what hath been said you may see which of the late English Controverted Ceremonies I take to have been Lawful and which unlawfull Too many years did I spend long agoe about these controversies and the judgement that then I arrived at I could never find reason since to change notwithstanding all the changes of the times and the helps I that have since had And it was and is as followeth § 39. 1. About Episcopacy which was the principal point concomitant with the Ceremonial Controversie I have given you my thoughts before 2. The ceremonies controverted among us were especially The surplice the gesture of Kneeling in Receiving the Lords supper the ring in Marriage Laying the hand on the Book in taking aâ— Oath the Organs and Church musick Holy daies Altars Rails and the Cross in Baptism To say nothing of the matter or form of the Prayers § 40. And 1. If the surplice be Imposed by the Magistrate as it was who is a lawfull Governor and that directly but as a Decent Habit for a Minister in Gods service I think he needlesly strained his Power and sinfully made an engine to divide the Church by making such a needless law and laying the Peace of the Church upon it But yet he medled with nothing but was within the reach of his Power in the general Some Decent Habit is Necessary Either the Magistrate or the Minister himself or the Associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do any more then hinder undecency But yet if they do more and tye all to one Habit and suppose it were an undecent Habit yet this is but an imprudent use of Power It is a thing within the Magistrates reach He doth not an aliene work but his own work amiss and therefore the thing in it self being lawfull I would obey him and use that garment if I could not be dispensed with Yea though Secondarily the Whiteness be to signifie Purity and so it be made a teaching sign yet would I obey For secondarily we may lawfully and piously make Teaching signs of our food and rayment and every thing we see But if the Magistrate had said that the Primary reason or use of the Surplice was to be an instituted sacramental sign to work gâ—ace on my soul and engage me to God then I durst not have used it though secondarily it had been commanded as a decent garment New Sacraments I durst not use though a secondary use were lawfull § 41. 2. And for Kneeling at the Sacrament I doubt not at all but the imposing it and that on such rigorous terms tying all to it and casting all out of the communion of the Church or from the participation of the Sacrament that durst not use it was a very grievous sin and tended to persecution injustice and Church-dividing It is certainly in a doubtful case the safest way to do as Christ and his Apostles and the universal Church did for many hundred years That none should Kneel in publick worship on the Lords day no not in Prayer much less in receiving the Eucharist was a Custome so ancient and Universal in the Church that it was everywhere observed before general Councils were made use of and in the first general Council of Nice it was made the last Canon and other general Councils afterward renewed it so that I know not how any Ceremony can possibly pretend to greater Ecclesiastical Authority then this had And to cast out all from Church Communion in Sacraments that dare not go against the examples of Christ and his Apostles and all the Primitive Church who long received the Eucharist in another gesture and against the Canons of the first and most famous and other succeeding general Councils this is a most inhumane part Either the gesture is indifferent in it self or not If it be how dare they thus divide the Church by it and cast out Christians that scruple it when they have these and many other reasons of their scruples which for brevity I omit If they say that Kneeling is of it self Necessary and not Indifferent because it is Reverent c. then 1. They make Christ an â—mperfect Law-giver 2. They make himself or his Apostles or both to have been sinners 3. They condemn the Catholick Church of sin 4. They condemn the Canons of the Chief general Councils 5. And then if the Bishops themselves in Council should change the gesture it were unlawfull to obey them All which are consequents that I suppose they will disown What a perverse preposterous Reverence is this when they have leave to lie in the dust before and after the very act of receiving through all their confessions and prayers yet they will at other times stand and many of them sit at prayer and sit at singing Psalms of Prayer and Praise to God and yet when Christ doth invite them to a feast they dare not imitate his Apostles and universal Church in their gesture lest they should be sinfully unreverent § 42. But yet as sinfully as this Gesture was imposed for my part I did obey the imposerâ—â—nd would do if it were to do again rather then disturb the Peace of the Church or be deprived of its Communion For God having made some Gesture necessary and confined me to none but left it to humane Determination I shall submit to Magistrates in their proper work even when they miss it in the manner I am not sure that Christ intended the example of himself and his Apostles as obligatory to us that shall succeed I am sure it proves sitting lawful but I am not sure that it proves it necessary though very convenient But I am sure he hath commanded me obedience and peace § 43. 3. And for the Ring in Marriage I see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of it For though the Papists make a Sacrament of Marriage yet we have no reason to take it for any ordinance of Divine worship any more then the solemnizing of a contract between a Prince and People All things are sanctified and pure to the Pure but that doth not confound the two Tables nor make all things to be parts of Worship that are sanctified The Coronation of a King is sanctified as well as Marriage and is as much a Sacrament as Marriage and the Ceremonies of it might as well be scrupled especially when God doth seem to go before them by the example of Anointing as if he would confine them to that Ceremonie which yet was none of his intent nor is it much scrupled § 44. 4. And though the taking of an Oath be a sort of worship yet not the natural worship of the first Commandment nor the Instituted of the second but the Reverent use of his name in the third so that it is not primarily an act of worship but Reductively and Consequentially It being the principal use of an Oath to Confirm the Truth and End strife by appealing to God which appellation is indeed an acknowledgment
use them and only desire a toleration our selves because we dare not wilfully sin against our light will charity deny us this If men forbear a thing suppose indifferent for fear of Gods displeasure and damnation and profess that were it not for this they would conform to the wills of others are those Christians or men that will come behind them and drive them into hell without compassion and that for things indifferent CHAP. IX Prop. 9. There is no meer Humane Vniversal Soveraign Civil or Ecclesiastical over the whole Church and therefore none to make Laws Obligatory to the whole § 1. I ADD this because of the specious pretences of some that say we are bound to an uniformity in Ceremonies by the Church and call all Schismaticks and such as separate from the Catholick Church that disown and disuse such Ceremonies as on these pretences they obtrude And by the Church that thus obligeth us they mean either some Universal Soveraign Power or else an universal Consent of the Church essential as they call it And that Soveraign must be the Pope or a General Council § 2. If it be Universal Consent of all Believers that they suppose to be the obliging power I shall answer them 1. That Believers are not Governours and Law-givers to the Universal Church no nor to a particular Church If that point of the Separatists be so odious that asserteth the multitude of Believers to be the Governours of a particular Church and to have the power of the Keyes what then shall we think of them that give them even to such as they call the Laity themselves the Government yea in the highest point even Legislation over the Universal Church it self § 3. And 2. I add that the Dissent of those Churches that refuse your Ceremonies doth prove that there is no Universal consent If all must consent we must consent our selves before we be obliged We are as free as others we gave none power to oblige us by their consent If we had it had been Null because we had no authority so to do and could not have obliged our selves by a universal Law or perpetual contract Or if we had we had also power on just occasion to reverse a self-obligation But no such thing de facto can be pretended against us § 4. And if such an obligation by consent should be pretended 3. I would know whether it was by this or by some former generation Not by this as is certain Nor by any former For former ages had no power to bind all their successors in Ceremonies about the worship of God Shew whence they had such a power and prove it if you can we are born as free men as our ancestors were in this § 5. And 4. I would be satisfied whether every mans consent in the world be necessary to the Vniversality or not If it be then there are no Dissenters or no obligation because no Universal consent If not then how many must consent before we are obliged you have nothing to say but a Major part where you can with any shew of reason rest And 1. How shall we know in every Parish in England what mind the Major part of the Christians through the world are of in point of such or such a Ceremony 2. Yea by this rule we have reason to think that both Papists and Protestants must change their Ceremonies because the greater part of Christians in East and South and some in the West are against very many of them § 6. But if it be the Authority of a Soveraign Head that is pleaded as obliging the universal Church to an uniformity in Rites and Ceremonies we must know who that Soveraign is None that we know pretend to it but the Pope and a General Council And for the Pope we have by many volumes proved him an Usurper and no authorized Head of the Church Universal The pretended Vice-Christ is a false Christ. The first usurpers pretended but to a Soveraignty in the Roman world but had never any shew of Government over the Churches in Ethiopia India and the many Churches that were without the verge of the Roman Empâ—re § 7. And as for General Councils 1. They are no more the Visible Head and Soveraign of the Church then the Pope is This I have proved in another Disputation by it self 2. There neither is nor can be any Council truly universal as I have there also shewed It s but a delusory name 3. There never was any such in the world since the Church which before was confined to a narrow room was spread over the world Even at Nice there was no proper representative of almost any but the Churches under the Roman Emperours power Few out of the West even in the Empire and none out of almost any of the Churches without the Empire For what 's one Bishop of Persia or such another of another Countrey and perhaps those prove the Roman subjects too that are so called If there was but one from Spain and only two Presbyters of Rome from Italy and one from France if any and none from many another Countrey in the Empire no wonder if there was none from England Scotland or Ireland c. And therefore there can be no universal obligation on this account § 8. Councils are for Concord by Consultation and consent and not a Soveraign or superiour sort of Governing power And therefore we that consented not are not obliged and if we had consented we might on weighty reasons have withdrawn our consent § 9. The Orders established by General Councils have been laid aside by almost all and that without the repeal of a Council Yes such Orders are seemed to presuppose the custom of the Universal Church if not Apostolical Tradition to have been their ground § 10. Among many others let us instance only in the last Canon of the Nicene Council that forbidding Kneeling commandeth all to pray only standing on the Lords Dayes c. And this was the common use of the Church before as Tertullian and others shew and was afterwards confirmed again in a General Council And yet even the Church of Rome hath cast it off much more the Protestant Churches No General Council hath been of more authority then this of Nice No Ceremony of more common use then this standing in prayer on the Lords dayes So that it might as much as any be called the constitution and custom of the Catholick Church And yet we suppose not these now to bind us to it but have cast it off without the repeal of any other General Council And why are we more bound then by the same authority to other Ceremonies then to this And if to any then to which and to how many and where shall our consciences find rest § 11. Even the Jesuites themselves say that the General disuse of a practice established by Pope and Council is equall to an abrogation without any other repeal so it be not by the said
sort of Bishops it is that they mean And most of them are unable to give me a rational answer to either of the Questions But some that are wiser though they know no more sorts of Bishops but one yet they can say that by a Bishop they mean an Ecclesiastick Governour of Presbyters and the people And if so then why do they vilifie Bishops under the name of Presbyters I have here shewed you that if this be all then every Parish hath a Bishop where there is a Pastor that hath Chappels and Curates under him Or any two Ministers that will subject themselves to a third do make a Bishop You delude your selves and others while you plead only in general for Bishops We are all for Bâ—shops as well as you All the Question is What sort of Bishops they must be Whether only Episcopi gregis or also Episcopi Episcoporum gregis and if so Whether they must be Bishops of single Churches as our Parishes are or a multitude of Churches as Diocessâ—s are And if the last were granted Whether these be not properly Archbishops In all other parts of the Controversie I find that the followers of each party go much in the dark and take much upon trust from the Teachers whom they value and little understand the true state of our differences So that it is more by that common providence commonly called Good luck that some of them are Protestants or Christians then from any saving grace within them Had Papists or Mahometans but as much interest in them as the Bishops it is like they would have been as much for them As for those of you that know your own Opinions and the Reasons of them you must needs knâ—w that the Divines called Episcopal in England are of two sorts that very much differ from one another And therefore supposing you to be the followers of these differing Divines I shall accordingly furtheâ— speak to you as you are I. The Bishops of England and their followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the sixt and revived by Queen Elizabeth were sâ—und in Doctrine adhering to the Augustinian Method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies They differed not in any considerable points from those whom they called Puritans But it was in the form of Government and Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay II. But of late years a new strain of Bishops were introduced differing much from the old yet pretending to adhere to the Articles and Homilies and to be Fathers of the same Church of England as the rest I know of none before B p Mountague of their way and but few that followed him till many years after And at the demolishing of the Prelacy they were existent of both sorts Would you know the difference If you have read the writings of B p Jewel Pilkington Alley Parry Babbington Baily Abbot Carlton Morton Usher Hall Davenant with such like on one side and the writings of the New Episcopal Divines that are now most followed on the other side I need not tell you the difference And if you will not be at the labour to know it by their writings its like that you will not believe it if I tell you For if you will take all on trust I must suspect that you will put your trust in them to whom you are addicted The New party of Episcopal Divines are also subdivided some of them are if their Defence of Grotius and Grotius his own Profession may be believed of Grotius his Religion that is Papists Others of them though they draw as neer the Grotians as Protestants may do yet own not Popery it self So that we have three notable parties of Episcopal Divines among us 1. The old Orthodox Protestant Bishops and their followers 2. The New Reconciling Protestant party 3. The New Reconciling Papists or Grotians A brief taste of the difference I will give you 1. The Old Episcopal party as I said in Doctrine agreed with the Non-conformist and held that Doctrine that now we find in the Articles and Homilies and in the Synod of Dort where B p Carlton B p Hall B p Davenant and three more Divines of this Nation were and had a great hand in the framing of those Canons and by consenting did as much to make them obligatory to us in England as commonly is done in General Councils by the Delegates of most Nations But the New Episcopal Divines both Protestants and Papists do renounce the Synod of Dort and the Doctrine of our Articles and Homilies so far as it is conform thereto in the points of Predestination Redemption Free-will Effectual Grace Perseverance and Assurance of Salvation following that Doctrine which is commonly maintained by the Iesuites and Arminians in these points 2. The Old Episcopal Divines did renounce the Pope as Antichrist and thought it the duty of the Transmarine Churches to renounce him and avoid communion with his Church as leprous and unfit for their communion But the New Episcopal Divines do not only hold that the Pope is not Antichrist but one part of them the Protestants hold that he may be obeyed by the Transmarine Western Churches as the Patriarch of the West and be taken by us all to be the Principium unitatis to the Catholick Church and the Roman Determinations still may stand except those of the last four hundred years and those if they obtrude them not on others So B p Bramhall and many more And M r Dow and others tell us that the Canon Law is still in force in England except some parts of it which the Laws af the Land have cast out And the Grotians teach that the Church of Rome is the Mistris of other Churches and the Pope to stand as the Head of the Vniversal Church and to Govern it according to the Canons and Decrees of Councils and they receive the Trent-Creed and Council and all other Councils which the Pope receives excepting only against some School-points and abuse of manners among the Papists which their Canons and Decrees condemn 3. The old Episcopal Divines did take Episcopacy to be better then Presbyterian Equality but not necâ—ssary to the Being of a Church but to the Better being where it may be had But the New Prelatical Divines of both sorts unchurch those Churches that are not Prelatical 4. The Old Episcopal Divines thought that Ordination by Presbyters without Prelates was valid and not to be done again though irregular But the New ones take it to be No Ordination nor those so ordained to be any Ministers but Lay-men 5. And accordingly the Old Episcopal Divines did hold the Forrein Protestant Churches of France Savoy Holland Geneva Helvetia c. that had no Prelates as true Churches and their Pastors as true Ministers of Christ and highly valued and honoured them as Brethren But the New sort do disown them all as no true Churches though they acknowledge the Church of Rome to be a true Church and their Ordination
Institution not by inspired Apostles but by Ordinary Bishops then 1. They make all Presbyters to be jure Episcopali and Bishops only and their Superiours to be jure Divino as the Italians in the Council of Trent would have had all Bishops to depend upon the Pope But in this they go far beyond them for the Italian Papists themselves thought Presbyterie jure Divino 2. Either they may be changed by Bishops who set them up or not If they may be taken down again by man then the Church may be ruined by man and so the Bishops will imitate the Pope Either they will Reign or Christ shall not Reign if they can hinder it Either they will lead the Church in their way or Christ shall have no Church If man cannot take them down then 1. It seems man did not Institute them for why may they not alter their own institutions 2. And then it seems the Church hath universal standing unchangeable Institutions Offices and binding Laws of the Bishops making And if so are not the Bishops equal to the Apostles in Law making and Church Ordering and are not their Laws to us as the word of God and that word insufficient and every Bishop would be to his Diocess and all to the whole Church what the Pope would be to the whole 3. Moreover how do they prove that ever the Apostles gave power to the Bishops to institute the order of Presbyterie I know of no text of Scripture by which they can prove it And for Tradition we will not take every mans word that saith he hath tradition for his conceits but we require the proof The Papists that are the pretended keepers of Tradition do bring forth none as meerly unwritten but for their ordines inferiores and many of them for Bishops as distinct from the Presbyters but not for Presbyters themselves And Scripture they can plead none For if they mention such texts where Paul bids Titus ordain Elders in every City c. they deny this to be meant of Elders as now but of Prelates whom Titus as the Primate or Metropolitane was to ordain And if it be meant of Elders then they are found in Scripture and of Divine Apostolical Institution 4. If they were Instituted by Bishops after the Scripture was written was it by one Bishop or by many If by one then how came that one to have Authority to impose a new Institution on the universal Church If by many either out of Council or in if out of Council it was by an accidental falling into one mind and way and then they are but as single men to the Church and therefore still we ask how do they bind us If by many in Council 1. Then let them tell us what Council it was that Instituted Presbyterie when and where gathered and where we may find their Canons that we may know our order and what Auâ—hors mention that Council 2. And what authority had that Council to bind all the Christian world to all ages If they say it bound but their own Churches and that age then it seems the Bishops of England might for all that have nulled the Order of Presbyters there But O miserable England and miserable world if Presbyters had done no more for it then Prelates have done I conclude therefore that the English Prelacy either degraded the Presbyters or else suspended to ally an essential part of their office for themselves called them Rectors and in ordaining them said Receive the Holy Ghâ—st Whose sins thou dost remit they are remitted whose sins thou dost retain they are retained And therefore they delivered to them the Power of the Keyes of opening and shutting the Kingdom of Heaven which themselves make to be the opening and shutting of the Church and the Governing of the Church by Excommunication and Absolution And therefore they are not fit men to ask the Presbyters By what authority they Rule the Church by binding and loosing when themselves did expresly as much as in them lay confer the Power on them And we do no more then what they bid us do in our Ordination Yea they thereby make it the very work of our office For the same mouth at the same time that bid us tâ—ke authority to preach the word of God did also tell us that whose sins we remit or retain they are remitted or retained and therefore if one be an Essential or true integral part at least of our office the other is so too From all which it is evident that if there were nothing against the English Prelacy but only this that they thus suspend or degrade all the Presbyters in England as to one half of their offâ—ce it is enough to prove that they should not be restored under any pretence whatsoever of Order or Unity Argum. 5. THat Episcopacy which giveth the Government of the Chuâ—ch and management of the Keys of Excommunication and Absolution into the hands of a few Layâ—men while they take them from the Presbyters is nâ—t to be restored under any pretence of Vnity or Peace But such was the English Prelacy therefore c. The Major is plain because it is not Lay-men that are to be Church Governours as to Ecclesiastical Government This is beyond Question with all save the Congregational and they would not have two or three Lay men chosen but the whole Congregation to manage this business The Minor is known by common experience that it was the Chancelor in hâ—s Court with his assiâ—â—ants and the Register and such other meer Lay-men that managed this work If it be said that they did it as the Bishops Agents and Substitutes and therefore it was he that did it by them I answer 1. The Law put it in the Chancellors and the Bishopâ— could not hinder it 2. If the Bishops may delegate others to do their work then it seems Preaching and Ruling Excommunicaâ—ing and Abâ—olving may as well be done by Lay-men as Clergy men Then they may commission them also to administer the Sacraments And so the Ministry is not necessary for any of these works but only a Bishop to depute Lay-men to do them which is false and confusive Argum. 6. THat Episcopacy whâ—ch necessarily overwhelmeth the souls of the Bishops with the most hainous guilt of neglecting the many thousand souls whose charge they undertake is not to be restored for Order or Peace For men are not to be oveâ—whelmed with such hainous sin on such pretences But such is the English Prelacy and that not accidentally through the badness of the men only but unavoidably through the greatness of their charge and the Natural Impossibility of their undertaken work How grievous a thing it is to have the blood of so many thousands charged on â—hem may soon appear And that man that undertakes himself the Government of two or three or five hundred thousand souls that he never seeth or knoweth nor can possibly so Govern but must needs leave it undone except the shadow
meant of the same sort of Presidents and then you may soon see what Bishops were in Tertullians dayes For we have no reason to think that they are not the same sort of Officers which he calleth Presidents and of whom he there saith Praesident probati Seniores So in the foregoing words in Tertullian ibid. it s said Aquam adituri ibidem sed aliquando prius in Ecclesia sub Antistitiâ— manu contestamur nos renunciare Diabolo Pompae angelâ—s ejus Where it seems that there were no more thus initiated then the Antistes himself did first thus engage in the Congregation And I believe they take this Antistes for a Bishop And here by the way let this argument be noted Seeing its past doubt that the first sence of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Catus or holy Assembly it self why should the Meeting place be so often called also Ecclesia in those times in the borrowed sence but only in Relation to the People there assembled and it s plain that it was but one Congregation and not many that assembled in that place and therefore it was from that one that the Place is called Ecclesia That it is oft so called besides this place of Tertullian which seems so to use the word I refer you to Mr. Meads exercitation of Temples who proves it distinctly in the several Centuries That saying of Theophilus Antiochenus ad Antolychum seems to intimate the whole that I intend sic Deus dedit mundo qui peccatorum tempestatibus Naufragiis jactatur Synagogas quas Ecclesias Sanctas Nâ—minamus in quibus veritatis doctrina fervâ—t ad quas confugiunt veritatis studiosi quotquot sâ—lvari Deique judicium iram evitare volunt So that the Churches of those times which were as Noahs Ark and where safety was to be found for the soul were Synagogues or Assemblies So Tertul. de Idololatr c. 7. pag. mihi 171. Tota die ad hanc partem zelus fidei peroravit ingenuuÌ„ Christianum ab Idolis in Ecclesiam venire de adversaria officina in domum Dei venire See more places of Tertullian cited by Pamelius on this place num 29. page 177. specially see that de virg Veland cap. 13. p. 224. Clemens Alexandrinus hath divers passages to the purpose now in hand Stromat li. 7. in the beginning he mentioneth the Church and its officers which he divideth only into two sorts Presbyters and Deacons But I will name no more particular persons but come to some intimations of the point before us from customes or Practices of the Church and the Canons of Councils And it seems to me that the dividing of Parishes so long after or of Titles as they are called doth plainly tell us that about those times it was that particular Polâ—cical Church did first contain many stated Congregations And though it be uncertain when this began Mr. Thorndike as we heard before conjectureth about Cyprians dayes yet we know that it was long after the Apostles and that it was strange to less populous places long after it was introduced at Rome and Alexandria where the number of Christians too much ambition of the Bishop occasioned the multiplication of Congregations under him and so he became a Bishop of many Churches named as one who formerly was Bishop but of a single Church For if there had been enough one hundred or fifty or twenty or ten years before to have made many Parishes or stated Assemblies for communion in worshâ—p then no doubt but the light oâ— Nature would have directed them to have made some stated divisions before For they must needs know that God was not the God of Confusion but of order in all the Churches And they had the same reasons before as after And persecution could noâ— be the hindrance any more at first then at last For it was under persecuting Emperours when Parishes or Titles were distinguished and so it might notwiâ—hstanding persecutions have been done as well at first as at last if there had been the same reason It seems therefore very plain to me that it was the increase of Converts that caused this division of Titles and that in planting of Churcheâ— by the Aposâ—les and during their time and much afâ—er the Chuâ—ches consisted of no more then our Parishes wâ—o being most inhabitants of the Cities had their meetings there for full communion though they might have other suborâ—inate meâ—tings as we have now in mens houses for Repenting Serâ—â—ons and Prayer And as Mr. Thorndâ—ke out of Nâ—nius tells us of 365. Bishopricks in Ireland planted by Patrick so other Authors tell us that Patrick was the first Bishop there or as others and more credible Palladius the first and Patrick next and yet the Scots in Ireland had Churches before Palladius his dayes as Bishop Vsher sheweth de Primordiis Eccles. Britan. 798 799 800 c. Iohannes Major de gestis scholarum li. 2. cap. 2. prioribus illis temporibus per Sacerdotes Monachos sine Episcopis Scotos in fide eruditos fuisse affirmat Et ita sane ante Majorem scripsit Johannes Fordonus Scotichron li. 3. cap. 8. Ante Palladii adventum habebant Scoti fidei Doctores ac Sacramentorum Ministratores Presbyteros solummodo vel Monaches ritum sequentes Ecclesiae Primitivae N. B. Of which saith Usher Quod postremum ab iis accepisse videtur qui dixerunt ut Johan Semeca in Glossa Decreti dist 93. ca. Legimus quod in Prima Primitiva Ecclesia commune erat officium Episcoporum Sacerdotum Nomina erant communia officium commune sed in secunda primitiva caeperunt dinstigui nomina officia So that it seems that some Churches they had before but Palladius and Patrick came into Ireland as Augustine into England and abundantly increased them and settled withall the Roman Mode So that it seemed like a new Plantation of Religion and Churches there Yet it seems that the Bishops setled by Patrick save that himself an Archbishop was like our Bishops were but such as were there before under the name of Presbyters saith Fordon after the rite or fashion of the Primitive Church And saith Vsher ibid. p. 800. Hector Boethius fuisse dicit Palladium primum omnium qui Sacrum inter Scotos egere Magistratum à summo Pontifice Episcopum creatum quum antea Populi suffragiis ex Monachis Caldeis pontifices assumerentur Boeth Scotorum Histor. lib. 7. fol. 128. b. And he adds the saying of Balaeus Scriptor Britanic centur 14. cap. 6. A Caelestino illum missum ait Johannes Balaeus ut Sacerdotalem ordinem inter Scotos Romano ritu institueret Habebant inquit antea Scoti suos Episcopos ac Ministros ex verbi Divini Ministerio plebium suffragiis electos prout Asianorum more fieri apud Britannos videbant Sed haec Romanis ut magis ceremoniosis atque Asianorum osoribus non placebant By these passages it is easie to conjecture
whether they were Bishops of a County or Bishops of a Parish that were there in those daies For my part I heartily wish that Ireland had three hundred sixty five good Bishops and Churches at this day even when the whole Nation profess themselves to be Christians which then they did not To this purpose runs the 14. Canon Concilii Agath and if it were so then much more long before Si quis etiam extra Parochias in quibus legitimus est ordinariusque conventus oratorium habere voluerit reliquis festivitatibus ut ibi Missam audiat propter fatigationem familiae justa ordinatione permittimus Pascha vero Natali Domini Epiphania Ascensione domini Pentecoste Natali Sancti Johannis Baptistae siqui maxime dies in festivitatibus habentur non nisi in Civitatibus aut Parochiis audiant Here it appeareth that there was but one legitimus ordinariusque conventus in a Parish though they tolerated an Oratory or Chappell of ease And that a Parish here is taken for a Diocess or such a Church as had proper to it self a Bishop and Presbyterie as it is probable from the ordinary use of the word by Eusebius and other antients in that sence so also from what is further said in the following Canons of this Council And so the word Parish here may be expository of the word City or else denote a Rural Bishoprick For Can. 30. saith Benedictionem super plebem in Ecclesiâ fundere aut paenitentem in Ecclesia benedicere presbytero penitus non licebit And if a Presbyter may not bless the people or the penitent when the blessing of the people was part of the work in every Solemn Assembly for Church communion then it is manifest that a Bishop must be present in every such Assembly to do that part which the Presbyter might not do and consequently there were no more such Assemblies then there were Bishops And to prove this more fully mark the very next Canon of that Council viz. the 31. Missas die dominico secularibus totas audire speciali ordine praecipimus ita ut ante benedictionem Sacerdotis egredi populus non praesumat Quod si fecerint ab Episcopo publicè confundatur So that its plain that on every Lords day all the people for here is no distinction or limitation were to be present in the publick worship to the end and the Bishop to pronounce the blessing whoever preached and openly to rebuke any that should go out before it From whence it is evident that all such Church Assemblies for communion every Lords day were to have a Bishop present with them to do part of the work and therefore there were no more such Assemblies then there were Bishops In the 38. Canon of the same Council we find this written Cives qui superiorum solennitatum id est Paschae Natalis Domini vel Pentecostes festivatibus cum Episcopis interesse neglexerint quum in Civitatibus commnionis vel benedictionis accipiendae causa positos se nosse debeant triennio communione priventur Ecclesiae So that it seems there were no more Church-members in a City then could congregate on the festival daies for Communion and the Bishops Blessing therefore there were not many such Congregations when every one was to be three years excommunicate that did not Assemble where the Bishop was Moreover all those Canons of several Councils that forbid the Presbyters to confirm by Chrysm and make it the Bishops work do shew that the Diocess were but small when the Bishop himself could do that besides all his other work In the Canons called the Apostles cap. 5. it is ordained thus Omnium aliâ—rum primitiae Episcopo Presbyteris domum mittuntur non super Altare Manifestum est autem quod Episcopus Presbyteri inter Diaconos reliquos clericos eas dividunt By which it appeareth that there was but one Altar in a Church to which belonged the Bishop Presbyterie and Deacons who lived all as it were on that Altar And Can. 32. runs thus Si quis Presbyter contemnens Episcopum suum seorsim collegerit Altare aliud erexerit nihil habens quo rebrehendat Episcopum in causa pietatis justitiae deponatur quasi principatus amator existens Haec autem post unam secundam tertiam Episcopi obsecrationem fieri conveniat Which shews that there was then but one Convention and one Altar to which one Bishop and Presbyters did belong So that no other Assembly or Altar was to be set up apart from the Bishop by any Presbyter that had nothing against the Bishop in point of Godliness or Justice And I believe if Bishops had a whole Diocesse of two hundred or three hundred or a thousand Presbyters to maintain they would be loth to stand to the fifty eighth Canon which makes them Murderers if they supply not their Clergies wants But let that Canon pass as spurious And long after when Concilium Vasense doth grant leave to the Presbyters to preach and Deacons to read Homilies in Country Parishes as well as Cities it shews that such Parishes were but new and imperfect Assemblies In the Council of Laodicea the 56. Canon is Non oportet Presbyteros ante ingressum Episcopi ingredi Ecclesiam sedere in tribunalibus sed cum Episcopo ingredi nisi forte aut aegrotet Episcopus aut in peregrinationis commodo eum abisse constiterit By which it seems that there was but one Assemby in which the Bishop and Presbyters sate together Otherwise the Presbyters might have gone into all the rest of the Churches without the Bishop at any time and not only in case of his sickness or peregrination The fifth Canon of the Council of Antioch is the same with that of Can. Apost before cited that no Presbyter or Deacon contemning his own Bishop shall withdraw from the Church and gather an Assembly apart and set up an Altar By which still it appears that to withdraw from that Assembly was to withdraw from the Church and that one Bishop had but one Altar and Assembly for Church Communion So Concil Carthag 4. Can. 35. which order the sitting of the Presbyters and Bishop together in the Church And many decrees that lay it on the Bishop to look to the Church lands and goods and distribute to the poor the Churches Alms do shew that their Diocesses were but small or else they had not been sufficient for this All the premises laid together me thinks afford me this conclusion that the Apostolical particular Political Churches were such as consisted of one only Worshipping Congregation a Congregation capable of personal communion in publick worship and their Overseers and that by little they departed from this form each Bishop enlarging his Diocess till he that was made at first the Bishop but of one Church became the Bishop of many and so set up a new frame of Government by setting up a new kind of particular Churches And thus
powers contradicted And certainly all such disuse began with a few and proceeded further we are allowed then to disuse such things § 12. It would grieve a man that loves the Church to hear the name of the Church abused by many dark though confident disputers when they are pleading for their Ceremonies and Holy dayes and laying about them with the names of Schismaticks against all that will not do as they do O say they These men will separate from the Catholick Church and how then can they be the Children of the Church And 1. Which is it that is called by them the Catholick Church Little do I know nor am able to conjecture Did the Catholick Church make the English Common-Prayer Book what were the then Bishops in England that consented in that work the whole Church of Christ on earth God forbid Or did ever any General Council authorize it I think not And if they would tell us what General Council commanded Christmas Day or Kneeling at the Sacrament c they would do us a pleasure but I think they will not § 13. And 2. What if these things had all been commanded by a General Council May not a man disuse them without separating from the Church I think as good as you are you do some things your selves that God himself hath forbidden you to do and yet will be loth to be therefore taken for men that separate either from the Church or God And when you read the Books of Heathen Philosophers when you adore not toward the East or when you pray receive the Sacrament Kneeling on the Lords Dayes would you be taken to separate from the Catholick Church for crossing its ancient customs or Canons But these perverse and factious reasonings we must hear to the dishonour of Christianity and Reason it self and that from men that scorn the supposed meanness of others yea and see poor souls seduced into separation by such empty words And this is one of the present judgements on this land CHAP. X. Prop. 10. If it be not our Lawfull Governours that command us but usurpers we are not formally bound to obey them though the things be lawfull which they command § 1. WE may be bound by some other Obligation perhaps to do the thing which they command us but we are not formally though sometime Materially bound to obey them For it is not formally obedience unless it be done eo nomine because commanded or for the Authority of the Commander If the Pope or any usurper should command me to pray or to give alms I will do it but not because he commandeth me but because God commandeth me and therefore I will not obey him but God But if a Parent or Magistrate or Pastor command it me I will do it both because it is commanded me by God and them and so I will obey both God and them If an usurper command me to do a thing in it self indifferent I will not do it because he commandeth it but yet if accidentally it become my duty by conducing to anothers good or avoiding their offence or hurt or any other accident I will use it for these ends though not for his command § 2. The Pope 1. As the Vice-christ or universall Head is an usurper and therefore hath no authority to command me or any man in that relation the smallest Ceremony 2. The Pope as Patriarch of the West is an humane creature and not of Divine institution and was indeed a sinfull institution from the first of his creation but if it had been otherwise yet since is that Patriarchship become unwarrantable since he hath forfeited it and the world hath found the mischiefs of it So that no man is therefore bound to use one lawfull Ceremony because the Pope as Patriarch of the West commandeth it 3. If this were not so yet Brittain and Ireland were from the beginning none of his Patriarchate nor did at Nice consent to it and therefore have the less appearance of any obligation § 3. The Authority of General Councils cannot be pretended as obliging men in Conscience to the English Ceremonies 1. Because indeed General Councils are not a superiour Power for proper Government of the Church having authority to command particular Bishops or Synods as their subjects but they are only necessary for Union and Communion of Churches and mutual assistance thereby and so their Canons bind but by virtue of the General commands that require us to maintain the Unity and Communion of the Churches § 4. And 2. If it were otherwise there is few if any of these Ceremonies that are commanded by any true General Council They that can prove any such thing let them do it but till we see it we will not be forward to believe it Yea 3. Some of them General Councils have made Canons against as I before shewed in the Case of Kneeling at the Sacrament on the Lords dayes And therefore the neglecters of our Ceremonies sin not against a General Council § 5. The Common plea is that we are bound to use these Ceremonies in obedience to the Church of England and that we are not true sons of this Church if we refuse it But what is it that is called by them The Church of England In a Political sense I know no such thing as a Church of England or of any Nation on earth that is There is no one Society united in any one Ecclesiastical Soveraign that can truly be called the Church of England or of any other Nation The whole Catholick Church is One as united in Christ the Head And every particular Chuâ—ch associated for personal Communion in Gods Worshâ—p is one being a part of the Catholick Church and united in and individuated by their relation to their several Pastors But a National Church under one chief Ecclesiastick Government I find no mention of in Scripture but contrarily the Churches of Judaea Galatia c. or any other Countrey where there were many are alway mentioned in the Plural number and never called one Church § 6. Yet will we quarrel with no men about meer names or words If by a National Church â— be meant any of these following we acknowledge that there is such a thing 1. If all the particular Churches in a Nation do Associate for Communion and mutuall assistance and so use to meet by their officers in one National Assembly I confess the Association usefull if not necessary and the Assemblies to be maintained and for unity sake obeyed in things lawfull And though Scripture call not such National Associations by the name of a Church in the singular number yet we shall leave men to their Liberty in such names If all the Schoolmasters in England should hold General Assemblies to agree what Books to read in their Schools c. if any man would therefore call all the Schools in England in the singular number by the name of the School of England I would not differ with him for a
5.1 2 3. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder Feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but as ensamples to the flock See Dr. Hammond expounding it as spoken to Bishops q. d. The Bishops of your several Churches I exhort take care of your several Churches and govern them not as secular Rulers by force NB but as Pastors do their sheep by calling and going before them that so they may follow of their own accord Heb. 13.7 Remember them that have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God Dr. Hammond Paraphr Set before your eyes the Bishops and Governors that have been in your Church and preached the Gospel to you O all you Inhabitants of Yorkshire Lincolnshire Norfolk Suffolk Essex Middlesex Kent Worcestershire c. how many of your Parishes did ever hear a Bishop preach the Gospel to them Vers. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account D. H. Obey those that are set to Rule you in your several Churches the Bishops whose whole care is spent among you as being to give account of your proficiency in the Gospel O dreadful account for him that must give it for so many thousands whose faces he never saw and whose names he never heard much less did ever speak a word to them 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the word and doctrine see Dr. H. expounding it of Bishops 1 Thes. 5.12 And we beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake Dr. H. Pay all due respects to the Bishops of your several Churches Tell us ye Parishes of England what labours have Bishops bestowed among you or how many of you have they admonished and which of them are you hence obliged to honour for their works sake and is it them or is it the Presbyters I mention none of this as blaming Bishops for negligence but as blaming them that will plead for and undertake an impossible task and after all with an hardened forehead will defend it with violence and separation from dissenters when so many ages have told the world to their faces that the undertaken task was never done 3. It is the work of Bishops to confirm the Baptized and is now made peculiar to them D. H. on Heb. 13. a. To teach exhort confirm and impose hands were all the Bishops office in that place And if so then the examining all the persons in a Diocess till they have just satisfaction that they are fit to be confirmed and the actuall Confirmation of them all will be a considerable task of it self 4. It is the Bishops work to exercise Discipline in the Church by admonishing the unruly and disorderly and hearing the case when the Church is told of those that have continued impenitent and openly to rebuke them and to cast them out by Excommunication if they remain impenitent and unreformed Dr. H. on Tit. 3.10 It is thy office and duty toward such an one first to admonish him once or twice and if that will not work upon him or reduce him then to set a mark upon him to inflict the censures on him and to appoint all men to break off familiar converse with him And O what abundance of work is this in the several parts even in one Parish much more in a Diocess see Dr. H. on Mat. 18.17 18. 5. It is the Bishops work to take the principal care of the poor and their stock or the contributions for them which contributions were made at every Assembly See Dr. H. on 1 Cor. 12.28 e. The supream trust and charge was reserved to the Apostles and Bishops of the Church So in the 41. Canon of the Apostles A Bishop must have the care of the monies so that by his Power all be dispensed to the poor by the Presbyters and Deacons and we command that he have in his Power the goods of the Church So Iustin Martyr Apol. 2. That which is gathered is deposited with the Prefect or Bishop and he helps relieves the Orphans and Widdows and becomes the Curator or Guardian to all absolutely NB that are in want So Ignatius to Polycarp After the Lord thou shalt be the Curator of the Widdows And Polycarp himself speaking of the Elders or Bishops They visit and take care of all that are sick not neglecting the Widdow the Orphan or the poor So Dr. H. read him further Remember this all you that are for our English Prelacy See that the Bishop be at once in every Parish in his Diocess to receive the contributions Or see that you put all into his hands and custody see that he take care of all the poor and widdows and orphans in all your Country and that all their monies be disbursed by him or his special appointment and be the common Overseer of the poor for his Diocess And when you and he have tryed this one seven years come then and tell us whether he will be any longer a Prelate or you will any longer be for Prelacy In the mean time judge in your Consciences by these passages of Antiquity cited by D. H. whether the antient Bishops had one Congregation or many score or hundred to be their Pastoral charge 6. Also it is a part of the Bishops work to visit the sick and pray with them and for them Iam. 5.14 Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him see Dr. H. that by Elders is meant the Bishops e. Because there is no Evidence whereby these inferiour Presbyters may appear to have been brought into the Churâ—h so early and because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural doth no way conclude that there were more of these Elders then one in each particular Church any more then that the sick man was bound to call for more then one and because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders of the Church was both in the Scripture stile and in the first writers the title of Bishops and lastly because the visiting of the sick is anciently mentioned as one branch of the Office of Bishops therefore it may very reasonably be resolved that the Bishops of the Church one in each particular Church but many in the Universal are here meant so far Dr. H. Remember all you that are all for Prelacy to send for the Bishop when you are sick every person in the Diocess according to this express command And if he would do his work by a Deputy remember that in all that Diocess which was the Bishops charge in the Scripture-times
and Government is to be found wholly in the written word of God called the holy Scriptures This we are agreed on against the Papists who would supply the supposed defects of Scripture by their unwritten Traditions which they call the other part of Gods word Church Canons and Laws of men may determine of some modes and circumstances for the better execution of the Laws of God by the People whom they are over but they cannot make new Church Ordinances or Governments nor convey a Power which God the fountain of Power did not ordain and convey nor can they give what they themselves had not The Church-office and Authority therefore that is not proved from the Holy Scripture is to be taken as the fruit of humane arrogancy and presumption Yet I deny not but that we may find much in Antiquity in Fathers and Councils about matters of fact to help us to understand some Scriptures and so to discern the matter of right Prop. 3. The Scripture doth not Contradict but suppose and confirm the light of Nature nor doth it impose upon any man Natural impossibilities nor constitute offices which cannot be executed or which would destroy that end to which they are supposed to be Constituted Prop. 4. Ecclesiastical Authority comprehendeth not the power of the sword nor any power of using violence to mens bodies or laying mulcts or confiscations on their estates The Ecclesiastical Power which Christ ordained was exercised for the first three hundred years without any touching of mens bodies or purses before there were any Christian Princes Prop. 5. Magistrates are not eo nomine obliged to punish men because they are Excommunicated whether upon every just Excommunication they should punish I will not now dispute but they are bound to know that their penalties be deserved before they inflict them and therefore must themselves take Cognisance of the Cause and as rational agents understand before they act and not blindly follow the Judgements of the Bishops as if they were but as Executioners where the Bishops are Judges Prop. 6. The Power of the highest Church-governours is but an Authority of Directing in the way to salvation It is but Directive but then there is no room for the common Objection that then it is no greater then any other man may perform for it is one thing to Direct Occasionally from Charity and another thing to Direct by Authority in a standing office as purposely appointed hereunto The Power of Church-Governors is but of the same nature as is the Power of a Physitian over his Patients or of a School-master over his Schollers supposing he had not the power of the rod or actual force but such a power as the Professors of Philosophy or other sciences had in their several schools upon the adult nor all so great neither because the Laws by which we must rule are made to our hands as to the substantials Hence therefore it is plain that as we can bind or force no man to believe us or to understand the truth and to be Christians but by the power of demonstrated Evidence and by the light which we let in through Gods grace into their Consciences so neither can we cause any to execute our sentences against offenders further than by light we convince them that it is their duty so that if all the Bishops or Presbyteries in the land should judge such or such an opinion to be heresie and should Excommunicate those that own it as hereticks in this case if the Church do believe as the Pastors believe they will consent and avoid the Excommunicate person but if they take it to be Gods truth which the Pastors call heresie they will not take themselves bound by that sentence to avoid him nor will the Offender himself any further be sensible of a penalty in the sentence then he shall be convinced that he hath erred and if the Church avoid him he will justifie himself and judge that they do it wrongfully and will glory in his suffering so that it is on the Conscience that Church-Governors can work and no otherwise on the outward man but mediante Conscientiâ Prop. 7. The ground of this is partly because no Church Governors can bind any man contrary to Gods word Clave errante ita apparente if the people know that he erreth they are not to obey him against God Yet in the bare inconvenient determination of some Circumstantials by which the duty is not destroyed but less conveniently performed the people are bound to obey their Governors because it is not against Gods determination and because he erreth but in an undetermined point of which God appointed him to be the orderly determiner But if God have once determined no mans contrary determination can oblige nor yet if they go beyond the sphere of their own work and determine of an aliene subject which God did never commit to their determination else a Minister or Bishop might oblige every Taylor how to cut his garment and every Shoâ—-maker how to cut his shoe so that they should sin if they did disobey which is ridiculous to imagine and if they go about to introduce new stated Ordinances or Symbols in the Church which they have nothing to do with or in any other work shall assume to themselves a power which God never gave them it doth no more oblige then in the former case Prop. 8. Another reason of the sixth Proposition is because The People have a Iudgement of discerning whether the Governors do go according to Gods word or not else they should be led blindfold and be obliged by God to go against Gods word whensoever their Governors shall go against it It is not bruits or Infants but rational men that we must rule Prop. 9. The three things which Church power doth consist in are in conformity to the three parts of Christs own office 1. About matter of Faith 2. About matter of Worship 3. About matter of Practice in other cases 1. Church-Governors about Doctrine or Matters of Faith are the Peoples Teachers but cannot oblige them to Err or to believe any thing against God nor make that to be truth or error that is not so beâ—ore 2. In matter of Worship Church-guides are as Gods Priests and are to go before the people and stand between God and them and present their prayers and prayses to God and administer his holy mysteries and bless them in his name 3. The Commanding Power of Pastors is in two things 1. In Commanding them in the name of Christ to obey the Laws which he hath made them already And this is the principal 2. To give them new Directions of our own which as is said 1. Must not be against Gods Directions 2. Nor about any matter which is not the object of our own office but is without the verge of it 3. But it is only in the making of under laws for the better execution of the laws of Christ and those
Churches must remain polluted and ungoverned through the unavoidable absence of those twelve or thirteen men The Apostles therefore did admonish Pastors to do their duties and when themselves were present had power to do the like and to censure Pastors or people that offended but they did not take on them the full Government of any Church nor keep a Negative vote in the Government Prop. 15. It seems utterly untrue that Christ did deliver the Keyes only to the twelve Apostles as such and so only to their Successors and not the seventy Disciples or any Presbyters For 1. The seventy also were General unfixed Officers and not like fixed Presbyters or Bishops and therefore having a larger Commission must have equal power 2. The Apostles were not single Bishops as now they are differenced from others but they were such as had more extensive Commissions then those now called Arch Bishops or Patriarchs If therefore the Keyes were given them as Apostles or General Officers then they were never given to Bishops For Bishops as fixed Bishops of this or that Diocess are not Successors of the Apostles who were Geneâ—al unfixed Officers 3. It is granted commonly by Papists and Protestants that Presbyters have the power of the Keyes though many of them think that they are limited to exercise them under the Bishops and by their Direction and Consent of which many School-men have wrote at large 4. The Key of Excommunication is but a Ministerial Authoritative Declaration that such or such a known Offendor is to be avoided and to charge the Church to avoid Communion with him and him to avoid or keep away from the Priviledges of the Church and this a meer Presbyter may do he may authoritatively Declare such a man to be one that is to be avoided and charge the Church and him to do accordingly The like I may say of Absolution if they belong to every authorized Pastor Preacher and Church guide as such then not to a Bishop only but to a Presbyter also And that these Keyes belong to more then the Apostles and their Successors is plain in that these are insufficient Naturally to use them to their Ends. An Apostle in Antioch cannot look to the censuring of all persons that are to be Censured at Athens Paris London c. so that the most of the work would be totally neglected if only they and their supposed Successors had the doing of it I conclude therefore that the Keyes belong not only to Apostles and their Successors in that General Office no nor only to Diocesan Bishops for then Presbyters could not so much as exercise them with the Bishops in Consistory which themselves of late allow Prop. 16. The Apostles were fallible in many matters of fact and consequently in the Decisions that depended thereupon as also in the Prudential determination of the time and season and other Cirumstances of known duties And thence it was that Paul and Barnabas so disagreed even to a parting where one of them was certainly in the wrong And hence Peter withdrew from the uncircumcision and misled Barnabas and others into the same dissimulation so far that he was to be blamed and withstood Gal. 2. Prop. 17. In such Cases of misleading an Apostle was not to be follownd no more is any Church-Governor now but it is lawful and needful to dissent and withstand them to the face and to blame them when they are to be blamed for the Churches safety as Paul did by Peter Galatians 2.1 Prop. 18. In this Case the Apostles that by Office were of equal Authority yet were unequal when the Reasons and Evidence of Gods mind which they produced was unequal so that a Presbyter or Bishop that produceth better Reasons is to be obeyed before another that produceth less Reason or that Erreth And the Bishop of another Church that produceth better Evidence of Gods mind is to be obeyed before the proper Bishop of that same Church that produceth weaker and worse Evidence Yea a private man that produceth Gods Word is to be obeyed before Bishops and Councils that go against it or without it in that case where the word bindeth us so that in all cases where Scripture is to determine he that bringeth the best Scripture proof is the chief Ruler that is ought chiefly to prevail Though in the determination of meer Circumstances of duty which Scripture determineth not but hath left to Church-Guides to determine pro re natâ it may be otherwise so that the Apostles power in determining matters of faith was not as Church-Governors but as men that could produce the surest Evidence Prop. 19. It is not easie to manifest whether every Presbyter in prima instantia be not an Officer to the Church Universal before he be affixed to a particular Church and whether he may not go up and down over the world to exercise that office where ever he hath admittance And if so what then could an Apostle have done by vertue of his meer office without the advantage of his extraordinary abilities and priviledges which the Presbyter may not do May an Apostle charge the people where he comes to avoid this or that seducer or heretick so may any Preacher that shall come among them and that by authority May an Apostle Excommunicate the very Pastor of the place and deprive him why what is that but to perswade the people and Authoritatively require them to avoid and withdraw from such a Pastor if the Cause be manifest And so may any Pastor or Preacher that comes among them For if as Cyprian saith it chiefly belong to the people even of themselves to reject and withdraw from such a Pastor then a Preacher may by Authority perswade and require them to do their own duty Yet I shall acknowledge that though both may do the same duty and both by Authority yet possibly not both by equal Authority but an Apostle Majore authoritate and so may lay a stronger obligation on men to the same duty but the rest I determine not but leave to enquiry Prop. 20. In making Laws or Canons to bind the Church which are now laid down in Scripture the Apostles acted as Apostles that is as men extraordinarily Commissioned illuminated and enabled infallibly to deliver Gods will to the world And therefore herein they have no Successors In Conclusion therefore seeing that matters of meer Order and Decency depending on Circumstances sometime rationally mutable sometime yearly daily hourly mutable are not to be determined Vniversally alike to all the Church nor to all a Nation nor by those that are at too great a distance but by the present Pastor who is to manage the work and being intrusted therewith is the fittest Judge of such variable Circumstances and seeing for standing Ordinances that equally belong to all ages and places Gods word is perfect and sufficient without the Bishops Canons and seeing that Scripture is a perfect Law of God and Rule of Christian faith and seeing that
seek to reclaim the wandring strengthen the weak comfort the distressed openly rebuke the open obstinate offendors and if they repent not to require the Church to avoid their Communion and to take cogniscance of their cause before they are cut off as also to Absolve the penitent yea to visit the sick who are to send for the Elders of the Church and to pray with and for them c. yea and to go before them in the worship of God These are the acts of Church Government that Christ hath appointed and which each faithful Shepherd must use and not Excommunication and other Censures and Absolution alone 2. But if they could prove that Church Government containeth only Censures and Absolution yet we shall easily prove it Impossible for the late English Episcopacy to do that For 3. It is known to our sorrow that in most Parishes there are many persons and in some greater Parishes very many that have lived common open swearers or drunkards and some whoremongers common scorners of a godly life and in many more of those offences for which Scripture and the ancient Canons of the Church do excommunicate men and we are commanded with such no not to eat And it s too well known what numbers of Hereticks and Seducers there are that would draw men from the faith whom the Church-Governours must after the first and second admonition reject 4. And then it s known what a deal of work is Necessary with any one of these in hearing accusations examining Witnesses hearing the defendants searching into the whole cause admonishing waiting re-admonishing c. 5. And then it s known of how great Necessity and moment all these are to the honour of the Gospel the souls of the offendors to the Church to the weak to them without c. So that if it be neglected or unfaithfully mannaged much mischief will ensue Thus in part we see what the Government is Next let us see what the English Episcopacy is And 1. For the extent of it a Diocess contained many score or hundred Parishes and so many thousands of such souls to be thus Governed Perhaps some Diocesses may have five hundred thousand souls and it may be London Diocess nearer a million And how many thousand of these may fall under some of the forementioned acts of Government by our sad experience we may conjecture 2. Moreover the Bishop resideth if not at London as many of them did yet in his own dwelling many miles perhaps twenty or thirty from a great part of his Diocess so that most certainly he doth not so much as know by face name or report the hundreth perhaps the thousandth or perhaps the second or third thousandth person in his Diocess Is it Possible then for him to watch over them or to understand the quality of the person and fact In Church Cases the quality of the person is of so much moment that without some knowledge of it the bare knowledge of the fact sometimes will not serve 3. And then it is known that the English Episcopacy denyeth to the Presbyters all power of Excommunication and Absolution uâ—less to pronounce it as from the Bishop when he hath past it And they deny him also all power so much as of calling a sinner to open Repentance which they called Imposing penance and also they denied all power of denying the Lords Supper to any without the Bishops censure except in a sâ—dden case and then they must prosecute it after at the Bishops Court and there render the Reason of that suspension So that the trouble danger labour time would be so great that would be spent in it that scarce one Minister of a hundred did venture on it once in seven and seven years except only to deny the Sacrament to a man that would not kneel and that they might do easily and safely 4. And then Consider further that if the Minister should be one of an hundred and so diligent as to accuse and prosecute all the open scandalous offendors of his Parish before the Bishops Court that so he might procure that act of Government from them which he may not perform himself it would take up all his time and perhaps all would not serve for half the work considering how far he must ride how frequently he must attend c. And then all the rest or most of the Pastoral work must be neglected to the danger of the whole Congregation 5. It is a great penalty to an innocent man to travail so far to the trial of his â—ause But the special thing that I note is this that it is Naturally Impossible for the Bishop to hear try and judge all these causes yea or the fifth or hundredth of them or in some places one of five hundred Can one man hear so many hundred as in a day must be before him if this discipline be faithfully executed By that time that he hath heard two or three Causes and examined Witnesses and fully debated all the rest can have no hearing and thus unavoidably the work must be undone It is as if you set a Schoolmaster to teach ten or twenty thousand Schollars Must they not be needs untaught Or as if you set one Shepherd to look to two or three hundred several flocks of Sheep that are every one of them three or four miles asunder and some of them fourty miles from some of the rest Is it any wonder thâ—n if many of them be lost 6. But what need we further witness then the sad experience of the Church of late Are we not sure that discipline lay unexercised and our Congregations defiled and Gods Laws and the old Canons were dead letters while the Bishops keep up the lame and empty name of Governours How many drunkards swearers whoremongers raylers Extortioners scorners at a godly life did swarm in almost every Town and Parish and they never heard of discipline except it were one Adulterer or fornicator once in seven years within twenty miles compass where I was acquainted that stood in a white sheet in the Church We know that there was no such Matter as Church Government exercised to any purpose but all left undone unless it were to undoe a poor Disciplinarian as they therefore scornfully called them that blamed them for neglect of Discipline For my part the Lord my Judge knows that I desire to make the matter rather better then it was then worse then it was and I solemnly profess that for the Peace of the Church I should submit to almost any body that would but do the work that is to be done Here is striving between the Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent who it is that shall Govern I would make no great stirr against any of them all that would but do it effectually Let it be done and it s not so much matter by whom it is done as it is to have it lie undone But I can never be for that party that neither did the work when
way or other feel ere long that they have owned a very unprofitable cause and such as they shall wish they had let alone and that it made not for their honour to be so much enemies to the welfare of the Church as the enemies of the abolition of that Prelacy will appear to be Cons. II. The matter of that clause in the National Covenant which concerneth the abolition of this Prelacy before mentioned was so far from deserving the Reproaches and Accusations that are bestowed on it by some that it was just and necessary to the well being of the Church In this also I purposely mean the Civil controversie about the authority of imposing taking or prosecuting the Covenant and speak only of the Matter of it to avoid the losing of the truth by digressions and new controversies They that by reproaching this clause in the Covenant do own the Prelacy which the Covenant disowneth might shew more love to the Church and their own souls by pleading for sickness and nakedness and famine and by passionate reproaches of all that are against these then by such owning and pleading for a far greater evil Cons. III. Those of the English Ministry that are against the old Episcopacy and are glad that the Church is rid of it are not therefore guilty of Schism nor of sinfull disobedience to their spiritual superiours If any of them did swear obedience to the Prelates a tyrannicall imposition that God never required nor the Primitive Church never used that 's nothing to our present case which is not about the keeping of oaths but the obeying or rejecting the Prelacy in it self considered It is not schismatical to depart from an â—â—â—rpation that God disowneth and the Church is endangered and so much wronged by and to seek to pull up the Roots of Schism which have bred and fed it in the Churches so long Cons. IV. Those that still justifie the ejected Prelacy and desire the restauration of it as they needlesly choose the guilt of the Churches desolations so are they not to be taken for men that go about to heal our breaches but rather for such as would widen and continue them by restoring the main cause Cons. V. If we had had such an Episcopacy as Bishop Hall and Bishop Vsher did propound as satisfactory and such men to manage it Episcopacy and Peace might have dwelt together in England to this day It is not the the Name of a Bishop that hath been the matter of our trouble but the exorbitant Species introducing unavoidably the many mischiefs which we have seen and felt Cons. VI. Ordination by the ejected Prelacy in specie is not of necessity to the being or well-being of a Presbyter or Deacon If the Species of Prelacy it self be proved contrary to the word of God and the welfare of the Church then the Ordination that is by this Species of Prelacy cannot be necessary or as such desirable Cons. VII A Parochial or Congregational Pastor having assistant Presbyters and Deacons either existent or in expectance was the Bishop that was in the dayes of Ignatius Iustin Tertullian and that Dr. Hammond describeth as meant in many Scriptures and existent in those dayes I speak not now to the question about Archbishops Cons. VIII The Ordination that is now performed by these Parochial Bishops especially in an assembly guided by their Moderator is beyond all just exception Valid as being by such Bishops as the Apostles planted in the Churches and neerer the way of the Primitive Church then the Ordination by the ejected Species of Prelates is Cons. IX As the Presbyters of the Church of Alexandria did themselves make one their Bishop whom they chose from among themselves and set him in a higher degree as if Deacons make an Archdeacon or Souldiers choose one and make him their Commander saith Hierom ad Evagr. so may the Presbyters of a Parochial Church now And as the later Canons require that a Bishop be ordained or consecrated by three Bishops so may three of these Primitive Parochial Bishops ordain or consecrate now another of their degree And according to the Canons themselves no man can justly say that this is invalid for want of the Consecration by Archbishops or of such as we here oppose Cons. X. Those that perswade the People that the Ordinanation of those in England and other Churches is null that is not by such as the English Prelates were and that perswade the people to take them for no Presbyters or Pastors that are not ordained by such Prelates and do make an actual separation from our Churches and Ministers and perswade others to the like upon this ground and because the Ministers have disowned the English Prelacy and withal confess that Church of Rome to be a true Church and their ordination and Priesthood to be just or true are uncharitable and dangerously Schismatical though under pretence of decrying Schism and many wayes injurious to the Church and to the souls of men and to themselves This will not please but that I not only speak it but further manifest it is become Necessary to the right Information of others FINIS The Second DISPUTATION VINDICATING The Protestant Churches and MINISTERS that have not Prelatical Ordination from the Reproaches of those Dividers that would nullifie them WRITTEN Upon the sad complaints of many Godly Ministers in several parts of the Nation whose Hearers are turning Separatists By Rich. Baxter LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster 1658. The Preface Christian Reader IF thou be but for the interest of Christianity more than of a party and a Cordial friend to the Churches Peace though thou be never so much resolved for Episcopacy I doubt not but thou and I shall be one if not in each Opinin yet in our Religion and in Brotherly affection and in the very bent of our labours and our lives And I doubt not but thou wilt approve of the scope and substance of this following Disputation what imperfections soever may appear in the Manner of it For surely there is that of God within thee that will hardly suffer thee to believe that while Rome is taken for a true Church the Reformed that have no Prelates must be none that their Pastors are meer Lay-men their Ordination being Null and consequently their administrations in Sacraments c. Null and of no Validity The Love that is in thee to all believers and especially to the Societies of the Saints and the honour and interest of Christ will keep thee from this or strive against it as nature doth against poyson or destructive diseases If thou art not a meer Opinionist in Religion but one that hast been illuminated by the spirit of Christ and felt his love shed abroad in thy heart and hast ever had experience of spiritual communion with Christ and his Church in his holy Ordinances I dare then venture my cause upon thy judgement Go
in the Gospel is that The work shall be done the Gospel shall be preached Churches gathered and governed Sacraments administred and that the Precept de ordine is but secundary and subservienâ— to this And if at any time alterations should make Ordination impossible it will not follow that the duty Ordered ceaseth to be duty or the precept to oblige Sect. 24. The Scriptures name not the man that shall be a Pastor yet when it hath described him it commandeth the Described person duely to seek admittance and commandeth the People ordainers and Magistrates to Choose and Appoint these men to the Ministerial work Now these Precepts contain in each of them two distinct determinations of Christ. The first is that such men be Ministers The second is that they offer themselves to the office and that they be Accepted and Ordained For the first is implyed in the latter If the Soveraign Power make a Law that there shall be Physicians licensed by a Colledge of Physitians to Practice in this Common-wealth and describe the persons that shall be licensed This plainly first concludeth that such persons shall be Physitians and but secondarily de ordine that thus they shall be licensed so that if the Colledge should License a company of utterly insufficient men and murderers that seek mens death or should refuse to License the persons qualified according to Law they may themselves be punished and the qualified persons may act as Authorized by that Law which â—indeth quoad materiam and is by the Colledge and not not by them frustrate quoad ordiâ—em So is it in this case in hand Sect. 25. Hence it appeareth that Ordination is one means conjunct with divers others for the Designation of right Qualified persons described in the Law of Christ for the reception and exercise of the Ministerial office And that the ends of it are 1. To take care that the office fail not and therefore to call out fit men to accept it if modesty or impediments hinder them from offering themselves or the people from nominating them 2. To Judge in all ordinary cases of the fitness of persons to the office and whether they are such as Scripture describeth and calls out 3. And to solemnize their Admittance by such an investiture as when Possession of a House is given by a Ministerial tradition of a Key or Possession of Land by Ministerial delivery of a twig and a turf or as a Souldier is listed a King Crowned Marriage Solemnized after consent and Title in order to a more solemn obligation and plenary possession such is our Ordination Sect. 26. Hence it appeareth that as the Ordainers are not appointed to Judge whether the Church shall have Ordinances and Ministers or not no more then to judge whether we shall have a Christ and heaven or not but who shall be the man so it is not to the Being of the Ministry simply and in all Cases that Ordination is necessary but to the safe being and order of admittance that the Church be not damnified by intruders Sect. 27. Ordination therefore is Gods orderly and ordinary means of a Regular admittance and to be sought and used where it may be had as the solemnizing of Marriage And it is a sin to neglect it wilfully and so it is usually necessary necessitate Praecepti Necessitate medii ad ordinem bene esse But it is not of absolute Necessity Necessitate medii ad esse Ministerii or to the Validity or Success of our office and Ministrations to the Church nor in cases of necessity when it cannot be had is it necessary necessitate praecepti neither This is the plain truth Sect. 28. There are great and weighty Reasons of Christs committing Ordination to Pastors 1. Because they are most Able to judge of mens fitness when the People may be ignorant of it 2. Because they are men doubly Devoted to the Church and work of God themselves and 〈◊〉 may be supposed regularly to have the greatest 〈◊〉 and most impartial respect to the Church and cause of God 3. And they must regularly be supposed to be men of greatest piety and and holiness or else they are not well chosen 4. And they being fewer are fitter to keep Unity when the people are usually divided in their choice 5. And if every man should enter the Ministry of himself that will judge himself fit and can but get a people to accept him most certainly the worst would be oft forwardest to men before they are sent and for want of humility would think themselves fittest the common case of the Proud and Ignorant and the People would be too commonly poisoned by heretical smooth-tongue'd men or more commonly 〈◊〉 please and undoe themselves by choosing them that have most interest in them by friends or acquaintance and them that will most please and humour them and instead of being their Teachers and Rulers would be taught and ruled by them and do as they would have them Order is of great moment to preserve the very being of the Societies ordered and to attain their well-being God is not the God of Confusion but of Order which in all the Churches must be maintained No man therefore should neglect Ordination without necessity And these that so neglect it should be disowned by the Churches unless they shew sufficient cause CHAP. III. Ordination is not of Necessity to the being of the Ministry Sect. 1. HAving shewed what the Ministry is and what Ordination is and how the work is imposed on us and the Power conferred I may now come up to the point undertaken to shew the sin of them that Nullifie all our Ministers calling and administrations except of such as are ordained by the English Prelates And for the fuller performance of this task I shall do it in these parts 1. I shall shew that Ordination it self by man is not of Necessity to the being of a Minister 2. I shall shew that much less is an uninterrupted succession of Regular Ordination such as either Scripture or Church Canons count valid of Necessity to the being of Church or Ministry 3. I shall shew that much less is an Ordination by such as our English Bishops necessary to the Being of the Ministry 4. I shall shew that yet much less is an Ordination by such Bishops rebus sic stantibus as now things go of necessity to the being of the Ministry 5. I shall shew that without all these pretences of necessity for a Presbyterian Ordination the present way of Ordination by this other Reformed Churches is agreeable to the Holy Scripture and the custome of the Ancient Church and the postulata of our chief opposers 6. I shall then shew the greatness of their sin that would Nullifie our Ministry and administrations 7. And yet I shall shew the greatness of their sin that oppose or wilfully neglect Ordination 8. And lastly I shall return to my former subject and shew yet how far I could wish the
occasioning the disorders of other men It s better that men be disorderly saved then orderly damned and that the Church be dissorderly preserved then orderly destroyed God will not alllow us to suffer every Thief and Murderer to rob or kill our neighbours for fear lest by defending them we occasion men to neglect the Magistrate Nor will he allow us to let men perish in their sickness if we can help them for fear of encouraging the ignorant to turn Physitians 2. There is no part of Gods service that can be used without occasion of sin to the perverse Christ himself is the fall as well as the rising of many and is a stumbling stone and Rock of offence and yet not for that to be denyed There is no just and reasonable cause of mens abuse in the doctrine which I here express 3. True Necessity will excuse and Justifie the unordained before God for exercising their Abilities to his service But pretended counterfeit necessity will not Justifie any And the final judgement is at hand when all things shall be set strait and true Necessity and counterfeit shall be discerned 4. Until that day things will be in some disorder in this world because there is sin the world which is the disorder But our Remedies are these 1. To teach men their duties truly and not to lead them into one evill to prevent another much less to a mischief destructive to mens souls to prevent disorder 2. The Magistrate hath the sword of justice in his hand to restrain false pretenders of Necessity and in order thereto it is he and not the pretender that shall be judge And 3. The Churches have the Power of casting the pretenders if the case deserve it out of their communion and in order thereto it is not he but they that will be Judges And other remedies we have none till the last day Sect. 54. Quest. But what would you have men do that think there is a Necessity of their labours and that they have Ministerial abilities Answ. 1. I would have them lay by pride and selfishness and pass judgement on their own Abilities in Humility and self-denyal If their Corruptions are so strong that they cannot that is they will not do this that 's long of themselves 2. They must not pretend a Necessity where is none 3. They must offer themselves to the Tryal of the Pastors of the Church that best know them 4. If in the judgement of the godly able Pastors that know them they are unfit and there is no need of them they must acquiesce in their judgement For able Godly men are not like to destroy the Church or envy help to the souls of men 5. If they have cause to suspect the Pastors of Corruption and false judgement let them go to the other Pastors that are faithfull 6. If all about us were corrupt and their judgements not to be rested in and the persons are assured of their Ability for the Ministry let them consider the State of the Church where they are And if they are sure on Consultation with the wisest men that there is a Necessity and their endeavours in the Ministry are like to prevent any notable hurt without a greater hurt let them use them without Ordination if they cannot have it But if they find that the Churches are so competently supplied without them that there is no Necessity or none which they can supply without doing more hurt by offence and disorder then good by their labours let them forbear at home and go into some other Countries where there is greater need if they are fit there for the work if not let them sit still Sect. 55. Argument 4. If unordained men may Baptize in case of Necessity then may they do other Ministerial works in case of Necessity But the Antecedent is the opinion of those that we now dispute against And the Consequence is grounded on a Parity of Reason No man can shew more for appropriating the Eucharist then Baptisme to the Minister CHAP. IV. An uninterrupted Succession of Regular Ordination is not Necessary Sect. 1. HAving proved the Non-necessity of Ordination it self to the Being of the Ministry and Validity of their administrations I may be the shorter in most of the rest because they are sufficiently proved in this If Ordination it self be not of the Necessity which the adversaries do assert then the Regularity of Ordination cannot be of more Necessity then Ordination itself Much less an uninterrupted Succession of such Regular Ordination Yet this also is asserted by most that we have now to do with Sect. 2. By Regular Ordination I mean in the sence of the adversaries themselves such as the Canons of the Church pronounce not Null and such as by the Canons was done by such as had Authority to do it in special by true Bishops even in their own sence Sect. 3. And if the uninâ—errupted succession be not Necessary then neither is such Ordination at this present Necessary to the being of the Ministry For if any of our predecessors might be Ministers without it others in the like case may be so too For we live under the same Law and the Office is the same thing now as it was then Sect. 4. Argument 1. If uninterrupted Regular Ordination of all our Predecessors be Necessary to the Being of the Ministry then no man can know that he is truly a Minister of Christ. But the Consequent is false and intolerable therefore so is the Antecedent Sect. 5. The truth of the Minor is apparent thus 1. If we could not be sure that we are true Ministers then no man could with comfort seek the Minstry nor enter into upon it For who can have encouragement to enter a calling when he knows not whether indeed he enter upon it or not and whether he engage not himself in a course of sin and be not guilty as Vzza of medling with the Ark unlawfully especially in so great and tender a case where God is so exceeding jealous Sect. 6. And 2. who can go on in the Calling of the Ministry and comfortably do the work and bear the burden that cannot know through all his life or in any administration whether he be a Minister or a Usurper What a damp must it cast upon our spirits in Prayer Praise administration of the Eucharist and all publick worship which should be performed with the greatest alacrity and delight when we remember that we are uncertain whether God have sent us or whether we are usurpers that must one day hear Who sent you Whence had you your Power and who required this at your hands Sect. 7. And the Consequence of the Major that we are all uncertain of our Call and office both Papists and Protestants is most clear in case of the Necessity of such successive Ordination For 1. No man ever did to this day demomstrate such a succession for the Proof of his Ministry Nor can all our importunity
were instituted in Scripture times Now as a pretended Presbyters administrations are Valid to the innocent receiver of the Sacrament so a pretended Bishops administration in Ordination is as Valid to the innocent caeteris paribus Sect. 43. Argument 15. They that have the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven have the power of Ordination But Parochiall Pastors called Presbyters have the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore they have the power of Ordination Sect. 44. The Minor is granted commonly by Papists and Protestants as to some of the Keyes but it is by many denyed as to other They say that every Pastor hath the Key of doctrine and of Order but not the Key of Jurisdiction But 1. Christ gave the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven together and never divided them Therefore they are not to be divided He did not give one Key to one and another to another but all to the same men And what God hath joyned together let no man put asunder 2. The Apostles in delivering these Keyes to others are never found to have separated them For Subject Presbyters were not instituted in Scripture-times Therefore all that were then Ordained Presbyters had all the Keyes together and so that of Iurisdiction as it is called with the rest 3. That Presbyters had the Key of Order will prove that they may Ordain as is aforesaid 4. But that English Presbyters had the Key of Iurisdiction is proved 1. In that they were with the Bishops to Ordain by Imposition of hands 2. In that they were by the Book of Ordination charged to administer Discipline though this was disused and the Prelates frustrated their power Sect. 45. I shall recite the words of Reverend Vsher for the proof of this Reduction of Episcopacy c. By Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged in the Book of Ordination to administer the Doctrine of Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same and that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded therein the exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to Rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his blood Of the many Elders who thus in common ruled the Church of Ephesus there was one President whom our Saviour in his Epistle unto this Church in a peculiar manner stileth the Angel of the Church of Ephesus And Ignatius in another Epistle written about twelve years after unto the same Church calleth the Bishop thereof Betwixt the Bishop and the Presbyterie of that Church what an harmonious consent there was in thâ— ordering of the Church Government the same Ignaâ—iâ—â— doth fully there declare by the Presbyterie with St Paul understanding the Community of the rest of the Presbyters or Elders who then had a hand not only in the delivery of the Dâ—ctrine and Sacraments but also in the Administration of the Discipline of Christ For further proof of which we have that known Testimony of Tertullian in his General Apology for Christians â—n the Church are used exhortations chastisements and divine censure for judgement is given with great advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God and it is the chiefest foreshewing of the Iudgement which is to come if any man have so offended that he be banished from the Community of Prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy fellowship The Presidents that bear rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this honour not by Reward but by good report who were no other as he himself intimates elsewhere but those from whose hands they used to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist For with the Bishop who was the chief President and therefore stiled by the same Tertullian in another place summus Sacerdos for distinction sake the rest of the dispensers of the Word and Sacraments joyned in the common Government of the Church and therefore where in matters of Ecclesiastical judicature Cornelius Bishop of Rome used the recieved form of gathering together the Presbyterie of what persons that did consist Cyprian sufficiently declareth when he wisheth him to read his Letters to the flourishing Clergy which there did preside or rule with him The presence of the Clergy being thought so requisite in matters of Episcopal audience that in the fourth Council of Carthage it was concluded That the Bishop might hear no mans cause without the presence of the Clergy and that otherwise the Bishops sentence should be void unless it were confirmed by the presence of the Clergy which we find also to be inserted into the Canons of Egbert who was Archbishop of York in the Saxon times and afterwards into the body of the Canon-Law it self True it is that in our Church this kind of Presbyterial Government hath been long disused yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence the name of Rector also was given at first unto him and to administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispence the Doctrine and Sacraments and the restraint of the exercise of that right proceedeth only from the custom now received in this Realm no man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this hinderance may be well removed Sect. 46. And indeed the stream of Antiquity and the Authors that are principally rested on for Episcopacy are full against them that deny the Government of the people to the Presbyters And it is the principal mischief of the English Prelacy thus to degrade or quoad exercitium to suspend at least all the Presbyters from their office Not as it is a denying them any part of their honour that 's not to be much regarded but as it is a discharging them of their work and burden and consequently leaving the Churches ungoverned And for the Government of Presbyters themselves in Cyprians dayes the Bishop did not could not Ordain or censure any Presbyter without his Clergy and Councils have decreed that so it should be Yea and the plebs universa also was consulted with by Cyprian Sect. 47. And now I come to the Major of my Arrgument which I prove thus Either Ordination is an act of the exercise of the power of the Keyes or of some other power But of no other power therefore of the Keyes If it be the exercise of any other power it is either of a secular power or an Ecclesiastick but neither of these therefore of no other Not of another Ecclesiastick power for there is no Ecclesiastical power at least which Ordination can be pretended to belong to but the power of the Keyes not of a secular power for that belongeth not to Ministers nor is it here pretended Sect. 48. And I think it
Major is undenyable because there are all things enumerated that are Necessary to the determination of the person qualified that is to receive the power from Christ Sect. 68. And the Minor I prove by parts 1. That our Ministry have usually the peoples consent is a known case that needs no proof 2. So is it that they have the Magistrates allowance and his Authority appointing Approvers for their Introduction and allowing Ordination and commanding Ministerial Works Sect. 69. And doubtless the Magistrate himself hath so much Authority in Ecclesiastical affairs that if he command a qualified person to preach the Gospel and command the people to receive him I see not how either of them can be allowed to disobey him Though yet the party ought also to have recourse to Pastors for Ordination and people for consent where it may be done And Grotius commendeth the saying of Musculus that would have no Minister question his Call that being qualified hath the Christian Magistrates Commission And though this assertion need some limitations yet it is apparent that Magistrates power is great about the Offices of the Church For Solomon put out Abiathar from the Priesthood and put Zadeck in his place 1 Kings 2.27 35. David and the Captains of the host separated to Gods service those of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Ieduthun who should Prophesie with Harps c. 1 Chron 16.4 And so did Solomon 2 Chron. 8.14 15. They were for the service of the house of God according to the Kings Order 1 Chron. 25.1 6. And methinks those men should acknowledge this that were wont to stile the King In all causes and over all persons the supream Head and Governour Sect. 70. But 3. We have moreover in the Ordination of the Reformed Churches The approbation and solemn Investiture of the fittest Ecclesiastical Officers that are to be had And no more is requisite to an orderly Admission There being nothing for man to do but to determine of the qualified person and present him to God to receive the power and obligation from his Law it is easie to discern that where all these concur the Peoples Election or Consent the Magistrates Authority the determination of fit Ecclesiastical Officers and the qualification and consent of the person himself there needs no more to the designation of the man Nor hath God tyed the essence of the Church or Ministry to a certain formality or to the interest or will of Prelates nor can any more ad ordinem be required but that a qualified person do enter by the best and most Orderly way that is open to him in those times and places where he is And that we have the fittest Approvers and Ordainers I prove Sect. 71. If the most of the Protestant Churches have no other Ecclesiastical Officers to Ordain but Presbyters then is it the most fit and orderly way to enter into the Ministry in those Churches by their Ordination and those Presbyters are the fittest that are there to Ordain But the Antecedent is a known truth If any in denyal of the Consequence say that the Churches should rather be without Ministers then have Ordination by such they are confuted by what is said before Sect. 72. And if you say that they should have Bishops and it is their own fault that they have not I answer Suppose that were a granted truth it can reach but to some that have the Rule It is not the fault of every Congregation or expectant of the Ministry It is not in their power to alter Laws and forms of Government and therefore they are bound to enter by the fittest way that is open to them Sect. 73. Moreover even in England the Presbyteries are fitter for Ordination then the present Bishops as to the Nation in general therefore the Ordination by Presbyteries is done by the fittest Ecclesiastical officers and is the most regular and desireable Ordination Sect. 74. I prove the Antecedent by comparing the Ordination of the Presbyteries and the present Prelates 1. I have before shewed that the English Prelacy is more unlike the Primitive Episcopacy then our Parochial Presbytery or Episcopacy is and therefore hath less reason to appropriate to themselves the Power of Ordaining 2. The Ordaining Presbyters are Many and known persons and the Prelates few and to the most and except three or four to almost all that I am acquainted wiâ—h unknown 3. The Presbyters Ordain Openly where all may be satisfied of the impartiality and Order of their proceedings But the Prelates Ordain in Private where the same satisfaction is not given to the Church 4. Hereupon it is easie for any vagrant to counterfeit the Prelates secret Orders and say he was Ordained by them when it is no such matter and who can disprove him But the publick Ordination of Presbyters is not so easily pretended by such as have it not and the pretence is easily discovered 5. The Prelates for ought I hear are very few and therefore few can have access to them for Ordination But Presbyteries are in most countreyes 6. The Prelates as far as I can learn Ordain Ministers without the peoples consent over whom they are placed and without giving them any notice of it before hand that they may put in their exceptions if they dissent But the Presbyters ordinarily require the consent of the people or at least will hear the reasons of their dissent 7. The Presbyteries Ordain with the Magistrates allowance and the Prelates without and against them Those therefore that are Ordained by Prelates usually stand on that foundation alone and want the consent of People and Magistrates when those that are Ordained by Presbyteries have all 8. Ordination by Prelates is now pleaded for on Schismatical grounds and in submitting to it with many of them we must seem to consent to their Principles that all other Ordination is Null and the Churches are no true Churches that are without it But Presbyteries Ordain not on such dividing terms 9. We hear not of neer so much care in the Prelates Ordinations in these or former times as the Presbyteries I could give some instances even of late of the great difference which I will not offend them with expressing 10. Most of them that we hear of Ordain out of their own Diocesses which is against the ancient Canons of the Church 11. Some of them by their Doctrines and their Nullifying all the Reformed Churches and Ministry that have no Prelates do shew us that if they had their will they would yet make more lamentable destructive work in the Church then the hottest persecutors of their late predecessors did For it is plain that they would have all the Ministers disowned or cast out that are not for the Prelacy And what a case then would this land and others be in Of which more anon So that we have reason to fear that these are destroyers and not faithful Pastors I speak not of all but only of the guilty For
Ministerium vel ad Sacerdotalem locum indignu obreperet Ordinari enim nonnunquam indignos non secundum Dei voluntatem sed secundum humanam praesumptionem haec Deo displicere quae non veniant ex legitima justa Ornatione Deus ipse manifestat per Osee Prophetam dicens sibi ipsi constituerunt Regem non perâ—me Propter quod diligenter de traditione Divina Apostolica observatione observandum est tenendum quod apud nos quoque fere Provincias universas tenetur ut ad Ordinationes rite celebrandas ad eam plebem cui praepositus ordinatur Episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant Episcopus deligatur plebe praesente quae singulorum vitam plenissime nâ—vit uâ—iuscujusque actum de ejus conversatione perspexit Quod apud vos factum videmus in Sabini collegae nostri ordinatione ut de universae fraternitatis suffragio de Episcoporum qui in praesentia convenerant quique de eo ad vos literas fecerant judicio Episcopatus ei deferretur manus ei in locum Basilidis imponeretur And so he goes on to shew that even the Bishop of Romes restoring of Basilides was not valid to rescind the foresaid Ordination of Sabinus which was thus made by the Bishops on the peoples suffrages And yet our Diocesans have alas too commonly thrust on the people against their consent such unworthy persons as of whom we may say as Cyprian ibid. of these Cumque alia multa sint gravia delicta quibus Basilides Martialis implicati tenentur frusta tales Episcopatum sibi usurpare coâ—antur cum manifestum sit ejusmodi homines nec Ecclesiae Christi posse praeesse nec Deo sacrificia offerre debere I have cited these words at large because they are full and plain to shew us the practice of those times and are the words of an African Syrod and not of Cyprian alone and shew that then the People had the chiefest hand in the Election or designation of the person which is it that I have now to prove Sect. 86 Pamelius himself while he seeks to hide the shame of their Prelates Ordination from the light of these passages of Cyprian doth yet confess and say Non negamus veterem Electionis Episcoporum ritum quo plebe praesente immo suffragiis plebis eligi solent Nam in Africa illum observatum constat ex electione Eradii Successoris D. Augustini de quo extat Epistola ejus 120. In Gracia aetate Chrysost. ex lib. 3. de Sacer. In Hiâ—paâ—is ex hoc Cyprianâ— loco Isidor lib. de Officiis In Galliis ex Epistâ—l Celestin. Pap. 2. Romae ex iis quae supradiximus Epist ad Antâ—n Vbique etiam alibi ex Epist. Leonis 87 Et perdurasse eam consuetudinem ad Gregor 1. usq ex ejus Epistolis immo ad tempora usque Caroli Ludovici Imperatorum ex 1. lib. Capitulorum eorundem satis constat This full confession from the mouth of an adversary may save me the labour of many more allegations concerning the judgement and practice of the ancients Sect. 87. He that would see more may find enough in Voâ—tius de Desparata causa Papatus lib. 2. c. 12. Sect 2. passim And in Blondel de jure plebis Goulartius on the foresaid notes of Pamelius on Cyprian p. 205 Among others he there citeth those known Canons of the Carthage Councils three and four out of Gratian Nullus ordinetur clericus nisi probatus vel examine Episcoporum vel populi testimonio Et. Episcopus sine concilio clericorum suorum clericos non ordinet itâ— ut civium conn ventiam testimonium quaerat What and where is that Clergy without whose Council our Prelates Ordain not and that people whose suffâ—ages they require And saith Goula tius Observanda est Carâ—li ut Ludovici Constitutio Sacrerum Camnum non ignari ut Dei nimine sacrosancta Ecclâ—sia suo liberius patiatur honore assensum Ordini Ecclesiastico praebemus ut Episcopi per Electionem Cleri pâ—puli secundum statuâ—a Canonum eligantur It s certain then that the people were sometime the sole choosers and the Pastors the approvers and sometime the People and the Pastors joynt Electors and sometime the Pastors chose but forced none on the people against or without their Consent as Pamelius confesseth till Popular tumults divisions and other reasons occasioned the change of this ancient Custome And therefore it is most certain that an Election by the people may be a valid determination of the person Sect. 88. And the person being once sufficiently determined of the power and obligation doth fall upon him immediately from God so that were it not that the Pastors Approbation is part of the Determination there would be nothing left for Ordination but the solemnizing of their entrance by Investiture which is not essential to the Ministerial Office but ad bene â—ssâ— makes to a compleat and orderly possession where it may be had and where it cannot Election may suffice Sect. 89. Voetius de Desperata causa Papatus lib. 2. sect 2 cap. 20. doth by seven Arguments prove against Iansenius Electionem tribuere Ministerium esse proprie ejus fundamentum The first Argument is from the Definition of Election the second from the Canon Law which giveth a Bishop his power before Consecration and gives the Pope a power of governing the Church before he is inthroned or Consecrated The third is à similibus in Oeconomâ—e and Policie the foundation of marriage union is mutual Consent and not Solemnization Coronation saith he doth not make a King he means not fundamentally but compleatively but hereditary Succession or Election He may well be a King without Coronation as saith he the custom is in Castile Portugal c. The King of France dependeth not pro jure regni on the Archbishop of Rhemes but saith Barclay hath the right and honour of a King before his Coronation An elect Emperour governeth before his Coronation Quoad potestatem administrandi regni Galliâ—i unctio Coronatio nihil addunt inquit Commentator sanctionis pragmat fol. 4. His fourth Argument is from the nature of all Relations quae posito fundamento termino in subjecto dicuntur existere atqui Solemnizatio seu Consecratio seu Ordinatio seu Investitura 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vâ—cant patres Graeci illa externa quam nos confirmationem dicimus neque est fundamentum neque terminus Ministerii aut Ministri sed legitima electio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae est fundamentum Ministerii ista vel illa particularis Ecclesia est terminus in quo est correlatum Oves seu discipuli ad quod refertur relatum Doctoris seu Pastoris Though some of this need explication and limitation yet its worthy consideration His fifth Argument is from the Confessions of the Adversaries citing Sylvest Prieras Immanuel Sa
no Transgression but here is no Law of God commanding Christmas day or the other Holy daies therefore there is no transgression in not keeping them And then 9. it is not so sure that there is no transgression in keeping them therefore the surer side is to be taken 10. And it seems strange that we find not so much as any ancient general Council making any mention of Christmas or such daies though of the Martyrs daies some do All these reasons which I run over hastily and many more which for brevity I pretermit do seem to make it a very hard question whether the keeping of this sort of Holy daies be lawfull § 47. And it is not to be much stuck at that a Day to Christ doth seem more necessary and pious then a Day in commemoration of a Martyr or a particular Mercy For in the highest parts of Gods worship God hath left man least to do as to Legislation and Decisions and usurpations here are far most dangerous A weekly Day is somewhat more then an Annâ—versary And yet I think there is few of the contrary minded but would doubt whether man might impose on the Church the observation of another weekly Holy day in commemoration of Christs Nativity The worship of God is a more excellent and necessary thing then the veneration due to a worthy person And yet we have not so much liberty to make new waies of worshiping God as of veneration to men So is it here though even the Daies that are for the memorial of the Saints are ultimately for the honour of God yet those that are set apart directly and immediately to commemorate the work of Redemption are Relatively much higher and therefore seem to be more exempted from the Determination of humane laws § 48. By this and much more I am fully satisfied 1. That the keeping of these daies is a thing of it self unnecessary 2. And that there being none on earth that can justly pretend to a power of universal Government over the whole Catholick Church it is certain that none on earth can bind the Catholick Church to such observances The Canons of Pastors are Authoritative Directions to their own flocks that are bound to obey them so it be in lawful things but to other Churches or to their fellow Pastors they are but Agreements and how far they bind I shall shew anon 3. And even in a single Church or a Province or Nation I am satisfied that it is a great sin for Magistrates or Pastors to force all that scruple it to the observation of these daies and to lay the unity or Peace of their Churches on it and to cast out censure reproach or punish them that dare not obey such impositions for fear of sining against God And it is a most dsingenuous thing to insinuate and put into the minds of men accusations of the Impiety of the dissenters and to perswade the world that it is irreligiousness or humorous singularity when it is so known a thing to all that know them that the persons that scruple or disown these daies do ordinarily walk in uprightness and the fear of God in other matters and profess that it is only a fear of breaking the Laws of God that keeps them from conformity to the will of others and that they are reproached by the multitude of the observers of these daies for their spending the Lords Day in Holy exercises which the reproachers spend too much in idleness sensuality or prophaness and it is not long since many of them were cast out of the Ministerial service or suspended for not reading a Book authorizing Dancing and other recreations on the Lords day In a word to reproach them as Precisians and Puritans for the strictness of their lives and yet at the same time to perswade men that they are ungodly for not keeping Holy daies or not kneeling at the Sacrament is not ingenuous dealing and draws too neer the Manners of the Pagans who called the Christians ungodly because they durst not offer their sacrifices and when they dragd them to the judgement-seats they cryd Tollite impios as iâ— themselves were the Godly men I compare not the matter of the causes here but only the temper of the persons and manner and justice of proceedings § 49. And yet for all this I am resolved if I live where such Holy daies as these are observed to censure no man for observing them nor would I deny them liberty to follow their judgements if I had the power of their Liberties provided they use not reproach and violence to others and seek not to deprive them of their Liberties Paul hath so long agoe decided these cases Rom. 14. 15. that if men would be Ruled by the word of God the controversie were as to the troublesome part of it at an end They that through weakness observe a Day to the Lord that is not commanded them of God should not judge their brethren that observe it not and they that observe it not should not despise or set at naught their weaker though censorious brethren that observe it but every one should be fully perswaded in his own mind The Holy Ghost hath decided the case that we should here bear with one another § 50. Yea more I would not only give men their Liberty in this but if I lived under a Government that peremptorily commanded it I would observe the outward rest of such a Holy day and I would preach on it and joyn with the Assemblies in Gods worship on it Yea I would thus observe the Day rather then offend a weak brother or hinder any mans salvation much more rather then I would make any division in the Church I think in as great matters as this did Paul condescend when he circumcised Timothy and resolved to eat no flesh while he lived rather then offend his brother and to become all things to all men for their good Where a thing is evil but by accident the greatest Accidents must weigh down the less I may lawfully obey and use the day when another doth unlawfully command it And I think this is the true case § 51. 7. And for the next ceremony the Name and form of an Altar no doubt it is a thing indifferent whether the Table stand this way or that way and the Primitive Churches used commonly the names of Sacrifice and Altar and Priest and I think lawfully for my part I will not be he that shall condemn them But they used them but metaphorically as Scripture it self doth Heb. 13.10 15 16. Rom. 12.1 Ephes. 5.2 Phil. 2.17 4.18 All believers are called Priests and their service Sacrifices 1 Pet. 2.5 9. Rev. 1.6 5.10 20.6 I conceive that the dislike of these things in England the form and name of an Altar and the Rails about it was not as if they were simply evil But 1. because they were illegal innovations forced on the Churches without Law or any just authority