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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78088	A brief view of Mr. Coleman his new-modell of church government, delivered by him in a late sermon, upon Job 11.20.	Byfield, Adoniram, d. 1660.	1645 (1645)	Wing B6378; Thomason E307_8; ESTC R200340	30,341	36

A BRIEF VIEW OF Mr. Coleman his New-Modell OF CHVRCH GOVERNMENT DELIVERED By him in a late Sermon upon JOB 11. 20. Greg. Naz. In Ecclesiis ordo definvit ut aliud quidem sit occise alii verò pastores aliud cum imperio praesit aliud imperio subsit Aliud manuum aliud oculorum Aliud denique alterius membro corporis vicem sustineat quae membra ad aptam totius compositionem ac utilitatem vel inferiora sunt vel excellunt c. London Printed by John Field for Ralph Smith at the sign of the Bible in Cornhill neer the Royall Exchange 1645. A brief View of Mr. Coleman his new Modell of Church Government delivered by him in a late SERMON upon Iob. 11. 20. SIR LEt it not be offensive unto you that one who is not satisfied with what you have delivered in your late Sermon upon Job 11. 20. should with submission to better judgements offer unto you a few things further to be considered by you the rather because you have occasioned not onely some scruples to my self upon the reading thereof but to others also and yet I do assure you I am neither of the number of them who as your Epistle saith approved your pains above commendation nor disliked them below detestation What I conceive is therein warranted by Divine truth I willingly approve and assent thereunto and where I stick as questioning the truth I now crave leave to offer my doubts to your second thoughts You are perswading to unity in the Church now miserably distracted and you said that Government is eyed as the onely help to the allaying of that trouble and for the effectuall furthering of that work you are pleased to lay down to the Honourable House severall Rules or Essayes which I think being weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary will be found too light and cannot be made good by the word of God the true touch-stone of all truth but how ever my purpose God willing is to examine 1. Your Rules and bring them to the Test that we may try whether they conduce to the end for which you propound them 2. We 'll consider whether you have not unjustly fastened upon some eminent Divines in the Assembly an uneven bya● which to you seemed to mislead them in the same 3. Somewhat shall be added of your unbrotherlike slighting of the Assembly In all which I shall endeavour with as much brevity as I can to offer unto you my thoughts and crave your resolution I confesse it may peradventure seem superfluous for me to Mr. Gillespee Utile est plures libros à pluribus fieri diverso stylo non diversâ fide etiam de questionibus iisdem ut ad plurimos res ipsa peacutivat ad alios sic ad alios autem sic August de Trin. lib. 1. cap. 3. examine what you have said after a judicious tryall that is already past upon your Rules by a Reverend and learned Divine I am of his minde who thought it was conducing to the benefit of the Church that sundry books should be written by sundry men differing in stile but agreeing in the same truth about the same questions that the subject insisted on might be made known to many to some in one way to others in another The Rules or Essayes for unity and agreement produced by you I have perused and do not see what clear reason they carry to make them serviceable to that end for which you offer them and therefore how they should be either helpfull to the worke or usefull to the workmen as yet I see not For in your second Rule you seem to intimate that there is no strength in your Arguments of which according to our light one may conclude different wayes Sure I am he that should hold out the contrary to all your Rules might upon as good ground call them Essayes for agreement and unity as for instance he that should say 1. Establish as much Jure Divino as may be 2. Do not straighten Institutions to expresse Scriptures 3. Let the Ministers of Iesus Christ be invested with the actuall exercise of that power and Government which Iesus Christ hath betrusted them withall 4. Let the Civill and Ecclesiasticall power both of them act in their own sphere and not the one encroach upon the other let it be equall Sacriledge to rob the Kingdom of Christ of the power of the Civill Magistrate and for the Civill Magistrate to ingrosse all the governing power of the Church He that should draw forth rules of this nature should as much further unity and agreement in the Church and more then he that shall adhere to your rules therefore they seem to me not to be conducing to the end for which they are brought forth but to the Rules themselves In your first Rule you insist on two things First you would have as few things established Jure Divino as may be thereupon you call to hold out the practise but not that ground of the practise two reasons you give hereof 1. Because men differently principled may meet in one practise 2. Because it may be will be of a larger extent then it must be In the second thing you touch upon in this call you lay forth the reason which seemed to you to be the only cause that hindred union in the Assembly The first thing in the Rule you drive at is That at few things be established Iure Divino as can well be this Rule would have better become a Polititian then a Divine Sir Remember your place a Divine his part is to plead for as much as God hath laid down to be his right reason would require you should either plead for your Masters right or quit your station to others who speak in the defence of their masters just cause are his ashamed to plead our cause take heed that threatning befall not you Mar. 8. 38. Or are you afraid to appear for it where is the cause of your fear Authority commands you to search for it why should you then shrinke to hold it forth unto them and by them to the Church all that I conceive you can plead is this It is not clearly held forth to your light though others see it have not these things been debated before you and was there no weight in all those debates I presume you being a Member of the Assembly cannot be ignorant what was there discuss'd in your hearing I cannot think that you did Obturatis auribus hearken thereunto either then give place to their Votes or in a rationall way bring forth your exceptions against them Paphnucius indeed dissented from the great Councell at Nice but he brought for his Warrant of Divine Authority and laid about him with the sword of the word that satisfied the rest and so they all gave place unto him whilest he pleaded Scripture for what he maintained do you so and then shall you wi● your erring Brethren Hitherto you have only on the

must take lesse hold on the conscience of the reader for whatsoever you say against the received opinion which is just nothing eâdem facilitate refellitur quâ asseritur when you lay downe the judgement backt with some reasons for I know no man that is bound to submit to your naked affirmation unlesse it were clothed with more truth it wil be time enough to answer them hitherto you have added none onely your margent in that place sends us to all books on this subject written heretofore or lately in obedience to your command I have perused some and I le tell you what they say The ancients tell us in their books of no suspected credit 1. That Excommunication was in use in their time Tertull. See Cyp. ep 40. et 39. et 41. et 62 c. Quod saepe in ecclesiis videmus peccaverit quodlibet quispiam qui praesidet populo et regit ecclesiasti●am disciplinam ejicit eum de congregatione s●nctoram Orig. Hom. 11. in Ier. Ep. ca. 39. the place is cleare and evident setting down how far it extended by whom it was exercised it was an act of judicature which past on such Members of the Church ●● walked not according to the Rule of the Gospel by the Presbyters which was so formidable that it was accounted pr●ludium futuri judicij a giving notice before hand of the last judgement In Cyprian there are many places in which he makes mention of this censure Origen likewise mentions it in severall places as Hom. 11. in Jere. he sayes Which we see often to fall out in the Churches if any man offend in any thing he that Rules the people and governs Ecclesiasticall discipline casts him out from the Congregation of the Saints Again he shews the use of it Hom. 10. in Ezek. So Hom. 7. in Iesaiam et Trat 6. in Math. Secondly as these assert the use of it so do they also ground that Ecclesiasticall censure upon that place which you admire should take hold of any mans conscience Mat. 18. Cyprian forbids communion with hereticks either at talke or conference and why sunt illi de ecclesia profugi quia scriptum est si autem et ecclesiam contempserit sit tibi tanquam Ethnicus et publicanus That place tels us that he would have a seperation from hereticks who forsake the Church and this he proves by Mat. 18. whereby it appears he grounded it on the Text. Ep. 55. and Ep. 76. speaking of the same subject he brings forth the same testimony Origen enquiring after the meaning of the Text now before us sit tibi tanquam ethnicus c. acknowledges it is a casting out of the Church Tract 6. in Math. and Hom. 7. in Iesaiam tertio admonitum jubet ab ecclesiae corpore resecari per ecclesiae praesides Where he speaks of a threefold admonition before the party be cast off so doth that Text then he tels us what followed on it viz. casting out of the Church lastly he addes by whom it was done the Governours of the Church were the men by whom it was exercised For latter Divines I appeal to any that hath perused them whether may not he that shall see their constant expression of both these Texts rather wonder at the singularity of your opinion in striving against the generall stream of all Orthodox interpreters of these places then you should wonder at any so expounding them the books which I have seen gives me warrant to say so much All which are so numerous and full for us that it would require a volume to recite them all therefore I passe them over knowing you cannot deny the truth of this my objection Having pleaded against institutions you add you see not any one act of Government in the whole Bible performed I beseech you what is the meaning of that place Tit. 1. 5. I have ever understood ordination of Ministers as a main act of Government this was delegated by the Apostle to the Evangelist Titus which he faithfully performed and was not that act of Government performed in every Church Act. 14. 23. Again you aske how can it be evinced that a ruling Elder is an instituted officer a man would have thought that you who plead that the whole work of Government of the Church is cast upon the Civill Magistrate should not have been so hard hearted towards ruling Officers as to give them no place in Church Government Remember you not what the Vote of the Assembly was in this that It is agreeable to and warranted by the word of God that some others beside the Ministers of the word be Church Governours to joyne with the Minister in the Government of the Church which Officers reformed Churches commonly call Elders To this Vote you have entred no discent and yet can at your pleasure speak against it I pray you againe consider how fairely herein you deale with the Assembly in which the severall places of Paul were understood and construed upon long debate for the same Officers 1 Tim. 5. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All these were cleare● up in the Assembly to be amongst those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why may not that Text be translated whom he hath instituted in the Church 1 Cor. 12. 28. one of these places Rom. 12. tels us of a Ruler distinct from a teacher that of 1 Cor. 12. speaks of Governours in the Church distinct also from other Officers there mentioned by him and this was then when no Civill Magistrate was Christian the third 1. Tim. 5. 17. is a mandatory place commanding the Church how to use them and what to do to them even to give the● double honour is not this enough that the Scriptures mentions their Office in the phrases and titles wherein they speak of them and then tell us in what account they are to be had When God hath by his Apostle said that thus and thus they shal be honoured who shall question whether God would have such Officers in the Church or no and for mine owne part that of 1 Cor. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to me warrant enough for institution These were Officers called to assist the Minister in watching over the lives of the Members of their severall flocks for is it not as needfull that there should be some whose charge is to see that men live according to the Rule as th●● there should be others to teach the Rule and others to see that the necessities of such as were in want should be supplied Therefore Christ hath appointed the Pastor to teach Elde● to assist in Government and the Deacon to sce to the poor You quarrell the institution of this Officer somewhat hath been already spoken of institutions to which the Reader is to be referred I onely here add this We reade of many particular Officers of the Church recorded in the Scriptures as Rom. 12. 1 Corin. 12.