ouercome Then yée turne your selues to those poore soules as yée terme thē whom we like miserable Physicians séeke to cure and your Counsell you giue them I doo allow it for it is the same in effect if you could sée that I gaue them before I would to God the people did follow it we should not then haue one Brownist The Deuill counterfaiting Christs voice in hereticall schismatikes should not be able to allure and call away the shéepe from their shéepeheards Now remaineth the last point onely that I shew some reason to prooue our Ministery to be of Christ The ministery of the Gospell which bringeth the worde of faith and reconciliation betwéene God and the worlde is the true ministerie of Christ for the Deuil and Antichrist ordeine no such ministerie Nowe the ministerie of the Church of England doth bring no word nor doctrine but the sacred scriptures It preacheth faith in God through Christ and the doctrine of repentance deliuering the holy sacraments as seales to confirme the same Let all the schismatikes in the world barke against it and say we haue no word nor Sacraments yet this is the holy word God so loued the world that hee gaue his onely begotten sonne that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting It may be sayde that many ministers in England doo not nor cannot preach the Gospell how then is their ministery the ministery of reconciliation Héere note that as we must distinguish betwéene the ministery and the man himselfe which is the minister for the man may be of the Deuill and yet his ministery of God so must we also distinguish betwéene the function it selfe and the execution of the same For when one is called to bee a minister of the Gospell which is able and dooth not preach the defect is not in the function but in his negligence about the execution Likewise when the office or function is layd vpō him that cannot preach the function it selfe is entyre the defect is in the execution thereof through his disabilitie I say therfore that the Ministerie of England is the Ministerie of the Gospell though some doo not and some cannot Preach Then further such as haue the calling and ordination of the Church haue the Ministerie of Christ for it is giuen to the Church to haue power to call and ordeine Ministers Now if the Church doo falt and breake either by error or negligence in some rules which are to be obserued about this calling and ordinatiō yet the power is not disanulled nor the function destroyed vnlesse we will hold that where there is transgression either of ignorance or otherwise the whole is ouerthrowne and so conclude that there is no praier nor worship of God nor any true seruice doone vnto him vnder heauen because all is with errors and faults In England the Ministers haue their calling and ordination by the Church of God For that people which hath forsaken heresies and false worship and imbraced the doctrine of the Gospell hath in it the true Church which hath the power And the Ministers intrude not themselues but haue the power giuen them by the hands of the Bishops who doo it not by their owne authoritie nor by any authoritie from Antichrist but as committed to their trust by publike authoritie Moreouer that is the Ministerie of God which is to bring men to the faith and to build vp the body of Christ The Ministerie of England is to none other end For the whole drift the whole scope and burthen laid vpon them is to féede with wholsome doctrine and to guide in the waye of godlinesse the shéepe of Christ walking before them in godlye conuersation The Brownist will not take himselfe héere conuinced but will say these causes are but pretended and are not in truth I will therefore now reason from the effect together with that which is properly adioyned to the Ministerie of Christ That Ministerie with the execution whereof there is ioyned the effectuall grace power blessing and operation of the Holy-ghost to the true conuersion of mens soules is not a Ministerie of the Deuill nor of Antichtist nor commeth not in the life and power of the beast but is indeed the true Ministerie of Christ I thinke the Brownists will not be so beastly as to affyrme that the grace and operation of the holy Ghost to the conuersion of mens soules is ioyned to that and worketh by that which is of the Deuill and commeth in the life and power of Antichrist Then it remayneth only to shewe that there hath béene and is this grace and worke in the execution of our function If the Brownists will deny that euer they felt that maiestie and power in the preaching which can not be in the words of man but only in that word which is sharper then any two edged sword and pierceth so déepe as to be a discerner of the thoughts and secret intents Or if they will denie that euer they haue béene driuen by it vnto hatred sorrowe and remorse for sinne and raysed vp with comfort and hope of forgiuenesse and with the promises of eternall glorie Yet vnto many other which by it are conuerted vnto the Lord in déede which vnto feare and trembling doo féele the power and swéetnesse of the liuely word it may be sayd as S. Paule speaketh to the Corinths for when his aduersaries did denie him to be an Apostle the Corinths by his Ministerie were begotten in Christ wherevpon he sayth If I be not an Apostle vnto others yet am I vnto you for you are the seale of mine Apostleship in the Lord 1. Cor. 9. ver 2. Euen so if the Ministery of Englād be not the Ministery of Christ vnto others yet you can not doubt of it your faith your repentance your ioy in the Lord are the seale of it You can not but sée and knowe that they be vile blasphemous wretches which beare ye in hand that it is not the word of God nor the grace of his spirit which worketh in ye but the power of the Deuill and the spirit of Antichrist You knowe it is the direct way which the Deuill taketh by his ministers to bring in flat Atheisme to disgrace and throwe downe the credite of the ministerie But doth it not make against the Ministerie of England that many of the Brownists confesse they haue béene greatly moued at sometimes with the power of the preaching and at the administration of the Sacraments for may it not bée sayd héerevpon that it is but a deceyuable shewe of grace and power for if it had béene in truth it would haue continued I answer it is sufficient to proue the Ministerie and that the power of the holy Ghost goeth with it when men haue bin so moued although they do not continue séeing the reprobate do féele the power and taste the swéetnes of the word for a time Hebr. 6. He that hath therefore felt the power of God in his soule by the
doo offend in not executing the discipline vpon vngodly men to bring them to repentance but in receiuing their children to be baptized they doo not offend so they sée them taught in the faith and to liue a godlye life as our Church hath established yea in refusing them the infants should receiue great iniurie But to make this matter yet more cléere the question is to be answered whether the Church of Rome be the Church of Christ For the Brownists doo hold that our auncestors were not the Church of Christ in the time of poperie and that we now are confused multitudes not rightlye entered into couenant with God to become a Church séeing wee were not of Gods true Church before neither orderly entered into couenant Indéed if we were not within the couenant before from our auncestors nor entered orderly to become a Church the matter would séeme strong against vs. Let it therefore be examined I know this is the vsuall spéech of the learnedest Deuines the church of God is in the Papacie but the Papacie is not the church And it may be the sense will differ little or nothing but I take it a fitter spéech to saye the Papacie is in the church then to say the church is in the papacie For Antichrist dooth sit in the Temple of God his lawes his worship and all his abhominations were brought into the church All the men which receiued his marke and worshipped him were in the church yea euen the whole Apostasie was in the churche The church was before and that commeth after and entreth into or ariseth in it Then to the question if by the church of Rome we vnderstand the Pope his lawes his worship which hath béene deuised by himselfe his adherents and all that worship him or receiue his Marke I answer that this is that which may properly be called the church of Rome which is the papacie the apostasie and seduced to damnation and not the church of Christ otherwise then thus that the Pope the Cardinals and all that worship the Beast be false Christians by profession bred in the Church and continuing in it their séede not excluded from the couenant But if by the Church of Rome we vnderstand all those companies of people ouer whome the tyrannie of the Pope hath heeretofore extended it selfe or dooth at this day or those things which were giuen by Christ which remaine in the same I say this is not the church of Rome but the Church of God First if we respect the holye doctrine of God in all those points which were and are kept sound among them and the holye Sacrament of Baptisme Then secondly if we consider the kingdoms and people themselues all did not fall from Christ but many held the foundation the most of them lying scattered and hid in the desolations and ruines Thirdly if we regard that the infants not only of these faithfull but euen of the wicked Apostates which worshipped the beast were still within the couenant as the holy séed we shall see that the papacie was and is in the Church which is the Temple of God and not the synagog of Rome The Church of Rome then is not the true Church of God but the Church of Rome is the Apostasie in the church Let vs come then more particularly The church of England in the time of poperie was a member of the vniuersall church and had not the being of a church of Christ from Rome nor tooke not her beginning of being a Church by seperating hir selfe from that Romish synagog but hauing her spirites reuiued and her eyes opened by the light of the heauenly word did cast foorth that tyrannie of Antichrist with his abhominable idolatrie heresies and false worship and sought to bring all her children vnto the right faith and true seruice of God And so is a purer and more faithfull church then before Idolatrie was openly set vp in the church of Israel at sundrye times It did not as I haue shewed disanull the couenant of God with them nor debarre their children from the holy signe of circumcision but all the Iewes are called the children of the couenant Then let the Brownist shew some reason why it should bee otherwise in this case with our churches then it was with the church of Israel Thus much for the one part of your assumption wherein ye blame the church of England for receiuing in all by baptisme Now touching the other part of it in which ye affirme that there is no power to cast foorth any by excommunication yée speake very falsely For the church of England hath some power to excommunicate But you reason thus the person and all his parish hath not the power to excommunicate anye one offendor therefore the church of England hath not powre to excommunicate Is it possible if a man would study to reason absurdlie that he should excell yée Will yee argue thus euery seuerall part by it selfe hath not power to excommunicate therefore the whole together hath not the power It is not méete indéed that the Parson and his parish should haue the power to excommunicate vnlesse it bee such a Parish as hath the Consistorie of Pastors Teachers and Gouernours It séemeth yée haue great skill in the discipline of Christ The seuerall flockes about Geneua without the Citie haue euery one a Pastor and two Elders but yet they haue not the power to excommunicate but that is referred to the Consisiorie which is within the Citie Maister Beza Epist 20. Will yée say those seuerall flockes cannot be the Churches of Christ vnlesse their pastors and they together haue power to excommunicate They are members of that church which hath power to excommunicate But yée will say that the excommunication of the Commissarie is no excommunication and therfore our parishes be no members of a church which hath power to excommunicate The like yée will say of the excommunication by the Bishop himselfe and by the Archdeacon I aunswer that if it should bée graunted ye that their excommunication dooth not binde in heauen yet it is of force to remooue and dooth remooue from the societye of our assemblies which prooueth your accusation false because we reason about this outward remoouing But what if the Bishop together with sundry other Ministers of the Gospell doo excommunicate duely an obstinate wicked man is he not excommunicate before God If there be an heretike conuinced and found obstinate and the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England assembled or some competent number of them as in the conuocation or such synod do duely excommunicate him is it no excommunication Will yée reason after this sort that because euery Minister with his flocke seuerally hath not the power to excommunicate therefore the Ministers of the Church of England are vtterly without this power You confesse that it is the Church of Christ which hath this power though it fault much by negligence in executing the same I would all Brownists could
consider what it is to excommunicate or to cut not onely particular persons but whole assemblies from Christ it would abate their horrible presumption Then for the suspension from the Sacrament by which the vnworthy either for ignorance or open wicked life are seperated from the néere fellowship of the Church I said yée might demaund by what right the minister dooth it Yée say that indéede would be knowne adding moreouer that if it be in the nature of Excommunication it were no small presumption in the Minister to arrogate such absolute authoritie to himselfe I hold it somewhat in the nature of Excommunication in such as haue béene before admitted but yet not to be compared as any thing néere so great as Excommunication and neuerthelesse I déeme it no presumption for the Minister to repell the vnworthy from the Sacrament He is to take héede to himselfe that he giue not holie things to dogs He is to beware of that which may giue publike offence and bring the holie mysteries into contempt It is in déede no small matter to debarre from the Sacrament The Minister therefore may easily offende in this case diuers wayes as namely if he be carried with euill will for priuate respects toward any and so aggrauate their offences and make that heynous which is not or if he doo not make the matter apparant so much as he can that the flocke may sée there is iust cause to repell them and no iniurie offered the crimes for which they are remoued being notorious Now because I sayd the booke of common Prayer doth warrant this héere yée set vp your bristles and first it may not be let passe but noted that euen the best of our Churches stand vnder this Idoll by our owne confession This is a speciall note and well marked Why did ye not knowe that we vse the booke in publike prayer and administration of Sacraments Then yee aske if the booke be Christs newe Testament that we must fetch our warrant and direction from that Idoll I might aske you a question whether ye be in your wits for doo we dispute héere whether a Minister is warranted in conscience before God to repell any from the Sacrament I thought that you Brownists whiche take vppon yee to iudge and vtterly to abandon and cast foorth whole assemblyes which professe the Gospell and which are estéemed of the godly Churches as Sisters had made no doubt but that by Gods word the Minister is warranted to repell a notorious wicked man from the Sacrament But I supposed yee would obiect that by the established order and gouernment of our Church all power to keepe the Sacraments from wicked prophanation is taken away from the Ministers and for this I alleadged the booke Let the Reader now iudge how fitlie yee clap your wings and crowe saying In déede it is a fit Portesse for such Priests and the suspension ye vaunt of a fit toole for such workemen euen the instruments of that foolish Shepheard If the iudgement of God you say were not vppon our right eye we might sée how our Lords the Byshops doo dresse vs and perceyue how this weapon that they allowe vs wanteth both edge and poynt c. You speake as if the Byshops did take vppon them and we submitte our selues vnto them as Lords ouer our faith and consciences and as though we were at theyr allotting when as in déede they bée but ministers to sée those orders kept which bée alreadie established and haue not authoritie to take from any Minister that power which the booke doth giue him much lesse can one word of maister Commissaries mouth heale the greatest wound as you say we can make with it Yee say not one in the Parish setteth a flye by it Yee speake so confidentlie and with such shewe of honestie that I should beléeue yee in these things if I had not for sundrie yeares tryed and séene your words false by experience I sayd such as be iustly Excommunicate as some are be not admitted to the publike prayer Héere yee bid sée how God insnareth me in mine owne words and how hard a bad cause is to defend What is the snare which I am héere caught in Forsooth I doo héere openly iustifie Excommunication by the Commissarie because we haue no other power or meanes and our Church wardens doo stand sworne to that Court But how shall I get out of your snare I must be fayne to breake it if it be not loose of it selfe What if when I say some are Excommunicate iustly I haue respect not to those which Excommunicate but to the desert of them that be Excommunicated Againe it is vntrue that ye say our Church hath no power but the Commissaries Court as I haue alreadie shewed Touching your next spéech wherein yee charge vs that we thincke to heale or at the least to couer enormities with these two drie withered figge leaues the one that we can not remedie the matter the other that priuate men are not to reforme the aunswere shall be more fitte when wée come to shewe what priuate men may doo Now let vs come to the other part of mine Answer which denyed the consequence though your accusation were true which is this Wicked prophane men are receyued in and retayned in the bosome and bodie of their Church therefore the Couenant is disanulled with them and they are no longer Gods people but a false Antichristian synagog To disprooue this I did alleadge that there were but a fewe true worshippers that frequented the Temple among multitudes of prophane and vngodly men To which ye reply that comparing our Church to the Temple of God and still begging the question I frame my Arguments as though our people were faithfull and our prayers holie I pray yee what is the question which I begge This say you is the question whether the assemblyes in England be the true Church of God and then yee woulde beare the Reader in hand that I reason in such sort as I would first haue this graunted that it is a true Church of faithfull people and holie worship You should haue done well to haue shewed how I frame my Arguments from the Question graunted But the truth is yee can shewe no colour héere of any such thing Nowe may I charge you and that iustly which I wyll also make apparant to all which will not shut theyr eyes that in stead of answering yee doo not onely cauill but most sottishly with a blinde shift For our question heere is this the Church of England doth receyue in and retayne in her bosome the prophane multitude therfore the Church of England is not the true Church To disproue this I reason thus the Church of Israel retayned the multitude of wicked ones in her bosome for there were but fewe true worshippers frequented the Temple among multitudes of prophane vngodly men Therefore this fault doth not destroy the béeing of a true Church neyther is the worship and prayers of the faithfull
and Teachers doo examine and make triall and choose him whome they shall finde euery way qualified for so worthy a function The matter being made knowne to as many as may be and especially to that flocke ouer which he is to be set that if any can alleadge iust cause why he is vnworthy of such an office they be heard otherwise after a due kind he is ordeyned and put into possession of his Ministerie Then touching your assumption the Ministers of the Church of England as ye say be imposed If ye vnderstand by imposed that they be all thrust vppon the flockes against theyr will and liking or that the flockes haue no power to take exception yee speake vntruly For there be many flockes in England which haue those Pastors and Ministers of the Gospell whome they haue desired to haue and made choyse of I meane by suite both to the Patrones and to the parties whome they desire to haue and if any of the people can shew iust cause against the partie which is to be ordeined the Byshop may not admit him There follow now many boasting words with which yee march in tryumph it is pitie to put them out of their array You require one reason at the least to confirme our Ministerie I confesse it is a reasonable request but first I must answere that which ye bring for to ouerthrowe it To proue our Ministerie not to be of Christ but to haue his negatiue Yée say yée finde not in his Testament the names we carry the offices we beare the manner of our entrance and administration our support and maintenance Touching our names we are called Ministers of the Gospell Pastors and Teachers which be the Tytles giuen in Gods word The names of Parsons and Vicars are not to make any distinction of the Ministerie but of the state of maintenance annexed vnto the same The Offices we beare are to teach and instruct our flockes by the wholesome word of God to administer the Sacraments and to make publike prayers And I am sure these are prescribed in Christes Testament and if your eye were not malignant yee might espy them there Our entrance is not by intrusion but by calling and that in many by the desire of the flockes as I haue shewed before and for the manner of our administration it hath béen dealt in at large in the first accusation Our support by Tythes and such like is not mayntayned as a matter of necessitie but as the most conuenient The word of God hath giuen the generall rule that the Minister of the word is to be liberally mayntayned the manner touching circumstances is to be ordered for most conueniencie by the Church and power of the Christian Magistrate For many things are lawfull and in the power of the Church to ordeyne which are not particularly named in Gods word but conteyned in generall rules Your next words are farre sharper and cut more déepely yea euen so déepely that wo bée vnto vs all if you haue not the venemous toong of liers and false accusers Yée vse a gradation to set foorth our pedigrée for we are yée say the children of the Byshops The Byshops are the creatures of the Pope The Pope is the eldest sonne of Satan and his vicar generall in earth Now as yée haue set vs héere vnder a verie honorable parentage so doo yée shewe vs great kindnesse in setting vs foorth not to be degenerate but to beare the image the marke the power and life of the Pope and together with him to growe liue raigne stand and fall as the branches with the trée Héere is the verie bottome of your gall héere is your poysoned sting thrust as déepe as is possible But let your words be examined and by the stepps that you ascend I will descend The highest is the Deuill the father of lyes Next vnto him the Pope his eldest sonne and vicar generall in earth In déede I am resolutely perswaded that the Pope is the Beast vnto whome the Dragon gaue his power his Throne and great authoritie Reuel 13. of whome it is sayd in the same place that all the world wondred and followed the Beast They worshipped the Dragon which gaue power to the Beast and they woorshipped the Beast saying Who is like to the Beast who is able to warre with him This no doubt is that man of sinne who hath exalted himselfe aboue all that is called God or that hath imperiall maiestie sitting in the Temple of God and boasting himselfe as God whose comming should be by the effectuall working of Satan with all lying signes and wonders 2. Thess 2. He hath set vp the verie worship of Deuils with all abhominable Idolatrie and blasphemous heresies and lyes He hath not only vsurped and challenged a ciuill power and Lordship ouer Kings but also a spirituall Dominion ouer the consciences and faith of man to make Lawes at his pleasure contrarie to Gods word to binde the same this is the vicar generall of the Deuill Then to come to the next steppe where there is no question nor doubt neyther to be made but that all Popish Byshops be the creatures and children of the Pope in as much as they haue their calling and consecration and power deriued from him in as much as they sweare obedience vnto him to mayntayne his dignitie his tyrannie his doctrine and his lawes and in as much as they challenge together with him a Lordship and tyrannie ouer the conscience But the Byshops of the Church of England haue not their calling consecration or power frō the Pope but frō our Church which hath forsaken the Church of Rome as the Sinagog of Satan The Byshops of England acknowledge no subiection to the Pope but by an oath renounce his vsurped power tyranny The Bishops of Engl. are not ordeined to maintain or defend y e religion lawes of Antichrist but quite contrary they promise and professe to aduance the Gospell of Iesus Christ by the liuely word to cut downe all idolatrie heresies and popish abhominations Finally the Bishops of Engl. do not vsurp a Lordship ouer the faith consciences of men for the power which they haue peculiar in the Church is only in the administration of externall gouernment It is therfore with manifest wicked sclander that ye tearme the Bish of Engl. Antichristian the creatures of the Pope and such as haue his power life in thē yea such as whosoeuer is ordeined by thē hath his ministry frō Antichrist and from the Deuill There is controuersy about the state gouernmēt by Bishops whether y e Church of Engl. hath not erred in cōmitting into their hands the execution of discipline which is the matter to be handled in your fourth accusation but to gather from hence a pedegrée from the Pope is verie foolishe Let vs come then to the lowest step which is in the ministers We haue laboured in studie of holie things to be fitte for the Ministerie and so furnished
the name and I haue heard diuers say they go beyond Browne But whosoeuer shal reade his books and peruse all their writings shall well see that he deserueth to haue the honour if any be and to be called the Captaine and maister of them all They haue all their furniture from him they do but open his packe and displaye his wares They haue not a sharpe arrowe which is not drawne out of his quiuer Then next touching the question betweene them and me let the reader consider it is not about the controuersie in our Church as whether there be imperfections corruptions and faults in our worship ministerie and church gouernment nor how many great or small But whether there be such heynous enormities as destroy the verye life and being of a true Church and make an vtter diuorse from Christ I will lay it open more plaine by a comparison which the Scripture vseth The Church is like a man in whom there be many parts and members Rom. 12. If all the parts or members of the body haue their iust proportion be whole and sound and set in their due order the soule and life departed he is no longer a man to speake properly but the dead carcasse of a man But now if he be sicke and diseased so that all partes are feeble or if he be deformed with sores and maimes wanting hand foote eye nose or such like yet is he still a man so long as the soule and life remaine in him All men doo know this to be true yea euen the simplest make no doubt or controuersie about it Let vs see therefore whether it be a fitte comparison with the Church and whether it be so in it of necessitie and as manifest by the doctrine of the holy scriptures as this other is vnto our bodily senses To finde this we must first consider whether there be no true Church of GOD but that which is perfect in this worlde Wee knowe that there are none but Heretikes yea ranke abhominable heretikes which obstinately deny this cleere doctrine of the holy Scriptures namely that euen the most faithfull and the most godly are not perfect while they liue vpon the earth We know but in part 1. Cor. 13. In many things we sinne all Iam. 3. v. 2. And who vnderstandeth his errors or who can tell how oft he offendeth Psal 19. The perfectest members of the Church doo erre doo sinne are maimed are weake are spotted and deformed many wayes Nowe whereas all the members be in this case needes must the whole body which is composed of them be in the same estate Then we may not looke for a Church in this world which is not spotted deformed maymed and weake in some respects But the question must bee how farre it may bee deformed and maimed and yet remaine aliue and so a true Church of God Let all the partes bee ioyned together let there be all sortes of officers and offices yet if the life and as it were the soule of the Church be wanting it is but a dead carcasse Contrarywise let there be some members wanting some maimed all parts deformed and weake yet is it a true Church of God so long as the soule and life dooth remaine in it And what is the soule and life of the Church Iesus Christ apprehended by faith I liue now saith Saint Paul but not any longer I but Christ liueth in me Galath 2. ver 20. All the members of the Church are incorporate and graffed into Christ by faith and doo growe in him and through the operation of his spirite receiue the iuice and sappe of life from him Iohn 15. Whosoeuer beleeueth in the Sonne of God shall be saued though he be full of errors full of infirmities and deformities both in body and soule labouring to be purged But if a man or an assembly do hold that which ouerthroweth the faith in Christ they are gone there is no life remaining As the Papacie holdeth many things aright touching Christ but it holdeth sundry things contrary which ouerthrow the very foundation of the faith and so the Papacie it selfe is not Gods true Church Thus haue I laide open the question betweene mee and the Brownists wherein then are the Maisters and Capitaines of Brownisme deceiued And what is it in which they seeke victorie and glory They knowe there is no sinne no error no corruption nor no abuse but that if all the learnedest in the worlde would take vpon them to cleere and to defend the same they shall not be able Then they are desirous of victorie of triumphe and glorye ouer all both wise and learned Heere therefore they entrench themselues they make their Bulwarkes plant their ordinance set themselues in arraye and sound the Trumpet of defiance against all They presume none shall euer be able to driue them out of their holde And indeed he that condemneth an error and goeth no further can neuer be vanquished But heerein they are deceiued that out of this Forte they will batter downe the Church For theyr ordinance is ouer weake for that they stoppe in powder in great plenty for they laye on toong enough and so make terrible thundering crakes But the Bullets which come foorth and which should doo the deed are nothing but hereticall erronious and fantasticall opinions and so all vanisheth into smoake They must therefore at the last leaue their holde and take them to their heeles for Gods Church will not be battered downe by any assaults of Schismatikes Some will thinke hardly that I terme them Schismatikes seeing they be men that are accounted zealous and stand for good things But the truth is they be not onely a Schisme yea a vile Schisme rending themselues from the Church of England and condemning by their assertions the whole visible Church in the worlde euen as the Donatists did of olde time but also they maintaine heresies and some that touche the very foundation of faith and Christian religion they be vtter violaters of ecclesiasticall discipline they abridge the power of the ciuill Magistrate beside sundry fantasticall opinions For when as the life of the church consisteth in the apprehensson of Christ through faith it must needs be an heresie to conclude as they doo a nullitie a quite ouerthrow of the same from errors faults which are not fundamentall Faith and regeneration being vnperfect in all that liue vpon the earth it is heriticall to say that is no Church of God which holding the sounde doctrine hath sinnes and great abuses in it The stablenesse of Gods couenant towarde the Church being founded onely vpon his free grace it is detestable impietie to hang it vpon the works of men as the Brownists do when they affyrme that where there is any open sinnes suffered in an assemblie the couenant is disanulled with them all And if men consider well they shall finde that the whole Brownisme resteth vppon the heresie of perfection and Anabaptisticall freedome For from hence that it
is written Ierusalem from aboue is the mother of vs all and is free with her children They boast of such freedome as that touching outwarde orders the Prince and Church hath no power to impose any thing by Lawes and Constitutions Which is one thing wherein they do not onely abridge the power of the Christian Magistrates denying them the authoritie to reforme the Church and to compell their subiects to the true worship spoyling the Church of that comfortable ayd but also condemne all reformed Churches which haue orders and prescript formes of prayers imposed which these Brownists tearme Idolatrie a tradition bringing Christian libertie into bondage and therefore a thing most detestable Moreouer they hold such a perfect freedome from all spirituall bondage of sinne that they affyrme S. Paule neuer consented to wicked thoughts after he was regenerate But in an other place they affyrme that all men be Idolaters and can keepe no one Commaundement where they are both contrary to themselues vttering that which ouerthroweth the whole Brownisme and also speake grosely For albeit there is no man perfect in any Commaundement yet the holy Scriptures do not call them Idolaters nor adulterers They boldly gayne say the holy Ghost by affirming that the Psalmes were not to be sung vnto God And touching the discipline which is the thing they most glorie of as if they suffered for it let all men know for certaintie that they be not only ignorant what it is but also do in their practise breake and ouerthrow the very pith and substance thereof in the chiefe rules For they take vpon them to abandon and cast foorth whole assemblyes which professe the Gospell and haue their estimation and dignitie among all godly Churches without obseruing the rule giuen by our Sauiour Christ Math. 18. They intrude themselues without calling beeing meere priuate men to the erecting and establishing of a publike gouernment forgetting that which is written I haue not sent them and yet they runne They cut off also the power of the Church in a great part of the discipline as namely in ordeyning constitutions in things that are variable Finally touching this poynt I may say boldly the Diuell can no way almost more disgrace Ecclesiasticall gouernment then he doth by them for it is the Sterne of Christes Ship and requireth men of the greatest wisedome learning experience and sobrietie that may be for to guide it Now when the common Artificer the Apprentise and the Bruer intrude themselues and they will guide the same being ignorant rash and headie what worldlie wise man will not take it that discipline her selfe is but a bedlem Who will aduenture himselfe in that Ship where presumptuous ignorance and bold frensie doth sit at the Helme Shall that Ship escape the rockes If it would please God to giue Browne the grace to repent and to speake the truth he could best declare this thing For when he had with certayne other drawne some both men and women ouer the Seas and there spread his Sayles how soone did his silly Boate dash vppon the rocke and was clouen in two or three peeces Let not men be deceyued with euery vayne shewe for vndoubtedly he that obserueth shall finde that the end of Brownisme is infinite Schismes Heresies Atheisme and Barbarisme For what other fruites can followe of the disgracing and condemning the liberall Artes of bringing the ministerie of Gods Word by which the religion and godlines that is in men hath been â—rought into vtter contempt What can followe from immoderate outragious rash furie wrath and bitter zeale and vainglorious contention which are earthly sensuall and diuelish If men could stay themselues but a while and see whether the same things spring not foorth which came from the Donatists and Anabaptists it were well For it is to be wondred at that any which professe the Gospell should be seduced and called away not only from the Ministers of the Church of England that haue taught them but from all the most worthy men and Churches vnder heauen and that by the voyce of the Deuill in such furious blinde Schismatikes In deede there be two speciall causes of it the one that sundry men receyue not the holy Word of God in humilitie with feare and trembling with conscience to practise but are puffed vp and swell with opinion of their knowledge as soone as they can vtter a fewe words and growe vnto vayne iangling yea vnto bitter zeale and contention in stead of being quiet as S. Paule willeth and medling with their own busines 1. Thes 3. and also in stead of following after righteousnes faith and loue 2. Timoth. 3. He that seemeth most zealous in religion and refraineth not his toong hath but bitternesse in steed of heauenly zeale For wheras in steed of gentlenesse meekenesse patience mercie and loue yee finde wrath fiercenesse intemperat rage vncharitable condemning and slaundering know for certainty that the true zeale is not there The other cause of mens seducing is that in this corrupt age there be many stumbling blockes and greeuous offences where indeed it is the part and duty of euery true Christian man beside the taking heede to his owne wayes most instantly to offer vp praiers and supplications to God to intreate him to shew mercie and compassion vpon vs by increasing all heauenly graces and giftes of his holy spirit in our most noble Queene and in all Gouernours both ciuill and ecclesiasticall that there may be feruent zeale to purge the house of God and to take away the causes of contention that we may not alwaies seeke to deuoure one an other but that vnity and concord may florish holding this withall that it is also euery mans dutie that will feare God to giue him hearty thanks for the inestimable treasures and blessings which he hath bestowed vpon vs by meanes of the happy raigne of our gratious Soueraigne and to take heed of that malignant spirite of Brownisme which would carry vs to this wicked opinion that she bearing the Sworde of God hath doone no more for vs then an Heathen Prince might doo For if we haue no word of God no ministery no Sacraments nor visible Church but all idolatrous and antichristian what hath she done what honor can she haue for defence of the Gospell This is no small dishonour and iniurie to a Christian Prince thus to diminish the loue of the subiects The Lord giue them repentance and grace to cease from such impietie and let all men with modestie reuerence and subiection and not with reproch and contempt seeke the redresse of abuses at their hands which be in Authoritie and not aduenture like Corah Dathan and Abiram to intrude themselues without calling and warrant from God They cryed out are not all the Lords people holy and therefore Moses and Aaron yee take too much vppon yee The Brownist proclaymeth that all the Lords people are free and therefore freely to deale and not to haue any thing imposed by any Be
Brownists of necessitie if your spéeches be weighed séeing all Churches haue and doo things which you affirme to be most detestable idolatry but let the matter come into question to be debated among the Churches and you will be found Anabaptists for imagining such a Christian libertie and fréedome in the Church that nothing is to be receyued which is imposed by commaundement Then ye say that it breaketh our libertie S. Paul proueth most plainely to the Galathians and Colossians I pray ye then that we may sée such plaine proofe which as yet none but your selues can espy note the sentences that will prooue the matter You take it there is no warrant to set foorth any prescript forme of prayer because Christ hath prescribed a forme Ye thinke I might more safely reason thus Christ hath prescribed a forme of prayer therefore neyther Pope Byshop or Prelate ought to impose any other vpon Gods children vntill they can shewe some warrant from Gods word so to do I am fully of your minde that none ought to impose any other forme vntill they can shewe warrant from Gods word But nowe marke how the Argument will followe Moyses the Prophets and our Lord Iesus gaue prescript formes of prayer and praysing God to be vsed by the Church therefore the reading of a prescript forme of prayer when one prayeth or offreth vp the sacrifice of prayse to God doth not change the worke of the Spirit into an idoll nor is not a breaking Christian libertie nor idolatrie for the holie Scripture is farre from appointing any idolatrous thing Then I reason further that if the Prophets and our Sauiour gaue prescript formes to be vsed the Church may take order to sée them vsed And from hence it doth followe that the Church may impose prescript forme of godlie prayers which are framed aright If any thinke this a strange consequence let them consider that the Lords prayer in generall conteyneth in it matter touching the substance and summe of all prayers which haue béene made or are to be made aright The Psalmes and other prayers in the Scriptures doo expresse particulars with sundrie sentences and phrases most fitte to expresse the same Nowe the Church hath power and authoritie not onely to expound these prayers but also to applye them vnto euerie seuerall vse and necessitye This I adde withall that the Church hath no authoritye to bring in any one thing in prayer which is not conteyned in those prayers of Gods word but when the prayers be composed and framed of nothing but the doctrine of the Scriptures and after the rules of true prayer nothing is brought in which God hath not commaunded Lay aside therefore all your shiftes touching Apocrypha mens writings and inequalitie with Canonicall Scriptures and bring your Arguments against the prescript forme and the reading to prooue that they make a prayer holie in it selfe to become abhominable and contrarie vnto spirituall prayer That yee say our Sauiour neuer vsed the words of the Lords prayer when he prayed neyther commaunded his Disciples to say ouer these words neyther doo we reade that the Apostles did euer vse or enforced others to vse certayne words c. ye speake vntruly for the Disciples desired him to teach them to pray as Iohn taught his disciples to pray and he commaundeth when yée pray say thus Our Father which art in heauen hallowed be thy name c. Luke 11. and S. Mathew an Apostle with S. Luke the Euangelist hath deliuered the same to the whole Church if we reade not any where that they did vse the Lords prayer or commaunded others to vse it Will ye reason thus we do not reade that the Apostles or the Church in their time did baptize Infants therefore Infants were not baptized or will ye reason thus we neuer read that the Apostles did pray eyther before or after they preached therefore they did not your argument is the very same with these two former yet from hence ye will néeds conclude y t we will impose vpon whole Churches certaine words euen our own words stinting the spirit of God I haue alreadie shewed that the Church hath not authoritie to bring any forme of prayer into the assemblies but such as is agréeable to the rules appointed for prayer by the word of God And where ye call it a stinting of the Spirit I aunswere that the Spirit of God is not stinted but some men are furthered by prescript formes their infirmities requiring such an eye as I haue shewed before Argum. 4. Because true prayer must be of faith vttered with heart and liuely voyce it is presumptuous ignorance to bring a booke to speake for vs c. Argum. 5. To worship the true God after an other manner then he hath taught is Idolatrie But he hath commaunded vs to come vnto him heauie laden with contrite hearts c. How dare we then bring a dead letter vnto God to stand reading of the same in stead of faithfull petitions quenching the spirit Argum. 6. We must striue in prayer with continuance c. therefore not vpon a booke These thrée I ioyned together as hauing no waight Ye say I answere by playne contradiction without Scripture or proofe In déede you quote Scripture to prooue those things which are not doubted of as that true prayer must be of faith vttered with hart that to worship God after an other manner then he hath taught is idolatrie that we must striue in prayer with continuance But what scripture do ye bring to prooue that it is presumptuous ignorance to vse the help of a booke that those which reade vpon a booke come not with faith and contrite hearts c. but stand reading a dead letter which quencheth the Spirit and that a booke is no helpe for continuance in prayer what Scripture I say bring yee to prooue any of these is not my bare denyall as good as your bare affirmation and in this farre better that I haue before proued the vse of reading by y e word of God Dauid say you would prayse the Lord with hart and doyce therefore not vpon a booke S. Paule would pray with the spirit and with vnderstanding therefore not vpon a booke Dauid and Paule had not so much néed of the booke as other men But whē they will other to sing prayses to God as in Psalmes Himnes and spirituall songs did they not send them to the booke or to the prescript formes wherein others might praise God together with them although they binde not men alwaies to the booke Then yée adde a reason why praier read cannot be true praier which is that in reading we fetch the matter from the booke which mooueth the heart In true praier we fetch the matter from the heart which causeth the mouth to speake as I beléeued and therefore I spake This is a most ridiculous vanitie for tell me this when we bring foorth in true praier matter from the heart which causeth the mouth to speake
be vnlike themselues but vary from others You reply that the Papists haue not so weake reasons for their idolatrous leiturgies rubrikes and Canons It appeareth by all your arguments how méete men yée are to iudge of the waight and sufficiencie of reasons alledged by the Papists or others Ye say if it be but in phrases of spéech that they differ it is no sufficient cause to ordaine leiturgies I graunt that is true then yée say if it be in doctrine or conuersation the censures of the Church are to helpe that I confesse that the censures of the Church are to redresse such things But your reason yet hath two defaults The one that ye deuide differing in administration of Sacraments and publike praiers but into two members difference of phrases and difference of doctrine When as there be sundry other differences as in order and ceremonies which the Church is to haue regard of and not to leaue arbitrary Your experience in these matters is not so great as your boldnesse The other fault is that because the censures of the church should redresse defaultes therefore there néedeth no prescribed order It is a world to sée how many men talke of the Censures and gouernment of the Church which knowe not what it meaneth The Church hath this power to ordeine according to the word of God and to appoynt such Orders in matters of circumstance about publike prayer preaching of the word and administring of the Sacraments as shall most fitlie serue for edification And then these Orders béeing established by publike Authoritie the Discipline and Censures of the Church are to driue men to the obseruation of the same Who is able to imagin the innumerable diuisions and offences which would arise in the practise of your Anabaptisticall fréedome in which yee denye the Church to haue power to ordeyne and to impose any orders I would the Ministerie of England were better then it is If by tearming it a franticke Ministerie you meant but to speake against vnlearned and vngodlie men you should haue leaue for me but you comprehend all the learnedest and godly whiche you could not bée bolde to doo vnlesse yee were taken with a frensie séeing there bée many whome yée are neuer lyke in any measure of giftes and graces eyther for knowledge or Godlynesse to approch néere vnto Well now yée fall to your sober reasoning agayne Paule commaunded the Colossians to admonishe Archippus you would haue a Leiturgie for your Ministers not onely to tell them what they should doo to men but also to God himselfe this is your last reason and hauing before spent your strength it is as a weake childe of your olde age If yee had no better I would neuer haue set this last For I meruayle vnlesse yee did it to mocke to what ende yee shoulde bring it in Archippus was to bée admonished by the Colossians the Pastors are to bée admonished by theyr flockes therefore there ought to bée no prescript forme of publike prayer Or is your meaning that the Leiturgies goe too farre in telling the Ministers what they shall say not only to men but to God himselfe Then I aunswere that the Colossians were to admonish Archippus to looke to his whole dutie Set Archippus aside for he doth not strengthen but weaken your argument and take these words only which séeme to carrie a great absurditie namely that the Minister should be told by a Leiturgie what he is to speake both to God and men I aunswere that the Leiturgie is not to teach Ministers which otherwise can not tell what to say it is not to maintaine an idoll Ministerie But to auoyd those inconueniences which I haue before mentioned and such lyke you may sée in the reformed Churches they haue Leiturgies and yet all theyr Ministers are able and knowe what to speake both to God and men I propounded this question that if read prayers and imposed Leiturgies bée Idolatrie where shall wée fynde a visible Churche You aunswere that in this poynt they might erre of ignorance and yet be the true Church This is some fauour yet the Church came nowe vnto yee in a lucky houre but yee may continue thus gratious least the poore Churches of England craue the like at your hande Haue yee not set downe that to reade a prayer vppon the booke is to woorship hym with a woorship disagréeing from his nature haue yee not sayd it is the deuise of Antichrist a dead letter quenching the Spirit stinting the Spirit not of Faith Idolatrie a changing the worke of the Spirit into an Idoll a tradition and bondage breaking our libertie which Christ hath purchased for vs and therefore a thing most detestable Doo yee not denye that to bée the Church of Christ which hath any thing imposed and yet yee saye touching Leiturgies imposed vppon all Churches they might erre in this poynt of ignorance and yet bée a true Church Your spéeches doo condemne all the visible Churches in the worlde wherein yée bée rancke Donatists But you woulde hide this and make shewe as though yée condemned only the Churches of England But if read prayers and imposed Leiturgies bée such as you affyrme in those spéeches which I haue mentioned how could ignorance excuse them And why may not the Church of Englande bée excused by ignorance let the Reader héere obserue the pride of ignorant blinde Scismatikes which imagine they knowe more then all the Churches of God in the earth You take it that I vse the Popish Argument of vniuersalitie and Antiquitie and so wonder what I will say against the Papists traditions séeing I fight with their weapons agaynst the truth Nay if yée could sée your owne blindnesse it would make ye meruaile in déede I reason thus It is manifest by the word of God that there should bée a true visible Church in earth but if imposed Leiturgies be such as you make them that could not bée so there could bée no true Church in as much as all Churches that are and that haue béene for many hundred yeares haue had imposed Leiturgies The Papists doo drawe theyr Arguments of Antiquitie and Vniuersalitie not from the Scriptures as you may sée this reason that I alleadge is but against the Scriptures And nowe how truly yée conclude touching this question of read Prayer and prescript forme of Leiturgies let the Reader iudge and whether the Scriptures that I haue brought doo not ouerthrowe your fantasticall and Anabaptisticall errors There were ioyned with these Arguments against read Prayer two other the first is this The Prayers of such Ministers and people as stand vnder a false Gouernment are not acceptable not onely because they aske amisse but because they breake Gods commaundement The other is The Prayers of such as bée subiect to Antichrist are abhominable Those Ministers which haue no power with theyr people to receyue in and to cast out hauing come in by the windowe are Antichristian and subiect to Antichrist therefore the prayers of
the Pastour doth keepe backe some for ignorance c. Heere you confesse that very many Churches in England want godly Pastours and that there all are admitted and that he that admitteth them is the worste of the company Thus you make the most Chuches in England in a very bad estate and so farre foorth you affirme your article But yet you know some Churches c. I did confesse and doo still with gréefe that in very manye assemblies in England all are admitted to the Table of the Lord which offer themselues euen the most prophane and grosse sinners I shewed also the reason of this gréeuous offence namely that the ministers which should repell such open offenders are many times the worst or at least negligent in that behalfe And moreouer that the Church of England dooth neither approoue such admission of prophane men to the Sacrament nor yet suffer it in practise wholy For touching practise there be many congregations in the land where sundrie for ignorance and open wickednesse are by the ministers kept backe and not suffered to communicate vntill they shew repentance And for not approouing such admission I said the booke of Common prayer dooth prescribe and commaund the repelling of notorious wicked offendours and also that some are excommunicated iustly not admitted to publike praier This was the first part of mine answer wherein I prooue your accusation false The other is that the godly are not polluted by the companye of the wicked which are suffered to communicate with them in Gods worship and the thing not in their power to redresse And for example I alledged the Church of the Iewes By which I prooue that if your accusation were true yet it destroyeth not the Church Now let vs examine how you ouerthrowe this by your replye Yée aske whether there were no more prophane in the parish besides those twenty or thirty which are repelled And whether those other prophane were not admitted I answer If there were yet the repelling of twenty or thirty in a flock dooth shew that you accuse falsely when yée say all the prophane without exception of any one person are reteined in the body and bosome of our Church But to prooue your article at once as yée say by a more direct course yée bring an argument And yée demand if I know anye in all the realme of England vnbaptized Is not Baptisme say you a Sacrament belonging to the Church by which all the faithfull and their séed doo enter into it Wherevpon yée argue thus All being baptized it followeth that all are receiued into the body of your Church Now being once receiued in they can no way be cast out but by excommunication And it is manifest that the Parson and all his parish hath not the powre which Christ hath left vnto his Church to excommunicate any offender be he neuer so obstinate or notorious c. This being the onely reason by which ye stand to prooue the truth of your accusation I must bestow the more paines about it Thus it must be set in forme Where all are receiued in by Baptisme and no power to cast foorth any by excommunication there all the prophane multitudes are without exception of any one person receiued into reteined in the bosome and body of the Church But in the Church of England all are receiued in by Baptisme and there is no power to cast foorth any by excommunication Therefore in England all the prophane multitudes without exception of any one person are receiued into and reteined in the bosome and body of the Church In your proposition there are to be excepted such as are repelled from the Sacrament who are in some sort for the time remooued out of the bosome of the Church And also such Papists Heretikes and Scismatikes as depart out of themselues It is further also to be considered in it that all the baptized continuing outwardly obedient they cannot be iustly called the prophane multitudes Your presumption in which ye charge the Church of England with a principall transgression for receiuing in all by Baptisme and hauing no power to cast foorth any by Excommunication is with foule error and falsehood Touching the Baptisme of Infants this appeareth to be your iudgement that the children of prophane men which remayne in the Church and professe the faith of Christ belong not to the couenant and therefore ought not to be Baptised No doubt the Church doth offend when open notorious sinners are not Excommunicate and brought to repentance or at the least to such a shewe of repentance as that men can not further iudge them but as Brethren It is also an offence where such not being cast foorth their children are receyued vnto Baptisme and that without care to sée them brought vp and instructed in the Christian Religion and to leade a Godly life agréeable to the same But to say that the children of prophane men taking prophane men as you doo which professe Christianitie and remayne in the Church are not to be Baptised is a very wicked iniurie to Gods people and contrarie to the manifest doctrine of the holie Scriptures and can not without Heresie be mayntayned First touching prophane people it is certayne that all Heathen Heretikes all Scismatikes open contemners of the holie Religion and all obstinate wicked men whiche despise the censure of the Church that hath passed vppon them may be called prophane But you Brownists go further and condemne them all as Infidels and prophane which professe the faith of Christ because notwithstanding they doo it in some weakenes and infirmities which is a wicked presumption and intrusion into Gods seate and in which as I haue shewed before yée breake the rule of discipline giuen by our Sauiour Christ by which no brother that is none which professeth the true faith is for his sinnes and impenitencie to be iudged as heathen vntill he haue despised the admonition of the Church and so be cast foorth You take vppon yée to plucke vp all the Darnell yée are commaunded the contrarie least yée plucke vp the Wheate Math. 13. You dare and that in most sauage and desperate manner rend and teare vp the weake plants yée doo it vnto whole assemblyes in which there be many that vnfaynedly sorrow and mourne for their sinnes and studie to please God all that feare the Lord may tremble at this your intollerable wickednes But now to procéede Ye will not allowe the children of prophane men the Sacrament of Baptisme And what is your reason they bée not the séede of the faithfull In déede in this yée say true that none are in theyr infancie to be admitted to this Sacrament but the séede of the faithfull but when yée take it that the children whose next parents are hypocrites or wicked and prophane persons which yet remayne in the Church and professe Christ be not the séede of the faithfull at all and in any respect and so within the couenant and to be baptized
yée are farre wide for let it be that their next parents before haue béene hypocrites and vnfaithfull yet may they bée the séede of the faithfull for their interest in Gods couenant doth as béeing the seede of the faithfull not depend vppon theyr next parents but vppon the auncient Christians theyr fore-fathers for when he sayth I will be thy God and the God of thy seede the promise is made to a thousand generations Exod. 20. It is sayd that Leuy payd Tithes vnto Melchisedech because he was in the loynes of Abraham when he met Melchisedech and gaue Tythes Hebrewes 7. ver 9. 10. Abraham begat Isaake Isaake begat Iaakob and Iaakob begate Leuie and yet of Leuie it is sayd that he was in the loynes of Abraham yea it must néedes be confessed that all the whole Nation of the Iewes were in the loynes of Abraham Our Sauiour Christ according to the fleshe was in the loynes of Abraham For this cause Saint Peter calleth all the Iewes the children of the Prophets and of the couenant Acts. 3. ver 25. So doth S. Paule Rom. 9. and in that respect they be all called holie Rom. 11. If the first fruites be holie so is the lumpe if the roote be holie so are the boughes Abraham Isaak and Iaakob are the first fruites and the roote all the Israelites the lumpe and the boughes but were they all faithfull no nor yet the greater part for Esayas cryeth that if the number of the children of Israell were as the sand of the sea yet but a remnant should be saued Esay 10. How often doth the Lorde complayne euery where of the greeuous infidelitie and rebellion in the greatest part of that Nation Why then are they called holie and the holie people being many of them reprobates Is it not because they be Abrahams seede and were in the Church by outward profession adding this withall that the elect of God euen the right holie seede were in theyr loynes for Gods chosen did not spring only from the sanctifyed but also from other who touching the outward profession and touching the holy seede which was in theyr loynes were esteemed as members in the Church and were all of them euen the whole nation called the holy people It is not disalowed that in the times of idolatrie openly maintained their children were circumcised Nay further the Lord calleth the children of those wicked idolaters his children Thou hast sayth he by Ezechiel taken thy sonnes and thy daughters which thou broughtest foorth vnto me and sacrificed vnto them to be consumed Thou hast slayne my sonnes and giuen them by causing them to passe through to them Ezech. 16. ver 21. These Idolaters did offer their children to Deuils euen to the Idols of Canaan and shead innocent bloud euen the bloud of their sonnes and daughters when they caused them to passe through the fire Psal 106. If the promise to Abraham and his séede had not béen so effectual as that the holy chosen séede was in the loyns of these Idolaters how could they be said to bring foorth Sonnes Daughters to the Lord How could it be sayd thou hast slayn my sonnes or how could they rightly haue béen circumcised If ye say these Idolaters should not haue remained in the Church but if not by the Ciuill power put to death yet by the censure of the Church cast foorth Yea but there was so generall a declining that neyther of these was performed and so they remayned styll in the Church and brought foorth children vnto God euen such as the couenant made with Abraham did belong vnto they were in his loines they were his séede and not cut off by the wickednes of theyr next parents If yée obiect that the Iewes nowe at this day are the seede of Abraham and by that reason should be still the visible Church I aunswere that although there be Gods elect among them whome eyther he taketh away in their infancie or else calleth them to knowe Christ when they come to mans estate yet the Iewes can not now be called the visible Church nor the Church in as much as they haue reiected hym in whome the Couenant was ratifyed euen the Lord Iesus Christ and therefore he sayde vnto them the Vineyard shall be taken from those Husbandmen and let foorth vnto other And then expounding himselfe he sayth the Kingdome of God shall be taken from yee and giuen to a nation that will bring foorth the fruite thereof The Vineyard was not taken from those naughtie Husbandmen that killed the seruants of the Lord of the Vineyard which came for fruites euen the Prophets vntill they had killed the sonne and heire himselfe Now the naturall braunches are broken off and the wilde oliues euen the Gentiles are graffed in Rom. 11. They are nowe the children of Abraham and heyres of the promise as it is sayd I haue made thée a father of many Nations And in thy séede all Nations of the earth shall be blessed Our fore-fathers many of them declyned in the Apostasie and worshipped Idols but as the Idolatrous Iewes so they remayned still in the Church and brought foorth children to God that is such as were within the Couenant to be accounted the holie séede and so of right were to haue the seale of the couenant set vpon them euen Baptisme We can not say therefore that the Couenant was disanulled and that the Churche vtterlie fayled no not euen in the most horrible confusion of popery but Antichrist did sit in the temple of God 2. Thes 2 Those idolaters were in the Church and the heirs of promise in their loines for we and all the Churches are sprung out of them sealed with the signe of the Couenant as of right belonging vnto vs from our holye auncestors But you Brownists as Catabaptists denie that we haue the signe of the Couenant for yee say we haue no Sacraments If we bee not within the Couenant from our ancestours what are you who hath béene sent from God to call yée vnto a Couenant which yée were not within before Who hath giuen yée the signe of the Couenant or haue yee receiued a couenant without a signe How will you indure this terrible voice of Almightie God yée haue rooted vppe and cast foorth my sonnes and my daughters For if it were said to idolators yée haue slaine my sonnes how much more vnto you which in a most proud furie with intollerable boldnesse and crueltie roote vp and cast foorth the infants of whole assemblies which haue renounced idolatry and professe the Gospell because yée doo account them prophane Let it be they are many of them nothing such as they ought to be but sinners and such as should by the Censures of the Church bee brought into better order yet professing Christ and remaining in the Church their infants are not by their vngodlinesse cast foorth of the Couenant I conclude therefore that the Church of England or at the least many of the teachers and guides
all that doo ioyne together in that societie I might héere make an ende touching this second principall transgression but that there bée certayne particular reasons by which they stand to mayntayne theyr opinion First to this effect many doo speake If there be wicked men suffered to come to the Table of the Lord the Minister and Ecclesiasticall Gouernours doo commit so grieuous a sinne that they can not but be vtterly voyde of the true feare of God Then he which is a wicked man can not be a Minister of Christ and béeing no Minister of Christ there is no Sacrament of Christ deliuered how then shall a man communicate with that assemblie I haue shewed before that there be great sinnes and great neglect of dutie oftentimes where there is the true faith in weakenesse and so they sinne damnablie which take vppon them to iudge them no Christians The faithfull in Corinth were blinded in theyr owne faults and verie securely did the Pastors and Gouernours suffer the incestuous person to continue among them And whereas they say that if the Minister be vngodly he can be no Minister of Christ it is false for the man touching his owne person may be a reprobate and yet touching his ministerie a Minister of Christ Iudas was a Minister of Christ and baptized Iohn 4. ver 2. they were as truly and effectually baptized by him as by Peter and yet in himselfe a Deuill Iohn 6. vers 70. The two Sonnes of Ely were horrible wicked men 1. Sam. 2. ver 12. 22. and yet they are called not only Priests but Priests of the Lord 1. Sam. 1. vers 3. Ely himselfe did offend and was sharply punished that being not only their Father but also high Priest and Iudge he did not put them from the dignitie of the Office but did honour them with the same not regarding Gods honour 1. Sam. 2. vers 29. The Scribes and Pharisies who were not all of the Sonnes of Leuy for Saint Paule was a Pharisie and the Sonne of a Pharisie but yet of the Tribe of Beniamin were Ministers of the Church for Christ sayth They sate in Moyses Chayre and willed men to heare them notwithstanding they were blinde guides hypocrites prowde couetous ambitious and verie reprobates Matth. 23. Then next they alleadge that a little leauen doth leauen the whole lumpe 1. Cor. 5. Therefore where one open notorious Sinner is admitted to be a member of the Church all are leauened and polluted all doo fall from God I aunswere that Saint Paule rebuketh the Corinthes that they were puffed vp and did glorie when they should haue sorrowed for as many as had the power of the Discipline in theyr hands and did neglect were partakers of his sinne and not only they but of priuate members all that did not mourne and lament to sée such a foule matter wincked at As the Lord himselfe doth cléere all those which mourned for the abhominations of Ierusalem Ezechiel 9. so were they frée and not leauened which did mourne at Corinth for such abuses Moreouer it is verie false to say that whole Church was leauened or polluted with the sinne of that wicked man therefore they were not the Church of God For béeing giltie not only in that fault but in many other hée giueth them the honour of Gods Church writing to the Church of God which is at Corinth 1. Corinth 1. Then are obiected the words and commaundement of the Lord by Saint Paule If any that is called a brother be a fornicator or couetouse or an Idolater or a rayler or a drunckard or an extortioner with such see that yee eate not 1. Cor. 5. Some hold that this commaundement is giuen only against the eating with an open sinner at the Lords Table séeing we may eate common bread with such as be verie wicked Others doo argue thus If it be not lawfull to eate common bread with a wicked man how much more vnlawfull shall it be to eate with him that holie bread of the Lords Table as the Anabaptists lighting vpon these words of our Sauiour Christ but I say vnto ye Sweare not at all Matth. 5. do gather that it is vtterlie vnlawfull in any respect or at any time to take an oath and erre in not considering the circumstances whereby the words vttered in generall are to be restrayned vnto the particular abuse and rash swearing Euen so the Brownists taking the words as they stand and not waying the circumstances doo mayntayne absurdities They drawe theyr Argument of comparison from things in which the sinne or pollution is not for the sinne is not in the eating of the common bread neyther in eating the bread of the Lord with the wicked but in circumstances For I may eate bread with open sinners and offend thereby and I may eate bread with notorious wicked men and not offend therein yea I may grieuously sinne in refusing to eate with them I will expresse how If there be open grosse offenders and my familiaritie with them or my eating with them can not be but I shall eyther be partaker of their sinne or countenance and harden them in the same I offend if I doo not shunne their companie If any brother in the Church be conuict of foule sinne found obstinate and so Excommunicate euery member of the Church euen by the commaundement of God is to haue no fellowship with him that he may be ashamed 2. Thes 3. v. 14. But yet we are willed in the same place not to account him as an enimie but to admonish him as a Brother For if men should now in familiaritie receiue him to their table or go to his table it would harden him in his obstinacie and bring the censure and power of the Church into contempt This is that S. Paul dealeth about The wife of this man his children and seruants may eate with him or anye other where it cannot be eschewed for then it dooth not countenance him Now if I be in a ship vpon the sea among a company of vild wicked men or in a prison or in an armie and can haue no meate vnlesse I eate with them if I refuse I famish my selfe to death and so offend gréeuouslie We sée then it is not the very eating with them that dooth defile but the circumstances Euen so is it at the Lordes table where wicked men be admitted For such as doo admit them hauing power to repell do offend in eating there with them because they countenance them in their sinne But nowe a priuate member which is gréeued at this and dooth what lyeth in him to haue it redressed dooth not offend nor is not polluted by eating with them But as he that among the wicked in the ship in the prison or in the Campe doth offend in refusing his bodely sustenance so shall he if he refuse that heauenly foode of his soule for all the wicked cannot corrupt the same vnto him This man hath no fellowship with the vnfrutefull works of darkenesse
and instructed to the Kingdome of Heauen as to be lyke Householders that bring out of theyr Treasures things new and old We desire to call men that wander in ignorance and sinne vnto the light and so to build the Church of Christ We know no man is to be Iudge of his owne sufficiencie nor to intrude himselfe into publike office but to be tryed and ordeyned by the Church which hath that power committed into her hands from Christ The supreme Magistrate and Church of England haue committed this trust vnto the Byshops iudging it the quietest and safest way We are presented vnto them to be examined and tryed to be ordeyned and put into possession of our Ministerie by them and from them to receyue the power to execute the same not as theirs but the Churches which hath put it into their hands It is the ordinance of God and not the deuice of Antichrist that Pastors and Teachers shall be tryed and ordeyned by Elders Pastors and Gouernours and set ouer his people We receyue only this Ordinance and such as haue any vnderstanding may sée that the question can not be whether the power it selfe bée from Antichrist but whether there be not error and defects in administring the same to the hurt and dammage of the Church Now further hauing receyued this authoritie we Preach the holie Gospell of Iesus Christ and by the pure doctrine of the same we conuince and ouerthrowe Idolatrie superstition and Heresies We correct and reprooue all manner of vices informe and exhort vnto true Godlines In performing these things we drawe men out of Poperie by letting them vnderstand that the worship of Poperie is the verie worship of Deuils and that the Pope is Antichrist This Romane Antichrist and his adherents doo féele that the ministerie of the Gospell in England doth destroy hys kingdome and therfore stirred vp by the Deuil they rage and by all diuelish meanes séeke to destroy our noble Quéene and Countrie Except therefore you Brownists had euen let loose all the raynes of your toong and after a shamelesse manner to lie and slaunder how could ye pronounce that the ministery of England is Antichristian and of the Deuill or that it is in the life and power of the beast to liue to raigne to stand to fall together with him as the branches with the trée In the next place yée haue whet filed your cankered toong to vtter verye vile reproche against the nurseries of all good learning and holy religion within this land the two Vniuersities I know not how idlely and in what heathen vanitie yée spent your time there your selues but this I dare avow and make the challenge and let triall be made I will beare the shame for euer if it be not found true that there be many in the Vniuersities and not aboue the degrée of Bachelour of Arts vnto whome the principall Maisters of Brownisme are inferior if wee respect either the Liberall Artes or the knowledge of toongs as of Hebrew Gréeke and Latine or a sound iudgement in Diuinitie If this can be attained in fewe yeares with more then Moonkish idlenesse the Brownists may in some thing be beléeued Some do abuse the liberall Arts but to condemne Logike Rhethorike and the rest as vaine and curious as you doo is a very beastly error Saint Luke from whom yée draw your phrase of spéech Act. 19. dooth not speake of these but of Magicall science I doo not maruaile that blind Schismatikes doo so bitterly iuueigh against learning séeing it is their bane For they séeke victorie triumphe and glorye ouer all the learnedest and if there were no learning to discouer and to lay open their nakednesse and shame they would much preuaile and be had in greater reputation Thus do the Brownists labour to bring in sauage barbarisme But yet héere vp goeth your saile againe and yée haue winde at will and neuer so much sea roome as when with bitter slaunders and reproches yée rowle away Ye wrappe vp altogether for the offences of some Yée reckon vp certaine things of circumstance and in themselues indifferent and yet vpon your credit we must take them to be odious enormities Ye are vp with perfidi tyrannie and the statutes of Omry Your frensie is great I did aduise that men would suspend their iudgement and enquire of the Churches touching the Ministerie of England Against this yée crie out and aske if it be the best counsell I can giue them I answer it is the best being that which God hath ordeined Haue yée not read that the Préests lippes shall kéepe knowledge men shall enquire at his mouth for he is the Angell of the Lord of Hostes By this it is cléere that whensoeuer Heretikes and Schismatikes doo raise doubts it is Gods will that the people shall enquire for resolution out of the word at their mouthes whome he hath raised vp and set as the greatest lights in his Church Yet sée how sottishly you cauill against this Yée take it I would haue them doo things which they doubt off and my wordes are but to haue them suspend their iudgement vntill they enquire and not to be too rash in following the call of blinde presumptuous and hereticall schismatikes Then yée say I send them ouer the sea we wotte not whether c. They make doubt of vs we are the men whose Ministery is in question we send them therefore vnto those of whome they can haue no doubt and that is to the worthy instruments and seruants of God the Pastors of other Churches I do no not send them ouer the Seas for there be diuerse godly Churches of strangers within the land as the French the Dutch the Italian there be the churches of Scotland and no sea to passe nor diuersitie of language so great as to hinder we haue also the writings of all the worthiest Yée say I send them vnto the word of man which is false for I doo send them vnto the learned pastors to be resolued by the word of God These haue the calling vnto this office from God and his blessing vpon those which séeke it with humility and reuerence It is not to vse old popish worne arguments but yours is the course of all arrogant proud heretikes schismatikes which couet to draw the people to depend vpon them that they may haue fame to forsake their Pastors which take it gréeuously that they should séeke resolutiō any where but at their hand Whether shall we iudge the godly learned ministers of the Churches aboue named which haue their calling from God or the vnlearned rash Brownists intruding themselues without calling and run before they be sent fittest to enquire at for resolution It were a pretie thing to heare the Harlots in the stewes euen in good earnest to boast and glory of their chastitie Who is more fierce and outragious more vncharitable in condemning then yée Brownists And yet ye bragge of such patience and charitie as cannot be
preaching of the word and now doth not the falt is in himselfe If the Brow do further reply that they be not true Christians which yet are moued by the preaching the motions are deceiptfull Then I wil frō that which they confesse shew that such people are truly faithfull For they confesse that they were blessed and holy Martyrs that suffred in the dayes of Quéene Mary and I say they were conuerted by the same ministerie which we haue now They had but the same motions at the preaching of Latimer Howper Taylor Bradford and others which our people haue nowe If the people at this day then féele the same effect in their soules at the preaching and Sacraments touching faith repentance and resolution to dye with ioy for the testimonie of the Lord if he shall require it let the Brownists and all other wicked Scismatikes barke that we haue no Ministerie we haue no Word we haue no Sacraments nor true Church yet the godly wise shall be able to discerne the voyce of Christ from the voyce of the Deuill and perceyue that the power of our Ministerie is not of the Deuill but of the holy Ghost whom they haue most wickedly reproched The fourth transgression The Brow THen for that their Churches are ruled by and remayne in subiection c. The fourth fault is in the subiection to an Antichristian gouernment If it were admitted that there is some yoake of Antichristian gouernmēt vnder which the poore Church may grone as it is her lot to be oppressed with outward bondage to be made to kéepe the Vineyard which is not her owne to be beaten of the watchmen to haue her vayle taken from her is she therefore no longer the Spouse of Christ The Brow But oh how farre are you from this which wincke with your eyes stoppe your eares and harden your hearts which can not endure so much as to heare of your fearefull estate which you see not no nor suffer your sores which you see to bee touched but seeke rather to cloake and hyde them both from God and man yea to mitigate tollerate and iustifye them Seeke you not heere to mitigate that heauie apparant Antichristian yoake your Churches stand vnder whereof heeretofore you haue complayned in Parliaments tearming it some yoake beeing now peraduenture through long custome growne lighter vnto you and more easye then Christs yoake at the least then Christs crosse c. To this fourth accusation my answere was very short for I did only propound this question whether it be no longer the Spouse of Christ which is oppressed and doth groane vnder some yoake of Antichristian gouernment and shewed my iudgement that it is the lot of the Church to be oppressed with outward bondage alleaging for proofe some what out of the Song of Solomon At this ye are striken with such wonderment that as men caried almost beside your selues you begin with a vehement exclamation and thrée things there are in my spéech which haue cast ye into this agonie the first that as you say our Churches stand vnder an apparant heauie yoke of Antichrist and I speake of the true Church oppressed with some yoke of Antichristian gouernment the second that I say it is the lot of the Church to be oppressed with outward bondage This ye tearme a blasphemous error because as ye say bondage is the badge of Antichrist the marke of the Beast whereby his souldiers are discerned frō the souldiers of Christ c. The third that I falsifie peruert the places of Scripture which I alleadge to prooue that Gods Church may be oppressed with some outward bondage where you will redéeme the places from such violence and corruption and giue such a glimse that simple men of vnderstanding shall discouer and search out the false dealing of such watchmen and the greatest clarke of vs all shal be taught héereafter how to abuse the scripture for a cloake to couer our sinnes O what valiant fellowes you be who shall be able to stand in your hands the greatest clarks in this land are but babes to such mighty gyants how shall I do then I must now defend my self in these particulars aboue named I will let the question about the heauy apparant yoake of Antichrist alone vnto the last place vnder which ye falsely charge our Church to stand and deale with that first which I set downe Where the first question is whether the true spouse of Christ may be vnder some yoake of Antichristian gouernment The second whether it be her lot to be oppressed with outward bondage The third whether those places by me alleadged be rightly applyed to proue the same I will not deale seuerally in these but in all together because they be all but one in effect Now to speake precisely and strictly the yoke of Antichrist is only spirituall inward where the faith conscience are burthened and be in subiection to receiue his lawes and worship This can not be borne without falling from the fréedome we haue in Christ But in a longer sense we call it Antichristian whē the pastors of the Church or any of them do vsurp more then they ought in external gouernment or tyrannously abuse the power committed into their hands This is that which I called some Antichristian yoke Now the very point of the question is whether the true spouse of Christ hath euer béen oppressed in this by any of her gouernours as her lot in some outward bondage I hold that she hath and for proofe I alleaged those sayings out of the Song against which you take exception as places wrested which shall be considered after other testimonies shewed Then I demaund of ye first whether it was not the spouse of Christ whom the Lord calleth Israell his shéepe and his flocke The pastors of Israell did not only scatter these but ruled ouer them and exercised dominion by violence tyranny Ezech. 34. v. 4. What say ye to this the Prophets prophesie lies the Priests exercise dominiō by their hand my people loue to haue it so Ier. 5. v. 31. Was there no true Church vnder this ruling of y e priests Pashur a chief priest in the temple stroke Ieremy the Prophet put him in the stockes Ierem. 20. ver 1. will yée affirme that there was no true Church then Come to the time in which our Sauiour liued vpon the earth for as yet the kingdome of God was not taken away from them which is threatned Matth. 22 but the high Préest with the other Préests with the Pharisies and Elders of the people had the Ecclesiasticall power which they tyrannously abused and by it oppressed the faithfull as appeareth in diuerse places of the Gospell and namely in Iohn 7. ver 13. and Iohn 9. ver 22. Diotrephes ambitiously abused the power of gouernment when he withstood S. Iohn as he testifieth in his third Epistle written vnto Gaius I wrote saith he vnto the Church but Diotrephes who loueth to haue
of Gods word to be true churches of Christ rightly entered and keeping couenant with the Lorde continuing in the order and obedience of his word c. and that we preposterously departed from yee vncharitably haue forsaken your fellowship But assoone as you shal shew vs such a church amongsts you by the grace of God we will shew how free we are from schisme As likewise when ye shall lay open our error vnto vs how farre we will be from heresie In the meane time we will not cease to pray vnto God for ye that he will not lay these sinnes vnto your charge which in your ignorant zeale you commit but in mercie shew ye the fearefull estate ye stand in and giue ye a heart vnfeinedly to repent speedely to turne vnto him C. G. Your owne bare words whatsoeuer yée professe by them cannot be sufficient to cléere yée from schisme and heresie I haue shewed that our Churches are from auncient discent within the couenant and that by such euidence of Gods word as no heretike or schismatike shall be able to ouerthrowe I haue also shewed that the stablenesse of Gods couenant with the Church is founded vpon the frée promise of his mercie which though we haue sinned with our fathers and doone wickedly so that there hath béen great apostasie in the Church yet he remembreth his couenant towards vs. I haue also shewed how preposterously ye haue departed arrogating that power to Iudge whole assemblies which dooth belong to the Churches of Christ and without any orderly procéeding according to the rule of the Gospell And moreouer that yee haue most vncharitably and falsely accused our Churches We cannot shew ye a church nor any one member of a church so perfect but that there be many defects and faults A true church being shewed among vs though yee repent yet can yee not be frée from schisme which is already committed And touching your hereticall opinions and grosse errors time will declare how well ye will performe this promise not to become heretikes I know I am in the right way albeit I am so farre from running that I doo scarse créepe I desire the praiers of all the faithfull that I may procéed in it But the praier which you promise to make for me is much fitter for your selues Article 4. The Brow We seeke to establish and obey the ordinances and lawes of Christ left by his last will and testament to the gouerning of his Church c. G. G. The fourth article ought all godly men to practise so farre forth as the limits of their calling doo extend But let it bee shewed that euer priuate men did take vpon them to reforme when things were amisse in the Church or that any of the Prophets did will them to take the matter in hand or shewe your warrant that ye be not priuate men The Brow This Article you first allowe and after restraine it to wee wot not what limits of calling But if ye graunt it to be the dutie of euery true Christian to seeke to establish and obey the ordinances and lawes of Christ left in his Testament to the gouerning of his Church without any altering c. It is as much as we indeauour or purpose Otherwise we allow not that which the law of God condemneth either intrusion without lawfull calling either transgression in calling or presumption aboue calling Our purpose is not to meddle with the reformation of the state otherwise then by our praiers vnto God and by refraining from all things that be contrary to Gods lawes c. G. G. You say that I first allowe this article and then after restraine it to ye wot not what limits of calling How is this true when I make the restraint euen in the first sentence for I allowe it no further then the limites of euery mans calling doo extend It is no maruaile that ye say ye wot not to what limites of calling I restraine it For if yée did regarde to kéepe within the bounds of calling yée would not thrust forward priuate men to doo that which GOD hath not called them vnto But yée plead for your selues that ye do not indeuor or purpose any thing beyond the limits of priuate calling Ye allow not as ye say that which the law of God condemneth which ye expresse in these words either intrusion without lawfull calling either transgression in calling or presumption aboue calling If yée could sée it you doo héere as it were put the halter about your owne neckes and about the necks of all Brownists for yee stande to this that the lawe of God condemneth intrusion without lawfull calling and presumption aboue calling and I wishe no sharper weapon to fight against ye withall But you thinke ye are well enough yet for all this for ye do not purpose to meddle with reformation of the state but by praier to God and refraining from euery thing that is contrary to Gods law And this is commaunded all men that will saue their soules All are willed to come out of Babilon Héere is a poore shift haue yée no other way to plucke of the halter which yee put about your owne necke then this I graunt it is the dutie of all men aswell priuate as other to obey Gods voice which calleth them out of Babylon and to seperate themselues from false worship I adde further that euen in the true Church it is the dutie of euery priuate man in all humble and peaceable manner to kéepe himselfe vnpolluted from those corruptions and abuses that créep in But doo you procéed no further then thus Haue ye not professed in the third article that ye will procéed vnto a godly frée choise of Ministers and other officers Doo ye not in this professe that yée seeke to establish the lawes of Christ to the gouerning of his Church Is this no more but to obey the voice of God calling vs out of Babylon Ye go beyond the common saying Giue some an inch and they will take an ell For God hath not called nor sent yee to performe such a worke I haue before layd open your foule slaunders wherewith yée accuse vs that our worship is idolatrous and Antichristian But admit the Church of England were Babilon and the synagog of Antichrist and that yée haue but obeyed the voice of God in separating your selues which is a worke of priuate men Yet who hath giuen ye the power authoritie to choose and ordeine Ministers to set vp and establish publike gouernment I would know this of ye whether it be a lesse worke to repaire a decayed place of a building or to build the whole frame whether it be lesse to swéepe the house or to set it vp It is the lesse to repaire and the lesse to swéepe all men will graunt Then I reason thus priuate men haue not authoritie nor ought not to take vpon them so much as to cleanse Gods house from abuses or to repaire the ruynes thereof how much
vnto others What maketh this for priuate men Doubtlesse ye haue no patterne in the Scriptures which you follow but of Corah Dathan and Abyram with their company who cried Are not all the Lordes people holye euen as you Brownists with the Anabaptists crye out Are not all the Lordes people frée Yee hane no commission from GOD it is the Deuill that hath thrust yee forwarde and will yée in such vile and wretched manner pretend the examples of the Primitiue Churches But your reason dependeth much vpon this that the Primitiue Churches stayed not the pleasures of Princes If this were granted that princes are not to be stayed for yet dooth it not follow there vpon that priuate men are to establish Church gouernement but there must bee some to doo it which are called and furnished with authority from God Yet the question dooth remaine touching Princes whether they be to be stayed for Browne maketh many arguments to prooue that they are not to be stayed for nor yet haue to do by publike power to establish religion which opinion of his is with such abridging the sacred power of Princes and with such horrible iniurie to the Church contrarye to the manifest worde of God that if there were nothing else it is enough to make him an odious and detestable heretike vntill he shew repentance You follow him héere and alledge some reasons which are to be considered But first the question which is generall must be restrained vnto the speciall We must distinguish for there be Heathen and Idolatrous Kings and there be Christian Princes Those are against Christ and these are for Christ When the holye Apostles were sent foorth to Preach the Gospell in the whole world the Kings were all Heathen and bent their power against them To what end should they hauing commission from Christ to establish discipline sue vnto the Courts and Parliaments of such Princes or attend their pleasure The case is all one where the kings professe Christ in name and be idolaters As in France the Ministers whom God hath raised vp and sent to publish the Gospell in former yeares attended not the pleasure of those their idolatrous Kings for the setting vp of discipline for they might aswell at their inhibition haue ceased from preaching But where there is a Christian Prince the sacred power of the sword is with Christ and for his Church and héere the case is cleane changed For this Magistrate King or Quéene sitting vpon the royall Throne and holding the Scepter is the chiefs and principall member of the Church This Magistrate béeing Gods minister and bearing the Sword to take vengeance vppon all euill dooers Rom. 13. and to mayntayne peace with all godlinesse and honestie Timoth. 2. hath the charge and burthen not only to prouide for the bodyes of the Subiects and theyr outward ciuill estate but also by good ciuill Lawes to procure the establishing of Gods true Religion and worship among them for the comfort of theyr Soules for how shall he punish all euill and mayntayne all Godlynesse by the Sword but by establishing Christes holie Religion Therefore this Magistrate is to assemble all the learned the wise the graue and experienced that he may conueniently and to haue it discussed by the Word of God which is the true and pure Doctrine and which be the rules and orders that Christ hath giuen for the gouernment preseruation of his Church Then are Lawes to bée made for Kings can not rule but by Lawes to destroy and abolish all false Religion Superstition Idolatrie and Heresies and to compell all states and degrées of persons within the Kingdome to receyue the holie doctrine and rules of Christ and to walke in the same This dyd the Kings of Iuda as the holie Scriptures doo playnely declare Nowe if this Christian Prince doo erre in some matters of Doctrine or touching the rules of discipline yet holding and mayntayning all the fundamentall poynts of the Christian faith so that there be abuses and corruptions in the Churche euerie priuate godlie man is to kéepe a good conscience not breaking the vnitie and peace of the faithfull but not to take publike authoritie to reforme Then yée demaund If they should tarrie Princes leysures where were the persecution wee speake of Héere ye vtter a most beastlie spéeche Saint Paule willeth to make earnest prayers and supplications for Princes that wee may liue in peace with all godlinesse 1. Timoth. 2. Whereby it appeareth that the defence of the Christian Magistrate is a singular blessing vnto the Church And you take it the Crosse of Christ is abolished vnlesse the Magistrate be prouoked and doo persecute The faithfull doo beare the Crosse of reproches and afflictions vnder the most Godly Kings who yet in dutie are vppon knowledge to redresse it Do yée thincke the Godly did not beare the Crosse vnder King Dauid who was not frée himselfe Or would yée haue no peace by Christian Kings If your meaning be not such why doo yée vtter so wicked spéech Then yée say we make Christ attend vpon Princes I answere that Christ hath ordinarie Ministers if these be slacke when he will haue hys woorke doone he can and hath raysed vp extraordinarie workemen If his Kingdome lye waite doth that warrant priuate men to steppe foorth and to reforme or establishe Or shall Christ bée brought to stoupe vnto Princes if euerie Schismatike intrude not himselfe to runne when GOD hath not sente him There be certayne Answers which go vnder the name of Henry Barowe where béeing demaunded whether the Quéene may make Lawes for the Church which are not contrarie to the Word of God The Answere is this I thincke no Prince neyther the whole world nor the Church it selfe can make any Lawes for the Church other then Christ hath left in his Word This séemeth vnto simple men a verie sound Answere drawne from two firme principles the one that there is but one Law-giuer which is God the other that he hath by Iesus Christ giuen full and perfect Lawes for hys Church The deceypt lyeth hid in this that men doo not consider there be generall lawes or rules giuen by Christ for matters of circumstance that bée indifferent and variable in the particulars and so to be altered and abolished as the peace and edification of the Churche shall requyre And therefore that Princes with the Church are to ordeine and to establish such orders by those generall rules as may afterward for iust cause be altered Wherefore it is manifest that the answer of Barow dooth cut off a great part of the Discipline and shorten the power of the Prince And moreouer it is not considered that the Prince being to punishe all euill by the doctrine of Sainte Paul and to maintaine all godlinesse cannot doo it but by lawes and so is to establishe by lawes the whole Christian religion Where vpon this Anabaptisticall answere of Barow I thinke it the dutie of euerye Christian and principally of the Prince
preheminence among them receiueth vs not Therefore if I come I will declare his deeds railing at vs with malitions words and not content therewith neither he himselfe receiueth not the brethren and them that would he forbiddeth casteth them out of the church ver 9. 10. Dooth S. Iohn tell the Christians that this tyrannous oppression by Diotrephes did make them to be no longer Christes Church which remained vnder him Did he will them to seperate themselues and not to obey him any longer in any thing Our Sauiour saith the time will come that they shall excommunicate yée Iohn 16. ver 2. Antichrist himselfe sitting in the Temple of God seduced the reprobate but could not destroy the Church which yet he did gréeuously oppresse and kéepe in some bondage Whereby it appeareth that Solomon speaketh of that which should fall out often and be euen as it were the lot of the Church to be iniuried oppressed and kept in some outward bondage euen by those at whose hands she should finde most comfort holding the places of Pastors and Gouernours as we haue séene in the Church of Israell before our Sauiour came at the time he liued and also in the Church vnder the Gospell You bring in diuerse scriptures which prooue as you imagine that an outward oppression of the Church in externall gouernment dooth make an vtter deuorse betwixt her and Christ but he that considereth those things which I haue before noted and the sundry oppressions of the Church by her Pastors shall easily perceiue that Anabaptisticall fréedome which yée glory of For howsoeuer the Church with her Children are frée with God and receiue no yoake vpon their faith and conscience yet in outward things they may be oppressed You could abide well enough that phrase of spéech oppressed but to say the Church of Christ may be in anye bondage yée terme a blasphemous error Because bondage yée say is the badge of Antichrist the marke of the Beast c. Take héede of the saying that is written 2. Pet. 2. ver 19. That the seducers promise libertie and are themselues the bend seruants of corruption For you imagine and glorye of such a full and perfect libertie as that yée account it a blasphemous error to say the Church may be oppressed with outward bondage It is strange that there should be such a bolde spirite in rotten flesh as flatly to contrary the spirit of God For the Lord sayd to Abraham Thy seede shall bee in bondage and they shall oppresse them But the nation whom they shall serue will I Iudge Genes 15. He saith he brought them out of the house of bondage or of bond men Exodus 20. Will ye affirme that the Church was not oppressed with outward bondage in Egypt will ye deny that they were led captiue and held in outward bondage in Babilon cannot this word bondage which the holy Ghost vseth be allowed of yée must bondage of necessity be the badge and marke of Antichrist when the Lord threatneth by his Prophets that his people should go into captiuity and that there should be a yoake of bondage layd vpon them dooth he giue them ouer to weare the badge of Antichrist or so to be seruants vnto men that they could not also be his seruants Indéed the Anabaptists do holde that wee cannot be seruants vnto men in any outward bondage yet be the seruants of Christ grounding their heresie vpō the places which you alledge If all maner of bondage be the marke of the beast and the badge of Antichrist and a loosing of Christian liberty as you and the Anabaptists would haue it then how could S. Paul say Art thou a bond man care not thou art the Lords free man 1. Cor. 7 Let no man suppose that I charge ye ouer hardly with this grosse point of Anabaptistrie because our question is about Church gouernment and I speake of ciuill bondage for ye speake generally of outward bondage and denie that it can be the lot of the Church or of any member therof The worde bondage though it be outward cannot in anye sense be allowed by you to agrée with your fréedom Now for the places in the song My mothers sonnes were angrye with me they set me to keepe the Vines mine owne Vine I haue not kept In this place the Church willeth first y t they should not looke scornefully vpon her because she is somwhat blacke Then she sheweth that it is not her natiue colour but she is sunne burnt the sunne saith she hath looked vpon me There followeth the occasion that her mothers sonnes were angrye with her set her to kéepe the Vines Who these be whome she calleth her mothers sonnes is the greatest difficultie to finde Tremellius whose interpretation in that point ye follow doth expound it of originall sinne the lusts which she hath frō the wombe other take it more fitly of false brethrē which boast thēselues to be true worshipers children of the church which she calleth her mothers sonnes because they descended frō the ancient mother church were the degenerate children of holy forefathers for I take it somwhat hard to cal sins or concupiscences her mothers sons But take it whether way ye wil either of original sin concupiscences or of degenerate children among whom there were many euen of the Pastors gouernors yet ye cannot auoid but y t there is a violence an oppression some bondage for she saith they set her to kéep the vineyards Howsoeuer you would slily insinuate that it were but negligence that when she repenteth she is so cléered that she is in no bondage vnto sinne at all But when ye haue cauilled what ye can it standeth cléere by the scriptures y t the Church in her perfectest repentance euen with all her children is held in some spirituall bondage vnto sin but yet she is not obstinat I grant for she hateth the euil she doth laboureth against it I doe not gather from this that the Church either did or may kéepe Antichrists Vine as you demaund what a bolde falsifiyng of the place this is But I saye what a bolde impudencie is this in you so to falsifie my wordes For I alledge it to prooue that the Church is subiect to bee oppressed bable so much of Antichrist and his yoake Then let hym prooue that euery error abuse and great fault in discipline doth ouerturne it and make it become Antichristian yea Antichrists yoake so farre as to make it no Church which is subiect to such oppression It is most cléere that a Church may erre in sundrie poynts of Doctrine and not be Antichristian but the true Spouse of Christ And an error in Doctrine if it be foule doth approch néerer towards the ouerthrowe of faith then an error or an abuse in externall gouernment Moreouer if the execution of discipline by Byshops be the yoake of Antichrist and if all the Churches which doo stande vnder the same doo worship the Beast
and be no Christians it must néedes followe that such as did euer execute this power were Antichrists and no children of God at that time or before they repented But this is false euen by your owne confession which acknowledge that those woorthie seruants of God which sometime executed that power and after suffered death for the Gospell in the dayes of Quéene Mary were blessed Martyrs I conclude therefore that the Brownists can not but with heresies and most heinous iniurie and inordinate dealing condemne a Church as quite diuorced and separated from Christ for such imperfections and corruptions in Gods worship as be not fundamentall nor destroy the substance for that wicked men come with the godly to the publike exercises of religion for some wants in calling and ordeyning Ministers and in Ecclesiasticall discipline Article 1. The Brow We seeke aboue all things the peace and protection of the most high and the kingdome of Christ our Lord. G. G. The first Article is that which all true Christians doo séeke indéede But the kingdome of Christ or the kingdome of God as Christ sayth is within men it consisteth in righteousnesse and peace and ioy of the holy Ghost For the preseruation of this Christ hath ordeyned a Church gouernment They sinne against God which doo not couet and according to theyr calling labour to haue so great a helpe But to transport the name of Christs kingdome which is chiefely Spirituall in the heart vnto this which is but a part and as though the kingdome of God could not be in any vnlesse they haue this so they doo not wilfully despise it I say is false and the contrary to be proued by the Scriptures The Brow Our Article beeing by you confessed to be the bounden dutie of all true Christians wee see not with what equitie you can in this manner cauill at our words or with what conscience you can misconstrue and constrayne them as you doo seeking thereby to retract by sleight what you can not gaynesay in truth and taking occasion to contende about wordes namely the kingdome of Christ you make it only inward and vse Christ like one of the Phisitions Planetarie Signes assigning to him in hypocrisie your heart and soule to rule whilest in the meane whyle you yeeld your bodyes and whole assemblyes to the obedience and rule of Antichrist making no conscience to obey his lawes openly and to transgresse Christes thinking belike Christs kingdome so inward and spirituall as that he requireth no bodily nor outwarde obedience or because it consisteth in righteousnes and peace and ioy of the holy Ghost that there may be peace without righteousnes or ioy without peace or inward righteousnes where is such outward disobedience and wilfull transgression c. G. G. I did confesse and doo still acknowledge that this fyrst Article is that which all true Christians should séeke I hold that Christes Kingdome is chiefely inwarde and Spirituall and that the discipline is but a part thereof your selues haue repeated my words and yet charge me that I make Christes Kingdome only inwarde assigning the Soule to him and the body to Antichrist to be ruled I can not but wonder at your boldnesse in lying You say that to discusse how farre euery Christians calling and duty extendeth héerein were to dismisse all mine answers and to plucke away the mantle of shame wherewith we couer our nakednesse negligence and abhominations I meruaile why ye doo not then discusse it for we hold that no man is to labour beyond his calling to reforme any thing amisse in the Church and when it shall be declared vnto what bounds and limits the calling of priuate men is restrayned I am sure there will be no mantle nor ragge to couer the presumptuous dealing of Brownists which intrude themselues without calling Yée let this thing passe therefore and will only aske two questions The first is whether any which haue their calling of Antichrist be his marked Ministers and waged seruants can truly and vprightly couet and labour for Christs sincere gouernment which is his whippe wherewith he scourgeth out all théeues intruders and idle bellies out of his house The other question is whether to remayne wittingly and seruilely in the bondage and yoake of Antichrist xxix yeares be to labour for the gouernment of Christ faithfully in our callings Ye must graunt me some time to answer to these two questions and that shalbe when you answer these two which I propound The first is whether ignorant hereticall and rash Scismatikes be méete and competent Iudges to condemne all the learned Ministers in a Kingdome The other is whether false and lying accusations be to stand for due proofe Ye séeme to graunt that the Kingdome of God may be in the scattered faithfull which yet haue not the discipline I did not charge ye with the contrarie but only shewed how I did allowe the Article Yet remember what ye doo hold in this place Article 2. The Brow We seeke and purpose to worship God aright according as he hath commaunded in his word G. G. This second Article ought all men that will please God to approoue The Brow This article say you ought all that will please God to approoue How then seeke you to please God which continue in idolatrie and are a minister thereof which prophecie in Baal and plead for Baal or how approoue you it when yee condemne vs of schisme and heresie because we forsake your false and Antichristian worship and seeke to worship Christ according to his word G. G. When yée haue prooued that our worship is Idolatrie and that we prophesie in Baal and for Baal let men take yée to be no schismatikes nor heretikes But such as boast that they séeke to worship God according to his word and yet arrogantlye breake sundrye speciall rules thereof cannot but in their vaine bosting be liers as S. Iames saith against the truth Article 3. The Brow We seeke the fellowship and communion of his faithfull and obedient seruants And together with them to enter couenant with the Lord and by direction of his spirite to proceed to a godly free right choise of Ministers c. G. G. The third Article if it be taken in this sence that ye do set vp a societie seperated from all other within this land which make publike profession then I sée not when yée haue gone by your selues and set vp your officers howe you will cléere your selues from Donatisme If theirs were a damnable fact which God did accursse then take héed to yours For if it can be shewed that their heresies are not holden by you I will change my minde The Brow The words of our article being that we seeke the fellowship and communion of Christs faithfull and obedient seruants c. cleere vs of all schisme and heresie so farre forth so that if you would conuince vs of these crimes it had been expedient you had first prooued your assemblies as they generally stand by the euidence