubtless, cannot comprehend this Mystery, that the Men who have subscribed these very Articles, can in defiance of their Subscription, write and rail against them, and be for that very Cause, counted worthy of the best Preferments in the Church of England, when you that contend earnestly for them, are made utterly uncapable of the least Employments, merely because you scruple some Invented Rituals. I would put it unto the Consciences of some thousands that now enjoy the Ecclesiastical Benefices, whether they would not make a Tragical out-cry upon it, if they were deprived of their Benefices, and shut out of the Church of England, for the Non-Conformity of their Judgments to the Faith of the Church, in the Five Points of the Doctrine of Grace? I will not now bestow upon those Pelagian Enemies to the Church of England, the Brand that justly belongs unto them, for the Dissimulation with which they have subscribed these Articles of the Church; albeit, for Men to subscribe these Articles, and they to make this Apology for their denying and opposing of them, That they subscribed them not as Articles of Faith, but as Articles of Peace; many will tell you, it must be with an Equivocation, than which no Jesuit can use a greater: And some will inquire, Whether in Asia and Africa, a Man might not with as much Honesty subscribe the Alcoran? Which I the rather mention, because it begins to be published, (not by any of your Communion,) That for to make a good Christian and a Member of the Church, there is required no more than that a Man believe Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah; and yet this is a thing many times over expressly acknowledged in the Alcoran. All that I will say, is, That while things continue thus, it will be impossible to hinder Mankind from thinking, that a few invented Rituals, are with some of more value than all the glorious Doctrines of Grace, and those invaluable Treasures of Evangelical Truth, which the Church of England is enriched withal. We will not now take the invidious Pains to gather up the numberless Passages of Arminian Stuff, directly contrary to these Articles of the Church of England, which occur in the Pamphlets of the Divines, that would be thought the only Darlings and Champions of the Church. But this is notorious to the World, that so far as a full Assent and Consent unto this Doctrine of the Church of England can make you so; (and I see not why it should not make you so;) you, my Brethren, are the most sincere Parts of that Church. Yea, in many places, and particularly where the Writer of this Letter lives, a Man cannot hear the Doctrine of the Church of England preached, except he go to your Churches for it. And except some amazing Work of Heaven prevent it, the Doctrine of the Church of England will be preserved nowhere but in your Churches; and I pray God, that at least it may be preserved There. The Old and the True Church of England, as it had the same Sentiment of Calvinism with you, so it honored the Name of Calvin, as an excellent Instrument of God for the clearing and spreading of his Truth; and resented the Reproaches cast upon that Man of God, as thro' the sides of Calvin, striking at the Throat and Heart of our Religion. (Such are the Expressions in the Books Dedicated to K. James I.) And you take the famous Dr. Du Moulin to be not a jot the less a Church of England Man, for going out of the World with that Lamentation, since Calvinism is decried in England, [Actum est de Religion Christi apud Anglos,] Christianity itself will be in danger to be lost in the English Nation. But the Non-conformists cannot be sincere Members of the Church of England, because they do not acknowledge the Divine Right of the Modern DIOCESAN EPISCOPACY. No! I pray, why not? Let us a little inquire into the Judgment of the Old and the True Church of England upon this matter, and it will presently appear, that you are far more of the Church of England, than those Fanatics (of late so much increased,) that not only advance the Jus Divinum of their Diocesan Episcopacy, but also question the validity of the Sacraments administered by any that have not received their Ordination from it. Albeit the present Form of making and consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, asserts, That Bishops and Priests are distinct Orders, and they must be published as Excommunicate, who affirm, That this Book does contain anything in it repugnant to the Word of God: Yet, my Brethren, from the Beginning it was not so. Behold, The Church of England itself stands Excommunicate by its own Canons, as much as you. It is notorious, that the Diocesan Episcopacy and the National Church-Government by Dishops, was never owned to be Jure Divino until K. James I. came to be King of England. It was he, who upon the Enchantments of Bancroft, first yielded unto that, which his Predecessors would never have endured. Even in King Elfrick 's days, the Church of England plainly denied Bishops and Priests to be distinct Orders. But I will not carry you back to such early Days. In the Days of King Henry the Eighth, Tindal expressly maintained,

Thus wrote the Martyr who was owned by his Enemies themselves, Homo doctus, pius, & bonus.

Lambert expressly maintained,

And this Persuasion wherein you thus follow your Fathers, the Blessed Martyrs of the Church of England, at last prevailed so far, that Cranmer himself, with others, embraced it. Yea, 'twas not long before this became a Point established by Authority: and, in The necessary Erudition of a Christian Man, a Book then published by Authority, as the Doctrine of the Church of England, it is expressly affirmed, That of these two Orders only [Priests and Deacons] Scripture makes express mention. The Declaration about the Institution of Bishops and Priests, then also subscribed by the brave Lord Cromwell and the Archhishops of Canterbury and York, and other Bishops and Civilians, denied any Superiority of a Bishop above a Priest, to be found in the New Testament, and allowed unto a Priest the Power of Ordination, and of Excommunication. In the very first Year of Edward the Sixth's Reign, there was an Act of Parliament, which as Heylin complains, forced the Episcopal Order from their strong hold of Divine Institution, and made them no other than the King's Ministers only. Dr. Poinet, the Bishop of Winchester, then writing against Gardener, shows, That the Reformers in those Days, were willing even to lay aside the Name of Bishop, and say Elder instead of it. And the incomparable Cranmer in his Resolutions to the King's Questions, approved by other Bishops, has these express Words, The Bishops and Priests were not two distinct things, but both one Office in the beginning of Christ's Religion; and he farther makes it manifest, that the great Reformers owned not Episcopacy as a distinct Order from Presbytery to be of Divine Right, but only as a prudent constitution of the Magistrate for the better governing of the Church. Beacon also, a famous Protestant Refugee in Q. Mary 's time, in his Catechism, dedicated to both Archbishops, puts the Question, What difference is there between a Bishop and a Presbyter? And answers, None at all; their Office is the same, their Authority and Power is one. Upon the revival of the Reformation, at Q. Elizabeth 's coming to the Crown, the most acknowledged and celebrated Writers of the Church of England, still made the very same Concession. Dr. Alley, the Bishop of Exeter, in his Miscellanea, proves, both from the Acts of the Apostles, and from the Epistle to the Philippians, That the Scriptures make no difference between Bishops and Elders; and he says, That before Factions, by the instinct of the Devil, began in Religion, the Churches were governed with the Common Council of the Priests, or Elders. Dr. Pilkinton, Bishop of Duresme, in his Consutation of the Addition, affirms, That the Privileges and Superiorities which Bishops have above other Ministers, be rather granted by Man for maintaining of Quietness in the Commonwealth, than commanded by God in his Word. The rare Dr. Whitaker, making his Remarks on Jerome 's Confession, That the Difference between Presbyters and Bishops, was brought in by Men long after the Apostles, as a Remedy against Schism; assures us, That it is a Remedy worse than the Malady. And Bishop Morton tells the Papists, That the Power of Order and of Jurisdiction which they ascribe to Bishops, doth De Jure Divino, belong to all other Presbyters. But, that I may supersede a vast Number of other Quotations to this purpose, let it suffice, That the Excellent Bishop Jewel delivers this not as his private Opinion, but as the sense of the Church of England: Yea, Archbishop Whitgift himself, speaking of the Government of the Church of England by Bishops, in his time, says,

You see, Sirs, that Cranmer and Jewel, and the Chief of the Reformers, are as good as Excommunicated by the New Church of England; but you will, I know, readily receive them into your Communion, and may now in this Point value yourselves, as being of the same Church of England with them. Indeed very few of the Bishops themselves asserted any other than what you assert about this matter, until all things were 〈◊〉 be put into the hands of a Party, that in pursuance of certain secret Articles, were to effect an Accommodation with Rome; and then by the Jus Divinum of Prclacy, the Power of Opposition must be taken out of the hands of the Inferior Clergy, who generally abhorred that vile Design. But it hath ever since been growing upon the Nation: Tho' I am informed the present Learned Bishop of Salisbury hath learnedly and courageously appeared on your side against it. We will then pass to another Article, viz. That of your DISCIPLINE, which is too severe a thing to be allowed by some that would be offended, if you should not allow them to be the only Church of England. It will doubtless be as great a Satisfaction as Vindication, for you to find the True Church of England approving and applauding that very Discipline which is in your Churches practiced: Now we all know what the Liturgy of the Church of England requires of all its Communicants

Now, my Brethren, all the strictness used in your Churches about the Terms and Ways of admission to the Lord's Table with you, is nothing more nor less but a Trial of your Communicants, whether they have those Qualifications which the Liturgy of the Church of England hath prescribed. Indeed, in some of your Churches the Candidates of the Communion have not their Admission, without certain Public Circumstances of expressing their consent unto the Covenant of Grace. But this is no more than what I find the more pious Divines in the Church of England wishing and writing for. And one of them not Seven Years ago, hath published his Mind in these Terms:

I durst say, that the strict Churches of New-England itself, which wisely choose to be as explicit as may be, in managing their Church-matters, do not ask for anything more than what this Learned Son of the Church of England has thus propounded. And whereas you are for maintaining a Godly Discipline in your Churches towards those who scandalously break the Laws of our Lord Jesus Christ, is this anymore than the very Common-Prayer-Book of the Church of England has encouraged? You know that the first Words of the Commination against Sinners in that Book, are these: Now, I hope, you will not be denied your being a part of the Church of England, merely because you have actually Restored that which the Church of England advises us, It were much to be wished that it might be restored. I believe the Churches of New-England itself, in their Plat-form of Church Discipline, have not a more severe Passage than that in the Homilies of the Church of England: Behold, Sirs, your Discipline is by the Church of England itself, called, A due Discipline. The Church of England having thus allowed your Discipline, I hope now a few CEREMONIES, which by its own confession were never Instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ, will never be counted so Essential to it, that for the want thereof you must be cast out of doors. Believe it, Sirs, an House built merely upon Ceremonies, or Parts and Means of Worship, not Instituted in the Sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ, will doubtless one Day suffer a Storm wherein it will Fall, and great will be the Fall of it. But that for your aversion to the Uninstituted Ceremonies, you may have as clear a Direction from the Church of England as may be, I desire to be informed, Whether the Confession of Faith in an hundred Articles on the Creed, composed by Dr. Hooper, the excellent Bishop of Gloucester, were not then agreeable to the sense of the Church? Now in the Eighty-fifth of these Articles there is this remarkable Passage: This is indeed a terrible Passage; and it is the Terror of what is in it, that hath made you to be what you are: But it is none of you, 'tis a very Reverend Bishop of the Church of England that hath written it; and in the same Confession hath he also written, Our more conformable Friends in the Church of England hear not you calling them Idolaters, and yet they, as well as you, will own, That the Surplice made an Appurtenance of Divine Worship, the Cross in Baptism, and Kneeling before the Eucharist, and the like, are things introduced in the Service of the true God of Heaven, after their own Fantasie, and after the Traditions of Men, and without the Word of God, and otherwise than God hath Commanded. If therefore you decline such things, the Church of England will certainly excuse you, while you have the Confession of Faith published by its own Bishops, thus charming you so to do; especially since there are of the Bishops Dr. Taylor for one, who acknowledged, That the Sign of the Cross, as now retained, is a Part of external Worship, though' it be an Uninstituted Ceremony. The Church of England, with all Protestants, will grant you, That all Worship of God, not appointed, is unlawful; and that no Power on Earth can add anything to the Worship of God. Dr. Sherlock himself will grant you, And you, finding that the Ceremonies now used by the Conformable in the Church of England, are used and urged as direct Expressions of the reverence of the Heart unto God, cannot look on them as any other than Parts of external Worship, the Invention whereof is forbidden in the Second Commandment. Now, if you are delivered from the Yoke of these unhappy Ceremonies, I know not why you should thereby come to be by the Church of England worse looked upon than the most famous Divines of that Church, who in their best Writings are still groaning for a Deliverance. Will the Church of England renounce Bishop Bilson for saying, A thousand more such Passages occur in the Writings of the Divines, who have all along been reputed the Fathers of the Church of England. Will the Church now renounce these Divines? Let them! And you, my Brethren, I am confident, will be glad of their Company. But I suppose there is another thing that a little stumbles you; and that is this: If Conformity to the Ceremonies be necessary to render one a Church of England Man, why should not Non-conformity exclude one as well as another from that Character? Supra-conformity is no less Non-conformity than Subter-conformity. Multitudes in England continually Go beyond the Rule of Conformity; why should not these be Non-conformists as well as they that fall short of it? It is Enacted, Now in that Book, there are nowhere found several Ceremonies now practiced, nor Orders used in many of the public Churches. Non-conformity being indeed nothing but a varying from the Rule established; the Addition made by some to that Rule, one would think should be Non-conformity, as well as the Substraction made by others: And the Churches that perform the Worship of Christ with Organs be Non-conformists as well as they that omit the Cross, and some other Superfluities. I will only touch upon this One Instance instead of many; the Rubric requires, That the Communion-Table shall stand in the Body of the Church, or in the Chancel, and the Priest shall stand at the North-side of the Table; so making it a Table according to the other Churches of the Reformation; (which accordingly they observe in the Temple, where the Law is best understood and practiced;) and yet in opposition to Authority in most places, they set it North and South, clapping it unto the Wall at the East-end of the Church, with Rails before it, as if (according to the Church of Rome, ) it were an Altar. This is contrary to the Law; and I have read, Briefly, If you must be no Part of the Church of England, because you donit kneel at the Communion, I pray let the Priest who does not stand where by the Law of Conformity he ought to stand at the Communion, be discarded also! Tho' furious Bigots for Conformity will give no Answer but Railing to all of this Reason; yet you, my Brethren, will calmly afford a reasonable Attention to it. But you must by the way be prevailed withal to cease wondering at such Contradictions. If they seem wonderful to you, you will find continual Matter of Wonderment: For instance, The Scripture commands us, Be not forgetful to entertain Strangers; but the Apocrypha contradicts it, Eccles. 11.34. dissuading us from Receiving a Stranger into our House. The Scripture commands us, Love your Enemies, do good to them that hate you; be like your heavenly Father, who makes the Sun to rise upon the evil and the good; but the Apocrypha contradicts it, Eccles. 12.4, 7. Give to the godly Man, and help not a Sinner; and again, Give to the Good, and help not the Sinner. No Argument could prevail with our Unreformables to expunge these Lessons; but in the Month of October these Lessons of the Apocrypha must be read as the Doctrines of the Church of England: And then you must subscribe, That nothing is ordained to be read, but the very pure Words of God, or that which is agreeable to them. An abundance of such Contradictions will accost you, in that which with a Contradiction equal to the rest, would be called, The only Church of England.

If it be now objected against you, That the Dislike of the COMMON-PRAYER is a thing that will utterly debar you from any Part in the Church of England; it will be no Defense for you to plead, That Old King James himself, a great Patron to the Church of England, called the Common-Prayer, An ill-said Mass in English; for he was yet with the Kirk of Scotland when he so called it. But you may defend yourselves by this, That several Bishops in the Church of England, namely, Williams, Prideaux, Brownrig, Hacket, with Arch-Bishop Usher in the Head of them, disliked the Common-Prayer so much, as to present unto the English Parliament no less than Thirty-five Exceptions against several things in it, calling for a Reformation. If their Exceptions did not forfeit their Claim to be of the Church, why should yours?

Perhaps they'll complain of you, That you do not use the LORD's PRAYER as a Form. If they do, you may stop the Complaint, by citing to them not only an Army of the Ancients, but one who has been a great Oracle to the Church of England, even Grotius himself, declaring, That our Lord bound not his Disciples to the use of those Words and Syllables. If he did, why does the Church of England itself presume to alter them? In the Common-Prayer-Book the Form still is, Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us. The Church of England herein varies from the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ: In Matthew his Words are, Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors: In Luke his Words are, Forgive us our Sins, for we forgive everyone that is indebted unto us. Why must you be tied unto a Form of Words? The Church of England, even when most pretending to a Form, will not be tied, even to That for which there is the most pretence. The Infatuation discovered by the Common-Prayer thus altering the Form and Phrase of the Lord 's- Prayer, deserves to be considered! It may be, when you have silenced some of these froward Children in Christianity, from insisting on all their other Impertinencies, they will still refuse to visit your Assemblies, because the Houses wherein you hold them, are not so Fine and Gay as many of their public Churches. But you may presently show them, That the Gaudy Trimmings bestowed on some of their Churches are directly contrary to the Church of England. For the Homily against the Peril of Idolatry, expressly declares against the Abuses of Churches and Temples, by too costly and sumptuous decking and adorning of them.

These and such Points might be improved much more largely, to demonstrate, That you are indeed among the TRUEST SONS of the True Church of England: But what needs anymore, since 'tis a Maxim, (and there is no need of quoting Avicen for the Maxim,) Quicquid sufficientiae additur, superfluitati ascribitur? All that you will now demand of me, is to describe clearly and fairly to you, What is that NEW CHURCH of England whereto you do not belong, and I suppose, are not very willing to belong? 'It is very certain, there is a Party in the English Nation usurping the Name of the Church of England, whereto it will be as little your Honor as 'tis your Desire to be United; and which (as one says) differs as much from the OLD CHURCH of England, as Nebuchadnezzar grazing among Beasts in the Field, from Nebuchadnezzar sitting on his glittering Throne.

Know then, my Brethren, That by a prevailing Faction in England, the Canon Law which pretends to Form the Church of England, hath been more than once altered, since the Family of the Stewarts came to sit on the Throne of Great Britain; and the Alteration hath now made a New Church in England of quite another kind, than what was before. There is now established by Law a National Church, which the Canons do (though' Arch-Bishop Whitgift a little before durst not, ) affirm to be a True and Apostolical Church. The Bishops, which before then, durst as well have eaten Fire as have pretended to be as Diocesan Bishops, any other than the King's Officers, do by the Canons now lay claim unto a Divine Right. But because it puzzles them to make the King, who is not a Person in Orders, the Head of the Church, having these Officers under him, and yet for to make the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, the Head of the Church, is Treason; here they are in Confusion: And I suppose, you my Brethren, will not ask to be of this Church till you see them extricated out of this Confusion. To proceed, In the National Church thus established, there are Twenty-six Dioceses, which the Canons make particular Churches of the lowest Rank; and though' there be such vast numbers of Parishes in these Dioceses, the Canons have utterly divested them of the Character of particular Churches, which once they had something of, and they make no more than Twenty-six Churches, and no more than Twenty-six Pastors in the whole Kingdom of England. The Parish-Presbyters are by the Canons altogether stripped of all Power to Ordain, or to Confirm, or to Excommunicate; though' once there was a Power of Jurisdiction conceded unto them, which then made the Old Non-conformists to look on the Parish-Ministers as Pastors, and the Parishes as retaining the Substantials of particular Churches. You, my Brethren, have been ready to say with Dr. Goodwin,

But now the Diocesan Church-Government being by Canon established, the Parishes are no more allowed any of them to be particular Churches. Arch-Bishop Laud laboring for a full Settlement of this New Church-State, perished in the way: But upon the Restauration of King Charles II. the Labors of the New Set, for to obtain Laud 's Model, found more success. In those places of the Common-Prayer, where they found the Word [Pastor,] they blotted it out, and put in Priest, or Curate. And in the New Book of Ordering Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, not only the Execution of the Office, but the very Office of a Priest is taken away from all that have not Episcopal Ordination. The Epistles and Gospels to be formerly read at the Ordination of Priests, which referred unto the Pastoral Office, are now to be read only at the Consecration of a Bishop. All Presbyterian Ordinations were declared null and void by the memorable Act of Uniformity, and they that had no more were pronounced as naturally Dead. This Diocesan Church of England, according to Canon, receives to Baptism the Children of all Parents, (be they Jewish or Pagan ) that are brought unto the Minister. And every Baptized Inhabitant within the Diocese, if he be not Excommunicated, or doth say, That he heartily desires the Lord's Supper, is admitted unto that Sacrament also, if he will take it according to the Form in the Liturgy, (by the common Custom of the Church,) altho' he be never so ungodly. Whatever Admonitions the Rubric or Canons do give against admitting the Wicked unto the Sacraments, 'tis yet abundantly provided in them, That the Administrator shall be uncapable of excluding the wickedest alive. But at the same time, all those who refuse to Kneel at the reception of the Sacrament, or who refuse to be Present at Public Prayers, according to the Order of the Church of England; which Orders be, Reverently to Kneel, when the General Confession, Litany, and other Prayers are read, and Stand up at the saying of the Belief, and Bow at the Name of Jesus, and Say in their due place, and audibly with the Minister, the Confession, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed, and make such other Answers to the Public Prayers as are appointed in the Book of Common-Prayer; all such as refuse to do any of these things, are to be denied the Communion; and what Minister soever shall wittingly admit them, he is liable to Suspension. Yea, whosoever affirms, That the Church of England, as by Law thus established, is not formed according to Divine Institution, (or Apostolical, ) is ipso facto to be looked upon as Excommunicated. This is the Roaring of the Ecclesiastical Canons, and the Clergy by their Oath of Canonical Obedience, are sworn to observe these as well as the rest of the Canons. My Brethren, while you belong to the CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND, you have all the reason imaginable to hear it, and bear it, and own it patiently, if you be told that you do not belong unto this DIOCESAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND. For, First, If I be not mistaken, this presumptuous CANONICAL CHURCH OF ENGLAND has Excommunicated the best of Princes, (notwithstanding its pretended Loyalty, ) if they do but offer to contest any Part of its Constitution; and it will be no dishonor unto you to be partakers with such illustrious Heads, in suffering these Contradictions of Sinners. Perhaps you will be surprised at this; but if any Princes or Parliaments, who declare, That they who cannot use the Ceremonies of the Church of England, may be Men of a very good Conscience, escape an Excommunication by the Sixth Canon of the Church, which is, Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, That the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England by Law established, are such as being commanded by lawful Authority, Men who are zealously and godlily affected, may not with any good Conscience approve them, use them, or subscribe unto them, let him be Excommunicated ipso facto: I doubt the Eighth Canon bears too hard upon them. According to that, Whosoever shall hereafter affirm or teach, That the Form and Manner of making and consecrating Bishops, Priests, or Deacons, containeth anything in it that is repugnant unto the Word of God, let them be Excommunicated ipso facto, and not be restored until he repent, and publicly revoke such his wicked Error. That Form does assert, That Bishops and Priests are distinct Orders in Christ's Church; and that it is evident unto all Men diligently reading Holy Scripture, that from the Apostles time they have been so. Now suppose any Princes give the Royal Assent unto an Act for the extirpation of Bishops in one of the Three Kingdoms; have they not very emphatically taught us, That this Assertion in the Form of consecrating Bishops and Priests, is not according to the Word of God? Have they not very sufficiently affirmed, That the Word of God obliges us not for to acknowledge Bishops of an Order distinct from other Ministers in the Church of Christ? We'll suppose they have somewhere or other in express Terms, abolished Prelacy and Superiority in any Office in the Church above Presbyters; and declared and ordained the Government of the Church there, by Presbyters without Bishops, to be the only true and proper Government thereof. I am certain, this is to proclaim it with a witness, That the Superiority of Bishops, as an Order above Presbyters, is not Instituted in the Word of God. And at the same time it is to maintain, That the Doctrine of the Form of making Bishops and Priests, which asserts that Superiority of Order to be of Divine Right, is repugnant unto the Word of God. These Princes it seems, (which indeed I abhor to mention) stand excommunicated ipso facto, by the Eighth Canon of the Church of England, until they repent and publicly revoke the wicked Errors committed in abolishing that Prelacy.

This CANONICAL CHURCH continuing to offer such Affronts unto Majesty, you may well decline to be any Part of it, until they repent and publicly revoke their wicked Canons. But that which may confirm you in this aversion to that Church, is the wrong which those Canons do to all the Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ in the World. For according to them, none of the Scotch, or Dutch, or French Ministers, nor any of your own, are true Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, while they want Episcopal Ordination. Albeit, the famous Mr. Selden has out of Eutychius proved, That not only Bishops, but Patriarchs themselves, were in the Primitive Times Ordained by Presbyters; yet now, forsooth, according to our New Church, none may be owned for so much as Presbyters, but such as have been Ordained by Diocesan Bishops. And therefore, altho' this Canonical Church will admit a Popish Priest upon his Abjuration, to be a Minister without Re-ordination, it will not without Re-ordination, admit any of these who are the best of Protestants. Yea, and when this Church has admitted any unto its Ministry, it presently strips them of the Rights that are essential to all true Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here I will not insist on this, That by the Canons of this Church, its own Ministers have not so much as liberty for one Occasional Prayer of their own left unto them. All the Conformists are by the Thirty-sixth Canon to subscribe ex animo, a Covenant, That they will use the Form in the Book of Common-Prayer, prescribed in Public Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and NONE OTHER. Indeed a Custom for Ministers to pray without Book in the Pulpit, is connived at; but in as much as they are Public Prayers, I know others besides Mr. Baxter, who doubt them to be a breach of the Canon-Covenant. I pass from this, to say, I suppose you are desirous to acknowledge all the Parish-Presbyters faithfully feeding their willing Flocks in the Realm, notwithstanding their Conformity to be True Ministers of the Gospel; but their own Canons, even those to which they themselves have sworn, do all they can to forbid your doing so. For you, and they too, must readily own, That unto the Office of a Minister of the Gospel, here are two things Essential, namely, Obligation to Teach, and Authority to Rule the Flock. Whereas the Canons, whatever they require in some Clauses, do evidently release the Parish-Minister from Obligation to Teach, by providing, That the Sacraments are not to be refused at the Hands of Unpreaching Ministers. And the whole Authority to Rule, is by the Canons reserved unto the Bishop, to be executed by his Lay-Chancellor; so that the Parish-Minister cannot exclude the veriest Infidel in the World from the Sacraments, if a certain Lay-Chancellor do order his Reception. Briefly, No Ordained Priest may take upon him, to Expound any Scripture, or Matter, or Doctrine, (or do anymore than read) so much as to his own Family, till he have a License from his Ordinary. And he then too has no more Power than any Lay-man to Censure an Offender, or to judge who are worthy to be Censured. Tho' the Rubric and Canon do seem sometimes to favor the Significancy of the Curates, yet elsewhere it the more inexcusably renders them utterly Insignificant. Doubtless you will wonder how that the Clergy themselves can with Patience endure to be so nullified, as they are by this their Canonical Church, or to see themselves more honored by you that are Non-conformists than they are by their own Canons! But you are sensible what Force it is that obliges them unto their Patience. To see the Ministers of the Gospel so Degraded as they are by the Canons, gives Offence unto you, if not unto them; and methinks it should be no Offence unto them, that you take this Offence on their behalf.

A Third Prejudice that you will easily take up against this CANONICAL CHURCH, is the Number and Figure of those many other good Men, (besides Princes and Parliaments, ) whom they have Excommunicated. This Laodicean Church may admire her own Charity, (that is to say, the Easiness of her Discipline as well as the Openness of her Communion towards the worst of Men,) but she has the most Excommunicating and most Anathematizing Charity that ever was in the World. For by the Canons of that Church,

Now, Sirs, you will find perhaps the bigger Part of the godly People in England, even among the Conformists themselves, to be by one or other of these Clauses Excommunicated: That is to say, they are Excommunicated out of the CANONICAL CHURCH into the CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF ENGLAND: And I hope they will be content with their Condition, and not thrust themselves upon the Party that has Excommunicated them. However, that you may be sure of being driven both out of, and into the same Church with them, hark how these Canons do further Thunder! You see, Sirs, that either you are that Church of England which the Law holds and allows, or else you stand Excommunicated. But I assure myself, you are not ambitious to be reckoned of that Party which has Excommunicated all the Congregations of the Non-conformists. Nor will it bring you under the Brand of Schismatics, if being thus Excommunicated ipso facto, you settle yourselves in the Communion of Churches that will receive you. And this the rather, lest you should be found in the TREASONABLE PLOT, whereof the famous Mr. Baxter among others, has convicted that Party, namely, That of attempting a Revolt unto a Foreign Jurisdiction. Albeit the Canons of the Church, (and the Articles also,) whereto these Men are sworn, do most expressly renounce all such Foreign Jurisdiction; yet such is the Confusion whereinto these perfidious Builders of Babel run themselves, that according to the New Church of England,

Of such a Church as this, methinks I hear you, and the bigger and better Part of your Brethren, yet groaning under the Shackles of Conformity, resolve, Come not into their Secret, O my Soul, unto their Assembly! my Tongue, be not thou united! The most flourishing and glorious Island in the World, will be in perpetual danger of becoming a French Province, except the Non-conformists be counted better Parts of the Church of England, than the Men of such dangerous Principles; and except the Sacramental TEST be therefore taken off. But there is the True CHRISTIAN CHURCH of England, which would have the Reformation of Religion carried on according to the Direction of the Sacred Scriptures, and the Intention of the first Reformers, and counts not Christianity to lie in vain Ceremony; which looks on Diocesan Bishops as made such by the King and the National Church-Government, as an human, though' useful Policy; which owns the rest of the sound Protestants in the World for Brethren, and would have the Qualifications for the Pastoral Office, and for Communion in special Ordinances, to be no other than what the Lord Jesus Christ hath instituted; which, in fine, is against bringing a Yoke of Slavery upon the brave English Nation in Spirituals or Temporals. And of this Church ye are. God, and the King, and the Parliament, and all sober Men, will reckon you a valuable Part of this Church; while a certain Hectoring sort of People in the World, that would be thought the only Church of England, deserve to be counted rather the Wens, than any Parts of it, and indeed know not what it is. I beseech you, Sirs, let not the CHURCH OF ENGLAND become a Name of such a Treasonable Importance, that it must belong to none but that Faction, whose Religion lies in Sainting their Martyr Charles I. whose Reign was spent in an unnatural manner, plotting and contriving to undermine and subvert the Religion, Laws, and Liberties of the English Nation; and who notwithstanding the Sham of the Icon Basilike, it's feared would have been another John Basilovitz, if he had prospered in his unnatural War against the Parliament.

And now, my Brethren, if any go to seduce you from your own REFORMED CONGREGATIONS into the more CEREMONIOUS ASSEMBLIES in the Church of England, you are furnished with an Answer. Let your Answer be, That you are of the Church of England, and that you cannot better express your being so, than by keeping with your own REFORMED CONGREGATIONS. If the Bishop of London should be offended at the Governors of Barbadoes, or Bermudas, or Carolina, for worshipping of God in the Meetings of the Non-conformists there, the Gentlemen may truly say in their defense, That they worship'd God with the truest Part of the Church of England in those Parts of America.

Be advised, my Brethren, to carry it with all possible Moderation and Civility towards those that can Conform unto Ceremonies farther than you; Be gentle unto all Men. But yet continue steadfast in your present Non-conformity. The Day is at hand that will justify your Stedfastness. Even at this Day, the most Conformable themselves confess, That the Rites whereto you are Non-conformists, are indifferent Things, and the Worship of the Lord Jesus Christ is as well without them as with them. Why should you then add those Rites, which in your Consciences are not so indifferent as the Confession of the Conformable would render them, and which will defile your Worship? Even Bishop Sanderson himself expressly says, If any Man shall use them with an opinion, as if God's Service could not be rightly performed without them, doubtless the use of such Ceremonies by reason of such his Opinion, would be superstitious unto him. Thus by the Confession of the Conformable, you are well as you are. Know when you are well. More Conformity would not make you better. And if the Rites are so Indifferent, why should those that urge them for the sake thereof, make a Difference? Let them return unto you; there is no Cause why you should go over unto them. Reason and Justice will one Day take place: The Day foretold by the Bishop of Worcester before he was a Bishop,

You will then be owned in the Church of England; yea, the the Partition-Wall between you and all the other sincere Protestants in the English Nation, will be taken down. This is the Prayer and Hope of, my Brethren,

Books Printed for, and Sold by Tho. Parkhurst, at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside, near Mercers-Chapel.

EXpository Notes on the Four Evangelists; wherein the Sacred Text is at large recited, and the Sense explained; together with the Instructive Example of the Holy Jesus is recommended to our Imitation. By William Burkitt, M. A. and Vicar of Dedham in Essex.

Divine Comforts Antidoting inward Perplexities of Mind; being a Discourse upon Psalm. 94. ver. 19. By. T. Sharp, M. A.

Wilful Impenitency the grossest Self-Murder; in several Sermons Preached at Rochfort in Essex. By William Fenner, B. D.

Plain Method of Catechising; showing, That Ministers, Parents, and Masters, ought to be faithful Teachers of the first Principles of the Christian Doctrine. By T. Doolittle, M. A. in compassion to the Ignorant.

The Young Man's Guide in his Way to Heaven; or, Travelling spiritualized.

The General Assembly; or, the gathering of the Saints together. By Oliver Heywood, M. A.

The Order of the Gospel professed and practiced by the Churches in New-England, in Answer to several Questions relating to Church-Discipline. By Increase Mather, President of Harvard College in Cambridge, New-England.

Primitia Synagogae; or, a Sermon Preached at the opening of a New Erected Meeting-house in Ipswich. By John Fairfax, M. A.

The Fountain of Life opened and explained; or, a Display of Christ, in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory; containing Forty Two Sermons on various Texts. By John Flavel, M. A.

Of Thoughtfulness for the Morrow, with an Appendix concerning the immediate desire of foreknowing Things to come.

The Redeemer's Tears wept over lost Souls, in a Treatise on Luke 19.41, 42. with an Appendix, wherein somewhat is occasionally Discoursed concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost, and how God is said to will the Salvation of them that perish.

A Calm and Sober Enquiry concerning the possibility of a Trinity in the God-head, in a Letter to a Person of Worth; occasioned by the lately Published Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity. By Dr. Wallis, Dr. Sherlock, Dr. South, Dr. Cudworth, &c. Together with certain Letters (hitherto unpublished) formerly written to the Reverend Dr. Wallis on the same Subject.

A Letter to a Friend concerning a Postscript to the Defense of Dr. Sherlock 's Notion of the Trinity in Unity, relating to the Calm Enquiry on the same Subject.

A View of that part of the late considerations addressed to H. H. about the Trinity, which concerns the Sober Enquiry on that Subject.

A Treatise of the Soul of Man, wherein the Divine Original, Excellent and Immortal Nature of the Soul, are opened; its Love and Inclination to the Body, with the necessity of its Separation from it, considered and improved. The Existence, Operations and States of separated Souls both in Heaven and Hell immediately after Death, asserted, discussed, and variously applied. Divers knotty and difficult Questions about departed Souls, both Philosophical and Theological, stated and determined.

The Method of Grace in bringing home the Eternal Redemption, contrived by the Father and accomplished by the Son, thro' the Effectual Application of the Spirit unto God's Elect, being the Second Part of Gospel Redemption.

The Divine Conduct or Mystery of Providence, its Being and Efficacy asserted and vindicated: All the Methods of Providence in our Course of Life opened, with Directions how to apply and improve them.

Navigation spiritualized, or a new Compass for Seamen, consisting of Thirty Two Points of pleasant Observations, profitable Applications, serious Reflections, all concluded with so many spiritual Poems, &c.