their Disobedience to both those Powers unless the things commanded be manifestly proved to contradict the Faith or be repugnant to good Life which till Dissenters can do they will be obstinate Schismaticks before God and Rebels against their Prince and in a fair way to be Traytors too whilst they break his Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical however they may flatter themselves with the Title of Saints And so soon as they can prove their Charge against any of the Ceremonies and that they are Unlawful in reality and not only in supposition they shall be gratified by their Abolition or amendment if that will do And if they cannot prove their Accusations would they be so unjust as to have not Justice but Injury done to the Innocent by abrogating those Modes of Worship and Customs in the Church which the whole Church has allowed that Government which God appointed which he has approved by maintaining supporting and defending it to this present day against all the Opposition of Infidels and Hereticks those two Gates of Hell One would think that Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis were satisfactory to men of Reason and Sobriety Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus id quidèm verè est Catholicum That which every where always and by all has been received must needs be a Catholick Truth but such is the Power Rule Authority of Bishops for Guiding the Church and appointing the Modes of Worship And they who will oppose this spring Tide of Universal Testimony will but drown themselves in the Odious name of Schismaticks and Heriticks of whom these have been the Characters Mos semper fuit Hereticorum quorum Doctrinam non possunt confutare illorum vitam in Odium trahere It has always been the Custom of Hereticks to asperse the lives of those whose Doctrines they have not been able to confute Which has been the constant Practice of late years against Episcopacy and Episcopal Men to throw dirt upon the Profession and Persons and then proclaim them Odious when in truth the blackness is in their own Mouths and not either in the Persons whom they calumniate or in the Office Treating the Church as some Impudent Villains do the Modest Woman whom they cannot Debauch Cry out A Whore a Whore and set the Rabble upon her who roll her in the Kennel and cover her with dirt till no body can tell what she is made of and then believe she is what they have made her ugly and what the other would have made her but could not Criminal St. Bernard gives us a second Property Haerent ad singula quae injunguntur Exigunt de quibusque rationem male suspicantur de omnî Precepto nèc unquà m libentèr acquiescunt nisi cum audire contigerit quod fortè libuerit They stick at every thing which is by Authority enjoyned they require a a Reason nay and we may add are not satisfied with Reason for every thing they are Jealously suspicious of every Precept of their Superiors nor do they ever willingly acquiess in their determinations unless it happens that they are agreeable to their own Judgment and as St. Augustine says Nisi quod ipsi faciunt nihil rectum Existimant They think well of nothing or Judge it right but what they do themselves LET St. Cyprian give them a third Mark. Initia Haereticorum c. Vt Praepositum Superbo tumore contemnant Sic de Ecclesia receditur sic Altare prophanum Foràs Collocatur sic contra pacem Christi Ordinationem atque unitatem Dei rebellatur The Original of Hereticks is Contempt of those who are set over them So men separate from the Church So is a prophane Altar erected out of it So men become Rebells against the Peace of Christ Order and Vnity because as in another place he says Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest Superbâ quorundam presumptione contemnitur The Bishop who is one and set over the Church is by the proud Presumption of some Men Contemned We may write a Probatum est to these Prophetique Truths I might Pyle up Endless Authorities and swell this Discourse to a Volume but if what I have already said be not sufficient to Convince the greatest Enemies of Episcopacy that it is a Government of Gods appointment in the Church I think all that can be said will be to no purpose and if this will more would be supersluous if they will not believe the Scripture If they will not believe the Church Mat. 18.17 it is our Saviour's Rule Let them be as Heathen men and Publicans CHAP. XVI HAVING now found a Divine and unerring Rule of Faith and Life in the Scripture of Truth and having also found there who are by God appointed to be Governours of the Church viz. Bishops There remains only the great Enquiry after the Judg of Controversies and Differences which is abslutely Necessary in the Church of God to determine Differences which may happen not only about Matters of private Opinion but even the sense of the Scriptures and the Interpretation of the Holy Rule And as these Differences may be of several Kinds and Natures so there are several Judges appointed by God to hear and determine them that so the Church may be preserved in Peace and Charity As to what is matter of Faith Essentially Necessary to Salvation That God is the Sole Judg of himself And therefore it has by him long since been determined and received in the Church and what ever by all must be believed must be easy by all to be known and is therefore plainly set forth in Holy Scripture Nor can any be Judg of this but what cannot Err or deceive us which is only God And to say the Church is the Judg of this and that it cannot Err because the Catholique Church does not Err is to argue Fallaciously à non esse ad impossibile esse For that part of the Catholique Church whilest on Earth consisting of Men of whom some shall be saved and some Reprobated No man having a power to know which of them are those who shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation that they shall not Err and to distinguish them from those who shall not be so preserved and therefore there being a Possibility that those who may be Reprobates from the Faith themselves may yet be of great Authority in the Outward Visible Church it is unreasonable to admit them as Judges of Faith who Erring themselves my lead us into Errors too And therefore God who speaks to us in Scripture is only the Judg of what is matter of Faith and what not and it is to be tryed by that Rule and no Authority has power to impose any thing as matter of Faith Essentially necessary to Salvation but what is there to be found The Harmony of the Universal Church that such things as are offered as matters of Faith are agreeable to Scripture is in things not clear and
Eyes a fountain of Tears that I might weep day and night for the daughter of my People Oh that I had in the Wilderness a lodging Place of a way-faring man that I might leave my People and go from them for they are an Assembly of treacherous Men. For I found my self like the Royal Prophet Psal 55.4 5 6 7 8. My heart was sore pained within me fear and trembling came upon me then said I Oh that I had wings like a Dove for then would I flee away and be at rest I would wander far off and remain in the Wilderness I would make haste to escape from the windy storm and tempest But what said I will Tears avail though I could raise them to a Deluge can they attone the Sins or drown the Miseries of a Nation Oh blessed Jesus thou great and compassionate Shepherd look down from thy glorious Habitation upon this miserable Flock which with thy precious blood thou hast redeemed pour out thine Indignation upon the Heathen who either have not known thy Name or Hate it When shall that happy Vnity and perfect Charity bless thy Church in being one Flock under thee that great and only Shepherd when shall the breaches of Zion be made up when shall Jerusalem by being at Vnity in it self become the Glory of the whole Earth the City of the great King I begun then to meditate upon the Goodness of that wise Physician who giveth Medicine to heal their Sickness and maketh men to be of one mind in a House But alas when I came to put our Sins and especially our Ingratitudes for Mercies that were Miracles into the Ballance against Gods Mercy I found but too true what the same afflicted Prophet sayes of himself in a Case not much different from ours Jer. 8.18 When I would comfort my self against sorrow my heart was faint within me we looked for Peace but no good came for a time of Health but behold trouble Long have we hoped to see good Dayes and expected better Times but the harvest is past the Summer is ended and we are not deliver'd Nay rather our Symptoms appear more dangerous and our wound almost incurable With which consideration I burst out into the sensible Expression of the holy disconsolate in the following Verse For the hurt of the Daughter of my People am I hurt I am black astonishment hath taken hold on me I had no sooner uttered those Words but my Eye was Encountred with the succeeding Expression Is there no Balm in Gilead Is there no Physician there why then is not the health of the daughter of my People recovered Yes certainly said I there is Balm in Gilead but where is the Physician that shall apply it The wound is deep and Fester'd and will not indure the least the gentlest hand to touch it They who are sick even to the Extreamest Agonies and Convulsions believe themselves in the most perfect state of Health they reject contemn and despise the Physician and his applications and though they are in the most dangerous Delirium they are so strongly possessed of this belief that they think the Physitian mad and brain-sick and are so far from receiving his advice and skill that they cry out He wants it himself and they pretend to give it I knew that many there were who had attempted the charitable design in vain I knew their Talents far exceed my Mite I can give but all they can give no more and that I will give I know my Lord will expect an account a strict one from me Matt. 25.27 and to receive his own with Vsury why should I then hide my Lords money in the Earth There may be as much Charity in a Mite as in a Million all will help the treasury towards the rebuilding of the Temple and God who knows all things knows I think it too small to boast of or to give to be seen of men They who have received more may be more Liberal and I hope they will Thus did I struggle with my troubled thoughts but at the last I considered that of the Incomparably wisest of Men Eccl. 9.11 I returned says he and saw under the Sun that the Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the strong and my hopes received a strange assistance and my Courage a reinforcement by the Parable of the poor Man Vers 14.15 who delivered the City from the iminent danger with which it was surrounded Nor did the reflection of so great a Judge upon the poor Mans going unrewarded for his service discourage me For since I dare neither pretend to his Character nor success I am secured against the discontents and danger of Oblivion The Glory of good actions if they succeed is Reward enough for innocent Minds and if they fail the satisfaction of having attempted them is beyond all other Recompences and I may truly say my greatest fear is lest I should not be able to accomplish the Good Design which I do so passionately desire to do My Intention is my Satisfaction and if it will procure my Pardon from some it is beyond my Expectation and however I am assured that whatsoever reception or Effect my Intentions may find amongst Men yet that even this inconsiderable Cup of cold Water Matt. 10. ult shall not fail of a proportionate reward from him who recompenses sincere Intentions and poor Indeavours for all our best Actions are no better done in Faith and Charity with transcendant degrees of real Glory IN the Name therefore of God Omnipotent I will Enter upon this Rugged way which is therefore Uneven because few there are that tread it and in my Travels through these Regions of good and bad Report I will endeavour to Follow the bright Star of Truth and to avoid the dangerous Rocks of Partiality and Passion I will not Court the Kindness even of that Party which I own by unmanly and much less Unchristian Flattery nor treat those who are Enemies to themselves and truth with heat and Animosity as if they were my own And if at any time I may appear transported too sharp or Rugged I desire it may be remembred that the Samaritan was no less Compassionate or Charitable for the sharpness of his Wine than for the smoothness of his Oyl the one was as necessary to cleanse the Wounds as the other to heal them and both previous to his binding them up All the Request I have to those who at present differ from me in Opinion is That if I speak truth I may be Credited and they perswaded to Embrace the same Design which all good Christians are bound to promote as well as I if they expect Salvation viz. Peace on Earth and good will towards Men as well as Glory to God on high And if I be mistaken since I do not Err of Malicious Wickedness that they will pity me and inform me better No person shall more greedily Embrace a clearer beam of Divine
obedience to a private doubt to break a known Command of God who commands Obedience to my Superiors in all things which are not contrary to his commands and whether we should obey God or Man our selves or the Magistrates and Rulers of of the Church is no such hard Question as some people have made it BESIDES Though wilful Errors in Faith are Damnable yet Errors in Circumstances neither are nor can be so unless we make them so our selves by Disobedience to God in refusing for Peace and Vnity to submit to our Superiors which is Damnable Nor indeed can any of the several Rites and Ceremonies of Religion be properly called Errors though they be different nay contrary one to another For where there is no positive Command of God to Determine us either part is lawful or unlawful only according as it is commanded or forbidden by those who are in Authority and if it be not determined by them then as we in our own Judgment shall be perswaded that is conducive to Gods Glory and the Happiness of Mankind For whether I should pray in a Surplice or in a Cloak is not a point of Salvation for I may do it with either or neither and yet go to Heaven but Disobedience to my Lawful Superiors should they command me to pray to God in Publique in either of them is an Error in Faith for who ever is guilty of that Disobedience must either believe that God is not the Author of that Command or that it is not true which is Infidelity and Error Now let any person of Sobriety Judg whether such a Conscience is a good Conscience and void of offence to God and Men which will strain at the Gnat of an indifferent Ceremony and swallow the Camel of Disobedience And whether all good Christians ought not to joyn with the National Church in such Ceremonies and manners of Worship as admitting them to be as bad as any Ceremonies can be which are not Damnable rather than by endeavouring to avoid them and refusing to use them to run the certain Hazzard of ruining the Peace of the Church and Nation and certain Damnation by their Disobedience to the Command of God I desire to make this as clear as I can and therefore we will Instance in the sign of the Cross after Baptism This Ceremony is by many so much abhorred that they will rather not have their Children received into the Covenant of Grace by Baptism or which is the same thing have the Sacrament from those who having no lawful Ordination have therefore no Commission to go and Baptize all Nations Now supposing the sign of the Cross after Baptism a superfluous or superstitious Ceremony which yet will never be proved as by the Church explained in the Office of Baptism and the 30 Canon yet still the Use of it could not be injurious to Salvation or Damnable because it is no where in Scripture forbidden nor ever asserted to be Essential to the Sacrament Nor condemned by either Councels or the Practice of the Church in any Age but frequently used by the Primitive Christians both upon that and many other Occasions what a man may do without fear of Damnation he may do safely nor is he to be judge of the Expedience or edifyingness of the Ceremony for who made any private man a Judge over others that very capacity Excludes him from that Power But for any person to refuse to have his Child Baptized because of this Ceremony or to refuse to obey his Superiors is to make himself a Judge over them and a damnable Sin Washing with Water in the Name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost is the Essence of the Sacrament but there are some Prayers to be made 1 Tim. 〈◊〉 For every Creature of God is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer some Gestures some Postures to be used in such a weighty Solemnity some Praises due for so great a Benefit and these being no where directed what they shall be are left to the Care and Wisdom of the Governors of the Church who to avoid Confusion and to Establish Vnity by Vniformity to preserve the Decency of so Sacred a Duty prescribe this Form of words these Gestures and Rites and this sign as of great signification that as St. Paul says We should Glory in the Cross of Christ and receive that as a Badge or Cognizance of our Christian Profession THE same Answer will serve for all the Ceremonies which are made use of or commanded by the Church of England Nor shall we need to fear lest by this Power of the Church the Ceremonies should swell to such a bulk as to be burthensom by being too numerous since the Governors themselves are not without a Rule in this particular which is the Determination of the first General Councel at Jerusalem Acts 15.28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things one of those necessary things was before indifferent viz. to abstain from things strangled and St. Paul seems to make even the other about the things offer'd to Idols the same which now were made by the Councel necessary BUT supposing that there were a real Clog of Ceremonies which none can justly complain of amongst us yet would any man loose the substance for fear of the shadow refuse to Eat good and wholsome Diet because the Dish was Silver and too much Garnished and by Schism and Disobedience run the hazard of his own Soul and all those seduced by him meerly to avoid the doing of those things which if he does them cannot in the least prejudice his Salvation for these are only the Conditions of our maintaining Peace Vnity and Charity but not the Conditions upon which our Salvation depends because God has no where said he that does these things shall be damned and he that abstains from them shall be saved but he has said we must hear the Church and if she Commands this for Peace sake we must Obey lest we be justly esteemed as Publicans and Heathens BESIDES they who Command must answer to God for themselves and they who are to Obey shall not answer for the Errors of their Superiors but no man can answer to God for his disobedience against them in these Commands not only because they are not Judges whether they ought to do or not to do what they are Commanded but because there can then be no such thing as Obedience if every man may be his own Judge for what one man may do out of pure doubt or scruple of Mind thousands will pretend to do and it being impossible to discover the Tender Conscience from the Obstinate and Designing all Duty to our Superiors in the Church will be Evaded with pretence of Doubting or else consist in obeying only so far as we like the Commands which is for fear of Popery to make every Man his own Pope to dispense with the
have instructed his Scholar to put down and not Exalt this Antichrist in the Church of God 1 Jo. 2.18 This Ignatius who was afterwards in the Eleventh year of Trajan Crowned with Martyrdom at Rome being torn in pieces by Wild Beasts as Eusebius gives us an account Euseb Eccl. His l. 3. c. 19. 35. he speaks as plain of the Difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter as Pen can write or Heart can wish In his Epistle to the Magnesians Ig. Ep. ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop saith he is seated in the first place as in the place of God and the Presbyters as the Senate of the Apostles And in another place of the same Epistle They says he who Act without a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to such Christ will say Why do ye call me Lord Lord and do not the works which I Command you Such Persons seem to me not to be of a good Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to be Hypocrites and Dissemblers And in his Epistle to the Trallians he Commands them in the Language of the Author to the Hebrews Ignat. Epist ad Trall To be subject unto this Bishop as unto the Lord for he Watches for your souls And in another place he tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is absolutely necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That you should do nothing without the Bishop Thus we see the Sons of the Church in the first Century of the Apostles of Christ being yet living thought of Bishops as we do And therefore it is both Undeniable and Undubitable that Episcopal Government was of Divine Institution and that a Bishop and a Presbyter are two different things in the Primitive Church both as to Power and as to Name I might bring a whole Cloud of Witnesses of less Antiquity but if these will not convince if the Testimony of Scripture and so Primitive a man and a Bishop as Ignatius be of no value I can have little hopes of convincing Gainsayers by multitude who have abandoned Reason THUS stood the Affairs of the Church for above 300 Years no man making the least Question or Dispute but that the Government by Episcopacy was of Gods appointment one Bishop still succeeding another as in the Ecclesiastical Historians my be seen in most of the Principal Cities of the World Epiphan l. 3. Tom. 1. Haeres 25. till Aerius being Educated with Eustathius and being his equal in Learning and Age took it as a great disparagement that Eustathius was preferred before him to a Bishoprick for which they were Competitors upon this discontent he not only fell foul upon Eustathius objecting as our Aerians do against him Pride and Covetousness but his Resentments for the Mortal displeasure broak out against the whole Function contemning the prescribed Fasts of the Church and teaching by the same Arguments with ours that a Bishop and a Priest were all one by the Scriptures of equal Power Authority and Jurisdiction which saith Epiphanius is an Assertion stultitiae plena full of Folly But this being but one discontented Priests Opinion was neither much regarded nor long lived the current belief of the Scripture and the constant Usage of the Church which knew no other Government run so strong that he was drowned in it nor did the Heresie ever float again till this last Age of which St. Clement who was contemporary to St. Paul and his fellow Labourer Phil. 4.3 as he calls him seems to prophecy in that Epistle of his to the Corinthians which I think was never suspected to be spurious where he tells us there would come a time when there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Ep. ad Cor. a contention about the very name of a Bishop BY virtue of this Power it was that the Rulers of the Church ordered and appointed all things which were done which were of an indifferent Nature in Government as about the Observation of Holy Fasts and Festivals the manner of Celebrating the Service and Worship of God the Prayers and Alms of the Church the Postures Gestures and Habits which were to be made use of and all other Rites and Ceremonies following herein the Scripture as the Rule of Faith and Manners and the General Precepts therein contained as Rules of Government which were principally these FIRST That nothing imposed should be repugnant or contrary to any Article or Branch of Faith or a Holy Life or to any Customs of the Church recorded in Holy Writ SECONDLY That all their Commands might have a respect to Decency Order Reverence and Edification THIRDLY That All might have a tendency to Vnity Peace and Concord and that diversity of Customs and Opinions might not breed Schisms and Contentions and I shewed before how when in some of these things there was a difference in several Churches yet still they held Communion one with another maintaining inviolably the same Faith and Government in all THIS was the Condition of the Church both as to Faith and Polity till such time as the great Powers of the Earth the Roman Emperours and other Kings became Christians and took up the Cross of Christ as the Glory of their Crowns The first of which was Constantine the Great These Temporal Powers then took the Church into their Protection made Temporal Laws for the better Management of it and to preserve it from the Injuries of Heathen Idolaters without and Hereticks within and having the Sword in their hand undertook as it was their Duty to punish Evil doers who darst transgress the Laws of the Church with Temporal Punishments as well as those who broak the Laws of the Civil Magistrate and to incourage the Peaceable and Religious From the Bounty of these Princes and that of others of plentiful Fortunes and and by their Example the Church came to be Endowed with Temporalties and an Honourable Constant and Encouraging Maintainance was provided and settled upon those who were to serve at the Altar that so they might be inabled and furnished with all sorts of Learning well knowing that proportionate Rewards are the spurs to Learning and Virtue as the Wisdom of God for our Encouragement to Pursue and Obtain her tells us Prov. 8.18.3.4 Riches and Honour are with me yea durable Riches and Righteousness and that length of days are in her right hand and in her left hand Riches and Honour And that according to the Apostolical Command 1 Cor 9.11 14. They which sow Spiritual things should also reap Carnal for so hath the Lord commanded that they which Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel BY this it appears That now there was a double Obligation laid upon all Christians to be Obedient to the Commands of the Church both because they derive their Power from God and because the Temporal Power did now concur to strengthen the Duty by the Obligations of Humane Laws nor can any thing or any pretence of Conscience authorize