County of Lancaster into nine Classical Presbyteries represented from the said County And it was further resolved That the said Houses did approve of the Ministers and other persons represented from the County of Lancaster as fit to be of the several and respective Classes into which the said County was divided Which division of this County into nine Classical Presbyteries and the approval thereof by the said Lords and Commons was forthwith printed and published In this division so made and approved The first Classis is to contain Manchester Parish Prestwich Parish Oldham Parish Flixton Parish Eccles Parish and Ashton under-line Parish as by what was then printed and is yet extant is to be seen Further wee wish you to take notice That in your forementioned Directions pag. 3. Direction 6. it is there thus ordained That all Parishes and places whatsoever as well privileged places and exempt Jurisdictions as others be brought under the government of Congregational Classical and National Assemblies Provided that the Chappels or places in the houses of the Peers of this Realm should continue free for the exercise of Divine Duties to be performed according to the Directory And also that it was ordered by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament Decemb. 21. 1646. That the several Classes in Lancashire should be one Province As appears by their Order to that purpose As there is also another Order of theirs of Octob. 16. 1648. enabling the several Classes within this Province to send their Delegates to meet in a Provincial Assembly in Preston and appointing the time of their first meeting the number of the Delegates that were to be sent to the said Assembly and the Quorum of the Assembly according to the provision that had been made before by the Parliament before any Provincial Assembly could by virtue of their Authority be enabled to act Provincially By which account thus given it is manifest That the setting up the Presbyterian Government in this County The division of it into several Classes The making of those Classes into a Province and their Acting Provincially As also the appointing this Classis to be the first that is the first in regard of the number onely the account beginning here was all done by Authority of Parliament And that when wee call our selves the first Classis within the Province of Lancaster wee are awarranted thereto by authority of Parliament And so your Saluting us in our own terms which wee gave not to our selves till the Parliament had first given them to us will not seem strange to them that then did or now do acknowledg that Authority and Power which the Parliament exercised in those times Especially considering there was nothing done since either by that Parliament or any other or by his Highnesse and the last Parliament that takes from us what was then granted and as wee shall clear further anon In your Preface to what in your Paper you have to say unto us there is in the first place a mistake of that title which was given by us unto ours which you call a Paper draught for it was not by us intituled a Presentation as you call it but a Draught that represented to the Provincial Assembly our apprehensions in a case by them propounded unto us And was approved by the Provincial under the Title of a Representation But this perhaps was but the mistake of the Scribe and wee insist not on it It is of greater weight and moment to take notice of what you publish as your sense and apprehensions of it not resting in the judgment or determination of any general Council contrary thereunto if any such should be much lesse to one of our Provincial Assemblies Although you tell us wee seem to submit to our Provincial what wee will hardly grant to a general Council in which you professe to differ from us Wee know very well and have learned better from the Scriptures then to resolve our Faith into the determination of any company of men on Earth whatsoever or to build our Faith on the Judgment of Synods Provincial or National or of General Councils that have been heretofore or that may be hereafter Wee are sure all men are fallible and Faith that is a sure and certain grace must have a sure and certain Foundation which is onely the infallible and written Word of God And if this onely be your meaning you have not us differing from you But yet when wee consider That Synods and Councils rightly constituted and regularly called as they may be then of great use for light and guidance so also that they are the Ordinance of God and by him invested with authority and so have an authoritative Judgment belonging to them and which is not in private persons wee dare not contemn them nor speak sleightly of them And seeing the higher Assemblies have greater Authority then the lower as there is more power in the whole then in the part in the whole body then in any one or some members and that however wee are well enough satisfied that wee have the Authority of a Classe yet wee are under the Authority of the Provincial Assembly Wee see not wherein wee offended that wee submitted our apprehensions in the Case propounded by that Assembly unto us unto their Judgment There is concerning matters of Religion Judicium Privatum or a Private Judgment and this belongs to all Christians who are to fee with their own eyes and judge concerning what is necessary for them to know and believe in matters of this nature This Judgment as there is good reason why wee should allow it to our selves so wee should Lord it over mens consciences if wee should deny it to any There is also Judicium Publicum Authoritativum A Publick and an Authoritative Judgment and this is either Concional which belongs to every lawfull Minister to whom the Key of Doctrine is committed by himself singly or else it is Juridical and this belongs to Synods and Councils who having the Key of Discipline are invested with authority to inquire into try examine censure and judg of matters of Doctrine and Discipline authoritatively although they be tyed to the rule of Gods Word in such proceedings as Judges to the Law likewise to censure offenders according to their merit when such cases are regularly and orderly brought before them And in this sense it was that we submitted our apprehensions in the Paper published to the Judgment of the Provincial Assembly And we believe when the Apostle tells us 1. Cor. 14.32 That the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets And our Saviour Christ saith Mat. 18. Tell the Church And when wee consider what was practised by Paul and Barnabas and certain others who upon occasion of a contest that arose in the Church at Antioch about a matter of Doctrine were sent up from that Church to Jerusalem to the Apostles and Elders about that question from these and other Scriptural grounds wee had
not finde that the Presbyterian Government hath lyen hid so long as that for the space of 1500 years it could never be found till this present You have heard what rule did anciently belong to Presbyters notwithstanding that through the corruptions that crept into the Church in after times the exercise of that power was long disused And the like may be said of Ruling Elders and as hath been shewed by others But it is what de jure ought to be and not what de facto is or hath been which is that which you and wee are chiefly to attend and concerning which the Scripture must be the onely Judg as wee have said before But you say now subjection to our present Government is required by us and then demand Whether all that observe not our rank and order and subject not themselves to our present Government must be taken for lawlesse persons for so say you doth this close connexion of ours seem to import viz. Many who do not subject but live c. But here you do reason fallaciously à bene conjunctis ad male divisa For in our Paper wee speak of such as did live in a sinfull and total neglect of the Lords Supper That were scandalous and offensive in their lives drunkards unclean persons and that will not subject themselves to the present Government but live as lawlesse persons And therefore the lawlesse persons wee meant and as might plainly have been gathered from our words were such who as they subjected not themselves to the present Government of the Church so they were also scandalous and offensive in their lives wee joyning these altogether whom you divide And whether such as will neither submit themselves to the Laws of God nor the Government that is settled in the Church by the Civil Power be not lawlesse persons we leave it to you to judg But yet we do here also minde you That however we do not judg all those to be lawlesse persons that do out of conscience not come up to the observation of all those Rules which are or shall be established by Authority for regulating the outward worship of God and Government of this Church being otherwise blamelesse yet both you and wee may well remember that such as should have refused to have subjected themselves to the late Prelatical Government would have been accounted in those times to have been lawlesse persons But you say When wee make it an Order that notice shall be taken of all persons that forsake the publick Assemblies of the Saints you would gladly know how farr wee extend this Saintship this Church and Assembly of Saints To which wee answer as farr as the Apostle did when writing to the Church of Corinth and the Churches of Galatia hee calls them Saints and Churches notwithstanding there were some in those Churches that were leavened with unsound doctrine and grosly erroneous In Corinth some that denied the Resurrection made rents and schisms and sundry grosly scandalous In the Churches of Galatia such as mixed works with Faith in the point of Justification and of which the Apostle Paul would have those Churches to take notice even to the censuring of them they being spots to those Assemblies and however Saints by profession and in regard of outward calling being in Covenant with God and having been baptized yet answered not their profession by suitable conversation And therefore however there be sundry of the like stamp in our Assemblies wee do not therefore unchurch them or make our Assemblies not the Assemblies of Saints because of the corruption of such members And seeing our principles and practices are manifestly known to be utterly against the opinions and practices of the Donatists of old and those that have of late rent themselves from our Churches because of the scandalousnesse of the corrupt members that are found in them though the sin of these in our Churches is aggravated by giving that occasion you might well have spared your pains in transcribing out of Augustine what hee justly said unto those schismaticks that hee had to deal with Nay you might rather have gathered from our Paper That seeing wee said that notice should be taken of all those that should forsake the publick Assemblies of the Saints our purpose was to have censured such as the Donatists were That wee purposed to observe and censure those that did maintain and hold up private meetings in opposition to the publick That crie down our Churches and publick Assemblies Ministery and Ordinances as you know several sorts do and who as they hold sundry grosse errors that subvert the faith so in regard of those and other their practices that in their own nature do manifestly subvert the order unity and peace that Christ hath established in his Church do justly fall under Church censure according to the rules of our Government above mentioned And that therefore wee were not altogether silent concerning either the sin or punishment of such as did err grosly in doctrinals or in discipline so as to make such dangerous rents from the Church as the fore-named Sectaries do Contrary to what you say of us in your Paper And further by such as forsake the publick Assemblies of the Saints of whom wee said notice should be taken you might have gathered our meaning was that such of which sort there are but too many amongst us who out of a principle of carelesnesse sloth worldlinesse or manifest prophanenesse do on the Lords day either idle out the time or else are worse imployed when they should resort to the publick Assemblies and who as they are no friends to any private meetings for the good of their souls in the use of any private means of conference or prayer for that end So they do also Atheistically turn their backs on all the publick Ordinances forsaking them and the Assemblies where these are dispensed should be taken notice of in order to censure if there was not reformation and to neither of which sort of persons any indulgence is granted by any Laws of the Land that wee know of And if you had gathered thus much from our Paper as your mistake had been far the less so your Charity had been the more then to have reckoned us in the number of such Persons as the Donatists were And yet we did not mean That we intended to take notice in order unto censure of such who being sound in the faith and godly in life though differing from us in point of Discipline and Government had their distinct Assemblies from ours they indeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace They not being censurable by the rules of our Government as is manifest by what we have declared before Although we remember how all that submitted not to the former Government were counted schismatical Neither did we reckon these in the number of the lawless Persons we speak of who subjected not themselves to our Government and whom we account to be
this time and to such Persons we think herein we owed the Provinciall Assembly unto whose Authority we profess our selves to be subject so much respect and duty as to submit our apprehensions in a Case of this nature which they had propounded unto us to be seriously weighed as they had done to the rest of the Classes within this Province unto their Judgement and to take their concurrent approvall along with us before we proceeded to practise in a matter of this weight And yet we have declared before That however we are not so wavering and unsettled in matters of faith as to resolve our belief into the determination of Synods or Councils believing no more nor no otherwise then as they determine Yet that it is not out of the compass of the authority of a Synod to examine try and authoritatively to censure Doctrines as well as matters of Discipline And we think how confident soever you may be of the soundness and orthodoxness of what in your Paper you propound in way of exception against any thing in ours you have not such clear and inquestionable grounds from Scripture for the same that you were to be accused of wavering or unsettledness if you had submitted the same to have been examined and tried by a Provincial Assembly and much less if you could have had the opportunity of submitting it to the Censure of a General Council But whereas mentioning our Provincial Assembly at Preston you call it a new termed Provincial Assembly If your meaning be that the terming it a Provincial Assembly in stead of a Provincial Synod is a new term then this is but onely a Logomachia and not much to be insisted on Although we frequently call it a Provincial Synod as well as a Provincial Assembly But if your meaning be That it is a new termed Provincial Assembly at Preston Because Provinciall Synods or Assemblies have been held but lately at Preston we see not if Provincial Assemblies be warrantable and have been of ancient use in the Church that having been long in dis-use they begin of late to be held at Preston that can justly incurre your censure But if the Antiquity of such Assemblies be that you question Then we referre you to what Dr Bernard in the Book of his above quoted shews was the Judgement of Dr Vsher who is acknowledged by all that knew him or are acquainted with his works to have been a great Antiquary however we alleadge him not that you should build your faith upon his Testimony and which we think may be sufficient to vindicate Provincial Assemblies in your thoughts from all suspition of novelty In that Book you have in the close of it proposals touching the Reduction of Episcopacy unto the form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church And it thus begins By the Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received And that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded herein The exhortation of Paul to the Elders of Ephesus Acts 20.28 is appointed to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination A little after it is acknowledged That Ignatius by Presbytery mentioned by Paul 1 Tim. 4.14 did understand the Community of the rest of the Presbyters or Elders who then had a hand not onely in the delivery of the Doctrine and Sacraments but also in the administration of the Discipline of Christ And for further proof Tertullian is alleadged in his Generall Apologie for Christians Where he saith that in the Church are used exhortations chastisements and divine censure For Judgement is given with great advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God And it is the chiefest foreshewing of the Judgement to come if any man have so offended that he be banished from the Communion of Prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy Fellowship The Presidents that bear rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this honour not by reward but by good report There also is further shewed That in matters of Ecclesiastical judicature Cornelius Bishop of Rome used the received form of gathering together the Presbytery And that Cyprian sufficiently declares of what Persons that consisted When he wisheth him to read his Letter to the flourishing Clergy which there did preside or rule with him And further That in the 4th Council of Carthage it was concluded That the Bishop might hear no mans cause without the presence of the Clergy And that otherwise the Bishops sentence should be void unless it were confirmed by the Clergy And yet further That this is found inserted into the Canons of Egbert who was Archbishop of York in the Saxon times and afterwards into the body of the Canon law it self It is here also acknowledged That in our Church this kind of Presbyterian Government hath been much disused Yet that it did profess that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence also the name of Rector was at first given unto him and administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispence the Doctrine and Sacraments c. By all which it is acknowledged and also proved That the form of Government by the united suffrages of the Clergy is ancient and which is there in express termes asserted as it might be demonstrated by many more Testimonies but that we conceive these already mentioned are sufficient and being alleadged by the aforementioned Author As also evidencing what his own Judgement was in this point may be more likely to sway with you if in that there should be a dissent betwixt you and us then any thing that we could our selves produce But in this reduction of Episcopacy to the form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church there are proposals of Assemblies of Pastors within certain limited bounds Which saving that they are some of them somewhat larger then ours which is but a circumstantial difference do hold proportion with the Classical Provincial and National Assemblies mentioned in the form of our Church Government As also the times propounded there for their meeting the power of these Assemblies and what they were to have Cognizance of and the subordination of the lesser to the greater with liberty of Appeal if need should require and are the same in substance as with us And all these were propounded as the way of Government in the ancient Church and in the year 1641. after the troubles that had risen in Scotland about Episcopacy and the Ceremonies and before the setting up of the Presbyterian Government in this Land had so much as fallen under debate in the Parliament so far as ever we heard of as an expedient to prevent the troubles that did after arise in this Land about the matter of Church Government being for the moderating of Episcopacy That at that time was
grown to that height that it had quite taken away from the Pastors that rule that of right did belong unto them And for the Reduction of it to the ancient form of Synodicall Government And therefore in the Judgement of this learned and reverend Antiquary our Provincial Assembly at Preston where the Pastors of the Churches are members as he acknowledgeth of right they ought to be in such Assemblies would not have been accounted a new termed Provincial Assembly But you go on and tell us That other parts of our Paper are full of darkness to which you say you cannot so fully assent till further explicated and unfolded by us We cannot apprehend any such darkness in our Paper as you speak of But yet because in yours you question what authority we have from the civil Magistrate for what we do and likewise the extent of it and your mistakes of our meaning may perhaps some of them arise from your unacquaintedness with the rule we walk by Although we were not to be blamed for any mistakes that might arise ab ignorantia juris whether simple or affected that we determine not but leave you to examine Before we come to make Answer more particularly to what follows we are willing to be at some paines to give you some further account of the power we are awarranted by the civil Authority for to exercise To what persons within our bounds it extends it self and what some of those rules are that are prescribed unto us by civil Authority to walk by in the exercise of that power we are betrusted with It is a general and common mistake amongst many that the Presbyterian Government was established by the Parliament but for three yeers and that therefore it is now expired and out of date But if you peruse all that passed in Parliament touching it no such matter will appear The directions of the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament after advice had with the Assembly of Divines for the Electing and chusing Ruling Elders in all the Congregations and in the Classical Assemblies for the Cities of London and Westminster and the several Counties of the Kingdom For the speedy setling of the Presbyterian Government bearing date August 19. 1645. Their Ordinance together with Rules and Directions concerning suspension from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in cases of Ignorance and scandall dated Octob. 20. 1645. The Votes also of the said Houses for the Choise of Elders throughout the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales in the respective Parish Churches and Chappels according to the directions before mentioned And touching the power granted to the Tryers of Elections of Elders Of the date of Feb. 20. 1645. and Feb. 26. 1645. Their Ordinance for keeping scandalous Persons from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the inabling of Congregations for the choice of Elders and supplying of defects in former Ordinances and Directions of Parliament concerning Church Government bearing date March 14. 1645. The Remedies prescribed by them for removing some obstructions in Church Government dated Aprill 22d 1647. And their Ordinance for the speedy dividing and setling the severall Counties of this Kingdom into distinct Classicall Presbyteries and Congregationall Elderships dated Jan. 29. 1647. We say all these were passed absolutely without any proviso's at all limiting the time of their continuance that is expressed in any of them Indeed in the Ordinance of Parliament giving power to all the Classical Presbyteries within their respective bounds to examine approve and ordain Ministers for severall Congregations dated Nov. 10. 1645. It is provided in the Close of it That it shall stand in force for twelve moneths and no longer As it is provided in another Ordinance for the Ordination of Ministers by the Classicall Presbyters within their respective bounds for the severall Congregations in the Kingdom of England bearing date August 28. 1646. That it shall stand in force for three years and no longer Which latter might give to some that took but the matter upon report an occasion to conceive that the Presbyterian Government was settled but for three years Although that was but ill applied to all the severall Ordinances that had passed before which belonged onely to one But the Ordinance especially from which chiefely as we conceive the mistake arose about settling the Presbyterian Government for three years onely was the Ordinance that passed June 5. 1646. The title whereof is An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament for the present settling without further delay of the Presbyteriall Government in the Church of England In the Close whereof it is ordained That this Ordinance shall continue for the space of three years and no longer unless both Houses think fit to continue it But if the matter of this Ordinance be consulted it is manifest it was but touching a Committee of Lords and Commons to adjudge and determine scandalous offences not formerly enumerated appointed by the Ordinance in stead and place of Commissioners mentioned in the Ordinance of March 14. 1645. And also shewing how the Elderships were to proceed in the examination of such scandalous offences And touching what power was granted to the said Committee and in what sort they were to proceed as is clear to any that shall but take the paines to peruse that Ordinance The ground whereof in the preface to it is made to be this The Lords and Commons in Parliament holding their former resolution that all notorious and scandalous offenders shall be kept from the Sacrament have thought fit to make a further addition to the scandalous offences formerly enumerated for which men shall be kept back from the Sacrament And least the stay of the enumeration and the not naming of Commissioners to judge of Cases not enumerated should hinder the putting in execution the Presbyterian Governement already established They have thought fit c. And do therefore ordain a Committee therein particularly nominated in stead and place of Commissioners The groundlesness of the mistake about settling the Presbyterial Government for three years onely that might arise from the proviso in this Ordinance is so clear to any common understanding that the bare recitall of the sum of the matter of this Ordinance and the ground of making it doth make it so fully to appear that it were but lost labour to use any more words about it But we have particularly mentioned all that ever passed the Parliament so far as we have either seen or heard of that hitherto concerned Church Government untill the year 1648. When the form of Church Government to be used in the Church of England and Ireland was agreed upon by the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament after Advice had with the Assembly of Divines and was ordered by them to be printed August 19. of the said year 1648. And this Ordinance wherein all that had passed the Parliament before in parts and at severall times and what ever was but temporary by vertue of
other Ordinances so far as was intended for continuance are moulded up into a complete body with a supply of sundry things that had been never mentioned nor published before in other Ordinances is without any limitation of time for its continuance and remains unrepealed to this day for any thing we have seen or heard to the contrary Nay we think as we shall touch upon anon That by the humble Advice assented to by his Highness this Ordinance as well as others receives strength But by this full account given we think we have made it sufficiently to appear that we have had the Authority of the civill Magistrate to bear us out in what we have acted since the first setting up of the Presbyterian Government untill this present Except there be any that can come forth and charge us to have transgressed the rules appointed by the Parliament for us to observe in our actings against which our own innocency only shall be our defence It now remaines for your further satisfaction and our own vindication that we recite some things particularly out of the form of Church Government which we conceive are thereunto subservient In the very first Words of the Ordinance according to what we have before recited in the directions for the electing and choosing of ruling Elders and is there also to be found you may find it thus Be it ordered and ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled and by Authority of the same That all Parishes and Places whatsoever within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales as well Priviledged Places and exempted jurisdictions as others be brought under the Government of Congregationall Classicall Provinciall and Nationall Assemblies c. Where it is to us unquestionable That by vertue of this appointment such as live within the bounds of our severall congregations and Parishes are under the power of some one or other of the Congregational Elderships constituted by Authority of Parliament within our severall Parishes And that all those that live within the bounds of our Classis mentioned before are under the power of our Classicall Assembly constituted in like manner by the said Authority What power is given particularly to the congregationall Elderships you may finde in the aforesaid form of Church Government and unto which we refer you onely we shall minde you That by vertue thereof they have power as they shall see just occasion to enquire into the knowledge and spirituall estate of any member of the Congregation to admonish and rebuke to suspend from the Lords Table those who are found by them to be ignorant and scandalous and to excommunicate according to the rules and directions after following And it is thereby ordained That the Examination and Judgement of such Persons as shall for their ignorance in the points of Religion mentioned in that Ordinance not be admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is to be in the power of the Eldership of every Congregation All which will appear by the express Letter of the said Ordinance to any that will consult it and which not only justifies all that is practised in that case by the severall Elderships but also shews what grounds this Classis had for that which was mentioned in our Paper touching both what is therein appointed to the Minister about Catechizing Families and also concerning the Ministers exhorting such as in the severall Families he should finde to be of competent knowledge and know to be of blameless life That they should present themselves to the Eldership The Triall and Judgement in this case not belonging to any one Minister alone but to the Eldership There are also rules and directions given in this Ordinance to be observed by the severall Elderships concerning suspension from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in cases of scandall which may be seen there particularly But there is no rule given that will allow either the Eldership or Classis according to the several powers to them therein granted either to warn before all or to excommunicate knowing and blameless men for their meer not presenting themselves before the Eldership The rules of this Government prescribe otherwise as we our selves must also needs profess that we are not conscious to our selves that we have given any just occasion by our management thereof That contrary to the express rules appointed therein to be observed by us and to the plain sense of our expressions used in our Paper of which afterward any such a thing should have been so much as supposed to have been intended from any thing there expressed Give us leave to proceed a little further to lay open the order that is prescribed in the above mentioned form of Church Government touching the order of proceeding to excommunication which as it will awarrant the publishing of mens names openly in the Congregation and warning them before all to reform being such as are justly censurable by the rules thereof and particularly where it prescribes that several publique admonitions shall be given to the offenders c. So it will awarrant us in any thing that is made censurable by that Paper of ours that was published To make this to appear as also to shew what reason we had to make known to the several congregations within our bounds what our Paper held forth We shall here declare what offences are censurable with this greatest and last censure of Excommunication according to the order that is there prescribed and which as it requires that it be inflicted with great and mature deliberation and after all other good means have been essayed so it appoints in these express Words That such Errours in practice as subvert the Faith or any other Errours which overthrow the power of Godliness if the party who holds them spread them seeking to draw others after him and such sins in practice as cause the Name and Truth of God to be blasphemed cannot stand with the power of godliness and such practises as in their own nature manifestly subvert that order unity and Peace which Christ hath established in his Church and particularly all those scandalous sins for which any Person is to be suspended from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper obstinately persisted in these being publiquely known to the just scandall of the Church The sentence of Excommunication may and ought to proceed according to the directions after following But the Persons that hold other Errours in Judgement about which learned and Godly men possibly may and do differ and which subvert not the faith nor are destructive to godliness or that be guilty of such sins of infirmities as are commonly found in the Children of God or being otherwise found in the faith and holy in life and so not falling under censure by the former rules endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace and do yet out of conscience not come up to the observation of all those rules which are or shall be established by
Authority for regulating the outward worship of God and Government of his Church The sentence of excommunication for these causes shall not be denounced against them These things this Classis taking into Consideration together with the power they were betrusted with by God and Man for the dispencing the censures of the Church in the cases censurable by the rules here laid down and elsewhere in the form of Church Government And there having been in the Provinciall Assembly severall debates touching such Persons as in the several Congregations were ignorant and scandalous who offered not themselves to the Sacrament not to the Eldership in order to their admission to it and they commending it to the several Classical Presbyteries to be considered of whether some further course was not to be held for the information of the one and the reformation of the other then yet had been taken notwithstanding their neglect and what they judged fittest to be done for the attaining those ends and to represent their thoughts therein to the next Assembly This Classis upon the whole concluded to represent their apprehensions in the Case as is expressed in the Paper that was published which was approved of before by the Provincial Assembly and which they judge is sufficiently awarranted in regard of any thing therein contained by the rules expressed in the above mentioned form of Church Government We having thus far shewed what we have been and are awarranted to practice by the several Ordinances above mentioned we shall now proceed further to declare That however we are no Lawyers and therefore leave the determination of the Case to the learned in the Law to judge of to whom it belongs yet if it may be lawfull for us to judge of a matter of this nature from the principles of reason It seems to us that the above mentioned Ordinances about Church Government as well as other Ordinances of Parliament are confirmed in the humble Advice assented unto by his Highness in the 16. section thereof Where we finde these Words And that nothing contained in this Petition and Advice nor your Highness consent thereunto shall be construed to extend to the repealing or making void of any Act or Ordinance which is not contrary hereunto or to the matters herein contained But that the said Acts and Ordinances not contrary hereunto shall continue and remain in force in such manner as if this present Petition and Advice had not at all been had or made or your Highness consent thereunto given Whence we gather that if in the several Ordinances for Church Government there be nothing contrary to the humble Advice or to the matters therein contained they are not thereby any more then any other Acts or Ordinances of Parliament repealed but left to remain in force At least there seems to us to be a plain intimation that they have a force in them which is not by this humble Advice repealed and made void For it doth not appear to us That there is any thing in the Form of Church Government or any other Ordinances of Parliament about that matter that is contrary to the humble Advice or matters therein contained And whereas in the 11th section there is mention made of some that differ in worship and discipline from the publique profession of these Nations held forth to whom some indulgence is granted It seems to us there is an acknowledgement and owning of what the late Parliament held forth in regard of these the Directory for worship and form of Church Government which they passed as the publique profession of these Nations in regard of worship and discipline And in which apprehensions we are the more confirmed because here in this section mention is made of a confession of faith to be agreed on by his Highness and the Parliament there having nothing in that kind passed the late Parliament that established the Directory for worship and form of Church Government However there had been a Confession of faith drawn up by the late Assembly of Divines Whence it seems to us clear that they own the Directory for worship and the form of Church Government to be that which they hold forth as the publique profession of the Nation for worship and Government To the same purpose we find in the Government of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland c. As it was publiquely declared at Westminster Decemb. 16. 1653. pag. 43. Sect. 37. Where also they express a worship and Discipline publiquely held forth which must needs referre to the Directory and form of Church Government by us recited There being no other worship or discipline that then had or now hath the civill Sanction in this Nation We have been large in what we have here represented in the generall before we come to speak more particularly to the rest that now follows in your Paper But our pains being greater to make this full representation unto you then it will be for you to read it we must intreat you to excuse us considering it tends as well to rectifie your mistakes as to vindicate our selves being also desirous not to be mistaken any more as also because it layes a foundation for our briefer and more particular Answer unto what follows and to which these things being thus premised we now come In the things wherein you profess your selves to dissent till further explicated and unfolded by us 1 The first thing we meet with here is That by the many Persons of all sorts that are members of Congregations and mentioned in our Paper in your sense thereof we seem to hint that thereby we mean onely such who have admitted themselves members of some Congregation within our association and yet live inordinately c. And that therefore you who never were any members or associates of ours are not within the verge and compass of our Presbyterian discipline c. Unto which we say That we have constantly professed against those of the separation That the several Assemblies of Congregations within this Land that make a profession of the true Christian and Apostolique Faith are true Churches of Jesus Christ That the several members of these Congregations are by their birth members as those that were born in the Jewish Church are said to be by the Apostle Jews by nature Gal. 2. That this their membership was sealed to them in their Baptism that did solemnly admit them as into the universal Church so into the particular wherein they were born We have also constantly maintained against the afore mentioned Persons That the Ministers of these Churches are true Ministers notwithstanding that exception of theirs against them that they were ordained by Bishops who also themselves were true Ministers in our Judgement though we cannot acknowledge that by divine right they were superiour to their fellow brethren either in regard of order or jurisdiction And that therefore the Word and Sacraments the most essential marks of a true visible Church according to the professed
as is consonant to the will of God and universall practice of primitive Churches c. In that you do here joyn the will of God and the universal practise of primitive Churches together as you joyned the Word of God and the constant practise of the Catholique Church before you seem to us to make up the rule whereby we must judge what Government it is that you pray might be established of these two viz. the will of God and the universal practise of primitive Churches Or that it is the universal practise of primitive Churches That must be our sure guide and comment upon the Word of God to tell us what is his will revealed these touching Church Government and discipline If this be your sense as we apprehend it is we must needs profess that herein we greatly differ from you as not conceiving it to be sound and orthodoxe It being the Word of God alone and the approved practise of the Church recorded there whether it was the universall and constant practise of the Church or no that is to be the onely rule to judge by in this or any other controversies in matters of Religion But yet admitting for the present the rule you seem to make we should desire to know from you what that Church Government is which is so consonant to the will of God and universall practise of primitive Churches For our own parts we think it will be very hard for you or any others to demonstrate out of any Records of Antiquity what was the universall practise of primitive Churches for the whole space of the first 300. years after Christ or the greatest part thereof excepting so much as is left upon record in the Scriptures of the new Testament the Monuments of Antiquity that concerne those times for the greatest part of them being both imperfect and far from shewing us what was the universall practise of the Church then though the practises of some Churches may be mentioned and likewise very questionable At least it will not be easie to assure us that some of those that go under the names of the most approved Authors of those times are neither spurious nor corrupted And hereupon it will unavoidably follow that we shall be left very doubtfull what Government it is that is most consonant to the universall and constant practise of primitive Churches for that time But as touching the rule it self which you seem here to lay down we cannot close with it We do much honour and reverence the primitive Churches But yet we believe we owe more reverence to the Scriptures then to judge them either imperfect or not to have light enough in themselves for the resolving all doubts touching matters of faith or practise except it be first resolved what was either the concurrent interpretation of the Fathers or the universall and constant practise of the Churches of those times Besides that admitting this for a rule that the universall and constant practise of the primitive Churches must be that which must assure us what is the will of God revealed in Scripture concerning the Government which he hath appointed in the Church our faith is hereupon resolved into a most uncertain ground and so made fallible and turned into opinion For what monuments of Antiquity besides the Scripture can assure us touching the matters of fact therein contained that they were such indeed as they are there reported to be the Authors of them themselves being men that were not infallibly guided by the Spirit But yet supposing we could be infallibly assured which yet never can be what was the universall and constant practise of the primitive Churches how shall that be a rule to assure us what is most consonant to the will of God When as we see not especially in such matters as are not absolutely necessary to salvation Even as a Generall Councill it self is subject to errrour but that the universall practise of the Churches might in some things be dissonant to the will of God revealed in Scriptures And so the universall practise of primitive Churches can be no certain rule to judge by what Church Government is most consonant to the will of God revealed in his Word We know there are corruptions in the best of men There was such hot contention betwixt Paul and Barnabas Gal. 2. as caused them to part asunder Peter so failed in his practise as that though before some came from James he did eat with the Gentils yet when they were come he withdrew himself fearing them of the Circumcision And hereupon not only other Jews dissembled with him but Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation Whence it 's clear that the examples of the best men even in those things wherein they went contrary to the rule of Gods Word are of a spreading nature and the better the Persons that give the bad example are the greater the danger of the more universall leavening Nay we finde that not only some few Apostolicall men had their failings but even Apostolicall primitive Churches did in the very face of the Apostles they being yet alive make great defection both in regard of opinions and practises As from the examples of the Churches of Corinth Galatia and the Churches of Asia is manifest The Apostle also tels us that even in his time the mystery of iniquity began to work And in after times we know how the Doctrine was corrupted what gross superstition crept into the Church what domination was striven for amongst the Pastors and Bishops of the Churches Till at length Antichrist was got up into his seat unto which height yet he came not all at once but by steps and degrees Besides it is of fresh remembrance that notwithstanding the reformation happily brought about in our own Church in regard of Doctrine and worship after those dismall Marian times yet the corruption in regard of Government continued such during the time of the late Prelacy which yet was taken away in other reformed Churches that the Pastors were deprived of that power of rule that our Church acknowledgeth did belong to them of right and which did anciently belong to them however the exercise thereof did after grow into a long disuse as hath been shewed before And therefore when we consider on the one hand that the superiority which the Bishop obtained at the first above the Presbyter in the ancient Church and which was rather obtained consuetudine Ecclesiae then by Divine right did at the length grow to that height that the Pastors were spoiled of all power of rule so we cannot much wonder on the other hand that the ruling Elder was quite turned out of doors For the proof of the being and exercise of whose office in the purer times there are notwithstanding produced testimonies of the ancients by Divines both at home and abroad that have written about that subject and to which we do therein refer you As there do remain some footsteps and shadow of