the illumination of grace and reason so likewise are they most reationally and with great Justice and Piety disengaged not only from a pretended Infallible Tribunal but also from the Tyranny of such dependance or submission to an Authority subject to errour AS to the Assertion of the Synod of Charenton that the Sect of the Independants opens the door to all manner of Irregularities and Extravagances that Assertion I say seems plausible at the first as in truth it is not only plausible but most reasonable in matters purely Civil in which if there were not a last Resort and Refuge and Appeal from Court to Court in the Territories of a Soveraign there would be as many Courts erected Independant one on the other not only as there are Families but as there are private persons Which inconvenience is not one in matters of Religion Faith Doctrine and Divine Worship in which the Conscience of every one is the last resort wherein the business is to be judged without any further Appeal and where none ought to be constrained but exhorted and perswaded A Synod is to perswade a particular Church to embrace such a Faith but it hath neither right nor power to force it Now a particular Church is to do the same as to one of its Members and if it carries any constraint with it it no longer acts as a Church and as an Assembly of Christians and faithfulâ— people but as a Magistrate at least like an Arbiter and Judge to whom Jesus Christ sent the planteth in the eighteenth Chapter of St. Matthew in these words tell it to the Church that is to say tell it to an Assembly which had neither any Court nor any power nor Jurisdiction and where the party intimated mightly decline or refuse the Judgement without damage as it appears by those words of Jesus Christ if he dres not hearken to the Church For by these words let him be unto thee c. Jesus Christ does not command the Church to proceed to an Excommunication of that party that has done the wrong but he advises the offended party to cite the other who has deprived himself of the quality of a Brother before the natural Judges as well of the Publicans as of the Heathens the one being the Ministers of the State and the other being of the Religion of the Emperour In short the Church as such and considered as Christians and honest men hath no more jurisdiction that a Colledge of Philosophers CHAP. IV. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a Conformity of Faith with the other Reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of Discipline Of the veneraiton they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and Discipline THE design of producing their Confession of Faith is to shew that it is the very Masterpiece of an extreamly juditious Government and as it was the work of persons most perfect in the Study of Divinity the principal design they had in the composition of their Confession was to declare and testifie to the World that altho every Church might take the liberty to differ from others in discipline they ought nevertheless to labour above all things to retain and keep the same faith in matters that are essential with all the Reformed Churches This is what the Congregational party have done with great care and circumspection in the making of their Confession for beside that they do but a very little differ from that of the Presbyterians and that they do not at all divide from them but in matter of Discipline they have also indeavoured to have their Faith conformable to the Doctrine of the Church of England and as to their Discipline it is very simple and naked they have no other than that which Saint Paul gives in three words to wit That every thing in the Church should be done Decently and in Order They have especially had an eye to the practice of the Churches under the good Roman Emperors under Constantine Theodosius Martianus and Justinian under whom they kept a strict uniformity in Faith and that correspondence was maintained by letters which they called Literae Testimoniales Circulares Ecclesiasticae Formatae tho otherwise they took the liberty to differ one from another even under one and the same Emperour in Discipline in Customes and in Ceremonies Saint Austin Epist ad Tanuarium 119. Epist 86. ad Casulanum Presbyterum permits any Church to differ from others in Ceremonies and in manner of Government provided that they agree with them in Unity of Faith The Historian Socrates libr. 5. cap. 21. tells us that there was not to be found two Churches in all the Roman Empire which observed one and the same form of Prayers to God The Jesuit Mainbourg how zealous soever he is to the Uniformity of Rome in his Doctrine and discipline yet he ceases not to say and to maintain that the diversity of usages customes and practices is compatible with the unity of Faith One ought not says he never to separate for the diversity and customes which may be different the one from the other without the wounding the Vnity of Faith Pag. 303. of his third book of the Treatise of Schism among the Grecians I have read as much in a great Lawyer it is Godefrey the Son Certissima olim fidei contesseratio erat unà Eucharistiam sâ—mere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebantur non in eadem disciplina sed fidâ— WE must also do them this justice that there are no Doctors who have a greater Veneration for the Doctrine and memory of Caloin nor who desire with more ardent zeal to have a strict and close Communion with the Churches which follow the Doctrine of that holy man than their Pastors altho they believe that they may have as I have said the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline without thinking themselves guilty either of separation or schism CHAP. V. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally Establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church 'T IS a great wrong and injury done to the Independants to affirm that they condemn Synods since on the contrary they Establish the true use of them as the Bishop of Condom who hath more charity for them than other Synods and our Divines acknowledge The Independants says he do not refuse to embrace and comply with the decisions of Synods when after they have duely examined them they find them not unreasonable that which they refuse to do is to submit their Judgement to that of any Assembly or Society subject to errour THE Independants argue as Mr. Pajon does Though Jesus Christ himself says he should come down from Heaven to dwell on the earth again with all the rayes of Glory that are roand about him to teach us and to guide and direct us yet it would be impossible for us
Omnipotentiam non credunt 'T IS true they are accused for depriving the Magistrate from the same Authority and Soveraign Intendence over the Ecclesiastical State as over that of the Civil But notwithstanding they do sufficiently satisfy all reasonable and considerate persons of this in the four and twentieth Chapter of their Confession Beside those who condemn that collaterality of Governments and of Tribunals the one Ecclesiastical and the other Civil in one and the same territory and who believe that it comes from the forge of Antichrist and that it hath introduced Popery into the world do not trouble themselves about resolving the difficulty nor about assigning to each his Lawes his Courts his Officers his Soveraign and the measure of his Power and Authority I add that as the force and efficacy of Laws does not consist in whither they are Ecclesiastical or Civil nor in their goodness justice and truth but in the will of him or those who sit at the Helm of Affairs the Congregational Churches must of necessity acknowledg the force of all those Laws whither for the Ecclesiastical or the Civil State only they affirm that as the Magistrate is not Infallible he may possibly abuse his right and orr either in the publication or the execution of his Laws of what Nature soever they be and as they are not obliged to obey all Civil Laws no more are they obliged to obey all Laws Ecclesiastical they affirm also that as the Empire of Jesus Christ in matters of Religion is not over the bodies but over the hearts of men the Magistrate who is the Protector and Defender of the visible Church of Jesus Christ in his Territories sins extremely when he makes Laws and Ordinances that do violence to the bodies of his Subjects and that take from them that liberty which every man ought to have in the choice of his Religion and in the manner of serving God BUT that crime which is imposed on them supposing it to be one is incomparably less than that of Presbyterian Churches all which follow the establishment and the practise of Calvin who set up in Geneva an Ecclesiastical Tribunal Independant and distinct from that of the Magistrate insomuch that a learned man named Monsieur Jurieu has writ a large Book wherein he endeavours to prove that the Soveraign Magistrate considered as such has not any jurisdiction nor Intendence over the Collected Churches in his Dominions and that he hath no other right than that of Inspection and considered as a Christian and one of his principal Members wherein Monsieur Jurieu is more Independant than the Independants themselves and he does not afford so much Authority to the Magistrate over the Churches that are collected within his Territories and Dominions as the Independants do THE Independant Churches and their Pastors are very wide from these thoughts and practises For the Authority of every Congregation being as that of every Family what liberty soever it has to govern it self according to its own way and humour it is not neither in right nor in power nor even in will to set up a Tribunal distinct from and Independent on that of the Magistrate AFTER all a Prince who should endeavour to establish an Arbitrary Power in his Kingdom that should depend only upon God and his Sword might imagine he should be less hindred by several thousands of Independant Congregations not only on him and on his Courts but also the one Independant on the other than by one entire body of all those Churches which should set up by their deputies an Ecclesiastical Tribunal distinct from and Independant on the Civil For the strengeh of all those Independant Congregations would be like that of several threads which may easily be broke one after another whereas the strength of all those Churches joyned in one body would be like to that of all those threads twisted together which it would be almost if not absolutely impossible to break or to undo but by the same way that Alexander took to break the Gordian-knot AS the Independent Churches do come the nearest to those of the Apostles so likewise they are further off than any of the other reformed Churches from that thought and practise which has accomplished the Mystery of Inquity which is nothing else but the Empire of the Clergy and so consequently That of the Pope in the Empire of the secular Powers under the Mask and Disguise of Religion and Ecclesiastical power AS to the Objection that is made against them that in case there should be no other Ecclesiastical Establishment in a Kingdom than theirs the three fourths of the Inhabitants would live in great negligence and a gross Ignorance of Religion To that they say that their way does not exempt Pastors from attending upon the Office of their Ministry at all times and places both within and without their particular Congregations and to take the same pains as the Presbyterian Ministers do for what repects the preaching of the word in the most publick places also they do very much approve that the Magistrate should erect Academies and Colledges assign Tithes and Revenues and Temples establish persons to be imployed in the instruction of people in publick to invite them to it and to excite the Ignorant to frequent the Schools and the Lectures of the Professors of Arts and Sciences where they should go for the love of vertue and knowledge without being constrained AS to the crime of Schism which is imposed on them as their being seperate from all the visible Churches of Jesus Christ in the same manner as the Donatists the Novatians and the Luciferians did 't is a false Accu sation Those who accuse them of Schism do not understand the nature of Schism 1. 'T IS not Schism when a particular Church separates from another Church as the Church of Luther from that of Calvin nor the Protestants from the Papists nor even one particular reformed Church from some other with which it made before but one body of a Church But true Schism is formed among the Members of one and the same particular Church as was that of Corinth 2. 'T IS not Schism when a number of Hereticks separate from the Orthodox party of a particular Church to make a Congregation apart to the end they may profess their heresie with greater liberty but it is an Apostasie and an abandoning and forsaking of the Orthodox faith or Church of Jesus Christ which is Catholick and visible and upon this ground the Church of Rome is not a Schismatical but an Apostate Church although it be one for the first reason because that what ingagement or tye soever all its Members have to one head however they are not all agreed together Schism properly is when the Members of one Church are at variance as were those of the Church of Corinth and upon that account there is alwayes a Schism in the Romish Church 3. THERE is no Schism among several particular Churches that
to obey him reasonably without making use of our iwn illumination to know it and to judge whither it be just and reasonable to obey him in all things If he would not have a humane Judgement submit to that which discovers it's Infallibility with so much dazling and lustre unless reason lead one to it by an Argument à fortiori would he approve of the conduct of the Independants as reasonable when they refuse to submit to a Judgement that is humane and fallible BUT the true Constitution of Synods according to them when they look upon them as the Assemblies of the Ministers of Jesus Christ of Divines and of faithful people and the true use they make of them and which ought to be made of them is to ask and receive from them advice and counsel as one expects and as one ought to receive it from wise and experienced men and not by way of command and impulse That is all the Authority that the great Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Mr. Baxter gives them when they consider them as such And also the Oecumenical Synods which were held under Constantine and Martian had no more before those Emperours gave to their conclusions the force and prevalence of Canons and the Sanction of Imperial Laws THEY take the Apostolical Synod for the model of the Authority of all Synods at least of that which they would attribute to themselves and although it was the onley Synod that was guided by the spirit of Infallibility and its Authority was much more eminent otherwise than that of all the Synodal Assemblies in the succeeding Ages yet it never went as the others have done since to throw out Anathema's at the heads of those who refuse to be obedient to them but it only concludes with this exhortation if you keep these Canons you will do well THEY speak of the nature of the Church of the power and calling of Pastors and of their Ordination and according to the good maxims of Monsieur Mestrozat Monsieur Pajon and Monsieur Claude and their Doctors were the first who have established the true nature of Schism AS to what respects the Power the Authority and the Jurisdiction of Pastors they acknowledge no other in the Church than that which is confined in every particular Church and which goes not beyond perswasion or at the farthest a declaration that it makes that it no longer owns such and such either for the Pastors or Members of its Society And this is what is done by a natural right and not in shooting out the thunderclaps of Excommunication or deposition against them for Excommunication is not a business that is much disputed of among them The hereticks and the wicked being condemned by their own confession have no need to be excommunicated because they are excommunicated of themselves as the Bishop Godean tells us in his Paraphrase upon the eleventh Verse of the third Chapter of the Epistile to Titus A man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself and it is what he says after Saint Jerome If any one of their Assemblies practise Excommunication it is that of the Ancient Christians it is not a privation from the holy Supper but an ejection of the body out of the Assembly no longer to be reckoned any of their Members CHAP. VI. An Answer to those who say that the Congregational way is Incompatible with the Civil power and that it deprives the Magistrate of the Right he hath to the Government of the Church that it is Introductory of Irreligion Ignorance and Schism in the Church THE four and twentieth Chapter of their confession of faith condemns those who speak of them as of persons that despise Superiour Powers For it is easiy to demonstrate that their way is so far from being as Monsieur Daille believed pernitious and such as troubles the peace of the world or which over-throws the Governments of it and the authority both of Soveraigns and their states that on the contrary there is no way in the world which contributes more to the strength'ning of Empires Especially of Monarchies and which ought lesse disquiet the Crowned heads for fear least they should cause by it any commotions in the State than theirs For as they do not set up and establish any Ecclesiastical tribunal independant on the Magistrate which draws along with it the two thirds of the most considerable persons of the State especially those who are most nice and Scrupulous in Religion it is impossible that there should be any troubles made by leagues and confederations in that manner as may be in all the Presbyterian Churches of a Nation and as those practise it when they forme to themselves as oft times they have done an Assembly of their deputies ALL the world knowes that these general and National Assemblies of the Clergy have been formidable to Kings and Parliaments because they are as an Altar and a Soveraign Ecclesiastical power opposed to a Soveraign and civil power of which there have been seen pernitious effects in Scotland and which France would have found if the reformed Religion had prevailed over the Romish And I am very much persuaded that nothing so much diverted Henry the fourth from the thoughts he might have had to establish the Reformed Religion in France as the apprehension he had that his actions being somewhat free might be too far lookt into and examined by the Synods and the Consistories and that his person should be brought under their Jurisdiction AS therefore the Independants do condemn these Maxims and these practises which are absolutely contrary to theirs how ill intended soever they were or might be it is no more possible for them to set up in a Kingdom a Soveraign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than for all the Companies of Merchants and Tradesmen or for all the Families of France to erect a Tribunal and a Merchandizing or Oecumenical Power which may be equal with that of the Civil State IN a word as the Congregational Churches do neither receive Ordinances nor Commandments from their Synods but only counsells and advice and that they cannot assemble in a body by their deputies they give a great advantage unto Magistrates to possess an intire and perfect Soveraignty and to take for their Motto Divide Impera For those who deprive their Synods of all Authority and who do not attribute to themselves any other power than that of persuasion are the most remote of all from framing to themselves either an Empire or one to be chief over them 'T IS true their weakness is their subscribing to that Maxim of Cicero libr. de Officiis Vt tutela sic procuratio Reipublicae ad utilitatem eorum qui commissi sunt non ad eorum quibus commissa est gerunda est and to that of Salvian libr. de Providentia Infinitam Regiae Majestatis potestatem isti agnoscunt qui infinitam divini Numinis
differ one from the other in discipline but that retain and keep all the same foundation and ground of faith and who have for that point a great union and a strict correspondence with other Churches And this being so no more is there any Schism when the Congregationals are Independant on other Churches and on their Synods but when their Churches are so among themselves 4. THERE is no Schism among several particular Churches that agree in one and the fame faith and discipline as are those of Metz and Sedan but do their own business apart independantly not only on one another but likewise on the Synods 'T is with Independant Churches or with several other particular Churches as with several families or Neighbourhoods or those that are pretty distant the one from the other who may all be good friends and live in good Intelligence together without any thing of Schism or rupture between them and yet every one does their own particular business by themselves 5. THE Congregational men are no more guilty of Schism when they form to themselves Congregations distinct from Parishes contrary to the command of the Magistrate 't is a disobedience not to a National Church which Jesus Christ hath not instituted much less invested with either Jurisdiction or power to make Laws in matters of Religion but to the Magistrate whom to disobey is not Schism but a crime of laesoe Majestaetis or rebellion but yet it ceases to be that too when it acts only from this principle of obeying God rather than men NOW this clearing up of the Nature of Schism which strongly establishes the Independancy of the Churches and makes it altogether reasonable does not destroy the Confederation of the Churches into one body even under a national Synod when for the mutual preservation of these Churches against a common Enemy that persecutes them they are constrained to make but one body of State or of Churches such as is the Confederation of our Churches in France But then that necessity does not destroy the natural liberty of every particular Church to be Independant 't is a Confederation established with prudence in that manner as was that of the Cities of Achaida and as is at this day that of the Low-Countries and of the Swizers the conjunction of which into one body and under one and the same jurisdiction does not divest any Town or Province of their natural freedome and liberty to be Independant on one another THERE is however this temper and menage to be observed in this Religious Confederation that it ought to be made not by vertue of the Power of binding and loosing and of the Keys of the Kingdome of heaven which it is pretended that God hath committed to Pastors or Synods but by vertue of a confederated discipline which is in the place of a Magistrate Also the Councel of Monsieur Amyraule should be observed and it is the same that the Cities of Achaia observed before viz. that nothing should pass in the general Assembly but what has been first reviewed and approved of by every particular Church AND this is that wherein the prudence of our first Reformers in France have been wanting when they sat up a discipline by vertue of an Ecclesiastical power distinct from that of the Magistrate and from that which has its operation upon the heart by the Ministry of the word and of a power fastened to the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and to that of binding and loosing by vertue of which power they depose and excommunicate that is to say as Monsieur Claude says they deliver up a person to the Devil but they also deliver him to him in the name and Authority of Jesus Christ that so the people may not imagine this power to be that of the Magistrate or of the confederate discipline but of Jesus Christ the Mediatour and King of his Church and by vertue of the power that he exercises over it and of which the Pastors and Ministers are the depositers AS to those who blame as much the separation of the Independants as that of the Donatists the Novatians and Luciferians it is ill grounded the vice of the Donatists was in that they owned no other Church of Jesus Christ in the World than theirs for they rebaptized those who came from the Catholick Church to them the Independants are far from these thoughts and practices they do as those who having a particular care of their health withdraw into a better place and sounder Air but yet they do not think but that they may do very well in places where the Air is not so good BEFORE I go to another Chapter I shall take notice that the result of the thoughts and of the practises of the Congregationals their Churches and their Pastors do come to these two Maxims 1. THAT to establish peace and true Religion in the World and among Christians we must go back to the Materia prima of the Congregational Churches which is that every person and every Society hath the liberty to deliberate and consult about the choice of a Religion and of the way to serve God and to take upon that point the counsel of wise and sincere persons provided that that counsel tends not to Irreligion and to some Establishment of such maxims which shock the natural Notions concerning the existence of a God his Providence the Immortality of the soul the necessity of a Divine Worship provided also that the manner which every person and every Church hath chosen to govern it self by doth not trouble the State in which one lives unless that trouble happen by accident in the manner that Jesus Christ sayes of the Gospel which excites troubles and brings Wars and contentions into the World 2. THAT this maxim of a national Church in every Territory with an uniformity of Doctrine and discipline distinct from the civil Tribunals in jurisdiction and officers hath introduced the Pope into the World that it hath been it is and it will be the cause that there never will be a Church in the World in its true purity unless Almighty God reserves some among the Congregational Churches CHAP. VII That the Congregational way has been practised in all Ages of the World I Could easily shew that for above this four thousand years before Jesus Christ and even during the height of Popery and in the bosome of the Church of Rome God hath alwayes reserved some true Worshippers of Jesus Christ by the way of Congregational Assemblies there were an infinite number of them in the Roman Empire during the persecution that was set on foot by the Arrians and when as St. Jerome sayes all the World were Arrians BUT to come more particularly to the thing they have had Independant Churches in all times and in all places before the Law and under the Law in the time of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles and after the Apostles there were of them in the time of Exos the Son of
THE CONFORMITY OF THE Discipline and Government Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS To that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS By Dr. Lewis Du Moulin sometime History Professor of Oxford Qui repertâ veritate aliquid ulterius discutit mendacium quaerit Valentinianus Martianus LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway 1680. THE TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS CHap. 1. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the objections commonly urged against the Tenets and principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants Pag. 1. Chap. 2. The advantages of the Congregational may above any other Establishment of the Church beside That it is the most reasonable and that all others have insuperable inconveniences p. 3. Chap. 3. That upon the Ground of this Hypothesis that every supreme Authority either in the Popish or the Presbyterian Church is subject to ernour Monsieur de Condom hath reason to approve of the Congregational may and the independancy of particular Churches on any other Authority than that of Jesus Christ in his word p. 8. Chap. 4. That the design of the Congregational Churches is most holy and most reasonable when they labour to retain a conformity of Faith with the other reformed Churches but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline Of the Veneration they have for Calvin and for the Churches which follow his Doctrine and discipline p. 12. Chap. 5. That the Congregational Churches do most rationally establish the Authority of Synods and Pastors and the nature of the Church p. 14. Chap. 6. An Answer to those who say that the Congregational way is incompatible with the Civil Power and that it deprives the Magistrate of the right he hath to the Government of the Church that it is introductory of Irreligion Ignorance and Schism in the Church p. 16. Chap. 7. That the Congregational way has been practised in all Ages of the World p. 23. Chap. 8. Of the great Benefit and Advantage that comes from the Establishment of the Congregational way in the World p. 34. Chap. 9. That the most Judicious Divines of France and other places without thinking of it do naturally fall into the Hypotheses of the Congregational Churches Of the Judgment which ought to be made of their Confession of Faith of their discipline and conduct p. 38. Chap. 10. Of the Wise and Prudent carriage of the Independants and of their way to get further off the Church of Rome than any other and to condemn all the wayes of Reconciliation with it and the Churches that hold any Communion with Rome That the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of England p. 43. Chap. 11. A continuance of the same matter concerning the wise carriage of those Churches that are for their way Congregational when they condemn all manner of speaking like to Rome and all practises that do any whit savour of theirs and the six Maxims on which the Pope and his Church are founded a Confirmation of that by a History taken out of the Life of Joseph Hall p. 47. Chap. 12. An Apology for the Author of the Conformity of the congregational Churches with that of the Antient Primitive Christians That a disinteressed person such as he is is the most fit to write about these matters Of the Obligation he hath to the Bishop of Condom for the light he hath given him p. 53. Chap. 13. The Explication of one difficulty which runs throughout the whole precedent discourse p. 58. Chap. 14. Remarks upon the Fault that some may find in the Title of this discourse p. 60. Chap. Ult. An Answer to those who accuse the Independants for being the Authors of the late Civil Wars in England and particularly for having had an immediate hand in the death of KING CHARLES the first p. 68. THE CONFORMITY OF THE GOVERNMENT Of those who are commonly called INDEPENDANTS With that of the ANCIENT PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS CHAP. I. Of prejudices in General and of the force of the Objections commonly urged against the Tenets and Principles of Nestorius to serve by way of Introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the Independants 'T IS above fifty years since some learned and judicious Persons as well of the Gown as others have now brought to light an important and necessary truth which the strength of prejudice and a General and Opinionative blindness that hath lasted for more than this thousand years hath kept under a Bushel 'T is that of Nestorius which the eminent Authority of Cyril has made to pass during all that time and even from the third Oecumenical Councel for an absolute lie and with which all the learned both the general and particular Councils all the Fathers and all the new Doctors of both Communions have been so successively prepossessed that they have thought it nearly concerned their honour not only to deny it but even to be continually throwing their Anathema's at the head of the poor Nestorius whom they have made to pass for an abominable Heretick although at the bottome Nestorius was he of the two who was by far the more Orthodox and the honester man and on the other hand Cyril was the Heretick For it is with the Authority of Cyrillus as with that eminent Authority of the Church of Rome to which Monsieur Aâ—â—auld would have all men fixed and with which he thought to overwhelm and undo Monsieur Claude NOT to make any Application of this History to what has happened to my self in particular as to the necessary truths I have promulged and advanced I will content my self with fixing to one which is like to that of Nestorius 't is that about those who are called Independants who though they will not yield in exactness of living or in holiness of Doctrine to any of the Protestants in Europe for they are led more than other Christians by the Spirit of Jesus Christ which is a Spirit of meekness moderation and of a sound mind and they are farthest off from the spirit of malignity and Persecution and their Doctrine hath more of conformity with that of the Apostles and the Primitive Christians than any of the others and though to conclude their confession of Faith is the most Nervous and sinewy the most Orthodox and coutched up in terms so strong and powerful that of all pieces which yet have appeared in the World fince the Writings of the Apostles it is the most full and perfect Yet have they had the unhappiness to be loaded with injuries by our Synods and by those of our Divines who are the most eminent in learning and of a life and piety the most exemplary and that too in a manner altogether inhumane and barbarous so far as that Monsieur Amyâ—auld calls them Fools Enthusiasts and such as are infamous in their lives Monsieur D' Aille the Father says of them that it
Seth for so must be understood the last Verse of the fourth Chapter of Genesis when men began to call upon the name of the Lord that from his time the Children of God began to form themselves into particular Congregations and to separate from those that ran after the World and its vanities and to be called the Children of God or of Jehova and to pay their adorations to him as to their Creator and Benefactor The family of Noah and his Ark was a Congregational Church which God had separated from all the rest of the World The family of Job that of Abraham Josuah Samuel were Independant Churches Palestine was full of them as Maimonides tells us and they were truly Independant because they neither had any thing to do with the national Church nor with its tribunal nor Sanhedrim And so likewise the Guides who were called Prophets Seers and Doctors were not of the tribe of Levi but of another tribe and it is from those that the Doctors of the Law came which Jesus Christ speaks of the Scribes the Pharisees and the Esseni They called their Societies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Colledges houses of Prayer and Synagogues where they did not attend upon the Levitical Worship but on Prayer exhortation and the expounding of the Law and we see the first establishment of them in the first Verses of the three and twentieth Chapter of Leviticus they were distant one from the other the space of a Sabbath day's Journey they were nearer one another whilest they stayed in the Wilderness and were then called Tents as were those of Corah Dathan and Abiram which were also Independant Churches David calls the Congregation that he frequented Sanctuary where he consulted the mouth of God about his being healed from his prejudices against the dispensation of God towards the generation of good men who were often times under the Rod and in affliction whilest the wicked were in prosperity and in the 87 Psalm he speaks of the esteem that he had for those Congregations or houses of Prayer which he did set forth by the Tents of Jacob although that which he had for the Ark or for the gates of Zion and for his propitiatory were greater To conconclude the seven thousand men that had not bowed their knee to Baal were Independant Churches for it cannot be thought that so great a number of persons could assemble together in one place and that too in a time of so great persecution THERE were of them in the time of Jesus Christ for the Apostolical Colledge was an Independant Church and in his time two or three persons assembled in his name made a Church as also sayes Tertullian ubi tres ibi Ecclesia etiamsi Laici Immediately after the Ascention of Jesus Christ the first Assembly of Christians in Jerusalem was Independant and that where Cornelius and his family were assembled was a Congregational Church of which St. Peter was the Pastor for some days Philemon had one of them in his house Those of whom Pliny the younger speaks Epist 97. libr. 10. were others of them Affirmabant hanc fuisse summam vel erroris vel culpae quod soliti essent stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem seque Sacramento ne in Scelus aliquod obstringere sed ne furta ne latrocinia ne Adulteria committerent ne sidem fallerent ne depositunt appellati abnegarent Tertullian libr. de Coron Milit. adds that it was the Custome in those Assemblies before day to Celebrate the holy Supper The Independant Churches of England at least some of them are formed after this Model and exact from their Members that they shall abstain from those crimes of which Pliny makes mention NOW that custome of the Christians in the time of Pliny which exacted from the Members of their Churches a life perfectly exemplary stops the mouths of those who turn into rallery the Independant Assemblies because they only do admit of those that are holy and in whom they find the marks and signs of Regeneration and who oblige themselves by Oath or verbal promise to abstain from those crimes that Pliny here has reckoned up or to undergo the Penalty set according to the discipline of the Church ALSO that custome of the Christians testifies that besides the numerous Churches as for instance that of Corinth which consisted of several thousands where it could not be otherwise but that there must be a good number of Hereticks and debauched and loose persons there were established other Congregational taken out of the great Church whereof the Members were more holy and more Orthodox and who resembled those whom Pliny speaks of and those Stations which Tertullian mentions where beside the publick Assemblies some families set a part by themselves one day of the week to fasting to prayer and other exercises of Piety and also to the Celebration of the holy Supper and this is what they frequently practised and with good edification for it is with small Churches as with small States little Republicks Families particular Synods of twenty five or thirty persons wherein it is much more easie to establish a good order and to bring those who are of it unto the practise of good manners and life than in great States in great Churches and Oecumenical Synods and such as are National wherein Ambition Envy Factions Avarice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and corruptions reign and cannot but do so Strada sayes very judiciously In consessu plurium Senatorum aut Consitiariorum partes suâ—s magis agit Ambitio quà m in paucorum Lucian libro de Artibus dolosis in speaking of great Assemblies sayes the greatest Bawlers have the greatest advantage in such Assemblies because those who understand nothing of the matter and to be sure are always of the greatest number judge of things by the outside and so give the cause for gâ—iâ—ed to those who are the most resolute and clamorous THESE considerations do furnish me with several others which confirm me in this Opinion that the Congregational way was that which God made use of in the Ancient Church to convert to the faith those who were not Christians but by outward profession from a State of nature to a State of Grace and that the way which they take at this day when one person preaches to several thousands is neither properly nor efficaciously that which gains souls to Jesus Christ And this will appear by the opposition of the Government at this day in the Church to that of the antient Primitive Christians I believe there will be found but very little conformity not onely in the persons that attend upon the Ministry but also in the places and manner where and how it is performed Heretofore the Bishop alone in publick did execute the office of preaching and the other duties of the holy Ministry for he left those of lesser consequence to the Deacons but at this day
that of Thuanus before his History and the Preface of Casaubon in his Edition of Polybius 'T WILL no doubt be expected that I should add the order which is observed and practised in the Independant Churches to their confession which ought to follow but as they profess a perfect harmony among themselves so likewise they do not believe this same absolute necessity as to that which concerns discipline for excepting some few Apostolical and perpetual Rules which admit no change according to times and places concerning the equality of Pastors that choice that every Church is to make of its Pastor in which Monsieur Mestrezat and Monsieur Claude make the true ordination to consist the solemn benediction of that Pastor by fasting and prayers and the refusal they make of their Ministries and of their Members which some call Excommunication and deposition excepting I say these acts their order is to do all things decently and in order in the Church as Saint Paul requires But they are governed as all other Societies and as they explain themselves in the first Chapter of their confession of faith Article VII in these words There are some circumstances in the Government of the Church and in divine Worship which are common with all the actions of men which are practised in all societies and which might â—o be regulated by natural light and Christian prudence according to the general rules of the word of God which are always to be observed THIS is all the discipline which the Independâ—nts practise then Government is that of well order d Râ—publicks that cannot possibly be too exact for the regulating of manners but which have but very few Lawes for that of Polity they are far from that Maxim in pâ—ssima republicà pluri ne leges BUT how â—ise soever their carriage and government be how sound and Orthodox their Doctrine and how exact and scrupulous their â—ives yet they cannot escape the tyrâ—â—ny of those little sincere judgements which the most learned and grave persons have made of them so that it need be no surprize at all if the Doctors of Rome how illuminated soever and sincere they have seem'd to be have had for so many Ages and have still to this day so great an Aversion for our Religion how holy soever it is and have passed judgments so little favourable of it as to draw from our Morals consequences that are as far from purity and truth as they are from our intention This I say need be no surprize at all to us since that Amyrauld Daillé and so many others of their gown have not passed any less sinister judgment of a generation of men as holy as any in the World I mean of the Independants no more than of their carriage government and Doctrine AS to their carriage and Government whether in private or in the Church I do not believe there are any better regulated more Wise more Prudent more Illuminated nor more Religious As to their Doctrine their Confession of Faith shall Witness what it is since that of all those that have appeared in the World of that Nature it is a peice the most Perfect Pure and Orthodox And in which it may well nigh be said the Christian Religion may be found compleat though there should onely be remaining that single piece in all the Booksellers Shops in the World CHAP. X. Of the Wise and Prudent carriage of the Independants and of their way to get further off the Church of Rome than any other and to condemn all the wayes of Reconciliation with it and the Churches that hold any Communion with Rome that the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of England THOSE who shall approve of the wise conduct of the Congregational Churches in the composing of a Confession that hath so much conformity with the purest Churches of Jesus Christ will be easily perswaded that neither Wisdome nor Prudence have been wanting to them when with that conformity of Faith that there is between them and the Churches that are at greatest distance from Popery they have preserved to themselves their liberty as to matter of discipline to do their business a part independantly one on the other and on all other Authority beside that of Jesus Christ without making use of that way of Reconciliation which hath been practised in all Ages by the means of conferences and Synods which have rather sharp'ned and exasperated spirits and perpetuated quarrels than any ways appeased and hushed them and whereof all the advantage that can be hoped is at most to make such an accord as it may be dissembles or disguises or else suppresses the truth THIS is no more than what appeared in the Colloquy of Poissy where the greatest defenders of Transubstantiation and those who combated and opposed it as a vile Monster of Rome concurred together upon the Article of the real presence in the Eucharist And this is what appear'd also in the Overture of Reconciliation which was made in the year 1578. in the Synod of Saincte Foy with the Lutherans by the means of a formulary or president of such a profession of Faith as should be general and common with all Churches as they proposed to draw up but that Overture could only tend to a Reconciliation as difficult as that of finding a Medium between Transubstantiation and the Opinion of our Churches which is contrary to it Certainly our Churches were never able to draw back from the purity of our Doctrine nor from the sincerity with which they express it without being at the same time guilty of great prevarication And moreover the Lutherans would never have yielded to go off from their ingagement to Luther and his Consubstantiation If both had complied and met at half way it would have been a most wretched peace quae as Saint Austin speaks fit dispenaio veritatis THE present posture of the Affairs of England is a very clear and convincing proof that the Indeavour of those Reconcilers how good soever their designs were is ruinous both to Church and State There has been an attempt for above this last Age to get into a Neighbourhood and Vicinity with Rome thinking to sweeten the spirits and tempers of those of its communion to draw them over to ours or at at least to make but one Communion of two In the beginning of the Reformation there were several of the Ceremonies retained and fifty years afterwards others of them were introduced they have attempted to bring in Images and so to pass from thence to worshipping of them Every where the Altars are new set up on purpose no doubt to make there the Sacrifice of the Mass to Smoak which is apparent by the bowings and cringings to those Altars or at least to the places where they are set or as some will have it be to the East The Ordination of Romish Pastors is held for good and for that