and the mention of Episcopacy is as cleare the Angell of the Church of Ephesus c. in the Revelation which hath beene cleared by irrefragable evidence to belong to this matter and the Ruling Elder in S. Paul that must have double honour and Titus left in Crete to set in order the things that were wanting and to ordaine Elders in every Church and many other more cleare mentions of the severall titles and offices of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon then there is of the name and duties of the Lords day The obscure mentions of that in Scripture were explained in the writings and Stories of the first age of the Church particularly in the Epistles of Ignatius and the obscurities of the Sacred text concerning Episcopacy are as clearely explicated and unfolded by the same Ignatius even in every one of those Epistles of his which Vedelius as great an enemy of this Order as Geneva hath produced any after his fiery tryall of that Author hath acknowledged to be his The use of that continued from the Apostles time though not so universally till the Jewish Sabbath was fairely laid asleep till these dayes in the universall Church and all particular Churches that wee read of and the like use and practice of this continued universally without any exception from the Apostles time till this day in the universall Church as that signifies the Eastern and the Western Church and in each particular Church till about this last Century and in this of ours from the plantation of the Gospell till this day These are parallels enough to even the ballance and I professe to know no one more which might weigh it downe on that side and to make it now seasonable to-demand whether it would not bee thought an act contrarie to Religion whether that signifies Christian Piety or meekenesse or awe to all that is Sacred for any particular nationall Church or part thereof without any more warrant then is now offered for this present change to remove the service of God from the Lords day to any other day in the week which sure is as small a difference as that betwixt Presbyteriall and Episcopall government can by any be conceived to be or insted of our first day of the weeke to set apart either an eight or a sixt day and so to change that Apostolicall institution If that seem strange or be startled at as unfit to be ventured on or yeelded to I shall desire the same plea may be entred for this and that conscience may be secured that either both are lawfull or that the difference is cleare and the advantage on the Lords dayes side or that it may be resolved that this is unlawfull as well as that A fift Argument will be this That the making or yeelding to this change will be a scandall very worthy to bee considered in them that so yeeld toward those which oppose this Government as unlawfull for this yeelding will be an appearing acknowledgement that their contrary pretentions are true and so a confirming them in their errour which is no light one but the same for which Aërius was and any other opposer would certainely have been anathematized and turned out of the Catholike Church for an Heretick which is one speciall kind of Scandalizing or occasioning the fall of our Brethren and withall a nourishing them in their uncharitable opinion not only of us but of the ancient Fathers of the Church who were all Antichristian if this be so which is another causing my Brother to offend nay a kind of countenancing that unchristian I am sure unprotestant Doctrine of the lawfulnesse of taking up Armes against lawfull Superiours and establisht Lawes and propagating our opinions in Religion by that means which perchance some may be betrayed to by this example others brought to believe consentaneous to Protestant Doctrine if they which are thus guilty be thus gratified which as it were a change in our Doctrine if it were really acknowledged so is it in this respect another act of Scandall if it thus appeare to bee acknowledged and that which would make any Heathen Prince unwilling to embrace our Religion if this disloyall perswasion were conceived to be a part of it A sixt Argument which to me is of no small force I will yet but name and referre it to others to consider of That no man is a Priest or lawfully ordained Minister of any Christian Church but he that is called and sent by God that there is now no way in this Kingdome to have that calling or mission duly but from Bishops who are the only persons who have the power of Ordaining others given to them in their assumption to that Order by those who had it before and can derive it from the Apostles who had it immediately from Heaven and whatsoever other power a Priest or Presbyter may be thought or said to have common with a Bishop it is yet the constant judgement of the universall Church for 1500. yeares that this of Ordination is not competible to one or more bare Presbyters without a Bishop and it will be easie to satisfie any reasonable man in whatsoever may be produced of sound or probabilitie to the contrarie and therefore if any Office or Order or Ministry in the Church be considerable this which is the standing well-head and spring of all the other must be thought so also Having premised these Arguments of so much weight sufficient to support the burthen designed to them I shall add ex abundanti some inferiour ones though they amount not so farre as alone of themselves to conclude it direct irreligion yet to adde to the former heap some aggravations As 1. That to yeeld to this change is to disclaime those blessed meanes of Gods providence which brought us to our Baptisme to all our spirituall life and growth that we have attained to and that is a great ingratitude to that Government 2. It is an act of pride and insolencie to prefer any scheme of humane and Modern invention before that which the Apostles the Primitive and for so many years the Vniversall Church had authorized and therefore I could almost adventure to believe that the framers of the Covenant had obliged themselves secretly to maintain Episcopacy by putting in those words the best Reformed Churches that I might escape thinking them so insolent as to preferre any Churches before those which they cannot but know have used Episcopacy 3. It is a great tempting of Gods providence in not being contented with that Forme which hath prospered so happily with us and the whole Christian World though subject as all that is humane or mixt with flesh is even the very grace of God in us to be abused and putting it to the adventure whatsoever inconveniencies the next may bee subject to Of the inconveniencies that Presbyterie doth infallibly bring along with it and the unreconcileablenesse of them with Monarchicall Government in the State sufficient evidences have been given and if there
CONSJDERATJONS of present Use concerning THE DANGER Resulting from the CHANGE OF OUR Church-Government By H. H. D. D. Printed in the Yeere 1646. CONSIDERATIONS OF PRESENT USE concerning the danger resulting from the change of our CHURCH-GOVERNMENT TO Him that being satisfied in judgment of the lawfulnesse of Episcopall Government doth yet conceive that the parting with it is no change of Religion and consequently that the standing for it at this time when it is opposed is but the preferring the interests of some inconsiderable men before the inconveniences and common wishes of all I earnestly desire in the bowells of compassion to my bleeding Countrey and from a sincere passionate wish that the cure of this dangerous wound may not be a palliate imperfect cure to present some few sad considerations which I shall cast under two heads proportionable to the two parts of the former ungrounded suggestion the one That parting with the present Government is no change of Religion the other That standing for it at this time is the preferring the interests of some before the common wish of all the peace of this Nation Concerning the former I offer to consideration First whether the Government of the Church be not a considerable part of Religion That it is so I shall make appeare by these reasons 1. That Government is as necessary to the preservation of the Church as Preaching the Gospell was to the plantation of it and that therefore it was alwaies the Apostles practice assoone as ever they had converted a City or Province or any considerable number of men in it to leave it in the hands of some faithfull Persons to dresse and tend and water what they had thus planted and therefore though it were possible for a Christian to be deprived of this benefit and yet to remaine Christian as to want some limbs or to abound to monstrosity in others is yet reconcileable with life and being of a man to retaine the doctrine of Christianity without any Government to be a Christian in the Wall or in the Wildernesse a Stylita or Anachorite Christian in which case there is no doubt the use of the very Sacraments instituted by Christs himselfe would not be necessary to Christianity yet would it be little lesse then fury for any to designe or hope the prosperity or duration of a Church or visible society of such Christians without this grand necessary though not of single being yet of mutuall preservation this principle not of essence but of continuance without which it is the learned Breerewoods observation from S. Augustine that the preservation of a Church was once by experience found to be an impossible thing no other engine being able to repaire the want or supply the place of that A second reason may be drawne from the concurring pleas of all the most distant pretenders for the severall Forms of Government in the Church as well those that have espoused the Papall the Presbyteriall the Independent as those which are for the present English Form by the King and his Bishops c. all vehemently contending for the necessity of that Government which they affect in the Church and none so calme or modest in their claimes as the assertors of the English Prelacy which moderation or want of heate is sure one reason that so many sonnes of this Church are now tempted to thinke Government so unconsiderable a thing and so extrinsecall to Christianity though this thought thus grounded be a double injustice 1. In suspecting that truth for want of asserting which is therefore not so vehemently asserted because it is a supposed truth 2. In encouraging heat and violence of disputers the greatest plague in a Church by shewing them that the Eagerest pretenders shall be most heeded and that meeknesse shall not inherit the earth though both David and Christ promised it should A third argument may be had from the judgement of our State which hath thought fit to make the Governement of the Church matter of one of the Articles of our Religion and so to joyne in honour the care of it with the care of the Doctrine and to require as strict a subscription to the establish't Government as to the rest of the 39. heads of Doctrine by which you may evidently see that to change the Government is to change the Doctrine and where Doctrine and Government both are changed can we possibly think the Religion to be the same I shall add no more Proofes of this because I conceive them unnecessary the contrary misapprehension being as I suppose not grounded by Arguments but of it owne accord arising from an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an experiment which many men especially persons of quality thinke they have made that in their whole lives they never reaped any benefit from Government never received anie accession or increase to their spirituall weal from that as from the Doctrine and Liturgy of the Church they acknowledge to have done To this ground of misprision as being perhaps the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cause of the whole mistake it will not be amisse to make some answer 1. That many benefits wee receive from Government which we do not visibly discerne and that therefore when wee discerne our selves to have received some growth and cannot but know that it was wrought by meanes wee should rather confesse our want of sense or gratitude to the true means then imagine those not to have been the means only because we have not that sense of them 2. That those meanes which have been more visible to us the dispensation of the Word and Sacraments have beene reacht out to us by the hand of Government to which therefore we owe our acknowledgements in the second place for our preservation and growth as to the hand of supreme providence for our being or life spirituall 3. That if the benefits of Government have not been really verie discernible and notable to all that is not yet in any justice to be imputed to any defect that way in Governement it selfe to any barrennes in the nature or particular temper of it but to some default which will deserve observing and reforming in the Persons either of the Rulers or of those which are under rule or of a third sort whose duty it is to be the Rulers perspectives and Otacousticks to present to their knowledge the wants of inferiours which till they are knowne are not likely to be repayred The defaults in each of these severals are or may be so many and so obvious to common observation that it will be much more reasonable for each to resolve to amend his part for the future and so to make it a businesse of Reformation then to charge the defaults of persons to the defaming of Government and so to undervalue and scorne what our sinnes first then our phansies have defamed The comfort is that it hath been the clemency as well as the sloth or cowardice of Governours which have deprived men of the
great fruits of Government and if it may be agreed that it is very expedient and will be taken in good part that Governours hereafter be more severe as well as more diligent more couragious as well as more laborious in using the Weapons of their warfare to cut off or to cure without any respect of persons wheresoever there is need of them I shall hope this objection will then be throughly answered if as yet it be not A second consideration apportioned to the former head will be this whether supposing Government of the Church to be a considerable part of Religion the change of it from established Episcopacy to any other namely to that of Presbytery by many without any Superiour over them or as that is opposite to Episcopacy be not a sinne against Religion That it is or will be so I shall endeavour to convince the gainsayer by these steps or degrees of proof which though perhaps not each single yet all being put together will I beleeve where prejudice doth not hinder be sufficient to doe it 1. Because this Government by Bishops superiour to Presbyters is of Apostolicall institution But this being an affirmation as demonstrable by Ecclesiasticall Records as any thing can be or as the Canon of Scripture which we receive is demonstrated to be the Canon of Scripture and in regard it hath by others been sufficiently proved I shall therefore wholly spare the repeating of that trouble and adde unto it 2. That it hath the example though not the distinct precept of Christ who with his twelve Apostles and the many other Disciples in time of his residence upon Earth superiour one to the other are the copy of which the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the following age were a transcript who are therfore by S. Ignatius S. Iohns Contemporary allowed to receive honour the Bishops as Christ the Presbyters as the Apostles the Deacons as the Seventy 3. That as farre as concernes superiority of one order to the other which is sufficient to eject the Presbytery which supposes an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or equality of all it is authorized by sacred Scripture-practice where it appeares that when Judas fell Acts 1. from his orbe of motion the dignity of being one of the twelve is by the direction of the Spirit and by lot bestowed upon Matthias who though before a Disciple of Christ was not till then assumed to that dignity Fourthly that supposing it to be in this manner Apostolicall there is little colour of reason to doubt but that the preserving of it is of as great moment as many doctrines of Christianity not onely because many doctrines were not so explicitely delivered by Christ but that they needed farther explicating by the Apostles and are therefore by the Church grounded not in any words of the Gospell but in the Epistles of the Apostles but also because it was in Gods providence thought fit that Government should be setled not by Christ personally but by the Apostles that is mediately by Christ as doctrine was by Christ immediately Christ in his life time gives them the ground of a Church divine truth the word of his Father the acknowledgement of which is the rocke on which his Church is built on this the Apostles are to build and gather members and to settle the whole edifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ordinately and that they may not erre in that worke the Holy Ghost is promised to descend upon them and Christ by that power of his to be with them in eminent manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end of the world And Government being necessarie to this setling was undoubtedly thus referred and left to them by CHRIST and so their Authority in instituting that which they instituted as evidently deduced from CHRIST as their power of Preaching what they preached or baptizing whom they baptized And having gone thus farre I cannot but resume my consideration thus farre made more considerable and appeale to any sober conscience whether it be not some irreligion thus to displace or remove that which the Apostles to whom only by Christ it was intrusted according to Christs owne Samplar and Scripture-grounds thought fit to settle in the Church supposing it to be a matter of Religion which is spoken of as before we proved nay whether if an Angell from Heaven were to be anathematized for teaching any other Doctrine then what one Apostle had taught it would not be matter of just terrour to any that should have any part in the guilt of instituting any other Government then that which the Apostles had instituted especially when the acts of Councells tell us that what S. Paul denounces against the heterodox Angell the Church did practise against Aerius anathematized him for impugning this Government which now we speake of And if still the Authority of all this be blemisht by this one exception that this institution of the Apostles is not affirmed in Scripture or there commanded to posterity to continue and retain for ever To this I answer by saying that which may be a fourth Argument to prove the irreligiousnesse of such change That there is as much or more to be said in both those respects both for mention of this institution in Scripture and for Apostolicall precept for continuing of it for this Government as for some other things whose change would be acknowledged very irreligious I will onely instance in one the institution of the Lords day of which there is nothing can be said to the setting up the Authority and immutability of it which will not be said of Episcopacy A ground of it there was in nature some Time to be set apart to the speciall publique service of God and the like ground there is in nature for this that some Persons should be designed to and rewarded for the speciall publique service of God A patterne of that there was among the Jewes one day in the seven defined for Gods Quotum or portion the like patterne there is among the Jewes for this a Government by High-priests Priests and Levites That was an institution not of Christ in his life time immediately but of his Apostles after his departure invested with such power the like institution there is of this by the same Apostles after Christs ascension directed and assisted by the holy Ghost The occasion of pitching on the first day of the weeke was a solemne action of Christ his Resurection on that day the occasion of this the severall distinct orders in the Church in Christs time Christ Apostles Disciples and the manifest superiority of him before all of them who affirmes himselfe their Lord even when he speakes of his office ministerialll his coming to Minister to them and of the Apostles before the Disciples as even now was shewed The mention of that was found once in the Revelation distinctly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day and twice or thrice more in equipollent termes the first day of the week