they neither Agree with me nor with them They say it is put into diverse hands And he saith it is Given only to Believers And is not this a Contradiction Ans No verily For when I say It is given to Believers as such and expresse virtually as well as Formally The meaning is cleare It is given to all Believers and only to Believers and by them Communicated to such as they doe orderly choose and call forth to the exercise of the same And the publishers of the keyes I doubt not will say as much When I said in the way That the brethren might not administer Sacraments in Defect of all Officers And therefore made it appeare that one sort of men the brethren had not Received all the Power of the keyes Formally The Replyer returneth Truly this is to Discover the Contradiction the more For if the Power of the keyes be Delivered to Believers as such then the Power of Administring the Sacraments is Given to them for that is a Part of the Power of the keyes Ans. It is wearysome to repeat so often the same Answer yet let me say it once more and leave it He that saith Believers Receive all the Power of the keyes as Profest Believers He saith all of them have Received the Power and they only and such as Receive their Power from them And this is the force of quateuus Tale That whosoever Receive any thing as such all such doe Receive it none but such as Derive it from them But saith the Replyer In the Way he giveth the greater part of Church power to the Body of the Church pag. 45. to wit to Ordaine and in some cases to excommunicate all their Church Officers which are the highest Acts of Rule as else where he speaketh Therefore he may not Deny them the lesser which is to Administer the Sacraments Ans. The answer is ready at hand and was ready at his hand in Part 2 of the Congregationall way cleared pag. 29. where I Distinguish Potestas into officiariam and honorariam Excommunication by the Brethren is the highest Act of Honoraria Potestas but not of Officiaria Potestas To Preach the word with Authority and to Administer the Seales of it are acts of the highest office-office-Power in the Church Popish Divines would take it very ill if any Act of Church Power were said to be higher than Conficere corpus Domini But excommunication largly taken is an Act of a Power proper to a Community Any community hath power ex Natura rei to Receive into their Communion to cast not of their Communion Every sound Body hath a power to cast out his own superfluous humours and to cut off his own Putrid members As for ordination though we looke at it with Dr Ames as Adjunctum consummans of the Peoples Election and vocation of their Officers and therefore not utterly Excentrical from the Peoples power yet our Churches doe not Practise it ordinarily where they have Elders of their own or can Procure other Elders to Joyne with them As for that last words in the Scheme of the first Contradiction I know not whether the Replyer put any weight or stresse in that in the first Columne the keyes are said to be given to wit partly to Believers and in the same Columne againe to the Fraternity with the Presbytery in the second Columne to Profest Believers In the third to Believers Publickly Professing their Faith And in Mr Hookers Judgment Not to Believers as Believers but as Believers Covenanting But if it be requisite to say any thing to this I would say 1. That the Fraternity and Profest Believers and Believers Publickly Professing their Faith are all one And the common Name of Believers is often put for all the rest They that were Added to the Church Acts 2. 47 and 41 are called by the common name of Believers Acts 2. 44. and 4. 32. when Mr Hooker saith the Power is not Given to Believers as Believers but as Believers Covenanting He meaneth the same that I do by Profest Believers As for women whom the Replyer cast in our way before though they be Believers and so partake in the same common Salvation as also in the word and seales yet because of the frailty of their sex they are expresly exempted by the Apostle from any Act of Power in the Church 1 Cor. 14. 34 35. and 1 Tim: 2. 11 12. Yet that Impeacheth not the Generality of the Proposition That all the Fraternity of Believers have Part in the Power of the Keyes That all men once Dye is the generall Proposition of the Apostle Heb 9. 27. which is not Impeached by the Translation of Enoch and Elias Having thus cleared the first Answer to this contradiction Let us weigh next what he saith to the second Answer which saith he is given to help out the former for I had said 2. If there had been some Difference between the Keyes and the Way in some expressions yet it lay rather in Logicall Termes then in the Doctrine of Divinity or Church Practise and such is this about the first subject of the Power of the Keyes What saith the Replyer to this He Returneth a double exception 1. Saith He Had it been only a lesser Difference about a Logicall Notion as he minceth it the Assertor had not Observed it But a difference of the highest magnitude to Contradiction in Delivering a New way is very Remarkable How shall we be brought to Agree with them that contradict not only one another but one man himselfe Answer 1. It was not any weaknesse of the first Answer that needed a second to Help it out but variety of fit matter for a just Defence produced it It needed no help but to cleare it selfe from groundlesse exceptions Answer 2. The seeming Difference between the way and the Keyes if any be in this point it lyeth rather in Logicall expressions then in the Doctrine of Divinity or Church Practise For what ever the Different Judgments of men of our way may be touching the first subject of the Power of the Keyes some Placing it in the Body of the Church others Dividing it between officers and Brethren yet in the Doctrine of Divinity we all Agree with one Accord that the Church even the Body of Church-members have power to choose their officers to Admit members and to censure offenders And that the officers only have Power to Preach the word with office and Authority and to Administer the Sacraments And according to this unity of judgment is the uniforme Practise of our Churches And therefore let mincing be left to curious Cookes to prepare their shread meat for queazy stomackes or let it be left to such as would make the best of a bad cause we neither Distrust our Cause to be of God nor do feare any thing more then that it should be hid and clouded with prejudices and calumnies from such as know it not and yet seek the Truth in sincerity And
keyes are Given to the Church of Believers The way pag. 1. that is a combination of Faithfull men as Mr. Hooker 2. The key of knowledg belongeth to all the faithfull whether Joyned to any particular Church or no The Keyes pag. 11. 2 The key of knowledge is given not only to the Church but to some before they enter into the Church Keyes pag. 2. Ans. This terme the key of knowledge is taken from our Saviour's words in Luk. 11. 52. Where he Reproveth the Lawyers who had taken away the key of knowledge and neither entred in themselves nor suffered others to enter The words argue that the entring in was not into the visible Church for into that the Lawyers had entred and were willing to admit others He speaketh therefore of entring into the state of Grace and so into the kingdome of Grace and Glory The solution then is plaine and easy The key of knowledge or Faith belongeth to all the faithfull whether Joyned to any particular Church or no For by it they enter into the Kingdome of Grace and Glory But if we speak of the keyes of a Particular visible Church they are all given to the Church or Congregation of Believers Touching the third Contradiction The third Contradiction is decyphered thus 3. The key of Order is Common to all the members of the Church keyes pag. 8. Then say we to Women and Children 3 It is not every place or Order in the Church that giveth Power to Receive Ordinances much lesse to Dispense them as Children and Women Way cleared part 2. pag. 19. Ans. 1. It hath been Answered above that such Generall Propositions hold true notwithstanding some knowne particular exceptions It is appointed to all men once to Dye which is an undoubted Truth though Enoch and Elias never Dyed Ans. 2. The Children of Church-members are in Order to Baptisme but excluded from the Lord's Table 1 Cor. 11. 28. Women have some parts of the key of Order whereby they have power to walke Orderly themselves and in a private way to help others to walk Orderly also Act. 18. 26. Tit. 2. 3 4 5. Only they have not Power to Admit members choose Officers censure Offenders But if they have any part of the power of the keyes the Proposition is true yea and it were true also though they had been kept from all Interest in the Exercise of the keyes Touching the fourth Contradiction The fourth Contradiction is thus laid out 4. Ordination is a work of Rule The way pag. 49. Ordination and Jurisdiction both Acts of Rule pertaine indifferently to all the Presbyters ibid. pag. 49. 4. As for Election Ordination of Officers these things the brethren may doe if need be without Officers The way pag. 45. 101. 4. Ordination is not an Act of Supreme Jurisdiction but of Order rather Hooker's Survey part 2. 75. Ans. Ordination They that make the least of it make it an Act of Prayer such Prayer by which the lesse is blessed of the greater as it is in all Prayer which is Joyned with Imposition of hands which Argueth it is an Act of majority of Power and majority of Power may without a Soloecisme be called Rule though not office-Rule yet Honourable preheminence I no where call it an Act of Supreme Jurisdiction which is that Mr Hooker Denies and seemeth to Deny it not Positively neither but comparatively rather Ordination saith he is not an Act of Supreme Jurisdiction but of Order rather then there is no contradiction here Nor will it be found in the other clause for though Ordination and Jurisdiction be said in the Way pag 49. to pertaine indifferently to all the Presbyters yet that is expresly spoken in opposition to the Lord Bishops who usurped both into their own hands as their peculiar prerogative and though I say else where in the Way that in Election Ordination of Officers the Brethren may act if need be without Officers yet the very word of limitation if need be Argueth that in ordinary cases ordination pertaineth to the Presbyters as other Acts there mentioned doe pertaine to the Presbyters and Brethren met together but as for Election I take it to pertaine principally to the Brethren Touching the 5th Contradiction The 5th Contradiction followeth in this sort 5. The keye of Authority or Rule is committed to the Elders of the Church and so the Act of Rule is the proper Act of their office Keyes pag. 20. The People discerning and approving the Justice of the censure give consent and Obedience to the will and Rule of Christ keyes pag. 15. 37. 41. The People stand in an Order even an orderly Subjection according to the Order of the Gospel pag. 11. 5. In case the Officers doe Erre and give offence they shall be governed by the whole Body of the Brethren The Way Pag. 100. The Church exerciseth severall Acts of Authority over the Elders The Way pag. 101. The People have some storke of Power and Authority in the Government of the Church pag. 36. They Rule the Church by Appointing their own officers ibid. pag. 16. Ans. 1. The former Columne in all the three Places speaketh of Elders walking in the right Administration of their office then in Propriety of speech the Key of Authority and Rule is committed to them 1 Tim. 5. 17. and is there made the proper Act of their office Then it is that the People Discerning the will and Judgment of Christ in their Judgment they do give Consent and Obedience to the will of Christ in Censures Advised by them Then it is also that they walke in orderly subjection to their Elders Heb. 13. 17. But the latter Columne speaketh of the Power of the Church over the Elders chiefly in case of the Elders mal-Administration of their office or misgovernment of themselves But then the Power which the Church putteth forth It is not office Power which is properly Authority but Potestas honoraria Answer 2. In Columne the second when it is said The People have some stock of Power and Authority in the Government of the Church Keyes pag. 36. They are the words of an objection not of mine owne Assertion And though some where I speak of Acts of Authority over the Elders I do clearely explaine my selfe in the Keyes pag. 36. That Authority is taken in a large sense and after a sort when it is Acknowledged in the People over the Elders As 1. When a man acteth according to his owne will freely he is then said to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Dominus sui Actus so the People in all the Acts of liberty which they put forth they are Domini sui Actus Lords of their owne Actions 2. The people by sundry Acts of liberty as in Election of officers in sending forth their messengers in concurrence with their Elders in the Admission of members and censure of Offenders in the Determination and Promulgation of Synodall Acts They have a great stroke and Power in
the Ordering of Church Affaires which may be called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Potestas a Power which many times in Common speech goeth under the Name of Rule or Authority But in proper speech It is indeed a Priviledge or liberty an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Power rather then Authority It is a common speech usuall amongst our best Divines That the Government of the Church is mixt of a Monarchy an Aristocracy and a Democracy In regard of Christ the Head the Government of the Church is Soveraigne and Monarchicall In regard of the Rule by the Presbytery it is Stewardly and Aristocraticall In Regard of the Peoples Power in Elections and censures It is Democraticall Chap. 3. Touching the sixth Contradiction The sixth Contradiction is thus Presented 6. Examination is one of the highest Acts of Rule and therefore cannot be performed but by some Rulers Keyes pag. 16. The Church cannot Excommunicate the whole Presbytery because they have not received frō Christ an office of Rule without their officers ibid. No Act of the Peoples power doth properly bind unlesse the Authority of the Presbytery Joyne with it Ibid. pag. 36. 6. If all their officers were found Culpable either in Hereticall Doctrine Or in scandalous Crimes the Church hath lawfull Authority to proceed against them all The Way pag. 45. In case of offence given by an Elder or the whole Eldership together the Church hath Authority to require satisfaction and if they give it not to Proceed to Censure Ibid. page 101. 6. Excommunication is not an Act of the Power of office but of judgment Nor an Act of highest Rule but of supreame Judgment seated in the Fraternity Surv. part 3. pag. 45. As a Church of Brethren can not proceed to any publick Censure without the Elders so nor the Elders without concurrence of the People Preface to the Keyes pag. 4. Answer 1. Here is indeede a Discrepance in Expressions between the Way and the Keyes But it was not my Act that any such Discrepance should have been extant The truth is That many yeares agoe and some yeares before the suppressing of the Bishops in England I was seriously moved by some of our Brethren and fellow Elders here to Draw up an Historicall Narration of our Church-way together with some familiar grounds of the same briefly In short time as God Helped I dispatched it which when our brethren had perused I saw they did not close with it Yet a Brother going for England got some where a Copy of it and Presented it to some of the Congregationall way there and I afterwards heard that neither did they close with it and in particular not with that Passage which is here recited as a part of the Contradiction Which since appeareth more openly by the Asterisk put upon that Passage and upon sundry other in the Book But before I saw that and had only heard That they did not fully Accord I hoped it had met with a timely suppression rather then an impression for I heard no more of it for two or three yeares after Meane while perceiving That one maine Point of Dissatisfaction was the Authority given to the Fraternity I considered more seriously and Distinctly of the whole Power of the Keyes and expressed my Apprehensions in that Treatise of the Keyes which our brethren here did well Accept and so did the brethren of like Judgment in England and some of them were pleased to Attest it with the Preface which is now extant before it yea I have heard as well as some other of our Brethren here by some letters from England that Reverend Mr Rutherford who was a great Part of the Assembly at Westminster offered to the Dissenting brethren That if they would come up to the Treatise of the Keyes themselves would meet them there But this was sundry yeares after the Treatise of the way had been finished and carried to England and as I hoped suppressed But it seemeth some Brother there having got a Copy of it being zealous of the Authority of the Fraternity and Perceiving that their Authority was not so fully Acknowledged in the Keyes as in the Way He caused his Copy of the Way which was indeed abrupt in the entrance and imperfect otherwise to be Published in Print which when I saw It troubled me not a little as knowing That the Discrepant Expressions in the one and in the other might trouble friends and give Advantage to Adversaries Afterwards Mr Hooker coming downe from Connectiquol to consult with the Elders here about his Book He pleaded seriously for the Placing of all Church power primitively in the Body of the Church and also for their Judiciary Power of Censure over the Presbytery suitable to what I had delivered in the Way Now though I cannot say that his Reasons did prevaile with me to lter the Placing of the First Subject of the Power of the Keyes from what I had delivered in the Treatise of the Keyes yet Perceiving that some mens Judgments did more Adhere as to his Judgment so to the former course of the Way others to that of the Keyes I suffered both to stand as they did especially seeing I could not help it the Book of the Way being published without my Consent and both the Way and the Keyes being disperst into many hands past my Revoking and Refuted by some So that if the Replyer find some Discrepancy in one of these bookes from the other Let him know that the Doctrine of the Way in such few Points wherein it differeth from the Keyes was not then mine when the Keyes were published much lesse when the Way was published which was many yeares after though it had been penned many yeares before And yet take all the Discrepancyes and weigh them I will not say with Candour but with Rigour and I do not yet remember nor can I yet find any of them but they lye rather in Difference of Logicall Notion then in Doctrine of Divinity or Church Practise as I said before Answer 2. This further let me Acquaint both the Replyer and the Reader withall that sometimes there hath growne a Question amongst us whether all Excommunication be an Act of Officiaria Potestas or not some Honoraria only If of Officiaria It cannot be Dispensed by the Brethren only as the first Columne hath it If of Honoraria It may and so the second Columne hath it and then the Contradiction is not ejusdem Neither is this Censure dispensed by the brethren as I conceive one of the highest Acts of Rule which is to deliver unto Satan 1 Cor. 5. 5. but Reacheth only to cast their Elders out of Administration of office to them and out of Church Communion with them The Truth is Ego libenter in eorum me numero esse Profiteor qui proficiendo Scribunt Scribendo proficiunt which gave me occasion to Adde the third Answer given above to the first Contradiction Some things in the
way which I delivered more laxly I expresse more distinctly in the Treatise of the Keyes which followed after and some things more fully and clearely in the way cleared then in either of the former Answer 3. When I say No Act of the Peoples part doeth properly binde unlesse the Authority of the Elder joyne with it Keyes pag. 36. I would be understood to speak it as I meant it of the Elders walking without offence in the Right Administration of their office and Conversation of their lives Answer 4. When Mr Hooker saith Excommunication is not an Act of Office Power nor of Rule but of supreame Judgment seated in the Fraternity I easily grant that the Excommunication dispensed by the Fraternity is not an Act of Office-Power But it may Justly be Inquired whether Excommunication being Dispensed by the Elders with the consent of the Church be not an Act as of the Churches honourable Judiciall Power so of the Elders Office-Power and Rule in the Church For as the Pastorall Preaching of the Elders is Officiall and so Authoritative though the Preaching of other Brethren as of the Sonnes of the Prophets be not so so why may there not be the like Difference observed here To deliver unto Satan seemeth to be an Act of Judiciall Office-Power as when in another case it is said The Judge delivereth a man to the Officer and the officer casteth him into Prison Matth. 5. 25. He that casteth into Prison is an Inferiour officer The Judge must therefore be a Superiour officer that delivereth an offendour to the officer to be cast into Prison In the Excommunication of the Incestuous Corinthian where both the Elders and Brethren concurred the sentence might well be delivered in Termes that expresse an Act of highest Authority To deliver unto Satan But where the Church is called to Act against their Elders who corrupt them with false Doctrine there the Apostle Requireth the Church to mark them and Avoyd them Rom. 16. 17 18. which may expresse an Act of liberty and Judiciall Power but not of Authority CHAP. 4. Touching the seaventh Contradiction and eighth The seaventh Contradiction is thus gathered 7. It was a Sacrilegious Breach of Order That Commissaries and Chancellours wanting the Key of Order no Ministers have been invested with Jurisdiction Yea and more then Ministeriall Authority above those Elders who labour in word and Doctrine The Keyes pag. 16. 7. There is a Key of Power given to the Church with the Elders as to open a doore of entrance to the Ministers calling so to shut the doore of entrance against them in some cases c. The Keyes p. 9. Yea to Censure all their Elders without Elders The Way p. 45. as before Ans. The power given to the Commissaries Chancellors I justly called a Sacrlegious Breach of Order in more Respects than one 1. In that being no Ministers they exercised more than Ministeriall Authority over the Elders For Ministers doe not exercise Authority over Elders no nor over any Brother but with consent of the Church But these doe it without and against the Consent of the Church 2. In that they exercise this Authority even in Churches wherein they have not Received the key of Order and so stand not so much as in the Order of Members amngst them 3. In that they proceed against them not for crimes committed against the word of God but for Neglect of Popish-Canons or Humane Traditions But now no Authority allowed to Brethren either in the Keyes or in the Way cometh neere to this Breach of Order For 1. In Joyning with the Elders to open a doore of entrance to Minister's calling They put forth no Act of Authority properly so called at all but only exercise a liberty and Power orderly which they have Received from the Lord Jesus to elect their own officers As the Peoples election of Deacons Act. 6. 2. to 5th And their lifting up of hands in the choice of Elders Act. 14. 23. doth declare And when they doe shut them forth it is not without their Elders where their Elders are not wanting or not wanting to their Duty And even then they put forth no Act of Office Rule or Authority properly so called as the Commissaries doe but only an Act of Judiciall Power common to the whole Church 1 Cor. 5. 12. 2. The People do exercise this Power only in their own Church where themselves are members and have Received a key of Order 3. They proceed not against any much lesse against their Elders but for notorious offences committed against the word of God in Doctrine or life so that this Contradiction speaketh as little ad idem as any of the former Touching the 8th Contradiction The 8th Contradiction is represented thus 8. We are so farre from Allowing that Sacrilegious usurpation of the Ministers office That private Christians ordinarily take upon them to Preach the Gospell Publickly The Keyes pag 6. 8. This is ordinarily Practised in England and Allowed by the Independant Brethren Yea they being but in the Notion of Gifted Brethren no Ministers to other Congregations doe it ordinarily themselves Ans. 1. This Contradiction is not of me to my selfe but of some others who whether they be Independants truly so called I doe not know sure I am that Presbyterians and Independants are not membra Dividentia though I see that all that are not for Popery or Episcopacy or Presbytery doe commonly lurke under the style of Independancy I hope the Replyer would be loth to Renounce the Protestant Religion because there are found some contradictions and greater than these in one of them to another Ans. 2. When I call it a Sacrilegious usurpation for Private Christians Ordinarily to take upon them to Preach the Gospell Publickly to Administer the Sacraments yet this latter of Administring the Sacraments the Replyer leaveth out and so the Contradictiction is not ad idem which is a Common failing in this and the rest For I would not say that it is a Sacrilegious usurpation for well gifted Brethren where ordained Ministers cannot be had there to Preach ordinarily and Publickly especially if they be Approved by those that have Power and requested thereto by the People wherein I goe further in giving way to the Prophecying of Private Brethren than my Reverend Brethren the Prefacers to the Keyes doe who only Allow them to Preach occasionally and not ordinarily which I speak only to this end That the Replyer and others may know there is more consent and Agreement in our Judgments then they take notice of or sometimes our selves either But if Private Brethren doe Administer the Sacraments at all whether ordinarily or Occasionally It seemeth to me like the Fact of Uzziah in offering Incense CHAP. 5. Touching the 9th Contradiction The 9th Contradiction is layd out thus 9. A Particular Church of Saints Professing the Faith that is members without offices is the first subject of all the Church Offices with all their Spirituall Gifts
p. 45. 14. In Act. 13. 2 3. There is no Ordination to Office at all for the Apostles had their office before Mr. Hooker Surv. Part. 2. p. 83. This was not to put a new office upon them but to confirme their sending to the Gentiles ib. p. 60. 14. This was done in a Particular Church Keyes p. 29. The officers of one Church did what was done in an ordinary Way Surv. Parr 2. p. 83. Then it followeth by Mr. C. his Doctrine that the Apostles who were officers in all Churches were ordained in a Particular Church or that officers of a Church may be ordained in another Church which he said was unwarrantable Ans. 1. When I say in the Way That Paul and Barnabas were ordained to the Apostolick office by Imposition of hands of some officers of the Church at Antioch Act. 13. 1 2 3. It is not Disproved by Mr Hooker saying that they had had their office before For I noe where say That ordination Giveth the office but only Approveth it and Solemnely as it were Installeth the elect officer into it and sendeth him forth with a Blessing into the Administration of it Neither when he saith That there is there no Ordination unto office at all doth he contradict what I affirme For his meaning is to Deny it in Mr Rutherford's sence who speaketh there of Ordination as Giving the calling unto the office which Mr Hooker Disproveth and therein I concurre with him For it puts no New office upon them but Bare witnesse to that calling which the Holy Ghost had given them When Mr Hooker saith The Officers of one Church did what was done in an ordinary way He himselfe inferreth the consequence Therefore it is no Precedent for the Pastors of many Churches what either they may or should doe But the Inferences which Mr Cawdry gathereth as from my Doctrine out of that Text either will not hold or not hurt our cause For this Inference will not hold That then the Officers of one Chuch may be ordained in another For they were as much Officers of the Church of Antioch as of any other Churches It will only inferre That they who are officers in many Churches may be Ordained in any one of them The other inference will in part follow That some of the Apostles who were Officers in all Churches may be Ordained in a Particular Church when the Holy Ghost calleth for it For they Act now not in their own Name or Power but in the great Name and Soveraigne Power of the Lord Jesus who is the Head of all Churches But what Prejudice is that to our cause or wherein doth it contradict any of our Tenents The 15th Contradiction is thus Declared 15. What if the whole Presbytery offend The readiest course is to bring the matter to a Synod the keyes pag. 43. 15. There is a readier and nearer way The Brethren may censure them all Way pag. 45. If the Congregation be found faithfull and willing to Remove an offence by due censure why should the offence be called up to a more publicke Judicature Keyes pag. 42. Ans. This Contradiction is made partly out of the concealment of Part of my words in the first Columne and Partly out of the Addition of some words of his own in the second Columne In the former Columne I say If the whole Presbytery offend or such a Part as will draw a Party and a Faction in the Church with them the readiest course then is to bring the matter to a Synod where those words such a Part as will draw a Party or Faction in the Church with them are given for the just Reason why in such a case the case of the offending Presbytery or other such Leading members in the Church should be brought to a Synod before it be censured in the Church But in the words recited in the latter Columne I speak of the Congregation as Agreeing together and both faithfull and willing to Proceed against Hereticall Doctrine and Scandalous crimes in whomsoever And then they need not Trouble the Synod to cleare the case which is already cleare unto themselves so that this Contradiction speaketh not ad Idem The one Columne speaketh of a Church Divided into parts and Factions and their readiest course is to bring the matter to a Synod The second Columne speaketh of a Church both faithfull and willing to Proceede against offences with one accord And then they have sufficient Power within themselves to judge that which is right and to execute their Judgment That which is Added of the Replyers own words in the latter Columne doth help not a little to make up an Appearance of the Contradiction In the Keyes I had sayd In the case above mentioned It is the readiest course to bring the matter to the Synod In the Way he quoteth my words as if I had said There is a readier and nearer way The Brethren may censure them all If these words had been mine there had been an Appearance of Contradiction To say this is the readyest course and yet to say a Discrepant course is a readier and nearer way is at least verbo tenus an apparent Contradiction But the Truth is Those words are none of mine but the Replyers own And so it will be an easy matter to make up Contradictions tot quot if we may take leave in one sentence to conceale Part of the words necessary to make up the sense and in another sentence to Adde words of our owne The 16th Contradiction is delivered thus 16. It belongeth to the civill Magistrate to establish pure Religion in Doctrine worship and Government partly by civill Punishment upon the wilfull oppressours and Disturbers of the same Keyes p. 50. 16. Yet the Brethren here call for or Tolerate Toleration of all Opinions and Deny the magistrate Power to Punish any Pretending conscience Bartlets Model pag. 128. 16. See Mr. Bartlets Modell p. 25. Contrà Ans. 1. This Contradiction laboureth of the same Disease as the rest generally Doe It speaketh not ad Idem Such as require the Magistrate to establish Pure Religion in Doctrine worship and Government and to Restraine the willfull opposers and Disturbers thereof by civill Punishments They speak of Fundamentals in Religion and such opinions as apparently tend to libertinisme and licentious ungodlynesse as Mr Bartlet expresseth it Modell pag. 126. But the Toleration which they Allow and call for is of such opinions as neither subvert the Foundation of Religion nor Practise of Piety Both these may be maintained without the least shew of the face of Contradiction Further I find this in Mr Bartlet That himselfe and some others are not free That Hereticks should be put to Death in case they keep their errors to themselves and doe not seek to seduce and corrupt others And though I grant that such an Heretick after once or twice Admonition may be Rejected out of the Church according to Titus 3. 10 11. yet I doe not finde that Moses
Messengers sent out of a set and combined Association from neighbour churches They do not herein Dissent from me For the two Churches of Antioch and Jerusalem were too farre remote to stand in a set or combined Association and therefore they may well deny it to be a Formall Synod according to the Forme of Synods now in use in Presbyteriall Churches But that that assembly had the true matter and forme of a just Synod As I do believe it so I do not see that my Brethren deny it For the efficient cause of the Synod the Church of Antioch sent messengers and the Church of Jerusalem whose officers were sent unto they freely gave them a meeting and the Church with them For the matter of the Synod they had the Messengers officers and Brethren of both Churches met together in the Name of Christ It is not necessary to the being of a Synod the convention of the Messengers and members of many Churches The convention of two Churches by themselves or messengers may make a Synod If the convention of one Church may make a Synagogue why may not the convention of two churches make a Synod The forme of a Synod they had in Arguing and disputing the case in hand and freely giving in their Judgments from scripture grounds and at length determining the whole cause with the Joynt consent of the Apostles Elders and Brethren and Publishing the same by letters and messengers to all the churches whom it concerned The establishment of Peace and Truth in the churches was the end of this Synod as it ought to be the end of all It is true here was a consultation in that the church of Antioch sent for counsell and the Apostles and Elders met to consult and consider of the matter But consultation was but one Act of the Assembly many other Formall Acts of a Synod they put forth besides which have been specified The Apostles though they did put forth some Acts of their Apostolicall Power in helping to cleare the Truth by explayning obscure Scriptures and in Ratifying the conclusion with some greater Plerophory of the mind of the Holy Ghost yet in Putting such things to Argumentation and Disputation and allowing Elders and Brethren liberty of Putting in their votes and determining and publishing the sentence in the Name and with the common consent of all herein they Acted as Ordinary Elders and messengers of churches might and ought to do The Notes of about Ten Passages in the Way wherein our Reverend Brethren in England or some of them say they could not fully close with them without Affixing an Asterisk to them If I knew where the Pinch of the Difficulty lay I would Addresse my selfe to give them fuller satisfaction either by condescending to them or giving them just Reason why I could not Meane while I have learned through Grace not to fall out with my Brethren for greater differences in judgment then those be That which is added in the third Columne that they are offended and as you call it Angry with you for that you call for a fuller Declaration of themselves for that themselves can best give you an Account for 1. It may be they think it needlesse to Publish further declaratioÌ„s because over above the former Declarations there have been since published three or foure Pithy Pregnant Declarations of the same Argument as Mr Hookers surv Mr Nortons Answer to Apollonius the Synod at Cambridge the Defence of the Answer to the nine Questions 2. It may be they feare If they should publish more declarations in this case It would Adde rather more Fewell to contention then Prevaile with the Spirits of men contrary minded to Receive satisfaction CHAP. 9. Touching the 20th Contradiction and 21. The 20th Contradiction is thus Expressed 20. It is generally asserted by them that one Church hath not Power to Censure another 20. A Synod hath Power to Determine to withdraw Communion from them if they cannot heale them Keyes pag. 24. 20. The sentence of non Communion denounced against whole Churches Apolog. Narrat p. 18 19. If a Sentence denounced it is a Censure Answer To withdraw Communion from a church is no more an Act of Power over a church then it was to Joyne in Communion with them Communion and non-Communion are Acts of the same power both of them Acts of priviledge or liberty And if withdrawing Communion be not an Act of censure then to determine so to withdraw is no Act of an higher Nature Though a Censure is a sentence denounced yet every sentence denounced is not a Censure unlesse it be Denounced by an higher power then that of equalls When the Ten Tribes denounced their Rejection of service to David's House 1 Kings 12. 16. It was not a censure more then theirs who solemnely Rejected the Rule of Christ we will not have this man to Rule over us Luk. 19. 14. The last Contradiction is declared thus 21. We Say Instituted worship and Ordinances do not flow immediatly from spirituall union and Relation to Christ and his members c. Def. of 9. Pos. pag. 76. He must come at them in a right Order to wâ—t in Fellowship of the Church Surv. pag. 2. 21. Then it followeth that Hearing the word Preached Singing of Psalmes and Baptisme belong not to any but such as are members of a Particular Congregation And yet they say Ordinarily hearing it no signe of a Church member Surv. part 1. pag. 18. 21. A Person hath his first Right to the Sacrament and so to other Ordinances because He hath an Interest in the Covenant of the Gospell Surv. part 1. pag. 65. Answer Here is no semblance of Contradiction Mr Hooker Surv. saith a Person hath his first Right to a Sacrament because he hath an interest in the covenant of the Gospell The defence saith he hath not immediate Right till he be a member of a Particular Congregation And so saith the Survey too in the Place Alledged If Immediate Right and first Right were all one there were some colour for the Exception but it is farre otherwise in having Christ we have a first Right to all things but not an Immediate Right but in Gods way But neither hence will it follow that Instituted Ordinances as hearing the word Singing of Psalmes belong to none but to members of a Particular Congregation For though they be given to such firstly and Immediately yet for their sakes to all that come in amongst them The Childrens Table and the Provisions thereof is first Allowed to the Children of the Family yet in a Bountifull House-keepers Family such part of the Proâ—â—sions may be Allowed to strangers as they may be fit to partake in FINIS Vid. Gerard loc. Com. de Minist. Ecclesiast Sect. 11. 12.
remarked The first is this He supposed me to be an Independent and therefore made that charge the consequent of which supposition is much to weake to justify this Reverend Authour in his Accusation doth he suppose that he may without offence lay what he please to the charge of an Independent but he saith secondly that he tooke the word Independent generally as comprehending Brownists Anabaptists and other Sectaries But herein also he doth but delude his owne conscience seeing he personally speakes to me and to my designe in that booke of Schisme which he undertook to confute which also removes his third intimation that he formerly intended any kind of Independency c the rest that follow are of the same nature and however compounded will not make a salve to heale the wound made in his reputation by his own weapon for the learned Author called vox populi which he is pleased here to urge I first question whither he be willing to be produced to maintaine this Charge and if he shall appeare I must needs tell him what he here questions whether it be so or no that he is a very lyar For any principles in my Treatise whence a denyall of their Ministers and Churches may be regularly deduced let him produce them if he can and if not acknowledge that there had been a more Christian and ingenious way of coming off an ingagement into that charge then that by him chosen to be insisted on animos iram ex crimine sumunt And againe we have vox populi cited on the like occasion pag. 34 about my refusall to answer whither I were a Minister or not which as the thing it selfe of such a refusal of mine on any occasion in the world because it must be spoken is purum putum mendacium so it is no truer that that was vox populi at Oxford which is pretended that which is vox populi must be publicke publicum was once populicum now setting aside the whispers of it may be two or three Ardelio's notorious triflers whose lavish impertinency will deliver any man from the danger of being slandered by their tongues and there will be little gound left for the report that is fathered on vox populi And I tell him here once againe which is a sufficient answer indeed to his whole first Chapter that I doe not deny Presbyterian Churches to be true Churches of Jesus Christ nor the ministers of them to be true ministers nor doe maintaine a nullity in their Ordination as to what is the proper use and end of Ordination takeing it in the sense wherin by them it is taken though I think it neither administred by them in due order nor to have in it selfe that force and efficacy singly considered which by many of them is ascribed unto it Thus much of my judgment I have publiquely declared long agoe and I thought I might have expected from persons Professing Christianity that they would not voluntarily engage themselves into an opposition against me and waveing my judgment which I had constantly published and preached have gathered up reports from private and table discourses most of them false and untrue all of them uncertaine the occasions and coherences of those discourses from whence they have been raised and taken being utterly lost or at present by him wholly omitted His following excursions about a successive ordination from Rome wherein he runnes crosse to the most eminent lights of all the Reformed Churches and their declared Judgments with practise in reordaining those who come unto them with that Romane stampe upon them I shall not further interest my selfe in nor think my selfe concerned so to doe untill I see a satisfactory answer given unto Beza and others in this very point and yet I must here againe professe that I cannot understand that distinction of deriveing ordination from the Church of Rome but not from the Roman Church Let him but seriously peruse these ensuing words of Beza and tell me whither he have any ground of a particular quarrell against me upon this account Sed praeterea quaenam ista est quaeso ordinaria vocatio quam eos habuisse dicis quos Deus paucis quibusdam except is excitavit Certe papistica Nam haec tua verba sunt Hodie si episcopi Gallicanarum ecclesiarum se suas ecclesias à tyrannide Episcopi Romani vindicare velint eas ab omni idololatria superstitione repurgare non habent opus alia vocatione ab ea quam habent Quid ergo Papisticas ordinationes in quibus neque morum examen praecessit neque leges ullae servatae sunt inviolabiliter ex divino jure in electionibus ordinationibus praescriptae in quibus puri etiam omnes canones impudentissime violati sunt quae nihil aliud sunt quam foedissima Romani prostibulin undinatio quavis meretricum mercede quam Deus templo suo inferri prohibuit inquinatior quibus denique alii non ad praedicandum sed pervertendum evangelium alii non ad docendum sed adrursus sacrificandum ad abominandum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sunt ordinati usque adeo firmas tecum esse censebimus ut quoties tali cuipiam pseudoepiscopo Deus concesserit ad verum Christianismum transire omnis illa istiusmodi ordinationis impuritas simul expurgata censeatur Imo quia sic animum per Dei gratiam mutavit quo ore quo pudore qua conscientia papismum quidem detestabitur suam autem inordinatissimam ordinationem non ejurabit aut si ejuret quomodo ex illius jure auctoritatem dicendi habebit Nec tamen nego quin tales si probe doctrinam veram tenere si honest is moribus praediti si ad gregem pascendum apti comperiantur ex pseudoepiscopis novi pastores legitime designentur Thus he who was thought then to speake the sense of the Churches of Geneva and France in his book against Saravia about the diverse orders of Ministers in the Church His plea for the Church-Authority of the Pope notwithstanding his being an Idolater a murderer theman of sinne an adversary of Christ because a Civill magistrate doth not by any morall Crime or those whereof the Pope is guilty loose his jurisdiction and Authority considering the different principles grounds ends laws Rules priviledges of the Authority of the one and the other and the severall tenures whereby the one doth hold and the other pretends to hold his power is brought in to serve the turne in hand and may be easily layd aside And when he shall manifest that there is appointed by Christ one single High-Preist or Prelate in the house of God the whole Church and that office to be confined to one nation one blood one family propagated by naturall generation without any provision of reliefe by any other way person or family in case of miscarriage and when he shall have proved that such an officer as the
Power Keyes pag. 31. 9. As the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven are divers so are the Subjects to whom they are committed diverse keyes pag. 11. The Apostles were the first subject of Apostolicall power ibid. pag. 32. A Synod is the first Subject of that Power whereby Errour is convinced and condemned ibid. pag. 47. 9. The Power of the keyes belongeth firstly to a Congregation of Covenanting Believers Surv. part â— p. 219. The Power of the keyes is in the Church of Believers as in the first subject ib. p. 195 That conceite is wide to make one first subject of this power yet others to share in this power not by meanes of that for this is to speak daggers and Contradictions ibid. Ans 1. This is one of those Differences of which I spake before that lyeth rather in Logicall Notion than either in Doctrine of Divinity or in Church Practise Against which the exception made above hath been Answered above in clearing the first Contradiction Ans. 2. There is no colour of Contradiction betweene the two former Columnes For when I say A Particular Church is the first Subject of all the Church Officers and their Gifts I speak not of this or that particular Church which is but an Individuall but of a Particular Church taken Indefinitely which by meere errour of the Printer is without sence said taken Independently which is the Disadvantage of us who live so far remote from the Presse that we can neither prevent their mistakes nor correct them afterwards But take a Particular Church Indefinitely it comprehendeth all Particular Churches And that God hath given to Particular Churches all spirituall officers together with their Gifts for the Discharge of their offices is Proved by evident Texts of Scripture in that very Page of the Keyes 31. I doe not say as some doe that the Church meaning the Fraternity is the first subject of all spirituall Gifts for then they had received them immediately without officers but I say the offices and Officers not devoid of Gifts but furnished with their gifts are given by Christ to the Church freely and not to any other Person or Society from whom the Church Receiveth them But this no whit crosseth what is said in the second Columne That Elders are the first Subjects of ordinary Ministeriall Power and Apostles of Apostolicall Power and Synods of Synodicall Power A wife may be the first subject of her own Dowry but yet her Husband is the first Subject Recipient of his wife with her Dowry Ans. 3. As for what is said differently by my Brother Hooker in the third Columne as his Person and Gifts and Friendship were pretious and deare to me whilest he lived so now that he resteth in Glory his Name and memory and labour saving some very few private Notions are honourable and blessed with me and I suppose with all that knew him But in this Logicall Notion I crave leave not so much to dissent from him for he herein Dissented from me who wrote first rather than I from him but leave I crave not to Retract what I formerly wrote in the Keyes touching this Point though I should as much suspect mine own judgment where he Dissenteth from me as where any man It is true he taketh the Church of Covenanted Believers to be the first Subject of the power of the keyes vvhich if he meane no more than that they have all Church-Power either formaliter or Radicaliter and Virtualiter then there is no Difference in our expressions but if he meane that that they are the first Subject of all Church-Povver properly two or three things Detaine me from consenting with him herein 1. That vvhich is the first Subject of any Povver Receiveth it immediately vvithout any other Intervening Subject As fire being the first Subject of Heate Receiveth not his Heate from any former Subject But it is evident That many a Church of Believers hath not Received Pastorall Gifts nor it may be any Gifts fit for office 'till they fetch them from other Churches and sometimes from some who are not members of any Particular Church at all 2. The first Subject of any Power as it hath immediately Received it so it may immediately exercise it as Fire the first subject of Heate can Heate without Intervention of any other subject But the Church hath not Power immediately to exercise Pastorall Preaching or Administration of the Sacraments 'till it have procured and chosen and called forth some or other Gifted Persons to exercise the same 3. I might Adde a third Reason to both the former Whatsoever is properly the first Subject of any Power It hath that same Power or some other equivalent and analogicall to it not only radicaliter and virtualiter but Formaliter also And because formaliter therefore radicaliter and virtualiter For whatsoever is in any Subject Firstly whether it be proper Adjunct or proper effect or any other proper Argument it either floweth from the forme or from the matter so formed As for instance capacity of Learning or Risibility is in Man as in the first subject The former floweth from the Reasonable soule the latter from the matter of a man so formed But neither of these are in man radicaliter or virtualiter but only because they are in a man formally and so either flow from the forme or from the matter so formed Take another Instance and of another sort The People that have power to elect a King though they have not formally kingly power yet have they a formall Power to submit themselves to Kingly Power And so haveing a formall Power to put one of the Relatives they have an aequivalent and Analogicall Power to put the other Correlative For Posito uno Relatorum Ponitur etiam alterum As for that which is quoted by the Replyer from Mr Hooker in the last clause of the third Columne of this contradiction I see not how it concerneth me or contradicteth any thing in the former Columnes For I doe not make any first Subject of Church-Power and yet others to share in that Power but not by meanes of that But as the keyes of the kingdome of heaven are diverse So I see no Inconvenience that the first Subjects to whom the severall keyes are committed may be diverse also Neither doth the letter of the Text seeme to me to gainesay that Mat. 16. 18. For though it speak not to Them but to Thee a Representing one state or Condition of men yet say that one condition to be believers and take Believers in a large sence It comprehendeth all sorts of Professing Believers whether Private members or Elders or Apostles indeed all But neither doe I see any convincing reason seeing Peter stood in a threefold Ecclesiasticall Relation being both an Apostle and an Elder a Profest Believer why Christ committing the keyes to him saying to Thee will I give them might not Intend to give all the keyes and the severall sorts of them