pain of Deprivation is more than I can prove neither will I judg conscientious Nonconformists who meekly dissent 8. Again the Nonconforming Brethren scruple Subscription to the 35th Article of the Church of England touching Homilies which Article stands upon two Points First that the two Books of Homilies contain a godly and wholsom and necessary Doctrine Secondly that therefore they judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly The former Point I cannot think the Nonconforming Brethren who have read the Homilies will deny The Article doth not say that there is nothing in any of the Homilies savouring of humane Weakness and Imperfection for the main they may and do contain a godly wholsom and necessary Doctrine though there may perhaps be in them some tolerable Defects as is incident to most good Books not divinely inspired and even to the best Translation of the holy Scriptures Touching the latter Point the Nonconforming Brethren by their Subscription to the 6th Article must needs own and allow that the Apocrypha-Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet doth it not apply to stablish any Doctrine This plainly intimates that they are not against all reading of other Books than the Bible in the Church due distinction being put between the one and the other Neither will they condemn but rather approve the French Protestant Churches heretofore who in the want of daily Pastors did in many Places use to read both privately and publickly Mr. Calvin's Sermons upon Job as Mr. Beza in his Preface to them doth relate And we may well think that this and no other was the Intention of the Composers of this Article and of the Homilies as thinking it better in the want of Pastors qualified with ministerial Gifts and Ability to compose edifying Sermons-daily and continually of their own that the People have sound and godly Sermons of others composing read to them in publick than be without all publick Instruction This Sense will well stand with the Words of the Article and it is agreeable to the Opinion both of Conforming and Nonconforming Brethren And therefore as to this also I may well conclude that there is no difference between the two Parties 9. There is but one more Article unsubscribed by the Nonconforming Brethren and that is the 36th concerning the Book of Ordination Touching which if the Episcopal Brethren will own the Nonconforming Brethren ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be true Ministers of Christ and their Ordination to be valid and will cordially embrace them as Brethren and Fellow-Ministers as in Conscience they are bound all other Matters will either be accorded or what cannot be fully accorded may be tolerated with mutual Brotherly Love to each other according to that Apostolical Canon Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 3.15 16. But if the Episcopal Brethren shall judg the Nonconforming Ministers ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be no Ministers of Christ and their Ordination to be null and their Baptism Preaching dispensing the Lord's Supper and all other their Ministerial Acts to be meer Nullities then there is no hope of Accord nor of Toleration with mutual Brotherly Love a Schism there is and like to be Concerning which I will set down a Passage which I find related by Mr. Clark in the Life of that eminent Nonconforming Minister Mr. Greenham On a time the Bishop of Eli sent for him to appear about his Nonconformity at which time the Bishop told him that there was a great Schism in the Church asking him where the Blame was to be laid whether upon the Conformists or Nonconformists To which he readily answered that it might lie on either side or on neither side For said he if they loved one another as they ought and would do all good Offices each for other thereby maintaining Love and Concord it lay on neither side otherwise which Party soever makes the Rent the Schism lies upon their score The Bishop was so pleased with this Answer that he dismissed him in peace 10. They who repute Men ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be no Ministers and their Ministerial Acts to be Nullities are not regular Sons of God's Church in England but a Sect Combination and Party of Men in it who are tainted and defiled with an uncharitable Principle contrary to one Article of the Christian Faith The Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints For God's Church in England doth own and embrace the Protestant Ministers in Holland France Helvetia and Geneva ordained by Presbyters without a Bishop to be true Ministers of Christ and the Churches guided by them to be true Churches This hath been the constant Doctrine of God's Church in England all along from the beginning of the Reformation to this day And unless we so hold we yield the Cause to the Papists and overthrow the Protestant Cause The Papists ask Where was our Church before Luther To which the Answer hath been often made That wheresoever upon Earth God had a People believing in the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost retaining Baptism and the Lord's Supper for Substance sound and good and living righteously soberly and godly there was our Church We are sure from God's Word and the sound Belief of all Christian People that such a Church God had upon Earth before Luther and will have to the End of the World We do not derive our Church and our Ministry from Rome and the Roman Papacy but from Christ and the holy Scriptures and the Evangelical Covenant by the Tenour whereof upon our sincere Repentance and Incorporation into Christ by lively Faith all things become ours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are ours 1 Cor. 3.21 22. And consequently whatsoever is true just good any way useful to God and Christ Jesus and the Souls of Men among Papists Jews Turks and Heathens that becomes ours for spiritual Uses to our Souls In leaving the Papacy we have not left Christ and his Church but we have left Idolatry false Worship Superstition and the Way of Damnation and are become a found part of and joined to that holy Catholick Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ the blessed Company of all faithful People built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-Stone Upon this Divine Foundation all the Protestant Churches stand and they who deny Ordination by Presbyters without a Bishop to be valid must will they nill they fall in with the Principles of the Papists against the whole Reformation because the Cause is common 11. The Ministry of the Nonconforming
for Ecclesiastical Rule Authority and Jurisdiction over one another all Affectation Claim and Exercise of Imperial Power over one another for they were all equal in Office Brethren in the Ministry Fellow-Apostles no one was Pope and Monarch over the rest neither might be 11. If Bishops were Spiritual Lords in respect of inward spiritual Worth and Goodness then they would be Spiritual Lords while they are but Presbyters and before they are made Bishops For first they are Presbyters which the Advocates for Prelacy suppose to be an Order or Degree in the Ministry inferiour to a Bishop Now it is plain that what inward spiritual Worth and Goodness is in the new-made Bishop it was in him before he was Bishop even whilst he was a Presbyter But no one did repute him a Spiritual Lord while he was but a Presbyter though he was a good and worthy Man His assuming of the Episcopal Office adds no inward spiritual Worth and Goodness to his Soul it being but a thing common to worthy and unworthy Men. Mr. Prideaux in his Introduction for reading all sorts of Histories pag. 67. divides the Bishops of Rome into seven Ranks 32 good Bishops 33 tolerable Archbishops or Patriarchs 38 usurping Nimrods 40 luxurious Sodomites 40 Egyptian Magicians 41 devouring Abaddons and 20 incurable Babylonians 12. It is then plain that Lord-Bishops are so by Humane Law and not by Divine Law they are made by Man and not by God their Office Power and Authority as they are Lord-Bishops is Humane and not Divine I say not that it is unlawful but that it is not Divine many things are lawful which yet are not Divine as the Offices of Constables Head-Constables Sheriffs Mayors Lord-Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal are all lawful and yet they are not Divine and Evangelical but Humane and Civil 13. Lord-Bishops being but Civil and Temporal Lords of Man's making their Courts cannot be Spiritual Courts but only Civil and Temporal By Permission of the King and Parliament they hold their Courts not expresly in the King's Name but in their own Name Yet are they nevertheless but Civil and Temporal Courts deriving their Authority from and dependent on the King and Parliament which under God are the highest Judicature in this Nation from whom there lies no Appeal save to God But there lies an Appeal from the highest Ecclesiastical Court in the Nation to the King and Parliament The contrary Doctrine brings in foreign Jurisdiction and sets up the Papacy and is destructive both of Church and State 14. Many of the Nobility and Gentry of England and others of the Laity hold Courts not expresly in the King's Name but in their own Name And yet no one doubts but that they are Civil and Temporal Courts derived from and dependent on the Crown and there lies an Appeal from them to a superiour Civil Court 15. True it is that in the first Ages of the Church after Christ's Ascension the Holy Ghost by Paul reproves the Christians at Corinth for going to Law with one another before the Heathen Judges about worldly and secular Matters there being then no Christian Magistracy I speak to your Shame Is it so that there is not a wise Man amongst you 1 Cor. 6 5â— no not one that shall be able to judg between his Brethren Upon which it is like the Christians from thenceforth did desist from going to Law with one another before the Heathen Judges about small Matters pertaining to this Life and chose some judicious and understanding Christian as an Umpire or Arbitrator for the ending and deciding of their litigious Causes about worldly Matters which continuing for some hundreds of Years unto the Reign of Constantine the first Christian Emperor it is very likely that he by his Imperial Sanction confirmed the aforesaid Apostolical Decree and the Way of the Primitive Churches ending and deciding their Suits about secular Matters pursuant to and grounded on the same and did enlarge and add to it and so made it an Ecclesiastical Court and called it the Bishops Court and the Judg thereof the Bishops Chancellor or the Chancellor of the Ecclesiastical Court But before this Sanction by the Emperor it was no Ecclesiastical Court neither had it any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction it was only a prudential Institution without all external Jurisdiction 16. The King of England is by God's Grace a Christian King Being so he must needs be a Christian and as such he is a Member of God's Church in England in common with all other Christian People therein and he is no more he is not Head thereof for only Christ is Head of God's Church in England like as he is sole Head of the whole Church on Earth it being a Contradiction to be sole Head of the whole and not of every Part. Considered as a King so he hath no more Power and Jurisdiction over the Church and its Causes than he would have if he were a Heathen King his being a Christian doth not inlarge and add to his Regal Power but only qualify him supposing him truly godly with Grace and spiritual Wisdom to use his Regal Power aright for God which a Heathen King cannot 17. The King is sole Supream under God and Christ the Mediator over all the Souls in the Nation as to coercive Rule by the Sword yet is he limited by fundamental Laws whereby the Rights of Prince and People mutually consist and which he is bound inviolably to observe But all his Power is only Civil and Temporal and not Spiritual and therefore he can grant no Spiritual Jurisdiction he can create no Spiritual Office For no Effect can exced its Cause neither can the Streams differ in kind from the Water in the Fountain 18. The King and Parliament will meekly and reverently hear a common Presbyter or Minister preach the Gospel and be awed by the Word in his Mouth as the Word of God and not the Word of Man though Man be the Preacher and they will reverently own and submit to Baptism and the Lord's Supper dispensed by him as Divine and not Humane Institutions Convincing Evidence will go along with the Preacher's Word being scriptural sound good and faithful whereby it will evidence it self to be Divine and from above to all such as believe it will to them be the Savour of Life unto Life and the rest who do not believe yet will stand condemned by it and it may be with Felix tremble under it as being through their own Sin the Savour of Death unto Death to them Here it is plain Jesus Christ as sole Lord of the Conscience doth by the Ministry of a weak Man a coâ—â—â—â— Presbyter exercise Spiritual Lordship and Jurisdiction over the King and all the Lords and Commons inwardly in each one's Bosom over such as are good willingly and in Love over such as are wicked against their Will for if wicked ones might have their Will they would all be above God and lord over him at
upon all the Princes and Potentates of the Earth and the Good he will adjudg unto everlasting Joy and the Wicked unto everlasting Fire 15. Dr. Parker afterward Bishop of Oxford in his Book of Religion and Loyalty par 1. p. 28. says It is but a crude Expression not to call it profane because it is so common by customary Mistake to affirm that Kings are Supreme Governours under Christ They are and ever were so under God but so as to be superiour to Christ as Christ is Head of his Church within their Dominions for as Head of his Church he ever owned himself subject to the Temporal Powers There are others * Mr. Buâ—rough's Irenicum p. 21. Mr Peâ—â—â—… Reformed Catholicâ— in the 〈◊〉 concerning Supremacâ— who hold the Kingdom of Christ to be twofold one as he is God and another as he is Mediator These are great Errors 16. As Christ is but one Person the Word made Flesh one Immanuel in whom dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily so the Kingdom of Christ is but one ruling over the whole World in general for the Good of Militant Saints in special And tho Christ as Man in the Days of his Flesh and in his State of Humiliation owned himself subject to the Temporal Powers yet as now he is and since his Ascension hath been in his State of Exaltation at God's right Hand in Glory he is hath been and ever will be Superiour to all Temporal Powers It is Christ purposed to be Mediator who raised up Moses Joshua David Cyrus Alexander the Great and the rest of Kings and Princes under the Old Testament and was the Author of Magistracy then and it is the same Christ who being Mediator according to his eternal Purpose raised up Vespasian Titus Trajan Constantine Charles the Great Q. Elizabeth and the rest of Kings and Princes since his Ascension and who is the Author of Magistracy under the New Testament Tho the Mediator be Man yet not a mere and bare Man but that Man in whom dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily Col. 2.9 And he only is Mediator 17. Bp Andrews holds but one Place wherein external Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is founded and that is Mat. 18.17 Tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man By these Words he supposeth the major Excommunication appointed of Christ â—ortura â—orti p. 41 De exteriore foro ibi agitur exterioris fori jurisdictio illo nec alio loco fundata est there Christ treats of the exteriour Court the Jurisdiction of the exteriour Court is founded in that Place and no other 18. CertuÌ„ hoc â—uidem in â—heologia receptuÌ„ 〈◊〉 omniâ—â—s Non 〈◊〉 venisse â—hristum 〈◊〉 qui jam â—…te adâ—…ntum suâ—â—… crat â—â—…do vel â—â—…turae vel â—…olitiae euÌ„â—el inverâ—…et vel â—…erteret 〈…〉 â—ictuÌ„ maâ—â—… reddeâ—â—… Id. ib. p. 43. But herein Bp Andrews contradicts himself and the unanimous Judgment of all sound Divines who hold it for a sure Axiom that the Gospel doth not make void but establish Civil Order and Government founded in Nature and Natural Religion common to us and Heathens Christ came not to alter unhinge and overthrow the mutual Ties and Offices of Husband and Wife Parents and Children Master and Servant Prince and People but rather by his Example and the Effusion of his Grace upon his Disciples and Followers to render them more sacred and inviolable But how can this consist with his supposed Institution of a new exteriour Court and a new exteriour Jurisdiction in the Church superiour to and not dependent upon the State For such a new exteriour Court Supremacy and Jurisdiction is plainly Papal inconsistent with and repugnant to the supream Authority of Kings and Princes and Sovereign Civil Rulers in their several Territories and Dominions 19. And therefore it is evident that in these Words Tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man Christ instituted no exteriour Court no exteriour Jurisdiction in the Church But this is one of those Divine Rules which concern the inward Court of the Heart and the Jurisdiction of Christ there for this and the like holy Rules and Laws he doth by supernatural Grace write in the Hearts of God's Elect who are his Church the Mystical Body of Christ and thereby doth teach and enable them to shun the Society of obstinate and unreformable and incorrigible Sinners and to put a due difference between the Precious and the Vile Penitent and Impenitent ones to use their best endeavour privately and publickly to draw a scandalous Brother to Repentance and holy Amendment and if after all he will not be amended to leave him to God So that this whole Precept concerns the Conscience and inward Man and the sovereign Jurisdiction of Christ over the Heart inwardly and doth not at all concern external Jurisdiction nor give any colour for the founding of a new external Tribunal and external Jurisdiction in the Church superiour to Civil Supremacy and the Authority of sovereign Princes no such Thought could come into Christ's Heart 20. Finally all Jurisdiction is necessarily either spiritual and internal or temporal and external Spiritual and internal Jurisdiction is the absolute Prerogative of Christ and of God in and by him and is not communicable to any meer Creature Tho Christ make great use of Bishops Pastors and Ministers in his Church yet he himself is sole Head of it and sole Lord and King of the Conscience and inward Man He dwells in the Hearts of his People by Faith and all both Angels and Men owe absolute Subjection to him and to his supreme Jurisdiction for the everlasting Good of Militant Saints Temporal and external Jurisdiction is communicated by Christ to such in each Nation as bear the Sword and are supreme Governours under him and so what external Jurisdiction is regularly exercised by any in the Church is not from Christ but from the State and therefore the Jurisdiction of all the Ecclesiastical Courts in England is not by Divine but Humane Law dependent on the King and Parliament And all Protestant Divines agree that Jesus Christ the Mediator is Author of Magistracy but many of them I confess hold that he is not so as he is Mediator but as he is God Do but set aside this one very little word as and we are all agreed against Arians Socinians and all other Impugners of Christ's Deity and supreme Authority The Bishops are not Spiritual but Civil and Temporal Lords and their Courts accordingly Civil and Temporal Courts 1. THat they are Civil and Temporal Lords is evident for that they are made Lords by the King and State as truly as the Temporal Lords those I mean who really are so and are so called But no earthly King or State can make a Spiritual Lord none but God and the Lord Jesus