wheresoever he heard there was a Treaty to hold a Council And after a certain time he took the power to himself which the Roman Emperors used to convocate a Council of the whole Empire and to be President himself if present if absent to send Legates to be Presidents But a little more than one Age being past it was very necessary that every Nation should Assemble by it self and resolve according to the Number of Voices and that the general decision should be established not by the suffrages of particular men but by the plurality of the voices of the Nations so it was observed in the Council of Constance and Basil which use as it is good where the Government is free as it was when the world had no Pope so it ill befits the Pope who desires all Councils to be subject to him § Having thus summarily given a short prospect of the state of the Church in the first and purer times and how in succeeding times it came by degrees to be altered I proceed and say again to the Independents that be it as they would have it that the gathered Churches by one Apostle were not subject to the inspection and subordination of an other or of all the Apostles the cause of such Independency being then and in them reasonable for that each Apostle was guided by an infallible Spirit and so not absolutely necessary and yet even in their times it was thought fit to call a Council for setling of some differences yet it doth not therefore follow nor cannot demonstratively be proved that every individual Pastor after the times of the Apostles had their select Congregations seperate and distinct from others or that those Congregations were Independent free and exempt from all inspection or superintendency of Magistrates or Bishops or other Presbiters The conjectures and probabilities and they have no Arguments of an other nature seem strong for the contrary for Religion did first take place in Cities which had their Ecclesiastical Colledges consisting of Presbiters and Deacons whom first the Apostles and their Deligats the Evangelists did both ordain and govern such were the Colledges of Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Rome Corinth aâ—â— the rest where the Apostles are known to have planted our Faith and Religion Now Religion in those days and places and the cure of Souls was their general charge in common over all that were about them neither had any one Presbyter for ought that appears by any ecclesiastical History his several cure or seperate title distinct and apart until the division of Parishes which was first made by the People when a certain number of Inhabitants having received the true Faith built a Temple for the exercising of their Religion hired a Priest and did constitute a Church which by them was called a Parish and when the number was increased if one Church and Priest were not sufficient they who were most remote did build another and sit themselves better And in process of time for the sake of good Order and concord custom began to have the Bishops consent also and †Hic Titulos in urbe Roma divisit presbiteris Evaristus Bishop in the Sea of Rome about the year 112. began to assign precincts to ever Church or Title which the Christians held and to appoint unto each Presbyter a certain compass whereof himself should take charge alone him †Hic Presbiteris ecclesias divisit coemiteria parochias dio diaeceses constituit Dionisius papa 24. followed Ao. 268. which was found so commodious that all parts of Christendom followed the example and among the rest our Churches in the reign of Ercombert the 7th King of Kent †Hoc de Honorio maxime memo rabile Godwins Episc p. 59. Honorius also being then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury about the year 636. became divided in like manner and have so continued ever since Other distinction of the Churches there doth not appear any in the Writings of the Apostles save those according to Cities only 15. Acts 36.1 Apocal. 20. wherein they planted the Gospel of Christ and erected ecclesiastical Colledges of Presbyters and Deacons ordained by the Apostles to exercise ecclesiastical functions promiscuously and at large till the said Evaristus did about 100 years after Christ distinguish the Church of Rome into Parishes tying each one to his proper station so that indesinite care of souls and indefinite ordination do approach nearer the Apostles times and example And prescription for the congregational way may be more justly grounded on the example of the People who are the Brethren who are the Church and of Evaristus then of any Apostle of Christ Moreover this the Independents will hardly evade each Church in the Apostles days had many Presbyters that laboured in the Word the Scriptures do plainly witness it In the Church of Jerusalem 15. Acts 6.23 of Antioch 13. Acts 1. of Ephesus 20. Acts 17.28 of whom 16. Rom. of Corinth 1 Corinth 14.29 of Phillippi 1. Phil. 1. of Thessalonica 1. Thes 5.12 of other Churches the like is affirmed 13. Heb. 7. James 5.14 1. Pet. 5.1 Now if each Church had more Presbiters and Pastors than one in the days of the Apostles as it is manifest they had then can it be hardly made out by right reason that every individual Presbyter or Pastor had his particular and circumscribed gathered Church free of all subordination they seem contradictory in themselves On the contrary in the more pure times no man was ever ordained for some hundred of years to whom there was not appointed both his proper and special Office and Charge and Antiquity knew no distinction between Ordination and Benefice and ordaining was the same thing as to give an Office and the right of having ones livelyhood from the common goods of the Church § The Independents do farther aver for their own justification and that most truly that it is a thing natural that all free and Independent Societies should themselves make their own Laws of which sort they take their gathered Churches to be which is the thing questioned and denyed and say they are not Independent for the reasons shewed But be it so yet then it is averred that it is as true and as natural that the Legislative-Christian-Power should and doth belong to the whole England for example and not to any certain Parish City or Country as to London York c. of a Politick Body though happily some one part may have a greater share therein than some others And as this right doth naturally belong to a Commonwealth so it must needs belong to the Church of God which in the truest understanding is the Commonwealth if Christian and the Peopele thereof do publickly embrace the true Religion As this very thing doth make it the Church so the whole England not any certain part as St. Paul in London St. Peter at Westminster or at York hath the power of making Laws and constitutions ecclesiastical A Law is the deed of
other Two according to common acceptation rather respect the governing and cleansing of Christs Church and therefore in the opinion of some no reason they should be committed to the power of every Presbyter as the Word and Sacraments are as Independents and Presbyters would have it For as there can be no order but confusion in a Common-wealth where every man ruleth so would there be no peace but confusion in the Church of Christ if every Presbyter might impose hands and use the Keys at his pleasure Though the Presbyter of each Church had charge of the Word and Sacraments even in the Apostles times yet might they not impose hands nor use the Keys without the Apostles or such as the Apostles departing or dying left to be their Substitutes and Successors in the Churches which they had planted At Samaria Philip preached and baptized 8 Acts 5.12 and albeit he dispensed the Word and Sacraments yet could he not impose hands on them but Peter and John came from Hierusalem and laid their hands on them and so they received the Holy Ghost 8. Acts 14.17 The Churches of Lystra 14. Acts 20. Iconium and Antioch were planted before yet were Paul and Barnabas forced at their return to increase the number of Presbyters in each of those places by Imposition of their hands v. 23. The Churches of Ephesus and Crete were erected by Paul and had their Presbyters yet could they not create others but Timothy and Titus were left there to impose hands and ordain Elders in every City as occasion required Tim. 1.5 Tit. 1.5 § Having thus briefly seen what Powers Christ left unto his Ministers to continue in the Church let us now consider to whom he committed them To whom were committed the Powers Christ left to continue in the Church I find several persons under several Names and Titles to whom these powers were committed and by them shared as Apostles Prophets Evangelists Teachers Pastors and Deacons § Touching the Apostles whom the Bishops did succeed they probably had a superior Vocation and Jurisdiction above Prophets and Evangelists Pastors Teachers Deacons and the 70 Disciples in the Church of God and had the government and oversight of them which will soon appear If we consider what Paul writeth of himself and unto them directing and appointing what to do and how to be conversant in the Church of God what to refrain in themselves what to rebuke in others In which cases it is not to be said that the Apostle presumed above his calling or had a several Commission distinct from the rest of the Apostles But in his doings and Writings we may perceive the height and strength of Apostolic Authority so guided by the spirit of wisdom that it displeased none in the Church but the proud and contentious troublers of the Church such as drew Disciples after them to reign over their Brethren or seduced the simple to serve their own turns as Diotrephes 3 John 9. These Prerogatives were so proper to the Apostles that no Evangelist nor Prophet in the New Testament came near it § Touching Prophets Prophets they were such as having otherwise learned the Gospel had a special gift of expounding Scriptures bestowed on them from above and of foreshewing things to come of this sort was Agabus and sundry others in Jerusalem Acts 11.27 Acts 21.10 who notwithstanding are not therefore to be reckoned with the Clergy because no mans gifts or qualities can make a Minister of Holy things unless Ordination do give him power And we no where find Prophets to have been made by Ordination but all whom the Church did ordain were to serve either as Presbyters or Deacons § Touching Evangelists they were Presbyters of principal sufficiency Evangelists whom the Apostles sent abroad and used as Agents in Ecclesiastical affairs wheresoever they saw need such were Annanias Acts 9.18 Apollos Acts 18.27 Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15.5.14.28 and others and were thus employed In Trajans days according to Eusebius many of the Apostles Disciples and Scholars to shew their willing minds in execution of that which Christ first of all required at the hands of Men they sold their Possessions gave them to the poor and undertook the labour of * Evangelista 1º qui Evangelium scripsit ut Matcus Luca c. 2º qui annunciat missus vel primo a Christo ante mortem sio 70 discipuli 10 Luke Vel 2º ab Apostolis sic Timotheus dicitur Evangelista a Paulo constitutus Presbyter Episcopus 3º A Christo post resurrectionem sic Annanias Acts 9.18 Evangelists they painfully preached Christ and delivered the Gospel to them who as yet had never heard the Doctrine of Faith § Touching Pastors and Teachers Pastors Teachers they were no other than Presbyters howbeit setled in some certain charge and thereby differing from Evangelists which title the Apostles likewise gave themselves 1 Pet. 1.5 The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder Albeit that Name was not proper but common unto them with others for of Presbyters some were greater some less in power and that by our Saviours own appointment the greater they which received fulness of spiritual power the less they to whom less was granted § Unto these 2 degrees appointed by Christ the Apostles soon after his Ascension annexed Deacons by Ordination Deacons whose office at first was to distribute the Churches Goods to provide therewith for the Poor and to see that all things of expence might be faithfully disposed of and they were also to attend upon the Presbyters at the time of Divine Service § By all which it appears that Churches Apostolic did know but 3 degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical order 1. Apostles 2. Presbyters 3. Deacons and afterwards instead of Apostles Bishops whether Bishops and Presbyters were two distinct Orders or one and the same I will not here enquire into only this is plain and beyond all contradiction viz. they have one and the same Ordination and Commission and not different and distinct and thereby become more essentially Officers of the Church § Many Errors have been broached and maintained and not without some more than ordinary warmth among the Ecclesiasties meerly through inadvertency through confounding and want of right distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity during which execution only they differ from others of the Laity which works and services they also may give over at any time and are no more of the Essence of the Church than Widows or indeed any other Laicks now are or were of old for that they are not admitted into the Church nor tyed by irrevocable Ordination as Bishops Presbyters and Deacons are which makes them to be of the Essence or more especially Officers of the Church These things considered there is no reason we should alter the Apostles Discipline without the Apostles warrant Produce that and we
there is something in Ordination or appendant to it which they receive from the King First Licence to be Ordained and Liberty to exercise what God hath Authorized them to do viz. to Preach Baptize c. In which Ordination also there is if not an Overt yet a tacite and implyed condition viz. Submission to the Imperative Constitutive Government of the present Church that doth permit them to be Ordained Licence them to Preach Establish them a maintenance c. All which if they expect from the Prince all the reason Imaginable that he should judge and appoint who should be capable of such Liberty and maintenance and appoint the qualifications or else if he should give the same Countenance Liberty and maintenance to Popish Priests or Jews why were he to be blamed if he had no Power nor Command from God to Judg to Licence or Tollerate Suppress or Prohibit Therefore if after Ordination and Admission into the Ministery they refuse to submit to the Established Government of the present National Church the same Authority that permitted them Ordination may for sound and good reasons as Warrantably deny them publick preferments and publick places for the exercise thereof for the Application of the Persons to the Charge is wholly in the Body of the Church and Magistrates Power which is one and the same thing whether you consider Independent or not ndependent Churches And I appeal to all the Congregations Presbyterian and Independent whether they will admit any into their particular Societies that will not submit to their Government Constitutive by consent And do not again Excommunicate those that after their admission do deny submission to their Constitutions I would have no man patient in causa laesae fidei yet it is Pauls Counsel and Practise in things indifferent to become all unto all and to be indifferently minded 1 Cor. 9 2â— Moderation what Wise man but approves in external Rites to fit himself to that Church wherein God shall call or occasion him to Live § I will make no severe reflections on any peccadilloes of any persons of any perswasion but believe that as they are all Heirs of the same Faith and of the same Salvation and all Brethren of Christ so they may all meet in Heaven and therefore will exhort all to Unity and and Peace and Love the last Legacy Christ left to Disciples viz. Love one another and I hope they all have the same Christian Love and Charity each toward other Paul and Barnabas Jarred yet Preached the Gospel and why not you Our love to God is more espetially manifested and signalized by our love to Saints for whom we ought to lay down our lives 1 Joh. 3.16 David a King and a man after Cods own Heart solemnly Protests all my delight is in the Saints on the Earth and in such as excell in Vertue 16 Psal 3. The proximity and near Relation that Saints have with Christ should encourage them whom he hath dignified with his own name and Power to prefer the Saints in love To Saul an Enemy David shewed kindness but his Soul clave to the Soul of Jonathan 1 Sam. 18.13 Gods Precepts and Saints Practise oblige us always to limit the specially of our Love to the Houshold of Faith if ye all have Faith towards God of which I make no question why then live ye not in love one towards another why so dissenting why such animosities each towards other scarce affording a good word one of the other I hope you have not so learned Christ Gods love to his Chosen so impartial that whether Graecian or Barbarian Bond or Free all are one in Christ Jesus Gods favours for Salvation are Extended to all Prince Pesant Prelate Presbyter Independent Conformist Non-Conformist Assenter Dissenter Liturgist or Antiliturgist however different among your selves in point of Discipline nothing in Doctrines fundamental All a like Redeemed by the Blood of Christ Sanctified by his Grace and Providence the ground of all Holy Love is the same in all the Image of God the Loadstone of all gracious Affections Apage imbelles quaerimonias A way then with all Animosities all evil speakings and murmurings one against another as if Ca-sirouna dogs â—â—ch to other Beware also of Partiality in affections towards one another must your Love and Testimonies thereof be limited only to place and outwâ—rd Eminency in our Church and of your own rank and perswasion only must Dissenters tho never so Rich in Faith be scarce vouchsafed your Eugè unless the same moment you give them your Vale meats scarce meet for the Dogs of your Flock To such I say with Paul despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not 1 Cor. 11.22 Be Exhorted therefore without partiality to love each other in good earnest considering that our Love to the Brethren is the best Evidence of our Love towards God and the best Evidence of our Sincerity in loving and surest sign of true Gracious Love when it is Impartial to all tho Dissenting Brethren for if our Love be sincere and without dissimulation it will be impartial and will work no ill to the Brethren and is the very fulfilling of the Law It is not to be denyed but that tho the Body the Catholick Church be one yet it hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body whereof Christ is the Head 1 Cor. 12.12 whether Prelate Presbyter or Independent whether National or Congregational Churches are all Members of the same Catholick Body and therefore I do deem it very unbrotherlike if not unscholastick to stigmatizey either Conformist or Non-Conformist with the name of Seperatist or Schismatick because they all hold the Truth in Righteousness those names more properly belong to Dogs to evil Workers to the Concision of which we ought to beware and avoid 3 Phil. 2. the Conformist and Non-Conformist the Liturgist and Anti-Liturgist they all serve and Worship God in Truth and in Sincerity and give God thanks and are certainly Members of the same Body and neither ought to Esteem other Seperatist or Schismatick but the stronger to bear the Infirmities of the weaker they differing only in Circumstantials not in Fundamentals or things absolutely necessary St. John 3 Ep. Commendeth to Pious Preachers the Example of Gajus and Demetrius for their peaceable deportments towards the Brethren and their love of the Truth and Rebukes Diotrephes for loving praeheminence among the Brethren and for prating against them with usalicious words unbeseeming both Conformists and Non-conformists and not receiving them nor yet the love of the Truth but forbidding them that would and in as much as in them lyeth casting them out of the Church Take heed and by love serve one another for in this one word Love all the Law is fulfilled for if ye bite and devour one another take heed I say ye be not Consumed one of another 5 Gal. 13.14 15. FINIS I Have now done with our Friends at
and Judicature one of the other is not denied by any Protestant Divines that I know of and it is or ought to be as little gain-said that it could not then be otherwise And why Christ knew that the Messengers which he sent to gather a People to himself out of Saracens and Insidels Jews and Gentiles by perswasive means only were to build up his Church within the Bosom of Kingdoms which were and would continue avowed Enemies to his Gospel every where for a long time then to come And therefore he gave them such Doctrines and such Commissions for Doctrine and Discipline as they might any where publish and exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Common-wealth being any where therein concerned in goods or person by vertue of that spiritual regiment whereunto Christian Religion once embraced did make them lyable And indeed if they had not a Government within themselves they could have none at all concerning Christian Religion For Princes and all Nations were then professed and bitter enemies to Christian Religion which Government did also extend it self unto small matters even such as were otherwise impleadable and remediable in the Civil Courts and Judicatures of the Kingdome or State though heathenish wherein and under whom they lived as Subjects Dare any of you saith St. Paul having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world and if the world shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters 1 Cor. 6.1 2. So that upon the whole matter the Sum total of Religion that Christ committed to his Apostles and they to their successors consisted in the Doctrin and Discipline thereof viz. to preach him and him crucified and to perswade others to become Christians through the belief of one Lord one Faith and one Baptisme and when once admitted by the door of Baptism into the Christian Church then to become and to be accounted Members of the visible Church Christian As for Discipine that concerns moral righteousness and honesty of life and their contraries unrighteousness and dishonesty and therefore Christ gave them this General Precept viz. to love one another even our neighbours as our selves and if any did transgress the Vertues and Laws which belong unto moral righteousness and honesty of life which are not proper and peculiar unto Christian men as Christians but as Men what then the transgressors were first privatly to be admonished if the offence were private those that sinned openly were to be rebuked openly if they did not then repent and amend then to be admonished by two or three if still they remained incorrigible then to acquaint that Congregation of Christian Brethren of which they were Members and if still they continued refractory after private and publick Admonitions Warnings and Prayers then not to own them as Brethren nor to keep company with them with such no not to eat with them and in the end to pursue them as if Publicans and Heathens as not being worthy of the Name and Profession of Christians which they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel And this is the sum of the whol Government or Discipline which Christ after the death of the Apostles who having gifts extraordinary had also powers extraordinary which died with them left to his Church for ought appears by any Scripture extant And what need of more For if the Ministers of the everlasting Gospel have liberty to Instruct break Bread Baptize and Pray the Civil Christian Magistrat hath sufficient power by Gods own Ordinance to order all the rest § To me indeed it seems marvelous nay monstrous that out of so plain so intelligible so easily practicable directions for the Government of Christian Churches that so various so meerly wordly and pompous nay imperious and impious forms of Church Government should be drawn into use as have been hundreds of years practised both in the Eastern and Western Empires and all held forth to be according to the Gospel when in truth they all differ from the true Gospel Discipline as far as the East is from the West they being all degenerated into meer worldly forms set up for meer worldly self-ends and interests If any man can more plainly make out any other form from the Gospel it would be a favour my self I must confess to be Impar Negotio it is past my understanding Indeed to me it seems wonderful whilst I consider that though Histories are ful and plain how and when the several forms crept in and got Accruments partly by the supineness and negligence of the Brethren of their own Rights and Priviledges partly by the craft and subtlety of proud covetous and ambitious Clergy and partly by the carelesness of Princes who not willing to trouble themselves with the care of Religion devolved it upon others that they should yet endeavour to keep us hoodwinkt though they know that our eyes are now open If there be any other Gospel-form of Government let it plainly appear without offering violence to any Texts of Scripture if not why should we be wiser than Christ our Head and Lawgiver God only is truth and all men are subject to errors what remains but that all his Servants and more especially the Priests of the most high God whose lips above others should more especially preserve knowledg do abandon humane errors and fals superstructures and keep the praecepts of God only that they may remain stedfast in the truth only § Some are of opinion that there is no need at all of any Ecclesiastical Government as distinct from the Civil if Christian and Orthodox and if there be that yet the Body of the Church is to govern it self and not the Clergie or Officers the Body they are to teach them their duty but the provisionary coercive and executive power is seated in the Body and not in the Pope or Presbyter I know the grand objection against Independency is that it is destructive to Government and tends to Anarchy a meer slander rather than a just objection for if rightly considered it would be found the least Chagreen to any Civil Government of any Ecclesiastical Government at this very day in use in any Nation and if not mistaken I have Christ who was the Wisdom of the Father and his Apostles to justify me herein For the Government that is herein stated may be exercised under any Government how averse soever to Christianity it self without clashing or interfeering therewith And if Christ left no other Government as for certain he did not why should we pretend to be wiser than Christ himself The same was exercised by the Apostles and long after and how incroachments of power were gained to the Clergy Stories are full Vide Fra Paolo Sarpi his Treatise of Beneficiary Matters § On the contrary how thwarting Popish or Presbyterian Governments are to
teach his Body the Church all things and should continue with them unto the end of the World § For soon after his Ascention the Apostles together with the rest of the Body being met together in a great Assembly and after they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and great Grace was upon them all 4. Act. 31.32.33 and accordingly the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal to one the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge to another faith c. and all by the same Spirit 1. Cor. 12.7.8 and all these for the edifying of the Body of Christ 4. Eph. 12 For though the Body be one yet hath it many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body whereof Christ is the head 1. Cor. 12.12 In the visible Government of the Church Christ appointed and instituted a Priesthood in which likewise it is dissimilar to all temporal Governments which quodam sensuis Independent of the Church though touching the application of the Authority to the Person it is elective and depending of the Body of the Church under this Priesthood is comprehended Bishops and Presbiters now what their Authority and Powers are vide their Commission 28. Mat. 19.20 go teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you always unto the end of the world other Powers besides these and laying on of hands especially coercive I know none derived unto them by any text of Scripture These Bishops these Presbiters these Ministers or Pastors are not Lords and Masters as in the Roman Church but are Servants to the Body of the Church For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake 2. Cor. 4.5 and these Authorities are not coercive but are given them to exhort reprove rebuke beseech intreat for Christs sake and by the mercies of God c. 12. Rom. 3. chap. 15.30 1 Thes 4.1 according to the Doctrines Precepts Rules and Commands set down in Scripture which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and which is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfected throughly furnished to all good works 2 Tim. 3.16.17 These and such like only are all the Powers that belong unto the Priesthood by any Law of God and there is no need of any other for what concerns punishment for Sins or the breach of moral Duties or municipal laws the Body hath Power to make laws and ordain punishments for any of its Members § I know that they have a long time hooked in by Head and shoulders a kind of coercive Power Excommunication by usurping to themselves the Power of Excommunication a thing I must confess that hath made a great noise and buzz in the world but in truth a magnificum nihil a meer ignis fatuus there being no such thing in the whole new Testament as now used and that which Pope and Presbiter would have to be it is as much in the Power of the Laicks against them as in them against the Laicks and most truly in the Body of the Church In the Romish Church the Bishop or his Vicar excommunicateth without the advice or participation of any many times also the Register only and that which is most important by Authority deligated a Clark of the first Tonsure deputed Comissary in some slight Cause doth excommunicate a Priest Yea Leo. 10. in the Council of Lateran in the 11. Session by a perpetual constitution of his hath granted faculty to a secular person to excommunicate the very Bishops and that which doth more import Navar saith c. 27 no. 11. that if any man shall obtain an excommunication of some Prelate if the obtainer shall not have an intent that the party be excommunicated he shall not be excommunicated moreover he saith ch 23. num 104. that the excommunication pronounced by the Law it self against him that payeth not a Pension for example sake on the Vigil of the Nativity is not incurred by him that payeth it not no not in many month's and years after if the Creditor thereof would not have it incurred But if on the other side after many Month's or Years he would have it incurred it is reputed to have been incurred from the day of the debt from the Vigil of the Nativity and so is the stile of the Court but the Council of Trent hath now expresly provided otherwise Ses 25. c. 3 forbidding secular Princes that they hinder not Prelates to excommunicate nor command that any excommunication be revoked considering that this is no part of their Office by this you may in little see what a nose of wax is made of excommunication and all this and much more grounded and occasioned from wrong Glosses put upon plain Texts But of this more fully hereafter § Though the Congregational men have not fully modelled out unto us the Platform of their Government and Discipline as the Presbyterians have done yet in general they do affirm Independency and Church-Government that to each gathered Church Christ hath given all Power and Authority requisite unto that Order and Discipline which he hath instituted for them to observe and to execute the same with Commands and Rules as before And negatively that there is not instituted by Christ any person or Church more extensive or Catholick entrusted with Power over other Churches and that each particular Church consists of Officers and Members which Members they call Brethren and the Officers they stile Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons and that there are no stated Synods in a fixed combination of Churches nor any Synods appointed by Christ in any way of sub-ordination to one another nor no one Church to have Power of Censures but of inspection only over other Churches and Members thereof that Counsel and Advice might mutually be communicated That it was so in the days of the Apostles and continued so for some Generations after every Individual gathered Church every Christian Societie as it is natural to all Societies as well Christian as Civil governing it self by its own Laws and Constitutions whithout being obliged to any other superintendency hapily is so manifest that it would not be gainsaid But when the Church became planted and spread its Branches and took root in divers Nations and whole Common-wealths became Christian and Kings and Queens and other Civil Governments became Nursing-Fathers and Mothers of the Church then of necessity for the quiet state of the whole the case came to be altered it being then impossible that every individual Member or Brother of any Christian Kingdom or Common-wealth should personally meet to make Laws
Politick the other Ecclesiastick what then hindereth that the Church now also on whom God hath bestowed a Christian Magistrate should be less content with one Government To me it seemeth monstrous to place two heads upon one body of a visible Church whose Commands Decrees and Government are divers so that the rule of one is not subject to the care of the other For the Ecclesiastical Senate or Presbytery would have the Supream Power of Punishing Vices even in Magistrates themselves though not with Corporal Punishment yet with Excommunication and debatring them from the Sacraments whereas one Magistrate appointed by God may now as well bridle all transgressions as he could of old was it not so in the Kingdom of Solomon which was as it were a Type of Christs Church reigning on this Earth And I do not find either under Moses or under the Judges or Kings or under the Government of those which were called Rulers such two discrepant Judicatories Nature denies saith Musculus two Authentick Governments in the same People whereof one is not subject to the other It is manifest that David did dispose of all Offices and Ministers of the Church 1 Ch. 22.27 Afterwards Solomon did not only build but consecrate the Temple and not a Priest Hitherto belongeth that famous History of Jehosaphat in the 2 Chr. 19. which doth perfectly clear this cause as also doth the History of Ezekias and indeed the whole Old Testament It is too well known that though Papists and Presbyters do allow something to secular Magistrates in the Rule of the Church yet the Supremacy of Power they do utterly and in very terms deny And having obtained possession of power in the Church and that as they hold out by Christs own institution they are very loath to resign the same again at the demand and into the hands of Princes It is true that when our Saviour first gave Commission to his Disciples to Preach Baptize and Propogate the true Faith in the World secular Authority being universally averse thereunto he was of necessity to commit for the present both Doctrines and Discipline to the charge of his Apostles yet not without a promise That Kings should be their Nursing Fathers and Queens the Nursing Mothers of his Church who though now they are come in and become friendly to Religion and willing to advance the spiritual prosperity of the Church as well as of the Temporal of the State yet both Papists and Presbyters having got possession are loath to be disquietted dreaming of a Spiritual Empire belonging to Priests more worthy and Sacred than that of the Emperors and so secretly preferring the Crosier before the Crown § Power and Government are things most awful and honourable and the truest owners thereof next under God are Princes whom the true legitimat Church ever looked upon as Cods immediate Vicegerents Deputies and Governours thereof St. Peter 1.2 Writing to the Church in the time of a Heathen and Impious Emperor commandeth every Soul to be Subject to the higher Powers He acknowlegeth power in a very Nero and that to be the higher Power And to that Power of that Nero he subjects every soul Christian and Heathen Priest and Layman and it may not seem strange that meer Power and Rule in an unbeliever and wicked Prince should be so sacred and inviolable We must take notice that the wickedness of Princes in ill Commands though it discharge us as to those ill Commands yet it doth not discharge their power or Rule either in those or any other For when Princes rule well they are to be obeyed when ill they are to be endured and this very endurance is an effect of obedience and subjection The violence of this or that Nero may be Tyrannous but the lawful Authority whereby the same violence is done is not Tyranny Neither is the Office of Kings the less Glorious because they can use force nor yet that of Ministers the more Glorious because they may use none but perswasive Motives and Allurements For Power it self being a Glorious Divine thing it must be most honourable to use it in Gods Cause and his Glory and the advance and increase of his Flock and Kingdom and therefore we see Iosiah and other good Kings are commended for using compulsion and on the contrary other Kings which used it not for the suppressing of Idolatry removing the high places and the like did draw curses on themselves and their subjects And whereas it is objected by I. M. and others that Force and Compulsion restrain only from the act of sin but not the Will from the liking thereof and that to compel outward profession is to compel Hypocrisy not to advance Religion But we see common experience teacheth us better effects thereof For Scotland Holland Denmark Sweden Bohemia England c. suffered great changes of Religion in a short space and these changes were wrought by the force of Civil Magistrates and could never else without strange Miracles from Heaven have been so soon compassed and these Changes have not proved the less sincere because Civil Authority wrought them as the Samaritan first believed Christ on the Womans word but then for his own sake so those that were compelled to the Wedding so many Papists in Queen Elizabeths dayes which came to our Churches first to save their Purses afterwards came out of liking of which the Pope being advertised forbad it and made it a Signum Distinctivum It s a shrewd sign that that Babe is spurious which the Mother is ashamed to bring to light and that is Falshood and Dross not Truth and Gold which dares not abide any Test and that those Masses are not of a Divine Origine that must be celebrated in an unknown Tongue and trusted only with the Priests who are parties to the Cheat. Besides the means used in all Laws of God and man to induce obedience are rewards and punishments both which may occasion Hypocrisie Corrupted man is as inclinable to dissemble Religion which he believes not as well for hope of reward as for fear of punishment which is vitio personae non praemii vel poenae else God would not have appointed them as mounds of his laws and motives of obedience The pious example of a good King is of mervelous inducement towards Religion yet one may hypocritically dissemble his Religion to please his Prince Example is so powerful a motive that it is said to compel 2 Gal. 14. Peccant magistratus cum minis paenis alios peccare non prohibent 13 Nehem. 17.21.22 If Nebuchadnezar erect his prodigious Idol and upon pain of a Fiery Furnace require all to worship it all People Nations and Languages are presently upon their faces If persecution be but threatned Demas-like we presently forsake the fellowship of Saints and imbrace this present world On the other side rewards of honour and preferment will cause some Balaam-like to run and ride and become more sensless of Gods wrath and indignation than
been so extreamly and publickly mischievous God would not have suffered it Besides if Scandal shall not remain unpunishable in the Prince yet it shall in the Spiritual Man which is a Mischief of the same nature with the other For if Caesar shall abide the Censure of this or that froward Pope or Consistory what Judgment shall the Pope or Consistory abide If this Spiritual Supremacy rest in any one that one must be unpunishable for two Supreams are things incompatible And if this Supremacy rest in more than one is is very hardly consistent with Monarchy for the one or other must be transcendent § Without all contradiction it is a manifest violence to use the Power of excommunication be it what it will if any such thing there be at all granted by Christ contrary to his own Institution and towards him that hath Power and unjustly useth the same the remedy is to have recourse to a Superior if he may but if there be no Superior to whom to have recourse God hath allowed no other remedy to a Prince thus offended but to make resistance with his own force opposing himself and force to force because it comes from God And the Civil Being of every Common-wealth or Kingdom is to the end of his Glory And therefore a Prince cannot permit without a sin and offence that his own Liberty should be infringed which is the Civil Being of every Principality and there is no doubt but that negligence in defending it is a dangerous offence to God and most hainous if he voluntarily suffer it to be usurped and incroached upon § To obey therefore the Commandements of God Kings when accosted and assaulted by Excommunication Papal or Presbyterian may and ought to oppose themselves against the Authors of them that will take away the Power which God hath given them to make Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical and with Justice to defend themselves and their injured Subjects in their Lives Honours Goods and Religion And as the Innocent by an error in facto unjustly excommunicated to avoid scandal is bound patiently to endure So when the Error is in Jure and the manifest injustice thereof is apparent to avoid scandal likewise the Prince is bound to resist and oppose himself against the Injury Because there is no doubt but that such unjust Censures are against Magistracy it self and therefore when it shall be known to other Kingdoms that such a Prince or State for fear of unjust Censures and those invalid hath yielded unto violence whereof there are Examples not a few and omitted to exercise and execute his Natural Power they would be exceedingly scandalized thereat as also the Subjects that should discover such a vain fear they would become very perverse And therefore for this cause also it is both equal and necessary for the Prince to make due resistance for such no doubt or more weighty Reasons have our Kings and Queens defended themselves and their Subjects against all such Thunderbolts and so did the Venetians against Paul the Fifth who without any colour of reason excommunicated them being not a few Millions of Men The like have the Emperors and Kings of England and of France done and they had Authority so to do by their great Charter from Heaven The Church both Laity and Clergy but especially the Clergy ought to pacifie their Minds and Consciences attending the Service of God under the protection of their Princes constantly believing that the Holy Ghost was promised and given to all the Faithful both Laity and Clergy amongst whom Christ himself is present when they are congregated in his Name and that none can justly be excluded out of the Holy Catholick Church except by their own sins they be first excluded out of the favour of God and that the obedience which God commands us to perform to our Ecclesiastical Superiors is not a foolish or ridiculous Subjection nor the Power of Pope or Presbyters an Arbitrary Judgment but both the one and the other must be ruled by the Law of God who Deut. 17.10 11 12. ordained not an absolute obedience to the Priest but a prescribed observance according to the Law-Divine Facies quaecunque dixerint qui praesunt loco quem eligerit Jehovah docuerint te juxta Legem ejus It is the Word of God only not of Men in the Priests Mouths that me must obey God only is an Infallible Rule to whom only we must profess and yield obedience without all exception He that generally professeth this towards others without the Commandments of God as the Papists do sinneth and whosoever supposeth any Humane Will to be infallible as the Papists do committeth great Blasphemy in ascribing to the Creature a Property only Divine We have an Example hereof in the Acts when the Ancient Church expostulated and contended with Peter himself about the Vocation of the Gentiles he did not thunder against them with hideous and abominable Excommunications nor use menacing Language nor went about to silence them but he taught and perswaded them by Reason and Authority of Divine Revelations and the Words of our Saviour The very same Peter commanded the Elders to feed the Flock of God taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre for Cardinalisme or Nepotisme sake but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being Examples to the Flock 1 Pet. 5.2 3. by which it is evident that Priests must not domineer nor command with Empire but with Holy Deportment and Instructions of Piety for that they have no Dominion of our Faith but are or should be Helpers of our Joy 2 Cor. 1.24 The very same St. Peter when he erred in Antioch St. Paul did not forbear boldly to reprehend him in the presence of all Men Gal. 2.11 St. Paul's superexcellency above any thing that we can pretend unto was no Warrant for him to oppose himself against one whom it was not lawful to resist Who more humble or gave greater acknowledgement of his due Reverence to the High Priest than Paul did In this questionless Paul did no more than what the least of us may do with due Reverence to his Holiness Quaecunque scripta sunt ad nostram Doctrinam scripta sunt Rom. 15.4 the Holy Ghost would never have written this History but for our Example to the end we might imitate it And we see that all the Popish Doctors in discussing how any one may oppose himself to the Pope when he erreth and governs unworthily they have recourse to this Example Let no Man therefore be troubled depending only on the Authority of a Pope for that according to their own Doctors not one but two Keys were given to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles and if they be not both used together the effect of Loosing and Binding doth not ensue the one being of Power the other of Knowledge and Discretion Christ never gave Power to be used without due Knowledge and Circumspection
I abhor the thoughts of it as will appear hereafter there being a Vast difference between such a Tolleration of Idolatry Superstition crying sins and therefore absolutely unlawful and a Remission only of some few severities in some Acts Canons and Injunctions which relate only to Formalities that tho in construction of Law may be exacted yet may be dispensed withal without prejudice to sound Doctrine or good Conversation and without which the Worship of God would be as pure and sincere Indeed all Acts Canons and Injunctions whether they relate unto Uniformity or not ought according to their own Nature to be sincere and free from all Traps and Covert designs to exclude any that Profess the same Faith and Worship tho many cannot perhaps thro meer tenderness of Conscience submit to every thing therein enjoyned In Concerns of this Nature Scripture in a more especial manner ought to be the Rule of Resolutions and that abstractly and purely without mixing and bringing with them Interest Usurpation or Artifices of men else what were it but by Edicts to lay Snares in Mispah and spread Nets upon Tabor to use Laws Menaces and subtleties to keep Gods People from his Court and Sanctuary and Confine them to State-Religion and to Walk after the Mode of the Commands of men Those Non-conformists Non-assenters that have received Order which they could not have had but permissu superiorum by the Licence and under the Authority of the King in our Laws expressed For no Man hath Power to give himself either Orders to be a Priest or Institution to a Pastoral Charge but must depend upon another Power who by Acts Canons and Edicts long since published and extant hath directed the qualifications of the Persons to be Ordained the manner and Form how the Persons who ought to Ordain them c. and they could not be ignorant that the Liturgy and enjoyned Ceremonies were by the Imperative Constitutive Government of this Church and State to be Countenanced and used in publick Churches by the Bishops Presbyters and Pastors either they consulted their Consciences when they entered on the Ministery by taking Holy Orders whether they could Comply and Submit unto the whole Frame of Government and Polity of this Church Constituted by Act of Parliament from whom they were to receive Authority and Licence to Exercise their Function Gifts and Talents or they did not If they did not they are inexcusable for entring on so Sacred a Calling Stamped with an Indelible Character so rashly so unadvisedly without perspect or foresight of Consequences and yet if they were so pur-blind as not to see one step before them yet their neglect herein cannot be Pleaded in their Excuse it being their own Fault in Common Justice no Court will permit any man to take Advantage of his own misdemeanors or failings Besides hath not every Minister that hath receiv'd Pastoral Charge twice or thrice if not oftner witnessed his allowance of all and singular the 39 Articles of our Church once at his Ordination before the Bishop then at his Institution into his Benefice before his Ordinary and both these by Subscription under his own hand and afterwards upon his Induction before his own Flock and that by verbal Approbation he hath not only acknowledged in the Church the Power of Ordaining Rites and Ceremonies 20 Articles But he hath after a sort bound himself openly to rebuke such as willingly and purposely break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church as Offenders of the Common Order of the Church and Wounders of the Consciences of the weak Brethren and hurters of the Authority of the Magistrate Artic. 34. and is it not enacted 1º Eliz. c. 2. that they shall be punished pro ut in the Act that shall Preach declare or speak any thing in derogation or depraving our Liturgy c. Are not then such Dissenters obliged both in Conscience and by virtue of their own Voluntary Acts and Subscriptions to be constant to their own Hands and Tongues if they would be accounted Faithful in Gods House as was Moses And is it reasonable then to hearken unto such Pleading against their own Voluntary Acts and Subscriptions their own Hands and Tongues Besides quo jure with what Face or Conscience can they expect Temples maintenance protection and all things requisite for their Ministery from that Law and Government that they will not Protect Countenance nor submit unto § Indeed it seems to me an old piece of Conscientiousness if not Impiety to enter the Holy Ministerial Function to day when they are sure without Conformity to be silenced to morrow Besides it is Nicety and Indiscretion to exact an express Rule of Scripture or Faith for the Cross in Baptism for standing at the Creed Kneeling at the Lords Beard for Habits in Divine Service the usual sear-Crows of scrupulous men In these cases consent of the Church or Tradition may suffice so there be no express Law of Command to the contrary He that exacts in these Points as express Rules of Faith or Warrant of Scripture for his Obedience to Ecclesiastical Government as he would or as every man ought to do for adventuring upon Worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints c. doth make his Brain or Fancy the chief Seat of his Religion which should be seated in the Heart and Intitles God to the Fancies and Chymaeraes of their own Brains Thus to disobey the Church in these Cases wherein it hath Authority to Command Obedience is to disobey those Mandates of God which give the Body of the Church Authority to make Laws to Govern it self by in things indifferent neither expresly Forbidden nor expresly Commanded by the Law of God I know the Apostles Rule is let every man be fully persâ—â—ded in his own mind 14 Rom. 5. And this full perswasion or assurance of Faith is in the Cases there mentioned necessary because whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin v. 23. This last Maxim is undoubtedly true and the former Precept most exactly to be observed in such Causes as the Apostle there speaks of that is where the positive Practise unless our Warrant be Authentick in it self and evident to us is very dangerous or deadly whereas on the contrary the forbearance of such Practise is either safe or not prejudicial to our Souls but to our Bodies only or State temporal such Ceremonies as be neither against Faith nor adverse to good manners in the Judgment of St. Austin ep 11.8 go for indifferent and may be Born in Christian Unity without Offence or Confusion If God hath left things indifferent what Authority can make them necessary Let them be so still and their nature not changed by any Injunction and Unity will necessarily ensue Quodam modo it may be true that in Ordination there is something which they receive thereby from God Independent of the King or any Civil Power viz. Authority to Tâ—â—ch Baptize and Administer Sacraments by Virtue of Ordination And â—â— is as true that
Members The fallacy or mistake lies in the misnomer or misapplication of terms The Congregations in such meetings termed Churches ought more properly to be called Assemblies than Churches for they have not all the powers belonging to a Church more properly so called they being only partes similares Homogeneal parts of some more entire or ample visible Church in this sense Families are sometimes stiled Churches § It follows That a Church so qualified and so gathered becomes a Body or spiritual Corporation which may be nay which is tru in a qualified sense so at the least the meanest or lowest Member of the Catholick Church or House of God is the Temple of God yea a King and a Priest Rev. 5.9 10. Is it reasonable therefore to argue from hence that therefore every tru lively Member of the holy Catholick Church hath the power of a Church because such titles are in some sense applicable unto them § It follows and being joyned thus by mutual assent of each person they have power over one another as in all Fraternites and liberty from Christ to choose their Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in Circumstantials for the Regulating of their affairs Be it so yet even then all the power they can lawfully claim is to assemble to Pray Preach and Administer Sacraments which I shall not deny them but as for other powers except to put them out of that particular Congregation I know none they have right unto or that they can endow one another withal but what must necessarily in respect of good government be subordinate to the more supreme and greater power of the same kind which is the Christian Common-wealth which is the National Christian Church the publick power of all Societies being above every soul contained in the same Fraternities and the principal use of that power is to give Laws unto all that are under it which Laws in such case ought to be obeyed unless there be reason shewed which may necessarily enforce that the Law of Reason or of God doth enjoyn the contrary because except our private and but probable resolutions be by the Law of publick determinations over-ruled we take away all possibility of sociable life in the world If they will have powers over one another as in all Fraternities then they must be first made a Corporation by some more supreme Authority and endowed with powers as all other Fraternities are for no number of men in any entire rightful Government can give themselves orders or powers distinct and exempt from the superior Jurisdiction these must be had from the supreme established Power else if instead of censuring Fornicators or Adulterers to the White Sheer or Stool of Repentance they should censure or condemn them to the Gallies or as in the Old Law Levit. 20.10 to be stoned to death I doubt they would not do it impune and yet a Christian Common-wealth which is a Christian Church might lawfully enact such a Law Liberty from Christ alone for their demanded powers I know they claim but quo warranto non sum informatus especially free and exempt from all superior jurisdiction Texts they can name none that are applicable to such Congregations but will be much more properly applicable to National Churches to govern the whole As for the power of Censures so of the making of Canons and Orders in Circumstantials for regulating of their affairs the same reasons hold more strongly for the National Church who as well as the Independents profess their Independency upon Christ alone and to be their only Head and Lawgiver as best knowing how to govern his own house If Independency be sound doctrine then if the Independent the Roman Pontif the Prelate the Presbyter the Anabaptist the Socinian the Quaker and a thousand more Sects should set up each for themselves by the same doctrine in this or any other Christian Nation who shall reform they cannot all be in the right and to reform one another is against the very nature of Independency and yet reformation ought to be and power thereof must be seated somewhere either in the Civil Magistrate or in Synods Councils c. the chiefest reformations in the Jewish Church have been by the Kings and supreme Magistrates sometimes without the peoples consent and sometimes commanding and compelling them to consent So Asa commanding That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death whether small or great Man or Woman So Hezekiah 2 Chron. 29.3 4.18 and so Josiah 2 Chron. 24.31.32 And so indeed all the good Kings of Israel and if they did not judgments were denounced against them by the Prophers from God and they were punished which power is not abrogated but confirmed by the Gospel They farther say As the Church Catholick in General so each parcel of it each particular Church hath Christ also for its head and in such a union with him and such existence in him even as a Church 1 Thes 1.1 Paul and Sylvanus and Timotheus unto the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ Grace c. we say so too but how this makes for Independency that is the great question the Emphasis and stress of which verse lies in these words viz. which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ which some think to be a description of the Church of God to put difference betwixt Christian Churches and the Assembly of Pagans and Jews which are not in God but in Idols not in Christ but in an absolute God whom they conceive and worship out of the blessed Trinity in the Father and the Son that is say some in the Faith and Worship of the Trinity say others in blessed and heavenly fellowship with the Father and the Son by bond of the Spirit others think that they do import a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and subsistence in the Deity by the means of the union mystical betwixt Christ and his Church The Father in us and we in him 1 Joh. 3.24 Partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 3.4 Take the words in which sense you please I do not see how they are more applicable to Independent than unto other Christian Churches not esteemed Independent if they contain any other reasons more favouring Independent Churches than others I must confess that they are unto me incognito and I guess unto them also for that they have not specified any § I can say Amen also to what follows in the negative viz. As that if persons making up this Body be considered distinctly and as incorporated one with another only and not in their relation to Christ also as one with them and chief in the midst of them Matt. 18.20 they are not a compleat Body or spiritual Polity For though a million of Bishops Prelats or Clarks even the Popes and his Cardinals assisting not thus qualified should assemble for their own gain dignities or jurisdiction
or for any other sinister end or if their consultations should be managed by superior power or faction as not long since in that pack'd brib'd Conventicle at Trent Independently in their esteem made up of Titulars and Pentioners and Bishops they have no like interest in the former promise For any Church visible or representative whose Individuals are not so qualified the greater part whereof for number or more principal Authority may be Infideles aut Haeretici occulti Hereticks or Atheists in heart for though their persons and profession of their Faith may be to us mortals visible yet the sincerity of their hearts and faith is to us invisible And I can say Amen also to some part of the affirmative which follows viz. That we as well as they do profess our dependency also to be upon Christ alone for the government and management of this his Kingdom and thus being dependent upon Christ our only Lawgiver James 4.12 who is the wisdom of the Father and best knoweth how to govern his own house But I cannot from hence conclude them Independent as they do in respect to the Authority or Soveraignty of any other Person Church Synod or Power whatsoever there is modus in rebus difference between staring and stark mad between submitting to Superiors as if they were Lords and had dominion of our Faith and to our Superiors representative making wholsom Laws for order and good government only and those not exclusive our consent neither virtually at least Yet I say that this also may be true in some part as in Substantials though not in Circumstantials As if Authority should command the administration of the Eucharist which was instituted by Christ himself in the days of his flesh and is of so mysterious and so spiritual a nature that whosoever shall add or diminish from it will be in danger of the menace recorded Revel 12.18 19. in one kind only as our holy Father at Rome doth when as Christ commanded to be given and received in both kinds or should command service in an unknown tongue contrary to St. Pauls prescript 1 Cor. 10. such Canons such Commands may come within the verge of the Statutes of Omri indeed and consequently no obligation on any Church or Person to submit thereunto but this holds not in innocent Circumstantials Therefore to quote Mich. 6.16 to me seems very strange as if there were no difference between our Canons and the Statutes of Omri who did worse than all that were before him walking in all the ways of Jeroboam 1 King 16.25 26 who did sin and made Israel to sin 1 K. 14.16 as if no difference between his Priests who consecrated whoever would even the lowest of the People Priests of the high places and our Bishops and Priests Priests of the most high God as if no difference between Jeroboams Calves and our service but both must be alike Idolatrous this is hard But I forbear only the 6. of Mich. 16. will not warrant the Assertion as to us what ever it may do at Rome they must if they can bring better proofs the Text is not in the least applicable to our Discipline and Polity this is plainly to pervert Scripture and comes within the verge of the Paraenesis prescribed § Those famous Churches of Jerusalem of Ephesus Corinth Smirna c. were of old quasi National Churches or at least instead of them pro tempore for that then and in those days there were no National Churches no Kings or Common-wealth Nursing-Fathers of the Church so that when Religion was planted in chief Cities these Cities wherein no doubt were several Congregations were as it were the Mother and chief Churches and in all probability the minor Churches in the Suburbs and Villages next adjacent unto such Churches had more especially recourse for advice unto the next Metropolitan or more ample Church who had all the powers rightfully belonging to a Compleat Church But it cannot demonstratively be made out that every Parish or Congregation in those days was a Plenipotentiary Church to all intents and purposes and that they were Independent in their sense For instance in those famous Churches of Philadelphia Pergamus Thyatira Sardis Laodicea c. as Independent they cannot for that as each of those Churches had many Presbyters so consequently they had many Congregations and yet the Title of Church was attributed only to each Church in general and to the Angel of that Church as chief Governor thereof and not to every particular Presbyter and his gathered Congregation there Nero quaesitissimis poenis affecit quos proflagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat Auctor nominis ejus Christus qui Tiberio imperante per Procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectuserat Repressaque inpraesâ—ns exitiabilâ—s supâ—rstitio c. Tacitus Annul l. 15. c. 10. and these Churches in all probability were governed by the whole number of the faithful but whether ex praecepto or prudenter only I leave to every man to judg I must confess that I do not know any one Church in the whole New Testament that is characterized as Independent the most probable to have been so is that of Cenchrea and that only because it was a very poor maritime Town a few leagues distant from Corinth and yet it is said to be Oppidum Corinthiorum navium statione celeberrimum ideo frequens valde populosum the Port of that City and therefore not so very probable to have been Independent more probably happily that Church in Caesars House may be thought to have been Independent because gathered under the Nose of Nero that cruel Tyrant and consequently might not have so free recourse to other Churches for advice What should here follow concerning the power of the Civil Magistrate shall be referred to a more proper place § A more plausible Argument for Independency and unobserved by any that I have yet read is viz. that when Christ sent his twelve Apostles two by two into several Coasts to preach his Gospel and to teach all Nations c. It was not that the Churches gathered by St. Paul should be subject unto the Government or Inspection of St. Peter or unto the Churches gathered by him nor that the Churches gathered by St. Peter should be subject unto the Judicature of St. Paul or the Churches gathered by him and so of all the other Apostles but every Apostle and his gathered Church had a right of Ecclesiastical Government intrinsick within it self not depending on any of the other Apostles nor responsible for their Actions to any other Church Person or Officers and that divers of the Apostles met in Council at Jerusalem to settle some urgent things then controverted and not then agreed on was prudential only and voluntary not essential compulsory or obligatory yet a practice very worthy of Imitation § That the Apostles and other Ambassadors of Christ were so sent and that they and their Congregations were independent in point of Discipline
the whole body politick whereof if the Presbyter or Independent judge themselves to be any part then is the Law even their own deed also as being made by the representatives of the whole wherein they are included as having their most proper representatives in our Parliaments and Convocations the undoubted Legislative Power of this Kingdom And is it reasonable in things of this nature and consequence to give men audience pleading for the overthrow of that which as it were their own very deed hath ratified Laws that have been approved both in Church and State may be no man doubteth again repealed and to that end also disputed against by the same Authority But this most properly is when the whole doth deliberate what Laws each part shall observe and not when a few run counter the Laws which the whole hath made in a full and free Parliament and lawfull Convocation Be it that some reasons induce some persons to be otherwise minded if those reasons be demonstrative and absolutely necessary such I confess discharge consciences and setteth them at full liberty but if probable only what thing was there ever set down so agreeable to sound reason but some probable shew against it may be made Is it meet that when Acts of Parliaments and Canons have been publickly received and long practised that general obedience thereunto should cease to be exacted in case some few led by some probable conceits should make open protestation of their dissatisfaction Certainly in such cases they are obliged to suspend their judgments for that in otherwise doing they offend against God by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause For until the Civil Christian Magistrate whose power it is that I contend for doth otherwise order and determine obedience is to be given to the Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil if not contrary to the word of God Turpis est pars quae universo non congruit suo Out of which premises and of what will follow more particularly I shall take the liberty to assert and conclude that the Church of England in general is undeniably Independent and hath intrinsick power within it self without any forraign aid or dependency or any subordination to any other Person Church or Council to govern it self and that every Parish or Congregation thereof is not so Independent but rather that every particular doth depend upon the whole for that all ought to govern the whole and every particular thereof and every one ought to imploy himself most in that which is most particularly recommended to him and that the true Representatives of this Church of England and of all other National Churches is the Legislative Power thereof and that the King is the chief Governor thereof according to the constituted Laws and Canons thereof § And this Legislative Power hath lawful Authority to constitute all Qualifications unto all publick Ecclesiastical preferments so that they which will not submit to such qualifications shall be uncapable of such publick Benefices and Preferments But neither this nor any other Power throughout the whole Vniverse hath any lawful Authority to forbid the gathering of Churches or stop the mouths of any Bishop or Presbyter to preach the Gospel nor to forbid the solemn assembling together of the Saints or of the Brethren according to their several Commissions viz. go teach all Nations c. 28. Matth. 19.20 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhort one another 10. Hebr. 24.25 if this had not been good Doctrine and practised even by Christ himself his Apostles and their followers maugre all the Interdicts of Jewish and Gentile States and Princes cursed Tyrants the Gospel had never been spread In such Cases where commands of Governments are contrary to commands of God it is undoubtedly better to obey God than Man I have dwelt the longer on this subject of Indepency for that though in truth it the be elder Brother unto Presbyterian Government by 1600 years yet it seems unto most to be but my Lord Musshrome and of yesterdays extract and very little understood by Vulgar Capacities In the Treaty whereof I have taken occasion in some measure to trace both the wayes of the Church and the wiles of the Church-Men from its very Infancy and shall pursue it farther when I come to shew what and who are meant by the term Church so that if possible the Government of the Church may be made easie and intelligible to every understanding Plain dealing is best and truth like beauty is most beautiful when stark naked stript of all paints and School-tricks and Glosses by which truth is more often confounded and defaced than brought unto light in its pure and natural colours § I shall now proceed and say something of the Presbyterian way but shall not meddle with their Model at all it being done and done to my hand it hangs on every Hedg and is decyphered and refelled in an Iliad of Pamphlets and is as perfectly disliked and disgusted as known and therefore I think we may bid them defiance set it up and establish it if they can especially if excommunication the main prop and pillar thereof were taken away without which it must necessarily fall to the ground and which is of no use in any Christian State and which in truth is a nemo scit utterly unknown to Scripture it self as now used especially And yet so fond are they of it and so wedded unto it and such is the selfishness of the Clergy of all perswasions and so great a Biass is their interest and love of domination that the very thought of parting with it doth cut them to the heart and it cannot be got from them without rending and tearing as if it were as perverse as an unclean spirit and though in truth it makes no return considerable unto any of them but what redounds unto their dishonour and reproach I shall only shew some of their tenets and practises by which you may the better judge of them and I shall not go far to fetch them and declare that now to erect and establish that Government here or in any other Christian Common-wealth were to erect Regnum in Regno and then in short process of time upon every difference and dispute as it happened in the State of Venice 1610. where Father Avaraldo a Capuchin being demanded by the Inquisitors at Rome for a certain opinion concerning Anti-Christ and from that Inquisition the process being sent to Bressia where the Father was the Inquisition at Bressia proceeded in the Cause without the Civil Assistants and answered them not without a design to cajole the Civil Magistrate out of his just right by a nice distinction viz. that they ought not to assist but only in causes which were begun at the proper Tribunal but not when the Denuntiation was given at Rome so in a very short time as
by avowing that the spirit of the Prophets must be subject only to the Prophets What Rule have these Presbyters to judg by what Logick what way of Ratiocination that the Laity have not and know not and understand not as well as they what Infallibility above Kings and other the Laity have these men I must confess I never found them writing in terminis for this Infallibility But if we may guess at their meaning by their mumping their Actions and their Arguments are premisses which to some may seem to yield such conclusions that they would fain have their Doctrines though treasonable to be embraced as Oracles Are not these Doctrines purely Romish surely yes St. Paul was certainly more infallible than they and yet he submitted his Preachments to his Auditory in general not exclusive the Laity Judg ye what I say Nay the Layity as well as Priests are commanded to search the Scriptures and try Spirits and shall not the King and his Sages Judg of Doctrines because delivered in a Pulpit which may concern the bene esse nay perhaps the very esse quiet state and weal of a Kingdom If I were put to it I should not doubt but to make it out that there is as good warrant in Scripture for the infallibility of Kings as there is for either Pope or Presbyter though I must profess there is no sound ground no nor yet probable appearance for either If the Presbiter will have his Doctrines received without controulment and contradiction he must shew better warrant than the Pope because he pretends to judg what I think the Pope doth not even Affections Spotsw Hist Mr. Andrew Melvil in his form of Church Policy presented by him to the Parliament sitting in Striveling Anno 1578. hath this head The Magistrate commands in external things only and actions done before Men But the Spiritual Ruler such as Mr. Melvil and his fellow Presbyters are judgeth both the Assections and the external Actions in respect of conscience by the word of God In which form there are other dangerous heads sutable to what Mr. Blake and the Presbyteries so sharply contended for in his cause and what tumults c. ensued thereupon in the Contest for that desperate form Histories do abundantly shew but I forbear But seeing they make so desperate ill use of 1 Cor. 14.32 by perverting very plain texts I am resolved though no Presbyter to try if I can hit the true and natural sense and meaning thereof seeing they have not and perhaps will not it not being for their interest and prerogatives § It s true the Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets 1 Cor. 14.32 but what doth this avail Pope or Presbyters surely they will not say that the Prophets of the New Testament since the Apostles days are so authentick and infallible as those of the Old Besides what if the terms Prophet and Prophesying are in some senses and places and happily in this as applicable to the Laity as to the Clergy nay what if in this very Text by Prophets is meant in general all Believers those within the Pale of the Church excluding those only without as unfit to judg such matters Mark the Contest First Prophesying in general serveth not for them that believe not but for them which believe v. 22. Secondly If therefore the whole Church not Priests only come together in one place and all speak c. v. 23. and All prophesy v. 24. And every one of you hath a Psalm hath a Doctrine c. 26. If any man speak v. 27. Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judg v. 29. If any thing be revealed to Another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace v. 30. For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted v. 31. And the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets v. 32. Let the Women keep silence c. v. 31. wherefore Brethren covet to prophesy v. 39. Now if the words or terms of Whole Church All Every one Any man The other Another Brethren be words and terms of universality and differencing then certainly the words Prophets and Prophesying are in this Chapter more especially applicable to the Auditory the Brethren than to the Presbyters themselves and is an admonition and warrant to the faithful to assemble and speak to edification besides the commanding of the Women silence is a pregnant presumption if not an affirmation That all the Brethren might speak so likewise is the command to the Brethren to covet to prophesy But be it as they would have it that by Prophets are meant Presbyters only which is impossible in true construction but the contrary yet those Presbyters by the command of the same Apostle v. 29. are to be judged by the other that are not Presbyters which is a better warrant to the King and his Council and Judges to judg them than they can shew to Judg King and Council and to usurp Judgment to themselves only Besides the very command in the very first verse is to all to follow Charity to desire Spiritual gifts but rather that they may prophesy and by prophesying by the scope of this Chapter is clearly meant speaking to edification and exhortation and comfort that our words might minister Grace to the Hearers which certainly is the duty of every man and which if Mr. Blake had observed he had never been called in question Now tell me how much less doth the Presbyter claim than the Pope who pretends that every Clergy or Church-man both they and their Family nay the very Concubines of Priests are exempt from all Jurisdiction Temporal and that jure divino and that from the same Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 2.15 He that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man The same Scripture is as strong for the Presbyter as the Pope and it is to be feared that if he were as fast in the Saddle as the Pope is that he would claim it as peremptorily and therefore sit to be prevented by the wisdom of Princes But were the Allegations true and pertinent either there should be no Spiritual man besides the Pope or Presbyter and so the subject of the Proposition should be homo singularis one man only or if there be more Spiritual men they should all of them be Popes or Presbyters to judg all others and be judged of none no not of the Pope of Rome himself unless he be no body For those are convertible he that saith all excepteth none and he that saith none excepteth all Touching the Prophesy we hold saith J. Robinson f. 45 46. the very same that the Synod held at Embden 1571. hath declared Harm Synod Belg. p. 21 22. viz. 1o. In all Churches whether but springing up or grown to some ripeness let the order of Prophesy be observed according to Pauls institution 2.o. Into the Fellowship of this work are to be admitted not
only the Ministers but the Teachers too as also the Elders and Deacons yea even of the Multitude which are willing to conser their gifts received of God 2 Cor. 4.13 to the common utility of the Church Luke 2.46 47. and c. 4.15 16. c. fol. 47.48 § During the Contest between Adrian the Sixth and the German Princes in Anno 1523. in the case of Luther they thinking it reasonable did signify unto his Holiness from the Dyet at Noremberg that married Priests and Religious persons who returned to the world in case they did commit any wickedness that the Prince or Magistrate in whose Territory they shall offend ought to give them their due chastisement which did not please the Pope and therefore he did reply That it would be against the Liberty of the Church and the Sickle would be put into another mans Field and those men would be censured by the World who were reserved unto Christ For Princes should not presume to believe that they were devolved to their Jurisdiction by their Apostacy nor that they could be punished by them and for their other Offences in regard the Character remaining in them and the Order they are ever under the power of the Church neither can Princes do more than delate them to their Bishops and Superiors that they may chastize them Conc. Trid. 27.28 Thus let Pope and Presbyter go hand in hand as to Spiritual Empire and Dominion Though it be besides my purpose to examine particulars yet in the general I cannot but wonder that so many learned and conscientious persons men of great abilities and good lives should countenance and defend that Church Discipline and Government as it is composed and compounded by Calvin the first Brocher and Hammerer thereof as taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God when no Father ever witnessed no Council ever favoured no Church ever found out or practised it since the days of the Apostles and when the general and successive consent of all succeeding Ages is resolute against it as never expounding Pauls words in favour of it till about this last Century and this in opposition unto and derogation of Episcopal Regiment which on the contrary hath been observed every where for many Ages and Generations throughout the Christian world nemine contradicente except the old Heretick Aerius No Church till Calvins time ever alledging or perceiving the Word of God to be against it for if but any one Church upon the face of the whole earth that hath been governed by Calvins or the Scotch Presbytery or any one Church that hath not been ordered by Episcopal Regiment since the death of the Apostles could possibly have been found out no doubt but that we should long since have heard of it with our ears and seen it with our eyes in their Writings for that the Favourers and Abettors thereof have wanted neither abilities industry nor stomack neither to make it known Besides to me it seems strangely improbable I might say impossible that the Church of Christ should never know what belonged to the Government of her self till of late and that the Son of God should be spoiled of half his Kingdom by his own Servants Citizens nay Martyrs for 1500 years together without remorse or remembrance of any one man that so great injury was offered him and without one Champion to throw out his Gauntlet in the demand and challenge of his right Moreover how is it possible that all the Churches in the world should with one consent immediately on the Apostles deaths reject that form of governing the Church according to the Geneva cut which they would fain perswade you to believe was setled and approved by the Apostles and embrace a new and strange kind of Government Episcopal without Precept or Precedent for their so doing for my part I think it much more safe prudent and reasonable to esteem this a new device of Calvins a Chintera of his own brain set up to serve his own ends and to introduce his own Domination than to proclaim so many Apostolick men and antient learned Fathers to be manifest despisers of Episcopal Discipline and voluntary Supporters if not Inventers of Antichrists Pride and Tyranny § I find four Priviledges extraordinary given by Christ to the Apostolic Function requisite for the first founding of the Church What Privileges peculiar to the Apostles which died with them 1. Their Vocation immediate from Christ not from Men nor by Men Gal. 2.12 and their immediate instruction in the mystery of Christ by Christ himself 2. Their Commission extending over all the Earth without limitation to any place 3. Their direction infallible the Holy Ghost guiding them whether they wrote or spake This Office by consent of all Divines begun and ended in their persons to whom at first it was committed And except that Man of sin that hath entred by intrusion and violence into the Prerogatives royal of Christ no man would dare to arrogate the Privileges of this Calling He indeed challengeth as in the right of Peter universal power over the whole Church on earth He assumeth and appropriateth to himself glory of Miracles but all lying in form or end and if we were so mad as to believe infallible assistance of the Spirit in all things that he shall sententiously deliver to the Church out of his Chair of Pestilence Sapientum octavus Apostolorum 41. 4. Their power wonderful as well to convert and confirm Believers as to chastize and revenge Disobeyers whereby they did not only speak with tongues cure diseases work miracles know secrets understand all wisdom but gave the Holy Ghost to others that they might do the like and that they might store the whol world out of hand with meet Pastors and Teachers All which were given to their individual persons and were thought requisite by that wisdom which is above for the first spreading of the Faith and planting of Churches amongst Jews and Gentiles that all Nations might be converted unto Christ by the sight of their Miracles and directed by the truth of their Doctrine § But although all these died with their persons But and what delegated to their Successors to remain for ever yet are there other three and some make four points of Apostolic delegation which have and must have their permanency and perpetuity in the Church of Christ the better to maintain and propagate the Church once setled and Faith once preached As 1. Dispensing the Word 2. Administring the Sacraments 3. Imposing of hands 4. Guiding the Keys to shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven These especially the three first parts of the Apostolic Function are not decayed and cannot be wanted in the Church of God and are now seated in our Bishops and Presbyters by Apostolic successive delegation The first Two by reason they are the ordinary means and instruments by which the Spirit of God worketh each mans salvation must be general to all Pastors and Presbyters the
acquiesce till then we are justly to be excused and I hope you will not blame us if we prefer the universal judgment of the Primitive Church touching the Church Government by Bishops before particular and late dreams They were nearer the Apostles times than Calvin whom for his other great pains and Abilities for the good of Christ's Flock I do much honour who broached not his new Church Polity until about Anno 1500. Was it possible I appeal to your selves that all the Churches of Christ dispersed far and near over the face of the Earth should at one time and that immediately after the last surviving Apostle and as it were Momento temporis joyn or jump in one and the self same Government Episcopal had it not been delivered and setled by the Apostles and their Disciples that converted the World We construe the Apostles Writings by their doings others measure the Scriptures by their own humours first framing Churches to their fancies and then conceit that the Scriptures answer and favour their Chimaera's and by their so doing come within the Verge of the Paroenesis If Bishops claim or usurp more than is their due or abuse the power which Gods Law or the favour of Princes justly alloweth to them and Pastors in Nomine Dei spare them not let the world know it but do not attempt to put out the lights of our Firmament because Phanatics and Men intoxicated stumble or miss their way whilst they shine § Gods promise to his People is Dabo vobis Pastores juxta cor meum 3 Jer. 41. pascent vos scientia doctrina It is evident that the firm of all Pastoral charge consisteth in preaching of the Gospel in administration of Sacraments and by mistake according to some in the punishment of such offences as absolutely exclude us out of the Kingdom of God These being the main things which Christ recommended to his Apostles committing them to their charge the which things only were practised by them as also by their immediate Successors and I hope our Bishops will not be found insufficient for these great Mysteries nor will be found to have warped or swerved from them though we have not wanted Coblers of Glocester the vanity of the present Churches and many other Ichabods heavily complaining § Besides for great and just reasons of State Concerning Innovators in general prudent Magistrates ought to be very circumspect and jealous and to fear the sequels of Church Innovations and Combinations even beyond all apparent cause of fear for that they who believe the Attempts for new Discipline without the licence of Civil Powers are lawful as most Innovators and Men given to change do and that not without some design as well to remove some persons out of the Saddle that themselves might be therein seated as to reform some errors will easily dispute what may be attempted against Superiors which will not have the Scepter of their new Discipline to rule over them For they that will not stick to affirm Amat â—ai ranam ranam nuit else Dianam That the Discipline which they say they have and we want is one of the essential parts of Gods Worship and therefore the better to introduce a good opinion of their own Diana they have not stuck andaciter calumniari and to style Episcopal Regiment Antichristian will as little scruple to affirm withal That the People themselves upon peril of Salvation without staying for the Magistrate may gather themselves into it always having in a readiness to say that they never found that God ever made any Precept or Command which to perform we must needs have leave of another § Moreover as every order of Religious men so every Form of Church-Government that only excepted which Christ instituted besits not every Civil Government nor Kingdom nor every State and therefore the Kingdom of France and renowned State of Venice for great reasons of State banished the Jesuits And we have an excellent example of this in the famous Government of the Kings of Castilia where without the Kings licence no new Religious Order and of such nature is every differing Church-Discipline from the Discipline by Law established could have entrance into those Kingdoms and therefore the Capuchin Friers could not be admitted thither The Foundations of these and the like Decrees are no less equal reasonable and lawful than most necessary and most antient For Cicero in oratione pro domo sua sheweth that no man could consecrate an Altar injussu populi so that the equity of such Laws hath time out of mind been apparently known unto the World And Mecoenas his counsel to Augustus in Dione was very prudent Eos qui in divinis aliquid innovant odio habe coerce non Deorum solum causa sed quia nova numina hi tales introducentes multos impellunt ad mutationem rerum unde conjurationes seditiones conciliabula existunt res profecto minime conducibilis-principatui legibus quoque expressum est quod in religionem committitur in omnium sertur injuriam For it would not in any wise be permitted to a great Number of a strange State and such are all Papists having sworn obedience to another Head contrary to their customs of life and divers ends from those of the present Governments to enter into the state of such a Common-wealth Gather themselves together into one or divers places to make amongst them one or more Heads or Governors and in secret to practise with the Princes Subjects seeing this would be presently accounted as one or more Conventicles of very dangerous consequence and accordingly would be prohibited and interrupted so under the pretext of some new Church Polity be it Popish Presbyterian or Quaking all alike as to the thing in question not by that State established many very many not only of the same but of other Nations also may frequently assemble and gather together under one or more Heads Presbyters or Teachers contrary in Customs and Affections to the established Church-Discipline and perhaps unto true Doctrine also and the many opportunities they have through Confessions Meetings Sermons and other spiritual Conferences insinuating with the Princes Subjects they may by such secret vast diffused scarcely to be discerned and powerful means and opportunities corrupt them in their sidelity and withdraw them from their Allegiances of which we are not without sad experience of elder and later days both from Papists and others not a few of several perswasions And the danger of union in an united confederacy or conspiracy is to be avoided for that it prevails more than number besides discontented minds in the beginning of tumults when any happen occasioned by themselves or others will easily agree though their ends be divers each one hoping thereby to get uppermost or to turn up that Trump that they have most mind to follow and so endanger the State For these many excellent causes all Church Congregations ought very diligently and narrowly to be
Baptism or the like then they stiffly cry out where is your Rule your Warrant in Scripture for them And may not the Magistrate with as good Logick demand of Presbyter and Independent their express Warrant and Rule of Scripture for their Governments for receiving the Communion sitting or for their altering the time of taking of it or their Preaching in their Caps in a Cloak or Buff Coats as lately they did If men were humble and not wedded to their own fancies they might see the right Independency already established in this Kingdom and with no great difference from that of the Independents who would have only Churches voluntarily gathered and submitted unto whereby those that would might be of Peters or of Pauls or of any Ministers Congregation and those that would not might refuse to be of either or indeed of any so that in effect they having no power to compel the whole Kingdom might be either Atheists or Papists Quakers or Fanaticks nay Jews or Ranters or indeed what not if no better care were taken But the great wisdom of our Princes armed with the Sword and with Power to Command and Compel from on High well knowing it a duty incumbent upon them as it was once upon Paul to take care of all the persons and Churches within their Dominions and that they were to be accomptable to God for their good or evil Government in Church and State have divided this whole Nation into Precincts Parishes or Congregations call them what you will and hath allotted to every Parish a Church to which all are enjoyned to resort and frequent and a Minister endowed with maintenance who is to execute his Pastoral Office over them and his Parishoners are compellable by by the Laws Canons and Edicts of the Prince to receive their spiritual Food and Bread of Life at his hand and mouth and it is not left to them to come or not to come to the Church of God and hear the Law and the Gospel of Jesus Christ at their pleasure But care hath been and is still taken that the Ministers and Pastors shall not be without their Flocks nor the Flocks without their Pastors who are licenced and enjoyned to Pray Preach Baptize Now what is the difference The Congregational way is voluntary unlimited and unprescribed the Parochial is quodam modo compulsory bounded and circumscribed and so it ought to be or else how can Princes rationally give any good Accompt to God of their care of his Churches if they should leave every man to do herein what seemeth best in his own eyes as once in Israel when there was no King And if Princes have no Power to Prescribe Compel and Punish why should they be blamed and punished for the Idolatrous and otherwise erronious Worship of others And if they have power why do the Non-conformists quarrel at the use thereof one Parish is as little dependant on another as the Congregational men would have their Congregations to be and yet both Parishes and Congregations are properly and rather homogenial parts of Englands Church than so many distinct Churches though Quodam Modo they may be stiled Churches as Paul did Families in Houses in his time § Both Presbyters and Independents willingly oblige themselves to no form being against all set forms but leaving themselves at large in all their Administrations Our Supream Governours as in duty bound prescribe and enjoyn as in our Liturgy the daily teaching of the Fundamentals of Christianity that all his Subjects may be sure to have them sincerely dispenced unto them If there be no form for dispencing of them how can the Prince be sure that they are rightly dispenced and taught nay how can he be sure that they are taught at all and if not certain thereof how can he give to God a good and sure account that they were sincerely taught or that the Alcoran Talmude or Trent Creed were not taught instead thereof If our Liturgy be daily used the very solemn days which by Antient Institution of the Church are to be celebrated for the Commemoration of the Blessed Trinity Advent of our Saviour his Nativity Circumcision Passion Resurrection and Assention will so preserve these things among the Common People that is scarcely imaginable that they should be so grosly ignorant as not to have explicite knowledge of those mysteries of Christ so publickly and frequently solemnized in the Church The want of which Liturgy hath in these late times ushered in much ignorance even of the necessary fundamentals and made a wide Gap for ignorance nay Atheism not only to creep but to leap in amongst us How many Congregations or Parishes wanted the Holy Communion for the greater part of twenty years together in the late times now who was to blame or responsible to God for so hainous a sin as the keeping back the Bread of Life the Incumbent or the Civil Magistrate or both and who was in fault when it was afterwards given yet to those only that would sit and take it at a long Table denying it to others that desired to receive it in the most reverend manner by kneeling the Incumbent or the Magistrate that might have ruled it otherwaies thereby excommunicating in their sence at least with exclusion a Sacris all the Parish at one breath save a few What could his Imperial Infallible Holiness at Rome have done more imperiously then to deny the Bread of Life to those that would not submit to their ipse dixit The hainousness of this crime of robbing whole Parishes of the Lords own Supper Table Cup Body and Blood for so many years together in our late times is abundantly set forth attested and proved to be from Popish Principles in a Book entituled A new Discovery of some Romish Emissaries c. The sum then of the Contest will be between Prince and Priest whether Presbyterian Independant or Popish matters not much They being in the point of Domination not much different only the Independant is most moderate and the Pope most exorbitant extending his Supremacy and Jurisdiction over forrain Princes and beyond his own Territories even to the Excommunication nay Deposition of Kings and how much less the Presbyter claims Sa. Rutherford in the forenamed Book and his if I may call it his Book called Lex Rex do speak and as the Arguments are the same so the same Answer will reach them all § The Priests conceive by their mandate viz. Go teach all Nations Baptizing c. received from Christ Independant of any earthly Power that they have by vertue thereof Authority to put in execution that Mandate 1o. In their opinion to preach and pray what when and where they please Administer the Sacraments after what form and manner seems best unto every of them though never so different one from the other use any form of Discipline excommunicate whom and when they please and all this without being accomptable to any earthly power or having any Superior over them §
given to the Body of the Church and not to the Priests thereof to govern it self and that there is no other excommunication then what is common to both viz. To withdraw our selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly 2 Thess 3.6 If any obey not our saying have no company with him that he may be ashamed v. 34. not to eat with the Brother that is a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Rayler or a Drunkard or an Extortioner 1 Cor. 5.11 and put away from amongst you that evil person v. 13. All which precepts belong to all both Laity and Clergy indifferently Let excommunication be what it will if any there be An exclusion from the Word and Sacraments it cannot be yet what ever it is it is attributed to the Church and that most rightfully But then it is to be considered that by the venerable and Apostolical name of Church was antiently and ab initio understood all the faithful as well Laity as Clergy though of latter years it hath been injuriously wrested to signify the Clergy only whereas in truth the Laity as well as the Clergy as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood a chosen Generation to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5.9 For it is certain that St. Peter gave the title of Clergy to all Christians in general and that Pope Higinus who lived in the second Century and his Successors most injuriousty took it from them usurping and appropriating the name of Church to themselves and their Priests only which is since attributed to the Popes only by the Pope and Court of Rome and their Creatures and condemning the rest of Gods holy people to an injurious and alienate appellation of Laity separating themselves from the Laity as unclean and prophane by local partitions in Churches c. and so the distinction insensibly crept in by degrees § Because the Word and term Church hath been so much wrested and abused by men of different perswasions for different ends and interests By Church is to be mean◠〈…〉 Apostolical and Legitimate 〈…〉 but not that which is usurpâ—d and imployed to the subversion of publick Government and of Religion it self for it is certain that nothing hath been so great a hindrance to the grwoth and propagation of the truly Catholick Religion as the extending the just liberties thereof into licence by grasping at more and other powers than ever Christ gave them by any Commission which alone hath caused and maintained so great and deplorable divisions in Religion and so little understood by the vulgar both of Protestants and Papists and that I may open the eyes of some that yeild blind obedience and magnify the Pope and indeed I know not what nor whom for the Church and to shew in little the tricks and artisices of the Popish Clergy to increase their Power and Coffers I shall shew how when and where it was first used in the New Testament and how degenerated and what ill use hath been made of since By the word Church in the New Testament is meant the society of Christians or number of Believers in Christ Vide. 19. Art of Religion already come and to come in the flesh crucified dead buried and ascended into Heaven for the planting and increasing whereof Christ himself laboured during his abode on earth by Miracles Signs and Wonders and after his Resurrection before he was taken up and a Cloud had received him out of their sight he appointed his eleven Disciples Judas having fallen by transgression from his Ministry and Apostleship that he might go to his own place to teach all Nations baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever he had commanded them 28 Mat. 19.20 and to preach repentance and remission of sins in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem 24 Luk. 47 charging them to tarry in the City of Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high v. 49. After they had received the Holy Ghost in that miraculous manner of cloven tongues on the day of Pentecost Peter standing up with the eleven preached so powerfully unto the multitude then and there gathered to understand the wonderful miracle of cloven tongues ushered in by a rushing mighty wind and to see the effects thereof that at that Sermon there were converted about 3000. Souls which gladly received him and were baptized and continued stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread from house to house and in prayers praising God and having favour with all the people 2 Acts v. 41.42 and the Lord added to the Church i. e. to all the Apostles and Disciples left by Christ and unto those converted at this Sermon of St. Peters daily such as should be saved 2 Acts 47. the first society or congregation that we read of called a Church in the new Testament 47. so that from this very day and time and upon this occasion which was within few dayes after Christs Aesension was the Congregation or Societies of Believers called the Church And it is here more especially to be observed that the name of Church was not here given as peculiar to the Apostles or Clergy but as common to all believers the number of whom daily increasing quickly came to be cantonzied divided and subdivided into Cities Provinces Countries Houses Hence the various expressions so were the Churches established in the Faith and increased in number daily 16 Acts 5. All the Churches of the Gentiles 16. Rom. 4. All the Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14.33 The Churches throughout Judea Galilee and Samaria 9 Acts 30. 1 Gal. 21.22 So ordain in all Churches 1 Cor. 7.17 The Churches of Asia salute you 1 Cor. 16.19 The Church at Antioch 13 Acts 1. The Churches of Thessalonians 1 Thes 1.1 The Church that is at Babilon saluteth you 1 Pet. 5.13 The seven Churches of Asia Apocal. hence also more minute subdivisions as great Pricilla and Aqvila together with the Church in their House 1 Cor. 16.19 salute Nymphas and the Church in his House 4 Colos 15. Paul and Timothy to Philemon and to the Church in his House Philemon 2. When St. Paul sent for the Elders of Ephesus and willed them to take heed to themselves and all the Flock over which the holy Ghost had made them overseers to feed the Church of God 28 Act. 17.28 What meant he by the Church the Priests to whom he spake or the people the People no doubt the Church is never taken in the New or Old Testament for the Priests alone but generally for the whole Congregation of the faithful Having thus demonstrated who are meant by the word and term of Church let us now consider what powers and priviledges they were indulged and endowed withal both Priest and People from Christ § What Powers and Priviledges did belong to the Ecclesiasticks as Apostles Bishops Priests and Deacons I have intimated
before shewing that the Apostles had jurisdiction over Prophets Evangelists Presbyters and Deacons and I think will not be denied Then the Canons stiled Apostolical say Canon 38. let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without the knowledge or consent of the Bishop he is the man that is trusted with the Lords People and that must render an account of their Souls Ignatius Bishop of Antioch almost 30 years in the Apostles times agreeth fully with that Canon saying do nothing neither Presbyter nor Deacon without the Bishop neither let any thing seem orderly without his liking for it is unlawful and displeasing unto God And again without the Bishop let no man do any thing that pertaineth to the Church Ignat. ep 3. ad Magnes Ibid. ep 7. ad Smyrneos Cencil Ancyran can 13. Laodicens 56. Aralatens c. 19. Tolet. 1. c. 20. by which it plainly appears that in the purest times Bishops were both Pastors of the Churches and Governours of the Presbyters in every City that believed so long as they ruled well and were instead of the Apostles and as their Successors they had charge of ordaining others for the work of the Ministry and guiding the Keys with the advice and Consent of the Brethren and Church there Congregated § Christ being now ascended in triumph into Heaven the eleven Apostles returned from Mount Olivet unto Jerusalem where they continued with one accord in Prayer and Supplication with the Women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and with his Brethren and Peter standing up in the midst of the Disciples the number of Names together being about 120. moved that of these Men which had companied with them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst them one might be ordained in the room of Judas to be a witness with them of his Resurrection and they appointed two Joseph called Barsabas who was surnamed Justus and Matthias And they prayed and said thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men shew whether of these two thou hast chosen that he may take part of this Ministry and Apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place And they gave forth their lots and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbred with the eleven Apostles 1. Acts 12. c. It s observable that this being the first and most considerable action that the Apostles together with those Disciples who had given their Names to Christ did after his Ascension and before the Holy Ghost had been powered out upon them they did not go about it without taking the other Disciples which were Laicks into their Council and making them partakers of the Facts for when they had prayed they cast Lots The like the Apostles did when there grew a'murmuring for the neglect of the Grecian Widdows they called the Multitude of the Disciples directing them to look out seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdome c. And the saying pleased the whole Multitude and they chose Steven and the rest whom they set before the Apostles who laid their hands on them 2. Acts 2.3.4.5.6 so that upon the whole matter the choice and election of those seven Deacons was committed by the whole Chorus of the Apostles unto the Multitude they had their concern their part to act in it Paul being in danger of being killed by the Jews at Jerusalem the Brethren having notice thereof brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus 9. Acts. 30. News being brought to the Apostles and Brethren that were at Jerusalem of the Conversion of Cornelius when Peter came up to Hierusalen they that were of the Circumcision the Brethren there contended with him saying thou wentest in to men uncircumcised and didst eat with them 11. Acts 23. by which it is manifest that the Brethren the Church that then was at Jerusalem by their own right did impose a kind of necessity on Peter Prince of the Apostles and Pope of Rome in the esteem of Romanists to vindicate himself by rehearsing the whole matter and he as humbly without standing upon his Apostolical Dignity or Papal Authority did give the Body of the Church satisfaction and then had their approbation also by their saying then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life v. 18. When Peter was miraculously delivered out of Prison by an Angel he came to the House of Mary where many were gathered together praying 12. Acts 12. and spake unto them saying go shew these things unto James president of the Church at Jerusalem and to the Brethren v. 17. and that ex aequo that the whole Body might sympathize and participate of the joy and might not be held in suspence between Hope and Fear In the Church at Antioch famous for Prophets and Teachers as they were ministring to the Lord and fasting the holy Ghost said to the whole Congregation seperate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them by the Elders they sent them away 13. Acts 1.2.3 Paul and Barnabas having been persecuted from Iconium returned to Antioch and having gathered the Church together they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles 14. Acts 27.15 Acts 1. In the Church of Antioch there being a great dissention raised by certain men which came down from Judea concerning Circumcision with whom Paul and Barnabas had had no small disputation they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the Apostles and Elders about this question where they were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Elders and they declared all things that God had done with them and after Peter had spoken all the Multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring it c. and it pleased the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send chosen men of their own Company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas and wrote Letters by them the title of which Letters was the Apostles and Elders and Brethren send greeting unto the Brethren c. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and unto us to lay upon you no greater Burthen than these necessary things c. when they came to Antioch and when they had gathered the Multitude together they delivered the Epistle and Judas and Silas being Prophets also themselves exhorted the Brethren and confirmed them 32. and afterwards were let go in peace from the Brethren unto the Apostles 33. and Paul chose Silas and departed being recommended by the Brethren unto the Grace of God 40. And the Brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Baeraea 17. Acts 10. And the Brethren sent away Paul to go as it were by Sea v. 14. and Paul took his leave of the Brethren 18. Acts 18. and when he had landed
done with what Right or Justice could any succeeding Popes divest them of it After this Henry being Crowned Emperor by Clement the Second Platinâ— in Vita Clem. 2. he caused the Romans to swear that they would not meddle at all with Elections but by the Emperors Command for that he saw the World was come to that pass that every factious Fellow were he never so base so he were Rich and Potent might corrupt their Voyces and obtain the Popedom by bribes And well he might An. 912. N. 8. for Baronius himself complains in the very preceding Century that most silthy Harlots did bear all the sway at Rome This was the time when Strumpets did thrust their Lovers into the Seat of Peter This was that time when all Canons were put to silence the Pontisical Decrees stisled the antient Traditions proscribed the old Customs sacred Rites and former use of choosing the high Bishop utterly extinguished This was the time to say nothing of Formosus Luit pr. l. â— c. 6. Sergius and others when P. John the Twelfth exceeded in all monstrous Abominations polluted his own Fathers Concubine made his Palace a Stews put out the eyes of his Godfather gelded one of his Cardinals plaid at Dice invocating Jupiter and Venus and drunk a Health to the Devil Notwithstanding all the Right of Elections inherent in Kings and Emperors as Nursing Fathers of the Church and all the Grants conferred on the Emperor by all that did or could pretend to have any power thereof as Pope Senate Clergy People who not and notwithstanding the Oath they had taken not to interpose in the Elections yet ungrateful persidious Gregory the Seventh in a Council holden An. D. 1080. he excluded all Secular Princes whatsoever from Investitures reserving Elections to the Clergy and People only and was seconded by his Successors and Vrban he deposed his own Lord and Sovereign who confirmed him in the Popedom and gave away the Empire to Rodolph a Rebel promised Forgiveness of Sins to all that obeyed him forcing him at last to redeem his Peace and rather lose Investitures than the Empire Thus the Right of Elections which was for many hundreds of Years practised by the Greek Roman and German Emperors and Ratified by Clement the Second by Leo the Eighth by Adrian the First with their several Councils and before them all by Pope Vigilius and before him by the Practice Use and Approbation of the more Antient and Purest Times was now wrested and extorted from him and them by Perjury Cursing and Banning And as they excluded the Emperor reducing Elections to the Clergy and People so afterwards they excluded the People and brought them only to the Clergy after that they excluded the Clergy and Monopolized them only to the Cardinals since which time there have been as monstrous Popes as ever were before To say nothing of the Liberties of the Gallican Church whose Kings had the Choice of Bishops almost 300 years before the Empire came to their hands nor yet with what Artifices Labour and Sweat the Pragmatical Sanction set up by Charles the Seventh was endeavoured to be made null and of no effect by P. Pius the Second in the days of Lewis and by Leo the Tenth in the Reign of Francis the First I cannot but wonder to see how tame Christian Princes have been in suffering themselves to be thus imposed upon Had they had but the Mettle of Lewis the Twelfth the French King who being Excommunicated by Julius the Second stampt his Coyn with Perdam Nomen Babylonis or had they had but the Wisdom and Courage of Hen. 8. of England or had but followed the grave Advisoâ—s that Theoderick of Niem gave to Rupert King of the Romans they had long since been brought to be like the rest of their Brethren good and honest Prelates faithfully labouring in Gods Vineyard without Usurping the Rights of Princes and of their Fellow-Bishops § This was so palpable and undeniable that in the very Council of Trent it was urged by Thomas Passio a Cannon of Valentia That it was very plain by the Canons that in the Choice of Bishops and Deputations of Priest and Deacons the People of all sorts were present and gave Voice or Approbation of which the Hereticks the Lutherans made most pestiferous Use and therefore moved that the Voyces and Consent of the People in Ordination should be taken away and that the Pontifical also ought to be corrected and those Places expunged which make mention thereof because so long as they continued there the Hereticks would make use of them to prove that the Assistance of the People is necessary and thereby destroy the Church which according to the Romish Court-Dialect is the Pope It was urged moreover that the Places were many that made mention of the People giving their Suffrages and Consent in the Ordination of the Ministers of the Church and that they should be all blotted out of the Pontifical yet he recited but one viz. That where the Bishop at the Ordination of a Priest Pontif. Rom. de Ordinat Presb. viz. 38. Neque fuit frustra a Patribus institutum ut de electione eorum qui ad regimen Altaris adhibendi sunt consulatur etiam populus quia de vita conversatione praesentandi quod nunquam ignoratur à pluribus scitur à paucis necesse est ut facilius ei quis obedientiam exhibeat Ordinato cui assensus praebuerit Ordinando saith It was not without good reason that the Fathers had ordained That the Advice of the People should be taken touching the Elections of those Persons who were to serve at the Altar to the end that having given their Assent to their Ordination they might more readily yield Obedience to those who were so Ordained The Design of this righteous Canon was to have all that made against the Grandeur of his Holiness blotted out of the Pontifical that there might be no Trace or Footsteps of them left remaining for the future For if this and other Rites shall remain the Hereticks will always detract from the Catholick Church as Luther did Pietro Soave Polano 590. Therefore in this as well as in other points Indices expurgatorii are of most excellent Use to serve a Papal Turn Moreover Paulinus saith of himself That having a purpose to apply himself to the Service of God in the Clergy he would for humiliation pass through all Ecclesiastical Degrees Ostiarius Lector Exorcista Acolythus Subdiaconus Diaconus Presbyter Episcopus beginning from the Ostiary but whilst he was thinking to begin being but yet a Laick the Multitude took him by force in Barcelona on Christmas Day carried him before the Bishop and caused him to be Ordained Priest at the first which would not have been done if it had not been the Use in those Times Ibid. 587. Many of the Fathers also of the Council of Trent much desired that a Decree should pass concerning the
the Jewish Church is not so well known in our days as when our Saviour spake the words we may justly be excused if we plead and demur thereunto Take Text and Context together Moreover if thy Brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother v. 15. But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established v. 16. And if he neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen man and Publican v. 17. Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound on Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven v. 18. Again I say unto you if two of you shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven v. 19. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them v. 20. What is here meant by the Church whether the Church of Christ then only in fieri not yet planted as some would have it or the Jewish Church then planted and setled or the Civil Assemblies that God ordained in the Commonwealth to govern his People and determine their Quarrels breeds great Questions amongst Divines themselves which alone is some Justification to us if we make further Enquiry and try Spirits especially having a Command so to do and to beware of false Prophets The Reason that prevails with some to believe that the Church of Christ is not by these words meant are 1. This was a Direction to the Jews serving them for their present State and Time 2. Christ had then no Church in Jewry to which they might address themselves and complain for he ever preached in the Synagogues and Temple whither all that would resorted John 18.20 Much less did he gather Churches sapart from the Jews to receive and consider and redress the Complaint and Injuries of their Brethren and if he did yet is there not one Syllable in the Text to induce us to believe that such Church or Assembly was constituted only of Ecclesiasticks of Popes or of Presbyters or that it was to continue and remain in force for ever in the Church 3. The Matters to becomplained of are of that nature as Priests of Christ may not challenge Judicially and Authoritatively to hear and determine Private Wrongs and Offences betwixt man and man must be redressed by compromise or judicially by Laws and consequently belongs to the Civil Magistrate The Church of Christ quatenus a Church hath no Warrant to make Laws or give Judgment in Civil or Private Wrongs and Trespasses and therefore I suppose that no Clergy except the Romish will pretend to this Christ himself when he was desired to make peace to end a Strife about parting an Inheritance answered Man who made me a Judge or Divider among you Luke 12.13 14. What Christ refused as no part of his Calling the Bishops Pastors and Presbyters of his Church must not challenge as annexed to their Commission and Vocation The Disciple is not above his Master Luke 6.40 Mat. 10.24 As his Father sent him so sent he them John 20. â—1 but not with a farther or larger Commission 4. That Church is here spoken of which abhorred Ethnicks as unclean persons and shunned all Society with Publicans but neither Christ nor his Church did ever so therefore the Church of Christ is not probably meant by these words Let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican for they never refused nor declined to converse with either To the Baptism of John came the Publicans Luke 3.12 and were received of him Our Saviour was accounted a friend unto them Mark 11.19 Matthew the Apostle was chosen sitting at the Receipt of Custom Mat. 9.9 Zackeus a chief Publican was the Child of Abraham Luke 19.9 The Publican that prayed in the Temple was justisied before the Pharisee Luke 18.14 and told by Christ that they should go into Heaven before the Scribes and Elders that despised them Mat. 21.21 The Publicans then were Members of Christs Church and Inheritors of his Kingdom and therefore by slying and sorsaking the Fellowship of Publicans the Church of Christ could not be described nor thereby meant The like may be said of Ethnicks and Gentiles who though they were Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel when as yet they knew no God yet never were they persons excommunicated and since the Incarnation of Christ they became partakers of this Promises and true Members of hiâ— Catholick Church so that this can be no Rule for Christs Church to ground Excommunication upon nor yet to measure persons excommunicated by Gentiles and Publicans seeing that amongst the Jews Publicans believed and entred the Kingdom of God and after the Rejection of that Nation the Church of Christ consisted chiefly if not wholly of Gentiles and Ethnicks converted Others argue thus 1. They were Jews to whom Christ spake 2. Bidding them tell it to the Church he sends them to some Judge or Judicature to which they could go and were bound to obey 3. It is certain the Mosaical Judicial Law was then in being and to them obligatory and stood so till Christs Death he and his Apostles living under the Obligation of it 4. They say for certain the Christian Church was not then Constituted so that it is irrational if not ridiculous to say that he sends them when he bids them tell it to the Church to any Episcopal Presbyterian or Independent Judges when there were no such things in the World 5. It is then evident that he sends them there to some Jewish Judges to whom they could go and were bound to obey And the Jews had then as also before and after three Courts of Judicature 1. The Supreme the Sanhedrim which sate only in Jerusalem 2. The Consessus-viginti-trium-viralis which consisted of 23 persons in greater Towns and Cities 3. Consessus trium-viralis wherein the Judges were only three and such a Judicature they had in all lesser Towns and every one of those Courts was usually called Ecclesia a Church so that to those so opinionated it seems certain that the Persons and the Cause an Action of Trespass only considered it was the Consessus triumviralis he sends them unto The Christian Church say they cannot for the Reasons above-said be meant in those Words Tell it to the Church though with the same Breath they cannot deny but acknowledge that wherever Christ taught and converted men there was a Christian Church yet say that while he lived it was under the Legal Oeconomy and not that of the Gospel for that when our Saviour spake that the Sacrament of Baptism which only makes a Member of the Christian
smiting their Bodies separating them from the People and chasing them from the place pulling off the hair and taking an Oath of them by God not to commit the like do plainly shew the Civil Use of the Sword in the Princes hands not the spiritual force of the Word in the Priests Mouth and therefore the one can be no Argument nor President for the other § Unto me the most Natural and Genuine Sence of Mat. 18.15 22. seems to import The proper sence of Mat. 18.15 22. that Christ well knowing that his Apostles and Disciples which were to survive him and whom he intended to Commissionate to Teach and Baptize all Nations and to gather a People unto himself by declaring the Mind and Will of his Father by preaching his Gospel and that out of the very bosom and bowels of Kingdoms and Commonwealths which then were and also likely so to continue for many Generations then to come prophane and sworn Adversaries to his Gospel and unto the Preachers and Embracers thereof and consequently would be in as great dangers and Troubles as Sheep among Wolves and therefore his all-seeing Wisdom thought fit to prescribe them such a Government and Discipline which they might exercise among themselves in much peace and quietness suitable to the Gospel of Peace and without any noise or disturbance to the Magistrates or Subjects of any Nation or Kingdom or to the Government thereof how wicked or adverse soever they should be to Christ and his Kingdom and therefore here he prescribes them some Rules more particularly relating unto private Offences which must needs be whilst men are men If thy Brother shall trespass against thee c. 18. v. 15 c. The Party grieved must be Man not God If thy Brother trespass against thee not against God reprove him The first Admonition must be secret and friendly as between Brother and Brother between thee and him alone Again if the wrong-doer repent himself the Sufferer must forgive him and not seven times only but seventy times seven v. 21 22. and elsewhere viz. Luke 17.3 4. This together with the Lords Prayer teacheth us to forgive the Sins that are committed against our selves but we have here no directions nor power to remit other mens sins and harms much less to remit and pardon the Injuries offered unto God 2. If he repent not we must yet give him a second Admonition with one or two witnesses before we tell it to the Church and if he then repent we must then also forgive These be no Precepts for open and notorious sins dishonouring God and scandalizing his Church for such the Rule is given 1 Tim. 5.20 Those that sin rebuke openly that the rest may fear but for private Trespasses between man and man This is no Judicial proceeding in Episcopal Audience in the Conclave or Consistory but a charitable warning in secret by him alone that is grieved and oppressed with wrong or reproach This is a general Duty binding every Christian and not a special Authority to Popes and Presbyters There is no Command that the open and scandalous Sinners should be reproved in secret or twice admonished before they be censured by the Church The incestuous Corinth had neither private nor double warning before he was delivered to Sathan by the Church according to St. Paul's Advice Though Christ declined intermedling with the Judicial part of ending Controversies and differences between man and man yet he prescribes them Rules to compose them themselves 1. By private admonition of the Party grieved 2. By admonition of two or three of the Brethren of the Church 3. If they prevail not then to communicate the wrong done to the Church i.e. to the whole Congregations of Believers whereof both Parties are members and not to the Pope or Priest whereof not one plain Syllable in the Text so that not only by the mouth of two or three witnesses only but also by the testimony and admonition of many even of the whole congregated Church every word may be established that by such publick reproof the wrong-doer might be brought to repentance and amendment 4. If he neglect all private and publick admonition then let him be to thee as a Heathen-man and a Publican i.e. do not own him to be of your Congregation but pursue and prosecute and implead him as thou wouldst do an Ethnick or Publican or any one that is not of the Christian Church and Congregation in any of the Courts of Judicature of that City and Kingdom wherein they live Christ for the Honour and Glory of his Gospel would have none of his to be wrong-doers or be given to strifes and debates or to go to Law before the unbelievers as it is in 1 Cor. 6.1 2 8. If ye have Judgment saith he for things pertaining to this life what then Tell the Pope and his Cardinals nothing less but set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church in which Rank I dare not place either Pope or Presbyter lest they bring their Action of Scandalum Magnatum for my so doing and make them Judges of your Causes and Quarrels where by the way it is observable that the Word Church in this place also doth not signifie the Pope nor yet the Presbyters only but the whole congregated Church the Sequel will clear it Is it so that there is not a wise man among you no not one that shall be able to judge between his Brethren but Brother goeth to Law with Brother and that before the unbelievers v. 5.6 Where the words Brethren a Wise man not one Vnbelievers are general and indesinite Terms and not limited to Ecclesiastics Then certainly Christ never meant that the Members of his Church should for private Trespasses complain to the Pope or his Parish-Priests and that they should have power sufficient to hear and determine all such Matters as were so offered unto them and to excommunicate those that would not stand unto their Sentence and Determination that would have been an Infringement and incroachment on the Magistrates Office for the Matters of Complaint are of that Nature that the Ministers of Christ might not challenge to hear and determine they were forbid it Man who made me a Judge or Divider over you Luke 12.13 14. And as his Father sent him so sent he them John 20.21 and consequently did belong to the Civil Magistrate Besides neither in Mat. 18. nor yet in 1 Cor. 6. the Word Church whether thereby should be meant Jewish or Christian can possibly signisie the Priests of either or at least not exclusive the Laity whatever the scope and drift of these two places are it cannot be to Authorize the Clergy to intermeddle with matters pertaining to the Magistrate and to exclude those from the Society and Communion of the Saints and Sacraments that obey not their resolution If Excommunication or Binding or loosing be to be proved out of Mat. 18. as the Papalins and Presbyters would have it yet it is
they put such a Hook in the Noses and such a Yoke on the Necks of Laicks and Civil Magistrates that the Papalins themselves have never since been able to shake it off unto this very day And though the Laws of the Emperors remain in the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian and in the Capitulars of Charles the Great and Lewis the Debonaire and though all Stories both Ecclesiastical and Prophane do shew how when and by whom these Powers have been granted adding the Reasons and Causes yet so demonstrable so notorious a Truth hath not had such power but that a bare Ipse dixit of the Popes without any proof at all hath been able to overcome it which the Canonists have so far maintained as to declare those Hereticks who do not suffer themselves that have been thus long blindfold to remain hoodwinkt still Though the Light of this Truth was not so extinguished but that both Learned and Pious men in those very first times did oppose their Doctrine viz. That no Civil Magistrate could meddle in any of those Causes which the Clergy had appropriated because they are Spiritual and that Laicks are uncapable of things Spiritual yet the opposition of the better who had the Truth on their side could not overcome the greater part and so upon the Spiritual Power given by Christ to the Church to bind and loose and upon the Institution of St. Paul to compose Contentions among Christians without going to the Tribunal of Infidels in tract of time and by many gradations a Temporal Tribunal hath been built by their own Industry Arts and Ambition and for their own Use Ends and Interests more remarkable than ever was in the world or can be parallell'd for thereby they have erected Regnum in Regno raised to themselves an Empire independent of the Commonwealth and which is more intolerable established on such grounds such as Jus Divinum is it which have so prevailed with such admirable success that it hath given the Pope of Rome as much at once as former Bishops were getting in 1300 years before and all this by making not the Power to bind and loose the foundation of Jurisdiction but the power of seeding and so affirming that all Jurisdiction was given the Pope by Christ in the person of Peter when he said to him Feed my Sheep § But to return to the other Branch viz. Excommunication Excommunication for the lawful force and use whereof they also plead strongly out of the same Chapter Matth. 18.17 If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man and Publican of which a little more here pretending also that the Antient Writers lean very much that way It may be so yet happily if their full scope sence and meaning were fathomed and comprehended and not this and that Scrap and Sentence here and there expunged and picked out and wrested to serve a turn against the Meaning of the Fathers happily they would not be found so clearly on their side as they ween for but be it so that Excommunication may hereout be drawn and deduced yet certes it must then also be of the same Nature as binding and loosing is of in the same place and will then also belong to Privateers For they belonging both unto one thing and unto the same persons by the self-same words will naturally and necessarily fall into the same Predicament and then the meaning of those words are no more but Pursue them in those Courts that thou wouldest a Pagan and Publican that should do thee wrong and what affinity hath this with Excommunication used in the Church of Rome or else those words may be understood of a private forsaking of all company with the wrong-doer as thou wouldest shun Pagans or Publicans until he repent and reform himself which if you please to call Excommunication be it so but then also it belongs to every Individual of the Church and not unto Ecclesiasticks only and is sutable to many other Precepts of the Apostles viz. to withdraw our selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly 2 Thes 3.6 14 15. 1 Cor. 5.11 13. but that they should be kept from the Word and Sacraments and that Divine Service must cease if an obstinate excommunicate person will not quit the Church there is not any one plain Text nor Syllable in the whole Bible This is an Excommunication of their own making not of Christs Institution And yet Excommunication was declared by the then Brethren Presbyters in the Ordinance of Aug. 29. 1648. to be shutting out of a person from the Communion of the Church but what Warrant out of the Word of God they had so to do non constat Other Expressions and Powers there are recorded in Scripture of which they make use for the founding and upholding of Excommunication as the Delivery unto Sathan 1 Cor. 5.5 as Hymenaeus and Alexander and the Incestuous Person were the striking of Ananias and Saphira dead by Peter and of Elymas the Sorcerer blind by Paul owning himself to have vengeance in readiness against all disobedience 2 Cor. 10.6 and his professing that he will not spare 2 Cor. 13.2 As also when some for abusing the Lords Supper became weak and sick and fell asleep or became dead These and the like might have been Arguments for the like Powers had they not died with the Apostles but with Excommunication they have no Analogy no Resemblance they were Arrows indeed in the Quivers of the Apostles Tokens as one of them expresseth 2 Cor. 12.12 of an Apostle wrought with Signs and Wonders and mighty Deeds but no Arguments for Excommunication whereby it is evident that in their Days when as yet there were no Christian Magistrates to punish the Sins and Offences of the Brethren the power of God sometimes by himself sometimes by his Apostles did afflict and punish the disobedient more or less grievously according as their Sins were more or less heinous that thereby they might learn not to blaspheme nor yet to detain the Truth of God in unrighteousness and that the rest might fear to provoke his Wrath and Indignation by like Sins and Uncleanness For without all controversie the Delivery unto Sathan the smiting some with Death and others with Blindness and Sickness were Corporal punishments and of a far different Nature from that of Excommunication even according to their own shewing there being not any other punishment belonging to the essence of Excommunication but the sole debarring from the participation of the Word and Sacraments § However let us a little consider the Delivery of the Incestuous person unto Sathan 1 Cor. 5. of which no small use is made to justifie Excommunication Take the Story as it lies plainly in the Text without any Vizards or Equivocations St. Paul understanding that there was such fornication at Corinth as was not so much as named among the Gentiles viz. that one should have his Fathers Wife wrote unto them his first Epistle and
sent it by Stephanus and others signifying unto them that though he were absent in Body but present in Spirit had already judged as present him that had so done and therefore advised them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that being gathered together and his Spirit with the vertue of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Sathan Now it is observable that when St. Paul wrote this Epistle he was absent at Philippi a City of Macedonia and directed it not to any one single person Pope or other but unto the Church of God which was at Corinth and to them that were sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours He did not according to Romish Custom write by his Breves I excommunicate such a one and in one Scrap of Paper send as much as in him lieth Kings and Queens and Emperors nay whole Kingdoms and States to the Devil but he wrote to the Church a Collective Body that being gathered together with his Spirit they should deliver that Incestuous person to Sathan And again when he wrote his Second Epistle he directed it also unto the Church of God which was at Corinth with all the Saints which are in all Achaia declaring it sufficient to such a Man is this Punishment which was inflicted of many admonishing them to forgive and comfort him lest perhaps he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow whereby it is plain and not to be gainsaid that the Delivering of him unto Sathan be the Punishment be the Censure what it will it was inflicted by many 2 Cor. 2.6 Now if Paul an Apostle would not excommunicate or deliver unto Sathan at his own will and pleasure but would consult the Church that the Matter being transacted by common Authority and Approbation the Censure the Punishment might be performed by Common Consent It being most just and equal and of Moral Right that they who to morrow must deliver such a one to Sathan whom to day they account as a Brother dear in Christ should be fully satisfied why and wherefore Now how came Signore Papa alone to be entituled to exercise Powers greater than the Apostle Paul would use What hath he to do with it more than the rest of his Brethren If so interrogated I can make no other Answer but Ignoramus Moreover hath the practice of Christ's Vicars at Rome been correspondent to that of Paul the Apostle of such esteem and prevalency is publick consent with God himself even in the Affairs of the Church that though in his secret Decree Paul and Barnabas were to be set apart for the Work of the Ministry yet by God's own appointment were they separated after Fasting and Prayer to the same by the Church which was at Antioch Acts 13.2 Thereby teaching us not to despise the Office of the Church i.e. of the Multitude of Brethren where it may be had By these very small Hints it is easily discernable what a Nose of Wax the Papalins make both of Scripture and Tradition and Excommunication their great and terrible Thunderbolt even against Kings and Kingdoms not considering the little efficacy it hath What was the State of Venice and her Duke or Queen Elizabeth and her Dominions the worse for Romish Excommunications and Interdicts or what the worse the Kings of Spain for being excommunicated every Maunday Thursday And indeed what the worse his Holiness at Rome for being solemnly excommunicated every year by the Muscovite Fops § Some indeed of later days have intimated a great and just dislike of those who have hitherto endeavoured to hang Excommunication on some doubtful Places of Scripture but yet endeavour to settle it on another Basis viz. on the Nature and Constitution of the Church Christian as a Society Instituted by Jesus Christ whereby they say it is manifest that if Excommunication cannot be established upon some better and other Bottom than what hath hitherto been laid by their Predecessors on some doubtful places of Scripture it must necessarily decay and fall to the ground moreover they most ingenuously confess themselves unsatisfied as to any convincing Argument whereby it can be proved that any were denied Admission unto the Lords Supper who were admitted to all other parts of Church-Society and owned as Members in them § Though I have said enough already sparsim that if rightly applied doth demolish this Fabrick of Fundamental Right yet I will add a little and but a little more viz. that if by the Word Church in these Positions be meant only the Clergy met or not met in Councils Synods Consistories Convocations or Assemblies as the Representatives of the Church Assembled by their own power as by a Fundamental Right grounded on Christs Institution then to say no more is hereby justified Robert Bruce David Blake and those seventeen Scottish Ministers before-mentioned and their Tenets denying the King and his Council to have any Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical For certainly if God hath given them power of themselves to Assemble and Consult and make Laws and hath not withal given them Force and Power to put them in execution they have only a mock and ridiculous Authority which God never instituted nor ordained And if it be not so meant then they either say nothing to the purpose or equivocate But if herein by the Word * By the word Church may be meant either all Believers holding saving Truth in general of what condition or quality soever or else more striftly the collective Body of the Clergy for if we speak right of the Church Universal or this or that Particular Church as of Spain France England c. this Term may be taken in either of those two Sences Church be meant the Civil Power and Laity together with the Clergy then we are Friends and that Fundamental Right arising from the Constitution of the Church derived from Christ himself of Right belongs to the Commonwealth if Christian and to every congregated Number of Believers gathered in any Gentile State or People and united into one Society and not only to the Clergy thereof and the Laity are as capable and have as much Right to be of such Councils and Synods as the Ecclesiasticks Or that the Church be not semper and perpetuo a peculiar Society separate and distinct from the Commonwealth as certainly it is not or that the Officers thereof as limited by these Positions unto Teachers and Pastors injuriously enough if they pretend beyond Teachings Administrations of Sacraments Imposition of hands for Ordination and the publick use of the Keys are not only inflicters or executioners of Church-Censures as certainly they are not then the very Foundation of this Fabrick for the Support and Justification of Excommunication must necessarily fall to the ground It is true that every Church is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church every
because the Apostles Gifted and Spirited in that abundant measure as they were used no Liturgies nor stinted Forms therefore we that are neither infallible as they were nor yet have the Spirit in the same measure as they had should use none May not we rather and with much more Evidence of Reason from the Nature of the thing varied conclude the contrary to be absolutely warranted and for that very reason affirm Liturgies and stinted Forms to be much more justifiable now and rather to be used by us in these days than by them in those days Certainly if they cannot lay most undoubted claim unto the same in-being Principles and unto the same measure which was in them this their Goliah-Argument hath its Head cut off with his own Sword O! but in the Purer Times next and nearest to the days of the Apostles the Fathers who neither were Infallible nor yet had the Spirit in the same measure as the Apostles had never used them whether they did or did not use them we neither certainly know nor yet why they did or did not and if we did yet that could be no infallible demonstration for us to do just as they did without consideration had of the disferent posture of Affairs between these and those times But be it so that they did not use them what then may not a succeeding Generation sind out a necessary remedy or convenient preservative to defend the pure Worship of God from Taint and Infection of Idolatry or Superstition that a former Age two or three have not used Such kind of Negative Allegations Arguments they cannot be may induce to deliberate and consider whether sit to be appointed or used or not but can never rationally conclude that therefore we can use nothing that those Purer Times did not The Condition and Posture of Christian Affairs are now altered In the Primitive Times next unto the days of the Apostles every Pastor had care only of his own gathered Church and every Bishop with his Presbiters of this or that City and so in that respect there being then no Civil Protectors but all professed Enemies of the Gospel no need then of Liturgies though happily as lawful then though not so necessary as now when whole Kingdoms and Common-wealths are become Christian and consequently the care of their Spiritual State is become much more extensive stretching over great Kingdoms is now devolved by Divine Right on the Civil Christian Magistrate who may no doubt impose a wholesom Form of sound Words by way of Lyturgy for that without it or something equivalent to it it is not possible for a Prince to have that due inspection and oversight over his vastly-extended Flock as a Shepherd may have of his Fold in one Parish or one City § But to sum up his Discourse in as narow a compass as I can f. 22. It treats about Christs Institutions of Gospel-Worship in his publick Assemblies The chief Acts whereof he refers to three Heads 1. Preaching of the Word 2. Administration of the Sacraments 3. The Exercise of Discipline of which he says little or nothing all to be performed with Prayer and Thanksgiving For the Administration of these so far as they are purely of his Institution Christ gave Rules to his Disciples and appointed Persons 1. Pastors and Teachers for the regular Administration of them which was to be performed and executed two ways fo 12.1 Either by such Spiritual Abilities for the discharge and performance of this whole Work as will answer the Mind of Christ therein and so serve for the End proposed 2. Or by the Prescription of a Form of Words whose reading and pronuntiation in these Administrations should outwardly serve as to all the Ends of Prayer and Thanksgiving required in them which they do contain Against the second way only he disputes and argues stifly averring 1. That Christ not in any thing or by any Act of his did intimate the necessity or lawful use of any such Liturgies as these which we are inquiring after or prescribed or limited Forms of Prayer or Praises to be used or read in the publick Administration of Evangelical Institutions but made provision rendring all such Prescriptions useless and because they cannot be made use of but by rejection of the Provision by himself made unlawful Fo. 29.2 No Liturgies used or prescribed or their usefulness intimated by the Apostles nor by the Churches of their Plantation Fo. 20 21 38. It 's but reasonable to allow unto the Ministers of the Gospel that liberty in the Worship of God which was confessedly left unto them by Christ and his Apostles fo 24. and therefore unreasonable to impose Forms on others whom they undertake to inform 32. and who desire to stand fast in the Liberty with which Christ hath made them free averring That they must have a great considence in their own wisdom and sufficiency who will undertake to appoint and impose on others the observation of things in the Worship of God which neither the Lord Jesus nor his Apostles did appoint or impose 22. and withal deploring That Liturgies should be made the Hinge whereon the whole exercise of the Ministry must turn Fo. 31 40. All such Imposition being destitute of any Plea or Pretence from Scripture or Antiquity f. 31. in his 7th Ch. he declares That he doth not in especial intend the Liturgy now in use in England any farther than to make it an Instance of such imposed Liturgies whereof we treat and therefore will not at all enquire what footing it hath in the Law how nor when established nor what particular failings are pleaded to be in it nor what conformity it bears with the Roman Offices c. nor doth he oppose the directive part of this Liturgy as to the reading of the Scripture the Administration of the Ordinances by Christ appointed nor the Composition of Forms of Prayer suited to the Nature of Institutions to which they relate so they be not imposed on the Administrators of them to be read precisely as prescribed But the thing alone which he would be thought to oppose is The composing of Forms of Prayer in the Worship of God in all Gospel-Administrations to be used by the Ministers of the Churches in all publick Assemblies by a precise reading of the Words prescribed unto them with Commands for the reading of other things which they are not to omit upon the Penalty contained in the Sanction of the whole Service and the several parts of it fo 42. It is only about its Imposition and the necessity of its observance by vertue of that Imposition that he discourseth f. 44. § If the Author of this Discourse had only pursued what he here intimates in these last words and bent his Force only against the composing and imposing of Forms of Prayer c. i.e. Liturgies in general he had dealt much more candidly and saved himself and me some labour But because he seems to look one way whilst he
their desires tho but modest will give the party encouragement to believe that they were deservedly desired nay perhaps that they were enforced which opinion alone tho not true but believed to be so might endanger the quiet State of the Church or at least might be a great abetting to their party and obstinacy and keep others from Assenting and Consenting which say some amongst us ought not to be imposed affirming full Assent and Consent in respect of Veracity to be due not to the Scriptures themselves but as they are expressed in their first Original Tongues which opinion if true yet is it no just objection with us for that full Assent and Consent is not required by the Ast of Parliament establishing our Liturgy to the veracity of every thing contained therein but only to the use of it in general § On the contrary in Ballance to these it is averred that it is a Rule in Christian Actions that as evil is not to be done that good may follow so no good of obligation is to be omitted or forbidden for fear that evil may ensue And that the great Wisdom of Experience both of Elder and more puny dayes hath sufficiently taught Posterity that it is sometimes most necessary for the quiet and welfare both of Church and State to yield to the infirmities and scrupulous imperfections of others and to apply and accommodate themselves to that remedy which tho in rigor is not due yet in prudence and equity is convenient and may with good Conscience be tollerated for all Laws ought to be fitted to times and Persons as they alter and change most assuredly the using of some remission in yielding unto the desires of the People in matters which are de jure positivo or Pontisicio of humane sanction only may conduce to the quiet State of the Church but cannot disturb it what else is the whole Regiment or Brigade of things Adiaphorous wherein truth may be on either side without being dissimular to her self If no liberty allowed what availeth the blotting out the hand Writing of ordinances and the Nailing of it to the Cross 2 Col. 14.20 to what end is the purchase of Christian Liberty St. Paul so often boasts of his Doctrine is that he that eats all things or eateth Herbs only or he that esteems one day above another or he that esteems every day alike may do either to the Lord and Eat or not Eat regard or not regard a day Conform or not Conform use or not use Liturgies all may be done to the Lord and why should we then judge one another in the use or disuse of any of these the Kingdom of God is not Meat nor Drink nor Lawn Sleeves nor Surplice nor Capes nor Miter but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost 14. Rom. How many things of an indifferent nature might be tollerated in peace and left to Conscience only were it not for great thoughts of heart or for testy Spirits and had we instead thereof but pure Love and Charity and were it not for some secret Hypocrisie that prompts to be ever judging one another saying stand by thy self come not near me for I am Holyer than thou 65 Isay 5. contrary to the Apostolical precept 14 of Rom. 13. let us not therefore judge one another any more but judge this rather that no Man put a slumbling Block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way to impose more things as necessary than ever God made or imposed as necessary and that under severities what is it less than to create stumbling Blocks or contrive occasions for our Brethren to stumble and fall by It cannot be expected that all Man and things in a Church should be Gold and Silver and Precious Stones there will be some Wood some Hay some Stubble Wheat and Tares good and bad humane Ordinances must grow till the Harvest it is the Angels Ministery not ours that must sever them I intend not here that Superstitions Idolatry or Popery should be tollerated or countenanced which as it self extirpates all pure Religion and undefiled and all civil Supremacies to boot so it self ought utterly to be destroyed Root and Branch yet not by Fire and Faggot not by Crusadoes and cursed Inquisitions but by wholsome Laws and discountenances and other mild means that likewise which is absolutely evil either against Faith or manners as Popery is no Law can possibly Tollerate that intends not to unlaw it self but those bordering indifferent things whether of some point of Doctrine not fundamental or of Discipline which tho they may be many yet may be held without the violation or interruption of the unity of the Spirit or of the bond of Peace and may be permitted I appeal to their respective Judgments who they think in the day of their Account will rather be justified they that are instrumental to Impose or Command things that may be spared in the Worship of God or they that Conscientiously tho Erroneously cannot submit unto the use of such things tho in their own and true nature but indifferent Who made the Schisme between Rome and us Rome imposing or we refusing § The Counsel tho but of a poor Woman of Abel being sollowed saved the City and may not I tho the least in the Church of the New Testament Pleading thus impartially pro and con Dissenters now also intreat that Dissenting Brethren in point of Liturgies and Ceremonies imposed that seeing Atheism Apostacy and squinting toward Rome and the countenancing of sin and sinners is so much feared by them that they would be well advised how they forsake their Mother in this her necessity and not so wholly indulge and please themselves in their own fancies and opinions and thereby adventure rather to Sacrifice Church and State to Schism War and Ruine than forsake their Humors I counsel no Man to do ought no not in things in different with a doubting Conscience Fearful are the Examples of such as are unresolved yield to Practice Notwithstanding give me leave with a Worthy and Reverend Divine to propound as a matter not unworthy their Consideration and Deliberation whether this should not be a Ministers resolution viz. To lay down his Ministery for nothing for which also he ought not to lay down his Life and whether with Comfort may Ministers especially after their allowing of our Liturgy and Ceremonies at the time of their Ordination and by their several Subscriptions and otherwise having thus put their hands to the Plough look back and leave their Calling rather than use the Liturgy and enjoyned Ceremonies in our Church teaching as she doth and practising Gods pure Worship detesting all Idolatry and Superstition and urging Ceremonies Innocent Ceremonies not for Ornament much less for necessity of Gods Service but for decency order and policy only and as means to testifie Subscription to the Lawful Power of the Magistrate I appeal to your selves do you in good earnest think that Paul who accounted
would continue together so long as conveniently they might They sent also some of their Number to the Octavians or Councellors that were trusted with the management of all affairs of the Kingdom for their assistance but the President with some Choller answered that as these Controversies were begun so they should end without their advice Having failed herein they sent to the King humbly entreating a surcease of the Process against Mr. Blake c. to which the King returned this gracious Answer that if yet they would pass by the Declinator or declare at least that it was not a general but particular Declinator used in the case of Mr. David Blake as being a cause of flander and pertaining to the judgment of the Church he should also pass from the Summons and surcease the Suit This not pleasing they resolve to stand to the Declinator unless the King would pass by the Summons and remitting the Suit to the Ecclesiastical Judge make an act of Council that no Minister should be charged for his Preaching at least before the meeting of the general Assembly Whereupon the Proclamation was published the Commissioners charged to depart out of the Town and Mr. Blake by a new Summons cited to the last of November The Commissioners being advertised thereof they advised a Petition to the King and Noblemen praying the King that he would remit the determination of the differences to a lawful Assembly and not to incroach upon the limits of Christs Kingdom upon any pretence exhorting the Noblemen that as they had been so they would still keep themselves free from working any prejudice to the liberty of the Gospel and being Executionres of the Malicious devices of those who sought the thraldome of the Gospel and that they would procure by their credit a continuation of all Controversies unto a free and lawful Assembly This Petition prevailing nothing Blake appeared and was convicted it being sound that the crimes and accusations contained in the Summons were seditious and treasonable and that his Majesty his Council and other Judges substituted by his Authority were competent Judges in all matters either Criminal or Civil as well to Ministers as other Subjects Though Robert Pont after the Summons were read protested that the Process in hand and whatsoever followed thereupon should not prejudice the liberty of the Church in matters of Doctrine whereunto the King answered he would only censure Treasonable Speeches of a Minister in a Sermon which he and his Council would judge Notwithstanding all this so gracious was the King that he sought by all gentle means and sound reasons prosering Pardon Amnesty and Restauration to Blake c. But the more gracious his condescentions were which were not a few the more refractory stubborn and insolent were the Presbyters insomuch that when the King sent to them that he did not intend to use Blake with rigor Mr. Robert Bruce in the Name of the rest answered that if the matter had concerned Blake alone the offer might be accepted But the liberty of Christs Kingdome had received such a wound by the said proceedings usurping spiritual Judicatory as if Blakes life and the lives of twenty others had been taken it would not have grieved the hearts of good Brethren so much as these injurious proceedings had done and that either these things behoved to be retreated or they would oppose so long as they had breath Brave Blades still and they were as good as their words standing it out to the uttermost by somenting sedition and raising tumults till at last some of the chiefest of them were forced to fly to New-Castle Upon all these Conferences with the King and answers returned of his Messages the Burden of their Song was still That their Messages and Commission ought not to be controuled in a Civil Judicature nay tho they preached seditiously or rebelliously for which tho they ought to be punished yet it ought to be first cognossed by the Church unto which the King once replied and shall not I have power to call and punish a Minister so preaching but must come to your Presbytery and be a Complainer I have good proof in the Process of Gibson and Ross what justice you would do me When nothing would satisfie them on the second of December sentence was given that Blake had fasly slandred and treasonably calumniated the King and his Queen Queen Elizabeth the Lords of his Council and Session therefore his punishment being remitted to the King it was ordained that till his Majesties pleasure should be declared he should be confined beyond the North Water and enter into his ward within six days There were several Treaties after this Sentence in order to an accommodation but still the same spirit reigned in them and they returned as proud and insolent answers in so much that the Lord Lyndsey told the King on their behalf that they durst convene against his Proclamation and do more than so and that they would not suffer Religion to be overthrown at which the King leaving the room Lyndsey returned to the Church and said there was no course but one Let us stay together that are here and promise to take one part and advertise our Friends and the Favourers of Religion to come unto us for it shall be either Theirs or Ours Hence a great clamour to Arms to bring out Haman others cryed The Sword of the Lord and Gideon so great was the fury of the People This produced new Petitions and new Conferences yet all but second parts to the same tune Great is Diana of the Ephesians the Liberties and Prerogatives and Scepter of the Church they will cry some hours some weeks together rather than they will lose their spiritual Independent Monarchy and Judicatory over King Council and People and during this furious contest Mr. John Welch preaching in the High Church said the King was possessed of a Devil and one Devil being cast out seven more was entred in place And that the Subjects might lawfully rise and take the Sword out of his hand which he confirmed by the example of a Father that falling in a frenzy might be taken by the Children and Servants of the Family and tied hand and foot from doing violence Brave Gospel Doctrine fit for Antichrist and his Pulpits who may perhaps grant Priviledges and Prerogatives to his Church exempting his Clergy and Ministers from all questioning But my Creed is that happily such Priviledges and Liberties may be in their Books or in their Alcoran but not in Bibliis sacris Thus the Chorus and Burden of the Song is that every Contradiction of a waspish Priest is an incroachment upon the limits of Christs Kingdom a prejudice to the liberty and seeking the thraldom of the Gospel c. whereas in truth it is the Priests that have incroached and usurped upon the Priviledges and Rights of the Church truly so called Deus bone as slight as they make of the King and his Council and other the Laity