SOME REMARKS Recommended unto Ecclesiasticks OF ALL PERSWASIONS NOT to trouble you with Prefaces or Apologies it is certain That as in the Church of the Jews they were not all Israel that were of Israel Rom. 9.6 so in our Church they have not all been nor yet are all true Church of England-men who boast and pride themselves in monopolizing that Character to themselves And yet I hope I may with great Truth affirm That the Independant Protestant Church of England is the best constituted Church both for Doctrine and Discipline in the World and that there are both in our Hierarchie and in our Inferior Clergy many seven shining Stars many true Nathaniels indeed in whom is no guile John 1.47 and yet I fear in the same Church that as there hath been so there are still many seven deadly Sinners Linsey-wolsey Divines not much unlike those of Samaria who feared God yet served Idols or like those of Israel who swore by the Lord and Melcom Whoever will seriously and impartially consider and examine the Prints of Dr. Leighton Pryn Bastwick and Burton and compare them with the Prints of Harsenet Parker late Bishop of Oxon Montague Sybthorp Manwaring and others must conclude the Doctrines and Positions of these Men to be far more pernicious and destructive to whole Kingdoms than the other and better deserved their punishment than to be rewarded with Preferments as they were And then if we consider how Instrumental some Prelates of those times were in Punishing the one and Preferring the other contrary to all true Religion and to the genius and sense of the most Pious of the Nation thereby manifestly espousing their Cause to be their own whereby they became participes criminis by which misbehaviour of theirs they brought upon themselves contempt and the Nation abhorred them and would not be satisfied untill they had disenabled them by Act of Parliament 17 Car. And if we consider the Opinions that the late Bishop of Oxon. otherwise a pious worthy Prelate sacrificed to the Flames in July 1683 and the purport of the Address of the other University to his Majesty in September 1681. And also the Contents of very many Sermons preached on the Ninth of September 1683. Besides very many others rank of one and the same poysonous Leaven all squinting towards Arbitrary Power and as much as in them lies alluring and encouraging Kings to attempt the same by rendring them absolutely Absolute and unaccountable until Dooms-day in the Afternoon whereby they become only Nominal I had almost said Mungril Church-of-England-men but not true Israelites not true Nathaniels indeed These things considered how can I expect less than a whole host of Chemarims about my Ears But when I consider that according to the Doctrine of the Church of England the Word of God is the only Rule of Faith and Obedience and disapproves all implicite Faith blind Obedience and Infallibility and that we are not to imbibe Doctrines on trust and expect Salvation by a deputy Faith and Obedience And that St. Paul exhorts us that we be no more henceforth children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.14 And the Scripture it self counts it nobleness of mind to examine the doctrines of our Teachers whether those things are so Act 17.11 And the Angel of the Church of Ephesus highly commended for that he had tried them which said they were Apostles and were not and found them lyers Revel 2.2 And St. Paul bids us prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 Sure then after such Apostolical Precepts it is no crime to inquire whether they that boast of being Church-of-England-men are so in truth or no. I appeal to your selves Is it Fair nay is it Just nay Is it not Pride and Folly to assert Truth by arrogating to your selves the only freedom of Speech and stopping of Mouths and Pens and Press and burning Opinions of others equally gifted and furnished with the same means of knowledge with your selves and have like precious Souls to save as your selves and yet can let Popish Books and other vile Tenets be published and read as common as your own without Controul Fire or Faggot and connive at them but storm against Protestant Conventicles and can let Swearers Drunkards Whoremungers and Adulterers march openly and confidently in our Streets without so much as the Summons of an Apparitor or Excommunication Tacitus intending to write the Life of Agricola Incursurus tam saeva infest a virtutibus tempora did beg Pardon which otherwise he would not have done considering that Aurelius Rusticus for praising Paetus Thrasea calling him virum sanctum was put to Death by Nero virtutem ipsam exscindere concupiscens And also Herennius Senecio because he had written the Life of Helvidius Priscus another Cato or Brutus a Person of most free Speech in behalf of the Commonwealth for calling them most Holy and Upright Persons Besides severity was used against the Writers of Books charge being given to the Aediles and Triumviri capitales that the Works of those Noble Wits should solemnly be burnt in the Market-place supposing that with that Fire they could stop the Mouths of the People of Rome abolish the Liberty of the Senate and suppress the Knowledge of all Mankind Expelling withall the Professors of Wisdom and all good Learning and Arts lest any sparks of Honesty should remain Hence Sulpitia a Poetess of that time Nunc igitur qui res Romanas imperat inter Et studia sapiens hominum nomenque genusque Omnia abice foras atque urbe excedere jussit A very noble and pious Example taken from Heathenish Princes for Christians to imitate We naturally love nay long for forbidden Fruit and are most inquisitive after Books forbidden as being always jealous that some Truths lie dormant in such ready to fly in the Faces of those that forbid them and make wise Men conclude That Reason cannot stand on their side who will not suffer the Reasons of both Parties to be read and published Gospel Truths need no such Artifices Souls purely divine without mixtures and allay of little pittiful ends and interests do scorn the motion lest happily some Divine Truths may by such sinister devices be suppressed and stifled And others being of the contrary Opinion diametrically opposite one to the other and each differing no farther from the one than the other from them and neither Infallible what would you have us poor Laicks do death and damnation being pulpited against us by both Perswasions as one Opinion or the other happeneth to possess the Pulpit 1. I say That the differences among us are occasioned not as Christians but as Men. The Gospel is the Gospel of Peace Peace was the last Legacy that Christ left to his Church My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you John 14.27 And his
Prophets that divine for money and pimp for domination Mich. 3.11 and Demas-like forsake the fellowship of Saints and embrace this present World So that unless the Apostles return from Heaven or that Christ himself come again in Person and lasn them as he did the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple I see small hopes of Establishing the Government of the Church on a right Basis If they would be active in good earnest to divest themselves of all Temporal Domination and Jurisdiction and content to be reduced to the life and practise of the Apostles as they are to persecute their fellow Members for Conventicling we might be happy Yet I must do the right Reverend Author of Naked Truth that right That if the Ecclesiasticks were all of his mind and first seek the Kingdom of God it would easily be done and I do with him humbly conceive That the Bishops with the rest of the Clergy are bound in Conscience to implore the Assistance of both Houses of Parliament to Petition his Majesty for the Redress of the Abuses by Pious Laws settling the Church Government in the Primitive Purity and Authority which most evidently was very great and as greatly reverenced Bishops and Priests being the Persons to whom Christ and his Apostles committed the Souls of Men bought with his most precious Blood Therefore I think they do such Clergy-men not Priesthood not Episcopacy not true Church of England Men no wrong who esteem them as they manage their matters the very worst Interest that Protestant Kings and Kingdoms have but that of the Papists These Animosities and Differences have been ever since the beginning of the Reformation between the Conforming and Non-conforming Clergy and I may truly prophesie ever will be so long as Conscience shall be on the Earth and as long as Ministers will not be Servants but Lords over Gods heritage and will not condescend to let things made by God Almighty indifferent so to be and remain the Reasons are pregnant for that Conscience will be Conscience while the World stands and therefore there ever will be Scrupulonties and Obligations upon Conscience which are greater than all other Obligations in the World And therefore King James the First would say and that truly That the Puritans were never to be obliged and for that Reason Whereas if things indifferent might so remain and the Conventiclers permitted to preach in publick to take away all Fears Jealousies and Suspicion we should be all at quiet for then there would not be left so much as the pretence of Religion to occasion Dislentions or Quarrels Besides it is the time-serving Clergy only the Drones that vilifies and abaseth that caluminates and disturbs the Dissenters and not the Dissenters them EXtremities used against them at their Instigation Silencing Imprisoning Excommunicating making use of Laws against them that in their primary 35 Eliz. simple and sincere Institution were intended and enacted against Papists only and they not proceeded against so violently according to those very Laws in full force against them as against the Non conformists who have been Indicted under the Notion of Popish Recusants and Penalties levied upon them and the Papists either totally connived at or remissly prosecuted many Crimes through ungrounded prejudices laid to their charge as disturbing of the Government which they abhor and teach not of which they are no otherways guilty than by that Logick that the Fox his Earon his Head were Horns meer Surmizes Calumnies and Libels and nothing proved but that contrary to a human Law they following the Command and Example of Christ and his Apostles meet and assemble together to keep a more intimate near and dear Communion with their and our God and with one another and to make Peace and Reconciliation with God whilst they are yet in the way yet in the possibility of Salvation whcih Law in it self is null and void because it contradicts the Law of God which Commands all Men every where to call on the Name of the Lord Jesus and all Priests to teach all Nations Baptizing c. and to preach in every Church in season out of season c. to reprove exhort rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. Is not this with the Priests of old and the Captain of the Temple to be grieved at the heart that they teach the People and therefore laid hands on them and put them in hold and like Elymas the sorcerer being full of all subtlety and all mischief children of the Devil enomies of all righteousness never ceasing to pervert the right ways of the Lord Act. 4.2 and 13.10 But lying lips shall be put to silence which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous Psalm 31.18 It was St. Paul's Glory that Christ was preached any way though through strife or vain glory and I fear it is the glory of the more violent and haughty Tory Church of England Party as the road to Preferment to decry Conventicling and Preaching contrary to such a Law and to stop the Mouths of them that would Preach whereby they intitle themselves to the Character of the Shepherds described and deciphered Isai 56.10 11. Consider that in Preaching contrary to such a Law they do no more than what Christ and his Apostles did in their Days The Rulers of the Jews offended with Peter 's Sermon imprisoned him and John and having strictly examined them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus Did they therefore forbear Preaching or were they obedient to such Commands of the Rulers I tell you nay but answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to bearken unto you more than unto God judge ye and continued speaking the Wrod of God with great boldness Acts 4. The like did the rest of the Apostles even from house to house though accused of turning the World up-side down and of doing contrary to the decrees of Caesar yet preaching the Word of God boldly Act. 17.26 Either the Author to the Hebrews Preacht false Doctrine when he exhorteth us to 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 And so did St. Paul when he wrote his Chap. 14. to the Corinthians wherein he adviseth all to desire Spiritual gifts but rather that they may prophesie that they may speak unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort when the Church is come together in one place with particular Directions how all should behave themselves in such Assemblies that all may profit with a general Rule that all things be done decently and in order Either I say these Apostles taught false Doctrines in so Teaching or else they that preach and prate against such Assembling as the manner of some is are false teachers I know no medium take it as you please Can it it be imagined that if St. Paul who rejoyced
command was to have peace one with another Mark 9.50 and the unity of the spirit is preserved by the bond of peace Ephes 4.3 But the little self-ends of Earth and Interest of the Preferments Ambition and Domination is the cause of Controversies Animosities and Contentions to which Priests are as subject as others 2. I say There were false Prophets among the Jews and was foretold that as there were false Prophets among them so there should be false teachers among us 2 Pet. 2.1 And St. Paul forewarned the Bishop of Ephesus That out of your own selves should arise men speaking perverse things Acts 20.30 and Christ himself when he cautioneth us to beware of false Prophets by calling which shall be found false by their teaching St. Paul also granteth many to be ministers of Christ by profession and yet in words and deeds the ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. such false Apostles saith he are deceitful workers and transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ and for certain these Priests of such different Perswasions Principles and Doctrines cannot both be in the right and therefore good Reason that if poor Laicks are to live and die Eternally according to the Doctrines our Pastors pulpit to us it is but just and right that we should try the Spirits as commanded John 1.41 and judg of Doctrine as directed Cor. 10.15 for certainly we are not to live by the deputy Faith of our Officers but by our own Faith and must stand and fall accordingly Now seeing our Teachers cannot agree Doctrines as in point of Resistance and Passive Obedience taking and refusing new Oaths Ceremonies Conformity as well as in many others they do not and both cannot be in the right then are their Flocks in a very sad condition Pulpit-rebels both to the one and to the other as the one or the other prevails for neither are Infallible so that we are clearly left to be our own Judges and both Priest and People have no other Divine Rule or Authority without them warrantable to one another as a common Ground or Rule either for Holy living or decision of Controversies in Matters of Religion unto which all ought to submit but the Scriptures nor any other within either Priest or People But the Illumination of the Spirit so interpreting the same Scriptures as warrantable both to Priests and People and to such whose Consciences they can so perswade can have no other ground in matters of Religion but only from the same Scriptures and these not being possible to be understood without Divine Illumination which no man can know at all times to be in himself much less to be at any time for certain in another and therefore the Scriptures being the only infallible Rule of life and of judging Controversies and the Light within us no farther Light than wherein it agrees with this Word if it do not it is Darkness not Light Now these things considered will justifie our taking up the Cudgels for our own Defence and Justification in these great and dangerous Disputes having Souls Lives Fortunes Liberties to save and enjoy as well as Ecclesiasticks Though the Church of England be the best constituted Church in the World wherein the lively Oracles of God are purely Preached and full fraught with many very worthy pious and learned Priests and Prelates yet there are amongst them many false Prophets and no wonder was not there a Judas among the Twelve and false Teachers nay very many time-servers that pimp for Domination Honors Preferments and other vile and base ends and like Micha's Levite for a little better reward swallow any thing stick at nothing by School-quirks and false Reasonings perverting Scriptures to rob whole Kingdoms of their Laws Liberties and Religion that daub with untempered Mortar flatter Profaneness court and allure Royalties to Perjury and Robbery whilst they Preach Quod libet licet and Sovereignty absolutely Absolute to be in Kings and their unaccountableness betray Truths smothering and dissembling the Strictness and Purity of holy Ways I contend not here against the lazy Drones that suck the Hony from the Bees by their Non-residency nor against the Dammees Euphoniae gratia these are personal Sins and hurt others only by Example and such there are but my contest is against those Ecclesiasticks who living and had interest at the upper end of the World not only usurped more Powers than they had right unto but abused those Powers and that Interest they had at Court from which abuse of Power pulpiting Divine Prerogatives of Kings beyond measure their unaccountableness misconstruing and extending Passive Obedience beyond its just Bounds Which have been the Harrangues of Prints and Pulpits till their own Copiholds came to be concerned come all the disturbances of Government in Church and State to whole Kingdoms No wonder then if contempt be poured on such of the Clergy and on such of them only as Preach such destructive Doctrines as deserve the severe Reprimand of whole Kingdoms for thereby all Laws Liberty Property Religion and Honesty would be trampled under foot Therefore it 's no Crime in the Laity to stand up in the defence of their own Rights and Concerns As it is the duty of Priests Ministers of the Gospel to teach us with Wisdom and Knowledge so it is our duty to esteem them highly in love if they do so for their Works sake and they that labour in the Word and Doctrine are worthy of double Honour and double Revenue they cannot have too much but they that do not Teach us with Knowledge and Understanding are worthy of neither but when they abuse and usurp Powers they have no right unto and claim them as their due by the most Potent Claim in the World Jure Divino monstrum horrendum Witness Excommunication because there hath as of old so of more late Days so much ill use made thereof of which I shall only say with Erastus de Excommunicatione that there is no such thing as it is now used in all the Scripture in Sanctis Scripturâ—s nullum extat mandatum sed commentum est pure humanum p. 67. Which renders the Execution thereof abominable To wrest Scripture to maintain such unlawful Powers doth very ill become the Priests of the most High God As it is their Duty to Teach so it is our Priviledge and Right to judge of their Doctrines yea and to put them in mind and admonish them also of their duty Coloss 4.17 Mistake me not as if this were bent against the Bishops only no no Papist Presbyter Independant are all to blame in this Point and it 's no excuse to us if we are deceived by the cunning Crastiness of our Ghostly Fathers whereby they lie in wait to deceive Let us look a little back no farther than our own Times and Memories and let them stand or fall in the good Graces of the Kingdom according to their Merits or Demerits Rushworth 644 1628. In the time of
is not necessary for the Raising of Aids and Subsidies Rush 602. An. 1628. That there was a general fear of secret Working and Combination to introduce into this Kingdom Innovation and change of our pure Religion by Persons much favoured and advanced not wanting Friends even of the Clergy near to your Majesty namely Dr. Neal Bishop of Winchester and Dr. Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells who are justly suspected to be unsound in their Opinions that way It being generally held to be the High-way to Preferment and Promotion in the Church many Scholars do bend the course of their Studies to maintain those Errors that their Books and Opinions are suffered to be printed and published and others written against them and in defence of the Orthodox Church are hindered and prohibited And we find that there hath been no small labouring to remove that which is the most powerful means to strengthen and increase our own Religion and to oppress Popery which is the diligent Teaching and Instruction of the People in the true Knowledg and Worship of God and therefore means have been sought out to depress and discountenance Pious Painful and Orthodox Preachers peaceable in their Disposition and Carriage and yet their Preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits hardly permitted to Lecture 602 632 634. 1628. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Quae peperit saepè scelerata atque impia facta 195. And our high and mighty Church of England Men did in our memories so superciliously manage their own haughty Resolutions that they necessitated the Parliament to take away their High Commission and their Parliamentary Priviledge forbidding them to meddle with any Temporal Affairs And I do not find that they are grown much more prudent yet for that they manage themselves in this intricate juncture of time at such a rate that all Mens Mouths are ready and stand half cockt against them and I fear may in time provoke the Parliament to do the like or more again they monopolizing all Government over others of themselves which is far from being Apostolical for in the Apostles times and divers Ages after all the People being under the inspection of one Bishop vulgarly the the Pastor of a Parish were wont to meet together not only for Worship but other Church Administrations all publick Acts passed at the Assemblies of the whole People they were consulted with their concurrence was thought necessary and their presence required that nothing might pass without their Cognizance Satisfaction and Consent This was observed not only in Election of Bishops Priests and Officers but in Ordination and Censures in Admission of Members and Reconciling of Penitents and in Debates and Consultations about other Emergencies but not one plain word in Scripture that one Apostle was subject to another nor one gathered Church subject to another or that any Man had lawful Authority to forbid Assembling of the Brethren together whether with or without a Priest In summ when Priest-craft had enlarged their Territories beyond their ancient Bounds which was but one Parish or a select Number scarce exceeding 150 or 200 unto many whereby they became Cardinals and Diocesans c. They thereby cajoled the People of their undoubted Rights and Priviledges and necessarily introduced an essential change of the True and Primitive Government of the Church set up by Christ and set up one to fit their own turn and ends In the very next Ages succeeding the Apostles and so for 400 Years and more one Parish or single Congregation was thought sufficient for one Bishop or Pastor so that as Christians multiplied so separate Congregations Bishops or Pastors so that there were as many Pastors or Bishops as there were several Congregations or Churches in a Province and not one Church or Congregation subject to the Laws Usages or Ordinances of any other No Churches gathered by St. Paul were subject to those gathered by St. Peter nor è contra of them or of any other of the Apostles or of any Churches gathered by their Successors Hence came several and diversity of Rites and Usages in the Ancient Churches without being accounted Schismaticks Separatists Non-cons or Phanaticks and with perfect Love Unity and Uniformity because they held the same Faith and Doctrine And 150 or 200 Souls was thought as many as one Bishop or one Pastor could take charge and give a good account of So that a single Congregation or gathered Church was esteemed a competent Charge for an Episcopal Pastor for the Episcopal Churches were daily multiplied and each Church had Power to govern and order it self and so followed such orders as every Church or gathered Congregation thought fit without being obliged to conform to those of any other Church or Congregation they had no Rule or Order in things of this nature requiring observance or did they regard such Uniformity as later Ages have been fond of to the prejudice of the Unity and Peace of the Church even to the persecuting of Righteous Men in our Kingdoms none of those Churches used the same Prayers all of them had not the same Creeds they had not the same Rites in Baptism or the Lord's Supper nor the same way in Confirming Marrying or Burying they used not the same mode either in reading the Scriptures or Singing they observed not the same methods in admitting Members or preparing them for the Communion neither proceeding to Censures or reconciling Penitents they differed also in their Habits and Postures they varied in their Fasts both for time and manner and observed not the same Festivals This was the Uniformity of the more Pure and Primitive times and no Persecution ensued no Appeals allowed from one Bishop or one Congregation to another So that the Uniformity the latter Ages have been so fond of is a down-right Novelty and Innovation which hath broken the Bond of Charity and Unity and instead thereof hath brought in Animosities Divisions and Separations nay Persecutions on God's Holy People very unworthy and unbeseeming Christian Pastors to make such actings more their business than the suppressings of Sin and promoting of real and strict Holiness All this and much more is so plain in ancient Writers that none but Novices and Chits in Story can be ignorant hereof If you will believe one of the greatest Prelates of the West and at no less than 600 Years distance from Christ In una fide nibil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae diversa consuetudo saith Gregory the first where there is one Faith it s no harm to the Church if there be diversity of usages i. e. the Church hath no harm for want of Uniformity And before him Innocent the first who lived about the Second Century in his Epist ad Decen writes that diversè in diversis locis vel Ecclesiis obtineri aut celebrari videntur To the Justification whereof and to the constant Practice thereof even from the Days of the Apostles unto
this very Day gives abundant Testimony the Churches of the Vaudois called Waldenses Albigenses poor Men of Lyons Chaignard Tramontani Lollards Siccari Fraticelli Gazares Turlepini c. and for their Simplicity Purity and Sincerity termed Evangelical having been for many Hundreds of Years injured reproached despised banished excommunicated anathematized Goods confiscated tortured wearing Miters in derision reviled spit upon Ears cropt their Flesh pincht off with Princers drawn with Horses drag'd up and down broiled roasted stoned to death burnt drowned dismembred smothered in Caves by hellish Papists c. who have preserved themselves from the infection of External Ministries of other Churches defiled with infinite human invention It being the Tenth Article of their Belief viz. That the inventions of Men are an unspeakable abomination before God And their custom is That if any of their Barbes their Pastors shall fall into any foul or unclean Sin he is cast out of their company and forbidden the Charge of Preaching They Teach also Article 15. That because the differences of Ceremonies Customs and Rites which are used in several Churches and are not prejudicial or hurtful to Piety they ought not to be offended one with another or contemn hate and persecute one another And Ph. Melancthon is of the same mind in his Epistle to Mr. Benedict and the rest of the Waldenses viz. that no difference and variety of Rites and Ceremonies ought to disunite our Minds Now if the Churches of the Valleys have been Celebrated through all Ages of the Church as they have been and are yet even to this day as the Worshippers of God in the greatest Purity and Simplicity and nearest the Purity and Simplicity of Christ and his Apostles and the least tainted with Romish Superstitions and human Inventions with what Face can Protestants Persecute Protestants for things indifferent desiring to Worship God in the same Simplicity Purity and Sincerity If the true Church of England be to be known by her Faith Doctrine Articles and Sacraments then beyond all contradiction the Non-con Presbyters and Independants are more truly right Church of England Men maugre all the Obloquies and ungrounded Prejudices against them than those that so imperiously appropriate and usurp that Name to themselves and happily a more sincere Homogeneal part of the Church Catholick without infringing Unity of Faith or true Doctrine But if Ceremonies or Usages not prescribed nor used by Christ or his Apostles in the purest Times must make the distinction then certainly their Non-conformity is more agreeable to the Practice of Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Times than the Ceremonial Usages and Practices of these later Ages for it must appear upon due examination that there was not one Ceremony either used or commanded in their times and yet Converts as many and then it will certainly and undeniably follow that all those Ceremonies introduced since are Innovations and consequently those that impose them on Severities and Censures are the Innovators and Separatists I had almost said Schismaticks tho' some with Brows of Brass have cast those odious Names on the Presbyters and Independants For those that impose Rites and Ceremonies no ways Essential to the saving of Souls on Penalties and Severities especially unto Silencing and Suspension to which conscientious Persons cannot submit must be the Schismaticks or else our Separation from Rome can hardly be justified If such Tenets and Practices must be the Test and Character of true Church of England Men I must confess my self not as yet so well qualified and I believe few others yet are more true Church of England Men for indeed I have no mind to make Religion lackey and hunt after earthly ends and purposes lest by pertaking with other Mens Sins I should receive of their Plagues also but by such Practices it is plain that they are not all Israel which are of Israel The true Church of England Men are Men of better Principles and more Honesty both Bishops and others who do comply conscientiously with the Innocent Ceremonies of our Church without Reviling Slandering Persecuting or Disturbing those who do as conscientiously Preach the same Gospel in Sincerity tho' in Conventicles without any Ceremonies as Christ and his Apostles did That the Churches of Christ are miserably rent and torn cannot be denied and that the breaches thereof hath proceeded from the Pride Ambition Laziness Uncharitableness and Contentions of the Clergy have been the chief cause thereof is as true The renting of Christ's seamless Coat began even in the days of the Apostles who rebuked them who said I am of Paul I am of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ as if Christ had been divided 1 Cor. 1.22 And therefore Paul besought them by the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ That they would all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions amongst them but that they be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment ver 10. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and division are ye not carnal and walk as men Who then is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom yee believed 1 Cor. 3.3 4 5. And it is well known that the wisest and most peaceable Men tho' of different Perswasions as protestants Papists and others are of Opinion that Constantine and other Pious Emperours endowing the Clergy with great Powers Priviledges Honours Offices Dignities and Preferments hath been the occasion of the Pride Luxury Tyranny Uncharitableness and Laziness of the Clergy and consequently the bane and destruction of true Holiness Purity and Simplicity that ought to be in the Clergy they being as Baits Snares Allurements and Temptations to seek and hunt after them and so to neglect to seek the Kingdom of God in the first place as they ought to do I may also say with many other wise and peaceable minded Men as a very great truth That as through pride cometh contention Prov. 13.10 so through the Pride and Haughtiness of the Clergy more havock hath been made of Love Charity Purity Sincerity and Simplicity of the Gospel than all the bloody Persecutions that have been in the World It is the Opinion of learned and judicious Mr. Jo. Hales in his Tract of Schism That were Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as that they admitted not of particular and private Fancies but contained only such things as in which all Christians do agree on And the event shall be that the Publick Service and Honour of God shall no ways suffer Whereas to load our Publick Forms with the private Fancies upon which we differ is the most sovereign way to perpetuate Schism unto the Worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading and Exposition of Scriptures Administration of Sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy tho' nothing either of private or Church Pomp of Garments of prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the
they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel This is the Summ of the Discipline and Government that Christ left to his Church for ought appears by any plain Scripture And what need of more or other For if the Ministers of the Everlasting Gospel have free liberty to Instruct break Bread exhibit the Sacraments and Pray the Civil Magistrate hath sufficient Power by God's own Ordinance to order all the rest And their Commission extends no farther viz. Go ye and 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 Matth. 28.19 20. Cura Animarum Salvation and Damnation of Souls being of Everlasting consequence and of the highest concern in the World to every individual is beyond all peradventure and contradiction the main Duty and Glory both of Priest and Prelate and to be apt to teach to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. 4.1 2. for hereunto most especially and if not onely they are called as was Aaron and if not called unto this Duty they are called unto none by any Patent or Commission from Heaven This was the Government the Apostles used and left no other and the Gospel prospered under it then and why it should not prosper under it still no reason can be asscribed however let us trace the steps thereof and see by what vile arts and means it became degenerated into meer worldly Forms set up for meer worldly Ends and Interests In the Days of our Saviour whilst on Earth there was a common Purse which Judas carried which was always filled and supplied with the free-will Offerings of pious devout Princes and of private Persons who plentifully contributed their Temporal Riches to the Churches which was first instituted kept and distributed for two Ends only viz. First For the Necessities of Christ and his Apostles Preachers of the Gospel Secondly For Alms for the Poor which was distributed as the Lord commanded by Judas who was a Thief and usurped to himself the said Goods common to the Apostolical Colledge and was so Covetous that he sold to the Jews the very Person of Christ When Christ was ascended into Heaven the Holy Apostles in the Church of Jerusalem kept on foot the same Holy institution and for the self-same Ends viz. for the Necessities of the Ministers of the Gospel and for Alms for the Poor the Faithful in those Days making all their Goods common sold their Possessions for the same Purse or Stock and Uses So that the Community of the Church was not distinct from the particular of each faithful Man Yet this Custom of having all things in common went not out of Jerusalem And in other Churches planted also by the Holy Apostles this Custom was not observed neither did it last long in Jerusalem Whereupon 26 Years after Christ it is read That the publick was distinct from the private every one knowing his own but the Money being common in that Church as in others founded in Oblations which placed in common served onely for the Ministers and for the Poor The first Day of the Week which for that cause was called the Lord's-Day the Faithful met together and each one offered that which he had set apart of the foregoing Week for the Necessities of the common which was administred and distributed by the Apostles themselves for a short time after the Ascension whence arose murmurings and discontents and many dissatisfactions some thinking they were neglected and had too little and that others had too much which gave great trouble and distractions to the Apostles which they considering and finding that they could not attend this perfectly together with Preaching the Word of God they resolved to stick close to the Ministery of Preaching and Teaching and Praying continually and therefore appointed for this Office of having care of Temporal things another sort of Ministers Deacons quite disserent from that we see done in these Days wherein the Pope and Chief Prelates of the Church attend the Government of Temporal things and the Office of Preaching and Teaching and the Doctrine of the Gospel neglected and left unto Friars or Brethren and inferior Priests in the Church Wherefore they directed the Brethren to look out among themselves from the body of the Faithful Seven Men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom whom they appointed for that Ministery that they might give themselves continually to Prayer and to the Ministery of the Word And wheresoever they founded a Church they also appointed Deacons in the same manner and to the same Ministery As also they ordained Bishops and Priests and other Ecclesiastical Ministers Fasting and Praying preceeding And the common Election of the Faithful following after observing inviolably this order never deputing any Man to any Ecclesiastical Charge who was not first Elected by the Universality of the Church which is of all the Faithful together This Custom was observed not only during the life-times of the Apostles but even about two hundred Years maintaining the Ecclesiastical Ministers and the Poor also with the publick Stock raised by such Oblations And the fervent Zeal and Charity of those Times was so great that the Oblations amounted to very great Summs In the Church of Rome that rich City Marcion about the Year 170 gave a free-will Offering at one time of Five thousand Crowns of Gold in the Church of Rome who afterward holding Erroneous Opinions in matters of Faith he was expelled from the Congregation and all his Money restored to him This rich City grew so rich by those Oblations that after Two hundred and twenty Years the Roman Emperours coveted them Whereupon Decius the Prince arrested St. Lawrence a Roman Deacon to take the Ecclesiastical Treasures from him but he being aware thereof distributed them all suddenly and so disappointed the Tyrant The Church thus abounding in Riches the Clergy began then to degenerate and to live at ease not being content with the daily Food of the Church but would have their separate shares every Day or Month or longer and live where they pleased which tho' it declined from the Primitive Perfection was yet winked at by the Fathers but it rested not here for the Bishops began to fail the Poor of their due and kept more for themselves and so growing Rich with the Goods of the Church dealt also in Usury to increase in Riches and withall leaving off the Care of Teaching the Doctrines of Christ and busied themselves in getting Pelf of which St. Cyprian complains in his time Tho' the Church possessed so much Wealth yet it had no settled or stable Goods at the first Yet in France and in Italy some left or gave stable Goods to Churches which in the Year 302 were all confiscated by Dioclesian and Maniminian tho' in France
Psalm hath a Dodrine ver 26. If any Man speak ver 27. let the Prophets speak two or three and let the other judge ver 29. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first bold his peace ver 30. for ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all be comforted v. 31. and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets v. 32. let the women keep silence ver 31. wherefore bretheren covet to prophesie ver 39. Now if the words or terms of the whole Church all every one any Man the other another Bretheren be words and terms of universality and differencing then certainly the Words Prophets and Prophecying in this Chapter are most especially applicable to the Bretheren to the Auditors In this Chapter also are Instructions given that Women in these Conventicles do hold their peace ver 31. let all prophesie one by one that all may learn and be comforted and all things be done decently and in order all which are Commandments of the Lord ver 37. If these be no Divine Oracles and Precepts to all the Faithful to congregate for the ends and purposes aforesaid then I understand neither plain Scripture nor plain English But if any Men will understand God otherwise than he will be understood and distinguish Scriptures and model them to their own humour and accept or reject his truth as will best consist with their own resolutions and by oblique Arts think to trick us out of our just Rights I leave them to the just Judgment of God who will judge Righteously The Primitive and puest Churches were so gathered and so propagated Moreover the same Apostle re-inforceth the same Doctrine in his Epistle to the Hebrews ch 10. ver 23 24 25. to hold fast the profession of Faith without wavering to consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is Heb. 10.23 24 25. who fearing the Breath of Fools and that thereby their designs of Honours and Preferments and other wretched Ends would be defeated dare not assemble to husband the precious moments of thier lives to the advantage of their Master what is this else but to bespatter and to have scornful and mean conceits of the humility of the ways of Christ and of the simplicity of his Gospel Do they not rather betray much luke-warmness and indifferency and walk in a Neutrality and Adiaphorism between God and Baal nay much hellishness and devillish Antipathy to Christ and his strictest service For in truth it is unbeseeming nor Priest nor Prelate but a duty incumbent upon them to counenance and encourage Conventicles or Assemblies guilty of nothing maugre all the false Aspersions and Calumnies laid upon them by Men carried away with the stream of this wicked World and the common prejudices and presumptions of foolish Men but of great Zeal to worship God and save their own Souls by besieging and besetting the Throne of heaven with more ardent and retired Prayers and Conferences Why do they thus mock God as one mocketh another Job 13.9 Certainly it would better become them to be zealous son Piety and good Lives because vicious Habits are worse than false Opinions And it is not only a duty incumbent on Prelate Priest and People but their glory also to countenance every thing that is done to gain Souls to Christ whether in pretence or in truth Phil. 1.15 16 17 18. and nothing is unseemly but vice Christians indeed ought to abstain from those things which are repugnant to Christian Profession which are Sins but whatsoever may be done without sin is lawful for every man to do and therefore may assemble Besides nothing ought to be condemned or spoken ill of that is capable of a good construction of which nature are our Conventicles and yet are reviled and evil spoken of by some who have the poyson of Asps under their Lips and whose Throats are as open Sepulchers because it is not only humanity but a Gospel Principle to make the most favourable and charitable construction of all Actions capable of a good and bad interpretation for charity thinketh no evil and we are commanded above all things to have fervent Charity for that shall cover a multitude of sins 1 Pet. 4.8 and envieth not is kind doth not behave it self unseemly as they do that decry Conventicles thereby giving great jealousie that in good earnest they esteem that Ordinance foolishness of Preaching desperately contemning the Purity and Simplicity of the Gospel thinketh no evil believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. and I fear that they that have not this Charity towards such Conventicles their Charity is but as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal and you know that Revilers are in the black Catalogue of the damned Crew mentioned 1 Cor. 6.9 10. and by so judging they prescribe for themselves and prejudge themselves Judge not that ye be not judged for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged Why beholdest thou the moat that 's in thy Brether's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Matth. 7.1 2 3. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Yea he shall be holden up for God is able to make him stand Rom. 14.4 and God alone is Judge of erring Persons Besides I know no Power on Earth that hath lawful Authority to forbid any Man to Preach the Gospel or that they that are called to Preach are obliged to ask leave of any other to Preach the Gospel either publickly or privately Christ and his Apostles notwithstanding all Threatnings and Imprisonments Prohibitings Scourgings what not yet preached the Gospel o th openly in their Synagogues and in the Temple and also privately by stealth even at midnight breaking Bread from House to House till they lost their lives for so doing which they would not have done had it been unlawful so to have done For my part I am of Opinion That our love to the Bretheren is the best and most manifest evidence of our love to God and the best Rule whereby to measure our love to him and I hope I shall never eminently see the Image of Christ in any Man Conventicler or not Conventicler but shall love him more dearly for it and abhor my self for being so much unlike him Why dost thou judge thy Brother or why dost thou set at naught by Brother for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And God will measure us by his own Line and by his own Plummet Deus bone unto what then doth all this Gall of Asps these I breats as wide as open Sepulchers decrying Conventicles and persecuting of them tend out of Zeal to the more strict and pure ways of serving God not possible it rather gives more occasions of greater Fears and Jealousies of more rancourous constitution of Hearts against
God and remember that the Redeemer of the oppressed is mighty and never more ready to avenge the Cause of the innocent and oppressed than when it is most neglected by his Vice-gerents Ahab and Jezabel exercised in Israel Authority without controul Who should punish the oppression of Naboth the Lord takes the Cause into his own Hand and causeth Dogs to lick hhis Blood in the very place where they licked the innocent Blood of Naboth and the Dogs did eat the Flesh of Jezabel that cursed Woman by the wall of Jezreel so there is Blood for Blood and an utter extinction of Ahab's posterity 1 Kings 21. lege Taleonis M. B. in his Sermon before his Majesty on the 2 Pet. 3.16 lays down for a sure Rule That it is the Duty of private men to submit their Judgments in matters of Religion to the Determinations of those whom God hath constituted to be their Spiritual Guides and Governours unless it manifestly appears that such Determinations are contrary to God's Word pag. 6. And so we are if any * Apollos Minister of Caesarea and of Iconia was an Eloquent Man mighty in the Scripture instructed in the way of the Lord servent in the Spirit why spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord and spake boldly in the Synagogue and yet Aquila and Priscilla his Wife Tent-makers when they heard him took him home and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly Acts 18.24 25 26. private Man teach another any Truths and to believe the private Man before any Spiritual Guides or Governours that preach and teach Untruths and every Man for himself is the proper Judge of what is taught The Apostles themselves tho' infallible submitted their Doctrines to the Judgment of their Disciples Judge ye Acts 4.19 1 Cor. 10.15 and so must our Guides and Governors which he would insinuate here to be the Clergy i. e. Bishops and Priests if so he will be mistaken they are only Officers in the Church to Teach Baptize c. but the Church in the truest sense i. e. the whole Congregation of the Faithful is to govern its own Body and the Officers thereof not the Officers the Church which will not please The Ecclesiastical Politician declares That it is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supreme Magistrate of every Commonwealth should be vested with a Power to Govern and Conduct the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion pag. 10. How is it possible that the Supreme Magistrate and our Spiritual Guides and Governors should both have the guide of our Consciences And that Peace and Tranquillity of Commonwealth being the prime and most important end of Government can never be sufficiently secured unless Religion be subject to the Authority of the Supreme Power pag. 11. And unless Princes have Power to bind their Subjects to that Religion that they apprehend most advantageous to publick Peace and Tranquillity and restrain those Religious mistakes that tend to its subversion they are no better than Statues and Images of Authority pag. 12. For it is clear if this Ecclesiastical Polititian may be believed that a Prince is endued with a Power to conduct Religion and that must be subject to his Dominion as well as other Affairs of State pag. 13. The consequence of which Doctrines are That if Nebuchadnezzar erect his prodigious Idol and upon pain of a fiery Furnace require all to Worship it all People Nations and Languages must presently be upon their Faces and for their warrant for so doing he assures them That in Cases and Disputes of publick concernment private Men are not properly sui Juris they have no Power over their own Actions they are not to be directed by their own Judgments or determined by their own Wills but by the Commands and Determinations of the publick Conscience And if there be any sin in the command he that imposed it shall answer for it and not I whose Duty is to obey the commands of Authority will warrant my Obedience my Obedience will hallow or at least excuse my Action and so secure me from Sin if not from Error because I follow the best Guide and most probable Direction I am capable of and tho' I may mistake my Integrity shall perserve my Innocence In all doubtful and disputable Cases it is better to err with Authority than to be in the right against it and therefore in all such matters their Commands are the Supreme Rule of Conscience not only because the danger of a little Error and so it is if it be disputable is over-weighed by the importance of the great Duty of Obedience but because they are the fittest Judges pag. 308 309. What is this but down-right asserting the abominable Papal Doctrines of Probability and of blind Obedience brave Doctrines for a Tory Church of England Man to Preach and Print impuné Good God! whether are we posting I thank God I have been taught better things viz. Every one of us shall give account of himself to God Rom. 14.12 The soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 28.20 The soul of the publick conscience shall not be put to death for the sins of the private nor the souls of private consciences be put to death for the sins of the publick but every man shall be put to death for his own sin Deut. 24.16 Daw-Divines to Print that the publick Conscience shall stand between the private Conscience sinning by his Command and the Judgment of the great Day and excuse from Sin I thank God that I have been taught by true Church of England Men indeed that God never created Men nor ever endued them with Conscisciences or gave them Talents of Reason or Judgment subject and enslaved to the Judgment Conscience or Reason of others but hath endued and trusted every Man with his own proper Talent of Conscience Reason and Judgment to chuse for himself according to which only he shall be judged and stand or fall at the Day of Judgment and not according to any publick Conscience There would be very little need of Priests if blind Obedience ought to prevail and not our own free choice He proceeds and tells us That God hath appointed the Magistrates to be his Trustees and Officials here upon Earth to act and determine in moral Virtues and pious Devotions according to all accidents and emergencies of Affairs to assign new particulars of the Divine Law to declare new bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither doth nor can limit pag. 18. That it s absolutely necessary to the Peace and Happiness of Kingdoms that there be set up a more severe Government over Mens Consciences and Religions and Perswasions than over their Vices and Immoralities Preface to his Eccl. Pol. p. 53. And that Princes may with less bazard give liberty to Mens Vices and Debaucheries than to their Consciences pag. 55. I have heard it also preached before the King That it is better to
become more sensless of God's Glory Wrath and Indignation and the eternal Welfare of the pretious Souls of God's own People than was Balaam's dumb Ass The fatal mischief of such base Flattery and of such Pulpit Laws and Doctrines as it was foreseen punished and declared to tend to the ruine of this or any other Nation by the Wisdom of our Sage Predecessors so we did see it was fairly fulfilling in our late Days and times Such was the Imprudence nay Impudence of the then Court Clergy favourites and sycophants in those Days that tho' Sibthorp and Mainwaring were by King and Parliament so severely doomed to be punished yet no sooner was the Parliament up but by the Interest of those fawning time-servers the said Mainwaring and Sibthorp were preferred and Archbishop Abbot frowned upon because he would not License such pulpit destructive Doctrines And it is such only of the Clergy and other lewd Priests that are in contempt and vile esteem with the Nation whilst others true Church of England Men indeed are as highly in their Esteem and Veneration Thus to discover Crimes of some Priests is not to Calumniate the Church of England but that she may be purged of such Vermin The Reverend Dean of Rippon in his Sermon on 1 Kings 8.66 is of like Mind and Principles who therein declares That be the Kings Heart inclinable to any Religion or none yet it leaves him no Rival none to contradict him for he is made our King by God's Law of which the Law of the Land is only declarative Kings must not be upbraided with their Promises which Promises are Donatives and it is reason the Donor should have the explaining of his own Mind that the King is major universis as well as singulis that the sole Legislative Power is lodged in the King and to him belongs the Interpretation of all Laws and Dispensing with them and that he may make a grant with a non obstante to them c. Pure Doctrine for a Reverend Dean to Preach and yet this pure Mungril Church of England Man preferred to be Bishop of Chester for these abominable Doctrines Whoever will seriously consider and compare those dismal Preachments and Prints destructive to all human Societies which our high Church of England Men pulpitted and printed heretofore and how highly they were disgusted by several Parliaments the greatest Wisdom of our Nation and dissatisfied therewith and how they stigmatized those very Doctrines and condemning the Authors of them to mulcts and punishments and yet when those Parliaments were up those very false Teachers were carressed with Pardons and Preferments whoever I say will compare those Doctrines with those Mr. Samuel Johnson printed and maintained even to the undergoing of Inquisition Torments and which the present Parliament and generality of the Nation now own justifie and practise with their Lives and Fortunes must confess that both the Reward and Punishment of the one and the other were mightily misplaced It is yet fresh in our own Memories when our Clergy were much more modest when but one Temporizing Sibthorp and another Court-Parasite Mainwaring durst Pulpit or Print such Doctrines under the Sacred Title of Apostolick Obedience Licens'd by the then Bishop of London and for which they received the just Censures of the King and the whole Kingdom in Parliament which in the truest sense is the Church or rather the Representative Governing part both of Church and State the Bishops and Priests being but Officers thereof which they do not love to hear of but now Confidence nay the Brow of Brass is the Temper and Complexion of very many Pulpits which Thunder every where with such Documents and Outcries as the High-ways to Preferments always having their Mouths half-cockt to let fly at all their gain-sayers not only in the Pulpits and Prints but also in all publick places and Meetings as Coffee-Houses Westminster-Hall Court of Request Lobbies in Parliament-time can witness whereby they have obtained a new name of Tory Church of England Men. They scorn to consider the black Characters they were then stigmatized and branded with by former Parliaments as serpens qui devorat serpentem fit Draco that they tended to the alteration and subversion of the whole Frame and Fabrick of the State and Common-wealth That they tended to the seducing of the Conscience of the King to increase his Royal displeasure against his Subjects to scandalize impeach and subvert the good Laws and Government of the Kingdom and Authority of Parliaments to avert his Majesty's Mind from calling of Parliaments to alienate his Royal Heart from his People to cause Jealousies Sedition and Divisions in the Kingdom c. Besides these Characters they held it a great presumption for a private Divine to debate the Right and Power of the King which is a matter of such a nature as to be handled onely in Parliament and that with moderation and therefore the said two Sermons called Religion and Allegiance were adjudged to be called in and burnt by the King's Proclamation the Author to make his submission and acknowledgment of his Crime to the imprisoned during the pleasure of the House to be fined 1000 l. suspended for three Years from the Exercise of the Ministery disabled to have any Ecclesiastical Dignity or Secular Office and for ever disabled to Preach at Court A better Example to imitate and follow than either Fire and Faggot or the Address of the Universities or the Pulpit Doctrines of the 9th of September 1683 wherein both King Nobles Prelates and People were interessed in that Judgment Were such Tenets of such ill consequence by the Judgment of the whole Nation in those Days and are they not the same now where 's the difference The violation offered to plain Texts of Scripture by perverting the true and natural sense and meaning of them by such of the Clergy a Generation of Men that under the umbrage of that Sacred Canopy of Religion as being appointed Teachers and Ministers of the Gospel indued with the Power of Ordination set up for themselves in an opposite and distinct Interest separated from the rest or Body of the Church whereby they erect regnum in regno against the Purity and Sincerity of Religion and Interest of Mankind and this they have been upon the catch to compass by little and little almost ever since the Apostles Days and that by sinister means hath been the occasion of all Misgovernments by ascribing Divine Power to Kings and that they are accountable to none but God for any male-regiment False Prophets not considering if Rulers hearken to Lyes and such are all false glossers on Texts of Scripture all his servants will be wicked Prov. 9.12 such-like of the Clergy are the Time-servers and Court-Parasites that draw odium and contempt upon that Sacred Profession that ought to be had in Reverence by all the Sons and Daughters of Men. I could wish that they would first pull out the Beams that are in their own
Prophesie but of the Press also A shrewd sign that they disguise the truth and are afraid to be discovered and that they do distrust the Judgment of the World upon such their Actions For it is a derogation to Faith to dread the publishing of Truths All the World hath ever complained of the Vices Incroachments and Male-government of the Clergy attributing the cause of all State Distempers to be that the Clergy did creep into and busie themselves in the Courts of Princes and in the Affairs of the World being Judges Chancellors Secretaries Treasurers What not there being but few Officers of State into which some Ecclesiasticks have not insinuated themselves and crept in which is to ridicule Religion and shamefully to confound Spiritual and Temporal things together which is altogether Unapostolical This I am sure is forbidden by St. Paul and the whole tenor of the Scripture who thought it necessary that a Soldier of the Church should abstain from Secular imployments 2 Tim. 2.4 for Christianity is a continual Warfare they would take it very ill if one should say that Priesthood were not Jure Divino and happily well they may and I doubt they will take it as ill if we say that because it is Jure Divino therefore no Priest from the Presbyter to the Pope ought to busie themselves or take any Secular Imployment that may any way impede their daily Ministrations distract or avert their Thoughts or necessarily enforce their absence Vid. Canon Apost 7.80 And in the Ecclesiastical Laws there is a whole Title Ne Clerci vel Monachi secularibus negotiis innisceant Pope Clement the Seventh to serve a turn made all demonstration that he had laid aside all thoughts of Temporal things I could wish our Priests would do it in good earnest And St. Chrysostom hath a long discourse complaining of Clergy-men leaving the care of Souls and become Proctors Economists c. Preaching things unbeseeming the Ministery And it is not only against Precept Divine but against Moral and Natural right as appeareth Luke 10.7 and Matth. 10.10 1 Tim. 5.18 It is the labourer the workman not the lasie drone and loyterer that is worthy of his hire his meat and his reward It is they who minister not they who do not minister about holy things that have right to live of the things of the Temple and they that wait not they that do not wait at the Altar not at the Court or on secular Imployments that have right to be partakers of the Altar for the Lord hath so ordained that they which preach not they who preach not the Gospel should live of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. For Priesthood was at first instituted not for Honours nor for Dignities nor for Rewards as now used and have been so used many hundreds of Years but for Ministeries and Charges called by St. Paul Works and those that excrcise them called by Christ Workmen tho Priest-craft hath turned them into Benefices For Priests are most properly God's Workmen And St. Paul's practice was anserable to his Doctrine and the charge is given Rom. 12.7 8. to wait on that office whereunto we are called whether to prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministery let us wait on our ministery or be that teacheth on teaching c. Where there is a Commandment there lies a Bond upon the Conscience to do To Preach the Gospel there is a Duty ever binding a Minister with a woe annexed if he Preach not Moreover the work of Preaching is so much more excellent above all other Acts of the Ministery that for my part I cannot imagine what that great and important business of the Ministery can be to which it can become preaching to submit I am sure not Sacraments and if not Sacraments I am sure nothing more excellent Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 1.17 he might as well have said not to domineer not to do any thing in this sense comparatively as he desires to be understood Besides is there any thing more honourable Hear the same Apostle 1 Tim. 5.17 the Elders that rule well are worthy of double honour Call it Reverence or Maintenance or both however a specialty in it belongs to them that labour in the Word and Doctrine And it is most certain that more sound honour is to be gained in the Hearts of the People by Preaching than by all outward helps whatsoever What say I honour amongst Men yea more comfort to their Consciences and glory in God's Kingdom Hear Solomon Prov. 11.30 he that winneth Souls is wise and Daniel 12.3 they that turn others to righteousness shall shine as the Stars in the firmament And Paul 1 Thess 2.19 What is our hope our joy our crown of rejoycing are ou not it in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming What comfort like this when a Minister comes before the Lord the great Shepheard of the Sheep with the word of Isaiah applied to our Saviour Lo me and the Children thou hast given me Isai 8.18 the Sons and Daughters which by thy blessing I have begotten unto thee in the Gospel One of the Apostles on whose Shoulders lay the care of all the Churches yet denounces woe to himself if he preach not the Gospel And Timothy hath that charge laid on him with an heavy adjuration to preach the Word 2 Tim. 4.1 2. Besides their very Priesthood obligeth them to be Watchmen and therefore to watch continually on their Ministry and if any of their Flock miscarry thro' their unwatchfulness their blood will be required at their hands and they cannot be ignorant that Sathan with millions of sins and stratagems are ever besieging inticing clamoring haling rebelling intruding with Love with Strength with Law with Arguments with Importunities always importuning and diverting their Flocks from the right way and therefore they ought always to stand Sentinel to forewarn and help Certainly if the Apostles were so Puritanical so Phanatical so Whiggish and so scrupulous of entertaining any Imployment tho' never so Pious and Charitable that might any way in the least hinder the main end of their Duty viz. to preach the Gospel I humbly conceive that our Bishops and Priests accounting themselves successors of the Apostles and sent as they were sent ought also to follow their Doctrine and Examples as well in this particular as in any other And sith the Lords provision for Levites was so made that they might attend the Altar and wait continually on the Sanctuary without the distraction and cumber of any civil Imployments I cannot see how plunging conflicting earthly Imployments can consist with the duty and charge of a Minister and execution of his Commission seeing to preach the Gospel being a duty ever binding Ministers with a Woe annxed if they preach not Woe to the idle shepherds if they preach not Ezek. 34.2 as heavy as to those that are at ease in Sion They cannot
that Christ was preached in season and out of season though out of envy and strife though not sincerely though but in pretence and not in truth were living now and here would condemn our Conventicles or would not rather be in the midst of them himself I appeal to God and your own Consciences if you your selves ought not to continue stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread from House to House and Prayers If Conventicles in our Days do endeavour to come as near as they can to continue stedfast in the Doctrine and Fellowship of the Apostles why should they be interrupted Were not Spiritual Men mad doting upon mediocrities of Grace they would never burlesque the purity and simplicity of the Gospel nor the most strict ways of Piety and by ungrounded prejudices mis-judge them as Shagreen to good Government According to my Divinity Preaching in season out of season though not sincerely though but in pretence though not in truth Crimes of which I hope our Conventicles are no ways guilty and to become all things to all men that by all means they may save some is but to do the Will of their Master but more especially when their assembling and associating in such Conventicles is only to redeem and improve precious time by endeavouring to make all moments of their life comfortable and beneficial to themselves and others sparing sufficient time to humble themselves and to keep a constant communion with their and our God Pope Pius the Fourth could say That he would humble himself to Heresie in regard what ever was done to gain Souls to Christ did become that See And shall Protestants Clergy and not Clergy be like the Saduces and be grieved at heart that the People be taught the right ways of the Lord Absit I hope the Church of England tho' there have been and still are scab'd Sheep among them is not yet so corrupted as to have that laid to her charge which Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees That in vain they worshipped God teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and of which St. Austin complained in the Church wherein he lived which was so corrupted that the Commandments of God are laid aside teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and those exacted with such Severity nay with Tyranny that they were more severely censured who transgressed them than those who transgressed the Laws of God It is certainly so in Rome I will I could say it had never been so in England It is absurd to cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord boasting of the Priviledges that the Gospel doth afford us and at the same time to prevaricate with God and the Redeemed of his own Blood to give them stones instead of bread and serpents instead of fish by such their destructive Doctrines and punish more for Non-conforming than for not Preaching and as by Excommunication to deny and abridge the excommunicate the participation of Sermons Sacraments Sabbaths c. all outward means of Grace and Repentance Did St. Paul and the Corinthians forbid him whom they had delivered to Satan to come to their Assemblies or partake of the Sacraments Did Christ ever forbid Publicans and Sinners to come unto him Did he not eat the Passover with Judas the greatest of Sinners When the Pharisees objected his eating and drinking with Sinners as a crime did not he tell him That they that are whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Matth. 9.11 12. Did he not converse daily with them Did he not cast out unclean Spirits nay Devils out of them And yet our excommunicates tho' but for Niff-Naffs must not approach the Temple of the Lord nor assemble in the Holy Congregations This hath been the practise of some Centuries of Years both of the Popish and Protestant Churches when in truth there 's no such thing in Holy Writ as it hath been and still is used in both Churches And that Excommunication that is mentioned in Scripture if any at all is in the body of the Church and not in the Officers thereof and which the Laity have as much Authority to exercise against the Clergy as the Clergy against the Laity it cannot be denied Is it recorded in any Scripture Old or New that the Church doors were to be shut against the vilest Sinners or Sacraments or Communion denied unto them and yet the use of Excommunication hath been and still is such in both Churches I should account it a marvellous happiness if any thing that I have written might so far prevail with our Clergy as seriously to take into their consideration their interessing and intermedling with Civil Affairs and Imployments and also Excommunication which bring so much odium and contempt upon them and lay to Heart how many hundreds of Years the Church hath been imposed upon and abused by them The abuse of which by the Roman Pontiffs hath been abominable even against Emperors Kings Princes and States that all Histories swell therewith and stinks in the Nostrils of God and Man But not so much abused by any Protestant Churches By Excommunication as now used they have done as much as in them lay to frustrate the whole design of the Gospel by debaring the Excommunicates the use and enjoyment of the outward means of Grace and Repentance What strange kind of Sacriledge is this that when Christ hath appointed Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments c. for the conversion of Sinners to him and for establishing and confirming them when converted our Priests out of self-Ends and Interests preach up another Doctrine viz. Excommunication which debars the benefit of them all and so by a new Gospel of their own do as much as in them lieth send People to the Devil instead of allowing them the means of Salvation How contrary how unlike were the Gospel-censures of old to this now in vogue they were for Edification not for Destruction as this knack or spell of Excommunication is Besides the Spiritual prejudices to the Salvation of Souls by Priests-craft it is extended also unto Temporals as that the Excommunicate cannot sue at Law for any Debts Land or for redress of injuries done unto him nor at his Death dispose of his Goods or Estate If this be Gospel I understand not Gospel-truths It 's a shame that Religion should be thus made use of and used so dirtily as to make it serve turns and Godliness to wait upon Gain Pride and Domination of Priests It would be a marvellous happiness to these Nations if the Church of England Men would yet be so wise and considerate in these evil and confounding times as to fettle among themselves the distracting Doubts of taking our New Oaths of Passive Obedience of Non-resistance of Allegiance of Praying for our KING For whilst they are of such different Opinions among themselves what would they have us sid Mortals the Laicks to do A separation if not worse must ensue and that of the highest nature and