deprive our selves of that joy comfort and good we might receive by Christian unity and order Since therefore God is the Author of good agreement and order since we are all of the same family and houshold of God since we are fellow members of the same body fellow stones of the same building and fellow-soldiers of the same band since we have the same Father God the same Mother the Church the same enemies weapons cause and expect the same crown since in Christs Kingdom lambs Isa 11. 6. and wolves agree Labour we for peace and to uphold in this house in this Kingdom fold and family unity and order In contentions therefore deal like neighbours in State business like subjects in other mens sins like Christians in all humane things as just men and in all we do be careful to observe order 1. That all things may be done decently and in order lay aside pride passion prejudice and pragmatical dealing in things out of our Calling for when meer Mechanicks from the anvile thimble needle yea from tinkering and tapstering presume to sit in Moses chair to be dictators and reformers It is sure against order and a cause of much disorder 2. That all things may be done decently and in order by no means have a prejudicate opinion against the Governours of the Church I mean the Bishops they having been therein in and since the Apostles times St. James at Jerusalem St. Peter at Antioch St. Mark at Alexandria c. And after them such Worthies of the Church St. Augustine Bishop of Hippo Chrysostom of Constantinople Ambrose of Millain Cyprian of Carthage c. Fulgentius Palladius and Finan Bishops in Scotland before Antichrist three Luther pag. 41. British Bishops at the famous Councel of Nice Aristobuluâ— one of the seventy Disciples as we are informed a Bishop in Britain And of the nine and twenty Clergy men Mantyrs in Queen Maries dayes five were Bishops and one Arch-Deacon Such hath been the Government of the Church in and since the Apostles time and if some have been faulty personal faults may not annihilate needful functions 3. That all things may be done decently and in order let us better esteem of things appointed by our Church for unity edification and order and not causelesly run into factions and fraternities scandalous to the Gospel dangerous to our selves Obj. 1 Some I know will say to obey and observe order in things commanded by authority is against conscience Answ That Magistrates have power to command is cleer Rom. 13. 1. Surely then they may make Laws they being called powers surely such receive force from God they being ordained of God surely such bind since we must be subject v. 5. and surely violaters sin since resisters receive damnation v. 2. Obj. 2 But I am perswaded that such and such particulars are unlawful 1. If the thing commanded is simply unlawful as to worship Answ the golden image if the thing it self is lawful yet obedience to that lawful thing to some puts upon a necessity of sinning as when single life lawful to some is imposed to such who have not the gift of continency If indifferents are commanded as necessary as meritorious and as the substantials of Religion such commands lose their force yet not so but all commands of Magistrates wanting authority of the Word ought not to be disobeyed with scandal and contempt Even Heathen persecuting Kings had such authority from God that Christians were to pray for them and obey 1 Tim. â— 1 2. them commanding things lawful actively commanding things unlawful passively 2. You say you are perswaded they are unlawful this makes them not to be so If there is no rule from the word for their unlawfulness there is no place for your disobedience but the command to obey is sufficient warrant to obey It is a great mistake to swallow Camels sins and to scruple at matters indifferent not once pretended to be against the word they being also commanded by authority and that such we are to obey upon no better grounds than such they are contrary to our fancy humour opinion or Christian liberty as pretended for Christian liberty consists in freedom from sin from the curse of the Law from the wrath of God the yoak of Mosaical rites and an obligation There is a glorious liberty which is celestial in heaven Rom. 8. 21. On earth there is a liberty temporal 1 Cor. 10. 29. This liberty is best when â—ffence is neither given nor taken There is a liberty spiritual Joh. 8. 36. which consists in deliverance from evil from sin from the punishment of the Law Rom. 8. 1. Col. 3. 13. from the strict observation of the Law which saith do and live freedom in respect of God to have free access to serve him in the Name of Christ Rom. 5. 2. To serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness Luk. 1. 74. and freedom in respect of the creatures to use or not to use our dominion lost by Adam it being restored by Christ so that all are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. all being pure to the pure Rom. 14. 14. There is also a carnal liberty to swear to lye to slander to serve God when and how men list to shun Gods Ordinances and publick Meetings and this is a liberty stood for by some whereas this is no Christian liberty but a dissolute licentiousness for notwithstanding our liberty we must pay debts and perform duties to whom debts or duties belong Scripture mentions a good a cleer a pure a purged a weak an evil and a feared conscience If the conscience for which men plead liberty loves divisions which God hates it is but a bad conscience of conscience to the things indifferent as substantials As for liberty of conscience so much desired of some who know not what they desire I could shew how John Becold Nicholas Stock Mancer and others pleaded for and obtained the desired liberty but having power in their hands they would not grant the same to others And sure we may remember how some would not grant it to others who are now most desirous of it themselves But who I pray should have liberty of conscience Sure I am it is not agreed upon by those who have written earnestly for the same Some would have it granted to all conscientious men only but who are they some not to such who sin against the light of nature and reason and here will be some doubt And some would have it granted to all men in all Nations whereas if to all what confusion if to some only what dissension Concerning things indifferent as such things are which I may lawfully do or use as I may forbear from or drink wine ale beer or water I may cloath my self with woollen or linnen I may use the gestures of sitting standing kneeling so long as I am at liberty for a Christian is sometimes to moderate his liberty in the use of things indifferent of which there
doubt that disobedience to their lawful commands in lawful things tends to the Rom 13. 3. damnation of souls Object I will then submit to the punishment inflicted according to Law Answ But what if that is not sufficient in point of conscience for Laws made of things just and profitable for humane societies intend the subjects obedience in doing them and are confirmed with a double bond the wrath of the Magistrate and conscience towards God by undergoing the punishment the injury done to man is satisfied but by resisting the Magistrate in intention and breaking a profitable Law a man remains under the pollution of sin before God from whom none can discharge The Law enjoyns publick Worship and forbids such private Meetings you neglect the publick Worship and extol your private Meetings as the only way you condemn the Law as unjust and commend your so doing as good whereas the Law tending to settle preserve and keep unity peace order and concord must needs be good And being so consider whether such Meetings can be so 1. Confronting and disobeying lawful Authority 2. Casting dirt and disgrace upon the face and form of Government proclaiming it persecuting and tyrannical compelling such good people as you would be accounted to creep into Barns and Houses as if you wanted the truth publickly taught in our publick Meetings 3. Do you not in so doing condemn our Church as false if not Antichristian 4. Do you not condemn all the allowed Clergy as unprofitable and naught 5. Do you not neglect and draw others to neglect the publick Ordinances of Christ 6. Do you not cause people to slight their Teachers and to question whether there be such a thing as Religion and so to turn Atheists 7. Do you not hereby cause people to think our Laws are but scare-crows and our Law-makers to be such men who regard not what they do so to undervalue the one and other 8. Do you not encourage your Teachers to do that they have no warrant to do from God or man For what warrant have they to exercise the Ministerial function since the same Authority which enabled them to disinables them from preaching It is the Law which inables us to and allows us where and when to preach which Law hath power to disinable also To this end see the judgment of the old Nonconformists in a Book put forth by Mr. William Rathband in which they prove against Separatists that the Church of England is a true Church and that separation from it is unlawful Amongst many other things they answer the Separatists objecting against them their yielding to suspensions and deprivations thus That so long as the Bishops suspend and deprive according to the Law of the Land we account of the action herein as of the act of the Church which we may and ought to reverence and yield unto if they do otherwise we have liberty given us by the same Law to appeal from them Object If it be said that the Church is not to be obeyed when it suspends and deprives us for such causes as we in our consciences know to be insufficient Answ We answer say they That it lyeth in them to depose that may ordain and they may shut that may open and that as he may with a good conscience execute a Ministry by the ordination and calling of the Church who is privy to himself of some unfitness if the Church will press him to it so may he who is privy to himself of no fault that deserveth deprivation cease from the execution of his Ministery when he is pressed thereunto by the Church And if a guiltless person put out of his charge by the Churches authority may yet continue in it what proceeding can there be against guilty persons who in their own conceits are alwayes guiltless or will at least pretend so to be seeing they also will be ready alwayes to object against the Churches judgment that they are called of God and may not therefore give over the execution of their Ministry at the will of man Object And to the speech of the Apostles objected Act. 4. 19 20. Answ They shew it is most unskilfully alledged there being three differences between their case and the Apostles 1. They who inhibited the Apostles were known and professed enemies to the Gospel 2. The Apostles were charged not to teach in the name of Christ nor to publish any part of the Doctrine of the Gospel which commandement might be more hardly yielded unto than this Our Bishops are not only content that the Gospel should be preached but are also Preachers of it themselves 3. The Apostles received not their calling and authority from men nor by the hands of men but immediately from God himself and therefore also might not be restrained or deposed by men Whereas we although we exercise a function whereof God is the Author and we also called of God to it yet are we called and ordained by the hands and Ministry of men and may therefore by man be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our Ministry Thus they See also Mr. Bals tryal of the grounds of separation a solid work 9. Do not such Meetings asperse all the penal Laws of the Land and the judicial proceedings which have been since the Reformation against Papists Priests and Jesuits or any other justly suffering for their Religion as acts of highest injustice 10. Do they not endeavour the rending and crumbling our Church to nothing 11. Are they not a menas to fill the Kingdom full of factions and tumults 12. Yea and are they not against your so much cryed up Covenant which was to bring the Church of God in the three Kingdoms to the neerest uniformity in Religion whereas you by thus doing go about to divide and subdivide not being ignorant what fruits our Saviour shews to come Mat. 12. 25. from division saying A Kingdom divided against it self political good Laws and constitutions Ecclesiastical as doctrine and discipline brings desolation probably and very often Look but to the Church of Corinth what desolations Their preaching an empty thing when one for this anther 1 Cor. 1. 12. 1. Cor. 11. 20. for that Their Communions became desolate and by such means and doings St. Paul became their enemy who gave them their very being in faith and was their spiritual father And what desolation such divisions bring with us is evident what casting off your Preachers their old precepts and your old practises until at length some grow from something to nothing Is it not so when some noted for parts and piety long since a long time talk so Atheistically as to profess a readiness to hear the one and the other with a resolution to believe neither the one preaching against the other and that there was never any sound preaching since Christ's time Are these good fruits and would not such have objected the same against the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself false Prophets and Apostles
in the Assembly saith he they are but consulting how to build the Church not in the Presbytery for that is a Church unbuilt as yet not among the Parishes they are not Scripture Congregations as Smectymnus saith where is the Church of England Dr. Field of the Church will tell you Mr. Saltmarsh That there are some who profess the truth described by the Son of God but not wholly and entirely as Hereticks some who profess the whole saving truth but not in Unity as Schismaticks Some who profess the whole truth in unity not in sincerity and singleness of a good and sanctifyed mind as hypocrites and wicked men outwardly Some who profess the whole saving truth in unity and simplicity of a sanctified and good heart and I hope you will say they are the Church not excluding the other from the visible Church a net a field c. The old Non-conformists in a book set forth by Mr. William Rathband will shew you that the Church of England as formerly established was the true Church of Christ and that you should not separate from it Mr. Ball a Non-conformist writing against Can a Separatist Page 75. shews you that the Church of England is a true Church of Christ a people in Covenant with Christ to whom he hath committed his heavenly Oracles and Seals of the Covenant c. and in the second Chapter he shews the Church of England governed by Bishops to be the true Church of Page 79. Christ Sir Edward Deering in one of his Speecâ—â—s to the like purpose saying I am bold to forbid any man from this Page 125. house for 1600 years and upward to name any one age nay any one year wherein Episcopacy was out of date in Christendom in another Speech he saith I am none of those men that 1600 years after my Saviour came to plant his Church will consent to give a new Rule a new invented Government to his Church never known untill this age yet Mr. Howel tells us that the holy Titles of Bishops and Page 138. Priests are grown odious amongst poor Sciolists who scarce In his addition Letters p. 5. In Vind. of King ch 1. p. 49. know the notions of things And we have amongst us as Mr. Symonds saith such who love strife and although they have already offered most wrong yet still are most full of clamours and as another saith who cry out much against the Pope to whom they do better service than they are aware so that he saith it is a thousand pities that our Sectaries Regum Sacr Sancto Majest by J. A. pretending such zeal against Popery who no less maliciously than confidently rub upon sound Protestants the aspersions of Popery and malignancy do joyn with the worst of Papists in the worst at least in the most pernicious Doctrine Page 70. of Papists At the beginning of as in our troubles His Majesties Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. shews us Page 18. that nothing was discountenanced and reproached but a dutiful regard to us i. e. the King and our honour and a sober esteem and application to the Laws of the kingdom and may it not prove so again if not prevented and so be more advantage to run the contrary course if a good conscience â— A. Reg. Sac. San. Maj. to the Reader could allow as one saith for if the conforming obedient Clergy must lie under the lash of being prophane and scandalous and the irregular and disobedient accounted and cryed up for the pious powerful and precious men was Mr. Burton now alive he might better say than when he wrote thus What father after a while will be so improvident Mel. p. 126. to bring up his sons to his great charge to necessary beggary what Christian will be so irreligious as to bring up his sons in that course of life which by all probability and necessity will entail on him symony and perjury for he might now add scorn and contempt if he be an obedient son of the Church for what in regard of pretended conscience to that Idol Covenant which Lilâ—urn calls the make-bate persecuting soul-destroying Englands dividing and undoing Engl. Birth-right p. 29 Covenant what in regard of the boldness of some-daring people and the connivence of some in Authority it had been better for conscientious subjects that some Laws had not been made than that being made their obedience to them should be their disgrace and the disobedience of others to them their honour and dignity I know that some mens natures are easiest cured by lenities and that if violence be offered they will struggle they being easier led than driven but it is not so with all for since his Majesties happy Restauration some now daring people began to be tractable and orderly but feeling the reins of Government somewhat loose like unruly horses they get the bit into their teeth they kick and think to run away with and throw their Rider Amongst certain passages I have read in the reign of King James this I remember he who deceives Regum Sacr. Sanc. Majest me once it is his fault but if twice it is my fault What these men have done cannot be forgotten if it is let J. A. remember them that the best of Kings in whom malice it self how quick-sighted soever could not find any thing blame-worthy except it be a crime to be too good and transcendently clement forced to flee his Royal Consort necessitated to flee beyond sea the Royal family divided one from another his Revenue seized his forts and holds Curia Politiae employed to destroy him and another speaking to them thus you have violated all sorts of right in the person of your King you have raised a war against him you have often assaulted and imprisoned him you have abused the confidence Page 12. he had in you and destroyed him with great cruelty and insolency when such men have acted so vigorously against the Lords anointed and some of them not so wary as their fellows say they cannot repent and are such of whom Mr. Edw. Sparks writing of Primitive devotion saith This Page 106. stolid disobedient age contemns their devotions and are so Pâ—â—e 53. immodest as to grudge God the hat the knee whatcan we hope for from such men we may remember the moral of the Country-mans snake which would take away life from him who preserved hers and not forget that of the young mans beloved Cat turn'd into a Maid which soon shewed again her cattish disposition having an opportunity by the sight of a Mouse Some think I wish they be mistaken that in regard of the speech and carriage of some that they have a second part to act after the same or a more doleful tune however it cannot but be good with the snake in the fable who thought her self not secure in that house wherein the great hatchet was which had almost slain her not to give too much credit to such who have formerly dealt as they have done error being obstinate and making men so Religio Medici shews the obstinacy of the Jews in all fortunes that the persecution of 1500 years hath but confirmed them in Page 49. their errors that they have already endured whatsoever may be inflicted and have suffered abundance even to the condemnation of their enemies concludes persecution to be a bad and indirect way to plant Religion It is so but means must be used to preserve Religion that we loose it not Society of Saints p. 29. p. 244. in an Assize Sermon Some I suppose will blame me for writing thus now having formerly pleaded for Puritans I own what I have written and wish these were such for which I and Mr. Bolton plead for namely practising Protestants loyal to Princes obedient to Laws just pious charitable labouring to be in truth what they seem to be we plead not for factious irregular disorderly followers of Barrow and Greenwood the old Puritans being their great opposers I judging with Mr. Howel that the itching of scriblers is the scab of the times Page 62. purposed no publication of these notes which made me careless in naming of my Authors but considering that Nicholas Causin had learned to regard the works of the worst Writers and not to censure them and seeing the flame to increase at home and abroad and those who have much water in their deep wells and buckets to vent it lie in a sleep I have presumed with my pitcher to shew mine endeavour to stop and extinguish this fire of error some perhaps impute it to dotage I being well-near such years which are labour and sorrow and scarce able to go with Crutches let men think as they please my desire is to cure error and to procure order for which end I will conclude with a passage in Mr. Vines fore-named Sermon which is this If conscience Page 60. be warrant for practises and opinions and liberty of conscience be a sufficient license to vent or act them I cannot see but the judicatories either of Church or State may shut up their shop and be resolved into the judicatorie of every mans private conscience and put the case that the Magistrate should conceive himself bound in conscience to draw forth his Authority against false teachers and their damnable heresies and upon that supposed error should challenge a liberty of judging as we do of acting would our liberty give us any ease so long as he had his and were it not better for him to judge and for us to walk by a known Rule and if we should say that his liberty of judging is unlawful it is as easie for him to say our liberty of Preaching or professing errors is so too FINIS