cause a Sacrament because it is a mystical Rite whereby the soul spiritually feedeth upon Christ i. e. is edified in Christ These being Mystical Rites also whereby the soul is edified which it cannot be but also by feeding upon Christ It must needs follow That these Ceremonies are Sacraments The Assumption is their own for when they are urged with this That all things must be done to edification They all hold with one consent That they do edifie The tenth Argument It is a sin against Christ the sole Head of the Church for any one of his Ministers especially in the administration of Divine things either by Word or Signs solemnly to profess and acknowledge a spiritual homage to an usurped spiritual authority in the Church But to use these controverted Ceremonies in manner and Form prescribed is even in the solemn Service of Christ by solemn Signs to acknowledge a spiritual homage to the spiritual authority of Lord Archbishops and Bishops which is usurped Ergo It is a sin to use these Ceremonies THE Proposition may not be gainsaid For all spiritual power usurped over the Churches of God is an Antichristian authority and to profess spiritual homage thereunto is to profess spritual homage unto Antichrist which must needs be a sin The Assumption hath two parts 1. That these Ceremonies are an acknowledging by solemn signs a spiritual Homage to the spiritual authority of Archbishops and Bishops Which is most evident for it having been proved before that they are meer Ecclesiastical Religious and spiritual Actions enjoyned by an Ecclesiastical and spiritual authority They must needs be Signs of spiritual homage to the same authority For either the doing of a Religious and spiritual Action in obedience to a spiritual authority is a Sign of spiritual homage or no Actions can be a Sign thereof As therefore a Serving man being a civil person upon the Bishops pleasure wearing a Tawny Coat and a Chain of Gold holding up his Train going bare-headed before him holding a Trencher at his Table lighting him to the house of Office dressing his meat rubbing his Horses c. doth by these Actions as it were by solemn Signs acknowledge Civil homage to him being a Civil Lord and Master So a Minister of the Gospel and a Pastor of a particular Congregation being by his Office a meer spiritual man being commanded by the Bishop as he is a spiritual Lord and Master over the Church of God to wear a Tipper a square Cap a Priests Gown and Cloak a Surplice to make Crosses upon childrens faces to put Rings on Brides fingers c. and all this in their Divine Service I say a Minister doth thereby give solemn Signs and Tokens of spiritual homage to their spiritual Lordships even as by preaching the Word and administration of Sacraments and Prayer he professeth by solemn Signs a spiritual homage to the spiritual authority of Christ If they shall peremptorily affirm That they are only Civil matters as some in high place have done to my self then this will follow of it Whereas the Bishops command now Ministers to wear a Surplice a Priests Cloak c. he may command them to wear Tawny Coats and livery Cloaks and in their courses to wait and at end upon him as serving Creatures For there is no more Civil Authority shewed in requiring the one than the other if the one as well as the other be Civil matters Neither will it help their cause that the Magistrate requireth these things to be done For the Magistrate commanding Ecclesiastical matters to be done his commandment doth no more make them Civil than his commanding the Sacraments and other parts of Divine Worship to be administred duly doth make them Civil matters For the ratification by Civil authority the Constitutions of Ecclesiastical authority doth no more make them Civil matters than the ratification and confirmation of Civil matters by Ecclesiastical authority doth make them Ecclesiastical or spiritual matters Though therefore there is none of us that stand our in these matters but have ever been content to yield unto their Lordships all Câ—vil honour such as is given to Barons Earls Dukes and Princes yet except they were Gods and Christs we have no reason to give spiritual homage unto them which is it that in very deed they require in these things And therefore hence it comes to pass That as they turn out of their Palaces those Servants that refuse their Liveries and to do their civil Services So as though they were Lords and Masters in the Church they turn the Ministers out of their Offices and shut them out of the Church if they refuse to wear their spiritual Liveries and to do them spiritual and religious Service But I come to the second part of the Assumption 2. That the authority of our Lord Archbishops and Bishops is an usurped authority This is sufficiently proved of late by Mai. Jacob in his I. Assertion by many reasons only because the weight of the Argument leaneth upon it I will use one Reason Those Officers and Rulers in the Church that make claim to be of Divine Institution challenge to themselves Apostolical authority and jurisdiction as the only Successors of the Apostles to sit only in Moses Chair To have sole power of the Keys To cut from the visible Church and receive again To have power of creating and displacing all other Ecclesiastical Officers To be the Universal Pastors of whole Dukedoms and Kingdoms under whom all other Pastors are as Curates c. And yet for all this are such as stand and are supported only by humane Traditions and Ceremonies such as a Civil Magistrate may without sin put out of the Church and such as the true Churches of God may renounce and yet continue the true Church as Antichristian Usurpers and spiritual Tyrants I say all such Officers and Rulers exercise a usurped authority in the Church But our Archbishops and Bishops are such Rulers and Officers as are aforesaid Ergo They execute a usurped power over the Church The Proposition may easily be justified For if inferiour Officers viz. Pastors of particular Congregations have had and may have firm continuance in the Church without these humane devises and inventions If the Magistrate cannot without sin put them out of the Church And if those can be no true Churches that renounce to have particular Pastors and Ministers over them it must much more hold in such Church-Officers and Rulers as these are if their authority be lawful and good For whilest the Apostles lived they needed not any humane Traditions and devices to support their authority the Magistrates that sought to put them down sinned with a high hand And that was no Church that renounced and disclaimed their Office Authority and Jurisdiction The Assumption is as easily justified For 1. They make claim and title to all those Prerogatives before rehearsed in the first part of the Proposition and unto more than that as shall be proved if it
be denied 2. It is an Embleme of their own NO CEREMONY NO BISHOP Ergo No humane Tradition and Invention no Bishop Ergo The Office of a Bishop is supported by them either only or specially 3. Their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is derived from the King else it is a flat denial of his Supremacy Also themselves grant in their last Tables of Discipline That the King hath power to encrease or diminish the Circuit of a Bishopprick That he may make two or more Bishoppricks of one and one Bishopprick to be two or more Yea what should hinder but that he may devide the Bishopprick of London into eight hundred For where God hath not defined the number of Parishes that a Bishop is to raign over it must needs be a thing indifferent In which by their own Doctrines the King hath authority without sin to dispose If therefore the King may as well notwithstanding any thing in the Law of God Give the Keys of the Church to every particular Pastour of a Congregation over his own Congregation as to a Bishop over a Diocess which taketh away the very Essence of an English Bishop He may without sin take away the very Office of the Bishop which consists in having Jurisdiction over many Congregations Also it being not defined by the Word of God but left free what attire Bishops shall wear as also what maintenance they shall have The King having absolute power in things indifferent according to their own Doctrine He may turn them out of their Rochets and Parliament Robes Thrust them out of their Pallaces and put them to their stipends to live upon voluntary devotions of poor Christian People and then a man may easily imagine what the Office of a Bishop would be worth For he that hath authority to prescribe to a Bishop and other Ministers the Forms Rites and Ceremonies of their Divine Service hath also power much more to prescribe moderate and appoint their Apparel Diet and manner of maintenance So that it is clear That the King may without sin disanul the Authorities Dignities and Prerogatives of Bishops Any of which shall be if it be denied proved to be matters of greater indifferency and therefore more appertaining to his Supremacy than the prescribing of Forms of Divine Service and mystical Rites of Religion For let the King take from the Bishop all indifferent things which he may do by their own Doctrine and a Bishop will be no Bishop as shall be proved if it be denied 4. There is no true and sober Christians but will say that the Churches of Scotland France the Low-Countries and other places that renounce such Archbishops and Bishops as ours are as Anticristian and usurping Prelates are true Churches of God which they could not be if the Authority and Prerogatives they claim to themselves were of Christ and not usurped For if it were the Ordinance of Christ Jesus That in every Kingdome that receiveth the Gospel There should be one Archbishop over the whole Kingdome One Bishop over many hundred Pastors in a Kingdome and all they invested with that authority and Jurisdiction Apostolicall which they claim jure Divino to be due unto them and to reside in them by the Ordinance of Christ Certainly that Church that should renounce and disclaim such an Authority ordained in the Church cannot be a true Church but a Synagogue of Sathan For they that should renounce and deny such must needs therein renounce and deny Christ himself Thus the Assumption is cleared The eleventh Argument All Humane Traditions and Rites enjoyned to be performed in Gods worship as necessary to Salvation are unlawfull These Ceremonies in controversie being but Humane Traditions are enjoyned to be performed in Gods worship as necessary to Salvation Ergo These Ceremonies are unlawfull THe Proposition is freely granted of all our Adversaries hitherto If any hereafter by reason of some difficulties the cause may be thrust into by granting the same shall be so desperate as to deny the same we shall be ready to make it good at any time The assumption is thus proved Whatsoever Humane Tradition Ceremony or Action that may without sin or inconvenience to any part of the Worship of God be omitted in the same and yet notwithstanding are injoyned and urged as more necessary than those Actions that are by the Word of God necessary to Salvation I say such humane Ceremonies and Traditions are injoined as necessary to Salvation But these Ceremonies are such as may without any sin or any inconvenience to any part of the Worship of God be omitted in the same and yet notwithstanding are enjoyned as more necessary for Christians to do than those Actions that are necessary to Salvation by the Word of God Ergo These Ceremonies in controversie are injoyned c. as necessary to Salvation He hath no blood of shame running in his veins that will deny the Proposition The Assumption hath two parts The first is this That these Ceremonies are such as may without sin or any inconvenience to any part of the worship of God be omitted This is evident For 1. if they could not be omitted without sin in Divine Worship they were Divine and not Humane Ordinances For example Though to go clothed to the Congregation be a Civil action yet because it is a sin for any to go naked to the Congregation It is a Divine Ordinance That men should go clothed thither And in this case as in any other case of sin a man ought rather never Worship God publickly than to go naked to the Congregation For the omission of a Good Action is no sin when it cannot be done but by committing of a sin 2. Divine Worship consisting in Prayer the Sacraments and the Word no wit of man can shew wherein the bare omission of any one of these Ceremonies is inconvenient to any one of these parts for what inconvenience can a man that is not drunk with the dreggs and lees of Popish Superstition finde it to publick Prayer to be said in the Congregation without a Priests Surplice The omission of ordinary pawses and Accents points and stopps the suppressing of the voice or a loud hooping and hallowing out of the words or an undistinct sounding of them were such actions as common reason will teach are inconvenient for Prayer and so inconvenient that a man ought never to pray publickly in the Congregation as the voyce thereof that should by Canon be tied thereto And the Magistrate though there were no Canon to the contrary ought to turn such out of the Ministry that should omit such matters in prayer But for a Minister to pray without a Surplice can be in reason no more inconvenient than for him to pray without Book without a pair of spectacles upon his nose And there may be as good reason given to prove it convenient for a man that saith a thing without Book to put on a pair of Spectacles as there can be to prove it convenient for him
do any act of Religion or Divine service that cannot evidently be warranted by the same 2. They hold that all Ecclesiastical actions invented and devised by man are utterly to be excluded out of the exercises of Religion especially such actions as are famous and notorious Mysteries of an Idolatrous Religion and in doing whereof the true Religion is conformed whether in whole or in part to Idolatry and superstition 3. They hold that all outward means instituted and set apart to expresse and set forth the Inward worship of God are parts of Divine Worship and that not only all moral actions but all typical rites and figures ordained to shadow forth in the solemn worship and service of God any spiritual or religious act or habit in the mind of man are special parts of the same And therefore that every such act ought evidently to be prescribed by the Word of God or else ought not to be done it being a sin to performe any other worship to God whether External or Internal Moral or Ceremonial in whole or in part then that which God himself requires in his word 4. They hold it to be grosse superstition for any mortal man to institute and ordain as parts of Divine Worship any mystical Rite and Ceremonie of Religion whatsoever and to mingle the same with the Divine Rites and Mysteries of Gods Ordinance But they hold it to be high presumption to institute and bring into Divine worship such Rites and Ceremonies of Religion as are acknowledged to be no parts of Divine Worship at all but only of Civil Worship and Honour For they that shall require to have performed unto themselves a Ceremonial Obedience Service and worship consisting in rites of religion to be done at that very instant that God is solemnly served and worshiped and even in the same worship make both themselves and God also an Idol so that they judge it a far more fearfull sin to add unto and to use in the worship and service of God or any part thereof such mystical Rites and Ceremonies as they esteem to be no parts or parcells of Gods worship at all than such as in a vain and ignorant superstition they imagine and conceive to be parts thereof 5. They hold that every act or action appropriated and set apart to divine service and worship whether moral or ceremonial real or typical ought to bring special honour unto God and therefore that every such act ought to be apparently commanded in the Word of God either expresly or by necessary consequent 6. They hold that all actions whether Moral or Ceremonial appropriated to Religious or Spiritual Persons functions or actions either are or ought to be Religious and Spiritual And therefore either are or ought to be instituted immediately by God who alone is the Author and Institutor of all Religious and Spiritual actions and things whether Internal or External Moral or Ceremonial CHAP. II. Concerning the Church 1. THey hold and maintain that every Companie Congregation or Assembly of men ordinarily joyning together in the true worship of God is a true visible Church of Christ and that the same title is improperly attributed to any other Convocations Synods Societies combinations or Assemblies whatsoever 2. They hold that all such Churches or Congregations communicating after that manner together in divine worship are in all Ecclesiastical matters equal and of the same power and authority and that by the Word and will of God they ought to have the same spiritual Priviledges Prerogatives Officers Administrations Orders and Formes of Divine worship 3. They hold that Christ Jesus hath not subjected any Church or Congregation of his to any other superior Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than unto that which is within it self So that if a whole Church or Congregation shall erre in any matters of faith or Religion no other Churches or spiritual Church-Officers have by any warrant from the Word of God power to censure punish or controle the same but are only to counsel and advise the same and so to leave their soules to the immediate judgment of Christ and their bodies to the sword and power of the Civil Magistrate who alone upon earth hath power to punish a whole Church or Congregation 4. They hold that every established Church or Congregation ought to have her own spiritual officers ministers resident with her those such as are injoyned by Christ in the New Testament and no other 5. They hold that every established Church ought as a special prerogative by which she is indowed by Christ to have power and liberty to elect and chuse their own spiritual and Ecclesiastical Officers and that it is a greater wrong to have any such forced upon them against their wills than if they should force upon men wives and upon women husbands against their will and liking 6. They hold that if in this choice any particular Churches shall erre that none upon earth but the Civil Magistrate hath power to controle or correct them for it And that though it be not lawfull for him to take away this power from them yet when they or any of them shall apparently abuse the same he stands bound by the Law of God and by vertue of his Office grounded upon the same to punish them severely for it and to force them under civil mulcts to make better choice 7. They hold that the Ecclesiastical Officers and Ministers of one Church ought not to bear any Ecclesiastical Office in another but ought to be tyed unto that Congregation of which they are members and by which they are elected into office And they are not without just cause and such as may be approved by the Congregation to forsake their Callings wherein if the Congregation shall be perverse and will not hearken to reason They are then to crave the assistance and help of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath power and who ought by his Civil Sword and Authority procure to all Members of the Church whether their Governors or others freedome from all manifest injuries and wrongs 8. They hold that the Congregation having once made choice of their spiritual Officers unto whom they commit the Regiment of their Soules they ought not without just cause and that which is apparently warrantable by the Word of God to discharge deprive or depose them but ought to live in all Canonical obedience and subjection unto them agreeable to the Word of God And if by permission of the Civil Magistrate they shall by other Ecclesiastical Officers be suspended or deprived for any cause in their apprehension good and justifiable by the Word of God then they hold it the bounden duty of the Congregation to be continual suppliants to God and humble suters unto Civil Authority for the restauration of them unto their Administrations which if it cannot be obtained yet this much honour they are to give unto them as to acknowledge them to the death their spiritual Guides and Governors though they be rigorously
of sorrow for him they are to denounce him to be as yeâ— no member of the Kingdom of Heaven and of that Congregation and so are to leave him to God and the King And this is all the Ecclesiastical Authority and Jurisdiction that any spiritual Officers of the Church are to use against any man for the greatest crime that can be committed 10. They hold that the Officers of the Church are not to proceed unto the extreamest Censure against any man without the free consent of the whole Congregation it self 11. They hold that the Minister or any other particular Officer offending is as subject to these Censures as any other of the Congregation 12. They hold that if any Member of the Congregation having committed a scandalous sin shall of himself forsake the Worship of God and the Spiritual Communion with the Church that then the Ecclesiastical Officers have no authority or jurisdiction over him but only the Civil Magistrate and those unto whom he oweth Civil subjection as Parents Masters Landlords c. CHAP. VI. Concerning the Civil Magistrate 1. THey hold that the Civil Magistrate as he is a Civil Magistrate hath and ought to have Supream power over all the Churches within his Dominions in all causes whatsoever and yet they hold that as he is a Christian he is a Member of some one particular Congregation and ought to be as subject to the spiritual Regiment thereof prescribed by Christ in his Word as the meanest subject in the Kingdom and they hold that this Subjection is no more derogatory to his Supremacy than the Subjection of his body in sickness to Physitians can be said to be derogatory thereunto 2. They hold that those Civill Magistrates are the greatest Enemies to their own Supremacie that in whole or in part communicate the virtue and power thereof to any Ecclesiastical Officers And that there cannot be imagined by the wit of man a more direct means to check-mate the same than to make them Lords and Princes upon Earth to invest them with Civil Jurisdiction and Authority and to conform the state and limits of the Jurisdiction to the State of Kings and bounds of Kingdoms 3. They hold that there should be no Ecclesiastical Officer in the Church so high but that he ought to be subject unto and punishable by the meanest Civil Officer in a Kingdom City or Town not only for common crimes but even for the abuse of their Ecclesiastical Offices yea they hold that they ought to be more punishable than any other Subject whatsoever if they shall offend against either Civil or Ecclesiastical Laws 4. They hold that the Civil Magistrate is to punish with all severity the Ecclesiastical Officers of Churches if they shall intrude upon the rights and prerogatives of the Civil Authority and Magistracy and shall pass those bounds and limits that Christ hath prescribed unto them in his Word 5. They hold that the Pope is that Antichrist and therefore that Antichrist because being but an Ecclesiastical Officer he doth in the height of the pride of his heart make claim unto and usurp the Supremacy of the Kings and Civil Rulers of the Earth And they hold that all defenders of the Popish Faith all endeavours of reconcilement with that Church all plotters for tolleration of the Popish Religion all countenancers and maintainers of Seminary Priests and professed Catholicks and all deniers that the Pope is that Antichrist are secret enemies to the Kings Supremacy 6. They hold that all Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Officials c. have their Offices and Functions only by will and pleasure of the King and Civil States of this Realm and they hold that whosoever holdeth that the King may not without sin remove these Offices out of the Church and dispose of their Temporalities and maintenance according to his own pleasure or that these Offices are Jure Divino and not only or meerly Jure humano That all such deny a principal part of the Kings Supremacy 7. They hold that not one of these Opinions can be proved to be contrary to the Word of God and that if they might have leave that they are able to answer all that hath been written against any one of them FINIS TWELVE General Arguments Proving that the CEREMONIES Imposed upon the Ministers of the Gospel in England by our Prelates are unlawful And therefore That the Ministers of the Gospel for the bare and sole omission of them in Churh-Service for conscience sake are most unjustly charged of disloyalty to His MAJESTIE Mat. 18.23 If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evill but if I have spoken well why smitest thou me Printed in the Year 1660. To the Reader GOod Reader We come not as voluntaries into this field of Contention but dragg'd into it by the very hairs of our head If our cause be righteous and good Thou wilt easily grant in so great Imputations and Extremities inflicted upon us for the same that we can do no less than give reasons for our selves and it All the favour I require of thee is That thou wouldst look into our cause not by the flashing lighting 's that come out of the mouths of our Adversaries the Prelates but by the light of our own Reasons by which if thou shalt see the goodness of our cause and innocency of our persons than embrace it with us and in pity pray for us that without shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience we may endure patiently and meekly whatsoever God shall suffer to be inflicted upon us for the same in these wicked and licentious times THE FIRST ARGUMENT All Will-Worship is sin To use these Ceremonies in Church-Service in manner and form prescribed is a Will-Worship Ergo To use them is sin THE Proposition cannot be denied for the Apostle Paul plainly condemneth Will-Worship The Assumption may thus be proved All parts of Divine Service and Worship imposed only by the will and pleasure of Man upon the Ministers of Divine Service and that of necessity to be done is Will-Worship But to use these Ceremonies in manner and form prescribed is to use such Ceremonies as are 1. Parts of Divine Service and Worship 2. Imposed only by the pleasure and will of Men upon the Ministers of Divine Service 3. Of necessity to be done therein Ergo To use these Ceremonies in manner and form prescribed is a Will-Worship The Proposition is as clear as the Sun at noon-day The Assumption hath three parts 1. That they are parts of Divine Worship and Service This is proved evidently by this Argument All Mystical and Ecclesiastical Rites and formes of Divine Service instituted by Ecclesiastical authority to be Ministerial actions in the solemn Worship of God and performed in that manner and having that use in Divine Service that if God should but ratifie and confirm the same use they should then be parts of his true Worship I say all such Ceremonies are used as parts of Divine Worship But these Ceremonies
from the Civil Communion of men so ought the Congregation of which he is a Member cut him off from all spiritual Communion with them If any one of the Ecclesiastical Officers themselves shall sin he is subject to the censures of the rest as any other member of the congregation If they shall all sin scandalously either in the execution of their Office or in any other ordinarie manner Then the Congregation that chose them freely hath as free power to depose them and to place others in their room If the Congregation shall erre either in choosing or deposing of her spiritual Officers Then hath the Civil Magistrate alone power and authority to punish them for their fault co compel them to make better choise or to defend against them those Officers that without just causes they shall depose or deprive 27. We hold that those Ecclesiastical Persons that make claim to greater power and authority then this Especially they that make claim Iure Divino of power and Iurisdiction to meddle with other Churches then that one Congregation of which they are or ought to be members Do usurp upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath and ought to have as we hold and maintain a power over the several Congregations in his Dominions and who alone ought by his authority not only to prescribe common Laws and Canons of uniformity and consent in Religion and worship of God unto them all But also to punish the offences of the several Congregations that they shall commit against the laws of God the policy of the Realm and the Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted by his authority 28. We hold that the King ought not to give this authority away or to commit it to any Ecclesiastical Person or Persons whatsoever But ought himself to be as it were Archbishop and general overseer of all the Churches within his Dominions and ought to imploy under him his honourable Counsel his Iudges Leiftenants Iustices Constables and such like to oversee the Churches in the several divisions of their civil Regiments visiting them and punishing by their civil power whatsoever they shall see amiss in any of them Especially in the Rulers and Governers 29. For as much as no people are more hated persecuted and wronged of the wicked world then the true Churches of Christ We hold that no people in the Earth stand in more need of the civil Magistrate then they And that it is the greatest outward blessing they can injoy in this life to live under the Protection of their Swords Scepters the greatest cause of mourning when the same shall be bent against them And we hold those Churches to be no true Churches of Jesus Christ that living in any Country shall refuse subjection to the civil Regents and Governers of the same be they in respect of Religion never such Paganish Infidells 30. We hold it utterly unlawfull for any Christian Churches whatsoever by any armed force or power against the will of the civil magistracy and State under which they live To erect and set up in publique the true worship and service of God or to beat down or suppress any superstition or Idolatry that shall be countenanced and maintained by the same Only Every man is to look to himself that he communicate not with the evils of the times induring what it shall please the State to inflict and seeking by all honest and peaceable means all reformation of publick abuses onely at the hands of civil publicke persons and all practises contrarie to these we condemn as seditious and sinfull 31. All that we crave of his Majestie and the State is that by his and their permission and under their protection and approbation it may be lawfull for us to serve and worship God in all things according to his revealed will and the manner of all other reformed Protestant Churches that have made separation from Rome that we may not be forced against our consciences to stain and pollute the simple and syncere worship of God prescribed in his word with any humane Traditions and Rites whatsoever but that in Divine worship we may be actors only of those things that may for matter or manner either ingeneral or special be concluded out of the word of God Also to this end that it may be lawfull for us to exhibite unto them and unto their Censure a true and syncere Confession of our faith containing the main Grounds of our Religion unto which all other doctrines are to be consonant as also a Form of Divine worship and Ecclesiastical Government in like manner warranted by the word and to be observed of us all under any civil punishment that it shall please the said Majestie and state to inflict under whose authority alone we desire to exercise the same and unto whose punishment alone we desire to be subject if we shall offend against any of those Lawes and Canons that themselves shall approve in manner aforesaid and our desire is Not to worship God in dark corners but in such publick places and at such convenient times as it shall please them to assigne to the intent that they and their officers may the better take notice of our offences if any such shall be committed in our Congregations and assemblies that they may punish the same accordingly And we desire we may be subject to no other Spiritual Lords but unto Christ nor unto any other Temporal Lords but unto themselves whom alone in this Earth we desire to make our Judges and supreame Governers and Overseers in all causes Ecclesiastical whatsoever renouncing as Antichristian all such Ecclesiastical powers as arrogate and assume unto themselves under any pretence of the Law of God or man the said power which we acknowledge to be due only to the Civil Magistrate 32. So long as it shall please the King and civil State though to the great derogation of their own authority as we may have occasion hereafter to prove to maintain in this Kingdom the State of the Hierarchy or Prelacie We can in Honour to his Majestie and the State and in desire of peace be content without envy to suffer them to injoy their state and dignity and to live as brethren amongst those ministers that shall acknowlege spiritual homage unto their spiritual Lordships paying unto them all temporal duties of tenths and such like yea and joyning with them in the service and worship of God so far as we may do it without our own particular communicating with them in those humane Traditions and rites that in our consciences we judge to be unlawfull Only we crave in all dutifull manner that which the very Law of Nature yeeldeth unto us that for as much as they are most malicious enemies unto us and do apparently thirst either after our blood or shipwrack of our faith and consciences that they may not hence forth be our judges in these causes but that we may both of us stand as parties at the bar of
that think that therefore we should not make scruple to use them because they are toyes 4. That is a corrupt manner of Worship wherein there is confusion and undecency for all things must be done in the Service of God in decency order and comliness as it is granted and under the name whereof these Ceremonies are obtruded upon us But those things that are undecent and disorderly in other matters and of no necessary use in Gods Worship cannot be matters of order and decency in the Service of God except God himself should in a special manner command them 5. It being therefore confusion and disorder in civil matters where a multitude joyns together in a common suit and supplication for all to speak at once the same words And common wisdom and discretion having taught it to be a decent and orderly Ceremony that some foreman should speak and the rest hold their peace giving only some sign and testimony of assent He must be more than a man that must make it an orderly thing in our general and ordinary suits and prayers to God for all the Congregation to open their mouths together in a prayer especially sith God hath in special appointed the Minister to be the mouth of the People and expressely requireth the assent of the People only in the word Amen 6. It being a ridiculous disorder in other matters in any solemnity where any Deed or Record is to be read or rehearsed for one to read one period and another read or say another how can it by mans wit and will without Ordinance from God be a matter of order for the Minister to read one verse of Scripture and the People another for the Minister to say one piece of a Prayer and the People by way of catch to say anoâ—her 7. If any thing be undecent out of the Worship of God the same reason of undecency remaining it is much more undecent in the Worship of God for the more excellent the thing is in which â—n undecent thing is used the more undecent the thing is that is so used As if it be undecent to go naked in any company it is much more undecent to go so in the Congregation If foul apparel be every where else undecent it cannot be decent in Gods Service though all the Bishops in the world should decree it 8. An undecent and disorderly thing the more strictly it is urged in the Service of God the more dangerous it is to yield unto the same and so much the more effectual cause of false Worship 9. If there be some apparel that doth in special manner become the Service of God and deserves to be appropriated unto it then by the same position there must be some apparel that doth deform and disgrace the Service and Worship of God for if no apparel can deform it then no apparel can be an ornament or decent form unto it 10. If any apparel do deform Gods true Worship it is that apparel that doth most beautifie and grace the false and Idolatrous worship of God As that apparel must needs most deform a wise man that doth most adorn a fool and that apparel must needs be most unbeseeming a King that is seemly and decent for a beggar 11. If therefore men would set their wits upon the highest strain to invent an apparel to disgrace the Ministers of the Gospel they could not invent a more odious attire than the consecrated attire of a filthy Mass-Priest the most abominable Idolater in the earth 12. Those that abhor Idolatry as much as they do beggary and folly cannot but hate and abhor the badges of Idolatry as much as the badges of folly and beggary and therefore cannot but account that Priestly attire that is enjoyned unto us by our Prelates an apparel more unbeseeming the Minister of the Gospel than a Cloak with a thousand patches or a coat with four elbows for beggary and folly being judgements and not sins the notes of beggary and folly cannot be so odious in a spiritual eye as the notes of Idolatry 13. If it be denied that the apparel enjoyned is Popish because it was before Popery was this answer may be made 1. It can never be proved that it was before Popery For though not all Popery yet some Popery was in the Apostles times Most of the Heresies were before the full revealing of Antichrist which notwithstanding we fasten upon them and count popish they having entertained them If therefore an errour maintained before Popery and retained by Papists deserve the name of a popish errour why should not unnecessary apparel though used before yet entertained now only by them and those that receive it from them bear the name of Popish attire 2. As a coat of divers colours is a fools coat notwithstanding that Joseph one of the twelve Patriarkes wore one so a white linnen garment is a popish garment though some Ministers in the East Churches did wear them and yet it can never be proved that either they wore such a one as is prescribed unto us or that it was a ministerial garment and not their ordinary civil attire or proper to the Minister only or if all this that it was well done for there being no one Father that wrote since the Apostles times but have erred in some matters of Doctrine why may they not as well erre in matters of Ceremony if all the true Churches of God beside our own in England and the greatest part of the sufficientest Pastors of our own Church are held to erre in the general renouncing of these Ceremonies Why might not some few Ministers in the Old Church as well erre in instituting and using them 14. A corrupt and scandalous Ceremony in the Worship of God is so much the more dangerous and scandalous to others by how much the more it comes graced and countenanced with lawful authority A corrupt Ceremony enjoyned by a Heathenish Pagan and Tyrant unto the Ministers of the Gospel living under his jurisdiction cannot do so much spiritual hurt as when it shall be required by a Christian Magistrate for the good conceit of the institutor and ordainor of a religious Rite is it that breeds Superstition Those therefore whose special calling from God is to edifie the souls of men and not to destroy them ought so much the more to avoid these Ceremonies they judge and know to be scandalous and hurtful to the souls of men by how much the greater grace and countenance they receive from the Authority of man neither can the commandment of the Magistrate be a sufficient plea at the bar of Gods Judgment Seat for a man that by vertue or force thereof alone hath done any action how indifferent soever in it self that his conscience tels him will scandalize his brother and so hurt his soul gross therefore is the Doctrine of them that teach That Paul if the Magistrate had commanded him should have eaten flesh though his brothers soul should have been
even for the Divine Calling and Ordinance sake CHAP. V. Concerning the Censures of the Church 1. THey hold that the spiritual keyes of the Church are by Christ committed to the aforesaid spiritual Officers and Governors and unto none other which keyes they hold that they are not to be put to this use to lock up the Crowns Swords or Scepters of Princes and Civil States or the Civil Rights Prerogatives and Immunities of Civil Subjects in the things of this Life or to use them as picklocks to open withal mens Treasuries and Coffers or as keyes of Prisons to shut up the bodies of men for they think that such a Power and Authority Ecclesiastical is fit only for the Antichrist of Rome and the consecrated Governours of his Synagogues who having no Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit to defend his and their usurped Jurisdiction over the Christian World doth unlawfully usurp the lawful Civil Sword and Power of the Monarchs and Princes of the Earth thereby forcing men to subject themselves to his spiritual vassalage and Service and abusing thereby the spiritual Keyes and Jurisdiction of the Church 2. They hold that by vertue of these Keyes they are not to make any curious Inquisitions into the secret or hidden vices or crimes of men extorting from them a confession of those faults that are concealed from themselves and others or to proceed to molest any man upon secret suggestions private suspition or uncertain fame or for such crimes as are in question whether they be crimes or no But they are to proceed only against evident and apparent crimes such as are either granted to be such of all civil honest men or of all true Christians or at least such as they are able by evidence of the Word of God to convince to be sins to the conscience of the Offender As also such as have been either publikely committed or having been committed in secret are by some good means brought to light and which the delinquent denying they are able by honest and sufficient testimony to prove against him 3. They hold that when he that hath committed a scandalous crime cometh before them and is convinced of the same they ought not after the manner of our Ecclesiastical Courts scorn deride taunt and revile him with odious and contumelious speeches eye him with big and stern looks procure Proctors to make Personal Invectives against him make him dance attendance from Court day to Court day and from Term to Term frowning at him in presence and laughing at him behind his back but they are though he be never so obstinate and perverse to use him brotherly not giving the least personal reproaches or threats but laying open unto him the nature of his sin by the light of Gods Word are only by donouncing the judgements of God against him to terrifie him and so to move him to repentance 4. They hold that if the party offending be their civil Superiour that then they are to use even throughout the whole carriage of their Censure all civil Complements Offices and Reverence due unto him That they are not to presume to convent him before them but are themselves to go in all civil and humble manner unto him to stand bare before him to bow unto him to give him all civil Titles belonging unto him and if he be a King and Supream Ruler they are to kneel down before him and in the humblest manner to censure his faults so that he may see apparently that they are not carried with the least spice of malice against his Person but only with zeal of the health and salvation of his soul 5. They hold that the Ecclesiastical Officers laying to the charge of any man any Errour Heresie or false Opinion whatsoever do stand bound themselves first to prove that he holdeth such an errour or heresie and secondly to prove directly unto him that it is an errour by the Word of God and that it deserveth such a censure before they do proceed against him 6. They hold that the Governours of the Church ought with all patience and quietness hear what every Offender can possibly say for himself either for Qualification Defence Apology or Justification of any supposed crime or errour whatsoever and they ought not to proceed to censure the grossest offence that is untill the Offender have said as much for himself in his defence as he possibly is able And they hold it an evident Character of a corrupt Ecclesiastical Government where the parties convented may not have full liberty to speak for themselves considering that the more liberty is granted to speak in a bad cause especially before those that are in Authority and of judgment the more the iniquity of it will appear and the more the Justice of their Sentence will shine 7. They hold that the Oath ex officio whereby Popish and English Ecclesiastical Governours either upon some secret informations or suggestions or private suspitions go about to bind mens consciences to accuse themselves and their friends of such crimes or imputations as cannot by any direct course of Law be proved against them and whereby they are drawn to be instruments of many heavy crosses upon themselves and their friends and that often for those Actions that they are perswaded in their consciences are good and holy I say that they hold that such an Oath on the urgers part is most damnable and tyrannous against the very Law of Nature devised by Antichrist through the inspiration of the devil that by means thereof the professors and practizers of the true Religion might either in their weakness by per jury damn their own souls or be drawn to reveal to the Enemies of Christianity those secret religious acts and deeds that being in the perswasion of their consciences for the advancement of the Gospel will be a means of heavy sentences of condemnation against themselves and their dearest friends 8. They hold that Ecclesiastical Officers have no power to proceed in Censure against any Crime of any Person after that he shall freely acknowledge the same and profess his hearty penitency for it And that they may not for any crime whatsoever lay any bodily or pecuniary mulct upon them or impose upon them any Ceremonial Mark or Note of shame such as is the white sheet or any such like or take any fees for any cause whatsoever but are to accept of as a sufficient satisfaction a private submission and acknowledgment if the Crime be private and a publike if the crime be publike and notorious 9. They hold that if a Member of the Church be obstinate and shew no signs and tokens of repentance of that crime that they by evidence of Scripture have convinced to be a crime that then by their Ecclesiastical Authority they are to deny unto him the Sacrament of the Supper And if the suspension from it will not humble him then though not without humbling themselves in prayer fasting and great demonstration
deprived of their Ministry and Service 9. They hold that though one Church is not to differ from another in any Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Religious matters whatsoever but are to be equal and alike yet that they may differ and one excel another in outward Civil Circumstances of place time Person c. So that although they hold that those Congregations of which Kings and Nobles make themselves members ought to have the same Ecclesiastical Officers Ministry worship Sacraments Ceremonies and Forme of Divine Worship that the basest Congregation in the Country hath and no other yet they hold also That as their Persons in civil respects excel so in the Exercises of Religion in civil matters they may excel other Assemblies Their Chappels and Seats may be gorgeously set forth with rich Arras and Tapestry their Fonts may be of Silver their Communion Tables of Ivory and if they will covered with gold the Cup out of which they drink the Sacramental blood of Christ may be of beaten gold set about with Diamonds their Ministers may be clothed in silk and velvet so themselves will maintain them in that manner otherwise they think it absurd and against common reason that other base and Inferior Congregations must by Ecclesiastical Tithes and Oblations maintain the silken and velvet suits and Lordly retinue of the Ministers and Ecclesiastical Officers of Princes and Nobles 10. They hold that the Lawes Orders and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the visible Churches of Christ if they be lawfull and warrantable by the Word of God are no wayes repugnant to any Civil State whatsoever whether Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical but do tend to the further establishing and advancing of the Rights and Prerogatives of all and every of them And they renounce and abhor from their soules all such Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction or Policy that is any way repugnant and derogatory to any of them especially to the Monarchical State which they acknowledg to be the best kind of Civil Government for this Kingdome 11. They hold and belâ—eve that the equality in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and authority of Churches and Church-Ministers is no more derogatory and repugnant to the State and glory of a Monarch than the Paritie or equality of Schoolmasters of several Schools Captains of several Camps Shepherds of several flocks of sheep or Masters of several Families yea they hold the clean contrary that inequality of Churches and Church-Officers in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Authority was that principally that advanced Antichrist unto his throne and brought the Kings and Princes of the earth unto such vassallage under him and that the Civil Authority and glory of Secular Princes and States hath ever decayed and withered the more that the Ecclesiastical Officers of the Church have been advanced and lifted up in authority beyond the limits and confines that Christ in his word hath prescribed unto them CHAP. III. Concerning the Ministers of the Word 1. THey hold that the Pastors of particular Congregations are or ought to be the highest Spiritual Officers in the Church over whom by any Divine Ordinance there is no superiour Pastor but only Jesus Christ And that they are led by the spirit of Antichrist that arrogate or take upon themselves to be Pastors of Pastors 2. They hold that there are not by any Divine Institution in the word any ordinary National Provincial or Diocesan Pastors or Ministers under which the Pastors of particular Congregations are to be subject as Inferior Officers And that if there were any such that then the Word of God would have set them down more distinctly and precisely than any of the rest For the higher place that one occupieth in the Church of the more necessity he is unto the Church of the more necessity he is to the Church the more carefully would Christ the head of the Church have been in pointing him out and distinguishing him from other Hence in the Old Testament the High Priest his Title Office Function and special Administration and Jurisdiction is more particularly and precisely set down than the Office of any of the Inferior Priests and Levites Also in the New Testament the Office of a Pastor is more distinctly and more precisely set down than of a Doctor or any other inferior Church-Officer So that a man may as well call into question the whole New Testament as doubt whether there ought to be a Pastor in every Congregation or doubt of his proper Office and Function And if by Gods Ordinance there should be an ordinary Ecclesiastical Officer above the Pastors of particular congregations than Christ out of all question would with that special care and cost have set it forth by Titles prerogatives peculiar Offices Functions and Gifts that the Churches and people of God should have reason rather â—o doubt of any Office or Jurisdiction than of the peculiar office or Jurisdiction of the Primates Metropolitanes Arch-Bishops and Prelates of the world 3. They hâ—ld that if there were a supream National Ecclesâ—astical Minister or Pastor that should be the Prince of many thousand Pastors that then also Christ as he did in the Jewish Church would have appointed a solemn National or Provincial Liturgy or worship unto which at sometimes of the year the whole body of the people should ascend and that unto the Metropolitan City as unto a Jerusalem and that he would as he did in the Jewish Church more precisely and particularly have set down the manner of solemnization thereof than of his parochial worship Forasmuch therefore as they cannot read in the New Testament of any higher or more solemn worship than of that which is to be performed in a particular Congregation they cannot be perswaded that God hath appointed any higher Ministers of his service and worship under the New Testament than the elect Ministers of particular Congregations 4. They hold that the High Priest of the Jews was typically and in a figure the supream head of the whole Catholique Church which though it were visible only in the Province and Nation of Jury yet those of other Nations and Countries as appears by the History of Acts even though they were Ethiopians were under this High Priest and acknowledged homage unto him So that he was not a Provincial Metropolitane but in very deed an Oecumenical and universal Bishop of the whole world And therefore they hold this being the best ground in the word for Metropolitane and Provincial Pastors or Bishops that the Pope of Rome who alone maketh claim unto and is in possession of the like universal Supremacy hath more warrant in the Word of God to the same than any Metropolitane or Diocesan not dependant upon him hath or can have So that they hold that by the Word of God either there must be no Metropolitanes and Diocesans or else there must be a Pope 5. They hold That no Pastor ought to exercise or accept of any Civil publique Jurisdiction and authority but ought to be wholly imployed in spiritual Offices
and Duties to that Congregation over which he is set And that those Civil Magistrates weaken their own Supremacy that shall suffer any Ecclesiastical Pastor to exercise any Civil Jurisdiction within their Realms Dominions or Seigniories 6. They hold that the highest and supream Office and authority of the Pastor is to preach the Gospel solemnly and publickly to the Congregation by interpreting the written Word of God and applying the same by exhortation and reproof unto them They hold that this was the greatest work that Christ and his Apostles did and that whosoever is thought worthy and fit to exercise this authority cannot be thought unfit and unworthy to exercise any other spiritual or Ecclesiastical authority whatsoever 7. They hold that the Pastor or Minister of the Word is not to reach any Doctrine unto the Church grounded upon his own judgment or opinion or upon the Judgment or opinion of any or all the men in the world but only that truth that he is able to demonstrate and prove evidently and apparently by the Word of God soundly interpreted and that the people are not bound to believe any Doctrine of Religion or Divinity whatsoever upon any ground whatsoever except it be apparently justified by the Word or by necessary consequent deduced from the same 8. They hold that in interpreting the Scriptures and opening the sence of them he ought to follow those Rules only that are followed in finding out the meaning of other writings to wit by weighing the propriety of the tongue wherein they are written by weighing the Circumstance of the place by comparing one place with another and by considering what is properly spoken and what tropically or figuratively And they hold it unlawfull for the Pastor to obtrude upon his people a sence of any part of the Divine Word for which he hath no other ground but the bare testimonies of men and that it is better for the people to be content to be ignorant of the meaning of such difficult places than to hang their Faith in any matter in this case upon the bare Testimony of man 9. They hold that the people of God ought not to acknowledge any such for their Pastors as are not able by Preaching to interpret and apply the Word of God unto them in manner and forme aforesaid And therefore that no ignorant and sole reading Priests are to be reputed the Ministers of Jesus Christ who sendeth none into his Ministry and service but such as he adorneth in some measure with spiritual gifts And they cannot be perswaded that the faculty of reading in ones Mother tongue the Scriptures c. which any ordinary Turk or Infidel hath can be called in any congruity of speech a Ministerial gift of Christ 10. They hold that in the Assembly of the Church the Pastor only is to be the mouth of the Congregation to God in Prayer and that the people are only to testifie their assent by the word Amen And that it is a Babilonian cofusion for the Pastor to say one piece of a Prayer and the people with mingled voices to say another except in singing which by the very ordinance and instinct of nature is more delightfull and effectual the more voices there are joyned and mingled together in harmony and consent 11. They hold that the Church hath no authority to impose upon her Pastors or any other of her Officers any other ministerial Duties Offices Functions Actions or Ceremonies eiâ—her in Divine worship or out of the same then what Christ himself in the Scriptures hath imposed upon them or what they might lawfully impose upon Christ himself if he were in person upon the earth and did exercise a Ministerial Office in some Church 12. They hold that it is as great an injury to force a Congregation or Church to maintain as their Pastor with Tithes and such like Donations that person that either is not able to instruct them or that refuseth in his own person ordinarily to do it as to force a man to maintain one for his wife that either is not a woman or that refuseth in her own person to do the duties of a wife unto him 13. They hold that by Gods Ordinance there should be also in every Church a Doctor whose special office should be to instruct by way of Catechizing the Ignorant of the Congregation and that particularly in the main grounds and Principles of Religion CHAP. IV. Concerning the Elders 1. FOrasmuch as through the malice of Sathan there are and will be in the best Churches many disorders and scandalls committed that redound to the reproach of the Gospel and are a stumbling block to many both without and within the Church and sith they judge it repugnant to the Word of God that any Minister should be a sole Ruler and as it were a Pope so much as in one Parish much more that he should be one over a whole Diocesse Province or Nation they hold that by Gods Ordinance the Congregaâ—ion should make choice of other Officers as Assistants unto the Ministers in the spiritual regiment of the Congregation who are by office jointly with the Ministers of the Word to be as Monitors and Overseers of the manners and conversation of all the Congregation and one of another that so every one may be more wary of their wayes and that the Pastors and Doctors may better attend to Prayer and Doctrine and by their means may be made better acquainted with the estate of the people when others eyes besides there own shall wake and watch over them 2. They hold that such only are to be chosen to this Office as are the gravest honestest discreetest best grounded in Religion and the ancientest Professors thereof in the Congregation such as the whole Congregation do approve of and respect for their wisdome holinesse and honesty and such also if it be possible as are of civil note and respect in the world and able without any burden to the Church to maintain themselves either by their Lands or any other honest Civil Trade of life Neither do they think it so much disgrace to the policy of the Church that Tradesmen and Artificers endowed with such qualities as are above specified should be admitted to be Overseers of the Church as it is that persons both ignorant of Religion and all good letters and in all respects for person quality and state as base and vile as the basest in the Congregation should be admitted to be Pastors and Teachers of a Congregation And if it be apparent that God who alwaies blesseth his own Ordinances doth often even in the eyes of Kings and Nobles make honourable the Ministers and Pastors of his Churches upon which he hath bestowed spiritual Gifts and Graces though for birth education presence outward estate and maintenance they be most base and contemptible so he will as well in the eyes of all holy men make this Office which is many degrees inferior to the other precious and Honourable