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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A36832 The conformity of the discipline and government of those who are commonly called independants to that of the ancient primitive Christians by Lewis Du Moulin. Du Moulin, Lewis, 1606-1680. 1680 (1680) Wing D2533; ESTC R25012 54,163 74

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Omnipotentiam non credunt 'T IS true they are accused for depriving the Magistrate from the same Authority and Soveraign Intendence over the Ecclesiastical State as over that of the Civil But notwithstanding they do sufficiently satisfy all reasonable and considerate persons of this in the four and twentieth Chapter of their Confession Beside those who condemn that collaterality of Governments and of Tribunals the one Ecclesiastical and the other Civil in one and the same territory and who believe that it comes from the forge of Antichrist and that it hath introduced Popery into the world do not trouble themselves about resolving the difficulty nor about assigning to each his Lawes his Courts his Officers his Soveraign and the measure of his Power and Authority I add that as the force and efficacy of Laws does not consist in whither they are Ecclesiastical or Civil nor in their goodness justice and truth but in the will of him or those who sit at the Helm of Affairs the Congregational Churches must of necessity acknowledg the force of all those Laws whither for the Ecclesiastical or the Civil State only they affirm that as the Magistrate is not Infallible he may possibly abuse his right and orr either in the publication or the execution of his Laws of what Nature soever they be and as they are not obliged to obey all Civil Laws no more are they obliged to obey all Laws Ecclesiastical they affirm also that as the Empire of Jesus Christ in matters of Religion is not over the bodies but over the hearts of men the Magistrate who is the Protector and Defender of the visible Church of Jesus Christ in his Territories sins extremely when he makes Laws and Ordinances that do violence to the bodies of his Subjects and that take from them that liberty which every man ought to have in the choice of his Religion and in the manner of serving God BUT that crime which is imposed on them supposing it to be one is incomparably less than that of Presbyterian Churches all which follow the establishment and the practise of Calvin who set up in Geneva an Ecclesiastical Tribunal Independant and distinct from that of the Magistrate insomuch that a learned man named Monsieur Jurieu has writ a large Book wherein he endeavours to prove that the Soveraign Magistrate considered as such has not any jurisdiction nor Intendence over the Collected Churches in his Dominions and that he hath no other right than that of Inspection and considered as a Christian and one of his principal Members wherein Monsieur Jurieu is more Independant than the Independants themselves and he does not afford so much Authority to the Magistrate over the Churches that are collected within his Territories and Dominions as the Independants do THE Independant Churches and their Pastors are very wide from these thoughts and practises For the Authority of every Congregation being as that of every Family what liberty soever it has to govern it self according to its own way and humour it is not neither in right nor in power nor even in will to set up a Tribunal distinct from and Independent on that of the Magistrate AFTER all a Prince who should endeavour to establish an Arbitrary Power in his Kingdom that should depend only upon God and his Sword might imagine he should be less hindred by several thousands of Independant Congregations not only on him and on his Courts but also the one Independant on the other than by one entire body of all those Churches which should set up by their deputies an Ecclesiastical Tribunal distinct from and Independant on the Civil For the strengeh of all those Independant Congregations would be like that of several threads which may easily be broke one after another whereas the strength of all those Churches joyned in one body would be like to that of all those threads twisted together which it would be almost if not absolutely impossible to break or to undo but by the same way that Alexander took to break the Gordian-knot AS the Independent Churches do come the nearest to those of the Apostles so likewise they are further off than any of the other reformed Churches from that thought and practise which has accomplished the Mystery of Inquity which is nothing else but the Empire of the Clergy and so consequently That of the Pope in the Empire of the secular Powers under the Mask and Disguise of Religion and Ecclesiastical power AS to the Objection that is made against them that in case there should be no other Ecclesiastical Establishment in a Kingdom than theirs the three fourths of the Inhabitants would live in great negligence and a gross Ignorance of Religion To that they say that their way does not exempt Pastors from attending upon the Office of their Ministry at all times and places both within and without their particular Congregations and to take the same pains as the Presbyterian Ministers do for what repects the preaching of the word in the most publick places also they do very much approve that the Magistrate should erect Academies and Colledges assign Tithes and Revenues and Temples establish persons to be imployed in the instruction of people in publick to invite them to it and to excite the Ignorant to frequent the Schools and the Lectures of the Professors of Arts and Sciences where they should go for the love of vertue and knowledge without being constrained AS to the crime of Schism which is imposed on them as their being seperate from all the visible Churches of Jesus Christ in the same manner as the Donatists the Novatians and the Luciferians did 't is a false Accu sation Those who accuse them of Schism do not understand the nature of Schism 1. 'T IS not Schism when a particular Church separates from another Church as the Church of Luther from that of Calvin nor the Protestants from the Papists nor even one particular reformed Church from some other with which it made before but one body of a Church But true Schism is formed among the Members of one and the same particular Church as was that of Corinth 2. 'T IS not Schism when a number of Hereticks separate from the Orthodox party of a particular Church to make a Congregation apart to the end they may profess their heresie with greater liberty but it is an Apostasie and an abandoning and forsaking of the Orthodox faith or Church of Jesus Christ which is Catholick and visible and upon this ground the Church of Rome is not a Schismatical but an Apostate Church although it be one for the first reason because that what ingagement or tye soever all its Members have to one head however they are not all agreed together Schism properly is when the Members of one Church are at variance as were those of the Church of Corinth and upon that account there is alwayes a Schism in the Romish Church 3. THERE is no Schism among several particular Churches that
the same Empire many Catholick Churches which mutually destroyed each other Donatus acknowledged no other Church in the World than his own That made Theophilus also of Alexandria do so who persecuted St. Chrysostome to the uttermost and who treated him as an Heretick a Schismatick and calling all those that adhered to him Johannites The same may be said of the concurrence of Meletius of Flavian and Paulinus for the Bishoprick of Antioch who shared the Empire and the Church into two Catholick Churches I leave sincere persons to Judge what integrity of Faith those Prelates could preserve during not only the three first Ages but also those following ALL the Christian Antiquity put aside that of the Holy Scripture cannot produce such peices that may come in competition with the Institutions of Calvin or with the confession of the Congregational Faith the first Centuries of the Christian Church swarmed with Heresie and Hereticks The most Orthodox as Irenaeus Justin Martyr Tertullian Clement Denis of Alexandria Origen Cyprian Eusebius Arnobius Lactantius c. who opposed those heresies were not themselves exempt and they had all some touch or other of one of the Heresies of Montanus of S●b●llius Samorzites Pelagius Apollinaris and Eutiches St. Austin that Miracle of Nature and of Grace had also his Errors However he was the first that well established the Doctrine of free Grace for those who preceded him have spoke of it most an end as Pelagius has done without any ones taking particular heed to it or opposing it because they never treated of that matter throughly and searched into the bottom of it and have not made any express and particular book about it this is what St. Austin says In lib. 1. in Julianum cap. 2. tali quaestione nullus Pulsabatur pelagianis nondum ligantibus securius loqucbantur They have all consecrated their Errors to Immortality because of their Ancientness but as Cyprian tells us dist 8. c. 8. Consuetudo sine veritate est Vetust is erroris IT appears than by all I have here said that if Interest Custome Obstinacy the love that every one has for their own particular Opinions govern the greatest part of Mankind in matters of Religion we may say of prejudices that those are they which tyrannize over them such as in our dayes is that of every sort of the reformed who imagine that their reformation their Doctrine and their Discipline come the nearest to the Primitive Church This is what Monsieur Claude maintains most confidently of our reformation in France But as I agree with him that it is the purest in the World I do not agree with him that it hath any conformity with the Ancient Primitive Church except he means the Apostolical and not that which was immediately after the Apostles For even so the conformity of the Congregational way with the Christians after the Apostles is not as to the Doctrine but only as to the outward discipline and way of Government FINIS THe Reader is desired to take notice that the Author for some reasons since the Printing of the Contents hath thought good to leave out the last Chapter there mentioned ADVERTISEMENT There is lately Published of this Authors a Book Entituled Moral Reflections on the number of the Elect c. Price 6 d. FAULTS ESCAPED PAge 2. line 33. Dele the father p. 3. l. 10. read confederate discipline p. 5. l. 18. r. there being but the first Nicene Council p. 6. l. 8. r. heretical p. 6. l. penul r. inconvenience p. 16. l. 26. r. nor l. 33. r. the Romish Church p. 11. l. 9. r. that it is not of so long duration p. 11. l 16. Justice r. Justesse p. 11. l. 21. r. with as much rigour and severity to submit to a Tribunal subject to Errour as those of Rome to one that is infallible p. 12. l. 7. r. sent the Plantif p. 12. l. 25. r. veneration p. 12. l. 29. government r. conduct p. 13 l. 2. have r. hath