Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the Generalissimo chief Captain and Prince of our Salvation who having in former times delivered his Servants the true and faithful Ministers from the paws of the Lions and the Bears Heathenish force and Heretical furies will also deliver them out of the hands of these uncircumcised Philistims who having received from their Ministry what ever honor and privilege they can pretend to as Christians yet now carry themselves as if they were aliens from the Israel of God and had never had relation to or blessing from this or any other true Church where hath been a constant Ministry not more famous for Learning and Industry than blessed with all Evangelical excellencies and happy successes To which now the Lord is pleased to adde this crown of patience under great tribulations and of perseverance in suffering much evil discâ—uragement wheâ—e it hath deserved so well CAVIL III. Or Objection about Christian gifts and exercising in common as Preachers or Prophets ALl impartiall spectators may hitherto behold the salvation of God how the insolent opposers of the Ministeriall function the men of Gath are in their first encounter so deeply smitten and woun ed that they ly groveling on the ground The remayning motions which they may seem to have Inconditi morientium motus invalidi expirantium conatus Sym. are but the inordinate strokes of hands and heels the last batteries and weak struglings which attend impotent revenge and exspiring malice It will be no hard matter to set my foot upon their prostâ—ate power and to sever their Heads from their Shoulders that they rise up no more by the means of that two edged and unparalleld Sword of the Scriptures rightly applyed which hath both sharpness weight and brightness the clearest reason potentest conviction and divinest Authority with which they thought to arm themselves against the peculiar Office of the Ministry Yet there are some seconds and recruits who seem to have less fury and malice against the Ministry who seeing the chief Champion of the Antiministeriall faction thus Levelled come in either as to the spoyl or rescue as Ajax to Ulysses holding before them the shield of manifold Scriptures Alleging That notwithstanding there may be granted some peculiar Office and Institution of the publike Ministry yet as to the power of preaching or liberty of prophecying the promise is common to all believers Joâ—l 2.28 cited Acts 2.17 for the powring out of the spirit upon all flesh in the later dayes for the Annointing from above which shall lead every believer into all Truth so that they shall not need any man should teach them 1 Joh. 2.27 Rom. 12.6 1 Cor. 14.1 1 Thes 5.19.20 1 Cor. 12.7.39 Acts 18.26 being all taught of God That the manifestation and gifts of the spirit are given to every one for the good of the Church in teaching exhorting prophecying c. Which every one is to covet and may communicate to others for their conversion or confirmation as Aquila and Priscilla did to Apollos and other Christians in Primitive dispersions exercising and employing their talents received if not as Ministers in Office and ordeined yet as Prophets and gifted Brethren if not as Pastors yet as Teachers 1 Per. 4.11 In like sort Christians now find their gifts of knowledge and utterance to great and good that they cannot smother them nor suffer them to be restrained and oppressed by the Ministers encroachment and Monopoly Thus they who would seem to be somewhat more civill and equanimous to the calling and Office of the Ministry Answ 1. Gifts in others no prejudice to the Office of the Ministry nor warrant to any man publike arrogancy My Answer first in generall is That all these and the like small shot which Infaustus * Socinno lib. de Eccl. Socinus * Osterâ—d Inst c. 42. Osterodius * Smaltzius de Ord. Ecc. Smaltzius * Radeccius de Eccl. Radeccius * Theoph. Nicolaides defens Socin c. 1. Acts 14 23. When they had ordained them elders in every Church Acts 13.2 Separate to me Paul and Barnabas 1 Tim. 4.14 5.22 Acts 18.28 Heb. 14.17 2 Tim. 2 4. 1 Thes 5.12 13. 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Cor. 12.18 c. 1 Cor. 14.32 V. 33. 40. Rom 16 17. 2 Thes 3.6 2 Tim. 4.3 Primitive prophecying what 1 Pet. 1.19 Prophetae Scâ—pturacum interpretes erant maximè propheticarum obscurarum Ambr. Theoph. Chrysost Prophetarum munus erat mysticum Scripturarum sensum ad salutem auditorum explanare Erasm in 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 4.30 1 Cor. 14.29 c. Nicolaides and others of the revived Arians have afforded these Semiant iministeriall adversaries have been oft discharged and received without any hurt as to the divinely established Office of the Ministry Having been either satisfied with all ingenuous concessions as far as order modesty and charity will carry them or refuted with just replyes against all vanity arrogancy and confusion by those learned men who formerly or lately have given very sober solid and liberall satisfaction to any pleas urged or scruples alleged out of Scripture which will in no sort maintain idleness vanity pride and confusion in the Church under the specious names of liberty gifts and prophecying There are indeed many places exciting Christians to labour to abound in every good gift and work but yet as many to keep them within due order and holy bounds becomming the honour of Religion All those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gifts were never more eminent and common in the Church of Christ than in those times when the Ministeriall power was by peculiar marks ceremonies and duties distinctly and undoubtedly conferred on some peculiar persons as the Apostles and 70. Disciples on Timothy Titus and others who were separated and ordeined by fasting praying examination and imposition of hands to be Bishops or Presbyters in the respective Churches as they came to be capable of setled order and Ministry And notwithstanding the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which were then conferred upon many not yet ordeined Ministers we see the Office and honour of the Ministry was never more clearly asserted as divine being set over the flocks by the Lord so to be owned and esteemed as distinct from secular intanglements as an retire and compleat imployment even for the best and ablest men to which they should once ordeined wholy give themselves and attend on it Never was order and peace and proportion in the Church more enjoyned and duly observed never were disorderly and unruly walkers false Apostles self-obtruders house-creepers heaps of teachers who caused divisions more severely repressed than in those Primitive times when believers enjoyed most eminent gifts and graces for some ends either in miracles or toungs or prophecying which was not that eminentest sense of prophecying that is foretelling things to come but the opening and applying the places of the Prophets in the old Testament which was then
of those strange speculations those unwonted notions those pretty legerdemaines in Religion which some men aâ— Juglers study more than any solid trade of Piety they are hardly able to know a long time where they are as to true Religion or to find and owne any faire path of holy Truth and Order which might lead them out of that Fooles paradise wherein some men take delight to lose themselves and others 2. False and proud pretentions of the Spirit The ordinary Sophistry and craft when men want solid ground and true Principles of right Reason Order Law and Justice of Scripture Precept and holy examples from Christ or any truly gracious Christians whereby to justifie their opinions or practises their * Transgressor pâ—aecepti Dominici spurios sibi sociat Spiritus ad aerendo eis unus efficitur Daemon Bern. Ser. Ben. Ab. retreat is as Foxes when eagerly hunted to hide and earth themselves in this The spirit hath taught and dictated these things to them or impulsed and driven them upon such and such ways which are in congruous uncomely unwonted to and inconsistent with either the Catholick Ten t s or Examples generally held forth in the Church of Christ according to the plain sense and tenor of the Scriptures * The Fryers Mendicant p etended they had a fifth Gospell which they called the Aeternum Evangelium this they preached and defended saying the old Gospels must be abolished and theirs received Mat. Paris an 1154. Nauclerus an 1â—54 This is done with the same falsity yet gravity and confidence as Mahomet perswaded the credulous Vulgar by the help of Sergius a Monk that his fits of Falling-sickness and the device of his Pigeon coming to his Ear where he had accustomed to feed it were Monitions and Inspirations which he had from God by his Blessed Spirit * Whose hypocriticall sanctity Gâ—ilielmus De Sancto Amore vir doctrina pietate illustris opposed Pope Alex. 4. caused their blasphemous book to be burnt Platina Vit Al. 4. Just as weak and confused Writers of Romances having not well laid the plot and design of their Fancifull story are wont to relieve their over venturous Knights with unexpected enchantments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which salve all inconveniences superate all hyperbolies and transcend all difficulties as well as all rules of Reason or Providence So many men defective in their Intellectuall Morall and gracious Principles of true and sound Religion which all sober Christians own to be derived from and directed only by the holy Scriptures both in Faith and Manners they presently pretend the Spirit to be Patron of their most extravagant fancies and deeds the Deviser of their most incredible opinions the Dictator of their most indemonstrable dreams which no Jew or credulous Greek or Gypsy would ever beleive nor any man who were not willing to depose his reason and to suffer a rash and fancifull credulity to usurp the Throne and Soveraignty of his Soul This in generall I may reply to all those that forsake ordinary Precepts and follow New Revelations or pretend the speciall motions of the Spirit against the constant Rules and Institutions of Christ in the Word and I may tell it upon grounds of far greater certainty both of Reason and Religion than any of them can assure me or any man that they have these speciall impulses and graces of the Spirit beyond others who walk in the ordinary way of means and received methods of Christian Religion 1 Joh. 4.1 First discovery by the Word of God V. 3. First We are forbidden to beleive every Spirit because the Spirit of Antichrist may pretend to the Spirit of Christ we are commanded to try the Spirits whether they be of God or no we are told that every spirit which confesseth not that Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but is of that Spirit of Antichrist which is to come into the world as Christ foretold many should come in his Name and say loe here is Christ and there is Christ But beleive them not Mat. 24.23 What I pray doth more deny the coming of Christ in the flesh that is by a visible way of the Ministry to his Church in his person and in his succession then to say he is gone away again without taking any Order or leaving any Command or Institution for his Worship and Service to be continued in the Church by which his first coming might be made known in Preaching the Gospell and confirmed by the Seals of the Sacraments to his Church To say that Christ is so come now in the Spirit here and there by speciall Inspirations that he never came in that other old way of the outward and Ordained Ministry of Word and Sacraments hath so much of the spirit of Antichrist as it is against the evident testimony of the Word of Christ against the practice and the command of the Apostles and against the Catholick custome of the Church of Christ which hath always thus set forth and witnessed the first coming of Christ and must ever doe so till his coming again Which second coming onely shall put a period to the Word Sacraments and that true Evangelicall Ministry which now is by Christ Ordained in the Church As the first coming of Christ did to the Leviticall Priesthood and Ministry by Sacrifices c. We know That as the Illuminating Spirit of God guideth the humble 2. Joh. 16 13. Ioh. 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth meek and industrious souls into all saving necessary Truths so these Truths are confined to and contained in the compasse of those which are already once revealed to the Church by the Spirit in the Word of God and which are by the Ministry of the Church dayly manifested and in this way are sufficient to make the man of God perfect to salvation 2 Tim. 3.17 Which is that one anointing from Christ and the Father which hath lead the Church into all truth by the sure Word which the Apostles taught and wrote so that no Christians have need that any man by any other spirit or as from this Spirit should teach them more or other as to salvation 1 Joh. 2.27 They that gape to heaven for the Manna of speciall Revelations when they are not in the Wildernesse but in the Canaan of Christs true Church may easily starve themselves or feed on the wind and ashes of fancifull presumptions while they neglect and despise the ordinary provisions God hath made in his Church It is clear that whatsoever is said or done beyond or against this written Word of Christ and surest rule of the Church is to be accounted no other then apocryphal lying vanities and damnable hypocrisies * Hoc prius câ—edimus non esse ultra Scripturas quod credere debeamus Nobis curiositate non opâ—â— est post Christum nec inquisitione post Evangelium Tertul. de prae ad Hae. c. 3. No
Spirit of Christ abstracts any mans faith from the Word or carries his practise against the Truth Order and holy Institution which Christ hath setled in his Church For it is most sure by all experience that the holy Spirit teacheth those Scripture saving-Truths by the ordinary methods and orderly means which the Wisdom of the same Spirit in Christ hath appointed to be used in the Ministry of the Church Ephes 3.10 Ephes 4.12 which who so proudly neglects and so despiseth Christ in them he may tempt grieve and resist the Spirit of God but he will never find the comfort of the Spirit in his unwarranted extravagancies which are but silly delusions and baby-like novelties having nothing in them of Truth Holinesse or religious Excellency beyond what was better known believed and expressed before in words and deeds by a far better way Christians ought never to turn such children and fools as to think Religion is never well unless it be in some new dresse and fashion of unwanted expressions and strange administrations we think that the Spirit of God teacheth all humble constant and exact obedience to the Word of God without any dispensation to any men at any time in things of Morall duty and Divine Constitution or Order according to the severall relations and religious capacities of Christians no reall sufficiency of gifts or graces doth justifie any Christian in any disorderly and unruly course of acting or exercising his supposed Inspirations in the Church no more then they doe in the Civill Offices of State Nor are these motions any thing of Gods speciall call in regard of the outward Order and Policy of the Church where the ordinary way of Calling Admitting Ordaining and sending forth right Ministers may be had in the Church 3. The vanity of of their wayes compared to the Word Be these impulses of the Spirit never so great yet they put no good Christian upon idlenesse or presumption so as not to use the ordinary means of study hearing reading meditating conferring praying and preparing c. Nor shall he either preserve or increase or profitably exercise any such gifts without study industry and preparatory pains which are the means by which God blesseth men with that Wisdome Truth Order and Utterance which are necessary for the Churches good The liberall effusions of some mens tongues their warm and tragicall expressions where there is something of Wit Invention Reading Method Memory Elocution c. in the way of Naturall and acquired Endowments alas these are no such rare gifts and speciall manifestations of Gods Spirit which these Anti-ministeriall men have so much cause to boast of There may be high mountains of such gifts ordinary and extraordinary as in Judas the Traitor which have no dews of grace falling on their barrennesse Nor are these boasters of Inspirations manifested yet either as equall or any way comparable to most true Ministers in any sort by any shewes of such gifts for the most of which they are beholding to Ministers labours and studies with whose heifer these men make some shift to plough the crooked and unequall furrows of their Sermons and Pamphlets A little goes a great way with these men in their supposed Inspirations and where they cannot goe far on they goe round in circling Tautologies snarled repetitions intricate confusions which are still but the same skains of thread which other men have handsomely spun and wound up in better method and order which these men have neither skill nor patience fairly to unfold but pull out here a thread and there an end which they break off abruptly to the confounding of all true Methods of Divinity and Order of found Knowledge The composednesse and gravity of true Religion in Publique especially admits least of extravagancies and uncomelinesse Haeretico conversatio quam futilis terrena humana sine grauitate sine autoritate sine disciplina Tertul. adv Haer. which dissolve the bonds or exceed those bounds by which Christ hath fitly compacted the Church together in a sociall way giving every part by a certain order and allowance established as the Standard in his Church that * Eph. 4 16. measure and proportion which is best for the whole This place and calling every Christian ought to own and to attend keeping within due bounds till God enabling and the Church so judging and approving of his abilities he be placed and imployed in some way of Publique service into which to crowd and obtrude a mans selfe uncalled and unordained regularly by the Church doth not argue such great motions of the Spirit which like strong liquor cannot be kept in any vessell but only evidenceth the corrupt spirits the violent lusts and the proud conceits which are in mens Hearts Certainly all Gifts Graces and Influences of Gods Spirit in truly gracious and humble hearts are in all Motions Habits and Operations as conform to the Scripture which are the Canon of Truth Peace and Order in the Church as any right line is to that rule by which it is drawn or as figures cast in the same stamp and mould are exactly fitted to one another The Truth of the Word and Graces of Gods Spirit cannot be separated or opposed any more than heat can be parted in the Sun from its light or its beams crosse one another in crooked and oblique angles It is no better Austin de Unit. Ecclesiae c. 16. Non dicant ideo verum esse quia illa vel illa miribilia fecit Donatus vel Pontine vel quilibet alius aut quia ille frater nâ—ster vel illa soror nostra tale visum vâ—gilans vidit vel dormiens somniavit Removeantur ista vel figmenta mendocium hominum vel poâ—tenta fallacium spiritum Remotis istis Eccclesiam suam demonstrent in canonicis sanctorum librorum autoritatibus than a proud and Satanicall delusion to fancy or boast that the Holy Spirit of Christ dwels there in speciall Influences and Revelations where the Word of Christ doth not dwell richly in all wisdome Col. 3.16 The lodgings of the Spirit are alwayes and onely furnished with the Tapistry of the Scriptures Else all imaginary furniture of any private spirits leaves the heart but swept and garnished with the new brooms of odd fancies and fond opinions to entertain with somewhat more trim and composed dresse the unclean spirit who loves to dwell thus in the high places of mens souls and hereby seems to make the later end of those filthy or silly dreamers in pride Iud. 8. vain-glory hypocrisie and lying against the Truth blaspheming the true Spirit of Christ contemning his holy and onely true Ministery and Ordinances and in all other licentious Apostasies worse than their beginning was in ignorance errors and terrors or in plain dealing sensualities and downright profanenesse For it is more tolerable to be without the Spirit of God Pope Hildebrand Cum haereticus malesicus sacrilegus esset pro sacratissimo se
Primatum suum non objecit Petrus nec inerrabilitatem sed Paulo veritatis assertori cesset Documentum patientiae concordiae Cyp. ep 71. for deciding controversies of Religion and ending all Disputes of Faith in the Church Catholike countervail the injury of this his usurpation and oppression Considering that nothing is more by Scripture Reason and Experience not so much disputable as fully to be denied by any sober Christians than that of the Popes Infallibility which as the Church never ye enjoyed so nor doth any Church or any Christian indeed want any such thing as this infallible judge is imagined to be in order to either Christian course or comfort If indeed the Bishop of Rome and those learned men about him would without faction flattery partiality and self-interest joyn their learning counsels and endeavors in common to reform the abuses to compose the rents and differences in the Christian World by the rule of Scripture and right Reason with Christian humility prudence and charity which look sincerely to a publick and common good they would do more good for the Churches of Christ than any imaginary Infallibility will ever do yea and they would do themselves no great hurt in civil respects if they could meet and joyn not with envious and covetous but liberal and ingenuous Reformers who will not think as many the greatest deformities of any Church to be the riches and revenues of Church-men Certainly in points of true Religion to be believed or duties to be practised as from divine command every Christian is to be judge of that which is propounded to him and embraced by him according to what he is rationally and morally able to know and attain by those means which God hath given him of Reason Scripture Ministry and good examples Of all which the gifts or graces of God in him have inabled him seriously and discreetly to consider Nor is he to rest in either implicite or explicite dictates presumptions and Magisterial determinations of any frail and sinful men who may be as fallible Magnum ingenium magna tentatio De Orig. Tert. Vin. Lirin 1 Cor. 8.7 Knowledge puffeth up 2 Pet. 2.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 6.17 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you Eph. 4.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 2.10 Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved as himself For whereas they may exceed him in gifts of knowledge they may also exceed him in passions self-interests pride and policy so that he may not safely trust them on their bare word and assertion but he must seek to build his faith on the more sure Word of God which is acknowledged by all sides to be the surest director what to believe to do and to hope in the way of Religion Nor may any private Christians unletteredness that cannot read or his weaker intellect that cannot reason and dispute or his many incumberances of life that deny him leisure to read study compare meditate c. These may not discourage him as if he were a dry tree and could neither bear nor reap any fruit of Christian Religion because he hath no infallible guide or judge Since the mercy of God accepts earnest endeavors and an holy life according to the power capacy and means a man hath also he pardons unwilling errors when there is an obedience from the heart to the truths we know and a love to all truth joyned with humility and charity In order therefore to relieve the common defects of men as to the generality of them both in Cities and in Countrey Villages where there is little learning by the Book or Letter and great dulness with heavy labor the Lord of his wisdom and mercy hath appoint d that constant holy order of the Ministry to be always continued in the Church that so learned studious and able men being duly tryed approved and ordained to be Teachers and Pastors may by their light knowledge and plenty supply the darkness simplicity and penury of common people who must every man be fully perswaded in his own minde Rom. 14.5 in matters of conscience and be able to give a reason of that faith and hope which is in him beyond the credit of any meer man or the opinion of his infallibility 1 Pet. 3.15 However they may with comfort and confidence attend upon their lips whom in an holy succession of Ministry God hath given to them as the ordinary and sufficient means of Faith And however a plain-hearted and simple Christian may religiously wait upon and rest satisfied with those holy means and mysteries which are so dispenced to him by true Ministers who ought above all to be both able and faithful to know and to make known the truth as it is in Jesus Yet may he not savingly or conscientiously relie in matters of Faith nor make his last result upon the bare credit or personal veracity of the Minister but he must consider and believe every truth not because the Minister saith it but because it is grounded on the Word of God and from thence brought him by his Minister which doctrine he judgeth to be true not upon the infallibility of any Teachers but upon that certainty which he believes to be in the Scripture to which all sorts of Christians do consent And to which the Grace and Spirit of God so draweth and enclineth the heart as to close with those divine truths to believe and obey them not for the authority of the Minister but of God the Revealer whose excellent wisdom truth and love it discerns in those things which are taught it by the Ministry of man So that still the simplest Christian doth savingly believe and conscientiously live according to what himself judgeth and is perswaded in his heart to be the Will of God in his Word and not after the dictates of any man Which either written or spoken have no more authority to command or perswade belief as to Religion than they appear to the believer and not to the speaker onely grounded on the sure Word of God and to be his minde and will to mankinde And as it is not absolutely necessary to every Christian in order to Faith and Salvation to be able with his own eyes to read and so to judge of the Letter of the Scripture so it is the more necessary that the reading and preaching of the Word should be committed to able and faithful men not who are infallible 2 Tim. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but who may be apt to teach and worthy to be believed Of whom the people may have great perswasion both as to their abilities and due authority to teach and guide them in the ways of God We read in Irenaeus Irenaeus l. 3. c. 4. that in One hundred and fifty years after Christ many Churches of Christians toward the Caspian Sea and Eastward were very sound in the Faith and setled against
exemplo Timothei ecclesiae ordinationem custodirent Ambr. in 1 Tim. 6. not arbitrarily and precariously but as a trust and duty of necessity out of conscience and with all divine power authority and fidelity as Ambassadors from Christ for God as Heralds as Angels or Messengers sent from God as Laborers together with God in his Husbandry the Church as Woers and Espousers having Commission or Letters of credence to treat of and make up a marriage and espousals between Christ and the Church which sacred office of trust and honor none without due authority delegated to him from Christ might perform any more than Haman might presume to court Queen Esther before the King Ahasuerus During these Primitive times of the Apostles Ministry of the Gospel before they had finished their mortal pilgrimage we read them careful to ordain Presbyters in every City and Church to give them charge of their Ministry to fulfil it of their flocks to feed and guide them in Christs way both for truth and orders over whom the Lord had made them over-seers by the Apostles appointment who not onely thus ordained others to succeed them immediately but gave command as from the Lord to these as namely to Timothy and Titus to take great care for an holy succession of Ministers such as should be apt to teach able and faithful men to whom they should commit the Ministry of the Word of life so as the Word or Institution of Christ might be kept unblamable till the coming of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 6.14 by an holy order and office of Ministers duly ordained with the solemn imposition of hands as a visible token to men of the peculiar designiation of them and no others but those to this Office and Function who must attend on the Ministry give an account of their charge and care of souls to God Thus we finde beyond all dispute for Three Generations after Christ First in the Apostles secondly from them to others by name to Timothy and Titus thirdly from them to others by them to be ordained Bishops and Deacons the holy Ministry instituted by Christ is carried on in an orderly succession in the same Name with the same Authority to the same holy ends and offices as far as the History of the New Testament extends which is not above thirty years after Christs Ascension And we have after all these the next Succession testifying the minde of the Lord and the Apostles Clemens the Scholar of Saint Paul mentioned Phil. 4.3 who in his divine Epistle testifies That the Apostles ordained every where the first-fruits or prime Believers for Bishops and Deacons Pag. 54. And pag. 57. the Apostles appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinct Offices as at present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That when these slept with the Lord others tried and approved men should succeed and execute their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy Ministry than which testimony nothing can be more evident After that he blames the Corinthians for raising sedition for one or two mens sake against all the Presbytery Pag. 62. And exhorts at last Let the flock of Christ be at peace with the Presbyters ordained to be over it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So after Be subject to the Presbyters c. Thus the excellent methods of Christs grace and wisdom toward his Church appear as to this peculiar Office and constant Function of the Evangelical Ministry commanding men to work the work of God that they may have eternal life John 6.29 which is to believe in him whom the Father hath sent sealed and anointed with full power to suffer to satisfie to merit to fulfil all Righteosness Also to declare and confirm this to his Church constantly teaching guiding and sanctifying it He hath for this end taken care that faithful able and credible men should be ordained in an holy constant succession to bear witness or record of him to all posterity that so others might by hearing believe without which ordinarily they cannot Rom. 10.14 15. Nor can they hear with regard or in prudence give credit and honor to the speaker or obey with conscience the things spoken unless the Preacher be such an one as entreth in by the door John 10.1 into the sheepfold such as is sent by God either immediately as the Apostles or mediately as their Successors from them and after them who could never have preached and suffered with that confidence conscience and authority unless they had been conscious that they were rightly sent of God Rom. 10.14 15. Psal 68.11 Isai 53.1 1 Cor. 1.18 and Christ At whose Word onely this great company of Preachers were sent into the world who so mightily in a short time prevailed as to perswade men every where to believe a report so strange so incredible so ridiculous so foolish to flesh and blood and to the wisdom of the world Thus far then the tenor of the whole New Testament 6. Distinct Characters and Notes of the Ministerial Office John 15.19 and that one Apostolike Writer Clemens witnesseth that as Jesus Christ the great Prophet and chief Shepherd 1 Pet. 5.4 was sent and impowred with all power from the Father to carry on the great work of saving sinners by gathering them out of the world into the fold and bosom of his Church So he did this and will ever be doing it till his comming again by ordeining and continuing such means and Ministry Mat. 28.20 as he saw fittest to bring men into and to guide them in Joh. 21.15 Feed my Lambs my Sheep Acts 20.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To feed as Shepheards the flock 1 Pet. 5.2 1 Cor. 4.4 Let a man so account of us as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God c. 2 Tim. 4.1 2. 2 Tim. 4.5 Acts 20.29 1 Tim 4.11 Mat. 28. ult Heb. 13.14 Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account c. Luke 12.43 Blessed is that servant the faithfull and wise Steward set over the house-hold whom his Master comming shall find so doing Dan. 12.3 1 Cor. 9.17 If I do this willingly I have a reward c. the wayes of saving truth of Religious orders and of holy lives Investing as we have seen particular persons whose names are recorded with peculiar power to teach to gather to feed and govern his Church by Doctrine by Sacraments and by holy Discipline Setting those men in peculiar relations and Offices to his Church as Fathers Stewards Bishops Shepheards Rulers Watchmen calling them by peculiar names and distinct titles as light of the world Salt of the earth Mat. 5.13 Fishers of men Mat. 4.19 Stars in his right hand Rev. 2.1 Angels of the Churches Requiring of them peculiar duties as to Preach the word in season and out of season to feed his Lambs and Sheep to fulfill the work of their Ministry to take care of the flock against grievous Wolves
tantum fulminantis venerantur numina Bern. 1 Cor. 12.13 in their most clear light and concurrent strength that they will not prostrat all or any of these to a company of wretched Pamphlets fitter for Cooks and Chandlers shops than for the reading of judicious and serious Christians who have cause to look upon those putrefactions of Pens and wits only as Moths and Vermine every where creeping up and down and hoping like Ants only by their numbers to devour all antient Authors and all good literature that so they alone may survive and satisfie the grosser palats of those who never relished any book so much as a Ballad or a Play or a Romance or some Seraphick raptures and pious nonsense Is he scandalized that we count not the diseases of Christians health their putrefactions perfections their dâ—stractious raptures their ravings reason their dreams oracles baseness liberty their Chaos comliness Is he jealous of us because we rather study and profess solid truths sober piety good manners and orderly government which only become all true Christians and Ministers above all Is it our fault that we endevour to Pray Preach Write what we and others may understand that we covet not to be admired by not being understood that we aim to do all things as becomes Men Christians and Ministers of the true Church of Christ not after the manner of plausible and easie fondness which is afraid to offend where there is power to hurt that counts greatness as a badge of goodness and success a sign of Sanctity but rather with all just zeal courage and constancy beseeming the demonstrations of the truth and Spirit of God which never needed more to be asserted as to its divine power and eternall honour than in this pusillanimous and frothy generation of vapourers who are the greatest enemies to and betrayers of our Religion as Christian and as Reformed whether they be Gogs or Magogs open or secret the one or the many Antichrists Papall or popular delusions We hope this Gentleman is so good natured that with all other excellent Christians he will forgive us those wrongs by which we have been and ever shall be piously injurious and faithfully offensive as aiming not to please men but God Wherein then are we the Preachers of the good old way One and all meriters of such fatall terrors as those words import which like Apocalyptick Revelations are dark but dreadfull portending God knows what sufferings upon them all If there be no men more single-hearted none more open candid and ingenuous than all good Ministers pray to be who are no Statists or Politicians but able and honest Preachers of the name of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to shew Sinners the way of eternall life If there be nothing more necessary more usefull less offensive or burdensome to any wise sober and godly minds than their lives and labours are If no men are more modest and moderate in all their desires and designs than learned humble and diligent which are the unpragmatick Ministers what is the grief why this complaint lamentation and burthen which this Gentleman takes up so prophetically against them both as to their sin and their suffering unless men be vexed that any worthy men are duly made Ministers or that Ministers are but men unless it offend that they have food and raiment which most of them dearly earn and hardly get unless they are impatient as the Wolf was with the Lamb that we breath in the same common ayr or see the same Sun or tread on the same Earth or drink of the same stream 1 King 18.17 the troubling of which is by the troublers of it unjustly imputed to their innocency who must therefore be accused because violence hath a mind to destroy them What is the error what the heresie what the superstition what the Popish opinion or practise which any of us Ministers so resolutely maintain Sure this Gentleman is not to be thought of so low a form of foundlings and novices who suspect and dread every thing as Popish which we hold Profracta est illa superstitiosa timiditas quae à bonis abhorret quibus abutuntur mali Aust or act in common with the Pope or Papists wholly to recede from any thing common with them must divest us not only of the main truths duties vertues and grounds of our Religion as Christian but we must cast off all or most part of that which denominates us either rationall or humane both as to the nature and society of men But if we obstinatly retain any thing either for opinion or practice which may truly be branded with the mark of the Beast as either erroneous or superstitious beyond the bounds of Christian truth or liberty or decency If either any generall Councill or any Synod of this Church since it were reformed or any Parliament Qualis affectatio in civilibus talis superstitio in divinis Verulam and civill Convention of the Estates of this Nation have condemned what we teach or practise or opine If any wise and learned man not apparently ingaged in faction or schism against the publique Constitution both in Church and State did ever so much as accuse or convict us of any such crimes Misericorditer plectitur qui ad emendationem ducitur Aust In Gods name let us suffer what He thinks fit If we have deserved it from men it will be a mercy to be punished and amended by them If we have not it will be an honour and crown to us above all men to suffer for the testimony of Jesus Christ the honour of our function and this Church from unreasonable and ungratefull men who use Ministers as their Oxen 1 Cor. 9.9 but not in the Apostles or Gods sense first exhausting and tyring them at hard labour and then they destroy and devour them The appeal of all true and faithfull Ministers as to their integrity far from this superstition charged on them But to all excellent and impartiall Christians we may and do as in the presence of God appeal Is not this in some mens sense and censure the sin of the ablest and best Preachers both for learning piety and constancy that they do not so easily yield to or applaud a Military or Mechanick religion that they are sorry to see so goodly a part of the Catholike Church so stately a pillar of Gods house as the Church of England lately was so every day hewing in pieces and mouldring to nothing for want of due order and government or seasonable and fit repairings Is not this the Crime that no learned and worthy Minister can own either the swords Soveraignty or the peoples Liberty to be the grand Arbitrators of piety the disposers of mens consciences the Dictators of all Christianity the interpreters of all Scriptures the Determiners of all Controversies and this so absolute as admits no Conference with nor endevouring to convince either
giddiness and levity Plato and Aristotle coÌ„mend that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aequanimity and moderation in all things though it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. l. 2. which toss them from superstition abusing to superstition utterly refusing all those things which are not only convenient in Prudence but necessary in Piety as being stamped and established by divine Institution such as this of the Evangelicall Ministry hath been proved to be Reformations may bend so much from the Pope on the right hand till they meet him again on the left forsaking that rectitude uprightness and stability of the Mean in which only the truth and honour of Religion doth consist Antichrist which some are taught more to fear in the name and in others than to abhor in the thing and in themselves is at both ends or extremes of Religion as well that of prophaness confusion and defect on the one side as that of superstition and excess on the other We must love and entertain what ever we find of Christs true Jewels and the Churches ornaments amidst the Counterfeits and rags of Antichrist we must not slay any of Christs sheep Luke 15.6 because it was gone astray and is now found but rather take it up and bring it home and rejoyce to have found it Nor may we rend Christs garment in pieces because it may be spotted and soyled by mens hands but rather rinse and restore it to its primitive purity As Christ redeemed our Souls so must we redeem his holy Institutions and ordinances 1 Pet. 1.18 as much as in us lyes from the vain Conversation of the world And then we may serve him in the holy wayes he hath appointed us without fear of sin Antichrist or Superstition from which both our minds and our devotions are happily freed Evâ—ry man hath cause to suspect Antichrist in his own bosome As the kingdom of Christ so the kingdome of Antichrist is within us chiefly Certainly it is far better for the Church and Christians to retain what is Christs though in common with any Antichrists than passionatly to cast away all that is Christs under pretence of detesting Antichrist men may fall into sacrilege while they seem to abhor Idols Rom. 2.22 robbing the Church of what Gifts and dowry Christ hath given her among which this of a Constant and successive Ministry Eph. 4.11 is a chief one in St. Pauls account and this while blind and preposterous zeal thinks to strip the whore of Babylon who dwells where ever division and confusion nestle in the Church and to rifle Antichrist who may roost in other places as well as Rome It is safer to be in Christs way though it be rugged and may have some inconveniencies through many infirmities than to be in any other Mat. 12.44 which may seem fairer and smoother to us As the unclean spirit of grosse Idolatry and superstition may be cast out for a fit so he may return to his house swept and garnished with flowers and shewes of piety bringing seven worse devils of Atheism Pride Prophaness and uncharitableness with him It is the same evil spirit which tears the Church by cruell Schisms with that which casts it into the fire of persecution and water of Superstition There is alwayes hopes and means of salvation when there is a true Ministry though with many faults yet of Christs sending and the Churches Ordeining but men may as justly despair of long enjoying the Gospels light without a due and setled Ministry as they may to have day long after the Sun is set or Harvest in Winter As graces and gifts internall so the means and Ministry externall are part of the wings of that Sun of righteousness Mal. 4.2 who shines no where in the world among Christians without some healing and saving vertue severally manifested as to the inward saving power but alwayes in the same way as to the constant outward Ministration by which it is ordinarily dispensed Papall darknings or humane Eclypsings are no warrant to abolish or exclude that light of the Ministry which Christ hath set up Nor can we do the Devil or any of his instruments a greater greater pleasure than quite to extinguish the lights of this Church in stead of snuffing and cleaâ—ing them Better to have dim Lamps than none at all shining in the house of God But indeed the fault of the English Ministry with some men is not that they lighted their Lamps at the Popes taper but that they have and do still shine so bright as to offend both his and all others eyes who could not bear the splendor of the English Churches both Ministry and Reformation wherein Zeal according to knowledge and wisdome with sobriety had at once purged away what was vile and preserved what was pretious Jer. 15.9 with great moderation distinguishing between what was of humane mixture superstition or infirmity and what was of divine Institution holy succession and authority The same piety rejected the one and retained the other I conclude then that the Papall encroachment or Romish corruption what ever it were is no argument against the Divine authority and constant office of the Reformed and restored Ministry in this Church It were a mad cruelty to knock our Fathers on the head or to cut their throats because they were diseased and as they might so they ought in all piety to be healed How much more of perfect madness is it for Christians to destroy their Fathers who are now perfectly recovered and in good health 7. Extremes in Religion Eccl. 7.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Perit judicium cum res transit in â—ffectum Discretionis meta nulla superstiâ—ions vel levitate vel spirituâ— quasi serventioâ—e vehementiâ— excedatur Ber. s 20. Cant. Feâ—voâ— discretionem erigat discretio servorem regat Id. Vulgar Reformers only because they were sometime sick or descended from infirm Progenitors It is easie for well-affected Christians to be over-scrupulous and over-righteous so to over-act in matters of Religion as to destroy themselves before their time like rude and unwary Combatants who overthrow themselves by over-reaching and overstriking at others beyond the measure of well-ordered and proportioned strength which alwayes keeps it self strong enough to rule or command and so to preserve it self There is a secret tide of self-interest prejudice or passion which imperceivably carries men another way much beside or backward or beyond what should be when they think they steer with a sure course and full gale to the port of Reformation in which not only sincerity is required but also great discretion judgement and moderation Therefore Reformation is the work of learned wise grave well tempered and well experienced as well as of godly and well-affected Christians Reformers ought to be as skilfull and sober Physicians capable to distinguish between the strength of the disease and the strength of nature to preserve and foment the vitall spirits though they quench the
with all judicious and sober Christians leave Potius vetera tuta quam periculosa nova sectemur Tac. to passe by the Idoll of their new dressed Spiritually and Sanctity without any admiration devotion or the least salutation Nor can we at all consider private spirits warped from and bent against the publique Spirit of Christ in the Scripture in the practise of the Catholick Church and in the most eminent Christians both ancient and modern We shall content our selves with that plain and pristine holynesse and manifestations of the Spirit True holinesse and true Saints Sanctitas est scientia colendorum deorun Tul. de Nat. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Eutyp which are expressed in the Word deposited in the Church preserved in an holy Ministry exemplified in all true Christians and most eminently in Jesus Christ and his Apostles the great and famous Founders Teachers and Establishers of holy Truths holy Duties holy Sacraments holy Orders and holy Ministry in the Church And this with divine Power and Authority not onely personall but successionall without which the instituted Service and Worship of Christ had ere this failed These being ever since Christs time in all the world imployed in Teaching Gathering Baptizing Governing Feeding Preserving and Perfecting the Body of Christ which is his Church We know not and so we cannot desire other holinesse than that by which we beleived the Truths obeyed the Commands feared the Threatnings observed the Duties preserved the Institutions continued the Orders reverenced the Embassadors joyed in the Graces hoped in the Promises and were led conformably to Christ by that Spirit which Jesus Christ had given to his Church long before these new coyners had graven the stamps or set up their Mintâ— We are glad and blesse God when we attain unfaignedly to that Spirit of Holynesse which hears the Word of God with fear and trembling from the mouth of those able and godly Ministers which are the Messengers or Angels sent from Christ by the Churches Ordination Which teacheth us to pray with understanding constancy fervently and comelinesse to receive the pledges of Gods love in Christ from their hands duly consecrating the holy mysteries with reverence preparednesse and thankfulnesse That holinesse which loves with sincerity gives with cheerfulnesse rejoyceth in well doing suffers with patience lives by Faith acts by Charity is holy with order contentednesse and humility without any fury faction or confusion That holinesse which hath nothing in it novell or praeterscripturall nothing fancifull verball tumultuary violent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Euâ—yph Sâ—nctum est quod deo gratum schismaticall disorderly partiall pernicious or injurious to any which chuseth to be a Martyr for Charity and Unity as well as Verity in the Church rather suffering much than giving scandall or making a schism according to the pious and excellent couâ—sâ—ll of Dionysius to Novatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Epâ—st Auâ—ea apud Eusch l. 6. hist c. 38. That holinesse which is old as the Ancient of dayes reall rationall demonstrative from the Word of God and exemplified in the lives of former Saints Which is meek courteous charitable humble just to all men abounding with all righteousnesse and the fruits of righteousnesse peace and establishment both to private consciences and publique Churches That holinesse which hath nothing in it supercilious calumniating defamatory insolent bitter or burthensome to any true Christians true Churches and true Ministers which know how to reprove what is amisse without rejecting all that is well to reform the crooked without ruining what is right That holinesse which as the Sun-beams is always like it self like the Father of spirituall light uniform and constant in all true Saints in all ages and in all administrations Divine either immediate or mediate as to its rule the Will and Word of God as to its end the glory of God in Gods way as to its Epitome or sum the love of God and its neighbour as to its happy fruits and effects the good of mankinde chiefly of the Church of Christ These have ever been the same for kind however differing in degrees according to the measure which God hath given to his true Saints and servants who never differed from God or the Word or one another as they were holy and spirituall however as men and carnall in part they had their crookednesse unevennesses and dissentings These are the fruits of Gods Spirit this that true Holinesse for which we pray of which we dare not boast These are the Saints whose shadows we count Soveraign whose presence a blessing whose wayes unblameable whose joyes unspeakable whose works most imitable whose conversation most amiable heavenly and divine who chuse rather to suffer than any way to act in cases dubious as to secular dissensions which have much of the Beast somewhat of the Man and little of the true Christian The worth of these Pearls is infinitely beyond some mens counterfeit forgeries whose lustre is chiefly from worldly glory and secular advantages who out of ashes are melted up to the shining and bricklenesse of glasse by the fervour of some spirits who think it enough to glister with novelties and to boast of Inspirations fancying all is reformed which is but changed though much to the worse who are forced to set off themselves by the soil of severe censuring of others Fearing nothing so much as a true light and those discoveries which are made of them by serious and judicious Christians who judge not by mens lips and appearances but by their lives and practises compared to the Word of God For which true Ministers most eminently and impartially holding forth to the discovery of all mens deformities are of all men most abhorred by these pretenders who at a true and full view will not onely not appear to other such gifted men and spirituall as they pretend but they will be ashamed of their arrogance and despite against those good Christians and those true Minisers whom they have so much vilified and contemned The common mistake of proud weak or fancifull men 8. Vulgar mistakes of spirituall influences Luk. 9.55 Impudentiam pâ—o pietate jactitant quasi eo sanctiores essent quo verbosiores Bern. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucid. hist l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas de Sp. s. whose tongues are onely tipt with Sanctity and the name of the Spirit is this That they know not indeed of what Spirit they are as to Profession Nor consider of what Spirit they ought to be as to temper if they will be truly Christs Disciples Contenting themselves with light and airy presumptions in stead of serious and searching examinations of truth comparing themselves with themselves they fancy they grow holyer as they grow bolder in their opinions or actions Hence they are easily flattered into high Imaginations and cheated with strong Presumptions as if some common gifts of knowledge some Scepticall quicknesse some volubility of utterance
are more easily and fully instructed more speedily improved in all the riches of wisdome and knowledge which are part of the glory and Image of God on mans nature By this which we call good learning all Truths both humane and divine naturall politick morall and Theologicall usefull either for speculation or practise are more clearly extricated and unfolded out of the depths darknesse and ambiguity of words which are but the shadows of things by the * Languages unlock and open Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phal Ep. skill in Languages which are the scabbards and shels wherein wisdome is shut up The inscription on Christs crosse is in three languages Hebrew Greek Latin Luk. 23.38 Intimating as the divulging of the Gospel to many tongues and Nations so that the mysterie of Christ crucified is not to be fully and exquisitely understood without the keys of these three learned and principall languages with which the Church hath flourished Certainly it is not easie for unlearned men to consider how great use there is even of Grammar which is the first and roughest file that good learning applyes to polish the minde with all for much of the true sense even of the holy Scriptures as well as of other Records depends upon the true writing or Orthography the exact derivation or etymology and the regular Syntaxis or conjoining of words yea that Criticall part of literature which is the finest file or searse of Truth wherein some mens wit and curiosity onely vapour and soar high like birds of large feathers and small bodies yet it is of excellent use when by men of sober learning it is applyed to the service of religion Many times much Divinity depends on small particles rightly understood upon one letter upon such a mood or tense or case and the like many errors are engendred and nourished by false translations and mistakes of words or letters many truths are restored and established by the true meaning of them asserted upon good grounds and just observations which hath been done with great accuratenesse by * Erasmus Drusius Hensius Grotius Salmasius Fullerus Lud. de Dieu and others men of incomparable excellency in this kinde these last hundred years equall to if not for the most part beyond the exactnesse of the ancient Fathers or writers Herein infinite observations of humane writers are happily made and usefully applyed as to the propriety of words and phrases used in the sacred originalls of the Word of God so as thereby to attain their genuine and emphatick sense also for the clearing of many passages and allusions which are in the Scriptures referring to things naturall and historicall in the manners and customes of the nations This once done Logick disposeth Qui logica carent materias lacerant ut catuli panes Melan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. all Truths are by the methods and reasoning of Logick easily disintangled and fairly vindicated from the snarlings sophisms and fallacies with which error ignorance or calumniating malice seek to obscure or disguise them or therein to wrap up and cover themselves darkening wisdome by words without understanding After this they are by the same art handsomely distributed and methodically wound up in severall clews and bottomes according to those various Truths which that excellent art hath spun out That thus digested they may again be brought forth unfolded and presented to others in that order and beauty of eloquence which * Rhetorick communicates to others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. or 23. Rhetorick teacheth By which truths have both an edge and lustre set on them doe most adorn them and enforce to the quickest prevalencies on mens mindes and the firmest impressions on their passions and affections that so their rationall vigour may hold out to mens actions and extend to the ethicks or morality of civill conversation which is the politure of mens hearts and hands The softner and sweetner of violent passions and rougher manners to the candor and equity of polity and society This civility was and is the preface and forerunner of Religion the great preparative to piety the confines of Christianity which never thrives untill barbarity be rooted up and some learning with morality be sown and planted among men Nor did Christian Religion ever extend its pavilion much further than the tents of Learning and Civility had been pitched by the conquests and colonies of the Greeks and Romans Thus by this golden circle and crystall medium of true learning the short dim and weaker sight of our reason Matth. 6.23 whose very light is become dark by sin bleared with its own fancies and almost put out by its grosser lusts and passions may as by the help of perspective or optick glasses be mightily strengthened and extended while it sees History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cl. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. as with the united vigor of the many thousand visuall rayes and eyes of those who saw before us That so those few conjectures those dark and ambiguous experiences which any mans short sight and single life can afford him may be ampliated cleared and confirmed by those many testimonies and historicall monuments which others have left in their learned writings which draw as it were the lesser rivulets of various observations from severall times pens and places to meet in one great and noble current of true Religion which is the wisest observer and devoutest admirer of what true learning most sets forth the providence justice power goodnesse patience and mercy of the wise great and holy God the Creator ruler and preserver of all things Psal 8. but chiefly the regarder of the sons of men God hath therefore blest his Church with good learning that those small stocks and portions of wisdome which any mans private patrimony affords him either by innate parts or acquired experiments which for the most part would amount to no more than the furnishing of a portable pedlers pack with small wares toyes and trinckets fit to please children ideots and countrey people may be improved by a joint stock Humanus s nsus cum sarcitur alieno invento câ—to attenuatur de propâ—io Cassiod and united commerce of prudent observations that so men might drive a great and publique trade of wisdome to the infinite inriching and adorning both of Church and State both of Polity and Religion These two being the great luminaries and excellencies of humane Nature the one to rule the day wherein wee stand related to God in piety the other to rule the night wherein we are related to each other by humanity equity charity and bonds of civill society Which innate vertues and properties of mans nature Reason and Religion once neglected and until'd for want of that culture which good learning and that sof ening Barbarity succeeds the want of learning as darknesse the Suns absence which ingenuous education brings to
the mind and manners of men who sees not by miserable experience how mankinde runs out to weeds who le nations degenerate to brutish barbarity as among the Tartars Negroes and Indians Yea even among people where some are civilized by literature and the profession of Christian religion we finde by daily experience that the unlearned sort are either grosse dull and very indocible Stâ—lide feroces Tac. or else they are rough impolished and insolent prone to a rustick impudence and clownish untractablenesse especially when they imagine they have or dare arrogate to themselves a power and liberty of speaking and doing what they list Nothing is sacred nothing is civill among those that carry all by ignorant confidence and brutish strength Scientia non habet â—â—micum pâ—aeter ignorantem we see in those of the Antiministeriall faction that by want of learning whereof they are generally guilty men onely learn this Indian or Turkish quality to hate contemne and seek to destroy all good learning which is nothing else but the good husbandry and great improvement of the reasonable soule in it self to God and to others Therefore the ambition of these Ignoramusses 2 Tim. 3.8 is like the magick cunning of Jannes and Jambres chiefly vented and exercised by a most impotent pride and malice in despising and resisting those Mosesses the true Ministers of the Church the planters preservers reformers and vindicators and deliverers under God of true Religion who have been and are many of them eminently learned most of them competently so as at least to make a fair and ingenuous use of other mens more accurate and solid labours who are their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brethren of the same holy function and Ministry who have generally been in all ages and places the magazines or storehouses of all good learning which I may affirm without any envy or diminution to those many excellent Gentlemen of this or other Nations who have added to the honour of their birth and other accomplishments of breeding this most eminent crown and beauty of all Good learning It is a work then fit for Lucifer 3. To cry downe good learning is only fit for Luciferians so to contradict his name by his deeds to pretend light and intend darknesse to cry up the spirit which is easily done that he may cry down learning which is hardlyer attained than the other is said Who can wonder if the Philistines would fain put out the eyes of our Samsons having once bound and hampered them with poor and straightned conditions that so they may lesse fear their strength Iudg. 16.21 and safely mock them and their reformed Religion which never so thrived after miraculous gifts were ceased as when the forces and glory of the Gentiles came in to Christ Isa 60.11 Rev. 21.26 Vid. Clem. Al. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. Vult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Christianity was graffed on the old stock of heathen learning and philosophy which now brings forth fruit not after the old crabbed sowrnesse but after the sweetnesse of the new Olive-cion with which it is headed yea we see when Christian Religion ran out to much barbarity illiterate ignorance and superstition for many centuries till the last for want of the culture and manuring of learning it brought forth little fair fruits but much of Legendary fables lying wonders religious Romances stories of Chivalry in holy warres and Eâ—raâ—tries in Religion The best effects were the Schoolemenâ— cloistered curiosities and intricate disputes who rather hewed and cut the pillars of Christian Religion into small chips and shavings than added much to the polishing and establishing of them so intangling Philosophy with Divinity as confounded both much advanced neither all excellent things worthy to be known being wrapped up in obscurity or set forth in such barbarous and fulsome Latin that they were like fair Irish bodies in course and ragged mantles And this for want of that method and texture of learning which might so card and fever each matter from other as might give both beauty and distinctnesse to them Which we see hath been done this last hundred years and more The advantages to religion by learning in which so many men of admirable learning and industry have by the help of printing with which the world is now rather surfeited than nourished brought forth to their beauty by an happy regeneration so many of the ancient writers both Christian and heathen which were formerly buried in obscure cloisters and uselesse retirements as in their graves eaten with worms and covered with dust So that no Sanhedrin of the Jews no Senate at Athens or Rome no Synod or Councell of Christians were ever so at once compleated and furnished with excellent men in all kinds as our Christian Libraries now every where are In which there are attending on Christian Religion which is as the Kings daughter Psal 45.23 all glorious within those virgins which bee not her fellows so much as her handmaids who clothe her with garments wrought with needle-work in divers colours embroydered with the sublimity and gravity of Plato with the method and acutenesse of Aristotle Of Plutarch it is said if all Authors were lost he alone might supply with the morals and suavity of Seneca and Plutarch who alone is a Library with the eloquence and oratory of Demosthenes Tully and Quintilian with the florid language and sober sense of Xenophon Caesar Livy Tacitus and other excellent historians with the various observations of the most learned Varro whose life was spared in civill dissensions for his incomparable learning Vivat Varro doctissiâ—us Romanorum so of Pliny Ptolemy and other searchers into all curiosities of Nature and Art Besides these the very goats hair Exod. 37.7 and badger skins too are made to serve the Tabernacle of the Lord the elegancies of Homer Virgil and other Poets who are magazines of fancy Of Virgil it is said if all Sciences were lost they might be found in him and masters of wit are usefull which way of expressing truth and religion in pathetick and poetick wayes of devotion the Spirit of God abhorreth not as we see in some holy Poets who were writers of some part of the Scripture as in Job Psalmes Canticles Lamentations and other places where piety and poetry truth and elegancy Divinity and sacred curiosity in meeteâ—s and Acrostichs meet together Teaching us That God who is full of infinite varieties and yet but one perfect simplicity is to be seen served and praised in his severall gifts to any of which Christian Religion which is of all religions the most absolute perfect and comprehensive can have no abhorrency Grata de Deo fama in artibus sparsa since they all flow from God and return to him through any wise and gracious heart which as a limbeck or hot still extracts somewhat spirituall out of every thing of nature art experience or history From these
reformed Church and that true Religion which the Ministers of this Church have professed and preached in many years And this not upon light and unexamined presumptions not upon customary traditions and the meer ducture of education not upon politick principles and civill compliances with Princes or people but upon serious grounds as solid and clear demonstrations as can by right and impartiall reasonings be gathered from the Word of God and in cases of its obscuritie or our own weaknesse from that light which the consent and practise of the primitive and purest Churches of Christ hath held forth to us in points of Faith doctrine and in all good orders or manners becomming Christians either in their private moralities or their publique decencies In this integrity innocency and simplicity which neither men nor divels can take from us we are sure to be destroyed if it must be so and to be delivered from an ungratefull generation of vipers Matth. 3.7 who think it enough to destroy those who have been a means of their being and life as Christians if our injuries and bloud could be silenced with us yet the very dust of our feet Matth. 1◠14 will be a testimony against such men at the last day of judgement when it shall be more tolerable for any Christian people under heaven than for these in England since among none clearer truths have been taught or greater workes done or better examples given than have been here by the Ministers of this Church Where hath there been under heaven more frequent Ministers merit of this Nation and more excellent preaching where more frequent and yet unaffected praying where more judicious pious and practicall writing where more learned and industrious searching out of all divine truths where more free and ingenuous declaring of them so as nothing hath been withheld or smothered where more devout holy and gracious living where more orderly harmonious and charitable agreeing than among those that were the best Bishops the best Ministers and the best Christians here in England Adorned with these ribands fillets and garlands of good words good works and good bookes must the Ministers of England like solemn victimes and piatory sacrifices be destroyed onely to gratifie some mens petulancy insolency covetousnesse and cruelty who list to be actors or spectators in so religious massacres 2. Considerations touching the Ministers of England humbly propounded But O you excellent Christians of all ranks and proportions If there be yet any ear of patience left free to hear the Ministers plea and apology if calumny hath not obstructed all wayes of justice or charity if slavish feares have not so imbased your piety and zeal for the Christian reformed Religion that you dare not seem no not to pity the Ministers of it if the separations and brokennesse of Religion in our unhappy times have not wholly blinded your eyes and baffled your judgements so that you have lost all sight both of true Church and true Ministry here in England I humbly desire that before the true and ancient Ministers be cashiered and quite destroyed these things may be considered 1. Whether it be a just proceeding to impute the personall failings of some men to the whole function and profession whether at that rate all Judges Magistrates and Commanders may not be cryed down as well as all Ministers Since where there are many there are alwayes some that are not very good 2. Whether it be fitting to condemne and destroy any men in any of their rights to which they pretend either of office or reward and that by Laws both divine and humane without a fair and full hearing what can be said for them or whether any man would have such measure meted to themselves 3. Whether Pride in some Lay-men of their gifts Envy in others against the welfare of the Ministers of Christ Covetousnesse in others as to their maintenance Profanenesse in others against all holinesse Ambition in others to begin or carry on some worldly ends and secular projects Licentiousnesse in others against all religious restraints Impatience in others to see any govern without or besides themselves Malice and spite in others against this as all other reformed Churches Hopes in others by our confusions to introduce their superstitious usurpations Whether I say these and the like inordinate lusts and motions in mens hearts as their severall interests lead and tempt them may not be great causes and influentiall occasions of these violent distempers which break out thus against the generality of the Ministers and the whole calling of the Ministry in this Church Yea what if all odious clamours and calumnies against them and their calling have no more of truth in them than a Jewell hath of dirt in it when filth is cast upon it whose innate firmness preserves its inward and essentiall purity What if nothing be wanting to the innocency and honour of the Ministry of this Church but onely patient and impartiall Judges pious patrons and generous protectours which was all St. Paul wanted when he was accused of many and grievous crimes by the cruell and hard-hearted Jewes which were his Countrey men and for whom he had that heroick charity as to wish himself Anathema from Christ that they might be saved Whether ever any Ministers of learning honesty and piety that had done so much for the religious welfare of any Christian Nation as the able Ministers of England generally have done for many ages were ever so rewarded by Christians or whether ever it entred into the hearts of religious men so to deal with their Ministers as some now meditate and design It were good for men how metald and resolute so ever they seem to be in carrying on their designs to make some pause and halt before they strike such a stroak as may seem to challenge Christ Severissimè punit Deus cum paenalis nutritur impunitas Aust and fight against God whose stroakes against men are heaviest when they are least visible and his wounds sorest when men have the least sense of their contending against him The perswasions and confidences of men may be great in their proceedings * Act. 26.9 Act. 9.4 as was in Saul persecuting when yet their zeale is but dashing against the goades or thornes and a meer persecuting of Christ himselfe which will in the end pierce their own souls through with many errors What if notwithstanding many personal failings in Ministers as men their function calling and Ministry be the holy institution and appointment of Jesus Christ transmitted to these times and this Church by a right order and uninterrupted succession as to the substance of the power and essence of the authority The talents or gifts were Christs and from Christ delivered to his Servants the Ministers of the Church though some of them might be idle and unfaithfull whose burying them in the earth or wrapping them up in a napking at any time was no wasting or imbezling of
indifferency in the Angels of the Churches of Pergamus and Thyatira tolerating any thing and condemning nothing the one suffering those that held the doctrine of Balaam and the impure Nicolaitans who taught all libidinous impudicities to be free for Christians the other for tolerating Jezebel under the colour of a Prophetesse to seduce the servants of God The Apostle Paul commands some mens mouths should be stopped Tit. 1.11 Gal. 5.12 1 Tim. 2.20 who speak perverse things in the Church wisheth those cut off that troubled them He gives over to Satan Hymenaeus and Philetus that they might learn not to blaspheme Gal. 1.8 Denounceth a grievous curse or Anathema to any that should presume to teach any other Doctrine than the Gospell that form of sound words once delivered to the Church which is according to godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 1 Cor. 4.2 He tels us that there is not onely a word but a rod or power of coercion left to the Church and its lawfull Pastors or Ministers for the edification not for the destruction of the Church And however this power Ecclesiasticall which is from God Magistratick and Ministeriall power when united as that other Magistratick be wholly severed and divided in their courses while the Civill Magistrate is unchristian yet when he embraceth the profession of Christianity these two branches of power which flowed severall ways yet from the same fountaine God doe so farre meet again and unite their amicable streams 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Magistratick and Ministeriall Civill and Church power as not to * As those of old that thought Herod to be the Mâ—ssias Terâ—de pras ad Haâ—c 5. confound each other nor yet to crosse and stop one the other but rather to increase strengthen and preserve mutually each other while the Minister of Christ directs the Magistrate and the Christian * As Eusebius tels in Constantine the Greats time who joined with the Bishops and Ministers of the Church in good government Magistrate protects the Minister both of them with a single eye regarding that great end for which God in his love to mankinde and to his Church hath established both these powers in Christian Churches and Societies That neither the bodies nor the soules of Christians should want that good which God hath offered them in Christ nor suffer those injuries in society for the prevention or remedy of which both Magistracy and Ministry are the Ordinances of God for enjoying the benefit of both which blessings as every Christian hath a sociall capacity so every lawfull Magistrate and Minister hath according to their places and proportions a publique duty and authority upon them to see justice and holinesse truth and peace civill sanctions and divine institutions purely and rightly dispensed to inferiours for whose good they aâ—e of God ordained 11. In what case onely toleration of any thing in Religion were lawfull If there were indeed no rule of the written Word of God which Christians owned as the setled foundation of Faith the sure measure of doctrine and guide of good manners in religion both publiquely and privately or if there were no credible Tradition delivered by word of mouth and parents examples which men might imitate for the way of Religion revealed to them by God which was the way before the flood but every one were to expect dayly either new inspirations or to follow the dictates of his own private fancy and reason Nothing then would be more irreligious then to deny all freedom publique as well as private nothing more just than to tolerate any thing of opinion and speculation which any one counted his religion yet even in that liberty of walking and wandering in the dark when no Sun of certain Revelation divine had shined on mankinde Rom. 1.32.2 14. the very light of Nature taught men as among Heathens that some things in point of practise are never tolerable in any humane society But since the wisdome and mercy of God hath given to mankinde which the Church alwayes injoyes the light of his holy Word and a constant order of Ministry to teach from it the wayes of God in truth peace and holinesse not onely every Christian is bound to use all religious means which God hath granted to settle his own judgement and live accordingly in his private sphear without any Scepticall itch or lust of disputing alwayes in Religion But both Magistrate and Minister whose severall duties are set forth and different powers ordained over others in Scripture for a sociall and publique good must take care to attain that good of a setled Religion and preserve it in always of verity equity and charity which may all well consist with the exercise of due authority Nor is it any stinting or restraining of the Spirit of God in any private Christian to keep his Spirit within the bounds of the Word of God Deut. 29.29 wherein the things revealed belong to us and our children Nor is it any restraint to the Spirit of God in the Scripture to keep our opinions and judgements and practises within the bounds of that holy faith and good order which is most clearly set forth in the câ—ncurrent sense of the Scriptures and explained by the Confessions of Faith and practise of holy Discipline which the Creeds and Councels and customes of the Catholick Church hold forth to them Nor is it any limiting or binding up of the Spirit of God in private men for the Christian Magistrate and Minister to use all publique means both for the information conviction and conversion of those under their charge as to the inward man and also of due restraint and coercion as to the outward expressions in which they stand related to a publique and common good But if the negligence of Governours in Church and State 12. What a Christian must doe in dissolute times should at any time so connive and tolerate out of policy or fear or other base passion if through the brokennesse and difficulties of times the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for Magistrates and good Ministers so as the vulgar fury corrupted by factious and unruly spirits are impatient of just restraits but carry on all things against Laws and wiser mens desires to a licentious Anarchy and all confusions in the outward face and publique Ministrations of Religion yet must no good Christian think this any dispensation for any private errours in his judgment or practise In maxima rerum licentia minima esse debet veri Christiani libertas Gib Lex sibi severissima est pura conscientia dei amor Ber. he must be the more circumspect and exact in his station and duty as a Christian when the publique course runs most to confusion tolerating least in his own conscience when most is tolerated by others The love of God and Christ and of the truth of Religion and the respect and reverence borne the order of the Ministry and to the Churches
honour and peace these must be to every good Christian the constant Law and severest discipline Teaching him to governe himself most strictly when others affect most a misgovernment or none at all in Religion to act nothing immorally rudely and exorbitantly to discharge all his relations and duties with the more exactnesse to bear with patience yet with sorrow the want of that publique good which he desires No way to hinder the restoring of due order and authority to the Church and honour to Religion to pray for counsell and assist the recovery of it according to the Scripture rules right reason and the custome of the best times And however the vain and mad world goes on wildly and giddily as an unâ—amed heifer enduring no yoke of Religion as to any publique order Government Discipline or Ministry yet must not a serious and well advised Christian delay to guide his feet in the ways of truth and holinesse nor neglect to work out his salvation in Gods way till publique distractions are composed or delay to be good till all turbulent and fanatick spirits returne to their wits or till ancient publique order and Government in the Church be so setled and Religion so fortified by civill sanctions as it ought to be for no man knowes how long the Apostle Paul may be in a storm or the Church tossed with schisms and factions and secular interests before it recover the haven of a happy setlednesse True Ministers and true piety most to be regarded in licentious times Therefore a Christian that makes it his work not to prate and dispute and to play a part or to gain by the name of Reformation and Religion but to beleive stedfastly and obey constantly that holy rule hath never more cause to prize and adhere to the true Ministry and Ministers of Christ than when he sees the greatest persecutions lying on the Church either by violence or toleration by open force or fraudulent liberty which are both the Tivels Engines to batter or undermine the Church of Christ Never should holy dispensations be more earnestly desired and diligently attended from the hands of those Ministers in whom only is the right power authority and succession than when nothing is lesse tolerated among various and violent men than a true Bishop and Minister or a right ordained Ministry which of all things is to the divell and evill men the most intolerable Satan well knowes Matth. 24 15. that if he destroy the Shepheards the sheep will be scattered When good Christians see the abomination of desolation set up profanely tolerating any thing for Religion allowing of any Mimicks for true Ministers vulgar adoring of a rotten Idol of licentiousnesse gilded over with the name of Liberty when silencing true Ministers and suppressâ—ng good learning and crying up illiterate impudence shall be thought a means to propagate the Gospell Then let then that are seriously and soberly godly fly to the Mounteines to the true Ministers of the Church from whom God hath appointed salvation to descend to the beleeving souls Nor are they to regard what every bold and ignorant upstart boasteth and feigneth of Inspirations liberties and blessed toleration obtruding himselfe out of the promptnesse and pride of his own heart upon the credulous and silly vulgar who love to be flattered to their ruine and deceived to their destruction but hate to be truly guided and faithfully governed to their safety For all these pretenses of Liberty Toleration Inspirations c. are manifest to be but as the divels silken halters by which he hopes to strangle the Christian and reformed Religion here and elsewhere it may be seemingly and with more gentlenesse but not with lesse malice and cruelty to mens soules than with those rougher hempen cords of open persecution Propè abest à crudelitate nimia indulgentia à persecutione enormis tolerantia in tantum periculosa quantum dissoluta Melan From which such sad toleration and rude Liberties are not very far being but new expressions of Anarchy and colours of portending confusion or utter dissolutions of all Church order peace and Government into a cruell licentiousnesse which is always tyrannous to true Religion Nothing is more burdensome than some mens levities nor more fulsome and deformed than their Reformations nothing more uncharitable and untractable than their liberties nor more a plague and death to Religion than what they call health and recovery when vulgar or fanatick violence binds so much the staffe of discipline till it breaks heady men surfeit the flock by over-driving it and Wolves in sheeps cloathing scatter and tear the sheep of Christ under pretence of letting them goe whither they list in stead of being true shepheards fetching them home and feeding them in due bounds with good pasture in which wholsome and safe bounds both Christian Magistrates Sic vigilet tolerantia ut non dormiat disciplina Aust l. 17. de verb. Ap. and true Ministers should seek to feed the flock of Christ not as bare spectators of their wanderings and errours but as enabled and intrusted by God with a coercive power from Christ for the Churches good and where the Magistrate is negligent there the Minister should be the more diligent in the place where Christ hath set him who is the great Shepheard of our souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd Libera me a malo hoc est a me ipso Ber. beyond whose holy bounds for any Christians to affect any Liberty is to wear the divels livery while they are in Christs service Few men complain of want of freedome but they whose freedome would be their own and other mens greatest bondage Nothing is lesse desirable to a good Christian than to be left to himselfe for men are then neerest to be undone when they may doe what they list and least in safety when they are their own keepers MY next Calumniating Adversary The 6 Cavill Against the maintenance of the Ministry as setled by Law against the Ministry of England which I have to deal with and detect is possessed with a thirsty and covetous Spirit which would fain have Liberty if not to speak and act what he list in Religion without any restraint of Magistrate or Minister yet at least to pay what he list to any Minister since he is free to hear whom and when he list or none at all he would not be tyed by any law to pay any thing to their support although it be due to them and a right which none else might challenge He likes not that setled maintenance which they challenge as due This subtill and frugall churl of a Christian is a Jesuitick terrien hath many wary fetches and windings against the Ministers of the Gospell in the reformed Churches but none beyond this plot that he hopes ere long to be too hard or too cunning for them here in England while under some specious and politick pretention he shall deprive them of all setled