hath the power of Ecclesiasticke Jurisdiction to them the Lord hath given the Keys of Heaven for the remitting and retaining of sinnes But to none of the people the Lord hath given these Keys Ergo. The Major is not controverted The Minor is thus proved To whom Christ hath given the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven to retaine and remitt sinnes they are in some Ecclesiasticke Office They are sent out by Christ as Christ was by his Father they have some part of the Apostles ordinary charge but these things are not true of the people Ergo. The Major is proved John 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you and when he had said this he breathed upon them and said receive yee the Holy Ghost whose sinnes yee remitte they are remitted and whose sinnes yee retaine they are retained What was promised to Peter Mat. 16.19 is here performed to him and the rest of the Apostles and to their Successours in their ordinary Office of Elders for this was a power necessary for the Church to the end of the world The Minor also is cleare for these things were not given to all the Disciples but to the twelve and to their Successours What was promised to Peter was not promised to every faithfull person and to every Orthodoxe Confessour for so all and every one should be bearers of the Keys and Ecclesiasticke Officers which is against the Scriptures of the first Argument Thirdly to whom these acts of Jurisdiction doe belong they are the eyes eares hands and principall Members of the Body of Christ for the eminent persons and Officers of a Church are compared to these Members because of these actions But the people are not the eyes eares hands are not the principall Members of the Body of Christ for if so there should be none left in the Church to be the feete or lesse principall Members all should become eyes and hands and the Church should be made a Body Homogeneous contrary to the doctrine of the Apostle 1. Cor. 12 19. If they were all one Member where were the Body but now are they many Members and the eye cannot say to the hand I have no neede of thee nor the head to the feete I have no neede of you Fourthly Who have a right from God to the acts of Jurisdiction they have a promise of gifts needfull for the performance of these acts For a divine right and calling to any worke is backed with a promise of Gods presence gifts and assistance in doing of that worke but the people have no promise of any such gifts For besides that daily experience declares numbers among the people to be altogether destitute of such knowledge wisedome and other gifts which are necessary for the performance of these acts of Jurisdiction The Apostle himselfe teaches that such gifts are not given to all but to some onely Fifthly That is not to be given to the people that brings confusion into the Church for the Lord is the God of Order But the putting of the power of Jurisdiction in the peoples hand brings confusion into the Church for it makes the feete above the head it puts the greatest power into the hand of the meanest it gives power to the Flocke to depose and excommunicate their Pastour Our Brethren were lately wont to digest with the Brownists these absurdities but now they begin to dislike them and rather then to stand to their Prior Tenets they will limit the Minor asserting that the power of Jurisdiction belongs to the people not severally but joyntly with their Officers so that neither they can excommunicate their Officers nor their Officers can excommunicate them But it seemes this new Subtilty will not long please the Inventors of it for as we have saide it makes the Keys of Heaven much more inserviceable for opening and closing then needs must when it hath taken the keys out of the hand of all others and put them in the little weake fist of a particular Congregation it will not permitt them to open or to close the doore neither to the people nor yet to the Eldershippe The Eldershippe cannot remitt nor retaine the sinnes of the Brotherhood nor the Brotherhood of the Eldershippe yea none of the Eldershippe can be censured by all the people without the consentient vote of the Presbytery nor any of the people can either be bound or loosed without the consentient vote of the people In these cases which may be very frequent The Keys of Christ must be layde aside and a new key of the Independents owne invention their sentence of Non-Communion or that much beloved and a little elder key of separation forged by the Brownists must come in the place thereof to be used against any or all other Churches against their owne Church or its Eldershippe or its Brotherhood or any Member of either Our sixth argument concernes Ordination a speciall act of Jurisdiction which all the Independents to this day put in the hands of the people alone when ever a new Congregation is to be erected which to them is no extraordinary nor rare case or when in a Congregation already erected there is no Presbytery which among them is frequent For a Presbytery must consist of more Governours then one and usually their Presbiteryes exceede not the number of three or foure At the death of their Minister suppose one of their two ruling Elders be sicke or absent or the two differ betweene themselves in this case they make no difficulty to cause some of the people out of all office to ordaine a new chosen Pastour Against this very ordinary practice we reason Vnto whom the power of Ordination doth belong they have a Commission from God authoritatively to send Pastours for preaching and celebration of the Sacraments also to lay hands upon them for that effect But people have no such Commission Ergo. The Major is the nature of Ordination for the essence and inward forme of it is the authoritative sending named the outward Forme and Signe used in Scripture is imposition of hands The Minor is proved from three grounds first that the people however they elect yet they doe not send for so they should send to themselves The Senders and they to whom the Preachers are sent should be one and the same Secondly an authoritative mission imports a Superiority in the Sender above the Sent But the Pastours are over the people not under them Thirdly the examples of the New Testament make it evident that the authoritative sending and imposition of hands the signe thereof were never used by any of the people but by the Elders onely 1 Tim. 4.14 With the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim. 5.22 Lay hands suddenly upon no man 2 Tim. 1.6 Stirre up the gift of God that is in thee by the putting on of my hands So it was not onely at the first sending of men to preach but in posterior missions to any
be subdued and the hand of God so far turned against their adversaries that they should submit themselves without further opposition But what peace can be expected so long as the Whoredom and Witchcraft the Idolatry and Oppression of Iezebel the crying Crimes of many in the Land yet unrepented for doth offend the holy eye of the great Dispenser of Peace and War A Reformation after mourning is the second step to a solid Pacification Long may we petition both God and men for peace in vain long may we article and treat for that end without any successe unlesse a reall Reformation remove from the sight of God the personal abominations the State-transgressions and the Church-impieties of our Lands The Crimes of persons are grievous but those of a State are more The corruption of a member is not so grievous as of the whole Body and the deformity of the Body Political is not so unpleasant to the eye of God as of the Church this is the Body this is the Bride of Christ nothing so much provokes the passion of a loving Husband as the polluting of his Spouse Church-grievances were the first and main causes of our present Troubles the righting of these will open the door of our first hope of deliverance Whoso will observe either the spring or progresse of our present Woes in all the three Kingdoms will finde that the open Oppression and secret Undermining of the Common-wealth by the craft and tyranny of the malignant Faction did highly provoke the wrath of God and was a great occasion of all this Dâ—scord which hath broke out among men Yet it is evident that the pâ—incipal cause which hath kindled the Jealousie of God and enflamed the spirits of men to shake off and break in pieces those Yokes of Civil Slavery which ingenuous necks were no more able to bear was the constuprating of the Church the bringing in upon her by violence and daily multiplying of Errours Superstitions Idolatries and other Spiritual Burdens The Method of our Cure if ever it prove solid must lead our Physitians to the fountain of our Disease All Treaties for accommodating State-differences will be lost if in the first place Religion be not provided for according to the minde of God If once the Temple were builded and filled with the cloud the Difficulties would be small in making up the breaches in the house of the Kingdom and filling it with Peace and Prosperity So long as the Temple lies desolate it is not possible to rear up the walls of the City It were the wisedom of our great Builders when they finde themselves over-toiled in the Fifth yeer of their Work as they desire not to have all their by-past labours vain and fruitlesse at last in good earnest to set upon the building of the Church Interests of private persons and particular Factions laid over with the colour of pretended State-reasons may procrastinate days without number setling of Religion yet if we trust either ancient or late experience these States-men provide best for the welfare of their Countrey who give to the God of heauen to his Worship and House the first and most high place in all their studies and cares If we behold either the former or the later Reformers of the State of Israel if we consider the practice of Moses of David of Hezekiah of Zerubbabel and others it is evident the Tabernacle the Ark the Temple did first and most lie at all their hearts Our Neighbours and Brethren of Scotland when this our Disease was upon them and did presse them well-neer to death and ruine by this method of Physick did in a short time regain their full health and strength in the which they had great appearence to have continued without any Recidive unlesse their pious compassion and brotherly attendance upon us in our languishing had made them partakers of these evils in our Company which they had clean escaped The lamentable neglect for so long a time of the Churches disease makes now the Cure if not desperate yet much more difficult then once it was so much the more had every good man need to bring forth the best of his wits at least of his wishes for the encouragement and assistance of our great Physitians who now blessed be God with all their care are busied above all things else about the recovery of that languishing Patient The voices of some of her more faithful servants crying aloud in the ear of all the world of their Mistris extreme danger of her approach to the doors of death this noise hath a wakened and given an Alarm to many that now they run with speed to recover the exparing breath of their dying Mother not without some disdain and â—ndâ—gnation against them by whose subtil artifices and more then ordinary industry they have been kept off all this while from so much as approaching the sick bed of the dangerously-diseased Spouse of Christ And now while so many gracious hands are about this noble Patient every one out of their rich shops bringing the choicest Medicaments they can fall upon I also out of my poor store rather from a desire to testifie affection then confidence of any skill in this Art do offer unto her as one mean of help a Looking-glasse wherein if she will be pleased but to behold the Symptomes of her Disease by this inspection alone and clear sight of her face in this Glasse without any further trouble whether of Potions within or Applications without I am hopeful through the blessing of the great Master of all lawful Arts she shall be able to shake off the principal of those evils which now do most afflict her That by the eye alone very noisome Diseases may be conveyed to the body it is the ancient credulity of some However dayly experience puts it out of all doubt that thorow the glasse of the eye the soul may be infected with the desperate Diseases of most pestilent passions But that which here is offered is much more rare and singular by looking in a Glasse to cure the worst Diseases and to remove from the soul the most dangerous passions by meer contemplation To leave Metaphors my meaning is that the greatest hazard of our Church this day comes from the evil of Errour This if the Apostle Paul may be trusted doth eat up the soul no lesse then a Gangrene the body This if we will believe the Apostle Peter is a pernicious and damnable evil which brings on sudden destruction It is a sin before God no lesse abominable then those which brought fire on Sodom the flood on the first world the chains of darknesse upon the evil Angels At this instant when the evil of Errour hath spred it self over the whole Body of this distracted Church it seems it may prove a remedy not unprofitable to draw together the chief heads of those errours which now are flying abroad their faces being cleerly
the heavens must receive till the time of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world began This place proveth clearely the aboade of Christs body in the heaven till the time of the restitution of all things So much our Brethren grant but they deny our assumption that the time of the restitution of all things is the last day this therefore we prove not by the Testimony of all the reformed who unanimously bring this place as a maine ground against the Papists and Lutherans in the questions of Transubstantiation and Ubiquity but by three reasons from the Text it selfe First that time here is understood when all things that are spoken of by all the Prophets are performed But all things spoken of by all the Prophets are not performed till the last day Master Burrowes alleadgeance that all the Prophets are frequent and large upon the Raigne of the 1000 yeares but rare and sparing upon the doctrine of the last Judgement and life eternall might well have beene spared for the one halfe of it and left to the Socino-Remonstrants but suppose it were all true yet if any of the Prophets have spoken any thing at all of the last Judgement as the Apostle Jude puts it out of question even of Enoch it is cleare that the time of the performing of all things which any of the Prophets have spoken cannot possibly exist before the last Judgement as we may see Rom. 8. ver 21. compared ver 18.23 where the restitution of the creatures to their desired liberty comes not before the redemption of our bodyes and the glory to be revealed upon the whole Church at the last day Secondly the time here spoken of is when the Jewes to whom Peter did speake were to be refreshed by the Lords presence but this shall not be before the Generall resurrection for the Chiliasts doe maintaine that all the Jewes shall not rise neither that any of them to whom the Apostle did then speake shall be partakers of the first resurrection unlesse some of them who were Martyres for the honour and Glory of this first resurrection the most of them make it so rare and singular a priviledge that Daniel himselfe does not obtaine it but by a speciall promise Thirdly The time when God doth solemly before Men and Angels declare the absolution and blotting out of the sinnes of all his people is not before the last day But this is the time whereof the Apostle Peter speakes in the present place as appeares by the 19 verse That your sinnes may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Take but one other place for Christs aboade in the heaven till the last day John 14.2.3 I goe to prepare a place for you I will come againe and receive you to my selfe that where I am there you may be Behold Christ goes to the heaven and comes backe againe but once for this very end to take his Disciples with him not to abide with them upon the earth but to place them in the Mansions of his Fathers House in the Heavens which he went to prepare for them wherein all the time of his absence he himselfe was to remaine A Second argument we take from Christs sitting at the right hand of God This errour how innocent soever it seeme to some yet it perverts the true sence of sundry articles of our Creed and forceth its followers to coyne new and false senses to a great many Scriptures whereupon these articles were builded This was the reason why neither Piscator nor Alstedius nor Mead when they laide too fast hold upon some of the branches of Chiliasme yet the bulke and roote of that Tree Christs comming downe to the earth in his humane nature a thousand yeares before the last day they durst never touch but our Brethren have more venturous Spirits they see much further then their Masters they scruple nothing to make all these things popular and Catecheticke doctrine The reason I spoke of is this Christ sits at the right hand of God till the last day Ergo he comes not to reigne on earth a thousand yeares before the last day The consequence is builded upon this Proposition Christs sitting at the right hand of the Father is not in earth but in heaven which many Scriptures prove Ephes 1.20 He set him at his own right hand in heavenly places Heb. 1.3 He sat downe at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 8.1 He is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Maiesty in the heavens The antecedent I prove thus He sits at the right hand of God till all his enemies be made his footstoole So speakes the Psalmist Psal 110.1 But all his enemies are not made his footstoole till the last day for till then Satan Sinne Death and all wicked men are not fully destroyed Our third argument we take from the resurrection of the dead All the Godly at Christs comming from heaven doe rise immediately to a Heavenly Glory Ergo none of them doe arise to a Temporall glory of a thousand yeares upon earth The antecedent see in Heb. 9.28 Vnto them that looke for him shall he appeare the second time without sin unto salvation Christ hath but two times of comming to the earth first in weakenes to die upon the Crosse The second time in glory to give eternall Salvation without distinction to all beleevers who looke for his comming Also 1 Thes 4.14 Them which sleepe in Jesus will he bring with him The Lord himselfe shall discend from heaven with a shout and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meete the Lord in the ayre and so shall we be ever with the Lord. The ground of comfort which the Apostle propounds to the Thessalonians for all their dead as well Martyrs as others was their resurrection not before the Lords comming with the voice of the Archangell but at that time when all the dead in Christ without exception do arise and non of them abide on the earth but all are caught up in the ayre to meete the Lord and all remaine with him eternally thereafter without any separation See also 1 Cor. 15.22 In Christ shall all be made alive but every man in his owne order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christs at his comming then commeth the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdome to God The Apostle here speakes of the Resurrection of all and particularly of the Martyrs such as with the Apostle dyed daily and every houre were in jepoardy and fought with Beasts although he professes to distinguish the diversity of order that might be in this great worke of the Resurrection yet he affirmes that these who are Christs do not arise till his comming and his comming he makes not to be
these promises upon earth till their Ierusalem were againe builded and they put in possession of the holy land to build their houses and plant their Uineyeards therein till they saw themselves put in possession of their present carnall legall hopes Yea T. G. his literall exposition of this and the like places goes beyond the most of the Iewish apprehensions For that any of the Talmudists do dreame that at the comming of the Messias the Lyon shall eate straw that the Leoparde and the Lambe the Serpent and the sucking childe shall be brought to such a sympathy of natures as not to have the least disposition to doe harme the one to the other That the life of men shall be so much at that time prolonged as one of an hundred yeares must be taken but for an Infant and a childe that the most fabulous of the Rabbins have gone thus farre in a litterall beleefe I doe not know His eight place is Heb. 2.5 8. For unto the Angells he hath not put in subjection the world to come but now we see not yet all things put under him whence he inferres that Christ in the world to come is to reigne and to have all things put under his feet which is not now performed the Apostle saying expressely that now all things are not put under him neither is this true in the life to come for then the Kingdome of Christ is rendred up to the Father Ans The world to come is not that imaginary world of the 1000 yeares whereof the Scripture speaks no thing but the dayes of the Gospell of which the Apostle is there speaking and shewing that the Gospell was administred not by Angells as the Law had beene upon Mount Sinai but by the Sonne of God himselfe This new world under the Gospell did differ more from the old world under the Law then the earth in the dayes of Noah and the Patriarchs after the floud from the earth in the dayes of Noah before the floud This new world of the Gospell began with Christs first comming in the flesh it was demonstrated in his Resurrection When all power in heaven and in earth was given to him Math. 28.18 When all the Angells of God did worshippe him Heb. 1 6. When he was set farre above all Principalities and Powers Ephes 1.21 The accomplishment of this world is not till the Last day when Death Hell and Satan which yet are not made Christs footstoole shall fully be conquered These things cannot be verified of the thousand yeares For according to Mr. Burrowes grounds before they begin many things are annihilated and so not made subject The heavens and elements are melted with fervent heate The earth and the workes thereof are burnt up with fire Also during these thousand yeares Christs chiefe enemies are not fully subdued death still hath dominion over men the devill is onely bound but yet alive and not cast into the lake His ninth place is Ier. 3.16.17 They shall say no more the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord neither shall it come to minde neither shall they remember it at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord and all the Nations shall be gathered unto it neither shall they walke any more after the imagination of their evill heart Hence he inferres A state of the Church in the Last dayes so glorious that all things by-past shall be forgot That Judah and Israel shall returne from their captivity to Jerusalem That all Nations shall joyne with them That they shall no more walke after their old sinnes That Jerusalem which before times was at best but the footstoole of God shall then become a throne of glory Answer There is no word here of Christs abode upon earth for a thousand yeares Secondly the old things that are to be forgotten are expressed to be the Ceremonies of the Law but no Ordinance of the Gospell The Prophet names the Arke and the Temple which by Christs first comming were removed Thirdly The walking of Iudah and Israel together and the Nations joyning with them Imports no more but the calling of Iewes and Gentiles by the Gospell to the Christian Church the heavenly Ierusalem The same which the Prophet Esay hath in his second Chap. vers 5. The establishing in the Last dayes of the House of God on the top of the mountaines the flowing of all Nations thereto for out of Sion shall goe forth a Law and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem These Last dayes were the dayes of the Apostles when they from Sion and Ierusalem did blow the Trumpet of the Gospell to all the Nations These were the times whereof Ieremy in the 15 verse of the Chapter in hand doth speake I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feede you with knowledge and understanding The Pastors there promised were Christ and his Apostles better Pastors then these God never sent neither ever shall send to his Church Fourthly Walking after Gods owne heart doth not import a freedome from all sinne but onely a state of grace wherein according to the new Covenant God gives his people a newheart and writes his Lawes upon the same Fifthly That whereupon the greatest weight of the argument is laid seemes to be a very groundlesse conceit That Ierusalem when it is a throne of glory must be the old Ierusalem builded againe as if Ierusalem under the Law and Ierusalem in the dayes of the Gospell the Church in the new Testament the mother of us all were but the footestoole of God This is a doctrine expresly against Scripture for in divers places Ierusalem Sion and the Arke even in the old Testament are called not onely the footstoole but the throne of God Ier. 14.21 Doe not abhorre us for thy names sake doe not disgrace the throne of thy glory Also Chap. 17.12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our Sanctuary The Lord did as it were sit upon the Mercy Seate as upon a chaire of State under the Canopy of the wings of the Cherubins within the Sanctuary the chamber of his most Majestuous presence Ierusalem under the new Testament is called not onely the throne of God but his footstoole Esay 40.13 To beautifie the place of my Sanctuary and I will make the place of my feete glorious This place our Brethren expound of the Sanctuary during the time of the thousand yeares However it is cleare it must be expounded of the Church in the same times whereof Ieremiah speakes in his third Chapter whence the Argument in hand is brought The tenth place is Dan. 2 44. And in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed and it shall stand for ever Whence is inferred an everlasting Kingdome of Christ a joy of Ierusalem unchangeable to any sorrow Answer Christs Everlasting Kingdome is meerely spirituall and heavenly That dominion which