that concerned the Jewes glory or troubles he writeth in close hidden terms calling the Son of God the Prince of Princes Dan. 8.25 and the land of Judea the land of Tzeby Dan. 11.16 and Antiochus a man of an hard face i. impudent and minding hidden things i. secret wickednesse hardly practised by any before him So the Apostles did obscure the Emperours and Popes of Rome under the terms of Beasts and Antichrist lest they should provoke them to persecute the Christians before the time For the Beast was and is not and yet is Rev. 17.8 He was in rising an hundred yeers after Constantine and then was not i. even almost extinct by the invasion of the barbarous Goths and Vandals and yet is i. recovered and gets the place of Rome once governed by Kings Consuls Dictators Decemviri Triumviri which some Writers say are the five heads or Kings spoken of Rev. 17.10 and the sixt was an Emperor which St Iohn saith is and the other was not yet come namely the Pope who when he did come continued not long but he was dispossessed by the Goths But then he recovering againe made up the seventh by assuming the temporall power and yet appeared as an eight because he had a spirituall power divers from the former Of all which matters of Antichrist and his ruine one concludeth well in these verses Antichristus eat Christus comitatus ab alto Coelicolis properat Gog Magog ecce ruit Ecce ruit regnum serpens detrusus ad orcum Bestia tum sequitur cauda propheta dein Cauda propheta dein populus seductus ab ill is Veh miseris ter veh qui fide deficiunt Mathe. Though I find by what you have said that the Pope is not the head of the Church yet may I not think the Papists and many other hereticks and schismaticks to be of the body of the Church militant Phila. You cannot justly so think for the Church militant is that part of the Church Catholick which under the banner of Christ her head fighteth or is ready to do it against his enemies the world flesh and the devill and all their crafts and errors and their afflictions in spiritual armour Eph. 6.13 But they do not so not that I think they are a company of men perfect and void of sin as the Catharists and Anabaptists do nor are they such Aug. lib. de heres cap 88. Cyp. lib. 4. Ep. 2. as having never id in matters of faith refuse to retain any sinners in their congregation as the Novatians and Donatists did But yet not such a company as consist only in outward profession and communion of Sacraments under one Pastor the Pope but have the internall vertues of faith hope and charity whether living under the Law of the Gospell yet we exclude not as the Papists do from this Church all that are not baptized or under the examination of Catechisme or all kind of hereticks apostates excommunicate persons or schismaticks farther then they wilfully continue such nor doe we think that reprobates and hypocrites are members of the Church though they outwardly professe themselves so Mathe. I pray make this appear Phila. First many that are unbaptized and but under the discipline of catechising may be and are members of the Church militant because many such are included in the covenant Act. 2.39 as the Eunuch Acts 8. and Cornelius Acts 10. yea Rahab in the Old Testament mentioned Heb. 11.31 and the theefe crucified with Christ and many were martyrs before they were baptized Beside as many have been baptized who were never true members of the Church 1 Iohn 2.19 for many sheep are out of the fold Aug. in tract 45. in Joh. and many wolves within so by the same reason many unbaptized may be members of the Church militant Bel. lib. 1. de baptismo c. 6. though not visible because they may have the baptisme of fire and blood though not of water So we say that hereticks and apostates stubbornly continuing such are not of this Church because they have made shipwrack of faith and therefore are to be shunned by the faithfull being not of their society 1 Iohn 2.19 Yet we cannot deny them admittance upon their returning and repenting And so we account of schismaticks Concil Nicen. cap. 18 19. who rent themselves off from the Church Christs mysticall body and so is no part of it because they break the union of members with the head and one another and therefore so standing they cannot be members of the Church no more then a branch rent from a tree can be part of the living tree or a member cut from the body to be part of the living body So those that are justly excommunicate in the right sense of the Catholick Church and have no mind to return and to be reconciled cannot be of the Church militant because such want repentance and love and peace But because the whole Catholick Church cannot personally or actually excommunicate one some think therefore that whether excommunication be inflicted justly or unjustly one is but cast out of the Church visible or some particular Church Indeed sometimes it may very well be so but if it be done by the rule of the whole Church surely it is all one as if done by the whole or the representative body of the Church because the same spirit guideth any part if they go by a true rule which guideth the whole as 1 Cor. 5.4 and therefore in ancient time Nic. Conc. Can. 5. if one Church did excommunicate a man another Church might not absolve him It is true that a man unjustly excommunicated is only cast out of the visible Church John 9.34 35. or particular Congregation and therefore he retaining his faith and baptisme is neverthelesse a member of the Church militant yea a man justly excommunicate yet upon his repentance is a member of the Church militant and ought to be admitted into the visible Church and particular Congregation as was the incestuous person 2 Cor. 2.7 8. for the censure of excommunication is to such a man only corrective 1 Cor. 5.5 not destructive for though it be said there for the destruction of the flesh yet I suppose that he was not delivered to Satan to be killed but rather that he finding himselfe cast out of the Church which is the kingdome of God and so deprived of the benefits thereof conveied to men by praier word and Sacrament and so in the devils power it might work in him a mortification of fleshly concupiscence by true repentance Nor do we set open this Church door so wide as to account reprobates of the Church militant nor yet notorious sinners without repentance for the members of the Church militant are living stones built upon the corner stone Christ 1 Pet. 2 5. in whom they are chosen and inrolled as his souldiers and are Saints by efficacious calling because predestinated thereto Rom. 8.30 which reprobates are not So manifest
and notorious sinners are not of the Church militant because they fight not against sin but subject themselves to it having not the spirit that lusteth against the flesh Gal. 5.17 whereas in the members of the Church militant Christ liveth by the holy spirit deriving to them sense life and spirituall motion Nor do we number hypocrites to be of the Church militant though in the visible Church by partaking of the doctrine and Sacraments because they want those vertues and graces which proves one to be a member of the mysticall body of Christ as faith to apprehend Christ the head and foundation and to be united to him and therefore can bear no fruit in him but must be taken away Iohn 15.2 though they be in Church visible which Church the Papists only acknowledging may well hold that the true Church is alwaies visible Mathe. Why is it not so Phila. You are to consider that the tearm or word Church is diversly understood First for the universall company of beleevers and so it is invisible and therefore it is said in the Creed I beleeve the holy Catholike Church now faith is the evidence of things not seen Secondly Church is taken for a company of men in particular places professing one and the same true religion and so it is visible Again if you take the Church in the externall form of it namely for a company of men met together to perform Church duties so the Church is visible but if you take it in its internall form consisting in efficacious calling and faith so it is invisible for it is hard to judge who hath these graces Therefore certainly neither the whole Catholick Church nor all that part of it called militant is visible But some part of the Church militant hath and is but yet is not necessary to be alwaies visible but may possibly lie hid and unappearing at some times Aug. in lib. 5. cont Donat. c. 17 Rev. 13.13 14 In which regard the Church is called a garden inclosed and a fountain sealed Cant. 4.11 and the weapons of her warfare to be spirituall 2 Cor. 10.4 When Antichrist reigned over the world where was then the Church visible surely fled like the woman Rev. 12.16 into some solitary place as Eliah was forced to do by Iesabel 1 Kin. 19.10 Indeed there hath been and I fear will be again when our Sun will be darkned and her Moon will not give her light and our Stars fall from the Churches heaven And when you see the abomination of heresies schisme and libertinisme set up in Gods Temple let him that is in Christianity fly to the Scripture for there you shall only find what the true Church is namely certain people called at divers houres some at the first some at the second others at the third So at the beginning middle and end of the world and not all alike at all times sometimes clouded sometimes more resplendent so that it is not alwaies visible nor alwaies alike visible Mathe. Whether is the visible Church subject to defects or errors Phila. Yes for Adam and Eve fell in Paradise and afterward the world was so wicked that the Church remained only in Noahs family And after God had chosen the people of Israel to be his Church they worshipped the golden Calfe and for that and other sins we find them left without Religion Priest or Law 2 Chron. 5. and their Temple ruin'd and themselves dispersed Christ saith that faith shal hardly be found on the earth 2 Thes 2. and St Paul prophecieth of a generall apostacy So in the time of Athanasius the Christian world was over-run with Arianisme only Athanasius stood for Christ that he was of the same substance with the Father But he was but one man and one man could not make a Church so that the Church as well as the Moon may suffer an eclipse especially when the sword shall awake against the shepherd Zach. 13.7 and he shall be smitten and the sheep scattered So likewise the visible Church may erre not the Church Catholick and universall for truth could not be found then upon earth nor any visible militant Church for then they have no truth to fight for But the visible Church as it consisteth of its outward matter and form namely of a company of men exercised about Ecclesiasticall matters may erre and so it did before the Law in the time of the Patriarks and under the Law as the Church of Israel and since the Law For the visible Church of the Jewes persecuted the Christians and the Disciples were all offended and stumbled at Christs sufferings and hardly beleeved at first his resurrection yea and after it erred about his Kingdome Acts 1.6 which they thought should be earthly So they doubted a while about the calling of the Gentiles Acts 10.20 cap. 11.2 So we find the Church of the Corinths full of division 1 Cor. 1.11 and schismes and doubts of the resurrection of the dead 1 Cor. 15. and the Church of Galatia falling back to Judaisme by circumcision Gal. 5.1 2 3. Yea all the Eastern Churches as wel as the seven Churches of the lesser Asia have had their errors and remaine in some as the Papists say even till now Yea generall Councils have not been free for one hath disallowed what the other hath allowed and both cannot therefore be true As the Councill of Franckford broke down the Images in Churches Aug. lib. de unita Eccles c. 3. which the second Councill of Nice restored and so many others did one contradict another which sheweth the Churches imperfection and that it stands not with her nature to be free from error for then if she did once erre she could be no longer a Church Therefore the Church of Rome if it be a visible Church can chalenge no such prerogative especially since Antichrist sitteth there as chiefe governor Hier. in Epist Rustic since which time by avarice the Law is perished from the Priest and vision from the Prophet Mathe. I pray tell me the notes of a true visible Church Phila. I suppose you mean particular Churches in severall nations For the universall Catholike Church is rather to be beleeved then seen as is implied in that Article of the Creed I beleeve the holy Catholike Church There be therefore three notes of a true visible Church First a sincere preaching of the Word Secondly a pure dispensation of Sacraments And thirdly a right administration of discipline These are the notes of a true Church though all of them are not sound alwaies and at the same time in a Church As the Jewes for forty years in the wildernesse wanted circumcision so sometime some ministers may possibly through ignorance infirmity or fear or to please greatnesse depart from sincere doctrine and so by the dragons taile many stars are cast to the earth and by some of them the waters are made bitter Rev. 8.11 yet may it be a true Church so long as
wander and so help to nourish Christian communion which is almost lost And this is all he aimeth at and praieth for who is and ever by Gods grace will be Thine as thou art Christs Benjamin Spencer These Books following are printed and to be sold by William Hope on the North side of the Royall Exchange at his shop next door to St Bartholomews Church THE Faith Doctrine and Religion professed in this Realm of England and the Dominions thereunto belonging Expressed in Thirty Nine Articles by Thomas Rogers The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the Distressed Also his Devout Soule and Free Prisoner by Jos Hall D. D. and B N. The New Covenant Or The Saints Portion by John Preston D.D. Bethel Or A form for Families in which all sorts of both Sexes are so squar'd and fram'd by the Word as they may best serve in their severall places for usefull pieces in Gods building by Matthew Griffith The Holy Lives of Gods Prophets by J. H. The Abridgement of the Body of Divinity of that Famous and Reverend Divine Mr William Perkins A True Relation of the Unjust Cruel and Barbarous proceedings against the English at Amboyna in the East-Indies by the Netherlandish Governor and Council there Godly Meditations upon the most holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Christopher Sutton Doctor in Divinity late one of the Prebends of the Collegiate Church of Westminster A Fountain of Teares by that Reverend divine Iohn Featley D.D. Chaplain to his late Majesty Some Sacramentall Instructions Or An explication of the Principles of Religion by T. B. B D. Pastor of M. O. London A Triumphant Arch Erected and Consecrated to the Glory of the Feminine Sex By Monsieur de Scudery Englished by I. B. Gent. The Generall History of Women Containing the Lives of the most Holy and Prophane the most Famous and Infamous in all ages exactly described not only from Poeticall Fictions but from the most Ancient Modern and admired Historians to our times by T. H. Gent. Heroick Education Or Choice Maximes and Instructions for the most sure and facile training up of youth in the waies of eminent learning and vertues by I. B. Gent. Gerardo the Unfortunate Spaniard Or a Pattern for Lascivious Lovers Originally in Spanish and made English by L. D. Poems By Francis Beaumont Gent. Colloquia Plautina viginti Ex totidem M. Plauti Comoediis excerpta Annotatiunculis marginalibus illustrata Opera Alexandri Rossaei A CHRISTIAN DIALOGVE between PHILALETHES and MATHETES Mathetes REverend Sir I have presumed upon your goodnesse and long acquaintance you being a lover of truth and of all those that love it to designe this day to wait upon you and to give you the trouble to satisfie some questions whereby my mind may be established in this wavering world wherein severall societies of Christians do all lay claime to truth as theirs only with as great fervency as the two women pleaded before King Solomon for the child which could not possibly have two mothers So surely there is but one truth and but one right and true profession of it Philalethes I hope your Religion is not now to seek Mathe. Not altogether but I confess I would be glad to find satisfaction more fully about that religion in which I was born and bred that so I may not beleeve implicitly as because my parents were of this or that religion but that I may be able to render a reason of mine own faith Phila. Your endeavour is good but I fear you are troubled with the staggers or vertigo a braine giddinesse bred by the inordinate motion of spirits in the ventricle of the brain so I beleeve your mind is made light and frothy by some evil notions unwarily received or by a multitude of good notions not wel disposed like unto good meat that being not well digested will breed a disease as well as vicious diet this may be some cause of your wavering Mathe. I think Sir you say right For I confesse to you that I have met with some spirits that have made me in such a maze and brought me into such alabyrinth that I have turned Seeker of what I had and a Shaker in what I held yet I find my first tenets in the Protestant Religion to be the best but I want confirmation For some tell me that I cannot prove there is a God or that man hath asoule immortall more then other creatures and that it comes only by generation and hath no existence after death And when I endeavour to confute them by Scripture they bid me prove the Scriture to be the word of God when I seek to prove that by Scripture they say it cannot bear witness to its selfe for that is to prove the same by the same If I flie to the tradition of the Church they aske me what Church is the true Church Or if I offer them the sence of Scripture to prove what they demand then they ask me who shall be judge whether that be the true sense or no If I say our Church of England Gabr à porta Bicl in can miss lect 23. they deny her to be true If I say the Church of Rome others prove her and her Pope too Hereticall If I say the reformed Churches of Geneva Helvetia or Scotland they tell me they are schismaticall so that I am in a great straight with Job to know where wisdome is to be found Job 28.12 or where is the place of understanding Phila. You need not seek far the word is neer thee from whence such reasons may be deduced that will answer all these opinions But if men will not hear these reasons I must tell them they have no faith but either humane or divelish not divine faith which beleeves that there is a word of God and beleeves God upon that word But I will not anticipate tell me therefore what was the first thing which troubled you Mathe. Even the same with which I troubled my selfe being a child or something else troubled me by casting into my mind what that God was of whom my parents had told me whether he was before the world what he did then before he made it And I have met with some of as little wit as I my selfe then had or else of deeper reach either to bring us into some form which yet we have not had or else to bring us all to confusion and then out of that chaos to raise up a Church of their own framing and boast of it as did Nebuchadnezzer Is not this great Babel which I have built Phila. As these thoughts came into your mind for want of knowledge of God at first so do these scrupulous queries come into it for want of subjecting your selfe to that knowledge which God hath offered to you of himselfe For the soul of man being rational and discoursive will run into many vagaries and grow extravagant without rule and so misse God wherein standeth mans eternall happinesse Mathe.
bear or else they will not be well understood Vid. Preface to Ecclus Now being so done by the Church they must not be suspected by the children that their mother the Church would put poison in their milk or else they must try by learning the first language Hierom. in lib. cont Helvid Aug. lib. 15. de Civitate Dei cap. 13. whether it so or no and in the mean time receive them thankfully as they be and as doubts arise inquire for satisfaction And if this rule be not kept we shall beleeve either many or not any and be of many religions or of none Truely it is a lamentable case that children should suspect parents and more for the Church to give them cause to suspect her Deut. 17. For God commands the Jewes to sit down silent upon the definitive sentence of the Priests and no doubt so must we upon the Churches unlesse we mean to beleeve our selves more then either Church or Scriptures The variety in translation makes no considerable difference in the sense but like descant in Musick makes the ground plain note seem more grave and full or like the variation of the compasse makes the Pilot more studious to steer his course Mathe. Of what antiquity is the translation among us Christians Phila. Long before printing Bed lib. 1. hist cap. 1. For Bede tels us it was in five languages of the Britains And Vphila Bishop of the Goths translated it for his people Such Copies were among the Armenians Russians Socrat. lib. 4. c. 33. Eccius cap. de miss Lati. Agrip. de vanit scientiarum Ethiopians Dalmatians and Muscovites And these translations were allowed by the Nicen Synods decree that no Christian might want a Bible in his house So Chrysostom exhorteth people of his time Hom. 9. in Epist Colos and rightly cals them the physick for the soul And therefore we were better to lay out monie then want health and sell our cloak then want a Bible and have as good opinion of the Churches translation as of a Physitians prescription or an Apothecaries composition In this case we must beleeve our selves or some body else and why not the Church thy mother and thy nurse It is a great judgment of God upon men when they suspect the learned whose lips preserve knowledge and beleeve the ignorant and so the blind leads the blind I know some say the Apostles were ignorant men so they were at first but after Christ and the Spirit had taught I think they were the most learned men in the world In vain do men therefore preserve ideots before him to whom God hath given the tongue of the learned or to suspect antiquity and trust novelty and love to hear no more then they know already and so bring the Scriptures into question the Churches doctrin into suspition and the true knowledge of God to be disregarded For we have little reason to mistrust the Churches translation except she be notoriously proved to be a deceiver and a patronesse of adulterous faith or maintain opinions contrary to the truth of which the Church of Rome was guilty and from which the Protestant Church is refined of whose fidelity if we now doubt we must either fall to Atheisme or back Papisme or be overrun with Barbarisme Mathe. But how shall we find the sense of Scripture Phila. If you mean in things necessary to faith and manners Esa their sense is plain to an ordinary capacity as was prophecied If you mean the sense of difficult places there if we use diligence and yet fall into error there is no danger in it because it is not necessary and therefore he that erreth and he that erreth not may both be saved holding the points necessary to faith and fact If men therefore would look upon Scripture not as the tree of knowledge with the eie of curiosity but as the Tree of Life affording all things necessary to their salvation John 15.26 the saving sense would soon be found especially if men when they read would pray for the spirit who can best explaine his own writing Mat. 11.25 for they are indeed spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.12 So if they would lay by carnall thoughts and selfe opinion and receive it with meeknesse as a little child or a new born babe purged from the corruption of our naturall birth by repentance and preparednesse to beleeve the Gospell for no other end then for gods glory and one souls happinesse not desiring so much to increase as to better conscience Mathe. But if I doubt of thesense who shall be judge Phila. If the Scripture be a perfect rule to judge there needs no other judge of it And if it be not a perfect rule who can one trust to judge in matters of faith having no perfect rule to judge by The sense therefore is found by analogy and lying parallel with other parts of Scripture and with those axioms collected therefrom and generally agreed upon Therefore if any sense that I gather from it run contrary to the Lords Praier in matter of devotion or to the Commandements in matter of action or to the Creed in matter of faith I may suspect it so if that sense crosse any other place of Scripture evidently that sense may justly be thought to be adulterate Surely S. Paul aimed at some such thing when he bad Timothy hold fast the form of sound words which if men do they may hold both peace and truth For as a naturall man finds out a truth by reason so doth a Christian find out saving Truth true Religion and a true Church by the Scripture which is the perfect rule for that purpose and so it may be a judge of those things now Rom. as well as it shall be at the last day and as well as mans reason nature or by art may be a rationall though not a personall judge of other things Mathe. What need have we then of Preachers Phila. 1. To remember people of what they have been taught 2. Heb. 2.1 2 Pet. 1.13 To stir them up to do what they have not practised 3. To confirm and establish them in what they have beleeved Acts 8.14 and cap. 14.21 22. 4. To convert those that are not converted 5. To edifie and build them up farther in the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ Acts 20.32 6. To explaine difficult places of Scripture 7. To confute the adversary to truth Isa 54.13 For though it be prophecied they shall be all taught of God which John 6.45 Christ makes good and expounds it ver 46. not that any one hath seen the Father that is immediatly taught of the Father but by that more clear medium the Son of God and his Ministers which the world never knew before which ministry must stand to the end of the world Mat. 28.20 till the mystery of God be finished and the number of the elect be accomplished It is a great presumption for men to
broken and his blood shed though the Papists love to call it so the more easily to make people beleeve that Christs very flesh is there present The bread for number being twelve great cakes Tremelius on the Ephab Exod. 16.36 and in respect of their order being six in a rank one against the other seemeth to represent Christs twelve disciples whom he sent out two by two This order of setting them is found by the Hebrew word Grerec which signifieth the order of martiall ranks So these being preserved for the Priests eating it sheweth 1. Who hath right to the holy bread of the Lords Table even such as are called to be holy Priests to God as none might eat of these but the Priests only It is true that David and his men did so but it was in case of great necessity wherein charity dispensed with the Law and in some cases the Communion cannot be denied to some not prepared according to the strict order of the Sanctuary as Judas was not and yet received the holy Supper yet examples are no rules when they vary from common Law Also it sheweth that God will provide for those that serve at his Altar and Table in despight of the envious world Psal 23. 1 Cor. The frank incense which with the bread was taken off and was offered to God signified the thanksgiving which we are to offer to God for all his benefits Hieron in Eccl. especially for feeding us by his Word and Sacraments for which our praier should be directed like incense Psal 142.2 Mathe. What means the seven fold golden Candlestick Phila. No doubt Christ and his Church and that in respect of the matter form and use of the Candlestick 1. In regard of the matter it was beaten gold The gold sheweth the pretiousnesse of Christ and the Church both of one mettall Heb. 2.11 The form shewed also Christ to be the middle and chiefest shaft or stock into the which the rest are ingraffed for he is the Vine and the Church are his branches This Candlestick was beaten out by the hammer Haym in Rev. 11. so was Christ and his Church by divers strokes God smit the Shepherd and the world scattered the flock by persecution Or if this hammer be taken in a good sense it signifieth the Scripture which is Gods hammer saith the Prophet to which Christ was conformed Psal 22. and by which the Church is and must be framed by Christs ministers as this Candlestick was by Bezaleel and Aholiab Exod. 31. driven out to and fro till she hath attained her perfection in Christs juncture as the children of Israel was in the wildernesse driven up and down to 42. stations and the Church from Abraham to Christ Mat. 1. was through forty two generations the true number of the Bowls Knops and Flowers of this Candlestick Exod. 25. The use of this Candlestick was to support the lamps of oile-Olive to give light clearly and continually Greg. Mor. lib. 18. cap. 32. This light signified Christ who is the true light that enlightneth every man Joh. 1.14 and also Christs true disciples who are the light of the world Mat. 5.14 Christ is the light enlightning his disciples the light enlightned These lamps may also signifie the word which St Peter calleth a light set in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 which word of prophecie is neither legall or evangelicall which two like two olive trees seen of Zachary cap. 4. feeds these lamps with oile Mathe. What were the adjuncts of the most holy place Phila. You know that I told you before that this most holy place signified the heavens the adjuncts were the Ark and the golden Censer The Ark was made of Shittim wood overlaied within and without with gold In this Ark were put the tables of the Law and so might well type forth the glorious humane nature of Christ Bed de Taber in whom was hidden all the treasures of wisedome Col. 2.3 And he indeed did only keep the Law of God entire The cover of this Ark was called by the Septuagint in their translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The reconciliation and so St Paul useth their Greek word Rom. 3.25 But in Heb. 9.5 this cover is called the Mercy Seat This may well signifie Christ also whom God hath set forth to be our reconciliation Greg. Mag. in Ezek. lib. 1. hom 6. who covereth all our sins committed against the holy Tables by his glorious merits and all our sins by his love and so make us a blessed people Psal 32.1 This mercy seat was shadowed by two golden Cherubins with stretched out wings and from one end to the other and their faces bending downward as looking into the Ark as desirous to behold the great mystery of mans redemption signified hereby 1 Pet. 1.12 Here God promised to make declaration of his mind to Aaron Exod. 25.22 and we can have no comfortable answer nor apparition of God but by Christ the mercy seat Two other things were set by this Ark of Testimony or before it namely Aarons rod that budded to convince the peoples rebellion against him Numb 16.17 Isa 53.2 This rod might as it was a dry stick signifie Christ who though he seemed as contemptible Orig. in Ex. c. 25. yet brought miraculous fruits to mankind enough to prove that he was chosen of God though rejected of men As also the flourishing fruit of the Gospels discipline in the hearts of men by Gods powerfull blessing though the ministry seems to the world as foolishnesse Bed yet it shall prove as the scepter of Christ The reservation of this rod of Aaron shewed that the ministry of Christ our High Priest will ever and anon be quarrelled against by those who shal think themselves holy enough for the ministry til God stop their murmurings by some extraordinary work and shall cast away the rod of their presumption as things of no value as he hath done that of Rome and many other Hereticks and Sectaries making the true ministry of the Gospell flourish above all as he hath done the Protestant Religion in the hearts of people beyond all the feined miracles of Rome which is the right Epistle of recommendation to the truth preached 2 Cor. 3.2 3. Thus Aarons rod signified Christ and Gospell-ministry First Christ who seemed in the promise but a dry stick but in the Prophets as this rod blossoming but in the Gospell as this rod bringing forth ripe fruit Secondly the Ministry of the Gospell in doctrine and discipline First in discipline as 1 Cor. 4.21 shall I come to you with a rod. Secondly in the doctrin which at first worketh on the affections invisibly next in the tongue it blossomes by good words and lastly in the life by laudable deeds As for the pot of manna which was here reserved it shewed not only how God had fed their fathers in the wildernesse and so stirred them up to thankfulnesse but was
it was done by decree of St Paul upon the incestuous person 1 Cor 5. I have determined as if present to deliver him to Satan Amb. in 1 Tim. cap. 1. As for their assembling together at his command it was that the whole Church might see and fear that upon reading the sentence the spirit of Paul being present by the power of the Lord Jesus Satan should plainly smite him with some evill Chry. in 1 Cor. 5 hom 15. as once Peter did Ananias dead Acts 5. and Paul Elymas the sorcerer Acts 13. From this it is St Paul saith 2 Cor. 10. we have in a readinesse to revenge all disobedience and is called his rod 2 Cor. 13.2 1 Cor. 4. which he will not spare This I confesse was excommunication and somewhat more for many were excommunicated and yet not delivered to Satans power 2 Cor. 13.10 which was a sharp execution of that power the Lord had given him Thus we see the Apostles kept this power and by their command only it was executed Christ gave this power of the keies only to the Apostles John 20. and Paul being an Apostle used them without the authority of Presbyters Mathe. But whether doth the power still continue and in whom Phila. Some gifts were appointed to the Apostles persons As 1. Their calling by Christs own mouth 2. Their infallibility in truth 3. The visible assistance of Gods spirit 4. To speak extempore in divers tongues 5. To work miracles 6. To bestow the gifts of Holy Ghost upon others all which was given to them to beget and convert and confirm Christians at first But this milk is not necessary alwaies to be continued when the Church is grown to a ripe age for the Scriptures are afterward sufficient to make us perfect to every good work 1 Tim. and the miracles then done are a full confirmation of their truth But yet you must know that the authority of their calling liveth yet in their successors and to teach administer Sacraments to bind and loose sins to impose hands for the ordaining Pastours and Elders are not ceased nor can be wanting so long as there is a Church for these beget faith without which there is no Church Therefore their successors are stewards of the mysteries of Christ and are warned to take care of Christs flock Acts 20. and of this few doubt but the power of the keies troubles them to whom they are committed that is excommunication and absolution So others quarrell about ordination and these are the well-wishers to Lay-Eldership which they would have joined in this work with Apostles and Bishops but they find no warrant for it I know they bring commonly two or three places of Scripture for Presbyterie as the hands of the Presbyterie 1 Tim. 4.14 which I have shewed were the hands of Bishops and preaching Elders at least not of Lay Elders So they say Christ bids a man tell the Church Mat. 18. which if a man will not hear he is to be accounted as an heathen Now by this word Church they would bring in all the Lay Elders Chrys hom 61. in Mat. 18. Beza annot in Mat. 18. saith the chiefe implieth the whole But surely there is understood the spirituall Presidents and Governors so there we read of no Lay Presbyterie But they say that in the 1 Tim. 5. Paul tels us of ruling Elders and thereforre there were some Elders beside those that laboured in the word and doctrine as Rom. 12. he that ruleth let him do it with diligence but it is plain they are not distinct offices Beza annot in 1 Tim. 4. Chrys hom 15. in 1. Tim. 5. Hieron in 1 Tim. cap. 5. but sometime pertaining both to the Deacon or Preaching Elder who also ruled the Church and in regard of their good government deserved double honour of reverence and allowance but especially for laboring in preaching the Gospell because they cannot so well provide things needfull for themselves But for Lay Judges I never heard they were to be maintained by the Church stock of which maintenance the Apostle in 1 Tim. 5. speaketh and therefore here can be understood no Lay Presbyterie but rather such as did govern the Churches stocks as the Deacons did or ministers which either did both Beza annot in 1 Pet. cap. 5. or only laboured in the word for the name Elder compriseth sometimes all those that have any Ecclesiasticall function And St Chrysostome on 1 Cor. 1.17 on these words Chrys in 1 Cor. 1.17 Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach saith that few were able to preach but many to give baptisme therefore the inferiour sort of ministers baptized and the superiour in wisedome Evangelized They that performed the first well were counted worthy of double honour for their right ordering the Church but especially such as labored in the word and doctrine so that still we find no ruling for Lay Elders but rather the dutie and pains of their Pastors and Teachers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one by ruling the flock well in his Church and charge whereof he is president by doctrine administration and example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other for travelling with great pains of mind and body to dispense the Gospell and confirm Christians by travell and visiting in which sense Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. he laboured more then all the Apostles Yet I speak not this in derogation to Lay-men which are holy grave and wise but only that they had no place in ordination or excommunication yea I beleeve good use might be made of them for moderation of quarrels and strifes and examinations as 1 Cor. 6.4 and to end matters peaceably between Christians but not to censure Ecclesiastically for that belongs to the ministers nor to punish by the civill law for that belongs to the Magistrate The keies were given of Christ to his Apostles and of them to their successors which were spirituall pastors so that every godly minister hath power to put by an unworthy receiver from the Lords Table as well as to admit one that is worthy Amb. de poenit lib. 1. c. 2. without the assistance of Lay Eldership to whom neither power of preaching the Word nor administring the Sacraments Chrys de sacer lib. 3. was ever committed For when Christ said to Peter Aug. 5. Tract in Joh. I will give thee the keies of the Kingdome of heaven he meant and intended it to all the ministers of the Church as appeareth in giving the rest of the Apostles the same power after his resurrection Therefore saith Ambrose Amb. de dignita sacer c. 6. all we that are Priests received the keies in blessed Peter but he saith not Lay-men did also receive them Mathe. This may make Ministers take too much upon them Phila. Not if they be either wise and godly Cypr. l. 1. Ep. 2. for they are to use this power with moderation and great discretion for much
since they are not of perpetuity Chem. Exam. part 1. p. 25. but have been alwaies changeable as we know at first in the Primitive time the people stood up at praier every Lords day from Easter to Whitsontide to argue their belief of Christs resurrection which is not now enjoin'd or used So the French prophecie or preach with their heads covered to shew their dominion of teaching their people are uncovered to shew their subjection to his doctrin which is contrary to the Apostles order to the Corinthians All ceremonies are not so fit for all times the Church hath liberty to settle or abrogate them as shee seeth cause which liberty no wise man ever denied the Church but holdeth significant ceremonies to be profitable for the people Calv. opusc p. 344. Calv. instit lib. 4. cap. 10. Chem. Exam. part 4. tract de Imag. p. 13. Zeppe Leg. Mos l. 4. c. p. 312 Juni cont lib. 4. p. 283. Chem. Exam. part 2. p. 32. so that such a mean be kept that Christ be illustrated not obscured I beleeve upon this ground it is that Luther Chemnitius and Calvin allow of pictures in the Church done by way of historicall narration both for ornament and remembrance without any superstition So Holydaies are and may be celebrated in remembrance of some speciall benefit received from God about that time or by some eminent person that he hath emploied for the Churches good And indeed none of these things were thought superstitious till opinion of merit and of efficacious operation was annexed to them But to conclude if ceremonies of humane institution being significant to some duty which Gods worship requireth be unlawfull I see not but men may refuse to take a lawfull oath because ones laying their hand on the book and kissing it Deut. 6.13 signifieth a worshipping God the author of that book in taking the oath and that one doth aver the truth of his conscience towards man as well as his faith towards God in so doing Nor can a man keep the Lords day religiously if it be not a mystical and significant sign to him of the resurrection of Christ past Heb. 4.9 and of our spiritual rest from sin of that eternal rest which is promised to the people of God Nor do I see how people can have any religious respect to Churches if they take them not as signs or shadowes of the celestiall Temple Zanch. de Redemp l. 1. tract de tempt col 703. where the spirits of the faithfull are collected together praising the Lord. Nor can we keep any festivall without casting an eie upon what it relates to in his signification And truly if ceremonies had no signification they were the more fit to be cast out of the Church as unprofitable and as such as the Papists use that want sign and sense Mathe. But having been superstitiously abused they ought rather to be abolished then used in the Church services Phila. Yet in Josh 6.19 the spoile of Jericho is commanded by Joshua to be brought into Gods treasury And Gideon was commanded to take the wood of the idolatrous grove and offer sacrifice Judg. 6.26 We find also that those things which the Jewes abused was continued by godly men Bishops of Jerusalem in the Primitive times as Circumcision though not as a Sacrament but as a sign to shew they came of the line of Abraham So the Feast of Easter was kept by many reverend and worthy Bishops and Martyrs before the Councill of Nice on the same manner and day as did the Jewes but not with the same end as the Jewes did So the Councill of Nice did not abolish the feast of Easter but changed it into the Lords day So the Papists have abused the Lords Supper by erroneous opinions and idolatrous adorations of it which sheweth many good things may be abused and yet are not therefore to be disused this were to deny the use of the Sun because Absalom lay with his fathers concubins in the open light Surely a ceremony washed from superstitious dirt may be used in the Church by mutation or correction Clem. Exam. p. 34. c. 1. Zanc. de Red. in 4. precept p. 678. without utter abscission for they being thus purged are sanctified to holy use And so the Church of England only retained three the Surplice to warn the Minister of purity the Crosse to warn Christians of constancy and kneeling to admonish communicants of humility We know the Papists have abused these and others to superstition but abuse makes nothing evill which is not evill in it selfe And therefore the best reformed Divines have concluded even as ancient fathers have done before them who did not demolish all that was dedicated to idolatrie Calv. opuscul tracb de vitand superst p. 78. but converted them to better use So neither doth Mr Calvin approve of that morosity in men who because some ceremonies of the Papists may not be observed therefore none may yea some non Conformists have written that though the Papists have dedicated Churches to idolatry yet there being a good use for them among us they may be retained as also Popish vestments may be altered and make ornaments for the Church And surely they say well in that and it were good if the rest would not wrest away the liberty of the Church in such things which may make a lawfull use of indifferent ceremonies for conveniency without offence to God Mathe. But yet they are offensive to many good men and therefore to be left off Phila. First we must consider whether they be offensive in themselves or made offensive by the intention of the Church Theo. l. 3. c. 16. as Julian the Apostate set up his image in the Market place among the images of the heathen gods that he that gave eivill respect to his image might be thought also to do honour to them or if they did no respect then they might seem to despise both the gods and the Emperour So he set an Altar neer his throne with a fire upon it and incense upon a table Sozo l. 3. c. 17. and all Officers of his army that came to receive his largesse of gold did first cast some incense into the fire by which many were scandalized or caused to stumble So he caused all the fountains in the region of Antioch to be dedicated to the heathen goddesses and all the meat in the Market to be sprinkled with heathenish holy water yet the Christians were so wise as not to avoid their drink and meat knowing that to the clean all things are clean Tit. 1.15 and also bought what was sold and made no scruple as 1 Cor. 10.25 Then next we must consider whether the offence arises not from our own ignorance and weaknesse and so we be not straitned by the Church but in our own bowels and so like little children that complain their cloaths are to little when their bellies are too full The offence