so to believe as having received authority because the Aopstles in holy Scripture are called Presbyters that was the ordinary Governours and Magistrates of the Church though the more principall and primary ones and therefore did act as Presbyters in ordinary acts of Church government and for a pattern to all Churches in like administration Neither may any suppose for all this that the Apostles did fall lower in their power in that they acted as Presbyters for our Brethren do acknowledge that at Ierusalem the Apostles acted as Presbyters of a particular Congregation Now then if they did not fall lower in their power by acting as Presbyters in a particular congregation what reason will dictate to any man that they should fall lower in their power by acting as Presbyters in a joint Presbytery The truth is to govern and to rule the Church was the ordinary imployment of the Apostles and therefore they are stiled Presbyters which is to say the Rulers Councellors Magistrates and Governours of the Church neither for all this did their Presbyterships exclude their Apostleships nor did their acting as Presbyters deprive them of their Apostolique power nor of that apostolique spirit which guided them even in these things wherein they acted as Presbyters for although under one notion we looke upon the Apostles as extraordinary men yet under another as in all those affaires of publique concernment and in matter of government and for that end the assembling of themselves together we do not consider them as Apostles for therein they did not act as Apostles with a transcendent and infallible authority and in an extraordinary way but as Presbyters and ordinary Governours and Counsellors and in such a way as makes their meetings and actions a patterne and president to succeding ages and of the Prerbyters congregating of themselves together for common acts of Government whether in a Presbyterian or Synodicall way And as it is in civill affaires and in the government of Kingdomes and States so it was then in the Church of God in a Kingdome some of the Counsellors are of the more secret admission and are generally called Cabbinet Counsellors and are accounted of as extraordinary men and others of the generall Councell yet when all these sit in a common councell together to consult about matters of State and publique concernment they sit then together as ordinary Counsellors and every one of them has as much authority and liberty to debate things by reason and dispute in way of consultation and to give his vote about any thing as well as any of the most extraordinary Counsellors and this hath been the practise of all ages We read that Hushy when he was by Absalon called into councell had his voice and gave his vote as well as Achitophel the Oracle of that time and as in the Common-Councels and Parliaments of Kingdomes whatsoever honour dignity or extraordinary imployments any of them were taken up in before their session and meeting or whatsoever dignity or titles of honour they have extraordinarily above others and take their places accordingly before they come together into the Parliament yet they all sitting there as Judges and Peeres in the Kingdome the meanest Lord in the Kingdome hath as much authourity there as the greatest and so in the House of Commons as they are Judges and chosen by the people for that purpose have all of them even the meanest as much voice and authority in way of consultation as the greatest And so likewise in the Synod or Assembly now of Divines the meanest Presbyter hath as much voice and liberty in way of debate and voting as the greatest Bishop there And even so it was in the Church of Jerusalem when the Apostles those extraordinary gifted men and presbyters met together in counsell they all acted there as counsellors and ordinary presbyters and therefore in all those particular actions of the Apostles we have mention of in their severall meetings whether we consider them by themselves alone and not joyned with the presbyters or in common councell with them those actions I say were done and acted by men which were Apostles but not as they were Apostles exclusively so as they might not act them under another notion neither will our Brethren affirme it for if the Apostles did preach take the trust of the goods of the Church ordaine Officers as Apostles exclusively and in an extraordinary way and as by a priviledge peculiar to themselves it would follow from thence that none may doe any of those things but Apostles which the Brethren will not assent unto as for some instances In that ordination of Deacons in the sixth of the Acts the Apostles there acted partly as Apostles and partly as presbyters for in constituting an office in the Church which was not before they acted their apostolicall authority but in ordaining men to that office which the Church had chosen they did act as presbyters and there is no doubt but the Brethren will yeeld to this for if they will not grant that the Apostles did herein act partly as Apostles and partly as presbyters they must then accord that they acted either onely as presbyters or onely as Apostles If onely as presbyters thence it will follow that all presbyters have power not onely to ordaine men but to erect a new office in the Church If onely as Apostles then hence is no warrant for presbyters so much as to ordaine men into any office nor for so much as to meet together to consult about acts of government either in a presbyterian or in a Synodicall way and by this meanes all Church-government would speedily be overthrowne Neither is it a difficult thing in our Brethren or any other man to distinguish between these two for looke by what infallible rule they make some thing in the practise of the Apostles to be not onely a patterne and president for imitation but even a proofe of institution yet decline other things practised by the same Apostles as things not only by institution not commanded to us but not permitted to be imitated by us By the same rule they may infallibly distinguish between what they acted as Apostles and what they acted as Presbyters and as ordinary Counsellors Judges and Governours and withall they may infer and conclude that what they acted as Presbyters and by joint and common consent it was to give a patterne and president to all Presbyters and Synods in all succeeding ages and as the taking in of the consent of the Church in the choice of Deacons Act. 6. was to give a patterne for the sufferage and voice of the people in all Churches to the end of the world in chosing of their Deacons so for another instance as there were many congregations in the Church of Jerusalem and divers assemblies and all these congregations made but one Church and the Apostles and Presbyters who were officers governed that jointly and by a common councell as our Brethren acknowledge Here likewise
and mine in all our distresses many curtesies when we found little favour from our own brethren which their humanity I must never forget but with all due thankfulnesse for ever acknowledge I say if then this my opinion was thought Orthodox and worthy of their applause I see no good reason why a truth then should not be counted a truth now for the Word of God out of which I had it is the same and if it were good then it is good now for the change of mens minds cannot change the truth but it must be ever truth but this my opinion I learned out of Gods Word then which shall be for ever by his gracious assistance the warrant of my beliefe and practice This Word therefore I desire all my Christian Brethren in the deciding of this question now agitated amongst Gods people and his faithfull servants concerning Church-government to take into their hands and with those noble Bereans to sit down and examine whatsoever shall be said on either side according to the holy Scriptures and I intreat them also to lay aside all passion which Religion has no need of and all vain-glory and bitternesse which is a dishonour to our holy calling and in the spirit of meeknesse and with a Virgine judgement not ravisht with any previous or anticipated opinion to come and approach to the Altar of truth and so consider and examine which of those two opinions the Brethren on both sides now sacrifice themselves unto be the offering that will best endure the firy-tryall 1 Cor. 3.13 14 15. viz. Whether the Presbyterian government Dependent or a Presbyterian government Independent both now laid upon the Altar be the acceptablest service and best pleasing sacrifice This is granted on all sides and of necessity it must be yeilded unto that that Oblation is the best and most acceptable that is offered up by faith without which it is impossible to please God and that sacrifice only is offered up by faith which is according to his Word and has its warrant from his revealed will which is the rule both for worship and the government of his Church we are to be guided by The Brethren on both sides agree about the rule in deciding of this Controversie and make the written word the rule They agree also about the materials both acknowledgeing a Presbytery the difference between them is only about the mould and manner of the offering I will therefore state the questions between us and shew wherein we differ and then set down my own opinion with my reasons and after endeavour to be a Moderator for the determining of this unhappy difference which hath been an occasion of so much rejoycing to the common Enemy There is a twofold question between us they call the Presbyterians and our Brethren they tearme Independents The first is concerning the government of the Church viz. whether it be Presbyterian Dependent or Presbyterian Independent The second question is concerning the gathering of Churches but of that in its due place The first question is whether many Congregations or Christian Assemblies commonly called Churches in our dialect in the which there are all the acts of worship or all Ordinances as the pure preaching of the Gospell the due and right administration of the Sacraments the true invocation of God Discipline rightly executed and all other performances which make for the essence and form of a true Church and in the which assemblies likewise they have all such offices and helps of Government as in their severall places being rightly imployed may serve for the edification of the same and mutuall comfort and benefit of each other and the preservation of all as Presbytors Elders Deacons and all other Officers I say the question between us and the brethren is Whether all these severall Congregations and Assemblies may be accounted but one Church or make but one Church within their Precincts and be to be under the government and rule of one Presbytery or a Councell or Colledge of many Presbyters together upon which all the Congregations and severall Assemblies under it are to depend and to which in all weighty businesses they are to appeal for any injury or conceived wrong or scandall or for redresse of any abuses in Doctrine or manners and for the exercising of Church-Discipline upon incorrigable and scandalous offenders as admonition for giving offence suspension from the Ordinances till amendment and reformornation or if obstinate Excommunion Or whether every one of those particular Congregations or Assemblies be they never so small severally or considered a part and by themselves be Independent that is to say have full and plenary authority within themselves without reference to this or any other great Councell or Presbytery for transacting or determining all differences about faith or manners amongst themselves or for the redressing of any grievances or abuses or the exercising of the power of Discipline or jurisdiction and from the which there is no appeal for relief though the parties offended conceive they have never so much injury or wrong done them In a word whether two Presbyters with a slender Congregation have an absolute kinde of Spirituall Soveraignty among themselves in their own Congregation and as ample authority as was given to the whole Colledge of the Apostles Mat. 17. and to the whole Presbytery in the Church of Jerusalem And this is the first Question Which that it may the better be understood I will propound it in a simile and that in a matter well known unto all men The government of this famous City of London and of many other great Cities through the Kingdome are called Corporations that is to say majestracies and have in them a Secular or Civill Signory or Presbytry who are invested with Authority to exercise all acts of Government amongst themselves as if they were an absolute Principality and this Government by which all Citizens and inhabitants within their Precincts and liberties are to be ruled and ordered as occasion and necessity shall require is committed to the Lord Mayors Aldermen and Common-Councell who onely by such other Officers as they shall allegate are to manage and exercise this government so that all particular Citizens and all the Companies of severall Tradesmen are in their particular Wards Precincts and Fellowships by their constitutions and Charter to depend upon the determination of that Counsell and are to make their addresses unto them upon any urgent occasion or conceived wrong or when it concernes the common good and for the time to stand unto their arbitrement Now then the question between us and our Brethren is as if there should arise a controversie in these severall Corporations Whether the Companies in each City where they all have their severall Halls and their severall assemblies and meetings upon all occasions and have all their Officers and exercise also a power of ruling and jurisdiction among themselves be independent that is to say have plenary authority within themselves
without reference to the Lord Mayor or Aldermen or Common-counsell to determine of all things among their severall Companies and from the which there is no appeale for reliefe though one be never so much injured and damnified by any unjust act and whether these severall Companies and severall Assemblies be each of them a severall Corporation or Magistracy or all of them put together make but one Corporation under one civill Presbytery consisting of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-counsell This I thought fit to propound that every one may the better understand the question Now as this kingdome of England hath its severall Corporations through all Counties and the which Corporations although they have their severall Companies in them yet are all dependent upon a civill Presbytery and Common-counsell and every Company in them makes not a severall Corporation or Magistracy or a severall City but are all dependent upon the Common-counsell or Presbytery for the better ordering and governing of them in all their common affaires and for the redressing of abuses and taking away and removing of common grievances and have their severall appeals to the Common-counsell the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and if they finde no justice there nor satisfaction have their redresse and appeal to some generall Court or some supreame judicature as to the Parliament of the Kingdome who redresse and determine all things according to the lawes and constitutions of the whole Kingdome So in the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus Christ which is his Church all these severall Churches which we reade of in the holy Scripture of the New Testament are so many severall Corporations and Associations all the severall congregations and affemblies as so many severall Companies in them depending upon a Presbyterie or Common-counsell and Colledge of Pastors and Rulers all making up but one Church in every one of their jurisdictions and severall Precincts though they be consistent of never so many severall Assemblies according to the greatnesse of the Cities or Townes wherein they are or according to the severall Hundreds or Divisions assigned to each Presbytery and all these and severall associations to be governed by their severall Presbyteries for the better ordering and preserving of the same to the which every particular man as well as any Assembly or Congregation may have their appeal for the redresse of any abuses or enormities and if they finde themselves wronged there then they have appeals to some other higher Presbytrie or Counsell of Divines for relief and justice and both they and all other of the severall Corporations to be governed and regulated by the lawes and statutes given by Christ himselfe the only Head and King of his Church according only to whose lawes they are to be governed and ruled for the common good and preservation of the whole Church divided into those severall Jurisdictions Corporations or Precincts in imitation as neer now as may be of the Churches of Ierusalem Ephesus Corinth and Galatia c. and whose lawes alone must be the rule for the ordering of all their governement doctrine and manners I have premised this I have now said that all men may the better understand the state of the question and controversie in hand Now then if it shall be made appeare out of the holy Scripture that all the severall Churches we have mention of in the New Testament were all particular corporations or associations and governed by a common-counsell of Presbyters or by a Presbyteriall government in each of them and that there were many assemblies and congregations in those severall Churches and all of them had their distinct Officers amongst themselves in the which likewise they had all the acts of worship amongst themselves and did partake in al ordinances of Church-fellowship especially in the preaching of the Word Prayer in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper and yet made but one Church and were all governed by a common-counsell of Presbyters or by a common Presbyterie within their Precincts then it must of necessity follow that as the Mother-churches were first govern'd all the Daughter-churches to the end of the world must be so govern'd and according to that rule that is set down in the Word of God So then the question in hand between us and our Brethren is Whether there were many Congregations and Assemblies in any of those primitive Churches as in that of Ierusalem the Mother Church and many Elders or Presbyters in that Church and all other Officers and whether all those Congregations and Assemblies were one Church and those Presbyters and Officers all of them Elders and Officers of that one Church and whether all those Congregations and Assemblies were under one Presbytery This I say is the question between us and our Brethren Now then if it can be proved that there were more Beleevers in the Church of Jerusalem then could all meet in one place or in one congregation for all acts of worship and if it can be evidently elucidated that there were severall assemblies and congregations in the Church of Jerusalem and yet so as they made but one church for government then our Brethren must of necessity acknowledge that the church of Jerusalem was govern'd by a common-councell of Presbyters or was presbyterially governed Neither did our Brethren ever yet undertake to prove that in case there were many Assemblies in Jerusalem they had severall and independent presbyteries neither if they should go about to prove could they do it And therefore we may conclude and that with very good reason and warrantable authority that as the mother-Mother-church the Church of Jerusalem in her greatest glory was govern'd so all other Churches must likewise be regulated to the end of the world For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem Isay 2. v. 3. We must have both our Law from thence and our paterne of government And our Brethren doe make the Church of Jerusalem the patern of their proceedings Now that all things may be handled in good order and in a methodicall way I will reduce the whole Disputation concerning the first Question into these four Propositions and prove them in order The first That there were many Congregations and severall Assemâ—â—â—â—â— of Beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem in the which they enjoyed all acts of worship and all the Ordinances amongst themselves and did partake of all acts of Church-followship especially of preaching and in the administration of the Satraments and Prayer and that before the Persecution we reade of Acts 8. v. â— The second That all these Congregations and severall Assemblies made but one Church The third That the Apostles and Elders governed ordered and ruled this Church joyntly and by a Common-counsell and Presbytery The fourth That this Church of Ierusalem and the government of the same is to be a pattern for all severall congregations and assemblies in any City or vicinity to unite into one Church and for the Officers
of those congregations to governe that Church joyntly in a Colledge or Presbyterie But before I come to the proof of these particulars it will not be amisse in generall to take notice that all the Churches we read of in the New Testament were Aristocratically and Presbyterially governed and were all dependent upon their severall Presbyteries and that the ordering and managing of that government lay only upon the Presbyterie and was their peculiar who had the power of the Keyes Now Christ gave the Keyes to the Apostles and Presbyters only and whatsoever the Apostles did in ordering and setling the government of the Church they did by Christs command and that order and constitution they set down in the Church was to be perpetuated and continued to the end of the world And the violating of this order and divine constitution was the occasion of the rise and growth of Antichrist and the very cause of all those confusions that the Christian world hath for these many generations been wearied and annoyed with and the occasion of all those Schismes Sects and Heresies the world hath ever swarmed with and the re-establishing and reducing of it to its pristine constitution will be a means not only of removing all scandall and taking away of all division amongst Brethren and be a singular means also of establishing a flourishing governments in Church and State and for the procuring of the blessings of God upon the three Kingdomes but a way also of ruining that Man of Sinne and of making an absolute Reformation through the whole world Let us therefore first take notice what government was established by God in all the Primitive Churches Acts 1 â—â— And when they had ordained them Presbyters for so it is i◠〈◊〉 originall in every Church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they beleeved Here are two things observable The first that the government of the Church was committed to the Presbyters The second that the Presbyteriall government was that government that was established in every Church for so saith the Holy Ghost when they had ordained them Presbyters in every Church This was Gods ordinance Acts 20.17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the Presbyters of the Church Here we see there were many Presbyters in one Church And Vers 28. Take heed therefore unto your selves saith the Apostle and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Here as we may observe that in Gods Dialect Presbyters and Bishops were all one so likewise is evident that the Church was committed to their government this Church therefore of Ephesus was under a Presbytery and was to be regulated joyntly by them by a common-counsell of Presbyters And Paul to Titus chap. 1. vers 5. For this cause saith he left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest put in order the things that are wanting and ordaine Presbyters in every City as I appointed thee If any man be blamelesse c. for a Bishop must be blamelesse as the Steward of God c. From this place likewise we may take notice of the parity between Presbyter and Bishop and that the Presbyterian government was that way of ruling that God appointed not in one City only but in every City and that these Presbyters were the Stewards in Gods house which is his Church 1 Tim. 3. and had the government of those Churches in every City laid upon them which they were joyntly to governe and order by the common-counsell of Presbyters And Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy ch 5. v. 17. Let the Presbyters saith he that rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in word and doctrine Still we ever observe that the rule and government of the Church was in the Presbyters hands And the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews ch 13.7 Remember saith he them that have the rule over you who have spake unto you the Word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation And vers 17. Obey saith he them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your soules as they that must give an account c. And in vers 24. Salute all them saith he that have the rule over you and all the Saints Here againe he injoynes all the Churches to yeild obedience and to submit themselves unto the government of the Presbyterie shewing them that it is their place to obey and for their Ministers to rule and that so long as they command in the Lord they out of conscience ought to obey them and that for a double reason For they watch saith he for your souls and they must also give an account of their stewardship And in 1 Peter 5 1 2 3. The Presbyters that are among you saith Saint Peter I exhort who am also a Presbyter and a witnesse of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly c. neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being examples to the flock And Saint James chap. 5. ver 14. Is any among you sick saith he let him call for the Presbyters of the Church He doth not say of the Churches but of the Church So that the Presbyterian government was in every Church and every Church was to submit it self unto the Presbytery And in Acts 15. it is said that Paul and Barnabas went up to the Apostles and Presbyters c. And when they came to Jerusalem they were received of the Church it is not said of the Churches but of the Church and of the Apostles and Presbyters c. and Vers 6. And the Apostles and Presbyters came together to consider of the matter c. and Vers 22. Then pleased it the Apostles and Presbyters with the whole Church c. and wrote Letters by them after this manner The Apostles and Presbyters and Brethren And Acts 21.17 And when we were come to Jerusalem saith Saint Luke the Brethren received us gladly And the day following Paul went in with us in to James and all the Presbyters were present From all which places and many more which might be produced it is most clear and evident that in all Cities there was a Presbytery and that the Presbyters had the power of order namely of preaching and the power of jurisdiction that is of ruling which was ever to be exercised with others and not alone and that consisted in admitting of members and in conventing men before them upon occasion in admonishing if any offended in suspending from the holy Communion till reformation or amendment and if they continued obstinate and incorrigible in excommunicating and casting of them out of the Church and upon repentance in receiving of them in againe and in ordaining of
Officers and in appointing the times of meeting and the places where And within these limits as I conceive is all the power given to the Presbyters terminated and this they are by Gods ordinance joyntly and by the common-counsell of Presbyters to exercise and therefore the Presbyterian government was the order of ruling and governing all Churches that God himself established and is to be continued to the end of the world neither do I ever reade that the people or the congregations were joyned with them in their commission or had any power given them of ruling For Saint Paul professeth of himself in 1 Cor. 14.37 that whatsoever he writ in his Epistles were the commands of the Lord. And the same may be said of all the other Apostles Now Paul writ to Titus that the Churches in all Cities should be governed by a Presbytery And in his first Epistle to Timothy he commands Timothy againe and againe in chap. 5. vers 21. and in chap. 6. v. 12 13. I give thee charge in the sight of God c. That thou keep this command without spot unblameable till the appearing of our Lord Iesus Christ Here Timothy and all Ministers in him are to the end of the world bound to maintaine that government unblameable that was appointed by the Apostles and that was the Presbyterian government and the ruling of all Churches by joynt consent and a common-counsell or Colledge of Presbyters so that nothing ought to be done or transacted of publick concernment without their joynt and mutuall accord or agreement and common consent of the Presbytery And therfore when Diotrephes assumed unto himself and his particular congregation a power and authority to rule according to his will pleasure without the consent of the Presbytery opposed John the Presbyter he sharply reproves his proceedings signifies to the Church Epist 3. That when he came he would remember his words and teach him how to prate against the Presbytery with malicious words For he saith S. John contenteth not himself onely to prate maliciously against us but he will not receive the brethren nor suffer others but casteth them out of the Church which is an evill thing in him saith Saint John But for you saith he speaking to the Church follow not that which is evill but that which is good It was evill in him to assume unto himselfe alone and his particular Congregation that power that belonged unto the colledge or councell of Presbyters and was to be moderated and exercised onely by the conjoynt and common consent of the Presbytery For God had appointed that his Church should be governed by a Presbytery and Diotrephes would have his Congregation Independent and have an absolute jurisdiction within it self Which saith Saint John is an evill thing So that I cannot but wonder that our brethren the Independents should call Diotrephes the Patriarch of the Presbyterians as one of them did to me not long since whereas if the place be duely weighed and considered it will appear that he was the first that opposed the Presbyterian Government and for the which he was by Saint John sharply reproved and in him all that follow his steps and will not submit themselves to the Presbytry which is Gods Ordinance and that will not receive the brethren into the Churches but upon their own termes and conditions But of this businesse when I come to the second Question In the mean time it is by the Word of God sufficiently confirmed that all the Churches we read of in the New Testament were so many corporations in Christs Kingdome which were to be governed by a common councell of Presbyters And so for many years after the Apostles it was governed Communi consilio Presbytererum as our brethren the Independents do confesse and proove by antiquity and humane authority which weapon I do wonder they will contend with in deciding of Gods matters which are onely out of his holy Word to be proved which is to be the rule of our faith But it seems Saint Ambrose his Authority pleaseth them well though if we looke into it it makes much against them He lived as the Author that cites him saith within the fourth Centory his words are these upon the first of Timothy Synagoga postea Ecclesia seniores habuit quorum sine consilio nihil agebatur in Ecclesia Quod quâ negligentia obsoleverit nescio nisi doctorum desidia aut magis superbia dum soli volunt aliquid videri Take with it his own interpretation The Iewes Synagogue saith he and afterwards the Christian Church had Elders without whose counsell nothing was done in the Church which by what neglect it grew out of use I know not unlesse it were perhaps the sloath or rather pride of the Teachers whilest alone they would seem to be some body Here it is acknowledged by their own testimony that in the Apostles time and many years after the Apostles nothing was done in the Church without the counsell of the Presbyters so that it is evident the Primitive Churches were governed by the joynt and common councell of the Presbytery and the people had nothing to do with it We may adde here unto Saint Ambrose Saint Jeromes testimony who in his Commentaries upon the first chapter of the Epistle of Paul to Titus largely declaring himself as in many other places concerning the occasion of the change of that government established by the Apostles saith Idem est ergo Presbyter qui Episcopus antequà m diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent diceretur in populis ego sum Pauli ego Apollo ego autem Cephae communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur c. In the which words he acknowledgeth by the first institution all Churches were governed by the common councell of the Presbyters and not by the advice of the people Yea the very Canons of the Pope in the first part and the 95. distinction giving the reason why the Presbyterian Government came to be changed and the Hierarchiall was put in the place affirmeth that it was through faction and for the avoyding of further Schismes and rents in the Church and cities the very words before coted out of Saint Jerome and confesse that before that time the Churches were governed Communi consilio Presbyterorum not by the people or any one Prelate but by the Presbytery and their councell And if humane authority were needfull in this businesse I might make a volume with their very expressions to prove the novelty of the Hirarchicall government and that of the peoples jurisdiction assuming the Authority of governing into their hands and the Antiquity of the Presbytery and that by the enemies own consession But I am resolved to cleave onely unto the Word and sound reason deduced from thence for the deciding of this controversie being sorry that there was so much as occasion of naming humane authority in a point of Divinity As for the Presbyterian government in
Presbytery in that sense I take it I am so well assured that it is Gods Ordinance as I am of any point of Religion But as I said before if men may argue afthis way The Presbyters in the Apostles times did miracles and spake with strange tongues and their Scholers and Disciples did the same do you likewise and then we will acknowledge you to be true Presbytters otherwise we will not Thus the Jewes might have argued against all their Prophets as against Isaiah Ieremy Ezekiel c. Moses and Elias fasted forty dayes and forty nights and did many miracles do you so and then we will believe you are true Prophets and sent to us of God otherwise we will not believe you to be true Prophets Yea all the wicked and ungodly men of these times may argue thus also God gave unto his Church Apostles Evangelists Prophets c. and they spake all strange tongues and divers languages and did many miracles but you and your Congregations have neither Apostles Prophets nor Evangelists nor ye have not the gifts of Tongues nor ye can do no Miracle Ergò you are not the true Church The Primitive Christians and the servants of God in those times had the gifts of Tongues and Prophesie and the Holy Ghost came down upon them and they spake by direction from God his infallible truth and Gospell whose speeches were not tied to time and to one speaker but many spake one after another by interpreters as it is at large set down in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 14. vers 27 28 29 30. c. So that they spake infallible truth by direction from God but you have none in your congregations so miraculously inspired with sundry languages and divers tongues nor ye do not speak infallible truths by direction from God nor you cannot cure diseases nor do miracles Ergò your religion is not the same Religion nor your congregations the true Church shew us these miracles and then we will beleeve you to be the true Church otherwise we may not we dare not acknowledge you to be the true Church Again they may argue thus The Apostles and Primitive Pastors and Teachers preached freely and laboured with their own hands and were helpfull to the necessities of others and were not burthensome and exacting from others and spake ex tempore by direction from God but your Ministers in your Congregations do not preach freely nor labour not with their own hands nor are not helpfull to others necessities but are rather burdensome and exacting from others nor they do no miracles nor speak not immediately by inspiration and ex tempore but by Study and out of their Books and are confined to time and speak not in strange tongues and languages one after another by Interpreters Ergò your ministers are not Gods Ministers nor your Congregations the true Church nor your people true Christians for you want all those things that the Primitive Christians and the Primitive Churches had There is a Pamphlet lately come out and highly esteemed and prised amongst many full of such consequences as these which if they hold good against the Presbyters they may also for ought I know be of equall validity to overthrow not onely all Christian Congregations but indeed all Christian Religion But briefly to answer We look upon the Apostles and Primitive Presbyters as men miraculously and extraordinarily gifted and as wonder-working men for the confirmation of the truth of the Gospell to all succeeding ages and we consider in them and in the Christians of those times something extraordinary and temporary as their working of miracles and speaking of strange tongues and gifts of healing c. And those we conceive were to continue no longer in the Church then for the confirmation of the truth of the Gospel Christ himself proclaiming those blessed that believe without seeing of miracles speaking unto Thomas Iohn 20.29 Because thou hast seen me saith he thou believest blessed are they that have not seen and have believed So that miracles now are not ordinary and we are tied to the written Word But we consider likewise in the Apostles and Primitive Presbyters that that was permanent and to continue in all Ministers and Presbyters in all succeeding ages to the end of the world and that was the power of order and preaching and the power of jurisdiction that is of ruling which is not denied by the most learned of the Independents themselves and this I have proved by the Word of God to be transacted over to all Christian Churches whose Presbyters have that power given unto them neither will the Learned Brethren deny it what so ever the ignorant may do Yea the very name of a Presbytery as I said before if we look through the whole Scripture signifieth a Magistracy or Signiory or Corporation invested with authority of governing and ruling and such a counsell and company of men as upon whom the government under Christ is laid and to be extended so far as their jurisdiction extendeth and as far as by common consent it may make for the good and edification of the Church and for the safety of the same And such was the government of all those Churches of the New Testament which were as so many Committees their limits and bounds prefixed them as at this day all Committees through the Kingdome have in their severall Hundreds Wapentakes and Cities to whom the ordering and government of those places that are under them are committed so that all that is done or transacted must be done by the joynt consent and counsell of the whole Committee not any particular man or any two of them severally considered by themselvs can make an order but that order only is binding which is made by the joynt consent and common agreement of them all or the greatest part of them assembled together Even so all those particular Congregations that are within the compasse and jurisdiction of the severall Presbyteries are to be ordered and governed by the common and joynt counsell of the severall Presbyters or the greater part of them For this was the order the Apostles established appointing in every City a Presbyterie and when they had so ordered the Churches they set them all to their severall imployments the Presbyters to command and all the people and particular assemblies and congregations under them to obey neither is it ever found in the holy Scriptures that the people were joyned with the Presbyters in their commission So that they that oppose this government resist Gods Ordinance And if we looke into all the Epistles writ by the Apostles to the severall Churches we shall finde in them that they enjoyne all the severall congregations to yeild obedience to their Pastors and Rulers over them and signifie unto them that they owe unto them double honour especially such as labour in Word and Doctrine that is they must yeild unto them not only due reverence and subjection and obedience to their counsell and just
commands in the Lord. But that they should also afford them the honour of maintenance and take order there be a sufficient and competent yea an honourable allowance for their support and that as they minister to them spirituall food for their soules they should likewise minister unto them all things necessary for the maintenance of them and their Families that they may comfortably and without solicitous care follow their holy imployments and wait upon their severall Ministeries So that the place and imployment of the Presbyters is to teach and rule the people and this is their proper work and peculiarly belongs unto them and the imployment and place of the severall congregations under them is to hear and obey and therefore if the severall congregations do assume unto themselves the power of ruling they take more upon them then by God is allowed them and the Presbyters in yeilding unto it reject their own right and devest themselves of that authority that God hath put into their hands and by so doing in time may not only bring confusion into the Church but to all those Countries where such usurpations are tolerated I cannot but speak my conscience in this point And truly very reason dictates unto a man that they only should have the authority of commanding and ruling over the Churches to whom the power of the Keys is given Now it is given only to the Ministers and Presbyters as we see it in Iohn 20.21 and Matth. 18.15 16 17 18. Where our Saviour Christ established a standing government to be continued to the end of the world the violating and the overthrowing of the which was the cause of all those confusions both in doctrine and manners that is now come upon the world and was the cause not only of the rise but the growth of Antichrist And the reducing of it again into the Church the re-establishing of it will be the confusion of that Man of Sin and of all the Antichristian-brood and be a means of establishing truth and peace through the Christian world But it will not be amisse a little to consider that place in Matth. 18. If thy Brother saith Christ shall trespasse against thee go and tell him of it between thee and him alone if he shall heare thee thou shalt gaine thy brother but if he will not heare thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to heare them then tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to heare the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man and a Publican Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven In these words our Saviour Christ has respect unto the order and custome of judicature in those times in censuring mens manners and doctrines which among the Jewes was ordered and administred by an assembly and counsell of learned experienced and judicious men and by a Presbytery Consistory or Colledge of able men for governement chose and selected out of the people for this very purpose by such as could judge and discerne of their abilities the which assembly and company is by Christ himself called a Church because it did represent the Church and in this place Christ did establish the like to be continued in the Christian Church to the end of the world making his Apostles this representative body and their successors all the godly and holy Ministers and Presbyters and gives unto them the same power and Authority to judge and determine of all things belonging unto faith manners that was observed in the Jewish Church in all Ecclesiasticall Discipline For otherwise the Christian Church should be inferior to that of the Jews if they had not the same Priviledges for the censuring of manners and Doctrines and the same power of jurisdiction and ruling that they had Now all power of jurisdiction among the Jews was exercised not by the promiscuous multitude or by the whole Congregation nor by any particular man nor by two or three as the place above specifies but by an Assembly Senate Councell or Presbytery of understanding men assigned to that purpose which our Saviour himself calleth a Church and this government established in the Christian Church are the severall Presbyteries where all things are transacted by common and joynt consent and this was the practise of the Apostles at Jerusalem who did all businesse of publike concernment by common and joynt consent as is manifest in the first chapter of the Acts in chusing of an Apostle in Judas his place And in the sixt chapter in chusing of Deacons and in the 15. chapter in determining the question there in hand all in a Presbyterian way and by common consent And this is that government that God hath commanded to be perpetuateds to the end of the world in these words Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven So that the Presbyters onely have the power of the keyes and it is their place onely to ordain Ministers and Church Officers whatsoever Authority the people may exercise in the chusing of them as Paul writes unto Timothy and Titus and they onely are to judge and determine and to censure in matters of manners and doctrine and the people are to allow and approve it according to the Word of God Yea the very Synagogues of the Jews which were the same that our Churches are were governed by a Presbytery as our brethren acknowledge called by the name of the Rulers of the Synagogue who governed by joynt and common councell as is evident and manifest in that there were superior and inferior Judges Commanders and Rulers according as their yeares gravity and wisdome made them more eminent then others and venerable to the people as may appear in many places as Acts 18. ver 8. It is said there That Chrispus the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved with all his houshould So that if there were a chief Ruler or Judge or a President there must of necessity be a Councell or Segniory of inferiour ones that had Rule and Authority over others as well as he as where there is a chief Justice or Judge there are other Judges joyned with him as all reason perswades and there must needs be a Court of Judicature where all things are transacted by conjoynt and common consent and agreement and so it was in the Synagogues of the Jewes who were subject to and ordered by the determinations and arbitrement of their Rulers and Governours So that the severall Churches or Synagogues under the Jews were in subjection to those Rulers and were governed according as by common councell they ordered And Mat. the 5. vers 22. And behold there came one of the Rulers of the Synagogue whose name was
that time met together were capable of an Apostleship and such as were the most eminent of all Christs followers and such as were best instructed in Christian Religion as having been bred up in the doctrine of Saint Iohn the Baptist and under the Ministery of Christ himself the Prophet of his Church and therefore they were the Teachers of the Church and people who were their flock which they all fed in common And from thence it argueth that the multitude of Believers in Jerusalem was not only a distinct company from them but that it was exceedingly great and numerous that had so many Pastors and Teachers over them for if they had been but so small a company as is here mentioned and that the whole Church had consisted but of sixscore names then the Pastors exceed the number of the flock which is not only absurd to think but against the evident truth of the holy Scriptures which relate unto us multitudes upon multitudes that were daily converted by the ministery of Iohn the Baptist and of Christ and his Apostles and added unto the Church before this their meeting So that by this I have now said it is most clear and evident that all or most of these were the most eminent Ministers of the Gospell and the Presbytery of the Church But in this that our Brethren do acknowledge that this assembly here spake of were the Church it makes as much against them and greatly for us for it is manifest from the Text that they were the Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel and in that they give them the name and title of the Church it followeth that the representative body and Presbytery is a Church and that to them only belongs the power and authority of the Keyes according to that of our Saviour in Matth. 18.17 18. Tell it unto the Church c. and whatsoever ye binde on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven By which words all authority is put into the true Ministers hands so that they only have the power and authority of ordaining Pastors and Presbyters among themselves as Paul sufficiently declares in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus and that they have not only the title of the Church but a Charter and Warrant also granted unto them of ruling and governing the Church and of ordaining Church-officers and that by joynt and common consent among themselves without the help and assistance of the people and congregations under them which by God were never joyned in commission with them And howsoever Paul in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 6. For the taking away the scandall in going to Law before unbeleevers gave them liberty to make choyce of some that were least esteemed in the Church for the deciding of their controversies yet that did not authorize them to make choyce of all other Church Officers for he limits them to go no farther then to the choyce of such as are of least esteem And howsoever likewise the Apostles in the 6. of the Acts to free themselves from all impediments that they might the better attend upon their Ministeries and that without interruption they might Preach the Gospell gave them liberty to chuse their Decons and Deconesses yet they prescribe the Rule by which they shall chuse them and keep the authority of ordaining them still in their own hands Look you out among you say they men of honest report full of the holy Ghost and wisedome whom we may appoint over this businesse and when they had chose such saith the Scripture They put them before the Apostles and when they had prayed they layd their hands on them So that howsoever they gave unto them a Liberty to chuse yet it was with limitation not an absolute liberty for if they had chose men that had not been of approved honesty well gifted and wise and qualified as they appointed it was arbitrary in the Apostles to reject their choise for they keep the power of Ordination still in their own hands and to them it did belong to ratifie their Election so that the people had not the power of Ordination then nor have not to this day no not of the meanest Deacon or Deaconesse that belongs onely unto the Presbytery much lesse have they power of ordaining Presbyters Indeed for the deciding of controversies and differences they have a liberty given them of making choise of some petty men amongst them and that they may do without the Presbytery but they have no power of Ordination Neither did I ever yet read in the Sacred Scriptures that the people or Congregation had any hand at all in choosing of Ministers and Presbyters neither were they fit for that imployment for it is one thing to judge of a mans externall carriage and manners and another thing of his sufficiency for his indowments and abilities of learning and that men of learning and knowledge onely can do and the Sons of the Prophets and it is in speciall given in charge to the Presbyters and Ministers as it is manifest in the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus 1 Tim. 4.14 Tit. 1. And they onely know how rightly to examine them in the knowledge of the tongues and Sciences and such Arts as are requisite besides the knowledge of the holy Scriptures all which are little enough for the making of a Minister compleat and fit for that Sacred imployment And all the Primitive Churches in the Apostles times willingly submitted themselves to what the Presbytery then did and assented to their choyce as in the 14. of the Acts vers 23. it appeareth But I say in that our brethren do acknowledge this company this hundred and twenty names to be a Church and in that it is also sufficiently manifest that they are considered in a distinct notion from the people which also in the holy Scriptures when they are joyned with their Ministers are called a Church as is frequently to be seen through the acts of the Apostles and in that it doth abundantly appear by what hath formerly been spoken and will yet in the following discourse be farther elucidated that there were many congregations and Assemblies of beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem and that they were all governed by the joynt consent and Common Councell of the Apostles and Presbyters to whom the Apostles themselves were subject who were sent this way and that way by their direction and to whom they were to give an account of their Ministry as we see in divers places in the Acts and were ordered by them what they should do and also made their appeals unto the Apostles and Presbyters in any businesse of common concerement I say in all these respects it is evident that the Church of Ierusalem consisted of many Congregations and Assemblies and was yet but one Church and that governed by a Presbyterian Government and by a Common Councell of Ministers to whose order all the severall Congregations
been sufficiently proved that there were many Congregations in the Church of Jerusalem I report my selfe to any that have not the pearl of prejudice in the eye of their judgement and this shall suffise to have spoke for the proofe of my first assertion The second now followes viz. That all these Congregations and severall Assemblies made but one Church And for proofe of this I shall not need to use many words or any great dispute for the brethren themselves acknowledge that all the beleevers in Jerusalem were all members of that Church and they accord further that it was but one Church and it is manifest out of the holy Scripture for it is said they that were converted were added to the Church and therefore members of it and that they continued in the Churches communion and in the Apostles doctrine and put their estates in the Churches common treasury and chose Officers for the Church all this I say our brethren do acknowledge and take this fellowship of these members for a patterne of ordinary Church communion and therefore this my second assertion is without controversie it being in expresse words set downe in the 2 3 4 5 6. Chapters of the Acts and many more places of the same story and consented to by the Brethren I now come to prove my third assertion viz. That the Apostles and Presbyters governed ordered and ruled this Church consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies by a Common-councell and Presbytery Which is also evident by the places following Act. 11. And in those daies there came Prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch and there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth through all the world which came to passe in the daies of Claudius Caesar then the Disciples every man according to his ability determined to send reliefe unto the brethren that dwelt in Judea which also they did and sent it to the Presbyters by the hands of Barnabas and Saul Here in these last words we see that the Presbyters and none but the Presbyters received the almes for it is said they sent it to the Presbyters by the hands of Barnabas and Saul which sufficiently proveth that the Presbyters in all Churches were the men in government as who had the ordering and authority of appointing unto the Deacons how they should distribute those moneys that they might be best improved and disposed of which is an act of government as all men that know what belongs unto government will acknowledge Now should it be granted that these Presbyters here spoken of were the Presbyters of Judea which notwithstanding is not specified but only the distressed brethren in Judea yet had it been in expresse words set down that the almes had been sent to the Presbytery of Judea the Presbytery of Jerusalem must necessarily have been included in it as being the Metropolis of Judea and it was an ordinary thing for the Churches abroad and particularly that of Antioch to send to the Apostles and Presbyters of Jerusalem as we may see Act. 11. ver 22. and Act. 15. And by all probability Paul and Barnabas brought these almes to the Presbyters of Jerusalem for he in the fifteenth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans maketh mention of a contribution that was made in Macedonia and Achaia for the poore Saints in Jerusalem whether the Apostle saies he was going to minister unto them and desireth the Romans to pray for him that he may be delivered from the unbeleeving Jewes and that his service for Jerusalem might be accepted of the Saints which by the learned Interpreters is generally taken that Paul speaketh of this time and that they were then sent from Jerusalem to Antioch But howsoever it should be understood that these almes were sent to the Presbyters in Judea yet these two conclusions necessarily result from it The first that this expression comprehends also the Presbyters of Jerusalem as being the chiefe City of Iudea The second that the Presbyters in all Churches were the men to whom the government and ordering of businesses was committed and in whose hands the power and authority lay of disposing of the very charity and bounty of the brethren to all the necessitated Disciples within their jurisdictions and who gave directions to the Deacons how they should be distributed to the best emolument and benefit of the poore and according to the intention of these benefactors which as it is an act of Government and that a principall one so of necessity the Presbyters must then meet together that by their joint and common consent and counsell all things may be rightly ordered But in the chap. 15. v. 2.4.6.22 the Presbyters of Ierusalem by name are expressed and in chap. 16. and in Act. 21. v. 17 18. in these words Then they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certaine other of them should go up to Ierusalem unto the Apostles and Presbyters about this question and they were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Presbyters to whom they declared all things that God had done with them and how that there rose up certaine of the Sect of the Pharises which believed saying that it was needfull to circumcize them and to command them to keep the law of Moses and the Apostles and Presbyters came together to consider of this matter c. ver 22. Then pleased it the Apostles and Presbyters with the whole Church c. and chap. 16. v. 4. And as they went through the Cities they delivered them the Decrees to keep that were ordained of the Apostles and Presbyters which were at Ierusalem c. and chap. 21 v. 17 18. And when we were come to Ierusalem the Brethren received us gladly and the day following Paul went in with us unto Iames and all the Presbyters were present and v. 25. As touching the Gentiles which believe we have written and concluded say the Presbyters that they observe no such thing Out of all which places before I frame my arguments to prove that the Church of Ierusalem consisting of many Congregations and assemblies was governed by a Presbytery that is by the joint consent common councell of the Apostles Presbyters which made but a grand Presbytery I shall desire all men to consider that howsoever the Apostles in the places above specified are differenced by that title from the Presbyters yet in all acts of government performed by them in the Church of Ierusalem they were for the substance of them ordinary acts such as Presbyters daily performe and therfore answerably the Apostles themselves are in them to be considered as presbyters that is men governing in an ordinary way as such as had received the keys which is the power of jurisdiction therefore were in their ordinary imployment though at other times in their severall ministries and going from Nation to Nation to preach as Christs extraordinary Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5. they used superlative authority and I am induced
they left a patterne and president to all ages for severall congregations and assemblies in a City or vicinity to unite into one Church and for the Officers and Presbyters of these congregations to governe that Church jointly in a Colledge and Presbytery And for a third instance as the Apostles and Presbyters met together in a Synodicall way and the Apostles in that assembly acted not by an apostollicall and infallible spirit no more then the Presbyters did as when they were writing of Scripture but stating the question and debating it from Scripture in an ordinary way as it is at large discussed in Act. 15. which we never reade they did when they writ the Scripture and having by disputing arguing and searching the Scripture found what was the good and acceptable will of God thereupon they determined the question saying it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us as the assembly now of Divines or any other for ought I know upon like assurance of Scripture warrant may doe In this action also and their so doing the apostles and Presbyters left an example and president to all the Presbyters of all succeeding ages what they should doe upon the like occasions for the deciding of controversies and differences of opinions in Religion viz. To congregate and meet together in some one place to state the questions and to debate them from Scripture and to follow the written Word as their rule in all things and whatsoever they doe to do it by joint consent and the common councell of them all or by the most voices but in all this their proceedings they must ever cleave to the rule of the Word of God or warrantable authority and evidence of reason deduced from thence as then the apostles and presbyters did yea the very name of the Presbyters in Jerusalem signifieth the Judges Counsellors Magistrates and Rulers of that Church who had the keyes committed unto them as well as the apostles and by their place were more peculiarly overseers of that Church as they were tyed unto it then the apostles as the Presbyters of Ephesus were in that Church and were assigned in their severall places to execute their office and to looke to their particular charges in the government so that whether the apostles were present or absent the presbyters had the government laid upon their shoulders and if the apostles themselves had taught contrary to this constitution or an angell from Heaven Gal. 1. I am confident the Presbyters would not have obeyed them nor have relinquished their authority neither ought they but would still have kept that rule power and authority which God had put in their hands so that for my owne particular I looke upon the apostles in all these severall actions and in all those acts of government joyned and met together with the Presbyters as I looke upon Counsellors and Judges in the great councels of Kingdoms where all the judges have equall power authority in decisive voting and I do verily believe that the Presbyters siting at any time in councell with any one or more of the apostles did act as authoritatively as the apostles themselves I am ever able to prove it and make it good against any man that the Presbyters might as wel conclude It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us as well as the apostles and may say we have written and concluded as well as the apostles as any two or three of the Parliament whether of the Lords or Commons may as well say we have made such an Ordinance as any twenty of them or the whole councell and that without disparagement or impeaching the dignity of any when they joyned with them in that worke and assented to it and in this very notion I looke upon the presbyters in Jerusalem joyned with the apostles and consider them as in my contemplations I looke upon the Lords and Commons now sitting in the great Councell as the grand civill presbytry of the Kingdome where all binding Ordinances are to be passed by the joynt consent and Common-counsel of them all and whose place and office it is to command and rule and the peoples office and place to obey and yeeld subjection to whatsoever they command and injoyne according to the will of God and for the common good and preservation of themselves and the whole Kingdome and that whosoever should resist this their just authority are guilty of contumacy and are high offendors and delinquents for God hath layed the government upon them and left the duty of obedience to the subjects who may not without a publicke cale intermeddle with matters of government And so in the matters of Church government I looke upon Presbyters as Gods peculiar servants and as upon the Stewards Councellours and Magistrates and Judges in the Church as men set apart by God himselfe for this purpose to be the teachers and rulers of their flocks committed unto them in the Lord to whom in the matters of their soules all people under their severall Presbyters so farre as they command in the Lord and according to the written word are to yeeld obedience and much to reverence and honour them and this according to Gods command for it is his ordinance And they are not to be looked on and slited as the fagge ends of the Cleargy as many black mouthes and prophane lips speake of them for the Presbyters they have their authority as well grounded in the word of God as Kings and States have theirs and therefore as they are imployed in a more supreame orbe and in matters of eternall concernment so they should be venerated as men watching over our soules and all contumelious speeches against them deserve severe punishment and ought not to be tolerated and so much the more the Presbyters of this Kingdome in these our dayes have deserved better from the Church the Parliament and the whole Kingdome then any of their predecessors not onely in desiring a perfect and through Reformation in both Doctrine and Discipline but in that they have stood now so cordially to the comon cause and more for the liberty of the Subject then any before them and have cleaved most faithfully to the Parliament have bin also a most singular means of keeping the people whersoever they were suffered to Preach in obedience In all these respects I say they deserve well yea better not onely from the Church but from all the Kingdome for the present than any of their predecessours and their memories ought to be famous to all posterity for this their good service And that government that God has given unto the Presbyters if the Lords and Commons shall now labour to establish it in the Kingdome and to settle it on them they may not onely promise unto themselves a blessing from heaven and peace unto the Church and State but also immortall praise from all succeeding ages Having taken leave to make this digression I will now to my businesse and prove that
the Church of Ierusalem consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies were all governed by a common Presbytery and that the Apostles there acted as Presbyters among the Presbyters They that in the holy Scripture are called Presbyters and acted and ordered things in a joynt body and common counsell with the Presbyters and exercised that ordinary power that was committed to them in the 18. of Matthew they acted as Presbyters but the Apostles in governing the Church of Ierusalem consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies acted and ordered things in a joynt body and common councell with the Presbytery of that Church as Presbyters Ergo the Church of Ierusalem was Presbytrianly governed and by a common counsell of Presbyters The major and minor of this Syllogysme being proved the conclusion will necessarily insue And for proofe of the major the Scripture is cleere as 1 Tim. cha 4. ver 14 where Paul writing unto Timothy saith neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee to preach with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery in the which Presbytery Paul was one that laid his hands on him and ordained him as is evident in the second Epistle to Timothy chap the first verse the sixt where putting Timothy in minde of his duty he saith stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands so that Paul joyning in this publicke action of ordination though an Apostle yet acted as a Presbyter and counts himselfe in the number of them as any of the Presbyters that now ordaine the Ministers may say as well as all of them together to any new ordained Minister neglect not the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands As men ordinarily in a Jury may assume that unto themselves that all may doe as being actors in common So Peter likewise in his first Epistle chap. 5. ver 1 2. cals himselfe a fellow presbyter and Saint Iohn in his second and third Epistles stiles him so also The presbyter unto the elect Lady c. The presbyter unto the well beloved Gajus c. So that his presbytership did not exclude his apostleship nor the acting at any time of a presbyter deprive him of his apostolicall power for at that very time he cals himselfe a presbyter he wrote Scripture by an apostolicall and infallible spirit and yet continued still a presbyter Sothat for the major although I should say no more it is sufficiently proved yet for a further corroboration of it it is not good to reject the consent of our Brethren in this point for they acknowledge that the apostles are called presbyters vertually because as they say apostleship contained all offices in it yea they further assert the act of ministeriall power to be the same in the Apostles and Presbyters the onely difference they seeme to insinuate is in the extent from which it may be inferred that in all the affaires transacted by the apostles properly concerning the Church of Jerusalem they did act as presbyters because in such acts there was no extent of their power to many much lesse to all Churches But when they affirme that the apostles power over many congregations was founded upon their power over all churches and so cannot be a patterne and president for the power of presbyters over many For answer first I say that the Brethren in my opinion take more upon them then beseemeth them and usurpe a kinde of unlimited authority to themselves that they can make what pleaseth them exemplary only reject whatsoever agreeth not with their opinion though they were all the acts of all the apostles and transacted by joint consent and common agreement and accord and left in the Church of Christ as well for a patterne and president for the Presbyters and Ministers to follow in all succeeding ages to the end of the world as any of their other acts so they pick choose at pleasure and in so doing under reformation be it spoke I say they assume unto themselves a greater authority then beseemes them for they can make the apostles joynt gogoverning of one congregation for so they take it pro confesso that the church of Jerusalem was but one congregation to be a patterne of many ministers governing one congregation but whereas it is most evident that the Church of Jerusalem consisted of many congregations and were yet under but one presbytery and was governed by the joint consent of the Apostles and Presbyters as under a grand common presbytry this at pleasure they teject and make it no way exemplary and binding But for a further answer I assert that the apostles power and authority over many assemblies as one Church to rule and governe them all as one church jointly and in common was not grounded upon their power over all churches but upon the union of those assemblies and congregations into one church which union layeth a foundation for the power of presbyters ruling and governing many congregations and the apostles practice in governing many assemblies jointly as one church is the pattern and example of that government to all succeeding ages this president of the Apostles the presbyters in all churches ought to set before their eyes in all reformation for what the apostles did in the publike affaires of government they did as presbyters and for imitation Neither do our Brethren onely grant the act of ministerial power to be the same in the apostles and presbyters saving in the extent but they acknowledg also that they were called presbyters vertually as I said before that the apostles acted in a joint body and by common consent affirme that it was fit that they should so do and say withall that the apostles wherever they came left the presbyters and people to the exercise of that right which belonged to them although they joyned with them These are their formall expressions out of which their concession my argument yea the whole syllogisme is not only confirmed and strengthened but the truth doth more evidently shine forth for if the apostles left the presbyters people to the exercise of that right which belonged unto them in all churches and the presbyters right be to rule as Ecclesiasticall Magistrates as to whom the power of the keyes peculiarly belongeth by Gods institution and the right of the people in all churches be to obey as they are every where commanded then it followeth necessarily that it doth not belong unto the people to ordaine either deacons or presbyters whatsoever they may doe in the choosing of them nor to excommunicate or cast out any out of the Church or to make members whom they please nor to rule and governe the Church which is the peculiar right of the presbyters left unto them by Christ and his Apostles for none of all these things was ever left unto the people neither is there any president of it in holy Scripture so that while the Brethren
it is not onely set down that James and the Presbyters met together which had it onely been for the entertainment of Paul it is an argument sufficient to convince any rationall man that if the Presbyters would meet together for a salutation they did much more meet for acts of government But I say it is not only specified that the Presbyters met together but what they did in consultation in that their meeting and what they acted upon deliberation and that was to advise Paul and to direct him what he should do which councell of theirs was not lax but restrictive and binding ver 23. Do therefore that which we say unto thee By all which it is evident that they met about acts of government when they gave an order and rule to Paul himselfe how he should behave himselfe at that time and we reade that Paul followed their counsell and submitted himselfe to their order by all which it is most apparent that the church of Jerusalem was ordered and governed by the joint consent and common-councell of Presbyters though consisting of many congregations and was presbyterially governed But I further thus argue Where there were many assemblies in Jerusalem and many presbyters and these assemblies were all one church and these presbyters all of them presbyters of that one church there of necessity there were many congregation under one presbytery and that church was presbyterially governed but in the church of Ierusalem there were many assemblies and many presbyters and those assemblies were all one church and those presbyters all of them presbyters of that one church ergo in-the church of Ierusalem there were many congregations under one presbytery and that church was presbyterially governed For the major no man of sound reason or judgement will deny it And for the first part of the minor that there were many assemblies in that church it hath sufficiently been proved in the foregoing discourse and is evident out of the 21. chapter where it is said there were many ten thousands And for the other parts of it that the Church of Ierusalem was but one Church and that all the Presbyters there were Presbyters of that one Church the Brethren themselves do acknowledge it and they do also accord and grant that the Church of Ierusalem was governed by a Presbytery and that it was presbyterianly ruled but withall they conceive the church of Ierusalem to consist of no more beleevers than might all meet together in one place and congregation so that the difference between us and the Brethren is not whether the Church of Ierusalem was presbyterianly governed or no for that they doe acknowledge and would have their Churches governed after that manner but this is all the debate between us and them whether there were no more beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem than could all meet in one Congregation which is their opinion but whether or no it hath not by the foregoing discourse been sufficiently proved that there were more Congregations and Assemblies in the Church of Jerusalem and a greater number of beleevers than could all meet in any one place or Congregation and that all these were under one presbitery that I refer to the understanding Reader to judge of and this shall suffice to have spoken of the third conclusion or proposition And now I come to the fourth viz. That the Church of Jerusalem and the government of the same is to be a patterne for all Congregations and Assemblies in any City or vicinity to unite into one church and for the Officers and Presbiters of those congregations to governe that church joyntly in a colledge or Presbitry And for the proofe of this there needs no great dispute for al men acknowledge that the mother Church must give an example of government to all the daughter Churches now then when it doth evidently appeare that this mother Church of Jerusalem in her most flourishing condition and by her first constitution was confisting of many Congregations and severall Assemblies and that they were all governed by a Presbitry or a joynt and common Councell of Presbiters then it followeth that all other Churches should be governed after the same manner as the mother Church was to the end of the world neither doe the brethren deny but the government of the Church of Jerusalem must be the patterne of government to all Churches and therefore out of that misprision and mistake that shee was consisting of but as many as could meet in one Congregation they take the Church of Jerusalem for imitation and teach all their severall Congregations to doe the same and to exercise the same power among themselves independent and to govern with as absolute an authority in their severall Congregations as the whole Colledge of the Apostles and Presbiters did in the Church of Jerusalem and from the which they allow of no appeale as all that know their tenent can witnesse So that this last proposition being strengthed both by reason and the consent of the brethren needs no further proofe And now I come to the second question between us and the brethren which is concerning the manner of gathering of Churches and admitring of members and Officers viz. Whether Ministers of the Gospell may out of already congregated Assemblies of beleevers select and choose the most principle of them into a Church-fellowship peculiar unto themselves and admit of none into their society but such as shall enter in by a private covenant and are allowed of by the consent and approbation of all the Congregation And this question brancheth it selfe into these severall Queries The first whether for the gathering of Churches there be either precept or president in the holy Word of God that the Preachers and Ministers of the Gospell did ever leave their owne ordinary charges to which they are called and whereto they are fixed with a command not to leave them and under pretence of a new way or a new borne truth or a new light did runne about and alienate the minds of the people wel-affected formerly to their severall Ministers as of duty they were bound as who had converted them to Christ by their ministery and fed them still with the sincere milk of the Word and built them up in their most holy faith I say the first quere is whether there be precept or example in the Word of God of any true Ministers so doing and whether it was ever heard of in the Apostles primitive times that any beleeving Christians were in great numbers congregated from among other beleeving Christians and moulded into several Congregations and Assemblies as seperate and distinct bodies and Churches from them and who had no Church-fellowship with the other Congregations nor communicated with them in the Ordinances but were independent from them and absolute among themselves and whether this way of gathering of Churches was ever heard of before these dayes and whether this be to set Christ upon his Throne to make devisions and scismes in
of God he was both ordained and put in office without the approbation and consent of the people who knew nothing of the businesse but onely stood amazed and said Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the high Priest The Ministers in those dayes when they were all taught of God they onely admitted members by their owne authority into the Church without the approbation of the people but in these our dayes wherein people have gotten itching eares and teachers after their owne humours such as S. Paul speaks of in his Epistles to Timothy they teach a new doctrine and bring forth new borne lights to the darkning of truth it selfe and to the bringing in of confusion on all things See what Saint James saith in his 5. chapt to all Churches and Christians in the world It any man sick saith he let him send for the Presbiters of the Churches and let them pray over him c. and the prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shal be forgiven him The Apostle James here sends all Christians to the Presbiters of every Church who had the power of the Keys delegated unto them for spirituall comfort and whose office onely it was to pronounce pardon and remission of sinnes unto the sick upon their true repentance if they had offended and sinned against God in the time of their health and so scandalized the Gospell and the Church and it was the Presbiters place and office to admit them againe into the fellowship and communion of the Saints upon their cordiall and unfained repentance and that without asking the Church any leave for as the Presbiters onely had the power of casting out offenders out of the Church so they onely had the authority of receiving them in againe upon their repentance and not the Church so if we look into all those Epistles that were written unto the seven Churches of Asia in the 2. and 3. of the Revelations we shall find them all directed to the Angels of the seven Churches which is as much as to say to the presidents of every severall Presbitry established and constituted in every one of those Churches which is a sufficient argument to me to prove a Counsell or Colledge of godly Ministers in every one of those Cities according to that of Paul to Titus chap. 1. ver 5. for this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest ordaine Presbiters in every City not one but many And in the 14. of the Acts ver 23. And when they had ordained them presbiters in every Church c. many Presbiters a Colledge of them was appointed to every Church and so in the 20. of the Acts there were many Presbiters who had the charge and government of that Church committed unto them in common ver 28. there was a Colledge of them constituted in that church and therefore for order sake which the light of nature teacheth they must have a President who by the way of excellency and to distinguish him from the other is called an Angel as the inscription of the Epistle Rev. 11.1 declares saying Unto the Angel of the church of Ephesus As in our dialect when we speak of the great counsell of the Kingdome or of the reverend assembly of Divines if there be occasion of distinguishing the Presidents of those councels from the other Judges in those assemblies we say Master Speaker in the House of Lords or Commons or of the President of the Ministers we say Master Prolocutor and if any have occasion to write to either houses or to the Assembly they direct their letters to the Speakers or to the Prolocutor who communicates them to each Assemblies as being the Presidents of each Society and yet none of all these Presidents by that their place of honour and eminency have any more power or authority then the rest but onely in the casting voyce when the parties upon any occasion are for number equall and for appointing of the times and places of meeting and for the methodicall and orderly carriage of the businesses yea it is ever observed wheresoever there is a President there is a colledge or councell or a court nature dictates this and the custome of all nations proves it and withall by the same light of reason that counsell or colledge to whom God himselfe writes and directs his letters for redressing of abuses has the power in their hands for the rectifying of things amisse that it peculiarly belongeth unto them as to the Magistrates invested with authority to order things according to direction and to punish and cast out offenders and that by their owne power without the consent and approbation of the people as it is now in the great Counsell and Parliament of the Kingdome who make not the people acquainted with what they have to doe but so farre as it pleaseth themselves and not out of any duty and so it was in the government of Gods Church by the first constitution every Church consisting of many congregations were governed by a colledge of Presbiters as that of Jerusalem and this of Ephesus and the other six Churches in all the which the Presbiters by their sole authority governed them according to Gods Word without taking the people in to counsell with them who were no where joyned in commission with them and therefore it is most apparent by those examples I have now produced and many more that might be added and from the commission that Christ gave to the Apostles and in them to all Ministers that the people had not their voyces either for the admitting of any to be members in any church or in the easting out of any for their delinquency much lesse have they authority to require a publike confession of their faith to be made unto the congregation or to exact of them to bring in the evidences of their true conversion or to require that they should walk with them some time before admission or to enter into a solemne private covenant before they be admitted as members for we have no president for any of these things in Gods Word much lesse any command only in Acts the sixt there is mention made that the Apostles for the freeing of themselves from all unnecessary incombrances and that they might the better attend upon their ministry and preaching gave the people liberty to make choice of their owne Deacons but still keeping the power of ordaining them in their owne hand which alwayes was arbitrary in them whether they would exercise it or no neither would the Apostles have ordained them unlesse those that were to be ordained had been man so qualified as they had appointed for otherwise it lay in their choyce whether they would ordain them or no. But that ever the congregation or people had the power of admitting of members or
wife and many small children came upon me by it through the power and exorbitant authority of the Prelates so that for my duty and Loyalty to the King I had a prison for my reward and the scornes and contumelies of the world to comfort me in it And when I most humbly petitioned his highnesse complaining against the injustice done me and most submissively supplicated his Majesty who was the Caesar to whom onely I could then appeal that he would be pleased to grant me one of these humble requests either That his Majesty would be pleased but for one houre to give me a hearing of my just defence or if that could not be granted That at lest he would then grant me that liberty in his Kingdome that he denied not to Crows and Kites and other Vermine that I might provide for my young ones and if his highnesse would not be pleased to condescend unto either of the former just demands That then he would give me leave to depart the Kingdome and to go into any other Country where I might enjoy my Liberty and provide for my poore distressed family I am most assured there was never a more equall Petition put up to any Prince in the world yet his Majesty vouchsafed not to yeeld unto any of these my requests nor to any other Petition put up either by my poor distressed wife or calamitous children so that without any wrong unto his Majesty I may truely say That Paul found more favour from a Heathen Roman Caesar then I had from a Christian King the defender of the faith After I saw all possibility of releefe was now taken from me I writ my Apologie to the Bishops themselves discovering unto them their unjust proceedings in their Courts and their unrighteous dealings towards my selfe and gave them my reasons of all I spake without any offensive language and without any purturbation of Spirit and Dedicated this my Book to the Lords of his Majesties Privie Councell expecting aide and reliefe from them and indeed I had no hope of succour from any other nor knew none to whom I could better apply my self earnestly imploring their patronage but they as it is well knowne of Patrons became my unjust Judges and after they had made me a spectacle to Men and Angels and exposed me to the scorne and ludibry of the world sent me into banishment where I lived a living death and a dying life and suffered such intolerable misery of all sorts as would exceed belief to relate and I am most consident if all the particulars were truly known the world never heard the like and there I had ended my dolefull life had not God of his infinite mercy called this Parliament and put into their hearts to redeem me from my capacity for the which incomparable favour I do as of duty I am ever bound professe my selfe to the last drop of my blood to be their servant in the Lord and in all their most just and honourable imployments I hope with all fidelity to answer to the expectation of the world and shall in life and death shew my self to be one that without all by-respects shall ever aime at the glory of God the honour of them and my Country and the common good of all and shall never by Gods assistance do any thing in their concernments that shall be unbeseeming a Man and a Christian Now because by my sad experience I found that I could neither from King nor Nobles have protection I resolved never any more in Gods matters to shroud my self under any covert but Divine Providence and that I with an assured confidence promise my self especially when I now maintain the prerogative royall of the King of Saints King of Kings the Lord Jesus Christ Who is our Lawgiver upon whose shoulders the government of his Church is laid who is the wonderfull Counseller the Prince of peace whose dignity and roialty in all this dispute between me and Mr. Walter Montague I have to the uttermost of my power maintained under the shadow of whose wings I have ever found there is only safety whose blessed assistance in all calamities they that trust in him may be most assured of His patronage now and his defence is my shield whose cause and the honour of whose kingdome at this time I contend for And howsoever in all my life in all humane learning I was never so wedded to my own resolves but upon better reason I could easily be divorced from them yet in Gods matters if an Angell should come from Heaven and teach me that that there were another way to happinesse then by that new and living way the blood of Jesus Christ who was the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world I would count him Anathema Or if an Angel should tell me there were a new way of worshipping God and serving him then that which God himself hath set down in his holy Word I would account him accursed for I have learned to believe God and Faith upon their word and bond without any either Angelicall or Humane reason or the authority of Councels and Fathers and whatsoever I finde a warrant in Gods Word for I have learned to cleave close to it against all humane reason supposing such men none of Gods nor Faiths truest friends that will not believe them upon their own word and bond except they have reason humane authority Councels and Fathers and vaine traditions joyned with them for sureties Again if any man should go about to perswade me that there were any other government established in the Church of God then an Aristocraticall and a Presbyterian one I should notwithstanding all humane reason to the contrary submit my self to that kind of government as being most confidently assured that it is warranted in Gods Word which all Christians are bound for ever to make the Rule and Square both of our faith manners and government And here I must minde all those that shall read this Book that this is no new opinion of mine but that which I have once and again suffered for and if ever they have read my Elenchus religionis papisticis or my Flagellum pontificis or my Apologie or any of my Latine Books in all those they will finde that the cause of all my sufferings was this and this only That I maintained that all Churches were to be governed by an Aristocraticall and Presbyterian government which in those Books I have clearly and fully through Gods assistance made good Yea in my answer to the Bill of Information put up against me in the Star-chamber they shall have some reasons I gave there of this my tenent to the Lords of his Majesties Privie Councell and Judges in the Star-chamber so that I stand to my principles and am no starter And if then amongst Gods people it was thought an opinion worthy the suffering for and my Christian brethren deemed me worthy of honour for it and afforded me their prayers and shewed me
Jairus here was a speciall Ecce added to take notice that a great man and one in authority came unto Christ and that in a publick way and one of the Rulers of the Syn gogue So that we may observe the people in every Synagogue were governed and commanded by their Rulers and they were to yeeld obedience unto them and were not joyned with them in Commission but stood to their determination as all men use to do in Courts of Judicature that appeal unto them for justice And this custome and manner of government was transacted over to the Christian Churches and those that were called Rulers among them are among Christians sometimes called Presbyters sometimes Guides sometimes Rulers and by Christ himself and by his Apostles are appointed over all Christian Churches as so many corporations to which all the Assemblies and Congregations under them and committed to their charge are to yeeld obedience and submission in whatsoever they command in the Lord and according to his blessed Word for that must be the rule both of their commanding and of the peoples obeying And this Presbyterian government is that manner and way of ruling all Assemblies and particular Congregations under it that God hath appointed in his Church to be continued to the end of the world the which whosoever resisteth resisteth the Ordinance of God And this shall suffice to have spoken in generall in way of proof That all Churches we have mention of under the New Testament were Aristocratically and Presbyterially governed that is were under the Government of a colledge or Assembly of Presbyters And now I come to prove in order the four Propositions or conclusions I undertook to make good The first was That there were many Congregations and severall Assemblies in the Church of Jerusalem in the which they had all acts of worship and did partake of all Ordinances and of Church-fellowship and that before the persecution we read of Acts 8. and under the persecution and after the persecution And for the proof of this Proposition and every branch of it I will first produce such places of Scripture as make for the manifestation of the truth and from thence frame and form my Arguments Mat. 3. ver 1 2 5 6. In those dayes came John the Baptist preaching in the wildernesse of Judaea and saying Repent ye for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the Region round about Jordan and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins The Baptisme of Iohn as all the learned know was the same with that of the Apostles for he preached the Baptisme of Repentance for the Remission of sins and Baptized all that came to him into Iesus Christ saying unto the People That they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus Act. 19. ver 4. He had his Commission also from God as well as the Apostles and Baptized Christ himself he preached also the Gospell and the Kingdome of the Messiah as well as the Apostles and had many honourable Testimonies from Christ himself as That he was the greatest Prophet that ever was born of woman and That he was a bright shining light and That he was his witnesse and many other Encomiums and praises did Christ give of him to ratifie his Authority and to shew that he was sent of God and that he was that Elias that was to come before the Messiah And all the people owned and took him for a man sent of God and Ierusalem went out to him and all the Region round about and were Baptized of him In these words we finde that the people of Ierusalem were all turned Christians and made members of the Christian Church and were beleevers For which way soever the word Ierusalem be taken it signifieth a numberlesse multitude of men or an innumerable company For if we consider Ierusalem at this time she was a most populous City the Historians that write of that age relate that she had sometimes in her no lesse then eleven or twelve hundred thousand but let it be taken that there were but six hundred thousand inhabitants it is a vast multitude and yet seldome was there lesse inhabitants in Jerusalem if any beliefe may be had to Historians for at that time it was one of the Metropolis Cities of the world and the glory of Nations and the joy of the whole Earth and besides there was then great expectation as we may reade Luke 19.11 That the Kingdome of God should immediately appear and all the Jewes out of all Nations where they were scattered now repaired to Jerusalem and returned into their own countrey expecting the Messiah So that at this time we cannot conceive but that there were infinites of people in Jerusalem and it is said That Jerusalem went out and was baptised by Iohn By Jerusalem here metonimycally the place is taken for the people Now when it is said that a City goeth out it is to be understood either of the whole people Man Woman and Childe old and young with all the inhabitants as many times it happens in great Earth quakes or some Pestilence or Inundation that all the Inhabitants are forced to leave a City and to seek some other habitation but we cannot conceive the going out of Jerusalem to Iohn Baptist in this large sense and expression so that in this place it must be taken Synecdochically and we are to understand a great part or a chief part for the whole as when a City is said to entertaine a King or to go out to meet a King here it is to be understood principally of the chief Officers as the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the Common-counsell and all their severall Companies and chiefe Captaines and Commanders with all their magnificence so that in this notion the common people and the ordinary Citizens are not thought on or at least are not numbred As when JESUS was born in Bethlehem and the Wise Men came to Jerusalem to enquire where they should finde him that was born King of the Jewes that they might worship him for they had seen his Star it is said That when Herod heard these things He and all Ierusalem was troubled with him Here by all Jerusalem is to be understood all the chief Officers and Courtiers for the common people were glad of it for that was the day they had long looked for and rejoyced at but Herod being an Usurper and a Tyrant and all his Nobles Peers and Great men being confederate with him and adjutors in his usurpation and tyranny and conceiving that Christ was an earthly Monarch and that after the manner of the Kings of the Earth he would not only pull down the Usurper but likewise call all them in question as guilty of High Treason and cut them off as complicers and abettors this made them tremble and fear and because it was the generall fear of all the great men in Ierusalem and
that is that the Apostles daily in the Temple and in every house ceased not to teach preach Jesus Christ. That is to say they preached both publickly and privately and the very places where they preached are set down as in the Temple and in every house So that of necessity there must be severall congregations and assemblies of Believers in Jerusalem according to that in the 2. of the Acts vers the 46. where it said That they continued dayly with one accord in the Temple and breaking of bread from house to house which by all Interpreters is understood the administration of the Lords Supper and that the severall assemblies and congregations were wont usually to meet in private houses is frequent mention in the holy Scriptures as in the 16. of the Romans verse the 5. and in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 16. vers 19. Col. 4.14 and Saint Paul in the 20. of the Acts vers 20. saith That he kept back nothing that was profitable unto them but taught them publikely and from house to house so that they had their Assemblies as well private as publicke even in the Church of Ephesus where they did partake in all acts of worship and in that Church also they had many Presbyters and yet were but one Church But now I will passe on to the sixth chapter where in the 1 2 3 and 7 verses it is said That in those dayes when the number of Disciples was multiplyed there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widdows were neglected in their dayly ministration Then the twelve called the multitude of the Disciples unto them and said It is not reason that they should leave the Word of God and serve tables Wherefore brethren look you out among you seven men of honest report and full of the holy Ghost and wisdome whom we may appoint over this businesse But we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministery of the Word vers 7. And the Word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient unto the faith In the which words we may take notice briefly of these observables The first of the cunning and policy of the Devill who when he cannot by all his wiles and stratagems assault the Church without then he labours to assaile it within as here with civill discords and differences among brethren and in other Churches in all ages even in and from the Apostles times by dissentions in opinions by Sects Schisms Factions and Heresies and by these his wiles and craft he first bringeth in difference in opinion and afterwards diversity of affection and that among brethren and all this he doth that in fine he may bring ruine upon them all And thus he began with the Church of Jerusalem raising a controversie between the Hebrews and the Greeks who complained That their widdows were neglected in the dayly ministration as either that they were not made Deaconesses as the widdows of the Hebrews were or that there was not an equall distribution of the Almes according to the intention of the Church who sold their possessions and goods to that end that they might be parted to all men as every one should have need Acts 2. vers 44 45. chap. 4. v. 35. And this their supposition was the cause of that controversie The second abservable is To whom the differing and dissenting parties did apply themselves and appeal and that was to the Presbytery or Colledge of Apostles not to any one of them particularly but to the twelve as in that difference at Antioch Acts 15. Paul and Barnabas and certain other of the Brethren in the Church of Antioch appealed to the Apostles and Presbyters and in both those differences all the Churches submitted themselves to the Apostles Order and that willingly and this example of the Apostles is the Rule for ordering of all controversies that all the reformed Churches set before them deciding all debates in Religion by the Word of God and according to the president they have laid down unto them by the Apostles and Presbyters in Jerusalem Here I say the whole Presbytery and Colledge of the Apostles determined the businesse neither do we reade that the Assemblies of the Hebrews and Greeks at Ierusalem or the Church of Antioch pretended their own Independent authority though severall Congregations or challenged a power within themselves of choosing their own Officers or determining of differences amongst themselves or pleaded that they had Authority within themselves to make their own Laws by which they would be ordered or that they challenged any such priviledges unto themselves but they all appealed unto the Presbytery at Ierusalem as the supreamest Ecclesiasticall Court and freely submitted themselves to their arbitrament and to the Order they set down as the story specifieth The third observable is the imployment in which the Apostles were all taken up and the effect of it and their imployment is said to be continuing in prayer and the Ministery and preaching of the Word and the effect of this their Ministery was That the Word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith By all which it is most apparent that such multitudes being dayly added to the Church and where there was such variety of teachers and so many Apostles and all of them taken up in preaching and where there was so many different Nations and such diversities of tongues and languages as was in the Church of Ierusalem they could not all meet together at any one time or in any one place to edification and that they might all communicate in all the Ordinances but of necessity they must be distributed into severall Congregations and Assemblies if they would avoyde confusion and all that I now speak is evident by the very light of Nature and all reason and therefore it followeth That there were many Assemblies and Congregations in Ierusalem and yet all made but one Church and that that Church was Presbyterianly governed But that I may make this truth more evidently yet appear I will first out of the former discourse frame severall Arguments and then go on to the ensuing history And out of all these six chapters I thus argue Where there were eight thousand new converts besides women and children by virtue of some few miracles and Sermons after Christs Resurrection added to the Church of Ierusalem and the society of beleevers besides those that were converted by Iohn the Baptist and Christ and his Apostles Ministery before his sufferings and to the which also there were afterwards great multitudes of Beleevers both of men and women and a great company of the Priests joyned in so much that they kept the very Officers and Souldiers in awe and struck a fear and terrour into them there they could not all meet together in any one
whence the brethren gather that there were no more beleivers left than could meet in one Congregation Before I come to prove my Assertion I must give some Reasons to evince and make good that this dispersion and scattering of the Beleivers here spake of was not so generall and universall and so great as that there might not yet remain more Congregations in Jerusalem and more people then could possibly meet in any one place or two for persecution is the bellows of the Gospell which blows every spark into a flame so that this their division proved their multiplycation at home and abroad as we shall see after I have set down my Arguments and Reasons so that it was no cause why we should conceive that there were fewer assemblies in the Church of Ierusalem then before for although I should grant that this persecution was very great in respect of the intention of the persecutors as reaching to imprisonment and death of all sorts chap. 22. verse 4. and although I should likewise accord that in regard of the extent of it it reacheth to all sorts both Preachers and Christians because it is said They were all scattered abroad through all the Regions c. except the Apostles both which notwithstanding I cannot yeeld unto for some reasons following but I say should I grant all this yet I affirm that this persecution rather made more Congregations in Ierusalem then fewer then there were before though they might be smaller and lesser then so to wast them and bring them to such a paucity as they might all meet in one Congregation for this their division was a cause of their multiplication at home and abroad as I said before and will afterwards appear And even as it was here in England in the time of the Prelates power when any assembly of those they called Puritans were at any time found together they were haled before Authority as the whole Kingdome can witnesse and these people were all scattered yet so as they still had their meetings in lesse numbers and whereas before they met perhaps a hundred in a company now this hundred was divided into three or four severall assemblies which were so many severall Churches for in all these they enjoyed all the acts of worship and did partake in all the Ordinances as fully as if they had been in the most crowded aslemblies but this they did for their own safety and that there might not be such notice taken of them for commonly if men see a good company of people goe into a house and none of them come out again they will by and by gather that there is something there to be done more than ordinary and that there is some exercise of Religion or some consultation and plotting about some design or other and therefore it stirs up the people to take more notice of it and then they begin to examine the occasion of that concourse and to pry into their proceedings whereas if they come but in slender companies they conceive it to be some ordinary entertainment and think no farther of it so that they then more peaceably enjoy the society and fellowship one of another without any interruption which they could not so well have done if they had come in greater assemblies and companies And even so it was among the Beleivers and Christians in Ierusalem in that persecution they could not now meet in the Temple nor possibly at their wonted meeting houses and yet even then they had their assemblies no terrors could make them forsake the companying of themselves together For in that persecution that is spoken of in the 12. of the Acts we finde the Church assembled in severall places for they were praying in the house of Mary verse 12. there was one Congregation to which Peter comes and relates unto them the manner of his delivery and bids them go and tell it Iames and the brethren and there was another assembly and without doubt Peter went unto a third for he would not goe among the enemies and it stands with all reason that in this persecution also they were as zealous as then and therefore did not forsake the assembling of themselves together Neither would the Apostles be idle who gave themselves continually to prayer and the ministring of the Word which they could not have done if there had been but as many Christians in Jerusalem as could all have met in one place and in one Congregation for one or two of the Apostles could have preacht unto them all and then to what end or purpose did all the other Apostles tarry in Ierusalem who in all their motions and stayes were directed by the Spirit of God unlesse it were to comfort and support the Church there in the heat and rage of this persecution when they had scattered their other teachers from them From all which it may evidently appear that there was a very great multitude of beleevers at this time in Ierusalem and that they were not diminished or scattered though all their Pastors and ministers saving the Apostles were And I have very good reason to induce me to beleeve that this persecution did not extend to all Christians promiscuously and that all the beleevers were scattered and disperst except the Apostles as our brethren conceive For if we consider the usuall method of the persecuting Jews and the manner and custome of all the enemies of the Church in all ages we shall ever observe that they chiefely aymed at the taking away and extirpating of their teachers and ministers and those that instructed them So the Jews malice was greatest against the Prophets in all ages as we may see Mat. 5. ver 12. For so they persecuted the Prophets and in the 23. of Matthew our Saviour saith verse 29. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because ye build the tombes of the Prophets and say if we had lived in the dayes of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them of the blood of the Prophets and therefore ye witnesse unto your selves that ye are the children of them which killed the Prophets Wherefore behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men and Scribes and some of them you shall kill and crucifie c. Here our Saviour Christ declares what method they had formerly used in their persecutions and that was chiefely to persecute their teachers and what method they would for the future take and that was principally To kill and crucifie the Prophets Wisemen and Scribes which Prophesie of Christ was here in this persecution manifestly fulfilled for here it is said They were all viz. their teachers scattered abroad and persecuted except the Apostles It was I say ever the method and custome of persecutors to ayme principally at the rooting out and taking away of those they supposed were ablest to teach and instruct the people and this inraged them against Iohn the Baptist and Christ himself and that made them at this time so mischievously to
seeme to contend for the liberty of the people they plainely overthrow it for they grant that the Apostles left the Presbyters and people to the exercise of that right belonged unto them in all Churches the right therefore of the keyes of government and jurisdiction belongeth properly unto the Presbyters in every Church who are the Officers and Magistrates appointed by God himselfe for that purpose Act. 20. ver 28. and therefore when the Apostles writ to the Church of Corinth to excommunicate that incestuous person although his Epistle be directed to the whole Church yet the Presbyters in that Church onely executed that act of government which of right belonged unto them though the people also assented unto it even as we see dayly and experience teacheth us in all well ordered Corporations when the King or Counsell writes unto any City ot Corporation though their mandats be directed to the whole City or Corporation for the raising either of men or moneyes or about any other imployment of publike concernment the Majors Aldermen and Common-Councell and the Officers under them onely manage the businesse for that is their right and place and the people under them do yeeld obedience and submit themselves to what they order and command and intermeddle not in that imployment as knowing very well it is their right and place onely to obey And even so it was in the Church of Corinth the Presbyters onely exercised the government and ordered all according to the Apostles injunction and the people assented unto it and submitted themselves to the order and the mistaking of that place and many more hath been the cause of so much confusion in the Church at this time when not onely the men in every assembly but the very women in many of the new Congregations as Members challenge a power and right both in the electing of Church Officers and of admitting of Members and of casting out and excommunicating which before these our times was never heard of in the world when as the right of jurisdiction and of the keyes as I have often proved peculiarly belongeth unto the Presbyters and the people neither men nor women ought to intermeddle with it for if they should in short time it would overthrow all government in Church and State and bring confusion into the world But I conceive the cause of so grosse a mistake of that place concerning the excommunicating of the incestuous person arose from this that they looke upon the Church of Corinth and the other churches spoken of in the New Testament not as corporations as they were indeed but as on their now sucking independent new Congregations and Assemblies such as many of those be whereas those severall Churches are to be considered under another notion as consisting of many Congregations as that of the Church of Ierusalem united into one Church or body in the severall Corporations and each of them governed by a Common-councell of Presbyters and by the joint consent of three severall Presbyters all these severall congregations making but one Church though never so much daily increased and keeping still the name and denomination of such a Church either from the place city country or nation or severall language as the Church of the Iewes the Greeke Church the Latine church or from the Cities as the church of Ierusalem of Ephesus Rome c. though they consisted of never so many Congregations and Assemblies they ever kept the name of unity and were accounted but one Church in their severall places as at this day the Church of Geneva though it consist of many Congregations is counted but one Church as it is so that I say the conceiving of the Church of Corinth and those seven churches in Asia under the notion of one of their congregations caused through this mistake that great confusion that is now in the church and was the originall cause of the opinion of Indepency when notwithstanding it is manifest that those very churches were not Independent but made their appeale to the apostles and presbyters at Ierusalem upon all occasions as that of Antioch and it is said that the Apostles and presbyters came together to consider of that matter which meeting of the Apostles and presbyters for Synodicall acts of government is no weake proofe of meeting for presbyteriall acts of government unlesse men will suppose that they who were carefull to assist other churches did neglect their owne churches committed to their peculiar charge and take no course of governing them Yea Act 15.2 it doth most certainly prove a presbyteriall government in Ierusalem out of the which place I thus argue Where the Apostles and Presbyters did governe and many congregations were by them ordered and governed yet so that all these congregations were one church there was a presbyteriall government but in the church of Ierusalem the Apostles and Presbyters did governe and many congregations were by them governed yet so that all these congregations were one church ergo in the church of Jerusalem there was a Presbyterian government all which is sufficiently manifest out of the places above specified and from all the former discourse For in the 21. chapter it is asserted that there were many ten thousands of beleevers in Jerusalem which could not all be contayned in a few places but must of necetssity be distributed into many and severall congregations and assemblies all which notwithstanding make but one church as is evident Act. 8. ver 1. and many other places the which congregations could not be one politique ministeriall church except onely because they were united under one Presbyteriall government and therefore of necessity the Church of Jerusalem must be aristocrattically and presbyterially governed yea the very mentioning so often of the Presbyters meeting together proves that they met together about acts of government from which I thus argue That Scripture which proves a Presbytery in Jerusalem or an association of Presbyters in that church proves that the presbyters of the church of Ierusalem did meet together for acts of governement and did really governe that church But the places above coted prove a presbytry in Ierusalem or an association of presbyters in that church ergo they prove that they did meet together for acts of government and did really governe that church and that the church of Jerusalem consisting of many congregations was presbyterially governed For the major the Brethren cannot deny it for the very name of presbytery signifieth a company or common-councell of rulers governours and magistrates now all men know that governouts in common cannot do their duty but must of necessity neglect the worke committed to them if they do not meet together for acts of government Neither can they deny the minor unlesse they will deny the Scripture for that expresly declareth that James and the Presbyters met together and our Brethren take their warrant from that place for the Presbyters meeting apart from the multitude to consult and to prepare matters Yea
churches and among beleevers and brethren and that upon groundlesse pretences The second quere is whether for the making of any man or woman a member of the church it be requisite or necessary to the beleeving and being baptized that they should walk some dayes weeks moneths perhaps years with them that they may have experience of their conversation before they can be admitted and after that a confession of their faith should be publikely made before the congregation and the evidences of their conversion as the time when the place where the occasion how they were converted should likewise openly be produced for satisfaction to the church before they can be admitted to be members and if any either men or women shall except against their evidence that then they are not to be admitted this is the second quere The third is whether for making any man or woman a member or an officer of a church the consent of the whole congregation or the greater part of them besides the Presbyters and Ministers be requisite The fourth quere is whether for the admission of any one into church-fellowship communion a private solemn covenant be requisite or necessary for the making of any one a member the neglect or refusall of the which makes them incapable of their membership and admission There is no question between us and the brethren about a publike covenant for we have presidents of that in holy Scripture in all publike reformations The fifth quere is whether the women and people as well as the Presbiters and Ministers have the power of the Keyes and whether the women have all their voices in the church both for election and reprobation of members and officers as well as the men and whether the consent of all the women or the greatest part of them be requisite for the making of any one a Member or Officer so that if they gainsay it being the greater number or allow of it the most voices carry the businesse this is the fifth quere the practice of the which as of all the former the brethren in some of their congregations hold for orthodox and think all these things required of any that offer themselves to be a member The last quere is whether the practice and preaching of all these things and the gathering of churches after this manner be to set up Christ as King upon his Throne and whether churches and assemblies thus congregated be the onely true churches and in the which onely Christ rules and reignes as King and all other that are not moulded up after this fashion be no true congregated churches and in the which Christ is not set up as King upon his Throne which is the opinion of the brethren as will afterward appeare If I have failed in any thing in stating the question or in any of these Queres the brethren must pardon me for I speake according to the practice of some of their congregations and according to the doctrine many of them teach not onely in their owne assemblies but in every Pulpit through the Kingdome where they come as I shall be able to prove And therefore if I have been mistaken in any thing they may blame their owne practice and teachers and thank themselves also that in the space of almost two yeers though it has been againe and again desired at their hands they have not so much as set down the modell of their government and what they would have with all the appertainances belonging unto it that all the world might be out of doubt What therefore I find practised amongst some of the most zealous of them and the most approved for integrity and what I shall be able to prove that I have without any spirit of bitternesse specified But now I shall set downe Gods method and the Apostles practice in gathering of churches and the manner they used in making Members in every church and compare it with the method our brethren the Independents use in gathering of their congregations that all men may the better discerne truth from errour and may all be undeceived in this businesse of so great concernment And I will first begin with Christs Commission given to his Apostles and in them to all Ministers and then consider the practice of John the Baptist and of all the Apostles and Ministers in the primitive church and the order that God himselfe used for the gathering of those that belong unto his election and for the congregating of the lost sheep of the house of Israel into the fold of Jesus Christ who is that great Shepheard and Bishop of our soules and I conceive that Gods order and the Apostles practice is rather to be followed than any other new-found way But to begin with Christs commission to his Apostles Matth. 21. verse 19.20 Goe yee therefore saith Christ and teach all Nations baptizing them In the Name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you and lo I am with you even to the end of the world Amen And in the 16. of Mark verse 15 16. He saith unto them Goe yee into all the world and preach the Gospell unto every creature He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned And in the 26. of the Acts Saint Paul after he had declared the manner of his conversion to King Agrippa he likewise made knowne unto him the commission he had received from Christ Jesus in the words following verse 15 16 17 18 19 20. And I said who art thou Lord and he said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest but rise and stand upon thy feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a Witnesse both of these things which thou hast seene and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith which is in me whereupon I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision but shewed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and through all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turne to God and doe works meet for repentance Out of these severall places from the commission of Christ given to his blessed Apostles and to all Ministers and preachers of the Gospel to the end of the world here observe these things First that their bounds and limits were set them how farre they should goe in their teaching all Nations and beyond which they might not passe and they were these that they should teach no other things but what Christ commanded them and appeared to them in and for the which they had his word and warrant and so long
Brethren what shall we do Then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost c. Act. 2.37 38. then they that gladly received the word were baptized and the same day were added unto them about three thousand soules Here we may observe these two things The first that the Apostles by themselvs alone without the multitude or Church admitted the people into the society company of beleevers Secondly that in the execution of their commission they did nothing but according to their warrant and according to their injunction that was given unto them by Christ they propounded no other condition or termes for their making all and every one of them members of the Church but baptisme and repentance the which when the people had accepted of they were forthwith admitted and that upon their owne word and testimony without any more adoe or further inquiry Concerning the soundnesse of their repentance without any witnesse from others of their conversation and without the voyce allowance or approbation of the people or the multitude of beleevers in Jerusalem much lesse of the whole Church who were never joyned with the Apostles in their comission or consulted with by them whether they should be admitted or no into the fellowship of the faithfull or demanded or asked by the people whether it were not fit that they should take some time of further consideration that they might walke with them to the end that they might behold their conversation and by their owne experience might further be confirmed that their conversion was sound and well Neither did any call for at their hands that they should make a publike confession of their faith to the Church and give in evidences to the Congregation that they were converted really or that they should take a private covenant or enter into the church by way of a peculiar covenant nothing of all this is specified But it is onely related that the people upon their being pricked in their hearts applied themselves unto the Apostles and that the Apostles by their owne authority and that power that was delegated unto them without reference to the church or people admitted them into the number of beleevers We further may take notice that when the Angell appeared unto Cornelius in the tenth of the Acts he sent him unto Joppa to call for one Simon whose surname was Peter he did not send him unto the Church in Joppa And it is related that when Peter came to Cornelius and that he had recited unto him the manner of the vision and that he was commanded by the Angell to send for him it is further also declared what Peter there did and that he said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnes is accepted with him And after a Sermon made unto Cornelius and all that were assembly there with him It is said that the holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word and that all the beleevers that came with Peter were astonished at it for they heard them speake with divers tongues and magnified God Then answered Peter can any man forbid water that these men should not be baptized which have received the holy Ghost as well as we And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Here we see first that Peter was sent unto and not the Church Secondly that he admitted Cornelius and those that were with him into the number of beleevers and into the fellowship of the Church by his owne authority and never consulted with the Church to aske their leave or voyce but concludes the businesse with an interrogation which hath a greater force of binding that no man ought to hinder any beleever from comming into the society of the Church and communion of Saints in whom the graces of God spirit evidently appeare as in these so that if either the Ministers come into their houses or they goe into the Ministers and make sufficient testimony by themselves of their faith and that they feare God of what nation soever they be they are by the Ministers to be admitted the congregation hath nothing to doe to hinder any such nay they may not it is more than belongs unto them neither did those that came with Peter intermeddle in that businesse or require a covenant at their hand or a publike confession of faith Againe when the Lord of his infinite mercy was purposed to reveale himself unto the Eunuch in the 8 of the Acts he sendeth Phillip the Evangelist unto him whom he found reading in his Chariot the prophesie of Isaiah and after that he had interpreted unto him that prophesie and preached unto him Jesus and Baptisme in his name it is related that when they came unto acertaine water the Eunuch said unto him what doth hinder me to be baptized and Philip said if thou beleevest with all thine heart thou mayest And he answered and said I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God and he commanded the Chariot to stand still and they went downe both into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him Here we see that Philip and not the Church was sent unto the Eunuch and that Philip by his owne authority and upon the Eunuch his owne testimony without any reference unto the Church or without consulting with the Congregation admits him into the number of beleevers and makes him a member of the Church and here was neither a publik confession required of him by any of the Church or any covenant exacted by the people and so when Saul in the 9. of the Acts was fallen downe out of astonishment and afterwards was converted as the story there fully declareth the whole manner of it the Lord sent one Ananias a Disciple and Minister unto him he did not send the Church unto him neither did Ananias when he came to Saul say unto him I will consult with the Church to see whether they will admit thee to be a member for thou hast greatly wasted the Church and made havock of the Saints and therefore I will have their approbation and consent and I will have thee first walk with the Church some time that they may behold thy conversation and then thou shalt make a confession of thy faith publikely before the Congregation and give in thy evidences of the truth of thy conversion and enter in a private and solemne covenant and so be received and admitted But without all this adoe he baptizes Paul and admitteth him into the number of beleevers and makes him a member of the Church and that by his sole authority and he was received immediately among the Disciples at Damascus without any reluctation or so much as any scruple and strait-way he preached Christ in the Sinagogue that he was the Son
of ordaining of Officers it is no where extant in Gods Word But that the women should have a voyce in the Church either for receiving in or casting out of members or officers or should have any thing to doe with Peters Keys it is against the law of God and nature For Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinths 14. makes it one of the marks of confusion in any Church where women have their voyces saying God is not the Author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the Saints and in the next verse following in expresse words saith Let your women keep silence in churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are comanded to be under obedience as also saith the law and if they wil learn any thing let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speake in the church And what S. Paul writ to this Church of Corinth he writ to all Churches and proclaims that what he writ to them were the commandements of the Lord ver 37. so that God had commanded that the women should not speak in the Church and sayth that it is a shame they should and yet in these our dayes and in many of the new congregations they have their voyces in choosing of officers and admitting of members and have all of them Peters Keys as their Girdle and make learned parts of speech in the congregation and dispute questions and debate of matters and give their reasons con pro as it is credibly reported and others of them set forth and print learned Treatises in polemicall divinity with great applause and admiration of the Independent Ministers who cite their authority and quote them in their writings as classicall authors to the shame of the Nation and ludibry of Religion and howsoever there is not any that shall more honour the truly vertuous and pious of that sex than my selfe yet I must confesse when I see how farre they become transgressors of the law of God do those things that the holy Apostle hath not onely forbidden but proclaimed a shame I cannot but exceedingly blame them those Ministers that allow of and approve of such rebellion against God and nature And as if it had been the special care in the Apostle to prevent this evill of womens intermedling in matters of the Church he foreseeing the confusion that would be brought in upon it In his first Epistle to Timothy and in him to all Ministers to whom the government of the Church was committed he gives him direction how to behave himselfe in the house of God which is the church of the living God in cap. 2. ver 11.12 he saith Let the women learne in silence with all subjection for I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silence for Adam was first made then Eve and Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression c. Here the Apostle again and agun twice in these few words enjoyns them silence in the church and imposes upon them subjection and obedience I suffer not saith he a woman to teach or to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silence and he giveth his reasons of this his command because saith he Adam was first made not by the woman nor of the woman but the contrary and therfore she may usurpe no authority over the masculine sex especially in Gods matters and shee is to be the disciple if the man and not the man her schollar and therefore that superiority that the God of order had established upon the man in the first creation he doth now re-establish upon him againe in his holy Word after all things through sinne had been disordered and confused and commands the woman to be both subject and silent especially in the Church Another reason of this his command is because the woman was first in the transgression and was the cause of Adams fall as he accuses her and her disputing and voycing of it then brought confusion upon all mankind and for this her so doing S. Paul concludes for ever hereafter that she ought to hold her peace be in subjection to her husband and ought to learne in silence at home but more especially in the Church for if they come to voyce it once again in the Church as Eve brought confusion upon mankind by her disputation and reasons so these with their loquacity and babble and confusion of voyces will bring in a new Babel into the Church and State as they have prettily well already begun to doe Saint Paul saith I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silence Here the Apostle as in the place above cited out of the Cor. chap. 14. commands them silence and permits them not to speak and expresly forbids them to usurpe authority over the man that is the virill sex Now I appeale unto any understanding creature whether or no to make large parts of speech in the Church as many of them upon occasions doe and dispute and give their reasons con pro be not to speak in the Church and whether to have their voyces in either admitting of members or officers or in the casting of them out be not to usurpe authority over the man for all the world knowes that they that have the power in their hands of either admitting of any into the fellowship or communion of the Church or of hindring their comming in or have their voyces for the casting of them out when they are received exercise and usurpe authority over those they so deale with and therefore they doe against the expresse prohibition of the Apostles and all those women that have usurped this authority and all those Ministers that have permitted them so to doe or tanght this doctrine unto them are all guilty of great contumacy against God and ought seriously to repent for this their temerity and rebellion and it will be the immortall honour of those women that have not intermedled if there be not some speedy course taken by authority to forbid such disorder we may promise nothing to the Church and whole Kingdome but confusion It has ever been observed that Hermaphrodite counsels in any Kingdome or country when women that are subjects intermeddle in government and matters of state that that Kingdome and country is very crased and not far from ruine and destruction and we need not look into many ages or countries for presidents of this kind if hermaphrodite counsels in Kingdoms has ever been so fatall unto them what may any man think in time will become of this Church and Kingdome when the women have gotten Peters Keys at their girdle and have their voyces in many congregations and a power of ordering and disposing of things in Church affaires certainly nothing but confusion can be expected for this their doing is
against the expresse command of God who is the God of order and injoynes the contrary yea it is not onely against the law of God but against the very law of nature and the practice of all Nations for never was it yet heard of in any well governed city or common wealth or Kingdome that women that were subjects had their voyces in choosing officers or Burgesses or making of freemen or disfranchising of them or were permitted so much as to sit in counsell with them much lesse to rule and give lawes to others out of their owne houses And therefore as it is a thing odious to God and man and that which is a shame to that sex it ought to be cast out of all wel-governed Churches and States and as the women ought to know their places so ought all men that are under obedience to learne their duty and not to take upon them that which God never gave unto them as to have their voyce either in making of members in Churches or casting of them out or of ordaining of officers or of imposing lawes upon others either of making publike confessions before the Congregations or of producing evidences of their conversion or that they should walk with them some time that they might behold their conversation or of imposing a covenant upon any that shall be admitted for all rule and government in the Church is put into the hands of the Presbiters and does not belong unto the people or multitude neither may the Presbiters usurpe authority but they also must exercise it onely according to the commission given unto them by Christ they may not transgresse it or goe beyond it in the least thing and therefore when many of the brethren call for a publike confession of mens faith to be made in their new Congregation and the evidences of their conversion to be produced and impose a covenant upon them before they admit them to be members of their Church as if they had lived before in infidelity Who notwithstanding were knowne to be holy and godly Christians and as true beleevers as any that now live in the world and think them onely Christians and beleevers that doe as they would have them and count of others that will not conforme themselves to their customes and novelties but as the off-scowring and refuse and no Christians I say it is an intolerable usurpation and a thing that was yet never before practised in the world in any Church either Jewish or Christian till these dayes and therefore they goe beyond their commission in so doing for God in his commssion to his Apostles and all Ministers bids them admit of all that come in and beleeve and are baptized he quencheth not the smoaking flax nor breaketh the bruised reed now then when they know thousands in this Kingdome that doe beleeve and are men of unblamable lives and such as would lay downe their lives for the faith once delivered unto the Saints and are baptized what have they to doe to lord it over them and to hinder them from communicating in the Ordinances and to be admitted into Church-fellowship with them or to debarre them from the communion of the Saints Me thinks the vision to Saint Peter in the tenth of the Acts should teach such men their duty When God said unto Peter rise kill and eat Peter said not so Lord for I have never eaten any thing that is common and uncleane and the voyce said what God hath cleansed call not thou common And this saith the Scripture was done thrice that by the mouth of two or three Witnesses this truth might be confirmed to Peter and all other Ministers not to call those people common prophane and uncleane and to count them but rubbish whom God hath graced with the gifts of his holy Spirit and hath sanctified and such as beleeve in Jesus Christ and are baptized as well as themselves and such as stood to the truth when they durst not shew their faces but ran from the Cause and deserted it or at least temporized and such as if the like occasions were offered would manifest unto the world by Gods assistance that their lives and all they have should not be deere unto them for the testimony of Jesus and yet such as these must be debarred from the communion in their assemblies unlesse they will conforme to their new-borne traditions for these are no traditions of the Elders but of the younger and if Christ in his time sharply reproved those that brake the Commandements of God through the traditions of men and deeply reproved the Ministers in those dayes for teaching the people to preferre the traditions of the Elders before the commandements of God and for teaching them the feare of God after the precepts of men What shall we think those Ministers will have to answer at the dreadfull day of judgement when they set up their traditions in the Church of God and preferre them before the Commandements of God and what can any man think of the condition of that people that account of such novelties as the Oracles of God and violate the law of Love and make rents and scismes in the seamelesse garment of the Church through these traditions Surely whatsoever they may promise to themselves their condition is very dangerous for our Saviour saith Woe be to those by whom offences come Matthew 18. and whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that beleeve in me it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea And whether this be not to transgresse the Commandements of God through their traditions and to offend those little ones that beleeve in Christ when they will not receive such into the communion and fellowship of the Church as beleeve and are baptized but count them as aliens and strangers yea infidels and rubbish I referre my selfe to any that is but of ordinary understanding For Gods command unto all Ministers was that they should admit all such into the Church as beleeved and were baptized upon their desiring it without any confession either private or publike or entring into any covenant Now this command of God they transgresse by their traditions and keepe out many thousands of beleevers through the Kingdome as unholy and as having no right to the Ordinances because forsooth they will not obey their new-born lawes and traditions for where did ever God command that no beleevers should be admitted into the Church except they made a publike confession of their faith and walked some time in fellowship amongst them and then give in the evidences of their conversion and entred into a private covenant and gave the Church satisfaction Or where was it ever practised by any of the primitive Christians either by those that were converted by Peters Sermon and the other Apostless or by Paul's preaching was Lidia when God opened her heart to beleeve Pauls preaching admitted into the Church upon
by Christ nor any of his Apostles for they themselves confesse it is a new way and a new-borne truth and a new light and therefore not the doctrine of Christ and therefore such novelties are not to be entertained nor imbraced nor the teachers of them if we will be obedient to Apostolicall precepts I desire therefore those of the Independent brethren to produce any one testimony or any one president out of the Word of God where these things following are taught or have been practiced First that although men and women beleeve and are baptized they are not yet to be admitted as joyned members till they have walked some time in fellowship with the church for approbation of their conversation this is the first thing I desire of the brethren either a precept or an example for this in Gods Word The second where it is commanded that those that beleeve and are baptized should not be admitted as members of the church without a publike confession of their faith before the church The third where it is enjoyned that to their faith and baptisme they should bring in the evidences of the truth of their conversion before they can be capable of their membership The fourth where it is commanded that they should enter into a solemne and private covenant before they can be admitted to Church-fellowship The fifth where it is imposed upon those that beleeve and are baptized that they should not be received into the church without the consent of the congregation Sixthly where it is commanded that the Ministers of the Gospel shall run about from their own places and charges into the sheepfolds of their fellow-shepheards and separate and pick out all their best sheep and bring them into their owne folds and debarre them from all church-fellowship and communicating with the other beleevers in Gods holy Ordinances and Sacraments or where ever it is commanded that the preachers of the gospel shall gather beleeving christians from amongst beleeving christians separate them from the other sheep into Independent congregations and shall proclaim all that are not thus molded up after this new modell to be people out of covenant and to have no right to the seales of the new covenant neither they nor their children though beleevers All these things I desire the brethren by evident places of the holy Scripture to make good and to confirme or by any president or example to declare to have been practiced either by Christ or his blessed Apostles for I looke for a law from Christ the King of his church who was as faithful in the house of God as Moses was and hath not left the ordering and disposing of his church to the will of men but has commanded the church to heare his voyce who is the great Pastor and Bishop of our souls and the teacher of his church his Word therefore I look for for a warrant for the ratifying of all these doctrines and I have good ground and reason to demand of them a warrant and authority out of Gods Word for what they both teach and practice for we are taught by Christ the onely Prophet of his church that they that serve God after the precepts of men offer him a vaine worship and it stands with all good reason that if all humane traditions though of never so ancient standing and of never so long antiquity were all cast out of the church because they had no footing or ground in Gods Word that all novelties or new inventions of men which notwithstanding are imposed upon the people as the wayes of God should be abrogated and nullified and cast out of the church It is recorded in holy writ Joshua 9. that the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and the people of Israel under pretence that they came from a farre country and for proofe of that they produced their mouldy bread and their tattered boots their old shooes and they taking what they said pro confesso and not consulting with the mouth of the Lord as it is fully related in that chapter were deceived by them and entred into a League with their enemies And thus the Papists and Prelats for these many hundred yeers have deluded the world under pretence of their mouldy antiquities tattered ragges of traditions and in all this time they prevailed to mislead the poore people because they consulted not with the mouth of God nor examined things by the Word of God and the holy Scripture as the noble Bereans did Now whatsoever was written was written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come and therefore as it was the errour of the Israelites that they received things barely upon report without consulting with the mouth of God and as it was the honour and praise of those noble Bereans that they searched the Scriptures to see whether the preaching of Paul were according to the holy Scripture so if we shall receive these new borne truths these new lights these new wayes without consulting with the living Oracles we shall offend as the Israelites did in beleeving the Gibeonites upon their words and shall degenerate and be unlike to those the renowned Bereans who would not receive Paul's doctrine though an Apostle without searching the Scriptures whether things were so or no as he taught them and surely now much more ought we to try all things by the Word in these erroneous times whosoever they be that preach them unto us and if they be not evidently proved unto us out of the Scriptures we may not admit of them for it will be not onely a sinne but for our immortall shame to be deluded with novelties much more than it was our ancestors disgrace to be deceived by pretended antiquities And therefore it is the duty of every christian seriously to consider with themselves that these are matters of God and concerne no lesse than our eternall welfare and in that regard we may not call mens wayes Gods wayes but we are to seek for the old wayes Jer. 6. we are to examine Christs and his holy Apostles wayes in gathering of churches and making of members and if we find no footstep in all Gods Word of these new wayes we ought to relinquish them and turne againe into the pathes that God has commanded us to walk in wherein we shall be sure to find rest for our soules and comfort in life and death and it will be no disgrace to any to be undeceived for they are deceived and that greatly and dangerously that thinke or beleeve that any men mortall can shew or teach a better way to Heaven or set downe a better way of converting soules and of gathering of churches and making of members and of setting up Christ as King upon his Throne than that which Christ himselfe and his blessed Apostles have taught and set downe to all posterity and from the which rule we ought not to swerve though an Angel from Heaven should teach us otherwise Gal. 1. ver 8 9.
suffered them then to have preached up their Religion in all their Pulpits In Turkey at this day Christians in many places have the liberty of their consciences amongst themselves and have their places for worship to assemble in but they are not so much as permitted to come into their Temples much lesse to preach up their Religion in their Pulpits In France the Protestants are permitted to preach but it is onely in such places as are appointed for them they may not preach in popish Pulpits that is not permitted unto them In the Low countries there is liberty of conscience which they so much plead for of which afterwards and yet the divers sects that are there are not suffered to preach out of those places assigned unto them or to preach publikely in any of their Pulpits against the Religion established by authority neither are they permitted to unchristian them or unchurch them and publikely and in print to proclaime them enemies of Christs government and if any should dare attempt such a thing or goe about to disgrace their Ministers and church-government or in the least intrench upon the Mrgistrates authority they would be made fly like lightning before thunder And yet the brethren among us have the liberty of all the Pulpits through the Kingdome without controle and vent all their new wayes and their new-borne truths and set up their new lights without any molestation and have all respectfull usage and the onely esteem of the people and are more followed than all our learned godly and painfull orthodox Ministers and yet they cry out of persecution and unchurch and unchristian us all and proclaime both Ministers and people all enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and count of us little better than of Infidels and keep our children from baptisme and debarre us from communion with them and exercise a kind of absolute lordship over all their brethren so as Deotraphes never did the like nor the Pope more and yet they cry out of persecution against the Saints and lay odious aspersions upon their brethren and fellow-Presbiters perswading the people that the presbiterian way will be as bad or worse than that of the Prelats But if we as duly examine the manner of the Independent government and compare it with the Presbiterian as we have done the manner of their preaching with theirs we shall find there is little reason why they should so villipend the Presbiterian and magnifie their owne and why they should make it so hatefull and odious to the people laying aside therefore all prejudice let us examine things with deliberation and then it will be soon evident that the Presbiterian government is not as bad or worse than that of the Prelats nor so lordly as that of the Independent government which is also Presbyterian and they as well Presbyters as their brethren It is well knowne that the Prelats assumed and arrogated unto themselves to be the onely Pastors of their Diocesses and ruled all the Ministers and people under them by their owne authority and spoyled all both Minsters and people and the severall congregations under them of their liberty and made them all both Ministers and people their vassals and slaves and from whose Courts there was no appeale Whereas the Presbiterian manner of government is not as that of Lords and Masters over Subjects and Servants but sociall as between equals between brethren friends and colledges who all judge and are all judged according to the Word of God where no congregation is above another congregation no Minister is above another Minister but onely for order-sake where every Presbiter is left to enjoy the whole office of a Presbiter and each congregation to the freedome of a congregation what belongs unto them and they able to performe it and the classes to corroborate and strengthen them And if any man be wronged by the Presbitry he may have the benefit of his appeale and be cleered by more righteous Judges a course ever followed by the Churches and agreeable to the light of nature so that I say if men would without a prejudicate opinion weigh and consider all things and compare the government of the Prelats with that of the Presbiterian they would speedily be undeceived And againe if they would compare the Presbiterian government dependent with the Presbiterian government independent they would have more honourable thoughts of the one and a lesse esteem of the other for in the Presbiterian government independent they exercise a kind of absolute power and soveraignty amongst themselves in every of their severall Churches or congregations so that if two or three of the Presbiters be malicious or self-will'd or corrupt or hereticall as it happens many times and by their learning or eloquence or great abilities of wit and schollership or by their wealth or power the congregation perhaps consisting of many poore people and it may be ignorant who are relieved by them and whose favour they dare not forfeit if they prevailing with the major part of the congregation as commonly the poore people are like a company of wild Gees who which way soever their leader flyes they all follow I say if they do once deliver a man to satan and will not by any art of perswasion be induced to reverse their unrighteous sentence the innocent and wronged man must live under this doome all the dayes of his life without any remedy and must be held by all the Churches of Christ that are after that new modell to whom their sentence is given notice of as an excommunicated person and shun'd accordingly they have no power to absolve or help him and from which he hath no benefit of appeale And this that I now speake there is not any of the brethren that is well verst in the grounds of that kind of government that either will or can deny it And this rigor to my knowledge both in the low Countries in the severall congregations of the English there and in some here in England among us was the cause of making so many severall sects for when they were cast out of one congregation for some particular opinion in the which they differed from them the other churches and congregations of the same mould and profession could not absolve them nor durst not receive them into church fellowship with them without an attestation from the church out of which they were excommunicated of their christian walking amongst them or had given satisfaction to that church of which they had been members and that they would never be brought unto conceiving that the wrong was theirs who complained as unjustly excommunicated neither would they relinquish their opinion as being perswaded it was grounded upon the Word of God whereupon they finding others of their owne opinion joyned themselves into a new society and congregation and had a peculiar church by themselves and this has been one of the chiefest causes of all these rents and devisions we now see every where for
when they are upon every slight occasion or for any difference in opinion cast out then they congregate a new church by themselves and turne Pastors The which blessed be God in the reformed churches of France and Germany hath not yet been seen since the first reformation for the governing of Churches by the Common-counsell of their Presbiters where they find such brotherly dealing and where they have their appeals upon any conceived wrong or injury and have right and justice done them makes them willingly submit themselves to that manner of government without making rents and scismes And truly if things were but maturely weighed all men would readily perceive that there is no just ground of reproach to be laid upon the Presbiters neither would they see any reason why in way of disdaine the Ministers of the Church of England should be more called Presbiterians than the Independent Ministers for they also are Presbiterians and labour to set up a presbiterian government as well as the other and professe in their writings that they contend for the ancient presbitry so that they also are presbiterians as well as the other and if the one be made hatefull and formidable to the people in the judgement of all solid men the other also may be made as odious and hatefull for if that odium and hatred they bring upon the presbitry be for the onely feare they have conceived the Presbiters will lord it too much over them and that onely I say be the occasion that so terrifies the people from that government let all men here consider and compare each kind of presbitry together both that of the Dependent and that of the Independent for if the Independent Presbiters in the infancy and very first beginning and rise of their government assume unto every severall congregation and presbitry of theirs an absolute kind of soveraignty and jurisdiction from which there is no appeale and if they already take upon them to unchurch all Churches but their owne and proclaime all the Ministers and people but those of their owne congregations profest enemies of Christs Kingdome what would they doe if they were once established by authority in their severall Jurisdictions and Assemblies and if now they will admit of none into their severall Assemblies though never so eminent beleevers but upon their owne conditions and unlesse they will be admitted members upon such tearmes as they propound without either precept or president out of the Word of God for their so doing which is the greatest tyranny of the world how would these men lord it if their government were once established by Parliament It is well knowne and can sufficiently be proved that godly christians and people of approved integrity and of holy conversation against whom they had no exception either for doctrine or manners and who offered themselves to be admitted members upon their owne conditions and yet were not suffered to be joyned members onely because they were poore and this very reason was given unto them for their not admission that they would not have their Church over butdened with poore And others desiring that their Children might be baptized in their Congregations and going to the Ministers of those Assemblies to entreat this favour that their children might be baptized among them For answer it was told them that they could baptize none but such as were infants of their joyned members which is their practice and wished them first to be made joyned members in one of their Churches Whereupon they thought that there was no congregation fitter for them to joyne to than to that Pastors Assembly that had given them this counsell and therefore applyed themselves unto him and desired that they might be admitted joyned members for answer it was replyed that the congregation of which he was Pastor consisted of great personages Knights Ladies and rich Merchants and such people as they being but poore could not walk so suitably with them withall he said he could doe nothing without the consent of the Congregation wherefore he perswaded them to joyne themselves to some other Congregation among poore people where they might better walk and more comfortably in fellowship with them so that the last news I heard of this businesse was that the children were neither baptized nor the poore men admitted to be joynt members of that Congregation What their Ministers have done since I know not but I well perceive it is as great a difficulty for a poore man to get into some of their Congregations as to get into Suttons-Hospitall and that I conceive to be the onely occasion that makes some walk so long in many Congregations before they come to be admitted members for if they be rich they are speedily received nay invited to be members It is too well knowne that many godly and holy people have left their native country and transporttd themselves over into New-England where this government is set up onely that they might enjoy the Ordinances there in their purity they were beleevers before they went and were baptized and such as were knowne before they went thither to be the deare servants of God but when they came there especially if they be poore they make them walk some a yeer some more yea some six or seven before they can be admitted members of their Congregations and they baptize none of those children that are borne there before their parents be joyned members and except they will in all things conforme themselves to their own conditions they shall never be admitted And sometime the man onely is admitted and his wife left out still to walk and sometime the wife is admitted and the man left out still to walk and both these notwithstanding are beleevers and baptized and after with a great deale of difficulty they are admitted to be members a very small offence will be sufficient to cast them out againe if they be poore But for stories of this nature I doe not love to multiply them but I have heard many of this kind from those places and from such as have been in New-England and men both then and now no way evilly affected either to the place or people serving God there But it is too notorious they lord it there over Gods poore Clergies in the superlative degree and every man that has but eyes in his head may see it here in England in their congregations what difference they make between the rich and poore and that they have the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons a sinne in Saint James his time highly blamed in christians James 2. and as in their carriage towards the poore they are very lofty and look for great observance and attendance from them wheresoever they come so likewise a little thing will displease them if they speak a word amisse it is enough to be cast out of the Congregation presidents of this nature might be brought many And if all this be not to lord it over
Gods Clergies I know not what it is to admit of none though beleevers and already baptized but such as will come in upon their owne tearmes and keep out the poore either altogether or as long as pleaseth them without any other reason but because they are poore and cast them out againe upon every slender occasion I say if all this be not a most diabolicall tyranny lording it over Gods Clergies I referre it to any moderate man to judge of and if to unchurch all churches but their owne and at one blast to proclaime them all enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and to deny all church-fellowship with them be not more than a Diotrephian prelaticall and papall authority there was never any in the world and if this be not to lord it over Gods Clergies there was never any knowne Now I say if the Independent Presbiters doe so timely begin their absolute lording of it what would they doe if their government were established by authority Their ministry and government is farre different from that of Christ and his holy Prophets and Apostles for they invited all the poore to come in and to buy milk yea to come in and buy milk without mony Isa 55.1 and Saint Paul for the encouraging the poore to come in saith not many mighty not many noble but the meane and contemptible things hath the Lord made choyce of intimating unto the poore that they have as good right to Heaven as the greatest and chiefest and our Saviour Christ saith come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and ye shall find rest unto your soules Our Saviour has no respect of persons but the poore are with him as acceptable as the rich if they be weary and heavy laden with their sinnes for that is all the condition that Christ requires in all that desire to be admitted members of his Church Now when these Presbiters already make so great difference between the poore and the rich and between beleevers and beleevers as they will admit none but at their owne times and upon their own conditions I do conceive that this is a most tyrannically lording it over Gods Clergies and inheritance which when they daily doe it and the Presbiters of the Church of England doe it not it is most apparent that their rule and domination is more prelaticall and more to be feared than that of the Presbiters of the Church of England for from the independent Presbiters they can never expect any appeale for reliefe and redresse whatsoever wrong or injury they have sustained by them and therefore there is no just cause why any should so traduce the Presbitry of the Church of England as to think they will lord it over the people from whom they may ever expect farre better measure than ever they can from the independent Presbitry which if it should once be established would tend to nothing else but to enslave the whole Kingdome and to bring in a confusion upon both Church and State But now it will not be amisse before the conclusion as we have compared the Presbiters of the Church of England with the Presbiters independent both in regard of their doctrine and discipline so now likewise here to paragonate them together in their proceedings for the advancement of Christs Kingdome that all men may see in that regard also which of their endeavours tend most to the advancement of the Kingdome of Jesus Christ and which of them ought to be preferred before other and which of them doth more really and truly tend not onely to Gods glory but to the peace also of the Church and State For the Presbiters of the Church of England they labour and endeavour as there is but one body one spirit one hope one Lord one faith one baptisme one God and Father over all who is above all and through all and one true christian Religion Eph. 4. so that this only may be established through the three Kingdomes and that all erronious wayes of worshipping and serving God and that tends to lead men to perdition and make disturbance in Church and State may not publikely be tolerated The Independents on the contary both publikely and privately and in all their bitter railing and intolerable pamphlets as that of the compassionate Samaritan the storming of Antichrist and that of the arraignment of persecution and in many more of their scurrilous writings plead for a toleration of all Religions under pretence of liberty of conscience whatsoever they be as Judiansme Turcisme Popery Paganisme and all manner of sects and for the confirming of this their diabolicall tenent they bring in the example of the heathen Nations who suffered all Religions amongst them and the example of Poland Transsilvania and Holland those pantheons of all Religions and tell us of the Parable where Christ commanded that the Tares and the Wheat should be suffered to grow together till the harvest the day of judgement And use or abuse rather some other places of Scripture which as they conceive make all for a toleration of all Religions To all which their pretences I shall at this time briefly answer after I have set downe some grounds out of holy Scripture and produced some examples of Gods deare children friends and servants out of the same which must be the warrant of all christians to follow to the end of the world for whatsoever was written before was written for our learning 1 Cor. 10. Rom. 15. and by the Word of God and from the example of Gods serants we are ever taught that diversity of Religions amongst Christians ought not to be tolerated And first to begin with Abraham the Father of the faithfull and his seed whose examples all that are his and their children oughtto set before their eyes for imitation The Lord called Abraham as it is in Joshua 24. out of his Father Terah's house and from his kindred when they served other Gods made a covenant with him as it is at large set downe in the 12. of Genesis and in divers other places of the same book and in speciall in the 17. of Genesis verse 1 2 3 c. where the Lord reneweth his covenant with him and his seed and sets downe the conditions of his covenant with Abraham which was that Abraham should walk before him and be perfect and that then he would be his God al sufficient to provide for him and protect him wheresoever he came which covenant the Lord ever kept with Abraham and his seed delivering them out of the hands of all their enemies when they served him according to the conditions of the covenant walking uprightly before him as he will doe to all his children to the end of the world walking in father Abraham's steps and of Abraham the Lord sayes this in the 18. of Genesis ver 17 18 19. Shall I hide from Abraham that which I doe seeing that Abraham shall become a great and a mighty Nation and all the Nations of