to deliver him to Satan Amb. in 1 Tim. cap. 1. As for their assembling together at his command it was that the whole Church might see and fear that upon reading the sentence the spirit of Paul being present by the power of the Lord Jesus Satan should plainly smite him with some evill Chry. in 1 Cor. 5 hom 15. as once Peter did Ananias dead Acts 5. and Paul Elymas the sorcerer Acts 13. From this it is St Paul saith 2 Cor. 10. we have in a readinesse to revenge all disobedience and is called his rod 2 Cor. 13.2 1 Cor. 4. which he will not spare This I confesse was excommunication and somewhat more for many were excommunicated and yet not delivered to Satans power 2 Cor. 13.10 which was a sharp execution of that power the Lord had given him Thus we see the Apostles kept this power and by their command only it was executed Christ gave this power of the keies only to the Apostles John 20. and Paul being an Apostle used them without the authority of Presbyters Mathe. But whether doth the power still continue and in whom Phila. Some gifts were appointed to the Apostles persons As 1. Their calling by Christs own mouth 2. Their infallibility in truth 3. The visible assistance of Gods spirit 4. To speak extempore in divers tongues 5. To work miracles 6. To bestow the gifts of Holy Ghost upon others all which was given to them to beget and convert and confirm Christians at first But this milk is not necessary alwaies to be continued when the Church is grown to a ripe age for the Scriptures are afterward sufficient to make us perfect to every good work 1 Tim. and the miracles then done are a full confirmation of their truth But yet you must know that the authority of their calling liveth yet in their successors and to teach administer Sacraments to bind and loose sins to impose hands for the ordaining Pastours and Elders are not ceased nor can be wanting so long as there is a Church for these beget faith without which there is no Church Therefore their successors are stewards of the mysteries of Christ and are warned to take care of Christs flock Acts 20. and of this few doubt but the power of the keies troubles them to whom they are committed that is excommunication and absolution So others quarrell about ordination and these are the well-wishers to Lay-Eldership which they would have joined in this work with Apostles and Bishops but they find no warrant for it I know they bring commonly two or three places of Scripture for Presbyterie as the hands of the Presbyterie 1 Tim. 4.14 which I have shewed were the hands of Bishops and preaching Elders at least not of Lay Elders So they say Christ bids a man tell the Church Mat. 18. which if a man will not hear he is to be accounted as an heathen Now by this word Church they would bring in all the Lay Elders Chrys hom 61. in Mat. 18. Beza annot in Mat. 18. saith the chiefe implieth the whole But surely there is understood the spirituall Presidents and Governors so there we read of no Lay Presbyterie But they say that in the 1 Tim. 5. Paul tels us of ruling Elders and thereforre there were some Elders beside those that laboured in the word and doctrine as Rom. 12. he that ruleth let him do it with diligence but it is plain they are not distinct offices Beza annot in 1 Tim. 4. Chrys hom 15. in 1. Tim. 5. Hieron in 1 Tim. cap. 5. but sometime pertaining both to the Deacon or Preaching Elder who also ruled the Church and in regard of their good government deserved double honour of reverence and allowance but especially for laboring in preaching the Gospell because they cannot so well provide things needfull for themselves But for Lay Judges I never heard they were to be maintained by the Church stock of which maintenance the Apostle in 1 Tim. 5. speaketh and therefore here can be understood no Lay Presbyterie but rather such as did govern the Churches stocks as the Deacons did or ministers which either did both Beza annot in 1 Pet. cap. 5. or only laboured in the word for the name Elder compriseth sometimes all those that have any Ecclesiasticall function And St Chrysostome on 1 Cor. 1.17 on these words Chrys in 1 Cor. 1.17 Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach saith that few were able to preach but many to give baptisme therefore the inferiour sort of ministers baptized and the superiour in wisedome Evangelized They that performed the first well were counted worthy of double honour for their right ordering the Church but especially such as labored in the word and doctrine so that still we find no ruling for Lay Elders but rather the dutie and pains of their Pastors and Teachers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one by ruling the flock well in his Church and charge whereof he is president by doctrine administration and example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other for travelling with great pains of mind and body to dispense the Gospell and confirm Christians by travell and visiting in which sense Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. he laboured more then all the Apostles Yet I speak not this in derogation to Lay-men which are holy grave and wise but only that they had no place in ordination or excommunication yea I beleeve good use might be made of them for moderation of quarrels and strifes and examinations as 1 Cor. 6.4 and to end matters peaceably between Christians but not to censure Ecclesiastically for that belongs to the ministers nor to punish by the civill law for that belongs to the Magistrate The keies were given of Christ to his Apostles and of them to their successors which were spirituall pastors so that every godly minister hath power to put by an unworthy receiver from the Lords Table as well as to admit one that is worthy Amb. de poenit lib. 1. c. 2. without the assistance of Lay Eldership to whom neither power of preaching the Word nor administring the Sacraments Chrys de sacer lib. 3. was ever committed For when Christ said to Peter Aug. 5. Tract in Joh. I will give thee the keies of the Kingdome of heaven he meant and intended it to all the ministers of the Church as appeareth in giving the rest of the Apostles the same power after his resurrection Therefore saith Ambrose Amb. de dignita sacer c. 6. all we that are Priests received the keies in blessed Peter but he saith not Lay-men did also receive them Mathe. This may make Ministers take too much upon them Phila. Not if they be either wise and godly Cypr. l. 1. Ep. 2. for they are to use this power with moderation and great discretion for much harm may be done by rash suspension from the Sacrament or excommunication from Christian societie nor lesse harm by facile
by collecting from former Liturgies which kind of form Calvin himselfe approveth and wisheth that there might be such a form from which no Minister might depart Mathe. Yet Calvin and his followers are against the Liturgy and discipline of the Church of England though it be a reformed Church even as the Papists are against Luther and him Phila. It is true Mr Calvins Reformation yet both Luther and he have been great refiners of Christian Religion from drosse and rust of superstition which cleaved thereunto and mud which it collected by running through the dirty channels of Rome that spirituall Babylon It is true that he being bred to the Civill Law yet studied Divinity wherein he proved a great proficient as by his writings appeareth in all which he consenteth with the Protestant truth professed He having occasion to leave France came to Geneva which City had lately been abandoned by the Bishop and Clergy thereof for fear of the people who began to rise against the popish religion there Their civill government was by Magistrates chosen yearly by the people and for Church-government they had then agreed upon none but they chose Calvin for their Preacher and Divinity Lecturer He with two other Ministers perswaded with some ado the people to bind themselves solemnly by oath First never to admit Popery again And secondly to obey such orders in the exercise of Religion as himselfe and the other two had contrived according to the Word of God They consented and yet within a little while repented of it And because Calvin and the other two Ministers would not administer the Communion to those that denied quiet obedience according to their oath those three Calvin and his two associats were banished the Town but within a few years they called him in again He told them that if he undertook to be their Pastor they must admit a compleat form of Church Discipline and should be sworn for ever to observe it The order was that there should be an Ecclesiasticall Court erected which should be alwaies standing that should consist of one Clergy man certaine and two Lay men annually chosen which seemed much to content the people they being alwaies to have the more voices but Calvin knew that the Ministers had ods enough having both art learning and the tongue of perswasion At last the people many of them disliked it and thought it no better then popish tyranny and imagined that Calvin had done all this to please his fantasy as Apelles that pretended to draw the picture of Venus and made it like his beloved Cratina Yet considering the time and place I see not what more acceptable government he could have set up therefore those people thought it better to condescend to him than to dismisse him to their own infamy since they had so importunately recalled him to them yet not many yeers after the Consistory or Ecclesiasticall Court having excommunicated Bertelier the Senate of the Town releaseth him under their common seale But Calvin resolved to withstand that decree at least by refusing to absolve or give the Sacrament to Bertelier which he resolutely did not and in the afternoon on the Lords day after his sermon took his leave of them saying I commend you to God and to the word of his grace and so bid them farewell They of Geneva sent to the Helvetian Churches for their judgement in Calvins discipline and whether they might better change then hold it It was answered that their ordinances were godly and enclined toward the Scripture and that they were better to hold them then to change so Mr Calvins discipline was accepted And as his name grew famous so was his discipline taken up by the French reformed Churches and Scotland and by some exalted in their Sermons so high that they have said that a Minister with his Eldership hath power given from God to excommunicate even Kings and Princes Beza and Erastus hath canvased this point of discipline The first saith that excommunication is a most necessary discipline and Erastus denieth the necessity of Lay Elders to be Ministers thereof By others it hath been cried up for the Lords discipline Mart. Marpr in l. 3. p. 8. yea and that all Christian Churches ought to receive it whether the governors of it will or not And England hath been threatned by libels that since the Brethren cannot prevaile by Petition to Prince Parliament and Councill we must thank our selves if such means be used to bring in discipline as will make all our hearts to ake And I beleeve such hath been used of late years but the disciplinarians have been prevented of their end by men of an higher genius then they have But this hath been the Helena that hath caused so much sharp contentions Mathe. It seemeth that Calvins discipline aimed at a parity of Clergy and Laitie which is the fourth point held by the Anabaptists of which I desire your judgement Phila. Calvin did indeed make them equall in censuring others by his discipline but not as the Anabaptists do for they would have no distinction between Clergy and Lay-men no not in exercising the ministeriall office but that all men perform it that will if gifted But God hath distinguished them as he did Aaron from the Levites and the Levites from the Laity yea before the Law there was that distinction Melchisedech was the Priest of the high God and it seems very nature taught it for Jethro was Priest of Midian And Egypt had Priests too distinct from other men And Christ said to his disciples go yee and teach all nations And St Paul doth plainly distinguish between the Pastor and flock Acts 20.28 and saith they that are taught should communicate to the teacher Gal. 6.6 for all the body must not be an eie or tongue Methinks the judgement that God hath shewed upon men usurping that office should be enough to convince the evill of this opinion as upon Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16.31 Upon Miriam Vzza 2 Sam. 6.7 and Vzziah 2 Chro. 26.21 Mathe. They say there is no difference between a gifted Layman and a Clergyman but only ordination which adds no power to a man Phila. Yes it doth for though sufficiency or rather competency of gifts may enable a man to the office yet that ability cannot authorize him to perform the ministry and therefore he is to look for an outward calling by his superiour Rom. 10.15 for how can they preach unlesse they be sent Now they must be sent by such who by a continued succession from the Apostles can derive their ordinations Helver post c. 18. Bohem. Confes c. 9. Aug. Confes art 14. Wittemb Con. art 20. Bern. in Cant. which was long before the Church of Rome fell from the faith even 1600 years ago which calling of Ministers hath been followed by England and the reformed Church who will suffer none to meddle with the administration of holy things without constitution Against whom St Bernard
and when they had ordained them Elders in every Church and had praied with fasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth a divine institution not holding up of hands in a choice of any Vid. Act. 10 41 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they commended them to the Lord Or if you will say that Timothies ordination though spoken of twice yet it only shewes that St Paul and the Presbyterie were associate in the work you will hardly find Calvin so to interpret 1 Tim. 4.14 in his Institutions But be it so * Chryl hom 13. in 1 ad Tim. cap. 4. that Presbyterie was a companie of Elders whereas Calvin saith they were Bishops yet you cannot by that prove that preaching Elders were of the same antiquitie with the Apostles except you take the Apostles themselves only for such Elders nor yet that preaching Elders saving the Apostles were of equall authoritie with Bishops Mathe. I pray Sir make that forth to me that Elders or Presbyters were not of equall antiquity and dignity with Bishops Phila. You are to observe that both the Office of Bishop and Elders were both at first included in the Apostles only as 1 Pet. 5.1 the Apostle Peter there cals himselfe a co-Elder while he exhorteth Elders yet that proveth not that Peter was only an Elder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no more then it proveth that those Elders to whom he then wrote were all Apostles for none durst join themselves to the Apostles in commission Acts 5.13 till they had ordained and appointed them and therefore no doubt those that ministred had their approbation and appointment first from them except they had an immediate call from God as Paul had from heaven and Ananias in a vision to go and baptize Paul But their ordinary way was to give commission by laying on of hands and ordination Therefore we read Acts 6.3 that they appointed the seven elected Deacons and laied their hands upon them though they had the Holie Ghost before that Acts 6.3 yet had no commission to officiate that dutie till then Acts 6.6 So also Barnabas and Saul was separated by command from the Holie Ghost to the particular work to which God had appointed them and they were separated by the imposition of hands fasting and praier and to that work approved So we find that Barnabas and Saul ordain Elders in every Citie at Lystra Iconium and Antioch Acts 14.22 23. till which time we read not of the word Elders nor of ordination which power of ordination so far as I see was ever kept in the hands of the Apostles and such whom they made superintendents over many Churches So Paul having made Titus superintendent or Bishop over Creet appointed him to ordain Elders in every Citie Calvin Institu lib. 4. cap. 3. which power I find not given to every inferiour Presbyter nor yet to many of them associated without a superintendent I know some may say that those that sent Barnabas and Saul were not Apostles I answer though none of the twelve yet of the second order namely Apostolicall Prophets such as are spoken of Eph. 4.11 not by foretelling things to come but by expounding the divine oracles Ambrose in 1 Cor 12. who in that time were no lesse than Bishops for we read not of any of the 72 Disciples nor of any other meer Presbyters that ever took upon them imposition of hands and therefore when Philip had converted some people at Samaria the Apostles sent Peter and John to lay their hands on them Acts 8. by which they received the Holie Ghost by an holie consignation Eph. 1.13 not for miraculous operation Mathe. What other difference is there between Bishop and Presbyter Phila. As they were more ancient that by them Presbyters might be ordained so they were of more dignitie and authoritie then any meer Presbyters This dignitie and authoritie the Apostles kept to themselves a while First because as yet the Church was not setled Secondlie because at first few or none were found fit for that office But at last lest equalitie and paritie should breed schisme they set up superintendents or Bishops Hieron in Tit. c. 1. Ep. ad Evagri who did excell other Presbyters both in conferring rewards and also in censuring manners as in Tit. 1.5 he had power to ordain So they had a jurisdiction coactive and corrective transmitted to them from the Apostles as Timothy is bid by St Paul to charge some that they preach at Ephesus no other but sound doctrin 1 Tim. 1.3 and to restrain prophane and vain bablings 2 Tim. 2.16 And Titus is also authorized by S. Paul to put some to silence Tit. 1.11 as well as to rebuke others v. 10. yea to excommunicate some Tit. 3.10 Hieron advers Luciferi By this means faction was prevented which else likelie might have made in time as many schismaticks as Priests some people crying up Paul others Apollos others Cephas 1 Cor. 1.12 The Apostles therefore set up Bishops in divers Cities who were succeeded by others in place and authoritie still above Presbyters Aug. cont Manich. Epi. c. 4. to 6. which succession hath kept people still in the lap of the Church whose prosperity hath much depended upon their power and dignitie And that there hath been a continued succession of them the Ecclesiasticall histories sufficientlie declare And that they have been alwaies in higher dignitie then Presbyters must needs be allowed or else the Apostles left the Church in unwarrantable paritie contrary to Christs example who gave the twelve Apostles an higher title then the 72 Disciples Luke 10. and so did they set others above Presbyters And these we find sometimes called Apostles i. of the second order Gal. 1.19 So James the Lords brother was called an Apostle yet he was none of the twelve and also many other called so 1 Cor. 15.7 which were not of the twelve neither This no doubt was in regard of their precedencie as Epaphroditus was called the messenger or Apostle of the Philippians Phil 2.25 Theod. in 1 Tim. 3. and what is that saith Theodoret but their Bishop namely of that Church The twelve are alwaies in Scripture called the Apostles of Jesus Christ because they had from him their immediate divine mission but others that had only Apostolike ordination they are only called Apostles or Apostles i. Bishops of such Churches as Gal. 1.19 and 2 Cor. 8.23 And this appears further that such Apostles were Bishops because Christ commends the Angell of the Church of Ephesus for trying those that said they were Apostles but were not These that were tried could be none of the twelve for they were all known to that Angell if they were at that time living but it is most like to be some that like Diotrephes sought the preheminence of an Apostolicall Bishop which was above the Presbyters in many things As 1. In imposition of hands or confirmation 2. In ordination 3. In superioritie of
jurisdiction 4. In Ecclesiasticall censure And 5. In giving definitive sentences Mathe. I pray make this plainly appear Phila. 1. For imposition of hands or confirmation we find no Presbyter nor any of the 72 Disciples to take that office upon him alone without the Apostle or Bishop and when they did so they did it rather for approbation of the partie then benediction Therefore though Philip converted the Samaritans and did miracles yet Peter and John were sent to confirm them Act. 8. so did S. Paul at Ephesus Acts 19. which imposition of hands was not alwaies the medium of conveying the gift of tongues and doing miracles but of sanctifying and comforting grace and therefore called a fundamentall point of Christianitie Heb. 6.2 So 2. For ordination we find it still given by the Apostles not by the Disciples therefore Acts 6. when the seven Deacons were chosen the Apostles laid their hands upon them not any other of the Disciples out of whose number they were taken though they were now but only ordained Deacons of the Churches stock Concil Const in Trul. Can. 16. not of the holy mysteries And 3. They had a full jurisdiction over the Church John 20.21 as my Father sent me so send I you Bed l. 3. c. 15. in Lucan This was not said to the 72 Disciples who might well be the first representative Presbyters but to the Apostles Christ spake this from whom both Presbyters and Deacons were to take their order which if any man with the heretick Arrius will deny then he must prove from whence Presbyters derive their order From Christ they cannot he made none of that name if from the Apostles then they must confesse it subordinate to the Apostles order set in the Church or else they must confound Apostles and Presbyters together contrary to St Paul who saith all are not Apostles 1 Cor. 12.29 So 4. In Ecclesiasticall censures the Apostles and Bishops were supreme as may be seen in 1 Cor. 5.3 where by the authority of Paul the incestuous person is to be delivered to Satan This was the Apostolike rod 1 Cor. 4.21 and as the Fathers called it the Bishops sword which no Presbyter did use to handle farther than as it was delegated to him by the Apostle or Bishop to denounce or declare So 5. In giving definitive sentence in any matter of faith we find it still in the Apostle or Bishop as Acts 15.13 after Peter Paul and Barnabas had been heard James not the Apostle but Bishop of Jerusalem being president of that Councill gave definitive sentence in that controversie about circumcising the Gentiles Mathe. But doth this government stand still in force Phila. I know not why it should not being derived from so high an authority as Christ and his Apostles It is true the pride of the Roman Bishop and the idlenesse of some others have caused the people in many places to cast off this government by which the truth hath much suffered and the people have been much distracted by strange forms of government imposed Mathe. Hath God set any certain forms of government for the Church Phila. Yes in all ages For from Adam to the flood the discipline of the Church was domesticall and paternall the most ancient of the family being both Prince and Priest by which two Offices God hath alwaies governed his Church The eldest son alwaies succeeded in his fathers place except for wickednesse he was rejected as Cain Cham and Reuben After the flood God continued it in Shem who was King and Priest thought to be Melchizedeck Next God called Abraham whom Melchisedeck blessed who ruled his family like a Prince and a Priest so did Isaack his son to whom the promised seed was entailed His son Jacob though the younger got the blessing and birth-right He had twelve sons God in them severed these offices Judah had the scepter and seed roiall insured to him Levi had the Priesthood 1 Chron. 5.2 and Joseph had the birth-right And these three never met again in any one but in Jesus Christ Then after Jacob the Church was governed again by the heads and fathers of the twelve tribes though obscurely in Egypt from whence when God had graciously delivered them and made them his peculiar people he severed the tribe of Levi from the rest to wait upon his Altar Yet he made a distinction of Priests and Levites and of Aaron and his sons from the rest of the same tribe by committing to them the charge of the holy things of the Tabernacle Num. 4. v. 15. 19 20 27 33. and by appointing them over the other Levits that came of Gershom Kohah and Merari to command them their severall services And God punished those that rebelled against this order as may be seen in Corah Dathan and Abiram Num. 6.9 10. who accounting that order wherein God had placed them to be a small matter did aspire to the Priests office and so incurred upon themselves the wrath of God Beside among the Levites themselves were three principall heads named by God himselfe as Eliasaph for the Gershonites Num. 3.24 30. Elizaphan for the Kohathites and Zuriel for the Merarites And afterward there were other chiefe fathers of the Levites that directed the rest in their severall courses allorted by David 1 Chron. 23.24 The Priests also were of sundry orders among themselves The first dignity belonged to the High Priest The secondary to him was Ithamar Num. 4.28 33. and his off-spring who commanded the Gershonites and Merarites to their service These were reckoned and called the Princes of the Sanctuary in those things that pertained to God And out of these were chosen by David the twenty four courses to serve in the Temple 1 Chron. 14. together with substitutes under them to assist in their presence or in their absence Luke 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this respect Zacharias is said to be of the course of Abia viz. the eighth course of the twenty four And these in the New Testament are called the chiefe Priests Mat. 2.4 And these also were Elders and Judges in their own Cities 1 Chron. 26. for the execution of Moses Law and sate also with the Elders sometimes of other Cities in judgement for the explication of Moses Law wherein if any thing seemed too hard then it was referred to the counsell of Priests of the Levites and Judges which sate in that place Deut. 17. which the Lord did chuse for the Ark to rest in Mathe. But what is this to the Church Christian Phila. Though it cannot be proved by consequent that the Church Christian is bound to the same manner of government altogether For 1. The tribe of Levi was not subject to any other tribe but true Christian Ministers are though the popish Priests love not to be yoaked by the secular power 2. The politie of the Jewes being contained in the Law of Moses Deut. 21.19 it was necessary the Judges should
be assisted by those that had the most skill in that Law 3. This preeminence followed the same family by inheritance and birth-right so not with us yet the order that God set for some to rule over others is not lightly to be refused since God saw it was the best order rather then to leave them to a generall equality of Priests therefore the Sanhedrim it selfe consisted not of all that would come in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of seventy choice men But it is plain that the Leviticall discipline doth set a form of divers degrees among Ministers by the evident wisedome of God which may justly be imitated by the Christian Churches rather then parity which God never approved Mathe. But Christ used no such way of superiority himselfe nor setled any such as we read of Phila. It is true Christ used none such himselfe for he came to serve and give his life for the world Mat. 20. yet at that time he was head of the Church and was a King to rule a Prophet to teach and a Priest to clense But his Kingdome was not worldly and therefore he would not reign over his Church by his bodily presence So he was the disciples Lord and Master even then John 13. and all power in heaven and earth was his then but he did not challenge it til his resurrection Then he took the Scepter and Kingdome declaratively which he only exerciseth by inward and spirituall power and grace but leaves the externall government to others and keeps the spirituall effectuall and celestiall Kingdome in his own hand which by his spirit in his ordinances he conveieth into the hearts of his people and this Kingdome belongs only to the person of Christ and they that think that any man or corporation of men whether the Pope or the Presbytery succeeds Christ in this Scepter they be highly deceived And for the externall government he left it to the Apostles who had the mind of Christ and they did as I have shewed you They were 1. Greater then others in Christs favour alwaies hearing him 2. In gifts of the spirit far above others Acts 2. and in doing miracles 3. They received their abounding measure immediately from the Holy Ghost others received their measure mediately from their preaching baptizing or imposition of hands They shewed their superiority also by charging 2 Thes 3. commanding to Timothy and Titus ordaining contributions 1 Cor. 16. threatning 2 Cor. 13. so St John doth Diotrephes and their delivering up to Satan they that followed them durst not be so bold though the Pope is Ignat. ad Romanos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Ignatius saith I enjoin nothing to you as Peter and Paul did they were the Apostles of Christ but I the least So in another Ep. ad Trallianos he saith I command not as an Apostle but I keep my selfe within my measure Yet the Apostles after they had trained up men by their doctrines letting them accompany them in their travels they then left some in one place as Timothy at Ephesus Titus at Creet and gave them authority to ordain ministers and govern the Church and therefore they were superiour to others for equals have no power over their equals Mathe. But I find Christ forbidding superiority Mark 10. and the Apostles associating others with them in electing to offices Acts 6. and assembling Councils Acts 15. and imposing hands 1 Tim. 4. and in excommunicating Phila. It is true that upon the two brothers request to be the chief favourites in his Kingdome which they supposed would be an earthly dominion and being rejected the other disciples disdaining them the Lord tels them that they should not use civill jurisdiction over one another as the Gentiles did but he doth not deny degrees or diversity of administrations to them but he thereby instructeth them how to use the authority given of God 2 Cor. 10. not for subversion but edification so that hereby he forbids them compulsive dominion or violent jurisdiction over their brethren but to leave that to the secular power Also to be ready to humble themselves to the meanest and of the lowest degree to win them to the Gospell but that all ministers are by that place proved to be equall I understand not and that because as I have said they used power and authority above others which they would not have done if Christ had forbidden it yet I conceive the Apostles among themselves were of equall authority and towards the brethren they carrried themselves more like fathers than Lords or Masters Now for their associating other with them It is true that many places of Scripture seem to make for it viz. that they had the concurrence of Presbyters and others called a Presbytery in their severall dispensations which will not be found so if well examined For first in the choice of Matthias Acts 1. it is not expressed that the Church intermedled only Peter acquainted the rest that one must be chosen in the room of Judas but whether all the Disciples or the Apostles only named Barnabas and Matthias is not fully expressed for it is said they appointed two and praied and cast lots which actions are most likely to be performed by the Apostles who were led thereto by the spirit of God for certainly an Apostle might not be chosen by men however they might put men in election for it therefore God shewed which he had chosen viz. Matthias and he was accounted with the twelve Apostles I beleeve Peter and the rest might have chosen whom they pleased but then it would have seemed partiality and beside they had not yet the Holy Ghost poured upon them and therefore rather committed the choice to Gods providence Acts 6.2 So the seven Deacons by appointment of the Apostles were chosen by the multitude but approved by the Apostles ver 6. which men were at that time only confirmed in that office of trust to distribute the Churches stock impartially to the Grecists and Hebrew widowes not to teach or baptize and though Philip did so at Samaria yet he did it as an Evangelist not a Deacon so here is not any appearance that these were appointed by such a Presbyterie We grant that the people did use to shew their consent in elections by holding up of hands which was never held mysticall or sacred as imposition of hands and ordination is Socrat. l. 4. c. 30 as appeareth in the peoples choice of Ambrose to be Bishop of Millane who was before Lievetenant of the Province for that he had by good perswasions quieted the tumult that was made by the people about chusing a Bishop After which both the Emperor and they desired the Bishops to lay their hands upon him so that it is evident the people nor lay-Presbyters were associated in ordination or in imposition of hands So Chrysostom one of the Ministers of Antioch was sent for by Arcadius the Emperour to succeed Nectarius Bishop of
and easie absolution Therefore though a Priest hath power to denie the Sacrament upon good grounds yet not to excommunicate from all society in the Church without the authority of his superiour nor was it wont that one should be received again to the Sacrament without the hand of the Superiour and Clergy was laied upon his head Cyp. l. 3. Ep. 16. in token of reconcilement So Bishops were wont to give account to Synods of their excommunicating men Conc. Nic. Can. 5. Concil Sardcens Can. 14. And for absolution of Schismaticks it is true the people have been called together to be satisfied in their repentance not to confirm the sentence but to satisfie their conscience in the absolution and to prevent schisms afterward they observing how the party was stricken with fear and recovered with shame but this was no proofe of a Lay Presbytery Mathe. What was then the Presbytery mentioned by St Paul Phila. It is but once mentioned in all the New Testament as in the 1 of Tim. 4.14 which I have proved to be only spirituall men as Pastours and Teachers called Elders as at Jerusalem fifteen years after Christs ascension were Apostles and Elders Acts 15. So at Antioch were Prophets and Teachers as Barnabas Simeon Lucius Manahen Saul and Mark and others Acts 13. which the Apostles placed in Cities where they had planted the Gospell This was done for the defence of beleevers against seducers that crept into houses and subverted many by teaching things that they ought not for filthy lucres sake 2 Tim. 3. And that those ruling Elders were Lay Judges that Paul speaks of it plainly appeareth to the contrary for the Apostle there speaks of maintenance allowed out of the Church stock which I never heard or read was given to any Lay ruler and certainly if St Paul was loath to have the Church burdened with a widow 1 Tim. 5. so long as her own kindred could maintain her would lesse put the charge of a Lay Judge upon it The Governors in the Apostles times were moderators of dissentions 1 Cor. 6.4 between party and party by their gifts of wisedome discretion and judgement by-which decision of controversies the slander of the Gospell might be prevented in their going to law before Magistrates who were Infidels 1 Cor. 6.1 But beside these I find no Lay rulers to meddle in Ecclesiasticall affairs 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I mean common people called Lay from the Greek word that signifieth people or secular men but only Presbyters i. Priests in a short speaking Beside we find that God hath alwaies governed his Church by Regall Propheticall or Sacerdotall jurisdiction therefore Christ being all these in himselfe governeth his Church so by Magistrates Teachers and Pastors Now the Lay Elder is neither of these for they are no Prophets because they have no charge of his word nor have they Priestly power in regard of sins and Sacraments as Jam. 5.14 15. If any be sick let him send for the Elders of the Church who shall pray and annoint him with oile and his sins shall be forgiven him These Elders were not Lay men but such to whom was committed the gift of healing and absolution Nor have they the Regall power for then the Magistrate must be subject to them not they to him or if they had it can last no longer than when the Magistrate is a Christian So that I see not how Lay Elders should be governors of the Church but they must be Magistrates or Ministers Mathe. If there be no Christian Magistrates must then the Ministers take all the power of government Phila. They may do as was done in the Primitive times when the Church was not protected by the civill sword but rather persecuted Mathe. But what if they grow Hereticks or prove pernicious Phila. Then the whole may avoid the unsound for in such cases the people have power of desertion but not of coercion they may avoid or decline but not punish their Pastors as John 10. my sheep know my voice but strangers they will not follow So Rom. 16. mark them that cause divisions and avoid them for no doubt where the publike State is not Christian Cyp. l. 10. Ep. 4 the people have power to chuse a good Pastor and refuse a bad one Mathe. What Presbytery is that which the ancient Fathers do so often speak of in their writings Phila. First you must know that the Scriptures speak of three degrees in the Church and so do the Catholike Fathers viz. of Deacons Elders or Presbyters and Bishops and when they speak of a Presbytery they mean a company consisting of these as if you read them you shall find in Ignatius Jerom in Tit. 1. Amb. in 1 Tim. 5. Ignat. ad Trallianos Magnes Philad Smyrn Antioch Aug. de civit dei l. 20. c. 9. in Psal 106. Isid Originum lib. 7. Tertul. in Apolog. In his tract of flight in the time of persecution And Aug. speaking of seats of Church Governors shewes plainly that Lay men had not judgement seats in the Church for who governed the Church he tels us in Psal 106. they that sate at the stern as himselfe did Mathe. How came Bishops to be above the Presbyters Phila. Christ made a difference in the degrees of Apostles and disciples so did the Apostles of Bishops and Presbyters for though at first both the Bishop Presbyter and Deacon were all included in the Apostles yet as they found reason to lead them to make Deacons Acts 6.3 and also Presbyters in severall places to keep up the Gospel which they had planted as there were Presbyters at Ephesus Acts 20. and also among the converted Jewes 1 Pet. 5. where St Peter calleth himselfe a fellow Presbyter i. in care and pains not in office and degree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the equality of Presbyters breeding faction among the people they were forced to commit the care of the Church planted to some choice person who might oversee the flock as Pastor of the place and the rest to be his helpers in dispersing the word and advising in the Church government and to these were committed ordination and imposition of hands and the keies not to the Presbyters which the Fathers call Episcopall power This may be seen by Paul's Epistles to Timothy and Titus 1 Tim. 1.2 So c. 5.22 Tit. 1.5 and how they kept the keies to themselves may be collected from the 2 Thes 3. where he bids the Presbyters only note him by a letter that would not obey his words but the use or sparing of the rod he keeps to himselfe 1 Cor. 4. 2 Cor. 12.13 and delivers it to those no doubt whom he made overseers or Bishops like themselves who were also called Bishops Cyp. l. 3. Ep. 9. Amb. in Eph. 4. Epiph. cont Heres lib. 1. haer 27. Hier. in Jac. Theod. in Phil. cap. 1. and exercised the office of Bishops or
away that power from the people and setled in the Governors of the City to propound three two Novella Consti 123. or one orthodox and holy man without partiality and the Bishops were to ordaine him and if in six months this was not done then the Metropolitan might settle one So that we may see that the peoples election was not founded on Gods command but upon the reason of humane government and was subject to the Lawes and Canons of Princes and Priests Dist 61. S. for the rule was that in the choice of Priests the people was not to be followed but taught and therefore their power may be forfeited and transferred to the superiour and therefore if the multitude have a right then the Magistrate much more And we find that election of Bishops by default abuse or petition hath devolved to the Prince being a Christian Therefore lest variance should arise as oftentimes it did about the choice of a Bishop Theodosius the Emperor commanded the Bishops then present with him to settle Proclus in the Episcopal chair before Maximianus successor to Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople was buried Pelagius being chosen Bishop of Rome without the Emperors consent was excused by Gregory Platina in Pelag 2. because the Town was besieged and no messenger could passe to the Emperor Greg. Ep. l. 1. c. 5. Dist 62. S. breviter which Gregory was by the Emperor chosen Bishop of Rome without popular votes The Canon Law in this case hath a good rule viz the people is to present the Clergy to elect the Prince to consent Mathe. How came this to Princes hands at first Phila. There were at first few great Princes Christians and so could have no right in this businesse of electing Bishops 2. Bishops though they had greater authority than Presbyters yet they had no endowment but from the common charity and therefore the people after the Apostles time might justly expect some hand in the choice of them and so they had For Fabianus the nineteenth Bishop of Rome was chosen by their full consent and so they generally had it till after Constantine the Emperour But we read of Theodosius the elder commands the Bishops to give him a catalogue of such whom they thought fit to be made Bishop of Constantinople Sozom. l. 7. They did and the Emperour chose Nectarius one not yet baptized and hardly known yet the Councill though he was neither chosen by Clergy nor people thought it their duty after that he was baptized to pronounce him Bishop of Constantinople And this power in Princes arose sometimes from the desire of the Clergy as when Valentinian willed the Bishops to elect a Bishop of Millane to succeed Auxentius the Synod praied him being wise and religious to chuse one So sometimes by reason of differences in the choice it hath been referred to the Emperour and sometimes in regard of favour the Emperour had shewed to them in recalling them from banishment building Cities and Churches for them and giving them endowments to those Churches whereby the people were the more eased and the Bishops more free in the exercise of their function And this was much like the right of patronage which was alwaies allowed and is still with us here in England But if we search antiquity we shall find Synods allowing this power to Princes viz. that no man shall be ordained Bishop without the King Conc. Aurel. 51. Greg. Turonici hist Fran. The Kings of France kept this power and so have our Kings of England to themselves neither suffering Clergy nor people to meddle in the choice but by roiall assent no not the Pope himselfe Henry the first of England sent the Pope word that he would not lose the investiture of his Churches Mat. Paris in Hen. 1. an 1103 for the losse of his Kingdome And no wonder if Emperours and Kings looked narrowly to this power of which as the Pope did strive to rob them on the one side so did the Presbytery on the other Therefore the Statute of Provisors of benefices Stat. Edw. 3. anno 25. Westmo provides cleerly for the King in electing Bishops or collating Bishopricks And this is no more then was allowed to those that founded Churches and gave maintenance to them viz. to present a Clerk for they gave the Church so did the King Ansegilus legum Franciae lib. 1. cap. 84. Statut. de Marlebride Novella Consti 123. cap. 18. but neither King nor patron did consecrate or ordain nor may any Bishop nor authority refuse such being men of good life and learning if they doe the Plea of Quare impedit lieth against them The same liberty was given of ancient times by the Councill of Toledo an 654. And the Roman Lawes determined the same throughout the Empire by all which you may perceive how Princes had the power of electing Bishops Mathe. But I have heard some holy Fathers and Councils to have been against receiving of Bishops from the Princes Palace Phila. It is true Epist Athan. ad solit vitam agentes Athanasius saith that there is no Canon that a Bishop should be sent out of the Palace But Athanasius speaketh of such as were sent from Constantius the Emperour and placed in the Churches by force of his souldiers which was an invasion of the Churches rites because they had no admission by the Bishops So it is true that the second Councill of Nice alledged a Canon Nic. Syn. 2. Can. 3. that all elections of Bishops Presbyters or Deacons made by the Magistrate are void because a Canon saith that if any Bishop obtaine a Church by the help of the secular magistrate let him be deposed and put from the Lords Table and those that communicate with him But this Councill did not deny power to the Emperor or Prince to nominate but to impose a Bishop by his own command against both the Metropolitan and other Bishops admittance and ordination Nic. Syn. 2. Can. 3. Conc. Paris Can. 8. who should properly admit and ordaine them So the Council of Paris will have no Bishop imposed upon the people with the other Bishops leave viz. the Metropolitan and his Com-provincials for if any such were no man should accept him for Bishop And this was decreed long before in the Apostles Canons saying Can. Apost 30. If any Bishop resting on worldly governors by their help obtain a Church let him be deposed and excommunicated and all that join with him Mathe. How did the Bishops govern the Church Phila. They followed the Apostles rule namely to order their speciall congregations by their own singular power but in a matter wherein the whole Church was interessed they governed by Synods and Councils as the Apostles did also Acts 15. which Councils they at first before there was a Christian Magistrate called by consent among themselves or by the chiefe Bishop among them So there were two Synods summoned in Asia about reformation of the
his Church and shall in the end of the world be given up to God the Father again 1 Cor. 15.25 28. in the mean time he is by dispensation the head and sole monarch of the Church But he hath neverthelesse a government ministeriall not only invisible by his spirit and Angels John 16.7 Heb. 1.14 but a visible ministration by the word and wholesome discipline to the exercise whereof some men are by his appointment delegated for the helping our infirmities and speaking to us in Christs absence 2 Cor. 6.1 And this hath alwaies been done by Bishops and Presbyters Acts 20.28 who by the Holy Ghost were made overseers of the flock not secular men though Princes had ever this externall government in the dispensation of spirituall things committed to them for then how was the Church ruled for 300 years after Christ till the daies of Constantine yet the secular power is to govern men as men but the ministers only governs them as Christians and therefore in this case Princes themselves have not refused subjection to this ministeriall government of Christ as the Emperour Theodosius to St Ambrose Bishop of Millane Theod. lib. 5. cap. 17. Nor have any dared to usurp their office without some exemplary punishment as Uzzah and Uzziah till these latter times 2 Sam. 6.7 wherein any tradesman dare take upon him the office of a minister and a seutor to be a soule member Beside if this ministeriall government were committed to secular powers then they might give the Sacrament and a woman if a Prince might preach too notwithstanding St Paul 1 Cor. 14.34 But we find Jehosaphat to distinguish the civill power 2 Chro. 19.5.8 from the ecclesiastick ministry in the Old Testament and surely the Church of the New Testament was not left to confusion in government 1 Cor. 14.40 Therefore the ancient Fathers have reproved even Emperors Amb. Ep 33. de Valentin Imper. Athanas Ep. ad agintes vitam solit when they took upon them to meddle with things divine which was no part of their administration for though God had committed to them the Empire yet to the minister the sacred things the mysteries whereof they are to teach not to be taught yet religious Magistrats are to rule over ministers by their civill power to which ministers are to subject themselves yea they may and ought to correct negligence in the practise of religion and vice which is a scandall to religion yea and heresies blasphemies and sacriledge proved to be so by Ecclesiasticall judgement but not to define points of faith nor to exercise ministeriall offices It is true that Moses Eli and Samuel and others did exercise both offices many times yet we cannot argue from an extraordinary action in a state not fully setled that it should be so in a setled Church and State for by the same reason a Priest may act the office of a Prince or a Judge at any time as did Moses Eli and Samuel But we find when the Priesthood was setled that Moses then medled not with Aarons businesse and Eli and Samuel were Judges by an extraordinary call in a corrupted State but ordinarily it was otherwise So in the New Testaments Church holy things were alwaies ordinarily and ordinately administred by Bishops and Presbyters Eph. 4.11 12. to whom those of the Church were to submit themselves Heb. 13.17 Nor was the Church governed by any one man but by them Acts 15.6 no not by Peter alone though he was in that Councill and the ancient Fathers decline that sole definitive judicature Cypr. lib. 31 Epi. 19. ad Cletum Amb. in 1 Tim. 1. Hier. in Epi. 1. ad Tur. which the Pope hath challenged to himselfe St Cyprian durst not do so and St Ambrose saith that first the Synagoue and afterward the Elders of the Church was to be consulted and without them nothing was to be done and St Jerom saith that till by the instinct of the devill contentions arose in the Church it was governed by the counsell of ministers Nor was the government of it democraticall or in the power of the people for then they must have this power from themselves or from God it cannot be from themselves for this power is not by right of nature or Nations but is supernaturall and of divine right nor have they it from God for no Scripture sets it forth but therein they are called the flock which are to be fed not to govern or chuse their Shepherds Yet it is true they were present at the ordination of Matthias Acts 1. and the seven Deacons Acts 6. but they only named or designed them but ordained them not however such a particular fact at first proveth not that it must be so alwaies no more then because the first Kings were chosen by the people therefore they must be so alwaies So that it seems to me that the Church militant is neither democraticall as governed by the people nor monarchicall by any one man but aristocraticall that is governed by some chiefe heads of the ministry Therefore the Pope can derive no such power from Peter as to be the head of the Church for Peter was never so constituted by Christ nor was ever so acknowledged by the rest of the Apostles for then they would never have contended who should be chiefe as they did Luke 22.24 Christ is only the head who is the head stone and the foundation of it Mat. 16.18 19 for though our Saviour said to Peter thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church yet he called him only Peter Aug. retract lib. 1. cap. 22. Cypr. lib. de unit eccles not Petra the rock for that was Christ for all the Apostles were endued with the same power which Peter had John 20.22 when Christ said to them receive the Holy Ghost whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted Nor can the Pope challenge succession from Peter who was Bishop of Antioch not of Rome as some write But the Scripture saith that the Jewes were especially Peters charge Gal. 2.7 who were all banished from Rome by Claudius Acts 18.2 and so Peter had but little to do there or if he were Bishop there yet the Pope cannot be his successor properly Amb. de incarn cap. 5. if he succeed him not in faith and doctrine for faith is the Churches foundation much lesse can he pretend to be Christs Vicar any more then any other Bishop who may be said to be vice Christi in the stead of Christ to wooe men to be reconciled to God Conc. Nic. can 6. Cypr. Ep. ad Papas 41.58 when he was at the best he was allowed to be but one of the Patriarchs nor called by the ancient Fathers but only brother colleague or fellow Bishop But had they taken him for Christs Vicar or the head of the Church they would have given him other titles than they did Pius 2. Ep. 301. as might become one of so high degree
which we attaine so great honour that those Angels that never sinned Heb. 1.14 are yet made our servants to minister to us And the rather we should endeavour to know him because now he may be known though in former time he hid himselfe yet now he hath revealed himselfe not only by his attributes in Scripture but also in his Son Heb. 1.2 by whom we may apprehend him by operations in himselfe and toward us Mathe. What are the operations of God in himselfe Phila. They be such as concern the three persons among themselves in relation one to the other as the Father begetting the Son eternally Opera ad intra or divisa the Son giving from the Father procession to the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost receiving this proceeding and returning the glory thereof to the Father and the Son so glorifying themselves in themselves This operation never had beginning nor never shall have ending because God can never cease to be what he is in essence nor as he is in subsistence Now these operations distinguisheth one person from another because in these what the one doth the other doth not The Father is not begotten but the Son and the Holy Ghost proceeds from both for Christ sends him from the Father John 1â— 5 John 15.26 And this is part of that glory which Christ saith he had with the Father before the world was But beside this God may be said to have other operations in himselfe Opera ad extra or indivisa which are common to all the three persons And these are said to be either internall or externall The internall are such as his praescience and predestination Interna by which he decrees all things to their proper ends and man also and this is an operation wherein the whole Trinity hath an equall hand wherein is contained the whole counsell of God 2 Tim. 2.19 which is the firm foundation on which every thing depends and by which he knoweth among men who are his And by this determinable counsell Christ was delivered into the hand of wicked men and men are predestinated to the adoption of children in Christ Jesus according to his will and so by him we obtaine an inheritance Acts 2.23 Eph. 1.5 being predestinate according to his purpose Eph. 1.11 who worketh all things after the counsell of his own will And so he hath saved us and called us to an holy calling not according to our works but his purpose and grace which was provided for us in Christ 2 Tim. 1.9 before the world began In whom those that he foreknew Rom. 8.29 them he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son which are called elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father 1 Pet. 1.2 By which we may perceive that God was never sedent nor cessant before he made this world but had both his personall and internall operations by which also he did in time produce his externall works of creation and providence Mathe. How is predestination to be understood rightly Phila. 1. Predestination and election are much of one likenesse only election argueth that God chuseth one and not another and predestination argueth that God ordains some to glory and passeth by others though all taken out of the same nature and lump and though both these are in the divine mind at once yet election relates more to person and predestination more to the means by which those persons should be made happy For predestination is a decree of God Mat. 24.24 causing in time such effectuall grace in those that are elected that it will infallibly bring them to glory and therefore it is said that the elect are not to be seduced for it is Gods pleasure to give them the Kingdome Luke 12.32 who hath chosen them in Christ before the world that they should be unblameable before him 2. You must know that predestination looks upon all men in the same condition as Israels father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite even of those Nations whom God cast out of Canaan But that in predestination there is such grace prepared that makes the elect become both holy and happy 3. You are to conceive neverthelesse that this grace prepared for the elect doth not impose any necessity or violent constraint upon their wils Abul in 3. Reg. c. 12. Cant. 1.4 Aug. de lib. arbit but causeth a free endeavour to vertue by a sweet perswasion of the heart to make Gods will ours who makes us by his divine motion of unwilling man to become willing Nor doth Gods passing by others called reprobation or not electing exclude such from all possible means of happinesse but it permits them by the freedome of their own will to neglect or abuse the means which is the just cause of their damnation Hos 13 9. for mans perdition is of himselfe God destinates none to sin but to punishment for sin and therefore predestination is not in Scripture applied to the reprobate because predestination in Gods is of the means i. grace and the end i. glory But reprobation is of the end i. punishment not of the means i. sin for predestination doth direct a man to that which by nature he cannot attain but reprobation destinates no man to aim at sin to which nature of it selfe is too prone when God passeth by it in his election but only preordains men to punishment deserved by sin So that as predestination necessitates no man to good works so Gods not predestinating some doth not necessitate anothers will to evill works no more then a Kings chusing one for his favorite doth necessitate him to do vertuous actions against his will nor another to be traiterous with his will For the decrees of God takes not away the liberty of mans will Mathe. But surely as predestination causeth salvation so Gods preterition or rejection of men causeth their damnation Phila. Wicked men are not damned because they are not predestinated but because they live and die in sin For rejection in God is only a deniall of election which may stand with a possibility of avoiding sin and damnation So all men in Adam were not elected yet all men in Adam had a certain power to stand so that as predestination is not a bare ordination of a man to eternall life by such a sufficient means as makes the event possible but it provides to make the means efficacious So reprobation excludes no man not elected from all means of salvation necesarily but permits them to be lead by their own will so that predestination of some 2 Tim. 2.19 doth not damn others by necessity of consequence but in the infallibility of Gods prescience as Joseph did foresee the seven years famine but did not cause it Mathe. But why doth God looking on all in the same condition predestinate one and not another unlesse it be out of some foresight of ones vertue and
superscription Jesus that Nazarene that King of the Jewes God would not it should be altered being a plain affirmation of his glory which otherwise Pilate might possibly have done as well as to crucifie him at their importunity Now in that God doth thus acknowledge his name Jesus upon the Crosse he thereby testified that he accepted him for our Saviour as Jesus signifieth Mat. 1.22 and will not deny those that beleeve on him yea God exalts him in that name which the Jewes despised so that he will honour those whom the world reproacheth yea he will have him now known to be that King his first born higher then the Kings of the earth and at this time of his disgrace too to shew his Kingdome stands not in outward observation nor is his roialty lost by outward abasements for even now like a King he paied the blood-roiall-ransome for his elect even among the Jewes themselves of whose repenting people he was King by whose power they were converted Acts 2. This title was written in the three generall known languages to shew that every tongue should confesse to his glory of Jesus Phil. 3.11 when the Gospell should be preached to the nations This title Pilate would not alter in one tittle to shew that we should not lose one jot of the faith of Christ and indeed whosoever doth it or suffers it to be done by Hereticks or Sectaries are worse then Pilate himselfe Again God honoured him by making nature suffer an eclipse of darknesse as if to shew the Sun of righteousnesse did now set and that the Jewes should be left in blindnesse and all others that did not beleeve in him Also that nature abhorred the fact and that God hereby did threaten the sins of men as Joel 2.10 and that he that now suffered was more then a man for whose sake such a miracle was wrought Next he was glorified by one of the malefactors conversion and confession which shewed Christs power and mercy and justice his power that he did and could work on him in the midst of his anguish his mercy that he would save one at the last gasp that none may despaire and his justice that he would save but one that none might presume upon late repentance Lastly he was glorified by the vaile of the most holy place rending of it selfe which shewed that God did now abhor the Jewes Temple and dissolve their religious rites and utterly rejected them for rejecting Christ his Son And that now we have free accesse to the mercy seat Heb. 4.16 Aequaliter pater arca calestis Helv. Yea heaven is set open to us which before was shut against sinners of Jewes and Gentiles but now open to both Mathe. But what necessiâ—y uas there of Christs death Phila. First to satisfie Gods justice who determined death to be the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 Christ therefore being mans surety Rom. 8.3 and taking on him the similitude of our sinfull flesh God condemns sin in his flesh by putting him to death and satisfieth his justice for all the elect by one who though he was but one yet being both God and Man his death is of infinite price to make satisfaction to Gods infinite justice who had told the first Adam that if he eat of the forbidden fruit he should die that day And that day he became mortall Rom. 5.12 for then death began to seize upon him and all his posterity But Christ comming in Adams stopped the issue of spirituall death by the merit of his death And this he did also to fulfill the prophecies of himself Esa 63.7 that he should be lead as a sheep to the slaughter as also to ratifie the New Testament which was as his last will whereby he grants by covenant with God all the blessed Legacies of spirituall and eternall happinesse to his Church Heb. 9.15 which Testament is of no force without the death of the Testator Also that he might destroy the power that death and the devill had over us Heb. 2.14 even to bring us under eternall death which death though he never suffered himself yet prevents it in us by the worthinesse of his person suffering externall death for us that beleeve upon his precious death which is of more value for one houre then the eternall death of all men in the world And so by this means he hath given us an antidote against the reigning power of sin that it shall not have dominion over us Rom. 6.14 but that by the vertue of his death we might die to sin Rom. 6.2 and that he might purchase life for the world of his elect who by the doctrine of his death receive the seed of eternall life and become the seed of Christ Esa 53.10 Mathe. But how did Christ die in his natures or in his person Phila. Herein you must beware what you conceive for if you think he died in both natures divine and humane or in his whole person as God and man you erre from the faith and prophane his divinity therefore you are to beleeve that though the flesh of Christ only died in respect of the nature that died yet this death having relation to the eternall word by union the Lord of life and glory may be said relatively to suffer in which respect his blood is called the blood of God Acts 20.28 Therefore though death made a separation of his humane soule from his humane body yet both ever subsisted in the divine nature firmly united For if there had been a new manner of subsisting then Christ must be conceived to have two persons as well as two natures Mathe. How shall I reconcile St Paul who saith Christ was slain towards the end of the world Heb. 9.26 and St John saith he was slaine from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 Phila. He was actually slain toward the end of the world namely in the year of the world Scalig. 3982. and in the 34. year of his age and on Friday the fifth day of our week which that year was the fifteenth day of the Jewes month called Nisan which that year was the seventh day of our April as some account yea at the ninth hour of that day the time of the evening sacrifice Mat. 27.46 But he was flain from the beginning of the world in Gods determination Gen. 3.15 for all that beleeved on him to come to whom his death proved as efficacious as the composition of a surety doth enlarge a debter out of prison though the debt be not paied a long time after Thus Christ was slain from the beginning in type of Abel slain by Cain and in all the sacrifices offered for sin which were as evidences to the faithfull of things not then seen Mathe. But the Evangelists take notice of many occurrences in his death of which I can find no great reason nor mystery infolded as that no bone of him was broken and that his side was pierced and the like Phila.
infernall sorrowes as the innocent surety of our salvation was capable of which no mention was made in the Creed but only by this Article or that by the efficacy of his death he did pierce into hell i. wheresoever the cursed spirits have their residence despoiling them of their power and confirm their damnation and to signifie the deliverance of his people from their captivity Ephes 4.8 And it seems to me that David intended this sense Psal 16.10 thou wilt not leave my soule in hell i. in sorrow and anguish nor suffer my body to know corruption All which should work in us sorrow for sin which put Christ to so much and make us to descend in all humility under the hand of God as he did that with him we be exalted in due time Also to shun despair since God can bring us from the sorrow of hell it selfe as he did our blessed Saviour Mathe. But I pray tell me the benefits obtained by his resurrection Phila. It is said Phil. 2.9 that for his sufferings God hath highly exalted him so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confesse that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father Now this exaltation consisteth 1. In his Resurrection 2. In his ascension 3. In his session at the right hand of God 4. In the outward and inward adoration of the intellectuall and rationall creature 5. In his comming to judge the world Mathe. Foure of these I agree to but the bowing at his name I doubt of as I doe also of many other gestures which have been used in the Church assemblies Phila. I know this outward gesture hath been much controverted But when I consider that God alloweth of outward visible as well as of the invisible worship and that St Paul saith we must glorifie God in our bodies as well as in our spirits and that this posture of bowing the knee is founded upon the glory of God in Christ Phil. 2.10 It may be practised by Christians yea Chrysost ad popu Antioch hom 61. and ought to be at certain times of devotion as a token of the same and to testifie our submission to Jesus Christ whom God hath so highly exalted and assigned him this worship as a part of his reward for suffering Theodo in Phil. 2. that by our humility he may be exalted who was exalted for his humility even to have him honoured in his name when absent in reference to his person I know that many objections are made against it As first that all things that are here spoken of have not knees as Angels below and above I answer nor have they tongues therefore shall not they confesse him The meaning then is that all in their severall manner shall willingly or unwillingly be subject to Christ whom God hath exalted by manifesting him to be the eternall son of God So that as we that have knees are to bowe them to the person that owns that name Jesus so shall all others do first or last willingly or forcibly to the same person and his power For the bowing to the name as a word or at the naming thereof alwaies I do not understand the text intends it but that Christians in old time did use to uncover their heads at divine service when this name was pronounced in signe that they did acknowledge his deity Zanc. in Phil. c. 2. against the blasphemy of the Jewes and Arrians who would not acknowledg his Godhead is plainly to be found Hiero. in Isa 45.23 and that they bowed the knee also which the Jew in pride would not doe which in time did degenerate to superstition Yet sure as it may be superstitiously used so it may be irreligiously neglected since that Christ hath said he that honoreth the Son honoreth the Father and that he will have all men worship the Son as they worship the Father and that God hath included his own name in Jesus I am Isa 43.11 and beside me there is no Saviour and therefore being Jesus the Savior he must be Jehovah too our righteousnesse Jer. 23.6 Upon this ground I beleeve our Church hath injoined this gesture as may be seen in the 52. injunction of Queen Elizabeth and in the eighteenth Canon But antiquity is antiquated and the Church authority disalowed and so Gods worship disanulled Mathe. Now I pray declare the manner and the benefits we have by his Resurrection and Ascension and his session in heaven and his comming to judgement Phila. First ye are to know that only Christs body can properly be said to rise because that only died although the soule and it were never disunited from the person of the Son of God though the soule was divided in death from the body of which rising there was testimony enough both of Angels and men The time of his rising was the third day neither sooner nor later And that first to fulfill both his type of Isaac who was taken alive from the altar the third day after he was destined for death Gen. 22.4 which receiving was in a figure Heb. 11.19 i. of Christs resurrection and also of that prophecie Hos 6.2 the third day he will raise us for by him we shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 Againe he rose this day as it were to give a new beginning to the world He died the day of the week that Adam was created and rose the first day of the week on which God began the world by which he enlightned Heaven and Earth with the grace and joy of his resurrection Also he rose with the sun to shew that he was the true Sun of righteousnesse that was to rise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 to enlighten the new Christian world after so long a night of dark legall shadowes spoken of Cant. 2.17 and Rom. 13.12 bringing life and immortality to light through the Gospell 2 Tim. 1.10 2 Tim. 1.10 The manner of his rising was admirable As first by his owne power John 2.19 dissolve this temple meaning the temple of his body and I will raise it up again the third day So John 10.18 I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up againe this he did as he was God He did it by himselfe from the Father through the eternall spirit Again he rose by such a way as never any man did before namely as the Prince of life as the first born of the dead as the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. He never saw corruption nor ever was to die any more as Lazarus and others He rose in the same body that was buried Luke 24.39 and in despight of his keeper as the Church shall do in despight of all opposers and with an earthquake to shew how he will shake the world first by the power of his word preached and next by the power of his last
comming to judgement Mathe. What benefits have we by his resurrection Phila. Surely very many as first the confirmation of our faith in Christ that he was the Son of God because he raised himselfe from the dead and that we are justified from our sins or else why is our surety let out of the prison of his grave but that Gods justice is fully satisfied Rom. 4. and the last verse Again it causeth a twofold resurrection in us first from sin to a new life of grace Rom. 6.4 Secondly of our bodies from the grave 1 Thes 4.14 so it gives us an hope of heavenly inheritance 1 Pet. 1.3 4. The reason whereof is because Christ sustained our persons in himselfe and so we have our part both in his death and resurrection Rom. 8.11 Therefore this doctrine ought ever to be remembred 2 Tim. 2.8 not only in our head but in our life by standing up from the dead Eph. 5.14 lest if we have no part in the first resurrection we lose also our part in the second And remembred it ought to be the rather because it may comfort against the most sad afflictions Esa 26.19 from whence Christ can raise us So against the fear of Gods wrath because it is fully satisfied from which baptism a type of the ark and of our rising with Christ above the deluge of Gods justice doth now save us 1 Pet. 3.21 and against the power of death Rom. 8.11 which by vertue hereof is so subdued that it shall not alwaies suppresse us Mathe. For what end or purpose did Christ ascend into heaven Phila. To fulfill what was foreshewed in legall types and shadowes of him As the high Priest of the Jewes entring into the most holy place Heb. 7.26 which was a type of heaven as he himselfe was of Christ So to shew that he fulfilled all things on earth which concerned our redemption and reconciliation and therefore now ascended in triumph leading captivity captive as Abraham did the forces of the four Kings Psal 68.18 and as Barack did the Midianites and so enter into his glory prepared Iohn 17.5 through the gates of heaven intimated Psal 24.7 and so demonstrate that Angels and principalities and powers were made subject to him 1 Pet. 3.22 Also that in Heaven he might make intercession for us Heb. 9.24 who yet are in this world as in the outward court of the most holy place where the Jewes stood when the High Priest entred to make an attonement for them he being sprinkled with blood having the holy censer with sweet incense in his hand by which means he hath opened a way for us into heaven Heb. 10.10 as he had promised and now performed it John 14.2 3 Eph. 2.6 by carrying our flesh into heaven as a pledge that we should all follow that beleeve in him also that we might place our mind where our treasure is and not misplace them on earthly things Col. 3.1 nor to dream of his bodily presence in this world as if we would know him still after the flesh This doctrine of Christs ascension should make us to forsake sin and satan not be subject to that slave which Christ hath led captive So to be willing to die that we may go to the place which Christ hath entred for us and therefore not to mourn immoderately for the dead in Christ who are seized of heaven already Mathe. What is meant by Christs sitting on Gods right hand for I conceive not God to have either right or left hand nor how Christ is tied to any such posture Phila. You are to understand that sitting so importeth in Scripture abiding or habitations as Luke 24.49 sometime judiciary power as Solomon was said to sit on the throne of his Father though he was not alwaies tied to that posture 1 Kin. 2.30 So by right hand is understood power and help and glory Psal 44.3 Sometimes therefore as man is said to be helped by Gods power and protected when he standeth on his right hand Psal 16.8 or holdeth by his right hand Psal 73.23 So one is exalted when one is said to be on Christs right hand Psal 45.29 which is spoken of the Church So Christ by his sitting is understood to rest in felicity from all his labor and pain and on Gods right hand having dignity imperiall and power judiciall so that we are to understand by his sitting on Gods right hand that he doth not only rest in joy and felicity but hath obtained the highest dignity above all men and Angels Eph. 1.28 and that he is copartner with his father in his Kingdome and therefore he hath power over all things in heaven and in earth Mat. 28.18 not that God the Father ceaseth to rule but that he pleaseth to administer his Kingdome by his Son yet he also makes Christs enemies his footstool Psal 110.1 till which time Christ must reign by and in the Kingdome of grace 1 Cor. 15. but then he shall deliver up this Kingdome to God the Father i. the rule which he exerciseth now by Gospell means shal cease when his enemies are subdued and the elect fully gathered and glorified not that his Kingdome by which he is equall with God shall cease for of that his Kingdome shall be no end but of that Kingdome by which he governeth by means and holy methods of Word and Sacraments and mysteries of godlinesse Now then who can be ashamed of Christs service who is so great a potentate but rather to submit to his government with all reverence and conscience of his greatnesse and power that so we may shew our selves worthy subjects and servants to him lest we cause that blessed name to be blasphemed by which we are called And who can choose but trust in him for provision in all wants and deliverance in all temptations of satan or any adversity since our Saviour hath an universall power by sitting at the right hand of God Mathe. Whether is this the uttermost degree of Christs honor and exaltation Phila. No for he shall come from thence to judge the world In which we are to consider many things for the terror of some and the comfort of others Mathe. What need or why must there be a judgement day Phila. First for the confusion of wicked men who have mocked at it 2 Pet. 3.3 whom he confutes in that chapter first of being ignorant that the world was made by the Word of God and that he destroied once by water Gen. 7.11 in the 600. year of Noahs life and that the world which is now is reserved for fire unto the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men foretold by Isa 66.15 Dan. 7.10 Mal. 4.1 and threatning a fire that shall consume the wicked both root and branch Secondly he shewes the reason why God deferreth it not that he is slack in his purpose but because he would not have them all to perish by a sudden surprize but that Jew and Gentile
fourth succeeds Pope Joan or John the eight born in Mentz went to Athens in mans apparell came to Rome and was to the Popedome advanced proved with child delivered as she was going to the Church of Lateran of whom Anastasius a Chronologer who lived about this time maketh no mention for shame of the fact but passed it Benedict the third honoured much the funerals of the Clergy with his own presence and desired the Bishops might by the whole Clergie Nicolaus the first succeeds him who suffered the Emperour Ludovicus the second to alight and lead his horse by the bridle a full mile He permitted divorces without consent of parties as the Anabaptists do and or dained that the Clergy should not be subject to civill Magistrates seats of Judicature And that none should receive the Sacrament from a married Clergy man and that the Emperour should not be present at Ecclesiasticall meetings unlesse some point of faith were to be handled and the common service of the Church to be in Latine in all Churches but dispensed with Sclavonia and Polonia He added to the Liturgie the Hymn of Glory be to God on high Hadrian the second succeeds who proudly commanded the King of France Carolus Calvus to let Hircmanus Bishop of Laudunum to appeale to Rome after his condemnation by a Councill in France but he refused However John the ninth his successor crowned him Emperor and after him Balbus and then Crassus all three named Charls Hadrian the third ordained that the Clergy and people of Rome should chuse their Pope without attendance upon the Emperours allowance or leave And that after the death of Carolus Crassus who died without succession that the imperiall title and government of Italy should belong to an Italian Prince which bred great contention and debate among the Princes and much trouble to the Chair of Rome every Prince striving to advance him to it that was most friend to himselfe Stephanus the fifth followed who ordained that whatsoever the Church of Rome appointed was to be perpetually observed Pormosus succeeds him who crowned the Emperour Arnulphus and then Boniface the sixt was next Then Stephanus the sixt who offered great violence to the dead body of Formosus cutting off his fingers and disanulling his ordination yea and his crowning the Emperour Arnulphus and set up Albertus Marquesse of Tuscia in his stead Now Antichrist appears more then ever before by putting down and setting up Emperours Romanus succeeds him and nuls the decrees of Stephanus Theodorus succeeds him and alloweth them againe John the tenth nuls the decrees of Stephanus the sixt and alloweth them of Formosus How were these men led infallibly by the spirit Sergius the third who again took up the body of Formosus after eight yeers and beheaded it He loved Marozia and on her begot a son who was afterward made Pope and called Iohn the twelfth Pope Iohn the thirteenth committing adultery was slain by the womans husband but first deposed by a Councill called by Otho the first Emperour Leo the eighth succeeds who finding and being weary of the sedition and insolence of the Roman people resigned the chusing of Popes to the Emperour Iohn the fourteenth succeeds who first brought in baptizing of bels and he called the great bell of the Church of Lateran by his own name Iohn Then Gregory the fifth who after much trouble by the advice of the Emperour O ho the third The seven Electors of the Empire appointed made a constitution of seven Electors to chuse the Emperour for the time to come which continueth still namely the Bishops of Mentz Colen and Tryer the Count Palatine the Duke of Saxony and the Marquesse of Brandenburgh and in case of difference the King of Bohemia Next followed Sylvester the second Platina a great scholler but a Magician He enquired of the devill how long he should live Pope he did answer him till he said masse at Ierusalem which fell out at a Chappell so called at Rome where this Pope saying masse in Lent was stricken with a feaver of which he died Mathe. But yet we hear of no great persecutions Phila. True Why no great persecution yet by the Pope because yet the Church was of one language and none stands up against the corrupt tenets of Rome Mathe. Why do you then reckon up this bedroll of Popes Phila. Because you may know how and by whom corruption crept in which corruption being contradicted by some whom God enlightned then began persecutions Mathe. I pray now go on Phila. I have not nor shall trouble you with all of them but with some who have acted things very remarkable Therefore after Sylvester the second and divers other Popes Leo the ninth called a Councill against Berengarius who denied transubstantiation Nicolaus the second followed who forced by a Councill Berengarius to recant who did yet afterward wrote against transubstantiation He was poisoned as other Popes before him Alexander the second followed who denied to rule as Pope without the Emperours consent For which he was beaten in a chamber by Hildebrand in his pontificials and cast into prison where he died Hildebrand called Gregorius the seventh succeeds He called the marrigâ—e of Priests the heresie of the Nicolaitans and receiving Ecclesiasticall preferments and offices from Lay men though Princes symony About this time William the Conquerour came into England This was brought to passe by the thunder of excommunications which made the Emperour Henry the fourth travell to Rome in the hard winter to get absolution from the Popes curse Vrbanus the second excited Princes to war against the Turks who had got Jerusalem This he did in a Councill held at Cleremount in France and by divers Princes recovered it for a while But this war made Christian Princes so weak both in power and purse that the Pope more easily brought them all under his girdle Paschalis the second succeeds him who at the Church of Lateran had a scepter put into his hand and girded with a girdle having seven seals and keies hanging at it signifying his power of binding and loosing shutting and opening sealing and resigning and judging He excommunicated Henry the fourth the Emperour and excites his son Henry the fifth against him He took up the corps of Henry the fourth and kept it above ground five yeers Well did the Bishop of Florence write in this Popes time that Antichrist was born and manifested to the world and therefore he was silenced by the Councill of Florence which this Pope called and his book burnt You see how persecutions began now upon Emperours and Bishops This Pope would not crown Henry the fifth Emperour unlesse he would give over his right of investment of Bishops by the staffe and ring but the Emperor laid hold of him and his Cardinals and compelled him to do it and the Pope solemnly divided the holy Host between him and the Emperour and wished that he might be divided from the Kingdom of
Boniface the third had got the title of universall Bishop they began to break out into strange opinions and manners as that the Chair of Rome was infallible as you see in Pope Agatho his decree and excommunicating Emperours and suffering them to kisse his feet as did Pope Constantine the first and others Condemning Priests marriage and setting up the the service of the Church in Latine as did Nicolaus the first and that whatsoever the Church of Rome appointed should be perpetually observed as did Stephanus the fifth and setting up the Masse Purgatory Pilgrimages adoration of images invocation of Saints and transubstantiation and setting themselves above generall Councils in determinations of faith so that no decree or Canon could passe without the Popes approbation They getting thus aloft suppressed all that withstood their tenets From hence it came that the true Religion became eclipsed yet some God raised up in every age who wrote against both their pride and errors though by reason of the over ruling power of the Church of Rome they could not so plainly appear as in the time of Luther and afterwards For Basilius Magnus writes to the Bishops of the West that if they held themselves to be the head yet they could not say to the feet Bas transmar Ep. 77. About the 4th century of years I have no need of you which plainly reproved the Popes usurping supremacy as well as do the Protestants Gregory Nyssâ—n wrote against Pilgrimages to Jerusalem Mount Olivet and Bethelem saying that Pilgrimages from carnall lusts to the righteousnesse of God is acceptable to him Hist Magd. cent 4. cap. 10. and not pilgrimages from Cappadocia to Palestina and that no rewards will be given in the life to come but for such things which are done by the command of God so the Protestants hold also So Hilarius the Bishop of Arls opposed Leo Bishop of Rome by acknowledging that the Bishop of Rome had no dominion over the Churches of France For which though they accused him as a usurper yet he nothing regarded the Popes curses but went to Rome Leo ad Gal. Epis Ep. 77. 89. and to the Popes face maintained that Christ did not appoint Peter to be head over the rest of the Apostles nor had the Pope from Peter any such power so hold the Protestants So the Councill of Constantinople called by the Emperour Constantinus Copronymus deposed and excommunicated Germanus the Patriarch of that City for allowing the worshipping of images which sin also the Protestants abhor Serenus the Bishop of Marsieles in France brake down all images in the Church of his Diocesse more then 1000. yeers past so the Protestants So Albertus Gallus and Clement and Sampson Scotish men said Hist Magd. cent 8. cap. 10. that the Pope of Rome was the author of lies a disturber of the Christian peace a corrupter and a deceiver of the people and for this suffered bonds and imprisonment in France by the procurement of Pope Zacharias So the Protestants hold So Claudius Thurinensis cast down images and abolished the worshipping of the crosse out of his Diocesse of Thurin by Piedmont and said they might as well worship the Asse upon which Christ did ride and said that he was not to be accounted an Apostolike Bishop that sate in the Apostolike Chair but he that performed the Apostolike Office So think the Protestants Theophilactus Bishop of Bulgaria writ that Antichrist would spring up in the decay of the Roman Empire and called the marriage of Priests honourable and a step to Church government So held St Paul 1 Tim. 3.4 5. So the Protestants hold Berengarius a Deacon at Argiers writ against the popish opinion of transubstantiation or conversion of the bread and wine in the Sacrament into the very body and blood of Christ But he following the opinion of Augustine and Joannes Scotus he was condemned unheard by a Councill called at Rome by Pope Leo the ninth for an heretick Whose opinion the Protestants also do hold Radulphus Patriarch of Antiochia refused to be subject to the Pope of Rome saying that Antiochia was the ancient Chair of St Peter and therefore had a prerogative above Rome So think the Protestants if St Peters being Bishop of a place can give prerogative Arnulphus in his preaching Opus Tripart much reproved the Roman Clergy for their lewd lives of the number of holy daies spent rather in lawlesse pleasures then devotions and against the number of begging Fryers and the unchast behaviour of Church-men He was drowned by them in the night as is reported About this time sprung up Waldus of whom you have heard formerly His opinions be these following 1. That the Scriptures are only to be beleeved in matters of faith and contain all things necessary for faith and manners 2. That Christ is the only Mediator and that Saints are not to be invoked 3. He held traditions not necessary to salvation and denied Purgatory and Masses sung for the dead 4. That constrained fast daies and making difference of meats superfluous holy daies variety of superstitious orders of Priests and Monks Friers and Nuns hallowing of creatures vowes and also pilgrims and humane ceremonies were to be abolished and that no degrees should be received into the Church but Bishops Priests and Deacons 5. They denied the Popes supremacy over other Churches States and Governments 6. That the Church of Rome is spiritual Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and rejected the Popes pardons and allowed the marriages of Priests 7. And that they that hear the true word of God and beleeve it are the true Church 8. And that the Communion was to be eaten and not reserved for shew or worship For which opinions they endured persecutions of Pope Alexander the third who excited all Christian Princes to persecute them with fire and sword all which the Protestants hold for which they also have been persecuted as shall appear Hildebertus also abhorred the pride of Rome and said that Rome if it had no Rulers or at least such as did not violate the faith Bernard Abbot of Claravell held free justification by Christs merits and thought that all Christian people had conspired against Christ and that those were the chiefe persecutors that had the highest places in the Church So thought Protestants Nichetes Bishop of Nicomedia held against Anselmus Bishop of Havelburgh that the Pope was not the principall Bishop and that the power of binding and loosing was not given to Peter but also to all the rest of the Apostles even as they all received graces alike on the day of Pentecost Act 2. So hold the Protestants About 1300. yeers after Christ 1300. true Religion began to be much darkened by schoole disputations by many that followed school disputations and Peter Lombards Sentences as Albertus Magnus Aquinas Alexander de Ales and Scotus called Dunce of the Town in Scotland where he was born but of a most subtile wit But God still stirred
in the time of King Lucius who desired Baptism of Pope Elutherius for himself and his people that he nor any Priest that came with him into the Isle of Thanet Bed l. 1. c. 26. did preach till they had license from the King But it is of courtesie not duty the Pope hath had much regard in England as appeareth in that his Legats and Nuncioes have had here entertainment But this was no more then they had in other places of the world where their usurped authority was rejected So in Asia and Africa This proveth nothing of any right he had in England for though this Realm hath admitted sometimes appeals to Rome yet you shall find that they have been oftner prohibited and the Popes Buls condemned and his excommunications slighted and his decrees rejected and that the King made Lawes and Ecclesiasticall Canons by Parliaments and Synods without the Popes leave As you may see in the daies of King Egbert and Alfred about the appeale of Wilfride Archbishop of York who was the first that ever appealed before the Norman conquest to the Pope and in whose behalfe the Pope sent Nuncioes to England with a Letter or Bull to restore Wilfride to his pluralities of which the King and great Councill of the Kingdome the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Clergy had divested him But they would not yield to the Popes desire to restore Wilfride til he had submitted himselfe and resigned those Monasteries he held which had moved the contention So after the Norman conquest in the reign of Henry the first Pope Paschalis put a new oath upon Archbishops to be taken when they received their Pall which Anselme the Archbishop having taken thought himselfe obliged to maintain the appellations to Rome but King Henry pleaded the fundamentall lawes which forbad any such appeals without the Kings licence and that they were a violation to the Crown and a Law was made that if any should bring the Popes letter or mandate in the Realm Rog. Hoved. in Hen. 2. he should be executed as a Traitor to the King and Kingdome and every one was forbidden appeals to the Pope It is true that Pope Nicolas grants to King Edward the Confessor and his successors that which he stood in no need of namely the protection of all the Churches in England and to make Lawes with the advice of their Bishops and Abbots in his stead for governing the same This was to make the world beleeve in after time that their authority in these things was derived from the Pope Malm. de gest Pontif. Vâ—d Mat. Par. an 1164. For we find that this was alwaies done by the Saxon and Danish Kings before any such Bull was sent from the Pope yea and disposed of Bishopricks without the Pope so did King William and Rufus his son and they counted themselves as Gods Vicar to govern the Church and to correct any wrong done in Ecclesiasticall Courts Acts of Clarendon which course the Kings of England after the Conquest alwaies followed and acted with the advice and assistants of their Parliaments as we may see in the daies of King Henry the second and by the Statutes of Clarendon which prevents popish jurisdiction by forbidding appeals and disposing benefices and Ecclesiasticall dignities Stat. of Carlile 25. of Edw. 1. But in the reigne of King Edward the first is a notable statute which declares the holy Church of England to be founded in the estate of Prelacy not Papacy and within the Realm of England not without it and by the King and his Peers not by Popes and forreign Bishops and that the Popes encrochments did aim at the ruine of the Church disinheriting of the King and destruction of the Lawes 16. of Ric. 2. c. 5. And in Richard the seconds reign it is set down that the Crown of England hath alwaies been and is free and in no subjection earthly but only to God and to no other and ought not to be submitted to the Pope It is true that King John resigned his Crown to the Pope but that was but done in his distresse he could not do that lawfully wherein the whole Kingdome had the greater share So many Emperours have taken their Crowns from the Pope as you have heard but this hath been done by some of them for greater solemnity and some for fear or out of superstition some to make their party the stronger against their enemies and the Pope hath crowned them but that of right he had any power over the Crown I find none Now for the second Question how Christian Religion came to be corrupted Rom. 1.8 Gild. de exid Conq. Brit. being at first clear as Romes was in its Primitive profession of it 1. It is true that England had a light of the Gospell as it is thought by Joseph of Arimathea and his colony of Christians that came with him to Glassenbury which was in the time of Tiberius the Emperours reign Peter came not to Rome till the second year of Claudius to lay any foundation of a Church there Nor do we find any plain face of a Church in England till King Lucius and his subjects were baptized as you have read by Fugatius and Damianus two Ministers that Elutherius the Bishop of Rome fent to do it at King Lucius his request The Church of Rome continued faithfull 350. yeers after Christ as I have shewed and kept her selfe untainted with heresie and was a covert and protection unto the professors of truth But after the Emperour Constantine and his successors turned Christians Clergy men grew into great favour at Court and so wealth and ease first begate security then covetousnesse then pride next ambition then devising of false tenets to maintain it and superstitions to uphold it then also heresies to mask or depose truth At last getting the title of universall Bishop the Eastern Church falling to decay the world looked on the Pope though not as upon one that should be their superiour in secular matters yet as one that should direct them in doctrines He by subtilty of the Schoolmen and policy and power sowed tares and though he seemed to keep the foundation yet built beside it kept up the truth in unrighteousnesse and delivered to the people by retaile what he pleased shut up the Scriptures and gave them humane traditions Now Princes and Priests being some perswaded of his piety and cozened by his hypocrisie others reverencing of his antiquity and dazeled with his dignity and others being remisse and idle were contented to enjoy the world in quiet and take any Religion that was offered them Thus the world was made dark by Babylons cup and had no feeling of the losse of truth no more then the Pope had except he were touched in his honours and profits But God had pity upon his Church and raised up now and then some to set up his truth as you have see And lastly Luther to oppose the Popes errors and
scabit mutum said that God had revealed to him that Iohn should be King of the world and should destroy the Princes of the world by a mighty army but spare the simple multitude and such as would imbrace righteousnesse and that he should send forth twenty eight Apostles to convert the world to Anabaptisme And Iohn himselfe pretending to awake out of a trance seemed dumb like Zacharias wrote in tables that it was the will of God that twelve men of his naming should govern the City and that a man might marry as many wives as he pleased and he beheaded some that opposed it He himselfe took fifteen and many of these brethren upon this ordinance lay with the hansomest women without marriage or contract He was called King of New Ierusalem and proclaimed King of Zion But his Apostles were executed as seditious persons and he and his Prophet were hanged in iron chains upon the high steeple of St Lambert after Munster was taken 1535. being besieged halfe a year The madnesse of this man was strange for one of his wives pitying the distresse of the City he cut off her head himself in the market place Sleid. 154. And another time at his great feast to which another false Prophet had called Thuscocuvar had excited him as being sent from God he accused a man of treason and cut off his head and returning administred the communion with those bloody hands But for all he took on him the title of a King yet this shewed him a Butcher as the stealing the Churches rich vestments and making them into robes for himselfe argued he had been a Tailor After Iohns death the Anabaptists chose another King Hort. p. 74. who killed his wife in a wood that he might quietly lie with her daughter and killed a poor wench lest she should discover him This man had his house well stored with Church-plate He and his Treasurer were burned After him succeeds Iohn Cordwainer John Cordwainer Cornelius Appleman Ch. Nelles p. 52 55 56. John Wilhelms and then Cornelius Appleman both which were executed at Brussels as the Captains of theeves and committers of sacriledge Then Iohn Wilhelms executed also at Vtrecht He wrote a book in defence of Polygamy and affirmed that to rob the ungodly was no sin and that the land belonged to Jesus Christ and his disciples He had one and twenty wives some mother and daughter and some sisters daughters He was burned It is lamentable to behold these peoples hypocrisie Sleidan Bullinger They pretended nothing at first but holinesse humility and honesty They used no swearing nor obscene speech yet being once got aloft they broke all lawes of humanity and honesty so they would bear no office Hortensius Gastius yet at last would be Kings They said it was unlawfull for a Christian man to bear arms or punish offenders yet they made nothing of murdering many you may read more of them in divers authors Of this sect was David Georgius in Holland who said he was Jesus Christ David Georg and held many other wicked errors He fled out of the Low Countries to Basil and very covertly dispersed his errors but being dead they were revealed and by the Councill of Basil his bones were digged up and burned in detestation of his blasphemies Mathe. What be the common received opinions of these men and your judgement of them Phila. You are to understand that their opinions in divers times and places varied they not holding alwaies the same Anabapt opinions But their opinion first and last are neither fit for Church Commonwealth nor Families First not for the Church for they have affirmed that Christ did not take flesh of the Virgin Mary yet they can shew no other save her and for that the Scriptures prophecie that he should come of a woman Gen. 3. and of Davids line Psal 132.11 and that woman should be a virgin Isaiah the 7. and that her name was Mary saith Luke cap. 1. and yet she could not be his mother if he had not taken flesh of her nor our flesh have any hope of eternall life These are worse Christians then Turks Bulling adver Anab. fol. 6. for they beleeve he was so born but these curse the flesh of the Virgin and so deny Christ to be come in the flesh 2 Ioh. v. 7.2 they say in Moravia that Christ was not true God but only better gifted then other men yet St Iohn saith The Word was God Joh. 1.1 and Christ said he and his Father were one Joh. 10. and he that sees him seeth the Father Iohn 24.9 10. Michael Servetus a Spaniard held the same who was burnt in Geneva And Valentinus Gentilis who called the Creed of Athanasius the Creed of Satanasius he was justly executed at Berne Thirdly they hold we are not saved by faith but by the works of charity and affliction yet Christ saith we obtain eternall life by beleeving on him Iohn 3.16 So Paul Rom. 3.24 28. for afflictions they are either punishments of sin or Gods corrections but no causes of justification or salvation But the blood of Christ only clenseth us from all sin 1 Iohn 1. and by him only we have peace with God Rom. 5.1 And fourthly they deny originall sin because Christ hath taken away the sins of the world but that is the penalty not the being of it So they say that children doing neither good nor evill are under grace and without sin But then how comes death to lay hold on them Rom. 5.14 and cap. 6.23 And therefore fifthly they may well deny baptisme to them if they have no originall sin But Christ said let little children come to me and yet none can tell how they should come but by this Ordinance Sixthly they rebaptize people which is no where commanded in Scripture nor allowed by the Church nor the imperiall lawes which put them to death that did or suffered it to be done Seventhly they expect a Kingdome by some called the fist Monarchy wherein they hope to reign alone and destroy the ungodly This savours of carnall and worldly wisdome for Christs Kingdome is not of this world Iohn 18. but is spirituall so is the meat and drink of it Rom. so are the weapons of it 2 Cor. 10. Nor can they reign alone and kill all the ungodly unlesse they kill themselves too But both must grow together till the harvest Mat. 13. These people do but furbush the old error of the Chiliasts or Millenaries who said the Saints must raign 1000 yeers on the earth before the last judgement who were by the Church condemned above 1000 yeers since Eighthly they say with the old Pelagians that man by his own free will can do all that God hath commanded or else God gave his law in vain nor would he punish delinquents if he had not given them power to do it which is contrary to Scripture for the Law is holy Rom. 7. just and good but we
concluded her worthy of death or a usurper of Judicature if he had authoritatively condemned her he therefore evades it by putting them in mind of their own sins I know some of them do farther object that we read of none in the New Testament that took secular offices upon them yet that will not prove there was none It is sufficient that we read of men in great office called to Christianity and yet do not read that they left their offices for all that but as St Paul adviseth that every man continue in that wherein he was called as the Eunuch Nicodemus Theophilus a great man of Antioch Publius the governor of Malta Sergius Paulus the Deputy of Paphos Erastus the Chamberlaine But if there were none such to be found yet Christ subjecting himself to Caesars tribute and Pilates judgement argueth magistracy lawfull enough To confirm you farther herein you may observe the practice of magistracy and the approbation of the office in the Confessions and Articles of all Christian Churches Mathe. Have these been only the disturbers of the Protestant Religion in England Phila. No I beleeve you hear of many more abroad yet all of them hold somewhat of the Anabaptists opinions or the Papists Mathe. I have heard of Brownists Separatists Arminians Socinians Familists soul-Sleepers Millenaries Levellers Independents Seekers and Shakers of whom I desire to be informed Phila. The Brownists next to the Anabaptists Brownists have much troubled the Church They are called so of one Robert Brown who was School-master of the Free School of St Olaves in Soathwark Vid. Mr Giffords Treause and dreamed like a Donatist of a singular separated Church from the Catholick and imagined he must erect it or separate from the English Church Mr Fox that writ the Martyrologie lookt upon him as one that would set the Church on fire vet he found followers and preached to them in a gravell pit about Islington He departed our of England but returned again and repented and died a member of the Church of England and Parson of a Church in Northampton-shire and if I mistake not was called A-Church and if so then he that would be of no Church died Parson of A-Church But he had poisoned many which proved Separatists not only from the Church of England and all other reformed Churches but even one from another as the two Johnsons did Prophane Schismat p. 60. the younger libelling upon the Elder in print with many opprobries the elder cursed his brother and father with all the curses of Gods book This separation they confirmed with excommunications nor would Francis be reconciled to his father at his death but sent him even to his grave with the curse These in their separation agree with the old Donatists and new Anabaptists in conceiving that they be only the true Church and that the Gospell is preached no where nor by any truly but themselves and therefore will receive the Communion with no other and they that have gifts may preach and that in the Church there ought to be a parity and will not serve God in Churches because they have been defiled with Popery as if the Babylonish garment and the gold of Jericho may not be consecrate to God though it have been to an Idoll since the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof We are by nature worse then any Church can be made yet God accounts us holy when we are dedicated to him St Paul did not think himselfe the worse defiled because he sailed in the ship called Castor and Pollux two of the heathens gods They will not say the Lords Praier nor endure spirituall governors nor allow paiment of tithes though God did and neither Christ nor his Apostles gainsaid it 1 Cor. 11.8 Nor do they love any ancient customes of the Church as Fonts nor Churches themselves which they call steeple houses nor bels nor Organs It may be they would be called together like the Turks by a Crier on the top of their Meschilis or as some Sects have been by a great Horn. Or had rather sing out of tune then be directed to make a comely symphony I have read of a people that love to do the best things in the worst manner Herodot hist as to make their morter with their hands and mould their bread with their feet They are very erroneous about Gods attributes accounting some of them not essentiall as that love is not of the being of God but that the same love is also in us 1 John yet St John saith that God is love Yet are they very uncharitable in not suffering husband and wife to forgive each other a fault of incontinence though willing to live together but will excommunicate the innocent party if the or she do forgive Yet sure God gives such an example Jer. 3.1 in a higher case of mercy in himselfe though he alloweth not that a woman divorced and marrying another should be received again of the first husband but sheweth that he having not divorced the Church of Israel he would receive her again though she had spiritually committed adultery with Idols They be extreme virulent railers upon our Church and all her Rites so you may know their spirit by their tongues and from whence it is fiered They magnifie their own Sect as Simon Magus was by the Samaritans to be the great power of God Proph. Schism p. 76. but I leave them to canvasse one another as Mr John doth Mr Robinson and and his Deacon whom he cals Noddies Nabalites Doegs Pharisees Shimeites c. They also pretend Scripture for that which Scripture never allowed as to have ordination and excommunication by the multitude that the people should chuse their Pastor that a Pastor and a Doctor distinct in office should belong to every Assembly They avoid our Congregations as prophane Proph. Schism of the Brownists p. 20. p. 27 30.39 but let who will look into their prophanenesse and equivocations to excuse wickednesse and let him forsake the English Church if he can Their singing is confused and yet not every day a new song and so the spirit is confin'd in their Psalms for which they condemn set forms of praier Their prophecying is but censuring other Churches sometimes applauding Sâ— Mr Simson complains of Mr Answ Church and sometime contradicting one another and by that have been divided into divers sorts and called by divers names as Barronists Wilkinsonians Johnsonians Ainsworthians Robinsonians They have been noted to be extream in correction of their servant-maids yea The story of Stedley and Mansfeld their wives with as much undecency as severity But I will not trouble my selfe nor you with such relations but rather desire you to take heed of Schisme and Heresie 1. Because of the evill of it in it selfe 2. Because of the punishment God hath brought upon such Mathe. I pray let me know that Phila. First Heresie and Schisme is a greater sin against humane
to salvation in Christ not out of him nor without him Eph. 1.4 And they forget that Paul said that he was loved and yet Christ was given for him too Gal. 2.20 So they say that originall sin is not sufficient in it selfe to condemn all mankind nor yet to deserve temporall or eternall death yet it is said that by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men yea more that the fault came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.12 18. So they say that holinesse and righteousnesse was not placed in mans will in his creation and therefore he could not lose it in his fall But this is against Scripture for Ephes 4.24 Paul doth parallel the new man to the old and shewes that by Christ man regaineth what was lost in Adam righteousnesse and holinesse They say also that by spirituall death no spirituall gift was separated from the will and therefore it being never corrupted if the understanding be enlightned it can assume her freedome to chuse or refuse any good offred to it It seems then our parents did not sin willingly ignorantly they could not they knew the command so then if neither willingly nor ignorantly then they sinned not at all So they say a regenerate man is not dead in sin but can hunger after righteousnesse yet St Paul saith otherwise Eph. 2.1 you hath he quickned who were dead in sins and trespasses They say also that a man may use the light of nature so well that thereby he may obtain saving grace but we know neither how grace can flow from nature whereby we may use the light of nature so well nor how nature can deserve grace but is rather by divine dispensation nor doth God efficaciously affoord to every man nor people alike the same means of faith and repentance as Psal 147.19 Acts 16.6 So they say that God in mans conversion doth infuse no new qualities or habits into his wil contrary to Isa 44.3 I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and he promiseth a new heart Ezek. 36.26 Psal 51. which David praieth for So they say God only is a morall agent perswading to conversion but the Church doth acknowledge his attractive power Cant. 1. draw me So God saith by Ezekiel that he will take away the stony heart and change the condition of it So they say that it is in mans power to be or not to be regenerate for a man may resist the power of Gods grace but how then do we beleeve according to the mighty working of his power Eph. 1.19 or how doth God fulfill all the pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 So they say that Gods grace in conversion doth not prevent or go before the act of mans will but free will and grace are co-workers But surely God hath preventing grace as well as assisting grace which a man receiveth 1 Cor. 4.7 and which worketh in us to will and to do before we have any inclination either to will or do But besides all this they do much erre in the doctrine of perseverance for they say that perseverance of the faithfull is not an effect of election nor any gift of God purchased by the death of Christ yet Christ makes it depend upon election when he saith that the Elect cannot possibly be deluded and that he hath laied down his life for the sheep viz. that they might by patience and continuance in well doing attain eternall life Rom. 2.7 and so nothing might be laid to the charge of Gods elect but they say the regenerate may totally and finally fall away from their justifying faith and that some of them do so fall that they perish everlastingly but if Christ died for us while we were yet sinners much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.8 for he that is born of God sinneth not i. to condemnation because Gods seed remaineth in him 1 John 3 9. So Christ giveth eternall life to his sheep and they cannot perish John 10.28 yet these men say that one regenerate may sin to death 1 John 5.18 yet St John denieth it we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not i. that sin unto death there spoken of So they say that we cannot be certain of future perseverance without revelation yet St John testifieth that we may know he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 So they say that assurance of salvation makes men neglect godlinesse yet surely he that hath this hope purifieth himselfe the more 1 John 3.2 3. So they say that temporary faith differeth not from justifying faith but only in continuance but yet Christ makes great difference of them Mat. 13. by their rooting and fructifying So they think it strange that a man should be new born spiritually as Nicodemus but those that are to be saved are born anew 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but incorruptible So they teach that Christ never praied for the infallible perseverance of the faithfull yet Christ told Peter that he had praied for him that his faith fail not Luk. 22.32 So for his Disciples Joh. 17.11 and not only for them but for all that should beleeve by their word Iohn 17.20 Mathe. What other Sectaries troubled us Phila. The Socinians Socinians who were the followers of those two Italians of Siena in the Dukedome of Florence namely Laelius Socinus and his Nephew Faustus The Unckle declared his opinions to Calvin by Letters the Nephew divulged them in publike writings It is a mixture of many heresies namely of the Ebionites Arrians Photinians Samosatenians and Sabellians Servetians and Antitrinitarians For after the execution of Servetus the Spaniard who was burnt at Geneva for his blasphemy 1553. in affirming that only God the Father was the true God and that neither the Son nor the holy Ghost is eternall God but that the Son was a creature and had his beginning of existence when God created the world Many sucked up his venome as Valentinus Gentilis who printed his blasphemies and called Athanasius his Creed Satanasius Creed who suffered death in the Town of Berne yet he had some associates in his bad opinions as Georgius Blandrata a Physitian Matheus Gibraldus a Lawyer and Paulus Alciatus And in the year 1557. Laelius Socinus shewed himselfe a favourer both of Servetus and Valentinus He had by his Letters and travels done much harm in Poland and other places before namely from 1551. unto 1557. and so forward though closely and subtilly enough untill 1562. in which year he died about the age of 37. His Nephew Faustus fled out of Italy to Lyons in France seeing that his Unckle Cornelius was apprehended together with others who have scattered his poison in the world wrapt up in Laelius his notes This Faustus writ two books though no great scholar as he confesseth to Puccius if
overseers while they lived and so left it to other faithfull men afterward James was the first Bishop of Jerusalem as saith Eusebius lib. 3. cap. 5. and St Ierome saith the Apostles ordained him so And Theodoret upon the Philip. chap. 1. saith that Epaphroditus had the Episcopall office setled on him because Paul calleth him their Apostle Eph. 2.25 Mathe. Why were not Bishops trusted with the Church at the first erecting of it Phila. Because the Church had at first more need of Presbyters and Deacons Epiph. cont Aerium lib. 3. ho. 75. for whilst the Apostles continued neer the places where they had planted Churches there was no need of any Bishops or overseers save themselves by their presence letters or messengers But when they were finally to forsake those parts then they did secure the Church by fit substitutes 2. Sufficient men for the office were very scarce to be had as Phil. 2. I have no man like Timotheus who will faithfully care for your matters for all seek their own Calv. Insilt lib. 4. cap. 8. 3. Factions began by the equality of Presbyters as some among the Galathians set up circumcision So Phil. 3. some were called dogs and evill workers and were the enemies to the crosse So Col. 2. some burdened the Church with traditions others corrupted the Gospell with Philosophy Col. 2. So some impugned the resurrection 1 Cor. 15. and Col. 2. Others fained the day of Christ to be at hand 2 Thes 2. many wolves entred foretold Acts 20. and false teachers 2 Pet. 2. yea many Antichrists 1 John 2. and cap. 4. to prevent or represse which the Apostles set up superintendents or Bishops to rule the Presbyters as they to teach the people that the gainsaiers might be reproved Tit. 1.5 And that they exercised Episcopall jurisdiction is plain in that he had power of ordination 1 Tim. 5.2 Oecumen in 1 Tim. cap. 4. lay hands therefore suddenly on no man 1 Tim. 5. And also the power of correction So 1 Tim. 5.1 Rebuke not an Elder but exhort him as a father which plainly shewes the difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter And if we read ancient writers Epiph. haeres 25. Cypr. l. 1. Ep. 8. Ep. 4. you will find beside the proofe of Scripture both reason and practise enough for the setting of Bishops in the Church over Presbyters although in many cases the Presbyters did associate the Bishop Mathe. But how prove you Bishops to be chiefe Phila. It is not unlike but the Church having received this order from the Apostles would alwaies continue it and therefore from the Primitive times they had peculiar to themselves Hier. ad Rusti Monachum singularity in succession and superiority in ordination By singularity I understand one Bishop in one City though divers Presbyters and Deacons in divers Congregations and upon this singularity depends the safety of the Church Hier. advers Lucif which else would be rent asunder by as many schismes as there be Priests It may be you will object that St Paul seems to acknowledge many Bishops in one City Phil. 1.1 as at Philippi he writes to the Bishops and Deacons Oecumen in 1 cap. ad Phil. Chrys hom 1. in 1 chap. ad Philip. Opt. cont Pamerianum l. 25 But these were Presbyters yet called Bishops because as yet the name was common to both but afterward they were distinguished by their proper name as Theodoret writes in the 1 chap. to the Philippians And Optatus saith that he is a schismatick and a sinner that erecteth one Bishops seat against another 2. They had superiority in ordination for it was fit that the lesse should be blessed of the greater and that a superiour must ordaine the inferior It is true Concil Cartha 4. Can. 4. that the Councill of Carthage saith that Presbyters shall lay their hands neer the Bishops hand upon the head of him that is to be ordained so that shewes that Presbyters cannot ordain without a Bishop and therefore their hands were only laied by way of consent and approbation or else the Fathers and other Councils are deceived Yea Tit. 1.4 beside the Scripture settles it in the Bishop not in the Presbyters as you may read in another Councill who rejected a Presbyter that was ordained or consecrated by another Presbyter though the Bishop laied his hands upon his head but suffered the other Presbyter to read the words of consecration Concil Hispalenf Ca. 5. Epiph. haer 69. because himselfe was troubled with sore eies and could not well read So was one Colluthus a Presbyter reproved and all the Presbyters that he had presumptuously made were rejected in a generall Councill So it was decreed against Maximus a Presbyter in the same case Athan. apol 2. by the first Councill of Constantinople Can. 4. Mathe. But how prove you their succession Phila. First the Scripture tels us that the Apostles placed some in divers Cities in their life time as Timothy at Ephesus where Onesimus succeeds Eus lib. 3. cap. 35. Titus at Creet Epaphroditus at Philippi Polycarpus at Smyrna by St John Linus at Rome by St Peter Iren. l. 3. c. 3. Eus l. 2. c. 1. Iames at Jerusalem by the Apostles and he was succeeded by forty Bishops unto Macarius who sate in the Councill of Nice Eus l. 3. c. 22. So Euodias succeeds Peter at Antioch Ignatius was next who had seen Christ in the flesh Hieron in Ignat. Col. 4. Mark St Peter's scholler was Bishop of Alexandria to whom succeeded Arianus Caius of whom Paul speaks Rom. 16. was Bishop of Thessalonica Archippus of Coloss Dionysius Bishop of Corinth and so look and you shall find succession maintained by an holy care of the Church rulers commending it one to the other especially in those places and Cities that had their first Bishops from the Apostles hands and we find them in a plain succession for 676 years after Christ in the fourth fift and sixt generall Councils but by wars persecutions and the like the succession hath been in many places interrupted and sometimes at a stop in Rome it selfe but yet this sheweth there was and ought to be also so far as I see a succession of them continued Hieron ad Evagrium and therefore the Presbyters themselves till they grew factious in case there was none setled by the preceding Bishop they did elect one out of themselves and placed him in an higher degree and called him Bishop And this saith St Jerom was generall throughout the world after that men began to challenge those that they baptized to be their own and not Christs it was decreed that one of the many Presbyters in a City or Province should be chosen Hieron in 1. c. Epist ad Titum and set above the rest to whom the whole care of that Church should appertaine and in these successions continued of one and no more though the Presbyters were many
Ignat. in Epist ad Antiochen Therefore Ignatius in his Epistles to divers Churches warneth the Laity to obey the Presbyters and Deacons and that the Presbyters feed the flock till God shew who shall be your Pastor after my death Thus they succeeded one another and alwaies in an higher degree than Presbyters for although at first the name Bishop and Presbyter was used indifferently one for the other while the Episcopall office remained in the Apostles and Evangelists yet when they succeeded Calv. Instit l. 4. c. 4. S. 4. Theodor. in cap. 3.1 Ep. ad Tim. that were neither Apostles nor Evangelists then the higher degree were called Bishops answering to the Apostles by which term Apostle the Bishops were first called as was Epaphroditus * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2.25 but afterward they left that title to the twelve Apostles and took the name of Bishops or overseers to themselves so verifying the prophecie in Psal 45.16 concerning the Church instead of thy fathers i. the Apostles that begat thee thou shalt have children even such as thou hast begotten i. ministers Hieron in Psal 45. Aug. in Psal 45. whom thou shalt make rulers i. Bishops saith St Jerom whom the Church hath placed in the seats of her fathers and to bring them back to the cels of the Presbyters hath been accounted no lesse then sacriledge and however men may count it Reformation to abolish that order I shal pray that they may not find it destruction to the Church Exact Synod Chalcedon de Photio Eustathio and lastly to themselves a curse Pro. 20.25 Mal. 3.9 Mathe. However they succeed the Apostles in ordination and corrections yet the Presbyters think not themselves inferiour and therefore not subject to them Phil. They ought not so to think but to be subject because God hath made them Fathers and Pastors and Christ cals them the seven stars in regard of their rule as the seven Planets do govern naturall bodies and Angels in respect of their intelligence they have with Christs mind which they are to convey to others This name Angels saith Austin was given to the Ruler of the Church of Ephesas Aug Epi. 162. So Auth. in 1 Cor. cap. 12. And Bullinger saith the heavenly Epistle was directed to the Angell i. the Pastour of the Church of Smyrna which was Polycarpus who was placed there by St John fifteen yeers before he wrote the Revelation By which may be gathered that these were chiefe in authority and that Presbyters and people were to take direction and reproofe from them for he is charged above the rest and therefore surely he had some power and authority above the rest these being the chief Priests Aug. in Psa 45 and Fathers of Christs Church and therefore are to be obeied not only by the people but the Presbyters also as saith Jerom to Nepotian Hier. ad Nep. teaching the duty of a Presbyter Be subject to thy Bishop and reverence him as the father of thy soule and that Presbyter that doth not so Amb. offi lib. 2. cap. 24 Cyp l. 3. Ep. 14 he through pride swarveth from the right way And Cyprian blameth some Presbyters that without regard to the Bishop set over them do take upon them to do any thing but he threatens to suspend such from their ministry Ignat. ad Mag. Therefore Ignatius advised the Magnesians that as Christ did nothing without his Father so they should neither without their Bishop whether you be Presbyter Deacon or Lay man And he chargeth the Sarsonses thus Presbyters be subject to your Bishops Deacons to your Presbyters and Lay men to all My soule for theirs that observe this order the Lord will be alwaies with them This man lived neer enough to the Apostles time to know how the Church was then governed And by the Apostolicall Canons the Presbyters and Deacons are to do nothing without the consent of the Bishop Can. Apost 8. Concil Arelat 1. ca. 19. Hier advers Lucif for to his charge the people are committed no they are not to baptize without the Bishops leave saith Ierom and affirmeth that the safety of the Church dependeth thereupon not that Bishops usurped and took this power upon themselves but by the Apostolike tradition and example and afterward by the allowance of Emperours and lawes of States and Provinces and Synodall Canons none of which did allow any domineering in Bishops but gave them power over Presbyters and yet Presbyters leave to appeale from them if they thought themselves wronged to the neerest Bishops Concil African can 129. or to the Primate or to the next Synod Mathe. Whether may the people have the election of Pastors by Gods Word Phila. We find no such election in Gods Word Oecumen in 1 Tim. cap 4. By the commandement and appointment of the Holy Ghest were Bishops made as Timothy by prophecy Theod◠in 1 Tim. 1. i. by divine revelation say Theodore The phylact and Ambrose on the first Epistle to Timothy Next they chose others as I have shewed you Afterward came in popular elections grounded upon humane society which in reason challengeth an approbation at least of those to whom they submit themselves and allow maintenance But yet even in this the people had only rather a proposall of one or approbation of one then an election of one for they had two waies to settle a Bishop the first by election Cyp. l. 1. Ep. 1. the second was by postulation the election was thus performed When a Bishops chair was void some Bishops that were neerest consulted to meet there at a certain day of which they gave notice to the people and Presbyters of that place who came on that day into the Church and three Bishops at least came also from the adjacent places and there observed whom the Clergy named and whom the people proposed and as all or most agreed so the man was chosen but another day fixed for his ordination In the mean time any objections might be made but if he were clear the Bishops made him Pastor of that Church But secondly if that City wanted an approved man then they desired the Bishop of the ancientest City called the Metropolis and he the Metropolitan to send them such an one as he approved which he did after himselfe and three other Bishops had tried him Thus also Presbyters were setled and ordained by the examination of the Bishop and testimony of the people Concil Cartha 3. Can. 22. Conc. Laodic Can. 23. yet the multitude must not elect those that were called to be Priests though they might present such as they thought fit But alwaies three Bishops at least ordained a Bishop and one Bishop a Presbyter Can. Apost ca. 1 2. This was the common order except when the people made tumults Eus l. 1. c. 24. Evag. l. 2. c. 5. c. 8. as the Church histories tell us For which uprores the Emperour Justinian took
Church and ordaining Bishops Others at Ancira in Galatia and in France and at Antioch against Montanus Others at Rome about the celebration of Easter But when the Emperour Constantine turned to the Christian faith he called the generall Councill of Nice in Bythinia against Arrius who denied Jesus Christ the Son of God to be of the same substance with the Father which opinion was there condemned and accursed and Easter day setled to be kept upon the Lords day and not on the Jewes fourteenth of Nisan And so Councils were usually called till the Pope usurped the power striving to wrest it from the Emperour and to set himselfe above Councils But had Charls the fift dealt as roundly with him about the Councill of Trent as the Emperour Sigismund did in the Council of Basil it had not been twenty five years in calling nor so long in sitting and so little good done But that they governed the Church by Councils it may appear from the great Councill of Nice Concil Nic. Can. 5. Con. Ant. Ca. 20 which decreed that there should be in every Province a Synod twice a year So concluded the Councill of Antioch so did the first Councill of Constant Can. 2. So the Council of Chalcedon Can. 29. So the third Council of Toledo Can. 18. So the second Councill of Turo Can. 1. And so good and approved was this government that when the Synod of Antioch sixty years before that of Nisen had condemned Paulus Samosatenus for heresie and he would not yeeld up his Church but kept it by violence they complained to the Emperour Aurelianus an heathen and he drove him out to his shame from Antioch Mathe. Why then are Bishops so much cried down in these latter times Phila. 1. By that spirit that lusteth to envy And 2. By selfe love which if it cannot swell us to be as big as others we do strive like Satan to pull down others to be like our selves 3. By covetousnesse which loves to part Christs coat or to cast lots for it many had rather cloath themselves with the Churches means then Christs merits and wrap themselves warm in his coat rather then trust to the purchase of his Crosse These are the motives whatever the pretences are or else why was not the Abby and Bishops lands reserved to pious uses I beleeve the Commonwealth was more rich by the Churches leases then ever she was by the Churches purchases The Farmer then grew from a Yeoman to a Gentleman and most of the purchasers are now fallen from Gentry to beggery But beside all this it is no wonder if that be cried down in these times of Libertinisme Hieron in 1. Epist ad Titum which was set up for the preventing of schism and heresie whose ground is alwaies pretended liberty of conscience which kind of people are alwaies adverse to Christ and his Spouse the Church and therefore ever persecute the overseers of the flock Cypr. Ep. 55. that they may the better adorn themselves with the ruines of the Church and are no doubt the followers of the great Antichrist and forerunners of the last apostacy of this world since the Church hath been governed by them Simler de rep Helvet fol. 148 for 1500 years and upward or by none or else by a disorderly confusion as we see in those Churches who have cast off Episcopacy as in Switzerland where a Lay man is President of their Consistory And at Zurick and Basil their Consistories are wholly Lay and Ministers are only to advise Yea in other places Ministers are not so much as assistants so that they may use their Ministers like minstrels and chuse whether they will hear them or no for they have no power nor hardly a right derivation of their ministry from the order of Christ and his Apostles Mathe. Whether can you derive your own aright having originally received it from Rome by Popish Bishops Phila. You think it seems that our Bishops took their ordination there at first or that there were no Bishops in England to ordain others but they must needs travell to Rome for it or take it from Rome by delegation and if so you take our Bishops and ministry to be meerly antichristian But suppose we had it from thence that will no more prove our ministry antichristian or popish then our very Bible Gospell or Baptisme if we received it from thence For superstition cannot annihilate the ordinances of God given at first from Christ no more then building stubble upon the foundation can destroy it or than a spring water is utterly spoiled by running from a rock through a clay But our Bishops and Presbytery we derive from the Apostles as we do also our Protestant doctrine professed which though held in unrighteousnesse in the Church of Rome like a captive for a time yet at last redeemed it selfe and came to light and shewed it selfe the true child of God begotten at first in Rome by the word of truth from which shee deviating the truth chose another foster-mother to dwell withall that will maintain her with goods and life and not forsake her to the death So our Bishops and Clergy came not at first from Rome though Rome hath made bold to invade the Church of England But for the first three hundred years after Christ the Pope had nothing to do out of his own Diocesse as may be seen by the Councill of Ephesus order Con. Ephes p. 1. act 7. made in the behalfe of the Cyprian Bishops against the Patriarch of Antioch who challenged their ordination That Councill decreed that the Cyprian Bishops should not be violated in their right and also that no Bishop should busie himselfe afterwards in anothers Province or invade others priviledges Ruff. hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 6. which they enjoied from the beginning By which the Bishop of Rome was shut up within his owne City and Suburbs And we find for certain that the Brittish Bishops did not acknowledge any obedience due from them to the Pope Spel. Conc. anno 601. which they must needs have done if they had their ordination from him and they had reason to stand upon it being Brittany was the elder Church planted by Joseph of Arimathea in Tiberius Caesars time Gild. de conq Brit. and Peter came not to Rome till the second year of the Emperor Claudius to settle that Church Mathe. How came the Brittish Bishops to be consecrated Phila. Some think by those that came with Joseph of Arimathea into England having Apostolike authority such as Simon Zelotes who was crucified in Brittany Jerom. in Catal. script Eccles Others think that some were ordained by Eugaâ—ius and Damianus whom Elutherius Bishop of Rome sent to baptize at the request of King Lucius himselfe and people And if it were so there is no reason to find fault with our Bishops succession from thence he being an holy man and martyr and his two messengers being faithfull Pastours
Holy Ghost be known by his operating in us the blessed ends that God intended in our creation and the effects of Christs redemption that so the office of Christ as a King Priest and Prophet may be set forth by our faith and obedience to the same Of this holy and orderly state God made Israel a type Esa 51.15 16. when he did that which Esay makes repetition of saying I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand namely I kept thee in thy going through the wildernesse to Canaan that I might plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth that is that I might make thee a state consisting of superiours and inferiours as a body politick and say to Sion thou art my people And as he made them into Prince Priest and people under the Law so certainly he did not intend to leave the Gospell people to disorder and confusion and therefore he made Kings nursing fathers and Apostles Bishops and Presbyters to instruct and people to be ruled and instructed as I have already declared it remaineth to shew what effects in the mystery of godlinesse the blessed spirit worketh on Christs redeemed people called the Church Mathe. That I desire to know Phila. First it worketh in Christs Church people outward and inward holy worship The outward consisteth in places utensils and gestures fit for divine service The inward consists in an holy heart and life answerable thereunto which is wrought in us by the operation of the Holy Ghost the third person in the most holy Trinity Mathe. What am I to conceive and beleeve of the Holy Ghost since I find little speech of him in the Creed save only in one article or two at most Phila. Though you find little speech of him as you do of the name of the Father and the Son yet all those Articles of the Creed that follow from beleeving in the Holy Ghost do relate to him and to his operations upon the object thereof which is the holy Catholick Church which he sanctifieth by making in it the communion of Saints and sealing to it the remission of sin and bestowing upon it the power of the blessed resurrection and the felicity of eternall life And insomuch as we are taught to beleeve in the Holy Ghost as well as in the Father and the Son that word in doth intimate to us 1. That he is God as well as the Father and Son or else we may not beleeve upon him But we find that we are to be baptized into his name together with the Father and the Son Mat. 28.29 2. That he proceedeth from the Father and the Son and therefore called the Spirit of the Father and the Son Of the Father John 15.26 and of the Son Rom. 8.9 and procedeth from the Son in that he breathed him upon his disciples John 20.22 and yet is a distinct person from them both as appeareth Mat. 3.17 where the Father speaketh and the Holy Ghost descended and the Sun submitted his humane nature to baptisme and yet he is equall to the Father and the Son and therefore divine worship is due to him as to them Therefore it is fit that we know him in his nature and operations Mathe. I pray declare them to me Phila. I shall first he is eternall and was before the world Gen. 1.2 and cannot alter his nature and condition So secondly he is immense and so every where present Psal 139.7 and therefore he is at hand alwaies to give us his help and assistance Again he is omnipotent Rom. 15.19 all wonders and miracles were done by him and therefore he is able to deliver us and make us for ever most happy as well as he is omniscient knowing all our wants Acts 10.19 1 Cor. 2.10 Now for his effects they are either common or proper common to all creatures or all men To all creatures as in the creation when the spirit of God cowred on the waters and earth mixed together not yet separated as an hen sitting on egs thereby qualifying that chaos to take severall forms Gen. 1.2 which spirit also garnished the heavens Job 26.13 and is still sent forth to continue the creature by production and generation Psal 104.30 which kind of operation is common also to all men Job 33.4 the spirit of the Lord hath made me and not only so but the same spirit giveth inventions to men of Arts and Sciences as to Bezaleel and Aholiab Exod. 31.3 so to write excellent things for the common use of men so to qualifie Ministers with the gifts of prophecy and preaching and tongues yet not all with saving grace mat 7.22 So many men have illumination to discern of some doctrines of faith by drawing off the vaile that hangs before other mens eies though without application to themselves or correspondent practice of such knowledge Heb. 6.4 5. they have a taste but no delight nor digestion for it neither takes them from the love of the world nor makes them the more to love God or goodnesse yea and in other men he works restraining grace to forbear some foule sins as Abimelech to forbear Sarah Gen. 20.6 yea and to do some laudable actions contrary to their disposition 1 Sam. 10.10 when Saul prophecied which was so strange to the people that it became a proverb Is Saul also among the Prophets This restraining grace God giveth the wicked not sur their own but for the Churches sake who would by them otherwise in their lusts be basely defiled or utterly destroied Now there be other operations and effects of the spirit proper to the elect and some of them are generall and some particular the generall are the conception of Christ and the qualification of his humane nature to make it fir for the great work of redemption of the elect Isa 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach glad tidings c. which spirit he received without measure John 3.34 The second generall work is his dwelling in the elect by which they are made a temple for God 2 Cor. 6.10 and built together for Gods habitation Eph. 2.22 Also regeneration of them whereby they are washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 Then next he uniteth the elect into one mysticall body by faith and love in the bond of peace Beside Eph. 4.3 he hath particular operations in the singular persons of the elect as first he works in them liberty from the power of sin and ability to subdue the corruption in nature which neither naturall reason not morall prudence can do but where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.13 because the law of the spirit of life hath made us free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 And this the spirit doth by exercising of us in the works of mortification till we have crucified the old man and even wounded sin to death by becomming to us the
them to that one place in which God had appointed to put his name Deut. 12.5 6. so that we may by better reason pull down all private Conventicles that people may be brought to the place of Gods publick worship They may as well be afraid to pray in any Parish called by a superstitious name as in the Church so called if they neglect the doctrin of faith which directs us to the true use of every creature 3. The Church is taken personally and so for either the Church malignant Psal 26.5 called the congregation of evill doers and sometime for the true Church or any assembly thereof and that company is called Ecclesia as the assembly of the Jewes was called the Synagogue and of wicked men a congregation because like greges a flock of cattell they met together disorderly as Acts 19.39 41. Aug. in Levit. Q. 57. called the Beasts of Ephesus 1 Cor. 15. though sometime they be used indifferently one for the other as Lev. 8.3 So that all the three words Kuriake Synagogue and Ecclesia signifie a Church or an house set apart for a people to meet in about sacred occasions which people are the Church personall which Church is to be considered as it is known to God or to us As it is known to God who only knoweth who are his we rather beleeve it then see it as our Creed teacheth when we say I beleeve in the holy Catholick Church that is I beleeve there is such an universall Church dispersed throughout the world though I know not the parties Beside this Church is to be considered not only in the whole but in the parts whereof every holysociety is a communion of Saints and so the Church is partly known to us at least in outward calling to be Saints and in an answerable profession of it As the Brown hold Not therefore such an holy society is meant as is totally and perfectly sanctified and fully obedient to the whole will of God revealed for such a communion was never found in Adams family there was a Cain and Noahs Ark clean and unclean men as well as beasts that were as unlike in their conditions as the Raven and the Dove Aug. in Joh. 6. Beda in Rom. â— as Shem and Cham Rebecca had Esau in her womb as well as Jacob the Church of Israel had a world of wicked in it in Christs little Colledge was one traitor in the field of the Church is tares as well as wheat and a through reformation or purgation of them cannot be till the worlds end Zuinglius art 34. Mat. 13.29 yet this Church is called the kingdome of Heaven in the New Testament because it makes us to be of heavenly natures and guides us to Christs heavenly kingdome But if we will be of a congregation absolutely holy Socrat. schol lib. 5. cap. 10. we must get a new found ladder to go up to heaven as said Constantine to Acesius the Novatian Bishop Mathe. What is meant by this personall Church Phil. Not any one man as the Papists make the Pope to be the Church virtuall nor a company of any creatures save men for bruits are uncapable of rationall doctrine nor are Angels tied to it for Christ is not their nature but the seed of Abraham Heb. But the Church personall is a company of people every where dispersed effectually called ordinarily by the ministers of the word from the prophanesse of the world to the supernaturall dignity of Gods children to whom they are united in Christ by faith and to one another by love In which people we are to consider their invisible essence and their visible existence First their visible existence which they have in common with the visible Church being admitted into it by that way that God in his word hath appointed for that purpose as the Jewes were by circumcision under the law and both the professors of Christ among Jewes and Gentiles by baptisme under the Gospell Secondly they are to be considered in their invisible essence which is faith in God through Christ and love to one another This Church is included in the visible Church though not so plainly discerned as the visible is yet they partake of the same blessings and afflictions with the Church visible as a child in the womb of the mother partaketh of her joies and griefs Mathe. I pray Sir shew me the state and condition of the visible Church and how to distinguish of the invisible company from others meerly visible if it may be Phila. The visible is that universall and Catholike Church which God hath endowed with the means of salvation through Christ typed or preached as he was typed and prophecied of the Jewes were a chiefe part of it as they were a setled Church but before that it remained in the family of Adam and Sheth and Noah whose Ark was a type of the Church Then after the flood in a few families especially in those that came of Shem from whom came Abraham in the ninth generation after him being the son of Terah whom God called from Vr of the Chaldees and with him setled his Covenant of Christ first promised to Adam From him came Isaac Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs and from them the people called Israel after old Jacobs name given him of God But afterward were called Jewes of Judah whose tribe stood to the house of David and was the Kingly tribe yet in processe of time it came to be a name of profession or distinction from the ten other tribes who worshipped in the Temple of Samaria John 4.20 built upon the mount Gerizam between whom there was a feude implacable as John 4.9 and St Paul affirms it a name of religious profession Rom. 2.28 he is not a Jew that is one outwardly but inwardly But these were once the true visible Church especially after their redemption from Egypt by Moses and Aaron by whom God gave them lawes Ecclesiasticall and Civil which were put in practice first in their travels in the wildernesse and quiet possession of Canaan under divers sorts of Governors as first Moses secondly Joshua and then under Judges Aug. de civit dei l. 18. c. 22. for the space of 320 years next under Kings about 520 years till they were carried captive to Babylon for seventy years Then they returned by King Cyrus his leave and had commission to rebuild the Temple which was forty nine year in finishing From that time they were under the power of the Medes and Persians and such Deputies as they appointed called the heads of the captivity such as Mesullam Hanania Benechia Husadiah Zerobabell of the line of David as also other ten more after Alexander the great yet still there was a visible Church among them Next the government divolved to the Machabees of the tribe of Levi and in them continued till Herod by the Roman power deprived them of all soveraignty In whose time Christ was born 536 years after the captivity
humility candor and modesty we destroy pride and hypocrisie So we must be ready to benefit all men out of the sincere affection of charity Heb. 13.1 2. because the end why God gives his benefits is that they may be bestowed for the common good of the Church as God bestoweth his providence in common among good and bad and we know not fully who are good and who may not be made good by our charity they all bearing outwardly to us the same image of God and the similitude of Christs members Now secondly the deniall of our selves in relation to God standeth in these two things First in an equanimity and a fair construction of mind in all actions and state of life Secondly in bearing the crosse aright The first of these appears in our being subject to Gods will in all things and in shunning ambition and covetousnesse and expect prosperity only from God depending only upon him and not desire riches or honours without him or out of him and therefore to follow no wicked arts to compasse them but to cast all the burden and care of them only upon him and so not envy any mans prosperity but commit all accidents of life to Gods will as afflictions diseases and poverty and the death of friends and to bear all with patience Secondly the deniall of our selves in relation to God stands in the right carriage of the cross and a moderate bearing of that adversity which God sends upon us by what hand soever it be outwardly afflicted Mat. 5.4 and so obtain the blessing of the mourners comfort which causeth us though troubled yet not distressed though perplexed yet not in despaire persecuted yet not forsaken cast down but not destroied 2 Cor. 4.8 9. This is done first by considering how the glory of God is illustrated by freeing his people from it as 2 Tim. 4.17 18. and how we are taught to hate both sin the devill the world and the flesh John 15.19 and to serve God not for worldly pleasure and advantage but for his own sake Rom. 5.5 And secondly it is done by considering the comforts of the crosse which are First that God hath purposed and appointed all the sufferings of the Church and neither men nor devils can add to them one jot more then he hath determined John 19.11 Acts 4.28 And secondly that our sins are forgiven us in Christ with whom and for whom we suffer 2 Tim. 2.12 if we suffer for a good conscience which makes the event of the crosse happy 1 Pet. 4.13 14. and gives us hope of an eternall reward by the example of Christ Phil. 2.9 and of the Saints Heb. 11.2 who by faith and patience obtained a good report because they suffered for righteousnesse Mat. 5.10 The next businesse of a Christian life is to meditate on the life to come as those that behold things promised afar off and seek another country beside and above this world Heb. 11.13 14. This meditation includeth a contempt of the world as of riches honours pleasure and of death which like physick doth evacuate many evill humours by considering the various afflictions of this life and that all the joy and pleasures of it are but momentany and yet hinder us from imploying the mind about heaven though themselves have in them neither continuance nor contentment they neither satisfie nor sanctifie us but are like painted reeds gay vanities without but hollow within though we run after them as children after butter flies and get a fall by following and some hurt by heedlesse pursuing them And this contempt of the world would be the more seriously performed if we consider that here we are exiles from home i. from heaven 2 Cor. 5.9 and therefore we should have a most serious and joifull desire of the life to come which would make us either value death as nothing or else look upon it as Christ hath made it namely an entrance into life and a freeing us from our step-mother the world by delivering us to the heavenly Jerusalem which is the mother of us all Indeed if we do not thus the common creature shames us who sigh and grone to be delivered Rom. 8.19 And the heathen wise men and Philosophers thought it their glory to contemn death yet I do not say that this life or the things thereof are altogether to be detested for they are the blessings of God and testimonies of his good will to help through this wildernesse of sin but so far to contemn them as they make us obnoxius to sin Therefore the third part of a Christian life is to make a right use of those that God hath afforded us in this life In this case we must mark the right use and abuse of those things The right use is to make them serve our necessity not superfluity and to increase our delight in and praise to God Psal 104.1 15. and so tasting thou maist see how good the Lord is The abuse when first we exceed our measure and incline to extreams God makes our cup overflow and we make it overflow us Or secondly when we are too abstemious in denying to our selves the lawfull use of the creatures which God hath given us to lead us to acknowledge the bounty of the Creator The one way we make our belly our God Phil. 3.19 The other are too superstitious as were the Essens Col. 2.21 the one through too much love of the creature doth extinguish the meditation of the life to come and the other doth frustrate the favor of God offered to him in this life of both which faults we must give an account especially we being of the true Catholick Church which teacheth the right use of these things and are well understood by those that are of the communion of Saints Mathe. What mean you by the Catholike Church and whether is it alwaies in the same state Then I desire to know what the communion of Saints is and next what kind of government this Church hath alwaies had and allowed Phila. By the Catholick Church I mean that which is intended in the Creed which I beleeve to be though I beleeve not in it as I do in the holy Trinity yet that it is and ever will be while the world endureth notwithstanding all the power of Satan Mat. 16.10 And of this Church we are to beleeve that we are members and professe our selves to be joined thereunto and to live and die members thereof Now this Catholike Church is the City of the living God or a company of holy men who by the free election of God are called to union with Christ God and man to life eternall as well those soules that are triumphant in heaven as those people that are militant here on earth Col. 1.18 of all which Christ is the head for I reckon not Angels to be of the Church but only those for whom Christ died that he might sanctifie them Eph. 5.16 but as he took not the nature of Angels so
This swelling title of head of the Church and Christs Vicar and Universall Bishop was a forerunning signe of Antichrist as said Gregory the great who was Pope in his seventh Book Greg. M. lib. 4. Ep. 36. and Epist 39. to Mauritius the Emperor and therefore he much declined and waved such titles Mathe. I pray what think you of Antichrist what or who is he Phila. You know St John tels you there were many Antichrists in his time 1 John 2.18 that is some that were contrary to the Gospell of Christ in faith or manners or both Jerom. in Mat. 24. Some account all the heads of Heresies to be Antichrists Others say that they be such as overthrow all good manners and so one describes the state of the Church of Rome saying that the Princes and Judges are the beasts seale Papa Honorius in dial de libero arbit the Clergy his pavilion the Monasteries his Tabernacle the Nunneries his bedchamber and the people to bear his image This he spake of the second Beast Rev. 13.11 And Bernard the Abbot saith plainly Bern. ad Gaufrid Lorat Epi. 125. who writ about 546 years since that the Beast in the Revelation to whom a mouth is given speaking blasphemies is he that sits in Peters chair The other Beast is more subtle as this is cruell yet both joine against Christ So many other conclude the Pope and Papacy to be that man of sin and son of perdition that hath laied an opposite foundation to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 2.3 4. politickly pretending Christian profession and yet overturning his truth Indeed if one would be lead by Chronograms or the numerall letters in the word Lateinos Pet. Mart. in 2 Reg. 4. Iren. l. 5. c. 25. or Ecclesia Italica or in the Hebrew word Romiith or in Maometis one may find the number of the Beast Rev. 13.18 which is 666. about which time after Christ the Pope was made supreme and universall Bishop in the West and Mahomet chiefe Prophet in the East And though I will not build my faith on numbers in names nor do I think that all names be imposed inevitably by the influence of the stars yet this is not altogether to be despised since Nimrods name included his nature i. an apostate rebell and Cyrus his name in Hebrew was like himselfe wh was an head to the people and in the Persian language a glorious Sun This Antichristianity is called the mysterie of iniquity 2 Thes 2.7 for it is a secret wickednesse in the name and nature of it for Antichrist may signifie one that is a vicegerent for Christ As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Deputy or a Lievetenant for him and thus the Pope would be thought Christs Vicar because he sitteth in the Temple of God or a part of the Church visible corrupted and exalts himselfe above all earthly power that hath given to it the title of God or Lord and shewing himselfe as God 2 Thes 2.4 both in placing and displacing Kings and forgiving sins So is the nature of his doctrine opposed to Christ very subtilly namely because faith must appear by works therefore to set up works to justifie our persons which works the popish writers call also the works of faith not of the law though they be but works of mens inventions and so they prefer works before the formall righteousnesse of Christ imputed to man for justification Mahomet speaks also very well of Christ but he enjoins externall works of his own collection by which men must be saved So the Pope and Mahomet join in one against Christ in this and also in holding that the holy Scriptures are not sufficient for salvation but their canons and rules of obedience have more attributed to them for performance then the obedience of faith which devices are like the locusts that came out of the bottomlesse pit of their inventions Rev. 9. having the face of a reasonable creature but a scorpions sting which gives no rest to the soule but poisons it yet if hue and cry were made after the Pope and Mahomet a man might justly stop the Pope upon suspicion of being the more proper Antichrist for these reasons First because the name of Antichrist agreeth most properly to him and his seat yea all the descriptions of Antichrist in Scripture doth so likewise But by the Pope we mean not every Bishop of Rome from the Primitive times for many of them were Confessors and Martyrs till the time of Sylvester neither was Antichrist discovered much till Boniface the third took from the Emperor Phocas the name of Universall Bishop and his See of Rome to be called the supreme head of all Churches After this we find in the Pope and Church of Rome all the marks of Antichrist for he sets in the Temple of God like an Hornet in a Bee hive driving out the labouring Bees and devouring their hony The popish writers make this an argument of their Church being the true Church and Temple of God because Antichrist sits there It is true that they have the name and shew of a Church Christian but have neither true Doctrine nor Sacraments in their simplicity as the Scripture sets them forth and hath delivered them to the Church so that they have only the name of a Church as Sardis had that she was living but indeed was dead Rev. 3.1 And in this Church Antichrist sitteth as a usurping Tyrant over Gods ordinances abusing them and changing them at his pleasure and over all authority Ecclesiasticall and Civill that beareth any similitude of Elohim even as St Paul foretold 2 Thes 2.3 4. And this may be proved from their own writers some of them saying that it is not lawfull for any man to reprove what the Pope approves for all men ought to be judged by him Zodericus Zamorra lib. 2. cap. 1. but he by none and that he hath all power in heaven and earth so assuming to himselfe the right of Christ as well as his title King of Kings and Lord of Lords which made him so bold as to let Emperors kisse his feet Alexand. pap 3 and to set his foot upon the neck of the Emperor Frederick abusing the 91 Psalm saying thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Dragon as also Pius the fift did when he deposed Queen Elizabeth abused Jer. 1.10 Behold I have appointed thee this day over Nations and Kingdomes Beside is not he right Antichrist that arrogates to himselfe power over Gods word and his law and saith Gratia in gloss that he can dispense with the law of nature and contrary to the Apostles and therefore hath dispensed with Princes to marry their brothers wives which St John Baptist would not allow to Herod and make parricides saints and forgives sins to the unrepentant yea sins before they are committed yea they say it is lesse dangerous to break Gods Commandements then the Popes
Dan. 8.25 and the land of Judea the land of Tzeby Dan. 11.16 and Antiochus a man of an hard face i. impudent and minding hidden things i. secret wickednesse hardly practised by any before him So the Apostles did obscure the Emperours and Popes of Rome under the terms of Beasts and Antichrist lest they should provoke them to persecute the Christians before the time For the Beast was and is not and yet is Rev. 17.8 He was in rising an hundred yeers after Constantine and then was not i. even almost extinct by the invasion of the barbarous Goths and Vandals and yet is i. recovered and gets the place of Rome once governed by Kings Consuls Dictators Decemviri Triumviri which some Writers say are the five heads or Kings spoken of Rev. 17.10 and the sixt was an Emperor which St Iohn saith is and the other was not yet come namely the Pope who when he did come continued not long but he was dispossessed by the Goths But then he recovering againe made up the seventh by assuming the temporall power and yet appeared as an eight because he had a spirituall power divers from the former Of all which matters of Antichrist and his ruine one concludeth well in these verses Antichristus eat Christus comitatus ab alto Coelicolis properat Gog Magog ecce ruit Ecce ruit regnum serpens detrusus ad orcum Bestia tum sequitur cauda propheta dein Cauda propheta dein populus seductus ab ill is Veh miseris ter veh qui fide deficiunt Mathe. Though I find by what you have said that the Pope is not the head of the Church yet may I not think the Papists and many other hereticks and schismaticks to be of the body of the Church militant Phila. You cannot justly so think for the Church militant is that part of the Church Catholick which under the banner of Christ her head fighteth or is ready to do it against his enemies the world flesh and the devill and all their crafts and errors and their afflictions in spiritual armour Eph. 6.13 But they do not so not that I think they are a company of men perfect and void of sin as the Catharists and Anabaptists do nor are they such Aug. lib. de heres cap 88. Cyp. lib. 4. Ep. 2. as having never id in matters of faith refuse to retain any sinners in their congregation as the Novatians and Donatists did But yet not such a company as consist only in outward profession and communion of Sacraments under one Pastor the Pope but have the internall vertues of faith hope and charity whether living under the Law of the Gospell yet we exclude not as the Papists do from this Church all that are not baptized or under the examination of Catechisme or all kind of hereticks apostates excommunicate persons or schismaticks farther then they wilfully continue such nor doe we think that reprobates and hypocrites are members of the Church though they outwardly professe themselves so Mathe. I pray make this appear Phila. First many that are unbaptized and but under the discipline of catechising may be and are members of the Church militant because many such are included in the covenant Act. 2.39 as the Eunuch Acts 8. and Cornelius Acts 10. yea Rahab in the Old Testament mentioned Heb. 11.31 and the theefe crucified with Christ and many were martyrs before they were baptized Beside as many have been baptized who were never true members of the Church 1 Iohn 2.19 for many sheep are out of the fold Aug. in tract 45. in Joh. and many wolves within so by the same reason many unbaptized may be members of the Church militant Bel. lib. 1. de baptismo c. 6. though not visible because they may have the baptisme of fire and blood though not of water So we say that hereticks and apostates stubbornly continuing such are not of this Church because they have made shipwrack of faith and therefore are to be shunned by the faithfull being not of their society 1 Iohn 2.19 Yet we cannot deny them admittance upon their returning and repenting And so we account of schismaticks Concil Nicen. cap. 18 19. who rent themselves off from the Church Christs mysticall body and so is no part of it because they break the union of members with the head and one another and therefore so standing they cannot be members of the Church no more then a branch rent from a tree can be part of the living tree or a member cut from the body to be part of the living body So those that are justly excommunicate in the right sense of the Catholick Church and have no mind to return and to be reconciled cannot be of the Church militant because such want repentance and love and peace But because the whole Catholick Church cannot personally or actually excommunicate one some think therefore that whether excommunication be inflicted justly or unjustly one is but cast out of the Church visible or some particular Church Indeed sometimes it may very well be so but if it be done by the rule of the whole Church surely it is all one as if done by the whole or the representative body of the Church because the same spirit guideth any part if they go by a true rule which guideth the whole as 1 Cor. 5.4 and therefore in ancient time Nic. Conc. Can. 5. if one Church did excommunicate a man another Church might not absolve him It is true that a man unjustly excommunicated is only cast out of the visible Church John 9.34 35. or particular Congregation and therefore he retaining his faith and baptisme is neverthelesse a member of the Church militant yea a man justly excommunicate yet upon his repentance is a member of the Church militant and ought to be admitted into the visible Church and particular Congregation as was the incestuous person 2 Cor. 2.7 8. for the censure of excommunication is to such a man only corrective 1 Cor. 5.5 not destructive for though it be said there for the destruction of the flesh yet I suppose that he was not delivered to Satan to be killed but rather that he finding himselfe cast out of the Church which is the kingdome of God and so deprived of the benefits thereof conveied to men by praier word and Sacrament and so in the devils power it might work in him a mortification of fleshly concupiscence by true repentance Nor do we set open this Church door so wide as to account reprobates of the Church militant nor yet notorious sinners without repentance for the members of the Church militant are living stones built upon the corner stone Christ 1 Pet. 2 5. in whom they are chosen and inrolled as his souldiers and are Saints by efficacious calling because predestinated thereto Rom. 8.30 which reprobates are not So manifest and notorious sinners are not of the Church militant because they fight not against sin but subject themselves to it
of Princes want discipline yet if the Church be purely visible it hath ordinarily these three notes which indeed freeth it from maintaining error heresie and schisme though all three may possibly be in it 1 Cor. 1.11 and cap. 3.3 1 Cor. 11.19 provided alwaies that the heresie thrust it not into infidelity or cause it not to deprave the doctrines of faith as the Church of Rome hath and so is become adulterous and hereticall So it may be in some things schismaticall so far as to hurt charity not verity by taking occasion unjustly as the Separatists to depart from the Church but not giving occasion to the Church to depart from them as the Papists have done to us like the old Pharisees who gave just occasion to Christ and his Apostles to separate themselves from their traditions Therefore true doctrine is the chiefe note of a true visible Church whereby people are taught as Christs sheep to hear his voice John 10.27 and to continue in his and his Apostles doctrine Acts 2.42 which is the foundation of the Church Eph. 2.20 And for the Sacraments they are commanded by Christ himselfe Mat. 28.19 and Luke 22.19 So also is the administration of discipline set down by our Saviour Mat. 18.17 and used by St Paul 1 Cor. 5.5 upon the incestuous person So that the right use of these must needs be a note of a true visible Church Let the Papists brag of their tearm Catholike I am sure it no way agreeth to them neither in respect of the extension of their Churches bounds which is not universall nor yet in regard of their doctrines which are not according to the Catholike truths confessed by the primitive or orthodox Churches of old and therefore their word Catholike is no note for a true visible Church is not to be judged by a name but by the thing it ought to hold otherwise the Pope like Simon Magus might be thought the great power of God Acts 8.10 Nor doth their boasted antiquity make their Church the more true for many things were said of old which were not intended at the first as they were afterward used Mat. 5. It is not antiquity but his truth that is the ancient of daies that is the note of the Church Aug. Q. 14. vet No. Testam The devill is older then the Church and Idolatry and Paganisme is very ancient and the Jews and the Samaritans pleaded antiquity and held the Gospell of Christ but a novelty yet their Church was not the true Beside if antiquity be a note then the Church Christian and Jerusalem and that of Antioch where Peter taught and sate as superintendent for seven years must be accounted the true Church and not Rome which was planted since but the authority of religion must not be measured by time Cypr. lib. 2. cont gent. Nor doth duration prove it the better for it is neither a proper or inseparable note as appeareth Psal 47.7 8. Rev. 12. And truly the Church of Rome hath not had a continued duration for Bellarmin saith that a Church cannot subsist without a Bishop and the seat of Rome hath been often vacant by wars and schisms among the Popes themselves as hath been formerly shewed you Nor doth their amplitude and multitudes make any thing in this case for them for Satans Kingdome is larger then Christs and his numbers more then Christs little flock who are often like Noahs family in the Ark they have a many of the vulgar Chrysost ad pop Antioch the Church hath a few faithfull one precious stone is worth many toies Nor will succession of Bishops help them to a note for who succeeded Melchisedeck but Christ many hundred of yeers falling between Vid. Athan. laudem in orat Nazian and the place changed also for the Church is not bound to place or persons of men Nor can ordination prove a note since hereticks hath it as well as the true Church neither can we find their ordination alwaies good if Pope Jone was ordained or she ordained any And Liberius the Pope being an Arrian ordained Arrians also Nor doth unity passe for a note except in the faith under one mysticall head Jesus Christ for satan is not divided against satan and very theeves are united together Nor can their miracles prove their Church true because they are false and Antichristian 2 Thes 2.9 and are invented to maintain false doctrines Beside if they were true they were not alwaies a note of a true Church for not only heathen gods have done strange things to perswade their divinity Bel. lib. de notis Eccl. cap. 14. Socrat. hist lib. 7. c. 17. but even heathen men as Vespasian made a blind man see and a lame man walk Mathe. What Church do you hold hath these three notes Phila. The true Christian Protestant Church especially as it was constituted by the first reforming Princes in England for the doctrine thereof is built upon the holy scripture They administer Sacraments in their primitive purity and hold only two generally necessary to salvation i. Baptisme and the Lords Supper rejecting all the spurious Sacraments of the Church of Rome As confirmation which the Church of England did use in a laudable manner and might do much good by using it as it was but not as a Sacrrment for it kept young people in a care to render an account of their faith and Ministers and Parents to teach them Catechisme So pennance was injoined notorious offenders for satisfaction of the Church and to reduce them better manners and to beget fear and shame in others but never held it a Sacrament no more then it did matrimony or ordination As for the fift spurious Sacrament of Rome extreme unction they never used it because not instituted of Christ as a Sacrament It is true Mark 6.13 the Disciples anointed many that were sick with oile and they were healed and St James in cap. 5.14 adviseth them to use oile with praier for the sick but it was no consecrated oile as the papists use Bellar. lib. 1. de extrem unct cap. 3. nor applied for remission of sins to seven parts of their body But you will say we in England at this time want right discipline I answer It is true yet the Church doth maintain it in her doctrines and constitutions but she cannot use it in those times when the shepherd is smitten and the sheep are scattered or else combined against him that they may live at their own liberty without correction by the rod of discipline yea libertinisme is grown to such a height that the disciplinarians themselves who envied the Bishops authority dare not exercise the Presbyterian virge lest they also follow the Bishops dejection Mathe. Might not a Nationall Councill set all right Phila. No doubt it might with Gods blessing so that it were called and impowred by authority and consisted of men orthodoxall and of just minds and of moderate temper who would make Gods
Luke the Physitian So the Lord allowed schools for the Prophets as we do Academies to be as medicines for the rude manners of the people If these men had more learning they would see they wanted more but having none they find none they want But however let them prove they have the spirit without learning the able minister shall prove he hath the spirit by learning as one may shew his faith by his works more evidently then another can shew faith without them Mathe. But why do you advise me to the publike meeting places as Churches rather than to chambers and conventicles surely one is as holy as the other is it not Phila. Yes in respect of any inherent holinesse in them for neither hath any but the Church hath the holinesse of dedication and separation from all other use as the Jewes Temple had till the abomination that maketh desolate was set there i. the Roman souldier And therefore God looketh it should be used with discrimination for holinesse becommeth his house for ever and sure a decent handsomnesse and behaviour doth not mis-become it But I do advise you to Churches the rather then chambers because Christ hath forewarned you of seeking him in the private chambers Mat. 24.26 Mathe. But I see as much disorder in Gods service there as in the chambers both in service and at the Communion by divers gestures Phila. The more pitty for they that pretend to sanctifie Gods name ought to make an holy discrination between those things that are called by his name and other things that are not As Gods word and Gods house and the Lords table I confesse in some things people may be borne withall as not kneeling at praiers when the Church and seats are so full that they cannot do it So at the Communion every Church have thought fit to have one gesture by themselves because people come to the Communion with one faith to feed upon one Christ and in one love and charity So some Churches beyond the seas stand some walk some sit the English Church was wont to kneele Now since our discipline is dissolved all these forrein gestures are crept into our Church and being there is no power to reduce them to their pristine gestures ministers can do no more then to instruct them to be well satisfied in their own minds and to have a charitable opinion of them For it may be they that receive it standing look on it in relation to the Passeover a type thereof which was eaten standing They that take it walking conceive it as a viaticum or a refreshment in their journie towards the land of eternall rest They that take it sitting look upon it as a spirituall banquet set before them to feed upon by faith They that kneel conceive it as a pardon sealed and delivered to them of God and so think good to take it kneeling By this charitable construction one Church or Christian shall not condemn another for a thing indifferent Mathe. But the Sabbath is not a thing indifferent yet some allow none or at least not the Lords day but Saturday the Jewes Sabbath Phila. They that will allow none deny the fourth Commandement which requires a morall Sabbath They that will not have the Lords day understand not the sense of that Commandement which bindeth not all men to the seventh which the Jewes kept but to a seventh For the Jewes themselves seem to me to have the seventh day from the creation altered as well as the beginning of the year at the Passeover of which Moses gives a reason Deut. 5.15 in repetition of the Commandement saying because God delivered thee out of Egypt therefore he commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day Nor do we find a Sabbath day kept till the reigning of Manna but that they marched one day as well as another yet if the day from the creation was altered by a new designation of a day yet the law was not broken which only intended a seventh day rest from six daies labor whensoever God should prescribe or fix the day to begin Neither is the law broken by Christians because the day is altered for the intent of the law is kept which bindeth to keep holy one in seven only the day is altered upon good ground for as the Jewes kept their day in remembrance of Gods delivering them from Pharaoh so the Christians keep one in seven i. the first day of the week in remembrance of Christs deliverance of them by his resurrection from satan sin and death and so hath performed indeed to us what was but typed forth to the Jewes by whose Holy daies and Sabbaths we are not now to be judged Col. 11.16 17. Mathe. But what need we keep a day in remembrance of Christs resurrection if we shall have no benefit by it if some say true that there is neither heaven nor hell Phila. These men shall find their error to their griefe at the resurrection which shall be procured by Christs resurrection who is the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. Concerning hell I have already shewed you That there must be a resurrection there needs no proofe since the wicked must be punished and the just rewarded which commonly falleth out contrary in this world and that many things may be revealed which yet lie hid as well sacred mysteries as mysteries of iniquity Rom. 2.16 And for heaven no doubt it is the place of felicity where Gods elect shall enjoy eternall life whither Christ is gone before to prepare a place for them the happinesse of which place is called by St Paul our house from heaven and the excellency of the inheritance is set down by the name of crowns and kingcomes and an eternall weight of glory of which unbeleevers must look for no part but such as have fought a good fight against corruptions and kept the faith in a pure conscience which God of his mercy give you and I grace to do through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom I commend you and so take leave for this time because important occasion cals me away Mathe. Gods peace be with you Phila. And Gods grace be with you Amen FINIS The Table of the Contents OF mans happiness p. 1 Of mans propagation p. 3 Of Christs humanity p. 9 Of principles leading to felicity p. 12 How man came to wander from it p. 13 That there is a God proved by reason p. 15 How men came to worship false deities p. 16 When came in false gods p. 17 Of Atheisme p. 19 No true God but one p. 20 Christians worship that God ibid. Persons in the Godhead three and no more p. 21 The means to know God p. 25 The Scriptures are Gods Word p. 26 Canonicall books p. 29 The Jewes have not corrupted the Text of the Old Testament p. 30 No contradiction in the Scriptures p. 31 Confutation of those that reject Scriptures p. 32 Of Scriptures translation p. 33 The judge of Scriptures sense p.