of its truth in so farre as authority signifieth an excellency or dignity in this truth for which it should be beleeved because of the excellency of the Author who is God who cannot erre by reason of the infallibity of his knowledge or verity or lead others into errour because of the goodnesse of his will or veracity but to say that these passages signifie any authority whereof wee speake i. e. either power to judge to command or to inflict spirituall punishments no reasonable man can thinke it that knoweth what power or authority meaneth 1. For the acts of power are either imperative or executive or some other like whereof none is here expressed 2. These sentences are all meerly â—â—â—ntiative which formally are not authoritative or of power 3. Authority belongeth rather adfacultatem actum imperantem quam ad elicientem as this here 4. The acts of power perse of themselves belong to the will and not to the understanding as these here expressed 5. They are not expressed by Verbes of the Indicative or Optative but of the Imperative mood not in this fashion this should be done oh that this were done but in this do this whereunto sometimes are annexed promises in case of obedience sometimes comminations in case of disobedience after which followeth the performance or execution viz. actuall recompence or punishment 6. If an admonition a protestation or a non-communion be authority then every beggar hath this authority yea as much as all the Churches of the world as it followeth upon the Commissioners Argument who say that every neighbour should have it who hath no more authority over us then we over them The Doctor also is mightily mistaken in limiting actus imperatos to the outward carriage for many of the acts of the minde will and sensitive appetite are imperati as when I will understand or willingly understand when I will my selfe to will and in vertue of that will I will Item when I will apply my appetite to good and command it to doe good No lesse a fault is it in him to take actum elicitum in the same latitude with the actions of the minde for some of them are meerly eliciti others meerly imperati We grant you that to bee most valid that convinceth and conquers actus elicitos i. e. as yee take it the inward actions rather then that which doth only manacle and constraine actus imperatos the outward carriage But we deny you that Ecclesiasticall Discipline much lesse your admonition c. can doe it for that is a work of Gods Almighty power only hee onely who created all things can create new hearts in us and he onely who knoweth mens hearts can perswade them the voice of the Minister only soundeth externally in our cares but Gods Spirit to the heart Neither is it the internall or neerest ayme of Discipline or Church Government to worke upon or rule the mind which is not knowne to the Church or Church Governours but to procure the externall peace of the Church which may be obtained the minde remaining still unconvinced Aliud est esse bonum Christianum aliud bonum civem in Ecclesia The other Objection is That by this authority and order of Government one Church hath power over another which is contrary to that liberty and equality Christ bath endowed his Church with and is no other but a new Prelaticall dominion set over the Churches of Christ The Commissioners answer denying that by their Government any particular Church can judge another but that the whole Representative Church in vertue of its aggregative power judgeth of them all which they illustrate very prettily and judiciously by examples taken from the parts of a mans body the Members of a Parliament and Townes and Cities Neither is it a Prelaticall domination as they calumniate it for that of Prelates is extrinsecall to particular Churches as being inclosed in their Metropolitane Church which is extrinsecall to the particular Churches as not compounded of any of their members per se particularly called thereunto but that of our Presbyteries and such like Ecclesiasticall Senates is intrinsecall to every particular Church being compounded of their organicall parts or Ministers in vertue of their generall vocation and particular mission admission or election particularly called thereunto But here I pray the Reader to consider the Commissioners most cleare and judicious expressions which being compared with this well-willers reply will sufficiently refute all he saith Our Well-willer replieth Sure your Lawes doe impose that one Congregation shall be subject to the Elders suppose of twenty Congregations And the Authority of nineteen of them is as Collaterall Answ Note here fallaciam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a captious Argument whereby he proves one thing for another that which is not in question for that which is in question viz. an Authority that is as collaterall in stead of an Authority that is collaterall which is an Epidemicall sicknesse in independent Divinity 2. I answer that the Elders of particular Congregations who sit in Classes and Synods may be considered two wayes 1. Materially as men who are Elders 2. Formally in quality of Elders and then againe either 1. in quality of particular Elders tied to such a particular Church in vertue of their particular Mission Admission or Election made by such a particular Church or 2. in quality of Elders in generall called to feed the whole Church in vertue of their generall vocation which againe as the Author of the Observations and Annotations told you may either be considered in actu signato when only it is signified to belong to their Charge before they exercise it or in actu exercito when in vertue of some Mission Admisson and particular Commission they may exercise it If the Elders of particular Churches be considered materially only they are not so much as formally Elders If 2. formally in quality of particular Elders tied to a particular Church they have not power to reed any Church but heir owne particular Church And in this sense it is an untruth that any one Congregation is subject to nineteene or twenty particular Congregations Yea they are so far from this disorder and confusion that the Pastour of one Congregation cannot preach in another without the consent of that particular Congregation as the Rules and Lawes of our Ecclesiasticall Discipline may 〈…〉 if they be considered 3. In vertue of their 〈…〉 ll vâ—â—â—â—ion they have power to rule the Church in generall and may actually doe it in Synods in acta signate if they be considered precisely before their particular mission and commission and in actu exercito i. e they may exercise it actually after their particular commission their mistion from their particular Representative Church and admission into the Representative or Collective Body or Association and Representation of many particular Churches whether Clasicall or Synodall Master Well-willer replyes that the Congregations every one chose their owne Officers to rule ever
them in the Lord but not to rule ever themselves and others Answ 1. What is Well-willer understandeth by Congregations whether Ministers alone of Ruling Elders alone or both together or men or all men women and children and in a word all the members of the Church I know not Neither doth hee expresse his minde upon this point Only I must say that being once in company with some of their Preachers I heard some women maintaine stoutly in presence of the Minister without any contradiction made by him that women also had power in Ecclefiasticall Assemblies to judge of Controversies of Religion and in matter of all Ecclesiasticall Censures 2. I answer it is one thing 1. to call a Church Officer to his charge or to give him his vocation or calling 2. another to send him into the charge or to give him his mission 3. another to admit him into the charge and to elect him or choose him The first is an act of the Church officers who examine his life and Doctrine and afterwards give him his Ordination in the name of the whole Ministry The second is an act of those who send him and sometimes is done by the Ministers in a Colloque or a Synod which give him his Ordination as when hee is sent to feed a particular flocke sometimes by a particular Church as in some particular Commission to a Classe or Synod but in the name of the universall visible Church as yee see in the Assembly at Antiochia in sending some Ministers to the Assembly at Hierusalem The third is an act sometimes of particular Churches as in the admission and election of their owne Ministers Sometimes of a Colloque and Synod as in the admission of the Members therof as in that Synod at Hierusalem And here to avoid all Sophistications of our Adversaries note that I speak here only of the visible Church according to its visible forme and consequently of the visible and externe Vocation Mission Admission and Election of Ministers so I say every Church chooses i. e. elects its owne Ministers but it calleth them not nor sendeth them It giveth them not their generall Vocation nor Mission into the Ministery but that is an act of the whole Church which in actu signato belongeth to the whole Church but in actu exercito according to the exigence of time and places to particular Ministers not in quality of Ministers of particular Congregations but of greater consociations in a representative body of many particular Churches So a Minister in a Synod hath power of God by the whole visible Church to judge rule and feed many Churches positis ponendio ut poni debent so as nothing thereunto requisite bee wanting but all ordered as it should viz. if it be by consent or election of his particular Church and he bee admitted by the Classe or Synod whereunto he is sent c. as it is ordinarily practised in our Reformed Churches Master Well-willer replyeth againe That Episcopacy is as intrinsecall to particular Churches as the Presbyteric since Bishops are chosen by the people at their instalment where customarily people are allowed to make any just exception Answ I deny the Assumption viz. that it is as intrinsecall and that for the reason brought by the Commissioners As for that which hee bringeth for confirmation thereof viz. because they are chosen by the people I answer 1. It is not enough they have their Election from the people but they must also have their Vocation and Mission from the Church in the name and authority of Christ which they have not according to this Well-willers owne Tenets 2. Because the people can make no Church Officer and principally Ministers since they have not the abilities to judge of their learning and gifts 3. In choosing of an Archbishop it is not morally possible that all the people can elect him and especially when he is a great Archbishop or a Primate over a whole Kingdome for all the people cannot well meet together 4. And howbeit they could meet yet could not their consent and voyces easily be gathered 5. It were a ridiculous thing in choosing of him to seek the consent and voyces of every idle and ignorant fellow yea of women that are of the people 6. Neither is it enough to chose a Bishop to make any just exception for that is not to elect him but to hinder his Election 7. Neither is this ordinarily practised 8. And Master Well-willer to the Bishops here confesseth in the next line that it hath had little successe But Master Well-willer confirmeth it out of that ordinary passage of Hieronymus To avoid Schisme one of the classicall Presbyterie was chosen to be as Chair man Answ 1. Such a Bishop is not an English or Papist Bishop but a Moderator of the action or a Master of the Chaire which will not make up a Bishop in so farre as a Bishop is distinguished from an ordinary Minister for yee your selves pretend to have your Synods which cannot be without some Moderator President or Master of the Chaire and yet ye deny that ye have any Bishops or Episcopall Government 2. Neither are Bishops annually 3. To bee short Master Well-willer bringeth us here no reall but imaginary Bishops in the Kingdome of Utopia viz. that are only Masters of the Chaire annuall c. 4. Item whose Chancellour Archdeacon c. were Parishioners 5. Their Chancellours are not ordinarily Ecclesiasticall but Lay-men as ye call them who neverthelesse judge of all Ecclesiasticall Causes which ye ordinarily blame 6. Neither have they Vocation from God as yee confesse Neither are they chosen by all the Churches that they rule and feed if any food they give and feed not themselves with the fat of the people You are also too bold Master Well-willer to say that the people formerly have beene as willing they should reigne as ever any people were in your Kingdome to have the Presbytery ever them Answ We can shew you hundreds yea thousands who have cutled their Government both in England and in Ireland and what hath been the good will of the Scots towards them they can best tell themselves as having felt it these foure or five yeares last past But as for the Presbyterian Government ye have never heard the People murmure much lesse rise up against it 2. But if it be so that ye have found them so sweet what needed ye run away and desert the Church here They did compell Ministers and Churchwardens to doe many things against their conscience and in case of refufall did ordinarily undoe them as we can produce many examples both in England and Ireland yea of the Independenters themselves before that they spake this way in despite of the Reformed Churches The like of this cannot without singular impudence be said to have been any where practised by any Scots Presbyterie We grant you that it is not the peoples consent only but if according to the Word that makes a Government lawfull But wherefore may not a Congregationall representative Church as well choose men for Classicall Assemblies as for Synods What pattern have you for the one rather then for the other To all this according to your usuall custom ye say much but prove litle or nothing of what is in dispute betwixt us many books ye make but little to the purpose And now when ye can doe no better ye can your selves most desperately on the Bishops side to maintain their cause when ye are yet too weake to maintaine your own This Well-willer in the end of his Booke wishes that the Commissioners golden speech be written upon all their actions viz. That those that are most averse to Presbyterie if they allow no matertall difference in Doctrine Worship or Practice might enjoy their peace and all comforts of their Ministery and Profession under it without controllment of that Authoritative power which they so much apprehend And thereunto replieth We have saith he been of late made to feare the contrary by the reports of some not of the meanest ranke rf your own Nation Answ No godly man that knoweth what is Presbyterian Government can doubt of it for according to the rules thereof 1. no man is compelled to be Actor in any thing against his own conscience 2. If you will be under it and allow no materiall difference c. without doubt the Synod and all Orthodox Churches will cherish you and assure you of it But if ye wil ever live in Panick feares and be so witty as evermore to find out new matter of jealousies to vex your own soules and make you to live in such a perpetuall diffidence all the forces of the King and his three Kingdomes is not able to hinder it ye must trust in God and admit of such securitie from your Brethren as morally ye can have If this doe not the businesse we know not what to advise you As for that Anonymous Country-man of ours who he can be and if any such be and whether his discourse with you could give you matter of just feare we know not and therefore forbeare to answer Only I wish seriously on your behalfe ye would doe nothing against the glory of your God the weale of your Country or to the breach of charity with your Brethren who so much desire to live in peace with you all The peace of God be with you all Amen FINIS
his sweet Brethren but to examine all things and to retaine what is good and to consider that a man so bold and adventrous as to propound in face of this most honourable and wise Parliament the venerable Assembly of so godly and learned Divines and of all the world so many so palpable untruths must needs be very passionate for those opinions which with so blinde a zeale and so little care of his credit hee maintaineth here and may be no lesse passionate in other things then in this As for the reasons and motives inducing me to refute this Libell they were not any stuffe the Booke contained or the least feare I had that it could worke upon any rationall man nor set I upon it with purpose to offend any man no not the five Independent Members of the Synod yea nor so much as the Author of this Libell who has so highly offended all the best Reformed Churches for never any one of them offended me neither is it their Act neither beleeve I that they had any hand in it or if they had any they avow it not And as for the Author I can not offend him wittingly since I know him not and this I hope would excuse very much the offence if any should be nor indeed ought hee to take offence at this Answer since he dare not owne the Booke Now if he be either a wise man or any wayes gracious I suppose hee ought rather to thanke mee for such an ingenuous reproving of his wicked calumnies against the whole body of the Reformed Churches for A reproofe saith the Wiseman entreth more into a wise man then an hundred stripes into a foole Besides as I conceive it is an act of love for as a Father saith Aust Epist ad Mate Magis amat objurgator sanans quam adulator dissimulans Neither can such indignities well bee endured by any man that knoweth how handsomly to cast them off especially when they are published in Print and that because of the imminent danger thereby of infecting the weaker sort of people not onely that now are but also of the posterity to come For as saith the Roman Philosopher Vitia transmittis ad posteres Sen. de Morib qui prasentibus culpis parcit But if he should be so fond as to thinke that he has done well in what he has done yet shall this Answer have some effect upon him for as Gregory saith well Greg in Past Protervos tunc melius corrigimus cum aequae bene egisse credunt male acta monstramus ut unde adepta gloria creditur inde utilis confessio sequatur As for me I can truly say my principall aime and motive was Gods honour the vindication of the Protestant Churches and especially that of Scotland from this mans vilde aspersions and to give contentment to good people who I am afraid may have beeno deceived with the glorious pretext of this mans piety and particularly that I might comply with the desires of those my worthy friends that moved me hereunto And so come I to the Title of the Booke which is A coole Conference betweene the cleered Reformation and the Apologeticall Narration braught together by a well willer to both Here it is to be observed 1. That this Booke carrieth with it no Approbation by those who are ordained by the Parliament to licence the printing of any Bookes From whence it may be inferred that in so contemning their Lawes and Ordinances and afterwards in maintaining that Independents of whom hee pretendeth to bee one give more to the Civill Magistrate then the principles of Presbyterian Government permit them to doe that this is done and that said in derision of them both and by a man no wise minded to practise what hee saith or professeth by some Nostro damus of whom it is said Nostro damus cum verba damus quia fallere nostrum Et cum verba damus nil nisi nostr a damus Or rather done as the Souldiers did to Christ who bowed the knee to him saying Haile King of the Iewes and mocked him spit upon him He giveth them much Paper-honour with much reall disgrace and will live as Independent upon all Civill as all Ecclesiasticall authoritie 2. It is to be observed as I said before that the Author taketh no proper name to himselfe but onely is described by a common name which is more ordinary among beasts then men For as mens individuall Natures and Persons are signified by proper Names so are all beasts ordinarily represented by names common to the whole Species if you except a few tame beasts so here there is no individuum signatum for to owne this Pamphlet which maketh some judicious men to thinke that he found himselfe conscious of what I have said or am to say and therefore went cunningly to worke in not owning it for feare of some castigation in stead of confutation 3. That this Authors common Name here is a Good-willer to both whereupon at first before that I had read over the Booke I wondred much what sort of creature this could bee what Hybrida and Amphisbaena in matter of Religion bred of so opposite Species having its heads in so opposite parts carried by so contrary motions towards so contrary ends viz. of Dependency and Independency But afterwards in running it over I found no such thing answerable to the Frontispiece neither in matter nor in manner For it ye consider the first it is nothing else but an intended justification howsoever with little successe of the Apologeticall Narration and a senslesse arraignment of the Reformation cleared If the second likewise his expressions which bee evermore we us our c. testifie most evidently that hee is a formall partie Truly hee willeth the Commissioners so little and his Quinqu ' Ecclesian Ministers so much good in this cause that he would make the world beleeve that the one partie saith all and the other nothing at all But what ever good ye will them pardon us if we give you no credit till they be brought together and it bee seene what each of them can say for themselves In the meane time I pray the Reader to take notice how this man in the evry threshold furnishes us with so evident an argument of his weaknesse in that intending a disguisement he had no better contrivance then by his owne penne so shamefully to bewray himselfe Alas poore man that professing here so much truth and honestie thou shouldst thus foully betray thy selfe to be neither true nor honest He endeth his Booke in an extraordinary way with an c. intimating something of the Booke behinde and afterward Finis assuring us of nothing behinde as if his onely aime were to contradict himselfe and so to try our patience and his owne parties credulity how farre the contrary partie will permit or his owne admit such palpable untruths both in the beginning and in the end of his Book Ecclesiast 10.32 The word of a
the Assembly hath vowed and covenanted to come as neare as they can in the Government of this Church unto that of other Reformed Churches and namely of that of Scotland taking evermore Gods Word for their first patterne and infallible rule of direction 10. They are thanked for it because it refuteth some unworthy aspersions that some have fastened upon the Government of the Reformed Churches now who can those be judge you Sir If here the one be thanked I may probably say the other getteth little thanks for his paines 11. The Assembly rejoyceth at the washing away of those aspersions yea unworthy aspersions as they are termed by them 12. The Authors of such filthie aspersions were there said to affect wayes of their owne now what can be those wayes that be their owne since they are not called Gods wayes judge yee againe 13. They are paralleled there with Bishops being both two opposite enemies to the Government of the true Reformed Churches the Bishops saying no Bishop no King and the others that the Reformed Churches gave not the Civill Magistrate his due which I interpret to bee as if the one said a King cannot be without a Bishop and the other a King cannot bee with Presbyteriall Government 14. Because it was there said that it was necessary to vindicate the Churches of God from so unjust imputations 15. Because the Assembly like wise men commended very highly the sincerity gravity and ingenuity of the Book 16. Because the Synod declareth how it acknowledgeth it self very much beholden to the Commissioners for the vindication of their owne and other Protestant Churches 17. It is called a temperate and seasonable vindication 18. The Assembly saith in name of all the Churches of this Kingdome that they desire to keep with them all and that of Scotland a more arct Communion and uniformity in the Ordinances of Jesus Christ 19. The Assembly declareth there that they had a very high esteeme of the Church of Scotland 20. It commended also the Commissioners for their judicious and grave discourse in the Assembly which contributed much to the foresaid Uniformitie with all the Protestant Churches And all this I have deduced at length not onely to refute this untruth but many others heretofore and hereafter which this unworthy Pamphleter casteth upon the Commissioners yea upon all our Churches to kindle a fire of Division betwixt the Civill Magistrate and them in these most calamitous times when both Church and State are in combustion already But after such evident untruths he addeth if observation faile not Here he seemeth to make us believe that the Author of this Pamphlet is one of the Members of the Assembly or that some Member of the Assembly has dealt treacherously and perfidiously with the Assembly in pinning upon them such an Act flatly contrary to their formall expressions for none but some Member of the Assembly could make any such observation But of this I will say nothing it being a matter of higher concernment I beleeve rather that the Author of this Booke is minded in principio medio fine to be like to himselfe P. 4. § 1. We read nothing else but of the Independenters admirations which Philosophers call the daughter of ignorance and some of their thoughts and judgements as if they were giving an account of their Creed as p. 2. we read nothing but Interjections of lamentation ah oh c. of holy and gracious men whereas we crave some quia's ergo's or other rationall Conjunctions whereunto we cannot better reply then did Scotus to a Doctor of the Sorbone in Paris This Doctor when he could not answer Scotus his argument by Reason said evermore Respondeo cum Sancto Doctore Cum S. Doctore replied the other si sanctus oret pro nobis si Doctor respondeat ad argumentum so we to you If those men among you be holy let them cry ah for their sinnes and pray to God for Gods Church but let Doctors propound and answer arguments but this man reasoneth not but giveth out Sentences as if he were some Iudge of one of the Benches You doe but imagine and fancie whatsoever you say in this Section of your imagination of the Commissioners extr ajudiciall and eccentricall Act your acts may rather seeme Eccentricall secundum quid to London and Concentricall secundum quid with Oxford where me thinkes they have more regard a great deale to your tender Consciences then to those of the Commissioners Neither can any mortall man hinder so independent imaginations It hath been already proved that you have given the first second and third blow and in your Apologeticall Narration you threatned yet another your judgement is utterly erronious in thinking that this was intended to disunite the Presbiterians from others i. e. from Independenters since no others can well be thought upon all other Orthodox Churches and all the Synod being no other for their intention is altogether to unite you with them Neither are there for any thing we know any that disunite you from them or them from you save your selves onely P. 4. § 3. This well willer is very impertinent in proving against the Commissioners that Visibility and Succession are not essentiall notes of a true Church which they I beleeve never thought I am sure never said And yet I must say that howsoever visibility be not essentiall to a true Church yet it is essentiall to a true visible Church whereof we all dispute here And howsoever of a true Church wee cannot inferre visibility yet from true visibility we may infer a true Church P. 5. § 1. He blesseth God that God hath made a Rehoboth for the Scots And God willing wee shall bee fruitfull in the Land as Isaac and we pray God he and his be not as the Herdsmen of Gerar even striving with our Herdsmen of Isaac If we have a Rehoboth wherefore will yee not drinke of our Spring wherefore to use your termes will ye not jumpe with us or if yee will not ye may be gone as Lot with your Pastours and separate your selves from Abraham and Isaac Ibid. Who can hinder the windes if they blow and bring blacke weather from the North or West Answ No true English hearts have made any such judgement of the Northerly windes these three yeares last past How much trulier might it bee said of a few Donatisticall spirits with their Vbi habitas amica mea in meridie that trouble their mother Church esteeming all her children unworthy of their Communion Pag. 5. § 3. Ye come up me thinkes somewhat lamely with your Catalogue of Prophets 1. For onely ye have one Brightman and yet none of yours hee is of ours for he preferreth the Scots Church constituted of Parochiall Classicall and Synodall Assemblies before all other or at least postpones it to no others 2. Neither in exposing the Prophecies of Scripture according to Scripture can he be said to have had the gift of Prophecie since his expositions were not