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. 〈◊〉 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 Neocaesaâ—iensis 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 â—rotestant 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 Hâ—lls 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 Usheâ—s full Consent to us p. 344. with Dr. Holdâ—worths and Dr. Forbs The Presbyterians Consent to the same terms Mr. Gaâ—akers 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.
as some of our Parishes and such other Churches are but for the may be and not for the must be And therefore if they be peaceable this will make no breach § 12. 2. That Parochial Churches and Associations have fixed Presidents is nothing contrary to any of their Principles as far as I am able to discern them § 13. 3. That Pastors may be lawfully appointed to visit and help the Country and the neighbour Churches and exhort them to their duty and give the Magistrate information of their state is a thing that none can justly blame any more then preaching a Lecture among them Nor do I know any party that is against it of these four § 14. And 4. That there may be more General Ministers to gather and take care of many Churches I think none of them will deny Sure the â—tinerant Ministers in Wales will not Nor yet that these may have their Provinces distinguished If I could imagine which of all these sorts would be denied I would more fully prove it yea and prove it consistent with the Principles of each party but till then its vain § 15. The only point that I remember like to be questioned is the consenting to forbear Ordination in several Presbyteries till the President be one except in case of Necâ—ssity And nothing is here questionable that I observe but only Whether it be consistent with the Principles of the Congregational party seing they would have all Ordination to be by the Elders of their own Church and where there are none that it be done by the people without Elders To which I answer 1. That we here grant them that a Congregational Presbyterie with their President may ordain an Elder for that Congregation 2. The Moderate Congregational men do grant us that the Elders or Pastors of other Churches may lawfully be called to assist them in Ordination though they think it be not necessary It is not therefore against their Principles to do so For sure they may do a Lawful thing especially when the Churches Peace doth lie so much upon it as here it doth § 16. I conclude therefore that here are healing Principles brought to your hands if you have but healing inclinations to receive them Here is a sufficient remedy for our Divisions upon the account of Church-government if you have but hearts to entertain them and apply them But if some on one side will adhere to all their former excesses and abuses and continue impenitent unchurching the best of the Protestant Churches that are not Prelatical while they unchurch not the Church of Rome And if others on the other side will stifly refuse to yield in things that cannot be denied to be lawfull yea and convenient for the Churches and set more by all their own conceits then by the Peace of Brethren and consequently the prosperity of the Church we must leave the care of all to God and content our selves that we have done our duty CHAP. VII Some instances to prove that moderate men will agree upon the foregoing terms § 1. LEST any think that it is a hopeless work that I have motioned and the parties will not agree upon these terms I shall shall next prove to you that the godly and moderate of each party are agreed already at least the Episcopal and Presbyterians and I think the rest and that its in Practice more then Principles that we disagree § 2. I. I will begin with the Episcopal Divines of whom there ate two parties differing much more from one another then the one of them doth from the Presbyterians The ancient Bishops and the moderate of late did maintain the Validity of Ordination by Presbyters and own the Reformed Churches that had other supposing their Episcopacy usefull to the perfection or well being of a Church but not necessary to the being of it And this sort of men who also agree with us in doctrine we could quickly be reconciled with But of late years there are many Episcopal Divines sprung up that embracing the Doctrine called Arminianism do withal deny the Being of the Ministry and Churches that want Prelatical ordination and with these there is no hope of concord because they will have it on no other terms then renouncing our Churches and Ministry and being again ordained by them and thus coming wholly over to them These separate from us and pretend that our Churches have no true Worship wonderous audacity and our Ministers are no true Ministers and call the Church into private houses as D. Hide expresly in his Christ and his Church in the beginning of the Preface and many others Of whom I spoke before § 3. That the ancient English Bishops that hold to the doctrine of the Church of England and are peaceable men are easily agreed with us I first prove from the example of Reverend Bishop Hall In his Peace-maker he hath these words Pag. 46 47 48 49. The Divisions of the Church are either General betwixt our Church and the other Reformed or special with those within the bosome of our own Church both which require several considerations For the former blessed be God there is no difference in any essential matter betwixt the Church of England and her Sisters of the Reformation We accord in every point of Christian Doctrine without least the variation N B. Their publike Confessions and ours are sufficient convictions to the world of our full and absolute agreement the only difference is in the form of outward administration Wherein also we are so far agreed as that we all profess this form not to be essential to the being of a Church N. B. though much importing the well or better being of it according to our several apprehensions thereof and that we do all retain a reverent and loving opinion of each other in our own several wayes not seeing any reason why so poor a diversity should work any alienation of affection in us one towards another But withall nothing hinders but that we may come yet closer to one another if both may resolve to meet in that Primitive Government whereby it is meet we should both be regulated universally agreed on by all antiquity wherein all things were ordered and transacted by the Consent of the Presbyterie moderated by one constant President thereof the Primacy and perpetual practice whereof no man can doubt of that hath but seen the writings of Clemens and Ignatius and hath gone along with the History of those primitive times We may well rest in the judgement of Mr. John Camero the Learnedst Divine be it spoke without envy that the Church of Scotland hath afforded in this last age Nullus est dubitandi locus c. There is no doubt at all saith he but that Timothy was chosen by the Colledge of the Presbyters to be the President of them and that not without some authority over the rest but yet such as have the due bounds and limits And that this was a leading case and
sort of Bishops it is that they mean And most of them are unable to give me a rational answer to either of the Questions But some that are wiser though they know no more sorts of Bishops but one yet they can say that by a Bishop they mean an Ecclesiastick Governour of Presbyters and the people And if so then why do they vilifie Bishops under the name of Presbyters I have here shewed you that if this be all then every Parish hath a Bishop where there is a Pastor that hath Chappels and Curates under him Or any two Ministers that will subject themselves to a third do make a Bishop You delude your selves and others while you plead only in general for Bishops We are all for Bâ—shops as well as you All the Question is What sort of Bishops they must be Whether only Episcopi gregis or also Episcopi Episcoporum gregis and if so Whether they must be Bishops of single Churches as our Parishes are or a multitude of Churches as Diocessâ—s are And if the last were granted Whether these be not properly Archbishops In all other parts of the Controversie I find that the followers of each party go much in the dark and take much upon trust from the Teachers whom they value and little understand the true state of our differences So that it is more by that common providence commonly called Good luck that some of them are Protestants or Christians then from any saving grace within them Had Papists or Mahometans but as much interest in them as the Bishops it is like they would have been as much for them As for those of you that know your own Opinions and the Reasons of them you must needs knâ—w that the Divines called Episcopal in England are of two sorts that very much differ from one another And therefore supposing you to be the followers of these differing Divines I shall accordingly furtheâ— speak to you as you are I. The Bishops of England and their followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the sixt and revived by Queen Elizabeth were sâ—und in Doctrine adhering to the Augustinian Method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies They differed not in any considerable points from those whom they called Puritans But it was in the form of Government and Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay II. But of late years a new strain of Bishops were introduced differing much from the old yet pretending to adhere to the Articles and Homilies and to be Fathers of the same Church of England as the rest I know of none before B p Mountague of their way and but few that followed him till many years after And at the demolishing of the Prelacy they were existent of both sorts Would you know the difference If you have read the writings of B p Jewel Pilkington Alley Parry Babbington Baily Abbot Carlton Morton Usher Hall Davenant with such like on one side and the writings of the New Episcopal Divines that are now most followed on the other side I need not tell you the difference And if you will not be at the labour to know it by their writings its like that you will not believe it if I tell you For if you will take all on trust I must suspect that you will put your trust in them to whom you are addicted The New party of Episcopal Divines are also subdivided some of them are if their Defence of Grotius and Grotius his own Profession may be believed of Grotius his Religion that is Papists Others of them though they draw as neer the Grotians as Protestants may do yet own not Popery it self So that we have three notable parties of Episcopal Divines among us 1. The old Orthodox Protestant Bishops and their followers 2. The New Reconciling Protestant party 3. The New Reconciling Papists or Grotians A brief taste of the difference I will give you 1. The Old Episcopal party as I said in Doctrine agreed with the Non-conformist and held that Doctrine that now we find in the Articles and Homilies and in the Synod of Dort where B p Carlton B p Hall B p Davenant and three more Divines of this Nation were and had a great hand in the framing of those Canons and by consenting did as much to make them obligatory to us in England as commonly is done in General Councils by the Delegates of most Nations But the New Episcopal Divines both Protestants and Papists do renounce the Synod of Dort and the Doctrine of our Articles and Homilies so far as it is conform thereto in the points of Predestination Redemption Free-will Effectual Grace Perseverance and Assurance of Salvation following that Doctrine which is commonly maintained by the Iesuites and Arminians in these points 2. The Old Episcopal Divines did renounce the Pope as Antichrist and thought it the duty of the Transmarine Churches to renounce him and avoid communion with his Church as leprous and unfit for their communion But the New Episcopal Divines do not only hold that the Pope is not Antichrist but one part of them the Protestants hold that he may be obeyed by the Transmarine Western Churches as the Patriarch of the West and be taken by us all to be the Principium unitatis to the Catholick Church and the Roman Determinations still may stand except those of the last four hundred years and those if they obtrude them not on others So B p Bramhall and many more And M r Dow and others tell us that the Canon Law is still in force in England except some parts of it which the Laws af the Land have cast out And the Grotians teach that the Church of Rome is the Mistris of other Churches and the Pope to stand as the Head of the Vniversal Church and to Govern it according to the Canons and Decrees of Councils and they receive the Trent-Creed and Council and all other Councils which the Pope receives excepting only against some School-points and abuse of manners among the Papists which their Canons and Decrees condemn 3. The old Episcopal Divines did take Episcopacy to be better then Presbyterian Equality but not necâ—ssary to the Being of a Church but to the Better being where it may be had But the New Prelatical Divines of both sorts unchurch those Churches that are not Prelatical 4. The Old Episcopal Divines thought that Ordination by Presbyters without Prelates was valid and not to be done again though irregular But the New ones take it to be No Ordination nor those so ordained to be any Ministers but Lay-men 5. And accordingly the Old Episcopal Divines did hold the Forrein Protestant Churches of France Savoy Holland Geneva Helvetia c. that had no Prelates as true Churches and their Pastors as true Ministers of Christ and highly valued and honoured them as Brethren But the New sort do disown them all as no true Churches though they acknowledge the Church of Rome to be a true Church and their Ordination
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 â—nd 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 yâ—t 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 Devâ—l 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 â—ord 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
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
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 dâ—fference 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
under-laws must be only the Determination of Ciâ—cumstances about Gods service which Scripture hath made necessary in genere but left to the Governors determination in specie and they are such as are alâ—erable in several ages countries c. so that it had been unfit for Christ to have determined them in his word because his word is an uâ—iversal Law for all ages and countries and these Circumstances will not bear an universal determination else why could not Christ have done it nay how is his Law perfect else that doth omit it For example God hath commanded us to read the word preach hear sing which must necessarily be done in some time place gesture number of words c. But he hath not commanded us on what day of the week our Lecture shall be or at what hour of the day nor what Chapter I shall read nor how many at once nor what Text I shall preach on nor what Psalm I shall sing nor in what words I shall pray whether imposed by others or not whether with a book or foreconceâ—ved form or not nor whether I shall read with spectacles or without or whether I shall discern how the time pâ—sseth by an hour-glass or by the clock or by conjecture without them These therefore and other such like must humane Prudence determine of But with these Cautions 1. These are mostly matters that require a various determination in several places according to the great variety of Circumstances and therefore it is for the most part fitter for the particular Pastor of that Church who is upon the place and seeth the case to determine them pro re nata then for Synods or distant Prelates to do it by general Laws or Canons binding all 2. Though upon a small misdetermination of such a Circumstance the people must obey yet if it be so grosly misdetermined as to destroy the duty it self Circumstantiated or to be notoriously against the end which it is pretended for then they are not to obey it As if a Pastor would appoint the People to hear in the night only or at such unseasonable times that they cannot come or in many the like cases Note also thaâ— it is one thing to prescribe these matters in a direct Regimental Respect and that belongeth to him upon the Place and its another thing to prescribe them for common Vnion or Conâ—ord among many Churches and that belongs to a Synod of which aâ—on And it is most certain by sad experience that scarce any thing hath broken the uniâ—y and peace of the Church more than unnecessary determinations pretended to be for its â—nity and peace Could men have been content to have made Gods Laws the center and touchstone of the Churches Unity all had been well but when they must make Canons for this Vesture and that Gesture and the other Ceremony and determine in what words all men shall pray and how many words he shall say or how long he shall be and so make standing Laws upon mutable circumstances and this without any necessity at all but meerly to domineer as if they had been themselves ordained and entrusted with Gods worship and mens souls such sottish Presbyters that know not how to speak or do any thing but as it is prescribed them nor how to carry themselves soberly or reverendly without being obliged which way to bow and when and how oft with the like Unnecessary things made Necessary have destroyed the Churches Peace and so blind are the Authors of it that yet they will not see their errour though the cries and groans and blood of the Churches have proclaimed it so long The Church Historie of these one thousand and three hundred years at least doth tell us that it is the Church Governours by their too much business and overdoing in such wayes even by too bold and busie determinations about doctrines or Ceremonies that have broken all in peices and caused that confusion dissention and seemingly remediless divisions in the Church Prop. 10. In cases which are beyond the present understanding of the people they are bound as Learners to submit to the judgement of their Guides If they see no sufficient cause either in the mattâ—r to cause them to suspect that their Teachers are mistaken or in their Teachers to cause them to suspect them to be seducers they owe them â—o much credit and respect as their Guides as to believe them fide humanà or to suppose that they are likelier to be in the righâ— then themselves and therefore in matters of Doctrine not to contradict them but to submit to learn of them till by learning they come to that ripeness of understanding as to be capable of discerning the errors of their Guides and so to contradict them groundedly if indeed they err so also iâ— the order of variable â—ircumstantials about the service of God though the people ought not to obey their Governours if under thaâ— pretence they should command them things sinful yet when they are not able to see any certain evil in the thing commanded nor so strong a probability of evil as should cause them to suspend obedience while they take better advice in such a case it is their Duty to obey the guides of the Church For they are certain that they are commanded to obey them that rule over them and watch for their souls Heb. 13.17 but they are not certain that in such a case it is an evil that is prescribed by them nor is it supposed to be much probable therefore a certain evil of disobedience must be avoided before an uncertain and improbable evil This the very office of Church Governours doth plainly import Object Then if the Minister mistake all the people that understand not the grounds of the matter must err for company Answ. If by Must you speak of their Duty I deny the consequence For their Duty is to be men of understanding and to see the truth in its own evidence and so not to err But if by Must you only express a Necessity of Infirmity which they have sinfully contracted themselves then I yield all but I say that it is a greater sin to disobey their guides without known reason and consequently never to obey them in any case beyond the present knowledge of the people then it is to follow them fide humana in such mistakes as we have no sufficient means at present to discover For the former will overthrow almost all Ministration and Church-government Obj. Then it is no sin for an Ignorant man to Err with his Teacher for company Answ. I deny that Consequence for it is his sin to be an Ignorant man and consequently to have any Error But supposing him already Ignorant by his own sinfulness and that the Ministers of the Gospel come to heal it we may well say that it is his greater sin to disbelieve and disobey them without apparent cause then to mistake with them where he is not able to discern the
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. â—4 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
Only this I will say that though I allow not in my judgement this sort of Episcopacy yet I think it incomparably more tolereable than the eighth sort which taketh the whole Government of the people from the Presbyters to themselves And if I lived in a place where this â—overnment were established and managed for God I would submit thereto and live peaceably under it and do nothing to the disturbance disgrace or discouragement of it My reasons I le not stay to produce 10. As for the tenâ—h sort of Bishops viz. Archbishops Metropolitans Primates and Patriarchs having not only the moderation of Synods but also either the sole Government of all the Clergy and cheif Government of all the people or a Negative voice in all I am much more in judgement against them then the former and so much the more against them by how much the larger their Jurisdiction is for reasons which I shall anon have occasion to produce 11. As for the eleventh sort of Bishops that is such as succeed the Apostles in the office of Preaching and Governing to wit as unlimited universal Officers it is a great doubt among many whether any such should be For though it be certain that such were yet we are in doubt whether they have any successors For my own part I confess my self satisfied in this that the Apostles have Successors though not in their extraordinary Immediate manner of Mission nor in their extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit yet in all that part of their office which is of standing Necessity to the Church And I am satisfied that their general Ministry or ambulatory pâ—eaching as unfixed officers and their Government of the Church by Office such as they did then use are of standing Necessity to the Church And therefore that as such unfixed general Officers the Apostles de jure have Successors And this I have formerly proved to you in my Theses de Polit. Ecclesiast briefly thus Argument 1. Christ promised when he instituted this General Office to be with them to the end of the world therefore it was his will that it should continue to the end of the world Mat. 28 20 21. It was to a Ministry that were sent to preach the Gospel to every Creature or to all the world and to Disciple Nations that this promise was expresly made therefore such a Ministry is to be continued Argum. 2. The same work and Necessity still continueth Foâ— 1. There are still most of the Nations on earth unconverted 2. The Converted and Congregated to be Confirmed and Governed therefore the Office continueth Argum. 3. We can fetch no Argument from the Apostles Example or from any Precept or Promise to them to prove the succession of fixed Pastors which is stronger then this by which we prove the succession of General unfixed Officers therefore either we must yield to this or by the same reasons as we deny it we must deny the Ministry too Which is not to be done Argum. 4. The Apostles had many Associates in this General Office in their own times Therefore it was not proper to them nor to ceâ—se with them Barnabas Sylas Timothy Titus Apollo with multitudes more in those times were unfixed General Officers that went up and down to convert the world and staid only to order and confirm the new gathered Churches and then went further sometimes returning to review preserve and strengthen their converts Argum. 5. If we can prove that such unfixed General officers were by Christ settled in his Church and that by such the Churches were in any sort then to be governed then our cause is good till the repeal or revocation of this office and order be proved Let them therefore that affirm such a revocation prove it for till then we have proved enough in proving that once it was instituted But they cannot prove that revocation I think nor yet any Cessation or that the institution was but pro tempore Argum. 6. It is not a tolerable thing to charge God with such a sudden Mutation of his Law or Order of Church Government without very certain proof If we find Christ setling one way of Church-Government in his own time and presently after for the first age it is a most improbable thing that he should take that down again and set up another kind of Government to continue ever after This seems to charge Christ with so great mutability that it is not to be done without very clear proof But such proof is not produced I know it is easily proved that the immediate Mission and extraordinary measure of the Spirit for Miracles â—nogues Infallible delivery of the doctrine of Christ are ceased But this is nothing to the general office of Preaching or Governing the Church which is of standing use So that I am satisfied of this that the Apostles as General Preachers and Governours have successors But then I must confess my self not fully satisfied what Governing Power it was that the Apostles had over the Pastors of the Church I find that when Saravia and after him the Disputants in the Isle of Wight do insist on this Argument from the way of Church Government by the Apostles that their Antagonists do presently grant the Minor that The Government of the Church at first was by men authorized to Rule the Presbyters and their Churches but they deny the Major that the Government which was then in the Church should continue till now because it was by Apostles whose Office they think ceaseth Whereas I must confess I am unavoidably forced to yield the Major that we must have the same kind of Government that was at first instituted unless we had better proof of a change For the stablishment of particular Churches and Presbyters was no change of the Apostles power seeing they gave not away their power to the Presbyters nor ceased to have the same Apostolical power which they had before Only the Apostles extraordinary Mission Gifts and Priviledges I confess are ceased But then I conceive that the Minor which is so easily granted viz. that the Apostles had the Government of the particular Presbyters will hold more dispute at least as to the nature and degree of their power and were I as fully satisfied about the Minor as I am of the Major I must by this one Argument be forced to be for the Ius Divinum of Epâ—scopacy What at present seems truth to me I shall lay down in these Propositions Prop. 1. It is certain that the Apostles were general unfixed Officers of Christ having the care of the whole world committed to them within the reach of their natural Capacity and that their business was to take that course in the particular management of their work as is most conducible to the propagation of the faâ—th through the whole world and that in all places where they came they had the same power over the Churches gathered as the fixed Pastors of those Churches have This much is past
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 Commâ—ssioners 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 exerciâ—ed 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
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 Presbyâ—ers in Scripture times I suppose according to their principles they wâ—ll 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 whâ—ch 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 â—cripture 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 ofâ—er 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 Presbyâ—erial 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 appeareâ—h to prudence most inconvenient as frequently it will no doubt 2. And when it is Necessary for a peaceable Accommodation beâ—ause 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 gâ—vern not though perhaps as neer them but bâ— conâ—ent 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 châ—â—ge of Governing neighbour Congregations and none may force us to such consent 12. And Lastly that if a siâ—gle 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 â—ishops except where Bishops yet are retained and acknowleged For my part I
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 perfoâ—ming 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 â—um 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. Dâ—niq 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
among them that unchurch our Churches and degrade our Ministers and perswade all people to fly from them as a plague and try their doctrine their spirits their publick worship their private devotion and their whole conversation and when thou hast done come into our Assemblieâ— and spare not if thou be impartial to observe our imperfections judge of our Order and Discipline and Worship together with our Doctrine and our lives and when thou hast done unâ—unâ—church us if thou darest and if thou canst We justifie not our selves or our wayes from blemishes but if thou be but heartily a friend to the Bridegroom offer us then if thou darest a bill of divorce or rob him if thou darest of so considerable a portion of his inheritance Surely if thou be his friend thou canst hardly find in thy heart to deliver up so much of his Kingdom to his Enemy and to set the name of the Devil on his doors and say This is the house of Satan and not of Christ. If thou have received but what I have done though alas too little in those Societies and tasted in those Ordinances but that which I have tasted thou wouldst abhor to reproach them and cut them off from the portion of the Lord. Remember it is not Episcopacy nor the old conformity that I am here opposing My judgement of those Causes I have given in the foregoing and following disputation But it is only the New Prelatical Recusants or Separatists that draw their followers from our Churches as no Churches and our Ordinances of Worship as none or worse then none and call them into private houses as the meetest places for their acceptable worship Who would have thought that ever that generation should have come to this that so lately hated the name of separation and called those private meetings Conventicles which were held but in due subordâ—nation to Church meetings and not in opposition to them as theirs are Who would have thought that those that seemed to disown Recusancy and persecuted Separatists should have come to this Yea that those that under Catholick pretences can so far extend their charity to the Papists have yet so little for none of the meanest of their Brethren and for so many Reformed Protestant Churches Yea that they should presume even to censure ut out of the Catholick Church and consequently out of heaven it self I have after here given thee an instance in one Dr. Hide who brandeth the very front of his Book with these Schismatical uncharitable stâ—gmata The sensless Queres of one Dr. Swadling and others run in the same channel or sink If these men be Christians indeed me thinks they should understand that as great that I say not greater blemishes may be found on all the rest of the Churches as those for which the Reformed are by them unchurched and consequently they will deliver up All to Satan and Christ must be deposed And how much doth this come short of Infidelity At least me thinks their hearts should tremble least they hear at last In not loving theâ—e you loved not me in despising and reproaching these you despised and reproached me And yet these men are the greatest pretenders next the Romanists to Catholicisme Vnity and Peace Strange Catholicks that cut off so great and excellent a part of the Catholick Church And a sad kind of Vnity and Peace which all must be banished from that cannot unite in their Prelacy though the Episcopacy which I plead for in the next Disputation they can own The summ of their offer is that if all the Ministers not Ordained by Prelates will confess themselves to be meer Lay-men and no Ministers of Christ and will be Ordained again by them and if the Churches will confess themselves No Churches and receive the essence of Churches from them and the Sacrament and Churh Assemblies to be Null invalid or unlawfull till managed only by Prelatical Ministerâ— then they will have Peace and Communion with us and not till then And indeed must we buy your Communion so deer As the Anabaptists do by us in the point of Baptism so do these Recusants in the point of Ordination You must be Baptized saith one party for your Infant Baptism wat none You must be Ordained saith the other sort for your Ordination by Presbyters was none The upshot is We must be all of their Opinions and parties before we can have their Communion or to be reputed by them the Ministers and Churches of Christ. And on such kind of terms as these we may have Vnity with any Sect. If really we be not as hearty friends to Order and Discipline in the Church as they we shall give them leave to take it for our shame and glory in it as their honour But the question is not whether we must have Church-Order but whether it must be theirs and none but theirs Nor whether we must have Discipline but whether it must be only theirs Nay with me I must profess the question is on the other side whether we must needs have a Name and shew of Discipline that 's next to none or else be no Churches or no Ministers of Christ The main reason that turneth my heart against the English Prelacy is because it did destroy Church Discipline and almost destroy the Church for want of it or by the abuse of it and because it is as then exercised inconsistent with true Discipline The question is not whether we must have Bishops and Episcopal Ordination We all yield to that without contradiction But the doubt is about their Species of Episcopacy Whether we must needs have Ordination by a Bishop that is the sole Governour over an hundred or two hundred or very many particular Churches or whether the Bishops of single Churches may not suffice at least as to the Being of our office I plead not my own cause but the Churches For I was ordained long ago by a Bâ—shop of their own with Presbyters But I do not therefore take my self to be disengaged from Christianity or Catholâ—cism and bound to lay by the Love which I owe to all Christs members or to deny the Communion of the Churches which is both my Duty and I am sure an unvaluable Mercy And I must say that I have seen more of the Ancient Discipline exercised of late without a Prelate in some Parish Church in England than ever I saw or heard of exercised by the Bishops in a thousand such Churches all my dayes And it is not Names that are Essential to the Church nor that will satisfie our expectations We are for Bishops in every Church And for Order sake we would have one to be the chief We dislike those that disobey them in lawful things as well as you But let them have a flock that is capable of their personal Government and then we shall be ready to rebuke all those that separate from them when we can say as Cyprian Epist. 69. ad Pupian Omnis Ecclesiae populus
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 himâ—elf 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 sâ—orn that all the chief mâ—n 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 tâ—ll Alexander was brought and comely adorned in Gregories garmâ—nts 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 â—eminem 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 caâ—teris 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
themselves in Execution But he leads them the way by Teaching them their duty and provoking them to it and directing them in the execution and oft-times offering himself or another to be their Teacher and Leading them in the Execution So that it belongeth to his office to gather a Church or a member to a Church Sect. 18. 11. Hence is the doubt resolved Whether the Pastor or Church be first in order of time or Nature I answer The Minister as a Minister to Convert and Baptize and gather Churches is before a Church gathered in order of Nature and of time But the Pastor of that particalar Church as such and the Church it self whose Pastor he is are as other Relations together and at once as Father and Son Husband and Wife c. As nature first makes the Nobler parts as the Heart and Brain and Liver and then by them as instruments formeth the rest And as the Philosopher or Schoolmaster openeth his School and takes in Schollars and as the Captain hath first his Commission to gather Soldiers But when the Bodies are formed then when the Captain or Schoolmaster dieth another is chosen in his stead So is it in this case of Pastors Sect. 19. 12. Hence also is the great controversie easily determined Whether a particular Church or the universal be first in order and be the Ecclesia Prima To which I answer 1. The Question is not de ordine dignitatis nor which is finally the Ministers chief End For so it is past controversie that the Universal Church is first 2. As to order of existence the universal Church is considered either as consisting of Christians as Christians converted and Baptized or further as consisting of Regular Ordered Assemblies or particular Churches For all Christianâ— are not members of particular Churches and they that are are yet considerable distinctly as meer Christians and as Church-members of particular Churches And so its clear that men are Christians in order of Nature and frequently of time before they are member of particular Churches and therefore in thâ—s reâ—pect the universal Church that is in its essence is before a particular Church But yet there must be One particular Church before there can be many And the Individual Churches are before the Association or Connection of these individuals And therefore though in its essence and the existence of that essence the universal Church be before a particular Church that is men are Christians before they are particular Church-members yet in its Order and the existence of that Order it cannot be said so nor yet can it fitly be said that thus the Particular is before the universall For the first particular Church and the universal Church were all one when the Gospel extended as yet no further And it was simul semel an ordered universal and particular Church but yet not quâ— universal But now all the Vniversal Church is not Ordered at all into particular Churches and therefore all the Church universal cannot be brought thus into the Question But for all those parts of the universal Church that are thus Congregate which should be all that have opportunity they are considerable either as distinct Congregations independent and so they are all in order of nature together supposing them existent Or else as Connexed and Assoâ—iated foâ— Communion of Churches or otherwise related to each other And thus many Churches are after the Individuals â—he single Church is the Ecclesia prima as to all Church forms of Order and Associations are but Ecclesiae ortae arising from a combination oâ— relation or Communion of many of these Sect. 20. The fourth part of the Ministerial work is about particular Churches Congregate as we are Pastors of them And in this they subserve Christ in all the parts of his office 1. Under his Prophetical office they are to Teach the Churches to observe all things whatsoever he hath commanded them deliver open to them that Holy doctrine which they have received from the Apostles that sealed it by Miracles and delivered it to the Church And as in Christs name to perswade and exhort men to duty opening to them the benefit and the danger of neglect 2. Under Christs Priestly office they are to stand between God and the People and to enquire of God for them and speak to God on their behalf and in their name and to receive their Publick Oblations to God and to offer up the sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving on their behalf and to celebrate the Commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and in his name to deliever his Body and Blood and Sealed Covenant and benefits to the Church 3. Under his Kingly office a Paternal Kingdom they are to Proclaim his Laws and Command obedience in his Name and to Rule or Govern all the flock as Overseers of it and to reprove admonish censure and cast out the obstinately impenitent and confirm the weak and approve of Professions and Confessions of Penitents and to Absolve them by delivering them pardon of their sin in the name of Christ. Sect. 21. 14. This work must be done for the ends mentioned in the Definition To his own Safety Comfort and Reward it is necessary that those Ends be sincerely intended For the comfort and Satisfaction of the Church and the validity of the Ordinances Sacraments especially to their spiritual benefit it is necessary that these ends be professed to be intended by him and that they be really intended by themselves Sect. 22. 15. By this the Popish case may be resolved Whether the Intention of the Priest be necessary to the Validity and success of Sacraments The reality of the Priests Intention is not necessary to the Validity of them to the people For then no ordinance performed by an hypocrite were Valid nor could any man know when they are Valid and when not But that they may be such administrations as he may comfortably answer for to God his sincere Intention is Necessary And that they be such as the People are bound to submit to it is necessary that he profess a sincere Intention For if he purposely Baptize a man ludicrously in professed jest or scorn or not with a seeming intent of true Baptizing it is to be taken as a Nullity and the thing to be done again And that the ordinances may be blessed and effectual to the Receiver upon Promise from God it is necessary that the Receiver have a true intent of receiving them to the ends that God hath appointed them Thus and no further is Intention necessary to the validity of the Ordinance and to the success The particular ends I shall not further speak of as having been longer already then I intended on the Definition Sect. 23. But the principal thing that I would desire you to observe in order to the decision of our controversie hence is that the Ministry is first considerable as a Work and Service and that the Power is but
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 â—ut 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 outwaâ—d 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 Minâ—stry 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 Magisâ—racy 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
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 probabâ—ly 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 selfâ—Ordination 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 uninâ—errupted 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
in other passages of Scripture had the power of Ordination and that it belonged not only to the Apostles and Evangelists and such as they call Archbishops but that the fixed Bishops of particular Churches had it Sect. 3. The Minor I prove thus that our Ordination is by Scripture Bishops The Scripture Bishops were the Pastors of Particular Churches having no Presbyters subject to them Most of our Ordainers are such Pastors therefore most of our Ordainers are Scripture Bishops Sect 4. The Major is asserted at large by the foresaid 〈◊〉 Dr. H. H. Annot. in Art 11. b. p. 407. Where he shews 〈◊〉 though this title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elders have been also 〈◊〉 second Order in the Church is now only in use for them under 〈◊〉 name of Presbyters yet in the Scripture times it belonged princâ—pally if not only to Bishops there being no evidence that any of 〈◊〉 second order were then instituted So that the Scripture Bishops were the Pastors of single Churches having no Presbyters under them for there were no inferiour Presbyters that had not the Power of Ordination instituted in those times This therefore may be taken as a granted truth Sect. 5. And that our Ordainers are such is commonly known 1. They are Pastors it is but few of the Prelates that denyed this They are Rectors of the People and have the Pastoral charge of souls 2. They are Pastors of Particular Churches 3. They have for the most part at least no subject or inferiour Presbyters under them therefore they are Scripture Bishops Sect. 6. Object The difference lyeth in another point The Scripture Bishops had the Power of Ordination Your Pastors have not the Power of Ordination thereefore they are not the same Answ. That is the thing in Question I am proving that they have the power of Ordination thus In Scripture times all single Pastors of single Churches had the Power of Ordination there being no other instituted But our Ordainers are the single Pastors of single Churches and of Christs institution therefore they have the Power of Ordination If the Pastors now are denyed to be such as were instituted in Scripture times 1. Let them shew who did institute them and by what authority 2. The sole Pastors of particular Churches were instituâ—ed in Scripture times But such are ours in question therefore c. Sect. 7. There is no sort of Pastors lawfull in the Church but what were instituted in Scripture times But the sort of Pastors now in question are lawfull in the Church therefore they were instituted in Scripture times The Minor will be granted us of all those that were Ordained by Prelates They would not Ordain men to an office which they thought unlawful The Major is proved thus No sort of Pastors are lawful in the Church but such of whom we may have sufficient evidence that they were instituted by Christ or his Apostles But we can have sufficient evidence of none but such as were instituted in Scripture times that they were instituted by Christ or his Apostles therefore no other sort is lawfull The Major is proved in that none but Christ and such as he committed it to have power to institute new Holy Offices for Worship in the Church But Christ hath committed this to none but Apostles if to them therefore c. Whether Apostles themselves did make any such new Office I will not now dispute but if they did 1. It was by that special Authority which no man since the planting of the Churches by them can lay claim to or prove that they have 2. And it was by that extraordinary guidance and inspiration of the Holy Ghost which none can manifest to have been since that time communicated Sect. 8. Moreover if there were a Power of instituting new Offices in the Church since Scripture times it was either in a Pope in Councils or in single Pastors But it was in none of these not in a Pope for there was no such Creature of long time after much less with this authority Not in a Council For 1. None such was used 2. None such is proved 3. Else they should have it still Not in every Bishop as will be easily granted Sect. 9. If such a Power of instituting New Church-Offices were after Scripture times in the Church then it is ceased since or continueth still Not ceased since For 1. The Powers or officers then lâ—â—t continue still therefore their authority continueth still 2. There is no proof that any such temporary power was given to any since Scripture times Nor doth any such continue still Otherwise men might still make us more New Offices and so we should not know when we have done nor should we need to look into Scripture for Christs will but to the will of men Sect. 10. Argument 2. No men since Scripture times had power to change the Institutions of Christ and the Apostles by taking down the sort of Pastors by them established and setting up another sort in their stead But if there be lawful Pastors of particular Churches that have not power of Ordination then men had power to make such a change For the sort of Pastors then instituted were such as had but one Church and were themselves personally to guide that Church in actual Worship and had the power of Ordination and there was no subject Presbyters nor no single Pastors that had not the Power of Ordination All single Pastors of particular Churches had that Poâ—er then But all or almost all such single Pastors of particular Churches are by the Dissenters supposed to be without that Power now Therefore it is by them supposed that Christs form of Church Government and sort of Officers are changed and consequently that men had power to change them for they suppose it lawfully done Sect. 11. Argument 3. The Pastors of City Churches may ordain especially the sole or chief Pastors Many of our present Ordainers are the Pastors of City Churches and the sole or chief Pastors in some Places therefore they may Ordain The Major is proved from the doctrine of the Dissenters which is that every City Church should have a Bâ—shop and that every Bishop is the chief and sometimes only Pastor of a City Church If they say that yet every Pastor though the sole Pastor of a City Church is not a Bishop I answer that then they will infer the same power of changing Scripture Institutions which I mentioned and disproved before Let them prove such a Power if they can Sect. 12. The Minor is undenyable and seen de facto that many of our Ordainers are such Pastors of City Churches and that of two sorts some of such Cities as have both the Name and Nature of Cities And some of such Cities as have truly the nature but in our English custom of speech have not the name such as are all Corporations in the several Market Towns of England Sect. 13. Argument 4. Those Pastors that have Presbyters
If the Ordination of Papist Bishops be valid much more is the Ordination of English Preâ—byters 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 uâ—capable 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 Ignaâ—iâ—â— doth fully there declare by the Presbyterie with St Paul understanding the Community of the rest of the Presbyters or Elders who then had a hand not only in the delivery of the Dâ—ctrine and Sacraments but also in the Administration of the Discipline of Christ For further proof of which we have that known Testimony of Tertullian in his General Apology for Christians â—n the Church are used exhortations chastisements and divine censure for judgement is given with great advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God and it is the chiefest foreshewing of the Iudgement which is to come if any man have so offended that he be banished from the Community of Prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy fellowship The Presidents that bear rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this honour not by Reward but by good report who were no other as he himself intimates elsewhere but those from whose hands they used to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist For with the Bishop who was the chief President and therefore stiled by the same Tertullian in another place summus Sacerdos for distinction sake the rest of the dispensers of the Word and Sacraments joyned in the common Government of the Church and therefore where in matters of Ecclesiastical judicature Cornelius Bishop of Rome used the recieved form of gathering together the Presbyterie of what persons that did consist Cyprian sufficiently declareth when he wisheth him to read his Letters to the flourishing Clergy which there did preside or rule with him The presence of the Clergy being thought so requisite in matters of Episcopal audience that in the fourth Council of Carthage it was concluded That the Bishop might hear no mans cause without the presence of the Clergy and that otherwise the Bishops sentence should be void unless it were confirmed by the presence of the Clergy which we find also to be inserted into the Canons of Egbert who was Archbishop of York in the Saxon times and afterwards into the body of the Canon-Law it self True it is that in our Church this kind of Presbyterial Government hath been long disused yet seeing it still professeth that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence the name of Rector also was given at first unto him and to administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispence the Doctrine and Sacraments and the restraint of the exercise of that right proceedeth only from the custom now received in this Realm no man can doubt but by another Law of the Land this hinderance may be well removed Sect. 46. And indeed the stream of Antiquity and the Authors that are principally rested on for Episcopacy are full against them that deny the Government of the people to the Presbyters And it is the principal mischief of the English Prelacy thus to degrade or quoad exercitium to suspend at least all the Presbyters from their office Not as it is a denying them any part of their honour that 's not to be much regarded but as it is a discharging them of their work and burden and consequently leaving the Churches ungoverned And for the Government of Presbyters themselves in Cyprians dayes the Bishop did not could not Ordain or censure any Presbyter without his Clergy and Councils have decreed that so it should be Yea and the plebs universa also was consulted with by Cyprian Sect. 47. And now I come to the Major of my Arrgument which I prove thus Either Ordination is an act of the exercise of the power of the Keyes or of some other power But of no other power therefore of the Keyes If it be the exercise of any other power it is either of a secular power or an Ecclesiastick but neither of these therefore of no other Not of another Ecclesiastick power for there is no Ecclesiastical power at least which Ordination can be pretended to belong to but the power of the Keyes not of a secular power for that belongeth not to Ministers nor is it here pretended Sect. 48. And I think it
Major is undenyable because there are all things enumerated that are Necessary to the determination of the person qualified that is to receive the power from Christ Sect. 68. And the Minor I prove by parts 1. That our Ministry have usually the peoples consent is a known case that needs no proof 2. So is it that they have the Magistrates allowance and his Authority appointing Approvers for their Introduction and allowing Ordination and commanding Ministerial Works Sect. 69. And doubtless the Magistrate himself hath so much Authority in Ecclesiastical affairs that if he command a qualified person to preach the Gospel and command the people to receive him I see not how either of them can be allowed to disobey him Though yet the party ought also to have recourse to Pastors for Ordination and people for consent where it may be done And Grotius commendeth the saying of Musculus that would have no Minister question his Call that being qualified hath the Christian Magistrates Commission And though this assertion need some limitations yet it is apparent that Magistrates power is great about the Offices of the Church For Solomon put out Abiathar from the Priesthood and put Zadeck in his place 1 Kings 2.27 35. David and the Captains of the host separated to Gods service those of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Ieduthun who should Prophesie with Harps c. 1 Chron 16.4 And so did Solomon 2 Chron. 8.14 15. They were for the service of the house of God according to the Kings Order 1 Chron. 25.1 6. And methinks those men should acknowledge this that were wont to stile the King In all causes and over all persons the supream Head and Governour Sect. 70. But 3. We have moreover in the Ordination of the Reformed Churches The approbation and solemn Investiture of the fittest Ecclesiastical Officers that are to be had And no more is requisite to an orderly Admission There being nothing for man to do but to determine of the qualified person and present him to God to receive the power and obligation from his Law it is easie to discern that where all these concur the Peoples Election or Consent the Magistrates Authority the determination of fit Ecclesiastical Officers and the qualification and consent of the person himself there needs no more to the designation of the man Nor hath God tyed the essence of the Church or Ministry to a certain formality or to the interest or will of Prelates nor can any more ad ordinem be required but that a qualified person do enter by the best and most Orderly way that is open to him in those times and places where he is And that we have the fittest Approvers and Ordainers I prove Sect. 71. If the most of the Protestant Churches have no other Ecclesiastical Officers to Ordain but Presbyters then is it the most fit and orderly way to enter into the Ministry in those Churches by their Ordination and those Presbyters are the fittest that are there to Ordain But the Antecedent is a known truth If any in denyal of the Consequence say that the Churches should rather be without Ministers then have Ordination by such they are confuted by what is said before Sect. 72. And if you say that they should have Bishops and it is their own fault that they have not I answer Suppose that were a granted truth it can reach but to some that have the Rule It is not the fault of every Congregation or expectant of the Ministry It is not in their power to alter Laws and forms of Government and therefore they are bound to enter by the fittest way that is open to them Sect. 73. Moreover even in England the Presbyteries are fitter for Ordination then the present Bishops as to the Nation in general therefore the Ordination by Presbyteries is done by the fittest Ecclesiastical officers and is the most regular and desireable Ordination Sect. 74. I prove the Antecedent by comparing the Ordination of the Presbyteries and the present Prelates 1. I have before shewed that the English Prelacy is more unlike the Primitive Episcopacy then our Parochial Presbytery or Episcopacy is and therefore hath less reason to appropriate to themselves the Power of Ordaining 2. The Ordaining Presbyters are Many and known persons and the Prelates few and to the most and except three or four to almost all that I am acquainted wiâ—h unknown 3. The Presbyters Ordain Openly where all may be satisfied of the impartiality and Order of their proceedings But the Prelates Ordain in Private where the same satisfaction is not given to the Church 4. Hereupon it is easie for any vagrant to counterfeit the Prelates secret Orders and say he was Ordained by them when it is no such matter and who can disprove him But the publick Ordination of Presbyters is not so easily pretended by such as have it not and the pretence is easily discovered 5. The Prelates for ought I hear are very few and therefore few can have access to them for Ordination But Presbyteries are in most countreyes 6. The Prelates as far as I can learn Ordain Ministers without the peoples consent over whom they are placed and without giving them any notice of it before hand that they may put in their exceptions if they dissent But the Presbyters ordinarily require the consent of the people or at least will hear the reasons of their dissent 7. The Presbyteries Ordain with the Magistrates allowance and the Prelates without and against them Those therefore that are Ordained by Prelates usually stand on that foundation alone and want the consent of People and Magistrates when those that are Ordained by Presbyteries have all 8. Ordination by Prelates is now pleaded for on Schismatical grounds and in submitting to it with many of them we must seem to consent to their Principles that all other Ordination is Null and the Churches are no true Churches that are without it But Presbyteries Ordain not on such dividing terms 9. We hear not of neer so much care in the Prelates Ordinations in these or former times as the Presbyteries I could give some instances even of late of the great difference which I will not offend them with expressing 10. Most of them that we hear of Ordain out of their own Diocesses which is against the ancient Canons of the Church 11. Some of them by their Doctrines and their Nullifying all the Reformed Churches and Ministry that have no Prelates do shew us that if they had their will they would yet make more lamentable destructive work in the Church then the hottest persecutors of their late predecessors did For it is plain that they would have all the Ministers disowned or cast out that are not for the Prelacy And what a case then would this land and others be in Of which more anon So that we have reason to fear that these are destroyers and not faithful Pastors I speak not of all but only of the guilty For
you and perhaps search as diligently and pray as hard as you and yet they think that its you that are in the wrong you see that for many years the Reformed Churches have continued in this mind And it appears that if they will not turn to your opinion you would have them all cast out or forsaken Christ shall have no servants nor the Church any Pastors that will not be in this of your Opinion Sect. 13. 8. Hereby also you would run into the guilt of a more grievous persecution when you have read so much in Scripture against persecutors and when you have heard of and seen the judgements of God let out upon them It is an easie matter for any Persecutor to call him that he would cast out a Schismatick or Heretick but it is not so easie to answer him that hath said He that offendeth one of these little ones it were better for him c. God will not take up with fair pretences or false accusations against his servants to justifie your persecution Sect. 14. 9. Yea you would involve the people of the Land and of other Nations in the guilt of your persecution drawing them to joyn with you in casting out the faithful labourers from the Vineyard of the Lord. This is the good you would do the people to involve their Souls into so deplorable a state of guilt Sect. 15. If you say It is you that are persecuted as I read some of you do I answer 1. If it be so you are the more unexcusable before God and man that even under your persecution will cherish defend and propagate such a doctrine of persecution as strikes at no less then the necks of all the Reformed Ministers and Churches that are not Prelatical at one blow 2. For my part I have oft protested against any that shall hinder an able Godly Minister from the service of Christ and the Church if he be but one that is likely to do more good then harm But I never took it to be persecution to cast out Drunkards scandalous negligent insufficient men where better may be had to supply the place no more then it is persecution to suppress an abusive Alehouse or restrain a thief from making thievery his trade 3. The present Governors do profess their readiness to approve and encourage in the Ministry any Godly able diligent mâ—n that will but live peaceably towards the Commonwealth And I am acquainted with none as far as I remember of this quality that have not liberty to preach and exercise the Ministerial Office 4. But if you think you are persecuted because you may not Rule your Brethren and persecute others and take upon you the sole Government of all the Churches in a County or more we had rather bear your accusations then poor souls should bear the pains of Hell by your neglect and persecution if you are persecuted when your hands are held from striking what are your Brethren that cannot by your good will have leave laboriously to serve God in a low estate as the servants of all and the Lords of none Sect. 16. 10 By this means also you shew your selves impenitent in regard of all the former persecutions that some of you and your predecessors have been guilty of Abundance of most Learned Godly men have been silenced suspended and some of them persecuted to banishment and some to death The world hath had too few such men for exemplary abilities diligence and holiness as Hildersham Bradshaw Bayâ— Nicols Brightman Dod Ball Paget Hering Langley Parker Sandford Cartwright Bates Ames Rogers and abundance more that some suffered unto death and some were silenced some imprisoned c. for not conforming to the Ceremonies besides Eliot Hooker Cotton Norton Cobbet Davenant Parker Noyes and all the rest that were driven to New England and besides Ward and all that were driven into Holland and besides the thousands of private Christians that were driven away with them And besides all the later more extensive persecution of such as were called Conformable Puritans for not reading the Book for dauncing on the Lords day and for not ceasing to preach Lectures or on the Evening of the Lords day and such like All this I call to your mind as the sin that should be lamented and heavily lamented and not be owned and drawn or continued on your own heads by impenitencie and how do you repent that would do the like and take your selves to be persecuted if your hands are tyed that you may not do it For my own part I must profess I had rather be a Gally-slave or Chimney-sweeper yea or the basest vermine than be a Bishop with all this guilt upon my soul to continue how light soever many make of it and how impenitently soever they justifie themselves Sect. 17. 11. Yea more after all the warnings you have had in the waies and ends of your predecessors it seems that you would yet incomparably outstrip the most of them in persecution if you had your way For few of them did attempt or make any motion for degrading or denying most of the Protestant Ministers in Europe or such a number as in England and Scotland are not Ordained by Prelates and to unchurch all their Churches This is far higher then these before you Sect. 18. 12. And take heed lest continuing in such a sin after both prohibitions and judgements you should be found fighters against God If those that despise the Ministers of Christ despise Christ himself what shall we think of them that do it themselves and teach men so to do and have pleasure in them that do it It s fearful to draw near that forlorn Condition of the Jews 1 Thes. 2.15 16. and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost Sect. 19. 13. It is apparent that your doctrine and practice tendeth to let in the old ejected rabble of drunken ignorant ungodly persons into the Ministrie And what can be more odious to the most Holy God! For if once you cast out all those that have not Prelatical Ordination or all that are against it especially after a former Ordination you must take in such as these and with Ieroboam make Priests of the vilest of the people or else the places must be vacant for we know that there are not able godly men to be had of your mind to supply the vacant places Sect. 20. 14. Your doctrine doth tend to harden malignant wicked men in their enmitie against a faithful Ministrie and we see this unhappy success of it by experience Our doctrine is so much against the inclination and interest of the flesh and men are by corrupted nature at such an enmity to God and all that is truly Spiritual and Holy that we have as many enemies as hearers till Grace do
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 â—ee 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 plaâ—n 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 mâ—st 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
the work with Fasting and Prayer and imposition of hands It was the Apostles that Ordained them Elders in every Church Acts 14.23 Suppose it must be read by Suffrages as many would have it that proveth no more but that the People did consent But still it is Paul and Barnabas that Ordained them Elders though with the peoples suffrages and it is they that are said to fast and pray in the next words Act. 6.3 Expresly shews that the People chose the Deacons and the Apostles ordained them Look ye out among your selves seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business But I shall cut short this part of my task because so much is said of it already by many that have written for Ordination to whom I shall refer you Sect. 13. Reas. 2. If there be not a standing regular way for Trying aâ—d Approving such as enter into the Ministry then men will be left to be their own judges and if they can but get the consent of any Congregation will presenty be Pastors But this course would tend to the ruine or confusion of the Church as I shall manifest by evidence Sect. 14. 1. If all men may enter into the Ministry that will upon their own perswasion that they are fit the most proud self-conceited worthless men will be the readiest to go and if they can get hearers will most abound in the Church and the people will quickly have heaps of Teachers For we all know that many of the Ignorant are least acquainted with their ignorance and commonly the Proud have the highest thoughts of themselves and think none so fit to Teach and Rule as they And what could be more to the shame and hazzard of the Church then to have it taught and guided by such ignorant unworthy men Sect. 15. 2. Moreover Humble men are so conscious of their weakness and sensible of the burden and greatness of the work that they think themselves unworthy and therefore would draw back and so by their forbearance would give way to the foresaid proud intruders And thus the Church would soon be darkened defiled and brought low if all men were their own judges Sect. 16. 3. Moreover it is the common disposition of Erroneous and Heretical persons to be exceeding zealous for the propagating of their errors and bringing as many as is possible to their mind So that if all be left to themselves the most Heretical will run first and carry their filth into the house of God and seduce and undo men instead of saving them Sect. 17. 4. By this means also the Covetous and sordid worldlings will crowd in and men will do by Preaching as they do by Ale-selling even make it their last Trade when others fail and he that breaks in any other Trade if he have but any volubility of speech will presently turn Priest till the Office and Ordinances of God seem vile and be abhorred by the people This must be the Consequent if all be left to their own judgement Sect. 18. 5. And it is too known a case that the people will bid such persons welcome and so they will make a match The erroneous and giddy party will have such as are sutable to them And the Covetous party will have him that will do their work best cheap if they will preach for nothing or for little he shall be a man for them though he would lead them to perdition If it be poyson they'â— take it if it cost them nothing And many there be that will have their own kindred or friends to make Priests of and all that they have interest in must joyn with them on the account of friendship And the childish injudicious sort of Christians will follow them that have the smoothest tongues or best opportunities and advantages to prevail with them And so they will be tossed up and down and carryed to and fro with every wind of doctrine according to the cunning sleight and subtilty of men by which they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 And they will be carried about with divers and strange doctrines Heb. 13.9 Sect. 19. Reas. 3. And when the Ministrie is thus corrupted by making every man judge of his own fitness the Church will be corrupted and degenerate into a common state and cease to be a Church if Reformation do not stop the gangrene For it commonly goeth with the Church according to the quality of the Ministrie An ignorant Ministrie and an ignorant people an erroneous Ministrie and an erring people a scandalous Ministrie and a scandalous people commonly go together Like Priest like people is the common case Sect. 20. Reas. 4. And by this means Christianity it self will be dishonoured and seem to be but a common religion and so but a deceit to the great dishonour of Jesus Christ for the world will judge of him and his cause by the lives of them that teach it and profess it Sect. 21. Reas. 5. And by this means God will be provoked to depart from us and be avenged on us for our dishonouring him If he would spew out of his mouth lukewarm Laodicea what would he do to such degenerate societies If most of the seven Churches Rev. 2 3. had their warnings or threatnings for smaller faults what would such corruptions bring us to but even to be plagued or forsaken by the Lord Sect. 22. Reas. 6. If you should be men of ability and fitness for the work your selves that enter without Approbation and Ordination yet others might be encouraged by your example that are unfit and if you once thus set open the door you know not how to keep out woolves and swine all the persons before described will take the opportunity and say Why may not we enter unordained as well as such and such Sect. 23. Reas. 7. By this means also you will leave many sober godly persons unsatisfied in your Ministry as not knowing whether they may own you as Ministers or not how much you should do to avoid such offence me thinks you might perceive Sect. 24. Reas. 8. By this course also you will walk contrary to the Catholike Church of Christ and that in a cause where you cannot reasonably pretend any necessity of so doing Ever since Christ had a Ministry on earth the constant ordinary way of their admittance hath been by Ministerial Ordination If any man despise this and be contentious we have no such Custome nor the Churches of God Is it a design beseeming an humble man a Christian a sober man to find out a new way of making Ministers now in the end of the world as if all the Ministers from the Apostles dayes till now had come in at a wrong door and wanted a true Calling This is too near the making a New Ministry and that 's too near the Making of a new Church and that 's too near the feigning of a new Christ. The Church hath many promises
that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it that Christ will be with her Ministers to the end of the world they being given by him for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man c. Eph. 4.12 13. And therefore we must not easily believe that the Ministry of the universal Church have been falsly called or admitted untill now and you have found out a better way at last Sect. 25. Reas. 9. You would bring that irrational confusion into the Church of the living God which is not to be introduced into the basest Commonwealth or society in the world You have more wit then to let all men play the Physitians but will first have them tryed by men of their own Profession or else the lives of many may pay for your Licentiousness You will have Schoolmasters approved by them that have Learning before you will commit your children to their trust And shall every man be a Teacher and Ruler that will in the Church of Christ as if it were the only confused contemptible Society in the world God is not the God of Confusion but of Peace as in all the Churches saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.33 Sect. 26. Reas. 10. Do but consider how high and holy and honourable a Calling it is to be a Minister of the Gospel and then it will appear that it is horrible Profanation of Holy things to suffer all that will to invade it They are to be the Embassadors of Christ and speak as in his Name and to be Stewards of his Mysteries and Houshold and to stand near him as at his altar and to dispense his treasure to magnifie and praise his Name and to administer his holy Sacraments c. And should all that will be taught to usurp or invade such an holy Calling Sect. 27. Reas. 11. Consider also how great a Trust it is that is committed to all that are Ministers of the Gospel The souls of men are committed to them the Mysteries of God the precious promises and glad tidings of Salvation are committed to them the order and affairs of the house of God are committed to them those that are Christs Sheep his Jewels his Friends his Brethren his Spouse his Members and as the apple of his eye are committed to them And is it sutable to so great a Trust that men untryed unapproved that do but think well of themselves and their own doings shall at their pleasure take so great a charge What man of honour and wit among you will give every man leave to be your Steward that hath but folly and pride enough to think himself fit for it and will not rather choose your Stewards your selves Sect. 28. Reas. 12. And is it not evidently notorious Cruelty to the souls of men to cast them upon every unworthy fellow that will but be impudent enough to undertake the charge Do you set so light by mens everlasting Joy or Torment You would not so contemptuously cast away mens lives and will you so contemptuously cast away their souls And what a contempt is it of the blood of Christ that the purchase made by it should be thus neglected You will look up your money and look to your goods and take care of every groat of your estates and shall the souls of men and the blood and the inheritance of Christ be no more regarded This is unjust Sect. 29. Reas. 13. Yea and it is a way of Cruelty to the men themselves if every man that is sick of self-conceit or Pride shall have leave to exercise it and run themselves into unspeakable guilt by undertaking such works as they are no way able for Alas have not these poor sinners trangressions enough of their own already but you must encourage them to draw the blood of souls and the sins of so many others upon their heads O what a burden do they take upon them and what a dreadful danger do they run into Had you faith and any pitty of souls you would rather study to do your best to prevent mens destroying of themselves and others and falling altogether into the ditch I know you 'l say that you are guilty of no such thing it is the saving and not the destroying of souls that you intend by being Ministers unordained but your intentions will not justifie your cruel and destructive practices It s plain that you teach men by your doctrine and example to be their own judges of their fitness for the Ministry or to neglect the judgement of the Pastors of the Church and what better can this course produce Sect. 30. Reas. 14. Either you are fit for the Ministry or unfit if fit why should you be afraid of tryal He that doth evil comes not to the light it is a sign of an ill cause that cannot endure a just tryal But if you are unfit is it not better to forbear Sect. 31. Reas. 15. Your very refusing of a tryal doth give the people sufficient reason to question your call and fitness for the work or your humility at least for humble men think meanlyer of themselves then to judge themselves meet for such great employments when they have not the encouragement of men that are more fit to judge the good men of old were wont to run away from a Bishoprick or Pastoral dignity in the sense of their unfitness so that the Bishops were fain to seek and send after them and Gregory of Neocesarea was Ordained by Phedimus when he was three daies journey from him even against his will and then charged by him in the name of Christ to yield unto the Call And what then shall we think of that sort of men that think themselves so good and worthy as to run on their own heads without due approbation Sect. 32. Reas. 16. It is natural for man to be Partial in his own Cause insomuch as no law or equity will allow men to be witnesses or judges for themselves in the smallest civil controversie and shall they be judges of themselves in so great a cause Are not others more impartial Sect. 33. Reas. 17. You cast away your own encouragement and support and create vexation to your own Consciences There are so many difficulties to be conquered in this work and so many sufferings to be endured that if a man be not clear that his Call was good he is like to be left to great discomforts We have exceediâ—g great labours to undergo we have abundance of enemies and impediments to strive with we have many a scorn and unthankful return and perhaps imprisonment or death to undergo we are our selves alas too weak and insufficient and must depend on God for daily helps And with what confidence can you expect his help if you Call your selves and enter not by his Approbation And how will you ever go through all this and suffer so
to the end of the world in a way of assistance and owning of our Labours answerable to our engagements for him and service to him Were we deeplier engaged for Christ and did with Peter cast our selves into the Sea or walk on the Waters at his Call we should find Christ acting as if he were answerably engaged for our indemnity or at least for our eminent encouragement and reward If ever we might expect Miracles again it would be upon our engagement in the antient work though I know that even for this they are now no more necessary nor I think promised § 18. And 10. We do hereby seem to accuse Christ unjustly of Mutability supposing that he had setled one sort of Ministry and Government in his Church for one Age only and then changed it for another that is ever after to continue alone I know the extraordinary work of that age to plant Churches by new doctrine and Miracles and reveal the new Articles of Faith and Practice in Scripture to the world did require such enablements thereto which ordinary works do not require and therefore the Apostles as immediatly sent and as inditing Scriptures and working Miracles and Prophetically bringing new Revelations have no Successors But the Apostles as preaching to the Nations and as planting Churches and as setling them and taking care of their prosperity after they had planted them and as exercising their Ministry itinerantly as not fixed to a special charge thus they have Successors the work being ordinary and such as should be done now as well as then and must continue while the necessity of it doth continue § 19. There needeth no other proof of this then by observing that it was not Apostles only but all the Ministry at first that was thus unfixed and itinerant and that the Apostles assumed such to their assistance and employed them all their dayes in this work § 20. The seventy Disciples as well as the Apostles were at first by Christ sent forth in this Itinerant way for the Conversion of the inhabitants of Iudaea And thus Iohn the Baptist had preached before them And after Christs Resurrection and Ascension it was not only the Apostles but it was they that were scattered abroad that went everywhere preaching the Word Act. 8.4 And who were these Act. 8.1 They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria except the Apostles And the Evangelists of those times are confessed to have exercised this Itinerant Ministry so did Barnabas Silas Mark Epaphroditus Tychicus Trophimus Timothy Titus Luke and others ordinarily It was the first and most ordinary way then of exercising the Ministry § 21. And if we lived our selves in Heathen or Infidel Countreys we should be soon taught by experience that this must be still an ordinary work For what else is to be done till persons be converted and brought into the Church They must be made Disciples before they can be used as Disciples and caught to observe all things that Christ hath commanded § 22. But against this it is objected 1. That the Apostles were extraordinary Officers and therefore have no Successors To which I answer 1. That I have before shewed in what they were extraordinary and in what not in what they have no Successors and in what they have As Apostles sent immediatly by Christ to Reveal a new doctrine and confirm it by Miracles they have no Successors but as general Ministers of Christ to convert souls plant Churches and take a care of many they have Successors call them by what name you please 2. And what if the Apostles have no Successors Had the seventy Disciples none Had Apollo Titus Timothy Silas Barnabas c. none Had all the Itinerant converting Ministers of those times none that were not affixed as Pastors to a particular Church § 23. Obj. 2. But at least in the extent of their charge the Apostles were extraordinary in that they were to preach the Gospel to all Nations I answer in point of exercise being furnished with tongues and Miracles for the work they were obliged to go further or to more Nations then most particular Ministers are now obliged to go but that is not because we want Authority if we had ability and opportunity but because we want ability and opportunity to exercise our Office The Apostles were not bound to go into every Nation of the world inclusively but to avoid none but go to all that is to as many as they could Otherwise they had sinned in not going to Mexico Peru Brasile the Philippine or Molucc◠Islands to Iapon China c. And it is our duty to extend our Ministry for the Conversion of as many as we have Ability and opportunity to do That which was common to the planting and waetering Ministry in the Apostles dayes was not proper to the Apostles but to go up and down the world to Convert and Baptize and plant and water Churches was then common to such as Apollo Silas c. therefore c. § 24. Obj. 3. But say others the Apostles were not at last such unfixed Ministers as you imagine but fixed Diocesan Bishops Peter was Bishop of Antioch first and of Rome after Paul was Bishop of Rome James of Jerusalem c. Ans. That any Apostle was a fixed Bishop taking on him durante vita the special Pastoral charge of one particular Church or Diocess as his peculiar is 1. Barely affirmed and therefore not to be believed 2. And is contrary both to the tenor of their Commission and the History of their Ministrations And 3. Is also contrary to Charity it self and therefore is not worthy of any credit The Apostles were not so lazy or uncharitable as to affix themselves to Parishes or Diocesses and leave the Nations of the world in their unbelief and to cease the work that they were first sent out upon before the necessity of it ceased Peter and Paul were Bishops of Rome as they were of other Churches which they planted and watered and no more even as Paul was Bishop of Ephesus Philippi Corinth c. And Iames was either no Bishop of Ierusalem or no Apostle but as many think another Iames. Indeed pro tempore not only an Apostle but other Itinerant Ministers were Bishops of the places where they came that is were Officers of Christ that might exercise any act of their Office Teaching Governing administring Sacraments c. to any people that gave them a Call or so far as opportunity and need required And so I doubt not but every Minister now may do in any Church on earth If he be invited to stay a day or week or month among them and do the work of a Minister yea or if he be invited but to preach a Sermon to them he may do it not as a private man but as a Minister in general and as their Teacher or Pastor pro tempore ad hoc that give him the invitation For though the first Call to
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 Chuâ—ch 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 Thâ—s seeâ—s 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 Pariâ—shes are not capable of this because they have commonly but one Pastor nor have maintainance for more Answ. 1. Though the greâ—ter 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
not have men make the prosperity of the Church a pretence for altering the Ordinances or Institutions of Christ and making such changes as their conceits or ambitious minds incline them to We shall never have a Rule nor fixed certainty if we may change thâ—ngs our selves on such pretences Pretend not then to Antiquity as you do § 11. And 2. I have in the former Disputation proved by many Reasons that it was not the mind of the Apostles themselves that the Parochial or Congregational Churches which they planted should be changed into another sort of Churches Nor is there any reason for it but against it in the prosperity of the Church and piety of Magistrates For 1. Pious Magistrates should help to keep and not to break Apostolical institutions 2. And pious Magistrates should further the good of the Church and not hurt it to advance ambitious mâ—n § 12. For 3. Ministers are for the Churches and therefore no change must be made on such pretences that is against the good of the Churches If every Parish or Congregation then were meet to have a Bishop and Presbyterie of their own why shall the Church be now so abused as that a whole County shall have but one Bishop and his Presbyterie If every Hospital or Town had a Physitian with his Apothecaries and Mates in your Fathers dayes would you be their benefactors by procuring that all the County shall have but one Physitian with his Apothecaries Or if every School had a Schoolmaster in your Forefathers dayes will you say there shall be but one in your dayes in a whole County Do you thus think to honour Physitians and Schoolmasters to the ruine of the people and the Schools So do you in your advancement of Bishops Upon my certain experience I dare affirm it that every Parish of four or five thousand souls yea of a thousand souls hath need of such a Presbyterie for their Oversight And is not he that hath a County on his hands like to do less for this Town or Parish then if he had no more then this If your Bees swarm you will not keep them all still in an hive nor think of enlarging the hive to that end but you will help the swarm to an hive of their own If your Children marry you will rather settle them in Families of their own then retain all them and all their Children in the Family with your selves So if a Bishop of one Church should Convert all the Countrey he should rather settle them in several Churches proportionable to their numbers and distances then to call them all his own Church § 13. Object 3. But by this means the Church wouâ—d be pâ—stered with Bishops What a number of Bishops would you have if every Parish-Priest were a Bishop We read not of such numbers as this would procure in the antient times § 14. Answ. 1. I find where Christ commandeth us to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth Labourers that is more Labourers into the harvest because of the greatness of the harvest But I find not where â—e once requireth us to pray or wish that there may not be too many for fear of pestering the Church or diminishing the honour of the Clergy Mens purses I warrant you will hinder the over-abounding of them aâ—d Gods providence doth not enrich too many with abilities and willingness for the work Do you undertake that they shall not be too bad and I dare undertake they will not be too many § 15. And 2. Is it not the felicity and glory of the Church which you object as an inconvenience or reproach O blessed time and place that hath but enow that are able and faithfull But I never knew nor heard nor read of the age that had too many that were good and faithfull in the work Would you not have a chief Schoolmaster in every School or Town for fear the Land should be pestered or overwhelmed with School-masters Why how can there be too many when people will imploy no more then they need O miserable Church that hath such Bishops that are afraid Gods vineyard should be furnished with labourers lest their greatness and honour should be diminished Do you not see how many thousand souls lie still in ignorance presumption and security for all the number of labourers that we have And see you not that six parts of the world are Infidels and much for want of Teachers to instruct them And yet are you afraid that there will be too many What could the enemy of the Church say worse § 16. Object We do not mean too many Teachers but too many Bishops that is too many Governours of the Church Answ. 1. God knoweth no Governours Ministeriall but teachers It seems you would have somewhat that you call Government and leave the labour of Teaching to others As if you knew not that it is they that are especially worthy of the double honour that labour in the word and doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 Or as if you knew not that even the Government of Pastors is mostly by teaching 2. Government and Teaching go together and are both necessary to the Church And the diminishing the number of Governours and of Teachers is all one As a Physitian doth Govern all his Patients in order to their cure and a Schoolmaster all his schollars in order to their learning so doth a Pastor all his flock in order to their sanctification and salvation And for the Government of the Ministers themselves the number shall be increased as little as may be Parish Bishops will Govern but a few and therefore they can wrong but few by their mis-government § 17. Object 4. But by this means we shall have unworthy raw and ignorant men made Bishops What kind of Bishops shaell we have if every Parish Priest must be a Bishop Some of them are boyes and some of them empty silly souls to make Bishops of § 18. Answ. I shall lay open the nakedness of this Objection also so that it shall be no shelter to domineering in the Church 1. Awake the sparks of humility that are in you and tell us openly whether you think your selves more able worthy men to Govern a County or a hundred Parishes then such as we are to Govern one Though I have been many and many a time tempted with Ionas to run away from the charge that is cast upon me as a burden too heavy for me to bear and I know my self to be lamentably insufficient for it yet I must profess that I am so proud as to think my self as able to be the Pastor or Bishop of this Parish as most Bishops in England yea or any one of them to be the Pastor and Governour of a County or an hundred or two hundred Parishes Were you humble or did you dwell at home or take an account of your own abilities when you reproach others as unable to be the Bishops of a Parish and think your selves able to be the
Accommodation § 10. A fourth witness is Dr. Forbs of Scotland who having written purposely a Book called his Irenicon for Accommodation on such terms I need to say no more of him but refer you to the Book I shall name no more of the Episcopal party These four are enow to my purpose § 11. That the Presbyterians of England specially are willing to close upon these terms of a fixed Moderator I prove 1. By the profest Consent of that Reverend Learned servant of Christ Mr. Thomas Gataker a Member of the late Assembly at Westminster who hath professed his judgement of this matter in a Book against Lilly I refer you to his own words for brevity sake § 12. My next witness and for brevity many in one shall be Mr. Geree and the Province of London citing him in their Ius Divinum Ministerii pag. Append. 122. the words are these That the Ancient Fathers in the point of Episcopacy differ more from the high Prelatist thâ—n from the Presbyterian for the Presbyterians alwayes have a President to guide their actions which they acknowledge may be perpetual durante vita modo se bene gesserit or temporary to avoid inconvenience which Bilson takes hold of as advantagious because so little discrepant as he saith from what he maintaineth See the rest there § 13. 3. Beza the Leader against Prelacy saith de grad Minist Evang. Instituti Divini est ut in omni coetu Presbyterorum unus sit qui ordine praeat praesit reliquis It is of Divine Institution that in every Assembly of Presbyters there be one that go before and be above the rest And dividing Bishops into Divine Humane and Diabolical he makes the Humane tolerable Prelacy to be the fixed President § 14. 4. Calvin who is accused for ejecting Episcopacy besides what he writes of it to Card Sadolet saith in his Institut lib. 4. cap. 4. § 1. Ea cautione totam suam Oeconomiam composuerunt Ecclesiae veteris Episcopi ad unicam illam Dei verbi normam ut facile videas nihil fere hac parte habuisse à verbo Dei alienum § 2. Quibus ergo docendi munus injuâ—ctum erat eos omnes nominabant Presbyteros Illi ex suo numero in singulis civitatibus unum eligebant cui specialiter dabant titulum Episcopi ne ex aequalitate ut fâ—â—ri solet dissidia nascerentur Neque tamen sic honore dignitate superior erat Episcopus ut Dominium in Collegas haberet sed quas partes habet Consul in Senatu ut referat de negotiis sententias roget consulendo monendo hortando aliis praeâ—at authoritate sua totam actionem regat quod decretum Communi Consilio fuerit exequatur id munus sustinebat Episcopus in Presbyterorum coetu § 4. fine Gubernationem sic constituti nonnulli Hierarchiam vocarunt nomine ut mihi videtur improprio certe scripturis inusitato Cavere enim voluit spiritus sanctus nequis principatum aut dominationem somniaret quum de Ecclesiae gubernatione agitur Verum si rem omisso vocabulâ— intueamur N. B. reperiemus veteres Episcopos non aliam regendae Ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab ea quam Deus verbo suo praescripsit This he writes after the mention of Archbishops and Patriarcks as well as of Bishops governing in Synods § 15. Where by the way let me give you this observation that Bishops Governing but in Synods can have no other power of Government then the Synods themselves have But Synods themselves as such are not directly for Government but for Concord and Communion of Churches and so consequently for well-governing the several flocks Nor hath a Synod any Governing Power over a particular Pastor as being his superiour appointed to that end but only a Power of Consent or Agreement to which for unity and communion sake he is consequentially obliged not by Virtue of Gods Command that requireth us to obey the Higher Power for three Pastors are not made so the Rulers of one but by virtue of Gods commands that require us to do all things in Unity and to maintain the Peace and Concoâ—d of the Churches and to avoid Divisions and discord § 16. If any think that this doth too much favour the Congregational way I must tell him that it is so true and clear that the Episcopal men that are moderate acknowledge it For instance the Reverend Bishop Vsher did without asking of himself profess to me that it was his judgement that certainly Councils or Synods are not for Government but for Vnity and that a Bishâ—p out of Council hath the same Governing Power as all the Council though their vote may bind him for Vnity to consent § 17. This being so it must needs follow that an Archbishop or the President of a National Provincial Diocesan or Classicall Assembly or of any Association of the Pastors of many Churches hath no superiour Governing power over the Parochial or Congregational Bishop of one Church but only in concurrence with the Synod a Power of Determining by way of Agreement such points as he shall be obliged for Unity and Communion to consent to and perform if they be not contrary to the word of God This evidently follows from this Reverend Archbishops doctrine and the truth § 18. And if any shall think that the Presbyterians will not yield that a particular Church do ordinarily consist but of one full Congregation I confute them by producing their own Concessions in the London Ministers Ius Divinum Ministerii Append pag. 123. they plainly say that The later Bishops were Diocesan the former that is the Bishops of the first or ancient times were Bishops only of one Congregation And pag. 82. they say These Angels were Congregational not Diocesan In the beginning of Christianity the number of Believers even in the greatest Cities were so few as that they might well meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one and the same place And thâ—se were called the Church of the City and therefore to ordain Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one in Scripture Thus far they yield to the Congregational men § 19. 5. One other witness of the Presbyterians readiness to accommodate on these terms I shall give and no more and that is Mr. Richard Vines a man that was most eminent for his management of the Presbyterian cause in the Assembly and at Vxbridge Treaty and in the Isle of Wight the Papers there presented to the King are to be seen in Print When we did set up our Association in this County I purposing to do nothing without advise and designing a hearty closure of all sober Godly men Episcopal Presbyterian Congregational and Erastian did consult first about it by Letters with Mr. Vines and in his answer to mine he approved of the design and thought our distance very small and yielded to a fixed Presidency though not to a Negative
would not obey except some greater evil were like to follow my not obeying at that particular season then the frustrating of the duty it self would come to As for example If a Governour make a new Sacrament I will not obey because his command is null and the thing simply evil If he miscommand a Circumstance of Time or Place or Gesture I will consider the consequents If he command the solemn Assemblies to be held a mile or two or three from the people I will obey him if it be but as far as I can go without frustrating the work it self But if he command us all to go ten miles or twenty miles to worship I would obey for some time to avoid a greater evil but ordinarily I would no more obey then if if he forbad all Christian assemblies for it comes all to one So if he command the Assemblies to be at break of day or after sun setting I would obey But if he command that we Assemble only at midnight what should I do then The thing is not simply unlawfull He doth but misdo his own work And therefore for some times I would obey if it were necessary to avoid a greater evil But if he make it the ordinary case I would not obey because it destroyeth the worship it self in a manner as if he simply forbad it and this he hath no power to do An inconvenient gesture I would use in obedience and to avoid a greater evill But I would not obey him that would command me to stand â—n my head alwaies in hearing An unhansome vesture I would use in obedience to a lawfull Governour and to avoid a greater evil But not so ridiculous a vesture as would set all the people on laughing so as to frustrate the work that we assemble for § 69. In all such cases where Governors act not as usurpers in a matter that they have no authority in but only misdo their own work it much concerneth the subjects to foresee what 's like to be the Consequents of their obeying or disobeying and accordingly to do that which tendeth most to the Ends of the work still holding to this Rule that we must obey in all things lawfull § 70. And when we do obey in a case of miscommanding it is not a doing evil that good may come of it as some do misconceive But it is only a submitting to that which is ill commanded but not evil in him that doth submit It is the determiner that is the cause of the inconvenience and not the obeyer Nor is it inconvenient for me to obey though it be worse perhaps to him that commandeth While he sinneth in commanding he may make it my Duty to obey CHAP. III. Prop. 2. In such unlawfull impositions as aforementioned it is an aggravation of the sin if Governors pretend that their Ceremonies are Divine § 1. I shall be brief in the rest having been so long on the former The reason of this Proposition is clear because 1. As is aforesaid such pretenders do falsly accuse the Lord and corrupt his word and add to it their own inventions contrary to those severe prohibitions Deut. 12.32 Rev. 22.18 § 2. 2. Because it shews that man to be a false Prophet or false teacher that will say Thus saith the Lord when God hath not spoken it and that will take the name of God in vain affixing it to a lye And as many judgements are threatned to such so people are commanded not to hear them § 3. 3. It tendeth to the destruction of all Divine faith and obedience while the fixions of men are pretended to be doctrines or Laws of God it tendeth to confound things Divine and Humane and so to bring the people to a loss that they shall not know what is the will of God and what the will of men § 4. Let men therefore take heed how they affirm their Ceremonies to be Divine as the Papists do that feign them to be of Apostolical Tradition Some presume to tell the world that it is God by Apostolical Tradition that hath instituted Christmas day or other such Holy daies besides the Lords day or that hath instituted the Cross in Baptism or the fast of Lent yea and some of their common prayers abundance of humane inventions are thus audaciously fathered on God which is enough to make people the more cautelous in receiving them and I am sure makes it a more hainous sin in the imposers We justly take it to be an odious thing of Hereticks and Papists to affix the names of Clemens Dionysius Ambrose Austin and other holy ancient writers to their forgeries and corrupt writings And how much greater is their sin that dare affix the name of God himself to their Ceremonious inventions or traditions § 5. Such persons forsake the doctrine of the common prayer-book where the Ceremonies are confessed to be humane inventions The foresaid Preface of Ceremonies c. begins thus Of such Ceremonies as be used in the Church and have had their beginning by the Institution of man some at the first were of Godly intent and purpose devised and yet at length turned to vanity and surperstition some entred into the Church by indiscreet devotion and such a Zeal as was without knowledge and because they were winked at in the beginning they grew daily to more and more abuses which not only for their unprofitableness but also because they have much blinded the people and obscured the Glory of God are worthy to be cut away and clean rejected Other there be which although they have been devised by man yet it is thought good to reserve them still so that you see here is no pretence to a Divine institution or Apostolical Tradition but all is the devices of man § 6. And after it is there said that the Ceremonies which remain are retained for a Discipline and order which upon just causes may be altered and changed and therefore are not to be esteemed equal with Gods Laws And I hope the justness of the cause by this time is apparent CHAP. IV. Prop. 3. 4. If things unlawfull are commanded as indifferent or things indifferent as Necessary they are sinfully imposed and the more because of such pretenses § 1. THE calling things Indifferent that are unlawfull will not make them Indifferent If men will invent and introduce new Sacraments and when they have done say we intend them not for Sacraments or necessary things but as indifferent accidents of other Duties this will not make them things indifferent For it is not the altering of a name that maketh it another thing § 2. If things Indifferent be imposed as Necessary they become a sin to the Imposer and oft-times to the Practiser For 1. It is a falsification when the thing is pretended to be Necessary that is not And untruths in Laws are far from being commendable 2. It tends to deceive mens understandings to esteem things Necessary that are not 3. It tends to draw
proceed to blood or banishment or you miss your ends and will but be opposed with greater animosity § 14. Reas. 12. And then this will raise an odium upon your Government and make men look upon you as tyrants For naturally men pitty the suffering party especially when it is for the cause of God or Profession of more then ordinary exactness in the obeying of Gods commands And then mens minds will by this be tempted to disloyal jealousies and censures if not to the opposition of the Rulers § 15. Reas. 13. And it were an evil which your Ceremonies will never countervail if it were but the uncharitableness that will certainly be raised by them When you will persecute men and force them against their Consciences in such indifferent things as you call them you will occasion them to judge you persecutors and cruel and then they will censure you as ungodly yea as enemies to the Church And then you will censure them for schismatical and self-conceited and refractory disobedient people And so Christian love and the offices of love will be extinguished and you will be mutually engaged in a daily course of hainous sin § 16. Reas. 14. And it will be the worse in that your persecution will oft fall on the most consciencious persons Hypocrites and temporizers dare do any thing and therefore will follow the stronger side and obey him for their worldly ends But the upright Christian dare not do that which is displeasing to God for a world He is the man that will be imprisoned or banished or rackt or slain rather then he will go against his Conscience And is it not a horrid thing to make such Laws that the most conscionable are likest to fall under and to perish by May it not make you tremble to read that God himself doth call such his Jewels Mal. 3.16 17. and saith he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye and that it were better for him be cast into the depth of the sea with a Mâ—lstone about his neck that offendeth one of these little ones Away with the Ceremonies that are unnecessary and yet have such effects and bring you into such danger § 17. Reas. 15. And then a more grievous evill wilâ—â—follow the Ceremony will devour the substance and shut out the preachers and consequently the word and worship of the Lord. For you will never give men Liberty to forbear them And when godly Ministers will not be conformable to your will you must silence them lest they draw the people from you And so the ignorant must be left in their ignorance and the prophane in their prophaness and the godly in their sorrows for want of their faithful Teachers and the ordinances of grace § 18. Reas. 16. And then it will follow that ignorant idle ungodly Ministers must be taken in to supply their rooms For if the best disobey you you will think your selves necessitated to take such as will obey you And so God shall be dishonoured his word and work abused his people grieved his enemies encouraged the wicked hardened and the unworthy Ministers themselves undone and destroyed and all for a few unnecessary ceremonies of your vain invention § 19. Reas. 17. And now it were more unexcusable then ever before to Impose such unnecessary burdens on the Churches when we have so lately seen and felt the sad and miserable effects of such impositions We are scarce out of the fire that this straw and rubbish kindled in this land We are the men that have seen the Churches divided by them and the preachers cast out for them and persecution occasioned by them and the Nation hereupon corrupted with uncharitableness the Bishops against the people and the people against the Bishops and war and misery hence arising And yeâ— shall we return to the occasion of our misery and that while we confess it to be a needless thing § 20. Reas. 18. Yea this course is like to kindle and maintain Divisions between the Churches of several Nations as well as among those that are under the same government For either you will have all the Christian world to join with you in your Mystical and unnecessary Ceremonies or not All cannot be expected to join with you For 1. The world will never agree in such humane unnecessary things 2. There is no universal governor to Impose one Law of Ceremonies on all the Churches Christ only is the universal King and Head and he hath done his part already If you will have more universal Laws you must first have another universal King or Head And there is none such Only the Pope and a General Council pretend to it and they are both deceived in this and would deceive us They are none of our Lords as I have elsewhere proved But if you expect not universal Concord in your Mystical signs and Ceremonies then 1. Why should you cast out your Preachers and brethren for those things which other Nations may be so well without and hold communion with forreigners that avoid them and deny Communion to neighbors as good that are of the same mind And 2. This will make forreign Churches and you to grudge at one another and the diversity will cause disaffection especially when you persecute your members for the cause that 's theirs We find now by experience that the Images Exorcism Crossing c. of the Lutherans doth exceedingly hinder their Peace with other Churches while others censure them as superstitious and they by custome are grown so highly to value their own Ceremonies as to censure and disdain those that are not of their mind § 21. Reas. 19. It easily breedeth and cherisheth ignorance and formality in the people You cannot keep them from placing their Religion in these Ceremonies and so from deceiving their souls by such a Pharisaical Religiousness in washings and observances And so in vain will they worship God while their worship is but a Conformity to the doctrines traditions and inventions of men Mat. 15. § 22. Reas. 20. To prevent these evils and yet in vain your Rites and Signs must bring New doctrines and new labours into the Church which will exceedingly hinder the doctrine and work of Christ. The Ministers must teach the people the meaning and use of all these Ceremonies or else they will be dumb signs contrary to your intent and the use of them will be vain And if we must spend our time in opening to our people the meaning of every ceremony that you will impose 1. It will be but an unsavoury kind of preaching 2. It will divert them and us from greater and more needful things Yea we must teach them with what Cautions in what manner to what ends c. to use all these Ceremonies or else they will turn them all to sin if not to Popish yea to heathenish formalities And alas how much ado have we to get our people to understand the Creed and the Kernel of the Gospel the essentials of
Christianity and the two Sacraments of Christs institution and some short Catechism that containeth these And when we have done our best in publick and in private we leave many of them ignorant what these two Sacraments are yea or who Christ himself is And must we put them to so much more labour as to learn a Rationale or exposition of all the Ceremonies holy dayes c We shall but overwhelm them or divert them from the Essentials And here you may see the unhappy issue of humane wisdom and false means It is to be teachers of the ignorant that men pretend these Signs Images and Ceremonies to be usefull And yet they are the causes of ignorance and keep men from necessary knowledge If you doubt of this do but open your eyes and make use of experience See whether among the common people the most Ceremonious are not commonly the most ignorant yea and the most ungodly too It is a truth so notorious that it cannot be denyed Who more ignorant of the Sacraments then they that rail at them that fit in the act of receiving Who more ignorant of the doctrine of the Gospel who more obstinate enemies of a holy life more worldly self-conceited licentious prophane despisers of their faithfull Teachers then the most zealous persons for all these Ceremonies § 23. Reas. 21. Moreover these new Laws and services introduce also a new office into the Church There must be some of pretended Power to impose all these Ceremonies and see them executed or else all is vain And no such office hath Christ appointed Because men thought it necessary that all the Christian world should have but one way and Order in the Ceremonious worship which was commonly approved therefore they thought there was a Necessity of one Head to maintain this unity of order and so came up the Pope as to one cause And so in a Nation we must have some one or more Masters of Ceremonies when Ceremonies are kept a foot And so whereas Christ hath placed officers in his Church to teach and guide them and administer his own Ordinances we must have another sort of officers to make Laws for Mystical signs and Ceremonies and see them executed and punish the neglecters and teach the people the meaning and the use of them The Primitive Bishops had other kind of work we find directions to the Pastors of the Church containing the works of their office as to Timothy Titus c. But we no where find that this is made any part of their work to make new Teaching signs and Ceremonies and impose them on the Church nor have they any directions for such a work which surely they much needed if it had been their work indeed § 24. Reas. 22. When we once begin to let in humane Mystical Rites we shall never know where to stop or make an end On the same ground that one Age inventeth three or four the next think they may add as many and so it will grow to be a point of devotion to add a new Ceremony as at Rome it hath done till we have more then we well know what to do with § 25. Reas. 23. And the miserable plight that the Christian world hath lain in many ages by Ceremonies may warn us to be wise Augustine complaineth that in his time the Church was burdened with them and made like the Jewish Synagogue The most of the Churches in Asia and Africa are drowned too deeply in Ceremonious formality turning Religion into ignorant shews The Church of Rome is worse then they having made God a worship of histrionical actions and shews and signs and Ceremonies so that millions of the poor blind people worship they know not whom nor how And if we abate only of the number and keep up some of the same kind even Symbolicall Rites of mans institution to teach us and excite our devotion we shall harden them in their way and be disabled from confuting them For a Papist will challenge you to prove just how many such signs are lawfull And why he may not use threescore as well as you use three when he saith he is edified by his number as you say you are with yours § 26. Reas. 24. It is not inconsiderable that God hath purposely established a spiritual kind of worship in the Gospel telling us that God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Such worshippers doth God require and accept Bodily exercise profiteth little The kingdom of God is not in meats or in drinks but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Neither Circumcision availeth any thing in Christ Jesus nor uncircumcision but a new creature and faith that worketh by Love God would never have so much called men off from Ceremoniousness to spirituality if he had delighted in Ceremony § 27. Reas. 25. The Worship of God without his blessing is to little purpose No man can have encouragement to use any thing as a Means to teach him and help his devotion which he hath no ground to believe that God will bless But there is no ground that I know of to believe that God will bless these Instituted Teaching signs of mans inventions to the Edifying of our souls For God hath no where bid us devise or use such signs 2. Nor no where promised us a blessing on them that ever I could find And therefore we have no encouragement to use them If we will make them and impose them our selves we must undertake to bless them our selves § 28. Reas. 26. As vain thoughts and words are forbidden us in Scripture so no doubt but vain actions are forbidden but especially in the worship of God and yet more especially when they are Imposed on the Church by Laws with penalties But these Mystical Rites of humane institution are vain You call them your selves but Things indifferent And they are vain as to the use for which they are pretended that is to Teach and Edifie c. having no promise of a blessing and being needless imitations of the Sacraments of Christ. Vanity therefore is not to be imposed on the Church My last Reason will fullier shew them to be vain § 29. Reas. 27. We are sure the way in which Peter and Paul and the Churches of their times did worship God was allowable and safe and that Princes and Prelates are wise and righteous overmuch if they will not only be more wise and righteous then the Apostles in the matters of Gods worship but also deny their subjects liberty to worship God and go to heaven in the same way as the Apostles did If Peter and Paul went to heaven without the use of Images Surplice the Cross in Baptism kneeling in receiving the Lords Supper and many such Ceremonies why should not we have leave to live in the Communion of the Church without them would you have denyed the Apostles their liberty herein Or will you be partiall Must they have one way and we
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