the other members dependant on my Head so are all particular Churches I meane Congregations dependant on their Generall Head Christ but not on other of their fellow members If any man shall say that Hands depend not onely on the Head but also on the Armes Shoulders and Necke which are betweene Them and the Head on whom they ultimately depend I answer It is true the Hands are conjoyned to the Armes These to the Shoulders and Both by the Neck to the Head but yet They depend not on any but the Head I meane they are not directed and guided by the Dictates of Arme Shoulder or Necke but onely by the Commands of the Head so that there is onely a bodily outward Continuity and no vertuall Dependance but on the Head The Head sends out Animall Spirits and by them guides my Hand as my fancie pleaseth This Guiding or Directing Depends onely on the Head not Arme which when I meane to move my Hand is but as it were my Hands Servant that must goe and call and lead my Hand as a Gentleman Usher but not command it So are also all the Churches all severall Congregations They are all members and are all outwardly conjoyned One to another through all the world by the tendons and ligaments of Rivers Seas Hils Vallies and the like Yea and some of These are neerer to Christ their Head as they keepe themselves purer and walke more closely in dependance on Him Yet All these Churches are but Coordinate not among themselves Subordinate They are but conjoyned each to other not dependant each on other but All on their Head which alone can command and move them Yea though perhaps some One Church may come betweene Christ and another Church as the Arme betweene the Head and Hand yet it is there but as a servant to call on leade helpe uphold being so commanded by the Head but not to command dictate or over-top its fellow member You see here what Power we give to Synods and Councels or all other Churches over one particular Church â—o wit a counselling perswading which sure is very prevailing but not commanding Authority I doubt not but Christ doth sometimes require One Church to incite exhort admonish and perswade another fellow Church though This be not required of any one Angel in the Apocalyps towards another Church or Angel yet I suppose it may be in some Cases yea and so that the Other Church may haply sinne if shee doe not follow This Call and Counsell yet not because it comes from her fellow Church or any Synod but because It comes from Christ her Head that speakes through This Church to her fellow As the Hand might justly bee stiled rebellious that rejects the Animall Spirits sent from the Head though they come through the Arme Which is here in this Case not onely a servant to the Head but to the Hand also Yet doth not the Hand rebell because it refuseth That which comes from the Arme but because it came from the Head but through the Arme as an Instrument For if ever the Arme impose ought on the Hand which comes not from the Head as it doth sometimes in a flux of putrid humours from an ulcer in the Arme in this Case the Arme erres in so imposing on the Hand but the Hand rebels not in rejecting what the Arme so sends because it comes not from the Head On which and on which alone all the members vertually depend and not on any one or more fellow members All this while though we dispute the Independancie of Churches among themselves yet we have not the least shadow of a Thought to withdraw any Church from the Civill Magistrate Nay These men whom our Bishops brand so with Separation most cordially affirme that if Episcopacie can prove greater or better subjection or but equall to Them They will not scruple to subscribe to Them But alas if we once give way to Dependance of Churches must not the Church of England Depend on the Dutch or the Dutch on England as much as one Church in England must Depend on a Provinciall Church of Canterbury or Nationall in all England And if the English Church must Depend on the Dutch or Dutch on English which shall be Inferior This or That by This Dispute of Precedencie we shall at length â—ast all Churches into such a Confusion as some of our Bishops Sees were heretofore for superiority Pompejus non admittit superiorem Caesar non parem And now I conceive Yorke is Inferior to Canterbury Durham to Yorke not by any Law Morall or of Nature but positive of State Yea by This Dependance will follow a farre greater Evill than This dispute and confusion about Precedencie For if One whole Church must so depend on another then must also the Officers of This depend on Those of That Church And if so shall not all Church Officers returne to the Pope at length as to One Supreme Head on Earth If Geneva Depend on France why not France on Spaine Spaine on Italy Italy on Rome Rome on the Pope And had I begunne a great deale lower I should have come up higher to This Head Perhaps All the Inconveniences that can be objected on Independance though they could not be answered as I conceive they may will not ballance This One Inconvenience of Dependance But no more of This. The next Grand Inconvenience that may be feared on the removall of our Prelates is Licentia praedicandi not onely in that sense in which This phrase is used beyond the Seas and was in that sense forbidden under our Last Royall King ' Iames That was Licentia quoad Materiam This quoad Personam Now they say Not onely Every matter will be preached what every Minister pleaseth but also Every Person will turne Preacher Even Shoomakers Coblers Felt-makers and any other God is the God of Order and not of Confusion And if Order is to be observed any where It is sure in matter of Worship For if through the Churches default Disorder breake in at any craney you shall finde the Breach grow wider and wider every day Except the Cleft be stopt the Ship may quickly sinke And therefore I shall wholly agree and joyne with Them that indeavour with the first to allay the very semblance and apparition lesse than the least bubling up of Disorder Onely this I could heartily wish that Fire and Fagot may not determine this Controversie that These men may not be dealt with as were some of the Martyrs in Queene Maries daies For oft when the Bishops could not reply They would start up and sweare by the Faith of their Body that This was a dangerous grosse and Hereticall opinion and All This was but a Prologue to That Tragedy whose Epilogue was Flame and Fagot or at least the Fasces to younger men We have oft seene some of These Preachers before the highest Tribunall in This Kingdome For we thought it unreasonable with Those in the Acts to condemne
though I must confesse in some other things now prest as necessary They have had Authority above their owne though I conceive none for such rigid imposall I meane the Highest granted by the whole representative State Civill and Ecclesiasticall which yet with all duty to that wombe which bare mee and Those Breasts That gave mee suck hath thought some things indifferent which I could scarce ever apprehend such at least as of late they have beene enjoyned on greatest penalties It hath oft made my soule bleed to see the greatest sinnes daily committed without more than a paper check that I may not say countenanced while thousands must sigh in private with losse of eares goods estates livings liberty all only for refusall of Those things that at best can be but Indifferent But However these things may be in thēselves sure I am our Bishops have pressed them not only beyond the Laws intention but also much against the meaning of those good men who in the first Reformation did though perhaps erroneously what Christ once lawfully permitted in almost the same case allowing a convenient Time for Buriall of those Ceremonies which yet appeared not Mortiserae though Mortuae Yea and some things unlawfull by their owne power They have forced upon Minister and People under the maske of Indifferent On the Ministers the Reading of the Booke of Sports first invented by themselves that monstrous and prodigious late Oath with divers new Canons not enjoyned by Parliament or any other Legall authority I might adde their bare bidding forme of Prayer Second Service at the Altar though it could not be heard an illegall Oath of Canonicall Obedience blind devotion and a new forme of subscription before Degrees Orders Institutions c. On Them and the People placing the Communion Table Altar-wise Railing it in Bowing to it Receiving at it c. For I will now passe over their most unchristian Oath Ex Officio fouler than the foulest dregges of that cruell Inquisition at one blow cutting asunder all the nerves not onely of positive but morall naturall Lawes all which being tender of the least graine of mans liberty have entrusted us with this Vniversall maxime Nemo tenetur se prodere Thus it is manifest Their Practice is according to their Principles towards the People And they have no lesse incroacht upon the Crowne Do they not affirme that in Civill Government Democracie Aristocracie Monarchy are all lawfull and that of These severall people may at first chuse which they please But for Episcopacie 't is still with them onely Iure Divino in which they seeme to affirme Themselves to stand upon a surer Rock then Kings In This they erre against much light I feare But God forgive them CHAP. V. BUt that we may no longer be impos'd upon by This principle of Indifferent give me leave to discover my thoughts in these two particulars First What is Indifferent Secondly Where the Power of Indifference is fixt Some call those things Indifferent which are neither forbidden nor commanded but here they tell us onely what 't is not and Negatives make no Definition Those also who affirme that to be Indifferent which may or may not be done leave us as much to seeke as the former I must intreat the Reader to remember that wee are now upon Morall beeings where the Two maine Ingredient◠Matter and Forme can be but Metaphysically Notionall and therefore it will be hard to give an exact Definition Seeing even in Naturals whose matter occurrit sensibus 't is difficult enough Before I assay to give the nature of it in a Definition give me leave to present you with some kind of Etymologie In the word Indifferent the preposition In is They say purely negative though in other compounds as incipere inflammare incitare influere c it beareth another sense which they call augmentative But in the word Indifferent it must deny a Difference as much as non differens But under favour of our learned Critickes I do not conceive that particle in This place wholly negative Nor can I thinke Caninius Martinius or other good Grammarians when they call this preposition privative intend to make it wholly negative but to my eye to my sense in such and such circumstances When a man is said to be Imprudens incautus or the like we may not judge Him altogether sine prudentia sine cautela for Animal Rationale cannot be quite devoid of these And therefore if we take Imprudens in this proposition Hic homo est imprudens in a pure negative sense the Predicate is destructive to the Subject So that I dare not thinke our Ancesters and learned men would give Epithets or mak Compositions contrary to all reason Such Propositions are then thus farre Negative as by way of figure to deny any caution any prudence whereas indeed they must allow both except in such or such a particular such or such a sense Such doubtlesse is the sense of this Preposition in the word Indifferent not purely Non differens but in such or such a respect it Differeth not Though in another respect it may and doth Differ even from the very same Thing with which yet in other respects it Differeth not This Etymologie I chuse the rather because I see the Criticks in all their Etymologies love to give to each part in the composition a Positive signification Which I cannot do here unlesse I translate Indifferens Differing and yet not differing a sense which also the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will fully beare For if by other imployments I have not lost the smattering once I had in that Tongue the phrase seemes best applyable to a Medium that doth not fully or wholly carry it selfe off from both the Extremes but participates of either Such an Indifferent-difference hath cleerly place in all those Natura's which betweene two positive extremes such as Blacke and White Hot and Cold have a positive Medium Participationis because it participates of both extremes and Negationis too because it is neither This Medium is properly Indifferent to either Extreme from which it Differeth and yet it Differeth not because it is neither of the Two Extremes yet participates of Both. Thus Lukewarme as Warme Differeth not from Hot yet Differeth as Coole and therefore is Indifferent This sense of Indifferent being thus made good in Naturals some would borrow and apply to Morall Theologicall Beings also So that betweene Good and Bad they fancie an intermediate Entity neither Good nor Bad but Indifferent to either As once a Moderator in the Schooles being to determine whither Eucretia did well in stabbing herselfe seeing that Action Good in many respects and Bad in as many more concluded thus Nec bene fecit nec male fecit sed Interfecit But I conceive such Indifference will not cannot be found in Morals as it is in Naturals The reason is because the two extremes are not here as in many Naturals Both Positive Beings so that
twenty severall times in the New Testament And you shall find the Apostles honouring This Name so much that one of them stiles himselfe an Elder but none calls himselfe a Bishop Indeed Iudas is so called Who as it were Prophetically behaved himselfe so that his Arch-Bishoprick was given to another I doubt not but the Spirit fore-saw this Word would bee quickly mounted high enough so that it brands Iudas first with This stile Of much more â—ajesty is the Word Presbyter which signifies Senior Under the Law Youth was bound to pay Tribute to Gray haires and Senatus of old was so stiled à Senioribus Whereas Episcopus signifies nothing but an Overseer And such indeed Bishops have beene for many yeares Perhaps the Name of Bishop is sometimes though rarely used that the wilfully blinde might stumble But the Name Presbyter very frequent that Those who love Truth and Light might still see such a Glympse that might Enlighten them in the midst of Egyptian darknesse from which I doubt not but God will deliver all Christendom in due time I can finde as little also for the Office of a Bishop as for his Name in Scripture yea much lesse I can finde our Saviour rebuking his Disciples striving for precedency saying Hee that will bee first shall bee last I can finde St. Peter saying Lord it not over the flock of Christ And St. Iohn branding Diotrephes with seeking the Preheminence But where shall wee finde the usurped Office of our Bishops in all the Scripture Can they finde it by a multiplying glasse where ever they see the Name of Bishop though but in a Postscript of St. Pauls Epistles Whither I see many of them fly for their owne Name I must confesse I have found some Praescripts of Davids Psalmes and other Texts to bee now part of Scripture but never yet found any Postscript of such Authority I dare not therefore give it unto These Which first were never that I could learn received by the Church for Authentick Scripture nor ever fully joyned to the Scripture but by some distinctive note till our Bishops times Yea some Antient Copies have them not at all as one very old Greek Copy in Oxford Library if I be not mis-informed Againe These Postscripts have many Improbabilities and some repugnancies as many Learned men observe As That of the first to Timothy From Laodicea the cheifest City of Phrygia Pacatiana Which sure was never so subscribed by St. Paul who would not have spoken of a First Epistle when as yet there was no Second nor appearance of any Againe the Epithet Pacatiana came from Pacatianus a Roman Deputy 300. yeares after St. Paul wrote The Epistle to Titus is thus subscribed or rather superscribed To Titus ordained the first Bishop of Creet from Nicapolis of Macedonia but it should have beene added Whither St. Paul meant to come after the Epistle but was not there at his writing as appeares very probably from the third of the same Epistle verse 12. But what meanes that Phrase Bishop of the Church in Creet was there but one Church in all Creet This sounds not like the Scripture stile which alwayes expresseth Nationall Congregations by Churches in the Plurall But it may very well be Titus was Bishop or Pastor but of one Church in Creet so that wee shall not need to contend about This. Our Adversaries themselves yeeld there cannot bee much urged from these Subscriptions Baronius Serrarius and the Rhemists will ingenuously confesse so much and Bishop Whitgift also against Mr. Cartwright â—he Postscripts failing where will they shew either Name or Office of a Bishop as now it is used I know their strong Fort Tit. 1.5 For this cause I left thee in Creet that thou shouldest set in Order the things that are Wanting and Ordain Elders in every City c. Here they think the Power of a Bishop is set forth at large But what if so Will they bee content to bee limited to This Power if so wee shall the sooner agree I think no man ever thought Good Titus had a Commission heere to draw the Civill Sword or so much as to strike with his Church Keyes Let us a little examine This Commission Which seemâ— but a Briefe of a large Patent which Saint Paul had given him before If we first examine the Date of This Commission wee shall finde it before any Church Government was setled and so an Extraordinary Case not fit perhaps not lawfull to be produced as a constant president Extraordinary Cases of Necessity breake through the Ceremoniall yea Morall Law too The Shew Bread may refresh fainting David Cain and Abel may marry their owne sisters to propagate the World Samuel may be a Priest though not of Aarons House as was shewed before And why then may not an Extraordinary way be taken in the first setling of Church Government where there is yet none setled Any man might now in the conversion of the Americans or Chinois give direction how to admit Members elect Pastors exercise the keyes c. This Titus did and no more But secondly in what manner his Commission was I know not and nothing can be proved from hence till that be agreed upon It is as probable he did it but instructivè exhortativè and not imperativè Timothy received his gift by imposition of Presbyteriall hands If an extraordinary gift was conveyed in an ordinary way Why might not an ordinary calling and affaires of an ordinary nature be managed by an extraordinary man be carried forth in an extraordinary way The contrary is not proved and so This must till then be Ineffectuall to them But thirdly and lastly I beseech you consider by what power he did it by the power of an Evangelist There are two sorts of them 1. Who write 2. Who proclaime the Gospell in an extraordinary way as coadjuters and messengers to the Apostles in this great worke Of this last sort certainly he was A Bishop he was not for our adversaries doe all agree that it is the duty of a Bishop curae sue incumbere to watch over his charge now this he did not for if Creet was his Charge which in no way neither by Scripture nor Antiquity is proved he did not attend it for we finde him continually journeying up and downe he leaveth Creet and commeth to Ephesus from thence he is sent to Corâ—nth after that into Macedonia from Macedonia he is returned to the Corinthians Neither is it to be found in History that he ever returned to Creet Thus if I mistake not the Text is lesse advantageous than the Postscript Some thinke to finde Episcopacy established in that example of Saint Iohn writing to the Angels of the seven Churches But this is Argumentum longè petitum Because Paul endorseth the Letter of a Corporation or an Assembly to the most eminent man in the Congregation Therefore He shall have sole Jurisdiction therefore the Maior shall have sole power without the Aldermen est par ratio
more it is opposed it shines the brighter so that now to stint it is to resist an enlightened enflamed Multitude which still was and still will be Durissima Provincia Their mad outrage in all the three Kingdomes of late hath so incensed the Common People that in all mens eyes they are become most vile and while all men reflect on their constant trade of mischeivous practices the wisest begin to conclude The very Calling hurt the Men as much as These disgrace the Calling Thus we have by too too long great and sad experience found it true That our Prelates have beene so farre from preventing Divisions that they have been the Parents and Patrons of most Errors Heresies Sects and Schismes that now disturbe This Church and State SECT II. CHAP. VII BUt it may bee the Remedy will yet bee worse than this Disease Let us therefore yet more exactly weigh all the Inconveniences that may attend the Change of This Church-Government which wee now dispute The Dangers which some have fancied may hence accrew to the State have beene discussed in the former Section to which more properly they doe belong We have here only to consider such Evils as may have bad influence into the Church and Polity thereof Arminianisme Socinianisme Superstition Idolatry Popery will pack away with Them being Their Attendants as was shewed before What is there then to be feared Anabaptisme Brownisme Separatisme nay every body every Lay man will turne Preacher Suppose all This be true which can be but supposed Would it not bee much better to hazzard the comming in of all These than still to suffer our soules and bodies to be groun'd to powder by these Tyrannicall Antichristian Prelates that under pretence of keeping out Separatisme introduce downe-right Popery and a sinck of almost all Errors and Heresies Yea and these Errors of the Right Hand which These pretend so much to oppose owe their birth to our Bishops also as was but now and might yet more fully be cleered Wee all know that within these ten yeares all the Non-Conformists in England could not amount to more than one or two hundred And now how many thousands there bee yea of such that rise one pin higher than Old Non-Conformity Themselves perhaps know much better than I Yet our Bishops never were more active than in all this time Whence then ariseth this New Non-Conformity or Separatisme but out of our Bishops Commotions I will not say as the Fathers did of old Ex martyrum sanguine pullulat Ecclesia yet I must confesse I begin to think there may bee perhaps somewhat more of God in these which they call new Schismes than appeares at first glympse I will not I cannot take on mee to defend That men usually call Anabaptisme Yet I conceive that Sect is Twofold Some of them hold Freewill Community of all things deny Magistracy and refuse to Baptize their Children These truly are such Hereticks or Atheists that I question whether any Divine should honour them so much as to dispute with them much rather sure should Alexanders sword determine here as of old at the Gordian knot where it acquired this Motto Que solvere non possum dissecabo There is another sort of them who only deny Baptisme to their Children till they come to yeares of discretion and then they baptize them but in other things they agree with the Church of England Truly These men are much to bee pitied And I could heartily wish That before they bee stigmatiz'd with that opprâ—brious brand of Schismatick the Truth might be cleered to them For I conceive to those that hold wee may goe no farther than Scripture for Doctrine or Discipline it may bee very easie to erre in this Point now in hand since the Scripture seemes not to have cleerly determined This particular The Analogy which Baptisme now hath with Circumcision in the old Law is a fine Rhetoricall Argument to illustrate a Point well proved before but I somewhat doubt whether it be proofe enough for that which some would prove by it since beside the vast difference in the Ordinances the persons to bee Circumcised are stated by a positive Law so expresse that it leaves no place for scruple but it is farre otherwise in Baptisme Where all the designation of Persons fit to bee partakers for ought I know is only Such as beleeve For this is the qualification that with exactest search I find the Scripture require in persons to be baptized And This it seemes to require in all such persons Now how Infants can bee properly said to beleeve I am not yet fully resolved Yet many things prevaile very much with mee in this point First For ought I could ever learne It was the constant custome of the purest and most Primitive Church to baptize Infants of beleeving Parents For I could never finde the beginning and first Rise of this practice Whereas it is very easie to track Heresies to their first Rising up and setting soot in the Church Againe I finde all Churches even the most strict have generally beene of this judgement and practice yea though there have beene in all ages some that much affected novelty and had parts enough to discusse and cleere what they thought good to preach yet was this scarce ever questioned by men of Note till within these Last Ages And sure the constant judgement of the Churches of Christ is much to be honoured and heard in all things that contradict not Scripture Nor can I well cleere that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your Children Vncleane but now are they Holy I know some interpret it thus If it be unlawfull for a beleever to live in wedlock with one that beleeveth not Then have many of you lived a long time in unlawfull marriage and so your very Children must be Illegitimate and these also must be cast off as Base-borne But it is not so for Your Children are Holy that is Legitimate I confesse This seemes a very faire Interpretation yet I much question Whether This be all the Apostle meanes by that phrase Holy especially when I reflect on the preceding words The Vnbeleever is Sanctified by the Beleever Nor yet can I beleeve any Inherent Holinesse is here meant but rather That Relative Church-Holinesse which makes a man capable of admission to Holy Ordinances and so to Baptisme yea and to the Lords Supper also for ought I see except perhaps Infants be excluded from This Sacrament by That Text Let him that eateth Examine himselfe aod so let him eat As Women are excluded from Church-Government and preaching in Congregations by That of the same Apostle I permit not a Woman to speak Let Women keep silence The second thing we feare so much is Separation or as some tearme it Brownisme for I am not so well studied in these as to give an exact difference betweene them or properly to state or phrase either Yet I thinke this also hath Latitude and admits of difference Before you