severall Pulpits of the City and assembling all the diseased in every pariâ— should begin a learned Lecture of Pleurisies Palsies Lethargies to which perhaps none there present were inclin'd and so without so much as feeling one puls or giving the least order to any skilfull Apothecary should dismisse 'em from time to time some groaning some languishing some expiring with this only charge to look well to themselves and do as they heare Of what excellence and necessity then Church-discipline is how beyond the faculty of man to frame and how dangerous to be left to mans invention who would be every foot turning it to sinister ends how properly also it is the worke of God as father and of Christ as Husband of the Church we have by thus much heard CHAP. II. That Church governement is set downe in holy Scripture and that to say otherwise is untrue AS therefore it is unsound to say that God hath not appointed any set government in his Church so is it untrue Of the time of the Law there can be no doubt for to let passe the first institution of Priests and Levites which is too cleare to be insisted upon when the Temple came to be built which in plaine judgement could breed no essentiall change either in religion or in the Priestly government yet God to shew how little he could endure that men should be tampring and contriving in his worship though in things of lesse regard gave to David for Solomon not only a pattern and modell of the Temple but a direction for the courses of the Priests and Levites and for all the worke of their service At the returne from the Captivity things were only restor'd after the ordinance of Moses and David or if the least alteration be to be found they had with them inspired men Prophets and it were not sober to say they did ought of moment without divine intimation In the Prophesie of Ez-kiel from the 40 Chapt. onward after the destruction of the Temple God by his Prophet seeking to weane the hearts of the Jewes from their old law to expect a new and more perfect reformation under Christ sets out before their eyes the stately fabrick constitution of his Church with al the ecclesiasticall functions appertaining indeed the description is as sorted best to the apprehension of those times typicall and shadowie but in such manner as never yet came to passe nor never must literally unlesse we mean to annihilat the Gospel But so exquisit and lively the description is in portraying the new state of the Church and especially in those points where government seemes to be most active that both Jewes and Gentiles might have good cause to be assur'd that God when ever he meant to reforme his Church never intended to leave the governement thereof delineated here in such curious architecture to be patch't afterwards and varnish't over with the devices and imbellishings of mans imagination Did God take such delight in measuring out the pillars arches and doores of a materiall Temple was he so punctuall and circumspect in lavers altars and sacrifices soone after to be abrogated left any of these should have beene made contrary to his minde is not a farre more perfect worke more agreeable to his perfection in the most perfect state of the Church militant the new alliance of God to man should not he rather now by his owne prescribed discipline have cast his line and levell upon the soule of man which is his rationall temple and by the divine square and compasse thereof forme and regenerate in us the lovely shapes of vertues and graces the sooner to edifie and accomplish that immortall stature of Christs body which is his Church in all her glorious lineaments and proportions And that this indeed God hath done for us in the Gospel 〈◊〉 shall see with open eyes not under a vaile We may passe over the history of the Acts and other places turning only to those Epistleâ— of S. Paul to Timothy and Titus where the spirituall eye may discerne more goodly and gracefully erected then all the magnificeâ— ce of Temple or Tabernacle such a heavenly structure of evangelâ— ck discipline so diffusive of knowledge and charity to the prosperous increase and growth of the Church that it cannot be wonder'd if that elegant and artfull symmetry of the promised new temple in Ezechiel and all those sumptuous things under the Law were made to signifie the inward beauty and splendor of the Christian Church thus govern'd And whether this be commanded let it now be jâ— dg'd S. Paul after his preface to the first of Timothy which hee concludes in the 17 Verse with Amen enters upon the subject of his Epistle which is to establish the Church-government with a command This charge I commit to thee son Timothy according to the prophecies which went before on thee that thou by them might'st war a good warfare Which is plain enough thus expounded This charge I commit to thee wherein I now go about to instruct thee how thou shalt set up Church-discipline that thou might'st warre a good warfare bearing thy selfe constantly and faithfully in the Ministery which in the I to the Corinthians is also call'd a warfare and so after a kinde of Parenthesis concerning Hymenaeus he returnes to his command though under the milde word of exhorting Cap. 2. v. 1. I exhort therefore As if he had interrupted his former command by the occasionall mention of Hymeneus More beneath in the 14 V. of the 3 C. when he hath deliver'd the duties of Bishops or Presbyters and Deacons not once naming any other order in the Church he thus addes These things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly such necessity it seems there was but if I tarry long that thou maâ—'st know how thou ought'st to behave thy sâ— lfe in the house of God From this place it may be justly ask'â— whether Timothy by this here written might know what was to be knowne concerning the orders of Church-governours or no If he might then in such a cleere tâ— xt as this may we know too without further jâ— ngle if he might not then did S. Paul write insufficiently and moreover said not true for he saith here he might know and I perswade my selfe he did know ere this was written but that the Apostle had more regard to the instruction of us then to the informing of him In the fifth Chap. after some other Church precepts concerning discipline mark what a dreadfull command followes Verse 21. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things and as if all were not yet sure anough â— e closes up the Epistle with an adjâ— ring charge thus I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickneth all things and before Christ Jesus that thou keepe this commandement that is the whole commandement concerning discipline being them ine purpose of the Epistle
pretences that may be brought in favour of it CHAP. VI That Prelaty was not set up for prevention of Schisme as is pretended or if it were that it performes not whâ— t it was first set up for but quite the contrary YEt because it hath the outside of a specious reason specious things we know are aptest to worke with humane lightnesse and frailty even against the soliâ— est truth that sounds not plausibly let us think it worth the examining for the love of infirmer Christians of what importance this their second reason may be Tradition they say hath taught them that for the prevention of growing schisme the Bishop was heav'd above the Presbyter And must tradition then ever thus to the worlds end be the perpetuall cankerworme to eat out Gods Commandements are his decrees so inconsiderate and so fickle that when the statutes of Solon or Lycurgus shall prove durably good to many ages his in 40 yeares shall be found defective ill contriv'd and for needfull causes to be alter'd Our Saviour and his Apostles did not only foresee but foretell and forewarne us to looke for schisme Is it a thing to be imagin'd of Gods wisdome or at least of Apostolick prudence to set up such a government in the tendernesse of the Church as should incline or not be more able then any other to oppose it selfe to schisme it was well knowne what a bold lurker schisme was even in the houshold of Christ betweene his owne Disciples and those of Iohn the Baptistaboâ— fasting and early in the Acts of the Apostles the noise of schisme had almost drown'd the proclaiming of the Gospell yet we reaâ— e not in Scripture that any thought was had of making Prelates no not in those places where dissention was most rife If Prelaty had beene then esteem'd a remedy against schisme where was it more needfull then in that great variance among the Corinthians which S. Paul so labour'd to reconcile and whose eye could have found the fittest remedy sooner then his and what could have made the remedy more available then to have us'd it speedily and lastly what could have beene more necessary then to have written it for our instruction yet we see he neither commended it to us nor us'd it himselfe For the same division remaining there or else bursting forth againe more then 20 yeares after S. Pauls death wee finde in Clements Epistle of venerable autority written to the yet factious Corinthians that they were still govern'd by Presbyters And the same of other Churches out of Hermas and divers other the scholers of the Apostles by the late industry of the learned Salmatius appeares Neither yet did this worthy Clement S. Pauls disciple though writing to them to lay aside schisme in the least word advise them to change the Presbyteriall government into Prelaty And therefore if God afterward gave or permitted this insurrection of Episcopacy it is to be fear'd he did it in his wrath as he gave the Israelites a King With so good a will doth he use to alter his own chosen government once establish'd For marke whether this rare device of mans braine thus prefeâ— ' d before the ordinance of God had better successe then fleshly wisdome not counseling with God is wont to have So farre was it from removing schisme that if schisme parted the congregations before now it rent and mangl'd now it â— ag'd Heresie begat heresie with a certaine monstrous haste of pregnancy in her birth at once borne and bringing forth Contentions before brotherly were now hostile Men went to choose their Bishop as they went to a pitcht field and the day of his election was like the sacking of a City sometimes ended with the blood of thousands Nor this among hereticks only but men of the same beliefe yea confessors and that with such odious ambition that Eusebius in his eighth book testifies he abhorr'd to write And the reason is not obscure for the poore dignity or rather burden of a â— ochial Presbyter could not ingage any great party nor that to any deadly feud but Prelaty was a power of that extent and sway that if her election were popular it was seldome not the cause of some faction or broil in the Church But if her dignity came by favour of some Prince she was from that time his creature and obnoxious to comply with his ends in state were they right or wrong So that in stead of finding Prelaty an impeacher of Schisme or faction the more I search the more I grow into all perswasion to think rather that faction and she as with a spousall ring are wedded together never to be divorc't But here let every one behold the just and dreadfull judgement of God meeting with the aâ— dacious pride of man that durst offer to mend the ordinances of heaven God out of the strife of men brought forth by his Apostles to the Church that beneficent and ever distributing office of Deacons the stewards and Ministers of holy almes man out of the pretended care of peace unity being caught in the snare of his impious boldnesse to correct the will of Christ brought forth to himselfe upon the Church that irreconcileable schisme of perdition and Apostasy the Roman Antichrist for that the exaltation of the Pope arose out of the reason of Prelaty it cannot be deny'd And as I noted before that the patterne of the High Priest pleaded for in the Gospel for take away the head Priest the rest are but a carcasse sets up with better reason a Pope then an Archbishop for if Prelaty must still rise and rise till it come to a Primat why should it stay there when as the catholick government is not to follow the division of kingdomes the temple best representing the universall Church and the High Priest the universall head so I observe here that if to quiet schisme there must be one head of Prelaty in a land or Monarchy rising from a Provinciall to a nationall Primacy there may upon better grounds of repressing schisme be set up one catholick head over the catholick Church For the peace and good of the Church is not terminated in the schismelesse estate of one or two kingdomes but should be provided for by the joynt consultation of all reformed Christendome that all controversie may end in the finall pronounce or canon of one Arch-primat or Pâ— otestant Pope Although by this meanes for ought I see all the diameters of schisme may as well meet and be knit up in the center of one grand falshood Now let all impartiall men arbitrate what goodly inference these two maine reasons of the Prelats have that by a naturall league of consequence make more for the Pope then for themselâ— Yea to say more home are the very wombe for a new subantichrist to breed in if it be not rather the old force and power of the same man of sin counterfeiting protestant It was not the prevention of schisme but it
that I do not feare his winning of many to his cause but such as doting upon great names are either over-weake or over sudden of faith I shall not refuse therefore to leaâ— ne so much prudence as I finde in the Roman Souldier that attended the crosse not to stand breaking of legs when the breath is quite out of the body but passe to that which follows The Primat of Armagh at the beginning of his tractat seeks to availe himselfe of that place in the 66 of Esaiah I will take of them for Priests and Levites saith the Lord to uphold hereby such a forme of superiority among the ministers of the Gospell succeeding those in the law as the Lords day did the Sabbath But certain if this method may be admitted of interpreting those propheticall passages concerning Christian times in a punctuall correspondence it may with equall probability be urg'd upon us that we are bound to observe some monthly solemnity answerable to the new moons as well as the Lords day which we keepe in lieu of the Sabbath for in the 23 v. the Prophet joynes them in the same manner together as before he did the Priests and Levites thus And it shall come to passe that from one new moone to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord Undoubtedly with as good consequence may it be alledg'd from hence that we are to solemnize some religious monthly meeting different from the Sabbath as from the other any distinct formality of Ecclesiasticall orders may be inferr'd This rather will appeare to be the lawfull and unconstrain'd sense of the text that God in taking of them for Priests and Levites will not esteeme them unworthy though Gentiles to undergoe any function in the Church but will make of them a full and perfect ministery as was that of the Priests and Levites in their kinde And Bishop Anâ— rows himselfe to end the controversie sends us a candid exposition of this quoted verse from the 24 page of his said book plainly deciding that God by those legall names there of Priests and Levites means our Presbyters and Deacons for which either ingenuous confession or slip of his pen we give him thanks and withall to him that brought these treatises into one volume who setting the contradictions of two learned men so neere together did not foresee What other deducements or analogies are cited out of S. Paul to proâ— e a likenesse betweene the Ministers of the Old and New Testament having tri'd their sinewes I judge they may passe without harme doing to our cause We may remember then that Prelaty neither hath nor can have foundation in the law nor yet in the Gospell which assertion as being for the plainnesse thereof a matter of eye sight rather then of disquisition I voluntarily omitt not forgetting to specifie this note againe that the earnest desâ— e which the Prelates have to build their Hierarchy upon the sandy bottome of the law gives us to see abundantly the little assurance which they finde to reare up their high roofs by the autority of the Gospell repulst as it were from the writings of the Apostles and driven to take sanctuary among the Jewes Hence that open confession of the Primat before mention'd Episcopacy is fetcht partly from the patterne of the Old Testament partly from the New as an imitation of the Old though nothing caâ— be more rotten in Divinity then such a position as this and is all one as to say Episcopacy is partly of divine institution and partly of mans own carving For who gave the autority to fetch more from the patterne of the law then what the Apostles had already fetcht if they fetcht any thing at aâ— l as hath beene prov'd they did not So was Jerâ— oams Episcopacy partly from the patterne of the law and partly from the patterne of his owne carnality a parti-colour'd and a parti-member'd Episcopacy and what can this be lesse then a monstrous Others therefore among the Prelats perhaps not so well able to brook or rather to justifie this foule relapsing to the old law have condiscended at last to a plaine confessing that both the names and offices of Bishops and Presbyters at first were the same and in the Scriptures no where distinguisht This grants the remonstrant in the fift Section of his descâ— e and in the Preface to his last short answer But what need respect he had whether he grant or grant it not when as through all antiquity and even in the loâ— iest times of Prelaty we finde it granted Ierome the learned'st of the Fathers hides not his opinion that custome only which the Proverbe cals a tyrant was the maker of Prelaty before his audacious workmanâ— p the Churches were rul'd in common by the Presbyters and such a certaine truth this was esteem'd that it became a decree among the Papall Canons compil'd by Gratian Ansâ— l me also of Canturbury who to uphold the points of his Prelatisme made himselfe a traytor to his country yet commenting the Epistles to Titus and the Philippians acknowledges from the cleernesse of the text what Ierome and the Church Rubrick hath before acknowledg'd He little dreamt then that the weeding-hook of reformation would after two ages pluck up his glorious poppy from insulting over the good corne Though since some of our Brittish Prelates seeing themselves prest to produce Scripture try all their cunning if the New Testament will not help them to frame of their own heads as it were with wax a kinde of Mimick Bishop limm'd out to the life of a dead Priesthood Or else they would straine us out a certaine figurative Prelat by wringing the collective allegory of those seven Angels into seven single Rochets Howsoever since it thus appeares that custome was the creator of Prelaty being lesse ancient then the government of Presbyters it is an extreme folly to give them the hearing that tell us of Bishops through so many ages and if against their tedious muster of citations Sees and successions it be reply'd that wagers and Church antiquities such as are repugnant to the plaine dictat of Scripture are both alike the arguments of fooles they have their answer We rather are to cite all those ages to an arraignment before the word of God wherefore and what pretending how presuming they durst alter that divine institution of Presbyterâ— which the Apostles who were no various and inconstant men surely had set up in the Churches and why they choose to live by custome and catalogue or as S. Paul saith by sight and visibility rather then by faith But first I conclude from their owne mouthes that Gods command in Scripture which doubtlesse ought to be the first and greatest reason of Church-government is wanting to Prelaty And certainly we have plenteous warrant in the doctrine of Christ to determine that the want of this reason is of it selfe sufficient to confute all other
those smaller squares in battell unite in one great cube the main phalanx an embleme of truth and stedfastnesse Whereas on the other side Prelaty ascending by a graduall monarchy from Bishop to Arch-bishop from thence to P imat and from thence for there can be no reason yeilded neither in nature nor in religion wherefore if it have lawfully mounted thus high it should not be a Lordly ascendent in the horoscope of the Church from Primate to Patriarch and so to Pope I say Prelaty thus ascending in a continuall pyramid upon pretence to perfect the Churches unity if notwithstanding it be found most needfull yea the utmost helpe to dearn up the rents of schisme by calling a councell what does it but teach us that Prelaty is of no force to effect this work which she boasts to be her maister-peice and that her pyramid aspires and sharpens to ambition not to ◠erfection or unity This we know that as often as any great schisme disparts the Church and Synods be proclam'd the Presbyters ◠ve as great right there and as free vote of old as the Bishops which the Canon law conceals not So that Prelaty if she will seek to close up divisions in the Church must be forc't to dissolve and unmake her own pyramidal figure which she affirmes to be of such ◠niting power when as indeed it is the most dividing and schism◠icall forme that Geometricians know of and must be faine to inglobe or incube her selfe among the Presbyters which she hating to do sends her haughty Prelates from all parts with their fork◠d Miters the badge of schisme or the stampe of his clov◠n foot whom they serve I think who according to their hierarchies ac◠nating still higher and higher in a cone of Prelaty in stead of healing up the gas◠es of the Church as it happens in such pointed bodies m◠eting fall to gore on◠another with their sharpe spires for upper place and precedence till the councell it 〈◊〉 prove the greatest schisme of all And thus they are so farre fro◠hindring dissention that they have made unprofitable and eve◠noysome the chiefest remedy we have to keep Christendom at one which is by councels and these if wee rightly consider Apostolick example are nothing else but generall Presbyteries This seem'd so farre from the Apostles to think much of as if hereby their dignity were impair'd that as we may gather by those Epistles of Peter and Iohn which are likely to be latest written when the Church grew to a setling like those heroick patricians of Rome if we may use such comparison hasting to lay downe their dictatorship they rejoys't to call themselves and to be as fellow Elders among their brethren Knowing that their high office was but as the scaffolding of the Church yet unbuilt and would be but a troublesome disfigurement so soone as the building was finis◠But the lofty minds of an age or two after such was their small discerning thought it a poore indignity that the high rear'd government of the Church should so on a sudden as it seem'd to them squat into a Presbytery Next or rather before councels the timeliest prevention of schisme is to preach the Gospell abundantly and powerfully throughout all the land to instruct the youth religiously to endeavour how the Scriptures may be easiest understood by all men to all which the proceedings of these men have been on set purpose contrary But how O Prelats should you remove schisme and how should you not remove and oppose all the meanes of removing schism when Prelaty is a schisme it selfe from the most reformed and most flourishing of our neighbour Churches abroad and a sad subject of discord and offence to the whole nation 〈◊〉 home The remedy which you alledge is the very disease we groan under and never can be to us a remedy but by removing it selfe Your predecessors were believ'd to assume this preeminence above their brethren only that they might appease dissention Now God and the Church cals upon you for the same reason to lay it down as being to thousands of good men offensive burdensome intolerable Surrender that pledge which unlesse you sowlely us◠rpt it the Church gave you and now claimes it againe for the reason she first lent it Discharge the trust committed to you prevent schisme and that yeoan never do but by discharging your selves That government which ye hold we con◠esse pr◠s much hinders much 〈◊〉 move◠much but what th◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Church no but all the peace and unity all the welfare not of the Church alone but of the whole kingdome And if it be still permitted ye to hold will cause the most sad I know not whether separation be anough to say but such a wide gulph of distraction in this land as will never close her dismall gap untill ye be forc't for of your selv◠ye wil never do as that Roman Curtius nobly did for the Churches peace your countries to leap into the midst and be no more seen By this we shal know whether yours be that ancient Prelaty which you say was first constituted for the reducement of quiet unanimity into the Church for thē you wil not delay ◠o prefer that above your own preferment If otherwise we must be confident that your Prelaty is nothing else but your ambition an insole◠t preferring of your selves above your brethren and all your learned scraping in antiquity even to disturbe the bones of old Aaron and his sonnes in their graves is but to maintain and set upon our necks a stately and severe dignity which you call sacred and is nothing in very deed but a grave and reverent gluttony a sanctimonious avarice in comparison of which all the duties and dearnesses which ye owe to God or to his Church to law custome or nature ye have resolv'd to set at nought I could put you in mind what counsell Clement a fellow labourer with the Apostles gave to the Presbyters of Corinth whom the people though unjustly sought to remove Who among you saith he is noble minded who is pittifull who is charitable let him say thus if for me this sedition this enmity these differences be I willingly depart I go my wayes only let the flock of Christ be at peace with the Presbyters that are set over it He that shall do this saith he shall get him great honour in the Lord and all places will receave him This was Clements counsell to good and holy men that they should depart rather from their just office then by their stay to ravle out the seamlesse garment of concord in the Church But I have better counsell to give the Prelats and farre more acceptable to their cares this advice in my opinion is fitter for them Cling fast to your Pontificall Sees bate not quit your selves like Barons stand to the utmost for your haughty Courts and votes in Parliament Still tell us that