of Knowledge and Gifts rather than a setled Superiority of Office and whether any Pastors might not do all their Ordinary continued work But besides the singularity of that doubt I was soon convinced of an Official Superiority and Disparity not only because a Judas had been one but because the number of Twelve in Superiority was to be kept up by the choice of his Successor even one from among those that had been Witnesses of Christs Words and Works as well as he And by Pauls being made a thirteenth Apostle when the Gospel was to be carried further than to the Jews And his claim of Apostolical Power and Priviledges § 17. Especially because I find Christ Mat. 28. 19 20. describing the General Office as well as the Particular even going into all the World to Disciple whole Nations as well as to teach them to observe Christs Commands promising to be with them to the end of the World § 18. And also because it is apparent that Preaching the Gospel to Heathen and Infidel Nations is a Work still to be done and for want of men purposely appointed to do it the progress of the Gospel hath been wofully stopt Few doing any thing in it but Mr. Eliots and a few honest men in New England and they say some of the Dutch and the Jesuits and Fryers that do it corruptly Particular Church Work is below this § 19. And I am fully confirmed when I find that the Apostles themselves setled a General sort of Ministers in Superiority and General Work to succeed them As Christ himself by his Spirit made Barnabas an Apostle so he gave to his Church also Evangelists who were General helpers of the Apostles and were put in a state of Disparity and Superiority Sil as and Mark and Luke and Apollos and many more are named The texts that mention the General Office and Superior power of Timothy and Titus are so well known and oft cited that it 's needless to repeat them The charge of setling and overseeing many Churches as in Crete and of caution in Imposition of Hands receiving accusations rebuking sharply ruling them well ordaining Bishops and Deacons and much more the like I never thought Saravia and the Kings Arguments in the Isle of Wight well answered Mr. Prins and the common answer is that these were not Bishops but Evangelists I grant it but that confirmeth me For the name Bishop was then ordinarily appropriated to fixed particular Church Elders But our question is not de nomine but de re an Apostle Evangelist were above such Bishops Call them Apostles as Dr. Hammond proveth that the Fathers oft call them or call them Evangelists or Arch Bishops or General Bishops or Diocesans or Provincial Bishops it is not the name that is our Controversie It proveth that the Apostles did settle a sort of General Overseers to gather and take care of many inferior Bishops and Churches to succeed them in the ordinary part of their Office § 20. But another argument fixeth me in this opinion and that is that when it is fully proved that Christ instituted such a Disparity and Superiority he that will affirm that this doth not now continue and bind us must prove the repeal or revocation or prove that he did make this establishment but for a time and how long that was But Scripture plainly asserteth that he then appointed the foresaid Disparity and hath any as plainly proved that he repealed it or confined it to that Age It is not proved that I have seen And to assert this without proof is 1. To make Christs Institutions to signifie but what mans fancy thinks meet and make us the Masters of his Laws before we will be ruled by them 2. It is a charging Christ with temerity or dishonourable mutability as Instituting one form of Church Ministry and Government for one Age and changing it presently for another 3. It seemeth a dangerous taking Gods Name in vain by affirming such a mutability of him and change of his Laws without any proof 4. It defameth the state of his Church when it was under Persecution and when Heaven and Earth after rejoiced in its deliverance as if all that time it had been corrupt by owning the foresaid Disparity And it 's dangerous Presumption to Father on God that which he never did and never owned § 21. But no doubt but the Circumstances of this Superior Office or degree of Ministry are undetermined by God save as by General Rules and may be altered As 1. Whether there shall be One only or Two such General Ministers in one and the same Diocess or Province Christ sent out his Preachers by two and two Paul and Barnabas and Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Mark went out by Couples Peter and Paul were together at Rome And Grotius and Dr. Hammond think that for the first times till the Christian Jews and Gentiles became one Communion the great Cities Rome Alexandria Antioch c. had each two Congregate Churches and two Bishops were it but for language sake And as I think the Jewish and Gentile Christian Ministers during the time of Miraculous Gifts while no Christian Magistrates Ruled were the two Witnesses mentioned in the Apocalypse so I conjecture that Peter and Paul were the radical instances of them And when two join together it may take off envy from each Yet this is undetermined in Scripture and left to humane Prudence If two cannot agree how will such agree others § 22. The Scots had at first a General visiter that was really a General Bishop But the Visitors aspiring and abuse changed that way But I am told that in Ulster in Ireland each Classical Synod chuse two Grave Divines and send them out to Preach in any Congregation in that Classis where they see cause As where there are young raw men or men suspected of Heresy or men of scandalous fame and to admonish and counsel such and to tell the People that if they had any thing against their Ministers they should tell them and they would try them in the Classical Synod I think this is real and laudable Episcopacy whatever name it have § 23. It is also undetermined how large the Diocess be of the said General Minister while he excludeth not Inferiors As Prudence would teach the Apostles to Preach in several Countreys and not all in one when they left Jerusalem So Natural Reason teacheth Men still to divide and know their several Provinces § 24. It is undetermined how long each one shall stay in one City or place As Paul did long at Ephesus § 25. And it is left to Prudence how many subordinate Pastors and Churches there shall each oversee so they overthrow not the said subordinate Officers and Churches § 26. And it is left to Prudence what secular Lands or Riches they shall have called Glebe And what secular honour they shall have As to be Barons and Lords or to sit in Parliaments though Reason saith that
Laws about Religion and the Church affairs should not be made without the advice of them who are so greatly intrusted with Religion And yet that their Riches should be such as may not be too strong a Temptation to Sensuality Worldliness Pride and Tyrannizing over their Brethren § 27. There are three ranks of Bishops Two if not all three of Divine Institution And when any one of the three would suppress the other two they are corrupted into a sinful Tyranny I. The ordinary Presbyters are Episcopi Gregis Bishops over the Flocks So called and proved not only by Grotius passim but by most Papists and Protestants specially expositors on Phil. 1. and 1 Tim. 3. and 1 Pet. 5. c. II. The Churches being first gathered usually under some one Pastor and he taking in the ripest of his Converts or Disciples to become his assisting Presbyters and to avoid divisions that one or some other was chosen to be Episcopus Praeses the President Bishop of that particular Congregate Church As the incumbents in big Parishes are with us And tho I can prove no Institution of this but by Gods General Commands of doing all in Order Unity and to Edification yet we have reason to believe that it was begun in the Apostles days if Jerom say true about Mark at Alexandria who died before John And I find no party of Christians against it of many hundred years perhaps not of a thousand for even Aerius called it not unlawful And the Novatians Donatists and other Sects were Zealous for this sort of Episcopacy III. And that a Superior sort of Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists were of Divine Institution I have proved before § 28. The appropriating the name of BISHOPS to this General rank here called the Diocesanes contrary to Scripture and Truth hath proved a mischievous snare for Deceit and Tyranny For hereby first our Innovators have denied the Parish Incumbents to be true Pastors secondly And the Parish Churches to be true Political Churches for want of proper Bishops or Pastors but only parts of the Diocesan Church As if that were infimae specei 3. By this they have made the ignorant Laity believe that those ordained by the Proestotes the parochial President Bishops are ordained by no Bishops at all and so must be re-ordained And 4. they are become the grand Enemies of Episcopacy putting down many hundred Bishops to set up one alone And yet perfrictâ fronte have called such as are for more Antiepiscopal and themselves the Episcopal party Just as if one Schoolmaster or Physition should put down many hundred that he may be the only Schoolmaster and Physition or one Judge put down all the Justices and Mayors and then impudently say that they are against Physitions Schoolmasters and Justices and he only is for them But who can expect Truth or Modesty from Ungodly Worldly Proud Tyrannical Men. Tho it is not the Name that is our Controversie I allow them the Name of Diocesanes Yet abuse of Names hath been of mischievous effects § 29. Such Diocesane or General Bishops as put down all the Particular fixed Bishops and Churches are not only no sort of Bishops of Christs Institution but are Pernicious Enemies to Episcopacy and the Churches As nominal Apostles would have been had they put down all the Particular Churches and Bishops which they should oversee or a General Commander that would put down all the Collonels and Captains § 30. To refuse to be ordained by such usurping Enemies and to disown them is not to refuse true Episcopacy § 31. If these usurping Bishops would swear Men to obey them and refuse to ordain any that will not Assent Consent Subscribe or Covenant to sin against God by Omission or Commission especially many great and hainous sins he that refuseth such ordination may truly say he could not be so ordained the Bishop was the refuser and not he And he hath better ordination that is ordained by Parish Bishops on lawful Terms § 32. Yet if the Christian Prince make a true Diocesan that putteth not down the Parish Churches to be of the Quorums and have a Negative voice in Ordinations of such as he will own and maintain I think none should scruple submission For while Diocesans are good Men it seemeth to be a way safe and orderly § 33. There are two degrees of deposing the Parish Pastors I. When somewhat essential to their Office it self is denied de specie As Mr. Dodwell would have the Office made and specified by the Will and Intention of the Ordainer This only the Innovaters are guilty of II. When the Essentials of the Office are owned but the exercise sinfully restrained This the Old English Canons and Bishops were guilty of But it unhappily was by fitting their Canons to the State of the Parish Priests that came newly out of Popery and were by ignorance and errour unfit for their Office and Work But of all this I treated with unquestionable evidence of Truth in my Treatise of Episcopacy which is yet unanswered § 34. Those that only abusively restrain the Parish Pastors in the exercise of their Offices and are but misgoverning Diocesans may yet be owned as true Ministers de specie tho we must not own their sinful Misgovernment But those that destroy the very Office of the Parish Pastors in any essential part and their Churches are no true Ministers of Christ de specie nor to be owned as such while they will be the sole Pastors of many hundred Congregations § 35. How came this General Episcopacy that was to gather and fix Churches to be so much ceased A. 1. By the difficulty and costliness of the work of Apostolick Travels and Labours Ministers chose the easier state of a fixed particular Ministry 2. The particular Bishops living among Heathens found work enough on those within their reach and so by degrees conjoined the two Offices of General and Particular Episcopacy into one 3. And when the Heathen near them were converted ambition drew them to enlarge their Particular Churches into one Diocesan Church instead of gathering the new Swarms into a new Hive under a true particular Bishop And thus Satan hath by subtilty reduced the Churches to be too like to the Heathen World by killing Religion and turning it into Hypocritical Ceremony and meer Names while one Bishop will needs undertake the work of many Score or Hundreds which he cannot possibly perform § 36. Q. How prove you that the Largeness of the Diocess altereth the Species of Episcopacy and Churches A. It doth not at all if it put not down the subordinate Parish Pastors and Churches But if it turn them into half-Pastors and Chappels by destroying their essence it is easily proved Because it is two sorts of Communion that specifie the two sorts of Churches and Pastors The lowest particular sort is for presential personal Communion of such as may personally converse and may know each other and may at least sometime assemble
the Jewish State and not an Universal And this National Form went before that part of the Apostles Work and Power which was to be Universal or Indefinite § 15. IV. The Apostles made no Universal Laws of their own but only promulgated the Laws of Christ which by his Word and Spirit he taught them And to that end he promised and gave them his Spirit to lead them into all Truth and bring all to their remembrance and they were sent to all Nations indefinitely to Convert them and Baptize them and to teach them to observe all things that Christ had commanded them The Cryer is not the Law-maker though he proclaim the Law The Obligations to Infant-baptism and the Lords day alledged by some as Apostolical Laws are from Christ himself as I have proved elsewhere at large the Apostles being Authorized Witnesses and Promulgators And had they done it by the extraordinary promised Spirit it had so been Christs own Law-giving no other having that promise of the Spirit to make a new Word of God or Universal Law by bringing all his Commands to remembrance and leading them into all Truth The determinations Acts 15. were also the delivery of the Law of Christ the Holy Ghost giving them the certain understanding of it And it 's like that as two of the four Cases Fornication and Idol-Communion were of known Morality so the other two strangled and Blood-eating if not so were not of Universal Obligation but only to those Gentiles that lived among the offended Jews The like may be said about the Institution of Deacons and Bishops of single Churches If they did not Institute them as in Christs Name by his Command or Spirit but had Authority from him to do it as Apostles It was under the promise of the Spirits Infallible Guidance and a Temporary Work in which they have no Successors For Christs Church would never be formed nor his Laws and Word setled perfect if we must have Men in all Ages to add to his Church Ordinances and Officers and to make him new Laws and a new Word How big would his Bible be then at the last Why have no new Scriptures as his been so made these 1600 years I hope our Volumes of Councils will not go for such § 16. V. The occasional determination of Questions about mutable Circumstances as long Hair the Vails the Love-feasts the time of Collections for Charity and divers such were not Universal but Local and not of Immutable but occasional Mutable Obligation and were but such as National and Congregational Governors may determine without any Universal Supreme Power The Genus or Rule by which they must be determined Edification Love Concord Peace Decency Order being Gods Laws § 17. VI. There is great difference between what the Apostles did as Segregate or Dis-junct each one in his Province and what they did as an Aristocratical Person or College unitedly They Ordained Elders gave the Holy Ghost setled Churches decided Controversies wrote Books and Epistles singly each one in his Province and met not to write any one Book or Epistle by a Major College-Vote in one Body And though their Books now oblige all the Church that have them yet 1. At the first writing they obliged only the Churches or Persons to whom they were written and only after by parity of Reason bind others that have them And every ordinary Pastor that writeth a Book that is sound Divinity bringeth an Obligation on all that read it to obey it according to the Evidence of truth The Obligation of the Apostles Books and theirs is Extensively Indefinite or Universal to all that read or hear it But the Degree of the Obligation Intensively is greater from the Apostles Writings because of their extraordinary Spirit § 18. VII The decision Acts 15. was not by a General Council nor a Pope No such Council was called But they were sent and appealed to as Men of most infallible fitness to decide that Case and if they did it as a College it was only as a National Church College such as de formâ the Jews Nation had in which relation they were first setled For as Twelve they were only so related others being added to be sent with them to the Centiles And besides and after that we never read that they did any thing but in their separate Provinces and Personal Capacity § 10 VIII And as they never did as an Universal Aristocratical College by Vote make new Universal Laws to the Church much less by any ordinary continued Power so neither did they as such a College exercise Judicial or Executive power but did it in their single Capacities only in their proper Provinces and that was partly by an ordinary power of Reproof and Excommunication which continueth and partly by an extraordinary miraculous power of delivering to Satan for Corporal punishment which power is ceased with them Tho' Papists in a mock-imitation deliver the Excommunicate to the Secular powers to be kill'd as if these were Devils As for the Universal Laws that tell whom to Excommunicate they are Christs own Laws and Rules of Judgment To which if men may add the like no wonder if they make Sin and Heresie as they please and Excommunicate and deliver to Satan their Magistrates whom they will and if he that was an Orthodox Saint this year be burnt without change as an Heretick the next and it be never certain till the end of the World what is Heresie or Sin and what not § 20. IX It being certain then that the Apostles did not as an Aristocratical Supreme power over the Universal Church Exercise Legislation Judgment and Execution much less by any ordinary continued power it followeth that they have no Successors that have such power and all Government being contained in these three parts there is de Jure no Universal Governour § 21. X. The power of Moses and Aaron were of equal extent and both of Divine Institution but Aaron was under Moses Government And Christ gave the Twelve and Seventy at first no larger Provinces or Power And when he added more and sent them to the Gentiles he commanded every Soul to be subject to the Princes power as of God Therefore their power in the Empire was limited and subject to the Imperial Government and so in other Lands They were bound to fear God and Honour the King They might by Doctoral and Nunciative Authority perswade Emperors and deliver Gods Commands and so still may any ordinary Teacher but not by Imperant Judicial and Executive power Govern them unless by self-subjecting they make them their Governors as Pupils do their Tutors and Patients their Physicions Yea they could make no Man a Christian but by Persuasion to voluntary consent and till they were Christians they could not Govern them as Christians And they were not Governors of the World but Monitors and Persuaders § 22. XI Indefinite and were it possible Universal Concord Love and Communion All Christians must endeavour
which Ministers do with greater Obligation and Advantage than the People and Apostles above both And Kings and States are as much obliged to it as Bishops But they are not on that pretence to make one Universal King or Senate to be a Soveraign Power to them and all the Earth or Church But only by Diets or Confederacies to join their Powers and Endeavours to so good an End And so is it with Bishops and Churches § 23. If they say That it is Union and Concord with the Pope or Rome or their Councils that we are bound to let them but renounce their pretence to Government of all and we shall easily decide the other difference If we must not Unite to them as Governors but as Brethren they are as much bound to Love and Union with us as we with them And Christ is sufficient to be the Center of Union to the whole Body and hath made them the sufficient and only Laws of Universal Concord among themselves § 24. Obj. To be obliged by Gods Law to Concord and to have Councils and Bishops determine in what we must agree inferreth our Duty to agree in those Points which cometh to all one as Government by them Ans 1. If they be not Governors but Equals we have as much power to propose Articles of Agreement to them as they to us 2. There are no Articles of Universal Agreement in all the Churches on Earth necessary but what Christ hath made such And to pretend to make such and Usurp his Prerogative is a sin that we must not agree with 3. The vanity of their talk of true Universal Councils I have oft at large detected 4. We grant submission to the true power of National Governors and Councils but Universal we know not 5. Just National Laws must be obeyed But Conciliar Canons of Concord by Equals bind us not to Agreement when mistake maketh them against the common Good and Ends of Concord Nor do Mens Laws or Agreements bind us to any thing against the Laws of God § 25. XII We all own an Universal Church Government Partite or Exercised by parts as all the Physicions Medicate all England and all the School-masters teach them and all the Judges and Justices judge them And so Cyprian meant that Episcopatus unus est of which each one hath a part That is 1. In specie institutâ 2. Quoad Objectum All the particular Churches governed make one Universal Church 3. Quoad Finem But no Man nor any Senate or College or Council as una persona politica is Soveraign We have no Universal King but Christ Chap. XI Whether a National Church Soveraignty infer the need or lawfulness of a Humane Universal Church Soveraignty § 1. Ans NO For 1. Man is capable of one but uncapable of the other 2. Christ hath given Commission for one but not for the other 3. Every Kingdom hath one Humane Soveraignty in Sword Government But so hath not all the World one And there is less reason for and less possibility of one Humane Governing Soveraignty by the Word and Keys 4. God set one Moses and one Aaron or Priesthood over Israel but not over all the World If Adam or Noah was such while the World was but a Family or Tribe he would not have it so when it was uncapable of it 5. The Summons and Subscriptions and the Limits of the Imperial Power tell us that the most General Councils were but Imperial that is National in Extent as I have proved against Johnson And therefore no more can be claimed since § 2. Obj. But if a Presbyter must be Ordained by a Bishop as Superior and a Bishop by an Archbishop and he by a Patriarch what Superior shall make him but a Pope or Council Ans 1. You may next ask Who then must Make or Consecrate a Pope Is it a Superior Contrarily If a Pope may be made by Inferiors as they do a Patriarch a Metropolitan an Archbishop and a Bishop may quoad esse be validly made by Men of the same Order Yea and Presbyters too where Politick Order and Church safety forbid it not § 3. It is so far from being true as I once foolishly thought that National Church Supremacy inferreth Popery that it is a necessary or very great means against it without which though particular Souls may be saved from Popery a Nation cannot long nor ever was that I have read of For Popery is but the Invading of the power of all other Bishops and Kings And for each one to reassume his own power is the direct Deposing of the Pope As if one King or Senate claimed the Government of all Kings and Senates how should these Usurpers be Deposed but by every King and Parliaments reassuming their own § 4. But then every party that differeth in the Form of National Government must not pretend that it is only their Form that is the Bulwark against Popery National Church Concord and Strength may be kept up by a Supreme Christian Prince or State with a Concordant Ministry whether among themselves United as the Scots in General Assemblies or as in England by Archbishops Bishops and Convocations obeying the Laws of Christ and the just Laws of the King and State that are made for determining needful Circumstances supposing such Bishops qualified and chosen justly and usurping none of the Sword-bearers power § 5. That National Laws about matters of Religion may and must be made and that Princes consulting with Pastors must make them and that these are not to extend to all the World is a truth unquestionable In England the Law must command us to use English Bibles but not all over the World It is meet to bind the Churches to use one Translation of the Scriptures Else one will say Your Text or what you alledge is not in my Bible and another It is not in mine And many inconveniences would follow And one Form of Catechism one Form of Confession one Metre of singing Psalms and about the Sacraments and other Offices one Form moderately imposed or agreed on is convenient But if one part will too rigorously impose things needless or command things sinful or justly suspected or the other side refuse things lawful and fit because imposed National Concord will be broken Chap. XII The Three other Reasons for Popery answered briefly Quest III. SHould not the Roman Church Policy in reason be owned for the advantage of Christianity against Infidels Ans 1. We deny not but Unity Concord Power and Riches and the great number of Adherents is a great advantage to Christianity against Infidels And all these are Gods Gifts and as such do good 2. But the abuse of them though it do not quite frustrate the genuine Effects yet so depraveth them that it 's a doubt whether the hurt to the common Christianity be not greater than the advantage If Unity were maintained in Christs way it would have far better Effects than in the Papists way 3. Yet we
same time they pray and wait for National Churches in the Millennium as the Fifth Monarchy And none of them will deny it to be the Duty of all Kings and Kingdoms to be Christians and so that Christian Kingdoms are Christ's Institution and Command § 3. But the Soveraign is the Judge what Pastors and Churches he shall allow and maintain as parts of the National Church or Kingdom As the Colledge is to judge who is fit to be a Physicion and the Patient who shall be his Physicion and the trusted Physicion what Medicine he shall give But the King to judge whom he will allow in his Kingdom and to make Laws forbidding poisonous Drugs and abuses of Physicions Even so the Ordainers are Judges who are fit to be Pastors and the People whom they will trust their Souls with as their Pastors and the trusted Pastors to judge what Doctrine to Preach and whom to receive to Communion or to Excommunicate but the King to judge whom he will allow maintain or tolerate as Members of the Christian Kingdom or National Church § 4. That all essential parts of a National Church are not the Form that denominateth as aforesaid needs no more proof than that Matter and Privation by which Aristotle meant Dispositio Materiae receptiva are not the Form of a Natural Body So that Confederate Pastoral Churches are necessary yea essential matter of a National Church or Christian Kingdom when it is past being a meer Embrio or unshapen Mass and is come to be a well shapen Politick Body Till then it is but as the body in the womb while the punctum saiiens first maketh the Heart Eyes Brain and Arteries before it hath made the Stomach Liver Lungs and Intestines It is not yet come to shew what Christ's Institution of a Church was § 5. But our great Controversies are I. Who be the Organical Pastors that must make up a National Church II. Who must be the Lay-members of those Churches III. What that Confederacy must be that must unite them IV. How far the Members are bound by that Confederacy And because Ignorance hath made these Points of so much Controversie and Consequence I will open them distinctly By which I conjecture it will appear that Dr. Stillingfleet differed but about the right wording of the definition of a National Church Chap. V. Of Pastors or the Bishops of National Churches that they are to be of Three ranks § 1. THat Pastors are the prime necessary part of the Matter of a Kingdom-Church tho' not the Unifying Form is plain in Scripture and in the nature of their Office and of a Church § 2. The Independent Separatists therefore shew gross Ignorance when they make a meer Community unorganized to be a Church in sensu Politico and then must have a Lay-man that was of the Universal Church before to be by the Peoples Votes chosen a Member of that Church while it hath no Pastor and then chosen their Pastor after Whereas a meer Community is no more a Political Church without a Pastor than a Community is a Kingdom that hath no King individual or collective existent or virtual Or than this can be a School without a Schoolmaster or a Family without a Head of it § 3. As Nature first formeth by the Soul and Spirits ex materia seminis the heart and prime organical parts and by them formeth all the rest and last of all formeth the Stomach and Intestines to be the Organs of future nutrition and then putteth in the nutriment which in the Chicken is the Yelk of the Egg the bodily stamina being first made of the white and then closeth up the before enclosed stomach upon that food so Christ did first by his Calband Spirit make some prime organical General or Indefinite Ministers and by them make others fixed in particular Churches and Offices and by them edifie and feed and perfect the Body by their Official Ministration and fit the people to digest the received food for their continued nutrition And as the King first maketh General Officers for his intended Army and then by them or immediately commissioneth Generals and Captains to raise their several Regiments and Companies and doth not make the common Souldiers before the Officers that are to Rule them so was it done by Christ at the gathering of his Church But when a Church is gathered or an Army raised they are not to be dissolved or disbanded when the Pastor the Captains or Generals die but continue in the existent state of a Community and the state of a Virtual Policy till a Pastor or Ruler be chosen because the Legal Institution de specie keeps up a virtual or intentional Policy still § 4. Christ's first Instituted Officers were Apostles and after the Inferior Official Disciples immediately from himself to convert Souls and make them fit matter for his kingdom-Kingdom-Church and these were afterward to gather into distinct regular Congregate Churches such as were so converted by their Ministry and to place fixed Elders over them § 5. These Twelve Apostles and Seventy Disciples were first instituted in and for a National Church state Christ found the Jews under a National Form and therefore did not at first change that Form but only changed the Laws and Ordinances made for their Infant state of peculiarity which he had fulfilled for them they being but a Paedagogy to lead to and till Christ § 6. It 's plain that the number of Twelve and Seventy were chosen as related to the Twelve Tribes all then in being and known and of the Sanedrim or great Council And therefore a National Form of Church-Officers and not yet Universal nor Congregational § 7. Therefore Christ himself would not Preach beyond the Tribes of Israel nor give the Childrens bread to Dogs till he was finally rejected by the Children of the Kingdom and ' so the Kingdom taken from them and given to a Nation that would bring forth the fruits of it And he forbad his Apostles to go among the Gentiles and confined them to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel § 8. It is plain that Christ would have this just number of twelve kept up in relation to the twelve Tribes till the Kingdom was taken from them because one and but one was to be chosen in Judas room and so the due number of the Twelve to be kept up This proveth the Institution of a disparity of Ministers § 8. The Keys of the Kingdom were given first to the Apostles before the empowering of the seventy and that as to distinct superior Officers And the word Keys signifieth Government when Christ is said to have the Keys it is expounded by his opening and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth The Government was laid on his shoulders as King and Counseller Isa 9. 6 7 8. And as his Father gave the Keys and sent him so he sent his Apostles and gave power to them § 9. But there is no doubt but this Power
called the Keys or Governing Power extended both to the ordinary and the extraordinary part of the Apostles Office and included even such miraculous power as Peter executed on Ananias and Sapphira and Paul on Elymas and which is called giving up to Satan that the Flesh may be destroyed and they may learn not to blaspheme When there were no Christian Magistrates Christ made his Apostles the executioners of his justice as to sentence as Satan was in executing their sentence not when and how they pleased but as the Spirit determined them § 10. That the office of the Apostles was partly for an ordinary sort of work to be continued to the end of the World and partly for the extraordinary work which ended with them or is now ceased is past dispute 1. The extraordinary work was 1. To be immediately sent by Christs own mouth and to go upon that Mission and act by that Commission in which also the seventy did concur 2. To be the Witnesses of what they had seen Christ do and of what they had heard him say 3. To deliver this to the World by Preaching and Writing as such first Witnesses 4. To do this under a Promise of Christ that he would give them his Spirit to bring all things to remembrance and to lead them Infallibly into all Truth 5. To speak the Languages which they had never learnt by art or use 6. To work Miracles to confirm their Testimony and Doctrine and to have the Gifts of Prophecy Healing c. In which tho others did partake with them yet it was but for a time and not as a standing Office and Power 7. To Sentence some men as aforesaid to Satans Execution 8. To be the first planters of Congregate Churches and ordainers of their Pastors or Elders and authorized to institute such Orders and Subordinate Officers Deacons Deaconnesses by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost as should continue 9. To be Inspired Infallible Expounders of the Prophecies and Types of the Old Testament And the Infallible deciders of Controversies 10. To be Instrumental by Imposition of Hands in giving the extraordinary miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost to others All these are works that God hath made no Promise of continuing to the end and therefore this part of their office ceaseth § 11. II. These following Works of the Apostles cease not and therefore in these they have Successours to the end 1. To Preach Gods Word and Publish the Gospel by voice or writing 2. Indefinitely to Teach and make Disciples of all Nations tho' they could not Universally go to all yet to go as far as they could and as they were called 3. To gather Churches of the Converted and settle Elders over them and to be chief tho' not sole Agents and Guides in ordaining them 4. To take care and oversight as General Pastors of the Churches Gathered and Ordered as being not confined to be Officers only of this or that single Congregation tho' they might also divide their Provinces for order sake and have their most usual habitation fixed 5. To administer the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper where ever they came as General Ministers 6. To censure or use discipline authoritatively in various Churches 7. To try Causes upon Appeals from several Congregations 8. To do all this as instituted Officers Superior to the Interior particular fixed Elders and Churches All these continue § 12. That all these are works to be continued is plain in Scripture 1. The first is common to them with all Christs Ministers in the Office of Elders And so is the fifth 2. The second must be done by all occasionally and as far as the work of their particular Churches will allow But that differeth much from doing it as the Work of a General Officer specially Commissioned for such general Indefinite work and tied to no one setled Church save for Temporary service As we use to say that which is every mans work is well done by none in comparison of that which some are specially appointed to Others may do it These must do it Others will make it their second work but these their first 3. The same I say of gathering and setling particular Churches Others may do it These must do it 4. The fourth is proper to general Officers to take a stated official care and oversight of many Churches as confined to no one Others must Secondarily take a Brotherly care But General Officers take a Fatherly Stated care of them as their province or charge It would be tedious to cite all the texts that mention Pauls and Barnabas and such others care to preserve and edifie the several Churches which they had planted Paul staid at Ephesus some years to carry on this edifying setling work so did John and other Apostles in their Provinces This was not to play the Bishop in other mens Diocess as it would be in a common Pastor if he should intrude without the particular Pastors consent which yet a General Officer may do 5. The same I say of Censuring 6. And of trying Causes officially in various Congregations There is the same reason for these in all Ages as there was in the first 7. And that all this be done as by General Officers superior to the particular fixed Elders hath the same reason for it now as it had at the first All these are works that may still be done and therefore must have Officers to do them § 13. That Christ intended a setled Institution of such Disparity of Ministers as to the Ordinary part of the Apostolick Office I prove as followeth 1. Because having found a disparity before in the Jewish Church he offered not to repeal it when he offered to gather all that Church to himself as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings Yea he sent the Lepers to the Priests and bid men hear them in Moses Chair and owned the disparity § 14. Because he formed a disparity himself as is aforesaid between the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy and that in some Conformity to the Jewish Church Policy And tells his Apostles that they shall Judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel § 15. Because he suiteth his Governing Laws and Discipline much to what he found among the Jews This is evident in Mat. 5. where he doth but vindicate the Law from the Pharisees abuse And Mat. 18. 15. where he formeth his Discipline much to their Method And many Learned men have proved that the Jews Baptized Proselites before John and Christ Baptized And they had the Ten Commandments before And Selden and others shew that they had a Prayer before very like the Lords Prayer And Grotius sheweth that they had Synagogues in every City even to small numbers like our Parish Churches or Chappels And Christ submitted to the Rulers of the Synagogues for his own leave to Preach § 16. I once doubted in my Dispute of Church Government whether the Apostles Superiority was not only for their peculiar advantages
Interest hath once fixed them do censure me for changing and repenting that temptation shall not prevail with me to deny Learning and Repenting till I know at what Age we must fix our ne ultra or who be the Teachers that we must believe as infallible while we dispute against Humane as well as Papal Infallibility § 2. I therefore penitently confess that I was long aversly suspicious of National Churches and National Church-Goververnours because I could not see how those that held these could confute Popery For I thought that by the same reason that Presbyters must have Bishops over them and Bishops Arch-Bishops and they Metropolitans or Patriarchs these also must have some body over them to Ordain them and to Govern them And because I denied the latter I denied also the former and thought Episcopacy would infer Popery § 3. And lest any should fall by the like temptation and Papists should plead my Principles as for them or should infer that if National Churches and Prelacy be Jure Divino Universal Church Soveraignty is so also I shall here tell those that may have the like temptations how I escaped this And I will add the rest of the difficulties that ever seemed to me to be of considerable weight to tempt an impartial man to Popery and tell the less studied how to answer them better than the most can do § 4. I have long known that Popery doth not essentially consist in the other Errours about Doctrine or Worship as Images praying to Saints and Angels Masses Relicts Merits Justification Free-will Purgatory Transubstantiation c. If a Greek or Armenian or Abassine hold these and no more he is not therefore a Papist You may call them Integral parts of Popery if you will but not essential The Essence is only the Opinion of Universal Humane Church Soveraignty and a Church Universal Unified and formally Constituted thereby § 5. This is considerable 1. Quoad Rationem Rei 2. And quoad Rationem Nominis 1. As to the Thing it is such a Soveraignty feigned whether in a Monarchy Aristocracy or any mixt or other Form as being an Usurpation of Christ's Office and making a Vice-Christ which is an Antichrist 2. As to the Name it is called Popery from them that place this Soveraignty in the Roman Pope though it would be the same thing if they placed it in the Bishop of Constantinople § 6. Of these there are three sorts of Papists 1. Some place it in the Pope alone 2. Some in the Pope and a General Council or Clergy agreeing 3. And some in a General Council the Pope being only Principium Unitatis as having the primam sedem priviledged ordinarily to call them and moderate And in the Intervals of such Councils in an Aristocratical Colledge of all the Bishops in the World governing per literas formatas This last as most irrational I have at large confuted It is the other two that deserve further confutation § 7. And seeing it is the summa Potestas or Soveraignty that is the unifying and denominating Form of a Political Society it clearly followeth that those that now go under the name of Papists or Roman Catholicks are indeed of three distinct sort of Churches and not as they pretend of One But names not understood delude the ignorant saying it is but One Church maketh it not One. § 8. They uncharitably and very hurtfully mistake 1. Who say that Popery essentially began when God and Constantine exalted the Bishops and Pride in many abused that mercy 2. And they that say it essentially began when Image-worship began 3. And they that date it from the assumed Name of Universal Bishop or Head of the Universal Church which Leo I. assumed and Phocas gave Boniface as long as they meant not the Universal Church on all the Earth but only the Universal in the Empire which was long meant § 9. Now among all temptations to Popery I never found any of difficult weight but these I. The Apostolical Office continueth in its ordinary continued Part and Work But Universal Church Government is an ordinary continued Part and Work of the Apostolick Office Ergo Universal Church-Government continueth that is de jure divino II. The Superiority of one National Church Government is Jure Divino Ergo so is the Superiority of an Universal Church Government III. The Roman Policy seemeth greatly advantageous for the Preservation Honour and Propagation of Christianity in the World and hath much upheld it IV. The scandalous divisions of the Reformed and other Churches are so dishonourable and weakening and dangerous to Christianity as seemeth to make the Roman Policy and Unity necessary V. The Errors of the Protestants in their Opposition to Popery are so many and gross and their unjust accusations of the Papists so palpable especially their Exposition of the Revelation so Partial Erroneous and Hostile as seemeth much to make their Cause more suspected than the Papists § 10. These Reasons which prevailed with such great Men as Erasmus Cassander Grotius and many others need a more accurate answer than most Protestants are prepared to give which we should find were the Papists by Liberty of Religion let loose to open Disputes among us I have tryed some Judicious Ministers with the first of these and have had but such answers as are defective and insufficient § 11. The Answer which satisfieth me is this We must distinguish 1. The Apostles Power as Promulgators of Christs Law and a Legislative Power to make Laws of their own 2. Between a Legislative and a Judicial and Executive Power 3. Between an Universal and an Indefinite Power and Exercise 4. Between a Power to be used personally disjunct each one his part in his own Province and a Power in many conjunct making one Political Person or Supreme as in an Aristocracy 5. Between proper Regiment where Authorit as Imperantis is the formal Object of the Subjects Obedience and Contract or Consent for Brotherly Agreement and Communion And so between a Confederacy and a Political Society and between Inequality in Teachers and Perswaders and Inequality in Commanders § 12. This much presupposed we must enquire what the Apostles Power was that we may know how much of it is continued as ordinary And I. Names used by Christ and the Holy Ghost were not useless to the notifying of the things signified by them And Apostolus signified much more than Episcopus To be an Apostle was by Christs own Mouth or special Revelation from Heaven to be one sent Indefinitely to be his special Witness and Messenger to publish his Gospel to Infidels and work Miracles to confirm it and gather Churches hereby But a Bishop as such had not this Mission and Power § 13. II. The Apostles Power to speak of Christ his words and works as Eye and Ear-witnesses is not continued to Successors no more than the confirming Power of Miracles § 14. III. The number of Twelve and Seventy two were a National Form fitted to