in the form of our Church Government As also the times propounded there for their meetings the power of these Assemblies c. and are the same in substance as with us And all these were propounded as the way of Government in the Ancient Church and as an Expedient c. as abovesad And therefore for so you conclude in the Judgement of this learned and Reverend Antiquary our Provincial Assembly at Preston where the Pastors of the Church are members as he acknowledgeth of right they ought to be in such Assemblies would not have been accounted a new Termed Provincial Assembly Touching all which we shall close and joyn issue with you we willingly submit our selves to that order aud rule therein Expressed which being that which was received in the Ancient Church In the Judgement of that Reverend and learned Antiquary Dr. Vsher who was so acknowledged by all that knew him or are acquainted with his works And also the Assemblies there expressed holding proportion with yours set down in the form of your Church Government and being the same with yours in substance and being proposed as an Expedient for prevention of further troubles c. We fully expect you should also submit your selves unto for Peace and Unities sake and so we close and meet together as in the middle And this the rather in regard of those full and free expressions of yours to that purpose saying We reverence Dr. Bernard for his moderation and profession of his desires for peace wishing That such as do consent in Substantials for matter of Doctrine would consider of some Conjunction in point of Discipline That private Interests and Circumstantials might not keep themselves so far asunder In which wish as we do cordially joyn our selves so we heartily desire that all godly and moderate spirited men throughout the Land would also close And in another place you say However we dare not admit of a moderate Episcopacy for fear of encroachings upon the Pastors right c. Yet we do here professe we should so far as will consist with our principles and the peace of our own Consciences be ready to abate or tolerate much for peace sake That so at the length all parties throughout the Land that have any soundness in them in matters of faith and that are sober and godly though of different judgements in lesser matters being weary of their divisions might fall into the necks of one another with mutual embraces and kisses and so at last through the tender mercy of our God there might be an happy closure of breaches and restoring of peace and union in this poor unsetled rent and distracted Church to the glory of God throughout all Churches Now who are they that disturbe this our happy closure and conjunction We wish not with the Apostle that they were cut off but that they were taken away that trouble us for only they let that will let untill they be taken out of the way and those are the Ruling Elders as you call them We suppofe you mean those whom you have chosen out of the Laity and admitted without further entring into holy Orders into the whole execise of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in equal right with the Ministers of the Gospel in which respect your Assemblies and so your Provincial at Preston would be accounted in the judgement of Dr. Vsher a new termed Provincial assembly and stand yet uncleared of suspition of novelty whom you say You cannot consent to part with unlesse you should betray the Truth of Christ as you judge quoting Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 1 Tim. 5. and for further Testimony refer us to some Modern Authors all of yesterday Now whereas you say you cannot part with them unless you betray the Truth of Christ as you judge By this Parenthesis we gather that you are not so wedded to that opinion but you can and will submit to better reason when offered to you And we do again profess to you that we will not willfully and pertinaciously hold a contrary Tenent And in this confidence we proceed to shew to you that Lay-Elders are not meant nor mentioned in those Texts by you alledged Briefly thus but more largely hereafter if what is comprehended in this paper be not judged satisfactory Run over all the Expositers of holy writ whether the Fathers in general or more particular Councils And Calvin saith there can be no better nor surer remedy for deciding ofcontroversies no better sense nor Interpretation of Scripture then what is given by them in such Councils or whether the Fathers apart And first for that Text Rom. 12. here what Dr. Andrews saith and at your leisure examine the Fathers There is no Epistle saith he on which so many of the Fathers have writ Six only I will name Origen Chrysostome Theodoret Ambrose Jerom Oecumenius All which have treated of it Let their Commentaries be looked on upon that place not one of them applyeth it to the Church Government which by all likelihood could not be imagined but they would if that had been the main place for it nor finde those Offices in those words which they in good earnest tell us of c. As much may be said for the other two Texts Not one Father in their Comments upon them giveth such a sense Finde one Exposition for you and which is much we will yield you all Many there are that apply them to the Bishops And so one for those many of our Modern Doctors we could give you to answer those modern you quote in behalf of your Elders of our English Church Dr. Fulk by name we instance in applying these Texts to the Bishops only whom we quote in regard of the moderate judgement he was supposed to be of in point of Church-government and therefore more likely to sway with you than any other we could produce His words are these Amongst the Clergy for Order and Government there was alwayes one principal to whom by long use of the Church the name of Bishop or Super-intendent hath been applyed which in Scripture is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoting these Texts Rom. 12. 8. 1 Tim. 5. 17. and Heb. 13. 17. And therefore it can be no betraying of the Truth of Christ if you will seriously weigh it in the ballance of impartial and unprejudicate reason to part with them and to take in the other but a strengthening and a backing of it Wherefore in the name of God and in the tender bowels of Christ we beg again and again beseeching you not to stand upon circumstantials or private interests But to apply your selves to this happy conjuncture and reconcilement of so many poor Christian Souls in truth love and peace in this our English Church in these our days The blessing that may redound to all parties thus reconciled is unconceiveable The lives and manners of dissolute persons and how many there are amongst our selves of that sort we are but too too conscious
well remember how under the Episcopall government there was a generall admission and that sundry grosly ignorant did croud in amongst the rest unto this Ordinance and therefore that these might be discovered and kept off from this Sacrament till fitter for it we judged it requisite that according to that power that is glven to the Eldership in the form of Church-government for this purpose there should be a triall taken of all the communicants that so there might be some distinction made and not be a promiscuous admitting of all as heretofore And we are sure that such amongst us who having been anciently catechised and a long while commoners at the Lords Table to use your own expressions have witnessed the best confession for their parts and piety have been the most forward to draw on others to be willing to be re-examined by their own good example therein and that the greatest opposers of this course however they may be some of them persons of parts yet have been such as have been either scandalous in their lives or not so forward for piety as were to be desired We have thus given an account of what is our practice in this matter but this examination of communicants de novo was not the thing we here spake of as why the examination of them before their admission of them at the first was here mentioned we have delared before But we see you are willing to lay hold on any thing wherein you apprehend you have any advantage against us though it be never so small Fifthly You charge us again with another non sequitur when we inferre that if the Churches lawfull Pastors have power to excommunicate the scandalous we see not in reason how you can find fault with our proceedings if there should be occasion for our censuring any such persons but this inference yet stands good against any thing by you alleadged to the contrary and in it self is clear and manifest being there is no excommunication that passeth with us against any but by the juridical act of the lawfull Pastors of our several Churches or Congregations and whose power by you should not be questioned or the validity of their censures because of the concurrence of the ruling Elders as by way of preventing an Objection we hinted to you in our answer considering what power was exercised in the time of Episcopacy by the High Commissioners Chancellors and Commissaries as much Lay-men then in your judgement as ruling Elders can be now to whom yet there was a submission by you This reason you say is weak but you do not prove it to be so Nay here you fall short in two main points For 1. You misrepresent the matter of fact and that in two particulars 1. When you would intimate that the High-Commissioners Chancellors and Commissaries did all of them officiate by deputation from and under a lawfull Pastor when as it is manifest the High-Commissioners had no deputation from the Bishop but received their Commission from the King if not the Chancellors also and did act in those Ecclesiasticall censures that were by them passed in joynt and equall power with the Bishop by virtue of their Commission 2. The Parliament that did appoint the ruling-Elders in the form of Church government did not oblige any that were to submit to them to acknowledg the jus divinum of their Office neither do we impose this opinion of them upon any And therefore notwithstanding our own judgment concerning them in this respect the comparison betwixt them and the other as to what is necessary for your satisfaction doth still hould good and is neither weak nor frivolous as you say 2. But if the matter of fact should be granted to have been according to your representation sc that High-Commissioners Chancellours c. did all of them officiate by deputation from or under a lawfull Pastor how doth this help the matter to make your submission to these lawfull and yet your submission to the ruling Elders unlawfull For 1. we are as yet to learn and we think you will never be able to make it good that a trust committed to one by man much less reposed by God in an officer in the Church and particularly in the Pastor may be delegated If this be so he might sufficiently discharge his duty by another preach by another administer the Sacrament by another as well as dispense the censures of the Church by another who yet himself is to give an account of their souls unto God which he will never be able to make in the omission of those duties in his own person though he appoint another unto them But being the highest officer in the Church doth not himself act out of plenitude of power for that were to make him a Pope and Antichrist that belonging only to Jesus Christ the King and Lord of the Church to whom all power is given in Heaven and earth and hath no more but a ministry committed to him which he hath received of Christ as his servant who hath required him to fulfill it he may not depute any other as under him or as his servant to do that which his Lord and master hath intrusted him with and appointed him to do himself 2. But further we do here enquire of you whether by virtue of that deputation which the persons spoken of received from a lawfull Pastor according to your allegation you will have them to be Ecclesiasticall officers or but meer lay-men still If notwithstanding that deputation they be but meer lay-men how will you awarrant them to meddle with Ecelesiasticall censures because deputed thereunto by the Bishop when God hath excluded all those that are but meer lay-men from medling authoritatively with Ecclesiasticall matters If the High-Priest in the time of the Law had given to Vzziah a Commission to have gone into the Temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the Altar of incense and he had so officiated by deputation from and under him would that have been sufficient to have born him out in so doing whenas that work pertained not unto him but unto the Priests the sonnes of Aaron that were consecrated to burn incense If by vertue of that deputation they had from the Bishops they were Ecclesiasticall officers invested with authority to exercise Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction and dispense Church-censures and so not meer lay-men we may say much more for the outward call unto that office that our ruling Elders do execute they having been elected by the people that anciently had a vote in the choice even of the very Bishops as is clear from the Records of Antiquity and examined by the Pastors of the Churches and by them approved as fit and set apart solemnly to rule in the house of God by exhortation and Prayer as hath been said before 6. But you now go on and declare whom you mean by lawfull Pastors sc such persons as have received their Ordination from men lawfully and
expensis diversum sensum non malé quadrare fateor ut sit nomen officij Ceremoniam pro ipso â—actu posuit and which is the sense that in his Institutions he doth adhere to But Calvin must not have leave from you first to alledg one interpretation as that which in his judgement was probably true and so to approve of it and afterward upon consideration of all things he thought were to be weighed to conclude with another if he do and thus deliver himself in his Comment uâ—on this place he is flat opposite to himself in his institutions as you judge though we believe all equall judges will be more candid toward him then to approve of your censure of him in this particular 3. But it may be this of Calvin was mentioned by you that thence you might take the occasion to have a fling at us For after you had aspersed him you say you fear you shall find us as wavering and unsetled in our judgments when it comes to scanning But wherein For that we said divers of the Fathers did interpret this word Presbytery as we did and as we said had been declared before That which in our answer we said had been declared before referd to what we had before sc in the latter part of the third Section of it alledged out of Dr. Usher in his reduction of Episcopacy unto the forme of Synodicall Government where he proves from several of the Fathers and from the 4th Council of Carthage that Presbyters had a hand in the administration of the Discipline of Christ We produced him alledging the Fathers you here make mention of and you your selves even now alledged many more interpreting the word Presbytery used 1 Tim. 4. in the same sense that we concurre with and which concurrent sense of ours with the Fathers we declared in that short Parenthesis on which you do thus enlarge when we said the Fathers did understand the word Presbytery as we do But now what is it that you lay to our charge or what is it that is our offence with which you here upbraid us You tell us it is because we said the Fathers understood the word Presbytery as we did and because we produce Dr. Usher speaking in this sense But as to the preaching Presbyters and which was all that in the place above-mentioned in our answer we alleadged him to bring in the Fathers to speak for is not this clear and manifest to him that will either peruse what he hath or what you acknowledg we alleadge out of him or shall but consider what Fathers you your selves do say do expound 1 Tim. 4. touching the company of Presbyters i. e. the Bishops that lay on hands And therefore if you press us herein to stand to their sense and interpretation by us alleadged out of Dr. Usher we shall not run back nor have any cause to be ashamed when we assert that their interpretation of the word Presbytery is the same with ours Yes say you we may be ashamed to say so For that Presbytery which we say is established by Ordinance of Parliament and is that which we stand for and which when we speak of the Government of the Church by Presbytery do mean by that word is not the same with that Presbytery which the Fathers understand And this we suppose you say because you judge the Fathers do not comprehend the ruling Elders under the word Presbytery mentioned 1 Tim. 4. To which we answer that where we alledged the Fathers out of Dr. Usher we never produced them for any such purpose as to prove that the ruling Elders were comprehended under the word Presbytery 1 Tim. 4. only we thought to gain upon you by steps and from what Dr. Usher alledged the Fathers for thence to inferre the antiquity of Assemblies where the Pastors of the Church are members have decisive votes and a right to rule and unto which if you assented we judged then we were so farre agreed and which was the reason why mentioning his proposal of Assemblies we said they were the same in substance with ours and for the reason of which expression we have in this our answer to this your Paper given a full account before and to prevent repetition do referre the Reader thither however the ruling Elders be admitted into them as members although we desire the Reader to take notice and do mind you thereof that we have shewed that it is no novel thing for to admit such to have decisive votes in Synods and Councils that were never ordained to preach and administer the Sacraments and that we have alleadged testimonies of the Ancients for to prove the being of such an Officer as the ruling Elder in their times and consequently that he was a member of the Ecclesiastical consistory But we have thus shewed for what sense of the word Presbytery we alleadged the Fathers out of Dr. Usher as it will be manifest to him that will peruse our answer in that place where we cite them And now we leave it to the Reader to judge whether we have for this merited such language from you as here you give us Do we confidently assert that the Fathers give the same interpretation of the word Presbytery as we dâ— and yet stand to nothing Do we not still own that very sense of the word Presbytery 1 Tim. 4. which you your selves produce sundry of them to give Where then is our wavering or unsetledness in our judgements that you charge us with Or in what do we run back eating our own words as you here say we do But this is but a little matter in comparison for you will have us hereupon to have two hearts and not one ferehead But what were we in your second Paper your dear friends nay more brethren dearly beloved to you in the Lord and are we now become monsters in Christianity having two hearts and have not that common shamefastness that might be found even amongst Heathens having not one forehead We leave it to the Reader to judge how cordial you were in those sugared words you gave us there when you do here thus vent the rancor that was in your hearts and that upon so sseight an occasion doubtless the answer we gave in words to your second Paper could give no just cause for such unchristian and uncivil censures to pass upon us neither was there any thing in that part of our answer to your first Paper which your selves acknowledge was full of civillity towards you unto which you here reply that gave any such occasion the Fathers we quoted out of Dr. Usher being for such a sense of the word Presbytery as we cited them for But your uncharitableness in passing such hard censures upon us is not all for you do also here charge us with sundry manifest untruths For we never quoted Dr. Usher who in his proposals is expresly for moderate Episcopacy which we as expresly cautioned against as our own man whom we declined
THE CENSURES of the CHURCH REVIVED In the defence of a short Paper published by the first Classis within the Province of Lancaster in the severall Congregations belonging to their own Association but since Printed without their privity or consent after it had been assaulted by some Gentlemen and others within their bounds in certain Papers presented by them unto the said Classis and since also Printed together with an Answer of that Classis unto the first of their Papers without their knowledg also and consent under the Title of Excommunicatio excommunicata or a Censure of the Presbyterian censures and proceedings in the Classis at Manchester WHEREIN 1. The dangerousness of admitting moderate Episcopacy is shewed 2. The Jus divinum of the Ruling Elders Office is asserted and cleared 3. The aspersions of Schisme and Perjury are wiped off from those that disown Episcopacy 4. The being of a Church and lawfully Ordained Ministry are evidenced and secured sufficiently in the want of Episcopacy 5. The Scriptures asserted and proved to be the sole supreame Judge of all controversies in matters of Religion and the only sure interpreter of themselves not Councils or Fathers or the universall practice of the Primitive Churches 6. The Presbyterian Government vindicated from severall aspersions cast upon it and also the first Classis within the Province of Lancaster and their actings justified in their making out their claime to the civill sanction for the establishment of that Church Government and power which they exercise and likewise a cleare manifestation that their proceedings have been regular and orderly according to the forme of Church Government established by Ordinance of Parliament In three full Answers given to any thing objected against their proceedings by the aforesaid Gentlemen and others in any of their Papers Together with a full Narrative of the occasion and grounds of publishing in the Congregations the above mentioned short Paper and of the whole proceedings since from first to last LONDON Printed for George Eversden at the Signe of the Maiden-head in Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO THE Reverend and Beloved the Ministers and Elders meeting in the Provinciall Assembly of the Province of London the Ministers and Elders of the first Classis of the Province of Lancaster meeting at Manchester do heartily wish the Crown of perseverance in a judicious and zealous defence of the Doctrine Government and Discipline of the Lord Jesus both theirs and ours Reverend and beloved Brethren WHen the Sun of Righteousnes had first favourably risen to them that fear the Name of God in this Land after a dark and stormy night of corruption and persecution then even then were the quickning beams of the sun of civil Authority in this inferionr world caused first to light upon you to form your renowned City into severall Classes and afterwards into a Provinciall Assembly not onely that you might have the birth-right of Honour which we cheerfully remember but also that being invested with Authority from Jesus Christ and the civill Magistrate you might be prepared to stand in the front of opposition the powers of Hell being startled and enraged at the unexpected reviving of Gospel Government and Discipline which seemed so long to lye for dead and that having your strength united you might be enabled and encouraged to plead the cause of God against the Divine right of Episcopacy and for the Divine right of the Ruling-Elder that the one might not be shut out of the Church and the other might not recover in the Church both which have been and still are under design VVhat you have already done this way as a thankfull improvement of Divine favour and with speciall reference to the respective Classes and Congregations within your Province doth evidently appear in your Vindication of Presbyterian Government and your Jus Divinum Ministerii Evangelici which choice fruits of your Provinciall Assembly are not onely refreshing and satisfying for the present but do promise fair for time to come such clusters do shew there is a blessing in the Vine which the Lord of the Vineyard continue and increase When you our Reverend Brethren had first been shined upon and made so fruitfull the Divine grace caused a second enlivening beam of civill Authority to fall upon this remote and despised County to constitute in it also severall Classes and afterwards a Provinciall Assembly since which time such heavenly influence hath been stayed As our Lot hath happily fallen to follow you in the favour of God and civill Authority so we have unhappily fallen into your Lot especially this Classis to be followed with the anger opposition reproaches and contradiction of men of contrary mindes which though hid in the ashes in great measure formerly and but sparkling now and then here and there in a private house or Congregation yet when we would conscientiously and tenderly have improved the Government for the instruction of the ignorant and reformation of the prophane it brake out into a flame and no way but that flame must be hasted to such a Beacon that it might not be quenched till the Nation had seen and taken notice especially the whole opposite party awakened a very design You have pleaded the civil Authority for your acting in the Government but have setled the Government it self for the satisfaction of your own consciences and the consciences of the people of God upon the firm basis of divine Scripture authority and so have we thence you have been authorized to bring into the Church and keep in it by the mercifull intervention of civill Authority the despised governing Elders and so shut out of the Church and keep out of it that Lordly and self-murthering Episcopacy and so have we You have been forced to flie to the testimony of your consciences concerning your aims and ends in your publick undertakings in the cause of God and so have we It was scarce possible for you to wipe off the dirt cast upon you but some of it would unavoidably fall upon them that cast it nor can we Vpon these and other considerations we knew not in what Name of right to publish our enforced Vindication in the same common cause but in your Name who have gone before us in the work and have afforded us light and encouragement whose seasonable and solid Labours have already found acceptance in the Church and blessing from God And we pray that your Bow may abide in strength and the armes of your hands may be made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob that though the Archers have sorely grieved you and shot at you and hated you yet you may still possess the rich blessing of truth in Doctrine Government and Discipline and may foyl the adversaries thereof till the renewed and enlarged favour of God hath overspread this Nation with the Reformation so happily begun and till that so much desired prayed for and endeavoured accommodation of dissenting Brethren alas alas too hardly attained may sincerely
edifyingly and lastingly be effected that when all our undermining scorning and opposing enemies do hear and see these things they may be much cast down in their own eyes perceiving that this work hath been wrought of our God in whose arms of mercy and truth we leave you and the Cause we manage Manchester Jan. 11. 1658. Signed in the Name and by the appointment of the Class by John Harrison Moderator THE EPISTLE To the READER IT is no new thing that such workes as have been most eminently conducing to the glory of God and the Churches greatest wellfare have met with strong oppositions When the Adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the Children of the captivity builded the Temple unto the Lord God of Israel they set themselves diverse waies to hinder and obstruct the worke When Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped then they were very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it When Jesus Christ the eternall Son of God the brightness of his Fathers glory and express Image of his Person appeared in the world cloathed with our nature though he came about a worke of greatest consequence that ever was yet his enimies withstood and opposed his Kingdome Of this the Psalmist prophesied before it came to pass Psal 2. 1 2. Why did the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vaine thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the people take counsell together against the Lord and against his annointed saying Let us breake their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us And this the Church saw fulfilled who in their Prayer unto God applied unto the times wherein they lived what he by the mouth of his Servant David had foretold so long before saying For of a truth against thy holy Childe Jesus whom thou hast annointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsell determined before to be done It would be here too long to go through the Books of the N. T. and tell what persecutions were raised against the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour for executing that Commission which he had given them when he commanded them to go teach all Nations or to go through the story of the Church and speak of the diverse kindes of tortures and torments which thousands of all rankes endured in the times of the ten Primitive persecutions under the Heathen Emperours to tell of the Martyrdome of Ignatius Polycarpus Justin Martyr Irenaeus Cyprian and many others glorious lights and worthy Confessors of the truth for no other reason but because they studied to advance Christs Gospell We will instance something in latter times When the Romish Synagogue having most abominably apostatiz'd both in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Governement Luther and other faithfull Servants of Christ did earnestly bend themselves to endeavour a reformation in Religion the Antichristian world was mad with fury To come yet a little nearer home When Religion was reformed in Scotland in Doctrine and Worship the Church of Christ there had many conflicts and the worke was long obstructed before the Governement and Discipline of Christ could be fully established amongst them as it is in fresh remembrance what troubles they passed through more lately in their contending against Episcopacy and the Ceremonies which had been introduced amongst them to the great prejudice of their Ancient Church governement and Discipline But here it may not be forgotten how when the Parliament of famous memory that was convened eighteen yeares agoe having taken into their pious consideration the condition of our own Church at home and judging that a further reformation in matters of Religion then had been made in the daies of Queen Elizabeth was necessary and setting upon that work as also the vindication of the liberties of this English Nation were forced to take up Armes for their own defence against that Partie that could not brooke the Reformation which they intended And to what an height that opposition grew in after time and with what difficulties they conflicted for many years together because they would not give up that cause they had undertaken to defend is so well known to even such as may be but strangers in our Israel that we may spare the pains of a full recitall But yet nothing of all this is to be wondered at Satan must needs be like himselfe and stir the more when he sees his Kingdome begin to shake And corruption will rage when it is crossed God also hath a wise hand in these oppositions not only thereby the more inflaming the zeal and brightning up other graces in his faithfull servants trying and exercising their faith and patience the purging and purifying and making them white but also getting himself the greater glory when his worke is carried on notwithstanding the greatest opposition of his and his Churches enemies And here we cannot but with all thankfullness to Almighty God take notice of this hand that was most eminently lifted up in the worke of Reformation begun by that late forementioned Parliament as there is cause why also we should to the honour and glory of his great Name and the praise of that Parliament unto the generations that may come hereafter acknowledg their unwearied pains courage and constancy in that worke Much was done yea very much by that illustrious and worthy Parliament By them the foundation of reformation was laid in the solemne League and Covenant which they not only took themselves but ordained should be solemnely taken in all places throughout the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales And for the better and more orderly taking thereof appointed and injoyned certain directions to be strictly followed And in pursuance of this League and Covenant engageing every one that tooke it in their severall places to indeavour the refomation of Religion in England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and governement according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches and to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdomes to the nearest conjunction and uniformity of Religion Confession of Faith forme of Church Government Directory for worship and Catechizing After consultation had with the Reverend Pious and Learned Assembly of Divines called together to that purpose they judged it necessary that the Book of Common Prayer should be abolished and the Directory for the publick worship of God and in their Ordinance mentioned should be established and observed in all the Churches within this Land as appears by their Ordinance of January the 3. 1644. for that purpose By them Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deanes Deanes and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiasticall
there hath been occasion But here we must further acquaint the Reader that the errours and depravations of this Paper which we found in it as it had been by them Printed we have rectified as we well might according to the Originall and now exhibit it to the Readers view as it was when it passed from us We have Printed their first Paper as we found it Printed by themselves only we have added the rest of the Names that were subscribed to it when it was presented unto us that so those that were represented to us as the subscribers of it may own it or disown it as they see cause We have divided our Answer to their first Paper into eleaven Sections as also the last Paper of theirs on which we Animadvert into the like number that so by comparing all together it may be the better discerned how they have dealt with us what they reply to and what they omit and we leave the whole together with our Animadversions on the severall Sections of theirs to be judged of by the Reader We have also Printed their two last Papers as we found them Printed by themselves and have noted in the Margents of them both the variations which yet are not great from the Copies that were presented unto us and whereof the letters Cl. and Cop. prefixed to those variations and intimating how it was in those Copies that were exhibited to the Class are an indicium or the sign We confess our Answers to their two last Papers are now grown to a greater bulke then we first intended or then what some perhaps may judge necessary but we wish it might be considered that if some things that fall into debate betwixt them and us be not of generall concernement yet the discussion of them being of use for our vindication and the discovering unto them their errours and faults we conceive that in those respects it was requisite although the Reader may find severall things spoken to that be of common use and whereof we give him some account at the end of this Epistle as also where they may be found that such as have not either leisure or will to peruse the whole may take a view more speedily of what they may chiefly desire to read When we were to give our reasons why we could not consent to admit of Episcopacy moderated we considered that the point touching Episcopacy having been so fully discussed by farre abler Pens we thought it might be the fittest for us to insist chiefly upon the inconveniency and dangerousnesse of that Government and what we in this Land and the Neighbour Nation had experienced in those respects In another place we urge some Arguments to prove a Bishop and a Presbyter to be in a Scripture sense of those words all one What is spoken touching the Jus divinum of the ruling Elders Office was occasioned from the Texts we had urged though it was but by the way in our Answer to their first Paper and their excepting in their second against our alledging those Texts for that purpose But we do here professe that we do not discusse that point our selves we only transcribe what is solidly and fully done concerning it to our hands by other Reverend and Learned Brethren and therefore when in our Title we mention the clearing up of the Jus divinum of the ruling Elders Office the Reader is so to understand that branch of it as when we come to speak of that point particularly we there give him our reasons of that transcription We have now no more to acquaint the Reader with and therefore shall leave the whole to his perusall not much mattering the censures of loose and prophane spirits though we hope with such as are unprejudiced and zealous for reformation our endeavours shall find some acceptance And having the Testimonie of our consciences that in the uprightness of our hearts we have aimed at the Glory of God and the good of his Church in what we now send abroad into the world we do not question but that God who is the trier of the hearts and reines and the God of truth will not only own that good old cause of his in the defence whereof so many of his faithfull Servants have suffered in former times but us also the meanest and unworthiest of his Servants in this our standing up for it and so bless our labours herein that they may be of some use for the publique good The Father of Lights and God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace give unto us all and to all His the spirit of wisdome and revelation in the knowledge of his Will guide our feet in the waies of Peace and after our manifold and great shakings settle the Affairs both of Church and State upon some sure foundations to the Glory of his own great Name and the everlasting Comfort Peace and Wellfare of all his People Amen AN ACCOUNT Of some of the principall things in the ensuing Discourses 1. THe dangerousness of admitting moderate Episcopacy shewed pag. 85. 2. The Jus divinum of the ruling Elders Office is cleared pag. 103. 3. The nature of Schisme opened and the imputation thereof taken off those that disown Episcopacy pag. 121. 4. The being of a Church and lawfully Ordained Ministery secured in the want of Episcopacy pag. 130. 5. The imputation of Perjury taken off from such as do not again admit of Episcopacy pag. 204. 6. The claim of the Presbyterian Government to the civill Sanction made good in the fourth Section of our Answer to the Gentlemens first Paper and further in our Animadversions on their last pag. 219. 7. The Scriptures proved to be the sole supreme Judg in all matters of Religion pag. 255. 8. Councils and the unanimous consent of Fathers not to the rule of the interpretation of the Scriptures pag. 260. 9. Civill penalties not freeing from Ecclesiasticall censures cleared pag. 290. The Title of the Papers as they were Printed by the Gentlemen together with their PREFACE Excommunicatio Excommunicata OR A CENSURE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CENSURES And proceedings of the Classis at Manchester Wherein is modestly examined what Ecclesiasticall or Civill Sanction they pretend for their new usurped power In a discourse betwixt the Ministers of that Classis and some dissenting Christians THE PREFACE IN such an age as this when the heat of vaine and unprofitable controversies has bred more Scriblers than a hot Summer in the Comedians simile does Flies it might seem more rationall according to Solomons rule for prudent men to keep silence then to vex themselves and disquiet others with such empty discourses as rather enlarge then compose the differences of Gods People It was a sad age that of Domitian of which the Historian affirmeth that then Inertia pro sapientiâ erat Ignorance was the best knowledge laziness and servility was the best diligence and we could wish this age did not too much resemble that But when we see
God in his Word for the information of the ignorant but in what way of Catechizing as is expressed in our Paper the ignorant in our Congregations who never offered themselves unto the Sacrament were most like to be brought to some measure of knowledge and which is not a matter of Doctrine but of Order onely Neither was it by us submitted to that Assembly whether the censures of the Church were the meanes appointed by Christ for the reforming of the scandalous But whether it might not be meet pro hic nunc and as the present case stood to apply the censures and so put in practice at this time that which in the General we were sufficiently assured from the word of Truth was the way for their reformation and with which we were both by God and Man intrusted to dispense unto those that were openly scandalous in our Congregations However they contented themselves to live in the want of the Lords Supper nor ever presented themselves to the Eldership to be admitted to it And this because meerly circumstantial as to the dispensing of the Censures at this time and to such Persons we think herein we owed the Provincial Assembly unto whose Authority we professe our selves to be subject so much respect and duty as to submit our apprehensions in a case of this nature which they had propounded unto us to be seriously weighed as they had done to the rest of the Classes within this Province unto their Judgement and to take their concurrent approval along with us before we proceeded to practise in a matter of this weight And yet we have declared before That however we are not so wavering and unsettled in matters of faith as to resolve our belief into the determination of Synods or Councils believing no more nor no otherwise then as they determine Yet that it is not out of the compasse of the authority of a Synod to examine try and authoritatively to censure Doctrines as well as matters of Discipline And we think how confident soever you may be of the soundnesse and orthodoxnesse of what in your Paper you propound in way of exception against any thing in ours you have not such clear and unquestionable grounds from Scripture for the same that you were to be accused of wavering or unsettledness if you had submitted the same to have been examined and tried by a Provincial Assembly and much lesse if you could have had the opportunity of submitting it to the Censure of a General Council But whereas mentioning our Provincial Assembly at Preston you call it a new termed Provincial Assembly If your meaning be that the terming it a Provincial Assembly instead of a Provincial Synod is a new term then this is but onely a Logomachia and not much to be insisted on Although we frequently call it a Provincial Synod as well as a Provincial Assembly But if your meaning be That it is a new termed Provincial Assembly at Preston Because Provinciall Synods or Assemblies have been held but lately at Preston we see not if Provincial Assemblies be warrantable and have been of ancient use in the Church that having been long in dis-use they began of late to be held at Preston that can justly incurre your censure But if the Antiquity of such Assemblies be that you question Then we referre you to what Doctor Bernard in the Book of his above quoted shews was the Judgement of Doctor Vsher who is acknowledged by all that knew him or are acquainted with his works to have been a great Antiquary however we alleadge him not that you should build your faith upon his Testimony and which we think may be sufficient to vindicate Provincial Assemblies in your thoughts from all suspition of novelty In that Book you have in the close of it proposals touching the Reduction of Episcopacy unto the form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church And it thus begins By the Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received And that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded herein The exhortation of Paul to the Elders of Ephesus Acts 20. 28. is appointed to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination A little after it is aknowledged That Ignatius by Presbytery mentioned by Paul 1 Tim. 4. 14. did understand the Community of the rest of the Presbyters or Elders who then had a hand not onely in the delivery of the Doctrine and Sacraments but also in the administration of the Discipline of Christ And for further proof Tertullian is alleadged in his Generall Apologie for Christians Where he saith that in 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 Judgement to come if any man have so offended that he be banished from the Communion 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 There also is further shewed That in matters of Ecclesiastical judicature Cornelius Bishop of Rome used the received form of gathering together the Presbytery And that Cyprian sufficiently declares of what Persons that consisted When he wisheth him to read his Letter to the flourishing Clergy which there did preside or rule with him And further 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 unlesse it were confirmed by the Clergy And yet further That this is found 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 It is here also acknowledged That in our Church this kind of Presbyterian Government hath been much disused Yet that it did professe that every Pastor hath a right to rule the Church from whence also the name of Rector was at first given to him and administer the Discipline of Christ as well as to dispense the Doctrine and Sacraments c. By all which it is acknowledged and also proved That the form of Government by the united suffrages of the Clergy is ancient and which is there in express termes asseâ—ted as it might be demonstrated by many more Testimonies but that we conceive these already mentioned are sufficient and being alleadged by the aforementioned Author As also evidencing what his own Judgement was in this point may be more likely to sway with you if in that there should be a dissent betwixt you and us then any thing that we could our selves produce But in this reduction of Episcopacy to the form of Synodical Government
received in the ancient Church there are proposals of Assemblies of Pastors within certain limited bounds which saving that they are some of them somewhat larger then ours which is but a circumstantial difference doe hold proportion with the Classical Provincial and National Assemblies mentioned in the form of our Church Government as also the times propounded there for their meeting the power of these Assemblies and what they were to have Cognizance of and the subordination of the lesser to the greater with liberty of Appeal if need should require and are the same in substance as with us And all these were propounded as the way of Government in the ancient Church and in the year 1641. after the troubles that had risen in Scotland about Episcopacy and the Ceremonies and before the setting up of the Presbyterian Government in this Land had so much as fallen under debate in the Parliament so far as ever we heard of as an expedient to prevent the troubles that did after arise in this Land about the matter of Church Government being for the moderating of Episcopacy that at that time was grown to that height that it had quite taken away from the Pastors that rule that of right did belong unto them And for the Reduction of it to the ancient form of Synodical Government And therefore in the Judgement of this learned and reverend Antiquary our Provincial Assembly at Preston where the Pastors of the Churches are members as he acknowledgeth of right they ought to be in such Assemblies would not have been accounted a new termed Provincial Assembly SECT IV. BUt you go on and tell us That other parts of our Paper are full of darknesse to which you say you cannot so fully assent till further explicated and unfolded by us We cannot apprehend any such darknesse in our Paper as you speak of But yet because in yours you question what authority we have from the civil Magistrate for what we doe and likewise the extent of it and your mistakes of our meaning may perhaps some of them arise from your unacquaintednesse with the rule we walk by although we were not to be blamed for any mistakes that might arise ab ignorantia juris whether simple or affected that we determine not but leave you to examine Before we come to make Answer more particularly to what follows we are willing to be at some paines to give you some further account of the power we are awarranted by the civil Authority for to exercise to what persons within our bounds it extends it self and what some of those rules are that are prescribed unto us by civil Authority to walk by in the exercise of that power we are betrusted with It is a general and common mistake amongst many that the Presbyterian Government was established by the Parliament but for three years and that therefore it is now expired and our of date But if you peruse all that passed in Parliament touching it no such matter will appear The directions of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament after advice had with the Assembly of Divines for the electing and chusing Ruling Elders in all the Congregations and in the Classical Assemblies for the Cities of London and Westminster and the several Counties of the Kingdom for the speedy settling of the Presbyterian Government bearing date August 19. 1645. Their Ordinance together with Rules and Directions concerning suspension from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in cases of Ignorance and scandal dated Octob. 20. 1645 The Votes also of the said Houses for the Choise of Elders throughout the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales in the respective Parish Churches and Chappels according to the directions before mentioned And touching the power granted to the Tryers of Elections of Elders Of the date of Febr. 20. 1645. and Febr. 26. 1645 Their Ordinance for keeping scandalous Persons from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the inabling of Congregations for the choice of Elders and supplying of defects in former Ordinances and Directions of Parliament concerning Church Government bearing date March 14. 1645 The Remedies prescribed by them for removing some obstructions in Church Government dated April 22. 1647 And their Ordinance for the speedy dividing and settling the several Counties of this Kingdom into distinct Classical Presbyteries and Congregationall Elderships dated Jan. 29. 1647 We say all these were passed absolutely without any proviso's at all limiting the time of their continuance that is expressed in any of them Indeed in the Ordinance of Parliament giving power to all the Classical Presbyteries within their respective bounds to examine approve and ordain Ministers for several Congregations dated Nov. 10. 1645 It is provided in the Close of it That it shall stand in force for twelve moneths and no longer As it is provided in another Ordinance for the Ordination of Ministers by the Classical Presbyters within their respective bounds for the several Congregations in the Kingdom of England bearing date August 28. 1646 that it shall stand in force for three yeares and no longer Which latter might give to some that took but the matter upon report an occasion to conceive that the Presbyterian Government was settled but for three yeares although that was but ill applied to all the several Ordinances that had passed before which belonged onely to one But the Ordinance especially from which chiefly as we conceive the mistake arose about settling the Presbyterian Government for three years onely was the Ordinance that passed June 5. 1646 The title whereof is An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament for the present settling without further delay of the Presbyterial Government in the Church of England In the Close whereof it is ordained That this Ordinance shall continue for the space of three yeares and no longer unlesse both Houses think fit to continue it But if the matter of this Ordinance be consulted it is manifest it was but touching a Committee of Lords and Commons to adjudge and determine scandalous offences not formerly enumerated appointed by that Ordinance in stead and place of Commissioners mentioned in the Ordinance of March 14. 1645 And also shewing how the Elderships were to proceed in the examination of such scandalous offences And touching what power was granted to the said Committee and in what sort they were to proceed as is clear to any that shall but take the pains to peruse that Ordinance The ground whereof in the preface to it is made to be this The Lords and Commons in Parliament holding their former resolution that all notorious and scandalous offenders shall be kept from the Sacrament have thought fit to make a further addition to the scandalous offences formerly enumerated for which men shall be kept back from the Sacrament And least the stay of the enumeration and the not naming of Commissioners to judge of Cases not enumerated should hinder the putting in execution the Presbyterian Government already established They have
create that happy and desirable Peace among us that is so thirsted after by all good men 2. But yet we cannot dissemble what we apprehend and is in our thoughts that there are some sorts of Persons in this Land that till God change their Judgments and the frame of their Spirits though we shall so far as is possible and as much as lyeth in us live peaceably with them and with all others and shall be ready to requite good for evill by all Offices and Duties of love toward them yet we see little hopes of any reall and hearty Union and closure with them And here we must profess that however we were willing for our own exoneration if no other end should be thereby attained to entertain a Treaty with you touching an Accommodation and which was pursued by us with all Cordialness and Sincerity being desirous to wait on God in the use of the means for that purpose so far as we saw any hope not knowing what God might work out thereby as will appeare we doubt not to the Reader from our Narrative yet you have now discovered so much bitterness and distemper of Spirit and so much unsoundness in your Principles and Opinions together with a resolvedness to adhere to them for ought we can discern to the contrary that till God do open your Eyes and change your hearts giving you a through sense of and sâ—uâ—d humiliation for what to your own shame you have published to the World in your Papers we have not any great hopes of accommodating with you though we shall not in the mean season cease to pray for you and use the best means we can to bring you into the right way from which you have turned aside But yet we desire we might not be here mistaken For as for such as are moderate and godly Episcopall men That hold Ordination by Presbyters to be lawfull and valid that a Bishop and Presbyter are one and the same Order of Ministery which are not your Tenents as will appear from both this and your next Paper and that are Orthodox in doctrinall Truths though we may differ from them in Judgment in some Points touching Church Government yet they are such as we do heartily desire to accommodate with and we believe that such tearms might be propounded that betwixt them and us there might be an happy Union as we could heartily wish that all and every of you with whom we have here to deal were of this stamp Although here also we must not conceal that we have many reasons why we dare not admit of moderate Episcopacy as the tearms of accommodation with those of this sort And because it is that which you press us with fully expecting we should submit unto what is propounded by Doctor Vsher in his reduction of Episcopacy unto the form of Synodicall Government received in the ancient Church although as we have hinted to you we have reason from your own Papers to judge you aime at more then is there propounded we shall not here refuse to give you some of our reasons why we cannot consent to you in these Proposals as you know moderate Episcopacy was that we expresly cautioned against in our Answer to your first Paper And 1 First We shall here mind you of what is well observed by our reverend Brethren of the Province of London in their Jus divinum Ministerii Evangelici Part second in the Appendix Pag 117 118 119. There they lay down their fifth Proposition in these words That when the distinction between a Bishop and Presbyter first began in the Church of Christ it was not grounded upon a Jus divinum but upon prudentiall Reasons and Arguments And the chief of them was as Hierome and divers after him say In remedium Schismatis ut dissentionum plantaria evellerentur For the remedy of Schisme and that the Seeds of Errour might be rooted out of the Church This Proposition thus layd down they add Now that this prudentiall way invented no doubt at first upon a good intention was not the way of God appears as Smectymnus hath well shewn thus Because we read in the Apostles dayes there were Divisions Rom. 16. 17. and Schismes 1 Cor. 3. 3. and 11. 18. yet the Apostle was not directed by the Holy-ghost to ordaine Bishops for the taking away of those Schismes Neither in the Rules he prescribes for healing of those Breaches doth he mention Bishops for that end Neither doth he mention this in his directions to Timothy and Titus for the Ordination of Bishops or Elders as one end of their Ordination or one peculiar duty of their Office And though the Apostle saith Opportet haereses esse ut qui probati sunt manifesti fiant inter vas Yet the Apostle no where saith Opportet Episcopos esse ut tollantur haereses quae manifestae fiunt There must be Bishops that those Heresies which are amongst you may be removed 2 Because the Holy-ghost who could foresee what would ensue thereupon would never ordain that for a remedy which would not only be ineffectual to the cutting off of evil but become a Stirrop for Antichrist to get up into the Saddle For if there be a necessity of setting up one Bishop over many Presbyters for preventing Schisms there is as great a necessity for setting up one Archbishop over many Bishops and one Patriarch over many Archbishops and one Pope over all unless men will imagine that there is a danger of Schisme only amongst Presbyters and not among Bishops and Archbishops which is contrary to Reason Truth History and our own experience And then they add hence it is that Musculus having proved by Act. 20. Phil 1. 1. Tit. 1. 5. 1 Pet. 5. 1. that in the Apostles times a Bishop and a Presbyter were all one he adds But after the Apostles times when amongst the Elders of the Church as Hierom sayth Schisms arose and as I verily think they began to strive for Majority by little and little they began to choose one amongst the rest out of the number of Elders that should be above the rest in an higher degree called Bishop But whether that device of man profited the Church or no the times following could better judge then when it first began And further addeth that if Hierom others had seen as much as they that came after they would have concluded that it was never brought in by Gods Spirit to take away Schism as was pretended but brought in by Satan to wast destroy the former Ministry that fed the Flock Thus far Musculus Sadael also hath this memorable passage The difference between Bishops and other Ministers came in for remedy of Schisme But they that devised it little thought what a Gate they opened to the ambition of Bishops Hence also Dr. Whitakers asking how came in the inequality between Bishops Presbyters answereth out of Hierom that the Schism and Faction of some occasioned the ancient
sonable and fit in respect of their people to desire the Assistance of some godly and discreet Persons of their respective Congregations c. And therefore as touching ruling Elders as there was a submission in the dayes of Episcopacy to Chancellours and Commissaries we conceive that moderate Episcopall men might admit these upon prudentiall grounds though they did not acknowledge the Jus divinum of their Office and which opinion of them notwithstanding our own perswasion we are far from imposing upon others and we do also hope that such as would make tryall of them would have occasion to bless God for those great helps that might be offered unto them by them both for the better acquainting them with the Conversations of their people as also for the guiding and governing of them As we do also further humbly conceive there might be such a proportioning of them for the number of them in the higher Assemblies that neither it might be burthensome to the Elders that might be delegated to such Assemblies when they are over many nor the Assemblies be disappointed for want of a Quorum of ruling Elders as sometimes they have been nor any occasion of fear given unto any that the Ministers might be over-voted by the Elders in matters of greatest weight and concernment which yet supposes a division betwixt the Ministers and Elders which in our own experience we have never met with And as touching a standing Moderator that some moderate Episcopall men are for we think their Consciences might he satisfied in the way of Moderators as they are in use with us we not discerning what can be urged by them as necessary to be transacted by him from Gods Word but it may be safely transacted by the Moderators of our Assemblies And as touching our Brethren of the Congregationall way we are sure moderate Episcopacy will be no expedient to bring them and us unto neerer Union but conceive that as the Assembly of Divines did long agon enter upon that Work of Accommodation with them so if that Work were reâ— assumed by the appointment and interposition of the Civil Magistrate through the blessing of God we hope it might be brought to such a conclusion not onely with them but also with those that are godly and moderate Spirited that are of the Episcopall way that without admittance of moderate Episcopacy that would not further it there might be an happy closure of breaches in this rent and torne Church all parties that have soundness and savour in them seeming to be weary of their Divisions and to earnestly thirst and pant after Union But we hope by this time the sober and judicious Reader is satisfied that we had some reason to caution against moderate Episcopacy as we did even where we profess our selves earnest for peace and that If you had considered things well you had no reason fully to expect that we should admit of that expedient which you propounded for an Accommodation which we for severall weighty reasons had expresly cautioned against But we have now done with what you propounded as the way wherein you expected fully we should have closed with you and shall now go on with you unto what follows wherein you declare your selves That they who disturb this closure and conjunction are the ruling Elders that yet were not only chosen out of the people but at the first constitution of the Congregational Elderships were examined and approved by this Class as fit to joyn with the Ministers of the Word in the governing of the Church and solemnly set a part with exhortation and Prayer for that Work although not ordained for to preach the Gospel or administer the Sacraments and so not meer Lay-men as you apprehend them to be Now of these you say you wish not with the Apostle that they were cut off but that they were taken away that trouble you for you say speaking of these onely they let that will let untill they be taken out of the away Indeed the Apostle unto whose words you allude speaks of something that letted and would let the revelation of Antichrist untill he were taken away and if after Antichrist hath been cast out of this Land the retaining of the ruling Elders were likely to be a let to his setting foot again in it it would be very ill upon that account to part with them but we do not discern how the retaining of the ruling Elders should have hindred your closure and conjunction with us if you had been cordiall for Peace and Union for though you could not admit them upon the divine right of their Office yet you who excepted not against the lawfulness of retaining of High Commissioners Chancellours and Commissaries and of which we shall speak more fully in our answer to your last Paper under the Prelaticall Government might have admitted of ruling Elders on prudentiall grounds upon the Principles of sundry moderate Episcopall men and as they have done of which before and as you may see one zealous enough against the Jus divinum of ruling Elders Office is not against them as an expedient and behoovefull Order in the Church and where the right Governours of State any where moving upon prudentiall grounds shall find the conveniency of them See Velitationes Polemicae by J. D. quaest 3. Touching Lay-Presbyters Sect. 30. But you now mind us of what we had said in our Answer scil That we could not consent to part with the ruling Elders except we should betray the truth of Christ Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 1 Tim. 5. and for further testimony you say we refer you to some modern Authors all of Yesterday Here we shall desire you to take notice of two things 1. That being the Authors we referred you unto were reverend learned and able Divines such as was the Synod or Assembly of Divines that met at Westminster by Authority of Parliament and the Provinciall Synod of London besides the Divines that we did particularly nominate they should not have been slighted by you who profess you reverence Synods and Councels in regard of their testimony because they were but of Yesterday For upon this account all Synods and Councels that shall hereafter be convened must be rejected 2. That it was not their meer testimony or authority that we pressed you with We referred you to them in regard of their Arguments and Reasons they urged for what they assert And we think both you and we may learn much from the learned and elaborate Labours of modern Authors And that we are not to disdain to weigh what they present because they are but of Yesterday Else you must neither consult Doctor Vsher Doctor Andrews nor Doctor Hammond whom you mention nor any other moderate Writers that yet we judge are in some esteem with you but betake your selves to the Fathers onely And because you took not notice of what the Authors we referred you to have touching the Jus divinum of the Presbyterian Government and which
we said had spoken so fully touching that point that we knew not what could be added more We shall give the Reader some short accompt of what he may find more at large in the Authors themselves only mentioning some things which the London Ministers in their Jus divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici and the Provinciall Assembly of London in their Vindication of the Presbyterian Government have upon the Texts we urged to prove from them the Divine right of ruling a Elders Office 1. The first Text we urged for the divine right of the ruling Elders Office was Rom. 12. 6 7 8. which runs thus Having then Gifts differing according to the Grace given whether Prophesie let us Prophesie according to the proportion of Faith or Ministry let us wait on our Ministry or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation He that giveth â—et him do it with simplicity He that ruleth with diligence He that sheweth mercy with cheerfulness Upon this Text the Provinciall Assembly of London in their Vindication do thus express themselves In which words say they we have a perfect enumeration of all the ordinary Offices of the Church These Offices are reduced first to two generall heads Prophesie and Ministry and are therefore set down in the Abstract By Prophesie is meant the Faculty of right understanding interpreting and expounding the Scriptures Ministry comprehends all other Employments in the Church Then these generals are subdivided into the speciall Offices contained under them and are therefore put down in the Concrete Under Prophesie are contained 1. He that teacheth that is the Doctor or Teacher 2. He that exhorteth i. e. the Pastor Under Ministry are comprised 1. He that giveth that is the Deacon 2. He that ruleth that is the ruling Elder 3. He that sheweth mercy which * Office pertained unto them who in those dayes had care of the sick So that in these words we have the ruling Elder plainly set down and contradistinguished from the teaching and exhorting Elder as appears by the distributive Particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether he that teacheth whether he that exhorteth whether he that ruleth c. And here likewise we have the Divine Institution of the ruling Elder for so the words hold forth Having then gifts differing according to the Grace that is given unto us And this also in the third Verse According as God hath dealt to every man c. This Officer is the Gift of Gods free Grace to the Church for the good of it Thus far the Provinciall Assembly of London And then they vindicate the Text from what is objected against it The London Ministers in their Jus divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici do urge the Argument drawn hence for the Jus divinum of the ruling Elders Office more fully After they had given a view of the scope and contexture of the Chapter and given the like exposition of the Text quoting also Paraeus and Piscator and Calvin and Beza on the place who give the same exposition as is manifest to him that will but consult those Interpreters upon the Text they then do argue thus from this place Major Whatsoever 1 Members of Christs organical body have an 2 ordinary 3 Office of ruling therein given 4 them of God 5 distinct from all other ordinary standing Officers in the Church 6 together with direction from God how they are to rule they are the ruling Elders we seek and that Jure divino Minor But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. He that ruleth mentioned in Rom. 12. 8. is a 1 Member of Christs Organicall Body having an 2 ordinary 3 Office of ruling therein 4 given him of God 5 distinct from all other standing Officers in the Church 6 together with direction how he is to rule Conclus Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. He that ruleth mentioned in Rom. 12. 8. is the ruling Elder we seek and that Jure divino The severall particulars noted in the Major and Minor Propositions they do distinctly prove and are too large here to transcribe but they may be seen all made good from Pag. 125. to Pag. 131. And to which we refer the Reader Then they proceed to vindicate this Text from the severall exceptions made against the alledging of it for the proof of the Divine right of the ruling Elders Office by Feild Sutlive Bilson from Pag. 130. to pag. 136. And as touching Dr. Sutlive they have a remarkable passage which they note in the Margin pag. 131. which we think fit to recite in their own words which are as followeth As for this Dr. Sutlive divers times hereafter mentioned the Reader may please to take notice here once for all that he told a reverend Minister in London yet living and ready if need were to testifie the same upon Oath who declared it to one of the Authors of this Treatise Feb. 16. 1646. That he was sorry with all his heart that ever he put Pen to Paper to write against Beza as he had done in the behalf of the proud domineering Prelates And he spoke this with great indignation It is good for men then to take heed that they be not too hot for the Prelacy nor too earnest in contending against the Office of ruling Elders for we see they may come to repent hereof before they die 2. In the next place follows 1 Cor. 12. 28. And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles then gifts of healing helps Governments diversities of Tongues The Provinciall Assembly of London in their Vindication urge this Text thus Here we have an enumeration of sundry Officers of the Church and amongst others there are Helps Governments By Helps are meant Deacons as not onely our reformed Divines but Chrysostome and Estius and others observe And by Governments are meant the ruling Elders That this may the better appear they do here prove six things 1. That by Governments are meant men exercising Government the Abstract being put for the Concrete which they shew appears first by the beginning of the Verse God hath set some in his Church which relates to Persons not to Offices Secondly By the 29 and 30 Verses where the Apostle speaks Concretively of those things which he had spoken of before Abstractively Are all Workers of Miracles Have all the gifts of Healing Do all speak with Tongues c. And so by consequence Are all Helpers are all Governours 2. That the Governour here meant must needs be a Church Governour not the civil Magistrate because this is beside the whole scope of the Chapter treating meerly on Spirituall Church Matters not at all of Secular or Civil Because also it is said expresly That he is seated in the Church Now the Magistrate as such is not placed by God in the Church but in the Common-weale And lastly Because the Apostle writes of such Governours that had at that time
actuall existence in the Church whereas neither then nor some hundred years after was there any Christian Magistrate 3. That this Church-Governour is seated by God in his Church and so is a Plant of Gods one planting 4. That this Church Governour is a Church Officer For though it be a question amongst the Learned whether some of the persons here named as the Workers of Miracles and those that had the Gift ef Healing and of Tongues were seated by God as Officers in the Church and not rather only as eminent Members endued with these eminent Gifts yet it is most certain that whosoever is seated by God in his Church as a Church-Governour must needs be a Church Officer For the nature of the Gift doth necessarily imply an Office which they do further shew from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Governments being a Metaphor taken from Pilots or Ship-masters governing their Ships 5. That this Church-Governour is an ordinary and perpetuall Officer in his Church as they shew does appear from the perpetuall necessity of him in the Church a Church without Government being as a Ship without a Pilot as a Kingdome without a Magistrate as a World without a Sun 6. That this Church-governour is an Officer contradistinguished in the Text from the Apostles Prophets Teachers and all other Officers in the Church This they prove 1. By the Apostles manner of expressing their Offices in an enumerative form first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles then Gifts of Healing c. 2. By the Recapitulation V. 29. 30. Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Are all Workers of Miracles c. 3. By the scope of the whole Chapter which is to set down different Gifts and Offices in different Subjects as they do more at large shew answering an Objection and then shewing that this Interpretation which they have given is not onely the Interpretation of reformed Divines both Lutherans and Calvenists but of the ancient Fathers and even the Papists themselves And here they quote Gerhardus de ministerio ecclesiastico Calvin in locum P. Martyr in locum Beza in locum Piscator in locum Ambrose in locum Chrysost in locum Salmer in loc Septimo loco ponit gubernatores i. e. eos qui praesunt aliis gubernant plebemque in Offici◠continent Et Ecclesia Christi habet suam politiam cum pastor per se omnia praestare non posset adjungebantur duo Presbyteri de quibus dixit qui bene praesunt presbyteri duplici honore digni habeantur maxime qui laborant verbo doctrina qui una cum pastore deliberabant de ecclesiae cura instauratione qui etiam fidei atque honestae vitae consortes erant Thus far the Provinciall Assembly of London The London Ministers in their Jus divinum do urge the Argument hence thus Major Whatsoever Officers God himself now under the new Testament hath set in the Church as Governours therein distinct from all other Church-governours whether extraordinary or ordinary they are the ruling Elders we enquire after and that Jure divine Minor But the Governments named in 1 Cor. 12. 28. are Officers which God himself now under the new Testament hath set in the Church as Governours therein distinct from all other Church-governours whether extraordinary or ordinary The Major being in it self cleer they prove the Minor in the severall Branches of it proving 1. That the Church here spoken of is the Church of Christ now under the N. T. 2. That the Governments here mentioned are Officers set in this Church not out of the Church as Rulers governing therein 3. That they are set not by man but by God himself 4. That these Governments thus set in the Church are distinct not onely from all Governours out of the Church but also from all governing Officers within the Church Whence the Conclusion is inferred Therefore these Governments in 1 Cor. 12. 28. are the ruling Elders enquired after and that Jure divino This Argument thus urged is confirmed in the severall Branches of it from Pag. 136. to Pag. 144. And after they vindicate the urging of this Text for this purpose from the severall exceptions made against the same by Dr. Feild Sutlive Whitgift Mr. Coleman and Bilson from Pag. 144. to Pag. 150. 3. The third and last Text we urged for the Divine right of ruling Elders Office was 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine For the understanding of whichwords the Provinciall Assembly of London lay down this Rule That every Text of Scripture is to be interpreted according to the literall and Grammaticall construction unless it be contrary to the Analogy of Faith or the Rule of Life or the circumstances of the Text. Otherwise say they we shall make a Nose of Wax of the Scriptures and draw quidlibet ex quolibet And then they add Now according to the Grammaticall Construction there are plainly held forth two sorts of Elders The one only ruling and the other also labouring in the Word and Doctrine Then they give the true Analysis of the words thus 1. Here is a Genus a General and that is Elders 2. Two distinct Species or kinds of Elders Those that rule well and those that labour in Word and Doctrine as Pastor and Doctor 3. We have two Particles expressing these two kinds of Elders Ruling Labouring The first do onely rule the second do also labour in Word and Doctrine 4 Here are two distinct Articles distinctly annexed to these two Participles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that rule they that labour 5. Here is an eminent discretive Particle set before these two kinds of Elders these two Participles these two Articles evidently distinguishing one from the other Viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially they that labour c. They do urge out of Dr. Whitaker That it is absurd to say that this Text is to be understood of one and the same Elder If a man should say All the Students in the University are worthy of double honour especially they that are Professors of Divinity he must necessarily understand it of two sorts of Students Or if a man should say All Gentlemen that do Service for the Kingdomes in their Counties are worthy of double honour especially they that do Service in the Parliament this must needs be understood of different persons And however they do take notice that Archbishop Whilgift Bishop King Bishop Bilson Bishop Downame and others labour to fasten divers other Interpretations upon these words yet they observe that all other senses that are given of these words are either such as are disagreeing from the literall and Grammaticall Construction or such as fall into one of these two absurdities either to maintain a Non preaching Ministry or a lazy preaching Ministry to deserve double honour and which they make to appear particularly as
all Synods promiscuously to be admitted so he would have their decrees that are produced to be examined according to the rule of Scripture notwithstanding that reverence which he from whom therein we differ not doth give them But you may see he further goes on and adds Vtinam eum omnes modum servarent quem praescribâ—t Augustinus libro adversus Maximinum tertio Nam cum hunc haereticum de syncdorum decretis litigantem breviter vult compescere Nec â—go inquit Nicenam Synodum tibi nec tu mihi Aâ—iminensem debes tanquam praejudicaturus objicere Nec ego hujus authoritate nec tu illius detineris Scripturarum authoritatibus non quorumcunque propriis sed quae utrisque sunt communes res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum rotione certet The intelligent Reader will hereby sufficiently perceive that however Calvin gives due respect unto Councils yet both he and Augustine whom he cites would have all Controversies touching matters of Religion to be determined by the Authorities or Testimonies of Scriptures And however he presently after saith That those ancient Synods the Nicene Constantinopolitan the first Ephesine and that at Chalcedon and the like we do willingly receive and reverence as holy Quantum attinet ad fidei dâ—gmata So far as concerns the Doctrines of Faith let that be marked and acknowledgeth that they containe nothing but the pure Native interpretation of the Scriptures Yet what is that to what you would father upon him Viz. That there can be no better sence nor interpretation of the Scriptures then what is given by the Fathers in such Councils All that Calvin saith is That he acknowledgeth these Councils did in Doctrinals rightly interpret the Scriptures but he would not have their interpretation of Scripture for to be the rule of its interpretation as in your next Paper when there is a difference about interpretation of Scripture you assert it ought to be and which there you alledging this place of Calvin would represent him to patronize and for which purpose you do also seem to alledge him here Although the Reader by what hath been quoted out of him in this Section will see the contrary Besides that he did not say touching matters of Discipline and Government which are the things onely in Controversie betwixt you and us those Councils he spake of did containe nothing but the pure and native interpretation of the Scriptures but limited the same to Doctrinals as we have shewed And therefore we leave it to the Reader to judge whether you have thus far dealt fairely with Calvin or no. You also quoted the thirteenth Section of this ninth Chapter lib. 4. But there we find onely that he expresseth himselfe thus Nos certe libenter concedimus si quo de dogmate incidat disceptat nullum esse nec melius nec certius remedium quam si verorum Episcopoâ—um Synodus conveniat ubi controversum dogma excutiatur He acknowledgeth then that when a Controversie doth arise there is no better nor surer remedy for the determining it then by a Synod of true Bishops which are the Bishops mentioned in Timâ—thy and Titus in Calvins sence but yet he concludes that very Section thus Hoc autem perpetuum esse nego ut vera certa sit scripturae interpretatio quae conâ—ilii suffragiis fuerit recepta i. e. But this I deny to be perpetuall that that is a true and certain interpretation of Scripture which hath been received by the Suffrages of a Council And if we should here press you to that which Calvin saith as touching this point Seeing it hath been determined by the late Synod or Assembly of Divines that As there were in the Jewish Church Elders of the people joyned with the Priests Levites in the Government of the Church as appeareth in the 2 Chron. 19. 8 9 10 so Christ hath instituted a Government and Governors Ecclesiasticall in the Church hath furnished some in his Church besides the Ministers of the Word with Gifts for Goverment and with Commission to execute the same when called thereunto who are to joyn with the Minister in the Government of the Church Rom. 12. 7 8. 1 Cor. 12. 2. 8. which Officers reformed Churches commonly call Elders You ought nor against their determination touching this matter in Controversie betwixt you and us by your opposition to trouble and disturb the peace of the Church and which is that which seems to be clearly Calvins mind in this Section This for the Vindication of Calvin is we hope sufficient As touching the Fathers you wish us to consult on Rom. 12. intimating out of Doctor Andrews That not one of them applyeth it to the Church Government and as much you say may be sayd for the other Texts not one Father in their Comment giveth such a sense and which you are so confident of that you offer that if we find one exposition for us you will yeild us all Unto this we say 1. That we believe all wise and sober Readers will easily discern that your over-much confidence hath put you on to over-shoot a great deal too far For we can hardly be brought to perswade our selves that you have any of you much less all of you who are the Subscribers of this Paper consulted all the Fathers upon any and much less upon all these Texts And if so it was a great deal too much presumption to make such an offer upon the Testimony of Doctor Andrews that yet is alledged by you to speak but to onely one of the Texts or any other having not consulted all the Fathers your selves and that upon every Text. For what an hazard do you put your Cause upon If but one Father be produced against you in this matter if you should be taken at your word it is quite lost And if it be Gods Cause and Truth you stand for can you be excused that you have offered to quit it upon such easie tearms But we will be more liberall to you then to take you at such a disadvantage though you have been too presumpteously liberall in making such an offer 2. But suppose none of the Fathers could be produced thus to expound any of these Texts If from the Texts themselves and what may be urged from other places of the Scriptures both in the Old and New Testament it may be gathered that that is the meaning of them which we with sundry other moderne Authors give why should this Interpretation be rejected because not backed with the Testimony of some of the Fathers thus expounding them Is not the Scripture sufficient to expound it self This indeed is your opinion as appeareth plainly from your next Paper but the Popish unsoundness of it we question not but to discover when we come to it 3. But if the Fathers do not many of them determine the Controversie touching ruling Elders from these Texts it having been started since their time yet is it not sufficient if they
shall be severall of them found to allow of the thing it self and give testimony to the being of these Officers in the Church in their time We shall here mention onely some of those that may be alledged touching this particular And first Ambrose his words on 1 Tim. 5. 1. are full and plain to our purpose Vnde synagoga postea Ecclesia seniores habuit quorum sine consilio nihil agebatur in Ecclesia Quod qua negligentia obsoleverit nescio nisi forte doctorum desidia aut magis superbia dum sibi volunt aliquid videri i. e. Whence both the Synagogue and afterwards the Church had Elders without whose counsell nothing was done in the Church Which thing by what negligence it grew out of use I know not unless perhaps through the Teachers sloathfulness or rather haughtiness while they alone would be thought somewhat In the next place observe what Optatus saith lib. 1. Adversus Parmen Eram Ecclesie ex auro argento quam plurima â—rnamenta quae nec defodere terra nec secum poâ—tare poterat quare fidelbus Ecclesiae senioribus commendavit i. i. e. The Church had many Ornaments of Gold and Silver which she could neither hide in the Earth nor carry away with her which she committed to the Elders The Provinciall Assembly of London do observe that Albaspinaeus that learned Antiquary upon the place acknowledgeth that besides the Clergy there were certain of the Elders of the people men of approved life that did tend the Affaires of the Church of whom this place is to be understood To these we may add That Austine gives frequent intimations of the ruling Elder in his time We shall here onely mention some places In his 137. Epistle to those of his owne Church he thus directs it Dilectissimis fratribus Clero Senioribus universae plebi Ecclesiae Hipponensis i. e. To the most beloved Brethren the Clergy Elders and all the people of the Church at Hippo. Where we see Elders are mentioned distinctly and are interposed between the Clergy and the people as distinct from both Again De verb. Dom. Serm. 19. Cum ob errorem aliquem asâ—nioribus arguuntur imputatur alicui de illis cur ebrius fuerit c. When they are reprehended for any errour by the Elders and its imputed to any of them why was he drunk c. So againe Lib. 3. contra Cresconium cap. 56. Peregrinus Presbyter seniores Musticanae regionis Peregrine the Presbyter and the Elders of the Mustican Region And long before him Origen contra Celsum lib. 3. hath this passage Nonnulli praepositi sunt qui in vitam mores eorum qui admittuntur inquirant ut qui turpia committant iis communi caelu interdicant c i. e. There are some Rulers appointed who may enquire concerning the Conversation and manners of those that are admitted that they may debar from the common Assembly such as commit filthiness This place of Origen is clear for ruling Elders whose work it is to enquire into the Conversation and manners of those that are admitted to communicate with the Congregation at the Lords Table and is so understood by others as well as our selves We might alledge more Testimonies of the Fathers for the proof of what we are in hand with but that we judge these sufficient Even those that do oppose the ruling Elders Office with too much vehemency are forced to confess that besides Pastors and Doctors and besides Magistrates and Elders of the City there are to be found in Antiquity Seniores ecclesiastici Ecclesiasticall Elders also But they will have them to be onely as our Church-wardens or rather as our Vestry-men as one of them speaks See the Author of Episcopacy by divine right pag. 146. whereas the Testimonies alledged shew they were Rulers and Judges in Causes Ecclesiasticall and did assist the Ministers of the Word in the ruling and governing of the Church which being very clear from the above mentioned Testimonies and others of the like kind another zealous enough against them would have them to be some or other in chief Rank amongst the rest of the people taken in occasionally for advice and present assistance and so an extraordinary kind of Church-Guardians without any peculiar and setled Jurisdiction Which is but gratis dictum sayd without all proof See Velitatienes polemicae by I. D. pag. 96 But at last this Author as not satisfied with former Answers given and granting that the Fathers in truth do make for them as indeed they do yet he would not have their Testimonies amount to so much as to the clearing up of Divine Right so strongly stood upon by divers as he speaks But the matter of Fact then is granted that there were such Ecclesiastical Officers which the Fathers owned and allowed of And being the Divine Right of their Office was not then questioned it is as easie for us to affirm that as those Fathers did not deny it so they owned it as it is for that Author to say That they were but admitted as an expedient and behoovefull Order in the Church or on prudentiall grounds To use his own expressions quoted before Vide Pag. 96. Sect. 30. Although this being granted will be sufficient to vindicate this Office of the ruling Elder from all suspition of novelty and to shew That it was no new fangled device of Calvin at Gevena as some tauntingly have sayd And for your admittance of the ruling Elder this might be sufficient for your satisfaction as we think according to your Principles But now to return to the Texts alledged by us to prove the Divine Right of the ruling Elders Office After you had sent us to the Fathers to consult them you tell us Many there are that apply them to the Bishops and amongst these you instance Doctor Fulk applying these Texts to the Bishops onely whom you say you quote in regard of the moderate Judgment he was supposed to be of in point of Church-government c. But you having not dealt so fairely with Calvin as had been meet you must pardon us if we cannot take the matter you quote him for upon trust and from your representation of him You do not here cite the place but for what reason your selves best know as we leave it to the Reader for to judge But the words that you alledge out of him though mangled by you we find in him in his Answer to the Rhemists on Titus 1. 5. And we shall give them the Reader intirely and at full length and they are these Amongst whom speaking of the Clergy for Order and seemly Government there was alwaies one Principall to whom by long use of the Church the name of Bishop or superintendent hath been applyed Which Room Titus exercised at Crete Timothy in Ephesus and others in other places Therefore although in Scripture a Bishop and an Elder is of one Order and Authority in preaching the Word and administration of
Brethren of one and the same Church and Fellowship And we know not what other Church you mean but the Church of England some of you that are the Subscribers of this Paper not being Members of the particular Church at Manchester nor any of you acknowledging or owning our Presbyterian Classicall Church or Association And therefore you here take us to be of the same Church of England with your selves and confess that we are in fellowship with it notwithstanding Episcopacy be taken away and which is that which we our selves do constantly profess 2. That that Episcopacy that was submitted to by the Ministers of this Land of later times was burthensome and grievous It spoyled the Pastors of that power which of right did belong unto them and which they did not onely anciently exercise as Doctor Vsher shews in his Reduction of Episcopacy to the form of Synodicall Government received in the ancient Church Pag. 3 4 5. but which also by the order of the Church of England as the same Author out of the Book of Ordination shews did belong unto them For he there saith By the Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received and that they might better understand what the Lord hath commanded them the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed 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 All which power the Pastors were deprived of during the prevalency of Episcopacy the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven being taken out of their hands they having neither power to cast out of the Church the vilest of Offenders that were often kept in against their minds nor any power to restore into the Churches Communion such as had been never so unjustly excommunicated though of the best of their Flock And so that Episcopacy that formerly was submitted unto was a plain and manifest usurpation upon the Pastors Office and Authority was very oppressive and grievous unto the Church and injurious to her Communion and whereupon it will follow that there is no breach of that Union which ought to be maintained in the Church by not admitting of it again but rather the Churches peace the power that of right belongs unto the Pastors and the Priviledges of the Members are all better secured in the absence then in the presence of it 3. That however both godly Conformists as well as Nonconformists did groan under the burthensomness of it yet in licitis honest is they submitted and yielded Obedience to it whilst it continued established by the Laws of the Land And that out of respect to the peace of the Church although they did not thereby take themselves obliged to forbeare the use of any lawfull means for their deliverance from that bondage as opportunity was offered And hereupon they petitioned the Parliament of late for an abolition of it as had been formerly desired in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James as when other Laws have been found to be inconvenient and mischievous it was never accounted any disturbance of the civil peace to remonstrate the grievousness of such Laws to the Parliament that they might be abolished 4. Let it also be further weighed that that Episcopacy to which you would perswade us by this Argument to return is now abolished and taken away by the Authority of Parliament as appears by the Acts and Ordinances for that purpose See them cited in our Animadversions on your next Paper Sect. 4. And therefore both the Bishops as such and that Superiority which they challenged and exercised over the Ministers in this Land are dead in Law and so there can be no guilt of Schisme lying on the Ministers in this Land for not returning to that Canonicall Obedience that is not hereupon any longer due or for not submitting themselves to that power and jurisdiction that is extinct There is the greater strength in this consideration if it be observed 1. That whatever Jurisdiction the Diocesan Bishops did exercise over Presbyters they did obtain onely by the Law of the Land and Canon of the Church 2. That the Parliament did lawfully take away that Jurisdiction from them and had therein the concurrence of a reverend and learned Assembly of Divines The first of these Propositions is clear upon this consideration that the Scripture makes a Bishop and a Presbyter all one This is clear from Titus 1. Ver. 5. compared with the seventh whence it appears that those whom the Apostle had called Elders or Presbyters Ver. 5. he calls Bishops Ver. 7. And indeed otherwise he had reasoned very inconsequently when laying down the qualifications of Elders Ver. 6. he saith Ver. 7. For a Bishop c. For a Bishop must be blameless Whereunto may be added that other known place Act. 20. 17. compared with Ver. 28. For the Apostle saith to those Elders that the Holy-ghost had made them Bishops or Overseers of the Church Besides what Office the Bishops had that the Elders had Both are charged to feed the Flock of Christ Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 12. and which is both by Doctrine and Government The Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven were committed to them Mat. 16. 19. both the Key of Doctrine and the Key of Discipline The former is not denyed and for the other it is proved from 1 Thes 5. 12. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. where we see they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are over them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that rule well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that rule And for power to Ordain we may see its plain from 1 Tim. 4. 14. where Timothy is charged not to neglect the Gift that was in him which was given him by Prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery This Text you your selves tell us in your next Paper Sect. 5. is understood by the Greek Fathers as Ignatius Chrysostome Theodoret Theophylact Oecumenius and others and some few of the Latines also Of the company of Presbyters i. e. Bishops who lay hands on the new made Bishops or Priests But from these several Texts thus urged it is very manifest that the Scripture makes a Bishop and a Presbyter both one or one and the same order of Ministry And hereupon it follows that whatever Jurisdiction the Diocesan Bishops exercised over Presbyters they had it not by Divine Right but obtained it onely by the Law of the Land and Canon of the Church And thus the first Proposition is clear We now come to make good the second And that the Parliament did lawfully take away the Jurisdiction and whole Office of Diocesan Bishops
and the best rule too and by which you are bound up which what is it else then to build your faith in such cases upon their judgement and so to submit to them as we said too much And seeing there is almost no point of faith but it is controverted if all such points must be judged such matters as about which there is doubt and difficulty and not plainly set forth in Gods word then in all such cases it must be the Churches exposition of the Scriptures and practice as you do insisinuate that must be the rule by which you must be guided and that on which in such cases your faith must be built and which when we come to the sixth Section we shall shâ—w to be very unsound and with the Papists in whole or in part to resolve your faith into the determinations of men the exposition of the Church or of Synods and Councils that are the Church representative The Reader by this account may perceive that in this respect you submitted too much to Synods and Councils and a great deal further then ever we submitted as is manifest from what we have shewed was in this our declared judgement in our answer to your first Paper But we shall now further proceed to give the Reader our Reason why if Synods and Councils and you say of these you shall submit to any that shall come hereafter should determine against you we feared in regard of their juridical authority you would submit too little There is betwixt you and us a controversie touching the superiority of Bishop above Presbyters we deny it you herein are for the affirmative You assert in the very next Section that Ae rius was condemned for heresie for asserting this parity of Church-Officers and it is Bishops and Presbyters only that are there spoken of There is also another controversie betwixt you and us touching ruling Elders whether they be by divine right or no you herein deny and we affirme In these matters then we shall take it for granted till you deny it that you yeild there is a doubt and difficulty and touching which you will not have the Scripture to be so plain but that Fathers and Councils must be consulted in these cases and which was the reason why in the case of the ruling Elder you sent us to them for to consult what exposition they gave of the Texts that we alleadged for the divine right of those Officers Now the Question is whether you will submit to the determination of Synods and Councils in regard of their juridical authority As touching the first of these matters in difference we shall in our Animadversions on your next Section shew that there are Fathers that determine against you As touching the other concerning ruling Elders we have in our Answer to your second Paper shewed there are several Fathers that do give in clear evidence touching the being of this Officer in their times But as touching this Officer vvhether he be an Officer of the Church by divine right vve have not read of any general Council before vvhom this case in controversie vvas brought much less that they determined against vvhat in this point vve hold but vve suppose that from vvhat you or vve may alledge out of Fathers or Councils of ancienter times these points vvill not be found to be determined but there vvill be a difference betvvixt us still What then is it that you vvill submit to To a general Council that shall come hereafter If so and that you vvill give that due respect to Synods and Councils that may be hereafter in regard of their juridical Authority Then untill a general Council may be had that may be regularly and duely called and rightly constituted seeing the matters in difference betvvixt you and us have been tryed and examined judged and determined against you and for us by a reverend and learned Synod and Assembly of Divines against vvhomâ— your exception against our Provincial Assembly in regard of the Elders being admitted there as members lyes not that was called by the Authority of the Civil power of this Nation under which we live you ought to testifie your submission to that Synod and not contrary to their resolution of the cases in difference and the Ordinances of Parliament for the Presbyterian-Government and against Episcopacy disturb the peace of the Church by publishing your own private judgments if their determinations had been against us and we had published ours in the cases in difference you would have called them our fancies and thereby testifie what little respect you have to their resolutions Upon this consideration we cannot but think that if a general Council should hereafter come and determine these cases against you you that now submit not would not submit then And so the upshot of the matter would be this that if in these or such like cases in controversie you were otherwise resolved in your judgements you would not submit to the determination of a general Council in regard of their juridical authority only if they determined according to your resolutions then you would submit wherein notwithstanding your great professions of submission you do not submit much Fourthly But now you find your selves agrieved because when you said you did publish this your sense and apprehension of our Paper as far as it was plain to you we leaving out the words as far as it was plain to you dealt not fairly with you for you say those words carry another sense with them then indeed we did understand them in that is as here you explain your selves so far as the matter contained in our Paper was plain to you you closed and joyned with us being as you say you explain your selves afterward so fully warranted thereunto by the word of God and constant practice of the Catholick Church that therein so far as it is thus made plain to you you shall not submit your apprehensions to the judgement of a general Council but now your complaint of us is that by leaving those words out which you thus explain we represent you as if where matters were not so plain but doubtfull you refused to submit The truth is we took these words referring to our Paper so far as it is plain to us in opposition to obscurity and darkness you after complaining that other parts of our Paper were full of darkness and then though we left those words out yet we could not conceive we wronged you therein being you could not profess your closure and joyning with us in any thing in our Paper any further then you understood our plain meaning But seeing you here otherwise explain your selves and say you did it before we will be more liberal to you then you are to us afterwards and shall allow you the liberty to explain your selves though we do not think that the sound and orthodox Reader will judge that your opinion thus explained and which you have here declared touching your
new tearmed Assembly not for the words sake Assembly but first in regard of the word Provincial although that in the judgement of Dr. Usher who in his reduction of Episcopacy unto the forme of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church doth expresly mention among his proposals as we said also in our answer the Provincial Synod would not have been accused of novelty but that which you are here offended at is that this County of Lancaster should be tearmed the Province of Lancaster and the Synods and Assemblies therein convened should be tearmed Provincial for which yet you have little reason if you had considered all this was done by the authority of Parliament who had power to bound the Province and the Synod or Assembly to be held thereih for the ordering and regulating the affairs of the Church within the bounds set as they judged to be most convenient And seeing that a Synod within the bounds of a County may meet more frequently with conveniency for the regulating the affairs of the several Classical Presbyteries within those bounds then if the bounds had been larger especially if so large as to have comprehended within them several Counties as formerly the two Provinces of York and Canâ—erbury comprehended all the Counties within the Land and which doubtless the Parliament considered when they ordered Decemb. 21. 1646. That the several Classes in Luncashire should be one Province and of which we had before given you an account in our answer to your first Paper if you had acquiesced in the authority of Parliament as sufficient for the ordering of such a matter you would not have found fault with this for its novelty all Laws that are newly made though for the ease of the suâ—jâ—cts being as liable to exception in that respect as this Your next reason why you charge our Provincial Assembly with novelty is in regard of the place at Preston but this exception was prevented in our answer unto which here you make no reply when we said if Provincial Assemblies be warrantable and have been of ancient use in the Church that having been long in disuse they of late began to be held at Preston that could not justly incurre your censure and certainly the most famous Synods and Councils that have been or that may be hereafter must be all accused in regard of novelty if this be a sufficient ground of accusation even the first four general Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon those being all as new in regard of their places where they were assembled at the time of their first meeting there having been never such Assemblies convened in those places before as our Provincial Assembly was or is that met and still ordinarily doth at Preston But perhaps there is more strength in the last reason why you charge it to be a new termed Provincial Assembly when you say it is new in respect of the persons constituting this Assembly lay-men presiding and ruleing and having decisive voyces in as ample a manner as the highest and chiefest in holy Orders nor doth Bishop Usher as you say or what we alleadge out of him make for such an Assembly But here 1. We must minde you that we did not cite Dr. Usher for to prove the antiquity of Provincial Assemblies in regard of these members constituting them Let our answer be perused it will be found to alleadge him for to prove the antiquity of the Assemblies of the Pastors of the Churches for the ordering Church affairs and having the power of ruleing them and because we did not know whether you were not so fond on Prelacy as not to allow of these Assemblies we quoted Dr. Usher for to prove their antiquity neither did we conceive that Dr. Usher would have judged these Assemblies where the Pastors of the Churches are members to have been wholly new or the Pastors to have lost their authority in them because the ruling Elders are admitted into them as members whatever his own thoughts might be concerning them 2. But as touching them we must further minde you of what we have said before that they are not meer lay-men but duely and orderly called to an Ecclesiastical Office although they never praeside in these Assemblies as moderatours And further that we have proved from antiquity in our answer to your second Paper the being of such an Officer in the Church in the time of Origen Ambrose Augustine Optatus and which is so clear that the adversaries of this Officer cannot deny it only they would have him to have been as an extraordinary Church-guardian or admitted on prudential grounds which yet is but gratis dictum as we have said 3. We shall now only further add what is well observed by the Provincial Assembly of London that Sutlivius a Prelatical Divine and otherwise an opposer of the Office of ruling Elders de concil lib. 1. cap. 8. saith that among the Jews Seniores Tribuum the Elders of the Tribes did sit with the Priests in judging controversies of the Law of God hence he argues against Bellarmine that so it ought to be in the Christian Church also because the priveledge of Christians is no less then the priveledge of the Jewes And it is not denyed by other Prelatica Divines but by them held and proved that men of abilities which are not Ministers are to be admitted into general Councils as they have been also anciently and which is too manifest to be denyed it appearing to have been so from the ancientest historians and subscriptions of Councils and to vote in them as members of these Assemblies And therefore however the ruling Elders be be admitted into our Provincial Assemblies as members whom you account to be but lay-men and have decisive votes there the Assembly should not by you have been accused of novelty in this respect for you see such as were no Ministers have been anciently admitted into Synods and Councils to vote there as members according to the old rule Quod tangit omnes debet tractari ab omnibus The Gentlemens Paper Sect. IV. Well! bâ—t you say we go on and tell you c. But had your professions and expressions for Peace and Unity been as reall and as cordiall as ours we had proceeded no further in this way of Rejoynder but closed hands and hearts together as in our last humble address appeareth Which certainly might have found a more ready compliance and merited a far more civil and satisfactory Answer from such cordiall wishers of Peace and Unity such godly and sober such moderate spirited men as you pretend to be But you have required we should go on and accordingly we go on to tell you that other parts of your Paper are full of darkness To which you thus Answer We cannot apprehend any such darkness in our Paper as you speak of but because you question what Authority we have from the civil Magistrate and the extent of it and your mistakes of our meaning may perhaps some
or tendered his judgment as an umpire and composer of differences betwixt us as you here say although we reverence him as a man that was learned and godly and of a farre different spirit from the generality of those that dote upon Episcopacy but for what purpose we quoted him and how farre we accord with him we have as in answer to this occasionally so fully declared our sâ—lves before in our answer to your second Paper And therefore you should not have been thus rash as to impute such things to us for which there is not the least shew of truth as there is not any in what you further adde saying that you would have closed with us on our own termes unto which we have spoken sufficiently in the beginning of this answer to this Paper shewing how much you forgot your selves when you said so before And we must further tell you that however you may conceive of us yet we can still profess with a good conscience that we can cordially our selves joyn in Dr. Bernards wish and heartily recommend it to all sober spirited and godly persons that are sound in the main points of Religion though of different opinions in some things touching Church Government that they would close therein there be nothing more that we long after then an happy healing of breaches amongst those that are the children of peace 4. We having thus vindicated our selves do now come to what followes where you say that Presbytery in the Fathers and Scripture expressions you reverence but ours you still term a common fold and thâ—se godly pretences of ours as you call them as so many waste Papers wherein our Presbytery you say is wrapped to make it look more handsomely and pass more currantly But if you had reverenced Scripture expressions as it had been meet you should you would have abstained from terming our Presbytery a common fold that Presbytery which you acknowledge to be the Scripture expression according to the interpretation of the Fathers by you alleadged being thereby reproached that being Presbytery still and part of that that by you is so ignominiously spoken of as seeing it is disputed betwixt you and us whether ruling Elders be not comprehended under the latitude of the word Presbytery when speech is touching the Ecclesiastical judicatory due reverence unto Scriptural institutions would have withheld you from coming near to the vilifying that which you are not certain but may be of God especially considering how the reformed Churches abroad the late reverend pious and learned Assembly of Divines at home the Provincial Assembly of London and the Ministers of the Provincial Assembly of this County to which you owe respect do all conceive the ruling Elders to be Officers of the Church appointed therein by Christ and so consequently may be comprehended under the latitude of the word Presbytery But the truth is we have cause to fear that you or most of you are so much devoted to Episcopacy that Presbytery in any sense is not any further in esteem with you as any Government of the Church to be owned by you but as you apprehend in this juncture of affairs it being admitted for the present with Prelacy moderated might be a step to erect again in time Episcopacy in its full height and which we judge to be that cause which in your Preface to these Papers you have printed you profess to love as we do also conceive we may further say without transgression of any rules of charity that if the late King had not been too much bent for the upholding of that kind of Episcopacy that was on foot in his time that spoiled the Pastors of the Churches of that rule which our Church acknowledged did of right belong to them and had not been therein backed with the concurrence of some of you and sundry others throughout the Land that were therein fully of his mind the proposals of Dr. Usher touching the reduction of Episcopacy to the forme of Synodical Government had been more readily complied with then they were to the prevention in likelihood in a good measure of those troubles that afterward did arise about Church Government But however there was no reason why either he or you should have called Presbytery a common fold or why you should though you had been backed with the authority of the greatest Prince on earth have called it the anguis in herbâ whereof you had need to beware and to which you here say nothing though you used that expression concerning it in your first Paper And whereas you had also there said referring to the Paper we published in our several Congregations that she came ushered in with godly pretence of sorrow for the sins and ignorance of the times and the duty incumbent on us to exercise the power that Christ had committed to us for edification and not destruction and then said that these were but so many wast Papers wherein Presbytery was wrapped up to make it look more handsomely and pass more currently yet that is no purgation of you from your uncharitable censuring of us and usurping that which belonged not to you in making your selves judges of that which fell not under your cognizance and which was that which we had charged you with in our answer but from which you do not here acquit yourselves But as touching our selves we are not conscious that we have so farre transgressed the rules of charity in passing hard censures either upon him you or any others but that we may approve our selves here to God touching our innocency herein and the sincerity of our hearts and hereafter stand with boldness before the Tribunal of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ at the great day and we do heartily wish that neither any of you or any others throughout these Nations who adhered to the late King in that war he levyed against the Parliament had given the occasion justly to be complained of at that day as therein his greatest enemies The Gentlemens Paper Sect. VI. And now we come you say to frame an Objection out of your Paper and return our Answer profeising that we pray for the establishment of such a Church Government throughout his Highness Dominions as is consonant to the will of God and Universal practise of primitive Churches By which two viz. the will of God and Uinversal practise of Churches we seem to make up the rule as you say for deciding of Controversies of this Nature or of any other in matters of Religion In which you profess to differ greatly from us as not sound and orthodox For the Word of God is the onely rule to judg of matters of this Nature or of any other matters of Religion and therefore away with the constant and Universal practise of the Church We might have cut the matter a great deal shorter and said That we are for the establishment of that Government that is most consonant to the will of God revealed in
for interpreting of Scripture or that judging the Government of the Church by Patriarchs Metropolitans Archbishops Bishops then Chancellours and Commissaries Deanes Deanes and Chapters Arcadeacâ—ns and other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchie not to be a Government agreeable o the will of God and universall practice of Primitive Churches do therefore cast it off which yet w fear are Articles in fome mens Creeds 5. But having spoken what we judge sufficient unto what you have alleadged out of the Council of Nice and to what you further have urged for the proving of that which you do here cite it for we shall now proceed to consider what you have to say against our Government as not being that which is most consonant to the will of God revealed in Scripture and to prove that the ruling Elders are not jure divino nor any such Officers appointed by Christ in his word but that they may be parted with without any danger of betraying the truth of Christ Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 1 Tim. 5. Now here we might have reasonably expected that you should have urged some arguments to have proved that ruling Elders are not meant in these Texts considering what more large satisfaction you promised in your second Paper afterward if what was comprehended therein was not judged satisfactory But we find that notwistanding your large promises and confident and high undertakings you discover barrenness in arguing though what is wanting in reasons you make out in foul language yet we shall consider the utmost that you say First in answer to these Texts you say they are too generall to prove a ruling Presbytery out of But this you should have made good and not magisterially have asserted it as you do without all proof But you think it is enough that we have been often told so by many more learned Doctors of our Church And we must tell you who it seems reckon your selves in the number of these learned Doctors that it is a greater part of learning to prove these Texts to be too general to prove a ruling Presbytery out of then only to say so much as by that account which we have given you in our second Paper we have there shewed that both the Provincial Assembly of London in their vindication of the Presbyterian Government and the London Ministers in their Jus divinum regiminis Ecclesiastici do more then say that these Texts do hold forth such an Officer in the Church as the ruling Elder for they do also prove it yea and that he is there particularly mentioned and distinguished from all other Officers of the Church they also together with the Assertors of the Government of the Church of Scotland to whom with other reverend and learned men of our own and other reformed Churches we have referred you do answer whatever we have heard alleadged by those many more learned Doctors of our English Church that you here speak of to prove these Texts to be too generall to prove a ruling Presbytery out of And therefore it is not according to our will or what we are resolved on that the ruling Elders are found there but according to the clear evidence of strong and good reason shewing notwithstanding your scoff that the sense we have given of these Texts is the true sense and meaning of them But though you urge no argument to convince us of so great a fault yet you can readily enough accuse us of wresting the Scriptures with expositions and glosses to make them speak what they never meant and which you think is sufficiently made forth by telling us that we put such strange senses to places of Scripture as the Church of Christ never heard of till of late yeares as if nothing were to be received that is contained in Scripture as the true sense and meaning thereof but what can be confirmed to be so by the testimony of Fathers and Councils or as if all the expositions that had been given of these and other Texts of Scripture by the Church of Christ till of late yeares were now to be made evident from the writings of the Fathers that are extant shewing what the expositions given by the Church were or as if the expositions of reverend and learned Synods and Assemblies of Divines of our own or other reformed Churches having had the help of all the labours of those that had been in the Church of Christ before them backed with the evidence of Scripture reason and the circumstances of the Texts were all to be sleighted and to be had in no account both by us and you who yet profess though in your practice you shew but little of it to reverence Synods and to be ready to submit to their determination although we have also told you in our answer to your second Paper that however it being no controversie in the purest Primitive times of the Church whether ruling Elders were understood in those Texts nor this case brought before the Synods of those times that ever we have read of and so not that occasion given to the Fathers to discuss this matter upon their expositions of those Texts we are not wholly destitute of the testimony of the Fathers for the being of such an Officer as the ruling Elder in the Church and do herein referre you and the Reader to what we have said to this purpose in our answer to your second Paper But yet for all this we must with you be esteemed wresters of the Scriptures and to brand us the more you apply unto us yea to all Presbyters what Dr. Andrews taxed the Papists withall whereby you shew the esteem we are in with you in that you herein parallel us with the Popish Cardinals which is also the charity you have towards us who in your second Paper whilest you had hopes by courting us to have brought us on to a compliance with you were your dear friends nay more brethren dearly beloved to you in the Lord and this also is that more large satisfaction that you now give us in performance of your promise there made if what was comprehended in that Paper was not sufficient But having here said nothing that can have any shew of this promised satisfaction you do well to referre us to what in your second Paper you say you had further spoken of it for the Reader hence may be ready to think though he find here little but flouts and uncharitable censures yet there you had said something to the purpose which yet when it is summed up will be found to be only this sc your sending us to the Fathers to consult what interpretation they gave and telling us none of them expound these Texts as we do which yet is that you say over again here and to which there is no need to return any further answer then what hath been already made only we cannot but take notice that your way of giving satisfaction is very easie sc by ridding your hands quickly of
appoints fofeitures in case of prophanation of the Lords day by Carriers c. that travel on the Lords day or by Butchers that sell or kill victuass on that day By all which you may plainly see if you will not shut your eyes that it is not against Law that a man may come to be punished twice for one offence Nay what hath been heretofore more ordinary then the High-Commissioners imprisoning fining and excommunicating for one and the same offence But yet you will have the latter Acts and Ordinances against drunkenness swearing prophanation of the Sabbath c. enjoyning punishment by the Civil Magistrate onely though they do not speak one word that tends to the repealing of the Ordinance for Church Government to have utterly taken off all power of Excommunication But this we must not so easily grant and yet we shall not be unready as there may be occasion to complain to the civil Magistrate of any lawless persons that are justly censurable with the censure of Excommunication the conjunction of the Civil and Ecclesiasticall Sword being sharper and longer then either of them alone The Gentlemens Paper Sect. VIII And you further proceed to make answer to our severall ensuing Quaeries but how fully and satisfactorily all may judge that have perused what hath formerly been said touching the civil sanction of your Government Our first Quaerie is Why Government in singulari Your answer is Because it is the onely Government that is established in this Church by Civill Authority This Answer hath been confuted before we shall say no more here to that But we are unsatisfied what you mean by this Church whether you mean this Church at Manehester where your Classis is or you mean the Church of England If you mean this Church of Manchester of your association it is establisht not so much by Ordinance of Lords and Commons in Parliament as by later Acts grauting the free exercise of Religion in Doctrine and Worship to all Churches and Congregations in their own way to all and all alike but such as are particularly cautioned against And so you in your Presbytery in your Church at Manchester are protected because you have possessed your selves of that Church But then others in other Churches and Congregations to wit Prestwich Burie Middleton and the like may say of their way of worship it is the onely Government which is establisht in this Church But if your meaning be of the Church of England and so we conceive by the subsequent words viz. That there is no other Government but yours owned as the Church Government throughout the whole Nation You are certainly mistaken and dare not maintain it that his Highness or his Council owns Presbytery and none but that Government But leaving the Civill Sanction you come to the divine right of Presbytery and prove it to be the onely Government in singulari because it is that onely Government which Christ hath prescribed in his word and what Christ hath thus prescribed must needs be de jure one and the same in every Church And Calvins judgement you say in this particular is so manifest by his works to the whole world that it needs no proof We have told you before of the form and order of Church Government appointed by the Council of Nice by Patriarch Arch-Bishop Bishop c. How this Government which we suppose you will not say is Presbyterian is in Calvins judgement not differing from that which Christ hath prescribed in his word And in his first Section of this Chapter he tells us of Bishops not one word of Elders chosen out of the people who should rule in the Church but Bishops that did all viz. make and publish Canons a note certainly of rule and jurisdiction in the Church in which saith he they so ordered all things after the rule of Gods word that a man may see they had in a manner nothing differing from the word of God And this form of Government did represent a certain Image of divine Institution Can Calvin say more for your Presbytery nay can he say so much then how manifest is his judgement for the jus divinum of your Presbytery that it is that Government in particular which Christ hath prescribed in his word Thus have we taken off your Calvin and Beza as above your modern Doctors for Fathers you have none and now you descend to the Assembly of Divines The jus divinum by London Ministers the provincial Synod at London Rutherford Gyllaspie to prove your divine right of Presbytery modern Authors of yesterday with whom you paint your Margent in abundance and may serve your turn amongst the ignorant and vulgar sort who measure all by tale and not by weight when others that know what and who many of them are will conclude you draw very near the dregs As for such as are lawless persons and who those be whether drunkards swearers unclean persons prophaners of the Sabbath such as will not subject themselves to the present Government c. all together or a part conjunctim seu divisim whether you will they are onely punishable by the Civil Magistrate you cannot exclude them the Church by any of your censures as we have said before The Animadversions of the Class upon it 1. WE did indeed proceed to make answer to your several Queries and desire the Reader to peruse the Queries you propounded to us in your first Paper and the answer we gave unto them and then to judge how satisfactorily we did it after he had fully weighed our answer and what you have said to take off the establishing of our Government by the civil Sanction But whereas your first Query was why Government in singulari and our answer given thereunto was because it is the only Government that is established in this Church by civil Authority you say this answer hath been confuted before but how strongly we shall leave it to the Reader for to judge But it seems this answer hath raised another scruple in your mindes for you are unsatisfied what we mean by this Church although in our answer we had sufficiently explained it it being that Church wherein the Prelatical Government formerly had been set up and wherein that being put down the Presbyterian was set up in its stead as the only Government that was owned as the Church Government for the whole Nation as we had told you and which words did sufficiently declare that by this Church we meant the Church of England This you confess is that which you conceive to be our meaning yet you quarrell at the word that so upon supposal that the Church of Manchester of our Association and where our Classis meets might thereby be understood you might take the liberty to tell us that our Church Government is not so much established by the Ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament as by later Acts granting as you say the free exercise of Religion in doctrine and worship to
this be either sincere or ingenuous dealing we leave it to the Reader to judge 3. But as touching Calvin's being in his judgement for the Presbyterian Government as that which Christ hath in particular prescribed in his Word though here again you would make him a patronizer of the Government by Patriareh Archbishop Bishop c. in our answer we said was manifest from his works to the whole Christian world And is not this clear to any that will but consult what he hath written touching this matter Consult his Expositions and Commentaries Rom. 12. 7 8. 1 Cor. 12. 28. 1 Tim. 5. 17. and you will find him there to be downright for the Jus divinum of the ruling Elders Office Consult his Institutions you will there find Lib. 4. Chap. 3. Sect. 8. expresly that he takes Bishops Presbyters and Pastors for one and the same and that according to the use of Scripture as he there speakes and argues for that purpose Tit. 1. 5. Phil. 1. 1. Act. 20. 17. and having reckoned up the preaching Officers he then comes in the very same Section and mentions the ruling Elders shewing that they are mentioned by Paul Rom. 12. 7 8. 1 Cor. 12. 28. We will but cite only one passage that he here hath concerning his quoting these Texts Guhernatores fuisse existimo seniores de plebe electos qui censurae morum exercendae disciplinae unà cum Episcopis praeessent Neque enim secus interpretari queas quod dicit qui praeejt id faciat in solicitudine Habuit igitur ab initio unaquaeque Ecclesia suum Senatum conscriptum ex viris piis gravibus sanctis penes quem er at illa de quâ posteà loquemur jurisdictio in corrigendis vitiis Porro eâ—usmodi ordinem non unius saeculi fuisse experientia ipsa declarat Est igitur hoc gubernationis munus saecuâ—is omnibus necessarium Whence it is very clear that Calvin's judgement is so full for the Office of the ruling Elders that otherwise he saith we shall not be able to interpret that of the Apostle He that ruleth let him do it with diligence And hence he concludes that every Church had from the beginning its Senate or Consistory that consisted of men that were godly grave and holy to whom did belong the jurisdiction in correcting of vices of which after he saith he will speak Further he saith that experience it self declares that this was not an order of one age and thence inferres that therefore the ruling Elders Office whom he undestands by the Office of Government is necessary for all ages Is it possible for any man to declare himself more fully and plainly for the Presbyterian Government then Calvin here doth We forbear to cite any other parts of his works we doubt not but the Reader by this will be sufficiently satisfied and will presently hereupon conclude that you but gather out of Calvin what you think makes for your purpose and when we cite him for that which he is so full for matter not much how you misrepresent him to the world that so you might make him to appear otherwise But we wish you to consider that it is not safe for any to make lies their refuge But you have notwithstanding all this the boldness to alleadge Calvin as a Patronizer of Episcopal Government as you did before And because you come over again with the same thing we shall be forced for his vindication to make some repetition of what we have in part already said That in Calvin which you here referre us to is the place in his Institutions which was before quoted sc Lib. 4. Chap. 4. Sect. 1. But in the Chapter immediately going before we have even now shewed that he declares himself fully for the Presbyterian Government but this you wholly conceal in which you deal not honestly with him Nay in the very first words of this Section which you cite he tells you he had been hitherto speaking of that order of governing the Church as it is delivered to us out of the pure word of God and concerning the Ministeryes as they were instituted of Christ And then he addes now that all these things might appear more clearly and familiarly it will be profitable in those things to take a view of the forme of the ancient Church which as he there saith will represent unto us a certain image of divine institution which are part of the words that you cite But hence it is clear that seeing it is Calvin's scope in this Chapter to compare the forme of Government in the ancient Church with that forme of Government that he had held forth in the Chapter going before from the Scriptures he judged whatever construction you put upon him to the contrary that that very Government in the substance of it which he had before proved was held forth in the Scriptures and which as we have already shewed from what we have cited out of him out of the third Chapter goin gbefore was the Presbyterian was to be found in the ancient Church in the purer times of it But in the next place he comes to prevent an Objection in these words Tametsi enim multos Canones ediderunt illorum temporum Episcopi quibusplus viderentur exprimere quam sacris literis expressum esset eâ tamen cautione totam suam Oeconomiam composuerunt ad unicom illom verbi Dei normami ut facile videas nihil fere hâc parte habuisse à verbo Dei alienum Hence it is yet further plain that however he confess that the Bishops of those times did seem to express in many of their Canons something more then was expressed in Scripture yet that he saith they did compose their whole Oeconomy unto the only rule of Gods word that one might easily see they had in this particular nothing almost differing from the word he hereby declares his judgement yet further that for the substance the Government of these times was the same with the Government he had held forth from the Scriptures in the former Chapter But hence it is also clear that as we observed before he did not approve of every thing in those Canons as also he presently after confesseth there was something deficient and wanting in them For however he excuse them in regard they endeavoured to keep the institution of God with a sincere endeavour yet he acknowledges that in something they erred although he saith not much as is clear from his own words which are as followes Verumetiam si quid posset in ipsorum institutis desiderari quia tamen sincero studio conati sunt Dei institutionem conservare ab ea non multum aberraverunt plurimum conducet hic breviter colligere qualem observationem habuerint And then he shewes what the Ministers of the ancient Church were Thus we have given a full and particular account of what Calvin hath in this Section and that in the very order which he himself observes