potestatis scientiae they suffer none to buy or sell as the Scripture speaks but only those that wonder after them There is an eye saith he of the same principles practises usurpations in the Spirits and Practises of our Tryers so he calls the Commissioners But where is the proof 1. He saith If any one that comes before them shall dispute or call into question their judgements though never so erronesus as in the points of Election and Reprobation the death of Christ c. the door of preferment is shut up against him This is a stout Argument indeed and if rightly stated the force of it would amount to this The Commissioners cannot approve of men that are of the Goodwinian miserable Foundation-destroying doctrine concerning Election and Reprobation c. nor judge them fit to be owned by the Magistrate in a way of maintenance according to such Rules as the Magistrate himself hath given them to judge by Ergo they do as the Pope doth hold themselves to be infallible A man might from this rather infer this Consequence That they do not conceive themselves infallible because they are willing to judge as the Magistrate directs them and that Mr G conceiveth himself infallible implying as if the Commissioners were bound to follow his judgment and make that their Rule whereby to try and approve men rather than by those Rules and Directions which have been given them by the Magistrate Here it seems lieth the core of all the evill and the Occasion of all this Rancor that the Commissioners are not hujus jurati in verba Magistri sworn to follow this great Master and to approve such men as have shaken hands with him in the bearing up of that Un-evangelical Opinion against Gods electing love in Christ in the behalf whereof he would compass even Sea and Land to make a Proselite 2. Whereas he insinuateth that the Commissioners are as lawless as the Pope because none may question or judge of them and because they will approve of none but those that will wonder after their Learning and Tenets and though he divides these Particulars under a second and third head as if they were distinct and this on purpose to make his Pamphlet swell yet this short Reply may serve in return to both his hold and frothy Imputations how is it possible that the Commissioners should be accounted lawless in their proceedings as the Pope is when as it is known and Mr. G. himself here hath said it that the Pope makes himself above all Law and Power that is without himself and hereupon by vertue of such another Autocrasie as Mr Goodwin taketh to himself upon all occasions he proceeds in the same manner as Mr Goodwin constantly doth what he doth by his Bulls Mr G. doth by his Pen and Pamphlets who takes upon him at pleasure to control censure and defie Acts of the Civil Power and doth what in him lies by reproaches and scandals almost to Anathematize them and to dissolve the bond of the Subjects obedience by rendring the Government odious and contemptible and to overthrow it by stirring up Discontents and Factions among the People and all this forsooth because he cannot impose upon his Highness and the Councel in matter of Faith so as to make them the publick Patrons and Promoters of his private Opinion if this be not Papal I know not what is But now the Commissioners are so far from imitating him and the Pope in any of their lawless humours that they in their proceedings are under the Law and direction of another Viz. the present Authority and can do neither more nor lesse than what the same Authority hath by a Law prescribed them if they should Mr G. knows by experience Authority is ready to hear a complaint and that Law doth not enable them to set men a wondring after their Learning and Tenets for what Tenets or Opinions soever in points of the lesser importance may be among themselves they are not to estimate nor do they measure a Judgement concerning any man according to them nor do they dis-approve any men because of their opinions provided they be not of the Goodwinian strain before-mentioned Errores in Fundamentalibus which tend to a rending of that very Foundation which was laid upon the Prophets and Apostles and a demolishing of the glorious super-structure of all the main truths which are built thereupon Moreover there is not the least affinity between the Popes power and theirs For the Pope arrogates to himself a power in the Church under a pretence of being the sole Deputie or Commissioner for the Government of it under Jesus Christ and thereupon stileth himself his Vicar but the Commissioners have neither assumed any power to themselves it being a matter intrusted to them nor is it derived to them in any such way as from Christ much lesse from him in order to Church-Government but they have received it in trust from the Magistrate whose Deputies they are to a civil end and purpose Viz. to see that the publick State-Maintenance allowed for the Preaching of the Gospel to the people may be disposed of according to the Magistrates own appointment and direction in any of which respects there is not the least resemblance betwixt the Popes transcendent spiritual and their limited temporal Power and therefore Mr Goodwin hath not injured them so much as himself who though his Bishoprick be not very large might a great deal sooner be taken for the Pope as appears in all his actings The rest of this pretended Argument is a mere idle repetition of Scandals and of other matter already refuted It 's a sad thing to see a man of his garb and grave pretence so liberal in Aspersions throughout his Pamphlet and yet not make so much as an Instance to prove any one Particular ARGUMENT XIV THe Fourteenth I find to be only a quaint piece of Tautologie flourished over with a new dress For abstract the Rhetorical levities and there remains nothing but the same Crambe which was served up again and again in the First Third and Fourth Arguments and that small Addition which he brings in here as an Auxiliary to the other doth but help to make him and his design the more ridiculous For whereas he tells us again that the Gospel stands in no need of any Commission or Constitution of humane device and contrivance to carry on the interest of it in the world but that Christ hath left Rules and Directions in perspicuous terms in the Gospel sufficient to render the state of the Gospel flourishing and prosperous so as not to leave so important an affair to the care and management and contrivance of the Secular Powers I shall not make repetition of any thing that I have discoursed before to answer this but refer the Reader to be satisfied at large in the former part of the Book where I have fully answered his other Arguments relating to this particular Only I shall
Commission of Tryers as he is pleased to terme them and so being in passion cares not what he saith but utters what makes rather for than against them For he acknowledgeth Patrons have a Right also that their Right is a Civil legal Right and upon that account he pretends to defend it against the Commissioners as violaters of it though neither their Commission nor their practice do intrench upon it and therefore if by his own Confession it be a Civil Right to chuse then doubtless to examine and judge whether the man so chosen be fit or no must needs be a Civil Act and so the care of examining and approving accordingly cannot be denied to the Civil Magistrate now more then in former times unless like your worthy Partner in this Plea Mr. Postlethwait you would have no Law-giver no Magistrate but Christ in the Commonwealth Thus you see by making use of that which Mr. G. himself before confesseth viz. that the Right of Presentation stands upon a meer Civil account it followeth plain that the Civil Power hath a Right to approve men to those Civil and Temporal which Mr. G. calleth Spiritual Demesnes and that they have done but of what right they ought to do in entrusting certain persons to act under them as Commissioners for Approbation But how comes it to pass that Mr. G. is so earnest an Advocate on the behalf of Patrons By this I perceive that all the Subjects of the Fifth Monarchy are not of one minde for his brother Mr. Postlethwait who hath dipt his Pen likewise against the Triers so he also calls the Commissioners is altogether as hot against Patrons crying out in his Book page 72 Away with Patrons those most abominable usurpers durst Paul and Barnabas exercise such Tyranny as to impose a Minister upon the People and he goeth on page 73 thus Away therefore with these abominable usurpers Though it be under more restraint now then formerly this will not salve the matter What Mr. G. pretends a crime in the Triers his brother Postlethwait looks upon it as a vertue and thinks the fault is this that Patrons are not restrained enough by the Triers whereas indeed the Triers so called do not all streighten Patrons in their Rights but rather preserve them However Mr. Postlethwait tells us page 84. he must confess that at first he was pretty well satisfied with the Ordinance T is true he was so well satisfied that he came up and took Approbation from the Commissioners but afterwards being returned he like his brother Goodwin is blown about to another point in Judgement And though in Monarchy-Principles they are the same and in mutability the same yet being carried with several winds they vary for Mr. Postlethwait's next words tells us he was pretty well satisfied with the Ordinance for the Commissioners sitting saving that its grounded in part upon the defence of Patron 's Rights and Properties Then saith he That which satisfied me at first was that their Commission gives them not power to invest into office but that will not answer all my scruples now a very growing man he is in scruples for though they are not to invest into Office yet they are to take the beginnings of their Proceeding from the Presentation of the Patron who presents to benefice with Cure of Souls originally and I know no qualification that is put on his Presentation but onely a care taken to preserve his Right and Property I cannot but commend this ingenuity of Mr. Postlethwait which Mr. G. is not willing to imitate Time was when Mr. Goodwin used these following words The time was I was pretty well satisfied c. which time was just the eighth of Frebruary 1651. for then you Sir and your Elder Mr. Price subscribed with others an humble desire to the Parliament that two such Ordinances as now you write against might be established by the Civil Magistrate But you Sir you that have the Staggers in the Brain it is not for you to remember or be of one minde long together As to that passage of his before-recited wherein he saith the Commissioners are found Patrons effectivè to all the Livings in the Nation let me add thus much further by way of Answer 1. Is it likely that his Highness and the Council should so pen an Ordinance that one part of it should contradict and utterly make avoid another as Mr. Goodwin's Scriblings use to do This is to let the world know how little he esteems their prudence and how much his own But his principal Aim is at the Commissioners who he saith are of Approvers become Patrons yes and worse too for Patrons do not or should not make a gain of their Presentations But he dares not speak out for his own heart knoweth he hath not the least pretence for it yet it seems he could wish it were so and therefore insinuateth such a baseness in such Covert terms which he knows well how to do as may not amount to a direct charge Is this a righteous man who endeavours here to fasten so high and unworthy an Accusation upon the Commissioners whose known integrity hath extorted another Character concerning them even from himself in his Epistle before this very Book Where he saith that he beleeves them to be men of Conscience and worth fearing God and lovers of Truth So that you have waters of Contradiction bitter and sweet proceeding from the fame Fountain And observing this I resolve to inform my self more fully both from the Ordinance and by other Enquiries whether it be possible that men deserving that high Testimony which he hath given them in his Epistle should so totally fall from grace and all ingenuity as to become such as he makes them in his Book and this pains I the rather take that so Mr. G. may appear the more illustrious in his Art of Calumnie and self-contradiction As to what he objects about the Commissioners disposing of Livings and becoming effectivè Patrons 1. Take notice the Ordinance saith no such matter By it they cannot give Approbation to any person who brings not a Presentation or nomination from a Patron They give admission to none but it is upon Record and entred into a Book with the name of the Patron the names of those who certifie and the date c. Which any man may see that hath a minde to it and then will be able to say whether there was ever yet any person put into any Living by them that was not first presented by the Patron 2. Observe If the Person presented be disapproved it must be by nine or a greater number and certainly for any one Commissioner to compass his end upon such a number it will not onely require great subtilty in him but great simplicity in the rest of which crime they seem as yet to stand cleer with Mr. Goodwin But suppose a man should be rejected upon some such design what are the Commissioners or any one of them
said to each of them by way of Animadversion ARGUMENT V. IT might be wonder'd why Mr. G. but that we know the metal of the man and his brow presumes to call his following Paragraphs by the name of Arguments when as most of them if you remove the scandalous materials do tumble of themselves and drop into their first nothing In that which he calls the Fifth Argument first he insinuateth That the Commissioners entrusted are an inconsiderable number of men subject to the like errors passions weaknesses and miscarriages with other men and what a sad business it must be to the godly people that they should have a Negative voice about the placing displacing and disposing of all Ministers over all Parishes in the Nation which he calls an unchristian and an unheard of Prodigie That the Commissioners are men subject to failings as other men 't is like they will not deny But what will this great prodigious Man at Arms in Argumentation from thence infer Will he say Ergo They ought not to be trusted in the Business committed to them Then by consequence neither they nor any other men ought to be trusted with the placing or displacing of Ministers in Parishes because none of the sons of Adam can be found free from the possibility of falling into some error or miscarriage about the business If this Arguing hold good then neither the Magistrate nor any other Officer ought to be allowed any Trust in the Commonwealth in matters concerning mens lives and estates because as men they are subject to miscarrying and by consequence also neither Patrons nor others who have any right or power to present to Benefices should enjoy or exercise their right or power of Presenting because they may through weakness erre or do amiss therein which would be a rare acute way of Reasoning indeed and may serve on the same manner as sufficiently to subvert mens Rights in every thing destroy Government and prove that All things in this world ought to be left at random because men may erre in point of Administration But the Commissioners he saith are an inconsiderable number of men and have a Negative voice to place displace and dispose How many the Commissioners and who they are may be seen by the Ordinances themselves where the Reader will find they are considerable for number and for worth remarkable over and above their Piety and Learning for this consideration especially that they know not how to give the right hand of fellowship to men of his corrupt behaviour and perswasion and that I shall manifest anon to be the great reason why the man is so angry And as to the Negative voice you may see in the Ordinance for Approbation that no Vote in the Negative shall pass for the disapproving of any man unless Nine or more of the Commissioners be present Also according to the Ordinance for Ejecting there are to be Ten present and concurring for the displacing or ejecting of any person And so now the only question is whose wisdom is best to be relied on either that of our Governors or Mr. Goodwin's touching the conveniencie and sufficiencie of the Number for such purposes As to what he saith about placing and disposing the Commissioners neither have nor assume any such power but Patrons and others do now as inviolably enjoy their respective Rights of Presentation as heretofore Here before I go any further I must needs take notice of one thing in this Argument as very observable and it is this That he takes upon him to plead for the power of Choice to be in Parishes or in the well-affected in Parishes and in regard that they have not the power of Chusing therein it is that he placeth the greatness of the unchristian and unheard of Prodigie Now 1. Consider what is this to the Commissioners They as I said before neither have nor assume any power to chuse or dispose of men to Places nor are they the Cause why Parishes or the well-affected in Parishes have not all the power of chusing their own Ministers The most remarkable and prodigious thing is to see how this mighty man of Reason baffles himself ever and a non with self-contradiction Here you have him eagerly asserting it to be a prodigious business that the several Parishes or the well-affected in them have not the said power of chusing And then hereafter in the Seventh Argument we shall find him stiffly pleading on the behalf of the Right and power of Patrons in matter of chusing tricking it up with many Flowers of Rhetorick telling us that their Right of Presentation is a Right in Law a Royal priviledge and looks upon it as a violation offer'd to their Throne and Dignity if they may not in the utmost freedom enjoy this Conveniencie as he is pleased to term it But seeing this is as great an Intrenchment as any can be imagined upon the power of Parishes by him pleaded for if Patrons ought to have the power therefore we have need of another Oedipus to solve this Prodigie or Riddle in Logick otherwise called a Contradiction That it ought and it ought not to be in Parishes 2. Consider likewise in case Parishes were entrusted with the power of choice and nomination what then would be the consequence Certainly those godly and well-affected ones by him mentioned who are usually the lesser number among them would have the least stroke in the choice the truth whereof sufficiently appears in those Parishes who by right of purchase or some other way have the Patronage vested in themselves It is sad to consider what wofull divisions and distractions usually arise among them about their Choice especially if the living be considerable and common experience sheweth that the godly and well-affected are usually overborn by the profane and more numerous Party Sure Mr Goodwin will not easily forget the experience which himself hath had of the truth of this in his own particular But he proceeds to tell us If the Triers shall be froward or bear a grudge at a Parish then the Parish will come to be defeated of the Minister that is presented to the place This gives me occasion to observe the prudent Constitution of the present Ordinance for Approbation the power thereby delegated being intrusted not in few but many hands and herein it concurs with the antient prudence of Nations it being ever thought requisite by Princes and Governours to put a multitude in the same Commission when they designed to prevent the carrying of matters of high importance in a froward and passionate way The reason hereof is evident because right reason and Justice are common Principles which all men have in them more or lesse and do bear a reverence thereto by the very light of Nature and therefore when any thing that is reasonable and just comes to be insisted on all men do readily assent to it except some who may be byassed to the contrary by Passion Now on the other side
to a stand by such Demagogues who have abused the Pulpit and the Ordinances of God to make them serve their purposes by bidding defiance to all Rule and Authority And how many are there abroad still upon the same design and it 's not impossible but Mr. G. may strike in among them Doubtless he will deserve to be a principal man with them if he can but perfect what he hath begun to level the Commissioners and lay the Publick Maintenance in Common for all sorts of Stray-Cattel to enter and by that means be enabled to lead the people out of the way to the disturbance of the Commonwealth and their own destruction By this you may apprehend the more than probable effect and tendencie of Mr. G. his Charity and Policie which being laid in the scales with the wisdom and liberality of our Superiors in reference to the Particular under question the judicious Reader is left to turn them at his own discretion Only for a Farewell let me have leave to tell Mr. Goodwin That these and the like Conclusions of his may stand well in tune with the Policie and Principles of his Brother Williams though indeed Mr. G. hath more policie then to vent them with the same plainness For Mr. Roger Williams speaks out with a full mouth in a Book of his printed Anno 1652. pag. 24. I humbly conceive saith he that the great duty of the Magistrate as to Spirituals will turn upon these two hinges 1. In removing the Civil bars c. the paiment of Tythes and the maintenance of Ministers c 2. In a free and absolute permission of the Consciences of all men in what is meerly spiritual not the very Consciences of the Jews nor the Consciences of the Turks or Papists or Pagans themselves excepted By Conscience he doth not mean the Faith a man hath to himself but a Liberty to profess and teach others accordingly And indeed this is the natural consequence and the very Fundamental of this Ninth Argument of Mr. Goodwin's and he may as well close with Mr. Williams in the full latitude of every point For the same Gentleman in the Book before-mentioned saith If a world of Arrians deny the Deity of Christ Jesus if a Manichee his Humane nature if the Jews deny both and blasphemously call our Christ a Deceiver nay if the Mahumetans the Turks prefer their cheating Mahomet before him What now must we cry out Blasphemers Hereticks c. Must we run to Cities or Senates and cry Help you Magistrates Or must we flie up to Heaven by Prayer This is a brave Latitude indeed and there being elbow-room enough Mr. Goodwin and he must needs shake hands if he means to maintain this his Ninth Argument And so I leave them together ARGUMENT X. BEing now arrived at the Tenth Argument of this Author I am come to the main matter and shall have an occasion to lance the Tumor and let out all the Corruption which disturbed his Stomach and that his Head and caused him to talk idly as men use to do in great and hot distempers The sum of the story in short is this For he speaks out now and tells us at large why he is so virulent angry at his Highness and the Council and the Commissioners even for no other cause but that neither maintenance nor countenance is like to be given to such as are tainted with his spurious heterodoxal pseudo-theological Phant'sies For saith he is not the simple professing and owning of those great and important Truths of God That Christ dyed or gave himself a Ransom for all men That God reprobated no man under a personal consideration nor intended so to reprobate any man from eternity That he vouchsafeth a sufficiencie of means unto all men to repent and be saved That he vouchsafeth a sufficiencie of means unto all men to repent and be saved That he neither constraineth nor necessitateth any man to believe or to be saved And that those who at present truly believe may put or thrust away a good Conscience from them and thereby make shipwrack of their Faith and perish Is not saith he the professing and owning of these most worthy Truths with others confederate with them a Bar against all Spiritual or Ecclesiastick promotion in the course of the Commissioners proceedings Before I make Reply to the Main let the Reader observe this by the way that I cannot admit one thing which he insinuates here in the Conclusion Viz. That the approving of men by the Commissioners for the Publick Maintenance should be reckoned an Ecclesiastical promotion when as I have already made it evident and the very nature of the thing speaks out for it self that it is a meer Civill Act and Provision But to proceed It is not a Business proper upon the present occasion to enter upon the disquisition of those Arminian Points by him enumerated and if there were an occasion it were but Actum agere seeing all in a manner that is necessary to be known for the confutation of them may be found in the Works of the late Reverend and Learned Dr Twisse and of these two Learned Reverend Doctors Dr Owen and Dr Kendal who yet live the Honor and Ornaments of the University of Oxford However because he hath clothed and presented them here in the plausible phrase of Scripture thus much may be said in general terms by way of return 1. That Christ died and gave himself a ransom for All 't is true but then it ought to be understood in a Gospel not in a Universal sence as if all men were ransomed into such a State that they may save themselves if they will 2. That seeing from all eternity God was pleased to take some as it were out of the lump and common mass of Mankind and design them to become vessels of honor and leave others as vessels of wrath fitted for destruction therefore questionles there are a sort of particular persons whom he never loved in Christ so consequently are concluded under a state of Reprobation 3. That he doth vouchsafe a sufficiency of means to all men to repent and beleeve but not so that the means should be so far in their own power that they should be able to beleeve and repent when it pleaseth themselves Lastly That he neither constraineth nor necessitateth any man to beleeve or be saved yet having by the power of his own Spirit so wrought and framed the heart of a man that it becomes pliant to the purpose of his grace then the heart is of it self induced and disposed not constrained to beleeve and by the same power of the Spirit is enabled to persevere in beleeving being sustained by continual supplies of Grace through the Spirit from Christ by vertue of the union with him through faith so that they cannot make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience so far as to perish forasmuch as being the Sons of God they are kindly led and conducted
as Mr Goodwin in his Epistle saith they are and suppose it be admitted as I have no reason to the contrary that the Churches also are for the most part godly conscientious people yet certainly Mr Goodwin having declared his opinion that the Commissioners have the better Brains to manage a business then I hope the Churches have reason to consider him and ken him thanks for his kindness and the Magistrate must needs rest better satisfied to trust a select company of known able and good men than to commit this business of Approbation to the Churches in general who though they may have as much good meaning yet Mr G. saith they have not so deep a reach as the present Commissioners Moreover the Churches he saith are not in respect of their numbers and complicated variety of Interests and Conditions in their respective Members very capable of conspiring or combining so much as in the proposal of any undue or unworthy ends to themselves and so are like to be more sincere and plain-hearted in their proceedings 'T is like they will not be forward to propose any thing tending to an unworthy end but on the other side it ought to be considered whether that Account which Mr G. hath here given touching their constitution be not rather an Argument to prove that it will be a hard matter for them to come to any end or Conclusion at all in convenient time for the dispatching of this Business which himself hath said ought not to take up too much attendance For 1. In respect of their numbers the general Maxime is That great Bodies move but slowly 2. In respect of their complicated variety of Interests and Conditions in their respective Members certain it is that always according to the variety of mens Interests and Conditions they come to be variously disposed they will debate a matter round and they will too often debate for victory too often to gratifie a friend too often to gratifie a spleen and too long to do any business in manner or time convenient as it ought to be which is sufficiently evident by the experience of all Ages where various interests and conditions of men have met in numerous popular Assemblies A fourth Reason is he saith Because the Churches being of different judgments touching Discipline and Worship and some other opinions much controverted and debated among godly sober and worthy men in the Nation may amongst them and this with a full concurrence and consent of their judgments and without the least regret or check of conscience accommodate all pious and godly persons of what judgment soever otherwise in all their just desires or requests I am very loth to rip up Sores because it is to be done in publick and it may more gratifie the common Enemy the Papist than benefit our selves but seeing it is a matter too well known already I may touch it a little and shall but lightly Do we not know how far the minds of men have been from accommodating upon points of Discipline and Worship and all other Opinions that though some of them religious and sober in all other things yet they have been at daggers drawing in this Have not too many in the Churches been drawn out by a mis-guided zeal even to the anathematizing of their brethren who walk not in the same Church-way with them about points of Discipline and Worship And is not the same humour too predominant still among too many I shall for Religion and Honors sake forbear a running out into the large field of Particulars But certainly when it is known that divers of the Churches have divided among themselves and broken that unity of the Spirit which ought to be in the Bond of Peace and this meerly upon difference of judgment concerning some Points not Fundamental and that some have proceeded so far even against their fellow-members in one and the same Church so as to un-faint one another round and make a Schism in the Body it would be a strange thing if the Supreme Magistrate understanding this and having undertaken the protection of the people of God in general who walk under several Forms and Perswasions should venture the Trust of Approbation in so great a latitude as the hands of the gathered Churches throughout England and Wales seeing the generality of men in Churches are so much disposed to favour men some one way some another according to their various Inclinations that the measure of Approbation were the power of it in the Churches is not like to be taken so often from the proportions of Grace and sound Knowledge of Fundamentals of Faith in men to be approved as from the correspondence and consent which they may have with this that or the other Opinion held by the Majority of those who are to approve them But Mr. G. layeth this as a blame upon the Commissioners saying that they express wrath against men because dissenting in Judgment from themselves and have laced their Consciences so strait that themselves profess they cannot without sin open the dore of entrance into the Ministry to any man but those whose thoughts are their thoughts and one judgment with them in matters of Christian faith This groundless imputation I have wiped off already divers times upon several occasions given as I passed through his Book where I have shewn that the Commissioners by the very constitution of the Ordinance have no such power nor do they use any such practice nor can they if they would because themselvs are men of the various Ways and Perswasions received among us but agree in this that they hold fast the Foundation Fundamental Truths and reject none but such as hold the contrary in which number Mr. Goodwin's exploded Arminian Tenets are justly reckoned And as it is the glory of the Commissioners that they profess they cannot approve such as hold them so it is the sole ground of all his clamor against them He would muster up men raise Batteries and plant his great Guns in all the Pulpits of England against the GRACE OF GOD which I may call the Fort-Royal of Christian verity but not being able to get Commissions for his men he is fain to play at small game shooting Paper-pellets and Squibs of Slander in Pamphlets against the said Commissioners not sparing even his Highness and the Council for their great love to the Lord Jesus manifested in so religious a Constitution His fifth and last reason is Because the Churches are commodiously dispersed throughout the Nation for persons from all quarters to repair unto one or other of them witbout the charge or trouble of long journies whereas the Triers whom also he is pleased to term Inquisitors have their Chamber of Audience fixed some hundreds of miles off from the skirts of the Nation so that men must make tedious and chargeable journies to them Thus you have him playing the Tautologer again therefore I must send you back to the Answer given him in another place about
what is further alledged by this popular Advocate on the behalf of the Parishes which though it be but Folly in me to do yet for fear the Man's Followers should say his Book had no full Answer I shall deal with him according to his Folly lest he grow too wise in his own conceit If saith he it be against Reason that the Magistrate should restrain men from hiring or entertaining Servants such as they conceive would be most serviceable and usefull to them in their affairs or that he should appoint others to assign them what servants they please much more unreasonable is it that greater Bodies and Societies of men should not be permitted to have such to serve them in spiritual Affairs as they are perswaded are most like to build them up in sound knowledge and prâ—mote the interest of their Souls Is not this think ye a singular Argument But for Answer in brief 1. I cannot but note the comparison as odious betwixt Domestick and Spiritual Servants seeing these latter are called Overseers Pastors and Spiritual Fathers with other terms of honour as well as Servants which they are in a sense too for the sake of Christ and his Gospel and as they have Titles of honour so they have Priviledges correspondent which ordinary Servants have not 2. The Comparison will by no means hold in reason because the meanest of men have usually skill enough to make choice of ordinary Servants fit for their Turn But there are but few men in the best Parishes and in most of them not one of skill and knowledge sufficient to judge of a man whether he be qualified with Spiritual gifts and graces to enable him to serve them in Spiritual things 3. Suppose some men in some Parishes may be of ability in matter of knowledge to judge yet those that are able to judge in matter of understanding and most men that have knowledge in the notion do yet want grace in the heart and so it will be seldom that they will have the Will to approve an able or a gratious man to be a Preacher 4. Suppose yet further that the knowing men of a Parish should be willing to approve a knowing and a gratious man yet the rest of the Parish who have a share in the Suffrage may be of another minde for some respects of their own and pretend it would be more for the Interest of their souls to have another person 5. Consider that Parishes being Bodies and Societies of men the Magistrate hath an Interest in them as they are a Corporation or Community and though men have a right to do as they will at home in Private Affairs yet he may according to the laudable Constitution of all Commonweals interpose so far in all those things wherein they Act by Suffrage as a Community as to restrain them from or limit them in Acting in such matters which are of more immediate concernment to himself 6. And therefore lastly though the Minister or Preacher to be approved be to be in some sense a Servant a Servant to the Parish in things Spiritual yet he is not to be so much their Servant as the Servant of Christ in the first place Then being not in a private but in a Publick Relation to the whole Parish and upon a Publick accompt he in the next place is also to be reputed the Servant of the Magistrate partly as he is to officiate on the Magistrates behalf towards the Community of the Parish and partly because he is to have a Publick Maintenance from the Magistrate For though Tythes and other Duties arise out of the Parishes yet they are not of the Legal Propriety of the Parishioners because the Propriety hath been otherwise antiently disposed of and setled by the Law of the Land to enable the Magistrate to hold forth and uphold a Publick Profession of the Christian Faith within the several places of the Nation So that these things being considered it is vain for Mr Goodwin to plead for a Right of Power in Parishes to Approve upon a supposition that the Minister or Preacher to be Approved is to be their Servant seeing though in one sense viz. Spiritually he is to serve them yet by reason of his Civil Relation and Dependencie he is not their but the Publick Servant of the State for the good of the Parish in that Employment But Mr Goodwin to fright the Magistrate tels him that it is a Crime in him to be medling with such sacred Edge-Toolâ— as the Authoritative forcible imposing of Ministers upon Parishes All this will not take off the Edge of a Religious Magistrate who knows that having a Revenue in his hand to promote the preaching of the Gospel it is his duty as he is a Christian man to do his utmost to see it well bestowed that way by maintaining able and gracious men in doing the work and when any of them is sent to a Parish it cannot be so said that the setling of him there is an Authoritative forcing of the Parish to receive him but rather that it is a Pious Provision for the Parish by the Care of Authority Nor let any man deceive his own heart by thinking thus That because when a Minister or Preacher is so sent and settled the Parish have no power to refuse him therefore the not having power to refuse him is all one as if he were forced upon them For if such a Construction might be made then by the same way it might be argued that when his Highness sends down persons into the Country to perform any office of Trust the execution whereof is warranted by Law suppose it be in the several Counties as when he sends down Sheriffs you know then the Counties have no power to refuse them and yet this never was nor can it be reputed a forcing of Sheriffs upon the Counties because as his Highness hath a lawful power to send and settle such Officers as Sheriffs so the Counties are by Law concerned to receive and by Law cannot refuse them because their liberty of refusal is determined by that lawful obedience which they owe to his Highness So in this case of his Highness sending Preachers legally presented and approved to Parishes the Parishes not having liberty to refuse them cannot be reputed equivalent to a forcing men upon them because their liberty of Refusal is determined by the Law which obligeth them to receive them and so no injury is done them by force or constraint forasmuch as no man or company of men ought to presume or pretend any further liberty in any Nation than the Laws of that Nation do allow 'T is pitty so much Ink and Time should be lost about the cleering of so plain a business But 't is for the sake of Mr. G. and his Admirers that he may not too much admire himself nor they believe him impregnable when they see his Arguments are no Edge tools He goeth on to present another scruple to the Magistrate