singuli mediante fide possint virtute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hujus remissionem peccatorum vitam aeternam consequi Sic pro electis mortuus est ut ex merito mortis ejus secundum eternum Dei beneplacitum specialiter illis destinato fidem infallibiliter obtinâ—ant vitam eternam Breviter ita primum hunc de morte merito Christi articulum tractasti ut plane habeas scripturas patres scriptores quosque Orthodoxos tibi pleno ore suffragantes sed Ecclesia nostra Anglicana ita hic tota tua est ac si ipsissima illius verba suisses ubique mutuatus Secundum porro articulum meo quidem judicio dici vix potest solidiusne an modestius exegeris si quis alius in tota Theologia ille profecto de reprobatione locus lubricus est in quo labi facile sit periculosum tu vero ita caute istic movisti pedem ut neque blandiores decreti aestimatores quicquam quod culpent invenire possint nec severiores quod desiderent eo magis mihi mirandum videtur quid illud sit quod censurae suae praetendere possint scitissimi cavillorum artifices Dicam certe quod res est totus iste uti a te explicatur locus nihil aliud est quam sententiarum Dordracenarum accurata quaedam contractiuncula in qua non sensum modo illibatum sed et plerunque verba ipsissima satis curiose retinuisti Qui sit ergo ut quibus illa Synodus in pretio est tam justa ac fidelis ejusdem displiceat epitome Certe ni tu digitum intendas ego quid haereat nullus inveniam Enim vero esse quandam reprobationem camque ab aeterno quis dubitat Sed hanc reprobationem qua omnipotentis Dei actum spectat ejusdem esse quorundam hominum quos decrevit Deus in communi miseria in quam se sua culpa praecipitarunt relinquere tandemque non tantum propter infidelitatem sed etiam caetera omnia peccata ad declarationem justitiae suae damnare aeternum punire sic illi culpa ergo peccata ita hic interveniunt ut positiva reprobatio absque his non sine summa injuria Deo attribuatur Hoc est quod tu ex Augustino Fulgentio Prospero ex omnibus Ecclesiarum confessionibus ex Orthodoxis quibusque authoribus facili negotio eviceris Meritissimo ergo inveheris in illorum explicationem rigidam plane iniquam qui electioni liberae gratuitae reprobationem absolutam ex mero odio profectam opponendam censent Ecquod enim odit Deus praeter peccatum et propter peccatum non in se creaturam suam Hoc sane seposito vidit Deus omnia quae fecerat bona pronuntiavit quomodo vero se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praestaret Deus si hominem qua hominem odio haberet Praeibis ergo tu mihi verba illa quibus ego lubentissime assentior ut summe pia suavissima illa vox est nos gratiuto ex mera misericordia beneplacito Dei fuisse electos in Christo ad salutem ita nec satis pia nec tolerabilis altera Merito perire alios etiamsi in Adamo non essent perditi quoniam Deus ita praefecit Christum Ecclesiae suae caput ut in eo servemur non omnes sed qui sumus electi Quod zelus hic tuus ut boni cujusque exardescat non hercle miror Quid enim hoc aliud est nisi tyrannidem quandam affingere misericordissimo Numini Absoluta ipsius in creaturam potentia quousque se extendat nemo est qui dubitet illam vero ut in nos exerat exerce atque Deus qui cum ordinato jure cum hominibus agere decreverit toties dilectionem suam desideriumque humanae salutis protestatus est durius est quam ut a quoquam Christiano cogitari debeat utinam vero odiosae hujusmodi loquendi formulae aut nunquam pio alicui doctoque reformatae Religionis professori excidissent aut si aliquando temere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excesserint aeternae oblivioni damnatae illico fuissent Hujusce surfuris sunt incommodae illae ac incongruae locutiones quas Theologi Dordraceni non pauci rejici corrigique voluerunt quod tunc temporis factum fuisset nisi quorundam existimationi forte plus nimio fuisset indultum Qua de re largius aliquanto scripsi ad Collegam tuum clarissimum D. Crocium Literas ille meas tecum sine dubio communicabit in eadem vos navi estis uterque ejusdem consilii sortes ut sitis par est Interim Analysis haec tua ut in hac resolvendi facultate praecellere te video scopo loci illius optime quadrare videtur nec a quoquam merito impugnari potest Ut Scriptura tota ita illa cum primis ad Romanos quod patrum doctissimus olim plena est sensibus vix dari potest ita certa loci alicujus resolutio quin alia satis commoda possit fortassis superadjici suis alii litent sententiis ego tuam hanc loci contexturam explicationem valde probo si quis contra mussitet dic illi meo si vis nomine carpere multo facilius esse quam emendare Tu vero vir celeberrime perge quod facis sanctis hisce piisque laboribus de Ecclesia Dei bene promereri quod tibi ac tuis ex animo gratulor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precibusque tuis adjuva Devotissimum tibi in Domino Fratrem ac Symmystam Jos Exon. Dat. in Pallat. nostro Exon. A MODEST OFFER OF Some Meet CONSIDERATIONS TENDERED To the Learned PROLOCUTOR And to the rest of the ASSEMBLY of DIVINES Met at WESTMINSTER LEarned and Reverend Brethren If you be now as is supposed upon the advise of a Forme of Church-Government I beseech you in the fear of God setting aside all prejudice to take into your sad thoughts these considerations following It is I perceive an usual Prayer of many Preachers well affected to your Assembly that God would now after 1600 years universal practise of the whole Church of Christ upon earth shew you the patterne in the mount as if after so long and perfect inquisitions there could be any new discoveries of the forme that was or should be wherein I suppose their well-meaning is not a little injurious both to the known truth and to you for what revelations can we expect thus late or what monuments of either Scripture or history can now be hoped to be brought to light which your eyes have not seen and former ages have not inquired into Surely ye well know there can be but these three forms of Church-government possibly devised Either by Bishops or by Presbyteries or by the multitude of several and select congregations Every of which have both their abettors and their adversaries The first hath all times and places since
four Bishops have dependence upon two Archbishops When was it otherwise Is it not so in all subordinations of government If this be a just inconvenience let all be levelled to an equality and that shall end in a certain confusion but they swear to them Canonicall obedience True but it is only in omnibus licitis honestis mandatis The supposition implyed must needs savour of uncharitableness that the Metropolitans will be still apt to require unlawfull things and the Bishops will ever basely stoop to a servile humoring of them 5. But they have their places only for their lives and therefore not fit to have a legislative power over the honors liberties proprieties of the subject 1. If they have their Bishopricks but for their lives yet there are scarce any of them that have not so much temporall estate in fee as may make them no less capable of a legislative power then many of the house of Commons who claim this right Secondly is the case other now then it hath been all this while yet for so many hundred years there have been good laws and just sentences given by their concurrence notwithstanding this their tenure for Life 3ly If they be honest and conscionable though they had their places but for a year or a day they would not yield to determine ought unjustly And if dishonest and conscienceless it is not the perpetuall inheritance of our places that can make our determinations just 6. If dependencies and expectations of further preferment lie in our way why not equally in many Temporall Lords who are interessed in offices and places in court why should we be more mis-carriageable by such possibilities or hopes then others Especially when our age is commonly such and the charges of removes so great that there is small likelyhood of an equall gaining by he change 7. If severall and particular Bishops have much incroched upon the consciences of his Majesties subjects in matter of their propriety and liberty what reason is there to impute this unto all why should the innocent be punished for the wrongs of the guilty Let those who can be convinced of an offence this way undergo a condigne censure Let not an unjust prejudice be cast upon the whole calling for the errors of a few 8. It is not to be expected but the whole number of 26. should be interessed in the maintenance of that their Jurisdiction which both the laws of Men and Apostolicall institution hath feoffed them in why should they not defend their own lawfull and holy calling against all unjust opposition of gainsayers If their hearts did not assure them their station were warrantable and good they were beasts if they would hold them and if their hearts do assure them so they were beasts if they would not defend them But there are numbers in all the three Kingdomes that crye them down True but there are greater numbers for them perhaps an hundred for one and if some busie factionists of the meaner sort here about a body compounded of Separatists Anabaptists Familists and such like stuffe make some show and noise yet what are these to the whole Kingdom Neither do these men more oppugne our votes in Parliament then our stations in the Church so as this argument will no less hold for no bishops then for no votes as likewise that instance in the practise of Scotland Scotland hath abolisht Episcopacy they say The more pity let them look quo jure and what answer to make unto that God whose ordinance it is But I had thought it should have been a stronger argument England retains Episcopacy therefore Scotland should then Scotland hath abolisht Episcopacy therefore England should do so too Let there be any other Church named in the whole Christian World that hath voluntarily abandoned Episcopacy when it might have continued it and if their practise be herein singular why should not they rather conforme to all the rest of Christendom then we to them 9. But the core of all is that it sets too great a distance between us and our Brethren of the Clergy and so nourishes pride in us discontentment in them and disquietness in the Church An argument that fights equally against all our superiority over our Brethren and against our votes here By this reason we must be all equall none subordinate and what order can there be where none is above other What is this but old Korahs challenge Ye take too much upon you wherefore lift ye up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Now I beseech you whether was there more pride in Moses and Aaron that governed or in Corah and Dathan that murmured and repined It is pride then that causeth contention but where is this pride whether in those that moderately manage a lawfull superiority or in those that scorn and hate to be under goverment Were those Brethren so affected as they ought they should rather rejoyce that any of their own tribe are advanced to those places wherein they might be capable of doing good offices to them and the Church of God in stead of swelling with envy against their just exaltation and would feel this honor done to their profession and not to the persons Lastly what a mean opinion doth this imply to be conceived of us by the suggesters that we who are old Men Christian Philososophers and Divines should have so little government of our selves as to be puffed up with those poor accessions of titular respects which those who are really and hereditarily possessed of can weild without any such taint or suspicion of transportedness Shortly in all these Nine reasons there is nothing that may induce an indifferent Man to think there is any just ground to exclude Bishops from sitting and voting in Parliament FOR EPISCOPACY AND LITURGY WE cannot be too wary of or too opposite to Popery Antichristianism But let me admonish you in the fear of God to take heed that we do not dilate the name and imputation of these too farr for I speak it with just sorrow and compassion there are some well meaning and seduced souls that are by Erroneous teachers brought into the opinion that the sacred form of the Goverment of the Church and the holy forms of the publick devotions and prayers of the Church and all the favorers of them are worthy to be branded with the title of Popery and Antichristianism For the first my heart bleeds in me to think that that calling which was instituted by the Apostles themselves and hath ever since continued in the universall Church of Christ without interruption to this day should now come under the name of Popery I speak of the calling if the persons of any in this station have been faulty let them bear their own burden but that the calling it self should receive this construction in the opinion of well-minded and conscionable Christians is justly most lamentable I beseech you look back upon the histories of former times look but
upon your Acts and Monuments and see whether any have been more expensive either of their ink or their blood against the tyranny of Popery and superstition then the Bishops of this Church of England in so much as the reverend Dr. Du Moulin in his publick Epistle professes that the Bishops of England were they to whom this Church is beholden for the liberty and maintenance of the Protestant Religion in this Kingdom and in this present age how many of us have written and are content and ready to bleed for the sincerity of the Gospel If there be any therefore in this holy order whose lips have hang'd towards the onions and garlick and fleshpots of Egypt let them undergo just censure but let the calling and the zealous and faithfull managers of it be acquitted before God and Men. For the latter I see and mourn to see that many good souls are brought into a dislike and detestation of the common prayers of the Church of England as meer Mass and Popery wo is me that error should prevail so farr with good hearts I beseech you for Gods sake and your souls sake be rightly informed in this so materiall and important a point I see there is herein a double offence One of them which dislike the prayers because they are set forms the other that dislike them because they are such set forms For the former I beseech them to consider seriously whether they ought to think themselves wiser and perfecter then all the Churches of God that ever have been upon the Earth This I dare confidently say that since God had an established Church in the World there were set forms of devotion in the Jewish Church before and since Christ in the Christian Church of all ages and at this very day all those varieties of Christians in the large circle of Christianography they have their set forms of prayers which they do and must use and in the Reformed Churches both of the Lutherans and France and Scotland it is no otherwise yea reverend Mr. Calvin himself whose judgment had wont to sway with the forwardest Christians writing to the Protector of England Anno 1548. hath these words Quod ad formulam precum attinet rituum Ecclesiasticorum valsle probâ— ut certa illa extet a qua pastoribus discedere non liceat in functione sua c. And adding three grave and solid reasons for it concludes thus so then there ought to be a set form of Catechism a set form of administration of Sacraments and of publick prayers and why will we cast off the judgment both of him and all the Divines of the whole Christian World till Barrow and Browne in our age and remembrance contradicted it and run after a conceit that never had any being in the World till within our own memory For the latter There are those who could allow some form of set prayers but dislike this of ours as savoring of the Pope and the Mass whence they say it is derived Now I beseech you Brethren as you would avoid the danger of that wo of calling good evill and evill good inform your selves throughly of the true State of this business Know therefore that the whole Church of God both Eastern and Western as it was divided both the Greek and Latin Church under which this Iland was wont to be ranged had their forms of prayer from the begining which were then holy and Heavenly compiled by the holy Fathers of those first times Afterwards the abuses and errors of popery came in by degrees as Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Mass prayers for the dead prayers to Saints these poysoned the Church and vitiated these holy forms whiles they continued but when Reformation came in divers worthy Protestant Divines whereof some were noble Martyrs for religion were appointed to revise that form of service to purge out all that popish leaven that had sowred them to restore them to their former purity leaving nothing in that book but that which they found consonant to godliness and pure religion If any Man will now say that our prayer book is taken out of the Mass let him know rather that the Mass was cast out of our prayer-book into which it was injuriously and impiously intruded the good of those prayers are ours in the right of Christians the evill that was in them let them take as their own And if it should have been as they imagine let them know that we have departed from the Church of Rome but in those things wherein they have departed from Christ what good thing they have is ours still That scripture which they have That Creed which they profess is ours neither will we part with it for their abuse If a peece of Gold be offerd us will we not take it because it was taken out of the channell If the Devil have given a confession of Christ and said I know who thou art even Jesus the Son of the living God shall not I make this confession because it came out of the Devils mouth Alas we shall be herein very injurious both to our selves and to God whose every holy truth is This then is the form which hath been compiled by learned and holy Divines by blessed Martyrs themselves who used it comfortably and blessed God for it But if the quicker eyes of later times have found any thing which displeases them in the phrases and manners of expression or in some rites prescribed in it Let them in Gods name await for the reforming sentence of that publick authority whereby it was framed and enacted and let not private persons presume to put their hands to the work which would introduce nothing but palpable confusion let all things be done decently and in order Shortly my Brethren let us hate Popery to the death but let us not involve within that odious name those holy forms both of administration and devotion which are both pleasing unto God and agreeable to all Christianity and Godliness A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT My Lords I Have long held my peace and meant to have done so still but now like to Croesus his mute Son I must break silence I humbly beseech your Lordships to give me leave to take this too just occasion to move your Lordships to take into your deep and serious consideration the woful and lamentable condition of the poor Church of England your dear Mother My Lords this was not wont to be her stile we have heretofore talkt of the famous and flourishing Church of England but now your Lordships must give me leave to say that the poor Church of England humbly prostrates her self next after his sacred Majesty at your Lordships feet and humbly craves your compassion and present aid My Lords It is a foul and dangerous insolence this which is now complained of to you but it is but one of a hundred of those which have been of late done to this Church and Government The Church of England as your Lordships cannot choose
out and adored for the true crosse of Christ yet the bulk is nothing to the vertue ascribed to it The very wood which is a shame to speak is by them Sainted and deifyed who knowes not that stale hymne and unreasonable rime of Ara crucis lampas lucis sola salus hominum Nobis pronum fac patronum quem tulisti dominum Wherein the very tree is made a mediator to him whom it bore as very a Saviour as he that dy'd upon it And who knowes not that by these Bigots an active vertue is attributed not only to the very wood of the cross but to the Airie and transient form and representation of it A vertue of sanctifying the creature of expelling Divells of healing diseases conceits crossely superstitious which the Church of England ever abhorred never either practised or countenanced whose cross was only commemorative and commonitive never pretended to be any way efficacious and therefore as far different from the Romish cross as the fatall tree of Christ from that of Judas Away then with this gross and sinfull foppery of our Romanists which proves them not the friends but the flatterers of the Cross flatterers up to the very pitch of Idolatry and can there be a worse enemy then a flatterer Fie on this fawning and crouching hostility to the crosse of Christ such friendship to the altar is a defiance to the sacrifice For these Philippian Pseudapostles Two wayes were they enemies to the Cross of Christ in their doctrines in their practise In Doctrine whiles they joyned circumcision and other legalities with the cross of Christ so by a pretended partnership detracting from the vertue and power of Christs death Thus they were enemies to Christs death as this In practise following a loose and voluptuous course pampering themselves and shifting off persecution for the Gospell Thus they were enemies to the cross of Christ as theirs Truth hath ever one face There are still two sorts of enemies to the cross The erroneous the licentious The erroneous in judgment that will be inter-commoning with Christ in the vertue and efficacy of his passion The licentious in life that despise and annihilate it In the first how palpable enemies are they to the cross of Christ that hold Christs satisfaction upon the cross imperfect without ours Thus the Romish Doctors profess to do Their Cardinall passes a flat non expiat upon it boldly Temporalem poenam totam nisi propria satisfactione cooperante non expiat lib. 4. de paenit c. 14. § Neque vero Our penall works saith Suarez are properly a payment for the punishment of our sin And which of the Tridentine faction sayes otherwise What foul Hypocrisie is this to creep and crouch to the very image of the cross and in the mean time to frustrate the vertue of it Away with these hollow and hostile complements how happy were it for them if the crosse of Christ might have lesse of theâ—r knees and more of their hearts without which all their adorations are but mockery certainly the partnership of legall observations was never more enemy to Christs cross then that of humane satisfactions For us God forbid that we should rejoyce in any thing but in the cross of Christ with St. Paul Our profession roundly is The cross is our full redemption let them that show more say so much else for all their ducking and cringeing they shall never quit themselves of this just charge that they are the enemies of the crosse of Christ The licentious secondly are enemies to the cross of Christ and those of two sorts whether carnall revolters or loose-livers The first in shifting off persecution by conforming themselves to the present world they will do any thing rather then suffer caring more for a whole skin then a sound soul Meere slaves of the season whose poesie is that of Optatus Omnia pro tempore nihil pro veritate All for the time nothing for the Truth Either ditty will serve Hosanna or Crucifige Such was that infamous Ecebotius such was Spira such those in the primitive times that with Marcellinus would cast grains of incense into the Idols fire to shun the fire of a Tyrants futy such as will bow their knees to a breaden God for fear of an inquisitors flie and kiss the toe of a living Idol rather then hazard a suspicion the world is full of such shufflers Do ye ask how we know I do not send you to the Spanish trade or Italian travails or Spa-waters The tentative Edict of Constantius descryed many false hearts And the late relaxation of penall laws for religion discovered many a turn-coat God keep our great men upright if they should swerve it is to be feared the truth would find but a few friends Blessed be God the times professe to patronize true religion If the winde should turn how many with that noted time-server would be ready to say Cantemus domino c. let us sing unto the Lord a new song There is no Church lightly without his wethercock For us my beloved we know not what we are reserved for let us sit down and count what it may cost us and as those who would carry some great weight upon a wager will be every day heaving at it to inure themselves to the burden before they come to their utmost tryall so let us do to the cross of Christ let us be every day lifting at it in our thoughts that when the time comes we may comfortably go away with it It was a good purpose of Peter though I should dye with thee I will not deny thee but it was a better grounded resolution of St. Paul I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus Act. 21.13 Let us in an humble confidence of Gods mercy in upholding us fix upon the same holy determination not counting our life dear unto us so as we may finish our course with joy Thus we shall not be more friends to the crosse of Christ then the crosse will be to us for if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him Besides carnall revolters loose livers powre shame upon the crosse Christs crosse is our redemption Redemption is from sin and death whiles therefore we do wilfully sin we do what in us lies frustrate the cross and make a mock of our redemption every true Christian is with St. Paul crucified together with Christ 2. Galat. 20. his sins are fastned upon that tree of shame and curse with his Saviour the mis-living Christian therefore crucifies Christ again each of his willing sins is a plain despight to his Redeemer The false tongue of a professour gives in evidence against the Son of God the hypocrite condemns Christ and washes his hands the proud man strips him and robes him with purple the distrustfull plats thornes for the head of his Saviour the drunkard gives him vineger and gall to drink the oppressor drives nailes into his hands
done 1. By withdrawing the fuell of contention mitigating what we may the grounds of dissension those grounds are the matters controverted these our Christian charity and love of peace will teach us either to decline or to abate lessen by all fair interpretations according to that of the blessed Apostle Charity thinks not evill beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things 1 Cor. 18.5.7 So when Isaacs Servants found the Philistims to stâ—ive with them for their two wells of Esek and Sitnah thâ—y did noâ— stand upon points with them but removed and digged another which was out of the reach of the strife and called it Rehoboth elbow-room Gen. 26.22 And thus the Servants of Isaac made the Philistim quarrells to cease though by Abimelecs own confession Isaac was much mightier then himself Gen. 26.16 Thus when the main difference grew betwixt Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh and the rest of Israel concerning the altar beyond Jordan a fair construction stinted that strife which might have embroyled both parts in a bloody war Thus it was in the Synod of Ephesus betwixt our good Bishops Cyrill and Theodoret whose differences had like to have rent the Church in pieces but upon better understanding were alay'd Thus it was in the more generall and dangâ—rous quarrell bewixt the East and West Churches concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subsistences and essence in the Trinity had not holy Athanasius interposed showing them their own unknown and unacknowledged accordance would God I could give this phrase to these times we should not be in the condicion we are How many are rather apt to cast oyle then water upon this flame to enlarge rather then heal this wound of the Church 2. By giving seasonable counsels of peace so the Father of the faithfull to his nephew Let there be no contention between me and thee and thy herdmen and my herdmen for we are brethren Gen. 13.8 So Moses to the contending Israelites wherefore smitest thou thy fellow Exod. 2.12 So the wise woman of Abel to Joab Thou seekest to destroy a city and a Mother in Israel why wilt thou sâ— allow up the inheritance of the Lord 2 Sam. 20.19 So Abner the Son of Ner after he had set the two armies together by the eares by the pool of Gibeon yet at last moves for a retreat calling to Joab whose men he had challenged Shall the sword devoure for ever knowest thou not that it will be bitternesse in the latter end how long shall it be then 2 Sam. 2.26 Oh for these counsails of peace in these distracted times how beautifull would their feet be that should bring these glad tidings of peace Alas mâ—n are more ready to clap their hands as boyâ—s are wont to do in dog-fights and to say Eia Socrates Eia Zantippe How much more justly may we take up that word of the Psalmist Wo is me that I soâ—ourne in Mesech that I dwell in the tents of Kedar my soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace I am for peace but when I speak they are for war Ps 120.5 6 7. 3. By opposing restraining the known make-bates of the Church and State If Corah and his Company rise up against Moses and Aaron God takes the quarrell in hand and they are swallowed up of the earth If Sheba the Son of Bicri blow a trumpet of sedition he must be speedily pursued to the gates of Abel 1 Sam. 20. Would God those were cut off that trouble you saith the charitable Apostle Neither know I whether this be a greater act of Justice or of Mercy of Justice in respect of the delinquents or of mercy to the Church and Common-wealth Wo is me with what words should I bewail the dâ—plorable estate of these late times in this behalf Let me appeal to your own eyes and ears I know I speak to judicious Christians Tell me whether ever you lived to see such an inundation of libellous scandalous malicious pamphlets as have lately broke in upon us not only against some particular persons which may have been faulty enough but against the lawfull and established government it self against the antient allowed legall formes of divine worship Certainly if we love the peace of this Church and kingdome we cannot but lament and to our power oppose these insolences If Reformation be the thing desired and aimed at let not that man prosper which doth not affect it pray for it bend his utmost endeavours to accomplish it but is this the way to a Christian reformation to raise slanders to broach lying accusations against the innocent to callumniate lawfull established authority God forbid these are the acts of him that is the man-slayer from the beginning the holy God hates to raise his kingdome by the ayd of the Devill Be as zealous as you will but be withall just be charitable and endevour to advance good causes by only lawfull means And then let him come within the compasse of this Curse of Meroz that is not ready to assist and second you 4. By cherishing the moderately affected and incouraging those that intercede for peace as those who do the noblest offices both to the Church and Common-wealth if we meet with a man that can truly say with the woman of Abel ego sum ex colentibus pacem as Tremelius turnes it 2. Sam. 20.20 I am one of them that are peaceable and faithfull in Israel make much of such To the Counsellors of peace shall be joy Pro. 12.20 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem saith the Psalmist they shall prosper that love thee certainly thus it should be but alas we are fallen upon times wherein it is cause enough for a quarrell to plead for peace too well fulfilling that of the Psalmist They speak not peace but they devise deceitfull matters against them that are quiet in the Land Ps 35.20 A man in this case is like the sheepheard that would part the fray betwixt his two rams they both met together upon his bones and send him halting out of the field The God of peace in his good time remedy these distempers but in the mean time let us comfort our selves in the conscience of our happy indeavours with that of St. James The fruits of righteousness are sown in peace of them that make peace James 3. ult And thus much for our duty in seconding and immitating this act of God in making this cessation of wars by withdrawing the feuell of contention by giving seasonable counsails of peace by opposing known make-bates by cherishing the peaceable minded We descend to our third use proper for this day which is the challenge of our thankfulnesse And surely wheresoever God vouchsafes to bestow this mercy that he causes wars to cease unto any nation he looks for no lesse and we shall be foulely ungratefull if we disappoint him whereto we shall the better be excited if we shall
reliance upon God yea even with some kind of joy it self for when we are bidden to rejoyce continually Philip. 4.4 even the dismal dayes of our mourning are not excepted Not so only saith the Apostle but we glory in tribulations Rom. 5.3 Yea more then so My brethen saith St. James count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations James 1.2 Thirdly for the manner of our mourning we cannot but take notice that there is a solemn mourning and there is a private and domestical the solemn is by publick indiction of authority That only Power that can command our Persons may command our humiliation and prescribe the circumstances of the Performance of it Niniveh it self had so much divinity as to know and practise this truth How strict a Proclamation was that of the King of that Heathen City Let neither man nor beast herd nor flock tast any thing let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be covered with sack-cloth c. As for the choise and punctuality of the time whereto this publick mourning must be limited where should it rest but in the hand of soveraignty whose wisdom is to be presupposed such as to pitch upon the meetest seasons for this Practise It is very remarkable that we finde recorded in the case of Israels Publick mourning Nehem. 8.9 10. Then Nenemiah which is the Tirshatha or governour and Ezra the Priest the Scribe and the Levites that taught the People said unto all the People This daie is holy unto the Lord your God mourne not nor weep Go your way eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy unto our Lord neither be ye sorrie for the joy of the Lord is your strength A consideration if I may intimate it without presumption meet to be tendred to our Brethren of the neighbour Church who are wont to cast their publick fasts upon the Lords day contrary no less to the determination of the Councels of the Evangelical Churches then the practise of the Jewish For what other is this but Gods holy-day of which we may well take-up the words of the Psalmist This is the Day which the Lord hath made let us rejoice and be glad in it As it would therefore be utterly unseasonable to rejoyce in a day of mourning so must it needs be to mourn in a day of rejoycing The rites and formes of publick mournings may and were wont to vary according to the usages of severall Nations and Churches how ceremonious the Jewes were in this kind I need not tell you here was rending of garments girding with sackcloth muffling of faces prostration on floores covering with ashes houling on the house-tops cutting and tearing of hair wringing of hands and all possible gestures that might expresse depth of passion And so much of this is imitable by us as may in a grave Christian fashion testify our dejection and true sorrow of heart upon the occasion of publick calamities this solemn humiliation then being alwaies joyned with an afflicting the body by fasting for deep sorrow doth both take away appetite and disregards nature so it calls us for the time to an absolute forbearance and neglective forgetfulness of all Earthly comforts In which regard the Popish mock-fasts which allow the greatest dainties in the strictest abstinence and the Turkish which shut up in an evening gluttony are no better then hypocriticall counterfeits of a religious self-humbling those habits then those discourses or actions those contentments which are in themselves perhaps not lawfull only but commendable must now be avoided as unseasonable if not sinful How hainously did the Almighty take this mis-timed pleasure and jollity at the hands of his people the Jewes In that day saith Esay did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And behold joy and gladnesse slaying Oxen and killing Sheep eating flesh and drinking wine let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye And what was the issue It was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye dye saith the Lord God of Hosts Esay 22.12 13 14. In matter of private mournings every man is allowed to be the arbiter of his own Time Place Measure manner of performance alwayes so as that he keep within the just bounds of piety decency discreet moderation as Bernard well adviseth in the like kind so punishing a Rebell that he do not destroy a subject Neither can I apprehend any reason if we entertain a well grounded sorrow Mat. 6.16 why we may not expresse it Not in an hypocritical way of ostentation as the vain Pharisees taxed by our Saviour which disfigured their countenances and did set a sowre face upon a light heart that they might appear unto men to fast but in a wise sober seemly unaffected deportment to instance in the case of the death of those to whom we have the dearest relation there can be no case wherein mourning can be more seasonable it is no lesse then a judgment that God denounceth against King Jehojakin They shall not lament for him saying Ah my Brother or Ah Sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or Ah his glory Jer. 22.18 And it was an hard word that God spake to Ezekiel Son of man behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroak yet shalt thou neither mourn nor weep neither shall thy tears run down forbear to cry make no mourning for the dead c. Ezek. 24.16 Lo such a wise as it might have been froward disobedient unquiet it had been no greatly difficult charge to have parted with her but it seems Ezekiels was a dear pleasing loving consort even the desire of his eyes and the comfort of his life and therefore to part with her without tears must needs be a double grief to his Soul as therefore 't is unnatural and inhumane not to mourn for Parents Wives Husbands Brothers Sisters Children Friends so it cannot be unmeet to testify our mourning even by our outward habit I could never see a reason why it should not be fit to wear blacks upon funerall occasions Neither Piety nor Charity is an enemy to civill ceremonies This colour and fashion is not indecent nor justly offensive so as the mind be free from superstition and over-nice curiosity such as Balsac jeers at in his vain French Lady who affected to have not her house onely but all the vessels and utensils that belong to it put into that hew Alexand ab Alexandro Genial Dierum l. 3. c. 7. If you tell me that the Heathens mourned thus I must tell you that all did not so some Nations mourned in white others in blew others in purple and if all had done so they are no ill patterns in matters of meer civilities besides that in reason this
more peculiar manner now his very senses help to nourish his soul and by his eyes his hands his tast Christ is spiritually conveighed into his heart to his unspeakable and everlasting consolation But to put all scruples out of the mind of any reader concerning this point Let that serve for the upshot of all which is expressely set down in the 5th Rubrick in the end of the Communion set forth as the judgment of the Church of England both in King Edwards and Queen Elizabeths time though lately upon negligence omitted in the impression In these words Least yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise we do declare That it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done or ought to be done either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received or unto any real and essential presence there being of Christs natural flesh and blood For as concerning the sacramental bread and wine they remain still in their very natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithfull Christians and as concerning the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ they are in Heaven and not here for it is against the truth of Christs natural body to be in more places then one at one time c. Thus the Church of England having plainly explicated her self hath left no place for any doubt concerning this truth neither is she any changeling in her judgment however some unsteddy minds may vary in their conceits away then with those nice scruplers who for some further ends have endeavoured to keep us in an undue suspense with a non licet inquirere de modo and conclude we resolutely that there is no truth in divinity more clear then this of Christs gracious exhibition and our faithful reception of him in this blessed Sacrament Babes keep your selves from Idols Amen A LETTER FOR THE OBSERVATION OF THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY Sir with my Loving Remembrance IT cannot but be a great grief to any wise and moderate Christian to see zealous well meaning souls carried away after the giddy humour of their new teachers to a contempt of all holy and reverend antiquity and to an eager affectation of novel fancies even whiles they cry out most bitterly against innovations When the practise and judgment of the whole Christian world ever from the dayes of the blessed Apostles to this present age is pleaded for any form of government or laudable observation they are straight taught That old things are passed and that all things are become new making their word good by so new and unheard-of an interpretation of Scripture Whereby they may as justly argue the introducing of a new Church a new Gospel a new Religion with the annulling of the old And that they may not want an all-sufficient patronage of their fond conceit our blessed Saviour himself is brought in who in his sermon on the mount controlled the antiquity of the pharisaical glosses of the law Ye have heard that it was said by them of old thus and thus but I say unto you c as if the Son of God in checking the upstart antiquity of a mis-grounded and unreasonable tradition meant to condemn the truely-antient and commendable customes of the whole Christian Church which all sober and judicious christians are wont to look upon with meet respect and reverence And certainly whosoever shall have set down this resolution with himself to sleight those either institutions or practises which are derived to us from the Primitive times and have ever since been intertained by the whole church of Christ upon earth that man hath laid a sufficient foundation of Schisme and dangerous singularity and doth that which the most eminent of the Fathers St. Augustine chargeth with no less then most insolent madnesse For me and my friend God give us grace to take the advice which our Saviour gives to his spouse to Go forth by the footsteps of the Flock and to feed our Kids beside the Shepheards tents Cant. 1.8 and to walk in the sure paths of uncorrupt antiquity For the celebration of the solemn Feasts of our Saviours Nativity Resurrection Ascention and the comming down of the Holy Ghost which you say is cryed down by your zealous lecturer one would think there should be reason enough in those wonderful and unspeakable benefits which those dayes serve to commemorate unto us For to instance in the late feast of the Nativity when the Angel brought the newes of that blessed birth to the Jewish shepheards Behold saith he I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is borne this day a Saviour If then the report of this blessing were the best tidings of the greatest joy that ever was or ever could be possibly incident into mankind why should not the commemoration thereof be answerable Where we conceive the greatest joy what should hinder us to expresse it in a joyfull festivity But you are taught to say the day conferred nothing to the blessing that every day we should with equal thankfulnesse remember this inestimable benefit of the incarnation of the Son of God so as a set anniversary day is altogether needless know then and consider that the all wise God who knew it fit that his People should everyday think of the great work of the creation and of the miraculous deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude and should daily give honour to the Almighty creator and deliverer yet ordained one day of seven for the more special recognition of these marvellous works as well knowing how apt we are to forget those duties wherewith we are only encharged in common without the designment of a particular rememoration Besides the same reason will hold proportionably against any monethly or annuall celebration whatsoever the Jewes should have been much to blame if they had not every day thankfully remembred the great deliverance which God wrought for them from the bloody design of cruel Haman yet it was thought requisite if not necessary that there should be two special dayes of Purim set apart for the anniversary memorial of that wonderful preservation The like may be said for the English Purim of our November it is well if besides the general tye of our thankfulness a precise day ordaind by authority can enough quicken our unthankful dulness to give God his own for so great a mercy shall we say now it is the work of the year what needs a day As therefore no day should passe over our head without a grateful acknowledgment of the great mystery of God incarnate So withall the wisdome of the primitive Church no doubt by the direction of the holy Ghost hath pitched upon one special day wherein we should intirely devote our thoughts to the meditation of this work which the Angels of heaven can not enough admire But you are told that perhaps we miss of the day since the season
therefore too worthy of my care These are not you know matters of a day old neither is it his Majesties desire to trouble you with new coynes but to rub up the rusty and obliterate face of the ancient And surely the more my thoughts were bent upon them the more it appeared to me that his Majesties intention is to deal with your Church as he hath lately done with your Universities From which I know not what indiscreet and idle zeal had banished all higher degrees the name of a School-Doctor was grown out of date only one Graduate that I heard of at St. Andrews out-lived that injury of times Now comes his Majesty as one born to the honor of learning and restores the Schooles to their former glories This is no innovation you will grant but a renovation No other is that which his Majesty wisheth to your Church For tell me I beseech you my dear Mr. Struther do not you think that those which took upon them the reformation of your Church went somewhat too far And as it is in the fable inwrapped the Stork together with the Cranes I know your ingenuity such as you cannot deny it This you will grant apparently in the Church-patrimony witness your own learned and zealous invective how miserably spoyled in the exauthoration of Episcopal office and dignity in the demolition of Churches and too many other of this stamp so violent was that holy furor of piety that hence it might well appear what difference there is betwixt the orderly proceedings of princely authority and popular tumult And why should you not yield me this in the business questioned Do but consider how farr it is safe for a particular Church to depart from the antient and universal and you cannot be less liberal Surely no Christian can think it a sleight matter what the church diffused through all times and places hath either done or taught For doctrine or manners there is no question and why should it be more safe to leave it in the holy institutions that concerne the outward formes of Gods service Novelty is a thing full of envy and suspicion and why less in matters of rite then doctrine The Church is the mother of us all the less important those things are which in the power of a parent she injoynes the more hateful is the detrectation of our observance you remember the question of the Syrians wise Servant Father if he had commanded thee some great matter wouldst thou not have done it True it is that every Nation hath her own rites gestures customes wherein it was ever as free for it to differ from the rest of the World as the world from it yet in the mean time the sacred affaires of God have been ever acknowledged to have one common fashion of performance in those points especially wherein hath been an universal agreement every face hath his own favour his own lines distinct from all others yet is there a certain common habitude of countenance and disposition of the forhead eyes cheeks lips common unto all so as who under this pretense of difference shall go about to raise an immunity from such ceremonies do no other then argue That because there is a diversity of proportions of faces we may well want a brow or a chin There is nothing that the pontificians do so commonly and with so much noise upbraid us with as our discession from the mother church that is as they interpret the Roman neither is there any one amongst all the loads of their reproaches that hath wrought us more envy then this And how do we free our selves from the danger of this odious crimination but thus not to stand upon the imperious title of motherhood That since for order sake we acknowledged this primacy of the Western Church we never departed one inch from the Roman save where she is perfidiously gone from God and her self Now the cases questioned are for the most part only such as you will confess before the suspicion of Antichristian Apostasy to have obtained each where in the church Begin if you please with the solemn festivities turne over I beseech you the histories of times and places you shall never finde where these were either newly appointed or not constantly and continuedly observed in the church of God I confess with Socrates that neither Christ nor any Apostle enacted a law for these but withall I must put you in mind that what he denies to constitution he grants to custome and observatio inveterata that I may speak with Tertullian praeveniendo statum facit As for the solemn feast of Easter which the Ancyran counsel called Diem magnum how hotly the Church even then in her swathing bands contended about it all the World knowes I speak nothing of the friendly differences of Policarpus and Anacletus nor of the Angel of Hermes The East and West were in this point fearfully divided one part pleads a tradition from John and Philip the other from Peter and Paul both sides fought long and sore at last the Roman Victor won the day postquam Asiae Episcopos fulmine sacro perculisset Let Irenaeus deeply censure him as a furious disturber of the publick peace I meddle with neither part This strife at last well laid is after revived by the Syrian Divines How strongly doth the famous Nicene Council oppose it self to these now Tesseradecatites as those times called them yea what other cause was there except the madnesses of Arrius and his followers the Meletians and Colluthians of calling that venerable assembly together after all this what discourses passed betwixt Leo the first Archbishop of Reme and Paschasinus Lylibetanus were needless to rehearse and how hot Chrysostome was in this cause need no other proof then that as Socrates witnesses he took away the Churches from them which tyed Easter to the fourteenth Moon Now then wherefore I beseech you was all this Asian conflict wherefore this triumph of Victor wherefore this infamous brand of the Quartadecimani Wherefore were those paschal Letters of the antient or golden number or the calculations of the Bishops of Alexandria or the curious determinations of the Nicene fathers or the nice reckonings of Leo and Paschasinus if this might have passed for lawfull with one breath to deny the day and with one dash to blot it out of the holy Calender certainly the antients knew not how to be thus witty neither durst they thus boldly cut that knot in the untying whereof perhaps they overspent their care and diligence O ridiculous head of antiquity if this short course might have been safely held in those former ages Yea tell me I pray you in all your readings where ever you met with any man besides those whom the Church hath held worthy the black marke of heresy who either denied all observations of this solemnity or approved the refusal of it by others I can name you Aerius a man blemished with more then the scars of one heresy And
as he said as if I had opened a gap to a lawless freedom in teaching that no church should prescribe to other that each should sit peaceably down with her own fashions but did I say you that heard can clear me that one Church should not be moved with the good example of other that there are not certain sacred observations which should be common to all churches that though one Church might not prescribe to other because they are sisters one King may not prescribe to two Churches whereof he is head None of these which I hate as monstrous examples may move authority may presse the use of things indifferent expedient and it is odious to seem more holy then all others or to seem more wise then our heads You have my opinon at large my loving and beloved Mr. Struther how pleasing it may be I know not how well meant I know if your letter were an history my answer is proved a volume My love and desire of your satisfaction hath made me against my use tedious How well were every word bestowed if it might settle you where I would howsoever my true indeavour looks for your acceptation and my affections and prayers shall ever answer yours who am Your unfeignedly loving friend and Fellow-Labourer Jos Hall Waltham Abby Octob. 3. Returne my thanks and kinde remembrance to those worthy Gentlemen from whom you sent me commendations and to your Wife and all our Friends Clarissimo viro D. Baltasari Willio S. Theol. D. ET In Bremensi Ecclesia Professori Celeberrimo Gratiam ac Pacem SI quam mihi misisti schedulam censores tui perlegissent frater admodum reverende non opus fuisset ut ego judicium hoc meum qualecunque interponerem facile profecto illi siquis pudor quam tibi temere objectarunt calumniam ultro revocassent Tanto enim cum candore animi tamque irrefragrabilibus indiciis te ab illis sive criminationibus seu vero impaectae haereseos suspicionibus quibuscunque in hisce chartis Liberasti ut post hujusmodi Apologiam ipsa non habeat invidia quod tibi deinceps objicere possit ede literas tuas responso meo parces quandoquidem tamen meam de quibusdam commentariorum tuorum locis sententiam ita ardenter desideras non possum non tibi in re tantilla satisfacere Hoc vero inprimis ora obturet cavillantium quod ejusmodi elegeris operis tui patronos alios profecto quaesivisses si in Arminii nedum Socini castra transfugere voluisses Non D. Poliandrum Walaeum Thysium Triglandum sidera pridem in Dordraceno caelo conspicua quorum insuper censuris ista tua tam modeste subjeceris aut probanda aut si foret opus corrigenda Loca quae offendiculo fuisse ais examinavi sedulo nihil prorsus est in prima praefatione tua quod vel obtorto collo trahi possit ad heterodoxam aliquam gratiae divinae universalitatem stabiliendam sed illa in Zachar. 4. ejusdem omnino census nihil habent errori alicui affine Ostendunt tantum manifestum gratiae divinae succedentibus seculis erga Ecclesiam suam in Lunimis salvifici expansione one ampliore clarioreque specimen incrementum quo quid verâ—us cogitari potest Conquirunt profecto fingunt istic errores malevoâ—â— non inveniunt Absolutam praedestinationem negat praefatio posterior sed eo lensu quo clarissimus collega tuus D. Lud. Crotius Syntagmatis pag. 978. non sine respectu ad ipsam decreti executionem decreti inquis electionis sundamentum Christus est conditio salvandis implenda fides salvandis dixisti implenda non in eligendis praevisa praerâ—quisita quis sanus aliter dixerit Quae de reprobatione definiisti non alia sunt quam quae a Theologis Dordracenis ex professo tradita sunt Nec enim aliud est Deum ex absoluta voluntate neminem excludere a gratia aeterno exitio destinare quam Deum neminem absque intuitu peccati damnare voluisse culpam ergo reprobationis in mortalium pertinacia incredulitate haerere tutissime verissimeque determinasti Analysin quod spectat loci illius celeberrimi ad Rom. 9. norunt Dordraceni omnes me non monuisse modo sed pro concione publica obnixe etiam efflagitasse ut ad hoc ipsum examen tota de praedestinatione controversia revocaretur ab utraque authorum Litigantium parte tentatum est hoc palam subque praelo non uno quo autem successu silere mavelim Certe dum alii rigidiorem sectantur viam in absolutam Dei potestatem voluntatemque absque ulla ratione peccati rejicientes plurimorum perditionem alii libertatis humanae Parasiti ita sui juris faciunt homines ac si nulli omnino decreto subjicerentur utrinque satis periculose peccatur deseritur medium tenens veritas quae tamena moderatis quibusque ingeniis officiose colitur Quod tu dum facis tuto profitere te Synodi Orthodoxae Dordracenae Theologis nullatenus adversari quoties enim quamque rotunde celeberrimi illi doctores professi sunt Deum neminem damnare aut damnationi destinare nisi ex consideratione peccati ut Britanni nostri Artic. 1. Thes 5. Sed fratres Hassiercos multis hoc argumentis comprobasse palam est Nec qui Theologorum omnium accuratius expressiusve istud docuerunt quam Bremenses vestri nec abludit ipsa Synodi vox quae reprobationem ipsam definiens praeteritos eos esse ait quos ex liberrimo justissimo irreprehensibili immutabili beneplacito in communi miseria in quam se sua culpa praecipitarunt praeteritionem de relectionemque Synodi verba agnoscimus ac deinde aeternae propter suam infidelitatem alia peccata punitionis decretum quis sanus inficietur Distinctionem illam inter negativam reprobationem sive non electionem positivam sive praeparationem poenae eorum qui in statu corruptionis relicti judicium sibi meritissimum accersunt quis non libenter agnoscat Resistere nos nimis saepe Gratiae divinae ad conversionem nostram nos importune satis invitanti urgentique quis negit Modo concedatur illud esse quandam peculiarem gratiam sive per Dei sapientiam sive per ejus potentiam administratam cui homo qui per eam vocatur non resistit quae a nullo duro corde respuitur quod tu cum Theologis Leydensibus ut illi cum S. Augustino rectissime asseruisti Sed quid ego telam tuam retexo Oculatus oportet adversarius sit qui in hisce novem de Reprobratione sectionibus quicquam invenerit quod veritati divinae sanctaeque charitati non sit omni modo consentaneum Mitior Paulo fortasse videri potest illa quae de sacrae caenae privata administratione moveri Lis solet quae tamen etiam Ecclesiis nostris nescio quas turbas fecerit Hic scilicet unus est ex
the dayes of the blessed Apostles till this age to stand for it The second hath the late persecuted reformed Church of France which never desired or meant to make their necessitated forme a patterne for others the Netherlands and Scotland for precedents of it The third hath the Ministers of New-England and their Associates commonly styled by the name of INDEPENDENTS vehemently contending for it The adversaries of every of these are as well known as their friends and the pleas which every of them makes for it self are as well known as either I suppose it is yet res integra else I should lay my finger upon my lips Both the Houses of Parliament your Assembly and the whole Kingdome stand yet free and unengaged to any part For the National Covenant as it is interpreted by some of your selves and those other Divines whose allowed Sermons have commented upon it intends not to abjure and disclaime Episcopacie as such but only bends against the whole present fabrick of Government as it is built on these Arches these Pedestals so as if it be taken asunder from those some of them not necessary appendances you are no way forstalled in your judgement against it nor any other that hath lift up his hand in this solemn Covenant That I may not urge the Latine Translation of the same Covenant printed and sent abroad to the Low-Countries and France and other Churches which ran only upon tyrannicum regimen Episcoporum that onely the Tyrannical Government of the prelates not their fatherly and brotherly preeminence is there abjured Your wisdomes know well how to distinguish betwixt a Calling and the abuses of the execution thereof betwixt the main substance of a Calling and the circumstantial and separable appurtenances thereunto from which it may be devested and yet stand intire I should be a flatterer of the times past which is not often seen if I should take upon me to justifie or approve of all the carriages of some that have been entrusted with the keyes of Ecclesiastical Government or to blanch over the Corruptions of Consistorial Officers in both these there was fault enough to ground both a complaint and Reformation and may that man never prosper that desires not an happy Reformation of what ever hath been or is amiss in the Church of God but this I offer to your serious consideration whether Episcopacie stripped of all circumstances that may be justly excepted against and reduced to the Primitive estate may not be thought a forme both better in it self and more fit for this Kingdome and Church then either of the other How ancient it is I need not appeal to any but your selves who do well know that there was never yet any History of the Church wherein there was not full mention made of Bishops as the only Governers thereof neither can any learned adversary deny that they have continued with the general allowance of Gods Church from the very Apostolick times untill this present age And whether it can be safe and lye not open to much scandal to exchange so ancient an institution hitherto perpetuated to the Church for a new where no necessity inforces us judge ye How universal it is being the only received government of all the Christian Churches over the face of the whole earth excepting onely this small spot of our neighbourhood ye know as well as the undoubted relation of the Christianographie can tell you and how unsafe it may be to depart from the forme of all the Churches that professe the name of Christ who do all submit themselves to Bishops or Superintendents except the fore-excepted I leave to your grave judgment Besides how Episcopacie is and hath long been setled in this Kingdome and as it were incorporated into it and enwoven into the municipal Lawes of this Land so as that it cannot be utterly removed without much alteration in the whole body of our Lawes is a matter well worthy of not the least consideration But all these would yet seem light upon the Balance if there were not an intrinsecal worth in the institution it self that might sway with you The covenant bindes to the indeavours of such a Government as is according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches And now let me appeal to your own hearts and the hearts of all judicious and unprejudicated Readers whether the rules of Church Government laid forth in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus do not suppose and import that very proper jurisdiction which is claimed by Episcopacy at this Day Which if it were not intended to be left as a perfect patterne to succession the whole Church of Christ should have been left in the dark without any direction for the succeding administration thereof Those charges are plainly given not to many but to one and do most manifestly imply not a party but preeminence and power And if the example of the best Churches must carry it What Church could be more pure and more fit for our imitation then the Primitive And that part of it which immediately followed the Apostles of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ And do not you full well know that our Histories and unquestionable Authors name the men whom those Apostles by imposition of hands ordained to this function Do not Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian Polycrates Egesippus Clemens Eusebius Jerome instance in those persons who succeeded each other in those first Sees If you tell me of the difference betwixt the Episcopacie of those first Ages of the Church and that of the present times I doe willingly yield it but withall I must add that it is not in any thing essentiall to the calling but in matters outward and meerly adventitious the abatement whereof if it should be found needful diminisheth nothing from the substance of that holy institution What can be more expresse then in the ancientest of them the Blessed Martyr Ignatius the mention of the three distinct degrees of Bishops Presbyters Deacons encharged with their several duties which were yet never intermitted and let fall to this present day How frequently and vehemently doth he in his genuine Epistles twice in that to the Ephesians call for due subjection to the Bishops and the Presbyterie How distinctly doth he in his Epistle to the Magnesians name their Bishop Dama their Presbyters Bassus Appollonius Stephanus How doth he in his Epistle Ad Trallianos set forth the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and and the Presbytery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And if any man shall be so unjustly scrupulous as to call into question the credit of this gracious Author reserved no doubt by a special providence for the conviction of the Schismes of these last times therein out-doing Vedeliu◠himself who stoutly asserteth some of these Epistles whiles he rejects others as supposititious let him cast his eyes upon the no less famous and holy Martyr and Bishop Polycarpus Iren. advers Haeres l. 3. c. 3. who as Irenaeus
impositions though otherwise holy men and no less true Christians then any of themselves 10. I do confidently believe that though it be a thing very requisite to publick peace and good order that every several Christian should be ranged under some particular Church and every particular assembly to be subordinate to some higher Government which may oversee over rule them in the case of different opinions and matters of practise yet that God hath not required or commanded either of these upon necessity of Salvation so as an Indian convert in the remotest part of the World believing in Christ may without relation to any Church whatsoever be saved and a particular Church being Orthodox in the main principles of Religion upon matter of litigious contestation flying off from some more eminent Church under which it was ranked for Orders sake however it may be faulty in an undue division yet is not hereby excluded from the capacity of salvation since such sleight jarrs and unkindnesses in Churches can no more shut them out from a common interest in Christ then the like quarrels of a Paul and Barnabas Act. 15.39 could keep either of them out of Heaven 11. I do confidently believe that all the particular National Churches through the whole Christian World are no other then Sisters Daughters of the same Father God of the same Mother the Spiritual Jerusalem which is from above some of them are Elder Sisters others Younger Some more Tall and large spread others of less stature some fairer in respect of Holyness of life and Orthodoxie of Judgment others fouler in respect of Corruptions both of doctrine and manners still Sisters and if any of them shall usurpe a Mistress-ship over the rest or make her self a Queen over them and make them subjects and slaves to her or a Motherhood to the rest otherwise then in a priority and aid of conversion and make them but Daughters and Punies to her She shall be guilty of an high Arrogance and Presumption against Christ and his dear Spouse the Church since with the just and holy God there is no respect of persons or places but in all Nations those that serve him best are most accepted of him 12. From hence will follow this double Corollarie First That as there is a kinde of natural equality in Sisterhood no particular National Church can by right of any institution of God challeng a commanding power over the rest however some one may have a precedency to other in respect whether of more constant Holyness and syncerity or more speed of conversion or of larger extent or of that civil greatnesse and preeminence of that State or Nation wherein it is setled And upon this occasion may must improve and exercise her eminence to the defence and furtherance of the weaker more distressed But if any particular National Church being less able to suste in it self shall agree voluntarily to submit her self for orders sake and for safety and protection to the sway of one more famous and powerful her ingagement doth justly binde her so far as lawfully it reacheth viz. To accknowledg a priority of place and to respect her directions in matters of forme and outward Administration so long as they vary not from the rule which God hath set in his Church But if that more potent Church shall abuse that power and begin to exercise Tyranny over the weaker by forceing upon her new and undue impositions of faith or intollerable insolencies in government there is no law of God that binds that weaker Church Issachar-like to lye down between two burdens she may challenge and resume the right of a Sister and shake off the yoak of a slave without the violation of any command of God and not the injuried but the oppressor is guilty of the breach of peace 2. It will hence follow that the relation of this common Sisterhood of all Christian Churches justly tyes all those that professe the name of Christ to a charitable regard of each to other So as though there be in some of them gross errors in matters of Doctrine and foul corruptions in matters of practise yet whiles they hold and maintain all the Articles of the same Christian faith and acknowledge the same Scriptures the substance of the same baptisme and of the institution of the Holy Eucharist they cease not to continue Sisters notwithstanding their manifold enormities and depravations these are enough to deforme any Church not enough to Dis-church it These are enough to impair the health not to bereave the life Howsoever therefore we must alwaies hate and cry down their errors which a wilful maintenance makes no lesse then damnable yet we must pity and pray for their Persons and by all good means labour to bring them to an acknowledgment of the opposed truth and although I well know there is ill use made of our charity this way by those willing mistakers who turne it to our disadvantage that we pass so favourable censures upon their Churches whiles they pass so cruel and merciless censures upon ours yet my conscience bids me to say that I cannot repent of this just sentence wherein I know I shall finde comfort in my appearance before the dreadful Tribunal of God when the uncharitableness and injustice of these bloody men that send their charitable opposers to a remedilesse damnation shall be adjudged to that Hell which they have presumptuously doomed unto others As for them let them see how they can answer it to that just Judge of the World in that great day that they have presumed to blot out of the book of life so many millions of faithful Christians only for dissenting from them in such points as God never gave them warrant to impose From the force then of this Relation it is easily subinfer'd that it is not lawful for Christian Churches upon differences about points not essential to the faith either voluntarily to forsake the communion of each other or forceably to abdicate and thrust out each other from their communion There being the same reason in this behalf of a Church and a several Christian As therefore one Christian may not abandon another for differences of opinion in matters not necessary to be believed so neither may one Church upon such ground either leave or expel another but if any such act be done it is to be inquired both where the fault is and what may be the Remedy In a meer simple dereliction of a Church thus differing and supposed so to err the faults must needs be in the Church forsaking But where the departure is accompanyed with such circumstances as may be supposed to be incident in such cases there the state of the business may be altered and the blame of either part either taken off or aggravated To instance in the prosecution of this Relation which we have in hand Two Sisters are appointed by their Mother to looke to her house the charge is given equally to both the