or in the World to come is sutable to the promise that followes of sitting upon xii Throues to judg the xii Tribes of Israel The Christians of Jerusalem who parted with their Estates that the disciples might be maintained in their daily attendance upon Gods service cannot be said to have obtained thereby any common ranke in the Church But it must be said that quitting their former course and state of living by quitting the means of maintaining it they became from thenceforth either of the Clergy or of the poor which were allwayes maintained out of the stock of the Church For by S. Paules instructions to Timothy 1. Tim. V. it appeareth that those Widdows which were imployed and maintained by the Church for the common necessities of it were to be taken out of such as were destitute of means to live other wise Herewith agreeth an infinite number of examples in the primitive Church of Godly Bishops Priests and others of the Clergy who taking upon them such professions devested themselves of their worldly goods whither applying them to the property or only to the use of the Church as reserving themselves power to dispose of them in favor of friends or kindred at their death And from the same reason and ground proceed all the Canons whereby it was provided that they should not dispose of the Church goods to such uses at death but of their own well and good For whatsoever their estates were though they renounced them not yet it became necessary for them to live as others of the Clergy lived Who were generally poor when they were promoted and therefore professed to content themselves with meer necessaries because the Church goods of which they lived were due to the maintenance of the poor as well as of the Clergy From whence we may see what truth there is in those sayings of the Fathers which make the precepts of our Lord in his Sermon upon the mount matters of Counsaile For if all Christians be to leave all thinges that they may follow Christ it is certain that they are commanded and not only advised to turn the other cheek to quit a mans Cote to him that takes away his Cloke to undergo the rest of those precepts whereby our Lord describeth the duty of a Christian provided they be so understood as the maintenance of a mans estate in the World and the obligations which it inferreth even by virtue of that Christianity which alloweth the same will require But if there be another estate in the Church of Disciples which profess to follow Christ leaving the imployment of the world for that purpose and therefore to forbear the pleasures and proffits thereof accordingly That strict Rate and that high degree in which they profess to leave the world to follow Christ must needes be meer matter of Counsaile because no man is commanded to undertake that estate but invited to it for the securing of his Salvation who knowes he may be saved without it Whereby it appeares that this estate imports a profession of abstinence from the pride the revenge the lusts and pleasures of the world as well as from the riches of it as well of the humility the patience the continence the meekness and obedience of our Lord as of the mean estate in which he lived But that for the means to compass this end it imports first a profession of renouncing the ranke and estate which every man holds in the world and dedicating himself to the service of the Church and that imployment which tends to the common good of Christians If it should be inferred from hence that the state of the Clergy importing the forsaking of the World at this extraordinary Rate must therefore import the profession of single life as some of the Church of Rome would have it The answer is that it will not follow And the instance is peremptory That the Apostles themselves who thus left the world did not profess it And if by undertaking the Clergy a man was not obliged to renounce his goods As appeares by those Canons which inable the Clergy to dispose of them at death much less doth that estate import a profession of single life being more difficult to perform then to live as a Clergy man upon the Church goods For it is possible for them who have wives to live as if they had them not according to S. Paul No otherwise then it is possible for them who have the dispensing of Church goods to use them as if they used them not The reason of single life for the Clergy is firmly grounded by the Fathers and Canons of the Church upon the precept of S. Paul forbidding man wife to part unless for a time to attend upon Prayer For Priests Deacons being continually to attend upon occasions of celebrating the Eucharist which ought continually to be frequented if others be to abstain from the use of Marriage for a time for that purpose then they allwayes And this is the reason that prevailed so farre even in the primitive times that the instances which are produced to the contrary during those times seem to argue no more then dispensation in a Rule which had the force of a Law when an exception took not place That is when those that were thought necessary for the service of the Church though not fit to ty themselves to live single But this profession was evidently the ground for that discipline which was used all over the Church in breeding youth from tender yeares to such a strict course of life as only use and custome is able to render agreable to mans nature And to this education and discipline all the authority and credit of the Clergy over the people is to be imputed the dissolution whereof is the true occasion of the miseries which we have seen For did the people think themselves tied to depend upon the Clergy for their instructions to admit their admonitions reproofes in matter of Religion that is did the discipline and education of the Clergy maintain them in that authority with the people it is not possible that the pride which hath been seen in setting up new Religions and giving new Lawes to the Church should take place But this authority is not to be preserved without retirement from the world that is from conversation with the People of what ranke or degree soever whither upon pretense of profit or pleasure And therefore being once lost by the debauches of the Clergy before the Reformation it is not to be restored without restoring the ground of it the said education and discipline nor by consequence the Reformation to be counted compleat otherwise Supposing allwayes the Reformation to be the restoring of that Church which hath been not the building of that which hath not been The same education and discipline is by the express Canons of the Church the ground of that title upon which promotion is due to the Clergy in their respective Churches For what is
Austria under Bishops deriving their succession from the time of Constantine and therefore from the Apostles they sent them thither to be Ordained protesting against their weakness in going to Masse for fear The protestation was admitted and the persons ordained Bishops Now I take not upon me to maintain the truth of that information concerning the succession of these Bishops whereupon they proceeded But they being reasonably perswaded of it and not knowing how to proceed otherwise through a mistake which they could not overcome and setling themselves upon an innocent presumption why should the effect of these Ordinations seem questionable For under these Bishops they have subsisted from that day to this And with what conscience is it demanded for conformity to the Reformation that we acknowledge them Priests who are ordained against Bishops If we do not we shall condemn those Reformed Churches which have no Bishops Is it the fashion that a man quit his Cloke because his fellow hath none Or is it any thing else to renounce a good Title because they cannot plead it There was a good expedient in the ancient Church to refer things to God which could not be decided without a breach in the Church Let their zele against the abuses of the Church of Rome be counted pardonable with God which caused them to think the Order of Bishops a support of Antichrist when as the Papacy is visibly raised upon the rights of Bishops which it ingrosseth Let the difficulty of procuring Ordinations and having Bishops render them excusable to God Those that are ordained by Presbyters against Bishops on purpose to set up Altar against Altar how can we count them ordained refusing the concurrence of the Church to their Ordinations They that would ty us to comply with the Reformation are first to show us that the Unity of Bohemia is no part of it And that their Reformation is not to be preferred either before that of Luther or that of Calvine For can we acknowledg the Ordinations of Presbyters against their Bishops and not condemn them that sought all over the World for Bishops to ordain them Bishops that the Bishops so ordained might ordain them Presbyters But not only in this prime point of our differences but also in the difference of the Clergy from the people in the three Orders of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the matter of Justification and the Eucharist of Confirmation and Penance of the Festivalls and Fasts of the Church one of divers Orders and institutions of less consequence their profession agreeth with the ancient Church and the Church of England where it departeth from both Luther and Calvine In the matter of Penance though with much humility they tell the Lutheranes roundly they have but one of the keyes viz. that of loosing but bind not as pronouncing absolution without injoyning of Penance The discipline of Geneva they magnify indeed as they find it described by Bodine in his method of Histories But they distinguish not whither they mean the civill discipline which the Lawes of that State inforce or that which the Power of the Keyes exercised there according to Calvine doth constitute For the Civill Law of a Christian State especially no bigger then that of Geneva may settle such a discipline over the outward man as may restrain from the outward act of sin without mortifying the inward man to the inward love of it The late Usurpers Army we have seen well disciplined against the ordinary vices of the Camp Who appearing now to have been then enimies to their Country are thereby discovered not to have followed the reward of Christians but of Souldiers And the Lawes of Christian States by the means of Christianity which they maintain may reach to the mortifying of sin and the quickning of righteousness at the heart But of themselves being Civill Lawes and proposing no further reward or punishment then that good which a mans Country signifies they reach no futther then the outward man for the better or for the worse Nor is it of any greater consequence to Christianity that the outward act of sin or virtue is repressed or incouraged by the rewards and penalties of Civill Lawes But when the discipline of the Church takes place he who forfeiteth his Christianity by gross sin that is notorious forfeiteth also Communion with the Church and recovereth it not till the presumption be no less notorious that he hath recovered his Christianity Now Communion with the Church is the consequence of our Baptism which intitleth us to life everlasting Therefore it is not duely forfeited without forfeiting the effect of Baptisme our right to life everlasting So our right to heaven depending upon the Communion of the Church the discipline of the Church must needes reach the inward man as effectually as any outward application can reach the heart which is invisible For the presumption is grounded upon visible workes of Penance the effects of that invisible disposition without which they could not be constantly brought forth Whither or no this discipline be visible at Geneva I will not pronounce This I undertake that comparing the Doctrine of Calvine with their Orders they need not set a value upon the Power of the Keyes exercised according to his Doctrine in comparison of the same exercised according to their own Orders So that supposing not granting that the Lawes of the Church of England being the Lawes of the primitive Catholick Church are to be changed for conformity with the Reformed Churches it followeth not therefore that they are to be changed for those of the Churches reformed according to Calvine Certainly the receiving of the Communion kneeling having been one of the Adors of their Reformation from the beginning and so stiffly insisted upon by them in Poland they that pretend to change the Law of England in that point for conformity with the Reformation think they have not men but beasts to to deal with The Church of England in the Commination against sinners hath declared a great zeal for the renouncing of that ancient discipline of Penance which was in force in the primitive Church And certainly the Church of England is not the Church of England but in Name till the power of excommunication be restored unto it which there was not nor ever can be sufficient cause to take from any Church But the discipline of Penance though depending upon the Power of excommunication is as much to be preferred before it as it is more desirable to bring men to the Church then to shut them out of it If prejudice faction have not more to do in the pretenses of this sin then the truth of Christianity and zeal to advance it it is a point that cannot be neglected in any deliberation of Reforming the Church I cannot render a more visible reason why so godly a zeal in these that first prescribed our Reformation to the restoring of penance hath now been improved by their successors then the partialities which sprung
up in it like tares in the wheat and have now prevailed to choke even the power of excommunication wherein the being of a Church consisteth And though many sinnes of this Nation may be alleged for the cause why God hath taken this sharp revenge upon us yet can no reason be so proper why he should permit the hedge of the Church to be cast down for all Sects to devour and tread his vineyard under foot by suffering the power of excommunication to be taken from it as the neglect of improving it in and to the discipline of penance True it is not only all capital but all infamous crimes whereof men are convicted by Law are thereby notorious and require this discipline no less then those which the Law of this Land punisheth not otherwise then by penance And if the Church did make a difference among those that dye by publick Justice owning only these who approve their desire to undergo regular penance in case they might survive then were this discipline visible no visible crime escaping it For all capitall and infamous crimes that are not actually punished with death must by that reason remain unreconciled to the Church though free of the Law till penance be done And seeing crimes that are not known cannot be cured upon easier terms then those that are would â—oâ— the judgment of the Law authorizing the Church in the cure of known sins move even them that believe their Christianity no further then it is authorized by Law to submit invisible sins to the same cure For what is it but the slighting of this cure that makes mens sins fester and rankle inwardly and break out into greater and greater excesses And therefore to debate of Ceremonies and words in the service and May-poles and Sabbath dayes journeyes not considering the Power of the Keyes upon which the Church is founded and the restoring of the same is to neglect a consumption at the heart pretending only to cure the hair or the nailes Now if any of our Sects insist upon a pretense that deserves to be insisted upon far be it from us to cast off the consideration of it because they have unduely separated from the Church for it Our Anabaptists it is known insist upon two points The baptizing of Infants and that by sprinkling not by dipping In both they have neglected S. Peters Doctrine That Baptisme saveth us not the laying aside of the filth of our flesh but the answer of a good conscience to God For were the profession of Christianity celebrated by the Sacrament of Baptisme believed to be that which saveth us men would not goe to baptize them as not baptized who by their profession which they acknowledge by seeking the Communion of the Church are under that bond which intitleth them to the Salvation of Christians Nor can there be any greater presumption then the voiding of Baptisme so celebrated that they expect Salvation upon other termes But in making void Baptisme ministred by sprinkling alone without dipping they neglect S. Peter again when he maketh the Baptisme that saveth not to consist in cleansing the flesh but in a due profession of Christianity signifying this to be the principal that only the accessary Ceremony which it is solemnized with And therefore they are to acknowledg this difference by acknowledging Baptisme so ministred to be good and valid not void But this being acknowledged well may they insist that it is unduely ministred For it is evident that neither the Scripture nor the practice of the whole Church can by any means allow the sprinkling of water for Baptisme though the pouring on of water in case of necessity be allowed Nor doth the Law of the Church of England allow any more then pouring water upon a Child that is weak commanding therefore dipping otherwise And therefore this Law being much weakned by the tenderness of Mothers and friends supposing all Infants weak which the Law supposeth not and by undue zeal for forraign fashions ought to be revived and brought into use by all Ordinances that there may remain no colour for such an offence And therefore reparation is to be made for the sacriledge of the late Warrs in destroying the Fonts of Baptisme in Churches and bringing in Christening out of Basins by force I cannot say that I have touched all that is fit to be touched But I hope I have said nothing but that which followeth upon the ground which I have justified That which is proposed and is not so justified seems to demand the consent of those who propose it as able to hold the Church divided if they be not contented But that calls to mind a reason on the other side that men use to get a stomack with eating in such cases The due measure is not the satisfying of mens appetites but the improvement of our common Christianity FINIS