truth in the World viz. that Christ was the holy one of God because he had no calling so to doe The words of St. Paul are full to the same purpose How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher And how shall they preach except they be sent The Apostle speaks of such preaching and hearing as should beget Faith and by which Grace is ordinarily wrought and increased in the Soul and upon which People may expect God's Blessing Now thus none can hear without a Preacher neither can any thus preach i. e. profitably to beget Faith except he be sent They cannot be succesfull in their Ministry without a Mission They may talk as Usurpers but not preach as God's Ambassadours They may satisfie the Itch of the Ear but they cannot be instrumental to work Grace in the heart God will not concur with that Ministry he sends not Our Saviour Christ Faith Iohn 10. 8. All that ever came before me are Thieves and Robbers Why Moses and the Prophets the Priests and Levites were before Christ. Were they all Thieves and Robbers and none of them true Pastours The Emphasis lies in the word came which being rightly understood makes it as true that all that ever came or shall come after Christ are Thieves and Robbers also as well as those that came before him St. Hierome's note upon the text makes it clear Venerunt inquit Christus non qui missi sunt de quibus Propheta veniebant a se ego non mittebam eos Our Saviour doth not say that all that were sent before him were Thieves and Robbers but all that came before me Plainly shewing that whosoever shall come amongst the People of God his Church to perform the Office of the Ministry of his own accord without a lawfull Sending is a Thief and a Robber and none of Christ's true Sheep will or ought to hear him But it will be said the Preaching and Ministry of such Persons as are in question is the Preaching and Ministry of Persons sent for they are Persons in holy Orders and Ministers ordained 1. I deny not but that some of such Persons as are in question may be lawfully ordained Ministers all are not to my knowledge yet it followeth not presently from thence that they are sent to preach or to perform Acts of the Ministry For it may so be in a true setled and constituted Church that for a lawfull Cause and by lawfull Authority a Person ordained may be deposed and justly suspended from performing any ministerial Acts as Abiathar in the Church of the Jews was by King Solomon Otherwise Ministers in their Office were Lawless and exempt from all legal and just Restraint and Censure And although a Person in holy Orders cannot have his Ordination ordinarily made void by any quoad internam potestatem in regard of the inward Power of Order that is conferred on him in his Ordination so as upon his Restauration he need be re-ordained yet it may be made void quoad externam executionem in regard of the outward Execution of that Power in the Church either in publick or private either for a set-time or season or else during his Life It is in the Power of the Church and Governours thereof to suspend a Minister from the Execution of his Office though it be not in their Power to rase out that Characterem insculptum that intrinsical Authority received in his Ordination And a Person so lawfully suspended by Authority as is said may he in such a case execute the Office of the Ministry or may he not If so then Acts of lawfull Authority in the Church signifie nothing Governours and Government and Church-discipline is a mere empty Name and but a Cypher Then might Abiathar have executed the High-priest's Office Notwithstanding King Solomon's Exauctoration of him And so the Ordinance of God in the Church to which all stand bound in Conscience to be in subjection will be made void and of none effect If not then such Ministers as notwithstanding their legal Restraint or suspension from Execution of their Office do yet constantly execute the same by preaching and other ministerial Duties otherwise than by the Law they are allowed cannot be said to be sent of God since they are inhibited by God's Vicegerents on Earth and consequently have not that sending which the word of God saith is necessary to those whose preaching is to be instrumental to work Faith and other saving Graces in the Hearts of God's People But what calling or sending can such a Minister as is in question pretend to for his setting up a Course of House-preaching or other ministerial Acts in the place or Parish where there is a publick constant preaching Minister established by Law If he hath any it must be either extraordinary or ordinary for there is not a third way of calling or sending Extradordinary calling or sending is that which is done by God himself immediately without the Concurrence or Ministry of any humane Help or Authority Not of man nor by man Either 1. By divine Vision or Revelation and thus St. Paul was called and sent to preach the Gospel at Macedonia A Vision appeared to Paul in the Night saying come over into Macedonia and help us And after he had seen the Vision immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the Gospel unto them 2. By secret impulse on mens spirits for this work wrought by the extraordinary Power of God in the Primitive times Such was Philip the Deacon's going to the City of Samariah and preaching the Gospel unto them after the dispersing the Church at Ierusalem Such also was the Calling of those who at the same dispersion first preached Christ at Phoenicia and Cyprus and the Hand of God was with them though otherwise they were but private Persons Now I think no wise men will pretend to these extraordinary Callings or Sendings in these days It is sufficient to say they are extraordinary and such as but in like Cases cannot be expected Extraordinary onely take place where ordinary are not to be had The internal and extraordinary sending is secret and invisible and therefore it is not sufficient for a man to say that he is sent of God seeing every Heretick may say the same but he ought to prove his extraordinary and invisible Calling by the working of some Miracle or by some special testimony of Scripture 'T is true Iohn Baptist had 〈◊〉 immediate and extraordinary Calling and yet wrought no Miracle that was reserved for the Messiah of whom he was the immediate Forerunner to manifest himself unto the world by but then that Calling of his was foretold and witnessed by plain testimonies of Scripture And the manner of his Birth and Condition of his Life as it was well known to all Israel were
safe for any to follow such a President The Apostle pronounceth a woe to them that walk in the way of Cain Those that walk in his way can expect no less than to arrive at the place whither he is gone before And if ye would know who they are that so walk the Apostle tells you these are they that separare themselves Pareus his gloss on the words are not unworthy observation Quia sibi ipsi fâ—â—gunt peculiarem cultum ideo sese segregant ab eorum Ecclesia ac coetu They feign to themselves a peculiar way and manner of worship therefore they will not joyn with us in ours but withdraw from our assemblies as if he had purposely described the humour of the men of our times However such may pretend to the Spirit as if they were more Sanctified than their Brethren yet the Apostle by infallible guidance pronounceth them Sensual not having the Spirit And that is the reason they keep the Unity of the Church no better For as Fulgentius saith Tales itaque faciles sunt ad divisionem quia spiritum non habent in quo uno membra Christi charam servant Spiritualiter unitatem Such persons are prone to all divisions because they have not that Spirit in whom alone all the Members of Christ do Spiritually keep Unity among themselves as a dear and pretious thing As the Soul in man's Body doth cease to quicken any Member sundred from the Body and the scattered bones in Ezekiel's Vision received no life till they were incorporated and knit together in one by Sinews Flesh and Skin so the Spirit of God which is the Soul of this mystical Body denies the derivation of Grace and Comfort to those that separate themselves from it If they say we are a true Church and that they and their Party separating from us and meeting in private assemblies are a Church also and so they do not separate and withdraw themselves from the Church Then I say that their Church in that case refusing Communion with ours is at least a distinct Church from ours and so there are two Churches of England in this Nation And so they make Christ to have two bodies distinct under one head which is contrary to sundry plain Texts of Scripture Though there be threescore Queens and fourscore Concubines and Virgins without number yet my Dove my undefiled is but one We being many are one body in Christ. And As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so is Christ. Again There is one Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith c. And is Christ divided There cannot be two such opposite Churches in one Nation but one of them must needs be an Harlot and not the Spouse of Christ. And that their Church as they call it and not ours is so may easily be made to appear to any man that will vouchsafe to weigh matters in the balance of Reason and Judgment The whole World is divided betwixt God and the Devil there is not a third Party that can challenge any share in the Race of mankind All Societies and Companies of Men and Women in the world are either the Church of Christ or the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 3. 9. An assembly of Saints or a congregation of evil doers Psal. 26. 5. And that theirs is not the Church of Christ appears thus Those assemblies or congregations where there is no true and lawfull Pastor nor true and lawfull Flock are not the Churches of Christ but of Satan for as it hath been shewed before out of the Scriptures and Fathers a lawfull Minister and a Flock or Congregation of People lawfully committed to his charge make up a Church that is the definition of a particular Church But their Churches as they call them have neither true and lawfull Pastors nor Flocks therefore they are not the Churches of Christ but the Synagogues of Satan and Congregations of evil doers That they have no true and lawfull Pastors is â—lear 1. Because many of them that head those unlawfull meetings and assemblies were never ordained by Prayer and Imposition of hands as by Gospel-Rules they ought to be but are mere Lay-men that take upon them to preach and perform Ministerial Duties that were never called thereunto This is true not onely in the assemblies of the Quakers but of others also by what name soever they may be called that separate from our Churches I know it to be so in divers places 2. Those of them that were ordained are as to the execution of their Ministry committed to them in their Ordination during the time of their Non-conformity under a legal suspension by the highest and fullest Power and Authority of this Nation to which we are all bound in Conscience to be in Subjection 3. Suppose that neither of the former were true yet they are not true and lawfull Pastors of those that flock after them seeing they have not the Pastoral cure and care of the Souls of any of them committed to their charge by any that under God have Authority in the Church but are commanded to contain themselves in quietness and silence And that they have no true and lawfull Flocks in their Congregations appears in this that their Assemblies Congregations consist altogether of wandring Sheep that are gone astray from their own lawfull Pastors and sinfully separated from the Congregations and Flocks to which of right they belong and gathered together into a Schismatical and separate meeting and Society and so make up a Congregation of evil doers and Synagogue of Satan If this were rightly and seriously considered I think it would startle the minds and shake the confidence of many of them who bless themselves in their new-found way of Religion and Worship boast of their number and compass Sea and Land to make Proselytes that at least they might be equally the Children of Hell with themselves If they say our Church is corrupt we have that amongst us that we should not have or not that which we ought to have I say then First Suppose it be so which I think will yet require more pains than have yet been bestowed to prove yet let them consider what Peter Martyr judiciously saith Non ob quamcunque maculam Christi Ecclesiam ita Excidere ut Dei non amplius appelletur Every little blemish in the face of a Church cannot cast her off from being God's The Church in Canticles is said to be fair as the Moon which in the Hebrew Tongue is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lebanah for her whiteness and bright shining And yet the Moon is not so white but still some spots remain therein and even uncapable of illumination from the Sun Coelum ipsum nulla serenitas tam colata purgat ut non alicujus nubeculae flocculo resignetur In the clearest Heaven some specled
ought not to be shew'n in the observation of the Laws of our Church now as hath been to the like Laws and Canons in former and purer times Especially if we enquire into these four things 1. What Power the Church hath to make Laws Canons and Constitutions 2. Who were the Authours and Composers of these of our Church 3. What is the subject matter of them 4. What hath been the judgment of Divines of unquestionable learning judgment and piety concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature Concerning the first That the Church hath a maternal power to decree and make Laws to bind all her children is such a clear truth as no sober person I think will question By Church I understand not all the number of the faithfull but those that have the lawfull rule and government of the Church Which is the sense that our Saviour Christ useth it in when he saith Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church for there is Ecclesia collectiva and Ecclesia representativa I take it in the latter sense By Laws I understand not any new Article of faith or any thing contrary to what God hath commanded in the holy Scriptures For it is a true maxim whoever was the Authour of it Potestas descendit non ascendit None have power in those things that are above them but in those things which are beneath them So the Church hath no power in those things which are above her but in those things which are below her Now all Doctrines of faith and other things already commanded of God are above the Church and out of her reach so that the cannot meddle with them by any Law de novo otherwise than to see them duly obeyed and observed But as for things of an indifferent and adiaphorous nature serving to external order and decency in these she hath power to ordain and make Laws and Constitutions though not contrary to yet other than what are already made in God's word holding still as near as the can to the general rules of Scripture The doctrine of Salvation is always in all places the same and can never be changed But external rites and order are alterable and variable according to the diversity of time and place and the variety of the minds and manners of men The Church of the Jews had power of ordaining other things than what were expresly set down in God's word and that for perpetual observation She ordained the two days of Purim as perpetual festivals Moreover Iudas and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israel ordained that the days of the dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu with mirth and gladness This feast was instituted by Iudas Machabeus and his brethren when Antiochus Epiphanes was expelled out of Ierusalem the worship of God restored and the Temple prophaned by the Heathen again consecrated which was about 167 years before the Coming of Christ. Which feast was yearly kept ever after and our Saviour Christ himself honoured it with his own presence And if the Jewish Church had that power why then hath not the Christian the like And that the Primitive Church of Christians had and did exercise the like power is plain to any that shall reade Act. 15. and 1 Cor. 11. Secondly The Authours and Composers of these Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical were the reverend learned and godly Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons and other Clergy-men of every Diocesee within the Province of Canterbury met together neither with multitude nor with tumult but lawfully and duly call'd and summoned by virtue of the King's Majesties Writ and receiving legal confirmation of that which was done by them So then the composers of those Canons were such persons as were ordained of God to rule the Church and to order what in their Wisedom should be thought convenient to whom in all things not contrary to God's will revealed in his word we are commanded obedience Luk. 12. 42. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Thirdly The subject matter of these Canons and Consitutions is of such things as concern External order decency and edification which God hath not particularly determined in Scripture but hath left to the rulers and governours of the Church to ordain and appoint within the compass of that general rule of the Apostle Let All things be done unto edifying and in order In which place those things that concern the external polity of the Church are generally expressed but the particulars are not mentioned but left to the wisedom and liberty of the Church Fourthly What have been the judgment of Divines of whose learning and piety and Church of God never yet since their times made the least doubt or question concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature They have always thought them sacred and venerable and their observation an act of Religion and Obedience to the general commands of God Instead of many take a few testimonies of Divines of the highest rank both foreign and domestick Two I shall quote out of learned Zanchy Quatenus hae leges consentaneae sunt cum Sacris Literis aut saltem non sunt dissentaneae Eatenus verae sunt Ecclesiasticae eoque admittendae nos illis obedientiam debemus ac reverentiam So far forth as these Constitutions are agreeable with the Scriptures or at least not disagreeing with them so far forth they are truly Ecclesiastical and to be received and we owe reverence and obedience to them And he gives his reason in these words Si Consentaneae sunt hae leges verbo Dei qui illas rejicit verbum Dei rejicit Si non repugnant contemnit Ecclesiam Dei qui illas contemnit Contemptus autem Ecclesiae quam Deo ingratus sit apparet cum aliis ex locis Sacrarum Literarum ubi illam magnificat tum maxime ex Evangelio Mat. 18. 17. If those Laws are agreeable with the word of God he that rejecteth them rejecteth the word of God if they are not contrary to the word of God he that rejecteth them despiseth the Church of God and how odious a thing unto the Almighty it is that any should despise his Church as it appears in many places of Scripture where the Church is magnified so especially in Mat. 18. 17. whrere God hath commanded that that person should be accounted as an heathen man and a Publican who hears and obeys not the Church Hear the same Learned Authour again Credo ea quae a piis patribus in nomine Domini congregatis communi omnium Consensu citra ullam Sacrarum Literarum Contradictionem definita recepta fuerunt Ea etiam quanquam haud ejusdem cum Sacris Literis authoritatis A SPIRITV SANCTO ESSE Those things saith he which have been concluded and received by the Holy Fathers gathered together in the
Name of God agreed on by Common-consent and without any Contradiction of the Scripture although they are not of the same Authority with the Scriptures Yet I beleive even those things to be from THE HOLY GHOST Hinc fit ut quae sunt hujusmodi c. Hence it comes to pass that those things which are of this nature I neither will disallow nor dare I with a good Conscience Quis enim ego sum c. For who am I that I should dissallow that which the whole Church approves of So far that worthy Authour The next whose judgment in this case I shall produce is Mr. Calvin in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Corinthians Quinetiam hinc colligere promptum est has posteriores scilicet Ecclesiae Leges non esse habendas pro humanis traditionibus quandoquidem fundatae sint in hoc generali mandato liquidam approbationem habent quasi ex ore CHRISTI IPSIVS Where shewing the difference betwixt the tyrannical Edicts of the Pope and the Laws of the true Church in which discipline and order are contained he saith Whence it is easie to be gathered that the Laws of the Church are not to be accounted humane traditions seeing they are founded upon the general precept of the Apostle and have as clear an approbation as if they had been delivered from the mouth of Christ Himself For saith he elsewhere Dico sic esse humanam traditionem ut simul sit divina It is so an humane tradition as that it is also divine Dei est quatenus est pars deeoris illius cujus cura observatio nobis per Apostolum commendatur hominum autem quatenus simpliciter designat quod in genere fuit indicatum magis quam expositum It is of God fo far forth as it is a part of that order and decency the care and observation whereof is commanded and commended to us by the Apostle It is of men so far forth as it simply names or signifies that which was in general uttered rather that particularly expounded Take a third testimony from that burning and shining Light of the French Church Licet quae a regia aliis Legitimis petestatibus rite praecipiuntur sunt de jure positivo quod tamen illis postquam ita constitutae sunt pareatur est de jure divino cum Legitimae potestates omnes a Deo sint Deique vices in suo ordine teneant dumque illis obedimus eorumque praecepta observamus Deo pariter in illis paremus Deique praeceptum voluntatem exequimur Although those things which are commanded by the King's Authority or other lawfull Powers under him are of positive right Yet it is of divine institution that we should obey them in those things which they command seeing all lawfull Powers are of God and supply the place of God in their several orders Therefore while we obey them and keep their Commandments we obey God in them and so fulfill the Will and Command of God Learned Beza shall be the next that shall give in his verdict to this truth Nam etsi Conscientias proprie solus Deus ligat c. For although God alone can properly bind the Conscience yet so far as the Church with respect to order and decency and thereby to Edification doth rightly enjoyn or make Laws those Laws are to be observed by all pious persons and they do so far bind the Conscience as that no man wittingly and willingly with a purpose to disobey can either doe what is so forbidden or omit what is so commanded without Sin To these above named add we in the last place the verdict of our own learned and judicious Mr. Hooker To the Laws saith he thus made id est according to the general Law of Nature and without contradiction to the positive Law of Scripture and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosome of that Church must not think it a matter of indifference either to yield or not to yield obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My son keep thy Father's Commandments saith Solomon and forget not thy Mothers instructions bind them both always about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty we owe to our heavenly Father that to the ordinance of our Mother the Church we should shew our selves disobedient Let us not say we keep the Commandments of one when we break the Laws of the other For unless we observe both we obey neither And what doth let but that we may observe both when they are not one to the other in any sort repugnant Yea which is more the Laws of the Church thus made God himself doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him Thus far that most judicious Authour Yea one of the reformed Churches have put it into their very Confession That those Laws of the Church deserve to be esteemed divine rather than humane Constitutions From all which it appears that Ecclesiastical Canons and Constitutions are not merely man's Laws but God's also both because they are composed and framed by those Fathers by divine Authority and have their general foundation in Scripture and also because they are ordained for the Glory of God for Edification order and decency of the Church and the better fulfilling and keeping the Laws of God For as we have a Command from Christ to tell the Church when any one is refractary and perverse So have they which are complained of to the Church that Command from Christ also to hear the Voice of God in the Church and in disobeying the Church they disobey God And if Children and Servants are bound by the Law of God to obey their Parents and Masters in all things that are reasonable honest and just and in their obedience they obey and serve God himself Eph. 6. 1. Col. 3. 20. 24. Tit. 2. 9. 10. then it can be no less pleasing to God that Christians who live in the bosome of the Church should be obedient and conformable unto the lawfull Precepts and Constitutions of their spiritual Mother the Church of Christ and the Rulers thereof It is very truly said by Calvin Semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa A frowardness and aptness to quarrell with the proceedings of the Church is accompanied with ambition and pride It is not because the Church takes too much power on her but because they would be under none It is ambition to have all Government in their own hands that is the Cause why some will not be subject to any All which hath been said of this matter is agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church of England who in her twentieth Article saith The Church hath power to decree and make Laws So in her 34th Article That whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the word of
God offendeth against the Common order of the Church hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Conscience of the weak Brethren Where by traditions I suppose is meant the Laws and Canons of the Church as the words following do intimate which speak of the Common order of the Church and Authority of the Magistrate Thus much of the Laws of the Church Neither are such meetings onely against the Laws of the Church but against sundry statute Laws of the Kingdom also in that behalf made and provided In the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1. It is provided that if any person or persons above 16 years old shall refuse to repair to some Church Chapel or usual place of Common-prayer to hear divine Service and receive the Communion or come to and be present at any Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under Colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes And if any person shall obstinately refuse to repair to some Church Chapel or usual place of Common-prayer or by any motion persuasion inticement or allurement of any other willingly joyn in or be present at any such Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under Colour or pretence of any such Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as is aforesaid which refers to other Statutes formerly made and yet of force against Conventicles as well as this one shall be committed to prison and there remain without bail untill be conform and untill he make an open Submission in the words set down in the Statute viz. I. A. B. do humbly acknowledge and confess that I have grievously offended God in contemning her Majesties Godly and lawfull Government and Authority by absenting my self from Church and from hearing divine Service contrary to the godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm and in using and frequenting unlawfull and disorderly Conventicles and Assemblies under Colour and pretence of Exercise of Religion And I am heartily sorry for the same c. And I do promise and protest without any dissimulation that from henceforth I will from time to time obey and perform her Majesties Laws and Statutes in repairing to Church and hearing divine Service and doe my utmost endeavour to maintain and defend the same Neither can it be pretended as it is by some that this Statute was made or stands in force against any other sort of People than those in question viz. against Popish recusants onely and not against Protestant dissenters as they call themselves The answer is easie out of the words of the said Statute For in the beginning of the Statute the Persons that are concerned in obedience to it are expressed in these general and large words Any person or persons whatsoever above the Age of 16 which shall refuse to repair to Church and willingly join in and be present at any Conventicle or Meeting c. Which words comprehend and take in Persons of all Religions Sects and Persuasions whatsoever And whereas the penalty of the Statute to all that shall refuse Obedience and Conformity to it is abjuration of the Realm or to be proceeded against as Felons There is a Proviso toward the End of the Statute that sixeth the penalty altogether upon Protestant recusants and not on Popish In these words Provided that no Popish recusant or feme Covert shall be compelled or bound to abjure by virtue of this Act. And lest the Popish recusants should be the onely Persons therein meant or intended the Conventiclers of our Age make themselves more perfect Recusants than that Statute supposeth For whereas that makes absence from the Prayers of the Church for one Month together a Crime sufficient to render them obnoxious to the penalties of that Act these men for the most part withdraw themselves for many Years together and for ought I see if they are let alone resolve so to doe all the days of their lives In Anno 22. Caroli 2di Regis there was a Statute made to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles as the Title of that Statute truly calls them wherein Every Person of the Age of 16 years and upward that shall be present at any Assembly Conventicle or Meeting under Colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion in other manner that according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England in any place within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed at which Conventicle or meeting there shall be 5 persons or more assembled together is made liable to suffer the penalties of 5 s for his first fault and for his second 10 s and so onward the Preacher to suffer the penalty of 20 ll And the owner of the house or ground that shall wittingly and willingly suffer such Conventicle Meeting or unlawfull Assembly to be held to suffer the penalty of 20 ll In the late Act for Uniformity all Non-conformist Ministers and disabled and prohibited from preaching any Sermon or Lecture indefinitely either publick or private And for as much as the King's Majesty by the Law of God and the Land of right is and ought to be master of all the assemblings together of any of his Subjects therefore what Meetings soever are not allowed and authorized by the Laws of the Realm are adjudged by the Learned in the Laws to fall within the compass of those Statutes that forbid and punish Riots and unlawfull Assemblies and are or may justly be presumed to be in terrorem populi and in the Event it is to be feared will prove to be contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King And by the Law all the King's Liege-people are commanded to assist in the suppressing of them upon pain of imprisonment and to make fine and ransome to the King Notwithstanding all which good Laws this practice hath continued in the Church these several years and still doth notwithstanding His Majesties reinforcement of their execution by his late Proclamation in open defiance and contempt of all Authority as if the Laws of the Church and Realm were but fulmen inane a shadow of a Cloud that vanisheth as soon as it is made and as if obedience to Magistracy were no part of Christian duty Concerning these Laws of the Realm to silence clamour I will touch lightly at five things I. That the King being next under God within his Dominions supreme in the Church on Earth hath Power and Authority over the Persons of Ministers as well as of any other his Subjects He being Custos utriusque tabulae having both tables committed to him as well the first that concerns our religious duties to God as the other that concerns our civil duties to men may and ought to make such laws as conduce as well to the peace and order in the Church as as godliness and honesty Pertinet hoc ad reges seculi Christianos ut temporibus suis pacatam velint matrem suam Ecclesiam unde
Ordinances of Christ in unity and uniformity as far as is possible Which our Liturgy sets up by prescribing the manner of it Whereas otherwise all will be left to the chance of mens wills which saith Doctour Hammond can no more be thought like to concur in one form than Democritus's Atomes to have met together into a world of beautifull Creatures without any kind of providence to dispose them For the Scriptures call for unity and uniformity as well as purity and verity And surely it is not impossible to obtain this so much desired unity and uniformity because that God hath promised that his Children shall serve him with one heart and with one way and with one shoulder And that in the days of the Gospel there shall be one Lord and his Name one And Christ hath prayed that we may be all one as the Father is in him and he in the Father And he adds a most prevalent reason That the World may believe that thou hast sent me Nothing hinders the propagation of the Gospel so much as the division and separation of Gospel-professours If it be God's promise and Christ's prayer it is certainly a thing possible to be obtained and a duty incumbent upon all good Christians to labour after Secondly as it cannot be denyed that the Civil Magistrate hath authority over the persons of Ministers so 't is as true that he hath power to act for the regulation of all their Ecclesiastical meetings and assemblies though not to act in sacris Yet circa sacra non ad docendum quod est sacerdotale yet ad jubendum quod est regale As Constantine the Emperour told the Bishops whom he invited to a banquet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are Bishops within the Church and I am ordained by God's Grace a Bishop without the Church That the King of England saith Sir Henry Spelman is persona mixta endowed as well with Ecclesiastical authority as with temporal is not onley a solid position of the Common Law of this Land but confirmed unto us by the continual practice of our ancient Kings ever since and before the Conquest even in hottest times of Popish fervency For this cause at their Coronation they are not onely Crowned with the Diadem of the Kingdom and girt with the Sword of justice to signisie their temporal authority but are anointed also with the oil of Priesthood and cloathed stola Sacerdotali and veste Dalmatica to demonstrate this their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction whereby the King is said to be in Law the Supremus ordinarius and in regard thereof among other Ecclesiastical rights and prerogatives belonging to him is to have all the tithes through the Kingdom in the places that are not of any Parish for some such there be and namely divers Forests Magistrates we grant can neither preach the word nor administer the Sacraments any more than Vzziah could burn incense or offer Sacrifice to God Yet they are nursing Fathers of the Church not to give the milk of the word and Sacraments but of disclipline and Government During the old Testament times the King's power extended to the instituting and commanding of such Religious meetings as do no where appear to be either instituted or commanded of God or his Servant Moses v. g. The solemnity of the Passover which was to be kept by the Law of Moses but seven days by a special Command of King Hezekiah with the consent of the people was commanded to be kept other seven days The Feast of Purim in Commemoration of the deliverance of the Nation of the Iews under Ahasuerus the Persian King was instituted by Hester and Mordecai Moses onely Commanded one day of Fasting to be yearly observed viz. in the seventh month But the Kings and Magistrates of the people instituted other yearly solemn Fasts So that in the times of the latter Prophets there were four yearly Fasts observed viz. besides that yearly in the seventh month three others in the fourth fifth and tenth month Now if they may by their authority institute and enlarge why not then as well abridge and restrain Provided the publick assembling together of God's people according to Divine appointment be no-way prejudiced or infringed If the Magistrate may appoint then he may forbid too Law reason and sense teach that appointing and forbidding belong to one power Thirdly neither can there be any ground of quarrell made against the justness of these Laws forbidding Conventicles For as it is well observed by a worthy Divine before me that Law is undoubtedly just in which there is a concurrence of the justice of these four causes of Law wherein the whole of a Law doth consist viz. the justice of the final efficient formal and material causes of Laws 1. The final Cause of End of a just Law is that it tend to the common and publick good And of this the Lawgivers are to be Judges and not the Subjects And most unreasonable it were that what the Lawgivers shall adjudge to be for the publick good should be made to yeild to private and particular mens interests 2. The efficient Cause of a just Law is the lawfull power of the person or persons in authority that made the Law Otherwise Laws are onely so in name and not indeed And as Aquinas Violentiae magis quam leges They are rather acts of violence than Laws And it is a sure rule in Logick Causa aequivoca non infert effectum a sentence passed by one that is no Judge binds not the party 3. The right form of a Law is that it be a rule of rectitude for humane actions according to the guidance of distributive justice giving to every one according to his demerits 4. The matter of a Law must be a thing that is good according to the rule of universal justice at leait indifferent A Law wherein these 4 things concur must needs be good and obligatory to all persons that are concerned in it Now in which of these the aforesaid Laws against Conventicles are faulty I know not Perhaps some will say in the latter the Matter of it is not good to lay a restraint on Religious Assemblies and Meetings It were so indeed if Religious Assemblies and Meetings were forbidden But I think it will appear in the sequel that these in question are not such whatsoever some conceive them to be It were so if all Religious Meetings or Assemblies were forbidden But blessed be God 't is otherwise We have still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the publick ancient lawfull and orderly assemblies allowed commanded and encouraged by Authority in all places of the Kingdom and onely such meetings by the Law forbidden as are private new and disorderly and tend to Faction and Schism and such other evils as are not without trembling to be mentioned Lastly I answer with that learned Casuist Dr. Sanderson that it is not necessarily requisite that whatsoever is established
by Law should be bonum positive that it should be an act of vertue but it is sufficient if it be bonum negative that is nothing sinfull or morally evil as all vices are Otherwise there should be no room for Laws about middle and indifferent things And suppose a Law should be defective in regard of the efficient final or formal cause yet if the matter of it be such as may be done without sin â—t binds the Subject to obedience And that the forbearance of such illegal meetings as are in question may be done without sin and that those dissenting brethren who have been ejected for their non-compliance in Uniformity to the present legal establishment being under a legal restraint as to the use of their Ministerial Function may without sin forbear the irregular use of their gifts and labours in the said private meetings to the undermining and confronting of the Laws the increase of Sedition Schism and divers other Horrid Evils I think is out of question Learned Beza thought so or else he had never returned such an answer as he did to that Case of Conscience which was proposed to him by certain English Ministers who in the Reign of Q. Eliz. were silenced for non-conformity The case proposed being Whether they might or ought not to preach notwithstanding their being prohibited by man's law His answer verbatim is Tertium illud nempe ut contra Regiam Majestatem Episcoporum voluntatem Ministerio suo fungantur magis etiam exhorrescimus propter eas causas quae tacentibus etiam nobis satis intelligi possunt He was so far from thinking it lawfull that he trembled at the thought of such a thing that they should exercise their Ministry contrary to the Queen's Laws and the will of the Governours of the Church And the same hath been the judgment of Antiquity in the like case The ancient and orthodox Fathers of the Church being met together in Council at Antioch in the first year of the Reign of Aurelianus the Emperour and in the year of Christ according to Eusebius 269. decreed Non licere Episcopo vel Clerico si exauthorizatus fuerit ministrare That if any Bishop being condemned by a Council or any Presbyter or Deacon by his Bishop should presume to Preach or meddle with any thing of or belonging to the Sacred Office of the Ministry there should never be any hope for him ever to be restored again by any other Council or Synod And all that Communicated with him should be cast out of the Church As may be seen more at large in that Canon Of the like judgment were the Divines of the Presbyterian-way touching those learned Godly and orthodox Ministers who suffered ejection out of their livings and deprivation of all they had in the late times of troubles by a pretended authority of Parliament for their adherence to his late Majesty of ever Blessed memory When the Earl of Northumberland discoursing with Mr Calamy about the supplying of above fifty Churches in London void of Ministers told him That they must restore some of the sequestred Clergy of London and admit them to preach again for unless they did so the Parliament could not find men of ability to preach in London Mr Calamy replied God Forbid As it is recorded and published to the world in a Book called Persecutio undecima Printed in the year 1648. page 42. And if the thought of the Restauration of those worthies to their Office how unjustly soever they were suspended from it was in the judgment of that person rejected with indignation as a thing offensive and either forbidden or wished to be forbidden of God how much more execrable and abominable a thing would he have thought it to be if they should have taken upon them as some now do under a lawfull power to preach again without any readmission by that power that silenced them yea in opposition and defiance of it And because no testimony is so fit to convince any party as that which proceeds from their own Mouths Let therefore the Judgment of a Non-conformist otherwise a Person in Learning Sobriety and Solidity inferiour to few of his generation be heard and weighed in this case He writes in defence of our Church assemblies against those who being silenced for Non-conformity as he was yet not as he did separated themselves from the publick Congregations and not enduring to have their Mouths stopped or to sit down in silence thought themselves bound according to the Example of the Apostles Act. 4. 19. and 5. 29. to exercise their Ministry though not in publick yet in private Meetings notwithstanding any Legal prohibition to the contrary First he distinguisheth betwixt the calling of the Apostles and that of the Ministers now The former as they had their ministry immediately from God so had they the designation of that ministry to their persons immediately from God also And therefore the exercise of it was not restrainable or to be forborn at the Commandment of men The latter though their ministry be from God also yet have their Calling to that ministry or the designation of that office to such and such particular persons from men in God's ordinary way and cannot exercise that function but by virtue of that Calling wch they have from men And therefore saith he in common sense they ought to obey man forbidding them the exercise of a Calling which they do exercise by virtue of a Calling from men Otherwise there should be no power so to depose a man from his Ministry but that notwithstanding any Command from the Church or State he is still to continue in the exercise of his ministry and should be bound to give that example which the Apostles did which is not onely absurd but a conceit tending plainly to manifest Sedition and Schism Afterwards he hath these words Neither were some of the Apostles onely forbidden so as that others should be suffered to preach the same Gospel in their places but the utter abolition of the Christian Religion was manifestly intended in silencing them But over Churches whereof we are Ministers are no private and secret Assemblies such as hide themselves from the face of a persecuting Magistrate but are publick professing their worship and doing their Religion in the face of the Magistrateâ— and State yea and by his Countenance Authority and Protection And we Are set over those Churches not onely by a calling of our People but also by Authority from the Magistrate who hath an armed power to hinder such publick actions who is also willing to permit and maintain other true Ministers of the Gospel in those places where he forbiddeth some And thereupon the said Authour makes this threefold Conclusion 1. If after our publick Calling to minister in such a known and publick Church not by the Church onely but by the Magistrate also the Magistrate shall have matter against us just or unjust as to our obedience it matters not and shall
in that regard forbid us to minister to our Church I see not by what warrant in God's word we should think our selves bound notwithstanding to exercise our Ministry still except we should think such a Law of Ministry to lie upon us that we should be bound to run upon the Swords point of the Magistrate or oppose Sword to Sword which I am sure Christianity abominates 2. Yea suppose the Magistrate should doe it unjustly and against the Will of the Church and should therein sin yet doth not the Church in that regard cease to be a Church nor ought she therein resist the Will of the Magistrate nor doth she stand bound in regard of her affection to her Minister how great and deserved soever to deprive her self of the protection of the Magistrate by leaving her publick standing to follow her Minister in private and in the dark refusing the benefit of other publick Ministers which with the good leave and liking of the Magistrate she may enjoy 3. Neither do I know what Warrant any ordinary Minister hath by God's word in such a case so to draw any such Church or People to his private Ministry that thereby they should hazard their outward Estate and quiet in the Common-wealth where they live when in some competent measure they may publickly with the grace and favour of the Magistrate enjoy the ordinary means of salvation by another And except he hath a Calling to minister in some other Church he is to be content to live as a private member untill it shall please God to reconcile the Magistrate unto him and to call him again to his own Church From which words of this learned Non-conformist it may easily be gathered that those persons who are now by the unquestionable Legitimate power of the Kingdom for their Non-compliance with the present legal Establishment in the Church deposed from their Ministry if they contain not themselves in quietness and silence as other private Christians do and ought but will without a Call of Authority undertake still to preach the word and draw People after them to their private Ministry they are condemned by the most sober and judicious of their own party and the case of them and their followers is adjudged to be far different from that of the Apostles and primitive Christians their practice unwarrantable by the word of God and manifestly tending to Sedition and Schism But what speak I of the single Testimony and Judgment of one man of that way and perswasion though a learned and judicious one whenas we have extant to the World the like verdict agreed upon long since by the joint consent of sundry Godly and learned Ministers of this Kingdom then standing out and suffering in the cause of inconformity and published by Mr. William Rathband for the good of the Church and the better setling of mens unstable minds in the truth against the subtile insinuations and plausible pretences of that pernicious evil of the Brownists or Separatists For in the 4 th page of that Book First they justifie themselves against the objection of that faction in yeilding to the suspensions and deprivations of the Bishops acknowledging their Power to depose who did ordain them and their own duty to acquiesce therein and in quietness and silence to subject themselves thereunto in expressions so full to my present purpose that I should have transcribed them for the Reader 's satisfaction were it so that I had not been prevented by the reverend and worthy Authour of the Continuation of the Friendly Debate As to that place of Scripture Act. 4. 19. 20. which they acknowledge to be very unskilfully alledged by the adversary they make this threefold answer to shew the difference betwixt the Apostles case and theirs First they say they that inhibited the Apostles were known and professed Enemies of the Gospel Secondly the Apostles were charged not to teach in the Name of Christ nor to publish any part of the Doctrine of the Gospel Which Commandment might more hardly be yeilded unto than this of our Bishops who are not onely content that the Gospel should be preached but are also preachers of it themselves Thirdly the Apostles received not their Calling and Authority from men nor by the hands of men but immediately from God himself and therefore also might not be restrained nor deposed by men whereas we though we exercise as function whereof God is the Authour and we are also called of God to it yet are we also called and ordained by the hands and ministry of men and may therefore by men be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our Ministry I cannot think that any of the Learned sort of the Non-conformists now are ignorant of these things nor that if their hearts were known their Judgments differ in this case from that of their ancient brethren but I fear the busie upholders and promoters of Conventicles in our Age notwithstanding their prohibition by Law to preach at all sin against their own light and conscience in so doing But I proceed 4. Now Laws being thus made against all such unlawfull Meetings and all such His Majestie 's Laws being no way contrary to God's word all his Subjects stand bound in the obligation of obedience to them and that for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Tit. 3. 1. And under pain of Damnation if they wilfully resist and disobey Rom. 13. 2. And therefore it is that in the Schools they call disobedience to the King's Laws Sacrilege for though the trespass seem to be directed but against a man yet in that man whose Office and consequently his person is sacred God is opposed and his ordinance violated The King's Laws though in themselves in regard of their particular Constitution they put no special obligation upon us under pein of sin and damnation yet in a general relation to that God who is the original of all Power and hath commanded us to obey Authority their neglect or disobedience involves us in guilt and exposeth us to Sin and consequently to Damnation Civilibus legibus quae cum pietate non pugnant eo quisque Christianus paret promptius quo fide Christi est imbutus plenius Every Christian by how much the more he hath of the grace of faith by so much the more ready he is to conform to the Laws of men which are not contrary to the Laws of God All power is of God That therefore which Authority enjoins us God enjoins us by it the Command is mediately his though passing through the hands of men Hoc jubent imperatores quod jubet Christus quia cum bonum jubent per illos non nisi Christus jubet When Kings command what is not disagreeable with Christ's Commands Christ commands by them and we are called to obey not onely them but Christ in them But is not suffering obedience And if men are willing to submit
are contrary minded yea even such as before they were infected with that Leaven were patterns of all Love Modesty and Humility unto others so will they not acknowledge nor reverence any of the most excellent graces that God hath given to any of his Servants amongst us nor so much respect them as Papists will do No they profess greater detestation and despite to the most godly and most sincere men amongst us than they do to such as are most notorious in profaneness and malice to the truth And for shameless lying spitefull railing and scurrilous and Ruffian-like profaneness which they observe and describe at large in them I have not found that these come any whit short but rather I fear overpass the deeds of their Predecessours So that I find that note of St. Augustine to be most true which he observes out of the Parable concerning the man that fell among Thieves 'T is said of him that he went down from Ierusalem to Iericho Ierusalem was the Church of God the holy City There was the Temple and publick place of the worship of the God of Israel Iericho a type of the world unkind to God's spies as the world is to his Ministers where God had no publick worship at all Betwixt it and Ierusalem there was a Desart infamous for frequent Robberies and Murthers there committed in which respect it was called ADOMIM for the store of Bloud there shed There was King Zedekiah taken by the Army of the Chaldeans when he fled from Ierusalem And thither the man bended his course Whereupon St. Augustine notes si non descendisset in latrones non incidisset had he not gone down from God and his Church he had not faln into the hands of Thieves so long as he had kept himself in God's way he would have kept him from all harm and danger But if he will goe from the Chruch let him go whither else he please God will give him over into the hands of Thieves who shall strip him wound him and leave him half dead Our Church-forsakers in these days have sped no better than that man did then but since they left out Ierusalem the place of God's publick worship they have faln into the hands of Thieves that great and old Cheater the Devil and his Instruments the Seducers of our times who craftily lye in wait to deceive And these have stript them of their Raiment all that external appearance of Peace Charity Modesty and Humility that formerly they seemed to be clothed withall and have not left them so much as one ragg remaining to hide their Nakedness wounded them in their minds and judgments with errours and falshoods in their Consciences with Superstition and vain devotion in their affections with utter aversness and crosness to all that is orderly and imposed by Authority insomuch that they are left half dead some life remains in them to any thing that is evil and forbidden they are quick and active but to any thing that is truly good and enjoined as dead as a stock wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Such is God's Justice and Severity on those that leave Ierusalem for Iericho In a word if all of this sort of People throughout the Nation be as those with whom I have to doe and I know there is the same corruption in the Natures of all though there may not be the same eruption in all God and Godliness have not greater enemies nor the Devil greater instruments to advance his Kingdom in the introduction of Atheism and Prophaneness than themselves God's publick worship and worshippers are matter of their loathing and scorn and if ever any of them afford their presence to any part of it it is of purpose either to quarrel at or deride it And as he whom they serve goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour so do they make it their business to beget prejudice in the hearts of all with whom they converse against their own Ministers and Ministry and to make Proselytes to themselves and their party of the worst and easiest sort of People The pretext of Piety and Conscience is both the Veil wherewith they hide their unparallelled Pride Malice and Hypocrisie and their Bait wherewith they catch simple Souls in their Net As at the building of the Temple under Zerubbabel the adversaries making shew of helping forward the work by setting their hands to it pretending they sought the same God the Jews did proved themselves to be the greatest Enemies to God's People and hinderers of the building by their coloured Friendship so I know not any whose courses are more to the disturbance of the peacâ— and prejudice to the inlargement of the Church and furtherance of Religion than these men that would be noted for a Form of Godliness but indeed deny the Power of it I heartily wish that in their lives they would henceforth stoutly consute this Character I have given of them which yet comes far short of what by wofull experience I have found in them And when I see it done I shall as gladly retract what I have written as with sorrow of heart I have uttered it In the mean time I return from what I have digressed If a greater excellency of gifts and parts in one Minister above another be pretended as a cause of their wandring they forget what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians when there grew Schisms and Divisions amongst them upon the account of the diversity of gifts which they observed in their Teachers I am of Paul saith one his matter is powerfull his Doctrine sound his Method plain I am of Apolla saith another he is an Eloquent man mighty in the Scriptures him I prefer I am of Cephas saith a third his preaching I most affect I am of Christ saith a fourth I care for none of all the former they are but men I will therefore have my dependance wholly on Christ with neglect of the instrument But what saith St. Paul to all this Is Christ divided Can he be the head of such divers and disagreeing bodies being himself but one Is he divided from his Ministers so as not to work by his Spirit in the hearts of his People with his word preached by one as well as by another Can ye allow of one self same Gospel as Christ's being uttered by one Man and loath it being uttered by another Will ye acknowledge Christ to be the chief Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls the great Doctour and Prophet of his Church and yet think that he will not make his word successfull for the Salvation of those whom he hath ordained to Eternal life by what Ministry soever he shall appoint For who is Paul and who is Apollo But Ministers by whom ye believe even as the Lord gave to every man They are but the Ministers of Christ and such as doâ— nothing of themselves but God so worketh by them as
if any Person or Persons shall hereafter absent themselves from their own Congregations except in urgent Cases made known to and approved by the Presbytery the Ministers of these Congregations whereto they resort shall both in publick by Preaching and in private by admonition shew their dislike of their withdrawing from their own Minister that in so doing they may witness to all that hear them their due care to strengthen the hands of their fellow Labourers in the work of the Lord and their detestation of any thing that may tend to Separation or any of the above mentioned Evils hereby their own flock will be confirmed in their stedfastness and the unstable Spirits of others will be rectified Like as the Minister of that Congregation from which they do withdraw shall labour first by private admonition to reclaim them and if any after private admonition given by their own Pastour do not amend in that case the Pastour shall delate the aforesaid Persons to the Session who shall cite and censure them as Contemners of the comely order of the Kirk And if the matter be not taken order with there it is to be brought to the Presbytery For better observing whereof the Presbyteries at the several visitations of their Kirks and provincial Assemblies in their censure of the several Presbyteries shall enquire hereanent Which enquiry and report shall be registrate in the provincial Books that their deligence may be seen in the General Assembly The contrary course here amongst us of this age hath been taken notice of by godly Christians beyond the Seas as our great fault and contrary to the practice and custome of the reformed Churches of God abroad Honorius Reggius a learned man hath taken the pains to gather together out of Mr. Edwards his Gangrene and other Authours no less than 180 errours practised in England since the year of our Lord 1640. And hath divulged them to the whole World to the great shame of our nation and scandal to our Religion whereof this is the 125 th errour Partem Libertatis Christianae esse non audire proprium Ministrum sed ubi libeat a quo plus Commodi speretur That it is a part of Christian liberty for people not to hear their own Ministers but to attend that Ministry which they like best and from whom they hope to receive the most profit I never heard or read that this disorderly practice was tolerated or allowed in the Church of God in any part of Christendom but once and that was by virtue of a Licence and privilege granted by certain Popes to the Mendicant Fryers to intermeddle in matters of Parish Churches as to hear Confessions to preach and teach with power thereunto annexed to gather the benevolence of the people for their labour Which occasioned such a contention in France between the Prelates and the Fryers there An. Dom. 1354 that the Prelates of France convening and Assembling together in the City of Paris caused by the Bedles to be called together all the Students Masters and Bachelours of every Faculty with the chief Heads of all the Religious houses and Fryers in the University of Paris who being all congregated together in the Bishop of Paris his house where there were present 4 Archbishops 20 Bishops and all the rest of the Bishops throughout the whole Kingdom of France except those who were necessarily absent with full consent did send in under their hand-writing a complaint against the insolency Presumption of the Fryers The Bishop of Byters Preaching in that Assembly on that Text of St. Paul Eph. 3. 18. ut sciatis quae â—it longitudo latitudo altitudo profunditas charitatis took occasion to shew That by the vigour of true charity every man ought to hold himself content with that which was his own and not to intermeddle or busie himself farther than to him appertained or belonged to his Office For there saith he all order Ecclesiastical is dissolved whereas men not containing themselves in their own precincts presume in other mens charges where they have nothing to doe But this Charity saith he now-adays waxeth cold and all Ecclesiastical order is confounded and utterly out of order For many there be now-adays which presume to thrust in themselves where they have nothing to doe so that now the Church may seem a Monster For as in a natural body appeareth a Monster when one Member doeth the office of another so in the spiritual body which is the Church it may be thought like-wise Against the same evil and ungodly practice of the Fryers in our Land and Nation at the same time did that famous godly and learned Richard Armachanus Archbishop and Primate of Ireland inveigh in 7 or 8 Sermons preach'd on purpose in London For which being cited by the Fryers before Pope Innocent the Sixth to appear So he did and before the face of the Pope valiantly defended both in word and writing that it was better for the parishioners to leave the Fryers and to resort to their own Pastours for that the ordinary Pastour is properly appointed of God unto that Ministry which he exerciseth amongst them whereas the Fryers were but onely permitted of man thereunto and therein he stood constant unto the Death For these are the words of Iohn Wickliff as they are quoted by Mr. Fox Ab Anglorum Episcopis conductus Armachanus novem in Avione conclusiones coram Innocentio 6 suorum Cardinalium coetu contra fratrum mendicitatem audacter publicavit veiboque ac scriptis ad mortem usque defendit Now if this be the order which God hath established in his Church That People should be divided into flocks that every flock should have their own Pastour and that they should depend upon him then he can by no means endure to see a breach of that order in his service that he hath set How much it hath displeased him appears in that famous instance in 1 Chron. 15. 13. Because they sought him not according to the right order therefore God made a breach upon them And what that breach was both of order on the Peoples part and of punishment on God's part may be seen Cap. 13. 9 10. Vzzah out of a very good intention put forth his hand to stay the Ark when it was in danger of falling and therefore was smitten with sudden death according to the just threatning of God pronounced before They shall not touch any holy thing lest they dye God will be worshipped and served not onely in his own ordinances but in his own order also There are many duties quae cum bona sint opera perniciem pariunt cum non eo ordine quo sunt constituta peragantur which though they be good works yet the doers of them may be damned because they doe them not in that order they should Upon this account Mart. Luther sharply reprehended those of Wittenberge who in his absence had abrogated the
no other than miraculous and extraordinary Ordinary calling or sending to any place to preach the Gospel and to execute the Office of a Minister there in a setled and constituted Church is when a Person in holy Orders hath the cure and care of a Flock or Congregation of God's People committed to him to preach the Gospel to them and to perform all other ministerial Acts amongst them by the Ministry of those Men who under God have Authority so to doe according to good and wholsome Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions in that behalf made and established God calleth ordinarily by his Church her voice is his Therefore whensoever the Church of God that is the learned wise godly and such as the Church hath publickly appointed for that purpose saith to any thou shalt he sent to such a place thou shalt goe for us then doth God call Saith Mr. Perkins Sending implies the Act of another that hath Power and Authority to send He cannot be said to be sent that comes to a place and there takes upon him to preach and doe all ministerial Acts of his own accord He comes not in Christ's Name but his own And a Christian can in nothing shew himself more impudent than in embracing such as Teachers sent from God that come in their own Names If one come in his own Name him ye will receive saith Christ to the Jews blaming them much for it And because there are so many that are apt to run before they are sent it is necessary that wheresoever any Person undertakes to preach the word his calling to that work be clear and manifest both in respect of his own Comfort and the Peoples profit Though St. Paul was immediately called of God yet he was sent to Ananias for imposition of his hands that it might be clear to the Church that he was called And when he was to be sent to the Gentiles he was again by imposition of hands ordained or appointed to be their Doctour that so his Calling might be publickly declared to be lawfull and that none else might intrude into it And if this were necessary in him who was immediately called of God how much more necessary is it in all those who have not now that extraordinary Calling but onely are mediately ordained and appointed to that work by those men who under God have power to send and appoint Pastours over the several Flocks of his People in the Church Now if such a person as is in the question cannot make out his calling or sending by one of these two ways to such a Town or Parish where he takes upon him thus to execute the Office or any part of it of a Minister certainly then he hath no Calling or sending at all But is like one that shall enter into another man's house at the window or some other way than by the door and that we know is no fair possession of an house he that enters in at the windows ought to be thrown out of doors Of such our Saviour saith Verily verily I say unto you he that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way the same is a Thief and a Robber And if such as they can be no other who baulking the lawfull and ordinary way of entrance by the Authority of those who derive their power on earth from Christ and break in without yea against the Laws and Leave of their Governours that act in Christ's Name and Stead then are not they sent of God and consequently have none of God's promises of blessing annexed to their Ministry This is that which renders the best actions that can be performed by the Sons of Men to be sinfull when they are done unlawfully and by such as have no particular Calling or Command for the doing of them This doth quite alter and diversifie the nature of actions so as that they are varied from what otherwise they would be to some other things It is a rule as true as old Bonum extra proprium subjectum in malum mutatur Every good thing out of its proper place and subject is turned into evil V. g. In the natural body of man the hand is a very good and usefull member for the offices of Common life yet if the hand be out of its proper place and grow either out of the Head or Leg or elsewhere where it ought not it is no longer a good or usefull member but a deformed and monstrous excrescence of Nature In the body politick or state the execution of wrath upon him that doeth evil is a very just and good work yet if it be done by one that hath no Authority or Commission at least in such a place or circuit it is not justice but murther Ammon abusing his Sister Tamar by filthy incest ought by the Law of God to dye Absolom killed him with the Sword and in so doing he did the very thing that God commanded Yet Absolom sinned greatly in doing it because he was not the man that ought to have done it but David the King In the Ecclesiastick body the Church the preaching the word is an excellent ordinance of God for the saving of them that believe as foolish as the world do account it But if it be performed by one that hath no Authority or Commission for so doing nay that is under a just and legal prohibition and restraint from the doing it at all it is not preaching but quite another thing even what the Apostle calls it beating the air Whensoever a Commandment is limited to persons and places that Command makes it a sin to them if they leave the thing required undone and the not commanding yea forbidding makes it a sin to others that shall doe it because 't is the Precept that makes the thing to such persons in such places to be lawfull or sinfull Wrath hath been revealed from Heaven on such as have rashly adventured on a thing that in it self hath been very good yet had no particular Command for it This appears plainly in the case of Vzzah Though his intention was good yet it belonged not to him to touch the Ark for the charge and care thereof was committed to others It is the Policy of Satan if he cannot prevail with men to abide and abound in those things which are materially evil but they will needs be doing good then he will draw them on to doe that good unlawfully without a calling to it or warrant for it And it were well that People who are so easily misled by the specious pretext of good were not ignorant of this Wile of the Devil whereby he deceives simple souls not a few When we set upon the performance of any thing it should not be enough to weigh with our selves how good it is but to look what warrant we have to doe it The manner of performances is to be regarded as well as the matter For
preaching abroad out of his own precincts whether upon intreaty or otherwise we need not inquire seeing he had an Apostolical power which was of universal extent in it self and such as no Minister now can lay claim to His Commission was as the rest of the Apostles were general and originally not confined to any one place as other Ministers are but they were to teach all Nations Yet because every one of them could not travel and preach in every Countrey therefore it pleased the Lord afterwards in Wisedom for good Causes to order it as it were by a second Decree that Paul should specially have a care of and preach to the Gentiles Yet this did no way diminish his Apostolical Authority nor forbid him from preaching at all to the Iews or Peter to the Gentiles if occasion did serve for of Paul it is expresly said that he was to carry Christ's Name both to the Gentiles and to the Children of Israel And it is generally believed that he was the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews And of St. Peter it is not doubted that he both at Antioch and elsewhere preached the Gospel both to Iews and Gentiles The Apostolical power did extend to all Nations but the Conveniency of the Church did require that some of them should be fixed to one sort of People in one place and some to another 'T is true St. Paul saith he was troubled with the care of all the Churches i. e. as he was an Apostle so the care of all the Churches lay upon him quod ad jus attinet potestatem saith Camero he had right and power to take care of all the Churches as an Apostle and so differing from all Bishops and Presbyters now And doubtless as all good Ministers of Christ do he did take all the care that lawfully he might or could of the whole Church of Christ especially of all those within his own precincts and of his own planting which by an usual Synecdoche in Scripture are termed all Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for order and peace sake it pleased God that their persons and labours should be appointed for several distinct parts of the World as in his infinite Wisedom he saw was most convenient for the better propagation of the Gospel of Christ in all the World And it is the observation of the Excellent Divine Martin Chemnitius in his Commentary on that temporary precept of our Saviour Christ to his Disciples Goe not into the way of the Gentiles c. Hoc temporarium praeceptum fideles verbi Dei ministros admonet ut singuli se intra metas legitimae suae vocationis ad pascendum illum Dei gregem qui ipsis commissus est 1 Pet. 5. 2. contineant nec latiùs evagentur aut falcem suam in alterius pastoris messem nisi speciali concessione vel vocatione mittant This temporary percept doth warn all the faithful Ministers of God's word that all of them should contain themselves within the bounds of their lawfull Calling to feed that flock of God that is committed unto them and not to wander abroad or thrust their hook into the harvest of another Pastour without his special leave or calling By all which it appears that a forcible or surreptitious entry of one Minister into another's charge is destitute of all Scripture president or allowance and therefore cannot be the Ordinance of God The Example of the Apostles meeting and preaching sometimes in private Houses I conceive cannot but most impertinently be urged to defend the practice I here dispute against For 1. 'T is not to the question which is of a setled constituted Church where a preaching Ministry is established by Law The Christian Church in the Apostles days was not â—etled and established as is ours but in a way to be so 2. The Magistrate was then heathen all the World over ours now Christian Publick preaching and Christian meetings were not then suffered our Church-Assemblies are not onely allowed and protected but commanded by Sovereign Authority 3. They had then either none at all or very few Christian-Churches erected and so were forced to meet where they could we want not Churches but hearts to resort to them 4. The Apostles had a general and extraordinary call to preach any where through all Coasts and Parts of the World where they were appointed to plant Churches so have not the Persons in question The office of an Apostle or Evangelist is now ceased 5. It can never be proved that the Apostles did or would have made use of their private meetings either in competition with or opposition to the publick Ordinances of God as our modern Conventicles are but in subserviency according as the necessity of those times did require to what publick and solemn Assemblies they could then or might in after-times enjoy For as our Saviour made use of all private Conferences and Meetings not in separation from competition with or opposition against but in professed subserviency to the Synagogue-service and Temple-worship of the Jewish Church so I am perswaded that the Apostles of Christ together with the primitive Christians would have done the like had the case in their time with respect to the publick exercise of Christian Religion been the same or the like to what it was in our Saviour Christ's time with respect to the publick exercise of the Religion of the Iews But forasmuch as there were no Conventions for publick exercise of Christian Religion permitted or commanded in those times untill the Roman Empire and other Kingdoms of the World became Christian it was therefore a thing impossible that the private Meetings of the Apostles and those primitive Christians should be so made use of in subordination to the publick Assemblies as were the private Meetings of our Saviour and his Disciples in the Jewish Church So that the case and condition of Christianity in the primitive times is so different from and contrary to what it is in the Church of England where the publick worship is protected and commanded by Authority that their private Meetings cannot possibly hold any proportion or similitude with ours So that to argue from private Meetings in those times of persecution of Christianity to private Meetings in England in these days is to take away the subject of the question and then to argue the case 6. Neither did one Apostle then thrust himself into the place where another was to labour but contained himself within the compass of his Line and portion of God's People that he was appointed to preach to But the matter in question is of a quite contrary nature viz. of a silenced Minister's intruding himself in amongst a People over whom there is a preaching Ministry established and there taking upon him to gather Conventions teach that People and perform ministerial Acts amongst them contrary to good Laws without the consent yea against the allowance of the Pastour of the place So that neither the
cannot be the Ordinance of God for the working of grace that is performed without any manner of Commission or Authority For the necessity of keeping that good order which God hath commanded in his Church requires that no man should attempt any thing of that important nature and high concernment upon his own head or by a power derived no higher than from himself Whosoever shall take upon him to preach God's word in order to the Conversion or saving of souls must be able to give a good answer to that question which the chief Priest and Elders of the People put to our Saviour Christ when he was teaching in the Temple By what Authority doest thou these things and who gave thee this Authority He that cannot make a sufficient and satisfactory reply to it and yet shall adventure upon the work may justly be accounted rash indiscreet and more hasty than needeth or than wisedom requireth But such is the Ministry in question undertaken without any Authority or Commission For all the Authority and Commission that a Minister hath in a constituted setled Church he receives in his ordination Before that he had no Authority or Warrant at all to preach the word or to perform any ministerial Act. Now all the Authority that a Minister of the Church of England hath delivered to him in his ordination is expressed in these words Take thou Authority to preach the word and to administer the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto In which words it is plain that the exercise of his Ministry is restrained to lawfull appointment as to the place where it shall be exercised What that lawfull appointment is I need not trouble my self or the reader here to look into seeing the Ministry in question hath not the least colour of it or pretence to it for it is supposed to be in a place where there is another lawfully appointed to perform the same In the Council of Chalcedon where there were 630 Fathers met about the year of our Lord 451 It was thus decreed Neminem absolute ordinari jubemus Presbyterum aut Diaconum nec quemlibet in Ecclesiasticâ ordinatione constitutum Eos autem qui absolute ordinantur decrevit sancta synodus vacuam habere manûs impositionem That none should be ordained absolutely whether Presbyter or Deacon or any in Ecclesiastical orders and whosoever should be absolutely ordained the Holy Synod decreed his ordination void And the 33th Canon of the Church of England â—aith That it hath been long since provided by many Decrees of ancient Fathers that none should be admitted either Deacon or Priest who had not first some certain place where he might use his function For though in ordination the person ordained is made a Minister of the Catholick Church and being ordained to a function he may by the appointment of those that have Authority in the Church or with leave of the Pastour of the Congregation preach any where And although as Mr. Baines observes It is good for a Minister to be like a young Woman so full breasted that she can both feed her own Child and lend a draught upon intreaty to her Neighbours Yet he is not a Catholick Minister of the Church as the Apostles and Evangelists were whose office being extraordinary is long since ceased in the Church and therefore ought not to take upon himself to preach any where Neither yet did the Apostles themselves doe so as hath been proved though their Commission was without Limit as to place But kept within their Line measured forth by God to them It was never God's intention that the two Tribes of Levi and Gad should be confounded one with another nor is it any way agreeable with Scripture rules and order that a Minister should be a wandring star but fixed regularly in some Orb of the Church as a Pastour of some Flock or Congregation of his People Seeing therefore none is lawfully appointed to perform the ministerial function or any part of it in such a place as is in question but the Minister of that Congregation acts of the Ministry done by any other Person that shall intrude himself among them without and against his consent contrary to lawfull appointment and all good constitution that concern admission of Ministers to pastoral charges are done without any Authority Commission or effect and consequently cannot be God's Ordinance who doth not use to send any to preach in order to the working of grace in means hearts without any Power or Authority yea against both ARGUMENT VIII THAT cannot be the ordinance of God as instrumental to the work of grace that instead of building up People in Faith and Holiness demolisheth Christian Duty and in the natural tendency of it produceth sinfull and pernicious effects 'T is true these may accidentally follow through the Corruption of man's nature and Satan's suggestions upon the most right and purest dispensation of God's word and ordinances St. Peter speaks of some that stumble at the word And St. Paul saith to some we are the savour of death unto death as to other some the savour of life unto life The word preach'd like the water of jealousie when it is received into an honest and good heart it doeth it good and makes it fruitfull but when into a corrupt it doeth hurt and causeth it to rot Yet the most proper intent and genuine fruit and effect of it is to doe good to inlighten convince convert and save means souls But the Ministry in question doth directly produce sinfull and pernicious effects and such as a tender heart may tremble to think on I would not have the reader expect that I should here make a particular enumeration of every one of those sinfull fruits and effects that are produced by the Ministry of intruders and upholders of Conventicles for that is a thing no more possible for me to doe than it is for any man particularly to reckon up every one of the many thousands of absurdities that will unavoidably follow in dispute upon one that is granted or yielded to I will content my self therefore and let the reader doe the like with the mention of so many of them onely as I here use arguments against the practice which is the proper cause of them and thousands more First it tends to the breaking of that bond of near relation that is and ought to be betwixt a Pastour and his flock Though it be a truth well known to but a few in this age and little considered by any yet it is nevertheless certain and undoubted that there is a very intimate relation betwixt a lawfull Pastour and his People The Scripture seems to assert a kind of Matrimonial union betwixt them A Minister is after a sort married to that Congregation over whom he is lawfully set and they to him Our legal incumbency on a Church is our Marriage to that Church Hence is that phrase
it ought to be nothing else as if the whole day were to be spent at Church and in keeping publick Assemblies so far as conveniency and edification of the people will permit Why else did Holy David desire to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Why prayed he that he might be so happy One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Therefore if Conscience to obey God or desire to doe him service did draw them to his house at any time or to any part of his Worship the same would induce them at all times and to all parts of it The liberty then that such persons take in God's service as if all were Arbitrary argues much of hypocritical wantonness nothing of sound or sincere godliness They who are fed with Corn from Heaven meat to the full are thus faln to loath the Mannah that Rained down upon them twice every Sabbath-day Of a third sort I could inform the Reader who being weak yet I hope well-meaning Christians not knowing the depths of Satan under a specious pretence of Piety are not content with what they hear at Church but must afterwards fill their heads with notions which they hear at Conventicles wherewith they feast themselves without fear after they have been fed to the full in God's house with Angels food Without fear I say of offending God by breaking the order he hath set in his Church by countenancing abetting or joining themselves with such unlawfull and ungospel-like Assemblies without fear of offending or provoking the Rules of the Church which they are bound to obey by seeing their Laws despised and affronted without fear of exposing themselves to the temptation and hazard of falling so fearfully as they cannot but see that some of their Brethren and Neighbours have done And without fear of losing what they have heard in publick by departing immediately from the Church to a Conventicle as if all Religion did consist in nothing but hearing and all the Service of God were but according to the French scoff a mere Preach If this be the way of keeping the Sabbath where is room then for Meditation which the Scripture as much enjoins as hearing Thou shalt meditate on the Law that thou mayst observe to doe according as is written Mary therefore kept Christ's sayings because she pondered them in her heart David therefore grew to be wiser than his teachers because God's Law was his meditation Conference with Neighbours and Family-instructions will by this means also be issued out Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour and every one to his brother what hath the Lord answered and what hath he spoken The best of Hearers even Christ's own Disciples took another course than these now doe When they had heard their Master Preach they spent their time after Sermon in conferring among themselves about what they had heard and went to their Teacher to be better informed and to have all doubts resolved For want of so doing it comes to pass with too many as sometimes it did with some of them that though they had seen their Lord's mighty power in feeding five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes yet their Faith was never the stronger And this was the reason They considered not the miracle of the Loaves for their heart was hardned They had seen the miracle but they had not considered it nor meditated on it and therefore it did them no good at all In the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves the way these people take is not the right For the Assembly of Divines in their Directory for Worship give this rule for the Sanctification of the Lord's day that what time is vacant between or after the Solemn meetings of the Congregation in publick be spent in Reading Meditation Repetition of Sermons especially by calling their Families to an account of what they have heard and Catechising of them holy conferences prayer for a blessing upon the publick Ordinances singing of Psalms visiting the Sick relieving the Poor and such like duties of piety charity and mercy accounting the Sabbath a delight In a word I could inform the Reader what impious devices have been used not onely to make a rent in the Church but also to keep it open that it should never close again by endeavouring that an irreconcileable prejudice might be perpetuated in the minds of people against the publick Ministry and Ministers of the Church And to the end that those poor deluded Souls which have been drawn off from their due attendance to God's publick Ordinances to wait on these men in their clanculary and irregular conventions might never return to the Church any more I have observed that the absence of one of these Masters of Conventicles in the places where they are held have ever been carefully supplied by the presence of some other Domestick Chaplain to keep up their House-meetings As if Ieroboam's impious policy should never be forgotten who not daring to trust his new divided Tribes in a joint resort to the Temple at Ierusalem set up his Calves to be Worshipped by them nearer home But I will not rake any longer in this puddle lest it stink in the nostrils of pious and sober Christians as it cannot but doe in God's already Now I appeal to all my judicious and learned Brethren of the Clergy and to all persons else of stayed principles and piety whether for a stranger thus to pluck the work of a Pastour of a Congregation out of his hands be tollerable in the Church of Christ or no Whether this practice that tends thus to divide betwixt Minister and People breaking the near bond of relation that is and ought to continue between them robbing him of his flock and taking them off from dependance on him for the enjoyment of the work of his ministry be of God or no And whether he hath ordained any such course as the means of Grace in his Church or whether this be not rather a strategem of Satan to introduce all manner of impiety and ungodliness The Presbyterian Divines themselves have given their judgment on my side already in this case In these words To make a Rupture in the body of Christ and to divide Church from Church and to set up Church against Church and to gather Churches out of true Churches And because we differ in something therefore to hold Communion in nothing this we think hath no warrant out of the word of God and will introduce all manner of confusion in Churches and Families and not onely disturb but in a little time destroy the power of Godliness purity of Religion peace of Christians and set open a wide gap to bring in Atheism Popery Heresie and all manner of wickedness So also in their Preface to the Ius divinum of Church-government
Some of the brethren of the Nonconformists have been of the same Judgment whatever this or their practice now is Memorable to this purpose is that saying of Mr. Baxter to his People of Kiderminster I ever loved saith he a Godly peaceable Conformist better than a turbulent Nonconformist and should I make a party or disturb the peace of the Church I should fear lest I should prove a Firebrand in Hell for being a Firebrand in the Church And by all the interest I have in your judgments and affections I here charge you that if God should give me up to any factious Church-renting course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step It is an unhappy degree of wickedness to be a ring-leader in any schism Every accessory is faulty enough but the first Authour abominable Those who either by his example suggestion advice connivence or otherwise are taught to doe ill increase his sin as fast as they do their own Whosoever shall break one of the least Commandments and shall teach men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven An unruly beast breaks the hedge and feeds in forbidden Pasture the whole herd follows but the owner must answer for all the trespass that is committed Therefore is Ieroboam so often branded in holy Writ with this note of infamy Ieroboam the Son of Nebat that made Israel to sin His fault lived when he himself was dead and 't is often said by Divines that his torment increased in Hell according as his sin increased upon earth and that the wickedness of Israel will not be taken off from his Soul for ever It was shame enough to Israel that they were made to sin by Ieroboam but O the miserable Estate of Ieroboam that made Israel to sin his pretence was fair enough but that was no excuse to the foulness of his crime nor is it any mitigation to his present torment Let the Authours of schism in the Church pretend what they please to Religion and Truth yet how they can have the true love or power of either in thier hearts or lives that seek not the Church's Peace and Unity withall I cannot understand The Holy Ghost in Scripture joins both together Love truth and peace And speak the truth in love He follows neither that persues them not both It was an unquestionable Maxime amongst Christians in the ancient Church which is no less a truth now than ever non habet Dei charitatem qui Ecclesiae non diligit unitatem The Love of God abides not in them who do not love and keep the Unity of the Church Nay the practice in question tends not onely to the dividing and distracting the Church but even to the dissolving and destroying her being It puts the members of the body of Christ out of joint and causeth a Luxation of the parts and so hinders that spiritual Nutrition thriving and growth in grace that ought to be in the body of Christ. For as in the natural body of man if a member be separated from it it can receive no nourishment or growth nay if there be but a dislocation of a part so that it be onely out of joint it will not thrive or prosper but wither and consume till it be set right again so the mystical body of Christ can never increase with the increase of God if either there be not a right Union of the joints to the head or if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ligament and bond that knits and fastens one member to another be broken Now this Union of the members the Apostle saith is made by the Ligament of Love which he therefore calls the bond of perfection because as it unites Church-members among themselves so it is the cause that they communicate mutual help to the profit and preservation of the whole The members of the Church then being made so loose and set at such distance so divided and distracted one from another some hurried this way and some that it must needs argue that this bond is either quite broken or much loosned And if it be a truth which Philosophers affirm that every natural body desires no less its unity than its entity I fee no reason why the spiritual and mystical body of Christ the Church should not in like manner desire its unity since if it be and continue thus unhappily divided it cannot long subsist in its entity As a tottering wall of stones heaped up together without mortar or binding is easily shaken and thrown down so must the Church be soon brought to ruine if this distracting and dividing course be suffered and practised By concord and good agreement among Christians the Church grows and is enlarged So by their discords and divisions it will in short time perish and come to nothing Say I this onely Or say not the brethren of the Nonconformists the same He that is not the Son of peace is not the Son of God saith Mr. Baxter all other sins destroy the Church consequentially but division and separation demolish it directly Building the Church is but an orderly joining the materials and what then is disjoyning but pulling down Believe not those to be the Church's friends that would cure and reform her by cutting her throat Pro Ecclesia clamitant saith St. Cyprian of such they cry out for the Church but contra Ecclesiam dimicant their practice is a fighting against the Church And that not by open and professed hostility but by secret and unseen Policy Their pretences are friendly but their actions mischievous their voice like Iacob's but their hands like Esau's Thirdly it hinders the Communion of Saints that holy and sweet fellowship which all the Members of Christ's Church ought to have both with Christ their head and each with other When in the natural body of man the members are joined to the head and one with another they have by virtue of that Union Communion also and do impart bloud spirits and life from one to the other So in the mystical Body of Christ the members being joined to the Lord and one to another there will be a sweet Communion among themselves in heart and affections joy with them that rejoice and forrow with them that weep prayer each for and each with other the multitude of them that believe will be of one heart and one soul. Now one of the closest bonds of Union amongst Christians is in their communicating together in holy duties We are then most one when with one mind and with one mouth we glorifie God together When holy David would set forth the greatest intireness of facred friendship he described it by walking to the house of God in company together The end and effect of our joint partaking in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is to seal up this Unity As by one of the Sacraments we