cura commissa est A Law there was made by Solon that all Assemblies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Solone were unlawful that the highest authority did not cause to meet Among the Heathen Nebuchadnezzar makes a Law Darius a Decree the King of Nineveh sends forth a Proclamation for a Fast for a Religious service which certainly they had never done had it not been received that they were empowred And among the Romans there was no sooner an Emperour but he took upon him potestatem pontificiam In the Acts we read that the City of the Ephesians was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Mr. Selden teacheth us was an Office to take care of the whole worship and Temple of Diana Seld. not in Marmor Arundel Now this could not be done by any warrant from Scripture evident therefore it is that even by the light of nature seen it was that the supreme power is invested with anthority in Religious duties Care they ought to take that God be served as well as the people governed since they have been hitherto taken to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae 2. Thus it was while reason bare the sway But now let us look into the Scripture How is it written in the Law how read you There it was ordained that the King should have a book of the Law written by the Priests and the end was Deut. 17.18 19 20. that he might fear the Lord and keep it And in this Law there be many precepts that concern him as a man many as a Prince for as Austin Rex servit Deo aliter qua homo aliter qua Rex as a man by a holy Conversation as a Prince by making and executing holy constitutions Austin Ep. 50. As he is the Superiour he is there made the Guardian of Gods Law and the whole Law is committed to his charge By vertue of which Commission when the Kingdome and Priesthood were divided Moses the Civil Magistrate made use of his power over Aaron and reproved him for the golden Calf Joshua a Prince no Priest by the same authority circumcised the sonnes of Israel erected an Altar of stone caused the people to put away their strange gods and renewed the Covenant betwixt God and the people And what other Kings did you have heard before These Acts of these famous Kings performed in Ecclesiastical causes shews clearly what power Kings had under Moses Law And one thing more let me put you in mind of that when there was no King in Israel that was a supreme power for it was no more every man did that which was good in his own eyes and that good was extream bad as the story shews 3. Yea but it may be said that thus it was while the Judicials of Moses were in force but why so now Now the Superiours authority is confined to Civil Lawes Now the Kingdome is Christs and he must rule Indeed could we finde in the Gospel any restriction or rather revocation of what power had formerly belonged to Superiours this plea were considerable but since the rule is true that Evangelium non tollit precepta naturae legis sed perficit The Commission once granted to the Superiour by nature and the Moral Law must be good And be it that the Kingdome is Christs and all power in his hands yet this will be no impediment to what I contend for neither That Christ wants no Vicar on earth but as head of his Church doth govern it is a truth beyond exception But this is to be understood of the spiritual internal government not of that which is external because he must be serv'd with the body as well as with the Spirit in an outward forme of worship as well as an inward therefore he hath left superiours to look to that Their power extends not their accompt shall not be given for what is done within for they cannot see nor cannot judge what is done in that dark cell they have nothing to do with the secret affections of the heart with the sacred gifts of the Spirit with the stedfast trust of future things They are only to moderate and direct the outward actions of godlinesse and honesty and what may externally advance Christs Kingdome So that the question is not here of the internal and properly Spiritual but of the external government order and discipline of the Church which when the supreme power administers as it ought it sets up and no way pulls down the Kingdome of Christ These two are then well enough compatible that the Kingdome is Christs and yet the Superiour way make use of his power in Christs Kingdome A Prophesie there was that under the Gospel Kings should be nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers to the Church Isa 49.23 Nourishment then they must give that ordain'd for babes that for men the Word and Sacraments they cannot give no more then Uzziah could burn incense or Saul burn Sacrifice no nor yet ordain any to do it The sustenance then which Christians are to receive from them must be that of external discipline and government Those that gave such food were call'd nursing fathers those that denyed it tyrants and persecutors without the favour and execution of this duty Christian Religion had never been so highly advanc'd and therefore the Apostle ordains that Christians pray for those in authority that we may live a quiet and a peaceable life in all godlinesse 1 Tim. 2. and honesty Godlinesse comprehends all duties of the first Table Honesty all duties of the second and where those who are in authority are careful both will be observed both shall be preserved because they know they have a charge of both Thus you see reason Law and Gospel have given a supremacy to those in power non solum in ijs quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam in ijs quae attinent ad religionem divinam I have enlarg'd my self on this subject beyond my intention least you should split upon that dangerous rock of Jesuitisme while out of a dislike of the British King you make him a violent head of the National Church for what you say of him is as true of all others and what is denyed of him is denyed of all others in that their claim and right is all alike and in case it be not just their violence and usurpation is all alike which to affirm is perfect Jesuitisme And wheresoever this doctrin is turn'd into practice it sets up regnum in regno and if it should be brought into this Common-wealth would reduce again what Henry the eight cast out though under another notion for every Eldership of a Combinational Church would be perfect Papacy absolute independent answerable to none to be guided by none in Church matters punishable by none but themselves to which if you will give a right name it is meere Popish power This is it which Superiours have wisely disclaimed and not admitted themselves like children to be
they became a man of a Homogeneous and Inorganical an heterogeneous and organical body At first they were but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power and authority in themselves for why else did they all this And if this be not an act of Democracy I must professe I understand not the name nor definition of the word I shall take it kindly that any man will informe my ignorance Yea but it may be said that now in organizato corpore this Democracy is at an end for now it is a well shaped creature it hath a head it hath eyes it hath hands and all other parts in a goodly symmetry though I could ask what kind of Church was that of Mr. Canns at Amsterdam which for a time had no Pastour that liv'd a long time without Officers or Eldership yet I spare you Not so neither Answer to the thirty two Questions pag. 48. pag. 44. for the people for ought I can see as they had authority in actu primo to elect and ordain so they have authority in actu secundo to depose and excommunicate their Pastour and Elders and so to reduce themselves to what they were in puris naturalibus from an heterogeneous body to make themselves homogeneous from an organiz'd body to make themselves inorganiz'd and either to remain so if they please or to choose again And for ought I conceive Cottons Keyes Mr. Cotton intends no other by his new-coyned and applauded distinction of power and authority and power of liberty for whatever authority he gives to the Eldership he makes it vain and frustaneous without the consent of the people and notwithstanding all the obedience and subjection he puts upon the people yet he gives to them such a power of liberty that their concurrence with the Eldership in every act of power is not onely necessary but authoritativè In a word if the people have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority of institution and destitution as your parties say if you should tell me a thousand times over I shall never beleeve otherwise but your Combinational Church is governed by a Democracy I hope I have proved sufficiently what I undertook and now I returne to my purpose for I leave the destructive part and come to build And here I shall lay that in the foundation which none but Papists for ought I perceive will deny That our Saviour Christ left the Church Militant in the hands of the Apostles and their Successours and an Aristocratical government which I shall illustrate unto you by an induction of particulars 1. The first constitute Christian Church we read of in the world Isa 2.3 was that of Jerusalem for the Law was to come out of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem There the Apostles and Disciples first preached so that Eve was not more properly term'd the Mother of all living then this Church by Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret. the Mother of all believing Churches From thence the Apostle being to depart for that they might execute our Saviors command to preach unto all Nations left the government of that Church unto James the brother of our Lord not the Apostle and ordained him then the first Bishop Euseb lib. 2.1 l. 1.19 Jerom Hegesip Ambr. Euseb 3.11 Hegesip 4.22 Jerom. in Isa 3. Ambr. in 1 Tim. Ignat. ad Trall Acts 21.18 Acts 15. Et post Martyrium Jacobi traditur saith Eusebius Apostolos commune concilium habuisse quem oporteret dignum successione Jacobi judicari omnesque uno concilio uno consensu Simeonem Cleophae filium decrevisse ut Episcopatus sedem susciperet And if I list I could give you in the Catalogue of the succeeding Bishops for the first six hundred years To him I doubt not but there was joyn'd a Presbytery which Jerome calls Senatus Ecclesiae some Collegium Presbyterorum Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he thus describes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were those Elders present with James their Bishop to whom Saint Paul went in And if I shall name Judas and Silas for two of them I am partly assured that I am not mistaken because the Decree made by the Synod at Hierusalem was sent by them The government here then was Aristocratical 2. Acts 11.22 26 27 28. cap. 13.1 Origen in Luc. Hom. 6. Euseb 3. cap. 35 Ignat. ad Antiochen The next instance I shall give you for a constitute Church is at Antioch And in this City being the Metropolis of Syria Barnabas Paul and other Prophets and Teachers Simeon Lucius Manâ—en were sound and hither also Peter came Gal. 2.11 Of this Church Origen Jerome and Ignatius who best knew it for he conversed with the Apostles Socrat. lib. 6. cap. 8. make Saint Peter the first Bishop that Evodius succeeded is the testimony of Ignatius He saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignatius was the next himself from whom I can give you a clear succession to the terme I mention'd And those I mentioned Barnabas Simeon Lucius c. I shall not doubt to call the Presbytery of which almost in every Epistle Ignatius makes expresse mention as Counsellours Assistants and Co-assessours of the Bishop At Antioch then was an Aristocracy also 3. At Ephesus we meet again with a constituted Church where Timothy was made Bishop by Saint Paul The subscription of the second Epistle shews that he was the first Bishop there Euseb lib. 3. c. 4. and Eusebius who saw the Records of the Primitive Church affirmes the same That he was ordained by Saint Paul by the hands of the Presbytery Calvin conceives is beyond question Now if it be demandâ—d when Timothy was made Bishop it is most probable when Paul was at Miletum When the Apostles departed from any Church which they had planted in that then they appointed a Bishop For while they remain'd in or near the place there was no such need the Apostles supplying the wants of those Churches with their presence letters or messengers as the cause required But when they were finally to forgo those parts then they began to provide for the necessity and security of that Church by setling Episcopal power which in all probability was the reason that they so soon provided a Bishop for the Church of Jerusalem Saint Paul at this time was to take his leave of the Churches at Asia he saith it plainly in that Chapter Acts 20.25 that they should see his face no more most probable then it is that at this time he left Timothy to supply his place of Ephesus yea and that the six other Angels of the Churches were then by him ordain'd Think of these seven Angels of the Churches what you please I shall not doubt to esteem them single persons and Bishops and that upon stronger evidence then any can be brought to the contrary But that 's no discourse for this place I suppose
provokes the appetite Reader it was the Authours purpose sometime to delight thee but most of all to edifie informe confirme thee which if it may be effected he hath his end For it is my hearty prayer that a period may be set to this wrangle and that we may all turn to the way of truth and peace Farewel W. N. A KEY to open the Debate about a Combinational Church and the power of the KEYES The first Part. THE chief point of the Controversie lies in this to know in whose hands the power of the Keys shall be or rather who shall be the Prime subject of the Keys Of this I finde three opinions Cotton Burton Goodwin Nye Assert the name Bayly p. 132. The first defended by the Independents or Combinationals A second defended by the Presbyterians and a third by the Prelates 1. The Combinational Churches are divided in this point for some seat power in the whole Congregation so soone as associated in Covenant even before they have any Officers Others after the Officers are chosen settle it in them alone A third even then conjunctim make the whole body the subject of the Keys Which of these or whether any of these is like to be true will appear if we consider these two or three things 1. That the Presbyters and Ruling-Elders cannot be the prime subject is apparent because that the Keys were seated in some before they were in them if you be constant to your own principles For how came they to be Elders and Rulers were they not created by the power of the Keys and who created them was it not they who did elect and ordaine The prime power then must be in the electors and ordaiâ—ers not in the elected and ordained whence it will follow inevitably that the Ruling Elders are not the prime subject of power for a power there is which precedes theirs 2. After Election and Ordination they viz. Ruling Elders cannot be so neither because it is your common Tenet that the Congregation may again upon displeasure resume the Key Depose Excommunicate cast out their own Elders which they could not do were they not the prime subject of the Keys and authority primarily in them 3. But if you shall say that conjunctim people and Elders together are the prime subject this cannot be neither Because before they are thus conjoyned the Electors and Ordainers had the true essence of a Church as you teach both for matter and forme though they had no Officer nor Elder and then must radically and originally be invested with this power in the first combination without any reflexion on this conjunction So that as they are an organical Church heightned by Rulers and Elders it makes them not the prime subject of the Keys for this you say they had before That the people divisim without the Elders and Rulers are not the prime subject of this authority I prove in this Tract demonstratively I onely here adde that the power of the Keys consists in binding loosing preaching administring Sacraments c. which till you can prove to be in the people originally I shall never yeeld the power to be originally in their hands The difficulties are so many and the subtleties so nice among you in this dispute that they have forced your finest heads Robinson Cotton Goodwin Norton to invent so many distinctions divisions subdivisions that a man must needs think himself in a maze that reads them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Schoolmen which you so much complaine of are exceeded by you And yet when all 's done by these you could never yet satisfie your own party and therefore expect not to settle others It shewes you are in a Labyrinth and would faine help your selves out by the small threads of these prettily invented distinctions In a word that there are very many knots and objections to which your Tenet is liable For you know that all distinctions were invented to give light to that which is very perplexed intricate dubious ambiguous and aeâ—uivocal 2. That this your assertion is mainly denied opposed battered and beat down by the Presbyterians I need not tell you or that they deny the the Congregation to be either conjunctim or divisim the prime subject of the Keys and settle it upon the Eldership primò immediate adaequatè Finalitèr objectivè they will grant you that the whole Church is the subject but autoritativè formalitèr they place it in the Guids or Presbyters without a Bishop And of this opinion Rutherford is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he runs into the same inconvenience with your Rabbies For to make his thoughts good he hath so many nicities so many new-coined distinctions of power of the Church of I know not what that he is able to confound any Reader and indeed drives on the point till he becomes almost unintelligible Is not this think you a rare device in him and in yours to finde out a Truth and settle a conscience about Church-government 3. The Pâ—elates are opposite to both they deny the Congregation conjunctim or divisim to be the first subâ—ect of the Keys They deny the Presbyterian Eldership to be the prime subject of Church power And they place it under Christ in the Apostles and their successors and for this they plead our Saviours promise Matth. 16. and his donation John 20. They plead again the Apostolical practice extant in the Scriptures Acts 8.17 Acts 14.23 1 Tim. 4.14 1 Tim. 5.22 2 Tim. 1.6 Tit. 1.5 and again the perpetual practice of the Catholick Church ever since according to that of Jerome Decretuâ— est toto orâ—e ut unus è Presbyteris electus ceteris superponeretur which testimony I have at large afterwards cited and opened at full This is the state of the whole question and which of these is likelyest to be most true I shall leave it to the unbyassed Reader to judge after he hath read over this Treatise In nomine Domini October 29. 1656. ad honorem Iesu Christi ipsius Ecclesiae ad veritatis aram haec offero An answer to the Admonitory Letter The words are these SECT I. Reverend Sir THat the glorious God who is the giver of all grace as well as of every good and perfect gift would never be weary of conferring on you or of continuing in you or yet of encreasing by you those real and rich gifts and graces which he out of his good will and meere goodnesse was pleased to indue and adorne your precious soul withal for the due and daily use and exercise whereof his maine aime and uttermost end was his own service and your own solace to traine you up higher in holinesse and happinesse as I am hopefully perswaded in my very heart then most of your companions or acquaintance kindred or countrey and that at the least by the head and shoulders 1. An humble motion for you is one of those motions with
I am inform'd the common opinion among you is that the power of the Keys is not in the hands of the Presbytery but the fraternity and so you are of Ainsworths opinion Of the power or Keys I see there is no difference betwixt us both are agreed to what end they serve both use them to effect that the sole quarrel is in whose hands they shall be put On all sides the buzzle is who shall be Prelates The Presbyterians would have them in their hands and Johnson fights on their side The Congregation stifly wrangle for their right and Ainsworth and most of New England take their part Cotons Keyes pag. 10. 13. Mr. Cotton and some others sensible of what might ensue by this just power of the people over the Eldership have begun to fall from Ainsworth to Johnson and to plead the authority of the Eldership over the brotherhood and the necessity of subjection of the people by divine right to the Elders as to their superiours Some wiser than some yet he hath such fine evasions and distinctions to blinde and content the people that a man would think he were playing at hocus pocus But be it as it will a blind man may see that the Prelacy is the game that they have all in chase Now this methinks is not fair dealing to put down Covenant and swear down Prelacy and hunt after it themselves to cry out against others that their whole aime is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lord it over Gods inheritance when they would be the sole Lords themselves Now among the heat of these contenders the old Prelate appears and puts in his claime he pleads Scriptures he pleads antiquity and the perpetual practice of the Church for one thousand and five hundred years And by my consent he that can shew best Cards for it let him carry the game Nor this then hereafter shall be any just cause of separation separation O how I hate the syllables the Authour of it sure was taught by the Prince of darkness and came to some a Bolton the first Separatist hang'd himself Brown the second dyed in prison Ephes 4.4 5 6. unlucky end Unity is the child that God blesseth We all acknowledge one Father we all hope in one Redeemer we serve one Lord we are united by one Spirit we professe one faith we were baptiz'd in one water we have but one hope of our calling for we all hope to meet in one heaven Let us therefore endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace And so the God of peace will take delight to dwell with us and bless us And the Son of God who made our peace and left it to us as his last Legacy will give rest and peace peace of conscience and reconciliation with God while we live here and eternal rest with him in heaven Amen To the first part of your letter you have here my answer and if it finde acceptance I shall proceed to satisfie the other First to vindicate the Church in general from those you call corruptions and degenerations in her government And secondly the Church of England in particular touching those enormities you conceive committed by her That I have not now done it there are some reasons which I will conceal A KEY to open the Debate about a Combinational Church and the power of the KEYES The Second Part. The words of the Letter IN case the frequent pondering of this profitable point which is of so much concernment to be throughly versed in should puzzle any one that begins to question how where or when did the Christian Church which at the first was Presbyterial and pure become so corrupt and polluted as that scarce is the sceleton fashion or face thereof as much as to be perceived the more is the pity in most places or as yet amongst most professours of godlinesse I was really perswaded that a little paines might prove not onely acceptable but advantagious to a person that were so puzzled about the particular for to hear and to have it not alone boldly and barely affirm'd but also fairly and firmly confirm'd by unanswerable arguments that it fell to that foul and fearful degeneration under which it now doth or should groan and for which it hath good cause to grieve by no fewer than five distinct degrees whereof the first was into a Parochial 2. The second into a Cathedral 3. The third into a Provincial 4. The fourth into a National 5. And the fifth was into an oecumenical or a Romane Catholique Church SECT I. The Reply IN this second part of your letter you propose a point I confesse of greatest concernment and such which is most worthy of the sad and serious disquisition which is how where and when the Church became so corrupt polluted and degenerate as scarce the secleton fashion or face thereof is to be perceived no not among the professours of godlinesse Good words I pray The Reformed Churches you say cannot shew it the Prelates cannot produce it the Papists are at the same losse and among the professours of godlinesse be they who they will the Sceleton is scarce to be perceived hardly the fashion the face appears among them And where then shall we looke for the substance the body it self of which if any man be not a part 't is but in vain to look for salvation Since out of the Church no man can have hope of salvation no more than that creature had of life who was out of the Ark of Noah God be merciful to us all poor Christians if our Mother that should nourish us be brought to bare bones have but a face and fashion of a Mother and nothing else surely she will never be able to give her children milk while they are babes and strong meat when they come to be men if this be so Now tell me I pray what is the case why she is brought to this pittiful and lamentable condition how came she so corrupt and polluted Oh say you that is quickly discern'd she is fallen from her Presbytery for all the while she was Presbyterial she was pure First I could advise you to take heed of this affirmative except you put Combinational unto it For all the Presbyterians will catch at it and runne away with it in triumph and where are you then and I beleeve your own party will not con you much thanks that have given the adversary so great advantage Secondly it behoved you since you have laid the strength of your cause upon this word to have demonstrated by infallible arguments out of the Scripture that the Church was at first governed by that kind of Presbytery you mean which you have not done before you pronounced all succeeding Churches corrupt and polluted because they degenerated from that Presbytery This is petitio principii the foulest way of arguing Thirdly that the most learned and modest of the Prelacy though they will grant you a Presbytery in