fastidious they may in such a case be over-ruled by just authority As for matter of censures it may not be denyed that there hath been great abuse in the managing of them both upon Ecclesiastical persons and others suspension of Ministers upon slight and insufficient causes both ab officio and beneficio hath been too rife in some places of latter times and the dreadful sentence of excommunication hath too frequently and familiary passed upon light and triviall matters How happy were it if a speedy course may be taken for the prevention of this evil In the conference at Hampton-Court a motion was strongly made to this purpose but without effect if the wisdom of the present Parliament shall settle some other way for the curbing of contumacious offences against Church-authority it will be an act worthy of their care and justice In the mean time as for this and all other Ecclesiastical proceedings it may with much facility and willing consent of all parts be ordered that the Bishop shall not take upon him to inflict either this or any other important censure without the concurrence of his Presbytery which shall be a means in all likelyhood to prevent any inconvenience that may arise from the wonted way of Judicature As for the co-assession of a Lay-presbytery in swaying these affairs of Church-government Ye well know how new it is some of you might have been acquainted with the man that brought it first into any part of this Island and what ground there is for it either in Scripture or antiquity I appeall to your judgment Surely the late learned Author of the Counsail for the reforming the Church of England although otherwise a vehement assertor of the French Discipline ingenuously confesseth that however those Protestants which live under Popish Governours have done wisely in deputing some choise men selected out of their congregations whom they call Elders to share with their pastors in the care and management of Ecclesiasticall affairs Yet those Protestant Churches which live under the government of Protestant Princes may with the safty of those respects which mutually intercede betwixt Pastors and People forbear any such deputation for as much as the supreme Magistrate transferrs for the most part to himself that which is the wonted charge of those deputed Elders concluding that those men do meerly lose their labour who so busily indeavour on the one side to disprove the antiquity of the Lay-Eldership and on the other by weak proofes to maintain clean contrary to the mind of the Apostle that the text of Saint Paul 1 Tim. 5.17 is to be understood of Pastors and Lay-Elders Thus he with what fair probability I leave to your judgment Neither is it any intention of mine to meddle with any piece of that government which obtaineth in other the Churches of God but onely to contribute my poor opinion concerning the now-to-be-setled affairs of our own What shall I need to suggest unto you the dangerous underworkings of other Sects secretly indevouring to spring their hidden mines to the overthrow both of the one government and the other whereof without speedy remedy perhaps it will be too late to complain no doubt the wisdom and authority of that great Senate whom ye also serve to advise will forthwith interpose it self to the prevention of those mischiefs which the variety of these heresies and sects though some of them cloaked with the fairest pretences threaten to this poor Church It is no boot for me to tell you that the less disunion there is the more ground of safety and that where the holy purposes of Reformation may be effected with the least change there must needs be the most hope of accordance The rest to the wise application of the powerfull and judicious It is enough for me to have thus boldly shot my bolt amongst you and to have thus freely discovered my honest and wel meant thoughts to so able judgments What I want in my poor indevours shall be supplyed with my prayers that God would be pleased to compose all our miserable distractions and to put an happy issue to the long and perilous agitations of this wofully tottering and bleeding Church and Kingdome Which the good God of Heaven vouchsafe to grant for his great mercies sake and for the sake of the dear Son of his love Jesus Christ the Just Amen Philalethirenaeus Septemb. 12. 1644. Certaine IRREFRAGABLE PROPOSITIONS WORTHY OF SERIOUS CONSIDERATION By J. H. B. of EXON 1. NO man may swear or induce another man to swear unlawfully 2. IT is no lawfull Oath that is not attended with Truth Justice and Judgement Jer. 4.2 the first whereof requires that the thing sworn be true the second that it be just the third that it be not undue and unmeet to be sworn and undertaken 3. A Promissory Oath which is to the certain prejudice of another mans right cannot be attended with Justice 4. NO prejudice of another mans right can be so dangerous and sinfull as that prejudice which is done to the right of publique and Soveraign Authority 5. THe right of Soveraign Authority is highly prejudiced when private subjects incroach upon it and shall upon suspicion of the disavowed intentions or actions of their Princes combine and bind themselves to enact establish or alter any matters concerning Religion without and therefore much more if against the authority of their Lawfull Soveraign 6. A Man is bound in Conscience to reverse and disclaim that which he was induced unlawfully to ingage himself by Oath to perform 7. NO oath is or can be of force that is made against a lawfull oath formerly taken so as he that hath sworn Allegeance to his Soveraign and thereby bound himself to maintain the right power and authority of his said Soveraign cannot by any second oath be tyed to do ought that may tend to the infringement thereof and if he have so tyed himself the Obligation is ipso facto void and frustrate COROLLARIE IF therefore any sworn Subject shall by pretenses and perswasions be drawn to bind himself by Oath or Covenant to determine establish or alter any act concerning matter of Religion without or against the allowance of Soveraign Authority the act is unlawful and unjust and the party so ingaged is bound in conscience to reverse and renounce his said act Otherwise besides the horrible scandal which he shall draw upon Religion he doth manifestly incurr the sin of the breach of the third and fift Commandements Two as undoubted Propositions concerning Church-government 1. NO man living no History can shew any well-allowed and setled Nationall Church in the whole Christian World that hath been governed otherwise then by Bishops in a meet and moderate imparity ever since the times of Christ and his Apostles untill this present Age. 2. NO man living no record of History can shew any lay-Lay-Presbyter that ever was in the whole Christian Church untill this present Age. COROLLARIE IF men would as easily learne as Christian wisdome
an unquestionable Author tells us one whose eyes beheld that Saint did not only converse with those that had seen Christ but also was by the Apostles constituted in Asia Bishop of the Church of Smyrna Let him if he can deny Cyprian the holy Martyr and Bishop of Carthage writing familiarly to the Presbyters and Deacons there sometimes gravely reproving them sometimes fatherly admonishing them of their duties in divers of his Epistles Let him deny that his contemporany Cornelius Bishop of Rome acknowledgeth 46. Presbyters committed by the Catholique Church to his charge Shortly let him if he stick at this truth deny that there was any Christian Church of old any History All which duly considered I would fain know what reason can be shewed why that ancient yea first government by the Bishop and his Presbytery received and with all good approbation and successe used in the Primitive Church and derived though not without some faulty omissions and intertextures which may easily be remedied untill this present day should not rather take place then a government lately and occasionally raised up in the Church for the necessity or convenience of some special places and persons without any intention of an universal rule and prescription If you shall say that this Government by Bishops hath been found by sad experience hitherto a block in the way of perfect Reformation destructive to the power of Godliness and pure Administration of the Ordinances of Christ give me leave to answer That first I fear the Independent part will be apt to say no less of the Presbyterian boldly pressing their defects both in constitution and practise and publiquely averring the exquisitely-reformed way to lye betwixt the Episcopal and Calvinian which they have had the happiness to light upon neither want there those who upon challenge of further illumination tax those Semi-separatists as comming far too short of that perfection of Reformation which themselves have attained Secondly I must in the fear of God beseech you here to make use of that necessary distinction betwixt Callings and Persons for it oftentimes falls out that the Calling unjustly suffers for that whereof only the Person is guilty Let the Calling be never so holy and the rules of Administration never so wise and perfect yet if the person in whose trust they are be either negligent or corrupt or impotent in ordering his passions and carriage it cannot be but all things must go amiss and much disorder and confusion must needs follow to the Church of God and if such hath been the case in some late times why should the blame be laid upon the calling which both is innocent and might have been better improved Give me a Bishop such there have been and such there are let D. Potter the late Bishop of Carlile for instance be one that is truely conscionable pious painful zealous in promoting the glory of God ready to encourage all faithful Preachers and to censure and correct the lazie and scandalous carefull of the due imposition of his hands meek and unblameable in all his carriage and now tell me how the government of such an one regulated by the holy and wholsome Lawes of our Church can be said to be obstructive to the successe of the Gospel or to destroy the power of Godliness certainly if all be not such the fault is in the men their Calling doth not only admit of but incites them to all vertue and goodness whereof if they be defective let the Person take off the blame from the Function Neither doubt I to affirme that it may well be made good that the perfectest Reformation which the Church of God can be capable of here upon earth may consist with Episcopacy so regulated as it may be if it please the High Court of Parliament to pitch upon that course And indeed how can it be conceived that the careful inspection of one constant prudent and vigilant overseer superadded to a grave and judicious Presbytery should be any hindrance to the progress of godliness Especially when he is so limited by the bounds of good lawes and constitutions that he cannot run out without the danger of a just censure There are already many excellent rules of Government if they were awaked and actuated by full authority and where there is any deficiency more might be easily added to make the body of Church-Lawes complete To give a tast of what may be effected with very little or no alteration of one Forme of Government to another I remembred one of our Brethren of Scotland in a Discourse tending to the advancing of the Presbyterian way tells us that Dr. Montague the late worthy Bishop of Winchester asked King James of blessed memory whose sweet affability the world well knew How it came about that there were so few heresies and errors of doctrine broached and prosecuted to the publique disturbance of the Church of Scotland Unto which the wise and learned King is said to have returned this Answer That every Parish hath their Pastor ever present with them and waâ—ching ever them That the Pastor hath his Elders and Deacons sorted with him That he with them once a week meets at a set time and place for the censure of manners or what ever disorder falls out in the Parish so as he by this means perfectly knowes his flock and every abberration of them either in matter of opinion or practise And lest any Error or Heresie may seize upon the Pastor they have their Presbyteries consisting of severall Shrivalties which meet together in the chiefe Town or City next to them every week also once and have there their exercise of Prophesying after which the Moderator of the said meeting asks and gathers the judgments of all the said Pastors concerning the doctrine then delivered or of any other doubtfull point that is then and there propounded And if the said Presbyters be divided in their opinions then the question is under an injoyned silence put over to the next Synod which is held twice a year unto that all the Pastors of that Quarter or Province duely resort accompanied with their Elders the Moderator of the former Synod begins the Action then a new Moderator is chosen for the present or as it seldome falls out the last Moderator by Voices continued Any Question of doubt being proposed is either decided by that meeting or if it cannot be so done is with charge of silence reserved till the National Synod or Generall Assembly which they hold every year once Whither come not the Pastors onely but the King himself or his Commissioners and some of all Orders and Degrees sufficiently authorized for the determining of any controversie that shall arise amongst them Thus he And certainly this bears the face of a very fair and laudable course and such as deserves the approbation of all the wel-willers to that discipline But let me adde that we either have or may have in this very same state of things with some small
upon your Acts and Monuments and see whether any have been more expensive either of their ink or their blood against the tyranny of Popery and superstition then the Bishops of this Church of England in so much as the reverend Dr. Du Moulin in his publick Epistle professes that the Bishops of England were they to whom this Church is beholden for the liberty and maintenance of the Protestant Religion in this Kingdom and in this present age how many of us have written and are content and ready to bleed for the sincerity of the Gospel If there be any therefore in this holy order whose lips have hang'd towards the onions and garlick and fleshpots of Egypt let them undergo just censure but let the calling and the zealous and faithfull managers of it be acquitted before God and Men. For the latter I see and mourn to see that many good souls are brought into a dislike and detestation of the common prayers of the Church of England as meer Mass and Popery wo is me that error should prevail so farr with good hearts I beseech you for Gods sake and your souls sake be rightly informed in this so materiall and important a point I see there is herein a double offence One of them which dislike the prayers because they are set forms the other that dislike them because they are such set forms For the former I beseech them to consider seriously whether they ought to think themselves wiser and perfecter then all the Churches of God that ever have been upon the Earth This I dare confidently say that since God had an established Church in the World there were set forms of devotion in the Jewish Church before and since Christ in the Christian Church of all ages and at this very day all those varieties of Christians in the large circle of Christianography they have their set forms of prayers which they do and must use and in the Reformed Churches both of the Lutherans and France and Scotland it is no otherwise yea reverend Mr. Calvin himself whose judgment had wont to sway with the forwardest Christians writing to the Protector of England Anno 1548. hath these words Quod ad formulam precum attinet rituum Ecclesiasticorum valsle probâ— ut certa illa extet a qua pastoribus discedere non liceat in functione sua c. And adding three grave and solid reasons for it concludes thus so then there ought to be a set form of Catechism a set form of administration of Sacraments and of publick prayers and why will we cast off the judgment both of him and all the Divines of the whole Christian World till Barrow and Browne in our age and remembrance contradicted it and run after a conceit that never had any being in the World till within our own memory For the latter There are those who could allow some form of set prayers but dislike this of ours as savoring of the Pope and the Mass whence they say it is derived Now I beseech you Brethren as you would avoid the danger of that wo of calling good evill and evill good inform your selves throughly of the true State of this business Know therefore that the whole Church of God both Eastern and Western as it was divided both the Greek and Latin Church under which this Iland was wont to be ranged had their forms of prayer from the begining which were then holy and Heavenly compiled by the holy Fathers of those first times Afterwards the abuses and errors of popery came in by degrees as Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Mass prayers for the dead prayers to Saints these poysoned the Church and vitiated these holy forms whiles they continued but when Reformation came in divers worthy Protestant Divines whereof some were noble Martyrs for religion were appointed to revise that form of service to purge out all that popish leaven that had sowred them to restore them to their former purity leaving nothing in that book but that which they found consonant to godliness and pure religion If any Man will now say that our prayer book is taken out of the Mass let him know rather that the Mass was cast out of our prayer-book into which it was injuriously and impiously intruded the good of those prayers are ours in the right of Christians the evill that was in them let them take as their own And if it should have been as they imagine let them know that we have departed from the Church of Rome but in those things wherein they have departed from Christ what good thing they have is ours still That scripture which they have That Creed which they profess is ours neither will we part with it for their abuse If a peece of Gold be offerd us will we not take it because it was taken out of the channell If the Devil have given a confession of Christ and said I know who thou art even Jesus the Son of the living God shall not I make this confession because it came out of the Devils mouth Alas we shall be herein very injurious both to our selves and to God whose every holy truth is This then is the form which hath been compiled by learned and holy Divines by blessed Martyrs themselves who used it comfortably and blessed God for it But if the quicker eyes of later times have found any thing which displeases them in the phrases and manners of expression or in some rites prescribed in it Let them in Gods name await for the reforming sentence of that publick authority whereby it was framed and enacted and let not private persons presume to put their hands to the work which would introduce nothing but palpable confusion let all things be done decently and in order Shortly my Brethren let us hate Popery to the death but let us not involve within that odious name those holy forms both of administration and devotion which are both pleasing unto God and agreeable to all Christianity and Godliness A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT My Lords I Have long held my peace and meant to have done so still but now like to Croesus his mute Son I must break silence I humbly beseech your Lordships to give me leave to take this too just occasion to move your Lordships to take into your deep and serious consideration the woful and lamentable condition of the poor Church of England your dear Mother My Lords this was not wont to be her stile we have heretofore talkt of the famous and flourishing Church of England but now your Lordships must give me leave to say that the poor Church of England humbly prostrates her self next after his sacred Majesty at your Lordships feet and humbly craves your compassion and present aid My Lords It is a foul and dangerous insolence this which is now complained of to you but it is but one of a hundred of those which have been of late done to this Church and Government The Church of England as your Lordships cannot choose
done 1. By withdrawing the fuell of contention mitigating what we may the grounds of dissension those grounds are the matters controverted these our Christian charity and love of peace will teach us either to decline or to abate lessen by all fair interpretations according to that of the blessed Apostle Charity thinks not evill beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 1 Cor. 18.5.7 So when Isaacs Servants found the Philistims to stâ—ive with them for their two wells of Esek and Sitnah thâ—y did noâ— stand upon points with them but removed and digged another which was out of the reach of the strife and called it Rehoboth elbow-room Gen. 26.22 And thus the Servants of Isaac made the Philistim quarrells to cease though by Abimelecs own confession Isaac was much mightier then himself Gen. 26.16 Thus when the main difference grew betwixt Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh and the rest of Israel concerning the altar beyond Jordan a fair construction stinted that strife which might have embroyled both parts in a bloody war Thus it was in the Synod of Ephesus betwixt our good Bishops Cyrill and Theodoret whose differences had like to have rent the Church in pieces but upon better understanding were alay'd Thus it was in the more generall and dangâ—rous quarrell bewixt the East and West Churches concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subsistences and essence in the Trinity had not holy Athanasius interposed showing them their own unknown and unacknowledged accordance would God I could give this phrase to these times we should not be in the condicion we are How many are rather apt to cast oyle then water upon this flame to enlarge rather then heal this wound of the Church 2. By giving seasonable counsels of peace so the Father of the faithfull to his nephew Let there be no contention between me and thee and thy herdmen and my herdmen for we are brethren Gen. 13.8 So Moses to the contending Israelites wherefore smitest thou thy fellow Exod. 2.12 So the wise woman of Abel to Joab Thou seekest to destroy a city and a Mother in Israel why wilt thou sâ— allow up the inheritance of the Lord 2 Sam. 20.19 So Abner the Son of Ner after he had set the two armies together by the eares by the pool of Gibeon yet at last moves for a retreat calling to Joab whose men he had challenged Shall the sword devoure for ever knowest thou not that it will be bitternesse in the latter end how long shall it be then 2 Sam. 2.26 Oh for these counsails of peace in these distracted times how beautifull would their feet be that should bring these glad tidings of peace Alas mâ—n are more ready to clap their hands as boyâ—s are wont to do in dog-fights and to say Eia Socrates Eia Zantippe How much more justly may we take up that word of the Psalmist Wo is me that I soâ—ourne in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar my soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace I am for peace but when I speak they are for war Ps 120.5 6 7. 3. By opposing restraining the known make-bates of the Church and State If Corah and his Company rise up against Moses and Aaron God takes the quarrell in hand and they are swallowed up of the earth If Sheba the Son of Bicri blow a trumpet of sedition he must be speedily pursued to the gates of Abel 1 Sam. 20. Would God those were cut off that trouble you saith the charitable Apostle Neither know I whether this be a greater act of Justice or of Mercy of Justice in respect of the delinquents or of mercy to the Church and Common-wealth Wo is me with what words should I bewail the dâ—plorable estate of these late times in this behalf Let me appeal to your own eyes and ears I know I speak to judicious Christians Tell me whether ever you lived to see such an inundation of libellous scandalous malicious pamphlets as have lately broke in upon us not only against some particular persons which may have been faulty enough but against the lawfull and established government it self against the antient allowed legall formes of divine worship Certainly if we love the peace of this Church and kingdome we cannot but lament and to our power oppose these insolences If Reformation be the thing desired and aimed at let not that man prosper which doth not affect it pray for it bend his utmost endeavours to accomplish it but is this the way to a Christian reformation to raise slanders to broach lying accusations against the innocent to callumniate lawfull established authority God forbid these are the acts of him that is the man-slayer from the beginning the holy God hates to raise his kingdome by the ayd of the Devill Be as zealous as you will but be withall just be charitable and endevour to advance good causes by only lawfull means And then let him come within the compasse of this Curse of Meroz that is not ready to assist and second you 4. By cherishing the moderately affected and incouraging those that intercede for peace as those who do the noblest offices both to the Church and Common-wealth if we meet with a man that can truly say with the woman of Abel ego sum ex colentibus pacem as Tremelius turnes it 2. Sam. 20.20 I am one of them that are peaceable and faithfull in Israel make much of such To the Counsellors of peace shall be joy Pro. 12.20 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem saith the Psalmist they shall prosper that love thee certainly thus it should be but alas we are fallen upon times wherein it is cause enough for a quarrell to plead for peace too well fulfilling that of the Psalmist They speak not peace but they devise deceitfull matters against them that are quiet in the Land Ps 35.20 A man in this case is like the sheepheard that would part the fray betwixt his two rams they both met together upon his bones and send him halting out of the field The God of peace in his good time remedy these distempers but in the mean time let us comfort our selves in the conscience of our happy indeavours with that of St. James The fruits of righteousness are sown in peace of them that make peace James 3. ult And thus much for our duty in seconding and immitating this act of God in making this cessation of wars by withdrawing the feuell of contention by giving seasonable counsails of peace by opposing known make-bates by cherishing the peaceable minded We descend to our third use proper for this day which is the challenge of our thankfulnesse And surely wheresoever God vouchsafes to bestow this mercy that he causes wars to cease unto any nation he looks for no lesse and we shall be foulely ungratefull if we disappoint him whereto we shall the better be excited if we shall
strike and case wound and heal again which is the next and must be for fear of your over-tiring the last subject of our discourse heal thou the sores or breaches thereof That great and ineffable name of God consisting of four letters which we now call Jehovah no man knowes what it was or how pronounced but being abridged to Jah the Grecians have been wont to expresse it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to heal the sense whereof is answered by that name which the Heathens gave him Jupiter as juvans pater This healing then is a proper kindly and naturall act of God whereas the other as dividing striking wounding commoving are a◠it were forced upon him by men Surely else he that is essentiall unity would not divide he that is stability it self would not move he that is salus ipsa would not wound he that is all mercy would not strike we do as it were put this upon him and therefore he cries out Why will ye die O house of Israel but when we shall returne to our selves and him and be once capable of mercy and cure how doth he hasten to our redresse The Son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 Lo here is healing for his act and wings for his haste Those breaches which are made in the earth by the shaking of it are as so many wounds gashes or sores in a vast body and both of these resemble those either divisions or calamities which fall out in the bodies of Churches or States the hand that made them must can will only heal them Heal thou the breaches And how doth he heal them in matter of calamity First by removing the grounds of it Surely the great and true sores of the Land are the sins of the Land which till it please him to heal by working us to a serious repentance in vain shall we complain of our breaches which follow them These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a noysome sore and grievous Rev. 16.2 Not only in the Knees Leggs Deut. 28. but in the very bowels vitallest parts as Jeroboams was 2 Chro. 21. Wo is me how full we are of these sores Longae pacis mala we are what an Ulcerous body are we grown like to that great pattern of misery that was totus ulcus all but one botch I would not be querulous but I must say so What shall I say of our blasphemies prophanesses uncleanesses drunkennesses oppressions sacriledges lawlesse disobediences contempt of Gods messengers and all that rabble of hellish enormities enough to shame Heaven and confound Earth These are sores with a witnesse Alas these like to Davids run and cease not they are besides their noysomnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sure and old sores But yet stay my brethren we are not come to that passe that Jehoram was that the Wound is incurable or to the State of the Sareptans Son that there was no breath left in him but like Eutichus rather bruised but yet breathing And still still there is balme in Gilead let our Wounds be never so deep repentance may can will recure them let not us think onwards to heal Gods people with good words this is the way to fester them within No let us who are Gods Chirurgions make use of the probe of Wise Austere judgment let us gage the sore to the botome and tent it home with the applications of the Law let us take off the proud flesh with the corrosiving denunciations of vengeance to the impenitent sinners and then when it is thoroughly drawn let us lay on the soveraign emplaisters of the most precious and meritorious mercy of our blessed Redeemer Thus thus must all our spirituall sores be healed and oh that we could obtain of our own hearts to addresse our selves to a saving use of these sure remedies how happy were both for our soules and for our Land whose sores yet lye dangerously open how soon would our justly provoked God take off his heavy judgments Is it an Enemy that would afflict us He can put a hook into the Nostrils and a bridle into the Lips of the proudest Assyrian at pleasure Is it a Pestilence He can call in the destroying Angel and bid him Smite no more Is it Famine He can restore to us the years that the Locust hath eaten the Canker-worme and the Caterpiller The Floores shall be full of Wheat and the Fat 's overflow with Wine and Oyle In matter of division secondly the way to his cure must be by composing all unkind differences and uniting the hearts of men one to another the hearts even of Kings much more of Subjects are in his hand as the Rivers of Waters and he turnes them which way soever he pleases sometimes dreadfully forward to a right down opposition sometimes side-ways to a fair accomodation sometimes circularly bringing them about to a full condescent and accordance But as we commonly say the Chirurgion heals the wound and yet that the Plaister heals it too the Chirurgion by the plaister so may we justly here it is God that heals and the means heal God by the means and the means by and under God and surely when we pray or expect that God should heal either of these breaches we do not mean to sue to him to work miracles this were as St. Austin said truely in the like case to tempt God but we beseech God to give and bless those means whereby those breaches may be made up As for the calamitous breaches those we wish may be healed so far as the arme of flesh can reach by the vigilance and ower of Soveraignity by the prudence of wise Statesmen by the sage Councell of the State and Kingdome by wholsome provisions of good Lawes by carefull and just executions As for quarrellous and discontented breaches there are other Remedies to heal them the Remedies must be as the causes of them from within Let the first be a resolution of confining our desires within the due bounds not affecting mutuall incroachments or unnecessary innovations Not Incroachments first Good Lord what a stir these two great wranglers Meum and Tuum make in the World were it not for them all would be quiet Justice must do her part betwixt them both holding the balance even with a suum cuique and sayes with the Master of the vineyard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take that which is thine own and go thy way Mat. 20.14 remembring in all states that heavy word of the Apostle But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of persons Colos 3. ult It is but right that wrong should receive a payment in whose hands soever it be found and if this retribution fail sometimes with you men of might whom earthly greatnesse may perhaps for a time bear out in hard measures to your impotent inferiours yet there is no respect of persons above except this be it potentes potenter
them better then Marble and Cedars Hence it is that their dresses make no difference of festivals all stuffes all colours are alike to them in all sacred solemnities Hence that they stumble into Gods house without all care or show of reverence and sit them down at his Table like his fellows with their hats on their heads Hence that they make no differnnce of coming with full panches to that heavenly banquet and that the very dogs are allowed free accesse and leave to lift up their legs at those holy tables In quibus populi vota membra Christi portata sunt Optat. Milevit l. 6. where we partake of the Son of God For the rectifying of which misconceits and practises let it be laid down as an undoubted rule that it is a thing well-pleasing to God that there should be all outward cleanliness gravity reverent and comely postures meet furniture utensils places used and observed in the service of the Almighty a truth sufficiently grounded upon that irrefragable Canon of the Apostle Let all things be done decently and in order whereof Order refers to persons 1 Cor. 14 40. and actions decency to the things done and the fashion of doing them disorder therefore and indecency as they are a direct violation of this Apostolick charge so doubtlesse they are justly offensive to the Majesty of that God whose service is disgraced by them as for disorder it falls not into our present discourse in matter of indecency the main disquisition will be how it may be judged and determined to know what is comly hath been of old noted to be not more commendable then difficult for the mindes of men may be of a different diet one may approve that for decent which another abhors as most unbeseeming Suarum rerum nemo non mitis arbiter pius judex Petrarch A Cynick curre or some Turkish Saint may think it not uncomly to plant his own kind in the open market place and Xenophon tells us of a certain people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Xenoph de â—aeped Cyrâ— l 5. called Mosynecians whose practise was to do all those acts in publick which other men men placing shame in them are wont to reserve for the greatest secrecy and contrarily to do those things in private which other Nations thought fit for the openest view and we finde that the Stigmatical Saint of the Church of Rome who could say of himself that God would have him fatuellum quendam Dixit mihi Dominus quod volebat me esse unum fatuellum in hoc mundo Conform Separator thought it no shame to go stark naked through the streets of Assisium So did Theodore the Taylor and seven Men and five Women Anabaptists strip themselves and ran naked through Amsterdam Guy de Bres Idem fecit coram Episcopo Assisii lib. Conform p. 211. But certainly there are unquestionable rules whereby decency may be both regulated and judged 1 Cor. 11.13.14.16 The great Doctor of the Gentiles when he would correct an indecent practise in his Corinthians uses these three expressions Judge in your selves is it comly Doth not nature it self teach you We have no such custome nor the Churches of God Wherein he sends us for the determination of decency to the judgment of our right reason undebauched nature and approved custome and surely if we follow the guidance of these three we cannot easily erre in our decision of comlinesse both in our carriage in humane affaires and in the services of God all these will tell us that it is most meet that all outward cleanliness gravity modesty reverence should be used in all the actions of divine worship and will in form us that whatsoever fashion of deportment is held rude uncivil in humane conversation is so much more indecent in divine actions by how much the person whom we deal with is more awful and worthier of the highest observance It is no other then an error therefore in those men who think that if they look to the inward disposition of the soul it matters not in what posture or what loathsome turpitude the body appears before the Almighty Even that slovenly Cinick when he saw a woman bowing her self forward too low in her devotion could chide her for her unregard to those deities which beheld her on all sides Our blessed Saviour though he had good cheere at the Pharisees house yet he somewhat taxeth his host for want of a due complement Luc. 7.44.46 I entred into thine house thou gavest me no water for my feet mine head with oyle didst thou not anoint c. He looks still for meet formalities of good entertainment as well as the substance of the dishes It was Gods charge that no steps should be made to go up to his altar Exod. 20 26. lest the nakednesse of the sacrificer should be discovered for this cause it was that he who made the first sute of skins for our first parents ordained linnen breeches for his Priests in their ministrations God hath no where commanded us to cut our nailes or our hair but it were a foul indecency not to do both and if we would justly loath a man that should come to our table like wild Nebuchadnezzar in the desert with hair to his wast and clawes on his fingers how much more odious would this seem in a man that should thus thrust himself in to the Table of the Lord and if our displeasure would justly arise at that barbarous guest which should come to our board with his hands be smeared with ordure or blood how can we think it can be otherwise then ill-taken of the holy God that we should in a beastly garbe offer our selves into his presence It is not onely in regard of spiritual filthyness that the evill Spirits are called unclean but even of external also wherein how much they delight we may well appeal to the confessions of those Witches and Sorcerers which upon their conviction and penitence have laid open the shameful rites of their nightly meetings Bod in Demonomania c. Augustin l. de Haeres Philastr de Haeres Neither was it without cause that some of their prime agents in the antient Church were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from those filthy fashions which were in use amongst them Gnostici borboritae quasi coenosi ob turpitudinem in suis mysteriis c. Contrarily what pleasure the pure and holy God takes in the cleannesse both of flesh and spirit is abundatly testifyed by to those many and strict injunctions of lotions and purifications which we finde upon every occasion in his antient law and though those lawes be not now obligatory as being for the substance of them ceremonial and typical yet they have in them so much tincture of an eternall morality as to imply a meetnesse of decent cleanlinesse in the services of God In the observation whereof it is meet for us to hold a midle way betwixt
uncertainty still by the tradition of the Jewes either the Synagogue or the chamber is indifferently allowed to this act And why should the Sacrament of the new law be so affixed to our Churches that not necessity it self should be able to fetch these wholsom remedies home to our houses sure I am the fathers of the ancient Church were of another mind who before the fancy of opus operatum was hatched conceived such necessity of the Sacraments that Cyprian can tell you of Clinici as well as Peripateitci that others in case of extremity would have no difference made of land or water house or way bed or pavement And how is it that our liberty hath made us more strict or our straightness hath made us more free more strict for the place more free for the conceit of necessity But if privacy be so opposite to the nature of a Sacrament why may it not be avoided even in a parlour for in such a case the Church removes thither the walls you think conferr nothing the people are by the order of the Church commanded to assemble in a due frequence to the honor of either sacrament so as now I see not other difference but this Those which in the case of some private fast can be content for their preaching to change the Church into a chamber in the case of baptisme make dainty to change a chamber into a Church For geniculation in the Eucharist I am deceived if ever ceremony could complain of a more unjust displeasure or plead better desert For the Antiquity of it those that fetch it from Honorius are ill heralds They might know that Averroes an age before him could say in a misprision of the gesture Christiani adorant quod edunt and the best of the Fathers many ages before him Nemo manducat nisi prius adoraverit For the expedience what business can pass betwixt Heaven and Earth God and Man so worthy of reverence as that wherein Man receives God even the smallest gifts we receive from Princes upon our knees and now when the Prince of our peace gives himself to us shall we grudg to bow I know the old challenge Artolatry But shall others superstition make us unreverent Shall not God have our knees because Idols have had the knees of others But what do I press this to you who professed to me if I remember well your approbation hereof in our English Congregations The Sacrament is every where the same Nothing but want of use hath bred a conceit of uncouthness in that which custom would approve and commend As for confirmation by Bishops I need to say little because it little concerns you as an action appropriate to superiors neither I think do you envy it to them That the ceremony it selt is both of ancient and excellent use I know you will not deny for the one Melancton gives it the praise of Utilis ad erudiendos homines retinendos in vera agnitione Dei For the other Zuinglius can assure you Confirmationem tum fumpsisse exordium eum vulgo caeptum est infantes tingi In regard of both reverend Calvin wisheth it again restored to the Church with no small fervency all the doubt is in the restriction to Bishops wherein I will only send you to learned Bucer signum impositionis manuum etiam soli episcopi praebebant non absque ratione sive enim sit foedus Domini baptizatis confirmandum sive reconciliandi qui gravius peccaverunt sive ecclesiis ministri ordinandi haec omnia ministeria maxime decent eos quibus ecclesiarum cura demandata est This as it was done only at first by the Apostles in the case of the Samaritans so from them was by the Church derived to the Bishops as Chrysostom directs praepositis suis as Cyprian and Austin speak But what need I cite Fathers or counsels for that which worthy Calvin himself both confesses and teaches Certainly nothing but continuance and abuse hath distasted these things which if time had been their friend never wanted that which might procure them grace and respect from the World For their own sakes therefore I need not doubt to say that all these are worthy of your good intertainment much more then when they come to you with the billets of authority in their hands were they but things in the lowest ranke of indifferency the power that commands them might challenge their welcom how much more then when they have an intrinsecall worthiness to speak for them Your Letter hath well insinuated what the power of Princes is in things of middle natures whereof your Apostles rule will eternally hold not for fear but for conscience Indeed wherein is the power of royall authority if not in these things Good and evill have their set limits determined by God himself only indifferent things have a latitude allowed for the exercise of humane commands which if it might be resisted at pleasure what could follow but an utter confusion of all things This ground as it hath found just place in your own brest so were very fit to be laid by all your publick discourses in the minds of the people as that which would not a little rectifie them both in judgment and practise There is no good heart whom it would not deeply wound to hear of the least danger of the dissipation of your Church God in Heaven forbid any such mischief our prayers shall be ever for your safety but if any inconvenience should on your parts follow upon the lawfull act of authority see ye how ye can wash your hands from the guiltinesse of this evill This is I hope but your fear Love is in this sence full of suspicions and commnoly projects the worst It is Nazianzens advise Dum secundo vento navigas naufragium time tutior eris a naufragio adjutorem tibi ac sociâ—m adjungens timorem Farr farr is it from the heart of our Gratious Soveraign who holds it his chief glory to be amicus sponsae to intend ought that might be prejudiciall to your Church If his late journey his laboursome conferences his toylsome indeavours his beneficiall designes have not evinced his love to you what can do it And can any of yours think that this affection can stand with a will to hurt you I know nothing if I may except his own soul that he loves better then your Church and State and if he did not think this a fruit of his love he would be silent what shall he gain by this but that advantage which he promiseth to himself of your good in your assimilation to other churches a matter wherein I need not tell you there is both honour and strength The mention whereof drawes me towards the closure of my long letter whether to an Apology or interpretation of my self belike some captious hearers took hold of words spoken in some Sermon of mine that sounded of too much indifferency in these businesses ubi bos herbam vipera venenum
impositions though otherwise holy men and no less true Christians then any of themselves 10. I do confidently believe that though it be a thing very requisite to publick peace and good order that every several Christian should be ranged under some particular Church and every particular assembly to be subordinate to some higher Government which may oversee over rule them in the case of different opinions and matters of practise yet that God hath not required or commanded either of these upon necessity of Salvation so as an Indian convert in the remotest part of the World believing in Christ may without relation to any Church whatsoever be saved and a particular Church being Orthodox in the main principles of Religion upon matter of litigious contestation flying off from some more eminent Church under which it was ranked for Orders sake however it may be faulty in an undue division yet is not hereby excluded from the capacity of salvation since such sleight jarrs and unkindnesses in Churches can no more shut them out from a common interest in Christ then the like quarrels of a Paul and Barnabas Act. 15.39 could keep either of them out of Heaven 11. I do confidently believe that all the particular National Churches through the whole Christian World are no other then Sisters Daughters of the same Father God of the same Mother the Spiritual Jerusalem which is from above some of them are Elder Sisters others Younger Some more Tall and large spread others of less stature some fairer in respect of Holyness of life and Orthodoxie of Judgment others fouler in respect of Corruptions both of doctrine and manners still Sisters and if any of them shall usurpe a Mistress-ship over the rest or make her self a Queen over them and make them subjects and slaves to her or a Motherhood to the rest otherwise then in a priority and aid of conversion and make them but Daughters and Punies to her She shall be guilty of an high Arrogance and Presumption against Christ and his dear Spouse the Church since with the just and holy God there is no respect of persons or places but in all Nations those that serve him best are most accepted of him 12. From hence will follow this double Corollarie First That as there is a kinde of natural equality in Sisterhood no particular National Church can by right of any institution of God challeng a commanding power over the rest however some one may have a precedency to other in respect whether of more constant Holyness and syncerity or more speed of conversion or of larger extent or of that civil greatnesse and preeminence of that State or Nation wherein it is setled And upon this occasion may must improve and exercise her eminence to the defence and furtherance of the weaker more distressed But if any particular National Church being less able to suste in it self shall agree voluntarily to submit her self for orders sake and for safety and protection to the sway of one more famous and powerful her ingagement doth justly binde her so far as lawfully it reacheth viz. To accknowledg a priority of place and to respect her directions in matters of forme and outward Administration so long as they vary not from the rule which God hath set in his Church But if that more potent Church shall abuse that power and begin to exercise Tyranny over the weaker by forceing upon her new and undue impositions of faith or intollerable insolencies in government there is no law of God that binds that weaker Church Issachar-like to lye down between two burdens she may challenge and resume the right of a Sister and shake off the yoak of a slave without the violation of any command of God and not the injuried but the oppressor is guilty of the breach of peace 2. It will hence follow that the relation of this common Sisterhood of all Christian Churches justly tyes all those that professe the name of Christ to a charitable regard of each to other So as though there be in some of them gross errors in matters of Doctrine and foul corruptions in matters of practise yet whiles they hold and maintain all the Articles of the same Christian faith and acknowledge the same Scriptures the substance of the same baptisme and of the institution of the Holy Eucharist they cease not to continue Sisters notwithstanding their manifold enormities and depravations these are enough to deforme any Church not enough to Dis-church it These are enough to impair the health not to bereave the life Howsoever therefore we must alwaies hate and cry down their errors which a wilful maintenance makes no lesse then damnable yet we must pity and pray for their Persons and by all good means labour to bring them to an acknowledgment of the opposed truth and although I well know there is ill use made of our charity this way by those willing mistakers who turne it to our disadvantage that we pass so favourable censures upon their Churches whiles they pass so cruel and merciless censures upon ours yet my conscience bids me to say that I cannot repent of this just sentence wherein I know I shall finde comfort in my appearance before the dreadful Tribunal of God when the uncharitableness and injustice of these bloody men that send their charitable opposers to a remedilesse damnation shall be adjudged to that Hell which they have presumptuously doomed unto others As for them let them see how they can answer it to that just Judge of the World in that great day that they have presumed to blot out of the book of life so many millions of faithful Christians only for dissenting from them in such points as God never gave them warrant to impose From the force then of this Relation it is easily subinfer'd that it is not lawful for Christian Churches upon differences about points not essential to the faith either voluntarily to forsake the communion of each other or forceably to abdicate and thrust out each other from their communion There being the same reason in this behalf of a Church and a several Christian As therefore one Christian may not abandon another for differences of opinion in matters not necessary to be believed so neither may one Church upon such ground either leave or expel another but if any such act be done it is to be inquired both where the fault is and what may be the Remedy In a meer simple dereliction of a Church thus differing and supposed so to err the faults must needs be in the Church forsaking But where the departure is accompanyed with such circumstances as may be supposed to be incident in such cases there the state of the business may be altered and the blame of either part either taken off or aggravated To instance in the prosecution of this Relation which we have in hand Two Sisters are appointed by their Mother to looke to her house the charge is given equally to both the