are ancient is to say they are more odious and call for the more deep repentance and speedy and sound and through reformation 26. There are in this as in most other cases two extreams which be alike equi-distant from the true and right mean The one is to make no use at all of Divines nor to consult with them in any case This I take to be a dangerous extream contrary to the light of nature the true office and institution of the Ministry and that duty which all Christian Princes and Parliaments and People do owe to the Lord Jesus Christ unto whom they are vowed and sworn to observe his Laws and to be sincerely subject to his government in all things And he doth govern his Church by Pastors Teachers and spiritual Overseers with whom all persons of what degree and rank soever they be are to advise and consult not in every small and little matter but in cases of weight and concernment if they cannot otherwise satisfie themselves as they will do with Lawyers about their Estates and Physicians about their Bodies The Papists do grosly tyrannize over all both Kings and Subjects by binding them to make a particular recitation or confession of their sins to their Priests at certain times frequently thereby making themselves Masters in some sort of mens consciences and unjustly privy to their secrets and abusing the name authority and ordinance of Christ to rigour and tyranny and thereby deceiving and deluding souls into much superstition vassalage and hypocrisie To avoid which Anti-papists have run into a quite contrary extream forgetting of what daily and standing use and concernment Gods Ministers are both to persons and societies The Priests lips are to keep knowledg and the people are to seek the Law at their mouth Mal. 2.7 When the Philistines were to send back the Ark they consulted with their Priests and Diviners 1 Sam. 6.2 Ministers are not only to be heard in publick but to be consulted with in private and to be made use of in all cases and questions Ecclesiastical which concern the general interest of the Church its holiness and its unity and which cannot well and soundly be determined without the assistance advice and direction of impartial wise and holy Divines I am so far from being against this that rather I judge it a common errour and mispractice in Christian States as well as particular persons that they do not make that due and godly use of Ministers and Divines which they ought to do whence it is that they do so often miscarry in their ways and counsels because they do too much lean to their own understandings and either consult not at all with Gods Ministers or if they do they consult with those only which are partial and unfaithful or they do treacherously and hypocritically conceal something of the case from them or do like the Papists which make confession a meer ceremony resting in the work done imitating her in Prov. 7.14 People can send for Ministers to advise with upon their sick-beds they should do it when they are in health There is Parliament humility and self-denial which Jesus Christ doth bind all Christian States and Rulers to Luk. 9.23 The long Parliament had their Assembly of Divines 27. The other extream is of making more and further use of Ministers than need requires and than will stand with the prudence conveniency and quality of their work and calling and in making an undue disparity and inequality among Ministers and Divines appointing some to be Lords and Dominators over the rest advancing them too high in worldly dignities authority and preferment and thereby establishing pride and partiality It is grounded upon a mistake which is that by Gods Law Bishops and Arch-bishops have a majority of power and jurisdiction above the rest of the Pastors though they excel or be equal to the Bishops and Arch-bishops in true wisdom and holiness and Ministerial graces and diligence whereas it is evident from the very nature of the thing it self that a Bishop and Overseer of Souls are but two names for the same thing and that to be an Arch-bishop is to be Episcoporum primus an eminent Presbyter the chief of all the Bishops Presbyters and Pastors not that he hath a greater commission than they The authority and commission of Bishops Pastors and Ministers is but one Matt. 28.19 20 and it consisteth in these three 1. An authority to Christianize Souls and admit Disciples into the Family of Christ which is his Church by Baptism 2. An authority to use them as Disciples and Members of the Family when admitted by seeding them with knowledg and understanding watching over them and doing all necessary and convenient episcopal and pastoral acts and offices to them 3. An authority to discommon and cast out of the Family by penal and juridicial Church-censures contumacious and grosly disorderly livers whom no other remedies will amend 28. This threefold authority every right ordained Presbyter or Parish Minister hath and no Arch-bishop or Bishop hath more for more is not necessary nor is there any place for more And less will not suffice to make a man a compleat Pastor and Christ makes no incompleat Pastors Qui aliquid alicui concedit concedit id sine quo res ipsa nequit concedi He that gives the end doth includedly give the due and regular and subservient means And Qui adimit medium destruit finem We must not for fear of making every Pastor a Pope deny him to be a Pastor Grant him to be a Pastor and thereby you grant unto him pastoral power and then you grant him authority to cast out as well as to take in to have an expulsive as well a a receptive faculty Ministers may abuse their authority so also may Magistrates Parents c. But is that any ground to deny them the authority of Magistrates and Parents If they be not fit to be trusted with the pastoral office let them not be Pastors at all If they be fit to be Pastors let them be compleat pastors An incompleat Pastor is terminus diminuens No Scripture nor sound Reason doth give any warrant for making men but half-Bishops half-Pastors and Presbyters I say again That an Arch-bishop is but an eminent Presbyter as Peter among the Apostles or as the foreman of the jury The rest of the Apostles are compleat Apostles as well as Peter and have equal commission and authority The rest of the Jury are jurors as well as the Foreman and are equal judges of the fact True it is that among Apostles and Pastors who be equal as to Office and Commission there may be much inequality as to gifts and graces and faithful and wise execution of their office As all Parents have alike authority over their Children but all Parents are not alike wise and good and officious in their places unto some God giveth ten talents unto some five unto some two unto all at least one And it is
Gods will that he who is best be best esteemed and that the less wise do learn of the more wise that the younger submit themselves unto the elder yea all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility 1 Pet. 5.5 Ministers cannot always be executing their Office as Praying Preaching Baptizing c. And there may be some parts and branches of the Office which they may never be called to exercise as Ordination authoritative Excommunication and Absolution And no authority is given but for use and edification and where there is no use of it or where it cannot be used without making things worse and doing more hurt than good it is to be forborn But it is fit that Ministers be Ministers and Pastors and Bishops be Pastors and Bishops and be invested and intrusted with compleat Pastoral and Episcopal power and that they do use and exercise every branch and part of their office and authority when and so often as sanctified Conscience and sound prudence and discretion shall say it is convenient and they cannot forbear to do it without manifest damage and inconvenience as it is convenient a Captain have his Sword though he may not be put to use it in fight against any And it is fit that a Schoolmaster have power to use his Ferula and moderately correct untoward and misruly Scholars though possibly he may have none such and so never be put to use the Rod. 29. This being so I must needs grant that if it be convenient and advisable that the whole tribe of Ministers who be of the order of Presbyters be accounted Lord-Bishops Lord-Presbyters Lord-Pastors and Lord-Preachers and have equal right to be Lords and Statesmen in Parliament and supream Judges in all causes and questions both Political and Ecclesiastical which shall come before that honourable Assembly then I yield the cause my position is erroneous and I do ill to say it is inconvenient that Clergy-men be Lords and Statesmen in Parliament But if it be inconvenient and against sound prudence to honour or rather burden the whole Tribe of Ministers and right-ordained Pastors and Presbyters with these honours preferments greatness and authority then I see not but my position will hold sound and good for if all appearance of evil is to be avoided then all appearance of partiality is to be avoided and of that partiality which hath conjoined with it many snares and which a wise man is bound to avoid as distractions precipices and burdens I have no envious partiality against Arch-bishops and Bishops I am neither against the name nor the office and thing imported by the name Every Pastor unto whom God doth give more than ordinary gifts and graces is in my judgment a real Archbishop in Gods Church jure Divino a chief Pastor and eminent Prelate in Gods Church above his fellows of which rank I do estimate the famous Vsher Augustine Athanasius Calvin Zanchy Bradford Davenant Cranmer Dâ—d Bains Hildersham Preston Sibbs Gataker Joseph Hall Babington Joseph Allaine and many more both ancient and modern Divines all burning and shining lights in Gods Church more eminent than vulgar Divines I think my self not worthy to carry their Books after them I think they better deserve the Title of Lord than many a temporal carnal Lord that is honoured with that name The fifth Commandment bindeth me to honour my Father and my Mother and my Catechism teacheth me that by Father and Mother is to be understand all superiors in office age and gifts Good Obadiah says to Elijah Art thou that my Lord Elijah 1 Kings 18.8 The truth is our ordinary word Master or Sir which we give to almost all importeth the same with the title Lord it being in Greek Kurios and Kurie in Latin Dominus and Domine save that custom which is the great arbiter of Speech doth appropriate this title Lord to the temporal nobility If we must give honour to whom honour is due and honour all whom God doth honour or else we are disobedient to Gods word and unholy then both Clergy-men and Lay-men Magistrates Pastors Parents and private Christians are to be honoured with decent and seemly honour without denying them what all wise and peaceable Christians account to be their due and to be safe and decent to be given to them or giving them more out of flattery and baseness having mens persons in admiration because of advantage See Job 32.22 Jude 16. 30. But now it is not the custom with us nor with the Churches of Christ and Christian people and custom in this case creates a Law 1 Cor. 11.16 to give the Title Lord to the Parish-bishops and Presbyters though never so eminent and it is but meet that according to the use of all Nations and the Scripture it self a difference be made between the temporal Nobility and the Clergy And why it should be given to a Popish Bishop meerly because a Bishop such as Bonner Gardiner and many of the Popes and Cardinals who have been wretched men or to a Ridley a Hooper a Davenant rather than to a Bradford a Philpot a Dod a Joseph Alleine I know not If the honour be due to the Office then all Ministers must be counted Lord-bishops and Lord-pastors I am clear in that Act. 20.28 Phil. 1.1 This I know will not please our Lord Arch-Bishops and Bishops and those whose zeal upholds them All that I contend for is that all that be equal in office be equal in honour and no one partially preferred no one assume to himself carnal state and superiority over his Brethren Jam. 3.5 Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth This advancing of equals above their equals and brethren above their brethren and pastors above pastors in Gods Church is not good 31. I do not impugn bare names and titles but my aim is to impugn factious partiality and pride in Clergy-men occasioned by the over-indulgence of Princes and supream Magistrates It is simplicity humility and sincerity in Bishops which I contend for Either the Arch-bishops and Bishops must come down and abate of their honour their lordliness their principalities and worldly state and be upon even ground with the rest of their Brethren who have as good insides as they and are as real Bishops and Overseers of souls as they and have equal office authority and commission with them Matt. 28.19 20. Joh. 20.23 and will pass for as much at death and judgment as they or else the rest of their Brethren who be equal in office and merits to them must be heightned and advanced and made to be upon even ground with them This latter is not advisable nor will be granted it is not fit it should The other is both feisiable and convenient It will make our Arch-bishops and Bishops to be no worse men nor worse Arch bishops and Bishops if they be but meer and simple Bishops of Souls and meddle no more in State-matters and secular affairs than needs they
A DISPUTATION PROVING That it is not convenient to grant UNTO MINISTERS SECULAR JURISDICTION And to make them Lords Statesmen IN PARLIAMENT LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXIX It is not expedient to grant unto Clergy-men secular Jurisdiction 1. I Do not undertake to prove that it is simply unlawful And the worthy and judicious Bishop Davenant doth grant and assert Determ quest 11. That the Law of Prudence and Equity it self doth forbid Kings to burden Clergy-men with it so far as it will let and avocate them from their spriritual office and function 2. It will be demanded who must be Judge what is and what is not expedient To which the forenamed Davenant makes answer That is to be accounted expedient which a Wise Man shall so judge and determine whereunto I assent He afterwards adds That which a wise and religious Prince shall so determine Neither do I dissent in this provided it be soundly understood For that which a wise and religious Prince shall judge to be expedient if it be so indeed all wise men will at least they ought so to think for sound wisdom is the same in all But it is too possible for the most wise and prudent Prince to enjoyn things not good and expedient King David thought it most prudent to number the people who was a most wise Prince but in that his wisdom fail'd him Joab his General that was much inferiour to David in goodness and heavenly wisdom thought it very imprudent and the event proved Joab to be the wiser man in that 3. Some things are more evidently other things are less evidently expedient The Scales may hang so even and equilibrious that a wise comparing judgment can scarce tell whether is the heavier end and whether part hath the stronger reasons and the Scales may be so odd and unequal so much solid reason may be said for the one side and so little for the other that to a wise comparing judgment the case is not doubtful to decide Now I shall manifest that it is evidently inexpedient to grant secular jurisdiction to Ministers and Glergy-men that is That the same person be a Minister Bishop or Pastor of Souls and a Magistrate or â—oâ—â—lve Judge one that heareth the Sword Rom. 13.4 4. Arg. 1. Jesus Christ did not see it meet to exercise any such power while he was upon earth being moved to be a kind of worldly Judg between two Brethren he refused saying Who made me a Judg or a divider over you Determ quaest 4. Luk. 12.14 As if he should say says Davenant upon the words Neither by divine nor by humane Ordination do I exercise Judiciary power over private persons much less over Kings By which argument the same Davenant goes about to prove the nullity of the Popes power in Temporals Now if his argument be of force against the Bishop of Rome I see not but it is of equal force against worldly Jurisdiction in all Bishops and Pastors whatsoever Now if Christ saw it not meet for him to exercise worldly Jurisdiction methinks all Bishops and Pastors of Souls who have their office and calling particularly from him should see it meet to learn of him and imitate him herein and Princes themselves should not think it expedient to burden Ministers with that which Christ himself refused and put from him as either unlawful in it self or inexpedient Mat. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me 5. Arg. 2. The Apostles and the successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Pastors of the Churches for the space of three hundred years unto the time of Constantine had no Temporal Jurisdiction nor did exercise any And those are counted the best and purest times of the Church If we may not make the Apostles of Christ and their immediate successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Churches for the first three hundred years our pattern what shall we make our pattern and by what law and rule shall we determine what is and what is not expedient Can we better govern our selves and the Churches than they Have we more wisdom to invent and find out ways of good governing the Church than they had Have we more holiness and goodness and faithfulness to God our selves our calling and the Church than had they If the Church did well and best subsist when it had no Magistrates but what were Pagan Infidel and Jewish many of whom were great Persecutors all of them deâ—â—â—â— of the Christian name will it not well and better subsist if better can be where Magistrates are Christian and desenders of the Faith if Bishops and Pastors contenting themselves with no more but the Episcopal and Pastoral office and refusing all worldly Jurisdiction shall wisely and faithfully behave themselves in their office as those first and most ancient Bishops and Pastors of the Churches did 6. Unto this the worthy Davenant makes answer That those â—â—nes and ours are not alike Those times were exceeding 〈◊〉 and good ours be exceeding bad There needed no secular authority in Pastors then there was so much holiness and piety the Word and Discipline were abundantly enough but now the Christian World is so exceeding corrupt and degenerate that unless Ministers be armed with Secular Jurisdiction their authority will be despised and the Discipline which God hath appointed to be in his Church will be scorned as base and contemptible rather than be reverenced for any good it will do Non tam usui esset quam ludibrio those are his very words Davenant is the man whom I do highly esteem and so do all that be wise and knowing in the things of God but in this Davenant hath fallen much below himself and the feebleness of his reasoning doth much confirm me in my judgment and perswasion that the cause which he oppugneth and which I do here defend is too strong to be overthrown 7. His answer is partly not true not to say it is directly and flatly false For let any impartial man make a due estimate of things and compare the Pastors and Churches under the Apostles I except the persons of the Apostles themselves and during their abode upon earth and their successors the Pastors and Churches immediately following to the time of Constantine I say compare these with the Pastors and Churches of our times and it will be found that there is no such inequality as he suggests Bradford and Philpot and Rogers and Cranmer and Latimer and Ridley and Hooper and Bilney and Sanders and other of the English Martyrs were worthy and famous Martyrs of Christ as well as were those first and most ancient Martyrs And Grindal and Jewel and Vsher and Davenant and Gataker and Vines and Hildesham and Preston and Sibbs and Dod and Joseph Allen and many more of our own and foreign Divines were able to vye with the ancient Bishops and Pastors of the Churches such as died not Martyrs And the private Christians and Families and Congregations of our times
all that while taken up in State-matters Civil and Secular affairs If the other Arguments be good against granting any temporal authority and jurisdiction at all to Pastors and Clâ—rgy men and the Reasons for it be exceeding weak and but shews and shadows of Reason then it must needs be much more inconvenient to heap secular honours dignities greatness preeminence and authority upon Clergy-men and betrust them with the highest jurisdiction by making them Lords in Parâ—iament 20. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6.9 It holds good most strongly of those that seek both worldly wealth and outward height grandure and state that would be great and sit in the highest Seat and be accounted Lords and Princes and have dominion over the lives the liberties the estates yea and souls of men and would have wealth and riches to support their grandure and preferment It is this which hath let many evils into the Church and given occasion to the Roman-Bishop to lift up himself above all other Bishops yea above Kings and Emperors themselves and to assume the title of Universal Bishop and Christs Vicar-general upon earth and to usurp authority dominion and supremacy above all that is called God 2 Thess 2.4 Constantine the Christian Emperor thought he did the Church a kindness in heaping Civil honours upon Clergy men and putting them into places of state and preferment but in truth he did them and the Church no kindness It had been well for the Church of God that Bishops and Clergy-men had continued meer Bishops and Clergy-men without any worldly honours preferments in Parliament outward greatness and jurisdiction 21. Nor is there any hope that the Church of God should enjoy true rest and be setled in happy and lasting concord and flourish as it should in holiness and Peace till its Bishops and Pastors be reduced to the Primitive and Apostolick pattern One would think the words of our Saviour were plain enough in this case when there was a strife among the Twelve Apostles which should be greatest our Saviour quickly ends the controversie by telling them The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great and chief among you let him be lâ—west and servant of all Mat. 20.25 26 27. Luk 22.25 26. It shall not be so among you and consequently it shall not be so among your successours But so it hath been and so it is to this day God grant it may be so no longer There is a striving which shall be high and great striving for worldly honours preferment and votes and authority in Parliament There is not a striving who shall be most humble and self-denying and do the work of God faithfully There is a striving who shall be like the Pope rather than Jesus Christ who shall have worldly lordship wealth and preferment and exercise domination not who shall be most good and holy most faithful and diligent in the work of the Ministry 22. Ambition and domination is not good in any but it is worst and most odious in Bishops and Clergy-men By seeking themselves and their own honour rather than the honour of God they lose themselves and do but prepare themselves for a fall Is it not a most sad thing to read in Church-history the contentions and strivings of Bishops and Patriarchs and Clergy-men about names and places and dignities and worldly greatness and authority and all the doleful evils which Clergy-domination and worldly-Prelacy hath produced And to see Christian Emperors Kings Princes States and Parliaments to enslave themselves to a dominating Clergy This is it which makes wise and good men to think it were much better to let Bishops and Clergy-men be meer and simple Bishops and Clergy-men and no more and for the Magistrate to keep the Sword in his own hands For if once you take up this for a principle that the example of Christ and of his Apostles and of the Pastors and Bishops of the Churches for the first Three hundred years is not a sufficient pattern yea and the very best pattern for all Christian Pastors and Churches to conform to if once you leave this you depart from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 It is not possible to keep out pride contention and domination these will be and they will prove the scab yea the plague of the Church and danger to eat out its vitals or so weaken and consume it that it will want much of its strength and beauty 23. Sound prudence is always to go by a sure and stedfast Rule Christs pattern the way and practice of the Apostles and first and most pure Churches is a sure rule to go by Keep to this and we are safe God will not find fault with us for holding us to his Rules and seeking to be no more wise no more holy no more great and honourable and good than his Rule and Standard requires But if you alter your rule and once think and say the Clergy must have some more honour and jurisdiction than so you let in confusion contention domination and a troop of evils and mischiefs not to be told As in the case of Ceremonies and namely that of the Cross in Baptism if it be prudent and advisable to add unto Gods institution of Baptism a dedicating symbolical sign and say that Baptism without it is not best as Christ ordained it you may by the same reason add Cream and Salt and Spittle and a multitude of vain and foolish things no just bounds can be set 24. And therefore Bishops Pastors and Clergy-men in Parliament should make their humble address to the King the Nobility and Commons in Parliament to this effect Our office is to be Bishops and Shepherds of Souls to give our selves continually to Prayer and to the ministry of the Word and to take heed to our selves and to all the flock over which the Holy-Ghost hath made us overseers Had we more time than we have had we more wisdom and goodness in our Souls could every one of us do the work of ten of the best and ablest and most godly Bishops and Pastors that ever the Church of God had the Souls in England and Wales would find us all work enough We may not leave our work and calling unto which we are separated without injuring you and us and the souls of our people and procuring far more damage to all sides than the benefit can countervail These honours that you put upon us these places of dignity and jurisdiction that you put us in are a snare and a burden to us they are no priviledg but a let To strive for them were to strive to bring Fire and Gun-powder together All the while we be here we tread as upon Coals of Fire We are as
if we were upon a high towring Steeple or the tâ—p of a Pinacle we cannot look upward nor downward behind uâ— nor before us nor on either hand but we be in extream fear of falling For Gods sake for your own sake for the Churches sake ease us of these burdens deliver us from these snares let us not be pragmatical and busie-bodies you do not love to hear Divines pragmatical in the Pulpit and why should it please you or us to be pragmatical out of the Pulpit We thank you for your love and well-meaning zeal but you would not have us undone by you and Church and State suffer by us and by our standing for worldly honours and preferment We had rather be pure and simple Bishops and Clergy-men than neither pure Clergy men nor pure Lay-men but mungrels between both simple bodies are the most solid and compact Gold and Silver mixt is not so pure and firm as pure Gold We had rather be simple followers of Christ and Peter and Paul and the first and most ancient Bishops than any thing that man can make us Never fear that we shall want honour countenance reverence and due maintenance while we our selves fulfil our name and place and there are men and Christians among us If we want any outward desirable reputation esteem or conveniency God will be to us an alsufficient good and our very wants will be sanctified to our good Let us go to our flocks and several charges whence we came hinder us not Let us not be advanced in wealth in honour in preferment above the rest of our brethren who be equal with us in wisdom holiness and industriousness and many of them do exceed us We had rather dye preaching and praying and visiting and instructing the souls of our people than dye voting in Parliament and agitating State matters there If â—ou need our advice at any time in things pertaining to the Church and which come within the sphere and compass of our calling we are ready night and day to do the best service we can And we desire you will not look upon us as a divided party from the rest of our Brethren and Protestant Divines in the Nation but that you will in all your consultations about Church-affairs use the advice of the most sound and holy and impartial and prudent and experienced Divines in all the Nation and by all means possible keep the Sword and coercive power out of the hands of such as be proud and lordly and usurp over their Brethren and would set us all on a flame and are plain worldly hypocritical self-seeking men and rather Papists and Infidels in heart than sincere Christians and Protestants You need consultation with Divines for your Souls as you do with Lawyers for your Estates and Physicians for your Bodies But as you can make due use of Lawyers and Physicians by advising and consulting with them in all necessary cases without making them Statesmen and Peers and Lords in Parliament and loading them with secular greatness honour and jurisdiction so you may make all due and faithful use of us as Bishops spiritual Pastors and Casuists in Gods Church by using our advice and consultation when there is need without loading us with worldly honours and making us Statesmen and Peers and Lords of the Realm and Lords and Law-makers in Parliament such things be extra-episcopal They will be small honour and comfort to us when we come to dye and give up our accounts to God Bend your endeavours to unite all Protestants and to strengthen the common cause of Christianity Faith and Holiness against the reigning errors and vices of the times and the most malignant distempers of mankind now degenerate and far departed from God If you find us such as we should not be do right and justice and let no mans crimes go unpunished nor any scandal lye upon the Churches by any person or party whomsoever Fidelity to God to you to our own souls and to the Church compels us to make this address and to quit our hands of all such matters as will not stand with sound prudence and integrity The first and best part of wisdom is not to err and do amiss for then there will need no repentance but having erred the next and only wisdom is to repent and reform that God may forgive us and men may have forgiving goodness and charity in their breasts towards us 25. In case Bishops and Clergy men shall stand for their worldly dignities and places in Parliament and plead prescription and the example of their ancestors and the right of their successors and think it hard measure to be reformed the Soveraign with the Nobles and Commons in Parliament should say to them We are Gods Ministers bearing the Sword and are to be a terrour to evil doers and a defence to them that do well We are to correct all disorders and abuses Let every soul be subject to the higher powers If we find you to be out of your place and calling we are to take cognizance thereof and see that Archippus take heed to the Ministry which he hath received in the Lord that he fulfil it Col. 4.17 As we may not forbear to use your advice and consultation both publick and private when there is cause so neither may we call you to counsel and consultation needlesly and avocate you from your Studies and Episcopal and Pastoral work in Prayer and Preaching and Overseeing your several flocks without cause unto you belongeth the power of the Word and Keys unto us belongeth the power of the Sword If you see any misdemeanours in us do your duty faithfully kill us not by kindness flatter us not to our ruine make utmost use of that authority God hath given you in his Church to edification conceal nothing from us and the people which is godly and profitable for us to know spare to reprove no sin which is a sin and which needs reproving do your duty faithfully be prudent be pious be peaceable be diligent and blameless in your place and we shall defend you and be a terrour to all that would harm and oppose you But if it will not content you to be as Peter and Paul and the holy Bishops and Pastors of old but you will needs be usurping the Magistracy and seeking domination and make your Brethren of the Clergy your underlings if you will needs be pragmatical and busie-bodies and neglect the work of Prayer and Preaching and suffer the souls of your people to want due oversight and pastoral care if you will beat your fellow-servants and causelesly fall out with your Brethren and the universal Church we must not wink at such offences but declare them to be crimes punishable by a lawful Magistracy which we are under God We will hear of no plea or prescription against Piety Prudence and Peace Usurpation domination pastoral negligence and unfaithfulness and gross imprudencies are not priviledges but sins and crimes to say they
must and will stand with the order and quality and greatness of their work 32. Do you think in good earnest that Church and State will all go to rack and ruine if our two Arch-bishops and the Diocesan Bishops be not present in Parliament and sit as Lords and Princes there must they have the hearing of every Cause and be supream Judges and Magistrates and political Officers under the King were it not more becoming you to be among your people Preaching and Praying and visiting the Souls and Families under your charge in imitation of the Apostles Act. 20. Act. 6.2 3 4 21 28 31. than striving for worldly greatness and secular precedency Is not the way to Heaven strait enough to you but you will make it more strait cannot Traytors and Murderers be tried without you would it be any disparagement to the best of you all to be as Peter and Paâ—l yea as Jesus Christ himself rather than like the Pope do you stand for these worldly honours and preeminencies out of pure zeal for Gods Glory and the Churches good Why then do you heat your fellow-servants and use them more unchristianly than Pagans have used Christians Act. 38.20 21. and give your Votes that all the Pastors in the Land be silenced and put down for not assenting and consenting to many things which you your selves confess to be in their own nature indifferent all moderate and sound conforming Ministers confess to be burdensom and inconvenient and multitudes of conscientious and learned and peaceable dissenting Divines and Protestants do say are flatly unlawful 33. It is an errour to think that Episcopacy and Arch-episcopacy cannot stand unless Bishops and Arch bishops be made Lords and Legislators and Princes in Parliament and have worldly grandeur authority and greatness to support the simple office of Prelacy and Episcopacy in Gods Church These worldly additions and cumulations of secular office and honour are things extrinsical to right and simple Prelacy and Episcopacy Right and simple Prelacy and Episcopacy do not stand by the will and donation of Princes but by a superior Law even by Divine and unchangeable Right by the Word of God and by the Law and light of nature and the intrinsical goodness and expediency of the thing For if there were no Christian Magistracy or Parliament yet would there be Prelacy and Episcopacy in Gods Church It is of the law of Nature that the best be best esteemed and that vulgar Pastors and Divines that have but one or two talents of Ministerial and Episcopal learning holinesâ— wisdom and usefulness give place to those who are more eminent and whose graces and vertues do render them singularly excellent above their Brethren though they have but one and the same commission and authority Authority is one thing spiritual and mental qualifications and endowments are another thing Now we see how that God himself doth difference among the Pastors by conferring on some extraordinary abilities and qualifications and thereby notifying to all the Churches the singular reverence and esteem which he would have such eximious persons to have from all the Churches as Daniel was preferred above the Presidents Dan. 6.3 and Esther and her Maids above the Women Esther 2.9 34. Every man naturally hath a Pope in his belly is the common saying Pride is an inborn sin It is excessive pride in the Pope to think himself more than a man and it is excessive pride in an Infant to think himself a grown man and in Pastors that be but of infant-understandings to think themselves equal with such as be of grown and large and singularly eminent understandings Simple Prelacy among Divines is a Divine thing Every eminent holy and wise Presbyter is a real Arch-bishop in Gods Church This he would be were there no Christian Magistracy to uphold him There is a subjection due from one Pastor to another as from one man to another 1 Pet. 5.5 As it will not stand with true Christian humility self-denyal and subjection to Christ in all things that Pastors do dominate over Pastors and Lord it over their Brethren 1 Pet. 5.3 So it will not stand with the same Christian graces and duties for one Minister of inferior and smaller parts gifts and graces not to acknowledg the greater gifts and graces of others whom God hath made more eminent There is as great variety of Pastors as there is of Men and of Saints some are as eyes some as hands some as feet in Gods Church The weakest sincere Christian Pastor is a Pastor as truly as the highest and most excellent Pastor and is of use in his place In this there is no difference between the most eminent Arch-bishop Vsher and the meanest honest Parish-Minister But then as to wisdom and holiness and usefulness there is great difference and inequality and out of this ariseth natural simple divine and unchangeable Prelacy Episcopacy and Arch-episcopacy which is not a thing pleasing to flesh and blood and it doth neither favour nor make against any of the three forms of Church-government called Prelacy Presbytery and Independency further than they do favour or be against true impartial godliness of which this divine and simple Prelacy among Divines is one essential branch I do not say it is an appendant or appurtenant of Godliness and Religion but is an essential branch It is of the essence of my Religion that I put a difference as between a godly and ungodly Pastor so also between a godly Pastor that is almost ungodly and hath but one talent of godliness and a godly Pastor who is of the highest rank of godly Pastors and is full of the wisdom and grace and joy of the Holy Ghost and is of extraordinary usefulness and eminency in Gods Church We must not for fear of inclining to the Popes lordliness and supremacy run into another dangerous extream and tempt Infants to think they are Men and Scholars to think that they are fit to be Teachers and Learning Disciples Novices and Children that they are equal in wisdom and knowledg to their Parents Masters and Tutors between whom there is no compare 35. I make no doubt but there have been holy and eminent men Lord-bishops and Arch-bishops Peers in Parliament God forbid that I should think or say otherwise But either they were no more but meer and simple Bishops and Arch-bishops chosen and singled forth from among their Brethren to be consulted with in matters and cases ecclesiastical and proper for Divines and Bishops or they were more If the former and they kept in the rank and station of Bishops and Divines for my part I am not he that shall oppose it And if there be any word in all this disputation against such use of Bishops and Divines indictum volo I wish it unsaid But if they were more and took themselves to be more than simple Bishops and Pastors in Gods Church and to be superior to their brethren in power and authority if they took themselves
to be supream Magistrates and Judges under and with the King in the House of Lords and to have jurisdiction and lordship proper to Magistrates and supream coercive Judges and to the Nobility Peers and Princes in Parliament this I hold to be extra episcopal to be a swerving from the simplicity that is in Christ and an undue prelation of Pastors above Pastors and a deformity added to the beauty and lustre of simple Episcopacy and it is a cause of more evil than good and upon a just computation of all both conveniences and inconveniences it will be found a truth that Church and State have been both losers that Bishops and Arch-bishops themselves who have had such external honours preeminences and authorities have been losers in their Souls by them and that it had been better for all sides that they had kept in the station and quality of simple Bishops and Divines 36. The Arch-bishops and Bishops with us have three Ordinations first they are ordained Presbyters then they are ordained Bishops then they are ordained Arch-bishops Now these two last Ordinations are rather nullities and corruptions and do suppose that there is a majority and superiority of power in Bishops over Presbyters and in Arch-bishops over Bishops and the next step must be in the Pope over all For to be a Bishop and Shepherd over all the Souls and Shepherds which be in England is a vice of the very same kind with that of the Popes who says he is Christs Vicar upon Earth and Bishop over all the Bishops and Souls which be in the world which is to claim and usurp the office of Jesus Christ and to attempt the doing of that which is absolutely impossible It is indeed more impossible for one man to be Bishop and Pastor over all the Souls and Bishops which be in the world than it is for one man to be Bishop and Pastor over all the Souls and Pastors which be in England Both be alike simply impossible though the one is more impossible than the other And they do both savour of proud self ignorance and gross affectation and self-seeking as though one man could be in a thousand places at once Baptizing Preaching giving the Lords-supper visiting the sick instructing souls and doing all other the acts and offices of a Scripture-Bishop and Spiritual Overseer of Souls Act. 20.28 To the creating of a Bishop or Arch bishop there needs no more but an election and nomination of him to the place as is done by the House of Commons when they chuse a Speaker His office is no more but to be as the Foreman of the Quest If he have not wisdom holiness and Ministerial worth and usefulness answerable to his name he is but an Arch-bishop in name he is rather a post or cypher than a man 37. Also our Prelates do take upon them to be Ecclesiastical Legislators and Canon-makers to all the Churches and to all other Pastors and they constitute them a Lay-Chancellour and require of all the Clergy an Oath or solemn promise of Canonical obedience to them and their Chancellors They call their Chancellor their Vicar in spirituals and unto him is committed the power of discipline and jurisdiction ecclesiastical over all both Clergy and Laity and the Church-Canons are his Law and Rule which being too crooked for honest men to conform to he spares not to excommunicate them and upon a significavit made by him into the Chancery out comes an Excommunicato capiendo and the party must either go to Prison all his days without Bail or make his composition much to his shame or damage or both And Excommunications and Absolutions in the Bishops Court are bought and sold for money and the worst men are spared and countenanced while the best men are harassed and anathematized and accursed from Christ and his Kingdom 38. Now the Bishops being conscious to themselves that this kind of prelacy and domination and jurisdiction is not good and equal but rather like the Popes supremacy over all and those whom the Holy Ghost brands Nehem. 5.15 who ruled over Gods people by their Servants as now the Bishops do by their Vicars Substitutes and Chancellors but so did not good Nehemiah because of the fear of God They I say being sensible hereof do get to be Princes and Lords and Statesmen in Parliament and thereby insinuate themselves with the Soveraign and with such of the Nobles and Gentry as love to be flatter'd and smoothly dealt with and by this means establish to themselves and to their Chancellors worldly and carnal jurisdiction and dominate over their Brethren and become the Authors of Sects and Factions and hinder the holiness the unity and concord of the Churches and rather than they shall not be lord-Lord-bishop and partial and factious and busie bodies in Parliament Church and State must suffer and the common quiet be indangered They will not endure to be upon equal ground with their Brethren as wise and good as themselves as the Pope will not abide to be touch'd in his supremacy 39. I shall add this one word of caution Though it be not expedient that Bishops be made Magistrates and Pastors trusted with the Sword yet it is fit that Magistrates be Magistrates and not Cyphers and that they do not bear the Sword in vain and that they do back the power and authority of the Ministry and countenance and uphold the sacred Office by being a terror to evil doers and a praise and defence to them that do well There ought to be a due temperament of Magistracy and Ministry that we might lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty Though the Sword is not Goâ—s Ordinance for the conversion of souls yet it is Gods Ordinance for the punishing of vice and protection of vertue outwardly and for the just encouragement of worthy Pastors and the discouragement of the unworthy Anciently God did lead his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron they both made but one hand And it is a Law of universal equity binding all Christian Commonwealths Judges and magistrates shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes and they shall judg thy people with just judgment Deut. 16.18 And as there ought to be a sufficient Ministry in every Parish so also there ought to be a due proportion and contemperament of coercive Judges and revenging Magistrates in Cities Towns and Parishes that the people might have both Law and Gospel means for their Souls and means for their outward peace and safety nigh at hand It was the custom in England anciently for the Bishop and the Sheriff who was then called Earl of the County and was supream Magistrate under the King in the County to go in Circuit all over the County the one to teach the people Religion and the way of good living and to visit all the Churches and the other to decide civil Causes and to chastise and correct
are not much inferiour to those ancient ones both Greek and Latin and even to those we have mention of in the New Testament namely the seven Churches of Asia those of Galatia and Judea that at Corinth and others 8. Admit it were true which questionless is not I should rather think that the way to reduce an unreformed Church and people from heresie and unholiness to foundness in the faith and holiness is for Pastors to content themselves with the work of Pastors and give themselves wholly to it and suffer no lets Will the Sword convert souls or awe mens consciences would it likely do more good if a Minister should come into the Pulpit with a Sword in one hand and a Bible in the other The Sword is not appointed of God for the conversion of Souls the office of the Magistrate is to make way for the work and office of the Minister It is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God which must cut in pieces mens lusts and breed in them sound faith holiness and reformation and not the sword of the Magistrate Let the Magistrate do or not do his duty let him be Pagan or Persecutor and let the people be more loofe and unreformed than they are let but Pastors and Ministers do their duty well and we shall soon see that Gods Word and Discipline is of the same force now that ever it hath been otherwise there is a change in God and his promise fails and Satan is stronger now than he hath been and Christ and the Holy Ghost are much weaker Read and consider well these Scriptures Mat. 28.18 19 20. 1 Pet. 3.13 Mich. 2.7 Isa 45.19 Isa 49 4 5. 1 Cor. 15.58 Psal 84.11 2 Cor. 2.15 16. 2 Cor. 4.1 2. 2 Cor. 10.4 5 6. to name no more and let but Ministers be wise and faithful and try if it be not the best and speediest way to reform what is amiss in the Church contenting themselves with no more but their own office and leaving all force and secular authority to the Magistrate 9. If we be the same that the ancient Pastors were be sure God and Gods Word will be the same we cannot do Gods part nor the Magistrates part nor the peoples part we can only do our own part which we may do if we will do our own part and be sure God will be with us and do his What hinders but Pastors may be as wise and holy as they have been of old If we be not it is our own fault The more corrupt the times are the more need Pastors have to bestir themselves and to double their diligence and lay out themselves more vigorously to be more Exemplary to abound in the work of God to be mortified to lose no time to suffer no let To make them Magistrates were to let them and take away much of their time and rather hinder and distract than further them If the Pastors office he as much as they can wisely and faithfully do would it further them in their work to have another effice and work added to them Ministers of the Gospel are not so fit as others to be worldly coercive Judges and Secular Magistrates For their office is purely Pastoral and is to have no terrour in but the terrour of Gods Word and spiritual denunciations that the people may have no temptations to withdraw their love and esteem from their Pastors A Thief at the Bar had rather have a Minister than the Judg to reprove him though both should pronounce the same truth and hit upon the same words and have equal wisdom and integrity For properly Magistrates are for outward terrour to evil doers and for outward desence and protection to them that do well Rom. 1â— 3 1 Pet. 2.14 But Ministers are to be gentle to souls even as a nurse cherisheth her children and to exhort and comfort and charge every one as a father doth his children 1 Thes 2.7 11. But if parents and nurses and tender mothers should rule their children by the sword too that would not add to their office nor further their work 10. Arg. 3. If it be so as Davenant says that unless Ministers be armed with Secular Jurisdiction their office and authority in the Church and the Lords Word and Discipline as administred by them will be despised and trod upon then necessarily all Ministers should be mad Magistrates and Princes are too blame if they do not put the sword into all their hands and make every Minister throughout the Nation a Justice of Peace or a Sheriff or a Judg by giving him power to imprison and lay fines and penalties upon offenders and to use coercive means And then the Scriptures themselves even the wisdom of God will be found faulty if he have ordained and appointed no such thing in all the Bible as I no where find that he hath done And by the same reason Magistrates may say they also must be Ministers and there will be a confusion of offices and the bounds and banks of order in Church and Commonwealth will be thrown down and if order be not oblerved good government cannot be For good government is nothing but the observance of right order when Magistrates do the duty of Magistrates and meddle with no more but what comes within the compass of their office that is right order and it breeds peace 1 Cor. 14.33 40. And when Ministers and Pastors do their duty and what properly pertains to their office medling with no more this also is right order and the way of true and good government in the Church and produceth peace But if you leave this way and order you err And where your error may stop and what mischiefs and inconveniences it may produce who is able to declare For there is no safety but by keeping in Gods way and close walking by his rules Vno absurdo dato seqâ—untur mille is as true in Practicals as in Doctrinals 11. A 4. Either Christian faithful Magistrates are a help and defence to Gods Church and to Ministers in their calling and office or they are not If they are then methinks if the Church and Ministers did well when they wanted such helps they should rather do better at least they should do as well or not be much worse when they have such helps But to say they cannot do at all or that Ministers and their Discipline and Ministration barely without Secular Jurisdiction added to them will be of no use but rather a scorn and mockery under Christian Magistrates is stark shame and reproach to all such Ministers and they should rather be cast out of the Church as intolerable and as dung and dead unsavoury salt than be made Magistrates What should they do Magistrates that are not able by all they can do to preserve themselves from sordid ignominy and contempt or if not this it is an intolerable shame to all excepting Ministers both Magistrates and people that they should be so
4.1 2. Acts 20.28 31. Col. 1.28 2 Thes 2.11 Gen. 31.40 Act. 15.6 Mat. 18.17 he is personally to instruct and catechise and confer with all of his charge he is to visit the sick he is to admonish reprove comfort counsel warn and charge every one night and day with tears as a Father his Children he is to assist in neighbour-meetings and Church-associations of Pastors and Brethren for concord and communion he is to hear all such Causes as need due and regular discipline And is any one man able to do all this as it should be done to any of those Parishes in City o◠Country which abound with multitudes of Souls that would find work for many Minsters to do it faithfully as it should be done Whereas if there be one in a Parish and in some one with a Reader or Curate that is thought enough I confess at that rate that many do the work of the Ministry it is an easie matter for one man to be a Pastour to a Parish of a dozen Miles compass in the Countrey and St. Giles's in the Fields St. Martins Stepney and Cripple-gate in the City of London But to do the work of a Pastour faithfully and entirely to all the Souls within any one of these and such like Parishes would require a whole Colledg and combination of Ministers We see in a Troop of Horse of but some fourty or fifty men there is a Captain and a Lieutenant besides other Officers In a Regiment of Fifteen hundred much more of fifteen thousand what a vast number of Officers are there Captains over thousands Captains over hundreds Captains over fifties and Captains 〈◊〉 tens Deut. 1. 15. Every tenth man was to have a Captain or Officer But there is many a Parish in England that may have Ten thousand Souls in it and but one or two Pastours appointed to look to all these fouls When King Solomon built his Temple He set threescore and ten thousand to be bearers of burdens and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountains and three thousand and six hundred to be overseers to set the people a work 2 Chron. 2.18 But in the building of the Lords spiritual Temple there is not one Pastour to a thousand Souls in many Parishes of England I know many will think there are too many Ministers I think there are to many bad ones but I never read or heard of any Kingdom or place or people to this day that had too many faithful Ministers And I shall think it a holy and happy time when such a thing is but I despair to see it in this world Were it not that there are not Ministers enough to do all the pastoral work of each Congregation I should think most of the godly Ministers in England notoriously guilty before God of gross neglect and unfaithfulness for want of personal and private oversight of all their people though I think a great deal more might be done by many than ordinarily is Well then there being so great a want of Ministers and no want of Magistrates would you have Ministers to turn Magistrates too must those few that are be hindered and distracted by calling them off to worldly and secular businesses Is it not enough that Ministers have more work upon their hands than they can do and would you make them more and that too diverting and alien work extra Episcopal and almost if not altogether pragmatical work What is this but to serve Satan in the name of Christ and under pretence of Order to pull down Order and make the Church more low and weak by much than it is The holy Apostles of our Lord were of another mind when they saw they could not both look to the corporal necessities of the poor and the spiritual necessities of Souls too they contrived an expedient for both They appointed a new office of Deacons in the Church to see to the bodily necessities of the poor but say they We will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministry of Gods word Act. 6.2 4. Far unlike to those that leave the Word of God and Prayer and give themselves to the doing of worldly matters and secular businesses and teach men so and plead for it as their priviledg and a means of advantaging the Church and of promoting holiness and peace Non tali auxilis nec defensoribus istis tempus eget 15. Arg. 8. Those who maintain it to be good to have Clergy-men armed with secular jurisdiction do urge for reason the practise of the ancient Bishops and Churches for the first three hundred years while the Church was without Christian Princes and Magistrates It was usual in those times for the people to refer their dissentions about worldly things to the decision and arbitration of their Bishops who to prevent going to Law before Heathen Magistrates and to prevent and compose differences and strifes and keep peace among their people would give themselves the trouble to hear and arbitrate Causes and Pleas and worldly differences referred to them And hence it is argued that if it was lawful for Clergy-men to be Arbitrators and elected Judges to decide between brethren it is lawful for Clergy-men to be Judges made and constituted by authority and commission from the higer powers 16. As to this I take it to be true as to matter of fact that it was usual for the Bishops of those times to hear and arbitrate civil Causes and Rights And it grew by occasion I was a saying by a misconstruction of the Apostles words 1 Cor. 6.5 I speak to your shame Is it so that there is not a wise man amongst you no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren Thinking none more wise and consequently more fit to arbitrate and decide their Causes than their Bishops And this continuing to the time of Constantine and he finding them in possession thereof continued it to them and confirmed it in their hands by Law which was the beginning of Clergy-mens lordliness and domination the fruits and consequents whereof have been very calamitous to the Church ever since 17. I have many things to say as to this As 1. That it is very likely the ancient Bishops who took upon them this trouble of hearing and arbitrating the civil Rights and Causes of their people did it with no joy they were not fond of it they thought it a burden and if they might have had their choice would rather have been free from all such trouble So much is intimated in a passage which Davenant in his Determ quest 11. aforenamed quoteth out of Augustine They did not esteem them priviledges or easements but molestias for so are Augustines words as cited molestations and troubles But the Bishops and Clergy of our times seek them contend for them and are tenacious of such things as priviledges 2. Either the Bishops imployed in the hearing and arbitrating those Causes were the same with our Diocesan Bishop or they were