Church This is it that I affirm and have already proved § 7. Nor yet is it any of our Question Whether the difference between these general unfixed Ministers and ordinary fixed Presbyters be in point of Authority or of exercise only Whether they are two distinct Species of the Ministry or but one of the same Office in Specie variously exercised I have given in my thoughts of this before so far as I can yet reach But if it be granted that some should ordinarily exercise their office generally and ambulatorily over many Churches as others ordinarily must exercise it fixedly in one particular Church I shall not contend whether they are to be called One Office or two nor yet whether the fixed Minister may not extraordinarily upon a special reason do the same work as the itinerant Minister in the same way But Ministers there must be for both these work § 8. And that some should make the general work before mentioned their ordinary business and not take the pastoral Charge of any particular Church I conceive besides the former proofs is further manifest 1. In that the work of Converting Unbelievers and bringing them into a fitness for Church Communion is the work that is to go first and is the greatest work It s the greatest in weight praecisively considered and as to the terminus à quo of the change that it effects and it is the greatest in regard of opposing difficulties the winning of a soul which rejoyceth Angels and rejoyceth Jesus Christ himself will have so much of Satans malice to oppose it and hath so much resistance in the heart of the sinner that it requireth the whole work in ordinary of those Ministers that are specially called hereunto § 9. And 2. Withall it commonly falls out that there are far greater numbers to be converted then to be Governed after Conversion If it be not so in some Countries where the face of God hath shined most effectually yet in others and in most it is even in the far greatest part of the world O how many millions of souls are there that perish for lack of knowledge and know not for want of teaching and never heard of Jesus Christ in any likely manner to prevail in all their lives Surely such multitudes of Miserable souls yea Nations require Ministers wholly set upon this work § 10. And 3. It ordinarily falls out too that the unconverted unbelieving part of the world do live at a great distance from the Churches of Christ and therefore the same man that is Pastor of a Church hath not opportunity to speak to them Or if they live in the same Country they seldom meet in greatest numbers in the same Assemblies And therefore when the Pastor is upon his own work it is requisite that there be some to speak to the rest § 11. And yet I doubt not but as there are hypocrites in most Churches and among us many that by their ignorance or impiety we have cause to judge to be yet no Christians are our Ordinary hearers so the Pastors of the Churches may and must endeavour their conversion and much suit their preaching to the condition of such souls But yet those millions that in other parts of the world and perhaps in Ireland Wales and the Highlands of Scotland too many such may be found that neither know what Christianity is nor are the Ordinary hearers of a fixed Ministry and live not within the reach of such should have a Converting Itinerant Ministry for themselves § 12. Moreover 4. The Pastoral work is it self so great and the charge that we take of particular Churches and our obligation to them so strict that it will usually it self take up the whole man and will not allow a Pastor time for the other work on those at a distance yet uncalled without neglecting the souls that he hath undertaken to oversee § 13. And 5. For want of such general Ministers the state of persons is in some places confounded and the world and the Church are thrust together as if there were no difference to be made Because there are no Ministers known but Pastors therefore there are no People known but as Christians where yet the very knowledge of Christianity is too rare Whereas if where numbers and distance make it necessary the preparing Ministry had first done their part it would have prevented much dangerous confusion and self-deceit that followeth hereupon in many places § 14. And 6. By the mistaken supposition that such generall or unfixed Ministers are ceased men have been drawn to set Lay-men upon the greatest and noblest work of the Ministry and a conceit is hence risen among some that because this is not proper to the Pastors of a Church therefore it is not a Ministerial work but the work of gifted Brethren And hereupon uncalled men are tempted to exercise it and by laying aside the officers appointed hereunto by Christ the burden is cast on the weakest men § 15. Yea 7. By this means many Ministers themselves understanding not the Nature and extent of their own Office when they do but preach to any that are not of the Church that they have charge of imagine that they preach but as meer Lay-men and if they preach for the Conversion of unbelievers they profess it to be no act of their office which is an act that hath more inconveniences then I shall now express § 16. And 8. Which is worst of all by supposing that no Ministers are now to be appointed for the Conversion of Infidels and gathering and planting Churches it is come to pass that the most necessary work in all the world is neglected cast off and almost quite unknown in the world except Mr. Eliots and a few with him in New England and some of the Jesuites and Fryars in the East-Indies and America who have been sent or have adventured themselves for the Converting of the Nations Were it but known and considered how much of the Will of Jesus Christ is to be fulfilled by this most blessed work Princes would have studied it and contributed their assistance and many would have been ready to have offered themselves to God for the work when now it is looked on as no part of our duty not only because that sluggishness and cowardize calleth it impossible and the adventure unreasonable but also because we think it was a work that was proper to Apostles and Evangelists and Ministers are now tyed to their proper flock And thus the poor unbelieving world is left in their sin § 17. And 9. I doubt by this mistake and neglect we forfeit the benefit of that special promise in too great a measure Mat. 28.20 and miss of that eminent assistance and presence of Christ with our Ministry that otherwise we might expect If we did go into the world and preach the Gospel to the Nations having used our industry first to learn their languages we might expect that Christ would alwayes be with us
with the Neighbour Ministers in Essex And I have had Letters from many of that way with whom I Correspond full of Christian Love and Piety and hatred of calumny and separations But verily I must tell you that when we find any of you in your writings and Sermons making it your work to vilifie the Ministry and with the Quakers to make them odious to the people and making your jeers and railing and uncharitableness the life of your Sermons we cannot but suspect that you are Popish Emissaries while we find you in their work or else that you are Malignant Enemies and of the sââpentine brood whose heads shall shortly be bruised by the Lord. 4. And if it be the disuse of your Common Prayer that you separate from us for I would know of you whâther you would have denyed Communion with all that lived before it had a being If this be your Religion I may ask you where was your Religion before Luther before King Edwards daies If you say in the Mass book and what else can you say I ask you then where was it before the Mass book had a being Would you have denyed Communion to the Apostles and all the Primitive Church for some hundreds of years that never used your Book of Common Prayer will you still make things indifferent necessary 2. One word to those of you that follow Grotius I have shewed that he professeth himself a Papist even in that Discussion which M r Pierce so magnifieth as excellent I hear Mr. Thorndike and others defend him and some think I injure him by calling him a Papist Wonderful what will not be a Controversie among learned men Are we faln among such that deny him to be a Papist that professeth expresly to be satisfied if evil manners be but corrected and school-opinions not imposed which are contrary to Tradition and all Councils and that professeth to own the Creed and Council of Trent and all the Popish Councils whatsoever and the Mistriship of Rome and the Catholick Mastership of the Pope governing the Catholick Church according to these Councils What is a Papist if this be none I refer you to my Evidence in the Discovery of the Grotian Religion and the first Chap. of the second Part of my Catholick Key replying to Mr. Pierce Confute it rationally if you can I shall now only desire you when you have read Rivet to read a Book called Grotius Papizans and to hearken to the testimony of an honest learned Senator of Paris that admired Grotius and tells you what he is from his own mouth and that is Claud. Sarravius who saith in his Epistol pag. 52 53. ad Gronov. De ejus libro libello postremis interrogatus respondit plane Milleterio Consona Romanam fidem esse veram sinceram solosqâe Clericorum mores degeneres schismati dedisse locum adferebatque plura in hanc sententiam Quid dicam Merito quod falso olim Paulo Agrippa ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Deploro veris lachrymis tantam jacturam Here you have a credible witness that from his own mouth reporteth it that our Reformation was to Grotius a schism and nothing but the ill manners of the Clergy gave us the opportunity And pag. 190. Epist. ad Salmas Vis ergo me exerte dicere quid sentiam de postremo Grotii libro an omnia mihi in eo probentur Rem rogas non magnam nec adeo difficilem quemque expedire promptum est Tantum abest ut omnia probem ut vix aliquid in eo reperiam cui sine conditione calculum apponam meum Verissime dixit ille qui primus dixit Grotium Papizare Vix tamen in isto scripto aliquid legi quod mirarer quodve ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã occurreret Nunquid enim omnes istiusmodi ejusdem authoris lucubrationes erga Papistarum errores perpetuam ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã erga Jesuitas amorem erga nos plus quam Vatinianum odium produnt clamant In Voto quod ejus nomen praeferebat an veritus est haec ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã profiteri Had none of you owned Grotius his Popery I would never have charged it on you But when Grotius himself glorieth of his adherents in England and so many of you plainly defend him and profess your owning of those books and those doctrines in which his Popery is contained if ever Popery were known in the world I must then crave your pardon if I think somewhat the worse of Popery because they that hold it are ashamed of it For I abhor that Religion which a man hath cause to be ashamed of and will not save him from being a loser by it that owneth it and standeth to it to the last And I think that man hath no Religion who hath none which he will openly profess and stand to I have at this time but these few requests to make to you which I beseech you to answer without partiality 1. That you will seriously consider whether it be truly Catholick to unchurch us and so many Churches of Christ as are of our mind as your partakers do Because Catholicism is your pretense consider whether you be not further from it then most people in the world 2. Because I conceive this Book is not suited to your great objections I desire your perusal of another that comes out with it called A Key for Catholicks especially the second Part and if you cannot answer them take heed how you continue Papists 3. While you hold us for no Ministers or Churches or Capable of your Communion it is in vain for us to hope for Communion with you but we desire that you will consider of those terms of a more distant sort of Communion which there I have propounded in the End of the first and second Part and deny us not that much 4. At least we beseech you that while you are Papists you will deal openly and no worse with us then sober Papists that speak according to their Consciences use to do Do not let it as the Lord Falkland speaks be in the Power of so much per annum nor of your factious interest to keep you from professing your selves to be what you are and do not make the Protestant name a meer cloak to secure you in the opposing of the Protestant Cause and follow not the example of Spalatensis and the Counsel of Campian and Parsons in feigning a sort of Doctrinal Puritans and railing at Protestants under that name Deal with us but as sober Papists do and we shall take it thankfully How highly doth Bodin a Learned Papist extol the Presbyterian Discipline at Genevah from its effects when among many of you it hath as odious titles as if it were some blasphemous damning thing What sober Papist would talk as Mr. Pierce doth p. 30. of the great abomination of the Presbyterian Directory and not be able to name one thing in it that is abominable Is it a great
Councils since Scripture times at least there have beeen no such things nor any thing like them unless the Roman Empire yea a piece of it be the whole world I know therfore no humane Vniversal Laws whether it be for forms of Government Liturgies Holy dayes or any thing else Sect. 14. But the principal matter that tends to end our dâfference is the right understanding of the Nature of that Government that is properly Ecclesiastical What is it that we must have Diocesans and Metropolitans to do besides what I have granted to Apostolical Bishops in the third Dispute Is it to Teach or Rule the people of the particular Churches They cannot do it at so great distance not knowing them nor conversing with them at least so well as they that are on the place as the ancient Bishops were Is it to Rule the Presbyters only Why then hath not every Church a Bishop to Rule the flock but a Presbyter that is forbidden to Rule them in all that which they call Iurisdiction themselves And how is it that Presbyters shall be Ruled by Diocesans and the Diocesans by Provincials not by force For the Pastors have no coercive power by violence or touching mens bodies or estates Is it by bare commanding Why what will that do on dissenters that disobey shall they depose the Bishops or Presbyters that disobey them But how Not by any force but command or exhortation or Excommunication They can do no more that I know of And what if they excommunicate a Pastor Let the case be supposed as now it is among us What if a Bishop with the few that adhere to him excommunicated all the Pastors in the County that are not satisfied of the Divine Right of Diocesans or of the lawfulness of all his imposed Ceremonies and Forms The people will take it to be their duty most generally where the Ministry hath been savingly effectual to own their Pastors notwithstanding such an Excommunication and the Pastors will take it to be their duty to go on with their work and the excommunication will do no good unless perhaps to make some Division and make both parties the scorn of the ungodly or procure the rabble to rail more bitterly at their Pastors and hate all their advice be a desireable good And as when the Pope excommunicated them some Bishops again excommunicated the Pope so some of these Pastors its like would excommunicate their Metropolitans And why a Bishop or at least a Synod of Bishops may not cast a wicked Metropolitan out of their communion is past my understanding to conceive Synods are for Communion of Churches and if we had a Monarchical National Church in conformity to the Common-wealth I know not how it would stand with the Law of God for the whole Nation to hold Communion with an Heretical Primate A Roman Synod deposed John the thirteenth and other Popes have been deposed by Councils I conclude therefore that what ever power men claim if the Magistate interpose not which is extrinsick to the Church-Government in question it will work but on mens Judgements call it Deposing Excommunicating or what you please and this power no man can take from you but by hindring you to speak You may now depose thus and excommunicate whom you please and when they have sleighted it or excommunicated you again you will have done Nay I think you do excommunicate us already For you withdraw from our Communion and draw many with you and so you exercise your power I mean it of that party that in the second Disputation I have to do with Sect 15. Much of my Opposition to the English Prelacy dependeth on the supposition that they took all the people and not only the Presbyters for the objects of their Government or for their charge And I find some of the younger sort that are sprung up since their fall do doubt of this But 1. all men in England that knew but twenty year ago what belonged to these matters are past doubt of it And I have no mind to dispute against them that contradict the common knowledge of the Nation as if they should doubt whether we had ever a King in England 2. Read over the Canons and the yearly Visitation Articles which the Church-wardens ordinarily sware to present by before they had ever read the Book or heard what was in it and then judge 3. Their arguing for the sole Iurisdiction of Bishops and that they only were properly Pastors and that Presbyters had not the Key of Discipline but of Doctrine is some evidence 4. It is known to the Nation that the Pastors of the Parish Churches had no power by their Laws or sufferance to cast out any the most enormous sinner or Heretick from the Church nor to bring them to open confession of their sin nor to Absolve the penitent but by Reading of their Sentence and publishing what they sent from their Courts and consequently could do nothing of all the means in order hereto For the means cannot be used where the end is known to be impossible All the obstinate scandalous persons and scorners at a holy life we must take as members of our Churches having no power to cast them out Indeed we had the same power as the Church-wardens to put our names to their presentments But a power of accusing to a Chancellors Court is not a Power of Governing especially when Piety under the name of Preciseness and Puritanism was so hated and persecuted that to have accused a man for meer prophaness would have been so far from obtaining the end as that it was like to have been the undoing of the accuser except he had been out of the suspicion of Preciseness as they called it himself But I need not dispute the with any but those that being bred iâ better times though far from what we desire are unacquainted with the casâ of their Predecessor Sect. 16. Object But do you not contradict your self in saying the Pastors were degraded or suspended as to the exercise of so great a part of their work and yet say here Pref. to the Reformed Pastor that the Power of Discipline was given them Answ. 1. In their Ordination the Bishops said to them Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou dost remit they are remitted whose sins thou dost retain they are detained And in the Book of Ordination it was asked of them Whether they would give their faithful diligence always to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same according to the Commandements of God And the Rubrick of the Common Prayer Book enableth the Curate to admonish open and notorious evil livers by whom the Congregation is offended and those that have wronged their neighbors that they come not till they have openly declared that they have repented and amended But 1. This doth but serve to leave them unexcusable that acknowledged Discipline to
of any other Church Congregation or Elders De facto this is plainly yielded Well this much being yielded and we having come so far to an agreement about the actual Church Constitution and Government of the Scripture times we desire to know some sufficient reason why we in these times may not take up with thaâ Government and Church order which was practised in the Scripture times And the Reason that is brought against it is this Because it was the Apostles intention that this single Bishop who in Scripture times had but one Congregation and Governed no Presbyters should after Scripture times have many settled Congregations and their Presbyters under them and should have the power of ordaining them c. To this I answer 1. The Intentions of mens hearts are secret till they are some way revealed No man of this age doth know the Apostles hearts but by some sign what then is the revelation that Proveth this Intention Either it must be some Word or Deed. For the first I cannot yet find any colour of proof which they bring from any word of the Apostles where either they give power to this Presbyter or Bishop to Rule over many Presbyters and Congregations for the future Nor yet where they do so much as foretell that so it shall be As for those of Paul to Timothy and Titus that theâ rebuke not an Elder and receive not accusation against them but under two or three Witnesses the Reverend Author affirmeth that those Eâders were not Presbyters under such Bishops as we now speak of but those Bishops themselves whom Timothy and Titus might rebuke And for meer facts without Scripture words theâe is none that can prove this pretended Intention of the Apostles First there is no fact of the Apostles themselves or the Churches or Pastors in Scripture time to prove it For Subordinate Presbyters are confessed not to be then ânstituted and so not existent and other fact of theirs there can be none And no fact after them can prove it Yet this is the great Argument that most insist on that the practice of the Church after Scripture times doth prove that Intention of the âpâstles which Scripture doth not for ought is yet proved by them that I can find at all express But we deny that and require pâooâ of it It is not bare saying so that will serve Is it not possible for the succeeding Bishops to err and mistake the Apostles Intentions If not then are they Infallible as well as the Apostles which is not true They might sin in going from the Institution And their sin will not prove that the Apostles intended it should be so de jure because their followers did so de facto If they say that it is not likely that all the Churches should so suddenly be ignorant of the Apostles Intention I answer 1. We must not build our faith and practice on Conjectures Such a saying as this is no proof of Apostolical intentions to warrant us to swerve from the sole practised Government in Scripture times 2. There is no great likelihood that I can discern that this first practised Government was altered by those that knew the Apostles and upon supposition that these which are pretended were their intents 3. If it were so yet is it not impossible nor very improbable that through humane frailty they might be drawn to conjecture that that was the Apostles intents which seemed right in thier eyes and suited their present judgements and interests 4. Sure we are that the Scripture is the perfect Law and Rule to the Church for the Establishing of all necessary Offices and Ordinances and therefore if there be no such intentions or Institutions of the Apostles mentioned in the Scripture we may not set up universally such Offices and Ordinances on any such supposed intents De facto we seem agreed that the Apostles settled One Pastor over one Congregation having no Presbyters under his Rule and that there were no other in Scripture time but shortly after when Christians were multiplied and the most of the Cities where the Churches were planted were converted to the faith together with the Country round about then there were many Congregations and many Pastors and the Pastor of the first Church in the City did take all the other Churches and Pastors to be under his Government calling them Presbyters only and himself eminently or only the Bishop Now the Question between us is Whether this was well done or not Whether these Pastors should not rather have gathered Churches as free as their own Whether the âhristians that were afterward converted should not have combined for holy Communion themselves in particular distinct âhurches and have had their own Pastors set over them as the first Churches by the Apostles had They that deny it and Justifie their fact have nothing that we can see for it but an ungrounded surmise that it was the Apostles meaning that the first Bishops should so do But we have the Apostles express Institution and the Churches practise during Scripture times for the other way We doubt not but Christians in the beginning were thin and that the Apostles therefore preached most and planted Churches in Cities because they were the most populous places where was most matter to work upon and most disciples were there and that the Country round about did afford them here and there a family which joyned to the City Church Much like as it is now among us with the Anabaptists and Separatists who are famed to be so Numerous and potent through the Land and yet I do not think that in all this County there is so many in Number of either of these sects as the tenth part of the people of this one Parish nor perhaps as the twentieth part Now if all the Anabaptists in Worcestershire or at least that lived so neer as to be capable of Church communion should be of Mr. T 's Congregation at Bewdley or of a Church that met in the chief City Worcester yet doth not this intimate that all the space of ground in this County is appointed or intended for the future as Mr. T 's Diocess but if the successive Pastor should claim the whole County as his charge if the whole were turned to that opinion no doubt but they would much cross their founders mind And if the comparison may be tolerated we see great reason to conceive that the Ancient Bishops did thus cross the Apostles minds When there were no more Christians in a City and the adjoyning parts then half some of our Parishes the Apostles planted fixed Governours called Bishops or Elders over these particlar Churches which had constant communion in the worship of God And when the Cities and Countreyes were converted to the faith the frailty of ambition co-working thereto these Bishops did claim all that space of ground for their Diocess where the members of their Church had lived before as if Churches were to be measured by the
no necessiây and the Non-necessity is but preâended First it is preâeââed that there were so few fit men that there was a Necessity of forbâarance But this is not so For 1. The Church had larger gifts of the Spirit then then now and therefore proportionable to the flocks they might have had competent men then as well as now 2. They had men enough to make Deacons of even sâven in a ãâã And who will believe then that they could find none to make such Elders of Was not Stephen or Philip sufficiently qualified to have been a subject Elder 3. They had many that prophesied and interpreted and spake with tongues in one Assembly as appears 1 Cor. 14. And therefore its manâfâst that there were enough to have made Ruled Elders At least sure the Church at Ierusalem where there were so many thousands would have afforded them one such if it had been requisite But secondly its pretended not to have been Necessary because of the fewness of the people But I answer 1. The same persons say that in Ignatius his time all Churches had such Presbyters And its manifest that many Churches in the Scripture times were more populous or large then many or most beside them were in Ignatius time 2. Did the numerous Church at Ierusalem ordinarily meet on the Lords dayes for holy communion or not If they did then it was but a Church of one Congregation which is by most denyed If not then the several Assemblies must have several Presbyters for several Bishops they will not hear of Doubtless they did not celebrate the holy communion of the Church and Ordinances of God by meer Lay-men alone 3. What man that knows the burden of Pastoral Oversight can say that such Churches of thousands as Ierusalem Rome Alexandria c. had need of no more than one man to Teach them and do all the Pastoral work and so that assisting Ruled Presbyters were then needless If they were needless to such numerous Churches then let us even take them for needless still and set up no new orders which were not seen in Scripture times Reas. 8. The Apostles left it not to the Beshops whom they established to make new Church-offices and orders quoad speciem but only to ordain men to succeed others in the offices and orders that themselves had by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost appointed or else Christ before them A Bishop might make a Bishop or a Deacon perhaps because these were quoad speciem made before and they were but to put others into the places before appointed But if there were no such creature in Scripture times as a subject Presbyter that had no power of Ordination and Jurisdiction then if the Bishops afterward should make such they must make a new office as well as a new officer So that either this new Presbyter is of the institution of Christ by his Apostles or of Episcopal humane institution If the former and yet not institututed in Scripture times then Scripture is not the sufficient rule and discoverer of Divine Institutions and Church Ordinances and if we once forsake that Rule we know not where to fix but must wander in that Romane uncertainty If the latter then we must expect some better proof then hitherto we have seen of the Episcopall or any humane power to make new Offices in the Church of Christ and that of universal and standing necessity Till then we shall think they ought to have made but such Presbyters as themselves Reason 9. If there be not so much as the name of a Ruled Presbyter without power of Ordination or Iurisdiction in all the Scripture much less then is there any description of his Office or any Directions for his ordination or the qualifications prerequisit in him and the performance of his office when he is in it And if there be no such Directory concerning Presbyters then was it not the Apostles intent that ever any such should be ordained The reason of the consequence is 1. Because the Scripture was written not only for that age then in being but for the Church of all ages to the end of the world And therefore it must be a sufficient directory for all The second Epistle to Timothy was written but a little before Pauls death Surely if the Churches in Ignatius daies were all in need of Presbyters under Bishops Paul might well have seen some need in his time or have foreseen the need that was so neer and so have given directions for that office 2. And the rather is this consequence firm because Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus doth give such full and punctual Directions concerning the other Church-officers not only the Bishops but also the Deacons describing their prerequisite qualifications their office and directing for their Ordination and conversation Yea he condescendeth to give such large Directions concerning Widows themselves that were serviceable to the Church Now is it probable that a perfect Directory written for the Church to the worlds End largely describing the qualifications and office of Deacons which is the inferiour would not give one word of direction concerning subject Presbyters without power of Ordination or Rule if any such had been then intended for the âhurch No nor once so much as name them I dare not accuse Pauls Epistles written to that very purpose and the whole Scripture so much of insufficiency as to think they wholly omit a necessary office and so exactly mention the inferiour and commonly less necessary as they do Reason 10. The new Episcopal Divines do yield that all the texts in Timothy Titus and the rest of the New Testament that mentitn Gospel Bishops or Presbyters do mean only such as have power of Ordination and Iurisdiction without the concurrence of any superiour Bishop The common Inerpretation of the Fathers and the old Episcopal Divines of all ages of most or many of those texts is that they speak of the office of such as now are called Presbyters Lay both together and if one of them be not mistaken they afford us this conclusion that the Presbyters that now are have by these texts of Scripture the power of Ordination and Iurisdiction without the concurrence of others And if so then was it never the Apostles intent to leave it to the Bishops to ordain a sort of Presbyters of another order that should have no such power of Ordination or Jurisdiction without the Bishops Negative Reason 11. We find in Church History that it was first in some few great Cities especially Rome and Alexandria that a Bishop ruled many settled worshipping Congregations with their Presbyters when no such thing at that time can be proved by other Churches therefore we may well conceive that it was no Ordinance of the Apostles but was occasioned afterwards by the multiplying of Christians in the same compass of ground where the old Church did inhabite and the adjacent parts together with the humane frailty of the
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 wiâh 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
much with Christian comfort when you cannot say that you are sent of God and have nothing but your own overweening conceits of it Could you but say I entered by the way that God appointed and was not my own Judge you might have some more boldness and confidence of Gods assistance Sect. 34. Reas. 18. The most that plead against Ordination that are worthy the name of sober Christians do plead but against the Necessity of it and cannot deny it to be lawful and should not all the reasons before mentioned prevail with you to submit to a lawful thing Sect. 35. Reas. 19. And if it be thus undenyable that men must not be their own Judges it will soon appear that Ministers are the standing Judges of mens fitness for this work because no other Judges are appointed to it or capable of it It must be an ordinary stated way of Approbation that can give us satisfaction for if God had left the case at large for men to go to whom they will it would be all one as to go to none at all but to be Judges themselves And if a standing way of Approbation must be acknowledged let us enquire where it is to be found and look which way you will and you shall find no other but this which is by men of the same Calling with them that are to be Ordained Sect. 36. For 1. Magistrates it cannot be none that I know pretend to that Magistrates in most of the world are Infiâels and therefore cannot there be Ordainers and none of them hath the work committed to them by Christ nor do any that I know assume it to themselves Sect. 37. And 2. The people it cannot be For 1. No man can shew a word of precept or example for it nor prove that ever God did give them such a power Consent or Election is all that can be pretended to by them 2. It is a work that they are commonly unable for the Schollars may as well Try and Approve of their Schoolmaster We confess the People must by a judgement of discretion endeavour to find out the best they can but if they had not helps and if they were also called to a judgement of direction and decision what work would they make Do the Major vote or the Minor either in most or almost any Congregations understand whether a man know the meaning of the Scripture or to be able to defend the truth or whether he be Heretical or found in the faith c. God would not set men on a work that is thus beyond the line of their Capacity It is a thing not to be imagined that they that call us to be their Teachers should already be commonây able to Judge whether we are sound or unsound and able to teach them or not for this importeth that they know already as much as we for wherein they are ignorant they cannot judge of us And if they know as much already what need have they of our Teaching 3. And it is contrary to the subjection and inferiority of their Relation they that are commanded to learn and obey us as their Guides may yet consent or choose their Teachers when Approved or to be Approved by abler men but they cannot be imagined to be appointed by God to Ordain their own Overseers this is a most ungrounded fiction Sect. 38. Reas. 20. On the other side it is the Pastors of the Church and only they that are fitted to be the standing Approvers or Ordainers as will appear in these particulars 1. It is they that are justly supposed to be of competent abilities to try a Minister If here and there a Gentleman or other person be able that is a rarity and therefore no standing way for the Church in Ordaining Ministers can be gathered thence 2. Ministers are doubly devoted to God and to his Church and therefore should have and ordinarily have the tenderest care of the Church 3. It is justly supposed that Ministers are ordinarily the most pious and conscionable men that are to be had or els they are too blame that choose them to be Ministers And therefore they may be expected to be most faithful in the work 4. And they are fewer and have lesser perverting interests and therefore are like to be less divided in such determinations then the people that are so many and of so many interests and minds that if it were not for the Moderation of Magistrates and Ministers they would almost everywhere be all to pieces one being for one man and another for another some for one of this mind and way and some for one of another some for the Orthodox and some for the Heretical 5. Lastly it is Ministers whose Office God hath tyed Ordination to and who have time to wait upon it as their duty so that lay all this together and I think the first Proposition is proved for the Necessity ordinarily of the Pastors Approbation and the sinfulness of neglecting it Sect. 39. Prop. 2. It is only the Pastors of one particular Church but also the Pastors of Neighbour chuâches that hold Communion with that Church that should regularly Approve or Ordain Ministers though I deny not but he may be a Minister that hath no Ordination but by the Pastors of a particular Church yet I conceive that this is not a regular course Sect. 40. My reasons are these 1. Because if it be ordinarily tyed to the Pastors of the same Church only to Ordain then it will be done ordinarily without any Pastors at all For most particular Churches in the world have but one Pastor and when he is dead there is none left to Ordain and therefore others or none must do it in such cases Sect. 41. And 2. If there be one left and all the power be left in him the welfare of the Church would run too great an hazzard if every man shall be Ordained a Minister that can procure the Approbation of a single Pastor the Church will be subjected to most of the lamentable miseries before mentioned supposing that men were judges for themselves Sect. 42. And 3. We find in Scripture that it was not the way appointed by the Holy Ghost for single Pastors to Ordain The forecited Texts and examples are a sufficient proof Sect. 43. If any say that the Ruling Elders may concur I answer Though I make no great matter of it nor would not raise a contention about it yet I must say that I never yet saw any satisfactory proof that ever God did institute such Elders as this Objection meaneth in the Church that is 1. Such as are not Ordained but come in by meer Election 2. And such as have the Power of Discipline and Oversight without Authority to preach or administer the Sacraments I think these are but humane creatures though I doubt not but there may be such as Actually shall forbear preaching and administration of the Sacraments when some of their colleagus are fitter for it Sect. 44.
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 Annâversary 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
between you and your Brethren for so they are is too much known to friends and foes at home and abroad and too much daily manifested by each side Shall it still continue or would you have it healed If it must continue tell us how long and tell us why Would you have it go with us to Eternity and will you not be reconciled nor dwell with us in Heaven It is not in your Power to shut us out And will you not be there if we be there Or do you think there will be any Discord where Love is Perfected and we are One in God If you can be content to be saved with us and believe that all of both Opinions that truly love and fear the Lord shall live there in dearest Love for ever how can you chuse when you forethink of this but Love them now that you must for ever Love and long to be reconciled to them with whom you must there so harmoniously accord You know that Earth is our preparation for Heaven and such as men would be there they must begin to be here As they must be Holy here that ever will there see the Lord in Holiness so must they here be Loving and Peaceable that ever will live in that perfect heavenly Love and Peace And why is it that the distance must be so great Are we not all the Children of one Father Have we not all the same God the same Redeemer the same Spirit in us if we are Christians indeed Rom. 8.9 Are we not in the same Baptismal Covenant with God Have we not the same holy Scripture for our Rule and are we not in the same universal Church and of the same Religion some of you say No to the grief of your friends and the shame of your own understandings and uncharitableness I beseech you bear it if I touch the sore For my work is Healing and therefore though it Must be touch't it shall be as gently as the case will bear If I may judge by such as I have had any opportunity to know I must say that the distance on your part is continued in some by confused apprehensions of the case and not distinguishing things that differ In some by discontents of mind and too deep a sense of worldly losses and the things that you take as injuries from others In some by the advantage of a co-interest and consociation with those Divines that are of your way and so by a Willingness to think them in the right and those in the wrong that you take for adversaries In some by a stiffness and stoutâess of disposition that cals it Constancy to hold your own and Manliness not to stoop to others and takes it as dishonourable to seek for Peace even in Religion with your supposed adversaries or to yield to it at least without much importunity With too many miserable souls it is meer ungodliness and enmity to that way of Piety that in many that you differ from appears And in the best of you it is a Remissness of Charity and want of Zeal for the Churches Peace and the Love and Vnity of Brethren To confute the reasonings of all these sorts would draw out this Preface to too great a length The first sort my experience hath caused me to observe Oft have I faln into company with men that pour forth bitter odious words against Presbyterie and I ask them what that Presbyterie is that they speak of with so much abomination Is it the Name or the Thing which they so abhor If the Name is it not a term of Scripture used by the Holy Ghost 1 Tim. 4.14 Are not the Pastors of the Church most frequently called the Presbyters or Elders Tit. 1.5 Act. 14.23 15.2 4 6 22 23. 1 Tim. 5.17 Act. 20.17 James 5.14 1 Pet. 5.1 c. It must needs then be the Thing and not the Name which they abominate And what is that Thing most of them cannot tell me Some presently talk of the disuse of the Common Prayer as if that were a part of Presbyterie and Government and the form of worship were all one Some presently run to Scotland and talk of forcing men to Confession of sin and of their secular enforcement of their Excommunications But 1. If this be odious why was it used by the Bishops Is it good in them and bad in others 2. And why plead you for Discipline and against Toleration if you so loath the things you plead for 3. But will you not when it s known so openly distinguish the Ministerial Power from the secular It s known by their Laws and constant Practice that all the Power that was exercised by Violence on Body or Estate by the Assemblies was derived from the Magistrate whose Commissioners also sate among them And the Bishops in England were seconded by the Sword as much as they It s known that the Presbyterians commonly maintain in their Writings that Pastors have no Coercive or Secular Power but only the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to exercise on the Conscience committed to them by Christ. 4. And the writings and practice of those in England openly manifest it and its them with whom you have most to do Some tell me that Presbyterie is the Government of the Church without Bishops And is it only the Negation of your Prelacy that is the odious thing Is there nothing Positive odious in Presbyterie Thus our Belief is condemned by the Papists even because we Believe not so much as they when in the Positives of our Faith there is nothing that they can blame Some make it the odious thing that they have Lay-Elders But 1. The Presbyterians account them not Lay but Ecclesiasticks 2. And what is the Odious harm that these men do among them They are present and Consent to the admonishing and censuring of offendors And what great harm doth that to the Church Is it because they do not Preach No sure in that your Readers are much like them What work can you Name that these Elders are appointed to that by your Confession is not to be done It is not the Work then that you blame but that these men do it 3. But what is this to all that are in this point of your mind and think that unordained Elders wanting Power to preach or administer the Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of Gods appointment As far as I can understand the greater part if not three for one of the English Ministers that you stand at a distance from are of this mind and so far against Lay-Elders as well as you of whom I confess my self to be One. and that M r Vines was One I have shewed you in the End Surely then all we are none of the odious Presbyterians in your eyes Why then is there such a distance And are Lay-Elders as bad as Lay-Chancellors So also when some have been hotly condemning us as being against Bishops I ask them what a Bishop is and what
do say so and confess it most infirm and give place to them But if yours have most Authority from Christ and spiritual force upon the Conscience exercise it and let us see it by experience or else expect not that any should believe you or take you to be resolute servants of Christ and true to your Ministry But perhaps you will say that you cannot have Communion with us because we are schismaticks For so much B p Usher himself doth seem to charge us with To which I answer 1. B p Usher chargeth none with Schism but those that cast off Bishops to whom they had sworn obedience But if I may judge of other Counties by this there are so few of those that they can afford you no pretence of scruple against the Communion of our Assemblies I know not to my remembrance of one Minister in this County liable to this charge but most never swore to them and the rest had no hand in their exclusion 2. Whoever among us did either swear to or disobey such Bishops as Bishop Usher there assureth us were the Bishops of the antient Churches If they set up another intolerable sort in stead of the Bishops which he himself requireth judge whether it were a greater sin to swear to them or to disobey them 3. And the schism which he mentioneth is not such in his own judgement as makes men uncaple of your Communion This pretence therefore is frivolous Especially considering that most of us have no Prelates that so much as claim a Government over us In this County since B p Prideaux died who was one of the ancient moderate sort we know of none that ever made a pretence to the place And are we schismaticks for not obeying a Bishop when we have none And surely none can justly lay a claim to such a superiority even according to the ancient Canons unless he be first chosen by our selves yea and the people as a Reverend Bishop I hope yet living of the ancient sort hath told you Morton Apolog. Cathol Part. 1. cap. 85. p. 257. Bellarmine himself confessing that ut Clerus populus Episcopumeligeret hic modus fuit in usu tempore Chrysostomi Ambrosii Augustini Leonis Gregorii Bellarm. l. 1. de Clericis cap. 9. And other of our Bishops say the same I conclude therefore that we are not only of one faith and Church wâth you but differ so little in our opinions about lower things that you can thence have no pretence for an alienation And therefore with those of you that are godly and peaceable I take it for granted that we are actually agreed But if any will sacrifice the Churches Peace their Charity their souls to their parties or passions and discontents I leave them to God and to the reading of other kind of Books that tend to change an unrenewed mind II. And to those of you that follow the newer strain of Prelatical Divines I shall adventure a few words how small soever the probability is of their success And 1. To those of you that are not departed from the Communion of all Protestants nor gone with Grotius over to the Romanists I beseech you as before the Lord proceed not in your bitterness uncharitableness or separation from your Brethren nor your hindering the work of God in their ministration till you are able to produce such solid grounds for what you do as you dare stand to at last before the Iudgement-seat of Christ. 1. Some of you charge us with no less then Heresie as following Aerius in the rejecting of Bishops or equalizing Presbyters with them and can you hold communion with Hereticks I answer 1. All is not heresie that every angry man hath called so no not of the venerable Ancients Do you indeed take your Dignity and preheminence to be an Article of our Faith Why then was it never in the Creed 2. Many among us are for Episcopacy that are not for your sort of Prelacy It is that species that our Controversie is about 3. I shall answer you in the words of our Reverend Morton a Prelate though not of the New strain Apolog. Cathol Par. 1. cap. 33. pag. 96 97. who answereth the Papists that use against us the same objection Non de differentia omni sed de differentia Ordinis seu Potestate Ordinandi NB quaestio est instituenda Adversar Aerius haereticus ordinis differentiam negabat esse jure divino idem Protestantes Resp. Quod idem forte sanctus Hieronymus nec aliud Patres alii asseverarunt hoc scholae vestrae Doctor primarius non ita pridem facile largiebatur Mich. Medina lib. 1. de sac orig affirmat non modo S. Hieronymum idem in hoc cum Aerianis haereticis sensisse verum etiam Ambrosium Augustinum Sedulium Primasium Chrysostomum Theodoretum Oecumenium Theophylactum Bellarm. lib. 4. de Eccles. milit c. 9. Ita inquit Valent. Jesuit Tom. 4. disp 9. qu. 1. punct 2. isti viri alioqui sanctissimi orthodoxi At inquit id ibid. non est tolerabilis haec responsio Probabo vero hoc non modo ferendum sed etiam omnibus aliis responsis praeferendum esse Advocatus Erasmus Annot. in 1 Tim. 4. Antiquitas inter Praesbyterum Episcopum nihil intererat ut testatur Hieronymus Sed post propter schisma à multis delectus est Episcopus quotquot Presbyteri totidem erant Episcopi Tua Erasme apud Jesuitas sordet authoritas but not with you that I write to Advocat Alphonsus à Castro advers haeres tit Episcop Hieronymus in ea opinione fuit ut crederet Episcopum Presbyterum ejusdem esse ordinis authoritatis Ecce etiam alterum Bellarm. lib. 1. de Rom. Pontif. c. 8. Videtur REVERA Hieronymus in ea opinione fuisse An ille solus Anselmus Sedulius opinionem suam ad Hieronymi sententiam accommodarunt Quam eandem sententiam Medina vester Patribus pariter omnibus tribuit Quid ex his inquies ostendam si cognovissent Patres hanc in Aereo haeresin damnatam esse tantum abest ut ei errori verbis suffragari viderentur ut potius in contrarium errorem abriperentur si non cognoverunt hanc opinionem in Aereo damnatam cur vos eam hoc nomine in Protestantibus damnandam esse contenditis Cassander lib. consult art 14. An Episcopatus inter Ordines Ecclesiasticos ponendus sit inter Theologos Canonistas non convenit convenit autem inter OMNES in Apostolorum aetate inter Episcopos Presbyteros NULLUM DISCRIMEN fuisse sed postmodum Schismatis evitandi Causa Episcopum Presbyteris fuisse praepositum cui Chirotonia id est Ordinandi potestas concessa est If you will not keep company with Reverend Morton I pray you go not beyond these Moderate Papists 2. But you say that at least we are Schismaticks and you must not hold Communion with schism And how are we proved Schismaticks Why 1. Because we have cast off Bishops 2.
there was no Presbyter existent but himself as is here confessed So in the following words the same Learned Dr. further proveth from Antiquity that one part of the Bishops office is set down that they are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã those that visit all the sick Let us have such Bishops as can and will do this and our Controversie will soon be at an end about Episcopacy Were it not that I have spoken of these things afterwards and fear being tedious I should have shewed that 7. Baptizing 8. Congregating the Assemblies 9. Administring the Lords Supper 10. Guiding the Assembly in the whole publick worship 11. Blessing the people at the dismission and 12. Absolving the penitent and more then all these were the works of the ancient Episcopal function And now I leave it to the Conscience of any man that hath a grain of Conscience left him whether one man be able were he never so willing to do any one of all these duties much less to do all of them for many hundred Parishes Can a Bishop teach them all and Catechise ând confer with all and counsail and comfort and admonish all and Govern all and try all cases of every scandalous impenitent person of so many thousand and Censure and Absolve and Confirm and Try them for Confirmation and receive all the Churches stock and be the Overseer of all the poor and take care of all the Orphans and Widdows and visit counsail and pray with all the sick and guide every Congregation in publick worship and give the Sacrament to all and pronounce the Blessing in every Assembly c. and this for a whole County or more O wonderful that ever this should become a Controversie among men that vilifie others as unlearned and unwise in comparison of them I must lay by respect to man so far as plainly to profess that I take these for such errors as must need proceed from want of Piety and Conscience and practice of the duties that are pleaded for If these men did not talk of Governing a Church as those talk of Governing a Navy an Army or a Commonwealth that never set their hand to the work it is not possible sure that they should thus err O how many Bishops never tryed what it is to Govern the Church or faithfully perform any one of all these works I solemnly profess that with the help of three more fellow Presbyters and three or four Deacons besides the greater help of abundance of Godly people here in their places I am not able to do all this as it should be done for this one Parish And yât the greatest part of our trouble is taken off by the refusal of the multitude of the ungodly to come under Discipline or be members of our Pastoral charge Sirs these are not scholastick speculations The everlasting Ioy or Torment of our people lyeth upon the successful performance of these works as we that are Christians verily believe And therefore to Dispute whether One man should do all this for a Diocess is all one as to Dispute whether it shall all be undone or no and that is whether we shall give up our Countries to the Devâl or no And shall the Prelatical Controversie come to this You have no way to avoid it but by Delegating your power to others and casting your work upon them But you confess that this was never done in Scripture-times there being then no Subject Pesbyters to whom it might be committed And by what authority then can you do it Can Episcopacy be transferred by Deputation to another This is long ago confuted by many writers Popish and Protestant Do the work by another and you shall have your wages by another And what is your Office but your Authority and Obligation to do your work He therefore that you commit this to is a Bishop So that this is but to make us Deputy Bishops And if so let us call them Bishops I have read many of your writers of late that say we have no Government and saith one of them the Presbyterian Government was never yet set up in any one Parish in England These are strange things to be reported to English men Perswade the world next that no man in England hath a nose on his face Is it not known that the Presbyterian Government hath been exercised in London in Lancashire and in many Counties these many years And what Government is it that you think we want The people are guided in the matters of God by their several Pastors The Pastors live in Concord by Associations in many Countries Both Pastors and People are Governed by the Magistrate And what need we more Look into this County where I live and you shall find a faithful humble laborious Ministry Associated and walking in as great unity as ever I read of since the Apostles daies No difference no quarrels but sweet and amicable Correspondency and Communion that I can hear of Was there such a Ministry or such love and concord or such a godly people under them in the Prelates reign There was not I lived where I do and therefore I am able to say there was not Through the great mercy of God where we had ten drunken Readers then we have not one now and where we had one able godly Preacher then we have many now and in my own charge where there was one that then made any shew of the fear of God I hope there is twenty now And the Families that were wont to scorn at holiness and live in open impiety are now devoted to the worship and obedience of the âord This is our loss and misery in these times which you so lament 3. But perhaps you will refuse Communion with us because of our differences from you in doctrine about the Controversies called Arminian But the fierceness of many of you hereabouts doth serve but to discover your ignorance and uncharitableness The Papists that differ among themselves about these points can yet hold Communion in one Church and cannot you with us Will you be fiercer against us then the Iesuites against the Dominicans Nay we go not neer so far as they We cleave to Augustine and the Synod of Dort who own not Physical Predetermination and meddle not with Reprobation antecedent to foresight of sin and who confess a sufficiency in Christs satisfaction for all And yet must we have those impotent clamors with which the writings of Mr. Pierce and other such abound Why then do you pretend to follow the Church of England which Mr. Hickman hath shewed you plainly that you desert Many of the highest meer Arminians are charitable peaceable men that hate separation from their Dissenting Brethren Curcellaus is one of the most eminent men living of that way And how charitable and peaceable an Epistle hath he writ before D. Blondels book de Papissa Joanna And I hear that Mr. Hoard the Author of the Book called Gods Love to mankind lives in peaceable Communion
4. So great is the difference between men and men times and times that forms may be a duty to some men and at some times and a sin to other men and at other times p. 368. Prop. 5. The Ministers and Churches that earnestly desire it should not by the Magistrate be absolutely and generally prohibited the use of a convenient stinted Liturgy p. 372. Prop. 6. To prescribe a form of prayer preaching or other service where is no necessity of it and to lay a Necessity on it as to the thing it self or the Churches peace c. and to punish silence suspend excommunicate or reproach as Schismaticks the able godly peaceable Ministers or People that justly or unjustly dare not use it is so great a sin that no godly Ministers should desire or attempt it nor any godly Magistrate suffer it p. 373. Prop. 7. The safest way of composing a stinted Liturgy is to take it all or as much as may be for words as well as matter out of the holy Scripture p. 378. Prop. 8. Yet is it lawful to use a Liturgy that is not so taken out of Scripture as to words p. 380. Prop. 9. The matter of a Liturgy in which the Concord of many is expected must not be doubtful or unnecessary things ibid. Prop. 10. Humane forms of publick prayer or other worship excepting the fore-excepted necessary cases as Psalms c. should not be constantly used by Ministers that have liberty and are able to pray without them Nor should any ordinarily be admitted into the Ministry except in great Necessities of the Church that are not able to pray without such forms p. 381. Objections on both sides p. 386. The summ of this Dispute p. 392. DISPUTATION 5. Qu. WHether humane Ceremonies be Necessary or Profitable to the Church p. 395. Chap. 1. Distinctions and Propositions in order to the decision ibid. Chap. 2. Ceremonies forbidden or which man hath not power to institute are not to be imposed as profitable or lawful p. 399. which those be Instances of all our commonly controverted Ceremonies considered p. 409. Chap. 3. In such unlawful impositions it is an aggravation of the sin if Ceremonies are pretended to be Divine p. 425. Chap. 4. If things unlawful are commanded as indifferent or things indifferent as necessary they are sinfully imposed and the more because of such pretenses p. 427. Chap. 5. A lawful and convenient thing is sinfully imposed when it is imposed on a greater penalty then the nature and use of it doth require or then the common good will bear p. 429. Chap. 6. It is not lawful to make any thing the subjects duty by a Command that is meerly indifferent antecedently both in it self and as cloathed with its accidents p 433. Chap. 7. Some things may be lawfully and profitably commanded at one Time and Place and to one sort of People that may not at or to another no nor be obeyed if commanded p. 439. Chap 8. Those orders may be profitable for the peace of the Churches in one Nation that are not necessary to the peace of the Churches of many Nations p. 445. Chap. 9. There is no meer Humane Vniversal Soveraign Civil or Ecclestastical over the whole Church and therefore none to make Laws obligatory to the whole p. 448. Chap. 10. If it be not our Lawful Governors that command us but usurpers we are not formally bound to obey them though the things be lawful which they command p. 452. Chap. 11. The Commands of lawful Governors about lawful Ceremonies must be understood and obeyed with such exceptions as do secure the End and not to the subverting of it p. 458. Chap. 12. It may be very sinful to command some Ceremonies when yet it may be the subjects duty to use them when they are commanded p. 460. Chap. 13. The Constant use of things indifferent should not be commanded ordinarily see the exceptions but they should be sometimes used sometimes not p. 464. Chap. 14. Thirty Reasons against the imposing of our late Controverted Mystical Ceremonies as Crossing Surplice c. p. 467. Chap. 15. Reasons perswading to Obedience in Lawful things p. 483. ERRATA PAge 10. l. 4. r. had not been by themselves p. 24. l. 23. for Philetas r. Alexander p. 30. l. penult for Perfect r. President p. 33. l. 34 35. r. the 2000th or 3000th person p. 37. l. 34. for it r. is p. 41. l. 9. r. Presbyterie p. 72. l. ult for that r. the. p. 77. l. 24. r. occasioning p. 78. l. 16. r. had in it p. 81. l. 1. blot out any l. 28. for at all r. all l. 29. blot out the. p. 87. l. 17. for had r. have Marg. l. 5. r. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 88. l. 17. for Prelacy r. Policarpe l. 37. for there that r. that there p. 89. l. 2. r. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p 93. l. 3. r. he was and l. 34. for ad r. at p. 94. l. 29. r. we well p. 95. Marg. l. 31. r. Blondel and l. 33. for yet r. and. p. 96. l. 9. r. Churches p. 97. l. 5. for Scholarum r. Scotorum p. 100. Marg. l. 13. for no r. on p 104. l. 8. for I mean r. I wave p. 106. l. 4. for that r. the. Disp. 2. Pref. p. 117. l. 16. for pass r. pasâ p. 118 l. 30. blot out and. p. 121. l. 14. r. Bishop p. 124. l. 17. r. Iansenius p. 137. l. 5. r. Members p. 139. l. 5. for men r. run p. 157. l. 3. 4. r. pleasure Pastors l. 34. r. and. p. 160. l. 2. r. will p. 163. l. 11. for Proctors r. Doctors p 166. l. 14. r. sin in the. p. 169. l. 6. blot out upon p. 181. l. 26. r. owed p. 182. l. 11. r. And yet p. 18â l. ult for as r. at p. 184. l. 3. for Art 11. r. Act. 11. p. 191. l. 29. for he r. the l. 37. for decase r. depose p. 194. l. 29. for and r. c. p. 199. l. 13. for Art 11. r. Act. 11. p. 219. l. 1. r. Arrianus p. 229. l. 32. for three and four r. third fourth p. 241. l. 22. for name r. main p. 245. l. 14. for Davenant r. Davenport p. 253. l. 18. blot out do p. 265. l. 12. blot out to p. 277. l. 2. r. one the. l 12. r. works p. 291. l. 18. for the r. that p. 316. l. 16. r. as their p. 317. l. 23. for Overseers r. Others p. 328. l. 21. r. Bâhmenists p. 339. l. 16. r. had no other p. 340. l. 9. r. the least p. 367. l. 9. r. add to p. 372. l. 21. for hâ r. the. p. 409. l. 34. r. but what was p. 420. l. 16. r. of the Will p. 421. l. 26. for them r. than p. 430. l. 28. r. Law An Advertisement to prevent misunderstanding MY exceeding scarcity of time constraining me to write these Papers in much haste and allowing me but a cursory perusal of
them when written and the like after the printing for the collecting the Errata of the Press I find by this hasty review and by some observation of mens readiness to misunderstand me that it is necessary to speak a little more about the following particulars that I may be understood by such as are willing to understand me and the mistakes of others I shall easily bear Sect. 1. Pag. 89. There is somewhat that requireth correction of the pen and somewhat that requireth explication In translating that passage of Ignatius Unus panis qui pro omnibus fractus est must be written next effusus est before unus Calix And for the following objection though it was made by a discreet person yet I know no ground for it unless Is. Vossius his Edition leave out ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which I have not now at hand but is likelyest I know not of any Greek copy that leaves it out Indeed Bishop Ushers Latine doth and the Vulgar Latine leaves out the translation of the next words before it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of which saith Bishop Usher Ex interpretatione hac excidisse videantur And noting the corruption of the Vulgar Translation in this very place I there premised to my Answer that it might occasion a change in the Text that it hath done so in many places I think is easie to prove but that it hath done so here there is no probability if any Greek Copy be as is objected and the Reasons of my conjecture of the possibility are so little for a probability that as I express them not so I think them not worth the expressing but rather bid you take that as non dictum Though of the general I find Bishop Usher himself saying both of his Latine Version Ex eâ solâ integritati suae restitui posse Ignatium polliceri non ausim and of the first Greek Edition Hanc reliqui sequuti sunt editores non ex Graco aliquo codice alio sed partim ex ingenio partim ex vetere Vulgato Latino Interprete non paucis in locis eandem corrigentes Epist. ad Lect. ante Annot. pag. 26. Dissert Sect. 2. I must intreat the Reader to observe that my drift in this writing is not so much to oppose any form of Government meerly as contrary to the Institution or Apostolical Rule as to plead against that which I take to be destructive to the Ends of Government Not that I desire not a careful adhering to the sacred Rule but 1. Because I suppose that many circumstantials of Discipline undetermined in the Word are feigned by some to be substanstantial necessary things and that many matters are indifferent that some lay the Peace if not the being of the Church upon 2. Because I so far hate contention that if any Government contrary to my Iudgement were set up that did not apparently in the nature of it wrong the Church I would silently live under it in peace and quietness and accordingly would be now loth to enter a quarrel with any Writers that differ from us in tolerable things But if I know that their judgement reduced to practice is like to be the undoing of many souls and to cast Discipline almost wholly out of the Church I think it better to displease them then let them undo the Church without contradiction The best is the serious Christians of this age have experience to help them to understand the case and I suppose my Disputation to be unto them as if I Disputed before a man that is restored from want or banishment or sickness whether he should be reduced to the Condition from which he is restored Sect. 3. Some passages here will occasion the Question as p. 5. Whether and how far Church Government is jure Divino But of this in the main I am agreed with them that I dispute To speak further my own judgement is 1. That the Spirit of God hath established all the Officers and worship-Ordinances of his Church and that no new Church-office or Ordinance of worship as to the substance may be instituted by man 2. But that there are many Circumstantials about the Exercise of those Offices and Ordinances that are not determined particularly by a Law but are left to humane prudence to determine of by the General directions of the Law And so I suppose that Bishops and Presbyters are but one Office of Gods institution but in the exercise of this Office if one for order be made a Moderator or President of the rest or by agreement upon a disparity of parts or interest do unequally divide their work between them in the exercise it is a thing that may be done and is fit where the Edification of the Church requireth it but not a thing that always must be done nor is of it self a Duty but a thing indifferent The following Case therefore I hence resolve Sect. 4. Quest. Whether the Order of subject Presbyters might lawfully be created by Bishops or any humane Power and whether the Order of Bishops might lawfully be created for the avoiding of Schism by the consent of Presbyters or Metropolitans by Bishops Answ. If you understand by the word Order a distinct Office none may create any of these but God But if by Subject Presbyters be meant only men of the same Office with Bishops that do for the Churches benefit subject themselves to the direction or Presidency of another upon some disparity in their gifts or the like in the exercise of that Office I suppose that this is a thing that by Consent may be lawfully done And so I verily believe that betimes in the Church it was done of which anon So if by Bishops be meant no distinct Office but one of the Presbyters chosen from among the rest to exercise his Ministery in some eminency above the rest by reason of his greater Gifts or for Peace and Order I doubt not but it is a thing that consent may do And accordingly the Canon Law defines a Bishop that he is Unus è Presbyteris c. So if by a Metropolitan be not meant another Office but one in the same Office by reason of the advantage of his Seat chosen to some acts of Order for the common benefit I doubt not but it may be done but every such Indifferent thing is not to be made Necessary statedly and universally to the Church Sect. 5. When I do in these Papers plead that the Order of Subject Presbyters was not instituted in Scripture times and consequently that it is not of Divine Institution I mean as aforesaid that as a distinct Office or Species of Church ministers as to the Power from God it is not of Divine Institution nor a lawful Institution of man but that among men in the same Office some might Prudentially be chosen to an eminency of degree as to the exercise and that according to the difference of their advantages there might be a disparity in the use of their
authority and gifts I think was done in Scripture times and might have been after if it had not then And my judgement is that ordinarily every particular Church such as our Parish Churches are had more Elders then One but not such store of men of eminent gifts as that all these Elders could be such But as if half a dozen of the most judicious persons of this Parish were Ordained to be Elders of the same Office with my self but because they are not equally fit for publick preaching should most imploy themselves in the rest of the Oversight consenting that the publick preaching lie most upon me and that I be the Moderator of them for Order in Circumstantials This I think was the true Episcopacy and Presbytery of the first times From the mistake of which two contrary Errors have arisen The one of those that think this Moderator was of another Office in specie having certain work assigned him by God which is above the reach of the Office of Presbyters to perform and that he had many fixed Churches for his charge The other of them that think these Elders were such as are called now Lay-elders that is Vnordained men authorized to Govern without Authority to Preach Baptize or Administer the Lords Supper And so both the Prelatical on one side and the Presbyterians and Independents on the other side run out and mistake the ancient form and then contend against each other This was the substance of what I wrote to Mr. Vines which his subjoyned Letter refers to where he signifieth that his judgement was the same When Paul and Barnabas were together Paul was the chief speaker and yet Barnabas by the Idolaters called Jupiter Nature teacheth us that men in the same Office should yet have the preheminence that 's due to them by their Age and Parts and Interests c. and that Order should be kept among them as in Colledges and all Societies is usual The most excellent part of our work is publick preaching but the most of it for quantity is the rest of the Oversight of the Church in Instructing personally admonishing reproving enquiring into the truth of accusations comforting visiting the sick stablishing the weak looking to the poor absolving answering doubts excommunicating and much more And therefore as there is a necessity as the experienced know of many Elders in a particular Church of any great number so it is fit that most hands should be most imployed about the said works of Oversight yet so as that they may preach as need and occasion requireth and administer Sacraments and that the eminent Speakers be most employed in publick preaching yet so as to do their part of the rest as occasion requireth And so the former Elders that Rule well shall be worthy of double honour but especially these that labour in the Word and Doctrine by more ordinary publick preaching And such kind of seldom-preaching Ministers as the former were in the first times and should be in most Churches yet that are numerous Sect. 6. When I speak in these Papers therefore of other mens Concessions that there were de facto in Scripture times but One Bishop without any subject Presbyters to a particular Church remember that I speak not my own judgement but urge against them their own Concessions And when I profess my Agreement with them it is not in this much less in all things for then I needed not disspute against them but it is in this much that in Scripture times there was de facto 1. No meer Bishop of many particular Churches or stated worshipping Congregations 2. Nor any distinct Office or Order of Presbyters that radically had no Power to Ordain or Govern or Confirm c. which are the subject Presbyters I mean Sect. 7. Specially remember that by Bishops in that dispute I mean according to the Modern use one that is no Archbishop and yet no meer Presbyter but one supposed to be between both that is a Superior to meer Presbyters in Order or Office and not only in degree or modification of the exercise but below Archbishops whether in Order or Degree These are they that I dispute against excluding Metropolitans or Archbishops from the question and that for many Reasons Sect. 8. If it were proved or granted that there were Archbishops in those times of Divine Institution it would no whit weaken my Arguments For it is only the lowest sort of Bishops that I dispute about yea it confirmeth them For if every combination of many particular Churches had an Archbishop then the Governors of such Combinations were not meer Bishops and then the meer Bishops were Parish Bishops or Bishops of single Churches only and that is it that I plead for against Diocesan Bishops that have many of these Churches perhaps some hundreds under one Bishop of the lowest rank having only Presbyters under him of another Order Sect. 9. If any think that I should have answered all that is written for an Apostolical Institution of Metropolitans or of Archbishops or of the subject sort of Presbyters or other points here toucht I answer them 1. In the former my work was not much concerned nor can any man prove me engaged to do all that he fancieth me concerned to do 2. Few men love to be contradicted and confuted and I have no reason to provoke them further then necessity requireth it 3. I take not all that I read for an argument so considerable as to need Replyes If any value the Arguments that I took not to need an Answer let them make their best of them I have taken none of them out of their hands by robbing them of their Books if they think them valid let them be so to them Every Book that we write must not be in folio and if it were we should leave some body unanswered still I have not been a contemner or neglecter of the writings of the contrary-minded But voluminously to tell the world of that I think they abuse or are abused in is unpleasing and unprofitable Sect. 10. And as to the Jus Divinum of limited Diocesses to the Apostles as Bishops and of Archbishops Metropolitans c. I shall say but this 1. That I take not all for currant in matter of fact that two or three or twice so many say was done when I have either cross testimony or valid Reasons of the improbability I believe such Historians but with a humane faith and allow them such a degree of that as the probability of their report and credibility of the persons doth require 2. I take it for no proof that all that was done in all the Churches that I am told was done in some 3. I take the Law of Nature and Scripture to be the entire Divine Law for the Government of the Church and World 4. And therefore if any Father or Historian tell me that this was delivered by the Apostles as a Law to the Vniversal Church which is not contained in Scriptures
nor to be proved by them I will not believe them no more then I would have believed Papius and all his Millenary followers that pretended Tradition from Saint John nor any more then I would have believed the Asians or Romans that pretended different times for Easter as a Tradition Apostolical binding the whole Church 5. If it were proved that de facto the Apostles did thus or thus dispose of a circumstance of Government or Worship which yet is undetermined in Scripture I take it not for a sufficient proof that they intended that Fact for an Universal Law or that they meant to bind all the Churches in all ages to do the like no more then Christ intended at the Institution of his Supper to tie all ages to do it after Supper in an upper room but with twelve and sitting c. 6. Yea if I had found a Direction or Command from the Apostles as Prudential determiners of a Circumstance pro tempore loco only as of the kiss of love hair covering eating things strangled and blood c. I take it not for a proof that this is an universal standing Law One or two of these exceptions wil shake off the proofs that some count strong for the universal obligation of the Church to Diocesans or Metropolitans Sect. 11. That the Apostles had Episcopal Power I mean such in each Church where they came as the fixed Bishops had I doubt not And because they founded Churches according to the success of their labors and setled them and if they could again visited them therefore I blame not the Ancients for calling them the Bishops of those Churches But that each man of them was really a fixed Metropolitan or Patriarch or had his proper Diocess in which he was Governor in chief and into which no other Apostle might come as an equal Governor without his leave this and such like is as well proved by silence as by all that I have read for it of Reason or History that is the Testimonies of the Ancients I find them sometime claiming a special interest in the Children that they have begotten by their Ministry But doubtless when Paul Barnabas or Silas went together some might be converted by one and some by another within the same Diocess or City If any man shall convince me that any great stress doth lie upon this questioÌ I shal be willing to give him more of my reasons for what I say Sect. 12. And as to them that confidently teach that the Apostles suited the Ecclesiastical Government to the Politick and that as by a Law for the Church universally to obey All the confutation at present that I will trouble them with shall be to tell them that I never saw any thing like a proof of it to my understanding among all the words that are brought to that purpose and to tell them 1. That if Paul chose Ephesus Corinth and other the most populous places to preach in it was but a prudential circumstantiating of his work according to that General Law of doing all to Edification and not an obligation on all the Pastors or Preachers of the Gospel to do the same where the case is not the same 2. And if Paul having converted many in these Cities do there plant Churches and no other can be proved in Scripture times it follows not that we may plant no Churches but in Cities 3. And if the greatest Cities had then the most numerous Churches and the most eminent Pastors fitted to them and therefore are named with some note of excellency above the rest it followeth not that the rest about them were under them by subjection 4. Yea if the Bishops of the chief Cities for order sake were to call Provincial Assemblies and the meetings to be in their Cities and they were to be the Presidents of the rest in Synods with such like circumstantial difference it followeth not that they were proper Governours of the rest and the rest to obey them in the Government of their proper charges Nor that they had power to place and displace them 5. Much less will it prove that these Metropolitans taking the name of Diocesans might put down all the Bishops of two hundred Churches under them and set up none but Presbyters in order distinct from Bishops over the flocks besides themselves and so the Archbishops having extinguished all the first Order of Bishops of single Churches to take the sole Government of so many Churches even people as well as Presbyters into their own hands 6. And I do not think that they can prove that the Apostles did institute as many sorts of Church-Government then as there were of civil âolicy in the world All the world had not the Roman form of Government Nor had lesser Cities the same dependence upon greater in all other Countryes 7. Was it in one degree of subordination of Officers only or in all that the Apostles suited the Ecclesiasticall Government to the Civil If in One how is it proved that they intended it in that one and not in the rest If in all then we must have many degrees of Officers more then yet we have Inferiors very many and Superiors some of all conscience too high then we must have some to answer the Correctors the Consular Presidents and the Vicars and Lieutenants the Pro-consuls and Prefects and the Emperor himself Even one to be Vniversal in the Empire that 's yet some Limit to the Pope and will hazzard the removing of the Supremacy to Constantinople by the Rule that the Apostles are supposed to go by And great variety must there be in the several Diocesses of the Empire which Blondell hath punctually described de primatu in Eccles. pag. 511. to 519. shewing the causes of the inequality of Bishopricks and Churches 8. According to this Opinion the form of Church must alter as oft as Emperours will change their Policy or Wars shall change them And upon every change of the Priviledges of a City the Churches Preheminence must change and so we shall be in a mutable frame Which if Basil and Anthymius had understood might have quicklier decided their controversie Yea according to this opinion Princes may quite take down Metropolitans at pleasure by equalling the priviledges of their Cities The best is then that it is in the power of our Civil Governours to dissolve our obligation to Metropolitans yea and to all Bishops too if Cities must be their only residence as I have shewed Sect. 13. As for them that pretend humane Laws for their form of Government that is the decrees of General Councils I answer 1. I disown and deny all humane Laws as obligatory to the Church Vniversal It is the prerogative of God yea the greatest point of the exercise of his Soraignty to be the Law-giver to his Vniversal Church There can be no Vniversal Laws without an Vniversal Law-giver and there is no Vniversal Law-giver under Christ in the world 2. And for General
Presbyters and then the Government of the Church will be such as you blame Ans. It is the thing I plead for that every Church may have such Bishops as they had in the Apostles days and not meer new devised Presbyters that are of another Office and Order Sect. 23. Object Bishops had Deacons to attend them in the Scripture times though not Presbyters therefore it follows not that Bishops had then but One Congregation Answ. Yes beyond doubt For Deacons could not and did not perform the Pastoral part in the whole publick worship of any stated Churches They did not preach as Deacons and pray and praise God in the publick Assemblies and administer the Sacraments It 's not affirmed by them that are against us therefore there were no more Churches then Bishops Sect. 24. Object But what doth your Arguing make against the other Episcopal Divines that are not of the opinion that there were no meer Presbyters in Scripture times Answ. 1. Other Arguments here are as much against them though this be not if they maintain that sort of Episcopacy which I oppose 2. They also confess the smalness of Churches in Scripture times as I have shewed out of Bishop Downam and that is it that I plead for Sect. 25. Object But if you would have all reduced to the state that de facto the Church Government was in in Scripture times you would have as but one Church to a Bishop so but One Bishop to a Church as Dr. H. Dissert 4 c. 19 20 21 22. hath proved copiously that is that Scripture mentioneth no assistant Presbyters with the Bishop and would that please you that think a single Congregation should have a Presbyterie You should rather as he teacheth you c. 21. p. 237. be thankful to Ignatius and acknowledge the dignity of your Office ab âo primario defensore astrui propugnari Answ. As we make no doubt from plain Scripture to prove and have proved it that single Churches had then many Presbyters some of them at least So having the greatest part of Fathers and Episcopal Divines of our mind herein even Epiphanius himself we need not be very solicitous about the point of Testimony oâ Authority 2. We had rather of the two have but one Pastor to a Congregation then one to a hundred or two hundred Congregations having a Presbyter under him in each authorized only to a part of the work 3. Either the distinct Office of the Presbyters is of Divine Institution to be continued in the Church or not If not Bishops or some body it seems may put down the Office If it be then it seems all Gods Vniversal standing Laws even for the species of Church Officers are not contained in Scripture And if not in Scripture where then If in the Fathers 1. How shall we know which are they and worthy of that name and honor 2. And what shall we do to reconcile their contradictions 3. And what number of them must go to be the true witnesses of a Divine Law 4. And by what note may we know what points so to receive from them and what not But if it be from Councils that we must have the rest of the Laws of God not contained in the Scripture 1. Is it from all or some only If from all what a case are we in as obliged to receive Contradictions and Heresies If from some only which are they and how known and why they rather then the rest Why not the second of Ephesus as well as the first at Constantinople But this I shall not now further prosecute unless I were dealing with the Papists to whom have said more of it in another writing 4. Ignatius his Presbyters were not men of another Office nor yet set over many Churches that had all but one Bishop But they were all in the same Churches with the Bishop and of the same Office only subject to his moderation or presidency for Vnity and Order sake and this we strive not against if limited by the general Rules of Scripture Sect. 26. Object Those that you have to deal with say not that There were no Presbyters in the Apostles days but only that in the Apostles writings the word Bishops always signifies Bishops and the word Elders either never or but rarely Presbyters But it is possible for them to be in the time of those writings that are not mentioned in those writings and the Apostles times were larger then their writings as you are told Vind. against the Lond. Minist p. 106. Ans. 1. The words I cited from Annot. in Act. 11. faithfully which you may peruse which say that there is no evidence that in Scripture times any of the second Order were instituted So that it is not Scripture writings only but Scripture times that 's spoken of And 2. If there be no evidence of it the Church cannot believe it or affirm it for it judgeth not of unrevealed things and therefore to us it is no Institution that hath no evidence 3. The Apostles were all dead save John before the end of Scripture times So that they must be instituted by John only And John dyed the next year after Scripture times as the chief Chronologers judge For as he wrote his Apocalypse about the 14 th year of Domitian so his Gospel the year before Trajan and dyed the next year being after the commoner reckoning An. D. 98. and some think more And what likelihood or proof at least that John did institute them the year that he dyed when the same men tell us of his excursion into Asia to plant Elders bâfore that year it 's like 4. And if they were not instituted in Scripture time then no testimony from Antiquity cân prove them then instituted But indeed if we had such testimony and nothing of it in the Scripture it self we should take it as little to our purpose For 5. doth Antâquity say that the Institution was Divine of Universal obligation to the Church or only that it was but a prudential limitation of the exercise of the same Office the like I demand of other like Testimonies in case of Diocesses Metropolitans c. If only the later it binds us not but proveth only the licet and not the oportet at least as to all the Church And then every Countrey that finds cause may set up another kind of government âut if it be the former that is asserted as from antiquity then the Scripture containeth not all Gods Vniversal Laws Which who ever affirmeth must go to Fathers or Councils instead of Scripture to day and to the infallibility of the Pope or a Prophetical Inspiration to morrow and next Sect. 27. Once more to them that yet will maintain that the Apostles modelled the Ecclesiastical form to the Civil and that as a Law to the whole Church we take it as their Concession that then we ow no more obedience to the Archbishop of Canterbury then to the Civil Magistrate of Canterbury and especially
London sure is exempted from his superiority And I yet know not that any Civil Magistrate of Canterbury or York or London or Worcester hath any government in this Countrie except the Soveraign Rulers at Westminster be meant And I hope our Itinerant course of Iudges will prove the right to the Objectors of Itinerant Apostolical Overseers of the Churches for settlement at least Sect. 28. Object But Parishes being not divided till long after the Apostles days there might be then no ordinary Assemblies but in the City and yet the whole Territory adjacent be the Diocess Answ. Were there in the Territories persons enough to make many Assemblies or only so few as might travel to and joyn with the City Assembly If the latter it 's it that I assert as usual in the first age at least If the former then either all those in the Territories met for publick Worship and Communion or not If not they sinned against the Law of God that obliged them thereto as well as Citizens If they did then they must have either Bishop or Presbyter with them for the due performance of that worship Sect. 29. If any think all these stragling objections and advertisements here unseasonable I render him this true account of them This first Disputation was prepared only for our ordinarily Monthly Exercises here and so written long ago before the London Ministers Book or the Answer to it and the rest that have followed and therefore could not take notice of much that hath since passed and withal was not intended for publick view But when I saw sâ many of the Gentry and Commonalty withdraw from the publick worship and the ignorant and prophane had learnt to refel their Pastors Instructions by calling him a Lay-man and saw how the new separation threatned the perdition of multitudes of the people especially was awakened by the Calls of Ministers in other Countries that were far more troubled with them then we I thought meet to prefix this to the Second Disputation which was it that was desired of me and therefore to take notice of those things so late Sect. 30. And the common experience tells you that it is not a few that go the way that lately was singular even among the Episcopal to which I may add the Testimony in Vindic. against the London Ministers p. 104. And though I might truly say that for those more minute considerations or conjectures wherein this Doctor differs from some others he hath the suffrages of many of the Learnedst men of this Church at this day and as far as he knows of all that embrace the same cause with him c. Sect. 31. And this at least I may expect from the Reader that if he think we argue weakly he will confess that we argue not for worldly greatness but go against our carnal interest We contend against Bishopricks of the English mode as desiring no such Wealth or Honour Some of us have as good opportunities to have a part in that kind of Greatness if it were again introduced as they But I am not able alone for a Parish charge and am loth to have more on my hands and my accounts which is I suppose the mind of my Brethren also Sect. 32. One more Advertisement I owe the Reader that this being written so long since I was made confident by Bishop Usher de Primordiis Eccl. Brit. that Ireland was the Ancient Scotia where Palladius c. planted the Gospel which pag. 97. I have signified But I should wrong Scotland if I should not tell thee that I have received such Arguments to the contrary since then from the Right Honourable and my highly valued friend the Earl of Lawderdail that I am forced to suspend my judgement in that point till I have leisure better to study the point being yet unable to answer the said arguments Whether it be Necessary or Profitable to the right order or the Peace of the Churches of England that we restore the extruded Episcopacy IN this Question here are these three things supposed 1. That there are yet particular Churches of Christ in England and therefore those that conclude that there hath been no Church among us since the Diocesan Bishops were laid by are none oâ them that we are now disputing with and indeed we think so gross a conceit unworthy of a Confutation 2. It is supposed that both the right Order and the Peace of these Churches are matters highly to be valued 3. And also that its our duty for the obtaining of it to do that which is necessary or profitable thereto But the doubt is Whether the Episcopacy in question be necessary or profitable thereto For the decision whereof I shall briefly tell you my Judgement in these propositions whereof the two first are but preparatory Proposition 1. A Peace with the Divines of the Episcopal judgement is much to be desired and earnestly to be endeavoured Prop. 2. A certain Episcopacy may be yielded to for the Peace if not for the right order of the Church Prop. 3. The Diocesan Episcopacy which was lately in England and is now laid by may not lawfully be re-assumed or re-admitted as a means for the right Order or Peace of the Church 1. For the first of these I think it easie to prove that we ought to seek an Agreement in the Episcopal controversie with those that differ from us in that point For 1. They are brethren of the same faith with us whom we are bound to love and honour and therefore to use all just means for peace with them If we must as much as in us lyeth if possible live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 much more with Brethren of the same family and profession 2. They are very many and the far greatest though not the purest part of the Church is of their mind All the Greek Church and the Ethiopian Church and the Jacobites Armenians and all other parties without the verge of the Reformation from Popery here in the West that ever I read or heard of are all of that way besides all the Romane Church And though I know that much ignorance and imperfection if not superstition and fouler errors may be justly charged on the Greek Ethiopian c. Churches as well as on Rome though not Popery it self yet I think there is scarce a good Christian that is not unwilling to cast off so great a part of the Church of Christ as these are Indeed he that dares so far despise all the Churches of Christ on earth except these few that are happily reformed as to think that it is no duty of ours to seek unity and peace with them by all just means I think is no meet person for us to dispute with It is the hainous sin of Rome to despise and unchurch Greeks Ethiopians and all save themselves which I hope Protestants will never imitate who have justly condemned them so deeply for it Let the Donatists shut up the Church of Christ
in Afrâca and call the rest Cecilians and let the Papists reduce it to the subscribers to their Trent confession or to them only that believe in the Popes universal Headship and Government and call all others Hereticks yet will all true Catholicks imitate Augustine and the Councils that were called against the Donatists who still described the Catholike Church to be that which was dispersed over the world having begun at Ierusalem and though to Gods praise we dare rejoycingly affirm that the most illustrious and the soundest part of it is in Europe among the Reformed yet dare we not say that it is all or the greatest part here Nay we confess that we are but a small part of Christs Church And therefore common sobriety may tell us that the Peace of so great a part of Christs Church as is in all the rest of the world is highly to be valued and sought with all our might in righteousness Moreover even among the reformed Churches there are many for some Episcopacy or Superintendency As the Church of England and Ireland was lately for Diocesan Episcopacy so the Churches in Denmark Sweden Saxionie and other parts of Germany Transilvania c. are for a lower sort of Episcopacy called Superintendency among them 3. And the quality of many of the Divines of that way is such as bespeaks our greatest reverence to them and should move us to thirst after Unity and Reconciliation with them Many of them are men of eminent Learning and Godliness and sound in the faith I know that it is commonly objected that they are generally ungodly men that are that way and though some of them are Learned men yet they are all or almost all of careless and carnal lives or meerly formal and superstitious and therefore their Communion is not much to be desired To which I answer 1. The plain undenyable truth is that it was so here with the most of them in the Bishops dayes where ever I was acquainted There were more Ministers in many places that would have scorned threatned or troubled a man for a godly diligent life then that would lead him that way by a good example We must speak that truth that cannot be hid whoever be displeased To this day too many of that way are careless and scandalous But then Consider withall 2. That it is but too common for the common sort even of Ministers as well as people to be careless and bad what ever opinions they are of Especially if the times do discountenance practical Religiousness the greater part are likely to follow the times being that way also so strongly enclined by nature 3. Consider also that we have had and have men of that Judgement that have been excellent Instruments of the Churches good and so eminent for Gods graces and gifts that their names will be pretious whilest Christ hath in England a Reformed Church were there in all England but one such man dissenting from us as Hooper Farrar Latimer Cranmer Ridley Iewel Abbot Davenant Vsher Hall c. what sober Godly man would not be exceeding solicitous for a reconciliation I am sure besides the godliness of their lives and painful preaching One Iewel One Vsher One Davenant hath done so much against the Roman Usurpers as they will never well claw it off them to the last Moreover who knoweth not that most of the Godly able Ministers of England since the Reformation did judge Episcopacy some of them Lawful and some of them most fit for the Non-conformists were but few and that even before this late trouble and war the most even almost all of those that were of the late Assembly at Westminster and most through the land did subscribe and conform to Episcopal Government as a thing not contrary to the word of God so that it is evident that it is very consistent with a Godly life to judge Episcopacy lawful and fit or else we should not have had so many hundred learned and godly men of that mind And I am not altogether unapt to believe that many of them yet are so far reconcileable to it moderated that if it were again established they would submit to it as they did For I hear but of few that have made any recantation of their former conformity but contrarily have known divers of them profess a reconcilableness as aforesaid as Mr. Gataker doth in one of his books express his own Judgement If I have proved this preparatory proposition which I think needeth but litle proof then have I also proved 1. That they have sinned much who have hitherto forborn the use of any means for Peace which was in their power 2. And that we are bound our selves to desire and seek after a peace with such men and that we cannot discharge a good conscience while we neglect such means as is within our reach and fit for us to use The second Proposition is that A Certain Episcopacy may be yielded to for the peace if not also for the right order of the Church In the declaration of my judgement concerning this I make no doubt but I shall displease both sides the one for yielding so much the other for yielding no more But jacta est alea I live not upon mens favour nor the air of their applause That truth which displeaseth at present may tend to peace and produce it at the last when the angry humour is allayed or at least when the angry age is gone For the clearer determination of this and the main Question following it is necessary that I here stay 1. To open the nature of Church-Government in general 2. To open the sence of the word Episcopacy and the several sorts of Bishops And then 3. I shall tell you what sort of Episcopacy it is that I could yield to for the Churches peace 1. I must confess I think that the greatest part of the controversie by far is in this first question of the nature of Ecclesiastical Government strictly so called which is only in the hands of Christs Ministers Bishops or whomsoever commonly called Clergy men Aâd concerning this having written my thoughts more largely elâewhere I shall now lay down these few Propositions Prop. 1. All this power Ecclesiastical is Jure divino given from God himself and that either immediately or by the mediation only of the Apâstles I mean as to the determination in specie what it shall be and the constitution of that order and power in the Church though perhaps some other causes at least sine quibus non may intervene for the reception of this power by an individual person These therefore that plead only the Laws of the Land or only Canons of former Bishops for their standing or authority do say nothing that as to our controversie is regardable Whât men do they may undo if there be reason for it and if it depend on their authority we must submit to their reason Prop. 2. This Divine Constitution of the Species of Church-Power
mistake Prop. 11. He that disobeyeth the Word of God in the mouth of a Minister or Church governor committeth a double sin in comparison of him that disobeyeth the same word in the mouth of a private man for bsides the sin which he first committeth he breaketh also the fifth Commandment and despiseth Christ in his Messenger As a man that shall refuse to worship God to use his name reverently c. when a private man telleth him that it is his duty doth sin by that refusal but if he refuse it when his own Father or Mother or Minister command him he also breaks the fifth Commandment besides the rest Ministerial Authority therefore doth aggravate the sins of persons that are disobedient Prop. 12. Yet for all this one private man that evinceth out of Scripture a sin or a duty contrary to the doctrine or commands of our Guides must be regarded in that before them and the evidence and divine verity which he bringeth must not be refused because Church Governors are against it Otherwise we should make Gods Officers to be greater then himself and the Promulgators and Preachers of his Law to have power to null or frustrate the known Law which they should proclaim and that the means is to be preferred before the end and when it destroyes the end and so ceaseth it self to be a means which are things not to be imagined Prop. 13. Yet is it a great sin for any men lightly and rashly to suspect their Teachers and Rulers and much more Councils or the whole Church and too easily to credit the singular opinions of any private man or dissenting Pastor But we should be very suspicious of the private man rather and of the singular man and therefore should search well and see good reason for it before we credit them though we may not refuse any truth which they shall bring Prop. â4 The uses of Synods or Councils is not directly to be superiour Governours of particular Pastors and Churches but it is Directly 1. For the Information and Edification of the Pastorâ themselves by the collation of their reasons and mutual advice 2. For the Vnion and Communion of the said Pastors and of the particular Churches by them that they may agree in one and go hand in hand to do Gods work and so may avoid the crossing and hindering of each other and one may not receive those to communion without satisfaction who are excommunicated by others and so that by this concord of Pastors they may be strengthened to a more successfull performance of their duties But then these Direct ends of Synods being presupposed Indidirectly they may truly be said to be for Government Because God in general having commanded us to carry on his work as much as we can in Unity and Peace and it being the proper work of Councils to agree upon wayes of Unity it followeth that for Unity sake it becomes our duty to submit to their just Agreements and so that the forming of such Agreements or Canons is consequently or Indirectly a part of Government though Directly it is but for Unity and Concord Pastors in Synods have the same power over their people as they have out and therefore what Canons they make justly for the Government of the people as Pastors are Directly acts of Government but as Assembled Pastors and also as to the Canons by which they bind each other they act but by consent or contract in order to concord and communion and not by a superiour Ruling power So that Synods as Synods are Directly only Gratiâ Vnitatis Communionis and not Gratia Regiminis but Indirectly and by consequence from the first use they are after a sort Regimental To conclude this about the Nature of Church-Government in the two former similitudes it is somewhat apparent For Christ calls himself the Physitian that comes to heal diseased souls and his Church is also a School and his people are all Schollars or Disciples and Ministers his Ushers or under-Schoolmasters Now the Physitian may prescribe to his Patient the times the quantities of taking Medicines and what diet to use and what exercise in order to his health and also Physitians may make a Colledge and frequently meet for mutual Edification and Agree what Patients to meddle with and what not and that they will not receive those Patients that run from one to another to their own hurt and that they will use none but such and such approved Medicaments with divers the like circumstances But yet no Physitian can either compell men to be their Patients nor compell them any otherwise then by perswasion to take their Medicines when they are their Patients nor can they corporally punish them for any disobedience to their directions But this they may do they may tell them first that if they will not be ruled they shall be without the Physitians help and then their desease will certainly kill them or endanger them and if the Patient continue so disobedient as to frustrate the means of cure the Physitian may give him over and be his Physitian no more and this is the Power of a Church Guide and this is his way of punishing Only he may further acquaint them with a Divine Commission then a Physician can do to his Patient at least gradually and so press obedience more effectually on their consciences So a Schoolmaster may make orders for the right circumstantiating of matters in his School supposing one Grammer enjoyned by superiour Authority and he may order what Authors shall be read and at what hours and how much at a time and dispose of the seats and orders of his Schollars But yet if he be a Teacher of the Adult according to our case he cannot corporally punish those that either refuse to be his Schollars or to learn of him or obey him but the utmost that he can do is to put some disgrace upon them while they abide in his School and at last to shut them out And then all the Schoolmasters in the Countrey may well agree upon one Method of Teaching and that they will not receive those without satisfaction into one School who are for obstinacy and abuse cast out of another But such Agreements or Meetings to that end do not make either one Physitian or Schoolmaster to be the Governour of the rest or above another nor yet to have the charge of all the Schollars or Patients of all the rest so is it in the case of Ecclesiastical Assemblies HAving said this much concerning the Nature of Church-Power and Government I come to the second thing promised which is to enumerate the several sorts of Bishops that are to fall under our consideration that so we may next consider which of them are to be allowed of And here I suppose none will expect that I shew them all these sorts distinctly existent it is enough that I manifest them to be in themselves truly different 1. And first the name Bishop may be given
to one that is only the Overseer or Ruler of the People of one particular Church and not of any Church-rulers themselves That ruleth the flock but not any Shepherds 2. Those also may be called Bishops who only are Ioint-Rulers with others of a particular Church and Presidents among the Elders of that one Church for Vnity and order sake without assuming any Government over those Elders 3. A third sort there are that are Presidents in such an Eldership and withal do take a Negative voice in the Government so that nothing shall be done without them in such affairs 4 A fourth sort are the sole Pastors of such a particular Church that have many Ministers under them as their Curates who are properly to be Ruled by them alone so that the Pastor is the sole Ruler of that Church and the Curates do only teach and otherwise officiate in obedience to him Which is the case of divers Ministers of great Parishes that keep one Curate at their Parish Church and others at their Chappels Yet it s one thing to be the sole Ruler of the Parish and another to Rule the rest of the Elders 5. A fifth sort of Bishops are those that are the fixed Presidents of a Classis of the Pastors of many particular Churches who hold the title durante vitâ or quà m diu bene se gesserint though they are in use only while the Classis sitteth and have only a power of Moderating and ordering things as the foreman of a Jury or a double or casting voice as the Bayliff in Elections in most Corporations or as the President in some Colledges but no Negative voice which maketh a Power equal with all the rest 6. A sixth sort are the heads of such Classes having a Negative voice so that the rest can do nothing without them 7. A seventh sort are the Presidents of Provinces or Diocesses containing many Classes which have only a Moderating Power but no Negative voice 8. An eighth sort are the Bishops of particular Cities with all the Rural parts that are near it containing many Churches who assume the Power of Governing that Diocess to themselves alone without the Presbyters of the particular Churches either not using them at all in matter of Government or only consulting with them in Assemblies but giving them no determining votes 9. A ninth sort is a Diocesan Bishop of such a City who doth not take upon him the Rule of the people of the Diocess beyond his own Congregation but only of the Pastors supposing that the several Pastors or Presbyters have power to Rule the several Congregations but withall that they themselves are to be ruled by him 10. A tenth sort are such Bishops as assume the Government of these Diocesan Bishops which are commonây called Archbishops to which also we adjoyn Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs who assume the Power of Governing all below them as under the seventh rank I do also for brevity comprehend Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs who assume no Governing Power over other Bishops but only the primam sedem and the moderating Power in Councils 11. The eleventh sort are unfixed general Pastors called Ambulatory or Itinerant that have a care of all the Churches and are no further tyed to any particulars then aâ the necessary defect of their natural capacity seeing they cannot be in all places at once or else the dispatch of that work which they there meet with before they go further and some such occasion doth require and being excluded out of no part of the Church further then by consent for the common good they shall exclude themselves such I mean as the Apostles were 12. The twelfth and last sort is the Judas that goes under the name of St. Peters Successor and Christs Vicar General or the Vice-Christ who claimeth a power of Governing the whole universal Church as its Head having Infallible power of determiâing Controversies and matters of Faith and whose Office must enter the definition of the Catholick Church and those that separate from him are no Catholikes or true Christians This is he that beareth the bag and maketh the twelfth sort 3. I Come now in the third place to tell you how many and which of these sorts of Episcopacy I think may be admitted for the Peace of the Church And 1. Of the first sort âhere is no Controversie among us few will deny the Ius Divinum of Presbyters as having the Rule of the people of a particular Church and the sole Rule supposing that there is no other Pastor over that Church but himself 2. Of the second sort of Parish Bishops who are meer Presidents over the whole Eldership of that particular Church and that continually or fixedly I think there is little question will be made by any but they also will easily be admitted 3. The third sort A Parochial Bishop having a Negative voice in a Parish Eldership I should be content to admit for the Peace of the Church but whether of it self it be desirable I do not dispute for if one Pastor even in a Parish may have a Negative voice among two or three Curates it will follow that the thing it self is not unlawful viz. for one Minister to have a Negative vote among many and so among an hundred if there be nothing else to forbid 4. The fourth sort for brevity Comprehendeth two sorts 1. Such Pastors of a single Congregation which having diverse Curates under them who are Presbyters do yet themselves take upon them the sole Government of the people and of their Curates I think this is intolerable and indeed a Contradiction or a Nulling of the Presbyters office for it is essential to the Presbyter of any Church to be a Guide or Ruler of that Church to put them out of all Rule therefore is to Null or suspend the exercise of their office which cannot statedly be done without destroying it But then 2. if we speak of the second sort that is such Pastors of particular Churches as have Curats who are Presbâters and they govern their Curates but take the Curates as true Governors of the flock these as I dare not simply defend for if it be lawful for one Pastor to Rule two or three in a Parish then why not twenty or an hundred if nothing else forbid so I confess I should be ready to admit of them if it might attain the Churches peace for I see many godly Divines that are against Episcopacy yet practice this and will have no Curates in their Parish that will not be Ruled by them And there is a certain Obedience which Juniors and men of weaker parts do owe to their Seniors and men of far greater knowledge though the Office be the same And the Nature of the Government being not Compulsive and Coercive but only upon the voluntary whose judgements approve and their wills consent its considerable how far even a Ruler of others may voluntarily consent and so oblige himself to be Ruled
by another that could not have any power to Rule him without that consent of his own and voluntary Condescension 5. As for the fifth sort that is The standing President of a Classis having no Negative voice I should easily consent to them for order and Peace for they are no distinct Office nor assâme any Government over the Presbyters And the Presbyterian Churches do commonly use a President or Moderator pro tempore And doubtless if it be lawful for a Month it may be lawful for a year or twenty years or quam diu se bene gâsserit and how many years had we one Moderator of our Assemblies of Divines at Westminster and might have had him so many years more if death had not cut him off And usually God doth not so change his gifts but that the same man who is the fittest this month or year is most likely also to be the fittest the next 6. And for the sixth sort viz. A President of a Classes having a Negative voice I confess I had rather be without him and his power is not agreeable to my Judgement as a thing instituted by God or fittest in it self But yet I should give way to it for the Peace of the Church and if it might heal that great breach that is between us and the Epâscopal Brethren and the many Churches that hold of that way but with these Cautions and Limitations 1. That they shall have no Negative in any thing that is already a duty or a sin for an Angel from heaven cannot dispense with Gods Law This I doubt not will be yielded 2. That none be forced to acknowledge this Negative vote in them but that they take it from those of the Presbyters that will freely give or acknowledge it For its a known thing that all Church-power doth work only on the Conscience and therefore only prevail by procuring Consent and cannot compell 3. Nor would I ever yield that any part of the Presbyters dissenting should be taken as Schismaticks and cast out of Communion or that it should be made the matter of such a breach This is it that hath broken the Church that Bishops have thrust their Rule on men whether they would or not and have taken their Negative voice at least if not their sole Jurisdiction to be so necessary as if there could be no Church without it or no man were to be endured that did not acknowledge it but he that denyeth their disputable Power must be excommunicated with them that blaspheme God himself And as the Pope will have the acknowledgement of his Power to be inseparable from a member of the Catholike Church and cast out all that deny it so such Bishops take the acknowledgement of their Jurisdiction to be as inseparable from a member of a particular Church and consequently as they suppose of the universal and so to deny them shall cut men off as if they denyed Christ. This savoureth not of the humility that Christ taught his followers 4. Nor would I have any forced to declare whether they only submit for Peace or consent in approbation nor whether they take the Bishops Negative vote to be by Divine Institution and so Necessary or by the Presbyters voluntary consent contract as having power in several cases to suspend the exercise of their own just authority when the suspension of it tendeth to a publike Good No duty is at all times a duty If a man be to be ordained by a Presbytery it is not a flat duty to do it at that time when the President is absent except in case of flat necessity why may not the rest of the Presbyters then if they see it conducible to the good of the Church resolve never to ordain except in case of such Necessity but when the President is there and is one therein which is indeed to permit his exercise of a Negative vote without professing it to be his right by any Institution It is lawful to ordain when the President is present it is lawful out of cases of Necessity to forbear when he is absent according therefore to the Presbyterian principles we may resolve to give him de facto a Negative voice that is not to ordain without him but in Necessity and according to the Episcopal principles we must thus do for this point of Ordination is the chief thing they stand on Now if this be all the difference why should not our May be yield to their Must be if the Peace of the Church be found to lye upon it But 5. I would have this Caution too that the Magistrate should not annex his sword to the Bishops censure without very clear reason but let him make the best of his pure spiritual Authority that he can we should have kept peace with Bishops better if they had not come armed and if the Magistrates had not become their Executioners 7. As to the seventh sort viz. A President of a Province fixed without any Negative voice I should easily admit of him not only for Peace but as orderly and convenient that there might be some one to give notice of all Assemblies and the Decrees to each member and for many other mattters of order this is practised in the Province of London pro tempore and in the other Presbyterian Churches And as I said before in the like case I see not why it may not be lawful to have a President quam diu se bene gesserit as well for a moneth or a year or seven years as in our late Assembly two successively were more as I remember so that this kind of Diocesan or Provincial Bishop I think may well be yielded to for the Churches Order and Peace 8. As to the eighth sort of Bishops viz. The Diocesan who assumeth the sole Government of many Parish Churches both Presbyters and People as ten or twelve or twenty or more as they used to do even a whole Diocess I take them to be intolerable and destructive to the Peace and happiness of the Church and therefore not to be admitted under pretence of Order or Peace if we can hinder them But of these we must speak more when we come to the main Question 9. As for the ninth sort of Bishops viz. A Diocesan Ruling all the Presbyâers but leaving the Presbyters to Rule the People and consequently taking to himself the sole or chief Power of Ordination but leaving Censures and Absolution to them except in case of Appeal to himself I must needs say that this sort of Episcopacy is very ancient and hath been for many ages of very common reception through a great part of the Church but I must also say that I can see as yet no Divine institution of such a Bishop taken for a fixed limited officer and not the same that we shall mention in the eleventh place But how far mens voluntary submission to such and consent to be ruled by them may authorize them I have no mind to dispute
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 Geneâal 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
in the expounding of the Scripture they that bring the best Evidence will beget the most Knowledge and they that produce the clearest Divine Testimony will beget most effectually a Divine belief and those that are known to be of far greatest abilities in learning experience and grace and consent with the most of the Church will procure more effectually an humane belief then a weak unlearned unexperienced Pastor of our own therefore the Jurisdiction of supereminent Bishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs will appear to be reduced into so narrow a room and written in so small a character that he hath need of very quick sight that can read it and humble men may be easily drawn to think that the Unity Happiness and Safety of the Church lyeth not in it and that if it had been only for Christ and not their own Greatness there had not been such Contention and Division made about it in the Church as there hath been TO draw some of this which I have said into a narrower room I shall briefly tell you what I could heartily wish both Magistrates and Ministers would speedily accomplish for the order and Peace of the Church in these matters 1. I could wish that they would choose out the ablest Godly men and let them be appointed General Teachers and Guides to call the uncalled and to order confirm and so take care of the Churches that are gathered And if by the Magistrates consent and their own they divide their Provinces it will be but meet These I would have to go up and down to the several Parishes in their Provinces and to have no particular Parishes of their own nor to take the fixed Pastors power from them but to take care that it be by themselves well exercised And I would have the Magistrate keep his sword in his own hand and let these prevail with mens consciences as far as they can and in that way if they would exceed their bounds and arrogate any unjust power to themselves we shall dissent and deny it them and stand upon our ground and deal with them upon equal terms and so need not to fear them And I have cause to think that neither Presbyterians nor all the Independents will be against such General Officers Successors of the old ones as I here describe Not the Presbyterians for in Scotland they appointed and used such in the beginning of their Reformation when they made Visitors of the particular Churches and assigned to each their limited Provinces and so they were Commissioners to cast out Ministers put in others and plant Kirks and they had several Superintendents all which is to be seen in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Kirk of Scotland printed not long agoe again And the Itinerant Commâssioners in Wales that were set there to go about preaching and Reforming doth shew that their Judgements were not against the Power 2. I could wish that every Parish Church may have one Eldership where they may be had or some Elders and Deacons with one Constant Fixed Perfect for Order and Unity 3. I could wsh that Ordination and Constitutions for Unity and Communion may be done only in Synods less or greater and that of many Presbyteries there may consist a Classis as commonly called and of many of those a Province And that the Classical meeting may be frequent and that some one the fittest man may be standing President of that Classis during life except he deserve removal 4. I could wish also that the Provincial Assembly to be held once a quarter or half year in each County may have the most able discreet godly Minister chosen to be the standing President also during life unless he deserve removal So that here are four several sorts of Bishops that for Peace and Order I could consent to to wit 1. A General unfixed Superintendent 2. A fixed Parochial Bishop President of that particular Presbytery 3. A Classical Bishop President of that Classis 4. A Provincial Bishop President of the Provincial Assembly But there is no necessity of these 5. Of the degree of their Power I said enough before It is intolerable they should have a Negative vote in Excommunications and Absolutions and such Government of the people except the Parochial Bishop save only in case of appeals and there I leave it to each mans consideration though I had rather they had none But whether they should be admitted a Negative in Ruling the Pastors I determine not Only in case of Ordination I would have all resolve to do nothing except in a case of Necessity but when the President is One and stop there which will permit him de facto the use of his Negative and yet trouble no mans conscience to acknowledge de jure that it Must so be for to that none should be forced This much I could willingly yield to for reconciliation and unity And I doubt not but I shall be sufficiently reproached by some for yielding so far and by others for yielding no further AND now at last after these not needless preparations I come to the main Question it self Whether it be Necessary or Profitable for the right Order or Peace of the Churches to restore the extruded Episcopacy And this I deny and having said so much already for explication shall presently give you the Reasons of my denyal in which the rest of the necessary explication will be contained Argument 1. That sort of Prelacy or other Government which destroyeth the End of Government and is certainly inconsistent with the Necessary Government and discipline to be exerciâed in the Churches is not to be restored under pretence of the Churches Order or Peace nor can be consistent with its right Order and Peace But such is the Episcopacy which was of late exercised in England and is now laid by Therefore c. The Major needs no proof for few Christians I think will deny it If Episcopacy as lately here exercised be the certain excluder of Government it self and Christs discipline while it only retains the empty name then doubtless it is not to be restored The Minor I prove thus If there be a very Natural Impossibility that the late English Episcopacy though in the hands of the best men in the world should Govern the Churches as Christ hath appointed and as they should and may otherwise be Governed then the foresaid inconsistency and destructiveness is apparent But that there is such a Natural Impossibility for the late English Episcopacy to Govern the Church thus I shall prove 1. By shewing you what is undoubtedly necessary in Christs Government 2. And then what was the late English Episcopacy and then 3. The Impossibility will appear of it self when both these are opened and compared together without any more ado 1. And 1. It is past controversie among us that Church Governours should watch over each particular soul in their flock and instruct the ignorant admonish the faln convince gainsayers counterwork seducers among them
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 uâless 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 sâdden 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 âause 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 thân 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
altogether neglect it So that some through a Carnal indulging of their own ease and quiet and to avoid mens ill will and some through the great oppositions of the people or for one such cause or other do let all alone In so much as even here in this County where we have associated and engaged our selves to some execution of Discipline this work goes on so heavily as we see and need not mention further when yet there is not a daies omission of Sermons and other Ordinances so that its apparent that its it which all lazie carnal man-pleasing Ministers may well comply with as that which suites their Carnal Interests to be free from the toil and care of Discipline If you say why then do the Bishops desire it if flesh and blood be against it I answer Experience and the impossibility of performance tells us that it is not the work but the empty name and honour that they took up and that indeed the flesh doth much more desire Had they desired or been willing of the work as they were of Lordships and Riches they would have done it Argum. 9. NO Episcopacy at least which hath so many evils as aforesaid attending it which is not of Gods Institution should be admitted into the Church The late English Prelacy as to the disapproved properties before mentioned is not of Gods Institution therefore it is not to be admitted into the Church The Major is confessed by all that plead for the Ius Divinum of Episcopacy or most and with the qualification from the ill consequents will be yielded by all The Minor I prove by parts 1. That the exclusion of Presbyters from Rule and the putting the Government from them into a Lay-mans hand with the rest before mentioned are not of Divine Institution is proved already as much as needs 2. If at the present we yield a superintendency or preheminence of one Pastor before others yet the Controversie remaineth whether a Prelate should be only Parochial that is only the President of the Elders of one particular Church or at the utmost of that with two or three or a few neighbour small Parishes which he may well oversee without the neglect of the Discipline Now I know not how any man of that way can prove out of Scripture that a Bishop must have more then one Parish much less more then three or four or a few For it is confest by them for ought I know that Scripture doth not determine how many Presbyters or Churches a Bishop must have under him only we say he must have but one for the main thing that they labour to prove is that a Bishop is above Presbyters as to Ordination and Jurisdiction and so he may be if he be a Parish-Bishop for a Parish-Church may have a Curate and 2 or 3 Chappels with Curates at them besides Deacons and according to the old course perhaps many Presbyters more that did not publikely preach though they wanted not authority but oversee the flock Now one man may have all that most of their Arguments require if he be but the chief over this Parish Presbytery But perhaps they will say that according to Scripture every City only must have a Bishop and therefore all the Country about must be his Diocess though the number of Churches and Presbyters under him be not determined To which I answer that the word Only is not in Scripture no Text saith that it was Only in Cities that Churches or Bishops were to be seated There is no prohibition of setling them in Villages It will be said that There is no example of any Bishop but in a City To which I answer 1. Themselves ordinarily tell us in case of Sacrament gesture and many other things that examples do not alway bind affirmatively much less can they prove that they bind negatively I mean not to do that which was not done Can you prove in Scripture that there were any particular Churches or Assemblies for Sacraments and other worship in Villages If not then is it lawful now to have any If not then all our Parish Churches in the Country are unlawful If yea then why may we not have Bishops in the Countreys without Scripture example as well as Churches for we shall prove that the reasons why there were none or few Bishops in the Country was for want of Churches for them to oversee The Gospel was not then preached nor any Bishops placed in many Nations of the world it doth not follow therefore that there must be none since 2. The reason is evident why Churches and Bishops were first planted in Cities because there was the greatest Concourse of people not that God loves a Citizen better then a Countrey-man or that he will have his Churches so limited to soil or place or scituation it is the number of persons where-ever they live that must be regarded that the Church be not too great nor too small but if there be the same number of people Cohabiting in the Countrey as one of the Apostolical Churches did consist of then there is the same reason to have a Church and Bishop in that Country Village as was then for having one in a City 3. Elders should be ordained in every Church and therefore Bishops for some of them say that these were Bishops But Churches may be in Country Villages therefore Elders and Bishops may be in Country-Villages 4. I prove from Scripture that there were Bishops in Villages or out of Cities thus Where there was a Church there was a Bishop But in a Village there was a Church therefore The Major I prove from Act. 14.23 compared with 1 Tim. 3. They ordained them Elders in every Church or Church by Church but these Elders are called Bishops in 1 Tim. 3. and by some of that way maintained to be such For the Minor I prove it from Rom. 16.1 where there is mention of the Church at Cenchrea but Cenchrea was no City but as Grotius speaks Portus Corinthiorum ut Piraeus Atheniensium viz. ad sinum Saronicum apparet ibi Ecclesiam fuisse Christianorum Grot. in Act. 18.18 in Rom. 16.1 vide et Downam Defensâ pag. 105. who out of Strabâ saith it was the Port that served most properly for Asia But Bishop Downam saith ibid. that Cenchrea was a Parish subordinate to the Church of Corinth having not a Bishop or Presbytery but a Presbyter assigned to it so before he saith by a Church he means a Company of Chrâstiâns haâing a Bishop and Presbytery But if he will so define a Church as that the Prelate shall enter the Definition then he may well prove that every Church had a Prelate And so a Patriarch may be proved to be Necessary to every Church if you will say you mean only such congregations as have a Patriarch But it was denominated a Church Act. 14.23 before they had Presbyters ordained to them and so before fixed Bishops when the Apostles had converted and congregated them they
were Churches And the Text saith that they ordained them Elders in every Church or Church by Church and therefore Cenchrea being a Church must have such Elders ordained to it according to the Apostles Rule And that it was a Parish with one Presbyter subject to Corinth is all unproved and therefore to no purpose 5. Yet I prove that the English Prelacy on their own grounds is not Iure Divino in that it is against the word of God according to their own interpretation of which next Argum. 10. THat Episcopacy which is contrary to the wârd of God or Apostolical Institution according to their own interpretation is not to be restored But such is the late English Episcopacy therefore c. I prove the Minor for the Major needeth none according to their own interpretation of Tit. 1.5 and other Texts Every City should have a Bishop and if it may be a Presbytery And so many Councils have determined only when they grew greater they except Cities that were too small but so did not Paul But the late Episcopacy of England is contrary to this for one Bishop only is over many Cities If therefore they will needs have Episcopacy they should at least have had a Bishop in every City and though we do not approve of confining them to Cities yet this would be much better then as they were for then 1. They would be nearer their charges and within reach of them 2. And they would have smaller charges which they might be more capable of overseeing for there would be ten or twenty Bishops âor one that be now If they say that except Bath and Wells Coventry and Licâfiâld or some few they have but one City I answer it s not so For every Corporation or Burrough-Town is truly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and therefore should have a Bishop Let them therefore either prove that a Market-Town a Burrough a Corporation is not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or else let every one of these Towns and Burroughs have a Bishop to govern that Town with the Neighbouring Villages by the consent and help of the Presbyters of these Vilâages according to their own grounds And if it were so they would be no more then Classical Bishops at most Perhaps they 'le say that while we pretend to take down Bishops we do but set up more and would have many for one while we would have every Corporation or Parish to have a Bishop To which I answer its true but then it is not the same sort of Bishops which we would exclude and which we would multiply we would exclude those Bishops that would undertake two or three hundred mens work themselves and will rule a whole Diocess alone or by a Lay Chancellor when every conscionable man that hath faithfully tryed it doth feel the oversight of one Congregation to be so great a burden that it makes him groan and groan again We would exclude those Bishops that would exclude all others in a whole Diocess that they may do the work alone and so leave it undone while they plead that it belongs to them to do it If they will come into the Lords Harvest and exclude from the work of Government the Labourers of a whole County or two we have reason to contradict them But this is not to bring in more such Bishops as they that will shut out others but to keep in the necessary labouring Bishops whom they would shut out Nor do we shut out them themselves as Labourers or Rulers but as the excluders of the Labourers or Rulers If we have a Church to build that requireth necessarily two hundred workmen and some Pillars in it to Erect of many hundred tun weight if one of the workmen would say that it belongs to him to do it all himself or at least when the materials are brought to the place prepared to rear and order and place every stone and pillar in the building I would no oâherwise exclude the vain pretender then by introducing necessary help that the work may be done and I should think him a silly Civiller âhat would tell me that while I exclude him I do âut multiply such as he when his every fault consisted in an hinderance of that necessary multiplication I know that some will say that we feign more work then is to be done and we would have the sentence of Excommunication pass upon every light offence I answer that its a thing that we abhor we would have none Excommunicated but for obstinacy in hainous sin when they will not hear the Church after more private admonition But there 's much more of the work of Government to be done on men that are not Excommunicable to bring them to Repentance and open confession for manâfeââaâion of that Repentance to the satisfaction of the Church but what need we plead how great the work is which every man may see before his eyes and experience putteth beyond dispute Furthermore that the English Episcopacy is dissonant from all Scripture Episcopacy I prove thus The Scripture knoweth but two sorts of Episcopacy the one General unfixed as to any Church or Country or Nation which was not called Episcopacy in the first times the other âixed Overseers of determinate Churches appropriated to their special charge these were called Bishops in those times whereas the former were some called Apostles from their immediate mission and exâraordinarâ Priviledges or Evangelists or Fellow labourers and heâpers of the Apostles or by the like titles signifying their unlimited indeterminate charge But our English Bishops are neither of these therefore not any of Scripture appointment but different from them 1. They are not of the Apostolical Order of General Ministers for 1. Their principal work was Preaching to convert and congregate and then order Churches but our Bishops seldom preached for the most part 2. They were not tyed to any particular Church more then other save only as prudence directed them pâo tempore re nat for the succeâs of their work for the Church Unâveâsâl nor were they excluded or restrained from any part of the world as being another mans Diocess save only as prudence might direct them for the common good to distribute themselves pro tempore This is apparenâ 1. by Christs Commission who sendeth them into all the world only by certain advantages and particular calls sitting Peâer more for the Circumcision and Paul for the Uncircumcision when yet both Petâr and Paul and all the rest did preach and look to both Circumcision and Uncircumcision 2. By the History of their peregrinations and labours which shew that they were not so fixed whatever some writers may ungroundedly affirm Eusâbius discrediting by fabulous mixtures the lighter sort of his Testimonies and censured by some rejection by Gelasius and others and some with him do tell us of some such things as some Apostles being fixed Bishops but with no such proofs as should satisfie a man that weighs the contrary
intimations of Scripture and the discord of these reporters among themselves Only it is certain that nature it self would so restrain them that as they could be but in one place at once so they could not be in perpetual motion and prudence would keep them longest in those places where most work was to be done And therefore Pauls three years abode at Ephesus and the neighbouring parts of Asia did not make him the fixed Diocesan Bishop of Ephesus And what I say of the Apostles I say also of many such Itinerant unfixed Ministers which were their helpers as Silas Apollo Barnabas Titus Timothy c. For though Timothy be called by some Anâients the first Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Crete yet it is apparent they were no such fixed Ministers that undertook a Diocess durantâ vita as their proper charge which were then called Bâshops but they were âtinerant helpers of the Apostles in gathering planting and first ordering of Churches And therefore Titus was left in a whole Nation or large Island to place Bishops or Elders in each City and set things in order and this but till Paul come and not to be himself their fixed Bishop and Timothy is proved by Scripture to have been unsetled and itinerant as a helper of Paul after that he is by some supposed to be fixed at Ephesus I will not needlesly actum agere let any man that is unsatisfied of this read impartially Mr. Prins unbishoping of Timothy and Titus and note there the Itinerary of Timothy from Scripture Texts If therefore our Bishops would have been of the Apostles and their General helpers race they should have gone up and down to gather and plant Churches and then go up and down to visit those which they have planted or if they live where all are Enchurched already they should go up and down to preach to the rudâr sort of them and by the power of the word to subdue men further to Christ anâ to see that all Ministers where they come do their duty reproving and admonishing those that neglect it but not forbidding them to do it as a thing belonging only to them And by Spiritual weapons and authority should they have driven Ministers to this duty and not by meer secular force of which more anon 2. And as for the fixed Bishops of Apostolical Institution our English Prelacy are not like them For the fixed Bishops established by the Apostles were only Overseers of one particular Church But the English Prelates were the Overseers of many particular Churches Therefore the English Prelates were not the same with the old Bishops of the Apostles institution The course that the Prelates take to elude this argument is by giving us a false definition of a particular Church That we may not therefore have any unprofitable strife about words I shall signifie my own meaning By a Particular Church I mean an Associated or combined company of Christians for Communion in Publick Worship and Furtherance of each other in the way to heaven under the Guidance of Christs Church Officers one Elder or more such as are undivided or Churches of the first order commonly called Ecclesiae Primae as to existence and which contain not divers Political Churches in them A family I mean not for that 's not a Political Church having no Pastor An accidental company of Christians I mean not For those are no Association and so no Political Church Nor do I mean a National or Diocesane or Classical Church or any the like which are composed of many particular Churches of the first order conjunct It is not of Necessity that they alway or most usually meet in one Congregation because its possible they may want a capacious convenient room and its possible they may be under persecution so that they may be forced to meet secretly in small companies or there may be some aged weak people or children that cannot travail to the chief place of Meeting and so may have some Chappels of ease or smaller meeting But still it must be a number neither so big nor so small as to be uncapable of the ends of Association which enter the definition how ever weaknâss age or other accidents may hinder some members from that full usefullness as to the main end whith other members have So that they which are so many or live at such a distance as to be uncapable of the ends are not such a Church nor are capable of so being For the number will alter the species In a word it cannot I think be proved that in the Primitive times there was any one fixed Bishop that Governed and Oversaw any more then one such particular political Church as was not composed of divers lesser political Churches nor that their Churches which any fixed Bishop oversaw were more then could hold Communion in Worship in one publick place for so many of them as could ordinarily hear at once for all the families cannot usually come at once they were not greater then some of our English Parishes are nor usually the tenth part so great I have been informed by the judicious inhabitants that there are fourscore thousand in Giles Cripple-gate Parish in London and about fifty thousand in Stepney and fourty thousand in Sepulchres There cannot any Church in Scripture be found that was greater nor neer so great as one of these Parishes No not the Church at Ierusalem it self of which so much is said No not if you admit all the number of moveable Converts and Sojournours to have been of that particular Church which yet cannot be proved to have been so I know Bishop Downam doth with great indignation Dispute that Diocesses were beâore Parishes and that it was more then one Congregation that was contained in those Diocesses We will not contend about the name Diocess and Parish which by the Ancients were sometime used promiscuously for the same thing But as to the thing signified by them I say that what ever you call it a Diocess or a Parish there were not near so many souls as in some English Parishes nor take one with another their Churches commonly were no more Numerous then our Parishes nor so numerous A Diocess then and a Parish were the same thing and both the same as our particular Churches now are that is the Ecclesiae primae or Soceities of Christians combined under Church-Rulers for holy Communion in Worship and Discipline And there were no otherwise many Congregations in one Church then as our Chapples of ease or a few meeting in a private house because of rainy weather are many Congregations in one Parish The foresaid Learned and Godly though angry Bishop Downame saith Def. li. 2. cap. 1. page 6. that Indeed at the very first Conversion of Cities the whole Number of the people converted being some not much greater then the Number of the Presbyters placed among them were able to make but a small Congregation Call that Church then a Diocess or a Parish I
acres of Land and not by the number of souls whereas they should have done as the Bee-hives do when they are ready to swarm so that the old hive cannot contain them all the swarm removes and seeks them another habitation and makes them a New hive of their own So when a Church grows big enough for two Churches one part should remove to another meeting place and they should become two Churches and the later be of the same sort as the former and as free and not become subject to the former as if men had right to be Rulers of others because they were Converted before them or because they dwell in a walled City and others in the Villages This Error therefore was no contrived or suddain thing but crept on by degrees as Countries were Converted and Churches enlarged we are agreed therefore de facto that it was otherwise in the Apostles daies and that soon after in some places it came to that pass as the Prelates would have it in some degree But whether the Apostles were willing of the change is the Question between us we deny it and expect their better proof And till they prove it we must needs take it for our duty to imitate that Government which themselves confess was only practised in Scripture times supposing this the safest way BUt yet though the proof lye on their part who affirm the Apostles to have had such Intentions that Pastors of single Congregations should afterward become the Pastors of many I shall ex super abundanti give them some Reasons for the Negative 1. And first we are most certain that the holyest Pastors of the Church had so much Pride and Ambition that might possibly make them guilty of such a mistake as tended to the âncrease of their own power and rule We find even the twelve Apostles contending in Christs own presence for the Primacy till he is put sharpâly to rebuke them and tell them the Necessity of humility and teach them better the state of his Kingdom Paul met with many that contended against him for a preheminence and put him upon all those defences of the dignity of his Apostleshipâ which we find him using Peter found it necessary to warn the Pastors that they should not Lord it over Gods Heritage And Iohn did meet with a Lording Diotrephes that loved to have the preheminence While they lay under the Cross the Bishops were aspiring and usurping authority over one another or else Victor of Rome had not presumed to Excommunicate the Asian Bishops for not conforming to his opinion What abundance of unworthy contentions did the Bishops of the first ages fill the Churches with and much about superiority who should be greatest what should be the priviledges of their several Seas c. Their pride no doubt was a great cause of their contention and those contentions necessitated the interposition of Emperors to reconcile them that could not agree of themselves If the Emperors called a Council to that end even the Council it self would fall to pieces and make all worse if the Magistrate did not moderate them Had not Constantine burnt the Nicene Schedules and done much to maintain an Union among them the success of that Council might have been such as would have been no great encouragement to succeeding ages to seek for more What bitter quarrels are there between the most eminent of all the Fathers and Bishops of the Church between Chrysostom and Epiphanius Chrysostom and Theophilus Alexandrinus Hierom and Iohn of Ierusalem Ierome and Ruffinus besides his quarrels with Chrysostom and Augustine I open not the concealed nakedness of the Saints but mention those publike doleful tragedies which made the Church an amazement to it self and a scorn to the Heathens that lived about them witness the well known censure of Ammianus Marcellinus when so many people shall be murdered at once in contention for a Bishoprick as were at the choice of Damasus ambition was too predominant The mentioning of the contentions of those most excellent Bishops and the first four general Councils makes Luther break out into so many admiring exclamations in his Treatise de Conciliis that ever such men should so ambitiously quarrel about toyes and trifles and childish things and that even to the disturbing of all the Churches and setting the Christian world on a flame Of the two Churches of Rome and Constantinople he saith Ita hae âuae Ecclesiae ambitiose rââatae sunt de re nihili vanissimis nugacissimis naeniis doneââândem utraque horribiliter vastata deleta est pag. 175. This caused Nazianzen who complaineth so much himself of the âdium or displeasure of his fellow Bishops to profess himself to be so affected that he would avoid all Assemblies of Bishops because he had never seen a good end of any Synod and which did not rather increase the evils than remove them and his reason is not as Bâllarmine feigneth only because they were all Arrians but because The desire of contending and of preheminency or principality and their emulation did overcome reason which Luther mentioning ib. pag. 225. wondereth that for these words he was not excommunicated as an arrant heretick Who knoweth not that knoweth any thing of Church history how the Church hath been torn in pieces in all ages except the first by the dissention of the Bishops till the Pope drew part of them to unite in him And who knoweth not that knoweth any thing of the present state of the Christian world into how many fractions it is broken at this day and almost all through the Division of these Guides If therefore we shall imagine that the Pastors of the Church could not be tainted with so much ambition as to inlarge their own Diocesses and gather the new Chuches under themselves when they should have formed them into the same order and freedom as were the first we shall shut our eyes against the most full experience of the Christian world especially when the change was made by degrees 2. The second Reason that perswadeth me to stick to the sole practised Government in Scripture times and not to alter it upon pretended Intentions of the Apostles is this Nothing that intimateth temerity or mutability is to be charged upon the Holy Ghost but to institute one frame or species of Church-government for Scripture times and to change it presently into another species to all succeeding ages doth intimate temerity or mutability or at least is so like it that therefore without good proof it is not to be charged on the Holy Ghost That they are two distinct species of Government is plain one is the Government of a Particular Congregation without any other Congregations or Elders under that Government the other is the Governing of many Elders and Churches by one supereminent Prelate and if these be not two differing sorts of Government then let the Prelates confess that the Government which we would continue is of the same
Certainly if subject Presbyters were not till after Scripture times nor any settled Worshipping Church without a Presbyter unless the people preached and administred the Sacraments then there could be no Worshipping Church that had not their own proper Governour nor any such Governour fixed that had more Churches then one Reason 4. The contrary opinion feigneth the Apostles to have allotted to each Bishop a space of ground for his Diocess and to have measured Churches by such spaces and not by the number of souls But this is unproved absurd 1. Unproved For there is no place in Scripture that giveth the Bishop charge of all that space of ground or of all the Christians that shall be in that space during his time Indeed they placed a Bishop in each City when there was but a Church in each City But they never said there shall be but one Church in a City or but one Bishop in a City much less in all the Country region 2. And its absurd For it s the number of souls that a Church must be measured by and not a space of ground so they do but co-habite For if in the same space of Ground there should be twenty or an hundred times as many Christians it would make the number so great as would be uncapable of personal communion and of obtaining Church Ends. If a Schoolmaster have a School in the chief City or Town of this County and there come as many from many miles compass as one School can hold and there be no more there so long all that space may belong to his School not for the space sake but the number of Schollars For if there be afterward an hundred times as many in that space to be taught they must set up more Schools and it were no wise part in the old Schoolmaster to maintain that all that Country pertaineâh to his School because that it was so when there were fewer So that to measure our the matter of Churches by space of ground and not by number of souls is plainly against the Reason of the Relation Reason 5. The opposed opinion doth imply that God more regardeth Cities then Country Villages or that Churches are to be measured according to the number and greatness of Cities rather then according to the number of souls For they suppose that every City should have a Bishop if there be but twenty or fourty or an hundred Christians in it but if there be five hundâed Country Parishes that have some of them many thousand souls in them these shall have no Bishops of their own but be all ruled by the Bishop of the City Now how unreasonable this is methinks should not be hard to discern For 1. What is a City to God any more then a Village that for it he should make so partial an institution Doth he regard Rome any more then Eugubium or Alexandria more then Tanis for their worldly splendor or priviledges No doubtless it is for the multitude of inhabitants And if so its manifest that an equal number of inhabitants elsewhere should have the same kind of Government 2. Is it probable that God would have twenty thousand or an hundred thousand people in a Diocess and in some a Million to have but one Church-Ruler and yet would have every small congregation in a City to have one though there be none else under him What proportion is there in this way of Government that an hundred or fifty men shall have as many Governours as a Million as if ten thousand or an hundred thousand Schollars ouâ of a City shall have no more Rulers then an hundred in a ãâã and all because one part are in a City and the other not Or a Physitian shall have but an hundred Patients to look to in a City and if there be a Million in that City and Country he shall also upon pain of Gods everlasting wrath undertake the care of them all Let them that strive for such a charge look to it I profess I admire at them what they think 1. Of the needs of men souls 2. Of the terrours of Gods wrath 3. And of their own sufficiency for such a work Were it my case if I know my own heârt at all I should fear that this were but to strive to damn thousands and to be damned with them by undertaking on that penalty to be their Physitian under Christ when I am sure I cannot look to the hundreth man of them and I had rather strive to be a gally-slave to the Turks or to be preferred to rid Chaâels or the basest office all my dayes Reason 6. According to the opposâd opinion it is in the power of a King to make Bishops to be either Congregational or Diocesan to make a Bishâp to haâe a Million of souls or a whole Nation in charge or to have but aâ few For if a King will but dissolve the Priviledge and title and make that no City whâch was a City though he diminish not the number of souls and if he will do thus by all the Cities save one in his dominion then must there be but one Bishop in his dominion And if he will but make every countrey Town that hath four or five hundred or a thousand inhabitants to be incorporate and honour it with the title and priviledges of a City thân shall they have a Bishop Moreover thus every Prince may de jure banish Episcopacy out of his Dominions without diminishing the number of Christians if he do but defranchise the Cities and be of the mind as I have heard some men have been that Cities are against the Princes interest by strengthening the people and advantaging them to rebellions Also if there be any Indian Nations so barbarous as to have no Cities though they were converted yet must they have no Bishops Also it would be in the Princes power de jure to depose any of those Bishops that the Apâstles or their Successors are supposed to set up For the Râman Emperour might have proclaimed Antioch Alexandria or any of the rest to be no Cities and then they must have no longer have had any Bishops And what Bishâps shall Antioch have at this day Now how absurd all this is I need not manifest that whole Contreâeâ shâll have no Government for want of ãâã that Kings shall so alter Church Officers at their pleâsure âhen they intend it not meerly by altering the Civil Priviledgâs of their people that a King may make one Diocess to become an hundred and an hundred become one by such means And yet all this doth undenâably follow if the Law be that every City and only every City shall be a Bishops Sea where there are Christians to be governed Reason 7. There is no sufficient Reason given why subject Pââsâbyters should not have been set up in the Scripture times as well as after if it had been the Apostles intent that such should be instituted The Necessity pretended was
Bishops who gathered as many as they could under their own Government when they should have erected new Churches as free as their own Reason 12. If the Description of the Bishops settled in the New Testament and the work affixed to them be such as cannot agree to our Diocesan Bishops but to the Pastors of a single Church then was it never the mind of the Holy Ghost that those Bishops should degenerate afterwards into Diocesan Bishops But the Antecedent is certain therefore so is the Consequent I here still suppose with Learned Dr. H Annot. in Act. 11. passim that the name Presbyter in Scripture signifieth a Bishop there being no Evidence that in Scripture time any of that Second Order viz. subject Presbyters were then instituted Though I am far from thinking that there was but one of these Bishops in a Church at least as to many Churches Now as we are agreed de facto that it was but a single Church that then was under a Bishop and not many such Churches for that follows undenyably upon the denying of the existence of subject Presbyters seeing no such Churches can be nor the worshipping Assemblies held without a Bishop or Presbyter so that it was the mind of the Apostles that it should so continue is proveed by the Desciption and work of those Scripture Bishops Argument 1. From Acts 20.28 29 31. The Bishops instituted and fixed by the Holy Ghost were and are to take heed to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them overseeers to feed the Church of God and to watch against Wolves and to warn every one night and day But this cannot be done by Diocesan Bishops nor any that have more then one Church Therefore Diocesan Bishops are not the Bishops that the Holy Ghost hath so fixed and instituted such as Paul describeth were to continue and that 's such as can do that work Argument 2. The Bishops that the Holy-Ghost settled and would have continue and had the Power of Ordination given them were such as were to be Ordained in every City and every Church Acts 14.23 Tit. 1.3 4 5. See Dr. Hammonds Annotat. But it is not Diocesan Bishops that are such for they are over many Churches and Cities therefore it is not Diocesan Bishops that were settled by the Holy Ghost nor meant in those texts Ar. 3. The Bishops which were instituted by the Holy Ghost and are meant in Scripture were to watch for their peoples souls as those that must give account Ruling over them and to be obeyed by all and speaking to them the word of God Heb. 13.7 17 24. But this cannot be done by a Bishop to a whole Diocess nor will they be willing of such an account if they be wise therefore it is not Diocesan Bishops that are meant in Scripture Argument 4. The Bishops settled for continuance in Scripture were such as all the people were to know as labouring among them and over them in the Lord and admonishing them and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake 1 Thes. 5.12 13. But this cannot be meant of our Diocesan Bishop whom the hundreth part of the flock shall never see hear nor be admonished by therefore it is not such that were settled for continuance in the Church Argument 5. The Bishops settled by the Holy Ghost must by any that are sick be sent for to pray over them But this a Diocesan Bishop cannot do to the hundreth or thousandth person in some places therefore it is not Diocesan Bishops but the Bishops of a single Church that are capable of these works that are meant by the Holy Ghost to continue in the Church and consequently to whom the power of Ordaining was committed If any question whether the Texts alleadged do speak of subject-Presbyters or Bishops I refer them to the foresaid Reverend Doctor with whom I am agreed that there were no subject-Presbyters instituted in Scripture times Reason 13. It was not one or two or all Churches for a year or two or more in their meer fieri or infancy before they were well formed that consisted only of one settled worshipping Assembly and its guides but it was the formed and stablished state of the particular Churches To prove this I shall briefly do these three things 1. I shall shew it in respect to the Jewish Synagogues 2. As to the Churches in the Apostles dayes after many years growth even of every Church that 's mentioned in the New Testament as a particular Political Church 3. As to some of the Churches after the Apostles dayes mentioned by the ancients 1. It is apparent that the Jews Synagogues were particular Congregational Churches having each one their several Rulers and as many Learned men suppose they had an Ecclesiastical Judicature of Elders belonging to each of them where fit men could be found and this distinct from the Civil Judicature Or as others think they had a Sanhedrim which had power to judge in both Causes and one of these was in every City that is in Places of Cohabitation For in every City of Israel which had one hundred and twenty families or free persons say others they placed the Sanhedrim of twenty three And in every City which had not one hundred and twenty men in it they set the smallest Judicature of three Judges so be it there were but two wise men among them fit to teach the Law and resolve doubts See Aânsworth on Numb 11.16 citing Talmud Bab. Maimonides more at large And doubtless many of our Country Villages and almost all our Parishes have more then 120. and every Country Village may come in in the lesser number below 120. which are to have three Elders and that say some was every place where were ten men And that these were under the great Sanhedrim at Ierusalem is nothing to the matter For so we confess that such particular Churches as we mention have some such General officers over them de jure as the Apostolical men were in the Primitive Church but not that any of these Synagogues were under other Synagogues though one were in a great City and the other but in a small Town And that these Synagogues were of Divine institution is plain in divers texts particularly in Lev. 23.1 2 3. where a convocation of holiness or a holy Convocation is commanded to be on every Sabboth in all their dwellings which most plainly could be neither the meeting at Ierusalem at the Temple nor yet in single families and therefore it is not to much purpose that many trouble themselves to conjecture when Synagogues began and some imagine it was about the Captivity For as their controversie can be but about the form of the meeting place or the name so its certain that some place there must be for such meetings and that the meetings themselves were in the Law commanded by God and that not to be tumultuary confused ungoverned Assemblies If the scourging in
would not lay too great a stress upon any forms or modes which may be altered or diversified Let the Church have but such a Number of souls as may be consistent with the ends and so the essence of a particular Church that they may held personal holy communion and then I will not quarrel about the name of one or two Congregations nor whether they must needs all meet together for all ordinances nor the like Yea I think a full number so they be not so full or distant as to be uncapâble of that communion are desireable for the strength and beauty of the Church and too smal Churches if it may be to be avoided So that all the premises being considered out difference appears to be but small in these matters between the Congregational and Presbyterian way among them that are moderate I shall not presume more particularly to enter into that debate which hath been so far proceeded in already by such Reverend men but shall return to the rest of the task before promised against the Diocesan Churches as the supposed subject of the Bishops Government As for Scripture times and the next succeeding together I shall before I look into other testimonies propound these two Arguments 1. From the Bishops office which was before mentioned If the office of a Bishop in those times was to do so much work as could not be done by him for a Church any greater than our Parishes then were the Churches of those times no greater then our Parishes But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the consequent The works are before mentioned Preaching Praying administring the Lords Supper visiting the sick reducing hereticks reproving censuring absolving to which they quickly added too much more of their own The impossibility of a faithful performance of this to more is so undenyable that I cannot suppose any other answer but this that they might ordain Presbyters to assist them in the work and so do much of it by others But 1. I before desired to see it proved by what authority they might do this 2. Their office and work are so inseparable that they cannot depute others to do their work their proper work without deputing them also to their office For what is an office but the state of one Obliged and Authorized to do such or such a work A Presbyter may not authorize another to preach as the Teacher of a Congregation and to administer the Sacraments without making him a Presbyter also Nor can a Bishop authorize any to do the work of a Bishop in whole or by halves without making him a Presbyter or half a Bishop And he is not authorized either to make new officers in the Church or to do his work by deputies or substitutes 2. I argue also from the Identity of that Church to whâch the Bishops and Deacons were appointed for ministration It was not a Church of many stated Congregations or any larger than our Parishes for number of souls that the Deacons were made Ministers to therefore it was no other or bigger which the Bishops were set oveâ The consequence is good because where ever Deacons are mentioned in Scripture or any Writer that I remember neer to Scripture times they are still mentioned with the Bishops or Presbyters as Ministers to the same Church with them as is apparent bâth in the seven chosen for the Church at Ierusalem and in Phil. 1.1 2. and in the Direction of Paul to Timothy for ordaining them And the Antecedent is proved from the nature of their work For they being to attend on the tables at the Love feasts and the Lords Supper and to look to the poor they could not do this for any greater number of people then we mention Whether they had those feasts in one house or many at once I determine not but for the number of people it was as much as a Deacon could do at the utmost to attend a thousand people I shall proceed a little further towards the times next following and first I shall take in my way the confession of one or two learned men that are for Prelacy Grotius in his Annotat. on 1 Tim. 5.17 saith Sed notandum est in una Vrbe magna sicut plures Synagogas ita plures fuisse Ecclesias id est conventus Christianorum Et cuique Ecclesiae fuisse suum praesidem qui populum alloqueretur Presbyteros ordinaret Alexandriae tantum eum fuisse morem ut unus esset in tota urbe praeses qui ad docendum Presbyteros per urbem distribueret docet nos Sozomenus 1.14 Epiphanius ubi de Ario agit dicitque Alexandriae nunquam duos fuisse ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã voce âa sumpta ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ita ut significat jus illud quod habebat ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So that Grotius affirmeth that Bishops had not then so much as all the converted persons of a great City under their care but the Churches and Assemblies were the same and each Assembly had a Prelate and in the great Cities there were many of these Churches and Prelates and that only the City of Alexandria had the custom of having but one such Bishop in the whole City 2. Those learned men also must grant this cause who maintain that Peter and Paul were both of them Bishops of Rome at once there being two Churches one of the Circumcision under Peter the other of the uncircumcision under Paul and that one of them had Linus and the other Cletus for his Successor and that this Church was first united under Clemens and the like they say of two Churches also at Antioch and elswhere If this be so then there is no Law of God that Bishops should be numbred by Cities but more Bishops then one may be in one City and were even when Christians comparatively were a small part of them 3. Also Mr. Thorndike and others affirm that it was then the custome for the Bishops and Presbyters to sit in a semicircle and the Bishop highest in a Chair and the Deacons to stand behind them This he gathereth from the Apost Constitut. Ignatius Dionysius Arcop and the Jews Constitutions in his Apost form page 71. and Right of the Church c. p. 93.94 95. And if this were so it seems that Bishops Presbyters and Deacons were all the Officers of one such stated Congregation and had not many such Congregations under them For the Bishop could be but in one place at once and therefore this could be the custome but of one Church in his Diocess if he had many whereas it is made the form of the ordinary Christian Assemblies The same learned man Right of Church p. 65. saith that About Saint Cyprians time and not afâre he finds menâion of setled Congregations in the Country By which it may be well conjectured what a small addition the Bishops had out of the Countreys to their City Chuâches and how many Congregations they Governed in the Apostle
dayes and after He affirmeth also that the power of the Keyes belongeth to the Presbyters and that its convertible with the power of celebrating the Eucharist and that 's the Reason Why it belongs to them page 98. ibid. and that the Power of the Keys that is the whole power of the Church whereof that power is the root and sourse is common to Bâshops and Presbyters page 128 and that to this all sides agree page 106. and that by their Grant Deacons and others may preach but not Rule or administer the Lords Supper see page 118.123 And he is far from being of their mind that think in Scripture times there was but one single Bishop without other Presbyters in a Diocesan Church For he supposed many in a Congregation Page 126 he saith You see by St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. that one Assembly whereof he speaks there furnished with a great number of Prophets whether Presbyters or over and above them In the Records of the Church we find divers times a whole Bench of Presbyters presiding at one Assembly And before he had shewed how they sate about the Bishop and the congregation stood before them And page 127. he saith that Clemens the Disciple of the Apostles in his Epistle to the Corinthians to compose a difference among the Presbyters of that Church partly about the celebration of the Eucharist adviseth them to agree and take their turns in it I confess I knnw not whence he hath this doubtless not in the true approved Epistle of Clement but it shews in his judgement 1. That there were then many Presbyters in the Church of Corinth 2. And that that Church was but one Congregation or not very many Else what need the Presbyters take their turns when they might have done it at once 3. That the word Presbyter in Clemens signifieth not a Prelate 4. And it seems this intimateth there was then no Bishop in Corinth else no question but Clemens would have charged these disagreeing Presbyters to obey their Bishop and used some of Ignatius language 5. Nay if Bishops had been then known in the world is it not likely that he would have charged them to get a Bishop if they had not to Govern such a disagreeing Presbytery And page 129 130 131. he shews that the condemning of Marcion at Rome and of Noelus at Ephesus are expresty said by Epiphanius Haeres 42. num 1. 2. Haeres 57 num 1. to have been done and passed by the Act of the Presbyters of those Churches And which is of later date the Excommunication of Andronicus in Sânesius 57. Epist. I find reported to have passed in the same sort and all this agreeable to the practice recorded in Scripture alledging 1. Tim. 5.19 Acts 21.18 citing Cyprian Ep. 46. and the Apost Constit. and saith Bloudell in this might have spared his exact diligence it being granted c. Mr. Thorndike also tells us pag. 62. of the words of Ninius that in Ireland alone Saint Patrick at the first plantation of Christianity founded three hundred and threescore and five Bishopricks And can any man believe that all these had Cities or more then one of our Parish Churches when all Ireland to this day hath not seven Cities and when all this was done at the first plantation of the Gospel I think we had this sort of Episcopacy Even since the Reformation there is reckoned in Ireland but four Arch-bishops nineteen Bishops What think you then were 365. Bishops at the first plantation of the Gospel To proceed to some further Evidence 1. It s manifest in Clemens Rom. Epist. to the Corinthians there is mention of no more but two Orders the one called sometime Bishops sometime Presters the other Deacons page 54.55.57 and this he saith the Apoââles did as knowing that contention would arise about the name of Episcopacy and that they so seâled the Ministerial Offices that others should succeed in them when some were deceased For my part I cannot see the least reason to be of their mind that think Clemens here doth speak only of Prelates or supereminent Bishops of which I refer the Reader to Mr. Burtons notes in his English Translatâon of Clemenâ But suppose it were so If at that time the Churches had none but single Bishops it is plain then that they were but single Congregations For no other Congregations having communion in theâr-then-ordinary publike worship could be managed without a Bishop or Presbyter to do the work But for them that sleight Mr. Burtons other mens plain Reasons concerning the judgement of Clem. Romanus and force his words to speak what they mean not I desire them to observe the judgement of Grotius whom they profess so much to value who in his Epistol 162 ad Bignon gives this as one Reason to prove this Epistle of Clemens genuine Quod nusquam meminit exsortis illius Episcoporum autoritatis quae Ecclesiae consuetudine post Marci mortem Alexandriae atque eo exemplo alibi introduci cepit sed planè ut Paulus Apostolus ostendit Ecclesias communi Presbyterorum qui iidem omnes Episcopi ipsi Pauloque dicuntur consilio fuisse gubernatas Nam quod ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã nominat omnia ista nomina non ad Ecclesiam sed ad Templum Hieros pertinent unde infert omnia recto ordine agenda si Iudaeis tanto magis Christianis You see that Grotius then and Clemens in his judgement were against Prelacy 2. The very same I say of Prelacie Epist. ad Philip. which mentioneth only two sorts Presbyters and Deacons 3. And though Ignatius oft mention three it seems to me that they were all but the Governours or Ministers of one Congregation or of no more people then one of our Parishes In the Epist. ad Smyrâ he saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e. Vbi Episcopus praesens fuerit illuc plebs Congregetur sicuti ubi Christus est omnis militia coelestis aâest as the common interpreter translateth it ut vid. est in Edit Perionii Vsherii c. Vbi comparuerit Episcopus ibi Multitudo sit quemadmodum ubi Christus ibi omnis astat exercitus coelestis as Hier. Vairlenius Videlius translate it Or Vbi utique apparet Episcopus illic multitudo sit quemadmodum utiq ubi est Christus Iesus illic Catholica Ecclesia as Vshers old Tranlation And by the Context it appeareth that this plâbs or multitudo is the Church which he ruleth and not only one Congregation among many that are under him For this doth without distinction bind all the people one as well as another to be where the Bishop is or appeareth viz. in the publick Assembly for Communion in Worship It is plain therefore there that were not then many such Assemblies under him otherwise all save one must have necessarily disobeyed this command And in the Epistle to the Philadelphians he hath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã i. e.
Oratoriâs then one though their Altar were but one there namely where the Bishop was Die solis saith Justin Martyr omnium qui vel in oppidis vel ruri degunt in eundem locum conventus fit Namely as he there tells us to celebrate and participate the holy Eucharist Why was this but because they had not many places to celebâate in and unless this were so whence came it else that a Schismatical Bishop was said constituere or collocare aliud Altare and that a Bishop and an Altar are made correlatives See S. Cyprian Epist. 40.72 73. de unit Eccles. And thus perhaps is Ignatius to be understood in that forequoted passage of his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Unum Altare omni Ecclesiae unus Episcopus cum Presbyterio Diaconis So far Mr. Mead. I hope upon the consent of so admirable a Critick and learned man it will not be so much blame-worthy in me if I speak somewhat the more confidently this way and say that I think that the main confusion and Tyranny that hath overspread the Churches hath been very much from the changing the Apostolical frame of Churches and setting up many Altars and Congregations under one Bishop in one pretended particular Church I had three or four passages ready to cite out of Ignatius but these are so express that I apprehend the rest the less necessary to be mentioned The next therefore that I shall mention shall be the forementioned words of Iustin Martyr Apol. 2 cited by Mr. Mead and by others frequently to this purpose In which I observe all these particulars full to the purpose 1. That they had but one Assembly each Lords day for Church communion for one Church 2. That this was for reading and prayer and the Eucharist 3. That the President who is commonly by those of the Episcopal judgement said to be here meant the Bâshop did preach and give thanks and administer the supper so that it was administred but to one Congregation as under that Bishop of that Church for he could not be in two places at once 4. That to the Absent the Deacons carried their portion after the consecration so that they had not another Meeting and Congregation by themselves for that end This is all so plain that I shall think it needeth no Vindication So that were there but these two Testimonies I should not marvail if Bishop Downam had extended his confession a little further when he acknowledgeth Dâf li. 2. cap. 6. page 104. that At the first and namely in the time of the Apostle Paul the most of the Churches so soon after their Conversion did not each of them exâeed the proportion of a populous Congregation And then we are not out in so interpreting the words of Paul and other writers of the holy Scripture The next that I shall mention whoever was or when ever he lived is Dionys. de Eccles. Hierarch cap. 4. where he tells us that the Praefect who was the Bishop if there were any did Baptize those that were converted and the Presbyters and Deacons did but assist him And abundance of work he mentioneth whâch they had with all that they Baptized and they called all the Congregation together who joyned in Prayers with the Bishop at the Baptism All which shews that he was then the Bishop but of one particular Church which ordinarily Assembled together for publick worship For 1. If he had many such Churches or Congregations under him he could not be thus present to celebrate Baptism in them all Nor would one only be mentioned as his charge 2. Nor is it possible that one Bishop should with so long a way of Baptisme as is there described be able to Baptize all the persons in a Diocess such as ours or the twentieth part of them much less in those times when besides the Infants of Believers the most eminent sort of Baptism and greatest labour was about the multitudes of Adult Converts that by the Gospel were daily added to the Church Gregory Thaumaturgus was as by force made Bishop of Neocesarea and yet his whole Diocess or City had but seventeen âhristians in it at his entrance though when he died he found upon enquiry but seventeen Pagans so great a change was made by the Gospel and by Miracles But by this Diocess of seventeen souls we may conjecture what the Churches were in those times though we should allow others to be an hundred times as great they would not be so great as the tenth part of many Parishes in England See the truth of this passage in Greg. Nissen Oratio in Greg. Thaumatur twice over he recites it And Basil. Mag. l. de Spir. Sanc. c. 19. And Roman Breviar Die 15. Novemb. And the Menolog Graec. mentioned before Greg. Neocesar works Printed ad Paris 1622. But I shall return to some before Gregory The next that I shall cite is Tertullian that well known place in his Apolog. c. 39. Corpus sumus de conscientia Religionis Discipline unitate spei federe Coimus in coetum Congregationem ut ad Deum quasi manu facta precationibus ambiamus orantes Cogimur ad divânarum literarum Commemorationem Certè fidem sanctis vocibus pascimus spem erigimus fiduciam figimus disciplinam praceptorum nihilominus inculcationibus densamus ibidem etiam exhortationes Castigationes censura Divina nam judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu summumque futuri judicii praejudicium est siquis ita deliquerit ut à communicatione Orationis conventus omnis sancti commercii relegetur Praesident probati quiq seniores c. If I be able to understand Tertullian it is here plain that each âhurch consisted of one Congregation which assembled for Worship and Discipline at once or in one place and this Church was it that had Presidents or Seniors to guide them both in Worship and by Discipline So that if there were any more of these Assemblies in one particular Political Church then there were more Bishops then one or else others besides Bishops exercised this Discipline But indeed it s here plainly intimated that Bishops were then the Guides of Congregations single and not of Diocessâs consisting of many such I shall put Tertullians meaning out of doubt by another place and that is de Corona Militis cap. 3. Eucharistiae Sacramemtum in tempore victus omnibus mandatum à Domino etiam antelucanis ritibus nec de aliorum manu âuam praesidentium sumimus And if they received this Sacrament of none but the Presidents and that every Lords day at least as no doubt they did then they could have no more Congregations in a Church then they had Presidents And though Pamelius say that by Presidents here is meant also Presbyters yet those that we now dispute against understand it of the Prelates And if they will not so do then may we will interpret the foresaid passage Apol. to be
was the primitive Government corrupted while men measured their charge by the circuit of Ground thinking they might retain the old compass when they had multiplied converts and therefore should have multiplyed Churches and Bishops To all this I add these observations 1. That the very Nature of Church Government tels us that a Governour must be present upon the place and see to the execution For God hath made us the Laws already and Synods must in way of Vnion determine of the most advantagious circumstances for the perfoâming of the duties which God imposeth And particular Bishops are to guide their particular Congregations in Gods Worship and in order thereto Their guidance is but a subservient means to that worship And therefore they must Rule the Church as a Captain doth his Company in fight or a Physitian his Patient or a Schoolmaster his School by his own presence and not at many miles distance by a Surrogate 2. The doctrine which makes the first particular Political Church to consist of many stated Worshipping Churches like our Parishes doth set on the saddle if not also hold the stirrup for a Diocesan Bishop to get up to head those prepared bodies 3. Seeing the Presbyterians do confess that it is not Necessary but lawful for a particular Political Church to consist of many Worshipping Churches and say It may consist only of one Common Reason and experience will then direct us to conclude that its best ordinarily take up with that one seeing people that know one another and live within the reach of each other for common converse and ordinarily meet and join in the same publick Worship are most capable of the ends of Church Policy and a Pastor capable of guiding such better then other Parishes that he knows not 4. He that makes the Pastor of one Parish the Ruler of the rest adjoining doth lay upon him much more duty then sitting in a Presbyterie to vote in censures For those censures are a small part of Church Government comparatively else most Congregations in England have little or no Government for they have little or none of these Censures Yea indeed true Church Guidance or Government contains a great part if not most of the Pastoral work which a man would be loth to undertake over too many distant unknown Congregations Though he may well undertake in Synods to promote Unity and to do the best he can for the whole Church of Christ. If therefore those of the Congregational way were as neer us in other things as in this before insisted on especially if they would renounce that great mistake of the Peoples having the Power of the Keys or Government and take up for them with a Iudicium Discretionis and just liberty we need not stand at so great a distance And lastly If Ministers of the Gospel would tenderly weigh the greatness of their work and charge and the dreadfulness of their account the worth of souls the power and prevalency of sin the rage of all the Churches enemies and the multitudes of them they would sooner tremble to think of the difficulties in Governing or guiding one Congregation in the way to heaven than grasp at more and think themselves able to be the guides of many and draw such a heavy burden on themselves and prepare for such a reckoning Lest they be offended with my words I will say the like in the words of Chrysostom or whoever else was the Author of the Imperfect work on Matth 20. Hom. 35. pag. mihi 901. Si haec ergo ita se habent secularem quidem primatum desiderare et si ratio non est vel causa est quia etsi justum non est vel utile est Primatum autem Ecclesiasticum concupiscere neque ratio est neque causa quia neque justum est neque utile Quis enim sapiens ultro se subjicere festinat servituti labori dolori quod majus est periculo tali ut det rationem pro omni Ecclesia apud justum judicem nisi forte qui non credit Iudicium Dei nec timet uti abutens primatu suo Ecclesiastico seculariter convertat âum in Secularem Sed ne forte qui talis est in appetendo primatum profectum pietatis pie praetendat dico Nunquid qui in ordine prior est jam meritis est melior And of the Ministerial honours he saith ibid. Dâniq ipsi honores in Christo in prima quidem facie videntur honores revera autem non sunt honores diversi sed sunt diversa Ministeria ut puta honor oculi videtur quia illuminat Corpus Sed ipse honor illuminandi non est ei honor sed Ministerium ejus So much to prove the Proposition that the late English Episcopacy is not to be restored under any pretence of Order or Peace Wherein I have purposely forborn the mention of its Abuses and doleful consequents because they may suppose that Abuse to be separable from the thing Consequents of that which is already Proved TO save the debating of many great Controversies that break the peace and destroy or diminish the Charity of many I may abbreviate the work by giving you some of the true sequels of what hath been sufficiently proved Cons. I. The taking down of the English Episcopacy was as to the thing so far from being evil and deserving the Accusations that some lay upon it that it was a matter of Necessity to the Reformation and well being of the Churches of Christ in these Nations It was no worse a work in it self considered then the curing of a grievous disease is to the sick and the supply of the necessities of the poor in their indigence What guilt lieth upon that man that would have all the sick to perish for fear of injuring one Physitian that had undertaken the sole care of all the County or that would have all the County to have but one Schoolmaster Or an hundred Ships to have but one Pilot and consequently to perish How much greater is their guilt that would have had the forementioned Episcopacy continued to the hazzard of many thousand souls and the abasement and ejection of holy Discipline the pollution of the Churches and the hardening of the wicked and the dishonour of God I mention not this to provoke any to dishonour them but to provoke the persons themselves to Repentance And I intreat them to consider how sad a thing it is that without any great inducement they should draw such a mountain of guilt upon their souls The Bishops had the temptation of Honour and Riches but what honour or gain have you to seduce you to choose a share with other men in their sin and punishment I meddle not here with the Manner of demolishing Episcopacy but with the Matter because I would not mix other Controversies with this But I am confident those men that usually own the late Episcopacy and revile them that demolisht it shall one
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 ââârpation 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
collectus est adunatus in individua concordia sibi junctus Soli illi foris remanserint qui etsi intus essent ejiciendi fuerant Qui cum Episcopo non est in Ecclesia non est that is in that particular Church Cyprian had a people that could all meet together to consult or consent at least about the Communion or Excommunication of thâ members Epist. 55. Cornel. he tells Cornelius how hard the people were to admit the lapsed or scandalous upon their return if the manifestation of repentance were not full The Church with whom the person had Communion was then it that had a Bishop and was no greater then to be capable of the Cognizance of his cause and of receiving satisfaction by his personal penitence Brethren for so I will presume to call you whether you will or not Some experience hath perswaded me that if we had honestly and faithfully joyned in the practice of so much of Discipline as all our principles require it would have helped us to that experimental knowledge by the blessing of God which would have brought us nearer even in our Principles then our idle Disputations separated from practice will ever do As Augustine saith of the disputes de causa mali Lib. de utilitat Credendi cap. 18. Dum nimis quaerunt unde sit malum nihil reperiunt nâsi malum so I may say of these disputes while we thus dispute about the causes of disorder and division we find nothing but disorder and division It is easie to conjecture of the ends and hearts of those that cry down Piety as preciseness while they cry up their several waâes of order it seems they would have ordered impiety and their order must be a means to keep down holiness which all just order should promote Those men that can fall in with the most notoriously ungodly and favour and flatter them for the strengthening of their interest do tell us what Discipline we may expect from them If they tell us that our Churches also are corrupted and all are not truly or eminently godly we can say to them as Augustine lib. de utilitat Credend cap. 17. Pauci hoc faciunt pauciores bene prudenterque faciunt sed populi probant populi audiunt populi favent yea we can say much more But fâr those that go further and clap the prophanest railers on the back and hiss them on to hiss at those that diffâr from them and are glad to hear the rabble revile our Mânistây and our Churches in taking part with their Prelacy and Liturgy they tell us lowder what unity and order they desire and what a mercy of God it is that such as they have not their will and though among themselves the slanders and reproaches of such men may go for credible or be accepted as conducing to their ends yet in the conclusion such witnesses will bring no credit to their cause nor with just men much discredit ours at least it will not diminish our reputation with God nor abate his love nor hinder his acceptance and then we have enough Saith Cyprian Epist. 69. ad Pupian Quasi apud lapsos prophanos extra Ecclesiam positos de quorum pectoribus excesserit Spiritus Sanctus esse aliqâid possit nisi mens prava fallax lingua odia venenata sacrilega mendacia quibus qui credit cum illis necesse est inveniatur cum judicii dies venerit That is As if with the scandalous and prophane and those that are without the Church from whose brests the holy Spirit is departed there could be any thing but a naughty mind and a deceitful tongue and venemous hatred and sacrilegious lies and those that belâeve them must needs be found with them when the day of judgement comes Me thinks rather the hatred and railing of the ungodly should intimate to you that our Ministry is of God! why else do all the most obstinaâely wicked maligne us as their enemies though we never did them wrong why seek they our destruction and are glad of any Learned men that will encourage them in their malignity and to strike in with any party that are against us when all the harm we wish or do them is to pray for them and perswade them and do our best to save them from damnation As Cyprian ubi sup said to Pupian ut etiam qui non credebant Deo Episcopum constituenti vel Diabolo crederent Episcopum proscribenti so say â They that will not believe Gods testimony of our Ministry let them believe the Devils testimony as the confession of an enemy that by the mouths of the wicked revileth us as Ministers and persecutâtiâus for doing our Masters work Another reproach is commonly laid upon our Minâstry by those that vilifie them in order to their endâ viz that they are boyes and raw and unlearned and manage the work of God so coursely as tends to bring it into contempt I would there were no ground for this accusation at all but I must needs say 1. That no men are more unmeet then you to be the accusers Have you so corrupted the Ministry with the insufficient and ungodly that we are necessitated to supply their places with men that are too young and now do you reproach us because we imperfectly mend your crimes yea because we work not in possibilities It is the desire of our souls that no able useful man may be laid by however differing in smaller matters or controversies of policy But we cannot create men nor infuse learning into them but when God hath qualified them we gladly use them the bâst that can be had are chosen and what can be done more And I hope yâu will acknowledge that godly and tolerably able young men are fitter then impious ignorant Readers We excuse no mans weakness but to speak out the truth too many of the adversaries of our Ministry accuse our weakness with greater weakness when they are unable or undisposâd themselves to manage the work of God with any of that gravity and seriousness as the unspeakable weight of the business doth require they think to get the reputation of learned able men by an empty childish trifling kind of preaching patching together some shreds of sentences and offering us their Centons with as much ostentation as if it were an uniform judicious work And then they fall a jâering at plain and serious Preachers as if they were some ignorant bawling fellows that were nothing but a voice and had nothing to produce but fervent nonsence Brethren will you bear with us a little while we modestly excuse our simplicity which you contemn We will not say that we can speak wisedom to the wise nor make ostentation of our Oratory but we must tell you that we Believe what we speak and somewhat feel it and therefore we endeavour so to speak whât we believe and feel that others also may belâeve and fâel us If a man speak smilingly or
eyes of God and men are on them and that it is no light matter to an honest heart that Christ and his cause should be dishonoured by our weaknesses and our labours should hereby be frustrated and sinners hardned in their impiety But yet I must say that many that are but low in Learning have greater abilities by grace and use to manage the great essentials of Christianity and set home a necessary truth upon the heart and deal with ignorant dead-hearted sinners then many very Learned men did ever attain to And I confess I could wish for the service of the Church that some such now private less-learned men in great Congregations were yoaked with some Learned men that are less fit for lively rouzing application that they might Lovingly go together the one confessing his defect in Learning and the other his defect in application and the unlearned depending for guidance from the more Learned in cases of difficulty where his abilities fall short that so they might be both as one able Minister communicating the honour of their several abilities to each other to supply and cover each others defects But if such a thing should be attempted though agreeably to the Churches practice for many hundred years after Christ what an out-cry should we have from the men now in hand against Mechanicks and unlearned men and how many would reproach their work that cannot mend it I have been long on this subject I will end it with this story Gregory Nysen tells us in his relation of the Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus that this holy man then Bishop of Neocaesarea was so famous by his miracles and successes that the Neighbour Countreys sent to him to preach and plant Churches among them Among others Comana a neighbour City sent to him to come and plant a Church and Bishops among them When he had stayed a while and preached and prepared them and the time was come that he was to design them a chief Pastor or Bishop the Magistrates and principal men of the City were very busie in enquiring anxiously and curiously who was of most eminent rank and splendour excelling the rest that he might be chosen to the office and dignity of being their Bishop For Gregory himâelf had all these Ornaments and therefore they thought their Pastor must have them too But when it came to choice they were all to pieces some for one and some for another so that Gregory looked to heaven for Directions what to do When they were thus taken up with proposing men of splendor and eminency Gregory remembring Samuels anointing David exhorted them to look also among the meanest for possibly there might be found among them some of better qualifications of mind Whereupon some of them signified that they took it as a contumelie and sâorn that all the chief mân for eloquence dignity and splendor should be refused and that Mechanicks and tradesmen that labour for tehir living should be thought fitter for so great an office And saith one of them to him in derision If you will pass by all these that are chosen out of the best of the Citizens and go to the scum and basest of the people for a Pastor for us its best for you even to make Alexander the Collier a Priest and lets all agree to choose him The good man hearing these scornful words it struck into his mind to know who that Alexander the Collier was Whereupon they brought him presently with laughter and set him in the midst of them collowed and half-naked and ragged and sordid and thus stood Alexander among them But Gregory suspected somewhat better by him then they that laught at him and thereupon taking him out of the company and examining his life he found that he was a Philosophick man that being of a very comely person and loth it should be any occasion of incontinency and also renouncing the vanities of the world had addicted himself to the life of a Collier that his person and worth might be hid from men and his mind be kept in an humble frame Whereupon Gregory appointeth some to take away Alexander and wash him and cloath him with his Pastoral attire and bring him into the Assembly as soon as they had done In the mean time Gregory goes to the Assembly and fals a preaching to them of the nature of the Pastoral office and the holiness of life required thereto entertaining them with such speeches tâll Alexander was brought and comely adorned in Gregories garmânts was set before them Whereupon they all fell a gazing and wondering at Alexander and Gregory falls a preaching to them again of the deceitfulness of judging by outward appearances about the inward worth of the soul and that Satan had obscured Alexander lest he should subvert his kingdom To be short he ordaineth Alexander their Bishop a Pastor of a single Church And when they desired to bear him preach he shewed that Gregory was not deceived in him His sermon was sententious and full of understanding but because he had no flowers of Oratory or exactness and curosity of words one that was a curious hearer derided him who it is said was by a vision brought to repent of it And thus despised Alexander the Collier was made Bishop or Pastor of Comana when the great ones were rejected and afterward proved a Champion for Christ to whom he passed in Martyrdome through the flames I have recited this for their sakes that deride the gifts of God in men whom they account unlearned but not to encourage any to thrust themselves on so great a work without Ordination and due qualifications Object But it is Ordination it self that is wanting to the Pastors of the Reformed Churches and therefore they are no Pastors c. Answ. The contrary is manifested in this ensuing Disputation This separating Principle is it that I here purposely contend against For it is cast in to divide and to destroy And to quench such granado's and fire-works of the Devil is a necessary work for them that will preserve a Churches Peace I read in Thuanus of a Bishop in France that turning Protestant took his Popish consecration for insufficient and was again elect and ordained by the Protestant Minsters without a Prelate to be a Prelate But that Presbyters Ordained by a Presbytery of Protestants should be reordained by a Prelate and that as necessary to the being of their office is strange doctrine to all the Protestant Churches It was rejected commonly by the English Bishops even by A. B. Bancroft himself Saith Firmilian inter Epist. Cypriani Omnis potestas gratia in Ecclesia constituta est ubi praesident Majores natu qui baptizandi Manus imponendi ordinandi poffident potestatem i. e. All Power and Grace is placed in the Church where Elders do preside who possess the power of Baptizing Imposing hands and Ordaining I know it will be said that Firmilian speak of Bishops only But I believe not that he
spoke of such Bishops only as we have in question or that he did not plainly speak of Presbyters as such For he speaks of the plenitude of Power and Grace in the Church and therefore intended more then what was proper to a Prelate 2. He mentioneth Elders Majores natu in general without distinction And 3. His praesident is plainly related to the Church as the ubi shews it being the People and not the Elders over whom these Elders are said to preside And 4. Baptizing is first instanced which was known to be commonly the work of Presbyters and never appropriated to the Prelate So that the same persons that did Baptize even the Elders of the Church according to Firmilian did then possess the power of laying on hands and of ordaining But these things are more fully discussed in what followeth And if any either adversary or friend would see the Reformed Churches Ministry and Ordination more fully vindicated I refer them to Voetius against Jasenius Desperata causa Papatus which if I had read before I had written this Disputation I think I should have spared my labour Reader if others are too busie to misled thee I may suppose thee unwilling to be misled especially in a matter of so great concernment For saith Blessed Agustine Multos invenimus qui mentiri velint qui autem falli âeminem de Doctrin Christ. l. 1. cap. 36. And therefore as thou lovest Christ his Church and Gospel and the souls of others and thine own take heed how thou venturest in following a sect of angry men to unchurch so great and excellent a part of the Catholich Church and to vilifie and depose so great a number of able faithfull Ministers of Christ as those that had not Prelatical Ordination And if you are Gentlemen or unlearned men that for want of long and diligent studying of these matters are uncapable of judging of them and therefore take all on the Authority of those whose Learning and parts you most esteem I beseech you before you venture your souls on it any further procure a satisfactory answer to these Questions 1. Whether the Reformed Churches that have no Prelates have not abounded with as learned men as any one of those that you admire of a contrary judgement 2. If you are tempted to suspect men of partiality whether they that plead for Lorship honour and preferment or they that plead against it and put it from them are more to be suspected caâteris paribus 3. If you will needs suspect the Protestant Ministers of partiality what ground of suspicion have you of them that were no Ministers such as the two Scaligers whose learning made them the admiration of the Christian world even to Papists as well as Protestants and yet were cordial friends to those Reformed Churches which these men deny and draw men to disown Such also as Salmasius that hath purposely wrote about the subject with abundance more 4. If these are not to be trusted why should not Bishops themselves be trusted were not Bishop Usher Andrews Davenant Hall and others of their mind as learned pious men as any whose Authority you can urge against them 5. If all this be nothing I beseech you get a modest resolution of this doubt at least whether the concurrent judgement of all the Protestant Churches in Christendom even of the English Bishops with the rest should not be of more authority with any sober Protestant then the Contrary judgement of those few that are of late risen up for the cause that you are by them solicited to own It is a known Truth that the generality of the Bishops themselves and all the Protestant Churches in the world have owned them as true Ministers that were ordained by Presbyteries without Prelates and have owned them as true Churches that were guided by these Ministers and have taken them for valid administrations that were performed by them And are your few Recusants that would draw you to separation of greater Learning authorty and regard then all the Protestants in the world besides I beseech you if you will needs take things upon trust consider this and trust accordingly Though I must say it is pitty that any truely Catholick Christian should not have better grounds than these and be able himself in so palpable a case to perceive his duty For my own part my conscience witnesseth that I have not written the following Disputation out of a desire to quarrel with any man but am drawn to it to my great displeasure by the present danger and necessity of the Churches and by compassion to the souls that are turned from the publick Ordinances and engaged in the separation and also of the Churches that are divided and troubled by these means The sad complaints of many of my Brethren from several parts have moved my heart to this undertaking Through Gods Mercy I have peace at home but I may not therefore be insensible of the divisions and calamities abroad I shall adjoin here one of the Letters that invited me and no more because in that one you may see the scope and tenour of the rest and that I rush not on this displeasing work without a Call nor before there is a cause The passages that intimate an ever-valuing of my self you may charitably impute to the Authors juniority and humility with some mistake through distance and disacquaintance One of the Letters that invited me to this task Reverend Sir UNderstanding by the Preface to the Reader before your Gildaâ Salvianus that you intend a second part wherein you promise to speak of the way how to discern the true Church and Ministry I make bold to present you with the desire of some Godly Ministers viz. that if you see it convenient you would do some thing towards the vindication of the present Churches and Ministers from the aspersions of the new Prelatical party in England It is a principle much made of by many of the Gentry and others that we are but Schismatical branches broken off from the true body and this by faithfull tradition is spread amongst them the learning of some rigid Prelatical Schollars is very prevalent with them to make them thus account of us With these men we must be all unchurched for casting off Diocesan Episcopacy though we be found in the faith and would spend our selves to save souls and the main substance of our Ordination at least cannot be found fault with yet because we had not a Bishop to lay his hands on us we are not sent from God Of what consequence this opinion may prove if it spread without being checked an ordinary apprehension may perceive I can guess something from what I observe from those of this leaven already that our most serious pains will be little regarded if our people take this infection when we would awaken them we cannot because they take it that we have no power to teach them It must not be men of mean parts that must
a Power to be a servant to all and to do the work And therefore that the first Question is Whether the great burden and labour of Ministerial service may be laid on any man without Ordination by such as our English Prelates Or whether all men are discharged from this labour and service on whom such Prelates do not Impose it If Magistrates Presbyters and People conspire to call an able man to the work and service of the Lord whether he be justified for refusing it what ever the Church suffer by it meerly because the Prelates called him not Sect. 24. Though the forementioned works do all belong to the Office of the Ministry yet there must be Opportunity and a particular Call to the exercise of them before a man is actually obliged to perform the several acts And therefore it was not without sence and reason that in Ordination the Bishop said to the Ordained Take thou authority to Read or to preach the word of God when thou shalt be threunto lawfully called Not that another call of Authority is necessary to state them in the office or to oblige them to the Duty in General But we must in the invitation of people or their consent to hear us or other such advantagious accidents prudently discern when and where we have a Call to speak and exercise any act of our Ministry Even as a Licensed Physitian must have a particular Call by his Patients before he exercise his skill This call to a particular act is nothing else but an intimation or signification of the will of God that hic nunc we should perform such a work which is done by Providence causing a concurrence of such inviting Circumstances that may perswade a prudent man that it is seasonable Sect. 25. A man that is in general thus obliged by his office to do all the formentioned works of the Ministry that is when he hath a particular call to each may yet in particular never be obliged to some of these works but may be called to spend his life in some other part of the Ministry and yet be a compleat Minister and have the obligation and Power to all upon supposition of a particular Call and not be guilty of negligence in omitting those other parts One man man may live only among Infidels and uncalled ones and so be obliged only to Preach the Gospell to them in order to Conversion and may die before he sees any ready to be baptized Anoâher may be taken up in Preaching and Baptizing and Congregating the Converted and never be called to Pastoral Rule of a particular Church Another may live in a Congregated Church where there is no use for the Discipling-Converting-Preaching of the Gospel and so may have nothing to do but to Oversee that particular Church and Guide them in holy Worship And in the same Church if one Ministers parts are more for Publick preaching and anothers more for Private instruction and acts of Guidance and Worship if one be best in expounding and another in lively application tâey may lawfully and âitly divide the work between them and it shall not be imputed to them for unfaithfulnss and negligence that one forbeareâh what the other doth For we have our guifts to the Churches edification Thus Paul saith he was not sent to Baptize but to Preach the Goâpel Not that it was not in his Commission and a work of his office but quoad exercitium he had seldome a second particular Call to exercise it being taken up with that Preaching of the Gospel and settling and confirming Churches which to him was a greater work Sect. 26. This Ministry before desârâbed whether you call it Episcopatum Sacerdotium Presbyteratum or what else is fit is but one and the same Order for Deacons are not the Ministers defined by us It is not distinguished into various Species Even the Patrons of Prelacy yea the Schoolmen and other Papists themselves do ordinarily confess that a Prelate and Presbyter differ not Ordine but only Gradu So that it is not another office that they ascribe to Prelates but only a more eminent Degree in the same Office And therefore they themselves affirm that in Officio the Power of Ordination is in both alike the office being the same But that for the honour of the Degree of Prelacy for the unity of the Church Presbyters are hindered from the Exercise of that Ordination which yet is in their Power and Office Sect. 27. As far as Ordination is a part of the Ministerial Work it is comprised in the forementioned acts of Congregating Teaching Ruling c. and therefore is not left out of the Definition as it is a duty of the office though it be not expâessed among the Efficient causes for the reason above mentioned and because I am now more distinctly to treat of it by it self and to give you fuâther reasons hereof in the explication of the Nature and Ends of this Ordination CHAP. II. Of the Nature and Ends of Ordination Sect 1. THat we may know how far the Ordination in question is necessary to the Ministry and whether the want of it prove a Nullity we must first enquire what goes to the laying of the Foundation of this Relation and how many things concur in the efficiency and among the rest what it is that the Ordainers have to do as their proper part and what are the reasons of their Power and Work Sect. 2. As all that deserve the name of men are agreed that there is no Power in the world but from God the Absolute Soveraign and first Cause of Power so all that deserve the name of Christians are agreed that there is no Church Power but what is from Christ the head and Soveraign King of the Church Sect. 3. As the will of God is the Cause of all things And no thing but the Signification of it is necessary to the conveying of meer Rights So in the making a man a Minister of the Gopel there needeth no other principal efficient cause then the Will of Jesus Christ nor any other Instrumental Efficient but what is of use to the signifying of his Will So that it is but in the nature of signs that they are Necessary No more therefore is of Absolute Necessity but what is so necessary to signifie his will If Christs will may be signified without Ordination a man may be a Minister without it Though in other respects he may be culpable in his entrance by crossing the will of Christ concerning his duty in the manner of his proceedings Sect. 4. There is considerable in the Ministry 1. Beneficium 2. Officium 1. The Gospel pardon salvation-Ordinances are those great Benefits to the sons of men which the Ministery is to be a means of conveying to them And is it self a Benefit as it is the means of these Benefits In this respect the Ministry is a Gift of Christ to the Church and his Donation is the necessary act for their
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 âindeth quoad materiam and is by the Colledge and not not by them frustrate quoad ordiâem 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 ãâã may be supposed regularly to have the greatest ãâã 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 ãâã 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
if Pastor must cease when Ordination ceaseth For though wâthout Pastors there may be communities of Christians which are parts of the universal Church yet there can be no Organized Political Churches For 1. Such Churches consist essentially of the Directing or Ruling Part and the Ruled Part as a Republick doth 2. Such Churches are Christian Associatioâs for Communion in such Church Ordinances which without a Pastor cannot ordinarily at least be administred And therefore without a Pastor the Society is not capable of the End and therefore not of the form or name though it be a Church in the fore-granted sence Nay indeed if any should upon necessity do the Ministerial work to the Church and say he did it as a Private man it were indeed but to become a Minister pro tempore under the name of a private man If Paul had not his Power to destruction but to Edification neither have Prelates And therefore the Acts are null by which they would destroy the Church Their Power of Ordering it such as they have occasionally enableth them to disorder it that is If they miss in their own work we may submit but they have no authority to destroy it or do any thing that plainly conduceth thereunto Sect. 29. The ceasing of Ordination in any place will not either disoblige the people from Gods publick Worship Word Prayer Praise Sacraments Neither will it destroy their Right to the Ordinances of God in Church communion But this it should do if it should exclude a Ministry therefore c. The Major is proved 1. In that the Precept for such Publick worship is before the precept for the right ordering of it He that commandeth the Order supposeth the thing ordered 2. The precept for publick worshâp is much in the Law of Nature and therefore indispensable and it is about the great and Necessary duties that the honour of Gods add saving of men and preservation of the Church lieth on It is a standing Law to be observed till the coming of Christ. And the Rights of the Church in the excellent Benefits of Publick Ordinances and Church order is better founded then to depend on the Will of ungodly Prelates If Prince and Parliament faâl and all the Governours turn enemies to a Common-wealth it hath the means of Preservation of it self from ruine lest in its own hands or if the Common-wealth be destroyed the Community hath the Power of self-preservation and of forming a Common-wealth again to that end The life and being of States specially of mens eternal happiness is not to hang upon so slender a peg as the corrupt will of a few Superiours and the mutable modes and circumstances of Government nor a Necessary End to be wholly laid upon an uncertain and oft unnecessary means The children lose not their Right to Food and Rayment nor are to be suffered to famish when ever the Steward falls out with them or falls asleep or loseth the Keyes Another servant should rather break open the doors and more thanks he shall have of the Father of the family then if he had let them perish for fear of transgressing the bounds of his calling If incest that capital disorder in procreation were no incest no crime but a duty to the Sons and daughters of Adam in case of Necessity because Order is for the End and thing ordered then much more is a disordered preservation of the Church and saving of souls and serving of God a duty and indeed at that time no disorder at all Sect. 30. 7. Moreover if the failing of Ordination should deprive the world of the preaching of the word or the Churches of the great and necessary benefits of Church Ordinances and Communion then one man yea thousands should suffer and that in the greatest matters for the sin and wilfulness of others and must lie down under such suffering lest he should disorderly redress it But the consequent is against all Justice and Reason Therefore the Antecedent is so to Sect. 31. In a word it is so horrid a conclusion against Nature aâd the Gospel and Christian sence that the honour of God the fâuits of Redemption the being of the Church the salvation or comfort of mens souls must all be at the Prelates mercy that a considerate Christian cannot when he is himself believe it that it should be in the power of heretical malicious or idle Prelates to deny God his honour and Christ the fruit of all his sufferings aâd Saints their Comforts and sinners their salvation and this when the remedie is before us and that it is the will of God that all these evils should be chosen before the evil of an unordained Ministry this is an utterly incredible thing Sect. 32. Argument 2. Another Argument may be this If there may be all things essential to the Ministry without humane Ordination then this Ordination is not of Necessity to its Essence But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the consequent That there be a people qualified to receive a Pastor and persons qualified to be made Pastors and that God hath already determined in his Law that Pastors there shall be and how they shall be qualified is past all dispute So that nothing remains to be done by man Ordainers Magistrates or People but to determine who is the man that Christ describeth in his Law and would have to be the Pastors of such a flock or a Minister of the Gospel and then to solemnize his entrance by an Investiture And now I shall prove that a man may be a Minister without the Ordainers part in these Sect. 33. If the will of Christ may be known without Ordination that this man should be the Pastor of such a People or a Minister of the Gospel then may a man be a Minister without Ordination But the will of Christ may be known c. ergo Sect. 34. Nothing needs proof but the Antecedent For it is but the signification of the will of Christ that conferreth the Power and imposeth the Duty And that his will is sometime signified concerning the individual person without Ordination is apparent hence 1. The Description of such as Christ would have to preach the Gospel is very plain in his holy Canons in the Scripture 2. His Gifts are frequently so eminent in several persons as may remove all just occasion of doubting both from the persons themselves and others 3. Their suitableness to a People by interest acquaintance c. may be as notable 4. The Peoples common and strong affection to them and theirs to the People may be added to all these 5. There may be no Competitor at all or none regardable or comparable and so no controversie 6 The Necessities of the People may be so great and visible that he and they may see that they are in danger of being undone and the Church in danger of a very great loss or hurt if he deny to be their Pastor 7. The Magistrate also may call and command him
Christian without Baptism and have Christ and pardon and Justification and eternal life without it then may a man be a true Minister without Ordination For no man can reasonably plead that Ordination is more necessary to a Minister then Baptism to a Christian. Even the Papists that make a Sacrament of it and ascribe to it an indelible Character must needs set it somewhat lower then Baptism Baptizing is commonly called our Christening as that in some sort makes us Christians And yet for all that the true use of Baptism is but to solemnize the Marriage between Christ and us and to Invest and inaugurate them in a state of Christianity solemnly that were indeed Christians before And the Papists themselves confess that when a man first repenteth and believeth with a faith formata Charitate he is pardoned and in a State of Salvation before Baptism and shall be saved upon the meer Votum Baptismi if in case of Necessity he die without it Though the partial Proctors will damn the infants for want of Baptism that never refused it when they save the parents that have âut the desire No doubt but Constantine and many other that upon mistake deferred their Baptism were nevertheless Christians and judged so by the Church both then and now And yet to neglect it wilfully were no smal sin So if in our case men want Ordination they may be really Ministers and their Ministrations Valid but it is their very great sin if their wilfull neglect be the cause that they are not Ordained Sect. 46. As Baptism is the open badge of a Christian so Ordination is the open badge of a Minister and therefore though a man may be a Christian before God without Baptism yet Ordinarily he is not a Christian before the Church without Baptism till he have by some equivalent Profession given them satisfaction And therefore if I knew men to be utterly unbaptized I would not at first have Communion with them as Christians But if they could manifest to me that Necessity forbad them or if it were any mistake and scruple of their consciences that hindered them from the outwaâd Ordinance and they had without that Ordinance made as publick and bold a profession of Christianity and satisfactorily declared themselves to be Christians by other means I would then own them as Christians though with a disowning and reprehension of their error Even so would I do by a Minister I would not own him as a Minister unordained unless he either shewed a Necessity that was the Cause or else if it were his weakness and mistake did manifest by his abilities and fidelity and the consent and acceptance of the Church that he were truly called And if he did so I would own him though with a disowning and reproof of his mistake and omission of so great a duty Sect. 47. 5. There is not a word of God to be found that makes Ordination of absolute Necessity to the being of the Minâstry therefore it is not so to be esteemed The examples of Scripture shew it to the regular way and therefore Ordinarily a duty but they shew not that there is no other way Sect. 48. Object It is sufficient that no other way is revealed and therefore till you find another in Scripture this must be taken for the only way Answ. 1. Scripture is the Rule of our Right performance of all duties We cannot imagine that in the Rule there should be the least defect and therefore no precept or imitable pattern of sin in the smallest matter is there to be found And yet it followeth not that every sin doth Nullifie a Calling because there is no Scripture warrant for that sin All that will follow is that no other way is innocent or warrantable and that only when Necessity doth not warrant it 2. I have shewed already that there are other wayes warranted in some cases in the Scripture And I shall shew anon that as great omissions nullifie not the office Sect. 49. Object But how shall they preach unless they be sent saith Paul Rom. 10. Answ. But the question is Whether no man be sent that have not humane Ordination The text doth not affirm this Let that be Godâ Ordinary way but yet it followeth not there is no other If God send them however they may preach as Edesius Frumentius Origen and others did of old Sect. 50. Argument 3. He that hath the Talents of Ministerial Abilities is bound to improve them to the service of his Master and best advantage of the Church But such are many that cannot have Ordination ergo Concerning the Major note that I say not that every man that is able is bound to be a Minister much less to enter upon the sacred function without Ordination For 1. Some men that have Abilities may want liberty and opportunity to exercise them 2. Others that have Ministerial Abilities may also have Abilities for Magisâracy Physick Law c. and may live in a Country where the exercise of the later is more Necessary and useful to the good of men and the service of God then the exercise of the Ministry would be For these men to be Ministers that either want opportunity or may do God greater service other waies is not to improve their Talents to their Masters chiefest service But still the general obligation holds to improve our Talents to the best advantage and do good to as many as we can and work while it is day And therefore 1. Such a man is bound if he be not otherwise called out first to offer his service to the Church and seek Ordination And if he cannot have it upon just seeking in case of Necessity he is to exercise his Talents without it lest he be used as the wicked slothful servant that hid his Talent Mat. 25. Sect. 51. If this were not so it would follow that the Gifts of God must be in vain and the Church suffer the loss of them at the pleasure of Ordainers and that the fixed universal Law that so severely bindeth all men as good Stewards to improve their Masters stock their Time abilities interest opportunities might be dispensed with at the Pleasure of Ordainers And that God hath bound us to seek in vain for Admittance to the exercise of the Talents that he hath endowed us with and that even in the Necessities of the Church Which are not things to be granted Sect. 52. Object By this doctrine you will induce disorder into the Church if all that are able must be Ministers when they are denyed Ordination For then they will be the Iudges of their own Abilities and every brain-sick proud Opinionist will think that there is a Necessity of his Preaching and so we shall have confusion and Ordination will be made contemptible by Pretences of Necessity Sect. 53. Answ. 1. God will not have the Necessities of mens souls neglected nor allow us to let men go quietly to damnation nor have his Churches ruined for fear of
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 uninâerrupted 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
prevail with Papists Italians or French to give us such a proof 2. It is a thing impossible for any man now alive to prove the Regular Ordination of all his Predecessors to the Apostles daies yea or any Ordination at all How can you tell that he that ordained you did not counterfeit himself to be Ordained Or at least that he was not ordained by an unordained man or that his Predecessors were not so It is a meer impossibility for us to know any such thing we have no Evidence to prove it Sect. 8. Object But it is probable though not certain for the Church proceedeth by such Rules and taketh the matter to be of so great weight that there is no probability that they would suffer any to go for Pastors or Bishops that are unordained in so great a case Answ. 1. All this is no certainty and therefore no proof and no satisfaction to the mind of a Minister in the forementioned doubts 2. Yea we have so great reason to be suspicious in the case that we cannot conclude that we have so much as a probabâly Sect. 9. For 1. We know that there is so much selfishness and corruption in man as is like enough to draw them to deceit Ordainers may be bribed to consecrate or ordain the uncapable and the Ordained or Consecrated may be tempted to seek it in their incapacity and many may be drawn to pretend that they were Ordained or Consecrated when it was no such matter And so there is not so much a a Probability Sect. 10. 2. And we know that there were so many heresies abroad and still have been and so much faction and Schism in the Church that we cannot be sure that these might not interrupt the succession or that they drew not our predecessors to counterfeit a Consecration or Ordination when they had none or none that was regular Sect. 11. 3. And we know our selves that the thing hath been too usual When I was young I lived in a village that had but about twenty houses And among these there were five that went out into the Ministry One was an Old Reader whose Original we could not reach Another was his son whose selfâOrdination was much suspected The other three had Letters of Orders two of them suspected to be drawn up and forged by him and one that was suspected to Ordain himself One of them or two at last were proved to have counterfeit Orders when they had continued many years in the Ministry So that this is no rare thing Sect. 12. Among so many temptations that in so many ages since the Apostles dayes have befallen so many men as our predecessors in the Ministry or the Bishops predecessors have been it were a wonder if all of them should scape the snare So that we have reason to take it for a thing improbable that the succession hath not been interrupted Sect. 13. And we know that in several ages of the Church the Prelates and Priests have been so vile that in reason we could expect no better from men so vicious then forgery and abuse he that reads what Gildas and others say of the Brittish and what even Baronius much more Espencaeus Cornelius Mus. and others say of the Romanists yea he that knows but what state the Bishops and Priests have been in and yet continue in in our own dayes will never think it an improbable thing that some of our predecessors should be guilty either of Simony or other vice that made them uncapable or should be meer usurpers under the name of Bishops and Ministers of Christ. Sect. 14. Argument 2. If uninterrupted Regular Ordination of all our Predecessors be Necessary to the Being of the Ministry then can no Bishop or Pastors whatsoever comfortably Ordain For who dare lay his hand on the head of another and pretend to deliver him authority in the name of Christ that hath no assurance nor probability neither that he hath any Commission from Christ to do it But the Consequent will be disowned by those that dispute against us therefore so should the Antecedent be also Sect. 15. Argument 3. If there be a Necessity of an uninterrupted succession of true Regular Ordination then no man can know of the Church that he is a member of or of any other Church on earth that it is a true Church By a Church I mean not a Community but a Society not a company of private Christians living together as Christians neighbours but a Politick Church consisting of Pastor and people associated for the use of publick Ordinances and Communion therein But the consequent is false c. Sect. 16. The Major or consequence is certain For no man can know that the Church is a true Political Organized Church that knows not that the Pastor of it is a true Minister of Christ. Because the Pastor is an Essential constitutive part of the Church in this acceptation And I have proved already that the truth of the Ministry cannot be known upon the Opponents terms And for the Minor I think almost all Church members will grant it me For though they are ready enough to accuse others yet they all take their own Churches for true and will be offended with any that question or deny it Sect. 17. Argument 4. If there be a Necessity of an uninâerrupted succession of true Ordination then cannot the Church or any Christian in it know whether they have any true Ministerial administrations whether in Sacraments or other Ordinances For he that cannot know that he hath a Minister cannot know that he hath the administration of a Minister But the consequent is untrue and against the comfort of all Christians and the honour of Christ and is indeed the very doctrine of the Infidels and Papists that call themselves Seekers among us Sect. 18. Argument 5. If the Churches and each member of them are bound to submit to the Ministry of their Pastors without knowing that they are regularly ordained or that they have an uninterrupted succession of such Ordination then are they quo ad Ecclesiam true Pastors to them and their administrations valid though without Ordination or such a succession But the Antecedent is true and granted by all that now we have to deal with Though they will not grant a known unordained man is to be taken for a Minister or one whose succession had a known intercision Yet they will grant that if the Nullity be unknown it freeth not the people from the obligation to their Pastors Sect. 19. Bellarmine lib 3. de Eccles. c. 10. was so stalled with these difficulties that he leaves it as a thing that we cannot bâ resolved of that our Pastors have indeed Potestatem Ordinis Iurisdictionis that is that they are true Pastors And he saith that Non habemus certitudinem nisi Moralem quod illi sint vere Episcopi But when he should prove it to us that there is a Moral Certainty he leaves us to seek and gives us
among the Churches in Europe on their grounds hath any proof and therefore must not pretend to the Ministry Churches or Ordinances but we must all turn Seekers to day and Infidels to morrow by this device Sect. 30. Argument 8. The Ministry of the Priests and Levities before the incarnation of Christ and in his time was not Null though they wanted as much or more then such a succession of right Ordination therefore it is so still with the Gospel Ministery The Antecedent I shall more fully manifest neerer to the end Only now observe that when Abiathar was put out by Solomân and when such as were not of the line or Genealogie of the Priests were put as polluted persons from the Priesthood Neh. 7.64 65. and 13 29 30. Ezra 2.62 yet were not any of their administrations taken to have been Null Sect. 31. Argument 9. If the Ministration or Governing acts of Vsurping Princes may be Valid and there need no proof of an uninterrupted succession to prove the validity then is it so also in the Ministry But the Antecedent is certain therefore c. The Validity of the consequence from the parity of Reason I shall manifest anon Sect. 32. Argument 10 If an uninterrupted Succession of Canonical or true Ordination be Necessary to the Being of the Church Ministry and Ordinances then Rome and England have lost their Ministry Churches and Ordinances But the Consequent will be denyed by the adversaries therefore so also must the Antecedent if they regard their standing Sect. 33. Though this be the Argument that I have the greatest advantage to press the adversary with yet because I have made it good already in two or three other writings in my Key for Catholicks and my Safe Religion and Christian Concord I shall say but little of it now But briefly this may suffice 1. For the Church of Rome if either Heresie Infidelity Sodomie Adultery Murder Simony violent intrusion ignorance impiety want of due election or of due consecration or plurality of Popes at once can prove an interruption of their succession I have shewed them already where it s proved But if none of these prove it we are safe our selves Sect. 34 But Grotius in Discus Apolog. Rivet pleads for them that if any intercision have been made at Rome it hath been made up from other Churches Answ. 1. That is not proved but nakedly affirmed 2. Nor will it serve the Papists turn that must have all Churches hold from Rome and her succession and Rome from none nor to be patcht up from their succession 3. De facto the contrary is certain For 1. Those other held their Ministry as from the universal Headship of the Pope and therefore had themselves their interruptions in the former interruptions of Rome as being but her members and therefore were not capable themselves of repairing of her breaches 2. The successors of the illegitimate Popes such as deposed Eugenius c. and men as bad as they have continued the succession And tâe Bishops that were consecrated by power received from the illegitimate Popes were the only persons that were the repairers of the breach And yet the Pope will hardly yield that he receiveth his power from any of these 3 There have been greater defects in the succession then this of Consecration even of due Election Capacity yea of an office it self which Christ will own The Vicechristship of the Pope is no office of Christs planting Sect. 35. And 2 For the English Prelates as they are unable to prove their uninterrupted succession so the interruption is proved in that they derived and held their Power from the Vicechrist of Rome and that qua talis for so many ages This was their own profession and all that they did was as his Ministers by his Authority which was none Sect. 36. Object But this nulled not the true Authority which they received from the Pope or Prelates as Prelates Answ. The Pope was uncapable of giving them Authority and whether the Prelates as such were so too we shall enquire anon And though I grant that where the person was fit there was yet a Ministry Valid to the Church and perhaps to themselves in the main yet that is because Canonical Ordination is not of Necessity to the Being of the Ministry but by other means they might be then Ministers though this corruption was conjunct that they received their Power imaginarily from Râme but that the said Canonical succession was interrupted by this Papal tenure and many a delinquency is nevertheless sure and sufficient to inforce the Argument as to them that now are our adversaries But so much shall suffice for the Non-necessity of this succession of a true and Regular Ordination CHAP. V. Ordination by such as the English Prelates not Necessary to the Being of the Ministry Sect. 1. I Have made this work unnecessary by the two former Chapters For if no Ordination be of Necessity to the Being of the Ministry nor an uninterrupted Succession Necessary then doubtless an Ordination by these Prelates in Specie is not Necessary at present or as to succession But yet ex abundati I add Sect. 2. Argument 1. Ad hominem I may well argue from the Concession of the English Prelates themselves and their most zealous adherents And their judgements were 1. That such a succession as aforesaid of right Ordination was not of Necessity And for this they that write against the Papists do commonly and confidently dispute Sect. 3. And 2. They maintained that the Protestant Churches that had no Bishops were true Churches and their Ministers true Ministers and so of their administrations This was so common with them that I do not think a dissenting vote can be found from the first Reformation till about the preparations for the Spanish match or little before Sect. 4. I have in my Christian Concord cited at large the words of many and the places of the writings of more as 1. Dr. Field 2. Bishop Downam 3. Bishop Iewel 4. Saravia 5. Bishop Alley 6. Bishop Pilkinton 7. Bishop Bridges 8. Bishop Bilson 9. Alexander Nowel 10. Grotius their friend then 11 Mr. Chysenhal 12. The Lord Digby 13. Bishop Davenant 14. Bishop Prideaux 15. Bishop Andrews 16. Chillingworth 17. To which I now add Bishop Bromâall of Schism 18. Dr. Fern 19. Dr. Steward in his answer to Fountains letter these of the later or present sort 20. And Bishop Vsher whose judgement of it is lately published by Dr. Bernard at his own desire 21. And Mr. Mason in a Book of of purpose for justification of the Reformed Churches hath largely pleaded this cause 22. And Dr. Bernard saith that Dr. Overall was judged not only to consent to that Book but to have a hand in it 23. And no wonder when even Bancroft himself the violentest of all the enemies of them called Puritans in those times is said by Spotswood there recited by Dr. Bernard to be of the same mind and to give it
no peculiar Diocess of Paul Sect. 14. And 3. We still find that there were more then one of these general itinerant Ministers in a Place or at least that no one excluded others from having equal power with him in his Province where ever he came Barnabas Silas Titus Timotheus Epaphroditus and many more were fellow-labourers with Paul in the same Diocess or Province and not as fixed Bishops or Presbyters under him but as General Ministers as well as he We never read that he said to any of the false Apostles that sought his contempt This is my Diocess what have âou to do to play the Bishop in another mans Diocess Much less did he ever plead suâh a Power against Peter Barnabas or any Apostolical Minister Nor that Iames pleaded any such prerogative at Ierusalem Sect. 15. And therefore though we reverence Eusebius and other Ancients that tell us of some Apostles Diocesses we take them not as infallible reporters and have reason in these points partly to deny them credit from the word of God The Churches that were planted by any Apostle or where an Apostle was longest resident were like enough to reckon the series of their Pastors from him For the founder of a Church is a Pastor of it though not a fixed Pastor taking it as his peculiar charge but delivering it into the hands of such And in this sence we have great reason to understand the Catalogues of the Antients and their affirmations that Apostles were Bishops of the Churches For Pastors they were but so that they had no peculiar Diocess but still went on in planting and gathering and confirming Churches Whereas the Bishops that were setled by them and are said to succeed them had their single Churches which were their peculiar charge They had but one such charge or Church when the Apostles that lead in the Catalogues had many yet none so as to be limited to them And why have we not the Diocess of Paul and Iohn and Mathew and Thomas and the rest of the twelve mentioned as well of Peter and Iames Or if Paul had any it seems he was compartner with Peter in the same City contrary to the Canons that requireth that there be but one Bishop in a City Sect. 16. It s clear then that the English Bishops were not such Apostolical unfixed Bishops as the Itinerants of the first age were And yet if they were I shall shew in the next Argument that it s nothing to their advantage because Archbishops are nothing to our question And that they were not such as the fixed Bishops of Scripture times I am next to prove Sect. 17. The fixed Bishops in the Scripture times had but a single Congregation or particular Church for their Pastoral Charge But our English Bishops had many if not many hundred such Churches for their charge therefore our English Bishope were not of the same sort with those in Scripture The Major I have proved in the former Disputation The Minor needs no proof as being known to all that know England Sect. 18. And 2. The fixed Bishops in the Scripture times had no Presbyters at least of other particular Churches under them They Governed not any Presbyters that had other associated Congregations for publick Worship But the English Bishops had the Presbyters of other Churches under them perhaps of hundreds therefore they are not such as the Scripture Bishops were There is much difference between a Governour of People and a Governour of Pastors Episcopus gregis Episcopus Episcoporum is not all one None of us saith Cyprian in Concil Carthagin calleth himself or takes himself to be Episcopum Episcoporum No fixed Bishops in Scripture times were the Pastors of Pastors as least of other Churches Sect. 19. This I suppose I may take as granted de facto from the Reverend Divine whom I have cited in the foregoing Disputation that saith Annotat. in Art 11. that Although this Title of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Elders have been also extended to a second order in the Church and now iâ only in use for them under the name of Presbyters yet in the Scripture-times it belonged principally if not alone to Bishops there being no Evidence that any of that second Order were then instituted though soon after before the writing ãâã âgnatius Epistles there were such instituted in all Churches So that he granteth that de facto there were then no Presbyters but Bishops and that they were not instituted and therefore Bishops had no such Presbyters to Govern nor any Churches but a single Congregation For one Bishop could guide but one Congation at once in publick worship and there could be no Worshipping Congregations in the sence that now we speak of without some Presbyter to guide them in performance of the worship Sect. 20. So saith the same Learned man Dissertat 4. de Episcop page 208 209. in quibus plures absque dubio Episcopi âuere nullique adhuc quos hodie dicimus Presbyteri And therefore he also concludeth that the Churches weâe then Governed by Bishops assisted by Deacons without Presbyters instancing in the case of the Church of Ierusalem Act. 6. and alledging the words of Clem. Roman ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. How Grotius was confident that Clemens was against their Episcopacy shewed before To the same purpose he citeth the words of Clemens Alexandrinus in Euseb. of Iohn the Apostle concluding Ex âis ratio constat quare sine Presâyterorum mentione intervenientâ Episcopis Diaconi immediate adjiciantur quia scilicet in singulis Macedoniae civitatibus quam vis Episcopus esset nondum Presbyteri constituti sunt Diaconis tantum ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ubique Episcopis adjunctis Dissertat 4 cap. 10. Sect. 19 20 21. So also cap. 11. Sect. 2. alibi passim Sect. 21. Object But though de facto there were no Bishopââuling Presbyters then nor ruling any more then a single Worshâpâing Church yet it was the Intention of the Apostles that they should afterwards enlarge their Diocess and take the care of many Churches and that they should ordain that soât of subject Presbyters that were not instituted in Scripture-times Answ. Do you prove the secret Intention of the Apostles to be for such a Mutation and then we shall be satisfied in that But till then it is enough to us that we have the same Government that de facto was set up by the Apostles and exercised in Scripture times And that it s granted us that the office was not then instituted which we deny For it is the office of such subject Presbyters having no Power of Ordination that we deny Sect. 22. Object But though in Scripture times there were no Bishops over many Churches and Presbyters yet there were Archbishops that were over many Answ. Because this objection contains their strength I shall answer it the more fully And 1. If there were no subject Presbyters in those times then Archbishops could rule none But there were
none such as is granted therefore c. And what proof is there of Archbishops then Sect. 23. Their first proof is from the Apostles But they will never prove that they were fixed Bishops or Archbishops I have proved the contrary before But such an itinerant Episcopacy as the Apostles had laying by their extraordinaries for my part I think should be continued to the world and to the Church of which after Another of their proofs is from Timothy and Titus â who thy say were Archbishops But there is full evidence that Timothy and Titus were not fixed Bishops or Archbishops but Itinerant Evangelists that did as the Apostles did even plant and settle Churches and then go further and do the like See and consider but the proofs of this in Prins unbishoping of Timothy and Titus Such Planters and Itinerants were pro tempore the Bishops of every Church where they came yet so as another might the next week be Bishop of the same Church and another the next week after him yea three or four or more at once as they should come into the place And therefore many Churches as well as Ephesus and Creet its like might have begun their Catalogue with Timothy and Titus and many a one besides Rome might have begun their Catalogue with Peter and Paul Sect. 24. Another of their proofs is of the Angels of the seven Churches which they say were Archbishops But how do they prove it Because those Churches or some of them were planted in chief Cities and therefore the Bishops were Metropolitans But how prove they the consequence By their strong imagination and affirmation The Orders of the Empire had not then such connection and proportion and correspondency with the Orders of the Church Let them give us any Valid proof that the Bishop of a Metropolis had then in Scripture times the Bishops of other Cities under him as the Governor of them and we shall thank them for such unexpected light But presumption must not go for proofs They were much later times that afforded occasion for such contentions as that of Basil and Anthymius Whether the bounds of their Episcopal Jurisdiction should change as the Emperours changed the State of the Provinces Let them prove that these Asian Angels had the Bishops of other Churches and the Churches themselves under their jurisdiction and then they have done something Sect. 25. But if there were any preheminence of Metropolilitans neer these times it cannot be proved to be any more then an honorary Primacy to be Episcopus primae sedis but not a Governour of the rest How else could Cyprian truly say even so long after as is before alledged that none of them was a Bishop of Bishops nor imposed on others but all were left free to their own consciences as being accountable only to God Sect. 26. Yea the Reverend Author above mentioned shews Dâssertat de Episcop 4. cap. 10. Sect. 9 10 alibi that there were in those times more Bishops then one in a City though not in una Ecclesia aut Coeâu And the like hath Grotius oft So that a City had oft then more Churches then one and those Churches had their several Bishops and neither of these Bishops was the Governour of the other or his Congregation much less of the remoter Churches and Bishops of other Cities And this they think to have been the case of Peter and Paul at Rome yea and of their immediate successors there And so in other places Lege Dissert 5 c 1. Sect. 27. When the great Gregory Thaumaturgus was made Bishop of Neocaesarea he had but seventeen Christians in his City and when he had increased them by extraordinary successes yet we find not that he had so much as a Presbyter under him And if he had it s not likely that Musonius his first and chief entertainer would have been made but his Deacon and be the only man to accompany him and comfort him in his retirement in the persecution and that no Presbyter should be mentioned which shews that Bishops then were such as they were in Scripture-times at least in most places and had not many Churches with their Presbyters subject to them as Dâocâsan Bishops have And when Comana a small place not far off him received the faith Gregory Ordained Alexander the Colliar their Bishop over another single Congregâtion and did not keep them under his own Pastoral charge and Government Vid. Greg. Nysân in vita Thaumat Sect. 28. But because that our Dâocesan Bishops are such as the Archbishops that first assumed the Government of many Churches and because we shall hardly drive many from their presumption that Timothy and Titus were Archbishops besides the Apostles I shall now let that supposition stand and make it my next Argument that Argument 3. Ordination by Archbishops is not necessary to the Being of Ministers or Churches Our English Bishops were indeed Archbishops therefore Ordination by them is not Necessary It is not the Name but the office that is pleaded Necessary Sect. 29. And for the Major I think it will not be denyed All that I have to do with Protestants and Papists do grant the Validity of Ordination by Bishops And for the Minor it is easily proved The Bishops that are the Governours of many Churches and their Bishops are Archbishops The Bishops of England were the Governours of many Churches with their Bishops therefore they were Archbishops The Major will be granted And for the Minor I prove it by parts 1. That they were by undertaking the Governours of many Churches 2. And of many Bâshops Sect. 30. He that is the Governour over many Congregations of Christians associated for the publick Worship of God and holy communion and Edification under their Proper Pastors is the Governour of many Churches But such were our English Bishops therefore c. That such Societies as are here defined are true Churches is a truth so clear that no enemy of the Churches is is able to gainsay with any shew of Scripture or reason they being such Churches as are described in the Scriptures And 2. That our Ministers were true Pastors if any will deny as the Papists and Separatists do I shall have occasion to say more to them anon Sect. 31. Argument 4. If Ordination by such as the English Bishops be of Necessity to the Ministry and Churches then was there no true Ministry and Churches in the Scripture times nor in many years after But the consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The reason of the Consequence is because there were no such Bishops in those times and this is already proved they being neither the Itinerant Apostolical sort of Bishops nor the fixed Pastors of particular Churches besides which there were no other Sect. 32. Argument 5. If Ordination by such as the English Prelates be Necessary to the Being of the Ministry and Churches then none of the Protestants that have not such Prelates which is almost all are
true Churches or have true Ministers But the Consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent Of this I shall say more anon Sect. 33. If none of the Protestants Churches that have not such Bishops are true Churches and have not a true Ministry then neither Roman Greek Armenian Aethiopian c. or almost any through the world are true Churches For they are defective in some greater matters and chargeable with greater errors then these But the Consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent He that denyeth all these to be true Churches denyeth the Catholick Church And he that denyeth the Catholick Church is next to the denying of Christ. Sect. 34. Having thus proved that there is no necessity of Ordination by such as the English Prelates I have withall proved that men are not therefore ever the less Ministers because they have not their Ordination nor our Churches or Ordinances ever the more to be disowned Sect. 35. Yet where there is no other Ordination to be had it may be a duty to submit to theirs Not as they are Episcopi exortes as even Grotius calls them or of this species but as they are Pastors of the Church notwithstanding such superfluities and usurpations Sect. 36. It is not the duty therefore but the sin of any man that was Ordained by such Prelates to a lawful office to disclaim and renounce that Ordination as some do For it is not every irregularity that nullifieth it There may be many modal circumstantials or accidental miscarriages that may not Null the the substance of the Ordination it self Sect. 37. Yet it must be concluded that we may not be wilfully guilty of any sin in the modes or accidents But that may be a sin in the Ordainer which the Ordained may not be guilty of as doing nothing that signifieth an approbation of it but perhaps disowning it Sect. 38. If we have been guilty of submitting to a corrupt ordination as to the accidents we must disown and repent of the sinfull mode and accidents though not of the Ordination it self in substance As we must bewail the errours and infirmities of our preaching prayer and other holy duties without renouncing the duty it self which is of God and to be owned Sect. 39. As to the Question of some Whether a man may be twice Ordained in case he suspect his first Ordination I answer 1. You must distinguish between a General Ordination to the office of the Ministry and a special Ordination to a particular Church As the licensing of a Physitian and the setling him over a City or Hospital The first may be done but once in case it be truely done but the second may be done as oft as we remove to particular Churches Though yet both may be done at once at our first Ordination they are still two things Even as Baptizing a man into Member-ship of the universal Church and taking him into a particular Church It s not like that the separation and Imposition of hands on Paul and Barnabas Act. 13.2 3. was to their first Apostleship Sect. 40. If a man have weighty reasons to doubt of his first Ordination his safest way is to renew it as is usuall in Baptim with a Si non Baptizatus es Baptizo te If thou be not Ordained I Ordain thee This can have no danger in such a case CHAP. VI. Ordination at this time by English Prelates especially is unnecessary Sect. 1. BEsides what is said against the Necessity of such Prelatical Ordination in it self I conceive that more may be said against it as things now stand from several accidental reasons which make it not only unnecessary but sinful to the most Sect. 2 As 1. The Obligation that was upon us from the Law of the Land is taken off which with the Prelates themselves is no small argument when it was for them So that we are no further now obliged then they can prove us so from Scripâuâe Evidence and how little that is I have shewed before The English Prelâcy is taken down by the Law of the Land we are left at Liberty ârom humane Obligations at least Sect. 3. If any man say that it is an unlawful power that hath made those Laws by which Prelaâical Government is taken down I aâswer 1. It is such a Power as they obey themselves and therefore they may permit others to obey it They hold their estateâ and lives under it and are protected and ruled by it and profeâs submission and obedience for the generality of them And when another Species of Government was up that commanded ãâã to âake an engagement to be true to the Government as ãâã without a King and House of Lords when our ãâã refused that Engagement as unlawful the generality of the contrary minded took it even all that I was acquainted with that were put upon it So that I may take it for granted that they judge the power which they obey themselves to be obeyed by others Sect. 4. And 2. I would be glad to hear from them any regardable proof that those that Governed when Paul wrote the 13th Chapter to the Romans had any better Title to their Government Let them review their own late writings on that subject and they may have arguments enough that are Valid ad hominem at least Sect. 5. The Laws of the Land do make the Acts even of an Usurper Valid while he is in possession and make it treason to them that do against him that which is treason if it were against a lawfull Prince and therefore if we granted them what they here affirm it would be no advantage to their cause Subjects must look at the present Governours with peaceable subjection For if they be left to try their Princes titles and suspend obedience upon their single opinions you know what will follow Sect. 6. And 3. It will be hard to prove that many a Prince that hath ruled in England had a better Title It s known that many of their Titles were naught And yet their Lawes are Valid still or were so to Posterity And how can they convey a better title to their Heirs then they had themselves If you say that the Consent of the People gave them a better I must return that if that will serve the people in Parliaments more then one and in their real subjection have consented to this But this is a subject that requireth much more to be said of it or nothing at all and therefore I shall take up here with this little which he present cause makes necessary Sect. 7. And I may add a further Reason that we are not only disobliged by the Laws from former Prelacy but we are obliged against it The Rulers have deposed and forbidden it And in lawful things it is a duty to obey our Governours And that the demolishing of the Prelacy is a lawful thing in it self considered For I meddle not with the manner at this time I have said enough before to
If the Ordination of Papist Bishops be valid much more is the Ordination of English Preâbyters so but the Antecedent is true in the judgement of those against whom we dispute therefore the Consequent must be granted by them on that supposition Sect. 33. The reason of the Consequence is because the Popish Bishops are more unlike to the Scripture Bishops and more uâcapable of ordaining then the Presbyters of the Reformed Churches are For 1. The Papist Prelates profess to receive their Power from a Vice-christ at least quoad exercitium media conserendi which Protestant Presbyters do not 2. The Papist Bishops profess themselves Pastors of a new Catholick Church which is headed by the Papacy as an essential part and which Christ will not own as such But so do not the Protestant Presbyters 3. The Papist Prelates Ordain men to the false Office of turning Bread into the Body of Christ by the way of Transubstantiation in their Consecration and offering it as a Sacrifice for the quick and dead and delivering this as the very Body of Christ and not Bread to the Communicants and perswading them that it is such and holding and carrying it to be Worshipped by them with Divine Worship and the like But the Protestant Presbyters are Ordained and do Ordain others to that true Office of a Presbyter or Pastor or Bishop which Christ hath instituted 4. The Papist Prelates have abundance of false doctrines and practices in Worship which the Protestant Presbyters have not 5. And they have no more to shew for a Power of Ordination then our Presbyters have so that these with many the like considerations will prove that if the Papists Ordination be Valid that of the Protestant Churches by Presbyters is so much more And doubtless they that plead for a succession from the Papist Prelates do hold their Ordination Valid Sect. 34. Argument 13. If the Protestant Churches that have no Prelates be true Churches in a Political sense and the Ordinances among them valid and to be owned and received then are the Pastors of those Churches true Pastors though they have no Ordination but by Presbyters But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the Consequent The reason of the Consequence is clear and granted by them that we have now to do with Because the Pastors are essential to the Church as Political and the said Ordinances of Publike worship as the Lords Supper and Government cannot be allowable without them nor such as the people should submit to or receive This therefore we may take as granted Sect. 35. And for the Minor that the Protestant Churches are true Churches that have no Prelates 1. There are so few of them that have Prelates that he that will unchurch all the rest I suppose when he playes his game above board would take it for an injury to be accounted a Protestant himself 2. If the Churches of the West called Papists and the Churches of Africa Asia and America be true Churches of Christ and have true administrations then much more confidently may we affirm that the Protestants are so too But the Antecedent is maintained by those that we now dispute against excepting the Papists who yet maintain it as of their own Church therefore c. Sect. 36. The reason of the Consequence is because the Papists Greeks Armenians Georgians Syrians Aegyptians Abasines c. have much more to be said against them then we have And if the lesser or supposed imperfection of the Protestant Churches do unchurch them for wanting Prelates then the many great and real defects of the other Churches will unchurch them much more Especially this holds as to the Church of Rome which yet is taken by the Dissenters to be a true Church and by some of them at least denyed to be the seat of Antichrist Their Vicechrist and usurping head and all the Ministry that hold by him afford us other kind of Arguments against their Church then want of Prelates can afford them or others against our Churches Sect 37. And if any will deny the Antecedent so far as to unchurch all the Churches in the world that are more defective then the Protestants he will blot out of his Creed the Article of the Catholick Church and being a Seeker or next one to day is like to be an Infidel ere long as I shall further shew when I speak of the sinfulness of such Sect. 38. Argument 14. If the Administrations of a Usurping Presbyter to an innocent people are Valid and not Nullities then the Ordination of an Usurping Ordainer to an Innocent expectant is Valid and consequently the Ordination of Presbyters is Valid if they were Usurpers as they are unjustly said to be But the administrations of usurping Presbyters to an Innocent people are Valid therefore c. Sect. 39. The Antecedent is granted by Bellarmine himself in the place before cited who saith that no more is required to oblige the people to obey him and submit then that he be reputed a Pastor And all must say so 1. That will not rob the Innocent of the Benefit of Gods Ordinances because of an usurpers fault 2. And that will not leave the people almost commonly in an utter uncertainty whom they should take for a Pastor and obey and when the Ordinances are Valid for their good Sect. 40. The Consequence is made good by the Parity of Reason that is in the two cases If usurpation cause not a Nullity invalidity or unprofitableness in one case to the innocent receiver no nor make it his sin to receive no more will it in the other For there is no Reason for any such difference Nay iâ it be a duty to submit to an unknown usurper in several cases in receiving the Sacraments hearing praying c. so is it a duty in such cases to receive Ordination Sect. 41. Object But the usurping Presbyter doth nothing but what belongeth to the office of a Presbyter but the usurping Ordainer doth that which belongs not to the office of a Presbyter and therefore his action is a Nullity as being extra proprium forum Sect. 42. Answ. 1. It is proved before to belong to the office of a Presbyter to Ordain 2. But suppose it were not yet the objection is vain because it is the office of a Bishop that the Ordaining Presbyter doth pretend to and which you imagine that he doth usurp They say that subject Presbyters quoad ordinem vel Officium are no creatures of Gods appointment and therefore they renounce that Office and claim that office which you call Episcopacy and hath the Power of Ordination The quarrel between us is not about meer Bishops such as Dr. H. H. describeth as aforesaid These are not denyed but the Parish Ministers profess themselves such Bishops But it is about the other sort of Presbyters subject to Bishops that the quarrel is For they say that the Church should have none such and Dr. H. H. saith there is no Evidence that any such
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 Ignaâiââ 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 Dâctrine 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 ân 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
will appear that the power of Baptizing and judging who shall be taken for Christians and who not and the power of administring the Eucharist and Eucharistical actions in the Church is as great as this of Ordination especially supposing that a Presbyterie must concur in this and a single Pesbyter may do the other And therefore the one being granted them the other cannot be denyed Sect. 49. Argument 16. If the administrations of the Priests and Teachers in Christs dayes among the Jews was Valid to the people then the Ordination of our Presbyteries and the administrations of our Presbyters so ordained are Valid to the people and receivers now But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the Consequent This Argument is managed so frequently and copiously by our Ministers heretofore against the Separatists that I shall need to say but little of it Sect. 50. The Antecedent is proved easily from Scripture Acts 13.27 15.21 shew that Moses and the Prophets were read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day and Luke 16.29 shews that it was the peoples duty to hear them Mat. 23.1 2 3. Then spake Iesus to the Multitude and to his Disciples saying The Scribes and the Pharises sit in Moses seat all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not Mat. 8.4 Mark 1.44 Luke 16.29 But go thy way shew thy self to the Priest and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded c. So that it was the peoples duty to hear and submit to the Teachers and the Priests Sect. 51. The reason of the Consequence is because these Priests and Teachers had not so good a Call as our Presbyters to their Office but were lyable to far more exceptions The Priests were not of the line that God had by his Law appointed to succeed in the Priesthood the succession had long failed as to the just title of the Successors The Priesthood was bought for money of the Civil Powers and instead of being the Priest for life he was oft changed every year chosen by a Pagan Prince and by him displaced and most think there were two at once The Scribes and Pharises had abominably corrupted the Law by their traditions and false expositions and their Calling was much more defective then ours so that if they must pass yet for Ministers of God and their administrations be valid then so must Presbyters and their administrations be esteemed much more I know we need not this odious comparison of our Ministry with the Priests or Pharises but to shew the adverââries the odiousness of their accusations and grossness of their ãâ¦ã ãâ¦ã Presbyters may make a Bishop ãâã they may make a ãâã But they may make a Bishop ãâã they may make ãâã ordain a Presbyter The ãâã of the Major is proved thus 1. They that may âonfer ãâ¦ã Dâgree may confer the lower the place of a Bishop is supposed the higher Degree and the place of a Presbyter the lower 2. âhe Bishops themselves require more power in or to the Consecration of a Bishop then to the Ordination of a Minister called a Presbyter The later may be done according to their Canons by one Bishop with assisting Presbyters but the former must have three Bishops at the least Sect. 53. To this it is commonly answered that Praecise the Ordination of a Presbyter is a greater work then the making of a Bishop and therefore the Major is denyed To which I reply 1. I speak not of a Greater work because the word greater is ambiguous and may signifie the greater change in regard of the Terminus a quo which is not it that I intend But the addition of an higher degree of power may require more power to the effecting it then the giving of the Lower degree though the lower be praecise the greater change for the higher is the greater change as to the terminus ad quem and as Episcopacy comprehendeth or supposeth Presbyterie so the power of making a Bishop comprehendeth or supposeth the power of Ordaining Presbyters It may be praecise or cum praecisione as the Schoolmen speak it may be a greater work to make a beggar to be the chief Prince next to the King in a Kingdom and yet sinâ praecisione and in regard of the terminus ad quem it is a greater work to make him afterward a King and doubtless the addition of this Power requireth the Greater power to effect it Sect. 54. Otherwise if the Dissenters will stand to their answer we shall from their own grounds infallibly overthrow their cause thus It is a greater work to Baptize then to Ordain or Confirm therefore he that may Baptize may Ordain and Confirm Just as making a Presbyter is cum praecisione and in respect to the terminus a quo a greater work then Consecrating or making a Bishop so Baptizing is cum praecisione and in respect to the terminus a quo a far greater work then Ordination the one making a Christian and the other a Minister of a Christian See Aquil. in Scotel in 4. sent d. 7. q. 2. pag. 816. of Confirmation Sect. 55. It is only the Minor therefore that will hold dispute which I prove from the well known words of Hierom to Evagrius which Bishop Vsher told me he alleadged to King Charls at the Isle of Wight to this end when he was asked by him for an instance of Presbyters Ordaining Quod autem postea unus electus est qui caeteris praeponeâetur in schismatis remedium factum est ne unusquisque ad se trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperet Nam Alexandriae à Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclam Dionysium Episcopos Presbyteri semper unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant quomodo si exercitus Imperatorem faciat aut Diaconi eligant de se quem industrium noverint Archidiaconum vocent Presbyters then made the first Bishops at Alexandria Sect. 56. To this it is answered that it was only Election of Bishops that Hierom ascribeth to the Alexandrian Presbyters and not Ordination of them for that was done by some other Bishops and that it is Ordination that makes a man a Bishop Sect. 57. To this I reply 1. Hierom here undertakes to tell us how Bishops were made at Alexandria but maketh not the least mention of other Ordination or Consecration then these words express as done by the Presbyters And therefore till they prove it we must take the affirmation of another Ordination to be but the groundless presumption of the Assertors 2. Hierom doth purposely bring this as an argument to prove the identity first and the neerness afterward of Bishops and Presbyters that Presbyters made Bishops which would have been no argument if it was not Presbyters but Prelates that made them and if the Presbyters only chose them for 3. The people may choose a Bishop as well as the Presbyters and ordinarily did
Onuphrius Navarrus yea Bellarmine and Pope Nicolaâ who maintain that In summo Pontifice pâst Electionem nulla alia requiritur confirmatio quia statim ut electus est suscipit administrationem And to this agreeth their Practice who at the Council of Trent had many Bishops meerly Elect and Elect Cardinals are admitted to Elect a Pope His sixth Argument is Quod Consecratio seu Investitura potest abâsse aliquo in Casu Electio autem nunquam ergo fundamentum Ministerii seu potestatis Ecclesiasticae est Electio non Consecratio which he endeavours to confirm My opinion of the fundamentum potestatis I have expressed in my Christian Concord othrrwise but yet I consent as is there expressed to the Necessity of the peoples Consent to our Office Sect. 90. Argument 20. If those in the Reformed Churches that are Ordained by Presbyters have as good a call to the Ministerial Office as the Princes of the Nations yea any one of them have to their Soveraignty or Power then are they true Ministers of Christ and their administrations valid to the Churches and their Ministry to be received But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the Consequent And I prove them both Sect. 91. The Secular power will be granted as to the most at least of Christian Princes and other Soveraigns when the Holy Ghost commandeth subjection to the Higher Powers even when they are Heathen and come in as Neâo did Rom. 13. we may well take it for granted that Christian Magistrates that have no better title then he are such as we must be subject to even those that have not so lawful an entrance as may justifie their possession or free them from the guilt of flat Usurpation before God may yet âe such while they are in possession as we must be subject to for Conscience sake and all their administrations are âs valid to the innocent subjects as if they had as good a title as the best They that deny this must overthrow almost all the Common-wealth's on Earth and turn Subjection into Rebellion Sect. 92. The Consequence then is proved from the parity of Reason in both ãâã The title of such Princes is so far good as that subjection is due to them and their Government valid our title to the Ministry is at least as good as theirs therefore submission or obedience is due to us and our administrations valid to the Church And that our title is as good as theirs will appear by a due comparison Sect. 93. 1. God is equally the Author of our Office and of theirs He that appointed the Magistrate to Rule by force appointed the Ministry to Teach and Guide and Worship publikely before the Church There is no Power but of God even Magistrates could have none unless it were given them from above 2. Usurpation therefore is a sin in Magistrates as well as Ministers And there is the same reason why it should invalidate their actions as ours if we were guilty of it 3. The Dissenters rule Nemo dat quod non habet concerneth the Magistrate as much as the Minister and somewhat more A man may do more in works of service to others without a special Office then in Magisterial Government Magistracy is a Relation that must have a foundation or efficient cause as well as Ministry If a Giver that himself hath the Power given is necessary to make Ministers then also to make Magistrate which yet is false in both if you speak of humane Donation to the Soveraign The effect can no more be without a cause in them then in us 4. Iâ the Election or Consent of the people be enough to make a Magistrate or to be the foundation or donation as they suppose of his authority then much more may the election or consent of the people with the approbation and investiture by Presbyters and allowance of the Magistrate prove those in question to be true Ministers 5. No Prince on earth that ever â heard of can prove any thing like an uninterrupted succession of legitimate Princes from a Predecessor immediatly authorized by God If Hereditary Princes that are the Successors of Usurpers are not to be obeyed it will be hard to find an Hereditary Prince that is to be obeyed so that their case is worse then the case of Ministers Sect. 94. For though 1. No Pastors on Earth can prove an uninterrupted Succession of persons lawfully Ordained 2. Nor is it necessary to prove a Local succession because God hath not tyed his Church to Towns or Countries and a Church and Pastor that are banished into another Land may there be the same Church and Pastor though in and of another place yet 1. We have a succession of possession in the Office itself 2. And a succession of actual Ordination in great probability no man can prove against us that we receive our Ministrie from any that were not actually Ordained Yet this much is not Necessary to our Office Sect. 95. Object But Christ hath tyed the Office of the Ministry to a legitimate Ordination but he hath not tyed the Magistracy to a lawful Title Answ. Here are two falshoods barely affirmed or implyed One is that a just Title is less necessary to the Magistrate then the Minister when the Reason of both is the same Title is the foundation of Right Magistracie is a Right of Governing No Relation can be without its Foundation The other is that God hath tyed the Office of the Ministrie to a legitimate Ordination This is unproved and I have proved the contrary before It is our Duty to enter by Legitimate Ordination where it may be had and thus we do But if any of our Predecessors perhaps a thousand or five hundred years ago did enter otherwise that doth not invalidate our Ordination or Ministrie nor is it any of our sin Sect. 96. As Ministers were at first Ordained by Imposition of hands so Kings were chosen by God and in the Church anointed by a Prophet or special Officer of God and sometime by the people that is by their suffrages appointing it or consenting to it as appeareth 1 Sam. 10.1 15.17 16.13 24.6 2 Sam. 2.4 7. 5.3 12.7 19.10 1 King 1.45 5.1 2 King 11.12 23.30 2 Chron. 22.7 so that there is as much in Scripture for this manner of their investiture as there is for Ministers Ordination by imposition of hands yet may they be Kings that have no such Investiture much less all their predecessors We then that have a due Investiture may prove our Ministry whatever our predecessors had Sect. 97. I come now to the Arguments of the adversaries of our Ministrie which I need not stand long on because they are few and scarce considerable and sufficiently answered in what is said And first its said by a Learned man Dissârtaâ de Episcop contra Blondel Praemoniâ ad Lâctor sect 4.13 Nos illud in hac discâptatione pro concesso positum censâbimus
great reluctancy obey my Conscience in the performance of this task but my intent is if it be the will of God to give success so far to these endeavours 1. To humble them for their great and hainous sin and save them from it 2. And to save the Church from the divisions and disturbances that is already caused by them and their opinion 3. However to discharge my Conscience and tell them plainly what frightneth me from their way Sect. 2. And 1. It seems to me upon the grounds before expressed that those men that would Nullifie all the Protestant Ministry Churches and administrations that have not Prelates are guilty of schism and are plain Separatists They depart from truly Catholick principles That man hath not the just Principles and Spirit of a Catholick that can on such a pretence as this degrade or nullifie so many Learned Godly Ministers and unchurch so many excellent Churches of Christ they make a plain Schism and separate from us on as weak grounds as the ancient Separatists did whom yet they account an odious generation And the writings of Paget Ball Bradshaw Hildersham Bernard and the rest that defend our Ministry and Churches against the old Separatists will serve in the main to defend them against these new ones which therefore I refer the Reader to peruse Many of the same Arguments are as forcible against this adversary Sect. 3. 2. And by this means they condemn themselves that have spoken so much against the Separatists calling them Brownists Schismaticks and the like and now take up the cause in the name that in them they so condemned Will they turn Schismaticks that have spoken against Schismaticks so much Sect. 4. 3. By this means also they exceedingly wrong the Lord Jesus Christ by seeking to rob him of his inheritance by telling him that his Churches are none of his Churches and his Ministers are none of his Ministers and his Ordinances are not his Ordinances indeed Let them first prove that Christ hath renounced these Ministers or unchurched or denied these Churches or given them a bill of divorce and then let them speak their pleasure But till then they were best take heed what they do lest they have not the thanks from Christ which they expect Sect. 5. 4. They go against the plain commands of Christ and examples of his servants Christ himself bid concerning such as cast out Devils in his name but followed him not Forbid him not for there is no man that shall do a Miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me for he that is not against us is on our part Mark 9.37 38 39. He liked not their humour that would have the substance of so good a work forbidden for want of a due circumstance mode or accident He commandeth us to Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send Labourers into his Harvest because the Harvest is great and the Labourers are few And these men would have multitudes of Labourers thrust out in the Necessity of the Churches Paul rejoyced that Christ was Preached even by them that did it in strife and envy thinking to add affliction to his bonds But these men would silence them that preach in sincere compassion of mens souls Moses would not forbid Edlad and Medad prophecying but wisht that all the Lords people were Prophets While men do good and not harm or more good then harm in the Church I should see very good grounds yea and Necessity for it before I should silence them or be guilty of silencing them Sect. 6. 5. They manifest a great deal of selfishness and pride that dare thus consent to the injury of Christ and the Church and souls of men because they may not bear that Rule which is according to their principles and spirits Self-denial would do much to cure this Sect. 7. 6. And yet they do as self-seekers commonly do even seek after misery and destruction to themselves While they look its like at the honour and forget the work they plead for such a load and burden as is enough to break the backs of many even for the doing of a work that is so far beyond their strength that its a meer impossiblity How can one man do the works which Scripture layeth on a Bishop for a hundred or two hundred Churches and for thousands that he never sees or hears of Sect. 8. 7. And above all I admire how the heart of a considerate Christian can be guilty of so great cruelty to the souls of men as these men would be if they had their will in the practice of their principles What if all the Churches that have no Prelates were unchurched the Ministers cast out as no true Ministers or the people all prevailed with to forsake them what would be done for the thousands of the poor ignorant careless souls that are among us when all that all of us can do is too little what would be done if so many and such were laid aside How many thousands were like to be damned for want of the means that according to the ordinary way of God might have procured their conversion and Salvation Sect. 9. If they say that others as good as they should possess the places I answer they speak not to men of another world but to their neighbours that well know that there are few to be had of tolerable worth to possess one place of very many if all that they oppose were cast out or forsaken Do we not know who and what men they are that you have to supply the room with Sect. 10. If they say that more obedient men would soon spring up or many of these would change their minds if they were forced to it I answer 1. So many would be unchanged as would be a greater loss to the Church if it were deprived of them then ever Prelacy was like to repair 2. And what should become of poor souls the while your young ones are a training up 3. And in all ages after the Church must lose all those that should dissent from your opinion Sect. 11. If you say that It is not your desire to silence all these Preachers that you disown I answer How can that stand with your doctrine or your practice Your Doctrine is that they are Lay-men and no true Ministers nor to be heard and submitted to as Ministers nor Sacraments to be received from them And would you not have them then cast out 2. Your practice is to disswade the people especially the Gentry that are neer you to separate and disown them accordingly and it is done in many places And would you not cast them out whom you would have forsaken Sect. 12. If you say It is your desire that they should forsake their error and obey you and so be continued and not cast out I answer 1. But that is not in your power to accomplish nor have you reason to expect it They are willing to know the mind of God as well as
either restrain or change them But when they have such an irritation and encouragement as this and that from men that would be reputed as Godly as the best then no wonder if they are hardened in their malignity When we would instruct them and mind them of their everlasting state and help to prepare them for their latter end they are told by Learned men that we are no Ministers but Lay-men and Schismaticks and that it is their sin to own us or receive the Ordinances of Christ from us as Ministers and so the poor people turn their backs on us and on the Assemblies and Ordinances of God and being taught by wise and learned men to disown us and despise us they follow their drunkenness and worldliness and ungodlyness with greater security and with less remorse for now they have a defensative against the galling doctrine of those precise Preachers that would not let them alone in their sin they were wont to be disturbed at least by Sermons and sometime they purposed to return and were in the way of Grace and in some hope but now they are taught by Learned Godly Divines to keep out of hearing they can go on and sin in peace Sect. 21. 15. By this means also you rob God of his publike worship People are taught to turn their backs on it you teach them that it is better that God have no publike Ministerial worship at all in Prayer Praises Sacraments c. then that he should have it from any but Prelatical Ministers O sacred doctrine And if you had your wills for the silencing or ejecting of all that are not Ordained by Prelates how many hundred Church-doors must be shut up in the Christian world or worse Sect. 22. 16. By this means all Impiety would be cherished and let loose When once the mouths of Ministers were stopped the mouth of the swearer and curser and railer and scorner at Godliness would be open and so would be the mouth of the drunkard and glutton If all that can be done be so much too little as experience tells us what a case would the Nations be in and how would iniquity abound if Ministers were cast out Sect. 23. 17. Yea it might endanger the Churches by the introduction of Infidelity or Heathenism it self For nothing is more natural as it were to corrupted man and if once the Ministry be taken down and they have none or those that are next to none Infidelity and Atheism will soon spring up And it will be a more dangerous sort of Infidelity then is among many of the open Infidels because it would be palliated with the name of Christianity and leave men further from conviction then some that never heard of Christ. Sect. 24. 18. And it is a temptation to Infidelity and Contempt of the Church and Ministrie when men shall âee that one party of Christians doth thus unchurch another They will think that they may boldly say that of us which we say of the another one party unchurcheth all the Papists these that we are now speaking to do unchurch all the Protestant Churches that are not Prelatical The Papists unchurch all but themselves and so among them they leave Christ but a very small part of his inheritance Sect. 25. 19. Yea I fear that by Consequence and too near and plaân a Consequence they dissolve the Catholike Church it self And if it be so let them judge whether their doctrine subvert not Christianitie I use no violence for the inference If want of Prelatical Ordination do Null the Protestant Ministrie and Churches then it must needs follow that far greater defects and more against the vitals of the Church will do as much to unchurch the Romanists the Greeks Armenians Syrians Ethiopians Egyptians c. But alas how easie is it to prove that all these have far greater defects then the Presbyterian Protestant Churches and so the whole must fall together Sect. 26. 20. By all these means they joyn with the Quakers and Seekers and Drunkards in opposing the same Ministrie that they oppose You are no true Ministers of Iesus Christ say the Quakers Seekers and other Sects so also say these that now we are speaking of and if they preach their doctrine and side with them against the servants of Christ let them be afraid lest they partake of their Spirit and Reward Sect. 27. 21. Their doctrine and practice tendeth to grieve the hearts of the most experienced gracious souls Should all the Ministers be cast out that are not Prelatical and the places supplyed as they mâst be in their stead with such as can be had O what a day would it be to honest humble souls that were wont to delight themselves in the publike worship of God and to find instruction and admonition and consolation sutable to their necessities If now they should have all turned to what the Doctrine of these men portends their souls would be as in a Wilderness and famine would consume them and they would lament as David in his banishment and the Jews in their captivity to think of the daies that once they saw Sect. 28. 22. And doth it not imply a great deal of unholiness and enmitie to Reformation when men dare thus boldly unchurch the most of the Reformed Churches and pass such desperate nullifying censures on the most holy able painful Ministers of the Gospel O how many of them are studying and watching and praying for their people day and night and teaching them publickly and from house to house and that sometimes with tears willing to spend and be spent fo their Salvation not seeking theirs but them and when they have done all they are reproached as no Ministers of Christ and the people taught to disown them and forsake them Is this a sign of a son of God that is tender of his honour and interest or of a Holy Gracious soul Sect. 29. 23. At least by this means the hands of Ministers are weakned in their work and their difficulties increased and their hearts grieved because of their peoples misery O if they could have but a free unprejudiced hearing with poor sinners some good might be done But they will not hear us nor come neer us or speak to us Especially when they are taught to forsake us by such men I would not be the man that should thus add burden and grief to the faithful Ministers of Christ upon such an account for all the Bishopricks on earth Sect. 30. 24 They also distract the minds of Christians when they hear men thus degrading and unchurching one another so that weak persons are perplexed and know not what to think nor what Church or Religion to be of yea it is well if many be not tempted hereby to be of no Religion at all when they hear them condemning one another Sect. 31. 25. These shew too much formality and Ceremoniousness when they so much prefer their own opinon about a circumstance Ceremony or Mode before the very being
of the Churches and Ministry and the substance of worship it self and the Salvation of men souls As if it were better for Churches to be no Churches then not Prelatical Churches or for souls to be condemned then to be saved by men that are not Prelatical I speak not these things to exasperate them though I can expect no better but in the grief of my soul for the sad condition that they would bring men into Sect. 32. 26. They lay a very dangerous snare to draw Ministers to be guilty of casting off the work of God Flesh and blood would be glad of a fair pretence for so much liberty and ease O how fain would it be unyoakt and leave this labourious displeasing kind of life And when such as these shall perswade them that they are no Ministers they may do much to gratifie the flesh For some will say I am at a loss between both wayes I cannot see the lawfulness of Prelacy and yet they speak so confidently of the nullity of all other callings that I will forbear till I am better resolved Another will say I find my self to be no Minister and therefore free from the Obligation to Ministerial Offices and I will take heed how I come under that yoak again till I have fuller resolution Another will scruple being twice Ordained and so will think it safer to surcease At least they tempt men to such resolutions that would discharge them from so hard a work Sect. 33. 27. By this means also they make the breaches that are among us to be uncurable and proclaim themselves utterly unreconcileable to the most of the Protestant Churches For if they will have no reconciliation or communion with them till they shall confess themselves no Churches and cast off all their Ministers they may as well say flatly they will have none at all For no reasonable man can imagine or expect that ever the Churches should yield to these terms When they are declared no Ministers or Churches you cannot then have Communion with them as Ministers or Churches Sect. 34. 28. And it is easie to see how much they befriend and encourage the Papists in all this Is it not enough that you have vindicated the Pope from being the Antichrist but you must also openly proclaim that Rome is a true Church their Priests true Priests their Ordinances and Administrations Valid but all the Protestant Churches that are not Prelatical are indeed no Churches their Ministers no Ministers c. Who would not then be a Papist rather then a member of such a Protestant Church How can you more plainly invite men to turn Papists unless you would do it expresly and with open face Or how could you gratifie Papists more Sect. 35. 29. And truly if all these evils were accomplâshed the Ministers forsaken iniquity let loose the Ordinances prophaned by unworthy men c. we could expect nothing but that the judgements of God should be poured out upon us for our Apostacy and that temporal plagues involuntary should accompany the spiritual plagues that we have chosen and that God should even forsake our land and make us a by word and an hissing to the Nations and that his judgements should write as upon our doors This is the people that wilfully cast out the Ministers and mercies of the Lord. Sect. 36. 30. And if all this were but accomplished in the Conclusion I may be bold to ask what would the Devil himself have more except our damnation it self If he were to plead his own cause and to speak for himself would he not say the very same as these Learned Reverend Disputers do would he not say to all our graceless people Hear nât these Ministers they are no true Ministers Ioyn not in Communion with their Churches they are no true Churches I doubt not but he would say many of the same words if he had leave to speak And should not a man of any fear be afraid and a man of any piety be unwilling to plead the very cause of Satan and say as he would have them say by accusing so many famous Churches and Ministers as being none indeed and drawing the people so to censure them and forsake them This is no work for a Minister of Christ. Sect. 37. Besides what is here said I desire those whom it doth concern that are afraid of plunging themselves into the depth of guilt and horror that they will impartially read over my first sheet for the Ministry which further shews the aggravations of their sin that are now the opposers and reproachers of them Consider them and take heed Sect. 38. But again I desire these Brethren to believe that as it is none of the Prelatical Divines that I here speak of but those that thus nullifie our Church Ministry while they own the Ministry and Church of Rome so it is none of my desire to provoke even these or injure them in the least degree But I could not in this sad condition of the Church but propound these hainous evils to their consideration to provoke them to try and to take heed lest they should incur so great a load of guilt while they think they are pleading for Order in the Church How can there be any charity to the Church or to our brethren in us if we can see them in such a gulf of sin as this and yet say nothing to them for fear of provoking them to displeasure Sect. 39. And I think it necessary that all young men that are cast by their arguings into temptations of falling with them into the same transgressions should have the case laid open to them that they may see their danger and not by the accusations of Schism be led into far greater real Schism with so many other sins as these Sect. 40. Yet is it not my intent to justifie any disorders or miscarriages that any have been guilty of in opposition to the Prelacie And if they can prove that I have been guilty of any such thing my self I shall accept of their reproof and condemn my sin as soon as I can discern it Only I must crave that the usual way of presumption affirmation or bare names of crimes be not supposed sufficient for Conviction without proof and before the cause is heard And also I do profess that for all that I have here said against the English Prelacy and though I earnestly desire it may never be restored yet were I to live under it again I would live peaceably and submissively being obedient and perswading others to obedience in all things lawfull CHAP. IX The sinfulness of despising or neglecting Ordination Sect. 1. IT is a thing so common and hardly avoided for men in opposing one extream to seem to countenance the other and for men that are convinced of the evil of one to run into the other as the only truth that I think it necessary here to endeavour the prevention of this miscarriage and having said so much
against the Necessity of Prelatical Ordination and in some cases of any I shall next shew the greatness of their sin that despise or neglect Ordination when it may be had Sect. 2. For the right understanding of what is to be said I must again remember you that though it be not at the Ordainers will to deprive the Church of Ministers and it is none of the Question which they have to resolve Whether the Church shall have Ministers or none and therefore there may be Ministers without them if they would hinder or refuse And though it be not the Question which is put to their decision What kind of Ministers the Church shall have for that Christ hath determined of nor yet what Qualifications are necessary to them for that also Christ hath already set down yet is it a great and weighty case that is put to the decision of Ordainers that is Whether this man be thus qualified as Christ hath described and required in Ministers and whether he be the fittest person or fit at least for the particular charge to which he is called And the right determining of this question is a thing that the Churches welfare doth very much do depend upon Sect. 3. And therefore it is the decision of this one Question that Ministers People and Magistrates themselves must all contribute their powers and endeavours too in their several places All that they have to do is but to see that the Churches have fit men even such as are qualified as God requireth The People must choose fit men or consent to them when chosen for them The Pastors must try them and Approve them and only them that are fit The Magistrate must encourage assist and defend fit men and forbid such as are intolerably unfit and not permit them to abuse the name and Ordinances of Christ and wrong his Church Sect. 4. This treble guard at the door of the Church doth much tend to its security and preservation from the great evils that intruders may introduce And each party of the three hath a special interest which should make them carefull of the business 1. The people have great reason to have a hand in it and to be carefull For it is their Souls for which their Overseers watch and their Salvation that is concerned in it And he that will not trust his Son with any Tutor without due choice nor his state with every Lawyer nor his body with every Physician no nor his land or cattle with every servant but will choose the best hath reason to know upon whose care he trusteth his soul. For though it may be some excuse it will be no justification of them that lie in sin and misery to say Our Teachers did mislead us For if the blind lead the blind it is both that fall into the ditch And as Cyprian saith with the rest of his Collegues Epist. 68. alias Li. 1. Ep. 4. Propter quod plena diligentia exploratione sincerâ oportet eos ad Sacerdotium delegi quos a Deo constet audiri Nec sibi plebs blandiatur quasi immunis esse a contagio delicti possit cum Sacerdote peccatore communicans ad injustum atque illicitum praepositi sui Episcopatum consensum suum commodans c. Besides the work of the Ministry is Teaching and Perswasive and the success is only on the Willing and seeing we can do nothing on them for their good against their wills or without their own Consent it is needfull therefore that some way or other their Consent should be procured unless we would frustrate all our labour and miss our end And also a Church is a Society Voluntarily conjoined for holy Worship and Living and therefore it is contrary to the nature of it that they should have Pastors or be members and not Consent Sect. 5. And 2. For the Magistrate there is great reason that he have his part also in the work For the honour of God must be his End the Law of God his chiefest Rule âhe Church of Christ his chiefest subjects and the work of Christ his chifest care and business And seeing he Ruleth from Christ and by Christ and for Christ it is necessary that he take care of the quality and enterance and carriage of Ministers on whom Christs work and honour doth so much depend Sect. 6. Yet is there here a special difference between the works of these several parties in admitting men into the Ministry The proper or necessary work of the people is but to discern and consent Whether they be the first Electors is a matter of indifferency in it self is sometime fit and sometime unfit The Magistrates work is not to Ordain Ministers but carefully to Oversee the Ordainers and the People that they put in none but worthy men And if he find that they miscarry he is not ordinarily at least to take the work upon him and Ordain fitter men himself but to correct them to whom the work belongs for their male-administration and restrain them from misdoing and urge them by due means to do it better or cause them to be displaced that are unreformable that better may be chosen in their stead that will be faithfull Sect. 7. And 3. The reason of the Ministers interest in the work I shall more at large lay down anon And though there be a possibility of frequent differences arising through disagreement of these three several parties yet Christ would rather use this treble guard for caution then for the preventing of division lay open his Church to the injury of intruders Sect. 8. And remember again that it is not in the Power of Magistrates Ordainers People and all to make a Minister of Christ of a man that wanteth the Essential Qualifications Ex quâvis ligno non fit Mercurius He that is not qualified for the works Essential to a Minister cannot by Ordination be made a Minister No more then the bare stamp can make currant money of a piece of lead when the Law makes the Mettal Essential to currant Coin And no more then a license will make him a School-master that cannot read or him a Pilot that knows not how to Rule the ship saith Cyprian ubi sup Sed enim desiderio huic vestro non tam nostra concilia quam Divina praecepta respondent quibus jampridem mandatur voce caelesti Dei lege prescribitur quos quales oporteat deservire altari Sacrificia Divina celebrare Here he citeth Scripture Quae cum praedicta manifesta sint nobis praeceptis Divinis necesse est obsequia nostra deserviant Nec personam in ejusmodi rebus accipere aut aliquid cuiquam largiri potest humana indulgentia ubi intercedit legem tribuit Divina praescriptio God gives not men authority to contradict his Law or to Ordain a man uncapable of Ordination nor introduce the form where the matter is undisposed for it Sect. 9. Perhaps some will ask What should be done in
But 2. If such an Office can be proved I despair of seeing it proved from Scripture that they have authority to Ordain 3. And how can they have Authority when most of them have not Ability And I think it is supposed that they have not Ability to Preach in them that deny them Authority and if they want Ability to Preach it s two to one but they want Ability to Try and Approve of Preachers 4. And how come they to have Power to Ordain others that are not Ordained themselves but are admitted upon bare Election 5. And this course would prostitute the Churches to unworthy men as aforesaid Sect. 45. And 4. It is not a contemptible Consideration that the chief Pastor of every particular Church hath ever since the second Century at least been Ordained by the Pastors of other Churches And how it was before we have but very defective Evidence except so much as is left us in the Holy Scriptures of which we have spoke before Sect 46. And 5. The Church of Christ is a Chain of many links a Society united in Christ the Head consisting as a Republike of many Corporations or as an Acâdemy of many Colledges and a greater Union and Communion is requisite among them then among the parts of any other Society in the world And therefore seeing it is the duty of Neighbour Pastors and Churches according to their Capacity to hold Communion with that particular Church and its Pastors it seems reasonable that they have some antecedent Cognisance and Approbation of the persons that they are to hold Communion with Sect. 47. And 6. It is considerable also that whoever is according to Christs institution Ordained a Minister of a particular Church is withall if not before Ordained a Minister simply that is one that may as a separated Messenger of Christ both preach for the Conversion of those without and gather Churches where there are none and pro tempore do the Office of a Minister to any part of the Catholike Church where he cometh and hath a Call And therefore as he is simply a Minister and the Unconverted world or the Universal Church are the Objects of his Ministry the Pastors or Members of that particular Church where he is settled have no more to do in Ordaining him then any other As a Corporation may choose their own Physitian Schoolmaster c. but cannot do any more then other men in Licensing a man to be in general a Physitian Schoolmaster c. So may a Church choose who shall be their Teacher but not who shall be simply a Teacher or Minister of Christ any more then an other Church may do that 's further from him Sect. 48. And 7. It is also considerable that it is the safest and most satisfactory way to the Church and to the Minister himself to have the Approbation of many And it may leave more scruple concerning our Call when one or two or a particular Church only do Approve us Sect. 49. And 8. It is granted in their writings by those that are for Ordination by a particular Church only that the Concurrence of more is Lawful and if Lawful I leave it to Consideration whether all the forementioned accidents make it not so far convenient as to be ordinarily a plain duty and to be preferred where it may be had Sect. 50. Yet do I not plead for Ordination by Neighbour Pastoââ as from a Governing Authority over that particular Church but as from an interest in the Church Universal and all its Officers within their reach and from an interest of Communion with Neighbour Churches Sect. 51. And it is observable in Scripture that the Itinerant Ministers that were fixed and appropriated to no particular Church for continuance such as the Apostles and Evangelists were and Titus Timothy and such others had a Principal hand in the work of Ordination whereever they came It was they that Ordained Elders in every City in every Church Sect. 52. Prop. 3. If any shall cull out two or three or more of the weakest injudicious facile Ministers and procure them to Ordain him his course is irregular and his call unsatisfactory though the formal part be obtained to the full For it is not for meer formality but to satsfie the person called and the Church and to secure the Ministry and sacred works and souls of men from injury by Usurpers that God hath appointed the way of Ordination And therefore it is fraud and not obedience for any man so to use it as to cheat himsef and the Church with a formality and frustrate the Ordinance and miss its ends Sect. 53. Prop. 4. If any man avoiding the Orthodox and Unanimous Ministry shall apply himself for Ordination to some divided schismatical or heretical persons that will Approve him and Ordain him when the others would reject him this also as the former is fraud and self-deceit and not obedience upon the last mentioned grounds It is the basest treacherous kind of sinning to turn Gods Ordinances against himself and to sin under the shelter and pretence of an institution By using the means in opposition to its end they make it no means and use it not as a means at all Though Pastors must Ordain yet is it not all kind of Pastors Ordination that should satisfie an honest meaning man but that which hath the qualifications suited to the Rule and end Sect. 54. In such cases of unjust entrance if the People sinfully comply and the man have possession it may be the duty of some particular persons that cannot help it having done their own parts in disowning it to submit and not therefore to separate from the Church except in desperate extraordinary cases not now to be enumerated And all the administrations of such a man shall be not only Valid to the innocent but without any scruple of conscience may be used and received with expectation of a promised blessing Sect. 55. But yet quoad debitum it is the Churches duty except in Cases of Necessity to disown such intruders and to suspect and suspend obedience to those that indirectly enter by a few ignorant or schismatical Ordainers refusing the tryal of the unanimous abler Orthodox Ministry till they have either perswaded the man to procure their Approbation or have themselves sought the Judgement of the said United Ministers concerning him And seeing all the Churches of Christ should be linkt and jointed together and hold communion and correspondency according to their capacities the Members of a particular Church are bound in reason and to those ends to advise in such suspicious cases with neighbour Churches and not to receive a Pastor that comes in by way of Discord or that neglecteth or refuseth the concordant way For he that entreth in a divisive way is like to govern them accordingly and still to shun the Communion of the Brethren Sect. 56. This Cyprian fully shews in the fore-mentioned Ep. 68. p 201. perswading the people to shun the
Ministry is not alike necessary in all times and places but with great variety it is exceeding necessary in some Countreys and not in others but useful in some degree in most as I conceive § 36. If the Question be whether such a Ministry be useful in these Dominions or not I have answered before that in some darker and necessitous parts where ignorance doth reign and Ministers or able ones at least are scarce there such aâ exercise of the Ministry is necessary but in other parts it is not of such necessity yet much work there may be for such or for those in the next Chapter mentioned in most Countreys of them therefore I shall next speak CHAP. II. Of fixed Pastors that also participate in the work of the unfixed § 1. IT is not only the unfixed Ministers that may lawfully do the fore-described work but the fixed Pastors of particular Churches may take their part of it and ordinarily should do somewhat toward it though not so much as they that are wholly in it § 2. I shall here shew you 1. What such may do 2. On what terms 3. And then I shall prove it And 1. They may as Ministers of Christ go abroad to preach where there are many ignorant or ungodly people in order to their Conversion 2. They may help to Congregate Believers into holy Societies where it is not already done 3. They may Ordain them Elders in such Churches as they Congregate 4. They may oft enquire after the welfare of the Neighbour Churches and go among them and visit them and strengthen them and admonish the Pastors to do their duties 5. They may instruct and teach the Pastors in publike exercises 6. They may exercise any acts of Worship or Discipline upon the people of any particular Church which giveth them a due invitation thereto 7. They may publikely declare that they will avoid Communion with an impious or heretical Church or Pastor § 3. But 2. As to the mode or terms it should be thus performed 1. No Pastor of a single Church must leave his flock a day or hour without such necessary business as may prove his Call to do so We must not feign a Call when we have none or pretend necessities He that knows his obligations to his particular charge and the work that is there to be done methinks should not dare to be stepping aside unless he be sure it is to a greater work § 4. And 2. No Pastor of a Church should be busie to play the Bishop in another mans Diocess nor suspect or disparage the parts or labours of the proper Pastor of that Church till the sufferings or dangers of the Church do evidently warrant him and call him to assist them § 5. 3. No Minister of Christ should be so proud as to overvalue his own parts and thereupon obtrude himself where there is no need of him though there might be need of others upon a conceit that he is fitter then other men to afford assistance to his Brethren When the case is really so he may judge it so especially when his Colleagues or fellow Ministers judge so too and desire him to the work but Pride must not send out Ministers § 6. 4. A Minister that hath divers fellow Presbyters at home to teach and guide that Church in his absence may better go out on assisting works then other men And so may he that hath help that while from Neighbour Presbyters or that hath such a charge as may bâar his absence for that time without any great or considerable loss § 7. 5. And a man that is commanded out by the Magistrate who may make him a Visiter of the Churches near him may lawfully obey when it would not have been fit to have done it without such a command or some equivalent motive § 8. 6. A man that is earnestly invited by Neighbour-Ministers or Churches that call out to him Come and help us may have comfort in his undertaking if he see a probability of doing greater good then if he denyed them and if they give him satisfactory reasons of their Call § 9. 7. Men of extraordinary abilities should make them as communicative and useful to all as possibly they can and may not so easily keep their retirements as the Weak may do § 10. 8. And lastly No man should upon any of these pretences usurp a Lordship over his Brethren nor take on him to be the stated Pastor of Pastors or of many Churches as his special Charge It is one thing to do the common work of Ministers abroad by seeking mens Conversion and the planting of Churches or else to afford assistance to many Churches for their preservation establishment or increase and it s another thing to take charge of these Pastors and Churches as the proper Bishop or Overseer of them The former may be done but I know no warrant for the later § 11. That fixed Ministers may do all these forementioned works with the aforesaid Cautions I shall briefly prove 1. By some general Reasons speaking to the whole and 2. By going over the particulars distinctly and giving some reason for each part § 12. And 1. It is certain that a Minister doth not cease to be a Minister in general nor to be an Officer authorized to seek the Discipling of them without and Congregating them by his becoming the Pastor of a particular Church therefore he may still do the common works of the Ministry where he hath a Call as well as his Pastoral special work to them that he hath taken special care of As the Physitian of an Hospital or City may take care also of other persons and cure them so he neglect not his charge § 13. 2. A Minister doth not lay by his Relation or Obligations to the unconverted world nor to the Catholike Church when he affixeth himself to a special charge And therefore he may do the work of his Relations and Obligations as aforesaid Yea those works in some respects should be preferred because there is more of Christs interest in the Universal Church or in many Churches then in one and that work in which the most of our ultimate End is attained is the greatest work that in which God is most honoured the Church most edified and most honour and advantage brought to the Gospel and cause of Christ should be preferred But ordinarily these are more promoted by the Communication of our help to many as aforesaid then by confining it to one particular Church The commonest good is the best § 14. 3. Oft-times the Necessity of such Communicative labours is so apparently great that it would be unmercifulness to the Churches or souls of men to neglect them As in case of Reforming and setling Churches upon which Luther Melanchthon Chytraeus Bugenhagius Pomeranus Calvin and others were so oft imployed As also in case of resisting some destructive heresies In which case one able Disputant and prudent adviser and person that hath interest in the
is commanded or commended by the Magistrate to the care of many Churches above his brethren yet some men are as diligent and faithfull in doing good to all within their reach as if they had been chosen and nominated to the work Many able painfull Ministers of Christ that thirst for mens salvation do go up and down among the ignorant or weak and preach in season and out of season notwithstanding the burden of their particular flocks which they faithfully bear § 33. And the parts and graces of these men do win them audience and respect where they come without any Humane Authority to awe men In almost all parts of our Countrey we have either settled or movable Lectures and when do we see a thin Congregation before a lively rowsing Minister or any man of great ability in the work No but we see the Temples crowded and find that the people reverence and hearken to such men as these in whom the Spirit of God appears § 34. Yea and the Ministers themselves will consult with the Wise and Love the good and learn of those that are ablest to teach them and imitate the ablest preachers as neer as they can So that I may truly say that there is a certain kind of Natural or rather spiritual Episcopacy everywhere exercised in the Church A great light that burneth and shineth above others will draw the eyes of many to it and if it be set on a hill it will hardly be hid Calvin was no Prelate and yet his Gifts procured him that Interest by which he prevailed more then Prelates for the conformity of the minds of many to his own There is scarce a Country but hath some able judicious Minister who hath the Interest of a Bishop with the rest though he have no higher an office then themselves Gods Graces deserve and will procure respect Even in Civil Councils Courts Committees we see that some one of leading parts is the Head of the rest though their authority be equal § 35. And indeed the conveniences and inconveniences are such on both sides that it is not an easie matter to determine Whether appointed Visitors or Superintendents be more desirable then these Arbitrary Visitors that have the Natural Episcopacy of Interest procured by their meer abilities On the one side if Magistrates appoint such Visitors the people yea and many Ministers will the more easily submit and hear and obey and more unanimously concur then if we offer our assistance without any such appointment That 's the convenience But then here 's the inconvenience The Magistrate may choose an unworthy man and then he may be feared but not honoured nor loved but greater lights will be greater still let the Magistrate set the lesser on never so high a Candlestick And then the Ministers and people will measure their esteem of the man according to his worth and that will irritate his displeasure For when he is lifted up he either looks to be valued by his Height and not his Light or Worth or else that his Light should be judged of by his Height And as this will turn to heart-burnings and divisions so the esteem that is procured by humane Constitution will be more humane and ordinarily less Divine then the calling and work of a Divine requireth On the other side if none be appointed by the Magistrate but every man go forth in the strength of his zeal and Abilities we are like to be cast on many disadvantages with carnal temporizing men and to have less unity among our selves But then that unity and peace and respect and success that we have will be more voluntary and pure § 36. The best way then if we could hit it seems to be the joining of both these together To have such Magistrates as will appoint only the most judicious able faithfull Ministers to be Visitors of the Churches that shall go forth both in the strength of the Spirit of Christ with eminency of gifts and also in the strength of the Magistrates Commission But if this cannot be attained I shall not long for constituted Visitors or Superintendents but shall be content with the Holy Ghosts appointment § 37. It is therefore the most Christian course to lay no greater stress on these modes and forms of Ministration then they will bear and therefore to live obediently and peaceably under either of them obeying such Visitors as are appointed by the Magistrate and honouring the graces of the Spirit where there is no such appointment and not to think the Church undone when our conceits about such things are crost CHAP. III. It is Lawfull for the several Associations of Pastors to choose one man to be their President durante vita if he continue fit § 1. I Come next to speak of a third sort of Ministry which hath a greater resemblance to the ancient Episcopacy then any of the rest Yea indeed is the same that was exercised about the second or third Century after Christ. And that is the fixed Presidents of the Presbyters of many Churches associated In the first settlement of Churches there was either a single Pastor to a single Church or many Pastors in equality at least of Office And whether from the beginning or afterward only one of them became the stated President is very uncertain of which anon But when the Churches encreased in magnitude and many Congregations were gathered under one Presbyterie then that Presbyterie also had a stated President as the Congregational Presbyteries perhaps had before And thus he was an Archbishop under the name of a Bishop that awhile before was either unknown or else must needs be esâeemed an Archbishop § 2. That these men should take the Pastoral charge of many Churches or that they should suspend the Governing Power of the Presbyters upon pretence of a Presidency or superiority is I think a matter not warrantable by the word of God § 3. But that such Associations of the Pastors of many Churches should ordinarily be for the sake of Union and Communion as also that it is lawfull for these Associatied Ministers to choose one among them to be their President is granted by all § 4. But all the question is Whether these Presidents should be only pro tempore or durante vita supposing that they forfeit not the trust I shall not say much of the point of convenience but I affirm that of it self it is lawful to choose a President that shall be fixed durante vita si tam diu bene se gesserit Yea it is lawfull now in England as things stand § 5. And 1. It may suffice for the proof of this that it is nowhere forbidden in Nature or in Scripture directly or by consequence and therefore it is lawfull Where there is no law there is no transgression They that say that it is a thing forbidden must prove it from some word of God which I think they cannot do § 6. 2. If it be lawfull to choose a fixed President
for half a year or a year or seven year then is it lawfull to choose and fix such a President for life on supposition still of a continued fitness But it is lawful to choose such a one for a year or seven year therefore also for life § 7. The Antecedent is granted by the Presbyterian Congregational and Erastian party which are all that I have now to do with For all these consented that D. Twiss should be President of the Synod at Westminster which was till his death or else was like to have been till the end And so another after him And ordinarily the Provinces and Presbyteries choose a President till the next Assembly And I remember not that ever I heard any man speak against this course § 8. And then the Consequence is clear from the parity of Reasons For 1. Seven years in contracts is valued equal with the duration of a mans life 2. And no man can give a Reason to prove it Lawfull to have a President seven years or a quarter of a year that will not prove it Lawfull in it self to have a President during life And Accidents must be weighed on both sides before you can prove it Accidentally evil And if it be but so it may be one time good if by accident it be another time bad The weightiest accident must preponderate § 9. 3. Order is a thing lawful in Church Assemblies and Affairs the staâed Presidency of one is a stated Order in Church Assemblies therefore it is lawful that all things be done in Order is commanded 1 Cor. 14.40 And therefore in general Order is a duty which is more then to be Lawful And though the particular wayes of Order may yet be comparatively indifferent yet are they Lawful ãâã the Genus is necessary § 10. And that this Presidency is a point of Church Order is apparent in the nature and use of the thing and also in that it is commonly acknowledged a matter of Order in all other societies or Assemblies though but for the low and common affairs of the world in a Jury you will confess that Order requireth that there be a Foreman and in a Colledge that there be a Master and that an Hospital a School and all Societies have so much Order at least as this if not much more And why is not that to be accounted Order in the Church that is so in all other societies § 11. 4 That which maketh to the Unity of the Churches or Pastors and is not forbidden by Christ is both lawful and desirable But such is a stated Presidency therefore c. The Major is grounded 1. On nature it self that tells us how much of the strength and beauty and safety of the Church and of all societies doth consist in Unity The Minor is apparent in the Nature of the thing 1. That Presidency makes for Unity is confest by all the Churches that use it to that end 2. And the continuance of the same makes somewhat more for Unity then a change would do there being some danger of division in the new elections besides other and greater inconveniences § 12. 5. The person that is most fit Consideratis Considârandis should be chosen President But one and the same person ordinarily is most fit durante vita therefore one and the same person should be continued President God doth not use to change his gifts at every monethly or quarterly Sessions of a Classis or Provincial Synod Either the President chosen was the fittest at the time of his choice or not if he were not he was ill chosen if he were so then its like he is so still at least for a long time And a mans ability is so great and considerable a qualification for every imployment that it must be a very great accident on the other side that must allow us to choose a man that is less able A change cannot be made in most places without the injury of the Assembly and of their work The worthiest person therefore may lawfully be continued for the work sake § 13. 6. That way is lawful that conduceth to the Reconciliation of dissenting and contending Brethren supposing it not forbidden by God But such is the way of a stated Presidency durante vitâ therefore c. Though the Major be past doubt yet to make it more clear consider that it is 1. A Learned party as to many of them with whom this Reconciliation is desired and therefore the more desirable 2. That it is a numerous party even the most of the Catholike Church by far All the Greek Church the Armenian Syrian Abassine and all others that I hear of except the Reformed are for Prelacy and among the Reformed England and Ireland had a Prelacy and Denmark Sweden part of Germany Transilvania have a superintendency as high as I am pleading for at least And certainly a Reconciliation and as near a Union as well may be had with so great a part of the Church of Christ is a thing not to be despised nor will not be by considerate moderate men § 14. And it is very considerable with me that it is the future and not only the present Peace of the Churches that we shall thus procure For it is easie to see that Episcopacy is neither such an upstart thing nor defended by such contemptible reasons as that the Controversie is like to die with this age undoubtedly there will be a Learned and Godly party for it while the world endureth unless God make by Illumination or Revelation some wonderful change on the Sons of men that I think few men do expect And certainly we should do the best we can to prevent a perpetual dissention in the Church Were there not one Prelatical man now alive it were easie to foresee there would soon be more § 15. Yeâ do I not move that any thing forbidden by God should be used as a means for Peace or Reconciliation with men It is not to set up any Tyranny in the Church nor to introduce any new Office that Christ hath not planted it is but the orderly disposal of the Officers and affairs of Christ which is pleaded for § 16. Object But some will say your Minor yet is to be denyed for this is not a way to Reconciliation A stated Presidency will not please the Prelates that have been used to the sole Iurisdiction of a whole County and to sole Ordination Answ. 1. We know that the moderate will consent 2. And some further accommodation shall be offered anon which may satisfie all that will shew themselves the Sons of Peace 3. If we do our duty the guilt will no longer lie on us but on the refusers of Peace but till then its as well on us as on them § 17. 7. That which is lawfully practised already by a Concurrence of judgements may lawfully be agreed on But the Presidency or more of one man in the Assemblies of Ministers is in most places practised and
and not till then we shall have perfect Holiness so when we come to Heaven and not till then we shall have perfect Vnity and Peace But till then I shall take that which you call Patching as my Duty and our great Benefit If you think one man have not a Negative voice we neither urge you to say that he hath nor so much as to seem to own his claim You shall have leave in the publike Register of the Association to put it under your hand that Not as owning the claim of the Presidents Negative voice but as yielding in a Lawful thing for Peace you do Consent to forbear Ordaining any without him except in Cases of Necessity This you may do without any shew of contradicting your Principles and this is all that is desired § 30. Quest. And may we not for peace sake grant them as much in point of Iurisdiction as of Ordination and Consent to do nothing without Necessity but when the President is one and doth Consent Answ. Either by Iurisdiction you mean Law making or Executive Government The first belongs to none but Christ in the substance of his Worship and the Circumstances no man may Vniversally and Vnchangeably determine of but pro re nata according to emergent occasions the Magistrate may make Laws for them and the Pastors may make Agreements for Concord about them but none should determine of them without need and therefore here is no work for Legislators the Usurpers that have grievously wronged the Church And for Executive Government either it is over the People or over the Pastors To give a Negative voice to the President of an Association of the Pastors of many Churches in Governing the People of a single Church is to set up a new Office a fixed Pastor of many Churches and to overthrow Government and introduce the noxious sort of Prelacy which for my part I intend not to be guilty of And for proper Government of the Pastors I know none but God and Magistrates that have that Power Every Bishop saith Cyprian and the Council of Carthage hath Power of his own will and is responsible for his Actions to God and none of us are Episcopi Episcoporum Bishops of Bishops But there is a Communion among Pastors and Churches to be exercised and so an avoiding or rejecting from Communion and this some call improperly a Government And in this for my part I should consent where peace doth require it that we will not agree upon the rejecting of any Pastor of our Association no more then to the Accepting or Ordaining of them without the President but in cases of Necessity and that just on the terms exprest about Ordination § 31. As for instance in a particular Church there is a Communion to be held among all the members though none of them but the Officers are Governors of the Church And in many cases where the Peoples Consent is needful its common to stand to a Major vote and so great a stress is laid on this that by many of the Congregational way the Government of the Church is said to be in the Major vote of the people and yet 1. This is indeed no Government that belongs to them but Consent to Communion or Exclusion and 2. No Scripture doth require a Minor part to stand in all cases to the decision of a Major vote nor give a Major vote any Rule over the Consciences of the Minor part shew us this voting power in Scripture And yet 3. All agree that upon natural Reasons and General Rules of Scripture the Churches are allowed yea obliged in lawful things for maintaining Vnity and Peace to stand to the judgement of a Major vote in Cases that belong to them to vote in though there be no particular word for it in the Scripture Even so Associate Pastors have not a proper Government of one another neither by Presidents or Major votes though over the people they have but are all under the Government of God and the Magistrate only And yet they may in acts of Consent about Communion or Non-communion with one another prudentially agree to take the Consent of the President or of the Major vote of Pastors or of both where Peace or Order or Edification requireth it except in cases of Necessity § 32. Quest. But what will you take for a Case of Necessity which you will except Answ. 1. If the President be dead 2. Or sick or absent and cannot come 3. Or if he be malignant and wilfully refuse to Consent that the Church be well provided for or Governed 4. And withall supposing that without the great hurt or hazzard of the Churches we cannot delay the business till he be one or do Consent 5. Especially if he be set in enmity against the welfare of the Church and by pretence of a suspending vote would destroy the Church and bring in unworthy hurtful persons or things In all such Cases of Necessity its time to lay by our humane Rules for peace and Order § 33. Object But who shall be judge of this Necessity Answ. The Magistrate only shall be the Compelling Iudge The people shall be the Discerning Iudges the Pastors shall at least have as much power as the People each of them shall Discern so far as they must obey and execute And God only shall be the final Iudge § 34. Object But this will but cause Divisions and Confusions while the President thinks one thing Necessary and the Pastors another and the People another Answ. I answered this before Reason must not be cast by and the Churches ruined and poyson and destruction taken in on pretence of such inconveniences If such a Case of difference fall out each man will execute as he discerneth or judgeth being to answer for his own actions and having none that can undertake to answer for him And when we all come to the Bar of God for final Judgement he that was in the right shall be justified and he that falsly pretended Necessity against duty shall bear the blame § 35. Object But in the mean time the Churches will be divided Answ. 1. I told you there is no more hope of â perfect Vnity on earth then of perfect Holiness 2. When two evils are before us though neither must be chosen for Evil is not an Object of choice unless as seeming good yet the Greater Evil must be first and most studiously repelled And the deformity and destruction of the Churches and the casting out of the Gospel and Worship of God is a greater Evil then disorder about good actions and differences about some Circumstances of Necessary works § 36. All this that I have said about the Negative de facto though not de jure that I would have Consented to for peace I intend not to extend to those Cases and Countries where peace requireth it not but rather the contrary muchâless to encourage any to think such a Negative Necessary in it self Some things may be Lawfully
granted that are unlawfully and upon mistake desired § 37. Lastly understand also that when I speak of yielding to this Negative voice in Ordination to the President of such an Association I intend not to exclude the Presbyterie of a particular Church where it is sufficient from the said Power and exercise of Ordination of which I am to speak in the the following Chapter which is of the President of such a Presbyterie CHAP. IV. It is Lawful for the Presbyters of a particular Church to have a fixed President during life § 1. I Come now to the most Ancient fixed Bishop that the Church was acquainted with except the meer Episcopus Gregis the Overseer of the flock and that is A President of many Elders in one particular Church The Diocesan Bishop was long after this The first Bishops if you will call them so in the Church were the first mentioned Itinerant Bishops that were sent abroad to convert souls and gather Churches and afterward took care to water and confirm them The next sort of Bishops and the first so called were the fixed Pastors of particular Churches that cannot be proved to have any superiority over Presbyters The third sort of Bishops in time and the first fixed Bishops that were superiours to other Pastors were these Presidents of the Presbyteries of particular Churches And these are they that now we have to speak of And I shall prove that it is not unlawful to have such § 2. But first I must tell you what I mean and shew you that such may be had among us I have in one of the former Disputations defined a particular Câurch It should ordinarily consist of no more then may hold personal Communion together in Gods publick Worship But yet take notice 1. That it tendeth to the strength and honour of it that it be not too small but consisting of as many as are well capable of the Ends. 2 And it is lawfull for these to have some other meeting places for part of the Church besides the principal place which is for the whole Chappels of ease may lawfully be made use of for the benefit of the weak and lame and aged that cannot alwayes or often come to the common Assembly And where such Chappels are not it is lawfull to make use of convenient houses Yea if there were no Place to be had sufficiently capacious of a full Assembly or else if persecution forbad them to meet it might still be but one Church though the members met in several houses ordinarily as five hundred in one and three hundred in another or one hundred only in several places every one going to which house he pleased and having several Pastors that in Society and by Consent did guide them all But though somewhat disorderly may be born with in cases of Necessity yet 1. As it is Necessary to the Ends and so to the Being of a particular Church that they be a Society capable of personal Communion and the personal Teaching Guidance and Oversight of the same Pastors So 2. It is desirable as much tending to Order and Edification that all of them that are able do frequently meet in one Assembly for the Worshipping of God with one heart and mouth And this is the Church I speak of § 3. It is not of Necessity to the Being of such a particular Church that it have more Pastors then one And when one only is the Pastor or Governour that one alone may do all the works of a Pastor or Governour For what else is his Office but the state or Relation of a man obliged and authorized to do such works The Learned Dr. H. H. thinketh that the Apostles planted none in Scripture times but single Pastors or Bishops called also Presbyters in every Church with Deacons under them without any other Presbyters subject or assistant over that Church This I conceive cannot be proved nor so much as the probability of it nay I think at least a probability if not a certainty of the contrary may be proved of some Churches But yet it is most likely that it was so with many Churches And reason tells us that the thing being in it self indifferent was suted by the Apostles to the state of the particular Churches that they planted A small Church might well have a single Pastor when a large Church especially in times of persecution when they must assemble in several houses at once required more Some places might have many persons fit for the Office and some but one Which cases must needs have some Variety § 4. Where there are more Pastors in such a Church then one I know of no Necessity that one should have any superiority over another nor can I prove that it was so from the beginning Some Divines of the Prelatical Judgement think that this was an Ordinance of the Apostles at the first planting of such Churches Others of them think that it was of their appointment but not actually existent till after Scripture times Others of them think that as Hierom saith it began when factions rose in the Church not by Divine Ordination but Ecclesiastical agreement for the preventing or cure of schism § 5. The first Church that we find it in in History is that of Alexandria And Alexandria was a place exceedingly given to sedition tumults and divisions the contentions between Cyril and Orestes the murder of Hypatia by Peter and his company the assault made upon Orestes by Ammonius the other Nitrian Monks and many such feats in the dayes of Theophilus Dionysius and up to the beginning do shew what they were And Socrates saith of them expresly li. 7. cap. 13. that The people of Alexandria above all other men are given to Schism and contention for if any quarrel arise at any time among them presently hainous and horrible offences use to follow and the tumult is never appeased without great blood-shed such were the Alexandrians § 6. But yet it is certain that the Original of this custom of setting up one as President or chief Presbyter in a particular Churâh cannot be found out so as to say by whom and when it was first brought in But if it began upon the death of Mark at Alexandria it must needs be long before the death of Iohn the Apostle in that Church what ever other Churces did But it seems that there was then a difference and indifferency in this point and that other Churces did not presently imitate the Churches of Alexandria and Rome herein He that reads Clemens Epistle to the Corinthians without partiality I think will be of Grotius mind before cited Epist. ad Gal. ad Bignon that Clemens knew not any such Prelacy among the Corinthians when he wrote that Epistle And so we may say of some other Witnesses and Churches in those times and afterwards in many places § 7. It is not another Order of Ministers or Office that was in such Churches distinct from the Presbyters that assisted them
the point For 1. It seemeth a most improbable thing that all the Churches or so many should so suddenly take up this Presidency Prelacy or Disparity without scruple or resistance if it had been against the Apostles minds For it cannot be imagined that all these Churches that were planted by the Apostles or Apostolical men and had seen them and conversed with them should be either utterly ignorant of their minds in such a matter of publike practice or else should be all so careless of obeying their new received doctrine as presently and unanimously to consent to a change or endure it without resistance Would no Church or no persons in the world contend for the retention of the Apostolical institutions Would no Chuâch hold their own and bear witness against the corruption and innovations of the rest would no persons say you go about to alter the frame of Government newly planted among us by the Holy Ghost It was not thus in the dayes of Peter or Paul or John and therefore we will have no change Thâs seeâs to me a thing incredible that the whole Church should all at once almost so suddenly and silently yield to such a change of Government And I do not think that any man can bring one testimony from all the volumes of Antiquity to prove that ever Church or person resisted or disclaimed such a change in the times when it must be made if ever it was made that is in the first or second ages § 17. Yea 2. It is plain by the testimony of Hierom before mentioned and other testimonies of antiquity that in Alexandria at least this practice was used in the dayes of the Apostles themselves For they testifie that from the dayes of Mark the Evangelist till the days of Heroclas and Dionysius the Presbyters chose one from among them and called him their Bishop Now it is supposed by the best Chronologers that Mark was slain about the sixty third year of our Lord and the tenth of Nero and that Peter and Paul were put to death about the sixty sixth of our Lord and thirteenth of Nero and that Iohn the Apostle died about the ninety eighth year of our Lord and the first of Trajan which was about thirty five years after the death of Mark. Now I would leave it to any mans impartial consideration whether it be credible that the holy Apostles and all the Evangelists or Assistants of them then alive would have suffered this innovation and corruption in the Church without a plain disowning it and reproving it Would they silently see their newly established Order violated in their own dayes and not so much as tell the Churches of the sin and danger Or if they had indeed done this would none regard it nor remember iâ so much as to resist the sin These things are incredible § 18. And I am confident if the judicious godly people had their choice from the experience of what is for their good they would commonly choose a fixed President or chief Pastor in every Church Yea I see that they will not ordinarily endure that it should be otherwise For when they find that God doth usually qualifie one above the rest of their Teachers they will hardly consent that the rest have an equal power over them I have seen even a sober unanimous Godly people refuse so much as to give their hands to an assistant Presbyter whom yet they loved honoured and obeyed though they were urged hard by him that they preferred and all from a loathness that there should be a parity I know not one Congregation to my remembrance that hath many Ministers but would have one be chief § 19. Object But the Prelatical men will say our Pariâshes are not capable of this because they have commonly but one Pastor nor have maintainance for more Answ. 1. Though the greâter number have but one yet it is an ordinary case to have two or three or more where there are Chappels in the Parish and the Congregations great as in Market Towns And if ever we have Peace and a setled faithfull Magistrate that will do his part for the house of God we shall certainly have many Ministers in great Congregations Or else they are like to be left desolate For Ministers will over-run them for fear of undertaking far more work then with their utmost pains they are able to perform § 20. And 2. There are few Congregations I hope of Godly people but have some private men in them that are fit to be Ordained Assistant Presbyters though not to govern a Church alone without necessity yet to assist a Learned judicious man such as understand the body of Divinity as to the great and necessary points and are able to pray and discourse as well as many or most Ministers and to exhort publickly in a case of need He that would imitate the example of the Primitive Church at least in the second Century should Ordain such as these to be some of them Assistant Elders and some of them Deacons in every Church that hath such and let them not teach publickly when a more learned able Pastor is at hand to do it but let them assist him in what they are fittest to perform Yet let them not be Lay Elders but authorized to all Pastoral administrations and of one and the same office with the Pastor though dividing the exercise and execution according to their abilities and opportunities and not comming in without Ordination nor yet taking up the Office only pro tempore And thus every Parish where are able Godly men may have a Presbyterie and President § 21. Till then 3. It is granted by the Learned Dr. H. H. that it is not necessary to the being of a Bishop that he have fellow Presbyters with him in that Church If he have but Deacons it may suffice And this is easie to be had § 22. And indeed 1. The parts of many very able Christians are too much buried and lost as to the Church for want of being drawn into more publick use 2. And it is it that tempteth them to run of themselves into the Ministry or to preach without Ordination 3. And yet few of these are fit to be trusted with the Preaching of the word or guiding of a Church alone no nor in equality with others for they would either corrupt the doctrine or divide the Church But under the inspection and direction of a more Learned judicious man as his assistants doing nothing against his mind they might be very serviceable to some Churches And such a Bishop with such a Presbyterie and Deacons neither Lay nor usually very Learned were the ancient fixed Governours of the Churches if I can understand antiquity CHAP. V. Objections against the Presidency forementioned answered § 1. BUT it is not likely but all these motions will have Dissenters on both sides It were strange if in a divided age and place and among a people engaged in so many several parties and that
so deeply as now men are there should any healing remedy be propounded that should not have abundance of opposers Most men are prejudiced and affected at their Education or opportunities or parties or several interest sway them And therefore I expect that most should reject all that I say and some of them with much reproach and scorn Our disease were not so great and dangerous if it could but endure the remedy But let us consider some of their Objections § 2. Object 1. The unpeaceable men of the Prelatical way will say This is but to turn a Bishop into a Parish-Priest and to make him the Ruler of a Parish and a Curate or two and in many places of no Ministers at all A fair Promotion It seems you would leave them but a name and shadow and make them to be contemptible § 3. Answ. 1. Remember that I grant you also the Presidency of Associations c. which you may call an Archbishoprick if you please 2. Is it honour that you contend for or labour and service to the Church If honour you must get it by being the servants of others and not by being Lords of the Clergy or heritage of God If you are seeking honour of men and founding officeâ in the Church by such directors as ambition you are not the men that we can hope for Peace or Holiness from and therefore can have little treaty with you but to lay by your wickedness But if it be service that you contend for in order to the Churches good try first whether a Parish will not find you work enough I have tried it and find that if I were ten men I could find as much as I am able to do in this one Parish Though I do as much as I am well able night and day and have so many helpers yet it is so great a trouble to me that my work and charge is quite too great for me that I have been often tempted to desert it and go to a smaller place And nothing stayes me but this consideration that God requireth no more then I can do and that its better do what I can then nothing and that if I leave them the next is like to do no more Could I but speak with each man in my Parish by personal Instruction once a moneth or once a quarter or half year it would put me into high expectations of making a very great change among them by this means But when I am not able to speak to them past once a year or two years I must needs fear lest the force of former words will be lost before I come again And yet must you needs have more work and service and more souls to answer for To deal plainly and faithfully with you Brethren impartial standers by conceive that its time for you rather to be more diligent in a smaller charge and to lament your negligence in your Parishes and publickly to bewail that you have by your idleness betrayed so many souls letting them alone in their ignorance and ungodliness and commonly doing little in your charges but what you do at Church in publick Overseers think that most of you are fitter for smaller charges rather then for greater I doubt this will offend many But you were better use it to your Repentance and Reformation then your offence § 4. And 3. I pray you consider how your Passion and partiality maketh you contradict your selves Do you not use to ãâ¦ã the Presbyters that they would all be Bishops and they would have a Bishop in every Parish and so are against Bishops that they may be Bishops themselves And what is a Parish Bishoprick so great a prize for our Ambition and yet is it so contemptible to yours Are we proud for seeking to be Parish Bishops and do you take it as an empty name or shadow At least then confess hereafter that your Pride is so much greater then ours that the Mark of our Ambition is taken by you to be a low dishonourable state § 5. And 4. I would intreat you impartially to try whether the Primitive Apostolick Episcopacy fixed in particular Churches were not a Parochial Episcopacy Try whether I have not proved it before And if it were will you pretend to antiquity and Apostolick institution and yet despise the primitive simplicity and that which you confess was settled by the Apostles Let the Eldest carry it without any more ado § 6. And 5. At least say no more that you are for Episcopacy and we against it when we are for Episcopacy as well as you It is only your transcendent or exorbitant sort of Episcopacy that we are against Say not still that we have no Power of Ordination because we are not Bishops but because we are only Bishops of one Church Put the controversie truly as it is Whether it be lawful for the Bishop of one Church with his Prebytery to Ordain Yea or whether many such Associated may Ordain Or rather whether it be tyed to the Bishop of many Churches as you would have it that is Whether Ordination belong to Archbishops only Is not this the controversie § 7. And then 6. Why do you in your Definitions of Episcopacy which you very seldom and sparingly give us require no more then a Parochial Episcopacy and yet now despise it as if it were no Episcopacy at all Tell us plainly what you mean by a Bishop I thought you meant a Primus Presbyterorum or at least a Ruler of People and Presbyters And is not this to be found in a Parish Bishop as well as in a Bishop of many Parishes or Churches Change your Definition from this day forward if you must have a change of the thing defined as it seems you must § 8. And I wouâd know whether you can prove that it is Essential to a Bishop to have more Churches or Parishes then one Prove it if you are able Was not great Gregory of Naocesarea a Bishop with his seventeen souls And was not Alexander the Colliar whom he Ordained at Comana a Bishop though but of a small Assembly Do not some of you confess that Bishops in Scripture-times had no subject Presbyters and consequently had but a single Congregation If then a Parish or Congregational Bishop were a true Bishop why may he not be so still § 9. Object 2. But the Church under Christian Princes should not be conformed to the model of the Church under persecution Shall Bishops have no more power and honour now then they had then We see in Constantines dayes a change was made Must they be tyed to a Parish now because they were Bishops only of a Parish in Scripture-times § 10. Answ. 1. We would not have them persecuted now as they were then nor yet to want any due encouragement or assistance that a Christian Magistrate can afford them But yet we would have Gods Word to be our Rule and Bishops to be the same things now as then and we would
exercised here in England how confidently soever some appropriate the title of the Church of England to the adherents of that frame yet would we not have the Church ungoverned nor worse governed nor will we refuse for peace such a kind of Episcpacy as is tolerable in the Church And there are four sorts of Exercise of the Ministry which if you please you may call Episcopacy which we shall not refuse when it may conduce to Peace § 2. I. We shall consent that the Ancient Parochial Episcopacy be restored that is that in every Parish that hath a particular Church there may be a Pastor or Bishop setled to govern it according to the word of God And that he may be the chief among the Presbyters of that Church if there be any And may assume fit men to be assisting Presbyters to him if there be such to be had If not he may be content with Deacons And these Parochial Bishops are most antient and have the Power of Ordination § 3. Yet do we not so tye a Church to a Parish but that in places where the ignorance infidelity or impiety of the people or the smalness of the Parishes is such as that there are not fit persons enough in a Parish to make a convenient particular Church it may be fit for two or three or four in necessity Neighbour Parishes to joyn together and to be formed into one particular Church The several Ministers keeping their stations for the teaching of the rest as Catechumens but joyning as one Presbyterie for Governing of that one particular Church that is Congregate among them And having one President without whom nothing should be done in matters left to humane determination Yet so that the Presbyters be not forced to this but do it freely § 4. II. We shall consent that these Parish Churches be Associate and that in every Market Town or such convenient places as shall be agreed on there may be frequent meetings of the Pastors for Communion and Correspondency and that one among them be their standing Moderator durante vita or their President for so I would call him rather then Bishop though we would leave men to use what name they please And to him should be committed the Communicating of times and places of meeting and other businesses and Correspondencies And the Moderating of the debates and disputations § 5. And for my part I would consent for peace that de facto no Ordination be made in either of the foresaid Presbyteries without the President but in cases of Necessity so be it 1. That none be compelled to own any other Principle of this Practice then a Love of Peace and none be compelled to profess that he holdeth the President to have de jure a Negative voice yea that all have liberty to write down on what other Principles they thus yeild that the Practice only may suffice for Peace § 6. III. We shall consent also that one in a Deanry or Hundred or other convenient space may by the Magistrate be chosen a Visitor of the Churches and Countrey about him having Power only to take notice of the state of things and gravely to admonish the Pastors where they are negligent and exhort the people and provoke them to Holiness Reformation and Unity only by perswasions from the Word of God Which is no more then any Minister may do that hath opportunity only we desire the Magistrate to design a particular person to do it requiring Ministers and people to give him the meeting because that which is every mans work is not so well done as that which is specially committed to some And we desire that he may acquaint the Magistrate how things are § 7. And to avoid the inconveniences of dividing these works we are desirous that these two last may meet in one man and so he that is chosen by the Pastors the President of their Association may be chosen his Visitor by the Magistrate and do both which may be done by one in every Market-town which is truly a City in the antient sense and the circumjacent Villages Yet this we cannot make a standing Rule that one man do both because the Pastors must choose their President and the Magistrate his Visitor and its possible they may not alwayes concur But if the Magistrate will not choose such a Visitor the Pastors may But then they can compel none to meet him or hear him § 8. IV. Besides these three or two whether you will before mentioned we shall consent that there be a general sort of Ministers such as the Apostles Evangelists and others in those times were that shall have no special charge but go up and down to preach the Gospel and gather Churches where there are none and contribute the best assistance of their Abilities Interest and Authority for the reforming confirming and right ordering of Churches And if by the Magistrates Command or Ministers consent there be one of these assigned to each County and so their Provinces prudentially distinguished and limited we shall not dissent Yet we would have such but where there is need § 9. V. Besides these four sorts of Bishops we are all agreed on two sorts more 1. The Episcopi gregis or Pastors of every Congregation whether they have any assistant Presbyters or no or being themselves but such assistant Presbyters 2. The Magistrate who is a secular Bishop or a Governor of the Church by force And we desire the Magistrate to be a nursing Father to the Church and do his duty and to keep the sword in his own hand and for forcible deposing Ministers or any punishment on body or estate we desire no Bishops nor other Ministers may be authorized thereto But if Pastors exclude an unworthy Pastor from their Communion let the Magistrate only deprive him forcibly of his place and maintenance if he see cause When the Council of Antioch had deposed Paulus Samosatenus he would not go out of the house And all the Bishops in the Council could not force him out but were fain to procure the Heathen Emperor Aurelian to do it It lyeth as a blot on Cyril of Alexandria that he was the first man that arrogated and exercised there a secular Coercive Power under the name of a Bishop of the Church § 10. There is enough in this much to satisfie any moderate honest men for Church-government and for the healing of our Divisions thereabout And there is nothing in this that is inconsistent with the Principles of the moderare of any Party § 11. 1. That a Church organized called by some Ecclesia prima should be no greater then I have mentioned is not contradictory to the Principles of the Episcopall Presbyterians Congregationall or Erastian Indeed the two first say that it may be bigger but none of them say It must be bigger The Presbyterians instances of the Church of Ierusalem which sârued to the highest cannot be proved neer half so great
common to other Churches was never denyed by any author Words may not break square where the things are agreed If the name of a Bishop displease let them call this man a Moderator a President a Superintendent an Overseer Only for the fixedness or change of this person let the ancient and universall practice of Gods Church be thought worthy to oversway And if in this one point N. B. wherein the distance it so narrow we could condescend to each other all other circumstances and appendances of varying practices or ãâã might without any difficulty be accorded But if there must be a difference of judgement in these matters of outward Policy why should not our hearts be still one why should such a diversity be of Power to endanger the dissolving of the bond of brotherhood May we have the grace but to follow the truth in Love we shall in these several tracts overtake her happily in the end and findâ her embracing of Peace and crowning us with blessedness So far Bishop Hall so that you see that only the fixing of the Moderator or President will satisfie such as he and so with him and such as he for my part I am fully agreed already § 4. And here by the way because there are so many Episcopal separatists of late that hazzard the souls of their partial followers and because the right habituating of the mind with Peace is an excellent help to a sound understanding and the escaping the errors and hainous sins that Faction engageth too many in I therefore make it my request to all that read these lines but soberly to read over that one Book of Bishop Halls called the Peace-maker once or twice which if I could procure I think I should do much to the Peace of these Churches and to the good of many endangered souls that by passionate and factious leaders are misguided § 5. The same Reverend man in his Humble Remonstrance hath these words Pag. 29 30 31. The second is intended to raise envy against us as the uncharitable censurers and condemners of those Reformed Churches abroad which differ from our Government wherein we do justly complain of a slanderous aspersion cast upon us We love and honour those Sister Churches as the dear spouse of Christ we bless God for them and we do heartily wish unto them that happiness in the Partnership of our adminâstration which I doubt not but they do no less heartily wish unto themselves Good words you will perhaps say but what is all this fair complement if our act condemn them For if Episcopacy stand by Divine right what becomes of these Churches that want it Maâice and ignorance are met together in this unjust aggravatiân 1. Our position is only affirmative implying the justifiableness and holiness of an Episcopal calling without any further implication Next when we speak of Divine right we mean not an express Law of God requiring it upon the absolute Necessity of the Being of a Church what hinderances soever may interpose but a Divine institution warranting it where it is and âequiring it where it may be had Every Church therefore which is capable of this form of Government both may and ought to affâct it but those particular Churches to whom this power and faculty is denyed lose nothing of the true essence of a Church though they miss some thing of their glory and perefection And page 32. Our form of Government differs little from their own save in the perpetuity of their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Moderatorship and the exclusion of that Lay-Presbyterie which never till this age had footing in the Christian Church And Page 41 42. Alas my Brethren while we do fully agree in all these and all other Doctrinal and Practical points of Religion why will you be so uncharitable as by these frivolous and causeless Divisions to âend the seamless coat of Christ It it a Title or a Retinue or a Ceremony a Garment or a Colour or an Organ Pipe that can make us a different Church whiles we preach and profess the same saving truth whiles we desire as you profess to do to walk conscionably with our God according to that one Rule of the Royall Law of our Maker whiles we oppose one and the same common enemy whiles we unfeignedly endeavour to hold the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of Peace For us we make no difference at all in the right and interest of the Church betwixt Clergy and Laity betwixt the Clergy and Laity of one part and of another we are all your true Brethren we are one with you both in heart and brain and hope to meet you in the same heaven but if ye will needs be otherwise minded we can but bewail the Churches misery and your sin You hear how this good Bishop was far from a separation § 6. How contrary to this is the foresaid writing of Dr. Hide which I instance in because it is come new to my hand who stigmatizeth the front of his book with the brand of separation and that of one of the most rigid and unreasonable kinds Thus he begins When Conscientious Ministers cannot associate in the Church and Conscientious Christians cannot go to Church and Customary Christians go thither either to little purpose because to no true worship or to great shame because to no true Ministers t is fit the Church should come to private houses Doth he not begin very wisely and charitably What could the most Schismatical Papist say more What! no true worship no true Ministers and but Customary Christians that come thither Yes and that 's not all he pursues it with an exprobration that we are faln from our Religion p. 4. and yet that 's not all he adds Here seems yet to be a very bad certainty of their Religion and how can there be a better Certainty of their salvation unless that we may gratifie their singularity more then our own veracity we will say There may be a company of good Christians out of the Communion of Saints or a Communion of Saints out of Christs Catholike Church Should we laugh or weep at such a man as this What! no communion of Saints but with the separating party of the Prelates Unhappy we that live in England and can meet with so small a number of these Saints Is the Catholike Church confined to this party and Salvation to this Chunch Transcendent Papal arrogancy It s well that these Prelates are not the only Key-keepers of heaven for we see how we should then be used I must tell this Dr. and all of his mind that it is an easier way to Heaven then we dare hope to come thither by to joyn our selves to their separating Communion of Saints and live as the most that we are acquainted with that are of that Saint-like Communion He had been better have talked at these rates to men of another Age or Nation then to us that see the lives of their adherents We never
either Prayer Praise or other part but we speak of the whole frame and therefore of a Liturgy or Prescribed words in General because that is the controversie that the times call us to decide That which I take to be the Truth and usefull to our Healing I shall lay down in these ten Propositions following Prop. 1. A stinted Liturgy is in it self Lawfull 2. A stinted Liturgy in some parts of publick holy service is ordinarily necessary 3. In the Parts where it is not of Necessity it may not only be submitted to but desired when the Peace of the Church requireth it 4. There is so great dâfference between Ministers and People and Times that it may be convenient and eligible to some at some times and unfit and not eligible to others and at other times 5. The Ministers and Churches that earnestly desire it should not by the Magistrate be generally or absolutely forbidden the use of a convenient prescribed Liturgy 6. To prescribe a frame of stinted service or Prayer c. and lay a Necessity or the Peace of the Church upon it and to punish siâence suspend excommunicate or reproach the able peaceable godly Ministers or people that justly or unjustly scruple the using of it is so great a sin that no conscionable Ministers should attempt it or desire it nor any godly Magistrate suffer it 7. The safest way of composing such a Publike Form is to take it all for matter and words out of the Holy Scriptures 8. Yet is not this of such Necessity but that we may join in it or use it if the form of words be not from Scripture 9. The matter of a common Liturgy in which we expect any General Concord should not be any unnecessary things much less things doubtfull or forbidden 10. Forms of Publick Prayer should not be constantly used by Mânisters that are able to pray without them and none else should be admitted ordinarily to the Ministry but such as are able competently to pray without such Forms unless in great Necessities of the Church These ten Propositions are the summ of all that I shall trouble you with which I shall now review and prove in order Prop. 1. A Stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful This is thus proved Argument 1. That which is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God remaineth lawfull A stinted Liturgy is not directly or consequentially forbidden by God therefore it remaineth lawfull The Major is undoubted because nothing but a Prohibition can make a thing unlawfull Sin is a transgression of a Law Where there is no Law there is no transgression And yet I have heard very Reverend men answer this that it is enough that it is not commanded though not forbidden Which is plainly to deny both Scripture and Civil Principles Precept makes Duty or a Necessity ex praecepto Prohibitions make an action sinfull which is prohibited as Precepts prove an Omission sinfull of the Duty commanded But Licitum which is between Duty and sin is that which is neither commanded nor forbidden And such an act is not Actus Moralis being neither good nor evill Here note these two things 1. That though we say that a Liturgy is in it self lawfull and that all things not forbidden are Lawfull yet in the actuall exercise hic nunc it will be hard to find one actuall use of it which is not a duty or a sin For though I am not of their mind that think every act both simply and respectively considered is a duty or a sin For 1. then every act must be Actus Moralis and so deliberate and chosen which is not true as for instance the winking of the eye c. 2. Then nothing were indifferent 3. Then every act must have a Reason for it 4. And the Consciences of Christians must be perpetually tormented as e. g. to give a reason when I walk why I set the right foot forward before the left or when two eggs of a bigness are before me why I take one rather then the other these are not moral acts Yet I must needs think that in the worship of God its hard to imagine such a case in which the using of a Liturgy will do neither good nor harm Or in which a man cannot discern whether it be like to do more good or harm and so make it the matter of election or refusal And therefore as Paul makes Marriage indifferent in it self when its hard to find a case in which it shall not be a duty or a sin to particular persons so say I of the point in question and yet possibly sometime such cases there may be A man sometimes in Prudence may find that constantly to use a form would be to him a sin by reason of the ill consequents and so it would be constantly to disuse it And therefore may find himself bound by accident sometimes to use and sometimes to disuse it And yet may see no reason at all as to the particular day and hour why he should use or disuse it this day rather then another or in the the Morning rather then the Evening 2. Note also that God being the supream Lawgiver of the Church having by Moses given a Law to Israel did in general command Deut. 12.32 that they should add nothing thereto nor take ought therefrom And consequently we may conclude it prohibited under the Gospel Nay indeed the very prohibition of self-idolizing makes it a sin for any man to arrogate that Legislation which is the Prerogative of God For that were to deifie himself And so this General prohibition doth make all unwarrantable Additions to be sinfull that is all Additions which God hath not authorized men to make But then such additions are not sinfull formally because not commanded but because forbidden by the General prohibition of not adding Now for the Minor that a stinted Liturgy is not forbidden we need no other proof then that no Prohibition can be produced If it be prohibited it is either by some special Prohibition or by the General prohibition of not adding But it is by neither of these therefore not at all Speciall prohibition I never yet saw any produced God hath nowhere foâbidden a form of Prayer And the General prohibition of not adding extends not to it For 1. It is the Worship of God which is the matter that we are there forbidden to add But the Praying with a form or without a form as such are neither of them any part of the worship of God nor so intended as we now suppose by them that use it It is but an indifferent Mode or Circumstance of Worship and not any part of Worship 2. If Prayer with a form be an Addition to Gods Worship then so is praying without a form for God only Commands Prayer but neither commands a form nor that we forbear a form But the Consequent is false as the Opponents will confess therefore so is the Antecedent 3. Undetermined mutable Modes and Circumstances
the Pastors prayer which they must pray over with him and not only hear it is a stinted form to them even as much as if he had learnt it out of a Book They are to follow him in his method and words as if it were a Book prayer Argum. 7. It is lawful to use a form in Preaching therefore a stinted Liturgy is lawful 1. Because preaching is a part of that Liturgy 2. Because the reason is the same for prayer as for that in the main Now that studyed formed Sermons are lawful is so commonly granted that it shall save me the labour of proving it which were easie Argum. 8. That which hath been the practice of the Church in Scripture times and down to this day and is yet the practice of almost all the Churches of Christ on earth is not like to be unlawful buâ such is the use of some stinted forms of publick service therefore c. That it was so in the Jews Church and approved by Christ I have shewed That it hath been of antient use in the Church since Christ and is at this day in use in Africk Asia Europe even among the Reformed Churches in France Holland Geneva c. is so well known that I think I need not stand to prove it yea those few that seem to disuse it do yet use it in Psalms and other parts of worship of which more anon Prop. 2. A Stinted Liturgy in some parts of publick holy service is ordinarily necessary This Proposition is to be proved by instances and the proof of the parts The parts where a set form is usually necessary I shall enumerate desiring you by the way to understand 1. That I speak not of an Absolute Necessity ad finem as if no other could be accepted but a Necessity of Duty it ought to be done as the best way 2. That I say but ordinarily as excepting some unusual cases 1. The Communication or revealation of the will of God to the Church by Reading of the Holy Scriptures is part of the publick service of God As Moses and the Prophets were read every Sabbath day so by parity of reason should the Gospel and Paul required the publick reading of his Epistles Act. 13.27 15.21 2 Cor. 3.15 Luk. 16.29 Col. 4.16 1 Thes. 5.27 Rev. 1.3 But this Reading of the Scriptures is the using of a set form in publike service For they are the same words that we read from day to day and usually Must read 2. The Publick Praysing of God by singing of Palms is a part of publick worship and a most excellent part not usually to be omitted But this part of worship is ordinarily to be used in a stinted form because the gift of composing Psalms ex tempore without a prepared form is not usual in the Church and if it were so to one it is not to the rest that must use this worship Had we not stinted forms of Psalms we should have ill-favoured work in the Church 3. Baptisme is usually to be administred in a form of words for Christ hath prescribed us a form Matth. 28.19 Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost I think few sober men will think it ordinarily meet to disuse this form 4. The use of a form in the Consecration and Administration of the Lords Supper though not through the whole action is ordinarily most fit for Christ hath left us a form of words Take ye Eat ye c. which are most exact and safe and none can mend And Paul reciteth his form 1 Cor. 11. And small alterations in the very words of Baptisme or Delivering the Lords Supper may easily corrupt the Ordinance in time 5. The very Sacramental Elements and Actions are stinted forms of Administration which none may alter As the washing with water the breaking of bread and powring out of wine and giving them and taking them and eating and drinking c. These are real forms not to be changed at least without Necessity if at all 6. The Blessing of the people in the Name of the Lord was done by a prescribed form of old Num. 6.23 and is usually to be done in a form still For in all these forementioned parts of worship should we still use new expressions when so few and pertinent must be used we should be put to disuse the fittest and use such as are less fit 7. In our ordinary Preaching a form not imposed unless in cases of great Necessity and unfitness but of our own premeditating is usually fittest I think few men are so weak as to prefer with most preachers unprepared Sermons before those that have more of their care and study And then at least the Text Method and somewhat of the words must be premeditated if not all 8. Ordinarily there should be somewhat of a form in Publick Confessions of the Churches faith For how else shall all concur And it is a tender point to admit of great or frequent mutations in so that in Baptisme and at other seasons when the Christian faith is to be openly professed by one or more or all a form that is exact is usually meet to be retained though in many personal Cases explicatory enlargements may do well 9. If there be not a frequent use of many of the same words and so somewhat of a form in Marriage Confirmation Absolution Excommunication the danger will be more then the benefit by mutation will be 10. And with some Ministers of whom anon even in Prayer especially about the Sacraments where there must be great exactness and the matter ordinarily if not alwayes the same the ordinary use of a form may be the best and fittest way In the most of these Cases 1. The Nature of the thing sufficiently proves the ordinary fitness of a form 2. The constant Practice of almost all Churches if not all is for it even they that scruple forms of Prayer use constantly forms of Praise of Reading of Sacraments c. 3. The rest are proved fittest as aforesaid by the Apostles generall Rules 1 Cor. 14.26 40. Let all things be done to Edifying and Let all things be done decently and in order Now in the cases before mentioned the Edification of the Church to say nothing of Order requireth the ordinary use of forms Prop. 3. IN those parts of publick worship where a form is not of ordinary necessity but only Lawfull yet may it not only be submitted to but desired when the Peace of the Church doth accidentally require it This Proposition needs no proof but only explication For he is far from the temper of a Christian that sets so light by the Peace of the Church that he would not use a Lawfull means for the procurement of it when Paul would become all things to all men to save some and would eat no flesh while he lived rather then offend his weak brother But here you must take these cautions lest
you misunderstand this Proposition 1. The Peace of the whole Church must be in our eye before the peace of a part and of a great and more considerable part rather then of a smaller caeteris paribus 2. It is supposed that besides the simple lawfulness of the thing there be also no other accidental inconveniencies on the other side that will follow the use of a form that is of sufficient moment to weigh down the argument from the Churches Peace For when a thing is only good or evil I mean necessary or sinfull by Accident and not in it self we must consider which side hath the most weighty accidents and accordingly must choose or refuse it 3. It is not the fullfilling of the humours of every unreasonable expectant or every proud Magisterial usurper that is the Peace of the Church that now we speak of If a few proud men will hold no Peace with us unless we will serve God in their unnecessary forms as if none had wit enough but they to know in what words the Churches should serve God and all must speak but what they teach them it is not the humoring of these Proud usurpers that is the Peace thus to be bought 4. We must look to the future as well as the present Peace of the Churches And therefore if any will hold no Peace with us now unless we will own some formal Engine that is like to make hereafter more division then unity in the Churches by laying the Unity or Peace of the Church on things that will not bear it and making thiâgs necessary that are not necessary nor to be made so in such cases it is not our duty to betray the geneneral or future Peace of the Church for our private or present Peace 5. The desireableness of this Peace of the Church which we must seek must be much judged of by its tendency to the promoâing of holiness the saving of mens souls the furthering of the Gospel and prosperity of the Church in spiritual respects For a Peace that undermineth and betrayeth these is not desireable The means is to be valued by its tendency to the attainment of the End 6. There is need therefore of very great prudence to compare things with things for a man to know how to carry himself in such cases For imprudent oversights or laying greatest stress on smallest things and slighting greater will make men live in constant sin by abusing things indifferent But still the Proposition holds good with these cautions that forms and such like indifferent things are to be used or disused much with respect to the Churches Peace Prop. 4. SO great is the difference between men and men times and times that forms may be a duty to some men and at some times and a sin to other men and at other times As to private men in their families it may be one mans duty to use a form or book and another mans sin so is it with Ministers also in the Assemblies Three distinctions among others are obvious in which this is manifest 1. Some Ministers are better able to perform Gods publick worship except in the fore-excepted cases without a form and some are better able to do it by a form 2. Some Ministers have a People that are scrupulous of using forms and some have people that scruple the disusing them and some have both sorts mixt 3. Some Churches live under Magistrates that command a form or with Churches that unanimously agree on a form and others live in times and places where there is no such commands or Agreements And according to these differences it may be one mans duty and anothers sin to use some forms 1. Gods work should be done in the most edifying manner Where Ministers are able to perform the publick prayers of the Church in the most profitable manner without a form there it is their duty to disuse a form unless some other greater accident preponderate Still remember that for Psalms and other fore-excepted parts I take it for granted that ordinarily a form is necessary But our main question now is of Praying and Preaching and that especially with respect to one standing form that is not usually varied in Prayer and an imposed form or composed by others in Preaching It should be the ordinary case of the Church that Ministers should be able to do these without a constant form of words to the peoples greater edification But yet it is not alway so And where it is not it is better for Ministers to use a form then to do worse and dishonour the work of God and wrong the Church by their erroneous or over-rude defective management I know the great objection will be that such men are not fit to be Ministers and that its better to have none But this is sooner said then proved I am far from desiring any man to undervalue the precious mercy of an able Ministry and from wishing for formalities and reading Pastors instead of the learned able guides that we here enjoy I hope I should do or suffer as much as another to prevent so great a Calamity as an ignorant unable or negligent Ministry But yet I am fully satisfied of it that its better for the Church to have Readers then none 1. Consider that there have been some very Learned able Divines Doctors of Divinity that by age or other decay of Memory or natural impediments disabling them from extemporate performances cannot do any thing in the worship of Gâd without the help of Notes or books or at least without preparation for expressions when yet upon preparation and by convenient helps they excell many extemporate men 2. The Necessities of the Church may require an allowance or toleration of such as have not ability to compose extemporate Prayers or Sermons no nor to prepare such upon deliberation neither but meerly read the Sermons and Prayers composed by others I know some will not believe that such should be Ministers But they would have them only read as private men rather then the people should have nothing For they think that a man that cannot preach or pray is no more capable of being a Minister then a man that cannot command an Army is capable of being a Commander c. But 1. Let such brethren consider that there may be all abilities essentially requisite to a Pastor without the ability of praying or preaching without a form Though still I pray God to save us from a Necessity of such A man that can Teach men the substance of the Christian Religion and administer the Sacraments and Oversee and Govern the flock hath as much ability as is necessary to the Being of a Pastor But those may have all this that cannot fitly preach or Pray without a form They may be godly men able in conference to instruct the people in the substance of Religion and to read the Scriptures and the Holy writings of godly men and to administer Sacraments and prudently and diligently
guide the people And by the same rule as you will conclude it better that e. g. Wales Ireland c. have private men to read good books rather then none lest they turn heathens I may also conclude that it is better for them to have Churches and Pastors of this weaker sort then to have none and leave their children unbaptized and live without the Sacraments and Church-Communion and Government 2. Consider I beseech you which moves me more then any thing else the state of the Christian world In Aethiopia Syria Armenia Russia Grecia and abundance of other Churches of Christ âhere are very few Preachers but meer Readers And can any man think that it is best for all these Churches to be without Ministers and Sacraments rather then to have such O that God would give them better But till then I shall pray that he will continue these among them rather then leave them destitute I know many godly judicious men of able parts for conference that yet are unable to compose a Sermon though if they could it were a form that yet I am confident by Reading such Practical Books as are now extant and by prudent oversight might be tolerable Pastors for many a Congregation in Wales that now have none 2. In a time and place where no obligation by Magistrates Commands or Churches Agreements is laid upon us for the use of forms I am fully perswaded we should make no more use of them then Necessity compelleth us to do But the thing being lawfull the Command of a Magistrate or the agreement of the Churches may go far in moving us And indeed must prevail with us unless in cases where there are weightier Accidents to weigh down on the other side For obedience and Agreement or Concord in Lawfull things is our duty where we have not some greater reason to forbid it There is much difference between men that are left at liberty and men that are bound by lawfull Governours Yea though they do not well in commanding yet may we be bound to obey when the matter is such as belongeth to their jurisdiction and not forbidden by God 3. A man is also much to regard the minds of his people not out of man-pleasing disposition but in order to their good Prudence will tell us which way is likest to attain our Ends. Food is to be fitted to mens tempers and stomacks and Physick to their diseases If a Church be so weak that they cannot bear the disuse of forms and others so weak that they cannot bear the use of them the Pastor must fit his practice to their Edification till he can bring them to a wiser judgement that so they may receive that which indeed is most fit to edifie them Prudence must guide us in the circumstantials of worship which are left to our Determination that we may vary them as the condition of our flock requireth to their good of which more anon Prop. 5. THE Ministers and Churches that earnestly desire it should not by the Magistrate be absolutely and generally prohibited the use of a convenient stinted Liturgy Note here that I speak not of the desires of any inconsiderable persons contrary to the desires of that whole Church If a few ignorant or wilfull people should be eager for a form when the Pastor is able and willing to manage the work of God without it and the Congregation professeth that it hindereth their Edification by what accident soever I am not now questioning it is fit that those unreasonable persons should be denyed their desires in that Church rather then the whole Congregation Also if the Magistrate should perceive that a whole Congregation or many or the Pastors themselves are eager for some one particular form out of a corrupt humour and in any ill design to the disturbance of the Churches Peace or that they will needs have an unlawfull Form that for matter is erroneous or for manner absurd or apt to breed unreverence or hinder Edification the Magistrate should prohibite this Yet so that Prudence and Moderation measure out his penalties in such a sort as that he Churches Edification be not hindered by his over-rigorous correcting mens distempers But out of these and such like Cases when it is meer weakness that causeth Pastors or people to be set upon a lawfull form The Magistrate ought not to prohibite them by such restraints as shall deprive them of the liberty of worshipping God or hinder their Edification The Reasons of this Proposition are these 1. Because the thing being Lawfull no Power should causelesly restrain men from the use of Lawfull things God having left men to their Liberty none should without great reason deprive them of it 2. The Magistrate should not hinder the Peoples Edification in the manner of Gods worship But in many places a stinted Liturgy is most for the peoples Edification Therefore c. Whether it be the Ministers weakness or the peoples that makes it most usefull to them yet when the Magistrate cannot cure that weakness he must bear with them It was the weakness of Nicodemus that made him he could not bear the day-light in coming to Christ yea and such a weakness as shewed or was joyned with an unregenerate state and yet Christ would rather teach him privately then not at all 3. Where Consciences are scrupulous and think it a sin to worship publikely without a form though it be their error yet the Governors are not to drive them away from it because then they will not publikely Worship God at all And no worship is worse then a lawful form of worship 4. A Minister that is for the Necessity of a form though erroneously may be in other respects so usefull to the Church that he should not be laid by and lost to the Church for such a thing as this 5. The use of some forms as aforesaid being necessary and of other forms not only lawfull but of almost common reception through all the Churches on earth Governors should be very cautelous in denying men liberty in that which almost all the Churches have Liberty in and more even that which is their constant use Prop. 6. TO prescribe a Form of Prayer Preaching or other service where is no Necessity of it and to lay a Necessity on it as to the thing it self or the Churches Peace c. and to punish silence suspend exâommunicate or reproach as Schismaticks the able godly peaceable Ministers or People that justly or unjustly dare not use it is so great a sin that no Godly Ministers should desire or attempt it nor any godly Magistrate suffer it This was the great sin of the late Magistrates and Prelates in England and it is the main difference between their party and others at this day The Magistrate doth not forbid men using a form or Liturgy though they forbid one particular Liturgy more strictly then I could wish But there is a very few of these men that I know of
do more hurt by breaking the Churches peace then they do good by converting souls But who was it that laid these snares in their way Who laid the Churches peace upon your inventions Had not the Church a sure Rule and an happy order and unity and peace before your Common prayer Book or Ceremonies were born Why must the Church have no peace but upon such terms Who made this Necessity that all men must be taken for intolerable schismaticks that dare not stint themselves in the publick worship by your impositions Will you not be confounded before God when these Questions must be answered The Church might have kept both Peace and her Pastors if you had let all alone as the Apostles left it and had not turned the forms of your Devotions to be a snare for others 9. And it is great unmercifulness to the Souls of particular men when you will drive them into such snares and câmpell them to go against their consciences in indifferent things what ever is not of faith is sin And whether they believe it good or bad you will compell them to practise all that you impose Have you not Consciences your selves Do you not know what it is for a man to be driven against his Conscience If not you are no Christians and then no wonder if you want the Charity and compassion of Christians and so easily for nothing abuse and injure the Christian cause 10. And in thus doing you deal unjustly and do not as you would be done by You would have Liberty your selves now to use a Liturgy And why should not others have Liberty to disuse it Either you take it for a thing Necessary in it self or for Indifferent If as Necessary then you are so much the more arrogant and injurious to the Churches and your usurpation is the more intolerable and you do much to Justifie them that deprive you of your own liberty For I know no Liberty that you should have to make universal Laws for the Church or to make new duties by your own meer wills or turn Indifferent things into Necessary and so to multiply our work and burden and danger and to silence suspend or excommunicate all that dare not submit to your usurped Dominion But if you take it for a thing in it self Indifferent whether we pray in a Form of prescribed words or not then as we are content that you have your Liberty on one part you have as just cause to allow us our liberty on the other and to do as you would be done by 11. And by these Impositions you set up a New Office or Power in the Church Consisting of a New Legislation and a Government of the Church by such new humane Laws We know no Law-giver but 1. Christ as to universal Laws of standing necessity to the Churches in the matters of Salvation And 2. Magistrates to make by-laws under Christ for a just determination of those mutable circumstances that ought to be determined by humane Prudence and 3. The Ministers or Pastors of particular Churches to direct and guide the people as there is cause As for Bishops or Councils we know of no Legislative Power that they have over their Brethren though Agreements they may make which may be obligatory 1. by consent as other contracts 2. and in order to unity where the case requireth such Agreements But to set up a New sort of Jurisdiction in the Church by Legislation to make Forms and Ceremonies obligatory and by Executions to punish Pastors that will not practise them is a dangerous device 12. Lastly by this means you will harden the Papists that by their Inventions and Impositions have divided the Church and been guilty of so much usurpation and tyrannie For how can we condemn that in them that is practised by our selves And though in number of Inventions and Impositions they exceed yet it is not well to concur with them in the kind of unnecessary Impositions and so far to Justifie them in their injury to the Church If none of these or other Reasons will alloy the Imperious distemper of the Proud but they must needs by a usurped Legislation be making Indifferent things become necessary to others and domineer over mens Consciences and the Church of God we must leave them to him that being the Lord and Lawgiver of the Church is Jealous of his Prerogative and abhorreth Idols and will not give his glory to another and that delighteth to pull down the Proud and humble them that exalt themselves But yet how far an Agreement or voluntary Consent of the Churches is desirable as to a Liturgy I shall shew more anon Prop. 7. THE safest way of composing a stinted Liturgie is to take it all or as much as may be for words as well as matter out of the Holy Scriptures Reas. 1. This way is least lyable to scruple because all are satisfied of the infallible Truth of Scripture and the fitness of its expressions that are not like to be satisfied with mans And it is a laudable disposition in the Creature to prefer the words of God before all other and therefore not to be discouraged in any Reas. 2. This way tends most to the peace of the Church All will unite in the words of God that will not unite in the forms and words of men If they understand not a word of God yet knowing it to be true they will not quarrel with it but submit But if they understand not the words of men they will be ready to suspect them and so to quarrel with them and so the Churches peace will be broken Besides the judgements of men being fallible many will suspect that its possible there may be some error in their forms though we see them not and God should be worshiped in the surest way Reas. 3. There is no other words that may be preferred before the words of God or stand in Competition with them and therefore me thinks this should easily be decided Object But the Scripture hath not forms enough for all the Churches uses Answ. It hath matter and words for such Forms Without any additions save only terms of Connection the sentences of holy Scripture may suffice the Church for all its uses as to forms Object But men may speak untruths in Scripture words if they will and by misplacing and misapplying them may make them speak what was never meant in them Answ. But 1. When they use no expository terms of their own but meerly recite the words of Scripture the perverting them will not be so easie or common And 2. When they have placed them how they please the people are left at liberty ãâ¦ã to the sence they have in the ãâ¦ã to what mens misplacing ãâ¦ã put upon them when we professedly make our forms out of Gods word we do as it were tell the people that they must give each sentence its proper interpretation as it s meant in Scripture because we pretend not to change it
but to use it But when it s our own words that we compose our own imposed forms in the people are left more uncertain of the soundness For the maker is the Interpreter Object But the Church hath antient venerable foâms already and who may presume to alter them Answ. 1. Hath it any that are more Ancient or more venerable then the Scripture undoubtedly it hath not nor any but must stoop to Scripture 2. All that is in the words of Scripture we are contented be continued at least 3. If it were lawful for the first devisers or compilers of these Forms to make a new Liturgy when the Church had so many before then is it lawful for others to do the like And if the compilers of the first of those Liturgies might make a new one in their own words why may not others make a new one in the Scripture words that will be new only as to the connexion of Sentences 4. The Church of Rome that is most for their forms have yet so often innovated that they have no reason to condemn it in others Prop. 8. THough it be safest and most venerable in Scripture words yet is not this of so great necessity but that we may lawfully use a Liturgy that is not thus taken out of Scripture As long as the matter is agreeable to Scripture it is more for Conveniency then necessity that the words be thence as is easily proved 1. In our Preaching we judge it lawfull to speak words that are not in the Scripture therefore by parity of reason we may do so in Prayer 2. In our extemporaââ Prayers we judge it lawfull to use our own words that are ãâ¦ã out of Scripture therefore we ãâ¦ã ãâ¦ã strange to Scripture language that ãâ¦ã Phrases may be more edifying to ãâ¦ã 4. Words are but to express our minds If therefore our words are congruous expressions of sound and well ordered conceptions they are not only lawful but convenient And therefore it is not warrantable for any man to quarrel with expressions because they are not Scriptural nor to scruple the use of Liturgies because the forms are not in the words of Scripture Prop. 9. THE matter of a common Liturgy in which we expect any general Concord should not be any doubtfull or unnecessary things 1. It should impose no doubtfull or unnecessary ceremonies of which I shall speak by it self in the next Disputation 2. It should not restrain men needlesly in things indifferent by determining of mutable circumstances as time place gesture vestures words c. Of which also in the next 3. It should not make those things to be of general indispensable immutable necessity that are but sometimes necessary or meet but Pastors should have their Liberty to vary them as there is occasion 4. Much less should any thing Materially dubious and uncertain be put in For God will be worshipped in knowledge and faith And as is said before the Church will be divided and the Consciences of men ensnared by laying so much on unnecessary things And therefore though such imposers pretend to a perfecter Unity and Concord then in a few Generals or Necessaries can be had yet they will find they miss their mark Prop. 10. HVmane Forms of publick prayer or other worship excepting the fore-excepted Necessary cases as Psalms c. should not be constantly used by Ministers that have their liberty and are able to pray without them Nor should any be ordinarily admitted into the Ministry except in the great necessities of the Church that are not able to pray without such forms In this Proposition are these considerable points implyed and expressed 1. That it is not unfit to have forms by the common Agreement of the Pastors to be used when its meet as is before and after expressed There are few Nations in the world so well provided for with able Ministers but that some places must be supplied with men that have need of forms of Prayer if not of Preaching composed by others And therefore it is fittest that such should have Forms that are Agreed on by all And therefore I doubt not but when we came newly out of Popery and had not a full supply of preachers it was a wise and lawfull course to compose a common form of Prayer For 1. It will be the surest way to keep out unsoundness and abusive passages when nothing is allowed as a publick form but what hath obtained the common consent 2. It will be the way of fullest concord when forms are necessary there is more of Concord in it to have one âthat is approved sound then to have as many as men please 3 The Churches may the better know whom to hold communion with in Prayer though the Pastors may be unable to pray without forms when they know the substance of their Prayers 4. The Magistrate may the better do his duty and be responsible for the service that is offered to God even by the weakest Pastors and see that Gods name be not abused It is therefore desirable that a Common Liturgy be extant 2. And for the use of it let these Rules contained in the Proposition be observed 1. âet no man be ordained a Minister that is not able to Pray without a Form in such a manner as is not dishonourable to the worship of God unless the Necessity of the Churches shall require it All friends of the Church will agree to this that the Church have the ablest Pastors that can be got 2. But because it is not to be hoped for that all the Churches can be thus supplied at least in haste if the Orââiners or Approvers shall appoint any to the work in Wales or other necessitous places that are not able competently to administer Sacraments c. without a Form of Prayer let them tye such to use the Form Agreed on 3. If they approve only of such as are able to do it without a form but yet so weakly some of them as is less to the Churches Edification then the form would be let such be advised sometimes to use the Form and sometime to forbear it till they are more able 4. And that it may be no dishonour to the publick Form that it is used only by the weak let the Ablest Ministers sometime use it but with these cautions 1. Let them not be compelled to it against their judgements but perswaded 2. Let not the ablest use it so frequently as the weak unless their own judgement require it Let the weaker use it ofter and the Abler more seldom 5. Let neither of them that can competently worship God without it use it Constantly but sometime use it and sometime forbear it And this is the main point that I intend in this Proposition and therefore shall now briefly give my Reasons for Reas. 1. The constant use of forms and so of Ceremonies and any Indifferent things doth potently tend to perswade the people that they are matters of Necessity and
from them till you hear them And if you hear them guilty of such after a First and Second admonition avoid them But let not wicked uncharitable censures be an argument against the worship of God You know not but a Physitian may poison you and yet you will choose the best you can and then trust your lives with him You may much more do so by a Minister because you proceed not by so implicite a faith in the matters of your Salvation You may refuse any evil that the Minister offereth Object 3. But many of them speak nonsence and unreverent words and abuse Gods worship Answ. Get better in their stead that are able to do Gods work in a more suitable manner But see that your quarrelsome capricious wits do not odiously aggravate imperfections or make faults where there are none And remember that you have not Angels but men to be your Pastors and therefore imperfections must be expected But a blessiâg may accompany imperfect administrations But if People Patron and Ordainer will choose weak men when they may have better they may thank themselves A Common Prayer book will make but an imperfect supply instead of an able Minister Though in some cases I am for it as aforesaid Object 4. But prayer is a speaking to God and therefore men should say nothing but what is exactly weighed before hand Answ. 1. We grant all this But men may weigh before hand the matter of their requests without preparing a form of words or a man may fore-consider of his words without a Prayer-book 2. Preaching is a speaking in Gods name as though God speak by us and as Christs embassadors in his stead 2 Cor. 5.19 20. And to speak as in Christs stead and Gods name requireth as great preparation as to speak to God in the peoples name It seems more as it were to represent Christ in speaking then to speak to Christ while we represent but the people And therefore by this argument you should let no man preach neither but by a book prescribed 3. God is not as man that looks most at oratory and fine words It is an humble contrite faithfull honest heart that he looks at And where he sees this with earnest desires and that the matter of Prayer is agreeable to his will he will bear with many a homely word One Cold request or the lest formality and dulness of affection and carelesness and disesteem of the mercy is more odious with God then a thousand Barbarisms and Solaecisms and unhandsome words Yet the tongue also should carefully be lookt to but men should not mistake themselves and think that God judgeth by the outward appearance and as man judgeth 4. Still I say get Ministers that are able to do better if you have insufficient ones A man on a common prayer-book is likelier to provoke God by a careless heartless customary service and meer lip labour let the the words be never so exact then another that fears God is like to provoke him by disorderly or unhandsome words Though both should be avoided Object 5. Our minds are not able to go along with a Minâster on the sudden unless we knew what he will say before hand Answ. A diligent soul that marketh what is said may with holy affections go along with a Minister without knowing what he will say before hand The experience of Christians confuteth this objection 2. And this would not only plead for a form but shut out all other prayer which is sufficient to disgrace it with any understanding man Object 6. The publick Prayers of the Church are they that we must own by our concurrence His own conceived Prayers are but the Private Prayers of the Minister Answ. The Minister is a publick person and his prayers publickly made for and in the Church are as much the Publick prayers of that Church as if they were read out of an imposed Book But indeed when many Churches Agree in a form that form may so far be called the Common Prayers of all those Churches but it s no more the Publick Prayers of any one Church then sudden conceived prayer is And when there is no form yet the matter may be the Common Prayer of all Churches Object 7. But what confusion will it âake in the Church if one Congregation shall have a Form and another none and every man shall be left to do what he list in Prayer Answ. This is the voice of that Ignorance Pride and Dividing usurpation that hath caused all the Schisms and troubles of the Church Must the Churches have no Peace but on your imposed terms Must none be endured but all cast out of the Church of God that dare not say your forms of prayer though they are as wise and pious and peaceable as you Nothing but Proud arrogancy and uncharitable cruelty will say so 2. But if we must needs all Agree in the manner of our Prayers we must shut out all forms and agree all to be without them which yet I consent not to For there is no one Form that you can expect that all should agree in that 's of humane invention Not but that we may well do it but it will not be 3. How had the Church Unity before any of your forms were known 4. If it be no blemish for several Nations to have several Forms and manners it is tolerable for several Congregations 5. How did the Ancient Churches maintain thâir Unity when Liturgies were in use and the variety was so great as is commonly known Many Churches had no singing of Psalms Vid. Pamel in Cyprian de Orat. Dom. Not. 6. Others used it by the whole Assemblies see Ball 's Friendly Tryal page 60. citing the Authors that attest it Other Churches did use to sing by course or two at a time See it proved by Ball ibid. out of many witnesses This variety and much more consisted then with Unity and may do now when forced uniformity will not 6. We are all now at Liberty what Gesture we will use in singing Psalms c. and is here any discord hence arising But men were forced to kneeling only in Receiving the Lords Supper and there came in discord Mens fancies makes that seem confusion that is no such thing No more then that all that hear or pray have not the same coloured cloaths complections c. Object 8. But should not men obey Authority in forms and mââters of indifferency Answ. They should if they be indeed indifferent But should Authority therefore ensnare the Church with needless Impositions All men will not be satisfied of the Indifferency I have heard many say that they would preach in a fools Cap and Coat if authority command them But is it therefore fit that Authority should command it All men will not judge it lawfull to obey them in such cases and so there will be needless snares laid to intrap and divide men Object 9. But antiquity is for set forms
imposed and thence foresee the effects or consequents that are like to follow § 11. Dist. 9. We must distinguish between the Commanding of such Ceremonies and the Obeying of such Commands It s one thing to ask whether it be necessary profitable or lawfull to Impose them and another whether it be necessary or lawfull to use them when commanded § 12. Dist. 10. We must distinguish between that which is Necessary or Profitable to the order or Peace of one Church or Nation and that which is necessary or profitable to the order peace or unity of many Churches or Nations among themselves or supposed to be so § 13. These Distinctions premised to remove ambiguity I lay down that which I conceive to be the truth in these Propositions following which having mentioned I shall re-assume and confirm such of them as seem of neerest concernment to the Question § 14. Prop. 1. Such Ceremonies as God hath wholly exempted from humane power to determine of or institute or hath given man no power to institute are not necessary or profitable to the Church nor may they lawfully be instituted by man § 15. Prop. 2. In such unlawfull Impositions it is a great aggravation of the sin if men pretend that they are the Institutions of God or that they have a Commission from God to institute or impose them when it is no such matter and so pretend them to be Divine § 16. Prop. 3. If things unlawfull either forbidden or that want authority are commanded as indifferent it is a sinfull command but if commanded as parts of Gods Worship or necessary to the Being or well being of the Church it is an aggravation of the sin § 17. Prop. 4. Things indifferent lawfull and convenient are sinfully Commanded when they are pretended to be more necessary then they are and as such imposed § 18. Prop. 5. A thing convenient and profitable is sinfully commanded when it is commanded on a greater penalty then the nature and use of it doth require and the common good will bear § 19. Prop. 6. It is not lawfull to make any thing the subjects Duty by a command that is meerly Indifferent antecedently both in it self and as cloathed with all accidents § 20. Prop. 7. Some things may be lawfully and profitably commanded at one time and place and to one sort of People that may not be lawfully commanded at another time or to another people no nor obeyed if so commanded § 21. Prop. 8. Those Orders may be Profitable for the Peace of the Churches in one Nation or under the Government of one Prince that are not necessary or profitable in order to the unity or Peace of the Churches under divers Princes § 22. Prop. 9. There is no meer humane Vniversal Soveraign Civil or Ecclesiastical over the Catholick Church and therefore there is no power given to any from God to make Laws that shall universally bind the Catholick Church § 23. Prop. 10. If it be not our own Lawfull Governors Civil or Ecclesiastical but Vsurpers that command us we are not therefore bâund to obey them though the things be lawfull § 24. Prop. 11. The Commands of lawfull Governors about lawfull Ceremonies are ordinarily to be understood with exceptions though there be none exprest as that in certain cases it is not their will that such commands should bind us § 25. Prop. 12. It may be very sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used by the subject when they are commanded § 26. Prop. 13. Though they are not Commanded nor called Necessary but professed to be indifferent yet constantly to use Indifferent things doth breed that custome which maketh them to be taken as necessary by the people and usually doth very much hurt § 27. Prop. 14. Yet certain things that are commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no person should disobey the commands of their lawfull Governors in such things § 28. Having laid together these Propositions I shall review them in a very short explication and confirmation and insist more largely on those of chief concernment CHAP. II. Such Ceremonies as God hath forbidden or given man no Power to institute are not to be imposed on the Church as profitable or lawfull § 1. THAT some Ceremonies things commonly so called may Lawfully be commanded and some not me thinks should easily be yielded I meet with none tâat are against all indeed though some think the name Ceremony unfitly applyed to those Circumstances which they consent to And that any should think that the wit and will of Ceremonie-makers hath no bounds imposed by God is most unreasonable All the business therefore is to know what God hath authorized Governors to institute and what not § 2. And here they that claim a Power of introducing new Institutions must produce their Commission and Prove their power if they expect obedience For we are not bound to obey every man that will tell us he hath such Power § 3. For the right understanding of this it must be supposed as a Truth that all Protestants are agreed in that the written word of God is his law for the government of the universal Church to the end of the world and consequently that it is sufficient in its kind and to its use and consequently that nothing is to be introduced that shall accuse that law of imperfection or which did belong to God himself to have imposed by his law If we once forsake the Scripture sufficiency what ever the Papists or Infidels vainly say against it we have nothing left in which we may agree § 4. God hath already in his written Laws instituted his publick worship-ordinances and therefore he hath done it perfectly and therefore he hath not left it unto man to come after him and mend his work by making other ordinances of worship as to the substance of them He hath given us one faith and no man may preach another and one Baptism and no man may institute another and so of the like If any one bring another Gospel though an Angel he is to be accursed Gal. 1.7 8. § 5. Yet is it in the Power of man to determine of such Modes and Circumstances as are necessary to the prrformance of that worship which God hath instituted in his word And therefore lawfull Governors may in such cases bind us by their commands § 6. The things that are committed to humane determination are such as are commanded in general by God himself either in Scripture or nature but are left undetermined in specie vel individuo so that it is not a thing indifferent whether a choice or determination be made or not but only whether it be this or the other that is chosen by the determination But where the thing it self in genere is not necessary or no humane election or determination necessary because God himself hath determined
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 gâace 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 âmperfect 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 imposerâând 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
of his Government and Justice And the laying the hand upon the Book or Kissing it is but a Professing sign of my own Intentions such as my words themselves are and therefore is left to humane choice and a lawfull thing And I have met but with very few among all our Ceremonies that questioned this § 45. 5. And for Organs or other instruments of Musick in Gods worship they being a Help partly natural and partly artificial to the exhilarating of the spirits for the praise of God I know no argument to prove ãâã simply unlawfull but what would prove a cup of wine unlawful or the tune and meeter and melodie of singing unlawful But yet if any would abuse it by turning Gods worship into carnal Pomp and levity especially by such non-intelligible singing or bleating as some of our Choristers used the Common people would have very great reason to be weary of it aâ accidentally evil § 46. 6. And as for Holy daies there is great difference between them Those are lyable to most question that are obtruded on the Church with the greatest confidence As for such daies as are appointed upon some emergent occasions that arose since Scripture was indited and are not common to all times and places of the Church there is no more question whether the Magistrate may command them or the Pastors agree upon them then whether a Lecture-day or fast-day or thansgiving-day may be commanded or agreed on some time for Gods worship besides the Lords Day must be appointed And God having not told us which the Magistrate may on fit occasions And this is no derogation from the sufficiency of Scripture For the occasion of the day was not exâstent when the Scripture was written such occasions are various according to the various state of the Church in several ages and Countries And therefore to keep an Anniversary day of Thanksgiving such as we keep on the fifth of November for our deliverance from the Papists powder plot is no more questionable then to keep a âecture Nor for my part do I make any scruple to Keep a Day in Remembrance of any eminent servant of Christ or Martyr to praise God for their doctrine or example and honour their Memorial But the hardest part of the Question is whether it be lawfull to keep daies as holy in celebrating the memorial of Christs Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration Ascention and such like And the great reasons of the doubt are 1. Because the occasions of these holy daies was existent in the Apostles daies and therefore if God would have had such daies observed he could as easily and fitly have done it by his Apostles in the Scripture as he did other the like thingâ 2. And this is a business that if it were Necessary would be Equally necâssary to all Ages and Parts of the Catholick Church And therefore it cannot be necessary but it must be the Matter of an universal Law And God hath made no such Law in Scripture And âo Scripture sufficiency as the Catholick Rule of faith and universal Divine obediânce is utterly overthrown which if we grant and turn Papists to day we shall have as strong temptations to make us turn Infidels to morrow so poor is their evidence for the supplemental Traditional Law of God 3. And God himself hath already appointed a day for the same purposes as these are pretended for For the Lords Day is to commemorate the Resurrection as the great Triumphant act of the Redeemer implying all the rest of his works so that though it be principally for the Resurrectiân above any single work of Christ yet also for all the work of Redemption And the whole is on that day to be commemoraâed with holy Joy and Praise Now when God himself hath set apart one day in every week to commemorate the whole work of Redemption it seems an accusing of his Institutions of insufficiency to come after him to mend them and say we must have an anniversary day for this or that part of the work 4. The fourth Commandment being one of the Decalogue seems to be of so high a nature that man is not to presume to make the like Else why may we not turn the ten commandments into twenty or a hundred But it seems a doing the same or of like nature to what God hath done in the fourth commandment if any will make a necessary staâed holy day to the universal Church 5. And it seems also that these Holy daies excepting Easter and Whitsontide and other Lords daies are but of later iâtroduction Many passages of Antiquity seem to intimate that Christmas Day it self was not of many hundred years after Christ. I remember not any before Gregory Nâzianzene that seem to speak of it The allegations out of spurious authors and that of later date such as the counterfeit Clement Dionysius Cyprian c. are brought to deceive and not to convince 6. Yea more the time was a matter of controversie among the Churches of the East and West for many âundred years after Christ Epiphanius and the Churches of Iudaea and all those Eastern parts took the sixth of Ianuary to be the day see Casaubones Exercitat on this and Cloppenburgius more fully in Thâs Chrysostome saith it was but ten years before he wrote that Homilie that the Church at Constantinople was perswaded by them at Rome to change their account of the day And is it possible that when for about four hundred years or more the Churches were utterly disagreed of the day that it was then Commonly kept as an Holy day The keeping oâ it would sure have kepâ a common knowledge of the day Or at least the difference of observation would have raised conâention as the difference about Easter did can any believe that the famous Council of Nice and the vigilant Emperour that were so exceeding impatient of a diversity of observations of Easter would have let a diverse observation of Christmas alone without once thinking or speaking of it when they were gathered about the like work if the Church had commonly observed it then as a Holy day Or was the Church of Iudaea where Christ arose in any likelyhood to have lost the true account of the day if it had been observed by Apostolical Tradition from the beginning 7. And it seems that God did purposely deny us the observation of this Day in that he hath certainly kept the time unknown to the world The confidence of some bewrayes but their ignorance Chronologers are never like to be agreed of the year much less of the moneth or day some think we are four years too late some two years c. Many think that Christ was born about October as Scaliger Broughton Beroaldus c. and many still hold to the old Eastern opinion for the Epiphany being the Nativity on Ian. 6. and others are for other times but none are certain of the time 8. Sure we are where there is no Law there is
men to vain endeavours while they use those things as Necessary Duties or Means that indeed are none they lose their labour by the mistake 4. It tendeth to corrupt mens Affections by breeding in them a false kind of zeal for the things that they mistake to be so necessary § 3. Yea worse it tends to engage men in parties and devisions and persecutions against dissenters or at least to destroy their charity and make them have contemptuous thoughts of their brethren and perhaps censorious bitter words when all is false and founded in their mistakes For who will not think hardlier of him that differeth from him or opposeth him in a Necessary point or that he takes for such then in a thing Indifferent the greater the matter the greater will be your distaste § 4. Yea more it will make men Impenitent in such sins For if once they think their ceremonies to be Necessary they will think it no sin but a service of God to vilifie them that are against them as schismaticks and singular and proud and humorous and what not § 5. As therefore it is a haynous sin of the Papists to impose their ceremonies on pain of damnation if they were the judges wo to others so is it no small aggravation of their sin that pretend a Necessity of Duty or Means of any their Ceremonies when there is none such Multitudes take the keeping of Christmas day and such other the Kneeling in receiving the Lords Supper c. to be things of themselves necessary so that a Governour should sin that should alter or dispence with them or the persons sin that do not use them What say they shall we not keep a Day for Christs Nativity shall we be so unreverent as not to kneel when we receive c And thus they alter the things to themselves by feigning them to be in themselves Necessary which are not so § 6. Yet doth not every such mistake of another no not of the imposers make that a sin to me which was indifferent Otherwise all my Liberty were in the power of another mans conceits and he might make all my meat drink cloaths time place gesture c. in specie to be unlawfull by commanding them as necessary or under some unsound notion But this is not so § 7. But in such cases though they cannot so destroy our liberties yet may they make it our duties sometime to forbear that which else we need not to forbear lest our practice make others take it as a Necessary thing and sometime though we must obey or do the action yet may it become our duty to signifie in a convenient way that we disclaim the conceit of a Necessity CHAP. V. Prop. 5. A lawfull and convenient thing is sinfully commanded when it is commanded on a greater penalty then the nature and use of it doth require or then the common good will bear § 1. WHen the penalty exceedeth the crime it is injustice There may be injustice as well in punishing an offender too much as in punishing him that is no offender with a smaller punishment But if the penalty be destructive to the Church or common good it is an aggravated injustice § 2. When Magistrates therefore are disposed to punish men for crossing their wills in the matters of God it neerly concerns them to look about them and take heed first what they punish them for and then with what kind of punishment they do it If it be Good and not Evil that men are punished for it is persecution If it be really evil either its great or small publick or private c. If it be an evil that endangereth the Commonwealth or Church or the souls of men let them punish men in such a way as best tends to the security of the society or souls of men that are endangered But if the person in his calling or station be usefull to the Church or Common-wealth let him not be so punished as to be made unusefull If the Bishops had punished Non-conformists as Recusancy was punished with paying twelve pence a day c. I should comparatively scarce have blamed them For it had been but to make Ministers fare harder or live poorlier or work for their livings or to pay their penalties and the Church might still have had their labours but to silence and suspend them and that when there were no better to supply the room then such as were put in this was to punish the Church of Christ and the souls of men and that with everlasting punishment for the real or supposed faults of the particular ministers which was not just § 3. Object But saith the Preface to the common prayer-book though the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered be but a small thing yet the wilfull and contemptuous transgrâssion and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small âffence before God § 4. Answ. 1. You should therefore put no such snares on men by your commands as to impose upon them needless thingâ when you think the penalty of disobeying you will be damnation 2. But how came you to see into the hearts of men that their non-conformity is wilfull and contemptuous when they themselves profess that they would obey you if they durst They think they stand at the brink of Hell and should wilfully sin against God if they did obey you and you come behind them with silencing and imprisonment and drive them on while they cry out to you for compassion and protest that they are ready to obey as far as they can see the lawfulness of the thing and yet you say its wilfulness and contempt 3. And why doth not your Laws except from punishment all those that conformed not that were not wilfull or contemptuous The Act for conformity makes the penalty to be Imprisonment half a year for the first fault a year for the second and during life for the third beside deprivation and Imprisonment during life for the second offence if the person have no Benefice and this is besides the Ecclesiastical censure 4. If the work of Church Governors be to make small matters great and make that damnable that before was lawfull and this without any necessity at all it will tempt the people to think such Governors to be the plagues of the earth § 5. I confess it is lawfull for me to wear a Helmet on my head in preaching but it were not well if you would institute the wearing of a Helmet to signifie our Spiritual militia and then resolve that all shall be silenced and imprisoned during life that will not wear it It is lawfull for me to use spectacles or to go on crutches But will you therefore ordain that all men shall read with spectacles to signifie our want of spiritual sight and that no man shall go to Church but on crutches to signifie our disability to come to God of our selves So in circumstantials it is lawful for me to wear a
feather in my hat and a hay-rope for a girdle and a hair cloth for a cloak But if you should ordain that if any man serve God in any other habit he shall be banished or perpetually imprisoned or hanged in my opinion you did not well especially if you add that he that disobeyeth you must also incur everlasting damnation It is in it self lawfull to kneel when we hear the Scriptures read or when we sing Psalms but yet it is not lawfull to drive all from hearing and singing and lay them in prison tâat do it not kneeling And why men should have no communion in the Lords Supper that receive it not kneeling or in any one commanded gesture and why men should be forbidden to preach the Gospel that wear not a linnen surplice I cannot imagine any such reason as will hold weight at the bar of God § 6. If you say why should we not be obeyed in indâfferent things and why should men trouble the peace of the Church I answer 1. Subjects must obey in all things lawfull 2. But your first question should be why you should command and thus command unprofitable things will you command all men to wear horns on their head in token of pushing away their spirituall enemies and will you resolve that God shall have no service nor men any Sacraments or Church communion no nor the liberty of the common air nor salvation neither unless they will obey you And then will you condemn them and justifie your selves by saying why should not the Church be obeyed 3. You govern not perfect but imperfect men and therefore you must rule them as they are and fit your laws about things indifferent to their state and not expect perfection of understanding and obedience from them when God himself expecteth it not suppose therefore they manifest their imperfection in not discerning the Lawfulness of your commands professing that they are ready to obey them if they durst the question that neerlyer concerneth your own consciences that are the imposers to discuss is what reason you have to drive all men from Gods Church and service that suppose through their imperfection dare not conform themselves in worship to your pleasure Where hath God set you on such a work or given you any such commission 4. And where you say They should not disturb the Church I answer Are you so blind that you see not that it is you that disturb the Church If you will make such laws without necessity which common wit and reason may tell you all men are never like to be satisfied in and obey and then cast out all that will not obey them as the disturbers of the Church this is but an aggravated self-condemning If they be guilty you are so much more If they sin and disturb the Church by disobedience you disturb it much more sinfully by laying such snares as shall unavoidably procure it and then taking occasion by it to make a greater disturbance by your cruel execution If the Fly offend and deserve death by incautelous falling into the Spiders web what doth the Spider deserve that out of her own bowels spred thâ net in the way and kils the Fly that 's taken in it yet draw no venom from the similitude for it runs not on all four nor is it my meaning to apply the venom to you Your own actions most concern your selves Tây whether you do well in commanding and punishing as well as whether others offend in disobeying I shall provoke all to obedience in things lawful But if they should obey you more perfectly then God you may yet be condemned for your wicked cruel Laws CHAP. VI. Prop. 6. It is not lawfull to make any thing the subjects duty by a command that is meerly indifferent antecedently both in it self and as cloathed with its accidents § 1. THE reason is evident because Nothing but Good can be the just matter or object of the Governours desire and therefore nothing but Good can be the just matter of his Laws By Good I mean Moral or Civil Good or Relative Physical Good the Good of Profit or Honesty And by Indifferent I mean not that which is neither a flat sin nor a flat absolute duty For so an Indifferent thing may be sometime commanded Nor do I mean any Middle thing between Bonum Metaphysicum and non bonum for there is none such But I mean by indifferent that which is not antecedently Appetible a Desirable Good though it be not it self an evill to be avoided or a hurtfull thing Bonum publicum the common good is the End of Government and therefore it must be somewhat conducing to the Common good or at least to the good of some particular person that is the just object of the Governours desire and matter of his law For nothing but Good doth conduce to Good of it self Nay it is therefore Good bonitate medii as a Means because it conduceth to that which is Good bonitate finis as an End or that is Desirable for it self Desire hath no object but quid appetibile a Desirable Good And a Governour should make no Laws but for somewhat that is desirable to himself as Governour § 2. And 2. Nothing should be made the matter of a Law but what is Desirable to the Common-wealth as well as to the Governour For men must be Goverâed as men Punishments indeed are not desirable for themselves but yet by accident they are desirable to the Common good and the matter of Precepts should be much more dâsirable then Punishment § 3. And 3. If unprofitable things be made the matter of Laws it will tend to the contempt of Laws and Government and people will think it a burden and not a benefit and will desire to be freed from it and this will tend to the dissolution of Societies § 4. And 4. All Government is from God and for God and should be by him God is the Beginning and End the first efficient and ultimate final cause of all just Government And therefore all the parts of it must favour of the Goodness of the first Efficient and be levelled at God as the ultimate end which nothing but Good is a means to Of him and by him and for him are all things Rom. 11.36 § 5. Moreover 5. If idle words and idle thoughts be sins that must be accounted for then idle Laws much more And idle they must be if they be about unprofitable things And they are not only idle themselves but occasion idle words and actions in others § 6. Moreover 6. It is the judgement of the Imposers that disobedience to their Laws is a sin against God which deserveth condemnation For Protestants know no venial sins and Papists take sins against the Popes and Councils Decrees to be Mortal But it is a cruelty next to Diabolical to lay before men an occasion of their Damnation for Nothing When they first make their Laws they know or else they are unworthy to
the Ruler is the Judge of them therefore the people should ordinarily obey when they see them not themselves § 15. Object But in case the Genus is commanded by God and the Species are equal may not the Governour limit us to one of the two Especially in case the people are dâvided about them or else will do nothing because they cannot resolve which way to do it For instance if sitting standing and kneeling be equally convenient at the singing of Gods Praises if the people be in a doubt which to use or at least if they fall into contention about it may not the Governours interpose and limit them to one If you be the conductor of Travailers or Souldiers and they come to a place where the way divideth though both wayes are equally good and neer yet you must command them one way and choose for thâm because else they will go no way at all § 16. Answ. 1. In this case you are not to choose one Gesture or one Way rather then another unless they make it necessary by Accident But tell them of the Indifferency and Equality and drive them on to Action And so you only choose and cause them to choose Action before Cessation but not this way before that 2. If this will not serve but they will do nothing unless you determine of their Gesture or Way you must then command one rather then another because they can use but one and some one they must use But in thus doing your comparing taking This rather then the other is not to be done by Election nor be a humane act there being no more Reason that 's supposed for one then for the other But though you name them one Way or Gesture only when they necessitate it you do it but as choosing their Action before their cessation this therefore is all that is Moral in your Act and that you Determine them to Action by Naming This way and not the other is good for the Determination for Duty sake was eligible but that it was rather to This then the other was Indifferent and not Moral For of that you had no Reason and where there is no Reason there is no Morality § 17. All this considered I leave it to the consideration of common Reason and of men that have any pitty for the Church or their own souls whether it be a Prudent or Christian course to make Laws for the Church about things Indifferent that have nothing in the Nature of them to induce them hereunto and then to cast out Ministers and other Christians for not obeying them and deprive men of the greatest blessings on the account of things indifferent § 18. If God have left us at Liberty by not commanding or forbidding then man should not take that Liberty from us without great cause and without some Accidental good that is like to come by depriving us of that liberty and the Good must be greater then the Accidental evill Why should any man on earth deprive the Church of Liberty in that thing where God thought not meet to deprive him of it unless he caâ prove that time or place or some special accident hath altered the case In any case which standeth with us just as it did in Scripture times we must no more be deprived of our freedom by man then we are by God Had it been best for us God would have done it CHAP. VII Prop. 7. Some things may be lawfully and profitably commanded at one Time and Place and to one sort of people that may not at or to another no nor obeyed if commanded § 1. THE case is so plain in point of Commanding that it is past all doubt Many Accidents may make that destructive at one Time and place that would be profitable at another Pauls precepts and practâce in becoming all things to all men do manifest this § 2. The Papists themselves are convinced of this and therefore sometime granted the Bohemians the use of the cup for the Laity in the Lords Supper and profess that it is in the Power of the Pope and Council to do the same by other places Yea when they burn men for the Protestant Religion in one Countrey they tolerate it in another for fear of a greater evil And when they torment men in one age and place for using a Bible in the vulgar tongue in another place or time they themselves translate it § 3. It is therefore a very great sin in Governours unnecessarily to make such things the matter of a common standing Law which is so variable yea and must be varied according to diversity of times and places These things should be left to the Prudence of the Governours that are on the place No wise General will take a Commission for the Command of an Army if he must be tied up before hand when to march and when to stand still and which way to go and how to âight in all the variable Circumstances Shall Governours pretend to be so much wiser then God as to make a standing Law for that which God thought best to leave at liberty to be varied as occasions vary § 4. The English Church Laws do tie the Ministers to a particular habit and to the particular Chapters of Scripture that we must read and if the Law-givers had pleased they might as well have tied us to that particular Text which they will have us preach on and forbid us to choose a Text as a Chapter And they might have as well tyed us to particular Psalms in singing as in Reading But all this is against the nature of our office and the good of the Church And therefore it is not fit matter for a Law If I know my hearers to be most addicted to Drunkenness must I be tyed up from Reading or Preaching against that sin and tyed to Read and Preach only against Covetousness or the like because it seemeth meet to Governours to tye me to a constant course If I have a tractable people it may do them no harm to limit them to this or that gesture vesture c. But what if they be prejudiced against a thing that in it self is lawfull and take it to be a sin and resolve that they will rather forbear Gods Ordinances then use a thing that their Consciences are against must I needs exercise or press a Gesture vesture or such Ceremonie when I see it tendeth to the destruction of my flock Must I needs deny the Lords Supper to all my flock if they dare not receive it in this or that gesture let it be sitting or kneeling and all because I am commanded to do so § 5. Suppose it here granted that the thing being lawfull it is the peoples sinful weakness that causeth them to refuse it and that the power commanding me no otherwise to deliver it is such as in things lawful I am bound to obey yet is it not a thing lawfull to punish the peoples infirmity in a
another They command us to imitate them give us leave then to imitate them at least in all things that your selves confess to be lawfull for us § 30. Reas. 28. Hath not God purposely already in the Scripture determined the Controversie supposing your Ceremonies which is their best to be indifferent He hath interposed also for the decision of such doubts He hath commanded Rom. 14.1 3. that we Receive him that is weak in the faith but not to doubtfull disputations much less to imprisonment or banishment Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him Nay we must not so much as offend or grieve our brother by indifferent things Verse 13.15.21 to the end And so Chap. 15.1 We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves So that the case is decided by the Spirit of God expresly that he would have weak Christians have liberty in such things as these and would not have Christians so much as censure or despise one another upon such accounts And therefore Prelates may not silence Ministers nor excommunicate Christians on this account nor Magistrates punish them especially to the injury of the Church § 31. Object But this is spoken only to private Christians and not to Magistrates or Prelates Answ. 1. If there had been any Prelate then at Rome we might have judged it spoken to them with the people And no doubt but it was spoken to such Pastors as they then had For it was written to all the Church of whom the Pastors were a part And if the Pastors must bear with dissenters in things indifferent then most certainly the Magistrates must do so 2. If Magistrates are Christians then this command extendeth also unto them God hath sufficiently told us here that he would have us bear with one another in things of such indifferency as these If God tell private men this truth that he would have men born with in such cases it concerns the Magistrate to take notice of it Either the error is tolerable or intolerable If intolerable private men must not bear with it If tolerable Magistrates and Pastors must bear with it It is as much the duty of Private Christians to reprove an erroneous person and avoid him if intolerable and impenitent as it is the duty of a Magistrate to punish him by the sword or the Pastor by Church-censures If therefore it be the duty of Private men to tolerate such as these in question by a forbearnce of their rebukes and Censures then is it the duty of Magistrates to tolerate them by a forbearance of penalties and of Pastors to tolerate them by a forbearance of excommunication Who can believe that God would leave so full a determination for tolerating such persons and yet desire that Prelates should excommunicate them or Princes imprison banish or destroy them Some English Expositors therefore do but unreasonably abuse this text when they tell us that Magistrates and Prelates may thus punish these men whom the rest of the Church is so straitly commanded to bear with and not offend § 32. So Col. 2.16 to the end Let no man judge you in Meat or Drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbaths c. ver 20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances Touch not taste not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Here also God sheweth that it is his will that such Matters should not be made Laws to the Church nor be imposed on his servants but their freedom should be preserved Many other texts express the same which I need not cite the case being so plain § 33. Reas. 29. Moreover me thinks every Christian should be sensible how insufficient we are to perform the great and many duties that God hath imposed upon us already And therefore they should have little mind to be making more work to the Churches and themselves till they can better discharge that which is already imposed on them by God Have not your selves and your flocks enough to do to observe all the precepts of the Decalogue and understand all the doctrines of the Gospel and believe and obey the Gospel of Christ but you must be making your selves and others more work Have you not sin enough already in breaking the Laws already made but you must make more Laws and duties that so you may make more sin If you say that your precepts are not guilty of this charge you speak against reason The more duty the more neglect we shall be guilty of See how the Lord Falkland urgeth this Objection on the Papists And it is considerable that by this means you make your selves unexcusable for all your neglects and omissions toward God Cannot you live up to the height of Evangelical Sanctity Why then do you make your selves more work Sure if you can do more it may be expected that you first do this that was enjoyned you If you will needs be Righteous materially overmuch you are unexcusable for your unrighteousness § 34. Reas. 30. Lastly consider also that all your Mystical Teaching Signs are needless things and come too late because the work is done that they pretend to God hath already given you so perfect a directory for his worship that there is nothing more that you can reasonably desire Let us peruse the particulars 1. What want you in order to the Teaching of our understandings Hath not God in his word and his works and his Sacraments provided sufficient means for our instruction unless you add your Mystical signs Will your Ceremonies come after and teach us better then all these Means of God will do We see by the Disciples of Ceremonies what a Master they have 2. What want you for the exciting of dull affections that God hath not provided you already Have you Ceremonies that can give life and are more powerfull remedies against Corruptions and more effectuall means of Grace then all the institutions of God Or hath God left any imperfection in his institutions for your Ceremonies to supply Would you have plain Teaching in season and out of season This God hath appointed already and setled the Ministry to that end Would you have men taught by a Form of words Why you have a copious Form The whole Scripture is a form of words for mens instruction And yet we deny not but out of this Form you may gather more contracted forms for the instruction of your flocks Catechizing and publick and private teaching are Gods own Ordinances Would you have a Directory for Prayer Confession and
no the fifth day of the week the Baptized were to say over their Belief to the Bishop or the Presbyters And it was not such Diocesses as ours that this work could be thââ done for * As many of them dâ ãâã when they hold it in terms of which see what I have said in the Preface to the Reformââ Pastor And even in this while they confess that Pastors are Rulers and the People must obey according to the express words of the text Heb. 13.17 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Thes. 5.12 c. They grant us what we plead for Cons. 1. Cons. 2. Cons. 3. Cons. 4. Cons. 5. Cons. 6. Cons. 7. Cons. 8. Cons. 9. Cons. 10 * Dispute of Right to Sacraments Rom. 1.1 2. 1 Pet. 2.5.9 Rom. 1.6 Mat. 28.20 Heb. 2.3 4 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Jam 5.14 Acts 2.41 42. 4.35 1 Cor. 11.23 Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 10.16 Acts 20.28 2 Cor. 5.11 1 Tim. 5.17 20 22 24. 2 Cor. 2.10 Mat. 18.18 Of this Voctius hath written at large de desperata causa Papatus to which I refer the Reader Fit autem missio aut per Deum mediante c. aut per Deum mediante superiorum authoritate c. Fit rursus nonnunquam ipsa necessitatis lege quando non aliter posset fidei seu morum veritas inviolata servari Ubi verum est illud Pasce fame morientem si non Pavisti Occidisti Voetius Luke 2.34 1 Pet. 2. â 7 8. Of this I desire the Reader to peruse what is written by Voctius de desperata Causa Papatus l. 2. Sect. 2. c. 21. passim Arg. 3. ãâ¦ã c. Read their words * Mr. T. P. calls himself Rector of Brington Cyprian Ep. 28. p 64. ad Clerum de Gaio Desiderasâis ut de Philumeno Fortunato âypodiaconis Favorino acoluthore sâribam cui rei non potui me solum judicem dire cum multi adhuc de clero absentes sint nec locum suum vel sero repetendum putaverint haec singulorum tractanda sit limanda plenius ratio non tantum cum collegis meis sed cum plebe ipsa universa How big was the Diocess then and how much the Bishop ruled alone may be hence conjectured and whether Presbyters had any hand in ruling Why doth Ignatius and Tertullian command them to be subject to the Presbyters as to the Apostles of Christ if they had not the Key of Government Alphonsus à Castro doth maintain that Hâeroms opinion was indeed the same that from his plain and frequent expressions we averr it to be and rebuketh them that pretend the contrary Hector Boethius before cited saith Scoâ Histor. l. 7. fol. 128. b. that Ante Palladium Populi suffragâis ex Monachis Culdaâis pontifices assumerentur No Bishop then ordained them but Presbyters And Balaeus Centur. 14. c. 6. saith Habebant antea Scoti suos Episcopos ac Ministros ex verbi Divini Ministerio plebium suffragiis electos prouâ Asianorum more fieri apud Britanaos videbant â Cyrian Epist. 11. Plebi Contra Episcopatum meum immo contra suffragium vestrum Dei judicium c. * This is not the way of our Prelates Ordination And thâs shewâth that the Churches in ãâã âays were not Diocesan consisting oâ many particular Churches else all the people could not have been present beholders and consenters at the Ordination of the Bishops â Still this shews that the Churches of Bishops were then no greater then that all might be personally present and fore-acquainted with his life Yea that it was the pââples duty noâ only to elect but to reject there 's more then Cyprian affirm Euseââus Hâst Eccl. l. 5. c. 18. out of Apolâonus telleth us that Alexander a Mântanâst being a thief the Congregation of which he was Pastor so that was his Diocess would not admit him ãâ¦ã 11. ãâã Secundum ãâ¦ã ãâã de ãâ¦ã Constântinâ in his ãâã to the ãâ¦ã tells them that in the election of their Bishops all men should freely deliver their opinion and the general suffrage of all should be equally considered becausâ Ecâlesiastical Honours should be obtained and conferred wâââout ãâã and diâcord ãâ¦ã 3 ãâã Even those Protestant Churches that have Superintendents are unchurched by them too for want of a true Ordination For their Superintendents were commonly ordained by meer Presbyters or settled only by the Princes power So in Denmark when their seven Bishops were deposed seven Presbyters were Ordained Superintendents by Iohan. Bugenhagius Pomeranus a Presbyter of Wittenberge in the Presence of the King and Senate at the chief Church in Haffnia See Vit. Bugenhagii in Melch. Adâm vit Germ. Theolog. page 315. * The Jesuits and Fryars do not take the Generals or Governors of their Orders to be men of another Order though they have a Power of Ruling and that Tyrannically â It s more then Dr. H. H. speaks of the Primitive Bishops that had no Presbyters under them but one or more Deacons 1. Parochial Bishops 2. The stated Presidents of Associated Pastors 3. A Visitâr of the neighbour Churches and Countrây These two to be in one man 4. General unfixed Ministers * So Constantiâe calls himself a Bishop Euseb. vit Coâst l. 4. c 24. And he made his Court a Church and assembling the people did use to take the holy Scriture and deliver Divine contemplations out of it or else he would read the Common-Prayers to the whole Congregation cap. 17. And it is plain that it was Constantine that kept the Churches in Unity and Peace when the Bishops else would have broken them to peices And the Emperours frequently took down and set up Bishops at their pleasure especially in the Patriarchial Seats as Rome Constantinople Antioch Alexandria â * And Mr. Burroughs Irenicoâ Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Forbs Gataker The London Pâââince Beza Calvin See also Dan. Colonius in his Disputat ex Iâstâtut Calv. l. 4. Dâsp 2. §. 18.24 â Argum. 2. Argum. 3. Argum. 4. Argum. 5. Argum. 6. Argum. 7. Argum. 8. Prop. 2. Prop. 3. Prop. 4. â Prop. 5. Prop. 6. Prop. 7. Prop. 8. prop. 9. Prop. 10 Object 1. Object 2. Object 1. ââject 2. Object 3. Object 4. Object 5. Object 6. Object 7. Object 8. Object 9. Object 10. The summ Besides sââms of Catechisms * In point of Lawfulness For Conveniency is according to several accidents * The Provincial Consil. Agath Can. 14. is the first that I remember mentioning them * The Pope ãâ¦ã King ãâ¦ã that ãâã cannot be done without tumult or ãâã Dââila p. 1362. an 1595. So that when he feareth losing by it himself the good man makes conscience of murdering them that he will câll hereticks but at another time 30000. to be murdered in France in a few daies Dââila saith 40000. was a blessed work And therefore when I said before that in case of Necessity I would rather Kneel then not communicate yet I now add that I would for all that rather be imprisoned or otherwise persecuted then cast out of the Churches Communion all that dare not kneel or conform in such a circumstance And yet this were Ministers then commanded on great penalties to do â Luke 4.18 Matth. 11.28 Matth. 12.20 Isa. 42.2 3. 40.11 Mat. 18.6 Luke 17 2. Rom. 14.1 15.1 2. 14.13 15 20 21 23. * See my writing of Grotius Râligion
FIVE DISPUTATIONS OF Church-Government AND WORSHIP I. Whether it be Necessary or Profitable to the right Order or Peace of the Churches of England that we Restore the extruded Episcopacy Neg. II. Assert Those who Nullifie our present Ministry and Churches which have not the Prelatical Ordination and teach the People to do the like do incur the guilt of grievous Sin III. An Episcopacy desirable for the Reformation Preservation and Peace of the Churches IV. Whether a stinted Liturgie or Form of Worship be a desireable means for the Peace of these Churches V. Whether Humane Ceremonies be Necessary or Profitable to the Church By Richard Baxter LONDON Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster and are to be sold by him there and by Thomas Iohnson at the Golden Key in St. Pauls Church-yard 1659. At 4. s. 6. d. bound To his Highness RICHARD Lord Protector OF THE Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland SIR THese Papers are ambitious of accompanying those against Popery into your Highness presence for the tender of their service and that upon the same account The Controversies here decided are those that have had a hand in most of the great transactions that of late years have here past and that still have a hand in the differences that hinder our desired peace I observe that the Nation generally rejoyceth in your peaceable entrance upon the Government And are affected with indignation if they hear but any rumors that troublesom persons would disturb their hopes And many are perswaded that you have been strangely kept from participating in any of our late bloody contentions that God might make you an Healer of our breaches and imploy you in that Templeâwork which David himself might not be honoured with though it was in his mind because he had shed blood abundantly and made great wars 1 Chron. 22.7 8. I perceive also that some settlement of Church-affairs will be expected from you by the most And therefore it concerneth all our welfare that you be well acquainted with the state of those differences about which all will expect your judgement For my own part I think not that matters are half so far out of order in the Churches as most discontented men imagine But yet I know there is much to be mended wherein both God and most good men expect you should contribute a considerable part Some think there is no settlement in the Church till they are in the saddle and all their Brethren are become their servants and do them obeysance And alas we have those that take it for no settlement till they have the sword in their own hands or have engaged you to use it at their discretion and may again fill the Prisons or other Lands with their Brethren that are far better then themselves Those I mean that in their writings so glory that their predecessors hang'd the Puritans and lament that of late they were but silenced as being a less effectuall means Some would have no other settlement then we have or else would have Licentiousness settled by a Law and have unlimited Liberty in Religion Doubtless these are conscious what it is that they have need of If Heathens Infidels and Papists be but excepted out of the Toleration it displeaseth them And we can easily conjecture why If we grant them all the Liberty of their consciences that is of their mis-belief because alas we cannot cure it it satisfieth them not unless they may have also Liberty of tongue and Practise When I have heard and read the Reasonings of some of them against the Immortality of the soul and the Christian Religion it self I have wondered why they should take it for such a point of Liberty to have leave to draw others to their opinion when they seem to think that mens Happiness or Misery is no more concerned in it These are the men that tell the world that Magistrates have nothing to do with Religion but only with our Peace and Bodily welfare contrary to the fullest Testimony of the Scriptures Which is but to perswade men to esteem you as the dirt of the earth and to value the Ministry above the Magistracy as much as the Soul is better then the Body and as Heaven is better then this dunghill-world And for this odious doctrine they have no stronger reason then because that Heathen Princes are uncapable of deciding matters about Religion As if mens wilfull and wicked indisposition would change the office and disoblige both them and those that are guilty of no such unfitness from the obligations laid upon them by the Lord They may as wisely say that a sober Physitian is obliged to no more then a drunken one can perform or that a seeing man may do no more then the blind can do Or that a Learned Prince may not meddle with Learning because an unlearned Prince is unfit for it But any man that hath read Bellarmine Parsons Gretser or such like Jesuites may know the Fathers of this doctrine Nothing more familiar with them then that Princes have nothing to do but for our Bodies and the Common Peace but forsooth it is the Pope that must Rule all about our Souls The Libertines know whose cause they plead But verily men that regard the Interest of Christ and their salvation would set light by Princes if they believed them to be such terrestriall animals as Papists and Libertines would make them Some also there be that would have a settlement upon too rigorous terms though they would not have it executed with cruelty Most men would fain have their own opinions prevail and too many place too much of their Religion in censuring as Heterodox all that differ from them and think it an evidence of their Godliness that they are Uncharitable and seeing many minds and waies they think that punishment must heal them all Not that they would be driven to their Brethren but all their Brethren must be driven unto them In the midst of all these cross expectations if you will consult with and obey the Lord I dare boldly tell you it is past all doubt that you must avoid extreams and keep as tenderly the golden mean in this point as in any that concerns you If you give Liberty to All that is called Religion you will soon be judged of no Religion and loved accordingly If you so far close with any Party of them that walk in the faith of Christ and the fear of God as to deal rigorously with the rest you will be hated by them as a Persecutor And if men be oppressed in that which they value above their lives it will tempt them to neglect their lives for their relief If you joyn with no Church in the Lords Supper and other holy Communion lest you seem to espouse the party that you joyn with you will by most be judged to be carnally wise self-seeking and irreligious or one that is yet to seek for your Religion If you restrain all that
are against the great undoubted Truths of Christ from infecting others and own all that hold the Necessary Truths in Godliness and Charity you will please both God and most good men And if you hold your personall Communion with those that are of your own judgement in lesser differences this will not lose you the affections of the godly though of a few factious persons it may as long as you are a tender Father to them all though you Communicate but with some The Godly Emperours that supprest the Arrians and many Heresies maintained the Novatians in the Liberty of their Churches and were beloved both by the Novatians and the Orohodox But if you couââ be the happy instrument of taking away the Divisions of the Godly that there might be no such thing as Parties or Separations known among them though diversity of opinions there will be and if you could give all the Ministers of the Nation a pattern of such union of the tolerable dissenting parties in your own Pastors with whom you shall Communicate this would be the way to lift you highest in the Esteem and Love of all your people and make them see that you were appointed of God to be a Healer and Restorer and to glory in you and bless God for you as the instrument of our chiefest peace And O what a precedent and preparative it would be for the Healing of all the Protestant Churches through the world And certainly your Highness hath a fair opportunity for this happy work You enter in a season when we are tired with contention and sensible of our loss and danger and tenderer then formerly of one another and the most angry parties are much asswaged and there is not so much reproach and bitterness among the Godly as lately there hath been A Spirit of Peace and Healing is lately risen in the hearts of many thousands in the Land and Ministers that differed do lovingly associate and most do feel the smart of our Divisions and are so prepared for a perfecter closure that they wait but for some Leading hand I am certain that there are Healing Principles before us and a temperament is obvious to judicious charitable men upon which we might accord And though some are too rough to lie in any building yet moderate men are to be found of every party that deserveth your encouragement whom you may use as a precedent to the rest and instruments to promote this work It is you that have those great advantages that can facilitate that which to others were impossible and from you it is expected In this Book and one of Confirmation which I lately published I confidently affirm is contained much of that Reforming Reconciling Truth which must heal us if ever we be healed And though the study of such matters require much time yet seeing God commandeth Princes that the Book of his Law depart not out of their mouthes but that they meditate in it day and night that they may do according to it Iosh. 1.8 I may suppose that they will be willing also to meditate on such Books as help them to understand it I should have been as ready as another to censure such an address as this as guilty of presumptuous boldness but that I consider what is the work of my Calling and what it is to be faithfull to the Eternall God and am conscious of fidelity to your Highness in my boldness and know that these are necessary Truths and that to the Counsellors of Peace is joy Prov. 12.20 and have no interest in this world that I regard in comparison of the Churches happiness My earnest Prayers for your Highness shall be that your own soul being first subjected and devoted wholly unto God you may Rule us as one that is Ruled by him and never know any Interest but his and that which is subservient to him and may escape that stumbling stone on which the Princes of the earth do commonly dash themselves in pieces even by espousing an Interest contrary to Christs and so growing jealous of his holy waies and falling out with them and that God would endue your Highness with that heavenly Wisdom that is first Pure and then Peaceable Jam. 3.17 and you may escape the flattering suggestions of the Wisdom of the flesh and serious Piety may be the first part of your Policy that so the Eternall God may be engaged in the Protection of your Dominions and You That you may alwaies remember that you are Christs and your Peoples and not your Own and that the diligent promoting of GODLYNESS and CONCORD may be the study and resolved work of your Life This is the way and only this let flesh and blood say what it will to make you truly Great and Happy God is the Center and Common Interest of all his servants Keep close to him and they will all keep close to you There is no other Common Interest nor any thing that the Godly do so highly value If they see that it is indeed for God they can bear any thing or do any thing for they are wholly devoted to him alone The more of God appeareth on you and the more you promote his Interest in the world the highlyer will you be advanced and the dearer will you be to all that Love him And even with the ungodly multitude that Piety is honoured in Princes that is despised in their neighbours and the hand of God is plainly demonstrated in their surviving Honour the names of Pious Princes being Great when the Greatest leave a name that is vile even in the mouthes of common worldly men who are ready to keep a Holy-day for a Saint when he is dead though they hate or will not imitate the living Your Zeal for God will kindle in your subjects a Zeal for you The moâe your Life and Government is Divine the more Divine will you appear and therefore the more Amiable and Honourable to the Good and Reverend to the evil Parliaments will Love and Honour you and abhor the motions that tend to a division or your just displeasure Ministers will heartily Pray for you and Praise the Lord for his mercies by you and teach all the people to Love and Honour and Obey you The people will rejoyce in you and you will be Loved or Feared of all Such happiness attendeth serious Piety when impiety selfishness and neglect of Christ is the shame and ruine of Prince and People I crave your Highness pardon of this boldness and your favourable acceptance of the tendered service of A faithfull subject to your Highness as you are an Officer of the Universall King Richard Baxter A PREFACE to those of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of this Land that adhere to PRELACY Honourable Worshipful and Beloved Country-men IT being much for your sakes that I have published the following Disputations it behoveth me here to address my self to you in a few preparatory words What distance there hath long been and still continueth
was no Grotian or he was a Papist Again I profess that it is far from the desire of my soul to raise so much as the least suspicion on any that own not the Doctrine and Design of Grotius Disclaim it and we are satisfied Dr. Heylin was taken for as hot an antipuritan as most in England and yet in a moderate Letter to me he disclaimeth Grotianism which I mention partly lest any by my naming him on another occasion in that Book misconceive me to have accused him of this and principally to discourage the defenders of Grotius when such men as Dr. Heylin and Dr. Steward are against them The CONTENTS DISPUATION 1. WHether it be Necessary or Profitable to the right Order or the Peace of the Churches of England that we restore the extruded Episcopacy Neg. Peace with Episcopal Divines to be sought pag. 2 3. The Nature of Church-Government opened pag. 5. to 14. Twelve sorts of Bishops to be distinguished pag. 14 15. Which of these may be admitted for Peace pag. 16. Vnfixed General Ministers to do the Ordinary part of the Apostles work are to be continued proved pag. 21 22. What Power Apostles had over other Ministers p. 23 to 30. The Authors Concessions for Episcopacy pag. 30 31. Arguments against the English Prelacy 1. It destroyeth Government and its end pag. 32. 2. It gratifieth Satan and wicked men pag. 36. 3. It unavoidably causeth divisions pag. 37. 4. It suspendeth or degradeth all the Presbyters pag. 38. 5. It maketh Lay men Church-governors 6. And oppresseth the Bishops with guilt pag. 44. 7. It is the product of pride pag. 45. 8. It gratifieth lazy Ministers pag. 46. 9. It is not of Gods Institution pag. 48. 10. ãâã is contrary to Gods word pag 51. 11. It is unsafe as never used in Scripture times How fully the supposition is granted us pag. 58 59. Many Reasons proving that the Apostles who de facto are confessed by Dr. H. to have setled no subject Presbyters in Scripture times but one Bishop over one stated Congregation intended not the changing of this Order afterwards pag 63. to 74 c. More Arguments that Diocesan Bishops are no Scripture-Bishops pag 75. They are contrary to the Iewish and Apostolical Government pag. 76 77. Proved by two Arguments more pag. 83 84. The Confession of Episcopal writers pag. 85 86. Against Diocesan Bishops of many Churches the Testimony of Clemens Romanus p. 87. with Grotius's exposition pag 88. Of Polycarps and Ignatius who is full against them pag. 88. Of Iustin Martyr and Gregory Neocaesaâiensis pag. 92 93. Tertullian pag. 93 94. Of Clemens Alexandr and from the late division of Parishes pag. 96. Ninius testimony cited by Mr. Thorndike of 365. Bishopricks planted by Patrick in Ireland pag. 96 97. More cited by Usher pag. 97. The Testimonies of Councils pag. 98. to 103. Many weighty Consequents of the proved point pag. 103. DISPUTATION 2. THose who Nullifie our present Ministry and Churches which have not the Prelatical Ordination and teach the people to do the like do incur the guilt of grievous sin A Preface to the Dissenters pag. 109. One Letter of a Minister of another County that openeth the Necessity of this Disputation pag. 127. Chap. 1. A Minister of Christ defined pag. 130. Whether special Grace be Necessary to the being of a Minister pag. 130 131. What Qualifications are Necessary pag. 132. Ministers Christs Officers pag. 133. Must be separated to the work pag. 134. Who are the true objects of the Ministry pag. 134 c. Whether the Pastors or Church be first p. 136. Whether a particular Church or the Vniversal be first ibid. The Pastors work in a particular Church p. 137. How far Intention is Necessary to the Validity of an administration p. 138. A Call to exercise after a Call to Office p. 139. Chap. 2. Of the Nature and Ends of Ordination shewing what it is that is the Ordainers work and what not p. 141. Chap. 3. Humane Ordination not of Constant Necessity to the Being of the Ministry fully proved p. 150. Chap. 4. An uninterrupted Succession of Regular Ordination is not of Necessity p. 168. proved Chap. 5. Ordination by such as the English Prelates not Necessary to the Being of the Ministry proved p. 178. Objections Answered Chap 6. Ordination especially at this time by English Prelates is unnecessary p. 190. Chap. 7. The Ordination used now in England and in other ârotestant Churches is valid and agreeable to Scripture and the practice of the antient Church p. 198. fully proved and so our Ministry vindicated by twenty Arguments Chap. 8. The greatness of their sin that are now labouring to perswade the people of the Nullity of our Ministry Churches and Administrations Manifested in forty aggravations p. 240. Chap. 9. The sinfulness of despising or neglecting Ordination p. 252. The distinct power of Pastors People and Magistrates to our Call p. 253. Approbation of Pastors must be sought p. 258. What Pastors should be sought to for Ordination p. 266. DISPUTATION 3. AN Episcopacy desirable for the Reformation Preservation and Peace of the Churches p. 274. Chap. 1. Of General unfixed Bishops or Ministers p. 275. Chap. 2. Of fixed Pastors that also participate in the work of the unfixed p. 286. Chap. 3. It is lawful for the several Associations of Pastors to choose one man to be their President durante vita if he continue fit p. 297. What power shall such have p. 301. Chap. 4. It is lawful for the Presbyters of a particular Church to have a fixed President for life p. 307. Chap. 5. Objections against the forementioned Presidency answered p. 316. Chap. 6. The summ of the foregoing Propositions and the Consistency of them with the principles of each party and so their aptitude to reconcile p. 335. Chap 7. Some Instances proving that moderate men will agree upon the forementioned terms p. 339. Bishop Hâlls full Consent p. 340 341. Dr. Hide of the new party stigmatizeth his book with the brand of irrational Separatism and Recusancy p. 342 343. Bishop Usheâs full Consent to us p. 344. with Dr. Holdâworths and Dr. Forbs The Presbyterians Consent to the same terms Mr. Gaâakers Mr. Gerees the London Province Beza's Calvins Mr. Rich. Vines in two Letters Bishops can have no other power over Pastors of other Churches then the Synods have p. 347 348. Presbyterians for a Church of one Congregation p. 348. The Polonian Protestants Government p. 353. DISPUTATION 4. WHether a stinted Liturgy or Form of worship be a desirable means for the peace of these Churches Proposition 1. A stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful p. 359. Prop. 2. A stinted Liturgy in some parts of publick holy service is ordinarily necessary p. 365. Prop. 3. In those parts of publick worship where a form is not of ordinary necessity but only Lawful yet may it not only be submitted to but desired when the peace of the Church doth accidentally require it p. 367. Prop.
Elders having no power of Ordination or Government And to say that by Elders in each Church is meant only one Elder in each Church is to forsake the letter of the text without any proved Necessity We suppose it therefore safer to believe according to the first sence of the words that it was Elders in every Church that is more then one in every Church that were ordained And what sort of Churches these were appears in the following verses where even of the famous Church of Antioch its said Verse 27. when they were come and had gathered the Church together they rehearsed all that God had done by them So that its plain that this Church was a Congregation to whom they might make such rehearsal And Chap. 15.3 It s said that they were brought on their way by the Church And if it be not meant of all but a part of the Church yet it intimateth what is aforesaid To conclude though many of these texts may be thought to speak doubtfully yet consider 1. That some do most certainly declare that it was particular stated Assemblies that were then called Churches even Governed Churches having their Officers present 2. That there is no certain proof of any one particular Political Church that consisted of many such stated Assemblies 3. That therefore the Texts that will bear an exposition either way must be expounded by the certain and not by the uncertain texts so that I may argue thus If in all the New Testament the word Church do often signifie stated worshipping single Assemblies and often is used so as may admit that interpretation and is never once used certainly to signifie many particular stated worshipping Assemblies ruled by one fixed Bishop then we have any just cause to suppose that the particular Political Churches in Scripture times consisted but of one such stated Congregation But the Antecedent is true therefore so is the Consequent As for the New Episcopal Divines that say There were no subject Presbyâers in Scripture times I suppose according to their principles they wâll grant me all this as is aforesaid And for others the Instances that they bring to the contrary should be briefly considered The great swaying Instance of all which did sometime prevail with me to be my self of another mind is the Numerous Church at Ierusalem Of which its said that three thousand were converted at once and five thousand at another time and the word mightily grew and prevailed and daily such were added to the Church as should be saved to whâch some add the mention of the Miriades of believing Jews yet zealous of the Law which the brethren mentioned to Paul Acts 21.20 And the instance of Ephesus and Rome come next But I remember how largely this business is debated between the late Assembly at Westminster and the Dissenting Brethren that I think it unmeet to interpose in it any further then to annex these few considerations following 1. That all that is said on that side doth not prove certainly that that one Church at Ierusalem was the eighth part so big as Giles Cripple-gate Parish or the fifth part so big as Stepney or Sepulchres nor neer so big as Plimoth or some other Country Parishes 2. That it is past doubt that the magnitude of that Body of Believers then at Ierusalem was partly acccidental and the members cannot at all be proved settled cohabitants nor that Church as in its first unordered Mass be the proved to be the fittest pattern for imitation 3. That Christ hath not punctually determined how many members shall be in a particular Church 4. But the ends being personal holy communion are the Rule by which humane prudence must determine it 5. That its fitter one Church instance give way to many in point of our imitation then of many to that one caeteris paribus 6. That it s known among us that more then are proved to have been members of that Church may hear one man preach at the same time I have none of the loudest voices and yet when I have preached to a Congregation judged by judicious men to be at least ten thousand those farthest off said they could well hear as I was certainly informed 7. That its certain by many passages historicall in âcripture that men did then speak to greater multitudes and were heard at far greater distance then now they can orderly be which I conjecture was because their voices were louder as in most dryer bodies which dryer Countreys have is commonly seen when moister bodies have ofâer hoarser voices and other reasons might concur 8. That it is confessed or yielded that the Church at Ierusalem might all hear at once though not all receive the Lords Supper together And if so then they were no more then might at once have personal communion in some holy Ordinances and that the Teachers might at once make known their minds to 9. And then the reason of receiving the Supper in several places seems to be but because they had not a room so fit to receive all in as to hear in And so we have now in many Parishes Assemblies subordinate to the chief Assembly For divers families at once may meet at one house and divers at another for repetition prayer or other duties and some may be at Chappels of ease that cannot come to the full assembly 10 They that are for Presbyâerial Churches of many Congregations do not say that There must be many to make the first political Church but only that There may be many If then there be no Necessitâ of it 1. Should it not be forborn when it appeareâh to prudence most inconvenient as frequently it will no doubt 2. And when it is Necessary for a peaceable Accommodation beâause others think it a sin should not a May be give place to a Must not be in pacificatory consultations caeteris paribus 11. It is granted also by them that the Pastors of one Congregation have not a charge of Governing other neighbour Congregation in Consistory one rather then another which they gâvern not though perhaps as neer them but bâ conâent And therefore as there is but a licet not an oportet of such consent pleaded for so while no such consent is given we have no such chââge of Governing neighbour Congregations and none may force us to such consent 12. And Lastly that if a siâgle Congregation with it own Officer or Officers be not a true particular Political Church then our ordinary Parish assemblies are none and where the Presbyterian Government is not set up which is up but in few places of England it would then follow that we have no true Political Churches left among us perhaps never had which I meet yet with few so uncharitable as to affirm except the Papists and the Separatists and a few of the new sort of Episcopal Divines who think we have no Churches for want of âishops except where Bishops yet are retained and acknowleged For my part I