Command or Power so to do If he have Power why so angry that he makes use of it If you know a better way teach it if not submit to this and acquiesee This our Author seems to contradict by opposing experience to the contrary and therefore f. 63. he desires that none would be offended if as his own apprehension he affirms that the Introduction of Liturgies was on the account insisted on the principal means of encreasing and carrying on that sad defection and apostacy in the guilt whereof most Churches in the World had enwrapped themselves A bold Charge I confess but not against us and much they have to answer for that impose and use such Liturgies and therefore I shall not be offended at this his Affirmation but shall grant him his desire and conclude upon the truth of it that if Idolatrous Superstitious erroneous and Heretical Liturgies Mass-Books call them what you will for such he must mean have been so powerful and effectual to keep out Truth and prevent the true Worship of God through most Churches in the World what should hinder but that Liturgies teaching nothing but what the Word of God teacheth nor prescribing any thing in the Worship of God but what is according to Scripture I must mind him that I plead for no other should be as powerful and as effectual for the keeping out of Heresie Idolatry Superstition and what ever is contrary unto sound Faith and Doctrine And that they have been so is as certainly verified and as plainly to be demonstrated in all Places where such Liturgies nay though happily not altogether such though I wish they were all reduced to such have been used as that which he affirms of erronious Liturgies § At the Conference that was before King James at Hampton-Court the Bishop of London put His Majesty in mind of what Monsieur Roguë the French Ambassador gave out concerning our Service and Ceremonies upon the solemn view and audience of them viz. That if the Reformed Churches in France had kept the same order among them which we have he was assured that there would have been many thousands of Protestants more there than now there are f. 38. If some Innocent Ceremonies were not commanded and others not so Innocent abolished what could hinder but that Shrines covering of Shrines Trindilles Rolls of Wax Pictures Painting and all other Monuments of feigned Miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and Superstition long since razed out of the Walls and Glass Windows might be brought into use again If no Liturgies were established and imposed what should hinder but the use of the Service of Th. Becquet and Prayers having Rubricks containing Pardons or Indulgences and all other Superstitions Legends and Prayers should be again introduced And also the use of Hallowing Water Bread Salt Bells Candles on Candlemas-day Ashes on Ash-Wednesday Palms on Palm-Sunday the Font on Easter Eve Fire on Paschal and a Sepulcher on Good-Friday and several Masses contrary to the Form and Order of the Book of Communion all long since abolished in Edw. 6. and Queen Elizabeth's days and we may conclude confidently yet without Arrogancy that such Liturgies are warrantable and profitable and that as many as do walk according to such Liturgies neither overthrowing that which they have built by superinducing any damnable Heresies thereupon nor otherwise vitiating their Holy Faith with a lewd and wicked conversation Peace shall be upon them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God and I appeal to all that shall read this if I may not with as good a Warrant affirm that our Liturgy hath kept out Popery and its Trinkets as he affirm as he doth and certainly they are both equally and alike powerful towards the encreasing and suppressing of true and false Faith Doctrine and Worship And it cannot be denied but that since 1640. since our Liturgy hath been thus vilisied set at naught and disused but that whole swarms of Sectaries like the Frogs and Locusts in Egypt have overspread the Land and that open Profanation Blasphemy Atheisme more in vogue since than before We have hitherto been openly battering his Out-works his main and strongest Forts are yet behind Vide Act Vniform f. 82.140 Car. 2. viz. That Liturgies are a Humane Invention that they occasion neglect and disabilities 63. That they hinder the due exercise and improvement of Spiritual Gifts and it is accordingly done in the imposed Liturgy 67. It says expresly That the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use or exercise any Spiritual Gift in the Administration of those Ordinances for which provision is made in the Book 68. That the Imposition of a Liturgy to be used always as a Form in all Gospel Administrations which he says do consist in Prayer Thanksgiving Instructions and Exhortations sutably applied unto the special Nature and End of the several Ordinances themselves and the use of them in the Church 63. is an unwarrantable Abridgement of that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and therefore sin in the Use and Imposition thereof And as it is a Sin in others to abridge us of the Liberty purchased for us by Jesus Christ so it is in us to give it up and not to suffer in our Testimony for it 69. and then concludes That the great Rule of Administrations is That all things be done to Edification And this is the main End of the Ministry it self in all the Duties thereof that are purely Evangelical and what ever is contrary unto or a hindrance of Edification ought not to be appointed or observed in the Worship of God and such is the state and condition of this Imposed Liturgy in Church-Administrations for the Reasons mentioned c. 10. f 65. § By which it appears that one great Objection in their Esteem though opprobrious only against Liturgies is That they are an Humane Invention Be it so what then Therefore nothing of Humane Invention be it never so consonant and advantagious unto the Truth or the true Worship of God is to be necessarily and indispensibly used in the publick Worship of God If so then by the same Rule and Reason we may conclude that no Man must teach in private or preach in publick for that such Sermons such Catechisings are as truly the Inventions of the Brains of every Individual Person as Liturgies are of the whole Church or its Representative for be it that the Forms of Liturgies were never instituted nor commanded by Christ no more were the Forms of any Sermon or Prayers preached or prayed by particular Men since the days of Christ and his Apostles It is enough that the Subject Matter both of the one and of the other be according to Holy Writ And we may rest assured that as God will bless the Gifts and Labours of private Men in publick Prayers and Sermons so will he also bless the publick delivery of his Word and Mind by such stinted Prayers and such selected portions of Scripture as many learned pious and gifted Pastors
and Judicature one of the other is not denied by any Protestant Divines that I know of and it is or ought to be as little gain-said that it could not then be otherwise And why Christ knew that the Messengers which he sent to gather a People to himself out of Saracens and Insidels Jews and Gentiles by perswasive means only were to build up his Church within the Bosom of Kingdoms which were and would continue avowed Enemies to his Gospel every where for a long time then to come And therefore he gave them such Doctrines and such Commissions for Doctrine and Discipline as they might any where publish and exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Common-wealth being any where therein concerned in goods or person by vertue of that spiritual regiment whereunto Christian Religion once embraced did make them lyable And indeed if they had not a Government within themselves they could have none at all concerning Christian Religion For Princes and all Nations were then professed and bitter enemies to Christian Religion which Government did also extend it self unto small matters even such as were otherwise impleadable and remediable in the Civil Courts and Judicatures of the Kingdome or State though heathenish wherein and under whom they lived as Subjects Dare any of you saith St. Paul having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world and if the world shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters 1 Cor. 6.1 2. So that upon the whole matter the Sum total of Religion that Christ committed to his Apostles and they to their successors consisted in the Doctrin and Discipline thereof viz. to preach him and him crucified and to perswade others to become Christians through the belief of one Lord one Faith and one Baptisme and when once admitted by the door of Baptism into the Christian Church then to become and to be accounted Members of the visible Church Christian As for Discipine that concerns moral righteousness and honesty of life and their contraries unrighteousness and dishonesty and therefore Christ gave them this General Precept viz. to love one another even our neighbours as our selves and if any did transgress the Vertues and Laws which belong unto moral righteousness and honesty of life which are not proper and peculiar unto Christian men as Christians but as Men what then the transgressors were first privatly to be admonished if the offence were private those that sinned openly were to be rebuked openly if they did not then repent and amend then to be admonished by two or three if still they remained incorrigible then to acquaint that Congregation of Christian Brethren of which they were Members and if still they continued refractory after private and publick Admonitions Warnings and Prayers then not to own them as Brethren nor to keep company with them with such no not to eat with them and in the end to pursue them as if Publicans and Heathens as not being worthy of the Name and Profession of Christians which they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel And this is the sum of the whol Government or Discipline which Christ after the death of the Apostles who having gifts extraordinary had also powers extraordinary which died with them left to his Church for ought appears by any Scripture extant And what need of more For if the Ministers of the everlasting Gospel have liberty to Instruct break Bread Baptize and Pray the Civil Christian Magistrat hath sufficient power by Gods own Ordinance to order all the rest § To me indeed it seems marvelous nay monstrous that out of so plain so intelligible so easily practicable directions for the Government of Christian Churches that so various so meerly wordly and pompous nay imperious and impious forms of Church Government should be drawn into use as have been hundreds of years practised both in the Eastern and Western Empires and all held forth to be according to the Gospel when in truth they all differ from the true Gospel Discipline as far as the East is from the West they being all degenerated into meer worldly forms set up for meer worldly self-ends and interests If any man can more plainly make out any other form from the Gospel it would be a favour my self I must confess to be Impar Negotio it is past my understanding Indeed to me it seems wonderful whilst I consider that though Histories are ful and plain how and when the several forms crept in and got Accruments partly by the supineness and negligence of the Brethren of their own Rights and Priviledges partly by the craft and subtlety of proud covetous and ambitious Clergy and partly by the carelesness of Princes who not willing to trouble themselves with the care of Religion devolved it upon others that they should yet endeavour to keep us hoodwinkt though they know that our eyes are now open If there be any other Gospel-form of Government let it plainly appear without offering violence to any Texts of Scripture if not why should we be wiser than Christ our Head and Lawgiver God only is truth and all men are subject to errors what remains but that all his Servants and more especially the Priests of the most high God whose lips above others should more especially preserve knowledg do abandon humane errors and fals superstructures and keep the praecepts of God only that they may remain stedfast in the truth only § Some are of opinion that there is no need at all of any Ecclesiastical Government as distinct from the Civil if Christian and Orthodox and if there be that yet the Body of the Church is to govern it self and not the Clergie or Officers the Body they are to teach them their duty but the provisionary coercive and executive power is seated in the Body and not in the Pope or Presbyter I know the grand objection against Independency is that it is destructive to Government and tends to Anarchy a meer slander rather than a just objection for if rightly considered it would be found the least Chagreen to any Civil Government of any Ecclesiastical Government at this very day in use in any Nation and if not mistaken I have Christ who was the Wisdom of the Father and his Apostles to justify me herein For the Government that is herein stated may be exercised under any Government how averse soever to Christianity it self without clashing or interfeering therewith And if Christ left no other Government as for certain he did not why should we pretend to be wiser than Christ himself The same was exercised by the Apostles and long after and how incroachments of power were gained to the Clergy Stories are full Vide Fra Paolo Sarpi his Treatise of Beneficiary Matters § On the contrary how thwarting Popish or Presbyterian Governments are to
and Orders for the better reglement of the whole as they did whilst the Churches were in small particular Congregations or Cities in a Jewish or Gentile State And yet all Laws are presumed to be made by universal and common consent in which regard the Churches have been enforced to have as well Churches as Bodies Politick Representative and in as much when partly by the Supineness and inadvertency of the Brethren without foresight of any Peril or Incroachment upon their Rights and Powers by the Clergy and partly by the dexterity and usurpation of the then degenerating Clergy designing to advance themselves by ingrossing all Powers and Revenues to themselves not by any right derived to them by any Gospel precept the practise and custome injuriously enough to the Laity and consequently to the Church of God in the truest sence began soon to admit none but Clergy and Church men only as Members of the Body ecclesiastick or Church representative The name of the Church hath by such their wiles been in a manner appropriated and monopolized to the Clergy or Church-men only when in truth the Church in its truest and Scripture sence consisting of Laity and Clergy can have no representative of both which only makes the Church compleat except both have their peculiar Representatives in Councils Synods Convocations c. whether Provincial National or Oecumenical This Doctrine of which more hereafter though never so demonstrable and obvious to every understanding was so bitter a Pill that it could by no means be swallowed at Trent and therefore in the Consults and Discourses concerning the very title of that Council concerning which there were very great Debates and Disputes the Bishop of Feltre would not have it Christened Ecumenical and general least the Protestants should from thence argumentize that some of every Order of the universal Church ought to be present which because it consists of Clergy and Laity it cannot intirely and compleatly be represented if the Laity be excluded But on the contrary the Bishop of St. Mark did as erroneously as magisterially affirm that the Laicks were most improperly called the Church and that for that very reason it was very requisite to use the title that the Synod representeth the Church universal to make the Laity be understood that they are not the Church but ought to hearken unto and obey the Church which in Romish dialect is nought else but the Pope by which it is apparent that if packt Synods canonize us out of the Church to day they may canonize us out of our Christian names to morrow and out of our Christianity the next day But of this more hereafter when the Clergy and Laity shall be more fully discoursed Yet by the favour of the great Bishop of St. Mark nay by the favour of the Council of Trent it self in the beginning it was no so for in the Council of the Apostles and a more early and more Authentick could not be and which ought to be a Rule and Pattern the decree was not made by the Apostles alone but the Epistle was entituled with the names of the 3 degrees assisting in that Congregation viz. Apostles Elders and Brothers and Peter esteemed and stiled by the Romanists Princeps Apostolorum by the Popes good leave was included in the first without Prerogative though not always Sans reprimand by which it is apparent that the assembling of a whole Church to handle the Name of God the Disputes about Doctrine and Discipline is a thing most profitable used by the Holy Apostles in the choice of Matthias and the 7 Deacons with which the Diocesan Councils have great resemblance But of the meeting of Christians from many remote places to consult together the forementioned place 15. Act. is a famous example when Paul and Barnab as with others of Syria met with the Apostles and other Disciples in Jerusalem who were assembled about the question of keeping the Law By all which it is manifest that in the beginning of Christianity the Churches were Democratically Governed by a kind of Common Council as St. Jerome and others do confess but as the Ecclesiasticks by insensible gradations got Reputation and Power so they endeavoured a Monarchical Regiment which in tract of time they instituted and got to be established giving all the Superintendency to the Bishops whom all Orders of the Church did obey The neighbouring Bishops whose Churches were under one jurisdiction had likewise their commerce and communion and did govern themselves also as it were in common by Synods attributing much to the Bishop of the most Principal City ordaining him as it were the Head or Governour of that Body and in process of time by a more ample communion which all the Provinces of one Jurisdiction or larger Government held together the Bishop of the City where the Prince did reside gained a kind of Superiority or rather Priority by custom not by any right The more chief Jurisdictions were the imperial City of Rome with its neighbouring Cities Alexandria which governed Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis Antioch for Syria and other Provinces of the East There were other lesser Jurisdictions wherein the same was observed This Government being at first meerly prudential introduced and approved only by Custom was afterwards established by the first Council of Nice Can. 6. under Constantine and ordained by a Canon that it should continue yet withal it did ordain that those many Honorable preheminences which the Bishop of Hierusalem had should be continued unto him Cant. 7. yet so that nothing should be taken from the dignity of the Metropolitan then Bishop of Caesaria This Government which hath been ever held in all the Churches of the East was altered in the Latine not without great endeavours to make all other Churches stoop to the Lure and submit to the Will and Pleasure of the Bishop of Rome After that it pleased God to give peace to the Christians and that the Roman Emperors received the Holy Faith there then happening more difficulties in Doctrine and Discipline which did disturb the publick Peace and quiet another sort of Episcopal Assemblies had beginning congregated by Princes or their Lieutenants to remedy their troubles these Assemblies were guided and governed by those Princes and Magistrates yet so that the decision of the principal matters for which the Council was congregated was left to the common opinion of the Assembly After the Eastern and Western Empires were divided there remained still in the West some Marks of the Antient Councils and many were celebrated in France and Germany under the Posterity of Charles the Great and not a few in Spain under the Kings of the Gothes At last Princes being absolutely debarred to intermeddle in Ecclesiastical matters that kind of Council grew in disuse and that alone remained which was called by the Ecclesiasticks themselves the Convocation of which Provincial Councils was almost wholly ingrossed and usurped by the Pope by intruding and sending his Legats to be Presidents
abominable Irreverent practices are prevented and thereby care is taken according as the Council of Milevis Can. 12. decreed Ne forte aliquid contra sidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum Lest by chance either through ignorance or want of due Study and Consideration Heterodox or unsound Tenets be Broached or unreverend practises used Moreover Calvin himself adviseth it with his Valde Probo Ep. ad Protect I do exceedingly approve of it 1º ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae As a means to help and supply the simplicity and unskilfulness of some 2º ut certus constet Ecclesiarum omnium inter se consensus that the consent and harmony of all Churches under one Government may the better be ascertained 3º ut obviam eatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui Novationes quasdam affectant That the Capriccious giddiness and Levity of such who like nothing but Changes and Innovations may be obviated Nay the same Calvin inforceth it farther with an Oportet statam esse oportet Sacramentorum celebrationem Publicam item precum formulam Epist Protectori There is no other remedy an established set Form there must be for Celebration of the Sacraments and also for Common Prayer which Opinion of his I doubt the Discourser doth not favour § It 's a strange Phanatick Opinion that hath long possessed the minds of some that nothing may be Lawfully done or used in the Churches of Christ unless there be express Command or Example for it in Scripture which Tenet is unsound in it self and pernicious in its consequences upon which also the great Doctors and Patrons of Liberty do graft another viz. that without some express Command from God there is no Power under Heaven which may presume by any Law to restrain the Liberty which God hath given which Opinions shake nay overthrow the very Fabrick and Foundation of all Governments and tend only to Anarchy and Confusion and to dissoâ—â—e all Families Cities Corporations Kingdoms Churches leaving every Man to the freedom of his own mind to the Quakers Light within them in such things as are not either Commanded or Prohibited by the Law of God and because only in these things the positive Precepts of Men have place which Precepts cannot possibly be given without some abridgement of their Liberty to whom they are given whereas in truth the Diametrically opposite Opinion is only Infallibly true viz. those things which the Law of God leaveth Arbitrary and at Liberty and whereof the Scriptures are silent are all subject to the positive Laws of Men which Laws for the common benefit may abridge particular Mens Liberty in such things as far as the Rules of Equity and common good will suffer If this be not sound Doctrine adieu to all Societies and all Government the World must be turned topsi turvy Of this so Poysonous root and branch I shall say no more but shall leave our Anti-Liturgists our Non-Assenters to consider if these late dayes of Liberty have not in very great part brought their own Axiomes home to themselves for as in the dayes of Yore the Non-Conformist asked our Prelates and Conformists what Command or Example in Scripture have you for kneeling at the Communion for wearing a Cap Hood Surplice For Lord Bishops or for their wearing of Lawn sleeves or of Pleated Velvet or Taffaty Hats For a Liturgy or keeping Holy-dayes so now Phanaticks Quakers and others to them where are your Lay-Presbiters your Congregational Classical Provincial Synodical and National Assemblies your Parochial and Classical Elderships c. to be found in Scripture where your Steeple Houses your National Churches your Tyths and Mortuaries your Infant Sprinklings Nay where your meeter Psalms your two Sacrantents your weekly Sabbaths nay your Ministery your Church shew us say they Command or Example for them in Scripture now seeing the one have lent the other their Premisses I shall leave them to wrangle among themselves about the Conclusion which in Sum is no other but to exchange with each other a Rowland for an Oliver Whilst one throws Stones at the Innocent Ceremonies used in the Sacraments and Church Administrations another strikes at the very Sacraments themselves whilst one Disputes against the comely Habits and reverend Titles of the Clergy the other by the same Logick Questions the very Functions of Bishops and Priesthood the one seeks to abolish the Festivals of the Saints and the other even that of the Lords-day the one would have no Churches nor Priests the other no Scriptures all which with divers others of the same Leaven are but the Spawn and Fruits of Idol-liberty so that the Dernier result must end in a sad Catastrophe Confusion disorder and every evil work Before I conclude this passant observation I will make by the way of all viz. that they are not so peremptory in demanding and peevish in insifting upon Scripture Precepts and Examples for things they like not to yield obedience unto as they are negligent in the use of other things for which there are far more plain Precepts and Example even of Christ himself and that with his own debet stampt upon them witness the Administration of the Sacrament which Christ Administred in the Evening first rising from Supper laying aside his Garments girding himself with a Towel powring Water into a Bason Washing his Disciples Feet and wiping them with a Towel wherewith he was Girded then taking his Garments and sitting down again and saying ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for 〈◊〉 I am if I then your Lord and Master have washt your Feet ye also ought to wash one anothers Feet for I have given you an example that ye would do as I have done unto you Verily I say unto you the Servant is not greater than his Lord neither he that is sent greater then he that sent him if ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them John 13.4.5.12.17 what more plain Precept greater Example or stronger inforcements for his Successors his Ministers to do the like can ye have and yet how little of this is performed by them is not unknown to any Greet one another with a Holy Kiss is a Precept likewise Apostolical 1 Pet. 5.14 and was in Customary use before their approaching the Lords Table until the dayes of Justine Martyr Apoll. 2 and Tertullian blames the Omission of that Right grown upon the Church in times of the Solemn Fastings and Prayers Then they withdrew that Osculum pacis when in his Judgment it was most convenient and necessary de Oratione When Widdows are to be chosen for the Service of the Church this Qualification is required She must be one that had Washed the Saints Feet 1 Tim. 5.10 and our Saviour by his Precept and Example Commends to his Disciples Washing each others Feet John 13.14 15. may not much of the like nature be said for the disuse of Anoynting Love Feasts c. but I forbear
milites tuos subtrahis and a little after requirat ergo Dominus meus piissimus quis prior imperatorum talem legem dederit subtilius extimet si debuit dari And concluding in the end what it is that he desires of the Emperor saith unde per eundem tremendum Judicem deprecor ne illae tantae lachrimae tantae orationes tanta jejunia tantaeque elemoslnae Domini mei ex qualibet occasione apud omnipotentis Dei oculos fuscentur sed aut temperanda pietas vestra aut mutando rigorem ejusdem legis inflectat such humble and decent remonstrance well-becoming a Pious Bishop or Pastor deserves not to be termed by Bellarmine A sharp reprehension But what follows is yet more worthy to be considered Ego quident jussioni subjectus eandem legem per diversas partes terrarum transmitto quia lex ipsa omnipotenti Deo minime concordat ecce per suggestionis meae paginam Dominis nuntiavi utrobique ergo quae debui exolvi qui Imperatori obedientiam praebui pro Deo quod sensi minime tacui By which humble expressions it appears that it was not a sharp reprehension but rather an humble and respective remonstrance which hath no agreement with the Doctrine wich Bellarmine hath published wherein he makes the Pope Supream Temporal Monarch and the Princes of the World less than his Vassals as his words do necessarily infer altho they dare not yet avow it in express terms Consider Reader whether Gregory calling himself so often the Emperors unworthy Servant and his saying that as one that acknowledgeth himself subject to his Commandement he had sent abroad into divers parts of the World a Law which in his conscience he held not to be just And that other saying of his that in so doing he rendred unto the Emperor that obedience that was due unto him whether I say these Speeches do agree with the Doctrine which Bellarmine hath published who ever desires to know more of Gregory's modesty prudence and submissive deportment towards his Lord the Emperor may receive full satisfaction if he please to read his 64th Epistle I shall end this with this observation of Bellarmines great subtilty in that he forbears to quote the place it self of Gregory being so exact and subtle in his Allegation of other places But what if Pope Gregory did sharply reprove him It was but his duty Quatenus a Bishop which priviledge belongs to all Bishops as well as to the Pope as being in the same Commission viz. Tell Judah of her sins and Israel of her transgressions so it is but according to the duty of all Priests to dispense the word of truth be therewith displeased who will And all being granted it makes nothing at all for the Impery of Popes over Princes His next Fortress Ch. Novit examined is the Chapter Novit which because it most particularly concerned John King of England you shall have the true ground and History thereof This Chapter Novit de Judiciis was indeed admirably well designed and well Calculated for Papal Grandeur and Impery but not in the least what pretence soever was held out for the just right of Kings or of any other Mode of Civil Government good of Christians or glory of God It was designed purposely by Innocent the Third to trample on the necks of Kings as once that Monster Alexander the Third did on the prostrate neck of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa blasphemously arrogating to himself for his warrant Psalm 91.13 Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet as if David more than 1000 years before there was any Pope should particularly Prophesie of Popes And he followed this blow with all the might he had by endeavoring to put it in practice on John King of England and Philip Augustus King of France But the truth is he wanted the Welch-mans Back-sword with two Edges for he neither had the true Bilbo-blade Temporal Power sufficient to force obedience nor yet the Sword of the Spirit Rightful Authority to do what he did He only sent out his Voice yea and that a mighty voice by thundring out his abominable Excommunications which only proved to be vox praeterea nihil Take the Scene and History as it then lay After long Wars between Philip Augustus King of France and Richard King of England About Anno Dom. 1199. Richard died and his Brother John surnamed Lackland succeeded him either by the Nomination or appointment of his Brother as some affirm or by Usurpation upon Arthur who was Son to Geossery another Elder Brother of his But those Territories which John possessed in France submitted themselves to the Dominion of Arthur followed the faction of the French King and was supported by him But at length about Anno Dom. 1200. by means of a Marriage between Lewis Son and Heir and Successor of the French King and Blanche of Castile King John's Sisters Daughter of which Marriage issued afterwards St. Lewis A Peace was concluded between Philip and John wherein Arthur was likewise comprised upon this Condition that John should do Homage to Philip for the Dominions of Brittany and Normandy and Arthur should do Homage for the same unto John After this upon some occasion that fell out Arthur was put in Prison by his Uncle the King of England and there died Anno Dom. 1203. and the common opinion was that he was murthered by his Uncles command whereupon Philip Augustus as Chief Lord of the Fee caused John to be cited to Paris and upon default of his appearance condemned him and confiscated those Territories which he held of him and went afterwards with an Army to seize them into his hands by force John pretended that this was directly against the Peace and Treatise between them and made his complaint to Innocent the Third who commanded both the Kings upon pain of Excommunication to keep Peace and to surcease from War and sent also a Legate unto them for that purpose John for whose advantage this Commandment was did gladly embrace but Philip found himself much grieved and took great exceptions against it and so did the Prelates of France in this behalf unto whom Innocent the Third made that answer contained in the Chapter Novit Philip for all that desisted not from his former purpose but went on and conquered by the Sword all the Territories that the English at that time possessed in France neither could the Pope prevail any thing by his Commands In the year 1208. Innocent the Third Excommunicated John and Interdicted his whole Kingdom which continued six years and three months yet did not John yield to obey the Pope in that he required of him The Pope sent Pandulphus his Legate into France to Philip to perswade him to make War upon John Philip made his preparations accordingly and many Barrons of England combined themselves with him but in the mean time Pandulphus coming into
JUS CAESARIS ET Ecclesiae vere dictae OR A TREATISE WHEREIN Independency Presbytery the Power of Kings and of the Church or of the Brethren in Ecclesiastical Concerns Government and Discipline of the Church AND Wherein also the use of Liturgies Tolleration Connivence Conventicles or Private Assemblies Excommunication Election of Popes Bishops Priests what and whom are meant by the Term CHURCH 18 Mathew are discoursed AND How 1 Cor. 14.32 generally misunderstood is rightly expounded Wherein also the Popes Power over Princes and the Liberty of the Press are discoursed By William Denton M. D. M. q. R. LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by John Kersey and Henry Faythorn at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-yard 1681. TO THE READER IT is impossible but that the pressing home of such truths of such nature as this Treatise is compiled of must necessarily traverse and thwart the Interests grandeur profit and affections of some Men who have or are apart of the body of Government in this and other Nations and therefore no Man can be fit for such an incounter who is not above all hopes and fears it being almost impossible to find a Person so espoused to publick good and publick truths in which there shall not be some that will hate and threaten and persecute him when they apprehend that he shall oppose the design of their private Profit Grandeur Domination or other Interests tho but by demonstration of plain truths how necessary and clear and just soever they be according to Amos 5.10 They hate him that rebuketh in the Gate and abhor him that speaketh uprightly for which reason I must confess my self Impar negotio not in any measure so qualified and yet have attempted it * Dedisti timentibus te vexillum quo utuntur propter veritatem potentissimè Psalm 60. as boldly as if I were and tho I have suffered in this kind before by the foul mouths and bitter pens of R. P. I. S. P. W. and others and by tongues sans Nombre in all places and companies and tho I expect the same fate again for that great inquiries have been made and great diligence used to trace me from my youth to find out the Irregularities and Aberrations thereof which have not been few they have now spit their Venom and done their worst and I am at a point such revenge being at best but savage justice and I have learnt from 51 Esay 7. Not to fear the reproach of Men nor to be afraid of their revilings which can reach the Body only not the Soul Besides I am confident that neither God nor yet common humanity or common justice will permit Truth and innocent plain dealing to have such ill hap nor Vertue such misfortune even in this World that Fame and Infamy should always depend and be at the disposition of the black tongues and pens of Malevolents tho Ecclesiasticks or great Persons It is not my Person but the Truths which always carry their own Shields and Bucklers I have published that hath already galled some I shall here only commit to their considerations that to Calumniate the Defenders of Apostolick Doctrines and of the just rights and powers of Princes and Civil Magistrates is obliquely to Calumniate Christ himself and Kings and Supream Magistrates Defenders of the Faith themselves Darts many times being as equally fatal by a glance as if darted in a direct line my comfort is that Truth is alwayes pleasing unto God and in some sence is the Eternal Word of God and ought so to be acknowledged by every individual and falshood and untruths displeasing unto Him and unto all good and pious Men and no Man can receive injury from the Truth that doth not ground himself upon falshoods Truth being always one and the same thing and falshood infinite Truths ought to be submitted unto not out of constraint only but out of willingness and love to embrace them not only for the Evidence but for the Author and goodness of them and it is our duty willingly to resign our judgments to be captivated unto all kinds of saving Truths even to the extirpating of those presumptions prepossessions and principles of corruption which use to smother and cloud and adulterate Divine Truths And to calumniate punish or discountenance defenders of Divine Truths seasonably spoken doth not become nor is it wont to be done by any pious just or prudent Majestrates but the contrary and it is no Gospel Principle for any Man how great and how Ecclesiastick soever to stir up envy against another but upon sure and true grounds Zorobabel obtained honour and favour of King Darius and all his Nobles above his Competitors for wisdom for that he preferred and declared Truth to bear away the Victory above all things 3 Esdras 3.12 All the Earth calleth upon Truth Heaven blesseth it all Works shake and tremble at it and with it is no unrighteous thing Wine Women Kings are wicked and such are all their wicked works and there is no Truth in them and they shall perish in their unrighteousness Truth endureth and is always strong it liveth and conquereth for ever with her there is no accepting of persons or rewards but she doth the things that are just and refraineth from all unjust and wicked things and all Men do well like of her Works neither in her judgment is there any unrighteousness and she is the Strength Kingdom Power and Majesty of all Ages Blessed be the God of Truth At which Declaration all the People shouted and said great is Truth and mighty above all things It is also alike impossible to please all Men. I never put pen to paper with any such presumption or hopes the best Men and the best Christians is my chiefest design to gratifie but even in that also I fear I shall miss much of my aim and desires divers Men tho good Men having divers judgments and divers interests and according to divers Lights have divers understandings and Ecclesiasticks as well as others are subject to the Inchantments of Passion Ends Interest and Parties Tho I am no Prophet nor yet Son of a Prophet yet I do foresee that there is a Generation of Men worthy and learned who tho of different perswasions among themselves in affairs of their own function that yet will all unite and center in censuring of me as if I leapt out of my own Province into theirs to visit their transactions but I have learnt of St. Austin that it is arrogance in no Man either to seek or assert truth it being an equal Crime of the same nature both to conceal truth and divulge untruths The Protestant Clergy I doubt not but will acknowledge that it is evers Man's duty and concern to be a good Christian and as Christians their undeniable right to try Spirits and to examine by the Scriptures whether the things our Priests do teach us are so in truth or no. The Apostles themselves did subject their Preachments
one place 1 Cor. 11.20 If therefore the whole Church he come together in one place 1 Cor. 14.23 Paul gave it in charge to the Elders of every particular Church as was that of Ephesus 20. Acts 17 28. That ye take heed unto all the Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood Paul doth entitle the particular Congregation which was at Corinth and which properly and immediately he did instruct and admonish to the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 12.27 To be the Temple of God 2 Cor. 16. And to be one Virgine spoused to one Husband Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 We may not therefore saith he under pretence of Antiquity Unity humane Prudence or any Colour whatsoever remove the Ancient Bounds of the visible and ministerial Church which our first and right Fathers to wit Apostles have set in comparison of whom the most ancient of those which are so called are but Infants and beardless There is indeed one Church one Body one Spirit one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism i. e. of one Kind and Nature not one in number as one Sea Neither was the Church of Rome in the Apostles days more one with the Church of Corinth than was the Baptism of Peter one with Pauls Baptism or than Peter and Paul were one neither was Peter or Paul more one whole intire perfect Man consisting of their Parts Essential and Integral without relation to other Men than is a particular Congregation rightly instituted and ordered A whole intire and perfect Church immediately and independently in respect of other Churches under Christ since the Pastor is not a Minister of some part of a Church but of the whole particular Church 20. Acts 28. If the Ministers Office be to be confined within the circle of a particular Congregation then also the Ministerial Church it self Now the Pastors Office is either circumscribed within these Bounds or else the Angel of the Church of Ephesus was also the Angel of the Church of Smyrna and so the Pastor of this Church is the Pastor of that and by consequence of all every Pastor is an universal Bishop or Pope by Office if not for execution yet for power according to which Power we are to judge of the Office § Before I proceed to return any answer I must make a general Paraenesis Paraenesis and lay it down as a general Precaution relating to the Applicacation of Texts of Scripture to which the Reader is to have respect throughout this Book in treating and handling of all Opinions which are divers and not few viz. It stands not with the Wisdom and Learning no nor yet with the sincerity of Ecclesiasticks how great soever how illuminated or how sincere soever they would be thought to be to alledge in favour of their Opinions Places and Texts of Scripture in a forreign or uncouth if not contrary sence to their own most natural meaning by urging some ambiguous or doubtful terms or Texts of Scripture that possibly may have a double meaning and accordingly setling a Position on some portion of Scripture in the one sense which is true and thereby purchasing some Credit and assent in the Readers minds by such Scripture Allegations and then in the Close conclude in another sense which is not true or contrary or at best not applicable to the Premisses or Positions first laid down It is I take it a received Axiome amongst Divines that that sense of Scripture which agreeth best with the literal words thereof is most genuine and most especially to be embrac'd and that which is farther fetcht as most forreign so least to be relyed on God be thanked this latter Generation is now come ex ephebis out of its minority and wardship wherein it hath been long held Captive by blind obedience and Romish Tyranny and begins now to relish and judge of Spiritual Viands not by the quality or condition or tast of them that cook it or serve it up unto us but by the savoury tast it hath of its own Indeed it is observable that an inordinate affection to find fault or to bring over others that are of a different perswasion to their own Opinions Volendi valde quicquid volunt of which they are so singularly fond that they on all occasions scruple not to intitle God and his Word to the patronage of them doth oftentimes transport Men yea zealous pious Men no less than any other affection whatsoever Hence is the Shop of transforming Texts of Scripture Ita veritatem amant ut velint vera esse quaecunque amant August Such lovers they are of truth that they wish all may be true which they love And vehement desires often reiterated are often metamorphosed into perswasions And therefore I heartily wish that Persons thus opinionated would consider that it is neither sound nor convenient no nor yet peaceable with a few ambiguous terms or with School quiddities or with Places of Scripture wrested or transformed to plant a Doctrine or introduce an opinion in the Church that will pervert or subvert the present setled state thereof Persons of great Learning and Reputation in the World ought above others to be so just as not to urge Scripture Allegations purposely to amuze or seduce the Readers but to look back unto the very Spring and Fountain wherefore they were recorded by the Prophets and Apostles and then to urge them in the truest understanding and intent thereof ☞ out of which no Writers with sincerity should dare with Sophistical Schoolies to seek or endeavour to carry them lest otherwise their Readers much biassed with the Abilities and Integrity of their Persons be thereby blindly led into errors by other Mens Passions and Interest So to handle Scripture is no new Artifice it was a trick even in our Saviours days and practised upon himself the putting of a wrong gloss upon Christs Word 14. Mark 58. made an evil ingredient towards his Condemnation The Pharises were most excellently gifted in this Art one while when Paul manifested Christs appearance unto them once in the way to Damascus and afterwards in the Temple commanding them to preach his Resurrection to the Gentiles they then with great indignation cryed Away with such a fellow from the Earth for it is not sit that he should live 22. Acts 8.17.18.22 Another while to serve their own turns and party against the Saduces who deny all Apparition of Spirit or Angel or hope of Resurrection from the dead which the Pharises confess Pauls conformity with the Pharises in manifesti g and proving the Resurrection from the dead doth relish so well with them that his other particular differences or dissentions from them no way displeases them For he giving express Testimony that Christ whom they had crucified did appear unto him did so please their humour that the Scribes which were on the Pharises part acquitted him by Proclamation viz.
his own sanctions and to publish and teach his truths or to contradict impede or alter any of his Laws which are so Righteous and just that they may be exercised and practised under any worldly Government without clashing with it or interrupting it the Subjects of whose Kingdom being true to the Principles of Christian Religion viz. to love one another even their Enemies and their neighbours as themselves to do justly to love mercy to obey Kings and all that are in Authority in all civil and moral affairs and to pray for them and pay tribute c. can never fairly be accounted as seditious Separatists Schismatical or Trayterous or that they worshipping God innocently according as Christ himself hath instituted can be justly liable to Bonds Mulcts Imprisonments or can come under any other Jurisdiction as to their Worship and Service of God It is true the Jews did hate him de facto the chief Priests Sadduces Scribes and Pharisees being the chief Inquisitors and Instigators did by Menaces Prohibitions Prisons Dungeons Beatings Stonings what not Forbid him his Apostles and Disciples to publish his Gospel or teach in his Name Nay they did not use force only but craft also and yet all would not do They took Counsel how they might intangle him in his talk and sent unto him some of their own Disciples to catch him about paying of Tribute to Caesar 22 Mat. 15.12 Mark 13 14. Accused him of Blasphemy 14 Mark 64. and of perverting the Nation and for forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar for stirring up the people teaching throughout all Jury 23 Luke 2.5 And if we let him alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and will take away our place and Nation 11 Joh. 48. And yet for all this and more when some of the Pharisees spake to Christ to rebuke his Disciples for praising God for all the mighty works they had seen answered that if these should hold their peace the Stones would immediately cry out 19 Luk. 37.40 Did his Apostles and Disciples speed better than their Master I trow not They falsly accused Steven of Blasphemy and stoned him 7 Acts. The High Priest with the sect of the Sadduces put the Apostles in Prison for Preaching the Gospel but God sent an Angel by Night who opened the Prison doors and brought them forth and maugre all their rage against them commanded them to go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life and they accordingly without dread of farther Persecution and without asking leave of any Authority entred into the Temple early in the Morning and taught and when the Captain of the Temple had found them so teaching brought them again before the High Priest who strictly charged them that they should not teach in the Name of Jesus Christ for that they had filled Jerusalem with his Doctrine intending to bring his Blood upon them As high and as home a charge I confess as can be laid against any now What answer made they we ought to obey God rather then man Though they were cut to the heart at this convincing and unanswerable repartie and took Council to slay them Yet when Gamaliel had advised them that it was hard sighting against God they followed his advice and did refrain from them and let them alone on this grand reason for if this Council or this work be of Men it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it least happily ye be found to sight against God And to him they agreed yet beat them and commandâ—d that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus and let them go and they departed from the Council but yet ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ daily in the Temple and in every house 5 Acts 17.42 I 'le trouble you with no Applications or Reflections do but turn the Tables awhile and consider that if all the Reproaches Calumnies Lies and Slanders cast on our worthy Prelates and Priests of late should be taken for truth and they thereupon silenced and deprived without being impleaded or convicted would they not think themselves very hardly dealt withal And was not such their case fresh yet in our own memories And was it unjust then in them And is it just now in others because the Scene is altered and the Tables turned Doth God pervert Judgment Or doth the Almighty pervert Justice 8 Job 3. And shall we follow such examples of Men vile Men perverting all Judgment and Justice Absit It is unbeseeming no See episcopal no not that of Rome it self nor indeed any of that most reverend Coat high or low to become Servants unto all that they may gain the more nor to be made all things to all Men that by all means they might save some nor yet to humble themselves to all wayes and means conducing to the gaining of Souls to Jesus Christ no nor to warn every one night and day in Church or Conventicle with tears and from House to House 20 Acts 20. Cura animarum being undoubtedly the main duty and glory both of Priest and Prelate and to be apt to teach to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. 4.1.2 For hereunto most especially if not only they are called as was Aaron and if not called to this duty they are called unto none as I know of by any Patent or Commission from Heaven Salvation and Damnation of Souls is of everlasting consequence and of the highest concern in the World to every Individual and is it not reasonable then that every Man should have Liberty and free Access to that Ministry whether Publick or private under which he can profit most Moreover if causeless fears and jealousies that Conventicles may Nurse and nuzzle up a faction averse to present Constitutions and to preserve a party in animosity against the establisht Government of Church and State and that their Pastors will abuse their callings to the subversion of Church and State if such reasonings may prevail happily all the Orders of the Church and all the Ordinances of God nay Scripture it self may be forbidden as in the Church of Rome by the very same Logick For if a thing Lawful in it self may be forbidden out of causeless fears and jealousies only of being abused no Man can be assured of the exercise and enjoyment of his calling whether Priestly or Prelatical though never so Warrantable never so strictly commanded by the word of God It is not unworthy of consideration whether a Divine Precept so Solemnly binding conscience with a VVo attending the non-performance of the duty enjoyned can Lawfully be superseded by any humane Law for fear only that evil may ensue Besides this liberty is indulged to them in some Popish Countries as in France Poland Germany and even by Mahumetans and is it not bitter then to be wounded in the house of
they put such a Hook in the Noses and such a Yoke on the Necks of Laicks and Civil Magistrates that the Papalins themselves have never since been able to shake it off unto this very day And though the Laws of the Emperors remain in the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian and in the Capitulars of Charles the Great and Lewis the Debonaire and though all Stories both Ecclesiastical and Prophane do shew how when and by whom these Powers have been granted adding the Reasons and Causes yet so demonstrable so notorious a Truth hath not had such power but that a bare Ipse dixit of the Popes without any proof at all hath been able to overcome it which the Canonists have so far maintained as to declare those Hereticks who do not suffer themselves that have been thus long blindfold to remain hoodwinkt still Though the Light of this Truth was not so extinguished but that both Learned and Pious men in those very first times did oppose their Doctrine viz. That no Civil Magistrate could meddle in any of those Causes which the Clergy had appropriated because they are Spiritual and that Laicks are uncapable of things Spiritual yet the opposition of the better who had the Truth on their side could not overcome the greater part and so upon the Spiritual Power given by Christ to the Church to bind and loose and upon the Institution of St. Paul to compose Contentions among Christians without going to the Tribunal of Infidels in tract of time and by many gradations a Temporal Tribunal hath been built by their own Industry Arts and Ambition and for their own Use Ends and Interests more remarkable than ever was in the world or can be parallell'd for thereby they have erected Regnum in Regno raised to themselves an Empire independent of the Commonwealth and which is more intolerable established on such grounds such as Jus Divinum is it which have so prevailed with such admirable success that it hath given the Pope of Rome as much at once as former Bishops were getting in 1300 years before and all this by making not the Power to bind and loose the foundation of Jurisdiction but the power of seeding and so affirming that all Jurisdiction was given the Pope by Christ in the person of Peter when he said to him Feed my Sheep § But to return to the other Branch viz. Excommunication Excommunication for the lawful force and use whereof they also plead strongly out of the same Chapter Matth. 18.17 If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man and Publican of which a little more here pretending also that the Antient Writers lean very much that way It may be so yet happily if their full scope sence and meaning were fathomed and comprehended and not this and that Scrap and Sentence here and there expunged and picked out and wrested to serve a turn against the Meaning of the Fathers happily they would not be found so clearly on their side as they ween for but be it so that Excommunication may hereout be drawn and deduced yet certes it must then also be of the same Nature as binding and loosing is of in the same place and will then also belong to Privateers For they belonging both unto one thing and unto the same persons by the self-same words will naturally and necessarily fall into the same Predicament and then the meaning of those words are no more but Pursue them in those Courts that thou wouldest a Pagan and Publican that should do thee wrong and what affinity hath this with Excommunication used in the Church of Rome or else those words may be understood of a private forsaking of all company with the wrong-doer as thou wouldest shun Pagans or Publicans until he repent and reform himself which if you please to call Excommunication be it so but then also it belongs to every Individual of the Church and not unto Ecclesiasticks only and is sutable to many other Precepts of the Apostles viz. to withdraw our selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly 2 Thes 3.6 14 15. 1 Cor. 5.11 13. but that they should be kept from the Word and Sacraments and that Divine Service must cease if an obstinate excommunicate person will not quit the Church there is not any one plain Text nor Syllable in the whole Bible This is an Excommunication of their own making not of Christs Institution And yet Excommunication was declared by the then Brethren Presbyters in the Ordinance of Aug. 29. 1648. to be shutting out of a person from the Communion of the Church but what Warrant out of the Word of God they had so to do non constat Other Expressions and Powers there are recorded in Scripture of which they make use for the founding and upholding of Excommunication as the Delivery unto Sathan 1 Cor. 5.5 as Hymenaeus and Alexander and the Incestuous Person were the striking of Ananias and Saphira dead by Peter and of Elymas the Sorcerer blind by Paul owning himself to have vengeance in readiness against all disobedience 2 Cor. 10.6 and his professing that he will not spare 2 Cor. 13.2 As also when some for abusing the Lords Supper became weak and sick and fell asleep or became dead These and the like might have been Arguments for the like Powers had they not died with the Apostles but with Excommunication they have no Analogy no Resemblance they were Arrows indeed in the Quivers of the Apostles Tokens as one of them expresseth 2 Cor. 12.12 of an Apostle wrought with Signs and Wonders and mighty Deeds but no Arguments for Excommunication whereby it is evident that in their Days when as yet there were no Christian Magistrates to punish the Sins and Offences of the Brethren the power of God sometimes by himself sometimes by his Apostles did afflict and punish the disobedient more or less grievously according as their Sins were more or less heinous that thereby they might learn not to blaspheme nor yet to detain the Truth of God in unrighteousness and that the rest might fear to provoke his Wrath and Indignation by like Sins and Uncleanness For without all controversie the Delivery unto Sathan the smiting some with Death and others with Blindness and Sickness were Corporal punishments and of a far different Nature from that of Excommunication even according to their own shewing there being not any other punishment belonging to the essence of Excommunication but the sole debarring from the participation of the Word and Sacraments § However let us a little consider the Delivery of the Incestuous person unto Sathan 1 Cor. 5. of which no small use is made to justifie Excommunication Take the Story as it lies plainly in the Text without any Vizards or Equivocations St. Paul understanding that there was such fornication at Corinth as was not so much as named among the Gentiles viz. that one should have his Fathers Wife wrote unto them his first Epistle and
so but that they may all serve to one and the self-same general if not particular End and Effect and in our Case to the edification of the Church The Apostles indeed could not write with their Tongues but they did preach as well with their Pens when they writ as with their Tongues when they spake the Gospel of Christ and our usual publick reading of the Word of God with the rest of the Liturgy for the Peoples instruction by his good leave is Preaching Acts 15.21 22. Can any Man imagine or shew a Reason that reading it self is not one of the ordinary Means and Gifts which God hath appointed for the conveying of his Truths into the Hearts of Men which being received may be effectual for the saving of their Souls Belief in all Sorts doth come by hearing and attending to the Word of Life whether it be preached or read The Word it self whether read or heard some time convinceth the Judgment and perswadeth the Affections Sometime Truth is wrought in the Heart by private conference and instruction from private Persons so Apollos though an Eloquent Man and mighty in the Scriptures yet was taught the Way of God more perfectly by Aquila and Priscilla a Woman Acts 18.26 Some Truth is taught by those whom the Church hath publickly called to the publick reading or interpreting of the Word All these tend unto one and the same Glorious End viz. to the Knowledge of Jesus and him Crucified And as Preaching which is explaining by lively Voice and applied according to the Wisdom of the Speaker doth not in its own Nature justle out or prejudice the Efficacy of any other means or way of publick Instruction be it by Liturgy or otherwise or inforce the utter disability of any other means thought requisite in this Church for the saving of Souls So Liturgies in their own Nature are not exclusive of any other provision of Means that Christ hath ordained for the benefit and service of his Church as this Discourser avers For the saving Force of the Word is not restrained to any one certain kind of delivery but how ever the same shall come to be made known it hath its Force and Energy and doth ordinarily save by every Mean whether publick or private reading Liturgies or hearing Sermons or private Conference and Instruction whether they be premeditated or extemporary O! but though Liturgies are not in their own Natures exclusive of the use of other Talents yet the English Liturgy there is the grand Pique doth avowedly and expresly say That the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use or exercise any Spiritual Gift in the Administration of those Ordinances for which provision is made in the Book f. 67 68. And consequently the necessary and undispensable Use of Liturgies is directly exclusive of the Use of the Means provided by Christ and for the End for which the Liturgy is invented and imposed 63 67 68. And farther he saith That the Liberty which some say is granted for a Man to use his own Gifts and Abilities in Prayer before and after Sermon will he fears as things now stand upon due Considerations appear rather to be taken than given and is very questionable 42 43. And that however it concerns not our present Question because it is taken for granted by those that plead for the strict observation of a Book that the whole Gospel-worship of God in the Assembly of Christians may be carried on and performed without any such Preaching as is prefaced with that Liberty pretended 42 43. and for that many that are looked upon as skilled in that Law and Mystery of it do by their practise give another Interpretation of the intendment of its Imposition making it extend to all that is done in publick Worship the bare preaching or reading of a Sermon or Homily excepted 64. nor saith he is that the matter enquired into whether Ministers may at any time or in any part of Gods Worship make use of their Gifs but whether they may do it in all those Administrations for whose performance to the edification of his Body they are bestowed on them by Jesus Christ which by the Rule of the Liturgy we have shewed that they may not and he doubts not but it will be granted by those who contend for the Imposition of the Liturgy that it extends to the Principal Parts if not to the Whole of the publick Worship of God in the Church 64. § If all were true that is here alledged the day might probably be his own but me thinks in thus arguing our Author is not so candid as his other very Learned and Ingenious Writings speak him to be when he deals with others in Points of difference of a far more dangerous concern and consequence For though he cannot but most assuredly and demonstratively know that here all Ministers of the Gospel have not only a liberty but are expresly commanded to use and improve their Talents even in publick as often as they are called either to implore Blessings or deprecate Sins and Judgments to render Thanks or to discourse and enlarge themselves on all or any part of the Worship of God or Christian Doctrine and that it is the daily practise of them so to do throughout all the Kings Dominions yet for him to say that it is a Liberty rather taken than given and is very questionable and that upon what this Man says and that Man thinks or practises is not to be ingenious according to his old wont but to avoid all Sophistry and to come to the demonstration of the Truth this is meer matter of Fact and we cannot erre in it the demonstration of which will and must clear this Point and we must stand and fall thereby and therefore sit liber Judex together with the constant practise of the Church from the very Birth and first Introduction of our Liturgy unto this very day for we must take both together for that the constant and uninterrupted Practise Use and Custom is of that very great Force and Vertue as sometimes to wear out and obliterate the very Force and Vertue of an Enacted Law to the contrary The Matter of Fact alledged on his part is That the Liturgy says expresly that the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use nor exercise any Spiritual Gift c. but how or where to find this in the Liturgy I know not for I have turned it over once and again and cannot find the least footsteps of any such Prohibition yet I will not affirm that it is not there It 's possible I may have over-look'd it but grant it be in terminis as he hath worded it yet if from the first Institution of Liturgies the Use and Practise hath been contrary as most certainly it hath been and no Man ever questioned for using his Talents nay all commanded by Injunctions and Acts of Parliament to improve them and strict Inquiry made accordingly at the Bishops Visitations according unto Articles of
this Nature which concern chiefly if not meerly Polity and Regulations Rites and Ceremonies ought to be so Charitable one towards another as to believe that they all holding fast as they all do the main Principles and Doctrines of the Gospel that they err only by misconstruction and that each others Errors are not concerning Fundamentals but Discipline only and those also purae negationis and not pravae dispositionis and therefore may live peacibly and holily here under either Government and may hereafter meet in the presence of God and see his Face with Comfort whosoever should submit to other § Consider again that those Churches which were Founded and Governed by the Apostles themselves and where they Preached and Resided were not exempt from Imperfections perhaps as great if not greater than those now in the Church of England whereof the Epistle to the Gal. gives a clear Testimony but more clearly 1 Cor. 1.12 and 1 Cor. 3.4 5. As to their Charity they are Taxed that some of them adhered to Paul some to Cephas others to Apollos with a Schism and express Renting of the Seamless Coat of Christ. And as for Opinions and Doctrines there were some that denyed the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.12 As for Peace and Concord they drew their Pleadings and Differences before the Tribunals of Insidels 1 Cor. 11.8.9 1 Cor. 6. As for manners they had Fornication among them and such as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles 1 Cor. 5.12 As for Customs the Supper of the Lord was converted into Banquets where some were Drunk and others Hungry nay there were Heresies and Schisms among them also 1 Cor. 11.20 21. c. And all this while the Apostle acknowledgeth them to be a true Church and a Body of Christ and did not silence himself but continued labouring by his Preachments Fastings and Prayers to amend them and yet he lived under a Government Averse even to Christianity it self How ought we then to stand fast and comply and dispence with some irregularities in the Church where God by his singular Grace hath setled us altho in the Government thereof there have been and still are Imperfections and Abuses which are also by tract of time converted into marvellous grievances For reason of State and of good Government its good to be observant of all established Sanctions and tho many Novelties of Reformations do arise yet to accommodate our selves with readiness unto them howbeit we do not much approve of them because things of Custom have their Remedies but Innovations are never without their mischiefs against which it is very hard to find a Remedy § Edification in the Indisputable truths of Faith and in the Indispensable duties of Life being the main end and Objects of Church Government and Discipline its Honour enough for Episcopal Government to enforce Gods Commandements only there being no necessity of enjoyning more than what the Apostles did in plain and perspicuous terms without making use of obscure Allegorical and Metaphorical Expressions for Exorbitant Powers for Excommunication Censures and God knows what Yet Be it as some Dissenters would have it that all Men professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ have an undoubted Right and Priviledge to Assemble and Associate together to Pray Preach and Perform Gospel Ordinances without Assenting or Consenting nay contrary to the Approbation and Commands of the Civil Magistrate nay and that by a Paramount Power derived even from Christ himself and all this not without the Warrant of this Demonstration that except it had been and were still so the Gospel could never have been Preached to all Nations then mortal Enemies to Christ and his Gospel nor could yet be Preached where the unknown God is only Worshipped Be it so as in truth it is so that the Preachers of the Word of Salvation and the Administrators of the Sacraments being things Commanded them by God ought not to be forbidden by men and are so far exempt from Humane Law that the Prohibition of them is of no Force or Virtue it being in such Cases better to obey God than Men. 5 Act. 22. and for that no Mans right ought to be denyed him either in things Civil or Spiritual for fear they should abuse it for that then no mans right shall be preserved safe unto him Be it so I say even as they would have it yet as surely and as undoubtedly the Caesars have their Patent their Charter and Charge from the same Paramount Power for the Countenancing and Propagating the Gospel and supervising the Professors thereof and they have a Pastorship to give an Account of as well as those of the Clergy and therefore they ought to be as scrupulously careful and as Zealously watchful as themselves Was it not Prophesied of David a King 34 Ezek. 23. I will set up one Shepherd over them and he shall Feed them even my Servant David he shall Feed them and he shall be their Shepherd and I the Lord will be their God and my Servant David a Prince among them v. 24. and was he not taken accordingly from the Sheepfold to Feed Jacob his People and Israel his Inheritance and he Fed them according to the Integrity of his Heart and guided them by the Skilfulness of his Hands 78 Psal 70.71 72. Besides were this Objection of greater Force than in truth it is yet it hath no place in this Kingdom for that such Liberty of Assembling is not only not denyed but permitted Countenanced nay Commanded and Churches separated for that very end and purpose only that what Talents what Light soever the Complainants may have they may not hide them under a Bushel or in a Conventicle but may manifest them publickly to all Commers But if under this their great Gospel Priviledge and under the Shelter of indiscreet Niceties they will meet in Private and thereby give a jealous State great Cause only to suspect that they do it that thereby they may the more opportunely Foster and Foment a Party Averse to present Established Constitutions of Church and State then certainly Caesar hath as undoubted a Gospel Power and right to Prevent Inhibit and punish Transgressors If their Doctrine be sound and good why should they not have Churches if not why should they be permitted in Corners Look but a little back and consider if the late times have not given too great cause of fears and jealousies to a Wise and Christian State to use all just endeavours to prevent the like for the Future Consider also what moved our fore-fathers to make severe and Sanguinary Laws against Papists was it not because they were troublers of our Israel working like Moles under Ground endeavouring the Ruin of our Church and State If some may be suffered tho but by Connivence to break thro small Laws both themselves and others will thereby be encouraged to set the greater at nought Herein I desire to be rightly understood not as if I Pleaded for a general Tolleration nothing less
this Life and in that which is to come meer Vassals they and their Subjects likewise in no better condition than the Sheep in Demosthenes where the Dogs were to be banished and the Wolves to be their Guardians for they endeavor to make the World believe that they have power over their Souls and Bodies at their pleasure both in this Life and after Death These have been the Collections and Observations of Fra. Paolo and other learned and faithful Writers and eye-witnesses The best is Ab initio non fuit sie there are no such Doctrines in Bibliis Sacris but the contrary And our Doctrines concerning these points and indeed our Religion is the same which is contained in the Scriptures in General Councils and in the Fathers of the First Three I might say Five Ages which have not been purified in their Purgatory their Indices expurg and agrees with the Articles of Faith and only differs in those which they have lately invented and added which he that examines them one by one shall find that none of them make for the Glory of God but all for the Increase of the Grandeur Wealth worldly Power and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Order so that in truth the true Roman Religion such as it was in the dayes of the Apostles and some Centuries next succeeding is insensibly but manifestly Bastardized and become spurious at Rome and all reduced to a new fashioned Religion which chiefly if not only makes for the pomp and Interest of the Court of Rome So that in truth these latter Popes are no more nor otherwise the true Possessors or Successors of St. Peter's Doctrines at Rome than the Grand Signior is of the Doctrines of St. James's at Jerusalem or of St. Paul's in those famous Churches of Asia In the dayes of Sixtus Quintus that Great Prince there lived in Italy that famous Alchymist and Impostor Nick-named Mamugna who was verily believed that he could make Gold not by the Vulgar only but by Cardinals Princes nay by the Pope himself One more wise and more merry than the rest habiting himself like this famous Alchymist went up and down the City of Venice in a Gondelo well fraught with a Cargo of fire Bellows Crucible Glasses c. crying Al Magmugna A tre lire il soldo del loro sino who buyes a shillings worth of pure Gold for nine pence which being told the Turkish Chiaus made this short answer Il gran signore dumque verra a servirlo if he can make Gold the Great Turk shall come to be his Servant I shall make no other Application or inference of this Mountebank Story than what is natural qui vult decipi decipiatur if Princes will be content to let false and base Coin go for currant be it so But in truth all the Papalins were not of the same mind and opinions with those famous Cardinals and Jesuits the Popes Partisans nor with the Court of Rome but Books were Printed Pro and Con by Papalins themselves in great numbers For besides the Papalins within the State of Venice the Sorbonists were very Orthodox and maintained the Defence of the lawful Secular Power opposing themselves against the Usurpations of Rome and maintaining the Liberty of the Gallican Church for that Kingdom holds it for a matter most certain and apparent that Popes have no power over Princes and that they ought not to proceed by Censures against them or their Officers in things which concern the State And as soon as the King knew of the publication of the Monitory at Rome he complained greatly of the too hasty proceedings of the Pope and sent a dispatch to him with speed requesting him to accommodate the differences The King of Polonia absolutely denyed the publishing of the Popes Monitory for that it did not stand with reason to govern themselves after another fashion towards that Republick of Venice whose Cause was common with his own Kingdom The Catholick King of Spain on whom the Pope relyed for Succors for that he had sometime before made liberal offers unto His Holiness from which he retreated in time of necessity and advised him to neglect his own private Interests for the universal good of Christendom and said that it did not beseem the Father of all Christendom to ground a War so cruel and pernitious to Christian People upon a King so pious and that His Holiness would abase the Apostolick Dignity if he sustained by humane means the Authority which God had given him Quarrels of Paul the Fifth pag. 374 375 376. Thus you see Rome it self divided the Pope and Court of Rome differing in this their greatest point and Diana Jurisdiction both from the old and from the more Novel Church of Rome as well as from that of the Church of the Protestants And thus you may perceive the unquiet and uncertain State that all Princes are like to be in and their Condition never like to be better whilst such monstrous State-destroying-Principles are held for Gospel at Rome For it matters not whether these Doctrines are true or false or received and believed by others or no nor yet whether Protestants or Papists it is all a case so long as so believed at Rome You see the State of Venice a Popish Republick no more safe nor quiet than England a Protestant Kingdom Had the Popes Swords been keen and powerful enough no doubt but that they would have brought both those States in their respective differences and quarrels as once Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor to that Brute Alexander the Third creeping on their knees to obtain Absolution from their Sentences of Excommunication or as Henry the Fourth whom Hildebrand would not release from his Excommunication till he came bare-foot to Canusium in a bitter cold Winter waiting three dayes before the Popes Palace for his Absolution which he hardly obtained by the Intercession of the Dutchess Matilda The Pope besides that he is the Head of Romish Religion is also a Prince who hath for more than 600 years by past aspired to the Monarchy of all Italy at least I might say at an universal Monarchy Temporal and Spiritual which he hath been some time so near to obtain that it is a wonder that he hath misled of it seeing he leaves no stone unturned quacunque arte to enlarge his Jurisdiction He hath three great charges upon him 1. That of Religion 2. That of Ecclesiastical affairs 3. The Temporalty of his Estate The care of all which I shall not grudge him as of right belonging unto him in one or other of his Capacities so he kept within his own Dominions and Territories tho happily all of the Romish Religion will not allow him so much for that all Bishops ought to be governed by the Canons and in which both Pope and all Bishops antiently in the best and purest dayes did acknowledge the Supream power to be to which they all submitted and not by the Pope alone there being also three kinds of
will not submit to the Pope that is not marked out for destruction under the Notion of Hereticks which notion as soon as a neat opportunity presents tho misapplyed which is not seldom serves his turn for all Assassinations Wars Massacres what not What hath been written with reflection on the State of our Neighbor Nations and on the interest and incessant workings of the Jesuits in all their Courts and Councils doth manifest sufficiently our happiness without any such sinful compliance and spares me the labor of farther characterizing them Jesuiticum Fidei Symbolum veluti Canticum novum ex Jo. Baptistae Pozae Libris conflatum c. 1. CRedo in duos Deos quorum unus ' Filii Pater Mater est Metaphoricè in Generatione Aeterna alter Metaphoricè Mater Pater est in Generatione Temporali cui consequens est ut tam Deo Patri quam B. Virgini nomen Matri-Pater conveniat tanquam uterque Hermaphroditus essel vel Androgynus 2. Credo in Jesum Christum unicum utriusque filium Metaphoricum secundùm aeternam Temporalem Generationem 3. Credo Jesum Christum ut hominem fuisse conceptum Natum de Maria Virgine tanquam Patre Matre Metaphoricè per virtutem Paternam Maternam 4. Credo eundem passum mortuum non verè realiter eo quod mori non potuit 5. Credo eum fuisse sepultum etsi verè realiter non mortuum 6. Credo animum ejus descendisse ad Inferos Metaphoricè cum à Corpore â—on fuit separata 7. Credo eà dem Metaphorâ eum à mortuis resurrexisse qua fuit mortuus 8. Credo eum ascendisse in Coelos sedere ad dextram Patris venturum â—â—â—â—dicet alios viventes alios etiamnum mortuos 9. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum qui locutus est per Prophetas nonnunquam deâ—â—ptos 10. Credo Ecclesiam ex majore parte Sanctam Sanctorum communionem 11. Credo Remissionem peccatorum per repentinum Spiritus Sancti Adventum super impios 12. Credo Resurrectionem Carnis ex majore ejus parte vitam aeternam non sine aliqua oppositi formidine A new Jesuitical Creed gathered out of the works of Johannes Baptista Poza a Spanish Jesuit by Franciscus Roales Dr. at Salamanca and Chaplin to His Catholick Majesty of Spain It is to be found in Latin digested into Twelve Articles v. Alphons Devargas Printed Anno Dom. 1665. cap. 18. pag. 59 60. 1. I Believe in two Gods whereof one is Father and Mother of the Son Metaphorically according to an Eternal Generation the other Metaphorically Mother and Father according to a Temporal Generation and what is consequent hereto that the common term Mother-Father may be equally attributed to God and the Blessed Virgin as if they were both Hermophradites Hermophraditus vel Androgynus 2. I believe in Jesus Christ the only Metaphorical Son of both according to an Eternal and Temporal Generation 3. I believe that Jesus Christ as man was conceived and Born of the Virgin Mary Metaphorically as of Father and Mother by a Maternal and Paternal Virtue 4. I believe that he suffered and was dead not truly and really because it was impossible that he should dye 5. I believe that he was buried though not truly and really dead 6. I believe that his Soul descended into Hell Metaphorically whereas it was never separated from his Body 7. I believe that he rose from the dead by a Metaphor suitable to that whereby I believed him dead 8. I believe he ascended into Heaven that he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father and that he will come to Judge some alive and some already dead 9. I believe in the Holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets though those were sometimes mistaken and deceived 10. I believe the Church to be as to the better part of it Holy and the Communion of Saints 11. I believe the Remission of sins effected by a sudden Collation of the Holy Ghost upon the wicked 12. I believe the Resurrection of the Body as to the better part of it and life everlasting not without some fear of the Contrary AN APOLOGY FOR THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS THough I cannot with truth aver that stealing out in Print sine permissu superiorum is as justifiable as stealing a Nap or stealing away from Company at pleasure yet I hope it is not to be numbred inter graviora delicta And that I may with much truth say that to padlock the Press is but a new Trick or Tyranny rather devised by those whom for shame we cannot own for pious in their Lives or orthodox in their Doctrines and indeed whom it is a reproach to imitate A Romish Practice or at best but a new Canonical Slight unknown to the first and purest Men and Times forged in and crept out of the Saincted Inquisition by the Holy Fathers thereof who to shew their wonderful zeal to Religion and divine Truths have put the Bible it self in the Front or first rank of prohibited Books and so corrupted the Fathers by their Additions and Substractions that those of their Inquisitory Editions can no otherwise be esteemed the true Off-spring of their Natural Fathers then Theseus's Ship could be called his Ship after it had so often been hack'd and hewed patch'd and mended that there was scarce a whole Rib or Plank that did remain the same that it was when it was first built which because it still kept the same form though little of the old matter did still retain the Name of Theseus his Ship Tho' Christians have no other divine Rule or Authority without them warrantable to one another as a common Ground or Rule either for holy Living or determination of Controversies in matters of Religion unto which all ought to submit but the Scriptures nor any other Evidence or Patent to make out their title or claim to Heaven and heavenly things nor unto their great Gospel-Priviledges but the Scriptures yet so just and tender have the heretical Fathers of all Christendom the Popes been that contrary to all express Apostolical Commands by their Indices Expurgatorii whereof there are seven if not more extant in the very front of prohibited Books placed the Bible forbidding it to be printed or read in any vulgar Tongue printed or written and they account all Languages vulgar but Latin Greek Hebrew Chaldaick Syriack Aethiopick Persian Arabick as may be seen in the fifth general Rule in the Index printed at Madrid 1667. viz. Cum experientia docuerit ex permissione sacrorum Bibliorum lingua vulgari plus inde ob hominum temeritatem ignorantiam aut malitiam detrimenti quam utilitatis oriri prohibentur Biblia lingua vulgari extantia cum omnibus eorum partibus impressis aut manuscriptis pariter Summaria Compendia quamvis Historica corundem Bibliorum aut Librorum Sacrae Scripturae Idiomate aut lingua vulgari non tamen clausulae sententiae aut eapita quae libris
his Cause that he prohibited a Treatise of Gerson's that had been printed above 100 years before and many other Books by Name then printed and all other Writings which should be made against his Interdict against the Venetians O! much many ways First It had the Fate of all such dishonourable and disingenuous Practices Effects contrary to expectation viz. that the most understanding persons did from such a practice conclude that Reason could not stand nor be on their side who would not suffer the Reasons on both sides to be made manifest and come to the Lydius lapis the Test of right Reason It was also judged marvellous strange that all Writings which might be made were prohibited which was to prejudge before they knew or could understand as if endued with the Spirit of Pithon or of Prophecy they did foresee that men could write nothing on their side that could abide the touch or the light or else that they were such Plenipotentiaries as that they had full Authority to extinguish indifferently the good with the evil Preposterous ways and therefore that wise Republick deem'd it more for their honour and justification and advantage not to imitate his Holiness nor the Advisoes of his sacred Conclave in that which they reprehended in them and therefore they permitted to print and read who would that thereby appealing unto all the World all the World might see on their part that nothing was palliated or disguised and that they did not distrust the judgment of the Universe on what they had done and this was done like a State full of Gravity and full of Wisdom Full contrary did those magnificent Cardinals Bellarmine Baronius and Colonna act whilst they imployed all their Wits and Learning not only to blot out those Hand-writings that were and would have made against them but by pitiful Sophistry and Querks to raise a dust or mist in the minds of their Readers by their own Writings to disguise and obscure the Truth that it might not be discovered nor ever come clearly to the Test and what honour they atchieved thereby Historians are full and such Fates commonly attend such pitiful Policies and Practices The truth is every Government is or ought to be such as to be above all little dirty Intrigues and this is no great one Nitimur in vetitum Books like Poma Adami the more forbidden the more desired it being ever suspected in such Cases that some Truths lye therein hidden which if discovered would fly in the faces of such Opponents as subtlely endeavour to trample them under foot besides such licensed Books are but the language of the present Times and have their Vicissitudes and alternate Fates We have experienced it in our own days and times when Episcopacy was to be pulled up root and branch then forsooth all Presses ought to be open and free it was the Peoples Birth-right and priviledge and the dawning of the day of Truth appearing after the Sun had gone down upon our Prophets and the day had been dark over them for some years past But no sooner had they unmitred the Prelates and minced Episcopacy as small as Herbs to the Pot that every Priest might be a Prelate in his several Parish under another title and vizard but that the old Acts were new broacht and trumpt up again March 2. 1642. and the freedom of the Press must be beleagured with a Committee forsooth of Examinations and a Commission of twenty and learning to her old Barnacles again This device was first set on foot by Antichristian mystery and design to smother Light and Truth that the Contrivers might the more cleverly set up the Kingdom of Antichrist in Cimerian darkness of ignorance and if it were possible to hinder all reformations of their Lives and Doctrines and to insinuate and establish Falshood Turkish policy To uphold their Aleoran they prohibit Learning and Printing worthy of Romish not Protestant Imitation Protestants need it not Truth which is their Shield and Buckler is as strong as the Almighty Magna enim veritas praevalebit Who ever knew her put to the worse Let Truth and Error enter like fair Combatants and Wrestlers into the Lists confuting by dint of Reason is the only Cornish Hug that can lay flat It is Error not Truth that stands in need of such lame Crutches write that write will Licensing or not Licensing may make Truth more or less visible or diffusive but not less victorious Contraria juxta se posita magis elucescunt Rectum est Index sui obliqui the crookedness of Error will the more appear if once brought to the light and true Rule Why are we then so be-Jesuited seeing by locking up the Press Truth is much more likely to be supprest then Falshood and Error The great and usual Clamour and Out-cry against the Liberty of the Press is that it encourageth Libellers against Kingdoms States and men in Authority If they characterize and represent falsly it is then a Libel and a Crime to be and may be punished by the Judges If they despise Dominion and wrong fully speak evil of Dignities quā tales it is a Crime of the same nature But if publication or declaration of Truths shall be esteemed Libels there 's no Law no Logick nor yet Divinity for that Nay it is derogatory even to the God of Truth Go tell Judah of her sins and Israel of her transgression If Ahab and his Fathers house trouble Israel it 's no crime for Elijah to tell him so nor in Nathan to say unto David Thou art the man And the prophane Prophets of Israel must be prophesied against All Governments were instituted by God for the good of the governed and it is not Libelling to tell them so Forbidding publication of Books without an Imprimatur first obtained is to make the Licensers Judges of all Truths and Opinions and it's odds that they will let nothing pass but what is calculated and fitted to their own Interest and the Interest and Genius of the present Times And is not this a Crime of the same nature with the Indices expurgatorii which all honest wise and pious men abhor It is at best but an oblique Art servant only to Times Parties and Interests destructive to Learning and Ingenuity to suppress Monuments of Reason used by their Adversaries on whose side happily Truth is The more noble and warrantable way is to abandon all such little and disingenuous Tricks and Devices and labour by all holy means and endeavours to suppress Vice To punish and discountenance sin and sinners is more glorious before God and man then to padlock Presses it being a shrewd sign that Truth is not on their side that suppress the adverse Reasons Truth is able to justifie it self and acquire its own glory and reward of Ingenuity and Christian Simplicity when suppressing or expunging betrays that we either distrust God for the maintenance of his own Truths or that we distrust the Cause or our selves
Christians have to study each others good to endeavour the conversion and confirming of one another Tu autem conversus confirma fratres It is a general Command to all and consequently a duty perpetually obliging to desire earnestly spiritual gifts but rather that they may prophesie according to 1 Cor. 1.14 in which Chapter by Prophets is not meant the Clergy only as it is generally so misunderstood but all Christians in general and by Prophesying is meant speaking unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort V. 3. the duty of every individual And I do not know but that a solemn private Assembly of Christians met in these our days in the name and fear of God exercising holy duties and Ordinances is as true a Church in Gospel understanding as the like number so congregated in the days of Christ and his Apostles according to Matth. 18. These things rightly considered I cannot but wonder and that not without some astonishment with what face or shew of conscience any especially of our Protestant Clergy for in our Alternate changes they have been all some way or other this way culpable whether Prelate Presbyter or Independent all striving to set up themselves can countenance advise or any way consent to forbid such Assembling is it not enough that submission to the present Established Government of Church and State be the qualification to all Ecclesiastical Livings and Preferments for those that can and will submit and conform thereto but they must silence dissenters as truly worshipping and serving God in truth as themselves tho happily not so modishly nor yet so Ceremoniously I pray God forgive them and that the Character of Whited wall given to the High Priest by St. Paul may never be their doom § In things indifferent and good so they be liberal and free it may so happen that an error may be committed against the Princes command but for those duties that are expresly commanded by God the 5. Acts 29. It s better to obey God than Man must take place Consider the contrary if a Prince command lawful things must we notwithstanding have license from another to obey him and without it is it a Non licet And shall not Gods Commands be lawfully obeyed without license from another Nature in all her sinal drifts giveth also such faculties and powers as are requisite and necessary for attaining the same and shall God prescribe an end and Commandments and shall they not be obeyed and put in practice without the favour and license of men Absit its too absurd and inconvenient I have been the freer herein because I have been so far from frequenting or countenancing such Assemblies by my presence that I have been but once at any one of them above these 20 years nor do I converse with any of them Happily I can conform with better satisfaction to conscience than they can that so congregate It is hard kicking against the Pricks Acts 26.14 and ill offending little ones a heavy doom lyes at the doors of such for their Angels do alwayes behold the face of God in Heaven Mat. 18.10 you know the charge was given to Kings themselves saying touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm 105 Psal 14.15 stopping such mouths is injurious to God and man Doth the Law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth 9 John 51. The sum then is that as all Men and Doctrines condemning sin and wicked lives are to be tollerated nay encouraged So to stop the Mouths and Pens of such is to hinder them from doing their duty and from obeying the Laws and Commands of God Now if such should in truth prove to be the very case of our Conventiclers and that their solemn meetings together be in good earnest for the better and not for the worse to wrestle with God with strong and importunate prayers for the Welfare of King and Kingdom of Church and State and to mourn not only for their own personal Sins but for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the Land and to preach Jesus Christ and him Crucified only and that he would make a high way of Holiness through the Land that way-faring-men tho fools may not err therein 35 Esay 8. To stir up the gifts and spirits that are in them by fruitful and seasonable conferences each borrowing light from his Brothers Candle If such should prove to be the truth of their case as they and their Auditors most solemnly aver it to be and it hath not yet judicially appeared to have been otherwise will not then the Oppugners of such Christian liberty Gospel precepts and Apostolick practices be accounted to have laid Snares in Mispah and spread Nets upon Tabor to have used Laws Menaces and Subtilties to keep Gods people from his Court and Sanctuary and to confine and oblige them to Worship after the modes of men And will not such obligations come within the lash and verge of the Woe denounced by Isaiah against those that make a Man an Offender for a word and lay a Snare for them that reprove in the Gate and turn aside the Just for a thing of naught 29.21 Nay will it not look like that old Machivilian trick Audacter calumniari the better to bring about ends and purposes little conducing to the power and encrease of Godliness It is an undoubted Gospel truth that no Power hath lawful Right and Authority to forbid Christians assembling together to Preach the Gospel and to perform Spiritual duties When God sent his own Son out of his own Bosom to take on him the form of a Servant and to become obedient to the death of the Cross for us Men and for our Salvation he gave him the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession 2 Psal 8. and anoynted him with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows whereby he became King of Kings and Lord of Lords whose Throne was to endure for ever and ever and the Scepter of Righteousness to be the Scepter of his Kingdom 1 Heb. 8.9 who whilst in the dayes of his flesh did gather a Church a Kingdom out of Jews and Gentiles peculiar to himself and established the Government thereof sufficient to all its ends and purposes by his own Laws and Precepts far different and distinct from all other Governments in the World to which all other Kings and Governments in the World were to conform and submit and to become nursing Fathers and Mothers thereof and that under a severe prophetical Menace of being else broken with a rod of Iron and dasht in pieces like a Potters vessel 2. Psal 9. and therefore Christs Worship and Government being Independent and subject to no other Laws or Jurisdictions but his own which no Nation how great soever hath so Righteous 4 Deut. 8. no other Power or Principality can Lawfully forbid any Assemblies or Congregations to meet and worship him according to