wife and many small children came upon me by it through the power and exorbitant authority of the Prelates so that for my duty and Loyalty to the King I had a prison for my reward and the scornes and contumelies of the world to comfort me in it And when I most humbly petitioned his highnesse complaining against the injustice done me and most submissively supplicated his Majesty who was the Caesar to whom onely I could then appeal that he would be pleased to grant me one of these humble requests either That his Majesty would be pleased but for one houre to give me a hearing of my just defence or if that could not be granted That at lest he would then grant me that liberty in his Kingdome that he denied not to Crows and Kites and other Vermine that I might provide for my young ones and if his highnesse would not be pleased to condescend unto either of the former just demands That then he would give me leave to depart the Kingdome and to go into any other Country where I might enjoy my Liberty and provide for my poore distressed family I am most assured there was never a more equall Petition put up to any Prince in the world yet his Majesty vouchsafed not to yeeld unto any of these my requests nor to any other Petition put up either by my poor distressed wife or calamitous children so that without any wrong unto his Majesty I may truely say That Paul found more favour from a Heathen Roman Caesar then I had from a Christian King the defender of the faith After I saw all possibility of releefe was now taken from me I writ my Apologie to the Bishops themselves discovering unto them their unjust proceedings in their Courts and their unrighteous dealings towards my selfe and gave them my reasons of all I spake without any offensive language and without any purturbation of Spirit and Dedicated this my Book to the Lords of his Majesties Privie Councell expecting aide and reliefe from them and indeed I had no hope of succour from any other nor knew none to whom I could better apply my self earnestly imploring their patronage but they as it is well knowne of Patrons became my unjust Judges and after they had made me a spectacle to Men and Angels and exposed me to the scorne and ludibry of the world sent me into banishment where I lived a living death and a dying life and suffered such intolerable misery of all sorts as would exceed belief to relate and I am most consident if all the particulars were truly known the world never heard the like and there I had ended my dolefull life had not God of his infinite mercy called this Parliament and put into their hearts to redeem me from my capacity for the which incomparable favour I do as of duty I am ever bound professe my selfe to the last drop of my blood to be their servant in the Lord and in all their most just and honourable imployments I hope with all fidelity to answer to the expectation of the world and shall in life and death shew my self to be one that without all by-respects shall ever aime at the glory of God the honour of them and my Country and the common good of all and shall never by Gods assistance do any thing in their concernments that shall be unbeseeming a Man and a Christian Now because by my sad experience I found that I could neither from King nor Nobles have protection I resolved never any more in Gods matters to shroud my self under any covert but Divine Providence and that I with an assured confidence promise my self especially when I now maintain the prerogative royall of the King of Saints King of Kings the Lord Jesus Christ Who is our Lawgiver upon whose shoulders the government of his Church is laid who is the wonderfull Counseller the Prince of peace whose dignity and roialty in all this dispute between me and Mr. Walter Montague I have to the uttermost of my power maintained under the shadow of whose wings I have ever found there is only safety whose blessed assistance in all calamities they that trust in him may be most assured of His patronage now and his defence is my shield whose cause and the honour of whose kingdome at this time I contend for And howsoever in all my life in all humane learning I was never so wedded to my own resolves but upon better reason I could easily be divorced from them yet in Gods matters if an Angell should come from Heaven and teach me that that there were another way to happinesse then by that new and living way the blood of Jesus Christ who was the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world I would count him Anathema Or if an Angel should tell me there were a new way of worshipping God and serving him then that which God himself hath set down in his holy Word I would account him accursed for I have learned to believe God and Faith upon their word and bond without any either Angelicall or Humane reason or the authority of Councels and Fathers and whatsoever I finde a warrant in Gods Word for I have learned to cleave close to it against all humane reason supposing such men none of Gods nor Faiths truest friends that will not believe them upon their own word and bond except they have reason humane authority Councels and Fathers and vaine traditions joyned with them for sureties Again if any man should go about to perswade me that there were any other government established in the Church of God then an Aristocraticall and a Presbyterian one I should notwithstanding all humane reason to the contrary submit my self to that kind of government as being most confidently assured that it is warranted in Gods Word which all Christians are bound for ever to make the Rule and Square both of our faith manners and government And here I must minde all those that shall read this Book that this is no new opinion of mine but that which I have once and again suffered for and if ever they have read my Elenchus religionis papisticis or my Flagellum pontificis or my Apologie or any of my Latine Books in all those they will finde that the cause of all my sufferings was this and this only That I maintained that all Churches were to be governed by an Aristocraticall and Presbyterian government which in those Books I have clearly and fully through Gods assistance made good Yea in my answer to the Bill of Information put up against me in the Star-chamber they shall have some reasons I gave there of this my tenent to the Lords of his Majesties Privie Councell and Judges in the Star-chamber so that I stand to my principles and am no starter And if then amongst Gods people it was thought an opinion worthy the suffering for and my Christian brethren deemed me worthy of honour for it and afforded me their prayers and shewed me
Officers and in appointing the times of meeting and the places where And within these limits as I conceive is all the power given to the Presbyters terminated and this they are by Gods ordinance joyntly and by the common-counsell of Presbyters to exercise and therefore the Presbyterian government was the order of ruling and governing all Churches that God himself established and is to be continued to the end of the world neither do I ever reade that the people or the congregations were joyned with them in their commission or had any power given them of ruling For Saint Paul professeth of himself in 1 Cor. 14.37 that whatsoever he writ in his Epistles were the commands of the Lord. And the same may be said of all the other Apostles Now Paul writ to Titus that the Churches in all Cities should be governed by a Presbytery And in his first Epistle to Timothy he commands Timothy againe and againe in chap. 5. vers 21. and in chap. 6. v. 12 13. I give thee charge in the sight of God c. That thou keep this command without spot unblameable till the appearing of our Lord Iesus Christ Here Timothy and all Ministers in him are to the end of the world bound to maintaine that government unblameable that was appointed by the Apostles and that was the Presbyterian government and the ruling of all Churches by joynt consent and a common-counsell or Colledge of Presbyters so that nothing ought to be done or transacted of publick concernment without their joynt and mutuall accord or agreement and common consent of the Presbytery And therfore when Diotrephes assumed unto himself and his particular congregation a power and authority to rule according to his will pleasure without the consent of the Presbytery opposed John the Presbyter he sharply reproves his proceedings signifies to the Church Epist 3. That when he came he would remember his words and teach him how to prate against the Presbytery with malicious words For he saith S. John contenteth not himself onely to prate maliciously against us but he will not receive the brethren nor suffer others but casteth them out of the Church which is an evill thing in him saith Saint John But for you saith he speaking to the Church follow not that which is evill but that which is good It was evill in him to assume unto himselfe alone and his particular Congregation that power that belonged unto the colledge or councell of Presbyters and was to be moderated and exercised onely by the conjoynt and common consent of the Presbytery For God had appointed that his Church should be governed by a Presbytery and Diotrephes would have his Congregation Independent and have an absolute jurisdiction within it self Which saith Saint John is an evill thing So that I cannot but wonder that our brethren the Independents should call Diotrephes the Patriarch of the Presbyterians as one of them did to me not long since whereas if the place be duely weighed and considered it will appear that he was the first that opposed the Presbyterian Government and for the which he was by Saint John sharply reproved and in him all that follow his steps and will not submit themselves to the Presbytry which is Gods Ordinance and that will not receive the brethren into the Churches but upon their own termes and conditions But of this businesse when I come to the second Question In the mean time it is by the Word of God sufficiently confirmed that all the Churches we read of in the New Testament were so many corporations in Christs Kingdome which were to be governed by a common councell of Presbyters And so for many years after the Apostles it was governed Communi consilio Presbytererum as our brethren the Independents do confesse and proove by antiquity and humane authority which weapon I do wonder they will contend with in deciding of Gods matters which are onely out of his holy Word to be proved which is to be the rule of our faith But it seems Saint Ambrose his Authority pleaseth them well though if we looke into it it makes much against them He lived as the Author that cites him saith within the fourth Centory his words are these upon the first of Timothy Synagoga postea Ecclesia seniores habuit quorum sine consilio nihil agebatur in Ecclesia Quod quâ negligentia obsoleverit nescio nisi doctorum desidia aut magis superbia dum soli volunt aliquid videri Take with it his own interpretation The Iewes Synagogue saith he and afterwards the Christian Church had Elders without whose counsell nothing was done in the Church which by what neglect it grew out of use I know not unlesse it were perhaps the sloath or rather pride of the Teachers whilest alone they would seem to be some body Here it is acknowledged by their own testimony that in the Apostles time and many years after the Apostles nothing was done in the Church without the counsell of the Presbyters so that it is evident the Primitive Churches were governed by the joynt and common councell of the Presbytery and the people had nothing to do with it We may adde here unto Saint Ambrose Saint Jeromes testimony who in his Commentaries upon the first chapter of the Epistle of Paul to Titus largely declaring himself as in many other places concerning the occasion of the change of that government established by the Apostles saith Idem est ergo Presbyter qui Episcopus antequà m diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent diceretur in populis ego sum Pauli ego Apollo ego autem Cephae communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur c. In the which words he acknowledgeth by the first institution all Churches were governed by the common councell of the Presbyters and not by the advice of the people Yea the very Canons of the Pope in the first part and the 95. distinction giving the reason why the Presbyterian Government came to be changed and the Hierarchiall was put in the place affirmeth that it was through faction and for the avoyding of further Schismes and rents in the Church and cities the very words before coted out of Saint Jerome and confesse that before that time the Churches were governed Communi consilio Presbyterorum not by the people or any one Prelate but by the Presbytery and their councell And if humane authority were needfull in this businesse I might make a volume with their very expressions to prove the novelty of the Hirarchicall government and that of the peoples jurisdiction assuming the Authority of governing into their hands and the Antiquity of the Presbytery and that by the enemies own consession But I am resolved to cleave onely unto the Word and sound reason deduced from thence for the deciding of this controversie being sorry that there was so much as occasion of naming humane authority in a point of Divinity As for the Presbyterian government in
commands in the Lord. But that they should also afford them the honour of maintenance and take order there be a sufficient and competent yea an honourable allowance for their support and that as they minister to them spirituall food for their soules they should likewise minister unto them all things necessary for the maintenance of them and their Families that they may comfortably and without solicitous care follow their holy imployments and wait upon their severall Ministeries So that the place and imployment of the Presbyters is to teach and rule the people and this is their proper work and peculiarly belongs unto them and the imployment and place of the severall congregations under them is to hear and obey and therefore if the severall congregations do assume unto themselves the power of ruling they take more upon them then by God is allowed them and the Presbyters in yeilding unto it reject their own right and devest themselves of that authority that God hath put into their hands and by so doing in time may not only bring confusion into the Church but to all those Countries where such usurpations are tolerated I cannot but speak my conscience in this point And truly very reason dictates unto a man that they only should have the authority of commanding and ruling over the Churches to whom the power of the Keys is given Now it is given only to the Ministers and Presbyters as we see it in Iohn 20.21 and Matth. 18.15 16 17 18. Where our Saviour Christ established a standing government to be continued to the end of the world the violating and the overthrowing of the which was the cause of all those confusions both in doctrine and manners that is now come upon the world and was the cause not only of the rise but the growth of Antichrist And the reducing of it again into the Church the re-establishing of it will be the confusion of that Man of Sin and of all the Antichristian-brood and be a means of establishing truth and peace through the Christian world But it will not be amisse a little to consider that place in Matth. 18. If thy Brother saith Christ shall trespasse against thee go and tell him of it between thee and him alone if he shall heare thee thou shalt gaine thy brother but if he will not heare thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to heare them then tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to heare the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man and a Publican Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven In these words our Saviour Christ has respect unto the order and custome of judicature in those times in censuring mens manners and doctrines which among the Jewes was ordered and administred by an assembly and counsell of learned experienced and judicious men and by a Presbytery Consistory or Colledge of able men for governement chose and selected out of the people for this very purpose by such as could judge and discerne of their abilities the which assembly and company is by Christ himself called a Church because it did represent the Church and in this place Christ did establish the like to be continued in the Christian Church to the end of the world making his Apostles this representative body and their successors all the godly and holy Ministers and Presbyters and gives unto them the same power and Authority to judge and determine of all things belonging unto faith manners that was observed in the Jewish Church in all Ecclesiasticall Discipline For otherwise the Christian Church should be inferior to that of the Jews if they had not the same Priviledges for the censuring of manners and Doctrines and the same power of jurisdiction and ruling that they had Now all power of jurisdiction among the Jews was exercised not by the promiscuous multitude or by the whole Congregation nor by any particular man nor by two or three as the place above specifies but by an Assembly Senate Councell or Presbytery of understanding men assigned to that purpose which our Saviour himself calleth a Church and this government established in the Christian Church are the severall Presbyteries where all things are transacted by common and joynt consent and this was the practise of the Apostles at Jerusalem who did all businesse of publike concernment by common and joynt consent as is manifest in the first chapter of the Acts in chusing of an Apostle in Judas his place And in the sixt chapter in chusing of Deacons and in the 15. chapter in determining the question there in hand all in a Presbyterian way and by common consent And this is that government that God hath commanded to be perpetuateds to the end of the world in these words Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven So that the Presbyters onely have the power of the keyes and it is their place onely to ordain Ministers and Church Officers whatsoever Authority the people may exercise in the chusing of them as Paul writes unto Timothy and Titus and they onely are to judge and determine and to censure in matters of manners and doctrine and the people are to allow and approve it according to the Word of God Yea the very Synagogues of the Jews which were the same that our Churches are were governed by a Presbytery as our brethren acknowledge called by the name of the Rulers of the Synagogue who governed by joynt and common councell as is evident and manifest in that there were superior and inferior Judges Commanders and Rulers according as their yeares gravity and wisdome made them more eminent then others and venerable to the people as may appear in many places as Acts 18. ver 8. It is said there That Chrispus the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved with all his houshould So that if there were a chief Ruler or Judge or a President there must of necessity be a Councell or Segniory of inferiour ones that had Rule and Authority over others as well as he as where there is a chief Justice or Judge there are other Judges joyned with him as all reason perswades and there must needs be a Court of Judicature where all things are transacted by conjoynt and common consent and agreement and so it was in the Synagogues of the Jewes who were subject to and ordered by the determinations and arbitrement of their Rulers and Governours So that the severall Churches or Synagogues under the Jews were in subjection to those Rulers and were governed according as by common councell they ordered And Mat. the 5. vers 22. And behold there came one of the Rulers of the Synagogue whose name was
But before I come to the proof of the particulars I must answer to some Objections made by our Brethren the Independents the first of the which is out of the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles from which they endeavour to prove that the number and multitude of Believers in the Church of Jerusalem was not so great but that they might all meet in one room or place and in one congregation to partake in all acts of worship the words on which they ground their Argument are these And in those dayes Peter stood up in the middest of the Disciples and said the number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty Men and Brethren c. From whence they conclude that the whole Church in Jerusalem that is to say all the Believers did meet in one place for in this number of names they would have all the whole Church in Jerusalem included or confined which to me is a wonder that such Learned Men as many of them are should so argue for this must be the scope of the Argument if they intend to prove That the whole Church in Jerusalem and all the Believers there were not so numerous but that they might all meet in one place and partake in all acts of worship and that these in Peters company were all that Church and all the Believers that were in Jerusalem this I say must of necessity be their meaning or else their Argument concludes nothing to the purpose The invalidity of the which I am most confident will by and by evidently appear though all the former Arguments to the contrary should not so much as be thought of and withall it will also be obvious to any judicious man that in all respects their Argument makes much against themselves For if I should grant unto them that at this instant of time that that place speaks of the whole Church in Jerusalem or the number then of Believers were no more but that one place might have contain'd them all for the enjoying of all Ordinances which I cannot do for innumerable reasons and some of them above specified yet it doth not follow nor evince that after there were daily such additions of Believers and such multitudes of new Converts added unto the Church that then also one place or room could containe them all and that they might still meet in one congregation and all together partake in all acts of worship For there is a vast difference between one hundred and twenty names for there was no more in this assembly and in many ten thousands which all the World knows could not be contained in any one place of Jerusalem to communicate in all the Ordinances though that place had equallized the most magnificent Structure that ever the World yet saw especially they could not have all met there to edification for they could not have all heard and understood and we know that in the Church all must be done to edification and this would rather have hindred the mutuall edification of the assembly and have brought a confusion rather then any profit or benefit unto them But the truth is the number of names here spoken of if we will go to the genuine interpretation of the place not to speak of the universall consent of all the learned Interpreters who gather that in this assembly the seventy Disciples the Lord Jesus sent out to preach through all Judea and all those other Ministers of the Gospell that had been Christs and Saint John the Baptists Disciples every one of the which was thought fit for learning and divine knowledge to succeed Judas in his Apostleship and to be a Disciple all these or most of them or such like were those that are included in this number of names I say to omit this interpretation of all the most orthodox Divines and their universall agreement and harmony in their learned Commentaries about this portion of Scripture the very words themselves following shew they were select and eminent men and men of note and Disciples of longest standing and all of them or the most of them Ministers Preachers themselvs and were indeed the Presbyters of the Church to whom with the Apostles the power of ruling was committed and who within themselves and without the consent of the common multitude of Believers had power to ordaine their own Officers and that by their own authority as we may see Vers 21.22 Wherefore saith S. Peter of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptisme of John unto that same day he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witnesse with us of the resurrection And they appointed two c. and they prayed c. and they gave forth the Lots c. all businesses here were managed and carried in an Aristocraticall and Presbyterian way and all was done by a joynt consent and the common counsell of them all Here we finde none of the multitude of the people though Believers here were no Women that gave forth their lots Neither doth the Apostle Peter say Men Mothers and Brethren or Men Women and Brethren or Men Brethren and Sisters but Men and Brethren For howsoever in the foregoing Verses it is said that these meaning the Apostles and Elders all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and with his Brethren by which they fitted themselves for the Ministery after they should receive the Holy Ghost though I say they joyned with them in those duties of humiliation and prayer which any women may do in the society and company of godly Ministers yet when they went about other acts of Church government as choosing of an Apostle then the Apostles and Elders only by themseves to whom the power of the Keyes was given ordered that businesse and left the Women to their private devotions and their severall imployments for in this action of giving forth their lots there is no mention of the Women And it is manifest from the Text it self that this choosing of Matthias was at another time and without all doubt upon a set day for this purpose for it is said Vers 15. And in those daies Peter stood up in the middest of the Disciples and said Men and Brethren Here was only Disciples Men and Brethren and no Sisters Till Pope Joans time and our dayes Peters Keyes never hung at any Womans Girdle and we heare not in Scripture that they had any voyce in choosing of Church-officers and admitting of Members into the Church or casting out of any till these unhappy times an usurpation not beseeming that Sex as afterwards in its due place I hope to make appear But this by the way Now to the matter in hand I say it is apparent to any that will not shut their eyes that all those or most of them that were in Peters company and at
that is that the Apostles daily in the Temple and in every house ceased not to teach preach Jesus Christ. That is to say they preached both publickly and privately and the very places where they preached are set down as in the Temple and in every house So that of necessity there must be severall congregations and assemblies of Believers in Jerusalem according to that in the 2. of the Acts vers the 46. where it said That they continued dayly with one accord in the Temple and breaking of bread from house to house which by all Interpreters is understood the administration of the Lords Supper and that the severall assemblies and congregations were wont usually to meet in private houses is frequent mention in the holy Scriptures as in the 16. of the Romans verse the 5. and in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 16. vers 19. Col. 4.14 and Saint Paul in the 20. of the Acts vers 20. saith That he kept back nothing that was profitable unto them but taught them publikely and from house to house so that they had their Assemblies as well private as publicke even in the Church of Ephesus where they did partake in all acts of worship and in that Church also they had many Presbyters and yet were but one Church But now I will passe on to the sixth chapter where in the 1 2 3 and 7 verses it is said That in those dayes when the number of Disciples was multiplyed there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widdows were neglected in their dayly ministration Then the twelve called the multitude of the Disciples unto them and said It is not reason that they should leave the Word of God and serve tables Wherefore brethren look you out among you seven men of honest report and full of the holy Ghost and wisdome whom we may appoint over this businesse But we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministery of the Word vers 7. And the Word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient unto the faith In the which words we may take notice briefly of these observables The first of the cunning and policy of the Devill who when he cannot by all his wiles and stratagems assault the Church without then he labours to assaile it within as here with civill discords and differences among brethren and in other Churches in all ages even in and from the Apostles times by dissentions in opinions by Sects Schisms Factions and Heresies and by these his wiles and craft he first bringeth in difference in opinion and afterwards diversity of affection and that among brethren and all this he doth that in fine he may bring ruine upon them all And thus he began with the Church of Jerusalem raising a controversie between the Hebrews and the Greeks who complained That their widdows were neglected in the dayly ministration as either that they were not made Deaconesses as the widdows of the Hebrews were or that there was not an equall distribution of the Almes according to the intention of the Church who sold their possessions and goods to that end that they might be parted to all men as every one should have need Acts 2. vers 44 45. chap. 4. v. 35. And this their supposition was the cause of that controversie The second abservable is To whom the differing and dissenting parties did apply themselves and appeal and that was to the Presbytery or Colledge of Apostles not to any one of them particularly but to the twelve as in that difference at Antioch Acts 15. Paul and Barnabas and certain other of the Brethren in the Church of Antioch appealed to the Apostles and Presbyters and in both those differences all the Churches submitted themselves to the Apostles Order and that willingly and this example of the Apostles is the Rule for ordering of all controversies that all the reformed Churches set before them deciding all debates in Religion by the Word of God and according to the president they have laid down unto them by the Apostles and Presbyters in Jerusalem Here I say the whole Presbytery and Colledge of the Apostles determined the businesse neither do we reade that the Assemblies of the Hebrews and Greeks at Ierusalem or the Church of Antioch pretended their own Independent authority though severall Congregations or challenged a power within themselves of choosing their own Officers or determining of differences amongst themselves or pleaded that they had Authority within themselves to make their own Laws by which they would be ordered or that they challenged any such priviledges unto themselves but they all appealed unto the Presbytery at Ierusalem as the supreamest Ecclesiasticall Court and freely submitted themselves to their arbitrament and to the Order they set down as the story specifieth The third observable is the imployment in which the Apostles were all taken up and the effect of it and their imployment is said to be continuing in prayer and the Ministery and preaching of the Word and the effect of this their Ministery was That the Word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith By all which it is most apparent that such multitudes being dayly added to the Church and where there was such variety of teachers and so many Apostles and all of them taken up in preaching and where there was so many different Nations and such diversities of tongues and languages as was in the Church of Ierusalem they could not all meet together at any one time or in any one place to edification and that they might all communicate in all the Ordinances but of necessity they must be distributed into severall Congregations and Assemblies if they would avoyde confusion and all that I now speak is evident by the very light of Nature and all reason and therefore it followeth That there were many Assemblies and Congregations in Ierusalem and yet all made but one Church and that that Church was Presbyterianly governed But that I may make this truth more evidently yet appear I will first out of the former discourse frame severall Arguments and then go on to the ensuing history And out of all these six chapters I thus argue Where there were eight thousand new converts besides women and children by virtue of some few miracles and Sermons after Christs Resurrection added to the Church of Ierusalem and the society of beleevers besides those that were converted by Iohn the Baptist and Christ and his Apostles Ministery before his sufferings and to the which also there were afterwards great multitudes of Beleevers both of men and women and a great company of the Priests joyned in so much that they kept the very Officers and Souldiers in awe and struck a fear and terrour into them there they could not all meet together in any one
so to believe as having received authority because the Aopstles in holy Scripture are called Presbyters that was the ordinary Governours and Magistrates of the Church though the more principall and primary ones and therefore did act as Presbyters in ordinary acts of Church government and for a pattern to all Churches in like administration Neither may any suppose for all this that the Apostles did fall lower in their power in that they acted as Presbyters for our Brethren do acknowledge that at Ierusalem the Apostles acted as Presbyters of a particular Congregation Now then if they did not fall lower in their power by acting as Presbyters in a particular congregation what reason will dictate to any man that they should fall lower in their power by acting as Presbyters in a joint Presbytery The truth is to govern and to rule the Church was the ordinary imployment of the Apostles and therefore they are stiled Presbyters which is to say the Rulers Councellors Magistrates and Governours of the Church neither for all this did their Presbyterships exclude their Apostleships nor did their acting as Presbyters deprive them of their Apostolique power nor of that apostolique spirit which guided them even in these things wherein they acted as Presbyters for although under one notion we looke upon the Apostles as extraordinary men yet under another as in all those affaires of publique concernment and in matter of government and for that end the assembling of themselves together we do not consider them as Apostles for therein they did not act as Apostles with a transcendent and infallible authority and in an extraordinary way but as Presbyters and ordinary Governours and Counsellors and in such a way as makes their meetings and actions a patterne and president to succeding ages and of the Prerbyters congregating of themselves together for common acts of Government whether in a Presbyterian or Synodicall way And as it is in civill affaires and in the government of Kingdomes and States so it was then in the Church of God in a Kingdome some of the Counsellors are of the more secret admission and are generally called Cabbinet Counsellors and are accounted of as extraordinary men and others of the generall Councell yet when all these sit in a common councell together to consult about matters of State and publique concernment they sit then together as ordinary Counsellors and every one of them has as much authority and liberty to debate things by reason and dispute in way of consultation and to give his vote about any thing as well as any of the most extraordinary Counsellors and this hath been the practise of all ages We read that Hushy when he was by Absalon called into councell had his voice and gave his vote as well as Achitophel the Oracle of that time and as in the Common-Councels and Parliaments of Kingdomes whatsoever honour dignity or extraordinary imployments any of them were taken up in before their session and meeting or whatsoever dignity or titles of honour they have extraordinarily above others and take their places accordingly before they come together into the Parliament yet they all sitting there as Judges and Peeres in the Kingdome the meanest Lord in the Kingdome hath as much authourity there as the greatest and so in the House of Commons as they are Judges and chosen by the people for that purpose have all of them even the meanest as much voice and authority in way of consultation as the greatest And so likewise in the Synod or Assembly now of Divines the meanest Presbyter hath as much voice and liberty in way of debate and voting as the greatest Bishop there And even so it was in the Church of Jerusalem when the Apostles those extraordinary gifted men and presbyters met together in counsell they all acted there as counsellors and ordinary presbyters and therefore in all those particular actions of the Apostles we have mention of in their severall meetings whether we consider them by themselves alone and not joyned with the presbyters or in common councell with them those actions I say were done and acted by men which were Apostles but not as they were Apostles exclusively so as they might not act them under another notion neither will our Brethren affirme it for if the Apostles did preach take the trust of the goods of the Church ordaine Officers as Apostles exclusively and in an extraordinary way and as by a priviledge peculiar to themselves it would follow from thence that none may doe any of those things but Apostles which the Brethren will not assent unto as for some instances In that ordination of Deacons in the sixth of the Acts the Apostles there acted partly as Apostles and partly as presbyters for in constituting an office in the Church which was not before they acted their apostolicall authority but in ordaining men to that office which the Church had chosen they did act as presbyters and there is no doubt but the Brethren will yeeld to this for if they will not grant that the Apostles did herein act partly as Apostles and partly as presbyters they must then accord that they acted either onely as presbyters or onely as Apostles If onely as presbyters thence it will follow that all presbyters have power not onely to ordaine men but to erect a new office in the Church If onely as Apostles then hence is no warrant for presbyters so much as to ordaine men into any office nor for so much as to meet together to consult about acts of government either in a presbyterian or in a Synodicall way and by this meanes all Church-government would speedily be overthrowne Neither is it a difficult thing in our Brethren or any other man to distinguish between these two for looke by what infallible rule they make some thing in the practise of the Apostles to be not onely a patterne and president for imitation but even a proofe of institution yet decline other things practised by the same Apostles as things not only by institution not commanded to us but not permitted to be imitated by us By the same rule they may infallibly distinguish between what they acted as Apostles and what they acted as Presbyters and as ordinary Counsellors Judges and Governours and withall they may infer and conclude that what they acted as Presbyters and by joint and common consent it was to give a patterne and president to all Presbyters and Synods in all succeeding ages and as the taking in of the consent of the Church in the choice of Deacons Act. 6. was to give a patterne for the sufferage and voice of the people in all Churches to the end of the world in chosing of their Deacons so for another instance as there were many congregations in the Church of Jerusalem and divers assemblies and all these congregations made but one Church and the Apostles and Presbyters who were officers governed that jointly and by a common councell as our Brethren acknowledge Here likewise
the Church of Ierusalem consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies were all governed by a common Presbytery and that the Apostles there acted as Presbyters among the Presbyters They that in the holy Scripture are called Presbyters and acted and ordered things in a joynt body and common counsell with the Presbyters and exercised that ordinary power that was committed to them in the 18. of Matthew they acted as Presbyters but the Apostles in governing the Church of Ierusalem consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies acted and ordered things in a joynt body and common councell with the Presbytery of that Church as Presbyters Ergo the Church of Ierusalem was Presbytrianly governed and by a common counsell of Presbyters The major and minor of this Syllogysme being proved the conclusion will necessarily insue And for proofe of the major the Scripture is cleere as 1 Tim. cha 4. ver 14 where Paul writing unto Timothy saith neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee to preach with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery in the which Presbytery Paul was one that laid his hands on him and ordained him as is evident in the second Epistle to Timothy chap the first verse the sixt where putting Timothy in minde of his duty he saith stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands so that Paul joyning in this publicke action of ordination though an Apostle yet acted as a Presbyter and counts himselfe in the number of them as any of the Presbyters that now ordaine the Ministers may say as well as all of them together to any new ordained Minister neglect not the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands As men ordinarily in a Jury may assume that unto themselves that all may doe as being actors in common So Peter likewise in his first Epistle chap. 5. ver 1 2. cals himselfe a fellow presbyter and Saint Iohn in his second and third Epistles stiles him so also The presbyter unto the elect Lady c. The presbyter unto the well beloved Gajus c. So that his presbytership did not exclude his apostleship nor the acting at any time of a presbyter deprive him of his apostolicall power for at that very time he cals himselfe a presbyter he wrote Scripture by an apostolicall and infallible spirit and yet continued still a presbyter Sothat for the major although I should say no more it is sufficiently proved yet for a further corroboration of it it is not good to reject the consent of our Brethren in this point for they acknowledge that the apostles are called presbyters vertually because as they say apostleship contained all offices in it yea they further assert the act of ministeriall power to be the same in the Apostles and Presbyters the onely difference they seeme to insinuate is in the extent from which it may be inferred that in all the affaires transacted by the apostles properly concerning the Church of Jerusalem they did act as presbyters because in such acts there was no extent of their power to many much lesse to all Churches But when they affirme that the apostles power over many congregations was founded upon their power over all churches and so cannot be a patterne and president for the power of presbyters over many For answer first I say that the Brethren in my opinion take more upon them then beseemeth them and usurpe a kinde of unlimited authority to themselves that they can make what pleaseth them exemplary only reject whatsoever agreeth not with their opinion though they were all the acts of all the apostles and transacted by joint consent and common agreement and accord and left in the Church of Christ as well for a patterne and president for the Presbyters and Ministers to follow in all succeeding ages to the end of the world as any of their other acts so they pick choose at pleasure and in so doing under reformation be it spoke I say they assume unto themselves a greater authority then beseemes them for they can make the apostles joynt gogoverning of one congregation for so they take it pro confesso that the church of Jerusalem was but one congregation to be a patterne of many ministers governing one congregation but whereas it is most evident that the Church of Jerusalem consisted of many congregations and were yet under but one presbytery and was governed by the joint consent of the Apostles and Presbyters as under a grand common presbytry this at pleasure they teject and make it no way exemplary and binding But for a further answer I assert that the apostles power and authority over many assemblies as one Church to rule and governe them all as one church jointly and in common was not grounded upon their power over all churches but upon the union of those assemblies and congregations into one church which union layeth a foundation for the power of presbyters ruling and governing many congregations and the apostles practice in governing many assemblies jointly as one church is the pattern and example of that government to all succeeding ages this president of the Apostles the presbyters in all churches ought to set before their eyes in all reformation for what the apostles did in the publike affaires of government they did as presbyters and for imitation Neither do our Brethren onely grant the act of ministerial power to be the same in the apostles and presbyters saving in the extent but they acknowledg also that they were called presbyters vertually as I said before that the apostles acted in a joint body and by common consent affirme that it was fit that they should so do and say withall that the apostles wherever they came left the presbyters and people to the exercise of that right which belonged to them although they joyned with them These are their formall expressions out of which their concession my argument yea the whole syllogisme is not only confirmed and strengthened but the truth doth more evidently shine forth for if the apostles left the presbyters people to the exercise of that right which belonged unto them in all churches and the presbyters right be to rule as Ecclesiasticall Magistrates as to whom the power of the keyes peculiarly belongeth by Gods institution and the right of the people in all churches be to obey as they are every where commanded then it followeth necessarily that it doth not belong unto the people to ordaine either deacons or presbyters whatsoever they may doe in the choosing of them nor to excommunicate or cast out any out of the Church or to make members whom they please nor to rule and governe the Church which is the peculiar right of the presbyters left unto them by Christ and his Apostles for none of all these things was ever left unto the people neither is there any president of it in holy Scripture so that while the Brethren
Brethren what shall we do Then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost c. Act. 2.37 38. then they that gladly received the word were baptized and the same day were added unto them about three thousand soules Here we may observe these two things The first that the Apostles by themselvs alone without the multitude or Church admitted the people into the society company of beleevers Secondly that in the execution of their commission they did nothing but according to their warrant and according to their injunction that was given unto them by Christ they propounded no other condition or termes for their making all and every one of them members of the Church but baptisme and repentance the which when the people had accepted of they were forthwith admitted and that upon their owne word and testimony without any more adoe or further inquiry Concerning the soundnesse of their repentance without any witnesse from others of their conversation and without the voyce allowance or approbation of the people or the multitude of beleevers in Jerusalem much lesse of the whole Church who were never joyned with the Apostles in their comission or consulted with by them whether they should be admitted or no into the fellowship of the faithfull or demanded or asked by the people whether it were not fit that they should take some time of further consideration that they might walke with them to the end that they might behold their conversation and by their owne experience might further be confirmed that their conversion was sound and well Neither did any call for at their hands that they should make a publike confession of their faith to the Church and give in evidences to the Congregation that they were converted really or that they should take a private covenant or enter into the church by way of a peculiar covenant nothing of all this is specified But it is onely related that the people upon their being pricked in their hearts applied themselves unto the Apostles and that the Apostles by their owne authority and that power that was delegated unto them without reference to the church or people admitted them into the number of beleevers We further may take notice that when the Angell appeared unto Cornelius in the tenth of the Acts he sent him unto Joppa to call for one Simon whose surname was Peter he did not send him unto the Church in Joppa And it is related that when Peter came to Cornelius and that he had recited unto him the manner of the vision and that he was commanded by the Angell to send for him it is further also declared what Peter there did and that he said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnes is accepted with him And after a Sermon made unto Cornelius and all that were assembly there with him It is said that the holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word and that all the beleevers that came with Peter were astonished at it for they heard them speake with divers tongues and magnified God Then answered Peter can any man forbid water that these men should not be baptized which have received the holy Ghost as well as we And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Here we see first that Peter was sent unto and not the Church Secondly that he admitted Cornelius and those that were with him into the number of beleevers and into the fellowship of the Church by his owne authority and never consulted with the Church to aske their leave or voyce but concludes the businesse with an interrogation which hath a greater force of binding that no man ought to hinder any beleever from comming into the society of the Church and communion of Saints in whom the graces of God spirit evidently appeare as in these so that if either the Ministers come into their houses or they goe into the Ministers and make sufficient testimony by themselves of their faith and that they feare God of what nation soever they be they are by the Ministers to be admitted the congregation hath nothing to doe to hinder any such nay they may not it is more than belongs unto them neither did those that came with Peter intermeddle in that businesse or require a covenant at their hand or a publike confession of faith Againe when the Lord of his infinite mercy was purposed to reveale himself unto the Eunuch in the 8 of the Acts he sendeth Phillip the Evangelist unto him whom he found reading in his Chariot the prophesie of Isaiah and after that he had interpreted unto him that prophesie and preached unto him Jesus and Baptisme in his name it is related that when they came unto acertaine water the Eunuch said unto him what doth hinder me to be baptized and Philip said if thou beleevest with all thine heart thou mayest And he answered and said I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God and he commanded the Chariot to stand still and they went downe both into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him Here we see that Philip and not the Church was sent unto the Eunuch and that Philip by his owne authority and upon the Eunuch his owne testimony without any reference unto the Church or without consulting with the Congregation admits him into the number of beleevers and makes him a member of the Church and here was neither a publik confession required of him by any of the Church or any covenant exacted by the people and so when Saul in the 9. of the Acts was fallen downe out of astonishment and afterwards was converted as the story there fully declareth the whole manner of it the Lord sent one Ananias a Disciple and Minister unto him he did not send the Church unto him neither did Ananias when he came to Saul say unto him I will consult with the Church to see whether they will admit thee to be a member for thou hast greatly wasted the Church and made havock of the Saints and therefore I will have their approbation and consent and I will have thee first walk with the Church some time that they may behold thy conversation and then thou shalt make a confession of thy faith publikely before the Congregation and give in thy evidences of the truth of thy conversion and enter in a private and solemne covenant and so be received and admitted But without all this adoe he baptizes Paul and admitteth him into the number of beleevers and makes him a member of the Church and that by his sole authority and he was received immediately among the Disciples at Damascus without any reluctation or so much as any scruple and strait-way he preached Christ in the Sinagogue that he was the Son
of God he was both ordained and put in office without the approbation and consent of the people who knew nothing of the businesse but onely stood amazed and said Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the high Priest The Ministers in those dayes when they were all taught of God they onely admitted members by their owne authority into the Church without the approbation of the people but in these our dayes wherein people have gotten itching eares and teachers after their owne humours such as S. Paul speaks of in his Epistles to Timothy they teach a new doctrine and bring forth new borne lights to the darkning of truth it selfe and to the bringing in of confusion on all things See what Saint James saith in his 5. chapt to all Churches and Christians in the world It any man sick saith he let him send for the Presbiters of the Churches and let them pray over him c. and the prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shal be forgiven him The Apostle James here sends all Christians to the Presbiters of every Church who had the power of the Keys delegated unto them for spirituall comfort and whose office onely it was to pronounce pardon and remission of sinnes unto the sick upon their true repentance if they had offended and sinned against God in the time of their health and so scandalized the Gospell and the Church and it was the Presbiters place and office to admit them againe into the fellowship and communion of the Saints upon their cordiall and unfained repentance and that without asking the Church any leave for as the Presbiters onely had the power of casting out offenders out of the Church so they onely had the authority of receiving them in againe upon their repentance and not the Church so if we look into all those Epistles that were written unto the seven Churches of Asia in the 2. and 3. of the Revelations we shall find them all directed to the Angels of the seven Churches which is as much as to say to the presidents of every severall Presbitry established and constituted in every one of those Churches which is a sufficient argument to me to prove a Counsell or Colledge of godly Ministers in every one of those Cities according to that of Paul to Titus chap. 1. ver 5. for this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest ordaine Presbiters in every City not one but many And in the 14. of the Acts ver 23. And when they had ordained them presbiters in every Church c. many Presbiters a Colledge of them was appointed to every Church and so in the 20. of the Acts there were many Presbiters who had the charge and government of that Church committed unto them in common ver 28. there was a Colledge of them constituted in that church and therefore for order sake which the light of nature teacheth they must have a President who by the way of excellency and to distinguish him from the other is called an Angel as the inscription of the Epistle Rev. 11.1 declares saying Unto the Angel of the church of Ephesus As in our dialect when we speak of the great counsell of the Kingdome or of the reverend assembly of Divines if there be occasion of distinguishing the Presidents of those councels from the other Judges in those assemblies we say Master Speaker in the House of Lords or Commons or of the President of the Ministers we say Master Prolocutor and if any have occasion to write to either houses or to the Assembly they direct their letters to the Speakers or to the Prolocutor who communicates them to each Assemblies as being the Presidents of each Society and yet none of all these Presidents by that their place of honour and eminency have any more power or authority then the rest but onely in the casting voyce when the parties upon any occasion are for number equall and for appointing of the times and places of meeting and for the methodicall and orderly carriage of the businesses yea it is ever observed wheresoever there is a President there is a colledge or councell or a court nature dictates this and the custome of all nations proves it and withall by the same light of reason that counsell or colledge to whom God himselfe writes and directs his letters for redressing of abuses has the power in their hands for the rectifying of things amisse that it peculiarly belongeth unto them as to the Magistrates invested with authority to order things according to direction and to punish and cast out offenders and that by their owne power without the consent and approbation of the people as it is now in the great Counsell and Parliament of the Kingdome who make not the people acquainted with what they have to doe but so farre as it pleaseth themselves and not out of any duty and so it was in the government of Gods Church by the first constitution every Church consisting of many congregations were governed by a colledge of Presbiters as that of Jerusalem and this of Ephesus and the other six Churches in all the which the Presbiters by their sole authority governed them according to Gods Word without taking the people in to counsell with them who were no where joyned in commission with them and therefore it is most apparent by those examples I have now produced and many more that might be added and from the commission that Christ gave to the Apostles and in them to all Ministers that the people had not their voyces either for the admitting of any to be members in any church or in the easting out of any for their delinquency much lesse have they authority to require a publike confession of their faith to be made unto the congregation or to exact of them to bring in the evidences of their true conversion or to require that they should walk with them some time before admission or to enter into a solemne private covenant before they be admitted as members for we have no president for any of these things in Gods Word much lesse any command only in Acts the sixt there is mention made that the Apostles for the freeing of themselves from all unnecessary incombrances and that they might the better attend upon their ministry and preaching gave the people liberty to make choice of their owne Deacons but still keeping the power of ordaining them in their owne hand which alwayes was arbitrary in them whether they would exercise it or no neither would the Apostles have ordained them unlesse those that were to be ordained had been man so qualified as they had appointed for otherwise it lay in their choyce whether they would ordain them or no. But that ever the congregation or people had the power of admitting of members or
of ordaining of Officers it is no where extant in Gods Word But that the women should have a voyce in the Church either for receiving in or casting out of members or officers or should have any thing to doe with Peters Keys it is against the law of God and nature For Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinths 14. makes it one of the marks of confusion in any Church where women have their voyces saying God is not the Author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the Saints and in the next verse following in expresse words saith Let your women keep silence in churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are comanded to be under obedience as also saith the law and if they wil learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speake in the church And what S. Paul writ to this Church of Corinth he writ to all Churches and proclaims that what he writ to them were the commandements of the Lord ver 37. so that God had commanded that the women should not speak in the Church and sayth that it is a shame they should and yet in these our dayes and in many of the new congregations they have their voyces in choosing of officers and admitting of members and have all of them Peters Keys as their Girdle and make learned parts of speech in the congregation and dispute questions and debate of matters and give their reasons con pro as it is credibly reported and others of them set forth and print learned Treatises in polemicall divinity with great applause and admiration of the Independent Ministers who cite their authority and quote them in their writings as classicall authors to the shame of the Nation and ludibry of Religion and howsoever there is not any that shall more honour the truly vertuous and pious of that sex than my selfe yet I must confesse when I see how farre they become transgressors of the law of God do those things that the holy Apostle hath not onely forbidden but proclaimed a shame I cannot but exceedingly blame them those Ministers that allow of and approve of such rebellion against God and nature And as if it had been the special care in the Apostle to prevent this evill of womens intermedling in matters of the Church he foreseeing the confusion that would be brought in upon it In his first Epistle to Timothy and in him to all Ministers to whom the government of the Church was committed he gives him direction how to behave himselfe in the house of God which is the church of the living God in cap. 2. ver 11.12 he saith Let the women learne in silence with all subjection for I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silence for Adam was first made then Eve and Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression c. Here the Apostle again and agun twice in these few words enjoyns them silence in the church and imposes upon them subjection and obedience I suffer not saith he a woman to teach or to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silence and he giveth his reasons of this his command because saith he Adam was first made not by the woman nor of the woman but the contrary and therfore she may usurpe no authority over the masculine sex especially in Gods matters and shee is to be the disciple if the man and not the man her schollar and therefore that superiority that the God of order had established upon the man in the first creation he doth now re-establish upon him againe in his holy Word after all things through sinne had been disordered and confused and commands the woman to be both subject and silent especially in the Church Another reason of this his command is because the woman was first in the transgression and was the cause of Adams fall as he accuses her and her disputing and voycing of it then brought confusion upon all mankind and for this her so doing S. Paul concludes for ever hereafter that she ought to hold her peace be in subjection to her husband and ought to learne in silence at home but more especially in the Church for if they come to voyce it once again in the Church as Eve brought confusion upon mankind by her disputation and reasons so these with their loquacity and babble and confusion of voyces will bring in a new Babel into the Church and State as they have prettily well already begun to doe Saint Paul saith I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silence Here the Apostle as in the place above cited out of the Cor. chap. 14. commands them silence and permits them not to speak and expresly forbids them to usurpe authority over the man that is the virill sex Now I appeale unto any understanding creature whether or no to make large parts of speech in the Church as many of them upon occasions doe and dispute and give their reasons con pro be not to speak in the Church and whether to have their voyces in either admitting of members or officers or in the casting of them out be not to usurpe authority over the man for all the world knowes that they that have the power in their hands of either admitting of any into the fellowship or communion of the Church or of hindring their comming in or have their voyces for the casting of them out when they are received exercise and usurpe authority over those they so deale with and therefore they doe against the expresse prohibition of the Apostles and all those women that have usurped this authority and all those Ministers that have permitted them so to doe or tanght this doctrine unto them are all guilty of great contumacy against God and ought seriously to repent for this their temerity and rebellion and it will be the immortall honour of those women that have not intermedled if there be not some speedy course taken by authority to forbid such disorder we may promise nothing to the Church and whole Kingdome but confusion It has ever been observed that Hermaphrodite counsels in any Kingdome or country when women that are subjects intermeddle in government and matters of state that that Kingdome and country is very crased and not far from ruine and destruction and we need not look into many ages or countries for presidents of this kind if hermaphrodite counsels in Kingdoms has ever been so fatall unto them what may any man think in time will become of this Church and Kingdome when the women have gotten Peters Keys at their girdle and have their voyces in many congregations and a power of ordering and disposing of things in Church affaires certainly nothing but confusion can be expected for this their doing is
by Christ nor any of his Apostles for they themselves confesse it is a new way and a new-borne truth and a new light and therefore not the doctrine of Christ and therefore such novelties are not to be entertained nor imbraced nor the teachers of them if we will be obedient to Apostolicall precepts I desire therefore those of the Independent brethren to produce any one testimony or any one president out of the Word of God where these things following are taught or have been practiced First that although men and women beleeve and are baptized they are not yet to be admitted as joyned members till they have walked some time in fellowship with the church for approbation of their conversation this is the first thing I desire of the brethren either a precept or an example for this in Gods Word The second where it is commanded that those that beleeve and are baptized should not be admitted as members of the church without a publike confession of their faith before the church The third where it is enjoyned that to their faith and baptisme they should bring in the evidences of the truth of their conversion before they can be capable of their membership The fourth where it is commanded that they should enter into a solemne and private covenant before they can be admitted to Church-fellowship The fifth where it is imposed upon those that beleeve and are baptized that they should not be received into the church without the consent of the congregation Sixthly where it is commanded that the Ministers of the Gospel shall run about from their own places and charges into the sheepfolds of their fellow-shepheards and separate and pick out all their best sheep and bring them into their owne folds and debarre them from all church-fellowship and communicating with the other beleevers in Gods holy Ordinances and Sacraments or where ever it is commanded that the preachers of the gospel shall gather beleeving christians from amongst beleeving christians separate them from the other sheep into Independent congregations and shall proclaim all that are not thus molded up after this new modell to be people out of covenant and to have no right to the seales of the new covenant neither they nor their children though beleevers All these things I desire the brethren by evident places of the holy Scripture to make good and to confirme or by any president or example to declare to have been practiced either by Christ or his blessed Apostles for I looke for a law from Christ the King of his church who was as faithful in the house of God as Moses was and hath not left the ordering and disposing of his church to the will of men but has commanded the church to heare his voyce who is the great Pastor and Bishop of our souls and the teacher of his church his Word therefore I look for for a warrant for the ratifying of all these doctrines and I have good ground and reason to demand of them a warrant and authority out of Gods Word for what they both teach and practice for we are taught by Christ the onely Prophet of his church that they that serve God after the precepts of men offer him a vaine worship and it stands with all good reason that if all humane traditions though of never so ancient standing and of never so long antiquity were all cast out of the church because they had no footing or ground in Gods Word that all novelties or new inventions of men which notwithstanding are imposed upon the people as the wayes of God should be abrogated and nullified and cast out of the church It is recorded in holy writ Joshua 9. that the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and the people of Israel under pretence that they came from a farre country and for proofe of that they produced their mouldy bread and their tattered boots their old shooes and they taking what they said pro confesso and not consulting with the mouth of the Lord as it is fully related in that chapter were deceived by them and entred into a League with their enemies And thus the Papists and Prelats for these many hundred yeers have deluded the world under pretence of their mouldy antiquities tattered ragges of traditions and in all this time they prevailed to mislead the poore people because they consulted not with the mouth of God nor examined things by the Word of God and the holy Scripture as the noble Bereans did Now whatsoever was written was written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come and therefore as it was the errour of the Israelites that they received things barely upon report without consulting with the mouth of God and as it was the honour and praise of those noble Bereans that they searched the Scriptures to see whether the preaching of Paul were according to the holy Scripture so if we shall receive these new borne truths these new lights these new wayes without consulting with the living Oracles we shall offend as the Israelites did in beleeving the Gibeonites upon their words and shall degenerate and be unlike to those the renowned Bereans who would not receive Paul's doctrine though an Apostle without searching the Scriptures whether things were so or no as he taught them and surely now much more ought we to try all things by the Word in these erroneous times whosoever they be that preach them unto us and if they be not evidently proved unto us out of the Scriptures we may not admit of them for it will be not onely a sinne but for our immortall shame to be deluded with novelties much more than it was our ancestors disgrace to be deceived by pretended antiquities And therefore it is the duty of every christian seriously to consider with themselves that these are matters of God and concerne no lesse than our eternall welfare and in that regard we may not call mens wayes Gods wayes but we are to seek for the old wayes Jer. 6. we are to examine Christs and his holy Apostles wayes in gathering of churches and making of members and if we find no footstep in all Gods Word of these new wayes we ought to relinquish them and turne againe into the pathes that God has commanded us to walk in wherein we shall be sure to find rest for our soules and comfort in life and death and it will be no disgrace to any to be undeceived for they are deceived and that greatly and dangerously that thinke or beleeve that any men mortall can shew or teach a better way to Heaven or set downe a better way of converting soules and of gathering of churches and making of members and of setting up Christ as King upon his Throne than that which Christ himselfe and his blessed Apostles have taught and set downe to all posterity and from the which rule we ought not to swerve though an Angel from Heaven should teach us otherwise Gal. 1. ver 8 9.
Jairus here was a speciall Ecce added to take notice that a great man and one in authority came unto Christ and that in a publick way and one of the Rulers of the Syn gogue So that we may observe the people in every Synagogue were governed and commanded by their Rulers and they were to yeeld obedience unto them and were not joyned with them in Commission but stood to their determination as all men use to do in Courts of Judicature that appeal unto them for justice And this custome and manner of government was transacted over to the Christian Churches and those that were called Rulers among them are among Christians sometimes called Presbyters sometimes Guides sometimes Rulers and by Christ himself and by his Apostles are appointed over all Christian Churches as so many corporations to which all the Assemblies and Congregations under them and committed to their charge are to yeeld obedience and submission in whatsoever they command in the Lord and according to his blessed Word for that must be the rule both of their commanding and of the peoples obeying And this Presbyterian government is that manner and way of ruling all Assemblies and particular Congregations under it that God hath appointed in his Church to be continued to the end of the world the which whosoever resisteth resisteth the Ordinance of God And this shall suffice to have spoken in generall in way of proof That all Churches we have mention of under the New Testament were Aristocratically and Presbyterially governed that is were under the Government of a colledge or Assembly of Presbyters And now I come to prove in order the four Propositions or conclusions I undertook to make good The first was That there were many Congregations and severall Assemblies in the Church of Jerusalem in the which they had all acts of worship and did partake of all Ordinances and of Church-fellowship and that before the persecution we read of Acts 8. and under the persecution and after the persecution And for the proof of this Proposition and every branch of it I will first produce such places of Scripture as make for the manifestation of the truth and from thence frame and form my Arguments Mat. 3. ver 1 2 5 6. In those dayes came John the Baptist preaching in the wildernesse of Judaea and saying Repent ye for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the Region round about Jordan and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins The Baptisme of Iohn as all the learned know was the same with that of the Apostles for he preached the Baptisme of Repentance for the Remission of sins and Baptized all that came to him into Iesus Christ saying unto the People That they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus Act. 19. ver 4. He had his Commission also from God as well as the Apostles and Baptized Christ himself he preached also the Gospell and the Kingdome of the Messiah as well as the Apostles and had many honourable Testimonies from Christ himself as That he was the greatest Prophet that ever was born of woman and That he was a bright shining light and That he was his witnesse and many other Encomiums and praises did Christ give of him to ratifie his Authority and to shew that he was sent of God and that he was that Elias that was to come before the Messiah And all the people owned and took him for a man sent of God and Ierusalem went out to him and all the Region round about and were Baptized of him In these words we finde that the people of Ierusalem were all turned Christians and made members of the Christian Church and were beleevers For which way soever the word Ierusalem be taken it signifieth a numberlesse multitude of men or an innumerable company For if we consider Ierusalem at this time she was a most populous City the Historians that write of that age relate that she had sometimes in her no lesse then eleven or twelve hundred thousand but let it be taken that there were but six hundred thousand inhabitants it is a vast multitude and yet seldome was there lesse inhabitants in Jerusalem if any beliefe may be had to Historians for at that time it was one of the Metropolis Cities of the world and the glory of Nations and the joy of the whole Earth and besides there was then great expectation as we may reade Luke 19.11 That the Kingdome of God should immediately appear and all the Jewes out of all Nations where they were scattered now repaired to Jerusalem and returned into their own countrey expecting the Messiah So that at this time we cannot conceive but that there were infinites of people in Jerusalem and it is said That Jerusalem went out and was baptised by Iohn By Jerusalem here metonimycally the place is taken for the people Now when it is said that a City goeth out it is to be understood either of the whole people Man Woman and Childe old and young with all the inhabitants as many times it happens in great Earth quakes or some Pestilence or Inundation that all the Inhabitants are forced to leave a City and to seek some other habitation but we cannot conceive the going out of Jerusalem to Iohn Baptist in this large sense and expression so that in this place it must be taken Synecdochically and we are to understand a great part or a chief part for the whole as when a City is said to entertaine a King or to go out to meet a King here it is to be understood principally of the chief Officers as the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the Common-counsell and all their severall Companies and chiefe Captaines and Commanders with all their magnificence so that in this notion the common people and the ordinary Citizens are not thought on or at least are not numbred As when JESUS was born in Bethlehem and the Wise Men came to Jerusalem to enquire where they should finde him that was born King of the Jewes that they might worship him for they had seen his Star it is said That when Herod heard these things He and all Ierusalem was troubled with him Here by all Jerusalem is to be understood all the chief Officers and Courtiers for the common people were glad of it for that was the day they had long looked for and rejoyced at but Herod being an Usurper and a Tyrant and all his Nobles Peers and Great men being confederate with him and adjutors in his usurpation and tyranny and conceiving that Christ was an earthly Monarch and that after the manner of the Kings of the Earth he would not only pull down the Usurper but likewise call all them in question as guilty of High Treason and cut them off as complicers and abettors this made them tremble and fear and because it was the generall fear of all the great men in Ierusalem and
they left a patterne and president to all ages for severall congregations and assemblies in a City or vicinity to unite into one Church and for the Officers and Presbyters of these congregations to governe that Church jointly in a Colledge and Presbytery And for a third instance as the Apostles and Presbyters met together in a Synodicall way and the Apostles in that assembly acted not by an apostollicall and infallible spirit no more then the Presbyters did as when they were writing of Scripture but stating the question and debating it from Scripture in an ordinary way as it is at large discussed in Act. 15. which we never reade they did when they writ the Scripture and having by disputing arguing and searching the Scripture found what was the good and acceptable will of God thereupon they determined the question saying it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us as the assembly now of Divines or any other for ought I know upon like assurance of Scripture warrant may doe In this action also and their so doing the apostles and Presbyters left an example and president to all the Presbyters of all succeeding ages what they should doe upon the like occasions for the deciding of controversies and differences of opinions in Religion viz. To congregate and meet together in some one place to state the questions and to debate them from Scripture and to follow the written Word as their rule in all things and whatsoever they doe to do it by joint consent and the common councell of them all or by the most voices but in all this their proceedings they must ever cleave to the rule of the Word of God or warrantable authority and evidence of reason deduced from thence as then the apostles and presbyters did yea the very name of the Presbyters in Jerusalem signifieth the Judges Counsellors Magistrates and Rulers of that Church who had the keyes committed unto them as well as the apostles and by their place were more peculiarly overseers of that Church as they were tyed unto it then the apostles as the Presbyters of Ephesus were in that Church and were assigned in their severall places to execute their office and to looke to their particular charges in the government so that whether the apostles were present or absent the presbyters had the government laid upon their shoulders and if the apostles themselves had taught contrary to this constitution or an angell from Heaven Gal. 1. I am confident the Presbyters would not have obeyed them nor have relinquished their authority neither ought they but would still have kept that rule power and authority which God had put in their hands so that for my owne particular I looke upon the apostles in all these severall actions and in all those acts of government joyned and met together with the Presbyters as I looke upon Counsellors and Judges in the great councels of Kingdoms where all the judges have equall power authority in decisive voting and I do verily believe that the Presbyters siting at any time in councell with any one or more of the apostles did act as authoritatively as the apostles themselves I am ever able to prove it and make it good against any man that the Presbyters might as wel conclude It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us as well as the apostles and may say we have written and concluded as well as the apostles as any two or three of the Parliament whether of the Lords or Commons may as well say we have made such an Ordinance as any twenty of them or the whole councell and that without disparagement or impeaching the dignity of any when they joyned with them in that worke and assented to it and in this very notion I looke upon the presbyters in Jerusalem joyned with the apostles and consider them as in my contemplations I looke upon the Lords and Commons now sitting in the great Councell as the grand civill presbytry of the Kingdome where all binding Ordinances are to be passed by the joynt consent and Common-counsel of them all and whose place and office it is to command and rule and the peoples office and place to obey and yeeld subjection to whatsoever they command and injoyne according to the will of God and for the common good and preservation of themselves and the whole Kingdome and that whosoever should resist this their just authority are guilty of contumacy and are high offendors and delinquents for God hath layed the government upon them and left the duty of obedience to the subjects who may not without a publicke cale intermeddle with matters of government And so in the matters of Church government I looke upon Presbyters as Gods peculiar servants and as upon the Stewards Councellours and Magistrates and Judges in the Church as men set apart by God himselfe for this purpose to be the teachers and rulers of their flocks committed unto them in the Lord to whom in the matters of their soules all people under their severall Presbyters so farre as they command in the Lord and according to the written word are to yeeld obedience and much to reverence and honour them and this according to Gods command for it is his ordinance And they are not to be looked on and slited as the fagge ends of the Cleargy as many black mouthes and prophane lips speake of them for the Presbyters they have their authority as well grounded in the word of God as Kings and States have theirs and therefore as they are imployed in a more supreame orbe and in matters of eternall concernment so they should be venerated as men watching over our soules and all contumelious speeches against them deserve severe punishment and ought not to be tolerated and so much the more the Presbyters of this Kingdome in these our dayes have deserved better from the Church the Parliament and the whole Kingdome then any of their predecessors not onely in desiring a perfect and through Reformation in both Doctrine and Discipline but in that they have stood now so cordially to the comon cause and more for the liberty of the Subject then any before them and have cleaved most faithfully to the Parliament have bin also a most singular means of keeping the people whersoever they were suffered to Preach in obedience In all these respects I say they deserve well yea better not onely from the Church but from all the Kingdome for the present than any of their predecessours and their memories ought to be famous to all posterity for this their good service And that government that God has given unto the Presbyters if the Lords and Commons shall now labour to establish it in the Kingdome and to settle it on them they may not onely promise unto themselves a blessing from heaven and peace unto the Church and State but also immortall praise from all succeeding ages Having taken leave to make this digression I will now to my businesse and prove that