the Authority of the Pastors but as they are made for the present or absent Pastors who are separately of equal Office Power they are no Laws except in an equivocal sense but only Agreements Now in judging between these two ways of the subordination enquired of let it be considered first That every particular church hath power of government within it self as hath been before observed 2. That a particular church doth not derive that power from any other particular church or collective body of churches but hath it immediately from Christ 3. That yet the acts of government in every particular church have an influence into all the churches being but integral parts of one whole the Catholick church and consequently they are all of them nearly concerned in one another as members of the same body 4. Thereupon that particular churches combine in such collective bodies and associations as have been before mentioned is not arbitrary but their duty 5. That the greater collective bodies are in degrees more august and venerable than the lesser included in them and in that regard ought to have sway with the lesser and not meerly in regard of agreement For tho in the greater there be but the same power in specie with that in the lesser yet it is more amply and illustriously exerted 6. That in all Societies every part being ordered for the good of the whole and the more ample and comprehensive parts coming nearer to the nature and reason of the whole than the lesser and comprehended the more ample parts if they have not a proper governing power over the lesser have at least a preeminence over them for the ends sake and this preeminence hath the force of a proper superior power in bearing sway 7. Hence it follows that the acts of Synods if they be not directly acts of government over the particular Pastors yet they have the efficacy of government as being to be submitted to for the ends sake The general good § 22. What is and what is not of Divine Right in Ecclesiastical Polity WE must distinguish between things that belong to the church as a church or a Society divers in kind from all other Societies and those things that belong to it extrinsecally upon a reason common to it with other regular societies The former wholly rest upon Divine Right the latter are in genere requisite by the Law of Nature which requires decency and order and whatsoever is convenient in all societies and so far they rest upon Divine Right but in specie they are left to human determination according to the general Rules given of God in Nature or Scripture And it is to be noted That such is the sulness of Scripture that it contains all the general Rules of the Law of Nature What soever in matter of Church government doth go to the formal constitution of a church of Christ is of Divine Right The frame of the Church catholick as one spiritual society under Christ the head as before described wholly rests upon Divine Right and so the frame of particular churches as several spiritual Polities and integral parts of the Catholick church as before described is also of Divine Right if such Right be sufficiently signified by the Precepts and Rules given by the Apostles for the framing of them and by their practise therein Moreover the parcelling of that one great Society the Church-catholick into particular Political Societies under their proper spiritual Guides and Rulers is so necessary in nature to the good of the whole that the Law of Nature hath made it unalterable It is intrinsick to all particular stated Churches and so of Divine Right that there be publick Assemblies thereof for the solemn Worship of God that there be Bishops Elders or spiritual Pastors therein and that these as Christs Officers guide the said Assemblies in publick Worship that therein they authoritatively preach the Word and in Christs Name offer the mercies of the Gospel upon his terms and denounce the threatnings of the Gospel against those that despise the mercies thereof that they dispence the Sacraments to the meet partakers and the spiritual censures upon those that justly fall under them that the members of these Societies explicitely or implicitely consent to their relation to their Pastors and one towards another It doth also intrinsecally belong to particular churches as they are integral parts of one Catholick church of which all the particular Christians contained in them are members and consequently it appears to be of Divine Right that they hold communion one with another and that they be imbodied according to their capacities in such Associations as have been before described As for all circumstantial variation and accidental modification of the things aforesaid with respect to meer decency order and convenience according to time and occasion being extrinsick to the spiritual frame and Polity of the Church as such and belonging in common to it with all orderly Societies they are of Divine Right only in genere but in specie they are left to those to whom the conduct and government of the church is committed to be determined according to the general Rules of Gods word Much of the controversie of this Age about several forms of Church-government is about things extrinsick to the church-state and but accidental modes thereof tho the several parties in the controversie make those Forms to which they adhere to be of Divine Right and necessary to a Church-state or as some speak a Church-organical Now in the said controverted Forms of Government there may be a great difference for some may be congruous to the divine and constitutive frame of the Church and advantageous to its ends others may be incongruous to it and destructive to its ends § 23. Of a True or False Church MANY notes of a true Church are contentiously brought in by those that would darken the truth by words without knowledg But without more ado the true and real being of a Church stands in its conformity to that Law of Christ upon which his Church is founded This Law is compleatly written in the Holy Scriptures The more of the aforesaid Conformity is sound in any Church the more true and sound it is and the less of it is found in any church the more corrupt and false it is and the more it declines from truth and soundness A Church may bear so much conformity to its Rule as is sufficient to the real being or essential state of a Christian church and yet withall bear such disconformity to its Rule as renders it very enormous A church holding all the essentials of Faith Worship Ministry and Government together with the addition of such Doctrine Worship Ministry and Government as is by consequence a denial of those essentials and a subverting of the foundation is a true church as to the essentials tho very enormous and dangerous And they that are of the communion of such a church who hold the essentials of Religion
You have heard brethren as well in your private examination as in the exhortation and holy lessons taken out of the Gospel and the writings of the Apostles of what dignity and how great importance this Office is whereto ye are called that is to say The Messengers the Watchmen the pastors and stewards of the Lord to teach to premonish to feed to provide for the Lords Family I acknowledg the passages here alledged are taken out of the old Book of Ordinanion that was established in this Church till the late alteration made Anno 1662. If those Alterations signifie another meaning about the several Holy Orders than what was signified in the Old Book then the sense of the Church of England in these times differs from the sense of the same Church in all times preceding the said Alterations But if they signifie no other meaning than what was signified in the old Book my Citations are of force to shew what is the sense of this Church as well of the present as of the former times about this matter And let this be further considered That the form of ordaining a Bishop according to the Church of England imports not the conferring of a higher power or an authorizing to any special work more than to what the Presbyter is authorized The old form was Take the Holy Ghost and remember that thou stir up the grace of God that is in thee by imposition of hands for God hath not given us the spirit of fea◠but of power and of love and of soberness What is there in this form of words that might not be used to a Presbyter at his ordination Or what is there in it expressive of more power than what belongs to a Presbyter The new form since the late alteration is Receive the Holy Ghost for the work and office of a Bishop in the Church of God now committed to thee by imposition of our hands in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen And remember that thou stir up the grace of God that is given thee by this imposition of our hands f r God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of soberness And what is there in this form that is expressive of any office power that the Presbyter hath not unless these words for the work and office of a bishop Now both the name and work and office of a bishop belongs to the Scripture-presbyter who is of divine institution and the presbyter to whom it doth not belong is but a humane creature or an ordinance of man § 7. Of the present Diocesan Bishop A Diocesan Bishop according to the hierarchical state is a Bishop of the lowest degree having under him Parish-Ministers that are Presbyters or Priests but not accounted Bishops and by divine right claiming to himself alone the Episcopal Authority over all the Parish Churches and Ministers within his Diocess which may contain a hundred two hundred five hundred or a thousand parishes For an Episcopacy of this kind I discern no Scripture-Warrant nor Divine Right Every particular Church should have its proper pastor or Bishop and particular Churches with their proper pastors are so evidently of divine right that some eminently learned men in the Church of England have declared their judgment that no form of Church-Government besides the mere pastoral office and Church-Assemblies is prescribed in the Word of God but may be various according to the various condition and occasion of several Churches But if it be said that parochial Congregations are not Churches but only parts of the Diocess which is the lowest political Church I desire proof from Scripture that such Congregations as our parishes having their proper presbyter or presbyters invested with the power of the keys are not Churches properly so called The reason of demanding this proof is because the Scripture is a perfect rule for the essential constitution of Churches though the accidents thereto belonging may be regulated by humane prudence And it is most evident in Scripture that a particular congregation of Christians having their proper pastor or pastors presbyter or presbyters are Churches properly so called and a parochial Minister I conceive to be a pastor presbyter or elder according to the Scripture Moreover if a Diocess containing many hundred or perhaps a thousand parishes as it doth in England do constitute but one particular Church and the parishes be not properly to be accounted Churches but only so many parts of that one diocesan Church why may not ten thousand yea ten times ten thousand parishes be likewise accounted but one particular church and brought under one man as the sole bishop or pastor thereof Nor do I discern how it is possible for one man to do the work of a bishop towards so many parishes which is to oversee all the flock to preach to them all to baptize and confirm all that are to be baptized and confirmed to administer the Lords Supper to all to bless the congregation publickly and privately to admonish all as their need requires to excommunicate the impenitent to absolve the penitent and that upon knowledg of their particular estate for all these are pastoral or episcopal acts And let it here be noted that I speak of the work of a bishop infimi gradus or under whom there are no subordinate bishops If such a Diocesan bishop saith it sufficeth that he perform all this to the flock by others namely by the parish ministers as his Curates and by other officers his substitutes It is answered 1. The pastoral Authority is a personal trust 2. He is to shew his commission from Christ the prince of pastors to do his work by others for I am now enquiring what is of divine and not of humane Right 3. None but a bishop can do the proper work of a bishop and consequently the presbyters by whom the Diocesan doth his work either are bishops or their act is an usurpation and a nullity It is matter of divine Right only that is here considered As for the humane Rights of a Diocesan bishop to wit his dignity and his jurisdiction under the King as Supreme and to which he is intituled by the Law of the Land I intermeddle not therewith § 8. Of a Bishop or Bishops THE Divine Right of a bishop infimi gradus Ruling over many churches as their sole hishop or pastor hath been considered and now it is to be considered Whether there be of divine institution such a spiritual officer as hath the oversight of Bishops or is a Bishop of Bishops The Diocesan Bishop is really of this kind tho he will not own it for he is a bishop of Presbyters who are really bishops if they be that kind of Presbyters that the Scripture mentions But if the Presbyters which in the hierarchical state are subject to the Diocesan Bishop be of another kind they are not of Christs institution What hath been already said
was referred to a Synod consisting of bishops and presbyters Other precepts given them were above the proper work of a bishop of a particular Church To erect and govern Churches in a hundred Cities and to govern such presbyters who according to Dr. Hammond were bishops belonged not to an ordinary bishop of a particular Church Wherefore this latter sort of duties belonged to Timothy and Titus as Evangelists or General Ministers who had a kind of Vice-Apostolick office of which sort were Barnabas Silas Apollos Titus Timothy and Epaphroditus and others Ambrose on Eph. 4. saith they are stiled Evangelists who did Evangelizare sine Cathedra It often happened that those unfixed Officers resided for a longer time in some places and then they managed the affairs of those Churches in chief during the time of their residence § 10. Concerning the Angels of the Seven Churches in ASIA IT is much insisted on that these Angels were bishops of a superior Order to that of presbyters Whereupon let it be considered 1. That the title of Stars and Angels are not proper but figurative and mystical names made use of in a mystical book and that the said names are common to all ministers Gregory the Great l. 34. Mor. on Joâ— c. 4. saith that these Angels are the preachers of the Churches 2. That the name Angel may be taken collectively not individually Austins Homily on the Apoc on these words I will remove thy Candlestick saith that John calls the Church the Angel As the Civil state of the Pagano-Christian Empire is called the Beast and the Ecclesiastical state the Whore so Angel may signifie the whole Presbytery but put in the singular number to hold proportion to the seven stars which signifie the same thing and the seven Candlesticks In these Epistles to the Churches there are indications that not a single person but a company is represented under this name Rev. 2.10 16 24 25. 3. Beza saith that this Angel was only praeses Indeed he to whom the title of bishop was appropriated by the ancient Fathers was the President of the presbytery Ambrose on 1 Tim. c. 3. saith He is the bishop who is first among the presbyters This priority or presidency is in History observed to have begun first at Alexandria the people whereof above other men were given to schism and sedition as Socrates saith of them l 7. c. 13. If this presidency began at Alexandria upon the death of Mark it must needs be long before the death of John the Apostle Howbeit Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthians takes no notice of such a priority or presidency of one above the rest in that Church And Jerome having mentioned John as the last of the Apostles saith that afterwards one was set over the rest Now whereas Jerome called the imparity of bishops and presbyters an Apostolical tradition it is to be noted that with him an Apostolical tradition and Ecclesiastical custome are the same But the main thing still remains unproved for ought that is to be gathered from this title of Angel or from any thing contained in these Epistles to the Asian Churches namely that these Angels whatsoever they might be were bishops of a superior order than that of presbyters or that they had a superiority of jurisdiction over the presbyters or that they were bishops set over divers setled Churches or fixed Congregations with their Pastors or that they had the sole power of jurisdiction and ordination The main point in controversie is not Whether bishops but whether such as the present Diocesan bishops have continued from the Apostles times to this Age. The ancient bishop was the Officer of a particular Church not a general Officer of many Churches He was not a bishop of bishops that is he did not assume a power of ruling bishops who have their proper stated Churches Cypr. in Conc. Carth. saith None of us calls himself or makes himself to be a bishop of bishops or by tyrannical terror drives his Colleagues to a necessity of obeying The ancient bishop did not govern alone but in conjunction with the presbyters of his Church He did not and might not ordain without the Counsel of his Clergy Ignatius in his Epistle to the Trall saith What is the presbytery but the sacred Assembly of the Councellors and Confessors of the bishops Cyprian in his epistle to Cornelius wisheth him to read his Letters to the flourishing Clergy at Rome that did preside with him Id. l. 3. Ep. 14. Erasm Edit From the beginning of my Episcopacy I resolved to do nothing without your counsel and without the consent of my people 4. Conc. Carthag 23. The sentence of a bishop shall be void without the presence of his Clericks Concil Caâ—thag c. 22. Let not a bishop ordain Clericks without a Council of his Clericks The Present Ecclesiastical Government compared with the Ancient EPISCOPACY IT is commonly objected against the Nonconformists That they are enemies to Episcopacy and that they renounce the Ancient Government received in all the Churches The truth of this Objection may easily be believed by those that hear of Episcopal Government and consider only the name thereof which hath continued the same till now but not the thing signified by that name which is so changed that it is of another nature and kind from what was in the first Ages There be Nonconformists who think they are more for the Ancient Episcopacy than the Assertors of the present Hierarchy are and who believe they are able to make it evident may they be permitted Something to this purpose is here in a short Scheme tendered to consideration and proof is ready to be made of each particular here asserted touching the state and practice of the Ancient Church 1. IN the first ages a Political Church constituted as well for Government and Discipline as for Divine Worship was one particular Society of Christians having its proper and immediate bishop or bishops pastor or pastors In these times the lowest political Church is a Diocess usually consisting of many hundred parishes having according to the Hierarchical principle no bishop but the Diocesan Yet these parishes being stated ecclesiastical Societies having their proper pastors are really so many particular Churches 2. In the first Ages the bishops were bishops of one stated Ecclesiastical Society or particular Church But in the present age bishops that are of the lowest rank according to the Hierarchical principle are bishops of many hundred churches which kind of bishop the ancient churches did not know and which differs as much from the ancient bishop as the General of an Army from the Captain of a single Company 3. The bishop of the first Ages was a bishop over his own Church but he was not a bishop of bishops that is he was not a Ruler of the Pastors of other Churchs But the present bishop even of the lowest rank according to the Hierarchical principle is a bishop of bishops namely of the presbyters of
in a higher or lower degree about ones part in this Society according to its Invisible form yet it can ground a judgment of certainty about ones part in the same according to its Visible form So that altho God only knows those whom he accepts yet the Church may know certainly whom she ought to admit And as God in the matter belonging to his cognizance to wit the sincerity of profession and the rights consequent thereunto so the Church in the matter belonging to its cognizance to wit the credibility of profession and the rights consequent thereunto proceeds upon certain knowledg § 5. Of the Catholick Church Invisible and Visible IT hath been well observed That the term Catholick Church hath been sometimes used of a particular Church holding the true Doctrine of the Apostles and is the same with Apostolical and in this sence any Bishop of a true Apostolical Church may be called a Catholick Bishop But here the term Catholick signifies the same with Oecumenical or the Church that is throughout the whole World or the whole World of Christians And in this sence the Church is termed Catholick not as actually extending to the whole World but potentially no Nation or People being excluded but all having Liberty to accept and injoy the Priviledges thereof In this notion there is one Catholick Church both in the Invisible and Visible form The Catholick Church Invisible is the whole company of true Believers throughout the World who make that part of Christs Mystical Body which ia militant here on Earth The Catholick Church Visible is the whole company of Visible believers throughout the World or believers according to humane judgment § 6. The Vnity of the Catholick Church Visible THE Catholick Church is not only notionally but really existent and hath Relation to particular Churches as an intregal whole to integral parts The same relation it hath also to particular Christians yea and to such as are not fixed members of a particular Church There being one peculiar Kingdom of Christ throughout the World distinct from the World in general visibly constituted and administred not by humane Laws and Coercive Power as Secular Kingdoms are but by Divine Laws and Power directly and purely respecting the conscience there must needs be one Caetholick Visible Church The Catholick Church in its Visible form is one political Society or Spiritual Commonwealth the City of God the more special Kingdom of Christ upon Earth for the World in general is his Kingdom at large The Unity of the Catholick Church being a political Society ariseth not out of a local contiguity but out of the moral and political Union of the parts And if the Invisible Church be one body the Visible must be so likewise For these terms the Church Visible and Invisible do not signifie two Societies as hath been shewed but the same Society distinguished by its diver considerations The Visible Catholick Church hath one Head and Supreme Lord even Christ one Charter and Systeme of Laws Members that are free denizons of the whole Society one form of admission or solemn initiation for all its Members one Spiritual polity or one Divine form of Government and one kind of Ecclesiastical Power The members of one particular Church are intituled to the priviledges granted of God to visible Christians in any other Church wheresoever they come to be injoyed by them according to their capacity and in a due order And wheresoever any Christian comes as a stranger he is by his relation to the Universal Church bound to have communion with the particular Church or Churches of that place in Gods ordinances according to his capacity and opportunity And if it be said he is looked upon as a transient member of that particular Church where he comes as a stranger I answer that it ariseth from his being a member of the Catholick Church which contains all particular Churches as an integral whole its several parts for it is his right and not a favour or a matter of mere charity Whosoever is justly and orderly cast out of one Church is thereby vertually cast out of all Churches and ought to be received by none This cannot be meerly by compact among the Churches or by the mutual relation of mere concordant or sister Churches but by their being integral parts of one society for the ejection out of all de jure follows naturally necessarily ipso facto from the ejection out of one The Apostles were general officers of the whole Catholick Church as of one visible society And it is not to be imagined that it lost its unity by their death The ordinary Pastors and Teachers tho actually and in exercise overseeing their own parts are habitually and radically related to the whole Catholick Church and thereby are inabled to exercise their ministerial authority in any other parts wheresoever they come without a new ordination or receiving a new pastoral authority so that they do it in a due order This shews that the several Churches are parts of one political society otherwise the officers could not act authoritatively out of their own particular congregation no more than as one well observes a Mayor or Constable can exercise their offices in other Corporations § 7. The Priority in nature of the Catholick Church to particular Churches FOrasmuch a◠men are Christians in order of nature before they are members of a particular Church and ministers in general before they are ministers of a particular Church they are members and ministers first of the Catholick Church in order of nature and then of particular Churches And the Charter and Body of Laws and Ordinances by which the Church subsists doth first belong to the Catholick Church and then to particular Churches as parts thereof To be a member of a particular congregation gives only the opportunity of injoying divine ordinances and Church priviledges but immediate right thereunto is gained by being a visible believer or a member of the Church Catholick One may be a member of the Church Catholick and yet not a fixed member of any particular Church and that in some cases occessarily and in that state he hath right to Gods ordinances The Ethiopian Eunuch was of no particular Church and yet baptized by Philip. The Promises Threatning and Precents of Christ are dispensed by his Minister to the members of his Church primarily not as members of a particular but of the universal Church And therefore the Minister dispenseth the same with authority in Christs Name even to strangers that come into his Congregation 8. The Visibility of the Catholick Church AS a large Empire is visible to the eye of sence not in the whole at one view but in the several parts one after another so is the Catholich Church As a large Empire is visible in the whole at one view by an act of the understanding which is the eye of the mind so is the Catholick Church As the unity of a large Empire is not judged invisible
either by the immediate agency of the Apostles themselves Acts 14.23 or of others by their appointment Tit. 1.5 Yet I do not hereby mean that every Congregation or Assembly for worship or acts of government was a whole political church For some such congregations might be only parts of a church meeting according to convenience but still the said personal communion was in the whole church simul or per vices and there was a personal superintendency of the Bishop or Pastor over the whole in all the acts of his Pastoral office As for such a particular church as consists of many it may be several hundred stated congregations having each of them their proper Presbyter or Presbyters and is governed by one sole Bishop the aforesaid Presbyters being said to be no Bishops and whose members are not capable of personal communion among themselves either simul or per vices nor of the personal superintendency of their Bishop in the necessary acts of his Pastoral Office if there be any Scripture-precedent or divine Rule for the same I am ready to take notice of it § 15. The due place of constituting a particular Church ORdinarily the place of a particular church was a City and from the City the church ordinarily took its denomination Nevertheless nothing is found in Scripture to make a City the only proper Mansion of a church so that no Village could be a fit Receptacle of it yea the Scripture mentions a church which was not a City-church viz that at Cenchrea which was not a City but the Haven of Corinth Cities being places of the confluence of people had ordinarily the Gospel first preached and first received in them and consequently first afforded the materials of a church And they were the fittest places for the erection of a church in order to the making of more converts to be added to them besides other conveniences And therefore right Reason without a particular Divine command would direct those Master-builders the Apostles to erect churches in cities Howbeit the City-churches were not confined to the respective cities but commonly took in all the Christians of the adjacent Villages And in the Apostles times the Christians both of a city and its adjacent Villages did ordinarily but make up one competent congregation or in its numbers it did not exceed one of our parishes Tho some very few churches quickly grew numerous yet most rationally it may be conceived that they did not exceed many nor equal some of our very populous Parishes Here it must be considered that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a city was any Town corporate and that every such that had Christians in any competent number had a stated church in it And the Rule was not then as now that the church and its bishop did make that a city which otherwise would not be but that every city or town corporate or place of confluence of people where there were christians should have its church with its proper bishop § 16. Each particular Church is a distinct Political Society AS Cities in a Kingdom so are particular churches in the church universal This similitude holds in the main but not in all respects As a whole Kingdom hath its fundamental Constitution by which it subsists and its Magna Charta for priviledges belonging to the whole so the church universal hath its fundamental constitution and charter by which it subsists in its proper state And as every city is a distinct body-politick under the King and hath from him its charter by which it subsists so every particular church as a distinct political Society under Christ hath its charter from him by which it subsists in its proper state The erecting of particular churches as several political societies by the Apostles who were Christs authorized Agents for erecting his special Kingdom the church and guided therein by his infallible spirit and by others at their direction and according to the same Rule is a sufficient Charter for the constitution of such churches wherever there are fit materials Besides the law of nature requires the parcelling the church universal into such distinct Societies under their proper Pastors that church-communion and Pastoral superintendency might not be transient and uncertain but permanent and certain The several cities in the same Kingdom may have their special Laws and Priviledges divers from each other according to the diversity of their charters granted by the King But particular churches have not municipal laws and priviledges divers from each other but the same in common to them all because they have all the same charter in specie Here note that they may be rightly called distinct Political Societies that have each of them their own charter tho it be not divers but the same in kind among them all He that is a citizen or a Magistrate of one city is not a citizen Magistrate or Officer in all cities of the same Kingdom But a member or a Pastor of one particular church hath an habitual or fundamental Right of being a member or Pastor in any particular church throughout the world which is not actually to be made use of but in a due order as hath been above noted Particular churches tho they consist of dissimilar parts are all of them similar parts of the Church Catholick partaking of its name and nature whereas cities are dissimilar parts of a Kingdom From these premises it follows that the qualifications requisite to make men members or ministers of the universal church do sufficiently qualifie them to be members or ministers of any particular church wherewith they are naturally capable of Communion § 17. Of the local bounds of Churches ALL the Christians in the world are one holy society and if it were possible they should have local presential communion one with another but that being impossible by reason of the large extent of the society they are necessarily parcelled into several congregations for the capacity of such communion is the end of erecting particular churches in all reason they should consist of persons who by their cohabitation in a vicinity are made capable of it and there may not be a greater local distance of the persons from each other than can stand with it Moreover all Christians of the same local precinct not more populous nor of larger extent than to allow personal communion are most conveniently brought into one and the same stated church that there might be the greatest union among them and that the occasion of straggling and running into severed parties might be avoided And so we find in Scripture that all the Christians within such a local precinct commonly made but one church Tho it be highly convenient that particular churches be so bounded as to take in all the christians of the same precinct as aforesaid and therefore necessary when some special reason doth not compel to vary yet it is not absolutâ—ly necessary in reason nor do we find any divine institution to make it invariable tho
THE REMAINS OF THE REVEREND and LEARNED Mr John Corbet Late of Chichester Printed from his own Manuscripts LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1684. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER HERE thou hast the Remains of the Reverend and Learned Mr. Corbet late of Chichester Those that knew him say That he was a man endued with the wisdom that is from above that is first pure and then peaceable gentle meek moderate and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie Therefore it is conceived that any thing which he had designed for publick use may be well accepted of by all those that desire to follow after peace with all men so far as is consistent with purity Whether the design of these Remains of his be not to vindicate the truth and to promote purity first and then peace is left to thee to judg after thou hast impartially perused and considered them in the fear of God and if in any measure they conduce to so good an end it is hoped thou wilt be thankful to God for the benefit which the Church of Christ and therein thy self mayst receive by the use of them Thou hast them just as they were left under his own hand if himself had lived to publish them thou mightest possibly have had them better Polisht but it is not thought fit that any other person should take upon him to alter any thing in them There are printed of this Authors and sold by Thomas Parkhurst The Kingdom of God among men together with a Tract of Church Unity and Schism Self-employment in Secret containing Evidences upon Self-Examination Thoughts upon painful Afflictions Memorials for Practice OF THE CHURCH § 1. Of the Church and Ministry as related to each other WHETHER the Church or the Ministry be first in nature is to be considered that for the more orderly handling of both we may know which of them to begin with For that seems to require the precedency of handling that hath the priority of nature or the being whereof is presupposed to the being of the other Now some have thus resolved it As the question whether the Hen or the Egg be first is resolved by the Creation That God made the Hen first so is the Question Whether the Church or Ministry be first by the consideration of the first Institution of Christ And it appears that the Ministry was first Instituted or at least that it was first in existence In setting up the Christian Church Christ set up the Ministry first to convert men or make them Christians Moreover the Ministry as taken for the collective body of Ministers is a constitutive part of the Church considered not entitativè but organicè as some Phrase the distinction that is not as a meer company of Believers gathered to Christ but as a Political Society or Spiritual Commonwealth in this World And the Constitutive parts should be distinctly treated of before the Whole that is constituted of them On the other hand the Church is the end of the Ministry Eph. 4.11 and in design or intention before it and consequently the Ministry hath a respect of subserviency to the Church and is Adapted to the state thereof Likewise the Ministry is in the Church as the lesser in the greater as a part in the whole as a thing residing in the seat of its residence as Stewardship in a Family This indeed holds principally and perpetually of the Church Universal 1 Cor. 12.28 Moreover the Ministers power and vertue is theirs as they are the Churches which indeed hath the propriety of them and their Ministerial gifts as being all under God and Christ finally for its behoof Upon these considerations I shall discourse first of the Church and then of the Ministry § 2. Of the Church its Name and Nature THE word Ecclesia is noted to signifie 1. An Assembly called together by a Superior 2. Any multitude gathered into one place 3. According to the use of the holy Scripture a certain multitude that retain the Name as well when they are a part as when they are met together An Assembly at large is called Ecclesia but Appellativè but they that are now so called by special appropriation of the word are a Society standing in a special Relation to God as his devoted People and that both when they are assembled and when they are apart and whether they be the Universal Society of Gods People or the particular Societies that are the integral parts of the Universal The word Church is the English of Ecclesia in its appropriated signification and it is taken divers ways but all agreeing in the aforesaid Notion 1. For the whole Company of Gods Elect comprising the uncalled and the Militant and the Triumphant Eph. 5.25 26. 2. For the whole Company of the faithful both Militant and Triumphant Col. 1.18 Heb. 12.23 3. For all professors of the Faith of Christ or visible Christians Acts 5.11 Acts 8.3 Acts 12.1 4. For the Catholick Visible Church as a political Society 1 Cor. 12.28 5. For the particular Churches parts of the Catholick as comprising the Church Officers and the people or Community of the faithful as the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 1.2 The Churches of Galatia Gal. 1.2 and in many other places 6. For the members of the Church or Community of the faithful as distinct from their spiritual Rulers Acts 15.4 22. 7. For the Governours of the Church as distinct from the governed Mat. 18.17 18 19. 8. For a Church-Assembly come together for Divine Worship 1 Cor. 14.19 34. 9. For the faithful in some one family Rom. 16.5 Philem. 2. if it do not signifie a Church meeting in those houses These several acceptions of the word agree in the said common Notion of a number of People associated in a peculiar and Spiritual Relation to God yet the said Notion is more noble and compleat in some of them than in others Besides all these there is the vulgar use of the Word for the House set a part for the Church to meet in for Gods Publick Worship And no doubt but the Word may be lawfully so used it being a trope in ordinary use to put the name of the persons contained upon the place containing as also the name of the place containing upon the persons contained But that there is any such use of the word in Holy Scripture to me is not evident As for the Text 1 Cor. 11.22 Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God it seems not to me to be inferred from it For the Church of God there said to be despised may be understood rather of Gods People assembled § 3. The Church is a Society distinct from the Commonwealth IT hath been well noted That there can be no greater Evidence of real distinction than actual separation And the Church and Commonwealth are separate wheresoever there
is a Christian Church in a Commonwealth that is not Christian indeed in that Case the Christians taken personally are members not severed from the Commonwealth but parts of it but the Spiritual Society which they make is no part of it but really severed from it When a Commonwealth becomes Christian the Church is not to be looked upon as swallowed up in the Commonwealth but they remain distinct Societies notwithstanding the intimate conjunction that is between them and they differ in their kind and formal state from each other The foundation upon which the Commonwealth rests and its constitutive parts formally taken are of another nature than the foundation on which the Church rests and its constitutive parts formally taken The former is immediately founded in humane Laws and Compacts and Essentially made up of several orders and ranks of men diversly indued with temporal qualifications powers and liberties joyned by Civil Bands and Subordinate one to another but the latter is immediately founded in Divine Laws not only natural but positive and Essentially made up of several orders and ranks of men spiritually distinguished and indued with spiritual qualifications Powers and Liberties joyned by Spiritual Bands and Subordinate one to another Hereupon none become Members of the Church merely as Members of the Commonwealth and none become Cives or Members of the Commonwealth merely as Members of the Church and they that are deprived of the Rights of the Commonwealth may still injoy the Priviledges of the Church and they that are deprived of the Priviledges of the Church may still injoy the Rights of the Commonwealth Indeed a Christian Commonwealth ultimately intends those high and excellent ends which the Church doth nextly and immediately viz. The Glory of God and the Eternal happiness of men and procures the same in its own way as the Church doth in its way And the Magistrates and Officers of a Common-wealth must proceed by the Rules of Christianity in their Civil Administrations as well as the Ministers of the Church in their Sacred Administrations and they are the Servants of Christ the Mediator not only as Christians but as Magistrates And Christianity doth influence its professors considered as Members of the Commonwealth as well as of the Church In these respects such a Commonwealth hath attained a more excellent State and exists in a more perfect mode than other Commonwealths Nevertheless the Church is another and higher thing than that higher mode of the Commonwealth as Christian and hath an Essentially different Polity being a Society of another foundation and specifically different Constitution It is questionable to say the least whether the Civil Power of the Commonwealth and the Spiritual Power of the Christian Church may lawfully reside in the same person I do not now speak of that Power in the Church which is objectively Ecclesiastical but formally Civil such as is the Kings Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical within his Dominions but of Power formally Spiritual And if both Spiritual and Civil Power may lawfully reside in the same person yet that person tho naturally but one would be politically two and the People subordinate to him in those two capacities tho they be the same persons yet they would be two Societies distinguished in their Essential forms When the Commonwealth fails the Church may still subsist and when the Church fails the Commonwealth may still subsist The Commonwealth of the Jews that was a Theocracy suffered an Intercision during the Babylonish Captivity yet their Church then remained tho it were greatly wounded it was not extinct And afterwards when they were no Commonwealth of themselves but a Province of the Roman Empire their Ecclesiastical Society and Polity stood intire till it was to give place to the Christian Church § 4. Of the Church as Visible and Invisible THE notion of Visible and Invisible must not here be taken strictly for that which is or is not the object of seeing only but of other sensitive perception or of any humane intuition All other Societies of men admit not this distinction because they are constituted in their formal being by things that do appear outwardly But this of the Church is constituted in its formal being primarily by things that in themselves do not appear outwardly and but secondarily by things that appear as expressions of the things that in themselves appear not The Church is a Society of regenerate persons joyned to the Lord Christ as their Head and to one another as fellow-members by a mystical union through the Holy Gost residing in them all and through faith unfeigned towards God in Christ and holy love toward one another justified sanctified and adopted to the inheritance of Eternal Glory Now the said Qualifications Relations and Priviledges being in themselves hid from mens knowledg and judgment do primarily constitute the Church which is thereupon in its primary consideration a Society Mystical and Invisible It is also a Society of persons professing Christianity or Regeneration and externally joyned to Christ and to one another by the profession of unfeigned faith and love and by the Symbols of that profession and partakers of the external Priviledges belonging to it And according to this external Constitution which is necessary tho it be not primary it is named Visible So then the Church Invisible and Visible are not two Societies but the same Society distinguished by its divers formal considerations and constitutions the one primary the other secondary and the former is not for the latter but the latter for the former These two distinct considerations or modes or forms of the same Society are not commensurate to each other but the Church in its Visible form is of a larger extent than in its Invisible form For many profess Christianity or Dedication to God in Christ that are not really that is heartily and intirely so dedicated This Society as understood in the compleat notion thereof cannot be extended any further then its primary that is its Invisible form doth reach Whatsoever lies without that compass is but the shadow without the substance the image without the life thereof And therefore all they that are joyned to it meerly according to its Visible form are of it not adequately univocally and simply but inadequately analogically secundum quid They that upon their credible profession are of this Society but analogically as to the external form only have just Right and Title to its external Priviledges according to their capacity and disposedness before them that can discern and directly judg only of things that appear outwardly so that if men debar them of those Priviledges they do them wrong For tho God allows them not and thâ—y have no right in his judgment which is always according to truth and not bate appearance yet he hath commanded men to admit them and consequently given them right before men Credible profession in whatsoever degree higher or lower can ground but a judgment of charity
because it cannot be seen without an act of the understanding no more may the unity of the Catholick Church be for that reason judged invisible I have already shewed that the adequate notion of visible and invisible in this subject is to be not only the object of the bodily eye or other external sence but also of any humane intuition or certain perception or that which falls under humane cognizance and judgment § 9. The Polity of the Catholick Church THE Catholick Church is not as secular Kingdoms or Commonwealths are autonomical that is having within it self that Power of its own fundamental constitution and of the laws and officers and administrations belonging to it as a Church or spiritual polity but it hath received all these from Christ its Head King and Law giver Indeed as it includes Christ the Head it is in reference to him autonomical but here we consider it as a political Body visible upon earth and abstracted from its Head Nevertheless it hath according to the capacity of its acting that is in its several parts a power of secondary Laws or Canons either to impress the Laws of Christ upon its members or to regulate circumstantials and accidentals in Religion by determining things necessary in genere and not determined of Christ in spâ—câ—â— but left to humane determination The spiritual authority seated in the Church is not seated in the Church as Catholick so as to descend from it by way of derivation and communication to particular Churches but it is immediately seated in the several particular Churches as similar parts of one political Body the Church Catholick The Church Catholick is as one universal or Oecumenical Kingdom having one supream Lord one Body of Lawâ— one Form of Government one way of Enrollment into it and subiects who have freedom throughout the whole extent thereof radically and fundamentally always and actually to be used according to their occasions and capacities but having no Terrene Universal Administrator or Vicegerent personal or collective but several administrators in the several provinces or parts thereof invested with the same kind of authority respecting the whole kingdom radically or fundamentally but to be exercised ordinarily in their own stated limits and occasionally any where else according to a due call and order Wherefore tho it be one political society yet not so as to have one terrestrial vicarious Head personal or collective having legislation and jurisdiction over the whole And indeed no terrestrial Head is capable of the Government and Christ the Supream Head and Lord being powerfully present throughout the whole by his spirit causeth that such a vicarious Head is not wanted Indeed the Apostles as such were universal officers having Apostolick authority not only radically or habitually but actually also over the whole Catholick Church in regard they were divinely inspired and immediately commissioned by Christ under him to erect his Church and to establish his religion even the Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government that was to be received by all Christians But this office was but temporary in the nature and formal reason of it and so expired with their persons and was not of the essence or a constitutive part of this society § 10. The Headship of a General Council examined BY Headship over the Church in this inquiry is not meant a dominion and Desporick power over it for the Church hath no Lord but Christ nor soveraign authority over it which is the power of legislation and final decisive judgment by which men stand or fall finally for the Church hath no King but Christ I exclude Headship in any such sence as not fit to come under consideration But the Query is Whether a general Council be supream in that kind of power which resides in the Church and is only ministerial and dispensatory that is whether it hath a supream ministry or Geconomy over the Catholick Church so that all Churches and ministers have their power conveyed to them from the same not as from the Fountain which is Christ alone but as from the first receptacle thereof and are subject to its authoritative regulation and determinations and finally accountable to it for their administrations Who can affirm that an Oecumenical council rightly so named was ever in being The councils that have born that name were conventions of Bishops within the Roman Empire except some very few that were without it and those living near the confines of it Whereupon let it be considered whether the said councils were truly Oecumenical or just representatives of the Catholick Church That which is wont to be said for the affirmative is that no Bishops were excluded from the right of voting therein but from all parts of the world they might come to them as rightful members of them if they would But what if no greater number of Bishops meet upon a summons to a General council than did at the council of Trent May such a convention be called an Oecumenical council because all might come that would when so small a number came as was comparatively nothing to the number of bishops throughout the world Or can the convention of a greater number suppose as many as met in the first Nicene council be justly called a representative of the Catholick Church or carry the sence of it when it bears no more proportion to it Surely it is not their freedom of access but their actual convening at least in a proportionable number that can justly give the denomination And what if the bishops without the limits of the Roman Empire would not come to a General council called by the Mandate of the Roman Emperour especially they that lived in the remoter parts as Ethiopia and India c Were they obliged to come to a general council in case it had been summoned in another especially a remoter Empire or Dominionâ— Moreover what if they could not come which may well be supposed by reason of the restraint of their several Princes or the length of the journey or insuperable difficulties or utter incapacities Tho the most illustrious part of the Catholick Church was contained in the Roman Empire yet an assembly of the bishops thereof could no more make a representative of the Catholick Church than an assembly of the bishops of the other part of the world without them could have done if there had been such an assembly Besides the ancient General councils were usually called in the Eastern parts of the Empire and tho the bishops of those parts might convene in a considerable number yet the number from the Western parts was inconsiderable and as none comparatively to a just proportion Let it be hereupon considered whether the said councils were a just representative and did carry the sence of that part of the Catholick Church that was included in that Empire And in this consideration it is not of little moment to observe what numbers of bishops were ordinarily congregated in the many provincial assemblies and that within
provinces of narrower circuits of ground And how doth it appear that an Oecumenical council rightly so named can be For suppose it be not necessary to consist of all the bishops in the world but of some as delegates in the name of all yet it must consist of so many proportionably delegated from all in the several quarters as may signifie the sence and consent of all Hereupon let it be considered whether there be a possibility of such assemblies much more whether there be a possibility of the continuation or of the succession of them in such frequency as would be requisite in case such an assembly were Head of the Church Nor doth it stand with reason that an Oecumenical council in case it were existent can possibly execute the authority that belongs to the head of the Universal Church in overseeing all in receiving appeals from all in making authoritative determinations for all either immediately by it self or mediately by subordinate councils judicatories and ministers to be superintended regulated and determined by it in their proceedings Nor is there any notice given of the said headship of a General council more than of the Popes or any other bishops universal headship in the primitive and authentick records of the Charter that Christ hath given to his Church to wit the Holy Scriptures Nor is any rule given therein for the constitution of a General council whether it shall be made up only of the Clergy or only of such bishops as are of a higher order thâ—â— Presbyters or of all such bishops of the Catholick Church or if of some in the name of all what number there must be either definite or indefinite and proportionate to the number of those that are represented It is evident de facto that the officers of the Catholick Church as the particular bishops or pastors and the associations and conventions of them do not derive their spiritual authority from a General council Nor doth it appear that de jure they should derive their power from it any more than from the Pope § 11. The infallibility of the Catholick Church examined THE Romanists assert an insallibility about matters of faith somewhere seated within the Catholick Church as the perpetual priviledg thereof some of them place it in the Pope and others in a General council Hereupon this priviledg is to be considered whether it be and what it is The meaning of the term is a being not liable to be deceived or to deceive about those matters about which it is said to be That the catholick church is infallible in the essentials of the christian religion is a most indubitable truth for every member of the catholick church so remaining is infallible so far it involves a a contradiction that any such should err therein for it were as much as to be a christian and no christian The Query therefore is whether it be liable to errour in the integrals aâ—d accidentals of Religion Now the church remaining such is not necessarily or in its nature infallible so far and therefore if it be infallible it must be so from the free grant of Christ But it doth not appear in the Holy Scripture that any such grant is made to the church What was the Apostles doctrine and consequently the doctrine of the Church in their days obedient to their authority we know what the church universally held in any one age touching all the integral parts of religion much more concerning accidentals I conceive extreamly difficult if not impossible to be known But that the church hath de facto if not universally yet very generally erred in the same errour about some integrals of religion appears by the ancient general practise of some things now generally accounted erroneous as for instance the giving of the Lords Supper to infants Moreover it is evident that the whole Church in its several parts hath erred some in one point some in another and that no part thereof hath been found in which hath appeared no error in some point of Religion or other And if all the parts may variously err in several points why may not they also harmoniously err all of them in one and the same point If the Catholick Church be not infallible in all doctrines of Faith much less is any such Council infallible as was ever yet congregated or is ever like to be congregated Hereupon it follows that in all Controversies of doctrine we cannot stand finally to the decision of the Catholick Church if it were possible to be had or to the decision of any the largest Council that can possibly convene We cannot tell what the Catholick Church is nor what particular Churches or persons are sound parts thereof but by the holy Scriptures For what Criterion can be brought besides them Mens bare testimony of themselves is not to be rested on How can we know that the first Nicene Council was orthodox in its determination about the Sacred Trinity and the second Nicene Council erroneous in its determination for Image-worship but by finding that the former was consonant and the latter dissonant to the Scripture in their aforesaid determinations If it be said That of Councils called General those that consist of greater numbers of bishops must carry it against those that consist of lesser numbers let some proof either from Scripture or Reason be given for it What ground is there from either to conclude that in the time of the Arrian Heresie the major part of bishops in the Roman Empire or the major part of those that assembled in Council and for instance in the first Council at Nice might not possibly have been Arrians Moreover if the major part were to carry it in the first six Centuries why not also in the ten last That promise of Christ Mat. 28. I am with you always to the end of the world may imply That there shall be a successive continuation of Bishops or Pastors in the Catholick Church to the worlds end that shall be Orthodox in the Essentials yea and in the Integrals of Religion yet it doth not imply that they shall be the greater number of those that are called and reputed bishops or pastors within Christendom nor that the greater number of those being convened in Councils shall not err in their Conciliar determinations about matters of Faith § 12. Of the Indefectibility of the Catholick Church CHRIST hath promised the perpetuity of the Church in general in saying that he would build it on a Rock and the gates of Hell should not prevail against it and I am with you always to the end of the world but how far and in what respect this perpetuity and indefectibility is promised ought to be enquired into lest we expect or insist upon more than the promise hath ensured That which Christ hath promised cannot be less than that there be always upon earth a number of true believers or faithful Christians made visible by their external profession of Christianity successively
continued till the end of all things It is also ascertained that there shall be at least the essentials of a Church-state or Church organical as some express it consisting of a part governing and a part governed always continued somewhere upon earth For Christs promise is to be with his Apostles in the executing of their Ministry always to the end of the world and it must be understood of them not barely considered as persons but as his commissioned Officers including their successors not in the Apostolical and Temporary but in the ordinary and perpetual Authority which they had in common with Pastors Bishops or Presbyters And Eph. 4.11 shews that the Ministry is to endure till the whole Mystical body of Christ be compleated But the promise doth not import that any particular Church or any particular combination of Churches in one frame of Ecclesiastical Polity how ample or illustrious soever shall be perpetuated by an uninterrupted succession of Pastors and secured from a total defection and rejection either from a Church state or from Christianity it self If any particular church or any one larger part of the Catholick church hath been preserved from the Apostles days till now when others have been extinct it is by the good pleasure of God whose ways and counsels are wise and holy yet unsearchable and past finding out Nor doth the promise import that the true church shall be perpetually conspicuous tho it be perpetually visible for in some Ages it may be more obscure in others more apparent It is granted by that party that much insists upon the conspicuousness of their church as a city on a hill That in the time of Antichrist the church shall scarcely be discerned Now in such a state it may be said to be tho not absolutely yet comparatively invisible that is being compared with what it is when more conspicuously Visible Nor doth it import that any particular church or any most ample and illustrious part of the Catholick church shall perpetually abide in the Apostolick purity of doctrine worship and government but that it may depart from it and fall into most enormous errors and practises in the said points and yet may not lose the essentials of Christian doctrine and church-state The Scripture foretels of a great falling away and a lasting defection in the Christian church and a long continued predominancy of an Antichristian state therein Nay for ought can be cogently inferred from the aforesaid promise the said defection might have been so universal as to leave no part of the Catholick church divided from the Apostatical or Antichristian state and party by a different external church-polity but the sound and sincere part of the Church may truckle under it and be included in its external frame and keep themselves from being destroyed by it some of them discerning and shunning the bainful doctrine and practise and others that are infected with it holding the truth predominantly in their hearts and lives and so tho not speculatively yet practically prevailing against the wicked errours If in all times there have been some societies of Christians that did not fall away in the great defection nor incorporate with the antichristian state but were by themselves in a severed church-state yet Christ hath not promised that there shall be notice thereof throughout all Christendom in the times when the said societies were in being nor that histories should be written thereof for the knowledg of after ages Howbeit we have sufficient notice by credible history that there have been many ample christian churches throughout all ages that were not incorporated with the antichristian state and that did dissent from their great enormities in Doctrine Worship and Government also that many Worthies living in the midst of that great apostacy did during the whole time thereof successively bear witness for the truth against it and that for a great part of the time huge multitudes also living in the midst of the said apostacy separated from it and were embodied into churches of another constitution more conformable to the Primitive Christianity § 13. The frame of the particular Churches mentioned in Scripture AS we find in Scripture one Catholick church related as one Kingdom Family Flock Spouse and Body to Christ as its only King Master Shepherd Husband and Head so we find particular churches as so many political societies distinct from each other yet all compacted together as parts of that one ample Society the Catholick church as the church at Antioch Acts 13.1 the church at Jerusalem Acts 11.22 Acts 15.4 the church at Cesarea Acts 18.22 the church at Cenchrea Rom. 10.1 the church at Corinth 1 Cor. 1.2 the churches of Galatia Gal. 1.2 the church of the Thessalonians 1 Thes 1.1 the church at Babylon 1 Pet. 5 13. and the seven churches in Asia Apoc. 1. 2. viz. of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamos Thyatyra Sardis Thiladelphia and Laodicea We likewise find that the Christians of a city o◠lesser precinct made one church as the church at Corinth the church at Cenchrea c. but the Christians of a Region or a larger circuit made many churches as the churches of Asia the churches of Galatiae We find also that each of these particular churches did consist of a part governing and a part governed and consequently were political Societies Every church had their proper Elder or Elders Acts. 4.23 which Elders were the same with Bishops Acts 20.28 Tit. 1.5 7. 1 Pet. 5.1 2. and they were constitutive parts of those churches considered as Political Societies We find also that these Elders or Bishops did personally superintend or oversee all the Flock or every member of the church over which they did preside Acts 20 28 29. 1 Thes 5.12 Heb. 13.17 This appears further by their particular work expresly mentioned in Scripture to be personally performed towards all viz. to be the ordinary Teachers of all Heb. 13 7. 1 Thes 5.12 13. to admonish all that were unruly and to rebuke them openly 1 Tim. 5.20 Tit. 1.10 to visit and pray with the sick and all the sick were to send for them to that end James 5.14 and no grant from Christ to discharge the same by Substitutes or Delegates can be found § 14. The Form of a particular Church considered FROM the premises it is evident That all particular churches mentioned in the New Testament were so constituted as that all the members thereof were capable of personal communion in worshipping God if not always at once together yet by turns at least and of living under the present personal superintendency of their proper Elder or Elders Bishop or Bishops Whether to be embodied or associated for personal communion in worship and for personal superintendency of the Pastors over all the members be the true formal or essential constitution of particular churches by divine right I leave to consideration But this is evident that all those churches that the Scripture takes notice of were so constituted and that
the Apostles and their coadjutors were led to this way by the natural convenience of it But if any where a greater inconvenience comes or a greater benefit be lost by such a partition of Churches than the convenience of it can countervail there the partition must be made as it may be that is as the state of things will admit It is supposed by some learned men that in the Apostles time there were several Churches at Rome under their several bishops or pastors as one of the circumcision another of the uncircumcision within the same local precincts And if there were not so de facto I think few will deny but that the state of christians then and there might have been such as to have made such a partition of churches among them lawful and expedient § 18. Of the power of a particular Church THE power of a Church is but the power of the ruling part thereof and therefore the power of particular churches is according to the power of their particular bishops or pastors the nature whereof shall be opened when I come to speak of the nature of the pastoral office It appears by what hath been already shewed of the frame of particular churches mentioned in Scripture that they all had the government within themselves Every stated church had its proper pastor or pastors having authority of teaching and ruling it in Christs name If a distinction of churches into such as have Pastoral government within them and such as have it not be asserted it must be proved by the assertors from divine testimony And if it be granted that every organical church hath in it its authoritative Teacher or Guide under Christ and in his name it must be granted as far as I can see that it hath in it its Ruler also for ruling is but by teaching and guiding The smallest Church hath the same power in its narrow Sphere that the greatest Church or any association of Churches have in their larger Spheres that is it hath the same power intensively tho not extensively Indeed the authoritative acts of larger churches and associations in regard of their amplitude may be justly esteemed in degrees more Solemn August and Venerable § 19. The subordination of Churches of the same kind considered TOuching this point of the subordination of Churches there be three parts of the enquiry 1. Whether there be a subordination of one or more particular Churches to another particular Church whose constitution and frame is the same in specie with theirs 2. Whether there be a subordination of particular Churches to some other Church specifically different from them in the frame thereof and being in a state of greater sublimity and amplitude 3. Whether there be a subordination of particular Churches taken distributively to an association or collective body of the same Churches or an assembly thereof and of that collective body to a larger association of more such collective bodies conjunct with it or to an assembly thereof and so forward till we come to the largest that can be reached unto 1. Whether there be a subordination of one or more particular Churches to another particular Church whose constitution and frame is the same in specie with theirs and whose officers are of the same holy order such as the seven Churches of Asia were in relation one to another and as congregational Churches are to each other and as Diocesan Churches are to each other if de jure there be such Churches Now as touching subordination in this kind what hath been or may be by humane right upon prudential considerations either statedly or pro tempore is not here examined but what is by divine right inferring an obligation upon one Church to be subject to another of the same specifick frame with it self Sometimes a Church hath been called a mother-Church in relation to other churches either because they have issued from it as swarms from a hive or because they have received the Christian faith from it or because they have been erected by some sent forth from it c. Now that these latter Churches do owe a reverential regard and observance to the first which is called the Mother-Church is not to be doubted and such regard or observance every small or obscure Church owes to those that are more Ample Illustrious or Renowned But that the said Mother Church can by divine right or warrant claim a governing power over those Churches that have issued from it or that the more Ample and Illustrious Churches can claim the like over the smaller and obscurer I do not find any proof but I judg the contrary because notwithstanding the aforesaid diversity or disparity of condition they all rest upon the same Basi◠Christs Charter by which they are constituted which is the same to all and alike immediately given to all So that in this respect they all stand upon the same level and are equal Now one equal hath not governing power over another in that wherein they are both equal § 20. The subordination of Churches of different kinds considered AS touching the subordination of Churches to some other Church specifically different from them as of parochial or congregational Churches to a Diocesan Provincial National Church be it first observed that the Diocesan Church is not merely the incorporated society of a Cathedral nor any one parcular Church besides the Parochial Churches nor is it materially divers from them jointly taken nor the provincial church from the Diocesan churches nor the national church from the provincial churches jointly taken But in their several ranks they differ formally as being each of them one body politick constituted by the political compages of the churches included in each of them And let what was before observed be here reminded that each congregational or parochial church having its proper Presbyter or Elder invested with the power of the keys is a political church or such as hath its government within it self And thereupon the divine warrant of such a Diocesan Church as is the lowest that hath government within it self and consequently that swallows hundreds of political churches that are of Christs institution was called in question and still I desire the Asserters of it to give some proof of its divine right Indeed the Postscript of the Epistle to Titus mentions him as ordained the first bishop of the Cretians Of what authority that Postscript is I know not but this is certain that where there were Christians there were to be churches in every city of Crete and there were reckoned a hundred cities in that no very large Island and those churches were political societies within themselves having their proper elders or bishops And upon supposition that the whole Island made but one larger church constituted by the political union of the said particular churches in every city under Titus it must be such as is now called a provincial church under one Archbishop Now if the Diocesan church be not looked upon as the
Iowest political church but as constituted by the political union of congregational or parochial churches held also to be political under an officer of another order and the proper superior of those officers under which the parochial churches immediately are then let it be observed that a church of this frame is not properly an Episcopal but an Archiepiscopal Church For the churches whereof it is compacted are properly Episcopal being such as have each of them their own bishop pastor or elder But the divine right of such an Archiepiscopal church I leave to further inquiry As for a National church I come now to inquire in what sence it may or may not be granted In a more general notion it is some part of the universal church distinguished and severed from the rest of that body by the limits of a Nation or of a civil state or in other terms a nation of Christian churches or the Christian churches of a Nation But there are more express and special notions thereof respecting the frame of Ecclesiastical Polity which are discrepant from each other And about the being thereof in these special notions mens judgments vary Some own a national church in this sence only viz. a nation of churches or the churches of a nation agreeing at least in the essentials of christian Dectrine divine Worship and church-Government Some own a national church in a stricter sense namely the said churches not only agreeing in the points aforesaid but politically united by the same common band of Ecclesiastical Government under one head personal or collective And this stricter sence hath a subdivision for it may be understood of the churches united in a Civil Ecclesiastical polity under a civil head or supream or of the churches embodyed in the band of a polity purely Ecclesiastical under a spiritual head or supream I own the rightful being and divine warrant of a national church as united in one Civil Ecclesiastical polity under one civil head or supream either personal as in a Monarchy or collective as in a Republick And in this sence I assent to the National Church of England viz. All the churches in England politically united under one Supream Civil Church-Governour the Kings Majesty Yet it is to be understood that the partition of a church by the bounds of a nation or of a civil state is but extrinsecal or accidental to the church as such also that the union of the churches of a nation in the band of civil church-polity under a civil head is but an extrinsecal and not an intrinsecal union But I question the divine warrant of a national church embodied in the band of one national polity purely Ecclesiastical under one spiritual head or supream either Personal as a Primate or Patriarch or collective as a consistory of bishops or elders intrinsecally belonging to it and being a constitutive part of it For I find no Canon or Precedent for it in Scripture which is the adequate rule of divine right in the frame of churches and of what intrinsecally belongs thereuntò and I do not know any such spiritual head of the Church of England as for the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York they at the most can be heads but of their respective provinces and are not subordinate but coordinate to each other in point of Archiepiscopal Government however the case is between them in point of precedency Yet if the civil supream power shall constitute a person or persons Ecclesiastical to be head of a national church or the churches of a nation politically imbodied I here offer nothing against it or for it But if there be such a national constitution being but humane it is but extrinsecal and accidental to the church and being derived from the civil supream it is but a civil church-polity § 21. The subordination of particular Churches to an association or collective body of the same Churches considered I Come to enquire whether there be a subordination of churches taken distributively to an association o◠collective body of the same Churches or an assembly thereof and again whether there be a subordination of that collective body to a larger association of more collective bodies or to an assembly thereof and so forward till we come to the largest that can be reached unto The association of particular churches is of the law of nature and therefore to be put in practise according to their capacity tho there were no positive law for it for they are all so many distinct members of one great body or integral parts of the Catholick church and they are all concerned in each others well being both in reference to themselves as fellow members of one body and to Christ their Head whose honour and interest they must promote each church not only within themselves but throughout all the churches to the utmost extent of their agency And they naturally stand in need of each others help in things that concern them severally and jointly Likewise that there be greater and lesser associations acting in their several spheres higher or lower the one included in the other is of the law of nature or of natural convenience for the more ample capacity and more orderly contributing of the mutual help aforesad such as have been called classical provincial and national assemblies used in one form of church-government yea and beyond this the association of the churches of many nations as far towards an oecumenical council as they are capable of convening is of the same reason But of an oecumenical association truly so called that is of all the churches in the world the moral impossibility thereof hath been spoken of before It is also by the law of nature most convenienient that in the lesser associations all the ruling officers personally meet and that in the larger they meet by their delegates or representatives chosen by all and sent in the name of all which meetings are called assemblies or synods and the convenience of meeting by delegates is that the particular churches be not for a time left wholly destitute of their guides and that there may be less trouble and difficulty and danger of disorder in the whole management Note That what is most naturally convenient hath in it the reason of necessary or is matter of duty unless when something gainsay or hinder and then indeed it ceaseth to be convenient And that there be some kind of subordination in the said associations and their respective Assemblies is of the Law of nature which requires order but as to the kind or manner of subordination men go several ways Some place it in a proper Authority or Governing power that the collective bodies of Churches have over the several Churches included in them others place it in the agreement of the several churches and some of these make this further explanation that the Canons made by Synods as they are made for the people who are subject to the Pastors are a sort of Laws and oblige by
it doth not hence follow that Peter was a fixed Bishop of the Jews and Paul of the Gentiles no more were any of the Apostles fixed Bishops in those places where they were more especially imployed and we know that they made frequent removes §. 10. Of the Episcopacy of Timothy and Titus THE Name of Bishop is not given either to Timothy or Titus except in the Postscripts of the Epistles But those Postscripts are taken for no part of Canonical Scripture For if they were free from the objected Errors about the places from which the Epistles were written they cannot in reason be supposed to be Pauls own words and written by him when the Epistles were written Moreover the travels of Timothy and Titus do evidently shew that they were not diocesan bishops nor the setled Overseers of particular churches And those passages 1 Tim. 1.3 I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus and Tit. 1.5 For this cause I left thee in Crete shew an occasional and temporary employment And whatsoever stress may be laid upon these texts to prove they were bishops of those places yet they do not sound like the fixing of them each in their proper diocess The name of an Evangelist is expresly given to one of them 2 Tim. 4.5 and the work enjoined both of them and accordingly performed by them being throughout of the same kind there is all reason to believe that they had the same kind of office Now by several texts of Scripture compared together we find the work of Evangelists to be partly such as belonged to the Apostles whose Agents or Adjuncts they were and partly such as was common to Pastors and Teachers whose office was included in theirs Their work in common with the Apostles was the planting and setling of churches by travelling from place to place and in this regard they have been well called Apostles of the Apostles And in doing this Vice-apostolick service they did also that which was common to pastors and teachers in teaching and ruling but with this difference that the ordinary pastors did it statedly in those churches where they were fixed but these transiently in several churches which they were sent to erect or establish or to set things in order therein as the Apostles saw need Or if Timothy and Titus were not in an office essentially divers from the ordinary pastors and teachers yet they were in extraordinary service as being the Apostles Agents and being in that capacity might have their intrinsick spiritual power enlarged to a greater extent and higher pitch of exercise than the ordinary Ministers Howbeit I rather judg that they had an office specifically different from that of the ordinary pastors because in the enumeration of the several sacred offices Paul mentions the office of an Evangelist as a distinct kind from the rest But if it can be proved that the Superiority of Timothy and Titus over bishops or elders of particular churches was not as they were the Apostles assistants or as extraordinary and temporary officers but as ordinary superiors it will indeed follow that Archbishops or bishops of bishops are of divine Right Nevertheless the Episcopal authority of bishops or presbyters of particular churches such as the Scripture-bishops were remains unshaken § 11. Of the Angels of the Churches ANother allegation for the divine right of bishops of an higher order than presbyters is from the Angels of the seven Churches Apoc. 1. and 2. To which many things are said by those of the other persuasion As that those Angels are not called Bishops nor any where implied to be bishops in the present Vulgar sense of the word That the denomination of Angels and Stars in the judgment of ancient and modern Writers do belong to the Ministers of the Word in general That in mysterious or prophetick Writings and Visional Representations a number of things or persons is usually expressed by singulars and that it is very probable that the term Angel is explained under that plurality you distinguished from the rest Apoc. 2.24 but to you and the rest in Thyatira c. and to be a collective name expressing all the Elders of that church Also some observe that it might be expressed in the same manner as Gods providence in the administration of the World by Angels is expressed wherein one being set as chief over such a countrey the things which are done by many are attributed to one Angel president It is further to be considered that in the church of Ephesus one of the seven the Scripture makes mention of many bishops who were no other than presbyters Acts 20.28 Against this some say That the Elders there mentioned were not the presbyters of the church of Ephesus but the bishops of Asia then gathered together at Ephesus and sent for by Paul to Miletum But 1. This is affirmed altogether without proof 2. The text saith Paul sent from Miletum to Ephesus to call the elders of the church which in rational interpretation must be the Elders of the church to which he sent 3. If the bishops of all Asia had been meant it would have been said the Elders of the churches For in Scripture tho we find the Christians of one city called a church yet the Christians of a Region did ever make a plurality of churches as the churches of Judea the churches of Galatia and the churches of Asia 4. There is not the least hint given of the meeting of the bishops of Asia at Ephesus when Paul sent for the elders of the Church 5. The asserters of prelacy hold that Timothy was the first bishop of Ephesus now Paul did not send for him for he was already present with him and accompanied him in his travels Nor did he commit the charge of the church to him but to the Elders that were sent for 6. It could not be the sence of the church of England that those Elders who are declared to be bishops were bishops in the Vulgar meaning of the word when she appointed that portion of Scripture to be read at the ordination of Presbyters to instruct them in the nature and work of their Office Some say That by the Angel of the church is meant the Moderator or President of the Presbytery who might be either for a time or always the same person and the Epistle might be directed to him in the same manner as when the King sends a Message to the Parliament he directs it to the Speaker Now such a Moderator or President makes nothing for bishops of a higher order than Presbyters § 12. A further Consideration of the Office of an EVANGELIST and of a general Minister COncerning the Office of Evangelists such as Timothy and Titus the query is Whether it was temporary or perpetual An eminent Hierarchical Divine saith That Evangelists were Presbyters of principal sufficiency whom the Apostles sent abroad and used as Agents in Ecclesiastical Affairs wherâ—ver they saw need Now this description doth not make them of a specifically
multitude but the Eleven Apostles set forth two whereof one was chosen by lot to the Apostleship and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not there signifie a numbring by common suffrages for God made choice of Matthias Indeed the election of those seven Deacons Act. 6. is expresly declared to have been by the people But to this it is said that it was for the avoiding of offence and the better to quiet the murmuring among the people It is also said that the peoples electing of them to that office was a matter of special equity because the work thereof as far as is there expressed was the distribution of maintenance as there was need in that extraordinary time for which end there was a trusting of the common stock in the hands of them that were chosen But in whatsoever hand the election of a minister lies the peoples consent is of great importance For he cannot perform the work of a Pastor to any people without their own consent it is plain that he cannot guide and rule them in a pastoral way against their wills Yet I know not but that sometimes they may be obliged to consent that he be Pastor when he is by sufficient warrant and upon good grounds chosen by men for them tho their refusal may render themselves uncapable of receiving benefit by him and him uncapable of doing the work of his office towards them But forasmuch as the peoples consent gives the minister the opportunity of discharging the duties of the relation which otherwise cannot be done it is much to be regarded in the call of a minister to any people and the freer the consent the better it is in respect of the ends of the pastoral relation and consequently their consent before his admission is most desirable yet where there is not a consent before an after consent may suffice The people in electing their Pastors if they have the liberty thereof or in consenting to the election made by others ought ordinarily to be directed by the judgment of other Pastors N. B. That we may carry the Question from the meer name Pastor to the matter all these things must be distinctly considered 1. What Qualifications make a man capable of the sacred office sine quibus non 2. What maketh a man so capable a minister as related to the uncalled world and the universal Church obliged indefinitely to do his best for them and this is Christs mission 1. By his Word 2. And his Spirit giving him a true willingness and consent 3. And by authorized ordainers investing and sending him 3. What maketh a minister to be such a one as the congregation is bound to consent shall be their proper pastor And this is 1. His special fitness 2. His special opportunity 3. And these so judged by the Magistrate and Bishops or other Pastors who are meet discerners and if they be peremptory in their imposition he hath the greater advantage In all these aforesaid the peoples election or consent is no necessary cause 4. What maketh the man and the Church or any person in esse relative formally related as their Pastor and his flock and that is mutual consent if he consent not no Magistrates or Bishops command maketh him their Pastor tho it may oblige him to consent nor yet if they consent not As a Father may make it a Childs duty to marry such an one but it s no marriage without consent 5. What is necessary to the exercise of the office and that also is mutual consent as to every proper part which is a priviledg which an unwilling person can neither have right to nor possess nor use § 20. Of Ordination and the moment thereof in the office of the Ministry ORdination is an outward solemn setting apart of persons to the holy ministry by prayer and fasting and the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery As touching the importance thereof some say that it is the constituting or making of a minister others say it is the solemnizing of his entrance into the office or his inauguration thereinto or his investiture therein and is of the same moment to the ministry with the solemnizing of marriage to the conjugal relation the delivery of a twig and turf to the possession of land These different ways of expression being considered may be found to come to the same issue and the latter may sufficiently set forth the making of a minister as far as mans act can make him The words by which that which we call ordination is set forth in Scripture are 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 14 24. which doth not necessarily evince an ordaining by suffrages but in the New Testament it is used to signifie an ordaining to the office whether by God or man as hath been before noted But if the Text were thus to be read They ordained them Elders by the suffrages of the people yet it is plain that not the people but Paul and Barnabas ordained them 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.5 Which signifies to constitute 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 13.2 Which signifies to separate or set apart Now the latter way of expressing the force of ordination viz. The solemn inauguration or investiture in the office is a separating of one unto it or a constituting of one in it in that sence that mans act of ordainining can bear For it cannot be the act of an efficient cause making and giving the office and power thereof For that as hath been already shewed is not the act of man but of Christ alone But it is a necessary ordinary antecedent and that the most important as being the last and most compleat designation made by men of the person on whom Christ confers the office and the solemn investing of him in it Hence it follows that tho ordination be ordinarily necessary to the ministry yet it is not of that absolute necessity in all cases as that there can be no lawful or valid ministry without it for where it cannot be had there may be otherwise a full signification of the will of Christ that some persons should do the work of the ministry Moreover the work of the ministry is a necessary means of saving souls of upholding and perpetuating a Church unto Christ upon earth of maintaining soberness righteousness and godliness of life among professed Christians and that some take this work upon them is an obligation of the Law of Nature and indispensable But regular ordination is but a point of order and for the interruption or cessation of this latter the former is not to be broken off or cease And if there be in any an obligation statedly to do this work he is in the office of the ministry If any alledg that Christ by his law hath made an uninterrupted regular ordination indispensably necessary to the ministry he is bound to prove it If any pretend an uninterrupted regular ordination of all his predecessors he is bound to make it clear
they grant a kind of Certainty as the one by usurped authority impose upon mens belief in the matter of Religion which is mans highest concernment so the other take away or lessen that security of the mind which is reasonably required in so great a matter and give too great advantage to the pretenders on the other extream The term infallible may be taken first in a passive signification and then it is that which cannot be deceived And so it may be applied either to the propounder or to the believer of a truth It may also be taken in an active signification for that which cannot deceive and so it may be applied to the propounder as also to the truth it self proposed and â—o the evidence thereof as in our English Translation Act. 1.3 by many infallible proofs that is evidence that could not deceive Infallibility as ascribed to the propounder or believer of a truth is subjective infallibility as ascribed to the truth propounded or the evidence thereof it is objective infallibility which signifies no more than that the thing cannot be false and cannot objectively deceive Now if there may be objective there may be also subjective infallibility If there be truth and an evidence of truth that cannot be false then an understanding apprehending that truth as it is cannot be deceived therein nor can deceive in propounding the same to others Besides objective infallibility is an insignificant thing in reference to an understanding uncapable of infallibility An object is denominated infallible with respect to the understanding to which it is or may be propounded as not to be deceived in it § 12. Of Infallibility which is hypothetical and limited and that which is absolute and unlimited INFALLIBILITY therefore denoting an impossibility of being deceived and of deceiving inquire we into the subject to whom it doth belong Some say an impossibility of being deceived belongs only to an infinitely perfect understanding We must distinguish between an impossibility of being deceived that is absolute and unlimited and that which is hypothetical and limited I grant that an absolute impossibility of being deceived belongs not to a finite understanding And no asserter of infallibility in the creature intended the former but the latter kind Hypothetical and limited impossibility of being deceived may belong to a finite and in particular to a humane understanding and it is that which supposeth a full revelation natural or supernatural to the subject in whom it is and is limited to the truth so revealed and this hypothetical infallibility doth not rest barely upon the perfection of the humane nature but upon this principle That God is true in his revelations both natural and supernatural and that he doth not govern the world by falshoods Now this is proper infallibility For upon this principle I am not only sure that I am not deceived but also that I cannot be deceived as to the particular truths so evident to me or to speak it plainer it cannot be that I am therein deceived for it were a contradiction Moreover that which is certain is so upon necessary grounds and therefore cannot be false And he that knows it to be certain knows it upon those necessary grounds and consequently that it cannot be false and this is to know it infallibly If we know nothing infallibly we know nothing either as necessary or as impossible whether absolutely or hypothetically § 13. Of stated or permanent Infallibility and that which is but pro tempore IT hath been shewed that an understanding that is not absolutely or by the perfection of its nature infallible may be secured from possibility of mistake and an understanding that is not universally infallible may be secured from possibility of mistakes and so be infallible in certain cases and to certain intents Now it is further to be noted That there may be a stated or permanent Infallibility and that which is but temporary The former did belong to the established Prophets of the Lord in their declarations to his people and to the Apostles of Christ in matters pertaining to their Apostolical Commission for establishing the Religion and Churches of Christ Also upon supposition of the Saints perseverance it belongs to all true Christians as to the Essentials of Christianity The temporary Infallibility belongs to such persons as receive the Visions of God or are divinely inspired not statedly but occasionally at some particular time or times as among holy men Zacharias John Baptists Father Gideon the Parents of Sampson among the unholy Balaam in his Prophesies before Balaac and Saul who sometime was found prophecying § 14. The Infallibility of a finite Vnderstanding further cleared IT is granted by the deniers of Infallibility That that which is true is not possible to be false And thence I infer If I know it to be true I know it is not possible to be false and so I infallibly know it And my assent to a truth as for instance to the Christian Faith cannot possibly be false Some that say an impossibility of being deceived belongs only to an infinitely perfect understanding do grant that an understanding liable to be deceived may not be deceived and be sure that he is not And I infer thereupon that he cannot be deceived in that particular assent I mean not that he cannot simply but in that state and circumstances wherein he is put he cannot be deceived therein and that he knows he cannot because he knows it implies a contradiction that he should be deceived in that wherein he is sure that he is not deceived For if I may be deceived in such an apprehension or assent not only simply but all circumstances being put I cannot be sure that I am not deceived therein Likewise those that say an impossibility of being deceived belongs only to an infinitely perfect understanding do grant that a man cannot be deceived in that thing with the belief whereof God inspires him and gives him such evidence thereof as cannot be false Now this is a concession of hypothetical and limited insallibility to humane understanding For it is here acknowledged that there may be such evidence of divine inspiration as cannot be false And indeed I take it for a repugnancy in nature that God should inspire the belief of a falshood Nevertheless a man divinely inspired is not simply infallible in his apprehension of divine inspiration for he may sometime be deceived in thinking he is so inspired when he is not Thus it being evident that an understanding that is not simply infallible in a matter may in the state and circumstances wherein he is put be therein infallible I think it better to explain and limit the term and notion of infallibility in the humane understanding than wholly to reject it But howsoever they that reject or dislike it do grant and contend for a sufficiently certrin evidence of truth and I will not quarrel if that will serve for infallibility And they will also grant that they who
supernatural help in remembring and attesting it The first Churches received the Testimony from the first witnesses upon naturally certain and infallible evidence it being impossible that those witnesses could by combination deceive the world in such matters of fact in the very age and place when and where the things are pretended to be done and said And these Churches had the concomitance of supernatural attestation in themselves by the supernatural gifts of the Holy Ghost and by miracles wrought by them The Christians or Churches of the next age received the testimony from those of the first with a greater evidence of natural infallible Certainty for that the Doctrine was delivered to them in the records of sacred Scripture and both the miracles and reporters were more numerous and they were dispersed over much of the world and with these also was the supernatural evidence of miracles We of the present age receive it insallibly from the Churches of all precedent ages successively to this day by the same way with greater advantages in some respects and with lesser in others not upon the Churches bare authority but the natural Cerainty of the infallible tradition of the Holy Scriptures or records of this religion and of the perpetual exercise thereof according to those records in all essential points wherein it was naturally impossible for the precedent ages to impose falshoods upon the subsequent And this rational evidence of the Churches tradition was in conjunction with the histories of heathens and the concessions of the Churches enemies infidels and hereticks all which did acknowledg the verity of the matters of fact There is natural evidence of the impossibility that all the witnesses and reporters being so many of such condition and in such circumstances should agree to deceive and never be detected for there is no possible sufficient cause that so many thousand believers and reporters in so many several countries throughout the world should be deceived or be herein mad or sensless and that those many thousands should be able in these matters unanimously to agree to deceive more than themselves into a belief of the same untruth in the very time and place where the things were said to be done And no sufficient cause can be given but that some among so many malicious enemies should have detected the deceit especially considering the numbers of Apostates and the contentions of Heriticks Besides all this there is a succession of the same spirit of Wisdom and Goodness which was in the Apostles and their hearers continued to this day and is wrought by their Doctrine § 20. Of the infallible Knowledg of the Sense of Scripture AS we may be infallibly certain of the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture so likewise of the sence of the Scripture at least in points fundamental or essential to the Christian Religion and that without an infallible Teacher We may certainly know that an interpretation of Scripture repugnant to the common reason of mankind and to sense rightly circumstantiated is impossible to be true if we can certainly know any thing is impossible to be true and consequently we may infallibly know it The sence of Scripture in many things and those most material to Christian faith and life is so evident from the plain open and ample expression thereof that he that runs may read it if his understanding be notoriously prejudiced And if we cannot know the said sense to be necessarily true we can know nothing to be so and so we are at uncertainty for every thing It will surely be granted by all that we may as certainly know the sense of Scripture in things plainy and amply expressed as the sense of any other writings as for instance of the Writings of Euclide in the definitions and axioms in which men are universally agreed If any say the words in which the said definitions and axiomes are expressed may possibly bear another sense it is answered That they may absolutely considered because words which have their sense ad placitum and from common use being absolutely considered may have a divers sense from what they have by common use but those words being respectively considered as setled by use cannot possibly bear another sense unless we imagine the greatest absurdity imaginable in the Writer Besides they that pretend the possibility of another sense I suppose do mean sense and not nonsense And how a divers sense of all those words in Euclide that is not pure nonsense should arise out of the same words and so conjoined is by me incomprehensible But if the possibility of the thing be comprehensible or so great an absurdity be imaginable in a Writer led only by a humane spirit it is not imaginable in Writers divinely inspired That the Holy Ghost should write unintelligibly and wholly diversly from the common use of words in things absolutely necessary to salvation is impossible If an infallible Teacher be necessary to give the sense of Scripture in all things and no other sense than what is so given can be safely rested in then either the right sense of that infallible Teachers words if he be at a distance cannot be known but by some other present infallible Teacher or else that pretended infallible Teacher is more able or more willing to ascertain us of his meaning than the Holy Spirit of God in Scripture To speak of seeking the meaning of Scripture from the sense that the Catholick Church hath thereof is but vain talk For first the Catholick church never yet hath and never is like to come together till the day of judgment to declare their sense of the things in question nor have they written it in any book or number of books 2. Never did any true Representative of the Catholick Church or any thing like it as yet come together or any way declare what is their sense of the Scripture and the things in question nor is ever like to do 3. Tho it be granted that the Catholick Church cannot err in the essentials of Christian Religion as indeed no true member thereof can for it would involve a contradiction yet there is no assurance from Scripture or Reason but that a great if not the greater part of the Catholick Church may err in the integrals much more in the accidentals of Religion yea there is no assurance from Scripture or Reason but that the whole Catholick Church may err at least per vices in the several parts thereof some in one thing some in another And all this is testified by experience in the great diversities of opinions about these things in the several parts of the Catholick Church yea and by the difference of judgment and practise of the larger parts thereof even from those among us who hold this principle of the necessity of standing to their judgment Wherefore shall we think that God puts men upon such dissiculties yea impossibilities of finding out the true meaning of the Holy Scriptures at least in the main points of
experience consider we whether a man may and ought to have a Certainty therein and of what sort it is On the one hand doubtless it is not such a Certainty as expels all fear of carefulness On the other hand it is doubtless such a Certainty at least as expels anxiety and is sufficient to settle the peace of conscience And I think in this both Papists and Protestants do agree There is a Certainty that expels all apprehension that the contrary may be true whereof this is an instance That there were such persons as Alexander the Great and Julius Cesar and this hath gained the name of moral Certainty tho I think it may be called natural as grounded on naturally certain evidence And that a man may have such a Certainty of his unfeigned faith is held by Protestants in general and some Papists Nevertheless the Papists in general grant not this kind but only a lower kind of Certainty hereof which they call conjectural yet they tell us that it is certainty truly so called that it expels fluctuation and suspence and brings peace and joy and security and withal they say that the Just believe indeed that they are not herein deceived but not that they cannot be deceived But how this lower kind can be certainty properly so called I see not For an apprehension that the thing is otherwise than I think excludes all Certainty properly or strictly so called The above said moral Certainty of justification or being in the state of Grace is not attained by all justified persons and where it is attained it is not ordinarily continued without interruption nor ordinarily in the same degree because justified persons even the best of them do not continue without interruption in the same degree of faith and holiness on the internal sense whereof this Certainty depends THE TRUE STATE Of The ANCIENT EPISCOPACY § 1 What was anciently a Bishops Church THE Name Church is the first and only Scripture-name properly belonging to a Bishops charge In the beginning of Christianity Bishops or Pastors had their Churches in Cities or Towns And commonly the Converts of the Adjacent Villages were by reason of their paucity taken in as parts of the City Congregation and all made but one particular Church the members whereof had local Communion with each other Accordingly the name of city applied to a Bishops charge could be but extrinsecal it being not the name of the thing it self but only of the place where it was congregate The name of Parish came next in use for the said charge And this name is still in use for a particular Church or Congregation which hath its proper and immediate Bishop or Pastor The word Diocess as relating to a Bishop was unknown for several ages of Christianity but afterwards it was borrowed from civil use and applied to the Church A Diocess was one of the larger divisions of the Roman Empire and comprehended several Provinces Accordingly when it was first applied to the Church it was used for the same circuit and as a Province was the charge of a Metropolitan who had many Bishops under him so a Diocess was the charge of a Patriarch who had many Metropolitans under him And according to this sence there was a Canon made to forbid the running for ordination without the Diocess that is without or beyond the foresaid patriarchal circuit But the use of the word for the charge of such a Bishop as had no Bishops but only Presbyters under him came up in latter times From the first and only Scripture-name properly belonging to a Bishops charge it is inferred that a Bishop and a particular Church are correlates A particular Church as such hath its own proper Bishop and a Bishop as such hath his particular Church as his proper and immediate charge The bishops Church was anciently but one society Ecclesiastical which might and did personally meet together at once or by turns for Worship and Discipline under the same immediate Pastors which appears by the proofs here following 1. All the members thereof even men servants and maid-servants as well as others might and should be known by name to the bishop Ignat. Ep. to Policarp Id. ad Trall In the Panegyrick of Paulinus Bishop of Tyre Euseb lib. 10. cap. 4. It is said 'T is the work of a bishop to be intimately acquainted with the minds and states of every one of the flock when by experience and time he hath made inquiry into every one of them 2. One Church had but one Altar and consequently but one stated assembly for full Communion Ignat. Ep. ad Philadelph To the Presbyters and Deacons my fellow servants If one bishop must here be taken numerically so must one altar The Apostles Canons c. 5.32 make it appear there was but one altar and one bishop with the Presbyters and Deacons in a church Also Council Antiochen c. 5. Hereupon Mr. Mede saith that before diocesses were divided into parishes they had not only one altar in one church or dominicum but one altar to a church taking church for the company or corporation of the faithful united under one bishop or pastor and that was in the city or place where the bishop had his Sea or Residence Add hereunto that to set up another altar was accounted a note of schism 3. Each single church had its proper and immediate bishop Ignat ad Philad as before to every church one altar one bishop He shews also that without a bishop the state of a church exists not Ep. ad Smyrn Wheresoever the bishop appears there is the church as wheresoever Jesus Christ appears there is the Catholick church A particular church was then no larger than that where the bishop appeared Id. ad Trall The bishop is a type of the highest father and the Presbyters are as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God and the bond of Apostolical concord Ib. Be subject to the bishop likewise to the presbyters and deacons This shews that the bishop and presbyters were together in one and the same particular church and jointly took the immediate charge of the flock 4. Some of the Ancients testifie that the Apostles placed only bishops without presbyters in some churches Epiphan Heres 65. 5. Concerning the largeness of a bishops church let that instance of Gregory Thaumaturgus be considered He was made bishop of Neocaesarea when he had but seventeen Christians afterwards when many were converted at Comana a small town that was near he did not make it a part of his own diocess but ordained Alexander the Collier a right worthy person to be their bishop And they were of no greater number than what met to chuse him and hear him preach 6. The ordinary work of a bishop shews that it was but one single church that he had charge of Justin Martyr setting forth the manner of the church assemblies tells us that the President himself preached gave thanks administred the Eucharist and exercised discipline Tertullian
de corona Militis c. 3. saith We take the Sacrament of the Eucharist from the hand of no other than of the President It is to be noted that in those times they received the Sacrament at least every Lords day And it is confessed by Episcopal Divines that this President was the bishop But if any say that he was a meer presbyter they must grant that a presbyter had the name of President and a governing power 7. It is much asserted among the Hierarchical Divines that anciently bishops only were allowed to preach And if this was so it was and could be but one single church that a bishop had as his immediate charge for we cannot imagine that there were churches which ordinarily had no preaching or in which preaching was not ordinarily allowed yea the presbyters might not baptize without the bishops command or consent This shews that each particular church had its proper bishop 8. That church in which divine worship was performed had also discipline exercised in it Tertul. Apol. c. 39. 9. The bishops church was no greater than that all the people could meet together and chuse their bishop In Cyprian's time at the ordaining of a bishop the next bishops came to the people for whom the bishop was to be ordained and every one was acquainted with his conversation Cypr. lib. 1. Ep. 4. Erasmus Edit to Felix a presbyter Nor let the people flatter themselves as free from the contagion of the sin when they communicate with a priest that is a sinner They ought to separate themselves from him seeing they chiefly have the power either of chusing worthy or refusing unworthy priests Sacerdotal Ordinations ought not to be made but under the conscience of the assisting people The custom is with us and almost throughout all provinces That to the celebrating of Ordinations all the next bâ—shops of the same province assemble with the people to whom the Praepositus is ordained To the same purpose we find much in very many of his Epistles This was the ordinary course of the first Ages for all the people to chuse their bishops and to be present thereat for which a multitude of testimonies may easily be produced 10. Apost Can. c. 5. shew that the bishop with his presbyters and deacons lived on the gifts of the same altar 'T was the custom of bishops and their presbyters to dwell together and be in common 11. The numerousness of the ancient bishops and their churches shew that those churches were of no large extent In the first council of Carthage it was decreed c. 11. That for examining every ordinary cause of an accused presbyter six bishops out of the neighbouring-places were to hear and determine and for every cause of a deacon three bishops It is reported that Patrick planted in Ireland three hundred sixty five churches and as many bishops In the Vandalick persecution six hundred and sixty bishops fled out of one part of Africa besides all that were murthered imprisoned and tolerated Many proofs hereof might be alledged but in general it sufficeth to note That a great number of bishops could on a sudden meet together in a Provincial Assembly as in the sixth council of Carthage two hundred and seventeen bishops were met And in the times of persecution under the heathen Emperors there were numerous Assemblies of bishops when they went in fear of their lives 12. The paucity of Presbyters in a Bishops Church shews that it was not very large In greater Churches they had a greater number of presbyters but in smaller they had often two sometimes one sometimes none The matter here considered touching the ancient form and state of a bishops Church will be further cleared in the following Sections § 2. Of the place where a Bishops Church anciently was and might be constituted THAT every City which had a competent number of Christians had a bishop with his Church is granted on all sides And that it was not a bishops seat which made that a City which otherwise would not have been so but that every Town or Burrough was a City receptive or capable of a bishop cannot reasonably be denied The Scripture useth the word City for any Town or Burrough Mat. 12.25 Mat. 23.34 Luk. 2.3 Luk. 7.11 Act. 15 21. Crete which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not have a Hundred cities in it unless such as our Burroughs and in every such city the Rule was to ordain elders or bishops Tit. 1.5 What argument from Scripture or reason can be brought why Worcester Glocester Chichester c. should be made Cities and seats of Bishops rather than Shrewsbury Ipswich Blimouth c In the first ages of the Christian Church all Towns were Cities to this intent without any difference Yea any places of greater confluence of people were in the same capacity of having Churches Theophilus Alexandrius Epist Pascal in Bibliotheca Patrum 3 Tom. mentions Bishops in very small Cities Zozomen saith that Spiridion was bishop of the Town Trimethus and said to be Keeper of sheep in that Town after he was bishop There is also sufficient proof that bishops were ordained in Villages or in places that were no Cities Majuma was the port of Gaza and because it had many Christians it was honoured by Constantine with the name of a City and a bishop of its own And when Julian in malice took from it the honour of being a City it still kept its own bishop tho it had the same Magistrates and Military Governours with Gaza And when the bishop of Gaza sought to subject the Clergy of Majuma to himself saying 't was unmeet that one City should have two bishops a Councel in Palestine called for that purpose confirmed the priviledges of Majuma Sozomen l. 5. cap. 3. Cenchrea was but a Port of Corinth as Pyraeus of Athens yet we find a Church constituted there Rom. 16.1 They who say it was a parish subordinate to the Church of Corinth having only a presbyter assigned to it are bound to prove it Clemens Apostolical constitutions lib. 7. c. 84. saith that Cenchrea near Corinth had Lucius a bishop Sozomen l. 7. c 19. saith when throughout Scythia there are many Cities which have all one bishop there are other Nations where bishops are ordained in villages as among the Arabians and Cyprians and Phrygian Montanists In the Counccil of Sardica Can. 6. it was decreed that bishops may not be ordained in villages or in small cities where one presbyter will suffice lest the name and authority of a bishop should become vile But this was done in the middle of the fourth Century and the decree implies that till then bishops had been allowed in villages and small Cities The Chorepiscopi were placed in country villages when Christians grew so numerous as to have Churches in them and this proves that the Churches then kept in a narrow compass The Canons made to express this sort of Ministers and to turn them into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the 57th Canon of the Laodicean Councel do shew that bishops with their Churches had been constituted in villages tho in some dependance on the City-bishop Mr. Beverege in his Annotations on Council Anchyram c. 13. shews that the the Chorepiscopi were truly bishops tho the exercise of some Episcopal functions were denied them by the Canons and by the Canon last mentioned they were not absolutely forbidden to ordain presbyters and deacons but that they should not do it without the permission of the City-bishop under whom they were § 3. Of divers Cities having two Bishops at once THERE are many instances in the antiquity of two bishops allowed at once in the same City Narcissus and Alexander were bishops of Jerusalem at the same time Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 9 10. Ignatius and Euodius were both bishops of Antioch at the same time Clemens const l. 7.46 At Rome Linus and Clâ—tus were fellow bishops in Peters days Platina in the life of St. Peter Epiphanius heresy 68 concerning Meletius saith Alexandria had not anciently two Bishops as other Cities had Austin was made Bishop of Hippo in the days of Valerius and joined with him as his colleague in the Episcopal function Aug. Epist 34. to Paulinus And some learned men of the hierarchical way conceive that Peter and Paul were bishops of Rome at the same time the one of the Circumcision and the other of the Uncircumcision The Nicene Council was the first that decreed that universally there should be but one bishop in a City Can. 8. If any that come from the Novations to the Catholick Church be a bishop let him have the dignity of Priesthood unless it please the Catholick bishop to give him also the honour of the Episcopal Name If it doth not please him let him find a place for him that he may be a Chorepiscopus in the parish or a presbyter in the Clergy that there may not seem to be two bishops in one City As concerning the Catalogues of the ancient bishops in great Cities wherein the succession is by one single person after another It may be considered That Historians being of later ages had respect to the custom of their own times wherein the Episcopacy resided in one And when anciently there were two or more equal in the name and authority of a Bishop the survivor was reckoned the successor whenas he was indeed but the surviving colleague Some do thus labour to remove the contradictions of Historians touching the order of the succession of the first bishops of Rome Linus Cletus Anacletus c. by supposing that these or some of them were presbyters or bishops at the same time ruling that Church in common and that the following writers fancying to themselves such bishops as were set up in the Church in their times fell into those diversities of tradition § 4. Of the more late Erection of many Parishes under one bishop IT is acknowedged by all parties that Christians in great Cities were not divided into divers fixed Congregations or Parishes till long after the Apostles days And tho when they were multiplied they had divers meeting-places yet those places were promiscuously frequented and the people were taught and governed by all the Presbyters in common and were called but one Church It is observed by Epiphanius Heres 68. n. 6. That it was the Custom only at Alexandria to have one president in the whole City and to distribute the presbyters to teach severally vid. Grot. Annot. on 1 Tim. 5.17 Seldens Comment on Eutych Origin Alexand. p. 85. And most agree that it was two hundred and sixty years after Christ before parishes were distinguished And there must be a distinction of parishes before there could be a union of them into Diocesses § 5. That Bishops and Presbyters are of the same order The Testimony of later times concerning it THat this is not the opinion only of those who are now called Presbyterians let the testimonies both of ancient and later times touching this point be considered I begin with those of later times The French and Belgick Confessions assert the parity of order of all Ministers of the Gospel Reynold Peacock bishop of Chichester wrote a book de Ministrorum aqualitate which the Papists caused to be burnt Vid. Erasmus his Annotations on 1 Tim. 4. Cassanders consult Article 14. saith It is agreed among all that of old in the Apostles days there was no difference between bishops and presbyters but for orders sake and avoiding of schism a bishop was put before a presbyter This his opinion he delivered to the Emperor of Germany being sent for by him to inform his conscience about such questions In the time of King Henry the Eighth there was published a book by Cranmer and others called the bishops book wherein is affirmed that the difference of bishops was a device of the ancient fathers not mentioned in Scripture An. 1537. In the book called the Institution of a Christian man made by the Clergy in a provincial synod and set forth by the Kings Authority and approved by the Parliament it is asserted That the Fathers of the succeeding Church after the Apostles instituted certain inferior degrees of Ministry yet in the New Testament no mention is made of any degrees or distinctions in orders but only of Deacons or Ministers and of presbyters or bishops The Parliament Divines at the Treaty in the Isle of Wight in their Answer to the King say This doctrine of the sameness of the order of a bishop and presbyter was published by King Henry the Eighth An. 1543. to be received by all the subjects and was seen and approved by the Lords both spiritual and temporal and by the lower house of Parliament The words of the book are The Scripture mentions these two orders only to wit Presbyters and Deacons and the Apostles confirming them by prayer and imposition of hands Mr. Mede discourse 5. on 1 Cor. 4 1. saith there are properly but two orders Ecclesiastical Presbyters and Deacons the rest are but divers degrees of these two Dr. Hammonds opinion concerning bishops and presbyters is thus declared in his Annotations on Acts 11. Altho the Title of Elders hath extended to a second order in the Church and now is in use only for them yet in the Scripture-times it belonged principally if not alone to the bishops there being no evidence that any of that second order were then instituted in the Churches Now if in Scripture-times presbyters of an inferior order to bishops were not instituted as this learned man supposeth it is evident that all those Church-officers called presbyters mentioned in Scripture were bishops and if this inferior order of presbyters be not to be found in Scripture I desire to know what proof can be made of its divine institution Many if not most Papists acknowledg that presbytery is the highest order in the ministry and that Episcopacy is but a different degree of the same order And it is
his Diocess who are the proper and immediate Pastors of their several Churches and really bishops according to the true import of that name and office as it is in Scripture 4. The Presbyters of the Church of England if they be not bishops are not of the same order with the presbyters mentioned in Scripture for all presbyters therein mentioned were bishops truly and properly so called Now if they be not of the same order with the Scripture presbyters they are not of divine but meerly humane institution but if it be acknowledged that they are of the same order as indeed they are why are they denied to be bishops of their respective Charges And why are they bereaved of the Episcopal or pastoral Authority therein 5. The bishops of the first Ages had no greater number of souls under their Episcopacy than of which they could take the personal oversight But the present bishops have commonly more souls under their Episcopacy than a hundred bishops can personally watch over The ordinary work of the ancient bishop was to preach give thanks administer the Eucharist pronounce the blessing and exercise discipline to the people under his charge But the bishops of the present age neither do nor can perform these ministries to the people that are under their charge 6. The ancient bishop did exercise his Episcopaâ—y personally and not by Delegates or Substitutes But the present bishop doth for the most part exercise it not personally but either by his Delegates who have no Episcopal authority of themselves but what they derive from him alone or by Substitutes whom he accounts no bishops 7. The ancient bishops did not govern alone but in conjunction with the presbyters of his Church he being the first presbyter and stiled the Brother and Colleague of the presbyters But the present bishop hath in himself alone the power of jurisdiction both over the Clergy and Laity 8. The ancient bishop did not and might not ordain Ministers without the counsel of his Clergy But the present bishop hath the sole power of ordination Tho some presbyters whom he shall think fit join with him in laying on of hands yet he alone hath the whole power of the act without their consent or counsel 9. To labour in the word and doctrine was anciently the most honourable part of the bishops work and it was constantly performed by him in his particular Church or Congregation But now preaching is not reckoned to be the ordinary work of a bishop and many bishops preach but rarely and extraordinarily 10. The ancient bishops were chosen by all the people at least not without their consent over whom they were to preside And when a bishop was to be ordained it was the ordinary course of the first ages for all the next bishops to assemble with the people for whom he was to be ordained and every one was acquainted with his conversation But the present bishops entrance into his office is by a far different way 11. Anciently there was a bishop with his Church in every City which had a competent number of Christians But in the later times many yea most Cities have not their proper bishops I mean bishops in the Hierarchical sense tho they be as large and populous as those that have It is to be noted that the manner was not anciently as now that a Church and its bishop did cause that to be called a City which otherwise would not be so called but any Town-corporate or Burrough was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City according to the ancient use of the word 12. Because in the first ages the Christians of a City and its adjacent Villages did ordinarily make up but one competent Congregation There was commonly but one Church in a City and that city-City-church took in all the Christians of the adjacent Villages who were but one stated Society all the members whereof might have personal communion one with another But the dividing of the bishops Cure into such parts as are now called Parishes came not in till long after the Apostles times and when that division first took place they were but as Chappels of Ease to the City-church Here it is to be noted That till Constantine's time it cannot be proved that there were above four or five Churches in all the world that consisted of more people than one of 〈◊〉 parishes nor of half so many as some of them 13. In the beginning of Christianity Cities or Towns were judged the â—ittest places for the constituting of Churches because in them the materials of a Church to wit believers were most numerous and in them was the greatest opportunity of making â—ore Converts with other advantages which the Villages did not afford Yet when the number of Christians encreased in a Region Churches having their proper Bishops were constituted in Villages or places that were not Cities one proof whereof is in the Chorepiscopi who were bishops distinct from ordinary presbyters Thus it was in the first ages But in the following times when the worldly grandure of Episcopacy was rising decâ—â—ed were made that bishops might not be ordained in Villages or small Cities lest the name and authority of a bishop should â—e contemptible 14. Tho it hath been decreed by Councils That there be but one bishop in a city and the custom hath generally prevailed yet there in manifold proof that in the first ages more bishops than one were allowed at once in the same city yea in the same church Indeed the Ecclesiastical Historians now extant being comparatively but of later ages and having respect to the government of their own times set down the succession of the ancient bishops by single persons whereas several bishops presiding at the same time the surviving and most noted Colleague was reckoned the Successor 15. The ancient bishops exercised discipline in a spiritual manner by the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God and by arguments deduced from it sought to convince the judgment and awe the conscience according to the true nature of Ecclesiastical discipline But the present bishops have their Courts which are managed like Secular Courts to compel men to an outward observance of their decrees by the dread of temporal penalties annexed to excommunication 16. The present bishops say of their Church-government that without secular force none would regard it But the ancient bishops thought it a reproach to Christs discipline to declare to the world that it is a powerless thing of it self and insufficient to obtain 〈…〉 unless the temporal sword inforce it 17. The Episcopal or Pastoral authority is now commonly exercised by a Lay-chancellor and tho an ordinary priest be present in the Court to speak the words of excommunication yet the Chancellor as Judg decrees it And excommunications and absolutions pass in the bishops name and authority when he never had the hearing of the cause but anciently it was not so In this case I enquire Whether Christ hath authorised any
bishop to delegate his Episcopal power to a Lay-man yea or to a Clergy-man if that Clergy-man be not as Christs commissioned Officer authorized to exert that power 18. The sentence of excommunication is denounced for any non observaâ—ce of the judgment of the Court tho in cases of doubtful right and in the smallest matters But no proof of such practice can be produced from the first ages And let the bishops themselves judg howsoever contempt may be pretended in the case Whether many who are usually so sentenced either upon doubtful or trivial matters do indeed deserve to be adjudged to such a state as that sentence duly administred doth import 19. The Parish Minister is bound to denounce in his Church the sentence of Excommunication decreed by the Court tho he have no cognizance of the cause and tho he know the sentence to be unjâ—st But no such practice was known in the ancient church 20. Ministers at their Ordination receive that Office which essentially includes an Authority and Obligation to teach their flocks yet they may not preach without a license from the bishop in their own proper charges or cures tho they perform other Offices of the Ministry But anciently it was not so 21. The present bishops require of their Clergy an Oath of Canonical obedience but let any proof be given that the ancient bishops did ever impose such an Oath or that the presbyters ever took it 22 The Parish minister hath not the liberty of examining whether the Infant brought to Baptism be a capable subject thereof that is Whether he be the child of a Christian or Infidel but he must baptize the child of every one that is presented by Godfathers and Godmothers who commonly have little or no interest in the Infant nor care of its education and who not seldome are but Boys and Girls 23. Confirmation is to be administred only by the bishop and yet it is in an ordinary way impossible for him to examine all persons to be confirmed by him within his Diocess Consequently it cannot be duly administred to multitudes of persons that are to be presented thereunto and they that are confirmed are few in comparison of those that are not But the ancient bishops being bishops of one particular Church were capable of taking the oversight of every particular person of their flocks and did personally perform the same 24. A great part of the adult members of Parish-churches are such as understand not what Christianity is but the ancient churches were careful that all their members might be competently knowing in the Religion which they professed as appears by their discipline towards the Catechumeni and the long time before they admitted them to baptism 25. The Parish ministers have no remedy but to give the Sacrament to ignorant and scandalous persons that offer themselves thereunto they can but accuse the openly wicked in the Chancellors Court and but for one time deny the Sacrament to some kind of notorious sinners but then they are bound to prosecute them in the Court and to procure a sentence against them there where not one notorious sinner of a multitude is or can be brought to a due tryal in regard of the way of proceeding in Ecclesiastical Courts and the multitude of souls in every Diocess The consequent hereof is the general intrusion of the grosly ignorant and profane who pollute the communion of the Church and eat and drink damnation to themselves 26. All parishioners that are of age are compelled to receive the Sacrament how unfit or unwilling soever they be by the terrors of penalties subsequent to excommunication and those that have been excommunicated for refusing to receive are absolved from that sentence if being driven thereunto they will receive the Sacrament rather than lye in Gaol And the Parish-ministers are compelled to give the Sacrament to such 27. Many Orthodox Learned and Pious men duly qualified for the Ministry are cast and kept out of it for not declaring an unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the Liturgy and Book of Ordination Let any proof be given that ever any of the ancient Bishops or Churches thought all the points contained in those books so necessary to be assented and consented to or that any of them so severely required the like conformity to opinions forms and ceremonies of the like nature and reason 28. The present bishops debar all Christians from the Lords Supper who through unfeigned scruple of conscience refuse to kneel in the act of receiving the Sacramental bread and wine and they debar from baptism the children of those Parents who judg it unlawful for them to permit the signing of their children with the sign of the Cross But the ancient bishops did not so nor doth the practise of Antiquity warrant the same 29. The greatest severity of the present Church-discipline is directed against Ministers and people who observe not full conformity to the Rules Forms Rights and Ceremonies prescribed in the Liturgy and Canons But the ancient bishops exercised it against those who subverted the Christian faith by damnable Heresies or enormously transgressed the Rules of soberness righteousness and godliness prescribed of God in his word 30. The Oath imposed upon the Church-wardens to make their Presentments according to the Book of Articles framed by the bishop hath had this consequence which ought to be laid to heart that commonly they would rather overlook their Oath than become accusers of their honest neighbours not only those who withdraw from but those who hold communion with the Parish churches 31. The requiring of the reordination of those ministers who have been ordained by presbyters is contrary to the practise of the ancient Church it contradicts the judgments of many Eminent bishops and other Divines of the Church of England who have maintained the validity of Presbyterial ordination it nullifies the ministry of all the Foreign Reformed Churches and of most if not of all the Lutheran churches and it advances the Church of Rome above them for the priests of the Church of Rome upon their conversion are received without reordination whereas those that come from the Foreign Reformed churches must be reordained before they be admitted to the ministry in the church of England And all this is done when in Scripture the office of a bishop and presbyter is one and the same and the difference between them came in afterwards by Ecclesiastical custome It is commonly said That Churches and Bishops being now delivered from their ancient low and distressed state under the tyranny and persecution of the Heathen powers and enjoying the patronage and bounty of Christian Rulers should not be consined to their ancient meanness narrowness and weakness but be enlarged in opulency amplitude and potency answerable to the Civil State Ans It is freely granted that the state Ecclesiastical should in reasonable proportion partake of the prosperity of the Civil state But the question still remains 1. Whether
permanently or unalterably holy as well sanctifying the duties therein performed as sanctified by them so I suppose that the appointed feasts or at least some of them are set apart by the Church to a state of like holiness I confess that as touching the dedication of such days and times as some of those are which are appointed by the Church I have not a clearness of judgment to determine for or against the warrantableness thereof Nor would I break with the Church upon this account but would make those days an occasion of joining in the unquestionable divine worship then celebrated But I know not how to declare an unfeigned assent and consent to the sanctifying of those days because in so doing I should not speak the truth while I doubt of the warrantableness thereof Of the Order for Morning and Evening-prayer THE second Rubrick before Morning-prayer is taken to enjoin the use of the Surplice Supposing that the use thereof is not in it self unlawful nevertheless I question whether I may lawfully consent to a Rule enjoining the use of it to such Ministers and in such Congregations by which the use thereof is judged unlawful or to which it is odious or greatly offensive by invincible or inveterate prejudice I enquire Whether a consent to the use of this Rubrick doth not imply a consent to the enjoining of this Vestment for the enjoined retaining and using of it so that sacred Ministrations shall not be performed without it is the subject matter of the Rubrick I enquire also Whether I may lawfully declare my consent to the use of this Vestment supposing that tho I do not scruple the bare lawfulness of using it yet I wish in my heart the use thereof were not retained but laid aside in regard of the great offence taken at it it being a thing unnecessary and the worship of God being as decently and profitably performed without it as with it Moreover what were those Ornaments in the Church which were in use by authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward the sixth I do not well know Some say this Rubrick seems to bring back the Cope and other Vestments forbidden in the Common-prayer-book 5 6. of Edw. 6. to the use whereof I do not see it fit for me to declare my consent The Responsals of the Clerk and people the multiplied repetitions of the Gloria Patri and the Lords Prayer the omission of the Doxology in the Lords Prayer the composure of many short Collects instead of one continued prayer I can submit unto and declare my consent to them as to things passable But if the declaration of consent imply not only the simple allowableness but also the laudableness and comparative usefulness or expediency of these things I am not clear therein Of the Creed of St. Athanasius I Heartily own the whole Doctrine of the Trinity and of the incarnation of the Son of God as set forth in this Creed yet I am not satisfied to declare my assent to these assertions Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly Also This is the Catholick faith which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved Also he therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity This Creed doth contain deep mysteries as that the Son is not made nor created but begotten That the Holy Ghost is neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding The difference between eternal generation and eternal procession being a mystery wherein the greatest Divines see but darkly we may be justly afraid to condemn all persons as uncapable of salvation who do not understand and explicitely believe these mysteries Likewise the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son being here delivered as a part of the faith concerning which it is asserted That except every one do keep whole without doubt he shall perish everlastingly the undoubted damnation of those Churches and Christians who hold that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only seems to be thence inferred The best answer to these objections that I have seen I here transcribe out of a book lately written It is to be considered That in this Creed there be some things contained and expressed as necessary points of Faith and other things for the more clear and useful explication of the truth tho they be not of equal necessity to be understood and believed even by the meanest capacity Thus if we first consider the contexture of this Creed the Faith declared necessary concerning the Trinity is thus expressed in the beginning thereof The Catholick Faith is this That we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance After this follows an explication useful to set forth the true Christian Doctrine which begins For there is one person of the Father c. After which explication the same necessary doctrine to be known and believed is thus again expressed and distinguished from that explication in these words So that in all things as aforesaid the Vnity in Trinity and the Trinity in Vnity is to be worshipped he therefore who will be saved must thus think of the Trinity What is contained in this consideration is the more clear by the following observation That our Church doth both here and in her Articles evidently receive the Athanasian Creed and yet from the manner of using the Apostles Creed in the form of Baptism as containing the profession of that Faith into which we are baptized in the Catechism as containing all the Articles of the Christian Faith and in the Visitation of the sick as being the Rule to try whether he believe as a Christian man should or not it is manifest that no more is esteemed in our Church of necessity to salvation for all men to believe than that only which is contained and expressed in the Apostles Creed Hereunto I make this Reply In this point the question is not What the Church of England but what the Athanasian Creed appointed by this Church to be read on certain solemn days instead of the Apostles Creed declares to be of necessity to salvation Now the thing that is manifestly asserted in this Creed to be of necessity to salvation is the intire belief of the Catholick Faith as it is there expressed For it is said Which Faith except every one keep whole c. Wherefore to distinguish the summary of the doctrine of the Trinity set down in the beginning and the conclusion from the whole intermediate explication thereof as if the belief of the one but not of the other were affirmed to be necessary to salvation is a very forc'd and unwarrantable narrowing of the intendment of the Words The explication as well as the said Summary is set forth as that Catholick Faith which except every one keep whole and undefiled he shall without doubt perish everlastingly Yea it is expresly said in
than of those that are of authoritative institution also of those that are used occasionally and pro hic nunc than of those that are used statedly Furthermore I apprehend that significant Ceremonies of Divine Worship are more apt to degenerate into Superstition and if they be multiplied that Religion is therewith loaded as with unprofitable luggage and that it is a form of Religion rather Mosaical than Evangelical wherein spiritual worship is most regarded I think also that significant Ceremonies are not necessary in genere as those things are which are left to the determination of humane authority and so not to be instituted and imposed in the ordinary Divine Service I apprehend that our Lord Christ hath instituted all those stated Ordinances of positive Worship that are necessary to the Church Universal and therefore that more of the same nature are not to be devised by men If any significant Ceremonies be indeed necessary for some parts of the Catholick Church in respect of time and place there seems to me a fairer plea for their institution in those times and places but the controverted Ceremonies among us seem to be necessary for the whole Church in every age if at all necessary Significant Ceremonies of the same nature and reason with those perpetual Ordinances that Christ hath instituted for the Universal Church may not be instituted by man and particularly such as are made Symbols of the Covenant of Grace and Christianity In matters doubted among sober Christians Superiors should take heed of strict imposing and thereby wresting the Consciences of their subjects and overstraining them to a compliance with them in derogation to Gods authority in their consciences If Superiors command that which is above their sphere to command namely things not necessary in genere yet if they be not simply evil subjects may do those things unless they be evil in their consequence to a higher degree than the not doing of them would be In this case it is not formal obedience but they are done for the ends sake and to avoid evil §. 7. Of bowing at the Name of JESVS IT is rationally supposed that in this act not the Name but the Person so named is made the object of adoration the Name pronounced is only the occasion of the present adoration of the Person Nothing in Reason or Scripture doth evince that it is simply evil to adore Christ by incurvation of the body or other reverent gesture upon occasion of the pronouncing of the Name JESUS Howbeit to make such incurvation a stated Ordinance of worship may be an excess in Religion that is Superstition tho not intolerable partly because it too rigidly tyes up Christians to a bodily exercise of no necessity nor of great moment partly because it makes them attend to an overcurious gesticulation and verges to externalness and formality hindring the inward life and power of devotion partly because it makes a difference where God hath made none and puts greater honour upon one Name that of right hath not greater honour than the other viz. Christ God Lord or Jehovah For tho the Name be not the object worshipped yet it hath an honour and preheminence given it above the other names without sufficient ground But if the said incurvation be so severely commanded that great mischief would follow the non-observance I judg it may be done tho not formally in obedience yet for avoiding that mischief and peradventure it may be expedient in that case to bow at the name of Christ God Lord. The place Phil. 2.10 is only a phrase expressing Subjection to Christ and used also Rom. 14.11 from Isa 45.23 to express Subjection to God § 8. Of kneeling in the Sacrament AS for kneeling in the Sacrament the inquiry is not here of the expediency of it much less of the imposing of it but of the bare lawfulness of it against which I find no evidence The Act of kneeling among us is no adoration of the elements nor owning of Christs corporal presence but it is either a gesture of prayer then made or a sign of most submiss and reverential receiving those pledges of Divine Grace or both Yet for as much as it was a Table-gesture in which Christs Disciples received it from their Lords hand a Table-gesture cannot reasonably be thought less safe or less decent § 9. Of wearing the Surplice AS touching the Surplice the wearing of a Garment of this or that colour or of this or that form or shape in Divine Worship is neither commanded nor forbidden of God But tho as to its materiale it may be indifferent yet as to its formal state it may not be also so If the Scurplice be made a holy Garment as the Priestly Garments under the Law if it be used to make him that wears it more holy and the Service more acceptable for obtaining Divine Grace it is Superstitious If it be made a Symbol of sanctity it may raise a scruple But a distinctive habit of a Minister whether used as his ordinary garb or only in sacred Administrations I cannot see to be Superstitious or forbidden But a habit that is not Superstitious may be too gawdy or too theatrical What is the formal state or reason of the Surplice is to be judged by the authoritatively declared meaning of those that injoyn it touching its end and use But whatsoever the nature and reason of this Garment be I cannot approve the inforcing of it upon such Ministers and in such Congregations to whom by reason of invincible prejudice it is either odious or ridiculous yea tho their prejudice be supposed culpable Wise Rulers give way to the unmoveable aversness of Inferiors in things unnecessary and of no great moment tho of good intention And as I should be loth to wear a fools coat in Divine Service upon the command of a Superior so I should be loth to appear in a Congregation in a habit which I knew would be to them as ridiculous as a fools coat tho it were their great folly so to think § 10. Of the Ring in Matrimony FOr as much as the Matrimonical contract and conjunction tho it be a Divine Ordinance yet is no part of Divine Worship I no more doubt of the lawfulness of the Ring as a sign of that contract than of any other sign used for ratification of humane Contracts § 11. Of the Cross in Baptism SOme Nonconformists say that they deny not the Civil use of the Cross in Coins and Banners Others of them say they dare not reprove the Ancient Christians that used the sign of the Cross meerly as a professing signal action to shew to the Heathen that they did believe in Christ crucified Indeed that usage thereof was not an Act of Worship but an informing of men touching their faith It seems lawful to signifie as by words so by other signs that we are Christ's and his devoted Servants For Words are but a kind of signs The grounds of scrupling the sign
such as the Popish Whippings or such as some of the Ancients with pious intention but superstitiously used as perpetual abiding on the top of a Pillar never to sleep but standing c. And there are Austerities inconvenient for measure by excess in that which is for kind sutable and comely as immoderate Abstinences and Abasements all such being to be rejected come not into the present consideration But the query is Whether allowable Austerities may be not only adjuncts but also acts or matter of Worship Humiliation or Prostration of soul in self abasement before God is an act of internal Worship And I do not see but the Austerities we now speak of may be lawfully used as direct and immediate signs of such humiliation and consequently as acts of Worship Whatsoever is directly and immediately expressive of internal Worship is external Worship And so fasting and other abstinences may be esteemed not only as fit adjuncts of Worship and helps therein but acts thereof Vows of the aforesaid allowable Austerities to be continued in for term of life or notable length of time are dangerous and apt to insnare the Consciences and if a special religious state be placed in them more than what belongs to Christianity as such they are Superstition and Will-worship MATRIMONIAL PVRITY § 1. MArriage is the Bond of an individual Conjunction between Man and Woman instituted of God to an individual Conversation or Course of Life This Bond cannot be dissolved by man because it is not man but God that makes it tho the Married parties voluntarily enter into it and publick Officers instrumentally authorize their Act according to Gods Law Hence it is said Whom God hath joyned let no man put asunder But this Rule puts no bar to Gods right of dissolving this Bond by an Act of his Law upon causes therein declared § 1. By the Church of Rome Matrimony is held a Sacrament upon this ground That God hath consecrated it to be a Symbol of the indissoluble Conjunction of Christ with the Church and of Grace to be conferred upon those that enter into it Indeed it is used in Scripture as a similitude to express or illustrate the Mystical Union betwixt Christ and his Church But every similitude used in Scripture to express a holy Mystery as that of the Vine and Branches to express the Union between Christ and the faithful doth not thereby become a consecrated Symbol thereof with a promise of Grace annexed to it as so consecrated Nevertheless tho Matrimony be not an instituted Symbol of Divine Grace yet Grace suitable to this state of Life is promised to the faithful and this state as all other things is sanctified by the word of God and prayer unto those holy ends which God hath designed in it § 3. The Causes for which Matrimony was ordained are excellently set by the Church of England in these words First It was ordained for the Procreation of Children to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord and to the praise of his holy Name Secondly it was ordained for a remedy against sin and to avoid Fornication that such as have not the gift of continency might Marry and keep themselves undefiled Members of Christs Body Thirdly It was ordained for the mutual Society help and comfort that the one ought to have of the other both in prosperity and adversity It belongs to the substance of Matrimony that the Man and the Woman give and take the power of their bodies mutually unto the conjugal due called benevolence 1 Cor. 7.3 4. And they are so equal in the matter of Wedlock that both of them are both superior and inferior in asking and rendering the said due Hence it is a resolved case That sterillity is not an impediment of Marriage because tho the primary end which is Procreation be thereby hindred yet the secondary end to be a remedy against sin which is also of Gods ordaining is obtained But Frigidity or total Impotency is a just impediment because in that case both the primary and secondary end of Marriage is made void and the essential due thereof cannot be rendered § 4. As concerning the ancient Polygamy or plurality of Wives at once some conceive that it was only by Divine connivence and that it was a sinful practice which God winked at Others conceive that it was by Divine dispensation and that the law of the Conjunction of one Man and one Woman was most consentaneous to nature but that it was not in nature immutable and indispensable but such as might be changed the state of things and persons being changed yet then not to be changed but by his authority from whom all the Laws of nature do proceed But whether Polygamy were allowed or only winked at it appears to be wholly disallowed by the Law of Christ and was never as yet admitted in any Christian Commonwealth If according to the words of Christ a Man putting away his Wife and Marrying another commiteth Adultery much more doth he commit Adutery if keeping the former Wife he Marry another The Concubines mentioned in the Old-Testament were not as in our days unmarried but properly Wives tho in respect of some Matrimonial Priviledges inferior to Wives strictly so called For their carnal Conjunction with any besides him whose they were was a defiling of the Marriage-bed Concerning Reuben who lay with Bilhah Jacobs Concubine this is denounced Thou shalt not excel because thou wentest up to thy Fathers bed then defiledst thou it Gen. 49.4 § 5. As concerning the honour of Matrimony it is written Heb. 13.4 Marriage is honourable among all men and the bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judg This is the law of Christ On the contrary the hypocrisie and the countefeit sanctity of those lyars who were to bring in the great Apostacy upon the Christian Church is foretold to consist among other things in forbidding to Marry 1 Tim. 4.3 And the prohibition of it to divers orders of men and other unjust restrictions laid upon it are one kind of the forbidding to Marry intended in that prediction The wisest and most civilized Commonwealths that were not Christians have testified their great respect to Marriage by encouraging it with many Priviledges as more conducing to the publick good than the single Life By the Roman Laws in times of Gentilism Marriage was priviledged and the single Life disadvantaged § 6. The debasing of Matrimony came in with the degeneracy of the Church Quickly after the Apostles age Christians departed from the simplicity that is in Christ by devising rules of Life which Christ required not and built upon the precious foundation which had been laid Wood Hay and Stubble And the Devotion both of men and women was carried forth to a self-devised religiousness yet the essentials of Christianity were preserved sound Accordingly many of the Fathers of the Church extolled Celibate and Virginity with excessive praises and thought of Marriage as of a state
and make use of our Reason which is an auxiliary to Faith But above all let us implore the help of God his sufficient grace and let us conceive of him as the infinite goodness willing to help In so doing we honour God and are pleasing to him and set our selves in a sure way of deliverance I will look again towards thy holy temple The Temple was a symbol of the gracious presence of God among his people according to his Covenant The Divine presence was on the Mercy-seat in the Temple at Jerusalem which did represent God as propitious through Christ The Faithful recover out of temptations by looking to God sitting on his Mercy-seat in his holy Temple in the highest Heavens that is as propitious in Christ according to his Covenant of Grace to all penitent believers This Mercy-seat erected in Christ is the hope that is set before us in all our distress and trouble And to those that are fled for refuge to it there is strong consolation Heb. 6.18 God is propitious in Christ the great Propitiation There is a sure Covenant and an everlasting Covenant of peace whosoever takes hold of it shall be saved This Covenant in Christ holds forth forgiveness of sins and plenteous redemption to all that take hold of it This is the Rock of Ages and whosoever do rest their Faith on it their Souls shall be at rest When we are cast into the depth of the Sea when we lye as it were in the belly of Hell let us look unto God in his holy Temple and that both in case of our particular distress and in case of the common distress of Gods Church Psal 11.3 4. If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do The Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in Heaven How distressed soever our state is even to the destroying of the foundations and how provoking soever our sins have been yet God is in his Holy Temple he is propitious in Christ God is in Christ reconciling sinners to himself not imputing sin to penitent sinners In all our distresses let us plead before him these things 1. The mercifulness of his nature 2. Christ the great Propitiatory Sacrifice for sin 3. The stedfastness of his Covenant made in Christ 4. The erecting of his Mercy-seat and the placing of himself upon a Throne of Grace And so let us hear what he will answer us and see what he will do for us JOHN XVI 33. In the world ye shall have tribulation THEY who have peace in Christ are liable to and must look for tribulation or pressing affliction in the world They must look for all manner of temptations and trials of affliction in mind in body in estate in relations in reputation in their worldly affairs in all things belonging to them 1 Pet. 1.6 James 1.2 1. The state of the world is difficult and troublesome Eccles 1.8 All things are full of labour and the faithful in this World have their share in the common condition of mankind Eccles 9 2. All things come alike to all 2. God doth exercise a corrective discipline over the godly in this world as he did over Israel in the wilderness Deut 8.5 Thou shalt consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee The godly are here in an imperfect state and are therein probationers for a perfect state in another world and God deals with them accordingly to train them up for that future state by present trouble 3. The faithful are liable to persecution from the hatred of the world which is adverse to Christ and to them upon his account John 15.19 In the primitive and ancient times of the Church Christians suffered from the Pagan world In after-times the followers of the Lamb suffered from the Antichristian Power And at all times sincere Christians suffer from those that have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof 4. The Devils hatred is great against those whom Christ hath rescued out of his power and he will do them all the spight he can as far as God will suffer him as we see in Job's case He stirs up the malignant world against the true Church he raiseth prejudice against them and makes them odious by slanders and fills his instruments with rage yea by his stratagems he doth too often set the Church against it self and makes one party of sincere Christians to persecute another This is a brief account of the troubles of the faithful in the world All this is done under the holy and wise government of God He is the Supreme disposer of all the mischief that is done and all the miseries that are undergone in the world The malice of men and devils and the manifold temptations of the godly he doth over-rule and dispose to his holy ends Gods Attributes are much glorified in this state of things His Holiness and Justice are exercised and made manifest in the sufferings of the godly in that tho he hath accepted them in Christ yet he will declare his displeasure against their sin by making them feel some smart sufferings His power and mercy is likewise exercised in supporting them under sufferings and in delivering them out of sufferings His Wisdom and Faithfulness is exercised in proportioning their sufferings to their strength so that they may be able to bear and by bearing overcome So that his people may be sure of that which was Pauls comfort 2 Tim. 4.18 The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom As Gods Attributes are glorified so the good of the faithful is much promoted in this state of things For their sufferings are corrections to humble them trials to prove them exercises to prepare them for the glory that shall follow and preservatives to keep them to it The use to be made hereof is for the patience and comfort of believers during their abode in this world This is needful as it is said Ye have need of patience Heb. 10.36 And for this end God hath provided a rich treasure of comfort for them in his word as it is written Rom. 15.4 That ye through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Here I have several heads of Consolation to propound and to shew how they may be improved The first is That tribulation in the world is well consistent with peace in Christ according to his words That in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall have tribulation Yea it furthers this peace for it drives us under the wing of Christ and makes us to abide under it Yea the Worlds enmity will follow Christs peace persecution is affixed to Christs followers 2 Tim. 3.12 The certainty and inevitability of persecution doth more especially respect times and places wherein the Devil reigns by false Religion as in the Pagan and Antichristian idolatry to which may be added the Mahometan infidelity Yet where true Religion
more prevalently in their judgment and practice in their hearts and lives than the superadded errors and corruptions and are ready to Renounce those errors and corruptions if they saw their inconsistence with the essentials are true Christians otherwise they are not such The same church may be a true and a false church in different respects or formal considerations In respect of the essentials of Christian Faith Worship and Ministry it may be a true church and in respect of some devised Church-form superadded by which over and above the said Essentials it is constituted and denominated it may be in that distinct formal consideration a false church OF THE MINISTRY § 1. The Nature of the holy Ministry in general THE Holy Ministry is a state of Authority and Obligation to perform some special Holy Works and Services in the Name of Christ for the edifying of the church So that whosoever is in a holy order or office is qua talis authorized and obliged to the work and service that is appropriated to it and whosoever statedly and de jure doth the work and service appropriated to a holy order is really in or of that order altho men may not give him the name thereof Whether the Magistratical and Ministerial Offices may reside together in the same person is not here considered but if it were granted that they may they would essentially differ from each other For the Magistrate as such hath received no authority formally ministerial nor hath any minister as such the power of a civil magistrate Some thus distinguish between the magistratical and ministerial authority that the one is directive and the other imperative I take not this to be a competent distinction for that authority that infers an obligation on the subject to obey is properly imperative and the ministerial authority doth so as the Scripture speaks expresly Heb. 13.17 Paul was no Magistrate but as a Minister he speaks 2 Cor. 10.6 Having in readiness to revenge all disobedience and he expresly declares his ministerial authority to be imperative Phil. v. 8. The I might make hold in Christ to injoyn thee that which is convenient c. and v. 21. having confidence in thine obedience I wrote unto thee Now they had rightly distinguished if instead of imperative they had put coercive coactive or imperial For all directive authority by special office is imperative Whosoever doth by special office direct unto duty in the name of his King and according to his will as a Minister doth in the name of Christ doth therein command But a coactive power is something more and belongs not to a Minister as such The Magistrate rules by the Sword and the Minister by the Word § 2. Of the efficient cause of the Ministry and its Authority AS Christ alone hath the power of appointing the work or works of the holy ministry to be done in his name either towards believers or the unbelieving towards the church jointly or toward particular persons severally so he alone hath the power of appointing the holy orders or offices that contain an authority and obligation to perform the same And seeing Christ hath already appointed all the ministerial works and appropriated the same to certain ministerial orders no new order or office of the holy ministry can be instituted by men for they cannot institute other ministerial work to be done in Christs Name than what he hath appointed But the circumstances and accidental modes and subservient offices about the work of the ministry are of that nature as that they well may be appointed by men and accordingly the officers for the management thereof may be so appointed and such modes and circumstances being necessarily subject to great variation in regard of the great diversity of occasion cannot well be pre-defined The holy ministry and power belonging to it is conferred neither by Magistrate nor by Prelate nor by any spiritual officer or officers as the proper givers thereof but by Christ alone And tho Christ give it in some respect by the mediation of men yet not by them as giving the office power but as instruments either of designing the person to whom he gives it or of the solemn investiture of that person therein as the King is the immediate giver of the power of a Mayor in a Town corporate when he gives it by the mediation of the Electors not as giving the power but designing the person to be invested with it or by the mediation of some other officers as instruments of the solemn investiture Neither Magistrate nor Prelate nor any spiritual officer or officers can dsiannul or take away that spiritual office whereof they are not the authors nor in proper sence the givers Nor can they inlarge or lessen it as to its essential state or define it otherwise than Christ hath defined it And if the ordainer in conveying the holy office or order should use any any words or actions that import the lessening thereof in its essential state they are void and null as if a Minister that joyns a Man and Woman in marriage according to the true intent of that ordinance shall add some words that forbid the Husband the government of his Wife that addition is a nullity § 3. Of the Office of a Bishop Elder or Pastor THE Ministry of Gods appointment is either extraordinary and temporary as that of the Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists also if so be they were only the itinerary assistants of the Apostles or ordinary and perpetual as that of Pastors and Teachers The words Elder Bishop Pastor are names of the same Sacred Office as appears Acts 20.17 28. where their Ministry towards the Church is set forth in Pauls words to the Elders which he sent for from Ephesus to Miletum Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The Apostles besides their extraordinary Office of Apostleship had also the ordinary Office of Bishops pastors and Elders or to speak peradventure more properly they had these ordinary offices included in their Apostleship Christ saith to Peter Feed my sheep And Peter calls himself an Elder 1 Pet. 5.1 And John in his second and third Epistles so calls himself And indeed if it were not so they could have no successors or partakers Howbeit the Scripture gives us no evidence of their being fixed Bishops or Pastors to particular Churches As for the meaning of these names the word Bishop imports an Overseer Elder is a name of Authority borrowed from age and applied to a Ruling-officer The word Pastor is metaphorical signifying that this Officer is to the Congregation of God as a Shepherd to a Flock of sheep to feed them This feeding consists in teaching and ruling so that every Pastor is in the nature of his office a Teacher and he feeds by doctrine And indeed Pastoral Ruling is by