could they have been vessels capable to receive that power and again transmit it to their successors Thirdly it would follow from this that the Priests and Bishops of the Romish Church are yet really true Pastors and Teachers for if Protestant Ministers have no authority but what they received from them and since the Church of Rome is the same she was at that time of the reformation in doctrine and manners and she has the same power now she had then and if the power lye in the Succession then these Priests of the Romish Church now which derive their ordination from those Bishops that ordained the first reformers have the same authority which the successors of the reformed have and consequently are no less Ministers of the Church than they are But how shall this agree with that opinion which the primitive Protestants had of the Romish Priests and Clergy to whom Luther did not only deny any power or authority but contrariwise affirmed that it was wickedly done of them to assume to themselves only this authority to teach and be Priests and Ministers c. For he himself affirmed that every good Christian not only men but even women also is a Preacher § X. But against this vain succession as asserted either by the Papists or Protestants as a necessary thing to the call of a minister I answer that such as plead for it as a sufficient or necessary thing to the call of a minister do thereby sufficiently declare their ignorance of the nature of Christianity and how much they are strangers to the Life and Power of a Christian ministery which is not entail'd to succession as an outward inheritance and herein as hath been often before observed they not only make the Gospel not better than the Law but even far short of it for Jesus Christ as he regardeth not any distinct particular family or nation in the gathering of his Children but only such as are joined to and leavened with his own pure and righteous Seed so neither regards he a bare outward succession where his pure immaculate and righteous Life is wanting for that were all one He took not in the Nations within the New Covenant that he might suffer them to fall into the old errors of the Jews or to approve them in these errors but that he might gather unto himself a pure people out of the earth Now this was the great error of the Jews to think they were the Church and People of God because they could derive their outward succession from Abraham whereby they reckoned themselves the Children of God as being the off-spring of Abraham who was the Father of the faithful But how severely doth the Scripture rebuke this vain and frivolous pretence Telling them that God is able of the stones to raise children unto Abraham and that not the outward seed but those that were found in the faith of Abraham are the true Children of faithful Abraham Far less then can this pretence hold among Christians seeing Christ rejects all outward affinity of that kind These saith he are my mother brethren and sisters who do the will of my Father which is in heaven And again He looked round about him and said who shall do the will of God these said he are my brethren So then such as do not the commands of Christ as are not found cloathed with his righteousness are not his disciples and that which a man hath not he cannot give to another and it 's clear that no man nor Church though truly called of God and as such having the authority of a Church and Minister can any longer retain that authority than they retain the power life and righteousness of Christianity for the form is entailed to the power and substance and not the substance to the form So that when a man ceaseth inwardly in his heart to be a Christian where his Christianity must lie by turning to Satan and becoming a reprobate he is no more a Christian though he retain the name and form than a dead man is a man though he have the image and representation of one or than the Picture or Statue of a man is a man and though a dead man may serve to a Painter to retain some imperfect representation of the man that sometimes was alive and so one Picture may serve to make another by yet none of those can serve to make a true living man again neither can they conveigh the life and spirit of the man it must be God that made the man at first that alone can revive him As death then makes such interruption of an outward natural succession that no art nor outward form can uphold and as a dead man after he is dead can have no issue neither can dead images of men make living men so that it is the living that are only capable to succeed one another and such as dye so soon as they dye cease to succeed or to transmit Succession So it is in Spiritual things it is the life of Christianity taking place in the Heart that makes a Christian and so it is a number of such being alive joyned together in the life of Christianity that make a Church of Christ and it is all those that are thus alive and quickened considered together that make the Catholick Church of Christ Therefore where this life ceaseth in one then that one ceaseth to be a Christian and all power vertue and authority which he had as a Christian ceaseth with it so that if he hath been a Minister or Teacher he ceaseth to be so any more and though he retain the form and hold to the authority in words yet that signifies no more nor is it of any more real vertue or authority than the meer image of a dead man And as this is most agreeable to Reason so is it to the Scriptures Testimony for it is said of Judas Acts 1.25 That Judas fell from his Ministry and Apostleship by transgression So his transgression caused him to cease to be an Apostle any more whereas had the Apostleship been entailed to his person so that transgression could not cause him to lose it until he had been formally degraded by the Church which Judas never was so long as he lived Judas had been as really an Apostle after he betrayed Christ as before And as it is of one so of many yea of a whole Church for seeing nothing makes a man truly a Christian but the life of Christianity inwardly ruling in his Heart so nothing makes a Church but the gathering of several true Christians into one Body Now where all these members lose in this life there the Church ceaseth to be though they still uphold the form and retain the name for when that which made them a Church and for which they were a Church ceaseth then they cease also to be a Church and therefore the Spirit speaking to the Church of Laodicea because of her luke-warmness Rev. 3.16 threateneth to
preferment men became such by birth and education and not by conversion and renovation of Spirit then there was none so vile none so wicked none so profane who became not a member of the Church And the Teachers and Pastors thereof becoming the Companions of Princes and so being enriched by their benevolence and getting vast treasures and Estates became puffed up and as it were drunken with the vain pomp and glory of this World and so marshalled themselves in manifold orders and degrees not without innumerable contests and alterations who should have the Precedency So the vertue life substance and kernel of the Christian Religion came to be lost and nothing remained but a shaddow and image which dead image or carcass of Christianity to make it take the better with the superstitious multitude of Heathens that became engrossed in it not by any inward conversion of their hearts or by becoming less wicked or superstitious but by a little change in the object of their superstition not having the inward ornament and life of the Spirit became decked with many outward and visible orders and beautified with the gold silver precious stones and the other splendid ornaments of this perishing world so that this was no more to be accounted the Christian Religion and Christian Church notwithstanding the outward profession than the dead body of man is to be accounted a living man which however cunningly embalmed and adorned with ever so much gold or silver or most precious stones or sweet ointments is but a dead body still without sense life or motion For that Apostat Church of Rome has introduced no less ceremonies and superstitions into the Christian profession than was either among Jews or Heathens and that there is and hath been as much yea and more pride covetousness unclean lust luxury fornication profanity and atheism among her teachers and chief Bishops as ever was among any sort of people none need doubt that have read their own authors to wit Platina and others Now though Protestants have reformed from her in some of the most gross points and absurd doctrines relating to the Church and Ministery yet which is to be regretted they have but lopt the branches but retain and plead earnestly for the same root from which these abuses have sprung so that even among them though all that mass of superstition ceremonies and orders be not again established yet the same pride covetousness and sensuality is found to have overspread and leavened their Churches and Ministery and the life power and vertue of true religion is lost among them and the very same death barrenness dryness and emptyness is found in their ministery so that in effect they differ from Papists but in form and some ceremonies being with them apostatized from the life and power the true primitive Church and her Pastors were in so that of both it may be said truly without breach of charity that having only a form of godliness and many of them not so much as that they are deniers of yea enemies to the power of it And this proceeds not simply from their not walking answerable to their own principles and so degenerating that way which also is true but which is worse their setting down to themselves and adhering to certain principles which naturally as a cursed fruit bring forth these bitter fruits these therefore shall afterwards be examined and refuted as the contrary positions of truth in the Proposition are explained and proved For as to the nature and constitution of a Church abstract from their disputes concerning its constant visibility infallibility and the primacy of the Church of Rome the Protestants as in practice so in principles differ not from Papists for they ingross within the compass of their Church whole Nations making their infants members of it by sprinkling a little water upon them so that there is none so wicked or profane who is not a fellow-member no evidence of holiness being required to constitute a member of the Church and look through the Protestant Nations and there shall no difference appear in the lives of the generality of the one more than of the other but he who ruleth in the children of disobedience reigning in both so that the reformation through this defect is but in holding some less gross errors in the notion but not in having the heart reformed and renewed in which mainly the life of Christianity consisteth § VI. But the Popish errors concerning the ministry which they have retained are most of all to be regretted by which chiefly the life and power of Christianity is barred out among them and they kept in death barrenness and dryness there being nothing more hurtful than an error in this respect for where a false and corrupt ministry entreth all other manner of evils follows upon it according to that Scripture adage like people like priest For by their influence instead of ministring life and righteousness they minister death and iniquity The whole back-slidings of the Jewish congregations of old is hereto ascribed The leaders of my people have caused them to err The whole writings of the Prophets are full of such complaints and for this cause under the New Testament we are so often warned and guarded to beware of false Prophets and false Teachers c. What may be thought then where all as to this is out of order where both the foundation call qualifications maintenance and whole discipline is different from and opposite to the ministry of the primitive Church yea and necessarily tends to the shutting out a Spiritual ministry and the in-bringing and establishing a carnal This shall appear by parts § VII That then which comes first to be questioned in this matter is concerning the Call of a Minister to wit what maketh or how cometh a man to be a Minister Quest. Pastor or Teacher in the Church of Christ. We answer by the inward power and vertue of the Spirit of God For as saith our proposition Answ. having received the true knowledg of things Spiritual by the Spirit of God without which they cannot be known and being by the same in measure purified and sanctified he comes thereby to be called and moved to minister to others being able to speak from a living experience of what he himself is a witness and therefore knowing the terror of the Lord he is fit to perswade men c. 2 Cor. 5.11 and his words and ministery proceeding from the inward power and vertue reaches to the heart of his hearers and makes them approve of him and be subject unto him Our adversaries are forced to confess that this were indeed desirable and best but this they will not have to be absolutely necessary I shall first prove the necessity of it and then shew how much they err in that which they make more necessary than this Divine and Heavenly call First That which is necessary to make a man a Christian Arg. so as without it he cannot
be truly one must be much more necessary to make a man a Minister of Christianity seeing the one is a degree above the other and has it included in it nothing less than he that supposeth a master supposeth him first to have attained the knowledg and capacity of a Scholar They that are not Christians cannot be Teachers or Ministers among Christians But this inward call power and vertue of the Spirit of God is necessary to make a man a Christian as we have abundantly proved before in the second proposition according to these Scriptures He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God Therefore this call moving and drawing of the Spirit must be much more necessary to make a minister Secondly all ministers of the New Testament ought to be ministers of the Spirit and not of the letter according to that 2 Cor. 3.6 and as the old Latine hath it not by the letter but by the Spirit But how can a man be a minister of the Spirit who is not inwardly called by it and who looks not upon the operation and testimony of the Spirit as essential to his call As he could not be a minister of the letter who had thence no ground for his call yea that were altogether a stranger to and unacquainted with it so neither can he be a minister of the Spirit who is a stranger to it and unacquainted with the motions thereof and knows it not to draw act and move him and go before him in the work of the Ministery I would willingly know how those that take upon them to be ministers as they suppose of the Gospel meerly from an outward vocation without so much as being any ways sensible of the work of the Spirit or any inward call therefrom can either satisfie themselves or others that they are Ministers of the Spirit or wherein they differ from the ministers of the Letter For Thirdly if this inward call or testimony of the Spirit were not essential and necessary to a minister then the ministery of the New Testament should not only be no ways preferable to but in divers respects far worse than that of the Law for under the Law there was certain tribe allotted for the ministery and of that tribe certain families set apart for the priesthood and other offices by the immediate command of God to Moses so that the people needed not be in any doubt who should be Priests and Ministers of the holy things yea and besides this God called forth by the immediate testimony of his Spirit several at divers times to teach instruct and reprove his people as Samuel Nathan Elias Elisa Jeremiah Amos and many more of the Prophets But now under the New Covenant where the ministry ought to be more spiritual the way more certain and the access more easie unto the Lord our adversaries by denying the necessity of this inward and Spiritual vocation make it quite otherways for there being now no certain family or tribe to which the ministry is limited we are left in uncertainty to chuse and have pastors at a venture without all certain assent of the will of God having neither an outward rule nor certainty in this affair to walk by for that the Scripture cannot give any certain rule in this matter hath in the third Proposition concerning it been already shewn Fourthly Christ proclaims them all Thieves and Robbers that enter not by him the door into the Sheep-fold but climb up some other way whom the Sheep ought not to hear but such as come in without the Call movings and leadings of the Spirit of Christ wherewith he leads his Children into all truth come in certainly not by Christ who is the Door but some other way and therefore are not true Shepherds Obj. § VIII To all this they object the succession of the Church alledging that since Christ gave a call to his Apostles and Disciples they have conveyed that call to their Successors having power to ordain Pastors and Teachers by which power the authority of ordaining and making Ministers and Pastors is successively conveyed to us so that such who are ordained and called by the Pastors of the Church are therefore true and lawful Ministers and others who are not so called are to be accounted but intruders Hereunto also some Protestants add a necessity though they make it not as a thing essential that besides this calling of the Church every one being called ought to have the inward call of the Spirit inclining him so chosen to his work but this they say is subjective and not objective of which before Answ. As to what is subjoined of the inward call of the Spirit in that they make it not essential to a true call but a supererogation as it were it sheweth how little they set by it since those they admit to the ministery are not so much as questioned in their trials whether they have this or not Yet in that it hath been often mentioned especially by the Primitive Protestants in their treatises of this subject it sheweth how much they were secretly convinced in their minds that this inward call of the Spirit was most excellent and preferable to any other and therefore in the most noble and heroick acts of the reformation they laid claim unto it so that many of the primitive Protestants did not scruple both to despise and disown this outward call when urged by the Papists against them But now Protestants having gone from the testimony of the Spirit plead for the same succession and being pressed by those whom God now raiseth up by his Spirit to reform these many abuses that are among them with the example of their Forefathers practice against Rome they are not at all asham'd utterly to deny that their fathers were call'd to their work by the inward and immediate vocation of the Spirit cloathing themselves with that call which they say their Forefathers had as Pastors of the Roman Church For thus not to go further affirmeth Nicolaus Arnoldus in a pamphlet written against the same Propositions called a Theologick Exercitation sect 40. averring that they pretended not to an immediate act of the Holy Spirit but reformed by the vertue of the ordinary vocation which they had in the Church as it then was to wit that of Rome c. § IX Many absurdities do Protestants fall into by deriving their ministry thus through the Church of Rome As first they must acknowledg her to be a true Church of Christ though only erroneous in some things which contradicts their fore-fathers so frequently and yet truly calling her Anti-Christ Secondly they must needs acknowledge that the Priests and Bishops of the Romish Church are true Ministers and Pastors of the Church of Christ as to the essential part else they could not have been fit subjects for that power and authority to have resided in neither
raise up and move among them by the inward immediate operation of his own Spirit Ministers and Teachers to instruct and teach and watch over them who being thus called are manifest in the hearts of their Brethren and their call is thus verified in them who by the feeling of that life and power that passeth through them being inwardly builded up by them dayly in the most holy Faith become the Seals of their Apostleship and this is answerable to another saying of the same Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 13.3 Since ye seek a proof of Christs speaking in me which to you-wards is not weak but is mighty in you So this is that which gives a true substantial Call and title to a Minister whereby he is a real successor of the vertue life and power that was in the Apostles and not of the bare name and to such Ministers we think the outward Ceremony of Ordination or laying on of Hands not necessary neither can we see the use of it seeing our adversaries who use it acknowledge that the vertue and power of communicating the Holy Ghost by it is ceased among them And is it not then foolish and ridiculous for them by an apish imitation to keep up the shadow where the substance is wanting And may not they by the same rule where they see blind and lame men in imitation of Christ and his Apostles bid them see and walk yea is it not in them a mocking of God and men to put on their hands and bid men receive the Holy Ghost while they believe the thing impossible and confess that that Ceremony hath no real effect Having thus far spoken of the Call I shall proceed next to treat of the qualifications and work of a true Minister § XV. As I have placed the true call of a Minister in the motion of this Holy Spirit so is the power Life and vertue thereof and the pure Grace of God that comes therefrom the chief and most necessary qualification without which he can no ways perform his duty neither acceptably to God nor beneficially to men Our adversaries in this case affirm that three things go to the making up of a Minister viz. 1. Natural parts that he be not a fool 2. Acquired Parts that he be learned in the Languages in Philosophy and School-Divinity 3. The Grace of God The two first they reckon necessary to the being of a Minister so as a man cannot be one without them The third they say goeth to the well-being of one but not to the being so that a man may truly be a lawful Minister without it and ought to be heard and received as such But we supposing a natural capacity that one be not an idiot judge the grace of God indispensably necessary to the very being of a Minister as that without which any can neither be a true nor lawful nor good Minister As for letter-learning we judge it not so much necessary to the well-being of one though accidentally sometimes in certain respects it may concur but more frequently it is hurtful than helpful as appeared in the example of Taulerus who being a learned man and who could make an eloquent preaching needed nevertheless to be instructed in the way of the Lord by a poor Laick I shall first speak of the necessity of Grace and then proceed to say something of that Literature which they judge so needful First then as we said in the Call so may we much more here If the Grace of God be a necessary qualification to make one a true Christian it must be a qualification much more necessary to constitute a true Minister of Christianity That Grace is necessary to make up a true Christian I think will not be questioned since it is by Grace we are saved Eph. 2.8 it is the Grace of God that teacheth us to deny ungodliness and the lusts of this world and to live godlily and righteously Tit. 2.11 yea Christ saith expresly That without him we can do nothing Joh. 15.5 and the way whereby Christ helpeth assisteth and worketh with us is by his Grace Hence saith to Paul My Grace is sufficient for thee A Christian without Grace is indeed no Christian but an hypocrite and a false pretender Then I say If Grace be necessary to a private Christian far more to a teacher among Christians who must be as a Father and Instructor of others seeing this dignity is bestowed upon such as have attained a greater measure than their Brethren Even Nature it self may teach us that there is more required in a Teacher than in those that are taught and that the Master must be above and before the Scholar in that Art or Science which he teacheth others Since then Christianity cannot be truly enjoyed neither any man denominated a Christian without the true Grace of God therefore neither can any man be a true nor lawful teacher of Christianity without it Secondly No man can be a Minister of the Church of Christ Arg. which is his Body unless he be a member of the Body and receive of the vertue and life of the Head But he that hath not true Grace can neither be a member of the Body neither receive of that life and nourishment which comes from the Head Therefore far less can he be a Minister to edifie the Body That he cannot be a Minister who is not a Member is evident because who is not a member is shut out and cut off and hath no place in the Body whereas the Ministers are counted among the most eminent Members of the Body But no man can be a member unless he receive of the vertue life and nourishment of the Head For the members that receive not this life and nourishment decay and wither and then are cut off And that every true member doth thus receive nourishment and life from the Head the Apostle expresly affirmeth Eph. 4.16 From whom the whole body being fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part makes increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love Now this that thus is communicated and which thus uniteth the whole is no other than the Grace of God and therefore the Apostle in the same chapter ver 7. But unto every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ and v. 11. he sheweth how that by this Grace and Gift both Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers are given for the work of the Ministry and edifying of the Body of Christ. And certainly then no man destitute of Grace is fit for this work seeing that all that Christ gives are so qualified and these that are not so qualified are not given nor sent of Christ are not to be heard nor received nor acknowledged as Ministers of the Gospel because his sheep neither ought nor will hear the voice of a stranger This is also clear from 1 Cor. 12.
which the Lord hath made absolutely necessary for Penitent Sinners but only attrition a figment of their own that is if he be sorry he hath sinned not out of any love to God or his Law which he hath transgressed but for fear of Punishment yet doth the virtue of the Sacrament as they affirm procure to him remission of Sins so that being absolved by the Priest he stands accepted and justified in the sight of God This mans Justification then proceedeth not from his being truly penitent and in any measure inwardly changed and renewed by the working of God's Grace in his heart but meerly from the authority of the Priest and virtue of the Sacrament who hath pronounced him absolved so that his Justification is from somewhat without him and not within him Secondly this will yet more appear in the matter of Indulgences where remission of all Sins not only past but for years to come is annexed to the visiting such and such Churches and Reliques saying such and such Prayers so that the person that so doth is presently cleared from the guilt of his sin and justified and accepted in the sight of God As for example he that in the great Jubilee will go to Rome and present himself before the Gate of Peter and Paul and there receive the Popes blessing or he that will go a Pilgrimage to James's Sepulchre in Spain or to Mary of Loretta is upon the performance of those things promised forgiveness of Sins Now if we ask them the reason how such things are not morally good in themselves come to have vertue they have no other answer but because of the Church and Popes Authority who being the great Treasurer of the magazine of Christ's merits lets them out upon such and such conditions Thus also the invention of saying Mass is made a chief instrument of Justification for in it they pretend to offer Christ daily to the Father a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the living and dead So that a man for Money can procure Christ thus to be offered for him when he pleases by which offering he is said to obtain remission of sins and to stand justified in the sight of God From all which and much more of this nature which might be mentioned it doth appear that the Papists place their Justification not so much in any work of Holiness really brought forth in them and real forsaking of iniquity as in the meer performance of some ceremonies and a blind belief which their Teachers have begotten in them that the Church and the Pope having the absolute Dispensation of the Merits of Christ have power to make these merits effectual for the remission of sins and Justification of such as will perform those Ceremonies This is the true and real method of Justification taken by the generality of the Church of Rome and highly commended by their publick Preachers especially the Monks in their Sermons to the People of which I my Self have been an Ear and and Eye-witness However some of their modern Writers have laboured to qualifie it in their controversies This Doctrine Luther and the Protestants then had good reason to deny and oppose though many of them ran into another extream so as to deny good works to be necessary to Justification and to preach up not only remission of Sins but Justification by Faith alone without all works however good So that men do not obtain their Justification according as they are inwardly sanctified and renewed but are justified meerly by believing that Christ died for them and so some may perfectly be Justified though they be lying in gross Wickedness as appears by the example of David whom they say was fully and perfectly Justified while he was lying in the gross sins of Murder and Adultery As then the Protestants have sufficient ground to quarrel and confute the Papists concerning those many abuses in the matter of Justification shewing how the Doctrine of Christ is thereby vitiated and overturned and the Word of God made void by many and useless Traditions the Law of God neglected while foolish and needless ceremonies are prized and followed through a false opinion of being justified by the performance of them and the merits and sufferings of Christ which is the Only Sacrifice appointed of God for remission of sins derogated from by the setting up of a daily Sacrifice never appointed by God and chiefly devised out of Covetousness to get mony by so the Protestants on the other hand by not rightly establishing and holding forth the Doctrine of Justification according as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures have opened a door for the Papists to accuse them as if they were neglecters of good works Enemiies to Mortification and Holyness such as esteem themselves Justified while lying in great sins by which kind of accusations for which too great ground hath been given out of the writings of some rigid Protestants the Reformation hath been greatly defamed and hindered and the Souls of many insnared Whereas who will narrowly look into the matter may observe these debates to be more in specie than in genere seeing both do upon the matter land in one and like two men in a circle who though they go sundry waies yet meet at last in the same centre For the Papists they say they obtain remission of sins and are Justified by the Merits of Christ as the same are applied unto them in the use of the Sacraments of the Church and are dispenced in the performance of such and such Ceremonies Pilgrimages Prayers and Performances tho there be not an inward renewing of the mind nor knowing of Christ inwardly formed yet they are remitted and righteous ex opere operato because of the Power and Authority accompanying the Sacraments and the dispensators of them The Protestants say that they obtain remission of Sins and stand Justified in the sight of God by vertue of the merits and sufferings of Christ not by infusing Righteousness into them but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous they resting on him and his Righteousness by Faith which Faith the act of believing is not imputed unto them for Righteousness So the Justification of neither here is placed in any inward renewing of the mind or by vertue of any Spiritual Birth or Formation of Christ in them but only by a bare application of the death and sufferings of Christ outwardly performed for them whereof the one lays hold on a Faith resting upon them and hoping to be Justified by them alone the other by the saying of some outward Prayers and Ceremonies which they judg makes the death of Christ effectual unto them I except here being unwilling to wrong any what things have been said as to the necessity of inward Holyness either by some modern Papists or some modern Protestants who in so far as they have laboured after a midst betwixt these two extreams have come near to the Truth as
spue her out of his mouth Now suppose the Church of Laodicea had continued in that luke-warmness and had come under that condemnation and iudgment though she had retained the name and form of a Church and had had her Pastors and Ministers as no doubt she had at that time yet surely she had been no true Church of Christ nor had the authority of her Pastors and Teachers been to be regarded because of any outward succession though perhaps some of them had it immediately from the Apostles From all which I infer That since the authority of the Christian Church and her Pastors is always united and never separated from the inward power vertue and righteous life of Christianity where this ceaseth that ceaseth also But our adversaries acknowledge That many if not most of those by and through whom they derive this authority were altogether destitute of this life and vertue of Christianity Therefore they could neither receive have nor transmit any Christian authority Obj. But if it be objected That though the generality of the Bishops and Priests of the Church of Rome during the apostasie were such wicked men yet Protestants affirm and thou thy self seemest to acknowledge that there were some good men among them whom the Lord regarded and who were true members of the Catholick Church of Christ might not they then have transmitted this authority Answ. I answer This saith nothing in respect Protestants do not at all lay claim to their Ministry as transmitted to them by a direct line of such good men which they can never shew nor yet pretend to but generally place this succession as inherent in the whole Pastors of the Apostate Church neither do they plead their call to be good and valid because they can derive it through a line of good men separate and observable distinguishable from the rest of the Bishops and Clergy of the Romish Church but they derive it as an Authority residing in the whole for they think it heresie to judge that the quality or condition of the Administrator any ways invalidates or prejudiceth his work This vain then and pretended Succession not only militates against and fights with the very manifest purpose and intent of Christ in the gathering and calling of his Church but makes him so to speak more blind and less prudent than natural men are in conveying and establishing their outward Inheritances for where an Estate is entailed to a certain Name and Family when that Family weareth out and there is no lawful Successor found of it that can make a just title appear as being really of blood and affinity to the Family it is not lawful for any one of another race or blood because he assumes the name or arms of that Family to possess the estate and claim the superiorities and priviledges of the family but by the law of Nations the inheritance devolves into the Prince as being ultimus haeres and so he giveth it again immediately to whom he seeth meet and makes them bear the name and arms of the family who then are entitled to the priviledges and revenues thereof So in like manner the true name and title of a Christian by which he hath right to the heavenly inheritance and is a member of Jesus Christ is inward Righteousness and Holiness and the mind redeemed from the vanities lusts and iniquities of this world And a gathering or company made up of such members makes a Church where this is lost the title is lost and so the true Seed to which the promise is and to which the inheritance is due becomes extinguished in them and they become dead as to it and so it retires and devolves it self again into Christ who is the righteous heir of Life and he gives the title and true right again immediately to whom it pleaseth him even to as many as being turned to his Pure Light in their Consciences come again to walk in his righteous and innocent life and so become true members of his body which is the Church So the authority power and heirship is not annexed to persons as they bear the bare names or retain a form holding the meer shell or shadow of Christianity But the promise is to Christ and to the Seed in whom the authority is inherent and in as many as are one with him and united unto him by purity and holiness and by the inward renovation and regeneration of their minds Moreover this pretended succession is contrary to Scripture definitions and nature of the Church of Christ and of the true members For first The Church is the house of God the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 But according to this Doctrine the house of God is a polluted nest of all sort of wickedness and abominations made up of the most ugly defiled and perverse stones that are in the earth where the devil rules in all manner of unrighteousness For so our adversaries confess and History informs the Church of Rome to have been as some of their Historians acknowledge and if that be truly the house of God what may we call the house of Satan or may we call it therefore the house of God notwithstanding all this impiety because they had a bare form and that vitiated many ways also and because they pretended to the name of Christianity though they were anti-christian devilish and atheistical in their whole practice and spirit and also in many of their principles Would not this infer yet a greater absurdity as if they had been something to be accounted of because of their hypocrisie and deceit and false pretences Whereas the Scripture looks upon that as an aggravation of guilt and calls it Blasphemy Rev. 2.9 Of two wicked men he is most to be abhorred who covereth his wickedness with a vain pretence of God and righteousness even so these abominable beasts and fearful monsters who look upon themselves to be Bishops in the apostate Church were never a whit the better that they falsly pretended to be the Successors of the Holy Apostles unless to lie be commendable and that hypocrisie be the way to Heaven Yea were not this to fall into that evil condemned among the Jews Jer. 7.4 Trust ye not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these throughly amend your ways c. as if such outward names and things were the thing the Lord regarded and not inward holiness or can that then be the pillar and ground of Truth which is the very sink and pit of wickedness from which so much error superstition idolatry and all abomination springs Can there be any thing more contrary both to Scripture and Reason Secondly The Church is defined to be the Kingdom of the dear Son of God into which the Saints are translated being delivered from the power of darkness It is called the Body of Christ which from him by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit
together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 But can such members such a gathering as we have demonstrated that Church and Members to be among whom they alledge their pretended authority to have been preserved and through which they derive their call can such I say be the body of Christ or members thereof or is Christ the head of such a corrupt dead dark abominable stinking carcase If so then might we not as well affirm against the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.14 That righteousness hath fellowship with unrighteousness that Light hath communion with Darkness that Christ hath concord with Belial that a Believer hath part with an Infidel and that the Temple of God hath agreement with Idols Moreover no man is called the Temple of God nor of the Holy Ghost but as his vessel is purified and so he fitted and prepared for God to dwell in and many thus fitted by Christ become his body in and among whom he dwells and walks according as it is written I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people It is therefore that we may become the Temple of Christ and people of God that the Apostle in the following verse exhorts saying out of the Prophet Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty But to what purpose all this exhortation and why should we separate from the unclean if a meer outward profession and name be enough to make the true Church and if the unclean and polluted were both the Church and lawful successors of the Apostles inheriting their authority and transmitting it to others Yea how can the Church be the Kingdom of the Son of God as contrary distinguished from the Kingdom and Power of darkness and what need yea what possibility of being translated out of the one into the other if those that make up the Kingdom and Power of darkness be real members of the true Church of Christ and not simple members only but the very Pastors and Teachers of it But how do they increase in the increase of God and receive Spiritual nourishment from Christ the Head that are enemies of him in their hearts by wicked works and openly go into perdition Verily as no metaphysical and nice distinctions that though they were practically as to their own private states enemies to God and Christ and so servants of Satan yet they were by vertue of their office members and ministers of the Church and so able to transmit the succession I say as such invented and frivolous distinctions will not please the Lord God neither will he be deluded by such nor make up the glorious body of his Church with such meer out-side hypocritical shews nor be beholden to such painted sepulchres for to be members of his body which is sound pure and undefiled and therefore he needs not such false and corrupt members to make up the defects of it so neither will such distinctions satisfie truly tender and Christian Consciences especially considering the Apostle is so far from desiring us to regard that as that we are expresly commanded to turn away from such as have a form of godliness but deny the power of it For we may well object against these as the poor man did against the proud Prelate that went about to cover his vain and unchristian-like sumptuousness by distinguishing that it was not as Bishop but as Prince he had all that splendor To which the poor rustick wisely is said to have answered When the Prince goeth to Hell what shall become of the Prelate And indeed this were to suppose the body of Christ to be defective and that to fill up these defective places he puts counterfeit and dead stuff instead of real living members like such as lose their eyes arms or legs make counterfeit ones of timber or glass instead of them But we cannot think so of Christ neither can we believe for the reasons above adduced that either we are to account or that Christ doth account any man or men a whit the more members of his body because though they be really wicked they hypocritically and deceitfully cloath themselves with his Name pretended to it for this is contrary to his own doctrine where he saith expresly Joh. 15.1 2 3 4 5 6 c. that he is the Vine and his Disciples are the Branches that except they abide in him they cannot bear fruit and if they be unfruitful they shall be cast forth as a branch and wither Now I suppose these cut and withered branches are no more true branches nor members of the Vine they can draw no more sap nor nourishment from it after that they are cut off and so have no more vertue sap nor life What have they then to boast or glory of any authority seeing they want that life vertue and nourishment from which all authority comes So such members of Christ as are become dead to him through unrighteousness and so derive no more vertue nor life from him are cut off by their sins and wither and have no more any true or real authority and their boasting of any is but an aggravation of their iniquity by hypocrisie and deceit But further would not this make Christ's body a meer shadow and phantam Yea would it not make him the head of a lifeless rotten stinking carcase having only some little outward false shew while inwardly full of rottenness and dirt and what a monster would these men make of Christ's body by assigning it real pure living quick Head full of vertue and life and yet tied to such a dead lifeless body as we have already described these members to be which they alledge to have been the Church of Christ. Again the members of the Church of Christ are specified by this definition to wit as being the sanctified in Christ Jesus 1. Cor. 1.2 But this notion of succession supposeth not only some unsanctified members to be of the Church of Christ but even the whole to consist of unsanctified members yea that such as were professed Necromancers and open servants of Satan were the true successors of the Apostles and in whom the Apostolick authority resided these being the vessels through whom this Succession is transmitted though many of them as all Protestants and also some Papists confess attained these offices in the so called Church not only by such means as Simon Magus sought it but by much worse even by witchcraft murther traditions money and treachery which Platina himself confesseth of divers Bishops of Rome § XI But such as object not this succession of the Church which yet most Protestants begin now to do distinguish in this matter affirming that in a great apostacy such as was that of the Church of Rome God may raise up some
singularly by his Spirit who from the testimony of the Scriptures perceiving the errors into which such as bear the name of Christians are faln may instruct and teach them and then become authorized by the people's joyning with and accepting of their ministry only Most of them also will affirm that the Spirit herein is subjective and not objective But they say that where a Church is reformed Obj. such as they pretend the Ptotestants Churches are there an ordinary orderly call is necessary and that of the Spirit as extraordinary is not to be sought after alledging that res aliter se habet in ecclesia constituenda quam in ecclesia constituta that is there is a difference in the constituting of a Church and after it is constitute I answer this objection as to us saith nothing seeing we accuse Answ. and are ready from the Scriptures to prove the Protestants guilty of gross errors and needing reformation as well as they did and do the Papists and therefore we may justly lay claim if we would to the same extraordinary call having the same reason for it and as good evidence to prove ours as they had for theirs As for that Maxime viz. that the case is different in a constituting Church and a Church constituted I do not deny it and therefore there may be a greater measure of power required to the one than to the other and God in his Wisdom distributes the same as he seeth meet but that the same immediate assistance of the Spirit is not necessary for ministers in a gathered Church as well as in gathering one I see no solid reason alledged for it For sure Christs promise was to be with his children to the end of the world and they need him no less to preserve and guide his Church and Children than to gather and beget them Nature taught the Gentiles this Maxime Non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri Englished thus For to defend what you attain Requires no less strength than to gain For it is by this inward and immediate operation of the Spirit which Christ hath promised to lead his Children with into all Truth and to teach them all things that Christians are to be led in all steps as well last as first which relates to Gods Glory and their own Salvation as we have heretofore sufficiently proved and therefore need not now repeat it And truly this device of Satan whereby he has got people to put the immediate guidings and leadings of Gods Spirit as an extraordinary thing a far off which their Fore-fathers had but which they now are neither to wait for nor expect is a great cause of the growing Apostacy upon the many gathered Churches and is one great reason why a dry dead barren lifeless spiritless ministry which leavens the people into the same death doth so much abound and is so much overspreading even the Protestant nations that their preachings and worships as well as whole conversation is not to be discerned from Popish by any fresh living zeal or lively Power of the Spirit accompanying it but meerly by the difference of some notions and opinions Obj. § XII Some unwise and unwary Protestants do sometimes object to us that if we have such an immediate call as we lay claim to we ought to confirm it by miracles Answ. But this being an objection once and again objected to the primitive Protestants by the Papists we need but short return the answer to it that they did to the Papists to wit that we need not miracles because we preach no new Gospel but that which is already confirmed by all the miracles of Christ and his Apostles and that we offer nothing but that which we are ready and able to confirm by the testimony of the Scriptures which both already acknowledge to be true And that John the Baptist and divers of the Prophets did none that we hear of and yet were both immediately and extraordinarily sent This is the common Protestant answer therefore may suffice in this place though if need were I could say more to this purpose but that I study brevity § XIII There is also another sort of Protestants to wit the English Independents who differing from the Calvinistical Presbyterians and denying the necessity of this succession or the authority of any National Church take another way affirming that such as have the benefit of the Scriptures any company of people agreeing in the principles of Truth as they find them there declared may constitute among themselves a Church without the authority of any other and may choose to themselves a Pastor who by the Church thus constitute and consenting is authorized requiring only the assistance and concurrence of the Pastors of the neighbouring Churches if any be not so much as absolutely necessary to authorize as decent for orders sake Also they go so far as to affirm that in a Church so constitute any gifted Brother as they call them if he find himself qualified thereto may instruct exhort and preach in the Church though as not having the Pastoral office he cannot administer that they call their Sacraments To this I answer that this was a good step out of the Babylonish darkness and no doubt did proceed from a real discovery of the Truth and from the sense of a great abuse of the promiscuous National gatherings Also this preaching of the Gifted Brethren as they called them did proceed at first from certain lively touches and movings of the Spirit of God upon many But alas because they went not forward that is much decayed among them and the motions of Gods Spirit begin to be denyed and rejected among them now as much as by others But as to their pretended Call from the Scripture I answer The Scripture gives a meer declaration of true things but no call to particular persons so that though I believe the things there written to be true and deny the errors which I find there testified against yet as to these things which may be my particular duty I am still to seek and therefore I can never be resolved in the Scripture whether I such a one by name ought to be a Minister And for the resolving this doubt I must needs recur to the inward and immediate testimony of the Spirit as in the Proposition concerning the Scriptures more at large is shewn § XIV From all this then we do firmly conclude that not only in a general apostasie it is needful men be extraordinarily called and raised up by the Spirit of God but that even when several assemblies or Churches are gathered by the Power of God not only into the belief of the Principles of Truth so as to deny Errors and Heresies but also into the Life Spirit and Power of Christianity so as to be the Body and House of Christ indeed and a fit Spouse for him that he who gathers them doth also for the preserving them in a lively fresh and powerful condition
up a shadow and form of these orders and so make several ranks and degrees to establish a carnal Ministry of mens making without the Life Power and Spirit of Christ this is that work of Anti-christ and Mystery of Iniquity that hath got up in the dark night of Apostasie but in a true Church of Christ gathered together by God not only unto the belief of the principles of Truth but also into the Power Life and Spirit of Christ the Spirit of God is the Orderer Ruler and Governour as in each particular so in the general and when they assemble together to wait upon God and worship and adore him then such as the Spirit sets apart to the Ministry by its Divine Power and Influence opening their Mouths and giving them to exhort reprove and instruct with Vertue and Power these are thus of God ordained and admitted into the Ministry and their brethren cannot but hear them receive them and also honour them for their works sake and so this is not monopolized to a certain kind of men as the Clergy who are to that purpose educated and brought up as other carnal Artists and the rest to be despised as Laicks but it is left to the free Gift of God to chuse any whom he seeth meet thereunto whether rich or poor servant or master young or old yea male or female And such as have this call verifie the Gospel by preaching not in Speech only but also in Power and the Holy Ghost and in much fulness 1 Thes. 1.5 and cannot but be received and heard by the Sheep of Christ. § XXV But if it be objected here Obj. that I seem hereby to make no distinction at all betwixt Ministers and others which is contrary to the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 12.29 Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers c. From thence they insinuate that I also contradict his comparison in that chapter of the Church of Christ with a humane body as where he saith verse 17. If the whole body were an Eye where were the hearing If the whole were hearing where were the smelling c. Also the Apostle not only thus distinguisheth the Ministers of the Church in general from the rest of the Members but also from themselves as naming them distinctly and separately Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers c. As to the last part of this objection to which I shall first answer Answ. it is apparent that this diversity of Names is not for to distinguish separate Offices but to denote the different and various Operations of the Spirit a manner of Speech frequent with the Apostle Paul wherein he sometimes expatiates to the Illustrating of the Glory and Praise of God's Grace as in particular Rom. 12.6 Having then Gifts differing according to the Grace that is given us whether Prophecy let us Prophecy according to the proportion of Faith Or Ministry let us wait on our Ministring or he that Teacheth on Teaching or he that Exhorteth on Exhortation Now none will say from all this that these are distinct Offices or do not or may not co-incide in one person as may all these other things mentioned by him in the subsequent verses viz. Of Loving being kindly affectioned Fervency of Spirit Hospitality Diligence Blessing Rejoycing c. Which yet he numbers forth as different gifts of the Spirit And according to this objection might be placed as distinct and separate Offices which were most absurd Secondly in these very places mentioned it is clear that it is no real distinction of separate Offices because all acknowledg that Pastors and Teachers which the Apostle there no less separateth and distinguisheth than Pastors and Prophets or Apostles are one and the same and co-incide in the same Office and Person and therefore so may be said of the rest For Prophecy as it signifieth the foretelling of things to come is indeed a distinct Gift but no distinct Office and therefore our Adversaries do not place it among their several orders neither will they deny but that both may be and have been given of God to some that not only have been Pastors and Teachers and that there it hath co incided in one Person with these other Offices but also to some of the Laicks and so it hath been found according to their own concession without the limits of their Clergy Prophecy in the other sense to wit as it signifieth a speaking from the Spirit of Truth is not only peculiar to Pastors and Teachers who ought so to Prophecy but even a common priviledg to the Saints for though to Instruct Teach and Exhort be proper to such as are more particularly called to the work of the Ministry yet it is not so proper to them as not to be when the Saints are met together as any of them are moved by the Spirit common to others For some acts belong to all in such a relation but not only to those within that relation competunt omni sed non Soli thus to see and hear are proper acts of a man seeing it may be properly predicated of him that he heareth and seeth yet are they common to other Creatures also So to Prophecy in this sense is indeed proper to Ministers and Teachers yet not so but that it is common and lawful to other Saints when moved thereunto though it be not proper to them by way of relation because notwithstanding that motion they are not particularly called to the work of the Ministry as appears by 1 Cor. 14. where the Apostle at large declaring the order and ordinary method of the Church saith ver 30 31. But if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace For ye may all Prophecy one by one that all may learn and all be comforted Which sheweth that none is here excluded But yet that there is a subordination according to the various measures of the Gift received the next verse sheweth And the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets For God is not the Author of confusion but of peace Now that Prophecying in this sense may be common to all Saints appears by the 39 verse of the same Chapter where speaking to all in general he saith Therefore Brethren covet to Prophecy and verse 1. he exhorts them saying Covet Spiritual Gifts but the rather that ye may Prophecy Secondly as to Evangelists the same may be said for whoever preacheth the Gospel is really an Evangelist and so consequently every true Minister of the Gospel is one else what proper office can they assign to it unless they should be so foolish as to affirm that none were Evangelists but Matthew Mark Luke and John who wrote the Account of Christ's Life and Sufferings And then it were neither a particular office seeing John and Matthew were Apostles Mark and Luke Pastors and Teachers so that there they co-incided in one and indeed it is absurd to think that upon that particular account the
with the using as much as other things But further if the use of water and bread and wine were that wherein the very seals of the New Covenant stood and did pertain to the chief Sacraments of the Gospel and Evangelical Ordinances so called then would not the Gospel differ from the Law or be preferable to it Whereas the Apostle shews the difference Heb. 9.10 in that such kind of observations of the Jews were as a sign of the Gospel for that this stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings And now if the Gospel worship and service stand in the same where is the difference Obj. If it be said These under the Gospel have a spiritual signification Answ. So had those under the Law God was the Author of those as well as Christ is pretended to be Author of these But doth not this contending for the use of water bread and wine as necessary parts of the Gospel-worship destroy the nature of it as if the Gospel were a dispensation of shadows and not of the Substance whereas the Apostle in that of the Collossians above-mentioned argues against the use of these things as needful to those that are dead and arisen with Christ because they are but shadows and since through the whole Epistle to the Hebrews he argues with the Jews to wean them from their worship for this reason because it was typical and figurative Is it agreeable to right Reason to bring them to another of the same nature What ground from Scripture or Reason can our adversaries bring us to evince that one shadow or figure should point to another shadow or figure and not to the Substance And yet they make the figure of Circumcision to point to Water-baptism and the Paschal Lamb so bread and wine But was it ever known that one figure was the antitypes of the other especially seeing Protestants make not these their antitypes to have any more vertue or efficacy than the type had For since as they say and that truly that their Sacraments confer not Grace but that is conferred according to the Faith of the receiver it will not be denied but the faithful among the Jews received also Grace in the use of their figurative Worship And though Papists boast that their Sacraments confer Grace ex opere operato yet experience abundantly proveth the contrary § X. But supposing the use of Water baptism and Bread and Wine to have been in the primitive Church as was also that of abstaining from things strangled and from Blood the use of legal Purification Acts 21.23 24 25. and anointing of the Sick with Oyl for the reasons and grounds beforementioned Yet it remains for our adversaries to shew us how they come by power or authority to administer them It cannot be from the letter of the Scripture else they behoved also to do those other things which the letter declares also they did and which in the letter have as much foundation Then their Power must be derived from the Apostles either mediately or immediately but we have shewn before in the tenth Proposition that they have no mediate Power because of the interruption made by the Apostasie And for an immediate power or command by the Spirit of God to administer these things none of our adversaries pretend to it We know that in this as in other things they make a noise of the constant consent of the Church and of Christians in all ages but as tradition is not a sufficient ground for Faith so in this matter especially it ought to have but small weight for that in this point of Ceremonies and superstitious Observations the Apostasie began very early as may appear in the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Colossians and we have no ground to imitate them in those things whose entrance the Apostle so much withstood so heavily regreted and so sharply reproved But if we look to Antiquity we find that in such kind of observances and traditions they were very uncertain and changeable so that neither Protestants nor Papists do observe this Ceremony as they did both in that they gave it to young Boyes and to little Children and for ought can be learned the use of this and Infant-baptism are of alike age though the one be laid aside both by Papists and Protestants and the other to wit Baptism of Infants be stuck to and we have so much the less reason to lay weight upon Antiquity for that if we consider their profession of Religion especially as to worship and the ceremonial part of it we shall not find any Church now whether Popish or Protestant who differ not widely from them in many things as Dalleus in his Treatise concerning the use of the Fathers well observeth and demonstrateth And why they should obtrude this upon us because of the Ancients practice which they themselves follow not or why we may not reject this as well as they do other things no less zealously practised by the Ancients no sufficient reason can be assigned I shall not nevertheless doubt but many whose understandings have been clouded with these Ceremonies have notwithstanding by the Mercy of God had some secret sense of the mystery which they could not clearly understand because it was sealed from them by their sticking to such outward things and that through that secret sence diving in their comprehensions they ran themselves into these carnal apprehensions as imagining the substance of the bread was changed or that if the substance was not changed yet the body was there c. And indeed I am inclinable very favourably to judg of Calvin in this particular in that he deals so ingenuously to confess he neither comprehends it nor can express it in words but yet by a feeling experience can say the Lord is Spiritually present Now as I doubt not but Calvin sometimes had a sense of his presence without the use of this ceremony so as the understanding given him of God made him justly reject the false notions of Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation tho he knew not what to establish instead of them if he had fully waited in that Light that makes all things manifest and had not laboured in his own comprehension to settle upon that external ceremony by affixing the Spiritual presence as chiefly or principally though not only as he well knew by experience there or especially to relate to it he might have further reached unto the knowledg of this mystery than many that went before him § XI Lastly if any now at this day from a true tenderness of Spirit and with real Conscience towards God did practise this ceremony in the same way method and manner as did the primitive Christians recorded in Scripture which yet none that I know now do I should not doubt to affirm but they might be indulged in it and the Lord might regard them and for a season appear to them in the use of these things as many of us have known him to do to
40 41. where he expounds them to be the children of the wicked one and yet he will not have the servants to meddle with them lest they pull up the Wheat therewith Now it cannot be denyed but hereticks are here included but these servants saw the Tares and had a certain discerning of them yet Christ would not they should meddle lest they should hurt the Wheat thereby intimating that that capacity in man to be mistaken ought to be a bridle upon him to make him wary in such matters and therefore to prevent this hurt he gives a positive prohibition But he said Nay ver 29. So that they that will notwithstanding be pulling up that which they judg is Tares do openly declare that they make no bones to break the commands of Christ. Miserable is that evasion which some of our adversaries use here in alledging these Tares is meant of Hypocrites and not of Hereticks But how to evince that seeing Hereticks as well as Hypocrites are children of the wicked one they have not any thing but their own bare affirmation which is therefore justly rejected Obj. If they say because Hypocrites cannot be discerned but so may not Hereticks Answ. This is both false and a begging of the question For those that have a Spiritual discerning can discern both Hypocrites and Hereticks and those that want it cannot certainly discern either seeing the question will arise Whether that is a Heresie which the Magistrate sait his so And seeing it is both possible and confessed by all to have often faln out that some Magistrates have judged that Heresie which was not punishing men accordingly for Truth instead of error there can no argument be drawn from the obviousness or evidence of heresie unless we should conclude heresie could never be mistaken for Truth nor Truth for heresie whereof experience shews daily the contrary even among Christians But neither is this shift applicable to this place for the servants did discern the Tares and yet were liable to hurt the wheat if they had offered to pull them up Obj. § III. But they object against this Liberty of Conscience Deut. 13.5 where false Prophets are appointed to be put to death and accordingly they give example thereof The case no ways holds parallel those particular commands to the Jews and practises following upon them are not a rule for Christians Answ. else we might by the same rule say It were lawful for us to borrow from our neighbours their goods and so carry them away because the Jews did so by God's command or that it is lawful for Christians to invade their neighbours Kingdoms and cut them all off without mercy because the Jews did so to the Canaanites by the command of God If they urge that these commands ought to stand except they be repealed in the Gospel Obj. I say Answ. these precepts and practises of Christ and his Apostles mentioned are a sufficient repeal for if we should plead that every command given to the Jews is binding upon us except there be a particular repeal then would it follow that because it was lawful for the Jews if any man killed one for the nearest of kindred presently to kill the Murderer without any order of Law it were lawful for us to do so also And doth not this command of Deut. 13.9 openly order him who is enticed by another to forsake the Lord though he were his brother his son his daughter or his wife presently to kill him or her Thou shalt surely kill him thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death If this command were to be followed there needed neither inquisition nor Magistrate to do the business and yet there is no reason why they should shuffle by this part and not the other yea to argue this way from the practice among the Jews were to overturn the very Gospel and to set up again the carnal ordinances among the Jews to pull down the Spiritual ones of the Gospel Indeed we can far better argue from the analogy betwixt the figurative and carnal state of the Jews and the real and Spiritual one under the Gospel That as Moses delivered the Jews out of outward Egypt by an outward force and established them in an outward Kingdom by destroying their outward enemies for them so Christ not by overcoming outwardly and killing others but by suffering and being killed doth deliver his chosen ones the inward Jews out of mystical Egypt destroying their Spiritual enemies before them and establishing among them his Spiritual Kingdom which is not of this world And as such as departed from the fellowship of outward Israel were to be cut off by the outward Sword so those that depart from the inward Israel are to be cut off by the Sword of the Spirit for it answers very well that as the Jews were to cut off their Enemies outwardly to establish their Kingdom and outward worship so they were to uphold it the same way But as the Kingdom and Gospel of Christ was not to be established nor propagated by cutting off or destroying the Gentiles but by perswading them so neither is it to be upheld otherwise Obj. But secondly they urge Rom. 13. where the Magistrate is said not to bear the sword in vain because he is the minister of God to execute wrath upon such as do evil But heresie say they is evil Ergo. Answ. But so is Hypocrisie also yet they confess he ought not to punish that Therefore this must be understood of moral evils relative of affairs betwixt man and man not of matters of judgment or worship or else what great absurdities would follow considering that Paul wrote here to the Church of Rome who was under the Government of Nero an impious Heathen and persecutor of the Church Now if a power to punish in point of Heresie be here included it will necessarily follow that Nero had this power yea and that he had it of God for because the power was of God therefore the Apostle urges their obedience But can there be any thing more absurd than to say that Nero had power to judg in such cases Surely if Christian Magistrates be not to punish for Hypocrisie because they cannot outwardly discern it far less could Nero punish any body for Heresie which he was uncapable to discern And if Nero had not power to judge nor punish in point of Heresie then nothing can be urged from this place since all that 's said here is spoken as applicable to Nero with a particular relation to whom it was written And if Nero had such a power surely he was to exercise it according to his judgment and conscience and in doing thereof he was not to be blamed which is enough to justifie him in his persecuting of the Apostles and murdering the Christians Obj. Thirdly they object that saying of the Apostle to the Gal. 5.12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you Answ. But how this imports any more
than a cutting off from the Church is not nor can be shewn Beza upon the place saith We cannot understand that otherwise than of Excommunication Such as was that of the incestuous Corinthian And indeed it is madness to suppose it otherwise for Paul would not have these cut off otherwise than he did Hymenaeus and Philetus who were Blasphemers which was by giving them over to Satan not by cutting off their Heads The same way may be answered that other argument drawn from Rev. 2.20 Where the Church of Thyatira is reproved for suffering the woman Jezebel Which can be no other waies understood than that they did not excommunicate her or cut her off by a Church censure for as to corporal punishment it is known that at that time the Christians had not power to punish Hereticks so if they had had a mind to it Fourthly they alledge Obj. that Heresies are numbred among the works of the Flesh Gal. 5.20 Ergo c. That Magistrates have power to punish all the works of the Flesh Answ. is denyed and not yet proved Every evil is a work of the Flesh but every evil comes not under the Magistrates cognisance Is not Hypocrisie a work of the Flesh which our adversaries confess the Magistrates ought not to punish Yea is not Hatred and Envy there mentioned as the works of the Flesh and yet the Magistrates cannot punish them as they are in themselves until they exert themselves in other acts which come under his power But so long as Heresie doth not exert it self in any act destructive to humane society or such like things but is kept within the sphere of those duties of doctrin or worship which stand betwixt a man and God they no waies come under a Magistrates power § IV. But secondly this forcing of mens consciences is contrary to sound Reason and to the very law of Nature For man's understanding cannot be forced by all the bodily sufferings another man can inflict upon him especially in matters Spiritual and Supernatural 't is arguments and evident demonstrations of Reason together with the power of God reaching the Heart that can change a man's mind from one opinion to another and not knocks and blows and such like things which may well destroy the Body but can never inform the Soul which is a free agent and must either accept or reject matters of opinion as they are born in upon it by something proportional to its own nature To seek to force minds in ony other manner is to deal with men as if they were brutes void of understanding and at last is but to lose ones labour and as the proverb is to seek to wash the Blackmore white By that course indeed men may be made Hypocrites but can never be made Christians and surely the products of such compulsion even where the end is obtained to wit an outward assent or conformity whether in Doctrin or Worship can be no waies acceptable to God who desireth not any Sacrifice except that which cometh througly from the Heart and will have no constrained ones so that men so constrained are so far from being members of the Church that they are made ten-times more the Servants of Satan than before in that to their Error is added Hypocrisie the worst of Evils in matters of Religion and that which above all things the Lord's Soul most abhors But if it be said their error notwithstanding is thereby suppressed Obj. and the scandal removed I answer besides that this is a method no waies allowed by Christ Answ. as is above proved surely the Church can be no waies better'd by the accession of Hypocrites but greatly corrupted and endangered for open Heresie men be aware of and shun such as profess them when they are separated from the Church by her Censures but secret Hypocrites may putrifie the Body and leaven it ere men be aware And if the Dissenters prove resolute and suffer boldly for the Opinions they esteem right experience sheweth that such sufferings often tend to the condemnation of the sufferers but never of the persecutors for such suffering ordinarily breeds compassion and begets a curiosity in others to inquire the more diligently into the things for which they see men suffer so great losses so boldly and is also able to beget an opinion that it is for some good they do suffer it being no waies probable that men will venture all meerly to acquire fame which may as well be urged to detract from the reputation of all the Martyrs unless some better arguments be brought against it than a Halter or a Faggot But supposing this principle that the Magistrate hath power to force the Consciences of his Subjects and to punish them if they will not comply very great inconveniencies and absurdities will follow and even such as are inconsistent with the nature of the Christian Religion For first it will naturally follow that the Magistrate ought to do it and sinneth by omission of his duty if he do it not Will it not then hence be inferred that Christ was defective to his Church who having power to force men and for to call for legions of Angels so to do did notwithstanding exert that power but lest his Church to the mercy of the wicked without so necessary a bulwark Secondly seeing every Magistrate is to exercise his power according to the best understanding he hath being obliged so to do for the promoting of what he in conscience is perswaded to be Truth Will not this justifie all the Heathen Emperors in their persecutions against Christians Will not this justifie the Spanish Inquisition which yet is odious not only to Protestants but to many moderate Papists How can Protestants in reason condemn the Papists for persecuting them seeing they do but exercise a lawful power according to their Conscience and best understanding and do no more to them than the sufferers profess they would do to them if they were in the like capacity Which takes away all ground of commiseration from the sufferers whereas that was the ground that gained of old reputation to the Christians that they being innocent suffered who neither had nor by principle could hurt any But there is little reason to pity one that is but dealt by according as he would deal with others For to say they have not reason to persecute us because they are in the wrong and we in the right is but miserably to beg the question Doth not this Doctrin strengthen the hands of persecutors every where and that rationally from a principle of self preservation For who can blame me for destroying him that I know waits but for an occasion to destroy me if he could Yea this makes all suffering for Religion which of old was the glory of Christians to be but of pure necessity whereby they are not led as Lambs to the Slaughter as was the Captain of their Salvation but rather as Wolves catched in the snare who only bite not again