by which God makes a people his people whereas notes and testimonyes do not make that to be which is not but do shew and declare it to be already I do answer that as it is true that where God sends his word there â—e testifieth his love and is desirous that is in respect of the outward offer of the meanes to make such a people his Church so is it most vntrue that to whomsoever God sends his word and testifyes his desire outwardly to make them his people and Church that those he makes his Church and people or vnites himself visibly unto them The vniting of God vnto men is an effect of the word which it alwayes hath not vpon them to whom it is sent Externall efficients do never prove argue their effects necessarily except they work naturally and infallibly also which the worâ— doth not but morally and according to the good pleasure and blessing of the Lord vpon it It is as you truely say Mr B. the outstretched hand of the Lord in it self but it doth not vnite the Lord to any except he take hold of them with it it is in it self hat immortall seed but may fall vpon the very high way and so have no good effect at all eyther in truth or appearance the messengers of it are the Lords mouth vnto them to whom it is sent but all receive not this message to whom it comes some make light of it neglect it others do evilly entreat them that bring it hating reviling and persequuting both them and it Act. 13. 45. and 17. 18. Now will you say that God strikes hands with these men on his part enters covenant with them actually bycause his word is published amongst them The inward and invisible hand of the spirit must not onely be stretched out by the Lord but must seaze and take hold of the heart and be effectuall invisibly and internally before this invisible vnion be made on the Lords part so must the Lords outward and visible hand his word not onely be stretched out but also seaze and take hold of the outward man at the least and be effectuall visibly and externally vpon him before the Lord can be sayd on his part to haue contracted any visible vnion In the next place comes the visible hand of man by which he on his part câ—tracts with God enters covenant with him visibly that Mr B. makes the open profession of faith vnto the doctrine taught which such as make he sayth have visibly taken hold of the word strucâ—en hands with God You make much of nothing Mr B. or of that which is worse theÌ„ nothing Even now the profession of faith made the true matter of the Church and here it must make the true form of the Church and yet the truth is that in the forming of your nationall English Church by a new covenant from that wherein it stood in Popery which was by your own graunt with Saints and Angels in stead of God I adde with Antichrist in the stead of Christ no such profession of faith was made as your self here do both require and prove necessary for the forming of the visible Church or her vniting with God And that I manifest in two particulars The former is that the profession of faith required for a peoples vniting with the Lord their God must be made both freely and particularly by the persons themselves so vniting And this appeares both by that which you haue sayd of Gods giving or sending his word which is his visible outstretched hand by which he offereth reconcilation vnto men personally and so by consequent requires that they stretch out the hand of personall profession to him and also by the scriptures alledged by you all which do give witnes of such a confession of faith and sinnes as was freely made by the persons themselves particularly which were ioyned to the Church Let the reader take knowledg of these scriptures amongst the rest Mat. â— 6. Act. 2. 38. 1 Cor. 1â— 1. 2. the profession of faith noted in the scriptures by you produced was not made by men of lewd conversation or apparantly vnsanctified of whom alone and their vnion with God our question is but by men visibly and externally holy and such as all of them were visibly and so far as men in charity could judge iustified sanctified and intitled to the promises of salvation and life eternall The scriptures are besides the th 〈…〉 last named Math. 3. 6. Act. 2. 38. with which compare vers 3â— 41 47. 1 Cor. 15. 1. Mat. 10. 40. 41. 32. Act. 8. 12. 13. 37. 38. 1 Cor. 6. 1â— Col. 2. 11. 12. Tit. 3. 5. Who but you Mr Bernard would thus wrong eyther these scriptures as iustifying the admission of lewd persons desâ—rving to be excommunicated into the Ch or the Apostles of Christ for admitting or baptizing such And yet these persons are the true bad matter for which you pleaded so much formerly and which here by these scriptures you would bring into a true bad vnion with God For of these for the most part hath the nation alwayes consisted and of these your Ch was gathered at the first when it became national so hath stood formed ever since The 3. last thing for the perfecting of this visible covenant vnâ—ing of the meÌ„bers one to another M. B. makes the holy sacrameÌ„t of the L. supper which aâ— it is a seal of our faith so iâ— iâ— a testimony of that visible comâ—â—â—ioÌ„ of love also of one member with another 1 Cor. 10. 16. 17. You confound all things in saying the sacrament makes the covenaunt which is a seal of it and praesupposeth both the covenant and the Church whereof it is an ordinance The covenant must be before the Church and the Church before the sacrament how then can the sacrament make the Church And where you further call it an holy sacrament a seal of â—aith a testimony of the visible coÌ„munion of love of one member with another you speak the truth but not truly such it is in it self in the right administration use of it but not in the prophane abuse of it vpon wicked men of whom wee speak and for whom their vniting with Christ you here plead VpoÌ„ whom whilest you the rest of the ministers of your Church do prophane it as you do the more holy it is in it self the more vnholy is your fact the more heynous your sin It is as you say the seal of faith and of the forâ—ivenes of sinns through faith to the penitent beleevers but is it therefore so such to apparantly impenitent vnbeleeving persons it is in it self a testimony of the coÌ„munion of love but is it so vnto among the wicked or is it not in that abuse made a lying witnes to testifie witnes love where apparant hatred and malice reigns against God good
vnto them ever by how much the more superstitiously bent by so much the moâ—e devoutly addicted vnto them And so farre is that from truth which you say Mr Bernard that the godly and Church of God have in Popery kept possession of those buildings for the godly which should follow them that as they were erected by such as were most superstâ—tiously seduced so haue they been ever since the proper possesâ—ions of the most dangerous seducers in the Romish Synagogue the Praelates and their Clergy So that the morall equity of those commaundements in the old testiment touching the demolition and subversion of idolatrous temples and other the like superstitious monuments doth as well bynd now as then Which commaundements are also in effect renued in the new testament where the faythfull are charged to touch none vncleane thing to keep themselves from idols which they cannot do except they keep themselves from their appurtenaunces to hate even the garment spotted by the fâ—â—sh not to receive the least mark of the beast but to go out of Babylon which is also called Sodom and Aegypt spiritually as for other sinns reigning in her so for her idolatry amongst the rest which I the rather note that men may se it is not we but the holy Ghost that compares together Paganish AntichristiaÌ„ Idolatry Lastly where Mr Bernard bids vs prove that their Churches were built by Antichrist their records as Mr Ainsworth observeth vvill prove it so will their situation directly East and West with the Quyer or Chauncell alwayes at the East end and the rood-loft in the midle to separate it from the body of the Church the prophane layity their vacant places for Images abolished and their popish pictures still remayning and lastly their names even the names of the Apostles Saynts and Martyrs in whose honour they were built and to whose peculiar service thy were consecrated Thus much of the temples which is the last difference betwixt Mr B. and me and I confesse the least and this much also of his book Something remayns to be spoken of the Ministers Positions but very breifly both bycause the things in them for substance have come formerly into consideration and also bycause Mr Bernard affoards them no confirmation in his 2. book being shaken by Mr Ainsworth as they are ANd to omit the bloody doom which these Ministers passe vpon vs all contrary I am perswaded to their own consciences that wee are cut of from Christ for our separation from the Church of England I will consider breifly of their reasons to prove it a true Church THe first is bycause They enioy and ioyn together in the vse of those outward means which God in his word hath ordeyned for the gathering of an invisible Church which are preaching of the gospell and administration of the sacraments which they will prove by the vnfâ—yned conversion of many by the scriptures Math 28. 18. 20. Eph. 4. 11. 14. First the Church of Engl namely the nationall Church under a nationall government and Ministery is a popish devise the Lord having appointed none other Church vnder the new testament but a particular congregation as these Ministers truely vnderstand Mat 18. 17. with a government Ministery correspoÌ„dent 2. Before men joyne together as a Church in the fellowship of the gospell and communion of Saynts in the ordinances of God they should be prepared by the preaching of the word and fitted as spirituall stones for the Lords building so joyn in covenant by voluntary personal profession of faith confessioÌ„ of sinns from which how far the body of the nationall Church of Engl both is and ever hath been all know 3. As the sacraments are no meanes to gather eyther the visible or invisible Church but do praesuppose a CHVRCH gathered already into covenant with God of which covenaunt they are seales so doth not the Church of England ioyn together in the preaching of the doctrine of sayth which is the outward meanes for the gathering of the Church The greatest part of the parishes as they have onely the service book for prayer so have they onely the homilies for preaching And even in the Parishes where the word is best taught and the sacraments most orderly administred yet do not men joyn in the vse but in the abuse of these ordinances considering the confused coÌ„munion wherein the vsurped authority by which and the book-service according to which they are dispensed If the Ministers had onely affirmed that they had taught amoÌ„gst theÌ„ such truths of the gospel as by which the Lord might and did sanctifie save his elect or gather an invisible Church as they speak I should not contend with them but should further ad that I doubt not but such truthes are even in many assemblies of Papists and Anabaptists and to hold otherwise is a fowl cruell errour but where they speak of enioying the outward meanes and by them vnderstand the offices of Ministery which Christ hath given vnto his Church for the gathering and feeding of the same for which purpose they alledge Math. 28. 18. 20. Ephe. 4. 11. 14 I deny they enioy the outward means ordeyned for the gathering of the Ch neyther shall they ever be able to prove it except they can prove themselves lawfully and according to Christs testament possessed of some of the offices there spoken of In the 4. place I would the cause why these ministers speak of the outward meanes of gathering an invisible Church not of a visible since both the quaestion betwixt them and vs is about the visible and not about the invisible Church and also that the scriptures they bring for the justification of these meanes amongst them do speak of the meanes ministeries given not to the invisible but to the visible Church and if it be not bycause they know that if they had spoken of the means of gathering the visible Church we would and that justly have excepted that they do not enjoy nor have not so much as taught amongst them those doctrines of the gospell and that part of Christs Testament which teacheth the right orderly gathering of the visible Church by separation of the saynts from the vnsanctified world into the covenant and fellowship of the gospell by free and personall profession of fayth and confession of sinns Lastly as the preaching of the gospell is the onely outward means to gather a Church so though this meanes be vsed never so fully and men enioy it and ioyne in it never so ordinarily yet except withall they ioyne in the vnderstanding fayth obedience of and submission vnto it and that in the order which Christ hath set they are not made a Church by it according to the right vse of it but do make themselves by abusing it a conventicle of prophane vsurpers howsoever M. B. and these ministers and many others do indeed make the
describing the Church to be a company of faithfull people yet do the divine scriptures speak otherwise which I will clearly manifest and therein also free the Parable Math. 13. which you bring in for proofes from that violence which you and others offer them forcing Christ clean against his will to plead for Antichrist And with the scriptures I do affirme against you that the Church of Christ is no such mingled meslyne or monstrous compound but a body simple vniform one proportionable in every mēber vnto the head informed by one spirit and called in one hope Ephe. 4. 4. And for wicked and vngodly persons so farr are they from being the true naturall members whereof the body consisteth as the whol of the parts as they serve indeed for no other purpose then to infect and corrupt the rest and if redresse be not had in time to eat out the very hart of the whole But before I come to the point in controversy I will lay down two cautions for the preventing of errour in the simple of cavelling in such as desire to contend First it must be considered that where the quaestion is about the visible or externall Church which is by men discernable and not of that Church which is internall and invisible which onely the Lord knoweth we speak here of visible and externall holynes onely whereof men may judge and not of that which is within and hid from mans ey For we doubt not but the purest Ch vpō earth may consist of good and bad in Gods ey of such as are truely faythfull and sanctifyed of such as have onely for a tyme put on the outside and vizard of sanctity which the Lord will in due tyme pluck of though in the mean while mans dim sight cannot pearce through it 2. I desire it may be remēbred that the question betwixt Mr B. and me is about the true and naturall members whereof the Ch is orderly gathered and planted and not about the degenerate decayed estate of the Church members for we know that naturall children may become rebellious the faithful city an harlot the silver drosse and the wyne corrupt with water the noble vine so planted whose plants were all naturall may degenerate into the plantes of a strange vine But as it were fond Phylosophy in the description of wives and children and their true naturall properties to make rebellion a property of a child because many children prove rebels against their parents or to make whoredome a property of a wife because many wives prove vnfaithful that way so is it as prophane divinity to make vngodly persons the true matter of the Church their profanenes a true property of the same because many seeming saynts at the first do so creep in and do afterwards discover their owne shame are oft times through want of zeal too long tolerated in the Church to the dishonour of God prejudice of the gospel And so I come to manifest by an induction of particulars that all the visible Churches gathered and planted by the Lords line level frō the beginning of the world were in their collection cōstitution simple vniform and vnmixt consisting of good alone in the respect in hand And first the Lord created a Church of Angels in heaven which wer all good holy without mixture til some by sin fell frō their first and originall estate so leaving their own habitation were cast down to hel After that God created a Church of mankind in Paradise consisting of two persons both holy good And thus the Churches of creation were gathered of angels and men without mixture Now if any man object that in these instances I fetch my beginnings too farr of my answer is that the Lord had hath the same ends and respects in the creating restoring of his Ch which are his own glory their happines And if it were the will of the Lord that persons notoriously wicked should be admitted into the Ch then should he ditectly crosse himself his own ends should receive into the visible covenāt of grace such as wer out of the visible estate of grace should plant such in his Church for the glory of his name as served for none other vse then to cause his name to be blasphemed Hereupon I frame an Argument thus That order for the gathering of Ch which directly crosses the mayne ende◠for which the Lord would have his Church gathered is not of God But the order for which Mr B. pleads which is that apparantly prophane persons may with the godly be gathered into the visible Church crosses the Lords ends of gathering Churches and therefore is not of God The former proposition is without controversie the latter is thus manifested The mayne ends for which the Lord gathereth and preserveth his Church vpon earth are that he might have a peculiar people separated vnto himselfe from all other peoples to call vpon his name in faith and to glorify him theyr heavenly father in their holy conversation whom he also might glorify in the end of their fayth the salvation of theyr soules But for wicked vngodly persons in the Church as they serve no no way for these ends but the cōtrary causing Gods name to be blasphemed and his wrath to come vpon their disobedience so to gather or admit them into the Church is vtterly to frustrate Gods ends and to gather for Satan rather then for God To proceed In the restoring of mankind planting the first Ch in the covenant of grace established in the seed of the woman there were onely saynts without any such mixture as Mr B. makes Now as all true churches from the begining to the end of the world are one in nature and essentiall constitution and the first the rule of the rest so the first being gathered of good matter not bad declares both Mr B. Church and opinion to be bad and not good And when in processe of tyme Cain which was of the evill one bewrayed himself he as a degenerate branch was broken of driven out of the visible presence of God Gen 4. 14. it is further imputed by Moses for sin to the sonnes of God that they maryed with the daughters of men Now if it were still be unlawfull for the godly to contract with the wicked in the civil covenant of mariage how much more in the religious covenant of the Church communion of Saints To discend lower God gave vnto Abraham and his family the covenant of circumcision Gen. 17. 10. which the Apostle Rom. 4. 11. calls the seal of the righteousnes of faith Now to affirm that the Lord would seale vp with the visible seale of the righteousnes of faith any visibly unrighteous faythles person were a bould chalenge of the most High for the profanation of his owne ordinance And the same covenant which God at
is first to be noted how Mr B. affirmeth that none with them eyther truely fearing God oâ— making an apparent shew thereof falls into such notable crimes c. wherein he acknowledgeth that a great part of the Church of Engl neyther truly feares God not makes apparent shew of it How then are all of them saynts by calling and where is that profession of faith for which they are to be held true members of the Church And what detestable crimes the members of the Church of England fall into if there were none other testimony the very gallowes gibbets in every country declare sufficiently vpon which for treason witchcraft incest buggery rape murders and the like the members of that Church so living and dying do receive condigne punishmeÌ„t Where with vs if any such enormities arise as what temptations have befallen any we are subiect unto the same those monsters without their answerable repentance are by the power of Christ cut of from the body do for the most part returne to their proper element the English synagogue But what if all were true which Mr B. avoucheth what advantage hath he more against vs then the heathen Corinthians had against the Church there where such fornication was found as was not once named among the Gentiles Mr B. having thus handled as you see some particular and principall persons proceeds to set vpon the whole body in general as if with the accuser of the brethren he had obteyned liberty to strike the same from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot with the boyles and borches of reproch therefore writeth that If men be but inclinable to this way they iudge the Minister to have lost the power of his Ministery wherein the fault is in the alteration of their owne affections and if they be once entered into it they are then so bewitched as that where before they were humble and tractable they then become proud and wilfull where before they could with vnderstanding discern betwixt cause and cause they then lick vp all that comes from themselves as Oracles though never so absurd where before they could feel in themselves lively markes of the children of God so iudge of others they then are perswaded against former fayth to think that neyther themselves had nor others have any outward markes of the children of God Let the reader here observe in the first place that Mr B. accounts all them inclinable to this way which dislike comformity subscription in the Ministers for them onely D. Downame whose Epistle before his second sermon he quotes in the margent entendeth they only are the men which iudge the coÌ„firming Ministers to have lost the power of their Ministery And that their iudgmeÌ„t is most sound generally of such Ministers as having formerly refused ceremonyes subscription do afterward bow vnto the same all men of vnderstanding do discern To the chalenge of pryde and wilfulnes vpon them in this way though before they were humble and tractable I do answer that as true humility is ever commendable so is there also a sinful subiection and submission of mynd by which spirituall tyrants according to theyr fleshly wisdom in voluÌ„tary religion would rule over the coÌ„sciences of the simple of which the Apostle warneth vs Col. 2. 18. which superstitious humility or humble superstition if the servants of God begin to shake of to stand for that liberty so dearly bought by Christ and so highly commended by the Apostles of Christ then begin these imperious Maysters to rage thinking by reproches to compell them againe under that subiection in which by former delusions they could not conteyn them Thus dealt the bloody Bishops with the servants of God in Queen Maries dayes calling them proud wilfull conceyted what evill not and very well do the like accusations become Mr B. mouth in the like case Whether our opinions which we are charged by Mr B. to lick vp as Oracles be absurd or no will appeare in the discussing of them in the sequell of the book in the mean whyle this is most true and vndeniable that a great part of the splene vttered against vs in this invective grew from this very cause that sundry of his heaâ—ers would not lick vp whatsoever he powred out vnto them though bitter as gall as that Ministers were not brethren properly that the Church had some power to excommunicate because the Minister as the officials exequutioner might read the sentence that the Churchwardens were Elders the midwyves widdowes and many the like which to reckon vp is to confute sufficiently Lastly it is a great wrong which Mr B. offereth vs in affirming that if we be once in this fraternity as he scoffeth at our holy covenaÌ„t we then dislike our former graces and ar content to be perswaded against our former fayth and feeling in our selves of the lively markes of the children of God all because we were as a dear without the compasse of our Park as he speaketh We do with all thankfulnes to our God acknowledg and with much coÌ„fort remember those lively feelings of Gods love former graces wrought in vs that one special grace amoÌ„gst the rest by which we have been enabled to drawe ourselves into visible Covenant and holy communion Yea with such comfort and assurance do we call to mynde the Lords work of old this way in vs as we doubt not but our salvation was sealed vp vnto our consciences by most infallible marks and testimonyes which could not deceave before we conceaved the least thought of separation and so we hope it is with many others in the Church of Engl. yea and of Rome too And the more ample measure of grace and fullnes of assurance that any man hath receaved of the Lord the more carefully is he to endeavor in all good conscience the knowledge obedience of all and every one of the holy commaundements of God and not to satisfy himselfe in his present feelings thinking his salvation sure enough and so his obedience full enough for this were to serve God for wages as hypocrytes do but rather with the Apostle forgetting those things which are behynd and forcing to those things which are before let him follow hard to the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus And whatsoever Mr B. iudgeth of a deer without the Parke pale wherein he should be sure it is that he is none of Christs sheep visibly or in respect of men which is without Christs sheepfold For there is one sheepsould and one sheepheard The last coniecture gathered agaynst our cause is The ill successe it hath had these very many yeares being no more increased where the encreasings of God are great c. As it is alwayes safer to proceed by the causes reasons of things then by theyr events and successe so especially is this rule of vse in
had not excommunicated the incestuous person Bastingius in the 4. place quaestion 85. of his Catichism speaking of the difference between the two keyes that of preaching the other of discipline places it in this that the former which is of the preaching of the gospel is committed to the Ministers the other bycause it perteyns to the discipline of excommunication is permitted to the whole Church Lastly even Beza himself how streyt soever he be to the multitude in this case hardly graunting them the liberty which Mr B. yea which the very Iesuits do namely that they were with the Elders gathered together in the name of the Lord Iesus 1 Cor. 5. 4. yea do playnely deny it in his Annotations vpon 2 Cor. 2. 6. Yet vpon v. â— he is constreyned to affirm that Paul intreats that the incestuous person might by the publique consent of the Church be declared a brother as he was by the Churches publique consent cast out Now to these speciall lights in the reformed Churches abroad I will annex a few of the cheif endeavours of reformation at home The first of them is Mr Hooper who in his Apology writes that excoÌ„municatioÌ„ should be by the Bishop the whole Parish that Pauls consent the whole Church with him did excoÌ„municate the incestuous man To him adde Mr Fox whose judgement in the book of Martyrs pag. 5. 6. 7. is and so is inforced by him that writ the discovery of D. Banâ—r ofts vntruthes and slaunders against reformation that every visible Church or congregation hath the power of binding and loosing annexed to it If it be sayd the Church hath it if the Officers have it I see not but it may be as well sayd the Church hath the scriptures in a known tongue if the Officers so enjoy them Thirdly Mr Cartwright in his reply to D. Whitgifts answer pag. 147 both affirms and proves that Paul both vnderstanding and observing the rule of our Saviour Christ communicates this power of excommunication with the Church Him also an other writing A demonstration of discipline alledgeth adding further that they which were met togither 1 Cor. 5. 4. 5. were to excommunicate the incestuous person with whom also consorteth he that wrote of the certayn form of ecclesiasticall governmentâ— who vnder that head of the authority of the Ministers of the word that by the Church Math. 18. Christ meanes a particular Congregation the Pastor Elders people consenting making that the iudgement of the particular congregation which is spoken of 1 Cor. 5. 12. In the 4. place Mr Iacob in his book to the King for reformation pag. 28. pleads for the peoples consent and voyce-giving in elections excommunications to whom I ioyn them that made the Christian offer to iustify against the Bishops and their adhaerents that every ordinary assembly of the faithfull hath by Christs ordinance power in it self immediately vnder Christ to elect and ordeyn deprive and depose their Ministers and to exequute all other ecclesiasticall censures Proposition 5. Prop. 8 that the officers can do no materiall ecclesiasticall act without the free consent of the Congregation Lastly the godly Ministers in the end of Mr Bernards book do directly judge against him interpreting the Church Math. 18. to be a particular Congregation and excommunication the iudgement censure of that particular congregation whereof the offender is a member Thus have I been constreyned by the bold boasting and facing which this man vseth of and with the iudgement of all reformed Churchâ—â— to set downe the judgements of some few amongst many both at home and abroad for his conviction though I desire the touchstone of the holy scriptures alone may try all differences betwixt him and me I now return to Mr Bernard where I left him so come to two reasons he annexeth pag. 98. 99. to prove the officers to be called the Church the former is because it is an vsuall speach to put the name of the whole vpon the part and this to be taken for the whole The 2. bycause a company is no where called a Church in the new testament but where they have officers The latter of these I have formerly confuted as the reader may see pag. 126. 127. c. Onely I adde one thing vpon occasion of these words a Church in the new testament that as there is but one body or Church and we vnder the new testament that one or the same body or Church with the Iewes in the old so if the Ministery made the Church how much more if it were the Church could it not be that the Iewes and we should be one Church for I shall never be brought to beleeve nor I think will any man affirm it that the Ministery of an Apostle or Elder now is the same in nature with the Ministery of a sacrificing Levite vnder the law Wee are by faith sonnes and daughters of Abraham and partaker of the covenant and promises and by fayth grafted in their holy root and in this stands our onenes with them but neyther in the Ministery nor in the government nor in any other ordinance which are but manners of dispensing that covenant and those divers changeable where the covenant is nothing lesse And for the former of your reasons howsoever the place you bring Act. 15. 3. proves no such matter yet is the thing true you say namely that a part of the Church is sometimes called by the name of the whole but what part not the officers but the brethren the saynts as being the matter an essentiall cause of the Church the Elders not so as being but for the assistance and well being of it And so the Church gives both being and denomination to the Elders but not the Elders to the Church which is never called the Church of the Elders as they are called the Elders of the Church and so are of it and not it of them That which you adde of inconveniences and discommodities following vpon your doctrine not to be regarded is frivolous except by them you mean absurdities and inconsequences â—a alâ—gâ— in theologia as they call them and then they are to be regarded as never necessarily following vpon any truth for the truth brings forth no errour by true consequence The sixth Reason of the superiour order followeth for Mr B. hath his reasons and his vnder reasons which is In it self the multitude being ever vnconstant it is instability vnorderlynesse where every one is a like equall it is the nourse of confusion the mother of schisme the breeder of contention These very same things have been formerly objected by you in the fourth part of your 5. argument and there cleared The truth is the drawing of all power into the officers hands breeds in them pride and arrogancy and in the people ignorance and security And for your contemptuous vpbrayding of Gods people in this book with inconstancy
person is Mr Nichols who in his Plea of the innocent expresly affirms that conferring with the particular persons in his parish after he had preached some good space amongst them about the meanes of salvation of 400 coÌ„municants he scarce found one but that thought and professed a man might be saved by his own wâ—ll doing and thaâ— he trusted he did so love that by Gods grace he should obteyn everlasting lâ—se by serving God and good prayers Now how do these agree together Mr B sayth that all professe salvation by Christ onely and alone Mr Nichols on the coÌ„trary affirms out of his own experience that not one of 400 so thinks and professes And if he and all the ministers in England should deny it we out selves by our own experience know what the fayth and perswasion of the multitude in most places is Now for your further reasoning that bycause a Bishop or two published this and some other mayn truthes vnto the world with the approbation of the Parliament and Convocation house and that some preachers here there do so teach therefore all the land so professeth where many thowsands do not so much as vnderstaÌ„d it what can be imagined more vayn Can men professe the truth they know noâ— What is this but the Papists implicit faith when men beleiv as the Church beleiveth though they know not what it is yea and worse then it also for as we see and know infinite multitudes beleive and vpon occasion professe the contrary But most vayn of all is it to affirm that bycause a few godly martyrs have sealed vp this the like truthes with their blood that therefore they that murdered them professe the same truth are true ChristiaÌ„s without any other change wrought in them for the most part then by the Magistrates sword and authority You affirm by way of answer pag. 249. of your second book that the Magistrates compulsion vnto goodnes is no hurt vnto it neyther makes men vnholy or lesse good if they have goodnes in them As it is not simply true you affirm that the compulsion of men to the faith doth not hurt it for if the causing the truth to be blasphemed be to hurt it then the coÌ„pelling of apparant wicked persoÌ„s to professe the same hurts it as it doth both them and the Church whereof they are so if the body of the land in the beginning of the Queens reign were good and holy at all the magistrates compulsion wrought it in men made them of persequuting Idolaters true Christians for other meanâ—â— intervening or coÌ„ming betwixt their professioÌ„ of the masse of the gospell had they none saving the Magistrates authority But here I am by necessity and in respect of the present matter in hand drawn into Mr B. 2. book and a great benefit were it to me if there I might find him though in both vnfound yet one and the same But a great trouble it is to walk with a drunken man and to be bound to follow him in all his vagaâ—ies so is it to deal with an adversary light headed dizzy with wrath vanity and errour whom a man must follow in all his staggerings and reelings to and fro and in all the forwards and backwards that he makes oft times going and vngoing again the same by-pathes There is no one thing wherevpon Mr B labours more in his former book and for which he brings more reasons and scriptures and those often repeated then to prove the Church of EnglaÌ„d or rather such particular Churches as have the word preached in them to be truely gathered after the suppressing of Popery and by the order of the Apostolick Churches both in respect of separation from Idolatours and Antichristian Papists pag. 108 as also by profession of the mayn truth and sum of the Gospell wherein they differed from Iewes Turks and Pagans as no matter and also from Papists as false matter of the Church pag 111. 112. 113. 116. And therefore having proved by a multitude of scriptures that the Apostolick Churches were gathered by free profession of fayth he concludes thus of them and of his own Church such as make this profession are true matter and so are wee for we all professe this fayth c. But now as though he had eyther forgotten what he wrote before or cared not how he crossed himselfe so he might oppose vs against whom he hath vowed such vtter emnity he suckes in his former breath and eats the words he had formerly vttered peremptorily affirming in his 2. book that in the reformation of a Church after Popery there is not required any such profession nor yet the word of God to go before their reformation but that the feare of the Magistrates sword is sufficient to recover them and to setle the people in order to the worship of God The ground vpon which he builds this his new and crosse opinion is the practise of Asa Ezechias Iosias and Nehemiah godly Kings and Princes of Iudah in the reformation of that Church after her Apostacy in the dayes of vngodly Idolatrous Kings therevpon taking it for graunted that the catholique visible Ch of Rome as it is called now is and that the national Church of England in Queen Maries dayes and before when Popery reigned was in the same estate with Iudah in her apostacy he concludes thence that as the Magistrates then without any voluntary profession did by force bring the people of the Iewes back from Idolatry to the true service of God so might King Edward and Queen Elizabeth by force bring back the people of England into covenant with God to be his true Church without any such profession of fayth as in the first planting of Churches is required We will then consider of this poynt at large as being both weighty in it self and having many others depending vpon it That Iudah was at the first and so continued by vertue of the Lords Covenant with her forefathers on his part faythfully remembred and kept though by her oft tymes broken the true Church of God and holy in the root till she was broken of for vnbeleif after the death resurrection and ascension of Christ fully published and confirmed by the Apostles I graunt with him but the same or the like things of the Church of Rome or of England in the respects layd down may I not acknowledg That there was at Rome a true Church beloved of God called saynts by giving obedience vnto the fayth is apparant but that eyther the city or Church of Rome consisting of many cities and countryes was ever within the Lords covenant and holy in the root as Iudah was may I neyther acknowledg neyther can he possibly prove So for England I wil not deny but there were at the first true Churches planted in it by the preaching of the gospell and obedience of fayth and these as the other Churches in every nation though in
dishonour of God profanation of his ordinances You speak much of the reformation of your Church after Popery There was indeed a great reformation of things in your Church but very little of the Church to speak truely and properly The people as I haue sayd are the Church and to make a reformed Church there must be first a reformed people and so there should haue been with you by the preaching of repentance from dead works and faith in Christ that the people as the Lord should haue vouchsafed grace being first fitted for made capable of the sacraments and other ordinances might afterwards have communicated in the pure vse of them for want of which in stead of a pure vse there hath been and is at this day a most prophane abuse of them to the great dishonour of Christ and his gospell and to the hardening of thowsands in their impenitencie Others also indeavouring yet a further reformation have sued and do sue to Kings and Queens and Parliaments for the rooting out of the Prelacy and with it of such other evill fruits as grow from that bitter root and on the contrary to have the Ministery government and discipline of Christ set over the Parishes as they stand the first fruit of which reformation if it were obteyned would be the further profanation of the more of Gods ordinances vpon such as to whom they apperteyned not and so the further provocation of his great Majesty vnto anger and indignation against all such as so practised or consented therevnto Is it not strange that men in the reforming of a Church should almost or altogether forget the Church which is the people or that they should labor to crown Christ a King over a people whose Prophet he hath not first been or to set him to rule by his lawâ—s officers over the professed subjects of Antichrist the Divel or is it possible that ever they should submit to the discipline of Christ which have not first been prepared in some measure by his holy doctrine taught with meekâ—es to stoop vnto his yoke Both you Mr B they of the other sort do tel vs oft of the reformed Churches and of your agreement with them I wish to God from my very hart that both you and they would compare your selves with them in this principall point vnto which all other are but as accessaries They after the abolition of Popery were established at the first whether by a new plantation new wee mean in respect of the present estate of Rome or by reformation onely as you will haue it and are still continued and increased by the free voluntary and personall profession of faith and confession of sinnes of such men and women as are by the word of God and the publishing of it perswaded and in some measure fore-fitted to joyn vnto them and walk with them and all this without any compulsion with the fear of Iosiahs sword or Hezechiahs proclamation by which you confesse your Church to have been in the persons of King Edward Queen Elizabeth brought back from Antichrist to the reformation wherin now you staÌ„d for which you peremptorily professe there is not required any profession of the name of Christ. Let it then be considered of and judged by all indifferent men how it can possibly be that both the reformed Churches abroad and the vnreformed Church of England can be truely gathered after the apostasie of Antichrist the former being separated from Popety into covenant with the Lord in the particular members by voluntary profession of faith without compulsion and the latter by compulsion without profession of faith Howsoever government freedom or voluntarynes be not contrary according to your most ignorant affirmation yet compulsion and voluntarines are and contraries cannot stand together and be made true no not by God himself My hope was that the argument of compulsion once ended I might with good leave have returned to the former book but see after so many provings and professings of Rome a true Church still in covenant with God that the Churches now separating from her were not to be gathered of such voluntaries as in the first plantation nor needed the preaching of the word to go before for their conversioÌ„ but that the Magistrate might compel them by fear and that so the reformation of the Church of England was wrought Mr B. now tels vs a cleane contrary tale and that their reformation was voluntary and not constreyned and how that came about First to let passe the succession of the Church he pleads from King Etheldred King of Kent of which I haue spoken so lately as the reader may bear mine answer in mind that the Queens Maiesty with many others began a voluntary reformation and that the supream power as he calls it being gathered made proclamatioÌ„ of her godly intent which was a kind of teaching to which the people yeelded voluntarily for any thing that any man can say to the contrary and pag. 245. adioyned themselves vnto them and that the act of the cheif doing it voluntarily is to be accounted the act of all though the inferiours come not to consent for proof of which he quoteth three scriptures Ex. 19. 3. 7. 8. Iosh. 4. 2. 8. 2 Chr. 14. 2. A solide proof bycause the Queen did voluntarily imbrace the truth in a measure therfore the whole body of the land whom she vrged by proclamation and other inforcements did voluntarily professe and imbrace the same For touching the supream power gathered that is the Counsell Nobles when she came to the crown they were such as had imediately before both enacted and exequuted most bloody statutes against such as voluntarily professed the truth and where you and the Ministers with you pag. 187. affirm that the body of the land did in Queen Elizabeths tyme adioyn themselves vnto that company which had stood out in Queen Maries dayes it is clean otherwise for they that so stood out adioyned themselves to the rest in the severall Parishes where their houses stood and occasions lay vnder the formerly masse-preists then for the most part ignorant and prophane preists with their English reformed masse-book In adding further that the Queens proclamation was a kind of teaching you trifle notably the quaestion is of such a teaching as was effectuall to make a whole nation of Antichristians the week before true Christians and a true Church It was in deed the onely effectuall means the people had generally and if the Queen had proclaymed the contrary the next week it would haue been as effectual to haue turned them to their former vomit again Your presumption that no man can say to the contrary but that the people yeelded voluntarily to the truth vpon the Queens proclamation is vayn considering what the voluntary yeeling or submission vnto the Gospel of Christ is which the scriptures commend vnto vs in the establishing of Churches The gospel
heaven do yet see the wounds and blood of Christ that a sinner need not confesse his life bycause God knowes all things that he needs not repeat what he would have bycause God knowes it before he askes that the scripture declares there was no drop of blood in Christ which he shed not for sinners that the spirit of Christ did after his buriall descend into the lower parts to them that long were in darknes the true light of their hearts that the sun in the firmament the heavens the earth the sea and all therein yea the spirits beneath were made for man to rule them But these things I passe over and come to Mr B second row of errours imputed to vs which he judgeth sufficiently confuted in the former as also to be so absurd and false as that the reading of them is sufficient to make them to be reiected The first of them is that their congregations as they stand are all and every one of them vncapable before God to chuse them Ministers though they desire the meanes of salvation First let it here be noted that Mr B in this same book pag 136 compared with pag. 138. makes it a rule for the Churches making a Minister which must be kept and from which she may not â—werve that the guides and governours of the Church do choose one from amongst others for the Ministery If the guides and governours must choose how then apperteyns this to your congregations or how are they capable of this liberty 2. If they be capable of this liberty why do they not vse it There is no congregation in the Land which as a Church chooseth their Minister the Patron and Bishop have seazed this liberty at their courtesie doth the congregation stand to receive eyther a preacher or dumb preist eyther a man of some conscience or without all â—oar of God or coÌ„mon honesty whom they may not refuse And if some parishes choose it is not as Churches but as Patrons They have purchased the right of patronage with their money and so vse it But what is this to that spirituall liberty and charter of Christs spirituall kingdome the Church 3. I deny that any congregation in the Land desires the means of salvation I speak of the congregation which is the whole consisting of the parts joyntly considered The best parish hath too many in it that love darknes rather then light because their deeds are evill This you find true in your own Mr B. which you deem one of the best And what right hath such an assembly to chuse a Minister which hath no right to his ministrations of the sacraments other holy things Because the Lord Iesus hath given his power and charter to his subjects for the choise of their officers whether many or few doth it therefore follow that the subjects of sinne Satan professed traytours vnto his Majesty have the same liberty or can his subjects combine with them that are and allwayes have been such in the vse or rather in the vsurpation of that divine priviledge These things Mr B you extenuate bycause you want them but the Churches of Christ accounts them pretious things which they therefore labour to preserve pure Of your false worship something hath been before more shal be hereafter spoken and you do idely make it a distinct errour from the tenth That baptism is not administred into the fayth of Christ simply but into the fayth of Bishops Church of England which you make our 3. errour do we not affirm but leave it to him for justification which not content with that in England received hath found out since a 2. or 3. as he supposeth better then that was ¶ Wee are to consider baptism first and principally in relation from GOD to vs and as a seal of the covenant of grace into which he hath received vs and secondarily in relation from vs to God as we restipulate or promise agayn vnto him In the first respect it is effectuall vpon the very infants of the faithfull though for the present wanting fayth in the 2. both may be is vpon such as erre in many great poynts of fayth otherwise the baptism ministred by Iohn into the fayth of Christ which came after him could not have been true vnto many which received it being ignorant a long tyme after of the very kingdoÌ„ office of Christ. To conclude then since the essential form of institution is reteyned in the baptism in Engl the doctrine of the Trinity sincerely held into whose name all persons are baptized indefinitely the particular errours in that Church touching the manner of worshiping God or touching the vses or ends of baptism which are not of the essence cannot make the baptism in it self cease to be indefinite Of the 4. Errour imputed vnto vs namely that we hould your fayth and repentance false I say as of the third and doubt not but the personall fayth and repentance of very many men and women there according to the measure of knowledge and grace received is true and sincere before God yea and so visibly declared and manifested to be before men in respect of their persoÌ„s notwithstanding all the evilles in their Church Communion and ordinances Your 5. exception viz that your ministers convert men not as Pastours but as teachers is neyther our errour nor assertion but your owne misconstruction This we hould that the conversion of men with you is no way to be ascribed to your office which it justifieth not but to the truthes of God taught amoÌ„gst you by the special blessing of God vpon them notwithstanding the other evills wherewith they are mingled inseparably amongst you To your demand what idoll you worship bycause we affirm your Church to stand in an adulterous estate I do answer that you may stand in an adulterous estate though you worship the true God onely if you do it after a devised maner as in deed you do in your government ministery service-book and ceremonyes which being all properly matters of religion and not commanded by the Lord are devises of your own against the 2. commaundement which forbids nothing but idolatry Your 7. insimulation against vs is that wee cannot say certeynly by any warrant of Gods word that any of you have eyther fayth or feare of God Wherein you consure vs as having lost the feeling of former grace and all true charity Mr Smyth in his Parallels shewes your fraud evil dealing with him in this case whom you name in your margent And I further adde that I do not onely in the generall beleeve there are many such but am so perswaded in the particular of many I know Yet so to say certainly of any of you I caÌ„not nor of our selves neyther by the word of God A man can say this onely of himself certaynly bycause he onely knowes his
of God and ordinances of Christ is injurious both to the growth and sincerity of the obedience of Gods people For whereas they ought to be led forward vnto perfection this teacheth them to stay in the foundation as if it were sufficient for the building of the house that the foundation were layd secondly it insinuates that it is sufficient if men so serue God as they can obteyn salvation though with disobedieÌ„ce of a great part of the revealed wil of God occasioning them thereby to serve him onely or chiefly for wages as hypocrites do As if a child should be taught so far to honour and please his father as he might get his inheritance but not much to trouble himself about giving or doing him any further honour or service Secondly I do answer that this truth which the ministers make t 〈…〉 onely fundament truth in religion is held and professed by as vile haeretiques as ever were since Christ came in the flesh May not a coÌ„pany of excoÌ„municates hold teach and defend this truth and yet are they not a true Church of God 3. I deny that the whole Church of England hath received and doth hold and professe this fundamentall truth how boldly soever these ministers affirme it They graunt there are many Atheists in the land they might say in the Church for Atheists are and ever wil be of the Kings states religion many ignorant and wicked men besides who make not so clear and holy a profession of the true fayth as they should And do these Atheists hold and professe the true fayth and every article of Gods holy truth which is fundamentall Are there not many thowsands in the nationall Church ignorant of the very first rudiments foundations of religion as the Apostle noteth them down and can they hold and professe that whereof they are ignorant Yea how can any wicked men hold that CHRIST is their saviour but they hold an apparantly in the eyes of all men for which notwithstanding these Ministers wil have them reputed true members of Christs body I ad that since the body of that Church or nation consists of mere naturall men and that naturall men are Papists in the case of justification and look to be saved by their good meaning and well doings it is most vntruly affirmed by those ministers that their Church accounts none her members but such as professe salvation by Christ onely They hold otherwise and so professe if an account of their fayth be demaunded as I have shewed by the testimony of Mr. Nichols and could do by the testimony of others if all men did not see it too evidently And yet see what these men affirme and that confidently and without fear for their advantage as that their whole Church makes profession of the true fayth that it holds and maintayns every article fundamentall of Gods holy truth and particularly that Iesus Christ the sonne of God and lastly that they that receive this truth are the people of God and in the state of salvatioÌ„ Whervpon it must follow that their whole nationall Church is in the state of salvation And surely so had it need be in the judgment of men having the promises and seales of the covenant of salvation applyed and ministered vnto it and to every member of it Lastly though the whole Church of England and every member in it did personally professe the true fayth in holines as all the true members of the Church do which are therefore called both saynts and faythfull and that we had do just exception agaynst that prophane and implicite profession for which both Mr. Ber. and the ministers plead yet could nor this make it or them a true Church The bare profession of fayth makes not a true Church except the persons so professing be vnited in the Covenant and fellowship of the gospel into particular congregations having the entyre power of Christ within themselves As hewed stones are fit for an house but not an howse nor any part of it till they be orderly layd and couched together so are men professing fayth and holines fit for the Church but not a Church nor of it before their orderly combination into a particular assembly having in it the power of Christ for the ministery government censures and other ordinances A company of excoÌ„municates put out of the Churches order may professe the same fayth they did formerly so may a sect of schismatiques putting themselves causelesly out of the Churches order so may many particular persons never ioyning themselveâ— vnto any Church at all You your selves define a Church to be a company of faythfull people c. so is not your nationall Church but many companyes not distinct and entyre in themselves and so onely one in nature as all the true Churches of God are but one by monstrous composition in a praeposterous and absurd imitation of the Iewish nationall Church and government Thus much of the Arguments in the handling of which the ministers insinuate agaynst Mr. Barrow sundry vnjust accusations which I will breifly cleare As first that he will account none members of the visible Ch but such as are truly faythful not onely in outward profession and appearance but even in the Lords ey and judgement bycause a Church is described a company of faythfull people that truly worship God and readily obey him But wherefore should the ministers thus interpret him doth he not speak of the visible or externall Church and so by consequence of visible and externall fayth and obedience which are seen of men In their Articles of religion a Church is made a company of faythful people if they must not be truely faythfull then they must be falsâ—ly faythfull And for true worship and ready obedience the Lord requires them in his word according to which we must defyne Churches and not according to casuall corruptions and aberrations brought in by mans fault 2. They charge Mr. Barrow to hold that every member of our assemblyes is led by the spirit into all truth and that it is evident he would have none to be accounted the people and Church of God who eyther know not or professe not every truth conteyned in the scriptures bycause he af firms in his Discovery that to the people of God and every one of them God hath given his holy sanctifying spirit to open vnto them and to lead theÌ„ into all truth It followes not that bycause he affirmes they have received the spirit to lead them into all truth that he therefore affirmes they are led into all truth by the spirit May not the Papists as truly avouch that Paull teacheth that the Church is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing bycause he teacheth that Christ hath given himself for it that he might make it vnto himself a glorious Ch without spot or wrinckle or any such thing It is then an il collectioÌ„
professe the gospel of and vnto which they were apparantly and notoriously ignorant and disobedient as they were They knew what they were to look for and so being for the most part of no religiō they set themselves to conform as the tymes were to that which they discerned the Queen to be of And for the Preachers and Cōmissioners which were sent before this set day for the catholik fayth of all the Queens subjects as I think it was well so was it not sufficient to make the whole land or to prepare them to be a true Church besides that the people were of the Church all this while the same nationall provinciall diocesan and parochiall Church Churches consisting of the same persons generally still continuing vnder the same government ministery in the same will-worship though in a measure reformed as before in Queen Maryes dayes Now for the Preachers you name as Mr Knoxe Lever c. which exercised their Ministery in some of the best reformed Churches during Q. Maryes reign as the good they did to some few in comparison by the truthes they taught could not make all the Queens subjects a true nationall Church so do we all know how hardly they were suffered in the begīning of the Queens reign that contrary to the publick Church-government ministery as also that neyther they nor any others could or can be admitted to any Church by any ministery received in the reformed Churches but onely by the ordination of a popish Praelate whether English or Romish it matters not by which also it is apparant to all men vpon what string the English ministery hangeth Lastly where these men say that many are dayly added to the Church by the ministery of the word preached I marvayl how this can be and from whence they are added Addition is a motion and in every motion there must be the terms or bounds from and to which it is made All they to whom they preach are of the Church already for recusant Papists come not to their Church and besides the number of them encreaseth dayly It seemes then they are added from the Church to the same Church Bycause this practise of adding men to the Church by the preaching of the gospell was in vse in the primative Churches and this phrase vsed in the scriptures therefore these ministers think they may abuse the phrase without the thing and so feed their simple readers with words of the winde Of the ministers 4 exceptiō viz of the vniting of the Queens subiects vnto those professours whose fellowship in popery they had forsaken and of the course taken for that purpose by the example of the godly Kings of Iudah I have formerly spoken of the former part even now and of the latter els where declaring 1. first that the English nation and all the people of the kingdom never was admitted into the LORDS covenant by the rules of the new testament to become a nationall CHURCH vnder nationall government as was IUDAH and all the people in it vnder the old If this can be proved I acknowledge my self in many great errours if not it is vanity and errour thus to instance in IVDAH and indeed to revive Iudaism and the old testament 2. That though England had been somtimes a true nationall Church as was Iudah yet that it did not so remayn in the deep Apostacy of Antichrist but was divorced in Rome her mother whereas Iudah on the other side into what transgression soever she sell was never divorced by the Lord but still remayned his though vnfaythfull wife the L. ever anon stirring vp some extraordinary instrument or other for her reformation the renovation of her covenant with which also the Lord so effectually wrought as the things are wonderfull which are written of all the people and such as never shal be found in any whole kingdom to the worlds end 3. That the reformation by King Edward and Queen Elizabeth though great in it self and they in it vnder GOD greatly to he honoured was nothing comparable to that which was made in Iudah by Iehosaphat Iosiah Asa Ezechiah and Nehemiah These poynts I have proved at large else where and do refer the reader thither for answer onely I will note some particular oversights of the ministers in this fourth exception as first where they say they have proved there was a true Church in the land before Queen Elizabeths reign they should have proved that the Land was a true Church for so was Iudah 2. Where they say that the noble men were sent by Iehosaphat onely to accompany assist the Levites to countenance their ministery where the scriptures affirme they were sent even to teach You will have no teaching but by Church officers therfore you so put the scripture of 3. That they say Iosiah compelled his subiects to the service of the true God taking compulsion as they do where it is evident the people did it freely though I acknowledge he made compulsive lawes 4 Speaking of the authority of magistrates over their subjects they bring in Ezechias proclamatiō as they call it sent to Israell wheras the ten tribes were not his subiects nor he their King And lastly that the Ismaelites were separated from the Church of God therein acknowledging that IVDAH was alwayes the true Church of God which I suppose they will not say of Engl alwayes or of Rome if they do it is their sin to separate from the true Church The fifth and last exception of the ministers is that Mr BARROVV Mr GREENVVOOD required that the people in the begīning of the Queens reign should by solemn oth covenant have renounced Idolatry have professed fayth obedience to the gospel after the example of Asaes reformation To which their answer is first that such a covenāting by oath is not absolutely necessary as appeares in Iehosaphats Iosiahs reformation 2. That the people was before that oath covenāt Gods true Church which their people also may be 3. That sundry congregations as in Coventry and Northampton did publiquely professe repentance for their Idolatry and promised to obey the truth established 4. They doubt not to affirm that the whole land in the first Parliament did enter a solemn covenant with the Lord for renouncing of Popery and receiving the gospell That Mr Barr. and Green should requyre that the covenant into which the Church entereth should be by oth necessarily is more then I know or then we practise But that they required that the people that is the whole nation should so have passed a solemn oth and covenant I know is most vntrue All men know they thought the ignorant prophane popish multitude vncapable of the Lords covenant and the seales of it to have requyred of them an oth for such a purpose had been to have requyred of them the taking of Gods name in vayn Where it is sayd in the 2. place
that the people of Iudah were Gods true Church before the tyme of that oth and Covenant it is true and agaynst you And I would demaund of you whether your people were Gods true Church when Popery reigned Your answer is so may our people bee You dare not say they were for then you should acknowledge the Romish Synagogue the true Church of GOD and that you had sinfully schismed from it as Mr Bern. proves agaynst you and himselfe you will not say they were not for that would make against you in the poynt in hand and would manifest as in deed it doth that the course taken with Iudah being the true Church for her reformation cannot agree with Rome or Engl as a member of the Romish Church for her reformation To that which is added in the 3. place of Coventry Northampton and some other congregations my reply is first that this is not likely to have been the deed of the congregations but of some two or three forward ministers a few of the people it may be approving of it which their successours were as like to reverse 2. They did not repent of their publique idolatry nor purpose to obey the truth in sincerity of their prophane mixture Romish hierarchy and ministery popish leyturgy and constitutions according to which all things are administred amongst them they repented not and besides they knew right well many truthes which they purposed not to imbrace 3. graunt it were as they pretend with these few parishes what must be sayd of the rest which did not so practise with whom they make and alwayes have done one entyre nationall Church or what is this to the publique and formall state of the Church of England agaynst which we deale The truth is these men thus practising were reputed and truely schismatiques in the formall constitution of the Church and by which this their dealing hath no warrant at all If we should object vnto you the Papists doctrines and practises of two or three ministers amongst you not warrantable by law you would not admit of our exception agaynst the formall established estate of your Church so neyther may we admit of yours for the practise of two or three disliking the present state of things and seeking for reformation of them Lastly wee see indeed that those Ministers doubt not to affirme that the whole land Papists and Atheists and all did in the first Parliament of the Queen enter a solemn covenant for renouncing of Popery and receiving the gospel but we would see first how all these swarmes of wicked Atheists and most flagitious persons were by the revealed will of God capable of the covenant of the new testament and the seales and other rites and priviledges of it Otherwise this haling them into covenant with the Lord agaynst his expresse will was a prophane presumptuous enterprise in it self though I doubt not arising from a godly intent in the Queen her cheif connsellers being mislead by them whom they too much trusted 2. We would see what warrant there is in the new testament for this nationall covenant or that all the people in a Land since the Land of Canaan was prophaned should unite into a nationall Church vnder a nationall government and ministery 3. That which wee answered in the 2. place to the former branch of this exception must here agayn be remembred 4. this vndoubted affirmation of the ministers touching the whole lands covenanting in the Parliament first inferreth that the enacting of civil lawes and penall statutes by Kings and States doth gather CHVRCHES for none other covenant was there in the Parliament 2. It confirmeth the popish doctrine of implicite fayth that men may receive and professe a fayth whereof they are ignorant yea which they dislike and hate so farre as they know it for so was it with the body of your nation the greatest part by farr being mere naturall men and so not knowing the gospel yea evil doers which hate the light Our 2. objection touching the outward worship wherein the Ch of England communicateth comes now to be enforced In the clearing of which the Ministers do to speak on insist onely vpon their stinted set formes of prayer for the justification of which they bring sundry scriptures as Numb 6. 2. 3. 24. Deut. 26. 3. 15. Psal. 22. 1. 92. Luk. 11. 2. Now for our more orderly proceeding I will reduce the things they say to three generall heads vnder which I will consider of the particulars shewing how in all and every of them they are mistaken First in that they do confound and make all one ordinance Blessings Psalmes and Prayers 2. In misinterpreting the scriptures they bring to prove a set and stinted form of words to be imposed in prayer 3. In concluding as they do that if Moses and Christ might appoynt and impose a certayn form of words to be vsed for prayer that then the Bishops in England or others may vse the same power and appoint an other form of words so to be vsed Of these three in order And first it is evident that howsoever some kinde of blessing and prayer be all one and so may be confounded yet that solemn kinde of blessing spoken of Numb 6. and which the PATRIARKS and PREISTS did vse in their places was cleane of an other nature In prayer the MINISTER stands in place of the PEOPLE and in their name offers vp petitions and thanksgiving to GOD But in blessing the Minister stands in the place of God and in his name pronounceth a blessing or mercy vpon the people 2. Whereas this duety of prayer may be performed by one equall to another by an inferiour to a superiour yea by a mā to himself that other of blessing is alwayes from the greater to the lesser and therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews to shew that the Preisthood of Melchi-sedek was more excellent then that of Levi proves it by this that Melchisedec blessed Abraham taking this for granted without all contradiction that the lesse is blessed of the greater 3. Mr Ber himself in this book makes prayer one thing and the blessing pronounced vpon the people when they departed another thing as he also makes singing of psalmes a third distinct thing from them both as there is cause he should For first the Apostle writing to the Corinthians of the divers giftes and administrations in the Church speaketh thus I wil pray with the spirit but I will pray with the vnderstanding also I will sing with the spirit but I will sing with the vnderstanding also Answerable vnto which is that in Iames Is any among you afflicted let him pray is any merry let him sing both the one and other Apostle making singing and praying distinct exercises Ad vnto this that whereas in praying we are to speak onely vnto God it is otherwise in singing where we are taught to speak vnto
over Gods heritage as you would make them controuling all but to be controuled by none much lesse essentiall vnto the Church as though it could not be without them least of all the Church it self as you and others expound Math. 18 But we hold the Eldership as other ordinances given vnto the Church for her service and so the Elders or officers the servants and ministers of the Church the wife vnder Christ her husband aâ— the scriptures expresly affirm Of which more hereafter And where further you advise the reader to take from the Iay other birds feathers that is as you expound your self to set vs before him as we differ from all other Churches Therein you make a most inconsiderate and vnreasonable motion If a man should set the Church of England before his eyes as it differeth but from the reformed Churches it would be no very beautiful bird Yea what could it in that colour afforde but Egyptian bondage Babylonish confusion carnal pomp and a company of Iewish Heathenish and Popish ceremonies Whatsoever truth is in the world it is from God and from him we have it by what hand soever it be reached vnto vs Came the word of God unto you onely vnto it we have good right as the Israel of God unto whom he hath committed his oracles Rom. 3. 2. Towards the end of the Preface you do render two reasons vpon which you do adventure to deal against vs as you do the one coÌ„fidence in your cause the other the spirituall injury which some of late have done you in taking away part of the seale of the Ministery Touching the first as it is to vs that know you wel no new thing to see you confident in all enterprises so doth it much behoove you to consider how long and by what meanes you have been possessed of this your confident perswasion I could name the person of good credite and note to whom vpon occasion you confessed and that since you spake the same things which here you write as confidently as now you write them that you had much a doe to keep a good conscience in dealing against this cause as you did But a speach of your own vttered to my self ever to be remeÌ„bred with fear and trembling can not I forget when after the conference passing betwixt Mr H. and me you vttered these wordes Wel I wil returne home preach as I have done and I must say as Naaman did the Lord be merciful unto me in this thing and therevpon you further promised with out any provocation by me or any other that you would never deale against this cause nor with-hold any froÌ„it though the very next Lords day or next but one you taught publikliâ— against it and so broke your vâ—w the Lord graunt not you conscience And for the seale of your Ministerie deceive not yourself and others if you had not a more authentick seal in your black box to shew for your Ministery at your Bishops visitation then the converting of men to God which is the seal you meane this seale would stand you in as little stead as it doth many others which can shew as â—â—â—re this way as you and yet are put from their Ministerie notwithstanding And wil you charge your Bishops Church representative to deale so trecherously with the Lord as to put downe his Ministers and Officers which have his broad seal to shew for their Office and Ministerie What greater contumely do these vipers these schismaticall Brownists lay vpon your Church then you doe herein The Church of England acknowledgeth no such seale as this is The Bishops ordination and license conformitie vnto their ceremonies subscription to their articles devout singing and saying their service-book is that which will beare a man out though he be far enough eyther from converting or from preaching conversion vnto any And here I desire the reader to observe this one thing with me When the ministers are called in quaestion by the Bishops they alledge vnto them their former subscription conformity in some measure at least their peaceable cariage in their places but when they would iustify their ministerie against vs then their vsuall plea is they haue converted men to God herein acknowledging to let passe their vnsound dealing that we respect the work of Gods grace in any at which they know the Bishops and their substitutes if they should plead the same with them would make a mock for the most part I do most freely acknowledge the singular blessing of God vpon many truthes taught by many in the Land and do and alwayes shal so far honour those persons as the Lord hath honoured them herein But that the simple conversion of sinners yea though the most perfect that ever was wrought should argue a true office of Ministerie the scriptures no where teach neyther shall I ever beleeve without them This scripture 1 Cor. 9. 1. 2. is most frequently alledged for this purpose But as vnsoundly as commonly For if simple conversion should argue an Apostleship then should a common effect argue a proper cause an ordinarie work an extraordinarie office for the conversion of men is a work common to extraordinarie and to ordinarie officers yea to true and false officers yea to such as are in no office at all as hereafter shall appeare And what could be more weakly alledged by Paul to prove himself no ordinarie but an extraordinary officer an Apostle which was the thing he intended then that which is common to ordinary officers with him Might not the Corinthians easily have replyed Nay Paul it followes not that you are an Apostle immediately called and sent by Christ because you haue begotten vs to the Lord have been the instrument of our coÌ„versioÌ„ for ordinary Ministers Pastors Teachers called by men do beget to the Lord as wel as you The bare conversion of the Corinthians then is not the seal Paul speakes of but together with it their establishment into a true visible Church and that with such power and authority Apostolicall as wherewith Paul was furnished by the Lord. Of which more hereafter But the father of these childreÌ„ you say you are which thus vnnaturally fly from you and whereof we so injuriously have deprived you in which respect also you make this your hue cry after vs and them for through the gospel you have begotten them And have you begotten them vnto the faith as Paul did the Corinthians and are you their father as Paul was the father of the Corinthians then it must needs follow that before you preached the gospel vnto them and thereby begot them to the Lord they were in the same estate wherein the Corinthians were before Paul preached vnto them that is unbeleevers and without faith and so were to be reputed And how then true matter of the Church for which you so much contend Besides these your begotten children were baptised long before you saw their faces some twenty
some thirtie some fourtie yeares Now this their baptisme was true baptisme and so the true seale of their forgivenes of sinnes and new birth as you affirm prove page 119. this their seal of the new birth hath stood good vpoÌ„ them all this while visibly and externally and yet after all this you preach vnto them beget theÌ„ a new visibly externally for onely God knoweth that which is true within You have begot them through the Gospel Behold a minstrous generation a man begetting children twentie or thirtie or fourtie yeares after they be borne If Nichodemus had heard of this he might wel have sayd how can thâ—se things be Lastly if you be by your office the faâ—her of these children as Paul was of the Corinthians by his where is then that your rod of correction which Paul shakes at his children doth any law eyther divine or humane deny a father liberty to correct his own childreÌ„ Or are you one of these simple fathers of whoÌ„ your self speak that can beget children but not bring them vp This â—od is seems apperteynes to both their and your reverend fathers the Bishops who onely know how to vse it To conclude the preface In acknowledging as you doe in the end of it that some things in the book may seeme to the Christian reader to be written in the gall of bitternes and yet suffering them so to passe with an excuse of your intent as herein you manifest no good conscience chusing rather to excuse so great an evill then to reforme it so neyther take you any likely course for the good of them with whome you deale whose recovery if they be faln you should rather have attempted in the bowels of mercy theâ— in the gall of bitternes Aâ—d so I câ—me to the partes of your book as they ly in order Of the Authours Advertisements called by him Christian counsels of peace THe subiect whereof Mr Bern. treats in this place being peace is very plausible the name amiable the thing both pleasant and profitable And as God is the God of peace so are not they Gods children nor borne of him which desire it not yea even in the middest of their contentions But as all vices vse to cloth themselves with the habites of vertues that vnder those liveries they may get countenance and finde the more free passage in the world so especially in the Church all tyranny and confusion do present themselves vnder this colour taking vp the politick pretence of peace as a weapon of mere advantage wherewith the stronger and greater party vseth to beat the weaker The Papists presse the protestants with the peace of the Church and for the rent which they have made in it condemn them beyond the heathenish souldiours which forbare to devide Christs garment as deeply do the Bishops charge the Ministers refusing conformity and subscription and both of them vs. But the godly wise must not be affrighted eyther from seeking or embracing the truth with such buggs as these are but seeing the wisdome which is from above is first pure then peaceable he must make it a great part of his Christian wisdome to discerne betwixt godly and gratious peace and that which is eyther pretended for advantage or mistaken by error so to labor to hold peace in purity Let it then be manifested vnto vs that the Communion which the Church of EnglaÌ„d hath with all the wicked in the Land without separation is a pure communion that theyr service book devised and prescribed in so many words and letters to be read over and over with all the appurtenances is a pure worship that their goverment by Nationall Provinciall and diocesan Bishops according to their CanoÌ„s is a pure govermeÌ„t then let vs be blamed if we hold not peace with them in word deed otherwise though they spake vnto vs never so oft both by messengers and mouth of peace and agayn of peace * as Iehoram did to Iehu yet must we answer them in effect as Iehu did Iehoram what peace whilest the whoredoms of the mother of fornicatioÌ„s the Iezebel of Rome do remayn in so great number amongst them And I doubt not but Mr Bern. and 1000 more Ministers in the land were they secure of the Magistrates sword and might they go on with his good licence would wholly shake of their canonicall obedience to their Ordinaries and neglect their citations and censures and refuse to sue in their Courts for all the peace of the Church which they commend to vs for so sacred a thing Could they but obteyn license froÌ„ the Magistrate to vse the libertie which they are perswaded Christ hath given them they would soon shake off the Prelates yoke and draw no longer vnder the same in spirituall coÌ„munion with all the profane in the land but would break those bonds of iniquitie as easily as Sampson did the cordes wherwith Dalilah tyed him and give good reasons also from the word of God for their so doing And yet the approbation of men and angels makes the wayes of God workes of religion never a whit the more lawfull but onely the more free from bodily daunger Wherevpon we the weakest of all others have been perswaded to embrace this truth of our Lord Iesus Christ though in great and manifold afflictions to hold out his testimony as we do though without approbation of our Sovereigne knowing that as his approbation in such points of Gods worship as his word warranteth not cannot make them lawful so neyther can his disallowance make unlawful such duties of religion as the word of God approveth nor can he give dispensation to any person to forbeare the fame Dan 3. 18. Act. 5. 29. These things I thought good to commend to the reader that he may be the more cautelous of this and the like colourable pretences wishing him also wel to remember that peace in disobedience is that old theam of the false Prophets whereby they flattered the mighty and deceaved the simple Ier. 6. 14. 8. 11. Let us now come to consideration of the counsels themselves so frâ—ndly given and so sagely set downe And therein to approve what is good and wholsome to interpret in the best sense what is doubtful and to passe by unrequited such contumelies as wherewith Mr B. reprocheth vs as in all places so here in his rhyming Rhetorick wherein he labours to rowl â—s even as may be betwixt the Atheisticall Securitant and Anabaptisticall Puritant the carelesse Conformitant and thâ— preposterous Reformitant and so forth as the rhyme runneth I wil come to those ten Rules or Canons praescribed by him pag. 3. 4. 5. for the praeservation of peace in the Church or state ecclesiasticall for that alone we oppose humbling our selves vnder the hand of the Magistrate as much and more truely then himself 1. Uphold the manifest good therein A man vpholds that which is good most naturally by his