c. This is a holy watch-word and a wholesome warning and I desire it may be heedfully hearkned unto by such as are your Church Officers for then I doubt not but that they who have so much power and have such an influence on the multitude might be excellent instruments in this cure and quickly be able to bring back the multitude of Church hearers from those many above-named observations and aberrations into which they have been cunningly and in simplicity of heart drawn as those poor Israelites were to follow Absolon That it be speedily amended I wish with all my heart but say it be not but these poor simple souls seduced by and through Philosophy do not amend so timely as is desired my charity will not permit me to damne them eternally and that they shall partake of the judgment of those who worship the Beast that they shall drink of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the Cup of his indignation and that they shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and that the smoke of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever as you threaten out of Revel 14.9 c. This is a harsh sentence and though it may affright and terrifie those who for doctrines teach the commandments of men and make the Word of God of none effect through their traditions which is a wilfull obstinate presumptuous sinne yet I have great reason to hope that those who have simply and ignorantly and weakly followed such Teachers may finde mercy especially if they shall call to God with David Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from my secret faults Psal 19.12 13. keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sinnes let them not have dominion over me Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great offence But because this danger lies as you say in the observation of Traditions it will not be amisse to set down that about this point Dr. Whites Orthodox cap. 4. p. 3. Sect. 1.2 which may satisfie any sober man which because I am not able to do better then Dr. Frauncis White hath done I shall transcribe the Summe of what he delivers The word Tradition in general signifies any doctrin or observation deliver'd from one to another either by word or writing Acts 6.14 2 Thess 2.15 cap. 3.6 1 Cor. 15.3.4 The Protestants simply do not deny Tradition but first we distinguish of Traditions and then according to some acceptions of the name we admit thereof with a subordination to holy Scripture 1. First the Romanists maintain there be doctrinal Traditions or Traditions that contain Articles of Faith and substantial matters of divine worship and religion Decret prim 4. Sess Syn. Trident not found in the holy Scripture and that these are pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia sucipiendae ac venerandae with Scripture and to be believ'd no lesse then the prime Articles such are Purgatory Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints the Popes infallibility c. These and all other such Traditions containing new parts and additions to religion the Protestants simply condemn and renounce 2. But secondly the name of Tradition in the writings of the Primitive Doctours and Fathers is taken in three other senses First for external Rights and Ceremonies of decency order and outward profession of religion not found expressely in the holy Scripture but used as things adiaphorous being not of the substance of divine worship but only accessary as the sign of the Crosse and many of those you in your following words mention and these we say may be used or disused according to the Laws of every Church as they serve for aedification or otherwise Secondly The report of the Primitive Church concerning matter of fact and concerning the practice of the Apostles is another Tradition as that the Apostles did baptize infants that they admitted none to the Lords Supper but those who were of years to examine themselves that they ordain'd such and such in several Churches to be Bishops That that very Canon of Scripture which we now maintain was the Canon at that time with many other which can be best prov'd by Tradition And therefore we willingly admit of these Traditions also deliver'd unto us by the Histories and Records of the Church because such reports explicate the meaning or confirm the doctrin of the Scripture Thirdly The summe of Christian faith as the Creed and the explication of Christian doctrin in many principal parts thereof concerning the Trinity Incarnation descent of Christ into hell c. is oftentimes call'd Tradition being receiv'd from hand to hand as the Apostles lively teaching and such Tradition found unanimously in the Fathers we admit also because it gives light to the doctrine found in Scripture But in the admittance of these we require two Cautions 1. That the holy Scripture be the rule of all Traditions whatsoever thus far that they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up on examination conformable to the Scriptures and every way subservient to the same 2. That they have the Testimony of the primitive Church in the prime age thereof and descend to our days from the same by the stream of succession through ages following and were received as Apostolick in the Catholick Church The Question of Traditions being thus stated unto you easie it will be to answer to your two alleag'd Texts of Tradition Mark 7. Col. 2. For they make as much to your purpose as Ecce duo gladij doth to confirme the Popes claim to the Temporal and Spiritual power or Pasce oves to uphold his Supremacy Or God made two great lights to prove the Popes power to be above the Emperours as much as the Sun exceeds the Moon or that Parson who would undertake to prove the Parish must pave the Church and not he because it was written in the Prophet paveant illi ego non paveam For how doth that place of Mark 7.7.9 pertain to the spiritual historical or interpretative Traditions of the Christian Church It was of the Scribes and Pharisees of whom our Saviour there spoke and of their Traditions of washing of pots and cups and many such other like things of their Corban And in their washings they placed not decency and civility but made a matter of Religion of it and by their Corban they took away the duty of the fifth Commandment Look into the place you urge and tell me whether I say not truth and this it seems you saw and that made you skip over the 8. verse and never mention the 11. which if you had done and weigh'd you would not for shame have equall'd our Traditions with theirs or judged us as superstitious for observing our Traditions as they were for theirs We have a command for the institution of our Ceremonies let all be done decently in order and to edification we have good
5. That these Presbyters teaching and ruling Elders must be of the professing members own voluntary Election and regular Ordination 6. That their Office-extent reacheth from Christs ascension to the Creations dissolution This is granted in a right sense 7. And for all this you bring your proofs out of the Scripture Acts 6.5 Acts 14.23 c. This is the Analysis of the whole and I descend to examine it by the parts and shall open the Scriptures as I conceive they referre to the proposition Proposition 1. That the Church of the last and longest constitution was a Presbyterial or Combinational Church THat the Church you meane viz. the Church of Christ is to be last is easily granted but whether to be the longest or no is more than you or I or any man else can tell But to let this passe Hic opus est Oedipo for I conceive not well the sense of your proposition because you phrase it Presbyterial or Combinational since these two by the contending parties are made Disparata and then must really differ I know not therefore what to make of this Or whether it be here a Divisive or an Explanative particle If you make it Divisive then it seemes not to agree with your following words for you know that those of the Presbyterial Church though they will allow your professing members liberty to elect yet they stoutly and with open mouth decry their power to Ordaine and you allow the Church you speak of to do both If you make Or Expositive then it can but onely declare the sense of the former word Presbyterial and will be farre from your intent which is if I mistake not that all the professing members of a Church be combined in a Church Covenant which you know the Presbyterial Church will never admit For although Presbyters can be content to be in their own sense Covenanters yet they abominate to be in a Church-Combination and again though the Church combiners will joyne in a Church Covenant yet they will not yield to be Presbyterial Covenanters These Disparata then are not hansomely coupled in this place neither can I guesse at any other intent you have in it except it be to Umpire betwixt the two parties by finding out a Church that should be both Presbyterial and Combinational which hitherto the heat of zeale would never suffer the learnedest of both sides to do For the Presbyterians condemne your Combination by a Church Covenant as a Chimera a fancy a novelty a meere humane invention contrary to Christs Ordinance and destructive of all Church power And the Combiners on the other side judge as harshly of the Presbyterian Elderships in the whole reformed Churches as of the Prelacy nay and worse too if Bastwicks words be true which he hath in the Postscript of his second part page 6. viz. The Presbyterial government not suiting with the humour of the Independents they abhorre it and all such as endeavour to establish it and wish rather that the old trumpery were brought in again and professe they had rather have the government of Prelates That which follows I forbear that I offend not Thus Bastwick which if true 't is not possible that a Presbyterial and a Combinational Church should be all one as you seeme to make it And therefore you must forgo one of the termes and make it onely Presbyterial or onely Combinational if you will speak intelligibly in this question But I shall make the best sense I can of your words and in order speak to them both And first of the Presbyterial Church which you call also Combinational upon what ground I know not for I meet with neither of these Epithets fixed to the Church of Christ in the Scriptures nor in any antiquity The first of these is new and and the second naught for I never read of a Combination in a good sense Why can we not speak as good Christians have done before us and call it the Christian Catholick and Apostolical Church but must please our fancies with these new termes of Presbyterial or Combinational Act. 20.28 c. Col. 1.24 and 13. Act. 11.26 Ephes 2.20 I often read in the Scriptures of the Church of God and that this Church is the Body of Christ the kingdom of Christ to whom because it was united by faith it was called Christian And that this Church was built upon the foundation of the Prophets Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Whence it was called Apostolike And again that this Church is Totum integrale Ames medulla lib. 1. c. 31. Sect 19. of which the parts quae totum integrant are all several and particular Churches diffused in all Nations in all places at all times whence it was called Catholick But of a Presbyterial or Combinational Church I hear not Good Sir consider how harsh it sounds to stile Christs Church the Presbyters Church and the number of the Professors that are united by faith to Christ to be combined in I know not what But now I shall take into consideration these termes severally and first I will begin with the last 1. A Combinational Church The first Author whom I meet with it is Amesius and he defines it to be Parochialis vel unius congregationis cujus membra inter se Combinantur lib. 1. c. 39. Sect 22. cap. 2. Sect. 4. there 's your word ordinarie conveniant in uno loco ad publicum religionis exercitium This your Synod at Cambridge in New England chose rather to call Congregational for the word Independent they like not though I see no cause of dislike if the particular Congregations must not depend one of another but remaine in full liberty as Ames delivers in the same chapter Sect. 20. 26 27. And thus you there define this Congregational Church to be a company of Saints by calling united into one body by a holy Covenant for the publick worship of God But I pray you tell me what needs this combination by a second Covenant would not the first in Baptisme have served if heeded and kept to have done all this and it seemed it did by the very text your Synod produces to prove it Acts 2.42 For the Penitents and beleevers pricked to the heart by Peters sermon gladly received the word and were baptized and continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer c. where we read of their Baptisme and continuance in Church-fellowship and in the duty of that fellowship but that this is done by a combination a confederation or holy Covenant a Vow other than that made in their Baptisme we read not 2. And indeed it needs not for what is it that Professors can binde themselves unto by Covenant when they are admitted into the Congregation that they have not in their Baptisme bound themselves to before Whether you shall consider the Mystery the Form or the end 1. In Baptisme for the
AN APOLOGY FOR THE Discipline OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH Intended especially for that of our MOTHER THE CHVRCH of ENGLAND In answer to the Admonitory Letter Lately published 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. Ephraim feeds on winde Hosea 12.1 By William Nicolson Archdeacon of Brecon LONDON Printed for Willim Leake at the Crown in Fleet-street betwixt the two Temple-gates 1659. THE COPY OF A LETTER Written by a Divine A Friend of the AUTHOUR SIR I Thank you for the favour you did me in imparting those papers to me composed by our learned friend in defence of the Ecclesiastical Government under which the Church of God hath liv'd ever since it was establish'd by the Preachings Apostolical I see and love his zeale and honour his learning but am most pleased with his method and order of argument for having prosperously defended and illustrated the Doctrine of the Church of England in his material and grave discourses upon the Church Catechism he does to very good purposes proceed to defend her Government that as it already appears that her Doctrine is Catholike so it may be demonstrated that the Government of the Church of England is no other than that of the Catholike Apostolike Church she by the same way being truly Christian and a Society of Christians by which all Christendome were put into life and society that is became collective and united bodies or Churches And indeed they are both of them very weighty and material considerations For more things are necessary to the being of a Church than to the being Christian First the Apostles preached Jesus Christ and him crucified and every day winning souls to Christ did adopt them into his Body and joyned them to that Head and there they had life and nourishment But until their multitudes were much encreased they were no Body Politick they were so many single persons till the Apostles according to their places of abode gathered them under one Pastor and they grew into Communion and were fastned to one another by the Masters of Assemblies This Government with the alteration onely of some unconcerning circumstances hath continued in the Church of God and the Church of England was baptized by it at the same time it was baptized into the faith of Christ onely of late some endeavours have been to rifle this Government and to dissolve her being a body Politick and almost reduc'd her onely to the being Christian which because it seemed also to be in some danger Being and Unity having so near relation to each other I suppose it very advisedly done of him first to do what he thought fit for the securing the Doctrine and then by the method Apostolical proceeding to the immuring of that Doctrine by the walls and towers of Government and I finde he hath done it well His arguments are grave and close not florid but pressing his observations choice his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and little by-discourses pleasant and full of instructions his refutation sharp and true his returnes pertinent and nothing trifling but his adversarie who because he speaks but weak things ministers not occasions worthy enough for this learned man to do his best But he hath made supply I perceive and by taking little occasions by the hand he hath advanced them to opportunities of handsome discoursings and to my sence hath to better more full and excellent purposes than any man before him confuted the new fashion of Congregational and gathered Churches which must now needs appear to be nothing but a drawing Schisme into Countenance and Method and giving a warranty to partialities it is a direct crumbling of the Church into minuits and little principles of being just as if the world were dissolved into Democritus his dreame of Atomes and minima naturalia Every man loves Government well-enough but few of the meaner sort love their Governours especially if they think themselves wise enough to governe for then they are too wise to be governed Now this Independant or Congregational way seemes to me the finest compendium of humouring and pleasing all those little fellowes that love not that endure not to be subject to their betters for by this meanes a little Kingdome and a royal Priesthood is provided for every one of them a Kingdom of Yvetot and some had rather be chief but in a garden of Cucumers and govern but ten or twenty absolutely so they do than be the fifth or the twentieth man in a Classis or inconsiderable under the Apostolical and long-experienced government by those Superiours which Christ by himself and by his Spirit and by his blessing and by his providence and by the favour of Princes hath made firme as heaven and earth never to be dissolved until the Divine Fabrick of the house of God it self be shaken I pray give my service to the good Man and I do heartily thank him for my share of the book by which I have already had some pleasure and some profit and hope for more when my little affairs will give me leave strictly to peruse every unobserved page in it When I onely heard of it I was confident he would do it very well and now I see it is so very well done and in that grave judicious manner if you had not told me I should have been confident it had been his Vox hominem sonat I pray God that he may finde encouragement according to the mertt of his labours and acceptance according to his good intentions and that his book may not receive its estimate according to the cheap and vast numbers of others but according to its own weight The strength that was put to this would have resisted a stronger adversary but it could not readily have supported a worthyer cause and because I beleeve it was done with as much charity as learning I hope it will have the blessings of God and of the Church and the peace of all good men I onely have this to adde further I wish that this worthy man would enter into no more warre but against the open enemies of mankinde that he would dispute for nothing but for the known Religion of Jesus Christ that he would contend for no interests but the known concernments of the Spirit in the matter of good life which is the life of Religion and my reason is not onely because I finde that he calls his adversary Brother and it is not so good that Brethren should contend but because men are wearied with disputes and the errors of this or any age after the first batteries and onsets by the Church are commonly best confuted by the plaine teaching of positive truths and the good lives and the wise governments of our Superiours and after all I believe that though he does manage this contest prudently and modestly yet the spiritual warre against direct impiety he would manage much more dexterously and prosperously and for his auxiliaries he would be more confident of the direct and proper aides of the Spirit of God This
Mystery there is an Indument and a stripping Rom. 13.14 Gal. 3.27 which the ancient Church reduced to two words Credo Abrenuncio In the first there is the putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ For as many as are baptized have put on Christ First as Lord acknowledging no other Master whose voice to hear whose doctrine to rely upon but onely his Secondly as Jesus assuring themselves that there is no other Name given under heaven whereby they may be saved Thirdly As Christ as well their anointed King submitting themselves to his will giving their names in to fight under his banner and swearing themselves his subjects As also their anointed Priest resting in his one sacrifice as the onely sufficient in his sole intercession as the onely powerful Secondly In the Abrenuncio or stripping part they renounce and forsake the Devil Gal. 5.20 and all his works the pompes and vanities of the wicked world the sinful lusts of the flesh among which are all Heresies and Schismes 2. For the forme it is by our Saviour appointed in the name of the three persons of the indivisible Trinity and so it is performed neither of Cephas the sirnamed Rock nor of Paul a great Apostle Mat. 28.19 1 Cor. 1.13 The reason wherof you may read in my exposition of the Church Catechisme page 172 173. 3. For the end they which are baptized are thereby made the sonnes of God by Adoption and Grace invested with an inheritance everlasting Gal. 3.26 Rev. 1.5 Mal. 1.11 Rom. 12.1 Col. 3.5 made Priests to God to offer and slay To offer that mundâ—m oblationem pure offering or living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is their reasonable service viz. the cleane and unbloody sacrifice of prayers and thanksgiving and then to slay themselves mortifying their affections and lusts Yea but men may be minded of all this by a new Covenant and upon a second engagement made more watchful to keep their first vow Be it so for this also the Church had provided without this separating combination when she ordained that all baptized children when they could say their Catechism should be brought to the Bishop to be Confirmed which order were it in use and restored to its original purity the wrangle about the formality of a Church Covenant and collecting of members might be quieted and composed There being in Confirmation the substance of what is so much and so hotly contended for and that farre better grounded and bottomed than any new device can be as I shew you in my Catechisme page 6. Thirdly This Elogy you give to your Combinational Church that it is their opinion and practice quietly and cordially to subject their earthy erring and unruly wit to the heavenly infallible and uncontrolable will of Christ That so it should be I confesse and desire but how it is we see and feele ever since the Combination But what now is this but an opinion and onely commendable I thought it had been necessary de fide that it must be so and could not be otherwise For Opino is eutis vel non eâ—tis You shall have it in Amesius words Assensus ille qui praebetur veritati contingenti propter rationem pracipuè probabilem ab intellectu apprehensam Medulla 1. Thes de fidei divina unitate opinio vocatur The truth must be contingent and probable onely of which a man retaines an opinion it may be it may not be if no other reason can be produced for it but a Topical But that all men must subject their earthy will to the heavenly Will of Christ is so certain that it cannot be denyed by any good Christian Hereafter let it passe then for necessary and let it be a principle of faith which is more than opinion 2. But you go on and say This hath been the commendable practice of your Combinational Church But here you must give me leave to think for if I would say what I know I should fetch blood and perhaps pay for it too Your Combination was for the worship of God and that cultus naturalis institutus Amesius so divides it the principles of the first are faith hope charity the acts hearing of the Word and Prayer under which is an Oath Of the last Gods prescribed Will or his Word This is the Rule but what 's become of the practice I will not meddle with your faith which yet you know in many of your Combinational Churches is not sound nor in the Socinians nor Antimonians nor in the Brownists Familists nor the Anabaptists nor the Quakers nor the Singers These you le say are not of you but are gone out from you yet you cannot deny that these are Combinational Churches The practice then of all the Combinational Churches is not commendable in Gods worship in this respect Your hope may be great but I fear it may be presumption when the foundation of faith upon which it should be built is so uncertain and tottering As for the charity of your party in general I finde it dying rather â—uite dead charity teacheth a man to love his neighbour as himself charity to be just and to do to all men as he would all men do to him Amongst your Combinational Churches what 's become of this charity this justice Religiously observant a man may find divers of you of three of the Commandments of the first Table but of the third your practice shews you make little accompt and as for the second Table he who shall lay to heart your actions must needs conceive that you esteeme it but for a cypher I will no farther rake into this wound I wish you had not given me occaâ— on to do it when you affirmed that it was the commendable practice of your Combinational Church to subject their earthy erring and unruly will quietly and cordially to the heavenly infallible and uncontrolable will of Christ to which I finde their practice so contrary I pray presse me not for instances for I am resolved not to give theâ— you but if you are desirous to be satisfied of the opinions and practice of the Combinational Church I aime at be pleased to reade a book written by Robert Baily a Scot entitled A Disswasive from the Errours of the times Printed in London 1645. and published by Authority Where he makes a large Narrative of the opinions and practices of your Churches in New-England and whether he sayes true or no you can best judge because you were upon the place If true all is not gold that glisters 2 A Presbyterial Church THis is your other Epithet and I suppose you mean by it a Church to be governed by Presbyters The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is equivocal and therefore till it be distinguished nothing can be concluded from it 1. Presbyter in the Old Testament properly belongs to the Elders of the people either in a common notion or as members of the Sanhedrim not any body or persons peculiarly
Ecclesiastique Numb 11.16 Nay Godw. ant l. 5. c. 1. it is distinguished from it for in the Civil Consistory the Judges were called Elders in the spiritual priests Matth. 21.23 26.3 The chief Priests and Elders of the people are named as two distinct Consistories though Vossius Doctor Hammon Downham and Weames admit not this distinction 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament sometimes but rarely is taken in the same sense as in the Old But most commonly it is attributed to an Order of Ecclesiastiques whether in a higher or a lower Order and degree 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the maintainers of the Congregational and Consistorial Church taken for a mixed company of Lay men and Ecclesiasticks to whose government they suppose the power of the Keys is committed and this they call the Presbyterial Church and if I am not deceived of this you speak in this place But against this I affirme that there never was any such Presbyterial Church before Calvin and to that purpose I here propose and hope to make good these Propositions against any opponent 1. That there must be government in the Church 2. That Christ instituted this government and Governours for it 3. That this government must be perpetual 4. That the Apostles were those Governours for the time and for perpetuity their Successors appointed by them 5. That their Successors were Bishops in Name and Office 6. That for the execution of this Office Christ gave to the Apostles the Keys and they to their Successors onely 7. That this power consisted in Ordination and Jurisdiction and therefore that they onely could ordaine and juridically proceed 8. That at first the Apostles and after the Bishops did both without a Presbytery 9. Yet that by the Apostles a Presbytery was instituted in some Churches who were Ecclesiastiques onely 10. That yet none of these Presbyters were Bishops but assistants onely being distinct from them 11. That this Presbytery without the Bishop could not use the Keys 12. That no Lay-man was of the Apostolical Presbytery nor no Lay-man after for 1500. years 13. That at first the people elected not any Church-Officer All these Propositions will require much time to be made good I shall now therefore omit the demonstration of them and go on to you fourth and fifth Proposition where I shall use some of them Proposition 4. Viz. That this prescribed Ministery must consist of Presbyters or Teaching and Ruling Elders THe subject of this Proposition is the prescribed Ministery and it hath two Attributes 1. The Presbyters 2. Teaching and Ruling Elders and both must be distinctly considered 1. The prescribed Ministery consists of Presbyters If by Presbyters you mean Presbyters in the second acception as it comprehends those of an higher and those of a subordinate degree this part of your proposition is most true and it shall be granted you But if you exclude the Bishop properly so called I absolutely deny it For the Apostles were Bishops Matthias elected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 1.20 There you have the Name and accordingly the Fathers of the Church called them Apostolos i. e. Episcopos Dominus Elegit Cyprian Epist 9. lib. 3. Cyprian They had the power of the Keys promised Matth. 16.19 Matth. 18.18 and actually estated on them John 20.23 In these texts you have the power which lay in jurisdiction and ordination In that was the office The Apostles were then in Name and Office Bishops This is performed in the second part I will give you a breviate of what I could say at large for the first Government of the Church I finde onely in Scripture mention of three Church-Officers Bishops Presbyters Deacons 1. The highest function which was Episcopal the Apostles reserved to themselves for some time and that for three reasons At first there were but few convicted Acts 14.27 1 Cor. 16. whence their labour was imployed in turning the first Key in opening the dore of faith that great and effectual dore and all the helps they could make either by Prophets Evangelists Coadjutors Pastors Doctors Planters Waterers to this purpose was little enough But none of these qua tales were Bishops 2. After the conversion of Jews and Gentiles yet in many Churches they yet setled not a Bishop first because a Presbyter fit for a Bishops office is not so easily found it is Saint Pauls rule that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan a Novice one newly come to the faith be not made a Bishop Secondly because while the Apostles remained in or near any place they reserved the power 1 Tim. 3.6 there being no need of Bishops The Apostles for that time supplying the wants of those Churches either with their presence letters or messengers as the cause required 3. And yet there is a third reason The Apostles suffered the Churches to make a trial what equality of many Governours would do but when they found the fruits thereof to be dissension and that every one would be master parity and plurality breeding dissension and confusion they committed the Church to one I shall set you down this in Hieromes words Hieron Com. in Epist ad Titum even in those very words which are produced against Bishops Idem est Presbyter quod Episcopus autequam diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent diceretur in populis Ego sum Pauli ego Apollo ego Cephae communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur Post quam vero unusquisque eos quos baptizabat suos putabat esse non Christi in toâ—o orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur cateris ut Schismatum semina tollerentur Haec diximus ostendimâ—s eosdem fuisse Presbyteros Episcopos ut Episcopi noverint se magis consuetudine quam Dominicae dispositionis veritate Presbyteris esse majores in communi debere Ecclesiâ—m rege e. I have recited these words of Hierome at full because in them there be many thâ—ngs clearly for me and some other passages seemingly against me to which I will give light Note here then first the cause of the Bishops creation 1. The causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or occasion was factions and Schismes and the end that Schismes might be taken away so his words are cum diceretur ego Pauli c. ut schismata tollerentur Secondly The time when the Bishop was ordained old enough for it was in the Apostles dayes for then it was said ego Pauli ego Cephae c. 1 Cor. 1. a sufficient authority I suppose for the Bishops institution it must needs be granted Apostolical if it began then Thirdly this institution was Decretum and pray say who then could decree except the Apostles or durst decree without them Fourthly that this Decree was generally assented to for Decretum est toto orbe it must be then Apostolical and Oecumenical Fifthly now consider the words of the Decree ut unus de Presbyteris
good look some pity some regard Why flie you from her I cannot conceive you think her so dishonest as some Separatists report or that you will fasten upon her the name of a Whore if you should I should grow angry and tell you that in her Constitutions she came nearest the Apostolique Church of any Church in the Christian world and this I openly professe to make good against any Separatist whatsoever Many ungracious sonnes I confesse she had and they brought an aspersion upon her and the vials of Gods wrath have been justly justly I proclaime poured upon her for their iniquities The constitution was good and sound the execution passing through some corrupt hands too often subject to reproof Let not her then who had declared her minde by rules and cautions against all abuses and taught what only she would have done be charg'd with her sonnes irregularities Set in Gods Name the Saddle upon the right horse and let not your Mother beare the whole blame 1. But if yet any will say she was blame-worthy then either it must be in manners doctrine or discipline The manners of her children might be unmannerly and unchristian and are all the sonnes of your Combination bene morati were all at Corinth so all at Thessolonica at Corinth there were incestuous factionists c. at Thessalonica disorderly walkers but I read not that the Apostle adviseth them for such enormous persons to separate to combine and confederate into a new Congregation Such were to be separated by the Authority of the Church and no man farther to separate from the Church for these then by dislike by disclaiming by disallowing and discountenancing of their evil deeds which was done by all good men in the English Church I never learned yet that corruption in good manners was a sufficient cause of separation from a Church Calvin disputes it strongly Lib. 4. Instit cap. 1. Sect. 13 c. will you hear Austin There are saith he bad fish in the net of the Lord Austin Ep. 48. Read Cyprian Epist 51. from which there must be a separation ever in heart and in manners but a corporal separation must be expected at the Sea-shore that is at the end of the world and the best fish must not tear and break the net because the bad are with them 2. To come to the second head Doctrine In this you confesse that the Church of England was not faulty in that you approve her doctrine Catholique as expounded by me in the Catechisme your Salvo will fall upon the third Yet suppose that in her doctrine there had been some errour yet this had not been sufficient to give countenance to a separation For it is not every light errour in disputable doctrine and points of curious speculation that can be a just case of separation in that admirable body of Christ which is the Church nor of one member from another I shall go one pin higher It is not an errour in a fundamental point and yet that amounts to an heresie by conviction that can justifie a departure Perkins in Ep. Jude At Corinth there were that denyed an article of faith the resurrection At Galatia they fouly were mistaken in that great and fundamental doctrine of justification and yet the Apostle dedicates his Epistles to them as to a Church as to Saints and perswades not to separation Christ gave his natural body to be rent and torn upon the Crosse that his mystical body might be One and he is no way partaker of divine Charity who is an enemy to this Unity Now what errours in doctrine may give just cause of separation in this body or the parts of it one from another were it never so easie to determine as I think it is most difficult I would not venture to set it down in particulars lest in these times of discord I might bethought to open a door for Schisme which surely I will never do except it be as a wise man said to let it out Among your Combinational Churches this seems to me to be one of the easiest tasks among whom there have happened so many unhappy Schisms Browns collected Church that went over to Middleburge Bayly pag. 14. fell to such jarring among themselves that they soon broke all to pieces the most turn'd Anabaptists At Amsterdam Ainsworth and Johnson could not agree page 15. which rent the Brownist Church into three fearful Schisms page 16. Ainsworth excommunicating Johnson and Johnson Ainsworth and all his followers and that for trifles Mr. Smith not agreeing with his Church at Amsterdam gâ—â— him to Ley in Holland and accused his Church of Idolatry and Anti-Christianisme of Idolatry for looking on their Bibles in time of preaching and their Psalters in time of singing Of Anti-Christianisme because in their Presbytery they joyn'd to Pastours other two Officers Doctors and Ruling Elders At Leyden Mr. Robinsons small company by divisions was well neer brought to nought pag. 54. pag. 57. pag. 61. pag. 75. pag. 76. pag. 77. pag. 79. Mr. Cotton patronized it in New England but fell into grievous errours and heresies as did the Independents of New England At Roterdam Mr. Peters erected his Church was the Pastour but he was either quickly weary of them or they of him and then Mr. Ward and Mr. Bridge succeeded at what time Mr. Simson came thither who divided the Church upon a trifle and Mr. Simsons separation burst out again to another subdivision and the Schisme grew irreconcilable At Arnhem in the Church the spirit of errour did predominate and protruded most abominable errours I have given you a taste onely of these things that you may see what sober and grave men will be very loth to do that is make a rent into the Church your hot and fiery spirits have done even for slight causes almost in all your Collected Churches It would be well considered what Doctrine that must be for which a man is bound to separate from a Church before he makes a rent 3. And now there is nothing left but discipline that may be a sufficient cause of separation And this hath divided you among your selves as well as divided you from us For the power of the Keys radically and originally you place in the Congregation without any subjection to any superiour and by this you make the Church remedilesse to suppresse any disorder or heresie in any other Congregation Bayly pag. 109. 110 111. because there is no superiour over them but themselves who can have authority to restrain them which is the cause of many Sects among us at this day In the Congregation you say the power is they may elect ordaine depose excommunicate Officers to judge and determine without any appeal But upon the passage and setling of the power you differ for Johnson would give all these acts of power to the Eldership but Ainsworth would reserve it in the Congregation adhuc sub judice lis est though as
the primitive Church yet will never grant you that from thence the Church shall be denominated Presbyterial or that if it should vary from thence that therefore it had no more than the Sceleton fashion face of a true Church All these things should have been better cast up before you had been so positive The degeneration then you dream of is grounded upon a false supposition that there was at first such a Presbyterial or Combinational Church that was conjoyn'd in any Church-Covenant beside Baptisme that had the native power of the Keyes c. which you never shall be able to demonstrate The contrary to which Rutherford hath nervously prov'd more particularly in his seventh Chapter of his peaceable and temperate plea to whom I referre you The summe of whose discourse is that there were at Jerusalem Father f. cap. 7. Conclus 4. at Samaria at Ephesus at Rome at Galatia at Antioch Presbyteries which shall be granted but that these Presbyteries were not of one single Congregation From these then you can never prove that the following Church did degenerate because they were not The manner of this degeneration you make gradual and you give us in five steppes descending from the Parochial till it came to the oecumenical Romane as you call it But supposing a degeneration in the degrees you are mistaken for as I suppose the first should be last and the last first which will appear if we examine how the Church was govern'd from the Apostles times to this our unhappy age But first I will transcribe your whole discourse SECT II. The words of the Letter 1. THE first rise of the rottening of the Church was its falling from a pure poor Presbyterial Church which in respect of its primitive constitution was made up of living stones namely lively Members and laborious Ministers being firmly fastened and united to the Lord Jesus as their onely head by faith one to another by a fraternal Covenant of love according to the pattern that was proposed and prescribed in both Testaments Is 44.5 Jer. 50.5 Ezra 20.37 Zach. 11.7 10 14. 2 Cor. 8.5 Ephes 2.13 19 22. Col. 2.2 19. 1 Pet. 2.5 into an impure and unpolished parochial Church At that time when ceasing to elect and ordain a Teacher a Pastour a Ruler a Deacon and Diaconesse or a Widow in conformity to the heavenly Canon Rom. 12.7 and 15.4 and 16.1 compared with 1 Tim. 3.1 and Titus 1.5 6. it was well content to admit and accept of a Parson a Vicar a Warden an Over-seer of the poor and a Mid-wife By which wisdome of the flesh being no better then enmity against God within a short time after the dayes of the Apostles Christs spiritual house and growing as well as living Temple was turned and transformed into a carnal and dead Town or Apostatizing Parish The very beginning and breeding of which Parochial Church is seen to have been in the time of Polycarp and Irenaeus one of them being an Elder of the Church at Smyrna and a disciple of John the Evangelist and the other a Pastour at Lyons and a disciple of that Polycarp as any man may easily perceive that will peruse what is to be observed in Eusebius Ecclesiastical history 4. lib. c. 14.15 16. lib. 5. cap. 23.24 2. The second degree of the Combinational Churches corruptions was the Cathedral Churches generation which did presume to alter and to elevate the places and appellations of the Teacher Pastour Ruler and Deacon into those unscripture-like titles of Lord-Bishop Dean Chancellour and Arch-Deacon who ventur'd to usurp the power of excommunication against the Members and Ministers of many Congregations in their Synods and Councels contrary to what was practic'd in that Orthodoxe pattern Acts 15.24 which is laid down and left as well for the imitation as information of after-ages whose work it was by Scripture-proofs to confute soul subverting positions and to confirme Christian-doctrines without any manner of authority to censure any mans person being that that is the expresse priviledge of the Presbyterial Church 1 Cor. 5.4 5. 2 Thes 3.15 The babe-age of which usurpation is made mention of as newly appearing in the world by what was exercised by Alexander of Alexandria against Eusebius of Nicomedia as well as against Arius in the reigne of Constantius and Constance the sonnes of Constantine the Emperour as it is to be seen in Lib. 2. Socrat. Schol. c. 3. compared with the 32 cap. of 2 book Evagr. lib. 1. cap. 6. 3. The third degree of the Presbyterial Churches degeneracy was its climbing up to the stile of a Provincial Church whose Pastour was not afrai'd nor asham'd to assume the name and office of an Arch-Bishop and Metropolitane leaving the servile and subservient titles of Prebende Surrogate and Vicar-general as termes good enough to the inferiour Officers his underlings Of which proud and prophane Pest-house that Austin which was sent from Gregory the last of good Bishops and the first of evil Popes of Rome is reputed and recorded to have been the father and founder in this Land even then when he was stifly and stoutly oppos'd by the Monks of Bangor Anno Domini 596. and in the reign of King Ethelbert witnesse Fox Martyrol page 119. together with the rest of the Eng. Hist and Evangr lib. 2.8 4. The fourth famous degree of the Combinational Churches infamous defection was its notably naughty enlarging it self into a National Church when and whence without controversie arose that Jewish imitation and irregularly Religious observation of five frivolous and foundationlesse customes and traditions of which the first was of National times as the fifty yearly Festivals or holy working-dayes Cursed-Masse Candle-Masse c. The second was the National places as the Consecrated meeting houses Porches Chancels Church-yards The third was of National persons as the Universal Preachers Office-Priests Half-Priests and Diocesan Deacons The fourth was of National pious performances as stâ—nted Worship Quiristers singing of Psalmes with the Rubrique Postures And the fifth was of National payments or spiritual profits as offerings tithes and mortuaries the which faithlesse and fantastical fashions were the illegitimate off-spring of National Parliaments in this and the Neighbour-Nations Witnesse the publick Acts Statutes and other Ordinances in that behalf 5. The fifth and highest degree of Church-deformity is the oecumenical Church otherwise call'd Romane Catholique the which in the apprehension of I know not how many Kingdomes is the very best though in the judgment of Christ Jesus it is the very basest because the beastliest and the most blasphemous of all the bastard-Church constitutions that ever were till now Witnesse what is written Rev. 13.1 3 5 6. whose Pastor and other Presbyters the sinne-pardoning Pope Cardinals Abbots with others were owned and acknowledged for to be and that not a few if not of the summond Councels yet in several Synods in sundry Countries Insomuch that Churches abominable iniquities were so increas'd over their heads and their trayterous
autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quo de causâ non solum in Israele verum postea in Ecclesia ex Judeis gentibus collectâ multos etiam diversos ministrorum ordines instituit and about twenty lines after addes these words Hac sone ratione quae etiam de Episcopis imo de quatuor Patriarchis ante ipsum etiam Concilium Nicaenum creatis constituta suerunt excusari defendique posse sentimus And that this learned man may give more light and strength to what he delivers in these two paragraphs in his observations upon these paragraphs he inserts a very sober and clear discourse out of Master Bucer de disciplina Clericali which is very well worth your reading The summe of it is what I have already set down and Bucers conclusion is Quia omnino necesse est ut singuli Clerici suos habeant proprios custodes curatores instauranda est ut Episcoporum ita Archidiaconorum aliorumque omnium quibuscunque censentur nominibus quibus portio aliqua commissa est custodiendi gubernandique Cleri authoritas potestas sed vigilantia animadversio ne quis omnino in hoc ordine sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the close of Bucers discourse not onely reciting but praysing and commending the constitution and custome of the old Church in the various distribution of the Ecclesiastical functions and degrees I have many years since heard a wise man affirme that a little insight into Natural Philosophy is apt to make a man an Atheist as a litttle knowledge in Physick creates an Emperick a little sight in the Law a petty fogger for it prides men with the confidence of knowledge and makes them pragmatical whereas a deep search in any art humbles the man brings him to the sight of his own mistakes and makes him sensible that truth as Plato was wont to say lay in the bottome of a deep well and without labour and a long rope it was not to be fetcht from thence Was it not so with Aristotle with Plato c whereas others upon the slight search of nature became Atheistical the last of these by his depth of enquiry became to acknowledge the prime cause of all things to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very little differing from that ineffable name by which God was made known to Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Paraenetic ad Hellenas Exod. 3.14 I am that I am And the other not being able to search why the Euripus should ebbe and flow seven times a day cryed out O eus entium This shews what a little skill in any science and what a profound knowledge will do The one will raise strange confidences and Chimeras in the brain the other will allay and settle them He who would be quieted and satisfied about Church-government I could advise him to search this point to the depth for otherwise he may be transported with strange fancies His little knowledge may swell him too much and make him over-confident to practise upon the Church and make experiences before he is throughly skilful Whereas if he will stay his pace and not venture and vent his drugges till he hath consulted the Ancients and seen what judgment his fore-fathers and those that liv'd nearest the Apostolical times gave of them I beleeve he will not be over-hasty to prescribe any new dose especially when he shall finde that the old was held safe and sufficient to preserve the health of the Church and to prevent incroaching diseases This course if you disdain and dislike you condemn the whole Church of Christ from the first encreasing and spreading thereof to this present age and preferre your own wisdome before all the Martyrs Confessours Fathers Princes Bishops that have lived dyed governed in the Church of God since the Apostles times How well the height of your conceits can endure to blemish and reproach so many religious and famous lights of Christendom I know not What all the old Fathers all the zealous first Reformers all blinde in comparison of your selves for my part I wish the Church of God in our dayes may have the grace for piety and prudence to follow their steps and not to make the world believe that all the servants of Christ before we liv'd favoured and furthered the pride of Anti-Christ till now in the fagge end of the world when the faith of most men and their love and charity are quench'd and decay'd some new lights arose to restore the Church to that perfection of discipline which the Apostles never mentioned the Ancient fathers and Councils never remembred the Universal Church of Christ before us never conceived nor our chief Reformers never imagined for they have as you have heard delineated and commended the old way of discipline But here befoâ—e I end my general answer I must remove one block which some have cast in my way For I have heard it objected that these Patriarchs were Independents which I confesse in some sense is true because one Patriarch was not to intermeddle in the jurisdiction of another the Canons of the Church having set out the extent of their Provinces and limited their power But this will make nothing for the present Independency of Combinational Churches for they had Churches many Metropolitan sees many Diocesses under their power and over-sight But these have but one single Congregation Those could call Synods through their whole Province and punish any Bishop or Church-man or other under them An Independent dependent Church can call no Synod nor punish nor reforme any member that is not of their own society or Combination Those were not so absolute neither but they were bound upon their elections to informe their fellow Patriarchs and by theit communicatory letters to give accompt of it and of their faith The Pastours of the Combinational Churches are not accomptable to any sister-Church Lastly put case as it sometimes fell out that Factions that Schismes that Heresies arose in their Patriarchates the Church was not left remedilesse for the Patriarch or Church being not able to quell compose or extirpate them a General Council was call'd to which they were all inferiour and to whose verdict they were bound to stand as is evident in the case of Nestorius Dioscorus c. who were depos'd by general Councils and their Heresies condemned and the like may be said of Arrius and Eutiches condemn'd in general Councils which shews that the general Council was the supreme judicature and that the Patriarchs had their dependence on it and so were not absolute Independents Now for the calling of these and other Councils they had their warrant and pattern from the Apostles Acts 15. who to redresse a contention then arose in the Church call'd that Synod to Jerusalem and composed it And indeed were there no other argument against Independent or Congregational Churches Rutherford peace plea. c. 7. Concl. 4. Bayly c. 10. as there be very many and very
Councils who have been hitherto received with so much veneration by the whole Church of God For in every one of these we finde the Heresies and the Heretiques censured In that of Nice Arius and Arianisme in that of Constantinople Eunomius Arius Macedonius Photinus Apollinarius and their Heresies in that of Ephesus Nestorius and Nestorianisme in that of Chalcedâ—n Dioscorus Eutyches Caranza in his Council and Eutychianisme I verily beleeve these grave Fathers the flower then of the Christian world renowned for piety honoured for learning and integrity would never have ventured to have passed so dreadful a Censure upon any mans person had they not been verily perswaded that from the Word of God they had a sufficient warrant to authorize them unto it I shall shut up this point when I have told you that it seemes to me very unreasonable that a few met together as in a Congregational Church they cannot be many should have a priviledge to do that which the Catholique Church assembled in a general Council should not be able to do or if they did should be noted with the black Character of usurpation or presumption and so much of this I come next to that corruption which you say was brought upon your Combinational or Presbyterial Church by the Parochial Of which your words are these that follow SECT IV. The words of the Letter Mr. Matthews THE first rise of the rottening of the Church was its falling from the pure poor Presbyterial Church which in respect of its primitive constitution was composed made up of living stones namely lively Members and laborious Ministers being fastly and firmly knit unto the Lord Jesus as their only head by faith and one to the other by a fraternal Covenant of fervent love according to the pattern which was proposed prescribed in both Testaments Is 44.5 Jer. 50.5 Ezek. 20.37 Zach. 11.7 10 14. 2 Cor. 8.5 Ephes 2.13 19 22. Col. 2.2 19. 1 Pet. 2.5 into an impure unpolished parochial Church At that time when ceasing to elect or ordain a Teacher a Pastour a Ruler a Deacon or Diaconesse or Widow in conformity to the heavenly Canon Rom. 12.7 15.4 16.1 compared with 1 Tim. 3.1 and Titus 1.5 6. it was well content to admit and accept of a Parson a Vicar a Warden an Over-seer of the poor and a Mid-wife By which wisdome of the flesh being no better then enmity against God within a short time after the dayes of the Apostles Christs spiritual house as well growing and living Temple was turned and transformed into a carnal and dead Town or Apostatizing Parish The very beginning and breeding of which Parochial Church is seen to have been in the time of Polycarp and Irenaeus one of them being an Elder of the Church at Smyrna and a disciple of John the Evangelist and the other a Pastour at Lyons and a disciple of that Polycarp as any man may easily perceive that will peruse what is to be observed in Eusebius his Ecclesiastical history lib. 4. c. 14. 15. lib. 5. cap. 23. 24. The Reply That my answer may be the clearer to what you here propose I shall cast your words into this method For first I will consider of 1. The constitution and description you give us here of your Presbyterial Church and the proofs you bring for it out of both Testaments 2. Whether the rottening of this Church was the falling of it from a poor pure Presbyterial Church into an impure unpolish'd Parochial Church 3. Whether your assertion be true that when it ceased to elect or ordain either a Teacher a Pastour a Ruler a Deacon Deaconesse or Widow in conformity to the Canon Rom. 12.15 16. 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1.5 but admitted of a Parson Vicar c. that then it was corrupted and became an Apostatizing Parish 4. Whether the beginning and breeding of this Apostacy and corruption began in Polycarps and Iraeneus dayes These four points being examined the weaknesse of your aspersion will very evidently appear And first to the first 1. You say That the Presbyterial Church in respect of its Primitive constitution was composed and made up of living stones namely lively members c. NOw here I must put you in minde of an old Proverb Cantherius in porta For you stumble in your first setting out and go about to impose upon me by a fallacy which if you will not grant I shall clearly deny your description for you discourse à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter I am confident you will not deny but your Presbytyrial Church is a part of Christs Militant Church visible with us on earth And that is compared to a Net in which be good and bad fish to a field in which are wheat and tares to a Barn-floor in which is Corn and Chaffe to a house in which are vessels of honour and dishonour Your visible Presbyterial Church for ought I know then must be like all other Churches have in it professours as well as true beleevers hypocrites as well as sincere worshippers which if you should deny I would ask you whether the Church Acts 2. or any that the Apostles planted were Presbyterial Churches or not If they were not there was never any if they were then there may be hypocrites and profane persons in them For in those we read of Ananias Sapphyra Simon Magus Hymineus Alexander Demas Diotrophes the Nicolaitans and those that said they were Apostles and were not How then was the Primitive Church composed and made up of none but living stones Here then lies the fallacy à dicto secundum quid The Church in respect of the Elect who to us are invisible that belong unto the mystical body of Christ is composed of living stones namely lively members c. and thus much those texts you produce very strongly prove But the Church as it is Militant and visible of which you must speak because you speak of a Presbyterial Church comprehends all sorts in it who though they be true real and univocal parts of the visible body yet they are but aequivocal parts of the mystical and to them your description belongs not To argue then from the part to the whole is a fallacy Some in the Presbyterial Church are living stones therefore the whole Presbyterial Church is in its Primitive constitution composed of these is fallacious We grant that it were earnestly to be wish'd and all lawful means would be diligently used both by Pastour and people to have all the members of a Church most holy and gracious But to say a Church hath no right constitution where all the members are not such is a foule errour For never yet was their any Church of such a constitution not the Domestical under the fathers not the Jewish or National under Moses not the Christian under the Apostles themselves and therefore assume not that to your Presbyterial Church which yet never was in any nor never shall be All Churches as visible
consist of heterogeneous parts and so doth yours which if it should marre the constitution of a Church it must needs marre yours as well as others For I hope you will not say that all yours are Saints more than by calling and so are all Christians even those at Corinth and all 1 Cor. 16.2 Cap. 1.12 13. cap. 5.1 cap. 6.15 cap. 11.21 cap. 15.35 cap. 8.12 13. among whom yet were schismatical and contentious persons envying and strife incest and incest tolerated going to Law with their brethren Harlotry coming to the Lords Table drunk a denying of a fundamental point of saith the resurrection little charity to the weak brother Now then if Corinth were a Presbyterial Church certainly in the Primitive constitution it was not composed of living stones onely c. To conclude to the constitution of a Church there can be but two things required the materiale and the formale the matter are a people gathered and united called by the Word to live in a divine policy under Christ their head The forme that unites them to him is as you say rightly faith and charity That they be truly and indeed united to him requisite it is that their faith be lively working by love But that they be united to the body the visible Church which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no more nor can be no more expected but that they make outwardly a profession of faith and fraternal love For whether either be true unfeigned and sincere or no we can never know and should we stay till those were manifest unto us it would be long enough before we should constitute our's or you your Church pray take this better into your consideration Now I proceed to that wh ch you more aime at viz. 2. That the rise of the rottening of the Church was its falling from a pure poor Presbyterial Church into an impure unpolished Parochial Church TO which I have this to say First that if this position be true then Amesius was mistaken Ames Med. l. 1. cap. 39. Sect. 22. who makes a Combinational Church all one with a Parochial He tells us there of a Church instituted by God and saith that it was not National Provincial nor Diocesan but Parochialis vel unius Congregationis cujus membra inter se combinantur ordinarie couveniunt in eodem loco ad publicum Religionis exercitium If you shall say that this kind of Parochial Church differs from ours at this day because it is combined in Covenant which ours is not I grant it but adde that such a Combination is not necessary For I know no other Covenant requisite but that in Baptisme to make a man a member of any Church as I formerly proved unto you Neither can you give any one instance of any such Covenant before your time was taken by any Parochial Church in Amesius sense Secondly I shall here again put you in minde of that I intimated at first about this word Parochia and give you farther light in it For Parochia hath a double acception eirher as it was at first Selden of tyths cap. 6. Sect. 3. or as it is used in our dayes At first the word Parochia denoted a whole Bishoprick which is but a greater Parish and signified no other than a Diocesse That in these there were Towns and Villages cannot be denyed for the proof of this we need but run over the names of Cities Towns c. of Judea mentioned in the Old and New Testament and all plantations will teach us that in processe of time it comes to be thus at first in greater Cities then in these Religion was planted Among these it cannot be well conceived that the whole hamlet was at once converted but it must be done by little and little till at last the whole Township received the faith Together then they met for the service of God and as the Jewes in their several Towns had to that purpose their Synagogues so Christians began to think of convenient places where they might meet to this purpose as you in New-England they built them Churches and so from meeting in private houses they met in these Where yet they entered not into a Combination to be an absolute and Independent Congregation but did depend on the chief Church where the Bishop was resident and this is evident by what I shall now say The Pastours of these Parishes were such as the Bishop appointed under him to have care of souls in them and those are they Conc. Neoces cap. 58. Conc. Antioch cap. 87. 89. whom the Old Greek Councils call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the Churches where they kept their cure the offerings of devout Christians were received All that was received in the Bishoprick was as a common treasury to be thus dispensed one part of it was allowed the maintenance of the Ministry another to the relief of the poor sick and strangers a third Conc. Antioch cap. 103 104. to the reparation of Churches the fourth part to the Bishop Thus it was many years before the Council of Nice that the Bishops Parochia extended far and that the whole was under his jurisdiction and consequently had not absolute power within themselves 2. But when the word Parish in that sense it is now used began it is not so easie to avouch yet for it we have these Records Damasus in pontific Euseb l. 2. c. 17. Epiphan Haeres 69. Euseb l. 6. c. 43. Evaristus who lived in Trajans time and succeeded Clemens divided Rome into seven Parishes assigning to every one a Presbyter And it may be easily collected out of Eusebius that it was thus at Alexandria and Epiphanius names many which bore these titles Theonae Serapionis Pierii Persiae Diseae Mendidii Amriani Baucalis c. For indeed necessity required it when the Christians grew to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cornelius called the Christians and did implâ—re omnia Tertull. Apol. cap. 37. Then they were forced to divide Congregations and assigne several Presbyters to their cures yet in subordination to their Bishops as is evident in all Records of the Church This being so how is it possible that the rottening of the pure poor Presbyterial Church should be the rise of the Parochial when the Parochial in the first sense was the first Church that ever was in the world as I have before manifested In which sense it is that Cyril calls Saint James Cyril Catechis 16. primum hujus Parochiae meaning Jerusal Episcopum and in that signification it is very obvious to be read in the old Councils of both tongues as Filesacus hath observed you then argue ex non concessis For in the first sense the Parochial had the precedency and was older than your new device Your Combinational might corrupt and rotten it but that could never corrupt and rotten that which was not If you take it
Analogy or rule of faith or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach any vaine things he might according to that direction that Saint Paul gives Timothy have his mouth quickly stopt For Discipline is the preservation and hedge of Doctrine and Discipline can never be well administred among them that have an equal power I pray tell me what was the reason that moved his Highnesse the Lord Protector to take upon him the government of this Common-wealth was it not because he foresaw that all would come to ruine in a parity of Governours which was the aime of those who fancied a fifth Monarchy This is the very reason that he himself assignes And say what you will to the contrary this is and will be the fate of the Church except in one Province there be one chief Could I give no other instances of it yet that which we have lived to see is enough This Calvin Bucer Zanchy in their testimonies before alledged foresaw Bezae responsio ad tractatum de ministrorum evang grad fol. 143. and therefore commended and allowed the ancient Primitive institution I shall onely adde the testimony of Beza and so shut up this point especially having said so much before about it when I spoke of Patriarchs Dicamus ergo Primatum illum ordinis per mutuae successionis vices for such the Presbyterians plead for ipsa tandem experientia compertum fuisse non satis virium nec ad ambitiosos pastores nec ad auditores quidem vanos alios vero adulatorio spiritu praeditos compescendos habuisse communicata viz. singulis pastoribus per vices hujus primatus dignitate Itaque quod singulorum secundum successionem commune fuit visum fuit ad unum eum quidem totius Presbyterii judicio delectum transferre quod certe repraehendi nec potest nec debet quum praesâ—rtim vetustus hic mos Presbyterum deligendi in Alexandrina celeberrima Ecclesia jam inde à Marco Evangelista esset observatus c. Yea but say you say 2. This man was not afraid nor ashamed to assume the Name and Office of an Arch-bishop and Metropolitan AND what fear or shame then should be in this assumption I see not The Office was very useful and the Name not so impious and profane as you imagine 1. His office was to call the rest of the Bishops of the Province to the Synods which were to be held twice every year Concil Antioch Can. 19. Conc. in Trullo cap. 8. Antiochenum Can. 9. Conc. African cap. 127. 28. Concil Sard. cap. 14. to appoint the place of their meeting when the Ordinations of Bishops were examined and determined and the deprivation and rejection of all such as were found unworthy of that honour and place was handled In the Synod he sate as President and things were so moderated that neither the rest might proceed to do any thing without consulting him nor he without them but was tyed in matters of difference to follow the major part when they assembled but once a year many causes that abide no delay were committed by them to the Metropolitan hearing the judgment To him then lay Appeales And yet his power was not absolute and arbitrary for he was to execute the decrees of the Synods onely and to judge according to the Canons And if he neglected his duty he was by the Canons lyable to Censure and punishment in a general Council And the Church story is a plentiful record that by Councils Metrapolitans have been punished censured deposed Now say truly what is there that in this Office or Order that should offend any discreet man 2. Oh but his name is profane and it is blasphemy to assume it and for this afterward you give in this reason because it is such a stile and title as is not communicable to any creature but is proper and peculiar to Christs own sacred person being that besides himself none can be safely said to be an Arch-bishop or chief Shepherd I shall first encounter your reason and invalidate it For first you impose upon me for Saint Peters word is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.4 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly were it so yet it is but an argument à notatione nominis which of all Topick arguments is the weakest Thirdly if this reason were good then it would hold as well in all other names of Christ and it were profane and blasphemous for any man to bear any of them And yet I read there is not one of them except Immanuel which hath not been attributed to man Psal 105.15 Matt. 2.6 Heb. 2.17 Heb. 3.1 1 Pet. 2.25 Jesus is attributed to Joshua Hebr. 4.8 Christus to Kings and Patriarchs Nolite tangere Christos meos He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so are the praepositi Heb. 13.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet how many in the Gospel are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he the Apostle and High Priest of our profession and yet Saint Paul often calls himself an Apostle he by Saint Peter is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet under him the Ministers of the Church are often stiled Shepherds and Bishops There can be no strength then in this reason which is everted by so many examples it must needs be as much profaness and blasphemy for any creature to bear any of these appellations since they were the names of Christ as it can be for an Arch-Bishop to take that name if it had been his which it was not But it was no profanesse or blasphemy in them and therefore not in him But that the name may the lesse offend you call to minde the antiquity of it and what kinde of men have born it and yet the Church never held them for profane persons It is as old as are Metropolitans and they are as old as Metropolies or chief Cities where Christianity was planted Chrysostome sticks not to call Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and well he might who had seven Bishops under him Cypr. Epist 45. Edit Pammelii Cyprian was Arch-Bishop of Carthage a Martyr a great Arch-Bishop for he saith latè paâ—et nostra provincia habet Numidium Mauritaniam sibi cohaerentes Athanasius who stood against all the world for the truth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had all the world against him was Arch-Bishop of Alexandria What should I tell you that the first thirty two Bishops of Rome who were all Martyrs except one bear that name and that Chrysostome Epiphanius Basil Nazianzene Cyril c. were all called Arch-Bishops And that you be not quite out of love with it that glorious Martyr of our Church Cranmer dyed Arch-bishop of Canterbury I can never be drawn to imagine that had there been profanesse and blasphemy in the name such glorious lights of the Church such pious good learned men such pillars of the Faith such Martyrs in defence of the
30. Bede lib. 2 c. 2. Galfr. Monum lib. 11. cap. 12. Godw. page 45. But the answer which the British Bishops gave to Austin being summoned to give him a meeting where by perswasions threats and all manner of means he endeavoured to draw the Britaine Bishops to an entire conformity to the Church of Rome is so clear an evidence that I cannot see how it can be evaded for the answer was short and peremptory that they might not submit themselves to him having an Arch-Bishop of their own c. And in a second meeting being offended with his pride Sir H. Spelman Conc. Britan An. 590. ex Manusc Saxon. Bed lib. 2. c. 2. Bale Cent. 1. fol. 35. Bede lib. 2. c. 2. because he would not rise to them at their coming into the Assembly they gain-said him in every thing for say they si modo nobis assurgere noluit quanto magis si ei subjici ceperimus nos pro nihilo contemnet This repulse occasioned the slaughter of the Monks of Bangor over whom Dinoth was the Caenobiarcha as Bale calls him who as it is supposed was that holy man in Bede that taught them how to discern whether he was sent of God to them or no. For saith he if he be a meek and an humble man it is an evident signe that he bears the yoke of Christ and offers the same to you but if he be stout and proud he is not of God you may be sure and his deportment was such as I said which alienated the Bishops minds and the Monks with them Our adversaries of Rome take it very ill that Austin should be thus accused of pride and cruelty and use all their wits in his excuse They would perswade us he was dead when this Massacre was committed but Bishop Juel hath evidently confuted their allegations and made it appear that in that Warre he was alive Juel defens Apolog quinta pars cap. 1. divisio prima and the instigator of it Had you then set the saddle upon the right horse and fixed those Epithites of proud and profane upon Austin you had some colour for it But to fasten it upon the whole order upon Arch-Bishops and Metropolitans for one mans sake is want of charity of which he was not the founder neither in this Land as I have proved to you Nor Fox nor any English Historians nor Evagrius say any such thing Evagrius could not for nor Gregory was Bishop of Rome nor Austin sent hither when he writ ended his History All that Fox or any other Historian can say is that Austin was the first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and that shall readily be yielded you now when I hear how you can improve that concession to your advantage you shall receive an answer I could if I pleased anticipate your objections but I will not now do it because I hasten to what follows SECT VI. The words of the Letter THe fourth degree of the Combinational Churches infamous defection was its notably naughty enlarging it self into a National Church where and whence without controversie arose that Jewish imitation and irregularly Religious observation of five frivolo s and foundationlesse customes and traditions of which the first was of National times as the fifty yearly Festivals or holy working-dayes Cursed-Masse Candle-Masse c. The second was of National places as the Consecrated meeting houses Porches Chancels and Church-yards The third was of National persons as the Universal Preachers Office-Priests Half-Priests or Diocesan Deacons The fourth was of National pious performances as stinted Worship Quiristers singing of Psalmes with all the Rubrique Postures And the fifth was of National payments or spiritual profits as offerings tithes and mortuaries all which fruitlesse and fantastical fashions were the illegitimate legal off-spring of National Parliaments in this and in the Neighbor-Nations Witnesse the publick Acts Statutes and other Ordinances in that behalf The Reply SIr that affection which I have alwayes borne you as a friend and that duty which I owe you as a Christian moves me in plain words to tell you that the indulgence you bear to the Combinational Church hath in this Paragraph transported you beyond the bounds of moderation and truth For to omit your common Sophisme petitio principii which is the foulest in all Logick that there was at first a Combinational Church and that this did precede a National which is as if you should say the parts are before the whole when the contraty in nature hath hitherto been received for truth that omne totum sive universale sive integrale est prius partibus But to omit this you over-load your assertion with many unnecessary Epithets and those sometimes unapt whereas attributes are ornaments and where they are not decently affixed they become our speech no more than a fair gold lace doth a coarse garment or a rich jewel fastned to a straw hat Thirdly the five frivolous customes and traditions you reckon up are no proper accidents of the National Church but were common to the Provincial Cathedral and Parochial and so no distinct notes to know that the National Church was corrupted more than they should I yield them to be corruptions Lastly you say they were brought in by a Jewish imitation which if granted it would not at all help your cause as I will after make appear These are your undertakings in this Section and I shall not need to analyse it as I have done before because you have methodiz'd it to my hand for which I thank you The first thing then I shall prove unto you is that there is such a thing as a National Church and that it was before your Combinational so that it cannot be true which you affirme that the fourth degree of the Combinational Churches defection was its notably naughty enlarging it self into a National Church 1. That there is a National Church and that this was first is consonant to Scripture to reason to experience 1. FIrst it is very consonant to Scripture God after Adams fall made a Covenant with mankinde for salvation The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head The words of the Covenant were obscure and therefore God was pleased to adde light to them Gen. 3.15 Gen. 12.3 Gal. 3.8 in that promise he made to Abraham In thy seed i. e. Christ shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed That this promise was made to the Church is beyond all question and who were this Church but all Nations not to Abrahams seed after the flesh Rom. 4.13 9.8 but to Abrahams seed through the righteousnesse of faith was the promise made not to the Jewes but to the Gentiles also was the promise made and both go here under the name of Nations and what should hinder now but the Church into which both should be gathered should be called a National Church The argument is drawn à Denominatis Natio is Denominaus National denominativum Jewes and Gentiles Denominatum
the proposition then is true that Jewes and Gentiles make one National Church Hence it is that what God said of the Jew Exod. 19.6 ye shall be to me a Kingdome of Priests and an holy Nation is by Saint Peter affirmed of the Christian Church ye are a chosen generation 1 Pet. 2.9 a royal Priesthood an holy Nation Which when effected our Saviours words were fulfilled other sheep I have which are not of this fold John 10.16 them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice that there may be one fold and one Shepherd Farther yet a prophesie is extant Isa 2.2 Isa 2.2 Mic. 4.1 2 c. Jer. 4.2 Isa 65.1 Zach. 2.11 Zach. 14.9 Psalm 2.8 Psalm 22.27 Matth. 21.43 Rom. 4.17 And it shall come to passe in the last dayes that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it Let other texts be compared with this which speak the same thing Thus it was foretold and that what was foretold might accordingly be fulfilled our Saviour gave his disciples a Commission in these general words Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost c. Matthew 28.19 And I pray call to minde that when Peter baptized the penitents Acts 2.39 he comforted them with these words for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as our Lord God shall call And yet after this even Peter himself and the Apostles and the brethren that were in Judaea of this had but a confused notion for when Peter came up to Jerusalem Acts 11. Acts 10. they that were of the Circumcision contended with him about it to whom he was feigne to make his Apology opening to them the vision of the sheet which when they heard these things they glorified God saying then hath God also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life In effect they attested the truth of Peters words Verse 34. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons looks now no more upon a Jew than he doth upon a sinner of the Gentiles but in every Nation he that feareth him and doth righteousnesse is accepted of him The partition wall being broken down what could they be but one church I can never sufficiently wonder at your words when you call this accesse of all Nations a naughty enlargement What is that which God by Covenant with Abraham promised naught that naught which he foretold should be that naught which Christ gave Commission to his disciples to do that naught which the Disciples did All Nations Isa 2.2 All flesh Isa 66.23 All the kindreds of the earth Psal 22.26 27. A multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people Rev. 7.9 are said to be the people of God under the New Testament and yet you will not allow them the name of a National Church But a stronger foundation for this Truth there cannot be than that which Saint Paul hath laid under the similitude of an Olive which had two kinds of branches natural verse 21. and wild 17. Rom. 1â—â— The natural were the Jewes the wild the Gentiles the natural were broken off through unbelief and the wild by faith graffed in These wild now being naturalized are in the same condition that the Natural were before they were broken off But the Natural branches were in the Olive totally the whole Nation they and their children which made the National Church of the Jewes and therefore the wild branches must be so inserted they and their children also which will make the National Church of the Gentiles which is the full scope and intention of the Apostle in that chapter Finally the very same Covenant that was made with Abraham 2 Cor. 6.16 is made with the Corinthians 2 Cor. 6.16 I will be their God and they shall be my people As that then was extended to the whole Nation of the Jewes Lev. 26.12 Levit. 26.12 so also is it now to be extended to the whole Nation of the Gentiles so that all those Nations that have had the Gospel preached unto them and answering that Gospel have received the doctrine of Christ submitting to his Ordinances in the profession of his Name are to be reckoned as they were 1 Pet. 2.10 Acts 8.12 13. John 6.66 Acts 11.26 1 Cor. 1.2 1 Cor. 12.13 Matth. 8.11 the people of God 1 Pet. 2.10 Beleevers Acts 8.12 13. Disciples John 6.66 Christians Acts 2. Saints by calling 1 Cor. 1.2 The Church of the Gentiles 1 Cor. 12.13 The Kingdome of Christ Matth. 8.11 Thus have I shewed you that since the whole Church quoad materiale doth consist of Nations there can be no impropriety or absurdity in it when we call any part thereof a National Church or the Church of Beleevers in any one Nation And now let us see what help you can have for the confirmation of this besides Scripture out of the principles of reason 2. We believe in our Creed the Catholique Church and Catholique it is called in respect of all ages and times because before under and after the Law it alwayes was and secondly in respect of persons for there is not any person of what degree sex condition or age that may not be a member of it And thirdly in respect of places in that as formerly the Jewes so now all persons in all Nations have a capacity to be of the Church of Christ Universality then being an attribute of the Church it cannot be found in any one Church limited either in respect of time or place Either then make your Combinational Church the Catholique or you must extend it farther and if so why not to a Province and if to a Province why not to a Nation nay many Nations And be it you should assume the name of Catholique and fasten it to every particular Combinational Church yet particular Societies of Christians can lay no farther claime to it than they can demonstrate themselves to belong to that Church that hath a true and a just title to it which no particular Church can do but by proving that it holds the common faith once delivered to the Saints without heretical innovation Ames lib. 1. c. 31. Sect. 20. or schismatical violation of the Unity and Peace of the Christian world This being the way for particular Churches to demonstrate themselves to be Catholique necessary it is that they be united at least to those Congregations of that Nation whence we may infer that there must needs be a National Church which also that must do and shew clearly that it maintaines whole and undefiled the foundations of faith before it can be acknowledged to be Catholique 2. That which makes men mistake in this point is that they make the Church to be species
2. c. 8. Marc. 1.39 Maimonides in Tebilla cap. 11. Sect. 1. and the Synagogues were like our Parish Churches of which there were in Jerusalem alone 480. and out of Jerusalem many Synagogues in Galilee Matth. 4.23 Synagogues at Damascus Acts 9.2 Synagogues at Salamis Acts 13.5 Synagogues at Antioch Acts 13.14 Yea their tradition is that whersoever ten men of Israel were there ought to be built a Synagogue and in these our Saviour preached The Church of Christ which began at Jerusalem and held that profession which had not the countenance and allowance of publick authority could not exercise some duties of Christian Religion but in private onely What they did as Jews they had accesse to the Temple and Synagogues what as Christians they were forced otherwhere to assemble themselves which at first must need be private Rooms and private houses And as God gave encrease to his Church they both there and abroad sought out not the fittest but the safest places And it was not long but they began to erect Oratories denominating these places from the principal part of Gods service Prayer to which how our Lord himself stood affected we may acknowledge by that where he calls his Church his house of prayer and such an one Tremellius findes Acts 16.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tremell in Acts 16.13 And the thirteenth And on the Sabbath day we went out of the City by a River side where prayer was wont to be made the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he reads it ubi conspiciebatur it should be ubi decernebatur domus orationis for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used sometimes not for the action but the house it self In qua te quaero Proseucha Juvenal And then if Tremellius version and note be true we have an early Oratory But be it as it will thus much may easily be granted which I have learned from a great Clerk Selden de decimis yet no great friend of the Church that it cannot be conceived how Christianity should be in any Nation if publickly and generally received much ancienter then Churches or some convenient houses or places in the nature of Churches appointed for the exercise of devotion And therefore in the Apostles time places they had to meet in upon the Lords day perchance at first made of private houses publick dedicated by the owners and accepted and set apart by the Apostles for that use In these publick services was solemnized a woman might not speak 1 Cor. 14.35 In these she was not to be uncovered a man not covered 1 Cor. 11. In these the Eucharist was administred Acts 20. In these the collect for the poor gathered 1 Cor. 16. Other houses they had to eat and drink in and a man that could not make that distinction did despise the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.22 And this place was some noted place otherwise Saint Paul could not have said as he doth 1 Cor. 14.23 If therefore the whole Church be come together into one place and all speak with tongues and there come in one that is unlearned or unbelievers will they not say that you are mad Soon after this we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kirks Dominica set apart to Gods service I mentioned three before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Nitria in Aegypt the Church where Saint John with his Asiatick Bishops kept his Synod That built by Joseph of Arimathea at Glastenbury Theophilus house in Antioch was consecrated into a Church Clem. Recog lib. 10. Dion in Adriano The Centurists confesse Anno 193. that Severus the Emperour allowed the Christians a Church ad pium usum and before him Adrian had done the like I do not say that these were at first sumptuous the poverty of the Church and the envy that thence might be drawn upon Christians would not permit it But at length when it pleased God to raise up Kings and Emperours favouring sincerely the Christian faith that which the Church before either could not or durst not do was with all alacrity performed Basilicae were in all places erected no cost was spared nothing was thought too dear which was that way spent And their bounty this way was to this day spoken of with honour till the Anabaptists first cast in their exceptions against them and you after them shew your displeasure for some certain solemnities usual at the first erection of them At which you aime when you call these Consecrated meeting houses That there may be some Ceremonies blame-worthy in the consecration of them shall be confessed But yet notwithstanding these that they should be the worse for consecration this we deny For what is intended by consecration more then that we make them places of publick resort that we invest God himself with them that we sever them from common uses 1. It behoveth that the place where God is to be served be a publick place For leave but every man alone to serve God in a Parlour and it will never come to be what it was in the Primitive Christians who were all of one heart and one soul Men may conceive as they list but as experience teacheth men will never be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 busily and piously intent about the same thing till they meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same place Division of places will not be long without division of minds which the ten Tribes were jealous of Josh 22. when they questioned their brethren for building their Altar Deut. 16.16 and God prevented by requiring the presence of all the males at that place three times a year that he should choose For by this meeting in a publick place the instillation of heretical and schismatical positions may be prevented But this is not all the razor of sharper tongues may be dulled who have given deep wounds and gashes to the reputation of the best Christians even then when they were forced to serve in Grots and Cells Tertull. Justin Epiph. Euseb and retired places The setting apart then of publick places hath both these benefits to attend it that it prevents heresies and scandals 2. By this the place is delivered from common hands and a surrender made of that right which the Owner of the ground might claim in it till this Ceremony that being once past the possession is severd from the free hold His own it was and he might have kept it now it is a Deodate Gods house not his his for no other purpose but to serve his God The Work-man might draw the line and plummet upon it and make it a house but it is the assignation of it to Religious duties that makes it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords house Good it were that some difference were put betwixt Gods dwelling place and our houses Now consecration is that which sets the note of difference by it there is a dedication and assignation given and livery and seizen taken And that you be not so
Sacrament For this act was a right significant to the communicants of their table-honour and fellowship with Christ also that the Minister at the Celebration must be uncovered and that in signe of his service to the Communicants as the Lords much honoured children sitting covered when they eat of their fathers meat This irreverence with the reason of it if you disclaim as I hope you do it lyes upon you to shew me a reason why a man may be irreverent at any other part of Gods worship which I interpret the covering of the head out of contempt and obstinacy to be which guilt you may unadvisedly draw upon your self when you impute to us in a scoffe bare-heads 2. These you say should be utterly rejected from being my spiritual Over-seers again What will you cast us aside with the shavelings of Rome not rejected but utterly rejected rejected for a poor Ceremony that we were bare-headed in Gods service never to be made spiritual Over-seers again meerly for this This were a very harsh sentence but you lenifie it with two exceptions that of inward and an outward calling 3. Afore they were inwardly qualified by Christs sinne-crucifying and soul-quickning Spirit in a cleansed conscience This your qualification is exceedingly to be desired O how happy were the Church if all the Overseers were quickned by that Spirit which would effectually work in them a crucifying of sinne and a new life that their conscience were cleansed by the blood of Christ and a pure faith that her Nazarites were purer than snow whiter than milke that they were more ruddy in body than rubies and that their polishing was as saphire But this is rather to be wished than hoped for while this world stands Saul will be among the Prophets and Judas among the Disciples So then you have here put an impossible talk upon your self and all others to be assured of an Over-seer before you receive him that he is inwardly qualified by Christs sinne-crucifi d and soul-quickning Spirit in a cleansed conscience For this requires a great deal of more ability in the Rulers of the Church than ever can be found in any mortal man For not to speak of the impossibility of a grounded and certain perswasion of true grace in the heart of an hypocrite who hath no grace at all how is it possible to attain to any grounded certainty of true grace in the heart of another man conjectures we may make and in charity judge it is so but this is no evidence of assurance For the hid man of the heart and the new name are not certainly known to any man but he that hath them You must then abate very much of this proposition before any wise man will be of your judgment And if men must not be admitted for Over-seers till you know them to be thus inwardly qualifyed nor you nor we shall ever admit any Over-seers Gifts I graunt they all ought to have before they be admitted into that order but such as men may judge of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abilities in learning outward evidences of grace witnessed by a holy life but whether they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratias gratum facientes that must be left to the searcher of all hearts To us a Bristol stone may glister like a Diamond and till we know the contrary it were folly to reject it 4. And also outwardly and ord rly called by Christs Covenant-servants in a cleansed Combinational Church This is your second restriction by which you would reject the Parish Over-seers as you call them the old Ministers But now see how farre it will take hold of those among your selves 1. For first if this outward calling be necessary then what will become of your Itinerants who never pleaded this outward call but their gifts only Secondly For those old Ministers that turn unto you and for gaine dance after your pipe they then must renounce their old orders and be newly ordained by you which were as if a man that had received his commission from his Prince should slight that and take up another from the people that I say not it justifies that old exploded maxime laid upon Wickleive Praelatus in mortali peccato existens desinit esse Praelatus Thirdly Here you would fasten upon us again the old Sophisme that there is no outward and orderly calling but by Christs Covenant-servants in a cleansed Combinational Church which you shall make good ad Graecas Calendas Fourthly You say that this outward and orderly calling must be had in a cleansed Combinational Church So that if the Combinational Church be not purifyed and cleansed what assurance can any man have of his outward calling Are the Anabaptist Churches clean Are the Antinomians clean Are the Millenaries clean Are the Quakers clean yet all these are Combinational and they ordain their Ministers It seems then that unclean Combinational Churches both outwardly and orderly call'd or else all these have no Pastours But I proceed with your words 5. If there were an unanimous voting down of all double-reading I mean that babling reading of two Chapters which is not seconded with the opening and expounding of the same being that it cannot but be confessed that it was such a course as is quite contrary to what is commanded and commended in the Scriptures of Truth as all do well know that are acquainted with what is written Ezek. 33.2 Nehemiah 8.8 Luke 4.16 Acts 13.15 1 Cor. 14.23 24. The Reply 1. Reading the Scripture publickly was of great use in the Primitive Church and to that purpose they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or publick Readers officiated even Julian before he became an Apostate was such a one in the Church of Nicomedia Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Apol 2. Tertull. Apol. cap. 39. lib. 2. ad uxorem Chrys hom 3. de Lazaro It was one part of their Liturgy as you may read in Justin Martyr and in Tertullian Commentaria Apostolorum aut scripta Apostolorum leguntur We meet together and there is Divinarum Scripturarum Commemoratio and that you be not mistaken in Tertullians meaning Ibi fomenta fidei de Scripturarum interlectione And here also is double-reading at lest for you for it was interlectio And therefore Chrysostome wisheth the people to get them Bibles and diligently to read them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in their Temples observe that They therefore used not to call the giving forth a Text and preaching upon it the reading of the Scripture Now that reading is preaching that is proclaiming the will of God is evident Moses had in old time in every City those that preach him since be is read in their Synagogues every Sabbath day Dives brethren are sent to Moses and the Prophets and to what end but to read them Acts 15.21 Luke 16. for they were dead and vivâ voce could not preach and had not the reading of them been a sufficient Sermon to reclaime them
whole Gospel In a word the condition required of us is faith hope charity self-denial repentance a careful and industrious husbanding of Gods grace daily prayer for daily encrease and attending diligently to the means of grace To strengthen the faith of Abraham and his seed in the assurance of what was promised and for a memorial of what was to be performed it pleased God to have a seal set in his flesh and in the flesh of his seed for that time which was circumcision To this seal all the males of the Jews had a right and this seal was cut into them yea and as many Proselytes also who were content to become proselytae foederis Proselytes of the Covenant The other whom they call'd the Proselytes of their gates they entred them into the Covenant and bound them to the observation of the seven Commandments of Noah by a kinde of purification by water and the blood of oblation in the same kinde as they admitted their women The Covenant is the self-same under the Gospel that then God made with Abraham on the same conditions of the same extent only it hath another seal theirs was circumcision and ours baptisme the cutting of the flesh gave entrance to them the washing by water gives an entrance and admission to us And about this the question is whether it be to be with-held from the children of any who bear the name of Christians And it is observable how this question fiâ—st grew and what progresse it had At first some good-minded men set it on foot being occasioned by the children of professed Pahists living among them whom they conceived to be Idolatrous and consequently out of Covenant this caused Farel to write to Calvin about it Calvin Ep. 149. whose answer to him is this but not sound Where both the parents are Popish we think it an absurd thing for us to baptize them which are not members of our body and sith Papists children are such we see not how it should be lawful for us to administer Baptisme unto them But sounder by much is that answer of the Ecclesiastical Colledge of Geneva unto Knox who scrupled at the same and grew more rigid and wrote to them that he held it not only unlawful to baptize the children of Idolaters but even Bastards Ep. 283. and excommunicate persons till reconciled to the Church To whom they returned this sentence that wheresoever the profession of Christianity hath not utterly perished and been extinct Ep. 285. infants are beguiled of their right if the common seal be denied them which conclusion as I will by and by prove is sound But I go on for the mistake staid not here for when it came to Mr. Cartwright Anvil he beat it broader for he asserted that none might receive the Sacrament of Baptisme but they whose Parents at least the one of them are by the soundnesse of their Religion and by their vertuous demeanours known to be men of God Hook lib. 5. pag. 155. and by this rule the children of those they called Hereticks Misbelievers and Profane livers also came to be excluded Next the Brownist took it up and conveyed it over to you of the Combinational Church both imparting Baptisme to very few infants Burtons vindication pag. 62. viz. to those alone whose immediate Parents are members of their Congregation Out of you arise the Anabaptists and they peremptorily deny the Baptisme of all infants born to the members of the Combination or to any other till they are able to give an accompt of their faith and enter into a Church Covenant for themselves At last the Shaker comes upon the Stage and gives out of his Cup of trembling a vomit to all Ordinances these are outward Rites Baptisme the Eucharist needlesse seals to any old or young since he and his company are inwardly sealed by the Spirit This was the stratageme of that old Serpent for had he presented this bewitching position to the world at fiâ—st in the last ugly shape it now appears he knew that all men would have with honour heard it therefore he insinuated it and caused it to be taken down by certain gulps steps and degrees that the potion might be swallowed and the poyson not at all perceived Now this errour that I call it no worse in some hath been nourished in that they have not fully weighed the purport of this distinction of the mystical and visible body of Christ This is but one and we usually call it the Church which contains in it two sorts of people either outward Professours or true inward believers These last belong to the mystical body of Christ which therefore is called mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is altogether removed from sense in these their love is sound and sincere and comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned and they no doubt do and shall obtain whatsoever was made over by the second Covenant Those outward professours who either before Christs coming or since his appearing in the flesh have been called by the name of Christians we call the visible body because being Jews or Gentiles they are incorporated into one body have but one Lord whose servants they professe themselves to be have one faith which they all acknowledge one Baptisme by which they are all initiated For although we know the Christian Faith and allow it we are then but entring entred we are not into this visible Church till our admittance by the dore of Baptisme and who they are that enter that way is very well known even to the eye whence we usually call these the visible Church which is not so to be understood as if those of the invisible Church were not visible Christians also For both moleties whether mystical or visible as touching their profession are the object of the eye easie it is for any man to say this man is a Christian that man a Heathen But this distinction ariseth from the sincerity or unsincerity of the professours because we are never able to see and discern who they are that sincerely professe the Truth therefore we call these invisible but because we are easily able to judge of the men who enter by Baptisme therefore the whole is called a visible Church In whomsoever therefore is found the profession of one Lord one Faith one Baptisme those the Church doth acknowledge for her children and all those none of hers in whom they are not found as Jews Turks Heathens c. Others for their external profession are Christians and are of the visible Church of Christ And among these there are some who professe the Truth but not wholly and entirely and these are Hereticks some that professe the whole saving Truth but not in unity and these are Schismaticks some that professe the whole saving Truth in unity but not in sincerity and sanctity and these are hypocrites and profane persons others that professe the whole saving Truth in unity
and sincerity of a good and sanctifyed life and these are true beleevers and good Christians Yet Christians by external profession those all are who carry that external mark I now named yea although they be impious Idolaters wicked Hereticks Schismaticks Hypocrites profane persons and excommunicable yea and cast out for notorious improbity For they are but so cast out that they may be taken again upon their repentance and that without the setting the seal anew which might not be done if they had been utterly cast off There is but one way onely after a man is entred by Baptisme that can make him forfeit his whole estate in Church society and that is a general revolt and Apostacy from his Christian profession as turning Turk Jew or Infidel All these except the sincere professours we deny not may be the Imps and Limbs of Satan even as long as they continue such is it then possible for the self-same men to be the Synagogue of Satan and to be the Church of Jesus Christ unto that Church which is his mystical body it is not possible because that body consisteth of none but true Israelites true sonnes of Abraham true servants and Saints of God Howbeit that they be true and real and not equivocal Members of the outward visible body it is very possible notwithstanding the unsincerity of their profession and the wickednesse of their conversation which is worthily both hateful in the eyes of God himself and in the eyes of the sounder part of the visible Church most execrable If you doubt of the truth of this remember the Parables of the Corne Field the Net the ten Virgins the Barn-floor the house in which were vessels of honour and dishonour And if these satisfie not then look upon those two plain Texts 1 Cor. 5.11 12. There are scandalous persons enumerated a Fornicatour Covetous a Drunkard yet within that is within the Church and Covenant yet a brother of the visible society for all that and indeed except he be looked upon as a brother and as within how could he be cast out by excommunication for what have we to do to judge those who are without The other place is 2 Thess 3.15 Among whom there was a disorderly person yet he was not to be counted as an enemy not to be esteemed as one out of the Church an Unbeliever an Heathen but to be admonished as a brother For lack of diligent observing this difference first betwixt the Church of God mystical and visible then betwixt the visible sound and corrupted corrupted sometimes more sometimes lesse Thirdly in not taking notice of the latitude of the Covenant which belongs to the visible Church as a proprium quarto modo i. e. as an essential mark the oversights are not few nor light that have been committed To passe by others you because Christs true body is made up of none but sincere professours presently conclude that none but sincere professours are of Christs body which is true of the mystical but not of the visible Then you restraine the Covenant as if it belonged to none but the Elect whereas it belongs to all those to whom God said to Abraham I will be to the a God and thy seed after thee whether sonnes ex lege or ex fide Thirdly whereas the Covenant was made with the Catholick visible Church you restrain it to your Combinational so that they who are not Members of that shall have no right to the seals nor to it not any other shall they claim any right at all who are not regenerate whereas this distinction observed would set you right We must distinguish betwixt the effectual benefits of Christ held forth in the Ordinance and a right to the external Ordinance The former right and priviledge belongs only indeed to the regenerate for they only effectually to life receive the seals But the latter to all within the Church to all Church Members for a night they have to the external Ordinance Or you may if you please conceive it thus The Sacrament may be considered in sensu composito that is with the entire fruits and benefits of the Covenant unto which truth of grace and faith is necessarily required and so to the Reprobate the Sacrament belongs not or else in sensu diviso precisely in the Ordinance it self abstracted from those graces and so it is Church-membership alone or external Covenant-relation denominating men subjects sonnes Saints believers disciples brethren Christians that gives men right unto the seal Fifthly You over-hastily and uncharitably censure all Hereticks Papists wicked persons and excommunicable or excommunicate to be without the Covenant and that therefore if they be Parents of children the applying of publick or private Baptisme to their children is groundlesse Which mistake of yours how great it is I shall make it farther appear by these evident arguments 1. That which is unjust may not be done but to debarre a Christians child from the seal of the Covenant is unjust therefore it may not be done Minor probatur It is unjust to punish the child for the fathers sinne Ezek. 18.20 But to debarre from the seal it is to punish the child for the fathers sinne therefore to debarre a Christians childe from the seale of the Covenant is unjust If to the Major it be answered that this is sometimes done and that the child suffers for the fathers offence it may be admitted in a temporal punishment but never in a spiritual of which kind this is and therefore may not be inflicted 2. They who were not to be kept from the seal of the Covenant under the Law for their fathers iniquity may not be kept from it for that cause under the Gospel But under the Law children were not kept from the seale for their fathers iniquity therefore not to be kept from it under the Gospel and consequently not to be hindred from Baptisme The Major of this Syllogisme is easily proved because the Covenant of the New Testament is said to be better than the Old Heb. 7.22 8.6 But to accompt this priviledge of the seal to belong onely to some Christians children which was in common to the Jews is to make it worse in the New Testament than in the Old Calvin institut lib. 4. cap. 16. Sect 6. which is injurious to do Arbitrari Christum adventu suo patris gratiam imminuisse aut decurtasse execrabili blasphemia non vacat Upon this ground then to keep a childe from Baptisme is great injustice Minor probatur This was not done among the Jews for make the Jewish Parents as bad as you will a generation of unbelievers who knew not God that tempted him and grieved his Holy Spirit in the Wildernesse yet for this the children were not to be deprived of the seal for their fathers sinne for Joshua was commanded to circumcise the children of these Rebels So again they came to be worshippers of the golden Calf adored the Brazen S rpent bowed the knees to
you the sole wise men were all men blinde till you arose Besides 't is not long since there was an Oath and a Covenant eagerly pressed and then the Covenanters served themselves with these Texts then they sounded in our ears these words of Jeremy Come let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Then the people were terrifyed with the words of Ezekiel I will cause you to passe under the rod and will bring you into the bond of the Covenant Then the Covenant of Moses of Joshua of Asa of Josiah of Nehemiah in a word all places that mentioned a Covenant were pressed and urged to attest the necessity of that Oath What is now Gods Word become a ship-mans hose that it may be worn on either side what Presbyterians and Combinationals justifie their way from the same Texts this cannot be for if it serve one it will not serve the other if it serve to prove a National Covenant as that was it will never prove a Combinational since these two are disparata and admit no reconciliation no more then a National and Combinational Church can be one One of you 't is certain juggle with us and go about to impose upon us and the truth is you do both so as shall appear upon farther examination A custome it was among the Jews when they had revolted from God to Idols solemnly to renew their first Covenant with him and to take him to be their God renouncing all other and to be his people and observe his Laws which gave occasion to all the former practices In Jeremies time for their Idolatry especially the Jews were to be carried into Captivity but the Prophet in this Chapter and the next foretells the ruine of the Babylonians their severe Masters and their return which when it came to passe then saith he they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward c. It then cannot be denyed but this Text must primarily be understood of the Jews and if ever it were literally fulfilled it was when in Nehemiahs dayes Nehem. 9.38 10.28 29. the Princes Levites Priests made and wrote and sealed the Covenant in which the people engaged wiih them and let me tell you that the Jews in the principal point ever after kept this Covenant and so it may well be called perpetual for after their return from Babel though they were divided into divers Sects to the corruption of sincere Religion and were guilty of many other abominations yet no man can charge them with the worship of strange gods Of the Jews then these words were spoken and in them verifyed and cannot be applyed to the Christian Church any other way but by the way of accommodation For say I shall allow you that the Jewish Church was the type of the Christian then the Christian must be the antitype and what then will you gain by it except the overthrow of your own cause for the antitype must every way resemble the type which in this it will not For this Covenant was voluntary Come say they let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant You presse necessity upon mens consciences this explicite Covenant is the essential form of a Combinational Church so that no Covenant no Member of the Church to which Christ hath promised salvation The Covenant in which the Jews engaged was of the whole Nation yours is of a selected people in a Nation They the whole Corporation of them notwithstanding this Covenant continued to be a National Church went up to Jerusalem at their solemn Feasts separated not into private divisions and subdivisions You by your Covenant are enemies to all National Churches make it a distinctive note not of true and sincere worshippers from Idolatours but of those which professe the same faith with you from those of your Congregation that I say not you have as many Covenants as there be factions and fractions among you That every good Christian daily come up closer to his God by joyning in a perpetual Covenant and by renewing his vow made in his Baptisme to renounce to beleeve and obey I exceedingly approve But that this cannot be done except he enter a new Covenant in your Congregation or that he is bound to do it or can be no Member of a visible Church I shall never believe for mark what will follow upon it First there must be a dissolution made of all the reformed Churches of Christendome that there may be way made for this new erection for the Covenant sealed to their Members in Baptisme will not serve the turn till they have a new admission and matriculation by this seal and engagement Then again consider what countenance is hereby given to the whole order of Romane Votaries which to me seem very like to so many Combinational Churches in that every order have their particular statutes to the observation of which they tye all they take into their societies and upon the Vow and Covenant made they are admitted Only that in this they are a little more charitable than you are that they acknowledge such as are out of their fraternities for good Christians and Members of the Catholick Church But you judge those who are not of one or other of your Combinations to be Members of no Church And this is all you have gained by your Text of Jeremy I now come to that of the Prophet Ezekiel 20.37 where we thus read And I will cause you to passe under the rod and I will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant The full scope of this place is at ver 33. a promise made to the Jews that they should be gathered under the Gospel To this end God tells them that I will cause you to passe under the rod which whether it signifies a sharp affliction in which the Jews we know have had their share or else a trial by the rod as a Shepherd doth his flock as was used in decimation I cannot say if thls last then the sense is I will reject the bad and choose the good Jun. in loc Levit. 27.32 and will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant or as Junius reads it in exhibitionem foederis I will impart the Covenant of the Gospel unto you and all the blessings and promises of that Covenant as it is here amplifyed in the 45. ver Now let any man which is not swaid with prejudice judge whether any thing can be picked from hence that can countenance your assertion What is the Covenant that God hath made with his people in the Gospel of no longer extent than the Combinational Church Out of this Covenant I know none can be saved without your Combinational Covenant I know they may or else heaven before you rose would be very empty and the time since you rose being not long you have not sent many thither Monopolize not then thus the mercies of God to your selves and ingrosse not
the bounty of the Covenant to your own Churches lest you damn all the World besides I must tell you the Covenant of God with man will stand and be made good were there nere a Combinational Church in the world he can cause his people to passe under the rod and bring them into the Bond of the Covenant without conducting them through that new way of your Combinational Church This place then makes nothing at all for you and it is a plain fallacy to argue à genere ad speciem by which you collect that what is spoken in general of the Covenant must be understood of your Covenant just as if a man should collect est substantia ergo est corpus Your third place is out of Isa 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel As if all this could not be done but within the walls of your meeting houses As if none could surname himself an Israelite or subscribe with his hand Jehovae sum but he must enter your Combination Interpreters have not thus restrained these words I omit many of the Ancients and make choice of the Moderns not Junius not Piscator not Sculetus they unanimously teach that under the Gospel every one should subscribe and professe them sons and servants of God sons of the Church and Christians who are called the sons of Jacob and Abraham Rom. 4.11 12. 11.26 Gal. 3.29 6.16 and Scultetus so applies it Sic hodie omnes reformatae Ecclesiae mente confessione adjungimus nos Catholithae illâ— Ecclesiae piorum Jacobitarum Israelitarum ubi per orbem sint dispersi See then what injury you do the Reformed Churches Sculâ—et in loc and how far you are from their judgment They could be content to be joyned to the Catholick dispersed all the world over they thought that enough to make them Israelites you are more strait laced they must be no Israelites with you no parts of the Church except they be joined by a Covenant together in your Combination But remember in these words of the Prophet there is no mention at all of a Covenant and therefore it makes nothing at all to your purpose From the Old Testament you come to the New and the first place you bring is Acts 2.47 And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Till you have made these two propositions good that the Church here mentioned is the Combinational Church and that this Church was joined together in such a Covenant as you imagine I see not to what end you should produce it when that is done you shall receive my answer In the mean time I shal tell you what you might well have collected from hence that ordinarily there is no salvation to be had out of the Catholick Church therefore it is the mercy of God by the Ministry of the Word to adde daily to it such as shall be saved These conclusions are rightly drawn but to assert God added to the Church daily such as should be saved therefore they that will be saved must be Members of a Combinational Church therefore added by your Formal Covenant savours neither of Logique nor Charity Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Reply The farther I go still the weaker I finde your proofs and I heartily wish that you would not deceive those who are weak in the faith with such shews being those little birds that are over eager to peck at your painted grapes such you present here in colours laid over with your own Art for there was Art in it in figures to point me to the Chapter and Verse and not at full to cite the words as indeed you have done in all the rest which had you produced it would have at first amaz'd a Reader to finde out your Riddle or what was to be found in them there being no syllable of Church or Covenant that might be useful to you in this debate as it did me till at last I cast my eye upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive him for than I began to think that that might be it and that from it you would conclude that a man weak in the faith must be received into the Combinational Church but that methought could not well be it neither since the man about whom the precept is given is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a weak and sickly Christian whereas all those that you receive must be healthy strong Christians no Babes but Men all tryed and approved for regenerate persons Bayly pag. 134. such of whom every Member of the Church may be fully satisfyed in the truth of the grace that is in them Cottons way pag. 7. and the sutablenesse of their spirits with the Spirit of the Church All this considered I could not tell what to make of your allegation and I was once resolved to let it passe without any farther examination But being desirous to remove every scruple I thought it best fully to open the Apostles intent and meaning in this Chapter which being cleared the mist you brought over it would easily vanish Though the Apostle inscribes his Epistle to the Romans yet among them there were many natural Jews dispersed thither who could not be disswaded easily from the Mosaical abstinences but continued their obligation to the Law even after they had received the Christian Faith There were also among these some who were Proselytae portae who were bound to observe the seven Commandments of Noah but being not circumcised were not strictly bound to observe the Law of Moses Christians both these were in the positive part acknowledging so much as was required by the new Articles of the Creed c. yet in the negative part they were not they held the Judaical Law not to be evacuated and so weak and feeble some of these were in the faith that lest they should offend in eating forbidden flesh some would eat no flesh at all and came to eat nothing but herbs About these sick these weak Ver. 2. these scrupulous these tender-hearted and lesse-instructed Christians the Apostle gives these directions First that the stronger and healthier more orthodox and knowing do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assume and take them to them First friendly to afford them communion and not to separate from them for this errour next to labour to cure their malady get them out of their mistake Thirdly that they do not vilifie them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 3. set them at naught as if they were senslesse empty fellows Lastly that they be not over contentious and hot in disputations with them for though they erre yet they were not to be disquieted but to be informed and tolerated God hath received him ver 3. who then art