Vide Epist l. 2. Tom. 8. with all his Titles and hath other Epistles also wherein hee stiles him and Bishop Jewel likewise Bishops and Prelates 5. Melancthon often Valde reprehendimur à nostris quod jurisdictionem Episcopis reddidimus Nam vulgus assuefactum libertati Epist. l. 5. Ep. 15. Lutheâ—o semel excusso jugo Episcoporum aegre patitur sibi rursum imponi illa vetera onera maximè oderunt illam dominationem Civitates Imperii De Doctrina Religionis nihil laborant tantum de Regno libertate sunt soliciti Again Cives tui ex Norico valde succensent nobis quod reddimus jurisdictionem Episcopis Fremunt alii socii indignantur Regnum Episcopis restitui Lib. 3. Ep. 178. Vito Theodoro Ego tamen etiam duriores conditiones arbitror nobis accipiendas esse propter publicam Ecclesiae tranquillitatem concordiam sed FATALIS aliqua necessitas urget Germanos Again Utinam utinam possim non quidem dominationem confirmare sed administrationem restituere Episcoporum Lib. 4. Ep. 104. Camerario video enim qualem simus habituri Ecclesiam dissolutâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiastica video postea multo intollerabiliorem futuram tyrannidem quà m antea unquam fuit adhuc nihil adhuc concessimus adversariis praeter ea quae Lutherus censuit esse reddenda re bene ac diligenter considerata ante conventum Again Quo enim jure licebat nobis dissolvere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiasticam si Episcopi concedent illa quae aequum est eosco c dere ut liceat certè non expedit semper ita sensitipse Lutherus Quem nulla de causa quidam ut video amant nisi quia beneficio ejus sentiunt se Episcopos excussisse adeptos libertatem minimè utilem ad posteritatem Again Velim hoc tibi persuadeas de me deque multis aliis nos optare Ep. ad Episc Augustin Dupl Aberd. 12. P. 115. ut pace constitutâ Episcoporum potestas sit incolumis hanc plurimam prodesse Ecclesiis judicamus We are saith hee much reproved by men of our own side because wee have restored their jurisdiction unto the Bishops For the people being accustomed to liberty and having once shaken off the yoak of Bishops can hardly indure those old burdens to be laid on their shoulders again But those who especially hate that Government are the Cities of the Empire As for the Doctrine of Religion they minde it not only of Lordship and Liberty they are solicitous Again Thy Towns-men of Noricum saith hee to another are very angry with mee for restoring jurisdiction to Bishops other of our friends are in a rage also and are highly offended that the Government is restored to the Bishops But for my part I think that even harder conditions should be accepted by us for the publick peace and tranquillity of the Church But there is a kinde of FATAL necessity that hurries on the Germanes Again O I would to God I would to God I were able to restore unto the Bishops not indeed their Lordly domineering he means such as were exercised by some Popish Bishops but their jurisdiction and government for I perceive what kinde of Church wee are like to have when the Church Politie and Discipline is dissolved Note And I perceive moreover a much more intollerable tyranny in the Church like to arise than hitherto hath ever been we have as yet yeelded nothing to the adversaries Note more than Luther himself judged fit to be restored after hee had weighed the matter with diligence and care before the Convention Again By what right can we lawfully dissolve the Church Government whilst the Bishops will yeeld unto us what they ought to yeeld And if it were lawful yet surely it is not expedient And so Luther ever thought whom I perceive some do love for no other cause in the world but for that they see by him they have shaken off Episcopacy and gotten a liberty no way useful unto posterity Again I would have thee think saith hee to the Bishop of Ausburg and perswade thy self concerning mee and many others that wee desire that peace being settled the power of Bishops may continue unshaken And this their power wee judge to be specially useful for the Churches Thus hee as for the Tyranny hee speaks of it happens to the Church as to the State sometimes For Example The Keepers of the Liberties of England was a specious title yet wee know they left us not a dram of Liberty indeed So it is easie for Tyranny to arise in the Church under a new name and a Wolf in a sheeps clothing But as the former Author saith in the same place Zanch. ubi supra Why contend wee about Names when as hee hath truly noted the Necessity and Use of Episcopacy as to the thing and office is acknowledged and improved in all Christian Churches I have done with Zanchy Let mee subjoyn one more and hee of special note and which wee should the more observe him for Bucer de Regno Christi lib. 2. cap. 12. pag. 67. one of the English Reformers though a foreiner it is Bucer whose praises wee heard above lib. 1. cap. 1. Hear him once and again First Note in that book which hee wrote and dedicated to King Edward the sixth for the special use of this Church and Nation and it were well it might be a little looked into the more whose Title is of the Kingdome of Christ Hee saith Jam ex perpetua Ecclesiarum observatione ab ipsis jam Apostolis videmus Visum hoc esse Spiritui sancto ut inter Presbyteros quâ—bus Ecclesiarum procuratio potissimum est commissa Unus Ecclesiarum totius sacri Ministerii curam gerat singularem eaque curâ solicitudine cunctis praeat aliis Qua de causa Episcopi nomen hujusmodi summis Ecclesiarum Curatoribus est peculiariter attributum Tametsi hi sine reliquorum Presbyterorum Consilio nihil statuere debeant Qui ipsi propter hanc communem Ecclesiae administrationem Episcopi in Scripturis vocentur Hi enim sicut dignitate demandata primaria Ecclesiarum solicitudine reliquos omnes sancti Ministerii ordines antecedunt ita debent voluntate studio Ecclesias rite administrandi prae omnibus aliis flagrare omnique facultate eas aedificandi praepollere Now saith hee by the perpetual observation of the Churches Note Episcopacy from the Holy Ghost from the very Apostles it seemed good to the Holy Ghost that among the Presbyters to whom the care of the Church is chiefly committed there should bee One who should specially sustain the cure and Government of the Churches and of the whole sacred Ministery and in that care and burden to be before all other For which cause the name of Bishop is attributed more peculiarly to these chief highest Rulers of the Churches although they without the counsel of the
Christian Churches asserted in Answer to Mr. Hudson I may add this caution That for substance they are both of them Orthodox and useful and such in the composing whereof industry was used somewhat more than ordinary A few passages at the latter end of the Sermon in reference of the defence of the War against the King I do here retract And though I suppose I have evinced in the other Tractate that there is no Catholick or universal visible Governing Church and so laid ground for the Independency of the Church of England and other National Christian Churches yet that new practised Independency beginning at Separation and collecting themselves thence into small bodies and afterward assuming a right of non-subjection to any Juridical Superior Power Ecclesiastical I do also recal by these presents and retract CHAP. IV. The Causes of the Authors falling and first the Negative and such as were not AS in the Creation Gen. 1. Negations did precede the formation of things darkness before light and emptiness before repletion And as in Procreation privation goeth before So the Apostle writing to the Churches 1 Thess 2.3 begins at Negatives and what were not the causes of his preaching Our exhortation saith he was not of deceit nor guile Give me leave therefore to imitate both Nature and Religion here and to represent what were not the motives of my falling Lest any man should think that corrupt designments either in respect of persons or of things have tempted me And first for persons both those I have departed from as also those I now adhere unto No personal offence at the one or flattering notion of the other have at all provok'd me Neither despair of gaining by those now gone nor hope of vintage by these rising Luminaries do attract or draw me For I do not now begin my Retractations having then published them as we saw above when neither clowd from heaven nor vapour from the earth did seem to promise any shower of blessing When neither Sun nor Moon nor Star appeared but all hope that we should be saved was even vanished Sect. 1. Neither distaste of nor affection unto persons And first for persons To which I shall the rather speak because there is danger of falling into Scylla whilst we would avoid Charybdis and that a * Matth. 23.18 Proselyte may by Pharisaism and hypocrisie become two-fold more the child of hell than he was by profaneness Therefore that I may not seem to commit the same error against some now that was admitted against others before I shall represent my spirit and opinion touching persons of the side I have deserted and then of those whom in these cases I return unto Matth. 5. 1 Pet. 2.17 Gal. 6. First We are obliged to love and honor all men though especially the houshold of faith St. Austin not onely styles the persons he wrote against or had departed from sometimes * Dominis praedicalibus dilectissimis fratribus medaurensib ep 42. Dilectâ—ssimo fratri vinientio epist 48. honored or reverend or beloved brethren but also expresses his ' spirit toward them which I desire may be mine also in reference unto those I have now reflected on Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt cum quo labore verum inveniatur quam difficile caveantur errores Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt quà m rarum arduum sit carnalia phantasmata piae mentis serenitare superare Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt cum quantâ difficultate sanatur oculus interioris hominis ut possit intueri solem Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt quibus suspiriis gemitibus fiat ut ex quantacunque parte possit intelligi Deus Aug. contr epist q. voc Fundam cap. 2. Pastrento illi in vos saeviant qui nullo tali errore decepti sunt quali vos deceptos vident Ego saevire in vos omnino non possunt quos sicut meipsum illo tempore ita nunc debeo sustinere tanta patientiâ vobiscum agere quantae mecum egerunt proximi mei cum in vestro dogmate caecus errarem Let them saith he rage against you who do not know with what labour truth is found 1. The difficulty of Truth and how difficult it is to avoid errors Let them rage against you who know not how rare and hard a thing it is to scatter fleshly fancies by the light of a pious heart Let them rage against you who understand not how choice a thing it is so to cure the eye of the inward man that it may be able to behold the Sun Let them rage against you who know not with what sighs and groans it is effected that even the back-parts of God may be known Lastly Let them rage against you who have not been deceived with any such error as they see you to be deceived with For my self I can by no means be violent against you he means their persons and the persons of those that were not turbulent whom I ought now to bear as I did then my self and to deal with you in the same degree of patience that my friends did with me when I blindly wandred in your opinions 2. Besides the persons and worth of some 2. The worth and unworthiness of persons on both sides R. Hooker presat ad Pol. Eccles n. 2. from whom I now decline challengeth all due respect and some of those whom I now adhere unto as little We should be injurious to vertue it self saith Mr. Hooker if we did derogate from them whom their industry hath made great Bucer acknowledgeth both the usefulness of the labours even of the very Heathens toward Religion and highly predicates the Religion and piety of some of them Neminem verò offendat Bucer in Joh. 4.31 c. quòd Philosophorum laborem profuisse ad Evangelium puto omnis enim veritas à Deo est veritas sanè plurima in scriptis Philosophorum Poetarum legitur Jam quantulumcumque id fuerit quod de veritate Philosophi tradiderunt ad Deum certè animos hominum attraxerunt eosque ad Evangelium praepararunt sed quid opus est verbis Qui vel non in Cicerone Cicero miram Dei solidaeque pietatis cognitionem agnoscit eum necesse est ignorare quid sit Deus pietas Let no man saith he be offended that I judge the labours of the Philosophers to have been useful unto the Gospel for all truth is of God and verily there are many truths in the writings of the Philosophers and of the Poets Now how little soever it were of truth that they delivered surely it drew the minds of men unto God and by that did prepare them unto the Gospel But what need words he that doth not acknowledge even in Cicero a wonderful knowledge of God and of sound he meaneth serious not saving piety it must needs be that he knoweth neither what God nor piety
for use that without it the Churches could not be preserved neither in Truth nor Vnity And though Hierome seem to imply that there was some times when the Churches were governed without it yet unless hee mean the time of the Apostles who were themselves instead of it no time by his own words can be assigned when the Church either could or did want it neither doth hee name any certain time or alledge any Author as hee useth to do in case of History neither under correction of men of larger reading do I beleeve hee could Seeing it is evident in the Ecclesiastical History and by the Monuments of the most Antient Writers that Episcopacy was contiguous with the Apostles time as appears by Ignatius Policarpus Vide Eus Hist Hieron de Scriptorib Ecclesiast Clemens Irenaeus and others Whereas Hierome lived in the fourth Century above three hundred years after Christ 'T is true St. Austin that mirrour of Modesty and Humility writing unto this same Hierome when hee had received some contemptuous expressions from him as I said before Aug. ad Hieron Epist. 19. that Father was a little high in answer to him saith Quanquam enim secundum honorum vocabula quae jam Ecclesiae usus obtinuit Episcopatus Presbyterio major sit Object tamen in multis rebus Augustinus Hieronymo minor est Although saith hee according to titles of honour which now the USE of the Church hath obtained Episcopacy be superiour to Presbytery yet in many things Austin is inferiour to Hierome Answ Hee saith it is by use of the Church that Episcopacy is above Presbytery but hee speaketh of the difference of names and tiles implying that in the Scripture they have often all one name Epist ad Evagrium as Hierome had proved in that Commentary upon the first of Titus and elsewhere but doth not deny nor imply that the Office was the same Again hee saith the Use of the Church now this Use may be as antient as the Apostles Lastly Hee knew with whom hee was dealing and on purpose composed his expression to the qualifying of Jerome Vide Epist ad Hieron 15. as appears in his other Epistles to him hee doth not dispute ex professo this point Cyprian the antient of them both in the place now cited carries it very far for the dignity of Episcopacy â—â—pr lib. 1. Ep. 3. and the eminency of one both in Place and Authority Having proved by many examples the preheminency of place and duty of Obedience by the Scripture given to the High Priests among the Jews applying to the Bishop in a Christian Church hee saith Cum haec tanta ac talia multa alia exempla praecedant quibus Sacerdotalis autoritas potestas divina dignatione firmatur quales putas esse eos qui Sacerdotum hostes contra Ecclesiam Catholicam rebelles nec praemonentis Domini comminatione nec futuri judicii ultione terrentur Neque enim aliundè haereses abortae sunt aut nata sunt schismata quà m inde quod Sacerdoti Dei non obtempetatur nec UNUS in Ecclesia ad tempus Sacerdos ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur Cui si secundum Magisteria divina obtemperaret fraternitas universa nemo adversum Sacerdotum Collegium quicquam moneret nemo post divinum judicium post populi suffragium post Co-episcoporum consensum judicem se non jam Episcopi sed Dei faceret nemo dissidio unitatis Christi Ecclesiam scinderet that is Seeing these so great such and so many other examples have gone before by which the authority and power of the Priestly dignity is confirmed by Gods institution what kind of men do you think them who being enemies of the Priesthood and rebels against the Catholick Church are neither terrified by Gods threatnings nor yet with fear of the judgement to come For from no other cause do Heresies arise nor Factions in the Church have their beginning than from hence that there is not given obedience to the Priest of God hee means the Bishop as the words following will shew neither is considered that for the time there is but One Priest namely chief that ought to be in the Church of God and for the time but one Judge in the stead of Christ To whom according to the Doctrine of Christ did the whole Brother-hood give obedience no man would move any thing against the Colledge of Priests by whom the Bishops was chosen no man would make himself Judge not now of the Bishop but of God himself after that hee hath been chosen by the Divine Judgement by the suffrage of the people desired and by the consent of other Bishops confirmed I urge this Testimony being very antient Cyprian lived about the year 250. to shew the judgement of Antiquity touching Episcopacy namely the Institution Use and End of it viz. preservation of Truth and Peace in the Church as wee saw before out of St. Hierome Spurâ—ous testimonies though grayer-headed I pass not at Yea and Hieron himself elsewhere doth imply that a Bishop might ordain which a Presbyter could not do Quid enim facit exceptâ ordinatione Hieron Epist ad Evagr. Tom. 3. Episcopus quod Presbyter non facit that is what doth a Bishop do except Ordination which a Presbyter doth not thus hee but Ordination carries with it some Superiour jurisdiction Since my writing of this De Evangel Ministerium gradib cap. 23. I have consulted what Savania hath observed upon this place of Hierome on Tit. 1.5 against Beza and finde that his cogitations are the same much-what with mine as indeed it is obvious to any one considering of it neither do I see cause to alter them Savania Beza for any thing I finde in Beza his reply unto them whose judgement in this point wee shall hear anon out of the same writing And so I dismiss the Testimony from Antiquity Proceed wee now to the Judgement of the Reformed Churches expressed by their chief Writers and even those who have erected another Government Calvin the supposed Parent of Presbytery 1. The Reformed Christian Churches Judgement of Episcopacy but hee was onely the foster Father for Farel and Viret had before him ejected Episcopacy at Geneva or rather the Bishop hee the ground being as it were vacant raised Presbytery or rather ripened it in the room thereof Hee first argues the right of Episcopacy for the substance of it from Nature it self Calvin 1. Hoc natura dictat Unum ex singulis Collegiis delegendum exi precipua cura incumbat Epist. ad R pol. 1554. 2. Fateor quidem ut sunt hominum ingenia mores non posse ordinem stare inter verbi Ministros quin reliquis praesit Unus Praes ad duc Witemberg ante Epist ad Gal. Epist ad R. pol. 1554. then acknowledges the Necessity of it for the upholding of the order of the Ministery from the disposition and spirit of men both
King James's Proclamation for Uniformity of Common-prayer prefixed to some Editions of the Liturgy which by Law was established in the daies of the late Queen of famous memory blessed with a peace and prosperity both EXTRAORDINARY and of many years continuance A STRONG evidence that God was therewith well pleased The importunity of the complainers was great their affirmations vehement and the zeal wherewith the same did seem to bee accompanied very specious And they began such proceedings as did rather raise a scandal in the Church than take offence away and did other things carrying a very apparent shew of Sedition Upon this double experience when such motions of change were made to him hee * In his Proclamation for unity of Common-Prayer and confer H. Court crushed the chicken here in the shell lest it being hatched by indulgence might pick out his eyes as it did afterward some others and did well King Charls His Majesties Father yeelded in these things to Scotland but doth not obscurely bewail it If any saith hee speaking of Episcopacy shall impute my yeelding to them my failing and sin Icon. Basilic medit 17. p. m. 156. I can easily acknowledge it On the issue whereof no man can without horrour reflect Now Faelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum O happy hee whom others failings make Wise to become and by them warning take But it may be times are different and am I made of the Kings Counsel I conclude all 2 Chron. 25.16 Erasm in Epist Hieron ad Heliodor Tom. 1. Ep. 1. in Antidot advers calumniam first with that of Erasmus Ad haec video esse non-nullos hujuscemodiingenio ut cùm apicula ad omnem flosculum ad omnem advolans fruticem tantum id excerpat quod ad mellificium sit conducibile ipsi solum hoc venentur si quid sit quod aliquo pacto Calumniari possint His mos est è toto libro quatuor aut quinque verba decerpere atque in eis calumniandis ostendere quantum ingenio polleant Non animadvertunt quibus temporibus cui Causes of calumniating of an Author qua occasione quo animo scripserit ille Neque conferunt quid praecesserit quid sequatur quid alio loco eadem de rescripserit Tantum urgent ac premunt quatuor illa verba ad ea machinas omnes admovent Syllogismorum detorquent depravant aliquoties non intellecta calumniantur That is I perceive saith Erasmus that some men are of that disposition that whereas the little Bee flyes to every flower and to every green thing onely that it may gather that whereof it would make honey these men only hunt after that which they may rail at The custome of such men is out of a whole book to cull out four or five words and in reviling of them to shew what abilities they have They consider not in what times the Author wrote nor to what persons nor upon what occasion nor with what intention Nor do they compare what went before with what follows after what hee said of the same matter in another place Onely they urge those four words they wrest they deprave and sometimes reproach what they understand not Thus far hee Next with that elegant and prudent observation absit invidia verbo of our late Soveraign upon this same Argument Icon. Basilic Medit. 27. To His Majesty that now is Not but that saith hee the draught being excellent as to the main both for Doctrine and Government in the Church of England some liues as in very good figures may happily need some sweetening or polishing Which might have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens praecipitancy had not violently demanded such rude alterations as would have quite destroyed all the beauty and proportion of the whole Thus the King The close of all Dr. Usher L. Primate of Armagh Serm. before the H. of Com. Febr. 18. 1620. pag. 6 7. Rom. 16.17 I seal up all with the grave admonition of a Primate Bishop and the Authentique Decision of this case by a Prince of Kings Let not every wanton wit saith the former to one of the Houses of Parliament bee permitted to bring what fancies hee list into the pulpit and to disturb things that have been well ordered I beseech you Brethen saith the Apostle mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which yee have learned and avoid them Howsoever wee may see cause why wee should dissent from others in matter of opinion yet let us remember that that is no cause why wee should break the Kings Peace and make a rent in the Church of God A thing deeply to bee thought of by the Ismaels Ismaels of our time whose hand is against every man Gen. 16.12 and every mans hand against them who bite and devour one another until they bee consumed one of another Gal. 5.15 who forsake the fellowship of the Saints and by sacrilegious separation break this bond of peace Little do these men consider how precious the Peace of the Church ought to be in our eyes to bee redeemed with a thousand of our lives and of what dangerous consequence the matter of Schism is unto their own souls For howsoever the Schismatick secundum affectum as the Schoolmen speak in his intention and wicked purpose taketh away unity from the Church even as hee that hateth God taketh away goodness from him as much as in him lyeth yet secundum effectum in truth and in very deed hee taketh away the unity of the Church onely from himself that is hee cutteth himself off from being united with the rest of the body and being dissevered from the body how is it possible that hee should retain communion with the head Thus that most learned Primate Note for whom the Brethren seem to have a special reverence in recommending of his Model of Episcopacy Necessit Reform p. 53. Wherein yet hee did propound but not prescribe his â—udgement according to that Seneca Illi qui in his rebus nobis praecesserunt non Domini sed Duces nostri sunt or as the Apostle as a helper 2 Cor. 1.24 not as a Lord over the Faith of the Church in this particular but especially as respecting the time when more could not well bee hoped for The last word as 't is meet shall bee the Kings and 't was his deciding one in these controversies after hearing of all debates about them at the conference at Hampt Court Proclamat for authorizing the book of Com. prayer at the close And last of all saith hee wee do admonish all men that herereafter they shall not expect nor attempt any further alteration in the common and publick form of Gods service from this which is now ESTABLISHED For that neither will wee give way to any to presume that our own judgement having determined in a matter of this weight shall bee sweighed to
Repentance and return 1 Pet. 3. I am obliged to render VVithall for the honour of those that went before us and have setled the things that here I plead for it is not amisse to shew 1 Cor. 7. that they had also the Spirit of God Besides it is requisite to Evidence that those that have not hearts to love this Church and Kingdom yet to hate them they have no Cause Add hereunto 'T is not perhaps impossible that some Eye by Gods direction may fall on these Lines who may thereby not only with a more steddy foot walk himself in the good and the old Paths Jer. 6.16 which I point at but may be of Influence also to cause others to do it likewise and not to suffer them to stumble in their ways from the ancient ones Jer. 17.15 to walk in paths in a way not cast up Lastly there is nothing new under the Sun Eccles 1.9 that which hath been may be again to the prevention whereof I have endevoured to contribute somewhat in this Treatise After some Recovery purging is most requisite Nam quae in Morbis relinquuntur post crisin Hipp. l. 2 Aph. 13. recidivas facere consueverunt Dreggs of Diseases if not digested or expelled do cause Relapses Especially in such distempers as are malignant Of which sort if any are Schisme and Sedition Fare thou well Septemb. 27. Anno Dom. 1661. The Contents of this Treatise The Chapters Sections and Pages are referred to as they are here Printed which sometimes but not often are amiss LIB I. Of the Civil Controversie CHAP. I. 1. OF the Right of Retractations allowable unto all men 2. Evidenced from the General Causes of Error 3. and of some great Examples of them Ancient and Modern CHAP. II. How far only the Author declined how he behaved himself therein and what awakened him unto Recovery pag. 15. CHAP. III. What the Author doth Retract both in General and in Particular 1. The War 2. Independency p. 24. CHAP. IV. Causes of the Authors falling and first the Negative p. 28. CHAP. V. The Causes positive And first in General p. 39. to 58. CHAP. VI. Causes particular to each Controversie And first of the VVar. SECT I. Cause general and privative Not obeying the Spirit of God p. 56. SECT II. Particular Motives to the VVar with their Refutation p. 58. to 83. CHAP. VII Reply to certain general Grounds for the VVar being the chief heads of a Book Entituled Scripture and Reason pleaded for Defensive Arms. p. 90. to 106. The Contents of the Second Book Of the Church Controversie CHAP. I. Of Independency SECT I. THe Occasion of the Authors lapse into it p. 109. SECT II. Causes 1. Privative viz. not obeying the particular Word of God p. 112. SECT III. Causes Positive p. 113. SECT IV. The Contents of Independency p. 114. CHAP. II. Of the Grounds of Separation And first in generall p. 119. CHAP. III. Particular Exceptions against the matter of the Premisses 1. Against the Articles or Doctrine p. 174. CHAP. IV. Of Worship and the Directory thereof the Common-Prayer-Book SECT I. Of Worship 1. In it self p. 195. 2. In the Ceremonies p. 196. SECT II. Objections particular against the matter of our Worship p. 204. SECT III. Exceptions against the Body of the Common-Prayer-Book SECT IV. A Vindication of the Compilers of the Liturgy in this particular p. 231. SECT VI. Exceptions against the Ceremonies pag. 270. CHAP. VI. Of the Assemblies their matter and mixture SECT I. The means in the Church of England of preserving them from Corruption p. 266. this number and some following are to be looked for in the 6. Chap. of the Second Book p. 269. SECT II. Causes Constitutive of the Church of England p. 270. SECT III. Apostolical Churches vitiated but no separation p. 273. SECT IV. The Primitive Churches also p. 275. SECT V. The Reformed Churches p. 280. CHAP. VII Of Discipline CHAP. VIII Of Government 1. By the Ministery in general and 2. by Episcopacy in particular Sect. 1. The Conditions requisite to the constitution of a Ministery p. 301. Sect. 2. Of Episcopacy It s Right and Title p. 304. Sect. 3. Exceptions against the former Government and Discipline 1. Episcopacy established by Law in Engl. p. 325. Subsect 2. Whether Episcopacy be a different order from Presbytery ibid. Subsect 3. The Question not of order but of Power p. 332. Subsect 4. Whether Ordination in the N. Testament without a Bishop p. 334. Sect. 4. Of the Book of Ordination Subsect 1. Bishops Imposition of hands upon Deacons p. 338. Subsect 2. Apostles choose Deacons ibid. Subsect 3. That phrase Receive the Holy Ghost defended p. 339. Subsect 4. Consecration of Bishops and Archbishops p. 346. Subs 5. Episcopal Jurisdiction p. 349. Sect. 6. The Close of the Church Controversie CHAP. IX The Proof and Trial of these Retractations CHAP. X. The Conclusion 1 A Petition p. 367. The Elder Son ibid. 2. An Admonition of Zanchy p. 368. 3. The Prediction of his late Majesty p. 370. CHAP. XI Additionals The Scope and Protestation of the AUTHOR Containing also an Explication of the FRONTISPIECE MY ayme is to perform by way of Retractation some small service Principi Patriae to the King and to my Country My allegeance to the one and engagement to the other and my lapsing in both so much obliging me Now a] Psal 20. the Kings honour is great in Gods Salvation And b] Psal 144. blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God But c] Amos 3. how can two walk together unless they be aggreed We d] 1 Joh. 3.5 must be like him if we would see him as he is Now God is a righteous God Psal 11. his countenance will behold onely the thing that is JUST This was the end of our Redemption viz. e] Tit. 2. to deliver us from the practise of all iniquity that we might live a godly righteous and sober life Now the the onely rule of this righteousness and justice is the f] Tit. 1. will of God Which will is revealed either generally in the Scripture and in the Law of Nature or particularly in the constitutions of every Nation which contradict not the former Hence g] Dâ— Sibbis Souls conflict cap. 17. what is agreeable to Law is agreeable to Conscience said once the Lawyers Casuist Hence also h] Ro. 13.1 he that resists the Laws of particular Nations resists the Ordinance of God and he be he head or tail branch or rush as the i] Isa 3. Prophet phraseth it shall receive to himself damnation k] Eccles 10. He that brakes this hedge a serpent shall bite him he that removeth these foundation stones they shall fall upon him Laws therefore being the sacred impress of the will of God and the observance of them the obligement and security both of Majestrate and Subjects of Prince and People my onely scope is the
1538. p. 283. The summe is he distinguisheth betwixt miscarriage by errour ignorance and negligence which he acknowledgeth and the Lords correction of him for it and wilful guilt and intentional mischief which he denyeth to have been in that affair but retracting and lamenting we have him in the former Adde to these Mr. Ridley Bishop Bishop Ridley of Lond and one of the Learnedest of the Martyrs in Q. Marys time Whom his Answer to the Q. Commissioners April 2. 1554. hath these words His notable expression and protestation of Liberty to Retract These things I do rather recite at this present because it may happen to some of you hereafter as in times past it hath done unto me God may open it unto you in time to come Therefore I b] Fox Act and Mon. in Q. Mary protest here publickly that it may be lawful for me to adde or diminish whatsoever shall seem hereafter more convenient and meet for the purpose through more sound judgement better deliberation and more exact tryal of every particular thing Nay even Bellarmine himself that wrote against all Errants of his time whether real or imagined as if himself had been without errour and whom our c] Contro 1. Epist Dedic ad D. Cecil Whitaker styleth Virum sanè doctum ingenio foelicem judicio subtili lectione multiplici praeditum and to whom being a Cardinal and a Pillar it might be scandalous to alter any thing Yet he hath also the Recognition of his Works wherein he retracts several things he had formerly asserted Bellarmine and this formally Not to insist on his retractations real and in effect who whilest he writes for Recognit oper prefix Editionibus recent Cynthius aurem vellit admonuit undermines the main foundations of his own cause as might be shewn Yea and the five Independent Br. themselves that I may have them the more exorable Judges do profess and say In a jealousie of our selves Independents Apologetic Narrat p 11. we kept this reserve to alter and retract though not lightly whatever should be discovered to be taken up out of a misunderstanding of the rule c. Now Coronidis loco to set a Crown with the conclusion upon the ingenuity of the former Company His late Majesty We have His Royal Majesty our late Soveraign condescending unto Retractations yea even once and again We must saith he without endeavouring to excuse that Kings Answ to the Remonstr of May 19. 42. p. 10. which in truth was an errour Our going to the House of Commons Again elsewhere having spoken of his consenting to the deposition of Episcopal Government in Scotland he saith If any shall impute My yielding to them as My failing and sin I can easily acknowledge it c. Icon Basilic Medit. 17. p. 156. Seeing therefore imperfection and obnoxiousness unto errour is not only as the shadow to this body of death always following of it but also that the best and wisest of men in all Ages have judged it their parts to retract and denie their former judgements if found erroneous I shall conclude this first point touching the right causes and instances of Retractations with that of the great example in this kind so often quoted n] Aug. de Dono perseverantiae cap. 21. Bonae quippe spei est homo si eum sic proficientem dies ultimus vitae hujus invenerit ut adjiciantur ei quae proficienti defuerunt perficiendus quà m puniendus potiùs judicetur There is good hope of that man saith he whom the last day of his life shall find going forward in the pursuit of truth that there may be added to the thriving man what he yet wants and he may be counted worthy rather to be perfected then punished CHAP. II. How farre only the Authour declined how he behaved himself therein and what awakened him unto recovery Sect. I. How far the Authour lapsed in the Church Affairs IT follows next to represent in short how far only I proceeded in my lapse what was my carriage therein and by what means it pleased God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up the sparks of light for my arising Of the first 1 Sam. 2. Psal 37. There is a promise that God will keep the feet of his Saints so that though they fall they shall not be cast off for the Lord will put under his hand And that they shall hear a voice behind them Isa 30. saying this is the way walk in it when they turn to the right hand and when they turn to the left according to that of the wise man Eccles 5. ult He that feareth God namely in sincerity shall come out of them all 1 Joh. 3. chap. 5. For he that is born of God cannot sin to wit that sin unto death and of final Apostacy The reason is first his seed remaineth in him Job 19. even the root of the matter as Job speaks And then again 1 Pet. 1. he is kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation as S. Peter uttereth it All which like as we have heard Psal 48. so have we seen in the City of the Lord of Hosts in the City of our God the Church that God will establish it for ever Matth. 16. so that the gates of Hell shall not for ever prevail against it For at my receding from the Church the many Conflicts of my spirit brought forth this protestation at my very first * At Colch Apr. 15. 1644. Artic. 3. admission into that Company The Authors protestation atentring into Indepency Which he noteth not as owning every expression in it but as to evidence his opposition even then to Separation viz. Causes and Motives of my present motion First Of coming off from the way I have been in 1. Negatively what they are not Not because the Congregations of England are all false Churches and the Ministers false ones and the Ordinances none For I conceive first that where any number of visible Christians have chosen expresly or by consent a fit Pastor and joyn in spirit with him and one with another in the things of God according to his Word though there be no express Covenant nor Separation from the multitude for want of light in these things they become a true Church they having thereby all the essential◠of one Secondly where God ordinarily and plentifully works to edification there must be something of a Church for he is not ordinarily present to edification but in his house 2. Positively what they were namely an apprehension of more purity in Assemblies and Ordinances Secondly Under what condition I desire to be taken on scil of a profession 1. Of my acknowledgement of the Authority of Magistracy over all persons in Civil Causes 2. In Church matters for the point of publick exercise so as not to raise tumults and by force to obtain the exercise of Religion 3. Of my
and he could be without them Reading surely as it doth enlarge our abilities An tu existimas aut suppetere nobis posse Cic. pro. Archia Poet. quod quotidie dicamus in tanta varietate rerum nisi animos nostros doctrinâ excolamus Canst thou think saith Tully that we can have material supply to speak daily in such variety of matters if we did not encrease our parts by study So also it sharpneth our reasoning to see both into words and things even in Religion it self Ut de sermone rectiùs judicemus Melanchton praefat in Hesiodum ut dogmata religionis enarrare explicare quoties hoc poscit publicus usus possimus variè subigendum est ingenium omnibus disciplinis excolendum That we may the better judge of the meaning of words and be able also to open and explain the doctrine of Religion so often as the Publick calls for it The mind is to be tilled several ways and furnished with all kind of learning Psal 119.98 99 100. saith Melanchton Lastly It fixeth our judgment Hence David did not count it vanity to boast Thou through thy commandements hast made me wiser than mine enemies for they are ever with me I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation I understand more than the antients because I keep thy precepts Namely I keep first to the reading considering of them Hence the Apostle charges Timothy not to live upon his own fancy 1 Tim. 4. but to give attendance to reading to exhortation and doctrine and to meditate on what he read Yea and himself also as appears had read all sorts of Authors for he quotes the Greek Poets So even when old and as himself saith near his end yet he gives order unto Timothy to bring him his Books and Parchments 2 Tim. 4. in which perhaps his gatherings in his readings were Aug. prolog in lib. de doct Christ I conclude this point with that of the Father finding such temptations in some of his time Quod per hominem discendum est sine superbia discat per quem docetur alius sine superbia sine invidia tradat quod accepit Neque tentemus eum cui credimus ne talibus inimici versutiis perversitate decepti ad ipsum quoque evangelium audiendum atque discendum nolimus ire in ecclesias expectemus rapi caveamus tales tentationes superbissimas periculosissimas magisque cogitemus ipsum Apostolum Paulum licet divinâ coelesti voce prostratum instructum ad hominem tamen missum Quomodo enim verum esset Templum Dei sanctum est quod vos estis si Deus de humano Templo responsa non redderet That which may be learned from man saith he let the Christian receive without pride and let him by whom another is taught deliver without pride and without envy what he hath received Neither let us tempt him in whom we believe lest being deluded with such fine and nice conceits of the enemy we at length come to refuse to go to Church to hear the very Gospel it self but wait till we are inspired Let us take heed of such proud and perilous temptations Note Quakers in Austins time and rather consider that even the Apostle Paul himself although dejected and instructed by Christs own voice from heaven was yet for all that sent unto man namely Ananias for further information For how else should it be verified which is promised viz. That the Temple of God is holy 1 Cor. 3.16 which Temple are ye if so be that God did not give forth Oracles out of this humane Sanctuary Thus far he And that for the second point neglect of other Authors besides the Scripture Come we to the third defect in reading 3. Controversies of the times neglected viz. Not studying what might be said on both sides And the controversies of the times neglected I remember that Dr. Sibs a man * Prov. 31. Dr. Sibbs St. Austin's seventh Tome useful in these times whose works do praise him in the gate the then Master of our Colledge on occasion of certain opinions started by some at that time amongst us commended unto me the reading of Austins seventh Tome God preserved me from that infection although I lived for some time in a Holland-like aire from whence that wind blew and near that w ter which was conceived to exhale some such vapours without that Antidote But had I read then all that Tome it had with his blessing secured me against Independency the one half of whose evil consists in Donaâ—â—sm and Sep râ—tion Against which St. Austin in one half of that work strenuously disputes Of one Tract whereof Bucer saith thus Particularly Contr. Epist Parmen lib. 3. Is locus hac maximè tempestate nobis singulari diligentiâ legendus perpendendus est That is That Treatise viz. St. Austins third Book against Parmenian is in these times especially to be read and pondered on Bucer in Matth. 18.7 with special industry Thus of the third cause neglect of Reading Now as the Beast 4. Cause Zeal unguided Job 39.22 28. whose neck is cloath'd with thunder as Job speaks cannot stand still when he smells the Battel and if he want his eyes must needs do mischief so that zeal which I had of God wanting the due conduct of knowledge did indeed precipitate as well as provoke me unto these actings What the dire effects of these two in conjunction would prove our Saviour before hand shews us when he saith that those who are acted by them even then when they persecute the Saints to death Joh. 16.2 shall think they do God service The Apostle himself was an example of it who before conversion was exceedingly mad against the Saints Act. 26.11 and persecuted them even unto strange cities And after him his Schollar Austin * St. Austin studied Paul especially for St. Paul's writings at first he chiefly studied acknowledgeth his unguided zeal * Itaque avidissimè arripui venerabilem stylum Spiritus tui prae caeteris Apost Paulum Aug. confess lib. 7. cap. 21. and the pernicious effects of it Omnia illa figmenta quaesivi curiosè attente audivi temerè credidi instanter quibus potui persuasi adversus alios pertinaciter animoseque defendi S. Aug. contr Epist quam vocant Fundamenti cap. 3. All those fancies saith he I sought after curiously and heard them diligently and believed them rashly and perswaded them to whom I could earnestly against others I defended them with pertinacy and passion Thus he of himself whilst an heretical and schismatical Manichee 5. Cause Idolizing some persons 5. St. Paul a man as full of charity as of faith yet did with great prudence labour to take off from the Churches the too great opinion they had conceived of some persons Nay he spares
not his friend Apollos nor himself neither What is Paul saith he or what is Apollos but the Ministers by whom ye believed 1 Cor. 3.5 That they might learn in them not to think of others above that which is written chap. 4.6 Their idolizing of some had been the occasion of the Apostasie of many His Pupil Austin puts this Lecture into practice who in his writings against the separation of his time the Donatists and others endeavours to undeceive the people and sets down the faults as well as the errors of those Schismaticks One place for all Vnde tantae turbae convivarum ebriosorum innuptarum Aug. contr ep Parmen lib. 3. cap. 3. sed non incorruptarum innumerabilia stupra foeminarum unde tanta turba raptorum avarorum faeneratorum Vnde tam multi per suas quique regiones notissimi tantundem volentes sed non valentes Optati If you be wheat and not chaff saith he whence is it that there is in Optatus the Donatist or Separatist his faction such a crowd of luxurious persons drunkards unmarried but not unmarr'd women innumerable rapes and ravishments whence this throng among you of oppressors of covetous of usurers whence is it that there are so many who are well known in their several Countries to be as curst Cows though they have shorter horns Matth. 7.15.16 But had our Saviour been either understood or believed the ravening Wolves had never crept into the flock in their Sheeps cloathing but they would if observed have been discerned by their fruits interpreted Rending and tearing as was said before being a fruit of thorns and thistles not of the vine or fig-tree St. Paul attributes it to the folly and negligence Rom. 16.17 as well as the charity of the Romans that they did not observe that those who caused divisions amongst them contrary to the doctrine which they had received did but with flattering words and sweet preaching according to Mr. Tindals version deceive the simple and serve their own bellies But yet I must add that distinction here which our Saviour uses in another case I speak not of them all Joh. 6.70 But as the Sea the more it flows on one side the channel the lower it ebbs on the other so the immoderate preferring of some doth necessarily carry with it the undervaluing of and prejudice against others With the contempt of others better oft-times than the former This appeared in the Corinthians and Galatians who by how much the more they doted on their new teachers by so much deeplier were they prejudiced against their old Minister and Apostle Insomuch that he could neither speak nor write but he was taken either for a fool or a mad-man or an enemy 2 Cor. 10.10 chap. 5.13 His speech is contemptible say they And If I be besides my self saith he it is for your consolation implying that they thought so of him And Gal. 4.16 Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth Now the fruit of this evill root in my self was that I did not greatly mind what those of the contrary part either said or wrote Whom if I had piously and considerately heard and read it had in all likelyhood either prevented or recovered my falling sooner Euseb hist lib. 6. cap. 6. But not onely Dionysius in the Historian hath taught us to become boni numularii omnia Probantes quod bonum fuerit retinentes Good mony-changers ' proving all and keeping that which is good But Austin himself also hath informed us that a real adversary to the truth may be read so it be warily and with wisdom Hence it is that he commends the Rules of Tichonius the Donatist unto the reading of all men as we saw already Quod ideo dicendum putavi ut liber ipse legatur à studiosis cautè sanè legendus est Aug. de doctr Christ lib. 3. cap. 30. ad fin non solùm propter quaedam in quibus ut homo erravit sed maximè propter illa quae sicut Donatista haereticus posuit Which I therefore speak saith he that the book it self of Tychonius may be read by the studious so it be warily not only in regard of those things wherein he erred as a man but especially in regard of those which he wrote as a Donatist Job 7.51 But read he might be It was the precipitancy of the old Pharisees condemned by one of themselves when he came to some farther moderation That they condemned and judged a man before they heard what he could say for himself This is that which a Minister of the Gospel above all men should observe so to walk in the very eye of Christ as to do nothing by partiality 1 Tim. 5.21 This Canon therefore was transgressed 6. Cause Want of due reverence to the Church and State 1. In general 6. As the wisdom of Law-givers is seen not onely in the matter but the order also of their Laws so the Lord with great prudence placed that Precept first in the second Table of his Laws from whence directly or occasionally the observation of the rest depend Honor thy father and thy mother The true exposition of which is contained in the first rudiments to be instilled into children but through that neglect we want the efficacy of it being men yea and Teachers also viz. A neglect Catechism in the Book of Common-Prayer duly and heartily to honor and obey the King and his Ministers To submit our selves to all our governors teachers spiritual pastors c. That is a default in my reverence to the Church and Common-wealth with the Governors of both was another and an eminent cause of my prevaricating For the transgression of which commandment as I deprived my self of the promise annexed so incurred I the threatning implyed so that had it not been for the rich mercy of God and clemency of others my days might not have been so long in the land of the living as they have Although I committed nothing by Law criminal Isa 8.20 To the ' Law and to the Testimony saith the Prophet Which is not to be restrained to the Scriptures onely though so meant there but unto all expressions of the wisdom goodness and government of Almighty God toward men declared in the Laws which are nothing else but as I may so speak copies of those Attributes and of Gods eternal Law the first Original Hence the disobedience unto the Legitimate Governors Administrators and Expounders of the Law of God is made Rebellion against himself and a presumptuous sin by the Lord in Moses And in particular Deut. 17.2 In particular 1. Our own Church R. Hook Eccles Pol. l. 5. § 71. touching the Church the Laws Governors and body of it That speech of one doth not want its weight as none of his did As becometh them that follow in all humility the ways of peace we honor reverence and obey in the
eyes look right on to the true scope And turn not to the right hand or to the left of unlawful means If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light Matth. 6.22 if thine eye and aim be evil thy whole body of thy actions will be full of darkness and in darkness men do not walk even said our Saviour 8. Cause Negligence in Religious duties Jam. 4. 8. In the next place there was no doubt either neglect of or some other defect in prayer and religious duties For though the thing were not omitted yet it seems there was an asking and not receiving which could not have been for he is faithful who had promised but that there was an asking amiss Heb. 10. Now the promise cannot fail Tâ—t 1. Jam. 1. because God cannot lie and the promise is If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth it liberally It hath even by the light of nature been discovered that great miscarriages in judgment and practise could not happen but as a punishment for some neglect of God as well as a sin against him When Alexander the Great had in a drunken fit slain Clytus a man both of valor Curtius lib. 8. paulo ab initio and merit towards the King after that he had spent all night in lamenting and repenting Scrutatumque num ira deorum ad tantum nefas actus esset subiit anniversarium sacrificium Libero patri non esse redditum st to tempore itaque inter vinum epulas caede commissa iram Dei fuisse manifestam Upon search it was found that the sacrifice to Bacchus was not performed in its season and therefore in his very benefits wine for so they reckoned the table was made a snare and in drinking and feasting slaughter being committed the anger of god was evident Thus those Heathens Matth. 6. Surely lead us not into temptation as it is a necessary so it should be a daily prayer and that with earnestness 9. Add to this some failing or other 9. Cause Fail in practise either in spirit and sincerity or in practice and walking For Good and upright is the Lord therefore he will teach sinners in the way but so that we be tractable Psal 25.8 9 10. for the meek he will guide in judgment and the meek will he teach his way that is the plain-hearted and those that walk with a right foot and make streight steps unto their feet Heb. 12. And all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto them that keep his Covenant Psal 25. and his testimonies to do them And what man is he that feareth the Lord him shall he teach the way that he shall choose As on the contrary when we know God Rom. 1.28 and glorifie him not as God he often delivers us to an erring and unjudicious spirit 2 Thess 2. And the not receiving the truth in the love of it introduceth frequently strong delusions The close shall be St. Austins Diriget mites In Psal 24. diriges nec perturbabit in judicio eos qui sequuntur voluntatem ejus nec ei resistendo praepenunt suam That is He shall direct the meek nor shall he disturb them in their judgment which follow his will and do not by resisting prefer their own The last of those general causes which I shall name 10. Cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of my back-sliding was Being too busie without my sphere 1 Thes 4.11 and in the things did not belong unto me A practice consequent unto the former negligence as is implied by the Apostle whilst he saith Do your own business and work with your hands the thing that is good Psal 131.1 It was one thing that preserved David from sedition that he exercised not himself in things too high for him and above his place but refrained his soul as a weaned child 2 King 11. Not but that Jehoiada the High-prieâ—â— may according to his office and power given him deal in the greatest affairs of a kingdom Yea and not onely Zadoc and Abiather the chief but even also Ahimaaz and Jonathan the inferior Priests when regularly may put their hand to save the Throne as well as the Altar But the case with me was different I need not explain how That Prophesie Take unto thee the instruments of a foolish shepherd Zech. 11.15 c. was applied by one late in power unto the Ministers dealing in affairs of State Lieutenant General Cromwels Letter to the Speaker out of Scotland Sept. 4. 1650. when yet himself and party played their first and best game by their hands in so medling He saith Such means will not be effectual for the setting up the Kingdom of Christ and neglect or not trust to the word of God the sword of the Spirit which alone is powerful and able for the setting up that Kingdom and when trusted to will be found effectually able to that end and will also do it Thus he Oh that so much had been said by him at the beginning of the English as it was at the beginning of the Scotish War But then it would have spoil'd the sport 2 Pet. 1.12 and it seems there is a present truth as some apply those words of Peter not capable of any other moments of time past or to come But to return Johannes Funccius Johan Funccius that notable and good Chronologer a Divine also Chaplain and Chancellor unto the Duke of Borussia having as it seems counsell'd some act that was disgusted vehemently by the State Bucholcer Chronol ad Ann. 1566. they rested not till they had his head that contriv'd it who as he went to execution gave forth this Distich Disce meo exemplo mandato munere fungi Et fuge ceu pestem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which I have sometime thus rendred Learn thou by mine example to apply Thy self to thine own studies and do fly As from the plague that folly mine of late Divines too medling in affairs of State Somewhat like was that of Justus Jonas Justus Jonas idem ad Ann. 1567. the year following which he gave forth as he went to the same calamity Quid juvat innumeros scire evolvere casus Si facienda fugis si fugienda facis What doth it boot all cases for to know If duty thou omit and sin thou do But he was of another Trade to wit a Lawyer I conclude this with the Apostles warning 1 Thess 4. that we study to be quiet and to do our own business 1 Pet. 4. lest we suffer as evil doers and busie-bodies in other mens affairs The Causes general are ended CHAP. VI. Particular Causes with their Confutation And first of the War SECT I. Cause General and Privative viz. Resisting of the Spirit of God AS touching particular ones namely those which induced me unto the civil Controversie and those which lead me to
formidable examples in the Ministery of those who not without very probable gâ—ounds and weighty advice have receded from their places provided that they could eat their bread in them though perhaps but course or not over-powered with other temptations or distractions Considerable are the words of Calvin to this purpose Ita respicienda est vocatio tua ut ab omnibus avocamentis sensus tuos omnes avertas In Epist ad Philip. cap. 2. 21. Licet alibi opulentiùs vivere At Deus te alligavit Ecclesiae quae tenuitur modò te alat Alibi plus honoris sed eum tibi locum attribuit Deus in quo humiliter vivas A ibi salubrius coelum aut amoenior Regio sed hîc tibi statio ordinata est Optares tibi cum humaniore populo esse negotium offendit te vel ingratitudo vel ferocitas vel superbia denique cum genio moribus Gentis minimè convenit Atqui luctandum est tibi tecum vis quodammodo contrariis votis est afferenda ut spartam quam nactus es colas Which passage truly I left un-Englished but remembring it may do some good unto the * The Wives of Ministers weaker sex 't is this Thou art so to observe where God hath called thee that thou must shut thine eyes from all enticements thence Elsewhere thou maist live more plentifully but God hath bound thee to a Parish which will but keep thee sparingly There is more credit to be had else where but God hath assigned thee a place whâ—re thou must live obscurely The aire is better at such a place and the Country far more pleasant but here thou are appointed Sentinel Thou couldst wish thou hadst to deal with a better natur'd people thou art troubled at their ingratitude at their rudeness at their pride and insolency in a word thou canst not away with the spirit anâ— disposition of the people But thou must wrastle with thy self and offer a kind of force to all opposite affections that so thou maist adorn that Spouse to which thou art engaged Thâ—s far there But the Sauce is not all Vineger He therâ—fore adds in the same place Idem ibid. Eatenus concedendum est Ecclesiae ministris sua quaerere ut non impediantur à quaerendo Christi Regno sed hoc modo jam non dicentur sua quaerere quoniam à praecipuo scopo aestimatur vita hominis Thus far saith he it must be granted unto Ministers to seek their own so as they may not be hindred from seeking the Kingdom of Christ But on this account they are not now to be said to seâ—k their own because we are to judge of a mans way by the scope and end he aimes at Thus he Conc. Nice Can. 16. And the Council of Nice â—ath this Canon Ne de civitate inferiori ad majorem Ecclesiam transire quis ambiat sive Episcopus sive etiam aliùs Clericus That no man be he Bishop or other Clergy-man should endeavour to go from a meaner to a greater place or people Concil Trid. Sess 3. sub Jul. 3. Can. 5. And there is reason for it seeing it is seldom that he can sine magno suo Eccâ—esiae incommodo gregem sibi concreditum relinquere ac non sine Episcopalis dignitatis diminutions Leave the flock entrusted to him without great inconvenience both to himself and them and without disgrace to his ministerial function Psal 92. as the Council of Trent hath it But to return God hath promised to keep us in all our ways whilst we are in our way 2 Sam. 11.1 2. we are under protection Now as was implyed above this degree of spiritual fornication is occasioned sometime as the other was in David Desidosus erat The hand that is not busie will Object the head to wandring still This for the occasion of my Lapse SECT II. The Causes Privative BUt the Causes were as in the former Controversie partly general and privative partly positive and particular The general was that as I had in the former through zeal without knowlâ—dge resisted the Spirit of God so I committed here the same error upon the same grounds against the Word of â—od For why may I not call it the Word of God which was first in it self a truth and that one of main concernment and then spoken when I was leaving my relation and as it were at Farewell when words use to be of most weight and lastly uttered by Dr. Laud Arch-bish of Cant. my honourable Lord and Master one whose place was in solemn manner to declare it Although his person should have been as bad as his who prophesied being the * Joh. 11.51 High-priest It was this viz. An Admonition to adhere unto the Church of England without turnig unto the right-hand or unto the left To which most Sovereign counsel if the Author's self did not in all things correspond as some have published he had therein no servant of me and yet he did confer upon me no common favours By vertue whereof I enjoyed the benefit of the best part of my education and preparation for the Ministery Unto whom living or dead I have not return'd evil willingly But on the contrary being sollicited and that with some kind of intermination to be and afterward cited as a witness against him I appeared not When the Lord Cromwel in Henry the eighth's time Fox Acts Mon. in the life of Cromwel was glaned at by one for having been servant unto Cardinal Wolsey he not onely did acknowledge it but professed also his grateful memory of the benefits he received from him Because his Lordship may have with some though not meriting the like resentment with the Cardinal This for the occasion and cause privative SECT III. Causes Positive THe Causes Positive First 1. Of Recess from the Church I took offence at some things in the Church in the Assemblies the Worship and the Discipline neither perceiving the beam in my own eye nor the beauty of that Spouse that seemed black Cant. 1.4 14. but was comely in the eye of Christ no nor the deformity of the Concubine that was but painted over An adulterous spirit sees beauty in any but his own wife Next 2. Of Access unto Independency I was taken not undeservedly with the good gifts and preaching that I perceived in certain of the Independent way And I did not well apply then what I had sometime done viz. To mark those that caused divisions and offences Rom. 16.17 contrary to the doctrines which I had received and avoid them because they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies and with sweet preaching so Mr. Tindal and flattering words deceive the hearts of the Innocents But the main was a love to that beauty of holiness in Order and Ordinances which they predicated and spake so much of Now Aug. de utilit cred cap.
1â— Quis non his pollicitationibus non alliceretur praesertim adolescentis animus cupidus veri Who would not have been inveigled with these promises especially the mind of a young man thirsty for truth As Austin once of himself in refeference unto the Manichees SECT IV. Of the Contents of Independency and in particular of the second and third of them viz. congregation and non subjection The Ingredients of Indep coll g ble out of the Apologetic Narration of the 5. Br. BUt to come neerer and to particulars There are three things in Independency especially First separation viz. from full and constant fellowship and communion with the Parochial Assemblies Secondly Congregation or collecting and constituting themselves into another body Lastly Independency and assuming or usurping of intire Ecclesiastical power into that body so as to be judicially and of right subject unto none other which is the esse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Independency Of the two latter viz. Congregation and non subjection I shall speak here because I shall have occasion of much more large Discourse about the former namely separation And now for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that they do so congregate that is visible for they do by a certain covenant constitute themselves into a distinct body And that they arrogate an Independency also Apologet. Narrat pag. 23. although in words they reject the name saying That proud and insolent title of Independency was affixed unto us yet in as much as they do in terminis affirm first that any other particular Church hath only power to declare non communion with an offending Church pag. 19. Secondly that a Classis or combination of Churches have no juridical power over any particular one Pag. 15. pag. 17. Thirdly that the Magistrates power is of another nature though of use over the Church doth it not follow They also rightly denying a Catholick visible Church unavoidably that as a Church and as to Ecclesiastical jurisdiction they depend on none and therefore are Independent That therefore such they are as to congregating and Independing is beyond all contradiction Now then for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their grounds why they are so to shew the unsufficiency of them or which is all one that they ought not so to do is the next thing to be evidenced And 't is not so hard nor needs so long a proof if we consider their own grounds already yeilded and the unlawfulness of separation which shall the Lord assisting be cleared in the consequent and which themselves also seem to damn For we had likewise the fatal miscarriages and shipwâ—aâ—ks of the separation say they as Land-marks to forewarn us of those rocks and shelves they ran upon Apologetic Narrat pag. 5. And would God it had done it for the Independents have split upon the very same divisions First then for their concessions If it be true that all that conscience of the defilements say they we conceived to cleave to the true worship of God in them pag. 6. Concessions of Independents against Independency or of the unwarranted power in Church Governours exercised therein did never work in us any other thought much less opinion but that multitudes of the Assemblies and Parochial Congregations thereof were the true Churches and body of Christ and the Ministry thereof a true Ministry Then doubtless first their habitual Separation from such though in some acts rarely they did communicate with some of them was ipso facto unlawful and a Schisme evident This the foundation falling their superstructure of congregating into a body and binding themselves to that society which implies a constant renunciation of the former Churches is as drunkenness to thirst and their arrogating of a self-sufficient and independent power is as the fastening their iniquity with cords of vanity So that there seems no more needful for this place then that ex ore tuo serve nequam Matth. 25. out of thy own mouth thou shalt be judged Dost thou confess that notwithstanding any defilements in the worship any usurpation in the Church-Governours any pag. 6. mixture in the Congregations that yet multitudes of them were the true Churches and body of Christ and wilt thou separate thy self constantly and draw others from the true body of Christ Joh. 15. Are not the branches when broken off from the true Vine cut off from the * Quicquid à matrice discesserit seorsim vivere spirari non poterit substantian salutis amittit Cypr. de Simplic prolator p. edit Erasm 1520. 173. juice sap and life of the tree must they not needs wither and in the end be gathered to be burned I end this with that knock of the Hammer of this headless Schism for they are Independent St. Austin Hoc ergo Tichoâ—ius cùm vehementer copioseque dissereret ora contradicentium multis magnis ac manifestis sanctarum scripturarum testimoniis oppilaret non vidit quod consequenter videndum fuit Parmenianus autem ceterique Donatistae viderunt hoc esse consequens maluerunt suscipere obstinatissimum animum adversus apertissimam veritatem quam eâ concessâ superari ab Africanus Ecclesiis Aug. contr Ep. Parm. l. 1. c. 1. Independents This that the Church was not in Africk onely 1. their Inconsiderateness but diffused through the whole world when as Ticonius had earnestly and copiously discoursed and by many weighty and evident arguments of the holy Scriptures stopt the mouthes of the gain-sayers yet did not see that which by consequence did clearly follow 2. Or their Obstinacy On the other side Parmenian and the rest of the Donatists the separation saw the consequence and would rather assume a most stubborn resolution against manifest truth than by yielding to it be overcome of the African I may add in reference to those we speak of the English Churches But secondly toward satisfaction unto others if not to them What kind of Independency is here condemned I must explain my self All Independency of Churches is not denyed For then we must condemn the Church of England and other reformed who do not act as acknowledging any superior body on whom they do depend But according to the confession of this Church every particular or National Church Artic. 34. hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or rites of the Church ordain'd onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying So Article 57 The Queens Majesty hath the chief power unto whom the chief government of all estates of of this Realm in all causes doth appertain and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction It speaks of causes Ecclesiastical Vindiciae Catholicae or the Rights of particular Christian Churches asserted Which kind of Independency I have elsewhere sufficiently if I mistake not vindicated But the Independency here opposed is that whereby Christians being before incorporated as members
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 high detonations and thundrings Of it what the Antients thought we shall hear from Austin Aug. contr Epist Parm. l. 3. c. 2. Consilia separationis inauia sunt pernitiosa atque sacrilega quia impia superba sunt Thoughts saith he of separation are vain and pestilent yea sacrilegious because they are ungodly and presumptuous Tom. 7. part 1. And one half of a whole Tome of his is on this Argument 2. But more especially Five things in the Church pretended as grounds of separation There are five things in the Church from whence there might be pretended ground of separation viz. the Doctrine the Worship the Assemblies the Discipline and the Government Now there are against them Exceptions both general and particular First generally in no less than seven accusations First that many things in â—hem are unnecessary 1. General exceptions against them Secondly inconvenient and of ill consequence to the Church Thirdly for their rise but human inventions Or fourthly at the best but Apocryphal not Scriptural Yea fifthly Popish superstitions and taken out of the Mass-book Moreover sixthly such as are not established by the Laws of this Church and Nation Seventhly and lastly that there is an engagement for the removing or reforming of them all in the late Solemn League and Covenant I might for answer unto all these as also to the particular exceptions against any of the premises and the matter of them refer the Reader unto that elaborate and in my judgment unanswerable work of the learned Hooker In which Argument I may truly say of him Prefat in Ecles polit n. 2. as he doth of Calvin in reference to his Commentaries and Institutions viz. In which whosoever after him bestowed their labour he gained the advantage of prejudice against them if they gain-said and of glory above them if they consented So fully hath he therein vindicated the Worship and Discipline of this Church Colon. in Compend Calv. Inst in prefat And therefore Quem tu studiosa juventus Nocturnâ versate manu versate diurnâ To be commended to the diligent perusal of all that love the peace of this Jerusalem But because new pens must be apposed to Neoterick Opponents and my Argument engages me I shall speak something SECT I. Unnecessary TO begin with the first viz. That many things in them are unnecessary For answer Answ It should be considered that 't is easie for private men Private men and those in a lower station to mistake in judging of the motions of superior Orbs and Intelligences A man that stands upon the Watch-tower and such are publick persons sees what those should do who are beneath him Ezek. 3.17 and what is necessary better than a wiser man that is below The reason is that men of inferior place are not assisted with the advantage of so much information with the presence and general view of so many things nor ordinarily with that measure of the Spirit as being to act both in a narrower and a lower sphere which God doth usually Publick persons and as it were pro formâ communicate unto men of higher place who for the good of mankind and of his Church doth commonly furnish men according to the places he calleth them unto 1 Sâ—m 10.6 Saul being appointed King was forthwith indued with another spirit So the High Priest that crucified the Lord Jesus Joh. 11.51 uttered a mysterious and most precious Oracle touching the extent of the death of Chrâ—st for all the children of God scattered abroad in all Nations And 't is expressly added Being the High priest that year as representing the cause And a divine sentence saith Solomon is in the mouth of the King Prov. 16.10 his lips do not transgress in judgment Now if he assisted the former and such like How much more then is he the Author of those Laws injoyning what is necessary in his Church which have been made by his Saints indued further with the heavenly grace of his Spirit and directed as much as might be with such instructions R Hook Eccles pol. lib. 3. sect 9. as his sacred Woâ—d doth yield saith my Author And I may add and several of whom have laid down their lives for his truth SECT II. Inconvenient and of ill consequence A Second general Exception against the premises is that they are Inconvenient and of evil consequence first scandalous to the weak occasions of silencing able Ministers and of troubling many good people To the first Answ Scandal what Rom. 14.21 13. 1 Cor. 8.9 scandal is not that which some persons may be offended at but properly that which makes our brother to offend and stumble as it is implicitely described by the Apostle Now the things we speak of are for the keeping of them from falling and in the right way If any will censure before he see and understand the matter we must object unto them the Apostles own practise who did boâ—h circumcise Act. 16.3 with Gal. 2.3 5. and refuse also to circumcise yea and sacrifice too as he saw it made for more general edification Though it could not be without offence to some both Jews and Gentiles Act. 21.26 and seem'd unto them scandalous insomuch that the Apostles at Jerusalem perswaded him to use certain of the legal Ceremonies and to sacrifice for the satisfying of some that were so prejudiced against him To the second 2. Able Ministers silenced That the premises are occasions that some able Ministers not conforming are silenced They must remember that it is not the goodness of the timber nor bigness of the piece that makes it useful for the building but its fitness If it be knotty or crooked or otherwise unproportionable a less and of meaner stuff may do better When the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 11. that certain Ministers were transformed into Angels of light doth he not imply that they were men both of parts great and piety very specious and yet for the rents that they made in the Churches calleth them the ministers of Satan and else-where wisheth Gal. 5. that they were cut off It is not the skill of a soldier nor his courage but his obedience unto government that makes him capable of an Office Metall without breaking makes the Horse to cast hâ—s Rider And St. Austin Contra Parmen l. 1. c. 1. when he commends Tichonius the Donatist as hominem acri ingenio praeditum uberi eloquio himself a man inâ—ued with a sharp wit and fluent eloquence Rom. 16 1â— would not yet have had him his Colleague at Hippo for men by sweet preaching as was noted before may cause such divisions in the Church that the brethren may be warned to beware of them And it will lie at their own and not at the Churches dore if their Talent have been wrapped up in a napkin And it had been better both for this Church and Nation
lost the Revenues of a good part of a Bishoprick as 't is said which he had purchased And it may be others of these Brethren are ejected as they had ejected others For these times are like those Ruffin Hist eccl l. 1. c. 21. Ea tempestate foeda facies ecclesiae admodum turpis erat non enim sicut prius ab externis sed à propriis vastabatur Fugabat alius alius fugabatur uterque de ecclesia erat praevaricatio erat lapsus ruina multorum Similis poena sed impar victoria similiter cruciabantur sed non similiter gloriabantur quia dolebat ecclesia etiam illius casum qui impellebat ad lapsum At that time the face of the Church was foul and uncomely indeed for not now as formerly the Church was destroyed by enemies but by her own One is driven the other drives him away and both of them of the Church Offences and falls and ruines there were of many All were like sufferers but not all like conquerors All were tortured alike but all could not glory alike for the Church did lament even his fall that forced another to miscarrry saith the Historian But to leave the men and to come unto the matter 3. Their matter The premises are not established they say because there is Addition Detraction and Alterations made in them since the Originals and first establishment For Answer Object 1 Addit Substract Alterat Answ we may note here a twofold distinction 1. Of persons private or publick 2. Of things lighter or more material to apply these If the Alterations Additions or Detractions alledged be done by private hands and in things of lesser moment Misprisions in lesser things by private hands the main continuing unviolate It would be better thought on whether such a misprision be it casu or consilio unwittingly or willingly ought to invalid a publick act For then perhaps neither the Brethren have an authentick Bible nor any Lawyer a true Statute-Book because there are many faults do happen by the pen and by the press which may have happened in the things we speak of But secondly if such alterations In more material ones and by publick persons c. be made by publick persons or in things material it must be considered what powers the Laws do give unto them in these affairs now it is certain and the Brethren acknowledge it that until 17 Carol. 11. The King had freedome by Law to appoint under his Broad Seal Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical Reasons for Reform p. 51. to amend whatsoever might be reformable in the Church And in the Act for uniformity of Common-Prayer Act for uniformity of Com. Prayer at the end of it it is granted unto the Queen that if there shall happen any irreverence in the service of God by the mis-using the orders appointed in the Common-Prayer-Book she may by her Commissioners or by the advice of the Metropolitan ordain further rites or ceremonies for the advancement of the glory of God c. Several Acts in K. Hen. 8. Edw. 6. Q Eliz particulaâ—ly that of 1 Eliz. cap. 1. Necessit of Reform p. 50. Now by this and other particular Acts that restored all Ecclesiastical power from the Pope unto the Crown And particularly by the Act of 1 Eliz. cap. 1. wherein having first united and annexed all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical jurisdiction to the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom they are the words of the Brethren it addeth what power shall be given by commission under the Great Seal to exercise the same in this following clause viz. And that your Highness your Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm shall have full power and authority by vertue of this Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to assign name and authorise when and as often as your Highness your Heirs and Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as shall please your Highness your Heirs or Successors such person or persons being natural born Subjects to your Highness your Heirs or Successors as your Majesty your Heirs or Successors shall think meet to exercise and use occupy and execute under your Highness your Heirs and Successors all manner of jurisdictions priviledges and preheminencies in any wise touching or concerning any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within these your Realms of England and Ireland or any other your Highness Dominions and Countries And to visit reform redress order correct and amend all such errors heresies schismes abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner spiritual or ecclesiastical power authority or jurisdiction can or may lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and the conservation of peace and unity of this Realm Now howsoever the Brethren would make this Act void after the Act of 17 Car. 1. of which anon yet the things we speak of being transacted before remain in force by vertue of that Act. And certain it is that not only the Kings themselves but the Parliaments also the Judges the Ministry have always thought that by the King some alterations might be made by vertue of these Acts without violation of Law provided nothing were done contrary to any thing in the Book contained Preface to the Com. Prayeâ— Book especially when the King shall be supplicated by his people thereunto Hence the King in his Proclamation for the Authorizing of the Book of Common-Prayer by occasion of the Conference at Hampton Court which having reflected on saith Kings Proclamat for establishing the Book of Com. Prayer And for that purpose namely to satisfie the scruples of some tender consciences gave forth Our Commission under Our Great Seal of England to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and others according to the form which the LAWS of this Realm in like case prescribe to be used to make the said EXPLANATION c. And it is also certain that the same not only Kings successively but also Parliaments and Judges with all the other Magistracy have taken all the premises viz. The Doctrine or Articles of Religion the Worship or Common-Prayer-Book The Discipline and Government to be established by Law Or else how will the Brethren or how can any other free the Kings from Arbitrary Government the Parliaments from betraying the publick liberties the Judges from perjury and perverting Law and other Magistrates from oppressing of the people if men have been punished for disobedience to these if not established by Law But surely we may more safely confide in the judgment of so many Acts of Parliament and Laws of so many Princes By divers Ministers of sundry Counties so in the title K. Ja. Instructions to Preachers 1622. Artic. 4. Parliaments Judges Magistrates then in the conjectures of certain Country or County Ministers what is Law The rather because this being a Prerogative Ecclesiastical
House of Peers carried for them by far the major part of Lords Yet after five repulses contrary to all order and custom it was by tumultuary instigation obtruded again and by a few carried when most of the Peers were forced to absent themselves In like manner was the Bill against root and branch brought on by tumultuary clamours and schismatical terrors Bill against Episcopacy which could never pass till both Houses were sufficiently thinned and over-awed To which partiality while in all reason justice and religion my conscience forbids me by consenting to make up their Votes to Acts of Parliament I must now be urged with an Army and constrained either to hazard my own A cause of the War defence of Episcopacy and my Kingdoms ruine by my defence or prostrate my conscience to the blind obedience of those men whose zealous superstition thinks or pretends they cannot do God and the Church a greater service than utterly to destroy that Primitive Apostolical and antiently Vniversal government of the Church by Bishops And the King hath the like complaint * Kings declaration to all his loving subjects Aug. 12. 1642. p. 8. print Cambr. else-where So that we see what was the mind and affection the scope and intent of the King and the two Houses as then when that Act passed touching Episcopacy Whence it will follow that as they had no intention nor ever consented to the Bill for it to destroy the office so neither did the Commons think that it was so by that Act of taking away their votes or by recalling of the former clause of 1 Eliz. 1. touching Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for then they would not have prepared another Act for it which never passed the Houses whilst full nor the Kings assent afterward and so is no Law It remaineth therefore that the intention of the Parliament in the repealing of that clause was onely in reference unto the High-commission Court or other excentrical from the legal jurisdiction of Bishops and raised onely by the Kings prerogative yet of use whilst established but removed not for its unprofitableness as to prevent some greater inconvenience It was their jurisdiction in those cases and upon such special commission from the King that there ceased not their ordinary legal and per se Episcopal power of government in this Church * By Act of this present Parliament for restoring Episcopal jurisdiction As hath been of late more authentically evidenced Answ 4 even before this was printed As for the Ordinance that especially at that time as it could at no time cannot countervene a setled Law Neither have the Houses power to declare any thing against Law as we heard above Lord Cant. speech ubi suprà For close therefore I repeat that suit of his and do humbly in the Churches name desire of his Majesty that it may be resolved not onely by all the Reverend Judges of England A supplication to his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament but by his Majejesty and both Houses of Parliament and then published by them that the Doctrine and Articles of Religion the Liturgy and Worship the Discipline and Government are not against or besides the Laws of this Realm That so the Church-Governors may go on cheerfully in their duty and the peoples minds be quieted by this assurance that neither the Laws nor their Liberties are infringed as Subjects thereby SECT VII Of the Obligation of the League and Covenant AGain it is objected that there is an engagement for the Reformation of the Doctrine Worship Assemblies Discipline and Government in the solemn League and Covenant therefore they are not to be adhered unto Subsect 1. That the Covenant obligeth not OMitting the elaborate and excellent pains of the University of Oxford in this argument Reasons of the University of Oxford concerning the Covenant 1647. Duplies of the professors of Aberdeen to the Brethr. concerning the Covenant 1638. Dr. Lesly Bish of Down in his Visitation speech Lond. 1638. 1. Argument Because it is opposite to after other Oaths c. Gal. 3.14 18. as also that of the Professors of Aberdeen in Scotland And of the Bishop of Down in Ireland the testimony of the three Kingdoms against it I shall propound only four Arguments to evince first the nullity of its obligation and then from thence collect what it binds yet unto The Arguments touching the former are First from the nature and order of this Oath The second from the power imposing of it The third from the matter of the oath it self The last from the scope and end of its framing and imposing First from the nature and order of this Oath When there are two oaths touching the same things and they contradictory one to another if the former be lawful and obliging the latter cannot be so too but void and null ipso facto Hence it is that our Apostle proveth the invalidity of the Ceremonial Law and Covenant being different from and in some sort opposite to the Covenant of Grace because it was made four hundred years after and so could not make the other void So this Oath and Covenant whereof we now speak being contradictory as shall be seen and is evident of it self to former lawful Oaths and Engagements confirmed by the Laws of the Kingdome as the Oath of Allegiance Supremacy Canonical Obedience Subscriptions to the three Articles and Protestations cannot make those former of none effect and is therefore void being taken as it was unlawful to take it unless the Obligation of the former Oaths and Engagements had been by the same or superiour power relaxed As was done by Hermannus Archbishop of Cullen to his subjects Sleid. Com. l. 18 Ad Ann. 1547. when he was no longer able to protect them Which was not our case Our former Oaths and Engagements were agreeable to Law and Equity both in their matter and authority injoyning them This contradictory to them and by an inferiour power yea by such a power as had not authority to do it which brings me to the second Argument 2. Arg. Because it was in posed by unsufficient power in opposition to the lawful authority namely taken from the power or rather the impotency of the imposers as to this act It is proved above that in the Government the King is Supreme by the Laws But if he were but equal yet in a coordinate power if when one desires to do his duty and is well able thereunto the other shall exclude him and act in opposition not only to him but also to the Laws established by all and impose upon the Subjects who are not obliged but as it proceeds from all to submit and to accept of such impositions if voluntarily is a threefold iniquity and injustice First Unto the person excluded against his will and right Secondly Against the liberty of the Subject who is not liable to injunctions proceeding from some but all Thirdly Against the priviledge
of the other Ubi videbat cruentum facinus Idem ibid. cap. 1. ibi rursum timebat reatum perjurii Ne Deum offenderet peâ—erando Deum offendit saeviendo Where he saw a bloody villany there he feared the guilt of perjury and lest he should offend God by forswearing there he offended God by cruel murdering saith the same Author Subsect 2. What the Covenant obligeth to THus far hath been shewen that the Covenant in reference to the performance of the contents of it bindeth not Yet doth it bind and oblige very strongly For Ecce sanctus David non quidem juratus sanguinem hominis fudit sed eum falsum jurasse negare quis poterit de duobus peccatis elegit miâ—us sed minus fuit illud in conparatione majoris Nam per seipsum appensum magnum malum est falsa juratio Behold holy David Aug. ubi supra cap. 3. he would not shed a mans blood though he had sworn it But who can deny but that he was forsworn of two evils he chose the least It was indeed the least in comparison of the greater but else of it self false swearing is a great sin Saith the same St. Austin Now great sins do bind and oblige unto deep repentance As Paul in another case 2 Cor. x2 ult I must bewail saith he those that committed these lasciviousnesses and have not repented Job 42. We must as Job did after he had spoken words that he understood not to God even abhor our selves and repent in dust and ashes And with the blessed Apostle we must be humbled as oft as we reflect upon it and think the worse of of our selves as long as we live as he did for his sin though not committed in light as ours was 1 Cor. 15. I am not worthy saith he to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God So every one of us I am not worthy to be called a Christian a subject of the Kings or a son of the Church because I entred into this Covenant But yet with his comfort and some kind of recompence where he had cone the wrong viz. Yet by the grace of God I am what I am that is a penitent and a convert and as a token of it I laboured more abundantly then they all that had not so offended As 't is also prophesied in this cause some should do Eicon Basilic Medit. 27. Prov. 24.21 22. And let us for the future fear God and the King and not meddle with them that are given to change the government of Church and State for their destruction hath come suddenly and who foreknew the ruine of them both i. e. those that have both deserted God in his Church and the King in the State and Common-wealth Prov. 1.10 And if hereafter sinners in that kind entice thee consent thou not no though they should say Come we will have all one purse For they lay wait for their own blood as we have seen And let us not deceive our selves one horn of this dilemma will wound us Either the Covenant is to be literally kept or else repented of Remember palliations expositions and evasions here will do no good Prov. 28.13 Psal 32. Numb 32.23 For he that covereth this sin shall not prosper And whilst we hold our peace our bones will consume through Gods heavy hand upon us And our sin will find us out For there is no darkness nor shadow of death Job 34.22 where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves saith Elihu And thus far of the general exceptions against the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of England viz. That they are unnecessary inconvenient humane inventions Apocryphal Popish not established by Law And an Engagement and Covenant for the removing or reforming of them CHAP. III. Grounds of Separation and Exceptions particular against the Matter of the Premises SECT I. Against the Articles or Doctrine 2. Exceptions particular against the matter of the premises Independents excepts not Apologet. narrat pag. 29. PRoceed we now unto the Exceptions particular namely against the matter of the Doctrine Worship Assemblies Discipline and Government And first of those against the Articles or Doctrine The Independent or dissenting Brethren acknowledge That in the review and examination of the Articles of our Church so are their words our judgments say they have still concurred with the greatest part of our Brethren neither do we know wherein we have dissented Some Presbyters now do But certain of the Presbyterian Brethren do dissent and object against them first doubtfulness secondly error thirdly tyranny in the act requiring subscription Necessity of Reform pag. 1. c. 1. Doubtfulness and fourthly defectiveness and imperfection First doubtfulness because in the book of Articles now printed and ever since 10 Carol. 1. there is a declaration of his late Majesty to the Articles to this effect 1. That those Articles contain the true Doctrine of the Church of England agreeable to Gods Word 2. That the Clergy upon just occasion may have liberty from the King Kings deelar before the Articles under the Broad Seal to deliberate on such things as make for the establishment of the same doctrine yet so that no varying in the least degree should be endured 3. That no man should put his own sense upon them but take the Articles in the literal and grammatical sense pag. 2. whence the Brethren infer that by this Declaration no Minister shall have liberty to interpret any one of these Articles And therefore they will remain doubtful But first Answ 1 this doubtfulness is not per se and in the Articles themselves but per accidens and in reference to this declaration Again though they are prohâ—bited to put any Answ 2 new sense as the King speaks or their own sense as the Judge in Smiths case Necessity of Reform p. 5. yet are they not forbidden to explain the literal and grammatical sense The Scripture in the fundamentals of salvation also the Laws and Acts of Parliament are so to be taken and yet Divines there and Judges here have ever been allowed to open those senses or else the one must not preach nor the other declare Law Thirdly when unto that liberty Answ 3 granted to the Clergy there is this restraint expresly put upon it viz. That from the Doctrine established the least varying shall not be endured and that nothing shall be concluded contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Land is there not a fair assurance that the present doctrine shall remain fixed and that if any heterodox sense shall be put upon them it shall be lawful to oppose the literal and grammatical sense whether in the Article or Explication Fourthly when the Declaration Answ 4 saith We will that all further curious search be laid aside and these disputes shut up in Gods promises as they be generally set forth unto us in the holy
Apostle St. Paul implyeth that faith only which works by love to be effectual to obtain forgiveness of sins Jam. 2. And St. James proves as well concerning love as faith that if it have not Alms-giving it is uneffectual as those words If a brother or a sister be naked or destitute of daily food and one say Go be warmed be filled and give him not that which is needful for the body what doth it profit that is what proof of love is here 1 Tim. 6.19 And Paul exhorts rich men by good works to lay up for themselves a good foundation that they may lay hold on eternal life Explained There is a foundation of right whereby we have title to eternal life and that is faith if it be a living one Foundation of salvation double The right of it such also And there is a foundation of assurance and that is by good works Again There is an original right and that 's by faith in the general promise the Covenant of Grace And there is a collateral right and that is by good works whereunto particular promises are made Homil. of Amlsd p. 161. But as our Authour saith I know some men will not be contented with this answer and no marvel for such men can no answer content or suffice I have done with their Exception against the matter Alms-deeds and the efficacy of them I come now to their objection against the proof or the title of it rather Chap. 4.10 Ecclus. 3.30 That the Book of Tobith being cited for proof it is said that the Holy Ghost did teach in sundry places of Scripture and this Book named whence they infer 1. That the Book of Tobith is here taken for holy Scripture 2. That it was indited by the Holy Ghost But for answer When things seem double to the eye that are single it is an argument that either their opticks or their understanding is defective In all other mens eyes for a Book to be holy Scripture and to be indited by the holy Ghost is all one and vice versâ But if they spake that they did not think if their hearts were worse then their head we may here retort upon them their own reproach upon the Hom. excellent sense Secondly I answer with the Learned Whitaker De Sacr. Script Q. 1. cap. 11. Non est idem esse canonicam Scripturam computari in numerum sacrarum Scripturarum It is not the same thing to be Canonical Scripture Apocrypha how Script and to be counted in the number of holy Scripture Computantur enim in numero Scripturarum quae cum sacris Scripturis leguntur ad aedificationem plebis etsi non ad dogmatum confirmationem They are counted saith he in the number of the Books of Scripture which are read with Scripture for the edification of the Church although not for the confirmation of Articles of Faith The Articles therefore having excluded these Books from holy Scripture Artic. 6. as themselves note and every ones Bible having it in the Apocrypha that expression might be born in a popular Sermon though not in a determination in the Schools But Secondly The Homily saith the Holy Ghost saies it and that implies 't is very Scripture As if Apocrypha how from the holy Ghost as he called it Scripture in a large sense so he might not ascribe it to the Holy Ghost in a like sense also yet not as any truth especially in matters of Religion may be so ascribed but because it is so consonant unto those very expressions which the Holy Ghost hath in the undoubted Scripture touching the same matter as we saw above out of the Sermons of our Saviour and writings of the Apostles But Thirdly because I love plainness What if I grant that the Homily being penned very early and in the morning as it were of the Reformation and before the Articles had determined the number of Canonical Books at least in the Synod 1562. or were confirmed by Parl. And whilest it was still in the peoples minds being so formerly taught that those Books Were Scripture what if to avoid offence in a popular Sermon the Homily spake according to the then received opinion as the holy Evangelists and Apostles oftentimes follow the Greek Translation differing from the Hebrew because it was generally received and the errors not such as overthrew the faith Object so here But why was it not amended since Why is it suffered to Answ 1 stand still Forsooth for the same reasons perhaps in part that those of the Church of Rome our brethren of the Nation and others affected that way may see we do not reject wholly those Books out of the number of holy Scriptures in some sense and as inditements of the holy Ghost in such things as they have agreeable to Answ 2 Scripture And it may be these and such like expressions were left as are the Psalms and Epistles and Gospels after the old Translation not only for the cause now named but also to be as a picture of the face of the Church in its infancy here that the growth of it since in knowledge and distinct understanding of things might the better appear Though it must be avowed that if any man Galat. 1. yea or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Doctrine than what is already and then was established in the Articles Homilies and Liturgies let Answ 3 him be accursed Lastly It is very probable that the things not being of any dangerous consequences as they stood Ipsae quippe mutatio consuetudinis etiā quae adjuvat utilitate novitate perturbat Aug. Januar. Ep. 118. c. 5. and the changing of them might be not only very difficult for some things must have been much altered and detruncated but also give occasion of calumny to the adversary and of scandal to the weak it was thought better to let them stand lest it should be said the Doctrine or Worship was altered and not the same as at the Reformation Art 37. The last place they except against is Art 37. where the Queen being named and we enjoyned to read the Articles as they are we may not they say turn the word Queen unto King which Exception because it foameth out their own shame Jud. v. 13. as the Apostle speaketh representing them to be men of a captious and quarrelsome spirit shall receive no other answer But be the Articles true or false 3. Tyranny in the Act requiring subscription to the Articles Pag. 5. they urge the repealing of the Act requiring absolute subscription unto them upon another ground viz. Because say they if we may not subscribe without an addition so far forth as the same Articles are agreeable to Gods Word it must needs be granted that the Composers of them are admitted to be infallible and their Articles of equal authority with the Canonical Scriptures or else that the Statute intended to tyrannize over the consciences of
displeased God so sore and filthily defiled his holy house and his place of prayer Which last words the Brethren refer to piping singing and playing on Organs Whereas 't is evident that passage hath respect especially to that before where it spake of Images Idols Altars with gross and filthy corrupting the Lords holy Supper and the Gazeing sights Again It condemneth not all piping singing or playing on Organs but such as they were wont to have which was both superstitious for kind and too much for quantity Matth. 6. He that forbad us to pray as the Heathen either for babling or length did not forbid us to pray soberly and upon just occasion largely Thirdly If you take all in concreto and together then singing is also condemned by the Homily for it is ranked with piping and Organs Therefore it must be understood with the former restriction such singing as was then and so such piping such organing namely such as took up so much time and was fitted more to please the fancy than for godly delight and spiritual excitation of the affection and edification Lastly The Composers of these Homilies were Bishops the Homil. were approved by Bishops and by Princes and Parliaments who had Organs and singing in their Chappels and Cathedrals besides the Royal Chappel And therefore cannot be understood to condemn that thing in Doctrine which themselves did allow in practise unless we should compare them to him * Deletum in Autographo repositum ab operis who having an Altar in his Chappel yet wrote strenuously for The holy Table Name and Thing This detorting therefore of mens words against their scope and meaning by the Brethren savours of their folly who as he speaks Job 13.7 will lie for God which he as little owns as stands in need of To the last The Bishops omitting the Pastoral Staff which by the 2 Edw. 6. he is enjoyned to have in his hand or to have it born by his Chaplain First the Common-prayer in the Rubrick referrs to that Act of 2 Edw. 6. onely in respect of ornaments to be used in the time of the Communion Rubrick before the Confession of sins and other times of his Ministration not to other things or times as this which is an ornament to themselves which for humility's sake they have omitted and to avoid ostentation but this is no example for otheâ—s to neglect the things that concern the more immediate worship of God In the former things the Law gives it as a priviledge in these it puts it on as an obligation A Knight shall wear his Spurs and Sword that is he may but He shall serve the King in his Wars that is he must I shall end this discourse with that which Austin ended his de Ritib Ecclesiae concerning the Ceremonies of the Church Ep. 119. Januar cap. ult Sic itaque adhibeatur scientia tanquam machina quaedam per quam structura charitatis assurgat quae maneat in aeternum etiam cùm scientia destruetur quae ad finem charitatis adhibita multum est utilis per se autem ipsam sine tali sine non modo superflua sed etiam pernitiosa probata est Let us therefore so make use of knowledge as we would do of an Engine by which the building of Charity may be raised which abideth for ever even when Knowledge shall be destroyed Which knowledge when it is applyed to charity is very useful that of it self without such an end and use is not onely found to be a supersluous but even a pernitious matter Saith this Father I add Vade tu fac similiter And thus we have found mighty and vehement informations K. James Proclamation for the uniformity of Com. prayer supported with so weak and ssender proof as it appeareth unto Us and Our Councel that there was no cause why any change at all should be made in that which was most impugned the Book of Common-prayer neither in the Doctrine which appeared to be sincere neither in the Forms and Rites which were justified out of the practice of the Primitive Church saith King James I conclude with an Admonition an earnest Suit 1. An Admonition and an humble Supplication My Admonition is to all first that they beware lest this * Let not every wanton Wit be permitted to bring what fancies he list into the Pulpit c. Dr. Ushers Serm. before the Commons Feb. 18. 1620. pag. 6. Exod. 32. Amos 8.11 wantonness arising from spiritual fulness as it is in the bodily They ate and drank and then rose up to play be not punished with a famine not of bread and water but of hearing the Word of God either in the letter or in the saving power of it and of enjoying his holy Worship Next That they would apply to this in its proportion what one of the learned Professors of Tigur hath concerning the Scripture on an occasion of the curiosities of some about that Quis enim alius in Scripturis praeter Dei cognitionem fidem vitae nostrae officium scopus nobis esse vel possit vel debeat non video * R. Gualter presat in 3. Tom. operum Zuinglii VVhat things we are to aim at in reading of Scripture More then the knowledge of God Faith and the duties of our life what other end we should aim at in Scripture I say or in a confession of faith and form of Worship I see not Now these by the Articles and Liturgy as they are that we have as plentifully enjoyed as any other Church is acknowledged by other Churches as shall appear and is on all hands owned My earnnest suit is unto these Brethren 2. A Suit Isa that now labour of this Book that they would not travell to bring forth but wind That they would consider the water is now troubled on both sides the penny in the bottom will not be seen That in paring of the nails too near there is peril of cutting of the flesh And that if any thing in it self considered may need amendment yet as in some diseases at least in some remedies Medicina est morbo pejor The medicine worse than the malady Plutarch de sanitat inenda non procul à fine According to that of the Philosopher Longissimè a recta ratione absunt qui ejiciendorum è corpore redundantium humorum causa qui familiares corpori sunt consueti in corpus inficiunt coccos Gnidios scammoniam aliaque medicamenta a temperie corporis aliena saeva Accustomed humors though not so good in the body are yet better grapled with then scammony 3. An humble Supplication unto Authority Isa 49. Revel 12. My humble supplication is to those who are in power if so be that this voice shall by any eccho ascend their ears That they would be as 't is promised nursing fathers unto this child-birth of the Church That they would be as a wall to
this Vine that it may grow up and flourish and as a sense unto this Vineyard full of choice plants both from breaking in upon it by odious calumnies and from others breaking out and making it but a stalking-horse to shoot at further game That they would preserve it sarta tecta which hath for its matter the sacred Doctrine for form the divine Worship for use both a Sanctuary for a godly soul and a Bulwark against the lesser Vermine and greater beasts of Separation and Popery And in a word hath been consecrated unto us and came swimming in the bloood of Martyrs and sealed by the holy Ghost unto our hearts and by the presence of God on our outward blessings Finally Act. 5.6 Edw. 6. 1 Eliz. 1. That they would please to reflect on and revive that wherein the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal For establishing the Book of Common-prayer and all the Commons in this present Parliament assembled doth in Gods Name earnestly require and charge all the Arch-bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour themselves to the uttermost of their knowledge that due and true execution hereof for establishing the Liturgy may be had throughout their Diocesses and Charges Note as they will answer before God for such evils and plagues wherewith Almighty God may justly punish his people for neglecting this good and wholesome Law I have done with the two first the Doctrine and Worship the Articles and Liturgy CHAP. VI. Of the Assemblies their matter and mixture SECT I. The means of preserving them from corruption COme we to the third that is the Assemblies the impurity whereof is a grand motive unto Independents and Separation wherein the Church is clear the guilt must lie either on the negligence of persons entrusted or the necessity of times and the condition of the Church The Laws The Laws do meet with all both criminal and penal offences and evils if these be executed there can be no notorious offendors And there are but two things necessary to preserve an Assembly pure Instruction and Correction or Discipline upon offendors Now the Church hath strictly appointed Catechism through all the grounds of Christian Religion prohibiting any to come unto the Lords Table Rubrick after the Confirmation who cannot give an account of them and for the better ripening thereunto hath ordained confirmation as a preparative And for Discipline to preserve the Congregation pure the Rubrick before the Order of the Holy Communion hath these words So many as intend to be partakers of the Holy Communion Rubrick before the Communion shall signifie their names to the Curate c. And if any of those be an open and notorious evil liver or have done any wrong the Curate having knowledge thereof shall advertise him in any wise not to presume to the Lords Table until he have openly declared himself that he hath repented truly and amended and that he have recompensed the party whom he hath wronged or at the least declare himself to be in full purpose so to do The same order shall the â—urate use with those betwixt whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign NOT SVFFERING them to be partakers of the Lords Table until he KNOW them to be reconciled Wherein you see there is full provision made for the purity of the Church The Authors of necessity of Reformation pag. 48. say of this Rubrick for its fulness in point of Discipline What is this but as much and as high Jurisdiction as any Bishop can use in that particular Object But I am not ignorant that this Rubrick hath not served for a Plea at all seasons Cases may so fall out Respons that summum jus may be summa injuria and as in the Civil so in the Ecclesiastical Judicatories there may be cause to fly to the Courts of Equity for the moderation of the rigor of the letter of the Law But the intention of the Church is plain and if it can not always attain its end yet Est aliquid prodire tenus Independents Acknowledgement si non datur ultra Yea and the congregational Brethren themselves acknowledge That whatsoever defilements they apprehended in the Worship or Government of the Church yet it did never work in them any other thought much less opinion but that MULTITUDES of the Assemblies and PAROCHIAL Congregations Apologet. narrat pag. 6. were the true Churches and Body of Christ And again in the same page We always have professed and that in these times when the Churches of England were the most either actually overspread with defilements or in the greatest danger thereof that we both did and would hold a COMMUNION with them as CHURCHES of Christ Which reminds me of a speech of one in his dealing with persons of these Principles Aug. contr Parmen lib. 1. cap. 8. Et adversum nos loquuntur nobiscum loquuntur cum eos obmutescere compellat veritas silere non permittit iniquitas that is They speak against us and they speak for us and when truth constraineth them silence yet their iniquity will not let them hold their peace But touching the purity of the Assemblies it is no doubt with the Church in this life as it is with every member of it who if sensible hath cause deeply to cry out with the Apostle under the sense of the mixtures of corruption Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. Would we have mixtures born with in our selves if Hanc veniam petimus demus vicissim let us yield it to the Body especially seeing we have for our warrant not onely the state of the Jewish Church which in its greatest Apostacy was owned by the Lord as his Spouse and the Members of it for his Children Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement Isa 50.1 Ezek. 16.20 And thou hast taken my children which thou hast born unto me and offered them to idols Neither is it sufficient here to say Robins Apol. for Separat cap. 12. That this Church was holy in Abraham and also a typical one for it was to be holy in it self and a real Church too as well as typical for they did eat the same spiritual meat c. 1 Cor. 10. And the Catholick Church comprehends the Jewish as well as that which is Christian properly as is truly asserted in the seventh Article of the Confession of the Church of England We have not onely this president but also the example of our Lord and Saviour who communicated with that Church and did not gather another out of it till the consummation of that Polity and till they had declared themselves open adversaries to the scope of Scripture both in Doctrine and Worship In the mean time both going up to their feasts and commanding his Hearers to attend upon the Doctrine of their Teachers Mat. 23.2 3. and himself living and dying a member
of that Church challenging them all John 8.46 exp if they could tax him of sin that is of failing in any duty that he owed to the Church as well as other things which they would have readily done had he failed We have besides this his Precepts and Directions in this very case That namely where the peril is Mat. 13.37 c. that the Corn should be plucked up it is his will that the tares should rather be suffered to grow until the Harvest which himself expounds to be at the end of the World which place is with more mirth Apolog. cap. 12. p. m. 90. than either strength or modesty derided by Mr. Robinson in his Defence of Separation Object 1 For although it be said The field is the World yet it is onely the World where the Gospel is published Resp and where the Corn and Cocle grow together as those that are generated by the Word Vers 47. as evidently appears by the Parable of the Draw-net which is said expressy to gather both good and bad and that the Separation should be made at the end of the World Again when he saith That that Particle Suffer them to grow till the Harvest Object 2 is not repeated in the expounding of that Parable of the Tares by our Saviour Resp it is answered That it is impliedly repeated and expounded in that he saith The Harvest is the end of the World having said before that the Tares if the Wheat be in peril by their plucking up should be suffered till then there was therefore no necessity of repeating that Particle Object 3 That he saith The Text it self and Reason sheweth that he speaketh not of Excommunication but of final rooting out unto perdition Resp This is begged not proved nor can be granted For it is a general expression and may include all cutting off in such case either in this World or at the end of it Lastly whereas he saith Object 4 Though that should be granted yet the very Constitution of our Assemblies which he makes the ground of all others the corruptions in them being naught Resp because the Members were constrained by Laws whether they were good or bad willing or nilling to embrace the Gospel and that therefore this Parable is not applicable to them SECT II. Causes constitutive of the Church of England WE reply That whereas unto the constitution of any thing in its proper Being there is required onely two things first right matter and secondly the due form And the matter of the Church being indeed as he cryeth A holy people Rom. Corinth Galat. and sanctified in Christ Jesus as by the Titles and Directions of the Apostolical Epistles and otherwise doth appear The Form also being a profession of repentance and faith or the Covenant of Grace in Christ Jesus owned and an association thereby in the Society of Saints Robins ubi supra p. 81. The Church of England will appear a sound Church in both and not to be separated from First 1. Matter of the Church of England for the matter of the Church A holy people and sanctified in Christ Jesus or visible Saints We must here premise a twofold distinction First of the Church which is either mystical or visible then of Saints which are either real or appearing Now the matter of these Churches are correspondent to the nature of them The members of the Church mystical are real Saints onely the members of the visible are Saints visible Now a person visible in any profession A visible Professor is he who understandeth the general grounds of it owneth them and acteth accordingly nor doth any thing whereby the main of that Profession is overthrown Now the people of the Church of England do generally know the grounds of the Faith expressed in the Creed and expounded in the Catechism which the Church appoints to be taught to all before they come to the Communion and to be professed by them Next they own this Profession And they neither in opinion nor practice do that which necessarily overturneth this Profession generally though in many things they and we as Saint James speaks offend all James 3. And this Principle is owned by other Reformed Churches Epist 284. pag. 322. edit 2. The Church of Geneva and Calvin among them doth acknowledge That forasmuch as men remain in the visible Church till they utterly renounce the Profession of Christianity Church of Geneva's Judgement in this point we may not deny unto Infants their right by withholding from them the publick sign of holy Baptism if they be born where the outward acknowledgement of Christianity is not clean gone and extinguished Vbicunque non prorsus intereidit vel extincta fuit Christianismi professio fraudantur jure suo Infantes si à communi symbolo arcentur And this also is acknowledged in practice even by the Belgick Churches Apol. cap. 12. Belgick Christian Church Judgement also which Mr. Robinson so predicates for the liberty they have for they also Baptize the Infants of all which surely they could not do if they judged not their Parents matter of the visible Church and Saints by calling in respect of their outward profession The general Profession of a Jew though he should do some things contrary and of a Turk and the partaking of those signs and symbols which are notes of that Profession doth constitute them such Our people therefore owning the Christian Faith and partaking of the Ordinances and living visibly under them and not living so as if they did beleeve nothing of their profession though failing much doth constitute them visible Saints and the matter of a Church If any be very exorbitant the Discipline of the Church and the Laws of the Nation which are a part of christian Discipline are to reform him 2. Form of the Church of England constitutive Next for the Form The profession of Faith and Repentance and formal covenanting We are here to note That there is a formal and a virtual Covenanting or rather a Covenanting immediately in our own person or by a Deputy as in Law a man may answer by his Attorney So all the Churches of England do formally make Profession of their Faith and Repentance and enter into Covenant at their Baptism and do personally repeat it themselves in the rendering account of their Catechism at confirmation and before the Lords Supper which is the express Injunction of the Church Rubrick after Confirmation if it be neglected this is not to be imputed to the Church though indeed for substance it is not neglected neither are any usually admitted to the Holy Communion but such as give an account of their faith and are not scandalous in their lives As for the Objection That they were forced to this Object 1 by the Law at the Reformation We are to consider ibid. Answ 1 First Forcing to Religion That Christianity was received voluntarily in
crediderint quà m fecerunt à nobis divortium Vnde haec fides An non ex praedicatione in nostra Ecclesia nunquid autem praedicare quis potest nisi mittatur Rom. 10.13 Quid ergo verbum propter labem aliquam externae vocationis tam perverse respuunt cujus vim divinam in cordibus sentiunt c. Are they ashamed saith he to sit down there where they see Christ is not ashamed Will they be holier and purer than he But why do they not convince themselves by their own experience They cannot deny but that they did beleeve in Christ before they made this divorce from us Whence had they their Faith Was it not by the preaching in our Church But can any man preach except he be sent Rom. 10.13 Why do they therefore so perversly despise the Word for some defect supposed in the outward Call the heavenly force whereof they feel upon their hearts What he there immediately adds Object Etiamsi fructus iste non magis culpa liberat depravationes nostras quà m vera proles adulterium That is Resp Notwithstanding this fruit of conversion doth no more excuse our Corruptions he means in Church Government especially than a true Childe doth Adultery This passage was both inconsiderately and as it implyed untruly spoken Inconsiderate it was for the Separation against whom he there writes do acknowledge That they had their Faith and Grace indeed in the Church of England but according to his own expression Jo. Robins Apol. for Separation cap. 12. p. m. 94. that did no more excuse the Church or prove it to be a true Church than a true Childe doth excuse Adultery or prove that the Woman is a true Wife They retort his own Metaphor upon him But again it was an unproper similitude and untrue in the implication of it for it implieth That there may be a true Conversion where there is no Church as there may be a true birth where there is no wedlock But we must remember That Christ doth not stand in relation to a Church In what relation Christ stands unto his Church as a man doth unto a woman by conjunction of whom there issues a natural birth whether their meeting be matrimonial or no God therein operating according to that course which he hath setled in Nature without respect unto his positive Law in that case provided but Christ stands in relation to his Church as a Husband to the Wife in spiritual and legitimate Matrimony the bond whereof is the Covenant of Grace according to that of the Apostle I have espoused you as a chaste Virgin unto Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 And again Ephes 5.23 The Husband is the head of the Wife even as Christ is the head of the Church wherein he implies that he is the Husband also Now the Childe is not the Husbands unless begotten in Matrimony To imply therefore That there may be Conversion by those who are no Church were to make as it were the Spouse of Christ an Harlot a thing horrid to imagine But to return to our Evidence from the Fruits of our Church and Ordinances There is a demonstration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from effects if they be so properly and not consequences accidentally onely which I say to prevent that crambe non saepius cocta and why was it not so of late when great proof was taken from success and issues careat successibus opto c. To this therefore we may add those speeches both of our Saviour and our Apostle in this way of reasoning from the proper effects unto the causes You shall know them by their FRUITS Mat. 7.16 saith our Saviour Do men gather Figs of Thorns 1 Cor. 9.2 or Grapes of Thistles And the Apostle If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am unto you for the seal of my Apostleship are ye in the Lord That is Your Conversion proves me a true Minister of Christ Gal. 3.2 And elsewhere This onely would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith It was good consequence in our Saviours and S. Pauls Logick to prove a true Church and Ministry by the effect of Conversion and why not in ours On the contrary the Assemblies of the Separation 1. None or rare conversion in the Separation Independency Anabaptism First negatively No conversion is found or rarely in them from prophaneness to grace but it is confessed by themselves Salvificam fidem veram pietatem multorum cordibus in Ecclesia Anglicana Robins Apol. cap. 12. p. m. 93. per Evangelii praedicationem ingenerari foveri absit ut vel negemus nos vel non eo nomine ingentes gratias Deo opt max. NOSTRUM ipsorum aliorum respectu debitas fateamur God forbid saith Mr. Robinson of whom we may well say Contr. Parmen l. 1. cap. 1. as Austin once of Tichonius viz. ' That he was a man acri ingenio praeditum uberi eloquio sed tamen Donatista i. e. endued with a sharp wit and good utterance but yet a Donatist a Separatist God forbid saith he that we should deny but that saving Faith and true Piety is both generated and maintained by the preaching of the Gospel in the Church of England yea we give most vehement thanks to the great and gracious God in this respect both for OUR SELVES and others They are generally converted before they fall to those ways and have an actual sense of Religion upon them Habitual Conversion for their habitual Conversion was in their Baptism and in their relation to the profession of Faith under which they were born upon which ground they have a right unto Baptism as we saw above out of Calvin Epist 285. Secondly Positively There grow such sowre Grapes 2. The sowre grapes of Separation such Rents Contentions loose practices especially these three noted above out of Bucer Pride Contempt of others and Opinions Add also what my self by long and much experience have observed of which above Whose Prayers are oft-times Prefaces to other matters as our Saviour hath it Mat. 23.14 Not but that there are such among us also but yet as the Lord noteth A proselyte unto such persons becomes twofold the Childe of Hell more than he was before Vers 15. as adding and colouring his corruptions with Religion and yet perhaps himself not seeing his hypocrisie as he did clearly see his prophaneness and his danger before They indeed do neither enter into the Kingdom of God themselves that is the Church nor suffer others to abide quiet in it Vers 13. as our Saviour in the same place And may in this be compared unto Beggars that steal the children of others and carry them about as their own Object Answ To conclude this point then Seeing Conversion is fully and plentifully had in the Church of England seeing it cannot be shewed to any
alteration by the FRIVOLOUS suggestions of any LIGHT spirit Neither are wee ignorant of the inconveniences that do arise in GOVERNMENT by admitting INNOVATIONS in things once SETTLED by mature deliberation and how necessary it is to use CONSTANCY in the upholding of the publick determinations of states for that such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some dispositions affecting every year NEW forms of things as if they should bee followed in their unconstancy would make all actions of state RIDICULOUS and contemptible Whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advice established is the weal of Common-Wealths Thus far of the first point of Independency viz. Separation the second and third Congregation and non Subjection have been spoken to above and of the causes of my recess from the Church thereunto with responsals to them Wherein for the clearing of things I have been much larger than my self intended But yet Absit enim ut multiloquium deputem quando necessaria dicuntur quantalib Sermonum multitudine ac prolixitate dicantur Aug. God forbid dhat I should count that Aug. Prolog in lib. Retract multitude of words when nothing is said but what is necessary although it be uttered with never so great a number of speeches or length of discourse saith S. Austin CHAP. IX The Proof and Tryal of these Retractations SECT I. LEt mee now subjoyn a certain proof and as it were divine tryal or attestation of these Retractations and then I shall conclude and dismiss the Reader It is one of the gracious providences which Almighty God exerciseth towards his Servants to put them to the tryal of their Faith and Profession 1 Cor. 3. 1 Pet. 1. and that by fire So the Apostle That the tryal of your Faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tryed by fire c. Hence hee smites them into the place of Dragons and covers them with the shadow of death that by extremity being put to examine their grounds if they were insufficient they might not dye for Psal 44.20 or in them and if good they might stick the closer to them Hereupon oftentimes sufferings sickness and the approach of death occasions the repenting of those things whereof men have been very confident Vid. The speeches of the Gent. that suffered as communicated by the publick intelligencer Mr. Cook As appeared now of late in the sad Example of those Gentlemen who suffered about the death of our late Soveraign As may bee seen on publication of the speeches of some of them and the wonderful consternation and unpreparedness for death of Mr. Peters And touching Mr. Cook I remember that hee being of the Independent opinion and writing a book for that way wrote also soon after the death of the King a vindication and defence of that his act Wherein hee much glorieth in the office hee performed in that affair Sollicitor as I take it he was and among other things hath these That hee was indifferent whether hee dyed by a stab or a pistol or by a Feaver or Consumption That in his pleading against other malefactors hee used to tremble but that in his actings against the King his blood sprung in his veins Yet wee hear he was of another minde at his death but whether so or no I insist not on it The prophane Schism of the Brownists chap. 7. pag. 41. And there is remarkable story in a Book intitled The prophane Schism of the Brownists written by some that had been in that seduction of a certain Minister one Mr. Gilgate who was misled that way and of Mr. Ainsworths company Who lying on his sick-bed and in peril of death uttered by way of repentance these most savoury and considerable words O Lord rebuke mee not in thine anger Psal 6. neither chastise mee in thy wrath for thine arrows have light upon mee and thine hand lieth upon mee There is nothing sound in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there rest in my bones because of my sin c. Having now long time been afflicted with sharp and grievous sickness whereby it hath pleased God to bring mee into more serious and deep consideration of my estate Note in separating from the Churches of Christ and still finding my separation to bee more unlawful the more I consider the same And while I felt my felt at the weakest and sickest and so pressed with the force of my disease that I even doubted of life I left my conscience most pressed with desire Note to revoke my separation And therefore do now think it my duty before I bee taken away hence and bee found no more or howsoever the Lord shall dispose of mee by life or death to give testimony to the truth whereof I am perswaded in my soul And as mine own disease and the hand of God stretched out upon mee The disease of the separation moveth mee to consider and testifie these things so the disease of the separation and the hand of God which I see to be stretched out a-against it doth also draw mee on the other side unto the same thing The disease of the separation is a hot and burning disease that consumeth and destroyeth many with the poisonous and contagious heat thereof of every company among them is a flame of condemnation to devour another The boyl of their contention swelleth and burneth incessantly and they have yet no poultess to break it nor any oyl to mollifie the same Then speaking of Mr. Ainsworth's and Mr. Johnson excommunicating one anothers members with much bitterness hee addeth It appears they never travelled in pain of them Note they never begot them by their Ministry but having seduced and stolen these children from the sides of other true Churches the right Mothers in whose womb they they were regenerate and born anew they are now become hard-hearted c. Like the false Mother that would have the childe divided And a little after I do now by this writing unfeignedly acknowledge my sin to bee great in renouncing the communion with so many faithful servants of God with whom once I lived Church of England Note In the Church of England I sinned against and dishonoured his name in refusing to hear the word of life preached in those Assemblies The life comfort and salvation that I expect and hope for in the Kingdome of Heaven is by the Faith of the Gospel preached in that Church and preached there with more power fruit and efficacy Note than I ever yet heard in the Churches of the Separation Then speaking of the Lady C. that desired to be in that way hee adds But for my part having now had sufficient experience of their waies I do freely acknowledge and profess in this bed of my sickness from which I know not whether ever I shall arise unto my former health that it should bee my great comfort to dye in the communion of those Churches
sure that it is not there in any point condemned of Heresie unless it be of the ANABAPTISTS as it is here And I do not think but there be some as well there as in England and it is like enough that SUCH do finde fault with it Who are offended with the Liturgy Dr. Martin Nay even of Mr. Cox himself and other that were Preachers in King Edwards time they have disproved your * This Book established 5 6. Edw. 6. was re-established 1. Eliz. with two or three alterations and is that we now use as was proved above The Alterations are in the Act prefixed before the Service-Book second Book in divers points and have now made a third Book how say you which of these three Books will you allow now Careless Forsooth I say still as I have written that the second Book is good and godly and IN ALL POINTS agreeing to the Word of God and I am sure that neither Master Cox nor any other of our godly Preachers that be fled unto Frankford have condemned that Book IN ANY POINT as repugnant to the Word of God though perchance they have altered something therein according to the usage of that Country where now they are And I have not denied in my Articles but the Church of Christ hath power and authority to enlarge or diminish any thing in the same GOOD BOOK so far forth as it is agreeable to the Scriptures D. Martin But what authority have you or how durst you bee so bold to make an Article of the Faith concerning that Book to be beleeved of all men under pain of damnation Carelesse Ah Master Doctor have I bound any man to beleeve that Article under pain of damnation as you do charge mee I am sure there is no such word in all my Articles I have there written what I hold and beleeve my self as I am bound to do in conscience And now I will add thus much more That the same Book which is so consonant and agreeable to the Word of God ☞ Nore in the fear of God and consider being set forth by Common Authority both of the Kings Majesty that is dead and the whole Parliament House ought not to be despised by mee or any other private man under pain of Gods high displeasure and DAMNATION except they repent 2. Concerning Monarchy and that of this Nation * The Testimony of Mr. Sam. Ward sometime the famous Preacher of Ipswitch the Author of several elegant and useful pieces Hoc enim mihi ratum indubitatum semper fuit hoc semper cum Politicis Theologis gravissimis sensi palum apud omnes professus sum Monarchiam haereditariam sub qua mihi vitales auras feliciter haurine bonis omnimodis frui piè tranquillè degere contigit esse omnium quotquot extant aut excogitari possunt regiminum formae longè multumque praestantissimam utilissimam laudatissimam Cui me ex animo favere ille novit qui perscrutatur renes meos c. i. e. This hath alwaies been with mee a certain and undoubted maxime In his Preface to King Charls the first prefixed before his Treatise in Latine of the Load-stone dedicated unto him intituled Magnetis Reductorium this alwaies with the best States-men and Divines I have ever concluded and openly among all men professed viz. That a Monarchical Government hereditary under which providence hath so ordered that I have drawn my vital breath enjoyed many comforts have had the opportunity to live godly and quietly is of all Governments which are or can be divised by many degrees the best the most beneficial and most commendable to which that I am from my heart a well-wisher hee knows that searches my reins and my heart said that Author Dr. Sanderson the now Right Reverend Bishop of Lincoln in his late treatise intituled Episcopacy not prejudicial to Regal Power as established by Law in the Postscript Lastly Concerning the Divine Right of Episcopacy Though from one in that function yet because it derives it higher and founds it somewhat deeper more solidly and also briefer than is usually done deserves more special notice His words are My opinion is that Episcopal Government is not to bee derived meerly from Apostolical practice or Institution But that it is originally founded in the person and office of the Messias our Blessed Lord JESUS CHRIST who being sent by his heavenly Father to bee the great Apostle Heb. 3.1 Bishop and Pastor 1 Pet. 2.25 of his Church and annointed to that office immediately after his Baptism by JOHN with power and the Holy Ghost Act. 10.37 8. descending then upon him in a bodily shape Luke 3.22 did afterward before his ascension into Heaven send and impower his holy Apostles giving them the Holy Ghost likewise as his Father had given him John 20.21 to execute the same Apostolical Episcopal and Pastoral office for the ordering and governing of his Church until his coming again and so the same office to continue in them and their Successors unto the end of the world Mat. 28.18 20. This I take to be so clear from these and other like Texts of Scripture that if they shall bee diligently compared together both between themselves and with the following practice of all the Churches of Christ as well in the Apostles times as in the purest and Primitive times nearest thereunto there will bee left little cause why any man should doubt thereof Thus that Reverend Author II. Certain other Examples of Retractations In the next place other Instances of Retractations and repentings Beda prefat in Retract suas in Actor Apostol Tom. 6. Cujus Augustini industriam nobis quoque pro modulo nostro placuit imitari Nunc in idem volumen Actor Apostolic brevem Retractationis libellum condamus studio maximè vel addendi quae minus dicta vel emendandi quae socus quam placuit dicta videbantur The ingenuity and industry of St. Austin in his Retractations it is my purpose in my small measure to imitate also Now therefore let us compile a brief Treatise of Retractations with this intent especially either of adding those things which were not sufficiently expressed or of amending those that were expressed otherwise than did seem convenient saith venerable Bede Again For my part saith another though a late Author yet one of good note Good Reader Mr. Whately in his Bride-Bush in his advertisement to the Reader I account it no shame to confess and revoke an errour and will therefore do it plainly and without circumstance Then hee closes with this honest and Austin-like expression viz. From him that had rather confess his own error than make thee erre for company The like whereunto wee heard above out of that Father And Dr. Bishop Brownriggs sentence concerning Retractations Related by Dr. Gauden the now very Rev. Bishop of Excester his successon Brownrigge the late most worthy Bishop of Excester would say that Hee