persons countries or Churches It is hard to discerne the Star of Prophecy so over any one man or place or time as that was over the house where Christ was in Bethlehem Hence many meteors falling Stars and fatuous fires are frequently discovered in the writings of fancifull and factious men as if all they did or desired or approved were evidently foretold and commended in the Revelation In whose Visions one sees this Princess another sees that learned man a third that State or Kingdome a fourth that Commander and Conqueror c. according as men list to fancy themselves or flatter others whose sparks are far extinct and their glory presently vanisheth as no way proportionable to that fixed light and ample glory which the spirit of prophecy holds forth chiefly to the Christian world in opposition to Heathens Jews or Antichrists After the way of these Prophetick fancies and passionate methods of some mens misinterpreting and misapplying Prophecies great Religion we see hath been placed by small mindes in pulling down and extirpating the ancient order and government of Episcopacy which was in all Churches as here in England from the first plantation of Christianity Also in setting up the supremacy of an headlesse Eldership and Presbytery or in dashing both of them into sheards and small pieces by the little stone of Independency How doe some glory in their dividing and destroying the ancient goodly frames of Churches that they may new modell them to their popular way of calling chusing and ordaining of Ministers Many boast much in their forsaking the calling and communion of all former Ministers and religious assemblies in their despising and demolishing the very places of publique meeting to serve God which not conscience of any divine particular precept but common reason and civility have presented Christian Religion withall for its honour and its professors conveniency Some here with us in England a place whose Genius much disposeth people to prophecies novelties and varieties are as Pygmalion with his Image so inamoured with their Corpusculo's the little new bodies of their gathered Churches that they deny any Nationall Church in any larger associatings of Christians by harmonies of confession and peaceable subordinations yea and many will allow no Catholick Church nor any religious sense to that article of our Creed denying any true Church at all to be now in the world Some place all Church power in paucities in parities in popular levellings and Independencies others contemn all those broken bodies as schismaticall slips having nothing in them of that goodly beauty stature strength and integrity to which the Church of Christ was wont to grow and wherein it flourished and continued conspicuous so many hundred of years before these novelties were broached or brewed either in England or any other countrey The height of some mens Religion and Reformation is to have neither Bishops nor Ministers of the ancient authority succession and ordination Others refuse these also of the new Presbyterian stamp which is not much older here in England than the figure and superscription of the last coin A third will have no Minister but such as the common people shall try chuse consecrate and judge Some will have no Minister at all by office or divine mission others will have any man a Minister or Prophet that lists to make or call himself one In like manner some will allow Baptism to no Infants others to none but such whose parents they judge to be Saints a third baptize the children of all that professe they beleive the truth of the Gospell a fourth sort deny the use of any water Baptism at all By a Catabaptisticall boldnesse or blindenesse magisterially contradicting and sophistically disputing against the expresse letter of the Scripture against the command of Jesus Christ against the practise of all the Apostles and against the custom of all Christian Churches Pretending as a rare and warm invention that the Baptisme of fire and of the Spirit which they now at last hold forth will both supply and explode that colder ceremony of sprinkling or dipping in water It is strange these Rabbies and Masters in Israel should be so silly as not to know that long before their brain brought forth any such blasphemous brood against baptizing by water all judicious Christians ever esteemed baptism by water to be an extern sign and meanes by which the wisedome of Christ thought fit to administer to his Church on earth not onely that distinctive mark of being his Disciples but also the representation of his bloud shed for their redemption and the obsignation of that Baptismall grace which his Spirit confers on those that are his by the cleansing of the conscience and renewing of the inward man 1 Pet. 3.21 Christians must not after the short and more compendious methods of their fancies therefore neglect the sign or ceremony because they presume of the thing signified but rather with humble obedience doe the duty and use the meanes divinely instituted that they may obtain the grace offered On the same grounds all outward Ministrations among Christians may be despised and abolished by those that pretend to the Spirits inward efficacy which is never in any man that doth not obey the Gospell in its outward mandates as well as the Spirit in its inward motions Proud idle and ignorant fancies are dayly finding shorter wayes to heaven than the wisdome of Christ hath laid out to his Church in following of which no good Christian can judge that there is either piety peace or safety Some boast much of their popular and plausible gifts for knowledge utterance prayer c. others slight all but inward grace and the Spirits dwelling in them Some dote much upon their select fraternities and covenanting congregations others are onely for private illuminations solitary seekings sublime raptures and higher assurances Some admire themselves in their tedious strictnesses and severer rigors by which they gird up the loins of their Religion so strait that it can hardly take civill breath or the air of common courtesie others joy as much in the Liberty they fancy themselves to have attained both of opinions and actions Some make every thing a sin and errour which they like not others count nothing a sin to which they have an impulse and are free as they call it Some tolerate all wayes of Religion in all men till it comes to be private Atheisme and publique confusion others crack all strings which will not be wound up to their pitch damning and destroying all that are not of their particular mode and heresie though never so novel and differing not onely from the Catholick practise of the primitive Churches but also from the expresse rule of the Scriptures Whom would not these monsters of novelties varieties and contradictions among Christians in their Religion as it is Christian and reformed too even amaze and greatly astonish ready to scare all men from any thing that wee in England call Religion Reformation Church or Conscience
Christ and his Church for his and your true Ministers Heb. 11.25 or else to chuse with Moses rather to suffer with them than to be any way assistant to rejoycing in or compliant with the ruine of them that so in all things you may adorn the doctrine of Christ Tit. 2 10. and honor the true Reformed Christian Religion established and professed in this Church of England To your judicious Zeal sincere Piety unbyassed Charity holy Discretion which have no leaven of sinister ends or unworthy policies being got above the vain hopes fears diffidences and designs of meer men I do in all Christian Charity and Humility present this Apology in the behalf of those Pearls the true Ministers of this Church of England whose worth is not abated though their lustre be obscured Matth. 7.11 nor are they less precious when trampled by Swine under their feet Rev. 2.11 nor less Stars in Christs right hand and fixed in the Firmament of the true Church when they are clouded by these Fogs and Vapors Rev. 9.2 which ascend from the Earth or from the bottomless pit from the malice and rage of men or devils Godly Ministers sufferings are their Glory Heb. 5.9 2.10 Luke 22. Nothing more adorned and perfected Christs divine Person and meritorious Patience than his being blinded buffetted scourged mocked reviled stripped crowned with Thorns and Crucified * Inglerii desormes esse non possumus quocunque modo ad Christi imaginem conformamur cujus nunquam magis enituit gloria quam quae sputo sanguine vibicibus operiebatur Chrys Isai 53. 2 Pet. 2.6 1 Cor. 4.13 Matth. 5.11 Phil. 1.29 Col. 1.24 1 Pet. 4.14 Psal 4. Acts 6.15 Jude 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor was he less a King and Saviour when his Purple Robe was taken off and his own Garments divided among the soldiers He was not less the Messias the sent and anointed of God the Great Preacher and fulfiller of Righteousness when he was the scorn and outcast of men nor a less precious Foundation and corner Stone when refused by foolish builders who dashed themselves against him instead of building and resting by Faith upon him In like sort the true Ministers of this Church whom the pride and wantonness of some men glories to account as the filth and off-scouring of all things to speak and do all maner of evil against them falsly and injuriously if they may be so far blest of God and honored as to suffer after Christs example and to make up to their measure the remainder of the sufferings of Christ in his Body the Church there is no doubt but the Spirit of Glory will more rest upon them the power of Christ be more perfected in them and the light of Gods countenance be more shining on them than when their Corn and Wine and Oylincreased their faces will then appear most as Angels of God when with Saint Stephen they are beset with showres of stones overwhelmed with all maner of hard speeches and rude indignities Thus it becomes the proud and petulant world to act and thus it becomes learned able and humble Ministers to suffer Who have then least cause to be ashamed when they are most opposed and oppressed for Christs sake For troden in the wine-press of mans displeasure they may then yield the noblest juyce and most generous expressions of their Zeal Courage and Constancy Wherefore I have adventured although the weakest and unworthiest among many of my Fathers and Brethren the Ministers of this Church of England so far to satisfie the worlds curiosity as to give them some prospect and view of the Ministers of England in their present distresses feare and afflictions that men may see with how stedfast countenances they can look upon their adversaries Acts 6.15 while they stop their ears against them gnash their teeth at them and threaten utterly to destroy them that their causeless and implacable enemies may behold with what divine comfort and assurance they can walk both cheerfully and uprightly amidst their fiery furnaces Dan. 4. into which they are therefore cast because they will not fall down and worship * As Idols so are false Teachers Dolores Vanitates Labores Stultitiae Abominationes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mordii Res vana nihili Mark 3.14 And Jesus ordained twelve that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to Preach Acts 25.11 Toto caelo distant benè operari desperare Sibi conscia virtus Dat animos those Idol-shepherds those False-prophets Zach. 11.17 those Meer-images of Ministers which have set up themselves as gods in the Church of God such as neither they nor their Fore-fathers nor any Church of Christ for One thousand six hundred yeers ever knew or heard of who were ever blessed and thankfully contented in all times either of persecution or peace with those true Ministers who in a right way of due Ordination descended from and succeeded in the place and ordinary power of the Apostles and the other Disciples which were first sent and ordained by Christ Which the true Ministers of the Church of England being conscious to themselves as I shall after prove that they have rightly received they have this confidence still That they are neither so forsaken of God nor destitute of good Consciences nor despised by good men nor do they despair but that they may have leave be able and permitted with just freedom and modest courage to plead their cause before any Tribunal of men not doubting but they may have so fair an hearing as St. Paul their Great Predecessor both in Preaching and Sufferings hoped from Felix Festus Agrippa or Caesar Of whose piety the Apostle having no great perswasion yet he charitably presumed to finde so much equity and common humanity in them as not to be condemned by them being unheard or to be acquitted as to any crimes falsly laid to his charge if he had but the favor of a fair Trial and impartial Hearing So hard it is for a good man ever to despair in a good cause And however my confidence be just and wel-grounded 3. Reason of this Address as to the merit of that Cause which I have by Gods help undertaken yet when I consider my strength which is small my infirmities which are many my defects which are manifest my interest with men of place and power which is very little and the prejudice against whatever I or any other Minister can do in this kinde which may be great and many I have as feeble Creatures Quod deest viribus habent cautelâ conscious to their weakness are wont to do fled to the refuge and assistance first of Gods grace which is sufficient for me and which in the midst of threatnings Acts 27. storms and shipwrack bids me be of good chear Next to that of your mediation O excellent Souls who are every where dispersed in this Nation
know how to use them unless it be to break their heads with them whom Christ hath set as stewards in his houshold These rustick and rash undertakers to reform and controul all are onely probable to shipwrack themselves and many others and the whole Ship of this Church by driving the skilful Pilots the true Bishops and Ministers from the Helm and putting in their places every bold Boatswain and simple Swobber Yet are the populacy flattered by some to this dangerous insolency and error who putting fire to this thatch instead of the Chimney do but provoke the poor people to their own hurt to forsake their own mercies and to injure both their own and others souls Mean time sober and wise Christians cannot but smile with shame sorrow and indignation to see how some Plebeian Preachers who are new risen as from the slime of the earth in whom no Prometheus hath breathed any spark of heavenly fire of spiritual divine and truly ministerial power to see I say how these Teachers have brought themselves by a voluntary humility to depend on peoples suffrages and charity not onely for maintenance but for their very Ministry being now sunk so low as to flatter their good Masters with this paradox or strange principle That they as the people or body be they never so few and mean have a reciprocal power to beget those who are to be their Spiritual Fathers that by a more than Pythagorean Metemphycosis the Power Spirit and Authority of Jesus Christ who was sent by his Father John 20.21 and so sent his Apostles and they others in the same Spirit to be Fathers Pastors Rulers Stewards c. That at length this Spirit and Authority should transmigrate we know not how nor when into the very mass and bulk of common people if they be but Christians of the lowest form animating them in the whole and in every part or parcel of them with such plenitude of Church power as enables them to be all Kings and Priests Pastors and Teachers Prophets and Apostles if need be and if they list and if they have leisure or if not to act so in their own persons having more profitable employments yet they have virtually and eminently in them as much power as Christ had and used or left to any men whereby to consecrate and ordain true Ministers to try and teach those that are to teach them to rule their Rulers to discipline their Shepherds to govern their Governors to turn not onely Religion out of doors but even all Reason Order and Civility upside down rather than not exercise this imaginary power especially if it serve to secular advantages And all this because they are told they are the Church and so may erect all Church power as in them and from them This fancy is able to make a plain Country-Christian stand on his Tiptoes and to bring all his family to see him and his other-like members making up this glorious Body which he calls his Church that they may be witnesses with how much folly and simplicity and clamor and confidence he with his Neighbors examines approves or reproves refuseth or chooseth and ordains all officers and some new fashioned Minister or Pastor Who poor-man must neither Preach nor Pray not eat nor look otherways than pleaseth these sad and silly yet very supercilious pieces of popular pride and itching arrogancy nor can such an hungry and timorous Pastor ever be setled or safe in this Pastoral Authority 26. Common people not fit to manage Church power in chief unless he have the trick of Faction which is still to ingratiate with the major part of this his flock who will otherways as easily push and beat him out of this fold or break all to pieces as ever they admitted him by a profane easiness and popular insolency But I must with less flattery and more honesty tell this Generation of perverse Usurpers this truth which is not unwelcome to sober spirited Christians That the weight of Christianity doth not at all hang on this popular pin which is no where to be found but in their light heads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. and heavy hands neither Reason nor Religion since men were redeemed from the barbarity of Acorns Nakedness and Dens ever thought the plebs or common people ought to be all in all if any thing at all either in conferring or managing either Civil or Church power but least of all that part of Church power which is proper for the making of a Minister in the way of due Ordination of which I shall after give a fuller account For this is that to which they generally have least proportion either of knowledge learning holiness or discretion Besides it would thence follow that so soon as any Sect or Faction of people can get but numbers and courage they may do what they list in this plenitude of power without the leave of Magistrates or Ministers in Church or State These are pestilent principles which are not onely pernicious to the Church but to any civil Societies threatning not our faith onely but our purses and throats Nor did ever any wise men what ever is pretended at any time to amuse the people and to serve an occasion intend or suffer the community or vulgar people with their massie bodies and numerous hands really to attain use or enjoy any such supreme power in civil administrations If once soverain power be gotten though by the means of such credulous assistants yet whatever the populacy may flatter themselves with it never is nor can wisely and happily be managed by them but rather without them above them and many times against them Power precarious that is such as depends upon a popular principle or plebeian account such as sometime was among the Grecian State and Romans is for the most part but an Empire of beggery or flattery or falsity Where at best wise and valiant men may oft be forced to prostrate themse ves to the arbitrement of the vulgar who are injurious esteemers and ungrateful requiters even of the most publick merits But oftentimes the peoples pretended power and interest is made use of in specious terms and cunning agitations onely to serve the turn of turbulent ambitious and factious spirits in Church and State whose envy or ambition easily teacheth the credulous community to esteem the over-meriting of the best men and Magistrate◠to be their greatest oppression and most deserving Ostracism banishment or disgrace Per paucorum hominum virtute crevit Imperium Salust Rom. 13.4 The Life of Government and Soul of Dominion is that real power and resolution which is in the hand of one or more wise and potent men who are always intent to deserve well of the people yet always able to curb and repress their insolency and inconstancy Without this
former times In all which we finde there ever was a peculiar Office of the holy Ministry and a peculiar Order of Persons both ordaining and ordained to be Ministers and both so used and so esteemed by all good Christians in all setled Churches Clemens in Saint Pauls time after him writing from Rome to the Corinthians where faction was kindled Exhorting people and Presbyters to peace tells them That the Apostles appointed some in all Countreys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trying and approving them by the Spirit to be Bishops and Deacons for those that after should believe Pag. 54. Edit Pat. Jun. Id sine dubio tenendum quod ecclesia ab Apostolis Apostoli à Christos Christus à Deo suscepit Reliâ—ua omnis doctrina de mendacio praejudicanda quae sapit contra vâ—ritatem ecclesiae Apostolorum Christu Dei Tertul. de prae ad Hae. c. 21. Omnes praepositi Apostolis Vicaria Ordinatione succedunt Cyp. l. 4. ep 9. Jer. Com. in 1. cap. ep ad Gal. Isidor Hispal off eccle l. 2. c. 5. Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostolorum successiones Episcoporum certa per orbem propagatione diffunditur Aug. ep 42. The Lord saâ—th Clemens will have us to perform our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 off g ings and services 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none rashly and disorderly but in due time and season 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where also and by whom his wâ—ll and supreme pleasure hath appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Faction or Schism began in Saint Pauls time then renewed or had continued which Clemens shews citing the Apostle Pauls Epistle to the Corinthians and telling them That the Apostles setled approved Ministers Bishops and Deacons after them and ordered for a succession to follow when those were dead whom they ordained immediately p. 57. Edit Pat. Jun. Clemens R. ep ad Corinth Ignat. ep ad Hieron in aliis ep Just. Mar. Apol. 2. Tertul. Apol. lib. De Baptismo Cyprian l. 1. ep 2 9. l. 3. ep 5. Eis qui sunt in Ecclesia Presbyteris obaudire oportet his qui successionem habent ab Apostolis qui cum Episcopatus succâ—ssime charisma veritatis certum secundum beneplacitum patris acceperunt Reliquos vero qui absistunt à principali successione quocunque loco colliguntur suspectos habere vel haereticos malae sententiae vel quasi sciudentes elatos sibi placentes Aut rursus ut hypocritae quoestus gratia vanae gloriae hic operantes omnes autem hâ—decidunt à veritate ut Nadab Abihu Koram Jeroboam c. Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus Ecclesiae status in universo mundo secundum successiones Episcoporum quibus illi eam quae in unoquoque loco est Ecclesiam tradiderunt Iren. l. 4. c. 63. Chrysost de Sacerdotio Basil Mag. Symoni Mago comparat illos qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who take money for Ordination and calls that gain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conduct money for Hell Ep. 78. And in his 181. Epist chalenges to himself the power of Ordination from the Corepiscopi So Epist 187. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The antient custom of the Church receives none to be Ministers but with strict examination in their Ordination Epiphan Hae. 79. Jeron Dialog ad Lucifer St. Ambrose De Dignitate Sacerdotali Liber St. Austine Ep. 42. and in many places St. Gregory the Great De Cura Pastorali lib. Quomodo valebit secularis homo sacerdotis magisterium adimplere cujus nec officium tenuit nec disciplinam agnovit Is Hisp off eccl l. 2. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nullatenus nobis Christianis permissum est ut quis in ecclesia sen publicè Scripturas explanet nisi qui in clericalem ordinem adscitus suerit Suid. in l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Thaumaturgus juvenum quendam pium Philosophum sub forma carbonarii obscurum in sacerdotem ordinavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juxta solemnes ritus Greg. Nis in vita Theum Which Catholike practise and judgment as it is a great satisfaction to all sober Christians who itch not after novelties so it must needs be a vehement prejudice with any wisemen against those yesterday novelties raised by some few men of great passions and presumptions but of no great reputation that ever I could learn for either such learning piety or impartiality as may be put into the ballance against the clear and concurrent Testimonies of all the Antients and the universal practise of all Churches which all Histories all Fathers all Councils all Learned and Godly men both Antient and Modern do with one Spirit and one Mouth abundantly testifie agreeable to that of Saint Jerom St. Augustine Isidore Hispal and many others Who speaking of the Calling of Ministers from those words Called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ reckon up four sorts First Some that are sent immediately from God and not by men as Moses many Prophets the Twelve Apostles and Saint Paul Secondly Some by Gods appointment yet by Mans hand and Ordination as Aaron Joshuah Elisha Timothy Thirdly Others in the ordinary way and succession of the Church as it is appointed by Jesus Christ are by men onely ordained Ministers either according to real merit partial favor and vulgar affection Fourthly There be some whom neither God nor man sends but they run of themselves Such saith St. Jerom were and are false Prophets and false Apostles deceitful workers Ministers of Satan transforming themselves into Angels of light who say Thus saith the Lord when the Lord hath not spoken to them or sent them To this sense Saint Jerom St. Austine and accordingly all the Antients before and after them as they have occasion to speak of the office duty and dignity of Ministers in the Church Which Catholike Testimony and Tradition or Custom of the Church for any Christian to contradict without shew of reason is intollerable impudence and not to believe it is most inhumane and unchristian uncharitableness to disparage and causlesly to derogate from it can be no other but profane and perverse insolence unless there can be produced such clear testimonies from immediate divine revelations confirmed by miracles or from the received Written Word of God to the contrary as will easily and ought justly to overweigh all after inventions or constitutions which are built meerly upon humane custom and authority as that was of giving the Lords Supper to Infants and to the dead sometimes Which counterbalancing of Custom by Reason or Scripture is not yet in the least kinde done by these men that are the opposers of the Ministry of England Who by the same proud or peevish incredulity by which they oppose the Catholike consent and practical Testimony of the Church in this great point of the holy Ministry do overthrow by a sceptical folly and disputative madness the very foundation
relation to the Gospell of Jesus Christ did ever so much as dispute or question the power and succession ministeriall as to its calling peculiar and divinely appropriated to some men in the Church Till of later dayes in Germany and some otherwheres the pride of some mens parts and conceit of their gifts or the opinion of their raptures and Enthusiasms mixed with other lusts and secular designs tempted some weak and fanatick men of the Anabaptistical leaven to adventure the invasion and vulgar prostration of the office before ever they broached their reasons against it Confessores gloriae Christi An. 1543. When they after proved to be Pastoricidae Vilains which conspired to destroy all the Ministers of the Gospel in Germany hanging and drowning many of them casting them into wells An. 1562. Cl. Sanctesius de temp decept Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. Qui absistunt à principali successionâ— Episcoporum Presbyterorum ab Apostolis quocunque locâ— relliguntur suspectos habere oportet vel haereticos vel scindentes vel elatos sibi placentes Oâ—â—eâ—â—i decidunt à veritate Sophistae verborum magis esse volentes quà m discipuli veritatis Iren. lib 3. c. 40. which presumption and disorder the Swenckfeldians who called themselves Confessors of the glory of Christ afterwards the Socinians and others intending to introduce new and heretical doctrines with their new Teachers studied to set forth with some weak shews of reason and Scripture Whereas in all former ages of the Church such as should have abrogated the antient Catholick way or have broached any new way of Evangelical power and Ministry would have been as scandalous as if he had broached a new Messias or a new Gospel and made the old one of none effect as many of those strive to do who seek to cry down the former way of Ministers right Ordination Succession and Authority Who if they had not met with a giddy and credulous and licentious age would have needed new miracles to have confirmed their new and plebeian ways of Ministry or to cashier the old one which was first began and after confirmed as the Gospel was for some years with many infallible signs and wonders wrought by the Apostles and their Successors in that Order and Function 3. What can be the design of any to go contrary or innovate What can it be then but an exceeding want of common understanding or a superfluity of malice or a transport of passion or some secular lust either to deny credit to the Testimony of the best Christians and purest Churches in all times or to go quite contrary to their judgment and practise by seeking to discredit and destroy the Authority and peculiar Function of the antient Catholike Christian Ministry in these or other Churches And since in primitive times it could be no matter of either profit or honor in the world In ea regula incedimus quà m Ecclesia ab Apostolis Apostoli à Christo Christus à Deo accepit Tertul. de Praes c. 37. Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostoloâ—um successioneâ—â—piscoporum certa per o rbem propagatione diffunditur August ep 42. to be a Bishop or Presbyter in the Church who were the first men to be persecuted or sacrificed What motive could there be then but onely Religion Duty and Conscience to undertake and persevere in that holy and dangerous Calling that so the Gospel might be continued And since now in England it can be no great temptation of covetousness or ambition unless it be in very poor and necessitous man to be a Preacher of the Gospel upon the new account of the peoples or self-ordaining which is as none what can it be that provokes so many in a new and pitiful way either of egregious ignorance and popular simplicity to undertake to be Preachers Or in a more refined way of devilish malice and deep design to seek to level cast down and trample under foot all Ministerial power whatsoever which is none if it be common and not peculiar to some men by divine Sanction Certainly this can arise from no other aim but either that of destroying us as a Reformed Church or desolating us quite from being a Church or Christians Which our posterity will easily cease to be as to the very form as many at present are 1 Cor. 15.14 as to any power and conscience of Religion if once they cease to have or begin to think they have not had any true Ministers in this or any Church So that all Preaching of the Gospel all Saâ—â—aments all the Faith of so many Christians Professors Confessors and Martyrs in all Ages together with the fruits of their Faith in Patience Charity and good Works must be in vain Alas these poor revenues and encouragements which are yet left to the Ministers here considered with their burdens of business duties taxes and envy are scarce worth the having or coveting even by vulgar and mechanick spirits who may make a better shift to live in any way almost than now in the Ministry The design then of levelling the Ministry must needs be from greater motives such as seek to have the whole honor and authority of the Reformed Religion here in England utterly abolished or else taken up upon some such odde novel and fanatick grounds which will hold no water bear no weight or stress being built upon the sands of humerous novelty not on the rock of holy antiquity and divine verity That so this whole Church may by the adversaries of it be brought to be a meer shadow of deformed and confused Religion or else be onely able to plead its Christianity upon meer Familistick or Anabaptistick or Enthusiastick or Socinian or Fanatick Principles Upon which must depend all our Christian Privileges Truths Sacraments Ministrations Duties and Comforts Living and Dying all which will easily be proved and appear to a considerate soul as profane and null when he shall see they are performed or administred by those Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus ecclesiastatus in universo mundo charactere corporis Christi secundum successiones Episcoporum quibus illi â—am quae est in unoquoque lâ—ci Ecclesiam tradiderunt Ire l. 4. c. 6â— who can produce no Precept Scripture or Practise from Antiquity for their ways either of Christianity or of Ministry but onely their own or other mens wilde fancies and extravagant furies nor can they have better excuses for their errors in forsaking the right and Catholike way but onely a popular levity credulity and madness after novelties So that as to this first part of my answer touching The peculiar Function of the Ministry I do aver upon my Conscience so far as I have read or can learn That there is no Council of the Church or Synod no Father or Historian no other Writer that mentions the affairs of the Church no one of them gives the least cause to doubt but wholly confirms this
assertion That no part of the Catholike Church of Christ in any age or place was ever setled or flourished without a constant peculiar Order and Ordination of Ministers who were consecrated to the receiving and exercise of that power in the Church as from Christ although by man which have continued to this day Theodoret. hist l. 1. c. 22. De Aedesio Frumentio apud Indos dâ—vina Ministeria â—bierunt Laicii cum erant Frumentius postea ab Athanasio ep factus Cap. 23. Captivamulier apud Iberos Evangelium praedicabet miracula edebat His Const M. Episcopos misit There are indeed three or four examples in cases extraordinary of some private unordained Christians in the Primitive times who occasionally trading to Heathens were means first to teach them the Mysteries of Christ so as they desired to be baptized which was after done by such Bishops and Ordained Ministers as were sent them upon their request from other Churches To produce particulâ—r testimonies out of each Author Father Council and Historian in every age to prove the constant succession the high veneration and the unfeigned love which was every where conferred upon the Bishops and Ministers of the Church also to shew forth that devout care and religious regard which the ordainers the faithful people and those to be ordained to the office had in their several relations and duties when Ministers were to be ordained and consecrated such allegations were easie being very many and obvious but I hold the pains needless considering that to learned men they are so well known and all ingenuous Christians will believe my solemn asseveration that as in the presence of God what I write is Truth As for those weak or wilful men who are in this my onely opposers I know they consider not any heaps of authorities which they account onely as humane which they cannot examine nor do they value them when convinced of the certainty and harmony of them were there never so sweet and many flowers gathered from the testimony of Antiquity and Authority of the Fathers these supercilious novellers will not vouchsafe to smell to them It is well if I can make them savor any thing well out of the Scriptures which favors the Function of the Ministry 4. Catholike custom confirmed by Scripture as to the Office of the Ministry 2. So then in the next place This Defence of the Churches clear constant and Catholike Testimony in this point of the peculiar Office of the Ministry as in any other becomes a brazen wall an impregnable bulwark able to break in pieces or to retort all engines and batteries made against it when it appears to be exactly drawn according to the scale line and measure set down in the holy Scripture which are therefore much sleighted by some who despise the Ministry because like well-planted Canons they defend the Church and its constant Ministry as on the other side the Churches fidelity and constancy are the ground-work and platforms on which the Scriptures are planted 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church of Christ bearing up as the ground and holding forth as a pillar that divine Truth Power and Authority which from God they have in them of which the Church is the Herald or Publisher but not the Author or Inditer Conferring nothing to their internal Truth which is from their revealer and inspirer God but much to their external credit and historick reception which we have tendered to us daily not as immediately from God or Angels or inspired Prophets but by the veracity and fidelity of the Church chiefly in its publick Ministry which in this point of so necessary constant and universal practise for the good of all faithful people in all Ages and Churches cannot be thought in any reason either to have had no rule divinely appointed or that all Churches have been wholly ignorant of it or knowingly have so wholly swerved from it that never any Church either in its Teachers and Pastors or in its people and believers were followers of the Scripture-Precept and Patern till these last and worst days whereas the clear and pregnant light of the Scripture is in this point of a setled Ministry so agreeing with the use and practice of the Catholike Church that as no error can be suspected in the one so no obscurity can be pretended in the other by any Christians who will allow the divine Authority and infallible Truth of those Scriptures which we call the New Testament In all which nothing is more evident Christ sent of the Father as a Minister of Righteousness 1 Pet. 2.25 Heb. 12.2 Matth. 17.5 Jâ—hn 4.34 5.36 6.57 7.16 Heb. 5.4 No mantaketh this honor to himself but he that is called of God as Aaron V. 5. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest but c. Matth. 3.17 and self-demonstrating beyond any cavil or contradiction than That our Lord Jesus Christ the promised Messias the beloved Son of God the Angel of the new and better Covenant the Minister of Righteousness the great Apostle the chief Bishop and Father of our souls the Author and Finisher of our Faith the supreme Lord and King the eternal and compassionate High Priest the unerring Prophet of his Church whose voice we are onely to hear and obey in all things he commands us That I say this Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father to a personal accomplishment of all Prophecies fulfilling of all righteousness to a visible Ministration of holy things for the Churches good That he came not in his own Name as a man to be Mediator and Teacher nor did he as a man take this honor of Prophet Priest or King of his Church upon him but had his mission or appointment from his Father God who gave evident testimonies from Heaven of him not onely before and at his birth but afterward at his solemn and publick inauguration by Baptism into the Work of his Ministry where a voice from Heaven was heard and a visible representation of the Holy Spirit was seen testifying him to be the beloved Son of God the anointed with the gifts of the Spirit above all as Head of the Church These after were followed with infallible signs and wonders while Jesus went about doing good teaching the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven instituting holy rites for the distinguishing of his Church from the world and for the comforting of the faithful in the world by those seals pledges and memorials of his love in dying for the Church and shedding both water and blood upon the Cross Christs sending his Apostles as Ministers Acts 1. Phil. 2.9 Christ having thus personally finished the suffering and meritorious part of his Ministry after his Resurrection being now no more to converse in a visible humane way of presence with his Church on Earth but ascending as was meet to that glory of the Father which as God he had ever with him as man he had
false teachers to stop their mouths Tit. 1.11 to exhort command and rebuke with all authority Tit. 2.15 to do their work as workmen that need not to be ashamed 2 Tim. 2.15 as those that must give an account of their Ministry and the souls committed to their care and charge by God and the Church Adorns them also with peculiar privileges promises and speciall assistances takes care for peculiar maintenance 1 Cor. 9.9 19. and double honour to be given them by all true Christians 1 Tim. 5.17 and encourageth them in a work of so great pains exact care and consciencious diligence which must expect to meet alwaies as now it doth with much opposition and contradiction of sinners promising to them speciall degrees of glory and more ponderous Crowns of eternall rewards in Heaven 1 Cor. 12.29 Are all Apo. are all Prophets are all Teachers c. 1 Cor. 9.16 Though I Preach the Gospell I have nothing to glory of as superogating so necessity is layd upon me yea woe is unto me if I Preach not the Gospell By all which and many others which might be added the Demonstration is clear as the Sun at Noon day to all that are not wilfully blind That some and not all in the Church and these not arbitrary and occasionall but chosen and ordeined persons are sent in a succession from Christ in his name and by vertue of this divine mission speciall authority and ordination to the care service and work of the Ministry they are bound in the highest bonds of conscience to the glory of God and the salvation of their own and others souls under a dreadfull woe and curse of being guilty of their souls damnation who perish by their neglect to attend diligently to discharge faithfulâ—y and couragiously as in the name and authority of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory this great and dreadfull imployment of the Ministry which Angels would not undertake without they were sent nor if sent without some horror Onus opus iâ—sis angelicis formidandum humoris Betn 2 Cor. 2.16 Who is sufficient for these things i. e. to speak the word of God as of God in the sight of God in Christ i. e. of sincerity 2 Tim. 2.4 2 Tim. 4.13 14 15 16. Acts 4.19.20 The Epistle of Paul to Tim. and Tit. are the constant Canons and divine injunctions for the succession of Ministerial power by way of tryal imposition of hands prayer c. To which no earthen vessels are of themselves sufficient but through the grace of God they are made able and faithfull 1 Tim. 1.12 and being such are both successefull and accepted while they give themselves wholy to this work not entangling themselves with other incomberances but devoting the whole latitude of time parts studies gifts to this business of saving souls and this not in popular and precarious wayes or only upon grounds of charity but with all just confidence of having that authority with them as well as necessity upon them which makes them bold in the Lord that they cannot but speak the things for which they have received power and commission from Christ by the Ordination and appointment of the Governours and guides of the Church who formerly had received the same power To which none can without high impudence blasphemy and impiety pretend who are conscious to themselves to have received no such authority from Christ either immediatly or in that one mediate way of successive ordination by which he hath appointed it to be derived to posterity which I have already proved cannot by any shew of Scripture no more than in any way of reason and order becomming Religion be found to have any other way than by those that are in orders as Ministers neither is it intrusted with the community of people among Christians nor left to every private mans pleasure As then some men are duly invested with power ministeriall 7. None can be true Ministers but such as are rightly ordeined both to act in this power and to confer it to others after them and these only are commanded by the rule of Christ by their duty or office and by all bonds of conscience to make a right use of this peculiar and divine power for the Churches good So are all other men whatsoever not thus duly ordeined and impowred though never so well gifted in themselves forbidden under the sins of lying falsity disorderly walking proud usurpation and arrogant intrusion of themselves into an holy office uncalled and unsent either to take this office and Ministry of holy things on themselves or to confer the power which they never received on others which neither Melchisedeck nor Moses nor Aaron nor Samuel nor any of the Prophets nor the Lord Jesus Christ nor the blessed Apostles Heb. 5.1 Every high Priest taken from among men is ordeined for men in things pertaining to God c. 4. No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Anon c. 5. Christ also glorified not himself to be made an high Priest c. nor any Evangelist or any true Bishop or Presbyter nor any holy men succeeding them did ever take to themselves either as to the whole or any part of that power and Ministry not so much as to be a Deacon but still attended the Heavenly call and mission either immediatly Luke 12.42 Who then is a faithfull and wise Steward whom the Lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion in due season 43. Blessed c. 1 Tim. 3.15 If I tarry long that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the house of God c. which was confirmed by miracles and speciall revelations or predictions or mediatly in such an order and method of succession as the Lord of the Church who is not a God of confusion hath appointed and to this day preserved who otherwayes would have left his Church short of that blessing of orderly Government and Officers appointed for holy ministrations which is necessary in every society and which no wise man that is Master of any Family doth omit to appoint and settle especially in his personall absence where he governs by a visible derived and delegated authority given to others as Christ now doth his Church as to the extern order and dispensation of holy things Peoples duty The duty of all faithfull people in which bounds their comforts are conteined are no less distinct and evidently confined Quomodo valebit homo secularis sacerdotis magisterium adimplere cujus nec officium tenuit nec disciplinam agnovit Isid Hisp off l. 2. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lay man is bound up by Lay commands to keep his rank and order Cl. ep pag. 53. Nor can saith he the Presbyters be cast out or degraded without a great sin Pag. 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Exors officii exors solatii praemii Is Hisp Matth.
Cyclopes Non tam spectandum quid agat quisque quam quo ordine nec tam quo animo quam quâ disciplina Ep. Wint. Andrews Ordo postulat ut virtute eminentiores sint loco superiores qui habeant rationum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 1. V d. Clem. Ro. Epist ad Corinth Numb 11.17 they cannot but daily see a necessity of exact order and distinct power which must be observed among themselves as soldiers without which Armies will be but heaps upon heaps confused crouds and noises of men if any one who fancies his own or an others sufficiencies shall presently usurp the power and intrude into the office of Captain and Commander whose work is not onely to use a few good words now and than but to fight valiantly and yet to keep both himself and others in good order No less is order necessary to the Church in its Societies over which able and fit Ministers duly placed have not onely the work of Preaching lying on their Consciences which requires more than ordinary and vulgar abilities but they have many other great and weighty affairs which they are to discharge both publickly and privately as workmen that need not to be ashamed as those that are meet instruments and workers together with God and Christ in the great work of saving souls to which if onely memory and a voluble tongue and an oratorious confidence would have served there needed not so great preparations and power of the Spirit from on high to come on the Apostles which not onely furnished them with Matter what to say and Languages wherein but with just and full authority to preach Christs Gospel in Christs Name and to settle a like constant Authority Order and Power Ministerial in all Churches for holy Administrations putting upon their Successors whom they ordained in every place as the spirit of Moses was put on the seventy Elders of that Spirit that is of that same power Ministerial which they had immediately from Christ Nor was any one not rightly ordained antiently esteemed as any Minister of the Church nor any thing he did valid nor were any that adhered to such disorderly walkers and impostors ever reckoned among good Christians or as sound Members in the Church Cypr. Epist 76. De Baptisandis Novatianis ad Magnum Novatianus in Ecclesia non est nec Episcopus â—â—mputari potest qui Evangelica Apostolica autoritate contempta nemini succedens à se ipso ortus est Habere enim aut tenere Ecclesiam nullo modo potest qui ordinatus in Ecclesia non est Quomodo gregi Christi annumerari potest qui legitimum non sequitur pastorem quomodo pastor haberi debet qui manente vero pastore in Ecclesia Dei ordinatione succedanea praesidente nemini succedens à seipso incipiens alienus sit dominicae pacis divina veritatis inimicus As Saint Cyprian most eloquently and zealously writes concerning Novatianus who usurped the office of a Bishop and Pastor among some credulous and weak people despising the Ordination of the Church How can he be counted a Bishop or Minister in the Church who thus like a Mushroom grows up from himself How can he have any office in the Church who is not placed there by the officers in the Church which hath ever had in it true Pastors who by a successive Ordination have received power to preside in the Church He that sets up of his own new score and succeeds none formerly ordained is both an alien to and an enemy of the peace and truth divine Nor can that sheep be reckoned as one of Christs flock who doth not follow a lawfully ordained Pastor Thus Saint Cyprian a Learned holy Bishop and after a Martyr for Christ testifies the sense of the Church and all true Christians in his time who flourished in the third Century after Christ I will onely adde one place more out of Tertullian Tertul. lib. de Praescrip adv Haereses Edant Haeretici origines Ecclesiarum suarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per successiones ab initio decurrentium ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis vel Apostolicis virâ— qui tamen cum Apostolis perseveraverint habuerit autorem antecessorem Hoc enim modo Ecclesiae Apostolicae tensus suos deferunt Sicut Smyrnaeorum Ecclesia habeus Polycarpum à Johanne Collocatum resert Sicut Romanorum Clementem à Petro Ordinatum c. Traditionem itaque Apostolorum in toto mundo manifestatam in Ecclesia adest perspicere omnibus qui verè velius audere Et habemus enumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis successores eorum usque ad nos Quibus etiam ipsas Ecclesias remittebant suum ipsorum locum Magisterii tradentes Qui nihil tale cognoverunt neque docuerunt quale ab his deliratur Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 3. De iis quâ— decedunt ab Apostolica Successione who lived before Saint Cyprian in the end of the second Century whom Cyprian usually called his Master for the learning warmth force and eloquence which were in his works till his defection Let these new Masters saith he and their Disciplies set forth to us the Original of their Churches the Catalogue and Succession of their Bishops and Ministers so running upward without interruption that it may appear their first Bishop or Presbyter had some Apostle or some that persevered with the Apostle for their predecessor and ordainer For thus the true and Apostolically planted Churches do ever make their reckonings as the Church of Smyrna had their first Bishop Polycarpus placed among them by St. John the Apostle So the Church of Rome and Antioch had their Pastors or Bishops setled by the Apostle Peter Thus Tertullian and with him Irenaeus and all the antients who sought to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 The purity of doctrine and power of holy Discipline in the Church of Christ These holy men never dreamed of Self-ordainers or of gifted yet unordained Ministers nor did they own any Christians in Church Society or Ecclesiastick Order and holy Communion where there was not an evident distinct and personally demonstrable Succession of Bishops Pastors and Teachers in Ministerial Authority so constituted by holy Ordination lineally descended and rightly derived from the Apostolical Stem and the Root Jesus Christ. Nor is this so divine an Institution so solemn an Ordination 17. Peculiar Officers as Ministers most necessary for the common peoples good as to Religion so sacred a Mission and so clear and constant a Succession of Ministers whose office it is to bear witness of the Name of Christ in his love and sufferings and merits to the end of the World till the number of Saints be perfected till the work of the Ministry is finished and the Body of Christ his Church fully edified Eph. 4.12 This I say is not of more concernment
Sacrament we reject together with the consequentiall Idolatry of worshiping the bread Also the sacrilege of detaining the Cup of the Lord from the people we cannot allow as being contrary both to the primitive practise of the Church and to the express command of Christ in the Institution which was after also revealed to St. Paul by Christ himself Yet still we use and observe the Sacramentall Elements with the same high estimation and veneration which pious and purest antiquity ever did bear to that Sacred mysterie how ever we forbear to use some of their expressions whose Oratory occasioned in part the after error which mistook that as spoken of the Bread in its nature which magnified it only in the Sacramentall use and mysterie which is indeed very high retaining both the Elements words and holy form which Christ instituted and Christians alwayes used not so much disputing and determining the manner of Sacramentall union as endevouring after those graces which may make us worthy Communicants and reall partakers of the Body and Bâ—ood of Jesus Christ when we do receive that dreadfull yet most desirable seal of our Faith which consigns fuller to us and confirms in us those comforts which as sinners we want and may have most really and only from Christ not by eating his flesh in a bodily and gross way with our mouths but by receiving him by a true and lively faith into our souls as he is set forth to us in the Scriptures to be God incarnate the only Saviour of the world of whose merit death passion body and blood we are by the same faith though in less degrees of strength really partakers and nourished to eternall life before we receive him in that Sacrament of the Lords Supper yea though we never should have opportunity so to receive him which is but the same object received by the same faith to the same end though in a different manner and with different degrees So for Baptism Baptism we retain the substance of that holy Sacrament as we find it in the Scriptures rejecting only those superfluous dresses of Salt Spittle Oyl Insufflation and the like which cumber and deform that duty and Ordinance but they do not destroy it nor do ever any Protestants that are of any name or honour for Religion re-baptise those who were baptised in the Roman Church Concil Laodicenum omits only the Apocal. Apocrypha Books Hieron in Prolog Galaten Josephus l. 1. cont Appio we i. e. the Jews have not infinite and diffâ—rent Books but only 22. which are justly called Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mosis 5. Prophet 13. Psal 4. The rest from Artaxereâ— to these times have not the like credit because not a certain succession of Prophets The Apocryphall additions of the Romish Church to the Canon of the Scriptures we reject from being rules of faith however we approve their excellent morals And this we do upon the same grounds that the Jewish Church of old and the Primitive Christian for the most part ever did yet we retain those books as oracles of God which we have received with and from the Romish Church as of divine inspiration according to that testimony which both the Jewish and Christian Churches fidelity have given us of them The eâ—une dull and spiritless and formall devotions Prayers in a language not vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nis de Placilla orat Funcb Delinquens soli Deo cognitus de reatis nudare apud homines verecunda conscientia non cogitur Ser. 34. Chrysol So Ber. s 42. Non expedit omnibus omnia inâ—â—tescere quae scimus de nobis in Cant. Liturgies and prayers used by the Romanists in any tongue unknown to the most and with so many vain repetitions we refuse yet still we retain the holy custom of Christians assembling in publike and worshipping God by publike Liturgies prayers and praises In somethings we hold nothing common with them either in opinion or practise as in the profitable fancy of purgatory the popular fashion of worshipping Images or adoring God in and by Images of oblations and prayers for the dead of praying to Saints and Angels of Auricular confession of dispensing by Indulgences the merits or supperogating righteousness of some Christians to others Since in these and the like matters which I only touch it being not my work now to handle those controversies which have been so fully discussed by many learned men of this Church of Engand whose works praise them We find no Scripture ground either for precept or permission So likewise in the ambitious claim of the Popes Infallible judgement His universall jurisdiction and Supreme Authority over all Churches and Councils We deny it as un usurpation gotten by indulgences of some times and Princes also by the flatteries frauds cruelties power and policies of severall Popes in their successions but not grounded on any Law or right either humane or divine neither by the Institution of God nor by the consent of all Churches Yet we deny not to the Pope such a primacy of place or priority of order and precedency as is reasonable and just either in the Roman Diocess as a Bishop or in a Councill as Bishop of that famous City In like manner for the sacred order and function of the Ministry we reject what ever imaginary power or will-worship is annexed to the office by humane superstition but we approve the antient form of Commission and Divine Authority derived by them to Presbyters and Bishops for Preaching the word celebrating the Sacraments reconciling penitents use of the Keys in doctrine or jurisdiction and Government In the Roman Pontificall The Bishop to be consecraâ—ed is charged after many Ceremonâ—es and pompous modes with this as his office and duty To judge to interpret to consecrate to confer holy orders to offer to Baptize aâ—d to confirm after that the Consecratorâ— laying the Bible on his shoulder and their hands on his head say these words Receive the holy Spirit i. e. the gifts and power to be a Bishop or chief Pastor to teach and rule in the Church So the Presbyter is by the Bishop ordeyning and otheâ—s with him imposing their hands on the head enjoyned To offer to bless to govern to Preach and to Baptise as becomes his place and Office Mar. 13.25 Also of the continued power of Ordination for a succession of Ministers in the Church In all these and the like what ever we find to be spurious issues of meer humane invention of Scripture-less opinions of groundless traditions obtruded as matters of Religion upon the consciences of Christians we use that just severity which we think the Apostles and Primitive fathers would have done to dash these Babylonish brats against the stones yet still we redeem and preserve alive the legitimate succession the Sons of Sion the Israel of God and justify the Children of true wisdom and of the Heavenly Jerusalem that is the divine and truly religious
sad so the advantages have been great which the Anti-ministeriall party have gained by the preposterous zeal of some Anti-Episcopall spirits which transported them not only beyond and against all bounds or rules of Reason Order Scripture Ecclesiasticall Custome and Laws here in England but even contrary to their own former and some of their present judgements touching Episcopall Presidency which they never did nor do yet hold to be unlawfull in the Church how ever it might be attended with some inconveniencies and mischiefs too not arising from the nature of that Order and power which is good but from the corruption of those men that might manage it amiss This makes many of these Ministers have now so much work to take off that leprosie from their own heads which they told the people had so much infected the Bishops hands by the Imposition of which they yet own their Ministeriall power and holy Orders to have been rightly derived to them in that Ordination by Bishops which was used here in the Church of England as in all antient Churches It is never too late to rectifie and repent of any mistakes and miscarriages incident to us as poor sinfull mortals Although Primitive Episcopacy which ever was as a grand pillar of the Churches Ministry Order and Government hath been much shaken and thrust aside by mans power or passion to the great weakning and indangering of the whole Fabrick and Function of the Ministry together with the peace and polity of this Church yet wise men may possible see after these thick clouds and dust of dispute what is of God in true Episcopacy yea and they may be perswaded to preserve and restore what is necessary and comly in it however they pare off what is deformed superfluous and Combersome in the behalf of which I am neither a pleader nor an approver It is now no time in England either to flatter or fear the face of Episcopacy or sinisterly to accept the persons of Bishops There is nothing now can be suspected to move me to touch with respect those goodly ruines from which the glory of riches and honour are now so far removed but only matter of conscience and the integrity of my judgement And therefore I here crave leave without offence to any that are truly godly either Ministers or others who may differ from me in this point freely yet as briefly as I can to discover my judgement touching this so controverted point of Episcopacy in which from words men have faln to blows and from wasting of ink to the shedding of blood I see that other men of different sense daily take their freedom to vent themselves against all Bishops and all Episcopacy some of them so rudely and unsavorily as if they hoped by their evill breath to render that venerable name and order ever abhorred and execrable to Christian minds which to learned and sober Christians ever was and still is as a sweet Oyntment poured forth nor doth it lose of its divine and antient fragrancy by the fractures of these times which have broken it may be not with devotion and love so much as with hatred and passion that Alabaster-box of civill protection and Sanction in which it was here for many hundreds of years happily preserved from vulgar insolency and Schismaticall contempt Why may not I presume to enjoy my freedome too yet bounded with all modesty and sobriety without any prejudice or reproach reflecting upon the Counsels or actions of any men my Superiours whose power and practise as to secular mutations neither can nor ought to have any influence on mens opinions and consciences further than way is made for them by the Haâ—bingâ—rs of Reason and Religion which are best set forth and disce ned in innate principles of Order and Polity also in Scripture precepts and precedents and lastly by the Catholick Custome and practise of the Church of Christ. Ans In my answer therefore to this Cavill or Calumny touching Bishops which many Ministers are as afraid to name or own with honour as they are to call any holy man either Apostle Evangelist Father or Martyr by the title of Saints my intent is not largely to handle that late severe and unkind Dispute in England about Episcopacy or Prelacie for this having been learnedly and fully done by others would be as superfluous so extremely tedious both to the Reader and my self Nor is it my purpose to justifie all that might be done or omitted by some Bishops in their government But my design chiefly is 1. to remove that popular odium to allay that Plebeian passion to rectifie those unlearned prejudices and to take away those unjust â—ealousies which are by some weak and possibly well-meaning Christians taken up and daily urged against all Bishops in a Presidentiall eminencie among Presbyters or above other Ministers 2. My next is to justifie that holy Ordination and Ministeriall authority which by the imposition of their hands chiefly was with probation prayer and meet Consecration duly conferred upon the Ministers of this Church according to Scripture rule and Ecclesiasticall custome in all setled Churches But before I handle the first thing proposed I must seek to remove that prejudice which sticks deep in some ordinary minds against Bishops and their Authority meerly arising from the darkness and sufferings of late so plentifully cast upon them if arguments and words could not yet Arms and Swords have they say convinced Bishops and subdued them notwithstanding all their learning Sed quid berba Remi sequitur fortunam ut semper edit â—â—mnatos Juv. their gravity their piety their protection which they pleaded from the Churches Catholick custome and the Lawes of this Church The vulgar are prone to think those wicked who are unprosperous and accursed who are punished Yet in true judgement of things those great and many impressions of worldly diminution and supposed Miseries made upon Bishops are more just arguments against the innocency of their persons place Job 1. and lawfull power than Jobs afflictions were which the Devil never urged against his integrity but sought thereby to overthrow it as God did prove and exercise it I believe there are too many that would be content there should be neither Bishops nor Presbyters but such as are great sufferers Nor yet any Word or Sacrament or holy Ministrations nor any marks of Christianity in this or any other Reformed Church But the measures of religious matters are never to be taken from the passions or prevalencies of men nor from any secular decrees or human acts and civill sanctions Godly and famous Bishops in eminency among and above the e Presbyters were many ages before any civill power protected them and so they may continue if God will in his true Church even then when as of old most persecuted and sought to be destroyed Worldly Counsells and forces which commonly are levelled to mens secular ends and civill interests signifie little or nothing indeed to a true
non Anathemate dignos fatear si qui erunt qui non reverentur summâ—que obedientia observâ—nt Hierarchiam in qua sic emineant Episcopi ut Christo subesse non recusent ab illo tanquam unico capite pendeant ad ipsum referantur ejus veritate colligati fraternam chariâ—atem colant Beza in Apoca. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quem nimirum oportuit imprimis de his rebus admoneri ac per eum cateros collegas totamque adeo Ecclesiam Pet. Mar. loc com Zanchius Hoc minime improbari posse judicamus ut unus inter multos Presbyteros praesit Epis conf c. 5. th 10. Vedelius notis in Igna. Ex actis Epistolis Apostolicis atque ex Eccl. histoâ—icis colligitur ipsos Apostolos eorum successores hunc ritum observasse ut unus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomine Presbyterii Ministros legitimè ab Ecclesia electos per manuum impositionem preces publicas ordinareâ— Gerard. de min. p. 372. Grotius inter propriè dictas Aposto traditiones esse â—sserit Episcopalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vot propace Peter du Moulin Epist ad Episc Winto Deodate in his Epistle to the late Assembly Pâ—imis beatis illis temporibus politeia Ecclesia admirabili Aristocratia mixta Epis Presbyt plebi sua jura tribuit Alsted de min. So Gerardus pag. 232. Retinendum Episcopalem ordinem asserit Propter 8. rationes 1. Varia dona dat Deus 2. Exempla Apostolica Primitivae Eccl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 propter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae 4 Naturae congruus est ordo rationi in omni caetu 5. Alit concordiam 6. repâ—imit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 arrogantiam 7. Nulli gravis ubi sit electione per suffragia Presbyterorum peragit officium 8. Tollit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schisma seditiones For the avoyding of Scandall giving to so many Christian Churches remayning in all the world who for the far major part are still governed by Bishops in some respect distinct from and eminent above the Presbyters It is not the work of Christian prudence or charity to widen differences between us and other Churches Greek Eastern African or Western yea we owe this Charity to the Romanists and to our selves rather who seem to have gained this great advantage against us by the offence given them in utter abolishing the Antient and Catholick order and succession of Episcopacy that they will less now esteem us Christians or to be in any true Church since they will not allow us any right and compleat Ordination of Ministers and so no Sacraments and no Christianity as to extern profession and administration without Bishops yea the best reformed Churches must needs be offended who approve such a Presidency of Bishops among Presbyters where it is continued with the doctrinall Reformation many enjoy Bishops stil as we did No learned and godly men ever thought it cause enough to separate from any Church because it had Bishops Such as have them not in a constant Presidency yet count this no part of their Reformation but rather deplore it as a defect involuntary pleading the Law of necessity or some grand inconveniencies and difficulty to excuse thereby their inconformity so far to other Churches and to all Antiquity yea the most learned and wise among their Presbyterians abroad oft wish they had the honour and happiness of reformed and reforming Bishops Nor ever did heretofore the most learned and godly people in England Ministers or others any more than the Princes Nobility and Gentry generally desire the abolition of right Episcopacy however now at last they had not either opportunity to plead for it or such power and influence as to preserve it against those inundations which God hath been pleased to suffer to overflow in this Church But rocks are not presently removed when over-flown what is of God will stand and out-live the deluge Corepiscopi forbidden to ordain without the Bishops licence by the Council of Ancyra which was before the 1. Nicaene So Concil Nicaenum owns and confirms the antient custom So Concil Arelat c. 19. So Concil Laod c. 56. Presbyteri sine conscientia Episcoporum nihil faciant Blondel Test Hier. p. 255. So Jerom excepta orditatione quid facit Episcopus quod Presbyter non facit Ad Evag. Inschismatis remedium factum est quod postea unus electus est qui caeteris praepontretur ne unusquisque adse trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperet Jeron ad Evag. Quod Alexandria post Marcum Evangelâ—stam factum est à Presbyteris quomodo exercitus imperatorem faceret Cyprian Ep. 55. Non aliunde haereses abortae aut nata schismata quam inde quod sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur Thirdly I prefer a Primitive Episcopacy as the best way of union and happy satisfaction to all learned wise and good men especially in that so shaken and disputed a point of Ordination for the right succession and conferring of power Ministeriall which the most learned and sober Presbyterians confess not to be weakned by Episcopall Presidency And very many no less considerable men for number learning and piety as Da. Blondell among others do think the right Ordination of Ministers to be much more strengthened adorned and compleated where it passeth through the hands of the Episcopall power and order if for no other reason yet for this that it was the Apostolicall Primitive and universall way used in the Church and by which the Authority and Office of the Ministry hath ever been together with Christianity derived to us from the Apostles times It s evident that the sudden and violent receding of many men from their former judgement and practise in this point hath occasioned many great scandals scruples and schisms troubles and confusions in matters both of Church and State giving great advantages to all that list to cavil at question and despise the Ordination and Ministry of even those Presbyters yea their very Christianity as to the outward form order and profession who so easily renounced and eagerly cast quite away that order and power as unlawfull and un-Christian Triumphati magis quam victi sunt Tac. de Germ. Nehem. 11.14 22. Sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento Quod Aron filii ejus atque Levita fuerint in templo hoc sibi Episcopi Presbyteri diaconis vendicent in Ecclesia Jeron ad Eva. et ad Nepotianum So St. Cyprian l. 3. Ep. 9. ad Rogationum Fourthly A right Episcopacy seems yet never to have had so free full and fair an hearing as is requisite in so great a matter so as to have been evicted to be against the Scriptures as some pretended 1. When as 't is most evident in most learned and godly mens judgements antient and modern that it hath the neerest resemblance to that
antient Patern at least which God setled the Government of his Church among the Jews who had the heads of their Fathers as Bishops and rulers over their brethren the Priests and Levites Numb 3.24 Now 't is manifest that our Lord Christ and the Apostles had great regard to the Judaick customs in Christian Institutions As in the Baptising with water In the use of the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper In the Sabbatising on the Lords Day and in the giving the power of the Keys to the Pastors and Teachers of the Church to open and shut to bind and loose expressing thereby Ministeriall Authority In all which there was some like or parallell precedents among the Jews in making their Rabbins and in celebrating holy mysteries and governing those of that Church and Religion 2. For the new Testament nothing either of precept or example seems against a right Episcopacy commanding a parity or forbidding order and subjection among Presbyters as well as other men what Christ forbids his Apostles of exercising dominion after the manner of Princes of the world excludes indeed First from the twelve who were pares in Apostolatu equally Apostles and were not long to live in one society but to lay the foundations of Religion in all the world by a parity of power coordinate but not subordinate to any but Christ who chose them and proportionably forbids all Bishops and Church-men the secular methods of gaining or using any Ecclesiasticall power and eminency in the Church as by ambition force usurpation tyranny by the sword and severities penally inflicted on the Bodies Estates Liberties and lives of men which was the way of the world but not of Christ or his Ministers yet these tyrannies which attend mens lusts and passions as men are as incident besides factions and emulations to the Presbyterian way where some are alwaies heady and leaders as to that of a right and regular Episcopacy whereto Presbyters are joyned The plain meaning of our Lord Jesus who owned himself as chief among his Apostles Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 4. Sect. 2. Saith Episcopall eminency is the best way to prevent Schisms and to keep peace in the Church Luke 22.26 But ye shall not be so But he that is greatest among you let him be as the youngest and he that is chief as he that doth serve Mat. 24. There may be a wise servant whom the Lord may set over his house Timothy is taught how to behave himself in the Church as a Governour no less than a Minister or Teacher 1 Tim. 3.15 Remis non sceper is guberuent Episcopi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost de Episc Tom. 4. p. 627. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is pel l. 2. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Liban to Basil says Bishops were c. Basil Ep. 154. yet condescended to serve them is That what ever excellency any Christian Minister or other had above others in age estate parts place power gifts graces or civill honors for what hinders a Prince or Nobleman to be a Minister of the Gospell and yet retain both his honour and estate temporall all these should be used and enjoyed without the leaven of pride insolency or oppression and only be turned to greater advantages of serving Christ and the Church with all humble Industry As Christ himself did And after him the Apostles who had undoubtedly as some order and precedency among themselves in the equality of their Apostolicall power so also priority both of place superiority of Church jurisdiction and authority and power over all other Disciples and beleivers And this not from any personall gifts temporary and privileges so much as from that wisdom and peaceable order which Christ would have observed alwaies in his Church after the Apostolicall example By some of whom as the antients tell us Some Ministers were clearly constituted as Bishops with an eminency of personall power over others to ordein censure rebuke silence even Presbyters and Deacons D. Blondell confesseth p. 183. None can be dispensed witâ— as tâ— the violating or neglect of that Chu ch ordâ—r and Government wh ch is pâ—esc ibed to Timothy and Titus which rule is of Divine right and perpetuall This is undeniably evident by Scripture in Timothy and Titus The validity and authority of which examples were esteemed by Antiquity and followed as warrantable divine precedents and obligatory examples to after ages in the like cases at least for imitation By preserving such an ordinary succession of power in Bishops among and above Presbyters both in ordination and jurisdiction Nor is this clear instance to be any way in reason avoyded by saying that Timothy and Titus w re Evangelists what ever that Office were in the Church either temporary and personall or common to other chief Ministers and perpetually to succeed for it makes nothing against a personall superiority of power and authority in them over their respective Churches which was to succeed to others in all reason as well as their Ministry did both these being alwaies necessary for the Church and indeed their ordinary power as to Government had no dependance on their being Evangelists 2 Tim. 2.15 1 Tim. 4.13 2 Tim. 4.2 no more than their Preaching and other Ministeriall acts had which we may not argue from these two persons to be incompatible to any Ministers now Unless they be Evangelists For then no Presbyters that are not Evangelists in their sense might study or Preach in season and out of season rebuke exhort c. or shew themselves Workmen that need not to be ashamed c. Now if these acts and Offices of Ministry are derivable to other single persons in a Ministeriall way why not also that Gubernative power too which was from the Apostle signally committed to Timothy and Titus and no where so expresly to any fraternity of Ministers or Presbytery in common 2 Cor. 11.5.12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioh. 21.15 After that rate of arguing we may conclude that none but the very chief Apostles might feed the Lambs and Sheep of Christ because that command was thrice given to Peter who was reckoned among the chiefest of the Apostles which Conclusions were as absurd and ridiculous being by all the practise and sense of the Primitive Churches confuted as this that the power of proving and ordeyning Presbyters 1 Tim. 5.19.22 Tit. 1.5 by laying on of hands of receiving accusations against them of rebuking censuring excommunicating silencing and restoring all Acts gubernative may not be eminently in any single person unless they be Apostles or Evangelists when as not only the use of such order and power is in all reason necessary for Church societies no less than for civill but the succession of it in such sort as it began in them to all times after seems clearly intimated by that vehement charge layd on Timothy 1 Tim. 5.21 2 Tim. 4.5 to keep those things unpartially and unblameably untill the comming of our Lord Jesus
also of that holy Spirit of truth and Ministeriall power which Christ gave to the Apostles and they to their chief successors the Bishops by whose learned piety and industry such mighty works have been done in all ages and in all parts of the Church and in none more I think than in this Church of England chiefly since the Reformation of Religion whereto godly and learned Bishops contributed the greatest humane assistance by their preaching writing living and dying as became holy Martyrs Can. 6. Concil Nicaeni I am vehemently for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 antient and holy customs of the Catholick Church 8. Primitive Customs how far alterable in the Churches Polity Consuetudo major non est veritate aut tatione Cyp. Ep. 73. Valeat consuetudo ubi non praevalet Scriptura aut ratio Reg. Jur. Praesracti est ingenii contra omnem consuetudinem disputare morosi nimis pertinaciter adhaerere so far as they may be fitted to the state and stature of any Christian societies Not that I think all things of external Polity discipline and government by which Christians stand tyed in relations publique to one another were at first so at once prescribed or perfected by Christ or the B. Apostles as might not admit after addition variations or completions in any Church or Congregation Christian according to those dictates of reason and generall rules of Prudence which are left to the liberty of Churches by which so to preserve particular Churches as not to offend the generall rules of order and charity which bind them by conformity in the main to take care of the Catholick Communion We are not I think tyed so strictly to all the precise paterns of primitive and Apostolicall practise which might well vary in the severall states conditions and dimensions of the Church I read no command for Presbyters to choose a Bishop or President among them and in so not doing they are defective not as to the Precepts of Scripture 1 Cor. 11.16 If any man lâ—st to be contentious we have no such Custom nor the Churches of Christ In his rebus de quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura mos populi dei vel instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt Aug. Ep. 89. ad Cal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 37. but to the rules of right reason and the imitation of usefull example in primitive times Nor do I find any Precept to one or more Presbyters to ordein others after them who yet ought to take care both of their own being rightly Ordeined and of after succession according to that patern Analogy and proportion of holy order and government which was at first wisely observed by the Apostles and the after Ministers of the Church either as Bishops or Presbyters The same Coat would not serve Christ a man grown which did fit him a Child or Youth Only it is neither safe comely nor comfortable for any Christians wantonly and without great and urging reasons next dore to necessity to recede from or to cast off the antient and most imitable Catholick customs of the Church which truly is seldom done upon conscientious and reall necessities pressing but most what upon factious humours and for secular designs carried on under the colour of Church alterations For how ever the alteration may at present please some mens activity and humour whose turn it serves yet it cannot but infinitely scandalise grieve and oppress far more and better Christians who are of the old yet good way Hence many wee see are at a loss now in England how to justifie their past religion shaken by changes as if they had had no true Ministry nor holy Ministrations and Sacraments hitherto while some mens zeal without knowledge cries down Bishops and that whole government with the Ministry for Antichristian others are extremely unsatisfied and solicitous for the future succession Not seeing any ground for any Presbyters in this Church so to challenge to themselves a sole divine power of Ordination and Jurisdiction without any President Bishops which was the antient way in England ever since we were Christians as in all other Churches And it is most sure that neither power of Ordination nor Jurisdiction was ever conferred by Bishops on any Presbyters here either verbally or intentionally as without and against Bishops Nor did the Laws or Canons ever so mean or speak Nor was it I believe in any of the Presbyters own thoughts that they received any such power to Ordein other Presbyters without a Bishop when they were Ordeined Ministers And sure though acts of state and civil Magistracy may regulate the exercise yet they cannot confer the holy power and order of a Presbyter or Bishop on any man which flows from a spiritual head even Jesus Christ as I have proved and not from any temporall Authority Ordinances of Parliament can hardly with justice or honour batter or dismount the Canons of generall Councils the Catholick laws or constant Customes of the Church If it be supposed that the two Houses of Parliament lately did but restore and the Presbyters resume that power of Ordination which was only due to them as such and deteined by Bishops usurpation from them Boâ—a consuetudo velut vinum generosum vetustate valescit Tert. It is very strange they should never here nor elsewhere have made claim to it for 1600. years in no ages past till these last broken factious tumultuary and military times If it were their right only in common with and subordinate to Bishops they needed not then to complain for they did or might have enjoyed as much joynt power as was for their conveniency and the Churches peace The eminent power at least for Order sake was even by their consents lawfully placed in and exercised by the Bishops The levity and ambition of ingrossing all to themselves without and against Bishops hath almost lost all power both of Bishops and Presbyters too since Presbytery alone is but as Pipe-staves full of cracks warpings and unevenness which will not easily hold the strong liquor of power and government unless they be well hooped about and handsomly kept in order by venerable and fatherly Episcopacy which carried a greater face of majesty and had those ampler and more august proportions which ought to be in government beyond what can be hoped for or in reason expected from the parity and puerility of Presbyters in common many of whom have more need to be governed than they are any way fit to bear any great weight of government on their shoulders however they may discharge some works of the Ministry very well 9. Calm mediations between Episcopacy and Presbytery As it hath never yet been shewen any where so it is least to be hoped for now in England that any better fruits should arise from Presbyterie thus beheaded cropped and curtayled of its crown Episcopacy which it might not stil have as formerly it
Presbyters in their due place regard and honour so that they should not have been put thus to plead for their Ordination and Ministry or to play this after game much to the hazard of their very Function and succession of Ministeriall authority The despising or abolishing of which threatens the annihilating of the very being of this reformed Church in which the right Ministry is as the Ark in Israel 1 Sam. 4. a visible token of Gods presence among Christians And though the Philistins may for the sins of this Church take it captive and detein it for a while yet I believe 1 Sam 6. the Lord will bring it back again with shame to his enemies and joy to all true Israelites In the mean time this trouble and terror may be a means to a mend the personall faults both of Bishops and Presbyters which formerly might viciate but they could not totally vacate the Religion reverence and conâ—cience which is to be had of Christs institution as to the Ministry Personall faults of Bishops or Presbyters may viciate but not vacate divine duties 1 Sam. 2.12 nor yet could they make voyd the honour of Religion nor the authority vertue and efficacy of hoâ—y Ministrations Where the persons duâ—â— ordeined did administer and the holy things themselves were according to Scripture right y administred which alwaies remain holy whatever is objected against mens persons administring as sickness lameness or deformity deprive no man of the privileges of humane nature nor his actions of rea on nor his civill interest of the benefit of the Laws Ely's scandalous sons unworthy indeed of but yet rightly invested into the Priests office did not take away the necessity and sanctity of the services and sacrifices much less of the Priestly function which depended not on the morality of the persons administring but on the authority of the Lord commanding and the right investiture into the office The miscarriages of Bishops or Ministers may take away the beauty but not the being of Religious duties or of that holy power which they duly received no more than lapses after Baptism do unbaptise any Christian No Christian thinks the series of Christs genealogy broken or blemished corrupted or interrupted stayned or maymed by the names of Tamar Rahab and Bathsheba which are links in that h ly chain which hath its verity in the history but its sanctity from Christ to whom it relates as to the holy seed So in the succession of Ministeriall order and authority we dispute not by what personall vertues it was continued but we are sure it hath been continued successively from Christ and tends to him as to the compleating of his second incarnation in his body the Catholick visible Church In which Christ is daily begotten and formed by the means of a right Ministry and duly ordeined Ministers 10. Of Ordination of Ministers Where Bishops are Orthodox and may be had Ordination cannot regularly be had without them Vbi Episcopi desunt nec haberi possent Orthodoxi Preâ—byteri in necessitate ordinare possunt Sarav de grad Mi. So Bishop Dâ—wnham Con. in Apocal. Or by the Bishops authority delegated as to the Chorepiscopi who were but Presbyters Isid Hippa de Eccl. off Whether Bishops ordeined Presbyters as Prelates in a superiority of divine power and peculiar order as succeeding the Apostolicall eminency which antiquity for the most part thought looking on Episcopacy in ordination confirmation and jurisdiction not as the only but as the highest branches of Church power lineally descended from the Apostolicall ordinary power of ruling and governing the Church or whether they did those acts of power and authority only as chief by Ecclesiasticall right in degree and order of place among the Presbyters as chosen or approved by them and placed in a precedency of place and presidency of action and inspection but still of the same intrinsecall power and order Ministeriall as to the first act or originall I need not further gratify any mans curiosity in setting down my opinion Ego vero à Presbyteris solis administrata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regularem ad EcclesiasticaruÌ„ regularuÌ„ amussim factam non dixerim Aut in ea institutum ab Ecclesia post Apostolorum transitum ordinem per omnia servare Blondel test Hierom pag. 255. St. Pauls Epistle to Tim. and Tit. This I am sure What ever dirt and mire the restless hearts of wicked men cast up against the calling of the Ministry in England The Gospell and the holy Institutions of it appointed by Christ to be dispensed to all the world have never in any other way been derived to this long succession save only by the power of ordination which never was in ordinary cases believed or owned in the Church to be valid and effectuall in any men or from any hands but those who were formerly consecrated Bishops or ordeined Ministers Nor was this custom ever esteemed as the act of any generall Councill or Ecclesiasticall Canon but it had both example and precept and constant succession from Christ to the Apostles and from them to others with a command of continuation which was necessary for the Church and ever most conscienciously observed in the Church which never flourished better than when the modesty humility and wisdom of Presbyters joyning with and submitting to their Bishop as fellows to the Master of a College carried on that order peace and comly proportion in the Church before all the world that they were in the first century compared by Ignatius for their harmony to the strings well set and tuned on the Harp Ignat. Ep. ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Smyrn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea in an higher strain he compares them to the blessed accord between the Father and the Son Christ as man mediator and God where in the sameness of the divine nature yet there is the order and priority of relation These were the antient pipes and conduicts of Ministeriall Ecclesiasticall power which were first layd in the head and fountain Christ Jesus after branched to all places by a continuall order and derivation of Ministeriall authority Where the pipe is once broken there the stream of living waters must needs fail If any foulness flows or obstructions have befaln these pipes of due ordination as all that passeth through earthen vessels is prone to do in time which Christ and his Apostles have layd to serve his Church with the living waters of grace and truth and which have flowed these sixteen hundred years to the refreshing of infinite souls yet we must not cut them off nor quite stop them or turn the waters another way as choosing rather Independent wells and broken Buckets but we ought to cleanse those pipes and repayr those conduicts which only can hold and convey that holy water as the vessels of the Temple restoring them to their Primitive use and integrity Which by Gods help is easily done where pride passion
policy and worldly interests are really separated from those of Christ his Church and mens souls Nothing were more happy than to see this sincerely done so that Christians would rather deny themselves in profit and worldly advantages than any way benefit or gain by Church Reformations than which nothing is more sordid and more to be abhorred contrary to the holy liberality of all good Christians in all times If Ananias and Saphira were smitten for dissembling how much more accursed are they who act all with a sacrilegious Spirit and hand stripping and robbing the Church instead of Reforming I shall ever pray for just and liberall Reformations while I live mean time I rest satisfied in my conscience That the ordination of Ministers as it was in England by a Bishop and Presbyters as it hath the greatest regularity so it hath the greatest validity and admits the least dispute as to the right order and succession of Ministeriall power As for the Presbytery and Presbyters I think their Ministry very valid and their authority very venerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. ad Ep. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ad Smyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. ad Ep. to all true Christians especially in conjunction with their Bishop Like Tortesses they were safest while they keep under that shell which some Presbyters having scornfully cast off as a burthen striped themselves of their shield and defence so that they are become very naked feeble and contemned creatures whom the foot of pride and rusticity is prone to crush and trample upon on every side That they have now no refuge or protection left but God and a good conscience which are enough if they do indeed enjoy them though with poverty and contempt from men Thus I have as well as I had leasure vindicated the Ordination of Ministers and that power which they have to administer holy things in Christs name to this Church to be no way blameable but right and commendable as derived by and with the hands of Bishops and Presbyters which is the holy and Catholick way wherein only it is ordinarily to be obteined 1 Cor. 11.16 Aust cont Don. l. 4. if any men list to be contentious for other ways my answer with St. Paul is again and again neither we nor the Churches of Christ ever had any other custom and with St. Austin so Catholick a custom 11. Of the peoples power in Ordination of Ministers so agreeable to reason and Scripture could have no beginning but Christ and his holy Apostles There is yet one Calumny more against the Ordination of our Ministers in the Church of England which pretends the neglect among us of what is by some thought most essentiall in making a Minister that is of the peoples right both in choosing and ordeining men to that office the want of which they say makes our Ministry invalid Answ For this pretended right of the people no argument is alleged so strong as that of liberty which some have taken in these times to separate themselves from the ordinary Ministry of this Church and by a mutuall call of one an other to jugg themselves like Partridges into small coveys which they call bodies or Churches even before they have any Minister which they resolve not to have but of their own choosing and ordeining that they may be sure being a creature of their own to have him after their own humour flattering themselves that they have a plenary Church power to all Offices and ends whatsoever Although I have formerly given some generall account of the folly of this imagination in the vulgar yet because it is a Gangrene not easily cured without oft lancing and opening and hath far prevailed upon some peoples minds who feed this opinion with the venemous and vulgar humours of pride self-loving self-seeking self-pleasing self-flattering and self-admiring It is not a miss to give another stroak at this high imagination which exalts itself against Christ and the holy order of his Church that the obstinacy of its arrogance and folly being pulld down it may be levelled to that obedience which becomes all Christian people People have no power Ministerial First then I must profess that I never saw or heard any thing by any man with any shew of Scripture or reason urged to proove this power of conferring the holy order and authority of a Minister of Christ to be in the people Either eminently as an executioners power is in the supreme Judge or virtually as life is in the Suns beams or formally and causally as heat is in the fire or ordinatively preceptively and derivatively as the supreme Magistrates power is to some ends Numb 16. The Preface to Korahs rebellion and confusion is the peoples sanctity v. 3. and actions in the meanest Constable or publike Officer So that it can be in them no other way than as power may be in rebels hands or as Korah and his complices if they had not been by God repressed would have had liberty and authory from their own usurpation to make Priests and Rulers instead of Moses and Aaron whom the Lord had appointed Not by Scripture For Scripture First it is evident in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine patern of polity and extern order of Religion in the Church of the Jews we find that the wisdom of God leaves nothing of holy concernments for Priests or Ministry no nor the least sacrifice offering or ceremony to the peoples either ordering or choosing Nor is it likely or any where appears that the unchangeable wisdom of God in Christ altering only the manner externall and not the order beauty holyness Phil. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. A multitudine abhorret maximè vera Philosophia Lact. Inst l. 3. c. 25. è Ciceron Vulgar heads like many circles have so many circumferences that its impossible to draw them to meet in one center Charron Vbi major hominum turba major plerumque est divinitatis injuria Salv. or the main end of the service and Ministry Christian which his glory and his Churches good should so much vary from the former exactness and wariness as to venture the order beauty and honour of Religion upon the rock of vulgar rudeness ignorance rashness headyness stiff-neckednes which formerly he so much avoyded and which not only the tenderness of Christian Religion which having many enemies admits least blemishes and studies most what things are comely as well as holy but even common reason and experience teacheth all wise men to avoyd as much as possible Namely those inconveniences and mischiefs attending the weak heads and strong hands of the vulgar as in all things so chiefly in those which concern Religion Who that is wise can be ignorant that the common people even among believers and professors are seldom or never qualified with those gifts of knowledge wisdom temper and discretion which are necessary for all publike
and most for religious administrations where not only the credit but the conscience of the Church is engaged and ought to be very much considered in order to the honour of Christ and of his Church It were a very blasphemous reproach I think to the wisdom of Christ for any to imagine that he had delegated the highest power of his Church to men incompetent and generally incapable without daily miracles Besides this if they were supposable to have those gifts which were fit to try and judge rightly of a Ministers sufficiency yet they cannot have power to authorise or ordein a Minister of Jesus Christ no more than every judicious man hath power to send an Embassador in his Princes name or to make such arbitrators and Judges as he thinks fit in other mens business This is a power only to be used and enjoyed by those to whom it is given from him who is supreme as in the Church Jesus Christ is in whom the grand power of Ordination which confers on man authority to dispense holy mysteries in Christs name is originally seated and from him derived and granted as a grand Charter or Commission to his Apostles first and by them afterward exemplified and delivered to others who being found fit for it were assumed into and invested with the same delegated authority as from Christ and never given to the community of the people at any time or derivable from him in any degree of power Ministeriall be their gifts and graces never so good Since this is a fruit of Christs wisdom munificence and power toward his Church an appointment full of holy order and divine polity depending on no private mens gifts or graces but upon the good will pleasure and power of Jesus Christ himself as he stands in the relations of King Priest and Prophet to his Church Now to whom Christ committed this great and sacred power of ordeining a constant succession of Ministers in his name and in what manner it was by them derived to others Pag. 143. c. in the answer to the first Objection See Dr. Hammond and Dr. Tailor of Ordination Correxerunt manus psephisma natum est Tull. I have already cleared I hope and other late writers have done it too by Scripture reason and Ecclesiasticall Catholick Custom In all which it is evident That the so much urged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly indeed signifies peoples suffragating by stretching forth of hands in publike and popular elections is not to be urged by a Criticall severity from the Ethnick sense of the word to the Churches injury and confusion Since the same word in sacred and Ecclesiasticall writings as well as in others is oft used in a sense which signifies nothing else but an appointment or designation made by any one or more to some speciall work and service to which God or Christ Jesus Acts 14.22 or the Apostles joyntly or severally or their successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Church in their severall precincts are said to ordein or appoint a part from any such suffrage or autoritative influence of the people Further than their sometimes nominating and recommending fit men to be ordeined as Acts 6.5 or else their comprobation and acceptance of those who were by the Apostles Elders and Rulers of the Church ordeined as Ministers over them and this in Christs name by a divine authority which is for the peoples good but not from them as a fountain nor by them as any fit Pipes or Conduict through which this holy stream of the Ministry Ordinationes eorum quam temerarie tam inconstantes Hodie Episcopus cras alius bodiâ— Presbyter qui cras laicus Nam laicis Sacerdotolia munera injungunt Tertul. ad Haerâ—â— c. 42. Ad hac opera blandi sub missi sunt Caetâ—rum nec suit praesidibus reverentiam exhibere naverunt Id. ubi integra non est veritas me â—â—o tolis est disciplina Tertâ—l or the pure waters of the Sanctuary are to flow So that I cannot look upon this late arrogant claim of the power of ordeining Ministers as primarily belonging to the common people or to other Laymen as other than a fashion or opinion only befitting and extremely resembling those giddy proud and preposteous fancies to which vulgar minds are subject as Tertullian tels us when once the reigns of Church Discipline are let loose or some head-strong Schismaticks get the bridle between their teeth yea and it daily confutes it self while the Authors and followers of it are continually dividing and self confounding So inconsistent is error not only with Truth but with it self easily mouldring with its own weight and weakness And no wonder if the Lord prosper not projects arising from popular pride and presumption and tending to the shame and confusion of true Religion which no right reason or order no Scripture precept or patern no Ecclesiasticall custom or learned and godly mans judgement did ever allow or can with any reason as carrying with it all manner of rusticall unreasonable and irreligious absurdities which are never wanting where vulgar passions dwell as infallibly they do in the meaner sorts of men pretend they to what sanctity they will It will soon appear in how many and great defects they come short of that wisdom gravity unpassionateness and impartiality which is necessary to manage and order publike holy actions 2 Cor. 5.20 and to confer a solemn Religious power to any in Christs name to do Christs work and in some sense to be in Christs stead Wise humble and truly gracious Christians Best Christians are most modest are of all men most remote from such bold and unsuitable undertakings whereto having no call from God or the Church they can never expect blessing on their adventures and rash endeavours It satisfies them that they have as much influence in the ordeining and choosing of Ministers as they are capable of and is best for them and the Church Yet if it will please these Christians to fancy that they have some degree of power even in making their Ministers here in this Church they may consider Ministers in England ordeined with the peoples consent that neither Bishops nor Presbyters in England made any Ministers without the peoples generall consent expressed by those Laws and civill sanctions which confirmed here that divine order and constitution which they saw Christ had setled and the Church alwaies followed in ordeining lawfull Ministers by that wisdom and authority which from the Apostles was derived in a constant succession of Bishops and Presbyters who were for gifts of knowledge and judgement best able and for lawfull power only able by examination benediction and imposition of hands to consecrate any man a Minister and confer the power of Holy Orders on him who yet did and doe this as Delegates for the Church but from Christ If the power of choosing and ordeining Ministers were wholy left in
Lay-mens hands what a sorry choice for the most part would they make of the Man or Minister how weakly would they examine his sufficiencies how wildly would they Institute and Ordein him what sad and slovenly hands would they impose on him how soon would they reject and disdain those Blocks they had so hewen to be their Mercuries and the Idols they had set up for their Seers and Shepheards which many times can neither sec nor hear nor rightly understand the Mysteries of Religion nor the Duties of the Ministeriall Function who sees not that common people are rather taken with a familiar Rusticity in a Minister Vulgus vulgaria omnia inpensius amat amplectitur Eminentiora exortia potius admiratur quaÌ„ amat non raro odio invidia calumniis tanquam ostracismo suo prosequitur than with the best learned abities prefering oft-times a confident Mechanick to be their Teacher before the compleatest Divine in a Country They judge not what is worthiest but what is fittest to their humours rejoycing more in the knack which they fancy of Church Power and Liberty though it be to their prejudice than in what may really advance their souls good with just Authority receiving more willingly one that comes in his own name as gifted or in their name as chosen and ordeined by them than if he comes in Christ name and by that right Ordination which hath alwaies been in the Church of Christ Certainly common people may as well be their own Preachers and Baptisers in course one after another as ordein of themselves any one to be their Preacher what hinders they may not all exercise that power as Ministers which they presume to give to another which they cannot do if they have not that power in themselves and if they have all this power of the Keys as Stewards and Ministers of holy things then 't is not true that Christ hath given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only some Ephes 14.11 1 Cor. 12.28 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all to be Apostles Pastors and Teachers So that every part in the body may challenge to be an eye and to have visuall power which peice of prophane confusion was never acted or allowed in the Church by any that were worthy to be listed among sober Christians or well-ordered Churches who owned in all ages their calling to be Christians and their gathering to the body of the Catholick Church as parts and members not to their own good nature or preventive forwardness making to themselves a Minister for Christ but to those true Ministers pre-ordeined by the Church and sent by Christ to them while they sought not after him These were in time and order of nature before the people as spirituall Parents by whose Ministry they were taught Baptised and made Christians formed guided and governed in the things of God so that the power of a Minister must needs flow from an higher fountain Jesus Christ and be conveyed by an other Conduict to the people than by the people Who can originally no more confer the power of Ordination to Ministers than Children can give a parentall power and authority to their Parents or the vessels formed can give a formative power and skill to the Poeter 12. Peoples relation to their Ministers The peoples calling to themselves and electing a Minister that is rightly ordeined or accepting such an one who is according to Laws both Civill and Ecclesiasticall sent among them to be their Minister is but a matter of humane prudence and civill compact as to that particular place and people An owning and acknowledging of that power which he hath from Christ by the hands of Church Rulers to officiate as a Minister of Christ for their good It is not an induing with power but meerly an appropriating of the exercise of his power Ministeriall to such a place and such a people for order and distinction sake to avoyd rambling and confusion in the Church It is not any conferring of the Office function or habitude of a Minister to any person who is a Minister ordeined for the service of the Catholick Church over all the world wherever the Gospell may be Preached the Sacraments administred and other holy offices performed in a right and orderly way Which vast power and authority extending to all Nations and every creature under Heaven Mat. 16.15 capable of the Gospell far exceeds any proportion of power that can be imaginable in any handfull of private Christians in one place and can only be from the Catholick power of Christ and that grand Commission first given from Christ to whom the ends of the Earth belong to the Order Ministeriall and by those of that Order preserved to this day and never claimed in common but by the irregularity ignorance or impudence of some few men of these last and perilous times For how ever the faithfull people in some places during the times of primitive persecution which kept all sides more humble and holy did oft-times express by their presence their love and respect to their Bishops and Presbyters by a chearfull concurrence with them in matters tending to the publique order and peace Crysost was accused for privately Ordeining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. Bib. de Jo. Crysost Vniversus sexus clerus à Sylvestro episo ut Priscum Theodorum ordinaret Diaconos proposuerunt Con. Rom. 2. c. 10. An. 324. Cornelius factus Epis de Dei Christi judicio de cleri testimonio de plebis qui adsunt testimonio Cypr. ep 52. Sub populi assistentis conscientia fiebant ordinationes Cypr. l. 1. ep 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Can. Apost de epis and good government of the Church so far as their discretion and modesty thought decent and acceptable to their Governours and Pastors In the Election of whom they had something of approbative suffrages consent or nomination yet did they never presume to chalenge any Power of Ordination to be in or of themselves but requested and obteined it for those whom they thus chose or approved from the hands of such rulers in the Church in whom the power Ministeriall was deposited and alwayes conserved It was enough for the faithfull flock to be quietly present at Ordination to joyn in prayer and fasting with the Ordeiners to attest the merit of those whom the Bishop with the Presbyters declared to be Candidateâ— or Probationers and Expectants of the holy power of Ministry which to confer the common people have as much to do as Saul or Uzziah had to offer Sacrifice or Incense What may be don in cases extraordinary In ordinandis Clericis fratres charissimi solemus vos ante consulere mores ac merit singuloruÌ„ communi consilia ponderare Cyp lib. 2. ep 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theop. Alex. Austin ep 180 ad Honoratum Denies that M nisters may leave the flock destituâ—e of debitum maximè necessarium Ministerium
that Ministre which is most dâ—e and necessary for their souls in times of dâ—nger and persecution unless the office be suppliced by some fit Ministers while others by consent or lot fly to preserve a stock of Bishops and Ministers and of absolute necessity or destitution where Christians already baptised and believing cannot have a Minister in a regular way I leave to Gods direction and his speciall dispensation who in Cases extraordinary may extraordinarily manifest his pleasure I am sure in the hottest Persecution which worried and scattered the flock of Christ when it was most innocent the sheep neither chose nor followed any other Shepheards than those which St. Austin calls most necessary for the Church without which it cannot subsist of whose Ordination and due authority they had assurance by constant Succession and according to the true pattern in the Mount but they chose rather to supply the necessitated absences of their true Ministers Bishops and Presbyters by prayer fasting meditation reading Christian conference and mutuall exhortation than to set up among themselves any Minister by their own power of popular Ordination Yea as the Jews would have done in the defect of holy and Consecrated fire Christians rather contented themselves with the Vote and desire or purpose of Sacraments without the actuall perception of them or any other fruits proper to the Ministeriall function and power rather than offer with strange and unholy fire where they could not have those Ministers whose lips had been touched with a ceal from Gods altar that is ordeined by a right Consecration which holy fire hath never yet been quite put out in the Church of Christ nor ever will be however some mens petulancy and presumption seeks to spit or piss it out by their irreligious ingratefull and contemptuous carriages against the office and due Succession of the Ministry Humble and wise Christians willingly look back to the Rock whence they were hewen and the pit whence they were digged There they discern Mat. 28.19 Go therefore and teach all Nations c. Joh. 20.21 As my Father sent me even so send I you Is 65.1 Sub assistentis plebis conscientia Cyp. That it was not the people who made to themselves Ministers but Ministers sent by Christ and the Apostles every where made people Christians They that sate in darkness had light brought to them and were found of God by his messengers as Shepheards sent to the lost sheep who sought not after God That the holy succession of Ministeriall and Church power is indeed for the peoples good and ought in some cases be carried with the peoples approbation but it is not at all from the peoples pleasure will or vertue That Jesus Christ the Apostles and all after Churches ever carried this Ministeriall and Church power in another way distinct and apart from the people yet most convenient for them and most agreeable both to right reason and to the order and honour of true Christian religion which requires that holy things be done with all beautys of holiness by able and wise and worthy men to choose and appoint or ordein whom supposes as able at least if not abler than they are to judge of them yet meer abilities as I have shewed will not serve neither to give to others any commission as Ministers of holy things unless the givers have first a grand Commission or power of so doing committed by others to them which carries the strength of an originall divine Authority ascending to christ Which power especially as to Ordeining of fit Ministers being thus severed from the people for 1600. years without any complaint made by the faithfull or claim of right by reason or religion there is no cause Christians should now listen to that fury folly and faction which would lay all in common since nothing is brought by these Commoners to repeal the first divine enclosure of it by the Institution of Christ or to take away the prejudice of so many Centuries peaceable possession as a peculiar to the Church Officers those of the Ministeriall Function In which there hath never been any cessation or interruption as to legitimate succession and constant Ordination Not that we deny for any thing shall be granted to faithfull Christians People least able or fit to make or Ordein a Minister which is for their good but that Christians of a particular parish or Congregation may if they have not otherwayes tyed themselves and restrained things by Laws with are the publiques and so the Peoples consent as here for the most part in England it was they may orderly choose and desire such a man to be made a Minister or Bishop and to be over them in the Lord as the people of Millan did St. Ambrose yet a Lay-man and Magistrate Yet this is only so far as first to recommend him to those who have power to ordein him a Minister of the Catholick Church of Christ next to acknowledge that power and office Ministeriall to be rightly in him as conferred to him by just hands They may choose him thus Ordeined to exercise his Ministry and Office by particular care mutuall relation and joynt consent among them But still this is as far from any such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some interpret it as amounts to peoples giving Ministeriall power or Orders as it is from Souldiers giving a Commission when they only present by way of Commendation and Petition a worthy person to the Generall or Commission officers to be made their Captain which neither his worth nor their willingness makes him to be without express Commission from the Generall under his hand and Seal Nor is this any thing to the diminution of peoples rationall or religious liberties as Christians or men which regulations and restraints they may not grudge to suffer if Christ will have it so as in this his will and command is most clear but it is a fruit of Christs wisdome and care for the faithfull peoples good to avoyd infinite inconveniences and confusions which constantly and unavoidably attend all things that are transacted or touched almost by the common peoples hands and heads who though they mean and begin well as the Sea by modest lickings and slidings over the banks which afterward its fury overbears with horrible inundations yet are they never to be trusted with any thing which a wise and good man would have well done As then we see no Church power especially as to Ordination and Ministry is naturally in Christian people In causis fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris cum judicare debere qui nec munere impar est nec jure dissimilis constantur assero Dictum Imperat Valentini patris quod Ambros vehementer laudat l. 5. Ep. 32. who must be considered after their Ministers in time and that order of nature which is between Effects and Causes Children and Fathers being first made Christians by Ministers whom they never Ordeined nor so much as dreamt
of or desired So nor can it in any reason be thought by Christ afterward committed to them least of all may they arrogate it to themselves or involve it in any inferiour kind of civill and sociall power which they may in some cases have Since this power of sending and Ordeining Ministers to teach and rule the Church is as far divided from that of peoples choosing approving recommending or accepting one rightly ordeined as the waters above the firmament are from those beneath in the Sea or Earth what faithfull people may prudently do in private Church-matters within their sphere is rather a power subâ—ective obedientiall and conformative as that of the matter to the form than Mandatory Operating and Authoritative what they do discreetly as to advise chuse or agree with any Minister is rather a common act of reason and polity as men than proper to them as Christians in piety and is so far commendable as they advise chuse or agree in things of externall use for their own good yet no way troubling the Churches common welfare order and peace nor arrogating that spirituall and internall power Ministeriall either to make or act as Ministers which is from an higher principle than Nature Reason or the will of man People having no more power to Ordein send and Consecrate true Ministers or Invest them in that Authority Joh. 20.21 A my Father sent me so send I you than they had to Anoint or appoint the Messias and they may as well set up a new Christ and new Gospell as a new Ministry and new Ordination which Christ only hath once done for all places and times to the end of the world at least as to ordinary cases when right succession of power Ministerial may be had and this without troubling or interessing the common people in the business to whom Ministers dispense not the people 's own but the grace of Christ 1 Pet. 4.10 As good stewards of the manifold grace of God Eph. 4.11 Christ gave some Apostles and Pastors and Teachers People may as well make Apostles as ordinary Pastors or Ministers which are all from Christ of which among other gifts and graces as means this is one To give Apostles c. Pastors and Teachers to the Church How can people primarily give power to celebrate Mysteries to Consecrate Elements to confer Graces which are so much above their thoughts desires and merits And who have no other way to order regulate and manage any of their Elections undertakings and affairs civill and secular in what ever they pretend to have power which I think best when it is least but only that of the major part of numbred voyces or by the Pole If this doth not suffice to decide their affairs then the more hands and stronger party which is oft the worst carries it against the other fewer and weaker which may be and most-what are the best and wisest Neither of which wayes of decisions which are oft worse than that of blind Lots and Chance which many wise men rather chose than otherwaies to determine matters by the uncertain and dangerous way of popular suffrages can seem so Infallible and divine as to induce a wise man to acquiesce in them as Gods appointment when very oft they come far short of those rationall and morall proportions which a good man would require in judging of and preferring alwayes the best and most deserving men sober men would never have matters of Consequence left to the most voyces of the vulgar or to their Counter-scufflings and brutish contentions As among the Cyclops where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which oft shew that there is little of God in their heards and crowds and clamors more than may be in storms and tempests How unlikely is it that Jesus Christ should intrust these Plebs or people every where with power to chuse and ordein Ministers of his Church in order to save souls when the community have no other way in this Sacred concernment of mens souls but such as they use in their most trivial transactâ—ngs of humane affairs As if it were all one power which enables them to make a Minister of Christs Church with that which makes a Maior a Bayliff or a Constable in a Corporation In those few experiments which the wisdome of this Church or the lenity of some Patrons hath thought fit to give men of Popular Elections of their Minister I have known where a Parish rejecting a very able man offered them have with great earnestness desired and with as much greediness as the Whale did swallow Jonah received a Minister of far less worth who was of their own choise yet within two or three years they have cast him out on dry land and with scorn reproached and rejected him who was so lately their delight and darling The greatest enemy of the Gospell of Christ and of the reformed Religion would wish no greater advantages against true Religion than to have the Ordination choyce and appointment of Ministers left to the Common people in every place which will soon be filled with as much ignorance fury faction error and confusion as either Devills or Antichrists would desire whereby to make Bethel Bethaven and to set up Babylon in the midst of Jerusalem Yea the peoples very bare Election of one rightly Ordeined to be their Minister oft occasioneth very great thoughts of heart and uncomfortable divisions between both the people in their parties and the Minister so chosen by some but not by others To prevent which inconveniences and somtime mischiefs the wisdome both of Church and State had by consent of all estates People Peers and Prince setled that in a far quieter and safer way of Presentations to the content of Patrons Ministers and all sober Christians I may then conclude that as Bishops and Presbyters joyntâ—y ordeining others to that holy Office whereto themselves were formerly Consecrated did as much and no more than was their duty to Christ and the Church So neither the Pope of old had beyond his Diocess nor the People now have any thing to do with this Ordinative power which duly is in the Ministeriall order of the Church by which an holy succession of able true and faithfull Ministers Bishops and Presbyters hath been continued in all Churches and as yet is in this Church What ever the Papall pride and usurpation as any way eminently Antichristian in former or later times or Schismatick and unruly people now as the many Antichrists in the Diametral distances of their errors being the two poles of Church pride but not the axis of Church power have or do pretend as if all Church power were in them or from them it was and is all nothing else but vain shadows and meer mistakes arising from the ignorance darkness connivence licentiousness and superstition of times and is no more prejudiciall to the true power of Ordeining Ministers which is from Christ only committed to the order and fraternity of Pastors and
Governours in every Church as hath been proved than if some one or more cunning fellows should perswade credulous and silly people whom they find or lead into the dark or else blind them that they were indeed stark blind and had no power of themselves to see or open their eyes but must wholly be led by their guidance without having any sight or benefit of the Sun These poor seduced men have no more to do in point of relieving themselves and confuting so gross Impostors but only to open their eyes freely and to use the light of that Sun which they easily and clearly see shining over all the world which is not more evident to sense than this Truth is to judicious Christians That the power of Ordeining Ministers hath alwayes and only been in the Pastors Bishops and Guides of the Church who both ruled well and also laboured diligently in the Word and doctrine And since true Christians in this Reformed Church of England both Ministers and people have been so happy in this Church as to be delivered from the Romish superstitions and Papall usurpations they have now no cause to be less cautious or more patient to be gulled and deluded by popular seductions lest the second error be worse than the first Inasmuch as the furies and confusions of the vulgar are more dangerous than any errors of Popes or Bishops or Presbyters are like to be as Earthquakes are more dreadfull and pernicious than Eclipses or the Cloudings of the lights of Heaven The lights of the Church may recover their lustre and vigour in due time nor do they ever shine so dark but they afford a competent light to shew the way to Heaven But popular precipitancies and licentious extravagancies of the vulgar are likest to overthrow all religion and bury all Christianity by Gothick and Mahumetan methods in Atheism Illiterateness Confusion and Barbarity For as they have least skill in them and no authority given them to order and rule Church affairs so they have most passion and unbridled violence in them least able to distinguish between the abuse and use of things between gold and dross between what is of God or of Man when once they have got power and say that they know not what is become of their Mosesses Exod. â—6â— their divinely appointed guides their duly ordeined Bishops and Ministers the first thing they do is to make themselves molten Images and contribute both their Earings and their Ears their hearts and hands to those Calves which they set us for Tamuzzes Ezek. 8.3 or Images of jealousie and abominations whereby to provoke the God of heaven to wrath to reproach the honour of Christ to affront the true Ministers and to make the Reformed religion and this Church to become an hissing and astonishment to all round about A wise man of Spain saâ—d It is better in Church as well as in places of Civill power and Judicature to prefer corrupt men than weak and foolish The one is as a thief in a Vineyard who will only take ripe grapes till he is satisfied the other as an Asse which eats ripe and green crops the Vines treads down much with his heels and when his belly is full tumbles among them But our Antiministeriall Adversaries are still ready with scorn and laughter to demand What can Ministers 13. The vertue of holy Ordination Object either as Bishops or Presbyters confer more than other Christians in the point of Ordination What vertue or charm is there in the imposing of their hands or in their prayers by which to add to any mans ministeriall gifts and graces or to invest any man in a way of Church power more than is in any other Christians whose gifts and graces may be equall or exceeding their Infirmities far less than many Ministers are What power can they have to give the holy Ghost as they express in the form of Ordination yea whence do they challenge as of right the Name of Clergy-men as peculiar to their tribe and Calling where as all the Lords people are his lot and his inheritance and God is theirs Nor ought they contemptuously as by way of diminution to be called Lay-men or the Laity Since they are all spiritually anointed and chosen of God to be Kings Priests and Prophets I Answer Answ Of the Laity and Clergy Clem. Rom. ep ad Cor. p. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lay-man is bound up by Lay commands 〈◊〉 keâ— hâ— rank Igâ—â— epist frâ—quently Tertul. Hoâ—â—â— Presbyter qui cras Laicus Laicâ— Sacerdotaliâ— munera injungunt De prae ad haer c. 42. saepe alibi St. Cyprian often So Clemens of Alexand. Differentiam inter ordinem plebem constituit Ecclesiae autoritas honor per ordinis câ—nsessum sanctificatus à Deo Tertul. de exh ad Cast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Const Apost l. 3. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Vid. Dr. Prideaux Praelect Consuetudo certissiâ—a loquendi magistra utendumque planè sermone ut nummo cui publica est forma Quintil. Jnst l. 1. c. 6. Sermo constâ—t ratione vetustate authoritate consuctudine Id. Vetera verba majestas religio quaedam commendat Id. to this last scruple first as least being not so much a beam as a mote in some mens tender eyes which like Leahs are easily offended As for the names then of Clergy and Laity in which the Nasuter Criticks of this age sent something of pride in the Ecclesiasticks or Ministers and of despiciency toward the faithfull people who are to be animated and flattered any way against the Ministry of the Church They may know that this distinction between the Clergy and Laity hath been used in the Church from the very first Primitive times as the antient Fathers Councils and the Histories of the Churches both Greek and Latin do testifie nor was the one ever intended or upbraided for a badge of vanity to the Ministry nor the other imputed for a brand of scorn to the people The piety and charity of those times were not at leisure thus to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stumble at straws I am sure as they antiently were so they still are usuall notes of difference in point of office and duty between Ministers and people not only in our ordinary Language yea in the exacter stile of our Laws which give both reall and nominall distinctions with the greatest authority Nor are they at all against the Scripture sense and meaning if they be not just to its words since the word of Christ hath evidently placed as limits of office so Marks and names of distinction between the one and the other as Pastor and Flock Doctor and Disciple Ruler and ruled c. Yea and we may easiâ—y gather from the Scripture dialect that as the faithfull people are in generall Clerus Ecclesia the lot or portion and heritage of the Lord So the Ministers are Clerus Ecclesiae A lot heritage and portion given by
turn all the solidity of Truth the certainty of History and the Sacredness of the mystery of Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 23. de Trinitatis Myst. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Heb. 11.1 Faith is the evidence of thâ—ngs not seen c. Nemo â—â—dicet hâ—mano modo quod diviâ—o geâ—itur sacramento nemo mystâ—â—ia caelestia discutiat ratione humana Crysâ— S. 148. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in cp 43. God manifested in the flesh into nothing but Familisticall whimseys empty notions and sublimity of nonsense As if there were more light of Religion in their modern Meteors and gross illuminations than in the Sun Moon and Stars in Scripture Ministers and Christians of old whereas the same holy and humble faith by which true Christians do believe Jesus to be the promised Messias the Son of God and only Saviour of the world notwithstanding all that blind Jews or proud Gentiles object against him doth also teach them to receive with all humble thankfulness and religious reverence all those holy orders duties and Institutions in their plainess poverty and simplity which Christ hath setled in his Church and which the Church hath continued according to his word in all humble fidelity Nor doth the meaness of outward appearance or any naturall and civill disproportions which appear to humane sense or reasonings any way prejudice or weaken the faith devotion duty and obedience of those who live by faith and look with the eye of faith and act with the hand of faith in all those holy offices and Ministrations which are grounded on the word of Christ To judge of Christian Mysteries or Ministries by common sense or carnall reasonings as Sarah did of the Promise is to make Christian Religion most ridiculous mean and insignificant whose vertue and efficacy as the faith of Abraham depends not upon any naturall morall or politique powers faculties habits abilities or actions that are in or flow from the persons acting in them and dispensing of them nor the Elementary sensible natures of the things used in them But meerly upon that divine vertue and power of Christ Instituting such holy things as duties to be done to such a religious end by such men and means in such a manner and no other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Ma. de sid Tota ratio sacti est potentia facientis Aust Greg. N. s Vita Mosis Carnem agni licuit comedere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ossa vero non confringendâ— credenda non curiosius discutienda sunt dei mysteria c. 2 Cor. 2. In mullis scientia Pauli à disputatione tranâ—it in stuporem cujus tanta erit praesumptio ut disserendo existimet aperienda potius quà m silentio miranda Amb. voc l. 2. 1 Cor. 1.27 and all this in his Name that is meerly as an Institution of his divine power and wisdome and whence they have their efficacy and also authority not indeed among affected Novelists curious speculatists proud hypocrites or contentious worldlings but among humble devout and true believers who are also doers of the will of God in all things holy just and morall who knowing what belongs to the life and obedience of Faith disdain not to submit themselves to any way and order seem it never so weak and simple that Christ hath appointed to them and his Church who alone can make weak foolish and contemptible things to be powerfull and effectuall through the concurrence of his Spirit and grace to those great and holy ends for which they are by him Instituted in his Church So that it is not any Magick charm or Enchantment as these prophane minds scornfully deride which makes the common elements to become Sacraments by that solemn Consecration which is rightly performed by one that is from Christ appointed as a minister of holy things No more is it any fantastick and imaginary power which of a common man makes a Minister of the Gospel by due Ordination which is a setting apart of some fit and worthy men from the ordinary capacities comon relations and humane affairs of the world either as naturall or civill and Consecrating them by prayer and imposition of hands and power of the Spirit to the peculiar service of Christ and his Church in the holy Ministry Pantomimi sunt in religione Hypocritae quo minus sancti sunt co magis simulant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 studentes non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this not to be done by any one that please themselves to be at once both apes and hypocrites in religion to act a part and make a Stage-play of holy Ordination by a popular presumption but only by such as Christ hath fitted with gifts and enabled with power of his Spirit to Consecrate and Ordein a succession of Ministers to the service of the Church being themselves formerly ordeined and so invested with that great and holy power of order So that it is the powerfull Word and Spirit of Christ In ordinatione Deus est causa principalis homo instrumentatis Deus vocat primario Ecclesia mediante declarante quem à Deo vocatum praesumit Gerard 2 Cor. 10.5 as the King and Prophet of his Church which commands the duty establisheth the Order and gives the blessing as in other so in this of Ordination In obedience to which true and excellent Christians willingly captivate all their high imaginations and subdue every thought which exalts it self against the rule of faith the word of Christ pulling down all the strong holds of proud and humane reasonings Submitting to every holy Ministration and true Minister in his office for Christs sake from whose grace Spirit and promise they expect and find that blessing comfort and inward peace which is only to be had in Christs way which depends meerly on his divine will and power which changeth not the nature of things but their relation and use to an higher and spirituall end requiring faith humility reverence obedience and thankfulness in every believer or worshipper 17. Right Ordination Efficacious relatively and spiritually not physically So that although Ordination of a Minister to the peculiar service of Christ and the Church by such as have the right and power by uninterrupted succession duly derived to them and to be derived orderly from them in all ages do not add to the Naturall Morall or Spirituall gifts and indowments of men as they are personall and inherent any more than the office of Embassadour or Judge or Commander doth in Civill or Military employments confer any thing to the inward abilities of the man yet that honour and authority rightly derived to any one invests him with a relative Idem valet deputati ac deputantis autoritas in quantum depâ—tatur Reg. jur yet reall power qualification and capacity of doing or declaring the will of another to the same validity as if the principall himself did it by whose authority alone any other is sent
and enabled to effect those things which none other can presume to perform without vanity sin and presumption who hath not that gift power or authority consigned to him The right Ordination then of Ministers in the way of an holy succession in the Church of Christ hath in Religion and among true Christians these holy uses and clear advantages peculiar to it 1. 1. It confirms the truth of the Gospel 2 Cor. 8.23 First as to the main end the Glory of God and the saving of mens souls by their believing and obeying this testimony of all true Ministers that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world Nothing gives a more clear and credible testimony to the glory and honour of Jesus Christ and to truth of the Gospel than this uniform and constant succession of Ministers Multi barbarâ—rum in ChristuÌ„ credunt sine charactere vel attramento scriptam babenter in cordibus sum per spiritum salutem et veterum traditionem diligentes custodientes quam Apostoli tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias cui ordinationi assentiunt multa gentes c. Iren. l. 3. c. 4. by a peculiar Ordination and authority even from Christ himself in person who at first began this Ministry and sent some speciall men as his messengers to bear witness of him in all the world that so men might believe not only what is written in the word before it was or as it is now written but also as that glorious truth hath been thus testified every where and in every age by chosen and peculiar men as a cloud of most credible witnesses whom thousands at first did and to this day do hear preaching and see them Celebrating the holy mysteries of Christs Gospell who never had or used any written word nor ever read it and for the most part believed before ever they saw any part of the Bible which the constant Ministry of the Church hath under God hitherto preserved chiefly upon the testimony and tradition or record of those that were ever thought and alwayes ought to be most able and faithfull men specially appointed by Christ in his Church as a perpetuall order and succession of Witnesses to testifie of him and to minister in his Name to the end of the world This walking Gospel and visible Ministry consisting as it ought of wise and worthy men Minister est verbum visibile ambulans Evangelium who have good reputation for their piety learning and fidelity running on to all generations is as a continued stream from the blessed Apostles who were the first witnesses immediatly appointed by Christ to hold forth his name and Gospell to the world Acts 1.8 which though never so far off in the decurrence of time from the fountain yet still testifies and assures all wise men that there is certainly a divine fountain of this ministeriall power and so of Evangelicall mysteries and truth which rose first from Christ and which hath constantly run as may appear by the enumeration or induction of particular descents in all ages in this Channel of the Apostles and their successors the Bishops and Presbyters of the Church for the better planting confirming and propagating of the Gospell to all Nations and times As a duty charge or office injoyned by divine command to some men and lying ever as a calling on their consciences Hereby evidently declaring the divine wisdom and Fatherly care of Christ for the good instruction and order of his Church in his personall absence In that he hath not left the Ministry of the Gospell and his holy Institutions which he would have alwaies continued for the gathering edifying of his Church to a loose and arbitrary way among the rabblâ— and promiscuous heards of men which would soon have made Evangelicall truths seem but as vagrant fables and generall uncertain rumors which run without any known and sure authority in the common chat and arbitrary report of the vulgar by which in a short time both the order beauty honour purity and credit of Truth is easily lost among men This holy and successionall ordination of the Evangelicall Ministry gives great proof and demonstration as of Christs personall presence as chief Bishop and Minister of his Church so of the fulfilling of Christs word and the veracity of his promise Mat. 28. after his departure to be with them that were sent and went in his name to the end of the world That the gates of hell neither yet have nor ever shall prevail against the Church While it carefully preserves a right succession holy order and authority of true Ministers the devill despairs of ever overthrowing Christian Religion in its reformed profession in any Country Down with the order Mat. 16.28 and sacred power and succession of the Ministry and all will in a short time be his own 2. 2. Evidenceth the Churches care Agnitio vera est Apostolorum doctrina antiquus Ecclesia status in universo mundo charactere corporis Christi secundum successiones Apostolorum quibus illi eam quae est in unoquoque loco Ecclesiam tradiderunt Scripturarum sine fictione custodita tractatio plenissima lâ—ctio sine salsatione secundum scripturas expositio legitima diligens sine periculo sine blasphemia Irenaeus l. 4. c. 43. In Ecclesia Catholica bacte nus inviolabili observatione tenetar qua potissimum Catholici ab Haereticis discriminantur nimirum ut cujusvis meriti atque praestantiae â—ir fuerit non sua sponte praedicationis munus suscipiat sed expectet donec ab Ecclesia mittatur ab eaque sacris functionibus initietur siâ—que initiatus praedicationi Evangelii mancipetur Baronius An. Anno Christi 44. It is also a notable evidence of the Churches care and fidelity in all ages not only in the preservation of the oracles of the word which it hath done but also of a constant holy Ministry to teach and explain them Also to celebrate those holy mysteries which are divinely annexed to the word as seals to confirm the faith of Christians And lastly to exercise that wholsome discipline for terror or comfort the power of which is chiefly in the Pastors and Rulers of the Church As it is then for the honour of the wisdom of Christ in the originall to have instituted such holy mysteries and such a Ministry so it is for the honour of the Church in the succession of all ages to have thus preserved them and it self in that order which becomes the family of Christ which had come far short of any well ordered family if the Father and Master of it Jesus Christ had left every servant to guess at his duty and all of them to scramble what part they list of employment aliment and enjoyment but the Lord Christ as every wise Master doth hath appointed and his Church hath preserved to this day constant Stewards and dispensers of holy things in his house-hold whose duty t is to
be faithfull to their Masters profit and credit to do their duty and to maintain that place and authority in which the Lord hath set them nor is it any thing of a pious easiness but an impious baseness in them as Bishops and Ministers voluntarily to desert their station and to suffer every one to usurp upon them and to do what they list Nor is any thing more intolerable than the rudeness riot and impudence of those inferior servants who pretending Christian liberty and not induring those officers and Ministers whom the Master hath orderly placed over them neither will they long indure the Lord or Master himself to rule over them we read Mat. 21.38 They kill the Son who first beat and shamefully intreated the servants which were sent But thirdly as to the persons duly ordeined This holy Ordination gâ—ves a reall divine power which is necessarily to be delegated and derived from Christ since no man hath it in and of himself or of any will of men by which he is enabled to perform those duties which Christ only hath injoyned in his word to be done and to be thus done by such men and in such a manner and no other 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddainly on no man i. e. by way of Ordination Ergo no man is of that office or hath that authority and power till ordeined be his parts and gifts never so great and good So 2 Tim. 2.2 These things commit to faithfull men who may be able to teach others ergo some peculiar Commission must be given to these and to no other to perform Ministeriall duties with authority Such are those of making Disciples by Preaching the Gospell by distinguishing from others and also confirming and uniting together among themselves in holy Communion those Disciples with the holy seals of Baptism and the Lords Supper To edify confirm and preserve them by teaching reprooving praying for them comforting guiding governing binding and loosing by the use of that power of the Keys which is committed only to them both in doctrine and discipline doing all things toward penitents and impenitents believers and unbelievers Tit. 2.15 not magisterially but ministerially as from Christ and for the Churches good yet not precariously and arbitrarily oâ— depending on mans pleasure Iren. l. 4. c. 43. Episcopalus sucâ—essionâ—m ab Apostolis habentes Charisma veritatis certuÌ„ acceperunt Ubi charisâ—ata domini posita sunt ibi discere oportet veritatem apud quos est successio ab Apostoliâ— sanum ac irreprobabile sermonis Cap. 45. 1 Tâ—m 4.14 but autoritatively and conscientiously as doing the work of the Lord knowing the power they have received of the Lord the duties enjoyned them the care required in them the account to be exacted of them as to the Stewardship of the souls solemnly committed to their care which is done by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ministeriall gift of the holy Ghost which Christ gave to the Apostles John 20.22 and by their hands as by St. Pauls to Timothy 2 Tim. 1.6.14 to others and so to a perpetuall succession For without this gift or power of the holy Spirit of Truth 18. The holy Spirit given in right Ordination how whose property it is to lead the faithfull into all truth no man is truly a Minister of holy things in the Church So that it is a pittifull piece of ignorance or putid scurrility and profaness for any that profess Christianity much more for those that pretend to be Ministers in the Church to slight and expose to vulgar scorn that passage used as of antient times in all Churches so in the Church of Englands manner of ordeining Ministers Receive ye the holy Spirit As if this were a meer mockery and insignificancy in point of any sanctity conferred When it is expressed to be meant as it ever was in the Church understood not of sanctifying graces infused qualities or habits of inward holiness which are immediatly from God and not by man to be conferred nor from man to be communicated to another nor do they invest any one that hath them in any Church office or publick power over others for then every holy man and woman should have this power but it is only meant of those peculiar gifts or powers of the holy Spirit Eph. 4.8 which are properly ministeriall and officiative as from Christ and in his name not by internall infusion but by externall separation or sanction not endâ—ing with grace but investing in a new relation and authority distinct from the common Christians duty place and officers of charity c. which are as parchment wax and writing usefull in their kind but not valid as to any conveyance till sealed subscribed delivered and witnessed as the act and deeâ— of the conveyer who lawfully hereby confers to an other his right and power of acting possessing or enjoying c. So by a form of such Commission or delegation as Christ instituted that power and ministeriall gift of the holy Spirit is continued which was first committed to the Apostles by Christ who only would do it Nor can this power be understood so much for extraordinary miracles which were to cease as for that ordinary Ministry which was to continue as necessary for the Church in all ages This power or gift of the Holy Ghost as ministeriall and officiating in Christs name as that of miracles may be where there is no sanctifying grace as was in Judas and probably in Demas and others who might be sheep as to their profession Acts 1.17 and shepheards as to their office or Episcopacy of which Judas had a part and fell from it and yet wolves as to the inward habits and graces 1 Cor. 5.4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ c. When the Spirit of Paul was joyned with the Corinthian Ministers and believers in excommunicating the incestuous persons it was not the sanctifying Spirit or grace of the Apostle but that ministeriall power which he had eminently in and joyntly with the Church The power and Spirit of Christ as it is given so received in right Ordination by every true Minister that is worthily promoted not as to grace and inward vertue of which man judgeth not but as to office and relative power from Christ in the publike service or Ministry to his Church As every officer civill or military that hath commission acts in the Spirit name and power of those by whom authority is primarily derived to them In this sense and to this use the Spirit of Moses was put on the 70. Elders Num. 11.25 and Elias on Elisha 2 Kings 11.9 3. Yea further I doubt not but the solemn and right manner of Ordination by fasting Deus largitur gratiam homo imponit manus Sacerdos imponit supplicem dextram Deus benediâ— potents dentre Episcopus initiat ordinem Deus tribuit
many sinfull evils and snares while they forsake or cast out and despise their rightly Ordeined and duly placed Ministers and either follow and incourage such seducers as are very destructive both to the Churches peace and to mens souls both in the present and after ages or else fall to a neglect indifferency yea and abhorrency of all Religion The Order Power 20. Summary Conclusion of the power and efficacy of right Ordination and Authority then by which right Ordination is conferred on the true Ministers of the Gospel as was here in England although they seem to proud scorners to unstable minds to ignorant and unbelievers as frivolous as the Gospel seems foolishness yet to the humble eye of Faith it appears as the wisdome holy order and commission of God for the continuall teaching well guiding and edifying of the Church of God by truth and peace to Salvation The blessed and great effects of which depend as I have shewed not upon any naturall power or vertue tranfused from the Ordeiners to the Ordeined but upon the Word Promise and appointment of Christ sending them in this method of the Churches triall approbation and ordination In which by the judgement and conscience of those who are of the same function and so best able to examine and judge of gifts and abilities the examined and approved is publickly authorised and declared to be such a Minister as the Lord hath chosen to be sent such as the Spirit of Christ hath anointed and consecrated by meet gifts and graces for the service of Christ and the Church in that great work of the Ministry One who is thus ordeined the Church may in any part of it comfortably receive and own in Christs name One who is partaker duly of the comfort of that promise from Christ Mat. 28. to be with his true Ministers to the end of the world which could not be verified as interpreters observe of the persons of those then living and first sent by Christ who were long since at rest in the Lord but of their lawfull Successors rightly following them in the same office and power Non sunt successores in officio qui ad officium accedunt alio modo quam institutum est Reg. Jur. without which they are not truly their Successors in the Ministry and authority from Christ No more than they can be Embassadors Deputies and Messengers from or to any one from or to whom they have no assignment of any power by letters or other way of commission which when most legally and formally done by deeds and instruments of writing yet these receive no naturall change of their qualities nor is any inherent vertue conveyed to them when they are made instruments to testifie the Will and convey the power of any to another but they have such a change in relation to their appointed use and end as alters them from what they were before in common and unlimited nature The like is as to religious ends and uses where some men are specially ordeined to be Ministers having all their efficacy and authority as to that work from the will of Jesus Christ from whom alone such power is derivable and that not in every way which the vanity of men list but in such as the Church hath constantly used according to the Scripture Canons and directions which are clear to Timothy and Titus which are the great paterns and evident commissions for right Ordination and Succession to the Ministry besides other places Against the undoubted Authority and pregnant testimony of which Epistles and Scriptures joyned to the Churches Catholick custome it will not be easie for any Novelist to vacate and abolish that holy Succession and due Ordination which the true Ministers of England have generally had in this Church which in my own experience I cannot but with all truth and thankfulness testifie to the glory of God to the honour of this Church and those reverend Bishops as Fathers of it who not only with great decency and gravity but with much conscience and religious care ordeined Ministers as very many so very worthy Nor on the other side will these Novellers easily perswade judicious Christians That any upstarts and pretenders in any other way which as it is poor and popular so it comes very short and unproportionate to what is required in and of a Minister can have the power and Authority of true Ministers Habentes cum iis consortium praedicationis habeant necesse est consortium damnationis Tertul. de Haeret. auditoribus Jo. 2.8 having no right Ordination to which no mans pragmatick pride and self-confidence nor the ostentation of his gifts to others by a voluble tongue nor the admiration and desire of his si ly and flattering auditors can contribute any thing either as to the comfort of the one or the other but much to the sin and shame of them both as perverters of Christs order and the Churches peace forsaking their own mercies while they follow lying vanities which cannot profit them 17. Yet meer form of Ordination makes not an able Minister Not that every man that is Ordeined a Minister as to the meer outward form in a right and orderly way is presently of the essence and truth of a Minister in Christs esteem or in the comfort of his own conscience The ordeined may be such hypocrites as Simon Magus was when baptised as have neither reall abilities nor honest purposes aiming at Gods glory or the Churches good but meerly at their own worldly ends and base advantages The Ordeiners also may be either deceived in the judgement of Charity or corrupted by humane lusts and frailties so as greatly to pervert and prophane this holy Institution No man hath further comfort of his being Ordeined a Minister than he hath reall gifts and competent abilities together with an holy and honest purpose of heart to glorifie God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baz M. ep 187. The antient custom of the Church receives none to be Ministers but upon strickt examination before they are ordeined Concil Nic. 1. and â—he Concil Caâ—ib 1. c 9. takes care that none be Ordeined Presbyters without due examination in the discharge of that holy office and power to which he is by the Church appointed Nor can on the other side the Ordeiners more highly offend in piety against God and charity against the Church than in a superficiall and negligent way of ordeining Ministers which antiently was not done but with solemn publick fasting prayer and great devotion Indeed nothing should be done in the Church of Christ with greater exactness both for inward sincerity and outward holy solemnity than this weighty and fundamentall work of carrying on the Ministeriall power and authority in a fit and holy Succession Abuses here are prone to creep in the Devill coveting nothing more than to undermine weaken and overthrow this main Pillar on which the Church and house of God doth stand Ministers either
peace and extern order in which the publique wisdom and consent of the Nation confined it self them and all men in it by laws are to be called superstition tyranny and oppression in Ministers more then all other men who being under government thought it their duty to submit to every ordinance of man 1 Pet. 2.13 which did not crosse any divine ordinance but kept within the bounds of that liberty order and decency which are left to the wisdome of any Christian Church and State whereby to preserve the honor of Religion and the order and peace of the publique Those jejune and threadbare objections oft used against Ministers in these things wherein there were but obedientiall and passive the activity lying in those who had the power to enjoyne and command them which was done by all Estates in Parliament have been so oft and fully answered that all sober and wise Christians see the weaknesse of reason and the strength of passion in them as they are charged for faults on Ministers in their respective obedience and conformity For which they were like to know better grounds than any their enemies had against them And being in all other main matters very knowing and consciencious men they are not in charity to be suspected in those lesser and extern matters to have sprung any leak of sinfull weaknesse or to have made any shipwrack of a good conscience Later events have much recommended former duties and laws * Vires inordinatae mole ruunt sua Quo vehementiores eo infirmiores inque propriam ruinam valentissimae Salust shewing how weak even Truth and Religion are as to extern profession where like loose and scattered souldiers Beleevers or Professors are destitute of all order and just discipline But if the Ministers of the Church of England had discovered many failings as men compassed about with infirmities 6. Ministers in their weaknesses yet superiour to their adversaries who cannot supply their roome which easily beset them for which they oft mourned against which they were alwayes praying and striving yet what is it wherein the pretended perfections of their presumptuous and implacable adversaries doe excell the very weaknesses and defects of Ministers yea wherein will the vapouring of any new projectors be able to repair the dammage or recompense the want which thousands must have yea this whole Nation suffer if by these mens cruell designes they be deprived of the blessing of these whom they please to count so weak unworthy and contemptible Ministers Will those old pieces or those new Proteusses who pretend and fancy to be new stamped with the mark of popular ordination which is none of Christs whose wisdome never committed any power of Ministry and holy offices or divine Ordination to the common people as I have proved who are betrayers haters and desertors of that true power and authority which they formerly received in that just and lawfull ordination which was from all antiquity derived to this Church from which no mean and vulgar complyance should have drawn any man of piety learning and honesty to so great a schism defection and Apostasie from the Catholick rule and ancient practise will I say these new masters or those heaps of Teachers which country people are prone to raise up to themselves in their fervent folly and zealous simplicity will they furnish Church or State with better and abler Ministers in any kinde with better learning better doctrine better preaching better praying better living then those former Ministers did in the midst of their many infirmities Yea will not these new obtruders with most impudent foreheads while they looke you in the face cheat and deceive you Will they not while they smile upon you with shews of Gifts and Spirit O miserandam sponsam talibus creditam Paranymphis Ber. de Cons Praedatores non praedicatores peculatores non speculatores Raptores non Pastores Id. and Prophets and speciall calls and extraordinary ordinations exchange counterfeit for true Jewels brasse for gold stones for bread pebbles for pearls dirt for diamonds gloeworms for stars candles full of theives and soil for the Sun In stead of the excellent and usefull worth the divine and due authority of your learned and godly Ministers you shall have either confident ignorance or fraudulent learning or Jesuitick sophistry or fanatick nonsense or flattering errors or factious semblances of truth to usher in most damnable doctrines and most unchristian practises Doe men gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles Can these bitter fountaines send forth sweet waters or these burning Etnas breath forth other than such sparkes and flames as their sulphureous spirits and their hearts full of envy Jam. 3.12 and malice and pride afford which seek to darken the Sun of Truth at noon day or to scorch up the fruits of holinesse to infect the common air of Christian charity order and peace in which true Christians delight to breath When these plagiaries have destroyed or driven away the fathers of Christs family and Church will they not either seduce and steal away the children to their own erratick factions or even sell these Orphanes for a pair of shoes to Cantors and Tom-a-bedlams committing or rather casting away the soules of men to the carelesse care of those sturdy vagrants whose minds are more unsetled than their eyes or feet or tongues which are so far bent against true Ministers as they are intent to their booty and prey from every quarter Will these who seek to be the maules and hammers of the Ministers of this Church either by their skill or power wit or learning prudence or policy ever forge on the hard anvils of their heads or bring forth out of the rude moulds of their inventions any thing that shall be like a true Minister of the Gospell Are there ordinarily any such blocks to be found among them of which there is any hope that they may be shapen to such Mercuries as are the true Gods Messengers Are there any such tempting materials as any art and industry may promise to fit them up to such a degree and pitch of competent Ministers as may direct the countrey plainnesse and guide that peevish and disputative madnesse which is among even the meanest people in every village Will these skippers or skullers ever furnish out such Pilots as may safely steere the ship of this Church in which the Truth of God the honour of Christ the reformed Religion the happinesse of thousands of soules are embarqued amidst the rocks of errours Syrens of secular temptations and piracies of strong enemies on every side They say that better ships are now built in England than ever were and shall we be content with worse Pilots lesse able Ministers in the Church who are as the Argonautae bringers of the golden fleece the riches and righteousnesse of Christ the Lamb of God the treasures of heaven the true gold of Ophir which hath been seven times tryed in stead of which
The rash and injurious defaming of the Church of England riseth from want of judgement humility or charity p. 129 A pathetick deploring the losse and want of charity among Christians p. 131 II. Grand Objâ—ction against the Ministry as no peculiar Office or distinct Calling p. 143 Answ The peculiar Calling of the Ministry asserted 1. By Catholick testimony both as to the judgement and practise of all Churches p. 144 The validity of that testimony p. 146 2. The peculiar Calling or Office of the Ministry confirmed by Scripture p. 152 1. Christs Ministry in his Person p. 153 2. Christs instituting an holy succession to that power and Office p. 154 3. The Apostles care for an holy succession by due ordination p. 155 4. Peculiar fitnesse duties and characters of Ministers p. 157 5. Peculiar solemnity or manner of ordaining or authorising Ministers p. 158 6. Ministers and Peoples bounds set down in Scripture p. 160 3. The peculiar Office of the Ministry confirmed by principles of right reason and order p. 162 4. By the proportions of divine wisdome in the Church of the Jewes p. 164 5. By the light of Nature and Religion of all Nations p. 165 6. The Office of the Ministry necessary for the Church in all ages as much as at the first p. 166 7. The greatnesse of the work requires choyce and peculiar workmen p. 169 What opinion the Ancients had of the Office of a Bishop or Minister p. 172 8. The work now as hard as ever requires the best abilities of the whole man p. 175 9. Vse of private gifts will not suffice to the work of the Ministry p. 179 10 Ministers as necessary in the Church as Magistrates in Cities or Commanders in Armies p. 180 Christian liberty expels not order p. 181 11. Peculiar Office of Ministry necessary for the common good of mankinde p. 183 12. Necessary to prevent Errors and Apostasies in the best Churches and Christians p. 185 To which none more subject than the English temper p. 186 Conclusion of this Vindication of the Evangelicall Ministry as a peculiar Office p. 187 III. The third Objection against the Ministry and Ministers of this Church from the ordinary gifts of Christians which ought to be exercised in common as Preachers or Prophets p. 189 Answ The gifts of Christians no prejudice to the peculiar Office of the Ministry p. 190 Reply to the many Scriptures alledged p. 191 Of right interpreting or wresting the Scriptures p. 194 The vanity and presumption of many pretenders to gifts p. 197 Their arrogancy and insolency against Ministers p. 199 Gifted men compared to Ministers p. 201 The ordinary insufficiency of Antiministeriall pretenders to gifts p. 202 Gifts alone make not a Minister p. 204 Of St. Paul's rejoycing that any way Christ was preached p. 205 Providentiall permissions not to be urged against divine precepts or Institutions p. 206 Antiministeriall Character p. 209 Churches necessities how to be supplyed in cases extraordinary p. 210 Of Christians use of their gifts p. 211 * Answer to a Book called The peoples priviledge and duty of Prophecying maintained against the Pulpits and Preachers encroachment p. 214 Of peoples prophecying on the Lords day p. 215 Or on the Weekday p. 218 Of primitive Prophecying p. 220 Ministers of England neither Popish nor superstitiously pertinacious as they are charged in that book p. 221 The folly of false and faigned Prophets p. 227 The sin and folly of those that applaud them p. 228 The Author of this Defense no way disparaging or damping the gifts of God in any private Christians p. 230 Ablest Christians most friends to true Ministers p. 231 Ordinary delusions in this kinde p. 232 The plot of setting up Pretenders to gifts against true Ministers p. 233 IV. Objection The first Cavill or Calumny Against the Ministers of England as Papall and Antichristian p. 237 Answ Papall Vsurpations no prejudice to Divine Institutions p. 238 The moderation and wisdome of our Reformers p. 239 What separation is no sinfull Schisme p. 244 Of Antichristianisme in Errors and uncharitablenesse p. 245 Our Ministry not from Papall authority p. 247 True reforming is but a returning to Gods way p. 248 Of the Popes pretended Supremacy in England p. 249 Of our Reforming p. 251 Of extreames and vulgarity in Reformation p. 253 The holy use of Musick p. 254 Divine Institutions incorruptible p. 256 V. Objection The second Cavill or Calumny Against Ministers as ordained by Bishops in the Church of Eng. p. 259 Answ Of ordination by Bishops p. 260 Of Bishops as under affliction p. 261 Of right Episcopall order and government in the Church of Christ p. 262 Reasons preferring Episcopall government before any other way p. 263 Vulgar prejudices against Episcopacy p. 271 The other new modes unsatisfactory to many learned and godly men p. 272 The advantages of Episcopacy against any other way p. 273 The Character of an excellent Bishop p. 273 Of Regulated Episcopacy p. 278 Bishops personal Errors no argument against the Office p. 279 What is urged from the Covenant against Episcopacy Answered p. 280 Prelacy no Popery p. 281 Bishops in England ordaining Presbyters did but their duty p. 283 Alterations in the Church how and when tolerable p. 284 Episcopacy and Presbytery reconciled p. 286 Personal faults of Bishops or Presbyters may viciate but not vacate divine duties p. 289 Ordination by Bishops and Presbyters p. 289 Of the Peoples power in Ordination p. 291 People have no power Ministeriall p. 292 Peoples presence and assistance in Ordination p. 296 The virtue of holy Ordination p. 303 Of Clergy and Laity p. 303 Right judgement of Christian Mysteries p. 305 Efficacy of right Ordination p. 308 The Holy Ghost given in right Ordination how p. 311 Of Ordination misapplyed p. 318 Insolency of unordained Teachers p. 319 VI. Object The third Calumny or Cavill Pretending speciall Inspirations and extraordinary gifts beyond any Ordained Ministers p. 361 Answ Of the holy Spirit of God in men by way of speciall Inspirations p. 363 The triall of it 1. By the Word written p. 365 2. By the fruits of it p. 369 The Influence of Gods Spirit how discerned p. 371 The vanity and folly of specious pretences p. 372 Of true holinesse and reall Saints p. 375 Vulgar mistakes of Inspirations p. 377 These Inspirators compared to Ministers p. 382 The blessings enjoyed by ordinary gifts in good Ministers p. 386 The danger and mischief of pretenders to speciall gifts p. 388 Blasphemies against the Spirit under the pretence of special Inspirations p. 391 The scandalous inconstancy of sâ—me professors p. 392 Conclusion resigning our Ministry to these inspired ones if they be found really such p. 393 VII Objection The fourth Cavill or Calumny Against humane learning acquired and used by Ministers p. 395 Answ The craft yet folly of this Objection p. 396 Humane learning succeeded Miracles and extraordinary gifts in the Church p. 397 The excellent and holy use of it in
this was chiefly done by the able and accurate pens of the godly and learned Ministers who needed in those times no other defence on their part either for order government maintenance Ministry or doctrine All which were then preserved from vulgar injuries and insolencies by the same power and sword which defended those civill sanctions and lawes which established and preserved all things of sacred and Ecclesiastick as well as of civill and secular concernment Untill these last fatall times which pregnant with civill wars and dissensions have brought forth such great revelations and changes in Church and State wherein Scholars and Churchmen in stead of pens and bookes have to contend with swords and pistols Which weapons of carnall warfare were unwonted to be applyed either to the planting propagating or reforming of Christian Religion onely proper to be used for the preservation of what is by law established from seditious and schismaticall perturbations For it was not the vinegar but the oil of Christian Religion not its fierinesse but its meeknesse not its force but its patience that ever made its way through the hardest rocks and hearts And by these strange Engines these new armes of flesh we have hitherto onely seen acted and fulfilled with much horror misery and confusion those things in this Church and Nation which were foreseen and foretold by two eminent and learned persons yet of different opinions as to the extern matters of Ecclesiasticall polity Mr. Richard Hooker and Mr. Thomas Brightman the one in the preface to his Ecclesiasticall polity the other in his comment on the third chapter of the Revelations Who many years agoe in times of peace and setlednesse in this Church of England foretold not by any infallible spirit of prophecy for then the later of them would not have been so much mistaken in the fate of his dear Philadelphia of Scotland but meerly out of prudence conjecturing what was probable to come to passe according to the fears of the one and the hopes of the other in case the then spreading though suppressed differences and parties in Religion which they then saw made many Zealously boldly discontented came to obtain such power as every side aims at when they pretend to carry on matters of Religion and Reformation wherein immoderation being usually stiled Zeal and moderation lukewarmnesse it was easie for sagacious men to foresee and foretell what excesses the transports of inferiours would in all probability urge upon superiours if ever these managed power so weakly and unadvisedly that any aspiring and discontented party might come to gain power in a way not usuall which at the very first rupture and advantage would think it self easily absolved from all former ties of obedience and subjection to governours in Church or State without which liberty and absolution it is not possible to carry on by force any Novelties and pretended amendments of Religion contrary to what is established in any Church or Nation Indeed we see to our smart and sorrow that the deluge foretold would break in hath so overflowed this and the neighbour Churches that not only Mr. Brightmans blear-ey'd Leah his odious Peninnah his so abhorred Hierarchy the Episcopall order and eminency but even his beloved Rachel his admired Hannah his divine Presbytery it self yea the whole function of the Ministry feels and fears the terror of that inundation which far beyond his divination hath prevailed not only over his so despised Laodicea which he made to be type of the Church of England truly not without passion and partiality as I think with far wiser men He not calmly distinguishing between the constitution and execution of things between the faults of persons and the order of places between what was prudentiall and what is necessary what is tolerable and what is abominable in any Church as to its extern form and polity but also over his darling and so adored Philadelphia which he makes to answer to the Scottish Palatinate or Geneva form of Presbyterian government and discipline as if that Church of Philadelphia in its primitive constitution under the presidency and government of its Angell had any thing different from or better than the other neighbour Churches which is no way probable nor appears either in Scripture or Ecclesiasticall histories However it might be commendable in its Angell or President for its greater zeal and exacter care to preserve that doctrine discipline and order which it had lately received from the Apostles and which no doubt was the same in each Church who had their severall Angels or Overseers alike which all Antiquity owned for those Pastors Presidents or Bishops to whose charge they were respectively committed As for that evomition or Gods spewing this Church of England out of his mouth which Mr. Brightman so dreadfully threatens It must be confessed that the sins of all sorts of Christians in this Church and of Ministers as much as any have made them nauseous and burthensome to the Divine patience both in their lukewarm formalities and fulsome affectations of Religion in their empty pompes and emptier popularities So that Gods patience once turned into just fury hath indeed terribly powred out his vengeance on all degrees and estates in this Nation by suffering flouds of miseries and billows of contempt to overwhelm for a time the face of this Church as of old wars heresies and schisms wasted the Asiatick African and Latin Churches not more it may be upon the account of Ministers weaknesse and unworthinesse than upon that of peoples levity pride and ingratefull inconstancy which hath been a great means to bring on and continue these overflowing streams Which nothing but the mighty power of God by the help of good and wise men can rebuke and asswage so that the face of this Church and its Ministry may yet appear in greater beauty and true Reformation after it s so great squallor and deformity which is not to be despaired of through Gods mercy yet in a farre other way than ever Mr. Brightman foresaw But when and by what means this shall be done the Authour of this Apology doth not as a Prophet undertake to foretell onely he observes the usuall methods of Gods Providence in the midst of judgement to remember mercy and after he hath sorely afflicted to repent of the evill and return to an humble penitent people with tender mercies so that we may hope his wrath will not endure for ever nor that he hath quite forgotten to be gracious or shut up his loving kindenesse in displeasure Also hee considers the wonted vicissitudes of humane affairs arising from the changes incident to mens mindes who weary of those disorders and pressures necessarily attending all forcible changes in Church or State and long frustrated with vain expectations of enjoying those better conditions in things civill and religious which are alwayes at first liberally promised and expected at last they are prone with the same impetuosity to retire as the ebbing Sea from those
whose soundness of minde and uncorruptedness of maners yet remaining hath hitherto preserved this backsliding and unsavory age from utter rottenness and putrefaction Possibly your mediation may so far prevail among all estates of men as to allay those asperities abate those animosities remove those prejudices satisfie those jealousies under which the Ministers and Ministry of this Church do now lie in many mens mindes and it may be in some of theirs who are become men of power and renown Humble Monition to those in Power In sublimitate positis tam descensus quà m ascensus perpendendus Nec minus est quod terreat quam quod placeat Ambr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Whose eminency I hope will not be offended if I humbly put them in minde That their glory and greatness is not more evident to others who are prone to measure their hopes and fears by the beams or shadows which they cast upon them than most of all to be seriously considered by themselves since from those ruines on which they are raised and from that height to which they are exalted they may easily look down and learn in how slippery a station and how tottering a posture all humane glory and excellency doth consist That the triumphs of such poor mortals carry their own deaths after them as well as other mens before them that as bubbles they have the same principles of frailty in them by which others have suddenly disappeared who lately swelled as big and swam as high above the waters as these now do All religious experience tells the most subtile and elated spirits the profoundest projectors and the most potent actors That they can have but a short time here may have a sudden change or period and must give a severe account of all actions they do and all advantages they enjoy in this present world Of all which they shall carry no more comfort with them than they have made conscience to do the work of God according to his will revealed to mankinde in the sure and sacred Oracles of his written Word Zach. 11. It is manifest That some men have been a staff of Bonds in Gods left hand to punish the sins or exercise the Graces of many in these three Nations whether they shall be a staff of Beauty in his right hand for the support of Piety Peace Order and true Religion the event will best shew They have acted many things as Men with great policy and power it is now expected they should act as truly Reformed and wisely Reforming Christians with Piety and Charity if at least that may be hoped in the time of the Gospel which was denied to Davids zeal under the Law That such as have * 1 Chro. 22.8 Thou shalt not build an House to my Name because thou hast shed much blood upon the Earth in my sight shed much blood in Civil Wars should be instrumental to build the House of God Peradventure they maybe means if not to repair its great decayes yet to hinder it from that total ruine and utter vastation which by many and bad men are threatned but we hope by more and better men with Gods help will be prevented And truly if I knew how I might most acceptably make my Address and fairly plead my excuse with men in place and power if I understood what might most merit to Apologize before all great good and ingenuous men for the boldness of now publishing this Apology I would in the most soft words and comely terms bespeak their favor and deprecate their offence for so it becomes Candidates and Petitioners But my integrity is beyond all oratory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes de Reg. The design of this Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vocat Synes and my plainness beyond all artifice or study I having no design but onely this which I take to be as pious and just so not altogether misbeseeming the station wherein God hath set me That from the Country obscurity wherein I am not wholly buried I may crave leave to use honest Christian Liberty in this one thing which relates not so much to my Person as to my Profession and Function And in this to appear in publick not as a Counseller or Dictator or Threatner but as an humble Client and Suter among those many which always attend those who have power to save or to destroy to do good or evil Nor in this am I pragmatically suggesting what I might foolishly imagine fittest to be done in State affairs from which as from Pitch and Birdlime I am most willingly a stranger but onely propounding in all humble and due respect what is by many men much wiser and worthier than my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes ad Arcad. Imper conceived as most necessary for this particular Church of God in England And wherein the fears of very many Excellent Christians are so urgent upon them that it were better to offend by speaking in love than by silence to act the part both of an Enemy and a Coward Yet in this freedom I would not willingly offend any that really are or esteem themselves my Betters and Superiors so as to exasperate them by any rash or rude expressions I earnestly deprecate all such failings in my self and such suspitions in others This restraint and caution I have not so much out of fear of men yet do I fear men as far as fear is due but rather out of that fear of God which is the beginning of Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag. and that reverence I ow to my self and my Profession as a Christian and a Minister whom nothing less becomes than the badge and livery of Passion or the jaundice of Cholerick Diffusions evident in the face of their writings I love not if they were safe affectations of Language which power may interpret Seditious Turbulent or Treasonable I have learned to be patient under hard things thankful for moderate hopeful for better Nor do I disdain to beseech mans favor whose fury God can restrain and turn the remainder of wrath to his praise and his Churches good Let others complain of their Civil Burthens which I feel as well as they Let them agitate secular Interests which never want their vicissitudes crosses and defeats My sense and address in this Apology is chiefly for those things which concern the true Ministry and the Reformed Religion established in England In which not custom and education but judgement and conscience I hope hath confirmed me by Gods grace And for those men especially whose office and duty I think it is by Preaching doing and suffering as Christian Ministers according to the Will of God to vindicate and preserve true Christian Religion and to transmit it as Reformed in an unblemished and unquestionable succession to Posterity 4. Why in way of Apology Your Virtuous Excellencies upon whose favor chiefly I have adventured this Address to the view of the supercilious and more
dubious in their rise and prone to be exorbitant in their progress and most injurious in their success have most of Love Patience and Christian Charity which are indisputably commendable in the Christian Psal 15.4 though they be to the mans own hinderance It will not be asked of Ministers of the Gospel at the last account who fought and slew and spoiled c. but who fasted and prayed and mourned for the sins and judgements on the Nation and Church nor will they easily be found in Gods Book of Martyrs who died upon disputable quarrels in Civil Wars while they neglected the indisputable duty of their Office and Ministery Levit. 10.19 Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed Incongruam non probat mixturam Deus bonitate simplicissimus simplicitate optimus August Ministers never reap less crops of love or respect from men than when they sow that forbidden mislane the Tares and Cockle of passionate novelties unproved opinions and civil dissentions among the seeds of Religion and essays of Reformation From which mixtures those Ministers whose gravity wisdom and humility have most withheld or soonest withdrawn their hearts and hands are the likeliest men by their piety moderation patience and constancy in holy and justifiable ways to recover and restore the dignity of their Calling Who in the midst of those great and wide inrodes which have much broken down the fence and occasioned the letting in all sorts of wilde beasts upon the Lords Vineyard of this Church while others like dead stakes formerly making a great shew in the hedg are found rotten weak and unsound These are evidenced to all true Christians to be as living standards well rooted in their pious principles and not easily removed from that stedfastness and meekness of their practises in ways of judicious constancy which they have hitherto with patience maintained in the midst of those tempests which have not so utterly overwhelmed them but that in many places they appear fixed and unmoved in their pious integrity and patient charity which makes them looked upon with some eye of pity love and honor by all ingenuous spectators while yet they generally reflect with scorn and laughter on many others who in the publick storm thought themselves gallant sailers and skilful steersmen yet having made great waste of their patience obedience and discretion they seem also much crackt in their conscience credit and reputation For seeking inconsiderately to pull down or to possess themselves of others Cabins who as Pilots had a long time safely steered the Ship they have almost split and sunk the whole Vessel wherein they and others were embarqued Nor will they any way be able to buoy it up again or stop the daily increasing and threatning leaks till forsaking those soft and shameful compliances with factious novelties and immoderate ways of vulgar reformings they return to that primitive firmness and indisputable simplicity of the Antient which were the putest and best formed Churches both as to Doctrine Discipline and Government which no learned and unpassionate man needs go far to finde out either in Scripture paterns or in the Churches after-imitation by which the dignity of the Ministry and Holy Mysteries of the Gospel always preserved themselves amidst the hottest persecutions both in the love and obedience of all sound and sober Christians So that in my judgement who know how hard it is to play an after-game in point of Reputation and who have no design but a Publick and Common good writing thus freely as under the favor so without the offence I hope of any good man The Ministers of this Church will never be able to stand before those men of Ai their many adversaries who are daily scattering them into many feeble factions and pursuing them every where so divided with scorn and afflicting them with many affronts and injuries until having taken a serious review of their late extravagancies and making a serious scrutiny into their consciences and finding as they needs must if they be not wilfully blinde or obstinate some accursed thing some Babylonish garment and wedg of Gold something wherein proud or ambitious or covetous or revengeful or injurious emulations or other more venial errors have tempted tâ—◠〈◊〉 to offend they cast them quite away and so humbly re'ally themselves to that Primitive Harmony that Excellent Discipline Order and Government wherein was the honor beauty and consistency of the Church and Christian Religion even when least protected and most opposed by secular powers Of whom Christian Bishops Ministers and People never asked leave either to believe in Jesus Christ or to live after that holy form and publick order wherein Jesus Christ and the blessed Apostles after him established and left them which obtained universal imitation and use in all Churches for many hundred of years from true Christians both Pastors and People in the midst of persecutions 14. Jere. 6.16 Thus saith the Lord Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therin and ye shall finde rest for your souls Out of which old and good way of Primitive Vnity Order Government Discipline and holy Ministrations if those immoralities be kept as they may most easily to which we see the lusts and passions of men are prone to run even in all * Non datur reditus ad unitatem nisi per veritatem nec ad veritatem nisi per vetustatem Quum illud est antiquissimum quod verissimum Cypr. novel forms and inventions pretend they never so much at first to glorious Reformations Nothing can be a more present and soverein restorative for this Church and the true Reformed Religion to settle with truth and peace among us both to the comfort of all able Ministers and the satisfaction of all sober Christians who study the truth and unity of the Faith not the power and prevalency of any faction We need not go far to seek the root and source of our miseries present or impendent which have brought forth so bitter fruits whereby God at once would shew and satisfie vain men with their own delusions * Isai 66.4 In which heady and high-minded men trusting more to their own wits or tongues and to the * Jere. 17.5 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord. arm of flesh in politick machinations than to the living God in holy and humble ways of truth and peace have soon found them to be both vain and cursed things As it is evident at this day in the sad fate which some Ministers folly presumption and precipitancy together with other sinful frailtiles and excesses have brought upon themselves and their whole Function in this Church Who first despising then destroying the Antient and Catholike conduits of their Order and Ministry which derived from Christ by his Apostles went on in an after constant succession of true
Ministerial Power and Authority have digged to themselves Jere. 2.13 empty broken cisterns of novel and divided ways which can hardly hold any water Jude 12. but like wandring clouds without water affecting Supremacy or Parity or Popularity in Church power they have almost brought it to a nullity through the incroaching and over-bearing of Blebeian Insolence who finding Ministers thus divided among themselves and scrambling for Church power in common without any order or distinction either of Age or gifts and parts the common people being the most begin to conceit and challenge to themselves first a share next the supremacy and original of all Church power as if in the illiterate heads illiberal hearts and mechanick hands of the common sort of Christians and without reproach the most part of them and the forwardest of them against the Function of the Ministry have been and ever will be of no higher rank breeding or capacity Jesus Christ had placed the Keyes of Heaven the power eminent and paramount of all Church authority and holy administrations which Christ eminently and his Apostles ministerially had and exercised afterward committing them to able and faithful men such as doubtless were many degrees raised above the vulgar and distinguished in gifts and power Ministerial both ordinary and extraordinary Thus from the head and shoulders and arms Jesus Christ the Apostles the succeeding Bishops and Presbyters which were of Gold and Silver Church power is by some forced to descend to the belly thighs and feet of the people which are part of Iron Dan. 2.32 and part of miry-clay Most of whom so much stickling to be controlers of Christs houshold the Church are not in any discreet and sober mans judgement fit to be stewards or scarce in any degree of ingenuous service in a well ordered family They may make good Gibeonites for the house of God but very ill Levites or Priests Thus I have shewed how the sparks of many Ministers passionate opinions and violent practises flying up and down in their many disorderly breathings and extravagant Motions both in Church and State they at last lighting upon the thatched houses the combustible stuff of common peoples mindes and maners have set their own houses on fire to the deformity discontent and danger of all that dare own themselves and their holy Function as delivered to them from a better and diviner hand And indeed it is of the Lords mercies that we have not been ere this utterly consumed both root and branch for our follies and strange fires by the malice cruelty and despight of those to whose rage as to the Seas the Lord hath hitherto set bounds who are our enemies not for our sins and failings but for the reformed truths and Gospels sake which we preach and profess Amidst the sequestrings plunderings silencings wastings affronts calumnies indignities and discouragements cast upon or threatned by some against those of the Ministry above any other calling as if the Crosses taken down from Steeples and Churches were to be laid on the necks and shoulders of Ministers It is a wonder that any remnant of godly able and true Ministers hath hitherto escaped through the indulgence of God and the favor or moderation of some in power who know not it seems how to reprobate all those as Antichristian by whose Ministry they may hope themselves and others either are or may be brought to the saving faith of Jesus Christ and to the hope of Gods elect Exod. 2.8 Nor can they yet be perswaded to act as Pharaohs that knew not Joseph So that we cannot but wonder with thankfulness to God and to those who now exercise civil power among us that the Reformed Ministers and Ministry in this Church have not been made like Sodom and Gomorrah when we consider how many showres of fiery darts from violent and cruel men like thick clouds pregnant with thunders and lightnings hang over our heads Jâ—lian took away from the Clergy all immunities honors and provisions of corn formerly by Emperors given to them he abrogated all Laws in favor of them Sozonen l. 5. c. 5. Who like Julian the Apostate are impatient of nothing so much as this That their should be any true Ministers or Ministry in due order holy Authority Evangelical succession and setled maintenance continued in this or any other Reformed Church Who seeking to joyn the Lyons skin to the Fox's would fain leven Military spirits against the Ministry that so the Soldiery might use or rather abuse their Helmets as Bushels * Matth. 5.15 under which they may put the Candles of the Ministry thereby to overwhelm and extinguish those lamps of true Religion pretending that some Troopers flaming swords as the guard of Cherubims will be more useful to keep the way of the tree of life than all those burning and shining lights of the true Ministers who are rightly called and ordained in the Church whose learned labors and patient sufferings in all ages from the Apostles times have undoubtedly planted watered propagated and under God preserved the true Christian Religion either from Heathenish ignorance Idolatry Atheism Prophaneness and Persecution on the one side or from Antichristian Errors Superstitions Corruptions and Confusions on the other 16. Politick and Atheistical Engines used by some against the Ministry Yet are there now not onely secret underminings but open engines used by which some men endeavor utterly to overthrow these great boundaries firm supports and divine constitutions of Christian Religion the Authority Office Power and Succession of the true Ministers and Ministry of the Gospel Which plots and practises can be nothing else but the devils high-way either to utter Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness or to the old grosser Popery Error and Superstition or at best to those detestable and damnable formalities in matters of Religion which our late Seraphick Sadduces or Matchiavellian Christians have learned and confidently profess Some of whom like Jezebel Rev. 2.20 that made her self a Prophetess or like the old * Irenaeus l. 1. c. 35. Carpecratis Gnosticorum dectrina per fidem operationem salvari homines reliqua indifferentia secundum opinionem hominum bona aut mala vocari cum nihil natura malum fit Gnosticks Montanists Moniehes Carpocratians Circumsellians Valentinians and the like rabble of wretches have their wilde speculations beyond what is written in the holy Scriptures or ever believed and practised in the Churches of Christ who teach men to think say and write That God Christ Jesus the holy Spirit good Angels and Devils the Scriptures Law and Gospel Ministry and Sacraments the Souls immortality and eternity the Resurrection and Judgement to come all Virtue and Vice Good and Evil Heaven and Hell all are but meer fanciful forms of words fabulous imaginations feigned dreams empty names being nothing without us or above us That all this which men call Religion is nothing else but the issues of humane inventions which by the
edification and well-governing of the Church 1 Cor. 14.40 Wherein it had as all particular National Churches have an allowance from God both in Scripture and in Reason 27. Things of Religion ought first and most to be considered by Christian Rulers But as if nothing had been reformed and setled with any wisdom judgement piety or conscience in this Church nor hitherto so carried on by any of the true and ordained Ministers of it infinite calumnies injuries and indignities are daily cast upon the whole Church and the best Ministers of it The cry whereof no doubt as it hath filled the Land so it hath reached up to Heaven and is come up to the ears of the most high God And therefore I hope it will not seem rude unseasonable or importune to any excellent persons of what piety or power soever if it now presseth into their presence who ought to remember that they are but as Bees in the same Hive as Ants on the same Mole-hill and as Worms in the same clods of Earth with other poor inferior Christians whom they have far surmounted in civil and secular respects The swarms and crowds of worldly counsels and designs we hope have not as they ought not overlaid or smothered all thoughts care and conscience of preserving restoring and establishing truth good order and peace in matters of Religion Which are never by those publick persons who pretend to any thing of true Christianity to be so far despised and neglected that those above all other matters of publick concernment should be left like scattered sheaves to the wastings and tramplings upon by the feet of the Beasts of the people Meritò à Deo negliguntur quires Dei secularibus post ponunt negotiis Cypr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primum quod sanctum Plat. Matth. 6.31 Hag. 1.4 Is it time for you to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house lie waste V. 5. Now therefore saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arat. Phainom ungathered and unbound by any civil sanction and power agreeable to holy order divine method Christian charity and prudence Possibly it had fared better with all estates in this Church and State if they had learned and followed that divine direction and grand principle in Christian politicks First seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added to you The neglect of Gods house the Church and its beauty holy order and ministry hath been a great cause of overthrowing so many seiled houses which were covered with Cedar and decked with Vermilion and Gold Certainly no men employed in publick power or counsel have any business of so great concernment or of so urging and crying necessity as this The preservation of the true Evangelical Ministry in its due power and authority Upon which without any dispute among sober and truly-wise men the very life being weight honor and succession of our Religion doth depend both as Christian and as reformed For it is not to be expected that the ignorant prating and confident boasting of any other voluntiers will ever soberly adorn or solidly maintain our Religion which hath so many very eloquent learned and subtile enemies besides the rude and profaner rabble besieging it both learned and unlearned oppose true Religion as the right and left-hand of the Devil the one out of ignorance the other out of crookedness the one as dark the other as depraved the one cannot endure its light nor the other its straitness Against neither of them can these afford help Anserum clangere crepituque alarum excitus Manlius capitolium propugnat Gallos deturbat c. Livi. Dec. 1. l. 5. any more than the confused cackling of a company of Geese could have defended the Roman Capitol Which noise is indeed but an alarm to sober and good Protestants intimating the approach or assault of enemies and should excite the vigilancy and valor of all worthy Magistrates conscientious Soldiers and wise Christians of this Reformed Church to resist the invading danger as by other fit means so chiefly by establishing and incouraging a succession of learned godly and faithful Ministers Nor in any reason of State or of Conscience should those who exercise Magistratick power in this Church and State so far neglect him who is Higher then the highest * Eccles 5.8 He that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they John 19.11 Thou couldst have no power except it were given thee from above Christ to Pilat 1 Cor. 12.1 1 Pet. 4.10 Stewards of the manifold grace of God Luke 1.16 by whom all power is dispenced or so far gratifie the irreligious rudeness the boisterous ignorance and violent profaneness of any who are but Gods executioners the instruments of his wrath and ministers of his vengeance as for their sakes and at their importunity to despise and oppress those who are by Christ and his Church appointed to be Ministers of Gods grace and conveyers of his mercy to men The meanest of whom that do indeed come in his name the proudest mortal may not safely injure or despise because not without sin and reproach to Christ and God himself For he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me is signally and distinctly spoken in favor to true Ministers and for terror to those that are prone to offer insolency to their worldly weakness and meanness Such as despise and oppose the Ministers of Christ are more rebellious than the devils were for of these the seventy returning testifie Luke 10.17 Lord even the devils are subject to us in thy Name If then we have immortal souls which some mockers now question sure they are infinitely to be preferred before our carkases and the instruments which God hath appointed 1 Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe as means to save them are proportionably to be esteemed beyond any that are oft the destroyers at best but the preservers of mens bodies and outward estates Who can dissemble or deny That the banks of equity piety modesty and charity yea of common humanity are already by some men much demolished through the pride presumption insolence scurrility and profaneness of some spirits who are set against the Reformed Religion the Ministers and Ministry of this Church Who sees with honest and impartial eyes and deplores not to behold how the deluge of Ignorance Atheism Profaneness and Sottishness also of damnable Errors devilish Doctrines and Popish Superstitions together with Schismatical fury and turbulent Factions are much prevailed of later years both in Cities and Countreys here in England And this Gaudet in malis nostris diabolus latatur in miseriis dilatatur augustiis delectatur angoribus triumphat ruinis Bern. since men of Antiministerial tempers have studied to act the Devils Comedy and this Churches Tragedy endeavoring to render not onely
flourishing Churches Whether I say these should continue in their place and power wherein God hath set them and out pious Predecessors have maintained them in this Church and Nation or these yesterday-novelties the politick whimseys and Jesuitick inventions of some heady but heartless-men should usurp and prevail in this Church after sixteen hundred years prescription against them and which are already found to have in them besides their novelty such emptiness flatness vanity disorder deformity and unproportionableness to the great end of right ordering Christian societies of saving of souls by edifying them in truth and love Eph. 4.10 11 12 13. that they have been already productive of such dreadful effects both in opinions and practises Mirabutur ingemuit â—â—hâ— se tam citò fieri Arianum Jeròn cont Lucif John 14.16 The Comforter even the Spirit of Truth he shall abâ—de with you for ever that they make the Protestant and Reformed Churches stand amased to see any of their kinde bring forth such Monsters of Religion as seem rather the fruit of some Incubus some soul and filthy spirits deluding and oppressing this Reformed Church than of that blessed and promised Spirit whose power whose rule whose servants have always been the most exactly and constantly holy â—ust and pure For any true Christians then to allow and foster such prodigies of Protestant Religion as some are bringing forth seems no less preposterous than if men should resolve to put out their eyes and to walk both blindfold and backwards or to renverse the body by setting the feet above the head Indeed it is putting the Reformed Religion to the Strapado and crucifying Christ again as they did Saint Peter after a new posture with his head downwards As if in kindness to any men they should take away their souls and make them move like Puppets by some little springs wyars and gimmers or by the Sorcery of some Demoniack possession For want of the favor of such a publick tryal and vindication of the Ministry 31. Therefore this Apology endeavors the Ministers defence Gen. 41.14 Zach. 3.4 I have adventured to present to the view of all Excellent Christians in this Church this Apology By which I have endeavored to take off from the Josephs and Josedecks of this Church those prisons and filthy garments wherewith some men have sought to deform them and to wash off from their grave countenances and angelike aspects the chiefest of those scandals and aspersions under which for want of solid reasons or just imputations against their persons and calling by some mens unwashen hands and foul mouths whose restless spirits cast out nothing but dirt and mire against them they are now so much disfigured to the world Isai 57. The wicked is as a troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt Tertul. Apolog. 2 Cor. 10.10 His bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible so the false apostles the ministers of Satan 2 Cor. 11.13 The deceitful workers reproached St. Paul behinde his back That so odious disguises as of old to the Christians may render them less regarded and more abhorred by vulgar people This art of evil tongues and pens serving to colour excuse or justifie the injustice cruelty barbarity unthankfulness and irreligion of those who seek first to bait them in the Theatre by all publick disgracings and then to dispatch them Veri criminis defectus falsis supplet calumniis factis innocentes verbis deturpat matitia Sulpit. Docratistarum antesignanti B. Augustinum seductorem ani marum deceptorem clamitabant ut lupum occidendum tale facinus perpetraâ—i remistionem peccatorum obventurum Possid vit August For against these Beasts as Saint Paul sometime at Ephesus whom no reason learning gravity merit parts graces or age doth tame or mitigate the true Ministers of the Gospel even in this Reformed Church of England have now to contend for their Calling Liberties and Livelihood yea for their lives too if the Lord by the favor and justice of those that have wisdom courage and piety answerable to their places and power do not rescue and protect them 32. What Ministers I plead for 2 Cor. 2.17 Not as many which corrupt the Word of God 2 Cor. 11.13 Tit. 3.10 Nihil deformius est sacerdote claudicante qui non aequis rectis pedibus incedit in viis Domini Greg. Plus destruit sâ—nistra pravae viâ—ae quà m astruit dextra sanae doctrinae Bern. Non confundant opera tua sermonem tuum Proditores suâ— non praedicatores Christi quibus factis deficientibus viâ—a crubescit Jeron ad Nepot Nisi praeâ—â—es quod praedicas mendacium non Evangelium videbitur Lact. Inst lib. 3. cap. 16. Exemplum operis est sermo vivus efficatissimus Bern. Uâ— sumenti cibum non digerenti perniciosum est ita docenti non facienti peccatum est Id. Animata virtus est quae factis honestatur Cadaverosa qua verbis tantum macrescit Leo. Mysterium Theologiae non ut olim Philosophiae barba tuntum pallio celebratur Sed doctrinae sanitate vitae sanctitate Lact. If in any thing as weak and sinful men any of the true Ministers of this Church are indeed liable to just reproaches either of ignorance or idleness factiousness sedition any immorality or scandalous living and what Church of Christ can hope to be absolutely clear when even in Christs family and the Apostles times there was dross and chaff in the floor by Judas and Demas Simon Magus false Apostles deceitful workers Ministers of Satan c I am so far from excusing or pleading for them as to their personal errors and disorders that I should be a most severe advocate against them if after two or three admonitions they should be found incorrigible And this upon the same ground on which now I write this Apology namely in behalf of the honor of the Gospel the dignity of the true Ministry and the glory of the most sacred name of the Christians God and Saviour which idle evil unable and unfaithful Bishops and Ministers beyond all men cause to be blasphemed when they pull down more with the left hand of profaneness than they build with the right hand of their preaching betraying Christ with their kisses and smiting the Christian Reformed Religion under the fift rib when they seem with great respect to salute and embrace it Confuting what they say by what they do and hardning mens hearts to an unbelief of that doctrine which they contradict by the Solecism of their lives and maners either rowling great stones upon the mouth of the Fountain or poysoning the emanations of living waters or perforating the mindes and consciences of their hearers to such liberties and hypocrisies that they retain no more of true Religion and serious holiness than sieves can do of water As Salvian lib. 4. Facta verba sivi occinant Ambr. de Bo. m. Verba
fail in the matter of a Church the faithful and holy Thirdly In the essential Form an explicite Covenant or Church agreement to serve the Lord in such a way Fourthly and lastly In our chusing ordaining and appointing Ministers and other Church Officers In whom they say Church power is onely executively as to the exercise or dispensation but it is primarily and eminently in that Body of the people never so small which is so combined together Yea they complain that we in England have neglected and deprived the people of that glorious power and liberty by which every Christian is to shew himself both King and Priest and Prophet Thus the Tabernacles of Edom and the Ismalites Psal 83.6 7 8. Nunquam deorunt hostes ubi adest ecclesia nec inimici ubi veritas agâ—â—scitur Tert. of Moab and the Hagarenes Gebal and Ammon and Ammaleok the Philistims and they of Tyre Assur also Men of our own Tribes all conspire against the true Religion the antient orders and holy Ministry of the Church of England And finding this Church forely torn bruised and wounded they either leave it and its Ministry to die desolate by separating wholly from them or else they seek by their several instruments of death wholly to dispatch it as the Amalekites did King Saul But blessed be God though this Church and its true Ministers be thus afflicted and persecuted yet are they not quite forsaken of God or of all good Christians 2 Cor. 4.8 9. Though we be cast down yet we are not quite destroyed There want not many sons of Sion to mourn with their Mother and to comfort her if they cannot contend for her Although the Lord is righteous Lam. 1.2 Isai 30.19 who hath smitten us and to whom we will return and wait till he be gracious to this Church Yet these sons of Edom our unnatural Brethren Micah 7.8 9 19. are very injurious and uncharitable who seek to enflame the wrath of God more against her rejoycing in her calamities and crying now she is faln let her rise up no more But the Lord will remember his compassions of old which have not failed and will return to build her up nor shall this furnace of affliction be to consume this Reformed Church but onely to purge her from that dross which she had any way contracted As to these mens first quarrel 17. Of Religion as established and protected by Laws in England against the frame of our Church and Ministry as setled and defended by Civil Laws and Politick Constitutions They seem in this rather offended at the clothes and dress or the defence and guard than at the body and substance of the Church Possibly they are angry that they had not power or permission sooner to deform and destroy that flourishing polity of this Church which by the princely piety of nursing fathers and mothers hath been so long preserved to the envy of enemies and admiration of friends We never thought that any civil sanctions which were in favor of our Reformed Church Religion and Ministry ever constituted the Being of our Church which is from Christ by the Ministry but they onely established and preserved it in its Ministry and polity from those abuses and insolencies to which we see them miserably exposed if they should want Magistrates to be protecting fathers and indulgent mothers to them Every rude and unclean beast delights to break in and waste the field of the Church when they see the fence of civil protection is low But this defence and provision made for this Church and its Ministry by Humane Laws doth no more lessen the strength and beauty of it than the Laws for property and safety do diminish any mans wisdom valor or care to defend his own Christians as men ought to be subject to Magistrates as men although they were Heathens Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 Tit. 3.1 Hereticks or Persecutors that so in honest things they might merit their civil protection How much more as Christians ought they to be subject to Christian Magistrates that are Patrons and Professors of true Religion Isai 49.23 Whose civil protection and government is so far from being a blemish to it that is the greatest temporal blessing that God hath promised or the Church can enjoy in this World as it was in Constantine the Great 's time and some others after him And however we see that oft-times this sweet wine of civil favor is prone to sowre to the vinegar of factions even among Christians And the honey of peace plenty and prosperity easily turns to pride envy anger ambition and contention through the pravity of mans nature who contrary to the temper of the most savage beasts grows most fierce and offensive to God when he is best treated by him * Omnia comprebantur sactionibus seditionibus querelis odiu invidiis Suspi Sever. de sâ—â— tempor Epâ—s Presbyteris Hist Pace ecclesiis undique concessâ caepit invidia totius orbis communis inimica in media episcoporum frequentia tripudiate Eus in vit Const lib. 2. c. 60. as Eusebius and Sulpitius Severus tell in their times Yet we must not refuse or cast away all good things because evil mindes abuse them much less may we mistake the Being of a Church for its well-being That cannot turn in any reason to this Churches reproach which was the favor of good men and Gods indulgence to this Church Nor do we think these querulous Obâ—ecters are therefore like to be by so much the sooner weary of their new ways by how much they more enjoy connivance protection or countenance from any men The obtaining of which is the thing they so much court and solicite Sure the shining of the warm Sun on men need not make them therefore ashamed or weary of Gods blessing 18. The matter of a Church Saints 2. As for the matter of a Church which those Obâ—ecters say must be onely Saints in Truth as well as shew denying ours to be such I answer We wish all our people were such Saints as are formerly described in truth and power we endeavor to make them such as far as the pains prayers and examples of Ministers may work with the grace of God 2 Cor. 6.1 But we do not think that these severe censurers of this Church of England do believe That all the Churches mentioned in Scripture which were the best that ever were consisted onely of true Saints That in Christs family did not not that to which Ananias John 6.70 Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil Acts 5.3 Peter to Ananias Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Acts 9.13 Simon Magus believed and was baptised and continued with the Apostles c. V. 23. I perceive thou art in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Saphyra and Simon Magus were joyned in profession nor all those in Corinth Galatia Laodicea and the rest
the publick Catechism So that a Minister in England both in the name of the Church and in the name of Christ and by the highest authority of God did prohibite denounce against and as it were excommunicate by that part of the power of the Keys which is denunciative and declarative both from the comfort and grace of the Sacrament and from the outward partaking of it every one that presumed being unworthy in any kinde to offer himself to it If after this Communio malorum non maculat aliquem participatione sacramentorum sed consentione factorum Aug. ep 152. See the Rubrick before the Communion concerning scandalous offenders 1 Cor. 11.29 He that eateth and d inketh unworthâ—ly eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not to any other who having examined himself Verse 28. is bid to eat and drink c. See the Rubrick before the Communion The Minister may admit the penitent but not the obstinate in cases of private offences c. any one unworthy did adventure to come yet sure the Minister had done his private duty as far as God or man required it of him having both vindicated the honor of the Sacrament as to the divine Institution and intent also declared the care and order of the Church and so freed both the Congregation and his own soul from stain or blame Who so came after this prohibition unworthily came at the peril of his own soul and not at the sin of either Minister or people that were worthy whose work and duty is not by force of arms to thrust men out by head and shoulders which is a military and mechanick power but by the sword of Christs mouth to smite them and in his name to cast them out from any right to or comfort in the Sacrament which is the power properly ministerial spiritual and divine Where either ignorance or scandal were gross and notoriously known to the Minister in any that offered to come The Minister might and oft did not onely privately but publickly and personally admonish reprove forewarn And in some cases if the impudence of the offender obtruded himself the Minister might refuse to give him the Sacrament yet this not with passion and roughness as by empire but with meekness and discretion as in charity Which present denial or abstention of such an one from receiving the holy Sacrament might afterward be examined by publick and lawful authority which was setled in this Church in case that party had cause or confidence to complain as of an injury 20. Good Ministers not defective in their duty if they make not themselves Judges But where such authority is not seâ—â—ed or not suffered to be exercised in any Church which might and ought to judge in such cases best The party denied and the Minister thus denying upon pregnant and to him notorious causes not upon probabilities suspiâ—ious or general complaints from others onely There matters of publick debate requiring audience and proofs and witnesses and judge and all these due authority It cannot be expected from any private Minister that he should do more than God hath commanded and due authority empowred him which is onely to instruct admonish forbid and in some cases to deny c. according to the duty of his place and the authority he had both from the Church and from the Word of God But he hath nothing to do to assume the publick place of a Judge among his Neighbors or to deny Communion to all those that are by any accused as unworthy or scandalous Luke 12.14 Who made me a judge or a divider over you No Reason allowing or Religion commanding every private Minister or any private Christians to be Judges in those cases wherein they may be parties and through passion do injury and by faction oppress any man A right Discipline and due Authority in the Church most desirable It were to be desired indeed that such Authority were restored to the Church as might judge and decide all cases of publike scandal but while this is denied we must not deny Ministers or people to do their duty in celebrating the Lords Supper according to the Institution though there be defects in discipline as to that particular We must not forbear holy duties when we may rightly enjoy them in point of gracious disposition and claim because they are not so asserted and ordered in point of polâ—ty and extern Discipline as we could wish and as it were convenient but is not absolutely necessary so as to exclude the Minister or others from it who desire and prepare for it by examining themselves whom no Reason or Religion can forbid to partake of their due comforts because of others faults whereof they cannot be guilty because they are no way accessary not failing in any private duty of charity wherein they stand related to another as teaching admonishing reproving forewarning c. 1 Cor. 11.28 The same Apostle who blames the unworthy receivers for not examining themselves and forbids them so to eat c. Commands others to examine themselves and so to eat c. Without regard to any others unworthiness The contagion of whose sin cannot have influence on anothers grace any more than grace can make anothers sin less What sense can there be That children should be starved because there is not power sufficient to keep away all dogs from the childrens bread Yet all men are not presently to be called or counted dogs that are not ever in actual preparedness for the Sacrament Luke 22.32 or who may fall into gross sins as Peter did whose Faith did not fail when he denied Christ after the Sacrament and since they have still relation to the Church and may be penitents I should be glad to see which I heartily pray for this Church so ordered by due order power and authority established in fitting Church-Governors and Judges in such cases Exod. 18.21 Judges ought to be able men such as fear God men of truth hating covetousness c. That none might be admitted to the Lords Supper but such as are both by the Minister and chief of the Congregation who are in the Rowl of Communicants allowed and approved for knowledge and conversation yet so as such allowance or denial may if need be have further hearing and appeal from this private Minister and Congregation which is but just to avoid the factions injuries partialities and oppressions which may fall and oft do among those Neighbors and Rivals who are seldom meet to be Judges of mutual scandals being so oft parties and besides their weak judgments have strong passions and are full of grudges and emulations against each other which if not soberly taken up by other able and indifferent Judges who have authority so to do it brings Congregations to those difficulties which the Independent bodies finde for want of this prudent and orderly remedy of grievances and offences which in a short time as the pitch and fat and hair
which Daniel put into the Dragon break them in pieces one part rending from the other as impatient to submit to their censure and so they come to Non-Communion and to make new Colonies of lesser Churches and Bodies till they break and shiver themselves to such useless shreds such thin and small shavings as have neither the staff of beauty nor of bonds among them Every one by the light of nature concluding Par in parem non habet imperium Authority supposeth an eminency That there can be no power over others where there is parity among them nor can those have authority over each other which are in an equality Nothing would be more welcome to good Ministers and faithful people than to see that just power setled in the Church as might by the wisdom gravity and integrity of such as are truly fit to govern best repress all abuses and disorders in the Church as to matters purely religious Mean time we think it better to beaâ— with patience those defects which we cannot hinder or amend and to supply them what we can with private care industry and discretion than either wholly to deny our selves the comfort of this Sacrament which the Lord hath afforded us or else to usurp to our selves an absolute power and jurisdiction over others which neither the Lord hath given us nor the Church and which we see men do easily despise as a matter of arbitrary usurpation not of authoritative constitution And which is subject as to many tyrannies and abuses so to infinite private janglings and divisions which no Minister hath leisure to hear if he had abilities to compose and judge them being oft very spightful tedious and intricate yea and himself possibly a party or witness and sometimes the accused who being for the most part the ablest in a Country Congregation to judge of matters must yet himself be judged according to some mens weak Models of Church-Government and Discipline both as to his doctrine and maners by his High-shoe Neighbors which he counts his body nor may he have any appeal from them in an Independent way 21. Of the peoples judging in the Church 1 Cor. 5.12 1 Cor. 6.1 2 3 4. Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the World and Angels How much more the things that pertain to this life To that grand Charter and Commission which some plead by which every Saint is made a Judge in all things of this life within the pale of the Church and is after to be judge of Angels I answer The wise and holy Apostle doth not give to every one in the Church any such power nor to the majority of Christians in any Congregation but rather reproves their folly that laid any judicative works on those that were least esteemed in the Church Vers 4. Whence arose that unsatisfaction as made their differences greater and drove them for remedy to go to Law before the Civil Tribunals of unbelievers V. 6. to the great scandal of Religion and shame of the Church of Corinth where being many Christians and no doubt in many distinct Congregations for conveniency of meeting the Apostle wonders they could not be so wise for their own credit and quiet as to finde out some wise and able men who might be fit to judge and end their controversies as having both real abilities internal and outward reputation in the Church also a publick consent and orderly appointment to the work aâ—l which makes a compleat and valid Authority to judge others which can never be promiscuous in whole bodies or rabbles of simple and mean men without both contempt and confusion which imprudent way among the Corinthians the Apostle counts both a fault and a shame Of Communicants to be admitted 1 Cor. 5.7 2 Cor. 6.15 16. What places are further urged for purging out the old leaven for not eating with such an one for the non-communion between Christ and Belial light and darkness c. They are all fulfilled by every private Christian when both in conscience and conversation he keeps himself from concurring or complying with any wicked and scandalous persons in their sins reproving and repressing them as much as morally lies in his place and power But the bare view or knowledge of anothers sin Vnumquemque alienis peccatis maculari omnes impiae seditionis autores solam causam separationis sibi assumunt Contra disputat Cypr. de unit eccl August ep 48. must not hinder him from doing his duty or enjoying his privilege and comfort by the Sacrament which depends not on what is in anothers life or heart of sin but on what he findes of grace and preparedness in his own As to the publick honor and purity or unleavenedness of the Church the special duty and care executive lies on those not who are private Christians in common but who have publick authority in special to do it by censuring restraining or casting out scandalous offenders whereto every Christian is not called because not enabled either by God or man by gift or power to discern or judge and determine cases which is a matter of polity power and order in the Church and not of private piety or charity Nor is it indeed of absolute necessity so as to deprive good Christians of any holy ordinance in case such power is obstructed or hindered or not established in the Church Neither Minister nor People then ought to refrain from doing their duty in the holy celebration of this Sacrament upon any such defects of external polity and power for well-ordering of the Church but rather with the more exactness and diligence exhort one another and prepare by inward graces for those holy Mysteries whose institution hath no such restriction either by Christ or the blessed Apostle Paul who enjoyns Ministers and Believers to do this 1 Cor. 11. holily and worthily in point of personal preparation but no word of either usurping a power to reâ—ect others as they list which belongs not to them or else to abstain wholly from the duty for want of having their will as too many do both People and Ministers to the great grief of many good Christians and to the exceeding slighting and disuse of that holy Ordinance in this Church 1 Cor. 11.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As oft as ye drink it which was wont to be much frequented which the words of Christ import or enjoyn to be done oftentimes in the Church For that new coyned form image and superscription of a Church 22. Of Church-Covenant that Congregational Church-Covenant which no Synod or Council but onely some private men have lately invented and in formal words magisterially dictated when yet they cry down all other prescribed forms of administrations prayer or devotion in the Church By which some men fancy they onely can be rightly made up into one lump or Church-fellowship This they accuse us in England for the want and
soul and body make a true man Essentials of a true Church in England 1 Tim. 6.3 It is well some of their charity is such that they allow us for they cannot shift it thus much First That we have the onely true ground and sure rule of Religion the written Word of God that beyond this we hold nothing as a matter of faith or Christian duty Secondly That we celebrate the holy Sacraments according to the sum and substance of the divine Institution Thirdly That our conversation aims to be such Phil. 1.27 as becomes the Gospel in all maner of holiness to the saving of our own and others souls What can these Aristarchusses carp at in the ground of our faith the Scriptures the Seals of our Faith the Sacraments the life of our Faith 1 Pet. 1.9 holy conversation and the end of our faith the salvation of our souls Is it not strange That all these sweet and fair flowers of Christs planting and watering should grow so well in that which some call Babylon in Antichrists Garden or on the Devils dunghil That it should be no true Church of Christ which owns nothing for Religious but what is according to the truth of Jesus either commanding or permitting instituting or indulging of pious necessity or of prudent liberty We should put these rigid Catoes too much to the blush for â—heir unnatural ingratitude to the Ministers and Church of England if we should ask them Whence they had this privilege by which they own themselves to be Christians whence this power to cast or call themselves into Bodies or Churches as Believers which is by them presupposed whence they had till of late years their instruction for the most part in the knowledge of Jesus Christ Sure these holy leaves or fruits grow not but in the Pale and Garden of the Church of Christ not in our own rude mirdes and untill'd natures not among desolate Indians obstinate Jews oâ— barbarous Turks and not often in private closets and corners which nourish a neglect and contempt of Publick Ordinances But if these men were self-taught and converted yet sure not self-baptized too nor their Teachers self-ordained too If they had nothing of their Christianity from the Ministry of the Church of Englandâ— It is no wonder they prove such Scholars such Christians and such Preachers as some of them seem to be having been their own Masters Ministers and Baptizers They are indeed onely worthy of themselves and of wiser mens pity For that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the retreat 24. Of pretensions to be above any Ministry as taught of God immediately or reserve of some men by which as Eaglets they would seem to soar out of sight and to build their Nest on a Rock that is higher than our ordinary Reason Religion and Experience can reach as if they were immediately inspired specially called and taught of God baptized by his Spirit without any Minister or outward Ministry they must give us leave not to believe them upon their bare word which hath not always been so sure till they demonstrate and prove it better by Gods Word and their better maners For which we will give them time enough Mean while we are sure the best Christians among them were made such by the ordinary Ministers of this Church and these made Ministers by no other means but that Ordination derived from and ascending up to the blessed Apostles whom Christ first chose to be Disciples and after ordained and sent them as Publick Ministers not onely as to personal discharge but as to successional descent These were Eagles indeed who flew high in their knowledge and piety yet stooped low in their humility and charity Those others of a new brood are more like yong Cuckoes which devour the Bird in whose nest and by whose fostering they were hatched Some of them have knowledge I would they had more humility and charity they would not disdain to own the parents that begat and educated them even this now so poor desolated beaten torn and wasted Church of England and its Antichristian Ministers as they please to call them Be it so some mens tongue is no slander If we neither adde to nor detract from the Scriptures as Jews Papists and Euthusiasts do If we erre in no fundamentals of faith or maners if we refuse no duty divinely required if we allow no error in our selves or others if we drive on no worldly designs injuriously or hypocritically but study to approve our selves in all godliness and honesty with meekness of wisdom to all men we need no more fear the drops of peevish tongues or dashes of malicious pens as to the honor and comfort of being a part of the true Church of Christ than a cloth dyed in grain need to fear stains by the aspersions of dirt cast on it by unclean and envious hands 25. Of the power of the People in Church affairs 4. But it is objected against us in England That neither Church nor Minister of England did or do own that high and mighty principle of all Church power which some call The People Answ True indeed Although we highly love and esteem as Brethren the faithful and humble people for whom Christ hath died yet we are not of so spungy and popular a softness as to own any part or Congregation or Body of People to be the original or conduits of any Spiritual or Church power which no learned and wise men ever esteemed to be Popular or Democratical but rather an excellent Aristocracy where many able men were in Counsel and some one eminent in order and authority among them We do not dig or descend to these low valleys for these holy waters nor do we seek for the flowings of it through such crazy and crooked pipes nor do we hope to draw it forth out of such broken Cisterns which can hold no such waters We have them from higher fountains and derive them in straiter channels Matth. 28.19 and conserve them in fitter vessels than the vulgarity of even honest Christians can be presumed to be That is from the ordinary Power and constant Commission which from Christ was derived to the Apostles Matth. 16.19 Matth. 18.18 John 20.23 and from them to their Successors in their ordinary Ministry and Church power in after ages who had this peculiar power of the keys of Heaven to binde or remit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pascere cum imperio pastor inde ut princeps To feed and rule Revel 12.5 19.15 Acts 20.28 1 Pet. 5.2 Vulgus ex veritate pauca ex opinione multa aestimat Tul. pro. Ros Com. to gather to guide to feed and to govern the several parts of the Church in Christs stead and name orderly committed to them People may rudely wrest these keys out of true Bishops and Ministers hands but it is evident they were never committed to them by the great Master of the House Jesus Christ nor do they
semper valuit ut quae cunque ab hoc consensu confirmata videam mihi sacrosancta immutabilia videantur Bishop Carleton de Consen eccles cap. 11. cap. 277. and humble Christians do and ever did the constant clear and concurrent which is the truly Catholick testimony of the Church in which so much of the truth Spirit and grace of God hath alwaies appeared amidst the many cloudings of humane infirmities to be far beyond any meer humane record or authority in point of establishing a Christians judgement or conscience in any thing that is not contrary to the evident command of the written word of God However some mens ignorance and self conceited confidence like bogs and quagmires are so loose and false that no piles never so long well driven and strongly compacted by the consent and harmonious testimonies of the most learned writers in the Church can reach any bottom or firm ground in them whereon to lay a foundation of humane belief or erect a firm bank and defense against the invasion of daily novelties which blow up all and break in upon the antient and most venerable orders practises and constitutions of the Church where ever they are yet continued which being evidently set forth to me by witnesses of so great credit for their piety diligence fidelity harmony integrity constancy and charity I know not how with any face of humanity or Christianity to question disbelieve or contradict Under which cloud of unsuspected witnesses I confess I cannot but much acquiesce and rest satisfied in those things which others endlessly dispute because they have not so literal and preceptive a ground in Scripture Quod universa tenet ecclesia nec consiliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi autoritate Apostolica traditum rectissimè creditur August cont Donat. l. 4. In Concil Loodic Melito Episc Sard. missus ut autographa ubique decernat c. Constabit id ab Apostolis traditum quod apud ecclesias fuerit sacrosanctum Tert. ad Mar. l. 4. however they have a very rational exexemplary analogical and consequential authority from thence which is made most clear as to the minde of God by that sense which the Primitive Doctors and Christians who lived with or next to the Apostles had of them and by their practise accordingly in the ways of Religion Thus the Canonical Books of the Scripture especially those of the New Testament which no where are enumerated in any one Book nor as from divine oracle any where commanded to be believed or received as the writings of such holy authors guided by the dictates or directions of Gods Spirit we own and receive as they were after some time with judgment and discretion rejecting many other pretended Gospels and Epistles antiently received by the Catholike Church and to this day are continued So also in point of the Church Government How in right Reason Order and Religion the Churches of Christ either in single Congregations and Parishes or in larger Associations and Fraternities ought to be governed in which thing we see that sudden variations from the Churches constant patern in all ages and places hath lately cost the expence not onely of much Ink but of much blood and have both cast and left us in great scandals deformities and confusions unbeseeming Christian Religion The like confirmation I have for Christians observing the Lords day as their holy Rest or Sabbath to the Lord and their variating herein upon the occasion of Christs Resurrection from the Seventh day or Jewish Sabbath which is not so much commanded by Precept as confirmed by Practise in the Church so in the baptising of the Infants of Christian Parents who profeâ—s to believe in Jesus Christ onely for the means of salvation to them and their children which after Saint Cyprian Saint Jerom and Augustine affirm to have been the custom of the Catholike Church in and before their days so as no Bishop or Council or Synod began it Cypr. ep ad Fidum Aust ep 28. And no less in this of the peculiar distinct calling order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Afric in Con. Carth. 1. anno 419. Some things in the Church are setled by Canon others by custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Nicoen office and succession of the Ministry Evangelical In all which if the Letter and Analogy of Scripture were less clear than â—t is so that the doctrines of those particulars which are among Christians counted divine were â—ike Vines and Honey-suckles less able to bear up themselves in full authority by that strength and vertue which they receive from the Scripture Precept where undoubtedly their root is and from whence they have grown shooted out so far and flourished in all Churches yet the constant judgment and practise of the Church of Christ which is called the pilâ—ar and ground of truth are stayes and firm supports to such sweet and usefull plants which have so long flourished in the Church of Christ whose custom may silence perverse disputes of corrupt and contentious minds And indeed doth fully satisfy and confirm both my believe and my religious observation of those particulars as sacred and unalâ—erable Nor hath any of those things Eucharistia sacramentum non de aliorum manu quaÌ„ prasidentium sumimus Tertul de Coro Mil. Impositionem manuuÌ„ qua Ecclesiae mininistri in suum manus initiantur ut non invitus patior vocari Sacramentum ita inter ordinaria Sacramenta non numero Calvin Inst l. 4. c. 14. sect 2. Amb. l. 5. ep 32. ad Valentin Commends that sentence which the Emperours Father had wrote touching judicatories and Judges in Church matters In causa fidei vel Ecclesiastici muneris eum judicare debere qui nec munere impar nec jure dissimilis constanter assero more clear evidence from Scripture or Catholick practice than this of the calling and succession of the Ministry of the Gospell hath wherein some men after due tryall and examination of their gifts and lives made by those who are of the same function and are in the Church indued with a derivable Commission and Authority to ordein an holy succession of men in the Ministry for the Churches use are by fasting prayer and solemn imposition of hands in the presence of the faithfull people publikely and peculiarly ordained consecrated set apart sent and authorised in the power and name of Christ to preach the Gospell to all men to administer the holy Sacraments and respectively to dispense all those holy duties and mysteries belonging to Christian Religion among Christian people that is such as profess to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of Sinners Which holy and most necessary custom of ordaining some fit men by others of the same function to be Ministers in the Church hath not only the unanimous consent and practise of the Orthodox Christians and purest Churches in all ages from the Apostles times But no Hereticks or Schismaticks who owned any
merited of him by suffering on the Cross and enduring the shame for his Churches salvation yet he left not his Disciples comfortless but as he promised sent his Spirit publickly and eminently upon the Twelve principal Apostles Acts 2. John 20.21 whom he had formerly chosen and appointed in his and his Fathers Name to Preach the Gospel to whom he gave the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as to the Stewards and chief Deputies or Ministers of his houshold in his absence instructing them what to do on what foundation of faith in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Authority i. e. Legitima potentia Matth. 28.18 19 20. Mark 16.15 to build his Church by what Sacramental seals to confirm believers giving them full power and commission to go into all the world by Teaching and Baptising to make Disciples confirming this power to them by breathing on them and conferring farther Ministerial gifts of the Spirit upon them promising also to be with them to the end of the world which could not be meant of their persons who soon died but of their successors in that Office and Ministry that the same power authority and assistance should be with them in that holy way to which he thus ordeined and sent them by a divine charter and durable commission After all this for further publication of this great Authority and Ministerial power given to the Apostles and their Successors and for the confirmation of it both to their own consciences John 14.17 Acts 2. and to all the world the holy Spirit as was promised came upon them in the shape of fiery cloven tongues filling them with miraculous gifts and all Ministerial power both extraordinary in their persons and ordinary derivable to their Successors such as the wisdom of Christ thought most fit both for the first planting of the Church with miraculous gifts attending the Ministry of the Gospel and the after propagating of it by the same Ministry confirmed by the constancy of the Martyrs and Confessors which were in stead of daily miracles This whole frame polity and divine constitution of the order power and Ministry that should succeed Christ Jesus in his Church was no other than the proper effects of Christs prophetick power and wisdom for the instructing his Church an act or ordinance of his Kingly power for the governing of it and a fruit of his Priestly power and care for a right Liturgy or officiating to be continued in his Church thus furnishing it with an holy Succession of Evangelical Priests and Ministers in his name and authority who might always teach guide and govern also supplicate for consecrate and offer holy things with the faithful and for them namely the sacrifices of prayers thanksgiving and praises especially Heb. 9.14 10.12 that Eucharistical memorial of that one great oblation of himself once made on the Altar of the Cross for the Redemption of the World which is the great accomplishment of the Jewish Prophecies the abolishing of their Types and Ceremonies the main foundation of the Christians Religion and the chief subject of that Evangelical Ministry which Jesus Christ himself hath thus evidently instituted and sealed in his Church For whose sake he hath given those Ministerial gifts with a distinct power and authority making some not all either Apostles or Prophets or Evangelists or Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4.11 12. 1 Cor. 12.4 5 21 28. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ c. And this by as manifest a distinction both for gifts and place and use as is in the parts of the body between the eyes and the hands the head and the feet Vers 29. So that all are not Apostles nor Prophets nor Teachers that are Believers and Members of the Body of Christ his Church no more than every part is an eye in the natural body however it partake of the same Soul as Believers do of the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.6 7. yet in different manifestations of which difference of gifts and office those onely are to judge whom the Spirit of Christ hath enabled with gifts and indued successively in the Church with power from Christ to judge of them and accordingly to invest them 1 Cor. 14.32 The spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Propheâ—â— V. 33. For God is not the Author of confusion c. by solemn and holy ordination into the orderly power of exercising those gifts which they are judged to have received from the Spirit of Christ for the good of the Church both for Instruction and for Government of it Without which divinely-constituted Order and Office of Ministry began in Christ by him derived to the Apostles and by them and their successors constantly and duly observed to these days the Church of Christ had long ere this been a monster made up of confused excrescencies a very heap and huddle of Ignorance Heresies Schisms all maner of erroneous blindness and extravagant madness like those mishapen prodigies which we may often see among those who having cast off the lawful succession the sacred and antient order of the Ministry do in their varieties exceed even the mixtures and productions of Africa After Christs Ascension 5. The Apostles ordain and command other to ordain Ministers we have no less evidence of Scripture for the undoubted practise of the blessed Apostles when they had by a divine lot first filled up that place and part of the Ministry from which Judas had faln Acts 1.25 For having received power Ministerial immediately from Christ they did duly conscientiously orderly and effectually fulfil their own Ministry and also took care to ordain others that might do so too both in their times and after them distributing their own labors into several Countreys and to several sorts of people Gal. 2.7 some to the Circumcision of the Jews others to those of the uncircumcised Gentiles Among whom they exercised their Office and Ministry 1 Coâ— 5.20 As Aâ—â—â—â—sadors â—oâ— Christ as though God did be eech you by us we pray y u in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 1 Cor. 3.9 2 Cor. 11.2 Esth 7.8 Eph. 4.11 Acts 14.23 And when they had ordained them Presbyters in every Church in Lystra Iconium Antioch c. Acts 20.28 Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or overseers to feed the Church of God c. Pauls speech to the Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus V. 17. 1 Tim. 3. 5.22 Lay hands i. e. by way of ordination to the Ministry 2 Tim. 2.2 The things thou hast heard of me commit thou the same to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also Tit. 1.5 I left thee in Creet that thou shouldst ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee Non tam solicitus de cura Timothei sed propter successores ejus ut
16.18 Eph. 2.20 Heb 6.2 in the order of Christs Church which are diligently to attend humbly to obey Heb. 13.17 thankfully to own respect love esteem and honor 1 Cor. 9.11 1 Thes 5.12 13. liberally to requite the doctrine and labors of the true and faithful Ministers 1 Tim. 5.17 who are thus over them in the Lord in a right way and succession of Ministeriall Office divinely instituted and constantly derived authority In the perpetuating of which to so many centuries of years since Christs Ascension by lawfull and uninterrupted succession in his Church the power and providence of God is not less remarkably seen than in the preservation of the Scriptures amidst all persecution confusions and variations of humane affairs Also the love and care of Christ to his Church the fidelity of his promise is evident being no less made true to the Ministry than to the whole Church to be with them to the end of the world and by the Ministry that is made good to the whole Church that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the foundations of the Church which are laid upon the writings and by the labours of the Prophets and Apostles and after them still layed and preserved by able faithfull and ordeined Ministers The consecrating or ordeyning of whom by the Imposition or laying on of hands in a continued succession for the good of the Church is reckoned by the holy Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews among the principles and foundations of Christian Religion joyned with doctrines of Faith Repentance Baptism Resurrection and eternal judgement for other meaning of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imposition of hands I find not by Scripture practise or the Church afterward so clear and constant as this in Ordination to an holy Ministry Nor can Confirmation be rightly done to the Baptised and Catechised but by those who are ordeined That to deny the Ordination and due succession of Ministers by which to carry on the work of Christ in his Church or to seek to overthrow it in any Church is all one as if men should deny those grand and fundamentall points of Faith Repentance Resurrection and judgement to have been taught by Christ or Baptism to have been instituted that to overthrow and abolish the constant Ministry and Office in the Church can be the design of none but those who care not to turn Infidels and to live in all Atheistical profaness If then there be any force or authority from Scriptures as the Oracles of God to prove by precept institution or example the religious necessity of any peculiar duties or holy Offices and divine Ministrations by which men are made Christians and distinguished as the Church of Christ from the world if the Preaching the word of life the teaching of the histories the opening of the mysteries the urging the precepts the denouncing of the terrors the offering the promises the celebrating the Sacraments the binding to wrath and shutting up to condemnation all unbelievers and impenitents the loosing of penitents and opening Heaven to them by the knowledge of Law or Gospell if these or any other holy ministrations be necessary not to the well-being only but the very being of a Church Christian Sure there there is as I have shewed no less strength pregnancy and concurrent Scripture clearness to convince and confirm the peculiar office divine power and function of the Evangelicall Ministry Without which all those ministrations must needs have ceased long agoe as to any notion or conscience among men of holy divine and Christian that is the appointments institutions messages or orders of Jesus Christ which could never carry any such marks of divine credit and authority meerly from vulgar credulity and forwardness of reception or from generall common talk and tradition among men if there had been no peculiar men appointed by God in his name and by his Commission to hold forth to the world this great salvation to convince or convert or leave men without excuse As there can be no valid message autoritative Embassie credible assignment or conveyance of truth promise command duty comfort bounty or love to others where there is only a generall fame and unauthorised report without any speciall Messenger Embassador Assigner and Conveyer to the authority of whose speech and actions or conveyances not any mans own forwardness nor others easiâ—ess and credulity doth suffice but some peculiar characters Seals and evidences by letters of credence or other sure and known tokens of a truly assigned and really derived authority do give ground to believe or power to validate what any man so performeth not in his own name or for his own interests but to an others who principally employs him and who only can make good what he so far promiseth or declareth or sealeth as he hath commission and authority from another so to do No man that speaks or negotiates in anothers name especially in matters of great consequence of as high a nature as life and death can expect to be believed by wise and serious men and that they should accordingly order both their affections and all their affairs unless they saw the marks of infallible authority far beyond the confidence of a trivial talker and a bad orator In this point then of a peculiar office and function of the Ministry Evangelical which is divinely instituted in which some men are solemnly invested by which all Religion is confirmed and preserved to the Church We have not onely full measure from Christ himself and heaped up by Apostolical precept and example evidently set forth in the Scriptures and pressed down by after Histories of the Church in a constant succession but it is also running over by those necessary accumulations which all right reason order and prudence do liberally suggest both in the Theory and the Practick 8. The peculiar Office of the Ministry confirmed by Reason For first no man by any natural capacity or acquired ability as a reasonable Creature is bound in conscience to be a Minister of the Gospel and holy Mysteries to others for then all men and women too ought to be such or else they sin Secondly Nor yet by any civil and politick capacity as living in any Society or City can any man be obliged to direct and guide others in the things of God since that relation invests no man in any civil power office or authority until the supreme fountain of civil power calls him to the place and endues him with such power much less can it put any into an authority which is divine spiritual and supernatural to act as in Gods and Christs name and to higher ends than humane 3. Nor thirdly doth any rel gious common capacity as a believer or a Christian or as endued with gifts and graces furnish any one with Ministerial power and lay that duty on him for then every Christian great and small yong and old man and woman 1 Cor. 12.25 29. Are all Apostles are
and how they list It is justly to be feared they are theeves and come but to steal and d strâ—â— who like not to come in at Christs door but are thus clambrâ—â—â— â—very where over the wall and confident of their numbers dare to do it â—â—t in the darkness of their Night Conventicles but as Aâ—salâ—ms incestuous rapes at the noon-day and in the eyes of this whole Church to its great grief and shame and to it s no little danger These intruders appearing more like plunderers of the reformed Religion than any way like to be humble able and faithfull Preachers Nothing can portend good to the Church of Christ that carrys besides gross defects such a face of disorder violence insolency and confusion which if these wayes of some men do not many wise and godly Christians have lost their eyes 12. The weight of the work of the Ministry requires peculiar and appropriated workmen to it 7. Furthermore One great mistake of our Antiministeriall Levellers is from that mean and ordinary esteem they have of the work duty and undertaking of a Minister this makes them have so slight and indifferent thoughts of it both as to the ability and authority requiring very small measure of true abilities and none at all of due authority further than any presumer of his gifts will challenge to himself When as indeed all reason Religion and holy examples do teach us See Sâ— Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 largely and eloquently setting forth what excellencies are required in a Minister above other men says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a Shepheard above the Sheep c. 2 Tim. 2.15 That the work of a Minister of the Gospell is not meerly a matter of lip labour of voluble speech of confident countenance making a shew and flourish to others of that knowledge reading memory and elocution which any man may have upon an ordinary account There goes more to make a work-man than to have good materials and tooles amassed together To heap up these or lay them forth to others view is not to build To be arbitrarily or occasionaâ—ly or impertinently or charitably busie in exercising mens private gifts as to Christian knowledge is not presently to do that great and good work which the Apostle commends which Christ enjoyns his Ministers and which the Church needs Every one that can handle the Hod or the Mattock or the Trowell is not instantly an Architect or may vye with Vitruvius Nor can every knowing Christian discharge that part of a throughly furnished workman who needs not to be ashamod as having materials and Tools and skill and command There is a great difference between that plausible cunning Hâ—c habent haeritici artificiuÌ„ plus per suadent quam docent cùm veritâ—s docendo persuadet non persuadendo docet Tertul. adv Vul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 20.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.17 Who use the word of God as Hucksters do good ware mixing it with bad to mend it the better Nâ—gotium illiâ— in verbi administratione non Ethnicos convertens sed nostros evertendi nostra suffodjunâ— ut sua aedificent Tertul. adv Haer. c. 42. which draws Desciples after mens selves and that Ministeriall conscience which makes Disciples to Christ between the setting up among the many popular Masters who love to hear themselves speak and the being sent as Embassadors to speak in the name of Christ which is not to get a petty Magistery and name among men but to make known as they ought the holy name and mysteries of Jesus Christ Nor is this only to walk in the cool of the day in the midst of an Independent Paradise which other Ministers labours have planted where some elderly better instructed and wealthier Christians fancy they want nothing to compleat them but the contentment of an imaginary Reign and Empire and are content to allow liberally to any Minister that will assume them into a participation of Church power that they may but think themselves to rule But it requires such an humble diligence as is willing to bear the heat and burthen of the day to contend with younger ignorance and elder obstinacy and aged tetricalness not disdaining nor nauseating the cramb of Catechising to which principles few of the new modelling Preachers will deâ—cend as loath to abate of those high-soring notions and seraphick speculations in which they please themselves more than any of their hearers Vulgus quae non intelligunt impensius mirantur Jerom. who seek to profit our souls rather than vainly to applaud their vainer teacher who thus new dressed and set up greatly despiseth his poor neighbour Ministers pains serving only to breed up as in a nursery such plants as he is to transplant to his congregationall Garden and so to gather in due time the fruits of them to himself No the work of a worthy Minister is such as must fit him as well to stoop to lay the lowest foundations in the youngest Cathechists as to set up the Crown and Corner stone of the highest Pinnacle in the most advanced Christians He must know how to treat both the weak and the strong the ideot and the learned the babes and simple as well as the men grown and well-instructed that scorns not the meanest nor fears to do his duty to the greatest in the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. â— 7.8 To which work there ought to be such an a dequation as to do every thing becomming so high and heavenly a Master so holy and great a work wherein the Apostle requires as to the doctrine and manners too uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned c. so that the Office and work of a Minister requires De Sacerdote Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6.20 2 Tim. 1.14 That good thing which was committed to thy trust keep c. Heb 13.17 As those that must give an account for their sâ—uls Horribile effatum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministris non sine conâ—â—erâ—atione animi deliquâ—o audiendum not only communicative abilities for knowledge and utterance but imports also duty conscience care solicitousness skill fidelity diligence intentiveness zeal exactness prudence and highest discretion as in a most weighty matter of infinite concernment wherein the glory of God the honour of our Saviour and the good of mens souls is highly engaged So that it is not a spontaneous curtesie or a pleasant variety or a plausible novelty or a profitable art and trade or mâ—stery of living but a serious custody committed a precious charge deposited and a strict account to be returned of the Ministeriall negotiation and function What is requisite in a Minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezek. 1. Is Pel. l. 1. Ep. 151. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Nis de Cast So that a Minister had need to have the eye and illumination of an Angel the heart and compassion of a Father the
to the glory of God whose infinite and inestimable mercy is hereby set forth to mankinde or more conducing to the honor of Christ in his wisdom love and care for his Church than it is every way most necessary for the common good of those whom the Lord is pleased to call to be his people at any time in any Nation 1 Cor. 1.21 whatsoever whose interest and benefit the Lord Jesus Christ far more considered and so should all good Ministers do in their work than any particular ends or advantages of their own Alas the divinest advancement of true Ministers in this World is their faithful labor their honor must be their cares and studies and fears 2 Cor. 1.23 c. Princeps in praedicando princeps in perpetiendo Bern. their crowns their sufferings and sorrows persecutions and perils contempts crosses and deaths for Christs sake and the Churches welfare But the peculiar benefit and advantage of the Christian flock the faithful people of all sorts is that which is most to be regarded over whom the Lord hath made Ministers overseers not onely at the first plantation of the Gospel as the Socinians say but also in a constant and clear succession of Publick Ministerial Authority for this very purpose That poor people may never be left as sheep without a shepherd Mark 6.24 that they may not either wander up and down in the wildernesses or mountains of their own fancies or be led away by others seductions or be beguiled by the devils wiles and temptations That they may hear and believe and persevere stedfast in the Faith that they may neither be ignorant nor erroneous nor scattered and divided that they may be preserved from rustical simplicity hypocritical formality heretical pravity and schismatical novelty in matters of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 29.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Perire denudare feriari dissipare rebellari retrocedere Buxtorf Isai 30.20 Thy Teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers that they may not perish or be left naked separated scattered idle and rebellious for want of vision thereby sinning against God and their own souls The pregnant significancy of that one word which Solomons wisdom useth hath these swarms or spawnings of several senses All which variety shews That the state of common people is never more desperate than when their Seers fail when their Teachers are removed into corners when God sends them no Preachers or Prophets after his own heart when people are not onely without light but put it out quenching the Lamps of the Sanctuary and loving darkness more than light when they are given up to their own delusions and others seductions who blindly follow the visions of their own hearts and the Prophets of their own sending or the Ministers of their own ordaining whom they shall have no cause to credit esteem love or obey as finding no competent gifts Ministerial in them no Characters of divine Authority or holy Succession upon them Ezek. 3.17 Heb. 13.17 They watch for their souls c. People will easily be surprised when they have no watchmen to foresee give warning prevent and encounter any dangers of sins errors and temptations which easily surprise the generality even of Christians who are for the most part so busied and incumbred or so pleased and ensnared or so burthened and oppressed with the secular and sensible things of this world that they can hardly watch one hour with Christ no not in his agony if they had not some Ministers divinely appointed to put them in remembrance to stir up their affections to provoke them to piety to prepare them for eternity both instructing them in the Faith and praying for them that their Faith may not fail Nothing indeed is more deplorable and desperate than the condition of mankinde yea and of any part of the Church of Christ would be if the Lord had not commanded and by a special providence continued an holy constant succession of the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments who may be always either planting or watering or pruning and so according to the several proportions of Christians still preserving the truth life and power of Religion so as it may descend to after ages For there is no doubt 1 Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe but without this holy and happy Succession of Ministers either people would ever persist in their original ignorance and heathenish sottery or although once planted with piety yet they will soon relapse to barbarity Atheism and unbelief or at best content themselves with idle formalities spiritless superstitions empty notions mouldy traditions lying legends plausible fancies novel inventions vain imaginations or most desperate errors and damnable doctrines which is evident by the experience as of former so of these times where few of those that have cast off and despised the lawful and true Ministry of this Church but either give over all Religion or else think themselves capable every night to dream a new and better way of serving God and saving mens souls than ever yet was used This natural tendency to Apostatize from truth 18. As all Christians subject to Errors and Apostacies so none more than here in England Anglorum ingenia sunt aut varia mobilia superstitionibus vaticiniis dedita aut feroci quadam pertinacia aspera contumaciter superba Bodin Lansius Phil. Com. to relapse to profaneness to rest in hypocrisie to run out to extravagancies or to persist in errors no people under Heaven are more subject to than those of this Nation England whom as God hath blest with a land flowing with milk and honey so they have much of the iron sinew and stiffneckedness of the Jews for being full fed they are also full of high and quick spirits various and vehement fancies finding out and running after many fashions and inventions Don Gundamor who had much studied the English temper and knew how their pulse beat both in Church and State was wont to say He despaired not of those violent changes here in England which in no other Nation could be expected who are generally content with their customs and constant to their principles whereas the English are always given to change to admire novelties and with most inconsiderate violence to pursue them So that no Nation or Church under Heaven have more need then of constant learned able and honest Ministers who may shew them guide and keep them in the good right and safe way of true Religion From which none are more easily seduced than those that have either a sequacious softness and credulity toward other men as divers of us have or an high conceit and confidence of themselves which people much at ease rich and high fed as many in England are most subject to Insomuch that we see the greatest disâ—ase as to Religion now
horrid and abominable liquors whose venom hath so stupified their consciences that they are past all feeling and sense of either sin shame or sorrow Nor is there ever any of these new Rabbies who can content himself with either the orders of this Church or the Articles of Sound doctrines or Catechisticall foundations and principles which it hath embraced and propounded upon very grave and good advise as most safe and necessary for Christians They must ever have some new fangle either of opinion or practise to make them remarkable 7. Gifts alone make not a Minister nor furnish him with true Ministerial power and authority But if I should yield which I cannot do with truth or only suppose some of these men to have even ordinary Apostolicall gifts as they vainly and falsly pretend yet even these would not make them beyond or better than fals Apostles unless they had the call mission and authority which true Apostles had immediatly from Christ and which false Apostles untruly pretended to who though they taught the truth yet with falsity pretended they had seen the Lord Jesus and were sent as other Apostles by him Nor will those common gifts make them ordinary Prophets or Ministers in the Church unless they have the ordinary call and mission which Christ hath setled in the Church A Serpent of gold would not have brought those healing effects which the brasen did at Gods appointement Gifts of knowledge and utterance alone are not qualifications sufficient for men to challenge the right of Ordination to publick Ministry for the moralls and practiques of men as well as their intellectuals are much to be considered the Priest might be able and the Levite lusty for service when they were unclean and so unfit for the Temple The levity haughtiness rudeness boastings and inconstancies observable in some mens looks gesture habit and carriage as St. Ambrose guessed at the mine and garb of two Presbyters who afterward proved stark naught makes them less fit to be ordained Ministers in the Church than many who have weaker gifts but discover more prudence gravity meekness humility and diligence Autoritas Charismata praesupopanit at Charismata autoritatem non ponunt Gerard. de Minist Qualis ordinatio talis successus Luth. 1 Cor. 3.3 A stock and gifts and parts either naturall or acquired though never so thrifty and spreading is of it self but as a crabstock and can of it self bear no other than sour fruits of Factions Schisms Emulations and carnall confusions in the Church till it is grafted with holy ordination by that due ministeriall power which is in the Church As there are formally or truly no true Sacraments where the same Elements and words materiâ—lly are used unless there be also a right Minister of holy things who acts and consecrates not in any naturall or civill capacity as from his own mind or other mens will but by delegation and appointment from Christ nor can there be a right Minister In actionibus tam sacris quaÌ„ civilibus id validum quod legitimum Reg. Ju. or Officer from Christ as I formerly proved where there is not a right patent divine power and commission given in his Name by due ordâ—nation as it is but treason and rebellion for the abâ—est States-man or Lawyer to undertake and act the part of an Embassadour or Judge untill he be made such by those in reference to whose will and work such power and employment only can be conferred That cannot be done in anothers name which is not done by his consent Quo meliores eo deteâ—iores Verulam de Jesuitis and according to his declared will Men of the greatest gifts if they are disorderly in the Church are but as Wens in the hodâ— the greater the worser the more they swell beyond the modell and true proportion of the bodies features the more deformity and inconvenience they bring to the whole body nor hath any man any cause to boast of them for it is not the greatness but fitness of parts which makes them handsome or useful to the whole who knows not that great wits and parts are oft-times great temptations as was said of Origen Magnum ingenium magna tentatio Vinc. Lyrin de Origine Tertul Gen. 3. whose frequent Preaching in the Church of Alexandria before he was Ordeined Presbyter gave great offence to grave and godly men imputing his after errors and fall to his too great forwardness and presumption The Serpent which was subtiller than other beastâ— is chosen by the Devill as a fit organe for to convey his temptations Proud and presumptuous gifts in men are no better than those inordinate excrescencies which exceed mens noses or blind their eyes or somtimes swell bigger than their heads nor will their fate be better at last than that of the Giants was who presuming of his vast limbs 1 Chron. 20.6 and the extraordinary number of his fingers and toes which were twenty four in all yet there wanted not of Davids worthies who slew him when he defied the Church of God 2 Cor. 10.12 If men be left to measure themselves only by thems lves as most of these overwise-men do which of them but is prone to think very highly of himself and like the Apes in the fable fancy they can build as brave Houses and Cities and Churches as the ablest man but when they come to the Wood thâ—y have not so much as Sawes or Axes or any tools to begin the work withall But these over-forward men usually reply with great sadness and severity against Ministers Monopolising of the duty and office of Preaching the Gospell That Paul rejoyced if any preached Christ Phil. 1.18 8. Of St. Pauls rejoycing that any way Christ was preached Phil. 2.21 Acts 17.11 though of envy and evill will though not Ordeined c. I answer first It doth not appear but those men might have due Ministeriall power to preach the Gospell and yet through passion or faction they abused this power seeking their own things and not the things of Christ Or secondly It may be their preaching was but privat domestique and charitative Instruction or confirming of others repeating as the Bereans what they had learned of St. Paul or other Apostles which is not denyed to any sober Christians but only required to be kept within those bounds of Order and humility so as it neither becomes rivall to or opposer of nor yet a despiser and at last an abolisher of the office of the publique Ministry which is the design of the presumptuous and pretenders against the Ministers Thirdly If those whom the Apostle speaks of were not Preâ—â—â—ers by office but only by their own little motives of applause or profit or Envy and the like they were moved to preach the Gospell of Christ yet they did not like ouâ— modern Intrudâ—rs and Usurpers boâ—st of Extraordinary gâ—fts and call nor did they deny or seek to overthrow in others the ordinary
superstitions licentiousness flatteries and lukewarmness as to the power of the true reformed Religion As is most evident in those places where these New-pretenders have most intrudâ—d themselves and extruded the true and able Ministers Sad experience will shortly teach all such as love this Church and Reformed religion Contempt of tho Ministers of the Gospel paves and strowes the Devils high-way to all impiety how much it concerned them to have endevoured great vindications and by civill Sanctions of the honour of the publike Ministry That there may be exact care in the right authority for ordination and true antient succession which conferrs the Divine power and office as also good incouragements and assistance in the due execution of it that it may not be exposed to so many affronts reproaches and disgraces of vile men and insolent manners who fear not openly to contemn such a reformed Church and it s so famous Ministry together with the whole Nation and the Lawes of it even in so high a nature and measure as this is to vilifie their publike Religion and to seek to extirpate the true Ministry of it Nulla magis illustrantur coâ—fiâ—mantur religionis Christianae dogmatâ— quam quae versutissima haereticorum pravitas deturpare eradicare conabatur Chamâ—er Doctis medicis dant pretium medicastri ut veris Theologis insuisi impudentes Theologastri Iâ—si morbi minus noxii sunt quà m medici imperiti Fernel As good Lawes oft rise by the occasion of evill manners like Antidotes from Poysons so advantages may at last accrew to the Reformed religion and to the true Ministry of it by these oppositions Nothing makes the lustre of truth to shine more clear and welcome than those clowdings and blasphemies under which it may for a time be hidden and Ecclipsâ—d Nothing will make able Physicians more necessary and valued than the swarms of such ignorant Quacks as are of no valew who are more dangerous than any Plague or Epidemical disease Nor is the estate of any Church as to Religion more safe by the multitudes of preaching Mouâ—tâ—banks in stead of True and able Ministers In stead of Propating the Gospell they will every whereso corrupt it with errors so abase it with prejudices and scandals so harden men against the power of it by the rottenness and hypocrisie of their wayes that there will be more need of able and true Ministers to recover and settle the honour of the true Christian religion in this Nation than if it were now first to be converted from Paganism For the Devils strongest holds are those which are fashioned after the platforms of religion and pretend to more than ordinary piety 9. The Character of Antiministerial preteâ—dâ—rs to gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 1. So that when I consider the temper and form of this Antiministeriall faction in England I find that their heads by a ricketly kind of religion are grown too heavy for their weak and overburthened limbs Their self-conceit of their extraordinary gifts and abilities presuming themselves to be able to do what ever they fancy makes them more than ordinarily disabled as to any good word or work Like Narcissus they are so deluded with the flattering Ecchos of their â—llâ— admirers and so taken with their own fashion in such false glasses that they are like to dâ—at till they die and starve themselves as to all reall sufficiencies by the fond imagination of how great gifts they have and their ignorance of how much indeed they want Nothing more hinders reall abilities than too hasty presumptions of them If any of these gloriosâ—es have any competent gifts of knowledge as to some things of Religion yet like the Chickens hatcht by the force of Ovens in the heat of Camels-Dung as at Aleppo Damascus and other places in the East they have commonly something in them monstrous odd extravagant either defective or superfluous in opinions or practise In intellectuals or morals or prudentials Either vain or morose Humanis oculis locata Religio Crys l. 9. light or tetricall rude or proud popular or affectated Impatient of nothing so much as the bounds of that honest calling in which God and the Laws have placed them Ardeliones isti tepidos se suspicantur nisi inquieti sint nec zelantes satis se credunt nisi omnia incendiis commiscentes pulcherrima quaeque Religionis in cinâ—res redigentes Gerard. Phraeneticus immundus ignorantiae Spiritus Ire l. 1. c. 13. Qui custodiet ipsos custodes Tutela intutissima Unsatisfied and ever quarrelling with that sober peaceable setled way of judicious and humble piety which becomes good Christians adorns the Gospell and keeps up the honour of the Reformed Religion and of this Church of England which these mens late violent extravagancies and disorderly walkings beyond and contrary to all holy rules of Religion all modest bounds of reason Law and common order among men and Christians seek to make weary sick and ashamed of it self when it shall see it self robbed and spoyled of all its able Ministers Reverend Bishops learned Presbyters and orderly Professors and only guarded by a riotous and incomposed rabble of such whose ignorance weakness and confusions will only serve to betray and destroy the Reformed Religion but never to defend it against those many malicious crafty and well armed adversaries who do but ly in wait for opportunities to weaken dishonour disorder and quite overthrow both this and all other Reformed Churches Alas these gifted men who spread so large sayls hang out such fair streamers and seek to make so goodly a shew to the vulgar simplicity as if they were strong built well rigid and richly loaden vessels fit to endure those rough Seas and storms to which both the Truth and Ministry of the Gospell are frequently exposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist de Virt. vit Audacia est stupor quidam rationis cuÌ„ malitia voluntatis conjuncta Aquin. Eph. 4.14 Heb. 13.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes Ep. 14. Confidentia stultorum imperatrix prudentium scurra Sido 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 26. Temeritas inscitiae filia are easily judged by all wise and truly learned Christians to be but light keels and flat bottomed Boats by their floting so loftily by their running so boldly over any shelves and rocks of opinion by their putting into every small creek of controversy which shews they draw very little water that they have not the due ballast of weighty knowledge and sound judgement the want of which makes them so fool hardy so apt to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine so prone to grow Leaky and foul either letting in under water cunningly and secretly corrupt and brackish opinions or shipping in above-deck openly and boldly whole Seas of any sinister ends and worldly interests that are abroad in the storms and waves and confusions of civill affairs
tantum fulminantis venerantur numina Bern. 1 Cor. 12.13 in their most clear light and concurrent strength that they will not prostrat all or any of these to a company of wretched Pamphlets fitter for Cooks and Chandlers shops than for the reading of judicious and serious Christians who have cause to look upon those putrefactions of Pens and wits only as Moths and Vermine every where creeping up and down and hoping like Ants only by their numbers to devour all antient Authors and all good literature that so they alone may survive and satisfie the grosser palats of those who never relished any book so much as a Ballad or a Play or a Romance or some Seraphick raptures and pious nonsense Is he scandalized that we count not the diseases of Christians health their putrefactions perfections their dâ—stractious raptures their ravings reason their dreams oracles baseness liberty their Chaos comliness Is he jealous of us because we rather study and profess solid truths sober piety good manners and orderly government which only become all true Christians and Ministers above all Is it our fault that we endevour to Pray Preach Write what we and others may understand that we covet not to be admired by not being understood that we aim to do all things as becomes Men Christians and Ministers of the true Church of Christ not after the manner of plausible and easie fondness which is afraid to offend where there is power to hurt that counts greatness as a badge of goodness and success a sign of Sanctity but rather with all just zeal courage and constancy beseeming the demonstrations of the truth and Spirit of God which never needed more to be asserted as to its divine power and eternall honour than in this pusillanimous and frothy generation of vapourers who are the greatest enemies to and betrayers of our Religion as Christian and as Reformed whether they be Gogs or Magogs open or secret the one or the many Antichrists Papall or popular delusions We hope this Gentleman is so good natured that with all other excellent Christians he will forgive us those wrongs by which we have been and ever shall be piously injurious and faithfully offensive as aiming not to please men but God Wherein then are we the Preachers of the good old way One and all meriters of such fatall terrors as those words import which like Apocalyptick Revelations are dark but dreadfull portending God knows what sufferings upon them all If there be no men more single-hearted none more open candid and ingenuous than all good Ministers pray to be who are no Statists or Politicians but able and honest Preachers of the name of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to shew Sinners the way of eternall life If there be nothing more necessary more usefull less offensive or burdensome to any wise sober and godly minds than their lives and labours are If no men are more modest and moderate in all their desires and designs than learned humble and diligent which are the unpragmatick Ministers what is the grief why this complaint lamentation and burthen which this Gentleman takes up so prophetically against them both as to their sin and their suffering unless men be vexed that any worthy men are duly made Ministers or that Ministers are but men unless it offend that they have food and raiment which most of them dearly earn and hardly get unless they are impatient as the Wolf was with the Lamb that we breath in the same common ayr or see the same Sun or tread on the same Earth or drink of the same stream 1 King 18.17 the troubling of which is by the troublers of it unjustly imputed to their innocency who must therefore be accused because violence hath a mind to destroy them What is the error what the heresie what the superstition what the Popish opinion or practise which any of us Ministers so resolutely maintain Sure this Gentleman is not to be thought of so low a form of foundlings and novices who suspect and dread every thing as Popish which we hold Profracta est illa superstitiosa timiditas quae à bonis abhorret quibus abutuntur mali Aust or act in common with the Pope or Papists wholly to recede from any thing common with them must divest us not only of the main truths duties vertues and grounds of our Religion as Christian but we must cast off all or most part of that which denominates us either rationall or humane both as to the nature and society of men But if we obstinatly retain any thing either for opinion or practice which may truly be branded with the mark of the Beast as either erroneous or superstitious beyond the bounds of Christian truth or liberty or decency If either any generall Councill or any Synod of this Church since it were reformed or any Parliament Qualis affectatio in civilibus talis superstitio in divinis Verulam and civill Convention of the Estates of this Nation have condemned what we teach or practise or opine If any wise and learned man not apparently ingaged in faction or schism against the publique Constitution both in Church and State did ever so much as accuse or convict us of any such crimes Misericorditer plectitur qui ad emendationem ducitur Aust In Gods name let us suffer what He thinks fit If we have deserved it from men it will be a mercy to be punished and amended by them If we have not it will be an honour and crown to us above all men to suffer for the testimony of Jesus Christ the honour of our function and this Church from unreasonable and ungratefull men who use Ministers as their Oxen 1 Cor. 9.9 but not in the Apostles or Gods sense first exhausting and tyring them at hard labour and then they destroy and devour them The appeal of all true and faithfull Ministers as to their integrity far from this superstition charged on them But to all excellent and impartiall Christians we may and do as in the presence of God appeal Is not this in some mens sense and censure the sin of the ablest and best Preachers both for learning piety and constancy that they do not so easily yield to or applaud a Military or Mechanick religion that they are sorry to see so goodly a part of the Catholike Church so stately a pillar of Gods house as the Church of England lately was so every day hewing in pieces and mouldring to nothing for want of due order and government or seasonable and fit repairings Is not this the Crime that no learned and worthy Minister can own either the swords Soveraignty or the peoples Liberty to be the grand Arbitrators of piety the disposers of mens consciences the Dictators of all Christianity the interpreters of all Scriptures the Determiners of all Controversies and this so absolute as admits no Conference with nor endevouring to convince either
unnecessary rigors and severities may not make the Mass or lump of religion more sowr and heavy than God in his Word hath required who cannot be an enemy to the right and sanctified use of melody or Musick Psal 33.2 2 Cor. 9.7 since he commands singing to his praises and loves a cheerfull temper in his service Certainly Musick is of all sensible humane beauty the most harmless and divine Nor did I ever see any reason why it should be thought to deform us Christians or be wholly excluded from making a part in the beauty of holiness No time or abuse doth prejudice Gods or the Churches rights Quamvis ritus ordinationis in Eccles pontificia multis superstitionibus inutilibus ceremoniis fit vitiatus ex eo tamen ipsius ordinationis essentiae nihil decedit Distinguenda ordinantis infirmitas ab ordinatione quae sit totius Ecclesiae nomine distinguendum divinum ab humano essentiale ab accidentali pium Christianum ab Antichristiano sermentum a doctrina Pharisaeorum Gerard. de Minist pag. 147. Moderatia non tam virtus quam doctrix imperatrix omnium virtutum Auriga ordinâ—trix affectuum Ber. Cant. Tolle hanc virtus vitium erit Nec abligurienda sunt mala cum bonis nec eructanda bona cum malis Vetul Pravi effectus falsi sunt rerum â—stimatores All wise and excellent Christians know this for certain That mans usurpation is no prejudice to Gods dominion nor do humane traditions vacate divine Commands nor Antichrists superstitions cancell Christs Institutions Vain superstructures of mans addition neither demolish nor rase Gods foundations men do not quit their rights to estates for anothers unjust in trusion The heady invasions of one or few or many upon the Churches rights and liberties are no cause to make Christians remove the antient Land-marks and boundaries of true Ministry due order and prudent government which we find fixed by Christ continued by the Apostles and observed by the Churches obedience in all ages although not without tinctures and blemishes of humane Infirmities They are sad Physicians and of no valew who know not how to let their Patients blood unless they stab them to the heart Such are those unhappy leeches who in stead of eating off with fit Corosives the dead flesh of any part do lop off whole arms and legs Some men are too heavy for themselves and while they aim to go down the Hill of reformation they suddenly conceive such an impetuous motion as cannot stop it self till it hath carried all before it and at length dasheth it self in pieces Much more folly it is quite to abolish the use of holy things than to tollerate some abuses with it True reforming is not a starting quite out of the way as shy and skittish horses are wont to do when they boggle at what scares them more than it can hurt them with danger to themselves and their riders too not a flying to new modes and exotick fashions of religion and Churches and Ministers but it is a sober and stayd restauration of those antient and venerable forms which pious Antiquity in the Church of Christ and the antient of dayes in his more sure Word hath expressed to us 'T is easie to pare off what one great Antichrist or the many less have added and to supply what they have by force or fraud detracted from that only complete figure of Extern professional religion which Christ and his Apostles by him so have fashioned and delivered which is never well handled no not by Reformers unless Christians have honest hearts good heads clear eyes and pure hands when all these meet in any undertakers to reform the Church I shall then hope they will seriously sincerely and successfully do Christs and the Churches work as generally men are prone and intent to do their own This then I may conclude against all precipitant and blind zeal which by popular arts seeks to bring an odium on all Ministers and the Ministry of this Church meerly by using the Name of the Pope without giving any account to reason or religion of their Calumny That there is no cause in reason or religion for any Christians to cast off the Ministry of England as it stands Reformed and so restored to its primitive Power and Authority because of any Succession from relation to or communion with the Order and Clergy of the Roman Church and Bishop no more cause I say than for these Anti-ministeriall Cavillers to pull out their eyes because Papists do see with theirs or to destroy themselves because naturally descended from such parents as were in subjection to the Bishop of Rome and in communion with that Church we may as well refuse all leagues and treaties of humanity in common with Papists as all Christianity and all Christianity as all antient lawfull Ministry an holy Succession may descend and Gods elect be derived from such as were true men how ever vitious CAVIL Or CALUMNY V. Against Ministers as Ordeined by Bishops in England I Have done with the first part of this Cavill or Calumny which seeks to bandy the Ministry of the Church of England against the Papall and Romish wall that they may make it either rebound to a popular and Independent side or else fall into the hazard of having no true Christian Ministry at all from both which I shall in like fort endevour to rescue this our holy Function and Succession A second stroak therefore which I am to take is made with great Artifice and popular cunning against the Ministry of this Church as it was derived and continued by the hands of Bishops who were as Presidents or chief Fathers in the work of Ordination among their Brethren and Sons the Presbyters or Ministers within their severall Diocesses These Prelates or Bishops the Objectors protest highly against as being not Plants of Christs planting whose Authority being lately pulled up by power so that they seem to have no more place or influence in this Church or Nation the Presbyterie also and whole order of the former Ministry they say must necessarily also fail and wither which were but branches and slips derived from the stem or root of Episcopall Ordination Thus we see in a few years the Anti-ministeriall fury is cudgelling even Presbyters themselves with that staff which some of them put into vulgar hands purposely to beat their Fathers the grave and antient Bishops and utterly to banish that Venerable and Catholick Order or Eminent Authority of Episcopacy out of the Church what the Dove-like innocency of those fierce and rigid Ministers hearts might be as to their godly intentions I know not but I am sure they wanted that wisdome of the Serpent which seeks above all to preserve its head whence life health motion and orderly direction descending to other parts do easily repair and heal what ever lesser hurt or bruise may befall them It must needs be confessed that as the Events have been very
vindicator defended not more to the honour of Ignatius than of himself whom providence hath chosen and so enabled to be a Patron to so glorious a Martyr and in so just a cause as to redeem one of the first Fathers from that Presbyterian Limbo How uncomly and petulant some other mens carriages have been and are daily toward the antient Fathers of the Church I need not tell when 't is too evident how they put them oft on the rack to make them speak somthing in favour for either an Headlesse Presbyterie or a confused Independency Indeed it is a shame to see young men and novices so to make those antient holy and learned Writers to scratch or blot their own faces with their own Pens and to put out their Eyes with their own stiles wringing as it were their noses till they bleed a drop or two for those new Modes and exotick formes of Church-government which neither they nor their forefathers even up to the Apostles times ever saw or knew And this tyrannie of quotations must be exercised upon the works of the Fathers though never so much against the clear judgement and practise of those holy men who were themselves either eminent Bishops as most of the Antients were whose Works are extant or humble and peaceable Presbyters who universally owned and submitted to the authority of their Bishops yea some men have the forehead to urge a few obscurer passages in a few them against clear places which are a hundred to one wherein they express their own judgements or the whole Churches practise in their times to be without any dispute for Episcopacy and Bishops with Presbyters as succeeding the Apostolicall eminencie in the ordinary power of Ordination and Church-government Indeed I have oft wondred how men of learning and piety had the confidence to cite testimonies even out of Ignatius Tertullian Irenaeus Origen Cyprian Clemens of Alexandria Ambrose Austin and others in favour of a Presbytery without and against a Bishop or President when all of them as all others of the Fathers are most clear both in their own judgements and as to the Churches Catholick practise yea and so is St. Jerom too for the right use of regular Episcopacy 5. Regulation of Episcopacy Omni actu ad me perlato placuit contrahi presbyterium Cornel. ep Rom. ad Cyp. Epist 46. In the absence sickness or death of the Bishop the Preâ—byters some me govâ—rnâ—d the Church So in Cyprians absence Epist 26.30.31 So Theod. l. 4. c. 22. when the Orthodox Bishop banished the Presbyters Flavianus and Dioderus c. guided the Church o â—nno 1194. hen the â—rks prevaiâ—d over the Greek Churches Balsamon tels they had no Bishops in many places a long time De Petro Apost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crysost hom 3. in Act. Apost Florentissimo illic clero tecum praesidents ad Cornel. Episcopus nullius causam audiat absque praesentia Clericorum suorum alioquin irrita eâ—â— sententia Episcopi nisi clericorum praesentia confirmetur Con. Carth. 4. can 23. such as all sober men plead for and approve What ever the Fathers are brought in as speaking for the Ministers rights in a joynt Presbyterie or the people 's as for Independency amount to no more but either to repress the arrogancy ambition and tyranny of some Bishops who in more favourable times usurped or used their power against or with neglect of the Counsell and assistance of Presbyters which in all reason ought and in Antiquity were ever joyned with the Bishop in weighty matters or else when the insolence and scorn of some Ecclesiastick governours arose to the oppression of the faithfull people To whom in Primitive times great regard was had both by Bishops and Presbyters in all publick transactions which concerned their and the Churches good government that so all things might be done with charity good liking and approbation of all Christians This was not only very comly and convenient but almost necessary in point of Christian prudence in those times when Christians of all degrees were full of humility and Charity kept short and low by persecution and much depended upon the love and union between Pastor and people Afterward indeed in times of peace and plenty there oft appeared so much of levity fury and faction in the common people that it was the wisdom of Governours to withdraw much of that liberty and indulgence which formerly people enjoyed but afterward abused to Sedition Fury and Murthers in their tumultuary motions and clamorous Elections This is all that ever I observed from the Antients in favour of the Presbyters power in common with Bishops or of the faithfull people Namely that they would have after the pattern of the Apostolike love wisdome and humility all things of publike concernment in the Church to be so managed by the chief Governour or Bishop as neither Presbyters nor People should think themselves neglected wherein their suffrage consent or approbation was fit to be had but the one should be used as brethren the other as sons which temperance I greatly approve It were endless and needless to answer or excuse personall Errors in Bishops Bishops personal errors no argument but of envy and malice against the office or those common inconveniences which are prone to attend all Power and superiority among men For those are the fruits of Power perverted of Authority degenerating of Governors ill governing themselves through personall errors and passions or the corruptions and indulgencies of times but they are not by any wise and impartiall man to be reckoned as the genuine and proper effects of that order government and proportion which is in right Episcopacy and which all reason as well as Religion allows to all sorts of men and Christians no more than sickness is to be imputed as a fault to health or deformity to comliness since both are incident in humane nature to the greatest strength or beauty Yea 't is most certain that there is nothing usefull or commendable in any other way of governing the Church in small parcells or in greater bodies which is not inclusively eminently and consummatively in a well-ordered Episcopacy such as was not only in primitive times but in our dayes As all Oeconomick vertues are in a good Father or Master and all politick excellencies are in an excellent Prince or Magistrate which cannot be found in any other short of and inferiour to those eminent relations All other lower and incompleater forms are as defective in point of advancing a common and publike good as they come short of that main end for with Episcopacy as the Crown and perfectest degree of order was by Apostolicall and primitive wisdome and piety setled in the Church which was to avoid Schisms to preserve the Unity of the faith and peace of the Churches to keep good correspondencies by Synods and Councills which could not be done by multitudinous meetings which no place could hold nor wise men manage to any order
might rule and reign in Christs stead It is upon other accounts than this of being a Bishop or Prelate in a part of the Church that the Pope is by many charged with the odious character of Antichristian namely in reference to that ambition pride and usurpation which by fraud and force the Bishops of Rome have obtained and chalenge or exercise over all the world and specially over these Western Bishops and Churches in later times Greg. in Epist. 32. Mauritio 600. years after Christ namely since Gregory the greats dayes who was an humble devout and holy Bishop and had many pious martyrs his Predecessors as Popes or Fathers in that See of Rome who abhorred the name of Universall Bishops affirming they were Antichrist who ever arrogated that name of Universall Bishop Also for those gross abuses errors tyrannies superstitions and persecutions which many Popes have made in the Churches of Christ contrary to the word and example of Christ and the Canons of generall Councils From all which we had a Church and Ministry happily reformed even by the care and constancy of many holy and learned men who were Bishops and Martyrs in this Church of England As then we do not abhor to be men or Christians because the Pope is a man and professeth to be a Christian So neither may we dislike Bishops because the Pope is one nor Presbyters and Deacons because there be many of that title and office in the Church of Rome True Epispacy may consist without secular and civil advantages But in the last place if primitive Episcopacy and Apostolicall Bishops now poor and devested of all secular power and ornaments of honour and estate and in this conform to their Predecessors in primitive and persecuting times may not in reason of state with publick honour be restored and established in this Church of England yet it may be hoped that the Indulgence and liberty of times will give so much tolleration That those whose judgements and consciences bind them either to be so ordeined Ministers or to receive the comfort of divine Ministrations only from such as are in holy orders by the safe and antient way of Episcopall Ordination may have and enjoy that liberty without perturbing the publick peace which both Presbyterians and Independents doe enjoy in their new wayes For nothing will savour more of an imperious and impotent spirit whose faith and charity are slaves to secular advantages and interests than for those who have obtained liberty for their novelties to deny the like freedom to other mens Antiquity which hath the Ecclesiasticall practise and precedency of 1600. years besides the preponderancy of much reason Scripture and holy examples All which to force godly grave and learned men Ministers or people to renounce or to comply with other wayes against their judgements or else to deprive them of all holy orders employments and ministrations in the Church as Christians cannot but be a most crying and self-condemning sin in those men who lately approved that antient and Catholick way and after dissenting at first desired but a modâ—st tolleration Since then the Pope as a Bishop is not Antichristian as I have proved neither can it be affirmed with any sense or truth that either Episcopacy it self or Bishops Pastors and Governours in the Church are Antichristian It will easily appear to sober Christians how poor popular and passionate a calumny that is which some weak minds please themselves to object against the Ministry of the Church of England as if it were Antichristian because the Ministers received their Ordination and Induction both to the office and exercise of their Ministry by the hands and authority of Bishops with those Presbyters assistant who were present which was the Universall practise of all Churches antiently in Ordeining Presbyters and is at this day of most This false and odious reproach of Antichristian Ministry many Presbyters preposterously seek to wipe off from the face of their Ministry as they are Presbyters while yet with the same hand they make no scruple to besmear the faces of Bishops and Episcopacy Not considering that while they poorly gratifie the vulgar malice of some men against all Bishops they still sharpen their spitefull objections against themselves as Presbyters As then this solemn and holy Ordination of Ministers by Bishops herein England by prayer fasting and imposition of hands 7. Bishops in England ordeining Presbyters did but their duty according to law was Antient and Catholick no way against Reason or Scripture yea most conform to both in order to Gods glory and the Churches welfare which I have already demonstrated So I am sure in so doing Bishops did no more than what their place office and duty required of them here in England according to the Laws established both in Church and State which had the consent of the whole Church and Nation both Presbyters and people as well as Prince and Peers No wise man may blame that act Aequum est 〈◊〉 quâ—m feceris susserisve legem feras Reg. Jur. or exercise of government and authority in an other which he was invested with did enjoy and acted in by publick consent declared in the Laws wherein each mans particular will is comprehended nor may that be sayd to be a private fault which is done in obedience to a publick Law Bishops then duly ordeyning Ministers in the Church of England had the approbation of this Church and State no less than of all Antiquity and of all the Modern forein Churches even those that have not Bishops who yet ever commended and applauded that Venerable Order here in England As for Scripture which some pretend against Bishops and for other wayes I never read any place commanding any one or two or more Presbyters to ordein or govern in any Church without a Bishop Nor do I find any place forbidding a Bishop to ordein and rule among and with the Presbyters According to that appointment of Timothy and Titus which is of all most clear for investing both Ordination and Church jurisdiction at that time eminently though perhaps not solely in one man and if that Constitution in the Churches of Ephesus and Crete carry not a Precept or binding exemplariness with it to after-times which Antiquity judged and followed Universally yet sure it redeems true Episcopacy sufficiently and all good Bishops in their right and moderate government of the Church especially in this point of Ordeining Ministers from being any way Antichristian to which we may be sure the blessed Apostle Paul would never have given any such countenance or patern as that Jurisdiction and power given to Timothy and Titus must needs be Nor are indeed the reproaches of popish and Antichristian added by vulgar ignorance or envy to Episcopacy any other than devillish false and detestable Calumnies invented by wicked men to the reproach and blasphemy not only of so many holy and worthy Bishops in all ages and Churches as well as in England but
the Lord to the Church and set apart or Consecrated by the Church to the Lords speciall service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13. to serve the Lord and the Church in holy publick ministrations as the Apostles first did into whose order Mathias was by Lot chosen to supply the place of Judas Iscariot Acts 1. To which end Ministers in an holy Succession have ever been placed over the people in the name of Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit yet Good Ministers disdain not to be reckoned among Gods People as children of the same Spirituall Father and brethren in the same Family or houshold of Faith nor will any humble Christians being not in holy orders affect to be called Clergy men by a confusion of language or disdain to be called Gods commons or Lay-men which hath a sober Christian and charitable sense in the dialect of those Christians who know how to call and account their true Bishops and Ministers as Fathers Instructers Overseers and Guides of the Church c. These names then or distinctive titles do but fairly follow according to the use and nature of words and decently express those things which the mind of Christ in the Scripture and all Custom or use of the Church have distinguished for order sake De verbis contendere non est curare quomodo error veritate vincatur sed quomodo tua dictio alterius dictioni praeferatur Aust de doct Christ l. 4. c. 28. Quid est conteâ—tiosius quam ubi constâ—t dâ—re certare de nomine â—ust cp 1. 74. De verbis syllabis intemperantius litigare solent qui res ipsas Ecclesia pâ—cem negligunt Sub 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 umbra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suam occultâ—re dissimulare student quod et Arrianorum pertinaâ— astutiâ— olim fecit Amb. lib. de fide Jeron de Arrian Hyp. Insignis est indolis in verbis verum amare non verba Aust Sic vigeat humilitas ut non minuatur Autoritas Aust 1 Cor. 12.23 Error est bonestuâ— magnos in loquendo duces sequi Quintil. Orat. Inst l. 1. c. 6. The same supercriticall men will boggle at the words Trinity Three Persons and Sacraments which are not in the letter but in the sense and truth of the Scripture And certainly no religion forbids us to adopt convenient and compendious words to the Churches use since we do safely translate the whole originall Scriptures to any ordinary languages in which most Christians may best use them not in the literall words but in the Intellectuall sense or mind of God A strife about words and syllabicall scruples fits only women or children or peevish passionate men As the Arrians of old who caviled much at the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose syllables were new but their sense old orthodox and sound expressing the same divine Nature in Christ the Son with the Father and that our Emanuel who was born of the virgin Mary was both God and Man But this quarrel about names and words is a very tedious impertinency to those Christians whose serious piety studies only this by apt and usuall words to comprehend and express the truths and orders of Religion who are ready alwayes so to give to each other the right hand of Charity and Unity as members of the same body whose head is Christ as yet to preserve that order and authority in the Church which is divinely Instituted and is as necessary for the Church as it is for the body to have head eyes and mouth distinct from other parts of less honour yet not less usefull in their place As for this pretended grievance then of these words Clergy and Laity We desire not to quarrell farther with our Adversaries and we shall not need to dispute with others that are wise and humble only we pitty the simplicity of people who are thus easily cheated and scared by some sophistry when they are told by their great scrupulosity and censorian gravity that words are as bad as Spels that what ever tearms or Names are not in the Scriptures as they have them translated are not the speech of Canaan but the language of the beast Thus these severe Momusses Thus the Antiministeriall factors for error ignorance and confusion These are among the other small artifices used by those miserable Rabbyes who to ingratiate with the vulgar and lead dâ—sciples after them are content to take away the antient marks of bounds and known distinction of names between Minister and People that so people may take the greater confidence to cast quite away both the name and thing the holy Ordination with all distinction of Office and Function Ministeriall in the Church which if I can solidly maintain against these underminers of Religion despisers of Ordination and vastators of all true ministry I doubt not but I and others may still use these Names of Clergy and Laity without sin or scandall to any sober and good Christians To the main therefore of the Objection which is made against the vertue and efficacy of Ordination 16 Prophane minds prone to cavil at all holy mysteries aswel as the Ordination of Ministers 2 Pet. 3.4 by the Catholick and Antient way of Bishops and Presbyters which they so slight I answer That at the same rate of prophane and Atheisticall reasonings they may as well dispute as Julian would have done and those Scoffers daily do which are foretold should be in the later dayes What vertue is there in the water of Baptism more than any other by which to regenerate a sinner to wash away sins to seal comforts to confer grace to represent the blood of Christ of which a man may meditate every time he sees any water or washeth his hands Hence the mean esteem and contempt indeed with proud and presumptuous Catabaptists have against that holy Mysterie of Baptism which all Churches in all ages have used with reverence and comfort according to Christs Institution and the Apostolicall custome So also the spirituall pride of those prophane Cavillers will argue what efficacy can there be in the Bread and Wine at the Lords Supper more than in other of the same Elements at our ordinary Tables and in every Tavern What doth the form of Consecration by the words of Christ and prayers add to them or alter them Nay since the blasphemous boldness of proud and wicked men will count nothing of outward form sacred no wonder if by the same contradictive spirit they quarrel at not only the Humanity or flesh but also the Majesty and divinity of our Saviour Jesus Christ and seeing the outward meanness poverty and ingloriousness of his life and death many of them scarce own him for a Saviour or for the true Messias And no further than is agreeable to their Seraphick fancies Against whom Irenaus d sputes by which they labour after the like fondness of some in antient times to
dignitatem Amb. de dign Sacerd. c. 5. prayer and imposition of hands wherein the Spirit of the ordeiners and the Christians present with the ordeined joyn together in his behalf to God is a very great and effectuall means to indue the ordeined in some sense with an other Spirit not only as to power but as to the increase of ministeriall gifts which fit him to receive and use that authority yea and for the strengthning exciting and enlarging those sanctifying graces by which he is more fitted for and prospered in the work of the Ministry than he was before or any other can ordinarily be without this due Ordination whereby his wisdom humility charity zeal devotion industry purity exactness and constancy are increased so as are most requisite for the great work and office of a Minister 4. It binds the conscience of the ordeined more strictly to the duty and office as to discharge it so to endeavour by all holy means of study prayer conference meditation c. to preserve use and augment those gifts faculties or graces naturall acquired or infused for the right discharge and fulfilling of his Ministry to the glory of God and the Churches welfare D. Origine dicunt eum sine vocatione se ingessisse in efficium docendi inde factum est quod in tot errores prolapsus sit Chem. de Ecclesia Res Dei ab bomine dari non possunt Synod Rom. both in true peace and holiness Hence the great learning of Origen and admired gifts were thought by some less prospered and blessed of God because he presumed to do the work of a Minister before he was blessed ordeined and authorised by the Church 5. Due Ordination gives comfort countenance Quomodo valebit secularis homo sacerdotis ministerium adimplere cujus nec officium tenuit nec disciplinam agnovit Is Hisp off l. 2. c. 3. Qui infideliter introivit quid ni infideliter agat Bern. Tit. 2.15 Acts 4.20 John 10.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Niss de Scop. Christia Aug. Ep. ad Honorarum 2 Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 19 Origen Preached before he was ordeined Presbyter before Alexa Bishop of Jerusalem and Theod. Bishop of Cesaria for which Demet. Bishop of Alexand reproves them But they excuse it as a custom there for probation of such as they found Idoneous for their learning and gifts As common placing is in Colleges and divine courage to true Ministers as the anointing did to the Prophets of old and the solemn mission of Christ did to the holy Apostles to Preach not as popular Scribes and precarious Pharisies but as St. John the Divine having authority from Christ whose Ministry like John Baptists is not from men on earth however transmitted by men but from God in Heaven In this confidence they can rebuke with all authority With this conscience they cannot but speak in the name of the Lord They do not fear the face of men or devils in Christs way They forsake not as hirelings the flock when the Wolf comes as having no relation or tye to the flock which is not committed to those self intruders but usurped by force or invaded by stealth True Pastors in time of generall not personall persecution dare not leave their flock destitute but choose to be examples to them of suffering cheerfully for Christ expecting Christs promise and assistance in his way The righteous Minister is as bold as a Lion for he that walks uprightly in the Spirit and power and way of Christ walks seemly But all usurpers are cowards and are ready to insinuate and crouch to all wayes of mean and vulgar complyances giving the Belfry leave to swallow up the Church and Chancel too Falsely and vilely flattering the people as if ministeriall power were in them and from them And this some do purely for filthy lucre where there is a miserable dependance for maintenance upon peoples good will and chiefly to prevent any question or scrutiny which may be made by some nimbler sophisters touching their precatious usurped and beggarly authority as Ministers which is truly none This keeps them justly so in aw that those popular Preachers dare not use that just rigor and severity in cases of most apparent crying sins in people which a true Minister having good conscience and good authority knows how seasonably and discreetly yet freely and effectually to use not to his own pomp Empire or advantage but to Christs glory the Churches good and the honour of Religion though it be to his own detriment and danger as St. Chrys stom St. Basil Naz. and other holy Bishops and Presbyters oft did 6. Right Ordination preserves Order and Decorum in the Church and holy administrations also it fortifies the function of a Minister with due respect and decent regard even before men so that neither the persons nor function and office of Ministers are easily to be despised when publike Ordination is duly performed with that solemnity and holy manner as was of old in this and all true Churches and which ought to be so still It likewise conciliates in Christs name and for his sake much love reverence esteem patience and obedience toward Ministers in their places and duty from all true Christians yea and it raiseth a just veneration to duties Mat. 10.40 thus rightly celebrated among the faithfull by those of whom Christ says He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me Constantine the Great alwaies treated the Bishops and true Ministers of the Church with all observance and pious respect Euseb â—iâ—a Câ—â—sl l. 1. c. 35. Mat. 10.14 2 Tim. 4.3 This makes them received in the name of Prophets as Apostles or Angels sent from God valued by true Christians as their right eyes This makes Christ sensible of their inâ—uries as his and the very dust of their feet becomes a dreadfull witness against wicked and proud rejecters of them who thinking them to be Ministers but of courtesy or civility cannot regard them with conscience and duty But imagine that they may at the pleasure of any passion lust or secuâ—ar design be mocked despised degraded cast off and quite abolished That so their liberty may prefer a heap of teachers of their own raking and making before any of Christs sending and the Churches ordeining Such being most fit for their sinister ends who come in the peoples name and have no higher or nobler Spirit acting all things in their Levelled Ministry by the same irreverent irregular inconstant rude insolent and uncomly Spirit of popularity which is most prevalent in those that are most enemies to and afraid of the true ministeriall power and due ordination Cujus ordinatio despicitur ejus praedicatio contemnitur Ber. Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 creations of the people when men list are easily rejected cast off with scorn yet without any sin and shame yea they cannot be regarded or
Christ who is already come to judgement with whom his Saints are now risen and dayly rising seeing him not as in a glasse of means darkly but by immediate Visions glorious Manifestations speciall Inspirations plenary Inhabitations thus fitting on Thrones and Reigning with Christ in his Kingdom Whom would not these Trumpets awake and these alarms call forth if we were not forewarned by Christ and if we had not seen such follies formerly acted and manifested to all the Christian world and sufficiently confuted in all ages which never amounted to more than Religious Tragedies Gâ—miâ—a deformitas at nocumentum tragicum miserorum religiosa delicta for when the masks of personated Prophets and necessâ—tous Saints and hungry Enthusiasts and idle Seraphicks were taken off which they put on either by the power or presumptions they had among the Vulgar presently there appeared the horns of the Beast in pride ambition luxury polygamy cruelty Cyp. Ep. 2. Sleidan Com. l. 4. tyranny confusion That those who seemed to have come down from heaven in the shews of the Spirit and pretentions of Sanctity were but Satans lightnings falling down from heaven and his most abominable eructations out of the bottomelesse pit If we other poor Christians who still remain on the other side of this Jordan which those Spiritosoes pretend to have passed if wee who creep on the ground as worms and no men who have dayly cause to abhor our selves in dust and ashes who are forced dayly to strengthen our faith to renew our repentance to poure forth our souls oft in sighs tears prayers with broken hearts and contrite spirits contending with corruptions wresting with temptations having enough to doe to fortifie our selves with the compleat armour of Gods Word in Precepts and Promises and of his Spirit in gracious habits excitations to and assistances in duties 2 Pet. 1.10 Thus giving all diligence to make our calling and election sure not counting our selves to have comprehended but pressing on to the mark of the price of the high calling in Christ Jesus Glorying in nothing but in the crosse of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.14 Gal. 6.14 by which we are crucified to the honours riches policies successes flatteries and glories of this inglorious world yea to the Liberties Religions Devotions Sanctities new Churches new Reformations and new Ministers of this world who forsaking the wayes of Christ and the holy Apostles and the ancient Churches and the true succession of Ministers and all Power have turned grace into wantonnesse liberty into licentiousnesse godlinesse into gain and very much embraced the present world falling down before Mammon and worshipping the false gods of this world If we who when we have suffered much and done something in our endeavours and purposes of holinesse yet find cause to cry out Wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death Rom. 7.24 if we could indeed believe or find by experience that the exaltations and Raptures of these new pretenders to the Spirit were more comfortable than the bufferings of those good old Christians That their triumphs in the world were beyond the others sufferings from the world that there were more of Christ in their new Crowns of glory which they boast of than in the others Crosses which they patiently bare If we could discern a more self-denying Spirit a more Christ-enjoying Sanctity That they were Saints that is Not crucifiers of the world but crucified to the world If we could see the wounds of Christ in these glorious apparitions these Christ-like phantasms as Antony the Hermite required Non credam esse Christum nisi vulnera videam crucifixi in vita Anâ— when Satan appeared to him like Christ in glory If that Purity Chastity Justice Honesty Contentednesse Patience Charity Meeknesse Humility Peaceablenesse Fidelity Constancy and Orderlinesse shined in them wherein those holy men and women of old the Professors Confessors and Martyrs not getting but loosing Saints imitated the holy Lord Jesus and the most holy God according to the lively characters of true holinesse set down in the Scriptures If we saw such fruits of reall holinesse in their words pens and actions in their Doctrines and duties in their self-denials and Mortifications in their meetings and Fraternities in their Church Orders and Ministrations as might convince us that these pretenders to the Spirit and despisers of the Ministers have indeed more oâ— that light life and power of the holy Spirit of God than either true Christians or godly Ministers formerly had or now have in this or any other true Church of Christ How should we envy their blessednesse with an holy emulation How should we as Saint John to the Angell whom it may be he took for Jesus Christ be even ready to fall at their feet Revel 19 10. to kisse their footsteps to attend their directions to imitate their examples to partake of their raptures to pry into their third heavens to rise ascend reign and triumph to enjoy the holy Spirit and Christ and God with them to all which they in word and fancy pretend 7. Fallacies in this kind frequent among Enthusiasts But the triple Crown of meer titular and verball holinesse which is but copper gilded over moves us not further than to pity the sinner and to scorn the pride The Gnosticks Montanists Catharists of old the later rude and cruell phanaticks in Germany cryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy holy holy to their parties and factions As if there were holy ambitions holy seditions holy covetousnesses holy sacriâ—edges holy obscenities holy cruelties holy confusions in the conversations of true Christians and spirituall men Or holy ignorances holy errours holy darknesses holy heresies holy schisms holy hypocrisies in their hearts and spirits As if no duties no Scriptures no Sacraments no Ministry or Ministers no Government or Governours of the Church were heretofore holy which were primitively and universally and constantly owned and observed in the Church of Christ as derived from him As if private fancies and solitary dreams and single imaginations of weak and silly men or women were now holyer or had more in them of the Spirit than the publique Oracles of the sure Word of God which the Catholick Church hath received from God by the hands of holy men and by a constant succession of an holy Ministry hath delivered to us with constancy and fidelity as to the main however particular branches or members of this Church may have failed and withered If these Antiministeriall Novellists have nothing whereby to set off their pretended gifts of the Spirit and singular holinesse but only novelty fancy and uncertain Inspirations nothing to cry down all former holy ways of the Church but this that they are conform to all Antiquity and Scripture regulations The least beam of whose glorious light alwayes either equalls or far exceeds their new either superfluous or dubious illuminations Truly they must give all learned and godly Ministers together
are to take Christ with swords and staves O how fain would some men that the Sun were set that their glowormes might shine that the light of the house were extinguished In subversione fidei nullum ab ignorantia remedium est Saresb. that so their sparkes might appear which they have kindled to themselves in their shining corners and upon their private hearths Truly this calumny against good learning hath as much surprized me and my brethren the Ministers of this Church as the accusation of Fimbria did question Scaevola Quaerentibus quidâ—in Scaevola sam vulnerato essâ—t accusaturus respondit quâ—d totum corpore ferrum non receperat Tul. orat pro Sex Ros Vero deficiente crimine laudem ipsam in vituperium vertit invidia Tul. Act. 18 24. 28. Act. 26.24 who was impleaded by the other for not receiving that poynard deeper into his brest wherewith hee stabbed him and intended to have dispatched him The learned and godly Ministers in England never thought this would be laid to their charge as a fault the want of which had been a foul shame and a just reproach to them As the enjoyment of it was a great honour and advantage both to them and to the Reformed Religion They little suspected that among Christians Apollos should be forced to excuse his eloquent and potent demonstrations or S. Paul his sober and sanctified learning in which hee excelled worthy of that famous City and University Tarsus of which he had the honour to be free and pleaded it as a priviledge Act. 21.39 Which learning made him not so mad as those were who suspected and accused him that much learning had made him mad And if humane learning be such old clouts and rotten rags as these men of most beggerly elements pretend and wee confesse it is so compared to and destitute of those soul-saving Truths which are divinely revealed yet there may be good use of them Ier. 38.11 if it be but to help the Jeremies the Prophets and Ministers of the Lord out of those dungeons and mire where otherwayes their enemies would have them ever to be lodged both sordidly and shamefully and obscurely Nothing O you excellent Christians is lesse necessary than to paint this Sun or polish this pearl to set forth to you the use and necessity of good learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just in dâ—cuâ— Tryph. of the benefit and blessing whereof in this Church your selves are so much partakers and whereof you are so great esteemers and encouragers And nothing shews good learning more necessary to the Church and true Religion both as Christian and reformed than this That the Divel by vain and fallacious instruments often hath and still seeks to deprive them of that weapon and defense which he hath used with great strength and cunning for his chiefest arms both offensive against the truths of religion and defensive for his own most damnable doctrines and delusions What havock would he soon make of sound doctrine Cresâ—onius the heretick oft complained that Saint Austin was too full of his Logick and Syllogisms when he could not answer his reasons In the Emperour Charls 5. time 1524. as in former ages he endevoured by those learned and subtill Sophisters his instruments and emissaries on every side if there were none on the Truths side able to encounter him and his agitators in that post of learning No wonder if the Woolf would have the Flock without Mastives or these without teeth it were much for his little for the flocks ease and advantage Although the Divel an old accuser must needs be a cunning Orator too and be furnished with all the swasive arts of insinuation which he fits to the severall geniusses of men and times yet he never till of late in Germany and now in England had confidence to make use of this place of Oratory to perswade Christians to burn all other Bookes that they might better study and understand the Bible yea and the Bible too that they might better understand the minde of God Which is all one as if the Israelites should have beene perswaded to have rid themselves of the cumber of their swords spears and shields that so they might better defend themselves or that they should have neither file nor grindstone to sharpen the naturall bluntnesse 1 Sam. 13. or clear the rustinesse of their weapons while yet the Philistims were all well armed and dayly preparing to battell Against whom there was no such warrant of a speciall divine protection as to make the people of God presume to neglect the use of those armes which art had prepared and use had taught how to imply We see that Jonathans heroick motion carries him not upon that successefull and great adventure without his sword and armour-bearer 1 Sam. 14.13 Nor did Davids confidence in Gods protection of which he had former experiences when he was without any arms against the Lion and Bears nor yet the assurance he had 1 Sam. 17. of the goodnesse of his cause or of the pride and profanenesse of his enemy none of these made him neglect to take and use such armes 2 Sam. 5.6 2 Pet. 3. as he thought most convenient The blinde and the lame men of feeble and confused spirits unlearned and unstable minds which are hated of Davids soule are ill assistants in Davids wars against the Jebusites who study to defend against him or to surprise from him the City of David or rather the City of God which is the Metropolis where grace and truth doe dwell It is certain that next to the primitive gifts of miracles 2. Humane learning succeeded miraculous and extraordinary gifts the gifts of humane learning have stood the Church of Christ in most stead For ever since the Apostles and Ministers of Christ assisted with extraordinary endowments of the Spirit had by the foolishnesse of preaching as by Davids improbable weapons against Goliahs compleat armature vanquished that old Idolatrous power * Nec miraculaâ— illa in nostra tempora durare permissa sunt ne animus semper visibilia quareret eorum consuetudine frigesceret quorum novitate flagravit Aust de ver Rel. c. 15. of heathenisme which prevailed in the world and was long upheld by shews of learning eloquence and in that way vaine philosophy The Church of Christ hath ever since the cessation of those Miraculous gifts which attended onely the first conquests made use of that very sword of that prostrated Gyant good learning both to dispatch him and to defend it self finding that both in humane and divine encounters there is none like to that if managed by a proportionate arm and strength Quantum ratio dat homini tantum lit eratura rationi religio literaturae religioni gratia Casaub Quantum a bestas dâ—stamus eo magis ad Deum appropinquaâ—â— Sen. For hereby the mind and all intellectuall faculties of mens souls which are the noblest and divinest
indifferency in the Angels of the Churches of Pergamus and Thyatira tolerating any thing and condemning nothing the one suffering those that held the doctrine of Balaam and the impure Nicolaitans who taught all libidinous impudicities to be free for Christians the other for tolerating Jezebel under the colour of a Prophetesse to seduce the servants of God The Apostle Paul commands some mens mouths should be stopped Tit. 1.11 Gal. 5.12 1 Tim. 2.20 who speak perverse things in the Church wisheth those cut off that troubled them He gives over to Satan Hymenaeus and Philetus that they might learn not to blaspheme Gal. 1.8 Denounceth a grievous curse or Anathema to any that should presume to teach any other Doctrine than the Gospell that form of sound words once delivered to the Church which is according to godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 1 Cor. 4.2 He tels us that there is not onely a word but a rod or power of coercion left to the Church and its lawfull Pastors or Ministers for the edification not for the destruction of the Church And however this power Ecclesiasticall which is from God Magistratick and Ministeriall power when united as that other Magistratick be wholly severed and divided in their courses while the Civill Magistrate is unchristian yet when he embraceth the profession of Christianity these two branches of power which flowed severall ways yet from the same fountaine God doe so farre meet again and unite their amicable streams 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Magistratick and Ministeriall Civill and Church power as not to * As those of old that thought Herod to be the Mâ—ssias Terâ—de pras ad Haâ—c 5. confound each other nor yet to crosse and stop one the other but rather to increase strengthen and preserve mutually each other while the Minister of Christ directs the Magistrate and the Christian * As Eusebius tels in Constantine the Greats time who joined with the Bishops and Ministers of the Church in good government Magistrate protects the Minister both of them with a single eye regarding that great end for which God in his love to mankinde and to his Church hath established both these powers in Christian Churches and Societies That neither the bodies nor the soules of Christians should want that good which God hath offered them in Christ nor suffer those injuries in society for the prevention or remedy of which both Magistracy and Ministry are the Ordinances of God for enjoying the benefit of both which blessings as every Christian hath a sociall capacity so every lawfull Magistrate and Minister hath according to their places and proportions a publique duty and authority upon them to see justice and holinesse truth and peace civill sanctions and divine institutions purely and rightly dispensed to inferiours for whose good they aâ—e of God ordained 11. In what case onely toleration of any thing in Religion were lawfull If there were indeed no rule of the written Word of God which Christians owned as the setled foundation of Faith the sure measure of doctrine and guide of good manners in religion both publiquely and privately or if there were no credible Tradition delivered by word of mouth and parents examples which men might imitate for the way of Religion revealed to them by God which was the way before the flood but every one were to expect dayly either new inspirations or to follow the dictates of his own private fancy and reason Nothing then would be more irreligious then to deny all freedom publique as well as private nothing more just than to tolerate any thing of opinion and speculation which any one counted his religion yet even in that liberty of walking and wandering in the dark when no Sun of certain Revelation divine had shined on mankinde Rom. 1.32.2 14. the very light of Nature taught men as among Heathens that some things in point of practise are never tolerable in any humane society But since the wisdome and mercy of God hath given to mankinde which the Church alwayes injoyes the light of his holy Word and a constant order of Ministry to teach from it the wayes of God in truth peace and holinesse not onely every Christian is bound to use all religious means which God hath granted to settle his own judgement and live accordingly in his private sphear without any Scepticall itch or lust of disputing alwayes in Religion But both Magistrate and Minister whose severall duties are set forth and different powers ordained over others in Scripture for a sociall and publique good must take care to attain that good of a setled Religion and preserve it in always of verity equity and charity which may all well consist with the exercise of due authority Nor is it any stinting or restraining of the Spirit of God in any private Christian to keep his Spirit within the bounds of the Word of God Deut. 29.29 wherein the things revealed belong to us and our children Nor is it any restraint to the Spirit of God in the Scripture to keep our opinions and judgements and practises within the bounds of that holy faith and good order which is most clearly set forth in the câ—ncurrent sense of the Scriptures and explained by the Confessions of Faith and practise of holy Discipline which the Creeds and Councels and customes of the Catholick Church hold forth to them Nor is it any limiting or binding up of the Spirit of God in private men for the Christian Magistrate and Minister to use all publique means both for the information conviction and conversion of those under their charge as to the inward man and also of due restraint and coercion as to the outward expressions in which they stand related to a publique and common good But if the negligence of Governours in Church and State 12. What a Christian must doe in dissolute times should at any time so connive and tolerate out of policy or fear or other base passion if through the brokennesse and difficulties of times the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for Magistrates and good Ministers so as the vulgar fury corrupted by factious and unruly spirits are impatient of just restraits but carry on all things against Laws and wiser mens desires to a licentious Anarchy and all confusions in the outward face and publique Ministrations of Religion yet must no good Christian think this any dispensation for any private errours in his judgment or practise In maxima rerum licentia minima esse debet veri Christiani libertas Gib Lex sibi severissima est pura conscientia dei amor Ber. he must be the more circumspect and exact in his station and duty as a Christian when the publique course runs most to confusion tolerating least in his own conscience when most is tolerated by others The love of God and Christ and of the truth of Religion and the respect and reverence borne the order of the Ministry and to the Churches
honour and peace these must be to every good Christian the constant Law and severest discipline Teaching him to governe himself most strictly when others affect most a misgovernment or none at all in Religion to act nothing immorally rudely and exorbitantly to discharge all his relations and duties with the more exactnesse to bear with patience yet with sorrow the want of that publique good which he desires No way to hinder the restoring of due order and authority to the Church and honour to Religion to pray for counsell and assist the recovery of it according to the Scripture rules right reason and the custome of the best times And however the vain and mad world goes on wildly and giddily as an unâ—amed heifer enduring no yoke of Religion as to any publique order Government Discipline or Ministry yet must not a serious and well advised Christian delay to guide his feet in the ways of truth and holinesse nor neglect to work out his salvation in Gods way till publique distractions are composed or delay to be good till all turbulent and fanatick spirits returne to their wits or till ancient publique order and Government in the Church be so setled and Religion so fortified by civill sanctions as it ought to be for no man knowes how long the Apostle Paul may be in a storm or the Church tossed with schisms and factions and secular interests before it recover the haven of a happy setlednesse True Ministers and true piety most to be regarded in licentious times Therefore a Christian that makes it his work not to prate and dispute and to play a part or to gain by the name of Reformation and Religion but to beleive stedfastly and obey constantly that holy rule hath never more cause to prize and adhere to the true Ministry and Ministers of Christ than when he sees the greatest persecutions lying on the Church either by violence or toleration by open force or fraudulent liberty which are both the Tivels Engines to batter or undermine the Church of Christ Never should holy dispensations be more earnestly desired and diligently attended from the hands of those Ministers in whom only is the right power authority and succession than when nothing is lesse tolerated among various and violent men than a true Bishop and Minister or a right ordained Ministry which of all things is to the divell and evill men the most intolerable Satan well knowes Matth. 24 15. that if he destroy the Shepheards the sheep will be scattered When good Christians see the abomination of desolation set up profanely tolerating any thing for Religion allowing of any Mimicks for true Ministers vulgar adoring of a rotten Idol of licentiousnesse gilded over with the name of Liberty when silencing true Ministers and suppressâ—ng good learning and crying up illiterate impudence shall be thought a means to propagate the Gospell Then let then that are seriously and soberly godly fly to the Mounteines to the true Ministers of the Church from whom God hath appointed salvation to descend to the beleeving souls Nor are they to regard what every bold and ignorant upstart boasteth and feigneth of Inspirations liberties and blessed toleration obtruding himselfe out of the promptnesse and pride of his own heart upon the credulous and silly vulgar who love to be flattered to their ruine and deceived to their destruction but hate to be truly guided and faithfully governed to their safety For all these pretenses of Liberty Toleration Inspirations c. are manifest to be but as the divels silken halters by which he hopes to strangle the Christian and reformed Religion here and elsewhere it may be seemingly and with more gentlenesse but not with lesse malice and cruelty to mens soules than with those rougher hempen cords of open persecution Propè abest à crudelitate nimia indulgentia à persecutione enormis tolerantia in tantum periculosa quantum dissoluta Melan From which such sad toleration and rude Liberties are not very far being but new expressions of Anarchy and colours of portending confusion or utter dissolutions of all Church order peace and Government into a cruell licentiousnesse which is always tyrannous to true Religion Nothing is more burdensome than some mens levities nor more fulsome and deformed than their Reformations nothing more uncharitable and untractable than their liberties nor more a plague and death to Religion than what they call health and recovery when vulgar or fanatick violence binds so much the staffe of discipline till it breaks heady men surfeit the flock by over-driving it and Wolves in sheeps cloathing scatter and tear the sheep of Christ under pretence of letting them goe whither they list in stead of being true shepheards fetching them home and feeding them in due bounds with good pasture in which wholsome and safe bounds both Christian Magistrates Sic vigilet tolerantia ut non dormiat disciplina Aust l. 17. de verb. Ap. and true Ministers should seek to feed the flock of Christ not as bare spectators of their wanderings and errours but as enabled and intrusted by God with a coercive power from Christ for the Churches good and where the Magistrate is negligent there the Minister should be the more diligent in the place where Christ hath set him who is the great Shepheard of our souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd Libera me a malo hoc est a me ipso Ber. beyond whose holy bounds for any Christians to affect any Liberty is to wear the divels livery while they are in Christs service Few men complain of want of freedome but they whose freedome would be their own and other mens greatest bondage Nothing is lesse desirable to a good Christian than to be left to himselfe for men are then neerest to be undone when they may doe what they list and least in safety when they are their own keepers MY next Calumniating Adversary The 6 Cavill Against the maintenance of the Ministry as setled by Law against the Ministry of England which I have to deal with and detect is possessed with a thirsty and covetous Spirit which would fain have Liberty if not to speak and act what he list in Religion without any restraint of Magistrate or Minister yet at least to pay what he list to any Minister since he is free to hear whom and when he list or none at all he would not be tyed by any law to pay any thing to their support although it be due to them and a right which none else might challenge He likes not that setled maintenance which they challenge as due This subtill and frugall churl of a Christian is a Jesuitick terrien hath many wary fetches and windings against the Ministers of the Gospell in the reformed Churches but none beyond this plot that he hopes ere long to be too hard or too cunning for them here in England while under some specious and politick pretention he shall deprive them of all setled
down the Camels of rapine and Sacriledge they stumble at the straws of Tithes and leap over the beames of cruelty and unjustice Tithes due by a civill right of Donation anâ— Law cannot justly be taken away See Sir Edward Coke on Lit. Ten. l. 1. c. 9. Sect. 73. An. 850. King Ethel wulp with the Prelates and Princes in severall Provinces of all England gratuito consensu of their free will endowed the Church with the tithes of lands goods and chattels cum decimis terrarum benorum aliorum sive catallorum universam dotavit Ecclesiam per suum Regium Chirographum Ingulph Qui augere voluerit nostram donationem augeat omnipotens Deus dies ejus prosperos Si quis verò mutare vel deminuere praesumpserit noscaise ad Tribunal Christi redditurum rationem nisi prius satisfactione emnedaverit In lib. Abingd Quod divini juris est id nullius in bonis est Iust In stit l. 2 tit 1. Prov. 20.25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vowes to make enquiry For if God had no right to require or there were no word commanding the Tenths to be devoted to his service who is Lord and donor of all or if he had never assigned this right since himself needs nothing to his servants the Ministers under the Gospell as he did most clearly under the Law yet sure the Proprietors which were Princes or Peers or people of this land our pious progenitors had a civill right to the land and the fruits thereof which no Law of God ever forbad them to dedicate as they had a mind to the service of God or any portion of it as they pleased to the maintenance of the Ministery of the Gospell Nay they as all men were incouraged yea and commanded to honour God with their substance Prov. 3.9 This they have often done by the full and frequently renewed consent of all Estates in this Nation for many hundred of years past establishing by curses or Anathemas and by civill laws the dedication of those Tithes which are Feudum Dei Gods fee and his Ministers chiefest maintenance So that if these Antidecimists cannot think them sufficiently proved to be Gods immediate gift to his Ministers yet they may easily see it is mans gift to God that is for the maintaining of his publique service and Ministry of the Church whereof the donation cannot but be both in Reason and Religion very lawfull and so the enjoyment of them at least in that tenure very just since it was done by the right owners to a very right and good end Nor doe I see how the alienation of them from that holy use can be lawfull now by the will of any men since the title and propriety is now in God though the use of the fruit be in in the Ministers of God as his Feodataries and tenants or homagers 2. Not honorably or piously And if there could be a lawfull resumption by posterity or an abrogation of the will of this Nation in what it hath thus dedicated and given to God if this could be done without a crying sin of sacriledge yet doubtlesse the piety and honor of this Nation is still such in all worthy mention that it would never be done by a free Parliamentary and publique vote * Nemo potest mutare consiliâ—n suum in alterius praejudicjum Reg. Iuis since if all humanity and honour forbids any man to resume the gifts of charity which hee hath once given to poore men whereto they have both mans and Gods right as freely given to them for Gods sake by the lawfull owners much more doth all piety and religion forbid any men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take away Eusebius tels that before the ruine of Ierusalem so impudent and violent were wicked men that they took away the Tithes and benefit of the Altar from the Priests so as many died for want Hist Eccles l 2. c. 20. or subduce by force or fraud as Ananias and Saphira did any thing that is once by themselves or others dedicated to God especially in such a way of service which he requires in his Word That is for the maintenance of that order government and Ministry of holy things which the Lord hath appointed in his Church Which cannot be done without necessary subsidies of life for Ministers as men And since a power of demanding and receiving maintenance is in the true Ministers of the Gospell in Christs name as the Apostle Paul proves no doubt there is no lesse power in Christian people of giving them or rather paying them as * Act. 53. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to ly to the Holy Ghost and to keep back or defraud and purloin part of the price of the land * 1 Cor. 9 6 7 8 c. Gal. 6 6. a due debt both in divine and humane equity either in occasionall and moveable maintenance or fixed and perpetuall The first was the way of Ministers and Bishops alimony in the primitive unsetled and persecuting times Ne invidia Clericis obveniat de possâ—ssionibus Ecclesia obtulit plebi B. Augustinus malle se ex collationibus vivere ut antiqui Sed id Laici suscipere noluerunt Poss vit Aust when Christians could not expect to be long masters of their own estates in lands nor could they endow any Minister or Church with any part of them to perpetuity yet then in those hard and perilous times we read in Ecclesiasticall stories that the liberall gifts and free will offerings of all manner of good things from the devout Laity to the the then most deserving Clergy amounted to more than the after setled means by way of Tithes Which way of maintenance was as anciently so generally setled in all Christians Churches after Constantines time 3. Nor wisely as well as in England The benefit of which as in all other things Am. Marcel lib. 27. De Damaso Ursicino pro sede Episcopali ad caedem sanguinem civium contendentibus Hanc enim inquit adepti suturi sunt ita secuâ—i ut direntur oblatienibus matronarum procedantque vehiculi circumspecte vestiti epulin â—â—rantes profusâ—s edeo ut eorum convivia regales superent mensai Primitias tem â—re regis Canuti contribuâ—bant Ecclesiae quam contributionem Semen Ecclesiae Church seed appellabant Fleta l. 1. c 37. St. Austin complains in his time Majores nostri ideo copiis omnibus abundabant quis deo Decimas dâ—bant Caesari censam reddebant Modo autem quia discesserit devotio dei accessit indictio fisci Nolumus partiri cum Deo decemas modo autem ictum tollitur Aust hom 48. thus given by beleevers to God as a grateful acknowledgment of his dominion over us and all we have of his bounty conferring all upon us of his mercy vouchsafing to accept from us any portion of that which is his own returnes indeed to the bosome of
be thus stripped and starved to gratifie the lusts of some men yet we hope for this mercy from God and favour from man that we shall not be forced to desert our calling or to contract a woe of not preaching the Gospell 1 Cor. 9.16 while we have abilities though we preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we have no publique incouragement For why should all our studies and time be made unprofitable It may be we shall by Gods help redeem our former defects by after diligence in the work of Christ we may happily work and war the better Verba vertas inopera nudam crucem nudus sequeres expeditior levior scandis scalam Jacobi Ieron Pauperesse non potest qui apud Deum dives est Lact. Inst l. 6. c. 12. when we are more expedite lighter armed and lesse incumbred with envy and worldly impediments We may I hope without presumption enjoy that liberty to preach the Gospel which others now take to prate against it and us and it may be people will hear and profit better when they see they have the Gospell at a cheaper rate and will be more in love with the reformed Religion when they shall see how much better penny-worth they have of that than of the Romish superstition which is more costly by farre yet lesse comfortable to a serious Christian Though we be made poore yet we may still make many rich though we have nothing yet we may enjoy all things though we are are troubled on every side 2 Cor. 6.10 yet we may not be distressed though perplexed yet not in despaire though persecuted by men yet not forsaken of God though cast down and cast out yet not destroyed through the grace of God which is sufficient for us Many worthy Ministers may justly plead for their liberties lives and livings as those did with Ishmael Ier. 41.8 Destroy us not for there are treasures of learning and saving knowledge with us But it is better for them to be Christs Lazarusses and beggars than the worlds rich gluttons and favorites Yet it must needs be so Revel 12 7. and so it will be unlesse some Michael and his Angels overcome this greedy Apollyon this sacrilegious Abaddon this penurious Divell and his Angels who prodigally offers Kingdomes to damne one soule but grudgeth one groat to redeem many thousands 18. Ministers just plea for their own neither covetous nor uncomely Nor will your noblenesse O excellent Christians interpret this which I have wrote in behalf of the maintenance of Ministers in this Church and Nation to be any pleading for Baal or clamouring like Demetrius and his complices in his panick feares for his silver shrines and his Diana where he considered more his gain than his Goddesse These are unjust and malicious glosses which the enemies both of the Ministry and of humanity * Act. 19.25 are prone to put upon any that plead nevâ—r so righteous a cause with words of the greatest truth justice sobernesse and moderation those having a stinking breath themselves think every mans unsavoury But by the leave of such latrant Orators and back-biters I must tell them what the wiser and more Christian world well knows that there is no cause why Ministers more than any other order of men should neglect in fair and just wayes to obtain for or preserve to themselves and their successours those worldly comforts and supports which the providence of God and the Christian munificence of this Nation hath in the most free way of gift and by Law granted to them in Gods name and for the service of Christ and the honour of Religion Other men are commended for their good husbandry and honest care to preserve their just estates which tend not so much to the publique good as the labours of Ministers doe who may not in prudence or conscience neglect those great and publique concernments of Christ and his Church with which they are intrusted Yea if they should have an eye to the reward to their own just right and particular interests which all other we see still have yet it were no more than Law and Reason all humanity and Christianity allow 1 Tim. 5 8. unlesse they would be worse than those Infidels that provide not for their own families or be as bad as those men who to provide for themselves and their families care not to rob and desolate even the Church and family of Christ Ministers may be wise yet innocent provident yet not sordid diligent in things honest yet not injurious to others Nor is it any whit uncomely for them to crave this justice or favour from any in power That they may quietly injoy those publique rewards of their learning and labours which are injurious to no man merited in the esteem of all honest men and therefore offensive to none but envious eyes and evill mindes Being the fruit of the publique bounty wisdome gratitude and devotion of this Christian Nation to God to Christ and his Ministers what they have a long time by law injoyed what they are rightly possessed of and what they have no way forfeited unlesse other mens calumnies and cavils their covetous projects and desires of novelty be the crime and fault of Ministers And lastly they doe intend with all peaceablenesse thankefulnesse and usefulnesse to use and enjoy if God and man permit so that no man shall have cause to repine at their enjoyments who knowes how to make use of their gifts and labours The shame of pleading this cause of Ministers maintenance lies at their dore who meditate speak and act so vile and dishonest things against them as force them thus to vindicate their just rights against unjust projects which seek by falshood and violence to take away not only the childrens but the fathers bread too and to give it to dogs who alwayes have sought to bring this reproach and scandall on this and other reformed Churches that they still carry on and serve some covetous and sacrilegious design with their reformations When God knowes it is not the design nor desire of any that are truly reformed Christians to robb the Church and Churchmen of one shoelatchet but rather to have added necessary augmentations to them if they had not alwayes been hindered by the covetousnesse and envy of some crosse faction who have longed to see the day when with Rabshakehs unclean spirit and foul language Isai 36.12 they might see all the reformed Clergy reduced to those sordid necessities which I have as much shame to write as these Antiministeriall sticklers have pleasure to wish it and glory to speak it Our comfort in the worst of times and things is 19. True Ministers comfort Multa quidem mala sed varia sclatia Sal. l. 9. That we know in whom we have trusted not in these Egyptian reeds which may faile us and pierce us but in the living God whom we have served though with many frailties yet with
sincerity and godly simplicity We beleive he will not fail us nor forsake us though men though Christians though reformers doe There is not a better sign of Gods love than to be persecuted for righteousnesse sake It is our honour Matth. 5. as St. Jerom wrote to St. Austin Heb. 12. that the divell and his fanatick factions do unanimously hate us and malign us for if they were for Christ they could not be against us And we finde by experience that these Antiministeriall agitators have no such displeasure against any men be they never so flagitious or their estates never so luxuriant as against the most orderly and deserving Ministers So that it is their piety and pains which afflicts their enemies more than their plenty And if they cannot strangle Christ in the Cradle yet they hope to starve him in the Desart Blessed be God we see the end and bounds of these mens power and malice They are finite flesh and not infinite Gods yea they are proud flesh lately risen up which God will eat off with fitting corrosives if ever he heals this Church and Nation These murmurers never set us on work nor doe we depend on such unjust masters for our wages Though they be not converted or gathered from their follies Isai 49.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cle. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. Dei particeps nulliâ—â— indigus factions and separations yet our reward shall be from the Lord who hath sent us and whom we have served with faithfull hearts as to our temporary subsistence we hope wee shall never depend on these mens injurious justice or câ—uel mercies much lesse on their envious alms and supercilious charity who are our enemies for the Gospels sake which we preach And although we should not be protected in point of our civill rights from their despight and rage yet as to the honour and vindication of our Ministry and holy function Gal. 2.5 we must not give place no not for an houre to their cavils and calumnies Yea we doe not despair but that we may find so much equity and pity in some mens hearts in whose hands is power that they will rather harken and incline to the just plea of those labourers in Christs harvest who have borne the heat and burthen of the day and who crave but liberty first to doe the work to which Christ and the Church hath ordained them and next which is but a just and righteous thing to enjoy that reward which the Law hath assigned them than to listen to the envious suggestions or injurious proposals of those novell intruders upon the Ministry who have yet given not the least assurance to the wiser world or any reformed Christians that they in any thing exceed or equall the true ancient Ministers of England nor have they yet by any demonstrations of modesty ingenuity sense of honour or of shame nor by any part of good learning which they decry and hate nor by any other usefull and commendable quality redeemed themselves from the most sordid passions and saddest distempers of humane nature nor yet reconciled themselves to any love and value of vertue worth and excellency in others We know well that their ignorances and errours are grosse in many things both divine and humane for how can they but erre excessively who are very active and for the most part both bold and blind Any piece of rustical ignorance clownish confidence serves some mens turn to oppose any Minister withall setting up their puppetly Teraphims their deformed Dagons their Images of jealousie in the place and temple of the living God Among their other errours this we hope is none of their least that they fancy and every where proclaim that they have so charmed with their philters and enchantments which are Confections made up of ignorance and malice pride and cruelty covetousnesse and uncharitablenesse together with a perfect disdain of all that is rationall learned or excellent that with these charms they have so possessed many or most of those in power That they are resolved to root out abase and destroy all those Ministers who are any way eminent in learning courage and constancy both for the honour of their function and of the reformed Religion and of this Church and Nation We cannot think those in power to be so easily perswaded to be enemies to themselves and the publique by being made enemies to true Ministers without a cause One of whose serious and solid abilities is able to doe more good to Church and State in one year than can be hoped from the whole fraternity and faction of those supercilious adversaries of the Ministry in as many ages as a year hath dayes For if wise men may guesse at the future by what they already finde of them they must conclude that like Fistulas and gangrened Vlcers the longer they prevail the more desperate and incurable they will be both to the Church and the State every day bringing us neerer either to old Rome or the elder Babylon to superstition or confusion For there is nothing almost in this Church of England as to the extern order and profession of Religion which some of these Antiministerials and Antidecimists doe not contest against and study to overthrow Which makes me here a little digresse 20. Answer to other lesse scruples yet not from my maine design which is to satisfie all excellent Christians and others as to any thing by these men objectable against the Ministers and Ministry of the Church of England by looking at some lesser calumnies and cavils which they every where scatter among the common people to alienate them from or prejudice them against their Ministers quarrelling against the places where publiquely we meet to serve God and many things used by us in our holy Ministrations 1. Of publique places called Churches As to the publique places where Christians meet and Ministers officiate these supercriticall masters of words and censors of all mens language and manners but their owne cannot indure the impropriety and profanenesse as they say of calling those places Churches This they scorn with very severe smiles and supercilious frownes so profound is their judgement It was the work of Diocletian to burn all the books and destroy all the Churches of the Christians Euseb hist l. 10. and so scrupulous their conscience that they had rather pull down such publique and convenient places than venture to be defiled by coming into them or once so much as to call them Churches they say they have far higher senses and definitions of a Church than will agree with piles of wood and stones Answ We doubt not of their deep Divinity touching a Church which it may be they will not dare yet to define as not being well agreed what a Church is or what is the right matter and forme or way of a Church Much broken and wrangling stuffe they have heaped up touching a Church but scarse one stone is yet
mens fight may easily discover folly in the purest Angels of his Church many spots in the brightest Moones and much nebulousnesse in the fairest Stars Yet God forbid that any men of justice honour or conscience should charge upon all Ministers and the whole function the disorders of some when as there are many hundreds of grave learned wise humble meek and quiet spirited men whose excellent vertues graces endowments and publique merits may more than enough countervaile and expiate the weaknesse or extravagancies of their brethren Ministers as well as other men except those whose opinions and fancies are so died in graine that their follies will never depart from them have learned many experiences both in England and Scotland that an over-charged or an ill-discharged zeal usually breaks it self in sunder with infinite danger not only to its authours but to its abettors assistants and spectators And however at first it might seem levelled against enemies yet it makes the neerest friends and standers by ever after wary and afraid both of such Guns and their Gunners of such dangerous designes and their designers Nothing is more touchy and intractable than matters of civill power and dominion in which we have neither precept nor practise from Christ or his Apostles for Ministers to engage themselves in any way of offense which their wisedome avoided They were thought of old things fitter for the hands of Cyclops who forged Jupiters thunderbolts than for the Priests of the Gods Great and sad experiences shewing how rough and violent with bloud and ruine all secular changes are how unsutable and unsafe to the softer hands of Ministers these have added wisdome to the wise and taught them very sober and wholesome lessons of all peaceable and due subjection both to God who may govern us by whom he pleaseth and to man Psal 75.7 who cannot have power but by Gods permission Dan. 4.17 which at the best and justest posture is not to be envied so much as pitied by prudent and holy men who see it attended with so many cares Habet aliquid ex iniquo omne magnum exemplum quod contra singulos utilitate publica rependitur Tacit l. 14. An. Liceat inter abruptam contumaciam deforme obsequium pergere iter ambitione periculis vacuum Tac. An. l. 4. feares and horrours infinite dangers and temptations befides a kinde of necessity sometime in reason of State to doe things unjust and uncomfortable at least to tolerate wayes that are neither pious nor charitable So that the humble peaceable and discreet carriage of all wife and worthy Ministers which only becomes them may justly plead for favour and protection against this calumny of pronenesse to sedition faction or any illegall disturbance in civill affaires even in all the unhappy troubles of the late yeares the wisest and best Ministers have generally so behaved themselves as shewed they had no other design than to live a quiet life in all godlinesse and honesty to serve the Lord Christ and his Church peaceably if they might in that station where they were lawfully set if they could not help in fair wayes to steer the ship as they desired yet they did not seek to set it on fire or split and overwhelm it If in any thing relating to publique variations and violent tossings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pind. they were not able to act with a satisfied and good conscience yet they ever knew their duty was humbly to bear with silence and suffer with patience from the hands of men the will of God Rom. 11.33 whose judgements they humbly adore though dark deep and past finding out If some mens dubiousnesse and unsatisfiednesse in any things as they are the works of men who may sin and erre be to be blamed as it is not in any righteous judgement yet it is withall so far to be pitied and pardoned by all that are true Christians or civill men as they see it accompanied with commendable integrity meeknesse and harmlesse simplicity which onely becomes these doves and serpents Mat. 10.16 which Christ hath sent to teach his Church both wisdome and innocency to walk exactly and circumspectly in the slippery pathes of this world not onely by sound doctrine but also by setled examples Which excellent temper would prevent many troubles among Christians and much evill suspicion against Ministers who could not be justly offensive or suspected to any in power if they saw them chiefly intentive to serve and fearfull to offend God always tender of good consciences and of the honor of true Christian Religion which was not wont to see Ministers with swords and pistols in their hands but with their Bibles and Liturgies not rough and targetted as the Rhinoceroes but soft and gently clothed as the sheep and Shepherds of Christ There is not indeed a more portentous sight than to see Galeatos Clericos Ministers armed with any other helmet than that of Salvation or sword than that of the Spirit or shield than that of Faith by which they will easily overcome the world if once they have overcome themselves whose courage will be as great in praying preaching and suffering with patience meeknesse and constancy as in busting and fighting which becomes Butchers better than Ministers to whom Christ long ago commanded in the person of S. Peter to put up their swords Mat. 26.52 nor was he ever heard to repeal that word or to bid them draw their swords no not in Christs cause that is meerly for matters of Religion who hath Legions of Angels Armies of truths gifts and graces of the Spirit to defend himself and his true interests in Religion withall which are far better and fitter weapons in Ministers warfare 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnall than such swords and staves as they brought who intended to betray to take and to destroy Christ Let secular powers forcibly act as becomes them in the matters of Religion so farre as they are asserted and established by Law whose proper attendant is armed power It is enough for Ministers zeal to be with Moses Exod. 17. Aaron and Hur in the Mount praying when Joshua in the justest quarrell i◠fighting with Amalek that is the unprovoked and causelesse enemies of the Church If at any time they counsel or act matters of life and death they must be so clearly and indisputably just and within the compasse of their duty and relation as may every way become valiant men humble Christians and prudent Ministers Object 4. Of the Engagement But to confute all that can be said for the Ministers of England their adversaries are ready to object that many of them scruple the taking of the Engagement This they think is a pill which will either choak their consciences if they swallow it or purge them out of their livings if they doe not For contrary to all other Physick this operates most strongly on those that never take it
not beaten away the graces of Gods Spirit and fighting against Christians have not taught them to fight against God and the checks of conscience If the shedding of mans bloud have not taken away the sense and virtue of Christs bloud If the noise of warre and the cry of the slain have not deafned mens ears against the voice of God and the cals of his Spirit If the dreadfull and lamentable aspect of poore Christians supplicating in vain for life and dying with horrour and anguish at the feet and before the eyes of their brethren have not taken away the fight of charity and deprived men of the light of Gods countenance in love and mercy If there be any tendernesse of conscience any sense of sin any fear of God any terrours from above from beneath or from within if any belief of the judgment to come and accounts to be given if any thoughts of and ambitions for a better Kingdome than the earth can afford Nemo potest veracitere esse amicus hominis nisi qui fuerit primitus veritatis Aust Ep. 52. Charitas pie saevire humiliter indignari patienter irasci novit Ber. Ep. 2. No men will be more acceptable even to the greatest than those Ministers who know at once how to speak the truth and yet to keep within the bounds both of Charity and civility Nor doth it follow as the sophistry of some Sycophants would urge against true Ministers that those will be most active to destroy or disturb the powers of this world who are most faithfull to keep potentates soules from damning in the world to come In these Christian bounds then of peaceable subjection humility and holinesse if the Ministers of England which are able discreet and faithfull might but obtain so much declared favour and publique countenance which all other fraternities and professions have as to be sure to enjoy their callings liberties and properties which seem to be many times in great uncertainties under the obedience and protection of the laws as it would much incourage them in their holy labours which alwayes finde carnall opposition enough in mens hearts and discouragement from their manners so it would redeem them from those menaces insolencies and oppressions of unreasonable men who look upon them as publique enemies and perdue because they thinke they have little of publique favour and incouragement Ministers are so much men that kind and Christian usage will no doubt much win upon them The Sun-shine of favour is likelyer to make the morosest of them lay off that coat of rigour and austerity which some perhaps affects to wear than that rough storm and winde wherewith they are dayly threatned and by which many of them have been and are still distressed which makes them wrap themselves up as Elias in his hairy mantle when they think their lives and liberties and livelihoods are sought after and no such protection like to continue over them as they thought in a Christian State and Church they might have both obtained and deserved by their quiet and usefull conversation As just protection invites inferiors to due subjection so no men pay it more willingly than they who besides the iron chains of fear have the softer cords of lovâ— and favour upon them By how much after many violent stormes and hard impressions they are more tenderly used the more is respect gained and peaceable inclinations raised in men toward such as will needs govern them The very best of whom are seldome so mortified or heightned by Religion as to forget they are men or to be without their passions discontents and murmurings joined with desires and endeavours to ease and relieve themselves At least to change their condition if they finde it Tyrannique and Egyptian that is unreasonable arbitrary injurious and oppressive quite contrary to what is pretended of honest and just liberties both Christian and humane civill and conscientious which are for every one to enjoy as his private judgement of things so what ever is his priviledge and property by Law while he keeps within the practique obedience and compasse of the Law whereto Governours as well as governed are bound not onely in piety but also in policy Both tyranny and rebellion are their owne greatest Traitors Magistrates seldome losing or hazarding their power nor subjects their peace but when they wander out of the plain highway of Laws Non diu stare potest potentia quae multorum malo exercetuâ— Sen. de Ira. which are the conservatories both of Governours and governed It is the least degree of justice and short enough of any high favour to permit and protect worthy Ministers with all other honest and peaceable men as in doing their duties so in receiving their dues Yet this is as great a measure as in these times they dare either ask or hope for Immunities from any burthens that lye heavy on them Additions of honour or augmentations of estate I think all wise Ministers despair of Peace with a little as to this world would be a great meanes both to compose their studies and to strengthen their hands in the work of God Also to quench that fire with which many mens tongues are inflamed against Ministers their calling persons and their maintenance thinking they may both safely and acceptably despise those whom power delights not to honour For whose ruine the malice of some Antiministerian spirits wisheth as many gallowses and gibbets set up as there are Pulpits Dan. 3.18 But the Lord is able to deliver us if not yet be it known to these violent and unreasonable men Hoc posteris dicite Hominem Christo deditum posse mori non posse superaâ—i Ieron Psal 68.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dictum juvenis inter tormenta cum totum vulnus erat fornam hominis at non fidei amiserat Euseb hist l. 5. c. 1. that no learned judicious and consciencious Ministers will bow down to worship that papall or popular Image of Anarchy and confusion which they seek to set up as to the shame and ruine of this and all Reformed Churches so infinitely to the detriment and dishonour of this Nation as to its common welfare in peace plenty or power in good learning or true Religion And however we are forced for some time to lye among the pots yet shall we be as the wings of a dove nor shall we want an Ark whither to fly at last where a gracious hand will receive us to eternall rest when we shall retire to heaven wearied with the troubles on earth and finding no rest for our souls amidst those overflowing scourges which the just and offended God will certainly bring upon all such evill and unthankfull men who love their power or profit more than their soules and glory in despising those who professe to be Noahs the Preachers onely of righteousnesse and of repentance but no way the pragmatick plotters of troubles or seditious movers of civill perturbations I Have now O you
reformed Church and that true Religion which the Ministers of this Church have professed and preached in many years And this not upon light and unexamined presumptions not upon customary traditions and the meer ducture of education not upon politick principles and civill compliances with Princes or people but upon serious grounds as solid and clear demonstrations as can by right and impartiall reasonings be gathered from the Word of God and in cases of its obscuritie or our own weaknesse from that light which the consent and practise of the primitive and purest Churches of Christ hath held forth to us in points of Faith doctrine and in all good orders or manners becomming Christians either in their private moralities or their publique decencies In this integrity innocency and simplicity which neither men nor divels can take from us we are sure to be destroyed if it must be so and to be delivered from an ungratefull generation of vipers Matth. 3.7 who think it enough to destroy those who have been a means of their being and life as Christians if our injuries and bloud could be silenced with us yet the very dust of our feet Matth. 1◠14 will be a testimony against such men at the last day of judgement when it shall be more tolerable for any Christian people under heaven than for these in England since among none clearer truths have been taught or greater workes done or better examples given than have been here by the Ministers of this Church Where hath there been under heaven more frequent Ministers merit of this Nation and more excellent preaching where more frequent and yet unaffected praying where more judicious pious and practicall writing where more learned and industrious searching out of all divine truths where more free and ingenuous declaring of them so as nothing hath been withheld or smothered where more devout holy and gracious living where more orderly harmonious and charitable agreeing than among those that were the best Bishops the best Ministers and the best Christians here in England Adorned with these ribands fillets and garlands of good words good works and good bookes must the Ministers of England like solemn victimes and piatory sacrifices be destroyed onely to gratifie some mens petulancy insolency covetousnesse and cruelty who list to be actors or spectators in so religious massacres 2. Considerations touching the Ministers of England humbly propounded But O you excellent Christians of all ranks and proportions If there be yet any ear of patience left free to hear the Ministers plea and apology if calumny hath not obstructed all wayes of justice or charity if slavish feares have not so imbased your piety and zeal for the Christian reformed Religion that you dare not seem no not to pity the Ministers of it if the separations and brokennesse of Religion in our unhappy times have not wholly blinded your eyes and baffled your judgements so that you have lost all sight both of true Church and true Ministry here in England I humbly desire that before the true and ancient Ministers be cashiered and quite destroyed these things may be considered 1. Whether it be a just proceeding to impute the personall failings of some men to the whole function and profession whether at that rate all Judges Magistrates and Commanders may not be cryed down as well as all Ministers Since where there are many there are alwayes some that are not very good 2. Whether it be fitting to condemne and destroy any men in any of their rights to which they pretend either of office or reward and that by Laws both divine and humane without a fair and full hearing what can be said for them or whether any man would have such measure meted to themselves 3. Whether Pride in some Lay-men of their gifts Envy in others against the welfare of the Ministers of Christ Covetousnesse in others as to their maintenance Profanenesse in others against all holinesse Ambition in others to begin or carry on some worldly ends and secular projects Licentiousnesse in others against all religious restraints Impatience in others to see any govern without or besides themselves Malice and spite in others against this as all other reformed Churches Hopes in others by our confusions to introduce their superstitious usurpations Whether I say these and the like inordinate lusts and motions in mens hearts as their severall interests lead and tempt them may not be great causes and influentiall occasions of these violent distempers which break out thus against the generality of the Ministers and the whole calling of the Ministry in this Church Yea what if all odious clamours and calumnies against them and their calling have no more of truth in them than a Jewell hath of dirt in it when filth is cast upon it whose innate firmness preserves its inward and essentiall purity What if nothing be wanting to the innocency and honour of the Ministry of this Church but onely patient and impartiall Judges pious patrons and generous protectours which was all St. Paul wanted when he was accused of many and grievous crimes by the cruell and hard-hearted Jewes which were his Countrey men and for whom he had that heroick charity as to wish himself Anathema from Christ that they might be saved Whether ever any Ministers of learning honesty and piety that had done so much for the religious welfare of any Christian Nation as the able Ministers of England generally have done for many ages were ever so rewarded by Christians or whether ever it entred into the hearts of religious men so to deal with their Ministers as some now meditate and design It were good for men how metald and resolute so ever they seem to be in carrying on their designs to make some pause and halt before they strike such a stroak as may seem to challenge Christ Severissimè punit Deus cum paenalis nutritur impunitas Aust and fight against God whose stroakes against men are heaviest when they are least visible and his wounds sorest when men have the least sense of their contending against him The perswasions and confidences of men may be great in their proceedings * Act. 26.9 Act. 9.4 as was in Saul persecuting when yet their zeale is but dashing against the goades or thornes and a meer persecuting of Christ himselfe which will in the end pierce their own souls through with many errors What if notwithstanding many personal failings in Ministers as men their function calling and Ministry be the holy institution and appointment of Jesus Christ transmitted to these times and this Church by a right order and uninterrupted succession as to the substance of the power and essence of the authority The talents or gifts were Christs and from Christ delivered to his Servants the Ministers of the Church though some of them might be idle and unfaithfull whose burying them in the earth or wrapping them up in a napking at any time was no wasting or imbezling of
Vipers Act. 28.5 which out of the fire of some mens spirits now seise upon them with poysonous calumnies of factious covetous seditious c. If there be still upon the true and able Ministers of England those Characters of divine Authority those gifts of the holy Ghost in all good understanding knowledge utterance zeal courage industry and constancy which fits them with power for that holy function and carries them through it with all fidelity and patience not only to serve but to suffer for the Lord Jesus and his Church If they have been just Stewards and faithfull dispensers of the Mysteries of Christ to his houshold this Church how can they without infinite rudenesse and unchristian insolence be shamefully used and driven out of their places and Offices If they have been spirituall fathers to many soules and as tender mothers to them not disdaining to bear with the manners of childish Christians in many places who turned their respect into peevishnesse and their love into scorn how unnaturall will it be for Christians to become patricides murtherers of their spirituall fathers to whom in some sense they owe more Legatis vim aut â—ontumâ—liam inferre nefas Reg. Iur. Jus Legatorum cum hominum praesidio munitum tum etiam divino juâ—e est vallatum Cic. de Arus resp than to their naturall If Ministers be Embassadors they ought not to be violated by the Law of Nations behaving themselves as becomes the honour of their Embassy and sender how much more if from God sent by Christ in his and his Fathers Name and that with a message of Peace and reconciliation from heaven to poore sinners The greatest and proudest of them being but wormes meat may not safely despise injure or turn away the least of the servants and Messengers of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ which speak in his Name that is both his Truth and by his Authority which can be no where else in any ordinary Ministry but in those who are dayly ordained in this holy descent and succession If they have been watchfull Shepheards over their severall flocks for good and not for evill how barbarous must it be for Sheep to turn Wolves and devoure those Pastors who have fed them as Jacob did Labans flocks Gen. 31.40 with all care and diligence day and night leading them by the purest waters and in the safest pastures Nor is there now any more cause to change the wages of these Shepheards of soules which is alwayes like to be to their losse than covetous Laban had against honest Jacob. If none other can authoritatively and as of Office and duty in the name and by the mission of Christ bring the message of peace and reconciliation to sinners which hath besides the Word sacred and mysterious seales and other holy actions of power and authority to be performed by peculiar fit and appointed Ministers how beautifull ought their feet to be and their steps welcome Rom. 10.15 which flow with truth and peace grace and mercy How farre should they be from being trodden under the feet of proud covetous and envious men who first casting dirt in their faces after with much dust and clamour seek to stir up not onely the people Act. 21.36 but the powers against them as if they were burthens of the earth not fit to live But wisdome is justified of her children Matth. 11.19 I cannot be so injurious to my countrey and countreymen 5. Ministers expect better things from good Christians as to think that to persons of such worth standing in such relations between God and man invested with so holy authority managing it with such divine power and efficacy crowned with so great successes recommended to all worthy Christians with so many publique merits both to Church and State as the true and duely ordained Ministers of the Church of England are either men of purity or of power can be so wanting to or so shrink from their duty to God their love to Christ their zeal for the reformed Religion their care of their countrey of their posterity and of their owne soules as not to dare to speak or appear for them or not to endeavour in all fair wayes to improve the interest they have in the publique by which to preserve so many good and righteous persons as to mans tribunall from poverty contempt and ruine yea to preserve themselves and their dearest relations from most irreligious infamy of ingratefull deserting and oppressing so deserving men Men cannot but be unholy that can be so unthankefull 2 Tim. 3.2 And if Ingratitude be in all other relations and merits among men justly esteemed as the most detestable disease and inhumane deformity in the soul shall it onely seem beauty health and a commendable quality when it is offered by Christians to their Ministers Such as may with equall modesty and truth plead their own innocency and protest against the immanity of their enemies malice For setting aside the idlenesse and pragmatick vanity of some Ministers in later and more licentious times whose either insufficiency or lazynesse or inordinate activity or abject popularity hath made them the staine and shame of their holy function and whose burthen is too heavy for my pen to discharge them of if we looke upon those learned laborious sober and venerable Ministers who have been and still are the glory and crown of their function of this Church and Nation in their severall degrees and stations * Godly Ministers not injurious but meritorious to the publique I may lowdly proclaim with Samuel this protestation in their behalf Behold the * 1 Sam. 12.3 Ministers of the Lord and of this Church O you unthankefull Christians and causlesse enemies witnesse against them before the Lord and before his people whose Oxe or Asse have they taken whom have they defrauded or oppressed whose hurt or damage have they procured whose good have not they studyed and endeavoured whose evill of sin or misery have they not pitied and sought to relieve what is the injury for which so desolating a vengeance must passe upon them and their whole function What is the blasphemy against God or man for which these Naboths must lose their lives 1 King 21. and livelyhoods wherein have they deserved so ill of former or later ages that they should be so used as Ahab commanded of Micaiah and the Jews did to Jeremiah to be cast into prisons into sordid and obscure restraints or to be exposed to Mendicant liberty for to be fed onely with the bread and water of affliction if they can obtain so much What necessary truth of God have they detained in unrighteousnesse what error have they broached revived or maintained what superstition have they nourished what licentiousnesse in sin have they incouraged what true Christian liberty which alwayes containes it selfe in bounds of Gods and mans laws have they denyed to or defrauded the people of unlesse all things of publique
Scripture precept or any Churches practise for however the best reformed Churches have restored many things to their pristine lustre yet they innovate nothing as to Scripture grounds of doctrine or Catholick order succession and Institution As then those men are most the souldiers friends 19. Addresse to men of the Military order Clem. Ep. ad Cor. who advise them to keep to their able and experienced commanders and not to venture their safety upon the activity and feates of every forward and nimble fencer So are they most friends to all good Christians Magistrates souldiers or others in this Nation and Church who perswade them as Clemens did the Corinthians to keep to their ancient able and true Ministers of whom they have had so long and so good experience and although their persons be changeable by death or other wayes of deprivation yet ought the way and succession to be preserved as to that ordination triall and mission which is Apostolicall and universally practised in the Church of Christ And since herein the Allusion reason and proportion lies so fit and equall between worthy Ministers and able Commanders who have a right Commission I cannot think that any of the military order who are persons of any worth true honour conscience or considerable for piety prudence and Christian valour which dares any thing but sin that any such souldiers I say should be prone to kindle any discontents and mutinies against the able and true Ministers of this Church Docti Ministri fâ—â—tes milites dirigant justi milites pros Ministros protâ—gant Illi veritate hi virtute To whom no doubt they cannot but thankfully confesse that under God they ow for the most part what ever good learning good breeding or good conscience they have I am the further from suspecting so unchristian and unreasonable a tempter in that sort of souldiers because I know by experience that in all the troubles and shakings which have been in these times those of them who are sober and ingenuous men have been both in publique and in private very loving civill and respective to the true Ministers of this Church so that those who glory in their affronts contempts and oppositions against the Ministers doe but thereby proclaim that they are the very drosse and ruder dregs of that profession for so it is like to be in England Nor can I think that the irreligious motions unruly mutinies and inconsiderable menacings of a few such unbred men should either over-sway or over-aw the sober counsels and better purposes of those many better gentlemen who sway either in counsell or in power Whose protection in all peaceable and good wayes why the Ministers of England should not as well deserve hope for and enjoy as any other order or rank of men I see no reason unlesse injuries obloquies and indignities offered by some of very mean quality and condition for the most part and hitherto borne with that Christian courage and patience which becomes grave and godly Ministers should be argument enough to perswade all Christians to forsake them and destroy them of whose safety and welfare no doubt God himself and the Lord Jesus Christ are very sensible as much concerned in their sufferings Nor can I think but that those men who are so hardned in their malice and persecution against the Ministers and their holy function doe oft hear a voice secretly calling within them O you Sauls why doe you persecute mee in my servants the Ministers who preach my Word in my Name by my authority and accompanied with my grace and spirit 11. In all Christian and true policy the true and ancient Ministery is to be preserved The Declaration of the two Houses An. 41. Yea not onely in all true Religion and fear of God which becomes true beleivers but in all reason and policy of State it is as necessary for those in places of power to protect the true Ministers their divine calling and succession as for these Ministers to be protected by them and this not onely in order to Gods glory and the good of mens souls their own and others but for their own and the publique peace safety and honor before men Nor is that promise and obligation once given to the publique to be forgotten by which it was assured that the Levying of souldiers and raising of forces should be only as scaffolds to build up learning piety and the reformed Religion to higher heights than formerly and not as scaling ladders to help to storm plunder and impoverish the Church to destroy the Arsenals and nurserâ—â—s of good learning or to pull down the main pillars both of learning and the Christian reformed Religion which are the ancient Ministry and succession of rightly ordained Ministers If those in power and counsell care not to help either in preserving or restoring the true Ministers and their calling to their due honour rights or incouragements it will be thought rather a want of will than of power of which the British world hath had great experience If they would help but cannot they must not think long to enjoy that power which shall discover it self so weak or so pusillanimous as dares not own to be master of so pious safe and just purposes as these are to protect honest and godly men in so holy so usefull and so necessary an imployment as I have proved the Ministry to be If they can and dare yet doe not Esther 4.31 either help will come another way by the gracious hand of God whose terrours ought to be upon the highest mindes and loftiest looks Or else we may fear the Lord hath in his fierce anger decreed to powre upon highest and lowest root and branch in this Nation the vials of his sorest judgments and severest wrath turning our Sun into bloud and our Moon into darknesse removing the presence of his glory the Gospell and the Ministry of it from us and our unhappy posterity However God shall please to deal with his servants the true and faithfull Ministers in this Church yet it becomes them so far to be of good courage as they have him for their trust Ioh. 14.27.16.33 who hath overcome the world who foretold we should have trouble in the world but hath promised we should have that peace in him which the world cannot give nor take away This comfort they have that their labours shall not be in vain in the Lord yea and for after times they may be assured That this bush of the true Ministry of the Gospell in its due authority divine ordination and holy succession wherein God hath so evidently appeared to his Church and to none more clearly than to us in this age and in this Church of England shall never be consumed however it may seem to be set on fire 2 Tim. 3.12 Great tribulation threatens those that will live godly in this present world especially those that contract more of the divels malice on them by perswading
or dubious in uncertainties or intangled with subtilties as Deer in acorn time they forget their food grow lean and fall into divers snares and temptations into many lusts and passions yea into the grave and pit of destruction whence there is no redemption Many as leaves from trees in Autumn every day drop away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. and dye in their mazes and labyrinths of Religion by wearying themselves in which they advance no more than birds in a cage and blinde horses in a mill whereas a true Christian should every day grieve to see himself nothing advanced in true holynesse or solid knowledge with grand steps he should be dayly going onward and upward with ample progresses and mighty increases of sound knowledge indisputable verities unquestionable practises of ly duties and heavenly conversation these are the steps by which holy men and women have ascended to heaven and conquered the difficulties of salvation That thus al the world might blesse themselves to see the happy improvements of true Christians beyond other men and the inestimable blessing of true and excellent Ministers paines among the filliest and worst of men in the dissolutest and worst of times O let not us then of the Ministry stand still and look on our own and the Churches miseries as the Lepers or mothers did in sieges till their children and themselves grew black with famine You that pretend to stand before the Lord of the whole world and the King of his Church you that bear the name of the most compassionate Redeemer who shed his bloud for his Church and laid down his life for his sheep Doe you never hear in the sounding of your own bowels the tears sighes and fears of infinite good Christians nor the voice of this English Sion lamenting and expecting pity at least from Ministers Is it worth thus much misery to root up Episcopacy to set up Presbytery and to undermine both with Independency All which might be fairly composed into a threefold cord of holy agreement such as was in primitive times between Bishops Presbyters and people whose passions have now ravelled out peace by sad divisions and weakned Religion by uncharitable contentions Though Parliaments and Assemblies and Armies and people should be miserable comforters passing by without regard and remorse yea though some be stripping the wounded and robbing this desolated Church yet doe not you forsake her now she is smitten of God Lamen 1.12 and despised of men Is it nothing to you O you that are more politicians than Preachers that passe by Stand and see if there be any sorrowes like the sorrowes of this reformed Church of England wherewith the Lord hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger It concernes no men more than Ministers to succour her which hath received these wounds most-what in the house and by the hands of her friends O give the Lord no rest untill he hath returned to this Church in mercy if you can by counsels and prayers reform nothing in the publique yet let nothing be unreformed in your private if you must be laid aside as to the peculiar office of Ministers yet you may mourn and pray the more in secret That the Lord would breath upon us with a Spirit of Truth and Peace of love and holy union of order and humility whereby none having any pride or ambition to govern every one may be humbly disposed to be governed For the great crisis of all Ministers distempers is in this not what Truths we shall beleive what doctrine we shall preach what holynesse we shall act but who shall govern whether Bishops or Presbyters or people yea the Keyes of some mens pretended power hangs so at the peoples girdle that it is too neer the apron-strings even of mechanicks and silly women When a right temper of Christian humility and love shall be restored to every part then will the spirits of Religion be recovered and aptly diffused into every member of this Church which blessed temperament as Christian Churches enjoyed in their primitive and florid strength nor is it lesse necessary now in their more aged and so decayed constitution O let not after ages say the Ministers of England were more butchers then Surgeons That they were Physitians of no value neither curing themselves nor others If any of us have not by malice so much as mistake given stronger physick and more graines of violent drugs than the constitution of this or any well reformed Church can well bear let us not be lesse forward to apply such cordials lenitives antidotes and restoratives of love moderation concession and equanimous wisedome as may recollect the dissipated and re-inforce the wasted spirits which yet remain in this reformed Church and the Ministry of it On which the enemies round about doe already look with the greedy eyes of ravens and vultures expecting when its languishing spirits shall be quite exhausted and its fainting eyes quite closed that so they may draw away the pillow and remaining supports of civill protection from under its head and violently force it to give up the ghost that the reformed Religion and Ministry of this Church may be at length quite cast out and buried with the buriall of an Asse that neither the place of reformed Bishops nor reformed Presbyters nor reformed people may know them any more in these British Islands In the last place therefore 13. Humble addresse to those in power in the behalf of Ministers I humbly crave leave to remind those that act in highest places and power who are thought no slight or shallow Statesmen That if neither piety to God nor conscience of their duty while they undertake to govern nor charity to mens soules both in present and after ages nor zeal for the reformed Religion move them as Christians nor yet justice and common equity to the encouragement and preservation of so many learned and godly men the lawfull Ministers of this Church in their legall rights and liberties nor yet common pity and charity to relieve so many pious men and their families If I say none of these should sway them as men or Christians the least of which should and I hope greatly will Yet worldy policy and right reason of State seems to advise the preservation and establishment of the so much shaken reformed Religion here in England which hath still deep root and impressions in the mindes and affections of the most and best people in this Nation Nor can this be done by more idoneous means than by giving publique favour incouragement and establishment to the true and ancient Ministry as to its main support and to godly Ministers as its head-most Professors If it be not absolutely necessary yet sure it is very convenient in order to the quiet and satisfaction of mens mindes who generally think themselves most concerned in matters of Religion either to confirm and restore to its pristine honour order and stability the ancient Ministry of the Church
in any Christian Nation which will be interpreted a fighting against God and an opposing Christ Jesus who as he is the onely true rock on which the Church is to be built as to internall comfort and eternall happinesse so he hath regulated it as to externall order beauty and harmony and this not by every unskilfull hand that hath a minde to be mudling but by such as he hath appointed to be tryed approved and rightly ordained to the work of edifying the Church in truth and love Vicisti Galilae vicisti Julian dying cries 1 Pet. 2.6.8 This Galilean must overcome Christ will no doubt prove as a stumbling stone so a rock of ruine and offence to all those that dash against him in this Ordinance of his holy Ministry which though it seem small and contemptible to those that think themselves Grandees in power and policy yet as it was not cut out by humane hands so it will be a very burdensome stone to all that think to lift it out of the way and lay it aside from being an holy function and divine institution 15. The Ministers of Christ not safely to be injured I think therefore under favor that it will be not the least point of wisdome and policy in those who by exercising magistratick power stand most accountable to God and man for the support of the Ministry to harken to and follow that grave counsell * Act. 5.35 Greg. Naz. tels us that Saint Basil the Great was in so great reverence in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They could not be friends with God who were at enmity with Basil orat 16. Take heed what you doe to these men who are the rrue Ministers of Jesus Christ the messengers of the most high God who preach to you the way of salvation For if their function mission and Ministry be from Christ which I have proved and those can hardly doubt who are so much inlightned by Scripture as some are who may yet be blinded by secular interests it shall prevail though it be in the way of being persecuted Humane malice may a while oppose but it shall not quite blow out quench or smother those burning and shining lights of the Church Which it would doe with no lesse detriment to the Church and State than if it should extinguish the flame light and lustre of the Sun in the Firmament * Vide Jer. 33.20 which Prophesie is clear for a constant and immutable Ministry in the Church of Christ Nor are those ordinances of heaven and that Covenant God hath made in Nature more necessary or lesse durable than are these of holy Ministrations and Evangelicall Ministry which God hath appointed for Christ in the Church It is but little and with far lesse comfort that we see of God in the creature than what we see of him in Christ nor are the beams of the Sun so glorious or necessary Mal. 4. Rom. 10.18 as these of the Sun of righteousnesse which are diffused by his Ministers which are as his wings by which he hath moved into all parts of the earth and his voice hath been heard to the ends of the world And truly the most judicious Christians who are able to discern the day of Gods visitation Gildas de excid Brit. de plores the sacrilegious injuries and neglect of holy men and holy duties before those miseries doe looke upon this shaking and battery made by some men against the publique office and authority of the Ministry of this reformed Church of England to be nothing else but the effects of those counsels and plots which are always contriving by the powers of darknesse and the gates of hell against God and Christ against the Orthodox Faith and purest Churches And however they shall never prevail to destroy the true Christian reformed Religion in all places yet they may occasion its ebbing and receding from a negligent wanton and ungratefull people who love Apostasies Isai 1.5 and increase back-slidings as many in England seeme to doe It may provoke the Lord to transplant the Gospell to some other Nation which shall bring forth better fruits and leave our houses desolate who brought forth such sowre grapes as these are wherewith after so many hundred years Decr. 32.6 some men now seek to requite the Lord and his faithfull Ministers in this Church what can indeed be expected but some fatall Apostasie either to grosse superstition or Atheistical liberty or heathenish barbarity which is nigh at hand and even at the dore when once the divine honour and succession of the Evangelicall Ministry is outed and overthrowne for what else can follow when people shall either have no true Ministers or be taught to beleive that they need not any and have no more cause to regard them that are such by profession than so many Mountebanks whom no man is bound in reason honour conscience or civility to hear obey maintain or reverence as having no higher mandate mission or authority than from their own mindes or peoples humors To prevent which direfull sin shame and mischief to give some stay to the feares and life to the hopes of thousands besides and better then my selfe I have taken this boldnesse upon me by Gods direction and assistance as I trust though unknowne and not much considerable to the many excellent Christians 16. The preservation of the honour of the Ministry most worthy of all excellent Christians which are yet in this Church and least of all to those in power whom the matter most concerns with all due respects all Christian charity and humility to present to the publique view of all those whom this subject of the Ministry and reformed Religion doth concern these most sad and serious thoughts of my heart which are not bufied about Prophetick obscurities or Apocalyptick uncertainties which may please melancholy fancies and abuse curious readers but about a matter most clear from Scripture most necessary to the being of any true Church in this world to the comfort of every true Christian to the succession of Religion in after ages None of which can be kept in any way of Gods revealed will and ordinary providence but onely by a right and authoritative Ministry which carries a relation and bond of conscience with it between Minister and people which cannot be had unlesse we still keep to the pattern which Christ hath set us and the Church of Christ in all ages followed without any falsity though not wholly without some infirmity Nor is there any thing wherein men of the highest power and excellency can shew themselves more worthy of the name of Christians than in their endeavouring effectually to restore and establish the due authority and succession of the Ministry by being patrons incouragers and protectors of all able and peaceable Ministers and their calling Whose honour is Gods and will redound to theirs whom God shall so far blesse as to make them instruments of so
men I must needs offend as to their distemper I did designe it I ever shall offend them if I will defend this Truth It is my duty and charity by displeasing them to doe them good Apoplectick diseases are incurable till sense be restored some men are benummed and past feeling I cannot live or dye in peace if I should hold my peace when I ought to rebuke and with all authority Ephes 4.19 because with Truth and good conscience in the name of Christ and of all my brethren the intolerable vanity ignorance pride arrogancy and cruelty of those who have set up themselves above and against all those that are the ordained reformed and faithfull Ministers of this or any other Christian Church In whom they list to finde nothing but faults and insufficiencies while they boast of their own rare accomplishments which are no where to be found but in their proud swelling words by which they lie in wait to deceive the simple and unstable soules I could no longer bear their insolent Pamphlets 2 Pet. 2.18 their intolerable practises their uncharitable projects against the glory of Christ and the happinesse of this reformed Church and Nation It grieved me to see so may Shipwrackt soules so many tossed to and fro who are floating to the Romish coast so many overthrown faiths so many willing and affected Atheists so many cavilling Sophisters so many wasted comforts so many scurrilous and ridiculous Saints so many withered graces so many seared consciences so many sacrilegious Christians so many causelesse triumphings of mean persons over learned grave and godly Ministers I was troubled to behold so many fears yet so much silence so many sighes and sorrows yet so much dejection and oppression of spirits such over-awings in those men whom it becomes in a spirituall warfare to encounter with beasts and unreasonable men as being sure to overcome at last Therefore among others I desire this apology may be a monument of my perfect abhorrency and publique protestation against all evil counsels and violent designes used against this reformed Church its Religion and Ministry when posterity shall see the sad effects of some mens agitations I expect no acceptance from any men further than I may doe them good Such as refuse to be healed by this application probably their smart will provoke them to petulant replyes which as I cannot expect from any sober and serious Christian so to the wantonnesse of others who are wofull wasters of paper and inke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Crito I shall never have leisure to attend I have better imployment whereto I humbly devote the short remnant of my pretious moment even to the service of Christ of this Church and of all those excellent Christians in it to whose favour this sudden Apologetick defence is humbly dedicated in the behalf of the Ministry of this Church of England by their humblest servant in the Lord I. G. FINIS A Table of the chief heads handled in this Defense of the Ministery of the Church of ENGLAND THE Addresse pag. 1. The Cause undertaken p. 2 and recommended to excellent Christians p. 3 The honor of suffering in a good cause p. 4 Humble monition to those in power p. 6 Of ingenuous Parrhesie p. 7 Of Apologetick writings p. 8 The Authors integroty and sympathy p. 9 Of Ministers Lapse p. 10 Of their former Conformity p. 11 An account of Mr. Chibalds two books touching Lay Elders p. 13 Weak conjectures at the causes of Ministers Lapse p. 14 Of true Honor. p. 17 The main cause of Ministers lapse or diminution p. 20 Of Ministers as Politicians Pragmaticks Polemicks p. 24 What carriage best becomes Ministers in civill dissensions p. 25 Of Ministers indiscretions and inconstancies p. 28 The way of Ministers recovery p. 29 Vulgar insolencie against Ministers p. 30 Antiministeriall malice and practises p. 34 Ambitious and Atheisticall policies against them p. 35 The joy and triumph of the enemies of the reformed Religion p. 39 The Ministers of the Church of England neither Vsurpers nor Impostors p. 40 The sympathy of good Christians with their afflicted Ministers p. 42 Their plea for them against Novel and unordained Intruders p. 44 The right succession and authority of Ministers a matter of high concernment to true Christians p. 48 Who are the greatest enemies against the Ministry of this Church p. 49 Matters of Religion most considerable to Statesm n. p. 50 The just cause godly Ministers have to fear aâ—d complain p. 52 Ministers case unheard not to be condemned p. 55 The character of a good Minister such as is here pleaded for p. 58 Ministers excellencies are some mens greatest offence p. 61 Ministers infirmities viciate but not vacate their Authority p. 62 I. The first Objection or Quarrell of the Antiministeriall faction against the Ministers of England as being in no true or right Church way p. 65 Answ Vindicating the Church of England p. 66 1. As to Religion internall Ibid. It s power on the heart p. 67 Iâ—s ground and rule as to holinesse p. 68 Of fanatick fancies in Religion p. 69 The Souls true search after God and discoveries of him p. 71 Of the Souls Immortality p 73 Mans improvement to the divine image p. 74 True Religion as internall estates in Christ and in the true Church p. 76 II. Of true Religion as externall or professionall in Church society p. 77 Of the Church as visible and Catholick p. 78 Of a Nationall Church p. 80 The order and charity which befits Christians in all sociall relations p. 82 Papall and popular extreams touching the Church p. 84 The Romane arrogating too much p. 85 Of Infallibility in the Churches Ministry p. 88 Of Churches reduced only to single Congregations or Independent bodies 91 The primitive way of Churches and Christian communion p. 92 The National communion or polity of the Church of Eng. justified p. 95 The mincing or crumbling of the Churches pernicious p. 96 Of Religion as established and protected by Civill power p. 99 Of the subject matter or members of a Church p. 101 Of Parochiall congregations p. 102 Of Communicants p. 103 Of Ministers duty to Communicants p. 104 Ministers in each Parish not absolute Judges but Monitors and Directors Ibid. Good Discipline in the Church most desirable Ibid. Of Jurisdiction and Judicatories Ecclesiasticall p. 105 Of the common peoples power in admitting Communicants p. 106 Of a Church Covenant its Novelty Infirmity Superfluity p. 110 The essentials and prudentials of a true Church in England p. 112 Of being above all Ordinances Ministry and Church society p. 113 Peoples incapacity of gubernative power Civill or Ecclesiasticall p. 115 Of Magistrates and Ministers p. 117 Of the Plebs or peoples judgment in matters of doctrine or scandall p. 119 Tell it to the Church in whom is power of Church discipline and censures p. 121 Of Synods and Councels p. 126 Of prudentiall Liberty and latitudes in Church polity p. 127
their own or others clothes for their plainnesse or costlinesse for their novelty or Antiquity yea in the length or shortnesse in the laying out or hiding of their hair Hence their censures scandals or approbations of others their confidences and oftentations of themselves even as to piety purity and holinesse which are indeed seldome seen in ruffianly and dissolute fashions yet often in those proportions of elegancy and decency as to the outward garb and fashion which some mens rusticity severity or slovenliness cannot bear Because they doe not understand that in things of this kinde not Scripture but Nature gives rules to the Religion of them which is their usefulnesse and their comelinesse 1 Cor. 11.3 14. And this not by any morall innate principles but by those more gentium customes of Countries and dictates of sociall nature which not by written Lawes but by tacit consent and use doe for the most part prescribe what is agreeable to humanity modesty and civility which customary measures and civill rules of ornament and outward fashions in any countrey are not scrupulously to be quarrelled at nor cynically neglected nor morosely retained but may with freedome and ingenuity be used and altered according to the genius of all things of extern mode and fashion as cloathing dressing building planting fortifying speaking c. which depend much upon the fancies of men and so are mutable without any sin or immorality as all things are within the compasse of mortality How many mens Religion lies in their admiration of some mens persons gifts piety and supposed zeal in their being of his sect way body fraternity and confederacy when yet many times they have but an Idol for their God though they glory to have a Levite to be their Priest Able men may have great infirmities and learned men grosse errors foul diseases oft attend fair faces Doting sectaries will worship the pudenda of their Priests and magnifie what is most dishonest and uncomely in their ringleaders Yea many silly souls we see are every where much taken with other mens ignorance set off meerly with impudence where the want of all true worth for ability and authority is attended with the want of all shame and modesty Factious spirits in poor people makes them content to have their Religion hatcht under the wing and feathers of any foolish and unclean bird In how many Christians is their Religion blown up as the paper kites of boyes meerly with their own breath or other mens applauses setting off all that is done in their way with the Epithites of rare pretious holy gracious spirituall sweet divine Saint-like c. when yet wise men that weigh their boastings evidently finde much of those mens Religion to be deformed with Mimicall affectations of words and phrases with studied tones scurrilous expressions antick gestures and ridiculous behaviours Much in them is fulsome by the length lowdnesse tumultuarinesse unpreparednesse and confusednesse even of those duties which they count religious holy and spirituall which are so far scandalous and suspected to sober Christians as they finde them not onely full of faction but also destitute of that common sense order comelinesse gravity discretâ—on reason and judgement which are to be found in others from whom they separate not out of scruple so much as scorn not out of conscience but pride and arrogancy when yet they bring forth after all their swelling and tympanies nothing comparable to what others in an orderly way have done either for the soul and essence of Religion which is truth and charity or for the body and ornament of it so far as it appears to others in order and decency Many have little that they can fancy or call Religion in them but onely a fiercenesse for that side to which they take a morosenesse censoriousnesse and supercilious indifferency towards all but those whom they count theirs Vehemently opposing what ever Adversary they undertake abhorring all they doe or hold in piety or prudence branding all they like not with the mark of Antichrist and crying downe what ever by any Christians is diversly observed in the fashion of their Religion Hence many of the lowest form of Christians place much of their Religion in innovating Church government contending for discipline disputing against all Liturgies in scuffling with ceremonies in beating the air and fighting with the shadows of Religion the measure of all which as to piety prudence and conscience stands in their relation to the main end Gods glory the Churches peace and the salvation of soules which where-ever they are with truth holinesse order and charity carried on in any Church Christians need no more scruple the extern form and manner wherein they are decently set forth than they need quarrell at the roome table or dish where wholesome meat is handsomely presented to them whether in a plainer or more costly way Others of more airy and elevated fancies are altogether in Millenary dreams religious fantasms Apocalyptick raptures Prophetick accomplishments not caring much how they break any moral precept of Law or Gospel if they thinke thereby they may help to fulfill a Prophecy which every opiniaster is prone to imagine strongly portendeth the advancement of his opinion party and way in Religion untill they come to such a soveraignty as may be able to govern and oppresse others their Mopsicall humors being never satisfied but in fancying themselves as Kings and reigning with Christ Not in the inward power of his grace and spirit which is a Christians commendable ambition joined with an holy and humble subjection to God and man which makes them conquerours over the lusts in themseves and their love of the world whence flows the greatest peace both to Churches and States but in that extern worldly power and policy which enables them to rule others after the same bloudy arts and cruel methods of government which Zimri or Herod or Alexander or Caesar exercised and not the Lord Jesus Christ who was meek and lowly as one that served and obeyed And herein not onely the weak illiterate and fanatick vulgar are oft observed to act mad and ridiculous prankes in Religion but even men of some learning and seeming piety oft lose themselves in their wild and melancholy rovings which make all Prophecies sound to their tune and to be for their party and opinion though never so novell small and inconsiderable Nothing is more easily abused even by easie wits than Prophetick emblemes and allusions which like soft waxe are capable of severall shapes and figurations by which no doubt the Spirit of God aimed at the generall aspect and grand proportions of the Catholick Church in its visible profession and outward estate for whose use all Scripture is wrâ—tten and to whose elevation or depression either in the Orthodoxie or corruption of doctrine in its integrity or schismes in its peace or persecution prophecies are generally calculated and in no sort to those lesser occasions obscurer events or alterations incident to particular
fallacious or pernicious novelties to which the breath of some politick or passionate spirits had raised them so much above the ordinary mark of true Christian religion as to drown or threaten to carry away all those many happy enjoyments of truth peace order government and Ministry which formerly they enjoyed Not wholly it may be without but yet with fewer and more tolerable grievances which humble Christians ought to look upon in any setled Church and State rather as exercises of their patience duty and charity than as oppressions of their spirits Knowing that impatience usually punisheth it self by applying remedies sharper than the sufferings easily and hastily running down the hill as from health to sicknesse from peace to war from good to bad from bad to worse but very slowly returning from evill to good or recovering up the hill from worse to better It is true the Ministers of the Church of England of all degrees seem now to have an harder part to act for their honor and wisdome than ever they had under any Rulers professing to be Christian and reformed But they may not therefore weakly disclaim or meanly desert their Ordination and holy function nor may they despair of Gods if they have not mans protection who can soon make their very enemies to be at peace with them and stir up many friends unexpectedly for them It may be through the Lords mercy this winters floud shall be for their mendment or fertility and not for their utter vastation and ruine This fire shall not consume them but refine them this winnowing will be their purging and this shaking their setling As oppositions of old gave the greatest confirmations and polishings to those Truths which were most exercised with the hammer or file of heriticall pravity or schismaticall fury If it be the mending and not the ending the reformation and not the extirpation of Ministers which their severe censurers and opposers seek for why should not time of triall be given and all honest industry used to improve these well grown and flourishing fig trees before they be hewed down and stubbed up which heretofore have not been either barren or unfruitfull to God and man If either Papall or Anabaptisticall and Levelling enemies must at length after severall windings and turnings be gratified with their utter ruine and destruction which God forbid yet while Ministers have leave and liberty to pray to preach to print to doe well and worthily God forbid they should so farre injure God good men and so good a cause as not Christianly to endeavour its defence which at worst is to be done by comely suffering And who knows but that when these witnesses both against superstition and confusion in the Church shall seem to be slain cast out and buryed they may live again to the astonishment both of friends and enemies But if the sins of this Nation and the decrees of divine Justice doe indeed hasten an utter overthrow here of the reformed Ministry and the reformed Religion If Ministers of the ancient Ordination lawfull heirs of the true Apostolick succession are therefore accounted as sheep for the slaughter because they are better fed and better bred than others of leaner soules and meaner spirits If they are therefore to the men of this world as a savour of death unto death because they hold forth the Word of Truth and Life to the just reproach of a lying dying and self-destroying generation If we must at last perish and fall with our whole function and fraternity after all our studies charges labours and sufferings Yet it is fit some of us and the more the better lest our silence may argue guilt give the world both at present and in after ages some account why and how in so learned valiant wise and religious a Nation as this of England hath been wee as Ministers have stood so long what pious frauds and holy arts we had whereby to impose so many hundreds of years upon so many wise Princes so many venerable Parliaments so many pious professors of Christian and reformed Religion And lastly upon so quick and high spirited a people as these of England generally are neither so grosse as to be easily deluded nor so base as patiently to suffer themselves in so high a nature to be abused That so at least if the world can lesse discern for what cause the Ministry and Ministers are now to be destroyed they may see upon what grounds of piety or policy they were so long preserved in peace plenty and honour And for what reasons they now seek as their pious predecessors did to maintain not their persons so much as their office and function in its due order and authority that so they might have transmitted it in an holy and unblameable succession to posterity as that which in their consciences they verily think to be a most divine and Christian Institution Beneficiall for the good of the Church and of all mankinde which in former ages was ever esteemed the glory and blessing of this or any other Nation The setter forth of the light wisdome power and love of the eternall God in his Son Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners and which thousands of Christians in all ages and places have experienced and approved to be to their soules the Savour of life unto life the mighty power of God to salvation The Author easily observes the present face of our heavens which are much darkned by those black and lowring clouds which chiefly hang over constant true and faithfull Ministers heads menacing them above any rank or calling of men Nor is he ignorant of the touchinesse and roughnesse the jealousies and timorousnesse of many mens spirits in these times whose highest pretentions to piety are set forth either by fierce oppositions against the Ministry or by such a weak pleading for and wary owning of their succession and ordination their calling and persons as ra-rather invites opposition contempt and insolency than any way gives credit or countenance to them and their function whose remaining branches of Presbytery will hardly thrive by the watering of those hands which have been and are destroyers of its root the Primitive Apostolicall Episcopacy they are pitifull defenders of that who are passionate opposers of this who of all men have given the greatest advantages to those that seek to abrogate the whole function and calling or to arrogate it to vulgar ignorance and impudence The grim and sad aspect on all hands upon Ministers makes the Authour out of charity to himself and others as willing to give a fair account of his profession so loath to offend any sober and judicious Reader or to contract the enmity of any others of ruder tempers by any rash stroke or inconsiderate dash of his pen to which he may be subject and for which he begs pardon both of God and man if any have escaped which yet may be so far venial as its innocent sharpnesse aims at no mens person but onely
Ordination God forbid they should not with all candor and impartiality be heard with all chearfulnesse accepted and with all uprightnesse be entertained No good man or worthy Minister is so vain as to fancy he may not be mended and happily improved But first let those alterations and novelties which beare this title of reformation and amendment be publiquely set forth duly seriously and impartially be weighed in the balance of sober demonstrations and sound reasonings so as becomes the honour wisdome and piety of this Nation before they be injuriously concluded and forcibly obtruded upon conscientious Ministers or people The English world as other Protestant Churches hath had enough of the Apes and Peacocks which crafty Merchants have ever sought to vend to the vulgar if they have any gold and spices any commodities that are of reall use and worth it is pity the worlds wants have not been sooner supplyed and their expectations satisfied which being so long deluded and oft frustrated hath made sober Christians to suspect the whole fraight of some mens religious novelties to be nothing else but far fetcht and dear bought toyes variating so much from the uniform judgement and universall practise of all ancient and modern Churches of the best note and account no lesse than from the worthy constitution and wise frame of this reformed Church of England whose honor and renown was justly great in the Christian world for its piety and peace its order and its proficiency in all good learning sound doctrine and holy manners which owed as much as any Church under heaven to the wisdome piety and impartiality of its Ministers and reformers under God as also to its establishers and defenders Nor have the effects of later offers and endeavours to mend or change their work been yet so excellent or blest as to give any cause to preferre these before them who no doubt could easily have reached those later seeming heights and raptures of Religion and Reformation which some men so much boast of in their hotter yet looser tempers but those learned grave and godly men considered in the extern polity and frame of Religion what was then most necessary and convenient for men and times what latitudes of prudence and graines of charity are to be allowed by Christian piety Not prescribing their plat-formes then fitted to the publique good as the Non ultras of Reformation but giving posterity a pattern that if we would indeed attain to further perfection we should imitate their wise and charitable moderation and tread in their humble easie and even steps which were not slippery with bloud nor rough with insolencies nor unequall with factions nor dark with policies nor extravagant with varieties but fairly laid out and freely carried on by due authority with publique and impartiall counsels in a peaceable way to a general uniformity and satisfaction of both the most and the best Whereas among the many specious offers and earnest importunities either formerly or lately made by some men in reference to Rel gion and the Ministry of it in this Church little hath hitherto appeared to have any uniform or well-formed face of further edification or future bettering of Religion in doctrine government discipline or manners Some few it may be of honest hearts have taken to themselves a liberty to serve God in that way they best fancy and most affect But thousands have run to errour ignorance atheism and licentiousnesse under that colour of freedome which besides the laxation and confusion brought among the bad hath occasioned great heart-burning and distance and uncharitablenesse among those that seemed to be good In some things indeed sober and wise men have offered good counsell and propounded some things fit to be considered of and embraced but the noise and violence of other mens passions and interests suffer not those mens calmer voices to be heard Their rougher work seemes to be all with axes and hammers not for building or repairing the Temple of God without noise but for beating all down with the greatest stir and clamour they can make All is for demolishing Schools and Universities for despising all learning and sciences for taking away all order society larger communion subordination and government in the Church for casting away all ancient Ordination and authoritative Ministry that we may be left in the next age like the Tohu and Bohu of the Chaos void of light and full of confusion without good learning or true Religion without any form or power of godlinesse So far are those lines which the Antiministeriall fury and folly drawes from running parallel to piety or Christianity to right Reason or true Religion that they are most diametrically opposite to all civility prudence policy sense of honour and principles of humanity Of which deformities and defects none are lesse patient to hear than they that are most guilty whose preposterous activity rather than sit still must needs imploy it self in pulling all down which is indeed the work of plebeian hands and pragmaticall spirits but to build or repair either Church or State is the businesse onely of wise and well advised persons such as having publique and generall consent to deliberate of such things may also have an universall influence in the reason and authority of their determinations But such able men are hardly found in Countrey crowds and illiterate heaps nor are they very forward to obtrude themselves upon publique works without a very fair call from God and man which they doe not think to be the either countrey-mans whistle or the armed mans trumpet From neither of which as this Author hath any invitation to this work so he hath no temptation in it to captate favour with the giddy and uncertain vulgar by seeming to adore their Diana's or admire their many new masters and their rarer gifts which make them worthy indeed of such soft and sequacious disciples Nor yet hath he any design to ingratiate with supercilious and self-suspecting greatnesse or to comply with the more solemn errors and graver extravagancies of those who study safety more than piety who think to flatter Magistrates by crying down Ministers being more afraid of that sword which can but kill the body than of that which proceeds out of the mouth of Christ and is able to slay both soul and body He bespeaks no men further than the truth justice and merit of this cause of the Evangelicall Ministry made good by Scripture Antiquity and good experience among us here in England may perswade them to look favourably and friendly on the Authour and his endeavour wherein albeit every one that ownes himself to be a Christian in this Church is highly concerned yet the undertaking seemes to have very little tempting in it or inviting to it as now the face of the Ministry of the Church of England seemes to appear besmeared and disguised with infinite odious aspersions loaden with unmerited injuries and indignities a wonder to its enemies and friends a sad spectacle
to all good men and good Angels whom it cannot but afflict to see those that are the Brethren of Angels in heaven Revel 19.10 and the fathers of Christians on earth 1 Cor. 4.15 thus treated and threatned by some men who have this onely of proportion and equity in them to pursue the greatest vertues with the greatest hatred The Apologist therefore hath purposely declined to bring the odium or envy of Dedication upon any one particular person lest this defence should seeme like a blazing Star threatning with malignant influence any mans greatnesse and honour either of ancient or modern edition which may be jealous lest the patronising or pleading for the distressed and despised Ministry should be the next way to their diminution lest the dust and rubbidge of the so much battered and defaced Clergy should deform or bury them Besides he thought it in vain to single out any one Patron to this book and its Subject For first how few persons of more ample conditions splendider fortunes and higher quality in civill estimation doe much lay to heart the afflictions of these Josephs godly Ministers and good scholars Most are intent to their policy profit or pleasure or to their sufferings revenges and reparations Nothing costs a grosse spirited Gentleman who lives like a great earth worm in a fat dunghill lesse either as to his purse or his care than the interests of Learning or Religion The ignorance and dissolutenesse of many makes them indifferent if not enemies to piety and good education as lights that reproach their deformities or bonds that restrain their exorbitancies Some are best pleased when least molested by any morall or gracious importunities esteeming those their best friends who suffer them to degenerate to beasts or to devils or to both at once in being Hypocrites or Atheists who have the stupidnesse of the beast and the malice of the devill Not that I would diminish the honour of the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation the good and gallant sort of whom none in the world exceeds for civility fidelity justice constancy and piety Though some be the shame of honour and the stain of Gentry as bags of chaffe puffes of airy vanity illiterate vice insolent ignorance and folly well fed who have nothing to boast of but empty names of reproached ancestors and undeserved titles which are comely when inscribed on the Escucheon of vertues but deformed and ridiculous when usurped by pultroones and such whom no worth redeems from being vile and despicable to wise and serious mindes Yet there are not a few eminent persons of true honour and reall worth which consists in just valour judicious piety usefull virtues both to private and publique relations whose purses have been as cruses and their houses sanctuaries to many godly and learned men in the distresses of these times Yet in stead of paying a respect and honour to any of these truly noble and generous persons it might be but an injury to single out any one of them in the cloud and jealousies of these times to be as a publique refuge and Asylum to this work and its cause which carries with it something more immense and ponderous than ordinary occurrences in the world And besides its high concernment to Church and State to the temporall and eternall good of men it hath vast difficulties attending it rough oppositions implacable odiums and incorrigible malices to contend with In the midst of all which there must needs be a very great deadnesse and almost despair for any one man never so worthy and well-affected to advance beyond honest desires and sincere but ineffectuall endeavours Furthermore to take a right scantling of things what one mans shoulders I beseech you how potent soever can bear the burthens which are now cast upon the Ministry and Ministers of this Church of England What hands can raise their declined state what arms can support or stay their tottering and threatning ruines Alas what private influence can be so benign as to oversway or counterpoise that malignity which some men pretend to discover not onely in the mindes of men on earth but even in the very Stars and constellations of heaven which some say fight against the Ministry now as they sometime did against Sisera If these Western wise men who seem to be of a different strain and way from those Eastern Magi that came to worship Christ in the Manger with their persons and presents if I say they had not daily intelligence from heaven and sat neer to the Cabinet Councell of that High Court truly good Christians would hardly beleeve or regard their reports It being very improbable that the Stars either fixed or planetary should be enemies to those who bear their name in the Church as Ministers doe being called both Stars and Angels Revel 3.1 And who have ever been as much brighter in their light so more necessary to the Church and more dear to God than those are in the Firmament or visible heavens by how much the intellectuall and eternall light of mens soules exceeds that which is onely sensible and momentary to their eyes by how much reason and truth are above the beames and lustre of the Sun which is infinitely short of the divine glory of Christ and those spirituall benefits which by his healing wings the Ministers and Ministrations of his Church are derived to the world Although the study and knowledge of the Stars be very worthy of a wise and Christian man because in their beauty lustre and numberlesse number in their vast magnitude and height in their admirable motion and various influences the wonderfull glory of the Creators power and wisdome is eminently set forth beyond what vulgar eyes discern yet experience tels the truly learned and religious Astronomer for such there are that nothing is so blinde and bold as an hungry Astrologaster who must flatter that he may feed starveling wisards like witches threaten all that doe not give to them or approve them But if wise men by their moral liberty of virtue and grace may over-rule the Stars naturall inclinations upon them sure they may as the wisest of men both Christian and heathen ever did despise those sorry Star-gazers and silly divinators of whom Tacitus in the first book of his history writes That they were oft banished from Rome and yet could never be kept out a verminly generation ever destroyed yet ever breeding who owe their best education to their bellies their wit and science to the sense and knowledge of their wants Who pretend to get their harvest out of heaven and glean their food from among the stars when indeed they have their greatest influence upon the spirits and harvest from the purses of credulous and simple people They are alwayes fawning and unfaithfull to great men Deceivers of all that expect any great or good matters from them thus he a learned Heathen So that the insolency among Christians must needs be great and intolerable to see Almanacks
of straying backsliding and Apostatizing times wherein many seek to weary God his Ministers and all men but themselves with their variating wickednesse The weight and worth of this great Subject the Ministry of this and so of all true Churches in which as in Noahs Ark all that we call Religion all that is sacred Christian and reformed is deposited and embarqued would have indeed required a more proportionate assertor who might out of the good treasure of his heart have given more strength and ornament to so divine and necessary an Institution But who sees not the methods and choices of Gods wisedome and power who oft-times makes his light and glory to shine clearest through the darkest Lanternes He appears in a bush when he purposed the great redemption of his Church out of Egypt The skilfull hand of God can write as well with a Goose quill as with a Swans or Eagles The self-demonstrating beams of sacred Truths need no borrowed reflexions By soft and easie breathings the Lord hath oft dispelled the grossest fogs and blindest mists which rose in his Church His fair and most orient pearles are frequently found in rough and unpolished shels The excellency of his heavenly Treasure and power doth best appeare in earthen vessels The plain and main Truths of Christian Religion among which this of an holy ordained Ministry is one like soverain and victorious Beauties lose nothing by the meannesse of their dresse or unaccuratenesse of their habit it is enough if they can but freely appeare like themselves This fashion of writing by way of Apology which requires a diffused and pathetick stile was indeed judged the best and fittest as for the Subject and the times so also for this Author considering the little leisure the short time the great variety of other businesse and distractions upon him besides the terror and precipitancy of the ruine daily threatning the Ministry and Ministers if God by the justice wisdome and piety of some men did not defend them and divert that mischief For the preventing of which some others have wrote in vindication of the Ministry after a more succinct and Syllogistick way of argumentation But the Antiministeriall disease having seised not so much the heads as the hearts of men and depraved affections having swerved many from the judgements it was thought necessary to apply some remedy at once to both setting Christians in the Truth and exciting them to such a love of it and zeal to it as may best encounter the heady boldnesse of those which oppose it If the Authour have in this larger way done any thing worthy so excellent a Subject it must be first imputed to Gods gracious assistance and the blessing of prayers more than of studies wherein it may be the charitable flames of many worthy Christians have greatly helped his infirmities Next it must be ascribed to the sacrednesse dignity and amplenesse of the matter or Subject handled which as Orators of old observed like rich soile and good ground raiseth to generous productions the weaker spirits of any thing sown or planted in them It is true the Authors ambition is in nothing more than to excell in the discharge of his duty as a Minister of this Church that he might finish his course with joy and also to have equalled with height of abilities and industry the excellency of this Cause which is of so high concernment to the glory of God to the honour of his Saviour to the salvation of so many soules to the happinesse of this Church to the blessing of this Nation to the preservation of so many worthy men his Fathers and Brethren of the Ministry who make conscience not onely to discharge their duty but also to preserve the divine authority and holy succession of their heavenly calling as Christian Ministers whom the blessing of God hath as much honored and confirrmed in this Church of England as in any other under heaven having made them in every place where they were planted as the trees of knowledge and of life bringing the desolate and barren wildernesses to become as the garden of God by their good husbandry their learned and godly industry which meriteth all incouragement and protection of all good men to whose vindication and assistance if this Author hath come in either too late or too weak it will be his great grief And if he have not been able to adde any strength or honor to this cause which some others before him have either fairly touched or somewhat fully handled yet he may adde to the number of the witnesses who have or shall give testimony to this great Truth holy Order and happy Institution of Jesus Christ who must not cease to prophecy though they be clothed in sack cloth Revel 11.3 To conclude Nothing seemed in honor and conscience to him more vile and uncomely than to see this Reformed Church of England which hath brought up so many learned and valiant sons which lately was so much praised and extolled by them in her prosperity to be now so much deserted by many of her children both Ministers and others in this day of her great agony and calamity wherein ignorant mechanick and meritlesse spirits think it not enough to endeavour to strip her of her ornaments to rob her of her garments to deprive her of her dowry to divorce her from her best friends and faithfullest servants but they must also cast dirt in her face spitefully scratching her wanonly rending her cruelly wounding her and most scornfully destroying her as if she were an impure prostitute a most abhorred Adulteresse when indeed shee was and is a fair Daughter of heaven and the fruitfull Mother of us all Iustly esteemed by all learned sober and godly men both at home and abroad as wise grave chast and venerable a Matron as any in all the Christian or reformed world Nor doth shee cease to be comely though she be now black and scorched There appeares beauty amidst her ashes and lovelinesse amidst her scratches the Spirit of glory shines through her Sackcloth still meriting and therefore not despairing of the love favour pity and protection of all worthy persons who are considerable either for counsel or in power and commendable either for honesty or Religion Suffering indignities and dayly fearing more from none but those that are enemies as to all learning order and religion so to all honesty modesty and humanity Her sad deplorable fate and by such men threatned if this Author cannot hinder or help to recover yet he shall with Jeremie heartily pity deeply lament and most passionately pray for her and her children so long as he lives as thou wilt O Christian and compassionate Reader if thou beest of his minde who bids thee Farewell HIERASPISTES OR A DEFENCE BY WAY OF APOLOGY FOR THE Ministry and Ministers OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND Humbly Presented To the Consciences of all those that excel in Virtue I Am neither afraid 1. The Address Dan. 6.3 nor
Hemlock very hurtful or death in the pot being judged by the wisdom of the Church and State here and by the most learned Divines abroad to be within the liberty and compass of those things of Order and Decency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut ordinata acies As an Army with Banners in Rank and File where nothing may be deformed by being disorderly which by that one grand charter 1 Cor. 14.40 are allowed by God to be ordered by the prudence of any particular National Church And in which all Churches in all ages and places have esteemed their several Customs as Laws to them without any breach of Charity or prejudice of Christian Liberty or blemish of the Faith yet never perhaps without the offence of some particular Members in the Churches whose fancies easily finde fault with any things whereof themselves are not Fathers or at least Gossips Humble Christians will thank God for moderate enjoyments nor are they bound to contend for what they think best to the perturbance of the publick Peace Patience is a remedy always near easie and safe nor is it likely that the state of any Church on Earth will ever be so happily compleated as to have nothing in it which may displease any good man Cato optimè sentit sed nocet interdum reipublicae Tacit. or which may not exercise his tollerancy and charity which are generally more commendable and unsuspected virtues than those of zealous activity and publick opposition which commonly draw somewhat upon the dregs of self either as to Passion or Interest Et multis utile bellum Luc. Party or Concernment For who is so mortified that doth not hope to get something of credit profit or honor by adhering to any side or new faction against the former setlings How many learned and godly men are and ever will be till better grounds be produced from Scripture Reason and practise of the Primitive Church unsatisfied with the parity and novelty yet pretended Divine Right of the sole-headless-Presbytery which chalenges to it self as from Christ such a supreme power as is exclusive and destructive of all Episcopacy that is of the constant Presidency of one among other Presbyters so placed by their own choice and consent And no less unsatisfied are thousands of learned and good Christians with that power of Lay Elders for so they are best called for distinction sake and not Ruling Elders lest by that title of Ruling they should fancy and usurp the sole power of rule to themselves which undoubtedly is equally if not eminently due to the Preaching Elders who labor in the Word and Doctrine Touching which point of Lay Elders in the Church I have read two Books written above thirty years since by a very learned godly and impartial Divine Master Chibald of London In the first of which he proved these Lay Elders to have no place office use Mr. Chibalds two Books of Lay Elders power or maintenance assigned them by Scripture nor ever in any Church of Christ which he demonstrates in the second Book which is full of excellent reading as to the Fathers Councils and Histories of the Church In none of which he findes them to have any footing as to office and power upon any Divine Right ever owned in the Church nor can they now have in every little Parish or private Congregation where the Country plainness may afford careful Over-seers for the Poor and Church-wardens but not fit men to match with the Minister and to fit as Rulers to govern their other Neighbors who will hardly believe they have authority from Heaven to rule them unless they see more abilities in them than usually can be found What use may be made of such Elders in the way of Prudence among greater Representations of the Church as in Synods and Councils he leaves to the wisdom of those that have power in such Conventions to call and regulate them But he denies any thing as of Divine Right belonging to them so as to binde every Parish or Congregation to have them which would be ridiculous and most inconvenient Both these Books being seven years since committed to the hands of Master Coleman as then a Licencer were unhappily either smothered and embezzled or carelesly lost to the great detriment of truth in that particular For truly in my best judgement and in other mens of far better to whom I imparted them never any thing was written of that subject more learnedly more uprightly more copiously or more candidly especially considering the Author was one that scrupuled some things of Conformity In like maner how few Christians in any Reformed Church are satisfied with those new and strange Limbs rather than Bodies of Independent Churches which word of bodying into small Corporations is as a novel so a very gross expression and hath something of a Solecism not onely in Religion which owns properly but one Body of Christ Rom. 12.5 We being many are one body in Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body which is Christs which is his Catholike Church whose communion with Christ the onely Head and one another as Members in several Offices and Operations is by the same Faith the same Scriptures the same Ministry the same Ministrations and as to the main and substance the same Christian Profession But it is also incongruous and absurd in ordinary significancy of Language while by such a singular Bodying they mean a Spiritual Union of those that pretend to be most Spiritual Christians Which names and novel inventions about constituting and compleating Churches in so many fractions parcels and places a part from all others by the means of an explicit Church Covenant as they call it how unscriptural how unconform to the examples of all ancient Churches how impertinent as to Piety how dangerous and destructive to the Truth Union Harmony and Dependance which ought to be among all Christians 1 Cor. 12.25 That there be no schism in the body i. e. In that one Body of Christ the Catholike Church and all Churches to avoid Schism in that one Catholike Body of Christ do they seem to many judicious and gracious Christians who think themselves and all others that profess to be Christians sufficiently added and united to the Church as the Primitive Believers being once baptized were without any more a do yea and declaredly bound by their * Acts 2.42 They that gladly received the word were baptized and the same day there were added to the Church about 3000. souls Baptism and Profession to all Christian conversation charitable communion and holy walking by these Publick Bonds and Sacraments of Religion which they owned and of which they were publickly partakers and professors So that not onely in these but in many other things we see the remedies which some men apply to former seeming distempers do to many men seem worse than the diseases ever were The little finger of grievances scruples
treble minded men sometimes Episcopal then Presbyterian after Independents next nothing at all unless it be something of an hobling Erastian who runs like a Badger with variating and unequal motions yet still keeping where the ridg of secular power goes highest who is ashamed not to seem a Christian but yet afraid to be taught and governed as Christians were in primitive times when they had not the support of Civil Magistrates whose protection in Government and duties religious the Church willingly and thankfully embraces but it cannot own the derivation of either its Institutions or its Discipline from secular Powers and Laws 12. Of changes in Ministers Not that all mutation is the companion of folly or weakness there are happy inconstancies and blessed Apostacies from Error to Truth from Heresie and Schism to Verity and Catholike unity from factious pride to obedient humility from impotent desires of governing to patient submissions under due and setled Government from * A castris Diaboli ad Dei tentoria Felix transfuga beatus Apostata Luth. 1 Thes 5.22 the Devils camps to Gods Tents But then truth and not faction piety and not apparent self-interest a change of maners to the better as well as of side and principles will follow and not the least appearance once of evil From which Ministers of all men must abstain There must be no shew or shadow of worstings and decays in holiness of greater indifferencies in Religion of any licentiousness and immoralities in maners Phil. 3.19 any of which discover their bellies or this world to be their god more than Jesus Christ or the true God And which is most ridiculous and intollerable many Ministers in their greatest ramblâ—ngs and shiftings and separatings from themselves and from all gravity order and modesty deserting their former Station Ministry and Ordination or taking it up upon some fanciful new way some easie account of popular calling to any place yet still they are many times eager declamers against Sects and Schisms Heresies and Separations Errors and corrupt Opinions c. that is against all that are not of their party way and faction Not considering that like Gehazi the leprosie of those Syrians cleaves to many of their own foreheads who carry their heads full high Now after all this which I reckon up not in bitterness but in charity not for a reproach * Dum peccata aliorum confiteor ipse compatiar nec superbè increpo sed lugeo dum alium fleo meipsum de fleo Ambr. de Poen l. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stobaeus but for a motive to repentance in my self or any other that may be guilty of any thing unworthy and scandalous to our holy Profession It cannot seem strange if Ministers are generally looked upon as naked and ashamed of themselves since many of them have wantonly sinned themselves out of that innocency and protection together with that love respect estate and honor which formerly they enjoyed when publicks Laws and Authority compassed them about keeping them as in subjection and due obedience so in plenty safety love and respect Which last preserving them from irreverence affronts and vulgar insolency is easily obtained when once the common people see that Power stands Centinel and Civil Favor keeps a Guard on any Men or any Calling Indeed with the common sort of people it matters not much what straw and clouts the Scare-crow be made of so it be set upon a Pole By these secular and worldly temptations hath the Devil 13. Ministers way of recovery in great part beguiled the Ministers and the Ministry of England of that favor and those blessings which they once enjoyed which to recover by Gods help must be the work not of weak heady popular passionate factious and clamorous men who are resolved never to confess any * Incidere in errorem imperiti est animi at perseverare postquam agnoveris contumacis est Salvia l. 5. error or transport but to continue in that troublesome and rugged path of novel opinions State projects and secular ambitions wherein they see they have lost themselves past all recovery without ingenuous retractation and speedy amendment The rashness and obstinacy of such Vzzahs is not fit to stay the tottering Ark who have almost quite overturned it nor ever will they be able to bring back the pristine honor of the Ministry or the majesty of the Reformed Religion Their penitence publick real and as bold as their sin and error will more recover and recommend them than all those murmurings and complaints by which they scratch one anothers itch and confirm each other in their erroneous obstinacy and defeated novelties * Verè poenitentes pudoris magis memores quà m salutis esse non debent August Ingenuous confessings and forsakings of their follies facilities superstitious heats and immoderations will best reconcile them not onely to God and man but also to themselves Who can have little peace while they are pertinacious in their errors and are impatient to recant any thing either in opinion or practise although never so much amiss and blasted both by the disfavor of God and man This opiniativeness and restiveness in extern Forms of Religion is likely to be the greatest obstruction which will hinder the recovery of Ministers to unity order and honor which was ever greatest when for their painful preaching and peaceable living they were persecuted by others Heathens or Hereticks or Schismaticks who never wanted will to vex the Orthodox Christians when ever they had power were their beginings never so gentle and their pretensions never so specious But then is the regard to Ministers least or none at all when they turn Pragmaticks instead of Preachers Persecutors instead of Peace-makers and sticklers for and with the world rather than sufferers with and for Christ Since being Ministers of Jesus Christ the Lamb slain for the sins of the World they are more comly on the rack and at the stake in the prison and dungeon with bolts and chains with wounds and brands for Christs sake than with Buff-coats and Belts and Banners and Trophes dipped in and defiled with the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 40. blood of their People and Neighbors and Governors in any case whatsoever Sure it is hard for Ministers of the Gospel to pick out Letters of Mart from the Gospel or to have any Commission to kill and slay from Jesus Christ in order to reform Religion or to plant any of his clearest Institutions much less to pull down any antient good orders in the Church or to set up any new ones which have so much of mans vanity and passion that they cannot have any thing of Christs divine appointment Nor is this meek and passive temper requisit in a true Minister any softness and cowardise but the greatest valor and magnanimity which having least of revenge passion self-seeking humane faction and worldly interest which are always
cunning of some the credulity of others and the custom of most men serves where seconded with power to scare and amuse the world so as to keep the vulgar in some aw and subjection And in their best and foberest temper they hold That no Religion is or ought to be other than a lackey and dependant on secular power that piety must be subordinate to policy that there the people serve God well enough where they are kept in subjection to those that rule them From whose politick dispensations and allowances they are humbly and contentedly to receive what Scriptures Law and Gospel holy Institutions Ministry and Religion those who govern them think fittest whereby to preserve themselves in power and others in peace under them That where the principles of Christian or Reformed Religion which hath so far obtained credit in these Western parts of the World do cross or condemn the designs and interests of those in Sovereinty how unjustifiable soever they are for righteousness or true holiness yet are they by Reasons of State and the supposed Laws of Necessity first to be dispensed withall and actually violated Next by secret warpings variations connivencies and tollerations they are to be ravelled weakned discountenanced and decryed Thus gradually and fuly introducing new parties and factions in Religion which cryed up by men of looser principles profaner wits and flattering tongues also set off and sweetned with novelty profit and power will soon bear down and cast out with specious shews of easier cheaper freer and safer modellings all true Religion and the true Ministry of it and all the antient if they seem contrariant ways though never so well setled and approved not onely by the best and holiest of men but as to their constant preservation even by God himself Indeed all experience teacheth us 17. Ambition the Mâ—ch of true Religion That no passion in the soul of man is less patient of sober just and truly religious bounds than * Luctanter agrè fert humana ambitiâ— Christi jugâ—â— am Dei Imperitur nec libeâ—ter crutem giâ—â—â—â—â—ui sceptra captant diademata aucupantur Parisiens Ambition which will rather adventure as it were to countermand and over-rule God himself than fail to rule over man Nor hath any thing caused more changes tossings and persecutions in the Church than this forcing religious rectitudes and the immutable rules of divine Truth Order and holy Institutions to bend to and comply with the * Cupido dominandi cunctis affectibus dominantior Tacit An. l. 15. crookedness of ambitious worldly * Regnandi causa violandum est jus caeteris aequitatem cole Jul. Caes Suet. interests Insomuch that very Reformations pretended and by well meaning men intended have oftentimes degenerated to great deformities through the immoderations and transports of those who cannot in reason of State as they pretend subject themselves to or continue to use those severer rules of righteousness or follow those primitive examples of holy Discipline and Religious orders which Christ and his Church hath set before them but they must so far wrest and innovate Religion formerly established and remove the antient Land-marks which their forefathers observed as they finde or fancy necessary to the interest of that party or power which they have undertaken Hence inevitably follows by those unreasonable * Pope Pius the fifth could not with patience hear of Ragioni di Stato counting those pretensions to be against all true Religion and Moral Virtues L. Verul Reasons of State which not the Word of God nor his providence nor any true prudence but onely some mens fancies passions lusts and follies make necessary That the antient established Ministry and true Ministers be they never so able worthy useful and necessary must either be quite removed and changed or else by degrees drawn to new Modellings and Conformities which can never be done without great snares to many injuries to others and discouragements to all that have any thing in them of Religious setledness whose pious and judicious constancy in their holy way and profession chusing rather to serve the Lord than the variating humors of any men and times shall be judged pertinacy faction and the next step to Rebellion how useful peaceable and commendable soever their gifts and mindes and maners be in the Church of Christ To this Tarpeian rock and precipice by Gods permission and the English worlds variation in Civil and Ecclesiastical affairs doth seem to be brought as to some mens designs and purposes the whole frame and being of the Reformed Religion in this Church of England as to its formerly established Doctrine Discipline Government and true Ministry Not but that I know the Lord Jesus Christ can withdraw this his Church and Ministers as he did himself from their malice Luke 4.30 who sought to cast him down headlong from the browe of that Hill on which their City stood I know he is as willing able and careful to save his faithful servants as himself And who knows 2 Kings 5. how far God may be pleased to use as he did the relation of the * Sermentâ—â—â—â—cilla sequitur heri sanitas per servulam captivam liberatur leprosus Dominus De parvo momento pendent res magni momenti uâ— vel â—â—xima Dei esperâ—â—ur August captive maid in order to his mercy both for healing and converting Naaman this humble Intercession and Apology of the meanest of his servants who ows all he is hath or can do to his bounty and mercy God oft hangs great weights on small wires and sets great wheels on work by little springs We know that words spoken in due season before the * Monet Deus de proposito ut praeviniamus decretum quasi à nobis poenitentibus poenitentiam discat dominus Fulgent decree be gone forth Zach. 2.7 may be acceptable and powerful even with God himself how much more should they be as * Prov. 25.11 Verba tam splendida quà m pretiosa pietate bona tempestiditate grata Bern. Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver to sober and religious men and in the behalf of those who at least have deserved to be heard before they be condemned and destroyed I have read of Sabbacus a King of Ethiopia * Herodoti Clio. who being by dreams admonished that he could not possess himself of the Kingdom of Egypt otherways than by Sacrilege * Servil de Mirandis l. 1. and the slaying of the Priests he chose rather to lay aside his claim and advantages of War which he had gotten and to refer the Government of that Kingdom to twelve Wisemen who erected to the memory of that Princes piety one of the stateliest Pyramids of Egypt which yet remains How much more will it become Christians in any way of Power and Magistracy not to make their way upon the spoils nor lay the foundations or to carry on the fabrick of their greatness and
malicious designs than to see that woful day wherein this abomination which threatens to make the Reformed Religion desolate in this Church of England being set up the whole Function and Succession of the true and lawful Ministry here should be questioned cashiered triumphed over and trampled upon by the foot of Ignorance Error Popery Jesuitism Atheism Profaneness and all sorts of disorderly mindes and maners All which heretofore felt the powerful restraints the mighty chains the just terrors and torments cast upon them by the convincing Sermons learned Writings frequent Prayers and holy examples of many excellent Ministers in England before whom the devils of ignorance error profaneness schism and superstition Luke 10.18 Vera fulgente luce flaccessit fulguris coruscatio terrore magìs quà m lumine conspicua Chrysost were wont to fall as lightning to the ground from their fanatick Heavens Have all these Sons of Thunder and of Consolation too who were esteemed heretofore by all Reformed Christians in this Church to be as Angels of God Embassadors from Heaven Friends of Christ the Bridegroom of their Souls more pretious than fine Gold dearer to humble and holy men than their right eyes the beauty of this Church and blessing of this Nation Have they all been hitherto but as Mahumetan Juglers or Messengers of Satan or Priests of Baal or as the cheating Pontifs of the Heathen gods and oracles Have they all been found lyers for God and born false witness against the Truth and Church of Christ Have they arrogantly and falsly * Numb 16.3 Ye take too much upon you since all the Congregation is holy every one of them c. Wherefore lift ye up your selves above the Church of the Lord Thus Korah and his company against Moses and Aaron taken too much upon them in exalting themselves above their line and measure Or magnifying their Office and Ministry above the common degree or sort of Christians And why all this art fraud and improbity of labor in Ministers Sure with the g eater sin and shame learned and knowing men should weary themselves in their iniquity Quò minor tentatio tò majus peccatum Aquin when they had so little temptation to be either false or wicked in so high a nature Alas For what hath been and is all this pompous pains and hypocritical sweat of Ministers Is it not for some poor living for the most part for a sorry subsistence a dry morsel a thred-bare coat a cottagely condition In comparison of that plenty gallantry superfluity splendor and honor wherewith other callings which require far less ability or pains have invited and entertained their professors in this plentiful Land Judges 8.6 Are not the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer Are not the superfluities * Merito à secularibus negotiatoribus lucro praemio superamur quum caelestia aeterna à Christo expectamus munera Jeron of any ingenuous calling beyond the necessaries of most Ministers And all this that after infinite studies pale watchings fervent prayers frequent tears daily cares and endless pains exhausting their Time Spirits Estates and Health they might through many vulgar slightings reproaches and contempts with much patience condemn themselves and their relations first to * Grave est paupertatis onus ubi deest bonae conscientiae levamen quâ sublevante gravescit nihil quâ dulcante nihil amarescit Petrach poverty which is no light burden where a good conscience is wanting or an evil one attending as in this case malice doth suppose And now at last after more than One thousand five hundred years and one Century and half since the Reformation in all which time this Nation hath more or less enjoyed the inestimable blessing for so our pious Ancestors esteemed the lights of this World the true Ministers of the Church in their Prayers Preaching Writings holy Offices and Examples they should by some men be thought unworthy of any further publick favors or imployment and to have merited to be counted as sheep for the slaughter * Rom 8.16 For thy sake are we counted as sheep for the slaughter and killed all the day long Laniâ—na diaboli Christi victima Leo. They are Christs Lambs whom the Devil delights most to â—utcher in their persons And as to their Function or Calling which was ever esteemed sacred among true Christians to be wholly laid aside and outed with all disgraceful obloquies as if they had been but pious Impostors devout Vsurpers and religious Monopolizers of that holy Ordination divine Mission Power and Authority which Christ gave personally to the Apostles and both by declared intent and clear command to their due and rightful Successors in that ordinary Ministry which is necessary for the Churches good Or at best they must be reputed but as superfluous burthensom and impertinent both in Church and State chargeable to the publick purse dangerous to the publick peace useless as to any peculiar power of holy Administrations which some think may be more cheaply easily and safely supplied by other forward pretenders who think themselves endued with greater plenitude of the Spirit with rarer gifts with diviner illuminations more immediate teachings and special anointings by which without any pains or studies they are suddenly invested into the full office and power Ministerial And as they are themselves led so they can infallibly lead all others into all truth with such wonderful advantages of ease and thrift both for mens pains and purses that there will be no need to entertain that antient form and succession of ordained Ministers as any peculiar calling or function amidst so gifted and inspired a Nation So much more sweet and fruitful do these self-planted Country Crabs and Wildings now seem to many than those Trees of Paradise which with great care and art have been grafted pruned and preserved by most skilful hands which these new sprouts look upon and cry down as onely full of Moss and Missletow In this case then O you excellent Christians such freedom as I now use I hope may seem not onely pardonable but approvable and imitable to all good Christians who fear God and love the Lord Jesus Christ who have any care of their own souls any charity to the Reformed Churches any pity to their Countrey any tenderness to the religious welfare of posterity And in a matter of so great and publick importance it is hoped and expected by all good men That none of you either in your private places or publick power and influences will by any inconsiderate and mean compliance gratifie the evil mindes of unreasonable men in order to compass the Devils most Antichristian designs who seeks by such devices first to deceive you next to destroy and damn both you and your posterity Your * Blasphemiae proximum est Christiani silentium ubi Christi causa agitur negligitur quam filendâ— aquè prodimus ac Judas salutando aut
had forsaken Jordan They may a little wash over and for a while seem to hide mens leprosies of Ignorance Error Pride Levity Schism Licentiousness and Apostacy but they cannot heal them yea rather they provoke the itch of novelty and increase the leprous scurff of obstinacy by which men refuse to be healed and glory in their despising and conquering all remedies * Levit. 10.1 They offered strange fire before the Lord. V. 2. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them Strange fires we know of old would burn as well as holy in a natural force but it was neither acceptable nor safe to be used in the solemn service of God nor did it consume the sacrifice so much as * Illorum temeritas irâ divinâ meritò castigatur quorum autoritas sacro ordiâ—e non consecratur August kindle the wrath of God to blast and destroy the presumptuous offerers However good men might use it lawfully in their private hearths and houses yet not at the Publick * Tutus est in privatis aedibus pietatis charitatis ignis quô nec rite nec tutò in publicis Dei officiis uti possumus quia non sine peccato ideo non sine peccato quia sine Dei mandato Zanch. Altars or in the Temple So that indeed we cannot hope that those whom the Lord hath not sent by his authority which hath been commited to and derived always by the hands of the Governors and Pastors of his Church either can or will take care to guide or keep us and our children in that true Rom. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy and good way of reasonable and acceptable serving God since themselves are for the most part such unreasonable persons of so silly blinde weak wandring vain and various spirits abounding in nothing so much as in their ignorance pride confidence of themselves and contempt of others And what they pretend to do as to any holy Ministrations is not as of any duty conscience 1 Cor. 9.16 Va negligenti officium quod debuit arroganti quod non debuit Bern. necessity as St. Paul who applies that Wo to me if I preach not the Gospel c. but meerly as of courtesie as arbitrary and spontaneous as of novelty and curiosity when where what how and as far as their own sudden fits humors and interests or others flatteries and vulgar applauses move them while the novelty curiosity and admiration of these mens boldness more than of their rare gifts 2 Tim. 4.3 They will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they keap up to themselves Teachers having itching ears works upon the itching ears not the humble hearts of their gaping or giddy hearers Such Ivy and Country Garlands as these men hang out in their private Cells and Conventicles or in their more Publick Fairs and Taverns are no temptations to us to think their unseasoned new bottles or their flatuous and unrefined Wines which have fumed so much into their own and their auditors weak heads that many of them every where reel and stagger and vomit out their own shame and wallow in their filthiness like drunken men are any way comparable to our old bottels * Matth. 9.17 Vetus vinum mulso longè defaecatius gustu suavius spiâ—itu lenius aetate mollâ—us sanitate salubrius cerebrum minus movet coâ— magis reficit Greg. and veterane Wines which are found sweet well-refined and full of spirits Nor will these new patches of gifted but unordained Preachers ever be suitable with or comparable to our good old Garments * Matth. 9.16 Ecclesiae vestem ordinem scilicet decoram politiam deforminovitate lacerant â—urpiter lacerando magis deformant novatores Prideaux the learned ordained and true Ministers either for durableness comliness or comfort being heavier in the Summer of prosperity and colder in the Winter of adversity So that they are rather a shame an oppression and deformity to us to our reformed Christian Religion and to our Church and Nation as if we had chose rather to be clothed with a ridiculous pybald fools-coat or a beggars cloak checquered with infinite rents and patches than with that holy and comly Garment of order and unity which Christ left to his Church and Ministers like his own without any rent or seam That is An uniform compleat constant way John 19.23 Qualis Christi vestis inconsuâ—ilis inconsissa talis esse debet ecclesiae constant ordâ— politia uniformis August and order of holy Ministerial power derived in a right and successive Ordination These new short jumps of unordained Teachers are to the Churches and Religion's proportions like the coats of Davids Messengers 2 Sam. 10.4 when they had been shamefully and spightfully treated by ungrateful Hanun exposing indeed our Nation and our Religion to all * Quantum deest autoritati tantum adest pudori aut inverecundiâ— Nihil enim impudentius quà m injussum muneri aut officio cuicunque sese immittere Gerard. reproach and scorn when all round about us shall see such feeble and uncomly parts as indeed these gifted men for the most part are in the body of our Church thus discovered which were far better concealed and hidden Yea 24. Boldness of unordeined Teachers Num. 22.28 although they may with truth in somethings justly tax and reprove some failings or faults in some yea all our Ministers yet we do not think presently they are to intrude into their places and Ministry no more than Balaam's Ass might presume to become presently a Prophet because it sometimes spake and reproved its masters madness 2 Pet. 2.16 Nor do we see any reason that men should wait upon the lips of such animals for Instruction who cannot justifie their speaking without a miracle no more indeed than these new Teachers can their chalenging the publick place and constant office of Christs Ministers to which they have no ordinary Call or Mission Indeed we have rather cause greatly to suspect these intruders as for many other things so for their boldness and forwardness Since such as have been ablest for that great service So Moses Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel have always been * St. Jerome tells of Neposianus Eò dignior quo se clamabat indignum fugiebat dum populus quarebat Humilitate saperabat invidiam Ep. ad Heliod So Socrates of Ammenius when he was sought to be made a Pastor of the Church Lib. 6. c. 30. modestly slow and humbly reserved That these mens undesired promptitude is like that malicious readiness of Satan who uncall'd presents himself among the sons of God * Job 1.6 2.1 2 Cor. 11.13 so are the ministers of Satan most prone to transform themselves by their hypocrisies into angels of light in order to advance hellish darkness and damnable doctrines And the times are much injured by reports if it be not in some
the able godly and painful Ministers but the whole Ministry it self and all holy Ministrations rightly performed by its Authority despised invalid decryed and discountenanced In many places affronting some vexing and oppressing others menacing all every where with total extirpations For they who pretend to have any man a Minister that lists intend to have none such as should be As they that would have every man a Master or Magistrate mean to have none in a Family or State but onely by specious shadows of New Teachers and Prophets they hope to deprive us of those substances both of true reformed Religion and the true Ministry which we and our Forefathers have so long happily enjoyed and which we ow to our posterity 28. The great and urgent causes of complaint Nor is this a feigned calumny or fictitious grief and out-cry Your piety O excellent Christians knows That the spirits of too many men are so desperately bent upon this design against the Function of the Ministry that they not onely breathe out threatnings against all of this way the duly ordained Ministers but daily do as much as in them lies make havock of them and in them of all good maners and reformed Religion while so many people and whole Parishes are void and desolate of any true Minister residing among them I leave it to the judgements and consciences of all good Christians to consider how acceptable such projects and practises will be to any sober and moralized professor to any gracious and true Christian to any reformed Church or to Christ the Institutor of an authoritative and successional Ministry or last of all to God whose mercy hath eminently blessed this Church and Nation in this particular of able and excellent Ministers so that they have not been behinde any Church under Heaven That so exploded Speech then Stupor mundi clerus Anglicanus The Ministers of England were the admiration of the Reformed World had noâ— more in it of crack and boasting than of sober Truth if rightly considered onely it had better become perhaps any mans mouth than a Ministers of this Church to have said it and any others than believers of this Church to have contradicted and sleighted it Since to the English Ministers eminency in all kinde so many forein Churches and Learned Men have willingly subscribed as to Preaching Praying Writing Disputing and Living On the other side How welcome the disgrace of the Ministry will be to all the enemies of Gods truth of the Reformed Religion and of all good order in this Church and State it is easie to judge by the great contentment the ample flatterings the unfeigned gloryings the large and serious triumphings which all those that were heretofore professed enemies to this Church and our Reformed Religion either such as are factious and politick Factors for another Supremacy and Power or such as carry deep brands of Schism and Heresie on their foreheads or such as are professedly Atheists profane idle and dissolute mindes discover in this That they hope they shall not be any more tormented by the prophecying of these witnesses Revel 11.10 They that dwell on the earth shall rejoyce over the dead and unburied bodies of the witnesses and make merry because these two Prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth the true and faithful Ministers of the Church of England Than whom none of that order in any of the late Reformed Churches and scarce any of the Antients have given more ample clear and constant testimony to the glory of God and the truth and purity of the Gospel by their Writing Preaching Praying Sufferings and holy Examples Living and Dying which I again repeat and justifie against those who swell with disdain and are ready to burst with envy against the real worth and undeniable excellency of the Ministers of the Church of England All which makes me presume That you O excellent Christians can neither be ignorant nor unsatisfied in this point of the Evangelical Ministry both as to this and all other Churches use benefit and necessity as also to the divine right of it by Christs institution the Apostles derivation and the Catholike Churches observation in all times and places as to the main substance of the duties the power and authority of the Function however there may be in the succession of so many ages some Variation in some Circumstantials The peculiar office and special power were seldom as I have said if ever questioned among any Christians until of late much less so shaken vilified and traduced as now it is by the ungrateful wantonness and profane unworthiness of some who not by force of reason or arguments of truth but by forcible sophistries armed cavilings violent calumnies and arrogant intrusions have like so many wilde Bores sought to lay waste the Lords Vineyard Pretending That their brutish confidence is beyond the best dressers skill Psal 80.30 The Boar out of the wood doth waste it and the wilde Beast of the field doth devour it Et atroces insidiatores aperti grassatores Ecclesiam divastare contendunt tam marte quà m arte Aug. Matth. 9.38 Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest Matth. 8.32 The whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the Sea and perished in the waters Immundi illi Ministâ—i inordinati Doctores per ignorantiae temeritatis superbiae praecipitia feruntur in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profunditates Satanae Apoc. 2.24 in errotum blasphemiarum confusionum omnium abyssum Chemnit that their irregular rootings are better than the carefullest diggings that their rude croppings and tearings are beyond any orderly prunings or wary weedings that their sordid wallowings and filthy confusions are before any seasonable manurings that there needs no skilful Husbandmen or faithful Laborers of the Lords sending the Churches ordaining or the faithful peoples approving where so many devout swine and holy hogs will take care to plant water dress and propagate the Vine of the true Christian Reformed Religion to which the hearts of men are naturally no propitious soyl Nor is the event as to the happiness of this Church and its Reformed Religion to be expected other without a miracle if once those unordeined unclean and untried spirits be suffered to possess the Pulpits and places of true and able Minishers than such as befel those forenamed cattel when once Christ permitted the devils to enter into them All truth order piety peace and purity of Religion together with the Function of the Ministry will be violently carried into and choaked in the midst of the Sea of most tempestuous errors and bottomless confusions 29. Absurdities The impious absurdities enormious bablings and endless janglings whereby some men endeavor to dishonor and destroy the whole Function of the reformed and established Ministry in this Church and to surrogate in their places either Romish Agitators or a ragged Regiment of new and necessitous
voluntiers 1 King 13.33 Jeroboam made of the lowest of the people Priests whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the Priests V. 34. And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam to cut it off and destroy it from the face of he earth whosoever lists not to consecrate but desecrate himself by an execrable boldness or else is elected and misordained by that zealous simplicity schismatical fury and popular madness after any novelty which is ever in any meaner sort of people These no doubt are sufficiently known to you together with those learned solutions those sober and to wise men satisfactory answers which have by many worthy Pens both long since and lately been made publick both as to the calumnies of the adversaries and the vindication of this Church and its Ministry Which is conform not onely to our wise excellent and antient Laws but to all right reason common rules of order and policy dictates of humane nature practise of all Nations Also to the Precepts Institutions Paterns and Customs of God of Christ of the Apostles and of all the Churches and ever was so esteemed and reverenced until the sour and unsavory dregs of these perilous last 2 Tim. 3.1 and worst times came to be stirred and drawn forth Wherein under pretences of I know not what special calling gifts and privileges but really to advance other fruits than those that use to grow from the Spirit of truth peace holiness and order some men are resolved to ascend to that desperate height of impiety which counts nothing a sin a shame or a confusion I shall not so far distrust the knowledge memory or consciences 30. Ministers unheard ought not to be condemned Quod rationibus non possunt fustibus satagunt deficientibus scripturis succurrant gladii Aug. de Circumcel Lunam è calo quum non possunt deducere allatrant canes Sen. of wise and worthy Christians as to abuse their leisure by a large exact and punctual disputing every one of those Particulars Arguments and Scriptures which have been well and learnedly handled by others who have put the heady rabble of their opponents to so great disorders as from Arguments to threaten Arms from shews of Reason to flie to Passion from sober Speaking to bitter Railings Scoffings and Barkings at that Light which they see is so much above them Onely I cannot but suggest in general to all good men That it seems not to me onely but to many much wiser and better than my self a very strange precipitancy which no Christian wise Magistrates will permit more like tumultuary rashness and schismatical violence than either Christian zeal or charitable calmness That the whole Order and Function of the Ministry of the Gospel in this Reformed Church so long owned by all good men both at home and abroad so long and largely prospered here with the effects and seals of Gods grace upon it so esteemed necessary to the very Being of any Church and Christianity it self by all sober and serious Christians For there can be no true Church where Christ is not who promised to be with his Ministers to the end of the World So that where no true Ministry is there can be no presence of Christ as to outward Ordinances Matth. 28.20 which is spoken to those that were sent to Teach and Baptize c. Lastly This Calling so never opposed by any but erroneous seditious licentious or fanatick spirits of later times That I say this antient and holy Function should without any solemn publick conference impartial hearing or fair consultation even among Professors of Reformed Christianity be at noon day thus vilified routed and sought to be wholly outed by persons whose weavers beams or rustick numbers and clamorous crouds not their reason learning piety or virtue renders them either formidable or any way considerable further than to be objects of wiser and better mens pity and charity or fears and restraints Is it that there are no Ministers of the true and good old way worthy to be heard or comparable to those plebeian pieces who by a most imprudent apostacy Et osores desertores sui ordinis Sulp. Sev. becoming haters and desertors of their former holy orders and authority Ministerial have taken a new Commission upon a popular account Are none of the antient Ministers fit to be advised with or credited in this matter which concerns not themselves so much as the publick good both of Church and State Are they all such friends to their own private interests some poor living it may be as to have no love to God to Christ to the Truth or to the Souls of men Have they no learning judgement modesty or conscience comparable to those who being parties and enemies against them hope to be their onely judges and to condemn them Is wisdom wholly perished from the wise and understanding hidden from the prudent Is Religion lost among the Learned and onely now found among simple ideots Or rather are not the Antiministerial adversaries so conscious to the true Ministers learned piety and their own impudent ignorance that they are loth and ashamed to bring the one or other to a publick test and fair trial resolving with the Circumcellions with more ease to drive them Circumcelliones inter Donatistas furiostores cùm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Continentes se vocitabant jus fasque omne evertenies sacerdotibus Ministris Catholicis vim inserebant omnia ditipientes c. Calcem cum aceto in oculos piorum ingerebant Vil. August c. 9. 1 King 18.21 than to dispute them out of the Church aiming not to satisfie any by their reason but to sacrifice all to their passion if they can get power Who doubts but that if the learned and godly Ministers in this sometime so famous and flourishing Church of England who seem now in the eyes of their enemies as if they had been taken by Pirates or Picarooms onely fit to be so thrust under Hatches not worthy to be spoken with to appear to be trusted or regarded if they might have so much publick favor which they despair not of and do humbly intreat as by solemn tryal and dispute to assert their Station and Function against their adversaries as some have in private ways done Who doubts I say but by Gods assistance whose mercy hath not will not ever forsake them they would make the halting and ungrateful people of this Church to see whether the Lord or Baal be God Whether I say the Primitive Order and Divine Constitutions of Christ which have on them the Seal of the Scripture the Stamp of Authority and carry with them all the beauties of holiness For right reason due order decency peaceableness and proportionableness to the great ends of Christian Religion together with their real usefulness confirmed by the happy experience of the Primitive times the purest Saints the best Christians the constantest Confessors holy Martys and most
futility a pueril vanity scarce a venial madness so much the worse in them by how much the contagion of their folly is prone to infect all that look upon them Non solum ipse cùm malè agit dignè perit sed alios secum indignè perdit Ambr. de Sa. dig Praepositorum vitia imitari obsequii genus videtur ne scelera ductoribus ex probrare viderentur si pie viverant Lact. Inst l. 5. for the plague and leprosie of a Ministers life cannot be kept within his private walls There is nothing more delicate and abhorring all sinful sords than the Ermine of Christian Religion and its true Ministry which sets forth the Lamb of God without spot or blemish who came to take away the sinful stains of mens souls by the effusion of his pretious blood The care of all good Ministers is so to live as shall not need the impotent severities of those Reformers who joy as much to finde faults in others as to mend none in themselves and are always eloquent against their own sins in other men Allow us onely to be as Ministers of the Gospel for the Churches good we desire no indulgences farther than the duty and dignity of our Calling doth allow and the strictest Conscience may bear No men shall more welcome mens favors than we shall do their just severities nor do we desire greater testimonies of mens loves to us than such as we use for the greatest witness of ours to them by never suffering them to sin through our silence or flatteries Let the righteous smite us and it shall be a kindness let them reprove us and reform us and it shall be a balm which shall not break our heads Psal 141.5 but our prayer shall ever be That we may not taste of the new dainties of those supercilious censurers and envious reformers of Ministers who are their enemies because they tell them the old truths and make them offenders for a word Isai 29.21 because they will not forbear to reprove their wickedness who heretofore seemed to hear them gladly till they touched their Herodiasses Mark 6.20 The less scandalous Ministers are the more that Hypocritical generation who have set themselves against them are bent to destroy them I intercede onely for such whose greatest offence is Eò acriores sunt odii causa quò magis iniquae Tacit. An. 1. That they give lest offence to any good Christians and do most good to this Church preserving still the purity and honor of their Calling and the Reformed Religion against the many policies of those who lie in wait to destroy it who are honored with and are an honor to the Function of the Ministry whose competent and in some excellent learning and holy lives Eò gratiori lumine quò spissiores tenebrae Tert. makes them still appear like bright stars in a dark and stormy night amidst the thick and broken clouds of envy and calumny which rove far beneath them however they are sometime darkned by their interposing If as to these mens holy Function Ordination and Authority I may be happy to give you O excellent Christians or any others any satisfaction as a Calling useful and necessary to the Church as of Divine Institution and Catholike practise in all setled Churches I shall then leave it to any men of good conscience to infer how barbarous and Antichristian a design it is how bad and bitter consequences it must needs produce by any arts and ways of humanâ— power and policy to destroy and exautorate these men and their Ministry in whose lives and labors the glory of God the honor of Jesus Christ and the good of mens souls are so bound up that theâ— cannot without daily miracles be separated or severally preserved And for the persons of the Ministers which I plead for I hoâ—â— to make it appear That for their casting thus into the fiery furnace 〈◊〉 mechanick scorn and fanatick fury or into the Lyons den of publick odium and disfavor there will be found by impartial Readerâ— of this Apology Acts 4.18 Gal. 4.16 Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth no more cause than was against Daniel or the threâ— children no more than for beheading John Baptist or stoning St. Stephen for beating and imprisoning the Apostles and charging them to speak no more in that Name of Jesus or for the Galatians hating St. Paul or the Beasts slaying the witnesses or the Jews seeking to stone and after crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ 33. Ministers infirmities do not abrogate their Authority or Office Not but that the very best Ministers of this Church own themselves still to be but poor sinful men and so not strangers to the common passions and infirmities of humane nature Men must not be angry that Ministers are not Angels or such Seraphins and flaming fires as admit no dross or defects incident to sinful mortality Though they oft fail as men yet have they not forfeited the Authority of their Calling as Ministers though they have dispenced the Gospel in weakness as earthen vessels yet hath the Treasure of Heaven and Power of God been manifested by them and in them Take them with all their personal failings yet they will hardly be matched or exceeded by any order of men or any Clergy in any Church under Heaven for they have not been behinde the very chiefest of true Ministers and far beyond any of these new pretenders Insomuch That I have oft been ashamed to see the necessity of this Apology Pro desensione samae licita est laus proptia Reg. Jac. 2 Cor. 12.11 and such like Vindications of the Ministry which ungrateful and impudent men extort from the Ministers of England when indeed as St. Paul pleads for himself instead of thus being compelled to an unwelcome yet just glorying they ought rather to have been commended and encouraged by others Truly it is to me a great trouble to finde out by any of their confused Pamphlets and obscure Papers what these Modellers of a new Ministry would be at in any reason of piety or prudence more to the advantage of this Church or the Reformed Christian Religion than hath been heretofore and may still be effected and enjoyed by the true and antient Ministry Would they have better Scholars in all kindes of good learning Acuter Disputants in controversies Clearer Interpreters in Commentaries upon the Sacred Texts Better Linguists More solid Preachers More pathetick Orators more fervent Prayers higher Speculatists in all true Devotionals Exacter Writers in all kindes of Divinity Would they have more grave comely prudent and consciencious dispencers of all holy Mysteries Or nobler examples of all piety and virtue than those which have every where abounded in the Ministers of the Church of England according to the several measures of their gifts and graces No I finde their enemies envy is more than their pity Non laudabisi pietatis aemulatione
sed improba virtutis invidia feruntur qui virtutem aspiciunt intabescuntque relicta Casaub For one century of scandalous Ministers which I fear was not so made up by exact sifting the pretioâ—â— from the vile but that it hudled up and kneaded some finer flowre with some bran How many hundreds were there then and are still of unblamable of commendable of excellent and most imitable Ministers in this Church As weighty as fair and as fit every way yea far beyond what any new stamp is likely to be for all holy admistrations But I finde it is not any new Truth or Gospel or Sacraments or Gifts or Graces or Virtues or Morals or Rationals or Reals which these new Ministers require or can with any forehead pretend All is but an affectation for the most part to have the same things in a new and worse way which because it is of their own invention they so eagerly quarrel at the former order maner of our Church and Ministry Many would have the same meat else they must starve Multi novitatis amore in veritatis odium praejudicium feruntur Quum illud pulcherrimum quòd verissimum id verissimum quòd antiquissimum Tert. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Hel. or feed upon the wind onely it must be new dressed and dished up to the mode of Familistick hashes and Socinians Quelques choses Keckshoes by more plain and popular hands than those of the learned Ministers They would have a generation of Teachers rise up unsown out of the dust whose father should be corruption and whose sister confusion More vulgar submiss precarious facile dependent Preachers who should more consider an act or ordinance of man than a command of Scripture or dictate and stroke of Conscience be more steered by the events and various successes of Providence than by the constant precepts and oracles of Gods written Word Whose common places of divinity must fit any Eutopian Common-wealth what ever any power and policy shall form to their new fancies and interests whose Preaching and Praying shall make Christ and the Scriptures and the Sacraments all holy things and the Ministry it self of the Church meanly servile and compliant to any State design and secular projects Just as the sorry Almanack-makers do who command the Sun and Moon and Stars and the whole host of Heaven to assist any party whom they list to flatter or hope to feed upon Such planetary Preachers all true Ministers abhor to be and such their enemies deserve to have or to be who observing the winds of worldly and State variations Eccles 11.4 shall never sow the good seed of true Religion nor ever serve the Lord while they slavishly and sinfully serve the times Not but that all good Ministers know as wise and humble men how to be content in what Staâ—â— soever they are and to be subject to civil powers in all honest things Phil. 4.11 Rom. 13.5 with gratitude and due respect yet not so as to prostrate God to level Christ to subject Conscience to debase the glorious Gospel its due Reformation and its true Ministry and divinâ— Authority to the boundless lusts and endless designs of violent and rest less mindes Against all which and chiefly against those plots and practises which aim to overthrow the Reformed Christian Religion of this Church and its Ministry I desire this Apology may be as a Pillar and Monument to posterity of my perfect abhorrency That when I am dead â—f it hath any spark in it of an immortal spirit or living genius it may testifie for me and my Brethren the Ministers of my minde Luke 23.50 in after ages that as Joseph of Arimathea we neither gave counsel nor consent to those wilde or wicked projects which the ages will afterward see attended with most sad and deplorable effects either of Atheism Profaneness Ignorance and Barbarity or of Popish superstitions Heretical oppressions and Schismatical confusions which will follow the alteration and rejection of the antient true and Catholike Ministry of this Reformed Church which cannot but be attended with the subversion of many souls as to all stability or soundness in true Religion with the unsatisfaction of many and with the unspeakable grief and scandal of all those good Christians who love and wish the prosperity of this Church which I shall now endeavor to prove to be of a most Christian and Evangelical constitution chiefly by answering what is alleged by those who look upon both Church and Ministry as reprobate and would fain have power to damn them both without redemption And this they endeavor with as much justice and truth as Satan accused Job Job 1. and would have provoked God to destroy him without a cause OBJECTION I. That we have no true Ministry because no true Church-way in England I Finde there are many and great things objected by the Antiministerial party through ignorance weakness mistake or malice not onely against the Ministers and the peculiar office of the Ministry but also against the whole frame of our Religion especially as to the extern social maner of our holy Administrations Some of them deny us to be any true Ministers because not in any way of a true Church not having any true Religion owned or established and exercised among us in any right Church-way as they call it So that it is not onely the main pillars of Christianity the learned and godly Ministry which they would change But the whole model of our Church and frame of our Religion is that which these men would remove either pulling it down by force or undermining by fraud Therefore I have thought it necessary in the first place to countermine against these Moles and to establish against these Shakers and Subverters of the very foundations of our Church and Religion Here I must crave leave of you Answ 1. to whose favor I have dedicated this work whose highest excellency is your Christian Reformed Religion who esteem it your greatest glory with the Emperor Theodosius That you are Members of this Reformed Church and in this of the true Catholike Church to give these fanatick and cavilling disputers against our Ministry some account of that Religion which we profess and of that so much disputed and by some despised Church-way wherein we take our selves to be as upon surer grounds of divine truth so with much more order and decency as to antient patern and prudence than themselves That so as good Christians may be comforted and confirmed in their holy Profession so the world may see That we are neither ignorant our selves nor willingly deceivers of others in so great a matter as Religion is Of true Religion Vera est religio quae uni vero Deo animas nostras religat Aug. de Relig. Micah 6.8 James 1.27 which we publickly have professed and preached in this Church both with science and conscience with judgement and integrity First then We esteem True Religion to be the right
yet is bid to watch and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die c. 8. Of the Church as called Catholike See learned Dr. Field of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this point then Touching the true Church of Christ in regard of outward profession and visible communion to the touch of which part my design thus leads me I purpose not so far to gratifie the endless and needless janglings of any adversaries of this Church of England as to plunge my self or the Reader into the wide and troubled Sea of controversie concerning the Church Considering that many good Christians have been and still are in the true Catholike Church by profession of that true faith and holy obedience which unite to the Head Jesus Christ and by charity which combines the members of his Body together although they never heard the dispute or determination of this so driven a controversie As many are in health and sound who never were under Physicians hands or heard any Lecture of Anatomy Yea although they may be cut off and cast out of the particular communion of any Church by the Anathemaes and excommunicating sentences of some injurious and passionate Members of that Church yet may they continue still in communion with Christ and consequently with his Catholike Church that is with all those who either truly have or profess to have communion with Christ My purpose is onely to give an account as I have done of true Religion in the internal power of it so also of the true Church as to the external profession of Religion That thereby I may establish the faith and comforts of all sober and good Christians in this Church of England That they may not be shaken corrupted or rent off by their own instability and weakness or by the fraud and malice of those who glory more in the proselytes they gain to fanatick factions by uncharitable rendings from this Church than in any communion they might have in humble and charitable ways with the Catholike Church or any of the greater and nobler parts of it which they most impertinently deny to be any Churches or capable of any order power joynt authority larger government or ampler communion For the Catholike Church of Christ that is Ignat. ep ad Phil. Cypr. de unitate Eccl. Solis multi radii unum lumen August lib. de unitate ecclesiae Et omnes patres Eph. 1.22 Christ the Head over all things to the Church 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth Heb. 12.23 The Church of the first-born Tot ac tanta ecclesia una est illa ab Apostolis prima ex qua omnes Tertul. de prae ad Hae. c. 30. Eph. 3.10 21. 5.23 Christ the Head of the Church and the Saviour of the Body V. 32. Christ and the Church Col. 1.18 Christ the Head of the Body the Church 1 Cor. 12. The Body is not one Member but many c. vidâ— the universality of those who profess to believe in the name of Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures That this is primarily and properly called a Church often in Scripture there is no doubt As the whole is called a Body in its integrality or compleatness of parts and organs whose every limb and part is corporeal too and of the Body as to its nature kinde or essence This Church which is called The Spouse and Body of Christ is as its Head but one in its integrality or comprehensive latitude as the Ark containing all such as profess the true faith of Christ And to this are given as all powers and faculties of nature to the whole man primarily and eminently those powers privileges gifts and titles which are proper to the Church of Christ however they are orderly exercised by some particular parts or members for the good of the whole The essence integrality and unity of this Catholike Church consists not in any local convention or visible communion or publick representation of every part of it but in a mysterious and religious communion with the same God Ecclesia in universum mundi disseminata unam domum habitans unam animam cor os abet Iraen l. 1. c. 3. Eph. 4.4 5. Jude 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just M. Dial. cum Tryphone by the same Mediator Jesus Christ and to this Mediator Jesus Christ by the same Word and Spirit as to the internal part of Religion also by profession of the same Truth and common Salvation joyned with obedience to the same Gospel and holy Ministry with charity and comly order as to the external In this so clear an Article of our Faith I need not bestow my pains since it is lately handled very fully learnedly and calmly by a godly Minister of this Church of England * Mr. Hudson of the Catholike Church Tot tantae ecclesiae una est illa ab Apostolis prima dum unam omnes praebent veritatem Tert. de prae to whose Book I refer the Christian Reader 9. Of a National Church or distinct and larger part of the Catholick This name of Church being evidently given to the universality of those who by the Ministry of the Gospel are called out of the way of the World and by professing of it and submitting externally to its holy Ministry Order Rules Duties and Institutes are distinguished from the rest of the World It cannot be hard for any sober understanding to conceive in what aptitude of sense any part of this Catholike Church is also called a Church with some additional distinctions and particular limitations visible and notable among men and Christians by which some are severed from others in time place persons or any other civil discriminations of policy and society Which give nearer and greater conveniences as to the enjoyment and exercise of humane and civil so of Christian communion and the offices or benefits of religious relations 1 Cor 1.2 To the Church of God which is at Corinth Acts 13.1 The Chu ch of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 14.23 Tit. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 2. 3. Ecclesiam apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt Apostolâ— Ã quibus traducem fidei semina doctrinae caeterae ecclesiae mutuatae sunt Tertul. de Prae. c. 20. Consuetudo est certissima loquendi norma Quinâ—il The Spirit of God in the Scripture gives sufficient warrant to this stile and language calling that a Church as of Rome Ephesus Corinth Jerusalem Antioch c. which consisted of many Congregations and Presbyters in a City and its Territory or Province So the Apostle Paul in his Epistles to several Churches distinguisheth them by the civil and humane distinctions of place and Magistracy and the Spirit of Christ to the Asiatick Churches calleth each a Church distinctly which were in great associations of many faithful under many Presbyters And these under some chief Presidents Apostles Angels or Bishops residing
in the prime or Mother Cities where Christianity was first planted end from whence it spred to the Territories or Provinces about One would think besides common speech among all Christians which is sufficient to justifie what word is used to express our meanings to others That this were enough to confute the simplicity or peevishness of those who to carry on new projects dare aver That they know no such thing as a National Church 1 Pet. 2.9 Ye are an holy Nation a peculiar people may be said of any Christians and with much coyness disdain to own or understand any relation of order duty subordination or charity they have to any such Church Of which they say they know no virtue no use no necessity no conveniencies as to any Christian and Religious ends Which so wilful and affected ignorance was never known till these latter and perilous times had found out the pleasure of Paradoxes by which men would seem wiser and more exact both in their words and fancies than either pious antiquity or the Scriptures Hoping by such gross and unexpected absurdities which would fain appear very shie and scrupulous in language to colour over Shismatical and Anarchical designs and under such fig-leaves to hide the shame and folly of their factious agitations and humors which makes them unwilling to be governed by any in Church or State without themselves have an oar in the Boat and a share in the Government This poor concernment of some mens small ambitions makes them disown any Church but such a conventicle or parcel as some men fancy to collect and call which they infect with the same fancies of sole and full Churchship and separate Power Whereas the Lord Jesus Christ always first called men by his Ministers to his Church and by Baptism admitted them and by meet Governors whom he sent and ordained ruled them as his flock in greater as well as lesser parties Gen. 32. as Jacob did his distinct flocks in the hands of his sons By the same Cynical severity these men may deny they have relation to any other men being themselves compleat men or at most that they are to regard none but their families where they live and so cast off all observance to any greater Societies in Towns or Cities or Commonweals yea and all sense of humanity to the generality of mankinde whom they shall never see together or be acquainted with Who doubts notwithstanding this morose folly but that as in all right reason equity and humanity every man is related by the common nature to all mankinde so also to particular polities and societies of men greater or smaller according to the distinct combinations into which providence hath cast him with them either in Cities or Countreys With whom to refuse communion and disown relation is to sin against the common principles of society order and government which are in mans nature which God hath implanted Reason suggests and all wise men have observed for the obtaining of an higher and more common good by the publick and united influence of the counsel strength and authority of many than can be obtained in scattered parcels or small and weaker fraternities In like maner to be in and of the Church is not onely to be a true believer which gives internal and real union to Christ and to all true Christians in the Church Catholike Ecclesia una est quae in multitudinem latius incremento facunditatis extenditur Cyp. de Eccl. unit 1 Cor. 2.11 What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him of which no man can judge because he cannot discern it save onely in the judgement of charity But it implies also to have and to hold that profession of Christian Religion in such external polities and visible communion with others as the providence of God both offers and requires of us according to the time place and opportunities wherein he sets us so as we may most promote the common good Which study and duty we own in humanity as men and more in charity as Christians to any Church or society of Christians To whom our counsel and power or our consent and subjection may adde a further authority a more harmonious and efficacious influence than can be from small or ununited parcels So that a National Church that is such a Society of Christians as are distinct by civil limits and relation from other Nations may not onely own and accordingly act as they are men related in things civil but also as Christians they may own and wisely establish such a Church power relation and association in matters of Religion as may best preserve themselves in true Doctrine holy Order Christian peace and good maners by joynt counsel and more vigorous power The neerness which they have affording greater opportunities to impart and enjoy the benefit of mutual counsel and charity and all other communicable abilities to a nobler measure and higher proportion than can be had in lesser bodies or combinations This joynt publick and united authortiy of any Church in any Nation or Kingdom is so far from being slighted as some capricious mindes do that it is the more to be venerated and regarded by all good Christians who know that duty enlarges with relations and a greater charity is due from us to greater communities both of men and of Christians Odia quo iniquiora eo magis a cerba Tacit. The greatest vexation of these new Modellers is That they have so little with truth modesty or charity to say against this famous National Church of England and its Ministry For they daily see notwithstanding all their specious pretensions and undefatigable agitations the more as winds they seek to shake and subvert well-rooted Christians the more they are confirmed and setled in that Christian communion 9. Charity necessary in any true Church and Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Camer de Melan which they have upon good grounds both of Reason and Religion Polity and Charity with this Church of England as their Mother Which blessing all wise Christians and well ordered Churches ever owned and enjoyed among themselves as parts of the Catholik in their several distinctions and society In these points of the true Church and true Religion however I covet to be short yet I shall be most serious and as clear as may be writing nothing to other mens Consciences which I do not first read in mine own and of which I know account must be given by me at Christs tribunal And truly I am as loth to deceive others as to erre my self in matters of so great concernment Nulla erroris secta sam contra Christi verit atem nist nomine cooperta Christiano ad pugnandum prosilire audet August ep 56. as true Religion and the true Church are Both which every Sect and Party of Christians chalenge to themselves and those no doubt with most right and truest comfort who do it
with most charity to any others that have for the foundation of their faith the Scriptures and the Sacraments for the seals and a true Ministry for the ordering and right dispensing of holy things professing such latitudes of charity always as exclude no such Christians from communion with them Notwithstanding they have many and different superstructures in lesser things Without this Christian charity it is evident all ostentations of true Religion of Churches purity and of Reformation though accompanied with tongues miracles and martyrdoms 1 Cor. 14.1 3 c. are in vain and profit men nothing As it is not enough to make men of the true Church to say They are the onely true Church and in the onely Church-way or to censure condemn and exclude all other Christians who may be in the same path-way to Heaven though the paving be different of grass or gravel or stone c. So it is enough to exclude any party sect or faction of seeming Christians from being any sound part of the true Church to say in a Schismatical pride and uncharitable severity That they are the onely true Church Excidisti ab ecclesia ubi à charitate excideris quum à Christo ipso inde excidisti Aug. as the ring-leaders of the Novatians and Donatists did excommunicating by malicious proud and passionate principles or in any other novelizing ways vexing and disturbing the quiet of those Christians and Churches who have the true Means and Ministry the true Grounds and Seals of Faith with other holy and orderly Ministrations though with some different rites yet professing holiness of life and this with Christian charity to all others Col. 3.14 which is the very bond of perfection The want of which cannot consist with those other graces of true faith and love repentance and humility by which men pretend to be united to Christ The ready way not to be any part or true Member of the Catholike Church is Isai 65.4 They eat abominable things yet they say Stand by thy self come not neer me for I am holier than thou These saith the Lord are a smoke in my nose and a fire that burneth all the day To chalenge to be the onely true Church and to separate from all others both by non-communion with them and a total condemning or abdicating of them As the way for any branch to wither and come to nothing is To break it self off by a rude Schism or violent fraction from the Tree that it may have the glory to grow by it self and to say with a Pharisaick pride to all others stand by I am holier than you Thus parting from that Root and Body Christ and the Catholike Church in the communion with which by Truth and Charity its Life and Beauty did consist However then the unholy love of novelty proud curiosity cold charity and distempered zeal of some men dare cast off unchurch and anathematise not onely single persons and private Congregations but even greater associations of Christians bound together by the bonds of civil as well as Church societies in Nations and Kingdoms yea and to despise that Catholike form of all the Churches in the World 2 Cor. 10.12 They measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise of antient as well as present times Yet this vain-glorying through a verbal ignorant proud and uncharitable confidence of themselves and contempt of all others seems to have more in it of Belial and Antichrist than of Jesus Christ more of Lucifer than of the Father of Lights who also is the Father of Love who hath therefore shined on men with the light of his grace and love of Christ that he might lead them by this powerful patern of divine love to love one another as men and as Christians with all meekness and charity with all good hope forbearance and long-suffering toward those especially that profess to be of the houshold of faith who hold the foundation Christ crucified though they may have many additions of hay 1 Cor. 3.15 straw and stubble since Those may save though these suffer loss God will easily discern between his gold and our dross between the errors rising from simplicity and the truths joyned with charity and humility He will easily distinguish between the humble ignorance of many upright-hearted Christians who are seduced to wandrings and the subtilty pride or malice of Arch-hereticks and Schismaticks who seduce others for sinister ends All wise humble and charitable Christians should so order their judgements and censures if at any time they are forced to declare them that they must above all things take heed that they nourish not nor discover any uncharitable fewds or distances and antipathies against any Churches or Christians after the rate of those passions which are the common source both of Schisms and Heresies whose ignorance and pride like water and ice mutually arise from and are resolved into each other Therefore proud because ignorant and the more ignorant because so proud Nor yet may they follow those defiances and distances in Religion Tantum distat à vera charitate quorundam zetotarum praeceps intemperatus â—â—dâ— quantum maligna sebricitantium flamâ—ae à native vitali corporis calore Cas which Reason of State or the Interests of Princes or Power of Civil Factions or the Popular fierceness of some Ministers and eager Sticklers for sides and parties do nourish and vulgarly commend as high expressions of zeal and the onely ways of true Religion Where there is scarce one drop of charity in a sea of controversie or one star of necessary truth in the whole clouded Heaven of their differing opinions and ways which set men as far from true Christian temper as burning Feavers do from native heat and health 10. Extremes touching the Church I know no point hath used more liberal and excellent Pens than this concerning the true Church as it is visible or professional before men which is the proper subject of this dispute Some mens Pens flow with too much gall and bitterness as the rigid Papists on the one side and the keener Separatist on the other Denying any to be in a right Church-way save onely such as are just in their particular mold and form Either joyned in communion with the Roman profession and being subject to its head the Pope pleading antiquity unity universality visibility c. or else embodied with those new and smaller Incorporations which count themselves the onely true and properly so called Churches pretending more absolute church-Church-power more exact constitution and more compleat Scripture-Reformation than any antient National dilated and confederated Churches could or ever did attain too Herein there is a strong excess on both sides 1. By the Romanists Baron Anno Christi 45. p. 376. Haereticum esse qui à Romanae Cathedrae communione divisuâ— sit So Bellarm. dâ— Rom. Pont. l. 2.12 Vetusta coâ—suetudo servetur ut hic Episcopus Rom.
suburbicaniarum ecclesiarum solicitudinem gerâ—â— Ruffin hist l. 1. c. 6. Concil Nicen. both Papal and Popular First The Romanists extend the cords of their Churches power and its head or chief Bishop so far as if it were properly Catholike and Oecumenical that is by divine appointment invested with sovereign Authority to extend and exercise Ecclesiastical polity and dominion over all other particular Churches in all ages and in all parts of the World So that it is say they necessary to salvation to be under this Roman jurisdiction c. Whereas it is certain That the Roman Church antiently was and still is properly speaking distinct from others in place as well as name and had antiently its limited power and jurisdiction extending to the suburbicanian Provinces which were Ten seven in Italy and three in Sicily Corsica and Sardinia Accoâ—ding to those like bounds which occasionally from civil titles both named and distinguished all other Churches from one another in both the Asiaes in Africa and in Europe as the Gallican German British c. Nor hath ever any thing either of Reason or Scripture been produced by any more than of true Antiquity whereby to prove That we are bound to any communion that is in the true meaning of proud and politick Romanists to that subjection to the Pope and his party which may be most for his and their honor and profit with the Church of Rome further than the rule of Christian charity obligeth every Christian and every part of the Catholike Church to communicate in truth and love with all those that in any judgement of charity are to be counted true Christians so far as they appear to us to be such Nor is it less evident That many Churches and Christians have scarce ever known much less owned any claim of subjection upon them by the Roman Church Which however they had antiently a priority of order and precedency yielded to it and its chief Bishop for the eminency of the City the honor of the Empire and the excellency of the reputed Founders and Planters Saint Peter and Saint Paul also for the renown of the faith patience and charity of that Church which was famous in all the World Yet Rom. 1. â— all this Primacy or Priority of Order which was civilly by others granted and might modestly be accepted by the chief Bishop in the Roman Province as to matter of place and precedency or Votes in publick Counscis and Synods This I say is very far from that * Greg. Mag. ep 30. ad Mauri Aug. Fidenter dico quia quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vel Episcopum vocat vel vocari desiderat in elatione suâ Antichristum praecurrit quia superbiendo se caeteris praeponit De Cyriaco Constantinop Episcope hunc frivoli nominis superbia typhum affectante Greg. M. l 4. ep 32 36. Antichristian Supremacy of usurped power tyrannick dominion and arbitrary jurisdiction the very suspition and temptation to which the holy and humble Bishops of Rome were ever jealous of and avoided especially Gregory the Great who was in nothing more worthy of that title than in this That he so greatly detested protested against and refused the title of Vniversal Bishop when it was offered to him by the Councel of Chalcedon Which both name and thing was in after times gained and chalenged by the pride policy covetousness and ambition of those Bishops of Rome who by some of their own sides confession as * Baronius an 912. tom 10. Foedissima nunc Romanae ecclesia facies cùm Romae dominarentur potentissima ac sordidissima merâ—â—rices Baronius * See Genebrard ad Sec. 10. Pontifices per an 150. à virtute majorum prorsus desecerunt Genebrard and others were sufficiently degenerated from that Primitive humility and sanctity which were eminent in the first Bishops of Rome in those purer and primitive times who never thought of any one of those Three Crowns which flatterers in after ages have fully hammered and set on the heads of the Bishops of Rome in a Supremacy not of Order but of Power and plenary Jurisdiction above all Christians or Churches or Councils in the Christian World which hath justly occasioned so many parts of the Catholike Church in that regard to make a necessary separation not from any thing that is Christian among them but from the usurpation tyranny and superstition of those bishops of the Roman Church and their Faction who unjustly claim and rigorously exercise dominion over the Consciences and Liberties of all other Churches and Christians With whom the Roman pride now refuseth to hold such peaceable communion as ought universally to be among Christians in respect of order and charity unless they will all submit to that tyranny and usurpation which hath nothing in it but secular pride vain pomp and worldly dominion Yet still those of the Roman Church know That all the Reformed Churches as well as we of England ever did and do hold a Christian communion in charity with them so far as by the Word of God we conceive they hold with the head or root of the Church Christ Jesus with the ground and rule of Faith the Scriptures and with all those holy Professors in the purest and primitive Churches Of whose faith lives and deaths having some Monuments left us by the writings of eminent Bishops and others we judge what was the tenor both of the Faith Maners and Charity of those purer times which we highly venerate and strive to imitate Possibly we might now subscribe to that Letter which the Abbot and Monks of Bangor sent to Austin whom some report to be a proud and bloody Monk when he came to this Nation and required obedience of them and all Christians here to the Pope which Letter is thus translated out of Saxonick by that grave and learned Gentleman Sir Henry Spelman Sir Henry Spelman Concil Brit. Anno Christi 590. out of the Saxon Manuscript a lover and adorner of this Church of England by his life and learned Labors Be it known to you without doubt that every one of us are obedient and subject to the Church of God and to the Pope of Rome and to every true godly Christian to love every one in his degree in perfect charity and to help every one of them by word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience than this we know not due to him whom you call Pope nor do we own him to be Father of Fathers Isca one of the three Metropolis in Britain Caerusk in Monmouthshire Antiq. Brit. This obedience we are ever ready to give and pay to him and every Christian continually Beside we are under our own Bishop of Caerleon upon Usk who is to oversee us under God and to cause us to keep the way spiritual Nor will this benefit of the Popes pretended Infallibility 11. The pretended Infallibility in the Pope or Church of Rome
which sanctifies reason to serve God and the Church in all comely ways may not use those principles and rules for order unity peace and mutual safety of Christians in their multiplied numbers and societies which we are taught and allowed to use in all civil associations Yea and not onely allowed but enjoyned to observe in Ecclesiastical polity and Government by that great and fundamental Canon of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order which must hold not onely in private and lesser parcels but in the more large and integral parts of the Church of Christ But Reason then and Religion sufficiently discover the vanity and impertinency of those novel fancies which are obtruded as necessary for all private Congregations when indeed they are and ever have been and will be destructive to the more publick and general good of the Church whose tranquillity honor and safety consists in such dependencies and subordinations which may be furthest remote from those fractions and disunions which arise from that Church-dividing and Charity-destroying principle of Independent Congregations Rom. 16.5 Greet the Church which is in their house 1 Cor. 16.19 The Churches of Asia salute yâ—u which was never used in any times of the Church further than the minority and infancy of the first planting while either Christians were not encreased much in number or not enlarged in place But when the first small company of believers multiplied from a Church in one Family to a Church in many Congregations which could not now with conveniency all meet together in one place they yet as branches still continued both united to the root Christ Jesus 14. The Church of England not blamable for its National communion and also to the main body and bulk of the visible Church by union to that part whence they descended and to which they related and they were not as Colonies or Slips so transplanted and separated as to grow Independently of themselves apart from all others Of which there is no example in Scripture or Antiquity It follows then That what was setled in this or other like Christian Churches was no whit blamable as any thing of meer humane invention or any superfluous and corrupt addition to any precept patern or constitution either of Christs or the Apostles who never prohibited the ordering of Churches in larger associations or Governments extending to Cities and their Territories to great Diocesses Provinces and Nations Since there is no precept or practise limiting Churches power and society to private and single Congregations Yea there are such general directions and examples in the Scripture as command or at least commend rather than condemn those analogous or proportionable applyings of all orderly and prudential means for union and communion according as the various state and times of the Church may require which still aym at the same end the peace and welfare of the Church both in the lesser and the larger extents which are justly so carried on by the wise Governors and Protectors of the Church according to the general principles and rules or paterns of pious and charitable prudence set down in the Scriptures beyond which in this case of the Churches outward order and polity there neither is nor needs other directions no more than on what Text and Subject or in what method and place or how long time and how often a Minister must pray or preach and people must hear Sermons or attend holy duties That antient and excellent frame then of this Church in England which in a National union by civil religious and sacred bonds was so wisely built and for many ages compacted together and which hath been lately so undermined so hackt and hewn with passionate writings and disputings and actings that it is become not onely a tottering but almost a quite demolished and overthrown frame This Church I say hath suffered this hard fate rather through the iniquities of times malice of men and just judgements of God on the Governors and governed who we may fear improved not so great advantages of union order power peace and protection to the real good of the Church and furtherance of the Gospel rather I say by these personal failings than for any either mischief deformity defects or Antichristian excess in the way and frame it self as to its grounds and constitutions Which were setled and long approved by very wise holy and learned men carrying with them as much as any Christian or Reformed Church did the lineaments feature beauty and vigor of those famous Primitive Churches which in the midst of heresies and persecutions kept themselves safe as to truth and charity not by the shreds of Independent Bodies but by the sutures of Christian Associations in Provincial National and Oecumenical enlargements Such ample and noble platforms of religious reason and sanctified wisdom as not ambitious policy but Christian charity and prudent humility embraced which as our new models and projections will never mend so they much commend those antient happy models and paterns by those multiplied mischiefs ensuing inevitably upon the presumptions of posterity which have rashly adventured thus to remove and change the antient limits marks and orders of the Church which Primitive Fathers and Apostles had recommended and setled 15. Seekers thence The Eutychian Hereticks refusing to subscribe the Catholike Faith confirmed by the Council of Chalcedon called themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ambigentes Dubitantes and after run out to all corrupt opinions Aug. de Haere Nobis qui sam credimus aliud non quaerendum Si enim semper quaerimus nunquam inveniemus nunquam credemus Tert. de Praes ad Hae. c. 10. Quemadmodum Atheorum pars maxima non tam credunt quam cupiunt non esse Deum M n. Fael Non facile invenient veram ecclesiam qui illibenter quaerunt Melancth Which temerity of thus mincing and crumbling or tearing any Church National being the issue of no Synod or Council in the Church but onely of private fancies and most-what mechanick adventures hath we see made some poor souls turn Scepticks and Seekers after true Religion and a true Church being wholly unsatisfied either with the abolition of the old way or the various inventions of new ways These profess whether out of weakness pure ignorance passion or policy God knows That they are Christians no further than to see that all Christian Churches are now and have been ever since the Apostles times adulterous impure deformed and Antichristian That they are wholly to seek for any true ground or way of Christian Religion Church and Ministry even among so many Christians Ministers and Churches That is they cannot see wood for trees nor light for the Sun at noon-day And this may easily be either by reason of wilful blindness or for want of that charity and humility which keeps the hearts and eyes of Christians open and clear or from that darkness and blear-eyedness which prejudice and
perversness carry with them hindring Christians from discerning even those objects that are round about them yea it is to be feared That some men from Atheistical profane ranting and licentious principles seek for a true Church as Hypocrites do for their sins and cowards for their enemies loth to finde them and studying most to be hidden from them They complain of this and other Churches as defective as impure as none when indeed it may be feared they are sorry there are any such and wish there were none of these Christian societies Ministers or godly people in the world whose doctrine and examples are their restraints reproaches and torments being most cross to their evil designs and immoderate lusts They complain they cannot finde a true Church when they are unwilling so to do and satisfie themselves as the Cynick in his Tub morosely to censure and Magisterially to finde fault with all Christians that they may conform to none in an holy humble and peaceably way but rather enjoy that fantastick and lazy liberty of mocking God and man till they finde such a way of Church and Religion as shall please them Which they would not be long in finding as to extern polity and profession if they did but entertain that inward life and power of Religion which I formerly set down which by a principle of charity as well as of truth strongly flowing from belief of Gods love in Christ to mankinde and specially to the Church doth powerfully binde and cheerfully encline every humble believer 1 Cor. 14.33 God is not the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of unsetledness commotion or confusion but of peace as in all Churches of the Saints Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness c. Rom. 12.18 If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men to have peace and communion as much as may be with all Christians as internal in judgment and good will so external and social both private and publick amicitial and political in regard of example comfort and encouragement as also of Order Subordination and Government so far as we see they have any fellowship with Christ Jesus in those holy mysteries and duties which he hath appointed whereby to gather and preserve his Church in all Ages and places and Nations Thus we see some mens Pens serve onely to blot the face even of the Catholike Church and all parts of it in their visible order and communion affecting to write such blinde and small Characters in describing new Church ways and forms of Religion that no ordinary eyes can read their meaning either in their shrinking and separating into small ruptures of Bodies when they were related to and combined with Churches large and setled or in their Seraphick raptures strange Enthusiasms secret drawings and extraordinary impulsions which they pretend to have in their ways above and without yea in the neglect and contempt of all ordinary means and setled Ministry in any Church Their many high imaginations and fanatick fancies are no doubt above their Authors own understandings no less than above all wiser and soberer mens capacities twinckling much more like gloworms under the hedges of private Conventicles and Factions than shining with true and antient light of the judgement or practise of any Churches Therefore they need no further confutation from my Pen having so little yea no confirmation from any grounds of Scripture or arguments of common Reason or custom of Christians nothing indeed worthy of any rational godly and serious mans thoughts who list not to dance after the Jews-trump or Oaten-pipe of every Country fancy rather than listen to the best touched Lute or Theorbo These Syrens wise Christians may leave to sing to themselves and their own melancholy or musing thoughts no sober-man can understand them further than they signifie that ignorance illiterateness idleness pride presumption licentiousness and vanity which some like spiritual Canters affect The rarities which they boast to enjoy are without any discreet mans envy that I know However they carry it with a kinde of scornful indignation against others every where pitying as they say the simple diligence and needless industry of those poor Christians who are still attending on those thred-bare forms as they call them of old readings and catechisings and preachings and prayings and Sacraments c. in the publick Liturgies and orderly assemblies of Christians Despising as much the antient and true way of Ministry and Duty as they would the moldy bread and torn bottles of the Gibeonites abhorring to own any relation to other Christians or Church or Ministry or Governors in any Catholike bond of communion and subjection nor can they endure any Christian subordination or prudent and necessary restraint of just Government Jeron Ep. ad Eustoch Quibus os barbarum procax in convicia semper armatum Isid Hâ—spal lib. de offic eccles c. 15. Ubicunque vagantur venalem circumferentes hypocri sinusquam fixi nusquam stantes nusquam sedentes quae non viderunt confingunt Opiniones suaâ— habent pro Deo Honores quos non acceperunt se habuisse protestantur c. Which makes them look very like the old Circumcelliones a company of vagrant Hypocrites of whom Saint Jerom and Isidore Hispalensis make large and satyrical descriptions The first sayes they were impudent straglers whose mouths were always full of barbarous and importune reproaches The other tells us that they every where wandered in their mercenary hypocrisie fixed no where feigning visions of what they never saw Counting their opinions and dreams for divine and protesting to have received those eminencies which they have not Impatient to be confined to any place order or way but had rather like vagabonds continue in their beggarly liberty than fix to a sober industry and enjoy a setled competency 2 Pet. 2.14 Beguiling unstable souls These unstable spirits who turn round till they are giddy and fall from all truth and charity into all error and faction who shut their eyes that they may say they grop in the dark and complain of all mens blindness but their own These I say have of all others least cause to blame the Religion and Ministry of the Church of England since they own themselves to be in no Church-way Which of all sides is most blamed and condemned and so need not to be confuted any more 16. Several quarrels against the Church of Englands frame Some others there are who flatter themselves to be less mad than these seeking fellows who glory most in this That they have broken all the former cords and shaken off all bonds of any National Government Order and Discipline whereby they were formerly restrained in this Church Which first they deny to be any Church purely and properly so called or in any way and frame of Christs institution but onely such an establishment as ariseth from meer civil polity and humane constitution Secondly These charge us that we
neglect when they have set us in every corner so many copies of it I answer We have indeed in the Church of England from its first Christianity been wholly without this covenanting way and I think both happily and most willingly we had been so still since there appears no more ground for it in Scripture precept or Churches paterns nor is there any more need of it as to the peace and polity of the true Church of Christ than there is of rents and patches in a fair and whole Garment Who knows not Jonâ—h 4.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that like Jonah's gourd it is filius noctis the production of yesterday risen from the darkness and divisions of mens mindes The fruit of discontent separation and self-conceit for the most part though it may be nursed up by devout and well-meaning Christians yet it looks very like those bastard brats which the Novatians and Donatists of old began every where which were like Ismaels to Isaac mockers and contemners of the true Churches Communion Order and Peace VVe do not think this Covenant any more essential to the Being of a true Church than John Baptists Leathern girdle was to his being a Man or a Prophet It is an easie and specious novelty therefore pleasing to common people because within their grasp and reach which its Proselytes that forsake and abhor the English Churches Order and Communion do wrap and hug themselves in as much as any Papist doth in his adherence to the Roman party or in his hopes to be buried in a Monks Cowl Besides it carries this great temptation with it of gratifying the common professor with some shew of Power and Government which he once covenanted into that Church-way shall solemnly exercise But in good-earnest to sober Christians who have no secret byas of discontent or interest to sway them this new fashion of their Church-Covenant seems to have as no command or example in Scripture so no precedent in antiquity nor is it recommended for any excellent effects of prudence or peace which it produceth either to private Christians or the publick welfare of the Reformed Churches Some look on it as a mark of Schismatical confederacy which carries in its Bowels viperine principles which are destructive to the quiet of States and Kingdoms as well as of Churches If any finde any good or contentment in it as a tye or pledge of love in private fraternities yet they vastly overvalue it to cry it up as a matter no less necessary to the Being of a Church or well-being of Christians than the skin is to the Body when alas it is but a cloak lately taken up which never fell from Elias his shoulders and serves rather to cover some mens infirmities and discontents against this Church of England than much to keep them warm or adorn them as Christians VVe shall give a poor account of former Churches or Christians if this covenanting invention should be of such concernment to Christianity To which it seems to many wise and good men as superfluous as it were to binde a man with wisps of straw when he is already bound with chains of gold with more firm and pretious tyes For every true and conscientious Christian knows and owns himself to have upon his Conscience far more strict and indissoluble tyes not onely of nature and creation but of the Law and Word of God yea and of Christian covenant and profession by his baptismal-vow besides that of the other Sacrament also his private vows promises and repentings c. All which strictly binde the conscience of all good Christians to all duties of piety and charity according to the relations private or publick civil or sacred wherein they stand to God or man And further we see by daily experience That these sorry wit hs of mans invention obtruded as divine and necessary upon Christians and Churches binde not any of these new small bodies or bundles so fast but that they continually are breaking separating and scattering into as many fractions and subdivisions Error sibi semper dispaâ— est discolor quantò magis à veritate tantum ab unitate discedit August Eph. 3.17 as they have heady mindes fancies and humors among them And this they do without any sense of sin or shame yea for the most part with an angry glorying despising and defying of one another when but lately they boasted in how rare a way they were of Church-fellowship and Saintly-communion not as Members of Christs Body the Catholike Church grounded and grown up in truth and love but onely as pieces of wood finely glued together by reciting a form of words which they call a Church-Covenant which a little spittle or wet dissolves Nor do they make any scruple to moulder and divide if once they come to dispute and differ in the least kinde So hard is it for any thing to hold long together which is compacted of weak judgements and strong passions Last of all It is evident in the experience of all wise Christians That this narrow and short thong of private Bodying Church-covenanting cannot extend so far as is necessary for the Churches general peace order and welfare in reference to its more publick relations and necessities which oft require stronger and more effectual remedies Yea these small strings and cords binding each particular Congregation apart as if it were a limb to be let blood makes them at length grow benumed and less sensible of that common spirit of love and charity by which each Member is knit to the larger parts and so to the whole Body of the Church to whose common good they ought wisely and charitably to be more intent than to their particular Congregations which are but as the Pettitoes or little Fingers of the Church Which may not act or be considered otherways than as they are and subsist which is not apart by themselves nor onely in relation to an hand or foot to which they are more immediately conjoyned but as in an higher relation to the whole Body of which they are real parts servient to the whole and as much concerned in the common good and preservation of the whole if not more than of themselves or any particular part or Member A Christian must not deal out his charity by retail and small parcels onely as to private Fraternities and Congregations but also by whole-sale to the ampler proportions of Christs Church according as he stands in large and publick relations the due regard to the peace order and welfare of which is not to be dispenced withal nor shuffled off by saying 1 Cor. 12.21 I am of such a Congregational-Body or Covenanting Church no more than the hand may say I am not of the head nor neer it and so will have no care of it We are therefore so far from being admirers of the small talents and weak inventions of those men in so great a matter as the constituting and conserving of a true Church by
or at least his will and zeal thinks it a shame to seem ignorant or if he be conscious to his ignorance seeks to cover it over and set it off with forwardness Therefore the wisdom of the Lord Christ upon whose shoulders the Government of his Church is laid Isai 9.7 hath set bounds to mans activity and unquietness by another way of Church power which is setled in and derived by fewer indeed but yet wiser and abler persons than the community of Christians can be presumed to be who in all affairs of Church or State have ever given such experiments of their follies madnesses and confusions where-ever they arrogate power or have much to do beyond ciphers in a sum that all wise men conclude That people are then happiest when they have least to do in any thing that is called Government Nor is it to be believed that Jesus Christ hath ordered any thing in his Churches polity that is contrary to the principles of true wisdom which in man is but a beam of that Sun which is in God But the Bodying men say 28. People not fit to judge of doctrine or scandals in Religion They must and ought to have a Church not onely visible in the profession of Faith but palpable and maniable so as they may at once grasp it and upon every occasion convene it or the major part of it into one place that so they may complain of what they think amiss and remedy by the power of that small fraternity what ever faults any of them list to finde in one another as Fellow Members and Brethren yea and in those too whom they have made to be their Pastors Rulers and Fathers Answ That the best Men and best Ministers may erre and offend in religious respects by error and scandal we make no doubt Nor is it denied but they may and ought both by private charity be admonished and by publick authority be reproved and censured Where this Authority is as it ought to be in the hands of those whom the Lord Christ hath appointed as wise able and authorised by the Church to judge of Doctrine Maners and Differences incident among Christians as such But I appeal to all sober and judicious Christians whether they can finde or fancy almost that venerable Consistory that judicious Senate that grave and dreadful Tribunal which the antients speak of among Christians of those first and best times which is necessary for the honor and good order of Religion and peace of Christians Whether I say there be any face or form of it among those dwarf Bodies those petty Church lets those narrow Conventicles whose Head and Members Pastors and Flock are for the most part not above the Plebeian size of a meer mechanick mould either ignorant or heady or wilful or fierce under words and semblances of zeal gravity and an affected severity I make no quaere Whether these sorts of men be fit persons to whom all appeals in matters of Religion must be made and by whom they must be finally determined to whose judgements prudence and conscience all matters of doctrine and scandal must be referred By whom Religious concernments must be ordered and reformed by whom Ministers must be examined tryed and ordained In eo quisque judex recti constituitur in quo peritus judicatur Reg. Juris first afterward judged and deposed Whether it be fit that those who are guilty of so little learning or experience in divine matters should solely agitate these great things of God which so much concern his truth his glory and Christians good every way which matters both as to Doctrine and Discipline are able to exercise and fully imploy the most learned able and holy men Who dreads not to think that all saving truths stand at such mens mercy the honor of Christ and the good of mens souls too while all degrees of excommunication and censures are irrepealably transacted by them Among whom its hard to finde two wise men and scarce any ten of them if they be twenty of one minde while they boast they are of one Body Again who will not sadly laugh to see that when they differ as they oft do and break in pieces yet like quantitative substances they are always divisible like water and other homogeneous bodies they still drop and divide into as many new Churches and Bodies as they are dissenting or separating parties The miracle is that when like Hypolitus his Limbs they are rent and scattered by Schisms into Factions yet still every leg or arm or hand forms presently into a new distinct compleat Body and subdivided Church Each of which conceives such an integrality of parts and plenitude of power that it puts forth head and eyes and hands all Church Officers Pastors Elders Deacons by an innate principle of Church power which they fancy to be in any two or three godly people At this rate and on this ridiculous presumption they run on as water on a dry ground till it hath wasted it self till they are in small chips and slivers making up Bodies at six and sevens and Churches of two or three Believers These ere long losing one another in the midst of some new opinion some sharp subtilty or some angry curiosity which they cannot reach then and not before this meteor or blasing Star of a popular Independent absolute self-sufficient Church power in the people which threatned Heaven and Earth and strived to out-shine the Sun and Moon and Stars of all antient combined Churches Order and Government for want of matter quite vanisheth and disappears by its Members separating from and excommunicating or unchurching of each other Then the solitary relicts turn Seekers whose unhappy fortune is never to finde the folly of their new errors nor the antient true Church way which they proudly or passionately or ignorantly lost when they so easily forsook communion with the Catholike Church and with that part of it to which they were peaceably orderly and comlily united as was here in England Whose way of serving the true God was privately with knowledge faith love and sincerity publickly with peace order humility and charity Which might still with honor and happiness to this Nation be continued if the proud hearts and wanton heads and rude hands of some novel pretenders had not sought to make the very name of Christian Religion the Reformed Church and Ministry of England a meer sport and may-game to the Popish profane and looser world by first stripping us of all those Primitive Ornaments of gravity order decency charity good government unanimity and then dressing us up and impluming us with the feathers of popular and passionate fancies which delight more in things gay and new than good and old But how shall we do say these Bodying-men 29. Of Church Discipline in whom the Power Matth. 18.17 Tell it to the Church to fulfil that command Dic Ecclesiae for such a Church as may receive complaints hear causes of
scandal speedily reform abuses restore defects execute all power of the Keys in the right way of Discipline without which there is no true at least no compleat and perfect Church for these men think Christians can hardly get to Heaven unless they have power among them to cast one another into Hell to give men over to Satan to excommunicate as they see cause to open and shut Heaven and Hell gates as they think fit Must all things that concern our Church say they lie at six and sevens till we get such Bishops and Presbyters such Synods and Councils such Representatives of Learned men as are hardly obtained and as hard to be rightly ordered or well used when they are met together They had rather make quicker dispatches in Church work as if they thought it better for every family to hang and draw within it self and presently punish every offence than for a whole Country to attend either general Assizes or quarter Sessions Answ Truly good Christians in this Church at present are in a sad and bad case too as well as their Ministers if they could make no work of Religion till they were happy to see all things of extern order and government duly setled Yet sure we may go to Church and to Heaven too in our worst clothes if we can get no better nor may we therefore wholly stay at home and neglect religious duties because we cannot be so fine as we would be Both Ministers and people must do the best they can in their private sphears and particular Congregations to which they are related whereby to preserve themselves and one another as Brethren in Christ from such deformities and abuses as are destructive to the power of godliness the peace of conscience and the honor of the Reformed Religion until the Lord be pleased to restore to this Church that holy Order antient Government and Discipline which is necessary not to the being of a Christian or a true Church as its form or matter which true Believers constitute by their internal union to Christ by Faith and to all Christians by Charity but onely as to the external form and polity for the peace order and well being of a Church as it is a visible society or holy nation and fraternity of men 1 Pet. 2.9 professing the truth of Jesus Christ Yea and Christians may better want that is with less detriment or deformity to Religion that Discipline which some men so exceedingly magnifie as the very Throne Scepter and Kingdom of Christ under Christian Magistracy as they may the office of Deacons where the law by Overseers takes care for the poor where good laws by civil power punish publick offences and repress all disorders in Religion as well as trespasses in secular affairs Better I say than they could have been without it in primitive times when Christians had no other means to repress any disorders that might arise in their societies either scandalous to their profession or contrary to their principles of which no Heathen Magistrate or Humane Laws took then any cognisance or applied any remedy to them Not but that I do highly approve and earnestly pray for such good Order comely Government and exact Discipline in every Church both as to the lesser Congregations and the greater Associations to which all reasons of safety and grounds of peace invite Christian Societies in their Church relations as well as in those of Civil which were antiently used in all setled and flourishing Churches Much after that patern which was used among the Jews both in their Synagogues which they had frequent both in their own Land and among strangers in their dispersions and also in their great Sanhedrim which was as a constant supreme Council for ordering affairs chiefly of Religion to one or both which no doubt our Saviour then referred the believing Jew in that of Tell it to the Church that is after private monition tell it to the lesser Convention or Consistory in the Synagogues which might decide matters of a lesser nature or to the higher Sanedrim in things of more publick concernment both which were properly enough called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coetus congregatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Jud. calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nihil hic à Christo novum praecipitur sed mos rectè introductus probatur H. Grot. in loc Ecclesiae i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Every polity hath in it power enough to preserve it happiness Coimus in coâ—tum congregationem Ibidem orationes exhortationes castigationes censura divina Praesident probati quique seniores Tert. Apol. Solebant Judaei res majoris momenti ultimo loco ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multitudinem referre i. e. ad eos qui eadem instituta sestabantur quorum judicia conventus seniores moderabantur tanquam praesidet Grot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. Bas in Chrys Beyond this sense none could be made of Christs words by his then Auditors to whom he speaks not by way of new direction and institution of a Soverein Court or Consistory in every Congregation of Christians to come but by way of referring to a well known use and daily practise then among the Jews which was the onely and best means wherein a Brother might have such satisfaction in point of any offence which charity would best bear without flying to the Civil Magistrate which was now a forein power When Jews turned Christians it s very certain they altered not their Discipline and order as Christians in Church society from what they used before in their Synagogues Proportionably no doubt in Christian Churches of narrower or larger extensions and communion among the Gentiles the wisdom of Christ directs and allows such judicatories and iurisdictions to prevent or remove all scandals and offences among Christians to preserve peace and order as may have least of private or pedantick imperiousness and vulgar trifflings of men unable and unfit to be in or to exercise any such holy and divine authority over others who are easily trampled upon and fall into reproach and the snare of the Devil by reason of divers lusts passions weaknesses and temptations but rather Christ commends such grave Consistories solemn Synods and venerable Councils as consisting of wise and able and worthy men may have most as of the Apostolical wisdom eminency gravity so of Christs Spirit Power and Authority among them Such as no Christian with any modesty reason conscience or ingenuity can despise or refuse to submit to the integrity of their censure when it is carried on not with those heats peevishnesses and emulations which are usually among men of less improved parts or ripened years especially if Neighbors Such a way wisely setled in the Church might indeed binde up all things that concern Religion in private or more publick respects to all good behavior in the bonds of truth peace and
good order by a due and decent Authority which for every two or three or seven Christians in their small Bodyings and Independent Churches exlusively of all others to usurp and essay to do is as if of every chip of Noah's Ark or of every rafter of a great Ship they would endeavor to make up a very fit vessel to sail in any Sea and any weather 30. The best method of Church Discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But take the true and wholesome Discipline of the Church in those true proportions which pious antiquity setled and used and which with an easie hand by a little condescending and moderation on all sides might have been long ago and still may be happily setled in England Nothing is more desireable commendable and beneficial to the Church of Christ As a strong case to preserve a Lute or Instrument in that so the Church may not be broken disordered or put out of tune by every rash and rude-hand either in its truth or purity or harmony either in Doctrine or Maners or Order But this is a blessing as not to be deserved by us so hardly to be hoped or expected amidst the pride and passions and fractions of our times Nor will it be done till Civil powers make as much conscience to be good as great and to advance Christian Religion no less than to enlarge or establish Temporal Dominion When such Magistrates have a minde first to know and then to set up a right Church polity power and holy order in every part and proportion of it They need not advise with such as creep into corners or seek new models out of little and obscure conventicles nor yet ought they to confine themselves to those feeble proportions which are seen in the little Bodyings of these times which begin like Mushrooms to grow up every where and to boast of their beauties and rare figures when nothing is more indigested and ill compacted as to the general order and publick peace of this or any other noble and ample branch of the Catholick Church Pious and learned Men who reverence antiquity and know not yet how to mock either their Mother the Church or their Fathers the true Bishops Elders and Ministers of it can soon demonstrate how to draw forth that little chain of gold that charity communion and orderly subordination among Christians which at first possibly might onely adorn one single congregation of a few Christians in the primitive paucity and newer plantations to such a largeness amplitude and extension as by the wisdom of Christian charity and humility shall extend to and comprehend in its compass by way of peaceable union and harmony or comly subâ—ection even the largest combinations and furthest spreadings of any branch of the Cathol ke Church Both as to its greater and lesser conventions in several places and times as the matters of Religion and occasion of the Churches shall require according to its several dispersions and distinctions by place or civil polity Matth. 18.19 Which greater yet orderly conventions must needs be as properly a Church and may meet as much in Christs Name and hope for his presence and assistance in the midst of them as any of those Churches could among the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.6 Punâ—shment inflicted by many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebuke before all 1 Tim. 5.20 Synodas Antiochena Paulum Samosetanum ab ecclesia quae sub coelo est universo seperabat Eus hist eccl l. 7. c. 28. Autoritas est eminentia quaedam vitae cujus gratia dictis factisve eujuspiam multum deferimus Tul. to which Christ properly refers in that place Yea they must needs be far beyond any thing imaginable in the narrow confinements of Independent Bodies Such Churches then of most select wise and able Christians who have the consent and Representation of many lesser Congregations must needs do all things with more wisdom advice impartiality authority reputation majesty and general satisfaction than any of those stinted Bodies of Congregational Churches can possibly do yea in all right reason they are as much beyond and above them as the power of a full Parliament is beyond any Country Committee Those may with comly order and due authority which ariseth from the consent of many men much esteeming the known worth of others give audience receive complaints consider of examine reprove reform excommunicate and restore where there is cause and as the matters of the Church more private or publick require in the several divisions extending its wings as an Eagle more or less as there is cause with infinite more benefit to the community of Christians than those Pullets the short winged and little bodied Birds of the Independent feather can do Where without any warrant that I know from God or Man Religion or right Reason Law or Gospel Prudence or Charity a few Christians by clucking themselves into a conventicle shall presently seem a compleat body to themselves and presume to separate and exempt themselves from all the world of Christians as to any duty subjection order or obedience and pitching their Tents where they think best within the verge of any other never so well and wisely setled Church presently they shall raise themselves up some small brest works of absolute Authority which they fancy both parts from and defends them against all Churches in the World planting their Wooden or Leathern Guns of imaginary Independent power and casting forth their Granadoes or Squibs rather of passionate censures angry abdications and severe divorces against all Christians Ibidem i. e. praesidentibus probatis Senioribus exhortationes castigationes censura divina Nunc judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu Sumumque futuri judicii praejudicium est si quis ita deliquerit ut communicatione orationis conventus omnis sancti commercil relegetur Tertul. Apol. c. 39. Qui ab ecclesiae corpore respuuntur quae Christi corpus est tanquam peregrini alieni à Deo Dominatui diaboli traduntur Hil. in Ps 118. Inobediens spirituals mucrone truncatur ejectus de ecclesia rabido Daemonum ore discrepitur Jeron Ep. 1. but those of their own way and party Afterward they turn them it may be against their own body and bowels when once they begin to be at leisure to wrangle and divide As if alas these were the dreadful thunder-bolts of excommunication antiently used with great solemnity caution deliberation and publick consent The great forerunner of Gods terrible hast judgment exercised with unfeigned pity fervent prayers and many tears by those who had due eminency and authority as presidents in chief or seconds and assistants to judge and act in so weighty cases and matters In which transactions and censures Churches Synodical Provincial and National were interessed and accordingly being duly convened they solemnly acted in Christs Name as the offence error or matter required remedy either for
errors or publike disorders and scandals which it concerned all Christians and Churches to see repressed or amended Of Excommunication and censures Praesident prolati quique seniores honorem islam non pretio sed testimonio adepti Tertul. Apol. c. 39. The â—do Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 10. Quod sacris Episcoporum conciliis constitutum fuerit id ad divinam voluntatem est referendum Const M. dictum Euseb vit Const Episcopi in Synodo Sardicensi Dei amantissimi Reges adjuvantâ— divina gratia nos congregaverunt In illa concilla totus desiderio feror in istis devotione immoror amore condeleâ—tor inhaereo consensu emulatione persisto in quibus non hominum traditiones obstinatius defensantur aut superstitiosius observantur sed diligentur humiliterque inquiritur quae sit voluntas Dei bona bene placens Bern. Ep. 19. The wise and excellent Discipline of the Church and the power of using and applying of it which so many now either vainly arrogate or ambitiously Court was not of old as a bodkin put into every mechanicks hands or as a sword committed to every brawny arm nor yet was it such a brutum fulmen a thunder-bolt which the confident hand of every factionist might take to himself and Grasp or use to his private revenge or to the advantage of his party and design But Discipline together with Government in the Church was only committed and concredited after the example of the ApostolicÌ„all times by the wisdom humility consent and subjection of all good Christians in their severall stations either as Princes or Subjects to those learned grave and godly men Bishops and Presbyters who were ablest for gifts eminentest for their labours and highest in place and Ministeriall authority in the Churches of Christ whose assemblies or convenings were greater or smaller and their influence accordingly obliging valid and effectuall for the good of those Churches over which they were ascending from the first and least Country Congregations as the smallest yet considerable branches of a visible Church till it arose like Ezekiels waters from the Anckles to the Knees and Loyns and Head to such large plenary and powerfull an Authority as represented many famous Churches and sometimes the greatest and conversable parts of the Catholick Church throughout the whole world as in generall Councils called Oecumeniall Of Synods and Councils Out of which Synods and Councils however disorders and inconveniences as Nazianzene and others complain cannot be wholy kept out they still consisting of sinfull and so frail men yet they were subject to far less evils Cyp. Nazi orat 19. Ruffin Hist l. 1. c. 19. 18. In causa Athenasii Factionis macula sociavit concilium non judicandi sed opprimendi causa agebatur sub Constantio Concil Nicae secundum ab Artianis coactuÌ„ terrae motu impeditum Theod. l. 2. c. 19. and Errataes than attend the small scattered and separate bodies of there later decimo sexto editions In multitude of Counsellors there is wisdom safety and honour Prov. 11.14 Nor may we cast away those goodly large Robes which the prudence and piety of the antients made because they are subject to be soyled or rent by the hands of folly It is better for the Church to enjoy the gleanings of the antients Integrity Wisdom and Charity in ordering of the Church than to have the whole harvest of later mens sowings which have large straw of promises and shews but little grain of solid benefit yea much cockle too and many thistles of most choaking and offensive consequences The very rags of true antiquity doe better cover the nakedness and more adorne thee body of any Church than any of those cobweb-garments of later making which are torn in pieces while they are putting on and fitting to these new bodies of odd shapen Churches All reason and experience teacheth that those grand communicative wayes of Christian Churches in the joynt Counsels of grave learned and Godly men drawing all into union harmony and peace for the publike and generall good were far more probable though perhaps not absolutely necessary means to preserve both the doctrine of Faith and good manners unblameable among Christians than any of those small and broken Potsheards of private Independency can be which carry little ability and as little authority or vertue with them appearing like the Serpents teeth sown by Cadmus every where rising up in armed parties divided against and destroying one another till they have cleared the Field as of all such new and angry productions so of all those antient and excellent constitutions of Christian Churches which were bound up as Bibles in greater or lesser volumes It being so naturall to all men to affect what they call liberty and power if once mean men can by any arts obtein any shadow of them they are out of the shew of much zeal and conscience most pragmaticall And first begin to think no Church well reformed unless they bring them to their models Then their modell must be new lest their Authors should seem to have been idle being alwaies more concerned for the reformation of any men than of themselves God grant that while temerity and confidence pretends to plant none but new and rare flowers and to root up all old ones as ill weeds in the Church that themselves and their odd inventions with their rash abolitions prove not at last the most noxious plants that ever pestered the Garden of this Church To what some men urge by abusing that text against the good Orders Canons and Constitutions or Customs of the Church 31. Of prudence in ordering the Church affairs Mat. 15.13 That every plant which the Father hath not planted shall be pulled up therefore say they nothing of humane prudence is tolerable in the ordering of any Church I answer first none of those that quarrelled at the Church of Englands Motes but are thought by many learned and Godly men to have beams in their own eyes if Scripture right reason and antiquity may judge for nothing is alleged as more different from any of these amongst us than what may be found among the new Modellers who as they were in number and quality much inferior so they were never thought more wise or learned nor so calm and composed nor so publike and unpassionate in their Counsels and determinations as those many excellent men and Churches were both antient and modern to whose examples agreeable to the Canon of the Scriptures the Church of England was conformed n his rebus in quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura mos populi Dei vel instituta majorum pro lege tenendi sunt Aug. Ep. 89. Disciplina nulla est melior gravi prudentique viro in his quae liberas habent observationes quam ut co modo agat quo agere viderit Ecclesiam ad quam cunque forte divenerit Quod enim neque contra fidem neque bonos more 's injungitur indâ—fferenter est habendum
pro corum inter quos vivitur societate observandum est Aust Ep. 118. ad Jan. Salvà fidei regula de D sciplina contendentibus suprema lex est Ecclesiae paâ— Blondel sent Jeron praef Furthermore The great Motor of some mens passion zeal and activity against this Reformed Church was that one Error against the judgement liberty and practice of all antiquity which is fundamentall as to the Churches polity and extern Peace namely That nothing may be used in the Church as to externals which is not expresly and precisely commanded in the word Which yet themselves observe not when they come to have power either to form and act some things they take in upon prudentiall account as their Church-Covenant of the form and words of which they are not yet agreed which they urge so their requiring each Member to give an account not of the historicall belief of the truth but of the work of grace and conversion which no Scripture requires or Church ever practis'd That of St. Austin hath been often inculcated by many learned quiet and godly men in this Church of England and elsewhere as a most certain truth That however the Faith Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry of the Church are precisely of divine Institution rising from a divine Spring and conveyed in a like sacred Current which ows nothing to the wisdom policy power or authority of man yet the extern dispensation of this Faith Sacraments and divine Ministrations together with the fence and hedge of them the necessary Government Order and Discipline of the Church in its parts and in the whole these doe fall much under the managing of right reason rules of good order and common prudence all which attends true Religion So that they neither have nor needed nor indeed were easily capable of such positive precise and particular precepts or commands as these men fancy and by this pertinacious fancy they have cast great snares on the consciences of many great scandals on the Churches both antient and modern and great restraints on that l berty which Jesus Christ left to his Churches in these things according as various occasions and times might require Sumus homines ciâ—es cum fimus Châ—istiani Salv. None but foolish and fanatick men can think that when men turned Christians they ceased to be men or being Christian men they needed not still to be governed both as Christians and as men by reason joyned to Religion which will very well agree carrying on Re igious ends by such prudent and proportionate means and in such good order as is agreeable to right reason and the generall directions of Religion which never abandoned or taught any Christian to start at and abhor Naturae lâ—â—en rationis radios non extinguit sed excitat Religio quae non vera tantum sed decora postulat Aust Phil. 4.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whatsoever things are true honest or comly just pure lovely of good report if any vertue any praise think on these things or meditate with reason and judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is taught by the very light of nature and those common principles of reason and order or polity which teach the way of all Government and subjection either of yonger to the elder whence is the very ground of all Presbytery or of weaker to the stronger or of the foolisher to the wiser or of the ignorant to the learned or of many to some few for the good of all None of which methods can cross Religion nor being observed in some due measure can be blamed nor ought factiously to be altered by the members of any setled Church in which there is neither Apostacy from the Faith nor recession from the Scriptures nor alteration of the substance of Christs holy Institution which this Church of England not-being guilty of but apparently professing and fully adhering to the Scriptures as the ground rule and limit of Faith and holy Mysteries We doubt not but however it used the wisdom of learned wise and holy men and followed the warrant of the Primitive Churches in the extern maner and methods of holy Administrations Government and Discipline yet it may and ought still as it doth lay claim to the right and honor of an eminent part of the true Catholike Church of Christ having a true Ministry and true Ministrations In which I believe all the Apostles and Primitive Martyrs and Confessors in all Ages would most willingly have owned and approved yea the Great God from Heaven hath attested it and still doth to the consciences of thousands of excellent Christians which have had their birth and growths to Religion in this Church of England So that the out-cryes abhorrencies and extirpations carried on so eagerly against the main constitution frame and Ministry of this Church by many who now appear to be men of little charity and strong passions and very weak reason as if we were all-over Popish Superstitious Antichristian altogether polluted intollerable c. Those calumnies and clamors wanted both that truth that caution and that charity which should be used in any thing tending to disturb or discourage any true Christian or Church of Christ whose differences in some small external things from us in judgment or practice we ought to bear upon the account of those many great things in which we agree with them as Christians Nor ought poor men of private parts and place in Church and State so to swell at any time with the thought of any Liberty and Power in common given them from Christ to reign with him or to reform c. as to drive like tipsy Mariners those rightful Pilots from the Helm or to break their card and compass of antient design draught and form by which they steered as they ought or as they could in the distress of times And this onely That these new undertakers may try how they can delineate new carts or maps and how soon they can over-whelm or over-set so fair rich and goodly a Vessel as this Church of England once was in the eye of all the World but our own This Iland was not more nobly eminent than the Church was great in Britany The leaks chinks and decayes which befal all things in time might easily have been stopped calked and trimmed by skilful and well-advised hands when once it was fairly and orderly brought upon the Publick stocks and into a Parliament Dock which good men hoped of all places would not prove either a quick-sand or a rock to the Reformed Church or the Learned Ministry of England But the Lord is just though we should be confounded in our confidences of men though neither mountains nor hills nor valleys can help yet will we trust in God who is our God in Christ who we doubt not but in mercy will own us with all our frailties and defects as his true Church and true Ministers And if in
any thing we have failed as men yet we are assured the merciful eye of Heaven will look more favorably on our failings to pardon them than some Basilicks do on our labors to accept them * Jere. 1 8. Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee saith the Lord. V. 18. I have made thee a defenced City a brazen Wall and an iron Pillar c. Ezek. 2.6 Be not afraid of their words though thou dost dwell among scorpions be not dismayed at their looks though they be a rebellious house who seek to destroy this Church and discourage all its true Christians and Ministers if they could with their dreadful aspects and spightful looks if they had not the defensative of Gods protection joyned to their own innocency and the favor of many excellent Christians whom I have endeavored to settle and satisfie as briefly and clearly as in so short a time I could in these many and to me very tedious and almost superfluous objections against this true Reformed Church of England these first and lesser calumnies which lay in the way of my main design I thought it my duty to remove 32. Want of Charity our greatest defect In the Council of Carthâ—ge An. 401. The Orthodox Christians send Messengers to the Donatists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So after they send An. 404. Orators for unity and peace without which say they Christian Religion cannot consist Where I see in all our disputes and differences so cruelly carried on the greatest ingredient is Uncharitableness which knows not how to excuse small faults to supply lesser defects to interpret well what is good to allow others their true Christian Liberty and to enjoy its own modestly to keep communion amidst some easie differences and union with harmless varieties We have had on all sides truth enough to have saved any men and uncharitableness enough to have damned any angels Nor is it meerly a privation or want of charity but an abounding of envy malice strife wrath bitterness faction fury cruelty and whatever is most contrary to the excellency of Christians which was the excellency of Christ love and charity The want of which Basil Mag. de Sp. S. deplores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Naz. Or. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. sayes Religion as a Tripos hath three feet Faith Hope and Charity and cannot stand if any one be wanting I cannot but here deplore in a pathetick digression craving the Readers pardon since I cannot go further in answer of uncharitable objections till I have first sought for our lost charity The recovery of which one grace would end all the differences and heal all the distempers not of England onely but of all the Christian World You O excellent Christians will I know joyn with me in searching after charity as they did after Christ sorrowing Luke 2.48 In mourning for as some of the devout antients did the sad distances and wasts of Christian charity among all sorts of Christian Churches and Professors Alas we glory and swell and are puffed up one against another in the forms of being called Churches and Reformed when we lose the very power of godliness the soul of religion and the peculiar glory of Christianity which is charity Joh. 13.35 By this shall all men know that you are my disciples c. O sweet divine and heavenly beauty of Christ and all true Christians Charity Whither art thou fled from Christians brests 33. Pathetick for Charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Niss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 3. c. 1. Salvian complains Quis plenam vicuâ—â— exhibet charitatem Omnes à si etsi loco non absunt affectu absunt etsi habitatione juâ—guntur mente disjuncti sunt Lib. 5. de Gâ—berna Non Albiniani non Nigriani sumus sed Christiani Hoc unum fluâ—â—â—â— nullarum partium fludiis â—bripi Tertul. Acts 1.26 lives hearts and Churches In which was wont to be thy Nest thy Palace and thy Temple Where thou wert received welcomed and entertained by wise and humble Christians either as the Spouse of Christ in thy purity or as the Queen of graces in thy beauty or as the Goddess of Heaven in thy majesty O whither art thou gone where art thou retired Art thou to be found in the cells of Hermites in the Cloysters of Monks in the solitudes of Anchorites Probably there may be most of thee where is least of the world which like full diet begets most of cholerick and foul humors Dost thou reside among the pompous Papists The graver Lutherans the preciser Calvinists the severer Separatists or the moderater English Christians May we finde thee at Rome or Wittemberg or Geneva or Amsterdam or London Dost thou dwell in the old Palaces and Councils of venerable Bishops or in the newer Classes of bolder Presbyters or in the narrower corners of subtile Independents Alas I fear these very colours and names which are as ensigns and alarms to factions sound ill in the ears of Charity and are unpleasing to its sight which onely loves the first common title and honor of Disciples to be called Christians These faces and forms seem as if they were divided and set one against another and when they want a common adversary each party is ready to subdivide and seeks to destroy it self the hand of every faction in Religion is as Ismaels against his Brother or it self Smiting oft with the fist of violence as Factious where they should give the right hand of fellowship as Christians and strangling each other instead of embracing Or are all these divisions but the disguises of Charity and under visords of factions a meer pageantry is acted of zealous ignorance or proud and preposterous knowledge both carried on with holy partialities fraternal Schisms zealous cruelties sacred conspiracies so far onely as to destroy all other Christians That each sect alone may remain as the onely Church which then fancy themselves sufficiently built polished and reformed when they are but as heaps of rubbish in their several ruptures as unpolished lumps in their uncharitable sidings so far weak and deformed limbs as they are passionatly and violently broken from the intireness and goodly fabrick of the well compacted Catholike Church of which they were sometime a comly and commendable part Onely then in beauty safety and symmetry while in order to and in unity with the whole which is as the Body and Temple of the Lord in its various parts making but one goodly structure which was antiently the â—oy and glory of the whole Earth Now nothing seems best but deformed ruines and desolate parcels of battered broken and almost demolished Churches like Hospitals in which are most-what wounded and maimed and halting Christians when of old the Foundation of one Rom. 13.10 Love is the fulfilling of
exemplo Timothei ecclesiae ordinationem custodirent Ambr. in 1 Tim. 6. not arbitrarily and precariously but as a trust and duty of necessity out of conscience and with all divine power authority and fidelity as Ambassadors from Christ for God as Heralds as Angels or Messengers sent from God as Laborers together with God in his Husbandry the Church as Woers and Espousers having Commission or Letters of credence to treat of and make up a marriage and espousals between Christ and the Church which sacred office of trust and honor none without due authority delegated to him from Christ might perform any more than Haman might presume to court Queen Esther before the King Ahasuerus During these Primitive times of the Apostles Ministry of the Gospel before they had finished their mortal pilgrimage we read them careful to ordain Presbyters in every City and Church to give them charge of their Ministry to fulfil it of their flocks to feed and guide them in Christs way both for truth and orders over whom the Lord had made them over-seers by the Apostles appointment who not onely thus ordained others to succeed them immediately but gave command as from the Lord to these as namely to Timothy and Titus to take great care for an holy succession of Ministers such as should be apt to teach able and faithful men to whom they should commit the Ministry of the Word of life so as the Word or Institution of Christ might be kept unblamable till the coming of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 6.14 by an holy order and office of Ministers duly ordained with the solemn imposition of hands as a visible token to men of the peculiar designiation of them and no others but those to this Office and Function who must attend on the Ministry give an account of their charge and care of souls to God Thus we finde beyond all dispute for Three Generations after Christ First in the Apostles secondly from them to others by name to Timothy and Titus thirdly from them to others by them to be ordained Bishops and Deacons the holy Ministry instituted by Christ is carried on in an orderly succession in the same Name with the same Authority to the same holy ends and offices as far as the History of the New Testament extends which is not above thirty years after Christs Ascension And we have after all these the next Succession testifying the minde of the Lord and the Apostles Clemens the Scholar of Saint Paul mentioned Phil. 4.3 who in his divine Epistle testifies That the Apostles ordained every where the first-fruits or prime Believers for Bishops and Deacons Pag. 54. And pag. 57. the Apostles appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinct Offices as at present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That when these slept with the Lord others tried and approved men should succeed and execute their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy Ministry than which testimony nothing can be more evident After that he blames the Corinthians for raising sedition for one or two mens sake against all the Presbytery Pag. 62. And exhorts at last Let the flock of Christ be at peace with the Presbyters ordained to be over it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So after Be subject to the Presbyters c. Thus the excellent methods of Christs grace and wisdom toward his Church appear as to this peculiar Office and constant Function of the Evangelical Ministry commanding men to work the work of God that they may have eternal life John 6.29 which is to believe in him whom the Father hath sent sealed and anointed with full power to suffer to satisfie to merit to fulfil all Righteosness Also to declare and confirm this to his Church constantly teaching guiding and sanctifying it He hath for this end taken care that faithful able and credible men should be ordained in an holy constant succession to bear witness or record of him to all posterity that so others might by hearing believe without which ordinarily they cannot Rom. 10.14 15. Nor can they hear with regard or in prudence give credit and honor to the speaker or obey with conscience the things spoken unless the Preacher be such an one as entreth in by the door John 10.1 into the sheepfold such as is sent by God either immediately as the Apostles or mediately as their Successors from them and after them who could never have preached and suffered with that confidence conscience and authority unless they had been conscious that they were rightly sent of God Rom. 10.14 15. Psal 68.11 Isai 53.1 1 Cor. 1.18 and Christ At whose Word onely this great company of Preachers were sent into the world who so mightily in a short time prevailed as to perswade men every where to believe a report so strange so incredible so ridiculous so foolish to flesh and blood and to the wisdom of the world Thus far then the tenor of the whole New Testament 6. Distinct Characters and Notes of the Ministerial Office John 15.19 and that one Apostolike Writer Clemens witnesseth that as Jesus Christ the great Prophet and chief Shepherd 1 Pet. 5.4 was sent and impowred with all power from the Father to carry on the great work of saving sinners by gathering them out of the world into the fold and bosom of his Church So he did this and will ever be doing it till his comming again by ordeining and continuing such means and Ministry Mat. 28.20 as he saw fittest to bring men into and to guide them in Joh. 21.15 Feed my Lambs my Sheep Acts 20.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To feed as Shepheards the flock 1 Pet. 5.2 1 Cor. 4.4 Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God c. 2 Tim. 4.1 2. 2 Tim. 4.5 Acts 20.29 1 Tim 4.11 Mat. 28. ult Heb. 13.14 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account c. Luke 12.43 Blessed is that servant the faithfull and wise Steward set over the house-hold whom his Master comming shall find so doing Dan. 12.3 1 Cor. 9.17 If I do this willingly I have a reward c. the wayes of saving truth of Religious orders and of holy lives Investing as we have seen particular persons whose names are recorded with peculiar power to teach to gather to feed and govern his Church by Doctrine by Sacraments and by holy Discipline Setting those men in peculiar relations and Offices to his Church as Fathers Stewards Bishops Shepheards Rulers Watchmen calling them by peculiar names and distinct titles as light of the world Salt of the earth Mat. 5.13 Fishers of men Mat. 4.19 Stars in his right hand Rev. 2.1 Angels of the Churches Requiring of them peculiar duties as to Preach the word in season and out of season to feed his Lambs and Sheep to fulfill the work of their Ministry to take care of the flock against grievous Wolves
all Prophets are all Teachers c. 18. All are not nor are any such as they are Christians or gracious c. 1 Cor. 12. ought to minister holy things to others to challenge the Keys of Heaven to themselves to be as in Christs stead to rule and oversee his house which cannot avoide as the Apostle proves abominable absurdities and detestable confusions no way beseeming the wisdom of Christ the majesty of Christian Religion or that order and decency which ought to be in Church-Assemblies being as contrary to reason as if every servant in an house should chalâ—enge the power of the Keys and the Stewards place or every member the office of the eyes tongue and hands by vertue of that common relation it hath as well as these parts to the same body the same soul and head As then right reason tells us beyond all reply That neither natural nor civil nor religious common gifts endowments or abilities instate any person in the office of Magistrate Judge Ambassador Herald Notary or publick Sealer Fraus est injuria quic quid agitur sub alterius persona sine debita ab illo autoritate Reg. Jur. Matth. 28.18 All power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or authority is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth that is in order to perfect Christs design his Churches good Acts 1.8 Autoritas delegata ab altâ—rius voluntate pendet tam quoad ipsam potestatâ—m quam ad derivandi modum Reg. Jur. 1 Cor. 4.19 I will know not the speech of them that are puffed up but the power V. 20. For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power i. e. That holy polity and orderly Kingdom which Jesus Christ hath set up and governs in his Church is not managed by confident praters but by authoritative Preachers Matth. 7.28 As Christ Jesus so his true Ministers teach and administer holy things as men having authority and not as the Scribes which places require not onely personal sufficiencies for the office but an orderly designation and induction to it from the fountain of civil power either mediately or immediately The same right reason which is most agreeable and servient to true Christian Religion requires a right derivation or conveyance of all supernatural Ministerial Church power which is in and from Jesus Christ as the sole supreme head and divine origin of it either immediately as they and none others had to whom Christ first consigned it and both by miraculous gifts and works confirmed it to be in them or mediately as those Bishops and Presbyters had it who without force fraud or any sinister way of usurpation or bold intrusion received this power from the Apostles by prayer and benediction with imposition of their hands in the name of Christ and from them their successors have lawfully derived it without interruption to the true Ministers of the Gospel even to this day as I have proved which not onely the Scriptures of undisputable verity but even those other very credible Histories of the Church and other Records of learned and holy Men in all ages to these times which the providence of God hath afforded us do abundantly declare all which to deny with a morose perverseness or rustical indiffereâ—cy is as if a Hog should answer all arguments with grunting And to act contrary to so strong a stream of concurrent Authorities both as to the judgment and practise of the Church in all ages is a work onely fit for Ranters and Seekers and Fanaticks or for Jews Turks and Heathen Infidels but not for any sober Christian that owns in the least kinde the Name of Jesus Christ or desires to be a member of any true Christian Church In which as all true and humble Christians have always enjoyed and with thankfulness owned the rightful succession and authority of their oâ—dained Ministers Pastors and Teachers so the Lord from Heaven in all ages hath witnessed to them by his blessings of truth and peace on the hearts of his people and by their means chiefly continuing the light of the Gospel to these days amidst those Heathenish persecutions Heretical confusions and Schismatical fractions which have sought to overthrow the Being or the Purity or the Order and Unity of the true Church To this judgment and testimony of Scriptures and antient Writers both in right and fact I might adde a cloud of witnesses from later reformed Divines which were very learned and very holy men far above the vulgar spirits both in other Churches and in this of England all agreeing with our excellent Bishop Jewel Bishop Jewels Apology Ministrum Ecclesiae legitime vocari oportere rectè atque ordine praefici ecclesiae Dei Neminem autem ad sacrum Ministerium pro suo arbitrio ac ibidine posse se intrudere That no may may intrude himself into the Ministry by his own will and pleasure or by any others who are not of that Order and Calling but he ought to be lawfully called and duly ordained by those in whom the lawful succession of ordinative power ever hath been and still is rightly placed and continued Agreeable to which there is a whole Jury of eminent Modern Divines alleged by a late industrious and ingenuous * See Master Halls Pulpit guarded Author who hath spared me that pains 9. The Priestly order among the Jews Joel 2.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niss de vita Mos Aronis Virga 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. 3. ep 20. Philo. Judaeus de sacerdotâ—o Aaronis calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numb 16. Exod. 19.6 2 Chro. 26 20. Vzziah ceased to be fit to rule as a King being smitten with Leprosie who usurped the office of the Priest 1 King 13.33 4. I may adde by way of confirmation of that common equity and rules of order which must be among men in all things and most necessarily in things truly religious The inviolable Function and peculiar Office or Order of the Priests and Levites which were the Ministers of the Lord in his antient Church of the Jews which is a most convincing instance to prove not the sameness and succession of that Order but the equity comliness and exemplariness of a peculiar Ministry for holy things among Christians under the Gospel since that Levitical Ministry was not more holy or honorable nor more distinguished in power and authority and office from the people than this in the Christian Church which is more immediately derived from Christ as clearly instituted and ordained by him and more fully exhibitive of him both in the Historical Truths and in the Mystical gifts and graces of his Spirit Yet we see who so despised or violated that Order and Ministry among the Jews under pretence of a common holiness in Gods people who were in a spiritual sense indeed called an holy Nation and a royal Priesthood so as to confound the Functions and Offices divinely distinguished either the earth from beneath devoured them
or some other remarkable judgement fell upon them as on King Uzzah So long as Gods love to the Jews was seconded with his jealousie for their good When indeed their Apostacies and Rebellions had alienated Gods love from them he then suffered those sad and unsanctified levellings to come among them consecrating the meanest of the people and who ever would relieve his worldly necessities by being a Priest to those Talismanick Calves under which new modes and figurations the Israelites were for some wicked reason of State perswaded by Jeroboam to worship their God So Herod when he had got the Kingdom over the Jews ex ima infima â—lâ—be constituit sacerdotes made of the basest people Priests c. Euseb Hist l. 1. c. 7. Which severe indulgence of God to them in suffering them to have such sorry and unsanctified Priests was no other but a fearful presaging of those desolations which soon after befel that people of Israel for the sins of Jeroboam who by his policy of new fashioned Priests and levelled that is abolished and profaned Religion is for ever branded with that mark of making Israel to sin 1 King 13.34 and was the occasion of cutting off his name and destroying his posterity from off the face of the earth Certainly in times when the Jews feared God if all the Priests and Levites whom God had appointed to minister before him had failed by death or defection the Ark in the Wilderness must have stood still or the service of the Temple have ceased till by some new Commission or Authority the Lord had signified his pleasure to his Church and people Nor would the devout and zealous Jews have thought presently every stout Porter or lusty Butcher would well enough supply the room of the Priests and Levites much less would they have beat and crouded the true Priests yet living and serving in their offices and courses out of their places onely because those others had naturally shouldâ—rs which could bear the Ark and the holy Vessels or hands which had skill to slay a beast and dress a sacrifice I see no reason why the Evangelical Ministry should be less sacred or inviolable since it hath as much of reason order usefulness and necessity also no less express authority from Christ and divine Institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. â— together with many hundreds of years holy and constant succession in all Churches That to invade this or violate and abrogate it seems no less to any true Christian than to croud Christ out of his throne to justle him out of his Priestly Prophetick and Kingly Offices It is like Julian the Apostate loudly to blaspheme or proudly to resist and insolently to do despight too that holy Spirit of truth power and order by which these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts of power and authority Ministerial have always been and are still given and dispenced to his Church in the way which Christ appointed which the holy Apostles practised and the Christian Churches have always imitated 5. I might yet adde the common notions and universal dictates of all mankinde who by the light of nature 10. Light of Nature in the Heathens Diu proximi sunt Deâ—â—um sacerdotes Tul. and that innate veneration of some Deity which they esteemed the inventer and institutor of their Religion agreed always in this That whatever Gods or Religions they owned their holy Rites and Mysteries were always publickâ—y taught celebrated and maintained by such as were solemnlâ— invest d with and reverenced under the peculiar name and honor of that sacrâ—d Office and sâ—cerdotal Function which they held divine as Herâ—d tus tells us which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none not initiated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod Euterp or not consecrated by the wonted Ceremonies might profanely usurp Plutarch Plutarch Moral p. 778. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tac. Ann. l. 3. A. Gellius l. 3. c. 15. Sacerdotes è rudibus indoctis impolitis sacrandi non sunt quibus non datum est intelligere civilia multo magis denegatum est disserere divina Min. Fael Sacerdotes Egyptii constituebant ex optimatibus tum genere tum scientia Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julian Imp. epist Sacerdotalis vita politicae Praestantier 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Phedo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In bello victores cum sint solent omnes gentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. 2 Tim. 3.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unthankful unholy without natural affections disobedient c. 2 Cor. 4.7 11 12. Earthen vessels Death worketh in us c. tells us both among Romans and Greeks they generally in all Cities paid great honor and respect to their Priests and holy men because those obtained of the gods good things not onely for themselves and their families but for the whole Cities where they lived Tacitus tells us That the cheif Priests were also by the Divine Munificence esteemed the chiefest of men least subject to anger envy or other mean affections from any men So Aul. Gellius setâ— down at large the solemnities and honors for vestments and other regards which among the Romans was used toward the Flamines Diales or chief Priests whom they esteemed next their gods whose word was always to be taken without any oath they thought all holy things profaned if any men unsacred presumed to meddle with them or partake of them much more if such an one officiated in them It cannot be any thing of true Christian piety or holiness which makes any men in the Church of Christ degenerate from the very principles of nature whose light is never despised by any but those that are without natural affections among other their black Characters which are proper to those who have a fâ—rm of godliness but deny the power of it The strangest prodigies that ever were indeed of so profane a wantonness under pretences of enlarged piety striving to remove all bounds of duty and respect to God or man nor did ever sober men think themselves absolved from that honor and respect which is due to God and his holy Service or Ministry because of the personal infirmities which may be seen in those that are his Ministers to us We shall neither as men nor Christians have any to serve God or man in the way of true Christian Religion if we will allow none with their failings The Divine is to be distinguished from the Man there may be the power of God with the weakness of man as in Saint Paul Nor need we be more choise and curious than God himself is 11. A peculiar Office of Ministry necessary for the Church 6. Nor is there a greater benefit and conveniency to the Church than a necessity of having a special calling and divine institution of the Ministers of the Gospel For we may not in this trust to the good natures and good wills of Christians in common if personal
is among us not so much a famine as a surfet of the Word and knowledge which hath here been as the waters of the Sea Hab. 2.14 disdains those shores of order office and duty which the Lord hath set for its bars and bounds in his Church Christians in many places having had great fulness are come to great wantonness and the enemies of the Ministry The greatest enemies of Ministers make them most necessary and Reformed Religion in this Church are not such as have been kept meager and tame with emptiness and ignorance but such as have been pricked with provender high fed by an able and constant Ministry These are grown to such ferocious spirits like pampered horses whom no ground will hold daily neighing after novelties rushing upon any adventures and impatient to bear those Ministers any longer by whose bounty they have been so liberally nourished with all means of knowledge preaching conferring and writing These now affect high racks and empty mangers subtilties rather than solidities and novelties more than nourishment yea they are become the rivals of their Ministers and und rtake like Balaams Beast to teach their Masters not onely speaking with them but against them yea seeking to cast them quite off lifting up their heel against them and trampling their feeders under their feet Thus having either got the bridâ—e between their teeth or having cast quite off their neck the reigns of Order Government and Discipline in Religion Psal 32.9 they are become like Horse and Mule without understanding without gratitude civility and common humanity so far they are from sober piety Running furiously without their guides wantonly snuffing up the wind and proudly lifting up themselves in their high crested opinions and presumptuous fancies of notions gifts prophecyings and inspirations Glorying in this riotous liberty and mad frolicks of Religion which all wise humble and holy Christians know are not more unworthy of and uncomfortable to all good Ministers who taught them better than they will be most dangerous destructive and damnable to those men themselves who proudly affect those ruder and dangerous follies in the Church of Christ who cannot either they or their posterity be ever so safe as in Christs way at his finding and under his custody where with holy and just restraints becoming Reason Order and Religion there are also the most ingenuous liberties and the most liberal fruitions Wandering prodigals in Religion who forsake the order and regularity of their Fathers house which is full of bread will soon be reduced to a morsel of bread And we see already such as have in their pride and disdain most forsaken the true Ministry are come by their riotous courses to feed on husks and from the harlotry of their wanton and fine opinions to consort with swine having hired out Luke 15. and enslaved themselves to all rude unjust and profane designs or else wallowing in filthy and sensual lusts which makes them sin against Heaven and Earth and be no more worthy to be called the sons of God or the children of this Christian Reformed Church So that we evidently see That those men fight against God against Christ Jesus against the Reformed and Christian Religion against the Word of God which is the standard of Religion against the Unity Order and Cathol ke conformity of the Church of the Christ in all ages against the future Succession of Religion against their own souls against their posterity against the common good of all mankinde and all such as may want and enjoy the inestimable blessing of the Gospel who ever fight against the holy office divine authority necessary duty sacred dignity and constant succession of the Evangelical Ministers and Ministry without which the Church of Christ like a Field or Garden without diâ—igent and daily Husbandmen and Gardiners would long ago have run to waste and been over-run with all maner of evil wâ—â—d which grow apace even in the best Plantations if God in his wisdom and mercy to mankinde and to his Church had not appointed some men as his Ministers to take care from time to time that the field of the Church be tilled in every place that the Garden be weeded and the vineyard fenced and this especially for their sakes who are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most of men whose cares and burdens of life or whose dulness and incapacity or whose wants and weakness or whose lusts and passions would never either move them to or continue them in any way worthy the name of true Religion if God had not sent and ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cryers 1 Tim. 2.7 Praecones vel Caduceatores Heralds and Ambassadors to summon invite and by pious importunity even compel men to come into the ways of true piety and happiness which being not onely far above sinful flesh and blood but quite contrary to them had need have a Ministry whose authority for its rise assistance and succession should be beyond what is of humane original and derivation which who so seek to oppose destroy or alter will certainly bring upon themselves not onely the guilt of so high an insolence against Christ and injury against this Church but also will stand accountable to Gods justice for those many souls damnation whom their vanity and novelty have perverted and destroyed both in the present age and after generations for want of true Ministers These first weapons then which the Adversaries of the peculiar Calling of the Ministry hoped to finde in the Armony of Scripture or Right Reason whereby to defend their own intrusion and to offend that holy Function and divinely instituted Succession are found I think to have as little force in them to hurt the Ministry or to help the enemy 1 Sam. 17. as Goliahs Shield Helmet Sword and Spear had either to injure David or secure himself yea we see those smooth stones those pregnant and piercing Authorities of many clear and concurrent Texts of Scripture both for precept and example which I have produced according to right reasoning from Jesus Christ and the blessed Apostles To which the Catholâ—ke practice and custom of all Churches in after times is as a sling directing them more forcibly and firmly against the brazen foreheads of those Anakims that oppose the Ministry All these together are sufficient to prostrate to the ground their proud height and to put to flight that uncircumcised party who have defied and seek to destroy the hoâ—y Ordination of Evangelical Ministers whose poor and oppressed estate although it may now seem but as little David with his Scrip and Staff in the eyes of self-exalting adversaries who despise and curse them in their hearts yet these may finde them to come in the Name and Power of the Lord sent by Gods mission furnished with Christs commission and appointed by the Churches due Ordination to be Leaders Rulers and chief Officers in the Church Militant under His Excellency the Lord Jesus Christ
Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the Generalissimo chief Captain and Prince of our Salvation who having in former times delivered his Servants the true and faithful Ministers from the paws of the Lions and the Bears Heathenish force and Heretical furies will also deliver them out of the hands of these uncircumcised Philistims who having received from their Ministry what ever honor and privilege they can pretend to as Christians yet now carry themselves as if they were aliens from the Israel of God and had never had relation to or blessing from this or any other true Church where hath been a constant Ministry not more famous for Learning and Industry than blessed with all Evangelical excellencies and happy successes To which now the Lord is pleased to adde this crown of patience under great tribulations and of perseverance in suffering much evil discâ—uragement wheâ—e it hath deserved so well CAVIL III. Or Objection about Christian gifts and exercising in common as Preachers or Prophets ALl impartiall spectators may hitherto behold the salvation of God how the insolent opposers of the Ministeriall function the men of Gath are in their first encounter so deeply smitten and woun ed that they ly groveling on the ground The remayning motions which they may seem to have Inconditi morientium motus invalidi expirantium conatus Sym. are but the inordinate strokes of hands and heels the last batteries and weak struglings which attend impotent revenge and exspiring malice It will be no hard matter to set my foot upon their prostâ—ate power and to sever their Heads from their Shoulders that they rise up no more by the means of that two edged and unparalleld Sword of the Scriptures rightly applyed which hath both sharpness weight and brightness the clearest reason potentest conviction and divinest Authority with which they thought to arm themselves against the peculiar Office of the Ministry Yet there are some seconds and recruits who seem to have less fury and malice against the Ministry who seeing the chief Champion of the Antiministeriall faction thus Levelled come in either as to the spoyl or rescue as Ajax to Ulysses holding before them the shield of manifold Scriptures Alleging That notwithstanding there may be granted some peculiar Office and Institution of the publike Ministry yet as to the power of preaching or liberty of prophecying the promise is common to all believers Joâ—l 2.28 cited Acts 2.17 for the powring out of the spirit upon all flesh in the later dayes for the Annointing from above which shall lead every believer into all Truth so that they shall not need any man should teach them 1 Joh. 2.27 Rom. 12.6 1 Cor. 14.1 1 Thes 5.19.20 1 Cor. 12.7.39 Acts 18.26 being all taught of God That the manifestation and gifts of the spirit are given to every one for the good of the Church in teaching exhorting prophecying c. Which every one is to covet and may communicate to others for their conversion or confirmation as Aquila and Priscilla did to Apollos and other Christians in Primitive dispersions exercising and employing their talents received if not as Ministers in Office and ordeined yet as Prophets and gifted Brethren if not as Pastors yet as Teachers 1 Per. 4.11 In like sort Christians now find their gifts of knowledge and utterance to great and good that they cannot smother them nor suffer them to be restrained and oppressed by the Ministers encroachment and Monopoly Thus they who would seem to be somewhat more civill and equanimous to the calling and Office of the Ministry Answ 1. Gifts in others no prejudice to the Office of the Ministry nor warrant to any man publike arrogancy My Answer first in generall is That all these and the like small shot which Infaustus * Socinno lib. de Eccl. Socinus * Osterâ—d Inst c. 42. Osterodius * Smaltzius de Ord. Ecc. Smaltzius * Radeccius de Eccl. Radeccius * Theoph. Nicolaides defens Socin c. 1. Acts 14 23. When they had ordained them elders in every Church Acts 13.2 Separate to me Paul and Barnabas 1 Tim. 4.14 5.22 Acts 18.28 Heb. 14.17 2 Tim. 2 4. 1 Thes 5.12 13. 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Cor. 12.18 c. 1 Cor. 14.32 V. 33. 40. Rom 16 17. 2 Thes 3.6 2 Tim. 4.3 Primitive prophecying what 1 Pet. 1.19 Prophetae Scâ—pturacum interpretes erant maximè propheticarum obscurarum Ambr. Theoph. Chrysost Prophetarum munus erat mysticum Scripturarum sensum ad salutem auditorum explanare Erasm in 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 4.30 1 Cor. 14.29 c. Nicolaides and others of the revived Arians have afforded these Semiant iministeriall adversaries have been oft discharged and received without any hurt as to the divinely established Office of the Ministry Having been either satisfied with all ingenuous concessions as far as order modesty and charity will carry them or refuted with just replyes against all vanity arrogancy and confusion by those learned men who formerly or lately have given very sober solid and liberall satisfaction to any pleas urged or scruples alleged out of Scripture which will in no sort maintain idleness vanity pride and confusion in the Church under the specious names of liberty gifts and prophecying There are indeed many places exciting Christians to labour to abound in every good gift and work but yet as many to keep them within due order and holy bounds becomming the honour of Religion All those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts were never more eminent and common in the Church of Christ than in those times when the Ministeriall power was by peculiar marks ceremonies and duties distinctly and undoubtedly conferred on some peculiar persons as the Apostles and 70. Disciples on Timothy Titus and others who were separated and ordeined by fasting praying examination and imposition of hands to be Bishops or Presbyters in the respective Churches as they came to be capable of setled order and Ministry And notwithstanding the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which were then conferred upon many not yet ordeined Ministers we see the Office and honour of the Ministry was never more clearly asserted as divine being set over the flocks by the Lord so to be owned and esteemed as distinct from secular intanglements as an retire and compleat imployment even for the best and ablest men to which they should once ordeined wholy give themselves and attend on it Never was order and peace and proportion in the Church more enjoyned and duly observed never were disorderly and unruly walkers false Apostles self-obtruders house-creepers heaps of teachers who caused divisions more severely repressed than in those Primitive times when believers enjoyed most eminent gifts and graces for some ends either in miracles or toungs or prophecying which was not that eminentest sense of prophecying that is foretelling things to come but the opening and applying the places of the Prophets in the old Testament which was then
Ministers or others who are of different judgements Is it not their trespass that true Ministers know too much that they see too clearly that they examine things too strictly that they admit no latitudes of Civill interests or State policies Multis in culpa est ut Socrati Athenis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pictatis literatura omnigenumque virtutuÌ„ eminentia cujus individua comes est invidia Melan. and sinfull necessities as dispensations of Gods Morall Law and the rules of both common honesty and true piety That they stand valiantly many of them and as becomes them in the gap against the insinuations and invasions of those infamous heresies those received errors those vile and putred novelties those perfect madnesses those apparent blasphemies confusions and dissolute Liberties which threaten this reformed Church with a more sure inundation than the Sea doth the Low-Countriss if the banks and dams be not preserved Is not this with some men the unpardonable sin of the best Ministers that they do not crouch and flatter and fawn on every plausible error on every powerfull novelty every proud fancy and high imagination Veritas nemini blanditur nemâ—nem palpat nullum seducit a pertè omnibus denunciat c. Bern. that they lick not the sores of any mens consciences or the pollutions of any mens hands with servile and adulterate tongues That they do not cry up or in any kind own for the gifts of the Spirit those passionate or melancholy or cunning and affected motions and extravagancies which some men strongly fancy to themselves and weakly demonstrate to others as to any thing like to sound reason or Scripture religion Suidas in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herodes primus ex alienigenis ex Judaorum ex ima plebe artus Ignobilitatis suae conscius Genealogias Judaicas exussit quantas poiuit ut sic facilius nobilitatem suam ementiatur Euseb hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 7. That they oppose these Bells and Dragons of fanatick Divinity which the Authors of them will never be able to advance to any publike veneration or reception as spirituall heavenly and divine among sober Christians in England while such wise Daniels live who have neither leisure nor boldness so to mock God and to play with religion nor untill as Ptolomy did to magnifie the Image of Diana to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faln from heaven so they deal with able Ministers when the best Statuaries had formed an Image of Diana to rare perfection the King at one supper destroyed them all by the ruine of the house where they were and after produced the Statue as faln from heaven Or as Herod the Idumaean or mungrill Jew did with the antient Records and Genealogies of the stems of the Kings and succession of the Priests among the Jews that so he might by abolishing them the better bring on his own tide So must these Antiministeriall adversaries first destroy and cancell both common reason in mens souls and the whole Canon of the Scriptures which are the durable oracles of God Artiâ—ciâ—sa sibi parant Lumina Histriones quâ melius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ous suas obtegere simulari possint Lenocinantibus lucernis meridianum solem quasi de nimio splendore exprobrantes Sydo Veritas loquendigrande praesagium mali Lact. Psal 18.24 for the Churches directions and all learned interpreters of them Torches of private Spirits are ridiculous too be lighted up while the Sun shines unless it be for those who having some mask or play to act reproach the Noon-day Sun of to much splendor and make to themselves and others an artificiall Night which will better serve their turns When all light of true reason and Scriptures are extinguished in this Church and Nation or much Eclipsed then and not before will honest-hearted Christians believe that they have no need of true Ministers or that those they have hitherto had have not been worthy the name of reformed or have pertinaciously reteined any such Popish opinions or superstitions as are inconsistent with true piety And in this thing let the Lord deal with us according to the clearness of our hands and the uprightness of our hearts in his sight either to deliver us into or redeem us out of the hands of violent and unreasonable men whose very mercies have proved cruell to poor Ministers whose pious constancy is the greatest thorn in some mens sides But if our wayes please God he can make our very enemies at peace with us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. Prov. 16.7 Wholy to remove the antient Ministry as some men aym under pretence of bringing up a new nursery of gifted brethren and Prophets which like under-woods are not so likely to thrive while Ministers like goodly Timber trees grow so high above them and over drop them will be a work fully compleating those sad effects which disorderly unordeined unsent and unabled Teachers and false Prophets have already begun to bring forth in this Church And how can it ever be thought or hoped that they will bring forth better fruits either for the truth honour or power of the Reformed Religion either for the Peace of Church or State unless there be a speciall committee appointed for the regulating of Prophets and tryall of their gifts in which none may be fitter for learning piety and moderation to be Chayr-man than that Author and zealous assertâ—r of the peoples Liberty and Privilege Pag. 3. who says he is not so much a friend to these new Prophets as to be an utter enemy to the function of the old Ministers though he would have Prophets planted yet not Ministers pulled up root and branch but only pruned from that which he calls superstition wherein his Charity to Ministers may perhaps make his censorious severity veniall He that so much studies the Reformation of Ministers we hope will not bring in such Esopick and deformed Prophets as most of those who have yet appeared rather to scare men from than to instruct good Christians in true holyness and Religion It is evident enough 15. The vanity and mischief of false and foolish Prophets and too much to all true reformed Christians what wide gaps that generation of pretended Prophets and gifted Brethren have already made for the easy inrodes of what is truly Popery superstition or meer formality All sorts also of corrupt opinions and Heresies together with Idleness barrenness barbarity Illiteratness Ignorance Atheism and contempt of all true Reformed Religion both in the power and extern form order and profession of it Many men being prone have learned easily to make little conscience of hearing reverencing or obeying the word of God Even from any true Ministers never so able and worthy since they have learned to scorn make sport of and laugh at these novell and pittifull pretenders to Preaching and prophecying of whose insufficiency and non-authority to Preach and administer any holy mysteries in Christs name common people being
either listed himself or received his Commission Order is that wholsomest ayr in which Religion lives best There is no less necessity both in Piety and Policy to preserve the Laws of holy order and discipline in the Church of Christ on Earth which have the warrant and seal of his authority upon them and are for the preservation of truth peace and honour in the Church Since we find by all experience of times and most in our own That the pride and presumption of mens gifts and private spirits are no less want only active in matters of Religion than in Civill and Military affairs Now why any men of piety or in power professing the reformed Religion should incline either to connive at or to countenance any courses which evidently tend to the shame contempt confusion and extirpation of all true Religion as it stood in the profession of the Church of England opposite to the gross errors superstitions and prophaness of any that are known and declared enemies to it I can see no cause unless it be a supine negligence in some who as they grow greater Acts 18.17 so they are like Gallioes more careless in matters of Religion wholly intent to State interests as if States-men had no souls to save or no God to judge them and were to give no account of that power and advantage they have as well as that charge and care which lyes upon them to do all good they can to mens souls under their power or else there is some other interest secretly contrived and cunningly carried on here as by open hostility in other parts amidst the dusk of our civill Commotions and troubles by those sons of Edom Psa 137.7 and daughters of Babylon who have evill will at our Sion and say of our Jerusalem Down with it down with it raze it even to the foundations Jude 9. As it was for no good will that the Devil contended with Michael the Archangell about the body of Moses minding rather to have it Idolized than Embalmed No more is it from any honest zeal or pious principle that some men now so earnestly stickle about and indeed against the setled office and peculiar function of the Ministry either to have it in common or none at all with any divine authority and commission whose first Anti-ministeriall batteries which seemed to carry some shew of Scripture-strength I have hitherto resisted and repelled not dashing or opposing Scripture against Scripture but clearing its obscurer meaning in some few places by that most evident and concurrent Sense which is manifestly held forth in many plain passages and hath been constantly followed in the Churches of Christ from the first setling of Christianity in the world to this day Sensus Scripturae expetit ceâ—â—a interpretationis gubernaculum Tertul de Pres Non verba tantum defendantur sed ratio verbarum constituatur Id. As the Spirit of God in the Word cannot contradict it self in the main scope and design so where any variation or difference in the letter may seem to be It must be wisely reconciled by discerning the different occasion reason or ground of things sure we are the pretended gifts or dictates of privat spirits may in no sort be set up any way to contradict those testimonies and demonstrations of the Spirit which are so evidently shining from the Scripture as they are in none more than this of a peculiar function and holy ordination of the Evangelicall Ministry And here I might forbear to add trouble to you O Excellent Christians or any readers by any further enlarging of this Apology 18. Conclusion and Transition whereby to vindicate the honour of the divinely Instituted and Ecclesiastically derived Ministry of this Church Since the holy Scripture is as I have shewed so wholly fully and punctually for its peculiar Institution and its constant succession to the end of the world whereto it is not denyed but private gifts may come in with such assistance as is humble orderly and edifying but not as proud invasive and abolishing as Hagar they may do service in Christs family but they must not grow insolent and malipert against Sarah What ever can be produced in a matter of so high and religious a nature as the Ministeriall office and authority is beyond what the Scriptures the only infallible rule and the Churches constant practise the most credible witness do assure us is for the most part but as childish skirmishings with Reeds and Bulrushes after combating with Pikes and Guns And I find indeed that all after Cavills of the Anti-ministeriall faction arise not much beyond womanish janglings presumptuous boastings and uncomly bickerings for the most part where not religious reasonings but peevish Cavils and pertinacious Calumnies like black and ragged regiments impatient to see themselves so routed by the Scriptures potent convictions and the Churches constant custome do but rally themselves as in a case Perdue to see what can be done by volleys of rayling Rhetorick and virulent Calumniatings against the Ministers of the Gospell in this Church whole greatest fault is that which the devil finds with the best of men that they are as Job upright Job 1. Culpâ—â—â— in 〈◊〉 to Jobâ— non invenicus Satanae malicia ipsam inâ—â—centiam in crimen integritatem in calumnium insidiosè vertit Greg. Lingua maledicasanctos carpere sâ—let in solatium delinquentium Ieron ad Eust not that there is any just fault to be found with their holy Calling which hath nothing in it irreligious or unreasonable nothing immorall or imprudent nothing but what is fully agreeing to all order policy decency as following the best and holyest Examples uses and customs of the Church together with the rules of Divine Institution and the ends of all true Religion the glory of God and the good of Mankind both for souls and bodies for temporall and eternall welfare for internall peace of conscience and externall tranquillity in Civill and Church Societies both as men and Christians All which the Ministeriall calling regards and carries on as its holy design and work which no other Calling doth Not Magistrates or Lawyers or Physicians or Tradesmen or Souldiers who do not think themselves to stand charged in Christs Name with the care of mens souls so as to make it their business to instruct direct and watch over them in the wayes of salvation And for Ministers persons such as are truly worthy to be counted such their failings will not be found beyond what is incident to common infirmities and daily incursions of frailties inseparable from the best of men in this mortall pilgrimage All which the charity of humble Christians easily conceals and willingly excuses or pardons when they consider how free and full a pardon of all sins is from God by the Ministry offered to every penitent and believing sinner The grief and impotent despite which the prophane politick and pragmatick enemies of the Ministry of this and all reformed Churches
by us and all parts of it made Nehustan in stead of cleansing repayring and reforming which is not a novelty of nvention but a sober restitution of all things in Religion to the primitive mode and pattern which is authorised and ordained by Christ Who did no more himself as to the outward restoring of Religion and worship of God Chalenging Gods right to his own House of prayer when covetousness had made it a den of theeves The priesthood of old failed not by reason of the immoralities of the Priests among the Jews nor did the Didacticall or Teaching authority cease from Moses his Chair and succession because the Scribes and Pharisees who were men of corrupt doctrine and hypocriticall manners sate therein and taught the Traditions and inventions of men mixt with the commands of God No more did or doth the Evangelicall Ministry and Sacraments cease by reason of any Papall arrogatings or other human additions Inordinatio aliqua non invalidam reddit ordinationem vitio â—elicto rem ad legitimum modum revocarunt Alsted sâ—ppl Gerar. de Reform Luther owned no other call or Ordination as a Minister but that which he had as he was made a Presbyter in the Romish communion Gerard. de Ministerio pag. 70. Ab Episcopo suo ordinatus Lutherus anno 1507. Nec aliam quaesivit ordinationem Gerard 147. Multum d ssert inter causam culpam inter statum excessum Tert. l. 2. adv Marc. Non negandum est bonum quod remansit propter malum quod praecessit Aust Ep. 48. Therefore the wisdome and piety of the learned and godly Reformers of these Western Churches especially here in England contented themselves with casting out what ever corrupt doctrines impure mixtures vain customes and superstitious fancies the Papall vanitie and novelty had built upon those divine and antient foundations of Christian religion which were layd by the Apostles and Primitive master-builders all over the world Whose Canon the Scriptures together with sound Doctrine holy Ministry comly Government Sacramentall seals and other Christian duties of prayer fasting c. they restored with all gravity moderation and exactness with due regard both to the clear sense of Scriptures and the Catholick practise of Churches Conforming of all things either to the express Precepts and Institutions of the word of God or to those generall directions which allow liberty of Prudence and difference in matters Circumstantiall in all which the Primitive Church had gone before them Herein they were not so weak and heady as to be scandalized with and insolently to reject all things that the Papall or Romish party had both received and retained in religious uses from former and better times either as Christians or Bishops or prudent men for so they had very sillily deprived themselves and all the Reformed Churches of all those Scriptures Sacraments holy duties Order rites and good customs which the Pope and Romish party had so long used not as Popes by any Antichristian policy power and pride but as they were Christians having received them in a due succession at first though after much depraved from those holy Predecessors which had been Martyrs and Confessors in that famous antient Roman Church No judicious Protestant or truly reformed Christian 2 How far necessary and safe to be separated from the Romanists Ad quamcunque Ecclesiam veneritis ejus morem servate si pati scandalum aut facere nolitis Aug. Ep. 86. responsum B. Ambrosii whose conscience is guided by Science and his reforming zeal tempered with true charity either doth or ought to recede farther from Communion with the Roman Church than he sees that hath receded from the rule of Christ and the Apostolicall Precepts or binding examples expressed in the Scriptures so far as concerns the true faith in its Doctrines Seals and fruits of good works In matters of extern and prudentiall order every Church hath the same liberty which the Roman had to use or refuse such ceremonials as they thought fit and to these every good Christian may conform In many things we necessarily have communion with the Pope and Papists as in the nature and reason of men In some things we safely may as in rules and practises politick civill just and charitable as Governours either Secular or Ecclesiastical In many things we ought in conscience and religion to have communion with them so far as they profess the truths of Christian religion and hold any fundamentals of faith And however they do by mis-interpretation of Scriptures or any Antichristian additionals of false doctrines of impious or superstitious practises seem to us rather to overthrow or bury the good foundations than rightly and orderly to build upon them for which superstructures and fallacious consequences we recede from them and dispute with them yet we do not renounce all they hold or do in common with us as Christians In the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.27 Whosoever shall eat this Bread 28. So let him eat of that bread Sâ—let res quae significat ejus res nomine quam significat nuncupari hinc dictum est Petra erat Christus Aust Q. 57. in Levit For instance it being not now a place to dispute them We cannot own as the Catholick sense of Christ of the Scriptures or the Primitive fathers that sense which they in later times have given of the words in the Sacramental Consecration of the Lords Supper by which they raise that strange doctrine of Transubstantiation unknown to the first Fathers And which seems to us 1. contrary to the way of Gods providence both in naturall and in religious things which changeth not the substances and natures of things but the relation and use of them from naturall and common to mysticall and holy 2. Contrary also to the usuall sense of all Scripture phrases and expressions of the like nature where things are mystically related by religious institution and so mutually denominâ—ted without essentiall changes 3. Contrary to the common principles of right reason 4. And contrary to the testimony of four senses sight taste smelling and hearing which are the proper organes by whose experience and verdict of things sensible we judge in reason what their nature is 5. Contrary also to the way and end that Christ proposed to strengthem a Christian receivers faith which is not done by what is more obscure and harder to be believed than the whole mysterie of the Gospell as recorded to us in the Scripture There being nothing less imaginable than that Christ gave his Disciples his own very body each man to eat him whole and entire and so ever after when he was then at table with them and is now by an Article of faith believed to be as man in heaven These and the like strange fancies of men which draw after them many great absurdities and contradictions both in sense and reason and the nature of things being no way advantageous to the religious use end and comfort of the
Institutions upon Scripture grounds although we find them to have been led Captive and a long time deteined Prisoners by any unrighteousness policy superstition tyranny covetousness or ambition in the Walls and Suburbs of Babylon Though tares were sown among the good Seed in the Field of the Church while men slept yet we must not be such wasters as to destroy the Corn with the weeds or to refuse both because we like not one Though our Fathers ate sour grapes and our teeth were an edge we must not therefore pull all our teeth out of our heads Divine institutions are incorruptible nor can any corruption of mens minds or matters cease on them any more than * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vt Aurum â—t geâ—â—a itâ— res Diviâ—â— non corrumpâ—ntâ—â— quamvis opprimuntur non vitiantur natura quum polluntur consuetudine Non rei ipsae ut nec veritas erroribus sed nos malè utendo pucrescimus Eras putrefaction on the Sun beams when it shines on a Carkass or Dunghil We may be corrupted but holy Ordinances are like God alwaies the same when restored to their Primitive Institution which is their State of Integrity Riches and honour are not unwelcom though they descend to men from unworthy Ancestors Nor should Religion so far as its title is good by the word of God either in strickt precept and institution or in prudence joyned with piety and decency Good pictures will recover the beauty when the soyl is washed off In a word we retain the truth faith holy mysteries Catholick orders constant Ministry and commendable manners which the later Romanists have derived and continued from the first famous Church in that place nor do we think it either conscience or prudence to deprive our selves of any thing Divine though delivered to us by the less pure hands of men or to cast away the provision which God sends us though it be by Ravens or to Anathematise all the Romish Church hoâ—ds of saving Truths because it hath in the Councill of Trent Anathematised some Truths The Bishops of Rome were alwaies more cunning than to abrogate or cast away those essentials the main foundations and pillars of true Christian Religion as the word the Sacraments the Ministry and Government of the Church on which they knew the vast moles and over grown superstructure of the Pontifician pomp profit pride reputation policy and power through the credulity Vt in reficiendis domibus sic iâ— moribus non destruenda omnia sed repuâ—ganda non diruenda sed resâ—cienda Ber. Ep. ad Abb. of peopâ—e and blind devotion of most men in these Western Churches was built and sustained Nor can any thing more contribute to the Popes depraved content or repair his particular interest in this Western world than to see any so heady rash and mad Reformers as shall resolve to quarrell with and to cast quite away all those things of Christian Religion which ever passed through the hands of the Romish Church or any other never so erronious and superstitious He well knows how meager a Sceleton how miserable a shadow Christian Religion must needs remain to those furious and fanatick Reformers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Ep. Eudoxâ— Being as much reduced to poverty and meer nothing in the very essentials of Christianity both for Doctrine Duties Sacraments Scriptures order and manners as it would be in the matter of maintenance and Church Revenews where some mens covetous and cruell Reformation is resolved if they may have their will to leave nothing to maintain Religion or its Ministry but the meer scraps of arbitrary and grudging contributions Such will our Religion be if we reject all that was used by those who abused many things and we must afâ—er only adhere to the beggery of Seekers attending new Instructions from Heaven instead of following antient Christian and Catholick Institutions Certainly Church Reformations 3. Of Church Reformations with moderation and charity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de leg 3. Nothing is just but what was wisely moderated in things Religious should be carried on with all acurate strictness and rigor in clear points of saving truths and in things of divine Institution so confessed by all yet also with much charity candor moderation and discretion toward any Christians in other things wherein we must differ from them Yet no further than they seem to us to derogate from the truth and word of God and so become detrimentall to mens souls It is a commendable Schism which separates the Corn from the chaff and the Gold from the Dross neither retaining both in a confusion nor casting away both in a passion In thus doing all things with meekness of wisdom Christians may not only be able upon sober and judicious grounds from Scripture and the Catholick consent of the Fathers to maintain what they do as wise Reformers of abuses but also the better invite others to embrace and to approve our â—ust and well-tempered Reformation in the unpassionate purity whereof others will the easier see as in a smooth and true Glass their yet remaining spots and deformities Reformation of Churches is best done not by cutting off the head of Religion but by taking off those masks and visards which hide its face and beauty Men will best see their errors not by force pulling their eyes out of their heads but by fairly taking away the motes or beams of prejudice error and pertinacy which are in their eyes which hinder them not from seeing at all but from seeing so we l as we in truth think they may and in charity wish they would 1 Thes 5.21 Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moderation is the medium between the excess and defect Neither taking nor refusing all but trying all and holdâ—ng the good True Reformation free from Schism By this shield of moderation and charity proving all things and retaining what is good in all with our pitty and prayers for any Christians wherein we think they erre as differing therefore from us because from the rule which God hath set for his Church in things pertaining to Divine worship we justly defend our selves in this and other reformed Churches that are of the same temper and charity in their Reformations from the sin and scandall of Schism when we fairly and freely declare that we separate no further from the Church of Rome or any other particular Church or Christian man than we are by the word of God perswaded that they separate from Christs holy rule and from the custom and Doctrine of the Catholick Church whose bounds and marks are the samenes of divine truths and the unity of the Spirit in Charity which we retain to all Christians as far as such with whom while we desire such communion of true faith holy order and obedience together with love as they do with Christ and all true Christians we cannot in our own consciences nor other mens censures be esteemed Schismaticks as the Novatians and
are holy Numb 16. though the hand and fire were unholy which were applyed to them Our Ministery then may be and certainly is very good holy 4. Our Ministry not from nor of the Pope and divine as well as the Scriptures and Sacraments or other holy Ministrations and duties are when duly restored to their primitive purity order and authority which go along with their right succession notwithstanding they are derived to us through or by the Romish Church or the Popes dispensation yet do they not therefore descend from them but only from Christ the first institutor of his Church and of this Ministry with a perpetuall power of succession Possunt esse pastores Lupi alio respectu Pastores in veritate quam profitentur in potestate quaÌ„ ritè obtinuerunt Lupi in erroribus quos admiscent in corruptelis morum c. ut Scribae Pharisaei in Cathedra Mosis panem veritatis proponebant sed non sine fâ—â—mento errorum officium distinguendum à persona potestas à moâ—ibus Gerrard de Minist Rev. 2.4 Jer. 3.1 Thou hast played the harlot with thy lovers yet return to me saith the Lord. Rev. 3.2 Our Lord Jesus Christ the gracious Spouse of the Church as of every Soul that truly believes and obeys though with much unbelief and frailty disdains not to own his relation to any Church or Christians though they are not so faithfull to him though they lose their first love yet they may be still his by what still remains of soundness and outward profession Yea and Christ will vouchsafe to admit us again to the communion and covenant of his love even after long wandrings and unkind absences when ever we wash our selves and return to him from our disloyall adulteries and pollutions He doth not utterly divorce any Church when the substance and essentials of Religion which are but in a few things do remain notwithstanding the many meretricious paints and disguisings which the wantoness of humane inventions may have put upon it thereby disfiguring its Primitive beauty and simplicity Mans vanity and arrogancy against God or men doth no whit abrogate either the right which Christ or any Church and Christian posterity hath to the purity and power of his gifts and institutions in the right way of his Mâ—nistry All which may remain with a blessing in the root and Seed though they be much pestered over-dropped choked and almost starved by humane additions which keep them for some time from their full glory vigor and extension Therefore the learned and godly Reformers of this Christian Church in England did not dig any new fountain of Ordination or ministeriall power as some Romanists calumniated at first and were afterward convinced of the contrary by Master Masons learned defence of the Ministry of England as to its right succession but they only cleared that which they saw was divine in the first broaching or Institution by Christ and as in the purest derivation by the Apostles however in time it became foul by humane feculencies and dregs as it passed rightly though not purely through the hands of some Bishops and Presbyters even to their dayes Nor was ever any thing required by the best Reformed Churches further to confirm and validate the Authority or power Ministeriall which any had received when he was first ordeined Presbyter in the Romish Church Contaminarunt non sustulerunt Ministerium Ecclesiae Alsted but only this to renounce not his Baptism but his errâ—rs and former superstitions to profess the Reformed Truths of the Gospell and accordingly to exercise that Ministeriall power which he had received truly as to the substance and duly as to the succession both as to the Office conferred and the persons conferring it Howsoever the sword of the Ministry had through the neglect of those to whom it was committed been suffered to contract the rust of superstitions and to lose much of its beauty and sharpness yet it was still that true and same two-edged sword which came out of the mouth of Jesus Christ Rev. 2.12 the first ordeiner of a peculiar setled Ministry in his Church Nor may it be broken or cast away when it hath been rightly delivered but only cleared whetted and furbished from its rust bluntness and dulness That Pen which now writes blottingly might be well made at first and will write fairâ—y again if once the hairs or blurs which its neb hath contracted be but cleared from it It is still Gods Field and Husbandry with good Wheat in it though the enemy hath while men slept sowen many tares Bishops and Ministers reformed may be Gods true labourers and appointed Husbandmen though they have some time loytered as the Disciples were Christs when their eyes were so heavy to sleep that they could not watch with him that one hour of his most horrid agony Mat. 26.40 It were then but a passionate scuffling with mad men a most impertinent disputing with unreasonable minds further to argue about the Popes usurped or abused Authority in any kind over Churches or Bishops or holy Ordinances and Ministry For which he had as little grounds of Scripture or reason as these Anti-Ministeriall Obâ—ectors have now against this Church of England and the function of the Ministry in it against which these cunning cavillers have not so much pretence to argue from the Popes usurpation that our Ministry and Religion are all Antichristian as they have both Scripture Reason and Experience besides the consent of all Reformed Churches to conclude them to be truly Christian if anger or envie or covetousness had not blinded their blood-shotten eyes they might easily see some of those mighty works Mat. 11.20 which have been wrought on mens Souâ—s by the Ministry of England since the Reformation and without this efficacious Ministry I believe neither these Calumniators had been so much Christian as they pretend nor so able spightfully to contend with shewes of Piety and popular falacies against the true Ministry of this Church and the best Ministers with whose Heifer they have plowed We know well that not only the reformed Churches 5. Of the Popes pretended Supremacy in England but even the Gallican and Venetian which keep communion with the Romish Church and Papall party besides the Greek Asian and African Churches do generally oppose and vehemently deny the Popes abusive usurpations both in things Ecclesiasticall and Secular And this upon most pregnant grounds not only from Scripture whence nothing was ever fairly and pertinently urged as some places are fouly wrested and yet but little to the Popes advantage but also from * Caeteri Apostoli par consortium honoris potestatis acceperunt qui in toto orbe dispersi Evangelium praedicaverunt quibusque decedentibus successerunt Episcopi Is Hisp l. 2. off Eccl. c. 5. Qui sunt constituti in toto mundo in sedibus Apostolorum non ex genere carnis ut filii Aron sed pro unius cujusque
vita merito iis c. Id. Ubicunque fuerit Episcopus sive Romae sive Eugubii c. ejusdem est merâ—ti qusdem est sacerdotii Jeron ad Evagr. Celebri urbi frigidum oppidulum opponit Eras verba Jeron Omnes Apostolorum successores sunt Id. Concil Nicaen 1. Gregory the Great oft protests against any Bishops or Patriarchs usurping and chalenging the title ofVniversalis Episcopus aut Pastor as a token of Antichristian pride Concil Hipponensc Anno 393. de primae sedis Episcopo i. e. Romano 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Af. pag. 119. pag. 318. can 123. They Excommunicated all that appealed beyond the Sea to other Province and Bishop Concil Chalced. anno 451. Can. 9.11.17 Nec quisquam nostrum Episcopum se Episcoporum constituat c. Quando omnis habeat Episcopus pro licentia libertatis potestatis suae arbitrium proprium ut nec judicari ab altero nec judicare possit Cyp. tom 2. in fine Hoc erant utique coeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis Sed exordium ab unitate proficiscitur pâ—imatus Petro datur ut una ChristiÌ„ Ecclesia una Cathedra monstretur Cyp. Episcopatus unus est cujus à singulis Episcopis in solidum pars tenetur Cypr. de uni Eccl. ep 27. all Antiquity after that Churches were increased and setled where the Fathers and first famous generall Councills make clearly to the Popes disadvantage as to any power or jurisdiction in point of divine authority which he claims beyond or above other Bishops and Presbyters further than the Roman Diocess first and the Patriarchate afterward extended which division and power for order sake was agreed unto by some generall Councils where other four Patriarchs of Jerusalem Antioch Constantinople and Alexandâ—ia had also a limited yet equall power in their respective Dioceses and Provinces with the Bishop of Rome Galf. monum l. 11. c. 12. See Bishop Godwin SuccessioÌ„ of English Bishops Lucius rex in Anglia conversus ad fidem Christi anno Christi 164. Thâ—ee Bishops out of England Eborius of York Restitutus of London Adolphias of Colchester were of the Councill of Arles in France eleven years before the Nicane which was anno 330. See the Letter to Austin the Monk cited before sent from the Clergy and Monk of Bangor Sir Hen. Spelman Concil Brit. pag. 108. ad an 590. Omnium provinciarum primae Britania publicitus Christi nomen recepit Sabel Enn. 7 l 5. Beda l. 2. c. 2. Nor had the Pope then for the first six hundred years after Christ any authority scarce any name in these British Churches which were undoubtedly converted by some Apostles or Apostolicall men who left after King Lucius his time a famous and flourishing succession of Bishops Presbyters and Christians long before any pretensions of the Pope over these British Churches To which the British Bishops in Wales were strangers nor would they own at that time when Austin the Monk came from Gregory the Great who sent hither more out of Christian charity than any Authority to convert the Saxons who had by war and barbarity quite extinguished Christianity with all Bishops and Ministers out of England and had forced the former holy Bishops and Ministers to fly into Wales Ireland and Scotland from whence afterwards in a gratefull vicissitude the English replanted Churches received for the most part both their Conversion and establishment by a Succession of rightly Ordeined Bishops and Presbyters for Austin the Monks Plantation and preaching extended not beyond Kent Surrey and the adjacent places as Venerable Bede tells us and our learned Country-man Sir Henry Spelman The ambitious Usurpation and Antichristian Tyranny then of the Papall power and supremacy afterward over Bishops and Ministers here in England to which the title of Christ St. Peter or the Catholick Churches establishment is poorly begged and falsly pretended we the Ministers of the Church of England ever did and do as much abhor as any of these men can who are so against the now Reformed and established Ministry which we have vindicated from Papal and superstitious additaments and asserted or restored to it Primitive and Scripturall dignity and divine authority which it never lost but only not so clearly discovered during the times of darkness and oppression Our jealousie now is lest the malice and activity of those that now dispute and act against our thus reformed and prospered Ministry should prove ere long the Popes best Engines and factors that ever he had in this Church since the Reformation if they can as they have begun and go on apace but so far prepare the way for the reintroduction of the Papall power and Romish party as to cashier all the learned reformed and duly Ordeined Ministers in England both as to their order authority and government will not this Church in a few more years of confusion and neglect become as a fallow and unfenced field fit for the Papal subtilty and Romish activity which he will plow with an Ox and an Asse together the learned Jesuit joyned to the fanatick Donatist The Seminary Priests with the gifted brethren Friers predicant with Prophets mendicant So that no wise man that loves the Reformed religion and the Church can think others than that the hand of Joab is in this matter Achitophel is in Counsell with Absalom The Conclave of Rome is wanting to its interest if it conspires strongly with this Antiministeriall faction I should be glad to be as Hushai the Archite a means to discover bâ—ast and bring to nought all those desperat counsells and machinations which are layd by any against this reformed Church and its true Ministry The happy and seasonable defeat of which by Gods blessing to this Church and Nation I do yet hope may be such In vitium ducit cuâ—pae fuga fi caret arte Hor. as shall make all Apostatising and ungratefull Politicians rather repent of their Apostacies and see their folly than follow the fate of that disloyall renegado a traitor at once to his friend and sovereign I confess I am not for such Reformations 6. Reformation ought to reverence Antiquity Maltem cum sanctis errare quà m cum sacâ—ilegis rectè sentire as too much suspect the prudence or vilifie the piety of our forefathers therby to extoll some mens after zeal and skill The errors and defects of the Antients joyned with their charity and sincerity I believe were far more pardonable with God than the late furies and cruelties of some men pretending to mend those errors and supply those defects Not that it is safe for us to return to what we now see by the word of God to be an error But we may in charity excuse their ignorance in some things of old while yet we commend and imitate that wisdom honesty order and gravity of religious profession which was in them far beyond the Modern transports of some mens
Christians judgement or conscience in the things of Christ and true Religion which must never be either refused or accepted according as they may be ushered in or crowded out by Civil Authority Christ doth not steer his Church by that Compass Things the more divine and excellent the more probable to be rejected by men of this world At the same rate of worldly frowns and disfavours Christians long ere this time should have had nothing left them of Scriptures Sacraments sound doctrine or holy Ministrations All had been turned into Heathenish barbarity Hereticall errors or Schismatical confusions if conscience to God and love to Christ and his Church had not preserved by the constancy and patience of Christian Bishops and Ministers those holy things which the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iâ—qâ—it Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. wanton and vain world was never well pleased withall and often persecuted seeking to destroy both root and branch of Christianity Weare to regard not what is done by the few or the many the great or the small but what in right reason and due order after the precepts and patterns of true Religion ought to be done in the Church As for the Government of Bishops Episcopal power not Antichristian so far as it referred to the chief power and office of Ordeining Ministers in a right succession for due supplies to this Church of England Truly I am so far from condemning that Episcopall authority and practise as unlawfull and Antichristian after the rate of popular clamor ignorance passion and prejudice That contrarily very learned wise and godly men have taught me to think and declare That as the faults and presumptions of any Bishops through any pride ambition and tyranny or other personall immoralities are very Antichristian because most Diametrally contrary to the Precept and patern of our holy and humble Saviour Jesus Christ whose place Bishops have alwayes as chief Pastors and Fathers among the Presbyters since the Apostles times eminently supplyed in the extern order and Polity of the Church So that above all men they ought to be most exactly conform to the holy rule and example of Jesus Christ Episcipale â—ffiâ—â— a maximè oâ—nanâ— nobilitant gravitas moâ—um inâ—turitas Consiliorum actuum honest as Bern. Ep. 28. Câ—in honoâ—is p aeâ—ogativa etiam congrue â—â—â—iâ—a requirimus Amb. de dig Sa. Ne sit honor sublimis vita deformis Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 19. Cogito me jam Episcopum principi pastoâ—um de commissi ovibus rationem redditurum Non Ecclesiasticis honoribus tempora ventosa transigeâ—e debere Aust Ep. 203. both in doctrine and manners So withall they have taught me to esteem the Antient and Catholick government of godly Bishops as moderators and Presidents among the Presbyters in any Diocess or Precincts in its just measure and constitution for power Paternall duty exercised such as was in the persecuting purest and Primitive times to be as much if not more Christian than any other form and fashion of government can be yea far beyond any that hath not the charity to endure Catholick primitive and right Episcopacy which truly I think to be most agreeable to right reason and those principles of due order and polity among men also no less suitable to the Scripture wisdome both in its rules and paterns to which was conform the Catholick and Primitive way of all Christian Churches throughout all ages and in all places of the world Blondel Apol. pag. 177. 179. Et in praefatio ne Absit à me ut siniâ—trum de piâ—ssiâ—ae illius antiquiâ—atis consilio consensu quae Episcopalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primum in Ecclesiam invexit mentâ— quippiam suspicer So Ego Episcopos quodam modo Apostolorum locum in Ecclesia tenere largior non munere divinitus instituto sed lâ—beâ—è ab Ecclesia collata illa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blondel test Jeron pag. 306. Which things very learned men and friends to Presbytery joyned with Episcopacy have confessed both lately as Salmatius Bochartus and Blondellus and also formerly as Calvin Beza Moulin with many others so far was ever any learned and unpassionate man from thinking Episcopacy unlawfull in the Church Indeed after all the hot Canvasings and bloody contentions which have wearied and almost quite wasted the Estates spirits and lives of many learned men in this Church of England as to the point of true Epiâ—copacy I freely profess that I cannot yet see but that that antient and universall form of government in due conjunction with Presbytery and with due regard to the faithfull people is as much beyond all other new invented fashions as the Suns light glory and influence is beyond that of the mutable and many-faced Moon or any other Junctos of Stars and Planets however cast into strange figurations or new Schemes and Conjunctions by the various fancies of some Diviners and Astrologers D. Bâ—chartus Eâ—ist ad D. Moâ—leium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat â—â—â—n in Epist Which free owning of my judgement in this point may serve to blot out that Character etiam ipse Presbyterianus added to my name by the learned Pen of Bochartus For although I own with all honour and love orderly Presbytery and humble Presbyters in the sense of the Scriptures and in the use of all pious Antiquity for sacred and divine in their office and function as the lesser Episcopacy or inspectors over lesser flocks in the Church yet not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Ep. 62. Eccles Neocaes The holy consistory of Presbyters desires their chief or President to be among them as abhorring and extirpating all order and presidency of Bishops among them as if it were Antichristian wicked and intollerable Nor do I think that an headless or many headed Presbytery ought to be set up in the Church as of necessity and divine right in this sense that learned writer himself is no Presbyterian nor ever had cause to judge me to be of that mind I confess after the example of the best times 2. Reasons for Episcopacy rather than other Government and judgement of the most learned in all Churches I alwayes wished such moderation on all sides that a Primitive Episcopacy which imported the Authority of one grave and worthy person chosen by the consent and assisted by the presence counsell and suffrages of many Presbyters might have been restored or preserved in this Church and this not out of any factious design but for these weighty reasons Ignat. ad Antiochenos Bids the Presbyterâ— feed the flock till God shews who shall be their Bishop or Ruler He salutes Onesimus the Bishop of Ephesus Ep. ad Ephes cited by Euseb l. 3. c. 35. Hist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Chil. which prevail with me 1. For the Reverence due from posterity Ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constituti Apostolici seminis
Christ Which Timothy in his infirm person could not do but in his care to transmit the holy patern to posterity and to his successors he might as he was enjoyned be said to do For what is once well done in a regular publike way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Perenâ—â—s est aeterna praeclari exemplaris virtus Jeron Quadratus Atheniensis Eccl. Episcopus Apostolorum Discipulus Jeron Ep. ad Mag. St. Jerom tels us that St. John wrote his Gospell at the intreaty of the Bishopâ— of Asia Catal. Script Eccl. c. 9. Rev. 2. Angels i. e. Apostoli nuntii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. Bibl. è Diod. Sic. l. 40. Austin Sub Angeli nomine Laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae So Beza Annot. The chief teacher in the Synagogue was called the Angell of the Congregation Anisw in Deut. 31.11 So Malachi 2.7 The Priests lips shall preserve knowledge for he is the Angel or Messenger of the Lord of Hosts is ever after done as to the permanency of that vertue which is in a good and great example What other Churches did observe after the Apostles times Ordo Episcoporum ad originem recensus in Johannem stabit autorém Tertul. l. 4. c. 5. ad Marcio So Clem. Alex. testifies that S. John made Bishops in Asia Ignatius Epist ad Ephâ—s but twelve years after the Revelation written Dionysius Polycarpus Placed by St. John for the Bishop of â— Smyrna Iren. l. 3. c. 3. Before the Revelation So the Epistle of the Smyrnenses justify of him calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 4. Hist 116. Anno 1450. Fratres Bohemi lib. de fide moribus eorum as to the manner of their Government when they grew numerous and spread to many Congregations and Presbyteries we may easily be resolved both by the testimony and practise of all Antiquity Fathers Councils Historians who have registred the uninterrupted succession of Bishops from the Apostles both in the seven Asiatick Churches mentioned in the Revelation whose * Angels were generally taken for their Presidents or Bishops and some of Apostles then living when as Archippus Evodius and Onesimus and Polycrates were Bishops c. What after times observed is evident to this day among all Christians even those of the Eastern and Abyssine Church have still their Bishops so the Greek and Muscovitish Churches so the furthest Asians which are thought to have been first converted by St. Thomas who furthest from believing did the penance of travelling furthest to Preach the Gospell in India And I observe the Fratres Bohemi in their persecuted state and poverty for a long time still retained a very happy and comly order of Episcopall Government Truly I never found so much light of Scripture patern and precept enjoyning any one or more Presbyters to do all those works of power and jurisdiction Nor ever did they without the presence of an Apostle or some Apostolicall successor and Bishop regularly ordein excommunicate silence c. so far as I can yet learn There are but two texts that mention the Presbytery and but one which can be pretended for ruling Lay-Elders which yet these are not preceptive or institutive but meerly narrative and touching without expressing any joynt power Office or Authority of Presbyters with any President or Bishop much less without them and against them Yea I read in St. Judes Epistles v. 8. foul marks put upon those in the Church that despise dominions and speak evill of dignities Against whose proud and seditious practises a woe is denounced Vers 11. as against men cruell like Cain covetous like Balaam ambitious as Korah factious disturbers of that order which God hath set in his Church as well as in civill societies after the mutinous example of Korah and his company Numb 16.3 who rose against both Moses and Aaron parallel to whose evill manners and disorderly practises 2 Pet. 2.10 these men had not been against whom St. Jude here and St. Peter in his second Epistle so sharply inveighs as presumptuous self-willed despisers of dignities c. unless there had been some eminencies in the Church Christian as well as was among the Jews which these men were most bold to oppose and contemn As for the civill powers Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2.13 that then were in the world humble Christians made conscience as God commanded them to submit to them in all honest things And those hypocrites were no doubt too wary to adventure any thing against them whose power was terrible by the sword But the Orders Governments Dignities and Dominions in the Church were exposed by their weakness to the scorn and affronts of any such proud and tumultuating Spirits which covered themselves under the veil of Christian Religion yea and pretensions of the Spirit too Jâ—d 19. the better to set off their Schisms and separatings from that authority power and order which God had by the Apostles setled in the Church even in those times 5 If there were not thus much of Scripture patern and precept pleading fairly for a right Episcopacy yet since there is nothing against it in Scripture or Reason in Religion or morals yea and so much for it in common reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de leg Nihil sit in rep sine ordinis regiminis custodia So Lycurgus o dered ut nullus in repub ordo sine proprio esset Magisterio true polity and almost necessitie in Church societies no less than in either families Cities armies or any fraternities and Corporations of men No doubt the Lord of his Church hath not deprived or denyed that liberty and benefit of good order and rationall Government to his Church which in all civill societies may lawfully be used according to wisdom and discretion Truly we may as well think it unlawfull for one Minister to excell another or many others in age parts learning prudence gravity and gubernative faculties which if they may lawfully he had and are found in some by the especiall gift of God to so great differences from and excellencies above others what Reason or Religion can forbid them to be accordingly used and publikely employed in answerable differences of place and power for the Churches good only Christ â—equires humility in priority Ministry in their majority and service in their superiority proportioned to their gifts and endowments which God never gave in vain Nor doth there ever want indeed a plebs and vulgarity among many Presbyters thought honest and able men some of whom are still young and prone to be passionate imprudent factious and schismaticall whose folly is not yet decocted nor youthfull heats abated c. For the good ordering of whom beyond a contemptible and heady parity a right Episcopall presidency may be as usefull lawfull and necessary as a little Wine was for Timothy in regard of his frequent infirmities 1 Tim. 5.23 which St. Jerom every where owns as the ground of the
supplied to the Churches good order peace and honour If Reason and not Passion Religion and not Superstition Judgement and not Prejudice Calmness and not fierceness Learning and not Idiotism Gravity and not Giddiness Wisdome and not Vulgarity Prudence and not Precipitancy impartiall Antiquity and not interessed novelty may be the judge of true Episcopacy I think nothing further from a true Bishop Vid. Bern. ep 28. 152. 42. ad Ep. Senonum Aug. ep 203. in Ecclesiasticâ—â— honoribus tempora ventosa transigere c. Amb. de dig Sacerd. Cum honoris praerogativa etiam congrui merita requirimus c. than Idleness set off with pomp than Ignorance decked with solemnity than Pride blazoned with power than Covetousness guilded with Empire than Sordidness smothered with state than Vanity dressed up with great formalities Bishops should not be like blazing Comets in their Diocesse having more of distance terror and pernicious influence than of light or Celestiall vertue But rather as fixed Stars of the prime magnitude shining most usefully and remarkably in the Church during this night of Christs absence who is the only Sun for his light and Spouse for his love to the Church yet hath he appointed some proxies to woo for him and Messengers to convey love tokens from him among whom the holy Bishops of the Church were ever accounted as the chiefest Fathers next the Apostles when they were indeed such as evill men most feared good men most loved Schismaticks most envied and Hereticks most hated Right Episcopacy is so great an advantage to the Churches happiness and so unblamable in its due constitution and exercise that it is no small blemish to any godly mans judgement not to approve it and nothing as to imprudence is I think more blame-worthy than not to desire esteem love and honour it Since such Prelature is as lawfull as it is usefull and it is as usefull as either Reason or Religion polity or piety can propound in any thing of that nature which if not absolutely necessary yet certainly most convenient for the Church and commendable in the Church so far as it stands in a visible Pâ—lâ—â—y and society being no way either sinfull in it self or contrary to any positive Law of God any more than it is for Christians in civill governmenâ— to have Maiors in their Cities Colonels in their Armies Masters in their Colleges Wardens in their Fraternities Captains or Pilots in their Ships or Fathers in their Families Nor is indeed the venerable face of true Episcopacy so deformed by some mens late ridiculous dresses and disguises but that wise and learned men still see the many reverend and excellent lineaments of it not only of pious and prime antiquity but of beauty order symmetry In plebe nec veritas nec judicium inter saedam potentium adulationem praceps prostratorum odium inanibus studiis inconditis motibus omnia miscent Tacit. and benefit such as flow from both humane and divine wisdome if popular contempt and prejudices in some of the vulgar be any measure of things or any argument against any thing in Religion or in the Church of Christ it will serve as well to vilifie and nullifie all Presbytery and all Ministry as all Episcopacy Indeed neither of them can preserve their honor use and comliness if they exceed their proportions and either dash against or incroach upon each other contrary to those bounds and methods which primitive wisdom observed between power and counsell Order and Authority Community and Unity It is very probable that a few years experience of the want of good Bishops will so reconcile the minds of sober and impartiall Christians to them that few will be against them save only such who think the best security for some of their estates to be the utter exploding and perpetuall extirpation of Episcopacy A thing which one of the wisest of mortalls so much abhorred and for which he was able to give so good an account in Reason Piety and true Polity that it appears to have been not pertinacy and interest but judgement and conscience that so long sustained that unhappy Controversie which I have no mind to revive but only if possible to reconcile which is no hard matter where clear truths meet with moderate affections and peaceable inclinations For I find by the proportion of all Polity and Order that if Episcopall eminency be not the main weight and carriage of Ecclesiasticall government yet it is as the Axis or wheel which puts the whole frame of Church society and communion into a fit order and aptitude for motion especially in greater associations of Christians which make the most firm and best constituted Churches This being then the true figure of a learned grave godly and industrious Bishop there need not more be sayd to redeem Episcopacy from prejudices or to assert it against those triviall objections which are not with truth and judgement so much as with spight and partiality made against it Those light touches which are by some men produced from the antient Writers in the Church for the countenancing of the power of Presbyteries without any Bishop and President or for the Independency of power in Congregations are indeed but as the dust of the balance or drops of a full bucket compared to those full and weighty testimonies which they every where give for the use of Episcopacy unless men be allowed the confidence and liberty to bastardise the works of the Fathers as they list and by a new purgatorian Index tâ— antiquate all Records after 1500. years legitimation by the consent of all Churches as one lately hath endevoured to do D. Blondell a person indeed of great reading and learning but in this not of equall candor and impartiality who endevouring to find some foundation whereon to build his Presbyterie seeks to cast away as rubbidg and trash all the Epistolary writings of holy Ignatius Ignatius called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who if he had wrote nothing yet the fame of his piety and sufferings made him sufficiently renowned in those Primitive times and after ages both for a Bishop and a Martyr his seat Episcopall being at Antioch and his grave at Rome But his writings being never so far questioned by Antiquity By Euseb Clem. Alex. Jerom. Phâ—tit bibl See the Lord Prim. of Arm. edition of Ignatius as to reject those Epistles which we urge in this point of Episcopacy for genuine and which are oft mentioned with honour and in part the very words which we now read so that it seems a passion and boldness too servile to the cause which that learned man undertook so to endevour at once to expunge those testimonies and remains of Ignatius which indeed are very weighty and many for the distinction of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons even in the first century after Christ which our learned and industrious Country-man Dr. Hammond hath lately as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a valiant
unworthily or unduly Ordeined are like sleight and ill built ships which endanger the loss of themselves and all those that are embarqued in them and put to Sea with them Miscarriages in the matter of ordination of Ministers are to the unspeakable detriment and dishonour of Religion as unskilfull cowardly or perfidious Officers are to Armies I shall never hope to see the Church flourish or truly reformed untill this Point of right Ordination of Ministers be seriously considered of and duly restored to its Pristine honour and excellency when to Ordein Ministers for the service of the Church Oâ—ortet Ecclesiae Epis ministrum Christi esse formam justitiae sanctimoniae speculum pietalis exemplar veritatis doctorem fidei defensorem Christianorum ducem sponsi amicum cui ille irascitur Deum sibi iratum non hominem sentiat Bern. ad Eng. l. 4. was not to prefer men to a Benefice so much as to recruit Christs regiments to strengthen his forces to fortifie the Church and true Religion with most vigilant Watchmen and valiant Champions whose care was on every side to defend the Flocks of Christ against all enemies which were to be as the Cloud or Pillar of fire both lights and guards to Christians upon all occasions who made conscience to live with to suffer with yea and to dy for the sheep as good Shepheards Such men only are fit to be Ordeined Ministers such Ministers ought to be prayed for highly prised and perserved in the Church by all that desire to transmit any thing of true Religion to Posterity nor was the Church of England or yet is destitute of such Ministers both duly and worthily ordeined to the service of Christ and this Church To abolish this order or to usurp to undue hands or to contemn this Sacred and right Ordination which sends forth able Ministers in Christs way can be no other but a most cruell and detestable sacrilege far worse than that of robbing the Church of its maintenance for such Ministers Cyprian reproves Novatus a factious Presbyter Quod Felicissimum satellitem suum diaconum suum constituit neâ— sciente nec permittente me sola sua factione ambitione Acts 8.18 All undue Ordination is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. profanum detestandumque ludibrium Bâ—s both as preaching and ruling well wich yet is a sin of so deep a dy that no Niter can cleanse it being seldome ever pardoned because seldome repented of so as to make a â—ust restitution without which repentance is never true Yea for any Laymen in a brutish violence and meerly by Ppular insolency to arrogate this power where it is not or to abrogate it where truly it is is a sin of a more heynous nature than that of Simon Magus was who had so much of civility justice and good manners as to offer money for a part of the miraculous and Ministeriall power It is indeed no other than a Cyclopick fury and unwonted barbarity ill becomming any sober or civilized Christians thus to wrest the keys of Gods house out of the hands of those Stewards with whom the great Master Christ hath specially intrusted them for the right Oeconomy and dispensing of all holy Mysteries and Institutions And when such rude and unruly fellows have thus insolenced these Officers of the Church and bound their hands how comly will it be to see the keyes of the kingdome of heaven Ischyras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-ordeined or only by Rolâ—thus a Persbyter Hence Athanasius Apol 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Pro. 20.23 managed or committed as it were to Boyes to Pages and Laquies to weak mean mechanick ignorant dissolute and riotous wretches who not conscious to any true Ministeriall power or just authority in the Church can never make conscience of doing any holy Ministerial duty to which they are most unfit never caring how prodigall they are of the truth and honour of Religion of their own or other mens souls It being a sport to such proud and spitefull fools to do wickedly to speak prophanely and to live disorderly in the Church And not content to commit a rape upon true Religion and the holy orders of Christs Church as Absalom did on the house-top before the Sun and all Israel they will further in time justifie the flagitiousness of their villanies as if the zeal they had for true Religion provoked to such outrages these pestilent pandars for errors and all licentiousness with their followers who must presently all turn preachers though never duly Ordeined nor fit ever so to be yea their arrogancy makes them ordeiners too of whom they please to set up to minister to their extravagant lusts and follies which makes them many times much fitter for the flocks or cages than for the pulpits These will surely come at last as much short of the happy effects of true Ministers as they are far from that holy power of right Ordination which I have proved to be from Christ and the Blessed Apostles rightly derived to us by the constant Custome of this and all Churches and this not as a cypher or meer formality but as of sacred Institution so of reall and excellent efficacy and divine vertue in the Church where duly used and applyed Which was that I had to prove against the scurrillous objections of those that seek to despise and destroy the whole Function Ordination and divine authority of the Ministry of this Church Reader the Reason why the Folios of this Book do not follow is because the Copy for Expedition was divided to two Printers Of speciall Gifts of the Spirit pretended beyond Ordinary Ministers ANother great Calumny 3. Calumny or cavill That the Ministers of England have not the Spirit to which their Adversaries pretend highly urged by their Adversaries against the true Ministers of the Church of England whose due and right Ordination I have vindicated to be as Divine so both Necessary and Efficacious is as a forked arrow sharpned with Presumption and Prejudice On the one side an high esteem and confidence which they have of themselves and a very low despicienty of all Ordained Ministers on the other side even in that which is the highest honour of Man or Minister while these Anti-ministeriall Adversaries pretend That the Ordained Ministers have not the Spirit of Christ nor can or ever doe Pray Preach and administer holy things by the Spirit which these new Modellers challenge in such a plenary measure and power to themselves that they justifie their want of ordinary abilities and endowments by their needing none Excusing their not studying or preparing for what they utter by their being specially Inspired Colouring over their well known idlenesse ignorance illiteratenesse and emptinesse by the shews of speciall Illumination sudden Inspirations and spirituall Enablements Which they say they have far beyond any Ordained Ministers And this by the Spirit of Christ which is extraordinarily given to them which suddenly leads them into
with all judicious and sober Christians leave Potius vetera tuta quam periculosa nova sectemur Tac. to passe by the Idoll of their new dressed Spiritually and Sanctity without any admiration devotion or the least salutation Nor can we at all consider private spirits warped from and bent against the publique Spirit of Christ in the Scripture in the practise of the Catholick Church and in the most eminent Christians both ancient and modern We shall content our selves with that plain and pristine holynesse and manifestations of the Spirit True holinesse and true Saints Sanctitas est scientia colendorum deorun Tul. de Nat. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Eutyp which are expressed in the Word deposited in the Church preserved in an holy Ministry exemplified in all true Christians and most eminently in Jesus Christ and his Apostles the great and famous Founders Teachers and Establishers of holy Truths holy Duties holy Sacraments holy Orders and holy Ministry in the Church And this with divine Power and Authority not onely personall but successionall without which the instituted Service and Worship of Christ had ere this failed These being ever since Christs time in all the world imployed in Teaching Gathering Baptizing Governing Feeding Preserving and Perfecting the Body of Christ which is his Church We know not and so we cannot desire other holinesse than that by which we beleived the Truths obeyed the Commands feared the Threatnings observed the Duties preserved the Institutions continued the Orders reverenced the Embassadors joyed in the Graces hoped in the Promises and were led conformably to Christ by that Spirit which Jesus Christ had given to his Church long before these new coyners had graven the stamps or set up their Mintâ— We are glad and blesse God when we attain unfaignedly to that Spirit of Holynesse which hears the Word of God with fear and trembling from the mouth of those able and godly Ministers which are the Messengers or Angels sent from Christ by the Churches Ordination Which teacheth us to pray with understanding constancy fervently and comelinesse to receive the pledges of Gods love in Christ from their hands duly consecrating the holy mysteries with reverence preparednesse and thankfulnesse That holinesse which loves with sincerity gives with cheerfulnesse rejoyceth in well doing suffers with patience lives by Faith acts by Charity is holy with order contentednesse and humility without any fury faction or confusion That holinesse which hath nothing in it novell or praeterscripturall nothing fancifull verball tumultuary violent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Euâ—yph Sâ—nctum est quod deo gratum schismaticall disorderly partiall pernicious or injurious to any which chuseth to be a Martyr for Charity and Unity as well as Verity in the Church rather suffering much than giving scandall or making a schism according to the pious and excellent couâ—sâ—ll of Dionysius to Novatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Epâ—st Auâ—ea apud Eusch l. 6. hist c. 38. That holinesse which is old as the Ancient of dayes reall rationall demonstrative from the Word of God and exemplified in the lives of former Saints Which is meek courteous charitable humble just to all men abounding with all righteousnesse and the fruits of righteousnesse peace and establishment both to private consciences and publique Churches That holinesse which hath nothing in it supercilious calumniating defamatory insolent bitter or burthensome to any true Christians true Churches and true Ministers which know how to reprove what is amisse without rejecting all that is well to reform the crooked without ruining what is right That holinesse which as the Sun-beams is always like it self like the Father of spirituall light uniform and constant in all true Saints in all ages and in all administrations Divine either immediate or mediate as to its rule the Will and Word of God as to its end the glory of God in Gods way as to its Epitome or sum the love of God and its neighbour as to its happy fruits and effects the good of mankinde chiefly of the Church of Christ These have ever been the same for kind however differing in degrees according to the measure which God hath given to his true Saints and servants who never differed from God or the Word or one another as they were holy and spirituall however as men and carnall in part they had their crookednesse unevennesses and dissentings These are the fruits of Gods Spirit this that true Holinesse for which we pray of which we dare not boast These are the Saints whose shadows we count Soveraign whose presence a blessing whose wayes unblameable whose joyes unspeakable whose works most imitable whose conversation most amiable heavenly and divine who chuse rather to suffer than any way to act in cases dubious as to secular dissensions which have much of the Beast somewhat of the Man and little of the true Christian The worth of these Pearls is infinitely beyond some mens counterfeit forgeries whose lustre is chiefly from worldly glory and secular advantages who out of ashes are melted up to the shining and bricklenesse of glasse by the fervour of some spirits who think it enough to glister with novelties and to boast of Inspirations fancying all is reformed which is but changed though much to the worse who are forced to set off themselves by the soil of severe censuring of others Fearing nothing so much as a true light and those discoveries which are made of them by serious and judicious Christians who judge not by mens lips and appearances but by their lives and practises compared to the Word of God For which true Ministers most eminently and impartially holding forth to the discovery of all mens deformities are of all men most abhorred by these pretenders who at a true and full view will not onely not appear to other such gifted men and spirituall as they pretend but they will be ashamed of their arrogance and despite against those good Christians and those true Minisers whom they have so much vilified and contemned The common mistake of proud weak or fancifull men 8. Vulgar mistakes of spirituall influences Luk. 9.55 Impudentiam pâ—o pietate jactitant quasi eo sanctiores essent quo verbosiores Bern. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucid. hist l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas de Sp. s. whose tongues are onely tipt with Sanctity and the name of the Spirit is this That they know not indeed of what Spirit they are as to Profession Nor consider of what Spirit they ought to be as to temper if they will be truly Christs Disciples Contenting themselves with light and airy presumptions in stead of serious and searching examinations of truth comparing themselves with themselves they fancy they grow holyer as they grow bolder in their opinions or actions Hence they are easily flattered into high Imaginations and cheated with strong Presumptions as if some common gifts of knowledge some Scepticall quicknesse some volubility of utterance
novelties and extravagancies Which have nothing in them but a verminly nimblenesse and subtlety being bred out of the putrefactions of mens Brains and the corruptions of the times in matters of Religion and are rather pernicious than any way profitable in comparison of the more sober strength and usefulnesse of nobler creatures Nor is it by gracious persons disputed but that one serious Christian of the old stamp one able and faithfull Minister of the Church of England whom these so contemne and hate hath heretofore done and still doth more good and gives greater demonstrations of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him with wisdom gravity learning humility diligence peaceablenesse and charity by which many have been restrained or converted from sin or established and confirmed in the ways of God than whole heaps of these novel Teachers and swarms of Inspired pretenders who like drones do but seek to rob the hives and starve the Bees who serve in some fits to scratch itching ears to some tune of pleasure liberty profit novelty or preferment but not to teach the ignorant to settle the shaken to compose the tossed to heal the wounded or to wound the ulcerated Consciences of any men to any soundnesse of mind or true holinesse of manners Aedificantur in ruinam illuminantur in caciores tenebâ—as Their Proselytes are rather perverted than converted made theirs by a schismaticall and factious adherence rather than Christs by a fiduciary obedience or the Churches by a charitable and humble communion Faction and confusion and every evill work are the fruits of pertinacious and pragmatick ignorance as Vnion Peace and Charity are the genuine effects of sound knowledge and humble wisdome In which wayes onely true Christians have ever judged the highest gifts and graces of Christs Spirit to be both derived and decerned I am sure there is a vast difference between a wanton Fancy and a holy Spirit between a glib Tongue and a gracious Heart We may add to these discoveries of fallacious pretentions to the Spirits speciall motions Abominanda religionis ludibria colentia temporum rationes non leges Dei Naz or Lat. Hypocritarum pietas est temporum aucupium Cyp. That both in the first broaching and after drawings forth of their new projects and inventions the authors of them more look to men than to God how it may suit with secular aimes and politique interest private or publique than how it sorts with Gods Word or the rule of Christ or the Churches practise in purest times or its present distresses whose frame as to the main both for Doctrine Ministry and Government hath alwayes been the same both in times of persecution and of peace when favoured and disfavoured hy men And such it ever was in England and possibly it will be if it out-live this storm I am sure these Novelties so much opposing this Church and true Ministers in it would never have so quickned by any inward heat of Spirit if they did not presume that the Sun did shine warm on them which yet is no infallible sign of Gods blessing If these Antiministeriall adversaries these now so Inspired men who join in their plots and power and activity by which they either secretly undermine by evill speaking and separating from the publique Ministry or openly invade and arrogate the Office or wholly deride and oppose the Function if they expected nothing but Winter and persecution and such measure as they mete I believe it would damp their spirits very much They would then think it a part of prudence in a Christian Spirit to sleep in a whole skin by keeping themselves in that station wherein God and the Lawes both of Church and State have set them As they did very warily in those times when there was just power restraining them in those due bounds which then they thought became them best and they would no doubt have thought so still for all the fullnesse of their spirits and ebullition of their rarer gifts if strange indulgences in matters of Religion and Church Order had not tempted them to safe extravagancies and unpunished insolencies chiefly against the Church and Church men In other things of civill affairs where it is very likely their spirit prompts them as much to be medling because more is got by those activities they know how to keep their spirits in very good order being over-awed with evident danger attending any factious seditious or tumultuary motions None of these small spirited m n who are seldome little in their own eyes are powerfully moved to usurp any place in the Councell of State to arrogate the office and authority of an Embassadour or publique Agent to set himself in the Seat of Justice un commissioned or to intrude into any place Military or Civill without a Warrant from other than their own forward spirits though their pride and ambition * 2 Sam. 15.3 Nunquam defuit ambitioso praeclara sui ipsius opinio summa de seipso expectatio Sym. like Absaloms may fancy they could better dispatch businesse doe exacter Justice and speedier than any in Authority yet here the danger and penalty of intrusion cowes their zeal curbs their heady spirits and cuts their combes Nor are they often either so valiant or so fool hardy as to act by their pretended impulses in any way but where they think there may be safety which they now find as from many men in what ever they say or doe against the honour order and Ministry of this reformed Church of England which they see hath not many souldiers to defend it nor advocates to plead for it nor Patrons to protect it Wanton and petulant servants which were formerly but as the * Iob 30.1 Insolentioris animi propriâ— est calamitosam viriutem indigne tractare dicteriis appetere injuriis afficere de iis quae immerita patitur maxime exprobrare Plin. dogs of the flock will easily insult over the children of the family when they see them Orphanes and exposed to injuries either wanting true * Isa 49.23 Nursing Fathers and Mothers or these wanting that tendernesse toward them which is hardly to be expected in step-mothers and onely titular parents It is no adventure for timorous beasts to goe over where they find the fence trodden down and the gap made wide So much more prevalent with vain and proud men are the impressions of fear from men than those from God whose commands and threatnings are attended with Omnipotent Justice which is slow paced but sure Nor doe I doubt but those subtle and insolent enemies against this Reformed Church and the Ministry of it doe already * Prima est baec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Iuv. Occultum quatienti animo tortore flagellum Id. find the first strokes of Divine Vengeance in their own ingratefull breasts The further triall of these pretenders to the Spirit I must leave to the impartiality of judicious Christians in that experience
pretious and the vile Mean time Gods husbandmen the true and Ordained Ministers 13. The patience and constancy of Ministers will best confute these pretenders must have patience but not slacken their diligence after the holy example of those godly Bishops and Presbyters of the Church in the times of the Arrian Novatian Donatistick and others prevalencies and persecutions The fierce and fiery spirit in the old hereticks and schismaticks could least of all endure with temper and moderation those Bishops and Ministers which were soundest in their judgements faithfullest in their places and holyest in their lives * Socrat. l. 1. c. 7. l. cap. 17. Can. African Theod. l. 4 c. 12. So that not only they destroyed and drove away most of the orthodox Ministers both Bishops and Presbyters out of many Provinces in Africa and so in Asia as in Europe but they sought with all fraud and force to destroy that great Colosse of Christian Religion the most renowned Bishop of Alexandria * Omnes quos factionis macula sâ—ciavit in Athanasium conspirabant Ruff. hist l. 1. Toto orbe prosugus M. Athanasius sex annos in cisterna sine sole vixit Id. Athanasius who was the wonder and astonishment of all the world for his learning piety and constancy standing like an unshaken rock of Truth amidst the troubled Sea of Arrian Errors If the hand of Secular power will not maintain the antient order of the true Ministers of England in their Ministry liberties and lives which we humbly crave and expect * Vbicunque a perditis mala ista commissa sunt ibi ferventius atquae perfectius Christiana unitas profecit Aust Ep. 50. de persâ— yet we hope the Spirit of Christ and the power of heaven will preserve us with good Consciences amidst the trialls losses contempts and deaths which we may encounter And however the * Rev. 12.4 Rev. 2. Tail of the Dragon with many windings and insinuations hath drawn after him many stars from the heaven of their formerly seemingly sober orderly and godly profession to the Earth of temporary successes worldly applauses secular complyances and irregular motions for vain glory or for filthy lucres sake yet Christ will still preserve * Brightman in Apoc. Rev. â—3 10 in his right hand those stars which shine by his light and are placed by his Name Power and Authority in the Firmament of his Church * Heb. 11.37 Persecutio Christiani nominis in crementum Lact. Quanto magis premitur magis augetur Id. Although this may be the houre of temptation which must come upon this Reformed Church and the power of darknesse which may for a time have leave to deny betray set at naught and crucifie afresh the Lord of Glory in his true Ministers and faithfull servants yet good men may be confident * that their bonds and scourges their revilings and cruell mockings their being sawn asunder between ignorance and error schism and heresie profanenesse and hypocrisie superstition and licentiousnesse The very indignities restraints injuries and ruines of the godly Ministers shall tend to the honour Velut auâ—um non vâ—rbis sed exiliis caâ—ceâ—â—bus probatur fides ad potioâ—is metalli fulgâ—â—em teâ—â—â—det Ruff. Hist l. 2. c. 6. Crudelâ—as fectae est â—llecebâ—a s men est sanguis Christianorum Tertul. Apol. propagation and more glorious restauration of the Reformed Religion which of later times hath wanted nothing so much whereby to set forth its primitive lustre and power as the constancy and patience of the Ministers and Professours of it in the point of comely suffering for the Truth In which way the brightest beams of the Spirit of Glory are wont to appear The base cowardly avoiding of sufferings hath brought great reproaches upon many Ministers and other Christians who Proteus-like by mean compliances and palliations suiting themselves to a disorderly and variating world have much eclipsed and deformed the beauty and dignity of their holy Function and Profession both as Ministers and as Christians As it is far harder to suffer persecution and to bear the burning coales of mens displeasure in our bosomes than to make long prayers or to preach soft and smooth Sermons and to bandy safe disputes in the Sun shine of Peace plenty favour and prosperity so more glory will then redound to God and more honour to the Reformed Religion from those sparkling rayes and effusions of grace P oâ—um virtutes ut Aromaâ—â— quâ— magis câ—nteruntur eo frangratius redâ—lent Ieror which shall flow from excellent Ministers when they are red hot in the forge of affliction and hammered on the Anvile of the worlds malice than ever did from those faint and weaker beams by which they shined in the easie and ordinary formalities of Religion Nor will any thing more assure them and the uncharitable world that they have the Spirit of Christ in them of a Truth than when they shall find they have holy and humble resolutions to suffer with Christ and his Church rather than to reign with a wicked and irregular world whose Jesuitick joys will then be fulfilled and crowned with garlands when they shall see the learning piety order government and honour of that Ministry which sometime flourished to the great regret of all its enemies in this reformed Church utterly prostrated vilified impoverished and expulsed On the other side the spirituall joyes of true and faithfull Ministers will be encreased by their being beaten and evill intreated and cast out of their Synagogues by their being reproached scorned and wounded unjustly not onely from their professed enemies of the Romish party but even from those who were of their own household who seemed to be their familiar friends It is happier to have the least measure of Christs Spirit in patience truth and power than to make the greatest boasts and to enjoy the loudest vulgar applauses which those Chenaniahs seem to affect and aim at 1 King 22. who dare now to smite every where the true Prophets the plain dealing Micaiahs on the mouth designing to feed al the true able and faithfull Ministers with the bread and water of affliction because they will not comply with or yeeld to that novel lying proud and disorderly spirit with which their hearts and mouths are so filled with malice not onely against the Ministry but against the prosperity of this and all other reformed Churches which folly or fury they would have styled and esteemed to be in them the speciall gifts and inspirations of the Spirit of God Proud and presumptuous men doe not consider what is most true 14. False pretentions to the Spirit * Nulla erroris secta jam contra Châ—â—sti veritatem nisi nomine câ—opeâ—ta Christâ—ano ad pugnandâ—m pâ—osilire auâ—et Aust Ep 56. That the greatest blasphemies against Gods Spirit and his Truth are oft coloured over with greatest ostentation of the Spirit as is evidently shewed both in former and later times Many
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. Pro. 1. and studies of those that attend on Wisedoms gates with all humble industry whose great proficiencies these poor men envying as they have great cause would fain perswade them to be as much sluggards as themselves are who have neither hunted Contra bonaâ— literas blaâ—erant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 27. nor caught any thing by * Pro. 12 27. not roasting what they have taken in hunting that is not to use those gifts of learning in all kindes which Ministers have attained unto by Gods blessing on their studies As for that Primitive gift of Tongues by which the Apostles at once suddenly thawed and brake that Ice which now locks and seals up to us the face of the great deep of Learning and Wisdome so that they were instantly Masters not onely to understand but also to utter the mysteries of Christ whereof they had partly an acquired by Christs teaching but for the most part an inspired knowledge These pitifull praters who would be counted Apostolicall are so far from any such gifts of wisdome or utterance that they are scarse masters of their own mother tongue neither knowing for the most part what they say 1 Tim. 1.17 nor whereof they affirm nor able with modesty gravity humility or charity either to use or bridle their tongues which is an Apostolicall brand on them shewing that their Religion is but vain Iames 1.26 And how can it be otherwayes where sober speech sound reason common sense and ordinary ingenuity are as much wanting as pride contempt of others intractable fiercenesse and indocible ignorance doe abound When their great art is to set off to some popular shew and acceptance their gifts and persons 2 Pet. 2.18 by proud swelling words sometimes soring in the height of raptures and rare speculations beyond sobriety as if they were from sudden inspirations when indeed they are nothing else but some odde ends of metaphysicall questions and devotionary contemplations which are every where found among the Schoolmen and Monasticks or in the Platonists Plotinus Pimander and the like to which Authours these men being strangers yet drunk with their own fancies sometimes they reel and stumble upon such notions which vainly puffe them up in their fleshly mindes Col. 2.18 while they are still but clouds without water carryed with the tempests of passions Iud. 12. and high presumptions above the plain practicall and usefull truths of Religion and indeed above the proportion and sphear of their own gifts and parts Other whiles they seem as Well without water deep but dark and dry in their profound follies and profane niceties as the Manichees Valentinians and others of old by which they seek to confound God with the creatures good with evill Nature with Grace Vice with Vertue Law with the Gospell Christ with Divels By all which rarities amazing their silly auditors they are no other but cunning Agitators for ignorance atheism profanenesse hypocrisie and superstition that the life and power of the Christian reformed Religion may be wholly baffled and despised together with the Ministry of this Church What can these wretched men expect but the blacknesse of darknesse for ever to be reserved for them without repentance who study to cry downe all good studies 2 Pet. 2.17 and learning that they may the better eclipse all true and reformed Religion Such Pharisees for few of them are good Scribes are like indeed to make excellent Teachers of the Kingdome of heaven Mat. 12.35 who are not able to bring forth any things either old or new having no Treasure of well digested knowledge either divine or humane but onely some of the rubbidge of that learning which they seeke to destroy pitifull rapsodies of such confused stuffe as they have scraped together which becomes none but bablâ—rs and pamphleters Which whoever considers seriously how much they have been a shame and bane to true Religion to the honour of this reformed Church and to those holy manners which become sober wise and modest Christians he would ever after love learning and learned Ministers the better by how much he sees infinite cause to abhor the sordid and shamefull effects of impudent ignorance which loves to batten in its own soyl and refuseth to be cleansed Such mouths full of errors and foul with evill speakings however the Timothies and Titusses of this Church cannot now stop Tit. 1.11.2.15 as they ought to doe if the exercise of that just power in the Church were not obstructed yet they ought to rebuke them sharply and with all authority And untill these Seraphick despisers of true usefull and sanctified learning can not boast and clamour among their Disciples who are now grown giddy with too high notions and airy speculations but till they can evidently demonstrate to the wiser and soberer world that they can indeed perform what they pretend that is by immediate gifts and unstudied enablings they can solidly comprehend soberly preach methodically explain clearly demonstrate the sacred mysteries of our Religion also resolve the difficulties reconcile the differences and determine the doubts or controversies arising out of the Word of God or the points of Religion so as in some measure may tend to satisfie mens judgements together with the scruples and cases of their consciences Till I say these men can doe these in some competent measure equall at least if not beyond what the learned Ministers of this Church have done and dayly doe by the blessing of God on their labors they must give us leave still to follow our studies with humble prayers and diligent pains That so in stead of the husks and chaffe of these mens specious words and popular insinuations sadly deploring and proudly despising those excellent abilities which are in true Ministers far above them we may help to feed poor hungry soules not with frothy vanity wherewith these proud Masters send their scholars away as puffed up and as empty as themselves but with good corn and that wholesome provision of sound knowledge and saving doctrine wherewith the Lord is pleased to furnish us in the honest and ordinary way of his providence and blessing upon our industry for we have now no Manna or Quails about our tents which while these men dream of mean time exceeding leannesse is entred into their souls Psal 106.15 And how can it otherwise be than that sowing vanity Hos 8.7 and visions of their own hearts they should reap other than windâ— and be satisfied as they are extremely but most unhappily with their owne delusions 13. Inspired holy men yet used their learned gifts We doe not read that either Moses or Solomon or Daniel or St. Paul first educated at * Tarsis celebris Cilicia Vrbs Academia ipsis Athenis Alexandâ—iae comparanda Strabo St. Jeromes Epist ad Mag. answers that qâ—estion Cur candorem Ecclesiae Ethnicis sordibus polluamus
it stands in reference to God its Creator and its neighbour when a Christian is free to know consider meditate of understand remember and beleeve what ever truths God hath revealed to him yea further when he is free to declare and utter them in such an holy way which charity sobriety order and gravity allow It is no freedome for a man to think what he lists in vain erroneous or blasphemous thoughts or to bolt out and vent all his raw undigested rash and rotten fancies or irreligious opinions to others He should set a * Psal 141.3 watch over his thoughts and lips with prayer modesty and humility Trying and weighing all things first with himself by the Word and the Spirit of God or conferring so with others as may have some savour of reason and religion an holy desire to learn or teach in a regular not a rude insolent and imperious way the next liberty is to doe those duties of piety and charity publique and private which God hath commanded every one not onely in generall but in such restrictions of place and calling wherein God hath set them It is also true liberty for a Christian upon good grounds to hope for and expect that reward and crown Rev. 2.10 Rom. 2.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. which God the righteous Judge hath promised to those that persevere in well doing who in that way are free to enjoy all the comforts priviledges and Ordinances which Christ hath instituted in an holy order and most regular way for our private or publique good a Christian is free from the fears terrours judgements Rom. 8.1 curses and wrath of God and from the Laws rigour or condemnation upon his true faith and unfaigned repentance By which graces the beleiver being ingraffed into Christ is free from the observations of the ceremoniall law which tended to Christ and ended in him Also from the politicall or civill Law among the Jews so far as variation of times and necessities of affairs require for the good of mankinde yet without violating the principles of equity or charity in them which are perpetually obligatories upon morall grounds to all men From the morall law also a Christian is so far free as to its rigour and exactnesse of personall actuall obedience the want of which in the least kinde is condemnative in it self but not so Rom. 7.16 as we are by faith in Christ yet are we not freed from the approbation and love of the morall law as it is just and good nor are we from a constant endevour to conform to its holinesse not now as a requisite to the justification of a sinner but as a fruit of that in our sanctification which from faith and repentance brings forth love and from love of God a stedfast purpose and reall endevour to obey his holy commands in all things which is our Evangelicall perfection and highest freedom in this world which is not wholly from sinning Rom 7.23 Ioh. 8.39 If the Son make you free then shall you be free indeed Rom. 6.7 but from a wilfull sinning Also we are free as to our purpose and new principle from that malice uncharitablenesse from those envies discontents and worldly disorders in any kinde as they have dominion over meer naturall and sinfull men Being further free that is willing and content to suffer what ever God is pleased to inflict upon us for punishment triall or honor in the way of testifying to his truth we are also free from a principle of love to yeeld ready obedience as to God so to man for the Lords sake Rom. 13.5 what ever man in the name of God and in Christs stead requires of us Heb. 13.17 in order to Gods glory the peace good example and benefit of others in any society either as men or Christians 3. The liberty of Superiours and Inferiours The grounds and rules of which externall obedientaill freedom in civill and Church societies the Lord hath by generall precepts and directions expressed in his Word leaving the particular circumstantiating enacting and applying of those generals to that liberty of wisdome piety and charity which ought to be owned by inferiors and exercised by superiors as governours in Church or State This Politick liberty admits of divers variations according to severall states times emergencies and occasions to which Christians as men are subject in this world wherein honest freedom may be used by such laws and restraints as shall seem best for the publique welfare to those in whom the power of giving laws to others doth reside even in that just power and authority which God hath given to some over others to rule them to allow no such gubernative liberty to any men is to deny that indulgence and authority which God hath granted both to Christian Magistrates and to Ministers even to restrain in many things the private liberty of others for the publique good and order of the community nor may any man seditiously and factiously plead or contend for his private liberty of speeches or actions further than consists with the peace order safety and welfare of the publique according to what is by due authority permitted or forbidden and however private thoughts of discontent mutiny rebellion and cursing others Eccles 10.20 Nam scelus intra se â—acâ—tum qui cogitar â—â—tum Facti câ—imen habet Jur. 1 Pet. 2.13.20 1 Pet. 2.16 Rom. 13.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You must needes be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake Christian liberty and divine necessity may stand together yea they are inseparable fall not under humane cognizance and judicature yet they as not free as to the tribunall of God in a mans own conscience Neither may publique Authority which hath freedome to rule that is to command enjoin and exact externall obedience of others Nor may private liberty which is free to obey in the Lord the commands of Superiours or else patiently to abide their censure neither the one nor the other may turn this liberty to a cloak of maliciousnesse or licentiousnesse Not the one to tyranny and oppression beyond what piety equity order and charity require nor the other to make it any ground or occasion for factious and seditious perturbings of the publique order and peace Nor may any party of men though never so godly and well affected being in no place or authority in Church or State enabling them carry on any design though in its abstract consideration it be better than what at present may be by any violent irregular and disorderly wayes which are utterly unwarrantable in themselves and no fruit of that Christian liberty which Christ hath purchased for us either inwardly as to God and our consciences or outwardly as to Society and publique relations of men and Christians to one another where every relation imports a duty and every duty hath its bounds beyond which * Relationes civiles mutuis offre â—is â—igannâ— Reg.
this self-condemned and without excuse Nor are any of a different beleif to what is established to be tolerated in giving any factious and seditious scandals against that Religion which is by the wisdome and piety of any Nation and Church there setled as sacred being always presumed that it is judged the truest and best for no men can be supposed to binde themselves and their posterity to any religion which they think false Two wayes of just restraints in the Church There are two wayes of coercive power established by God over men in matters of religion either of the Word by Ecclesiasticall admonitions reproofes and censures which onely reach those in matters of error 1 Tim. 5.20 Tit. 2.15 Tit. 3.10 1 Cor. 5.12 or scandall that are under the same form beleif and profession of Religion for these onely doe consider them And where this discipline is as in primitive times it was rightly dispensed with gravity wisdome charity and due solemnity by wise and worthy men it carries a great weight with it being in the name and authority of Jesus Christ 1. By Church discipline and is of excellent use to the well being of the Church of Christ to preserve the honour of Religion and credit of Christianity Nor is any thing of extern order and policy more worthy to be seriously considered and restored by Christians which can never be done till the right government of the Church be first setled nor can this now be easily done without the favour and concurrent authority of the Christian Magistrate so far hath licentious contempt and insolency prevailed against all ancient order government and discipline in the Church even by the Libertinism of such as would most be counted Christians And 2. Magistâ—atick power 2. A second way of animadversion or restraint of publique disorders in Religion is by the power of the sword in the hand of the Christian Magistrate who is to regard not onely the civill peace of subjects but also that trust which lies on him to take care for their religious interests and their souls welfare Quâ—â—to plus potes interrena republica tanto plus imperdeas â—â—lesti civitati Aust Ep. c. 24. that they may be taught and preserved in the right way of knowing and serving God The happye â—ondition of any Christians is when both these powers are wisely and sweetly twisted together so as the Ministry directs the Magistracy by the Word and the Magistracy assists the Ministry by the sword where the censures of the Church act by charity and the censures of the Magistrate by a just severity yet so as neither love to the offender nor dislike of the offence be wanting That all be done to the edification not to the destruction of the Church or of any member of it so farre as its welfare is consistent with the publique Neither civill nor Church power among Christians should be as a sharp and hard rock dashing presently all in pieces that touch or strike at it in the least kinde though never so modestly differing from the received Religion nor yet ought they to be as pillowes and sponges yeelding so soft a reception to every new opinion and practise as to invite all errours and novelties to a recumbency or rest in their bosome A Church or Christian State will soon be full of all noisome vermine if they allow as a work of charity and liberty every sordid errour and beggerly opinion publiquely to lodge and nestle under their roof yea and to contend for place and crowd out that Religion which is established Moderation differs from grosse toleration Christian Magistrates should neither use the sharp rasor or two edged sword of the Spanish Inquisition which forceth with terror either to deny what men hold for truth or to professe which that they hold not nor yet should they content themselves with the wooden daggers of Amsterdam where civill authority excuses its lukewarmnesse and gilds over its tolerancy of any Religion with the benefit of trade and commerce I doe not think it Christian to extirpate Jews or Turkes much lesse any of Christian profession but I think it both wisdome and charity first to endeavour by all fair means to convince all And secondly 2 Tim. 2.24 to restrain by just penalties all those under civill subjection however of a different religion from saying or doing any thing publiquely scandalous to and derogating from the honor peace and order of that Religion which is esteemed and therefore setled as the best and truest As civill seditions and treasons are intolerable so are religions nor are such endeavours veniall which by printing blasphemous bookes and divellish Libels seek to revive old rotten errors and heresies or to bring publique reproach and scorn upon the reformed Christian Religion in this Church no not although those infamous pamphlets were attended with learned confutations since it 's safer to forbid the use of poysons to the incautious people than to permit them to drink them up upon confidence of the virtue which may be in the antidotes applyed The nature of man is proner to imbibe noxious things then to egest them It is a tempting of God to tolerate evils and errours which we may prevent onely upon confidence of the remedies we can apply This is more like Mountebanks than like good Magistrates or Ministers Since then neither in right reason and true policy of State it is either becoming or safe for Christian Magistrates to have no acknowledgment of any face of Religion Christians must not be Scepticks in Religion Ephes 4.14 so farre among their people and subjects as to establish own and command it nor is it any piety for Christians to be alwayes scepticks in Religion ever unsatisfied and unresolved and unestablished in matters of Gods worship and mans salvation still ravelling the very grounds of Religion with endlesse cavils and needlesse disputes Since the Word of God is neer and open to direct all men in the wayes of God and since what is necessary to be beleived and obeyed in truth and holinesse is of all parts in Scripture most plaine and easie No doubt but Christian Magistrates are highly bound in Conscience to God and in charity to the good of their subjects to whom they must doe more good then they are desired to doe by the Vulgar to establish those things as to the extern order Ministry form and profession of Religion both in doctrine and duties which they shall in their conscience judge and conclude upon the best advice of learned and godly men to be most agreeable to the will of God as most clearly grounded on the Word in the generall tenor and analogy of it and as most fundamentally necessary to be beleived and obeyed by all Christians whereto the Catholick beleef and practise of all Churches more or lesse agreeing gives a great light and direction Christians must not be alwayes tossing to and fro in religion but come to an Anchor
the substance of them nor any lessening of Christs right to them And for this I have produced not weak opinions not light conjectures not partiall customes not bare prepossession 3. A summary of what makes for the function of the Ministry not uncertain tradition not blind antiquity not meer crowds or numbers of men much lesse do I solemnly alledge my own specious fancies devout dreams uncertain guessings Seraphick dictates and magisteriall Enthusiasms But 1. evident grounds out of the Word of God for a divine Ordination and institution at first 2. Scripture history for succession to four generations actually 3. Promises and precepts for perpetuity of power Ministeriall and assistance which was derived by the solemn ceremony of the imposition of hands by such only as had been ordained and so enabled with successionall power till the coming of Christ 4. This primitive root and divine plantation of the Ministeriall office and power we finde oft confirmed by miraculous gifts besides the innocency humility simplicity piety and charity of those Apostles primitive Bishops and Presbyters set forth in the holinesse of their lives and the glorious successes of their Ministeriall labours converting thousands by preaching the Gospell and by their Ministeriall power and authority planting Churches in all the then known and reputed world oft crowning their doctrines and Ministry with Martyrdome 5. After this I produce what is undenyably alleadged from authours of the best credit learned and godly men famous in the Church through all the first ages shewing the Catholick and uncontradicted consent the constant and uninterrupted succession by Bishops and Presbyters in every City and Countrey which all Christians in every true Church owned received and reverenced as men indued with such order and power Ministeriall as was divine supernaturall and sacred as from Christ and in his Name though by man as the means and conduit of it This is made good to our dayes in the persons and office of those Ministers who were and are duely ordained in this Church 6. Next I plead with the like evident and undenyable demonstrations the great abilities in all sorts of ministeriall gifts the use and advancement of all good learning the vindicating of true Christian and reformed religion the manifold discoveries of sound judgement discreet zeal holy industry blamelesse constancy and all other graces wherein the Ministers of England have not been inferiour to the best and most famous in any reformed Christian Church and incomparably beyond any of their defamatory adversaries 7. I add to these as credentiall Letters the testimonies and seales which God hath given of his grace and holy Spirit accompanying the Ministry in England upon the hearts of many thousands both before and eminently since the Reformation by which men have been converted to and confirmed in Faith Repentance Charity and holy life the tryall of which is most evident in that patience and constancy which many Ministers as other Christians in this Church have oft shewen in the sufferings which they have chosen rather then they would sin agaist their Conscience and that duty which they owed to God and man 8. Last of all if any humane consideration may hope for place in the neglect of so many divine the civill rights and priviledges which the piety of this Nation and the Laws of this Land have alwayes given to Ministers of the Gospell by the fullest and freest consent of all Estates in Parliament that they might never want able Ministers nor these all fitting support and incouragements These I say ought so far to be regarded by men of justice honour and conscience as not suddenly to break all those sacred sanctions and laws asunder by which their forefathers have bound them to God to his Church and Ministers for the perpetuall preservation of the true Christian Religion among them and their posterity Furthermore 4. The fruits of Ministers labours in England if the godly Ministers of this Church of England whom some men destine to as certain destruction and extirpation as ever the Agagite did the Jews if they be the messengers of the most high God the Prophets of the Lord the Evangelicall Priests those by whom Salvation hath been brought and continued to this part of the world If they have like the good Vine and Figtree been serviceable to God and man to Church and State If they have laboured more aboundantly and been blessed more remarkably than any other under heaven If they have preached sound doctrine in season and out of season if they have given full proof of their Ministry not handling the Word of God deceitfully nor defrauding the Church of any Truth of God or divine Ordinance If many of them have fought a good fight and finished their course with joy and great successe against sin errour superstition and profanenesse If they have snatched many firebrands out of hell pulled many souls out of the snares of the divell If they have fasted and mourned and watched and prayed and studyed and taught and lived to the honour of the Gospell and the good of many soules If they have like Davids Worthies stood in the gap against those Anakims and Zanzummins who by lying wonders learned sophistries and accurate policies have to this day from the first reformation and coming out of Egypt sought to bring us thither again or else to destroy the very name of Protestants and reformed Religion from under heaven If almost all good Christians and not a few of these renegadoes their ungratefull enemies doe owe in respect of knowledge or grace to the Ministers of England as Philemon to St. Paul even their very selves If they have oft in secret wept over this sinfull Nation and wantonly wicked people as Christ did over Jerusalem and as Noah Daniel and Job oft stood in the gap to turne away the wrath of God from this self-destroying Nation If now they have no other thoughts or practises but such as become the truth and peace of that Gospell which they preach and that blessed example which Christ hath set them whom in all things they desire to imitate in serving God edifying the Church doing good to all men praying for their enemies and paying all civill respects which they owe to any men If all true and faithfull Ministers have done and designe onely to doe many great and good works in this Church and Nation for which of these is it that some men seek and others with silence suffer them to be stoned as the Jews threatned Christ and the inconstant Lystrians acted on St. Paul who after miracles wrought by him among them and high applauses of him from them was after dragged as a dead dog out of their City by them Act. 14.19 supposing him to be dead If all true and worthy Ministers being conscious to their own Integrity a midst their common infirmities after their escaping the late stormes in which many perished are easily able without any disorder to them to shake off those
many to live well which is the work of true Ministers whose labours are great their burdens many their incouragement small and those greatly envyed * 2 Tim. 4.16 Verè magnum est habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem Dei Seneca their enemies encreased on every side their comforters few their defense little or none unlesse God be on their side Which he will not fail to be though all men forsake them as they did St. Paul And he alone is able to bear them up amidst the rough encounters of these times with that Christian patience courage and constancy that becomes learned and religious men who know whom they have served in whom they have beleived and may conclude there are more with them then can be against them whose upright soules and generous consciences are like Elishas mountain 2 King 6.17 full of fiery charets and horsemen that is devout flames of judicious zeal which have upon them the harnesse of wisedome and are managed with the reins of Christian meeknesse and discretion farre from those politick presumptions and enormous confidences of some Phaetons who never think they enlighten the Church enough unlesse they set Kingdomes and States on fire with wild and extravagant furies who are far from being the charets and horsemen of Israel for these though they are fiery yet they are orderly and are patient of government though they excell in gifts 12. Pathetick to true Ministers To such Ministers I here crave leave as Elihu did to make my addresse with all humility and charity as to my reverend Fathers and beloved Brethren You who have upon you the marks and characters of right Ordination and true Ministeriall power accompanyed with competent gifts * Iob 32. sanctified learning devout industry holy zeal unblameable lives and good consciences toward God and toward all men whose grand designe is to give full proof of those Ministeriall gifts and endowments which you were upon due triall found to have and to exercise that divine authority which you solemnly and rightly received to discharge that holy duty which in the Name of Christ and by the power of his Spirit was enjoyned you in the day of your Ordination by those through whose hand the succession of that Ministeriall authority is derived from the Apostles By all which you were qualified and disposed not to get a good living or two but to cast into the Sea of the world the net of the Gospell at Christs word to gain soules to God and Disciples to Jesus Christ to teach and guide by sound doctrine and holy discipline the flocks committed to you in your severall places and proportions Your earthly entertainment is from the munificence and devotion of men but your heavenly calling and authority to be Ministers is from Christ in whose Name you doe all as Ministers and not in the peoples whom some have taught to grow tumultuous against you and imperious upon you Neither your work nor your chiefe reward depends upon men Minimum sit mercedis quod a seculo expectamus Chrysol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys It is the least of your comfort or incouragement that can from thence be expected as nothing of your authority is from thence derived Levell not your selves by popular crowchings and base compliances in this high point of your Ministeriall power It matters not much how you be levelled as to your maintenance for which you chiefly do depend not upon envious men but upon a bounteous God who will either give you liberally to enjoy all things or contentedly to want them 1 King 13. The withered hands of these Jeroboams which are stretched out against you may at your prayers be restored to the ancient fulnesse and favour used toward the Prophets of the Lord in this land If bonds and imprisonment poverty and contempt attend you in this world yet be of good comfort Christ your great Master hath gone before you and both by word and example by his life and death hath called you out of the world armed you against it and set you above it while insolent dust flies in your faces and proud wormes fight against God in you remember the battail is the Lords Ephes 6.12 The weapons of your warfare are spirituall and of greatest proofe in sharpest affliction If you are to contend with principalities and powers it must be not by ill language by railing and Satyrick invectives by secret plottings and practise but by the primitive Ammunition of Patience and Prayers by holy perseverance in your Ministry such as becomes the spirit of the Gospell in wisdom learning gravity between the extreams of fear and flattery with humble love and charity to all men Sueton. Vespas Vit. Imperatorem stantem moâ—i oportere moriens dixit inter manus sublevantium extinctus It becomes you as Vespasian said of Emperours to dye upright in your spirituall armes and harnesse intent to your duty fighting the good fight of faith till you have finished your course with joy In the midst of crosses comforts grow best as Lilies among thornes The clouds of your enemies darts poysonous opinions corrupt doctrines fraudulent dealings sharp arrows of bitter speeches fiery trials of persecuting menaces your adversaries cruell mockings and insultings your friends prevaricatings with you withdrawings from you and forsakings of you all these must onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the more to quicker flames of study prayer meditation devotion and holy resolution those many gifts and graces that learning eloquence and sufficiency which are in you as Christians and as Ministers wherein to the praise of God you are not behind even the chiefest Ministers in the Christian world You are not now to expect Prebendaries and Deaneries and Bishopricks as the honorary rewards and incouragements of your studies pains and piety This age could not bear your enjoying of them though you used them never so well It is your part to know as well to want them as to have them Honoribus divitiis carere posse magni est animi at recte uti posse est maximi and in stead of those to prepare for poverty contempt and imprisonment you may be then at your best when the evill world thinks you deserve no better Never study by any mean ways to merit better of sacrilegious spirits Be sure your treasure be out of these mens reach It is your part to doe well and worthy of your high calling Leave it to God how well you shall be rewarded here and hereafter Paul never preached with greater authority than in his chaines Act 26 29. Phil. 1. nor wrote with greater eloquence and majesty then when he styled himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ well doing will be reward enough and a good conscience will be good chear at all times You cannot but observe that your great enemy the divell hath commanded as the King of Syria did his Legions of Hereticks Schismaticks Fanaticks erroneous superstitious idle
Church under heaven The want of that great benefit and those many blessings which the Churches of Christ both in primitive and postern times have enjoyed by the learning wisdome authority care circumspection and good example of excellent Bishops whom no men will want more than the commonalty of Presbyters may in time according to the usuall methods of humane folly and passions late and costly repentings make men the more esteeme them and desire their just restauration Servil de Mirand The ancient Persians are reported when their King dyed to have allowed five dayes interregnum during which time every man might doe what seemed good in his own eyes That so by the experience of those five dayes rudenesse riot injuries and confusions wherein rich and poore suffered they might learn more to value the necessity and benefit of lawfull orderly and setled government Want doth oft reconcile men to those things Carendo magis quaem fruendo de bonis recte judicamus which long use hath made nauseous and so offensive to them when wanton novelty hath glutted and defiled it self with its pudled waters possibly it may grow so wise by an after wit as ashamed of it selfe to returne to the primitive springs and purer fountaines where was both farre more clearnesse and far wholesomer refreshings Your charity forgiving and pitying your enemies and your humility digesting your injuries and indignities offered you by any men will invest you in more than all you ever enjoyed or lost as to reall comfort and gracious contentment By how much you now have lesse to be envyed of secular splendor the more you will be now and in after ages admired for your meeknesse and contentednesse in every estate Primitive poverty of Bishops will but polish and give lustre to your Primitive piety Humane disgraces are oft the foils and whetstones of divine graces The highest honour as of all good Christians so chiefly of godly Bishops and Ministers is not onely to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is Pel. l. 2. 133. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. At. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preach and rule but to suffer also as becomes the eminency of their places and graces Christ is for the most part on the suffering side and oftner to be found not onely in the Temple but in the furnace and wildernesse than in Courts and Palaces I may not I hope I cannot flatter any of you so as to tempt you to boast of your Innocency to glory in your merits or your crosses before God His exactnesse findes drosse in the purest vessels and defects in the weightiest shekels of the Sanctuary shewing the most innocent and meritorious persons as to men so much of sinfull infirmity in themselves as may both justifie Gods inflictings and provoke the afflicted to true repentings either for any excesses to which they might be transported as men or defects whereto they might be subject as Bishops and chief Ministers in the Church of Christ whose holy industry and pious vigilancy before God ought to be proportioned to those eminencies which they enjoyed above others in the eye of the world All that I aim at in this Paragraph is by this touch of Christian sympathy to expresse a sense of duty gratitude honour and love which I owe to God and for his sake to your Paternity Also to deprecate any offence which I either really have or may seem to have given any of you To whose hands chiefly I owe what I count my greatest honour my being duely ordained to be a Minister of the glorious Gospell of Jesus Christ in this Church of England You are still your selves and not to be lessened by any mutations of men or times while you possesse your learned and gracious soules in patience Ad coelestia invitamur cum a seculo avellimur Tertul. l. 3. advers Marc. Your sufficiency hath lost nothing while you enjoy God and your Saviour in faith and love your friends in charity your enemies in pity your honours in knowing how to be * Phil. 4.12 abasâ—d and your Estates in knowing how to want as well as to abound You have by experience found the Episcopall throne and eminency to be as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nis de Greg. Thaum Gregory Nazianzen and Nissen call it a sublimity fuller of envy and danger than of glory and dignity A dreadfull Precipice hard in the ascent laborious in the station hazardous in the descent of which Chrysostome expresseth so great an horrour that he thinkes few men fit for it and few saved under it the charge is so great the care so exact and the account so strict * Chrysost in Act. hom 3. Nor doth he think it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preheminency so much as paines rather a burthen and oppression than any honour or exaltation And indeed to great and excellent mindes there was nothing in your former height and splendor truly worthy of your ambition or others emulation save onely the larger opportunities they afforded you not of being better in your selves but of doing more good to others Of which conveniencies being now deprived as you will have lesse to account for to God so the noblest revenge you can take of the present age is by patience under so profuse afflictions by your prayers for your most unjust and unplacable enemies by your constancy in studious industry and holy gravity to let the world see how impossible it is for true Christian Bishops not to be doing or desiring good while they live to all men and even to those from whom they have suffered much evill without a cause Your experienced piety knows better how to act than I can write as to true contentment in the world contempt of the world triumphing over the world and expectations above the world your storms and distresses though decumani great and vast cannot be long And to be sure will never be beyond your Pilots skill who looks on you as sufferers if not for the fundamentall saving Truths yet for the comely order and ancient government of his Church Many of you are already in prospect of that fair and happy haven of eternall tranquillity To which I beseech our God and Lord Jesus Christ the chief Bishop of his Church safely to conduct you by the wisdome and power of his Spirit As for your fatherly solicitude and Christian care of this Church and posterity God will relieve you by assuring you that he hath so vigilant and tender care as will cause all to work together for good Nor shall the insolency of enemies forain or domestick who are pleased with your disgraces and enriched with your spoiles alwayes triumph in the ruines of the Bishops Ministers and this Church of England Since then nothing is more apposite than the words of one of your own degree and order Gregory Nazianzen famous for his piety and learning zeal and patience I crave leave with all
pristine respects to present you with that elegant and consolatory expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. orat 32. which he useth to some godly Bishops whom the Arian fury had dethroned from their seats Such of you saith he as are thrust from your Episcopall Chaires here on earth yet are not forsaken of God You shall enjoy surer seates in the heavenly Cathedrall which is infinitely more high and happy No good and wise man but prefers holy obscurity before prmpous injury A minde exercised with such gracious literature as yours will know better how to enjoy its own wisdome and others follies it s own sufferings and other indignities than vain men can their seeming plenty and prosperity wise and holy men draw good and wholesome nourishment out of dinners of sowre hearbs * Non minoris est gloriae bene tolerata paupertas quam magnae opes innocenter partae modeste habitae Tacit. An. l. 4. while other turn to poison and surfeit their staled Oxen. I beseech you therefore Reverend fathers and brethren by the mercies of God by the bowels of Christ by your zeal for the truth by your love of this reformed Church and your Country by your former experiences of your prospered labours by your Christian victories of the many enemies over your order profession and calling who have hitherto only scolded and railed at you and put rude affronts upon you but neither lawfully fought you with the weapons of either Scripture or Reason I beseech you by the care and charity you have to your neighbours souls by the necessity which lies on you to preach the Gospell and administer holy things by the woe which hangs over you if you doe not or draw back by the compassion and tendernesse you have to posterity that the reformed Religion may not be abolished and all superstitious vanities with fanatick profanenesse and confusions prevaile in these sometime fortunate Islands I conjure you by your patience and perseverance hitherto under many trials both in war and peace which may be to you the sharpest war by the peace and joy you have had in the holy Ghost and in well doing and comely suffering by your hopes of heaven and the glory which shall be revealed in you by the coming again of Christ your Master and sender Si pertinacia in errore tantas haâ—et vires quantas in re â—ona haqere delet vastantia Aust Ep. 157. by the Talents you have received by the accounts you are to give by the Crown you may expect by all the thoughts of honor vertue grace glory immortality eternity which your precious soules and raised mindes are capable of by all that is dear to you and worthy of you as men as Christians and as Ministers by the obstinate pertinacy of your enemies in their malice against you Never desert your station as Ministers of the Church of England to quit and forsake your standing as some have done is to sacrifice your understanding to vulgar folly and senselesse importunities cast not away your holy profession betray not that due and divine authority you have by your holy ordination in this Church wipe not off with your owne or the peoples unwashed hands that sacred unction which is upon you by your being duly consecrated through the gifts order power authority and appointment of the Spirit of Christ to the office and work of the Ministry Divert not your studies to any other more gainefull safe plausible and honoured profession among men whose dishonour it is to think any thing more worthy of their honour as it is the honour of Ministers to suffer dishonour upon that account because they are Christs whose wayes being lesse agreeable no wonder if his message and messengers be lesse acceptable to the world Let not the soft fleeces on any Wolves backs deceive you as if you might well spare your labours when there are so many spontaneous Preachers Be sure you out-live them in all wayes of true holinesse you can easily as you do far out-preach them and out-pray them both for truth method judgement and Oratory It is neither their learning nor their conscience nor their eloquence you have to contend with but their ignorance hypocrisie and insolence when these clouds shall thunder and lighten when they shall resolve into * Errores jus in viribus com putare solent Lactan. open violence and oppression which is the last result of errour if it attain to power yet * Mat. 10.20 fear not these that can plunder sequester imprison banish and kill you you have learned little in Christs schoole if these be still a terror to you Corona premit vulnera palma sanguinem obscurat plus victoriatum est quam injuriatum Tertul. Scorp c. 5. Cannot you be content to be such poore despised and persecuted Preachers as Christ was you may be good Ministers when you are beggers as some have been forced to be in these times Are you ashamed and afraid to be such as the Apostles were * Mat. 19.27 who forsook all and followed Christ in this work of the Ministry Such as were their Delicatus es si hic gaudere velis cum seculo postea regnare cum Châ—isto Jeron ad Hes immediate successours for some hundred years such as your later predecessors were those holy and reforming Bishops and Presbyters in the Marian persecution * In ea tempora incidimus in quibus firmare animum expediat constant bus exemplis Thras moriens ap Tacit. Such as the most of our brethren are now or lately have been or are likely to be in all the reformed Churches Such as those holy Bishops and Presbyters were before they met in the first Nicene Councill * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. hist de Syn. Nicae whither from their introspitable Islands and deserts from their woods caves and desolate cottages from their prisons racks and dungeons they came forth with the marks of the Lord Jesus on many off them some * Paphnutii effosum ocâ—lum sape exosculatus est Const M. Euseb in vit with an eye pulled out others with an hand lopped off with maimed legs with shrunk finews with stigmatized foreheads and with knees made horney by continuall prayer for those that had so persecuted and misused them O glorious spectacle O venerable Councell O truely Christian Synod and sacred Assembly not of Presbyters scorning and extirpating their Bishops but of Reverend Bishops and humble Presbyters all of them in their due order and holy subordination renowned for their constancy in persecution and so most worthy to be Ministers of the mysteries of Jesus Christ Shall we now be ashamed as a more soft and delicate generation of their scars and maims Have we so striven for the right and left hand in Christs Kingdome of Church Government as to forget to drink of Christs cup and to abhor to be baptized with his baptism which was not of water only
and onely nominall Christians of this age before they perish in their errors and confidences of having true Ministers and true Sacraments true Christ true Faith true Repentance c. O deplore with bitter lamentation the many poore creatures both Shepheards and Sheep who are gone down to the pit death gnaweth upon them while they dyed in so zealous and dangerous errours in so fond a Faith in so vain hopes as mistooke the gates of hell for heaven Antichrist for Christ among us you may well blesse your selves in so glorious a change and boast of your gracious Apostasie Hasten to beget some new Church body which may give you a new call and standing which may rebaptize you reordain you and ere long invest you in such an office power and Ministry as they and you shall think more valid more authentick more Christian more comfortable which hath surer footing and better standing both in the favour of the times and of God himself But if Scripture and Reason and consent of all holy learned men in this and other Churches is Catholick custome particular experiences and holy successes if divine testimony clouds of witnesses of blessed Ministers and blessed people of blessed Sermons and blessed Sacraments of blessed lives and blessed deaths of blessed Converts and blessed perseverants in grace if these be as mighty bars crosse your consciences which stop you either from a weak retrogradation to old Popery or a wicked precipitancy to new vulgarity if neither your judgement nor your conscience can bear such a rude revolt without great violatings of the one and woundings of the other if you dare not in a fit of popularity so injure the dead that are at rest in the Lord so discourage the living and thriving Christians so overthrow the Faith of many so blaspheme the God the Saviour and the Spirit of those holy men and women living and dead who have been called and converted and sanctified and confirmed and saved by that Word of Power and those holy Ministrations which your Fathers and your Brethren and your selves the Ministers of this Church have duly preached and administred in that office standing and authority wherewith they were and you now are duly invested in this Church I beseech you then be so valiant as to dare to be and still to own your selves as true Ministers of Christ in this Church ordained by him and for him still seeking the things of Christ in the good old way of the ordained Ministry while others seeke their owne in their new models and fashions Doe not study to disguise your selves no not outwardly as if you were afraid your coat should discover your calling or as if you pretended to have renounced it with your changed habit you may preserve white souls under black clothes as others may black soules under spendid colours your sable colour although very becoming the gravity of your calling in the best times yet was never more decent than now when besides that you are Ministers you have cause to be mourners Adde not to the other confusion of times this of your garments nor gratifie them so far as a shoe-latchet in your clothes whose aim is to levell and confound your calling with the meanest of the people Although I placed heretofore no Religion in clothes and colours yet now I almost think it piety to persevere in such a fashion whose change would argue inconstancy and so farre be irreligious as it is acceptable to the erroneous confirms them in their errours and casts some shame upon the truth both of our Ministry and our Church In such a case a few graines of frankincense are not to be offered to any Idol It was in ancient times thought an heavy punishment for a Presbyter to be deposed from his degree and office so as to be treated but as a Layman O do not seek to desecrate depose or disguise your selves hang not out the flags of your motly Coats or pybald colours as if you had taken from or rendered up your orders to high shoes and quitted that distinction you anciently have from the Vulgar Since you did not ordain your selves but were consecrated by the Word and authority of Christ through the hands of those who had received power to send you in Christs Name into Christs harvest why should you study or affect those mean palliations and miserable confusions which are uncomely for men of holy gravity learned constancy and religious honour Other men have dared much more in worse adventures and more unwarrantable undertakings You cannot adventure your many talents of learning and ingenuous parts your studies labours liberties and lifes in a safer way or on a better account than in that ship where Christ is imbarqued and so many pretious souls with him you need no other policy entred to insure you than this that you deal for Christ as his Factours for soules and Agents for that heavenly commerce between God and sinners Therefore bold fast your profession so as neither to be ashamed of nor a shame to your holy calling and Ministry whose honor depends not on factious fancy or vulgar novelty but on divine Institution and Catholick succession Let the soules of men and the purity of Religion be then dearest to us when they are growne cheapest to others Let our lives be strictest when liberty is made a cloak to licentiousnesse There will never need more true Ministers than when every man shall be tolerated to be a Minister that so true ones may be suppressed and none but false incouraged That the tyes of Duty and Conscience may lie upon none either as Ministers or hearers as Pastor or flock to attend any holy publique worship and service of God which is the high way to Atheism superstition confusion any thing but the true Christian and reformed Religion Abate not your labours though men grudge withdraw and deny your wages What can bee more glorious than to see you contentedly poore for Christs sake 2 Cor. 6.10 and still continuing to make many rich while you are exhausted and have nothing imparting things spirituall though you receive little or nothing of things temporall this is after the pattern in the mount after the example of divine munificence where goodnesse is of free grace and not of the reward or merit Make any honest shift to live but use no base shifts to leave your calling Better your tongues cleave to the roofe of your mouthes than you should renounce your Ordination and Ministry or cease to preach in that Name while you have power liberty and opportunity Nothing will become us Ministers better than thread-bare coats if we can but keep good consciences Nothing will be sweeter than dry morsels and sowre hearbs Pâ—ov 15.7 and a cup of cold water the Prophets portion if we have but inward peace and the love of Christ therewith Photius Biblioth in Chrysost It was articled against Saint Chrysostome when he was Bishop of Constantinople by some of his envious
it wont in primitive times to be asked of Princes or people how they would have the Church governed or by whom who should ordaine Preachers or who should preach the Gospell administer the Sacraments confirm the baptized censure the scandalous and receive the penitent These were mysteries proper to Christian Religion and intrusted to the Pastors of the Church at first also conserved by them in the midst of hot persecutions from secular Magistrates without any variations save onely such as necessity of affaires and Christian prudence yet in an orderly way required and practised as to some circumstantials which was no more than for a childe from his coats to come to breeches or for the bark of a tree to increase as the bulk and branches grow What humane passion then and inconsideration hath any way wounded wisdome and Christian compassion in Ministers of all sorts should seek to cure The wounds of the Church will commonly fester and gangrene if Ministers stay till Lay men take them to heart nor is the hand of any of them so proper as them who have occasioned most hurt we Ministers ought to be the good Samaritans and by first healing the deformed scars of our own scandals the boyling Ulcers of our own passions the gaping orifices of our owne religious dissenfions our influence will be much more soverain and benign to draw together and heal up the publique sores of the Church and reformed Religion when we appear fit for so holy and good a work it may be God will put it into the heart of those in power to call us forth and incourage us to this happy understanding O consider with your selves how much the men of this world are wiser than you in their generations you are commonly but the beaters of the bush for the mighty Nimrods of the world what have Ministers got yea what almost have you not lost which wise men would have preserved of credit honour comfort or incouragement while they helped to pull down the Sion of this Church whose dust hath fallen into their own eyes and besmeared their garments to a most uncomely deformity Will you all leave this Sion thus in her dust without any pity of her is it better she should be ever desolated than your animosities laid aside Mortales câ—m sumus immortalis non esse debent odia Tantaene animis Coelestibus irae and your poore feuds reconciled Such everlasting burnings become not mortall breasts least of all heavenly hearts such as Ministers should have Plead no longer such a zeal for Christ as over-layes charity and humility or such a desire for Reformation which produceth so great deformities It is not so much a charity as a justice for us Ministers to advise to weep to pray for the peace of our Jerusalem Jer. 23.15 for from the Prophets in great part evill is gone out into all the land our cold or our hot fits our luke-warmnesse or our negligence or our timerousnesse have cast this Church and many poore souls into this lingring distemper this almost incurable Quartane which will never be cured till we smell the Rose of Sharon the sweet and celestiall temperament of Christs fragrancies in all love and charity in humility meeknesse kindnesse forbearance pity and tendernesse to each other Not onely all policy and honest prudence then as to the recovery of Ministers credit and reputation but all conscience and piety as to the requisi es of Gods glory and charity as to the dangers and necessities of peoples soules require now such double diligence of us all as may compensate any former failings and shew the world how necessary a good worthy Ministers are who every way fit those places and fill those orbs in which God and the Church have set them It is high time for us to get beyond all cold formalities superficiall solemnities popular complyings covetous projects secular ambitions Penurious pains slacker care and indiligent tendance will not be sufficient to cure those diseases we have now to contend withall which are ingenious to avoid all cure subtill to elude all skill cunning to increase their maladies cruell to spend their infection and fierce to destroy their Physitians Moderate and indifferent industry will hardly at any time convert sinners and save soules They are now like harder metals which melt not but in such a degree of heat Least of all now when errour is adored for truth sin and damnation it self are dressed up and esteemed as a way to salvation when hel it self is by some courted for heaven and chains of darknesse counted liberty like those Succubas and Empusas Philostratus in vita Apollon Tâ—yanaei which some men are reported to have espoused and embraced for beautifull wives There needs now besides preaching gifts and oratorious breath that vigor of grace that spirit of zeal that fervency of charity that humble constancy that magnanimous meeknesse which may make us Ministers unwearied in our studies frequent and fervent in praying oft in fasting attentively watching tenderly weeping charitably visiting solidly instructing and diligently examining c. In all wife and meeke condescendings even to bear with mens infirmities to frustrate their passions to receive their bullets and shot as upon Wool-sacks to overcome their oppositions by something of a softer yeelding still beseeching them and intreating them to be reconciled to God in Jesus Christ when they are to us irreconcilable All obstructions of private peevishnesse passion hard speeches haughty carriage rough demeanor all fashion of disdains revenge and secular contestations must be removed as uncomely uncomfortable noxious That people may see the bloud of Christ softning us and the bowels of Christ enlarging us as brethren as fathers or mothers as tender and carefull Nurses in Christs family It is ever and now most of all unseasonable in so short and uncertain a moment which is allowed us to preach or people to hear to learn and to live in order to eternity to exercise Christians in continuall disputes to lead them in perplexed pathes full of bryars and thornes to wast their and our time in modern impertinencies which will not profit a poore sinner either living or dying All times and paines is lost which is not laid out in Cathechising Preaching and applying sound wholesome healing saving necessary truths which really mend both minde and manners either laying the foundations in principles or maintaining them in doctrines or building proportionably upon them in practicks and comforts where the truths of faith bear up the practise of an holy life and an holy life adornes the Articles of true faith where the Creed and the Decalogue goe together That besides the shewes of leaves in doctrines and opinions there may appear goodly fruits of purity justice mercy charity patience peaceablenesse civill obedience self-denyall which are grown so much out of fashion Alas while poore people are a mused with novelties as Larks with dasing glasses or picking up curiosities or gazing at sublimities
of England which I have proved to be the onely true succession of divine authority or else wholly to remove it and to set Religion upon some other basis For neither the reformed Religion nor its Ministry can either long or safely or comfortably stand in so tottering and mouldering a posture like the wals of some great old fabrick or ruinous Cathedrall swelling out and threatning to fall It were better to take it down than to hazard its dangerous breakings and precipitious tumblings Scratches in Religion doe soon fester and easily turn to Gangrenes which must either be speedily healed or discreetly cut off It were high proesumption for one to advise who professeth his ignorance in State Policies yet common prudence shewes this to be the high way and most compendious passe to publique peace Namely 1. The setling of the reformed Religion in this Church of England and its publique Ministry in comely government competent maintenance and holy succession 2. The confirming and if need be explaining or enlarging the Articles of the Church of England in the main fundamentals of Religion as Christian and reformed both in things to be believed and practised 3. The restoring of that holy power and ancient exercise of Discipline to the Church both in privater Congregations and in publique associations which may both carry on true knowledge piety and charity in Ministers and people Also recover the sacred Ordinances of Christ and publique duties of Religion to their primitive purity and dignity which have been infinitely abased by Laymens policies Ministers negligences and vulgar insolencies These would keep a fair course and form of Christian peace and holinesse in the publique a midst lesser differences and no lesse satisfie than oblige every sober minded Christian whose good examples have great influence on the generality of people But if the vulgar rudenesse deformity and inconsistency be once taught by being tolerated to slight and scorn their Ministers and in them all holy things and true Religion Either beleiving as they are prone to doe that their Ministers are not invested by any due and divine authority in that Office and Ministry any more than themselves are nor are assisted by any speciall grace and blessing from God if they suspect that civill Powers doe set Divines at nought and regard them no more than as so many pretenders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Celeusio judici None can make conscience of humane laws who disregards divine falsaries and intruders How willingly will the mindes of common people whom nothing but Conscience or the Sword keepes in aw and order embrace any thing that makes towards laxation of duty to God and observance to men No water is more easily diffused or more naturally strives by its fluid nature to overbear what ever bounds pen it up or restrain it from wasting it self Nor are such tempers slack where occasion tempts them to revenge by their riots all former restraints cast upon them by any men that sought to set limits either of power or piety to their lusts and passions To avoid which rude and irreligious extravagancies of common people 14. Christian Ministers of all merit most publique protection and favour all * wise Governours have still countenanced the publique exercises of that Religion which they owned and established as best * Rex sacrificiis Templis omni cultus Deorum moribus legibus praeerat Pomp. Laet. de mag Rom. Apud Aegyptios 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stâ—b in Reg. So Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adding all civill reputation favour and authority to the use of it and chiefly to those who were its prime professors and Ministers who were ever * Caesar â—el Gal. l. 6. Magno apud eos sunt honore Druides Nam fere de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt Plaut Rudent Quis homo est tanta confidentia Qui sacerdotem audeat violare At magno cum malo suo fecit herclè Liv. dec 1. l. 2. Sacrificus Rex sacrorum dicebatur Constantine the Great alwayes received the Orthodox and godly Bishops and Presbyters with all respect and veneration Euseb in vita Const Ministry of the Gospell was called Dei ficus ordo Amb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 1. Reverenda ipsis Angeliâ—â—s spiritibus Ministeriâ— Ber. Columna Ecclesiae Id. Honor sacerdotii firmamentum imperii Tacit. de Judaeis hist 4. unviolable in their publique officiatings generally esteemed as sacred both for the protection they had from men and the institution from divine power and wisdome Which policy was not more wisely carryed in all false and feigned religions than justly and most conscientiously to be observed as it ever hath been by all worthy and noble minded Christians either Princes or States in that which we hold to be and professe as the onely true Christian and reformed Religion whose Oracles Doctrines institutes offices authority and ministery have their originall not from man but from the onely wise and true God who first sent his Prophets and servants after that his Son the Lord Jesus Christ to be not onely a fulfiller and establesher but also a Preacher of righteousnesse to mankinde whose preaching Prophetick or Ministeriall office as to extern and visible administrations the holy order and due succession of Ministers doe supply and in the same power succeed by his speciall mission and appointment in the Church Whose most sacred Mysteries for infinite wisdome for inestimable mercy for unparalleld love for holy precepts for divine examples for precious promises for ancient and undoubted Prophesies for exact fulfillings for apt institutions for sutable Ministry for beautifull order for blessed comfort for sweet peace and mutuall charity which are or ought to be among the true professors of it infinitely exceeds all the wisdome designes desires and thoughts of all those that ever pretended to any Philosophy Religion vertue sanctity or felicity All which come far short as of the inward comfort of mens consciences so of that outward beauty peace and order which doe most blesse humane societies which bonds of publick tranquillity all true and unpragmatick Ministers of the Gospell of peace doe most effectually lay in Christs Name upon men In which regard of all ranks of men and orders they deserve best of mankinde where ever they live while they keep within those Evangelicall bounds that holy and humble temper which becones them and which is proper to the Spirit of the Gospell Constantine the Great writes Euseb Eccl. hist l. 10. c. 5. The greatest safety or danger to any State comes by Religion if the reverence of it be weakned and honour abated dangers attend if by Lawes and authority it be setled and preserved great blessings follow c. So that no men seem more to fight against their own peace than those that suffer the ancient Ministry and true Ministers of Christ to be destroyed or disregarded
noble and most Christian a work But they had need to be Herculesses men of most divine vertue and resolution that encounter the many headed hydras and various monsters which are at present set against the Ministry of this Church What ever censures any other actions of men may ly under which God will judge and of which they may have more cause at last to repent than to boast yet this the vindicating and establishing of the true Ministry and its authority they shall have of all things the least cause to repent of Nor I hope will any worthy men give me or any other Minister cause to repent that I have presumed to become an humble suites and a faithfull Monitor in a matter of so great and so religious concernment yea peradventure I may find favour which God can only give in the eyes of men as Abigail did in Davids 1 Sam. 25 33â— who blessed God for her seasonable diverting of him from that excesse of vengeance to which immoderate passion had tempted him It is not safe to treat those as enemies which are Gods friends and friends to mens soules It was an action onely fit for Saul whom God had forsaken to destroy the Priests of the Lord 1 Sam. 18. as enemies and traitors If any consecrated vessels of the Temple should have soil or decayes on them yet none but Nebuchadnezzars Belshazzars or Antiochusses would quite break them in pieces or melt them and prophane them No time can be too long no counsell too deliberate before Christians put so severe a purpose in execution or gratifie any party without hearing all sides Nor should they that dis-advise from it upon sober and good grounds be lesse acceptable to men in power than any of those that prompt and incite to so hardy and hazardous an adventure This gives me some hope if not of acceptance yet at least of pardon for either that prolixity for which none can doe greater penance than I have or for that plainnesse by which I may exercise any mans patience who vouchsafes to read this my Apologetick defense 17. The Authors excuse for the prolixity of this Apologetick defense wherein I have not forgot that as it is written in a busie and pragmatick age so possibly it may fall into the hands of some persons whose imployments admit of little leisure for such long discourses or tedious addresses But as others in reading may be prone too much to remember their momentaries so I in writing have chiefly considered my owne and others eternities I have weighed with my self how important a businesse God had laid in this upon my heart and my heart upon my hand The vehemency and just zeal for which hath still dictated to my pen both this spurre and excuse That in a Cause of so great consequence it were not onely a sin for me to say nothing but to say little lest shortnesse of speech should detract from the worth of the matter Weak shadowes would argue faint flames either a dimnesse in that light or a chilnesse in that heat which ought to attend a businesse which to my judgement seems of infinite importance to present and future times So pretious a Jewell as the true Ministry of the glorious Gospell of Jesus Christ was not to be set with an unhandsome foil or by a slight and perfunctory hand I know small fires and short puffes will not serve to make great irons malleable No Divell is harder to be unmufled and detected than that which conceals it self under Angelick masks which some weak and credulous soules think a sin to lift up or to suspect 2 Cor. 2.11 But we are not ignorant of Satans devises No drosse or masse of corruption is more untamable and unseparable from mans nature than that of sacrilegious enmity against Christ the Gospell and the Ministry while they have any thing to lose I am sure what ever we or our posterity of this Nation may want we cannot want Christ or the true light of the Gospell in its power and authority without being a most unhappy Nation To which if the preservation of a learned godly and authoritative Ministry in a due ordination and divine succession such as was of late and still is though much wasted and weakned in England be not thought necessary truly no more will the Scriptures nor the Sacraments nor the peace of Conscience nor the pardon of sin nor the saving of soules ere long be thought necessary No nor the excellency of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ whose Name and Worship will shortly be either shamefully abused scurrilously despised as now it is by many yea and cleane forgotten by the profane stupid sensuall and Atheisticall hearts of men unlesse there be some men whose speciall calling and commission from God and man shall both enable and ordain them to preach and administer holy things in Christs Name whose duty and conscience so commands them to serve God and his Church that they cannot be silent or negligent without sin 18. Mens pronenesse to Apostasie without a true Ministry To expect that arbitrary and occasionall Preachers will doe the work of Christ and the Church is as vain at to thinke that passengers or travellers will build and plant and sow and fight for men in their civill occasions The men of this world will finde many other imployments of greater honour credit and content than to preach the Gospell with the crosse of poverty and contempt upon them which is ever crucifying the world and must expect to be crucified by the world It 's rare to finde any generation of men that are truly favourers of Ministers or the Gospel therefore they are ever grudging at all cost laid out on Christs account as lost and going beside their Mill who had rather bee savers than saved by him Nor is the opinion which sober men generally retain of the excellency and necessity of Christian Religion in order to their salvation sufficient to keep it up to a constancy and succession without a true powerfull and authoritative Ministry For we see that although nothing concernâ— men more than to beleeve there is a God the supreme good of whose goodnesse bounty power and protection we have every moment need use and experience and upon whose mercy our sinfull mortality can onely with any reason depend both living and dying for our eternall welfare yet many yea most of men are ready to run out to Atheism To Atheism and to live without God in the world unlesse they have frequent and solemne remembrances besides their owne hearts to put them in minde in their dependance on and duty to God In like manner although nothing should be more welcome to mankinde because nothing more necessary than the news of a Saviour for sinners To Unbeleif yet the bitter root of unbeleif and many sensuall distractions which are in mens hearts and lives are prone to entertain nothing with lesse liking than the hearing and
power and office of that Ministry which Christ and the Apostles had setled in the Church and to which they pretended to have a zeal Fourthly at the worst what ever they were or did regularly or irregularly as to the point of Preaching Christ crucified the Apostle so far rejoyced not as they were passionate or peevish envious disorderly c. but so far as God restrained them in any moderate bounds of truth-speaking It was some joy to see a less degree of mischief and scandal arise from their perversness and spite That they did not blaspheme that Name and preach another Gospell or corrupt this in points of doctrine with Jewish or Hereticall leaven no less than they did with those tinctutes of passions envy and defects of Charity A good Christian may rejoyce at any preparation of men to receive the Gospell In omni malo est aliqua boni mixtura Simpliciter enim absolute malum esse non potest Neque enim est malum pura negatio sed debiti boni privatio neque est cognoscibile nisi per bonum Tho. Aq. 1. q. 14. Non humane est imbecilitatis plena indagine conoscere quâ ratione Deuâ— mala fieri patiatur quae non incuriâ sed consilio permittuntur Salv. l. 1. Gub. Mirandum non est quod mala exurgant sed vigilandum est ne noceant nec permitteret Deus ex surgere nisi sanctos per hujusmodi tentationes erudiri expediret Aust Ep. 141. as in the Indies tho they be first taught it in much weakness and superstition It is so far happy in the worst of times and things that there is no simple or sincere evill which hath not some mixture of good in it which it abuseth else it could not be at all and some extraction of good may be from it by the omnipotent wisdome of God causing all things to work together for the good of his Church Gods permissions not to be urged against his Precepts and Institutions But what sober Christian will urge Gods permissions against his Precepts and Institutions The rule in the Word is still right constant and divine though in the water of events providence may seem crooked and irregular Gods toleration of evill of disorders or heresies in the Church doth not justifie them in the least kind against his Word which forbids them The Apostle was glad and so may we be in evill times that things were no worse but he allows them not to be so bad Quae permittit Deus non approbat in permisso praviter agente quamvis apprâ—bet permissionem suam profundissimè potentissimè sapientia quae bona ex malo ducenda novit Vid. Aust Ep. 120. Ep. 159. In abdito est consâ—lium Dei quo malis bene utitur mirificans bonitatis suae omnipotentiam Rom. 3.8 Multa sunt in intentione operantis â—ala quae in eventu operis bona sunt Aquin. Praescientia praepotentia sua non rescindit Deus libertatem creaturae quam instituerat Tertul. lib. 2. cont Marcâ—on vid. Synes ep 57. nor would he approve the doing of evill or the envy and spightfulness in preaching that good might come thereby He only considered it in the event as to Gods disposing not in the agent or fact as to mans perverting A sober and wise man may make a good use of others madness and folly as God doth of mans and devills malice One may rejoyce that there are some poysonous creatures by which to make Theriacas and Antidotes Many venomous beasts have the cure in them against their own stings and poâ—sons The same Apostle might rejoyce in the supposed not decreed and absolute Necessity of Heresies There must be heresies 1 Cor. 11.19 that as in these times the constancy of judicious and sincere Christians may be made manifest It is some ease that Impostumes break Plus est jucunditatis in sapientia Dei quae bona è maâ—is extrahit quà m in malis molestiae Lact. l. de Ira. Respondet Epicuri quaest cur Deus permisit mala cum potens sit bonus Permisit malum ut eâ—icaret bonum Id. Acts 27. whereby corrupt humors are let out and spent possibly the Apostle might in some sense or notion have rejoyced in the storm he suffred and the shipwrack so far as it discovered Gods extraordinary protection to him and for his sake to those with him And so may all his faithfull Servants the Ministers have cause at last to rejoyce when the Lord hath brought them and this Church to the fair haven after this foul weather which seeks to overwhelm them But Christ is in the ship and they have a good Pilot God whose Spirit with their own bids them be of good chear The Lord can and will save his that be godly from so great a death But such joyes are the serious and sincere raptures of very godly and wise men far enough sequestred from the flashes of the world which hardly ever discern in Events what is of God from what is of man Good events in which Gods over-powring is seen are oft consequentiall not intentionall Severa res est gaudium Sen. Cl. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the second agents and flow not from their will or vertue but follow their work through Gods soveraign over-ruling who as St. Austin sayes would not permit any evill of sin to have been in and from the creatures pravity of free will and infirmity of power if his infinite both power and goodness had not known how to extract the good of his glory out of the greatest evill And truly this good we hope through the mercy of God The good which may come from this evill to true Ministers Phil. 1.16 both all true Ministers and all true Christians in this Church of England will reap by this envy contention spitefull unsincere and uncivill dealing of these Anti-ministeriall Adversaries who cry up their new preaching and prophesying wayes thereby thinking to adde affliction to those bonds and distresses which are upon Ministers in these dangerous and difficult times That this will make all true Ministers more study to be able for to walk worthy of and alwayes to adorn that holy profession and divine Ministration which they have upon them that so they may stop the mouths of gainsayers Tit. 1.9 Saluberrimus est malorum inimicorum usus quo illorum quadam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meliores vigilantiores reddamur Erasm 1 Cor. 3.1 who lye in wait for their halting and reâ—oyce at their fallings Also it will breed in all others that are serious sound and good Christians a greater abhorrency of these insolent and disorderly wayes in the Church the root and fruits of which are carnall not spirituall pride faction strife bitterness confusion scom of religion corruption of all true doctrine and holy manners neglect and disuse of holy duties prophaness and disposition to all