second chapter of this second Epistle they are set forth in their colours to be such as had escaped the pollutions that are in the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and by apostasie were intangled again therein and overcome and so their latter end was worse then the beginning They that have been converted from their heathen sins by receiving the knowledge and faith of Christ and then again relapse and turn to them again this latter estate of theirs this Christian Heathenisme is worse then their bare Heathenisme at first They had knowledge enough to bring in damnable heresies and wicked loose opinions to wrest the Scriptures to trouble the Church and unsettle many but they were willingly ignorant of the Word of God they had the knowledge of Scripture but against their knowledge did pervert the same and wrest all the Scriptures to their own destruction as the learned Papists and our Apostate Sects do But what is this to the simple ignorant among us that out of carelesnesse meerly or incapacity and weaknesse are so and yet adhere to the true religion by profession amongst us These are strange mistakes and applications of Scriptures but I hope the Doctor is not willingly ignorant By this he may see how severe he is against that in Mr. H. which he is more guilty of himself But I have done with this intreating him and all others into whose hands this shall come to make a charitable sense and construction of what I have here written and not to be offended or prejudiced at the plainnesse of the matter or rudenesse of the expressions and method because I want those advantages that should help all this The Lord knowes that I herein intend plainnesse and so farr as I know my own heart I have thus declared my judgement in these things in uprightnesse and sincerity hoping they may be a means of the Churches good tending to her peace and unity and I am perswaded will be so if prejudice or some other thing do not hinder the serious consideration right understanding and use of what I have here written And so I have done with the reverend Doctor And I shall now from the grounds and principles laid down in the foregoing discourse crave leave to hint a few things to the dissenting brethren of the Congregationall way and the rather because if the Presbyterian way as some do practise will not hold and stand good much lesse will the Independent novelty in point of separation and gathering Churches out of Presbyterian congregations or others and therefore give me leave you that are for that way to speak freely unto you in a few words If you judge the Ministry and the ordinances and particular congregations lawfull as to the main why do you separate from them and gather out their best members from them would you be content to be so served by other separated Churches Doth not this sensibly insinuate to the world that those gathered Churches are the only Churches of Christ and so all other congregations not after your moulding thereby called into question whether they be Churches of Christ or no Are you for order and edification and for the peace of the whole or are you not Do you intend the reformation of the whole or of a part only If you be only for the reformation of a part and your desire be to draw up some to purity of ordinances and spirituall communion with Christ their head and one with another what must become of all the rest that are not of your minde nor indeed in a capacity of admittance unto you upon your termes and qualifications of members what will you make of them that are not so qualified will you account them members of the true visible Catholick Church and yet not fit to be of particular congregations and enjoy communion with Christ in all his holy ordinances Are they by vertue of the holy Covenant of grace Church natives and members borne and declared to be such by publick testimony on the Churches part in administring of Baptisme unto them a great Church priviledge of right belonging to none but such as are in externall Covenant with God at least either by profession of faith in themselves or by their parents and yet not fit to be owned or received into communion by any particular congregation Why what a case are we in then Your selves were equall with the rest in your Baptisme and under the same administration of worship and service that others were and if you have found a blessing in your regeneration and effectuall calling keeping in that station why doe you forsake it now Hath the Covenant of grace in the use of ordinary means brought quickning grace and life to your souls which is the main in order to eternall blessednesse whither will you go to mend your selves Why should you be so offended at the presence of such as you your selves once were Did such kinde of persons hinder the power and blessing of ordinances from doing you good before that you are so zealous in separating from them now Will not the effects of free grace which you have already received convince you that it is good for you to keep your former station and wait upon the same God in covenant for increase and compleating of what he hath begun What fault can you finde with Word Sacraments and Prayer the main essentials of holy worship they being the same both with us and you only you are grieved that sinners should enjoy the benefit of all these though you as bad as they have found good in the use of all these Would you have Jesus Christ save no more then those that are already saved or in a saving state Would you have the effects of Covenant love flowing from a bleeding Saviour unto sinners now to cease Had not meer grace and mercy prevented when you were sinners you had been impenitent sinners still like to the worst Will not the remembrance of what you once were beget some bowels of tendernesse toward such sinners Is this your separation the way to draw on others that are weak ones and to recover offending brethren Is this the way to do their souls good to rail and revile them with reproachfull speeches and slanders calling them the World in opposition to the Church and unbeleevers aliens profane ones dogs and swine and the like Nay is not this the way rather to cast stumbling blocks before the blinde and to destroy many weak brethren whom Christ hath died for by hardning them in an evill way Is it not a means to make them apostatize from the true Religion and turn Papists or any thing to keep the name of Christians rather then to be under that reproach of Infidels Heathens the profane world c. You would have them left to wander in their own waies and so you make them objects of the threatnings but not of the grace of the Gospell and promises under the commands but
Christ or by his Apostles or any that drived authority immediately from them and therefore they have it not at all and to intrude themselves and assume unto themselves things of such an high nature is a most insolent boldnesse and they may fear to perish in the gainsaying of Corah and his company 5. I cannot conceive how there should be any true discipline practised in our Churches without the speciall assistance countenance and power of the civill Magistrate as the state of things are in England For almost all of all sorts are either carelesse or impatient or erroneous and not willing to come under discipline And although these Gentlemen say it is our own fault and why do we not set upon it beginning with the minor part yet this is very ill nay absurdly advised For as I said before I beleeve I shall never see true discipline exercised in the Church of England untill the Lord so move upon the hearts of our Rulers as to make them instrumentall to put the Church into that capacity which ordinarily cannot be without a nationall assembly of learned grave moderate and godly Divines chosen if possible by the whole and carryed on without tumult And that a profession of faith if not already done may be so clearly drawn up in respect of fundamentals in doctrine and worship according to evident rules of holy Scripture as may be established to be the publique profession of the Nation which all whatsoever should with peaceable spirits submit unto And also that the subjects of the keyes in a nationall Church may be more clearly determined and liberty of conscience better stated and bounded that the reformation of the whole may grow up together at least in all the externals of Christian obedience Otherwise how shall discipline be practised if carnall and loose Christians shall be left at liberty whether they will come under it or no Now I say while they are within the visible Church and Kingdome of our Lord Jesus and professe his Name in hope of eternall life why should they not submit to all his Lawes as the way and means appointed of that blessed end And the same grounds that do warrant the restraining offenders from evill and the forcing of them to do their duty in reference to some of the Lawes of Christ do warrant the doing of the like in reference to all the rest of his royall Lawes What is more sutable then that they that reign and rule only by Jesus Christ should put forth their power and improve all their interest for the advancing of Christs Scepter over all I confesse these Gentlemen have some unhappy expressions questioning our Church members because as they say the main instruments of bringing them to the true Religion in England were such as carryed it on by a civill power when the outward calling ought to be by the word only which the most of our common people never had they say Answ 1. I wish our Governours had that holy and grounded zeal for the reformation of what is amisse now in the Church that our first reformers expressed in point of reformation in their generation 2. We must distinguish of a twofold state of Church membership or the way of bringing people to be Church members 1. Aliens of years are to be discipled and called by the Word before they may be baptized and received into the Church and so it was in the Apostles first planting of Churches But 2. The seed of persons so called are by vertue of the Gospell Covenant members borne and upon that account are baptized and when they come to years are as much under the obligation of all holy observances as those that are called by the word So it was in the Church of the Jewes in respect of all that were circumcised so that Church membership is and may be pleaded from birth priviledge Gal. 2.15 We who are Jewes by nature c. 3. Our first reformers did not force Heathens to receive and professe the Protestant Religion but reduced baptized erring Christians unto that obedience and reformation which their Baptisme and profession did oblige and ingage them unto according to the examples of godly Kings and Prophets amongst the Jewes in case of defection and irregularity I might produce divers instances of this holy and religious care and zeal in reforming but those that are acquainted with the Scripture can remember the histories of them And orthodox Divines do generally hold that the Baptisme of a Papist is valid and need not be repeated And it need not be doubted but upon that ground the King of Spain or the French King if the Lord should give them a heart throughly convinced of and affected with the truth might reduce their subjects if they were able to that conformity to the Lawes of Jesus Christ which their Baptisme doth oblige them to Rome it self upon such a reformation might become a true visible Church without any repeating either of the ordination of their Ministers or their Baptisme Were all that superfluity of naughtinesse from time to time contracted in Doctrine worship and discipline purged out and all administrations made conformable to the Lawes of Jesus Christ as it was with them for some hundreds of years from the Apostles times we could not tell what to object against them but might have communion with them Say that we heretofore were a member of Rome received all sacred ordinances from them having now repented of the evils and abominations which the holy things of Christ were polluted with and reformed them according to the institution what can be objected against us though we were put in possession of the ordinances of Christ by means of the civill power 4. If an argument drawn from successe be of any force in any case surely in supernaturall and spirituall events above any other and we are not left without innumerable evidences of the divine operations upon the souls of many in our Nation through the blessing of the Lord upon the use of those holy administrations of the Covenant which our first reformers with zeal care and power brought our fathers under blessed be God for this unspeakable gift This for the fifth thing proposed concerning discipline 6. The sixth and last is this That holy discipline is so to be ordered that the edification of all may be best furthered and preserved and the objects of Church censures may be healed rather then hurt by them Sometimes the Church must rebuke some that the rest may fear and sentence some few most notorious offenders when many deserve the same punishment rather then indanger the peace union and edification of the Church punish and chastise what they can with the health and safety of the whole and with patience bear and forbear when the remedy is like to prove worse then the disease Lawfull things are not alwaies expedient nor consist with charity It is a good saying of Cyprian mentioned by Calvin Let the Church mercifully correct what they
it consisted wholly of them for they undertook to cast out of the Synagogue Joh. 9. 12. And when Saul breathed out threatnings against the Saints in zeal of reducing them to the Church from which they were departed and seduced as he thought he went to the chief Priests and all the estate of the Elders for his commission and he received anthority from them to bring both men and women unto Jerusalem to be punished Act. 22.15 And that estate of Elders in the originall is called a Presbytery which also shewes that it was made up of chief Officers of the Church called Presbyters some of which were chief Priests the other Pharisees and some subordinate Presbyters were joyned with them to make up that assembly having authority to judge of manners according to the Lawes of God however upon mistake they punished the true professors of the Christian Religion yet not under the notion of professors of the true Religion but out of zeal to reduce the beleeving Jewes to conformity to the old administration as judging it still in force as it was delivered by Moses If any make question whether this Presbytery according to the Text were the Church to whom complaint was to be made concerning stubborn offenders I answer that Councell or Presbytery was made up of the chief Officers of the whole Church and so the Church representative on whom alone all the authority of the Church was involved for the punishing of sin and preserving the peace of the whole And for the word Church they that are acquainted with the Original language know it is used for any assembly or congregation called together whether to civill or sacred ends and so these Elders and Rulers of the Jewes assembled together for the ends aforesaid are not unproperly called a Church And for the latter thing propounded before namely that the Christian Churches in after ages are to proceed by the same rule and in the same order the Church of the Jewes then did that is to say by a Presbytery seems to me very probable For first of all there were in use in the Christian Church in reference to the rule and government thereof the same names that were in the Church of the Jewes which is a sign that there was the same thing Saint Paul who was well acquainted with the nature of the Presbytery at Jerusalem from whom he received authority to trouble the beleeving Jewes cals an assembly of Elders or Church officers a Presbytery of which what better reason may be conceived then this the resemblance that was between this Eldership and the great Councel in the Church of the Jewes It is clear the Apostles themselves did order all things in the Church ordained Elders and authorized them in the Name of Christ to ordain others c. And they were as much Rulers and Officers over the Catholick Church as the chief Priests and Elders were to the Jewes And hence in the Apostolical Churches Ordination of Ministers was derived from them that were Officers to the whole Church and in a most immediate manner by Jesus Christ were constituted so to be which makes me inclinable to beleeve that those still that are ordained Officers for the good and benefit of the whole should be ordained by such a Presbytery that are intrusted with that power by the Officers of the whole as much as may be So farre am I from consenting to these men that take it for granted that the common members of a particular society may chuse and install their own officers Now what is there in all this for that pretended way of discipline which these Gentlemen commend to their reader here is not the least warrant for any to separate from the Church or withdraw for all is one nor for the people to rule and chuse their own Officers nor for imposing a Church Covenant explicitly to be professed in the congregation and those that will not come up to this and such like termes must not be admitted unto Sacramentall communion Nor is here any warrant for sentencing Church members before a regular triall nay here is no warrant for any single Minister to set up discipline over his people without the consent and conjunction of the reverent brethren of the Ministry with them The key of discipline is not at all in one alone but rather in the whole together A word more on that Scripture as it is directed to the Apostles vers 18 19 20. and so in them to the officers of the Church in succeeding ages to the end of the world Verily saith our Saviour there if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall aske it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them These words seem to have reference unto what was spoken before concerning the authority of the Jewes Church Officers and our Saviour would have his Apostles to know that though their authority may seem to the world yea and to themselves to be weak and contemptible in respect of that great bench of Elders generally submitted unto by the Jewes yet they should have as great authority to binde and loose as the other nay two of them by the authority given them by the Lord of the Church should be equivalent to their great authority And we know it came so to passe They had power to work miracles and were inspired with an extraordinary spirit and had some speciall promises peculiar to them alone as well as gifts They had power to give the holy Ghost by imposition of hands and an extraordinary power in prayer and power to punish and kill the bodies of men for sacriledge and hypocrisie And we know the very Church it self is said to be built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Now what is this to these Ministers in Glocester-shire Dare two or three of them assume this power for I suppose all the Ministers of the County are not of their minde and way to do as the Apostles did Suppose they be Ministers of the Gospell is the Church built upon them or their Doctrine Where have they any such promise that they shall not erre and whatsoever they shall agree to aske shall be done for them of the Father of Jesus Christ They plead their serious and solemn seeking of God and commend unto us their model of Discipline as the result of their serious debates and returns of their prayers but that authority will not satisfie judicious Christians when the thing it self is so inconsistent with the generall rules of the Word as hath been shewed Besides it is well known that in many places the Ministers of the Gospell have used the like means in behalf of themselves and their people yet but few have run into their waies but either fall into some association of Churches and Presbyteries