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A52993
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Palæmon, or, The grand reconciler composing the great difference and disputes about church-government and discovering the primitive government of churches, built upon the Word of God, and the practice of the apostles / compiled by one who labours for the peace of the church.
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T. N.
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1646
(1646)
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Wing N77; ESTC R30734
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20,310
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32
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Eucharist celebrated by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishop so that the Presbyters did not preach but when the Bishop was absent and administred not the Sacraments i. e. did not consecrate in his presence This is evident in the life of St. Austin by the story of Valerius a Greek Bishop who comming into St. Austines Church at Hippo desired Saint Austine who was not then a Bishop to officiate in regard that he was not well skilled in the African nor the people in the knowledge of the Greek tongue Tertullian affirmes the same l. de Bapt. c. 17. so does Ignatius in Epist ad Smyrn Where to shew the preeminence of the Bishop he proves that as by the ancient constitutions of the Church the Presbyters ought not to doe any thing without the consent of the Bishop nor the Bishop in great matters without the consent and advice of his Presbyters so neither ought the Laity to doe any thing in the Church without the Bishop and Presbyters approbation or liking This may be farther proved out of Ignatius in his Epist ad Trall And so still in Ignatius the Presbyters are assistant to the Bishop in all things Which is likewise confirmed by the sixth Canon of the Councell of Gangra Vi. Mr. Th. p. 118 119. Where hee also proves that the Deacons were not suijuris i. e. had not the sole disposing of the maintenance of the Church and poore but did onely execute the will and judgement of the Bishop and Presbyters and distributed the Churches almes to those whom they appointed SECT VIII HAving thus declared in part the preeminence of the Bishop over the Presbyters i. e. the priviledge he has in some cases above these and also that the Deacons as well as the Lay-persons are subject to the power of both the former Mr. Th. proceeds to discourse of two particulars in the Office common to Bishops and Presbyters wherein the people have a share and may claim an interesse The one is the discipline of Penance The other the ordaining of Ministers And first of all by way of manuduction to his discourse he explaines that Text Matth. 16.19 And I will give thee the keyes of heaven And whatsoever thou bindest on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Which power of binding and loosing he affirmes to be the same with that given to the Apostles John 20.24 Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto him and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained The Bishop and Presbyters that exercised this power of binding and loosing remitting and retaining sins represented the office of Judges and Physitians Lapsis fratribus per poenitentiam medela quaeratur Firmil in Ep. ad Cypr. Ep. 75. Judges they were in shutting Gods house upon offenders and binding their sinnes upon their consciences Physitians in prescribing the medicine of repentance And in that respect alone are said to remit sinnes as a Physitian who does no more but prescribe the medicine or at the most see it prescribed is said to cure a mans disease And having a spirituall eye to judge when repentance is sound and unfained upon due knowledge of this they may assure men that their sinnes are pardoned and pronounce their absolution declaratively whereby they unloose that knot wherewith their consciences were tyed The medicine of Repentance prescribed to a delinquent was wont to be strengthened with the prayers and intercession of the Congregation but in the chiefe place of the Bishop and Presbyters whose prayers were correspondent to that which is given to make physick work Vi. Mat. 18.19 out of which text following that wherein Christ gives to the Apostles power of binding and loosing may be proved that the Congregation interceding by their prayers with God for a sinner in this respect bore a part and had a share with the Church the Bishop and Presbyters in the discipline of penance which these imposed upon delinquents but * i. e. The congregation or people they medled not with the keyes of Gods house i. e. they did not as the Jewes were wont to doe usurpe the power of Excommunication upon causes of their particular interesse but left that wholly to the Church i. e. to the Eccelesiasticall Governours to whom only that power did belong Dic Ecclesiae Matth. 18.17 implyes as much That censure of Excommunication as appeares by 1 Cor. 5.13 did cut men off from the conversation of Christians for that such persons forfeited by their hainous sinnes the priviledge of Gods sonnes and so delivered them over to the power of Satan to be led captive by him at his will and pleasure As those among the Israelites that lodged without the Camp were in danger to be lickt up and devoured by the Amalekites That course of Excommunication as it was a preservative in regard of those that were not tainted yet might be so was it medicinall in respect of the sicke which were usually restored to their former soundnesse by shame and griefe Vi. 1 Cor. 5.6 1 Tim. 1.20 and this power of excommunicating was exercised in common by the Bishops and Presbyters which practice was a good glosse upon the words of our Saviour to Peter Behold I give thee the keyes of heaven for what was promised to Peter was given to his fellow Apostles but was to rest in the Church throughout all ages Witnesse that of Saint Austine Ep. 79. Si hoc in Ecclesiâ fit Petrus quando claves accepit Ecclesiam sanctam significavit Vid. Mr. Th. p. 143. where you shall finde for the confirmation of this an authority out of Tertull. Apol. c. 39. and another out of St. Aust Homil. ult ex 50. Hom. c. 11. How because the Church cannot proceed in their Censures effectually or to any good purpose but by vertue of those lawes which are put in force and maintained by the Secular powers and because it cannot be expected that the people should yeeld a voluntary submission to the Discipline of the Church farther then it is enabled by the Lawes of the Realme to exercise it Therefore it is much to be wished that those wholesome and usefull Lawes by which the Ministers of the Church are enabled directed and constrained to exercise and discharge this necessary part of their office may be revived and put into act that so the power of the Keyes given to the Church by our Lord being assisted and strengthned by the Secular arme may be enabled to reduce all notorious offenders to a good life and conversation by the Discipline of penance and to cut them off from the Church that refuse it Then this Discipline of penance there is not a more puissant way to beat down Vice and to discountenance Malefactors in a Christian Commonwealth In regard that when they have satisfied the Lawes of the Kingdome with the losse of goods and reputation or have escaped death by the connivence and gentlenesse of their Judges Neverthelesse if the
Impius the 4. in the Councell or rather Conventicle of Trent and I doubt not but by propounding this way of moderation I shall purchase many enemies and lose more friends However I shall comfort my selfe with that saying of the Apostle If I seeke to please men I am not the servant of Christ And I shall intreat all my fellow-labourers in Geds Vineyard the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments V. 3 4 5. to looke into the 13. Chapter of Ezekiel where a woe is pronounced against those Prophets who are like the Foxes in the Deserts i.e. hide their heads which go not up into the gaps neither make up the hedge of the house of Israel This Text set a spurre to my backward intentions it stirred me up to snatch a Candle out of another mans hand to give light to them that are in darknesse and are misled with corrupt and blinde Teachers whose aime is to pull others out of their seats that they may step into them themselves and when such giddy-braine Drivers shall get into the Chariot box when men led with Phansie and Ambition shall sit at the Helme of our Church then woe be to the State woe be to the Kingdome I feare they will encrease our misery and confusion To prevent all which and their inevitable ruine I desire all good men to joyne with me in their prayers to God for an happy and an honourable Union between the King and his Subjects that Mercy and Truth may meet together Righteousnesse and Peace kisse each other Amen T. N. Faults escaped correct thus Page 2. line 2. reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 6. l. 2. reade i.e. the Presbytery to see it ratified p. 8. l. 23. reade this inference PALAEMON OR THE GRAND RECONCILER I Remember a passage in the Preface of a judicious Work written by Mr. H. one of the Assembly against the Independents In that Preface he humbly beseeches the Honourable Houses of Parliament to settle a Government in the Church and that with all speed fearing lest that if it should continue long without a fence and without Dressers and Pruners to purge and weed it to defend and guard it Psal 80.13 this Vineyard would bee rooted up by the wilde Bores out of the wood Rome is a wood full of perplexities and errours The Jesuited Papists are wilde Bores full of cruelty and malice And besides these the little Foxes the Schismaticks which we are commanded to take and kill Cant. 2.15 these would devoure the grapes of the Vineyard and trample all good Orders under their feet by which meanes there would be laid open a wide gap for all damnable Heresies Schismes and Errours which in a short time would spring up and cover the face of the Church The truth of this we have now found by sad experience Two black Devils Heresie and Schisme attended with a train of horrid opinions raised from Hell that region of darknesse have marched in triumph with great boldnesse in all quarters of our Land and spawned the poyson of their contagious Tenets which have beene silenced for many ages and scarce heard of till this And thus whilest we are disputing what government is best our Ship is sinking and the Church may rightly say with some alteration what the Mariners once to certaine Philosophers sporting with their danger and prating De ente non ente in a storme whilst they were perishing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doe you sport with your pens and tongues whilst my enemies are diving into my bowels with their swords and raking in my wounds And well may the Church take up that sad lamentation of the Prophet Ieremy Lam. 4.1 How is the gold become dim and the most fine gold changed and the stones of the Sanctuary are scattered in every corner of the streets How is the beauty of our Hierusalem defaced How are the beautifull flowers of this our Garden wasted I could spend many sheets in such mournfull Quomodos But as it is the property of a good Physitian not to fill his Patients eares with 〈◊〉 but to apply a remedy or a fit cure and that with care and speed for his griefe or malady so it is as vaine to weep over a gasping and dying Church and not to propose a Medicine to prevent its ruine I dare not be so bold as to prescribe of my selfe what Cordiall is fittest for a bleeding State and to advise how the ruines of this our Vineyard may be repaired Onely this I dare in all humility assert that there are two Fences most expedient the one to keep Gods wrath out and that is our hearty sorrow for our sinnes the other good government to keep good order in and with it to maintaine quietnesse and peace within our walls which peace is Religions Nurse My earnest and hearty desire of which happy peace by a blessed re-union of the disjoynted members of this Kingdome to their King moved me to take courage notwithstanding the Tobiahs and Sanballats that oppose it to collect as was once desired out of the approved Worke of Mr. Thorndike The Booke is entituled The Primitive Government of Churches a modell of the best and most ancient Church government setled by the Apostles in the East and Westerne Churches for which we have a full and cleare authority out of the holy Scriptures and which I doubt not will satisfie all parties but the Independents who would turne Christian liberty into licentiousnesse not allowing any Government either in the State or Church The Government which that worthy man labours to commend to the judgment of our Nehemiahs our State-Governours is that which is most consistent with the Crowne and the Supremacie of the King which as his Majesty himselfe confesses in his Answer to the Nineteen Propositions is tempered and allayed with an Aristocracie i. e. the Authority of a Parliament His great Councell to advise Him in all affaires which concerne the wel-fare of the State In reference to which the Government of the Church founded by the Apostles and which is certainly the onely remedy to prevent disorders in Ecclesiastick and Lay persons is a mixt Government consisting of Bishops and Presbyters Which that it was established by the Apostles he evidences by many ensuing arguments laying down first these four undenyable Truths on which he builds the fabrick of his learned Discourse 1. That the Apostles during the time of their continuance upon earth took upon them the oversight of those Churches which they planted 2. That each Apostle fixed his abode in and placed his care upon some one particular Church though all the world were to them a Diocesle in that they undertook to preach the Gospel to all Nations 3. That the Apostles were Bishops of their severall Churches which they took into their care and charge 4. That the Bishops were successors to the Apostles Because they were trusted with the oversight of one Church which the Apostles for their owne time afforded to all within