lively f stones of the house of God f 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. To whom coming as unto a living stone c. ye also as lively stones are built up a spirituall house an holy Priesthood to offer up spirituall sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ built upon g Christ and set in their proper places to offer up spirituall sacrifice unto him g 1 Cor. 3. 9. Ye are Gods building and Ephes 2. 21. In whom viz. in Christ all the building is fitly framed together 2. The stones of this building are either the Foundations of the Corners or the Walls 3. The chief and only foundation which is the head of the corner is Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 3. 11. Other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Christ Jesus 1 Pet. 2. 7. Vnto you he is precious viz. Christ but unto the disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner Compared with Psal 118. 22. Isa 28. 16. Thus saith the Lord behold I lay in Sion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious corner-stone a sure foundation 4. The secondary foundations i next unto Christ are the Apostles and Prophets i Ephes 2. 20. Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Revel 21. 14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lambe 5. The walls are the Body of common members which is the Congregation of believers joyned k together in one k Cant. 8. 8 9. We have a little sister c. What shall we do for our sister c. If she be a wall we shall build upon her a palace of silver 6. The corner-stones which joyn the walls together are Officers l in the house l Ephes 4. 11 12. Pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the making up And as m joynts in the members of the Body m Ibid. vers 16. From whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth Ergo the joyning and compacting of the Body together is by the office of the joynts 7. These officers are differenced n according to the grace and gifts given to them for the edification of the Body n Rom. 12. 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given us Ephes 4. 16. That which every joynt supplieth maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying of it self in love in their proper o offices o Rom. 12. 4. All members have not the same office 8. These offices are either for speaking p or for the doing of some service p 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any man speak if any man minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is doth service The office of him that speaketh is either to teach q or to exhort q Rom. 12. 7 8. He that teacheth on teaching he that exhorteth on exhortation The office of him that is imployed about some service is either to rule r or to impart and shew mercy r Rom. 12. 8. He that ruleth he that sheweth mercy 9. By these offices all things necessary and comfortable to the houshold of Faith in respect of the inward and outward man may be supplied In respect of the inward man it is necessary that the understanding of the houshold be supplied with knowledge and the will with sincerity of zeale to obedience The first belongeth to the Teacher the second to the Exhorter In respect of the outward man it is necessary that the life and conversation of the houshold be rightly ordered that is sutably s to the holy profession s Ephes 4. 1. Walke worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called And that their bodily necessities be supplied in case of want by the charity of their fellow members The first belongeth unto the Ruler the second unto the Deacon 10. More then this nothing is requisite in ordinary to build up the Body in t love within it self t Ephes 4. 16. The effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying of it self in love And therefore in ordinary none other offices are either usefull or mentioned in the Scriptures as appointed by Christ for the constitution of his Church The life u and action of these members is to observe all Gods ordinances u 1 Cor. 11. 2. I praise you brethren that you keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you Luk. 1. 6. They were Righteous before God walking in all the commandements and ordinances of the Lord blamelesse CHAP. III. Of the Ordinances of Worship and Government 1. THe ordinances of Gods worship are duties prescribed in the x Word x Isa 8. 20. To the law and to the testimony chap. 66. 1 2. The heaven is my throne but to this man will I look who trembleth at my word According to which God is to be served in spirit y and truth by every one y Joh. 4. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth And the ordinances of Government are duties prescribed for ever unto the z Rulers z 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the house of God chap. 5. 21. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiality chap. 6. 13 14. I give thee charge in the sight of God c. that thou keep this commandement without spot unrebukeable untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ According to which the affairs of the houshold are to be a ordered a Tit. 1. 5. I left thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting as I had appointed thee 1 Cor. 14. 40. Let all things be done decently and in order Coloss 2. 5. I am with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order both for the increase b of Grace b Ephes 4. 13. Vntill we all come unto a perfect man And v. 16. maketh increase and the taking away of c Scandals c 1 Cor. 5. 7. Purge out the old leaven v. 12. Do not ye judge them that are within v. 13. Therefore put away from among you that wicked person 2. The use of these Ordinances is to betroth d the consciences of men and bind them over unto God in the covenant of grace and to keep them faithfull to him d Ezech. 16. v. 8. till 15. 2 Cor. 11. 2. I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ or to reclaim them e when they are faulty therein e 1 Cor. 4. 21. Shall I come unto you with a rod c. 3. All the Ordinances then are Meanes which God doth use either to bring f men to his
A MODEL OF Church-Government OR The GROUNDS of the Spirituall Frame and Government of the House of GOD. Shewing What the holy Scriptures have therein delivered What the best Reformed Churches do practise What the Tender Consciences may rest in For the better Satisfaction of such as scruple at the Work of REFORMATION declared and appointed by severall Ordinances of PARLIAMENT BY JOHN DURY one of the Assembly of Divines Who hath travelled heretofore in the work of Peace among the CHURCHES PSAL. 2. 6. I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion ISA. 9. 6 7. The government shall be upon his shoulder c. LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. for John Bellamy and are to be sold at his shop at the three golden Lyons neer the Royall Exchange 1647. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE Sr. John Gayer Kt. Lord Major of the City of London And to the Right Worshipfull The ALDERMEN and SHERIFFS his Brethren Right Honourable These Scriptural Assertions at their first conception were not designed for the Publique they were only put to Paper at the desire of those who in this City gave me a call to the Cure of their soules and were willing to reform their wayes according to the will of God And because they did confesse their ignorance of the whole Frame and Government of the House of GOD my aime was to let them see it as briefly as I could in a Model taken from the patern which I have seen in the Mount which the Scriptures have revealed I would not be large of purpose to the end that I might stirre them up the more to Meditation to the searching of the Scriptures from which I have endeavoured to gather all and to conference with my self when they should be at a stand I intended nothing but according to their desire to give them private satisfaction yet they would not rest there but insisted to engage me to publish these Heads of thoughts for in effect they are no more Nor was it enough to make them publike but they would have me to owne them and to present you also with them To all which you may perceive that I have condescended although I confesse with much reluctancie Not that I am ashamed to owne any thing that is mine though so imperfect as this is and in a matter of so great consequence for I am very well conscious to mine own weaknesse and not unwilling that others should perceive it if it may be for their edification or that I was doubtfull of any Truth here delivered for I conceive that all may be made out to the full if God should give time and a call to do it but that I was loth to offer unto all whom I could not know that which I had designed only for a few whom in cases of mistake I would be able to rectifie I was unwilling to seem to intermeddle to so little purpose as these Tracts are like to be in matters of so high concernment in a season so full of distraction and in an Age so willing to censure so apt to mistake and so ready to misconstrue on all hands every thing that hath no character of partiality upon it though done never so harmlesly And then also I was afraid to be thought to stretch my selfe beyond my line in making this addresse unto You. But I hope that your favourable acceptance and the Relation which I have to a particular Congregation in the City will free me from this last apprehension and from the former I have been taken off partly by the consideration of greater inconveniences which might follow upon the not yeelding then upon the yeelding unto a publication partly by the importunity of the Call which I received to do what here is done So that I hope none other construction will be made of the publication of these Notions than ought in charity to be made which is to believe That I being earnestly desired to declare my knowledge of the truth of these matters thought my self bound to beare witnes thereunto and to suffer my testimony to come to the light that it might appeare that these works are done in God that they are free from humane respects and that my aim in putting them forth is to give occasion to men conscionably peaceable to consider whether yea or no an agreement in these Truths ought not to oblige Brethren to a neerer conjunction of spirits profession of unity then we as yet are come unto and whether yea or no the things wherein there is a difference of opinion deserve so much distance in affections as many are fallen into or ought to be debated in such a way of heat as most men follow whereby they rather disturbe then edifie one another It is a sad thing to see men that are called Christians and Brethren exercising their wits to the disparagement of one another in Religious matters and to deale with things concerning Conscience lightly passionately and without all serious and conscionable gravity These things are to be deplored but cannot be redressed without the acknowledgement of the Truth nor can the Truth be received without the spirit of Love and Peace which the Word of the Gospel doth administer only The Lord of truth and peace reveal the same unto us all more and more and direct You in your station to walk therein as patterns of Righteousnes before all others Which with the wishes of prosperity unto the settlement of this whole State shall be towards the LORD who alone is able to save the constant Prayer of Your HONOURS most humble and affectionate servant in Christ JOHN DURY A PREFACE To the Christian and unpartiall Reader Christian Reader SEeing I am put upon the publishing of these brief Tracts I will endeavour by this Preface unto thee to make the best use thereof that I can both for mine own comfort and for the building up of others As for my self I shall be comforted in this whatsoever others may judge of the matter that I see cleerly a Providence in this publication without any purpose of mine And that I can conceive of the things which I judge therein to be imperfections that they may prove advantages unto Gods main work in his way of using them For the brevity of each Part may to an intelligent Reader make the whole so much the more commendable and to one that is of no quick understanding although it will be more obscure yet it will also be lesse tedious and may give to him that is ingenious occasion to make some further inquiry after the Truth that his rationall Doubts may be satisfied which as God shall enable me with grace I shall be willing to intend As concerning others seeing the spirits of most men are very sharp and full of jealousies I shall therefore offer my self unto them with the greater simplicity for being in my self without prejudice I hope to be found towards all without occasion of offence and as I shall be voyd of
perversnes of the counsels or the wickednes of the Instruments thereof It is no part of my calling to trace Polititians in the crooked serpentine wayes wherein they walk The Interest of States is a troubled Sea full of hideous Monsters and hidden Rocks whereupon the men of this world make shipwrack and therein all the Nations and great Families of the earth are tossed up and down according to the fancies of the Rulers whose aime though under other pretences is nothing else but greatnesse and command to be supported by riches and power My soule enter thou not into their counsel for there is no truth in their wayes there is no faithfulnesse in their mouth their inward part is very wickednesse And that our distractions proceed from this generation of men and from the Counsel which are taken up upon their Principles there is no question to be made But I shall leave them unto God to be judged in his own time And walking in mine own sphere shall speake unto thee that art a Christian indeed of things belonging to our Religious profession to discover at the root the causes of our disease which I conceive is nothing else but the corrupt Profession of the true Religion whereof we must all confesse our selves guilty every one of us more or lesse which how to Reform first in our selves and then in others will be a profitable enquiry If the Truth had not been manifested unto us we should have no sinne but now since we have known it and held the profession of it in unrighteousnesse we have no cloak for our sinne we ought then to confesse and deplore that our profession is corrupted two wayes First that most of us although we are not ignorant of the Truth yet we cannot deny but that we have lost the true aime of the holy profession thereof Secondly that although some aimes be rightly set and the profession of many commendable yet for the most part the means and wayes of prosecuting the same are either not answerable unto the Rules of Christianity or else directly destructive thereunto The true aime of the Holy profession is to shew forth unto What the aim of our profession is and how we fail of it this evill world the life and vertues of him who hath called us unto his Kingdome and glory The Truth which we know and which by the Gospel is revealed unto us is the testimony of Jesus that in him alone there is Redemption from all sinnes that by him alone there is all sufficiencie of Grace to be received through Faith that for his sake alone wee have free accesse by the Spirit unto the Father that the titles and names of King Captain and Forerunner of Apostle Prophet and High Priest of Author and Finisher of our salvation do belong to him alone and that he being alone the Way the Truth and the Life no man can come to the Father but by him this we do know and acknowledge this wee doe maintaine and professe as the Truth but who can say that the true aime of this profession is taken up and followed as it ought to be this aime is to follow him as deare children expressing him in his life that is in his lowly just holy and unblameable conversation amongst men and in his death that is in his mortified his self-denying his afflicted his meeke and humble condition in this world I say this aime is not taken up and maintained in this profession of the Truth yet we know that this should be our whole aime and because we know it and doe it not therefore our sinne is heavy upon us therefore these judgements doe overtake us and God doth revenge the quarrel of his Covenant against us The Covenant is that wee being in Christ Matth. 16. 24. Rom. 8. 17. 2 Cor. 6 17. shall beare his Crosse and follow him that we shall suffer together and be separate from the world with him and if wee touch not the uncleane things thereof we have a promise that the Father will receive us But who is it that doth truly aime at a full separation from the world and doth not intend to uphold the high things and full enjoyments thereof together with the profession of the Truth are we not content and have we not a desire to enjoy the fashion of things present although wee know that we are called to seeke and apprehend onely the things to come wee are called to be conformable unto the image of the Sonne of God that is to be no wayes conformable unto this world but if we mind no such thing how can we be said to maintaine the true aime of our holy profession The Socinians who have cast off the Truth which is in Christ Jesus concerning our Justification before God and have made the acknowledgement of his Person in the Truth void by their Heresies these uphold still the aime of the profession namely that wee must follow his foot-steps but wee who are convicted of the truth which they have denied seeme to deny at least in our practise that which they uphold and consequently make the truth it selfe which we acknowledge ineffectuall by our profession thereof because our aime is not in simplicity answerable but rather crosse in all appearance unto the tenour of the new Covenant and the end of our heavenly calling Now if the maine and principall aime be lost in our walking with God how can he be at peace with us or we with him can two walke together except they be agreed and are those agreed whose aimes are different doth not hee know the secrets of all hearts that he may reward every one according to his works what then can we expect from him other then to reap the fruit of the seed which we sowe for we sow to the flesh worldly aimes in the field of a religious profession and can we expect any other harvest frrom thence but trouble and confusion This then is the first and maine cause of all our distractions that the true aim of our Profession is for the most part lost amongst us The second cause of our publike distraction is this that although for the maine a worke of Reformation is truly aimed at by some and many particular matters tending thereunto are rightly designed by many for the advancement of Religion yet the meanes to bring this aime and these designes to passe are not at all proportionate to the effect intended thereby The work of Reformation no doubt heartily aimed at by some is a reall and thorough purging of the Church and State from the corruptions which have overgrowne the one and the other and a settlement of both in a way of Righteousnesse I say that What the Reformation aimed at is and why we come short of it some aime heartily at this and I truly doe beleeve it but how many there are God alone doth know Sure I am wee cannot discerne very many that have nothing else in their aime but
of spirituall proportion and prudency for edification which are the lawes of Love and Holinesse but in stead of these are carried sometimes even in their best actions by a Rule of humane Jealousie which begets nothing but Passion and Policie And this once being discovered doth wholly blast their proceeding and maketh all the means though otherwise in themselves never so powerfull wholly disproportionate unto the effect The second Remedy then is this That godly Ministers whom I look upon as the chiefe Actors of our Reformation and such as must put life into the Meanes thereof must first set their own hearts aright in this frame of Love and Holinesse and then stirre up one another to the Counsels and Deliberations which these Principles according to the Word of GOD will suggest And because in the framing of Designes which tend unto a publike good it is apparent that on all sides a Concurrence is sought for by those that act in the affaires of State with those that are set in the Church to act for Christs kingdome and that as Moses could not be without Aaron at first when he came to the people So Aaron could not be without Moses at last when the people was to march through the Wildernesse and that neither the one nor the other durst go a step forward without a direction from God in their wayes therefore in the concurrence of States-men and Ministers towards a Reformation by the use of the meanes both Moses and Aaron must walke by one Rule of Christianity whereof the end is brotherly love and holinesse and not by two different rules as the custome of most men is and if the Ministers suffer themselves to be taken off from this aime by any pretence whatsoever or doe not labour to sway the Resolutions of the Master-Builders in the common wealth according to these Rules that all publick constitutions and the wayes of acting them upon the spirits of men may savour of nothing but of love of holinesse and of meeknesse in Authority by the directions of the word and the way of Christs walking I say if Ministers do not exactly keep themselves to this Rule and draw others to walk thereby they will be by their owne weaknesse and the craft of others drawn over to serve state ends and be made use of to divide others and to be divided from others and from one another amongst themselvs according to the wicked maxim of Machiavilian Government Divide Impera and who doth not see that the enimies of our Reformation leave nothing unattempted to put this maxime in execution and that they find opportunity enough and more then enough so to doe in every thing which is attempted in publick by reason of the unchristian frame of our Spirit and our walking by a two-fold Rule or without the Rules of charity and holinesse For Satan which worketh in them and is the Prince of this world finding us who pretend to bee Ministers of Christ out of the Sphere of Christs walking and in the Sphere of his owne Kingdome medling with worldly interests which concerne us not hath power over us to make us that are called Ministers more then all other men in the world to serve his ends of disturbing the Peace of mankind and tearing the Church of God in Peices and only because wee are not in the way wherein God hath set us but if on the otherside wee stand in the simplicity of our Christian way and walking to deliberate and doe all things both in private and publick by love and for holinesse according to Christs example then wee are in our full strength armed with light and Satan in the power of darknesse cannot come neer us or comprehend us And if it is not possible through our own default to put this Counsell in practise amongst us who are convicted of the truth thereof whether we are Independents or Presbyterians we are all alike guilty before God of our own ruine and of the generall disturbance of this Church and State I have spoken as briefly as I could contract my thoughts concerning The Remedy of the evil effects of our disease the Remedies which will worke a cure upon the Causes of our disease now I must speake also a word of that which I conceive will bee of use to prevent the dangerous effects thereof whereby our distempers are daily increased The disease in my conception is a distractednesse of spirit in a divided minde which hath wrought a dis-joynting of our affections so that we stand as a tall man distracted in his thoughts and divided in all his resolutions who hath no command or little use of any of his members because they are all out of joynt and hang as it were loose one from another Thus this Church the tallest of any Reformed in Europe and fit to bee a leader of the rest in the spirituall Conquest of Canaan doth stand within it selfe and to others uselesse The effects of this our distraction and division which increase our disease and make it grow upon us are chiefely three Frst jealousies fears and evill surmises of every thing that is designed by any party which is not our own Secondly censures reproaches disputes accusations and revilings against the persons and the actions of a different party Thirdly oppositions and crosse proceedings in counsells and attempts against all that are not exactly in the way wherein that party doth walke of which we are These three effects beget each other reciprocally not only in every man within himselfe and in every party within it selfe but in every man and party in relation to another as hee stands at a distance from the same and all of these make our distempers almost past remedy nor can the one well bee cured without the other and therefore the Remedies must needs bee such as can have an influence upon all at once to stop the current thereof upon our own and other mens spirits if they should prove succesfull towards a cure The field of this discourse is so large that I shall at this time but name only the heads of things which must become the ingredients of this Physick leaving the particular composition and application thereof unto some other time wherein God perhaps may give a call and grace to elaborate the same and this I shall do to give unto thee Christian Reader an object of prayer and meditation that thou mayest be moved to goe to God and to stirre up thy selfe and others daily till these Remedies be applyed unto our diseases as they ought to be If then the forenamed effects of our diseased Church should bee cured by this worke of Reformation wee must consider not only what is requisite to allay our present fits of distemper but also that which both in our age and in time to come will build us up unto a habitation of God through the spirit and propagate the blessings of the Gospel unto Posterity To cure then our present distempers it is