the illumination of grace and reason so likewise are they most reationally and with great Justice and Piety disengaged not only from a pretended Infallible Tribunal but also from the Tyranny of such dependance or submission to an Authority subject to errour AS to the Assertion of the Synod of Charenton that the Sect of the Independants opens the door to all manner of Irregularities and Extravagances that Assertion I say seems plausible at the first as in truth it is not only plausible but most reasonable in matters purely Civil in which if there were not a last Resort and Refuge and Appeal from Court to Court in the Territories of a Soveraign there would be as many Courts erected Independant one on the other not only as there are Families but as there are private persons Which inconvenience is not one in matters of Religion Faith Doctrine and Divine Worship in which the Conscience of every one is the last resort wherein the business is to be judged without any further Appeal and where none ought to be constrained but exhorted and perswaded A Synod is to perswade a particular Church to embrace such a Faith but it hath neither right nor power to force it Now a particular Church is to do the same as to one of its Members and if it carries any constraint with it it no longer acts as a Church and as an Assembly of Christians and faithfulâ— people but as a Magistrate at least like an Arbiter and Judge to whom Jesus Christ sent the planteth in the eighteenth Chapter of St. Matthew in these words tell it to the Church that is to say tell it to an Assembly which had neither any Court nor any power nor Jurisdiction and where the party intimated mightly decline or refuse the Judgement without damage as it appears by those words of Jesus Christ if he dres not hearken to the Church For by these words let him be unto thee c. Jesus Christ does not command the Church to proceed to an Excommunication of that party that has done the wrong but he advises the offended party to cite the other who has deprived himself of the quality of a Brother before the natural Judges as well of the Publicans as of the Heathens the one being the Ministers of the State and the other being of the Religion of the Emperour In short the Church as such and considered as Christians and honest men hath no more jurisdiction that a Colledge of Philosophers CHAP. IV. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a Conformity of Faith with the other Reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of Discipline Of the veneraiton they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and Discipline THE design of producing their Confession of Faith is to shew that it is the very Masterpiece of an extreamly juditious Government and as it was the work of persons most perfect in the Study of Divinity the principal design they had in the composition of their Confession was to declare and testifie to the World that altho every Church might take the liberty to differ from others in discipline they ought nevertheless to labour above all things to retain and keep the same faith in matters that are essential with all the Reformed Churches This is what the Congregational party have done with great care and circumspection in the making of their Confession for beside that they do but a very little differ from that of the Presbyterians and that they do not at all divide from them but in matter of Discipline they have also indeavoured to have their Faith conformable to the Doctrine of the Church of England and as to their Discipline it is very simple and naked they have no other than that which Saint Paul gives in three words to wit That every thing in the Church should be done Decently and in Order They have especially had an eye to the practice of the Churches under the good Roman Emperors under Constantine Theodosius Martianus and Justinian under whom they kept a strict uniformity in Faith and that correspondence was maintained by letters which they called Literae Testimoniales Circulares Ecclesiasticae Formatae tho otherwise they took the liberty to differ one from another even under one and the same Emperour in Discipline in Customes and in Ceremonies Saint Austin Epist ad Tanuarium 119. Epist 86. ad Casulanum Presbyterum permits any Church to differ from others in Ceremonies and in manner of Government provided that they agree with them in Unity of Faith The Historian Socrates libr. 5. cap. 21. tells us that there was not to be found two Churches in all the Roman Empire which observed one and the same form of Prayers to God The Jesuit Mainbourg how zealous soever he is to the Uniformity of Rome in his Doctrine and discipline yet he ceases not to say and to maintain that the diversity of usages customes and practices is compatible with the unity of Faith One ought not says he never to separate for the diversity and customes which may be different the one from the other without the wounding the Vnity of Faith Pag. 303. of his third book of the Treatise of Schism among the Grecians I have read as much in a great Lawyer it is Godefrey the Son Certissima olim fidei contesseratio erat unà Eucharistiam sâ—mere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebantur non in eadem disciplina sed fidâ— WE must also do them this justice that there are no Doctors who have a greater Veneration for the Doctrine and memory of Caloin nor who desire with more ardent zeal to have a strict and close Communion with the Churches which follow the Doctrine of that holy man than their Pastors altho they believe that they may have as I have said the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline without thinking themselves guilty either of separation or schism CHAP. V. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally Establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church 'T IS a great wrong and injury done to the Independants to affirm that they condemn Synods since on the contrary they Establish the true use of them as the Bishop of Condom who hath more charity for them than other Synods and our Divines acknowledge The Independants says he do not refuse to embrace and comply with the decisions of Synods when after they have duely examined them they find them not unreasonable that which they refuse to do is to submit their Judgement to that of any Assembly or Society subject to errour THE Independants argue as Mr. Pajon does Though Jesus Christ himself says he should come down from Heaven to dwell on the earth again with all the rayes of Glory that are roand about him to teach us and to guide and direct us yet it would be impossible for us
Seth for so must be understood the last Verse of the fourth Chapter of Genesis when men began to call upon the name of the Lord that from his time the Children of God began to form themselves into particular Congregations and to separate from those that ran after the World and its vanities and to be called the Children of God or of Jehova and to pay their adorations to him as to their Creator and Benefactor The family of Noah and his Ark was a Congregational Church which God had separated from all the rest of the World The family of Job that of Abraham Josuah Samuel were Independant Churches Palestine was full of them as Maimonides tells us and they were truly Independant because they neither had any thing to do with the national Church nor with its tribunal nor Sanhedrim And so likewise the Guides who were called Prophets Seers and Doctors were not of the tribe of Levi but of another tribe and it is from those that the Doctors of the Law came which Jesus Christ speaks of the Scribes the Pharisees and the Esseni They called their Societies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Colledges houses of Prayer and Synagogues where they did not attend upon the Levitical Worship but on Prayer exhortation and the expounding of the Law and we see the first establishment of them in the first Verses of the three and twentieth Chapter of Leviticus they were distant one from the other the space of a Sabbath day's Journey they were nearer one another whilest they stayed in the Wilderness and were then called Tents as were those of Corah Dathan and Abiram which were also Independant Churches David calls the Congregation that he frequented Sanctuary where he consulted the mouth of God about his being healed from his prejudices against the dispensation of God towards the generation of good men who were often times under the Rod and in affliction whilest the wicked were in prosperity and in the 87 Psalm he speaks of the esteem that he had for those Congregations or houses of Prayer which he did set forth by the Tents of Jacob although that which he had for the Ark or for the gates of Zion and for his propitiatory were greater To conconclude the seven thousand men that had not bowed their knee to Baal were Independant Churches for it cannot be thought that so great a number of persons could assemble together in one place and that too in a time of so great persecution THERE were of them in the time of Jesus Christ for the Apostolical Colledge was an Independant Church and in his time two or three persons assembled in his name made a Church as also sayes Tertullian ubi tres ibi Ecclesia etiamsi Laici Immediately after the Ascention of Jesus Christ the first Assembly of Christians in Jerusalem was Independant and that where Cornelius and his family were assembled was a Congregational Church of which St. Peter was the Pastor for some days Philemon had one of them in his house Those of whom Pliny the younger speaks Epist 97. libr. 10. were others of them Affirmabant hanc fuisse summam vel erroris vel culpae quod soliti essent stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem seque Sacramento ne in Scelus aliquod obstringere sed ne furta ne latrocinia ne Adulteria committerent ne sidem fallerent ne depositunt appellati abnegarent Tertullian libr. de Coron Milit. adds that it was the Custome in those Assemblies before day to Celebrate the holy Supper The Independant Churches of England at least some of them are formed after this Model and exact from their Members that they shall abstain from those crimes of which Pliny makes mention NOW that custome of the Christians in the time of Pliny which exacted from the Members of their Churches a life perfectly exemplary stops the mouths of those who turn into rallery the Independant Assemblies because they only do admit of those that are holy and in whom they find the marks and signs of Regeneration and who oblige themselves by Oath or verbal promise to abstain from those crimes that Pliny here has reckoned up or to undergo the Penalty set according to the discipline of the Church ALSO that custome of the Christians testifies that besides the numerous Churches as for instance that of Corinth which consisted of several thousands where it could not be otherwise but that there must be a good number of Hereticks and debauched and loose persons there were established other Congregational taken out of the great Church whereof the Members were more holy and more Orthodox and who resembled those whom Pliny speaks of and those Stations which Tertullian mentions where beside the publick Assemblies some families set a part by themselves one day of the week to fasting to prayer and other exercises of Piety and also to the Celebration of the holy Supper and this is what they frequently practised and with good edification for it is with small Churches as with small States little Republicks Families particular Synods of twenty five or thirty persons wherein it is much more easie to establish a good order and to bring those who are of it unto the practise of good manners and life than in great States in great Churches and Oecumenical Synods and such as are National wherein Ambition Envy Factions Avarice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and corruptions reign and cannot but do so Strada sayes very judiciously In consessu plurium Senatorum aut Consitiariorum partes suâ—s magis agit Ambitio quà m in paucorum Lucian libro de Artibus dolosis in speaking of great Assemblies sayes the greatest Bawlers have the greatest advantage in such Assemblies because those who understand nothing of the matter and to be sure are always of the greatest number judge of things by the outside and so give the cause for gâ—iâ—ed to those who are the most resolute and clamorous THESE considerations do furnish me with several others which confirm me in this Opinion that the Congregational way was that which God made use of in the Ancient Church to convert to the faith those who were not Christians but by outward profession from a State of nature to a State of Grace and that the way which they take at this day when one person preaches to several thousands is neither properly nor efficaciously that which gains souls to Jesus Christ And this will appear by the opposition of the Government at this day in the Church to that of the antient Primitive Christians I believe there will be found but very little conformity not onely in the persons that attend upon the Ministry but also in the places and manner where and how it is performed Heretofore the Bishop alone in publick did execute the office of preaching and the other duties of the holy Ministry for he left those of lesser consequence to the Deacons but at this day
same Ecclesiastical Governnours and to be obedient to their Laws their Commands and their Censures 6. THAT to compass this Union every party of different perswasion and Judgement in matters of Faith and Discipline ought to abate something of their rigour and their right and come one part of the way to a Reconciliation that is to say that every party ought to recover an insidious peace to abandon the truth he believes he has on his side or to enervate the force of it THESE maxims which are those of Rome have been and will be the cause why there will never be in the World neither Church nor Reformation without some mixture of corruption The Felicity of being freed from these is only to be found in the Independant Church ABOVE all they find the 5 th maxim to be unreasonable wicked and tyrannical◠principally when they press to an Uniformity of Discipline all the Inhabitants of a Territory or Kingdom under one and the same Soveraign about which both the greatest number of people and the most illuminated are divided and do not find one clear constant and perpetual truth in the Sacred Scriptures to press the Uniformity of it nor the necessity of that way that they find as to what concerns Faith Theodosius the II. had his reason better grounded when he commanded all his Subjects to believe according to the Faith of Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria then if he had commanded them an Uniformity in Discipline which he did not do and which he could not execute For he could not be ignorant that as there was but one Faith to which every faithful soul ought to adhere and to be verily perswaded that his was the true it was not without reason that he rather commanded the belief of that Faith than the practise of a discipline since that the one was expresly laid down in the holy Scripture and the other was not 'T IS after this manner the Independant Churches argue They believe with Theodosius that the Subjects of an Empire are obliged to embrace the same Faith supposing it be that of Jesus Christ but they are not obliged to practise one certain discipline which is not found in the holy Scripture THE first maxim was that of Dioclesian who alone did shed more Christian bloud than his Predecessors all together had done It cannot be practised without Fire and Sword and it is as full of Impiety and of Paganism as Excommunication Titus Livius lib. 39. tit 9 puts among the Roman Laws Ne qui Romani Dei neque alio more quam patrio colerentur ne quis in publico sacrove loco novo aut externo ritu sacrificaret The Scythians caused Anacharsis to be put to death for having a Worship a part which he had learnt in Greece And Mecaenas exhorted Augustus to punish those who would not conform themselves to the Religion of the Countrey Dio. lib. 52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 BUT yet this maxim was not so much practised when the Government was more popular and when Altars were erected to strange Gods and to some unknown for after they had subdued Nations they also brought their Gods in triumph I met with the Defeat and overthrow of the fifth maxim in a discourse at the beginning of a Treatise of that excellent Knight to whom I Dedicated my Fasciculus as an Answer to some questions that were put to him by thoughts much agreeing with mine before ever we had any communication of them together which he also confirms by those of a Learned Divine whose name is Chillingworth and whose Authority is so much the more considerable and weighty as being a Church of England man There are say they but two wayes to make all Christians to enter into one and the same communion either in taking away the diversity of Opinions that divide them which is impossible without a Miracle and unless God had established and set up a visible Judge to whom their differences should be referred or else being all perswaded that this diversity of Opinions ought not to hinder their communion and their Union in things wherein they do agree and where charity complaisance and condescention ought to have place without any ones being deprived of their Opinion or that one should persecute the other that differs from his DOCTOR Jeremy Tailor who was a strong man for the English Hierarchy by reason whereof he was made a Bishop in Ireland and who was extroardinarily illuminated and Learned agreed in the same Sentiment with Dr. Chillingworth and hath published a great Book whose Title is the Liberty of Prophecying against the wicked and unreasonable carriage of those who rigorously impose set Forms of Faith to others and who Persecute and ill-use those who are not of their Opinion in matters of Religion ALSO the Independants have indeavoured not so much to establish the goodness of the Congregational way in sound clear minds because they are soon convinced of it by the description they make of it as to disabuse them of those maxims which are but so many illusions though most commonly it is easier to refute Errours than to establish Truth as Cicero very well says Vtinam tà m facile possem vera probare quà m falsa convincere NOW the tyranny of these maxims which are as much that of the Protestants as of the Papists is the cause why the transition of the Romish Religion to the reformed is but imperfectly done in France Germany England and elsewhere how little complaisance soever we have had for Rome and for an affinity with her it has cost us very dear we have thought we ought not to go from one extremity to another at one leap As we fell from the Impanation to Transubstantiation so likewise have we gone from Transubstantiation to Consubstantiation its Neighbour then we have retained the real presence in the Sacramental Supper which has some agreement and is conciliable with those three illusions of words 'T is said indeed that this presence was spiritual but at the same time it was clothed with the flesh when they kept at the beginning of the reformation such wayes of expressing themselves which have been a great Shock to Bullinger and many other great men of his time That we were nourished in this Sacrament with the substance of the flesh and with the blood of Jesus Christ Which has given occasion to the Bishop of Candom to Mounsieur Arnauld and to Father Maimbourge to put this Interrogatory to us if you speak as we do why do you not believe as we do Especially the Bishop of Condom has made use of it and they have given him reason to triumph over us as much in that as he hath done as to the eminent Authority that is established in our Churches with as much incontestability as if it were Infallible The Missionary Pean sayes that it is a Gallimauphrey of the Protestants to speak of being nourished with the substance of Jesus Christ and with his flesh and
THE CONFORMITY OF THE Discipline and Government Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS To that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS By Dr. Lewis Du Moulin sometime History Professor of Oxford Qui repertâ veritate aliquid ulterius discutit mendacium quaerit Valentinianus Martianus LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway 1680. THE TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS CHap. 1. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the objections commonly urged against the Tenets and principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The advantages of the Congregational may above any other Establishment of the Church beside That it is the most reasonable and that all others have insuperable inconveniences p. 3. Chap. 3. That upon the Ground of this Hypothesis that every supreme Authority either in the Popish or the Presbyterian Church is subject to ernour Monsieur de Condom hath reason to approve of the Congregational may and the independancy of particular Churches on any other Authority than that of Jesus Christ in his word p. 8. Chap. 4. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a conformity of Faith with the other reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline Of the Veneration they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and discipline p. 12. Chap. 5. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church p. 14. Chap. 6. An Answer to those who say that the Congregational way is incompatible with the Civil Power and that it deprives the Magistrate of the right he hath to the Government of the Church that it is introductory of Irreligion Ignorance and Schism in the Church p. 16. Chap. 7. That the Congregational way has been practised in all Ages of the World p. 23. Chap. 8. Of the great Benefit and Advantage that comes from the Establishment of the Congregational way in the World p. 34. Chap. 9. That the most Judicious Divines of France and other places without thinking of it do naturally fall into the Hypotheses of the Congregational Churches Of the Judgment which ought to be made of their Confession of Faith of their discipline and conduct p. 38. Chap. 10. Of the Wise and Prudent carriage of the Independants and of their way to get further off the Church of Rome than any other and to condemn all the wayes of Reconciliation with it and the Churches that hold any Communion with Rome That the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of England p. 43. Chap. 11. A continuance of the same matter concerning the wise carriage of those Churches that are for their way Congregational when they condemn all manner of speaking like to Rome and all practises that do any whit savour of theirs and the six Maxims on which the Pope and his Church are founded a Confirmation of that by a History taken out of the Life of Joseph Hall p. 47. Chap. 12. An Apology for the Author of the Conformity of the congregational Churches with that of the Antient Primitive Christians That a disinteressed person such as he is is the most fit to write about these matters Of the Obligation he hath to the Bishop of Condom for the light he hath given him p. 53. Chap. 13. The Explication of one difficulty which runs throughout the whole precedent discourse p. 58. Chap. 14. Remarks upon the Fault that some may find in the Title of this discourse p. 60. Chap. Ult. An Answer to those who accuse the Independants for being the Authors of the late Civil Wars in England and particularly for having had an immediate hand in the death of KING CHARLES the first p. 68. THE CONFORMITY OF THE GOVERNMENT Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS With that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS CHAP. I. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the Objections commonly urged against the Tenets and Principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants 'T IS above fifty years since some learned and judicious Persons as well of the Gown as others have now brought to light an important and necessary truth which the strength of prejudice and a General and Opinionative blindness that hath lasted for more than this thousand years hath kept under a Bushel 'T is that of Nestorius which the eminent Authority of Cyril has made to pass during all that time and even from the third Oecumenical Councel for an absolute lie and with which all the learned both the general and particular Councils all the Fathers and all the new Doctors of both Communions have been so successively prepossessed that they have thought it nearly concerned their honour not only to deny it but even to be continually throwing their Anathema's at the head of the poor Nestorius whom they have made to pass for an abominable Heretick although at the bottome Nestorius was he of the two who was by far the more Orthodox and the honester man and on the other hand Cyril was the Heretick For it is with the Authority of Cyrillus as with that eminent Authority of the Church of Rome to which Monsieur Aâ—â—auld would have all men fixed and with which he thought to overwhelm and undo Monsieur Claude NOT to make any Application of this History to what has happened to my self in particular as to the necessary truths I have promulged and advanced I will content my self with fixing to one which is like to that of Nestorius 't is that about those who are called Independants who though they will not yield in exactness of living or in holiness of Doctrine to any of the Protestants in Europe for they are led more than other Christians by the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is a Spirit of meekness moderation and of a sound mind and they are farthest off from the spirit of malignity and Persecution and their Doctrine hath more of conformity with that of the Apostles and the Primitive Christians than any of the others and though to conclude their confession of Faith is the most Nervous and sinewy the most Orthodox and coutched up in terms so strong and powerful that of all pieces which yet have appeared in the World fince the Writings of the Apostles it is the most full and perfect Yet have they had the unhappiness to be loaded with injuries by our Synods and by those of our Divines who are the most eminent in learning and of a life and piety the most exemplary and that too in a manner altogether inhumane and barbarous so far as that Monsieur Amyâ—auld calls them Fools Enthusiasts and such as are infamous in their lives Monsieur D' Aille the Father says of them that it
differ one from the other in discipline but that retain and keep all the same foundation and ground of faith and who have for that point a great union and a strict correspondence with other Churches And this being so no more is there any Schism when the Congregationals are Independant on other Churches and on their Synods but when their Churches are so among themselves 4. THERE is no Schism among several particular Churches that agree in one and the fame faith and discipline as are those of Metz and Sedan but do their own business apart independantly not only on one another but likewise on the Synods 'T is with Independant Churches or with several other particular Churches as with several families or Neighbourhoods or those that are pretty distant the one from the other who may all be good friends and live in good Intelligence together without any thing of Schism or rupture between them and yet every one does their own particular business by themselves 5. THE Congregational men are no more guilty of Schism when they form to themselves Congregations distinct from Parishes contrary to the command of the Magistrate 't is a disobedience not to a National Church which Jesus Christ hath not instituted much less invested with either Jurisdiction or power to make Laws in matters of Religion but to the Magistrate whom to disobey is not Schism but a crime of laesoe Majestaetis or rebellion but yet it ceases to be that too when it acts only from this principle of obeying God rather than men NOW this clearing up of the Nature of Schism which strongly establishes the Independancy of the Churches and makes it altogether reasonable does not destroy the Confederation of the Churches into one body even under a national Synod when for the mutual preservation of these Churches against a common Enemy that persecutes them they are constrained to make but one body of State or of Churches such as is the Confederation of our Churches in France But then that necessity does not destroy the natural liberty of every particular Church to be Independant 't is a Confederation established with prudence in that manner as was that of the Cities of Achaida and as is at this day that of the Low-Countries and of the Swizers the conjunction of which into one body and under one and the same jurisdiction does not divest any Town or Province of their natural freedome and liberty to be Independant on one another THERE is however this temper and menage to be observed in this Religious Confederation that it ought to be made not by vertue of the Power of binding and loosing and of the Keys of the Kingdome of heaven which it is pretended that God hath committed to Pastors or Synods but by vertue of a confederated discipline which is in the place of a Magistrate Also the Councel of Monsieur Amyraule should be observed and it is the same that the Cities of Achaia observed before viz. that nothing should pass in the general Assembly but what has been first reviewed and approved of by every particular Church AND this is that wherein the prudence of our first Reformers in France have been wanting when they sat up a discipline by vertue of an Ecclesiastical power distinct from that of the Magistrate and from that which has its operation upon the heart by the Ministry of the word and of a power fastened to the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and to that of binding and loosing by vertue of which power they depose and excommunicate that is to say as Monsieur Claude says they deliver up a person to the Devil but they also deliver him to him in the name and Authority of Jesus Christ that so the people may not imagine this power to be that of the Magistrate or of the confederate discipline but of Jesus Christ the Mediatour and King of his Church and by vertue of the power that he exercises over it and of which the Pastors and Ministers are the depositers AS to those who blame as much the separation of the Independants as that of the Donatists the Novatians and Luciferians it is ill grounded the vice of the Donatists was in that they owned no other Church of Jesus Christ in the World than theirs for they rebaptized those who came from the Catholick Church to them the Independants are far from these thoughts and practices they do as those who having a particular care of their health withdraw into a better place and sounder Air but yet they do not think but that they may do very well in places where the Air is not so good BEFORE I go to another Chapter I shall take notice that the result of the thoughts and of the practises of the Congregationals their Churches and their Pastors do come to these two Maxims 1. THAT to establish peace and true Religion in the World and among Christians we must go back to the Materia prima of the Congregational Churches which is that every person and every Society hath the liberty to deliberate and consult about the choice of a Religion and of the way to serve God and to take upon that point the counsel of wise and sincere persons provided that that counsel tends not to Irreligion and to some Establishment of such maxims which shock the natural Notions concerning the existence of a God his Providence the Immortality of the soul the necessity of a Divine Worship provided also that the manner which every person and every Church hath chosen to govern it self by doth not trouble the State in which one lives unless that trouble happen by accident in the manner that Jesus Christ sayes of the Gospel which excites troubles and brings Wars and contentions into the World 2. THAT this maxim of a national Church in every Territory with an uniformity of Doctrine and discipline distinct from the civil Tribunals in jurisdiction and officers hath introduced the Pope into the World that it hath been it is and it will be the cause that there never will be a Church in the World in its true purity unless Almighty God reserves some among the Congregational Churches CHAP. VII That the Congregational way has been practised in all Ages of the World I Could easily shew that for above this four thousand years before Jesus Christ and even during the height of Popery and in the bosome of the Church of Rome God hath alwayes reserved some true Worshippers of Jesus Christ by the way of Congregational Assemblies there were an infinite number of them in the Roman Empire during the persecution that was set on foot by the Arrians and when as St. Jerome sayes all the World were Arrians BUT to come more particularly to the thing they have had Independant Churches in all times and in all places before the Law and under the Law in the time of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles and after the Apostles there were of them in the time of Exos the Son of
and he makes these two Tribunals so independant one on the other as hotly to maintain that he would rather suffer death or banishment than permit the appeals of Consistorial Sentences to the Magistrate TO be short the Congregational way hath this advantage over all the other establishments of Religion both the National Popish Episcopal and Presbyterian Church these cannot subsist but with a subordination of Consistories Colloquies Provincial and National Synods things which are not practicable but under Secular Powers either which may approve them or else may tolerate them whereas the Congregational way subsists not only under good Emperours as were Constantine the Great and Theodosius the first but also under the Pagan Dioclesians and under an Arrian Constantius for what persecution soever may be raised against this way nothing hinders but that a Minister who watches over a small flock may go to visit the Members from house to house to administer spiritual pasture and food to them for their nourishment and growth in grace To conclude the excellence of this way appears in this that it is far less exposed to persecution than any other and that the Presbyterian and the Episcopal do fall into it when the Magistrate is contrary to them CHAP. IX That the most Judicious Divines of France and other places without any thoughts of it do naturally fall into the Hypotheses of the Congregational Churches Of the Judgment which ought to be made of their Confession of Faith of their discipline and conduct I Could also streng hen all that I have said by the testimony of our new Doctors by that of Mounsieur Rivet Mounsieur Mestrâ—zat Monsieur Pajon Monsieur Claude and others showing that they undesignedly fall into the Opinion and Judgment of the Independants in laying down 1. THAT there is no other visible Church of Divine right than that which is assembled together in one place to attend upon the preaching and hearing of the word upon prayer and the participation of the Sacraments and it is in this manner that the Confession of the Church of England Article XIX defines the Church 2. THAT such a Church is Independant either on other Churches or on Synods that it may very well take from one or other advice and Counsel but it ought not to submit to their Commands 3. THAT no person can be forced to be a Christian nor to joyn with one Church rather than with another 4. THAT this Church hath liberty to do its own business its self or to connect into one body in the same manner as the Churches of France have done that it hath the liberty to retire from that connection or confederacy as the Churches of Metz and Sedan have done 5. THAT this Church to which the Christian is joyned is obliged to seek and to preserve a strict communion of Faith and Charity with the other Churches but yet hath a liberty of having a separate discipline 6. THAT this church ought to receive the fraternal admonitions of the other Churches and of their Synods in the same manner as a Synod of Africk acted upon the dissention which hapned between Innocent the first Bishop of Rome and the Church of Alexandria as Barlaam recites it I could also find these maxims in the Writings of the English Divines and show that in treating of the nature of the Church or of any other matter of divinity they have kept the language of the Independants or at least have approved of their practices The Learned Jackson Chap. 14. of the Church sayes that for these two causes one may lawfully frame Congregations distinct from others to have a separate Communion 1. WHEN they impose such practises as are contrary to Faith and Charity 2. WHEN they forbid wayes that are apparently most edifying and tend more to the increase and strength of Piety and Salvation than those which are now in use Dr. Stillingfleet assures us in pag. 109. of his Ireniâ—uâ—n that when in one and the same Territory Judgments and Churches are different the one from the other a Christian ought to joyn to that which retains most of the Evangelical purity He is bound to adhere to that Church that retaineth most of the Evangelical purity And in pag. 116. he sayes that a Christian is obliged to separate from Churches although Orthodox in the essential matters in case they retain some mixture of corruption in the practise His Words are a mixture of corruption as to the practise I could find the opinion of this Learned Doctour in several places up and down Monsieur Claude his Book where having laid down to us for a principle that the power of the Keyes and that of binding and loosing only is reposed in the faithful people of God he draws this Conclusion from it that private Churches ought to get to themselves such Members as they know to be more particularly the faithful and to remove from it the worldly persons to whom God hath not affixed that power of binding and loosing nor committed the management of the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven I could ascend as far as Luther and Melancton to justifie the separation even from Churches that have not any errour in their Doctrine Luther in cap. 4. Geneseos Etiamsi praeterea nihil peccatum esset in Doctrina Pontificia justas tamen fuisse causas cur ab Ecclesiá Romanâ nos sejungeremus BUT the Independants have reasonably outvied Luther and the other Doctors for they hold though the Church of Rome should not have any defects either in Doctrine or Discipline yet they were not to be condemned for separating from Rome and for being independent on the Romish Church and her Synods more then to find fault with the Church of Sedan which is separate from that of Metz in regard of any dependance one upon the others or upon the Synods that were common with them In a word it is a thing as natural and as reasonable for a Church to divide it self into two other Churches which may each do their own business separately as for one family to be divided into two others whereof each hath the liberty to govern themselves according to their own way and fancy THUS you have in all this discourse if I am not much mistaken the Justification of the carriage and government of the Congregational way and very clear and full proofs of their conformity with the Ancient Christians As also their Confession does evidence that which they have with the Apostolical in a more plain free expressive and incontestable manner than any of the confessions that are collected in the Corpus or Syntagma Confessianum so far are they from being the work of persons distracted and Enthusiasts as some of our Divines have fancied that you might altogether with as much reason put among the productions of Fools and mad men the three most excellent and consummated pieces according to the Judgment that Alexander More has made of them the Epistle of Calvin before his Institutions
not to believe Transubstantiation A Learned English Dr. named John Hales hath written a Learned Treatise upon this Subject where he condemns this way of Reconciliation that sayes one thing and believes another and that turns again to Rome and he exhorts his Brethren to condemn rather the use of it than to justifie it He sayes also that Martyn Bucer was the first of the Reformed that made use of this way of speaking IT must be confessed that as the weakness of those great lights of Reformation Bucer Calvin and Reza was very great when they explained those Scriptures concerning the Lords Supper by a Comment that was more obscure than the Text nor hath it been less great in those that have come after them when they have explained the words of Jesus Christ in S. John VI. concerning the fleshly eating to the Sacramental and Spiritual eating and when they have made long comments upon the words of Calvin to sweeten and smooth the harshness of them instead of condemning them this obstinacy in adhering to errors hath brought in the pretended infallibility into the Church of Rome and the Incontestability into the Reformed Churches Inter caetera mortalitatis incommoda hoe est errandi necessitas erroris amor Seneca NOW these ways of speaking which simbolize with those of Rome and which give it occasion to insult and triumph over us makes me remember what I have read in the Memoirs and specialties that Joseph Hall hath made of his Life and absolutely convinces me of this truth that it has been so unlikely that they who have believed they might gain upon Rome by retaining some of their ways and modes of speaking or their practises should have succeeded therein that on the contrary She has been so much the more set and hardened against us and have gone so far in it as to make us and their Religion far more reasonable than ours He sayes that in his journey to the Spadan Waters for his health he had before a great company of persons of quality both Papists and Protestants a very hot dispute with a Sorbonist a Prior of the Carmelites who maintained that the Kneeling practised in the Church of England at the receiving of the Eucharist strongly shewed that she believed Transubstantion for that kneeling and the belief of Transubstantiation were things inseparable and always went hand in hand together and since the one had never been believed in the Church without the practise of the other and since it was a distraction of reason and a wicked practise to carry their adorations to Elements that were only Bread and Wine this kneeling of necessity must be a natural consequence of the belief of Transubstantiation Bishop Hall adds that as the company was divided in their judgments and that several of them joyned with those of Rome in condemning this kneeling unless it was a consequence of Transubstantiation more than two thirds of the company were so heated against the poor Bishop that he had not the liberty to speak nor to stand up in defence of the Church's Opinion For if they had given him time to speak he had alleadged the Rubrick of the Church of England which undeceives the Communicants from the thoughts that they might possibly have that that Kneeling or Adoration is carried out to the Bread and the Wine But beside that there is not of a hundred Communicants one who reads the Rubrick it might have happened that those who were so violent against Bishop Hall would have pleasantly stopt his mouth with the Apologue which Beza writ in a Letter to the good Arch-Bishop Edmund Grindal who seeing that he was offended at this kneeling after Transubstantiation was banished endeavoured to cure him of the scandal he had taken making him to know that the Rubrick of the Church of England would give him enough wherewith to be satisfied Upon which Beza returned him this story A Lord having built his house near to the high way where he left a great stone that he had no occasion for just in the road several persons coming by in the night stumbled at it and did hurt themselves and often complaints being made to him about it and intreaties that he would take it out of the way he was very obstinate a long while and was resolved not to meddle with it but being wearied by the continual solicitations that were made to him he bethought himself to set over the stone a Lanthorn with a light Candle in it to warn people of it but that Admonition proving troublesome too one of his friends came and gave him this good Counsel Sir if you would be at quiet take away both stone and Lanthorn together The stone of stumbling is this kneeling at the Sacrament and the Rubrick is for a light and Declaration to signifie to the Communicants that this kneeling is not done to the bread and wine but to Jesus Christ If you take away both you will take away the scandal and the remedy to the scandall You will bring back the way with which Jesus Christ instituted the holy Supper who gave it not kneeling but in the posture of those who take their ordinary repasts at their Tables so that Jesus Christ never required any Genuflexion either at the time or place THESE two stories hit as we generally say two birds with one stone For they may relate to that neerness of assinity with Rome which I have already spoken of above and which I have showed has rather sharpened and embittered the Spirits and tempers of those of that communion to plot against the sacred person of the KING and against his Government than it has any wayes sweetned them and moreover they discover that those who go furthest off from the Doctrines and practises of Rome who renounce all reconciliation with Her as the people of the Congregational way do have most conformity with the blessed peace-Makers of whom Jesus Christ speakes and whereof the Character of the Children of God which he gives them upon this respect carryes them so much the farther from all thoughts of Rebellion CHAP. XII An Apology for the Author of the Conformity of the congregational Churches with that of the Antient Primitive Christians That a disinteressed person such as he is the most sit to write about these matters Of the Obligation he hath to the Bishop of Condom for the light he hath given him I Think my self here obliged to add an Apology as to my own account for what I have said as to the Independant Churches I do imagine I shall be accused at first for having made the description of the congregational way not according as it is in effect but in that manner as Xenophon did the Cyropaedia to be the perfect model of a Prince They will say that any other interest than that of the inward knowledge I have of the goodness truth and holiness of the Congregational way ought to have excited me to commend it so as I have done That I
impressions of the goodness of the Congregational way in the minds of men than would that of a Divine of a Minister of the Gospel or any other person ingaged by profession either to the Episcopal Presbyterian or even to the Congregational way As Reason and Grace in the hopes of glory are the three Ressorts or principles which have alwayes moved and governed me in all the course of my life and in all my Writings so have they been always less violent by the prejudices and interests in the profession I make of a Physician than if I had been either a Divine or a Lawyer I ought here also to acknowledg my Obligation to the Bishop of Condom not only for the first hints of this truth that the Congregational way is of all the Establishments of Discipline and Government the most conformable to reason to the holy Scripture and to the practise of the Apostles and the Primitive Christians but for having absolutely confirmed me in this truth though the design of that Bishop has not been to put the Congregational way above the Romish but only to discover and this he hath done by Arguments that come very near to demonstration that going upon the hypothesis of the necessity of seting up a Tribunal in the Church and of the submission of the people to that Tribunal as being the only Rampiâ—r of the Orthodox Faith and the only means of Uniting Christians preserving peace and good order among them it is incomparably more reasonable that such submission should be made to an infallible Tribunal than to One that is subject to Error and that upon this ground of all the Ecclesiastical ways in the World which acknowledg that every Ecclesiastical Tribunal either supreme or subordinate that every Councel either Oecumenical or Topical is fallible and subject to errour the Congregational way which refuses all manner of submission to a Tribunal subject to errour is the most reasonable and the most just CHAP. XIII The Explication of one difficulty which runs throughout the whole precedent discourse AS it was in my thoughts to finish this discourse by the word Finis a Learned Presbyterian coming in and having apprehended my design put one objection to me against the defeat and overthrow I pretend to make of the necessity of a Tribunal in the Church he said that since that Tribunal which requires the people to submit themselves to it is as much set up in an independant Church as in a National and since both presuppose that that Tribunal is subject to errour the submission of the people is altogether as reasonable to the Tribunal of a National Church as to that of a Congregational I confess there is some weight in this objection which Monsieur Jurieu has not thought of but which nevertheless is easie to be answered according to the principles I lay down 1. THAT all manner of Government Presbyterian Congregational National Episcopal Hierarchical Papal is of the same nature with that of the Magistrate 2. THAT the submission required and given to all manner of Ecclesiastical Government is of the same nature with that which is required and given to a Civil and Political government the Ressorts of which are not the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven nor the power of binding and loosing but the will of the strongest and most numerous that hath so ordain'd it 3. AND consequently that the Censures of excommunication and deposition being of the same nature with the Law of the Magistrate the validity of which is not in the Justice nor equity of the thing but in the will of those that decree and ordain it they ought to be accounted as a Civil punishment THESE three considerations destroy that erection of an Ecclesiastical Tribunal which is equal with the Civil in one and the same Territory since both being of the same nature it would be a pure piece of Gallimaufrey and hotchpot to offer to establish two Civil Governments in one and the same dominion or Territory which should be independant one on the other ALSO this difficulty is easie to be overcome according to the principles of the Independants The Inconvenience of an Excommunicated or deposed person unjustly by his Congregation is not great so long as it does not extend beyond his Jurisdiction and that of a hundred Congregations in one Territory it is impossible but that at least there might be one to recompence the Justice of his cause which is not a thing feasible if he be struck by a National Judgement unless he leaves his Country And since the person oppressed is in the liberty of framing to himself a Congregation Independant on all the Churches of the world though it be but of seven or eight persons his innocence and legitimate right will easily furnish him with the means to do it I add further that a person who is sensible he is guilty of disorders can easily conceal them in the crowd of a National Church which he cannot so well do in a small number of persons and commonly prevent the Censure of his Congregation and not expect that they should excommunicate him and drive him out of it which is done in that manner as St. Jerome and Bishop Godeau would have the Heretick of whom S. Paul speaks in the 3 of Titus 11. knowing that he that is such i. e. an Heretick is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself To do when he excommunicated himself and saved his Church that trouble IT must not be forgot that tho there is no Government so perfect wherein one cannot find some faults and some Inconvenience yet it is certain there is found less in the Congregational way whereas you may find almost an infinity in that of the National whereof a thousand persons that deserve the censure of the Church there is not one of them that undergoes its because its discipline is like to spiders Webs where the Fly 's are taken but the Birds pass through and where it is impossible in a Town or a Church of many thousands of Christians that one Bishop or Pastor can possibly have an exact inspection over them whereas in a Congregational Church composed but of a few persons and those all cull'd out of the multitude who fun after Vanitics and Vices one has but little or no use of excommunication and deposition and where Avarice Ambition Heresies and quarrels do not enter as in National Churches THESE considerations give me to hope that the learned and illuminated of the Congregational way will agree and joyn with my principles or Hypotheses to establish the true nature of their Jurisdiction and to undo with case the difficulty of the objection although according to their principles it resembles the Foils which touch the person but do not wound it For in case of a wound they have a thousand remedies to heal it presently whereas there is no remedy either against Infallibity in the Church of Rome or against incontestability in a National Church CHAP.
XIV Remarks upon the Fault that some may find in the Title of this discourse I Will finish these conderations by the discussion and explication of the Title of this discourse to which some have excepted because they find there is not one Ecclesiastical Government even of those which differ most from one another that do not pretend to this Conformity as indeed they have either more or less for there is not one of them no not even of those that are the farthest off from the Doctrines and Government of the Ancient Christians and that have but very little agreement one with the other there is not one I say but what hath in something a conformity with them Every way of Government boasts of their retaining this conformity with the Ancient Christians I my self pretend to this glory in favour of the Congregational way Not long since a Learned Minister of Roüen published a Book intituled the Conformity of the discipline of the Churches of France to that of the Ancient Christians Beside though the discipline of the Church of England hath not any agreement with that of the Churches of France and it is impossible that two disciplines so disagreeing to each other should have both of them much conformity to the discipline of the Ancient Christians yet it hath so happened that a Famous Divine in his preface to his English Translation of the Novelty of Popery maintains very zealously the same thing in favour of the Discipline of the Church of England as Monsieur Larroque has done in favour of those of France If I were sayes he to speak to Frenchmen I would indeavour to convince them fully that we retain in England more of the Primitive and Apostolick Government than all the other Churches in the world Dr. Floyd and Dr. Tillotson say the same thing But I believe that this conformity is much what like to that which is between Jesus Christ and St. Francis For I do openly maintain that of all the Establishments of Religion That of the Church of England is widest from the discipline and practise of the Ancient Christians But he is not the only person hath spoke after this manner England is full of Books upon the subject of the Conformity of its Hierarchy and of its Episcopal Government to that of the Ancient Christians The Bishops Bilson Andrews Hall Morton and Pearson find it in Clemens Romanus and in Ignatius some of the Doctors of Rome meet with it in Denis the Areopagite but unless this Conformity be restrained to the times of the Apostles to which I find more footsteps in the Congregational way than in any other I believe we are all in an error as to what concerns our conformity to the Doctrine Discipline and Life of the Ancient Christians Above all the disagreement is found in the life which was heretofore much more exact and exemplary than in these last times it is the Devotion of our days is but cold and languishing in comparison of theirs It was in that that their glory did consist whereas ours is in having a greater knowledg and a more full and ample illumination into the mysteries of Faith than the first Christians had also to be better versed at this day in the knowledg of the Apostolical conduct of the nature and Government of the Church of its Authority and of that of its Pastors who were the Christians that immediately succeeded the Apostles I will finish where I began and that shall be by the force of those prejudices wherewith all Christians as well Protestants as Papists are anticipated and prepossest when they generally imagine that the Primitive Church was more Orthodox and pure in Doctrine than that of the following Ages because of their nearness with the times of the Apostles but I am as much perswaded of the contary as of any thing in the world 'T is said that God never built a Temple near to which the enemy of our Salvation has not built a Chappel but than it was a Chappel both greater and more spacious than the temple it self For during the time whilest God built a little Temple wherein he had circumscribed the twelve Apostles and a small flock of faithful people who conformed themselves to the purity their Doctrine and the holiness of their lives a number incomparably greater of false Apostles false Doctors and false Brethren separated from them For even in the first three hundred years of Christianity all or the most part of sincere persons and also of Fathers had a great deal of false allay mixt among their gold This is what we learn from Eutychius who lived in the first Ages of Christianity from whom we have the History of the Church in Arabyck published by Mr. Selden and Mr. Pocock and whom they recommend for an Author of an irreprochable fidelity There he tells us that Constantine the Great sent to all the Churches of his Empire Letters to let them understand that they were to make choice of the most Religious Bishops and those that were most learned in the Mysteries of the Christian Faith and that they then immediately set themselves to obey the Orders of the Emperour and that two thousand and forty eight Bishops came to the Town of Nice whereof near two thousand how pious and sincere soever otherwise they were were either most ignorant or most erronious in the knowledg of the Christian Religion For they were either Manichees or Murcionites or Montanists or Valentinians or Samosatenians or Arrians and in that great number of Bishops there were but three hundred and eighteen who had an affection for and ingaged themselves to the Orthodox Faith which was that of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria THIS Relation according to Eutychius is much more probable than after that manner as it is reported by Eusebius by Socrates by Baronius and by Monsieur Claude For what likelihood is there that that number of Bishops convoked from all places of Europe a great part of Africa and also of Asia Phaenicia Greece Maceaonia Thessalia Palestine Arabia Pamphilia Bythinia Capadocia Thrace Cilicia Pontus Persia and Scythia should amount but to three hundred and eighteen Bishops There is also less likelihood that those three hundred and eighteen Bishops should appear so sharp and so divided among themselves as to put out Libels of accusation one against another and that during their Session they made a cruel War within themselves These Accusations might be true as to the other Bishops who were as much divided in affections as in Judgments but not of these three hundred and eighteen who because they were all Orthodox and Children of peace and well united in their affections such as were Alexander Spiridion and Paphnutius were chosen by Constantine and Alexander out of the multitude of Hereticks Factious and contentious persons Beside the unanimity of these three hundred and eighteen Bishops in the composing of the Faith of the Council having but four Bishops that refused subscribing to it plainly shews
that their spirit was not that of contention nor animosity one against another but of peace and concord IF the Book of that excellent Author Eutychius the Patriarch of Alexandria had appeared with all its Truths and had been seen by all those that had eyes and would use them during the lives of Monsieur Salmasius Monsieur Blundel c. they had been yet more strongly perswaded than they were that all those circumstances so distant from the relation that Eutychius makes of them savours as much of Romance as those three Crosses which Helena Mother of Constantine found or as the donation of that Emperour to Silvester CERTAINLY the providence of God did clearly appear in the choise of those three hundred and eighteen Bishops 'T was an Act of God and not man when he raised up the good Bishop of Alexandria to recommend them to Constantine and when he inclined the heart of that Prince to hearken to his Counsel For if the Emperour had let himself been overruled at the beginning of that Counsel by any other Bishop as he did at the end of his Life the first Establishment of Faith and Religion had been that of Arrianisme whereas the orthodox Faith taking the first possession under the first Christian Emperour this served most powerfully to gain it credit and to make it pass and transmit it to posterity I would ask here by the way those that deprive the Soveraign Magistrate of the Intendance of regulating by a Soveraign Authority in all places either of an Empire or a Territory the matters of Religion and give him no other Authority than that of a private person I would ask those I say what expedient a good Bishop such as this of Alexandria could be able to find out to authorize the Faith that was contrary to that of Arrius in case God had not inclined the heart of Constantine to establish it by his commands in all the places of his Empire I ought not to forget here one circumstance in our Author that extreamly fortifies the right of the Magistrate especially if he be Orthodox to the Soveraign Intendance in the Government of the Church and which moreover strongly proves that the Rules Canons Censures and Anathemas of Councils are only Councils and the declarations of wise and experienced men before the Magistrate hath given them Authority by his Sanction In short this passage of Eutychius is the accomplishment of the prophesie of S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 2. Know you not that the Saints shall judge the World that is to say know you not that God will one day establish Faithful Magistrates who shall be governours in chief of the Church he says than that the choice of three hundred and eighteen Bishops being made Constantine entred into their Assembly and after he had saluted and harrangued to them he laid his Scepter upon the Table his Ring and his sword and said to them I give you the power of regulating the affairs of the Church that done the Fathers humbly thanked him for the Authority which he was pleased to fortifie them with and rendered him his Scepter his Ring and his Sword 'T IS true if Constantine had been an Arrian his erronious opinion had done as much mischief as the contrary opinion to that of Arrius and wherewith he was possessed did good by its Establishment but it is true also that if the Soveraign of an Empire hath no other authority in the Church than that of a private person it will never be possible and it can never happen that an Orthodox Prince will be able to establish the true Religion by his Commandments in all the places of his Empire 'T is true by this Soveraign Authority of the Magistrate Errour and Impiety may as well be established by Lawes as truth and piety but it is true also that when the Soveraign Magistrate either hath no part nor is interessed in the affairs of Religion as during the three first Ages of the Church nothing could keep the Bishops as were those two thousand and forty eight of whom Eutychius speaks from divinding into many erronious parties and the Orthodox party to be always the least in number and this cannot happen when God gives to the Church such Princes as resemble Constantine the Great Theodosius and Martian IT happens notwithstanding that during such disorders and such confusions of diverse opinions as were those of the two thousand and forty that God reserves always a small number of good Pastors as were those three hundred and eighteen who form in a great Empire such as was the Roman several little Congregations all like to those of our Independants whom God makes use of amidst the greater corruption and confusion to keep and perpetuate to himself an Orthodox and faithful people in the world 'T IS true then that whither God gives a Christian Magistrate but a Heretick or whether he does not give any if he be not possibly a Heathen as during the three first Ages the inconvenience is great but it is otherwise certain that when God blesses his Church with a Magistrate that favours the Orthodox and true Worshippers of Jesus Christ the condition of the Church of God is incomparably more happy than under any other establishment of Religion or of the State For although persecution ought to unite Christians by a holy and the same Faith and by a life correspondent to it yet it hath not that Efficacy nor that vertue to produce those two good effects which commonly follow under the Reign of good Princes as David Hezekiah Josiah Constantine Theodosius c. under whom the people are united well otherwise and kept in good order and in the profession of one and the same and a good Religion which they are not under persecution For even the Church is not without disorders and violent shakings under the best and most Orthodox Princes which happens by their Indulgence who keep not up that Authority they ought to take in the government of the Church and who delegate it to the Clergy and permit them to exercise by a pretended power derived from Jesus Christ Independant on the Magistrate and who in short raise up Bishops to such a greatness and wealth as to have credit enough to partake and share the Soveraignty and to dispute the moiety of it with him who of right is the Soveraign of the whole leaving him the temporal Soveraignty and reserving to themselves the spiritual as they call it BUT these matters I discourse of in my Book not yet Printed intituled An Essay towards a true Ecclesiastical History One Theophilus of Alexandria and his Successor Cyrillus were equal and went check by jole in Authority with the Emperour and had built an Empire in that of their Soveraign For even those and their Successours had built several of them when a Pope was set up among them who subjugated them all and made them all agree to set up but one Catholick Church for before there were in
the same Empire many Catholick Churches which mutually destroyed each other Donatus acknowledged no other Church in the World than his own That made Theophilus also of Alexandria do so who persecuted St. Chrysostome to the uttermost and who treated him as an Heretick a Schismatick and calling all those that adhered to him Johannites The same may be said of the concurrence of Meletius of Flavian and Paulinus for the Bishoprick of Antioch who shared the Empire and the Church into two Catholick Churches I leave sincere persons to Judge what integrity of Faith those Prelates could preserve during not only the three first Ages but also those following ALL the Christian Antiquity put aside that of the Holy Scripture cannot produce such peices that may come in competition with the Institutions of Calvin or with the confession of the Congregational Faith the first Centuries of the Christian Church swarmed with Heresie and Hereticks The most Orthodox as Irenaeus Justin Martyr Tertullian Clement Denis of Alexandria Origen Cyprian Eusebius Arnobius Lactantius c. who opposed those heresies were not themselves exempt and they had all some touch or other of one of the Heresies of Montanus of Sâ—bâ—llius Samorzites Pelagius Apollinaris and Eutiches St. Austin that Miracle of Nature and of Grace had also his Errors However he was the first that well established the Doctrine of free Grace for those who preceded him have spoke of it most an end as Pelagius has done without any ones taking particular heed to it or opposing it because they never treated of that matter throughly and searched into the bottom of it and have not made any express and particular book about it this is what St. Austin says In lib. 1. in Julianum cap. 2. tali quaestione nullus Pulsabatur pelagianis nondum ligantibus securius loqucbantur They have all consecrated their Errors to Immortality because of their Ancientness but as Cyprian tells us dist 8. c. 8. Consuetudo sine veritate est Vetust is erroris IT appears than by all I have here said that if Interest Custome Obstinacy the love that every one has for their own particular Opinions govern the greatest part of Mankind in matters of Religion we may say of prejudices that those are they which tyrannize over them such as in our dayes is that of every sort of the reformed who imagine that their reformation their Doctrine and their Discipline come the nearest to the Primitive Church This is what Monsieur Claude maintains most confidently of our reformation in France But as I agree with him that it is the purest in the World I do not agree with him that it hath any conformity with the Ancient Primitive Church except he means the Apostolical and not that which was immediately after the Apostles For even so the conformity of the Congregational way with the Christians after the Apostles is not as to the Doctrine but only as to the outward discipline and way of Government FINIS THe Reader is desired to take notice that the Author for some reasons since the Printing of the Contents hath thought good to leave out the last Chapter there mentioned ADVERTISEMENT There is lately Published of this Authors a Book Entituled Moral Reflections on the number of the Elect c. Price 6 d. FAULTS ESCAPED PAge 2. line 33. Dele the father p. 3. l. 10. read confederate discipline p. 5. l. 18. r. there being but the first Nicene Council p. 6. l. 8. r. heretical p. 6. l. penul r. inconvenience p. 16. l. 26. r. nor l. 33. r. the Romish Church p. 11. l. 9. r. that it is not of so long duration p. 11. l 16. Justice r. Justesse p. 11. l. 21. r. with as much rigour and severity to submit to a Tribunal subject to Errour as those of Rome to one that is infallible p. 12. l. 7. r. sent the Plantif p. 12. l. 25. r. veneration p. 12. l. 29. government r. conduct p. 13 l. 2. have r. hath