such a National Church as Christ did institute must be known by knowing what the Jews Church was as National and how far Christ would have continued that form of Government and what change it was that he was for § 8. 1. Christ would not have the Jewish Nation to retain their peculiarity as distinct from the Catholick Church for he came to call the Gentile World 2. He intended not to make Jerusalem the Seat of a Regent Church over the rest of the World as it then was over the Jews for he knew that it was to be destroyed 3. He intended not to settle one High Priest over the whole Catholick Church nor over the National Church For defacto he did it not and he knew that the High Priest did typifie himself only 4. He intended not to continue the Law of Moses as such nor its Ceremonious Worship but only so much of it as was of the Law of Nature common to others and so much of the Policy as by parity of cases and reason is suited to others as well as to the Jews § 9. But 1. He offered to be King over them as a holy National Kingdom-Church 2. He accordingly appointed the number of Twelve and Seventy under him as related to the Twelve Tribes and to their great Council 3. He sent these first to work upon them by Doctrine and Perswasion his Kingdom being a Government of Love Mercy and Free Grace that would have none but Volunteers 4. He gave them Laws by which he would govern them with promises of Reward and threats of Penalty 5. He extended this offered State and Priviledge to them and their Children 6. He intended to set up his Government in Power by Christian Princes as soon as his Word and Providence had ripened the Church for it § 10. I shall prove all this in the next Chapter when I have told you first that as the Papal Party hath been set up in their Usurpation Universal and National for want of understanding Christ's Institution of Kingdom-Churches so the separating and dividing part of the Nonconformists have by this oversight run into many hurtful Errours and unpeaceable and unjustifiable ways 1. How much the very name of a National Church is distasted by very many zealous persons through meer ignorance is too commonly known 2. And in Independents and too many Presbyterians the custom prevaileth of calling the exercise of Pastoral Discipline by the name of the Kingly Government of Christ as distinct not only from his Prophetical and Priestly Office but also from his Government by Magistrates As if Christ governed not as King as much and more eminently by Princes as by Priests or Pastors 3. And if a man speaketh but what Scripture speaketh for Christ's Government of the Churches by Magistrates they call him an Erastian Whereas the Errour of Erastus an excellent Protestant Physicion was not his being for the Government of Princes but his taking down the Power of the Keys too much which was the Office of Pastors and making Church-Communion over-common and too much denying Excommunication Of which I have written a peculiar Treatise to Dr. Ludov. Molinaeus shewing the true difference between the Power of Magistrates and Pastors 4. And hence great disorder hath arisen from the undervaluing of the Confederacy of all particular Churches in the same Kingdom and from a disobedience to the lawful determinations of Princes in Church Affairs and even from the causless singularity of every humorous Sect as slighting the Concord of the Confederate Churches what abundance of Schisms had it prevented with their dismal Effects if men had but retained a due Reverence to Church Confederacies and Concord and to the Christian Magistrates Power which caused the Presbyterians in Scotland and Ireland so marvelously to keep up Concord and keep out Sects though they were against Diocesans because they maintained National Church Confederacy § 11. It may perhaps be useful to others that I here confess my own Ignorance and Errour that I once thought that the Scots way of a National Church Confederacy and General Assemblies was but a sadling the Horse for Papal Usurpation to ride upon For I considered not that National Churches truly stated were Christ's Institution and the principal way to keep out Popery § 12. And whereas in my Defences against Dr. Stillingsleet and Dr. Sherlock I called the Christian Magistrate an Accidental Head and urged them hard to name the Essential National Church-Head I spake on supposition of their Opinion which I opposed that Bishops only were such Essential Heads from whom A National Church must be unified and specified But I still professed to own a National Church as a Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Pastoral Churches And of this the Soveraign Power is the Essentiating Head § 13. The names of distinction of Civil and Ecclesiastical as differencing the Office of the Christian Magistrates and Pastors may be used as well understood but is too Popish and used by Papists and some others to obscure and debase Christ's Government by Magistrates as if they were only for secular uses Whereas indeed in a Church as National the Prince is the chief Ecclesiastical Officer of Christ And the true differencing terms are fetcht not from the subject matter so much as from the Mode of Government one being forcible by the Sword and the other only on Conscience by the Word doctrinally opened and personally applied by the Keys And Ruling is called Civil because it is the Regiment over Cives quâ tales so it is Ecclesiastical as it is over Cives quâ Christianos and over particular Churches and Pastors and for Souls more than for Bodies and worldly Estates § 14. A National Church containeth not all that dwell in the Land but all that are Burgesses or Free-men in Church respects All be not Citizens that dwell in the City but they that are Denisons and have City-Rights and Priviledges As Christ is Head over all things To his Church Eph. 1. 23. so a Christian King is Head over his inhabiting Enemies and Aliens and Head to all Civil Denisons as he is a King and Head to all Christian Church Denisons as he is a Christian King § 15. In what cases Subjects may be Civil Denisons that are not Christian Denisons or Church Members requireth so many words and cautions to open that I omit the decision of it But were a Christian Kingdom such as it ought to be none should be a Civil Burgess with any Trust belonging to Government but such as are Baptized or professed Christians and are communicating Members in some Churches or Assemblies allowed or tolerated or that ought to be tolerated For a Kingdom and Church as formally Christian should be Ruled by none but Visible Christians This is true both of Magistrates Pastors and the chusers of of them But none should for this be forced or drawn to profess Christianity or communicate against their wills it being a priviledge that none have right to but those that
earnestly desired it Nor did the Antient Churches grant it to any other Nor would so much as receive Oblations for maintenance of Ministers from others Chap. II. That Christ instituted such a Church-Form § 1. THat Christ instituted such a Kingdom or National Church I prove as followeth 1. He was by the Prophets still described as such before his coming as was to be the King of Israel and Israel under him a National Church Moses was King in Jesurun Deut 33. 5. and said A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you like to me viz. that was a Prophet and King Melchizedeck was the Type of Christ that was King of Salem and Priest Psal 110. Heb. 8. David was herein a Type of Christ and Christ was promised to sit on his Throne Psal 2. 6. Yet have I set my King on my holy Hill of Sion Ezek. 37. 24. David my Servant shall be King over them and they shall all have one Shepherd c. My Servant David shall be their Prince for ever So v. 27 28. so Hos 3. 5. Exod. 19. 6. Ye shall be to me a Kingdom of Priests Dan. 2. 44. Mark 11. 10. Psal 33. 12. Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord. 2. Christ is proclaimed the King of the Jews and claimed that title and their subjection to him Matth. 2. 2. 27. 11. Mark 15. 2. He was of the Line of David and had right to his Kingdom He was scorned and crucified for that claim Mat. 27. 29 37. Mark 15. 9 12 18 26. Luke 23. 37. John 19. 21. The People acknowledged him King by their Hosanna He destroyeth them as Enemies that would not he should Reign over them Luke 19. 14 27. 3. He laid the Foundation of his offered National Kingdom among them He owned the Title and chose twelve Apostles in relation to the twelve Tribes and the seventy Disciples related to their great Council He would Preach to none but Israel till they rejected him He would have gathered all Jerusalem and her Children as the Hen gathereth her Chickens but they would not Mat. 23. 37. He destroyed them for refusing him 4. He commissioned his Apostles to stay at Jerusalem till they rejected them They made up the broken number of twelve as related to the twelve Tribes by Matthias though Joses and others had also followed Christ 5. He appointed them to Preach the Gospel to Nations and to disciple Nations Mat. 28. Mark 16. 6. He planted the Gentiles into the same Olive-tree that the Jews were broken off from Rom. 11. 7. The Jews had not been broken off from their National Church-state but for unbelief Rom. 11. 8. He translated the Kingdom from them to a Nation that would bring forth the fruits of it 9. In due time the Kingdoms of the World were made the Ringdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Rev. 11. 19. 10. Kings are to be the Churches Nursing Fathers 11. All Power in Heaven and Earth is given to Christ Mat. 28. and by him Kings Reign He is King of Kings and not of single persons only 12. But what need there any other proof while all Christians confess that All Kings are bound to be Christian Kings and to promote Christianity to their Power and all Magistrates and Subjects to be Christians And are not they then bound to be Christian Kingdoms and that is National Churches § 2. When he had prepared them to be voluntary Subjects by the Preaching of the Gospel and the Church came to maturity Christ actually set up National Kingdom-Churches and Ruled by Constantine successive Christian Princes And Heaven and Earth rejoyced that he had taken to him his great Power and Reigned and that the Kingdoms of the World were become his Kingdoms Rev. 17. 18. 19. Infancy is fitter for Instruction than to Govern Man is made to use Reason but he useth little in Infancy or till maturity That which was first in intention is last in execution Mature Reason in Man and Princely Government in Kingdom-Churches was first in intention tho' not in execution Who would wish that Pagans had still Reigned What Christian wisheth not that the Persians Indians Turks Tartars c. were all Christian Kingdoms Why else do the Millennies hope for such a state of holy Government § 3. Obj. But tho' there be no doubt of the command institution and duty what hope have we of the constitution and event that Kingdoms should become Christian Ans Our Question is of the Institution and Duty confess that and let us do our endeavour 2. Is not this a Christian Kingdom while King and Subjects are baptized professed Christians Are we a Protestant Kingdom and not a Christian Kingdom And are not others such Obj. But these be mostly but nominal Hypocrite Christians Ans They are visible professed Christians The Corn is not without Straw and Chaff Do you look for Kingdoms that consist only of the sincere Obj. But Churches must consist only of those that seem sincere Ans All seem sincere that profess sincerity till it be by tryal and witness publickly disproved There are several degrees of seeming some by fuller evidences than others but all that Vow it and stand to that Vow do seem and profess it till disproved Obj. But how prove you that a Christian Kingdom is a Church Ans Doth your Question mean de Re or de Nomine I told you what I mean by a Church no other than a Christian Kingdom consisting of a Christian Soveraign and Christian Subjects worshiping God in confederate particular Churches ordinarily will you deny the Being or the Duty of such If it be the Name 1. The word Ecclesia is used for even common Assemblies and therefore much more for Christian Societies 2. The Israelites were called The Church in the Wilderness much more when more fully stablished 3. If you have any reason against the Name disprove it 4. If the Name be all the difference call it as you please But make it not your pretence that only Priests are persons Holy enough to be Heads of Churches and not Kings and therefore that it is no National Church that hath not a Clergy Head Monarchical or Aristocratical for that 's the Popish Doctrine which I have confuted Chap. III. In the Execution Judea was such a Church § 1. IN the Execution of his Institution Christ in the time of Constantine and after made Judea it self a National Church as far as a Province of the Empire may be called a Nation The Empire as Christian headed by one Christian Soveraign and materiated by Christian Subjects obeying Christ both singly and in sacred Assemblies under their Bishops or Elders was all one National Church that is One Christian Kingdom long before promised by Christ and prepared for But as the Emperors allowed some Provinces to have subject tributary Kings and others to enjoy most of their Antient Laws and Liberties so they might secundum quid be called Kingdoms and National Churches
for such Communion But National Provincial or Diocesane Communion is but by distant agreement in the same Profession among persons perhaps many hundred Miles distant that never see each other And the Ministerial Work doth accordingly differ Dr. Hammond maintaineth that in Scripture times there were no Bishops that had any more than a Congregation to whom he Preached and Personally Officiated Chap. VI. Who must be the Lay-Members of National Churches § 1. INfidels and Heathens may be free Members of a Kingdom as a Kingdom and in a Kingdom as Christians may be tolerated when they cannot be cured And may be used as Inferior Officers in such secular affairs as they are capable of But a Christian Kingdom and Church as such consisteth of no Denisons Burgesses or men free and empowered in matters of Religion but only such as are Baptized or openly professed Christians and their Children and are not proved to have nullified that profession by Heresie or such sin as rendreth their profession incredible and invalid And all these Baptized Visible Christians must be taken for such Members § 2. Where the Essentials of Christianity are Visibly Professed there may be a great difference of Members in Gifts and Soundness Some may be Eminently Laudable and Useful and some may be so Faulty as are fit for Rebuke and Punishment and yet all Members § 3. The Priviledges of some that are not Disfranchised or Excommunicate may yet be suspended while they are under trial For as nothing but Capital Crimes or Excommunication for Impenitence after due Admonition doth cut them off so while they have rendered this justly questionable just Legal Tryal must needs suspend their questioned right till Judgment decide it whether they be impenitent or not or their Crime be Capital § 4. In the Jewish State many hainous Sins were to be punished with Death As Murder Blasphemy Worshiping False Gods drawing men from the true God Cursing Parents Willful and Obstinate Gluttony and Drunkenness and Debauchery after Parents Patient endeavours to reform them Adultery Incest Sodomy some Perjuries And dead men can be no Church Members on Earth Therefore this Death for Sin was an Excommunication and more Therefore they that Plead that any such should be tolerated because the Jews were often such and not Excommunicated is to plead the example of Criminals against the express Letter of the Law and argue à facto prohibito contra legem prohibentem And whether Mr. Galaspi and others have proved any more than Church-Suspension against any but those that were to be put to Death I leave the Reader to consider § 5. It is a Controversie whether the Church be in the Common Wealth or Kingdom or the Common Wealth in the Church And the former is by most asserted Ans 1. Under Infidel or Heathen Kings that are out of the Church themselves the Church is in the Common Wealth 2. And under Christian Kings or other Soveraigns the Particular Churches are in the Common Wealth as parts in the whole 3. And as the Common Wealth is taken so largely as to comprehend Pagans in Inferior Magistracy as in the days of the first Christian Emperors there the Church is in the Common Wealth But take the Common Wealth as meerly and truly Christian and it is the same thing with the National Church and one is not in the other being but two Names for one thing § 6. The appropriating the Name of the Church to the Clergy as distinct from the Laity is the Plot or Part of Popish Tyranny and Fallacy Implying falsly that the National Church must be specified and unified by a Priestly Head Monarchical or Aristocratical and that a King is not a person sacred enough to be the Supream Head in his own National Church Nor the people Holy enough to be its Materials As if Lords Commons Citizens and other Lay Christians were no parts of the Church when Great Magistrates are Nobler parts than a multitude of Ignorant Vicious Curates and Priests § 7. From this Cheat they have claimed the sole Power as of Divine Right of making Canons that shall be obliging Laws and of being the sole determiners of Religious Cases Too many Presbyterians and Independants are for this Clergy claim calling only the Ministers work the exercise of Christs Kingly Office But the Frenchified Prelatists much more § 8. Hence is the common sence and abuse of the distinction of Civil and Ecclesiastical Government intimating that Kings are not to Govern the Church not meddle beyond Civil and Secular concerns But of this before § 9. The power of the Sword or force belongeth only to the Magistrate to be used by him as Judge and not as the Clergies Lictor or Executioner the Bishops and Clergy have no forcing Sword power unless the King give it them for which mostly they are unmeet having proper work enough of their own Tho some cases may be excepted Chap. VII What is the Confederacy or Concord needful to a National Church § 1. AFfirmatively 1. A Baptismal Confederacy to be all the true Subjects of one God one Christ and Holy Ghost against the Devil World and Flesh § 2. 2. A Consent to live as Christians in Love to one another and to addict our selves to the good of one another specially to the welfare of the whole Body and to do as we would justly be done by § 3. 3. To be all the Loyal subjects of one Christian Soveraigns Power § 4. 4. To be all for the publick Worshiping of God and our Redeemer in Christian Assemblies guided and ruled by Christian Pastors or Bishops qualified and described by Christ in his Word the instituter of the Pastoral Office and not of any new sort of humane Ministry or uncapable persons that are wanting in any thing essential to the Office § 5. 5. To take the Sacred Scripture for the Word of God and the sufficent Rule of Divine Faith and Holy living And to profess an explicite Belief of the Creed as it was transmitted to us from the Apostolick Churches and to take the Lords Prayer for the summary rule of our desires and hopes and the Decalogue as owned and expounded by Christ for the summary rule of our Obedience with the Sacraments instituted by him § 6. 6. To profess Obedience to true Authority in Parents Magistrates and Pastors and all true Governours so far as they are empowered by God and to obey God above all and no men against him and his Laws And Rulers to profess to obey God and Rule as his Ministers for the Common welfare and to promote the obedience of Gods Laws § 7. 7. For Magistrates Pastors and Parents to profess their endeavour to promote the true Preaching of the Gospel and the transmitting of it in Purity to Posterity and to encourage and not unjustly forbid or hinder the publication and practice of it § 8. Negatively 1. It is not meet that this confederacy so appropriate the Body of the National Church to any one
though they were but Provinces and parts of the Imperial Church And thus Judea became a National Church § 2. It is past question that many Kings who had given up their Kingdom to the Pagan Beast followed the success of Constantine and afterward did give up their Power to Christ yet no Kingdom was wholly converted at once nor of many years But yet while the Soveraign Power and Confederate Christian Pastors and Subjects had the chief Power it was truly a Christian Kingdom For the Form in capable matter doth denominate And tho' many Heathens were long permitted in Government that doth but prove that the Kingdom had two sorts of free Subjects one sort that were Christians and so were the chief Members who in all matters of Religion were exempted from Pagan Judicatures and the other Heathens who had a freedom in things secular § 3. Judea then was more eminently Christian than any other Nation of no greater extent There were Arch Bishops and Bishops and Presbyters and after a Patriarch And there were more Monasteries and Religious Societies and more Temples built there than in any Countrey that was no greater And more Christians flockt thither from other Nations out of a veneration for the place And indeed it was the mother-Mother-Church out of which all other Churches sprang Therefore if any Province might be called a National Church it was Judea § 4. This was when the Fulness of the Gentiles came in that is when the Gentile Empire turned Christian And so the Gentile Powers turned Christian provoked the Jews to emulation and requited them by becoming Nursing Fathers to them and bringing their Glory to Jerusalem And so all Israel was saved that is the body of Abraham's natural Seed and also the faithful Gentiles that were the spiritual Seed were unitedly gathered to Christ § 5. Obj. But they were mostly Gentiles that then dwelt there And that proveth no Conversion of the Jews Ans The scattered Jews were in many Countreys of the Roman Empire And most of them had neither mind nor means to return to a small and barren Land But as many as were willing and were zealous for their Countrey did live there and none were forbidden And it is far most probable that the most that were there left were such as kept their old Habitations And the most that were kill'd were the military part In the days of Constantine and after their Churches flourished And what greater encouragement could they have now to return were they converted than they had None would make them go against their wills If Gentile Christians and Jews were there mixt they did the more fitly suit a Catholick Church-state when Moses Policy and their Peculiarity ceased Should they in the feigned Fifth Monarchy-state be confined to that Countrey which is like our Wales how contemptible a Nation would they be in comparison of what Constantine allowed them both in Judea and throughout all the Empire No Nation was wholly converted at the first and if the Christian Jews that lost their name being Catholicks had no great mind to go to Judea it is no wonder Chap. IV. Particular Churches and Pastors how far essential to a National Church and what are its materials § 1. THere is more essential to a National Church than the meer Formal Cause or Soveraign Matter is essential as well as Form Yet not all parts of the Matter neither though all be parts Integral As in the Body a man cannot be a man without a stomach liver and lungs and heart but he may without a finger or a hand or leg § 2. I doubt not but I have proved that the Soveraign Magistrate is the Formal Humane Head of his Kingdom and as Christian of the Kingdom as Christian And nothing remaineth disputable but de Nomine whether a Christian Kingdom must be named a Church which Custom Etymology and Scripture put past question Our Civilians such as Dr. Zouch Dr. Rich. Cousins c. and our Lawyers say trulier than most have believed that the King is persona mixta Custos utriusque Tabulae and Head of the Church as a Christian Kingdom And for want of knowing this and the true nature and bounds of his Office how foully many have miscarried I have shewed 1. Those called Erastians carry it too far and give the Magistrate part of the Office of the Pastors even the Keys of Admission into the Church as a Church and of Excommunication which God hath put into the hand of the Pastors by as immediate a Commission as he hath put the Sword into the hand of the Magistrate And by this over-doing they undo They would ruine the Prince on pretence of defending his Power For all Authority hath also Obligation to duty And must Princes and Magistrates be put on the task of trying the Faith and Repentance of all that are to be Baptized Confirmed Absolved or Excommunicated Then they must leave their own Calling for they will here find work enough This is like the Separatists making the People Judges by which they would undo them calling them from their Callings to take on them a work of which they are uncapable and about which they will never long agree and making them responsible to God for all their Male-administration As if the King must not only be Governour of Physicions but must be a Physicion himself and give Medicines and be answerable for the Patients lives Or must be a Schoolmaster because he governeth Schoolmasters And this puts them on a necessity of casting out true Discipline and holding the Opinion that Sacramental Communication should be common to the Godly and the openly Wicked as being a Converting Ordinance and that Excommunication is but Tyranny Just as those Diocesans that will have no Bishops but one over a thousand or many score or hundred Parishes by pleading for their sole Episcopal Power take on them the sole Obligation to Episcopal duty and so make themselves responsible for that work which requireth many hundred men and under themselves while they undo the Churches and leave all true Discipline undone and mock not God but men and themselves with names and ceremonious shadows 2. And the Papal and French Prelatists have by this Ignorance got a fixed false Opinion that as Pastors are the Constitutive Heads of Particular Churches so they must be of National Churches and that every National Church must be unified and specified by one Clergy Soveraignty in one person or in a Colledge or Aristocracy Or else that a Christian Kingdom is not properly a Church because it hath not a Priestly Head It 's true that it is not univocally a Church of the same species or rank as a Pastoral Church is but is more eminently and as fitly called a Church as Israel was 3. And the Independent Separatists and Anabaptists for want of understanding this as I said before cry down National Churches with scorn and run away from National Concord into endless Divisions and Sects while at the
same time they pray and wait for National Churches in the Millennium as the Fifth Monarchy And none of them will deny it to be the Duty of all Kings and Kingdoms to be Christians and so that Christian Kingdoms are Christ's Institution and Command § 3. But the Soveraign is the Judge what Pastors and Churches he shall allow and maintain as parts of the National Church or Kingdom As the Colledge is to judge who is fit to be a Physicion and the Patient who shall be his Physicion and the trusted Physicion what Medicine he shall give But the King to judge whom he will allow in his Kingdom and to make Laws forbidding poisonous Drugs and abuses of Physicions Even so the Ordainers are Judges who are fit to be Pastors and the People whom they will trust their Souls with as their Pastors and the trusted Pastors to judge what Doctrine to Preach and whom to receive to Communion or to Excommunicate but the King to judge whom he will allow maintain or tolerate as Members of the Christian Kingdom or National Church § 4. That all essential parts of a National Church are not the Form that denominateth as aforesaid needs no more proof than that Matter and Privation by which Aristotle meant Dispositio Materiae receptiva are not the Form of a Natural Body So that Confederate Pastoral Churches are necessary yea essential matter of a National Church or Christian Kingdom when it is past being a meer Embrio or unshapen Mass and is come to be a well shapen Politick Body Till then it is but as the body in the womb while the punctum saiiens first maketh the Heart Eyes Brain and Arteries before it hath made the Stomach Liver Lungs and Intestines It is not yet come to shew what Christ's Institution of a Church was § 5. But our great Controversies are I. Who be the Organical Pastors that must make up a National Church II. Who must be the Lay-members of those Churches III. What that Confederacy must be that must unite them IV. How far the Members are bound by that Confederacy And because Ignorance hath made these Points of so much Controversie and Consequence I will open them distinctly By which I conjecture it will appear that Dr. Stillingfleet differed but about the right wording of the definition of a National Church Chap. V. Of Pastors or the Bishops of National Churches that they are to be of Three ranks § 1. THat Pastors are the prime necessary part of the Matter of a Kingdom-Church tho' not the Unifying Form is plain in Scripture and in the nature of their Office and of a Church § 2. The Independent Separatists therefore shew gross Ignorance when they make a meer Community unorganized to be a Church in sensu Politico and then must have a Lay-man that was of the Universal Church before to be by the Peoples Votes chosen a Member of that Church while it hath no Pastor and then chosen their Pastor after Whereas a meer Community is no more a Political Church without a Pastor than a Community is a Kingdom that hath no King individual or collective existent or virtual Or than this can be a School without a Schoolmaster or a Family without a Head of it § 3. As Nature first formeth by the Soul and Spirits ex materia seminis the heart and prime organical parts and by them formeth all the rest and last of all formeth the Stomach and Intestines to be the Organs of future nutrition and then putteth in the nutriment which in the Chicken is the Yelk of the Egg the bodily stamina being first made of the white and then closeth up the before enclosed stomach upon that food so Christ did first by his Calband Spirit make some prime organical General or Indefinite Ministers and by them make others fixed in particular Churches and Offices and by them edifie and feed and perfect the Body by their Official Ministration and fit the people to digest the received food for their continued nutrition And as the King first maketh General Officers for his intended Army and then by them or immediately commissioneth Generals and Captains to raise their several Regiments and Companies and doth not make the common Souldiers before the Officers that are to Rule them so was it done by Christ at the gathering of his Church But when a Church is gathered or an Army raised they are not to be dissolved or disbanded when the Pastor the Captains or Generals die but continue in the existent state of a Community and the state of a Virtual Policy till a Pastor or Ruler be chosen because the Legal Institution de specie keeps up a virtual or intentional Policy still § 4. Christ's first Instituted Officers were Apostles and after the Inferior Official Disciples immediately from himself to convert Souls and make them fit matter for his Kingdom-Church and these were afterward to gather into distinct regular Congregate Churches such as were so converted by their Ministry and to place fixed Elders over them § 5. These Twelve Apostles and Seventy Disciples were first instituted in and for a National Church state Christ found the Jews under a National Form and therefore did not at first change that Form but only changed the Laws and Ordinances made for their Infant state of peculiarity which he had fulfilled for them they being but a Paedagogy to lead to and till Christ § 6. It 's plain that the number of Twelve and Seventy were chosen as related to the Twelve Tribes all then in being and known and of the Sanedrim or great Council And therefore a National Form of Church-Officers and not yet Universal nor Congregational § 7. Therefore Christ himself would not Preach beyond the Tribes of Israel nor give the Childrens bread to Dogs till he was finally rejected by the Children of the Kingdom and ' so the Kingdom taken from them and given to a Nation that would bring forth the fruits of it And he forbad his Apostles to go among the Gentiles and confined them to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel § 8. It is plain that Christ would have this just number of twelve kept up in relation to the twelve Tribes till the Kingdom was taken from them because one and but one was to be chosen in Judas room and so the due number of the Twelve to be kept up This proveth the Institution of a disparity of Ministers § 8. The Keys of the Kingdom were given first to the Apostles before the empowering of the seventy and that as to distinct superior Officers And the word Keys signifieth Government when Christ is said to have the Keys it is expounded by his opening and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth The Government was laid on his shoulders as King and Counseller Isa 9. 6 7 8. And as his Father gave the Keys and sent him so he sent his Apostles and gave power to them § 9. But there is no doubt but this Power
of Knowledge and Gifts rather than a setled Superiority of Office and whether any Pastors might not do all their Ordinary continued work But besides the singularity of that doubt I was soon convinced of an Official Superiority and Disparity not only because a Judas had been one but because the number of Twelve in Superiority was to be kept up by the choice of his Successor even one from among those that had been Witnesses of Christs Words and Works as well as he And by Pauls being made a thirteenth Apostle when the Gospel was to be carried further than to the Jews And his claim of Apostolical Power and Priviledges § 17. Especially because I find Christ Mat. 28. 19 20. describing the General Office as well as the Particular even going into all the World to Disciple whole Nations as well as to teach them to observe Christs Commands promising to be with them to the end of the World § 18. And also because it is apparent that Preaching the Gospel to Heathen and Infidel Nations is a Work still to be done and for want of men purposely appointed to do it the progress of the Gospel hath been wofully stopt Few doing any thing in it but Mr. Eliots and a few honest men in New England and they say some of the Dutch and the Jesuits and Fryers that do it corruptly Particular Church Work is below this § 19. And I am fully confirmed when I find that the Apostles themselves setled a General sort of Ministers in Superiority and General Work to succeed them As Christ himself by his Spirit made Barnabas an Apostle so he gave to his Church also Evangelists who were General helpers of the Apostles and were put in a state of Disparity and Superiority Sil as and Mark and Luke and Apollos and many more are named The texts that mention the General Office and Superior power of Timothy and Titus are so well known and oft cited that it 's needless to repeat them The charge of setling and overseeing many Churches as in Crete and of caution in Imposition of Hands receiving accusations rebuking sharply ruling them well ordaining Bishops and Deacons and much more the like I never thought Saravia and the Kings Arguments in the Isle of Wight well answered Mr. Prins and the common answer is that these were not Bishops but Evangelists I grant it but that confirmeth me For the name Bishop was then ordinarily appropriated to fixed particular Church Elders But our question is not de nomine but de re an Apostle Evangelist were above such Bishops Call them Apostles as Dr. Hammond proveth that the Fathers oft call them or call them Evangelists or Arch Bishops or General Bishops or Diocesans or Provincial Bishops it is not the name that is our Controversie It proveth that the Apostles did settle a sort of General Overseers to gather and take care of many inferior Bishops and Churches to succeed them in the ordinary part of their Office § 20. But another argument fixeth me in this opinion and that is that when it is fully proved that Christ instituted such a Disparity and Superiority he that will affirm that this doth not now continue and bind us must prove the repeal or revocation or prove that he did make this establishment but for a time and how long that was But Scripture plainly asserteth that he then appointed the foresaid Disparity and hath any as plainly proved that he repealed it or confined it to that Age It is not proved that I have seen And to assert this without proof is 1. To make Christs Institutions to signifie but what mans fancy thinks meet and make us the Masters of his Laws before we will be ruled by them 2. It is a charging Christ with temerity or dishonourable mutability as Instituting one form of Church Ministry and Government for one Age and changing it presently for another 3. It seemeth a dangerous taking Gods Name in vain by affirming such a mutability of him and change of his Laws without any proof 4. It defameth the state of his Church when it was under Persecution and when Heaven and Earth after rejoiced in its deliverance as if all that time it had been corrupt by owning the foresaid Disparity And it 's dangerous Presumption to Father on God that which he never did and never owned § 21. But no doubt but the Circumstances of this Superior Office or degree of Ministry are undetermined by God save as by General Rules and may be altered As 1. Whether there shall be One only or Two such General Ministers in one and the same Diocess or Province Christ sent out his Preachers by two and two Paul and Barnabas and Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Mark went out by Couples Peter and Paul were together at Rome And Grotius and Dr. Hammond think that for the first times till the Christian Jews and Gentiles became one Communion the great Cities Rome Alexandria Antioch c. had each two Congregate Churches and two Bishops were it but for language sake And as I think the Jewish and Gentile Christian Ministers during the time of Miraculous Gifts while no Christian Magistrates Ruled were the two Witnesses mentioned in the Apocalypse so I conjecture that Peter and Paul were the radical instances of them And when two join together it may take off envy from each Yet this is undetermined in Scripture and left to humane Prudence If two cannot agree how will such agree others § 22. The Scots had at first a General visiter that was really a General Bishop But the Visitors aspiring and abuse changed that way But I am told that in Ulster in Ireland each Classical Synod chuse two Grave Divines and send them out to Preach in any Congregation in that Classis where they see cause As where there are young raw men or men suspected of Heresy or men of scandalous fame and to admonish and counsel such and to tell the People that if they had any thing against their Ministers they should tell them and they would try them in the Classical Synod I think this is real and laudable Episcopacy whatever name it have § 23. It is also undetermined how large the Diocess be of the said General Minister while he excludeth not Inferiors As Prudence would teach the Apostles to Preach in several Countreys and not all in one when they left Jerusalem So Natural Reason teacheth Men still to divide and know their several Provinces § 24. It is undetermined how long each one shall stay in one City or place As Paul did long at Ephesus § 25. And it is left to Prudence how many subordinate Pastors and Churches there shall each oversee so they overthrow not the said subordinate Officers and Churches § 26. And it is left to Prudence what secular Lands or Riches they shall have called Glebe And what secular honour they shall have As to be Barons and Lords or to sit in Parliaments though Reason saith that
Party or Sect though it should be or thought to be sounder or better than the rest excluding any that have all the necessaries before named though they have many tolerable errors and imperfections § 9. It is not lawful to make things unnecessary to be taken or used as necessary to the National Church Unity Nor to make snares and impose them by such needless Laws to silence or eject any true and tolerable Ministers much less the soundest imposing things sinful or needless or that are unfit to be the Conditions of Unity and so unavoidably excluding capable Conscionable worthy men for want of complying with those terms is the commonest cause of Schism in the Christian World and the effect of Ignorance Pride and Tyranny none being more worthy to be excluded than such Schismatical excluders that make the Laws that should be the bonds of Concord to be the greatest Engines of Division § 10. The present Orthodox Protestant Nonconformists are as truely Members of the Church of England justly so called as any Diocesans or Conformists in the Land and if they be not better confuted than hitherto they have been they may truely be said to be the soundest most judicious and most conscionable and the most peaceable Members of this Church And to deny such Nonconformists to be true and honourable parts of the Church of England is but such an effect of Ignorant Arrogance and Slanders as is the shame of the speaker and implieth some dishonourable definition of the said Church And they that make their mutable Forms and Ceremonies essential to the Church make a Ceremony of the Church it self and cannot answer the Papists that challenge us to prove its antiquity Our Liturgy is not so old as Luthers time As Rome by claiming to be the whole Church hath made many think that it is not so much as a part so Conformists calling themselves the whole Church of England hath tempted many to take them for no part § 11. But yet unsound and hurtful Members may be restrained and corrected when they are not silenced or cast out And proving them true parts doth not prove them to be sound parts or such as must not be rebuked But tender avoiding sin by preferring Gods Law before Mans and founding our Concord on Christs instituted capable terms and not on the Sand of ensnaring humane Impositions is far from being the mark of unsound Members Yet meerly to tolerate them to Preach in deep Poverty that deserve most encouragement is not free from Injury and Schism Chap. VIII How far this Confederacy and Concord bindeth the Members of a National Church to Conformity to the common sence and practice § 1 VVHoever is convinced that Christian Kingdoms or National Churches are of Christs Institution must needs know that it is the duty of all its Members to do their best to preserve them and promote their welfare as considered in that form and not only to seek their own Salvation or the prospering of their particular Churches or Parties not only to seek the common good of Christians as such in Community But to keep up the National Polity in all lawful things in the way of their several places and callings For he is unworthy to be a Denison in any lawful Society that promoteth not its well faring § 2. And here it is a grand duty to know the distinct Rights of the Governing and the Governed part And to know that though they are distinct they ought not to be opposite but conjunct A fancy hath been by one of late divulged that it is a heinous crime to say that the King and People have a separate or separable interest So far may rashness precipitate the ignorant That King and Subjects have a distinct interest is past all doubt That these interests ought not to be opposite or set against each other is also doubtless And that they are divisible is doubtless else they would never fall out about them And that they are faultily divided And no doubt but they may and must be divided Numerally and Notionally so they be not opposite § 3. What I say of Kings I must say of Parents and Pastors and Tutors When the Subjects are various and really divided Numerically there the Accidents are divers and divided For the Accidents cannot be the same and indivisible that are in various subjects But the rights of Rulers and Subjects are diverse And the Persons or Subjects of these Rights are diverse and separate in sensu Physico Therefore the Rights are diverse and Physically seperate § 4. The Genus and fixed part of the Species being ordained by God himself the mutable Form Monarchy Aristocracy and Mixt and the determination of the Person or Line is by men and that is by mutual Consent and Contract None can force a man to be King or Pastor against his Will And Government is a state of great care and great danger to Soul and Body And will any man in his Wits undertake it without security to his own interest The Kings distinct and separate interest is 1. His own Life to be secured against Treason 2. His Honour as Gods chief Officer and in a sort representer which is therefore Gods own Honour in him This is made distinct and Physically separate tho not opposite in the Fifth Commandment And the doubt whether that Commandement be part of the first or second Table or rather partly of each as the Cardo utrinsque doth make it a hard question what interest is the highest Of which Michael Hudson hath subtilly treated The King also hath a distinct interest 3. In his Family and Personal Estate 4. And in such necessary aid of Men and Tribute as may enable him to Govern and Defend the Land Tho the Subjects may as Proprietors make limiting Contracts to secure their own Propriety and Interest And the Peoples right is in general the common good and safety and particularly to be defended and their contracted form of Government not overthrown nor the Kingdom to be given up to a Foreign Power or any Usurper much more that none that will execute such Papal Tyranny as is determined of in the General Council at Laterane sub Innoc. 3. to destroy or exterminate the Kingdom unless they would Damn their Souls by forsaking sound Religion I say that no such be their King or Potent Governour Because regere and perdere are inconsistent And they who design it and profess their subjection to any Power or Law or Religion that obligeth to it are to be supposed to be doing it Especially if their preparations shew their purposes and Magistrates be set in Power that are under the same Obligations And though a party or person must fly or suffer rather than Embroil the Kingdom in War or Rebellion for their defence Yet a whole Kingdom cannot be deprived of the right of self defence unless by Gods Sentence on their notorious forfeiture of Life § 5. The Kings Interest is chief in Majority in genere
c. Concord in those otherwise not the best may be better and a greater duty than for better to be singular disobedient and dividers or the encouragers of other mens singularity and divisions § 11. If there were no Law or Mandate of the Prince for such concord as aforesaid yet because a National Church should have the comfort beauty and strength of as much concord as can be attained without greater hurt than it will compensate all the Members of it ought to study the maintenance of such unity concord and harmony and if the Pastors and Churches agree on any such lawful circumstances to comply and conform to such agreement and to shun affected causless singularity In such cases Augustine rightly resolved to do as the Church did where he came It being a disturbing discord for one man to be odd against a lawful Custom without cause As for instance if one would affect to be covered with his Hat at Prayer or Psalmody when the rest are uncovered or to use a gesture contrary to all the rest Conformity in things lawful beseemeth them that profess themselves Members of such National Churches as consist of United Confederate Congregations § 12. But if on pretence of Concord or Confederacy yea or Laws any would tyrannically impose sinful things or else make things lawful so much more necessary than in themselves they are as to become the necessary Conditions of Union or Communion excommunicating persecuting or unchurching all that differ from them and appropriating National Church Membership only to those that obey such ensnaring Canons or Agreements It is not lawful to own or countenance such Usurpation and Tyranny nor to deny those that they deny or condemn to be true parts of the National Church It being only Concord in things essential that is necessary to the Essence and Concord in parts integral that is necessary to Integrity and Concord in convenient Accidents that is necessary to the accidental Comeliness of the Church And contrarily Concord against Essentials nullifieth a Church and Discord against Essentials nullifieth a Member and want of Integrals rendereth it maimed and want of due Accidents uncomely and ill Accidents in Concord or Discord partly scabbed and less beautiful § 13. I earnestly entreat therefore all sober Christians to take heed lest the secret desire of seeming more pious or tender conscienced than other godly people and of getting applause for such tenderness and of being reputed stricter than others should tempt them into opinions or practices of unnecessary distance singularity and division Pride is a deep rooted sin in Nature and it maketh our reputation with the stricter people oft to become a selfish Interest as strong as riches and wordly preferments are with the looser sort of men And it maketh it to such as hard to undergo the sharp censures of the censorious and to bear the imputation of want of Piety and Conscience as to undergo imprisonment and want And hereby young ignorant Apprentice Lads and Women being usually the most censorious such become the real Governours of their Pastors and of the Church especially if Persecution also cast them for a livelihood on the Peoples Charity And so it seemeth to make it the Controversie whether the Churches and Pastors should be governed by Bishops or by censorious Women and Boys Satan hath more Baits to angle with than one and more than one way of deceiving Those that are above the sordid bait of riches or preferment or great mens favour may yet be overcome by the over-valuing the love and praise of a Sect or of mistaken religious persons especially in a time when the Clergy is grown infamous and contemptible by ignorance worldliness or malignity and it is become a disgrace to be numbred with them § 14. But Satan hath taught no small part of our Academick Students and our Clergy a way to frustrate all that I have said by accusations against my self as if it were sufficient to turn all into scorn if they could charge any sin on my person or by impudent falshoods either feign me to contradict my self or if they do the work of the Father of Lies by his proper act and imitation On one side I am daily reviled by the Separatists and Antinomians as over-conformable On the other side I am reviled for Non-conformity and told that my practice is contrary to all that I write and preach for Peace And it is answer enough for them to calumniate and say that I condemn my self as if this did justifie both extreams in their impenitent persevering in enmity to Peace § 15. To Mr. Long therefore and such other Calumniators who instead of a rational Confutation of my Arguments answer by accusing me as of a contradicting unpeaceable life I say 1. One would think with men that have any pretence to reason honesty or honour it should be easie to know that when the Controversie is about Church-Government Oaths Subscriptions Ministration what I am is nothing to the Question in hand If they take me for as errant a Knave or Rogue as Judge Jeffreys or Mr. Long have pronounced me what 's this to the common Cause of Truth and Peace 2. If my forty five years labour for Peace my forbearing these thirty years to gather any Church my Communion with my Parish-Church in Liturgy and Sacrament kneeling at the Altar all my Writings against Schism and Separation and for the reconciling of Word-warriours my quiet submission to their oft imprisoning me and seizing on and selling all my goods Bed and Books as for Preaching when I was twenty miles off and for such occasional Sermons as the Lord Chief Justice Sanders and the new Lord Chief Justice Polixfen gave not under their hands that I was authorized to Preach by the Bishops License not revoked nor forfeit and all this by Sir James Smith and Sir James Butlers Warrants who neither of them ever told me who accused me nor ever called me to speak for my self If the like Warrant before by Sir Thomas Davis If my Imprisonment before by Justice Rosse and Philips If my being tost from Session to Session and bound in six hundred pound to the behaviour by Justices that openly declared they had nothing against me but took me for innocent If my Banishment out of the County and five miles from all Corporations If my attendance at Judge Jeffreys Bar in daily pain to hear my self reviled being forbidden to speak a word for my self and the Lawyers reviled and threatned that spake for me If my Confinement in the Kings Bench Prison for near two years and a great deal more such usage after they had in 1661. offered me a Bishoprick and sworn me to be the King's Chaplain in Ordinary And after Bishop Morley had silenced me and published a Letter of palpable falshoods against me which I answered and for peace laid it by these 28 years I say if all this prove me unpeaceable and them peaceable and if my Concessions in my English
Non-Conformity do the same in the Judgment of these Accusers The Lord be Judge Chap. IX That Christ hath Instituted no true Ecclesiastical Government in Man of any larger extent than National much less Universal nor of Foreign Jurisdiction And that the French pretended Aristocracy with the Popes Primacy and Patriarchate is as bad or worse than Papal Monarchy § 1. POpery and Clergy Usurpation which have corrupted and broken and confounded the Christian Churches on pretence of Government Unity and Order have risen out of the Ruines of Christian Magistracy The true Unifying Heads of Christian Kingdoms and National Churches being deposed by the Pope and Clergy their Power hath faln into the hands of the deposers § 2. The means by which this was accomplished were these 1. When there was no Christian Magistracy the Christians by voluntary consent to avoid Pagan Tribunals made their Bishops their chosen Arbitrators to decide their differences And Constantine finding them in possession of it and having no Lay-men so wise and good and meet continued them in it yet without the Power of the Sword 2. The pious Christians were desirous that their own freely chosen Pastors should rule them having no others so fit 3. The Princes were so taken up with Wars and secular things that they had no leisure to mind it 4. Princes and Rulers grew so ignorant wicked and debaucht that themselves and all others almost thought them unmeet for such holy work They neglected the study of the Word of God which should have made them wise 5. The Clergy not only took the advantage of the ignorance and viciousness of Princes but cherished them herein and told them Scripture and holy work were for the Priests and not for Princes 6. They debased and prophaned the Order of Magistrates falsly pretending that their Office was but for the Body c. for worldly Peace and the Office of Priests only was for the Soul 7. They by degrees turned the Communion and Concord of several Foreign Churches and Nations into one Government over all 8. When the Roman Empire was broken into many Kingdoms the National pretence of the Pope or Councils could reach but to some one of them and so the Pope slightly pretended to all and turned the Imperial Universality into a Terrestrial Universality and the Roman World into the whole World or else they had fallen 9. In all this they took the advantage of the Ignorance of Princes and Lords 10. And of the Wars and Enmity against each other striking in with the side that was likest to advance them § 2. To this day Popery is upheld by the same means by which it was set up especially by the Ignorance Ungodliness and Slothfulness of Kings and Lords Did they exceed the Clergy as much as Moses Joshua David Solomon Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah Nehemiah Zorobbabel did the Priests and as much as the Heathen Emperors Titus Trajan Adrian Antoninus Pius Antoninus Philosophus Alexander Severus c. did their Priests they would be honoured above the Priests as they were The Emperors then were thought fit to be Pontifices Maximi and as in the times of the Ancient Family-power an Abraham an Isaac and a Jacob and a Job and a Melchizedeck were thought fit to have the highest Government in matters of Religion so would it be still And a Samuel would be Prophet and King But as God will honour those that honour him so those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed § 3. The true way therefore to put down Popery is for the Prince and Magistrates to claim their proper Power yet not to usurp the Priesthood and to study love and practise the Law of God and take their Power and Laws to be only and meerly subservient to the Power and Laws of God And to strive to understand these so clearly as to be able to judge sound Preachers from unsound and to know whom to countenance whom to tolerate and whom to suppress It is Kings that have set up Popes by putting down themselves and Popes have set in to pull them down to set up themselves And it is Kings that must pull down Popes by reassuming their own Power and Work and that must be by becoming fit for it § 4. That Prince who granteth that his Office is but for the Body and for Secular Ends and the Priests only for the Soul inviteth all his Subjects to honour every Priest before him and to account him base as worldly things are to be accounted as dung in comparison of the things of the Spirit and Eternity Yea every good Christian who is commanded to exhort each other daily and to comfort one another with the remembrance that we shall be for ever with the Lord would be far more honourable than a King as the Soul is above the Body and Heaven better than Earth § 5. He is not worthy of Parental Honour from his Children that careth only for their Bodies and seeketh not to make them the Children of God and the Heirs of Heaven and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And if Princes be below the work of Parents they are below their Honour And if they will not be included in the work of the Fifth Commandment how can men give them the honour of that Commandment § 6. They that will have a Universal Prelate or Council to Govern the matters of Religion through all the World because of the unskilfulness of Kings and Magistrates should in reason also be willing on the same Grounds to have an Universal King or Parliament to Govern all Kings because some are Ignorant or Slothful or an Universal Physicion Philosopher or Schoolmaster § 7. God hath given the World often such Counsellors and such Judges as have been fit to judge in matters of Religion and to Judge Bishops and Preachers Why else do our Laws subject them to Kings and Judges Had all Lands but such Judges as through Gods Mercy England hath now or such as were Sir Matthew Hale and divers others in our Age and such Counsellors as Queen Elizabeth had for the most part or such Lawyers as France it self hath had and the Palatinate and Holland it would convince the World that Laymen may be fit to judge the Clergy even in matters of Religion And why may not Princes attain as much wisdom and honesty as their Counsellors and Judges The Christian Nations have been more beholden to a Constantine Jovian Valentinian Theodosius Senior Theodosius Junior Marcian Leo Anastasius and many other such and Spain to Recaredus and divers of his Successors and France to Carolus Mag. Ludov. Pius save their compliance with the Pope than to any Bishops or Councils even for Reformation against Heresies and Clergies Sins Chap. X. Whether an Universal Church-Government be of Apostolick Succession in the continued parts of their Office § 1. THough those that take it for mutability and backsliding to change their Judgments after that the School or their Leaders or
deny not but the Providence of God hath made use of the Roman Power Numbers Concord and Riches to uphold the common Cause But all is not Good that God over-ruleth and useth to good permitting Man to cause the Evil. As a Man may use the Cruelty without causing it of a Hound a Ferret or a Hawk against the Prey to fulfil his just will Had National Kingdom Churches been kept up under true Christian Kings and Pastors and these Kings and Pastors in Dyets and Councils kept due Confederacies by Consultation and Contract without mutual Jurisdiction the common Cause had been better promoted than it hath been by Popery that hath shamed it and weakened it by Persecutions Divisions Treasons and Wars Quest IV. Whether the Divisions of other Christians render the Roman Government desireable for Concord Ans 1. There are more that Unite in Mahometanism and far more in Paganism than all the Christians in the World And Satan knoweth how to advantage his Kingdom by Concord as well as to weaken Christs Kingdom by Division 2. The Bishops have made the greatest Schisms and Division in the Church that ever was made by sinful Usurpation and Corruption and Impositions and Persecutions Unchurching the far greatest part of Christians and appropriating the Church Title to his own Sect alone All the Bloody Murders of the Waldenses Bohemians and other Protestants the Inquisition the present Wars that France hath involved Europe in are on pretence of Unity We like not the Unity that Satan maintaineth and that at such a rate of Blood 3. But I have before and elsewhere proved that the Protestants for all their Divisions have a far better Unity than the Papal Church hath so that this Question is elsewhere and here sufficiently answered Quest V. Whether the Errors of the Protestants do not so disparage them as to make the Roman Church more Honourable Ans 1. That is should not Men chuse a Leprosie to cure an Itch We deny not but where Controversies shew our Differences among our selves one Party must needs be in an Error either de re or de nomine But we agree in all that 's necessary to Salvation and Brotherly Love And Pride and Envy and Malignity are more the Causes of our Disagreement than our Religion Especially unskilfulness in Words and stating Cases I have endeavoured to shew in many Books especially my End of Doctrinal Controversies my Catholick Theology and Methodus Theologiae that our Differences are most in Words whose sence is not mutually understood How many Loads of Controversal Volumes are written by Papists against each other And what heavy Charges of Simony Filthiness Heresie c. have even General Councils and Historians laid on the Popes and many Councils And note that the Pope or Council is the Essentiating Form of the Papal Church as such and therefore an Unholy or Debauch'd or Heretick Head proveth that the Church is Unholy or Heretical Because the Form denominateth and is Essential But it is not so with the Protestants that own no Universal Head but Christ who is Infallible and perfect This much I thought needful to add against them that pretend an Institution of Christ for a Political Universal Head and a Foreign Jurisdiction above a National Church or Christian Kingdom He that would compare Papists Errors with Protestants let him read Chamier Blondel de Ecclesia Molinaeus of the Novelty of Popery Rivet Downame de Antichristo Jewel Whitaker and other such § 7. How few Bishops or Church Doctors are for Learning equal to Boetius Joh. Picus Francis Picus Erasmus Hutten Goldastus Freherus Pistorius Faber Stephanus Father and Son Mornay Lord Du Plessis Mich. Hospitalius Thuanus the two Scaliger's Salmasius Grotius Sarravius Justellus and many other Lay-men And are Kings and Magistrates uncapable of Wisdom § 8. How vast is the difference between Governing one Kingdom and Governing all the World Do I need to aggravate it And is not one King with Wise Judges and Justices as capable of Governing one Kingdom as an Utopian College of Bishops that some dream of or a Pope and Cardinals of Governing all the World Can such ignorant vicious Monsters as Councils have condemned for the most odious Wickedness and Heresie better Rule at Abassia Armenia or the Antipodes than a Good King can Rule in England § 9. Councils consist of the Subjects of many Foreign Princes and usually their Princes chuse who shall go And they that are near the place of meeting will be the most And none can come against their Princes wills And few Bishops will disobey their Lords that send them or that they live under And must such Subjects of Papists Turks Infidels Heathens be Masters of England of King and People and of all the Religion in the World § 10. Cannot Bishops at hand here better try the Cause of one accused for Heresie Fornication Treason Murder c. and that by virtue of a Commission from God than a meeting of Bishops out of all the World a Thousand Mile off can try it § 11. But I shall here pass by my chief proof of this that God hath ordained no Humane Government distinct from meer consultation or Concord and Communion above National Headed by Christian Soveraignty Because I have ready for the Press a full Treatise of it in Two Books The first proving Historically by their own words that Archbishop Land Archbishop Bromhall Bishop Guning Bishop Sparrow Bishop Sam. Parker Dr. Pet. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Dr. Saywell and divers others have written for a Foreign and Universal Jurisdiction The second Book fully disproving it and proving that the Kingdom and Church is Sworn against it and that the Parliaments and the Church of England till Laud's days were against it And that this very Parliament and Convention having taken a new Oath against it besides the old Oaths of Supremacy to stigmatize the Church and Nation with the foresaid Perjury would dangerously presage the Rune of the Perjured if not of the Land Chap. XIII What are the dangerous Diseases of a National Church § 1. DEath cometh on Bodies Politick as on Natural Bodies by degrees as Diseases weaken and break them And while they are Diseased they are in an unlovely troublesome condition Gods Word and History and Experience hath told us what Diseases they be that are the usual presages of Confusion or Dissolution § 2. In general All sin is to the Soul what Sickness is to the Body and hath some tendency to destruction And the increase and abounding of Sin is a dangerous Prognostick sins of Sensuality Gluttony Drunkenness and Fornication when they grow common and impudent seldom go unpunished O how dangerous then is the case of England in which the Sin of Adultery and Fornication is commonly said to be so increased that multitudes are guilty now for One that was ever suspected of it before the Reign of K. Charles the Second And brutish Wretches scarce take it for a shame Sins of Injustice and
Unmercifulness especially Rich Mens oppression of the Poor Landlords grinding their Poor Tenants and Judges Justices and Lawyers unrighteousness in Suits and Judgments are Sins threatned by the Prophets as the fore-runners of Destruction § 3. But especially when Rulers are the Leaders in Sin and the Patrons of the Wicked The Sins of Men in publick Place are publick Sins and sooner bring publick Judgments than the Sins of private Men. The publick Authors of the late Calamitous Wars of Ireland Scotland and England had a deep part in the Punishment as they had in the Guilt O what a Torrent of Guilt in the Reign of Charles the Second did from King and Court over-flow this Land by the shameless filth of all uncleanness When Men shall affectedly keep Whores as the way to please the Court by Conformity to the King as if it were an Honour or no great Dishonour what can be expected from such horrid wickedness but Publick Divine Revenging Justice § 4. When did it ever go well with Judah or Israel when they had a foolish wicked King How easie is it for such a King and a foolish wicked Senate or Parliament to undo a Nation by Laws of Heresie Cruelty Persecution Division and Iniquity How ordinarily do such make Snares for the Conscionable by commanding them on pain of Fining Imprisonment or Death or Banishment to do something that God forbiddeth or not to do what God commandeth and then to cry them down reproach and ruine them as unruly disobedient despisers of all Order and Government Schismaticks and Rebels And who may call them so with less contradiction than they that can at their pleasure make them seem such and few dare contradict them § 5. Great is the advantage that Supreme Rulers have to put the Name of Evil upon Good and of Good on Evil and to procure the Vulgar to say as they Saving that the Innocency and Worth of the Upright especially of Wise and Charitable Persons constraineth approbation from those that know them and are not deplorate in Diabolism The foolish words of Princes seem wise to ignorant flatterers But he that will dwell in Gods Tabernacle and be a Blessing and not a Plague to the Church must be a Contemner of vile Persons and an Honourer of them that fear the Lord Psal 15. Antishenes could say that the Nation is hopeless that cannot difference good Men from bad What maketh almost all under Papist Rulers to be Papists and under Turks to be Mahometans and under Heathens to be Heathens but the Interest of the Opinion Example and Power of their Rulers § 6. In England and most Nations that are Christian the King and Rich Patrons or the Pope and his Servants have the choice of Archbishops Bishops Deans and Pastors And can it be expected that bad Men and covetous Men and the haters of serious Piety should chuse Men that will promote the Doctrine and Practice which they hate If the King make the Church of England is it like if he be a Papist or Malignant that he will chuse a Protestant and pious Church Or that a Covetous Drunken Filthy Licentious Patron will chuse a Man that will Zealously Preach against his Sins § 7. But the great Cause of the Ruine of a National Church is the Ignorance Viciousness Pride Malignity Covetousness and Persecuting Cruelty of a Degenerate Carnal Worldly Clergy Magistracy and Ministry are Gods great Ordinances by which as his Instruments and partly Representatives he doth by an established Order govern and keep up Order and Piety in the World Magistrates represent him in his Super-eminence and Ruling Power And Ministers in his Guiding and Sanctifying Wisdom and Love And God that will not ordinarily turn setled Order into Miracles worketh by these according to the aptitude of the Instruments and the Receivers And where there is kept up a wise and holy Magistracy and Ministry when and where did it ever go ill with such a people by any publick desolation § 8. If Ministers be Ignorant or unskilful in their publick Work they will be despised If they be Worldly and Covetous the Poor will reproach them If they be Drunkards Gluttons Unclean Idle or any way Sensual they will become the common Scorn But if they be Enemies to serious Godliness or Revilers or Persecutors of Godly Men the wicked will be encouraged to be like them and hardned in their Sin but Pious and Sober men will abhor them as the Servants of Satan though they will not therefore cast off their Honour to the true Ministerial Office and Work It is not an Honourable Office or a Reverend Garb and Name and Title that will hide the shame of Ignorance Ungodliness Sensuality or Malignity Their White Cloathing and Sacred Titles which render their filthiness more visible and odious Bad Men will prove a greater injury to Sacred Offices than open Enemies And it is not the Holiness of the Office or the Goodness of Laws and Order that will serve to Reform or make Happy a Church or Nation in the hands of wicked Men. § 9. Therefore when Bishops shall be such who Ordain and Govern the Inferior Clergy that Church or Nation is near lost and ruined If bad Princes chuse bad Prelates and they Ordain bad Ministers and savouring nothing but Wealth and Reputation shall prove the Jealous Adversaries of Piety and Persecutors of the most serious Christians and Encouragers of the malignant vicious and profane that Church and Nation is next to dead though it have a Name to live and be called Honourable and Rich how comely soever its Order and Ornaments may be and though its Doctrine and profest Opinions be Orthodox § 10. And it will yet render the case more desperate if the same carnal worldly malignant Bishops and Clergy shall grow justly reputed the Adversaries of the most Learned Judicious Godly and Laborious and Powerful Preachers and shall seek to Silence Disgrace and Oppress them The sober part of the Nation will then be tempted to take them as the Devils Militia armed against Christ and Mens Salvation and this the more wickedly as doing it in Christs Livery and in his Name § 11. And if such a Clergy shall in enmity to the Godly flatter the profane Lords Knights and Rich men of the World and make them their upholders and patrons and party to strengthen them in their sin the Confederacy will threaten Gods Vengeance on them all § 12. And yet the case will be more desperate if the wicked in such power shall bring an Universal Infection of Idleness Sensuality and Factious Enmity to serious Godliness on the Universities and other Schools of Learning and shall make them to be Nurseries of Ignorance Errour Impiety and Malignity And if the Prelates and Priests shall teach their Pupils and Candidates to account men of Conscience that obey not their sinful Impositions to be Fanatical Schismaticks and on pretence of bringing Schism into disgrace shall cast their dirt in the Face of Piety
and so train up youth into an enmity and scorn of that which should have their chiefest Love and Labour Alas if such a Serpentine Generation shall for staying so many years in Idleness and Lust in Universities be thought to have right to take the charge of multitudes of Souls that never took just care of their own and to have right to Church Dignity and Maintenance if any bad Patron will but present them how sad a case is such a Church and Nation in They will bring their Ignorance and Malice into the Pulpit and then those hearers that know bitter from sweet and the unclean from the clean will loath their folly And when the Priest seeth that he is despised or loathed he will become the Enemy of those that disesteem him and so he will become a Wolf to the Flock And then it is the Ungodly part that must be his Friends and Companions in Sin whom he will harden to their own Destruction Thus hath a bad Clergy been the ruine of many Churches § 13. And this will prove so strong a Temptation to the Religious part to disaffect the Ministry and to go too far in separations as that Schisms and Pernicious Divisions will be soon multiplied And then Persecution must be tryed on them instead of Light and Love § 14. But the Immediate dividing and dissolving of Churches and overthrow of the Peace of Christian Kingdoms is by Ignorant Malicious or Tyrannical Laws or Canons that impose things forbidden of God on pain of ejecting and silencing the most Faithful Ministers and scorning and ruining the most Religious People that will not sell their Souls for Worldly Interest nor to humour the ill designs of Tyrants These snares are often made by meer malice and revenge as Daniel was forbid to pray Because they could find no fault or accusation against him except it were concerning the Law of his God Especially when some great quarrels have exasperated revenge § 15. But usually error concurreth with Malice while Ignorance and Pride make Prelates and Priests still confident that all their Opinions and Impositions are just and blameless and that all are willfully erroneous that refuse them So rare is a humble understanding § 16. And it fixeth a National Church in this way to ruine when such an unworthy Ministry must be continued till they die and there is no great visible hope of removing them How many difficulties must be overcome before one Parish can get a cure of such § 17. And yet worse is it when there is small hope of a better when the bad Priest is dead but the corrupt Fountain is still sending forth polluted Streams and Money and Friendship chuse the Man And when the worst Man that hath but Money enough to buy a Patronage shall have the choice of a Pastor for Mens Souls § 18. And yet worse will it go when the Keys which are the most peculiar part of the Priviledge and Office of the Pastors shall be exercised by Lay Civilians in the Bishops name without his judging or consent And Government by the Word is managed by such Men in the manner that Secular Affairs are managed without due reverence to holy things § 19. And worst of all is it when the Body of the Nation is by such means brought to so much ignorance and sinfulness that they would have it so And are glad to have so much countenance to their malignity and sin and follow their malicious Military Leaders § 20. And last of all when their madness hath drawn their own Swords against each other or provoked God to let in a Foreign Enemy on them then they must expect that God avenge the quarrel of his Covenant specially when after great Mercy and long Patience they would not know the time of their Visitation nor in their day the things that belong to their peace but defend their sin Chap. XIV Whether the National Church of England be at the present of a sound Constitution And what is necessary to its Welfare Safety Reformation and Peace § 1. TO tell what particulars need Reformation I have done so oft to the great displeasure of the guilty that I have no encouragement to offend them more by doing it again § 2. And to give the true History of original causes and progress of our corruptions disorders and divisions will not be endured by them that still justifie their own and Predecessours sin and can see no fault in any but those that they first make and then call their adversaries I have found that the most notorious matters of fact will be denyed furiously by such men even what hath been said and done in their presence and mine before a multitude of Witnesses Bishops Doctors and divers others Yea things said and done in Parliaments and Armies and publickly notified are by such men contradicted with rage Therefore I will not here tell the World either what or who have been the causes of our sufferings and dangers having long purposed to have done it in a Treatise by it self called REPENT O ENGLAND and therein I. To declare my own Repentance II. To tell those called Presbyterians what they must Repent of III. And those called Separatists IV. And those called Antinomians V. And those called Prelatical especially the Ruling part But God seemeth to deny me time for that intended Work § 3. That which I shall now add is I. To shew what there now is in the English Constitution fitted to Christs Institution of a true National Church II. What is yet wanting III. And what are the Remedies § 4. I. I begin with that which is Good and Laudable Not only to avoid offence by unprofitable finding faults but especially to rectifie those prejudiced censures that call Good Evil and run away from Gods Mercies under the false name of Sin This hath had no small hand in our Divisions ever since the troubles at Frank-ford and our first Reformation The Adversaries of Popery did lay more of the personal Crimes of the Papists Bishops and Priests and Monks too on the Office and Order than they should have done § 5. I. The National Church of England is rightly constituted under one Supreme Royal Government as the Unifying Head as I have proved § 6. II. It is duely constituted of professed Baptized Christians and Churches as the subject matter § 7. III. It hath National Laws which profess their subserviency to the Law of Christ and the Nullity of all that is against it § 8. IV. It maketh none Magistrates but professed Christians No nor Burgesses and choosers of Magistrates § 9. V. It hath Diocesans that are General Overseers of many particular Churches as Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists in the ordinary parts of their Office which I before proved to be Christs Institution § 10. VI. It justly maketh Bishops Members of Parliament it being unfit to make Laws for Religion without the Pastors notice and advice § 11. VII It justly giveth large maintenance and
of your mind but do more mischief and you will not know where to stop till Cruelty have made you odious to Humanity And it will not make them fear you more than God And if it did that 's but a sad Conversion 2. Your excelling them in Piety and worth and works will do more than sâ—oâ— to silence Reproachers 3. If the sober Godly Conformists and Dissenting Ministers were once united then sober understanding Laity would follow them and so strengthen them that the Tolerated though pious and zealous in their way would divindle away in a little time as full experience hath proved in this Land It would not be the Many that would chuse a Life of unmaintained poverty and censure Their worth labour reputation 〈◊〉 the Magistrates countenance would make the united so strong that the rest though loved and tolerated would wither away § 19. Obj. But long experience telleth us that such a work is impossible Ans It only telleth us that it is unlikely Because Pride Worldliness Malignity Selfishness and Madcess have got so large possession on Earth and forsaking God's Government hath given Satan power over so much of Mankind But God can cast out Satan and interpose days with nights and Summers with Winters and turn Bedia as into sober Societies It is but bringing men to their wits as the Prodigal was To give so great a number of Great men Clergy men Students and debauched ignorant persons true Grace as the healing of National Churches as in most of the Christian World are now the mortal Enemies of Peace while they cry it up This I confess is so unlikely as scarce to be hoped for But God can force them by their own Argument He can make them know that they must give Peace to their Friends that in vain have long begg'd it or suffer from their Enemies worse than they have done to their innocent Brethren If we will not open the Church doors to Unity that have long been shut against it God hath Keys that can open and no man shut them Even Heathen Rulers oft saved the Apostles and Primitive Christians from the zealous cruel blinded Jews and Gallio drave them from the Judgment Seat Christian Jews were saved when Vespatian Titus Trajan and Adrian destroyed about three missions of the Infidels And if our Frenchified Foreign-Jurisdiction-men should think to escape and prosper by a bargain of Coalition they may be mistaken or speed worse than if they suffered But I hope God will rather convince a prevailing part that All that they have got these thirty years or thrice thirty by their way of silencing ruinating reproach and violence hath not been a due compensation for all that they have done by it against Ministers People Rulers and themselves and the Unity Love Strength and Safety of the Land And that if they will hear none at home God will so feelingly Preach to them from abroad as to tell them that if Love and Peace with Brethren sounder than they at home seem hateful to them yet worse it worse and great Foreign Enemies are more terrible They that can bear Reboboam's Yoke may under Pharaoh's beforced to sad cryes Thunder awakeneth when soft talk will not It 's a thundering voice that can be heard over Sea and Land Cannons are as loud as Thunder or may be heard as far § 20. But what is the difficulty in the way to Concord Had those that could easily do it but opened the Church doors at first but to the liberty of Preaching a Lecture when the Incumbent consented much more had they made a new healing Act of Uniformity which should have eased Conscience of the fears of deliberate Perjury Lying and Profaning holy things and had the Conforming by petitioning Rulers shewed that this was their desire what would have rendered it impossible But forma non recipitur in materiam indispositam It 's in vain to talk of healing to yet ancapable men FINIS The Reader must note that by mistake § 7. and to the end of the Chapter this is misplaced and is the end of the IXth Chapter