Whether Parish Congregations be True Christian Churches, Postscript 2
A Poſtſcript on a Book of Mr. J.F's.
SINCE the Writing of all foregoing, I have received another Book ſent me by J.F. Whether he will be angry if I expound this J. Faldo, I cannot tell; I read it over to ſee if there were any thing in it that ſhould change my Judgment: But I will not promiſe to do ſo by any more ſuch. Nor will I ſo much as tell the Reader what my Judgment ſaid of it in the reading; much leſs write down the Anſwers which readily offered themſelves to my underſtanding as I went on; for it would but more provoke him, I ſee, and do the Reader little good, unleſs by helping him to lament the churches caſe through the infirmities of ſuch as I and he are; And the more patiently to bear all our preſent ſufferings, by conſidering how unable we are to agree what to chuſe for our ſelves, if we had our wills, and how far we ſhould be from deſired concord.
I will not write a Book to contend on the queſtion, Whether Mr. Faldo or I be the wiſer or better man: I am conſcious of ſo much ignorance and badneſs, that if it may edifie the Reader, let him think of me as ill, as Mr. Faldo and all ſuch men would have him: If he have a good cauſe, I wiſh the Reader may be of his mind: If not, I find not my ſelf obliged to talk on againſt ſuch Writers any further, for his reſcue; nor do I think I can ſay any thing herein, which at his rate Mr. Faldo cannot anſwer.
I only ſay, that he and ſuch other have ſatisfied me, That the Liturgy-VVorſhip in the common Lords Day office is comparatively purer than the VVorſhip of many is like to be, who oppoſe it. His Counſel is good, to know what the VVorſhip is before I conſent to it: I have tried what is in the Liturgy; I concurred with many better men, 1661 in telling the VVorld, how far we could approve or uſe it. I find in it much good, and in the ordinary Lords Day common ſervice, no fault that ſhould alienate me from conjunction with the Church therein.
To talk of faults in Baptizing, Burial, Marrying, &c▪ is to ſay nothing to this point; I never ſaw any of theſe uſed ſince I joined with the Church in the Lords-Day VVorſhip: But how to try Mr. F. his VVorſhip before-hand, I know not He ſaith, that if we will be at the coſt of it, we may have better worſhip. And tho he ſeem diſpleaſed for being called a conſenter to my catholick communion, either he conſented that the Pariſh-Church-Worſhip ſhould rather be uſed than none, or elſe (which I ſuſpect▪) when I have read his Book, I cannot underſtand ſo much as what he is for or againſt; what he meaneth by a Meeting of four, whether he take it for a Church, I know not: I take it not for a Church, that hath no Miniſter or Sacrament: And if he know of ſo many ſcore, or hundred thouſand Nonconformable Miniſters as may guide all the People in England, as ſuch Churches of four, I do not: And if Communion in the Liturgy be ſimply unlawful, it is ſo to all the Land. I think there are millions in the Kings Dominions, that can have no other Church-Worſhip than with the Liturgy, at what rate ſoever they would purchaſe it.
If his conceits of my ſelf contradictions were as true as they are falſe, I will tell him other reaſons of what he counteth unaccountable, than that I wrote one Book in 1659, and another in 1684. I am now 25 years elder than I was then; and its a ſhame to learn nothing in ſo many years: I am more above all worldly hopes than he is: I am paſt all capacity of them. I have leſs cauſe of fear than he: They will hardly confine me to a Priſon narrower than my Bed and Couch. My glaſs is almoſt run: If I be not more apprehenſive of my ſpeedy account, and it awe me not to own nothing but the truth, without dawbing with one extream or other, I am much to blame. And I have ſeen ſome more of the experience of both extremes (tho alas I ſaw too much before).
And after all, comparing all together, I leave poſterity my thoughts.
1. That I had rather the Church had a Liturgy (to make all foreknow what Worſhip they meet for) with free prayer alſo in its place, than to have either alone.
2. If they muſt be ſeparated when the Minister is of tryed ſoundneſs and ability; I had rather have his free prayer alone. But for many others, I had rather have the Liturgy alone.
And for inſtance, Mr. Faldo hath oft told me, that his Church at Barnet (as I twice ſaid before) not only omitted, but renounced or oppoſed all ſinging of Pſalms for many years; that many of them were of ſuch ill opinions, that he was put to much work to ſave them from being Quakers (and at what coſt they can now have Church-Meetings when he hath left them, I know not).
For Mr. Faldo to hold up ſuch a Church even to ſuffering, and to write againſt Communion with the Liturgy, where there are able godly Miniſters, is either erroneous partiality in him, or I am blind in my unwilling ignorance.
To which I further add again, that I cannot expect that men Preach ſounder Doctrine than they ſtudiouſly Write; nor that they pray more ſoundly than they preach; and if Mr. Faldo, and all ſuch Writers, ſo pray, and ſo preach, and ſo live, (much more if alſo their Churches have ſuch Maimed Worſhip as aforeſaid, and ſome of them unordained Miniſters, and many Churches men of many contrary doctrines) I take the Common-prayer Book Worſhip and Communion, to be much purer than theirs. The Lord make our ſucceſſors wiſer, better, and more peaceable than we are.
FINIS
End of the text · Richard Baxter, Whether Parish Congregations be True Christian Churches (1684)