to seed his Fock No no Ezekiel shews that their duty is to strengthen the Diseased to heal the Sick to bind up the broken to bring again that which was driven away and to jeek that which was lost this also is consonant to the Doctrine of St. Peter 1. Ep. 2 3. Feed the Flock of Christ taking the oversight thereof not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being Examples to the Flock Besides it can never be proved by Scripture that Christ's instituting Pastors in the Church did at any time exempt them from obedience to the Church she being the Common Parent of all Christians both Ecclesiastical and Secular and the Practice was so in the purest times as may appear by St. Cyprian Lib. 1. c. 4. Moreover when Christ ascended on high tho he led Captivity Captive and gave gifts unto men yet he did not divest himself of all power of Governing his Body the Church Militant here on Earth devolving it on the Pope but doth still continue to govern it internally and Spiritually by the secret influences and illapses of his Spirit and so will do until time shall be no more And altho the Popes have nothing at all to do with this kind of Government nor as yet in terminis have laid any claim thereunto yet their Illustrissimo Bellarmine hath had such effronted Impudence as to aver that the Pope is able to do all that which is necessary to the Conducting of Souls to Paradise unto which end certainly Divine Inspiration is most necessary and can take away all Impediments which the World or the Devil with all their force or Crast are able to oppose which doth covertly insinuate and attribute the same Spiritual Invisible power to be also in the Pope hoping it will not be seen but it is discovered for without such Insluences and assistances it is very improbable if not altogether impossible to be conducted to Heaven and if Bellarmine's Doctrine be good what need of petitioning Heaven for Graces it is but going to Rome a pleasant Journey where we may have all things necessary for our Journey to Paradise for asking for some merry Pence Romae omnia venalia As to the external Government of his Body and Church Militant here on Earth it consists here of visible men The Church to be Governed by its own Body So Christ himself would that it should be governed by visible men without divesting himself of his Spiritual influences and in order thereunto he appointed Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes 4.8 11 12. Who having in his life-time endowed them with power and commands to teach all Nationis Baptizing c. Matth. 28.19 which is all the Authority that ever Christ gave or bequeathed unto them and which is purely Spiritual without any mixture Temporal and that only as Ministers and Servants not as Lords of his Body which power tho it may be peculiar to the Clergy of the Church as chief Officers and Ministers thereof yet the application of the same Authority to the person is purely elective and depending on the Body hence it follows that the Body or Sheep having chosen their Bishop or Pastor he is now become subject to the Body and not the Body to him which Authority of choosing them a good or of Judging or of censuring a wicked Pastor being given them of Christ their Head and Father they cannot wave or devolve the same without committing great offence against God and if they should yet they cannot wholly divest themselves thereof Besides in disputes among themselves whether the Pope be above a Council very many of the most Learned of them do argue and agree that as the Head or Superior of the Inquisition is not Superior to the whole Congregation of the Inquisition being assembled nor do they admit that the rest of the Body hath no power over the Head especially being such a Head as the Body it self hath constituted They argue the like also from the examples of Kings and Kingdoms of which I shall make this use only that if these be good instances among themselves to prove a Council to be above the Pope it will hold also in minor collective Ecclesiastical Bodies Thus do they abuse all places of Scripture by wresting them from their proper meaning and intendment The Popes claims first modest then Impudent as I have hitherto shewed and therefore the Readers may do well to bear in their memories the Cautions and Observations laid down in the Paraenesis forementioned The pretensions of the Popes were at first modest as I have shewed you in Gregory in respect of that height of Impudence they have now arrived unto They claimed only precedency or Primacy not Supremacy but now their Judgments are Infallible their Jurisdiction Infinite their Empire boundless fetching in and Monopolizing all Churches and Kingdoms All Bishops but their Curates All Kings and Emperors but their Vassals for of the Pope was meant Gens regnum quod non servierit tibi eradicabitur and this Bellarmine Baronius and others of the same Leaven plead for not out of the Decretal Epistles or Constantine's Donations but out of Scripture The first and best Bishops of Rome thought more of their Martyrdom than of an Universal Monarchy expounding Scripture with contentedness according to the natural sence of the Text without racking or torturing it unto wrong ends and purposes But their Successors lost by degrees first conscience then Learning and now at last all Grace and Modesty This their Babel as it now stands was not built in a day but as the itching desires of this or that proud and haughty Pope of enlarging their Fringes and Phylacteries did increase so their claims and pretentions increased therewith At first they claimed a Primacy of Order or at most of Honor not of power among their Brethren only not over them And these contestations were with Bishops not yet with Emperors they medled yet only with the Keyes not with the Swords owning all their power to be meerly and purely Spiritual for the benefit of Souls nothing at all directly or indirectly temporal But when once they had put a Padlock on the Scriptures and Preached Ignorance up to be the Mother of Devotion then the Mystery of Iniquity became quickly advanced to that monstrous height which at this day we see but cannot remedy And the better to set out this Pageant not only some scraps and shadows of old Fathers and Councils but the Scripture it self our Lord Christ and St. Peter are brought upon the Stage and rackt and tortured to do obeysance unto this Monster of Iniquity whereas we may safely swear that there is not one word or Syllable of the Pope or his Power in all the Scripture Old or New but what is due to all Bishops in Common with him save only as he is described
the Jewish Church is not so well known in our days as when our Saviour spake the words we may justly be excused if we plead and demur thereunto Take Text and Context together Moreover if thy Brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother v. 15. But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established v. 16. And if he neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen man and Publican v. 17. Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound on Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven v. 18. Again I say unto you if two of you shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven v. 19. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them v. 20. What is here meant by the Church whether the Church of Christ then only in fieri not yet planted as some would have it or the Jewish Church then planted and setled or the Civil Assemblies that God ordained in the Commonwealth to govern his People and determine their Quarrels breeds great Questions amongst Divines themselves which alone is some Justification to us if we make further Enquiry and try Spirits especially having a Command so to do and to beware of false Prophets The Reason that prevails with some to believe that the Church of Christ is not by these words meant are 1. This was a Direction to the Jews serving them for their present State and Time 2. Christ had then no Church in Jewry to which they might address themselves and complain for he ever preached in the Synagogues and Temple whither all that would resorted John 18.20 Much less did he gather Churches sapart from the Jews to receive and consider and redress the Complaint and Injuries of their Brethren and if he did yet is there not one Syllable in the Text to induce us to believe that such Church or Assembly was constituted only of Ecclesiasticks of Popes or of Presbyters or that it was to continue and remain in force for ever in the Church 3. The Matters to becomplained of are of that nature as Priests of Christ may not challenge Judicially and Authoritatively to hear and determine Private Wrongs and Offences betwixt man and man must be redressed by compromise or judicially by Laws and consequently belongs to the Civil Magistrate The Church of Christ quatenus a Church hath no Warrant to make Laws or give Judgment in Civil or Private Wrongs and Trespasses and therefore I suppose that no Clergy except the Romish will pretend to this Christ himself when he was desired to make peace to end a Strife about parting an Inheritance answered Man who made me a Judge or Divider among you Luke 12.13 14. What Christ refused as no part of his Calling the Bishops Pastors and Presbyters of his Church must not challenge as annexed to their Commission and Vocation The Disciple is not above his Master Luke 6.40 Mat. 10.24 As his Father sent him so sent he them John 20. â—1 but not with a farther or larger Commission 4. That Church is here spoken of which abhorred Ethnicks as unclean persons and shunned all Society with Publicans but neither Christ nor his Church did ever so therefore the Church of Christ is not probably meant by these words Let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publican for they never refused nor declined to converse with either To the Baptism of John came the Publicans Luke 3.12 and were received of him Our Saviour was accounted a friend unto them Mark 11.19 Matthew the Apostle was chosen sitting at the Receipt of Custom Mat. 9.9 Zackeus a chief Publican was the Child of Abraham Luke 19.9 The Publican that prayed in the Temple was justisied before the Pharisee Luke 18.14 and told by Christ that they should go into Heaven before the Scribes and Elders that despised them Mat. 21.21 The Publicans then were Members of Christs Church and Inheritors of his Kingdom and therefore by slying and sorsaking the Fellowship of Publicans the Church of Christ could not be described nor thereby meant The like may be said of Ethnicks and Gentiles who though they were Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel when as yet they knew no God yet never were they persons excommunicated and since the Incarnation of Christ they became partakers of this Promises and true Members of hiâ— Catholick Church so that this can be no Rule for Christs Church to ground Excommunication upon nor yet to measure persons excommunicated by Gentiles and Publicans seeing that amongst the Jews Publicans believed and entred the Kingdom of God and after the Rejection of that Nation the Church of Christ consisted chiefly if not wholly of Gentiles and Ethnicks converted Others argue thus 1. They were Jews to whom Christ spake 2. Bidding them tell it to the Church he sends them to some Judge or Judicature to which they could go and were bound to obey 3. It is certain the Mosaical Judicial Law was then in being and to them obligatory and stood so till Christs Death he and his Apostles living under the Obligation of it 4. They say for certain the Christian Church was not then Constituted so that it is irrational if not ridiculous to say that he sends them when he bids them tell it to the Church to any Episcopal Presbyterian or Independent Judges when there were no such things in the World 5. It is then evident that he sends them there to some Jewish Judges to whom they could go and were bound to obey And the Jews had then as also before and after three Courts of Judicature 1. The Supreme the Sanhedrim which sate only in Jerusalem 2. The Consessus-viginti-trium-viralis which consisted of 23 persons in greater Towns and Cities 3. Consessus trium-viralis wherein the Judges were only three and such a Judicature they had in all lesser Towns and every one of those Courts was usually called Ecclesia a Church so that to those so opinionated it seems certain that the Persons and the Cause an Action of Trespass only considered it was the Consessus triumviralis he sends them unto The Christian Church say they cannot for the Reasons above-said be meant in those Words Tell it to the Church though with the same Breath they cannot deny but acknowledge that wherever Christ taught and converted men there was a Christian Church yet say that while he lived it was under the Legal Oeconomy and not that of the Gospel for that when our Saviour spake that the Sacrament of Baptism which only makes a Member of the Christian
such as is common to the Laity in private offences i.e. to every Individual of the Church For what concerns Binding and Loosing the Words are plain and demonstrative viz. Whatsever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven which must have reference to the parties grieving and grieved it cannot be denied and those are every individual of the Church and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Again I say If two of you in general without denoting or pointing at the Clergy shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my â—ather which is in Heaven for where two or three indefinitely and not limited to the Pope or to those of the Presbytery only are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18.18 19 20. These are general Precepts and purport a general Duty binding every Christian and not especial or applicable only to Popes or Presbyters Christ then in these places speaketh of private men and offences which he only that is oppressed and wronged hath most right to reprove and forgive and therefore not only the Judgment of Pope and Presbyter making whom they please Banditi of the Church but the reprehension and admonition of our meanest Brother offended and injured by us must be regarded and reverenced for so much as the Lord on high heareth the desires and granteth the Prayers of any two joyning together for his Glory and others Good and in their own debts and trespasses private persons have more right to bind and loose their oppressors before God than either Pope or Presbyter This power here attributed to all Christians is no new Doctrine but hath been acknowledged for good by St. Austin Theophylact and others and it doth not in the least derogate from or impeach the publick use of the Keys in the hands of Bishops and Pastors for they had also their particular Commission John 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained yea speaking particularly to one of them Mat. 16.19 I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven so that the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven all Priests received in Peter before Christ's Death and after his Resurrection he gave all his Apostles the like power as Cyprian and Jerome observe and that is a power which no Temporal or Civil Magistrate or Prince can confer it is derived unto them from a higher Power § I am not ignorant that these Doctrines are held as Heretical at Rome and that they that hold them are cursed with Bell Book and Candle which is obvious to every intelligent Reader that consults the first fifth and sixth Canons of the sourteenth Session of the Council of Trent and the Anathemaes following who shall find it to be so and I humbly conceive not without grand reason of State-Papal for should these Doctrines and these that depend upon them be received for Orthodox Adieu to all the Picklocks of all the secretest Councils of all Kingdoms and States where Romish Doctrines prevail and also Adieu to a world of Merry-pence that else would thereby come into their Sanctuary Sanctum Sanctorum their Coffers for commuting and mitigating of Penance c. For by their Institution of their Sacrament of Penance their Church understands it to be instituted by Christ an entire full and Sacramental Confession of all sins to be made by all persons of the years of discretion lapsed after Baptism and that Jure Divino it is absolutely necessary so to do and that because Christ before his Ascension into Heaven lest his Priests to be his Vicars tanquam Praesides Judices unto whom all mortal Sins ought to be brought and confessed whereby by vertue and power of the Keys of remission and retention of Sins Mat. 16.19 John 20.23 they pronounce Sentence and give Judgment which they cannot rightly do if you will believe themselves nor justly proportion or impose Penance upon a general Confession only except the lapsed declare their Sins unto them in specie sigillatim particularly and in kind Can. 5. This to me seems wonderful strange that if Christ would have introduced a Rite to confess our Sins so particularly and punctually to Romish Priests as that no Use was ever the like that yâ—â— he would be so understood by words ambiguous from which it must be drawn by very disjointed and unlinckt consequences very far fetcht consequences as incoherent as are Churton Sands of which the Neighborhood do merrily story that the Devil himself could never make Belropes thereof and not by most plain and perspicuous Terms as when he instituted the Eucharist there being not one plain word in the whole New Testament to command us so to do James indeed c. 5. v. 16. exhorts us to confess our faults one to another but what is that to Romish Priests James writ not to them but to the Twelve Tribes scattored abroad This Text is an Argument to perswade us to confess our faults one to another and to pray one for another that we may receive reciprocally the Councils Benefits and Consolatinos of each others Prayers but this institutes no Sacramental Confession to be performed to Romish Priests nor any power of pardoning to the Pope or his Priests nor any greater obligation on the Laity to confess to the Priest than on the Priests to confess to the Laity Mark the enforcement The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man Priest or not Priest availeth much Though these Canons make the Priests the only Ministrators of Absolution and Remission and that the Act in them is not Nudum Ministerium a naked Ministery of pronouncing and declaring Sins to be forgiven to the confessed but that it is in the Priest Act us Judicialis a Judicial Act by whom velut à Judice as by a Judge Sentence is pronounced Canon 6. They farther make the very Circumstances of Sins to alter the kind of them and therefore they have made two kinds of Sins viz. Mortal and Venial Canon 5. which is more than ever God himself made though he made two kinds of Sinners voz Penitent and Impenitent And in the conclusion they have Anathematized all those that are of contrary Opinions though there be not one plain Text of Scripture to warrant their so doing Now I would very fain know why the Institution being made by the Word Remitto the Form also was not Remitto I remit thy Sins rather than absolvo te I absolve thee and that if by these words a Sacrament of Absolution is instituted with this Form Absolvo te by which one is absolved why it doth not follow by an irresistable necessity that another Sacrament of Binding be not instituted in which this Form should likewise
vel indignos recusandi quod ipsam videmusde divina Authoritate descendere ut sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur c. whereby it appears that the supream Power of choosing such Priests as are worthy and refusing unworthy doth principally rest in the People And he speaketh of Bishops particularly although in the words alledged he mentioneth Priests and withal it is not only St. Cyprians Epistle but the Epistle of thirty six Bishops and written to the Common People of Leon Asturia and Emerita Vide his 14. Epist of his 3. Lib. such Authorities we may alledge but not mystical and enforced Explications nor yet wrong Conclusions from right Premisses The Faithful Flock of Christ ought to resemble Sheep indeed in humility and innocency yet ought they not to be so sheepish or sottish as to decline the Authority which Christ their great Shepherd hath bestowed on them either of choosing them a Good or of judging a Wicked Shepherd St. Austin proves unanswerably that Doctrines are to be grounded on the Literal Sense of the Scripture and not on any Mystical Interpretation In this equivocating Art of Sophistry Bellarmine hath shewed both in this Subject as in others his great dexterity first to settle with the Reader the Relation which the Holy Church hath towards the Divine Majesty and then to conclude on the Relation towards the Pope such false Sophistry such disingenuity becomes not so great a Prince so great a Scholar as himself but the Parisians no Protestants conclude that God hath called the Church to the Faith and his Worship and that he hath placed Christ over it for an Head for ever who first himself did govern it on Earth in the days of his Flesh but being ascended into Heaven doth rule it with inward influence and assistance invisible unto the end of the World It is true that the Church is not a Common-wealth as Venice or as Geneva which give as much Authority as themselves please to their Dukes and Princes nor a Kingdom which may change the manner of governing it neither invisibly nor visibly because that Christ hath prescribed the manner much less is it such a Kingdom as England which hath a Blood-Royal where the Kings succeed by Birth neither as some other by Testament but as touching the Inward Government and meerly Spiritual it is not like unto any because it hath a perpetual Immortal and Eternal King who only knows the Heart and tries the Reins In the visible Government it hath a Ministry whose Authority was instituted by Christ and independing of the Church but as concerning the Application of this Authority unto this or that Person it is elective or depending of it Wherefore when he alledgeth I am constituted a King by him Our Lord God shall give him a Kingdom Luke 1.32 and 12.32 You chose not me but I have chosen you John 15.16 Thou hast made us to our God a Kingdom All these places and such like others are meant of the Invisible Spiritual and Interior Kingdom where the Pope hath no regiment nor influence at all but Christ is all in all governing by his Spirit and according to the Council of his own Will Thus he having laid down and proposed to use a Proposition or Doctrine quodammodo and in some sense true and having Validity under the Covert of an Universal yet having applied it to wrong Particulars it hath lost its Energy and Effort and its fallacy is discovered A piece of Artifice and Skill that runs through the Veins and Lines of most Popish Writers in the Controversies between us and them and what else is this but to make Lies their refuge and under Falshood to shelter themselves If Popes may now excommunicate as they pretend yet this concludes not that they may excommunicate Princes or Magistrates or whole Common-wealths The Primitives of old did use excommunication very sparingly and moderately and with great prudence and policy and with great respect to the good of the Church And therefore be the Power what or where it will St. Augustine holds an Excommunication against a Multitude though it were for some notorious and manifest sin too sacrilegious pernicious impious and insolent Lib. 3. contra Ep. Permen 23.4.4 c. non potest And Thomas putteth a Question whether any generality may be excommunicated and he answereth himself No and produceth Reasons for the same concluding that the Church appointeth with great Providence that no Community might be excommunicated And all other Divines with one accord determine the same And also Pope Innocent the 4th in the Chap. Rom. saith In Vniversitatem vel Collegium proferri sententiam Excommunicationis penitus prohibere de Sentent excom in 6. We must know that it is of worse consequence and example where â—t is used against Princes than divers other Bodies and Societies in as much as one Prince is of more consequence and power than thousands of other Lay-men We know also that in all Judgments there is a necessity of a Legal Trial to precede Conviction And that great Multitudes may be convented examined sentenced and punished with less disturbance of Peace less violation of Majesty than those that sway the Ball-Imperial Besides if the condemnation of Princes might be upon due Trials without violence yet the execution of the Sentence would produce more monstrous events in them than in private Men for how shall the People honour obey and reverence him in the State as Gods Lieutenant whom they see accursed cut off and abhorred in the Church as the Devils Vassal upon the excommunication of Princes whole Nations have been interdicted witness England Venice and other in the times of several Popes whole States subjected to ruine the Innocent with the Obstinate the Princes with the People all have have been sacrificed to Blood-thirsty-Popish-Priests under pretence of obedience to the Holy Catholick Church In what Code of the Ancient Church can it be found where any such strange kind of punishment was ever instituted as that for the offence of a few many Millions of Souls should be accursed cast out of the Church and in Popish construction damned How can they call that Power Apostolical that punisheth in this manner seeing the Apostolical Power was given for edification and not for destruction And yet so precipitate have some Popes been as to excommunicate whole States and Kingdoms Surely therefore we ought not so tamely to acquiesce on the bare ipse dixit of the Clergy pleading in their own Cause and for themselves only exclusive the Laity Certainly it is too small a security for so great a concern therefore let us a little examine what they urge for this exorbitant Power § If Kings be not this way punishable then they are no other way which is mischievous in the Church Sol. The Jewish Kings were as great and scandalous sinners as Kings-Christian now are yet God assigned no Rulers Spiritual for their Castigation and we must suppose that if it had
Romanists I will not say all Now out of these three Authorities before mentioned Bellarmine concludes that a Temporal absolute Prince altho he recognize no other Temporal Prince for his Superior yet of necessity he must recognize the Head of all Christendom Herein Bellarmine shews his admirable Sophistry in using terms of divers significations applicable to one or the other sence that he may the better amuze and catch the inadvertent and less sollicitous Reader It had been much more for his Honor to have defended his propositions by some other means rather than by relying on our sottishness in not discovering his Sophistical Arts and Cunning wherewith he goeth about to deceive us So that the Author's drift out of this whole discourse is to conclude that where Princes use their Power to the hurt of their own Souls or their Peoples and to the prejudice of Christian Religion the Pope may take the matter in hand to redress it According to these Doctrines after this rate of arguing and handling no Prince can be safe For suppose any King Protestant or Papist all a case go about to lay a Tax for the defence of his State against an Enemy this Imposition is not just but sinful unless the end and ground of it be lawful and unless his Subjects do consent thereunto according to the Rules of Justitia distributiva now comes Signior Papa and sayes I will know the end why this Tax is imposed and so he may dive into the Secrets of the State and may also examine the distribution and indeed come to pry into and know all Arcana Imperii condition and strength or feebleness of every Nation And being a Temporal Prince himself may in that right and quality wage War with any other Prince on very easie and advantageous terms to himself So Zealous an Advocate is Bellarmine to ascribe Almighty power to the Pope that he deems it no great matter non è gran cosa che il Papa sia stimato un dio in terra that the Pope should be reputed a God upon Earth seeing it is attributed to Princes Psal 82.6 I have said ye are Gods nor yet inconvenient ne è inconveniente che sidica che il Papa habbia ogni potesta in cielo in terra poiche Christo ha detto to affirm that the Pope hath all power in Heaven and in Earth because Christ hath said whatsoever thou shalt bind upon Earth shall be bound in Heaven Mat. 18.18 to say that the Pope hath all power in Heaven and in Earth Perche puo fare tutto quello che è cecessario a condurre L'anime in Paradiso puo levare tutti gli impedimenti che il mundo o' l' Demonio con tutta la lore forza o astutia possino opporre onde S. Cyrillo citato da S. Tomaso nel ' opusculo de primatu Petri dice che si come Christo hebbe dal Padre pienissima potesta sopra tutta le chiesa cosi Christo diede à san Petro alli suosi successori pienissima potesta sopra tutto la chiesa for that he is able to do all that which is necessary to the conducting of Souls to Paradise and can take away all the Impediments which the World or the Devil with all their force or craft are able to oppose whence it is that St. Cyril cited by St. Thomas in his Opuscle de Primatu Petri saith that as Christ had from the Father all plenitude of power over all the Church so Christ had given to St. Peter and to his Successors all plenitude of power over all the Church § That the Pope be termed a God in that sence as is attributed to Princes Psalm 82.6 which St. John 10.34 expounds to be due unto all those unto whom the word of God came being all Children of the most high and the Scriptures cannot be broken tho Bellarmine endeavors it on every occasion may be no great matter indeed but to conclude from thence and from Matth. 18.18 as he doth that the Pope is God upon Earth and to believe it not Inconvenient to hold that the Pope hath all power in Heaven and in Earth c. what is it less than Blasphemy in the highest degree and as much as in him lyeth by thus perverting of Scriptures to break them into all Blasphemous pieces and sences These Texts are true and have a Divine good meaning without any ambiguity but out of these to draw false consequences viz. Papa Deus constituunt Idem Tribunal Papae Dei idem consistorium what I say can it be less than Blasphemy thus to ascribe a kind of Deity to the Pope who yet shall dye like man and fall like one of the Princes If this be not Deum falsum pro vero colere I do not know what is He also thinks it no inconvenience to say that the Pope hath all power in Heaven and in Earth because it is sad Matth. 18.18 Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven of which Text I have said so much before of the abuse thereof that I shall only say here that this conclusion cannot be well drawn from this place because power belongs to the Active property and quodcunque belongs to the matter If I should say that the Parish Priest is he that makes all Marriages it doth not therefore follow that he hath all power in making of Marriages For to say quodcunque ligaveris c. therefore quocunque modo ligaveris after what manner soever thou bindest be it right or wrong follows not The Proposition it self viz the Pope hath all power in Heaven and on Earth being taken absolutely is absolutely false or being considered according to the mildest construction there is much more power both in Heaven and in Earth than the Pope hath If His Holiness should be interrogated as Job was Knowest thou the Ordinances of Heaven Canst thou set the Dominion thereof in the Earth Hast thou an Arm like God Or canst thou thunder with a Voice like him Canst thou send lightnings that may go and say unto thee here we are What could he answer Would he not with David cry out I am a Worm and not Man Ch. 40.3 4. Or with Job Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Can he put wisdom in the inward parts Can he give understanding to the Heart Nemo dat quod non habet he hath it not about him none to spare The fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from Evil that is understanding A wisdom utterly unknown to Popes How dares then this Servus jervorum Dei to brook and Countenance the Stile of his Flatterers Rex Regum and Dominus dominantium Is not this to say with Babylon I will ascend above the height of the Clouds I will be like the most high Esay 14.14 and to lift up bis heart with the Prince of Tyrus and say I am a God I
each esteem other better than themselves § Having thus precautioned the Readers by a General and Impartial Admonition being as lyable to the lash thereof my self if a transgressor as any other without any particular reflection and much less upon the Scriptures immediately foregoing brought by the Independants upon which it may seem to have most reflection as being inserted in the very rear and next adjoyning unto them yet I must say that unto my apprehension there is generally a vein of fallacy or to express it as modestly as the case will bear of Misapplication runs through very many of their Scriptural quotations applying that which is meant of the Church in one sence unto that which is to be understood of the Church in another sence or that which is meant of a National Church or of a City Church as of that of Jerusalem or of those famous Churches of Asia unto every petit Congregation and the like concerning the powers of Churches and the use of the term Liberty and the like Though I am thus Opiniated yet I must say withal that were the Scene of the Church laid in Turkey or any Heathenish Gentile or Savage Country professed enemies to the Gospel and Cross of Christ where no Legislative power taketh Gods pure Religion into their protection I could have much less to say against them but until better information must acknowledge them a very plausible if not a full proof of their Independency but the Scene being laid here in a Christian Common-wealth I suppose they will come very short of proof § As of one and the same litteral sense of some words or texts of Scripture Daille lic â— c. 11. f. 1â—â— there may be and usually are two or more objects the one more the other less principal and proper among which the word Church hath a great variety of significations and importances and by consequence it must have one principal object of which all the principal Powers Attributes and Titles of the Church are punctually and accurately verified and other objects less principal to which notwithstanding the same name or title are in some measure often communicated So there is nothing which sooner precipitates both the more and less learned into errors than Identity of names or words including in them diversity of significations or importances and consequently each several signification or importance is always incroaching upon the Powers Attributes or Prerogatives which most properly appertain to some other more prime and principal Now the best way to prevent the inconveniences whereunto the multiplicity and diversity of its significations or acceptations do expose us is in reading first to consider of the Powers Attributes Prerogatives or Royalties which belong either solely or principally unto it and then to value the other significations or importances and rate their several Attributes or Properties by the nearness or remoteness of their affinity with it or reference unto it § The Church of Christ which we term his Body mystical can be but One and that only apprehensible by the intellectual conceipt of our minds and not sensibly to be discerned by any of us for that some are in Heaven and some on Earth and though the persons of those on earth be visible yet we cannot know that they are truly and infallibly of that Body the sincerity of their hearts and Faith being to us invisible and to God only distinctly and individually known yet may we rationally know that there is such a reall Body a Body collective consisting of many a Body mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from our senses All are not Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9.6 and no mortal can infallibly distinguish them It was Christ only that knew Nathaniel to be a true Israelite indeed in whom was no guile John 21.15 Many may prophesie cast out Devils and do wonderful works in Christs Name Matth. 22. and yet be deceivers whom God only can know and distinguish But this Church is not the proper subject of this discourse § As the everlasting promises of love mercy and blessedness belongs unto the mystical Church even so when we read of any duty which the Church of God is obliged unto the Church which this doth concern is a sensibly known Company and this visible Church in like sort is but one successively continued from the beginning of the World and will continue untill time shall be no more and which consists partly of Members before and partly of Members since the coming of Christ and which have already and which shall hereafter embrace the Christian Religion we term as by a more proper Name the Church of Christ whereof there are many Members yet but one Body 1 Cor. 12.27 And therefore the Apostle affirmeth plainly all men Christian be they Jews or Gentiles bond or free they are all incorporated into one Company they all make but one Body that he might reconcile both unto God in One Body Eph. 2.16 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs also and of the same Body Eph. 3.6 And they all professing one Lord one Faith one Baptism Eph. 4.5 Neither is this Church the Visible Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only proper subject matter of this discourse though it be not altogether exclusive § For preservation even of Christianity and of Christian unity peace and concord there is not any thing more needful and requisite than that such as are of the Visible Church have mutual fellowship and society one with another In which consideration to use their own simile As the Sea or Collection of waters Gen. 1.10 being one one in nature yet not one in name and number for that within divers precincts it hath divers names as the Baltick the Mediterranean the Red Sea so the Catholick Visible Church is in like sort divided into a number of distinct Societies every of which is termed a Church within it self In this sense the Church is always a visible Society of men not meerly an Assembly but a Society For though the name of Church be given unto Christian Assemblies and though any number of Christian men congregated may quodam sensu be termed a Church yet Assemblies properly are rather things that belong to the Church than the Church it self men are assembled for performance of publick Actions which Actions being ended the Assembly dissolveth it self and is no longer in being whereas the Church which was assembled doth no less continue afterwards than before Where but three are and they of the Laity also there is a Church a Christian Assembly But a Church as in this discourse we ought to understand it is a Society or a Fraternity to use their own terms still i. e. a number of men belonging unto some Christian Fellowship the place and limits whereof is certain and who are endued with sufficient powers attributes and properties to govern it self and this Church is the most proper subject of this discourse which doth neither exclude
only the Ministers but the Teachers too as also the Elders and Deacons yea even of the Multitude which are willing to conser their gifts received of God 2 Cor. 4.13 to the common utility of the Church Luke 2.46 47. and c. 4.15 16. c. fol. 47.48 § During the Contest between Adrian the Sixth and the German Princes in Anno 1523. in the case of Luther they thinking it reasonable did signify unto his Holiness from the Dyet at Noremberg that married Priests and Religious persons who returned to the world in case they did commit any wickedness that the Prince or Magistrate in whose Territory they shall offend ought to give them their due chastisement which did not please the Pope and therefore he did reply That it would be against the Liberty of the Church and the Sickle would be put into another mans Field and those men would be censured by the World who were reserved unto Christ For Princes should not presume to believe that they were devolved to their Jurisdiction by their Apostacy nor that they could be punished by them and for their other Offences in regard the Character remaining in them and the Order they are ever under the power of the Church neither can Princes do more than delate them to their Bishops and Superiors that they may chastize them Conc. Trid. 27.28 Thus let Pope and Presbyter go hand in hand as to Spiritual Empire and Dominion Though it be besides my purpose to examine particulars yet in the general I cannot but wonder that so many learned and conscientious persons men of great abilities and good lives should countenance and defend that Church Discipline and Government as it is composed and compounded by Calvin the first Brocher and Hammerer thereof as taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God when no Father ever witnessed no Council ever favoured no Church ever found out or practised it since the days of the Apostles and when the general and successive consent of all succeeding Ages is resolute against it as never expounding Pauls words in favour of it till about this last Century and this in opposition unto and derogation of Episcopal Regiment which on the contrary hath been observed every where for many Ages and Generations throughout the Christian world nemine contradicente except the old Heretick Aerius No Church till Calvins time ever alledging or perceiving the Word of God to be against it for if but any one Church upon the face of the whole earth that hath been governed by Calvins or the Scotch Presbytery or any one Church that hath not been ordered by Episcopal Regiment since the death of the Apostles could possibly have been found out no doubt but that we should long since have heard of it with our ears and seen it with our eyes in their Writings for that the Favourers and Abettors thereof have wanted neither abilities industry nor stomack neither to make it known Besides to me it seems strangely improbable I might say impossible that the Church of Christ should never know what belonged to the Government of her self till of late and that the Son of God should be spoiled of half his Kingdom by his own Servants Citizens nay Martyrs for 1500 years together without remorse or remembrance of any one man that so great injury was offered him and without one Champion to throw out his Gauntlet in the demand and challenge of his right Moreover how is it possible that all the Churches in the world should with one consent immediately on the Apostles deaths reject that form of governing the Church according to the Geneva cut which they would fain perswade you to believe was setled and approved by the Apostles and embrace a new and strange kind of Government Episcopal without Precept or Precedent for their so doing for my part I think it much more safe prudent and reasonable to esteem this a new device of Calvins a Chintera of his own brain set up to serve his own ends and to introduce his own Domination than to proclaim so many Apostolick men and antient learned Fathers to be manifest despisers of Episcopal Discipline and voluntary Supporters if not Inventers of Antichrists Pride and Tyranny § I find four Priviledges extraordinary given by Christ to the Apostolic Function requisite for the first founding of the Church What Privileges peculiar to the Apostles which died with them 1. Their Vocation immediate from Christ not from Men nor by Men Gal. 2.12 and their immediate instruction in the mystery of Christ by Christ himself 2. Their Commission extending over all the Earth without limitation to any place 3. Their direction infallible the Holy Ghost guiding them whether they wrote or spake This Office by consent of all Divines begun and ended in their persons to whom at first it was committed And except that Man of sin that hath entred by intrusion and violence into the Prerogatives royal of Christ no man would dare to arrogate the Privileges of this Calling He indeed challengeth as in the right of Peter universal power over the whole Church on earth He assumeth and appropriateth to himself glory of Miracles but all lying in form or end and if we were so mad as to believe infallible assistance of the Spirit in all things that he shall sententiously deliver to the Church out of his Chair of Pestilence Sapientum octavus Apostolorum 41. 4. Their power wonderful as well to convert and confirm Believers as to chastize and revenge Disobeyers whereby they did not only speak with tongues cure diseases work miracles know secrets understand all wisdom but gave the Holy Ghost to others that they might do the like and that they might store the whol world out of hand with meet Pastors and Teachers All which were given to their individual persons and were thought requisite by that wisdom which is above for the first spreading of the Faith and planting of Churches amongst Jews and Gentiles that all Nations might be converted unto Christ by the sight of their Miracles and directed by the truth of their Doctrine § But although all these died with their persons But and what delegated to their Successors to remain for ever yet are there other three and some make four points of Apostolic delegation which have and must have their permanency and perpetuity in the Church of Christ the better to maintain and propagate the Church once setled and Faith once preached As 1. Dispensing the Word 2. Administring the Sacraments 3. Imposing of hands 4. Guiding the Keys to shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven These especially the three first parts of the Apostolic Function are not decayed and cannot be wanted in the Church of God and are now seated in our Bishops and Presbyters by Apostolic successive delegation The first Two by reason they are the ordinary means and instruments by which the Spirit of God worketh each mans salvation must be general to all Pastors and Presbyters the
given to the Body of the Church and not to the Priests thereof to govern it self and that there is no other excommunication then what is common to both viz. To withdraw our selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly 2 Thess 3.6 If any obey not our saying have no company with him that he may be ashamed v. 34. not to eat with the Brother that is a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Rayler or a Drunkard or an Extortioner 1 Cor. 5.11 and put away from amongst you that evil person v. 13. All which precepts belong to all both Laity and Clergy indifferently Let excommunication be what it will if any there be An exclusion from the Word and Sacraments it cannot be yet what ever it is it is attributed to the Church and that most rightfully But then it is to be considered that by the venerable and Apostolical name of Church was antiently and ab initio understood all the faithful as well Laity as Clergy though of latter years it hath been injuriously wrested to signify the Clergy only whereas in truth the Laity as well as the Clergy as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood a chosen Generation to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5.9 For it is certain that St. Peter gave the title of Clergy to all Christians in general and that Pope Higinus who lived in the second Century and his Successors most injuriousty took it from them usurping and appropriating the name of Church to themselves and their Priests only which is since attributed to the Popes only by the Pope and Court of Rome and their Creatures and condemning the rest of Gods holy people to an injurious and alienate appellation of Laity separating themselves from the Laity as unclean and prophane by local partitions in Churches c. and so the distinction insensibly crept in by degrees § Because the Word and term Church hath been so much wrested and abused by men of different perswasions for different ends and interests By Church is to be mean◠〈…〉 Apostolical and Legitimate 〈…〉 but not that which is usurpâ—d and imployed to the subversion of publick Government and of Religion it self for it is certain that nothing hath been so great a hindrance to the grwoth and propagation of the truly Catholick Religion as the extending the just liberties thereof into licence by grasping at more and other powers than ever Christ gave them by any Commission which alone hath caused and maintained so great and deplorable divisions in Religion and so little understood by the vulgar both of Protestants and Papists and that I may open the eyes of some that yeild blind obedience and magnify the Pope and indeed I know not what nor whom for the Church and to shew in little the tricks and artisices of the Popish Clergy to increase their Power and Coffers I shall shew how when and where it was first used in the New Testament and how degenerated and what ill use hath been made of since By the word Church in the New Testament is meant the society of Christians or number of Believers in Christ Vide. 19. Art of Religion already come and to come in the flesh crucified dead buried and ascended into Heaven for the planting and increasing whereof Christ himself laboured during his abode on earth by Miracles Signs and Wonders and after his Resurrection before he was taken up and a Cloud had received him out of their sight he appointed his eleven Disciples Judas having fallen by transgression from his Ministry and Apostleship that he might go to his own place to teach all Nations baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever he had commanded them 28 Mat. 19.20 and to preach repentance and remission of sins in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem 24 Luk. 47 charging them to tarry in the City of Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high v. 49. After they had received the Holy Ghost in that miraculous manner of cloven tongues on the day of Pentecost Peter standing up with the eleven preached so powerfully unto the multitude then and there gathered to understand the wonderful miracle of cloven tongues ushered in by a rushing mighty wind and to see the effects thereof that at that Sermon there were converted about 3000. Souls which gladly received him and were baptized and continued stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread from house to house and in prayers praising God and having favour with all the people 2 Acts v. 41.42 and the Lord added to the Church i. e. to all the Apostles and Disciples left by Christ and unto those converted at this Sermon of St. Peters daily such as should be saved 2 Acts 47. the first society or congregation that we read of called a Church in the new Testament 47. so that from this very day and time and upon this occasion which was within few dayes after Christs Aesension was the Congregation or Societies of Believers called the Church And it is here more especially to be observed that the name of Church was not here given as peculiar to the Apostles or Clergy but as common to all believers the number of whom daily increasing quickly came to be cantonzied divided and subdivided into Cities Provinces Countries Houses Hence the various expressions so were the Churches established in the Faith and increased in number daily 16 Acts 5. All the Churches of the Gentiles 16. Rom. 4. All the Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14.33 The Churches throughout Judea Galilee and Samaria 9 Acts 30. 1 Gal. 21.22 So ordain in all Churches 1 Cor. 7.17 The Churches of Asia salute you 1 Cor. 16.19 The Church at Antioch 13 Acts 1. The Churches of Thessalonians 1 Thes 1.1 The Church that is at Babilon saluteth you 1 Pet. 5.13 The seven Churches of Asia Apocal. hence also more minute subdivisions as great Pricilla and Aqvila together with the Church in their House 1 Cor. 16.19 salute Nymphas and the Church in his House 4 Colos 15. Paul and Timothy to Philemon and to the Church in his House Philemon 2. When St. Paul sent for the Elders of Ephesus and willed them to take heed to themselves and all the Flock over which the holy Ghost had made them overseers to feed the Church of God 28 Act. 17.28 What meant he by the Church the Priests to whom he spake or the people the People no doubt the Church is never taken in the New or Old Testament for the Priests alone but generally for the whole Congregation of the faithful Having thus demonstrated who are meant by the word and term of Church let us now consider what powers and priviledges they were indulged and endowed withal both Priest and People from Christ § What Powers and Priviledges did belong to the Ecclesiasticks as Apostles Bishops Priests and Deacons I have intimated
before shewing that the Apostles had jurisdiction over Prophets Evangelists Presbyters and Deacons and I think will not be denied Then the Canons stiled Apostolical say Canon 38. let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without the knowledge or consent of the Bishop he is the man that is trusted with the Lords People and that must render an account of their Souls Ignatius Bishop of Antioch almost 30 years in the Apostles times agreeth fully with that Canon saying do nothing neither Presbyter nor Deacon without the Bishop neither let any thing seem orderly without his liking for it is unlawful and displeasing unto God And again without the Bishop let no man do any thing that pertaineth to the Church Ignat. ep 3. ad Magnes Ibid. ep 7. ad Smyrneos Cencil Ancyran can 13. Laodicens 56. Aralatens c. 19. Tolet. 1. c. 20. by which it plainly appears that in the purest times Bishops were both Pastors of the Churches and Governours of the Presbyters in every City that believed so long as they ruled well and were instead of the Apostles and as their Successors they had charge of ordaining others for the work of the Ministry and guiding the Keys with the advice and Consent of the Brethren and Church there Congregated § Christ being now ascended in triumph into Heaven the eleven Apostles returned from Mount Olivet unto Jerusalem where they continued with one accord in Prayer and Supplication with the Women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and with his Brethren and Peter standing up in the midst of the Disciples the number of Names together being about 120. moved that of these Men which had companied with them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst them one might be ordained in the room of Judas to be a witness with them of his Resurrection and they appointed two Joseph called Barsabas who was surnamed Justus and Matthias And they prayed and said thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men shew whether of these two thou hast chosen that he may take part of this Ministry and Apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place And they gave forth their lots and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbred with the eleven Apostles 1. Acts 12. c. It s observable that this being the first and most considerable action that the Apostles together with those Disciples who had given their Names to Christ did after his Ascension and before the Holy Ghost had been powered out upon them they did not go about it without taking the other Disciples which were Laicks into their Council and making them partakers of the Facts for when they had prayed they cast Lots The like the Apostles did when there grew a'murmuring for the neglect of the Grecian Widdows they called the Multitude of the Disciples directing them to look out seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdome c. And the saying pleased the whole Multitude and they chose Steven and the rest whom they set before the Apostles who laid their hands on them 2. Acts 2.3.4.5.6 so that upon the whole matter the choice and election of those seven Deacons was committed by the whole Chorus of the Apostles unto the Multitude they had their concern their part to act in it Paul being in danger of being killed by the Jews at Jerusalem the Brethren having notice thereof brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus 9. Acts. 30. News being brought to the Apostles and Brethren that were at Jerusalem of the Conversion of Cornelius when Peter came up to Hierusalen they that were of the Circumcision the Brethren there contended with him saying thou wentest in to men uncircumcised and didst eat with them 11. Acts 23. by which it is manifest that the Brethren the Church that then was at Jerusalem by their own right did impose a kind of necessity on Peter Prince of the Apostles and Pope of Rome in the esteem of Romanists to vindicate himself by rehearsing the whole matter and he as humbly without standing upon his Apostolical Dignity or Papal Authority did give the Body of the Church satisfaction and then had their approbation also by their saying then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life v. 18. When Peter was miraculously delivered out of Prison by an Angel he came to the House of Mary where many were gathered together praying 12. Acts 12. and spake unto them saying go shew these things unto James president of the Church at Jerusalem and to the Brethren v. 17. and that ex aequo that the whole Body might sympathize and participate of the joy and might not be held in suspence between Hope and Fear In the Church at Antioch famous for Prophets and Teachers as they were ministring to the Lord and fasting the holy Ghost said to the whole Congregation seperate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them by the Elders they sent them away 13. Acts 1.2.3 Paul and Barnabas having been persecuted from Iconium returned to Antioch and having gathered the Church together they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles 14. Acts 27.15 Acts 1. In the Church of Antioch there being a great dissention raised by certain men which came down from Judea concerning Circumcision with whom Paul and Barnabas had had no small disputation they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the Apostles and Elders about this question where they were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Elders and they declared all things that God had done with them and after Peter had spoken all the Multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring it c. and it pleased the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send chosen men of their own Company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas and wrote Letters by them the title of which Letters was the Apostles and Elders and Brethren send greeting unto the Brethren c. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and unto us to lay upon you no greater Burthen than these necessary things c. when they came to Antioch and when they had gathered the Multitude together they delivered the Epistle and Judas and Silas being Prophets also themselves exhorted the Brethren and confirmed them 32. and afterwards were let go in peace from the Brethren unto the Apostles 33. and Paul chose Silas and departed being recommended by the Brethren unto the Grace of God 40. And the Brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Baeraea 17. Acts 10. And the Brethren sent away Paul to go as it were by Sea v. 14. and Paul took his leave of the Brethren 18. Acts 18. and when he had landed
be Ligo te because it cannot by any right Reason be understood how the same Authority to loose and bind founded upon the words of Christ absolutely alike doth require in Absolution the pronouncing of the words Absolvo te and that other of Binding doth not require pronouncing of the words Ligo te nor by what reason to execute that which Christ hath said Whose Sins ye retain c. and whatsoever ye shall bind c. And it is not necessary to say Ligo te but to execute whatsoever ye loose on Earth c. and whose Sins ye remit it is necessary to say Absolvo te And the same Canon doth also declare that Christ by the same words did constitute the Priests sui ipsius Vicarios tanquam Praesides Judices c. Can. 5. Judges of Sin and therefore that it is necessary to confess them all absolutely and in particular which is impossible for him that confesseth to know together with the Circumstances which speciem peccati mutant alter the kind seeing that it doth appear by the words of the Lord that he hath not distinguished Two sorts of Sins one to be remitted the other to be retained whereby it would be necessary to know of which sort the Delinquent is guilty but one only which doth comprehend all and therefore the word Peccata Sins in general is only used but he hath distinguished two sorts of Sinners saying Quorum Quorum one of the Penitent unto whom Remission is granted another of the Obstinate or Impenitent to whom it is denied therefore they are rather to know the State of the Delinquent than the Nature or Number of the Sins but concerning the Circumstances which they say alter the kind certainly every good Christian may swear with a very good Conscience that the holy Apostles and their Disciples most skilful in things spiritual not regarding humane subtilties did never know what were the Circumstances which alter the kind and yet there is made of it an Article of Faith necessary to Salvation But as it is approved by the Papists that Absolvo was a Judicial Word and reputed a good Consequence that if the Priests do absolve they are Judges so it appeareth to be an inconsistency to condemn those who say it is a naked Ministery to pronounce and to Anathematize those that so think Canon 6 9. It being plain that the Office of a Judge is nothing but to pronounce him innocent who is so and the Transgressor guilty and that this the Metaphor of the Judge doth not bear that the Priest can make a Just man of a Delinquent as is ascribed to him The Prince indeed may pardon Traitors and other Offenders and restore them to their good Names and Blood to whom he that maketh a wicked man just is more like than to a Judge who doth ever transgress his Office when he pronounceth any thing but that which he findeth to be true according to Allegata Probata But that which is most wonderful they prove the Doctrine of Specifical and singular Confession of Sins with the Circumstances by affirming out of Can. 5. That the Judicature cannot be executed without knowledge of the Cause nor Equity observed in imposing punishment if the faults be known only in general and afterwards that Christ hath commanded this Confession that they may impose the condign punishment What is this but plainly to mock the world and to think all men void of understanding but themselves and to perswade themselves that all their Absurdities must be believed upon trust how absurd soever For who knoweth not and seeth not daily the Confessors enjoyn Penance not only without weighing the Merits of the Faults but without having the least consideration of them It would seem by the words of the Canon and Council that the Confessors should have a Ballance to make difference of every Grain and yet oftentimes to recite five Pater nosters shall be a Penance for many Murders Adulteries and Thefts and yet the most learned Confessors and generally all in giving Penance do say to every man that they do impose only part of the Penance therefore it is not necessary to impose that exact Penance which the Faults do deserve nor to have a particular enumeration made of the Sins and Circumstances But what need one go so far when the same Council in the Ninth Chapter of the Doctrine and the Thirteenth Anathematism doth ordain that satisfaction is made by voluntary Penance Sponte susceptis Sesf 14. cap. 9. De Operibus satisfactoriis can 13. and suffering Hardships Therefore it is not needful nor yet just to impose in Confession the Punishment which is correspondent and by just consequence not to make a Specifical Enumeration which is said to be ordained for this end And that not considering any thing spoken before the Confessor though most learned attentive and wise having heard the Confession of any ordinary man for one Year much more of a great sinner for many years it is impossible he should judge aright though he had Canons of the punishment due to any Sin whatsoever without danger to err very much For a Confessor seeing all in Writing and considering many days of it could not make a Ballance to decide justly much less hearing and resolving presently as the Custom is What is this else but to scorn vilifie us and as if insensible Brutes Horses or Mules which have no understanding to impose such Absurdities upon our Reasons Belief and Consciences § Thus you see what work what strange work the Papists make with Binding and Loosing by drawing wrong Conclusions and Consequences from Premises which will not yield them That which is clear and apparent without the help of any Sophistry or false Arts is That Christ before his Ascension having commanded his Apostles to preach the Gospel c. he left also to them and to his Disciples as Representatives of all the Faithful this Principle and Catholick Precept viz. To love one another John 13.34 Charging them amicably not judicially to make peace between dissenting and discording Brethren and for the Dernier result and remedy giving the care thereof to the * Mat. 10.15 18. Body of the Church promising it should be bound and loosed in Heaven whatsoever they did bind and loose on Earth 1 Cor. 5.4 13. and whatsoever two did ask with a common consent should be granted by the Father Mat. 18.18 19. In this charitable Office 2 Thes 3.14 to give satisfaction to the offended and pardon to the offender the Primitive Church was always exercised And unto this Rule did St. Paul conform when he ordained that Brothers having Civil Suits one against another should not go to the Tribunals of the Infidels but that wise men not Priests should be appointed to judge the Differences and this was a kind of Civil Judgment as the other was the similitude of a Criminal but were both so different from the Judgment of the world that as
Year 1484. the King of Spain admitted it into his Dominions yet so cautionate and jealous was he as he reserved himself to be Lord paramount thereof of choosing the Inquisitor General whom the Pope confirms And for the rest the Court of Rome was not admitted to intermeddle any farther so that though the King seemed willing to gratifie the See Apostolick yet did he reserve his Supremacy of Power over all Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to himself and so doth the State of Venice by their Coadjutors and Inspectors of the Tribunals Inquisitory In which Republick the Inquisition doth not depend on the Court of Rome but properly belongs to the Republick Independent set up and constituted by the same and established by contract and agreement with Pope Nicholas the fourth prout in his Bull of 28. Aug. 1289. wherein is inserted the very determination of the greater Council made the fourth of the same Month. And therefore as they ought are to be governed by their own Customs and Ordinances without being obliged to receive Orders from the Pope And indeed before the admittance of the Inquisition there was in effect the same Office though meerly Secular to which Noble-men were raised to enquire after Hereticks and this the Republick made good afterwards against the See-Apostolick in the Years 1289. 1301. 1605. 1606. and 1607. upon Disputes maintaining their Civil Authority in Ecclesiasticis to be their undoubted Right and cannot be taken away by any Bull or Decree made in any manner by any Pope to whom soever Hist. Inquisit § By all which it appears that neither Monarchs nor Free States would be juggled out of their just Right of Commanding over Persons and Causes Ecclesiastical and that those Condescentions of the Civil Magistrates were only to gratifie some Popes out of special favour to them and not for any just Right the Popes had unto them For let Pope or Presbyter pretend what they please to the contrary they do as much as in them lies endeavour to erect Regnum in Regno by giving Temporal Monarchy only an imperfect broken Right in some things but controlable and defeasible by the Spiritual Monarchy in other things And the World hath had a long and sad experience of this whilst Kings had the Popes and Presbiters their Superiors in any thing they remained Supream in nothing whilst their Rule in Popish Countries was by Division diminished in some things they found it insufficient in all things so that they did command joyntly with the Pope but were commanded wholly unless by force they extricated themselves out of their snares So Calvin and his Followers complain and grumble much at the Power that the Civil Magistrate assumes in England France and Germany over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical holding Princes incompetent for Spiritual Regency accounting the intermedling of Princes therein as an Abolition or Prophanation of the same § But let us not doubt to submit all things under one Supream on Earth submitting and recommending him by our Prayers unto his Supream in Heaven for it is no small thing in such a Case to be left to the searching Judgment of God nor need we doubt or hold our selves utterly remediless whilst we can truly say Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum est And let us not mistake our Supream on Earth for if God had intended to have left us a Spiritual Sword or miraculous Judicatory never before known or useful to the World and that to be of perpetual necessity sans doubt he would have left us some clear command in Scripture and not have involved and mantled his meaning in Metaphors so intricate and ambiguous But to let pass this Theam of Excommunication so unpleasant to Popish and Presbyterian Ears let us examine the Magistrates Power as it relates to Religion in commanding Liturgies and concerning Toleration Compulsion and Government c. § All just Dominion and Empire is founded on true Religion and Piety i. e all Governours and Governments were ordained for the good of the Governed and they are obliged by the Law of God to govern according to Rules of Religion and Piety no Nation under Heaven having Statutes and Judgments so just and righteous as are prescribed by God himself and who act not according to them an Iliad of Curses will attend them and their Plagues shall be wonderful Deut. 28.58 It is Righteousness and Judgment that is the Establishment of Thrones A Kingdom is translated from one People to another for unrighteousness Eccles 10.8 And The King that faithfully judgeth the Poor his Throne shall be established for ever Prov. 29.14 If I am not much mistaken the necessity of a Liturgy and the warrantableness of establishing the use thereof is easily deducible nay doth naturally flow from the Charge and Right of Government which Kings have in the Government of the Church and granted unto them by their great Charter from Heaven their Command from God For Kings and all other just Governments being granted to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae it must necessarily follow that the Government of the Church is their Duty and consequently ought to be their chief Care And that they be so what need we other Proof or Argument than that through the whole Scripture Kings have been charged therewith and according to their countenancing or discountenancing Idolatry and other sins or abetting and supporting Gods true Religion or establishing or but conniving at Idolatry or other Impieties so they received from God by his Messengers the Prophets praise or dispraise reward or punishment accordingly and those of no less concern than the establishment or deprivations of their Kingdoms And it will as naturally follow that if the care of the Church be the Duty of Kings that then they both may and ought to set up and establish a publick Standard and Test within their Dominions to measure and try all Mens Religion by as to the outward profession thereof and outward conformity thereunto and to appoint and allow publick consecrated or to speak more inoffensively to all Parties seperated Places or Churches for publick Divine Worship and Service and administration of Gods Holy Sacraments and Ordinances to the frequenting of which they may make strict Laws or else how is it possible for the Magistrate to have cognisance of them and of their Religions and why else should the Magistrate be blamed for the Idolatry or other sins of his Subjects if he have no power to inspect take cognisance and to restrain from sinful practises nor yet to force unto the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel nor to the frequenting of Gods Holy Ordinances Now this Standard or Test I call a Liturgy without which or something equivalent how is it possible for Kings to give a good account to God of their Care and well-governing of the Church within their respective Dominions which Liturgy in general ought to contain so many Fundamentals of Christian Religion to the Belief of which if Christians joyn
abominable Irreverent practices are prevented and thereby care is taken according as the Council of Milevis Can. 12. decreed Ne forte aliquid contra sidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum Lest by chance either through ignorance or want of due Study and Consideration Heterodox or unsound Tenets be Broached or unreverend practises used Moreover Calvin himself adviseth it with his Valde Probo Ep. ad Protect I do exceedingly approve of it 1º ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae As a means to help and supply the simplicity and unskilfulness of some 2º ut certus constet Ecclesiarum omnium inter se consensus that the consent and harmony of all Churches under one Government may the better be ascertained 3º ut obviam eatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui Novationes quasdam affectant That the Capriccious giddiness and Levity of such who like nothing but Changes and Innovations may be obviated Nay the same Calvin inforceth it farther with an Oportet statam esse oportet Sacramentorum celebrationem Publicam item precum formulam Epist Protectori There is no other remedy an established set Form there must be for Celebration of the Sacraments and also for Common Prayer which Opinion of his I doubt the Discourser doth not favour § It 's a strange Phanatick Opinion that hath long possessed the minds of some that nothing may be Lawfully done or used in the Churches of Christ unless there be express Command or Example for it in Scripture which Tenet is unsound in it self and pernicious in its consequences upon which also the great Doctors and Patrons of Liberty do graft another viz. that without some express Command from God there is no Power under Heaven which may presume by any Law to restrain the Liberty which God hath given which Opinions shake nay overthrow the very Fabrick and Foundation of all Governments and tend only to Anarchy and Confusion and to dissoâ—â—e all Families Cities Corporations Kingdoms Churches leaving every Man to the freedom of his own mind to the Quakers Light within them in such things as are not either Commanded or Prohibited by the Law of God and because only in these things the positive Precepts of Men have place which Precepts cannot possibly be given without some abridgement of their Liberty to whom they are given whereas in truth the Diametrically opposite Opinion is only Infallibly true viz. those things which the Law of God leaveth Arbitrary and at Liberty and whereof the Scriptures are silent are all subject to the positive Laws of Men which Laws for the common benefit may abridge particular Mens Liberty in such things as far as the Rules of Equity and common good will suffer If this be not sound Doctrine adieu to all Societies and all Government the World must be turned topsi turvy Of this so Poysonous root and branch I shall say no more but shall leave our Anti-Liturgists our Non-Assenters to consider if these late dayes of Liberty have not in very great part brought their own Axiomes home to themselves for as in the dayes of Yore the Non-Conformist asked our Prelates and Conformists what Command or Example in Scripture have you for kneeling at the Communion for wearing a Cap Hood Surplice For Lord Bishops or for their wearing of Lawn sleeves or of Pleated Velvet or Taffaty Hats For a Liturgy or keeping Holy-dayes so now Phanaticks Quakers and others to them where are your Lay-Presbiters your Congregational Classical Provincial Synodical and National Assemblies your Parochial and Classical Elderships c. to be found in Scripture where your Steeple Houses your National Churches your Tyths and Mortuaries your Infant Sprinklings Nay where your meeter Psalms your two Sacrantents your weekly Sabbaths nay your Ministery your Church shew us say they Command or Example for them in Scripture now seeing the one have lent the other their Premisses I shall leave them to wrangle among themselves about the Conclusion which in Sum is no other but to exchange with each other a Rowland for an Oliver Whilst one throws Stones at the Innocent Ceremonies used in the Sacraments and Church Administrations another strikes at the very Sacraments themselves whilst one Disputes against the comely Habits and reverend Titles of the Clergy the other by the same Logick Questions the very Functions of Bishops and Priesthood the one seeks to abolish the Festivals of the Saints and the other even that of the Lords-day the one would have no Churches nor Priests the other no Scriptures all which with divers others of the same Leaven are but the Spawn and Fruits of Idol-liberty so that the Dernier result must end in a sad Catastrophe Confusion disorder and every evil work Before I conclude this passant observation I will make by the way of all viz. that they are not so peremptory in demanding and peevish in insifting upon Scripture Precepts and Examples for things they like not to yield obedience unto as they are negligent in the use of other things for which there are far more plain Precepts and Example even of Christ himself and that with his own debet stampt upon them witness the Administration of the Sacrament which Christ Administred in the Evening first rising from Supper laying aside his Garments girding himself with a Towel powring Water into a Bason Washing his Disciples Feet and wiping them with a Towel wherewith he was Girded then taking his Garments and sitting down again and saying ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for 〈◊〉 I am if I then your Lord and Master have washt your Feet ye also ought to wash one anothers Feet for I have given you an example that ye would do as I have done unto you Verily I say unto you the Servant is not greater than his Lord neither he that is sent greater then he that sent him if ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them John 13.4.5.12.17 what more plain Precept greater Example or stronger inforcements for his Successors his Ministers to do the like can ye have and yet how little of this is performed by them is not unknown to any Greet one another with a Holy Kiss is a Precept likewise Apostolical 1 Pet. 5.14 and was in Customary use before their approaching the Lords Table until the dayes of Justine Martyr Apoll. 2 and Tertullian blames the Omission of that Right grown upon the Church in times of the Solemn Fastings and Prayers Then they withdrew that Osculum pacis when in his Judgment it was most convenient and necessary de Oratione When Widdows are to be chosen for the Service of the Church this Qualification is required She must be one that had Washed the Saints Feet 1 Tim. 5.10 and our Saviour by his Precept and Example Commends to his Disciples Washing each others Feet John 13.14 15. may not much of the like nature be said for the disuse of Anoynting Love Feasts c. but I forbear
Religion Ordained that all that were in Prison for Religion should be set at Liberty their Processes made void their Offences pardoned and their Goodsrestored and tho the Pope and Parliament did much regret and repine at these Liberties yet in the year 1561. the King by his Edict did Command that no man under pretence of discovering the Congregations for Religion which were forbid should enter with many or few into another Mans House that Prisoners for Religion should be set at Liberty and that those that fled since the time of Francis the 1st might return and repossess their Goods § And in the year 1562. the Queen of Navar Prince of Conde Admiral and the Dutchess of Ferrara having long made request that Places should be allowed to the Huguenots for their Sermons and Worship which being mainly opposed by the Pope and his Papalins Tumults did arise as in other places so more especially in Dyon and Paris most notorious for the Death of many for quieting whereof the King and his Council called the Presidents of all the Parliaments to consider of a remedy that might be sit and Adaequate to the troubles of the whole Kingdom these being all Assembled on the 17th of January it was resolved tho not without great Opposition that the Edict of July should be in part remitted and that the Protestants have leave to exercise their Religion without but not within the City and that they should not be molested in their Sermons and Assemblies Congregated out of the City nor hindred by the Magistrates tho the Magistrates and Officers might be present at their Sermons and Meetings if they pleased Tho the Parliament could hardly be brought to accept of this Edict yet it did take effect and was Published the 6th of March but with this Proviso that it was not to approve the New Religion but only by way of provision until it was otherwise ordained by the King which was soon after For the Enemy of all Righteousness full of all subtilty and all mischief like the Child of the Devil did not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord by whose Instigation the Parliament of Paris made a Sanguinary Decree in July following viz. that it should be lawful to slay all the Hugonots which by publick order was to be Read every Sunday in every Parish Thus you see Indulgences have frequently been granted by the Papalins that crudele genus even unto Protestants Hereticks in their esteem when the Peace of the Kingdom and obedience of Subjects become questionable non obstante the Bishop of Rome who cannot think no Persecution severe enough that is less than fire and faggot or what was formerly used against the Albigences of whom Philippus Augustus put to Death 600 in one day and against the Waldenses who were choaked in the Caves whither they fled to hide themselves Herein I desire to be fairly understood that I do not by thus arguing Plead for Tolleration or Connivence towards any Perswasion or Religion who either have no sound Gospel Principles of good Life and good Doctrine or whose Principles and Doctrine are averse and chag-reen to the Publick and Just Interests of States and Kingdoms or whose Morals are like those of the Jesuits or who fail in fundamentals but for those on whom are obtruded or required more performances as necessary than ever God made necessary whereby the Door into the Church and the Gates of Heaven are by the Commands of Men made narrower than ever God made them Opinions and Problems about things indifferent and not fundamental nor yet absolutely necessary ought to keep their just Forms and Bounds and not to be Imposed as Oracles which being of doubtful disputation and the truth of them not to be made evident by any infallible Power of Judicature ought not to be brought into the Family or Tribe of Faith and therefore not to be obtruded or Imposed necessarily because they cannot be made clear Infallibly and because they have no Warrant from Scripture so to do Some Doctrines are absolutely necessary others as clearly not necessary let those be urged as necessary these only left to Men indifferently because indeterminate by Scripture Both Governors and Governed are like Men and subject to like Passions and Biasses peevishness and Impatience of Contradiction or Glory of Conquest may bear sway in either the best of Men are but Men at the best To be free from all Ignorance and error is the great Priviledge of the Church Triumphant when our Faith shall be turned into vision and our dark knowledge into clear Comprehension and therefore to expect an absolute and general assent in all particles of truth is a marvelous Vanity and to exact it a greater Tyranny of pernitious Consequence in the Church Heretofore Wise Princes unless some times over born by the unreasonable importunities of proud and haughty Popes and Prelates indulged Tolleration unto dissenting Brethren whose opinions did not disturb the Publick Peace and Interest of Nations And these latter Ages have given us an undeniable Argument from the good success thereof not without this great reason that prudent Indulgence doth not disturb but secure publick Peace because by so doing there is not so much as the pretence of Religion left to make quarrels withal because it is indulged unto them see the fruits of it in our neighbour Nations whilst France fought against the Hugonots it did but spill her own blood exhaust her own Treasure weaken her own strength and could do no great things abroad but becoming wiser how powerful at home how formidable abroad both by Sea and Land I need not tell but the most remarkable instance is to be collected from the different success of the different tempers of Margaret of Parma in the Government of the Neatherlands and the Duke de Alva when she by her moderation and Clemency had almost quencht the great fire and flame therein kindled He her Successor in that Government managed it with that fury that it proved too hot both for him his Prince and his Religion to abide it He did not consider him that said Fury is not in me 27 of Esay 4th and where is the Fury of the oppressor 51 of Isa 13. him that loveth Violence his Soul hateth 11 Psal 5th for thy Violence against thy Brother Jacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever Obad 10. For the Dukelike Jehu most furiously did drive on the designs concluded on at Bajon for the extirpation of the Protestant Religion § Some others not Papalins nor yet Phanaticks are much against any Connivence and not altogether without some shew of reason As that to give Dissenters satisfaction in some requests will but give them encouragement and pretence to prepare more and to think they are their due and that it is easier and more secure to deny their demands than being once gratified tho but in part to prescribe them a measure or a Non Vltra and that the granting
answerable Practise it may certainly bring them to Heaven What the Particulars of this Liturgy should be I will not here meddle withal only thus If it contain any thing contrary to the Word of God it ought not to be and much less to be enjoyned and if it do the Magistrate must answer for it at the day of his Account and Dissenters thereunto not be blamed Therefore as he tenders the good of his own Soul it behoves him to take care that all therein be warrantable by the Word of God or at least no way contrary unto it and to leave nothing or as little as is possible upon a Moote Point Concerning our own established Liturgy I shall only say this in general for Justification thereof That whosoever consults it shall find no Point of Belief wanting in it absolutely necessary to Salvation and that the Method of it is incomparably good scarce capable of Melioration being but the History of Christ beginning with his Advent and so proceeding to his Nativity Circumcision Epiphany Passion Resurrection Ascention c. all very requisite at least if not absolutely necessary to be known and believed and all justified and made out by suitable Chapters Epistles Gospels Collects Prayers c. containing also a laudable and very reverend Form of Administring the Sacraments and the like for Marriage Burial of the Dead Ordination and Consecration of Bishops and Presbyters and all these according or at least not contrary to the Tenor of Holy Writ and therefore fit to be enjoyned and its use established and the disuse and abuse thereof to be discountenanced by the Magistrate If any be unsatisfied with any Part or Expression or Rite or Gesture or Habit or Vestment therein mentioned or therewith used I refer them to Judicious Hooker never yet answered and others for satisfaction it being not my design to justisie every Particular of this or any other Liturgy but to assert the necessity requisiteness and conveniency of Liturgies in general from the Antiquity and Universal Use of all Christian Churches in all parts of the World In rebus de quibus nil câ—rtislatuit Divina Scriptura mos Populi lâ—ei instituta majorum pro lege tâ—â—â—nd asunt August ad Casulanum which alone almost argues the necessity of it to be established by a Law of Nature or Moral Reason and not to be esteemed of as a thing indifferent that may or may not be used so necessary that without it I cannot see how any Prince can take general cognisance of the Religion of his People Take this also along with you in farther Justification of our Liturgy That by the Order contained in the Book of Common-Prayer on Sundays and Holy-days half an hour before Even-song so the Old Common-Prayer-Book and Canon as I remember or according to the Newer Books after the Second Lesson the Curate of every Parish ought to examine Children sent unto him in some Points of the Catechisme and all Fathers Mothers Masters Dames should cause their Children Servants and Apprentices to resort unto the Church at the time appointed there to hear and to be obediently ordered by the Curate until such time as that they have learnt all that in the said Book is commanded And when the Bishops shall appoint the Children to be brought before them for their Confirmation the Curate of every Parish shall bring or send the Names of those Children of his Parish which can answer to the Questions of the Catechisme And there ought none to be admitted to the Holy Communion until such time as he can say his Catechisme and be Confirmed SOME REMARQUES UPON A DISCOURSE CONCERNING LITURGIES c. NOtwithstanding all the great Care Piety and Prudence of our Fore-fathers successively used Age after Age in compiling of so excellent a thing as a Liturgy and of which this Nation hath received so great benefit that it hath proved by experience to be what once Paul the fourth averred of his great Darling the Inquisition for the Avail against Heresie and defence of the Apostolick See the true Ram to keep out Heresie and Popery yet as of Elder so of more Puny Days but especially since 1640. there have been published Pamphlets sans Nombre villifying and condemning the Use and Imposition of Liturgies besides much Gall which hath dropt from many a bitter Pen against them by the By from Writers writing on other Occasions But of them all that have come unto my view none prima facie carries more shew of Reason and Learning than that which bears the Title of A Discourse concerning Liturgies and their Impositions published 1662. by a nameless Author To answer which would require a large Volume which not being my Work or Design here I shall only tanquam Canis ad Nilum touch and away give you a very short Sum and Account of his large Discourse containing above 170 Pages in Quarto in a small Print and say something to the most material Arguments only of it for there be many of his Averments and Postulata which if we should both give and grant yet would be rather Arguments for than against Liturgies as that Christ never instituted nor appointed Liturgies that the Apostles never used them nor yet the Fathers in the Purest Times For though Christ never Instituted Liturgies it is enough that he commanded Rem Liturgiarum the Matter Worship and Doctrines contained in our Liturgies for of such and such only I desire to be understood If such Reasoning may be allowed for currant Doctrine it will certainly prove as strong against Sermons and Administrations that he or any other preacheth and useth as against Liturgies for certainly Christ never appointed the Form though happily he hath the Matter of the one and of the other jam sumus ergo pares they are both on the same bottom Besides is it reasonable to think it fit that Christ in whom even whilst on Earth dwelled all the fulness of the God-head bodily Col. 2.9 that had the Power of all Matter Form and Language and whatever he spake or thought was infallible should yet tie himself to any stinted Forms of Words The like say I for the Apostles in whom the Spirit also dwelt bodily as in Christ himself even after the same manner though not in the same measure witness those Emanations from their Words from their Touch from their Shadows curing Diseases by Handkerchiefs Aprons and Shadows and witness their Infallible Spirit that what ever they dictated as Truth was Truth and is come down as Scripture to us witness also the Cloven Tongues sitting upon each of them whereby they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and were endowed to speak with Tongues If the Apostles I say after all these Gifts and Graces so miraculously bestowed on them should have limited the Spirit by using stinted Forms happily they would not have been found so faithful in the House of God as was Moses Is it then rational from such Premisses to deduce this Conclusion that