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truth_n	ancient_a	church_n	doctrine_n	1,896	5	6.2759	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78447	The censures of the church revived. In the defence of a short paper published by the first classis within the province of Lancaster ... but since printed without their privity or consent, after it had been assaulted by some gentlemen and others within their bounds ... under the title of Ex-communicatio excommunicata, or a Censure of the presbyterian censures and proceedings, in the classis at Manchester. Wherein 1. The dangerousness of admitting moderate episcopacy is shewed. ... 6. The presbyterian government vindicated from severall aspersions cast upon it, ... In three full answers ... Together with a full narrative, of the occasion and grounds, of publishing in the congregations, the above mentioned short paper, and of the whole proceedings since, from first to last.	Harrison, John, 1613?-1670.; Allen, Isaac, 17th cent.	1659 (1659)	Wing C1669; Thomason E980_22; ESTC R207784	289,546	380

there which you doing but partially and catching only at some passages that you think makes for your purpose do most grosly wrong him by your misrepresentation And if we should deal by other Authors even such as are for the Episcopal Government as you deal by Calvin which of them almost but we might make to appear Patronizers of the Presbyterian Government But you will have Calvin to say that in the ancient Church the Bishops did all viz. make and publish Canons a note certainly of rule and jurisdiction in the Church Thus you represent him to hold forth the Bishops exercising solitary power of jurisdiction in those times which as it is in it self as contrary to truth as light is to darkeness so it is expresly contrary to what Calvin saith in the very next Section to that which you cite For in the former Section he saith that they to whom the Office of preaching was enjoyned speaking still of the ancient Church they called all those Presbyters These saith he did in every City chcose out one out of their own number to whom they gave more specially the title of Bishop lest dissentions should arise from equality as oft it comes to pass But yet he presently adds and saith Neque tamen honore dignitate superior er at Episcopus ut dominium in Collegas haberet sed quas partes habet Consul in Senatu ut referret de negotijs sententtias roget consulendo monendo hortando alijs praeeat authoritate suâ totam actionem regat quod decretum communi consilio fuerit exequatur id muneris sustinebat Episcopus in Presbyterorum caetu atque id ipsum pro temporum necessitate fuisse humano consensu inductum fatentur ipsi veteres And then he quotes Hierome asserting a Bishop and a Presbyter to be all one We wonder very much where your modesty and ingenuity nay common honesty was when being you could not but take notice of these things in Calvin in this second Section else you read him very negligently yet you say as you here do that according to Calvin's representation of the Government of the ancient Church the Bishops did all make and publish Canons a note certainly of rule and jurisdiction in the Church Whereas you see Calvin saith the Bishop had no dominion over the rest of the Presbyters whom he here calls his Colleagues that he had but only that Office which the Consul had in the Senate and is no more then what the Moderators have in our Assemblies as is clear from what he here particularly recites and further shews that he was only to execute what was decreed by common counsell and further saith that even this that did belong unto him the Ancients themselves confess was introduced by humane consent and that in regard of the necessity of the times And as touching what was appointed by the Council of Nice touching Archbishops and Patriarchs and whereof he makes mention in Section fourth we have told you before what you may find in Calvin himself in that place where he saith they were rarissimi usus of very seldome use and that their use was chiefly for the assembling of Synods But thus we believe all men will see that Calvin is so express and full for the Presbyterian Government and no patronizer of the Episcopall that they will conclude such as represent him otherwise are either very weak or make little conscience of falsifying the Authors which they cite and that you have taken off our Calvin no otherwise then by misinterpreting and grosly wronging him as after the same manner you took off Beza before and both whom however you in scorn call Modern Doctors yet are such Doctors as both you and we may learn much from 4. And thus we are brought to the Authors which we quoted for Fathers you say we have none though that also is not true we having in our Answer to your second Paper produced clear testimonies out of Origen Ambrose Augustine Optatus giving in clear evidence for the being of the ruling Elders office in their times But as touching our modern Authors the Assembly of Divines the London Ministers in their Jus divinum the Provinciall Synod of London in their Vindication Mr. Rutherford and Mr. Gillespie however you despise them again as before as being but of yesterday yet they are such who as in regard of their known and approved piety and learning as they are deservedly in high esteem in the Church so they are such as we reverence and are not ashamed to cite though this you count but a painting of our margent with them and further say of them they may serve our turn amongst the ignorant and vulgar sort who measure all by tale and not by weight whereby you pour forth such scorn and contempt upon so many reverend and glorious lights as we beleeve all moderate spirited men though in their judgments for the cause which you profess to love will be ashamed of and will disown in you And however you say that others that know what and who many of them are will sc for our referring you to them conclude we draw very near the dreggs yet you had approved your selves to have been farre more profound persons if being sent by us to consider what arguments they urged for the Jus divinum of the Presbyterian Government you had in your reply to our Answer answered them and so rather discovered their weakness then by such expressions as you here use to have branded either us for referring you to them or them by saying that others know what and who they are who yet do neither know any thing by them nor can by their detracting pens publish any thing touching them to the world that will ever lessen their esteem with learned godly sober and judicious persons that are acquainted with their learned Labours And however you may please your selves in your v●lifying them and us for referring you to them yet this is that which you should have remembred must be accounted for one day But why did not you who tell us of drawing very near the dregs here take notice of what in our answer immediately followed you having in your first Paper enquired of us why we had called our Government the present Government and then demanded is there no present Government in any Church or assembly of Saints but where our discipline is erected are all the rest at present without Government or where hath ours been this fifteen hundred years past till this present c. unto all which and that which followed there in your Paper we returned you our Answer yet you take not notice of it though if we had dealt thus by you and yet had made a shew to have answered you as you do pretend to answer us we should not have thought you had wronged us in your telling us here of drawing near the dreggs 5. And now to conclude this Section whereas you here again tell us that as for

THE CENSURES of the CHURCH REVIVED In the defence of a short Paper published by the first Classis within the Province of Lancaster in the severall Congregations belonging to their own Association but since Printed without their privity or consent after it had been assaulted by some Gentlemen and others within their bounds in certain Papers presented by them unto the said Classis and since also Printed together with an Answer of that Classis unto the first of their Papers without their knowledg also and consent under the Title of Excommunicatio excommunicata or a Censure of the Presbyterian censures and proceedings in the Classis at Manchester WHEREIN 1. The dangerousness of admitting moderate Episcopacy is shewed 2. The Jus divinum of the Ruling Elders Office is asserted and cleared 3. The aspersions of Schisme and Perjury are wiped off from those that disown Episcopacy 4. The being of a Church and lawfully Ordained Ministry are evidenced and secured sufficiently in the want of Episcopacy 5. The Scriptures asserted and proved to be the sole supreame Judge of all controversies in matters of Religion and the only sure interpreter of themselves not Councils or Fathers or the universall practice of the Primitive Churches 6. The Presbyterian Government vindicated from severall aspersions cast upon it and also the first Classis within the Province of Lancaster and their actings justified in their making out their claime to the civill sanction for the establishment of that Church Government and power which they exercise and likewise a cleare manifestation that their proceedings have been regular and orderly according to the forme of Church Government established by Ordinance of Parliament In three full Answers given to any thing objected against their proceedings by the aforesaid Gentlemen and others in any of their Papers Together with a full Narrative of the occasion and grounds of publishing in the Congregations the above mentioned short Paper and of the whole proceedings since from first to last LONDON Printed for George Eversden at the Signe of the Maiden-head in Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO THE Reverend and Beloved the Ministers and Elders meeting in the Provinciall Assembly of the Province of London the Ministers and Elders of the first Classis of the Province of Lancaster meeting at Manchester do heartily wish the Crown of perseverance in a judicious and zealous defence of the Doctrine Government and Discipline of the Lord Jesus both theirs and ours Reverend and beloved Brethren WHen the Sun of Righteousnes had first favourably risen to them that fear the Name of God in this Land after a dark and stormy night of corruption and persecution then even then were the quickning beams of the sun of civil Authority in this inferionr world caused first to light upon you to form your renowned City into severall Classes and afterwards into a Provinciall Assembly not onely that you might have the birth-right of Honour which we cheerfully remember but also that being invested with Authority from Jesus Christ and the civill Magistrate you might be prepared to stand in the front of opposition the powers of Hell being startled and enraged at the unexpected reviving of Gospel Government and Discipline which seemed so long to lye for dead and that having your strength united you might be enabled and encouraged to plead the cause of God against the Divine right of Episcopacy and for the Divine right of the Ruling-Elder that the one might not be shut out of the Church and the other might not recover in the Church both which have been and still are under design VVhat you have already done this way as a thankfull improvement of Divine favour and with speciall reference to the respective Classes and Congregations within your Province doth evidently appear in your Vindication of Presbyterian Government and your Jus Divinum Ministerii Evangelici which choice fruits of your Provinciall Assembly are not onely refreshing and satisfying for the present but do promise fair for time to come such clusters do shew there is a blessing in the Vine which the Lord of the Vineyard continue and increase When you our Reverend Brethren had first been shined upon and made so fruitfull the Divine grace caused a second enlivening beam of civill Authority to fall upon this remote and despised County to constitute in it also severall Classes and afterwards a Provinciall Assembly since which time such heavenly influence hath been stayed As our Lot hath happily fallen to follow you in the favour of God and civill Authority so we have unhappily fallen into your Lot especially this Classis to be followed with the anger opposition reproaches and contradiction of men of contrary mindes which though hid in the ashes in great measure formerly and but sparkling now and then here and there in a private house or Congregation yet when we would conscientiously and tenderly have improved the Government for the instruction of the ignorant and reformation of the prophane it brake out into a flame and no way but that flame must be hasted to such a Beacon that it might not be quenched till the Nation had seen and taken notice especially the whole opposite party awakened a very design You have pleaded the civil Authority for your acting in the Government but have setled the Government it self for the satisfaction of your own consciences and the consciences of the people of God upon the firm basis of divine Scripture authority and so have we thence you have been authorized to bring into the Church and keep in it by the mercifull intervention of civill Authority the despised governing Elders and so shut out of the Church and keep out of it that Lordly and self-murthering Episcopacy and so have we You have been forced to flie to the testimony of your consciences concerning your aims and ends in your publick undertakings in the cause of God and so have we It was scarce possible for you to wipe off the dirt cast upon you but some of it would unavoidably fall upon them that cast it nor can we Vpon these and other considerations we knew not in what Name of right to publish our enforced Vindication in the same common cause but in your Name who have gone before us in the work and have afforded us light and encouragement whose seasonable and solid Labours have already found acceptance in the Church and blessing from God And we pray that your Bow may abide in strength and the armes of your hands may be made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob that though the Archers have sorely grieved you and shot at you and hated you yet you may still possess the rich blessing of truth in Doctrine Government and Discipline and may foyl the adversaries thereof till the renewed and enlarged favour of God hath overspread this Nation with the Reformation so happily begun and till that so much desired prayed for and endeavoured accommodation of dissenting Brethren alas alas too hardly attained may sincerely

edifyingly and lastingly be effected that when all our undermining scorning and opposing enemies do hear and see these things they may be much cast down in their own eyes perceiving that this work hath been wrought of our God in whose arms of mercy and truth we leave you and the Cause we manage Manchester Jan. 11. 1658. Signed in the Name and by the appointment of the Class by John Harrison Moderator THE EPISTLE To the READER IT is no new thing that such workes as have been most eminently conducing to the glory of God and the Churches greatest wellfare have met with strong oppositions When the Adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the Children of the captivity builded the Temple unto the Lord God of Israel they set themselves diverse waies to hinder and obstruct the worke When Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped then they were very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it When Jesus Christ the eternall Son of God the brightness of his Fathers glory and express Image of his Person appeared in the world cloathed with our nature though he came about a worke of greatest consequence that ever was yet his enimies withstood and opposed his Kingdome Of this the Psalmist prophesied before it came to pass Psal 2. 1 2. Why did the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vaine thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the people take counsell together against the Lord and against his annointed saying Let us breake their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us And this the Church saw fulfilled who in their Prayer unto God applied unto the times wherein they lived what he by the mouth of his Servant David had foretold so long before saying For of a truth against thy holy Childe Jesus whom thou hast annointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsell determined before to be done It would be here too long to go through the Books of the N. T. and tell what persecutions were raised against the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour for executing that Commission which he had given them when he commanded them to go teach all Nations or to go through the story of the Church and speak of the diverse kindes of tortures and torments which thousands of all rankes endured in the times of the ten Primitive persecutions under the Heathen Emperours to tell of the Martyrdome of Ignatius Polycarpus Justin Martyr Irenaeus Cyprian and many others glorious lights and worthy Confessors of the truth for no other reason but because they studied to advance Christs Gospell We will instance something in latter times When the Romish Synagogue having most abominably apostatiz'd both in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Governement Luther and other faithfull Servants of Christ did earnestly bend themselves to endeavour a reformation in Religion the Antichristian world was mad with fury To come yet a little nearer home When Religion was reformed in Scotland in Doctrine and Worship the Church of Christ there had many conflicts and the worke was long obstructed before the Governement and Discipline of Christ could be fully established amongst them as it is in fresh remembrance what troubles they passed through more lately in their contending against Episcopacy and the Ceremonies which had been introduced amongst them to the great prejudice of their Ancient Church governement and Discipline But here it may not be forgotten how when the Parliament of famous memory that was convened eighteen yeares agoe having taken into their pious consideration the condition of our own Church at home and judging that a further reformation in matters of Religion then had been made in the daies of Queen Elizabeth was necessary and setting upon that work as also the vindication of the liberties of this English Nation were forced to take up Armes for their own defence against that Partie that could not brooke the Reformation which they intended And to what an height that opposition grew in after time and with what difficulties they conflicted for many years together because they would not give up that cause they had undertaken to defend is so well known to even such as may be but strangers in our Israel that we may spare the pains of a full recitall But yet nothing of all this is to be wondered at Satan must needs be like himselfe and stir the more when he sees his Kingdome begin to shake And corruption will rage when it is crossed God also hath a wise hand in these oppositions not only thereby the more inflaming the zeal and brightning up other graces in his faithfull servants trying and exercising their faith and patience the purging and purifying and making them white but also getting himself the greater glory when his worke is carried on notwithstanding the greatest opposition of his and his Churches enemies And here we cannot but with all thankfullness to Almighty God take notice of this hand that was most eminently lifted up in the worke of Reformation begun by that late forementioned Parliament as there is cause why also we should to the honour and glory of his great Name and the praise of that Parliament unto the generations that may come hereafter acknowledg their unwearied pains courage and constancy in that worke Much was done yea very much by that illustrious and worthy Parliament By them the foundation of reformation was laid in the solemne League and Covenant which they not only took themselves but ordained should be solemnely taken in all places throughout the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales And for the better and more orderly taking thereof appointed and injoyned certain directions to be strictly followed And in pursuance of this League and Covenant engageing every one that tooke it in their severall places to indeavour the refomation of Religion in England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and governement according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches and to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdomes to the nearest conjunction and uniformity of Religion Confession of Faith forme of Church Government Directory for worship and Catechizing After consultation had with the Reverend Pious and Learned Assembly of Divines called together to that purpose they judged it necessary that the Book of Common Prayer should be abolished and the Directory for the publick worship of God and in their Ordinance mentioned should be established and observed in all the Churches within this Land as appears by their Ordinance of January the 3. 1644. for that purpose By them Prelacy that is Church Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deanes Deanes and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiasticall