Church Concord, Chapter 3
Chap. III. Difference I.
THE third part of my task is, to state the Controversies that occasion our present Divisions in England: There are (besides intolerable Hereticks, as Seekers, Quakers, &c.) but three Parties that I remember that trouble us much with unjust Separations and Antichurches. The first is that new Prelatical Party that unchurch our Churches, and nullifie our Ministry, and Ministerial Performances; and draw into private Meetings, supposing that only Laymen or Schismaticks with whom they must not Communicate, (because they are not Ordained by English Prelates) have possession of the publick Churches. To these I have spoken in my Disputation of Church Government, and therefore shall say nothing here.
The Second Sort of Separatists are those called Anabaptists, that deny Communion with our Churches, supposing us to be unbaptized: To these I shall speak by themselves in the Offer of an Agreement. The Difference is sufficiently made known.
The Third Sort are those that of old were peculiarly named Separatists, together with some of those that are now called Congregational or Independents, who withdraw upon some Differences in Points of Discipline, which Differences▪ it shall now be my work to state: And because I would be brief, I will annex the Accommodations to the Differences.
I. The first Point of Difference, which I think is no Difference, and yet is it that indeed makes almost all the Difference, is about the necessary Qualification of Church Members. That this makes almost all our Difference (except what disowned neglects of Discipline, and other such faults among us occasion) is known to us by experience, who hear the Members of the private Churches alledge this as the principal Point of Difference, for our accusation and their own justification, that we take those for Godly that they take not for such. That Doctrinally here is no difference between the Parties, but what is between the Persons in the same Parties, is in their words apparent. The Independents say that the Members of the Church must be [visible Saints.] The Presbyterians deny it not. The Presbyterians say that Sincerity or real Sanctity is not of Necessity to Visible Church Members: The Independents say so to, and no wonder; for else the Visible Church would not be Visible, nor could any Man be known to be a Member, because we know not their Sincerity or real Holiness.
Master Norton Resp. ad. Apollon. p. 7. 11, 12. thus fully openeth their mind; that [All and only those Competentes that are Ecclesiastically foreign Believers, and walk orderly are the next matter of a Visible Church and to be admitted.] By Ecclesiastically Believers he tells us that he meaneth [such as are faithful in the judgment of the Church, or such as towards whom whether they are positively faithful or not, we are bound to carry our selves in common Church Duties as if they were faithful.] To this he takes these four things necessary. [1. A Confession of the Fundamentals, and other points ofSee Rutherford Peaceable Plea, p. 92. &c. Religion, which are of necessity to avoidNo…es Temple Measured, p. 62, 63, 64, 65, 66. excellently disputeth this Point. Of the Judgment of all sorts of Protestant Divines on this, see my Dispu…. of Right to Sacraments. a scandalous Life. 2. Such a declaration of the Experimental work of Faith which contains the substance of Conversion, though it may be counterfeit. 3. A ConversationTwisse Vind. Grat. l. 3. Er. 8. § 6. p. 77. Agnosco libenter: Fid…les dici minimè merenter, apud illos, quotquot fucatam ipsorum professionem po…runt dignoscere. not scandalous. 4. A testified Subjection to the Gospel of Christ, and his Government.]Gilespi… Aar. Rod, p. 514. I believe no Consciencious Minister, would adventure to Baptize one who hath manifest and infallible Signs of Unregeneration. Sure we cannot be answerable to God if we should Minister Baptism to a Man whose Works and Words do manifestly declare him to be an Unregenerated Unconverted Person. And if we may not initiate such a one, how shall we bring him to the Lords Table?
There is nothing in all this but what the Presbyterians consent to, with these Explications, which we doubt not but will be allowed. 1. That this excludeth not the Infants of Believers from being Infant Members of the Church without these Qualifications in their Persons. 2. That if Infant Members grow up and claim a place among the Adult, it willThes. S…lmur, Vol. 3. p. 59▪ Th. 39. [Sacramenta non conseruntur nisi iis qui vel fidem habent, vel saltem …am prae se ferunt, adeo ut nullis certis argumentis compertum esse possit eam esse ementitam.] then be meet that all this be done by them. 3. But yet that it's one thing to admit them into the number of the Adult Members of the Church Universal, (as the Eunuch,Rutherford Due Right, p▪ 231. [Such (as are ignorant of the first Rudiments and Foundation of Religion) are materially not of the Visible Church, and have not a Profession, and are to be taught; and if they willfully remain in that darkness are to be cast out. Acts 8. and others were by Baptism,) and another thing to admit them into a particular Church also And that the consent to Christianity is it that is necessary to the first, and the consent to the Duty of a particular Member in that Church, is necessary only to the Second, (which supposeth also the First) 4. That there is great difference between a Baptized Person that needs but Confirmation or Repentance, and a Converted …nfidel, that's to be Baptized: It is meet to have some Testimony of the Life of the former, because he is in Covenant already: But the Life of the latter is not to be supposed to be upright, but ungodly, and therefore we may not require of him a Testimony of his upright Life, but a Confession and Lamentation of his ungodly Life, with a Consent and Resolution for new Obedience: Upon this much the Apostles Baptized their Converts, without delay to try their Lives. 5. And there's difference to be put between what is necessary ad esse, & ad bene esse: Necessitate medii & praecepti. And the Profession of Christianity, that is, of present Faith and Repentance, and this by any tolerable intimation or signification, is all that is necessary to the Being of such Adult Members: And that the Testimony of his good life is only necessary (when it may be sought) to the performance of our Duty, and the purity of the Church. If we admit a Man of another Countrey without Testimony or Tryal, upon his meer profession, or if we do so through haste, or negligence, or multitude of Persons that we have to deal with in populous places, this doth not nullifie his Membership: Nor yet if we admit him upon a dark and less express Confession. And, 6. It is a Mans Profession that is his Title▪condition to Visible Membership; and his Life is but a Confirmation of that; and where there is not opportunity of enquiring after Mens Lives, it is sufficient even in point of Duty, that we receive his Profession, if no Man will bring witness of a Life so vicious as may invalidate that Profession. 7. And I think we may take it for granted that Mr. Norton's Second demand of [a Declaration of the Experimental work of Faith, or substance of Conversion] is satisfied in the Profession of Faith and Repentance, or in our renewing our Baptismal Covenant: For doubtless all the substance of Conversion is contained in these: He that professeth that he believeth in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, renouncing the Flesh, the World, and the Devil, or that he believeth and repenteth, and is willing to live a holy Life, doth profess Conversion.
The Sum of all is this, which we are agreed in: [A Credible Profession of Christianity, that is, of Faith and Repentance, or of Holiness,] is that which is the Title-condition to our Membership in the Church Universal, and its Priviledges: And [A Credible profession of Consent to be a Member of this particular Church] added to the former is the condition of our Right to admittance into such a Church. And a careful Pastor will and should consider how Mens lives do answer their profession: But if nothing be brought from the Life to invalidate it, the profession it self must be accepted: And therefore if no such Omissions or Commissions are proved against the person that desireth our Communion as are of sufficient weight to prove that the persons profession is Incredible, it is to be received, because every Man is supposed to be better acquainted with his own Heart, than the Church is or can be: And every Man is to be supposed Credible till he can be proved Incredible by Evidences that in foro Ecclesiae are satisfactory: Especially when Men have to do with a Heart-searching God, and their Everlasting Life or Death lyeth at the stake, and when the holy Life that they engage themselves to live, is so contrary to Flesh and Blood, and seldom are there times so good, in which it is not reproached at least by the ungodly, we have reason fide humand to believe Mens profession in such a case. And as God will have Mens Salvation or Damnation lye more upon their own choice, than upon any other Mans, so is it his wise and gracious Order, that their Church Mercies or Judgments, their standing in the Church or being out of it, shall lye more upon their own Chusing or Refusing than on the Churches or any others: And therefore if Men dissemble in their profession, the Church is blameless, and it is themselves that bear the blame and suffering: And so if they keep out themselves, or force the Church by their Impenitency to cast them out. But if the Church should keep out Men that would come in, that do not wilfully refuse Gods Terms, these persons would lay the blame on the Church, and say, Lord, I would fain have entred, but could not be received.
Let any Man read Mr. Norton, and such others, and he will allow me to conclude, that de lege in this point we are agreed, even in two words, that [A Credible Profession] is the Condition or Qualification requisite in the Adult.
Yea and we are agreed also what are the Qualifications that must make a profession Credible: Viz. that it be (or seem to us to be) tolerably Understanding, Deliberate, Free or Voluntary, Serious, and not Invalidate by contradictory words or practice, sufficiently proved. And for the matter of it, we are agreed, that it must be a profession of all the Essentials of Christianity, and that it must be a Consent to present and not only to a distant future holiness. Even as a promise to become a Husband or Wife to another a Month hence, is not Marriage, but a promise of Marriage.
We are agreed also that Extremes in the Execution of this Rule, must be cautelously avoided. As on one side, that we do not take that to be a profession that is none, and that we take not that for Credible that is Incredible; and that we take not that for Understood that is not tolerably understood, or that for deliberate, voluntary or serious that is not so, or appeareth not so: And that we be not careless when it may be done, in inquiring how Men have kept their Baptismal Covenant, and what their Lives are, before we Confirm them, or Approve them for the Communion of the Adult: And that we refuse not to hear what just exceptions can be brought against them: Lest we frustrate Church Order and Ordinances, and nullifie Discipline, and pollute the Church. And on the other side we are (in the Doctrine) agreed, that Hypocrites will be in the Visible Church, and that we must not refuse those that have the least knowledge of the Essentials, though they are not able in the Congregation to express it, nor privately in any but broken and unhandsom words; and that withal make the most imperfect Credible Profession of Faith and Repentance, and Resolution for Obedience: And that we must not break the bruised Reed, nor reject the least of the Lambs of Christ, but receive them that are weak in the Faith, and not of our own Heads reject any persons Profession as Incredible, without sufficient Reasons for such a judgment of it.
Indeed there is abundance of difference in these points, but 1. It is in the Iudgment of particular Persons and Cases, and not in the Law or Rule of our Proceedings. And, 2. It is a difference between Persons, and not between Parties: Some of the Congregational way are more rigid than many of the Presbyterians, in Iudging who are Credible Professors, and who not: Some will hear the Reports of a change, when most Presbyterians, will be satisfied with the profession of Holiness, though it have grown up with the person from his Infancy, and he knew of no change: Some look for such Evidence from a Holy Life, as may it self directly suffice to ingenerate in the Church a persuasion that the person hath Saving Grace, and so they make the Life to be Testimonium primarium, vel primario aequale: When most Presbyterians take the Profession for the Primary Testimony, or condition of Right; and so receive it directly as Credible, by such a Humane Faith, as one Man Credits another by in all Civil Transactions in the World: And they look at the Life but as a Secondary Testimony, which may Confirm or Invalidate the former: Though after Church entrance, the Life is directly looked after in the Discipline of the Church. But this difference is between Men of the same parties; Independents differ from Independents, and Presbyterians from Presbyterians; and perhaps a hundred Men of the same Congregational way, may most of them gradually differ from each other in the strictness or laxness of their Executions, as one is more or less Charitable than another, or more or less Tender, Compassionate, Strict, or Rigid, Censorious, or Remiss, &c. which may occasion difference.
I conclude therefore that about the great disturbing point, viz. The Matter of the Church or Qualification necessary to Members, Presbyterians and Independents, differ not Doctrinally (though practically persons of each party differ among themselves;) and therefore that here is No Need of a Reconciliation.