2. c. 8. Marc. 1.39 Maimonides in Tebilla cap. 11. Sect. 1. and the Synagogues were like our Parish Churches of which there were in Jerusalem alone 480. and out of Jerusalem many Synagogues in Galilee Matth. 4.23 Synagogues at Damascus Acts 9.2 Synagogues at Salamis Acts 13.5 Synagogues at Antioch Acts 13.14 Yea their tradition is that whersoever ten men of Israel were there ought to be built a Synagogue and in these our Saviour preached The Church of Christ which began at Jerusalem and held that profession which had not the countenance and allowance of publick authority could not exercise some duties of Christian Religion but in private onely What they did as Jews they had accesse to the Temple and Synagogues what as Christians they were forced otherwhere to assemble themselves which at first must need be private Rooms and private houses And as God gave encrease to his Church they both there and abroad sought out not the fittest but the safest places And it was not long but they began to erect Oratories denominating these places from the principal part of Gods service Prayer to which how our Lord himself stood affected we may acknowledge by that where he calls his Church his house of prayer and such an one Tremellius findes Acts 16.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tremell in Acts 16.13 And the thirteenth And on the Sabbath day we went out of the City by a River side where prayer was wont to be made the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he reads it ubi conspiciebatur it should be ubi decernebatur domus orationis for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used sometimes not for the action but the house it self In qua te quaero Proseucha Juvenal And then if Tremellius version and note be true we have an early Oratory But be it as it will thus much may easily be granted which I have learned from a great Clerk Selden de decimis yet no great friend of the Church that it cannot be conceived how Christianity should be in any Nation if publickly and generally received much ancienter then Churches or some convenient houses or places in the nature of Churches appointed for the exercise of devotion And therefore in the Apostles time places they had to meet in upon the Lords day perchance at first made of private houses publick dedicated by the owners and accepted and set apart by the Apostles for that use In these publick services was solemnized a woman might not speak 1 Cor. 14.35 In these she was not to be uncovered a man not covered 1 Cor. 11. In these the Eucharist was administred Acts 20. In these the collect for the poor gathered 1 Cor. 16. Other houses they had to eat and drink in and a man that could not make that distinction did despise the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.22 And this place was some noted place otherwise Saint Paul could not have said as he doth 1 Cor. 14.23 If therefore the whole Church be come together into one place and all speak with tongues and there come in one that is unlearned or unbelievers will they not say that you are mad Soon after this we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kirks Dominica set apart to Gods service I mentioned three before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Nitria in Aegypt the Church where Saint John with his Asiatick Bishops kept his Synod That built by Joseph of Arimathea at Glastenbury Theophilus house in Antioch was consecrated into a Church Clem. Recog lib. 10. Dion in Adriano The Centurists confesse Anno 193. that Severus the Emperour allowed the Christians a Church ad pium usum and before him Adrian had done the like I do not say that these were at first sumptuous the poverty of the Church and the envy that thence might be drawn upon Christians would not permit it But at length when it pleased God to raise up Kings and Emperours favouring sincerely the Christian faith that which the Church before either could not or durst not do was with all alacrity performed Basilicae were in all places erected no cost was spared nothing was thought too dear which was that way spent And their bounty this way was to this day spoken of with honour till the Anabaptists first cast in their exceptions against them and you after them shew your displeasure for some certain solemnities usual at the first erection of them At which you aime when you call these Consecrated meeting houses That there may be some Ceremonies blame-worthy in the consecration of them shall be confessed But yet notwithstanding these that they should be the worse for consecration this we deny For what is intended by consecration more then that we make them places of publick resort that we invest God himself with them that we sever them from common uses 1. It behoveth that the place where God is to be served be a publick place For leave but every man alone to serve God in a Parlour and it will never come to be what it was in the Primitive Christians who were all of one heart and one soul Men may conceive as they list but as experience teacheth men will never be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 busily and piously intent about the same thing till they meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same place Division of places will not be long without division of minds which the ten Tribes were jealous of Josh 22. when they questioned their brethren for building their Altar Deut. 16.16 and God prevented by requiring the presence of all the males at that place three times a year that he should choose For by this meeting in a publick place the instillation of heretical and schismatical positions may be prevented But this is not all the razor of sharper tongues may be dulled who have given deep wounds and gashes to the reputation of the best Christians even then when they were forced to serve in Grots and Cells Tertull. Justin Epiph. Euseb and retired places The setting apart then of publick places hath both these benefits to attend it that it prevents heresies and scandals 2. By this the place is delivered from common hands and a surrender made of that right which the Owner of the ground might claim in it till this Ceremony that being once past the possession is severd from the free hold His own it was and he might have kept it now it is a Deodate Gods house not his his for no other purpose but to serve his God The Work-man might draw the line and plummet upon it and make it a house but it is the assignation of it to Religious duties that makes it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords house Good it were that some difference were put betwixt Gods dwelling place and our houses Now consecration is that which sets the note of difference by it there is a dedication and assignation given and livery and seizen taken And that you be not so
their posterity And the Jew strictly so taken need be cast in our teeth no more Thirdly Suppose it were granted that these customes were brought in by a Jewish imitation yet it will not hence follow that they are ere the worse or are therefore to be rejected The objection is old Hook Eccl. pol. lib. 4. Sect. 11. and to it Mr. Hooker hath given a satisfactory answer For the Jewish Ordinances were of two sorts positive or moral The moral were never to be abolished the positive again were such which were not necessary for ever to be retained or such as were left indifferent to be kept or not Sacrifice and circumcision were of the first kind and must necessarily be removed which was done in their due time in these the Christian Gentiles no not at first after the decree Acts 15. must not imitate the Jews But for the second sort such which were of an indifferent nature to be kept or not to be kept of which kinde I will by and by produce many instances the Gentile Christians were no way blameable if they conformed themselves to the Jewish custome Leo Serm. sept de jejun mensis septim which gave Leo occasion thus to begin his Sermon Apostolica institutio dilectissimi quae Jesum Christum Dominum ad hoc venisse in hunc mundum noverat ut legem non solveret sed impleret ita veteris Testamenti decreta distinxit ut quaedam ex iis sicut erant condita Evangelicae eruditioni profutura decerperet quae dudum fuerant consuetudinis Judaicae fierent observantiae Christianae And this very fast of the seventh month then kept may serve for one instance Another shall be that Apostolical decree Acts 15. imposed on the Gentiles that they abstained from meats offered to Idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication Acts 15.29 R. Solomon liber qui Seder Olam inscribitur For the understanding of which decree know we must that among the Jews were two kind of Proselytes the first were called Gertzedek or Proselytae justitiae or foederis for he submitted himself to circumcision and the whole Mosaical Law The second were called Ger-sahagnar Proselytae portae a Proselyte or stranger within thy gates Deut. 14.21 such was Naaman the Eunuch c. He was not circumcised nor bound to observe all the Mosaical Rites Only it was an opinion constantly received among the Jewes that God delivered unto the sonnes of Noah seven precepts which went under the name of Noahs seven Commandements 1. Judgments and punishment for Malefactours 2. Blessing and calling on the Name of God under which was contained the keeping of the Sabbath 3. Disclaiming Idolatry 4. Uncovering of ones nakednesse or all unclean knowledge in the flesh 5. Shedding of blood 6. Robbery and rapine 7. Not to eat of any living creature whereof the blood was not let out Foure of these Commands the Gentiles were apt to observe of their own accord nature leading them thereunto but the other three the Apostles thought good to impose upon them viz the third the fourth and the seventh to give content to the Jewes that the Gentiles being conformable unto them in the observation of these Laws of Noah they might cleave the better together Dare any man now say the Apostles were too blame to bring the Gentiles to a Jewish imitation what should I tell you that all the East Church and we in this Island did celebrate the Feast of Easter upon the fourteenth day of the first moneth upon what day of the week soever it fell untill Constantines time and was not this a Jewish imitation for which indeed Pope Victor condemned excommunicated the Eastern Churches and all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he himself for this presumption and rashnesse is condemned and censured by Irenaeus That the Christians at first kept the Jewish Sabbath as well as the Lords day That the West Church celebrated the Eucharist in unleavened bread is a known truth to all that are acquainted with antiquity and what were these but Jewish Rites and whence could they learn them but from the Jewish Synagogue and yet I never read any condemnation of the Primitive Church for these Whence had they their osculum pacis whence then Agâ—pae but from the Jewes From hence then two conclusions there are which may be evidently drawn The one that whatsoever positive Laws the Apostles or their Successours did bring in between the Churches of Jewes and Gentiles it was in those things onely which might either cease or continue a shorter or a longer time as occasion did most require The other that things indifferent though brought in by the pattern of the Jewish Synagogue yet are not to be condemned and cast out upon this ground because they are of a Jewish imitation If these instances be not sufficient I yet shall adde more that may convince any man who will not be obstinate It is an ordinary observation which P. Fagius in his notes on the Targum first suggested to me and after him Dr. Godwin Fagius in praeced Hebr. Godwin antiq lib. 3. cap. 2. Hamm. vind Liturg. Sect. 43. Cass Liturg. pag. 1. Gen. 48.14 Godw. ant lib. 1. cap. 3. and Dr. Hammond and George Cassander assert that many of the Jewish Ceremonies were imitated by Christ himself under the Gospel I might shew it you in the imposition of hands a forme of benediction among the Jewes as ancient as old Jacob in blessing Manasseâ— and Ephraim and as often used by Christ to the same purpose But I rather choose to do it in the two Sacraments and in the censures of the Church To the making of a Proselyte one of the three Ceremonies required as purification by water which yet was not Sacramental till Christs institution now the Baptisme by water commanded by our Saviour related to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or washing of Proselytes which was used by the Jews at their admission or initiation After the Jewish Feasts they had a Postcaenlum of which Cassander at large thus discourses Primum omnium Judaeus Paterfamilias cum fuis convivis mensae accumbit Cass Liturg. cap. 1. pâ—culum vino plenum dextra manu tenens Precatur in haec verba Benedictus sis tu Domine Deus noster Rex mundi qui creas fructum viâ—is Quo dicto primus omnium vinum degustaâ— quod idem continuo onnibus mensae accumbenibus bibendum porâ—igit Postea panem quem intâ—gram esse massam oportet accipit eumque utraque manu tenendo his verbis consecrat Benedictus sis tu Domine Deus noster qui educis panem de terrâ Hoc dicto pan m frangit ex eo particulam comedit ac singulis mensae accumbentibus singulas buccellas distribuit Hinc consâ—quenter prolixam dicit precem qua in prece gratiâ—ram actiones non solum pro concesso omnibus alimento sed pro omnibus beneficiis olim patribus
whole Gospel In a word the condition required of us is faith hope charity self-denial repentance a careful and industrious husbanding of Gods grace daily prayer for daily encrease and attending diligently to the means of grace To strengthen the faith of Abraham and his seed in the assurance of what was promised and for a memorial of what was to be performed it pleased God to have a seal set in his flesh and in the flesh of his seed for that time which was circumcision To this seal all the males of the Jews had a right and this seal was cut into them yea and as many Proselytes also who were content to become proselytae foederis Proselytes of the Covenant The other whom they call'd the Proselytes of their gates they entred them into the Covenant and bound them to the observation of the seven Commandments of Noah by a kinde of purification by water and the blood of oblation in the same kinde as they admitted their women The Covenant is the self-same under the Gospel that then God made with Abraham on the same conditions of the same extent only it hath another seal theirs was circumcision and ours baptisme the cutting of the flesh gave entrance to them the washing by water gives an entrance and admission to us And about this the question is whether it be to be with-held from the children of any who bear the name of Christians And it is observable how this question fiâ—st grew and what progresse it had At first some good-minded men set it on foot being occasioned by the children of professed Pahists living among them whom they conceived to be Idolatrous and consequently out of Covenant this caused Farel to write to Calvin about it Calvin Ep. 149. whose answer to him is this but not sound Where both the parents are Popish we think it an absurd thing for us to baptize them which are not members of our body and sith Papists children are such we see not how it should be lawful for us to administer Baptisme unto them But sounder by much is that answer of the Ecclesiastical Colledge of Geneva unto Knox who scrupled at the same and grew more rigid and wrote to them that he held it not only unlawful to baptize the children of Idolaters but even Bastards Ep. 283. and excommunicate persons till reconciled to the Church To whom they returned this sentence that wheresoever the profession of Christianity hath not utterly perished and been extinct Ep. 285. infants are beguiled of their right if the common seal be denied them which conclusion as I will by and by prove is sound But I go on for the mistake staid not here for when it came to Mr. Cartwright Anvil he beat it broader for he asserted that none might receive the Sacrament of Baptisme but they whose Parents at least the one of them are by the soundnesse of their Religion and by their vertuous demeanours known to be men of God Hook lib. 5. pag. 155. and by this rule the children of those they called Hereticks Misbelievers and Profane livers also came to be excluded Next the Brownist took it up and conveyed it over to you of the Combinational Church both imparting Baptisme to very few infants Burtons vindication pag. 62. viz. to those alone whose immediate Parents are members of their Congregation Out of you arise the Anabaptists and they peremptorily deny the Baptisme of all infants born to the members of the Combination or to any other till they are able to give an accompt of their faith and enter into a Church Covenant for themselves At last the Shaker comes upon the Stage and gives out of his Cup of trembling a vomit to all Ordinances these are outward Rites Baptisme the Eucharist needlesse seals to any old or young since he and his company are inwardly sealed by the Spirit This was the stratageme of that old Serpent for had he presented this bewitching position to the world at fiâ—st in the last ugly shape it now appears he knew that all men would have with honour heard it therefore he insinuated it and caused it to be taken down by certain gulps steps and degrees that the potion might be swallowed and the poyson not at all perceived Now this errour that I call it no worse in some hath been nourished in that they have not fully weighed the purport of this distinction of the mystical and visible body of Christ This is but one and we usually call it the Church which contains in it two sorts of people either outward Professours or true inward believers These last belong to the mystical body of Christ which therefore is called mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is altogether removed from sense in these their love is sound and sincere and comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned and they no doubt do and shall obtain whatsoever was made over by the second Covenant Those outward professours who either before Christs coming or since his appearing in the flesh have been called by the name of Christians we call the visible body because being Jews or Gentiles they are incorporated into one body have but one Lord whose servants they professe themselves to be have one faith which they all acknowledge one Baptisme by which they are all initiated For although we know the Christian Faith and allow it we are then but entring entred we are not into this visible Church till our admittance by the dore of Baptisme and who they are that enter that way is very well known even to the eye whence we usually call these the visible Church which is not so to be understood as if those of the invisible Church were not visible Christians also For both moleties whether mystical or visible as touching their profession are the object of the eye easie it is for any man to say this man is a Christian that man a Heathen But this distinction ariseth from the sincerity or unsincerity of the professours because we are never able to see and discern who they are that sincerely professe the Truth therefore we call these invisible but because we are easily able to judge of the men who enter by Baptisme therefore the whole is called a visible Church In whomsoever therefore is found the profession of one Lord one Faith one Baptisme those the Church doth acknowledge for her children and all those none of hers in whom they are not found as Jews Turks Heathens c. Others for their external profession are Christians and are of the visible Church of Christ And among these there are some who professe the Truth but not wholly and entirely and these are Hereticks some that professe the whole saving Truth but not in unity and these are Schismaticks some that professe the whole saving Truth in unity but not in sincerity and sanctity and these are hypocrites and profane persons others that professe the whole saving Truth in unity
AN APOLOGY FOR THE Discipline OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH Intended especially for that of our MOTHER THE CHVRCH of ENGLAND In answer to the Admonitory Letter Lately published 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. Ephraim feeds on winde Hosea 12.1 By William Nicolson Archdeacon of Brecon LONDON Printed for Willim Leake at the Crown in Fleet-street betwixt the two Temple-gates 1659. THE COPY OF A LETTER Written by a Divine A Friend of the AUTHOUR SIR I Thank you for the favour you did me in imparting those papers to me composed by our learned friend in defence of the Ecclesiastical Government under which the Church of God hath liv'd ever since it was establish'd by the Preachings Apostolical I see and love his zeale and honour his learning but am most pleased with his method and order of argument for having prosperously defended and illustrated the Doctrine of the Church of England in his material and grave discourses upon the Church Catechism he does to very good purposes proceed to defend her Government that as it already appears that her Doctrine is Catholike so it may be demonstrated that the Government of the Church of England is no other than that of the Catholike Apostolike Church she by the same way being truly Christian and a Society of Christians by which all Christendome were put into life and society that is became collective and united bodies or Churches And indeed they are both of them very weighty and material considerations For more things are necessary to the being of a Church than to the being Christian First the Apostles preached Jesus Christ and him crucified and every day winning souls to Christ did adopt them into his Body and joyned them to that Head and there they had life and nourishment But until their multitudes were much encreased they were no Body Politick they were so many single persons till the Apostles according to their places of abode gathered them under one Pastor and they grew into Communion and were fastned to one another by the Masters of Assemblies This Government with the alteration onely of some unconcerning circumstances hath continued in the Church of God and the Church of England was baptized by it at the same time it was baptized into the faith of Christ onely of late some endeavours have been to rifle this Government and to dissolve her being a body Politick and almost reduc'd her onely to the being Christian which because it seemed also to be in some danger Being and Unity having so near relation to each other I suppose it very advisedly done of him first to do what he thought fit for the securing the Doctrine and then by the method Apostolical proceeding to the immuring of that Doctrine by the walls and towers of Government and I finde he hath done it well His arguments are grave and close not florid but pressing his observations choice his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and little by-discourses pleasant and full of instructions his refutation sharp and true his returnes pertinent and nothing trifling but his adversarie who because he speaks but weak things ministers not occasions worthy enough for this learned man to do his best But he hath made supply I perceive and by taking little occasions by the hand he hath advanced them to opportunities of handsome discoursings and to my sence hath to better more full and excellent purposes than any man before him confuted the new fashion of Congregational and gathered Churches which must now needs appear to be nothing but a drawing Schisme into Countenance and Method and giving a warranty to partialities it is a direct crumbling of the Church into minuits and little principles of being just as if the world were dissolved into Democritus his dreame of Atomes and minima naturalia Every man loves Government well-enough but few of the meaner sort love their Governours especially if they think themselves wise enough to governe for then they are too wise to be governed Now this Independant or Congregational way seemes to me the finest compendium of humouring and pleasing all those little fellowes that love not that endure not to be subject to their betters for by this meanes a little Kingdome and a royal Priesthood is provided for every one of them a Kingdom of Yvetot and some had rather be chief but in a garden of Cucumers and govern but ten or twenty absolutely so they do than be the fifth or the twentieth man in a Classis or inconsiderable under the Apostolical and long-experienced government by those Superiours which Christ by himself and by his Spirit and by his blessing and by his providence and by the favour of Princes hath made firme as heaven and earth never to be dissolved until the Divine Fabrick of the house of God it self be shaken I pray give my service to the good Man and I do heartily thank him for my share of the book by which I have already had some pleasure and some profit and hope for more when my little affairs will give me leave strictly to peruse every unobserved page in it When I onely heard of it I was confident he would do it very well and now I see it is so very well done and in that grave judicious manner if you had not told me I should have been confident it had been his Vox hominem sonat I pray God that he may finde encouragement according to the mertt of his labours and acceptance according to his good intentions and that his book may not receive its estimate according to the cheap and vast numbers of others but according to its own weight The strength that was put to this would have resisted a stronger adversary but it could not readily have supported a worthyer cause and because I beleeve it was done with as much charity as learning I hope it will have the blessings of God and of the Church and the peace of all good men I onely have this to adde further I wish that this worthy man would enter into no more warre but against the open enemies of mankinde that he would dispute for nothing but for the known Religion of Jesus Christ that he would contend for no interests but the known concernments of the Spirit in the matter of good life which is the life of Religion and my reason is not onely because I finde that he calls his adversary Brother and it is not so good that Brethren should contend but because men are wearied with disputes and the errors of this or any age after the first batteries and onsets by the Church are commonly best confuted by the plaine teaching of positive truths and the good lives and the wise governments of our Superiours and after all I believe that though he does manage this contest prudently and modestly yet the spiritual warre against direct impiety he would manage much more dexterously and prosperously and for his auxiliaries he would be more confident of the direct and proper aides of the Spirit of God This
thereof was Domestical because every father was to teach his houshold and off-spring yet the government thereof was Paternal He that was set over the rest being to be a father to the rest and to performe all Natural Civil and Ecclesiastical offices to them and they again to do all duties to him by which they are bound by the fifth Command Honour thy father 2. Your next words are that this Domestical Church was guided and governed by the first-borne of the family But this must be understood with a graine of salt for this though for the most part yet is not alwayes true for what will you say to Abel who was younger then Cain to Sem younger brother to Japheth as Junius intimates in his notes Gen. 5.32 and proves chap. 10. verse 21. which is therefore thus dubiously rendered by our Translatours Unto Shem also the father of all the children of Eber the brother of Japheth the elder even to him were children borne What will you say to Jacob to Ruben when his primogeniture was lost Necessary then it is that you limit your words that they carry this sense God did consecrate the first-borne of the family as holy to himself to be Priest in his Church and increased their dignity with this princely prerogative that they should be Lords over their brethren and honoured by their mothers children as succeeding their fathers in the government and priesthood unlesse they were rejected from that honour by Gods secret counsels or manifest judgements and others named by God himself to sustaine that charge Thus the clause is clear and true 3. Againe you say that these were types and shadowes of Christ Jesus in the several houses of professing Saints What then is every professing Saint a King a Priest a Prophet in his own house This I dare not assent to and I hope you will not there were no more words to be made of a Presbyterial Church if this were true for every man might officiate at home and need not subject himself to any Presbytery he might baptize administer the Sacrament c. being authoriz'd by this Type I should rather then say that these were types and shadowes of Christ Jesus who is the King Priest and Prophet in his Church and yet executes all these offices for her good and salvation then make them types of professors in their several houses who nor may nor can ex officio undertake these functions It follows 4. As doth plainly appear to all that do deliberately weigh what is expressed and what is necessarily implyed in Gen. 4.4 Exod. 12.7 These texts I have deliberately weighed and finde not in them neither expressed nor yet necessarily implyed what you produce them for In Gen. 4.4 I reade that Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering but can any man either expressely or by necessary implication ever prove from hence that the first visible Church was a domestical Church or that it was governed by the first-borne of the family that they were types and shadows of Christ Jesus in the several houses of professing Saints Or that this Church did continue from Adam and Abels dayes to the time of Moses and Aarons pilgrimage in the wildernesse That Abel sacrificed to God that the offering he brought was of the best that God respects loves and is reconciled to the person before he accepts his gift and service may easily be collected from hence But I cannot discerne which way to deduce from this text any of the former propositions This text you compare with Exod. 12.7 When I thus reade and they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eate it An injunction I finde here concerning the use of the blood of the Paschal Lamb but not a syllable that can be drawne to your purpose But the best is that what you say for the substance is so clear in the book of Genesis that no man need question it Let the mistake be but notified and we agree and therefore I proceed SECT IV. The words of the Letter THe Chuch of the second sort was a National Church consisting meerly of Jewish persons and their Proselytes for its members who were instrumentally enlightned and led by the Priests and Levites as their ordinary Ministers the which kinde of Church-government lasted among them from the life of Moses to the death of the Messias and no longer as it is exceeding plaine and cleare to any one that can finde in his heart advisedly to compare the several testimonies of the Old and New Testament together which will contribute pregnant light to this particular point such as are Exod. 19.6 Num. 8.10 Deut. 7.7 with Gal. 4 9 10. Coloss 2.14.17 and Heb. 7.12 The Replication THe substance of this Paragraph is agreed on also To wit that the Jews with the Proselytes were a National Church taught and led ordinarily by the Priests and Levites extraordinarily by the Prophets and when they ceased and the Urim and Thummim God spoke sometimes to us so by the Bath Col or silia vocis And that kinde of government began with Moses and ended at the death of the Messias or a little after as I hinted before and rather encline to think For I am sure actually till then it did not howsoever it ought to have done Christs death upon the Crosse putting an end to all the rites and sacrifices of the Ceremonial Law Many things I could here observe about their Proselytes their Priests and Levites their whole government which yet I passe by as not so necessary to the present question One thing onely give me leave to tell you that some of these texts are not so conclusive to your purpose as you conceive For first out of that of Exodus that the Jews were a holy Nation and people will easily be deduced and as much may be said of the Christians is as evident if you compare the place with the first of Peter 2.9 for to this place of Exodus I make no doubt the Apostle alludes when he affirmes of the Christian Church that it is a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar priesthood c. I would gladly know why I may not out of these words as well conclude a National Church of Christians as you do out of the other a National Church of Jews and Proselytes And then your National Church will not be proper to the Jewish State but communicable to the State of Christianity also 2. Out of Heb. 7.12 you conclude rightly that the Priesthood being chang'd there must be a change of the Law that the Ceremonial Law of Moses was quite abolished no more sacrifices to be offered legal purifications to be observ'd no nor dayes moneths times years in a Jewish sense to be kept up Gal. 4.9 10. In a Jewish sense I say for this
5. That these Presbyters teaching and ruling Elders must be of the professing members own voluntary Election and regular Ordination 6. That their Office-extent reacheth from Christs ascension to the Creations dissolution This is granted in a right sense 7. And for all this you bring your proofs out of the Scripture Acts 6.5 Acts 14.23 c. This is the Analysis of the whole and I descend to examine it by the parts and shall open the Scriptures as I conceive they referre to the proposition Proposition 1. That the Church of the last and longest constitution was a Presbyterial or Combinational Church THat the Church you meane viz. the Church of Christ is to be last is easily granted but whether to be the longest or no is more than you or I or any man else can tell But to let this passe Hic opus est Oedipo for I conceive not well the sense of your proposition because you phrase it Presbyterial or Combinational since these two by the contending parties are made Disparata and then must really differ I know not therefore what to make of this Or whether it be here a Divisive or an Explanative particle If you make it Divisive then it seemes not to agree with your following words for you know that those of the Presbyterial Church though they will allow your professing members liberty to elect yet they stoutly and with open mouth decry their power to Ordaine and you allow the Church you speak of to do both If you make Or Expositive then it can but onely declare the sense of the former word Presbyterial and will be farre from your intent which is if I mistake not that all the professing members of a Church be combined in a Church Covenant which you know the Presbyterial Church will never admit For although Presbyters can be content to be in their own sense Covenanters yet they abominate to be in a Church-Combination and again though the Church combiners will joyne in a Church Covenant yet they will not yield to be Presbyterial Covenanters These Disparata then are not hansomely coupled in this place neither can I guesse at any other intent you have in it except it be to Umpire betwixt the two parties by finding out a Church that should be both Presbyterial and Combinational which hitherto the heat of zeale would never suffer the learnedest of both sides to do For the Presbyterians condemne your Combination by a Church Covenant as a Chimera a fancy a novelty a meere humane invention contrary to Christs Ordinance and destructive of all Church power And the Combiners on the other side judge as harshly of the Presbyterian Elderships in the whole reformed Churches as of the Prelacy nay and worse too if Bastwicks words be true which he hath in the Postscript of his second part page 6. viz. The Presbyterial government not suiting with the humour of the Independents they abhorre it and all such as endeavour to establish it and wish rather that the old trumpery were brought in again and professe they had rather have the government of Prelates That which follows I forbear that I offend not Thus Bastwick which if true 't is not possible that a Presbyterial and a Combinational Church should be all one as you seeme to make it And therefore you must forgo one of the termes and make it onely Presbyterial or onely Combinational if you will speak intelligibly in this question But I shall make the best sense I can of your words and in order speak to them both And first of the Presbyterial Church which you call also Combinational upon what ground I know not for I meet with neither of these Epithets fixed to the Church of Christ in the Scriptures nor in any antiquity The first of these is new and and the second naught for I never read of a Combination in a good sense Why can we not speak as good Christians have done before us and call it the Christian Catholick and Apostolical Church but must please our fancies with these new termes of Presbyterial or Combinational Act. 20.28 c. Col. 1.24 and 13. Act. 11.26 Ephes 2.20 I often read in the Scriptures of the Church of God and that this Church is the Body of Christ the kingdom of Christ to whom because it was united by faith it was called Christian And that this Church was built upon the foundation of the Prophets Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Whence it was called Apostolike And again that this Church is Totum integrale Ames medulla lib. 1. c. 31. Sect 19. of which the parts quae totum integrant are all several and particular Churches diffused in all Nations in all places at all times whence it was called Catholick But of a Presbyterial or Combinational Church I hear not Good Sir consider how harsh it sounds to stile Christs Church the Presbyters Church and the number of the Professors that are united by faith to Christ to be combined in I know not what But now I shall take into consideration these termes severally and first I will begin with the last 1. A Combinational Church The first Author whom I meet with it is Amesius and he defines it to be Parochialis vel unius congregationis cujus membra inter se Combinantur lib. 1. c. 39. Sect 22. cap. 2. Sect. 4. there 's your word ordinarie conveniant in uno loco ad publicum religionis exercitium This your Synod at Cambridge in New England chose rather to call Congregational for the word Independent they like not though I see no cause of dislike if the particular Congregations must not depend one of another but remaine in full liberty as Ames delivers in the same chapter Sect. 20. 26 27. And thus you there define this Congregational Church to be a company of Saints by calling united into one body by a holy Covenant for the publick worship of God But I pray you tell me what needs this combination by a second Covenant would not the first in Baptisme have served if heeded and kept to have done all this and it seemed it did by the very text your Synod produces to prove it Acts 2.42 For the Penitents and beleevers pricked to the heart by Peters sermon gladly received the word and were baptized and continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer c. where we read of their Baptisme and continuance in Church-fellowship and in the duty of that fellowship but that this is done by a combination a confederation or holy Covenant a Vow other than that made in their Baptisme we read not 2. And indeed it needs not for what is it that Professors can binde themselves unto by Covenant when they are admitted into the Congregation that they have not in their Baptisme bound themselves to before Whether you shall consider the Mystery the Form or the end 1. In Baptisme for the
place to the Romans are five different from these ministring exhorting teaching giving shewing mercy In all sixteen I hope you will not say there must be so many distinct Offices and functions in the Church For so it may happen that the offices may exceed the number of the officers and so every one must have more than two of them Robinsons Justif p. 107. p. 111. three at least or else the Church shall nor be supplied For put case that Robinsons words be true that a company consisting though but of two or three gathered by a Covenant made to walk in the wayes of God known unto them is a Church and so hath the whole power of Christ Answer to the 32. Quest p. 43 even the same right with two or three thousand Generally you know it is received among you that seven will make a full and perfect Congregation and that the association of these few thus separate by a Covenant is the essential forme of the Church Which if true then is it not possible to find so many distinct functions in the Church because in so small a number there cannot be found men for them Let it be then granted that the Apostle in this chapter speaks of diversities of gifts not of functions and the sense will be clear Apostles there were then in the Church and they had all these gifts in a greater measure than any other Prophets there were and Teachers and to these the Spirit divided the gifts as he pleased in what measure and to what persons he best liked to one to work miracles to another to heale to help and comfort to guide and governe to speak tongues to interpret tongues as might best serve to gather the Saints to plant the Church I must professe unto you that I have both now and heretofore looked into this text with as quick an eye as my weaknesse would give leave and could never yet finde it in any thing that made for your Ruling Elders No you perhaps will say do you not finde here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 governments Yes I do but will it thence follow that it must upon necessity be the government of the Lay-Ruling-Elders you dreame of Why might not the Apostles the Prophets the Teachers here mentioned by the Apostle be those Governours here intended for ought you know Of them the other gifts were verified and why not then this also They could work miracles they could heale they could help and comfort they could speak all languages and interpret tongues what should now hinder but they might by the same Spirit be endowed with the gift of government also Which if it fall out to be true as it indeed did yet the Apostles either by themselves or by those they placed in the Churches which they planted who were Bishops and onely Bishops exercised the jurisdiction you shall never be able to conclude out of this or any other place of Scripture that the Governours of the Churches were a distinct company from the Pastours which is I know that you drive at But to gratifie you a little I shall here willingly yield you more than I need That in the Apostolical Church and after till Constantines time there might be certain men chosen by common consent of the Church to judge of all civil debates that might arise betwixt man and man you perhaps would call these Governours I should rather call them Arbitratours because they had no coactive power to compel any Christian to stand to their Arbitration farther than they would binde themselves And in case that any were refractory and obstinate the Pastour might and did make use of the Church-Key and debarre him from the participation of Christian priviledges so that he was by them esteemed no better than a Heathen or Publican 1 Cor. 6.1 c. And now I will shew you the ground of my conjecture 't is out of Saint Pauls words Dare any of you having an action against another a Christian he means go to Law before the unjust and not before the Saints Paul did not debarre the Magistrates that were Infidels of their jurisdiction nor create new Judges or Governours for civil offences in the Church it was beyond his calling and commission to do either of them but when he perceived the Christians for private quarrels pursued each other before unbelievers to the great shame and scandal of Christian profession he saith Ver. 7. they were better to suffer losse to take wrong to be defrauded Ver. 4.5 But if this would not satisfie if yet there were who would be contentious then he wills them to choose if not the wisest yet the lest esteemed among them in the Church to arbitrate their causes rather than to expose themselves and their profession to the mocks and taunts of Heathen and Profane Judges These Arbitratours you may call Governours if you please but properly they were not so because they were chosen either by consent of the Litigants or else appointed as I am induc'd to opine by the choice of the Church for that purpose but they could not interpose themselves as Judges authoriz'd by Christ because he himself as Mediatour claimed no such power would use none Luke 12.24 You know his answer to the brother that moved him to divide the inheritance Man who made me a Judge or Divider among you Now grant that all this be true and that such Governours began betime and continued long in the Church even untill the Conversion of the Heathen Emperours Can you hence conclude that they must upon necessity continue still no such matter For the Civil power and the Sword is in the Magistrates hand and he is to take up all debates betwixt man and man of these then there is no use From these then to argue that there must be Lay Ruling Elders in the Church is a fallacy since the causes they were to dcide were other and their Authority by Church-right none at all A d such 't is probable may be found in the Scriptures and in the Church-story but never any other Ruling Elders invested with the power of the Keys except in Orders I have been long upon this place to the Corinths but it was because I would leave no scruple unsatisfied That I be not tedious of it I will adde no more but consider your next proof which you bring out of the Epistle to the Ephesians Ephesians Chap. 4. Verse 7. and Verse 14. Ver. 7. But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ver. 14. That we henceforth be no more children tossed too and fro and carried about with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lie in wait to deceive Now here I must confesse it befel me which happens to them who search for gold-ore in the vaults of the earth they open the turfe dig delve labour long to effect their desire but at last
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
they became a man of a Homogeneous and Inorganical an heterogeneous and organical body At first they were but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power and authority in themselves for why else did they all this And if this be not an act of Democracy I must professe I understand not the name nor definition of the word I shall take it kindly that any man will informe my ignorance Yea but it may be said that now in organizato corpore this Democracy is at an end for now it is a well shaped creature it hath a head it hath eyes it hath hands and all other parts in a goodly symmetry though I could ask what kind of Church was that of Mr. Canns at Amsterdam which for a time had no Pastour that liv'd a long time without Officers or Eldership yet I spare you Not so neither Answer to the thirty two Questions pag. 48. pag. 44. for the people for ought I can see as they had authority in actu primo to elect and ordain so they have authority in actu secundo to depose and excommunicate their Pastour and Elders and so to reduce themselves to what they were in puris naturalibus from an heterogeneous body to make themselves homogeneous from an organiz'd body to make themselves inorganiz'd and either to remain so if they please or to choose again And for ought I conceive Cottons Keyes Mr. Cotton intends no other by his new-coyned and applauded distinction of power and authority and power of liberty for whatever authority he gives to the Eldership he makes it vain and frustaneous without the consent of the people and notwithstanding all the obedience and subjection he puts upon the people yet he gives to them such a power of liberty that their concurrence with the Eldership in every act of power is not onely necessary but authoritativè In a word if the people have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority of institution and destitution as your parties say if you should tell me a thousand times over I shall never beleeve otherwise but your Combinational Church is governed by a Democracy I hope I have proved sufficiently what I undertook and now I returne to my purpose for I leave the destructive part and come to build And here I shall lay that in the foundation which none but Papists for ought I perceive will deny That our Saviour Christ left the Church Militant in the hands of the Apostles and their Successours and an Aristocratical government which I shall illustrate unto you by an induction of particulars 1. The first constitute Christian Church we read of in the world Isa 2.3 was that of Jerusalem for the Law was to come out of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem There the Apostles and Disciples first preached so that Eve was not more properly term'd the Mother of all living then this Church by Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret. the Mother of all believing Churches From thence the Apostle being to depart for that they might execute our Saviors command to preach unto all Nations left the government of that Church unto James the brother of our Lord not the Apostle and ordained him then the first Bishop Euseb lib. 2.1 l. 1.19 Jerom Hegesip Ambr. Euseb 3.11 Hegesip 4.22 Jerom. in Isa 3. Ambr. in 1 Tim. Ignat. ad Trall Acts 21.18 Acts 15. Et post Martyrium Jacobi traditur saith Eusebius Apostolos commune concilium habuisse quem oporteret dignum successione Jacobi judicari omnesque uno concilio uno consensu Simeonem Cleophae filium decrevisse ut Episcopatus sedem susciperet And if I list I could give you in the Catalogue of the succeeding Bishops for the first six hundred years To him I doubt not but there was joyn'd a Presbytery which Jerome calls Senatus Ecclesiae some Collegium Presbyterorum Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he thus describes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were those Elders present with James their Bishop to whom Saint Paul went in And if I shall name Judas and Silas for two of them I am partly assured that I am not mistaken because the Decree made by the Synod at Hierusalem was sent by them The government here then was Aristocratical 2. Acts 11.22 26 27 28. cap. 13.1 Origen in Luc. Hom. 6. Euseb 3. cap. 35 Ignat. ad Antiochen The next instance I shall give you for a constitute Church is at Antioch And in this City being the Metropolis of Syria Barnabas Paul and other Prophets and Teachers Simeon Lucius Manâ—en were sound and hither also Peter came Gal. 2.11 Of this Church Origen Jerome and Ignatius who best knew it for he conversed with the Apostles Socrat. lib. 6. cap. 8. make Saint Peter the first Bishop that Evodius succeeded is the testimony of Ignatius He saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignatius was the next himself from whom I can give you a clear succession to the terme I mention'd And those I mentioned Barnabas Simeon Lucius c. I shall not doubt to call the Presbytery of which almost in every Epistle Ignatius makes expresse mention as Counsellours Assistants and Co-assessours of the Bishop At Antioch then was an Aristocracy also 3. At Ephesus we meet again with a constituted Church where Timothy was made Bishop by Saint Paul The subscription of the second Epistle shews that he was the first Bishop there Euseb lib. 3. c. 4. and Eusebius who saw the Records of the Primitive Church affirmes the same That he was ordained by Saint Paul by the hands of the Presbytery Calvin conceives is beyond question Now if it be demandâ—d when Timothy was made Bishop it is most probable when Paul was at Miletum When the Apostles departed from any Church which they had planted in that then they appointed a Bishop For while they remain'd in or near the place there was no such need the Apostles supplying the wants of those Churches with their presence letters or messengers as the cause required But when they were finally to forgo those parts then they began to provide for the necessity and security of that Church by setling Episcopal power which in all probability was the reason that they so soon provided a Bishop for the Church of Jerusalem Saint Paul at this time was to take his leave of the Churches at Asia he saith it plainly in that Chapter Acts 20.25 that they should see his face no more most probable then it is that at this time he left Timothy to supply his place of Ephesus yea and that the six other Angels of the Churches were then by him ordain'd Think of these seven Angels of the Churches what you please I shall not doubt to esteem them single persons and Bishops and that upon stronger evidence then any can be brought to the contrary But that 's no discourse for this place I suppose
and from hence it was borrowed and brought into the Church that the chief of the Capitulum should be called Decan which I think is Arch-Presbyter 3. I come now to your other two dislik'd Appellations Chancellours and Surrogates That the Bishop was at first the chief Judge in his Church I have before proved and then no dought he might appoint his subordinate Officials This being a confessed rule in the Law that when any cause is committed to any man he is also conceived to receive full authority in all matters belonging to that cause When the Emperours became Christian they judged it equal and pious to reserve some causes to be tried in the Christian Court in which they constituted the Bishop to be the Judge These causes were properly called Ecclesiastical such as were Blasphemy Apostacy Heresies Schismes Orders Admissions institution of Clerks Cooks Reports fol. 8. Rites of Matrimony Probates of Wills Divorces and such like To give audience to these the Bishop otherwise imployed could not alway be present and yet there was no reason that for his absence justice should not take its course And in some of these had he been present great skill in Civil Lawes is requisite that they be ended aright This gave occasion to the Bishop to appoint his Chancellour and Surrogate A Chancellour who had his name à Cancellis within which he was to sit a man brought up in the Civil Lawes and therefore fit to decide such causes that did depend upon those Lawes who being at first a meere Lay-man and therefore having no power of Exommunication therefore the Bishop thought fit to adjoyne a Surrogate to him that in case that high censure were to be passed this man being in Orders and therefore invested with power actu primo and by Commission with the Bishops power actu secundo sub Episcopo rogatus being demanded and an Officer under the Bishop Actu primo might pronounce the Sentence This was the original of their names and power Now prudential necessity first instituted them and prudence where Episcopal power is of force continues them If a Superiour shall be pleased to revoke some of these causes which were by him made of Ecclesiastical cognizance and cause the litigants to take their trial at Common or Civil Law Vide the book of Order of Excommunication in Scotl. Hist of Scot Amon 2. pag. 46. then in the Church I confesse there will be no use of the Chancellour And if the rest shall be tried by the Bishop and his Presbytery as they were at first neither will there need much a Surrogate But now if that rule of the Presbytery should prove to be true who do challenge cognisance of all causes whatsoever which are sins directly or by reduction then they have power if not to nullifie yet to give liberty to play all Courts and Judicatories besides their own and must bring in thither Sollicitours Atturneys Counsellours Procters c. which will be as un-Scripture-like names as Chancellours and Surrogates Cinod de off Eccl. Joannes Epis Citri in respon ad cabasil Naz. Testam 4. The fourth Appellation that offends you is the Arch-Deacon who was a very ancient officer in the Church and of great esteeme in the Greek Church Neither was he chosen to that place by the Patriarch but came to it by seniority the name then gave him no power but onely this prerogative to be chief of the Deacons of the Church as if you would say of the eldest standing In the Church of England he was more than a Deacon for he was a Presbyter and his office was to be present at all ordinations to enquire into the life the manners the abilities and sufficiency of him who was to be ordained and either to reject him if he saw occasion or to present him to the Bishop to be ordained to induct into any Benefice that man who was instituted by the Bishop to have the care of the houses of God were kept decent and in good repair lastly to take account of all who had to do with the poors money And this last was it which gave him the name of the chief Deacon Ambr. lib. 1. de off c. 41. Prudentius for when the charity of the Church was great and ample gifts were bestowed to the relief of the poorer Christians the Church stock was ample as appears by Lawrence the Martyr who was Deacon to Sixtus Bishop of Rome martyred under Valerian This being committed to the Deacons care that no fraud might be committed as it hapned too oft in money-matters the Church thought fit to set one of the Deacons over the rest who might call them to account as ours were to do the Church-wardens and Overseers of the poor to whom they gave the name of the Arch-Deacon Now speak impartially what harme was in all this What that may offend you Deacon cannot and Arch should not since you know it signifies no more but chief or prime as in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patriarch And that you may carry some affection or at least not a loathing to it I pray call to memory that a worthy Martyr of our Church John Philpot adjudged to the fire and burnt in Queen Maryes dayes Fox Martyrol An. 1553. primo Mariae resigned up his soul in the flames being then Arch-Deacon of Winchester And that with him Master Cheiny and Master Elmour that refused to subscribe to the doctrine of Transubstantiation in the Convocation-house were both Arch-Deacons 5. But now I return back again to that Appellation Lord-Bishop at which so many have stumbled and been scandalized that others before you have done it I have reason to attribute to envie an evil eye but in you I shal onely impute it to inconsideration Gen. 24. 1 Kings 18. 2 Kings 2. 2 Kings 4. 2 Kings 8. For you are mighty in the Scriptures and therefore might have known that the Hebrew Adoni or the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Latine Dominus which in the Spanish is Don in the French Sciur in English Sir is onely a name of civility courtesie respect reverence By this Rebecca calls Abrahams servant Drink my Lord. By this Obadiah the Prophet Art thou my Lord Elijah By this the children of the Prophets the inhabitants of Hiericho the Sunamite and Hazael the Prophet Elisha By this Mary the Gardner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord or Sir if thou have taken him hence with this civil respect the Greeks accost Philip John 20.15 John 12.21 1 Pet. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir we would see Jesus In all which places the word imports onely a courteous and respectful compellation And St. Peter commends the woman that shall with this name endear her husband proposing the example of Sarah that obeyed Abraham and call'd him Lord. To a Bishop double honour respect reverence is due for he is comprised under the name of father in the Commandment and whom we
consist of heterogeneous parts and so doth yours which if it should marre the constitution of a Church it must needs marre yours as well as others For I hope you will not say that all yours are Saints more than by calling and so are all Christians even those at Corinth and all 1 Cor. 16.2 Cap. 1.12 13. cap. 5.1 cap. 6.15 cap. 11.21 cap. 15.35 cap. 8.12 13. among whom yet were schismatical and contentious persons envying and strife incest and incest tolerated going to Law with their brethren Harlotry coming to the Lords Table drunk a denying of a fundamental point of saith the resurrection little charity to the weak brother Now then if Corinth were a Presbyterial Church certainly in the Primitive constitution it was not composed of living stones onely c. To conclude to the constitution of a Church there can be but two things required the materiale and the formale the matter are a people gathered and united called by the Word to live in a divine policy under Christ their head The forme that unites them to him is as you say rightly faith and charity That they be truly and indeed united to him requisite it is that their faith be lively working by love But that they be united to the body the visible Church which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no more nor can be no more expected but that they make outwardly a profession of faith and fraternal love For whether either be true unfeigned and sincere or no we can never know and should we stay till those were manifest unto us it would be long enough before we should constitute our's or you your Church pray take this better into your consideration Now I proceed to that wh ch you more aime at viz. 2. That the rise of the rottening of the Church was its falling from a pure poor Presbyterial Church into an impure unpolished Parochial Church TO which I have this to say First that if this position be true then Amesius was mistaken Ames Med. l. 1. cap. 39. Sect. 22. who makes a Combinational Church all one with a Parochial He tells us there of a Church instituted by God and saith that it was not National Provincial nor Diocesan but Parochialis vel unius Congregationis cujus membra inter se combinantur ordinarie couveniunt in eodem loco ad publicum Religionis exercitium If you shall say that this kind of Parochial Church differs from ours at this day because it is combined in Covenant which ours is not I grant it but adde that such a Combination is not necessary For I know no other Covenant requisite but that in Baptisme to make a man a member of any Church as I formerly proved unto you Neither can you give any one instance of any such Covenant before your time was taken by any Parochial Church in Amesius sense Secondly I shall here again put you in minde of that I intimated at first about this word Parochia and give you farther light in it For Parochia hath a double acception eirher as it was at first Selden of tyths cap. 6. Sect. 3. or as it is used in our dayes At first the word Parochia denoted a whole Bishoprick which is but a greater Parish and signified no other than a Diocesse That in these there were Towns and Villages cannot be denyed for the proof of this we need but run over the names of Cities Towns c. of Judea mentioned in the Old and New Testament and all plantations will teach us that in processe of time it comes to be thus at first in greater Cities then in these Religion was planted Among these it cannot be well conceived that the whole hamlet was at once converted but it must be done by little and little till at last the whole Township received the faith Together then they met for the service of God and as the Jewes in their several Towns had to that purpose their Synagogues so Christians began to think of convenient places where they might meet to this purpose as you in New-England they built them Churches and so from meeting in private houses they met in these Where yet they entered not into a Combination to be an absolute and Independent Congregation but did depend on the chief Church where the Bishop was resident and this is evident by what I shall now say The Pastours of these Parishes were such as the Bishop appointed under him to have care of souls in them and those are they Conc. Neoces cap. 58. Conc. Antioch cap. 87. 89. whom the Old Greek Councils call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the Churches where they kept their cure the offerings of devout Christians were received All that was received in the Bishoprick was as a common treasury to be thus dispensed one part of it was allowed the maintenance of the Ministry another to the relief of the poor sick and strangers a third Conc. Antioch cap. 103 104. to the reparation of Churches the fourth part to the Bishop Thus it was many years before the Council of Nice that the Bishops Parochia extended far and that the whole was under his jurisdiction and consequently had not absolute power within themselves 2. But when the word Parish in that sense it is now used began it is not so easie to avouch yet for it we have these Records Damasus in pontific Euseb l. 2. c. 17. Epiphan Haeres 69. Euseb l. 6. c. 43. Evaristus who lived in Trajans time and succeeded Clemens divided Rome into seven Parishes assigning to every one a Presbyter And it may be easily collected out of Eusebius that it was thus at Alexandria and Epiphanius names many which bore these titles Theonae Serapionis Pierii Persiae Diseae Mendidii Amriani Baucalis c. For indeed necessity required it when the Christians grew to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cornelius called the Christians and did implâ—re omnia Tertull. Apol. cap. 37. Then they were forced to divide Congregations and assigne several Presbyters to their cures yet in subordination to their Bishops as is evident in all Records of the Church This being so how is it possible that the rottening of the pure poor Presbyterial Church should be the rise of the Parochial when the Parochial in the first sense was the first Church that ever was in the world as I have before manifested In which sense it is that Cyril calls Saint James Cyril Catechis 16. primum hujus Parochiae meaning Jerusal Episcopum and in that signification it is very obvious to be read in the old Councils of both tongues as Filesacus hath observed you then argue ex non concessis For in the first sense the Parochial had the precedency and was older than your new device Your Combinational might corrupt and rotten it but that could never corrupt and rotten that which was not If you take it
in the last for Parishes as they after were restrained and are constituted at this day you must shew that your Church had the priority of them which you are never able to do else you cannot say that they corrupted it And indeed your allegation that follows is so weak that any man who reads and considers it will suspect that you have little to say for your cause 3. At that time this was when ceasing to elect and ordain either a Teacher a Pastour a Ruler a Deacon or Deaconesse or Widow in conformity to the heavenly Canon Rom. 12.7 15.4 16.1 compared with 1 Tim. 3.1 Titus 1.5.6 it was well content with a Parson a Vicar a Warden an Over-seer of the Poor and a Midwife THE time of this corruption you point out and set it to be when it ceased to elect and ordain a Teacher c. Here again you commit the same errour supposing I am bound to trust and beleeve you on your bare word Ceasing to do any thing presupposeth that there was a time when one might or did do it Now it behoveth you to shew the time when Parishes in general for particulars will make no rule and few very few are to be given did ever elect their Pastour I am sure to ordain him in antiquity you can produce not one example 'T is not possible since the Records of the Church are open and he that runnes may read them that at first the Teacher and Pastour sent to any Church was sent and there placed by the Bishop The instances are so many and the practice of the Church so universal that it were lost labour to produce them yet here I shall ask you onely one question if this were a corruption I wonder why by your pure Presbyterial Church it is retained why are men now elected approved sent and setled to be Parsons and Vicars in Parish Churches who you know are neither elected nor ordained by that Church over whom they are set Remove this beam out of your own eye before you see the mote in you brothers Well but what was the errour this that the Parish contented it self with a Parson and Vicar for a Pastour Teacher and Ruler as if the Parson and Vicar might not be all these might not feed teach and rule his flock what should hinder him for call him by what name you please his office and duty is the same and a Parson and Vicar is bound as much to feed teach and guide his flock as is your Pastour Teacher and Ruler and must answer the neglect of it as well as they this is to seek a knot in a rush Be pleased to translate Parson by a Latine word and you shall alwayes finde it rendred by Pastor or Rector Ecclesiae and how then is the man or his name changed and if the Latines may content themselves to be under the Pastor or Rector I see no reason but the English may as well be content with their Parson He because in case of necessary absence disability of body age or other casualties which may be when the Parish was of a very large extent assumed unto him a helper who because he was vices ejus supplere was called Vicarius this was the original of Vicars and that you look not so strangely at the name in the old Law the High Priest had his Sagan Casaubon Exerc 13. Num. 9. who in case of the High Priests pollution performed his office such was Zephaniah 2 Reg. 25.18 and nAnas unto Caiaphas the Chorepiscopi were of the same kind to the Bishops of old And the Protosincelli to the Patriarchs of Constantinople And in this there was no hurt that came in from Rome when by appropriations of the revenues of the Church to Abbies Monasteries Selden of tyths cap. 12. Sect. 1. c. perpetual Vicarages were erected But this was so late that no injury could be done to the Combinational Church by it since that was corrupted and gone when Parishes were erected many hundred years before and then there were none of these Vicars in rerum natura I see not then to what purpose this name is here inserted except to make up the tale and the same may be said of the Parson also for it is no ancient name A Deacon we retain though in another employment and probably in the very office that Timothy puts Vide sis Aretii loc Commun loc 66. de Diaconis and indeed instead of those that served Tables we have Wardens and Over-seers of the poor which at first was but a meer secular but charitable employment as was a Deaconesse and putting honest men into such an employment though under another name is no corruption of any Churches constitution for it marrs not the matter nor form of it How your Mid-wife comes in I must professe I am to seek for I never heard any man more look upon her as an officious and useful hand-maid of the Church then upon the Mid-wives of Egypt About these two last the Deacon and Deaconesse Aret. in Tim. 1.3 Aretius in his Commentary upon 1 Tim. 3. hath a very good observation that these were very necessary in the first planting of the Church and before there were Christian Magistrates but after that Kings became nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the people of God they took a care that the poor Christians should be relieved in another way than by the Church-stock There were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erected in Hospitals Almes-houses c. they were provided for then they made Lawes for a common-stock to be collected in every Parish for that purpose and appointed by Statutes Over-seers of the poor and other Officers We saith he therefore have not in our Churches such Deacons and Deaconesses as they had neither is it requisite we should have because the duty is so wisely ordered by the political Magistrate To this purpose that grave and wise Expositour But this you say should be done in conformity to the heavenly Canon and many texts you cite for it but I can finde no Canon at all in any of them for what you aime at Rom. 12.7 I read he that hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him wait upon it But I have told you it is of gifts the Apostle there speaks not of functions 2 Cor. 4.1 6.3 Rom. 11.13 or if of functions the words is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the doctrine of the Gospel is adorned with this title and the Ministers in what degree soever called passim Diaconi Col. 1.7 4.17 1.23.25 1 Cor. 3.5 2 Cor. 3.6 The next citation Rom. 15.4 passeth my reach for I see not how it can be drawn to say any thing to this purpose therefore I passe it by You urge Rom. 16.1 and that indeed speaks of Phaebe as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a servant of the Church of Cenchrea Be it so that una hirundo non facit ver were it
the proposition then is true that Jewes and Gentiles make one National Church Hence it is that what God said of the Jew Exod. 19.6 ye shall be to me a Kingdome of Priests and an holy Nation is by Saint Peter affirmed of the Christian Church ye are a chosen generation 1 Pet. 2.9 a royal Priesthood an holy Nation Which when effected our Saviours words were fulfilled other sheep I have which are not of this fold John 10.16 them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice that there may be one fold and one Shepherd Farther yet a prophesie is extant Isa 2.2 Isa 2.2 Mic. 4.1 2 c. Jer. 4.2 Isa 65.1 Zach. 2.11 Zach. 14.9 Psalm 2.8 Psalm 22.27 Matth. 21.43 Rom. 4.17 And it shall come to passe in the last dayes that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it Let other texts be compared with this which speak the same thing Thus it was foretold and that what was foretold might accordingly be fulfilled our Saviour gave his disciples a Commission in these general words Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost c. Matthew 28.19 And I pray call to minde that when Peter baptized the penitents Acts 2.39 he comforted them with these words for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as our Lord God shall call And yet after this even Peter himself and the Apostles and the brethren that were in Judaea of this had but a confused notion for when Peter came up to Jerusalem Acts 11. Acts 10. they that were of the Circumcision contended with him about it to whom he was feigne to make his Apology opening to them the vision of the sheet which when they heard these things they glorified God saying then hath God also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life In effect they attested the truth of Peters words Verse 34. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons looks now no more upon a Jew than he doth upon a sinner of the Gentiles but in every Nation he that feareth him and doth righteousnesse is accepted of him The partition wall being broken down what could they be but one church I can never sufficiently wonder at your words when you call this accesse of all Nations a naughty enlargement What is that which God by Covenant with Abraham promised naught that naught which he foretold should be that naught which Christ gave Commission to his disciples to do that naught which the Disciples did All Nations Isa 2.2 All flesh Isa 66.23 All the kindreds of the earth Psal 22.26 27. A multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people Rev. 7.9 are said to be the people of God under the New Testament and yet you will not allow them the name of a National Church But a stronger foundation for this Truth there cannot be than that which Saint Paul hath laid under the similitude of an Olive which had two kinds of branches natural verse 21. and wild 17. Rom. 1â—â— The natural were the Jewes the wild the Gentiles the natural were broken off through unbelief and the wild by faith graffed in These wild now being naturalized are in the same condition that the Natural were before they were broken off But the Natural branches were in the Olive totally the whole Nation they and their children which made the National Church of the Jewes and therefore the wild branches must be so inserted they and their children also which will make the National Church of the Gentiles which is the full scope and intention of the Apostle in that chapter Finally the very same Covenant that was made with Abraham 2 Cor. 6.16 is made with the Corinthians 2 Cor. 6.16 I will be their God and they shall be my people As that then was extended to the whole Nation of the Jewes Lev. 26.12 Levit. 26.12 so also is it now to be extended to the whole Nation of the Gentiles so that all those Nations that have had the Gospel preached unto them and answering that Gospel have received the doctrine of Christ submitting to his Ordinances in the profession of his Name are to be reckoned as they were 1 Pet. 2.10 Acts 8.12 13. John 6.66 Acts 11.26 1 Cor. 1.2 1 Cor. 12.13 Matth. 8.11 the people of God 1 Pet. 2.10 Beleevers Acts 8.12 13. Disciples John 6.66 Christians Acts 2. Saints by calling 1 Cor. 1.2 The Church of the Gentiles 1 Cor. 12.13 The Kingdome of Christ Matth. 8.11 Thus have I shewed you that since the whole Church quoad materiale doth consist of Nations there can be no impropriety or absurdity in it when we call any part thereof a National Church or the Church of Beleevers in any one Nation And now let us see what help you can have for the confirmation of this besides Scripture out of the principles of reason 2. We believe in our Creed the Catholique Church and Catholique it is called in respect of all ages and times because before under and after the Law it alwayes was and secondly in respect of persons for there is not any person of what degree sex condition or age that may not be a member of it And thirdly in respect of places in that as formerly the Jewes so now all persons in all Nations have a capacity to be of the Church of Christ Universality then being an attribute of the Church it cannot be found in any one Church limited either in respect of time or place Either then make your Combinational Church the Catholique or you must extend it farther and if so why not to a Province and if to a Province why not to a Nation nay many Nations And be it you should assume the name of Catholique and fasten it to every particular Combinational Church yet particular Societies of Christians can lay no farther claime to it than they can demonstrate themselves to belong to that Church that hath a true and a just title to it which no particular Church can do but by proving that it holds the common faith once delivered to the Saints without heretical innovation Ames lib. 1. c. 31. Sect. 20. or schismatical violation of the Unity and Peace of the Christian world This being the way for particular Churches to demonstrate themselves to be Catholique necessary it is that they be united at least to those Congregations of that Nation whence we may infer that there must needs be a National Church which also that must do and shew clearly that it maintaines whole and undefiled the foundations of faith before it can be acknowledged to be Catholique 2. That which makes men mistake in this point is that they make the Church to be species
specialissima whereas it is Locale genus such are other collective words exercitus Keckerm syst in fin c. de gen respubl which kind of genus being but Analogum must have under it species Analogas not such as are true as it is in true Entities but such as have an Analogy with them and fall into a Logical consideration under that similitude Say then that this word Church is totum universale then it must have partes subjectivas under it and so it hath for Ecclesia Britanica Belgica Genevensis Germanica Scotica c. are as it were so many Species where you may finde so many National Churches that do equally participate of the nature of the Genus and under them so many Individuums as there be particular Congregations in any of these Nations Neither doth Amesius Ames Loc. citato Sect. 18. who affirmes the Church to be a Species specialissima give any teason for it but that nullas habet species propriè dictas which is illogical for I told you that it was Genus analogum and will any Logician expect species propriè dictas it is sufficient for such a genus to have species impropriè dictas by comparison and resemblance onely to a true Genus and such the Church hath as I have proved and therefore there may be a National Church Thirdly that which is capable of the definition of the Church may be called a Church But a National Church is capable of the definition of a Church therefore there may be a National Church The major is out of question and needs no proof The minor I make good by setting down and applying the definition of the Church to it Amesius Ames lib. 1. cap. 31. 7. Junius de Ecclesia c. 2. Trelcat lib. 2. cap. de Ecclesia Ecclesia est caetus hominum vocatorum But his definition though it would serve my turn is a little too short Iunius hath more fully expressed it Ecclesia est caetus eorum quos Deus evocat è natura modulo naturali ipsorum per gratiam in dignitatem filiorum Dei ad ipsius gloriam Trelcatius gives us three definitions one after another First to the Church in common which is Ecclesia est caetus eorum quos Deus gratuita vocatione ad gratiae suae gloriae communionem evocat Matth. 11.29 And secondly that belongs to the visible Church Ecclesia visibilis est caetus eorum quos Deus externa vocatione seu praeditatione verbi Sacramentorum administratione evocat ad cultum gloriae suae Mat. 28.17 A third which belongs to the invisible Church which is Ecclesia invisibilis est caetus praedestinatorum qui vocatione efficaci salutari ex statu corruptionis in dignitatem adoptionis filiorum Dei evocantur Christo tanquam capiti adunâ—ntur non ad cultum tantum sed ad fructum gloriae Luke 1.33 All which definitions especially those of Junius and Trelcatius are full and artificial for Ecclesia is by all put in the predicament of relation and all relations are defined mentione subjecti relati correlati fundamenti Keck syst Log. cap. de Definit quod supplet locum causae efficientis Termini vel finis And in these last we meet with all these The relatum is vocans the correlatum is evocati the subject or materiale Men or more largely those who who have a capacity è natura modulo naturali ipsorum to be called which takes in Angels also The Formale or foundation of this Relation is that gracious call that God gives and the end is that they being adopted for his children may communicate in his worship grace and glory Now what one word is there in any one or all these definitions which are not as well applicable to a National Church Deut. 5.22 Exod. 16.1 as a Combinational Is this caetus kahal an Assembly a Gnedah a Congregation that is much more Doth this consist of men There are more in that Have those in this a Call a gracious call given them by God so have the other Are they adopted and brought into the state of sonnes so are they too I have nourished and brought up children Are these called to worship God to be partakers of grace and glory Isa 1.2 â— Cor. 6.18 So are all Nations whom the Lord our God doth call They then who partake fully of the nature and essence of a Church and to whom all the causes that constitute a Church may be attributed of whom the efficient matter forme end are verified without question are a Church but such is the National as I have declared I pray therefore let it have the name I know your exception lies against the formal cause for that gracious call of God will not satisfie you which hath contented all other judicious Divines before you But you assigne another viz. a Church-Covenant fancying that none can be truly members of Christs Church but who have combined and joyned themselves together in this League of Church-fellowship This say you is the chief essential part of a Church and the true formality of it Amesius teacheth us truly that Ecclesia is à Deo instituta If so let it be shewn where God instituted his Church under this condition produce the precept bring forth the command for it or else you shall never perswade me that this Institution is from God Nay I shall yet descend lower Demonstrate to me the practice of it or the patterne for it either in the Apostles age or any age after it till you arose and you shall carry the cause I know that the wisest among you is not able to shew me one example for it in all antiquity We cannot therefore choose but set upon it the character of Ionah's gourd that is filia noctis a daughter of a nights growth it sprung up so lately The farthest the pedegree can reach is either to the Montanists Novatians or Donatists those children of Separation and yet when all 's done it doth but resemble them neither since I read not that they and their parties were ever bandied together by a solemne Covenant They could think themselves a Church and indeed the sole Church without this formality They had their Bishops under whose jurisdiction all the several Congregations of their profession were And therefore I shall again repeat my words that no pattern for this in any age can be found and I adde to it no not among Hereticks and Schismaticks Secondly we shall give a poor accompt of former Churches and Christians if this Covenant-invention should be of such concernment to Christianity when it is not easie nor as I beleeve possible to finde a Church anciently so bound Farther yet this seems to me altogether uselesse and superfluous and that in two respects First it seems uselesse to them who are so bound for these new small bodies are so loosly tyed together by these sorry wit hs of mans invention that they quickly upon humour anger
and heady animosities fall asunder and break into several fractions and subdivisions so that they by reciting a certain forme of words seem to meet as pieces of wood finely glued together which a little spittle or wet dissolves Then again it is uselesse to them who are bound already by a higher and more solemn Covenant for this is as it were to binde a man with wisps of straw that is already bound with chains of gold For every true and conscientious Christian knows and owns himself to have upon his conscience farre more strict and indissoluble ties not onely of nature and creation but of the Law and word of God yea and of Christian Covenant and Profession by his Baptismal vow besides that bond of the other Sacrament that I speak not of his vowes renewed by often promises in his prayers and repentant promises All which binds the consciences of all good Christians to all duties of piety and charity according to the relations wherein they stand to God and man farre more firmly than any external profession in a Church way can do An external I say for so it is and being meerly external it cannot ingredi rei essentiam make any man formally a Church member that which doth this is the call of God and not the profession of man And now having removed this rub out of my way I shall go on to give you a fourth argument for a National Church 4. That to whom the proper essential and inseparable notes of the Church belong is a Church but to a National Church these notes belong therefore a National Church is a Church The major is certain for it is nota proprii the minor I easily prove The essential notes of the Church as Junius hath excellently demonstrated against Bellarmine Jun. de Ecclesia cap. 16. Doctor Field of the Ch. lib. 2. cap. 2. Whites Orthodox cap. 3. Sect. 6. first the entire profession of these supernatural verities which God hath revealed in his Sonne Secondly the use of such holy Ceremonies and Sacraments as he hath instituted and appointed Thirdly an union and connexion of men in this profession and use of these Sacraments under lawful Pastours and guides appointed authorized and sanctified to direct and lead them in the happy wayes of eternal salvation Now do not these belong to a National Church is there not in it a profession of supernatural verities is not the Word of God publickly preached in it are not holy Rites and Sacraments administred according to Christs institution is there not a succession of lawful Guides and Pastours in it as I have elsewhere proved what then can hinder but there should be a National Church Whatsoever you can say against these notes I have so clearly as I conceive proved that I hold it superfluous to adde any more and therefore I come unto my third proof experience 3. Experience is that wisdome and knowledge of any thing that a man hath by the trial of particulars For when upon a sad examination he finds that so many Individuums agree in aliquo tertio he presently concludes that they all partake of the same nature Let us then take a view of several Churches and those most eminent at first and if it appear that those were National we may from hence easily inferre that the constitution of a Church may be National It is in all Church Histories most evident that as soon as the Gospel was first planted it spread from great Cities into the Neighbour Territories and adjacent Countries which Christians so converted though they exercised the acts of Religion in particular Congregations yet still continued in a fraternal subjection and filial submission to that Bishop and Presbytery which resided in the Mother City It is a foule mistake for men to conceive of the Church of Ephesus Smyrna Thyatyra c. of Corinth Antioch Jerusalem Rome c. as confined to that City whereas he who is acquainted with Histories profane and sacred must know that under these Cities were principalities and so the jurisdiction of that Church was extended to all Christians in that Territory Which to deny is to sleight all Records and to preferre his own single imagination before all antiquity Titus was Bishop of Crete an Island Timothy of Ephesus a Province Polycarp of Smyrna a Territory and what is true of these is as true of all the rest whence we may conclude that a Church may be National for if jurisdiction of one Bishop may extend over so great Cities as they were being then the chief of the world why not then to a Province why not to a Nation especially since by this way mutual peace truth and good order is best preserved This consideration caused the first small company of believers multiplyed from a Church in one family to a Church in many Congregations that could not meet together in one place yet as branches to continue still united to the root Christ Jesus and also to the main body and bulk of the Church by union to that part whence they descended and to which they related For reason taught them that they should be weaker and exposed to more danger if they should be disunited and rent from the body and quickly wither as boughs separated from the stock I need not minde you of that old Apologue of Menenius Agrippa that the head and feet quickly starved and windred away when they would not hear of any longer dependence upon the belly He that would be magnified for Simon Magus or magnus Simon the great and wise for his invention of rarities and Paradoxes in any art or science ought to furnish himself not with popular and specious but with solid and sound arguments if he intend to winne prudent and sober men to be of his judgment for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wise men will not be catch't with those sophisms with which it is easie to take the multitude After the flood there were but eight persons in the world they lived together in a family for some time and Noah as a Prince ruled them But they quickly encreased spread multiplyed grew into those Nations that now live and being dispersed over the earth they yet joyned in societies and for their mutual preservation thought it fit to be governed that way that we now behold Suppose now some great and wise Magus should in these words charme and bewitch the people Non sic fuit ab initio in Noahs dayes the ordering of the world was not as we see it now there were then no mighty Monarchs no surly Lords no Judges no Magistrates Who then spoke of National societies or civil confederations Oh 't was a brave world then when the government was domestical a golden age when no man ruled beyond his own doors but every one was a King at home Could we but contrive a way and live to see it so in our dayes 't would be no question a brave world again When Adam dugge and Eve span who was
then a Gentleman The like argument to this is used by those of the Combination At Rome they finde a houseful of Christians at Corinth another handful met together in the house of Cloe. Rom. 16.5 1 Cor. 16.29 1 Cor. 1.11 In Asia there is mention made of single Churches but by the way that these were bourd together by a Church Covenant and a separate and Independent Congregation that had no relation to the Presbytery in those Cities that is not mentioned not a word of that Then there were no National Churches this was afterwards brought in by lordly Prelates Oh if we might but see the Church restored again and all things done according to the pattern in the Mount then it would be a glorious Church Gods people precious people all Kings Priests and Prophets within their own doors You then of the people even the poorest Plow-man and ignorantest Mechanick should recover his right primo questu and be subject to no other Pastours and Elders then were of your own choosing nor to them no longer then pleased you Now is not this kind of arguing very plausible in the peoples ears Oh how they will hugge themselves when they shall finde themselves to become some body Let us say they but joyne our selves in this Combination and then God knows what goodly great things we may come to be we may come to be Pastours to feed we may come to be Elders to rule the flock we may come to be Deacons and carry the bag and if we sail of these our hopes yet however we have voices in the Election of Church Officers and the highest of them all must depend upon us This is that which tickleth the multitude to reduce the Church to the house of Cloe as those Sophists would do the world to the Ark of Noah Now one of these is as absurd as the other as contrary to reason to bring back the Church to particular houses and Combinations as it is all the societies of men to domestical government Shall an example or two which yet comes not home neither be pleaded against a cloud of witnesses to the contrary when we can instance in Presbyteries constituted by the Apostles in chief Cities which were heads of whole Provinces shall we plead that two or three houses were patterns in the Mount This is so childish a fancy so weak and unreasonable an imagination as if they would reduce themselves to their infants Coats now they are grown men or think they are bound to wear a leathern girdle because Saint John Baptist did so To conclude this point we dare appeal to the consciences of any of these bodying Christians whom charity may presume to be godly and judicious Dr. Gauden whether they finde in Scripture or have just cause to think that the blessed Apostles ever constituted such small bodies of Covenanting Churches when there were great numbers and many Congregations of Christians in any City Province or Country so as each one should be thought absolute independent and no way subordinate to another Whether ever the Apostles required of those lesser handfuls those peti-toes and fingers of the body which might and did Convene in Cloes house any such explicite forms and Covenants besides those holy bonds which by beleeving and professing of the faith by Baptisme and Eucharistical communion were upon them Or whether the blessed Apostles would have questioned or denyed them to be true Christians and in a true Church or have separated from them or cast them off as not engrafted in Christ or growing up in him who without any such bodying in small parcels had professed the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the due use of the Word Sacraments Ministry who endeavoured to lead a holy life themselves and sought by all means which charity order or authority allowed them to represse the contrary in others The wisdome of these first planters of Religion was so great their charity so warme their perswasions to unity so earnest the Character they set upon those who separate so black that it cannot be beleeved that ever they would admit of a rent in that body which was instructed by one head enlived by one spirit formed by one faith and quickned by one and the same hope And if these excellent Christian vertues had continued we had not seen the seam-lesse Coat of our Saviour rent into such small shreds as we behold and lament at this day And so much of this 2. The next thing that in general you charge the National Church withal is that they took up the customes you name by a Jewish imitation COncerning which I have divers things to reply First if we must be accused for this apish imitation of the Jews yet we are not the only Apes since you for this are no lesse guilty than our selves and then you know qui alterum incusat probri ipsum se tueri oportet For do you not imitate the Jewish Sanedrim in your Elderships why is it else that from it most of your party fetch their defence why from it do they borrow their light to expound dic Ecclesiae Again that the Scripture is not to be read except expounded is your common tenet we presse you for a precept for this and none you do nor none you can bring only you produce the example of Ezra the Scribe Nehem. 8.8 that he read the book and gave the sense and upon this example you do it and tell us it is to be done now what is imitation but the following of an example Besides you your self would have all your Elders stand and sit together in the face and full view of the whole Assembly now what command can you finde for this all you can say for it Verse 4. is the pattern in the former place of Ezra and then I hope you will not deny but you in this are to answer for a Jewish imitation also Your letter bears date the 22 day of the eighth moneth which is you know to speak the language of the old Jew Secondly I ask how ever you can make good that in most of the instances which you alledge that the Christians took their pattern from the Jewes after they were formed into a National Church and were put under the Ceremonial Law If in these they imitated any I may as easily say that they took their pattern from the Patriarchs for these before the Ceremonies of the Law were imposed as you can reflect upon the Nation of the Jews For the Patriarchs had their feasts their places whether to bring their offerings Gen. 8.20 13.18 28.22 33.20 Gen. 2.2 Exod. 5.1 They acknowledge a high Priest Gen. 14.18 They paid tyths Gen. 14.20 28.22 Four then of these five frivolous traditions as you call them were in use before the Jews were a setled Nation and to those old and first people of God the Primitive Church might have an eye when they admitted these usages as well as to
hodie quoque Israelitiae genti collatis concipiuntur c. As for their present food Drus in N. T. parte altera pag. 78. Fagius in Deut. 8. Luk. 22.17 18. for their deliverance from the Aegyptian servitude for the Covenant of Circumcision for the Law given by Moses This grace of Thanks-giving they called Bircath hasasen the blessing of the Cup with which Christ himself seemeth to have begun his supper He took the Cup and gave thanks and said Take and divide it among you After the blessing of the Cup the Master of the house took the bread and consecrated it in the words before which they called Bircath halechem or the blessing of the bread and then brake and divided it So did our Saviour Verse 19. He took bread and gave thanks and brake it c. At the end of the Feast they again gave thanks and then the Master of the house took a Cup of wine in both hands beginning thus Let us blesse him who hath fed us of his own and of whose goodnesse we live This grace they called Bircath hamazon and the Cup Cos hillel poculum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and both these Cups are mentioned by Saint Luke but the words of institution added onely to the last This Cup is the New Tstament or Covenant in my blood Verse 20. Scalig. de emend temp lib. 6. pag. 273. which is shed for you After all this they sung Hymnes and Psalmes which also was practised by our blessed Saviour Mark 14.26 These Rites were all Jewish and yet our Saviour dislikes them not for that but observes them in the institution of the blessed Sacrament That you may see the weaknesse of the argument that no usage of the Jew may be followed in the Christian Church I promised you one instance more it was in the Jewish censures in which they observed three degrees Niddui Cherem and Schammatha Niddui signifieth separation Buxtorf ex Rabb Epist Heb. pag. 55. Lex Rabb pag. 827. Godw. Ant. lib. 5. cap. 2. Dr. Hamm. of the Keys cap. 4. Sect. 60. and by it the delinquent was separate from all society or commerce with others for four Cubits and for thirty dayes The second was Cherem which is thus defined by Buxtorf an exclusion from the sacred Assemblies a casting out of the Synagogue with all the curses of Deut. 28. The third was Schammatha the Etymology of which word Godwin tells us is twofold for saith he Schem is Lord and Atha cometh others say it sounds as much as There is death for Scham is there and Mitha death Hence it may be rendred excommunication to death and so Dr. Hammon out of Dâ—lhen defines it Ea excommunicatio qua quis totaliter finaliter ab Ecclesia segregatus divino judicio sit devotus cum ea mors exitium Now to these three the censures of the Christian Church were very correspondent Luk. 6.22 John 9.22 John 16.2 The first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separation or remotion that answers to Niddui The second was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that answers to Cherem which in other words is tradere Satanae 1 Cor. 5.5 The third was Maran-atha 1 Cor. 16.22 To which he was to be left who loved not the Lord Jesus which was the self-same with Schammatha for Maran is Lord and atha cometh so that it is evident in the Church censures also the Christians took up their pattern from the Jews All this I have said and could adde to it much more to make the proposition appear no unreasonable maxime that it may be lawful for the Church to use a custome which hath some resemblance of some Ceremony in force anciently among the Jews 4. Lastly I observe that you make your Jewish imitation very ancient in that by the Adverbs quando and unde when and whence you fasten it upon the National Church had it been a birth of yesterday I should have suspected it but when I finde it a plant of so many ages I cannot choose but rise up to the gray haires either accuse the Apostles for it who did imitate the Jews as I have proved as well as we and at that time when they preached and gathered of all Nations into the fold or else we are blamelesse This was it I had to return to your two Generals now I come to your five degrees in which this imitation lies and will consider them in the same method you propose them You say 1. Yhe first was of National times as the fifty yearly Festivals or holy-working dayes Cursed-masse Candle-masse WHich words I must professe I clearly understand not in all points for what is it you mean by these fifty yearly Festivals are they all the Sundayes of the year if that we own them that not upon any Jewish imitation If you mean those other which our Church enjoyned to be observed for holy-dayes the number will not arise to fifty For they are only twenty seven and so you have over-shot your self As for your term Cursed-Masse I hope you intend not the day of our Saviours Nativity when for the glad tydings the Angels joyned in a Quire and sang an Athemne in the fields of Galilee Could I conceive you intended to black that day with that accursed word I should grow impatient and return The Lord rebuke thee But the word Candlemas that follows it at the heels makes me somewhat suspicious that you might squint an ill eye that way If so you are much to blame if not there 's no harme done I know yet that these words Christmas and Candlemas often offend many but then you must lay the blame if there be any on those who deserve it It is the multitude and vulgar that hath taken up and makes use of these names the Church so imposed them not Turne over our Calenders and you shall finde them appointed to be kept holy under these titles The Nativity of our Lord the Purification of the blessed Virgin And yet had the words received countenance from the Church there is no such cursednesse in them as is conceived if we shall cast our eyes upon the first native use For no question missa from whence Masse came is a Latine word and signifies no more than remissa used by Tertullian and Cyprian for remissio for remissa peccatorum is with them remissio peccatorum Tertull. advers Marcion Cypr. l. 3. Ep. 14. Amb. lib. 5. Ep. 33. Chem. Exam. Trid. Conc. de Miss Pontif. Juel artic 1. 31. Cass Liturg. cap. 16. Whites Orthodox lib. 2. Sect. 26. Zanch. de cult exter cap. de Sacrific Sect. 13. Cass Liturg. cap. 26. Ambrose is the first of the Latine Fathers that used it It first signified no more than to call together to celebrate divine service as both Chemnitius Juel and Cassander have observed and therefore when the Greeks used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine Translatours turned it missas facere missas
am no Prophet nor the sonne of a Prophet yet thus much I dare be bold to fore-cast that when all hears and animosities being deposed men shall returne to an humble sober and Christian temper some forme or other for prayer will be judged necessary to be composed set forth enjoyned without which the dislocated parts of a Church will never kindly joyne The experience of the present distractions ever since a set forme as you in a Sarcasme call them stinted prayers hath been cast out of the Church will make men wiser for the future Let men in private use what forms they please and choose their own helps to which they may adde as occasion requires words suited to their present necessities But when they are to joyn with the Church the petitions being such as are more necessary for the whole Corps of Christians than for any one part fit it is that the mother be judge what is useful for her children and teach them what and how to aske Leave men to their own inventions and possible it is that the petition be not framed to the present exigent which the Church in all particulars hath taken care of Yet if this fall out another inconvenience there is that too often happens These extempore men dealing by their prayers as school-boyes do by their lessons or Musicians with their plain song Those the children vary into so many formula's for want of judgement till they come to non-sense and the unskilful artists run so far in their divisions and descants till they marre the plain-song And the like will happen to thi great service of God when it shall fall to the variations descants of inartificial swaines and heavie-headed Mechaniques The house of prayer will be a house of pratlin and Sion turned into Babel To conclude with the words of a wise man I never yet could see any reason why any Christian should abhorre or be forbidden to use the same forms of prayer since he prayes to the same God believes in the same Saviour professeth the same Truths reads the same Scriptures hath the same duties upon him and feels the same wants daily for the most part both inward and outward which are common to the whole Church When we desire the same things what hinders but we may use the same words except we measure our God to be like our own appetites and stomachs which are best pleased with fresh and fresh I go on 1. Quiristers and singing of Psalmes with all the Rubrick postures The Rubrick I have consulted and I meet not with any posture at all prescribed at the singing of any Hymne or Psalme But say it had some posture or other must be used and had it been the worse because prescribed I trow not For prescriptions in adiaphorous things doth not so alter their natures as to make them nought to prostrate the body in prayer to lift up the eyes and pure hands are actions of indifferency and do they become nought because God in his Word prescribes them God in his Word hath given the Church liberty to prescribe in these things Let all things be done decently and in order Say then the Church had prescribed by the Rubrick that a man should have stood have kneeled have sate have lift up his eyes and hands at the singing of this or that Psalme respectively she might have done it and the singing of the Psalme had been nere the more un-Christian had the Rubrick posture been observed You needed not therefore have girded at this and the rather because it was not But I see nothing can escape you not the poor boy the Quirister But happily you will say you take it in a larger sense and by it mean the whole Quire and so I think you do and therefore I shall shape my answer accordingly 2. Quiristers and singing of Psalmes Could I imagine that you were of the Anabaptists opinion who will not admit of singing of Psalms in the Church I should put you in minde of that which Saint Paul writes to the Ephesians and Colossians Be not drunk with wine wherein is excesse but be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in Hymns and Psalmes Eph. 5.18 19. Col. 3.16 Beza in loc and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. Beza conceives that the Apostle alludes to that Musick then in use among the Jews who had their Mismorim their Tehillim their Schirim Be it then which you here object that these were taken up by Jewish imitation yet it follows not they were the worse for we have here Apostolical authority to make good the use let this then be cast in our teeth no more The Christian Psalmes were like the Jewish Mismorim Odes they were either Doctrinal or Ethical Hieron Chrysost written upon sundry matters or arguments exhortatory consolatory precaâ—ory deprecatory such as are many Psalms of David 2. The Hymns were like their Tehillim setting forth the praises of God for his greatnesse and goodnesse to the sonnes of men such were the Hymns of Moses Deborah Zachary Mary Simeon 3. The songs answered to their Schirum which were peculiar songs composed for general blessings praises they continued but in a more large and universal sense When any of these were expressed by voice and instrument together they were called properly Psalms when by voice alone without the concent of instruments they were named Hymns and songs Zanchy in loc This is the descant that the Learned have used in their Expositions of these words that we are hence to collect is that Musick hath its use in the service of God 1. By this the honour of God is more magnified and celebrated then it could be by a still and soft voice To speak of God doth well to whisper out his Name is commendable this is for those who have received primitias Spiritus but such who are filled with the Spirit they ought to go further as the Apostle exhorts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will magnifie his Name in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs and so make his praise to be glorious The concealment of Gods praise did never like him no nor the cold expression of it as if men would slip it over it hath been best pleasing to him when it hath been most made known And therefore he hath had in all Ages perpetual remembrances of what he hath done Chronicles Annals Books of Record These indeed speak out his noble Acts but it is for the most part to the Wise and Learned But let but one of these be conveyed into a song and it will quickly be upon the tongue of the unlearned you shall have the Maid at her wheele the Prentice in the shop warbling upon it and if any be skilful in Musick it will please him to sing to his Harp or Viol the wonderful works of God The praises of our God are conveyed into the soul with more delight are fastned with more affection are perpetuated
tollitur corruptione nisi rotati quam vocant interitum Ecclesia non tollit partialis corruptio sed infirmat Ecclesia Romana omnia habet corrupta sed non omnino haet non interitus est fed partialis corruptio ejus disendu est And therefore to your accusation it is fit for them to answer not for me who maintain none of their corruptions God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ grant by his eternal Spirit that Spirit of eternal Truth that all the deceits and fallacies of Satan being laid asidet we may daily grow up in Christ and his Church and in the truth of Christ and his Church and that we may confirme and establish one another more and more by unfeigned Charity and the bonds of peace to his glory and the common salvation of our selves and all Christians Amen A KEY to open the Debate about a Combinational Church and the power of the KEYES The Third Part. HItherto you have held forth the doctrine in your Letter now you come to the use and application and that you may be the better understood you have thought upon five heads and upon every one of these fastned either a bitter or a joculary Epithite one is vile and virulent another is violent a third is haughty and horrible the fourth is idle and addle and the last an odde head The Spaniard gives us this caution that he whose head is of glasse ought to take heed how he casts up stones into the aire left by chance they fall upon his own pate and crack his crown Before then you made your self so merry with these heads you should have considered whether some ridiculum caput could not have created to himself and others laughter at the invention of more heads in your Combinational Churches than yet you could finde in the Catholick and tell you that you are a Monster of many heads that the Presbyter is a vile and virulent head the Independent a violent the Anabaptist a haughty and horrible the Notioner an idle and addle the Quaker an odde head You perhaps will ask him how it will be proved I will answer for him on the same day when you prove your words true of these Churches you jest at 'T is but the imagination of your own head it is so and I know not anybody that is bound presently to fall down and worship it But I come to your Letter The words of the Letter MAy not any one to whose inwards the knowledge of these particulars is come ingenuously confesse that his very soul is clearly convinced of the mighty and wonderful corruptions which have crept into are cherisht within and contested about by many yea by too too many Christians of too too many Churches The Reply Those indeed who are convinced that they are mighty and wonderful corruptions in ingenuity can do no lesse but confesse it But it is not a bure relation or recital without any proof as you for the most part have done that will convince any ingenuous man You must set to work again and fortifie your words with plain Scripture or sound domonstration yea and remove those blocks I have cast in your way before you shall convince any one who is not of a weak and servile judgment If they crept in you must shew when and by whom which you have not done your bare affirmation being of no validity That they were cherished was well because no corruptions as I have shewed That too too many Christians and too too many Churches contest about them I am sorry for it Better it were we were at peace with our selves and imploy'd our forces against the common enemy to whose entrance by our dissensions we have opened too wide a gap I fear me we shall contest so long that his words will be verified who said at his death Venient Romani The words of the Letter ANd may not I though a stranger to my nearest friends because an Exile newly arrived in the Land of my Nativity safely appeal to any person either of conscience or common sense whither Christ Jesus our supreme Lord Protectour upon whose shoulder the government of the Churches is laid hath not of late years bo n a loud witnesse against every one of those five aforementioned kinds of deformed Churches and that in these very Countries which are counted and commonly call'd Christendome If so God forbid that there should be any Christian man and more especially any Clergy man so carnal or so carelesse in all those coasts as not to be both able and willing to conceive and to conclude himself to be called upon for to consider and lay to heart the great and grievous desolations which his hand hath made amongst the most and mightiest of the sonnes of men The Reply And here I shall with teares in my eyes Eccho back unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid it should be otherwise Oh never let any Christian of what rank soever add that talent of lead to that sinne which hath so highly provoked our good God to pour out the vials of his wrath against this our Church and these three Nations that I mention not the other of Christendome as not to lay it to heart Conceive not there can be so much carnality or carelessenesse yet left in any person imbued with conscience and common sense who hath not considered what God hath done unto us in the fiercnesse of his wrath Mic. 2.3 Lam. 2.17 Dan. 19.14.12 Psal 79.1.2 3 4. We do acknowledge that Gods Word hath taken hold of us that the Lord hath devised a device against us and hath done that which he devised that he hath watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem O God the people are come into thine inheritance thy holy Temple have they defiled and made Jerusalem an heap of stones the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the foules of the aire and the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was no man to bury them we are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us Gods sinking the gates his destroying the walls his slighting the strong holds of Zion his polluting the Kingdome his swallowing the Palaces his cutting off the horne of Israel Gods hating our Feasts his abominating our Sabbaths his loathing our Solemnities Isa 1. Gods forgetting his footstoole his abhorring his Sanctuary his suffering men to break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers Psal 74.6 Lam. 2.6 are all evidences to me that in the indignation of his anger he hath despised the King and the Priest Neither are we so carnal nor carelesse neither but to consider why this is done Justly justly we suffer For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works
inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 the faith hope obedience charity humility and patience of many by this fiery trial hath been made more conspicuous SECT 1. The words of the Letter Of the vile and virulent head the Pope 1. FIrstly hath not the long provoked Lord begun in this Island and in Ireland to pull down lowest that loose that lofty and lawlesse Church which the corrupt Clergie had lifted up highest namely the Oecumenical or Romane Catholick Church whereof the sinne-pardoning or rather soul-poysoning Pope was the Vile and Virulent head who was therefore and upon that account publickly declared and generally though not universally beleev'd to be a horrible Monster as well as a very abominable beast because of his ten hornes Witnesse what is written Revel 17.3.5 The Reply To what you say of the vile virulent head the Pope I assent and so did and do all Orthodox Divines of our English Church holding his claim to be Universal Bishop to be Anti-Christian profane proud foolish blasphemous by vertue whereof he doth ingrosse to himself full power and authority over all Christians in the world both Ecclesiastical and saecular the principal actions whereof are 1. To frame and set out for all Christians the rule of faith and good manners to point out the books of Canonical Scriptures and the traditionary word and to deliver the sense and interpretation thereof and to determine all controversies in religion with an unerring sentence 2. To prescribe and enact laws for the whole Church equally obliging the conscience to obedience with the divine Law 3. To exercise external power of directing and commanding and also of censure and correction of all Christians 4. To grant dispensations indulgences absolution from oaths and vows 5. To canonize Saints institute religious orders to deliver from Purgatory 6. To call and confirm general Councels 7. To dethrone and conculcate Kings c. All this we disclaim as well as you and you needed not have said that it begun in this Island and Ireland as if it begun with you for it begun more then one hundred years since assume not therefore that to your selves which was done to your hands to take down this head was the work of the National Church you so slight and had it not been done to your hands I doubt whether all the power you could make had ever been able to have done it And for this that head being of a revengeful nature hath ever since been plotting which way it might unroot us that unrooted it For the proof of this I shall acquaint you with what a friend acquainted me and others about five years since A good Protestant he is now but about 30. years before was as he confess'd reconciled to Rome by one Meredith an ancient and learned Jesuite for he was one of those that Dr. Featly had to deal with in France This man told him that in England they had been long and industrious about their work of conversion but it went on slowly and so would till they took a wiser course Two things there were that must be done before they should bring their businesse to a full effect They must first find a way to remove the Bishops and Ministers in whose room they must bring it so about that all should have liberty to preach Then secondly they must get down the Common Prayer book and suffer every man to use what prayer he list Thus much the man offer'd to make good upon his Oath before any Magistrate he should be call'd And now I pray tell me out of what shop do you think your work comes That generation are a sly subtle people as the devil they can transform themselves into an Angel of light If many printed books lye not there have been many among you and they know to insinuate their poyson under guilded pills Positions they have many like your's and beware least when you think you suck in the Truth you drink not poyson Verbum sat Sapienti They owe us a splene for casting off their head and they will never give over to seek a revenge We were the men that cut it off and take heed least unwittingly you set it not on again 'T is too true I speak it with grief they have won to their side in the time of our dissentions more proselites then they did in divers years before The Laws are now silent and any man may be now any thing so he be not an old Protestant of the Church of England that if he professe then there will be a quick eye upon him An Ordinance shall be sure to reach him which for ought I heard is but brutum fulmen to a Papist Boast not then of your taking down that same vile and virulent head the Pope when it is permitted to stand in more favour then a Protestant whose work hath been to take down that abominable beast with his ten horns as you call him SECT 2. The British King the Violent Head Mr. Matthews 2. SEcondly hath not Christ hid his face from and bent his brow against the National Church as being that very next naughtinesse Whereof the British King was although not an invincible yet a violent Head which was therefore lesse victorious and more vincible partly because the head not only of a very uncanonical but also of a very unspiritual corporation and partly because of the said national-corporations inconsistency with the Scripture precepts Matth. 18.17 1 Cor. 14.23 which doth require its ordinary congregating in one place seconded and aggravated by its notorious inconformity to the Scripture patterns Eph. 2.19.22 Philip. 2.15 Revel 5.9 where the Scripture Combinational Church is call'd not a whole nation but a holy City a growing Temple a Spiritual house or a sin-enlightning and a soul-enlivening Church gathered built framed cull'd and call'd out of and from a carnal and crooked nation which was both dark and darknesse it self witnesse what is written Ephes 5.8 The Reply That Christ hath hid his face from and bent his face against this National Church you have reason to lament and grieve and not to stand by and clap your hands at it Rather take up the Lamentation of David for Saul and Jonathan The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places how are the mighty fallen 2 Sam. 1.19.20 Tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon least the daughters of the Philistims rejoyce least the daughters of the uncircumcised Triumph c. Posterity will have cause to mourn when you and they shall be invaded and set upon by those uncircumcised Philistims of Rome who will smile at the armour wherein you trust and the speares you brandish against them as a dart of a bulrush 'T is not your Sophisms that will prevail with them nor your popular arguments that they will regard and they as smoke being vanished set upon you they will with armour of proof and so inviron you that
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
or out of order to be observed in the Parish meeting houses if there were never so full freedome from Communion-book-praying and from Homily-book-preaching as well as from Canon-book-swearing if all bare-heads were barr'd out from those places and utterly rejected for ever being any spiritual over-seers again afore they were inwardly qualified by Christs sinne-crucifying and soul-quickning Spirit in a clens'd conscience and also outwardly and orderly call'd by Christs Covenant-servants in a clensed Combinational Church If there were an unanimous voting down of all double-reading I mean that babbling-reading of two chapters which is not seconded with the opening and expounding of the same being it cannot but be confess'd that 't was such a course as is quite contrary to what is commanded and commended in the Scriptures of truth as all do well know that are acquainted with what is written Ezech. 33.2 Nehem. 8.8 Luk. 4.16 Act. 13.15 1 Cor. 14.23.24 If there were no news amongst them of any one relick of all the Romish rites or other humane inventions as Matrimonial bands Marriage Ring sign of the crosse white surplice quiristers singing funeral Sermons Idol-sureties of God-fathers and God-mothers or groundlesse application of publick or private baptisme unto the infants of profane Parents and if none but Christs own faithful friends and followers were admitted to be fed or physicked at his Supper feast Yet the meer sight of a Monarchical put to stand in the stead of a Ministerial Pulpit is a strange plea of a strange Apostacy from the commendable practice of the primitive Christians Seeing that such Coop is not of a sufficient capacity to contain at once any more persons then one Whereas it is of Moral equity and consequently of perpetual observation that a rightly reform'd Presbyterial Church should have all her Elders who are engaged by vertue of their Office to begin and end all the publick Ordinances and to transact all the open concernments of the City of God for to stand and sit together in the face and full view of the whole assembly and by so much the more seeing they are as plainly warranted and so punctually prescribed as they be to walk and to walk according to the pattern shewed in the Mount witnesse Exod 25.40 Act. 7.44 Heb. 8.15 And as in all other points so in this particular concerning the Elders pulpit they are tyed and limited by their Commission to hold conformitie with what is upon sacred Record as this is and that not only necessarily implyed but eminently expressed in several Scripture expressions as Neh. 8.4 Eccles 12.11 1 Tim. 4.14 Rev. 4.6 5.6 19.4 The Reply When I came to consider this place of your letter I was at a stand I paused a while not knowing what affections to stir in my self whither of mirth or mourning that humour of Democritus or the contrary of Heraclâ—tus I saw I had reason to make my self merry at your high profound rare admirable conceit But yet I had more cause to weep at this heinous and abominable wickednesse committed in the Parish meeting houses O unheard of villany O unsufferable wrong an expresse of the Luciferian pride The Monarchical Pue is exalted above the Ministerial Pulpit it is put in its place in stands in stead of it were there no other yet this were a strong plea of a strange Apostacy Quis audivit talia such an abomination ought not to be committed in Israel Consider of it take advice and speak your minds For this my soul shall mourn in secret Non feram non patiar non sinam All other injuries and abominations might have been passed by in comparison of this The Communion-book-praying might have been remitted The Homily-book-preaching might have been forgotten the Canon-book-swearing might have been buried the bare-headed Priests the babbling reading of two Chapters All the Romish rites the humane inventions the bands of Matrimony the Ring in Marriage the sign of the Crosse that smock of the Whore the Quiristers cherping the sermons at funerals and the rest of that trumpery might have been forgiven and pardoned had it not been for this presumptuous pue and narrow Coop For if there had been nothing amisse or out of order in these Parish meeting houses yet the meer sight of a Monarchical Pue suffer'd to stand in the stead of a Ministerial Pulpit is plea and argument strong enough that the Parish is Apostate not guilty of a small offence some venial sin or peccadillo but fallen from grace lapsed into that heinous guilt of Apostacy and degenerated from the practice of the Primitive Christians By this the Elders are kept out from taking the highest place in the Synagogues by this they are hindred to sit round about the throne by this they cannot sit on the right and left hand as Mother Zebedee desired for her children in Christs Kingdome by this they are excluded to stand and sit together in the face and full view of the whole assembly by which notice might be taken of them for prime and principal men and a fearful trembling might fall upon any of the Combination that should incur their indignation no otherwise then a Malefactour is terrified at the sight of his judge Away then with this same Monarchical pue this pinfold this coop since it is an obstruction and derogation to the Ministerial Pulpit and Elders Bench 't is a Remonstrance of Monarchy and a Relick of Popery and since Monarchy is thrown aside and Popery with it hew this also down and cast it into the fire So shall we have these meeting houses reformed and restored to their primitive constitution room made for the Elders to sit in their places that they may begin and end all the publick Ordinances and transact all the open concemments of the City of God This a rare device and at after I shall tell you what I think of it in the Interim I return to consider of your Ironical paraleipsis in which you make your self merry with many particulars the use of which you scoff at as abominations in the Parish meeting houses and the first of these was 1. The Communion-book-praying Touching this I shall only ask you whether you except against the whole or the parts Hooker Eccl. pol. lib. 5. Sect. 26.27 28. and when I see your exceptions I shall return my answer In the mean time I refer you to Mr. Hooker and to Dr. Hammonds tract in vindication of the Liturgy and view of the Directory but especially to Dr. Taylours Preface before his Collection of Offices least I should draw a line after Apelles 2. Homily-book-preaching St. Chrysostome calls all his Sermons Homilies and if you look into the Ancients those Lectures which they made to the people especially upon the Epistles and Gospels were call'd Homilies the word both in Greek and Latine authours is very ancient To the word therefore I see no reason you should except no more then preaching which in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies
and not otherwise and we have done The third place you alledge is Luke 4.16 where we finde that our Saviour read the Text of the Prophet Isaiah and applyed it and so much liberty shall be granted to any Minister if he be able to do it aright The Text was a Prophesie and every Prophesie is obscure till light by the opening of it be brought to it This did our Saviour and this do you and it shall not displease The reading of the Text may be proved from hence and the lawfulnesse of a Commentary or Exposition upon it but that necessity which you would enforce never This is still to be demonstrated The fourth place is Acts 13.15 Which no way proves what you intend for there we thus read after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying Ye men and brethren if you have any word of exhortation to the people say on then Paul stood up and said Men and brethren 1. Tremellius and Beza observe upon this place that first in their Synagogues there was the reading of the holy books that is the Law and the Prophets which they divided into so many Sections as there were Sabbaths in the year and to every Section out of Moses applyed a Section out of some Prophet that was most agreeable unto it These readings then could not be very short for otherwise they could not go through the whole in one year 2. These readings being ended then a Master of the Synagogue they had who gave liberty to preach Upon which Aretius notes that Admonemur hic observandum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modestiam in proponenda doctrina quod non observant spiritus phanatici qui solent passim discurrere more furiosorum quosvis caetus interturbare suis clamoribus sine certa vocatione 3. It appears not here that Saint Paul preached upon any part of Moses or the Prophets that was then read neither was he moved by the Ruler of the Synagogue to do it but only to make an exhortation So that you can never conclude from this place that the Scripture may not be read except expounded Your last place is out of 1 Cor. 14.23 24. which makes lesse to your purpose then any of the rest the words are If therefore the whole Church be come together in one place and all speak with tongues and there come in those that are unlearned and unbelievers will he not say that ye are mad But if all prophesie and there come in one that believeth no or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all The Apostle in this Chapter shews some inconveniences that might happen even upon that gift which then God bestowed viz. an ability to speak divers languages That in this verse is that this their confused ostentation of tongues might alienate two sorts of people the weaker Christians whom he calls Idiots and those who were not yet converted whom he calls unbeleevers For put case that any of these should come into the Congregation and hear them speak confusedly in unknown languages would he not say you were mad for mad men do use to babble that which no man understands but sober men clear words which are intelligible But in Prophesie now there is no such inconvenience to be feared but the quite contrary profit to be expected For if it happen that all in the Church Prophesie that is out of the Oracles of God declare his justice and wrath against sinne his mercy toward the penitent shall enlarge themselves about the true worship of God the obedience and pious life that ought to be in Christians of sanctification of justification by Christ of eternal life a life of joy to the good and believers of a life of pain to wicked men and Infidels These or the like being heard from your mouths Infidels and unlearned men will say God is in you indeed i. e. that you never speak so aptly and wisely of such divine things but by assistance and motion of Gods Spirit This being now the genuine sense of the words I put it to your self to judge whether you can any fair way deduce your conclusion from them That there was then such who did instruct the people and preach unto them all necessary points of salvation may easily be collected from hence and that God bestowed upon them extraordinary abilities to performe that duty But that Scripture may never be read except expounded he that can conclude from hence I shall say that he may as quickly gather that an Ape being like a man in something therefore he is a man The words of the Letter IF there were no news amongst them of any Romish Rites or humane inventions as Matrimonial Bands Marriage-Rings signe of the Crosse white Surplice Quiristers singing Funeral Sermons Idol-sureties of God-fathers and God-mothers c. The Reply Romish Rites are of two sorts either such as are used by the Church of Rome and were of Ancient use in other Churches or such as are meerly Romane taken up and used in the Romish Church after it began to degenerate and was corrupted All those that are of this kinde we have exploded not only because there might be superstition in them but also because they were superfluous burdonsome and full of vanity and folly Those of the first kinde and such are those of which you speak because we have found them of perpetual use in the Catholick Primitive Church we yet retain Hook Eccl. pol. lib. 4. Sect. 3. ad 10. Now whether every Ceremony be to be abolished because it is in use among the Papists be pleased to consult with Mr. Hooker and he will resolve you that it is not And indeed if this were not true we might not kneel and lift up our hands and eyes at our prayers nor enter reverently into the house of God nor put our hand on the book when we take an oath nor sit in our Pues in the Churches when we hear nor preach upon any portion of Scripture because the Papists do so Evident then it is that Ceremonies are not to be excluded quâ Romish but as they have some other vitiousnesse adherent to them 2. Oh but these are humane constitutions that may be granted and yet the Rite nere the worse nor the lesse to be regarded About this point read again Mr. Hookers three first books of Ecclesiastical policy and he will satisfie any man that lists not to be contentious Synod of New Engl. cap. 1. The distinction is your own there are some things essential and some things circumstantial in Religion what is of the essence of it is immutable and must be prescribed by the word but what is circumstantial is circumscribed with general limitations according to the nature of the things themselves and civil Church custome 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 It lies
Baal Joshua 5. c. howbeit they remained the sheep of his flock in the depth of their disobedience and those very children they offered unto Moloch were his sonnes and his daughters born to him Jer. 13.11 Ezek. 16.20 Hic children because born within the Covenant of which they yet retained the seal Let it be shewed that ever the child of any wicked Jew was uncircumcised or therefore not admitted to be circumcised because his father was wicked And certainly there is so much strength in the instance of circumcision Josh 5. for this large right of Ordinances from Covenant relation that it will hold out against all that can be said against it 3. Those who have a right to the Covenant have also a right to the seal But Christian children have a right to the Covenant therefore a right to the seal The Major is manifest in reason for it were a strange thing to say a man had right to Land and yet had no right to the evidences and the seals of the Writings by which that Land was conveyed over unto him Minor probatur But Christian children have a right to the Covenant be the Parents never so ungracious Gen. 17.7 Ishmael circumcised and Esau Acts 2.38 To you and to your seed among whom were Ananias Sapphyra Simon Magus But thus I prove it yet more clearly Those who are holy have a right to the Covenant 1 Cor. 7.14 This is granted But children of Believing Parents are holy Therefore c. You can in this Minor except only at two terms beleeving and holy and I shall justifie both For perhaps you may say Idolatours profane persons are no beleevers but you are mistaken for in the number of beleevers they are to be accompted till they renounce their faith The denomination of a beleever is as well derived from a right object beleeved as from the holinesse of the subject beleeving And I have my ground for this out of the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.14 Where the unbeleeving husband is said to be sanctifyed by the beleeving wife where beleeving and unbeleeving and opposite terms and therefore as by unbeleeving you are to understand a 〈◊〉 by a beleeving wife you are to understand a Christian who might 〈◊〉 guilty for ought you know of some of those sinnes for which Saint Paul 〈◊〉 the Corinthians and yet because she was a Professour of Christianity and within the visible Church therefore he saith your children are holy 2. Holy which is the other terme which being not possibly to be understood of inherent holinesse because the child of the best Saint at his birth is no more holy than another there being an equal guilt of original sinne upon both must be understood of a relative holinesse that is as they who stand in relation to the Covenant into which they are actually admitted by Baptisme And then again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean are in Saint Peters sense Acts 10.14 the Gentiles such who might not be received into the Church and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy being such as are opposed to it must necessarily signifie those children who may be admitted Lastly if this were not the importance of that place there were no priviledge imaginable no sanctity which could be attributed to the infants of Christians which could not belong to the infants of Heathens which is affirmed of the one and denyed of the other by the Apostle Lastly They who by their iniquity lost not their right and priviledge in the Covenant cannot be the occasion that their children lose it But profane persons lose not their right as I proved before because notwithstanding their iniquity they remain still Members of the visible Church therefore there is no reason for their sakes their seed and children should lose their right Divers other reasons I could give you for this did I not study brevity Our application then of Baptisme to the children of profane persons is not groundlesse but hath its foundation in that gracious Covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed which was extended to the whole Church of Christ whither invisible or visible which last because it takes in all professours as well as believers their seed also no less then the other as they have a right to the Covenant so also have they a right to the seals of the Covenant may be baptized and admitted to the Lords Supper whatever you think to the contrary To Baptisme you would have no children of profane persons admitted supposing they have lost their priviledge and to the Supper of the Lord none but his faithful friends and followers For thus you say 2. If none but Christs faithful friends and followers were admitted to be fed and physick'd at his Supper Feast The Reply That all who come to be fed and physick'd at the Lords Supper were Christs faithful friends and followers is as much desired by us as can be by you and as much endeavoured by us as can be by you Why is it else that the Church hath prefixed those several exhortations before the Communion in which the negligent are checked and excited to their duty the presumptuous scandalous and obstinate sinners presented with their danger and punishment if they approach unworthily in their sinnes all that come exhorted to judge themselves to repent them truly of their sinnes past and amend their lives To have a lively and stedfast faith in Christ our Saviour to be in perfect charity with all men and above all things to give humble and hearty thanks to God the Father the Sonne and Holy Ghost for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of his Sonne and for the institution and ordination of the holy mysteries What rules can you give beyond these or what cautions can you prescribe that if observed can make men worthy communicants All this you will easily grant but of all this you will have a certain knowledge before you admit of any and that knowledge shall be grounded upon their conjunction with your Combinational Church and the Covenant then entred not with the Covenant God made with Abraham So that uncharitably you exclude all those who have right unto the seal by the tenour of Gods Covenant except he have a new acquired right arising from your Covenant also These I know you mean by Christs faithful friends and followers and none but these your practice shews you would have admitted That then the mists may be dispelled and the mistakes rectifyed that have prevailed too farre about the admission to and exclusion from the Lords Table necessary it is that we distinguish between the right which any man hath to this seale and the use that a man may make of his right and how he may be debarred of it 1. The right that any man hath to this or any other Ordinance of God ariseth out of the Covenant of God made with Abraham and his seed Mr. Humphryes that is with the visible Church so that
house of prayer not preaching which took so well in the Elder times that all their Temples were called by the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oratories Prov. 15.18 29 Nay the Preacher himself Solomon I mean is so confident of a just mans prayer that it is Gods delight nay more he heareth or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is obedient if I may so say to it And it well may seem to be so for when all the preaching of Lot could prevaile no otherwise than to bring vexation to his righteous soul the prayers of Abraham might have saved Sodome if among so many thousands there might have been found but tenne just men By this I have said it is not my purpose to detract any thing from preaching but considering the age we live in that we should so far moderate our opinion of the Pulpit that we disdain not the Pue that we beware lest by magnifying preaching we bring not discredit and disadvantage upon necessary prayer Lastly whereas you say that this Pue justled out the Pulpit that was erected by the Primitive Christians I beleeve you would be very hard put to it to prove that then there was either Pue or Pulpit in any common use among them for how could it be when Temples and Churches were thinly erected the greatest part of Christians under the tenne bloody persecutions meeting where they could and sometimes in Caves and Grots to serve God The first Testimony that looks this way I read in Cyprian and yet that will make more for the Pue than the Pulpit Cypr. Ep. 34. Pamm edit since to the place of a Reader Cyprian had admitted Celerinus as he in that Epistle gives notice to the Clergy and people of Carthage Hunc illustrem quid aliud quam super Pulpitum id est super Tribunal Ecclesiae oportebat imponi ut loci altioris celsitate subnixus plebi universae pro honoris claritate conspicuus legat praecepta Evangelium Domini c. The Pulpit in this place he calls the Tribunal of the Church being a word borrowed from the Romane custome who were wont from some higher seat or raised place jus dicere Tribubus To this seat Celerinus was advanced and yet he was no more but to read the tenne Commandments for ought I know and the Gospel for Cyprians words are restrained Ut legat praecepta Evangelium Domini which office if he well performed then indeed he might be promoted higher for so it follows Viderit an sit ulterior gradus ad quem profici in Ecclesia possit Nihil est in quo confessor magis fratribus-prosit quam ut dum Evangelica lectio de ore ejus auditur quam ut lectoris fidem quisquis audierit invitetur jungendus in lectione Aurelio fuerat c. where you meet with another Reader that you have in the lesse contempt these taile of Readers as you have blasted them nor the Pue out of which they read for that may be the Pulpit as you see in Cyprian and yet the name nere the more profaned When these two became distinct you had best enquire for to me it appears not Late I beleeve both were brought into the Greek Church Walfridus Strabo de Rev. Eccl. cap. 6. Germanus in Hist Eccl. because they have no other word for a Pulpit but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is pure Latine derived ab ambiendo quia intrantem ambit cingit And it was first of stone as are many of our old Pulpits in the Ancientest of our Churches at this day But that 's not material You must shew that among the Primitive Christians the Ministerial Pulpit was before the Pue which for ought I see might be all one again that this Pue after it was brought in justled out the Pulpit which you know among us it did not for we were contented both should stand together and have their several uses Or say that all you charge us withal had been done the Pue set up in the Pulpits place will this prove that this had been a strong plea of a strange Apostasie from the practice of the Primitive Christians I have alwayes thought that Apostacy had lyen in doctrine or in manners in either of these when men degenerate they may in some sense be called Apostates but if they shall change a Pue into a Pulpit or a Pulpit into a Pue to lay to their charge Apostacy for this is what I never heard before and am confident I shall never hear again But you go on The words of the Letter SEeing that such Coope is not of a sufficient capacity to contain at once any more persons than one The Reply And this exception lyes as strong against your Ministerial Pulpit where your Preacher the Cock that crows there is as much cooped up as is the Reader in our Pue at once I know you will allow but one Cock in it and pity it is it should be of greater capacity to contain more Apolog. de cato gallo one being sufficient to disturb a house The words of the Letter WHereas it is of moral equity and consequently of perpetual observation that a rightly c. The Reply What 's this I read here moral equity and the consequent upon it perpetual observation If you would have studied for an Axiome to undo your own cause you could not have found out such another I wonder why we contend all this while about Rites Ceremonies indifferent things instituted for decency and order in the Church where the governours of the Church as is proved before out of your New Englands constitutions might ordain them to those ends Now it is but moral equity that in all lawful things we obey our Superiours and consequently of perpetual observation Talk no more then hereafter of a Surplice of Banes of a Ring of a Pue of a Pulpit and such trifles for equity and morality require that they be observed Arraign us for observation of Rites and Ceremonies moral equity is our Tutour and hath taught us to embrace them This I have seen to happen to all men that struggle against the truth to let fall at unawares some such words which will wound if not destroy that cause they seek most to defend Magna est veritas praevalebit Mr. Matthews THat a rightly Reformed Presbyterial Church should have all her Elders who are engaged by vertue of their Office to begin and end all the publick Ordinances and to transact all the open concernments of the City of God The Reply These words I understand not well because I know not your practice but if it be consonant to the sound of these lines I finde a very deep engagement lyes upon the Elders for what are they ex officio bound to begin and end all the publick Ordinances to transact all the open concernments of the City of God This is a very high charge and a large power for the Ordinances
you the sole wise men were all men blinde till you arose Besides 't is not long since there was an Oath and a Covenant eagerly pressed and then the Covenanters served themselves with these Texts then they sounded in our ears these words of Jeremy Come let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Then the people were terrifyed with the words of Ezekiel I will cause you to passe under the rod and will bring you into the bond of the Covenant Then the Covenant of Moses of Joshua of Asa of Josiah of Nehemiah in a word all places that mentioned a Covenant were pressed and urged to attest the necessity of that Oath What is now Gods Word become a ship-mans hose that it may be worn on either side what Presbyterians and Combinationals justifie their way from the same Texts this cannot be for if it serve one it will not serve the other if it serve to prove a National Covenant as that was it will never prove a Combinational since these two are disparata and admit no reconciliation no more then a National and Combinational Church can be one One of you 't is certain juggle with us and go about to impose upon us and the truth is you do both so as shall appear upon farther examination A custome it was among the Jews when they had revolted from God to Idols solemnly to renew their first Covenant with him and to take him to be their God renouncing all other and to be his people and observe his Laws which gave occasion to all the former practices In Jeremies time for their Idolatry especially the Jews were to be carried into Captivity but the Prophet in this Chapter and the next foretells the ruine of the Babylonians their severe Masters and their return which when it came to passe then saith he they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward c. It then cannot be denyed but this Text must primarily be understood of the Jews and if ever it were literally fulfilled it was when in Nehemiahs dayes Nehem. 9.38 10.28 29. the Princes Levites Priests made and wrote and sealed the Covenant in which the people engaged wiih them and let me tell you that the Jews in the principal point ever after kept this Covenant and so it may well be called perpetual for after their return from Babel though they were divided into divers Sects to the corruption of sincere Religion and were guilty of many other abominations yet no man can charge them with the worship of strange gods Of the Jews then these words were spoken and in them verifyed and cannot be applyed to the Christian Church any other way but by the way of accommodation For say I shall allow you that the Jewish Church was the type of the Christian then the Christian must be the antitype and what then will you gain by it except the overthrow of your own cause for the antitype must every way resemble the type which in this it will not For this Covenant was voluntary Come say they let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant You presse necessity upon mens consciences this explicite Covenant is the essential form of a Combinational Church so that no Covenant no Member of the Church to which Christ hath promised salvation The Covenant in which the Jews engaged was of the whole Nation yours is of a selected people in a Nation They the whole Corporation of them notwithstanding this Covenant continued to be a National Church went up to Jerusalem at their solemn Feasts separated not into private divisions and subdivisions You by your Covenant are enemies to all National Churches make it a distinctive note not of true and sincere worshippers from Idolatours but of those which professe the same faith with you from those of your Congregation that I say not you have as many Covenants as there be factions and fractions among you That every good Christian daily come up closer to his God by joyning in a perpetual Covenant and by renewing his vow made in his Baptisme to renounce to beleeve and obey I exceedingly approve But that this cannot be done except he enter a new Covenant in your Congregation or that he is bound to do it or can be no Member of a visible Church I shall never believe for mark what will follow upon it First there must be a dissolution made of all the reformed Churches of Christendome that there may be way made for this new erection for the Covenant sealed to their Members in Baptisme will not serve the turn till they have a new admission and matriculation by this seal and engagement Then again consider what countenance is hereby given to the whole order of Romane Votaries which to me seem very like to so many Combinational Churches in that every order have their particular statutes to the observation of which they tye all they take into their societies and upon the Vow and Covenant made they are admitted Only that in this they are a little more charitable than you are that they acknowledge such as are out of their fraternities for good Christians and Members of the Catholick Church But you judge those who are not of one or other of your Combinations to be Members of no Church And this is all you have gained by your Text of Jeremy I now come to that of the Prophet Ezekiel 20.37 where we thus read And I will cause you to passe under the rod and I will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant The full scope of this place is at ver 33. a promise made to the Jews that they should be gathered under the Gospel To this end God tells them that I will cause you to passe under the rod which whether it signifies a sharp affliction in which the Jews we know have had their share or else a trial by the rod as a Shepherd doth his flock as was used in decimation I cannot say if thls last then the sense is I will reject the bad and choose the good Jun. in loc Levit. 27.32 and will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant or as Junius reads it in exhibitionem foederis I will impart the Covenant of the Gospel unto you and all the blessings and promises of that Covenant as it is here amplifyed in the 45. ver Now let any man which is not swaid with prejudice judge whether any thing can be picked from hence that can countenance your assertion What is the Covenant that God hath made with his people in the Gospel of no longer extent than the Combinational Church Out of this Covenant I know none can be saved without your Combinational Covenant I know they may or else heaven before you rose would be very empty and the time since you rose being not long you have not sent many thither Monopolize not then thus the mercies of God to your selves and ingrosse not
the bounty of the Covenant to your own Churches lest you damn all the World besides I must tell you the Covenant of God with man will stand and be made good were there nere a Combinational Church in the world he can cause his people to passe under the rod and bring them into the Bond of the Covenant without conducting them through that new way of your Combinational Church This place then makes nothing at all for you and it is a plain fallacy to argue à genere ad speciem by which you collect that what is spoken in general of the Covenant must be understood of your Covenant just as if a man should collect est substantia ergo est corpus Your third place is out of Isa 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel As if all this could not be done but within the walls of your meeting houses As if none could surname himself an Israelite or subscribe with his hand Jehovae sum but he must enter your Combination Interpreters have not thus restrained these words I omit many of the Ancients and make choice of the Moderns not Junius not Piscator not Sculetus they unanimously teach that under the Gospel every one should subscribe and professe them sons and servants of God sons of the Church and Christians who are called the sons of Jacob and Abraham Rom. 4.11 12. 11.26 Gal. 3.29 6.16 and Scultetus so applies it Sic hodie omnes reformatae Ecclesiae mente confessione adjungimus nos Catholithae illâ— Ecclesiae piorum Jacobitarum Israelitarum ubi per orbem sint dispersi See then what injury you do the Reformed Churches Sculâ—et in loc and how far you are from their judgment They could be content to be joyned to the Catholick dispersed all the world over they thought that enough to make them Israelites you are more strait laced they must be no Israelites with you no parts of the Church except they be joined by a Covenant together in your Combination But remember in these words of the Prophet there is no mention at all of a Covenant and therefore it makes nothing at all to your purpose From the Old Testament you come to the New and the first place you bring is Acts 2.47 And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Till you have made these two propositions good that the Church here mentioned is the Combinational Church and that this Church was joined together in such a Covenant as you imagine I see not to what end you should produce it when that is done you shall receive my answer In the mean time I shal tell you what you might well have collected from hence that ordinarily there is no salvation to be had out of the Catholick Church therefore it is the mercy of God by the Ministry of the Word to adde daily to it such as shall be saved These conclusions are rightly drawn but to assert God added to the Church daily such as should be saved therefore they that will be saved must be Members of a Combinational Church therefore added by your Formal Covenant savours neither of Logique nor Charity Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Reply The farther I go still the weaker I finde your proofs and I heartily wish that you would not deceive those who are weak in the faith with such shews being those little birds that are over eager to peck at your painted grapes such you present here in colours laid over with your own Art for there was Art in it in figures to point me to the Chapter and Verse and not at full to cite the words as indeed you have done in all the rest which had you produced it would have at first amaz'd a Reader to finde out your Riddle or what was to be found in them there being no syllable of Church or Covenant that might be useful to you in this debate as it did me till at last I cast my eye upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive him for than I began to think that that might be it and that from it you would conclude that a man weak in the faith must be received into the Combinational Church but that methought could not well be it neither since the man about whom the precept is given is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a weak and sickly Christian whereas all those that you receive must be healthy strong Christians no Babes but Men all tryed and approved for regenerate persons Bayly pag. 134. such of whom every Member of the Church may be fully satisfyed in the truth of the grace that is in them Cottons way pag. 7. and the sutablenesse of their spirits with the Spirit of the Church All this considered I could not tell what to make of your allegation and I was once resolved to let it passe without any farther examination But being desirous to remove every scruple I thought it best fully to open the Apostles intent and meaning in this Chapter which being cleared the mist you brought over it would easily vanish Though the Apostle inscribes his Epistle to the Romans yet among them there were many natural Jews dispersed thither who could not be disswaded easily from the Mosaical abstinences but continued their obligation to the Law even after they had received the Christian Faith There were also among these some who were Proselytae portae who were bound to observe the seven Commandments of Noah but being not circumcised were not strictly bound to observe the Law of Moses Christians both these were in the positive part acknowledging so much as was required by the new Articles of the Creed c. yet in the negative part they were not they held the Judaical Law not to be evacuated and so weak and feeble some of these were in the faith that lest they should offend in eating forbidden flesh some would eat no flesh at all and came to eat nothing but herbs About these sick these weak Ver. 2. these scrupulous these tender-hearted and lesse-instructed Christians the Apostle gives these directions First that the stronger and healthier more orthodox and knowing do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assume and take them to them First friendly to afford them communion and not to separate from them for this errour next to labour to cure their malady get them out of their mistake Thirdly that they do not vilifie them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 3. set them at naught as if they were senslesse empty fellows Lastly that they be not over contentious and hot in disputations with them for though they erre yet they were not to be disquieted but to be informed and tolerated God hath received him ver 3. who then art
Councils who have been hitherto received with so much veneration by the whole Church of God For in every one of these we finde the Heresies and the Heretiques censured In that of Nice Arius and Arianisme in that of Constantinople Eunomius Arius Macedonius Photinus Apollinarius and their Heresies in that of Ephesus Nestorius and Nestorianisme in that of Chalcedâ—n Dioscorus Eutyches Caranza in his Council and Eutychianisme I verily beleeve these grave Fathers the flower then of the Christian world renowned for piety honoured for learning and integrity would never have ventured to have passed so dreadful a Censure upon any mans person had they not been verily perswaded that from the Word of God they had a sufficient warrant to authorize them unto it I shall shut up this point when I have told you that it seemes to me very unreasonable that a few met together as in a Congregational Church they cannot be many should have a priviledge to do that which the Catholique Church assembled in a general Council should not be able to do or if they did should be noted with the black Character of usurpation or presumption and so much of this I come next to that corruption which you say was brought upon your Combinational or Presbyterial Church by the Parochial Of which your words are these that follow SECT IV. The words of the Letter Mr. Matthews THE first rise of the rottening of the Church was its falling from the pure poor Presbyterial Church which in respect of its primitive constitution was composed made up of living stones namely lively Members and laborious Ministers being fastly and firmly knit unto the Lord Jesus as their only head by faith and one to the other by a fraternal Covenant of fervent love according to the pattern which was proposed prescribed in both Testaments Is 44.5 Jer. 50.5 Ezek. 20.37 Zach. 11.7 10 14. 2 Cor. 8.5 Ephes 2.13 19 22. Col. 2.2 19. 1 Pet. 2.5 into an impure unpolished parochial Church At that time when ceasing to elect or ordain a Teacher a Pastour a Ruler a Deacon or Diaconesse or Widow in conformity to the heavenly Canon Rom. 12.7 15.4 16.1 compared with 1 Tim. 3.1 and Titus 1.5 6. it was well content to admit and accept of a Parson a Vicar a Warden an Over-seer of the poor and a Mid-wife By which wisdome of the flesh being no better then enmity against God within a short time after the dayes of the Apostles Christs spiritual house as well growing and living Temple was turned and transformed into a carnal and dead Town or Apostatizing Parish The very beginning and breeding of which Parochial Church is seen to have been in the time of Polycarp and Irenaeus one of them being an Elder of the Church at Smyrna and a disciple of John the Evangelist and the other a Pastour at Lyons and a disciple of that Polycarp as any man may easily perceive that will peruse what is to be observed in Eusebius his Ecclesiastical history lib. 4. c. 14. 15. lib. 5. cap. 23. 24. The Reply That my answer may be the clearer to what you here propose I shall cast your words into this method For first I will consider of 1. The constitution and description you give us here of your Presbyterial Church and the proofs you bring for it out of both Testaments 2. Whether the rottening of this Church was the falling of it from a poor pure Presbyterial Church into an impure unpolish'd Parochial Church 3. Whether your assertion be true that when it ceased to elect or ordain either a Teacher a Pastour a Ruler a Deacon Deaconesse or Widow in conformity to the Canon Rom. 12.15 16. 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1.5 but admitted of a Parson Vicar c. that then it was corrupted and became an Apostatizing Parish 4. Whether the beginning and breeding of this Apostacy and corruption began in Polycarps and Iraeneus dayes These four points being examined the weaknesse of your aspersion will very evidently appear And first to the first 1. You say That the Presbyterial Church in respect of its Primitive constitution was composed and made up of living stones namely lively members c. NOw here I must put you in minde of an old Proverb Cantherius in porta For you stumble in your first setting out and go about to impose upon me by a fallacy which if you will not grant I shall clearly deny your description for you discourse à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter I am confident you will not deny but your Presbytyrial Church is a part of Christs Militant Church visible with us on earth And that is compared to a Net in which be good and bad fish to a field in which are wheat and tares to a Barn-floor in which is Corn and Chaffe to a house in which are vessels of honour and dishonour Your visible Presbyterial Church for ought I know then must be like all other Churches have in it professours as well as true beleevers hypocrites as well as sincere worshippers which if you should deny I would ask you whether the Church Acts 2. or any that the Apostles planted were Presbyterial Churches or not If they were not there was never any if they were then there may be hypocrites and profane persons in them For in those we read of Ananias Sapphyra Simon Magus Hymineus Alexander Demas Diotrophes the Nicolaitans and those that said they were Apostles and were not How then was the Primitive Church composed and made up of none but living stones Here then lies the fallacy à dicto secundum quid The Church in respect of the Elect who to us are invisible that belong unto the mystical body of Christ is composed of living stones namely lively members c. and thus much those texts you produce very strongly prove But the Church as it is Militant and visible of which you must speak because you speak of a Presbyterial Church comprehends all sorts in it who though they be true real and univocal parts of the visible body yet they are but aequivocal parts of the mystical and to them your description belongs not To argue then from the part to the whole is a fallacy Some in the Presbyterial Church are living stones therefore the whole Presbyterial Church is in its Primitive constitution composed of these is fallacious We grant that it were earnestly to be wish'd and all lawful means would be diligently used both by Pastour and people to have all the members of a Church most holy and gracious But to say a Church hath no right constitution where all the members are not such is a foule errour For never yet was their any Church of such a constitution not the Domestical under the fathers not the Jewish or National under Moses not the Christian under the Apostles themselves and therefore assume not that to your Presbyterial Church which yet never was in any nor never shall be All Churches as visible