pain of Deprivation is more than I can prove neither will I judg conscientious Nonconformists who meekly dissent 8. Again the Nonconforming Brethren scruple Subscription to the 35th Article of the Church of England touching Homilies which Article stands upon two Points First that the two Books of Homilies contain a godly and wholsom and necessary Doctrine Secondly that therefore they judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly The former Point I cannot think the Nonconforming Brethren who have read the Homilies will deny The Article doth not say that there is nothing in any of the Homilies savouring of humane Weakness and Imperfection for the main they may and do contain a godly wholsom and necessary Doctrine though there may perhaps be in them some tolerable Defects as is incident to most good Books not divinely inspired and even to the best Translation of the holy Scriptures Touching the latter Point the Nonconforming Brethren by their Subscription to the 6th Article must needs own and allow that the Apocrypha-Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet doth it not apply to stablish any Doctrine This plainly intimates that they are not against all reading of other Books than the Bible in the Church due distinction being put between the one and the other Neither will they condemn but rather approve the French Protestant Churches heretofore who in the want of daily Pastors did in many Places use to read both privately and publickly Mr. Calvin's Sermons upon Job as Mr. Beza in his Preface to them doth relate And we may well think that this and no other was the Intention of the Composers of this Article and of the Homilies as thinking it better in the want of Pastors qualified with ministerial Gifts and Ability to compose edifying Sermons-daily and continually of their own that the People have sound and godly Sermons of others composing read to them in publick than be without all publick Instruction This Sense will well stand with the Words of the Article and it is agreeable to the Opinion both of Conforming and Nonconforming Brethren And therefore as to this also I may well conclude that there is no difference between the two Parties 9. There is but one more Article unsubscribed by the Nonconforming Brethren and that is the 36th concerning the Book of Ordination Touching which if the Episcopal Brethren will own the Nonconforming Brethren ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be true Ministers of Christ and their Ordination to be valid and will cordially embrace them as Brethren and Fellow-Ministers as in Conscience they are bound all other Matters will either be accorded or what cannot be fully accorded may be tolerated with mutual Brotherly Love to each other according to that Apostolical Canon Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 3.15 16. But if the Episcopal Brethren shall judg the Nonconforming Ministers ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be no Ministers of Christ and their Ordination to be null and their Baptism Preaching dispensing the Lord's Supper and all other their Ministerial Acts to be meer Nullities then there is no hope of Accord nor of Toleration with mutual Brotherly Love a Schism there is and like to be Concerning which I will set down a Passage which I find related by Mr. Clark in the Life of that eminent Nonconforming Minister Mr. Greenham On a time the Bishop of Eli sent for him to appear about his Nonconformity at which time the Bishop told him that there was a great Schism in the Church asking him where the Blame was to be laid whether upon the Conformists or Nonconformists To which he readily answered that it might lie on either side or on neither side For said he if they loved one another as they ought and would do all good Offices each for other thereby maintaining Love and Concord it lay on neither side otherwise which Party soever makes the Rent the Schism lies upon their score The Bishop was so pleased with this Answer that he dismissed him in peace 10. They who repute Men ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be no Ministers and their Ministerial Acts to be Nullities are not regular Sons of God's Church in England but a Sect Combination and Party of Men in it who are tainted and defiled with an uncharitable Principle contrary to one Article of the Christian Faith The Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints For God's Church in England doth own and embrace the Protestant Ministers in Holland France Helvetia and Geneva ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be true Ministers of Christ and the Churches guided by them to be true Churches This hath been the constant Doctrine of God's Church in England all along from the beginning of the Reformation to this day And unless we so hold we yield the Cause to the Papists and overthrow the Protestant Cause The Papists ask Where was our Church before Luther To which the Answer hath been often made That wheresoever upon Earth God had a People believing in the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost retaining Baptism and the Lord's Supper for Substance sound and good and living righteously soberly and godly there was our Church We are sure from God's Word and the sound Belief of all Christian People that such a Church God had upon Earth before Luther and will have to the End of the World We do not derive our Church and our Ministry from Rome and the Roman Papacy but from Christ and the holy Scriptures and the Evangelical Covenant by the Tenour whereof upon our sincere Repentance and Incorporation into Christ by lively Faith all things become ours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are ours 1 Cor. 3.21 22. And consequently whatsoever is true just good any way useful to God and Christ Jesus and the Souls of Men among Papists Jews Turks and Heathens that becomes ours for spiritual Uses to our Souls In leaving the Papacy we have not left Christ and his Church but we have left Idolatry false Worship Superstition and the Way of Damnation and are become a found part of and joined to that holy Catholick Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ the blessed Company of all faithful People built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-Stone Upon this Divine Foundation all the Protestant Churches stand and they who deny Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop to be valid must will they nill they fall in with the Principles of the Papists against the whole Reformation because the Cause is common 11. The Ministry of the Nonconforming
so doing this do the Bishops in Popish Countries And therefore certainly according to God's unchangeable Law and the Grounds of Religion Ordination by Orthodox Godly and Exemplary Presbyters who labour in the Word and Doctrine must needs be more Valid more Divine more Apostolical and more Honourable than Ordination by such Bishops as neither rule well nor labour in the Word and Doctrine but they rule very ill and are Antichristian God's Word is Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 God judgeth Ministers according to their Works not by bare Names and Titles and Robes and worldly Grandeur and Princes Favour and earthly Riches and things common to good and bad Men but by inward real Worth and Ministerial Ability and Fidelity honouring those who honour him and those more abundantly who more abundantly honour him and are by his Grace Evangelically worthy of Honour Ephes 5.1 Now we are to be Followers of God as dear Children and as in other Points so particularly in the Point of Ordination prefer a Presbyter who labours in the Word and Doctrine before a non-labouring Bishop 6. The Apostle saith Other Foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 Ordination by able and faithful Presbyters without a Bishop is built upon this Foundation and so it must needs be valid firm and immoveable It is done publickly with Fasting and Prayer with the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4.14 with due Trial and Probation of the Person to be ordained with the Liking and Consent of the People with sound Belief in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost with express or implicite Renunciation of Arianism Socinianism Pelagianism Popish Idolatry and Superstition and all other Antichristian Sects and false Ways of Salvation with separation of the Person ordained for the Work of the Ministry all his Days with no Imposition of any thing flatly sinful with publick Profession of the Sufficiency and Perfection of the holy Scriptures for the making of us compleat in all the Will of God throughly furnished unto all good Works by the special Grace of Christ with Authority not to be a Minister to this or that particular People only but to be a Minister of Christ related to the whole Church on Earth in general and specially to that particular People to which he hath Call and all this with the Concurrence Countenance and Protection of the higher Powers in Scotland Holland Helvetia Geneva New-England and many other parts of the Christian World If this be not valid Ordination there is no such thing as valid Ordination it must needs be valid in the Judgment of all such as approve the 23d Article of the Church of England 7. They who maintain that Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop is not valid proceed upon this Supposition that the Church of God is a Political Society consisting of two parts essentially a ruling and a ruled Part that while Christ was upon Earth he was the governing Part but he leaving the Earth ordained the Apostles to be his Lieutenants and Peter the Foreman of them all that Bishops succeed the Apostles as to the Government of the Church Universal upon Earth Subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae Creaturae declaramus definimus omnino effe de necessitate Salutis Bonif. 8. in extrav de majorit obed cap. anam sanctam Col. 212. and are Christ's Ecclesiastical Lieutenants and that the Bishop of Rome is Episcopus primae Sedis the Chief and Foreman of all the Bishops that this Hierarchy and Institution is Divine and all who do not comply with it are guilty of damnable Schism and so dying cannot be saved 8. I shall freely grant that if really the Church of God be what they suppose a Political Society consisting of two Parts essentially a ruling and a ruled Part then all the rest is unavoidable and I shall be obliged to turn Papist and I promise so to do But if this first Point which is the Foundation and Corner-stone of their Fabrick fail and prove ruinous then their whole Cause as built on it must needs fall with it and will they nill they they must confess that Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop is valid and that their Separation from and opposing themselves against such Ministers and the Churches governed by them without a Bishop as an Ecclesiastical Lieutenant is a very great Sin and their Charge of Schism will recoil and light upon themselves 9. I overthrow the Foundation of their Hierarchy by this invincible Argument If the Church of God be a Political Society consisting of two Parts essentially a ruling and a ruled Part then there can be no difference between Moses and Christ between the Law and Grace and then the Christian Religion is destroyed For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ John 1.17 Moses under God was Political Ruler of the Church in the Wilderness which was the Church of God He commanded them a Law to observe which he had received from God Moses commanded us a Law even the Inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun Deut. 33.4 5. with Sanctions of Rewards and Punishments assuring Happiness to the faithful Observers of it and denouncing God's Curse and Vengeance against the unfaithful Breakers of it But Moses being but a meer Man and not God being also himself a Sinner a Child of Adam conceived and born in Sin and by Nature a Child of Wrath even as others and not sufficient of himself without God's special Grace to think a good Thought he could not give Repentance and Pardon of Sin and the Spirit of Adoption either to himself or any other he could not by supernatural Grace write the Divine Law in the Heart of any and shed abroad God's Love in the Heart and make it holy this is utterly above Moses and the Law to do and effect For if there had been a Law given which could have given Life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under Sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Gal. 3.21 22. 10. But now Jesus Christ is not another Moses a bare Political Ruler and governing Part of God's Church but he is the Word made Flesh that Man in whom dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily equal in respect of his Deity with the Father and the Holy Ghost the Purchaser of the Church with his own Blood and he gives Repentance and Pardon of Sin and Perseverance and Salvation to Abel Abraham Moses David Peter Paul and the rest of the Elect in all Ages Quia tametsi Christus non ideo ad nos venit ut tanquam alter Moses novae legis pondere nos premeret sed ut jacentes sub onere legis
Doctrine and Distinction but the contrary it fully assures us that the Power of Order is all the Power which Christ communicated to his Apostles and their Successors it being abundantly sufficient through his gracious Assistance and Concurrence for the ordering guiding governing and disciplining of the Church unto the end of the World And what Power of regular Jurisdiction is in Bishops distinct from the Power of Order is not Divine but Humane from Man's Law and not from God's Law And therefore if it should be supposed that Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop is an Error as being against an innocent Law of Man yet is it not therefore null and invalid for though it ought not to be done yet being once done it is firm and valid because done by those who by God's Law are confessed to have Power to do it being equal with the Bishop as to the Power of Order it being very absurd and a Contradiction in adjecto that those should have Power to order who have no Power to ordain and that those should have equal Power to order who have not equal Power to ordain 23. True it is that besides that fixed Pastors of each particular Church there were in the primitive Times the Apostles as general Overseers who did use to visit the Churches and took care of them But this was no Act of external Jurisdiction distinct from the Power of Order but what may innocently and safely be done by an eminent Presbyter qualified with Gifts and Graces for the Work of his own free accord according to the general Rules of God's Word Mr. John Dury a Scotish Presbyter in the Reign of King Charles I. made it his business for thirty Years together purely upon a Christian Account and of his own free Heart without all colour of external Jurisdiction to visit the transmarine Churches Lutheran and Calvinistical and by writing personal Conserence and unwearied Travels to reconcile them touching Predestination Christ's Ubiquity and the Sacrament tho the Success was not answerable through the unreasonable Stiffness of the Lutheran Party And in the Reign of King Charles II. Mr. Thomas Gouge a Nonconforming Presbyter did for several Years together in Person use to visit all the Counties in Wales purely upon a Christian Account at his own Charge without all shew of external Jurisdiction having the Bible for his Warrant and the Glory of serving God and doing Good for his Reward making it his business to promote Religion and Learning An Apostolical and most blessed Work and not without great Success 24. True it is that the Distinction between Bishop and Presbyter is of great Antiquity and large Extent But that in the time of Cyprian it imported more than with us at this day doth the Distinction between the Dean and Chapter of each Cathedral Church between the Warden and Fellows of Manchester between the Parish-Minister and his Curate will not be easily proved Now all know that all these are but one Order in the Ministry and this Inequality is not at all inconsistent with the Principles and Practice of the Presbyterian Brethren 25. Finally the great Principle of those of the Church of England who hold Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop to be invalid is this that to every Church there ought by God's Law to be a Bishop and no Bishop no Church ordinarily Now either they will stand to this their Principle or they will not If not then they undo their whole Cause and stultify themselves If yea then also their Cause cannot stand for they will not deny the parish-Parish-Churches to be true Churches But these in England are more than nine thousand and the Diocesan Bishops are but some six and twenty Can six and twenty Men be Bishops to more than nine thousand Churches if to every Church there must be a Bishop Either then you must grant that the parish-Parish-Churches are not true Churches and then Separation from them is a Duty and you yield the Cause to the Brownists Or if you admit them to be true Churches upon your own Grounds you must needs yield that the several Parish-Ministers who are but Presbyters are as true Bishops as they are Churches and then Ordination by them without a Diocesan must needs be valid and Diocesan Bishops are no Bishops of God's making This then is the Issue of the Matter that the Parish-Ministers who are but Presbyters are Bishops of God's making and Diocesan Prelates are Bishops of Man's making The Nullity of all external Jurisdiction in the Church not derived from and dependent on the State 1. THere cannot be external Jurisdiction without external Supremacy For all Jurisdiction doth necessarily import a Supream in whose Sentence and Decision all contending Parties are to acquiesce and from whom there can be no Appeal Therefore there cannot be external Jurisdiction without external Supremacy Now under God all external Supremacy is in the State Let every Soul be subject unto the higher Powers Rom. 13.1 that is those who bear the Sword as is afterward declared ver 4. and the Context plainly shews Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the Punishment of Evil-doers and for the Praise of them that do well 1 Pet. 2.13 14. Herewith agrees the old Oath of Supremacy and the 37th Article of the Church of England unanimously subscribed by the Episcopal and Presbyterial Clergy 2. To set up a contrary external Jurisdiction and Supremacy in the Church is to overthrow the Nature of the Church and to undermine the State and to act contrary to the Example of Christ and his Apostles and to imitate that Man of Sin the Son of Perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped 2 Thess 2.3 4. 3. Christ himself considered as Man in the Days of his Flesh and State of Humiliation had no external Jurisdiction he exercised none he claimed none but disclaimed it saying My Kingdom is not of this World John 18.36 Man who made me a Judg or a Divider over you Luke 12.14 It belonged not to him to exercise external Jurisdiction but to be a Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of God to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers Rom. 15.8 He came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his Life a Ransom for many Mat. 20.28 And therefore in Obedience to God and out of Love to us he owned and submitted to the Jurisdiction of the Roman President in Judea He humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross for a Pattern to all his Followers and Disciples and to shew that his Kingdom was not of this World Phil. 2.8 John 19.11 1 Pet. 2.21 4. All external Jurisdiction is necessarily either supreme or subordinate But Christ considered as Man in his State of Humiliation had neither Not supreme for
for Ecclesiastical Rule Authority and Jurisdiction over one another all Affectation Claim and Exercise of Imperial Power over one another for they were all equal in Office Brethren in the Ministry Fellow-Apostles no one was Pope and Monarch over the rest neither might be 11. If Bishops were Spiritual Lords in respect of inward spiritual Worth and Goodness then they would be Spiritual Lords while they are but Presbyters and before they are made Bishops For first they are Presbyters which the Advocates for Prelacy suppose to be an Order or Degree in the Ministry inferiour to a Bishop Now it is plain that what inward spiritual Worth and Goodness is in the new-made Bishop it was in him before he was Bishop even whilst he was a Presbyter But no one did repute him a Spiritual Lord while he was but a Presbyter though he was a good and worthy Man His assuming of the Episcopal Office adds no inward spiritual Worth and Goodness to his Soul it being but a thing common to worthy and unworthy Men. Mr. Prideaux in his Introduction for reading all sorts of Histories pag. 67. divides the Bishops of Rome into seven Ranks 32 good Bishops 33 tolerable Archbishops or Patriarchs 38 usurping Nimrods 40 luxurious Sodomites 40 Egyptian Magicians 41 devouring Abaddons and 20 incurable Babylonians 12. It is then plain that Lord-Bishops are so by Humane Law and not by Divine Law they are made by Man and not by God their Office Power and Authority as they are Lord-Bishops is Humane and not Divine I say not that it is unlawful but that it is not Divine many things are lawful which yet are not Divine as the Offices of Constables Head-Constables Sheriffs Mayors Lord-Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal are all lawful and yet they are not Divine and Evangelical but Humane and Civil 13. Lord-Bishops being but Civil and Temporal Lords of Man's making their Courts cannot be Spiritual Courts but only Civil and Temporal By Permission of the King and Parliament they hold their Courts not expresly in the King's Name but in their own Name Yet are they nevertheless but Civil and Temporal Courts deriving their Authority from and dependent on the King and Parliament which under God are the highest Judicature in this Nation from whom there lies no Appeal save to God But there lies an Appeal from the highest Ecclesiastical Court in the Nation to the King and Parliament The contrary Doctrine brings in foreign Jurisdiction and sets up the Papacy and is destructive both of Church and State 14. Many of the Nobility and Gentry of England and others of the Laity hold Courts not expresly in the King's Name but in their own Name And yet no one doubts but that they are Civil and Temporal Courts derived from and dependent on the Crown and there lies an Appeal from them to a superiour Civil Court 15. True it is that in the first Ages of the Church after Christ's Ascension the Holy Ghost by Paul reproves the Christians at Corinth for going to Law with one another before the Heathen Judges about worldly and secular Matters there being then no Christian Magistracy I speak to your Shame Is it so that there is not a wise Man amongst you 1 Cor. 6 5â— no not one that shall be able to judg between his Brethren Upon which it is like the Christians from thenceforth did desist from going to Law with one another before the Heathen Judges about small Matters pertaining to this Life and chose some judicious and understanding Christian as an Umpire or Arbitrator for the ending and deciding of their litigious Causes about worldly Matters which continuing for some hundreds of Years unto the Reign of Constantine the first Christian Emperor it is very likely that he by his Imperial Sanction confirmed the aforesaid Apostolical Decree and the Way of the Primitive Churches ending and deciding their Suits about secular Matters pursuant to and grounded on the same and did enlarge and add to it and so made it an Ecclesiastical Court and called it the Bishops Court and the Judg thereof the Bishops Chancellor or the Chancellor of the Ecclesiastical Court But before this Sanction by the Emperor it was no Ecclesiastical Court neither had it any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction it was only a prudential Institution without all external Jurisdiction 16. The King of England is by God's Grace a Christian King Being so he must needs be a Christian and as such he is a Member of God's Church in England in common with all other Christian People therein and he is no more he is not Head thereof for only Christ is Head of God's Church in England like as he is sole Head of the whole Church on Earth it being a Contradiction to be sole Head of the whole and not of every Part. Considered as a King so he hath no more Power and Jurisdiction over the Church and its Causes than he would have if he were a Heathen King his being a Christian doth not inlarge and add to his Regal Power but only qualify him supposing him truly godly with Grace and spiritual Wisdom to use his Regal Power aright for God which a Heathen King cannot 17. The King is sole Supream under God and Christ the Mediator over all the Souls in the Nation as to coercive Rule by the Sword yet is he limited by fundamental Laws whereby the Rights of Prince and People mutually consist and which he is bound inviolably to observe But all his Power is only Civil and Temporal and not Spiritual and therefore he can grant no Spiritual Jurisdiction he can create no Spiritual Office For no Effect can exced its Cause neither can the Streams differ in kind from the Water in the Fountain 18. The King and Parliament will meekly and reverently hear a common Presbyter or Minister preach the Gospel and be awed by the Word in his Mouth as the Word of God and not the Word of Man though Man be the Preacher and they will reverently own and submit to Baptism and the Lord's Supper dispensed by him as Divine and not Humane Institutions Convincing Evidence will go along with the Preacher's Word being scriptural sound good and faithful whereby it will evidence it self to be Divine and from above to all such as believe it will to them be the Savour of Life unto Life and the rest who do not believe yet will stand condemned by it and it may be with Felix tremble under it as being through their own Sin the Savour of Death unto Death to them Here it is plain Jesus Christ as sole Lord of the Conscience doth by the Ministry of a weak Man a coâ—â—â—â— Presbyter exercise Spiritual Lordship and Jurisdiction over the King and all the Lords and Commons inwardly in each one's Bosom over such as are good willingly and in Love over such as are wicked against their Will for if wicked ones might have their Will they would all be above God and lord over him at