said he may teach in every Church because he may Preach in them being invited thereunto but he cannot Teach in them all alwayes in every particular way by way of a Particular and Ordinary Mission and Admission as their Particular Pastour For neither is he called to Teach in them all neither can he rule them all conjunctim in one time but one onely Ordinarily and two or three Extraordinarily in case of some urgent necessitie 3. Yea we may say That a Particular Minister cannot evermore neither doth he evermore feed his own Particular Church totam totaliter the whole Church wholly as Experience teacheth us but sometimes he feedeth it one way sometimes another sometimes in teaching sometimes in ruling c. 4. It may be said That the consociated or combined Presbyteries and Presbyters rule all the Churches from which they have Commission 1. In qualitie of Particular Ministers as we have already declared 2. In a Particular way in vertue of their Commission from Particular Churches in whose name they appear and in vertue of their Admission in a Classicall or Synodall Assembly but not in sensu diviso every one apart for if they dissent in their voices from the major part of the Assembly they feed no Church at all at least actually and in actu exercito howsoever they may be said to rule them all that be subject to that Assembly potentia in actu signato 5. The whole collective or combined Presbyterie or Eldership being-taken collectively or as combined ruleth many Particular Churches that are subject unto it I say being taken as combined or collectivè for if the Presbyters of the Assembly be taken distributivè they are not an Assembly not a Collection or Combination of Presbyters formally but severall Presbyters apart and divers unities which are the matter of this combination and consociation in the Assembly 6. Those whole combined Presbyteries qua tota sed non qua tataliter considerata as whole or totals but not considered totally feed in any Particular Churches The first part is certain for they judge of Points of Doctrine and Discipline already revealed in Holy Scripture and give us new Ecclesiasticall Laws of things indifferent and so Teach and Rule the Churches which is nothing else but to Feed them 7. Yet these combined Presbyteries being considered totally viz. according to every respect every part every modification and determination they can have rule them not for every one of the Combined Presbyteries have not this Power For as we have said 2.3 4. or 5 c. may dissent from the major part and in that case they rule not in the Assembly muchlesse rule they out of the Assembly being considered as Materiall parts thereof and the reason is because Non quic quid convenit Toti per accidens aggregato confuso vel ordinato id convenit singulu partibus it is not needfull that whatsoever belongeth or is attributed to the collective body should be attributed to every part thereof so ten is twice five which cannot be said of five which is a part of ten for it is not twice but once five 8. Neither can these combined Presbyteries or Elderships taken materially 1. i.e. before their combination feed many Churches as when they are combined for in that sense they are not formally a combination or a collective body but the matter thereof and therefore to them cannot belong that which belongeth unto the collective body formally or in vertue of its forme 9. The collective or combined body of divers Presbyteries feeds not many reall Particular Churches in actu exercito as if they exercised actually the act of feeding them in a particular way as their Particular and Ordinarie Ministers do but in actu signato in signifying and representing unto them all in vertue of their Commissions by their Judgements and Laws what should be done by them all which these Particular Ministers do in actu exercito and in a more speciall way And the reason of this is because if it were not so we should confound the charge of combined Presbyteries with that of one Presbyter 10. This Proposition may yet receive this sence All the combined Presbyteries feed all the particular Churches that they represent 1. All the Presbyters together feed and rule all Churches together as combined 2. In this combination or collection of Presbyters or Elders every one of the Presbyters or Elders feedeth his own Church 3. All the collective body of combined Elders feed every Church apart as we said before 4. Every Presbyter or Elder in this combination ruleth all Churches as we have declared it also 1 Eth. ad Nicomach c. 1. So the Philosophers in expounding that Maxime Bonum est quod omnia appetunt that is good which all things desire give us almost the like interpretations viz. 1. All good things taken collectively are those that all desirers taken collectively do desire 2. That every one in this collection of desirers desireth his own good in the collection of all good as a man mans good a horse that which is good for a horse c. 3. That the whole collection of desirers desireth every good as it serveth for every part and so for the totall or whole that consisteth of the parts 4. That every desirer apart desireth or loveth the whole collection of good insomuch as in that collection of good it findeth its own good But none of these senses approved by us can serve our Bethren More might here have been said and I hope that others God willing shall say more But this may suffice for one Annotation and I am assured will sufficiently dissolve all their Arguments hitherto founded upon this Proposition About the end of this 15 § Ye say That this challenge of all spirituall power from Christ had need have a cleer pattent from Christ and that noted by a Particular Parenthesis as very considerable so had your Independent and Omnipotent power within your Particular Congregations Neither do our Synods challenge all power but a Ministeriall Power such as we have already expounded Neither needs it any Pattent expresly and formally from Christ It sufficeth that it have one from Nature for that sufficeth to binde us all unto obedience for Christ as Mediator and head of the Church is not represented unto us in Scripture as Author of Nature but of Grace For the Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ who is Mediator of a better Covenant Neither came he to abrogate or destroy but to fulfill and to accomplish the Law The Author of grace poseth not but presupposeth the Law of Nature And yet we can shew a Pattent for it not onely from the Law of Nature which should suffice but also from the Law of Grace in the Old and New Testament Immediately after ye say That nothing was written upon this Subject before the Books set forth by two Divines of Scotland one of England and others of Holland
Ecclesiasticall or Politicall Assembly of the Christian World wherein things are carried by plurality of voices it be ordinary for any inconsiderable number thereof to joyn in a particular combination among themselves and therein to take particular resolutions to publish them unto the world and so to anticipate upon the resolutions of the whole Assembly II. Whether in taking such resolutions they should not consequently resolve themselves to quit the Assembly and to appear as Parties And if any man or men should do so either in this Parliament or this Assembly if a connivence at such a matter should not be reputed for an act of great favour love and extraordinary tender affection towards them III. Whether such an inconsiderable member in so doing may not be refused by the parties as incompetent Judges IIII. Whether this Apologeticall Narration was necessary when ye found the calumnies mistakes misapprehensions of your opinions and mists that had gathered about you or were rather cast upon your persons in your absence begin by your presence again and the blessing of God upon you to scatter and vanish without speaking a word for your selves or cause And if the honour the Parliament shewed you in calling you to be Members of the Assembly was not sufficient enough to justifie your persons from all sort of aspersions and calumnies without any Apology Whether after the dissipation of such Clouds and such a justification this Apology was rather necessary then before when ye were under the cloud and not justified V. Whether this your Apologeticall Narration wherein ye blame all Protestant Churshes as not having the power of godlinesse and the profession thereof with difference from carnall and formall Christians advanced and held forth among them as among you be seasonable when the Church of God and this Kingdom stand in need of their Brotherly Assistance and particularly of that of the Scots against whom it is commonly thought to be particularly intended who at this very time so unseasonable according to their duty hazard their Lives and Estates for Gods Church all this Kingdom and you also VI. Whether as it is observed by sundry men of learning and as ye have noted your selves ye should not have done better to have sit down your opinions by way of Theses and so manifested unto us wherein ye agree or disagree with us or from us the Brownists Anabaptists and these whom ye pretend to hold the same Tenets with you in old and new England and the Netherlands then in a Rhetoricall and Oratorius way endeavour in the most part of your Book to publish your great Sufferings and extraordinary Piety and so to move us all to compassion and ravish us into admiration as if ye meant rather to perswade then to prove them VII Many also are very desirous to know whether this Apologeticall Narration published by you five alone be published in the name of you five alone or of all those also or apart of those whom ye pretend to hold your Tenets to the end we may know in what esteem to have it And if in the name of you five onely the Penners and Contrivers thereof Whether ye five can arrogate a power unto your selves to maintain these Tenets as the constant opinion of all your Churches having no generall Confession of their Faith thereabout If in the name of all the rest we desire ye would shew your Commission from all your Churches by what authoritie ye do it Or if ye do it without Commission and Authoritie from them if that be not to assume unto your selves a greater Authoritative power then that ye call Presbyteriall yea then ever was the Episcopall VIII It were also not amisse ye should declare Whether ye desire a Toleration for you five alone in your Religion or for all the rest Item If a Toleration in publike in erecting of Churches apart or to live quietly without troubling of the State as for the last appearingly ye may have it unsought but for the rest the Parliament is wise enough and knoweth what is convenient for the Church of God and the State IX And because your whole draught of this Book tends evermore unto a Toleration and consequently unto some Separation I would willingly know of you What things are to be tolerated or not tolerated in Religion not in private persons but in Conseciations And particularly when the whole Kingdom is joyned in one Religion What sort of new Consociations of divers Religions it may in good conscience tolerate and receive into it Item Vpon what ground Churches may in good conscience make Separation from other Churches that desire Vnion and Communion with them Whether they that aym at a Toleration and Separation be not rather bound to tolerate some small pretended defects not approved by those from whom they desire to separate themselves and especially when they that are so desirous of Separation are not pressed to be Actors in any thing against their conscience then to separate themselves from a Church that testifies a great desire to reforme the defects pretended to be in it Whether it were not better for them that aym at Toleration and Separation to stay in the Church and to joyn all their endeavours with their Brethren to reforme abuses then by Separation to let the Church of God perish in abuses Whether they do not better that stay in the Church to reforme it when it may be reformed then who quit it for fear to be deformed in it ANNOTATIONS Upon the INSCRIPTION Of this BOOK An Apologeticall Narration ALL Apologies presuppose some Accusation which here appears none or if it be intended as an Apologeticall answer to what hath been written against your Opinions it comes very short weak and slender and no way satisfactory to their Arguments Neither is it a meer Apologeticall Narration but also a grievous Accusation against all our Churches as destitute of the power of godlinesse c. So it is a mistake in the very Title of the Book which is either untrue or inadoequate to the subject whereof it treateth Humbly submitted So humbly submitted to the honourable Houses of Parliament as if they submit not themselves to your desires in granting you a Toleration for any thing I can see ye seem no wayes minded to submit your selves to theirs It seems also very probable That being Divines ye should rather first have consulted with the Assembly of Divines your Brethren then so ex abrupto gone to the Civill Magistrate that arrogates not to himself any directive power in matters of Religion This should have testified more Brotherly and Christian Charitie then here it does of politicall humilitie And it is more convenient to the spirit and power of godlinesse that the spirit of Prophets in such matters should be subject unto Prophets then unto the spirit of the Civill Magistrate who for this effect hath convocate an Assembly of Prophets and would not undertake it himself So this is a submission That this most just
what Opinions are to be tolerated and what not which will be a question inextricable which no mortall man appearingly is able distinctly to determine And some may say The lesse the difference be the lesse need is there for a Toleration to be granted to such a Sect For the lesse it be the greater is the Schisme 5. God in the Old Testament granted no Toleration of divers Religions or Disciplines and the New Testament requireth no lesse union amongst Christians then the old amongst the Jews 6. Either our Brethren do assent to our Doctrine and are resolved likewise to assent to the Discipline which God willing shall be established by common consent or do not If they grant the first what need they any other Toleration then the rest If the second it would be first discussed wherein they are resolved to dissent and afterwards considered whether it be of so great importance that in consideration thereof they dare not in good Conscience entertain communion with us 7. They are not pressed to be Actors in any thing against their Consciences Ergo They need not to be suiters for a Toleration or if they be it may justly be refused 8. It is against the nature of the Communion of Saints to live in Sects apart without communicating at the Lords Table which very hardly will be avoided if Toleration be granted 9. Because the Scripture exhorts us evermore unto unitie which cannot be easily procured by a Toleration of Sects which cannot but daily beget new Schismes and Divisions 10. Because there was greater difference amongst the Members of the Church of Corinth in the rim of Saint Paul and yet they communicated together yea the Apostle exhorted them unto mutuall communion and forbearance of Sects and Divisions 11. Because the Opinion of our Brethren symbolizeth too much with that of the Donatists who separated themselves from other Churches under pretext that they were not so holy as their own Neither is it unlike to the Convents and Monasteries amongst the Papists for as they all professe one Doctrine with the Romish Church and yet every Order hath its own Discipline that of S. Francis one that of S. Dominick another and in every Order one Generall and in every Monastery one Abbot Prior or President So all your Churches beleeve one Doctrine together with us and every one of your Churches hath one Minister as their Convents a particular Abbot or Prior. Ye onely differ in this That ye have no Generall or any thing answerable thereunto to keep you in unitie and conformitie 12. It is the Civill Magistrates part to take away Heresies Superstitions and Corruptions in manners after the examples of the Kings of Juda Wherefore then is not his dutie likewise to take away all Schismes which are the high-way to Heresie and consequently to deny Toleration which is a way to both 13. We have but one God one Christ and one Lord one Spirit we are one Body we have one Faith and one Baptism whereby we enter into the Church Wherefore shall we not have one Communion whereby to be spiritually fed and one Discipline to be ruled by 14. If Churches have Disciplines or Governments different in their Species then the Churches must be different in their Species also for all Collective bodies or Consociations that are governed are differenced by their different Governments as we see in Civill Government in the Constitution and Distinction of States Kingdoms and Republikes Wherefore as many divers Governments as there be in Churches as many different Species of Churches must we admit of I speak here of the Church considered according to her visible forme but the consequent is false since there is but one Church Ergo. 15. Neither Christ nor his Apostles ever granted any Toleration to divers Sects and Governments in the Church wherefore then will ye be Suiters for that which they never granted 16. Yea your New-England men whose wayes and practises in Government ye say are improved to a better Edition and greater refinement whom ye compare with our Father Abraham Pag. 5. tolerated not their Brethren who did hazard their lives in that voyage but made them go again as our Father Abraham to seek out some new Habitations in strange Countreyes yea in strange Wildernesses for themselves and their seed after them yea they would not so much as some very godly and learned Divine relateth in his learned Book against Toleration as receive some men otherwise approved by themselves both for their life and Doctrine to live in any corner of New-England howsoever here they were in danger to be persecuted for Non-conformitie And that mee ly because they differed a little from them in point of Discipline How then can our Brethren of that profession be Suiters for a Toleration in Old England where they are no more persecuted when as those of their profession refused it to those of New-England in time of great persecution Is it not to be feared That if they had the upper hand over us here as there they should send us all to some Isle of Dogs as they have done others 17. Besides all this the Scripture forbiddeth all such Toleration Reve. 2 20 1 Cor 1.12 as that of Jezabel There must be no such speeches amongst us as I am of Paul I of Apollos I of Cephas nor that some are Calvinians as ye terme us some Independenters some Brownists some Anabaptists c. We must all be Christs we must all think and speak the same things Vers 10. Otherwise men are carnall 1 Cor. 3.3 1 Cor. 11.16 18 19 20. Heb 10.25 Gal. 5.12 Neither hath the Church of God a custome to be contentious Neither permitteth the Apostle Schismes We must not quit our mutuall meetings as others do and as must be done in a publike Toleration They that trouble the Church must be cut off 18. Such a Toleration cannot but expose our Churches unto the calumnies of Papists who evermore object unto Protestants the innumerable number of their Sects whereas they pretend to be nothing but one Church 19. Of such a Toleration follows all we formerly deduced out of Independency 20. If it be granted it cannot but be thought that it hath been granted or rather extorted by force of Reason and that all the Assembly were not able to answer our Brethrens whereas indeed their Opinion and Demands are against all Reason as sundry of themselves could not deny and had nothing to say save onely that it was Gods Ordinance which yet they never could shew out of Gods Word On the contrary if it be refused it will help to confirm the Churches and the people in the Truth 21. Neither can it but overthrow all sort of Ecclesiasticall Government for a man being censured in one Church may fly to another and being again suspended in that other from thence to another and so scorn all the Churches of God and their Censures And so this order by necessary consequence will breed all sort