Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	true_a	visible_a	1,038	5	9.2291	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35696	Jus Cæsaris et ecclesiæ vere dictæ or, A treatise wherein independency, presbytery, the power of kings, and of the church, or of the brethren in ecclesiastical concerns, government and discipline of the church : and wherein also the use of liturgies, tolleration, connivence, conventicles or private assemblies, excomminication, election of popes, bishops, priests what and whom are meant by the term church, 18 Matthew are discoursed : and how I Cor. 14. 32. generally misunderstand is rightly expounded : wherein also the popes power over princes, and the liberty of the press, are discoursed / by William Denton ...	Denton, William, 1605-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing D1066; ESTC R9164	326,898	268

each esteem other better than themselves § Having thus precautioned the Readers by a General and Impartial Admonition being as lyable to the lash thereof my self if a transgressor as any other without any particular reflection and much less upon the Scriptures immediately foregoing brought by the Independants upon which it may seem to have most reflection as being inserted in the very rear and next adjoyning unto them yet I must say that unto my apprehension there is generally a vein of fallacy or to express it as modestly as the case will bear of Misapplication runs through very many of their Scriptural quotations applying that which is meant of the Church in one sence unto that which is to be understood of the Church in another sence or that which is meant of a National Church or of a City Church as of that of Jerusalem or of those famous Churches of Asia unto every petit Congregation and the like concerning the powers of Churches and the use of the term Liberty and the like Though I am thus Opiniated yet I must say withal that were the Scene of the Church laid in Turkey or any Heathenish Gentile or Savage Country professed enemies to the Gospel and Cross of Christ where no Legislative power taketh Gods pure Religion into their protection I could have much less to say against them but until better information must acknowledge them a very plausible if not a full proof of their Independency but the Scene being laid here in a Christian Common-wealth I suppose they will come very short of proof § As of one and the same litteral sense of some words or texts of Scripture Daille lic ● c. 11. f. 1●● there may be and usually are two or more objects the one more the other less principal and proper among which the word Church hath a great variety of significations and importances and by consequence it must have one principal object of which all the principal Powers Attributes and Titles of the Church are punctually and accurately verified and other objects less principal to which notwithstanding the same name or title are in some measure often communicated So there is nothing which sooner precipitates both the more and less learned into errors than Identity of names or words including in them diversity of significations or importances and consequently each several signification or importance is always incroaching upon the Powers Attributes or Prerogatives which most properly appertain to some other more prime and principal Now the best way to prevent the inconveniences whereunto the multiplicity and diversity of its significations or acceptations do expose us is in reading first to consider of the Powers Attributes Prerogatives or Royalties which belong either solely or principally unto it and then to value the other significations or importances and rate their several Attributes or Properties by the nearness or remoteness of their affinity with it or reference unto it § The Church of Christ which we term his Body mystical can be but One and that only apprehensible by the intellectual conceipt of our minds and not sensibly to be discerned by any of us for that some are in Heaven and some on Earth and though the persons of those on earth be visible yet we cannot know that they are truly and infallibly of that Body the sincerity of their hearts and Faith being to us invisible and to God only distinctly and individually known yet may we rationally know that there is such a reall Body a Body collective consisting of many a Body mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from our senses All are not Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9.6 and no mortal can infallibly distinguish them It was Christ only that knew Nathaniel to be a true Israelite indeed in whom was no guile John 21.15 Many may prophesie cast out Devils and do wonderful works in Christs Name Matth. 22. and yet be deceivers whom God only can know and distinguish But this Church is not the proper subject of this discourse § As the everlasting promises of love mercy and blessedness belongs unto the mystical Church even so when we read of any duty which the Church of God is obliged unto the Church which this doth concern is a sensibly known Company and this visible Church in like sort is but one successively continued from the beginning of the World and will continue untill time shall be no more and which consists partly of Members before and partly of Members since the coming of Christ and which have already and which shall hereafter embrace the Christian Religion we term as by a more proper Name the Church of Christ whereof there are many Members yet but one Body 1 Cor. 12.27 And therefore the Apostle affirmeth plainly all men Christian be they Jews or Gentiles bond or free they are all incorporated into one Company they all make but one Body that he might reconcile both unto God in One Body Eph. 2.16 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs also and of the same Body Eph. 3.6 And they all professing one Lord one Faith one Baptism Eph. 4.5 Neither is this Church the Visible Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only proper subject matter of this discourse though it be not altogether exclusive § For preservation even of Christianity and of Christian unity peace and concord there is not any thing more needful and requisite than that such as are of the Visible Church have mutual fellowship and society one with another In which consideration to use their own simile As the Sea or Collection of waters Gen. 1.10 being one one in nature yet not one in name and number for that within divers precincts it hath divers names as the Baltick the Mediterranean the Red Sea so the Catholick Visible Church is in like sort divided into a number of distinct Societies every of which is termed a Church within it self In this sense the Church is always a visible Society of men not meerly an Assembly but a Society For though the name of Church be given unto Christian Assemblies and though any number of Christian men congregated may quodam sensu be termed a Church yet Assemblies properly are rather things that belong to the Church than the Church it self men are assembled for performance of publick Actions which Actions being ended the Assembly dissolveth it self and is no longer in being whereas the Church which was assembled doth no less continue afterwards than before Where but three are and they of the Laity also there is a Church a Christian Assembly But a Church as in this discourse we ought to understand it is a Society or a Fraternity to use their own terms still i. e. a number of men belonging unto some Christian Fellowship the place and limits whereof is certain and who are endued with sufficient powers attributes and properties to govern it self and this Church is the most proper subject of this discourse which doth neither exclude

earnestly but inconsiderately pleaded for again But what did this Liberty produce but Factions Schisms and variety of Fashions and Modes in Celebrating the common Service and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rights and Ceremonies of the Church nay it is observed as intimated before in the Register of Petworth that many at this time affirmed the most blessed Sacrament to be of little regard that in many places it was irreverently used and cast out of the Church and many other great enormities committed nay many of the Licensed Preachers appear'd as Active against the Kings proceedings as any of the unlicensed Preachers had been found to be now what security can this our Author give to our Prince that if the like Liberty should now be Indulged to him and others that it shall not be abused nor produce the like or worse effects All which together with the Insurrections in Cornwall Devon Norfolk Suffolk and other Counties springing therefrom the King and his Council seeing the dangerous consequence thereof concluded that Uniformity was the best remedy against Schisme Heresie Faction and for the quiet State and Weal of the Kingdom and therefore gave Order to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and other Learned and Pious Men rather than to use Severity against his Subjects that a publick Liturgy should be drawn and Confirmed by Parliament with several Penalties to be Inflicted on all those who should not readily conform to the Rules and appointments of it and accordingly it was so signified unto the Kingdom by Proclamation Queen Elizabeth who was not unacquainted with such Sollicitations nor with the Consequences of them gave that reason in her time for not suffering any deviation from the established Form viz. that the English Angli beli● intrepidi as they were Zealous in their Religion so they were a Stout and Warlike Nation and the difference in Rites and Worship would unavoidably beget words and disputes which would certainly beget Animosities and consequently Blows and Insurrections the experience whereof she had seen in the first years of her Brothers Reformation for the Commissioners attending the Kings Injunctions met in many places with Scorn and Reproach and Railing and the farther they went from London the worse they were handled in somuch that as one of them was pulling down Images in Cornwall was Stabbed by a Priest who tho Hanged in Smithfield which quieted all matters for a time yet the next year the Storm arose more violently than before not only in the Western parts but in a manner all the Kingdom over which great Commotions the Council foreseeing as the most probable consequence of such Alterations especially when they are sudden and pressed too fast did let the People understand that there was no Intention to abolish their Antient Ceremonies which might consist with Piety or the Peace or Prosit of the Nation and therefore the King both by his Proclamation dated in Jan. 1548. commanded a strict observance of Lent and also pursued it by his own observance thereof in his Court by which and other like Innocent complyances did the King make good and established his most happy Reformation and yet is he and his work and his prudent Innocent Complyances evil spoken of by some Boarnarges hot and fiery spirits because forsooth there were some that had a Beam of Light of equal Lustre that would have had it otherwise The most eminent whereof were Bonner Calvin John Alasco and Hooper the very first Anti-Liturgists Pardon I beseech you that I name that Sanguinary Bonner the same day with those Pious Men. John Al●sco and Hooper having suffered very much for the truth and Bonner having made the truth highly to suffer and Calvin who setting aside the fondness of his own Brat the Chimera of his own Invention his Church discipline and also his rigid opinions concerning Election and Reprobation now even in this our Age become the Darling arguments of our Atheists or which is as bad of all those that live as it were without God in the World who tho they profess God with their Mouths yet in their Works do deny him was both as wise a Man and as orthodox in points of Doctrine as any as that age did afford and did Write so much yet so it is that the Beam of light which Bonner and his Gang enjoyed led him and his Complices as much to make the Liturgy a Bone of Contention to them in that it took away so much and retained so little as the Beam of Light of the others did make it a Bone of Contention to them because it took away no more and retained so much For Bonner did still suffer sundry Idolatrous private Masses of peculiar Names as the Apostles Mass the Ladies Mass and the like to be daily solemnly sung within certain particular Chappels of St. Paul cloaking them with the Names of the Apostles Communion and our Ladies Communion not once finding any fault therewith until commanded by the Council and that by several Letters 1265. Tho I am far from thinking that any Person or any Reformation can be too pure when God hath commanded us to be Holy as he is Holy and perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect it can then be but an accursed modesty even next unto Atheism to believe that any Man or any Reformation can have a Nimis of Purity and Piety yet I can no more renounce moderation reason and Prudence in guiding and Governing Church than State Assairs nor yet subscribe unto Calvins Counsel unto Bucer viz. to take heed of his old fault viz. of running a moderate course in his Reformations nor yet his Advice to the Protector Advising him to take away all Ceremonies and to Reform the Church without regard unto peace at home or Correspondency abroad such considerations being only to be had in Civil matters but not in matters of the Church wherein not any thing is to be exacted which is not warranted by the Word and in managing whereof there is not any thing more distastsul in the eyes of God than Worldly Wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backwards but meerly as we are directed by his Will revealed Ep. ad Protect More particularly for example sake see the ill Fruits and Effects of such Liberty as our Discourser Pleads for being granted unto John Alasco A Polonian born and unto his Congregation of Germans and other Strangers by Edw. 6th about the year 1550. who being persecuted in their own Country for the same Religion which was then here professed fled hither for Succour to whom the King by the Advice of his Council out of great Zeal to the propagation of the true Religion and out of most wonderful Commiserations unto those that were persecuted for the profession and exercise thereof most graciously afforded them Favour Entertainment and Protection and did assign them the West part of the Church then lately belonging unto the Augustine Fryers for their Exercising of Religious Duties and made them a

the Members of the holy Church Triumphant or Militant nor yet consists only of them or of men internally though ineffectually called but of them and of others called only vocatione merè externa by vocation meerly external Thus the several societies of Christian men unto every one of which the name of Church is rightfully attributed as the Church of Rome France Spain England and as of old the seven Churches of Asia which certainly hold a nearer resemblance unto National or Provincial Churches than unto the Gathered Congregations for most certainly each of these had certain particular Congregations under them as London hath must be endued with correspondent general properties and powers belonging of right unto them as they are publick Christian Societies And all the powers given by Christ to the Churches Militant or to visible Ministerial Churches are most properly attributed to such Churches and not to those where two or three or some few only in respect of the whole are gathered and such are our Independent Churches here in respect of the Church of England and such like are our several Parishes which more properly and strictly ought to be accounted of as Members or Homogeneal parts of the Church of England than so many several Churches endued with such powers though in common discourses we may allow them the title or appellation of Churches yet in discourses of this nature being disputative they ought to be distinguished § Unto the Attributes or Prerogatives attributed to the Church in the Apostles or Nicene Creed or unto the Promises annexed unto it in the Scriptures the Visible Ministerial Churches have no claim or title save only in reversion or reflection or in expectancy i. e. the Mystical Body of Christ is only instated in the Blessings Prerogatives and Promises made unto the Church yet from this Body or rather from Christ the Head of this Body both Blessings and Powers do immediately and successively like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aarons beard that went down to the skirts of his Garments descend though in different Measures unto the several Members of it as unto National Churches more and greater Powers and unto the several Congregations thereof Blessings and Powers though not in the same measure and fullness and indeed by Analogie and Participation unto all and every one that hath put on Christ by profession Thus we are to conceive of the Catholick Church as of one entire Body made up by the Collection and aggregation of all the faithful unto the unity thereof from which union there ariseth unto every one of them such a relation unto and such a dependance upon the Church Catholick as parts use to have in respect of the whole whereupon it followeth that neither particular persons nor particular Churches are to work as several divided Bodies by themselves which is the ground of all Schism but to teach and to be taught and to do all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned unto the whole and Members of the same Common-wealth or Corporation and therefore the Bishops of the Antient Church though they had the government of particular Congregations only committed unto them yet in regard of this Communion which they had with the universal did usually take to themselves the title of Bishops of the Catholick Church which maketh strongly as well against the new Separatists as the old Donatists who either hold it a thing not much material so they profess the Faith of Christ whether they do it in the Catholick Communion or out of it or else which is worse dote so much upon the perfection of their own Party that they refuse to joyn in fellowship with the rest of the body of Christians as if they themselves were the only people of God and all wisdom must live and die with them and their Generation § To prosecute their own simile of Fraternities or Corporations whereby they claim a power over one another by consent or agreement Be it that every Church exceeds an ordinary Assembly or Multitude in that it is a Society of Men incorporated and every Corporation or Society corporate supposeth an unity more than meerly local between the Members thereof an Union by Laws and Statutes or else they were no more significant than so many men meeting at a Play or Whitsun-Ale quod non est aliquid formatum non est aliquid vere unum that which hath no set form or fashion can have no true real unity for it is the form of every thing which giveth it a distinct entity or unity Hence it is that though all men are mortal yet Corporations consisting of such mortal men are yet accounted immortal because their Laws and Ordinances is the life the soul and spirit of every Corporation or Body Civil every Church in what usual sense soever it be taken is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church And that which differenceth the Church properly so called from a Society or Body meerly Civil is the diversity of Laws and Ordinances and the different manner of union between the Members All this is to fortifie and to make plain their simile and which they will not gainsay Yet withal I shall commit to their consideration that there are no Corporations in England nor in any well governed Commonwealth without a proper Charter from the Crown and Laws of the Kingdom to authorize them to be a Corporation and to make By-laws as they call them or to have power one over another So none of them are independent of the publick Laws of the Kingdom or Nation whereof they are Subjects or have any authority to form or establish themselves by any power of their own but by what is derivative from some other power paramount So also there is no Parish in England nor any Company of Christians that have power of themselves so to confederat or congregat into a Church such a Church as hath all the Powers and Attributes wherewith a National Church is endowed and to meet as an Independent Congregation to make Laws choose Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in circumstantials without authority first obtained from the supreme Powers legislative or without any Supervisors or Superintendents or Laws over them if every particle of the Church hath this power derived unto it from Christ then certainly the same cannot be denied to a whole National Church and whether be more just or equal that a part should govern the whole or the whole the parts judg ye Power to meet to fast and pray to break bread and administer Sacraments which renders them capable of the appellation of a Church cannot reasonably and ordinarily be denied unto them yet this doth no way qualifie them to be Independent The strength and virtue even of the Law of Nations is such that no particular Nation can lawfully prejudice the same by any their several Laws and Ordinances more than a single person by his

and Judicature one of the other is not denied by any Protestant Divines that I know of and it is or ought to be as little gain-said that it could not then be otherwise And why Christ knew that the Messengers which he sent to gather a People to himself out of Saracens and Insidels Jews and Gentiles by perswasive means only were to build up his Church within the Bosom of Kingdoms which were and would continue avowed Enemies to his Gospel every where for a long time then to come And therefore he gave them such Doctrines and such Commissions for Doctrine and Discipline as they might any where publish and exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Common-wealth being any where therein concerned in goods or person by vertue of that spiritual regiment whereunto Christian Religion once embraced did make them lyable And indeed if they had not a Government within themselves they could have none at all concerning Christian Religion For Princes and all Nations were then professed and bitter enemies to Christian Religion which Government did also extend it self unto small matters even such as were otherwise impleadable and remediable in the Civil Courts and Judicatures of the Kingdome or State though heathenish wherein and under whom they lived as Subjects Dare any of you saith St. Paul having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world and if the world shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters 1 Cor. 6.1 2. So that upon the whole matter the Sum total of Religion that Christ committed to his Apostles and they to their successors consisted in the Doctrin and Discipline thereof viz. to preach him and him crucified and to perswade others to become Christians through the belief of one Lord one Faith and one Baptisme and when once admitted by the door of Baptism into the Christian Church then to become and to be accounted Members of the visible Church Christian As for Discipine that concerns moral righteousness and honesty of life and their contraries unrighteousness and dishonesty and therefore Christ gave them this General Precept viz. to love one another even our neighbours as our selves and if any did transgress the Vertues and Laws which belong unto moral righteousness and honesty of life which are not proper and peculiar unto Christian men as Christians but as Men what then the transgressors were first privatly to be admonished if the offence were private those that sinned openly were to be rebuked openly if they did not then repent and amend then to be admonished by two or three if still they remained incorrigible then to acquaint that Congregation of Christian Brethren of which they were Members and if still they continued refractory after private and publick Admonitions Warnings and Prayers then not to own them as Brethren nor to keep company with them with such no not to eat with them and in the end to pursue them as if Publicans and Heathens as not being worthy of the Name and Profession of Christians which they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel And this is the sum of the whol Government or Discipline which Christ after the death of the Apostles who having gifts extraordinary had also powers extraordinary which died with them left to his Church for ought appears by any Scripture extant And what need of more For if the Ministers of the everlasting Gospel have liberty to Instruct break Bread Baptize and Pray the Civil Christian Magistrat hath sufficient power by Gods own Ordinance to order all the rest § To me indeed it seems marvelous nay monstrous that out of so plain so intelligible so easily practicable directions for the Government of Christian Churches that so various so meerly wordly and pompous nay imperious and impious forms of Church Government should be drawn into use as have been hundreds of years practised both in the Eastern and Western Empires and all held forth to be according to the Gospel when in truth they all differ from the true Gospel Discipline as far as the East is from the West they being all degenerated into meer worldly forms set up for meer worldly self-ends and interests If any man can more plainly make out any other form from the Gospel it would be a favour my self I must confess to be Impar Negotio it is past my understanding Indeed to me it seems wonderful whilst I consider that though Histories are ful and plain how and when the several forms crept in and got Accruments partly by the supineness and negligence of the Brethren of their own Rights and Priviledges partly by the craft and subtlety of proud covetous and ambitious Clergy and partly by the carelesness of Princes who not willing to trouble themselves with the care of Religion devolved it upon others that they should yet endeavour to keep us hoodwinkt though they know that our eyes are now open If there be any other Gospel-form of Government let it plainly appear without offering violence to any Texts of Scripture if not why should we be wiser than Christ our Head and Lawgiver God only is truth and all men are subject to errors what remains but that all his Servants and more especially the Priests of the most high God whose lips above others should more especially preserve knowledg do abandon humane errors and fals superstructures and keep the praecepts of God only that they may remain stedfast in the truth only § Some are of opinion that there is no need at all of any Ecclesiastical Government as distinct from the Civil if Christian and Orthodox and if there be that yet the Body of the Church is to govern it self and not the Clergie or Officers the Body they are to teach them their duty but the provisionary coercive and executive power is seated in the Body and not in the Pope or Presbyter I know the grand objection against Independency is that it is destructive to Government and tends to Anarchy a meer slander rather than a just objection for if rightly considered it would be found the least Chagreen to any Civil Government of any Ecclesiastical Government at this very day in use in any Nation and if not mistaken I have Christ who was the Wisdom of the Father and his Apostles to justify me herein For the Government that is herein stated may be exercised under any Government how averse soever to Christianity it self without clashing or interfeering therewith And if Christ left no other Government as for certain he did not why should we pretend to be wiser than Christ himself The same was exercised by the Apostles and long after and how incroachments of power were gained to the Clergy Stories are full Vide Fra Paolo Sarpi his Treatise of Beneficiary Matters § On the contrary how thwarting Popish or Presbyterian Governments are to

his own sanctions and to publish and teach his truths or to contradict impede or alter any of his Laws which are so Righteous and just that they may be exercised and practised under any worldly Government without clashing with it or interrupting it the Subjects of whose Kingdom being true to the Principles of Christian Religion viz. to love one another even their Enemies and their neighbours as themselves to do justly to love mercy to obey Kings and all that are in Authority in all civil and moral affairs and to pray for them and pay tribute c. can never fairly be accounted as seditious Separatists Schismatical or Trayterous or that they worshipping God innocently according as Christ himself hath instituted can be justly liable to Bonds Mulcts Imprisonments or can come under any other Jurisdiction as to their Worship and Service of God It is true the Jews did hate him de facto the chief Priests Sadduces Scribes and Pharisees being the chief Inquisitors and Instigators did by Menaces Prohibitions Prisons Dungeons Beatings Stonings what not Forbid him his Apostles and Disciples to publish his Gospel or teach in his Name Nay they did not use force only but craft also and yet all would not do They took Counsel how they might intangle him in his talk and sent unto him some of their own Disciples to catch him about paying of Tribute to Caesar 22 Mat. 15.12 Mark 13 14. Accused him of Blasphemy 14 Mark 64. and of perverting the Nation and for forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar for stirring up the people teaching throughout all Jury 23 Luke 2.5 And if we let him alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and will take away our place and Nation 11 Joh. 48. And yet for all this and more when some of the Pharisees spake to Christ to rebuke his Disciples for praising God for all the mighty works they had seen answered that if these should hold their peace the Stones would immediately cry out 19 Luk. 37.40 Did his Apostles and Disciples speed better than their Master I trow not They falsly accused Steven of Blasphemy and stoned him 7 Acts. The High Priest with the sect of the Sadduces put the Apostles in Prison for Preaching the Gospel but God sent an Angel by Night who opened the Prison doors and brought them forth and maugre all their rage against them commanded them to go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life and they accordingly without dread of farther Persecution and without asking leave of any Authority entred into the Temple early in the Morning and taught and when the Captain of the Temple had found them so teaching brought them again before the High Priest who strictly charged them that they should not teach in the Name of Jesus Christ for that they had filled Jerusalem with his Doctrine intending to bring his Blood upon them As high and as home a charge I confess as can be laid against any now What answer made they we ought to obey God rather then man Though they were cut to the heart at this convincing and unanswerable repartie and took Council to slay them Yet when Gamaliel had advised them that it was hard sighting against God they followed his advice and did refrain from them and let them alone on this grand reason for if this Council or this work be of Men it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it least happily ye be found to sight against God And to him they agreed yet beat them and command●d that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus and let them go and they departed from the Council but yet ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ daily in the Temple and in every house 5 Acts 17.42 I 'le trouble you with no Applications or Reflections do but turn the Tables awhile and consider that if all the Reproaches Calumnies Lies and Slanders cast on our worthy Prelates and Priests of late should be taken for truth and they thereupon silenced and deprived without being impleaded or convicted would they not think themselves very hardly dealt withal And was not such their case fresh yet in our own memories And was it unjust then in them And is it just now in others because the Scene is altered and the Tables turned Doth God pervert Judgment Or doth the Almighty pervert Justice 8 Job 3. And shall we follow such examples of Men vile Men perverting all Judgment and Justice Absit It is unbeseeming no See episcopal no not that of Rome it self nor indeed any of that most reverend Coat high or low to become Servants unto all that they may gain the more nor to be made all things to all Men that by all means they might save some nor yet to humble themselves to all wayes and means conducing to the gaining of Souls to Jesus Christ no nor to warn every one night and day in Church or Conventicle with tears and from House to House 20 Acts 20. Cura animarum being undoubtedly 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 if not only they are called as was Aaron and if not called to this duty they are called unto none as I know of by any Patent or Commission from Heaven Salvation and Damnation of Souls is of everlasting consequence and of the highest concern in the World to every Individual and is it not reasonable then that every Man should have Liberty and free Access to that Ministry whether Publick or private under which he can profit most Moreover if causeless fears and jealousies that Conventicles may Nurse and nuzzle up a faction averse to present Constitutions and to preserve a party in animosity against the establisht Government of Church and State and that their Pastors will abuse their callings to the subversion of Church and State if such reasonings may prevail happily all the Orders of the Church and all the Ordinances of God nay Scripture it self may be forbidden as in the Church of Rome by the very same Logick For if a thing Lawful in it self may be forbidden out of causeless fears and jealousies only of being abused no Man can be assured of the exercise and enjoyment of his calling whether Priestly or Prelatical though never so Warrantable never so strictly commanded by the word of God It is not unworthy of consideration whether a Divine Precept so Solemnly binding conscience with a VVo attending the non-performance of the duty enjoyned can Lawfully be superseded by any humane Law for fear only that evil may ensue Besides this liberty is indulged to them in some Popish Countries as in France Poland Germany and even by Mahumetans and is it not bitter then to be wounded in the house of

Baptism or the like then they stiffly cry out where is your Rule your Warrant in Scripture for them And may not the Magistrate with as good Logick demand of Presbyter and Independent their express Warrant and Rule of Scripture for their Governments for receiving the Communion sitting or for their altering the time of taking of it or their Preaching in their Caps in a Cloak or Buff Coats as lately they did If men were humble and not wedded to their own fancies they might see the right Independency already established in this Kingdom and with no great difference from that of the Independents who would have only Churches voluntarily gathered and submitted unto whereby those that would might be of Peters or of Pauls or of any Ministers Congregation and those that would not might refuse to be of either or indeed of any so that in effect they having no power to compel the whole Kingdom might be either Atheists or Papists Quakers or Fanaticks nay Jews or Ranters or indeed what not if no better care were taken But the great wisdom of our Princes armed with the Sword and with Power to Command and Compel from on High well knowing it a duty incumbent upon them as it was once upon Paul to take care of all the persons and Churches within their Dominions and that they were to be accomptable to God for their good or evil Government in Church and State have divided this whole Nation into Precincts Parishes or Congregations call them what you will and hath allotted to every Parish a Church to which all are enjoyned to resort and frequent and a Minister endowed with maintenance who is to execute his Pastoral Office over them and his Parishoners are compellable by by the Laws Canons and Edicts of the Prince to receive their spiritual Food and Bread of Life at his hand and mouth and it is not left to them to come or not to come to the Church of God and hear the Law and the Gospel of Jesus Christ at their pleasure But care hath been and is still taken that the Ministers and Pastors shall not be without their Flocks nor the Flocks without their Pastors who are licenced and enjoyned to Pray Preach Baptize Now what is the difference The Congregational way is voluntary unlimited and unprescribed the Parochial is quodam modo compulsory bounded and circumscribed and so it ought to be or else how can Princes rationally give any good Accompt to God of their care of his Churches if they should leave every man to do herein what seemeth best in his own eyes as once in Israel when there was no King And if Princes have no Power to Prescribe Compel and Punish why should they be blamed and punished for the Idolatrous and otherwise erronious Worship of others And if they have power why do the Non-conformists quarrel at the use thereof one Parish is as little dependant on another as the Congregational men would have their Congregations to be and yet both Parishes and Congregations are properly and rather homogenial parts of Englands Church than so many distinct Churches though Quodam Modo they may be stiled Churches as Paul did Families in Houses in his time § Both Presbyters and Independents willingly oblige themselves to no form being against all set forms but leaving themselves at large in all their Administrations Our Supream Governours as in duty bound prescribe and enjoyn as in our Liturgy the daily teaching of the Fundamentals of Christianity that all his Subjects may be sure to have them sincerely dispenced unto them If there be no form for dispencing of them how can the Prince be sure that they are rightly dispenced and taught nay how can he be sure that they are taught at all and if not certain thereof how can he give to God a good and sure account that they were sincerely taught or that the Alcoran Talmude or Trent Creed were not taught instead thereof If our Liturgy be daily used the very solemn days which by Antient Institution of the Church are to be celebrated for the Commemoration of the Blessed Trinity Advent of our Saviour his Nativity Circumcision Passion Resurrection and Assention will so preserve these things among the Common People that is scarcely imaginable that they should be so grosly ignorant as not to have explicite knowledge of those mysteries of Christ so publickly and frequently solemnized in the Church The want of which Liturgy hath in these late times ushered in much ignorance even of the necessary fundamentals and made a wide Gap for ignorance nay Atheism not only to creep but to leap in amongst us How many Congregations or Parishes wanted the Holy Communion for the greater part of twenty years together in the late times now who was to blame or responsible to God for so hainous a sin as the keeping back the Bread of Life the Incumbent or the Civil Magistrate or both and who was in fault when it was afterwards given yet to those only that would sit and take it at a long Table denying it to others that desired to receive it in the most reverend manner by kneeling the Incumbent or the Magistrate that might have ruled it otherwaies thereby excommunicating in their sence at least with exclusion a Sacris all the Parish at one breath save a few What could his Imperial Infallible Holiness at Rome have done more imperiously then to deny the Bread of Life to those that would not submit to their ipse dixit The hainousness of this crime of robbing whole Parishes of the Lords own Supper Table Cup Body and Blood for so many years together in our late times is abundantly set forth attested and proved to be from Popish Principles in a Book entituled A new Discovery of some Romish Emissaries c. The sum then of the Contest will be between Prince and Priest whether Presbyterian Independant or Popish matters not much They being in the point of Domination not much different only the Independant is most moderate and the Pope most exorbitant extending his Supremacy and Jurisdiction over forrain Princes and beyond his own Territories even to the Excommunication nay Deposition of Kings and how much less the Presbyter claims Sa. Rutherford in the forenamed Book and his if I may call it his Book called Lex Rex do speak and as the Arguments are the same so the same Answer will reach them all § The Priests conceive by their mandate viz. Go teach all Nations Baptizing c. received from Christ Independant of any earthly Power that they have by vertue thereof Authority to put in execution that Mandate 1o. In their opinion to preach and pray what when and where they please Administer the Sacraments after what form and manner seems best unto every of them though never so different one from the other use any form of Discipline excommunicate whom and when they please and all this without being accomptable to any earthly power or having any Superior over them §

Year 1484. the King of Spain admitted it into his Dominions yet so cautionate and jealous was he as he reserved himself to be Lord paramount thereof of choosing the Inquisitor General whom the Pope confirms And for the rest the Court of Rome was not admitted to intermeddle any farther so that though the King seemed willing to gratifie the See Apostolick yet did he reserve his Supremacy of Power over all Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to himself and so doth the State of Venice by their Coadjutors and Inspectors of the Tribunals Inquisitory In which Republick the Inquisition doth not depend on the Court of Rome but properly belongs to the Republick Independent set up and constituted by the same and established by contract and agreement with Pope Nicholas the fourth prout in his Bull of 28. Aug. 1289. wherein is inserted the very determination of the greater Council made the fourth of the same Month. And therefore as they ought are to be governed by their own Customs and Ordinances without being obliged to receive Orders from the Pope And indeed before the admittance of the Inquisition there was in effect the same Office though meerly Secular to which Noble-men were raised to enquire after Hereticks and this the Republick made good afterwards against the See-Apostolick in the Years 1289. 1301. 1605. 1606. and 1607. upon Disputes maintaining their Civil Authority in Ecclesiasticis to be their undoubted Right and cannot be taken away by any Bull or Decree made in any manner by any Pope to whom soever Hist. Inquisit § By all which it appears that neither Monarchs nor Free States would be juggled out of their just Right of Commanding over Persons and Causes Ecclesiastical and that those Condescentions of the Civil Magistrates were only to gratifie some Popes out of special favour to them and not for any just Right the Popes had unto them For let Pope or Presbyter pretend what they please to the contrary they do as much as in them lies endeavour to erect Regnum in Regno by giving Temporal Monarchy only an imperfect broken Right in some things but controlable and defeasible by the Spiritual Monarchy in other things And the World hath had a long and sad experience of this whilst Kings had the Popes and Presbiters their Superiors in any thing they remained Supream in nothing whilst their Rule in Popish Countries was by Division diminished in some things they found it insufficient in all things so that they did command joyntly with the Pope but were commanded wholly unless by force they extricated themselves out of their snares So Calvin and his Followers complain and grumble much at the Power that the Civil Magistrate assumes in England France and Germany over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical holding Princes incompetent for Spiritual Regency accounting the intermedling of Princes therein as an Abolition or Prophanation of the same § But let us not doubt to submit all things under one Supream on Earth submitting and recommending him by our Prayers unto his Supream in Heaven for it is no small thing in such a Case to be left to the searching Judgment of God nor need we doubt or hold our selves utterly remediless whilst we can truly say Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum est And let us not mistake our Supream on Earth for if God had intended to have left us a Spiritual Sword or miraculous Judicatory never before known or useful to the World and that to be of perpetual necessity sans doubt he would have left us some clear command in Scripture and not have involved and mantled his meaning in Metaphors so intricate and ambiguous But to let pass this Theam of Excommunication so unpleasant to Popish and Presbyterian Ears let us examine the Magistrates Power as it relates to Religion in commanding Liturgies and concerning Toleration Compulsion and Government c. § All just Dominion and Empire is founded on true Religion and Piety i. e all Governours and Governments were ordained for the good of the Governed and they are obliged by the Law of God to govern according to Rules of Religion and Piety no Nation under Heaven having Statutes and Judgments so just and righteous as are prescribed by God himself and who act not according to them an Iliad of Curses will attend them and their Plagues shall be wonderful Deut. 28.58 It is Righteousness and Judgment that is the Establishment of Thrones A Kingdom is translated from one People to another for unrighteousness Eccles 10.8 And The King that faithfully judgeth the Poor his Throne shall be established for ever Prov. 29.14 If I am not much mistaken the necessity of a Liturgy and the warrantableness of establishing the use thereof is easily deducible nay doth naturally flow from the Charge and Right of Government which Kings have in the Government of the Church and granted unto them by their great Charter from Heaven their Command from God For Kings and all other just Governments being granted to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae it must necessarily follow that the Government of the Church is their Duty and consequently ought to be their chief Care And that they be so what need we other Proof or Argument than that through the whole Scripture Kings have been charged therewith and according to their countenancing or discountenancing Idolatry and other sins or abetting and supporting Gods true Religion or establishing or but conniving at Idolatry or other Impieties so they received from God by his Messengers the Prophets praise or dispraise reward or punishment accordingly and those of no less concern than the establishment or deprivations of their Kingdoms And it will as naturally follow that if the care of the Church be the Duty of Kings that then they both may and ought to set up and establish a publick Standard and Test within their Dominions to measure and try all Mens Religion by as to the outward profession thereof and outward conformity thereunto and to appoint and allow publick consecrated or to speak more inoffensively to all Parties seperated Places or Churches for publick Divine Worship and Service and administration of Gods Holy Sacraments and Ordinances to the frequenting of which they may make strict Laws or else how is it possible for the Magistrate to have cognisance of them and of their Religions and why else should the Magistrate be blamed for the Idolatry or other sins of his Subjects if he have no power to inspect take cognisance and to restrain from sinful practises nor yet to force unto the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel nor to the frequenting of Gods Holy Ordinances Now this Standard or Test I call a Liturgy without which or something equivalent how is it possible for Kings to give a good account to God of their Care and well-governing of the Church within their respective Dominions which Liturgy in general ought to contain so many Fundamentals of Christian Religion to the Belief of which if Christians joyn

Administration of Sacraments Christ prescribed set Forms which all Christian Churches in all Ages have used and they and we ex precepto Christi bound to use them 28 Mat. 19. Go and Baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost So in the Lords Supper take eat this is my Body c. 5o. Justin Martyr in Apologia pro Christianis expresly tells us that in their publick Assemblies they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common Prayers no Directory and among other things Singing of Psalmes 6o. Missa Latina Antiqua published first by Flac. Illiricus afterwards by Card. Bona was in use in the 6th Century and is the freest from all Popish Errors and Superstition of any extant 7o. the Antient Liturgies of James Chrysostome Ambrose c. have been Interpolated and Corrupted is evident and that they had such Liturgies may be as evident from the Words of Cyril of Jerusalem for the Liturgy of James Chrysostome Ambrose others What more sure or sollid Foundation for the Building up Propagating and Establishing of Religion in these our Kingdoms even amongst those of meanest Capacities could be laid than this already laid in our Liturgy by the Fathers of our Church And yet so perverse and froward have many of her Sons been that they have even scorned to Build thereon which frowardness of theirs together with the Idleness and Insufficiency of other Conformists and Non-Conformists conspiring with the Frozen Zeal of the People and together with the open Prophanation of the Sabbath and not putting the Laws in Execution against open and scandalous sins against which there can be no excuse and countenance given to Sin and Sinners either by Sinful Examples or not discountenancing them and a temporising fearfulness in others and out of a cursed modesty not daring to call Vices by their proper names a shrewd sign as one observes of their Raign and Commonness and that great Persons whom it is not safe nor prudent to anger are Infected therewith have very much prejudiced and impeded the growth and spreading of the purity of Religion and Piety within these Realms and Dominions as well as in others for with what considence can we rebuke others for sins that we are Guilty of our selves or Perswade Invite or draw others to our Church If we cannot agree where and how to lay our Foundations and make superstructures § Of old it was the Imputation of Brownists that our Church held it a Piaculum not to wear a Surplice and a Venial Sin to be a Lewd-lived Minister and many late Ichabods and Coblers of Glocester and naked truths make many heavy Complaints against our Clergy Immerito I hope of Jehosaphat it is said that when he went to plant Religion among the People and to prevent Idolatry he sent Levites abroad into Cities of Judah to teach and instruct the People in the ways of the Lord 2 Chr. 17.8.9 The like have our Kings done by their Laws and Bishops yet if notwithstanding all the care to make Laws against Sin and Sinners none do execute them and to furnish his People with able and Laborious Pastors that may feed them with knowledge and understanding the present store of able well-lived-Conformists serve not may I not in compassion to the Churches necessity and to stop the Mouths of all Jchabods modestly wish the removal of some Injunctions that may be spared without prejudice to pure Faith and Worship and some Connivence granted to those that dissent from the Conformers in Judgment for matters of Circumstance and Ceremony whilst yet they Preach true Doctrine and carry themselves peacibly in the Church The Lord would not have the Canaanites at once cast out least the Wild Beasts should increase upon his People Exod. 23.29 Suffer me then having thus totis viribus asserted Liturgies to Plead for Israelites Scrupulous Conscientious Israelites indeed that it may suffice them to lack Livings and the Churches not be deprived of their pains at least let them help to bear part of the Burthen and draw Water for the People out of the Wells of Salvation let them be as Priscilla and Aquilla and Vrbane to Paul Rom. 16. Helpers in Christ Jesus or as Gaius to John who thought himself bound in duty 3 Joh. 8. To receive him and such like that they might be fellow-helpers to the truth And what inconvenience can insue by such Permission or Connivence I cannot foresee so that they Preach in Publick and that Conformity be still reserved as the Qualification to all Publick Ecclesiastical Prefermonts § In the great differences between the Romanists and the Lutherans which began about the beginning of the 16th Century about 1517. It seemed good to the Emperor about 1532. to settle a Peace of Religion called the Interim which was the first tho very small Liberty of Religion which those that adhered to Luthers Confession called the Augustine obtained by Publick Decree for which the Emperor was reproved at Rome as putting his Sickle as they said into another mans Harvest every Prince being obliged by the strictest Bond of Censures to the extirpation of those that were Condemned by the Pope as Luther and his Adherents were by Leo the 10th and also by the Emperor 1520 1521 wherein they ought to spend their Goods Estates and Lives and the Emperors much more because they do so Solemnly Swear unto it but others Commended the Piety and Wisdom of the Emperor for his so doing thereby securing the Lutherans unto him by granting some small Indulgences to them who were Christians tho dissenting from them in some particulars being tolerable differences lest they might have crossed him in his other great Concernments and Wars They said also that the Maxime so renowned in Rome viz. That it is more meet to Prosecute Hereticks Lutherans then Infidels was well fitted to the Popes Dominion and Meridian but not to the benefit of Christendome Alleadging also that Kingdoms and Principalities ought not to be Governed by the Laws and Interests of Priests who are partial for their own Greatness and Profits but according to the exigence of the Publick good of Church and State which requireth now and then some Connivence and Toleration of some defects Moreover that it was the duty of every Christian Prince to endeavour equally that his Subjects and every Bishop his Flock do maintain the true Faith as also that they observe all the Commandments there being no greater Obligation to punish Hereticks or Dissenters than Fornicators and Drunkards or Swearers which all Nations abhor and make Laws against And the Inconveniences by giving some Indulgences to some that do not defend or hold all our Opinions cannot be great but they may be very great by denying them some convenient Liberties and Priviledges thereby keeping up a considerable Party in Animosity that cannot Religiously Conform to every Minute particular § Let us look a little back and abroad and consider what other States even where the Pope and Inquisition do Domine have done