auxilio gratiae sublevaret c. Bellarm. de Verbo Dei l. 1. c. 3. these are the holy Catholick Church the Mystical Body of Christ the blessed Company of all faithful People and so Christ is truly all in all which no meer Political Ruler and governing Part can be 1 Cor. 1.30 Col. 3.11 1 Cor. 12.6 11. All sound Writers all both Protestants and Papists agree that Political Society Rule and Government is common to Christians and Heathens For all Political Government is either Monarchical or Aristocratical or Democratical But the Government of God's Church is none of these because all these are Forms and Kinds of Civil Government common to Christians and Heathens to godly and ungodly Men as all confess But the Church of God cannot consist in any thing common to Christians and Heathens to godly and ungodly Men because it is a Special Society subsisting by the special Grace of God in Christ and by special Laws supernaturally written in the Hearts of all regenerate Men who are the Church of God the Mystical Body of Christ a select Society differing in Kind and Substance from all ungodly faithless and impenitent Men as Light doth from Darkness and Christ from Belial and a Man from a Beast and a living Man from a dead Man 12. Though Christ make great use of Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers in the Government of his Church and without Ministers ordinarily the Church cannot subsist yet Christ himself is sole Head Lord and Husband of the whole Church and every Part thereof only his Voice is to be heard in the Church for his Sheep know his Voice and follow him and no other John 10.4 5 27. He doth not govern the Church as a worldly Monarch and Political Ruler by Bishops as his Deputies and Lieutenants But he dwells in the Hearts of his Saints by Faith and is graciously present with all his faithful ones to the end of the World and where two or three are gathered together in his Name there is he in the midst of them And where is Christ the Head and real Saints his Members by Faith and holy Invocation there is God's Church both Name and Thing But they who despise contemn and shut their Ears against the Voice of Christ by his Ministers cannot be said to be gathered together in Christ's Name but in their own Name 13. As in defining a Man he is not to be defined barely by what is common to a Man and a Beast or to a living and a dead Man so in desining the Church of God it is not to be defined barely by what is common to real Saints and Hypocrites to sound and unsound Professors For if you so define it you leave out the principal thing and that is godly Sincerity Divine Faith working by Love this being to the whole Church and to every Part and Member thereof what the Soul is to the Body without which it is a dead Corps For he is not a Jew Rom. 2.28 29. which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose Praise is not of Men but of God Hypocrites and unsound Professors as to external religious Order and Communion in the Word and Prayer and Sacraments publickly are of the Church but they are not the Church like as they are not all Israel Rom. 9.6 which are of Israel 14. Hence it is evident that all those and only those in England which believing in God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost repent truly of their Sins and live justly soberly and godly in hope of eternal Salvation by Christ are eminently God's Church in England for these dying in the Lord go to Heaven where they are for ever Members of the Church Triumphant although when they were upon Earth they might by too many be counted and called Schismaticks Hereticks Men not fit to live and used as the World is accustomed to use God's Holy ones whom it hates But God's Judgment and the World's Judgment do vastly differ And all those in England who are by Profession Christian People and are void of godly Sincerity and heavenly Regeneration whether they be Protestants or Papists Conformists or Nonconformists Bishops or Presbyters Pastors or People Rulers or Ruled that doth not alter the Case they are for the present Children of the Devil under the Wrath and Curse of God and liable to eternal Damnation and therefore they are no sound Members of God's Church and consequently no sound Members of God's Church in England they are but equivocally Church-People as a dead Man may be called a Man and an adulterous Wise a Wife and a traiterous Subject a Subject they are but as C ham in Noah's Ark as Judas among the Apostles as Tares among the Wheat They profess that they know God Tit. 1.16 but in Works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good Work reprobate And therefore such as so die without heavenly Repentance most certainly go to Hell and are for ever cut off from God's Church both Militant and Triumphant 15. Hence also it is evident that the distinction of God's Church into Universal and Particular Invisible and Visible Ruling and Ruled Representative and Represented Political and Mystical Organized and Unorganized Congregational and not Congregational Diocesan Provincial National and Patriarchal as into two or more Kinds is Atheological and repugnant to the Nature of God's Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ and therefore it cannot admit of two Kinds For as there cannot be two Heads to one Body so there cannot be two Bodies to one Head But if the Church which is the Body of Christ be distinguishable into two Kinds then it is no longer one holy Catholick Church one Body of Christ but two contrary Bodies to one Head which is monstruous By the same reason that you distinguish the Church of God into two Kinds you may distinguish it into more into three four a hundred a thousand Kinds and so in infinitum there can be no Stop there must needs be endless Multiplicity and consequently no such thing as the Church of God no real difference between the Church and the World Saints and Infidels 16. There is no such thing as a universal Church on Earth distinct from all particular Churches For the whole as distinct from all the Parts is only Notion and Conceit as a Man in the Moon or Castle in the Air a meer Fiction If there should be here and there a Christian by himself alone in some Wilderness or Cave remote from all humane Society and Converse for some time or in a Ship at Sea among Infidels or as Daniel in the Lions Den or Jeremy in the Dungeon or Joseph sold for a Slave into Egypt among Heathens remote from all Churches he would be instar Ecclesiae instead of a
Church to himself For God being supposed graciously present with him all Wants are made up in God he is all not as exclusive of Instruments Means and second Causes where they may be had but where they cannot be had through no fault of ours but through God's most wise and holy over-ruling Providence and he be graciously with us and talk with us by the invisible Operation of his Word and Spirit and in the multitude of our sad Thoughts within us delight our Souls with his heavenly Comforts here is God's Church This is none other but the House of God and this is the Gate of Heaven Gen. 28.17 17. There are Multitudes of particular Churches upon Earth as the Churches in England in Scotland in Ireland in Holland in Germany and other Places which have particular Guides and Pastors set over them and are distinguished one from another by convenient local Bounds and Limits and Diversity in some external Modes and Customs and Rites tho they all agree in the Substance and Foundation of true Religion Hence according to Scripture we say The Church of God at Ephesus the Church of God at Corinth the Churches of Galatia meaning all the Christian People at Ephesus all the Christian People at Corinth and so forth But this is no proof that God's Church is two Universal and Particular like as it is no proof that the Body of a Man is two Bodies because it is one Body consisting of many Members and that England is two Kingdoms because it is one Kingdom consisting of many Counties Cities Towns and Villages 18. The Church of God is plain and visible to such as believe the Gospel as is the Sun at Noon-day to all that are not blind But who so blind as those that will not see If Men wilfully shut the Eyes of their Minds by Unbelief and call Darkness Light and Light Darkness the Church of God the Synagogue of Satan and the Synagogue of Satan the Church of God they may deceive themselves they cannot deceive him For the Foundation of the Lord standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth them that are his And let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 19. We see those Men and Women who are by Profession Christians and of the Church they are as visible as any other People upon Earth But that which makes them sincere Christians inwardly before God we see not but believe for Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 And it is only sincere Christians which are the Church of God so as to be in a State of Salvation Our own godly Sincerity we may be infallibly sure of the Spirit it self bearing witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8.18 But we cannot be infallibly sure of the Sincerity of any other in particular neither is such Assurance necessary 20. Again those who deny Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop to be valid suppose that God's Church doth not consist wholly and only by the Divine Laws but partly by the Divine Laws and partly by Humane Laws But this is a great Error repugnant to the Nature of God's Church for the Church is not partly the Church of God and partly the Church of Man but it is absolutely and entirely the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood Act. 20.28 and therefore it consisteth by the Divine Laws only not as exclusive of wholsom and useful Humane Laws these are subservient but they add no Perfection to the Divine Laws they do not they cannot by themselves bind the Conscience for the Conscience of Man cannot be bound save by something superiour to it which no humane Law by it self can be Indeed we are bound to be subject to the higher Powers not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake and peaceably to observe and conform to humane Laws not repugnant to God's Law But this Bond and Tie upon the Conscience doth not arise from Man's Law but from God's Law only this is superiour to the Conscience The Church is absolutely and entirely the Body of Christ his Wife and Spouse and not partly the Body of Christ his Wife and Spouse and partly the Body Wife and Spouse of this or that Man or number of Men. And therefore she is to be wholly governed by the Laws of Christ her only Head and Husband and by no other But then the more observant she is of Christ's Laws and obedient to his Divine Commands she will be the more observant of Second-Table-Duties and careful to render to all both Superiours Equals and Inferiours their just Dues and all that lies in her to live peaceably with all Men and to give no Offence to any because all these are Duties laid upon her by the Divine Laws 21. The Voice of God's Church and every part thereof is Psal 62.5 6. God only is my Rock and my Salvation Not partly God and partly Man Bishops Presbyters Princes Parliaments Convocations Synods an Arm of Flesh humane Laws Canons and Decrees But God only is my Rock and my Salvation he is alsufficient he is all in all while we cleave only and wholly to him and observe his Laws and keep in his good Way we are safe and happy no Evil can befal us because he is Almighty to protect and provide for us and give us every good thing and will not fail so to do But if we trust partly in God and partly in Man and ascribe any the least part of the Glory belonging to God and his Law to Man and his Law and contend that the Being and Well-being of the Church from first to last doth not consist by God's Law only but partly by his Law and partly by Man's Law then we are guilty of spiritual Idolatry and Adultery we debase God and deify Man we make God and Man coequal and coordinate Causes of the Churches Peace and Safety both temporal and eternal which is a transcendent Vice and plucks up all true Religion by the Roots and makes God's Church adulterous partly Christ's Wife and partly the Wife of the Pope of this or that humane Law-maker which Christian Ears cannot bear to hear 22. Again the same Adversaries of the Validity of Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop are constrained to hold them by a Popish distinction between the Power of Order and the Power of Jurisdiction confessing that by God's Law the Bishop and the Presbyter have equal Authority as to the Power of Order but not as to the Power of Jurisdiction But this Doctrine and Distinction God's Law hath not and therefore it may not be received For the present Dispute doth nearly touch that great Article of our Faith The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints And it is a sure Rule consented to by all sound Divines that as to Articles of Faith no Doctrine or Distinction not contained in God's Word may be admitted But God's Word hath not this
pain of Deprivation is more than I can prove neither will I judg conscientious Nonconformists who meekly dissent 8. Again the Nonconforming Brethren scruple Subscription to the 35th Article of the Church of England touching Homilies which Article stands upon two Points First that the two Books of Homilies contain a godly and wholsom and necessary Doctrine Secondly that therefore they judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly The former Point I cannot think the Nonconforming Brethren who have read the Homilies will deny The Article doth not say that there is nothing in any of the Homilies savouring of humane Weakness and Imperfection for the main they may and do contain a godly wholsom and necessary Doctrine though there may perhaps be in them some tolerable Defects as is incident to most good Books not divinely inspired and even to the best Translation of the holy Scriptures Touching the latter Point the Nonconforming Brethren by their Subscription to the 6th Article must needs own and allow that the Apocrypha-Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet doth it not apply to stablish any Doctrine This plainly intimates that they are not against all reading of other Books than the Bible in the Church due distinction being put between the one and the other Neither will they condemn but rather approve the French Protestant Churches heretofore who in the want of daily Pastors did in many Places use to read both privately and publickly Mr. Calvin's Sermons upon Job as Mr. Beza in his Preface to them doth relate And we may well think that this and no other was the Intention of the Composers of this Article and of the Homilies as thinking it better in the want of Pastors qualified with ministerial Gifts and Ability to compose edifying Sermons-daily and continually of their own that the People have sound and godly Sermons of others composing read to them in publick than be without all publick Instruction This Sense will well stand with the Words of the Article and it is agreeable to the Opinion both of Conforming and Nonconforming Brethren And therefore as to this also I may well conclude that there is no difference between the two Parties 9. There is but one more Article unsubscribed by the Nonconforming Brethren and that is the 36th concerning the Book of Ordination Touching which if the Episcopal Brethren will own the Nonconforming Brethren ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be true Ministers of Christ and their Ordination to be valid and will cordially embrace them as Brethren and Fellow-Ministers as in Conscience they are bound all other Matters will either be accorded or what cannot be fully accorded may be tolerated with mutual Brotherly Love to each other according to that Apostolical Canon Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 3.15 16. But if the Episcopal Brethren shall judg the Nonconforming Ministers ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be no Ministers of Christ and their Ordination to be null and their Baptism Preaching dispensing the Lord's Supper and all other their Ministerial Acts to be meer Nullities then there is no hope of Accord nor of Toleration with mutual Brotherly Love a Schism there is and like to be Concerning which I will set down a Passage which I find related by Mr. Clark in the Life of that eminent Nonconforming Minister Mr. Greenham On a time the Bishop of Eli sent for him to appear about his Nonconformity at which time the Bishop told him that there was a great Schism in the Church asking him where the Blame was to be laid whether upon the Conformists or Nonconformists To which he readily answered that it might lie on either side or on neither side For said he if they loved one another as they ought and would do all good Offices each for other thereby maintaining Love and Concord it lay on neither side otherwise which Party soever makes the Rent the Schism lies upon their score The Bishop was so pleased with this Answer that he dismissed him in peace 10. They who repute Men ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be no Ministers and their Ministerial Acts to be Nullities are not regular Sons of God's Church in England but a Sect Combination and Party of Men in it who are tainted and defiled with an uncharitable Principle contrary to one Article of the Christian Faith The Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints For God's Church in England doth own and embrace the Protestant Ministers in Holland France Helvetia and Geneva ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be true Ministers of Christ and the Churches guided by them to be true Churches This hath been the constant Doctrine of God's Church in England all along from the beginning of the Reformation to this day And unless we so hold we yield the Cause to the Papists and overthrow the Protestant Cause The Papists ask Where was our Church before Luther To which the Answer hath been often made That wheresoever upon Earth God had a People believing in the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost retaining Baptism and the Lord's Supper for Substance sound and good and living righteously soberly and godly there was our Church We are sure from God's Word and the sound Belief of all Christian People that such a Church God had upon Earth before Luther and will have to the End of the World We do not derive our Church and our Ministry from Rome and the Roman Papacy but from Christ and the holy Scriptures and the Evangelical Covenant by the Tenour whereof upon our sincere Repentance and Incorporation into Christ by lively Faith all things become ours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are ours 1 Cor. 3.21 22. And consequently whatsoever is true just good any way useful to God and Christ Jesus and the Souls of Men among Papists Jews Turks and Heathens that becomes ours for spiritual Uses to our Souls In leaving the Papacy we have not left Christ and his Church but we have left Idolatry false Worship Superstition and the Way of Damnation and are become a found part of and joined to that holy Catholick Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ the blessed Company of all faithful People built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-Stone Upon this Divine Foundation all the Protestant Churches stand and they who deny Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop to be valid must will they nill they fall in with the Principles of the Papists against the whole Reformation because the Cause is common 11. The Ministry of the Nonconforming
so doing this do the Bishops in Popish Countries And therefore certainly according to God's unchangeable Law and the Grounds of Religion Ordination by Orthodox Godly and Exemplary Presbyters who labour in the Word and Doctrine must needs be more Valid more Divine more Apostolical and more Honourable than Ordination by such Bishops as neither rule well nor labour in the Word and Doctrine but they rule very ill and are Antichristian God's Word is Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 God judgeth Ministers according to their Works not by bare Names and Titles and Robes and worldly Grandeur and Princes Favour and earthly Riches and things common to good and bad Men but by inward real Worth and Ministerial Ability and Fidelity honouring those who honour him and those more abundantly who more abundantly honour him and are by his Grace Evangelically worthy of Honour Ephes 5.1 Now we are to be Followers of God as dear Children and as in other Points so particularly in the Point of Ordination prefer a Presbyter who labours in the Word and Doctrine before a non-labouring Bishop 6. The Apostle saith Other Foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 Ordination by able and faithful Presbyters without a Bishop is built upon this Foundation and so it must needs be valid firm and immoveable It is done publickly with Fasting and Prayer with the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 4.14 with due Trial and Probation of the Person to be ordained with the Liking and Consent of the People with sound Belief in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost with express or implicite Renunciation of Arianism Socinianism Pelagianism Popish Idolatry and Superstition and all other Antichristian Sects and false Ways of Salvation with separation of the Person ordained for the Work of the Ministry all his Days with no Imposition of any thing flatly sinful with publick Profession of the Sufficiency and Perfection of the holy Scriptures for the making of us compleat in all the Will of God throughly furnished unto all good Works by the special Grace of Christ with Authority not to be a Minister to this or that particular People only but to be a Minister of Christ related to the whole Church on Earth in general and specially to that particular People to which he hath Call and all this with the Concurrence Countenance and Protection of the higher Powers in Scotland Holland Helvetia Geneva New-England and many other parts of the Christian World If this be not valid Ordination there is no such thing as valid Ordination it must needs be valid in the Judgment of all such as approve the 23d Article of the Church of England 7. They who maintain that Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop is not valid proceed upon this Supposition that the Church of God is a Political Society consisting of two parts essentially a ruling and a ruled Part that while Christ was upon Earth he was the governing Part but he leaving the Earth ordained the Apostles to be his Lieutenants and Peter the Foreman of them all that Bishops succeed the Apostles as to the Government of the Church Universal upon Earth Subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae Creaturae declaramus definimus omnino effe de necessitate Salutis Bonif. 8. in extrav de majorit obed cap. anam sanctam Col. 212. and are Christ's Ecclesiastical Lieutenants and that the Bishop of Rome is Episcopus primae Sedis the Chief and Foreman of all the Bishops that this Hierarchy and Institution is Divine and all who do not comply with it are guilty of damnable Schism and so dying cannot be saved 8. I shall freely grant that if really the Church of God be what they suppose a Political Society consisting of two Parts essentially a ruling and a ruled Part then all the rest is unavoidable and I shall be obliged to turn Papist and I promise so to do But if this first Point which is the Foundation and Corner-stone of their Fabrick fail and prove ruinous then their whole Cause as built on it must needs fall with it and will they nill they they must confess that Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop is valid and that their Separation from and opposing themselves against such Ministers and the Churches governed by them without a Bishop as an Ecclesiastical Lieutenant is a very great Sin and their Charge of Schism will recoil and light upon themselves 9. I overthrow the Foundation of their Hierarchy by this invincible Argument If the Church of God be a Political Society consisting of two Parts essentially a ruling and a ruled Part then there can be no difference between Moses and Christ between the Law and Grace and then the Christian Religion is destroyed For the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ John 1.17 Moses under God was Political Ruler of the Church in the Wilderness which was the Church of God He commanded them a Law to observe which he had received from God Moses commanded us a Law even the Inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun Deut. 33.4 5. with Sanctions of Rewards and Punishments assuring Happiness to the faithful Observers of it and denouncing God's Curse and Vengeance against the unfaithful Breakers of it But Moses being but a meer Man and not God being also himself a Sinner a Child of Adam conceived and born in Sin and by Nature a Child of Wrath even as others and not sufficient of himself without God's special Grace to think a good Thought he could not give Repentance and Pardon of Sin and the Spirit of Adoption either to himself or any other he could not by supernatural Grace write the Divine Law in the Heart of any and shed abroad God's Love in the Heart and make it holy this is utterly above Moses and the Law to do and effect For if there had been a Law given which could have given Life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under Sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Gal. 3.21 22. 10. But now Jesus Christ is not another Moses a bare Political Ruler and governing Part of God's Church but he is the Word made Flesh that Man in whom dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily equal in respect of his Deity with the Father and the Holy Ghost the Purchaser of the Church with his own Blood and he gives Repentance and Pardon of Sin and Perseverance and Salvation to Abel Abraham Moses David Peter Paul and the rest of the Elect in all Ages Quia tametsi Christus non ideo ad nos venit ut tanquam alter Moses novae legis pondere nos premeret sed ut jacentes sub onere legis
for Ecclesiastical Rule Authority and Jurisdiction over one another all Affectation Claim and Exercise of Imperial Power over one another for they were all equal in Office Brethren in the Ministry Fellow-Apostles no one was Pope and Monarch over the rest neither might be 11. If Bishops were Spiritual Lords in respect of inward spiritual Worth and Goodness then they would be Spiritual Lords while they are but Presbyters and before they are made Bishops For first they are Presbyters which the Advocates for Prelacy suppose to be an Order or Degree in the Ministry inferiour to a Bishop Now it is plain that what inward spiritual Worth and Goodness is in the new-made Bishop it was in him before he was Bishop even whilst he was a Presbyter But no one did repute him a Spiritual Lord while he was but a Presbyter though he was a good and worthy Man His assuming of the Episcopal Office adds no inward spiritual Worth and Goodness to his Soul it being but a thing common to worthy and unworthy Men. Mr. Prideaux in his Introduction for reading all sorts of Histories pag. 67. divides the Bishops of Rome into seven Ranks 32 good Bishops 33 tolerable Archbishops or Patriarchs 38 usurping Nimrods 40 luxurious Sodomites 40 Egyptian Magicians 41 devouring Abaddons and 20 incurable Babylonians 12. It is then plain that Lord-Bishops are so by Humane Law and not by Divine Law they are made by Man and not by God their Office Power and Authority as they are Lord-Bishops is Humane and not Divine I say not that it is unlawful but that it is not Divine many things are lawful which yet are not Divine as the Offices of Constables Head-Constables Sheriffs Mayors Lord-Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal are all lawful and yet they are not Divine and Evangelical but Humane and Civil 13. Lord-Bishops being but Civil and Temporal Lords of Man's making their Courts cannot be Spiritual Courts but only Civil and Temporal By Permission of the King and Parliament they hold their Courts not expresly in the King's Name but in their own Name Yet are they nevertheless but Civil and Temporal Courts deriving their Authority from and dependent on the King and Parliament which under God are the highest Judicature in this Nation from whom there lies no Appeal save to God But there lies an Appeal from the highest Ecclesiastical Court in the Nation to the King and Parliament The contrary Doctrine brings in foreign Jurisdiction and sets up the Papacy and is destructive both of Church and State 14. Many of the Nobility and Gentry of England and others of the Laity hold Courts not expresly in the King's Name but in their own Name And yet no one doubts but that they are Civil and Temporal Courts derived from and dependent on the Crown and there lies an Appeal from them to a superiour Civil Court 15. True it is that in the first Ages of the Church after Christ's Ascension the Holy Ghost by Paul reproves the Christians at Corinth for going to Law with one another before the Heathen Judges about worldly and secular Matters there being then no Christian Magistracy I speak to your Shame Is it so that there is not a wise Man amongst you 1 Cor. 6 5â— no not one that shall be able to judg between his Brethren Upon which it is like the Christians from thenceforth did desist from going to Law with one another before the Heathen Judges about small Matters pertaining to this Life and chose some judicious and understanding Christian as an Umpire or Arbitrator for the ending and deciding of their litigious Causes about worldly Matters which continuing for some hundreds of Years unto the Reign of Constantine the first Christian Emperor it is very likely that he by his Imperial Sanction confirmed the aforesaid Apostolical Decree and the Way of the Primitive Churches ending and deciding their Suits about secular Matters pursuant to and grounded on the same and did enlarge and add to it and so made it an Ecclesiastical Court and called it the Bishops Court and the Judg thereof the Bishops Chancellor or the Chancellor of the Ecclesiastical Court But before this Sanction by the Emperor it was no Ecclesiastical Court neither had it any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction it was only a prudential Institution without all external Jurisdiction 16. The King of England is by God's Grace a Christian King Being so he must needs be a Christian and as such he is a Member of God's Church in England in common with all other Christian People therein and he is no more he is not Head thereof for only Christ is Head of God's Church in England like as he is sole Head of the whole Church on Earth it being a Contradiction to be sole Head of the whole and not of every Part. Considered as a King so he hath no more Power and Jurisdiction over the Church and its Causes than he would have if he were a Heathen King his being a Christian doth not inlarge and add to his Regal Power but only qualify him supposing him truly godly with Grace and spiritual Wisdom to use his Regal Power aright for God which a Heathen King cannot 17. The King is sole Supream under God and Christ the Mediator over all the Souls in the Nation as to coercive Rule by the Sword yet is he limited by fundamental Laws whereby the Rights of Prince and People mutually consist and which he is bound inviolably to observe But all his Power is only Civil and Temporal and not Spiritual and therefore he can grant no Spiritual Jurisdiction he can create no Spiritual Office For no Effect can exced its Cause neither can the Streams differ in kind from the Water in the Fountain 18. The King and Parliament will meekly and reverently hear a common Presbyter or Minister preach the Gospel and be awed by the Word in his Mouth as the Word of God and not the Word of Man though Man be the Preacher and they will reverently own and submit to Baptism and the Lord's Supper dispensed by him as Divine and not Humane Institutions Convincing Evidence will go along with the Preacher's Word being scriptural sound good and faithful whereby it will evidence it self to be Divine and from above to all such as believe it will to them be the Savour of Life unto Life and the rest who do not believe yet will stand condemned by it and it may be with Felix tremble under it as being through their own Sin the Savour of Death unto Death to them Here it is plain Jesus Christ as sole Lord of the Conscience doth by the Ministry of a weak Man a coâ—â—â—â— Presbyter exercise Spiritual Lordship and Jurisdiction over the King and all the Lords and Commons inwardly in each one's Bosom over such as are good willingly and in Love over such as are wicked against their Will for if wicked ones might have their Will they would all be above God and lord over him at
their pleasure 19. But now if this or that Ecclesiastical Court should claim to it self sovereign and independent Jurisdiction and should summon the King and Parliament to appear at its Tribunal under pain of Excommunication would they think themselves obliged to obey and make their Appearance and be uncovered and submit to the Sentence of the Ecclesiastical Judg as some of the Roman Emperors have done to the Pope even to the holding of his Stirrup and letting the Pope tread upon the Neck of the Emperor I trow not 20. By which it is plain that the Lordship and Jurisdiction of the Bishops and their Courts is not Spiritual but Civil and Temporal Humane Law ordains it and Humane Law may take it away lawful it may be but Divine it is not But the Evangelical Ministry consisting in Authority to preach the Gospel to dispense the Sacraments to labour in the Word and Doctrine to oversee the Flock of Christ and perpetuate the Church to the End of the World this Evangelical Ministry which is common to the Bishop and the Presbyter is not Humane but Divine it is not Civil and Temporal but Spiritual and Supernatural it doth not subsist by an Arm of Flesh but by the Word of God against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail for Jesus Christ who is the Author of it is the Living God King of Kings and Lord of Lords 〈…〉 and the only Potentate who will have a Church upon 〈…〉 Number of faithful Ones with whom he hath promised to be unto the End of the World Hitherto he hath made good his Word and been too hard for all his Adversaries Psal 2 Blessed are all they that trust in him 21. If indeed the Church of God were not a Spiritual but a Political Society then all both Bishops and Presbyters must needs be Spiritual Lords and Ecclesiastical Monarchs But it is as certain that the Church of God is a Spiritual and not a Political Society as it is certain that it is the Church of God by Faith in Christ and not the Church of Man 22. 〈…〉 be Processus in infinitum infinite Proceeding For 〈…〉 we must needs come to some first in whom the Church 〈…〉 was penitent Adam and Eve the common Parents of us 〈…〉 it is not to be doubted but that God after their Fall gave them Repentance and Pardon through Faith in Christ the promised Seed and so made them a spiritual Society and the first Church of the Redeemed as Dr. Field in his first Book of the Church chap. 4. sheweth agreeably to God's Word and the Grounds of Religion Gen. 3.15 But Adam and Eve two Persons one Husband and one Wife could not be a Political Society because they were a Conjugal Society as they were Husband and Wife and a Spiritual Society as they were true Believers in Christ the promised Seed both which Societies differ in kind from Political Society as all agree 23. Upon the increase and multiplication of sincere Converts and Persons regenerate there was a continnal Addition to the Church of such as should be saved Acts 2.47 The Incarnation Life Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ doth not alter the intrinsecal Nature of God's Church which is the same for substance in all Ages the Saints before Christ being saved through Faith in him as promised and the Saints after Christ being saved through Faith in him as exhibited he being the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 The Apostles Commission was not to make a new Church differing in kind and substance from what had been before but to preserve that Church which was already in being and which Christ left on Earth at his Ascension and by their Apostolical Labours to inlarge and add to it and to make believing Jews and Gentiles one holy Society in Christ not a Political Society ruled by the Apostles as Ecclesiastical Monarchs and Spiritual Lords but a Heavenly Society ruled by the Apostles as spiritual Guides and Overseers through Faith in Christ the sole Lord and Head of the Church 24. Anciently God led his People like a Flock by the Hand◠〈◊〉 Moses and Aaron Psal 77.20 And so he leads his People now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—lock by the Hand of the Prince and the Pastor the Prince as Political Governour ruling by the Sword and the Pastor as Spiritual Governour ruling by the Word by holy Doctrine by dispensing Baptism and the Lord's Supper according to Christ's Institution by making himself an Ensample to the Flock So that tho the Pastor be a Ruler and Governour yet he is not a Political Governour he is not an Ecclesiastical Prince a Spiritual Lord an ambitious Prelate but a Minister of Christ And to make the Pastor by Divine Law a Political Governour of the Church is to make him a Pope an Antichristian Subverter of the lawful Supremacy of the Prince and a sacrilegious Invader of the Sovereignty of God by whom Princes rule Prov. 8.15 25. It is very evident that the Apostles themselves were but Presbyters tho they were not ordinary and common Presbyters they were furnished with extraordinary Gifts and Graces for the Work of the Ministry and infallibly inspired in the execution of their Office that 〈◊〉 might be Master Builders in God's Church But still they were bâ—â— Presbyters though extraordinary and preeminent ones and therefore Peter the first and Foreman of all the Apostles writing to ordinary and common Presbyters stiles himself Com-Presbyter their Fellow-Presbyter 1 Pet. 5.1 And if those Bishops of our time who claim to be Successors of the Apostles and superiour in Office Power and Authority to common Presbyters would but join Apostolical Wisdom Meekness Goodness Piety Love to the Truth Labour in the Word and Doctrine and Constancy in Well-doing with Apostolical Power and Superiority we would all reverence them as Apostles of Christ as Divine Officers as most worthy Instruments of God's Glory and think all the Churches happy in their Ministry But while they contend for Apostolical Power Preeminence and Superiority by Divine Right as to the Government of the Church in ordinary and suffer common Presbyters and Curates to excel them in the most principal part of the Apostolical Office which is labouring in the Word and Doctrine and lay the Peace and Unity of God's Church upon weak and beggarly Elements Gal. 4.9 upon things no ways necessary to Holiness and Unity in Christian Faith Hope and Love and had rather be a Sect and Party by themselves than unite with their Christian Brethren upon Apostolical Divine and Scriptural Terms in truth they undo their own Cause grieve the Hearts of the Righteous encourage the Wicked and give great advantage to the Papists and bring our Nation low and greatly sin against God and their own Souls 26. It 〈…〉 Rule and Maxim consented to by all that in aequali jure melior 〈…〉 possidentis where two or more are Competitors for a thing and one only can have it it is to be adjudged to him that is in possession that so there may be an end of all Strife and the Course of the World may be in quiet Now I would know of those Protestant Brethren who condemn the Papacy and yet contend that the Universal Church on Earth is a Political Society consisting of two Parts a ruling and a ruled Part which was the sole supreme ruling Part of the Universal Church on Earth at the beginning of the Reformation by Luther 1. They cannot say and prove that Christ was for Christ is God and God cannot be a bare ruling Part because a Part as such is imperfect is not all In all But God cannot be imperfect he cannot but be infinitely perfect all all 1 Cor. 15.28 He worketh all in all 1 Cor. 12.6 Of him 〈◊〉 through him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 To make him a meer Political Ruler and governing Part of the Church is to make him a meer Man a worldly Monarch an impotent base and precarious God 2. Of necessity the Bishop of Rome was the sole supream ruling Part of the Universal Church Episcopus primae Sedis as Peter among the Apostles chief Ecclesiastical Monarch for no other laid claim to the Ecclesiastical Supremacy no other was in possession of it and therefore upon the Principles of those Brethren against whom I now argue the Protestants universally and the Church of England particularly were guilty of damnable Schism and Rebellion in breaking of from and setting themselves against the Papal Supremacy and are bound to turn Papists as of necessity to Salvation and to the Being and Unity of the Universal Church which according to their Principles cannot consist without a ruling Part without a Political Governour that is in plain English without a Pope 27. But if this Principle of theirs that the Church of God is a Political and not a Spiritual Society fail and prove ruinous as it needs must or I am deceived in the Grounds of Religion and do not understand the Points of the Catechism then the Ordination of Presbyter by Presbyters without a Bishop can never be proâ—â—â—…â—alid And those of the Church of England who hold the 〈…〉 Ministers because ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be no Ministers of Christ and consequently the 〈…〉 to be Nullities do greatly err 〈…〉 one 〈…〉 holy Catholick Church the 〈…〉 all such other 〈…〉 ordination by a Bishop 〈…〉 FINIS