Defense of Non-Conformity, Part 3 · Section 1
SECT. I. The several Pleas used by Dissenters, considered.
I Behold the Pleas used for the present separating from the publick Assemblies, as divided into three sorts. 1. Some that I do not think to be any just cause of complaint against the Church of England; 2. Some that are Grievances to us, that we dare not own nor approve, but desire a Reformation of them; yet I do not think that they by themselves make Communion with the publick Assemblies unlawful, nor can justifie Separation: 3. Some that not only are Grievances, but do justifie; yea, make necessary some sort of separation; and these I shall afterward further subdistinguish. Of the first sort, I reckon the Constitution of the Church in its Members at first; want of governing Power in the People; and the Constitution of a National Church, as it is scrupled at by some.
Sect. 2. For the second sort, they are not a few, neither can I promise to name them all. 1. We are gri…ved with Prelatical Government, and taking away of that pari…y of Power that Christ hath given to the ordinary Ministers of his Church. This we cannot approve, and therefore Ministers ought rather to suffer deprivation of the publick Exercise of their Ministry, than own it. And people also ought not to own that their lordly Authority that they exercise; yet, because this is not required to be acknowledged as a lawful Power in the Church, by the people, I see not that we should withdraw from the publick Assemblies, meerly because there are Diocesan Bishops set over the Church; except our owning them, by submitting to their Jurisdiction, is required as one of the Terms of Communion with the Church. 2. Depriving people of their Right of chusing their own Church-Officers, is also matter of complaint; but we must bear it, rather than separate for that, from a Church. 3. The gross Abuses that are in the Discipline of the Church, or rather the want of any thing that looketh like Gospel Discipline, we lament; but it not being peoples work to mend it, nor the Abuses their personal action, it is no just ground of Separation. 4. Godfathers and Godmothers in Baptism are an abuse; but being extrinsick to the Ordinance, we should not separate for that neither. 5. The defects and faults that are in the Call of the Ministers, and in their personal Conversation, their Pluralities and Non-residences, and several things of that nature we complain of, and the insufficiency of many of them, but do not separate for these, while the Ordinances are not corrupted that we partake of. 6. The Surplice, and other superstitious Habits, worshipping toward the East, bowing to the Altar, and such-like, we dare not approve nor practise; yet these not being imposed as Terms of our Communion with the Church, we do not separate on account of them. The lawfulness of these I do not now debate; nor is it needful at all to do it, in reference to the point of Separation, that the Dr. chargeth us with; yet they being things wherein we dissent from our Brethren, I shall not shun to dispute such of them with the Dr. as his following Discourse shall give occasion for.
Sect. 3. There are a third sort of things that we dislike in the Episcopal Church of England, which not only are matter of Grievance, but do necessitate us (and justifie us in it) to depart from her Communion till these Letts be removed; and they are of two sorts: 1. The unlawful Terms of Communion with Her, tha… She requireth of us; without which she will not suffer us to partake with Her in the Ordinances of God; as that we must worship God by the Liturgy, that our Children, when baptized, must be signed with the Cross; that we must Kne…l in the Act of receiving the Lord's Supper; that we must observe the Holidays that She hath appointed, out Christ never instituted. These things we think unlawful to be done; and the Church, tho' She thinketh them indifferent and unnecessary in themselves, yet have made them necessary by Her imposing them, and excommunicateth and persecuteth us, if we will not use them; and therefore a parting from Her on these accounts, doth necessarily follow; not only because we ought not to live without God's Ordinances, which we cannot have with our Brethren, but because, if we would do so, they would still persecute us, if we come not to the Liturgy; if we have not our Children baptized; if we do not receive the Lord's Supper thrice a Year, and especially at Easter; if we do not observe the Holidays. A second thing that layeth a necessity on us, to have Meetings apart from them, is, their restraining of a considerable part of the Ministers, whom Christ had sent to his Church, and fitted by his Gifts for Gospel-Administrations (upward of Two Thousand of them being put out in one day.) We think it is the Duty of these men to preach the Gospel, and administer the Ordinances of God, and the Duty of the People to wait on their Administrations, and to own their relation to them. It is true, this by it self considered, need not hinder our Communion, and that ordinarily with the publick Assemblies, for things might be so managed, as no clashing needed be; but this putteth us under a necessity of meeting by our selves, and the sinful Terms of Communion imposed, putteth us out of capacity to assemble with our Brethren in publick. These I now but propose, but intend to dispute them as they fall in, in the Doctor's Discourse.