Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	day_n	holy_a	sabbath_n	3,953	5	9.8078	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76080	Independency not Gods ordinance: or A treatise concerning church-government, occasioned by the distractions of these times. Wherein is evidently proved, that the Presbyterian government dependent is Gods ordinance, and not the Presbyterian government independent. To vvhich is annexed a postscript, discovering the uncharitable dealing of the independents towards their Christian brethren, and the fraud and jugglings of many of their pastors and ministers, to the misleading of the poor people, not only to their own detriment, but the hurt of church and state; with the danger of all novelties in religion. / By John Bastvvick, Dr in Physick.; Independency not Gods ordinance. Part 1	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1645 (1645)	Wing B1063; Thomason E285_2; ESTC R200066	144,017	171

them and suffered them to enjoy the liberty of their conscience I have heard many magnifie our Independent brethren for their great learning some affirming that they were schollers from their mothers womb and I for my part beleeve it for ignorance of God and of his holy Word came with all men from their mothers wombe and if such interpretations of Scripture and such illations from them as these be proceed not from the ignorance of God and of the Scripture never any did for what learned man that knowes what Christs office was in taking humane nature upon him when he became a Mediator and the high Priest of our redemption would argue as these men doe especially when Christ hath so often in holy Scripture professed of himself that he came then to save those that were lost and not to judge the world for he hath left that imployment till his next comming when I am most assured these men will have a great deale to answer for for so abusing the holy Scriptures to maintaine their owne baggatellies Besides Christ came to keep the law for us which he himselfe had given unto his people and took no way the office of a judge upon him but in scourging out the buyers sellers out of the Temple that I remember and saith that he came not to break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax onely he had declared his lawes unto his people Malachy the 4. by his servant Moses and the execution of these lawes was put into the hands of the Elders of Israel whose place it was to punish all seducers and who should have performed that work of justice which our Saviour declaring doth not give liberty for the tolerating of all Religions which was against the revealed will of God and therefore they that will out of this place argue a toleration of all Religions may as vvell conclude that Christ tolerated adultery and injustice and all manner of vvickednesse because our Saviour Christ said unto those that brought the Woman to him that vvas found in the act of uncleannesse he that is without sinne amongst you let him cast the first stone and vvhen her accusers vvere gone said unto the woman Woman where are thy accusers goe thy way and sinne no more Ergo Christ gave a toleration for all Adulterers and when the young man in the 16. of Luke came to our Saviour and complaining of unjustice done unto him by his brother and desiring him to speak unto his brother that he would divide the inheritance with him to whom our Saviour answered man who made me a judge or a divider among you ergo Christ gave toleration of all injustice And because our Saviour Christ said in that Parable of the good seed that was sown and of the tares that sprung up that they should let them alone till the harvest an argument which they much depend on Ergo all wicked men are to be tolerated and no justice to be done upon them till Dooms-day they are to live without molestation and the Magistrate ought not to meddle with them because Christ said let the good corne and the tares grow together till the harvest who would not admire to heare any man thus to argue that there should be such either folly or wickednesse in the heart of man to abuse the holy Scriptures for their owne ends And who knowes not that it is concluded amongst all learned men that Simbolica Theologianon est argumentativa and that the Parable inferres no more but that it is not for any private man to take upon him the Magistrates office or rashly to intrude himselfe into the place of Rulers and Governours But truly all such consequences may as well be gathered from every one of the above specified Scriptures as they gather from our Saviours words to the Sadduces and from the Parable of Christ for the tolerating of all Religions and therefore all such argumentations as these are but poore props to uphold their Tenent For God-hath given us that are christians both the Law and the Gospell by which we ought to be guided in the serving of him and by the which all Christians are directed what course to take in the punishing of vice and for the suppressing of errors and offenders whether they be delinquents in doctrine or manners And although christians by the Gospell are freed from the ceremoniall law yet we are not freed from the substance of it for he that said to the Israelites be ye holy as I am holy saith also to all christians be ye holy as I am holy 1 Pet. 1 so that although the ceremony be abolished yet the substance remaineth stil in force and although the rigor of the judiciall law be taken away and christians are not tied to that manner of administration of justice yet the equity of that law doth still continue and righteous judgement is every where amongst all christians to be executed and satisfaction to be made to all such as have been unjustly damnified and although we are freed from the curse malediction and coaction of the morall law yet we are not freed from the obedience of it so that whatsoever was commanded in it to the Israelites or forbidden them the same is both commanded and forbidden to all christians to the ends of the world and whatsoever was death by the law of God and nature then for ought I know ought to be punished with death now amongst Christians as blasphemours wizards witches idolaters and all such as despise Moses law under the month of two or three witnesses if they be people within the pale of the Church and make profession of the Christian Religion for Christians have nothing to do with those that are without to judg them except they offend against the civill and municipal laws of the country and against the laws of nations nature when they live amongst them for Christ came not to change the morall law but to ratifie it in all things And although the Sabbath be changed in respect of the day yet for the holinesse of the first day of the week which is the Christians Sabbath and which is in place of it I am confident it ought most carefully to be observed and that the whole day ought in all sanctity and holinesse to be kept and besides the fourth Commandement for the sanctification of a seventh day we have the example of the primitive Christians and blessed Apostles who alwayes had their meetings on the first day of the week and spent the whole day in the duties of piety and charity for in the 20. of the Acts we read that on the first day of the week the Disciples came together to break bread that was for the hearing of the Word and for the administration of the Sacraments and for the exercising of all holy duties and that Paul preached there untill midnight and that when Euticus was fallen downe with sleep Paul restored him to life againe to all their comforts

so that here we have one president that the whole Lords day was spent by all those Christians in the works of piety and charity Againe in the first of the Revelations Saint John saith that he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day that is the first day of the week called by Saint John the Lord's day and there the Angel preached unto him that day and commanded Saint John to take so much of his Sermon by writing as God in his wisdome thought fit to reveale unto his Church and he that shall diligently read what is there written will gather that the whole day was taken up by Saint John and spent in hearing and writing and meditating of what he had heard for without doubt Saint John made it his whole dayes work to be spiritually imployed and as the holy Communion is called the Lord's Supper and all the time of that action is holily to be imployed as being ordained by Christ himselfe to that end even so the Lords day being a day dedicated unto Christ and ordained by him for holy duties and for the hearing of the Word and for the administration of the Sacraments and prayer the whole day ought both privately and publikely to be taken up in the imployments and works of piety and charity as hearing reading meditating prayer repetition of Sermons in their Families catechizing and instructing their children and servants singing of Psalmes in visiting the sick and them that are in prison relieving the poore and necessitated c. These examples of the primitive Christians are for our imitation for so Saint Paul in the third of the Phillippians in the 17. verse saith Brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example for our conversation is in Heaven And in the 4. chap. ver 8. he saith Finally brethren whatsoever things are true what soever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me doe and the God of peace shall be with you By the which testimonies to omit many more we are tyed to follow the examples of the Apostles and to imitate them in all that is holy and good and of good report now it is praise worthy and of good report to spend the whole Lords day in holy imployments and we have the Apostles examples and the primitive Christians for so doing and therefore we ought to spend the whole Lords day in the works of piety and charity and by this the sanctifying of the Christian Sabbath which is every seventh day is ratified the prophanation of the which in the reformed Churches and in many places through these three Kingdomes has been one of the causes of all those heavy judgements the whole christian world now groanes under and so much more would the Lord be provoked by the toleration of all Religions amongst us which would give just occasion of violating of all the Commandements of God and of disobedience both to God and man for it is most sure that the morall law is not altered in any thing for substance and that God that by it injoyned but one Religion to the Israelites and commanded them to keep that pure and undefiled and to punish all idolaters blasphemers and seducers hath injoyned the same to all Christians and hath not suffered or permitted them to tolerate all Religions or any sects or heresies which by the Apostle in the fifth of the Galatians are called the works of the devill and that they that doe them shall not enter into the Kingdome of God So that those that would bring in a toleration of all Religions have a desire to send men to the devill For the examples of Poland Transsilvania and Holland they are no presidents to other Nations their politick proceedings are no examples for other christian Countries and Nations to follow for christians are to live by the rule of God's Word and Christ's their Kings lawes and to follow the examples of his own people only in their wel-doing and not in their failings and therfore we are to follow the example of Abraham Joshua Elias the other Patriarchs Prophets and holy Apostles who never tolerated all Religions Yea we are commanded in Romans the 12. not to conforme our selves to this world but that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove what is the good and the acceptable and perfect will of God Now when by the Word of God that acceptable and perfect will of his we are taught that he was displeased with his people the Jewes for tolerating of all Religions amongst them and that he was highly offended with those christian Churches in Asia for tolerating the doctrines of Balaan and Jezabel we are sufficiently taught and instructed that Christians ought not to tolerate any other Religion but that which Christ the onely King and Law-giver of his Church hath taught us and that whosoever should take that authority upon them to tolerate all Religions would be found fighters against God and such as deservedly would bring downe his judgements upon the Land by it for if but conniving at evill and consenting to it be a thing displeasing unto God how would the tolerating of it by a law be abominable unto his sacred and divine Majesty for this were to establish iniquity by a law We are taught in the holy Scriptures that the consenting with a theefe makes a man as guilty before God as the acting of theevery and that they that assented unto Jezabel in killing the Prophets made themselves all as guilty as Jezabel her selfe and that the Heathen Romans Rom. 1. ver 32. who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely doe the same but consent with them that doe them made themselves as equally guilty as the actors of them as Paul in his bill and information put up in the Court of Heaven against them sufficiently declareth the same did Elias in his bill of information against the people in his time accusing them all as equally guilty of the blood of the Prophets and destroying Religion as Jezabel and onely because they consented unto it They saith Elias have killed thy Prophets and have broken down thy Altars Which they all the people that assented unto her as well as the Officers and Executioners And so our Saviour in his time accuseth the people as well as Herod for slaying of Iohn the Baptist saying They have done to him what soever they pleased They which they all the Nobles that sate at table with Herod that did not disswade Herod from that bloody and tyrannicall act and all the people that liked well of it the sinne of this Nation who assented unto the bloody decrees and censures

of all the Courtiers and Officers under Herod therefore it is said that Herod and all Ierusalem with him was troubled So that Tyrants and their complyces never have any reall peace But in this sense also it cannot be understood that Ierusalem went out to Iohn and was baptized it must therefore by a Synecdoche be taken for all the common people promiscuously or for a mighty multitude of all sorts and of all ranks of people and of all professions as Publicans Souldiers and the ordinary Inhabitants and in this sense the word Jerusalem must be taken for a mighty multitude of men in Jerusalem that were made Christians for otherwise the Evangelist would have said many went out of Jerusalem also as well as out of other places but in saying that all Judea and all the Regions round about and Jerusalem went out this metaphoricall expression doth signifie That an infinite number of people in Jerusalem it self were made Christians and members of the Church and that it is so to be understood the places following will evidently evince it for in Matth. 11.12 our Saviour saith That from the dayes of Iohn the Baptist untill now the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force then the which there could nothing be spoke more emphatically to set forth the growth and increase of Believers and the multitude of Christians as Luke also in ch 16. v. 16. expresseth saying That the Law and the Prophets were untill Iohn since that time the kingdome of God is preached and every man presseth in to it that is the generality of the people became believers and were baptized as it is yet more evident from Luke 7.29 30. by the very testimony of our Saviour who saith That all the people that heard him and the Publicans justified God being baptized with the baptisme of Iohn but the Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsell of God against themselves being not baptized of him So that by the witnesse of our Saviour Christ except the Pharisees and the Priests all the people or the generality of the people in Jerusalem were baptized and became Christians and imbraced the Gospell and this was accounted among the miracles that was wrought in those dayes and as a thing of speciall observation and as a matter of wonder as we may see in the message our Saviour Christ sent unto Iohn the Baptist by his Disciples when he bad them relate unto their Master what they had seen and heard in the 22 Verse tell him saith he That the blinde see the lame walke the Lepers are cleansed the deafe heare and the dead are raised and the poore receive the Gospel this I say was among the miracles that the generality of the poor imbraced the Gospel and were baptized and made Believers which must needs import a mighty multitude and a great increase or else it would not have been a thing of such wonder and have been sent unto Saint Iohn as a miraculous thing and a thing worthy to prove Christ himself to be the Messiah looked for for no meer man could have wrought such a work as to draw the hearts of the people to imbrace the Gospel but the Messiah himself For Paul may plant and Apollo may water 1 Cor. 3. but God only the Messiah must give the increase he must move the heart to imbrace the Gospel and to believe for faith is the gift of God Ephes 2. and therefore this was the wonder that the generality of the people did believe and were baptized and this was the sole work and operation of Christ and therefore proved him to be the Prophet they looked for And it stands with all reason that there were infinites of people in Jerusalem that believed and that Iohn was greatly magnified of the people and publickly followed because for a time Herod himselfe countenanced Iohn Mark 6.20 and feared him knowing that he was a just man and an holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly And although we read not that he was baptized by Iohn yet he highly honoured him till Iohn reproved him and told him it was not lawfull for him to have his Brothers Wife And in this interim of his seeming favour we may conceive that the Courtiers also and the great men would do as their Master did for if we observe the manner of all Courts to this day what the King does the Courtiers also do if the King laugh though there be perhaps a cause of mourning they will all laugh and if he frownes though there be a cause of cheerfulnesse and smiling they will all frown and if the King commends any man they will all admire him and if he hears any Minister gladly they will all hear him willingly and if he when he is reproved be angry and displeased and will cut off his head whom he had so honoured but the day before then all the Courtiers they will help him and further the work as we may see not only in the example of Iohn Baptist but in Haman as soon as the King fround upon him the Courtiers they covered his face and up they trussed him be it right or wrong it is all one to Courtiers But in that interim I say that Iohn Baptist was in favour with the King without doubt it annimated the people greatly to follow him and by hearing him many thousand Saints were converted and the multitudes of them were numerous as is manifest from Matth. 14.5 for it is said That when he would have put him to death he feared the multitude because they counted him as a Prophet Here are two observables the one That he that feared not God was afraid of his servants The second that it was a mighty multitude of Believers that were in Jerusalem for a few could not have awed the King and kept him in fear and therefore he was forced to defer the cutting off of his head till he had got to him all the strength of Galilee all his Lords and high Captains and his chief Estates and Commanders Mark 6.21 And when he thought himselfe strong enough then he exercised his tyranny Yee when Iohn was taken away yet the multitudes of the people continued stedfast in the faith as we may see in Luke 20. by the confession of the very enemies for when our Saviour asked them concerning the baptisme of John whether it was from Heaven or of Men And they reasoned among themselves saying if we shall say from Heaven he will say why then believed ye him not and if we say of Men all the people will stone us for they be perswaded that Iohn was a Prophet Here by the confession of the very enemies all the people or the generality of them were Believers and it must of necessity be a mighty multitude that kept all the Priests and all the Elders that had all the power in their hands in awe that they durst not so much as open their

any such termes was the Goaler and his converted family forced to make a publike confession to the Church of their faith to give in the evidences of their conversion and to enter into a private covenant before they could be made members of the Church or was the Churches assent required before they could be admitted and made members of it or were ever any of these things they impose upon Christians now required at beleevers hands before these our times and therefore they are to be abominated as vaine traditions and such as by which they break the lawes of God making devisions in the Church and Kingdome and through all the families and houses of the same so that neither masters of families nor parents have any rule over their wives children or servants their husbands goe out one way the wife another their children to this assembly their servants to that congregation and as it was among the Corinthians which Paul blames in them one said I am of Paul another I am of Apollo the third I am of Coephas and so they flutter about like a company of chickings without either heads or wit and none will be under obedience to either parents or masters notwithstanding God hath commanded children to obey their parents and servants their masters no farther than pleaseth their owne humours and all this they have learned by the traditions of the younger and whether I have wronged the brethren in any thing I have now said I report my selfe to all the distracted families in the Kingdome where they have been preaching and the daily experience of any moderate minded Christian and if ever there was a pantheon of all Religions in the world it is now in England by reason of these new teachers to the great dishonour of God the hinderance of Reformation and the allienating of the affections one from another of those that are joyned together in nighest relations And by all that I have now spoke I hope it doth sufficiently appeare that there is neither precept nor example through all the holy Scripture to warrant the practice of these men in the gathering of their new Churches and if a man will but looke a little more upon the practice of Christs seventy Disciples of all the Apostles in the gathering of Churches they shall not find one footstep through the whole booke of God of the gathering Churches after the manner of their congregating of their assemblies as for Christs Disciples they were all sent to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel they went not to gather in converted men from amongst converted men for they were to bring the lost sheep into Christs fold and we are taught there is but one Shepheard and one sheepfold we never read that after they were once folded and brought into the Church that any true Pastors came into the fold and flocks of their fellow-shepheards and picked out all the best and the fattest sheep and the most wholsome and molded them into an independent fould by themselves as seperate and distinct from the others and with the which they would have no fellowship and communion in the Ordinances this was never heard of before these dayes Paul was so farre from getting away of others sheep that he took it for a dishonour to him to build upon anothers foundation Rom. 15. and preached Christ in those places where they had never heard of him before and planted the Church of Corinth himselfe and left Apollo to water it and committed all the flocks that he had gathered as that of Ephesus to the charge and care of faithful Pastors and commands both the flocks and the Pastors and in them all shepheards and folds to keep unity and love one with another Ephes 4. ver 1 2 3 4 c. and forbids them to make seperations and devisions and scismes between flock and flock and this method he used wheresoever he came yea as soon as he was converted and entred upon his ministry as we may see in the first of the Galatians he went into Arrabia and preached there among the poore Infidels he got not other mens sheep from them neither did he ever make any seperation of sheep from sheep yea even in those flocks and Churches as that of Corinth Galatia and Colosse where there were many that walked disorderly and against the rules prescribed and taught false doctrine and heresies and made scismes in the Church and were very scandalous so that if ever there were in any Churches a just cause of making a seperation it was then and yet the Apostles bid not the Christians seperate themselves from the communion and assemblies of the Saints and from the Ordinances for these mens causes but onely that they should look unto themselves and examine their owne consciences that they may not offend and so make themselves unworthy of the holy things and gives them power to cast out the prophane but no way tolerates them to seperate onely he bids them not be familiar with such as walk disorderly that by this meanes they might learne to amend their lives and tels them of what judgements have alwayes happened to such as were wicked and bids them by their example to take heed how they provoke God by the like as it is at large set downe in the tenth chapter and commands them to make no separation but from Idolaters and Infidels and so likewise in his Epistle to the Galatians he sayes for his owne particular he could wish that they that troubled them were cut off yet he biddeth not the Galatians to separate themselves into independent congregations Nothing of all such things were taught before these dayes that true beleevers and the faithfull servants of God should separate from the assemblies of their brethren every way as deerly beloved of God as themselves and such as with the twelve Tribes of Israel serve their God night and day and would suffer any thing for the Gospell and that any Christians I say should make separation from the fellowship of such or that such should be accounted as enemies of Christ it was never heard of before our times by which their so dealing they have made the greatest scisme in the Church that was ever yet made to the scandall of of our holy profession I have been ever taught in Gods holy Word that those faithfull Ministers that preached Jesus Christ and him crucified and opened the eyes of the blind and turned them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance amongst them that are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ and taught the people that they should repent and turne to God and doe works meet for repentance and that instructed all men that they being delivered out of the hands of their enemies they should serve God without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of their life and teaching them that the grace of

evidences of the truth of their conversion before the congregation and enter into a private and solemne covenant and be admitted by the consent and approbation of the Church or otherwise if they will not submit themselves to this law and come into the Church upon these conditions receive them not into your assemblies nor admit of them for members Here is nothing of all this in Christs commission nor in his holy Word nor any president of the same in all sacred Authority and therefore John the Baptist and the holy Apostles and primitive Ministers admitted all that came unto them and such as but demanded of them what they should doe to be saved and baptized them and received them into the Church-without any gainsaying or question as we may see in the third of Lake and in the seventh chapter of the same book and in the second of the Acts and no sooner did the Eunuch desire baptisme but Philip granted it the Goaler did but ask Paul and Silas What they should doe to be saved and they said Beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and it is related that the Goaler and all his were streightway baptized Acts 16. ver 31 32 33. that is they were forthwith admitted into the Church without either walking any time with the Church for their approbation or without either making a publike confession of their faith before the Church or giving in evidences of the truth of their conversion to the congregation or entring into a private covenant and without the consent and allowance of the Church And Christ notwithstanding was imbraced by them as their Lord and King and was preached by Paul and Silas as the Lord and King of his Church and was set up upon his Throne as King by them as well as he is in any independent Churches and yet they had none of all their new borne truths and they could then see how to set up Christ upon his Throne without their new lights and as Christ was then by Paul and Silas and the other Apostles set upon his Throne as King in all those primitive Churches so he is at this day in all the true Protestant Churches through the world as well as in any of the Independent Assemblies and yet they were and are all ignorant of their new way so that any understanding christian may gather that all their new borne truths are no way requisite for the setting up of Christ as King in his Church nor for the advancement of Christs Kingly government for if they had Christ would have put them into the Apostles commission and the Apostles who were led into all truth by the holy Thost who brought whatsoever Christ had taught them concerning the Kingdome of God Acts 1. into their memories would have suggested all these things The new way the new borne truth the new lights to them that they might have been recorded if they had been necessary for the setting up of Christ upon his Throne but when neither Christ nor the holy Ghost nor the blessed Apostles have prescribed any of all these to the church nor called for them nor required them of any that desire to be saved or made members of the church whether this be not a great temerity in any men to preach all these things as the lawes of Christ I leave it to the judgement of any ingenuous minded christian and whether this be not to preferre their owne inventions and traditions before the commandements of God and the lawes of Christ the King of his church and whether this be not rather to set up themselves than Christ I referre it also to any judicious and impartiall christian to weigh and consider I shall now demand of any moderate christian therefore and let him answer me candidly whether of those Ministers and people most advance the Kingdome of Christ and acknowledge him to be their onely Lord and Law-giver that both in their teaching and beleeving follow his commission and Word and teach nothing nor beleeve nothing as they are injoyned but what Christ their King commands them or those that to the commission and commands of Christ adde their owne inventions and traditions and preferre them before the lawes of Christ the King and Law-giver of his church I am confident if he will deale impartially he will answer me that those Ministers and that people most advance Christ for their King and most set him upon his Throne that owne his law and that onely for the rule of their faith and obedience for Christ himselfe hath said it John 10. My Sheep heare my voyce they will not listen unto the voyce of a stranger Christs voyce onely the King of his church is to be heard and they onely that obey it advance him for their King and set him up on his Throne which when the Ministers and beleevers in the church of England doe and the Independents doe not they more advance Christ for their King than they for the Independents to Christs law and commission adde their owne traditions and inventions and enjoyne all that will be admitted as members into their congregations besides their beleeving being baptized to walk with them some time for approbation and to make a publike confession of their faith before the church and to bring in the evidences of the truth of their conversion and enter into a private and solemne covenant and not to be admitted as members without the consent of the Church all which Christ the King of his church never commanded and those that will not submit themselves to these their traditions they will not permit or suffer to enter into their church as joyned members which they call the onely true churches of Christ and count of all others that differ from them as enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and as men without the covenant and if this be to set up Christ upon his Throne then the Pharisees set up Christ upon his Throne who preferred their own traditions before the commandments of God yea the pope himself the Prelats set up Christ upon his Throne who preferred their own traditions and idolatries before the lawes of Christ Now if all the traditions of the Papists were justly abhorred and cast out of the church as things derogatory to the Kingly and Propheticall dignity of Jesus Christ and as things repugnant to his royalty I see no reason but all other popery under whatsoever name or title it be intruded upon the people should be eliminated and cast out of the church and whether this be not a new kind of popery to bring in new wayes and new borne truths and new lights and impose them upon the people as the commands of God and to excommunicate and unchurch all churches in the world but their owne assemblies I referre my selfe to the judgement of any intelligible christian Saint Paul writing to the Galatians blames those false teachers amongst them that would have joyned but the

suffered them then to have preached up their Religion in all their Pulpits In Turkey at this day Christians in many places have the liberty of their consciences amongst themselves and have their places for worship to assemble in but they are not so much as permitted to come into their Temples much lesse to preach up their Religion in their Pulpits In France the Protestants are permitted to preach but it is onely in such places as are appointed for them they may not preach in popish Pulpits that is not permitted unto them In the Low countries there is liberty of conscience which they so much plead for of which afterwards and yet the divers sects that are there are not suffered to preach out of those places assigned unto them or to preach publikely in any of their Pulpits against the Religion established by authority neither are they permitted to unchristian them or unchurch them and publikely and in print to proclaime them enemies of Christs government and if any should dare attempt such a thing or goe about to disgrace their Ministers and church-government or in the least intrench upon the Mrgistrates authority they would be made fly like lightning before thunder And yet the brethren among us have the liberty of all the Pulpits through the Kingdome without controle and vent all their new wayes and their new-borne truths and set up their new lights without any molestation and have all respectfull usage and the onely esteem of the people and are more followed than all our learned godly and painfull orthodox Ministers and yet they cry out of persecution and unchurch and unchristian us all and proclaime both Ministers and people all enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and count of us little better than of Infidels and keep our children from baptisme and debarre us from communion with them and exercise a kind of absolute lordship over all their brethren so as Deotraphes never did the like nor the Pope more and yet they cry out of persecution against the Saints and lay odious aspersions upon their brethren and fellow-Presbiters perswading the people that the presbiterian way will be as bad or worse than that of the Prelats But if we as duly examine the manner of the Independent government and compare it with the Presbiterian as we have done the manner of their preaching with theirs we shall find there is little reason why they should so villipend the Presbiterian and magnifie their owne and why they should make it so hatefull and odious to the people laying aside therefore all prejudice let us examine things with deliberation and then it will be soon evident that the Presbiterian government is not as bad or worse than that of the Prelats nor so lordly as that of the Independent government which is also Presbyterian and they as well Presbyters as their brethren It is well knowne that the Prelats assumed and arrogated unto themselves to be the onely Pastors of their Diocesses and ruled all the Ministers and people under them by their owne authority and spoyled all both Minsters and people and the severall congregations under them of their liberty and made them all both Ministers and people their vassals and slaves and from whose Courts there was no appeale Whereas the Presbiterian manner of government is not as that of Lords and Masters over Subjects and Servants but sociall as between equals between brethren friends and colledges who all judge and are all judged according to the Word of God where no congregation is above another congregation no Minister is above another Minister but onely for order-sake where every Presbiter is left to enjoy the whole office of a Presbiter and each congregation to the freedome of a congregation what belongs unto them and they able to performe it and the classes to corroborate and strengthen them And if any man be wronged by the Presbitry he may have the benefit of his appeale and be cleered by more righteous Judges a course ever followed by the Churches and agreeable to the light of nature so that I say if men would without a prejudicate opinion weigh and consider all things and compare the government of the Prelats with that of the Presbiterian they would speedily be undeceived And againe if they would compare the Presbiterian government dependent with the Presbiterian government independent they would have more honourable thoughts of the one and a lesse esteem of the other for in the Presbiterian government independent they exercise a kind of absolute power and soveraignty amongst themselves in every of their severall Churches or congregations so that if two or three of the Presbiters be malicious or self-will'd or corrupt or hereticall as it happens many times and by their learning or eloquence or great abilities of wit and schollership or by their wealth or power the congregation perhaps consisting of many poore people and it may be ignorant who are relieved by them and whose favour they dare not forfeit if they prevailing with the major part of the congregation as commonly the poore people are like a company of wild Gees who which way soever their leader flyes they all follow I say if they do once deliver a man to satan and will not by any art of perswasion be induced to reverse their unrighteous sentence the innocent and wronged man must live under this doome all the dayes of his life without any remedy and must be held by all the Churches of Christ that are after that new modell to whom their sentence is given notice of as an excommunicated person and shun'd accordingly they have no power to absolve or help him and from which he hath no benefit of appeale And this that I now speake there is not any of the brethren that is well verst in the grounds of that kind of government that either will or can deny it And this rigor to my knowledge both in the low Countries in the severall congregations of the English there and in some here in England among us was the cause of making so many severall sects for when they were cast out of one congregation for some particular opinion in the which they differed from them the other churches and congregations of the same mould and profession could not absolve them nor durst not receive them into church fellowship with them without an attestation from the church out of which they were excommunicated of their christian walking amongst them or had given satisfaction to that church of which they had been members and that they would never be brought unto conceiving that the wrong was theirs who complained as unjustly excommunicated neither would they relinquish their opinion as being perswaded it was grounded upon the Word of God whereupon they finding others of their owne opinion joyned themselves into a new society and congregation and had a peculiar church by themselves and this has been one of the chiefest causes of all these rents and devisions we now see every where for