potestatis scientiae they suffer none to buy or sell as the Scripture speaks but only those that wonder after them There is an eye saith he of the same principles practises usurpations in the Spirits and Practises of our Tryers so he calls the Commissioners But where is the proof 1. He saith If any one that comes before them shall dispute or call into question their judgements though never so erronesus as in the points of Election and Reprobation the death of Christ c. the door of preferment is shut up against him This is a stout Argument indeed and if rightly stated the force of it would amount to this The Commissioners cannot approve of men that are of the Goodwinian miserable Foundation-destroying doctrine concerning Election and Reprobation c. nor judge them fit to be owned by the Magistrate in a way of maintenance according to such Rules as the Magistrate himself hath given them to judge by Ergo they do as the Pope doth hold themselves to be infallible A man might from this rather infer this Consequence That they do not conceive themselves infallible because they are willing to judge as the Magistrate directs them and that Mr G conceiveth himself infallible implying as if the Commissioners were bound to follow his judgment and make that their Rule whereby to try and approve men rather than by those Rules and Directions which have been given them by the Magistrate Here it seems lieth the core of all the evill and the Occasion of all this Rancor that the Commissioners are not hujus jurati in verba Magistri sworn to follow this great Master and to approve such men as have shaken hands with him in the bearing up of that Un-evangelical Opinion against Gods electing love in Christ in the behalf whereof he would compass even Sea and Land to make a Proselite 2. Whereas he insinuateth that the Commissioners are as lawless as the Pope because none may question or judge of them and because they will approve of none but those that will wonder after their Learning and Tenets and though he divides these Particulars under a second and third head as if they were distinct and this on purpose to make his Pamphlet swell yet this short Reply may serve in return to both his hold and frothy Imputations how is it possible that the Commissioners should be accounted lawless in their proceedings as the Pope is when as it is known and Mr. G. himself here hath said it that the Pope makes himself above all Law and Power that is without himself and hereupon by vertue of such another Autocrasie as Mr Goodwin taketh to himself upon all occasions he proceeds in the same manner as Mr Goodwin constantly doth what he doth by his Bulls Mr G. doth by his Pen and Pamphlets who takes upon him at pleasure to control censure and defie Acts of the Civil Power and doth what in him lies by reproaches and scandals almost to Anathematize them and to dissolve the bond of the Subjects obedience by rendring the Government odious and contemptible and to overthrow it by stirring up Discontents and Factions among the People and all this forsooth because he cannot impose upon his Highness and the Councel in matter of Faith so as to make them the publick Patrons and Promoters of his private Opinion if this be not Papal I know not what is But now the Commissioners are so far from imitating him and the Pope in any of their lawless humours that they in their proceedings are under the Law and direction of another Viz. the present Authority and can do neither more nor lesse than what the same Authority hath by a Law prescribed them if they should Mr G. knows by experience Authority is ready to hear a complaint and that Law doth not enable them to set men a wondring after their Learning and Tenets for what Tenets or Opinions soever in points of the lesser importance may be among themselves they are not to estimate nor do they measure a Judgement concerning any man according to them nor do they dis-approve any men because of their opinions provided they be not of the Goodwinian strain before-mentioned Errores in Fundamentalibus which tend to a rending of that very Foundation which was laid upon the Prophets and Apostles and a demolishing of the glorious super-structure of all the main truths which are built thereupon Moreover there is not the least affinity between the Popes power and theirs For the Pope arrogates to himself a power in the Church under a pretence of being the sole Deputie or Commissioner for the Government of it under Jesus Christ and thereupon stileth himself his Vicar but the Commissioners have neither assumed any power to themselves it being a matter intrusted to them nor is it derived to them in any such way as from Christ much lesse from him in order to Church-Government but they have received it in trust from the Magistrate whose Deputies they are to a civil end and purpose Viz. to see that the publick State-Maintenance allowed for the Preaching of the Gospel to the people may be disposed of according to the Magistrates own appointment and direction in any of which respects there is not the least resemblance betwixt the Popes transcendent spiritual and their limited temporal Power and therefore Mr Goodwin hath not injured them so much as himself who though his Bishoprick be not very large might a great deal sooner be taken for the Pope as appears in all his actings The rest of this pretended Argument is a mere idle repetition of Scandals and of other matter already refuted It 's a sad thing to see a man of his garb and grave pretence so liberal in Aspersions throughout his Pamphlet and yet not make so much as an Instance to prove any one Particular ARGUMENT XIV THe Fourteenth I find to be only a quaint piece of Tautologie flourished over with a new dress For abstract the Rhetorical levities and there remains nothing but the same Crambe which was served up again and again in the First Third and Fourth Arguments and that small Addition which he brings in here as an Auxiliary to the other doth but help to make him and his design the more ridiculous For whereas he tells us again that the Gospel stands in no need of any Commission or Constitution of humane device and contrivance to carry on the interest of it in the world but that Christ hath left Rules and Directions in perspicuous terms in the Gospel sufficient to render the state of the Gospel flourishing and prosperous so as not to leave so important an affair to the care and management and contrivance of the Secular Powers I shall not make repetition of any thing that I have discoursed before to answer this but refer the Reader to be satisfied at large in the former part of the Book where I have fully answered his other Arguments relating to this particular Only I shall
care he could notwithstanding die quietly 3. The power of Choice and Nomination to Livings was never yet intrusted solely in the hands of Parishes but it hath remained partly in the hands of the Magistrate as the grand Patron partly in the hands of private Patrons who had a Right to it either by Inheritance or Purchase But yet still the Magistrate and the Law interposed as to the power of Trying and Approving men presented and setled a Course accordingly for the Trial and Examination of them before they were admitted to enjoy that Publick Maintenance which was legally annexed to the Places to which they had been presented This hath been the practice from all Antiquity and yet he is pleased to lash out against the present Course appointed for Approbation as unchristian and prodigious And therefore I think rather he this ill-portending Comet this wandring Star of Error and Falshood who would seem to be one of those real ones fixed in the Firmament of the Church but hangs only in the Air as if he were to usher some greater Heresies into the world is himself indeed a most unchristian Prodigie He ends this Argument with telling us The Commissioners may obtrude a man upon a Congregation pro libitu suo be he never so froward insufficient or ill-conditioned or unsound Read over the Ordinance for Approbation which is their Commission and you will find this to be like the rest of his stories For as I have said already if a man that is presented to a place happen to be dis-approved by them upon examination they have no power of placing any other there in his stead but such person or persons who have right thereunto ARGUMENT VI. NOw to the sixth Argument much like the former wherein he saith The Commissions as they have been and still are acted and administred do intrench upon the spiritual Rights and Priviledges of the people of God who are invested by Christ Jesus with power to chuse for themselves and enjoy while they please a man to be over them in the Lord a spiritual shepherd the Commissioners rejecting whom they please and keep asunder them whom God would have joyned together if they will not yea it and nay it with them from the one end of their faith to the other This Argument being compared with the former supposeth two sorts of Congregations in the Nation which is granted Viz A Parish Congregation made up for the most part of the people of the World and another sort sometimes termed a separate sometimes a gathered Congregation consisting only so far as in charity we are able to judge of persons fearing the Lord in truth and sincerity The Minister of the one we usually term Parson or Vicar and the Minister of the other Pastor or Teacher It is of the latter that in this place he asserts this priviledge but it is with the former only that the Commissioners have to do Mr Goodwin could himself have solved this doubt without my help He knoweth that the Vicar of the Parish Assembly of Stephens Colemanstreet may either be put in or put out and yet the Pastor of that remnant of sheep usually assembling in some private house in Colemanstreet remain in his Pastoral relation still and neither be put in or out by either of these Commissions And yet he hath the confidence to speak what he saith at large of the people of God in general whereas 't is well enough known that what priviledge soever the people of God in gather'd Congregations have exercised heretofore in the chusing and retaining of their own spiritual Shepherds they do still enjoy and exercise with the same Liberty and those Shepherds of theirs being not at all under the cognisance and examination of the Commissioners the yeaing and the naying it with them is quirkt in here by Mr Goodwin to no purpose but to fill up the Page and so there is the sum of that which he calleth his sixth Argument though you see it amounts to no more but a bold groundless Affirmation ARGUMENT VII THe seventh is just such another He saith The Commissioners for Approbation by him termed the Commission for Tryers strike at the Civill Rights of Patrons and all others concerned in presenting who have a Law-right of presenting men unto Parochial Demesnes which are called Benefices or Spiritual Promotions But how can that be seeing the Ordinance admits the Rights of Patrons and others in this kinde Yes by a trick that sagacious Master Goodwin hath sented out for he saith Thouh Presentations be made by such as have the right to do it and though the Persons presented be never so deserving yet they lye at the mercy of the Tryers whether ever they shall enjoy the Preferments collated upon them or no. But how comes this about even by a device of his own forging For first he imagineth but proveth not a Word That the Commissioners practise is to act their power in quarelling and opposing the Clerk presented And secondly By means of their power in conjunction with their Interest and subtilty to bring about their ends they become effectivè the Patrons of all spiritual livings in the Nation These are not all his very words but the sum and substance of that unmanly scandal which he calls his seventh Argument and under the name of an Argument he will needs obtrude it upon the Reader whereas it is nothing lesse for it concerneth an Accuser both in foro externo and interno that if he brings in an Accusation of Fact against any man or number of men he should produce Instances as an Argument to prove the Accusation or else he must stand condemned of calumniation both before the world and in his own conscience for want of due proof But Mr Goodwin brings not so much as one single Instance towards the making of such an Argument Ergo He is an errant Calumniator Moreover if you look a little narrowly into it you will finde this directly contradictory to the two foregoing arguments In the fifth he pleads as if it were the Civil Right and Royalty of the People in a Parish to chuse Then in the sixth he pleads for it as one of the Spiritual Rights and Priviledges of the People of God onely to chuse And now again in this seventh he forgets both these and falls stifly to pleading on the behalf of Patrons asserting the power of choice to be in them as a Royal Priviledge and matter of Conveniencie intended them by the Law by which means he now thrusts the Rights that he before alledged on the behalf of the other two quite out of the Calendar Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis Bears usually agree together yet these Arguments of his are so wilde and savage that it is not in the power of man to tame them or bring them to consistency and correspondence with each other so as to apprehend what he intends by either Onely this is evident that somewhat he would say against the
then approved under his hand To these give me leave to add a fourth Instance and I have done it being such a one as hath many Instances in the belly of it First in his Epistle you have him giving the Commissioners what indeed is their due declaring himself concerning them in these Words I beleeve them to be men of Conscience and worth fearing God and lovers of Truth Now let us take these Particulars in pieces and see how he agreeth with himself in his Book 1. Lovers of Truth And yet p. 9. he intimates a bloody dominion exercised by them over men for holding the Truth and saith a little after That they make the simple owning and professing of the great and important Truths of God a Bar against Preferment p 12. He calls them Heterodox insinuating as if they held Errors against their inward conviction of the contrary p 17. he makes them Counter-workers against God in the work of sending out Labourers to preach the Truth p 20. he saith That what the Names of some of the Commission of Triers presaged they have effected reducing the said Commission in the execution of it to a neer affinity with the Spanish Inquisition which accuseth the Romish Religion of cruelty and blood and so of a pregnant fiery Antipathy to the Genius and Spirit of the Gospel p 21. That they are such as grind the faces and break the bones of men of signal peity and worth who know more of God and his Gospel than themselves whom he calls a little after men of an erroneous and mis grounded Faith that use men so because they will not comply with them in Error p 15. That their judgements are erroneous and destructive to the precious souls of men yet these are the men whom ere now he stiled lovers of truth 2. Men of Conscience Neverthelesse p 3. he tells them of famishing men with their wives and children onely because they will not professe a beleif contrary to their Consciences p 6. he saith They intrench upon the Spiritual Rights and Priviledges of the people of God keep asunder those whom God would have joyned together and reject men that are worthy p. 7. That they quarrel men presented and are not over-tender of the practice whether there be any Christian or reasonable cause for their acting so or no. Such as by their power and subtilty bring about their own ends and receive the tribute of thanks if not baser Metal from those who are preferred p 8. That they are worse in their power and proceedings than the Bishops Never such a rule-lesse law-less controul-lesse generation of men in this Nation p 9. Such as spread Snares and Temptations in the way of mens Consciences Page 10. A generation of men that spread snares of death and lay stumbling blocks in their Brethrens way And Page 16. That use their power to the wringing and straining of mens Consciences Yet these are the men whom he before owned as men of Conscience 3. Men of worth For all this page 5. he calls them an inconsiderable number of men Page 6. Such as disgracefully reject men though never so worthy Page 7. Such as use indirect practises for ends and self-advantage That Thieves and Murtherers may as soon or sooner purchase the Seal of their Approbation to any Benefice as some others though never so signally qualified for the Ministry P. 15. That they use their power to revenge themselves upon their enemies P. 16. That the day would fail him to insist upon all their erroneous and irregular deportments P. 22. That they were not conscious of any usefulness in themselves for the service either of God or man That they are but like the Bramble in Jotham 's Parable meer Brambles in power Insinuating also that they are men of unchristian principles of immodest and dis-ingenuous Spirits Page 23. Men of unhandsome and unhallowed doings in their way such as grant Pass-ports to the first-born of undeserving men but deny them to the deserving Page 28. English Inquisitors sirnamed Tryers Page 25. Who respect the vile many times more than the precious Yet these are the men whom professingly he said he beleeved to be men of Worth 4. Men fearing God Yet Page 2 and 3. Men who are Lords and Masters over other mens Faith and Consciences Page 9. Men that exercise a bloody dominion over them because of their consciences Men that frequently practise an unchristian demeanour Page 11. Men who reject such as God and Christ do recommend unto them Page 15. Such as are Papal in their power principles usurpations practises and spirits Treacherous and disloyal Makers and Maintainers of Parties and Factions to multiply disciples to themselves and revenge themselves upon their Enemies Page 17. Such who thrust forth Loiterers into the Lords Vineyard Pa. 22. Men who have consumed and undone persons of eminent growth in all Christian worth and excellency and are like to devour more And that they sell their brethren to poverty and misery Page 23. Premoters of a Faction and that it was none otherwise from the very beginning but that they would steer that crooked Course which they have steered Page 27. Men of politick reaches and subtil contrivances for the bringing about secular Projects or by ends Page 29. Such as can persecute the innocent and harmless with a good conscience Page 20 and 21. Brethren in Iniquity Grinders of men men of ignorance and ambition imbasing other mens Consciences Yet these very men whom in his virulent humor he thus stigmatizeth in the Book he in his Epistle before the Fit of passionate Phantsie was up seating himself as it were under the shadow of death before the great Tribunal durst not do otherwise while a Fit of Conscience was upon him but give them their due Character Men of Conscience and worth fearing God Lovers of Truth Pray see now how the man and his humor and these things suit together Quà m bene conveniunt in unâ sede morentur O Corydon Corydon quae te dementia cepit What ails the man that he should be thus possessed with an Evil Spirit of Self-contradiction So much for the Commissioners though it be not one half of the Filth that he vomited up against them Now Secondly as in his Epistle he speaks honor of the Commissioners so there also he professeth all Christian Loyalty and entireness of his Respects toward the Persons by whose Authority the said Commissions have issued and been established And yet before he hath done that very Epistle he cannot forbear slily intimating that their two Ordinances which he otherwhere calleth Commissions are Apocrythal Statutes or Decrees to vex the Consciences of good men in the Nation And to the end he may handle them roundly with Authority he in his Postscript to the Reader next after his Epistle tells them in effect as I have already shewn you that he hath a Commission from Christ to smite them for their mis doings which out of his great respect to
eldest of these Commissions was born 2. That it is not over all the Ministers of the Gospel because 't is evident by the very letter of the Commissions that they are not impowered to meddle one way or other with the Ministers or Pastors of Gather'd Congregations but only with such as seek or do enjoy the Publick Maintenance of the State to support them in the Ministry And this himself afterwards confesseth in express terms in his 5. Argument where he stileth them Ministers of Parochial Congregations though here to the end that this crazie Argument might run the more roundly he thought fit to let it pass on in general Terms by omitting the due Distinction 3. That it is not over Ministers quatenus Ministers as they were taken heretofore under the notion and quality of a Sacred Function but only as they stand in relation to the Magistrate a Publick Ministry upon the Account of a Legal Publick Maintenance and so the Judgment that is passed in the approving and disapproving or in the ejecting of them by vertue of those Commissions is only in respect of their being persons fit or unfit to receive or enjoy that Maintenance and cannot be called a Judgment over their Faith which they are left to enjoy at their own liberty as much as before which being allowed them it is fit the Magistrate should enjoy his liberty also to refuse them his Maintenance if their Faith and Perswasions be such as he cannot in conscience believe he ought to give countenance and support unto Moreover whereas he saith that those Ministers by vertue of the Ordinance for Ejecting are put out of the possession and enjoyment of such Livelihoods which the Laws of the Land have entituled them unto to the affamishing of themselves their wives and children because they cannot believe as the Commissioners require them upon the said penalty to believe The Answer to this is evident as before 1. That the Commissioners do not eject them because not of the same Judgment with themselves in matters of Faith but because their Judgment and Opinions are such as come within the compass of those Tenets and Doctrines which the Magistrate hath declared he in Conscience cannot and will not give Maintenance unto Besides the power of ejecting is not exercised upon men only because of their Opinions but it respects also the loose and ill behaviour and conversation of such as are imployed in the work of Publick Preaching 2. That any power which conferreth a livelihood on any person upon certain conditions to a certain end ought in all reason to have a right of resuming that livelihood in case neither the conditions be observed nor the end of the Collation be answered while the party continueth in possession of the said Livelihood Now it was the Magistrate and the Law which conferred livelihoods upon the Ministers before-mentioned The Conditions whereupon they were conferred were that they should behave themselves in all things as becomes Ministers the end was that they should with diligence and sound Doctrine feed and instruct the people under their respective charges Therefore in case those Ministers do not perform the conditions on their part but run out into any of the licentious and disorderly practises in matter of behaviour enumerated in the Ordinance and shall happen to make shipwrack of the Faith by corrupting the truths of God with false Doctrine or be ignorant themselves so that the end which was that they should instruct the people with sound knowledge is not answered certainly the Magistrate in this Case may righteously and is questionless bound in Conscience to resume their livelihoods into his own hand and dispose of them to others who he conceiveth will better perform the end for which those livelihoods and livings were first by Law appointed And though the wants and necessities to which themselves and theirs may be reduced to upon their being ejected be a matter of Commiseration yet it holds not water in point of Reason to prove that they ought to be kept in rather then there should be a Commission to eject them unlesse Mr Goodwin after his wonted way of reasoning will judge it more reasonable that the great end of the Gospel-ministration should be lost and the souls of the people without any commiseration be either starved for want of sound Doctrine or poysoned with false rather than the false ignorant insufficient or scandalous Ministers should be exposed to run the hazard of an affamishing themselves as he calls it and their wives and children If this Argument were of any weight then no man ought to be put out of his Office or Imployment in the Common-wealth for breach of trust or misdemeanour or any crime whatsoever because it may prove the utter undoing of him and his wife and children Lastly Whereas in the close of this Argument he flourisheth telling us That doubtless Christ never took upon himself any such authority as to appoint a few men to devest any men much lesse Ministers of their rights because their faith in matters appertaining to God is not the same with the Faith of other men 'T is true for Christ pretended not to the devesting any men of their rights because they beleeved not aright but what is this to the purpose Will he infer from hence Ergo. The Magistrate doth ill because he requires those who are Officers or Commissioners under him upon a publick and civill account not to permit those persons to enjoy the publick maintenance who in matters of Faith do hold Atheistical Blasphemous and execrable Opinions derogatory to the honour of Christ or who hold teach or maintain any of those Popish Opinions which by the Oath of Abjuration mentioned in an Ordinance of Parliament of the 19 of August 1643. ought to be abjured Will he infer likewise ERGO The Commissioners who put this part of their Commission in execution do exercise Dominion over the Faith and Consciences of men Lastly will he infer ERGO rather then seem to do so both the Magistrate and these Commissioners who act under him are bound to maintain the men in the promoting of their Execrable Blasphemous and Popish Opinions in matters of Faith rather than withdraw the Publick maintenance from them Or else that in not admitting them to have the said Maintenance or by withdrawing it from them they according to the invidious sense of Master Goodwin must needs incur the guilt of Lording it over mens Faiths and Consciences These are the rare Inferences that must unavoidably be drawn for no other can be from his most enigmatical way of arguing till he please more rationally to furnish us with other Conclusions from those sophisticated Suppositions and those illogical antilogical Rodomontadoes and hard words wherewith he abounds in this and all other his Sophisms circumlocutory to little purpose By this time I suppose the Reader is sick enough of Mr Johns second Argument and therefore I shall not meddle with that which followeth
constitution of a Common-wealth and what are the Bonds and Bounds of Civil power To this end he tells us God in these daies doth not make supream Rulers immediatly or by Divine dictate but mediatly by those that are to be ruled and governed by them Viz. The people now the people have no power from God which they can entrust unto their Rulers either by the Law of Nature or otherwise to establish any Rule or Law amongst them unto which they shall all stand bound every man to beleeve the same things with another in all points of Christian Religion or that the judgement of any one man or number of men amongst them shall be the Standard unto which all the rest shall conform their judgments in matters of Faith or Worship or else incur some civil punishment The reason saith he is because God never gives power to any to enslave or subject the consciences of men in matters appertaining unto himself And it is not probable that the People of this Land ever gave their Rulers any such power as that now mentioned that they might invest any one or more of their Subjects with authority to mould and form the judgments and consciences of their fellow Subjects in matters of Faith or to inflict any civil Mulct or Punishment or to set any brand of publick Infamy and reproach upon them as by excluding them as unworthy from places of publick Trust yea from all livelihood and maintenance of which they are capable because they cannot set their judgements by theirs or make one lip with them in some controverted points of Christian Religion Therefore the Commission by vertue whereof our Triers sell their Brethren into the hand of poverty and disgrace onely because they will not prostitute their judgements to the lust and ambition of theirs stands not upon any regular foundation of power or Authority Here is as the Proverb saith a great deal of Crie and but little Wool This is the sum of this extravagant Argument And though the vanity and unreasonableness of the most part of it be of it self evident enough to any man that hath read my Answers to several of the foregoing Arguments yet wheresoever he is pleased to Tautologise I have been willing to imitate and trace him in the mystery of wording lest perhaps himself or some others whose Faiths are pinned upon the Sleeve of this great Doctor should cry out that divers of the Arguments never had any Answer Let us on therefore to the business 1. Whereas he saith That not God immediately but the people mediately do make Rulers though it be but to little purpose to enter upon such discourse as this now yet the angry man having thought fit to lugg it in here by the ears mihi Cynthius aurem vellit I must needs say somewhat which may perhaps sink into the consideration of this Mongrel-Polititian if it finde him in a calm or out of his Currish humor And it is this That however it hath been talked over aud over and printea a thousand times that there have been no valià Titles to Government but what were received from the People yet from the very first time that the Goverment called Political was instituted in the World it is a most undeniable truth that in all the considerable Nations which have since been under the Sun Titles to government and forms of Government have in all times been de facto dispensed and devolved from hand to hand mediately by the power of the Sword There are but few or no exceptions that stand upon record to the contrary and indeed the onely remarkable Instances which are contrary are those in sacred Story concerning the State of the people of Israel whose happiness alone it was above all the Nations upon the face of the earth to have persons and Families invested with Title to Government many times by immediate designation from God himself But this was extraordinary and excepting only those extraordinary Instances I am able otherwise at large to make good the Assertion But because I live in a touchy time when most mens brains are crowing upon points of Government I would by no means be mistaken and do therefore for the Readers more right apprehending of my purpose take leave here to distinguish betwixt Title to Government and Administration of Government I gladly acknowledge that in all times after Governments have been founded and established by the sword then they who held the Sword have been contented and thought it their best security as indeed it is to administer Government by Law and accordingly they have been willing to admit the People to the exercise of their Right more or less in the making of those Laws whereby they were to be governed and so the superstructure in the Administration of Government by Rulers hath oftentimes been carried on by their contenting themselves to rule according to such Rules or Laws as have been in a measure handed out unto them by the Representative Bodies or Assemblies of the People This hath frequently been the way after that Governments and Titles have been set up and founded But in the setting up or founding of them the People have ever had but little or no share Titles and Forms in their original having de facto been cut out and carved by the Sword all over the world in the more eminent and I might say all Nations Which being considered I suppose this Political point of his lies flat upon the ground and his Assertion may with better reason be turned this way That God hath been so far from making Rulers mediately by the People that having ever assumed to himself the disposing of Governments and Kingdoms to whom he pleaseth as his great prerogative he hath in the several turns and variations of his Providence concerning it generally so ordered the matter that the People have for the most part had least to do in founding Governments or in making their own Rulers but that the only wise God having permitted the Sword many times to be drawn for the executing of his justice upon Nations for their sins and for the bringing about his own great designs in the world hath mediately by the Sword exercised that his own Prerogative in setting up Governors and Rulers at his own pleasure and in founding new Forms of Government from time to time And the same God who hath constantly over-ruled the management of Affairs in the hands of men after this manner for bringing things to a new settlement after warlike commotions hath also so disposed the hearts of men to acquiesce therein that the Suffrages and Consent of the People have usually ex pest facto been brought and taken in for Confirmation This hath been the general course of Gods providence in ordering the Governments of this World as is evident both in Profane and Sacred Story In the mention whereof take notice by the way that I dispute not the Peoples right but only tell how things have gone de
excellency who are devoured by the Fire that comes out of the Bramble-Commissioners Alas poor men Is not this Scene think you well laid for an Argument against them Here is a cunning man indeed that can gather grapes off Thorns Figs off Thistles and Reasons off Brambles and fetch rational conclusions from a quaint Collusion of Tropes and Figures But Mr. G. is so able a Champion that he dare do any thing to fill up the number seventeen As touching the latter part of this Argument which speaks of a pretended burthen lying upon men in being necessitated to come up to London from the remotest parts in order to Approbation he gives me an occasion to answer it more fitly by and by and therefore it s waved here because I would not always lead the Reader up and down as he presumes to do with needlesse Repetitions ARGUMENT XVIII HEre he tells us There is no considerable Argument yet alledged for the necessity of that establishment of Triers The reason is because among pious men there hath been no need of under-propping the Establishment by Arguments till now that Mr. G. begins to act the Seducer for when they were first established it was thought to be done upon this good ground which the practice of the Churches in all Ages hath been grounded upon Viz. That men ought to be tried and approved before they be sent out to preach the Gospel But saith Mr G. what reason can there be for any necessity to exchange or put by such a way or method which is generally known for another which besides that it threatens a disturbance and discontent through the Novelty of it is not like to prevent those Inconveniences which are somtimes found in the former unless it be with introducing or occasioning greater in their stead For what if Patrons of Benefices whether Parochial Congregations or single persons 〈◊〉 have sometimâ—s preferred or recommended unworthy men to some of these Places have not the Triers been no great or greater Delinquents in this kind than they Judge ye now whether Patrens are not beholding to him whether they are not bound to gratifie him who hath undertaken to be their Patron and whether they ought not in requital to cast a favourable eye upon the Sons of his Opinion as occasion offers by the fall of good Benefices But withall Patrons ought to be so good-natured as to forget as he himself doth how in other places of this Pamphlet he is pleased to contradict himself and their priviledge of Presentation both together But that is no wonder in the eye of those who are acquainted with the Works of Mr Goodwin Then whereas he insinuateth That the settlement of the Commissioners is a new way that puts by another which is generally known the Reader is to consider that the old way generally known was the way of the Bishops who when a Patron made presentation of any to a Benefice had the power of Approbation and did exercise it by themselves or their Chaplains before they granted Institution and Induction This was the old way generally known and it was not put aside by the present way but fell of it self many years ago together with Episcopacie The Bishops being gone and there remaining a necessity still for approving men before they enter upon such places of trust then as you may see in the fore-going part of this Discourse the Parliament setled the power of Approbation in the Assembly of Divines or a Committee of them And the Assembly ceasing it was exercised by some of their number till the end of the Long Parliament Afterwards when his Highness came to the Government He and His Council finding the great want and necessity of some regular way for approving of men and how much it concerned him to provide betimes that the publick Maintenance which the Law alloweth for promoting the work of the Gospel should be conferred upon such men as are rightly qualified for the work that so pious and sound Preachers might upon the publick Account be planted in the several parts of the Nation Hereupon it was that they resolved on the present Establishment of Commissioners for Approbation which was so far from justling out any old way generally known and used as Mr. G. pretends that it came in when there was no good and regular way left for the carrying on of so good a work What ground then of discontent can any man have or pretend upon the pretended putting by of another way But Mr. Goodwin's Pen is a Quill taken out of his own high-flying Phant'sie If he do but fancy a thing right or wrong he dares immediately print it to all the world But would any man do so that were not inwardly tempted and set on work to create discontents and disturbances in the mindes of the weaker persons and to deceive and draw them in upon mistakes and falshoods to be offended and become Instruments in crying down an Establishment such an Establishment for promoting the preaching of the Gospel as upon a right enquiry into the matter cannot in the least measure be offensive to any who are truly godly against which though Cerberus may bark because he and his Litter are not like to have an Offa so much as a Crust out of the Publick Maintenance yet the gates of Hell will not prevail No nor yet all the lewd and scandalous Insinuations which Mr. G. hath here packt together For though according to his wonted liberty he presume to scratch the faces of the Commissioners with a licentious pen charging them to have preferred persons as unworthy as ever were presented by any Patrons yet he hath not been able to produce one Instance to make the least proof of so high and general a Charge in any one particular But that we must suppose to be the modesty of the man and his great ingenuity to forbear particulars So he seems to intimate unto us in the following words whereby he doth as good as confess he hath no matters of Fact to make good the Charge For saith he I always judged it beneath a spirit of ingenuity to hold intelligence with any man for information of the sinister and undue practises of man or to give encouragement to those who lâ—ve to be the messengers of such tidings nor have I kept a Register either in my Pen or Memory of such Stories A good-natur'd man indeed He most wisely according to the old way Dolus versatur in generalibus chargeth his Brethren home and heavily in general terms but is so full of ingenuity as to tell us why he spares the mention of Particulars even because he hath none that he knows of either upon record or in memory If this be not a man of rare Reason and Religion in matter of Argument let the World judge or what credit may be given to him now or hereafter who hath here by his own confession proved himself to be a meer Calumniator or whether he ought not to
as concerns Christian practice i. e. every Christian so far as in him lieth in matter of duty the nobleness of the example of those extraordinary persons should serve to raise and quicken our affections to imitate them in matters of ordinary duty rather than permit our selves to be deluded by Satan when he suggests that we ought not to follow them because they have led us the way Thus you see what a proper Divinity-Argument he brings to prove that sending men abroad to preach is the proper work of the Churches But till he be able to prove that it belongs to a Church omni soli semper his Argument will fall 2. The next particulars he produceth are points of Prudence to prove the said Churches ought to have the power of approving and sending Preachers abroad One point is this Because the Churches are more like to be considerate what they should do in this kind than the sealed Knot of Triers these all being but a few and making but one Consistory and so the whole business of Trying throughout the Nation lying on their hands they are in no capacity especially meeting so seldom Consistory-wise as they do to allow a meet proportion of time for the regular traversing of matters committed unto them at least not without constraining many of their Suitors to dance a troublesom Attendance upon them for their dispatch whereas the Churches being many the work and business of Trying being disributed among them as it is like it would be if it were committed to them would have leisure to make a due enquiry into matters that should come before them and this without any tedious or chargeable delay unto the persons It is not my business to determine who would be most considerate the said Churches or others in the managing of this business but to consider whether the way by him propounded for placing the power in the Churches be in reason likely to answer the end of his Highness and the Council in the carrying on of the work with such conveniencie for the honor of God the good of the Commonwealth and the interest and encouragement of Preachers themselves Not but that I believe the Churches would to their power discharge a good conscience in the business and are sufficient both for grace and knowledge to do it only I conceive that they are Bodies both in respect of the manner of their constitution and divers other respects not in a capacity meet to answer the Magistrates expectation in the transacting of such an Affair as I shall manifest by and by In the mean time whereas he saith here the Commissioners are but few but one Consistory and that the work lies upon their hands they not having time to traverse matters without making Suitors attend long the Reader is to take notice that the Commissioners are such a number as Authority hath judged convenient and if there were need of more the same hands who placed these are not so streightned but that upon occasion they have added and are ready to add unto their number Only they are wise otherwise than Mr. Goodwin and are willing to tread in the steps of antient prudence confirmed by the experience of all Ages But how this point of prudence should be better answered by placing the power in the Churches I do not understand Which of them I pray shall undertake the business in a County Or 1. Admit some one Congregational or gather'd Church should have the power would it not displease all the rest of a County which are not of that Church or not of the same Opinions with that Church 2. Whereas you say now Congregational Churches then it must belong to them either as Congregational or as Churches If as a Congregation then the power rests well where it is for the Commissioners are a Congregation made up of Forty persons at least and all of them Elders of Churches or fit for it If as Churches then surely Presbyterial or Parochial so far as they have the essence of a Church ought also to be trusted 3. Besides it would be considered whether you would have the whole Body of a gathered Church or only some part of it to be entrusted with the said power in a County If you say some part should have it then as it will be displeasing to the other part neglected so you lose your intent Sir because you say it ought to be in not parts of Churches but Churches and to this purpose your before-cited Texts out of the Acts do speak which you brought to prove that Churches sent Paul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel for in those Texts it was the Act of whole Bodies of Churches On the other side then if you say the whole Body of a Church or a Church as a Body should act therein then I suppose that things being carried in that Body by common Suffrage the matter will be so far from being mended that way in point of quick dispatch that delayes must needs be more tedious than ever As for the Commissioners they have their meetings constantly two daies in a week which they find sufficient to do the work and yet put men to no more attendance than the necessity of the insufficiency and doubtfulness of divers persons doth require But saith he how oft the Triers have dashed their feet at these and such like stones is known unto and lamented by many To such unworthy Provocations whereof your Book is full I make no other Return but this that you have all along proved your self a meer Calumniator never daring to make one Instance which your sweet spirit of revenge could not have omitted had you had any thing of Fact though but upon surmise and in the Conclusion of all your Arguments as hath been declared sufficiently already you are so ingenuous as to shame the Devil when you confesse you have no particulars of proof either upon record or in memory Which certainly ought to be a lamentation to your self when you consider it being a matter of grief and lamentation to others who have had occasion to observe your demeanour A Third Reason is he saith Because the Church Bodies are not accomplished with any such Politick reaches deep methods subtil Contrivances for the bringing about of secular Projects or By-ends as our Triers are Still this is matter of scandal against the Commissioners and little better against the Churches For as he calls his own a company of Sheep so he seems to make all the rest but sheep indeed representing them as weak heads in the general and implying that they may have reaches and methods and contrivances to bring about by-Ends as well as the Commissioners onely they have not such deep Reaches and contrivances which is in effect to say they may be corrupt as well as the Commissioners onely they have not so much wit as the Commissioners have to bring ends about Now on the other side put case that the Commissioners be godly conscientious men
make a ratling noise in Rhetorick to please childish fancie but what are these things to men of solidity and sobriety that would inform their understandings But 't is all one with him he is every jot as light and toyish also in managing matter of Argument And this appears by his trifling with another Scripture which he hath drawn in I know not how to prove that Christ hath left Rules enough of such a nature as there needs no help of any prudence to promote the preaching of the Gospel But what trow ye is the proof Even such another Text save only it makes less if that were possible to his purpose than the former It is Luk. 12. 49. I am come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled This he tells us signifieth that Christ desired nothing in this world at least comparatively before his departure from it but only to see that fire kindled which he came to send on the earth that is to see the Gospel as it were to have gotten footing and taken some hold in the world Well admit this be the right interpretation what doth he infer from it Ergo doubtless the Lord Christ who was desirous to see this was sollicitous and provident enough by himself or by his Apostles at least to order and enjoin all things necessary or meet for the spreading of the Gospel upon terms of the best advantage after him and not to leave so important an affair to the care and contrivance of the Secular Powers Doubtless while Christ and his Apostles were upon the earth they neglected not to order things which were then necessary and meet for the then spreading of the Gospel So much of Inference may be admitted But Mr. G. stretcheth it further and inferreth from this Text what it never intended to import His Argument stands thus Christs great desire was while he was on earth to see the fire of the Gospel kindled Ergo He by himself or his Apostles laid down such Rules and Directions so full in all circumstances that the Magistrate hath no liberty left to use his discretion for the kindling or promoting of it upon any occasion in After-Ages I shall not now resume the debate whether there are such large Rules and Directions to be found or whether the Magistrate may exert his Civil power and wisdom to settle any Course upon a Civil Account for the publication of the Gospel the former part of this Discourse having sufficiently cleared the Truth already concerning those Particulars but the matter under question here is this whether from such an Antecedent as this That Christ desired to see the Gospel take footing while he lived any such Consequence as this do naturally clearly follow Therfore he by himself or his Apostles left such universal Rules to promote it as exclude all endeavour and care of the Magistrate from assisting thereunto in succeeding times and generations It must be a rare Logical Engine that can serue in such a Consequence without the mighty help of Mr. G. who seems to have an extraordinary faculty of tormenting his own Brains and the Scripture to bring about shadowie pretences of Reason and Religion to cover the peevish designs and odd purposes of an angry spleen But he goeth on to tell us Experience hath manifested in all Ages that for men whoever they be to compound the wisdom counsels and institutions of Christ for the advancement of the Gospel in the world with their own devices and Inventions is the next way to obstruct the course of the Gospel And yet the professing powers of this world have always had itching desires to be officious unto Christ in this kind to obtrude upon him their own Projections and Inventions to accommodate and help him through the world with his worship and Gospel It is readily granted that the Civil Powers of the world have been too much engaged in mingling their own Inventions with the Institutions of Christ and Gospel-worship which hath been the great hindrance to a progress of the Gospel in the Truth and Power of it But why is this brought in here to be insinuated against the Civil Powers now in England and why is such a heap of words erouded in here to incumber the Reader and countenance the Insinuation Certainly Mr. Goodwin cannot charge the present Governors for mingling their own Inventions with the Institutions and Worship of Christ Could he have done it we should have seen him descending to particulars to prove the charge and have heard of him in a more lofty tune but knowing in his Conscience there is no such matter it serveth his turn well enough by packing and shuffling a company of words together thereby slily to cheat and instill an ill Opinion of the present Authority into the unwary Reader as if they compounded their own Inventions with Gospel-worship and Institutions But take away the Boxes and then what becomes of the Jugler Remove the deceptio visus Viz. the Mist of words from before the eyes of the Reader and then Mr G. his tricks and slights of Insinuation signifie nothing at all to the meanest understanding The Ordinances for Approbation and Ejection made by his Highness and the Councel are the present Subject of this bold mans discourse and therefore we are to suppose his meaning is that by those they have compounded their own devices with Christs Institution and worship If it be so he might have done well to have shewn us wherein they have so done by naming to us some Particulars in the mean time the very Title and Text of the said Ordinances do evince the contrary there being not the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or tittle that so much as mentioneth any thing concerning any Institution of Christ or concerning Worship further than this that the Ordinance for Approbation is purposedly directed to the encouraging and preserving of that Institution of Christ which is called Preaching in the power and purity of it according to the sence and meaning of Christ and his Apostles and the Ordinance for ejecting takes especiall care beside other things to preserve the sincere instituted Gospel-worship free from any humane mixtures or additions whatsoever by appointing the ejection of persons that frequently use the Common-Prayer-Book or who are superstitious and Popishly minded which is a manifest evidence not only of this mans licentious boldness against Authority but also how much his Highness and the Councel abhor the mingling of humane Inventions with the Institutions and Worship of the Gospel and yet such strange stuffe he is fain to make use of to fill up the number fourteen ARGUMENT XV. THis pious Pretender having in the former Argument begun to give us a proof of his extraordinary faculties in speaking evill of dignities now in this takes upon him to dispute the Pedigree of their power and as if he were possessed with the Ghost of Plato or Aristotle very sagely determines what is the right