constitutions and that the Law must be the rule of mens Consciences and did bind men to give obedience to their ceremonies upon pain of deprivation as they tell us Arg. 13. pag. 110 111. Therefore there can be no ground for a Conscience to suffer when they cannot obey That because it must be a praecognitum in every law to be actively obeyed that it be just therefore men are never called of God to suffer even unjustly Because it is asserted that Conscience is not left unbound by retaining the freedom of our judgements concerning the things which yet we act and do Arg. 3. pag. 102. therefore the conscience doth not retain its just freedom concerning an unjust Sentence because a man suffers under it As if our suffering under any thing did import an approbation thereof in our Consciences Because men may not tyrannize over Consciences pag. 48. Therfore Consciences cannot bear witnesse lawfully against what they count evil even by suffering And because Protestant Divines do say that the judgement of discretion maketh a man judge of his own actions and what he should do pag. 97. Therefore it warranteth him also to suffer nothing but rather to confound and overturn a Church ere he do so These and many the like flowers of discourse and fallacious argumentations are scattered through this Pamphlet which the judicious Reader will find to be clear non-sequitur's and very far from the scope of the Scriptures and sense of the Writers which they cite here and there which we need not hunt after seing de similibus idem est judicium 2. That we urge no such Submission to Sentences of inferiour Courts As secludeth either Dissents for mens own exoneration and keeping pure in what they think wrong which we conceive is the Scripture-duty in such cases 1 Tim. 5.22 or Appeals from one Judicatory to another till they come to the highest can be had Which speaketh much to the justice of the Government that a man is not presently concluded irrecoverably under a Sentence by every inferiour Court as it is in the Independent Government but hath a door left open to get his cause heard again till he come either to a Nationall Assembly with it or if that cannot be had to a Synod Yea though one General Assembly do not satisfie his desire he may make his addresse by supplication to another after that So that a man hath fair room to follow forth variety of lawfull means and to have his cause heard before variety of Judicatories for righting any thing that is supposed to be amisse Who if they do right him it is well if not he hath done his duty and may sit down in peace as having neglected no lawfull means of defence and consequently may commit his cause to God as we heard before from the Reverend Assembly of Divines As to the matter of Submission till the Appeal be discussed whatever the practice of some of them be in counter-acting upon their Appeal before it be heard before the Judge competent yea and upon their Appeal to a Generall Assembly whereof we have wanted possession these years bygone and know not when it may be had they take liberty in the meantime to do what they will with the Sentences of Presbyteries and Synods Yet we finde them shy to use their own language to owne any such thing in this Pamphlet But they lay the stresse of their Non-submission upon their succumbing before the Judge to whom they have appealed pag. 48 49. So also pag. 99. they say nothing to Submission till a mans Appeal be discussed But to us it is clear that as Submission is due to the Sentence till the Appeal be discussed by the Acts of this Kirk and judgment of Divines writing on this subject as we heard before And as it were to no purpose to appeal if men did not submit but went on seing they have no benefit to recover by their Appeal if they submit not especially if they will not submit to the superiour either Yea and it will be most absurd to say they will not submit in some cases when the Judicatory who may right them is to conveen within a week or very short time and yet they will not have patience even for so long So Submission till the Appeal be discussed will strongly conclude Submission after that also And we think it must be a strange thing if a Minister having offered to maintain his Ministery before all the Judicatories of a Nationall Church and all of them reject it yet he will obtrude it upon them nill they will they and will make schisms and factions never so many ere he be not a Minister We may say it though we account our Ministery through grace dearer than our life yet so long as there were service to do to Christ in any part of the Christian world we would be loath to use a Reformed Church so yea the losse of our life would not be so bitter to us as to be accessory to the confusions attending such a practice VI. As to the nature of the Sentences to which Submission is required and the justice or iniquity supposed to be in them we do heartily agree with them that all Sentences pronounced by Judicatories ought to be just Sentences yet we offer these Considerations which may further clear this debate 1. Whereas it is taken for granted all along that the Sentence to which Submission is required is an unjust Sentence Yet notwithstanding what hath been or may be supposed this is sufficient to answer all their Arguments that they but beg the Question in them For it is not granted them that the Sentences are unjust And though we dispute the matter further with them yet this is indeed the true state of the Controversie betwixt us Not whether unjust Sentences that are so indeed ought to be submitted unto But whether parties are free not to submit to Sentences though never so just if they count them unjust Or whether in case of a difference in judgement betwixt the Judge and Party concerning the nature of a Sentence pronounced and neither of them being able to convince the other The judgement of the Judge ought to carry it as to the Parties passive obedience and Submission thereunto Ex. gr When a Judicatory judgeth a Minister insufficient for the work and he thinks himself able enough Whether he be bound to submit to them and forbear Preaching or not If we speak of the case betwixt them and us we never urged any Sentences that were unjust to be submitted to by them though for peace we have offered to wave that debate nor do the Judicatories purpose in the power of the Lords grace to pronounce any unjust Sentence but that they will judge according to known rules Yea let this matter come in Question betwixt Judicatories and Parties and it will be laid to the charge of Parties that they submit not to just Sentences It is true they call them unjust but to whom
are they so The Judge pronouncing a Sentence counts it just it may be so do all others but the Party He will not submit to his Judges Verdict Can he then find any Arbitrators to whom he is rather bound to submit than to his Judge Or must all return to his own private judgement of discretion not only as to what he will approve or do but what he will suffer And yet was it ever almost found but that Parties Sentenced were grieved and dissatisfied therewith And might not these Hereticks who were Censured Act. 15. have urged the same plea And did not the Arminians at Dort and do not Hereticks at all occasions condemn the Sentences of their Judges and yet their Judges did not yeeld the Question to them If a comparison be instituted betwixt the Judges and the Party The Judges may safely alleage that it is not so probable they are in an errour as the Party as being a multitude of Counsellours wherein is safety as being lesse blinded with passion and personal concernments in the cause than the Party is and having a more expresse promise though they pretend not to infallibility for direction and assistance in judgement Matth. 18.19 20. Thus Beza Epist 59. pleading the Cause of Christs Courts against some disturber willeth him to consider that though they consist not of sinlesse men yet it is probable that many should be wiser than one If we speak to their procedure they are ready to offer all rationall satisfaction These Witnesses say that it is a Praecognitum in all Sentences to be pronounced by Judges and obeyed by Parties that they be just Sentences pag. 52 53. That Ministers ought to be subject only to lawfull admonitions That Suspension and Deposition should be for lawfull causes pag. 51. That Intrants are engaged to submit themselves to Admonitions and Censures only when they slide and offend pag. 60. And the Judges say their Sentence is just for lawfull causes and upon real sliding though they cannot perswade the party that it is so If they alleage that even in the matter of Transportations the Judicatories are bound to give reasons for the expediency of the same much more should they deal meekly in Sentences pag. 51 52. The Judge declineth not so to do they are ready to give solid reasons for their deed though they cannot perswade the party to see them Yea they are ready to hear what the party can offer against the Sentence though they cannot convince him that his reasons have no force They will grant him that his private judgment of discretion maketh him a judge of his own actions though yet but a subordinate judge as to what he should do pag. 97. but cannot allow it should hinder and bind them up from censuring what is wrong or warrant him not to submit in the point of suffering When we enquire what remedy is there to avoid a Schism and preserve Unity and Order if they submit not They tell us pag. 49. If the Sentence be unjust it ought to be recognized and repealed If it be just and of an inferiour nature that is a lesser degree of Censure if the persons will not submit they are after due procedure to be cast out as those that will not hear the Church c. And what is this but the very constant practice of the Judicatories though parties will not see that they judge justly And what shall the Judge do if after the Sentence of Excommunication is pronounced the party still refuse to submit They offer us no remedy in that case for preserving of Order and avoiding of Schism So that in a word the case cometh to this Not if they ought to submit to an unjust Sentence But whether let all the Judicatories even from an Eldership to an Oecumenick Council proceed never so justly and conscientiously yet the party censured is still supream judge on earth of all their proceedings and his own actings and behaviour in reference to whatsoever of their Sentences So that till he be convinced he must suffer nothing but counteract at his pleasure And if this be a sound principle all sober Christians will judge And when they cry-out so much that we do not purge we desire to know how by this principle we can purge any at all Or if others be not free to make use of it as well as they We shall shut-up this part of the discourse with some account of the judgement of others in this very matter The Commissioners of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland then at London Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston and Mr. Rutherfurd being of that number in their Reformation of Church-government in Scotland cleared from some mistakes and prejudices pag. 17. do assert that To limit the censure of Excommunication the like may be said of Suspension and Deposition of Ministers and other Censures in matter of opinion to the common and uncontroverted principles and in the matter of manners to the common and universall practices of Christianity and in both to the parties KNOWN LIGHT is the dangerous doctrine of the Arminians and Socinians c. To this we adde a further Consideration of that Objection mentioned before How Judicatories can without wronging Christian Liberty inflict Censures or put men to suffer who professe that after examination of the Decrees or Constitutions they cannot be perswaded of the lawfulnesse of the same To this beside what is before marked further answer is given by Mr. Gillespie in his Assertion part 2. chap. 4. pag. 152 153. 1. That our Divines by these Tenets of Christian liberty and the allowance of a privat judgement of discretion do not mean to open a door to disobedience and contempt of the Ordinances of a Synod but only to oppugn the Popish errour concerning the binding power of Ecclesiastical Laws by the sole will and naked authority of the Law-maker and that Christian People ought not to seek any further reason or motive of obedience And we are so far from this that we not only offer reasons of Laws to be actively obeyed of which he here speaketh but even of Sentences to be submitted unto though the contemners and disobeyers will not see them 2. A Synod must ever put a difference betwixt those who out of a real scruple of conscience in a modest and peaceable way refuse obedience understand active obedience to which he is speaking to their Ordinances still using the means of their better information and those who contemptuously or factiously disobey the same labouring with all their might to strengthen themselves in their errour and to perswade others to be of their mind How applicable this distinction is to the carriage of these Witnesses in the matters of our late differences we leave even to themselves to judge The same Mr. Gillespie in his Miscellanie Questions chap. 16. pag. 207. saith It is no tyranny over mens consciences to punish a great and scandalous sin such as the refusing and opposing of the
we love to jest in our speaking of what some Presbyteries required of men of whatsoever judgement enquiring if they laid bonds on men of their own judgement that they should not debate for the Protestation and who gave them power to lay bonds on men of their own judgement seing the Assemblies Act speaks only of men of the other judgement To which we shall only answer with silence seing the matter is plain enough to themselves when they are pleased to come to it at last and Presbyteries might do all that had there been no Act of Assemblies in these matters confessing that indeed this is no matter of sport and if we be very merry we have not so much cause as some of our neighbours if we reckon by outward advantages 3. They break high upon us That some Presbyteries should impose silence upon men of their own judgement and yet we give them so ill example in our Representation and Declaration pag. 79. And what doth all this amount to but that we would be peaceable but they would not let us but either we must let them run all down or say somewhat for our own defence And yet the scope of all that is said in these Papers is to draw them and with them our selves to lay by the debate 4. As to what they deny of their activity for strengthning their Party and do insinuate of a reflection upon the Expectants of our judgement The particulars being so notoure through the Church both what they have done and what many of these Expectants of our judgement are we shall rest confident that such assertions as these will gain them but little credit where the truth of things is known 6. They take it ill that any thing is said in behalf of the Assemblies proceeding to censure any of their number which yet they cannot condemn till they make good their charge against these Resolutions and Assemblies and that we should lay any weight upon their Non-submission Seing we are not to thank that they did not submit they having suffered so many things at our hands and with our connivance But it proceeded only from the conscience of their own innocency and the iniquity and nullity of these Sentences pag. 80 81. Answ But as we are sure many others do not judge of these Sentences as they do nor it may be will they so look upon them themselves when they are brought to think seriously of making an account for their carriage both before and since these Censures So it is true notwithstanding all they say that they have not submitted And it is no great wonder if their not submitting and not hearkening to tearms of Peace have bred themselves and us both some trouble or that many in the Land do look upon them as turbulent and implacable men Yet all they can truly complain of amounteth to no more but this That a Synod did not to refuse to admit but take time to deliberate if they should admit one of them for a Correspondent seing it would import their condemning of a Sentence inflicted by a lawfull Judicatory though his spirit could neither submit to such delay nor suffer him to go away without such a carriage toward a Judicatory of Christ as we believe himself may find cause to be ashamed of That Judicatories of which some of them formerly were members could not owne them as Ministers who had been deposed by a lawfull General Assembly but did intimate their Sentence when they found they would not hearken to tearms of Union And that some of their Congregations who could not owne them for their Ministers when they could not be rid of them did seek to themselves a lawfull Pastor to whom they might submit And for what hath been between some of their Congregations and them we believe their pursuing of their people criminally though they were assoiled in Law and it was found they had pursued them unjustly will speak who exposeth others to suffer most However all these inconveniences might easily be helped by an Union if they had not the humour to force themselves upon the consciences of Ministers and People whether they will or not 7. Albeit whatever might be said of these Sentences we were content they should be taken-off in such a way as might not bind upon them the acknowledgement of the two late Assemblies or of the lawfulness and justice of these Censures Yet that doth not please them seing the Censures are not to be declared void and null Which as themselves interpret the meaning pag. 81 and 82. importeth that they should be declared not only unjust Sentences upon the matter but no real Sentences as proceeding from those who had no Authority And if this be an equal mean of Union without imposing upon our judgments to condemn that Authority let indifferent men judge 8. Albeit it was offered to them as to the Acts concerning the Publick Resolutions that they shall be rendered of none effect as to Censure and that they shall never be alleaged against them as the definitive judgment of this Kirk to any effect And albeit it was offered as to the constitution of the two late Assemblies That though we for a salvo of our judgement asserted that no unwarrantable prelimitations were put upon the election of Commissioners to these Assemblies no unwarrantable prelimitations should be put upon future Elections but that these matters should be carried-on as in former Assemblies proceeding our differences Yet this doth not satisfie them pag 82 83 84 85. They count it insufficient that there be a cessation from executing Acts relating to Censure till they be made void and null by the next General Assembly Answ And yet we know no Judicatories far less privat Ministers who have power to repeal their Acts but themselves They count it a mock-remedy that the Question concerning the Publick Resolutions be remitted to the Determination of a Generall Assembly Answ And yet they are the only competent Judges in that matter But they alleage it is a mock-remedy because by the Acts they are secluded from being members Answ And yet it is expresly provided in the Overtures for Union at our Conference That none of the particulars of our late differences shall be alleaged on either part against the sitting of persons as Commissioners in ensuing General Assemblies They alleage further that it is a mock-remedy because we will be the plurality in an Assembly Answ And we desire a remedy for this unless they will have us renounce our judgment or cast the constitution of the Church as corrupt and gather a new one out of the rubbish And yet it is offered and assured in the Conference that upon an Union we shall in our judicial actings abstract from these by-gone differences They think it strange we should judge it a quitting of our judgement to condescend that the Publick Resolutions should not be looked-on as the publick definitive judgment of this Kirk And that seing we agree to repeal Acts
Covenant or a dividing from it although the Offender in his conscience believe it to be no sin Yea peradventure believe it to be a duty Otherwise it had been tyranny over the conscience to punish those who killed the Apostles because they thought they were doing God good service Joh. 16.2 2. But seing all men and even Church-judicatories are fallible let it be supposed that a Sentence is unjust and be it still remembred that it is but supposed and not yeelded For as it can hardly be imagined that a Judge will pronounce a Sentence which he accounteth unjust So we desire that our supposing the injustice of their Sentence be understood without any prejudice to Judicatories right in maintaining the justice of their own Sentences And let the Question be of a Church so constituted and sound and orthodox as is before expressed and of Sentences such as we have qualified for the matter of them And we do hold that they ought to be submitted unto and suffered under without counteracting and that the former considerations pressing Submission in generall do take place even in this case This we might easily confirm from the generall practice of the Godly in all ages and particularly of the Non-conformists who as they put a vast difference between subjection and obedience so in their practice they did chearfully suffer under unjust Sentences and did vindicate the aspersions cast upon their non-obedience by their readinesse to submit and suffer Who so will be pleased to peruse Parker on the Crosse Chap. 4. Sect. 12 14 15. will find they were so far from owning Non-submission to these unjust Sentences of Bishops for their non-conformity that they did owne Submission and vindicate their practice in submitting from the aspersions cast upon them for it and did encourage themselves and the Church by believing that the losse of their Ministry should be the Lords gain and the Churches It is the positive judgement of Beza as we heard before from his Epist 12. that godly men in England should not continue to preach against the Queen and Bishops will where he addeth that having in these cases attested their own innocencie and essayed all remedies in the fear of the Lord they should yeeld to manifest violence The Provinciall Assembly of South-holland met at Delph go a further length against the Remonstrants Act. Synod Dordr pag. 86 87. where having spoken severall things in answer to the Arminians argument against a Synod and their Submission thereunto because the Members thereof are all fallible men and having asserted that there is ground of confidence that Christ according to His promise will be present and direct a lawfull Synod gathered together in His fear to judge in matters according to the Word of God that nothing shall be decreed therein to the prejudice of His Truth and Kingdom They expresly adde Sed fac aliquid ejusmodi decretum iri c. But let it be supposed that some such thing be decreed yet truth will not therefore still be kept at under but will in due time break forth again But in the mean time order quietnesse and peace ought to be kept in the Church of Christ For God is not the God of confusion or disorder but of peace and therefore will have all things to be done in His Church orderly peaceably and quietly Now there can be no order nor peace in the Church of God if every man be permitted to teach what he will and be not obliged to give an account of his Doctrine nor submit himself to the judgement of any Synod according to the precept of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.29.32 Another instance in stead of many is the judgement and practice of these Authors of the Treatise formerly mentioned against the Brownists suffering for the cause of Non-conformity They being challenged by the Brownists for going to the Bishops Courts for standing and falling at their commandment or yeelding to their suspensions and deprivations After they have given their reasons for their going to these Courts and reverencing and yeelding to their Censures according to the Law of the Land whâ—ch did establish conformity They adde pag. 41. If it be said That the Church is not to be obeyed when it suâ—pendeth and depriveth us for such causes as we in our consciences know to be insufficient We answer That it lieth in them to Depose that may Ordain and they may shut that may open And that as he may with a good conscience execute a Ministery by the Ordinance and calling of the Church who is privy to himselfe of some uâ—…fitnesse if the Church will presse him to it so may he who is privy to himselfe of no fault that deserveth Deprivation cease from the execution of his Ministery when he is pressed thereunto by the Church And if a guiltlesse person put out of his charge by the Churches Authority may yet continue in it What proceedings can there be against guilty persons who in their own conceit are alwayes guiltlesse or will at least pretend to be so Seing they also will be ready alwayes to object against the Churches judgement that they are called of God and may not therefore give over the execution of their Ministery at the will of man By which it evidently appeareth that the judgement and practice of these ancient Worthies and suffering Presbyterians hath been point-blank opposit to the Doctrine of these new Teachers and modellers of Government and that the strength of the Arguments in this Pamphlet were not unknown to them when they thus determined and practised as may appear from the very last words above cited and from what we have elswhere cited of their Answer to the Objection taken from Act. 4.19 20. But that we may make this truth appear more distinctly we premit these generall considerations 1. That the wise Lord hath been pleased to intrust the Government of His House into the hands of fallible men who not only may but sometime actually do erre 2. That no judge either Civil or Ecclesiasticall hath any Commission or Authority from God to sin or enact an unjust Sentence And that this is not to be restricted to Church-judicatories only cannot be doubted by any Christian who holdeth the Magistrats Authority and Commission to be from God who doth not authorize any to sin For as power is given to the Church to edification and not to destruction So Magistrates ought not to be a terrour to good works but to the evil Rom. 13.3 3. That every particular wrong act or acts do not divest a Judge of his Authority though it be granted he hath no Commission or Authority to do these acts as they assert p. 96. praecog 5. but he remaineth the Judge and lawfull Authority of the Church or Nation as is clear in right reason and by Scripture Rules For if it be asserted that an unjust Sentence one or moe do make void the Authority of the Judge this will overthrow all Government Ecclesiasticall Civill or
Oeconomicall Mr. Gee in his Treatise of the Civil Magistrate pag. 36 37. urgeth that indeed lawfull powers are bound to use it lawfully but yet asserteth it as yeelded by all that this is not simply necessary to the being of a lawfull power but a power that is unlawfull only as to exercise may be for its habit and being included in the Text Rom. 13. and its irregular actings only discarded from it 4. That by the Word of God Submission or passive obedience is required and commended in some cases and that of a different nature from the suffering of guilty persons Matth. 5.10 11. 1 Pet. 4.15 16. And that in some cases the People of God are called to suffer without resisting as hath been the frequent practice of Saints and asserted by all Orthodox Divines writing upon Subjection as contradistinct to Obedience 5. That as Schism is an evil disapproven and never warranted of God So a man may be guilty of Schism who not only maketh a Rent and causeth disorder upon a cause destitute of truth but also upon a cause not weighty and relevant though true in it self This is so obvious to all who are anything acquainted with the Scriptures and with the Writings of the Ancients or latter Divines upon the nature and evil of Schism that it is needlesse to insist on the probation of it Whoso pleaseth to peruse Mr. Baxter in his Explication of the Agreement of the Ministers of Worcester-shire pag. 119. will finde much to this purpose in few words And among others these passages If the Scripture were conscionably observed men would take Church-division for a greater sin than Adultery or Theft Mutinies and Divisions do more infallibly destroy an Armie than almost any other fault or weaknesse And therefore all Generals punish Mutineers with death as well as flat Traitors And a little after Commonly they that divide for the bringing in of any inferiour truth or practice do but destroy that truth and piety that was there before We might upon these grounds multiply Arguments as they have taken pleasure it seemeth that way to make a shew of many which may be reduced to very few But we shall content our selves with these 1. If there be a Submission and passive Obedience due by Christians in any case to the Sentence of a Judicatory and commended of God as hath been presupposed and cannot without contradicting the principles of Christianity be denyed Then certainly it must be due to unjust Sentences For unto just Sentences requiring a duty under pain of Censure active obedience and not passive is due by the Word of God And as for Sentences inflicting Censures it is true Submission to such just Sentences is due by the Word of God but that is not the passive obedience required and so much commended in Saints in the Word but only that suffering which is contra-distinct to suffering as evil doers or for just causes as is clear from 1 Pet. 2.18 19 20. and 4.14 15 16 19. So that unlesse they will banish a command to suffer according to the will of God or cleanly suffering with a good conscience out of the Bible they cannot avoid this 2. As it is granted that Authoritie and Submission are correlative pag. 45. And that in just Sentences beside the obligation of the matter there is a formal obligation by its coming from such an Authority pag. 46. So in an unjust Sentence albeit Judges have no authority nor warrant from God to do that act and it is null before Him nor doth it oblige the conscience by vertue of the matter of it Yet so long as they continue the standing Authority of a Church somewhat is due to them relative to that Authority and that is Submission If they could make them simpliciter no Judges because they erre in a particular fact they would say somewhat but seing they are still lawfull Judges even when they pronounce that Sentence though they fail in it It must be held as of general verity that while persons continue invested with lawfull Authority Obedience or if obedience cannot with a good conscience be given Submission is due to their actings by privat persons For if Submission and passive obedience or cleanly suffering be due in any case and that not to just but to unjust Sentences and if the Submission be due not by vertue of any warrant given by God to pronounce that Sentence for there is none Then certainly there is a Submission due to the standing Authority of a Judge or Court as they continue still Gods Ordinance though they erre in that particular This consequence is not only owned and urged by Mr. Durham on the Revelation pag. 100. That submitting unto Church-power is a necessary and concerning duty and that without this Submission there could be no Government nor exercise of Power But their own very concession formerly mentioned pag. 45 46. doth put it beyond all controversie For if Authority and Submission be correlative and the one cannot subsist without the other more than one relative can actually subsist without its correlative Then we hope it is no slander to say that Submission is essential to Presbyterial Government seing Logicians have taught us and they grant it that take away a relative and the correlative ceaseth to be And therefore also either must the Authority of Judicatories when they pronounce some unjust Sentence be totally annulled or Submission must be payed as due to that Authority as hath been said This may 3. be further confirmed à pari Magistrates are bounded by the Word of God that they may not by their Commission judge unjustly nor pronounce an unjust Sentence more than Church-judicatories And yet albeit Magistrates do decree an unrighteous Sentence they may not be resisted but must be submitted unto by privat persons unlesse they would resist the Ordinance of God though coming short of the Rule in that particular act Now if this be granted to the standing Authority of Magistrates erring in a particular fact and granted it must be unlesse men will blow the Trumpet of Rebellion to every privat person and condemn Saints in former ages in their suffering under the unjust Sentences even of wicked Magistrates it cannot be denied either to the standing Authority of Church-judicatories Seing the case is alike as to the Authority of both to do evil and Subjection is due only in the Lord to the one as to the other And here we desire the Reader to take notice of a passage of Mr. Burroughs in his Lectures on Hosea chap. 1. ver 10. pag. 111. cited by Mr. Gee Treatise of the Magist pag. 257 258. where having denied that Submission active or passive is due to the Commands of men till it be brought to a Law and they be a Power He subjoyneth When things are brought into a Law understand a lawfull Authority established according to the Agreements and Covenants of the place where we live as the following words are and then suppose this Authority
be abused and there be an ill law made then I confesse if the law be of force we must either quit our selves of the Countrey or else submit or suffer When then it cometh to be a power to be a law it is Authority though abused and we must yeeld obedience to it either actively or passively If it be said that men submit to the force not to the Authority of the civil Magistrate in these cases Ans Not to insist that they know the Church also useth all the force they have and so the case is alike It would be considered That to submit only to the force of a Magistrate pronouncing and executing an unjust Sentence is only that Submission out of prudence and for preventing other disturbances which Mr. Burroughs in the forecited place granteth may be yeelded to unlawfull powers But it is not that Submission out of conscience which he holds to be due to lawful Authority and their laws even when Authority is abused in making them For it is a Scripture Rule that we are to be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 Which Mr. Gee pag. 112. expoundeth a subjection of conscience as the principle of conscience is contra-distinct from terrour and compulsory punishment And it is known sufferers use not to wait for force to make them submit but do it in submission to Authority Condemned persons wait not till they be drawn to the place of execution but go on their own feet and banished persons will depart upon the charge of a Magistrate Yea where men unjustly Sentenced have been in a capacity to resist force as Christians were in the Armies of Pagan Emperours yet they have submitted to Authority and suffered 4. That which taketh away all use of Appeals instituted by Christ in the case of mal-administration cannot be of God for one Ordinance of God doth not make another of no effect Now this Doctrine of Non-submission and counter-acting doth make void all use of Appeals For as hath been cleared before the Appeal from an unjust Sentence supposeth submission to it in the mean time for let it be holden that such a Sentence is null and not to be submitted unto and let a Church owne that principle and there needeth no Appeal 5. That also which involveth a man in the guilt of Schism cannot be of God But a man not submitting to some unjust Sentence is involved in the guilt of Schism because though he have right on his side yet his personall suffering is not tanti as to be laid in the ballance with the confusion and open contempt of lawfull Authority and other inconveniences attending upon his Non-submission And albeit his Judge must answer to Christ for his unjust Sentence yet he must answer for his Schism if he suffer not patiently 6. To this may be added That it should rub an imputation upon the wisdom of God who hath put this trust in fallible mens hands who may and do erre if Submission were not a safe medium to be acquiesced in betwixt the rocks of sinfull obedience and schismaticall contra-acting in a Church or rebellion in a State For the governing of us not being entrusted to men who cannot erre without this medium men can hardly walk under the dispensations of providence toward them but either they must split on one hand or other Whereas now by yeelding suffering to be commanded of God and a duty laid upon us in such cases we wipe off all imputations cast on Him and may walk in peace of mind though with some personall prejudice VII As to the Arguments which they muster up against this Submission if we hold them at their word pag. 115 116. that in some cases they would not much contend about it of which we have also spoken before we might leave it at their own door to answer them and to clear how in any case they would not contend about what they plead so much against as sinfull For sin in any case and in any matter is sinfull and so not to be yeelded unto And if they can bring sufficient reasons why in the cases they mention in the fore-cited passage they may submit to an unjust Sentence They will save us a labour in vindicating our selves and answering their Arguments against the Submission we plead for But for further satisfaction As we have already in this debate met with many of their reasons and particular branches of them and either answered them or laid them aside as impertinent to our Question which we shall not now repeat So we do offer a brief return to what is or seemeth to be further materiall in their reasonings in these particulars 1. Their scope in a great part of their discourse and Arguments is to evince That because Judges have no Commission or Authority from Christ to pronounce an unjust Sentence Therefore they are not to be submitted unto unlesse men will take their will and arbitriment for a law to their Consciences But this is a great fallacy and confounding of things that are very different Namely of the Rule whereby Judges ought to walk in their administrations and the rule whereby the Lords people ought to walk under these dispensations of providence toward them whereof humane Judges in their administrations are the interveening Instruments We yeeld that Judicatories are limited by their Commission that they may do no unjust act and if they do they must answer to God for it We yeeld also that the rule of their Commission doth regulate also those who are under them as to their approving or giving active obedience to their injunctions But when it comes to the matter of suffering and being passive after we have exonered our selves we do not look to their will as our rule or ground of our Submission but to a peculiar Command of God enjoyning Submission in such cases to prevent schism and confusion This may easily take off the most of their reasonings They urge Acts of Assemblies pag. 51. that Ministers ought to be censured for lawfull and just causes and take much pains to prove that Judicatories are bound to judge according to the Word Arg. 1. and elsewhere And when they do otherwise that they act that for which they have no Commission nor power pag. 96. All which we grant to be true of Ecclesiasticall Judges as it is also alike true of Civil Powers that none of them have a power to judge unjustly and that God who commands us to be subject unto them commands them to judge justly And therefore in the case of unrighteous judgement we neither approve nor give active obedience yea we are free for the liberation of our own souls to contradict even an Oecumenick Council Angels Prophets and Apostles if they determine contrary to the Word of God as they have it Arg. 8. yea and to do more also if they bring in another Doctrine of the Gospel to which the Scripture there cited speaketh Gal. 1.6 7 8. And so
the Apostles were known and professed enemies of the Gospel 2. The Apostles were charged not to teach in the Name of Christ nor to publish any part of the Doctrine of the Gospel which say they was more hard than their case under Bishops who though they cannot endure the truth concerning Government and Reformation of the Church yet are content the Gospel should be preached and preach it themselves They adde 3. The Apostles received not their Calling and Authority from men nor by the hands of men but immediatly from God Himself and therefore alâ—o might not be restrained or deposed by men whereas we though we exercise a function whereof God is the Author yet we are called and ordained by the ministery of men and may therefore by men be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our Ministery Where as their first and second difference speak clearly to the second and third branches of our Question So this last doth fully speak our mind in this As to what they and Mr. Rutherfurd before them in his Preface to his Survey say of privat persons being Excommunicated their Non-submission to abstain from publick Ordinances As Excommunication is rarely pronounced in this Church except in the case of obstinacie and therefore may easily be prevented So we cannot understand how they can avoid Non-submission unless either they will forcibly obtrude themselves on Ordinances till they be thrust-out and so must come to Non-submission at last Or unlesse they get Ministers who will admit of them and so refuse to submit to the Judicatories which will at last fall in with the former case Though we in the mean time would have such a person seriously to consider whether his edification by these particular Ordinances from which he is debarred by the Sentence means simply necessary to salvation not being taken from him and the want of the rest being but his affliction not his sin take the matter in his own sense ought to be laid in the ballance with the breach made on Order in a Church constitute and setled as is said with the contempt and scandall put upon the Judicatories who yet stand invested with power to rule in Christs House yea and with the stumbling of the whole Congregation upon whom he obtrudeth himself who perhaps judge his Sentence to be as just as he counteth it unjust 2. As to the Submission of inferiour Judicatories to superiour concerning which they argue Arg. 7. pag. 107. And again Arg. 15. pag. 113 114. We grant indeed that the power of the superiour Judicatory is cumulative and not privative to the inferiour Judicatories yet it must be understood in a right sense for 1. It is granted on all hands betwixt us that by the Constitutions of this Kirk every Church-judicatory may not meddle with all things but with things that are of particular concernment within their bounds leaving things of more generall concernment to the Church to superiour Courts yea within their own bounds Congregationall Elderships do not meddle with the matter of Adultery Excommunication and Ordination of Ministers but these things come before the Presbyterie 2. Albeit inferiour Judicatories have intrinsick power given them by Christ and may exercise it independently where providence affordeth them no superiour Judicatorie yet in a Nationall Church it is the will of Christ they exercise that intrinsicall power with a Subordination to the superiour Courts so that so long as they hold the Subordination and do not renounce the Judicatories as Hereticall and corrupt they may indeed do all they have right to do yet so as they must be accountable to others in the case of Appeals or mal-administration who may lay as great claim to that promise Matth. 18. as they can And if the superiour Judicatories judge their proceedings to have been wrong in the case now before us it is no more lawfull for them than for private persons to make a Rupture by Non-submission or not suffering and being passive which will prove a remedy worse than the disease Nor doth this Subordination prove that these inferiour Judicatories must be fenced in name of the superiour Seing they know that even inferiour Civil Courts are not fenced in the name of a Parliament to whom they are subordinate And if this hold not it shall be to no purpose for superiour Judicatories to meet unlesse either to approve all that is done or else it please inferiour Judicatories to be convinced by them And indeed now it is no strange thing to see one privat Presbyterie not only reverse and declare null the Conclusions of a General Assembly but judicially declare the Assembly it self null far contrary to the Book of Discipline where it is expresly provided that Elderships or Presbyteries must alter no Rules made by Generall or Provinciall Assemblies Book 2. chap. 7. pag. 81. and no lesse contrary to the opinion of Beza Epist 44. pag. 244. who judgeth it iniquissimum intolerabile c. most injust and intolerable that things concluded in a Generall Synod should be rescinded by the Authority of one Consistorie unlesse the party passe from his right or things be agreed among parties without any detriment to Ecclesiasticall Discipline V. As to the nature of this Submission or manner of performance thereof two things are worthy our consideration for further clearing the truth in this particular 1. That in pleading for Submission in matters of Sentences as is above qualified we do not urge that men in conscience should approve of all and every of these Sentences as just however we do not therefore grant they are unjust as we shall after hear But only that what ever their judgement be they submit and suffer or be passive having done duty and exonered themselves without counteracting And that because 1. However they count them unjust yet they looking through the prospect of passion and interest may be deceived The Judge thinks them just and it may be many others yea all except the parties concerned 2. However it be yet it is better one or a few persons suffer somewhat than that a Schism be made in an Orthodox and well settled Church This being the true state of the Question and indeed a safe remedy appointed by God that when men in a Church cannot in Conscience obey a command then they may with a good Conscience submit and suffer for the Lord 's commanding us to submit and our engaging thereunto doth import there may be cases wherein we cannot give active obedience It is a miserable mistake all along in the most part of this debate that Obedience is confounded with Submission and Suffering That because a Church ought not in duty to domineer over the Flock pag. 52. therefore none of the Flock may lawfully suffer an injury or supposed so rather than do a greater injury by renting the Flock That because Prelats taught falsly that the Sentence of Superiours is a warrant sufficient to mens Consciences to give active obedience to their