I shall put you a case Suppose the Jew should be admitted into a Nation and shall fall to their old work of crucifying children to the scorn and disgrace of our Saviour say that a Heathen should be enfranchized and worship the Sunne and the Moon and all the host of heaven yea and make their children passe through the fire to Moloch Be it that one should say he were God another the Devil a third acknowledge not God nor Devil say there arise false Christs and false Prophets one who will blaspheme and say he is the Messias and rejoyceth to hear Hosanna cryed before him If there be no supreme over a National Church I wonder what order could be taken with any of these suffered they must be to go on and blaspheme still for any power you have to restrain them Convent them before your Congregation they appear not Cast them out if they be of your Combination they regard it not The gangrene goes on the blasphemy increaseth and will increase except you admit of one supreme head in a Nation who may have so much power over the body that he may cut off that part from the body which is like to infect and poyson the whole The mischief that may ensue upon a Church by the admission of this your paradox is unconceivable I can never enough admire the wisdome both of God and man who hath appointed a supreme power in all Nations for the suppression of all inconveniences With their Civil power I am not at this time to meddle I shall only insist upon that which is Ecclesiastical and that you may the better go along with me I shall reduce what is to be said to certain heads 1. The first work of the supremacy is to call Assemblies For for men to assemble together without leave of the supreme power and consult of Religion is to make a Rout. In Israel God commands Moses to make two Trumpets Numb 10.12 and to keep them for that end to call the Congregation Moses had no other right but that of the chief Magistrate In that right he received his Trumpets and in that right he had the property of both Aaron verse 10. had the use but the use only never the right May be if we call flesh and blood to counsel it will be thought more convenient that God delivered one Trumpet to one and the other to the other and so have power to call but God saith peremptorily to Moses erunt tibi they shall be and remain in thy hands and so no man hath power to remove the Camp to assemble the Congregation to found to the Celebration of the solemn Feasts but Moses and his Successours By vertue of this power Joshua assembles all the Tribes Levi and all to Sichem Joshua 24. 1 Chr. 15.4 23.2 3 6. 2 Chr. 15. 20.3 24.5 34.29 David calls together the Priests and other Ecclesiastical persons and for what matters for secular nay meer Church-work first when the Ark was to be removed again when the offices of the Temple were to be set in order things meerly pertaining to Religion Asa Jehosaphat Joas Josias gave a solemn call in matters of Religion But the fact of Hezekiah is of all most memorable He gave forth a precept for the Priests and all their brethren to assemble 2 Chr. 29. Verse 12 c. Verse 15. and to what end ad res Jehovae There be fourteen men chief men of the Priests set down there by name that by vertue of that Writ came together they and their brethren all ex praecepto regis ad res Jehovae for matters meerly of the Church Thus it was while there was a King in Israel But after when the Scepter was departed how was it then how when the fulnesse of the Gentiles was come in who then called the Assemblies A time there was after Christ when Kings were Infidels and the Church under persecution As the Jews at Babylon being under pressures they must meet and did as they could and yet divers such meetings in Synods we finde recorded as I have instanced before which for the present were called by their Patriarchs But no sooner did God raise up Constantine to be a nursing father to the Church but he resumed the right of Moses and his Successours lay claim to them at this day the four general Councils the great Nicene against Arrius the second of Constantinople against Macedonius the third of Ephesus against Nestorius the fourth of Calchedon against Eutichus were all called by several Emperours And by the same power all other National and Provincial Synods have been accustomed to be assembled till this our age 2. And the Church being assembled by this Warrant had power to establish Laws for the Discipline of the Church so they be consonant to the Word of God tend to edification decency and order So that if there be no errour of man concerning their determination the determining of them is to be accompted as if it were divine Though then he who is the chief in any State hath not power to determine judicio definitivo what is sound and to be received in the worship of God yet judicio executivo Synod at Cambridge in New Engl. cap. 2. he may and ought when the Church hath determined command the profession thereof in his Territories and from this I do not see that your Synod held at Cambridge doth much dissent Cap. 17. Sect. 7 8 9. I have hitherto opened unto you what the supreme power may do I shall now shew you by what right he may do it which is indeed by all right jure naturae jure divino positivo First they deceive and are deceived who go about to perswade that the supremacy in Church matters is derived unto any superiour by municipal Laws for this is a right with which he is invested by God himself Declared it may be and made known to the world written more at large and expressed more clearly in Acts and Statute Laws Cook de jure reg Ecclesiae pag. 8. but this jurisdiction was from above whence the Fathers of the Law have thus delivered this truth to us that the Act past concerning Ecclesiastical jurisdiction non novam legem introduxit sed antiquam declaravit Ask the Fathers and they shall tell you the grey haires and they shall declare unto you In the Law of nature it can be no question but causes Civil and Ecclesiastical belonged to one man since the King and Priest was united in one man The eldest ordinarily of the Family being chief Magistrate and Priest And after the partition was made yet the chief power remained in the Superiour Such Religion as the Heathen had was yet ordered by the Princes directions which gave Aristotle reason to say Quae ad Deorum cultum pertinent Aris. Pol. lib. 3. cap. 10.11 commissa sunt regibus and again Imperator est Rex Judex rerumque divinarum ei
you will wish again for those worthies of the National Church to fight your battles These were the men that stood up in the gap these have bore the burden and heat of the day these have beaten these Philistims at their own weapons from the blood of the slain from the fat of the mighty the bow of Jonathan turned not back and the Sword of Saul returned not empty Verse 22. Rejoyce not therefore at their fall since after ages may have occasion to say if we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets Matth. 23.31 2. Yea but you say Christ hath bent his brow against this National Church as being next in naughtinesse Next to what to the Romane Church That 's to be proved And 't is more than ever you shall be able to make good that quâ National or quâ a Church in her constitution she was naught It was the acknowledgment of that great and learned Casaubons then whom there was none more skilful in all the Records of antiquity that there was not any Church in the Christian world that came nearer in her Doctrine and Discipline to the Primitive than this of England His words in his Epistle Dedicatory to King James are these before his exercitations to the Annals of Baronius Casaub Ep. de die ad Annales Tuum est proprie tuum pro veteris Ecclesiae disciplina pugnantes regii clypei quem pro sincere pietatis defensione gestas umbone propugnare Qui Ecclesiam habeas in tuis regnis partim jam olim ita institutam partim magnis tuis laboribus ita instauratum ut ad florentis quondam Ecclesiae formam nulla hodiè propiùs accedat quam tua inter vel excessu vel defectu peccantes mediam viam sequita This man lived in and was brought up in the Reformed Church in France and might be therefore thought to encline to a Presbyterial Discipline and yet after he came into England and took notice of the constitution you hear what he attests that was no question able to judge that had seen and read so much And in this point he stands not single nor alone for from Alexandria we have like approbation from Cyril the Patriarch there in his Letter sent to my sometimes Lord George Abbot Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Cyril Litt. ab Aegypto missae 1616. Fix not then this naughty terme upon the Church of England because National The naughtinesse that was in her I have confessed and for which we justly suffer under the hand of a just God and for which when you come to be as naught as we think not you shall escape 'T is not your Combination shall priviledge you from the Cup of Gods wrath Think you that those Galileans on whom the Tower of Siloam fell were greater sinners then all that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish 3. You go on to the British King Placida compostus pace quiescat Soyle not his ashes Invincible he was not nor any man ever thought him so For thine O Lord is the greatnesse and the power and the glory and the victory ◠Chr. 29.11 and the Majesty for all that is in the heaven and earth is thine thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as head above all But whereas you say that he was a violent head was therefore less victorious and more vincible you are a little too quick with your ergo More can never be in the conclusion than is in the premises and say he had been a violent head which I shall by and by prove he was not yet it will never necessarily follow that thence he should be lesse victorious For how many violent heads in your sense meaning National Churches have their bene who yet have obtained victories Sometimes God punisheth a people for the transgression of a King sometimes a King for the transgression of his people Israel is smitten with the pestilence for Davids sinne and Eli is cast off and the Ark taken for the sinne of his sons Where therefore there may be divers causes of a discomfiture is overmuch rashnesse to fix upon one nay to imagine that to be the cause which was not viz. because he was 4. A violent head For what I pray is it a sinne for a Prince to be the head that is the governour of a National Church so you seem to affirme Beware look about you and consider with whom at unawares you joyne for the Jesuite will make you a low Congee and thank you that you shall assert their rebellious position that Princes and supreme Magistrates have nothing to do in the Church in temporal things supreme and Lords they are but in spiritual matters they may not meddle The difference lies onely in this that they would draw the Supremacy to one even that man of sinne and advance him to the head-ship You draw the Supremacy to the Pastours and Elders in every Combinational Congregation and so there should be as many supremacies and heads as there be of these Churches For which his Highnesse the Lord Protectour hath little reason to thank you for of what Church will you make him a governour Not of the National that was the Kings sinne a violent head he was and God forbid that according to your tenet any should come into that place again His headship and government can extend no farther than the Combinational that very Combinational of which he is a member in which he must act not as Protectour or the Supreme in the Nation but as an Elder only In all other Combinationals he hath nothing at all to do for they have a supremacy among themselves He may not then order National Fasts nor dayes of Thanksgiving he may not make Ordinances to eject scandalous and ignorant Ministers he may not set up Approvers of Ministers for the whole Nation he may not punish Papists imprison Blasphemers ask any man out of his Combination why he doth so or so if your position be true 'T is violence 't is usurpation 't is tyranny Supreme he is now in the Nation and by the power of the supremacy all these things are done and you and I or any body else would be smiled at if not frowned upon that for this should call him a violent head And what did the British King more than this It may be thought that I have put in this plea in favour of the British King he needs it not for he hath long ago answered for his violence if there were any I tell you plainly I plead for his Highnesse and for as many who are supreme in any Nation be they Potentates Princes or governours over any Christian Church For the cause is alike in all and they have external government of the Church in charge and to say the contrary is to open a sluce to the over-flowings of impiety
I am inform'd the common opinion among you is that the power of the Keys is not in the hands of the Presbytery but the fraternity and so you are of Ainsworths opinion Of the power or Keys I see there is no difference betwixt us both are agreed to what end they serve both use them to effect that the sole quarrel is in whose hands they shall be put On all sides the buzzle is who shall be Prelates The Presbyterians would have them in their hands and Johnson fights on their side The Congregation stifly wrangle for their right and Ainsworth and most of New England take their part Cotons Keyes pag. 10. 13. Mr. Cotton and some others sensible of what might ensue by this just power of the people over the Eldership have begun to fall from Ainsworth to Johnson and to plead the authority of the Eldership over the brotherhood and the necessity of subjection of the people by divine right to the Elders as to their superiours Some wiser than some yet he hath such fine evasions and distinctions to blinde and content the people that a man would think he were playing at hocus pocus But be it as it will a blind man may see that the Prelacy is the game that they have all in chase Now this methinks is not fair dealing to put down Covenant and swear down Prelacy and hunt after it themselves to cry out against others that their whole aime is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lord it over Gods inheritance when they would be the sole Lords themselves Now among the heat of these contenders the old Prelate appears and puts in his claime he pleads Scriptures he pleads antiquity and the perpetual practice of the Church for one thousand and five hundred years And by my consent he that can shew best Cards for it let him carry the game Nor this then hereafter shall be any just cause of separation separation O how I hate the syllables the Authour of it sure was taught by the Prince of darkness and came to some a Bolton the first Separatist hang'd himself Brown the second dyed in prison Ephes 4.4 5 6. unlucky end Unity is the child that God blesseth We all acknowledge one Father we all hope in one Redeemer we serve one Lord we are united by one Spirit we professe one faith we were baptiz'd in one water we have but one hope of our calling for we all hope to meet in one heaven Let us therefore endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace And so the God of peace will take delight to dwell with us and bless us And the Son of God who made our peace and left it to us as his last Legacy will give rest and peace peace of conscience and reconciliation with God while we live here and eternal rest with him in heaven Amen To the first part of your letter you have here my answer and if it finde acceptance I shall proceed to satisfie the other First to vindicate the Church in general from those you call corruptions and degenerations in her government And secondly the Church of England in particular touching those enormities you conceive committed by her That I have not now done it there are some reasons which I will conceal A KEY to open the Debate about a Combinational Church and the power of the KEYES The Second Part. The words of the Letter IN case the frequent pondering of this profitable point which is of so much concernment to be throughly versed in should puzzle any one that begins to question how where or when did the Christian Church which at the first was Presbyterial and pure become so corrupt and polluted as that scarce is the sceleton fashion or face thereof as much as to be perceived the more is the pity in most places or as yet amongst most professours of godlinesse I was really perswaded that a little paines might prove not onely acceptable but advantagious to a person that were so puzzled about the particular for to hear and to have it not alone boldly and barely affirm'd but also fairly and firmly confirm'd by unanswerable arguments that it fell to that foul and fearful degeneration under which it now doth or should groan and for which it hath good cause to grieve by no fewer than five distinct degrees whereof the first was into a Parochial 2. The second into a Cathedral 3. The third into a Provincial 4. The fourth into a National 5. And the fifth was into an oecumenical or a Romane Catholique Church SECT I. The Reply IN this second part of your letter you propose a point I confesse of greatest concernment and such which is most worthy of the sad and serious disquisition which is how where and when the Church became so corrupt polluted and degenerate as scarce the secleton fashion or face thereof is to be perceived no not among the professours of godlinesse Good words I pray The Reformed Churches you say cannot shew it the Prelates cannot produce it the Papists are at the same losse and among the professours of godlinesse be they who they will the Sceleton is scarce to be perceived hardly the fashion the face appears among them And where then shall we looke for the substance the body it self of which if any man be not a part 't is but in vain to look for salvation Since out of the Church no man can have hope of salvation no more than that creature had of life who was out of the Ark of Noah God be merciful to us all poor Christians if our Mother that should nourish us be brought to bare bones have but a face and fashion of a Mother and nothing else surely she will never be able to give her children milk while they are babes and strong meat when they come to be men if this be so Now tell me I pray what is the case why she is brought to this pittiful and lamentable condition how came she so corrupt and polluted Oh say you that is quickly discern'd she is fallen from her Presbytery for all the while she was Presbyterial she was pure First I could advise you to take heed of this affirmative except you put Combinational unto it For all the Presbyterians will catch at it and runne away with it in triumph and where are you then and I beleeve your own party will not con you much thanks that have given the adversary so great advantage Secondly it behoved you since you have laid the strength of your cause upon this word to have demonstrated by infallible arguments out of the Scripture that the Church was at first governed by that kind of Presbytery you mean which you have not done before you pronounced all succeeding Churches corrupt and polluted because they degenerated from that Presbytery This is petitio principii the foulest way of arguing Thirdly that the most learned and modest of the Prelacy though they will grant you a Presbytery in
cura commissa est A Law there was made by Solon that all Assemblies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Solone were unlawful that the highest authority did not cause to meet Among the Heathen Nebuchadnezzar makes a Law Darius a Decree the King of Nineveh sends forth a Proclamation for a Fast for a Religious service which certainly they had never done had it not been received that they were empowred And among the Romans there was no sooner an Emperour but he took upon him potestatem pontificiam In the Acts we read that the City of the Ephesians was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Mr. Selden teacheth us was an Office to take care of the whole worship and Temple of Diana Seld. not in Marmor Arundel Now this could not be done by any warrant from Scripture evident therefore it is that even by the light of nature seen it was that the supreme power is invested with anthority in Religious duties Care they ought to take that God be served as well as the people governed since they have been hitherto taken to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae 2. Thus it was while reason bare the sway But now let us look into the Scripture How is it written in the Law how read you There it was ordained that the King should have a book of the Law written by the Priests and the end was Deut. 17.18 19 20. that he might fear the Lord and keep it And in this Law there be many precepts that concern him as a man many as a Prince for as Austin Rex servit Deo aliter qua homo aliter qua Rex as a man by a holy Conversation as a Prince by making and executing holy constitutions Austin Ep. 50. As he is the Superiour he is there made the Guardian of Gods Law and the whole Law is committed to his charge By vertue of which Commission when the Kingdome and Priesthood were divided Moses the Civil Magistrate made use of his power over Aaron and reproved him for the golden Calf Joshua a Prince no Priest by the same authority circumcised the sonnes of Israel erected an Altar of stone caused the people to put away their strange gods and renewed the Covenant betwixt God and the people And what other Kings did you have heard before These Acts of these famous Kings performed in Ecclesiastical causes shews clearly what power Kings had under Moses Law And one thing more let me put you in mind of that when there was no King in Israel that was a supreme power for it was no more every man did that which was good in his own eyes and that good was extream bad as the story shews 3. Yea but it may be said that thus it was while the Judicials of Moses were in force but why so now Now the Superiours authority is confined to Civil Lawes Now the Kingdome is Christs and he must rule Indeed could we finde in the Gospel any restriction or rather revocation of what power had formerly belonged to Superiours this plea were considerable but since the rule is true that Evangelium non tollit precepta naturae legis sed perficit The Commission once granted to the Superiour by nature and the Moral Law must be good And be it that the Kingdome is Christs and all power in his hands yet this will be no impediment to what I contend for neither That Christ wants no Vicar on earth but as head of his Church doth govern it is a truth beyond exception But this is to be understood of the spiritual internal government not of that which is external because he must be serv'd with the body as well as with the Spirit in an outward forme of worship as well as an inward therefore he hath left superiours to look to that Their power extends not their accompt shall not be given for what is done within for they cannot see nor cannot judge what is done in that dark cell they have nothing to do with the secret affections of the heart with the sacred gifts of the Spirit with the stedfast trust of future things They are only to moderate and direct the outward actions of godlinesse and honesty and what may externally advance Christs Kingdome So that the question is not here of the internal and properly Spiritual but of the external government order and discipline of the Church which when the supreme power administers as it ought it sets up and no way pulls down the Kingdome of Christ These two are then well enough compatible that the Kingdome is Christs and yet the Superiour way make use of his power in Christs Kingdome A Prophesie there was that under the Gospel Kings should be nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers to the Church Isa 49.23 Nourishment then they must give that ordain'd for babes that for men the Word and Sacraments they cannot give no more then Uzziah could burn incense or Saul burn Sacrifice no nor yet ordain any to do it The sustenance then which Christians are to receive from them must be that of external discipline and government Those that gave such food were call'd nursing fathers those that denyed it tyrants and persecutors without the favour and execution of this duty Christian Religion had never been so highly advanc'd and therefore the Apostle ordains that Christians pray for those in authority that we may live a quiet and a peaceable life in all godlinesse 1 Tim. 2. and honesty Godlinesse comprehends all duties of the first Table Honesty all duties of the second and where those who are in authority are careful both will be observed both shall be preserved because they know they have a charge of both Thus you see reason Law and Gospel have given a supremacy to those in power non solum in ijs quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam in ijs quae attinent ad religionem divinam I have enlarg'd my self on this subject beyond my intention least you should split upon that dangerous rock of Jesuitisme while out of a dislike of the British King you make him a violent head of the National Church for what you say of him is as true of all others and what is denyed of him is denyed of all others in that their claim and right is all alike and in case it be not just their violence and usurpation is all alike which to affirm is perfect Jesuitisme And wheresoever this doctrin is turn'd into practice it sets up regnum in regno and if it should be brought into this Common-wealth would reduce again what Henry the eight cast out though under another notion for every Eldership of a Combinational Church would be perfect Papacy absolute independent answerable to none to be guided by none in Church matters punishable by none but themselves to which if you will give a right name it is meere Popish power This is it which Superiours have wisely disclaimed and not admitted themselves like children to be