c. Concord in those otherwise not the best may be better and a greater duty than for better to be singular disobedient and dividers or the encouragers of other mens singularity and divisions § 11. If there were no Law or Mandate of the Prince for such concord as aforesaid yet because a National Church should have the comfort beauty and strength of as much concord as can be attained without greater hurt than it will compensate all the Members of it ought to study the maintenance of such unity concord and harmony and if the Pastors and Churches agree on any such lawful circumstances to comply and conform to such agreement and to shun affected causless singularity In such cases Augustine rightly resolved to do as the Church did where he came It being a disturbing discord for one man to be odd against a lawful Custom without cause As for instance if one would affect to be covered with his Hat at Prayer or Psalmody when the rest are uncovered or to use a gesture contrary to all the rest Conformity in things lawful beseemeth them that profess themselves Members of such National Churches as consist of United Confederate Congregations § 12. But if on pretence of Concord or Confederacy yea or Laws any would tyrannically impose sinful things or else make things lawful so much more necessary than in themselves they are as to become the necessary Conditions of Union or Communion excommunicating persecuting or unchurching all that differ from them and appropriating National Church Membership only to those that obey such ensnaring Canons or Agreements It is not lawful to own or countenance such Usurpation and Tyranny nor to deny those that they deny or condemn to be true parts of the National Church It being only Concord in things essential that is necessary to the Essence and Concord in parts integral that is necessary to Integrity and Concord in convenient Accidents that is necessary to the accidental Comeliness of the Church And contrarily Concord against Essentials nullifieth a Church and Discord against Essentials nullifieth a Member and want of Integrals rendereth it maimed and want of due Accidents uncomely and ill Accidents in Concord or Discord partly scabbed and less beautiful § 13. I earnestly entreat therefore all sober Christians to take heed lest the secret desire of seeming more pious or tender conscienced than other godly people and of getting applause for such tenderness and of being reputed stricter than others should tempt them into opinions or practices of unnecessary distance singularity and division Pride is a deep rooted sin in Nature and it maketh our reputation with the stricter people oft to become a selfish Interest as strong as riches and wordly preferments are with the looser sort of men And it maketh it to such as hard to undergo the sharp censures of the censorious and to bear the imputation of want of Piety and Conscience as to undergo imprisonment and want And hereby young ignorant Apprentice Lads and Women being usually the most censorious such become the real Governours of their Pastors and of the Church especially if Persecution also cast them for a livelihood on the Peoples Charity And so it seemeth to make it the Controversie whether the Churches and Pastors should be governed by Bishops or by censorious Women and Boys Satan hath more Baits to angle with than one and more than one way of deceiving Those that are above the sordid bait of riches or preferment or great mens favour may yet be overcome by the over-valuing the love and praise of a Sect or of mistaken religious persons especially in a time when the Clergy is grown infamous and contemptible by ignorance worldliness or malignity and it is become a disgrace to be numbred with them § 14. But Satan hath taught no small part of our Academick Students and our Clergy a way to frustrate all that I have said by accusations against my self as if it were sufficient to turn all into scorn if they could charge any sin on my person or by impudent falshoods either feign me to contradict my self or if they do the work of the Father of Lies by his proper act and imitation On one side I am daily reviled by the Separatists and Antinomians as over-conformable On the other side I am reviled for Non-conformity and told that my practice is contrary to all that I write and preach for Peace And it is answer enough for them to calumniate and say that I condemn my self as if this did justifie both extreams in their impenitent persevering in enmity to Peace § 15. To Mr. Long therefore and such other Calumniators who instead of a rational Confutation of my Arguments answer by accusing me as of a contradicting unpeaceable life I say 1. One would think with men that have any pretence to reason honesty or honour it should be easie to know that when the Controversie is about Church-Government Oaths Subscriptions Ministration what I am is nothing to the Question in hand If they take me for as errant a Knave or Rogue as Judge Jeffreys or Mr. Long have pronounced me what 's this to the common Cause of Truth and Peace 2. If my forty five years labour for Peace my forbearing these thirty years to gather any Church my Communion with my parish-Parish-Church in Liturgy and Sacrament kneeling at the Altar all my Writings against Schism and Separation and for the reconciling of Word-warriours my quiet submission to their oft imprisoning me and seizing on and selling all my goods Bed and Books as for Preaching when I was twenty miles off and for such occasional Sermons as the Lord Chief Justice Sanders and the new Lord Chief Justice Polixfen gave not under their hands that I was authorized to Preach by the Bishops License not revoked nor forfeit and all this by Sir James Smith and Sir James Butlers Warrants who neither of them ever told me who accused me nor ever called me to speak for my self If the like Warrant before by Sir Thomas Davis If my Imprisonment before by Justice Rosse and Philips If my being tost from Session to Session and bound in six hundred pound to the behaviour by Justices that openly declared they had nothing against me but took me for innocent If my Banishment out of the County and five miles from all Corporations If my attendance at Judge Jeffreys Bar in daily pain to hear my self reviled being forbidden to speak a word for my self and the Lawyers reviled and threatned that spake for me If my Confinement in the Kings Bench Prison for near two years and a great deal more such usage after they had in 1661. offered me a Bishoprick and sworn me to be the King's Chaplain in Ordinary And after Bishop Morley had silenced me and published a Letter of palpable falshoods against me which I answered and for peace laid it by these 28 years I say if all this prove me unpeaceable and them peaceable and if my Concessions in my English
and so train up youth into an enmity and scorn of that which should have their chiefest Love and Labour Alas if such a Serpentine Generation shall for staying so many years in Idleness and Lust in Universities be thought to have right to take the charge of multitudes of Souls that never took just care of their own and to have right to Church Dignity and Maintenance if any bad Patron will but present them how sad a case is such a Church and Nation in They will bring their Ignorance and Malice into the Pulpit and then those hearers that know bitter from sweet and the unclean from the clean will loath their folly And when the Priest seeth that he is despised or loathed he will become the Enemy of those that disesteem him and so he will become a Wolf to the Flock And then it is the Ungodly part that must be his Friends and Companions in Sin whom he will harden to their own Destruction Thus hath a bad Clergy been the ruine of many Churches § 13. And this will prove so strong a Temptation to the Religious part to disaffect the Ministry and to go too far in separations as that Schisms and Pernicious Divisions will be soon multiplied And then Persecution must be tryed on them instead of Light and Love § 14. But the Immediate dividing and dissolving of Churches and overthrow of the Peace of Christian Kingdoms is by Ignorant Malicious or Tyrannical Laws or Canons that impose things forbidden of God on pain of ejecting and silencing the most Faithful Ministers and scorning and ruining the most Religious People that will not sell their Souls for Worldly Interest nor to humour the ill designs of Tyrants These snares are often made by meer malice and revenge as Daniel was forbid to pray Because they could find no fault or accusation against him except it were concerning the Law of his God Especially when some great quarrels have exasperated revenge § 15. But usually error concurreth with Malice while Ignorance and Pride make Prelates and Priests still confident that all their Opinions and Impositions are just and blameless and that all are willfully erroneous that refuse them So rare is a humble understanding § 16. And it fixeth a National Church in this way to ruine when such an unworthy Ministry must be continued till they die and there is no great visible hope of removing them How many difficulties must be overcome before one Parish can get a cure of such § 17. And yet worse is it when there is small hope of a better when the bad Priest is dead but the corrupt Fountain is still sending forth polluted Streams and Money and Friendship chuse the Man And when the worst Man that hath but Money enough to buy a Patronage shall have the choice of a Pastor for Mens Souls § 18. And yet worse will it go when the Keys which are the most peculiar part of the Priviledge and Office of the Pastors shall be exercised by Lay Civilians in the Bishops name without his judging or consent And Government by the Word is managed by such Men in the manner that Secular Affairs are managed without due reverence to holy things § 19. And worst of all is it when the Body of the Nation is by such means brought to so much ignorance and sinfulness that they would have it so And are glad to have so much countenance to their malignity and sin and follow their malicious Military Leaders § 20. And last of all when their madness hath drawn their own Swords against each other or provoked God to let in a Foreign Enemy on them then they must expect that God avenge the quarrel of his Covenant specially when after great Mercy and long Patience they would not know the time of their Visitation nor in their day the things that belong to their peace but defend their sin Chap. XIV Whether the National Church of England be at the present of a sound Constitution And what is necessary to its Welfare Safety Reformation and Peace § 1. TO tell what particulars need Reformation I have done so oft to the great displeasure of the guilty that I have no encouragement to offend them more by doing it again § 2. And to give the true History of original causes and progress of our corruptions disorders and divisions will not be endured by them that still justifie their own and Predecessours sin and can see no fault in any but those that they first make and then call their adversaries I have found that the most notorious matters of fact will be denyed furiously by such men even what hath been said and done in their presence and mine before a multitude of Witnesses Bishops Doctors and divers others Yea things said and done in Parliaments and Armies and publickly notified are by such men contradicted with rage Therefore I will not here tell the World either what or who have been the causes of our sufferings and dangers having long purposed to have done it in a Treatise by it self called REPENT O ENGLAND and therein I. To declare my own Repentance II. To tell those called Presbyterians what they must Repent of III. And those called Separatists IV. And those called Antinomians V. And those called Prelatical especially the Ruling part But God seemeth to deny me time for that intended Work § 3. That which I shall now add is I. To shew what there now is in the English Constitution fitted to Christs Institution of a true National Church II. What is yet wanting III. And what are the Remedies § 4. I. I begin with that which is Good and Laudable Not only to avoid offence by unprofitable finding faults but especially to rectifie those prejudiced censures that call Good Evil and run away from Gods Mercies under the false name of Sin This hath had no small hand in our Divisions ever since the troubles at Frank-ford and our first Reformation The Adversaries of Popery did lay more of the personal Crimes of the Papists Bishops and Priests and Monks too on the Office and Order than they should have done § 5. I. The National Church of England is rightly constituted under one Supreme Royal Government as the Unifying Head as I have proved § 6. II. It is duely constituted of professed Baptized Christians and Churches as the subject matter § 7. III. It hath National Laws which profess their subserviency to the Law of Christ and the Nullity of all that is against it § 8. IV. It maketh none Magistrates but professed Christians No nor Burgesses and choosers of Magistrates § 9. V. It hath Diocesans that are General Overseers of many particular Churches as Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists in the ordinary parts of their Office which I before proved to be Christs Institution § 10. VI. It justly maketh Bishops Members of Parliament it being unfit to make Laws for Religion without the Pastors notice and advice § 11. VII It justly giveth large maintenance and
OF National Churches Their Description Institution Use Preservation Danger Maladies and Cure Partly applied to England Written by RICHARD BAXTER for promoting peace when the pacifying Day shall come by Healing their Extremes that are willing of Peace and Healing And for the fuller Explication of the Treaty for Concord in 1660 and 1661. and of the Kings Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs for which he had publick thanks by them that afterward rejected it And for further Explication of his Treatise of Episcopacy and many others written for Peace and rejected Rev. 11. 15. The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall Reign for ever and ever Chap. 19. 16. King of Kings and Lord of Lords Matth. 5. 9. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Jam. 3. 17. The wisdom that is from above is first Pure and then Peaceable c. London Printed by T. Snowden for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns the lower end of Cheapside 1691. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader THIS short Discourse cometh not from the expectation of pleasing any of the Extremes the Tyrannical or the Confounders And therefore in a Time and Countrey where those that escape Extremes are few it must expect but the private approbation of those few But those few and their Cause are so considerable as that if God mean not to forsake the Land they may yet become the Agents and stamina of a happy concordant Reformation Of which in the appearance of Second Causes there is yet no great prospect nor like to be unless God cause the Supreme Power by Wisdom and Righteousness or by their own constraining Interest and Necessity to drive the Worldly Unpeaceable Sort to obey Healing Precepts for their own Advantage contrary to their Temptations and Inclinations If such a day come when I am dead these Principles will be of use They are not lately taken up by me as you may see in my Five Disputations of Church Government c. in my Treatise of Episcopacy Nonconformity stated c. and in our frustrated Treaty for Concord 1660 1661. In the state that we are in while we have none to whom we have any Call or Hope to address our selves for publick Concord let us keep our selves from the guilt of unpeaceableness and bear the Slanders and Wrongs of false Accusers and thank God for checking the Power of Persecutors and let us make peace among those that we may speak to with any hope and wait on God till he shew us whether he be saving or forsaking the Land and the rest of the Reformed Unreformed Churches And to them that will be offended with me for saying so much for Bishops and Archbishops let them know that this Book is but an Attendant on a bigger written against a Foreign Jurisdiction or Popery which sheweth that I am no more for the Extremes of others ' than of theirs As also my Treatise of Episcopacy hath shewn And here I have proved that Popery is but a Fabrick built on the Ruins of National Churches or Christian Kingdoms And if it ever fall it must be by their Restoration The Lord pity the Blind Malignant Self-destroying World and prepare us better for a better Society London March 26. 1691. Richard Baxter LET the Reader note that § 7 8 9 and 10. of the XII th Chapter are misplaced and must be read as the end of the IX th Chapter The rest of the Errata's I have not time togather THE CONTENTS CHap. I. What a National Church is Ch. II. That Christ Instituted such a Church Form Ch. III. In the Execution as well as Embrio Judea was such Ch. IV. Particular Churches and Pastors how far Essential to a National Church and what are its Materials Ch. V. The Pastors or Bishops of National Churches are to be of three Ranks Apostolick Successors Ch. VI. Who must be the Lay-members of National Churches Ch. VII What is the Confederacy or Concord needful to a National Church Ch. VIII How far this Confederacy and Concord bindeth the Members of a National Church to Conformity Ch. IX That Christ hath Instituted no Ecclesiastical Government in Man of any larger extent than National much less Universal nor of Foreign Jurisdiction And that the French Aristocracy with the Popes Primacy and Patriarchate is as bad as Papal Monarchy Ch. X. Whether Universal Church Government more than per partes be of Apostolick Succession Ch. XI Whether National Church Primacy or Aristocracy infer Universal Ch. XII 1. Whether the Romans Church Policy should be chosen as strengthning the common Christian Interest 2. Whether Protestants Differences and Divisions make the Roman way of Concord necessary 3. Whether Protestants or Papists have more Errors Chap. XIII What are the Dangerous Diseases of a National Church Chap. XIV Whether the Present Church of England be of a sound Constitution and what is Necessary to its Welfare Safety Strength and Peace Chap. XV. The Case answered Of Tolerating Dissenters from the Laws or Customs of a National Church Books Printed for and Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel Baxter's Catholick Theology plain pure peaceable for Pacification of the Dogmatical Word-Warriours in three books Folio His Church History of Government of Bishops and their Councils Abbreviated Quarto His true History of Councils enlarged and defended Quarto His Treatise of Episcopacy Quarto His Saints Everlasting rest in four parts Quarto His Paraphrase on the New Testament Quarto His Life of Faith in three parts Quarto His answer to Dodwel and Sherlock Quarto His Catholick Communion in five parts Quarto Catholick Communion doubly defended c. Whether Parish Congregations be true Christian Churches defended against both Extremes Unnecessary Divisions Quarto His Apology for Non-Conforming Ministers Quarto His Naked Popery c. Quarto His Treatise of Knowledge and Love Compared c. in two parts Quarto His English Non-Conformity as under King Charles the second and King James the second truely Stated and Argued the Second Edition Quarto His Treatise of Self-Denial Octavo His Defence of Non-Conformists Plea for Peace Octavo His Full and Easy satisfaction which is the True and Safe Religion Octavo His Key for Catholicks opening the Juglings of the Jesuits Octavo His Catechizing of Families Octavo His Scriptures Gospel Defended and Christ Grace and free Justification vindicated against the Libertines Octavo His Two Disputations of Original Sin Octavo His Cain and Abel Malignity that is Enmity to Serious Godliness c. Octavo His Call to the Unconverted to turn and live c. Octavo His Glorious Kingdom of Christ described and clearly vindicated c. Quarto stitcht His Reply to Mr. Beverly's Answer to my Reasons against his Doctrine of a thousand years Quarto stitcht His Farewel Sermon prepared to have been Preached to his hearers at Kederminster at his departure but forbidden Quarto published
such a National Church as Christ did institute must be known by knowing what the Jews Church was as National and how far Christ would have continued that form of Government and what change it was that he was for § 8. 1. Christ would not have the Jewish Nation to retain their peculiarity as distinct from the Catholick Church for he came to call the Gentile World 2. He intended not to make Jerusalem the Seat of a Regent Church over the rest of the World as it then was over the Jews for he knew that it was to be destroyed 3. He intended not to settle one High Priest over the whole Catholick Church nor over the National Church For defacto he did it not and he knew that the High Priest did typifie himself only 4. He intended not to continue the Law of Moses as such nor its Ceremonious Worship but only so much of it as was of the Law of Nature common to others and so much of the Policy as by parity of cases and reason is suited to others as well as to the Jews § 9. But 1. He offered to be King over them as a holy National Kingdom-Church 2. He accordingly appointed the number of Twelve and Seventy under him as related to the Twelve Tribes and to their great Council 3. He sent these first to work upon them by Doctrine and Perswasion his Kingdom being a Government of Love Mercy and Free Grace that would have none but Volunteers 4. He gave them Laws by which he would govern them with promises of Reward and threats of Penalty 5. He extended this offered State and Priviledge to them and their Children 6. He intended to set up his Government in Power by Christian Princes as soon as his Word and Providence had ripened the Church for it § 10. I shall prove all this in the next Chapter when I have told you first that as the Papal Party hath been set up in their Usurpation Universal and National for want of understanding Christ's Institution of Kingdom-Churches so the separating and dividing part of the Nonconformists have by this oversight run into many hurtful Errours and unpeaceable and unjustifiable ways 1. How much the very name of a National Church is distasted by very many zealous persons through meer ignorance is too commonly known 2. And in Independents and too many Presbyterians the custom prevaileth of calling the exercise of Pastoral Discipline by the name of the Kingly Government of Christ as distinct not only from his Prophetical and Priestly Office but also from his Government by Magistrates As if Christ governed not as King as much and more eminently by Princes as by Priests or Pastors 3. And if a man speaketh but what Scripture speaketh for Christ's Government of the Churches by Magistrates they call him an Erastian Whereas the Errour of Erastus an excellent Protestant Physicion was not his being for the Government of Princes but his taking down the Power of the Keys too much which was the Office of Pastors and making church-Church-Communion over-common and too much denying Excommunication Of which I have written a peculiar Treatise to Dr. Ludov. Molinaeus shewing the true difference between the Power of Magistrates and Pastors 4. And hence great disorder hath arisen from the undervaluing of the Confederacy of all particular Churches in the same Kingdom and from a disobedience to the lawful determinations of Princes in Church Affairs and even from the causless singularity of every humorous Sect as slighting the Concord of the Confederate Churches what abundance of Schisms had it prevented with their dismal Effects if men had but retained a due Reverence to Church Confederacies and Concord and to the Christian Magistrates Power which caused the Presbyterians in Scotland and Ireland so marvelously to keep up Concord and keep out Sects though they were against Diocesans because they maintained National Church Confederacy § 11. It may perhaps be useful to others that I here confess my own Ignorance and Errour that I once thought that the Scots way of a National Church Confederacy and General Assemblies was but a sadling the Horse for Papal Usurpation to ride upon For I considered not that National Churches truly stated were Christ's Institution and the principal way to keep out Popery § 12. And whereas in my Defences against Dr. Stillingsleet and Dr. Sherlock I called the Christian Magistrate an Accidental Head and urged them hard to name the Essential National Church-Head I spake on supposition of their Opinion which I opposed that Bishops only were such Essential Heads from whom A National Church must be unified and specified But I still professed to own a National Church as a Christian Kingdom containing Confederate Pastoral Churches And of this the Soveraign Power is the Essentiating Head § 13. The names of distinction of Civil and Ecclesiastical as differencing the Office of the Christian Magistrates and Pastors may be used as well understood but is too Popish and used by Papists and some others to obscure and debase Christ's Government by Magistrates as if they were only for secular uses Whereas indeed in a Church as National the Prince is the chief Ecclesiastical Officer of Christ And the true differencing terms are fetcht not from the subject matter so much as from the Mode of Government one being forcible by the Sword and the other only on Conscience by the Word doctrinally opened and personally applied by the Keys And Ruling is called Civil because it is the Regiment over Cives quâ tales so it is Ecclesiastical as it is over Cives quâ Christianos and over particular Churches and Pastors and for Souls more than for Bodies and worldly Estates § 14. A National Church containeth not all that dwell in the Land but all that are Burgesses or Free-men in Church respects All be not Citizens that dwell in the City but they that are Denisons and have City-Rights and Priviledges As Christ is Head over all things To his Church Eph. 1. 23. so a Christian King is Head over his inhabiting Enemies and Aliens and Head to all Civil Denisons as he is a King and Head to all Christian Church Denisons as he is a Christian King § 15. In what cases Subjects may be Civil Denisons that are not Christian Denisons or Church Members requireth so many words and cautions to open that I omit the decision of it But were a Christian Kingdom such as it ought to be none should be a Civil Burgess with any Trust belonging to Government but such as are Baptized or professed Christians and are communicating Members in some Churches or Assemblies allowed or tolerated or that ought to be tolerated For a Kingdom and Church as formally Christian should be Ruled by none but Visible Christians This is true both of Magistrates Pastors and the chusers of of them But none should for this be forced or drawn to profess Christianity or communicate against their wills it being a priviledge that none have right to but those that
same time they pray and wait for National Churches in the Millennium as the Fifth Monarchy And none of them will deny it to be the Duty of all Kings and Kingdoms to be Christians and so that Christian Kingdoms are Christ's Institution and Command § 3. But the Soveraign is the Judge what Pastors and Churches he shall allow and maintain as parts of the National Church or Kingdom As the Colledge is to judge who is fit to be a Physicion and the Patient who shall be his Physicion and the trusted Physicion what Medicine he shall give But the King to judge whom he will allow in his Kingdom and to make Laws forbidding poisonous Drugs and abuses of Physicions Even so the Ordainers are Judges who are fit to be Pastors and the People whom they will trust their Souls with as their Pastors and the trusted Pastors to judge what Doctrine to Preach and whom to receive to Communion or to Excommunicate but the King to judge whom he will allow maintain or tolerate as Members of the Christian Kingdom or National Church § 4. That all essential parts of a National Church are not the Form that denominateth as aforesaid needs no more proof than that Matter and Privation by which Aristotle meant Dispositio Materiae receptiva are not the Form of a Natural Body So that Confederate Pastoral Churches are necessary yea essential matter of a National Church or Christian Kingdom when it is past being a meer Embrio or unshapen Mass and is come to be a well shapen Politick Body Till then it is but as the body in the womb while the punctum saiiens first maketh the Heart Eyes Brain and Arteries before it hath made the Stomach Liver Lungs and Intestines It is not yet come to shew what Christ's Institution of a Church was § 5. But our great Controversies are I. Who be the Organical Pastors that must make up a National Church II. Who must be the Lay-members of those Churches III. What that Confederacy must be that must unite them IV. How far the Members are bound by that Confederacy And because Ignorance hath made these Points of so much Controversie and Consequence I will open them distinctly By which I conjecture it will appear that Dr. Stillingfleet differed but about the right wording of the definition of a National Church Chap. V. Of Pastors or the Bishops of National Churches that they are to be of Three ranks § 1. THat Pastors are the prime necessary part of the Matter of a Kingdom-Church tho' not the Unifying Form is plain in Scripture and in the nature of their Office and of a Church § 2. The Independent Separatists therefore shew gross Ignorance when they make a meer Community unorganized to be a Church in sensu Politico and then must have a Lay-man that was of the Universal Church before to be by the Peoples Votes chosen a Member of that Church while it hath no Pastor and then chosen their Pastor after Whereas a meer Community is no more a Political Church without a Pastor than a Community is a Kingdom that hath no King individual or collective existent or virtual Or than this can be a School without a Schoolmaster or a Family without a Head of it § 3. As Nature first formeth by the Soul and Spirits ex materia seminis the heart and prime organical parts and by them formeth all the rest and last of all formeth the Stomach and Intestines to be the Organs of future nutrition and then putteth in the nutriment which in the Chicken is the Yelk of the Egg the bodily stamina being first made of the white and then closeth up the before enclosed stomach upon that food so Christ did first by his Calband Spirit make some prime organical General or Indefinite Ministers and by them make others fixed in particular Churches and Offices and by them edifie and feed and perfect the Body by their Official Ministration and fit the people to digest the received food for their continued nutrition And as the King first maketh General Officers for his intended Army and then by them or immediately commissioneth Generals and Captains to raise their several Regiments and Companies and doth not make the common Souldiers before the Officers that are to Rule them so was it done by Christ at the gathering of his Church But when a Church is gathered or an Army raised they are not to be dissolved or disbanded when the Pastor the Captains or Generals die but continue in the existent state of a Community and the state of a Virtual Policy till a Pastor or Ruler be chosen because the Legal Institution de specie keeps up a virtual or intentional Policy still § 4. Christ's first Instituted Officers were Apostles and after the Inferior Official Disciples immediately from himself to convert Souls and make them fit matter for his Kingdom-Church and these were afterward to gather into distinct regular Congregate Churches such as were so converted by their Ministry and to place fixed Elders over them § 5. These Twelve Apostles and Seventy Disciples were first instituted in and for a National Church state Christ found the Jews under a National Form and therefore did not at first change that Form but only changed the Laws and Ordinances made for their Infant state of peculiarity which he had fulfilled for them they being but a Paedagogy to lead to and till Christ § 6. It 's plain that the number of Twelve and Seventy were chosen as related to the Twelve Tribes all then in being and known and of the Sanedrim or great Council And therefore a National Form of Church-Officers and not yet Universal nor Congregational § 7. Therefore Christ himself would not Preach beyond the Tribes of Israel nor give the Childrens bread to Dogs till he was finally rejected by the Children of the Kingdom and ' so the Kingdom taken from them and given to a Nation that would bring forth the fruits of it And he forbad his Apostles to go among the Gentiles and confined them to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel § 8. It is plain that Christ would have this just number of twelve kept up in relation to the twelve Tribes till the Kingdom was taken from them because one and but one was to be chosen in Judas room and so the due number of the Twelve to be kept up This proveth the Institution of a disparity of Ministers § 8. The Keys of the Kingdom were given first to the Apostles before the empowering of the seventy and that as to distinct superior Officers And the word Keys signifieth Government when Christ is said to have the Keys it is expounded by his opening and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth The Government was laid on his shoulders as King and Counseller Isa 9. 6 7 8. And as his Father gave the Keys and sent him so he sent his Apostles and gave power to them § 9. But there is no doubt but this Power
of Knowledge and Gifts rather than a setled Superiority of Office and whether any Pastors might not do all their Ordinary continued work But besides the singularity of that doubt I was soon convinced of an Official Superiority and Disparity not only because a Judas had been one but because the number of Twelve in Superiority was to be kept up by the choice of his Successor even one from among those that had been Witnesses of Christs Words and Works as well as he And by Pauls being made a thirteenth Apostle when the Gospel was to be carried further than to the Jews And his claim of Apostolical Power and Priviledges § 17. Especially because I find Christ Mat. 28. 19 20. describing the General Office as well as the Particular even going into all the World to Disciple whole Nations as well as to teach them to observe Christs Commands promising to be with them to the end of the World § 18. And also because it is apparent that Preaching the Gospel to Heathen and Infidel Nations is a Work still to be done and for want of men purposely appointed to do it the progress of the Gospel hath been wofully stopt Few doing any thing in it but Mr. Eliots and a few honest men in New England and they say some of the Dutch and the Jesuits and Fryers that do it corruptly Particular Church Work is below this § 19. And I am fully confirmed when I find that the Apostles themselves setled a General sort of Ministers in Superiority and General Work to succeed them As Christ himself by his Spirit made Barnabas an Apostle so he gave to his Church also Evangelists who were General helpers of the Apostles and were put in a state of Disparity and Superiority Sil as and Mark and Luke and Apollos and many more are named The texts that mention the General Office and Superior power of Timothy and Titus are so well known and oft cited that it 's needless to repeat them The charge of setling and overseeing many Churches as in Crete and of caution in Imposition of Hands receiving accusations rebuking sharply ruling them well ordaining Bishops and Deacons and much more the like I never thought Saravia and the Kings Arguments in the Isle of Wight well answered Mr. Prins and the common answer is that these were not Bishops but Evangelists I grant it but that confirmeth me For the name Bishop was then ordinarily appropriated to fixed particular Church Elders But our question is not de nomine but de re an Apostle Evangelist were above such Bishops Call them Apostles as Dr. Hammond proveth that the Fathers oft call them or call them Evangelists or Arch Bishops or General Bishops or Diocesans or Provincial Bishops it is not the name that is our Controversie It proveth that the Apostles did settle a sort of General Overseers to gather and take care of many inferior Bishops and Churches to succeed them in the ordinary part of their Office § 20. But another argument fixeth me in this opinion and that is that when it is fully proved that Christ instituted such a Disparity and Superiority he that will affirm that this doth not now continue and bind us must prove the repeal or revocation or prove that he did make this establishment but for a time and how long that was But Scripture plainly asserteth that he then appointed the foresaid Disparity and hath any as plainly proved that he repealed it or confined it to that Age It is not proved that I have seen And to assert this without proof is 1. To make Christs Institutions to signifie but what mans fancy thinks meet and make us the Masters of his Laws before we will be ruled by them 2. It is a charging Christ with temerity or dishonourable mutability as Instituting one form of Church Ministry and Government for one Age and changing it presently for another 3. It seemeth a dangerous taking Gods Name in vain by affirming such a mutability of him and change of his Laws without any proof 4. It defameth the state of his Church when it was under Persecution and when Heaven and Earth after rejoiced in its deliverance as if all that time it had been corrupt by owning the foresaid Disparity And it 's dangerous Presumption to Father on God that which he never did and never owned § 21. But no doubt but the Circumstances of this Superior Office or degree of Ministry are undetermined by God save as by General Rules and may be altered As 1. Whether there shall be One only or Two such General Ministers in one and the same Diocess or Province Christ sent out his Preachers by two and two Paul and Barnabas and Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Mark went out by Couples Peter and Paul were together at Rome And Grotius and Dr. Hammond think that for the first times till the Christian Jews and Gentiles became one Communion the great Cities Rome Alexandria Antioch c. had each two Congregate Churches and two Bishops were it but for language sake And as I think the Jewish and Gentile Christian Ministers during the time of Miraculous Gifts while no Christian Magistrates Ruled were the two Witnesses mentioned in the Apocalypse so I conjecture that Peter and Paul were the radical instances of them And when two join together it may take off envy from each Yet this is undetermined in Scripture and left to humane Prudence If two cannot agree how will such agree others § 22. The Scots had at first a General visiter that was really a General Bishop But the Visitors aspiring and abuse changed that way But I am told that in Ulster in Ireland each Classical Synod chuse two Grave Divines and send them out to Preach in any Congregation in that Classis where they see cause As where there are young raw men or men suspected of Heresy or men of scandalous fame and to admonish and counsel such and to tell the People that if they had any thing against their Ministers they should tell them and they would try them in the Classical Synod I think this is real and laudable Episcopacy whatever name it have § 23. It is also undetermined how large the Diocess be of the said General Minister while he excludeth not Inferiors As Prudence would teach the Apostles to Preach in several Countreys and not all in one when they left Jerusalem So Natural Reason teacheth Men still to divide and know their several Provinces § 24. It is undetermined how long each one shall stay in one City or place As Paul did long at Ephesus § 25. And it is left to Prudence how many subordinate Pastors and Churches there shall each oversee so they overthrow not the said subordinate Officers and Churches § 26. And it is left to Prudence what secular Lands or Riches they shall have called Glebe And what secular honour they shall have As to be Barons and Lords or to sit in Parliaments though Reason saith that
Laws about Religion and the Church affairs should not be made without the advice of them who are so greatly intrusted with Religion And yet that their Riches should be such as may not be too strong a Temptation to Sensuality Worldliness Pride and Tyrannizing over their Brethren § 27. There are three ranks of Bishops Two if not all three of Divine Institution And when any one of the three would suppress the other two they are corrupted into a sinful Tyranny I. The ordinary Presbyters are Episcopi Gregis Bishops over the Flocks So called and proved not only by Grotius passim but by most Papists and Protestants specially expositors on Phil. 1. and 1 Tim. 3. and 1 Pet. 5. c. II. The Churches being first gathered usually under some one Pastor and he taking in the ripest of his Converts or Disciples to become his assisting Presbyters and to avoid divisions that one or some other was chosen to be Episcopus Praeses the President Bishop of that particular Congregate Church As the incumbents in big Parishes are with us And tho I can prove no Institution of this but by Gods General Commands of doing all in Order Unity and to Edification yet we have reason to believe that it was begun in the Apostles days if Jerom say true about Mark at Alexandria who died before John And I find no party of Christians against it of many hundred years perhaps not of a thousand for even Aerius called it not unlawful And the Novatians Donatists and other Sects were Zealous for this sort of Episcopacy III. And that a Superior sort of Successors to the Apostles and Evangelists were of Divine Institution I have proved before § 28. The appropriating the name of BISHOPS to this General rank here called the Diocesanes contrary to Scripture and Truth hath proved a mischievous snare for Deceit and Tyranny For hereby first our Innovators have denied the Parish Incumbents to be true Pastors secondly And the Parish Churches to be true Political Churches for want of proper Bishops or Pastors but only parts of the Diocesan Church As if that were infimae specei 3. By this they have made the ignorant Laity believe that those ordained by the Proestotes the parochial President Bishops are ordained by no Bishops at all and so must be re-ordained And 4. they are become the grand Enemies of Episcopacy putting down many hundred Bishops to set up one alone And yet perfrictâ fronte have called such as are for more Antiepiscopal and themselves the Episcopal party Just as if one Schoolmaster or Physition should put down many hundred that he may be the only Schoolmaster and Physition or one Judge put down all the Justices and Mayors and then impudently say that they are against Physitions Schoolmasters and Justices and he only is for them But who can expect Truth or Modesty from Ungodly Worldly Proud Tyrannical Men. Tho it is not the Name that is our Controversie I allow them the Name of Diocesanes Yet abuse of Names hath been of mischievous effects § 29. Such Diocesane or General Bishops as put down all the Particular fixed Bishops and Churches are not only no sort of Bishops of Christs Institution but are Pernicious Enemies to Episcopacy and the Churches As nominal Apostles would have been had they put down all the Particular Churches and Bishops which they should oversee or a General Commander that would put down all the Collonels and Captains § 30. To refuse to be ordained by such usurping Enemies and to disown them is not to refuse true Episcopacy § 31. If these usurping Bishops would swear Men to obey them and refuse to ordain any that will not Assent Consent Subscribe or Covenant to sin against God by Omission or Commission especially many great and hainous sins he that refuseth such ordination may truly say he could not be so ordained the Bishop was the refuser and not he And he hath better ordination that is ordained by Parish Bishops on lawful Terms § 32. Yet if the Christian Prince make a true Diocesan that putteth not down the Parish Churches to be of the Quorums and have a Negative voice in Ordinations of such as he will own and maintain I think none should scruple submission For while Diocesans are good Men it seemeth to be a way safe and orderly § 33. There are two degrees of deposing the Parish Pastors I. When somewhat essential to their Office it self is denied de specie As Mr. Dodwell would have the Office made and specified by the Will and Intention of the Ordainer This only the Innovaters are guilty of II. When the Essentials of the Office are owned but the exercise sinfully restrained This the Old English Canons and Bishops were guilty of But it unhappily was by fitting their Canons to the State of the Parish Priests that came newly out of Popery and were by ignorance and errour unfit for their Office and Work But of all this I treated with unquestionable evidence of Truth in my Treatise of Episcopacy which is yet unanswered § 34. Those that only abusively restrain the Parish Pastors in the exercise of their Offices and are but misgoverning Diocesans may yet be owned as true Ministers de specie tho we must not own their sinful Misgovernment But those that destroy the very Office of the Parish Pastors in any essential part and their Churches are no true Ministers of Christ de specie nor to be owned as such while they will be the sole Pastors of many hundred Congregations § 35. How came this General Episcopacy that was to gather and fix Churches to be so much ceased A. 1. By the difficulty and costliness of the work of Apostolick Travels and Labours Ministers chose the easier state of a fixed particular Ministry 2. The particular Bishops living among Heathens found work enough on those within their reach and so by degrees conjoined the two Offices of General and Particular Episcopacy into one 3. And when the Heathen near them were converted ambition drew them to enlarge their Particular Churches into one Diocesan Church instead of gathering the new Swarms into a new Hive under a true particular Bishop And thus Satan hath by subtilty reduced the Churches to be too like to the Heathen World by killing Religion and turning it into Hypocritical Ceremony and meer Names while one Bishop will needs undertake the work of many Score or Hundreds which he cannot possibly perform § 36. Q. How prove you that the Largeness of the Diocess altereth the Species of Episcopacy and Churches A. It doth not at all if it put not down the subordinate Parish Pastors and Churches But if it turn them into half-Pastors and Chappels by destroying their essence it is easily proved Because it is two sorts of Communion that specifie the two sorts of Churches and Pastors The lowest particular sort is for presential personal Communion of such as may personally converse and may know each other and may at least sometime assemble
Non-Conformity do the same in the Judgment of these Accusers The Lord be Judge Chap. IX That Christ hath Instituted no true Ecclesiastical Government in Man of any larger extent than National much less Universal nor of Foreign Jurisdiction And that the French pretended Aristocracy with the Popes Primacy and Patriarchate is as bad or worse than Papal Monarchy § 1. POpery and Clergy Usurpation which have corrupted and broken and confounded the Christian Churches on pretence of Government Unity and Order have risen out of the Ruines of Christian Magistracy The true Unifying Heads of Christian Kingdoms and National Churches being deposed by the Pope and Clergy their Power hath faln into the hands of the deposers § 2. The means by which this was accomplished were these 1. When there was no Christian Magistracy the Christians by voluntary consent to avoid Pagan Tribunals made their Bishops their chosen Arbitrators to decide their differences And Constantine finding them in possession of it and having no Lay-men so wise and good and meet continued them in it yet without the Power of the Sword 2. The pious Christians were desirous that their own freely chosen Pastors should rule them having no others so fit 3. The Princes were so taken up with Wars and secular things that they had no leisure to mind it 4. Princes and Rulers grew so ignorant wicked and debaucht that themselves and all others almost thought them unmeet for such holy work They neglected the study of the Word of God which should have made them wise 5. The Clergy not only took the advantage of the ignorance and viciousness of Princes but cherished them herein and told them Scripture and holy work were for the Priests and not for Princes 6. They debased and prophaned the Order of Magistrates falsly pretending that their Office was but for the Body c. for worldly Peace and the Office of Priests only was for the Soul 7. They by degrees turned the Communion and Concord of several Foreign Churches and Nations into one Government over all 8. When the Roman Empire was broken into many Kingdoms the National pretence of the Pope or Councils could reach but to some one of them and so the Pope slightly pretended to all and turned the Imperial Universality into a Terrestrial Universality and the Roman World into the whole World or else they had fallen 9. In all this they took the advantage of the Ignorance of Princes and Lords 10. And of the Wars and Enmity against each other striking in with the side that was likest to advance them § 2. To this day Popery is upheld by the same means by which it was set up especially by the Ignorance Ungodliness and Slothfulness of Kings and Lords Did they exceed the Clergy as much as Moses Joshua David Solomon Jehosaphat Hezekiah Josiah Nehemiah Zorobbabel did the Priests and as much as the Heathen Emperors Titus Trajan Adrian Antoninus Pius Antoninus Philosophus Alexander Severus c. did their Priests they would be honoured above the Priests as they were The Emperors then were thought fit to be Pontifices Maximi and as in the times of the Ancient Family-power an Abraham an Isaac and a Jacob and a Job and a Melchizedeck were thought fit to have the highest Government in matters of Religion so would it be still And a Samuel would be Prophet and King But as God will honour those that honour him so those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed § 3. The true way therefore to put down Popery is for the Prince and Magistrates to claim their proper Power yet not to usurp the Priesthood and to study love and practise the Law of God and take their Power and Laws to be only and meerly subservient to the Power and Laws of God And to strive to understand these so clearly as to be able to judge sound Preachers from unsound and to know whom to countenance whom to tolerate and whom to suppress It is Kings that have set up Popes by putting down themselves and Popes have set in to pull them down to set up themselves And it is Kings that must pull down Popes by reassuming their own Power and Work and that must be by becoming fit for it § 4. That Prince who granteth that his Office is but for the Body and for Secular Ends and the Priests only for the Soul inviteth all his Subjects to honour every Priest before him and to account him base as worldly things are to be accounted as dung in comparison of the things of the Spirit and Eternity Yea every good Christian who is commanded to exhort each other daily and to comfort one another with the remembrance that we shall be for ever with the Lord would be far more honourable than a King as the Soul is above the Body and Heaven better than Earth § 5. He is not worthy of Parental Honour from his Children that careth only for their Bodies and seeketh not to make them the Children of God and the Heirs of Heaven and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord And if Princes be below the work of Parents they are below their Honour And if they will not be included in the work of the Fifth Commandment how can men give them the honour of that Commandment § 6. They that will have a Universal Prelate or Council to Govern the matters of Religion through all the World because of the unskilfulness of Kings and Magistrates should in reason also be willing on the same Grounds to have an Universal King or Parliament to Govern all Kings because some are Ignorant or Slothful or an Universal Physicion Philosopher or Schoolmaster § 7. God hath given the World often such Counsellors and such Judges as have been fit to judge in matters of Religion and to Judge Bishops and Preachers Why else do our Laws subject them to Kings and Judges Had all Lands but such Judges as through Gods Mercy England hath now or such as were Sir Matthew Hale and divers others in our Age and such Counsellors as Queen Elizabeth had for the most part or such Lawyers as France it self hath had and the Palatinate and Holland it would convince the World that Laymen may be fit to judge the Clergy even in matters of Religion And why may not Princes attain as much wisdom and honesty as their Counsellors and Judges The Christian Nations have been more beholden to a Constantine Jovian Valentinian Theodosius Senior Theodosius Junior Marcian Leo Anastasius and many other such and Spain to Recaredus and divers of his Successors and France to Carolus Mag. Ludov. Pius save their compliance with the Pope than to any Bishops or Councils even for Reformation against Heresies and Clergies Sins Chap. X. Whether an Universal Church-Government be of Apostolick Succession in the continued parts of their Office § 1. THough those that take it for mutability and backsliding to change their Judgments after that the School or their Leaders or
the Jewish State and not an Universal And this National Form went before that part of the Apostles Work and Power which was to be Universal or Indefinite § 15. IV. The Apostles made no Universal Laws of their own but only promulgated the Laws of Christ which by his Word and Spirit he taught them And to that end he promised and gave them his Spirit to lead them into all Truth and bring all to their remembrance and they were sent to all Nations indefinitely to Convert them and Baptize them and to teach them to observe all things that Christ had commanded them The Cryer is not the Law-maker though he proclaim the Law The Obligations to Infant-baptism and the Lords day alledged by some as Apostolical Laws are from Christ himself as I have proved elsewhere at large the Apostles being Authorized Witnesses and Promulgators And had they done it by the extraordinary promised Spirit it had so been Christs own Law-giving no other having that promise of the Spirit to make a new Word of God or Universal Law by bringing all his Commands to remembrance and leading them into all Truth The determinations Acts 15. were also the delivery of the Law of Christ the Holy Ghost giving them the certain understanding of it And it 's like that as two of the four Cases Fornication and idol-Idol-Communion were of known Morality so the other two strangled and Blood-eating if not so were not of Universal Obligation but only to those Gentiles that lived among the offended Jews The like may be said about the Institution of Deacons and Bishops of single Churches If they did not Institute them as in Christs Name by his Command or Spirit but had Authority from him to do it as Apostles It was under the promise of the Spirits Infallible Guidance and a Temporary Work in which they have no Successors For Christs Church would never be formed nor his Laws and Word setled perfect if we must have Men in all Ages to add to his Church Ordinances and Officers and to make him new Laws and a new Word How big would his Bible be then at the last Why have no new Scriptures as his been so made these 1600 years I hope our Volumes of Councils will not go for such § 16. V. The occasional determination of Questions about mutable Circumstances as long Hair the Vails the Love-feasts the time of Collections for Charity and divers such were not Universal but Local and not of Immutable but occasional Mutable Obligation and were but such as National and Congregational Governors may determine without any Universal Supreme Power The Genus or Rule by which they must be determined Edification Love Concord Peace Decency Order being Gods Laws § 17. VI. There is great difference between what the Apostles did as Segregate or Dis-junct each one in his Province and what they did as an Aristocratical Person or College unitedly They Ordained Elders gave the Holy Ghost setled Churches decided Controversies wrote Books and Epistles singly each one in his Province and met not to write any one Book or Epistle by a Major College-Vote in one Body And though their Books now oblige all the Church that have them yet 1. At the first writing they obliged only the Churches or Persons to whom they were written and only after by parity of Reason bind others that have them And every ordinary Pastor that writeth a Book that is sound Divinity bringeth an Obligation on all that read it to obey it according to the Evidence of truth The Obligation of the Apostles Books and theirs is Extensively Indefinite or Universal to all that read or hear it But the Degree of the Obligation Intensively is greater from the Apostles Writings because of their extraordinary Spirit § 18. VII The decision Acts 15. was not by a General Council nor a Pope No such Council was called But they were sent and appealed to as Men of most infallible fitness to decide that Case and if they did it as a College it was only as a National Church College such as de formâ the Jews Nation had in which relation they were first setled For as Twelve they were only so related others being added to be sent with them to the Centiles And besides and after that we never read that they did any thing but in their separate Provinces and Personal Capacity § 10 VIII And as they never did as an Universal Aristocratical College by Vote make new Universal Laws to the Church much less by any ordinary continued Power so neither did they as such a College exercise Judicial or Executive power but did it in their single Capacities only in their proper Provinces and that was partly by an ordinary power of Reproof and Excommunication which continueth and partly by an extraordinary miraculous power of delivering to Satan for Corporal punishment which power is ceased with them Tho' Papists in a mock-imitation deliver the Excommunicate to the Secular powers to be kill'd as if these were Devils As for the Universal Laws that tell whom to Excommunicate they are Christs own Laws and Rules of Judgment To which if men may add the like no wonder if they make Sin and Heresie as they please and Excommunicate and deliver to Satan their Magistrates whom they will and if he that was an Orthodox Saint this year be burnt without change as an Heretick the next and it be never certain till the end of the World what is Heresie or Sin and what not § 20. IX It being certain then that the Apostles did not as an Aristocratical Supreme power over the Universal Church Exercise Legislation Judgment and Execution much less by any ordinary continued power it followeth that they have no Successors that have such power and all Government being contained in these three parts there is de Jure no Universal Governour § 21. X. The power of Moses and Aaron were of equal extent and both of Divine Institution but Aaron was under Moses Government And Christ gave the Twelve and Seventy at first no larger Provinces or Power And when he added more and sent them to the Gentiles he commanded every Soul to be subject to the Princes power as of God Therefore their power in the Empire was limited and subject to the Imperial Government and so in other Lands They were bound to fear God and Honour the King They might by Doctoral and Nunciative Authority perswade Emperors and deliver Gods Commands and so still may any ordinary Teacher but not by Imperant Judicial and Executive power Govern them unless by self-subjecting they make them their Governors as Pupils do their Tutors and Patients their Physicions Yea they could make no Man a Christian but by Persuasion to voluntary consent and till they were Christians they could not Govern them as Christians And they were not Governors of the World but Monitors and Persuaders § 22. XI Indefinite and were it possible Universal Concord Love and Communion All Christians must endeavour
of man Parents being seriously taught to know what it is to enter their Child into the holy Covenant and to Dedicate their Child to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the World the Devil and the Flesh And the Parents or Pro-parents and not perfidious dissembling God-fathers must solemnly promise their careful education § 22. II. The transition of those Baptized in Infancy into the state of Adult Communicants must be made by an understanding and solemn owning of their Baptismal Covenant and that by such Pastors as have time to examine and instruct them and not made a deceitful Ceremony called Confirmation by a Diocesan that hath perhaps many hundred thousands in his Diocess § 23. III. The Parishes must be known to the Pastors that take the Charge of them and the three sorts of Inhabitants distinguished 1. Those that are of another Church as Papists c. or of no Church 2. Those that are Catechumens and submit to be Catechized and Hear 3. Those that are Communicants And each Parish must have Ministers for number and quality suited to the number of Souls and fit to know them and perform their undertaken Office § 24. IV. The partial unrighteous Canons must be cast away § 25. V. Nothing sinful or unnecessary to Ministry or Communion must be imposed as necessary Terms nor Godly able Ministers Silenced or Persecuted causelesly that do more good than hurt § 26. VI. They that Worship not God in all our Forms and Ceremonies or that are too scrupulous must be tolerated to Worship as they can by themselves so be it their Doctrine and Worship and Conversation and Unpeaceableness be not intolerable § 27. VII The Keys must be exercised only by the Clergy And if the Chancellors or Civilians Courts be kept up they must be the Kings Magistrates and use only such power as Magistrates may use § 28. VIII Those that by the Laws are to be excluded from the Communion of the Churches publick and tolerated should not have the power of choosing Incumbents Nor those that exclude themselves Nor should those Patrons that choose the Incumbent that shall have the Place and Tythes hinder any person from choosing to whom he will voluntarily trust the peculiar Pastoral care of his own Soul Nor should men be hindered from the publick or tolerated Ministry of such as they so choose § 29. IX Ordinations should be made after sufficient tryal of the Learning and Abilities of the Ordained in Preaching and Praying as well as upon a full testimony of his Pious and Upright Conversation and no Institution to a Title granted till the Parishioners have leave warning and time to know the man and shew their acceptance or dissent and be impartially heard § 30. X. Bishops should usually ordain in Synods or with their concurrence Or at least with such as the Synods choose to represent them § 31. XI Parish Churches must be acknowledged true Churches and the Presbyters to be Episcopi Gregis and the Incumbent that hath Curates to be Episcopus Praeses as well as the Diocesans to be General or Archbishops And Ordination by President Bishops not called Null or said to be no Episcopal Ordination But the corruption of the Ministry by unqualified men is so dangerous a thing that if the Supreme Power give the Diocesane a Negative power as of the Quorum without whom no Ordination shall entitle any man to any Benefice leaving Incumbents only to choose their own Curates and to concur with the Diocesan in other Ordinations there will be no just cause of refusing such Diocesans Power or Ordination § 32. XII An utterly insufficient heretical malignant ungodly scandalous Minister is not to be maintained nor tolerated and due means must be used to keep and cast such out § 33. XIII The purging of the Universities and the appropriating of their Government and Tutoring to Godly Wise and Conscionable men is one of the greatest points of necessary Reformation And till this be done no man should be forbidden to choose Godly careful Tutors for his Children in his house or elsewhere § 34. XIV The sad disaffection like enmity between the Ministry and the most Religious People must be healed which will be easily done in those Parishes where the Ministers Preach Judiciously Experimentally Spiritually and Powerfully and live Piously Charitibly Justly and Temperately and love good men and rebuke the wicked and put due difference between the precious and the vile those that serve God and those that serve him not those that swear and those that fear an Oath and make not the Church like the Commons or Wilderness And where the Diocesans are the encouragers of serious Godliness and duely rebuke the Enemies and neglecters of it and the vicious and profane I have never seen the place where such an exemplary worthy Ministry did not win the Hearts of the Nonconformists and became not very dear and amiable to them and usually drew them to Concord where before they differed § 35. But it must be a wise and godly King that must be the principal means to accomplish all this if ever it be done such a one that understandeth Gods Law and Interest and his own and Kingdoms real welfare may do that by good Laws and Prudent Government which shall be to parties of erroneous opinions a powerful byas to incline their Judgments to go right One man we may have more hope of making wise than of multitudes I had rather have a uniting settlement by the choice of a wise Prince and Parliament yea or of Diocesanes of Wisdom Piety and Peace than by the choice of any of the extreams whether Separatists or the Laudian New Church men that are for a Forreign Jurisdiction But through Gods great mercy the most of the Godly able Nonconformists Ministers falsly called Presbyterians of my acquaintance are so much for Truth and Peace and Concord that they would rejoice to live under such Bishops as were Nazianzene Basil Chrysostom Austin or such as Beadle Usher Downame tho an angry man Jewel Dr. Parker Grindal Pilkinton Sandies G. Abbot Rob. Abbot Hall Carlton Morton Davenant Brownrig and such like And are most Episcopal Nonconformists and would choose none but healing Terms § 36. And now what shall I gain by this Discourse I am sure of the censure of both the extreams And I expect that few should much regard what I have said but that scorners will scorn still and Fools hate Knowledge and that Lies carry on Murders and he that is the Father of both by both carries on his work in the World But great is the Truth and will prevail at last but whether on this side the new Heaven and Earth I know not § 37. I conclude with an earnest request to Godly peaceable men that they consider well before they speak against a National Church or for any above National under one humane Government and that they will read my old dispute of Church Government about Apostolick Successions with