be denied 2. It is an Embleme of their own NO CEREMONY NO BISHOP Ergo No humane Tradition and Invention no Bishop Ergo The Office of a Bishop is supported by them either only or specially 3. Their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is derived from the King else it is a flat denial of his Supremacy Also themselves grant in their last Tables of Discipline That the King hath power to encrease or diminish the Circuit of a Bishopprick That he may make two or more Bishoppricks of one and one Bishopprick to be two or more Yea what should hinder but that he may devide the Bishopprick of London into eight hundred For where God hath not defined the number of Parishes that a Bishop is to raign over it must needs be a thing indifferent In which by their own Doctrines the King hath authority without sin to dispose If therefore the King may as well notwithstanding any thing in the Law of God Give the Keys of the Church to every particular Pastour of a Congregation over his own Congregation as to a Bishop over a Diocess which taketh away the very Essence of an English Bishop He may without sin take away the very Office of the Bishop which consists in having Jurisdiction over many Congregations Also it being not defined by the Word of God but left free what attire Bishops shall wear as also what maintenance they shall have The King having absolute power in things indifferent according to their own Doctrine He may turn them out of their Rochets and Parliament Robes Thrust them out of their Pallaces and put them to their stipends to live upon voluntary devotions of poor Christian People and then a man may easily imagine what the Office of a Bishop would be worth For he that hath authority to prescribe to a Bishop and other Ministers the Forms Rites and Ceremonies of their Divine Service hath also power much more to prescribe moderate and appoint their Apparel Diet and manner of maintenance So that it is clear That the King may without sin disanul the Authorities Dignities and Prerogatives of Bishops Any of which shall be if it be denied proved to be matters of greater indifferency and therefore more appertaining to his Supremacy than the prescribing of Forms of Divine Service and mystical Rites of Religion For let the King take from the Bishop all indifferent things which he may do by their own Doctrine and a Bishop will be no Bishop as shall be proved if it be denied 4. There is no true and sober Christians but will say that the Churches of Scotland France the Low-Countries and other places that renounce such Archbishops and Bishops as ours are as Anticristian and usurping Prelates are true Churches of God which they could not be if the Authority and Prerogatives they claim to themselves were of Christ and not usurped For if it were the Ordinance of Christ Jesus That in every Kingdome that receiveth the Gospel There should be one Archbishop over the whole Kingdome One Bishop over many hundred Pastors in a Kingdome and all they invested with that authority and Jurisdiction Apostolicall which they claim jure Divino to be due unto them and to reside in them by the Ordinance of Christ Certainly that Church that should renounce and disclaim such an Authority ordained in the Church cannot be a true Church but a Synagogue of Sathan For they that should renounce and deny such must needs therein renounce and deny Christ himself Thus the Assumption is cleared The eleventh Argument All Humane Traditions and Rites enjoyned to be performed in Gods worship as necessary to Salvation are unlawfull These Ceremonies in controversie being but Humane Traditions are enjoyned to be performed in Gods worship as necessary to Salvation Ergo These Ceremonies are unlawfull THe Proposition is freely granted of all our Adversaries hitherto If any hereafter by reason of some difficulties the cause may be thrust into by granting the same shall be so desperate as to deny the same we shall be ready to make it good at any time The assumption is thus proved Whatsoever Humane Tradition Ceremony or Action that may without sin or inconvenience to any part of the Worship of God be omitted in the same and yet notwithstanding are injoyned and urged as more necessary than those Actions that are by the Word of God necessary to Salvation I say such humane Ceremonies and Traditions are injoined as necessary to Salvation But these Ceremonies are such as may without any sin or any inconvenience to any part of the Worship of God be omitted in the same and yet notwithstanding are enjoyned as more necessary for Christians to do than those Actions that are necessary to Salvation by the Word of God Ergo These Ceremonies in controversie are injoyned c. as necessary to Salvation He hath no blood of shame running in his veins that will deny the Proposition The Assumption hath two parts The first is this That these Ceremonies are such as may without sin or any inconvenience to any part of the worship of God be omitted This is evident For 1. if they could not be omitted without sin in Divine Worship they were Divine and not Humane Ordinances For example Though to go clothed to the Congregation be a Civil action yet because it is a sin for any to go naked to the Congregation It is a Divine Ordinance That men should go clothed thither And in this case as in any other case of sin a man ought rather never Worship God publickly than to go naked to the Congregation For the omission of a Good Action is no sin when it cannot be done but by committing of a sin 2. Divine Worship consisting in Prayer the Sacraments and the Word no wit of man can shew wherein the bare omission of any one of these Ceremonies is inconvenient to any one of these parts for what inconvenience can a man that is not drunk with the dreggs and lees of Popish Superstition finde it to publick Prayer to be said in the Congregation without a Priests Surplice The omission of ordinary pawses and Accents points and stopps the suppressing of the voice or a loud hooping and hallowing out of the words or an undistinct sounding of them were such actions as common reason will teach are inconvenient for Prayer and so inconvenient that a man ought never to pray publickly in the Congregation as the voyce thereof that should by Canon be tied thereto And the Magistrate though there were no Canon to the contrary ought to turn such out of the Ministry that should omit such matters in prayer But for a Minister to pray without a Surplice can be in reason no more inconvenient than for him to pray without Book without a pair of spectacles upon his nose And there may be as good reason given to prove it convenient for a man that saith a thing without Book to put on a pair of Spectacles as there can be to prove it convenient for him
Whereas it shall appear that no Christians in the world give more unto the same then we and that in very truth the cause that we maintain is for the King and Civil State against an Ecclesiasticall State that secretly and in a Mystery as we may hereafter have occasion to prove opposeth it selfe against the same If this protestation shall in any measure satisfie you Then we desire your Honourable Mediations for us to the highest If not That then we may know wherein it is defective and we shall be found ready to give all satisfaction CHAP. I. A PROTESTATION of the Kings Supremacy WE hold and maintain the same Authority and Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil and Ecclesiasticall granted by Statute to Queen Elizabeth and expressed and declared in the book of Advertisements and Injunctions and in Mr. Bilson against the Jesuites to be due in full and ample mannner without any limitation or qualification to the King and his Heirs and Successours for ever Neither is their to our knowledge any one of us but is and ever hath been most willing to subscribe and swear unto the same according to form of Statute And we desire that those that shall refuse the same may bear their own iniquity 2. We are so far from judging the said Supremacy to be unlawful that we are perswaded that the King should sin highly against God if he should not assume the same unto himself and that the Churches within his Dominions should sin damnably if they should deny to yield the same unto him yea though the Statutes of the Kingdom should deny it unto him 3. We hold it plain Antichristianism for any Church or Church Officers whatsoever either to arrogate or assume unto themselves any part or parcel thereof utterly unlawful for the King to give away or alienate the same from his own Crown and dignity to any spiritual potentates or rulers whatsoever within or without his dominions 3. We hold that though the Kings of this Realm were no Members of the Church but very Infidels yea persecutors of the truth that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within these Dominions ought to acknowledge and yeild the said supremacy unto them And that the same is not tyed to their faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no subject or subjects have power to separate or disjoyne it 5. We hold that neither King nor civil estate are bound in matter of Religion to be subject and obedient to any Ecclesiastical person or persons whatsoever no further then they shall be able to convince their consciences of the truth thereof out of the Word of God Yea we think they should sin against God if they should ground their Religion or any part or parcel thereof upon the bare Testimony or Judgment of any man or of all the men in the world 6. We hold that no Churches or Church-Officers have power for any crime whatsoever to deprive the King of the least of his Royal Prerogatives whatsoeer much less to deprive him of his Supremacy wherein the Height of his Royal Dignity consists 7. We hold that in all things concerning this life whatsoever the Civil Jurisdiction of Kings and Civill States excelleth and ought to have preheminence over the Ecclesiasticall and that the Ecclesiasticall neither hath nor ought to have any power in the least degree over the bodies lives goods or liberty of any person whatsoever much lesse of the Kings and Rulers of the Earth 8. We hold that Kings by virtue of their supremacy have power yea also that they stand bound by the Law of God to make Laws Ecclesiastical such as shall tend to the good ordering of the Churches in their Dominions And that the Churches ought not to be disobedient to any of their Lawes so far as in obedience unto them they do not that which is contrary to the Word of God 9. We hold that though the King shall command any thing contrary to the Word unto the Churches that yet they ought not to resist him therein but onely peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue unto him for grace and mercy and where that cannot be obtained meekely to submit themselves to the punishment 10. We hold that the King hath power by virtue of his supremacy to remove out of the Churches whatsoever he shall discern to be practised therein not agreeable to the Word of God And if he shall see any defect either in the Worship of God or in the Ecclesiastical Discipline he ought by his royal Authority and power to procure and force the redress thereof yea though it be without the consent and against the will of the Ecclesiastical Governers themselves 11. We hold that the King hath as much Authority over the Body Goods and Affaires of Ecclesiastical Persons as of any other of his Subjects whatsoever And that by his Authority he may force them not onely to all civil duties belonging unto them but also unto Ecclesiastical afflicting as great punishment upon them for the neglect thereof as upon any other of his Subjects 12. We hold that he hath power to remove out of the Churches all Scandalous Schismatical and Heretical Teachers and by all due severity of Lawes to repress them 13. We hold that all Ecclesiastical Lawes made by the King not repugnant to the Word of God do in some sort bind the consciences of his Subjects and that no subject ought to refuse obedience to any such Law 14. We hold that the King onely hath power within his Dominions to convene Synods or general Assemblies of Ministers and by his Authority Royal to ratifie and give life and strength to their Canons and Constitutions without whose ratification no man can force any subject to yeild any Obedience unto the same 15. We hold that though the King may force the Churches to be subject and obedient unto him and to be Members of the Common-wealth yet that the Churches severally or joyntly have no power to force him or any Subject against their will to any service unto them or to any religions duty whatsoever No nor to be so much as a Member of any Church 16. We hold that the King ought not to be subject to the Ecclesiastical Censures of any Churches Church Officers or Synods whatsoever but onely to that Church and those Officers of his own Court and Houshold unto whom in reverence of their Religion and of the spiritual Graces of God he sees shining in them he shall of his own free will subject and commit the Regiment of his Soul in whom there can be no suspition nor fear of any partiality or unjust or rigorous dealing against him 17. We hold that if any Ecclesiastical Governours call them by what name you will shall abuse their Ecclesiastical Authority in the execution of their censures upon any man whosoever That the King and Civil States under him have power to punish them severely for it much more if they
shall abuse it upon the Supream Majesty himself 18. If the King subjecting himself to spiritual Guides and Governours shall afterwards refuse to be guided and governed by them according to the Word of God and living in notorious sin without Repentance shall wilfully contemn and despise all their holy and religious Censures that then these Governours are to refuse to administer the holy things of God unto him and to leave him to himself and to the secret Judgement of God wholly to resign and give over that spiritual charge and tuition over him which by calling from God and the King they did undertake And more then this they may not do And after all this We hold that he yet still retaineth and ought to retain intirely and solidly all that aforesaid supream power and Authority over the Churches of this Dominion in as ample a manner as if he were the most Christian Prince in the World 19. We acknowledge King JAMES to be our onely lawful Sovereign and unto him to be due all the aforesaid Supremacy and we renounce and abjure all Opinions Doctrines Practises whatsoever repugnant or contrary to the same as Anabaptistical and Antichristian and wish they may be severely punished 20. We never refused Obedience to any Lawes or Commandements of the King or State whatsoever but onely to such as we have proved or are ready to prove if we might be heard with indifferency to be contrary to the Word of God And we are ready to take our Solemn Oathes before the Throne of Justice that the onely cause of our refusal of Obedience to those Canons of the Prelates for which we are at present so extreamly afflicted is meere Conscience and a fear to sin against God And that if by due form of reasoning we may be convinced in our Consciences of the contrary we are as willing as any Subjects in the Realm to Obey and Conform 21. We refuse Obedience onely to such Canons as require the performance of such Acts and Rites of Religion as are rejected and abandoned of all other Reformed Churches as Superstitious Disorders Such as are special Mysteries of the Romish Antichristian Idolatry Such as have been controverted in the Church ever since the last breaking forth of the Light of the Gospel out of the cloud of Popery in Luthers time Such as all Protestant Writers and Defenders of our Faith beyond the Seas and most of our own Country men have either in general or particular condemned as vain idle and unprofitable Such as all the Faithful and Painful Pastors of this Realm and in a manner all States and degrees of the same would be content were removed and swept out of the Church and for which few or none are zealous but the Prelates and their Adherents 22. We deny no Authority to the King in matters Ecclesiastical but onely that which Christ Jesus the onely Head of the Church hath directly and precisely appropriated unto himself and hath denyed to communicate to any other creature or creatures in the World For we hold That Christ alone is the Doctor of the Church in matters of Religon and that the Word of Christ which he hath given unto his Church is of absolute perfection containing in it all parts of the true Religion both for Substance and Ceremony and a perfect direction in all Ecclesiastical matters whatsoever Unto and from which it is not lawful for any Man or Angel to add or detract 23. We are so far from making claim of any supremacy unto our selves and those Ecclesiastical Officers which we desire that we exclude from our selves and them as that of which we are utterly uncapable all Princely and Lordly state pompe and power whatsoever holding it a sin for any whosoever to exercise no not by commission from the Magistrate any Authority over the Body Goods Lives Liberty of any Man whosoever for any crime or offence whatsoever So that any one of the basest and most inferiour civil officers in a Kingdom hath and ought to have in our Judgement more Authority and Power over men then any or all the Ecclesiastical Officers in the same Kingdom or in the whole World Yea we hold that the highest Ecclesiastical Officer in the Church ought to be as subject unto the basest civil officers in the Kingdom as the meanest Subject in the Kingdom And that they ought not by virtue of their office to challenge any freedom or immunity at all from any Civil Subjection whatsoever belonging to any common Subject 24. We confine and bound all Ecclesiastical power within the limits onely of one particular Congregation holding that the greatest Ecclesiastical power ought not to stretch beyond the same And that it is an arrogating of Princely Supremacy for any Ecclesiastical person or Persons whosoever to take upon themselves Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over many Churches much more over whole Kingdomes and Provinces of Christians 25. We hold it utterly unlawful for any one Minister to take upon himself or accept of a sole Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over so much as one Congregation And therefore we hold that some of the sufficientest and most honest and godly men in the Congregation ought to be chosen by the Heads of Families to be adjoyned in Commission as assistants to the Minister in the spiritual Regiment of the souls of that Congregation of which he is the pastor 26. We hold that these Ecclesiastical Officers being so chosen by the Church or Congregation are to exercise over the said Congregation only a Spiritual Iurisdiction and power consisting in a carefull oversight of the outward behaviour of the Members of their Church That it be not scandalous offensive and unbeseeming Christians And if any Member shall be delinquent they are brotherly to admonish him shewing him the nature of his crime by the word of God And if after two or three admonitions he shew no tokens of sorrow and penitencie then are they to deny unto him the pledges and seales of the Church to wit the Sacraments If this cannot humble him but that he continue obstinate in that sin then they are by the mouth of the Minister in Congregation the whole Church consenting freely thereto denounce him to be no Member of the Kingdom of Heaven and so forbear to have any further charge over him untill God shall work the grace of Repentance in him in this manner they are to proceed against all apparent and Evident crimes only as Murder Adultery Theft Blasphemie Ribaldery Lying Slandering Profanation of the Sabothes contempt of Divine Worship Disobedience to the Civil Magistrate c. Neither ought the extreamest of the Ecclesiastical Censures any whit hinder the course of justice that the Civil Magistrate is to exercise against the same crimes for if a Traytor himself should be penitent the Church ought to forgive him and lovingly to imbrace him as a Son but the Magistrate ought to execute him if he should be obstinate in that crime As the Magistrate ought to cut him off
from the Civil Communion of men so ought the Congregation of which he is a Member cut him off from all spiritual Communion with them If any one of the Ecclesiastical Officers themselves shall sin he is subject to the censures of the rest as any other member of the congregation If they shall all sin scandalously either in the execution of their Office or in any other ordinarie manner Then the Congregation that chose them freely hath as free power to depose them and to place others in their room If the Congregation shall erre either in choosing or deposing of her spiritual Officers Then hath the Civil Magistrate alone power and authority to punish them for their fault co compel them to make better choise or to defend against them those Officers that without just causes they shall depose or deprive 27. We hold that those Ecclesiastical Persons that make claim to greater power and authority then this Especially they that make claim Iure Divino of power and Iurisdiction to meddle with other Churches then that one Congregation of which they are or ought to be members Do usurp upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath and ought to have as we hold and maintain a power over the several Congregations in his Dominions and who alone ought by his authority not only to prescribe common Laws and Canons of uniformity and consent in Religion and worship of God unto them all But also to punish the offences of the several Congregations that they shall commit against the laws of God the policy of the Realm and the Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted by his authority 28. We hold that the King ought not to give this authority away or to commit it to any Ecclesiastical Person or Persons whatsoever But ought himself to be as it were Archbishop and general overseer of all the Churches within his Dominions and ought to imploy under him his honourable Counsel his Iudges Leiftenants Iustices Constables and such like to oversee the Churches in the several divisions of their civil Regiments visiting them and punishing by their civil power whatsoever they shall see amiss in any of them Especially in the Rulers and Governers 29. For as much as no people are more hated persecuted and wronged of the wicked world then the true Churches of Christ We hold that no people in the Earth stand in more need of the civil Magistrate then they And that it is the greatest outward blessing they can injoy in this life to live under the Protection of their Swords Scepters the greatest cause of mourning when the same shall be bent against them And we hold those Churches to be no true Churches of Jesus Christ that living in any Country shall refuse subjection to the civil Regents and Governers of the same be they in respect of Religion never such Paganish Infidells 30. We hold it utterly unlawfull for any Christian Churches whatsoever by any armed force or power against the will of the civil magistracy and State under which they live To erect and set up in publique the true worship and service of God or to beat down or suppress any superstition or Idolatry that shall be countenanced and maintained by the same Only Every man is to look to himself that he communicate not with the evils of the times induring what it shall please the State to inflict and seeking by all honest and peaceable means all reformation of publick abuses onely at the hands of civil publicke persons and all practises contrarie to these we condemn as seditious and sinfull 31. All that we crave of his Majestie and the State is that by his and their permission and under their protection and approbation it may be lawfull for us to serve and worship God in all things according to his revealed will and the manner of all other reformed Protestant Churches that have made separation from Rome that we may not be forced against our consciences to stain and pollute the simple and syncere worship of God prescribed in his word with any humane Traditions and Rites whatsoever but that in Divine worship we may be actors only of those things that may for matter or manner either ingeneral or special be concluded out of the word of God Also to this end that it may be lawfull for us to exhibite unto them and unto their Censure a true and syncere Confession of our faith containing the main Grounds of our Religion unto which all other doctrines are to be consonant as also a Form of Divine worship and Ecclesiastical Government in like manner warranted by the word and to be observed of us all under any civil punishment that it shall please the said Majestie and state to inflict under whose authority alone we desire to exercise the same and unto whose punishment alone we desire to be subject if we shall offend against any of those Lawes and Canons that themselves shall approve in manner aforesaid and our desire is Not to worship God in dark corners but in such publick places and at such convenient times as it shall please them to assigne to the intent that they and their officers may the better take notice of our offences if any such shall be committed in our Congregations and assemblies that they may punish the same accordingly And we desire we may be subject to no other Spiritual Lords but unto Christ nor unto any other Temporal Lords but unto themselves whom alone in this Earth we desire to make our Judges and supreame Governers and Overseers in all causes Ecclesiastical whatsoever renouncing as Antichristian all such Ecclesiastical powers as arrogate and assume unto themselves under any pretence of the Law of God or man the said power which we acknowledge to be due only to the Civil Magistrate 32. So long as it shall please the King and civil State though to the great derogation of their own authority as we may have occasion hereafter to prove to maintain in this Kingdom the State of the Hierarchy or Prelacie We can in Honour to his Majestie and the State and in desire of peace be content without envy to suffer them to injoy their state and dignity and to live as brethren amongst those ministers that shall acknowlege spiritual homage unto their spiritual Lordships paying unto them all temporal duties of tenths and such like yea and joyning with them in the service and worship of God so far as we may do it without our own particular communicating with them in those humane Traditions and rites that in our consciences we judge to be unlawfull Only we crave in all dutifull manner that which the very Law of Nature yeeldeth unto us that for as much as they are most malicious enemies unto us and do apparently thirst either after our blood or shipwrack of our faith and consciences that they may not hence forth be our judges in these causes but that we may both of us stand as parties at the bar of
forbear or to do according to the Civil Laws of Magistrates do is a depriving of men of that liberty that God hath granted unto them and therefore such a Law is neither good nor indifferent but evil to the soul of him that enacteth it though not of him that obeyeth it For it is no indifferency in any man to take that away from a man that God hath freely given unto him 21. All moral actions of men that are good or evill are either private or common and publike The common and publike are either Domestical Political or Ecclesiastical Actions also in their Indifferency may vary according to their divers references to these 22. A private good or evil action is that which affecteth with good or evill only a mans own person that doth it and which spreadeth not to the good or hurt of any other except secondarily and by accident as he that eateth and drinketh doth himself only good properly Though secondarily and by accident he may in that strength he receiveth thereby do his Family or the Common-wealth good 23. That action is indifferent in respect of a mans private self that doth his own private Person any good or hurt 24. Those Domestical Political Ecclesiastical actions are good or evil that tend to the good or hurt of a Family Commonwealth or Church and those are indifferent that being done do bring neither good nor hurt or as much good as hurt unto any of the said Societies 25. That may be good evil or indifferent to a private person as he is a private person that is not so unto a Family Common-wealth or Church or unto him as he is a member of all or any of them 26. That may be Indifferent to be done by a Family or the Commonwealth as it is such That is evil and not indifferent to be done by a Church That may be indifferent to one member of a House Church or Commonwealth that is not indifferent to another that may be lawful or indifferent for the Church to do in one place and at some one time that is unlawful in another place and at another time 27. All which premises or the most of them being granted it will easily appear to any that can rightly apply these principles and general assertions that the Ceremonies in present controversie in our Church are not as is pretended by the forcers of them meerly indifferent but either excellent parts of our Religion or notorious parts of Superstition FINIS Summa Summae The Prelates to the afflicted Ministers in this Realm Let them prove this assumption but by one Argument and we will yield But it is to be noted That the Prelates still take all things contained therein as granted and without question whereas we have proved and offer to prove the contrary ALL those that wilfully refuse to obey the King in things indifferent and to conform themselves to the Orders of the Church authorized by him not contrary to the Word of God are Schismaticks enemies to the Kings Supremacy and State and not to be tolerated in Church or Commonwealth But you do wilfully refuse to obey the King in things indifferent and to conform your selves to the Orders of the Church authorized by him not contrary to the Word of God Ergo You are Schismaticks Enemies to the Kings Supremacy and the State and not to be tolerated in Church or Commonwealth The afflicted Ministers to the Prelates ALL those that freely and willingly perform unto the King and State all Obedience not only in things necessary but Indifferent commanded by Law And that have been alwaies ready to conform themselves to every Order of the Church authorized by him not contrary to the Word of God are free from all Schism Friends to the Kings Supremacy and to the State and unworthy in this manner to be molested in Church or Commonwealth But e This Treatise and other books lately written and exhibited to authority do prove the Assumption there is none of us that is deprived or suspended from our Ministry but hath ever been ready freely and willingly to perform unto the King and State all obedience not only in things necessary but Indifferent required by Law and to conform our selves to every Order of the Church authorized by him not contrary to the Word of God Ergo We are all free from Schism Friends to the Kings Supremacy and the State and most unworthy of such molestation in Church and Commonwealth as now we sustain English Puritanism CONTAINING THE MAIN OPINIONS of the rigidest sort of those that are called PURITANS in the Realm of ENGLAND Acts 24.14 But this I confesse unto thee that after the way which they call heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets Acts 28.22 But we will hear of thee what thou thinkest for as concerning this sect we know that every where it is spoken against Printed in the Year 1660. To the Indifferent Reader IT cannot be unknown to them that know any thing that those Christians in this Realm which are called by the odious and vile name of Puritans are accused by the Prelates to the Kings Majesty and the State to maintain many absurd erroneous Schismatical and Heretical Opinious concerning Religion Church-Government and the Civil Magistracy Which hath moved me to collect as near as I could the chiefest of them and to send them naked to the view of all men that they may see what is the worst that the worst of them hold It is not my part to prove and justifie them Those that accuse and condemn them must in all reason and equity prove their accusation or else bear the name of unchristian Slanderers I am not ignorant that they lay other Opinions yea some clean contradictory to these to the charge of these men the falshood whereof we shall it is to be doubted have more and more occasion to detect In the mean time all Enemies of Divine Truth shall find that to obscure the same with Calumniations and untruths is but to hidâ— a fire with laying dry straw or tow upon it But thou mayst herein observe what a terrible Popedome and Primacy these rigid Presbyterians desire and with what painted bug-bears and Scare-Crows the Prelates go about to fright the States of this Kingdome withall who will no doubt one day see how their wisdoms are abused Farewell English Puritanism CHAP. I. Concerning Religion or the worship of God in general IMprimis They hold and maintain That the Word of God contained in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles is of absolute perfection given by Christ the head of the Church to be unto the same thâ— sole Canon and rule of all matters of Religion and the worship and service of God whatsoever And that whatsoever done in the same service and worship cannot be justified by the said word is unlawfull And therefore that it is a sin to force any Christian to
deprived of their Ministry and Service 9. They hold that though one Church is not to differ from another in any Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Religious matters whatsoever but are to be equal and alike yet that they may differ and one excel another in outward Civil Circumstances of place time Person c. So that although they hold that those Congregations of which Kings and Nobles make themselves members ought to have the same Ecclesiastical Officers Ministry worship Sacraments Ceremonies and Forme of Divine Worship that the basest Congregation in the Country hath and no other yet they hold also That as their Persons in civil respects excel so in the Exercises of Religion in civil matters they may excel other Assemblies Their Chappels and Seats may be gorgeously set forth with rich Arras and Tapestry their Fonts may be of Silver their Communion Tables of Ivory and if they will covered with gold the Cup out of which they drink the Sacramental blood of Christ may be of beaten gold set about with Diamonds their Ministers may be clothed in silk and velvet so themselves will maintain them in that manner otherwise they think it absurd and against common reason that other base and Inferior Congregations must by Ecclesiastical Tithes and Oblations maintain the silken and velvet suits and Lordly retinue of the Ministers and Ecclesiastical Officers of Princes and Nobles 10. They hold that the Lawes Orders and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the visible Churches of Christ if they be lawfull and warrantable by the Word of God are no wayes repugnant to any Civil State whatsoever whether Monarchical Aristocratical or Democratical but do tend to the further establishing and advancing of the Rights and Prerogatives of all and every of them And they renounce and abhor from their soules all such Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction or Policy that is any way repugnant and derogatory to any of them especially to the Monarchical State which they acknowledg to be the best kind of Civil Government for this Kingdome 11. They hold and belâ—eve that the equality in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and authority of Churches and Church-Ministers is no more derogatory and repugnant to the State and glory of a Monarch than the Paritie or equality of Schoolmasters of several Schools Captains of several Camps Shepherds of several flocks of sheep or Masters of several Families yea they hold the clean contrary that inequality of Churches and Church-Officers in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Authority was that principally that advanced Antichrist unto his throne and brought the Kings and Princes of the earth unto such vassallage under him and that the Civil Authority and glory of Secular Princes and States hath ever decayed and withered the more that the Ecclesiastical Officers of the Church have been advanced and lifted up in authority beyond the limits and confines that Christ in his word hath prescribed unto them CHAP. III. Concerning the Ministers of the Word 1. THey hold that the Pastors of particular Congregations are or ought to be the highest Spiritual Officers in the Church over whom by any Divine Ordinance there is no superiour Pastor but only Jesus Christ And that they are led by the spirit of Antichrist that arrogate or take upon themselves to be Pastors of Pastors 2. They hold that there are not by any Divine Institution in the word any ordinary National Provincial or Diocesan Pastors or Ministers under which the Pastors of particular Congregations are to be subject as Inferior Officers And that if there were any such that then the Word of God would have set them down more distinctly and precisely than any of the rest For the higher place that one occupieth in the Church of the more necessity he is unto the Church of the more necessity he is to the Church the more carefully would Christ the head of the Church have been in pointing him out and distinguishing him from other Hence in the Old Testament the High Priest his Title Office Function and special Administration and Jurisdiction is more particularly and precisely set down than the Office of any of the Inferior Priests and Levites Also in the New Testament the Office of a Pastor is more distinctly and more precisely set down than of a Doctor or any other inferior Church-Officer So that a man may as well call into question the whole New Testament as doubt whether there ought to be a Pastor in every Congregation or doubt of his proper Office and Function And if by Gods Ordinance there should be an ordinary Ecclesiastical Officer above the Pastors of particular congregations than Christ out of all question would with that special care and cost have set it forth by Titles prerogatives peculiar Offices Functions and Gifts that the Churches and people of God should have reason rather â—o doubt of any Office or Jurisdiction than of the peculiar office or Jurisdiction of the Primates Metropolitanes Arch-Bishops and Prelates of the world 3. They hâ—ld that if there were a supream National Ecclesâ—astical Minister or Pastor that should be the Prince of many thousand Pastors that then also Christ as he did in the Jewish Church would have appointed a solemn National or Provincial Liturgy or worship unto which at sometimes of the year the whole body of the people should ascend and that unto the Metropolitan City as unto a Jerusalem and that he would as he did in the Jewish Church more precisely and particularly have set down the manner of solemnization thereof than of his parochial worship Forasmuch therefore as they cannot read in the New Testament of any higher or more solemn worship than of that which is to be performed in a particular Congregation they cannot be perswaded that God hath appointed any higher Ministers of his service and worship under the New Testament than the elect Ministers of particular Congregations 4. They hold that the High Priest of the Jews was typically and in a figure the supream head of the whole Catholique Church which though it were visible only in the Province and Nation of Jury yet those of other Nations and Countries as appears by the History of Acts even though they were Ethiopians were under this High Priest and acknowledged homage unto him So that he was not a Provincial Metropolitane but in very deed an Oecumenical and universal Bishop of the whole world And therefore they hold this being the best ground in the word for Metropolitane and Provincial Pastors or Bishops that the Pope of Rome who alone maketh claim unto and is in possession of the like universal Supremacy hath more warrant in the Word of God to the same than any Metropolitane or Diocesan not dependant upon him hath or can have So that they hold that by the Word of God either there must be no Metropolitanes and Diocesans or else there must be a Pope 5. They hold That no Pastor ought to exercise or accept of any Civil publique Jurisdiction and authority but ought to be wholly imployed in spiritual Offices
of sorrow for him they are to denounce him to be as yeâ— no member of the Kingdom of Heaven and of that Congregation and so are to leave him to God and the King And this is all the Ecclesiastical Authority and Jurisdiction that any spiritual Officers of the Church are to use against any man for the greatest crime that can be committed 10. They hold that the Officers of the Church are not to proceed unto the extreamest Censure against any man without the free consent of the whole Congregation it self 11. They hold that the Minister or any other particular Officer offending is as subject to these Censures as any other of the Congregation 12. They hold that if any Member of the Congregation having committed a scandalous sin shall of himself forsake the Worship of God and the Spiritual Communion with the Church that then the Ecclesiastical Officers have no authority or jurisdiction over him but only the Civil Magistrate and those unto whom he oweth Civil subjection as Parents Masters Landlords c. CHAP. VI. Concerning the Civil Magistrate 1. THey hold that the Civil Magistrate as he is a Civil Magistrate hath and ought to have Supream power over all the Churches within his Dominions in all causes whatsoever and yet they hold that as he is a Christian he is a Member of some one particular Congregation and ought to be as subject to the spiritual Regiment thereof prescribed by Christ in his Word as the meanest subject in the Kingdom and they hold that this Subjection is no more derogatory to his Supremacy than the Subjection of his body in sickness to Physitians can be said to be derogatory thereunto 2. They hold that those Civill Magistrates are the greatest Enemies to their own Supremacie that in whole or in part communicate the virtue and power thereof to any Ecclesiastical Officers And that there cannot be imagined by the wit of man a more direct means to check-mate the same than to make them Lords and Princes upon Earth to invest them with Civil Jurisdiction and Authority and to conform the state and limits of the Jurisdiction to the State of Kings and bounds of Kingdoms 3. They hold that there should be no Ecclesiastical Officer in the Church so high but that he ought to be subject unto and punishable by the meanest Civil Officer in a Kingdom City or Town not only for common crimes but even for the abuse of their Ecclesiastical Offices yea they hold that they ought to be more punishable than any other Subject whatsoever if they shall offend against either Civil or Ecclesiastical Laws 4. They hold that the Civil Magistrate is to punish with all severity the Ecclesiastical Officers of Churches if they shall intrude upon the rights and prerogatives of the Civil Authority and Magistracy and shall pass those bounds and limits that Christ hath prescribed unto them in his Word 5. They hold that the Pope is that Antichrist and therefore that Antichrist because being but an Ecclesiastical Officer he doth in the height of the pride of his heart make claim unto and usurp the Supremacy of the Kings and Civil Rulers of the Earth And they hold that all defenders of the Popish Faith all endeavours of reconcilement with that Church all plotters for tolleration of the Popish Religion all countenancers and maintainers of Seminary Priests and professed Catholicks and all deniers that the Pope is that Antichrist are secret enemies to the Kings Supremacy 6. They hold that all Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Officials c. have their Offices and Functions only by will and pleasure of the King and Civil States of this Realm and they hold that whosoever holdeth that the King may not without sin remove these Offices out of the Church and dispose of their Temporalities and maintenance according to his own pleasure or that these Offices are Jure Divino and not only or meerly Jure humano That all such deny a principal part of the Kings Supremacy 7. They hold that not one of these Opinions can be proved to be contrary to the Word of God and that if they might have leave that they are able to answer all that hath been written against any one of them FINIS TWELVE General Arguments Proving that the CEREMONIES Imposed upon the Ministers of the Gospel in England by our Prelates are unlawful And therefore That the Ministers of the Gospel for the bare and sole omission of them in Churh-Service for conscience sake are most unjustly charged of disloyalty to His MAJESTIE Mat. 18.23 If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evill but if I have spoken well why smitest thou me Printed in the Year 1660. To the Reader GOod Reader We come not as voluntaries into this field of Contention but dragg'd into it by the very hairs of our head If our cause be righteous and good Thou wilt easily grant in so great Imputations and Extremities inflicted upon us for the same that we can do no less than give reasons for our selves and it All the favour I require of thee is That thou wouldst look into our cause not by the flashing lighting 's that come out of the mouths of our Adversaries the Prelates but by the light of our own Reasons by which if thou shalt see the goodness of our cause and innocency of our persons than embrace it with us and in pity pray for us that without shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience we may endure patiently and meekly whatsoever God shall suffer to be inflicted upon us for the same in these wicked and licentious times THE FIRST ARGUMENT All Will-Worship is sin To use these Ceremonies in Church-Service in manner and form prescribed is a Will-Worship Ergo To use them is sin THE Proposition cannot be denied for the Apostle Paul plainly condemneth Will-Worship The Assumption may thus be proved All parts of Divine Service and Worship imposed only by the will and pleasure of Man upon the Ministers of Divine Service and that of necessity to be done is Will-Worship But to use these Ceremonies in manner and form prescribed is to use such Ceremonies as are 1. Parts of Divine Service and Worship 2. Imposed only by the pleasure and will of Men upon the Ministers of Divine Service 3. Of necessity to be done therein Ergo To use these Ceremonies in manner and form prescribed is a Will-Worship The Proposition is as clear as the Sun at noon-day The Assumption hath three parts 1. That they are parts of Divine Worship and Service This is proved evidently by this Argument All Mystical and Ecclesiastical Rites and formes of Divine Service instituted by Ecclesiastical authority to be Ministerial actions in the solemn Worship of God and performed in that manner and having that use in Divine Service that if God should but ratifie and confirm the same use they should then be parts of his true Worship I say all such Ceremonies are used as parts of Divine Worship But these Ceremonies
and Duties to that Congregation over which he is set And that those Civil Magistrates weaken their own Supremacy that shall suffer any Ecclesiastical Pastor to exercise any Civil Jurisdiction within their Realms Dominions or Seigniories 6. They hold that the highest and supream Office and authority of the Pastor is to preach the Gospel solemnly and publickly to the Congregation by interpreting the written Word of God and applying the same by exhortation and reproof unto them They hold that this was the greatest work that Christ and his Apostles did and that whosoever is thought worthy and fit to exercise this authority cannot be thought unfit and unworthy to exercise any other spiritual or Ecclesiastical authority whatsoever 7. They hold that the Pastor or Minister of the Word is not to reach any Doctrine unto the Church grounded upon his own judgment or opinion or upon the Judgment or opinion of any or all the men in the world but only that truth that he is able to demonstrate and prove evidently and apparently by the Word of God soundly interpreted and that the people are not bound to believe any Doctrine of Religion or Divinity whatsoever upon any ground whatsoever except it be apparently justified by the Word or by necessary consequent deduced from the same 8. They hold that in interpreting the Scriptures and opening the sence of them he ought to follow those Rules only that are followed in finding out the meaning of other writings to wit by weighing the propriety of the tongue wherein they are written by weighing the Circumstance of the place by comparing one place with another and by considering what is properly spoken and what tropically or figuratively And they hold it unlawfull for the Pastor to obtrude upon his people a sence of any part of the Divine Word for which he hath no other ground but the bare testimonies of men and that it is better for the people to be content to be ignorant of the meaning of such difficult places than to hang their Faith in any matter in this case upon the bare Testimony of man 9. They hold that the people of God ought not to acknowledge any such for their Pastors as are not able by Preaching to interpret and apply the Word of God unto them in manner and forme aforesaid And therefore that no ignorant and sole reading Priests are to be reputed the Ministers of Jesus Christ who sendeth none into his Ministry and service but such as he adorneth in some measure with spiritual gifts And they cannot be perswaded that the faculty of reading in ones Mother tongue the Scriptures c. which any ordinary Turk or Infidel hath can be called in any congruity of speech a Ministerial gift of Christ 10. They hold that in the Assembly of the Church the Pastor only is to be the mouth of the Congregation to God in Prayer and that the people are only to testifie their assent by the word Amen And that it is a Babilonian cofusion for the Pastor to say one piece of a Prayer and the people with mingled voices to say another except in singing which by the very ordinance and instinct of nature is more delightfull and effectual the more voices there are joyned and mingled together in harmony and consent 11. They hold that the Church hath no authority to impose upon her Pastors or any other of her Officers any other ministerial Duties Offices Functions Actions or Ceremonies eiâ—her in Divine worship or out of the same then what Christ himself in the Scriptures hath imposed upon them or what they might lawfully impose upon Christ himself if he were in person upon the earth and did exercise a Ministerial Office in some Church 12. They hold that it is as great an injury to force a Congregation or Church to maintain as their Pastor with Tithes and such like Donations that person that either is not able to instruct them or that refuseth in his own person ordinarily to do it as to force a man to maintain one for his wife that either is not a woman or that refuseth in her own person to do the duties of a wife unto him 13. They hold that by Gods Ordinance there should be also in every Church a Doctor whose special office should be to instruct by way of Catechizing the Ignorant of the Congregation and that particularly in the main grounds and Principles of Religion CHAP. IV. Concerning the Elders 1. FOrasmuch as through the malice of Sathan there are and will be in the best Churches many disorders and scandalls committed that redound to the reproach of the Gospel and are a stumbling block to many both without and within the Church and sith they judge it repugnant to the Word of God that any Minister should be a sole Ruler and as it were a Pope so much as in one Parish much more that he should be one over a whole Diocesse Province or Nation they hold that by Gods Ordinance the Congregaâ—ion should make choice of other Officers as Assistants unto the Ministers in the spiritual regiment of the Congregation who are by office jointly with the Ministers of the Word to be as Monitors and Overseers of the manners and conversation of all the Congregation and one of another that so every one may be more wary of their wayes and that the Pastors and Doctors may better attend to Prayer and Doctrine and by their means may be made better acquainted with the estate of the people when others eyes besides there own shall wake and watch over them 2. They hold that such only are to be chosen to this Office as are the gravest honestest discreetest best grounded in Religion and the ancientest Professors thereof in the Congregation such as the whole Congregation do approve of and respect for their wisdome holinesse and honesty and such also if it be possible as are of civil note and respect in the world and able without any burden to the Church to maintain themselves either by their Lands or any other honest Civil Trade of life Neither do they think it so much disgrace to the policy of the Church that Tradesmen and Artificers endowed with such qualities as are above specified should be admitted to be Overseers of the Church as it is that persons both ignorant of Religion and all good letters and in all respects for person quality and state as base and vile as the basest in the Congregation should be admitted to be Pastors and Teachers of a Congregation And if it be apparent that God who alwaies blesseth his own Ordinances doth often even in the eyes of Kings and Nobles make honourable the Ministers and Pastors of his Churches upon which he hath bestowed spiritual Gifts and Graces though for birth education presence outward estate and maintenance they be most base and contemptible so he will as well in the eyes of all holy men make this Office which is many degrees inferior to the other precious and Honourable