indeed the hiding of the Church no wonder if it be a hidden thing to us he saith in this place Omnes docebant omnes baptizabant he saith They observed not the time nor fasted before Baptism nor had Peter any Deacons at Cornelius house to Baptize as if the Deacons office was onely to Baptize he not minding that some of the seven may be with him and Baptize in all which he corruptly quarrels with the Apostles practice as if they had found a better form to serve God by then that of the Gospel which the Bishops of the times preceeding did correct and like the carnal Gentiles seeking to be wise became fools and like the foolish woman in the Proverbs pull'd down the House of God with both their hands and worse then she set up a Cage for unclean birds of their own predicted by Zech. 5.8 9. But of this in its place Ignatius Ep. to Policarpus He writing to Policarpus mentions the Presbytery and saith Vnà laborate inter vos unà certate unà currite c. ut dispensatores assessores ministri Dei. In the word Dispencers the admission of members to Ordinances is signified in Assessors their Government in general intended in Ministers their teaching 8. The Church was governed by these three conjunctly in Ecclesiastical things Ignatius to Trallis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is necessary whatever ye do ye go about nothing that is of Ecclesiastical publike concernment without the Bishop but also that ye submit to the Presbytery as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ In these is the Church true Presbytery onely and alone in these the Synod and Colledge of Ministery is existent and in none other Other Authority is Antichristian and tends to oppression of the Saints Tertull. in the forecited place de Exhortatione Castitatis Honor per ordinis consessum sanctificatus adeò ubi non est ecclesiastici ordinis consessus Offers Tinguis Sacerdos c. before he saith these have Ecclesiae aucthoritas the Church authority This is Consessus Ecclesiaestici ordinis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and any other Ecclesiastical convent then this Juridical is not according to the Primitive Church and Gospel-frame this was the true Presbytery and all other then these are spurious and false To this well agreeth that of Mat. 18.19 that if two of you agree on earth c. The Church while it was according to the Gospel institution governed by these three it was called The pillar and ground of Truth but when that fell and Ministers of other Societies ruled then came the corruption of the Church the Lord not approving of them as is well observed in the Preface of the Bibles written To the Reader printed in King James's days yet for all that the learned knew That certain worthy men have been brought to untimely death for no other fault but for seeking to reduce their countrey-men to good order and discipline and that in some Common-weals it was made a capital crime once to motion the making of a new Law for the abrogating of an old though the same were most pernicious and that certain which would be accounted pillars of the State and paterns of vertue and prudence could not be brought for a long time to give way to good letters and refined speech but bare themselves as averse from them as from Rocks and boxes of Poyson And he was no babe viz. Greg. Theol. but a great Cler. that gave forth and in writing to posterity in passion peradventure That he had not seen any profit to come by any Synod or Meeting of the Clergy but rather the contrary By saying it was in passion was a good plaister for such a dangerous sore He shews what the Councels before him he living about 380. did and indeed God ordained That not many together but seven men of several ages signified by the seven Angels are onely to restore the faln Church Hieron 1 Cap. ad Titum saith When Presbyters governed Ecclesiae cura aequaliter inter plures dividebatur To this may be applyed that of Egisippus cited by Eusebius Vnà cum Apostolis suscepit Ecclesiam administrandam frater Domini Jacobus qui justus ab omnibus cognominatus This was understood of Peter and John Gal. 2.9 and not of all the Apostles Paul and Barnabas ministred to the Gentiles James the less was slain before he took this Government by Herod So that it is without question here is onely meant the three Apostles who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Peter calls himself 1 Pet. 6.1 according to the form of Government in the other Gospel Churches they being not differing one from another in form of Government Jerusalem being the patern or mother Church This Book is said to contain Apostolical Traditions but is lost and a counterfeit left in its place Nicephor Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 26. 9. As the Ministers so the People were distinguished Anthanasius cites Theognostus in his Tract de verbis Evang. Matthei cap. 2. ver 31. quicunque dixerit c. Qui semel atque iterum terminos praetergressus ost minus feret supplicii qui vero tertio contempserit nullam veniam consequi potest Here by the bounds of the Church I understand the threefold Societies of the Saints under the third whereof if any contemned there was no pardon Athanasius primum secundum terminos appellat Catechesin hoc est initiationem de patre filio tertium vero qui est in consummatione mysteriorum sermone qui traditur in communicatione spiritus This shews the Government was much hid in Athanasius time he saith Catechizing was initiation which was not but in Baptism under the Doctors Ministery was initiation and not under the Catechists Ministery And then he saith In Catechizing were to be understood the two first bounds which was but one part of Ministery and that not of the Church neither without doubt Theognostus alludes to that of the Apostle Heb. 6.4 5 6. He is more clear in that which followeth Verum ex his nequaquam aliquis dicere poterit quod doctrina spiritus excellentior sit doctrina filii sed filius sese dimittat ad imbecillitatem imperfectorum spiritus autem signaculum est eorum qui perfecti sunt proinde non irremissibilis incondonabilis est blasphemia in spiritum quòd spiritus major est filio sed quod imperfectis detur venia iis vero qui gustaverunt coeleste donum quique perfecti sunt nulla relinquatur ad veniam excusatio aut paenae excusatio 1. Here are three bounds expressed of the Church 2. In these the Saints are divided according to their gifts in one the imperfect the other the perfect 3. In Athansius time these bounds were destroyed 4. He alludes these three Mansions to the Trinity making that the ground of them as the other before Dionisius distinguisheth them by these names Rudes illuminati perfecti Simil. Herm. 9. Omnos enim infantes honorati
universus populus concreditus erat Quid ergo juniores erant Pastores ac Doctores admodum erant enim circumeuntibus Evangelizantibus inferiores qui habitando quieti circa unum duntaâ—at locum occupabantur ut Timotheus ac Titus verùm alias ex hoc loco subjectio praelatura colligi non potest and after Nè quid huic expositionis meae contradicas potest fieri ut Evangelistas eos hic intelligta qui Evangelium conscripserunt If Chrysostome were thus ignorant of the Office of Evangelists no wonder if we are one while he is for walking Evangelists then for those abide in one place and to these he adheres or else prelature cannot be proved thence and then he comes to those wrote the Gospells how can it be thought possible so great a darknesse should come on the world in so short a time on those who had the learning of the age And it is like the Ancient copies of the primitive Writers were either lost hid or corrupted before his time making way for the departure of the Church now about to take its leave of the world Bazil in an Epistle to Ambrose cals on him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Montacu of Tythes understands this complaint of his to be only about the dividing of Cappadocia into two Metropolitans which had been one at Caesarea 1. I conceive Bazil understands the first tract of the Fathers in which only was a reformation that was right and not that went immediately before 2. Nor could that be understood well for the old marks for it were not 200. years before that there were no provinciall Bishops in all the world And after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which shewes he sought this in some spirituall way and for a spirituall end quite contrary to that objected before And in his Epistle to Athanasius I conceive he implieth the same when he calls on him to joyne with him in restoring the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which he alludes to the allusion of John the Baptist to the Gospell Government Mat. 3.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to me it seems that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more fully manifests the Gospell truth and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more full to which no government then did so fitly agree as the Gospell government Applic. Seeing he calls on Athanasius and Ambrose to reforme by the first times it proves there is no true reformation to be made of the Church by the practice of the then times least we would seek to prove one corruption by another 2. That the true Church-discipline was neare gone from the world or going as he instanceth onely Antioch whose practice he commends which doubtlesse was deficient in many things in those times Ambrose Eph. 4. Coepit alio ordine providentiâ gubernari Ecclesia and points out the time to be ubi omnia loca circumplexa est Ecclesia it was after doubtlesse the 200. yeare O Ambrose did they think of the curse denounced of the Apostle against men or Angells should attempt this or had they divine revelations to do it or Apostolicall Authority delegated that they dare to do such a thing After he gives us the reason Scripta Apostoli ideo non per omnia conveniunt ordinationi quae nunc in Ecclesia est quia hac inter primordia sunt conscripta As if the government written in the Gospell and exercised by the Apostles was onely for the Apostles time or Church-Infancy and would not serve all estates thereof in which we see the plea now used is an old one An instance he gives of this in Timothy made a Presbyter by Paul and called a Bishop ut recedente eo sequens ei succederet that is the Evangelist dying the senior Presbyter the Pastor succeeded him he being next in place and office The reason of this change is this Sed quia coeperunt sequentes Presbyteri indigni inveniri ad primatos tenendos mutata est ratio prospiciente consilio ut non ordo sed meritum crearet Episcopum multorum judicio constitutum nè indignus temerè usurparet et esset multis scandalum 1. If any such there had been the Lord had provided a remedy against it by giving the Church a power among themselves to prevent it which here the Bishops to the destruction of that priviledge usurp to themselves 2. It is done by a Councell that it may have the more fair pretence and that hereby unworthy men may not come ad primatos tenendos That the senior Presbyter succeeded the Evangelist if fit is illustrated in that of Aaron and Eleazer his eldest son Numb 20.25 26. But see what the Bishops did with this usurped authority when wrested from the Church quickly after Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 8. tells a story of a Bishop chosen by Bishops for Constantinople He was chosen by Diodorus meanes and commended to the Councell his name was Nectarius That which they chose him for is because he had a white head a sacerdotall Countenance and the like this fitted him ad primatos tenendos 1. He was not a man baptized it is said Diodorus seeing him so grave a man thought he had been baptized 2. He is exhorted to give him to reading which shewes he had little abilities in him to teach 1. Ap. Could this be said of a senior Presbyter he must be better qualified then so 2. Let man never give leave to man to change the everlasting Ordinances of God for never so faire pretences for the foolishnesse of God is wiser then men In the same manner Ambrose was elected before baptized against the Word Ambrose on the same 4. Eph. saith of the Teachers Doctores sunt hi qui lectionibus imbuendi infantes solebant imbuere sicut mos Iudaeorum est quorum traditio ad nos transitum fecit quâ— per negligentiam obsolevit He sheweth though the custome were taken from the Jewes yet it belonged to the Gentiles to have it exercised in their Churches also The Doctor being to initiate their children in grace as the Jewish theirs in nature which through negligence is out of use of whose Ordination he thus writes Prophetia est qua eligitur quasi Doctor futurus idoneus manus verò impositiones verba sunt mystica quibus confirmatur ad opus electus auctoritatem teste conscientia sua ut audeat vice Domini sacrificium Deo offerre 1 Timoth. 4.14 1 Timoth. 5. Apud omnes utique gentes honorabilis est senectus unde Synagoga postea Ecclesia seniores habuit quorum sine Consilio nihil agebatur in Ecclesia quòd qua negligentia obsoluerit nescio nisi fortè Doctorum desidiâ aut magis superbiâ dum soli volunt aliquid videri Hereby Seniores M. B lson will not admit the helping Governor or ruling Elder to be understood but that advice which Bishops used to take of Presbyters was now not taken in Church-Government 1. He alludes in this place as I suppose to that
THE CHURCHES RESURRECTION OR The CREATING of the New Heavens Written by an unworthy Gospel-Minister JOHN BRAYN Rev. 21.2 And I John saw the holy City c. Acts 13.41 Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your days a work which you shall in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you London Printed for George Whittington at the Blew-Anchor in Cornhil near the Royal-Exchange 1649. To the Honorable The General Councel OF THE ARMY IN that I am assured you and your despised Armies are they by whom the Church is to be ushered out of her long hid estate into the world again I presume to present you with this insuing Tract as belonging to you which may something serve to help-direct your Councels in Church-affairs in the sound foundation whereof you will finde to consist the strength of your undertakings Councels and comforts to depend and issues to succeed it being the work onely of God to give man to his labor an expected end Now the Lord so direct you in your great undertakings to do the work of the Lord that he may have glory and you mercy in the day of Christ is the desire of Your Servant in the Gospel JO BRAYN To the Reader I Think good to acquaint thee that God may have the greater glory That the Form of Government I drew wholly from the Word before I saw the least footstep of it in the Primitive Practice mentioned by the Fathers which when I came to see them to be as so many Witnesses to the Truth I could not for the Truths sake but make it publique for thy profit It is not as large as intended but Epitomized onely my allowance for my Ministery being detained from me nor did I therefore translate but few of the Authorities cited some are for the use of the unlearned I desire you to pass by the errors committed in Printing it because having other occasions I could not attend the Press and it shall be your honor and be esteemed of Your Servant in the Gospel JO BRAYN IN these times it hath been the way of men to cry down the sound and saving Truths of God and the Gospel by branding them with terms of Novelty and New found Notions proudly and scornfully calling them ridiculous things in branding the men that God reveals them to with odious names hindring many from so much as trying the Truth then which Satan hath not had a greater Engine against the way of God in these last times which the tryal of the first and purest of Antiquity will reveal unto us and shew us how and I shall endeavor as my weak ability small reading and other great imployments will give me leave in these few sheets of Paper following to manifest And first THat the Government of the Church in the Primitive times was not looked on as in these latter times it hath been even to be a thing to be made conformal to every estate in which the Gospel is preached prudentially which is clearly to be proved by many witnesses but in that the Scripture saith Vnder two or three witnesses every thing shall be established I shall onely prove them by two or three and no more as being sufficient hereunto alone Tertullian who lived about Two hundred years after Christ saith Nobis vero nihil ex nostro arbitrio inducere licet sed nec eligere quod aliquis ex suo arbitrio induxerit Apostolos Domini habemus auctores qui nec ipsi quicquam ex suo arbitrio quod inducerent eligerunt sed acceptam à Christo disciplinam fideliter Nationibus assignarunt itaque etiamsi Angelus de coelis aliter Evangelizaret anathema diceretur à nobis De Praescrip Heret The sence this It is not lawful for us to induce any thing at our pleasure nor to choose that any one hath induced of his own will we have the Apostles of the Lord Authors who themselves nor chose nor brought in to the Church any thing of their free will but they faithfully assigned to the Nations the discipline received from Christ Therefore though an Angel from heaven should teach otherways let him be accounted as accursed of us Ap. What place is there then for a prudential Government in the Church How can Ministers plead for it or Magistrates set it up Dionisius Ep. to Demophilus Si distinctiones ordinesque confundere Sacratissimas Dei Sanctiones jura transgredi est omni profectò ratione caret Dei causâ pervertere traditum divinitùs ordinem neque enim in seipsum Dei sermo divisus est alioquin quomodo staret ejus regnum Clem. Alex. Lib. Strom. 7. p. 841. Quomodo ergo in bello non est ordo deserendus quem dedit imperator militi ita nec est deserendus ordo quem dedit nobis verbum quem accepimus principem ac ducem cognitionis vitae I may prove this by others but Tertull. whose Authority is questioned by none speaking to this exceeding pertinently I propose again as in his Book Adversus Marcion Et oportuerit utique prius alium Deum exponi postea ejus disciplinam induci quia Deus auctoritatem praestet disciplinae non Deo disciplina This I suppose proves sufficiently That in the Church no Discipline ought to be set up but what Christ in the Gospel hath commanded The second thing to be considered is The Ministery without the Church erected by Christ in the world to fit for the Church 1. The Books of Arnobius Lactantius Justin Martyr called Serm. ad Gentes prove it Clem. Alex. ad Gentes Venite venite ô meorum juvenum caetus nisi enim rursus efficiamini ut pueri regeneremini ut ait Scriptura eum qui vero est pater non recipietis neque unquam in regnum Coelorum intrabitis quando enim est hospiti permissum ingredi sed quando ut puto inscriptus fuerit cives effectus patrem acceperit tunc erit in numero filiorum patris tunc dignus habebitur qui sit haeres Come ye come ye O Congregation of my yong men for unless ye become again as children and be new born as the Scripture saith ye cannot receive him who is truly the Father nor shall ye ever enter into the Kingdom of Heaven When is it permitted the stranger to enter but when as I think he is inrolled and made a Citizen and hath received the Father then he shall be in the number of the Fathers children That this was to unconverted Gentiles is without doubt and farther shews They were to be inrolled and receive the Father that is I suppose they were to profess Faith in and Obedience unto God before he could be a Citizen or a Son which at first must be an estate of childehood in the Church again though men by nature or they could not enter Clemens in Orat. adhor ad Gentes Praecursor Johannis vox verbum praecurrit vox adhortatoria praeparans ad
1. All the Churches before An 200. constituted according to the Apostles were Jerusalem and after to the 400 year 2. All the Idolatrous false Churches set up after Antichrist of Rome since the year 46. are Romes daughters 3. All the Societies separated from Rome within this 150. years being not according to the Gospell frame or patterne are Samarias daughters 1. Their Priest was brought from Assyria or Babell as was Martine Luther from the Monastery 2. They made Gods of their owne every Nation as they please 2. Kings 17.27.29 3. Ver. 41. These Nations feared the Lord and served the graven Images both their children and childrens children as did their fathers The Application I leave to the Reader 1. It is observable Ierusalem is first Sodom next Samaria last in Scripture and in time yet ver 46. Samaria is called the elder sister and Sodom the younger yet first in time and Scripture God in this shewing the Samaritan estate had more of the truth then Sodoms estate and so may be said to be elder and hath honour given her of God in it and Sodom dishonour 2. Ierusalems Sodoms Samarias daughters shall be brought all again to their former estate that is the primitive gospel-government 3. In the bringing Sodoms and Samarias God will bring again Ierusalems Captives the Iewes in the midst of them their call promised and time intimated 4. Ver. 61. Thou shalt receive thy sister thy elder and thy younger here Samaria is spoke of first who first shall have the gospel government set up in her and shall be acknowledged by the gospel to be so and then God shewes how in saying he will give them to Ierualem for daughters who before were Sodoms and Samarias Rev. 20.6 this is the first resurrection of Churches Q. When shall this bee 1. When Ierusalem hath born her lewdnesse ver 5.8 2. After Ierusalem hath had all her daughters and Rome or Sodome all her daughters and Samaria or the Church departed from Rome had her daughters 1. They and their daughters are said to dye as it were as the true Churches were abolished by Anti-christ Anti-christ by Samaria God now by giving the truth abolisheth Episcopacy and Presbytery the daughters of Samaria and giving the true knowledge of the gospel-government first to Samaria which I think will be seen in England God is said to bring Samarias daughters and then after will Romes daughters France Spaine c. among whose returne the Iewes shall be called and returne also and the new Ierusalem shall receive them for daughters So that I suppose the true gospel-government will be set up and spread into farther parts Dominions and Countreys then ever the Apostles spread it and continue much longer in time and purity in the world 4. Sodom and Samaria shall lay down in a short time their corruptions abominations and false government taking up the way of God 5. This cannot be understood of the last day of Iudgement that after that resurrection the spirituall harlot Sodom or Samaria shall be daughters that is be constituted Churches according to the gospel pattern 6. Nor of Sodom burnt by fire in Gen. 20. for they shall never hereafter be given to be daughters to Ierusalem 7. This Scripture held by some to make against the call of the Iews rightly understood makes a strong and undeniable proof of it as any whatsoever 1. The Scripture following Mat. 25.20 compared with Luke 19.17 the first which is he in Matthew had the five Talents is promised to bee in Luke made Ruler of ten Cities which seemes to me to shew that there shall be abundance more of Churches under the new Ierusalem to be then under that that was the Gentiles shall bring their glory riches that is wisedom learning knowledge their all unto it In which is shewn how the Ministry shall bee taken from the single Ministry and given to the true Church Combination after which before the end may be Apostacy to a twofold Ministry but never to a single Ministry more Math 25.14 15 The Kingdom of Heaven c. In these words of Matthew are to bee considered two generall things 1. That which is the Parabolicall sence of the Scripture 2. That which is the Mysticall or the Prophetick sence In the first we are to consider what this Parable is alledged for by the Lord and that is to set out the Kingdom of Heaven by not in the inward operations of it on the Soule but the outward administrations of it in the Ministry of the word c. 2. Yee have the way the Lord takes in the disposing the government of the Church called the Kingdom of Heaven 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee did it by a call the way by which he ordained his Disciples at the first and still doth by an ordinary call of his messengers and without which none are to undertake the Ministry 2. Those that are called ate called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own servants in which is signified the separating of the Ministers of the gospel from all other imployments and the destinating of them unto this only Acts 6.4 without which the Ministry cannot be discharged 3. After their Call and Separation then he comes to intrust them with the dispensations of the gospel rightly called his goods in which Sathan nor the world have not the least property which are left to the Ministers only not the people 1 Cor. 4.1.2 4. In the number of his servants which are three they have the number of the Ministers ordained by Christ for the right government of the Church in this world untill the end 5. Yee have the disposing of these goods of Christ remarkably set down the manner how and that is not all to any one but one hath one another two the third five Talents 6. He that had his one had his Call from Christ his Ordination from Christ his intrustment his Talent from Christ that is Jure Divino as well as he that had five 7. These are delivered to each according to his ability 1. Signifying that one of the Church Ministers hath more committed to him then an other 2. He that had five had as much as his ability could enable him to exercise he could not exercise the two the second had or that one more then his own five which the third had 3. Which shewes it was not the minde of Christ nor is it in the power of man to exercise the whole Ministry which by the Lords Institution is to be done by three Object This is a novelty and a new found Exposition Resp If it be the truth receive it though but Clemen Alex. lib. 1. Stro. understands hereby the Teachers of the Church 2. An uncertaine Author on Mathew translated by Erasmus and bound up with the third Tom. of Chrysostome◠applyeth these to the Ministry first the five Talents to the Presbytery which he makes to be Government Preaching Baptism offering Sacrifice and Prayer for the People 2. The two Talents