this Nature which concern chiefly if not meerly Polity and Regulations Rites and Ceremonies ought to be so Charitable one towards another as to believe that they all holding fast as they all do the main Principles and Doctrines of the Gospel that they err only by misconstruction and that each others Errors are not concerning Fundamentals but Discipline only and those also purae negationis and not pravae dispositionis and therefore may live peacibly and holily here under either Government and may hereafter meet in the presence of God and see his Face with Comfort whosoever should submit to other § Consider again that those Churches which were Founded and Governed by the Apostles themselves and where they Preached and Resided were not exempt from Imperfections perhaps as great if not greater than those now in the Church of England whereof the Epistle to the Gal. gives a clear Testimony but more clearly 1 Cor. 1.12 and 1 Cor. 3.4 5. As to their Charity they are Taxed that some of them adhered to Paul some to Cephas others to Apollos with a Schism and express Renting of the Seamless Coat of Christ. And as for Opinions and Doctrines there were some that denyed the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.12 As for Peace and Concord they drew their Pleadings and Differences before the Tribunals of Insidels 1 Cor. 11.8.9 1 Cor. 6. As for manners they had Fornication among them and such as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles 1 Cor. 5.12 As for Customs the Supper of the Lord was converted into Banquets where some were Drunk and others Hungry nay there were Heresies and Schisms among them also 1 Cor. 11.20 21. c. And all this while the Apostle acknowledgeth them to be a true Church and a Body of Christ and did not silence himself but continued labouring by his Preachments Fastings and Prayers to amend them and yet he lived under a Government Averse even to Christianity it self How ought we then to stand fast and comply and dispence with some irregularities in the Church where God by his singular Grace hath setled us altho in the Government thereof there have been and still are Imperfections and Abuses which are also by tract of time converted into marvellous grievances For reason of State and of good Government its good to be observant of all established Sanctions and tho many Novelties of Reformations do arise yet to accommodate our selves with readiness unto them howbeit we do not much approve of them because things of Custom have their Remedies but Innovations are never without their mischiefs against which it is very hard to find a Remedy § Edification in the Indisputable truths of Faith and in the Indispensable duties of Life being the main end and Objects of Church Government and Discipline its Honour enough for Episcopal Government to enforce Gods Commandements only there being no necessity of enjoyning more than what the Apostles did in plain and perspicuous terms without making use of obscure Allegorical and Metaphorical Expressions for Exorbitant Powers for Excommunication Censures and God knows what Yet Be it as some Dissenters would have it that all Men professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ have an undoubted Right and Priviledge to Assemble and Associate together to Pray Preach and Perform Gospel Ordinances without Assenting or Consenting nay contrary to the Approbation and Commands of the Civil Magistrate nay and that by a Paramount Power derived even from Christ himself and all this not without the Warrant of this Demonstration that except it had been and were still so the Gospel could never have been Preached to all Nations then mortal Enemies to Christ and his Gospel nor could yet be Preached where the unknown God is only Worshipped Be it so as in truth it is so that the Preachers of the Word of Salvation and the Administrators of the Sacraments being things Commanded them by God ought not to be forbidden by men and are so far exempt from Humane Law that the Prohibition of them is of no Force or Virtue it being in such Cases better to obey God than Men. 5 Act. 22. and for that no Mans right ought to be denyed him either in things Civil or Spiritual for fear they should abuse it for that then no mans right shall be preserved safe unto him Be it so I say even as they would have it yet as surely and as undoubtedly the Caesars have their Patent their Charter and Charge from the same Paramount Power for the Countenancing and Propagating the Gospel and supervising the Professors thereof and they have a Pastorship to give an Account of as well as those of the Clergy and therefore they ought to be as scrupulously careful and as Zealously watchful as themselves Was it not Prophesied of David a King 34 Ezek. 23. I will set up one Shepherd over them and he shall Feed them even my Servant David he shall Feed them and he shall be their Shepherd and I the Lord will be their God and my Servant David a Prince among them v. 24. and was he not taken accordingly from the Sheepfold to Feed Jacob his People and Israel his Inheritance and he Fed them according to the Integrity of his Heart and guided them by the Skilfulness of his Hands 78 Psal 70.71 72. Besides were this Objection of greater Force than in truth it is yet it hath no place in this Kingdom for that such Liberty of Assembling is not only not denyed but permitted Countenanced nay Commanded and Churches separated for that very end and purpose only that what Talents what Light soever the Complainants may have they may not hide them under a Bushel or in a Conventicle but may manifest them publickly to all Commers But if under this their great Gospel Priviledge and under the Shelter of indiscreet Niceties they will meet in Private and thereby give a jealous State great Cause only to suspect that they do it that thereby they may the more opportunely Foster and Foment a Party Averse to present Established Constitutions of Church and State then certainly Caesar hath as undoubted a Gospel Power and right to Prevent Inhibit and punish Transgressors If their Doctrine be sound and good why should they not have Churches if not why should they be permitted in Corners Look but a little back and consider if the late times have not given too great cause of fears and jealousies to a Wise and Christian State to use all just endeavours to prevent the like for the Future Consider also what moved our fore-fathers to make severe and Sanguinary Laws against Papists was it not because they were troublers of our Israel working like Moles under Ground endeavouring the Ruin of our Church and State If some may be suffered tho but by Connivence to break thro small Laws both themselves and others will thereby be encouraged to set the greater at nought Herein I desire to be rightly understood not as if I Pleaded for a general Tolleration nothing less
these are executed by the power of the Judge who enforceth submission so those only by the will of the Guilty to receive them who refusing them the Ecclesiastical Judge remaineth without execution and hath no power to enforce but to foreshew the Judgment of God which will follow in this Life or the next This kind of Proceedings and this kind of Judicature was according unto Christ's Institution and would not enterfeer with any Civil Government Christian or not Christian and unto which the Apostles did conform and which lasted some Centuries of years in the Church and was esteemed by the Saints of those more pure times the Judgment of Charity not of Jurisdiction because they did thereby charitably not judicially or magisterially reconcile the persons compose the differences and rebuke the Sins and Vices of the Believing Brethren and did thereby prevent the Scandal and Reproaches that otherwise they and their Religion would have been exposed and liable unto from Unbelievers This kind of Judicature was so far from being essential or peculiar unto the Bishops and Presbyters as that the least esteemed in the Church were as capable of it as the greatest indeed any that were wise and able to judge between the Brethren rather than to suffer them to go to Law before the Vnbelievers 1 Cor. 6.4 5 6. The Apostles who had greater Abilities and understood their Commission better than ever any Pope did refused to take this Charge upon themselves as being not fit for Preachers of the Gospel to take any Civil Employment that might any way impede the main End and Design which was to give themselves continually to Prayer and to the Ministry of the Word and by reason whereof they could not serve God in that whereunto they were chiefly called without distraction and therefore for the same reason would not serve Tables but would have such Duties devolved upon others Acts 6.2 3 4. Nay Paul most solemnly professeth that Christ sent him not to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 1.17 So wholly did he devote his Service to the exact performance of his Commission Of the same Opinion was the Bishop of Aiace in the Council of Trent who in the Debate of Residence which he held to be Jure Divino complained that the cause of their Non-Residence was that the Bishops did busie themselves in the Courts of Princes and in the Affairs of the World being Judges Chancellors Secretaries Councellors Treasurers there being few Offices of State into which Bishops have not insinuated themselves though forbid by St. Paul 2 Tim. 2.4 who thought it necessary that a Souldier of the Church should not entangle himself with the Affairs of this Life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier therefore he moved that the Council would constitute that it should not be lawful for Bishops or others who have Cure of Souls to exercise any Secular Office or Charge In the Ecclesiastical Laws there is a whole Title to this effect Ne Clerici vel Monachi Secularibus negotiis se immisceant And St. Chrysostom hath a long Discourse In Decretal in Mat. Hom. 26. Consid 1.24 complaining of Clergy-men leaving the Care of Souls become Proctors Economists c. practising things unbeseeming the Ministry Though the Papalins cannot deny these to be great Truths yet in this as in divers other Cases they please themselves with false Glosses upon plain Texts of Scripture asserting most Magisterially for their Justification the Popes Authority to dispense not only with Humane but Divine Laws that in Humane Laws his Authority is absolute and unlimited because he is superior to them all and therefore when he doth dispense though without any cause the Dispensation notwithstanding was to be held for good and that in Divine Laws he had power to dispense but not without a Cause alledging St. Paul for their justifications 1 Cor. 4.1 Who saith that the Ministers of Christ are the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God and that to him the Apostle the Dispensation of the Gospel had been committed 1 Cor. 9.17 And that howsoever the Popes Dispensation concerning the Divine Law be not of force yet every one ought to captivate his Vnderstanding and believe that he hath granted it for a lawful Cause and that it is Temerity to call it into question Hist Conc. Trent 675. Bonny Glosses I must confess and well calculated for the Zenith of the Popes Altitudes and Authorities but they are quite contrary to Apostolick Doctrine and the Conclusion drawn hath no warrant at all from the Text for the Text doth not prove a power of Dispensation to be in the Bishop of Rome i.e. a Disobligation from the Law and Commandments of God and the Gospel as the Popes would have us believe but only a power to dispense i.e. to publish and declare the Divine Mysteries and Word of God which is perpetual and remaineth inviolable for ever according to Eph. 3.2 8 9. Eph. 6.19 Col. 1.26 c. 4.3 What is this but to wrest and pervert the very Words and Sense of Scripture and as much as in them lieth to make a new Gospel as they made a new Creed at Trent In Human Laws happily a Dispensation may lie for that the Law-makers are subject to infirmities and fallibility and unable to foresee all Cases and future Accidents and Occurrences which when they come to be discovered and known may justly admit of some Exceptions and Dispensations But where God is the Law-giver from whose all-seeing Eye nothing is concealed and by whom no Accident is not foreseen the Law can have no Exception no Dispensation for that by such Dispensation the strength of all Gods Laws is taken away made null and in truth escheated into the Breast and Power of the Popes Holiness From such corrupt Glosses it is that there are few or no Cardinals without many Bishopricks how incompatible soever they are together Hence also the Use of Commendaes and Vnions for Life Administrations at first invented probably for good ends by which against all Laws many Benesices were given to one person alone really with appearance that he had but one only Therefore the Law of God and Nature ought not to be esteemed as a common written Law which in some Cases happily may be dispensed withal and made more gentle for that all his Laws are even Equity and Justice it self Besides the Pope who takes himself to be the great Dispenser Paramount cannot in any case free him that is bound Paul was obliged to preach the Gospel as being called thereunto and so was Peter and all the rest of the Apostles and all the Bishops and Priests are no otherwise sent and called than to preach the Gospel and feed Christ's Flock as all the Apostles were which includes the Pope himself if he be Peters Successor yea a necessity was laid upon him yea wo unto him if he did not preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 And therefore he most earnestly desires
to the judgments of their Auditors and I never heard that Protestant Divines did ever pretend to greater Abilities than they had or to any Infallibility and if we poor Laicks should not be left to our own free judgments and examinations what better choice can we make than to philip Cross or Pile whether to be Prelate Presbyter Independant Quaker or Phanatick Protestant or Papist Turk or Jew Wherefore hath God differenced us from Bruits by giving us light of Reason and of Conscience if others must have the guidance and custody of them and we be led Captive by the Reason and Conscience of other men We ought no more to rely on another man's light of Reason or of Conscience than on another man's eyes to see or legs to walk withall This were but to put a Cheat upon our selves and to cast the care of our Faith and Religion upon others as if not worthy our own care or concern or as if we be seduced they not we were to answer for it God's Precepts were not given to Popes Prelates Priests Councils Synods or particular Churches or to great Clarks only but to every Individual and every man ought to act according as he is perswaded in his own Heart we are Disciples only not Slaves Besides are not Laicks Priests also Is it not Gospel He hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father Rev. 1.6 and for certain the Holy Ghost and Learning are not the Clergies Peculiar § As to the Romish Clergy I have much more to say unto them not expecting any just or fair dealing from them for that they have treated us far worse than the Aegyptians did the Israelites for they held them in Bondage but four hundred and thirty years but the Roman Pontiffs have evilly treated us more than that time twice told treated us indeed after a very strange rate as if we could not tell ten or as if we did not know our right hands from our left Treated us as the Philistines did Sampson put out our eyes and then make sport with us our understandings must be captivated to the Popes bare ipse dixit whether with or against Reason or Scripture or indeed against our very Sences and we must be content to be led blindfold into the Abyss of ignorance and destruction where Abbaddon reigns and made believe it is our happiness so to be as if ignorance in good earnest were the Mother of Devotion Dominus Deus noster Papa like God on mount Sinai thundring out his Interdicts that none presume to go up into the Mount nor yet to touch but the border of it not so much as to peep into the Scripture without leave forsooth least we be shot thro with the dart of Ex-communication or drawn into the Inquisition tho all Scripture was given indifferently to all Men by Christ and his Apostles as their only Patent and Evidence for their Inheritance reserved for them in Heaven and is in its own nature profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction for Righteousness 2 Tim. 3.10 and tho we are commanded to search them for that in them we have eternal Life 5 John 39. But this ought to be no wonderment to any that they who have kept us blindfold so long should yet desire to keep us hood-winkt still Heroick and publick spirited minds tho long plaid upon and abus'd with shadow of Reason and usurped Powers will at length find words and reasons to ease and right themselves Every Man is too apt to indulge his own fancy and opinions yea and intitle God and his Word to the favouring of them also we shall be all saved or damned according to what our selves not what our Priests do believe and practise Publick refutation of errors tho long received and tho contrary to the design and interest of some and those no small ones hath in its own nature more of Candour and sweetness than of Gall and ought so to be esteemed He doth too proudly scorn his own imperfections and corrupted nature that blusheth to think that he can err and as they betray too much selfishness and weakness who dare not write or speak Truth so do they much more that for ends not good are afraid that Truth should come to light Nature hath not left the most beautiful flesh and blood without some moles some blemishes The Church on Earth tho lovely yet is not without her Naevi some blackness with her oomeliness and to flatter her Children in them is worse than to write a Satyr against them As Revenge is not more due to any Injuries than unto those that are committed against the Church so no Benefits are more valuable than those that are done unto the Church In all Writings great care ought to be taken to write nothing that might give offence nor to omit any thing that can be said in defence of Truth without suffering our Pens to run riot in any thing which by interpretation might be drawn into offence altho the malicious subtilties and prevaricating Wits of some hath made it appear that there can be nothing so moderately spoken which is not subject to depraved expositions My main design is to discover Truth sine formidine oppositi without respect or dread of any interest or party Amicus Praesul Amicus Presbyter Amicus Independens sed magis amica Veritas I am not ignorant how imprudent it is to disoblige or anger great Men or any Party or indeed any number of men I have tasted of that sowr grape already tho by endeavors only to find out Truth by discoursing of it but that Spirit is wretchedly mean that dares not write or speak Truth without a sneaking and pitiful Apology If we had those hungring thirsting and most ardent affections to all sincere uncorrupted and heavenly Truths which are proportional to that Spirit of Christ which is or ought to be in us there would not be such bitter Contests and Animosities as are amongst us for trivials things rather respecting Interest and Domination than the sincere Word of Truth which adds value and honor to every Asserter thereof but receives no value from any Man I have endeavoured quantum in me to do that right to all Perswasions as to urge what may most conduce to the making good of the same and what their cause will rationally bear and that in terms plain and perspicuous without School-tricks If I have missed of my aim the Reason is at hand Bernardus non vidit omnia no more Oraculous or infallible than themselves They that see best see at best but thro a Glass darkly even the Scribes the Wise and the Disputers of this World are many times both far from Certainty and far from Truth and no wonder Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World 1 Cor. 1.20 Elias cum venerit solvit dubia THE SUMME Of Mr. J. M. His TREATISE MR J. M. in his Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes denies the
We find no evil in this Man but if a Spirit or Angel hath spoken unto him let us not fight against God 23. Acts 9. This they did not out of true love to Paul or to the Truth he taught but from love of themselves their Party and their Opinions and from jealous impatiency of contradiction in publick by an Inferiour Sect so when Christ had fully satisfied a curious question captiously proposed by the Sadduces by proving the Resurrection out of Moses saying I am the God of Abraham of Isaack and of Jacob certain of them answered Master thou hast well said 20. Luke 39. Though the Pharises were well pleased of his Probat of the Resurrection against the Sadduces yet for all that they could judge him to death for avouching himself to be the great Judge of those that were raised from the dead whereby it appears that both their approbation and condemnation of our Saviour in these particulars did issue out of one and the same corrupt and monstrous Fountain that could send forth sweet water and bitter 3. James 11. viz. from love of their Party love of Authority over the People and applause of Men from a stubborn opiniative and envious desire to excel their opposites and not to be excelled by any so when John came neither eating nor drinking yet they say he hath a Devil and when the Son of Man came both eating and drinking then Behold a Man gluttonous and a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners 11. Mat. 18 19. The Devils and unclean Spirits in this kind were in some measure more ingenious than the Jews for when Christ had disobliged them by casting them out as soon as they saw him they fell down before him and cryed Thou art the Son of God 3. Mark 10. But the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem said he hath Belzabub and by the Prince of the Devils casteth he out Devils 21. Acts 22. So the Jews were pleased neither full nor fasting Thus can perverse Spirits and Wits turn and wind any thing never so innocently and plainly spoken or written unto a different or contrary sence The same Spirit of Contention and way-ward emulation reigns at this day through Christendome and rageth oft-times no less in defence of good Causes than of bad and makes many to concur with Schismatical or false Opinions in transforming particular places of Scripture which makes for private desires or designs as factious opposition to the Sadduces did the Pharises to consent unto our Saviour and unto St. Paul in the Points mentioned § The Monks Friars and Jesuits like the Pharises are rare Sophisters can handy dandy shuffle and cut Texts of Scripture with most admirable dexterity Their impertinent Collections to prove Purgatory from such places of Scripture as have no other semblance with it save only that they mention Metaphorical Fire would make an impartial Reader call to mind the Fable of the Apes or Monkies who espying Glow-worms in the night gathered sticks and blowed themselves breathless to make them burn Would not Impudence it self blush and Stupidity tremble at the senseless collections and deduction of these Men. As the Papists and among them the Jesuits more especially have no parallel except the Jews in this kind so in other main Points of their Religion as concerning the Infallibility of the Pope Transubstantiation the Authority of the Church the real Presence their Prayers in an unknown Tongue and the like they do not go so much beyond others as besides themselves The extream desire they have that Sacred Authority should countenance and abet their profitable Tenents makes them wrest and transform Places of Scripture beyond all Construction whereby they do not manifest the Truth but the poyson of their Doctrines and their Zeal and earnestness herein to be a Spice or Symptome of Spiritual madness or Phanaticisme Musing and dreaming are of near alliance He that thinks of nothing but of confirming his own conclusions or apprehensions will quickly perswade himself that the Word of God speaks just so As the Fool thinketh so the Bell clinketh the superstitious Phisiognomer and Palmister are not without their Scripture 13. Ex. 9. And it shall be a sign unto thee upon thy hand and for a memorial between thine eyes c. and that in 37. Job 7. he sealeth up the hand of every Man that all Men may know his Work What is this else but to make deformed Pictures of beautiful Colours or senseless and ridiculous Inferences out of Divine and Supernatural Antecedents or of plain Texts of Scripture Except we do strictly compare the Marginal Quotations of some Jesuitical Anabaptistical Quaking and Schismatical discourses with the Texts and both with the Conclusions intended by the Author one would hardly believe it possible for some Men to speak or write nothing but Gospel-language and yet to speak or write scarce a true or wise or pertinent word to the purpose Desire of Victory and to excel others is a Disease hardly cured in any Men Sects or Parties and oft-times work most indefatigably where it works most secretly Gods Gifts of Wit Learning and Judgment some can admire and magnifie in others and acknowledge them to be above their own yet will they not in conclusion be perswaded that any Men not of their own Sect or Opinion have so pure and clear a Beam of Light as themselves or know so much of Gods Eternal Will and Purposes as they do and it is no marvel that such who for expounding greatest Mysteries have betaken themselves wholly to the Spirit or to the Labours of Men whom they presume to be throughly sanctified i. e. that are free of their Brotherhood and Corporation only or at least served a compleat Apprentiship to their supposed Spirit But the wisest oft miscarry in their Projects and so do these by taking wrong measures in that they think there is no direct way to Grace but by undervaluing helps of Art or gifts of Nature of this misconceit the Quakers the Enthusiasts the Phanaticks are most guilty The first and immediate Issue of this Perswasion is that every action which is not warranted by some express Rule of Scripture apprehended by Grace is not of Faith and being not of Faith it must be a sin so that these two Propositions 1. All Actions warranted by the express Word of God must needs be lawful 2. All lawful Actions must needs be warranted by the express Word of God differ no more in their Logical and Grammatical sence than house-keeping and keeping house do in common understanding utitur Diabolus Testimoniis Scripturarum non ut doceat sed ut fallat S. Ambrose That admonition of St. Paul to the Philip. 2.3 concerns these times as much as those wherein he wrote and the Maintainers of true Religion most of all and it were most happy for Christianity if all Christians could in good earnest embrace it Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let
private resolutions can abrogate the Laws of a Nation wherein he lives For as Civil Law being the Act of a whol Body Politick doth therefore overrule each several part of the same Body so there is no reason that any one Common-wealth it self should to the prejudice of another annul that whereupon the whole world hath agreed Now as there is great cause of Communion and consequently of Laws for the maintenance of communion amongst Nations so amongst Nations Christian the like in regard even of Christianity hath been always adjudged needful And in this kind of correspondence amongst Nations the force of General Councils doth stand For as one and the same Law divine is unto all Christian Churches a rule for the chiefest things by means whereof they all in that respect make one Church as having all but one Lord and Lawgiver Christ one Faith one Baptism Jam. 4.12 Eph. 4.5 So th◠urgent necessities of mutual communion for propagation of the Gospel and for preservation of unity in these things as also for order in some other things convenient to be every where uniformily kept maketh it requisite that the Church of God here on earth have her Laws also of spiritual commerce between Christian Nations Laws by vertue whereof all Churches may enjoy freely the use of those reverend religious and sacred consultations which are termed Councils General a thing whereof Gods own blessed Spirit was the Author a thing practised by the holy Apostles themselves a thing always afterwards kept and observed throughout the world a thing never otherwise than highly esteemed of till pride ambition and tyranny began by factions and vile endeavours to abuse that divine Invention unto the furtherance of wicked purposes But as the just Authority of Civil Courts and Parliaments is not therefore to be abolished because sometimes there is cunning used to frame them according to the private intents and interests of men over-potent in the Common-wealth so the grievous abuse which hath been of Councils should rather cause men to study how so gracious a thing may again be reduced to the first perfection than in regard of the stains and blemishes sithence growing be held for ever in extreme disgrace What hath been here affirmed of the Laws of Nations in general and of General Councils to make the thing we treat of more evident and reasonable the same reasons are as applicable and adequate to all intents and purposes of every particular Kingdom and Government and runs parallel throughout all Laws both of Church and State made by every particulat Church and Nation and it cannot be otherwise without shaking and hazarding the very foundation of all peaceable and good Governments in the World For should it be in the power of any small or greater numbers less than the whol to confederat and avowedly to act contrary to publick established Sanctions either of Church or State what issue could be expected but abominable disorder and confusion and every man to do what seems best in his own eyes as once in Israel when there was no King for as the Civil Laws of every Nation so of England are made for the whole Kingdom primarily and to the particular Divisions and Fraternities secondarily and obedience is yielded unto them not as Eastern or as Western Northern or Southern men but as Subjects of the same Kingdom So the Laws of Christ are given to the whole Church primarily and yet they oblige every particular Church to the observation of them but not because in such a particular congregated Brotherhood but because Subjects of Christs visible ministerial Church I am verily perswaded that it cannot demonstratively be made appear by any that every congregated Church in the best and purest times after the days of the Apostles was a Plenipotentiary Church unto it self to all intents and purposes I must confess that they would very much have obliged us if they had at any time given us any one instance of such a Church but they having not yet done it I take it for granted that it is not to be done though if such an instance could be made yet the posture of Ecclesiastical persons and affairs being so much different now from what it was then may quite alter the case I must confess it cannot reasonably be imagined that it could then be otherwise because in those days all Kingdoms and Governments were so far from being friends to Christianity or Christian Churches that they were all Persecutors thereof and therefore not possible that there should be any National Churches and happily were none till the lays of Constantine the first Christian Emperor § Their Maxim or Position is this viz. 1. That they who are called out of the world by the ministry of the Gospel as all Christians are have power given them by Christ being a competent number to gather themselves together in his name 2. That a Church so gathered becomes a Body or spiritual Corporation and being joyned thus by mutual assent of each person have power one over another as in all Fraternities and liberty from Christ to choose their Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in Circumstantials for the regulating of their affairs § Unto the first part of their Position I can so far subscribe that it is tru that where but two or three whether with or without a Priest are gathered together in Christs Name the presence of Christs Spirit is by promise annexed unto them Matth. 18.20 and the particular Assemblies of Christians were thereby intended and approved by Christ viz. to have communion in the publick exercise of holy duties mentioned Act. 2.42 46. viz. breaking of bread and prayer But that it doth describe or purport a mutual agreement which doth formally constitute them a Church Independent without any regard had to the National Church wherein they live is not so very clear the Text not warranting the same in the least if it do then every Family by the same Text might claim Independency § As unto the other part of the Position I can by no means submit without very great qualifications But if the second part of their Position be tru of every particular Assembly it must necessarily be much more tru of the whole or National Church for which they were primarily given and ordained and unto other Churches under the same Government but secondarily and subordinat Moreover consider the Original Commission for gathering of Churches Go teach all Nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Matth. 28.19 which Commission was before the Church was cantonized into divisions and subdivisions by publick Authority or the Independent Congregational Fraternities set up by any particular men The distinction of Churches fell out naturally and necessarily as this or that City or Nation was here or there converted by some one or other of the Apostles and their Successors and so division of Churches came secondarily for convenient administration of Ordinances and communication of
the whole body politick whereof if the Presbyter or Independent judge themselves to be any part then is the Law even their own deed also as being made by the representatives of the whole wherein they are included as having their most proper representatives in our Parliaments and Convocations the undoubted Legislative Power of this Kingdom And is it reasonable in things of this nature and consequence to give men audience pleading for the overthrow of that which as it were their own very deed hath ratified Laws that have been approved both in Church and State may be no man doubteth again repealed and to that end also disputed against by the same Authority But this most properly is when the whole doth deliberate what Laws each part shall observe and not when a few run counter the Laws which the whole hath made in a full and free Parliament and lawfull Convocation Be it that some reasons induce some persons to be otherwise minded if those reasons be demonstrative and absolutely necessary such I confess discharge consciences and setteth them at full liberty but if probable only what thing was there ever set down so agreeable to sound reason but some probable shew against it may be made Is it meet that when Acts of Parliaments and Canons have been publickly received and long practised that general obedience thereunto should cease to be exacted in case some few led by some probable conceits should make open protestation of their dissatisfaction Certainly in such cases they are obliged to suspend their judgments for that in otherwise doing they offend against God by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause For until the Civil Christian Magistrate whose power it is that I contend for doth otherwise order and determine obedience is to be given to the Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil if not contrary to the word of God Turpis est pars quae universo non congruit suo Out of which premises and of what will follow more particularly I shall take the liberty to assert and conclude that the Church of England in general is undeniably Independent and hath intrinsick power within it self without any forraign aid or dependency or any subordination to any other Person Church or Council to govern it self and that every Parish or Congregation thereof is not so Independent but rather that every particular doth depend upon the whole for that all ought to govern the whole and every particular thereof and every one ought to imploy himself most in that which is most particularly recommended to him and that the true Representatives of this Church of England and of all other National Churches is the Legislative Power thereof and that the King is the chief Governor thereof according to the constituted Laws and Canons thereof § And this Legislative Power hath lawful Authority to constitute all Qualifications unto all publick Ecclesiastical preferments so that they which will not submit to such qualifications shall be uncapable of such publick Benefices and Preferments But neither this nor any other Power throughout the whole Vniverse hath any lawful Authority to forbid the gathering of Churches or stop the mouths of any Bishop or Presbyter to preach the Gospel nor to forbid the solemn assembling together of the Saints or of the Brethren according to their several Commissions viz. go teach all Nations c. 28. Matth. 19.20 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhort one another 10. Hebr. 24.25 if this had not been good Doctrine and practised even by Christ himself his Apostles and their followers maugre all the Interdicts of Jewish and Gentile States and Princes cursed Tyrants the Gospel had never been spread In such Cases where commands of Governments are contrary to commands of God it is undoubtedly better to obey God than Man I have dwelt the longer on this subject of Indepency for that though in truth it the be elder Brother unto Presbyterian Government by 1600 years yet it seems unto most to be but my Lord Musshrome and of yesterdays extract and very little understood by Vulgar Capacities In the Treaty whereof I have taken occasion in some measure to trace both the wayes of the Church and the wiles of the Church-Men from its very Infancy and shall pursue it farther when I come to shew what and who are meant by the term Church so that if possible the Government of the Church may be made easie and intelligible to every understanding Plain dealing is best and truth like beauty is most beautiful when stark naked stript of all paints and School-tricks and Glosses by which truth is more often confounded and defaced than brought unto light in its pure and natural colours § I shall now proceed and say something of the Presbyterian way but shall not meddle with their Model at all it being done and done to my hand it hangs on every Hedg and is decyphered and refelled in an Iliad of Pamphlets and is as perfectly disliked and disgusted as known and therefore I think we may bid them defiance set it up and establish it if they can especially if excommunication the main prop and pillar thereof were taken away without which it must necessarily fall to the ground and which is of no use in any Christian State and which in truth is a nemo scit utterly unknown to Scripture it self as now used especially And yet so fond are they of it and so wedded unto it and such is the selfishness of the Clergy of all perswasions and so great a Biass is their interest and love of domination that the very thought of parting with it doth cut them to the heart and it cannot be got from them without rending and tearing as if it were as perverse as an unclean spirit and though in truth it makes no return considerable unto any of them but what redounds unto their dishonour and reproach I shall only shew some of their tenets and practises by which you may the better judge of them and I shall not go far to fetch them and declare that now to erect and establish that Government here or in any other Christian Common-wealth were to erect Regnum in Regno and then in short process of time upon every difference and dispute as it happened in the State of Venice 1610. where Father Avaraldo a Capuchin being demanded by the Inquisitors at Rome for a certain opinion concerning Anti-Christ and from that Inquisition the process being sent to Bressia where the Father was the Inquisition at Bressia proceeded in the Cause without the Civil Assistants and answered them not without a design to cajole the Civil Magistrate out of his just right by a nice distinction viz. that they ought not to assist but only in causes which were begun at the proper Tribunal but not when the Denuntiation was given at Rome so in a very short time as
Faith the same Doctrines and Worship and the providence of God having called and sixed them here as if to this great work of Preaching the Gospel designed their Mouths cannot justly be stopt but upon some politick Accounts and reasons of State only Prudence not Conscience is then to be the guide of Councils For Example If a Presbyter hath swallowed a solemn League and Covenant so solemnly that he cannot nor will not renounce it what should the Government do Indulge those that will not protect that It portends a dangerous Reserve a sower Leaven Tinder in the Bosom apt to take sire apt to relapse into the same prodigious mischiefs Is it not much more agreeable to sound reason that the Royal Son should pare the Nails of those that cannot disgorge themselves of that fatal Covenant which introduced those Premises which yielded that sanguinary Conclusion which made the Father a Glorious King by bringing of him to the Block Conscience of factious Priests or of Covenanters in such cases is not adust in any measure Adaequate in the Ballance against the safety peace and quiet of Crowns and Kingdoms for that we have no Lydius lapis no infallible touch-stone to discover whether Consciences are truly weak or only pretended to be so the searcher of hearts only knows that insallibly And if pretence may be a just excuse to warrant disobedience unto established Sanctions Laws would then be no Laws at all for he that would might and he that would not might choose whether he would obey or no for that no Man can distinguish between real and pretended Scrupulosities That some should be indulged and others not ought to be no cause of complaint neither for that every thing is n t convenient for every Body nor for every Sect and State the same Legislators that have power to Indulge some may by the same right forbid others and indeed make any Laws convenient For the Common-wealth ought to be always kept in a quiet and peaceable temper even ad pondus if possible enough This only by way of Hint and Caution that there be great waryness and circumspection in granting and denying Indulgences If Priests otherwise Orthodox and worthy be silenced for such or the like reasons this ariseth not from the discipline of the Church nor from the Nature of Lyturgies but from the Government of the State What Must there then be no relief for scrupulous and tender Consciences that cannot renounce Covenants or comply with Innocent Ceremonies and Commands yes if they are truly so and do not enter-sere with the Established Government of Church and State 1. Consciences really and truly Scrupulous and tender if they break not out into overt act are not within the Magistrates Province but if rashly without consideration of obtaining or foresight of peril or perturbation of the Church or State they will adventure to take Solemn Leagues and Covenants to introduce a separate Mode or Government in Church or State contrary to that already established by the Magistrate then they most properly come within his verge and cognizance 2. Consciences ought generally not to be forced nay cannot whilst they are in their proper circle but are to be gained and reduced by dint of Argument and force of Truth by moderate connivence and by the use of good Instruction and perswasion 3. Consciences when they rove and become excentrick moving beyond their proper circle and bounds and being out of their proper Sphear tend and prove to be matter of Faction loose their proper Nature and forfeit their just Priviledges and Prerogatives then and not till then the civil Magistrate may take notice and justly restrain or punish their undue practises and contempts if such though guilded most speciously with pretences of Conscience and Religion § As happily their opinion is not so infallibly orthodox who affirm that all Church Discipline and Reformation must be after one Platform and that they which will perfectly reform must bring and reduce the form unto the State which it was at in the days of the Apostles A thing in the opinion of Judicious Hooker neither possible nor certain nor yet absolutely convenient For that which was used in their dayes the Scripture he saith doth not fully declare so that making those times the Rule and Canon of Church Government they make a Rule which not being possible to be fully known is as impossible to be fully kept so happily their opinion is as little Orthodox and as little convenient who deem it no good policy to alter or innovate any thing in Church affairs or to endeavour to reduce it to that State wherein it stood in the dayes of the Apostles the one opinion conducing to bring Reformation to Anullity the other to an Impossibility In elder times soon after the dayes of the Apostles and more especially after Constantines dayes there were imperfections no doubt and warpings from the Apostolical Rules and practises and happily in some things greater than in the present Antiquity therefore ought not so to be revered and adored as that something in these latter Ages may not be reputed better and more convenient there being no necessity that the same publick things should be always ordered in one and the self same manner but as times have mutations so it may be sit to alter or change the Government of Church or State It is possible that the Antient manner of Governing may not be profitable except the Antient state of the Church do return also But if Antiquity must be so revered as not to admit of the least Innovation then without all peradventure that Government which Christ and his Apostles instituted and lest unto his Church must necessarily be the most Antient and have the fairest pretence unto Jus divinum for its justification and then for those very reasons ought to remain unto this very day unalterable and all other Modes and Forms can be but Prudential only and at the discretion of the Church rightly so called And there can be no doubt but that Christ left such a Government to his Church as might be exercised in any Kingdom Christian or other without enterfering or clashing with the Civil Government of any Nation or Kingdom wheresoever the Apostles and their Successors in all Ages and Countries should preach the Gospel and gather Churches And that the self-same Government is plainly set down in the new Testament and that it was instituted by the Apostles and that the Antient Fathers after their example did prosecute the same for about 250 years after Christ with great success and increase of Converts unto Christianity And such Government being practicable then notwithstanding the great enmity that all Nations and Governments had even unto Christianity it self there can be no doubt and no reason can evince but it may be as practicable now which is the opinion of very many and those not Phanaticks And then Independents will have very fair and antient Records to shew for their Congregational way if
the Church the Body thereof whom the Apostles themselves called into Council with them 1. Acts 12.13.2 ch 2.3.4.5.6 gave them power to have a share or part in the choice of Apostles 1. Acts 12.26 to choose Deacons 2. Acts 2.34 to seperate persons for the work of the Ministry 13. Acts. 1.2 to whom the Apostles gave an account from time to time of their travels of successes in their Ministry of their treatments good or bad 12. Acts 12.17.14 Acts 27. and whose assistance and company along with them unto Hierusalem they require about the assair of Circumcision 15. Act. and to mark them which cause divisions and to avoid them 16. Rom 17. to whom Paul addressed his advice concerning the Incestuous person 1. Cor. 5. and required them to forgive and comfort the excommunicate 2. Ch. 6.10.11 required their aid in the choice of Messengers and to restore persons overtaken in a fault in the spirit of meekness 6. Gal. 12. to whom he commits the care to see that his Epistle to the Colossians be read and sent to the Laodiceans and that they read the Epistle from Laodicea 4. Coloss 16. and that they should mind their Guides of their duty v. 17. who contended with Peter about his demeanour towards the circumcised until he had cleared himself by rehearsing the whole matter 11 Acts 1.18 whom the Apostles commanded to warn them that are unruly and to comfort the feeble minded to support the weak and to see that none render evil for evil unto any man and to prove all things 1. Thess 1.1 and 5. ch 12.13.14.15.21 and to judge of Doctrine 1. Cor. 10.15 and to note those that obey not the word and to have no company with them that they may be ashamed 1. Thess 36. and to know them which labour among them and are over them in the Lord and to admonish them and to esteem them in love To whom most of St. Pauls Epistles were written only that to the Philippians was written to these together with the Bishops and Deacons and some unto private persons as to Titus Philemon to the elect Lady and her Children Now I say who can be so blind after such clear Apostolical evidence as not to see the power interests or concerns the Laity or Brethren have in the Government and Affairs of the Church and that not without this great moral and fundamental right and reason peculiar to every Society quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet to which St. Paul seems to allude and have respect 2. Cor. 1.11 you also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf and therefore he writes to all the Church at Corinth to forgive the excommunicate person because it was inflicted of many 2. c. 6. for though the body be one yet hath it many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body 1. Cor. 12.12 and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it we are the Body of Christ and members in particular 26.27 And according to St. Cyprian it seemeth most equal and of Institution moral and unchangeable that the commonalty fearing God and keeping his Commandements should have the special hand either in choosing a worthy Priest or of rejecting the unworthy which also saith he we see to be founded upon Divine Authority Cypr. ep lib. 4.1 A. sec edit Parisiis ep 68. p. 113. which is not St. Cyprians Epistle only A. viz. Ad Clerum plebes in Hispania consislentis de Basilide Martiale c. propter quod plebs obsequens praeâ—â—ptis Dominicis Dâ—um metuens a peccatore praeposito sâ—perare se debet nec se ad sacrilegi sacerdotis sacrisicia miscere quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vâ—l cligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi quod ipsum videmus de Divina Authoritate descendere ut sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur dignus atque Idoneus publico judicio ac testimonio comprobetur sic ut in Numeris 20. c. 25. Moysi praecepit dicens apprebende Aaron fratrem tuum Eleazarum silium ejus Et Aaron appositus moriatur illic Coram omni synagoga jubet Deus constitui sacerdotem i.e. instruit ostendit ordinationes sacerdotales non nisi sub populi assistentis conscientia sieri oportere ut plebe praesente vel detegantur malorum crimina vel bonorum merita praedicentur c. sit ordinatio justa legitima quae omnium sussragio judicio fuerit examinata quod observatur in Actis Apostolorum 1.15 quando in ordinando in locum Judae Episcopo Petrus ad plebem loquitur surrexit inquit Petrus in medlo discentium fuit autem turba in uno Nec hoc in episcoporum tantum sacerdotum sed in Diaconorum ordinationibus observasse Apostolos animadvertimus de quo ipso in actis eorum Scriptum est convocaverunt inquit illiduodecem totam plebem Discipulorum dixerunt iis quod utique idcirco tam diligenter caute convocata plebe tota gerebatur ne quis ad altaris ministerium vel ad sacerdotalem locum indignus obreperet Ordinari enim nonnunquam indignos non secundum dei voluntatem sed secundum humâ—nam praesumptionem haec deo displicere quae non veniant ex legitima justa ordinatione Deus ipse manifestat per Osee Prophetam 8.4 dicens sibimetipsis constituerunt Regem non per me propter quod diligenter de traditione divina Apostolica observatione observandum est tenendum quod apud nos quoqe fere per provincias universas tenetur ut ad ordinationes rite celebrandas ad eam plebem cui Praepositus ordinatur episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant episcopus deligatur plebe praesente quae singulorum vitam plenissime novit uniuscujusque actum de ejus conversatione perspexit quod apud vos factum videmus in Sabini Collegae nostri ordinatione ut de universae fraternitatis suffragio ut de episcoporum qui in praesentia convenerant quique de eo ad vos literas secerant judicio episcopatus ei deferretur manus ei in locum Basilidis imponeretur Est enim Deus verax omnis autem homo mendax 3. Rom. si autem omnis homo mendax 3. Rom. est solus Deus verax quid aliud servi maxime sacerdotes dei sacere debemus nisi ut humanos errores mendacia relinquamus praecepta dominica custodientes in Dei veritate maneamus Cypriani Epist 68. edit Parisiis per Rigalt 1666. vel ep 4. edit Basiliae M. D. xxx f. 18. And it is observable that this is not St. Cyprians Epistle alone but the Epistle of 36 Bishops more viz. Caecilius Primus
a great wonder in his Judgment that the Pope was never thought infallible till this last age since this Pasce implies this also so clearly and if the Hereticks do not believe that his Holiness hath power to make new Articles of Faith and when they cry shame upon Pope Pius the Fourth for adding Twelve new Articles to the old Apostles Creed it is because they are ignorant and know not what Pasce signifieth In sum this one Word with them contains more Matter than all the Bible besides It works Miracles makes the Pope omnipotent gives him all power not only in Heaven and on Earth but even in Purgatory a place that God knows nothing of for if you ask by what Authority he takes upon him to pardon Sins and Souls after Death to give or sell the Saints Merits to dispence with Oaths to depose Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms or if he list to murder them c. If you look the Popes Lexicon as Dr. Potter well observes you shall find that Pasce expresly denotes all this Authority and enables him to be not only a Prince or a Pastor or Bishop but even a Butcher too by the self-same Logick for what is murdering of Kings and that by Mariana his quacunque arte less than savage Butchery For according to Sententia Baronii Cardinalis super excommunicatione Venetorum Ministerium Petri est duplex pascere occidere Feed my Sheep Joh. 21.15 16 17. Kill and eat Acts 10.13 dixit enimei Dominus Pasce oves meas Joh. 21.15 16 17. Audivitque è Coelo vocem occide manduca Acts 10.13 The Words I confess are plain and words of truth and their natural Sence obvious to every Capacity but such Conclusions and Deductions from them as are drawn by the Popes Partizans and Sycophants are strangely uncouth and utterly unknown to right Reason and so notoriously false that they carry their own Confutation in their Foreheads that they that run may read them and need no other Answer yet in their due place they shall be touched § But to return The Esteem and Powers allotted to the Brethren or body of the Church by the Apostles they did preserve unto themselves above 250 years after Christ which is very plain and manifest by the abundant Testimony of the most Antient Fathers and Old Canons as by Clement First Bishop of Rome who lived in or near the Apostles days by Tertullian and Cyprian who lived in the Third Century with divers others but because to cite the whole Caravan of Witnesses at large and in particular would make this very Paragraph swell into a Volume I forbear and shall only gently touch some of them hereafter that by them you may guess at the rest § As in the first and purest times the Name and Title of Church was common to all Congregations and Societies of Believers so unto them also according to all antient Records did belong also the Use and Propriety of the Goods which were called Ecclesiastical in which times the poor and the Ministers had their Food and Rayment from one common Fund or Bank and which is observable those were more principally provided for than these But not long after this excellent Use was perverted by the Subtilty of the Clergy and the poor put in the lowest place which according to the former Use ought to have continued in the first and chiefest And when the Name of the Church became appropriated to the Clergy only all other Christians being excluded then that was applied to few which belonged to all and that to the rich which first served for the poor In the beginning of those Times the Clergy having divided among themselves all the Revenues of the Church the Charges which before were and were called Ministeries and Offices of Spiritual Care the Temporalty and Profits being now most esteemed were now called Benesices and so long as the Old Canons remained that one man should not be Ordained unto Two Titles Titulus was the Old Word for a Church Many Ages after Christ A Bishoprick before the World was divided into Parishes was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Parish and whoever was Ordeined in and for one Bishoprick he could not belong unto two And for many Ages there were no Tithes paid or due but the Church and Clergy were maintained by the Oblations of the People and those by the old Canons divided into four parts none could have more than one Benefice But the Revenues being by Wars or Inundations diminished and become not sufficient for their Maintenance one Man might hold two yet so as that he should attend them both This was begun in favour not of the Man Benesiced but of the Church which because it could not have a proper Minister might have at least some other Service upon pretence of the insufficiency of the Benefice and that none could be found to serve in them they began to grant more of them unto one though no necessity appeared for the Service of the Churches and the Mask being taken away by little and little they were not ashamed to do it for the Man Benesiced But the World being scandalized thereat there was a Moderation used whereupon a distinction began of Men tied to Residence and not tied and of Benesices compatible and not compatible calling those of Residency incompatible one with another Trattato delle materie benesiciarie 144 145 c. and the other compatible with these and with themselves yet the Gloss of the Canonist to make a shew at least of Honesty always declared that many Benefices should not be given to one but when one is not sufficient for maintenance But they cut this Sufficiency very large proportioning it not to the Person but to the Quality not esteeming it sufficient for an ordinary Priest if it were not enough for himself the Family of his Parents three Servants and an Horse and more if he were Noble and Learned And it is strange how much they allowed for a Bishop in regard of the Decorum he was to keep For Cardinals it is sufficient to note the common Saying of the Court that they are equal unto Kings by which they conclude Aequiparantâ—r Regibus 144. that no Revenue is too much for them except it be more than enough for a King The Custom being begun and neither the World nor Equity being able to resist it the Popes reserved to themselves power to dispence with the Incompatible and to have more than two of the other But to find a colourable way to put this in practice they laid hold on Commendaes Commendaes a thing instituted at first to good purpose but after used to this end only For when by reason of Wars Pestilence and other such Causes the Election or Provision could not be made so soon the Superiour did recommend the vacant Church to some honest and worthy man to take care of it besides the care of his own until a Rector were provided who
but with great and exquisite Judgment the which wanting Power only takes no effect The Canonists themselves say That the Power of Binding and Loosing is intended by a Key not erring and Pope Leo expresly affirmeth it in a Canon speaking of this Priviledge given by St. Peter Manet ergo Petri privilegium ubicunque ex ipsius fertur aequitate Judicium nec nimia est vel severitas vel remissio ubi nihil erit ligatum vel solutum nisi quod Beatus Petrus solverit aut ligaverit 24. q. 1. c. Manet § Of old the Holy Bishops did preach and teach Princes that they having two Callings the one of Christians the other of Princes were bound in both of them to serve God as Christians in observing the Divine Precepts as every other private Person but as Princes to serve God by ordaining just and good Laws and directing their Subjects to Piety Honesty and Justice by having his Eyes on the Faithful of the Land that they that excel in Vertue and Piety may dwell with him by not countenancing wicked Persons by erecting publick Places of Worship and as much as in them lyeth by chalking out a High-way of Holiness throughout their Dominions by their Good and Pious Example that way-faring Men though Fools might not erre therein by punishing all such as transgress Gods Commandments especially those of the Decalogue wherein those that sin against the first Table which more immediately concern the Divine Honour are worse than those that sin against the Second which concern Justice amongst Men Wherefore Kings are more bound to punish Blasphemies Heresies and Perjuries than Murders and Thefts For this cause were divers Laws made against such Crimes as are Registred in the Justinian and Theodosian Codes imposing on the guilty Pecuniary Mulcts Banishment Privation of Part or of all their Goods according to the Circumstances of the Offence the execution of which Laws are committed to their Secular Officers And accordingly this our Kingdom from its Original of being Christian hath been accustomed to sentence and punish in case of grievous offence any Person Ecclesiastical of what Degree or Order soever by which means it hath hitherto preserved the Ancient and Independent Liberty of its true Dominion and Empire § Every Criminal Judgment hath three parts 1. For Example Criminal Judgment hath three parts The Cognisance of the Cause 2. The Cognisance of the Fact 3. The Sentence 1. For Example In the Judgment of Heresie or the Cognisance of the Reason is whether such an Opinion be Heretical or no 2. The Cognisance of the Fact is whether the Person so accused or denounced hath defended or held the same 3. The Sentence consisteth either of Absolving or Condemning The first Cognisance what Opinion was Heretical was mostly Ecclesiastical but not absolutely exclusive of Secular Learned Men appointed by the Emperors And when there grew any difficulty of some Opinion the Emperor did require the Judgment of Bishops and if need were did call Councils For the Cognisance of the Fact whether the accused Person were Innocent or Guilty that he might have the punishment ordained by the Laws of the Emperor and the Sentence of Condemnation or Absolution did all belong to the Secular Power Thus were matters ordered for Causes of Heresie c. in the Church under the Roman Empire until about 800 Years after Christ when the Eastern Empire being divided from the Western this Form rested in the Eastern till the end of it In the Western the Princes needed not make any Laws nor take much care about this Business seeing for the space of 300 Years from 800 to 1100 there were very few Hereticks found in those Parts and when any Case did happen which chanced but very seldom the Bishop did judge of it in the same manner as he proceeded against Ecclesiastical Persons as against Infringers of Holy-days Breakers of Fasts and such like judging and punishing them themselves in those Places where they had Jurisdiction granted them by the Princes and where they had not the like Power they did implore the Secular Aid to punish them After the Year 1100. by reason of the continual differences which for about fifty Years before had been between the Emperors and Popes and lasted afterwards for a whole Age until about 1200 Years with frequent Jars and Wars and the wicked life of the then Clergy there did arise an infinite number of Hereticks as the Papists are pleased to call them whose most common Heresies were against the Popes Authority and where the Multitude of them exceeded there was a forced Toleration About this time of the day Pope Innocent the fourth subtilly designed by introducing the Inquisition Inquisition more Authoritatively to deprive the Civil Magistrates of their Rights over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to whose Judgment was committed the punishment of Heresie c. by the Ancient Laws of the Empire and by the Laws of Frederick the second and by particular Statutes which each City was forced to make for the preservation of their own indubitable and independent Right of Governing Ecclesiastical Causes and Persons according to their great Charter from Heaven But the Pope sinding great opposition from all Places he offered one Expedient which in shew made the Civil Magistrate the Inquisitors Companion but in Substance and Effect his Lacquey This Opposition grew so strong and was so universal that the Pope could not introduce his Tribunals Inquisitory except it were in the Provinces of Lombardy Romania and Marca Trevisana nor in them neither for all his Bulls and severe Edicts as he desired no nor yet as he did without great reluctancy and opposition from the Civil Magistrates though in those three Provinces his Authority was very great they having no Prince and each City governing it self and where the Pope also had a part because he had assisted them in their late Wars And although the said Frederick Anno 1244. set forth four Proclamations receiving the Fathers Inquisitors into his protection and imposing the Penalty of Fire the first Law that imposed death upon obstinate Hereticks for which kindness and assistance of his he was admirably well requited by the same Pope who first excommunicated and then deposed him and as Hier-Marius reports corrupted one to poison him which not taking effect corrupted another to strangle him so that Alexander the fourth his Successor Anno 1259. and Clement the fourth 1265. were constrained to moderate the Edicts of Innocent the fourth And four other succeeding Popes employed themselves in overcoming the difficulties which thwarted them in setling the Inquisition After some moderation it being setled in those three Provinces it afterwards crept into Tuscany and so into Arragon and into some Cities of Germany and France out of which it was soon exiled and in Arragon they were reduced to a very small number Into the Kingdom of Naples it was not brought there being little correspondence between the Popes and the Kings thereof In the
Visitation then undoubtedly no such Prohibition was ever intended by the Imposition of our Liturgy what ever the words may import Indeed in the late Act of Uniformity it is Enacted That no Form or Orders of Common-Prayers Administration of Sacrament Rites and Ceremonies shall be openly used in any Church or Chappel c. other than what is prescribed and appointed to be used in and by the said Book What doth this hinder but that every Priest may use his own Talents in praying before and after Sermon and in his Sermons to illustrate or declare any thing that best pleaseth him concerning any Doctrine Ordinance or Administration This may be a Prohibition of the Use of any other Form or Book Popish Turkish or other to be used in publick in the Nature of a Liturgy but can never be fairly interpreted to be a Prohibition of the Use of Ministers Talents which they may have occasion to exercise in their Oraisons Preachings Collations Catechisings or other Teachings in publick Nay were the words as he relates them yet the general and constant practises of the Church having been diametrically contrary to those very words and sense of them doth manifest to all the World that the Intendment of them was never to be exclusive of the exercise of the Ministers Gifts and Graces in the publick Worship of God as this Author suggests it to be Nay suppose there were such a Prohibition in the strictest sense and that it were to be strictly observed which were as much as in them lieth to null the very Ordinance of God and to stifle his Spirit which blows where it listeth yet that makes nothing against Liturgies in General that may be composed and enjoyned without any such Sting or Venom in the Tail of them Surely our Author cannot intend that whilst he is reading of the Liturgy or administring according unto it either of the Sacraments or any of the Ordinances that he cannot use his own Talents eodem momento if he should thus vainly argue I must then refer him unto the Commands and Power of the Civil Magistrate and unto the 1 Cor. 14.26 27. where all things are commanded to be done for Order and Decency and in course one speaking after another and one Gift used after another for God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches of the Saints v. 33. I did at first resolve to wave the Justifying of the Particulars of any one or other Liturgy but being unavoidably cast upon it I must go on a little farther though never so contrary to my resolution and design We have already considered Matter of Fact on the behalf of the Author let us see now Matter of Fact making against him in the very Body of our Common-Prayer-Book After the Nicene Creed c. it ordains That then shall follow the Sermon which is far from a Command That Ministers shall not use or exercise any Spiritual Gift c. the same Book also directs That the Curate of every Parish shall after the Second Lesson at Evening Prayer openly in the Church instruct and examine Children c. which is so far from prohibiting the Vse of the Ministers Gifts and Talents that it commands the exercise of them Then consult the Book of Ordering Priests and Deacons and then you will find that the Bishops give many pious Exhortations to those that are to be ordained declaring it to be their Duty and Office to instruct preach premonish teach seed and provide for the Lords Family and withal faithful diligence to use both publick and private Admonitions and Exhortations as well to the Sick as to the Whole c. and then ordaining them bids them to be faithful Dispensers of the Word of God and of his Holy Sacraments Are not these Liberties nay Commands that they shall not Napkin-up their Talents but shall employ and put them out unto Feneration Spiritual and Heavenly Then consult all the Injunctions and Articles of Visitation from the days of Edw. 6. unto this our Age and you will find them all full of like Commands Exhortations Inquiries c. I shall only trouble you with some few things out of the very first Injunctions as the purest in the days of Edw. 6 15.47 where all Ecclesiastical Persons having care of Souls are enjoyned to the uttermost of their Wit Knowledge and Learning sincerely and purely to teach in their Sermons the Word of God and in the same exhort their Hearers to the Works of Faith Mercy and Charity specially prescribed and commanded in Scripture and that Works devised by Mens Phantasies besides Scripture as Pilgrimages c. are detested and abhorred by God they are therein also charged to exhort and counsel by all the ways and means they may as well in their Sermons and Collations as otherwise Fathers Mothers Masters to bestow their Children and Servants in Learning c. and that they provide that the Sacraments be duly and reverently ministred in their Parishes Nay they are in those Injunctions charged that if any do or shall know any Man within their Parish or elsewhere that is a Letter of the Word of God to be read in English or sincerely preached c. they shall discover them to the Council or the next Justice of Peace in order to their punishment s 3 4 5. The same Injunctions command That the Sabbath be spent in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publick Prayers c. Arch-bishop Cranmer in pursuance of these Injunctions by his Articles of Visitation the same year made Inquiry Whether the Ministers did preach purely and sincerely the Word of God in every of their Cures Ridley Bishop of London in the Year 1550. prefixed before his Articles of Visitation 2 Tim. 4.12 viz. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the Word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine And in the Body of them there are several Articles of Inquiry after the preaching of the Pastors one whereof is Whether any do preach any thing in derogation of the Book of Common-Prayer And not without good cause for that it was the Decree of a very Ancient Council that no Man should be admitted to speak against that whereunto he had formerly subscribed and it is against the Statute 1 Eliz. to speak against the Liturgy and Discipline established Confer 26 27. in the Year 1564. there were Articles framed purposely for Doctrine and Preaching Much after the same Tenor and purport have all our subsequent Injunctions Articles Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical in our several Princes Reigns been Nay in our very Acts of Parliament there is much concerning Preachers and Preaching And is it then possible that all this should be and yet the liberty which some say is granted for a Man to use their own Gifts and Abilities should
their Vocation yet not so tyed as it were by a perpetual and unalterable Law that they may not be at Liberty to alter their Condition when just Cause so requireth and this he makes good by way of instancing the Condition of Servants with words of Consolation that though they are Servants to men yet they being once made partakers of that Grace of Christ may notwithstanding in Spirit and Truth serve the Lord Christ whose Service is perfect Freedom and withall teacheth that Liberty being far more Excellent and Commodious than Bondage is rather to be chosen when opportunely it may be had But in all this not one Syllable towards the making good of his Assertion viz. A Freedom from subjection to the Authority of Men c. He then proceeds to affirm that the same Rule is given out as to our duty and deportment in reference unto both these viz. the two parts of liberty divided by him as before which he endeavours to provo by Gal. 5.1 and 1 Pet. 2.16 but with what success will appear upon their Scanning stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us Free and be not intangled again with the Yoak of Bondage Gal. 5.1 I most willingly confess the force that this place hath for the justifying of his first part of Christian Liberty but as to the Justifying of the second part I conceive with submission to better Judgments that it is of no validity at all The Liberty here mentioned by Paul the Apostle of uncircumcision besides the general Intendment and respect it had to the general Freedom from the Obligation Bondage and Curse of the Law purchased by Jesus Christ it did more particularly respect Circumcision a part of the Mosaical Law which might have been performed in Titus as it had been before in Timothy had not saith Paul false Brethren who came in privily to spy out our Liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into Bondage Gal. 2.4 Bondage What Bondage Subjection to the Authority of Men commanding Lawful things about the Worship of God Nothing less but Bondage by binding them to a necessary observance of the Ceremonial Law by teaching the necessity of Circumcision which before Christ was a Sacrament and a Seal of the righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11 But after the death of Christ till the destruction of the Temple it was a dead Ceremony yet some time used as a thing indifferent After the Destruction of the Temple when the Church of the New Testament was planted amongst the Gentiles it was a deadly Ceremony and ceased to be indifferent imposing it upon him and Titus making it a meritorious cause of Salvation and teaching Justification and Salvation was partly by Christ and partly by the Law thereby intending to overthrow the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1.7 against this Bondage this Doctrine Paul Preached behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Gal. 5.2 that is if you be Circumcized believing that Circumcision shall be a Meritorious cause of your Salvation and go back from your Christian profession and Liberty Christ shall profit you nothing And that which Paul saith here of Circumcision in particular he means generally of the whole Law for I testifie again to every Man that is Circumcised that he is a Debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of no effect to you whosoever of you are Justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace v. 3 4. Therefore saith Paul stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us Free and be not intangled again with the Yoak of Bondage v. 1. That this is the most natural and genuine if not only sence of this portion of Scripture will not I think be denied by any Protestant but what farther use he can make of this for the Justifying his Second part of Christian Liberty without stretching and wresting the words beyond their meaning is past my understanding I am sure it is not safe nor warrantable to impose any other sence on the Apostles words than what he meant and is clear and evident After such a deceitful way of handling Scripture it would be no hard task to prove by Scripture that there is no God that Prophets are Fools and that Spiritual men are mad Hos 7. But we proceed to his other places of Scripture which are but two more and examine if he hath dealt any more candidly in alledging them viz. 1 Pet. 2.16 and Acts 15. which we will examine as they lye in Order the first of them is that of St. Peter which he hath only quoted as he hath done the rest in Figures and not set down at length without making any Application of them the words are As free and not using your liberty for a Cloak of malitiousness but as the Servants of God But by what construction to make this Text favour or make good his Assertion viz. A freedom from subjection to the Authority of men as to any new Imposition in or about the Worship of God I must confess my Self to be Impar Negotio and I believe it to be past his Skill also without wresting the words beyond their Natural meaning However I will give my Essay by declaring the plain genuine sence of the place and freely leave the Reader to Judge and make out the rest This Verse is relative being the Close or Period of somewhat before prescribed but more especially of the three last Verses immediately going before which relates unto and respect obedience and submission to Government The Text and Context lye thus together Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supream or unto Governours as unto them as are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the Praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that with well doing he may put to silence the ignorance of Foolish men as free and not using your liberty for a Cloak of malitiousness but as the Servants of God Honour all Men Love the Brother-hood fear God honour the King 1 Pet. 2.13.17 The Apostles when they Preached the Gospel-Doctrine of Christian Liberty At which false Teachers in those dayes did and some in these our dayes do take advantage from the very name of Liberty to teach the new Converted Christians under that pretence to despise their Governours and Government did take and amongst them our Apostle doth here take occasion from that ground to endeavour to prevent the abuses and misconstructions of the Glorious and wholsome Doctrine of Christian Liberty by teaching that Christian Subjection and obedience under the term of well-doing was very consistent with the Doctrine of Christian Liberty and therefore he shews it to be the will of God that they should submit to every Ordinance of Man that by such submission such well doing they may put to silence the ignorance of Foolish Men viz. false Teachers