Degrees of Authority and Jurisdiction For else they were advanced to nothing when they were elected or promoted to it 't is absurd to say they succeeded only to what they had before And what would the Apostolical Office over other Church-Officers signifie if they had no Power to oversee and govern them But that the Apostles both had and exercis'd a Power over them the Holy Scripture and Primitive Antiquity may abundantly satisfie you For we find St. James the Apostle and first Bishop of Jerusalem not only presiding in the great Council held there but likewise by his own Authority deciding the Matters debated in it about the Gentil Converts speaking in that commanding Style It seemeth goood to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon them no greater Burdens than these necessary things c. after which we find Timothy Ordain'd Bishop of Ephesus 1 Tim. 1.3 and exercising Episcopal Jurisdiction over that Church 1 Tim. 3.1 which extended over all the proconsular Asia Ch. 9.11.5.22 in which he commanded that the Laity be diligently instructed the Clergy provided with a competent Maintenance admitting none to be Deacons but upon due Examination and Ordaining none to be Elders or Presbyters till they had well-perform'd the Office of a Deacon receiving Accusations against them and putting guilty Persons to an open Shame all which are Acts of Power and Jurisdiction Again We find Titus left in Crete to set in Order the things that were wanting and to Ordain Elders in every City Tit. 1.5 By which it appears That he had an Episcopal Power confer'd upon him to do that in Crete which the Presbyters that were there before had not and this Power extended not only to the setting in order what was wanting and the ordaining of Elders but likewise to the rebuking of obstinate Offenders with all Authority Tit. 2.15 first admonishing them and if they persisted in their Obstinacy punishing them with the Censures of the Church Chap. 3.10 and rejecting them from the Communion of it which are all Acts of Power and Jurisdiction But this Power say some was only Temporary and to last no longer than the Days of the Apostles who were the first Planters of these Churches Why so Was there not the same Use and Necessity of these things in the following Times as there was in the Days of the Apostles Is there not a constant need of ordaining Elders and exercising Discipline and Censures in the succeeding Ages of the Church as well as the first Again where hath Christ limited this Power and made it Temporary Yea hath he not plainly made it perpetual by promising to be with them to the End of the World Which could not be with them in their own Persons who died in a little Time after but with them in their Successors who follow'd them in their Office to whom the same Promise of Assistance and Encouragement is given to the End of the World Beside Does not Ecclesiastical History give us a particular Account who succeeded them in their several Churches A Catalogue of whom you may find in Eusebius and many other Writers So that nothing in Antiquity is more plain than that the Apostles had a Power over others for the well-ordering and governing the Church and that this Power was deriv'd down to their Successors the Bishops who have exercis'd the same in the several Ages of the Church ever since Which Form of Government being first Instituted by Christ and seconded by the Practice of his Apostles and succeeded to in the primitive Churches by our Saviour's express Approbation is abundantly enough to make it an Order distinct from and superior to Presbyters Jure Divino and consequently there is little Reason why you should think it a Grievance to assent and consent to that which the Christian Church hath in all Ages assented and consented to But here you fly to Scotland and would know what I think of that and other Countries that have cast off the Government of the Church by Bishops Sir Though I have no Inclination to meddle with the Affairs of any other Church yet since the Importunity of your Argument requires an Answer I must tell you That as particular Persons and Bodies of Men may be guilty of Schism by breaking off from the Communion and Discipline of a National Church so a whole Nation or Country may be justly charg'd with it in breaking off from the Communion and Discipline of the Catholick Church of which that is a Member And this is the unhappy Case of your beloved Scotland which by casting off the Ancient Apostolical and Primitive Discipline and Government of the Church by Bishops and likewise by laying aside a Liturgy or Forms of Prayer for publick Worship both which having been received in the Christian Church ever since its first Establishment is thereby become Schismatical For by so doing it hath cut it self off from the One Body of the Catholick Church and is become no longer a sound Part of it but a Sect and Excrescence of it But you will say what then will you condemn all the Inhabitants of that Country as living in the Grievous and Damning Sin of Schism No Sir There were some who voluntarily and violently acted to the laying aside the Liturgy and Episcopacy in that Church and thereby wilfully brake the Communion Worship and Discipline of the Christian Church and these are truly and properly guilty of the hainous Sin of Schism which if not repented of and amended in Time will prove as fatal to them heareafter as 't is to the Church here But beside these There are many Thousands in that distracted Kingdom who abhorr'd and endeavour'd to prevent that wide and miserable Breach in the Catholick Church But being over-power'd were forc'd to see and bewail that miserable Rent made in it and can only wish and pray for the Peace and Repairs of Jerusalem Now these are no ways to be charg'd with the Guilt of this Schism for here the Succession being altogether involuntary 't is to be reckon'd their Unhappiness but not their Fault And the like may be said of the Inhabitants of some other Countries who being by the Misfortune of Times and Place depriv'd of that way of Worship and Discipline that should unite them to the Catholick Church may not be charg'd with that Schism which they could neither foresee nor prevent but being by unavoidable Necessity brought under it God Almighty will have Mercy upon them and make up that in the Ever-blessed Society of Saints hereafter which they want of the Communion of Saints here But do you not see say you in the Letter of June 28th how those whose Turn it is to be the Establish'd Church in that Kingdom may turn their own Artillery upon you and talk to your disaffected Brethren in the same strain as you do to us and tell them That all the Distractions and Divisions of that Church are to be put upon the score of their
pick and chuse out of publick Orders and Establishments to obey what they please and refuse the rest Is not this to let loose the Reins and suffer every one to do only what is right in his own Eyes Is it not strange that any should own or vent such wild Principles of Confusion 2dly Secondly The other hard Term you complain of in the Injunction of the Liturgy is your being commanded to use That and no other And where 's the Hardship of this Would you have the Liturgy enjoin'd and the use of another thing set up by its side How can this consist with any Order or indeed with common Sense Or would you have the Liturgy enjoin'd and the use of it left free This would be to enjoin and not enjoin it at the same time and can any Establishment stand upon such a precarious and inconsistent Bottom If a Liturgy containing all the daily and constant Matter of Prayer and Praises together with all the standing Offices of Religion be enjoin'd and no other it thereby becomes necessary to be used and excludes the use of any other And if it be so full as to comprehend all that is needful to those ends what need is there of any other Unless you think it necessary to ask the same things every Day in new and varied Expressions Which can't with any colour of Reason be affirmed Besides the Liturgy of the Church is not so strictly enjoin'd as never to permit the use of any other For in your private and secret Devotion you are at liberty to use your free or compos'd Prayers And in publick too upon any new Occasion or Emergency other Prayers appointed by Authority are and ought to be used But for the ordinary and standing Offices of publick Worship as there is no Occasion so there is no need of any other Lastly for the further clearing of this Matter let us see the Grounds and Reasons of this Injunction And if that make it necessary for all Persons and Occasions you will easily see the weakness both of your Complaints and Objections against it Now the great Reason of enjoining publick Forms is as sundry Acts of Parliament declare the Uniformity of publick Worship whereby alone one regular and uniform way of serving God may be preserv'd among all the Members of a National Church And this makes it necessary for all Persons Places and Countries who according to the Apostle's Direction desire With one mind and one mouth to glorifie their great Creator But I find you with another Brother of yours often styling this That pitiful thing call'd Vniformity that never enter'd into the Mind of God or his Son to command It seems you can agree well enough in a Form of Railing tho' not of Devotion But is Uniformity such a Pitiful thing which alone can help us to speak the same things and to agree in our Petitions which our Saviour hath made necessary to the Success of our Prayers Is that to be so undervalued that wise and knowing Men have so highly prized in all Ages And will you call that a Pitiful thing which puts such a Form and Comliness into Religious Worship as to render it more prevalent with God and more pleasing in the Eyes of Men Hath not the Wisdom and Piety of our Governors thought fit to establish an Uniformity ever since the Reformation And have they employed all this Time and Care and Prudence about a Pitiful thing Is not this a vile Reflection on our Superiors in Church and State Can there be an Instance of greater Pride and vain Conceit that some have of themselves In a word does not this plainly shew that Arrogance and Obstinacy are the great Vertues and Perfections of our Dissenting Brethren But an Vnity say you in the Matter of Prayer is sufficient without any such Vniformity in Words and Syllables But Sir sad Experience which is the best Argument hath taught us That when the Unity of Forms was by a prevailing Faction laid aside the Unity of the Matter of Prayer soon went with it For Men fell a praying one against another And when the Pales of the Church were taken away the grossest Blasphemies in point of Doctrine as well as the greatest Divisions in point of Worship immediately broke in upon us The Enemy taking Opportunity to sow those Tares that can't be rooted out to this Day This hath been acknowledged and lamented by some sober Presbyterians themselves particularly by Dr. Tuckâ—ey in his Sermon on 2 Tim. I. 13. and Mr. Edwards in his Gangraena To which I refer you Thus I have shewn you how far we agree about the enjoining Forms of Prayer And have endeavoured to carry you further by making you sensible of your Mistake where you differ But to take off the Force of all this I find you questioning the Authority that commands these Things which must be examin'd in my next I am SIR Yours M. H. August 14th 1697. LETTER V. SIR I Have been comprizing the Difference between us about the Injunction of Forms by shewing the reasonableness of enjoyning them on all Persons and Occasions for Publick Worship And likewise how fit it is that all the Members of a National Church for the sake of Peace Order and Uniformity should join in the use of them and no other But because you have some Exception against the Authority that thus imposes them I must endeavour to remove or adjust that Matter For in yours of June 28th you would have me tell you Whom we mean by Superiors And who or what those Rulers are that Christ hath vested with such a vast Authority as to command an Invariable Form and the rather you say because we are divided in this point among our selves One part of the Disputers for the Church of England making the King the External Civil Governour but the Bishops the Internal Governours of the Church as a Church c. Sir I know none of the Regular Sons of the Church of England divided in this Point And I hope to shew from the Concessions of the most eminent Presbyterians that the Difference between them and us in this Matter is not so great as is imagined To this end let us see what Power is lodg'd in the Civil Magistrate about Sacred and Spiritual Things And what is peculiar to those Spiritual Officers and Ministers which Christ hath appointed in his Church and by that means you will see plainly who are those Rulers and Superiors that may command in these Things 1. First There is a Power in the Church that is purely Spiritual Such is That of Preaching the Word Administring the Holy Sacraments the Power of Absolution Ordination Confirmation Excommunication and the like This is the Power of the Keys committed by Christ to the Apostles and in them to their Successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church And this Commission is peculiarly directed and confin'd to them No Civil Magistrate having Authority of doing any of these Things For when
in his Church yet he never gave any Authority to Ecclesiastical Persons to controul the commanding Power of Princes in lawful and indifferent Matters But left all such things intirely to their Disposal and Determination And we never read That the Apostles or Primitive Christians ever claim'd such a Power or suffer'd for disobeying in such Things There is but one Limitation assign'd of our Obedience and that is To obey God rather than Man If the Commands of God and the Prince clash and contradict each other there the Prince hath no Right to be obey'd because his Will is counter-manded by a Superiour Authority And therefore we find Christ and his Apostles who were very tender of giving the least Offence to Secular Powers in lawful and indifferent Things would yet yield no Obedience in things forbidden by the Express Will of God This is evident in Matters between God and the King And 't is no less so in the Case between the King and his Subjects where if the Spiritual Power of the one clash with the Temporal Power of the other 't is manifest which must yield the Inferiour Power being to give place to the Higher Powers For St. Peter stiles Kings and Emperors Supream in their Dominions And a Supream you know can have no Superiour Power upon Earth to controul or over-rule him But tho' the King say some be Supream in Temporal Affairs yet there may be and is a Superiour Power to him in Church-matters This is the Power that is claim'd and usurp'd by the Pope over Christian Kings and Emperors And there are others who are great Enemies to the Pope that put in their Claim to the same Power in these Matters and would fain take it out of his Hands to put it into their own But St. Peter from whom the first claim as his Successors expresly asserts Kings to be Supream in their Dominions without Limitation or Exception of Spiritual Matters And what Authority have any to except where the Spirit of God makes no Exception And our Saviour Christ from whom the latter claim hath no where limited or circumscrib'd the Sovereign Power of Princes in these Things So that Kings had need look well to the Rights of their Crown to preserve them from the unjust Pretensions and Encroachments of both Besides what mad work must two Co-ordinate Supremacies make in the same Kingdom For since Sacred and Civil Matters are many times so closesly twisted and inter-woven together that they can hardly be separated or distinguish'd what sharp and unavoidable Contests must frequently arise about them And if these two Rival-Supreams differ about the extent and limits of their Power what shall the Subject do who cannot possibly obey or please both For since no Man can serve two Masters the serving of the One will be the despising of the Other which may draw on him the Displeasure of both And can it be conceived that the Great Sovereign of the World who hath styl'd himself A God of Order and not of Confusion should lay such a Stumbling-block in our way and leave so weighty a Matter upon which the Peace and Welfare of Kingdoms depend to such great Uncertainties Again if these two Rival-powers fall at variance who shall reconcile them or what shall decide this great Controversie Why nothing upon Earth is able to do it but the Sword with which the Spiritual Power hath nothing to do for that hath no other Weapons but the Censures of the Church and can only strike with the Thunder of Excommunication and if these be dis-regarded as they too often are it hath nothing left to preserve or maintain a Supremacy So that if the Sword be the only Weapon to defend it he who is of right intrusted with that is thereby design'd and constituted Supream But those Scriptures you say that require Obedience and Subjection to the Higher Powers respect Church-governours 300 Years before the Christian Magistrate appeared in the World Sir If you consult Expositors or the History of those Times you will find those Scriptures to respect the Roman Governors who then sway'd the Imperial Sceptre To whom our Saviour would have all due Submission and Obedience paid For he commanded To render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar 's He acknowledg'd Pilate's Power to be given him from above And the Apostles and Primitive Christians demean'd themselves towards them accordingly Indeed for the first 300 Years after Christ when the Roman Power not only persecuted but sought to root out Christianity the Church was govern'd by its own Laws and by its own Legislative Power provided the best it could for its own Safety and Edification but when the Roman Emperors embrac'd Christianity to the great Joy of the Christian World they took the Church into their Care and Protection which by that means got out of that heavy Storm of Persecution under which it had long labour'd and began to flourish in Peace and Prosperity For Constantine and other Christian Emperors built Churches for publick Worship and provided for the decent Celebration of it They conven'd General Councils and often presided in them ratifying their Canons with their Imperial Edicts and enforcing them with Temporal Sanctions and Penalties By which means the Church is derived down in that happy and flourishing State in which it now continues Thus Sir you see who those Rulers and Superiors are that may enjoin an Invariable Form And I hope I have in some measure satisfy'd your Demands and remov'd your Exceptions against the Authority that enjoins them But when you have nothing to say against the Authority of Superiors you are wont to complain of the Injustice and Severity of their Laws and to cry out of Persecution when you suffer for the Breach of them how justly this is done must be examin'd in the next I am SIR Yours to serve you M. H. August 10th 1697. LETTER VI. SIR I Shew'd in my Last what that Authority is that lawfully may and hath enjoin'd Forms of Prayer together with the Equity and Obligation of those Laws that require them My next Task must be to inquire into the Reasonableness and Justice of those Penalties that are annext to the Violation of them And this must be the rather done because I find you talking much of Goals and Imprisonments and other Hardships which you have endur'd upon the account of them You complain most bitterly and frequently of Persecution as if you lived under Nero or Dioclesian and felt all the Tortures that were inflicted on the Primitive Christians and that for the same or as good a Cause too All which is done merely to derive an Odium upon the Laws and Lawgivers and to procure the greater Pity and Liberty for your selves And here I must observe a double Artifice which I find you making use of the one to evade the Duty the other the Penalty of these Laws To effect the First you are wont to call the Injunctions of Superiors not by the Style of
Superiors in Church and State as you exact from your Inferiors and then you will soon see the reasonableness of this Submission for without this Government would be Precarious and Subjection Arbitrary for every one that could not or would not see the reasonableness of Laws would exempt themselves from all Obedience to them By which means all Humoursom Proud and Perverse People might controul and nose their Superiors and cast off all Duty and Subjection to them And what mad work would it make in Church and State if no Laws were valid and binding unless every scrupulous peevish or ignorant Person should consent to and approve of it But will not this say you require Obedience to Arian Popish and Presbyterian Governors when they happen to be uppermost And in another place you tell me that this Doctrin would have done special Service in Queen Mary's Days and will bear a Man's Charges through all the Turks Dominions Sir in what Country or under what Governors soever we shall happen to live we are oblig'd in Conscience to obey the supream Authority of it in all lawful Things For Power being the Ordinance of God extends to all such Things as are not countermanded by God himself but if they command any thing that is unlawful or forbidden we are not bound to yeild Obedience yea we are bound not to yeild it because we are to obey God rather then Man when their Commands happen to clash or interfere But then the thing must be plainly and evidently forbidden by some express Law of God before we can withhold our Obedience for if the thing commanded be but doubtful or disputable if the sinfulness of it doth not manifestly appear but depends only on some remote uncertain and far fetch'd Consequences if more and wiser Men judge it lawful than unlawful here in such doubtful Matters which is our present Case the Authority of Superiors ought to over-rule our weaker Judgments and we must submit our private to the publick Wisdom and if we are at any time misled this way it will not be ours but the Superiors Fault and if it be not in a Matter apparently sinful 't will never be charg'd on us but those who have the Command and Conduct of us But how come they thus boldly to challenge a Judgment of Discretion who when time was denied it to all others tho' they put in the same Claim to it Are you Sir the only Men of Discretion to whom all others must submit And must none be allowed any Judgment of it but your selves This is a farther Instance of your abominable Pride and Partiality But because this and your Plea of Conscience is mightily insisted on as the main Dispensations from Obedience 't will be requisite to give some farther Account of it which shall be done in my next In the mean time I am SIR Yours M. H. Sept. 26th 1697. LETTER VIII SIR I Consider'd in my last your Judgment of Discretion and shew'd how far it ought to stoop to the Judgment and Discretion of Superiors But because this and the Pretence of Conscience which is indeed but the same Plea is commonly alledg'd to take off Obedience to Laws and is by too many thought a good Dispensation from it I promised to give some further Account of it To which end I must enquire into the Nature and Rule of Conscience and shew when it is a good Rule to guide our Actions and when not To which I shall add some things touching an erroneous doubting and scrupulous Conscience 1st And First For the Nature of Conscience It is nothing else but a Man's Mind or Judgment concerning the Good or Evil the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of things and according as the Mind is well or ill instructed or perswaded of them so it is either a good or bad Conscience Now the Rule of Conscience is the Will of God made known either by the Light of Nature or plain Scripture or by direct Consequence and Deductions from it for God being the sole Lawgiver and Judge of Conscience he alone hath the Right to govern and direct it which he doth by all or some of these Ways By which we may learn 2dly When Conscience is a safe Rule to guide our Actions and when not and this is the more carefully to be minded because very bad things have been done by misguided Consciences We read of some who in killing the Apostles thought they did God good Service and St. Paul in persecuting the Church did it as himself declares in all good Conscience for he verily thought that he ought to do many things against the Name of Christ and 't is well known what vile things have been acted under the Mask of a real or pretended Conscience And therefore it must be duly regulated before it can safely direct or justifie our Actions and how is that Why thus when it is well informed out of God's Word and passeth a right Judgment on things then 't is a good Guide and leads us in the way that we should go But when 't is ill advis'd and entertains wrong Notions then 't is a blind and false Guide and leads into Bogs and Errors in which last Sense 't is not so properly stil'd Conscience as Humour Fancy and Mistaken Opinion For the better clearing hereof we must note further That there are some things which the Law of God hath made necessary by commanding them and there are other things which it hath made sinful by for bidding them And besides these there are some things of a middle and indifferent Nature which God hath neither commanded nor forbidden In the two former sort of things our Consciences are tied up by a direct and immediate Obligation laid on them by God himself for we cannot omit any thing which God hath commanded neither can we commit any thing which he hath forbidden without apparent sining against him but in the things of a middle and indifferent Nature which are neither commanded nor forbidden our Conscience is at Liberty and may be no further restrained than by the Rules of Obedience to Governours for the publick Good or as we shall think fit by the Rule of Prudence and Charity to restrain our selves So that in these indifferent things wherein the Power of the Magistrate chiefly lies we may be restrained by Humane Laws made for the Peace Order and good Government of Church and State to the Observance whereof our Consciences are tied up not by a direct and immediate Obligation as in the former things but secondarily and mediately by Virtue of a Command of God requiring us to obey Magistrates and to submit to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And being thus oblig'd to obey them for Conscience sake 't will be absurd to make Conscience a Plea for disobeying them Now when the Mind is thus enligtned from God's Word and fully perswaded of the Truth of these things taking things commanded for necessary and things forbidden for sinful and those
to be with them to the end of the World Matth. 28.19 And St. Paul's Wo be to me if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 But to how bad Purposes these are applied to your Case will be obvious to any that will consider the different State of things in the Apostles and our Days For the Apostles lived under Heathen Governors who for bad them to speak in the Name of Christ and required them to stifle that Message which they had in Charge to deliver and therefore might well ask the Question whether it were not more fit to Obey God rather than Man Whereas Thanks be to God we live under Christian Princes who not only embrace the Christian Religion themselves but guard it with good Laws to propagate its Doctrin and preserve its Peace and Unity Again the Apostles received not their Calling and Authority from Men or by the Hands of Men but immediately from Christ himself and therefore might not be restrained or be deposed by Men. Whereas we tho' we Execute a Function whereof God is the Author and are also called of God to it yet we are called and ordain'd by the Hands and Ministry of Men and may therefore by the Ministry of Men be deposed and restrain'd from the Exercise of it Hence we find the Old Non-conformists declaring That whilst the Bishops suspend and deprive according to the Laws of the Land so long we account their Action therein as an Act of the Church which we must and ought to Reverence and yield Obedience to and if it be said The Church is not to be obey'd when it Deprives or Suspends for such Causes as we in our Consciences know to be insufficient They answer That it lieth in them to Depose who may Ordain and they may Shut that may Open or else there could be no Proceedings against any Guilty Person that depraves the Doctrin or disturbs the Peace of the Church who will always think or pretend themselves guiltless Furthermore the Apostles had such an immediate Guidance and Assistance of the Holy Ghost as led them into all Truth so that they could not err in the delivery of their Message whereas we cannot now without Vanity pretend to any such immediate Assistances or if we should daily Experience would apparently confute it Men frequently falling into those Errors both in Opinion and Practice that make it necessary to restrain them These things well consider'd plainly shew the Difference between the Apostles Case and ours in respect of the publick Exercise of the Ministry which is so manifest That St. Paul's Wo be to me if I Preach not the Gospel might be sometimes inverted into Wo be to the Gospel if Preached by such Men. But 't is Sacrilege say you to alienate Consecrated Persons from the Work to which they are ordain'd Sir If any Consecrated Persons will alienate themselves from their proper Work through their own Default at whose Door must the Sacriledge lie Do they not rob God and the Church too of the Service they owe to both by rendring themselves unfit or uncapable of performing it And may not Hereticks Schismaticks and other notorious Offenders be depriv'd or restrain'd from the Exercise of the Ministry for fear of Desecrating such Holy Men But the Notorious Necessities of the People say you many of which are in darger of perishing through Ignorance Sensuality and Debauchery call for our Assistance Sir There are Regular and Well qualified Men enough in the Church of England to instruct the People in all things necessary to their Salvation and Thanks be to God there is no want of such as are both able and willing to do so our Churches are all open where the Fundamentals of Religion are plainly unfolded the Rules of a good Life earnestly press'd and the Danger of Debauchery and all vicious Courses fully represented And 't is not less than a Calumny and manifest Untruth to insinunte That any are in danger of Perishing for lack of Knowledge The greatest Mischief is from your Evil Arts of seducing and drawing the People from those places where these things are clearly set before them And the Atheism Debauchery and other Evils you complaiâ— of are evidently occasion'd by your Separation for when Men discover the Fraud and Falshood of your vain Pretences they begin to suspect the Truth of Religion it self and are thence led to throw off all Besides if you would Preach where there is most need you should repair to those Places where the Gospel is not yet planted and scatter your Light in some of the dark Corners of the Earth But instead of that you are for Exercising your Talent not where is the greatest need of Instruction but where you may reap the greatest benefit by Division But you add That the People have as true a Right to their Souls as we have to our Tithes and an Atheistical Popish Prince or Patron can no more impose a Minister upon them than he can chuse Wives Diet Physick and force them to take them And In another Letter you say That for above a Thousand Years after Christ he was to be taken for no Bishop that was chosen by the Magistrate without the Clergy's Election and the Peoples choice and consent Now to set you right in this Matter 'T is granted That Bishops formerly were and still are Elected by the Clergy at which in ancient Times some of the People were present to give their Testimony concerning their Lives and Conversation Which Practice was grounded on that of the Apostles 1 Tim. 3.2 7. A Bishop must be Blameless and of good Report But in process of Time the People from the bare giving testimony put in their Claim to their Consent in the Election And this begat those Disturbances Factions and Troubles in the Church that occasion'd the setling this Matter by Laws and Canons The Nomination of Bishops being setled in the Emperors and the Donation of Churches in such as erected or endow'd them by which means Peace was restor'd to the Church and that liberal Provision made for it which to this Day it in some measure Enjoys Now Mr. Baxter and his Followers to gratifie the People and disturb the Church would fain renew this Quarrel and revive those popular Pretences to choosing their Ministers which occasion'd so many and great Disturbances Of this kind is your arguing from Men's choosing their Wives Diet c. in which they have a natural Right for their own private Peace and Comfort to their choosing of Bishops and Doctors in which the publick Peace and Welfare of the Church are so much concern'd Between which as there is a great Difference so to argue from one to the other is a manifest Inconsequence But I must not forget a famous Argument of yours for Preaching without or against Laws and that is taken from a certain Church-relation which you say there was between Pastor and People which the Barthelomew Act was not able to dissolve Where Sir do you
Finger of Presbytery heavier than the Loins of Episcopacy Further more 7thly When I told you of the false Glosses of the Pharisees you own them to be loose Expositors of the Law and give an Instance of it in their not making it to extend to the Internals of Religion but to reach only the Outward Man and to rest in the External Observance of your Ceremonies and Traditions This is intended for a Fling to the Ceremonies as mere outside formal things that are inconsistent with the inward Life and Power of Godliness But Sir Is the Worship of God to be perform'd without any Ceremonies If not is it not much more comely to behold Men joining and agreeing together in the same humble Postures of Devotion than to see them clash and using different Words and Gestures Does not the Decency and Order requir'd by the Apostles chiefly respect these things Does not an Uniform and Regular way of serving God add a Grace and Solemnity to Divine Worship And is it not much better to serve him in the Beauty than Deformity of Holiness The Pharisees Fault here again was to observe their Ceremonies and Traditions with an Opinion of Holiness and Necessity to look upon them as things as much commanded by God as the great and weightier Matters of the Law And yours likewise is to abstain from innocent Ceremonies with an Opinion of Sinfulness in them and to esteem them as things as much forbidden as the greatest Breaches and Violations of God's Law Now this is Superstition both ways and 't is as much Will-worship in you to say eat not taste not handle not the Holy Sacrament kneeling as it was in the Pharisees to say eat not taste not handle not God's Creatures with unwashen Hands Whereas the Church of England looking on these Ceremonies as merely indifferent and alterable Circumstances of publick Worship as you may see at large in the Preface before the Common-prayer and appointing them only for external Order and Decency hath carefully avoided the Superstition of both And yet to keep up your Party you tell the People that we make them necessary and essential Parts of Worship and that you abstain from them for the same Reason that Christ and his Apostles abstain'd from the Ceremonies and Traditions of the Pharisees because we place Holiness and Religion in them This Sir is very foul play at once to traduce the Church and seduce the People but to carry on your own Designs you care not what false Game you play or by what evil Arts and Accusations you compass them But you go on and say The Pharisees impos'd their Traditions and Ceremonies as Laws on Christ's Dissenting Disciples and were ever accusing and complaining of those that would not observe them Here after you had Aspers'd the Church you come to claw and flatter the Dissenters by seeking to draw in Christ and his Disciples into the Number of them and would make them as much Non-conformists and Separatists from the Jewish Church as you are from the Church of England But with how little Truth and Sincerity this is affirm'd we may easily learn from the History of the Four Evangelists where we read That Christ and his Apostles liv'd in the Communion and comply'd with the Ceremonies and Customs of the Jewish Church from which the Pharisees were but a Sect or Excrescence As for our Blessed Saviour he was by Birth and Circumcision a Member of the Church of the Jews in both which Senses Gal. 4.4 he is said to be made under the Law And being thereby a Debtor to keep the whole Law he accordingly paid an exact Duty and Conformity to it In his Infancy he was not only circumcis'd the Eighth Day according to the Law given to Abraham but was soon after presented in the Temple and his Mother purified according to the Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law When he was grown up we read that he frequented the Synagogues of the Jews every Sabbath Day Luke 4.16 For St. Luke tells us That as his Custom was he went to the Synagogue on the Sabbath Day and stood up for to read Upon which Words a very Learned Author tells us Dr. Lightfoot vol. 1. page 1040. That 't was his constant Custom to go to that Synagogue of Nazareth as his Parish Church every Sabbath Day where he sometimes read himself and withal join'd with the Congregation as a Member of it in the other Parts of the Divine Service adding That he punctually observ'd all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Synagogue Worship Yea though the People of Nazareth were none of the best as appears by that proverbial Speech Can any Good come out of Nazareth Yet he made no Separation but continued a Member with them till the Fear of his Life and other Business of his Function call'd him thence In his departing thence having heal'd a Leper of a dangerous Leprosie Matth. 8.4 he bid him go and shew himself to the Priest and offer the Gift due by the Law of Moses upon such occasions But to shew the exact Conformity of Christ and his Apostles to the Jewish Church we must note That God Almighty appointed three great and memorable Feasts viz. the Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles to be observ'd of all the Members of that Church And lest they should think it sufficient to do it by themselves at home in the particular Places of their abode they were commanded to repair to Jerusalem and that not severally and at different times but to go up at the same times and meet there together at the Celebration of those great Festivals which was done to tie them the faster together in one Communion Now the Evangelists frequently acquaint us with Christ's resorting to those Feasts And the forecited Learned Author after his recounting some of the many Ceremonies us'd at them tells us That Our Blessed Saviour was a punctual Observer of them all And of the Apostles we read that They were continually in the Temple Blessing and Praising God Luke 24.53 Again we find our Saviour present at the Feast of the Dedication And we read of the Feast of Purim which were not of God's immediate Appointment as the three former but injoyn'd by Civil and Ecclesiastical Governors in their several Ages In short we find Our Lord in the Night in which he was Betrayed taking the Passover with his Disciples and observing the Rites of it Matth. 26.19 20. So that 't is plain that he both Liv'd and Dyed in constant Communion with the Jewish Church After his Resurrection when he had fulfilled all Righteousness and all the Types and Prophecies of the Old Law were accomplish'd in him by which he abundantly shew'd himself the true promis'd Messiah he put an end to the Jewish Oeconomy and Instituted the Christian Church which he gave a Commission to his Apostles to plant and propagate every where and furnish'd them with extraordinary Assistances and Gifts of the Holy Ghost to
that end And this is that one Catholick Church or Body of Christ which Himself and his Apostles would have kept entire without any Schism or Division in it To which end they have left a strict Charge upon all the Members of it to Keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace which can only be by joyning together in one Fellowship and Communion And now what think you Sir are Christ and his Apostles to be reckon'd in the Number of Dissenters and Non-conformists Nay have they not left an Example of strict Conformity to the Jewish Church of which they were Members and shew'd an exact Compliance with all the Rights and Ceremonies not only of Divine but Humane and Ecclesiastical appointment us'd in it And will our Saviour think you approve of Rents and Dâ—ssâ—â—â—ions in the Christian Church which he hath 〈◊〉 his own Body upon the account of these things No certainly the Precepts to Unity and the Prohibition of Divisions are far more urgent under the Gospel than ever they were under the Law And how can you conceive Schism and Separation to be signs of Grace and purer Christianity when they are so directly contrary to the Rules and Precepts of both Thus you see Sir that your additional Stroaks serve but to add to the Resemblance and your compleating the Character of the Pharisees only shews you the more compleatly like them But you have something farther to say of the Pharisees Prayers and ask Whether they were by a Liturgy or not Which must be examin'd and answered in my next I am SIR Yours M. H. LETTER XVIII To J. M. SIR I Shew'd in my last that the additional Stroaks you gave to the Picture of the Pharisees did but encrease the Resemblance and what you added to compleat their Character serv'd only to make it look so much the harder upon you I proceed in this to consider what you have farther to say concerning your Prayers and here when I told That the Pharisees Prayers were remarkable for two Things viz. their length and their loudness you very fairly quarrel with both for your caviling Humour will scarce let any thing pass And therefore something must be added for the Illustration of both As for their length Our Saviour hath recorded it for a piece of their Hypocrisy Matt. 23.14 that they made long Prayers No say you 't was not the length of their Prayers but the making of them for a Pretence that is there blam'd But Sir Did not the making of them for a pretence imply an Opinion of some greater Excellency in them than in shorter Prayers Men are not wont to pretend to but hide Imperfections and if the Pharisees made these Prayers for a Shew or Pretence 't is a sign they took Prolixity for a Perfection and Ornâ—ment of their Devotion and plac'd greater Holiness and Sanctity in them that they had a value for long Prayers and valu'd themselves upon them which was the thing I observed in them As for their Lowdness we read That they pray'd in the Corners of the Street which being done for Ostentation and Vanity and before great Concourses of People Lowdness was necessary to attain their Ends and therefore as they sounded a Trumpet before their Alms that they might be seen of Men so they lifted up their Voices like a Trumpet in their Street-prayers to be heard of them But whatever becomes of the Lowdness you cannot away with blaming the length of Prayers For was not Jacob's say you a long Prayer Yea was not David's Solomon's Nehemiah's and Daniel's so Sir There are far more Examples of short than of long Prayers in Holy Scripture and we read of much greater Successes to have attended the one than the other As for the Prayers you mention the first of them was but like one of our short Collects the other like our longer Forms Compos'd for publick Fasts and Thanksgivings but none of them like the tedious long-winded Harangues of Extempore Prayer besides the former being the inspir'd Prayers of the Prophets and Dedicated by the Spirit of God upon some Solemn Occasions were both for Matter and Words sound pertinent and pithy Whereas yours proceeding from the sudden and hasty Conceptions of your own Brain are far from either being oftentimes full of Impertinences Tautologies and Unsoundness But was not the Lord 's a long Prayer say you when he continued all Night at it And the Primitive Christians spent sometimes many hours together in Prayer and some of their Fasts were Celebrated with Prayers prolong'd from the Morning of one Day to the beginning of another Sir 'T is a great Mistake to think that they spent all this time in Verbal or Vocal Prayer or that they were all this while speaking and uttering Words unto God No a great part of this time was taken up in silent and devout Soliloquies in Pious and Heavenly Meditations and the inward breathings of Mental Prayer which were very frequent and made up a great part of the Devotion of those Times As for our Saviour's continuing all Night in Prayer much of that time was doubtless spent in the secret Elevations of the Heart for we read of no other Words utter'd by him all that time but O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not my Will but thine be done The Disciples were so far from joining with him that they slept away the greatest part of the Night however having utter'd these Words once he awoke them and pray'd again the second time O my Father if this Cup may not pass away from me except I drink it thy Will be done After which he pray'd again the third time without any variation saying the same Words And with these few unvaried Words together with many inward Sighs and Groans that cannot be utter'd he past that Night before his Sufferings with great Devotion and hereunto the Apostle alludes when he tells us of Christ's praying to his Father with strong Cries and Tears Besides Our Saviour having blam'd the Heathens for their much speaking and the Pharisees for their long Prayers he was careful not to leave behind him an Example or Encouragement of either As for what you say of the Primitive Christians spending many Hours and sometime whole Nights in Prayer and Fasting you must not think that this was always done with the Voice or the Use of Words for the ancient Fathers tell us That a great part of their Service was perform'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Silence that is with the inward Motions and Desires of Mental Prayer which are oftimes more acceptable with God than the greatest multitude or variety of Words But you would have me tell you whether the Pharisees long Prayers were by a Liturgy or no And if not where is the Jewish Service that Christ and his Apostles frequented Adding That you believe we should find in those Days no other Common-Prayer-Book but the Bible Sir That the National Church