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
Presbytery in that sense I take it I am so well assured that it is Gods Ordinance as I am of any point of Religion But as I said before if men may argue afthis way The Presbyters in the Apostles times did miracles and spake with strange tongues and their Scholers and Disciples did the same do you likewise and then we will acknowledge you to be true Presbytters otherwise we will not Thus the Jewes might have argued against all their Prophets as against Isaiah Ieremy Ezekiel c. Moses and Elias fasted forty dayes and forty nights and did many miracles do you so and then we will believe you are true Prophets and sent to us of God otherwise we will not believe you to be true Prophets Yea all the wicked and ungodly men of these times may argue thus also God gave unto his Church Apostles Evangelists Prophets c. and they spake all strange tongues and divers languages and did many miracles but you and your Congregations have neither Apostles Prophets nor Evangelists nor ye have not the gifts of Tongues nor ye can do no Miracle Ergò you are not the true Church The Primitive Christians and the servants of God in those times had the gifts of Tongues and Prophesie and the Holy Ghost came down upon them and they spake by direction from God his infallible truth and Gospell whose speeches were not tied to time and to one speaker but many spake one after another by interpreters as it is at large set down in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 14. vers 27 28 29 30. c. So that they spake infallible truth by direction from God but you have none in your congregations so miraculously inspired with sundry languages and divers tongues nor ye do not speak infallible truths by direction from God nor you cannot cure diseases nor do miracles Ergò your religion is not the same Religion nor your congregations the true Church shew us these miracles and then we will beleeve you to be the true Church otherwise we may not we dare not acknowledge you to be the true Church Again they may argue thus The Apostles and Primitive Pastors and Teachers preached freely and laboured with their own hands and were helpfull to the necessities of others and were not burthensome and exacting from others and spake ex tempore by direction from God but your Ministers in your Congregations do not preach freely nor labour not with their own hands nor are not helpfull to others necessities but are rather burdensome and exacting from others nor they do no miracles nor speak not immediately by inspiration and ex tempore but by Study and out of their Books and are confined to time and speak not in strange tongues and languages one after another by Interpreters Ergò your ministers are not Gods Ministers nor your Congregations the true Church nor your people true Christians for you want all those things that the Primitive Christians and the Primitive Churches had There is a Pamphlet lately come out and highly esteemed and prised amongst many full of such consequences as these which if they hold good against the Presbyters they may also for ought I know be of equall validity to overthrow not onely all Christian Congregations but indeed all Christian Religion But briefly to answer We look upon the Apostles and Primitive Presbyters as men miraculously and extraordinarily gifted and as wonder-working men for the confirmation of the truth of the Gospell to all succeeding ages and we consider in them and in the Christians of those times something extraordinary and temporary as their working of miracles and speaking of strange tongues and gifts of healing c. And those we conceive were to continue no longer in the Church then for the confirmation of the truth of the Gospel Christ himself proclaiming those blessed that believe without seeing of miracles speaking unto Thomas Iohn 20.29 Because thou hast seen me saith he thou believest blessed are they that have not seen and have believed So that miracles now are not ordinary and we are tied to the written Word But we consider likewise in the Apostles and Primitive Presbyters that that was permanent and to continue in all Ministers and Presbyters in all succeeding ages to the end of the world and that was the power of order and preaching and the power of jurisdiction that is of ruling which is not denied by the most learned of the Independents themselves and this I have proved by the Word of God to be transacted over to all Christian Churches whose Presbyters have that power given unto them neither will the Learned Brethren deny it what so ever the ignorant may do Yea the very name of a Presbytery as I said before if we look through the whole Scripture signifieth a Magistracy or Signiory or Corporation invested with authority of governing and ruling and such a counsell and company of men as upon whom the government under Christ is laid and to be extended so far as their jurisdiction extendeth and as far as by common consent it may make for the good and edification of the Church and for the safety of the same And such was the government of all those Churches of the New Testament which were as so many Committees their limits and bounds prefixed them as at this day all Committees through the Kingdome have in their severall Hundreds Wapentakes and Cities to whom the ordering and government of those places that are under them are committed so that all that is done or transacted must be done by the joynt consent and counsell of the whole Committee not any particular man or any two of them severally considered by themselvs can make an order but that order only is binding which is made by the joynt consent and common agreement of them all or the greatest part of them assembled together Even so all those particular Congregations that are within the compasse and jurisdiction of the severall Presbyteries are to be ordered and governed by the common and joynt counsell of the severall Presbyters or the greater part of them For this was the order the Apostles established appointing in every City a Presbyterie and when they had so ordered the Churches they set them all to their severall imployments the Presbyters to command and all the people and particular assemblies and congregations under them to obey neither is it ever found in the holy Scriptures that the people were joyned with the Presbyters in their commission So that they that oppose this government resist Gods Ordinance And if we looke into all the Epistles writ by the Apostles to the severall Churches we shall finde in them that they enjoyne all the severall congregations to yeild obedience to their Pastors and Rulers over them and signifie unto them that they owe unto them double honour especially such as labour in Word and Doctrine that is they must yeild unto them not only due reverence and subjection and obedience to their counsell and just
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 time met together were capable of an Apostleship and such as were the most eminent of all Christs followers and such as were best instructed in Christian Religion as having been bred up in the doctrine of Saint Iohn the Baptist and under the Ministery of Christ himself the Prophet of his Church and therefore they were the Teachers of the Church and people who were their flock which they all fed in common And from thence it argueth that the multitude of Believers in Jerusalem was not only a distinct company from them but that it was exceedingly great and numerous that had so many Pastors and Teachers over them for if they had been but so small a company as is here mentioned and that the whole Church had consisted but of sixscore names then the Pastors exceed the number of the flock which is not only absurd to think but against the evident truth of the holy Scriptures which relate unto us multitudes upon multitudes that were daily converted by the ministery of Iohn the Baptist and of Christ and his Apostles and added unto the Church before this their meeting So that by this I have now said it is most clear and evident that all or most of these were the most eminent Ministers of the Gospell and the Presbytery of the Church But in this that our Brethren do acknowledge that this assembly here spake of were the Church it makes as much against them and greatly for us for it is manifest from the Text that they were the Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel and in that they give them the name and title of the Church it followeth that the representative body and Presbytery is a Church and that to them only belongs the power and authority of the Keyes according to that of our Saviour in Matth. 18.17 18. Tell it unto the Church c. and whatsoever ye binde on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven By which words all authority is put into the true Ministers hands so that they only have the power and authority of ordaining Pastors and Presbyters among themselves as Paul sufficiently declares in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus and that they have not only the title of the Church but a Charter and Warrant also granted unto them of ruling and governing the Church and of ordaining Church-officers and that by joynt and common consent among themselves without the help and assistance of the people and congregations under them which by God were never joyned in commission with them And howsoever Paul in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 6. For the taking away the scandall in going to Law before unbeleevers gave them liberty to make choyce of some that were least esteemed in the Church for the deciding of their controversies yet that did not authorize them to make choyce of all other Church Officers for he limits them to go no farther then to the choyce of such as are of least esteem And howsoever likewise the Apostles in the 6. of the Acts to free themselves from all impediments that they might the better attend upon their Ministeries and that without interruption they might Preach the Gospell gave them liberty to chuse their Decons and Deconesses yet they prescribe the Rule by which they shall chuse them and keep the authority of ordaining them still in their own hands Look you out among you say they men of honest report full of the holy Ghost and wisedome whom we may appoint over this businesse and when they had chose such saith the Scripture They put them before the Apostles and when they had prayed they layd their hands on them So that howsoever they gave unto them a Liberty to chuse yet it was with limitation not an absolute liberty for if they had chose men that had not been of approved honesty well gifted and wise and qualified as they appointed it was arbitrary in the Apostles to reject their choise for they keep the power of Ordination still in their own hands and to them it did belong to ratifie their Election so that the people had not the power of Ordination then nor have not to this day no not of the meanest Deacon or Deaconesse that belongs onely unto the Presbytery much lesse have they power of ordaining Presbyters Indeed for the deciding of controversies and differences they have a liberty given them of making choise of some petty men amongst them and that they may do without the Presbytery but they have no power of Ordination Neither did I ever yet read in the Sacred Scriptures that the people or Congregation had any hand at all in choosing of Ministers and Presbyters neither were they fit for that imployment for it is one thing to judge of a mans externall carriage and manners and another thing of his sufficiency for his indowments and abilities of learning and that men of learning and knowledge onely can do and the Sons of the Prophets and it is in speciall given in charge to the Presbyters and Ministers as it is manifest in the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus 1 Tim. 4.14 Tit. 1. And they onely know how rightly to examine them in the knowledge of the tongues and Sciences and such Arts as are requisite besides the knowledge of the holy Scriptures all which are little enough for the making of a Minister compleat and fit for that Sacred imployment And all the Primitive Churches in the Apostles times willingly submitted themselves to what the Presbytery then did and assented to their choyce as in the 14. of the Acts vers 23. it appeareth But I say in that our brethren do acknowledge this company this hundred and twenty names to be a Church and in that it is also sufficiently manifest that they are considered in a distinct notion from the people which also in the holy Scriptures when they are joyned with their Ministers are called a Church as is frequently to be seen through the acts of the Apostles and in that it doth abundantly appear by what hath formerly been spoken and will yet in the following discourse be farther elucidated that there were many congregations and Assemblies of beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem and that they were all governed by the joynt consent and Common Councell of the Apostles and Presbyters to whom the Apostles themselves were subject who were sent this way and that way by their direction and to whom they were to give an account of their Ministry as we see in divers places in the Acts and were ordered by them what they should do and also made their appeals unto the Apostles and Presbyters in any businesse of common concerement I say in all these respects it is evident that the Church of Ierusalem consisted of many Congregations and Assemblies and was yet but one Church and that governed by a Presbyterian Government and by a Common Councell of Ministers to whose order all the severall Congregations
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
worship as all men acknowledge And by evident Arguments it may be proved that they never administred the Sacraments in the Temple those discriminating and distinguishing Ordinances of the Christian Church as all the most Orthodox Interpreters gather from the ensuing words where it is said They continued dayly with one accord in the Temple but when they speake of the Administration of the Lords Supper it is expressed in these words and breaking of bread from house to house which is interpreted by all Divines of Sacramentall bread which phrase and manner of speaking is usually so expounded by all the Learned upon Acts the 20. vers the 7. And our Brethren do not deny this And it is well known that the Primitive Christians had their meetings and assemblies in private houses as by the many places is manifest which I cited but a little before Besides the Sacrament of breaking bread is no Temple-ordinance and therefore could not be administred in the Temple with the safety of the Christians and Believers for if they were so highly displeased with the Apostles for preaching Jesus and the Resurrection in the Temple as it appeareth Act. 4.2 They would not have suffered them to have administred the Sacraments there And if Paul was so assaulted Acts 21.28 for being but supposed to have brought Greeks into the Temple what would these men have done if one should have brought in a new Ordinance and a new worship and service and that so contrary to their legall rights Surely the Jewes would never have suffered it neither do the Brethren contend for this Now it is well known that in the Primitive Church if not every day yet every first day of the Week at least they met together to break bread that is to receive the holy Sacrament which never was without preaching as we see in Act. 20.7 and in the places above quoted in which it is said they daily brake bread together and that in severall and particular houses and that of necessity must be for a few houses could not have held so many thousands as all reason will dictate and if they were or could be contained under one roof yet they must be forced to be in diverse and severall chambers or roomes So that what is done and spoke in the one the other knowes nothing of it so that they are still severall congregations as under the roof of Pauls there are diverse meeting-places where Men may partake in all Ordinances and they are called severall Churches and they that meet there severall congregations though under one roof for the distinction of the places under one covert makes alwayes a distinct assembly as it is daily seen in the severall Committes at Westminster where every Committee of both Houses have their severall rooms and equall authority and are yet all but one Parliament though distributed into so many severall assemblies So here they had severall assemblies and that in severall houses as is declared and reason it self without any testimony of holy Scripture will perswade this for the Apostles they all preached and that daily and they must have severall rooms to preach in to avoide confusion for all things in the Church must be done in order and they must have severall auditories or assemblies or else they should preach to the wals so that if the Apostles would all preach and the people all heare of necessity they must be distributed into severall congregations assemblies to avoid disorder and that there were severall congregations and severall assemblies the places above specified do declare and tell us So that there is no man that resolves not to oppose all truth that is contrary to his received opinion but may evidently perceive that there were many congregations and assemblies in the Church of Jerusalem and yet they all made but one Church and were govern'd by one Presbytery as the many Committees in both Houses are in divers rooms and make divers assemblies and have equall power and authority among themselves and yet they all make but one Parliament and all those severall Committes are govern'd by the joynt consent of the Great Civill Presbytery of the Kingdome which is all the Parliament and all this without confusion yea with most excellent order and decency Having thus evidently proved that there were many congregations in the Church of Jerusalem before the Persecution I will now by Gods assistance make good that there were also many assemblies under the Persecution and after the Persecution and this I do the rather undertake because some of the Brethren have said That howsoever it could be proved that before the Persecution there were many severall assemblies yet by reason of the dispersion of the Believers the Church of Jerusalem was so wasted and scattered that there were no more left then could all meet in one congregation And were it so that after the scattering of the Believers and Christians in Jerusalem it could never be evinced and made good that there were more then could meet altogether in one place yet all this were nothing for the enervating of the Argument for we must ever look upon the first constitution and Government of the Church and what it was Originally and by Divine constitution and not what it was accidentally and through persecution and oppression and by the violence of men for Governments of Churches are often changed from their primordiall State through many casualties as it happened often in the Church of the Jews and therefore in all Reformations things are to be reduced to the first rule and originall pattern and we are not to look upon them as by occasion they vary or change through the injury of the times And therefore if we look into the Church of Jerusalem as she was in her youth and in her most flourishing age we shall finde her consisting of divers Congregations and many assemblies and all them governed by a Common Councell and joynt consent of a Presbytery which must be the pattern of all Church Government to the end of the world if we will in our Reformation conform our selves to Gods Ordinance and to the first constitution But because I say they think it so difficult a thing to prove many Congregations in Jerusalem after the persecution I will now God-willing make it evident and not onely after the persecution but even in and under the persecution and I will do it first out of that very place our brethren bring against us and by which they labour to evince the contrary the place is in the 8. of the Acts verse 1 2 4. In these words And at that time there was a great persecution against the Church which was at Ierusalem and they were all scattered abroad through the Regions of Iudea and Samaria except the Apostles verse 3. As for Saul he made havock of the Church entring into every house and haling men and women committed them to prison Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word From
been sufficiently proved that there were many Congregations in the Church of Jerusalem I report my selfe to any that have not the pearl of prejudice in the eye of their judgement and this shall suffise to have spoke for the proofe of my first assertion The second now followes viz. That all these Congregations and severall Assemblies made but one Church And for proofe of this I shall not need to use many words or any great dispute for the brethren themselves acknowledge that all the beleevers in Jerusalem were all members of that Church and they accord further that it was but one Church and it is manifest out of the holy Scripture for it is said they that were converted were added to the Church and therefore members of it and that they continued in the Churches communion and in the Apostles doctrine and put their estates in the Churches common treasury and chose Officers for the Church all this I say our brethren do acknowledge and take this fellowship of these members for a patterne of ordinary Church communion and therefore this my second assertion is without controversie it being in expresse words set downe in the 2 3 4 5 6. Chapters of the Acts and many more places of the same story and consented to by the Brethren I now come to prove my third assertion viz. That the Apostles and Presbyters governed ordered and ruled this Church consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies by a Common-councell and Presbytery Which is also evident by the places following Act. 11. And in those daies there came Prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch and there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth through all the world which came to passe in the daies of Claudius Caesar then the Disciples every man according to his ability determined to send reliefe unto the brethren that dwelt in Judea which also they did and sent it to the Presbyters by the hands of Barnabas and Saul Here in these last words we see that the Presbyters and none but the Presbyters received the almes for it is said they sent it to the Presbyters by the hands of Barnabas and Saul which sufficiently proveth that the Presbyters in all Churches were the men in government as who had the ordering and authority of appointing unto the Deacons how they should distribute those moneys that they might be best improved and disposed of which is an act of government as all men that know what belongs unto government will acknowledge Now should it be granted that these Presbyters here spoken of were the Presbyters of Judea which notwithstanding is not specified but only the distressed brethren in Judea yet had it been in expresse words set down that the almes had been sent to the Presbytery of Judea the Presbytery of Jerusalem must necessarily have been included in it as being the Metropolis of Judea and it was an ordinary thing for the Churches abroad and particularly that of Antioch to send to the Apostles and Presbyters of Jerusalem as we may see Act. 11. ver 22. and Act. 15. And by all probability Paul and Barnabas brought these almes to the Presbyters of Jerusalem for he in the fifteenth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans maketh mention of a contribution that was made in Macedonia and Achaia for the poore Saints in Jerusalem whether the Apostle saies he was going to minister unto them and desireth the Romans to pray for him that he may be delivered from the unbeleeving Jewes and that his service for Jerusalem might be accepted of the Saints which by the learned Interpreters is generally taken that Paul speaketh of this time and that they were then sent from Jerusalem to Antioch But howsoever it should be understood that these almes were sent to the Presbyters in Judea yet these two conclusions necessarily result from it The first that this expression comprehends also the Presbyters of Jerusalem as being the chiefe City of Iudea The second that the Presbyters in all Churches were the men to whom the government and ordering of businesses was committed and in whose hands the power and authority lay of disposing of the very charity and bounty of the brethren to all the necessitated Disciples within their jurisdictions and who gave directions to the Deacons how they should be distributed to the best emolument and benefit of the poore and according to the intention of these benefactors which as it is an act of Government and that a principall one so of necessity the Presbyters must then meet together that by their joint and common consent and counsell all things may be rightly ordered But in the chap. 15. v. 2.4.6.22 the Presbyters of Ierusalem by name are expressed and in chap. 16. and in Act. 21. v. 17 18. in these words Then they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certaine other of them should go up to Ierusalem unto the Apostles and Presbyters about this question and they were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Presbyters to whom they declared all things that God had done with them and how that there rose up certaine of the Sect of the Pharises which believed saying that it was needfull to circumcize them and to command them to keep the law of Moses and the Apostles and Presbyters came together to consider of this matter c. ver 22. Then pleased it the Apostles and Presbyters with the whole Church c. and chap. 16. v. 4. And as they went through the Cities they delivered them the Decrees to keep that were ordained of the Apostles and Presbyters which were at Ierusalem c. and chap. 21 v. 17 18. And when we were come to Ierusalem the Brethren received us gladly and the day following Paul went in with us unto Iames and all the Presbyters were present and v. 25. As touching the Gentiles which believe we have written and concluded say the Presbyters that they observe no such thing Out of all which places before I frame my arguments to prove that the Church of Ierusalem consisting of many Congregations and assemblies was governed by a Presbytery that is by the joint consent common councell of the Apostles Presbyters which made but a grand Presbytery I shall desire all men to consider that howsoever the Apostles in the places above specified are differenced by that title from the Presbyters yet in all acts of government performed by them in the Church of Ierusalem they were for the substance of them ordinary acts such as Presbyters daily performe and therfore answerably the Apostles themselves are in them to be considered as presbyters that is men governing in an ordinary way as such as had received the keys which is the power of jurisdiction therefore were in their ordinary imployment though at other times in their severall ministries and going from Nation to Nation to preach as Christs extraordinary Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5. they used superlative authority and I am induced
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
it is not onely set down that James and the Presbyters met together which had it onely been for the entertainment of Paul it is an argument sufficient to convince any rationall man that if the Presbyters would meet together for a salutation they did much more meet for acts of government But I say it is not only specified that the Presbyters met together but what they did in consultation in that their meeting and what they acted upon deliberation and that was to advise Paul and to direct him what he should do which councell of theirs was not lax but restrictive and binding ver 23. Do therefore that which we say unto thee By all which it is evident that they met about acts of government when they gave an order and rule to Paul himselfe how he should behave himselfe at that time and we reade that Paul followed their counsell and submitted himselfe to their order by all which it is most apparent that the church of Jerusalem was ordered and governed by the joint consent and common-councell of Presbyters though consisting of many congregations and was presbyterially governed But I further thus argue Where there were many assemblies in Jerusalem and many presbyters and these assemblies were all one church and these presbyters all of them presbyters of that one church there of necessity there were many congregation under one presbytery and that church was presbyterially governed but in the church of Ierusalem there were many assemblies and many presbyters and those assemblies were all one church and those presbyters all of them presbyters of that one church ergo in-the church of Ierusalem there were many congregations under one presbytery and that church was presbyterially governed For the major no man of sound reason or judgement will deny it And for the first part of the minor that there were many assemblies in that church it hath sufficiently been proved in the foregoing discourse and is evident out of the 21. chapter where it is said there were many ten thousands And for the other parts of it that the Church of Ierusalem was but one Church and that all the Presbyters there were Presbyters of that one Church the Brethren themselves do acknowledge it and they do also accord and grant that the Church of Ierusalem was governed by a Presbytery and that it was presbyterianly ruled but withall they conceive the church of Ierusalem to consist of no more beleevers than might all meet together in one place and congregation so that the difference between us and the Brethren is not whether the Church of Ierusalem was presbyterianly governed or no for that they doe acknowledge and would have their Churches governed after that manner but this is all the debate between us and them whether there were no more beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem than could all meet in one Congregation which is their opinion but whether or no it hath not by the foregoing discourse been sufficiently proved that there were more Congregations and Assemblies in the Church of Jerusalem and a greater number of beleevers than could all meet in any one place or Congregation and that all these were under one presbitery that I refer to the understanding Reader to judge of and this shall suffice to have spoken of the third conclusion or proposition And now I come to the fourth viz. That the Church of Jerusalem and the government of the same is to be a patterne for all Congregations and Assemblies in any City or vicinity to unite into one church and for the Officers and Presbiters of those congregations to governe that church joyntly in a colledge or Presbitry And for the proofe of this there needs no great dispute for al men acknowledge that the mother Church must give an example of government to all the daughter Churches now then when it doth evidently appeare that this mother Church of Jerusalem in her most flourishing condition and by her first constitution was confisting of many Congregations and severall Assemblies and that they were all governed by a Presbitry or a joynt and common Councell of Presbiters then it followeth that all other Churches should be governed after the same manner as the mother Church was to the end of the world neither doe the brethren deny but the government of the Church of Jerusalem must be the patterne of government to all Churches and therefore out of that misprision and mistake that shee was consisting of but as many as could meet in one Congregation they take the Church of Jerusalem for imitation and teach all their severall Congregations to doe the same and to exercise the same power among themselves independent and to govern with as absolute an authority in their severall Congregations as the whole Colledge of the Apostles and Presbiters did in the Church of Jerusalem and from the which they allow of no appeale as all that know their tenent can witnesse So that this last proposition being strengthed both by reason and the consent of the brethren needs no further proofe And now I come to the second question between us and the brethren which is concerning the manner of gathering of Churches and admitring of members and Officers viz. Whether Ministers of the Gospell may out of already congregated Assemblies of beleevers select and choose the most principle of them into a Church-fellowship peculiar unto themselves and admit of none into their society but such as shall enter in by a private covenant and are allowed of by the consent and approbation of all the Congregation And this question brancheth it selfe into these severall Queries The first whether for the gathering of Churches there be either precept or president in the holy Word of God that the Preachers and Ministers of the Gospell did ever leave their owne ordinary charges to which they are called and whereto they are fixed with a command not to leave them and under pretence of a new way or a new borne truth or a new light did runne about and alienate the minds of the people wel-affected formerly to their severall Ministers as of duty they were bound as who had converted them to Christ by their ministery and fed them still with the sincere milk of the Word and built them up in their most holy faith I say the first quere is whether there be precept or example in the Word of God of any true Ministers so doing and whether it was ever heard of in the Apostles primitive times that any beleeving Christians were in great numbers congregated from among other beleeving Christians and moulded into several Congregations and Assemblies as seperate and distinct bodies and Churches from them and who had no Church-fellowship with the other Congregations nor communicated with them in the Ordinances but were independent from them and absolute among themselves and whether this way of gathering of Churches was ever heard of before these dayes and whether this be to set Christ upon his Throne to make devisions and scismes in
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
〈◊〉 164◠Man's dayes are vaine and as a flower they fade Heere 's one proclames whereon man's life is stay'd His sufferings Changes Comforts in strict thrall Shen's GOD alone preserves and Gouernes all INDEPENDENCY NOT GODS ORDINANCE OR A Treatise concerning Church-Government occasioned by the Distractions of these times Wherein is evidently proved that the Presbyterian Government DEPENDENT is Gods Ordinance and not the Presbyterian Government INDEPENDENT To vvhich is annexed a Postscript discovering the uncharitable dealing of the Independents towards their Christian brethren and the fraud and jugglings of many of their Pastors and Ministers to the misleading of the poor people not only to their own detriment but the hurt of Church and State with the danger of all Novelties in Religion BY JOHN BASTVVICK Dr in Physick 2 CORIN 13.8 For we can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth 1 THESS 5.21 Prove all things and hold fast that which is good LONDON Printed by John Macock for Michael Spark junior and are to be sold at the sign of the blue Bible in Green-Arbour 1645. A Treatise proving the Presbyterian Government DEPENDENT to be Gods Ordinance and not the Presbyterian Government INDEPENDENT THe Apostle Saint Paul in the fourth of the Ephesians exhorting all Christians to walk worthy of the Vocation whereunto they were called and to behave themselves as beseemed brethren wisheth them with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long suffering and patience to bear one with another in love And useth a forceable Argument to move them to brotherly kindnesse Because saith he there is but one body and one spirit and one hope of Salvation We all worship one God we are all consecrated to him with one Baptisme and we all hope for one and the self-same glory Therefore as there is but one Lord one faith one Baptisme so be ye also of one minde live in love and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace If ever there was need of this Exhortation there is now singular use of it especially in this distracted Nation wherein we live For the division of a Kingdome is the ruin of it the division of a family destroys it the division between brethren brings a confusion amongst them It hath ever bin observed That diversity of judgement opinion hath made a difference in affection The difference between the Jews the Samaritans in points of Religion made the Disciples desire That fire might come down from heaven to end that controversie The difference between us and the Papists and the diversity of opinions between us made them because they could not bring down fire from heaven fetch it out of hell to blow up the Parliament and because that had not the desired effect and the diversity of opinion stil remaining makes the difference of their affection from us so great that nothing can expiate their indignation against us but the utter internetion and destruction of us all and this and this only next unto our own sins is the cause of all those fatall calamities this miserable kingdome is now imbroyled with And therefore all care and diligence among brethren should be used to get a right understanding one of another and to move them to bear one with another and ever to call to mind the saying of Abraham to Lot Gen. 13. Let not us contend together for we are brethren I am most assured if there were a right understanding of the differences that are now among brethren there could not be such bitter expressions one against another and such alienation of affection as is now too frequent and too well known to the common enemy We are commanded If it be possible as much as lies in us to be in peace with all men Rom. 12.18 And the fruits of discord are set down in the 5th of the Galathians verse 15. If saith the Apostle ye bite and devoure one another take heed ye be not consumed one with another and in the 20. verse Hacred saith the Apostle varience emulation strife c. and envyings are of the flesh and they that do such things shall not enter into the Kingdome of God A double misery follows those that do these things misery here and misery hereafter it excludes men out of heaven The contemplation of the sad condition that will inevitably come upon that Land Kingdome and Church where those variances and heart-burnings are and where there is such diversity of opinions and by reason of them such difference in affection put me chiefely upon this imployment to see and try if by any possible means I could by shewing wherein the difference between the brethren lyeth be an instrument of a good accord amongst them resolving with my self by Gods assistance whatsoever others do to observe to the uttermost of my abilities the royall Law Jan. 2.8 I do conceive that if there were a right understanding one of anothers opinions the world would wonder there should be such invectives in every pamphlet one against another and such varience among those that are joyned together and that with nighest relations The truth is the mis-understanding of each others opinions and the mis-prisian of each others intentions is the onely cause of this diversity of affection which to the dishonour of God and of our holy profession and indeed to the disgrace of Christian Religion every where too much venteth it self And therefore as Abraham said unto Lot so say I to all those that love the truth in sincerity and wish the Peace of Zion Let not us contend especially with evill language for we are brethren we have one father we worship one God we have one light one truth one way And this I professe to all the world That I contend not for victory but for that ancient light the faith once delivered unto the Saints Jude 3. For that truth which we have heard from the beginning 1 John 2. ver 14. for the old way verse 6. The way the truth and the life Joh. 14. and for the honour of that Church against which the gates of hell can never prevaile in the which these are all those undeceiveable marks as are able for ever to declare her to be built upon the foundation of Peter in which the Gospell of Jesus Christ is purely and sincerely both preached and beleeved and where the Sacraments are rightly administred and in the which there is the true invocation of God and all other requisites that make her a true Church and from which there is no just cause of separation That I have dedicated this Treatise to no man nor sought the patronage of any Authority no mortall creature I presume will blame me knowing my Reasons For writing in defence of the Prerogative Royall of Kings against Papall Usurpation I dedicated my book unto the King of great Britaine France and Ireland supposing my self safe under his protection whose honour and imperiall dignity I maintain but all men know what misery to the ruin of me my
the sense that I understand it there is nothing more cleer to me in all the holy Scripture Yea the very word and name of Presbytery signifieth a magistracy or Aristocracy or Signory or Court that is a Company or Senate or Councell of grave wise and understanding men invested with authority and power of ruling ordering and commanding and in whose hands the government is put And as the word is taken in the civill polity and Government so in the Ecclesiasticall by a Presbytery we understand a Religious Grave Solid Learned and wise councell of Divines and Ministers or men of inveterate experience and such as know how to Rule and Govern those that are under their command with wisedome and moderation and according to the Word of God and the which men likewise are invested with Authority and Power for to exercise a jurisdiction over others and are hereunto called by such as are able to judge and discern of the sufficiency of their gifts and abilities for this work which the ordinary and common people cannot do And as in the civill State the Presbyters and Elders of the people were those that had the rule over them for the common good of them all and for their bodily preservation So the Presbyters and Elders of the Church are those that have the rule and government over the Churches for the spirituall good of their souls And as Kings and Rulers are by a Metaphoricall and borrowed speech called Pastors and Sheepheards of the people and are said to feed the flocks committed to their charge by which word is understood the exercise of all lawfull and moderate authority agreeable to the Law of God over them so the Presbyters and Ministers are called the Pastors and Sheepheards yea and Stewards over the flocks committed to their charges and they are commanded to feed them by which metaphor they are invested with the authority and power both of preaching and ruling and have the Government over those flocks put into their hands which they must alwayes exercise according to Gods Word they must feed them and rule them in the Lord and not after their own wills and pleasures they may not have dominion over our faith as Paul saith in the 2. of the Corinthians chap. 1. vers 24. But that they should be helpers of our joy that is they may not usurpe an absolute Soveraignty or power over the consciences of the people as if the spirituall state and welfare of their flocks depended on them which is onely grounded upon their faith in Jesus Christ but as they are the Stewards of God and Ministers and servants of the Church so they should comfort them and rejoyce their hearts in the Lord and establish them in the faith and use all the care and diligence that is possible like good Sheepheards to preserve the flocks committed to their charge that they straggle and stray not from Christs fould and run not into the by-wayes and thickets of sin and errour and be corrupted with noysome food and false Doctrine and if they have any among them that are unruly that they bring and reduce them into order or if they have any sick feeble poor or weak that they cure releeve comfort and restore such and if they have any that are infected or scabby that they remove such from the sound till they be recovered or if they have any broken or wounded that they heal and recover them with all lenity and humanity and that they should by common councell govern and order their flocks and take speciall care that the particular Pastors and Ministers of the severall Congregations and Assemblies under their Presbytery and charge assume not any sole and soveraign Authority to themselves over the flock to do any thing of publike concernment without the joynt consent of that Presbytery or spirituall corporation under whose commands they are And it stands with all reason that a Common Councell of godly grave learned and experienced ministers should ever be more able to manage and order a government then two or three unexperienced men or two or three hundred young people of which most Congregations consist in whom the sap of youth is not yet dryed up or if many of them should be of riper years yet they know little what belongs to government and therefore they can never be so well able to govern as men both of known learning ancient experience and honesty and approved judgement and integrity as a whole Colledge or an Assembly of learned Presbyters commonly are who by God himself have the dispensation of the Word and the ordering and ruling of the Church committed unto them and who in the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments and in all ordinary acts of worship and in governing and ruling the flocks committed to their severall charges are the successors of the holy Apostles But by the way an objection is here to be answered unto made by some of the Independents after this manner The Elders and Presbyters of the Apostles times say they by the imposition of their hands gave the gifts of tongues and prophesie Acts 19.1 2 3 4 5. and the 8.18 and 1 Tim. 4.14 and healed the sick Iames 5.14 15. according to our Saviours promise Mark 16.18 Let say they the Presbyters of our time let them impose their hands upon the sick and heale them let them by imposing hands upon their disciples inable them on a sudden to speake with strange tongues and foretell things to come and then we will acknowledge them for a true Presbytery then will they be a right assembly of Elders and the Apostles successors but if they cannot give to others nor yet have for themselves in store any of the true Apostles any of the right Presbyters gifts and characters we may not we dare not acknowledge them as such These are their formall words in print Before I come to my answer I desire there may be speciall notice taken of this Objection and such like for for ought that I know if any man will argue after this manner all Christian religion may be called in question and no man will have any Creed or Belief except he may make his own Articles as Thomas did who said Vnlesse I put my hands into his side and my fingers into the print of the nailes I will not believe And as the Jewes said unto our blessed Saviour Thou that savest others now save thy selfe come down from the Crosse and then we will believe in thee do this miracle and then thou wilt perswade us Here we see they would make their own Articles or else they would have no Creed The Jewes had learned this method of disputing from the Devill who at his meeting of our Saviour Christ and at his first assault thus disputed If thou be the Sonne of God saith he and wouldest have the world so believe and me too on thee then command these stones to be made bread do this miracle first but thou
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
against the expresse command of God who is the God of order and injoynes the contrary yea it is not onely against the law of God but against the very law of nature and the practice of all Nations for never was it yet heard of in any well governed city or common wealth or Kingdome that women that were subjects had their voyces in choosing officers or Burgesses or making of freemen or disfranchising of them or were permitted so much as to sit in counsell with them much lesse to rule and give lawes to others out of their owne houses And therefore as it is a thing odious to God and man and that which is a shame to that sex it ought to be cast out of all wel-governed Churches and States and as the women ought to know their places so ought all men that are under obedience to learne their duty and not to take upon them that which God never gave unto them as to have their voyce either in making of members in Churches or casting of them out or of ordaining of officers or of imposing lawes upon others either of making publike confessions before the Congregations or of producing evidences of their conversion or that they should walk with them some time that they might behold their conversation or of imposing a covenant upon any that shall be admitted for all rule and government in the Church is put into the hands of the Presbiters and does not belong unto the people or multitude neither may the Presbiters usurpe authority but they also must exercise it onely according to the commission given unto them by Christ they may not transgresse it or goe beyond it in the least thing and therefore when many of the brethren call for a publike confession of mens faith to be made in their new Congregation and the evidences of their conversion to be produced and impose a covenant upon them before they admit them to be members of their Church as if they had lived before in infidelity Who notwithstanding were knowne to be holy and godly Christians and as true beleevers as any that now live in the world and think them onely Christians and beleevers that doe as they would have them and count of others that will not conforme themselves to their customes and novelties but as the off-scowring and refuse and no Christians I say it is an intolerable usurpation and a thing that was yet never before practised in the world in any Church either Jewish or Christian till these dayes and therefore they goe beyond their commission in so doing for God in his commssion to his Apostles and all Ministers bids them admit of all that come in and beleeve and are baptized he quencheth not the smoaking flax nor breaketh the bruised reed now then when they know thousands in this Kingdome that doe beleeve and are men of unblamable lives and such as would lay downe their lives for the faith once delivered unto the Saints and are baptized what have they to doe to lord it over them and to hinder them from communicating in the Ordinances and to be admitted into Church-fellowship with them or to debarre them from the communion of the Saints Me thinks the vision to Saint Peter in the tenth of the Acts should teach such men their duty When God said unto Peter rise kill and eat Peter said not so Lord for I have never eaten any thing that is common and uncleane and the voyce said what God hath cleansed call not thou common And this saith the Scripture was done thrice that by the mouth of two or three Witnesses this truth might be confirmed to Peter and all other Ministers not to call those people common prophane and uncleane and to count them but rubbish whom God hath graced with the gifts of his holy Spirit and hath sanctified and such as beleeve in Jesus Christ and are baptized as well as themselves and such as stood to the truth when they durst not shew their faces but ran from the Cause and deserted it or at least temporized and such as if the like occasions were offered would manifest unto the world by Gods assistance that their lives and all they have should not be deere unto them for the testimony of Jesus and yet such as these must be debarred from the communion in their assemblies unlesse they will conforme to their new-borne traditions for these are no traditions of the Elders but of the younger and if Christ in his time sharply reproved those that brake the Commandements of God through the traditions of men and deeply reproved the Ministers in those dayes for teaching the people to preferre the traditions of the Elders before the commandements of God and for teaching them the feare of God after the precepts of men What shall we think those Ministers will have to answer at the dreadfull day of judgement when they set up their traditions in the Church of God and preferre them before the Commandements of God and what can any man think of the condition of that people that account of such novelties as the Oracles of God and violate the law of Love and make rents and scismes in the seamelesse garment of the Church through these traditions Surely whatsoever they may promise to themselves their condition is very dangerous for our Saviour saith Woe be to those by whom offences come Matthew 18. and whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that beleeve in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea And whether this be not to transgresse the Commandements of God through their traditions and to offend those little ones that beleeve in Christ when they will not receive such into the communion and fellowship of the Church as beleeve and are baptized but count them as aliens and strangers yea infidels and rubbish I referre my selfe to any that is but of ordinary understanding For Gods command unto all Ministers was that they should admit all such into the Church as beleeved and were baptized upon their desiring it without any confession either private or publike or entring into any covenant Now this command of God they transgresse by their traditions and keepe out many thousands of beleevers through the Kingdome as unholy and as having no right to the Ordinances because forsooth they will not obey their new-born lawes and traditions for where did ever God command that no beleevers should be admitted into the Church except they made a publike confession of their faith and walked some time in fellowship amongst them and then give in the evidences of their conversion and entred into a private covenant and gave the Church satisfaction Or where was it ever practised by any of the primitive Christians either by those that were converted by Peters Sermon and the other Apostless or by Paul's preaching was Lidia when God opened her heart to beleeve Pauls preaching admitted into the Church upon
God bringing salvation hath appeared to all men for this very end that they should deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquitie and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good works I say I have been ever taught by Gods holy Word to beleeve that those Ministers that instruct the people to do al these things and where the people by faith imbrace and receive this doctrine are the true Ministers of Jesus Christ those congregations under them the church of Jesus Christ and of his sheepfold and that Christ in all such congregations is set up as King in his Throne as who rules in the hearts of his people and the which are swayed and guided by the Scepter of his Word and Spirit and deserve none of those contumelious languages the brethren asperse both Ministers and people with Of the ministers they thus speak and print That they deny disclaime and preach against Christs Kingly government over mens consciences and Churches so that such a conversion as is wrought by them comes not home to whole Christ and such with their converters doe deny Christs kingly government or at least and best they are converted but in part and that maine thing is wanting to wit Christs Kingly office and of all the people and Christian beleevers through the Kingdome that are not in their Congregations and new-gathered Assemblies they speak and print thus We say the brethren the independent ministers exhort them to set up Christ King in their hearts We exhort them to become and professe to be those Saints of whom Christ is King for he is King of Saints Rev. 15.3 but they will not beleeve us say they they will not depend upon Christ as the onely law-giver and King over their consciences Now what would you have us to doe in this case say they baptize the infants of such parents as will not in this respect professe nor confesse Christ to be their King Why doe you not know say they that no Infants have any title to baptisme that are not within the covenant visibly and how are they within the covenant visibly but by vertue of their parents faith outwardly professed and what outward profession of faith is there in the parents that refuse Christ for their onely King that are ashamed or afraid to professe to be in covenant with Christ as their King if therefore the parents professe not yea refuse thus to be in visible covenant can the children be said to be in visible covenant so to have a right in baptisme the externall seal of the covenant here is an obex a barre put These are their owne words which I have set downe at large the summe of them briefly is this that all the Ministers of the Church of England that are not of their fraternity doe deny disclaime and preach against Christs Kingly government over mens consciences and churches and that all the people under their Ministery are men unconverted or at least converted but in part wanting the main thing to wit Christs Kingly office men visibly out of the covenant of grace who have not so much as an outward profession of faith who deny Christ to be their King to whose persons and infants the very sacraments and seals of grace with all church communion may and ought to be denied Another of the Independents amongst many of the contumelious and disgracefull speeches he uttereth out aganst the Ministers of the church of England calling them the blackcoats in the Synod who he is afraid will prove more cruell Taskmasters than their Fathers the Bishops who cowardly sit at home and in his apprehension for no other end but to breed faction and devision amongst the wel affected to the Parliament promoting their own interest which saith he is lazinesse pride covetousnesse and domination and amongst many such expressions as these he proclaimes them the sworne enemies of Jesus Christ and desiring that the Parliament may be put in mind of their covenant for he thinks they have sworn to root out popery he tels them they have established Tythes the very root and support of popery which he doth humbly conceive is a contradiction to their covenant and which will be a greater snare than the Common-Prayer to many of the precious consciences of Gods people whose duty it is in his judgement to dye in a prison before they act or stoop unto so dishonourable a thing as this is to their Lord and Master as to maintaine the black-coats with tythes whom they look upon as the professed enemies of their anointed Christ c. These are some of his formall expressions I leave the comment of these severall passages to others neither doe I rehearse innumerable such like sentences as are daily vented to the intolerable disgrace both of all the Ministers of the Church of England of all those beleeving christians that are under their several charges that in every pamphlet in the which they proclaim all the Ministers to be the sworne and professed enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ and such as deny disclaime and preach against Christs kingly government over mens consciences and Churches and for the people and beleevers in England they proclaime them to be men unconverted or at least converted but in part wanting the maine thing Christs Kingly office men visibly out of the covenant of grace who have not so much as an outward profession of the faith who deny Christ to be their King to whose persons and Infants the very Sacraments and seales of grace with all church-communion may and ought to be denied c. By the which words they not onely unchurch all the congregations of England Scotland Ireland but indeed all the reformed churches and unchristian all christians but those that are in their owne independent assemblies and account them as aliens and strangers from the common-wealth of the Saints and make Christ to be no King over them or to have any Kingdome in or amongst them but onely amongst themselves in their new congregations wheras Christ ever had a church or Kingdome upon earth in all ages before they were and hath without all controversie a true Kingdome in many churches in these our dayes where they are not Had I not seen their expressions in print and the book in which they are uttered set forth by authority with approbation I should not have beleeved that they had all of them bin so uncharitable but finding that book not only printed by license but generally applauded by them all and much magnified as the frequent edititions of it doe manifest I gather it is the universall opinion of them all Than the which what could be more uncharitably and unchristianly spoken what comfort can any of the Ministers of the church
evidences of the truth of their conversion before the congregation and enter into a private and solemne covenant and be admitted by the consent and approbation of the Church or otherwise if they will not submit themselves to this law and come into the Church upon these conditions receive them not into your assemblies nor admit of them for members Here is nothing of all this in Christs commission nor in his holy Word nor any president of the same in all sacred Authority and therefore John the Baptist and the holy Apostles and primitive Ministers admitted all that came unto them and such as but demanded of them what they should doe to be saved and baptized them and received them into the Church-without any gainsaying or question as we may see in the third of Lake and in the seventh chapter of the same book and in the second of the Acts and no sooner did the Eunuch desire baptisme but Philip granted it the Goaler did but ask Paul and Silas What they should doe to be saved and they said Beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and it is related that the Goaler and all his were streightway baptized Acts 16. ver 31 32 33. that is they were forthwith admitted into the Church without either walking any time with the Church for their approbation or without either making a publike confession of their faith before the Church or giving in evidences of the truth of their conversion to the congregation or entring into a private covenant and without the consent and allowance of the Church And Christ notwithstanding was imbraced by them as their Lord and King and was preached by Paul and Silas as the Lord and King of his Church and was set up upon his Throne as King by them as well as he is in any independent Churches and yet they had none of all their new borne truths and they could then see how to set up Christ upon his Throne without their new lights and as Christ was then by Paul and Silas and the other Apostles set upon his Throne as King in all those primitive Churches so he is at this day in all the true Protestant Churches through the world as well as in any of the Independent Assemblies and yet they were and are all ignorant of their new way so that any understanding christian may gather that all their new borne truths are no way requisite for the setting up of Christ as King in his Church nor for the advancement of Christs Kingly government for if they had Christ would have put them into the Apostles commission and the Apostles who were led into all truth by the holy Thost who brought whatsoever Christ had taught them concerning the Kingdome of God Acts 1. into their memories would have suggested all these things The new way the new borne truth the new lights to them that they might have been recorded if they had been necessary for the setting up of Christ upon his Throne but when neither Christ nor the holy Ghost nor the blessed Apostles have prescribed any of all these to the church nor called for them nor required them of any that desire to be saved or made members of the church whether this be not a great temerity in any men to preach all these things as the lawes of Christ I leave it to the judgement of any ingenuous minded christian and whether this be not to preferre their owne inventions and traditions before the commandements of God and the lawes of Christ the King of his church and whether this be not rather to set up themselves than Christ I referre it also to any judicious and impartiall christian to weigh and consider I shall now demand of any moderate christian therefore and let him answer me candidly whether of those Ministers and people most advance the Kingdome of Christ and acknowledge him to be their onely Lord and Law-giver that both in their teaching and beleeving follow his commission and Word and teach nothing nor beleeve nothing as they are injoyned but what Christ their King commands them or those that to the commission and commands of Christ adde their owne inventions and traditions and preferre them before the lawes of Christ the King and Law-giver of his church I am confident if he will deale impartially he will answer me that those Ministers and that people most advance Christ for their King and most set him upon his Throne that owne his law and that onely for the rule of their faith and obedience for Christ himselfe hath said it John 10. My Sheep heare my voyce they will not listen unto the voyce of a stranger Christs voyce onely the King of his church is to be heard and they onely that obey it advance him for their King and set him up on his Throne which when the Ministers and beleevers in the church of England doe and the Independents doe not they more advance Christ for their King than they for the Independents to Christs law and commission adde their owne traditions and inventions and enjoyne all that will be admitted as members into their congregations besides their beleeving being baptized to walk with them some time for approbation and to make a publike confession of their faith before the church and to bring in the evidences of the truth of their conversion and enter into a private and solemne covenant and not to be admitted as members without the consent of the Church all which Christ the King of his church never commanded and those that will not submit themselves to these their traditions they will not permit or suffer to enter into their church as joyned members which they call the onely true churches of Christ and count of all others that differ from them as enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and as men without the covenant and if this be to set up Christ upon his Throne then the Pharisees set up Christ upon his Throne who preferred their own traditions before the commandments of God yea the pope himself the Prelats set up Christ upon his Throne who preferred their own traditions and idolatries before the lawes of Christ Now if all the traditions of the Papists were justly abhorred and cast out of the church as things derogatory to the Kingly and Propheticall dignity of Jesus Christ and as things repugnant to his royalty I see no reason but all other popery under whatsoever name or title it be intruded upon the people should be eliminated and cast out of the church and whether this be not a new kind of popery to bring in new wayes and new borne truths and new lights and impose them upon the people as the commands of God and to excommunicate and unchurch all churches in the world but their owne assemblies I referre my selfe to the judgement of any intelligible christian Saint Paul writing to the Galatians blames those false teachers amongst them that would have joyned but the
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.
when they are upon every slight occasion or for any difference in opinion cast out then they congregate a new church by themselves and turne Pastors The which blessed be God in the reformed churches of France and Germany hath not yet been seen since the first reformation for the governing of Churches by the Common-counsell of their Presbiters where they find such brotherly dealing and where they have their appeals upon any conceived wrong or injury and have right and justice done them makes them willingly submit themselves to that manner of government without making rents and scismes And truly if things were but maturely weighed all men would readily perceive that there is no just ground of reproach to be laid upon the Presbiters neither would they see any reason why in way of disdaine the Ministers of the Church of England should be more called Presbiterians than the Independent Ministers for they also are Presbiterians and labour to set up a presbiterian government as well as the other and professe in their writings that they contend for the ancient presbitry so that they also are presbiterians as well as the other and if the one be made hatefull and formidable to the people in the judgement of all solid men the other also may be made as odious and hatefull for if that odium and hatred they bring upon the presbitry be for the onely feare they have conceived the Presbiters will lord it too much over them and that onely I say be the occasion that so terrifies the people from that government let all men here consider and compare each kind of presbitry together both that of the Dependent and that of the Independent for if the Independent Presbiters in the infancy and very first beginning and rise of their government assume unto every severall congregation and presbitry of theirs an absolute kind of soveraignty and jurisdiction from which there is no appeale and if they already take upon them to unchurch all Churches but their owne and proclaime all the Ministers and people but those of their owne congregations profest enemies of Christs Kingdome what would they doe if they were once established by authority in their severall Jurisdictions and Assemblies and if now they will admit of none into their severall Assemblies though never so eminent beleevers but upon their owne conditions and unlesse they will be admitted members upon such tearmes as they propound without either precept or president out of the Word of God for their so doing which is the greatest tyranny of the world how would these men lord it if their government were once established by Parliament It is well knowne and can sufficiently be proved that godly christians and people of approved integrity and of holy conversation against whom they had no exception either for doctrine or manners and who offered themselves to be admitted members upon their owne conditions and yet were not suffered to be joyned members onely because they were poore and this very reason was given unto them for their not admission that they would not have their Church over butdened with poore And others desiring that their Children might be baptized in their Congregations and going to the Ministers of those Assemblies to entreat this favour that their children might be baptized among them For answer it was told them that they could baptize none but such as were infants of their joyned members which is their practice and wished them first to be made joyned members in one of their Churches Whereupon they thought that there was no congregation fitter for them to joyne to than to that Pastors Assembly that had given them this counsell and therefore applyed themselves unto him and desired that they might be admitted joyned members for answer it was replyed that the congregation of which he was Pastor consisted of great personages Knights Ladies and rich Merchants and such people as they being but poore could not walk so suitably with them withall he said he could doe nothing without the consent of the Congregation wherefore he perswaded them to joyne themselves to some other Congregation among poore people where they might better walk and more comfortably in fellowship with them so that the last news I heard of this businesse was that the children were neither baptized nor the poore men admitted to be joynt members of that Congregation What their Ministers have done since I know not but I well perceive it is as great a difficulty for a poore man to get into some of their Congregations as to get into Suttons-Hospitall and that I conceive to be the onely occasion that makes some walk so long in many Congregations before they come to be admitted members for if they be rich they are speedily received nay invited to be members It is too well knowne that many godly and holy people have left their native country and transporttd themselves over into New-England where this government is set up onely that they might enjoy the Ordinances there in their purity they were beleevers before they went and were baptized and such as were knowne before they went thither to be the deare servants of God but when they came there especially if they be poore they make them walk some a yeer some more yea some six or seven before they can be admitted members of their Congregations and they baptize none of those children that are borne there before their parents be joyned members and except they will in all things conforme themselves to their own conditions they shall never be admitted And sometime the man onely is admitted and his wife left out still to walk and sometime the wife is admitted and the man left out still to walk and both these notwithstanding are beleevers and baptized and after with a great deale of difficulty they are admitted to be members a very small offence will be sufficient to cast them out againe if they be poore But for stories of this nature I doe not love to multiply them but I have heard many of this kind from those places and from such as have been in New-England and men both then and now no way evilly affected either to the place or people serving God there But it is too notorious they lord it there over Gods poore Clergies in the superlative degree and every man that has but eyes in his head may see it here in England in their congregations what difference they make between the rich and poore and that they have the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons a sinne in Saint James his time highly blamed in christians James 2. and as in their carriage towards the poore they are very lofty and look for great observance and attendance from them wheresoever they come so likewise a little thing will displease them if they speak a word amisse it is enough to be cast out of the Congregation presidents of this nature might be brought many And if all this be not to lord it over
Gods Clergies I know not what it is to admit of none though beleevers and already baptized but such as will come in upon their owne tearmes and keep out the poore either altogether or as long as pleaseth them without any other reason but because they are poore and cast them out againe upon every slender occasion I say if all this be not a most diabolicall tyranny lording it over Gods Clergies I referre it to any moderate man to judge of and if to unchurch all churches but their owne and at one blast to proclaime them all enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and to deny all church-fellowship with them be not more than a Diotrephian prelaticall and papall authority there was never any in the world and if this be not to lord it over Gods Clergies there was never any knowne Now I say if the Independent Presbiters doe so timely begin their absolute lording of it what would they doe if their government were established by authority Their ministry and government is farre different from that of Christ and his holy Prophets and Apostles for they invited all the poore to come in and to buy milk yea to come in and buy milk without mony Isa 55.1 and Saint Paul for the encouraging the poore to come in saith not many mighty not many noble but the meane and contemptible things hath the Lord made choyce of intimating unto the poore that they have as good right to Heaven as the greatest and chiefest and our Saviour Christ saith come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and ye shall find rest unto your soules Our Saviour has no respect of persons but the poore are with him as acceptable as the rich if they be weary and heavy laden with their sinnes for that is all the condition that Christ requires in all that desire to be admitted members of his Church Now when these Presbiters already make so great difference between the poore and the rich and between beleevers and beleevers as they will admit none but at their owne times and upon their own conditions I do conceive that this is a most tyrannically lording it over Gods Clergies and inheritance which when they daily doe it and the Presbiters of the Church of England doe it not it is most apparent that their rule and domination is more prelaticall and more to be feared than that of the Presbiters of the Church of England for from the independent Presbiters they can never expect any appeale for reliefe and redresse whatsoever wrong or injury they have sustained by them and therefore there is no just cause why any should so traduce the Presbitry of the Church of England as to think they will lord it over the people from whom they may ever expect farre better measure than ever they can from the independent Presbitry which if it should once be established would tend to nothing else but to enslave the whole Kingdome and to bring in a confusion upon both Church and State But now it will not be amisse before the conclusion as we have compared the Presbiters of the Church of England with the Presbiters independent both in regard of their doctrine and discipline so now likewise here to paragonate them together in their proceedings for the advancement of Christs Kingdome that all men may see in that regard also which of their endeavours tend most to the advancement of the Kingdome of Jesus Christ and which of them ought to be preferred before other and which of them doth more really and truly tend not onely to Gods glory but to the peace also of the Church and State For the Presbiters of the Church of England they labour and endeavour as there is but one body one spirit one hope one Lord one faith one baptisme one God and Father over all who is above all and through all and one true christian Religion Eph. 4. so that this only may be established through the three Kingdomes and that all erronious wayes of worshipping and serving God and that tends to lead men to perdition and make disturbance in Church and State may not publikely be tolerated The Independents on the contary both publikely and privately and in all their bitter railing and intolerable pamphlets as that of the compassionate Samaritan the storming of Antichrist and that of the arraignment of persecution and in many more of their scurrilous writings plead for a toleration of all Religions under pretence of liberty of conscience whatsoever they be as Judiansme Turcisme Popery Paganisme and all manner of sects and for the confirming of this their diabolicall tenent they bring in the example of the heathen Nations who suffered all Religions amongst them and the example of Poland Transsilvania and Holland those pantheons of all Religions and tell us of the Parable where Christ commanded that the Tares and the Wheat should be suffered to grow together till the harvest the day of judgement And use or abuse rather some other places of Scripture which as they conceive make all for a toleration of all Religions To all which their pretences I shall at this time briefly answer after I have set downe some grounds out of holy Scripture and produced some examples of Gods deare children friends and servants out of the same which must be the warrant of all christians to follow to the end of the world for whatsoever was written before was written for our learning 1 Cor. 10. Rom. 15. and by the Word of God and from the example of Gods serants we are ever taught that diversity of Religions amongst Christians ought not to be tolerated And first to begin with Abraham the Father of the faithfull and his seed whose examples all that are his and their children oughtto set before their eyes for imitation The Lord called Abraham as it is in Joshua 24. out of his Father Terah's house and from his kindred when they served other Gods made a covenant with him as it is at large set downe in the 12. of Genesis and in divers other places of the same book and in speciall in the 17. of Genesis verse 1 2 3 c. where the Lord reneweth his covenant with him and his seed and sets downe the conditions of his covenant with Abraham which was that Abraham should walk before him and be perfect and that then he would be his God al sufficient to provide for him and protect him wheresoever he came which covenant the Lord ever kept with Abraham and his seed delivering them out of the hands of all their enemies when they served him according to the conditions of the covenant walking uprightly before him as he will doe to all his children to the end of the world walking in father Abraham's steps and of Abraham the Lord sayes this in the 18. of Genesis ver 17 18 19. Shall I hide from Abraham that which I doe seeing that Abraham shall become a great and a mighty Nation and all the Nations of
so that here we have one president that the whole Lords day was spent by all those Christians in the works of piety and charity Againe in the first of the Revelations Saint John saith that he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day that is the first day of the week called by Saint John the Lord's day and there the Angel preached unto him that day and commanded Saint John to take so much of his Sermon by writing as God in his wisdome thought fit to reveale unto his Church and he that shall diligently read what is there written will gather that the whole day was taken up by Saint John and spent in hearing and writing and meditating of what he had heard for without doubt Saint John made it his whole dayes work to be spiritually imployed and as the holy Communion is called the Lord's Supper and all the time of that action is holily to be imployed as being ordained by Christ himselfe to that end even so the Lords day being a day dedicated unto Christ and ordained by him for holy duties and for the hearing of the Word and for the administration of the Sacraments and prayer the whole day ought both privately and publikely to be taken up in the imployments and works of piety and charity as hearing reading meditating prayer repetition of Sermons in their Families catechizing and instructing their children and servants singing of Psalmes in visiting the sick and them that are in prison relieving the poore and necessitated c. These examples of the primitive Christians are for our imitation for so Saint Paul in the third of the Phillippians in the 17. verse saith Brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example for our conversation is in Heaven And in the 4. chap. ver 8. he saith Finally brethren whatsoever things are true what soever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me doe and the God of peace shall be with you By the which testimonies to omit many more we are tyed to follow the examples of the Apostles and to imitate them in all that is holy and good and of good report now it is praise worthy and of good report to spend the whole Lords day in holy imployments and we have the Apostles examples and the primitive Christians for so doing and therefore we ought to spend the whole Lords day in the works of piety and charity and by this the sanctifying of the Christian Sabbath which is every seventh day is ratified the prophanation of the which in the reformed Churches and in many places through these three Kingdomes has been one of the causes of all those heavy judgements the whole christian world now groanes under and so much more would the Lord be provoked by the toleration of all Religions amongst us which would give just occasion of violating of all the Commandements of God and of disobedience both to God and man for it is most sure that the morall law is not altered in any thing for substance and that God that by it injoyned but one Religion to the Israelites and commanded them to keep that pure and undefiled and to punish all idolaters blasphemers and seducers hath injoyned the same to all Christians and hath not suffered or permitted them to tolerate all Religions or any sects or heresies which by the Apostle in the fifth of the Galatians are called the works of the devill and that they that doe them shall not enter into the Kingdome of God So that those that would bring in a toleration of all Religions have a desire to send men to the devill For the examples of Poland Transsilvania and Holland they are no presidents to other Nations their politick proceedings are no examples for other christian Countries and Nations to follow for christians are to live by the rule of God's Word and Christ's their Kings lawes and to follow the examples of his own people only in their wel-doing and not in their failings and therfore we are to follow the example of Abraham Joshua Elias the other Patriarchs Prophets and holy Apostles who never tolerated all Religions Yea we are commanded in Romans the 12. not to conforme our selves to this world but that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove what is the good and the acceptable and perfect will of God Now when by the Word of God that acceptable and perfect will of his we are taught that he was displeased with his people the Jewes for tolerating of all Religions amongst them and that he was highly offended with those christian Churches in Asia for tolerating the doctrines of Balaan and Jezabel we are sufficiently taught and instructed that Christians ought not to tolerate any other Religion but that which Christ the onely King and Law-giver of his Church hath taught us and that whosoever should take that authority upon them to tolerate all Religions would be found fighters against God and such as deservedly would bring downe his judgements upon the Land by it for if but conniving at evill and consenting to it be a thing displeasing unto God how would the tolerating of it by a law be abominable unto his sacred and divine Majesty for this were to establish iniquity by a law We are taught in the holy Scriptures that the consenting with a theefe makes a man as guilty before God as the acting of theevery and that they that assented unto Jezabel in killing the Prophets made themselves all as guilty as Jezabel her selfe and that the Heathen Romans Rom. 1. ver 32. who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely doe the same but consent with them that doe them made themselves as equally guilty as the actors of them as Paul in his bill and information put up in the Court of Heaven against them sufficiently declareth the same did Elias in his bill of information against the people in his time accusing them all as equally guilty of the blood of the Prophets and destroying Religion as Jezabel and onely because they consented unto it They saith Elias have killed thy Prophets and have broken down thy Altars Which they all the people that assented unto her as well as the Officers and Executioners And so our Saviour in his time accuseth the people as well as Herod for slaying of Iohn the Baptist saying They have done to him what soever they pleased They which they all the Nobles that sate at table with Herod that did not disswade Herod from that bloody and tyrannicall act and all the people that liked well of it the sinne of this Nation who assented unto the bloody decrees and censures