AN EXPEDIENT TO PRESERVE PEACE AND AMITY AMONG DISSENTING BRETHREN By a Brother in CHRIST LONDON Printed for H. R. and are to be sold at his Shop at the Signe of the three Pigeons in Pauls Church-yard 1647. AN EXPEDIENT TO PRESERVE PEACE and Amitie among dissenting BRETHREN SEeing it hath pleased Almighty GOD 〈…〉 at this time to put a stop to the effusion of Bloud so prodigally powred out in our native Country and thereby given a hope of speedily stating the whole Kingdome in a firme and durable Peace It doth not a little grieve my soul that this happinesse should be clouded or retarded under the pretence of Religion which is the best cimenter of Peace But herein I take comfort that God hath his own work no lesse in these controversies then before hee had in the warres and will reap glory out of both We must neither start nor stagger when we see Schismes and Heresies rise in the visible Church They are the Tares which the envious man soweth among Gods Wheat and Christ hath fore-warned us and so hath his Apostles that through the rage of Satan and corruption of men there must of necessity in all times and ages arise scandals dissentions and Heresies in the Church for the exercise of the godly that their faith might be proved and manifested to the world by holding their ground and cleaving to the truth Yea the very Gospell of Christ which in it selfe is a Gospell of peace by the bloud of the Son reconciling of us to the Father Meeteth with such Malignancy and opposition in the world that to the true professors of it it becometh a Gospel of warre and hatred and persecution This is the condition of the faithfull to be alwayes in outward troubles wherein were they not supported with inward peace they were of all men most miserable Upon this ground Martin Luther that undanted champion of the truth being taxed by the Emperour in a great Councell that he was the man who by his Doctrine had disturbed the long continued Peace in Germany Answered that what others thought he could not tell but it rejoyced his heart to see that there was divisions about the word of God for Christ came not to bring peace but the Sword By all this it appeareth that as every true beleever must expect tribulation in this world so hee shall have peace with God and ought to have peace and communion one with another Christ when he left his Disciples left them Peace for a Legacy and a commandement to love one another we are also frequently exhorted to follow after Peace to bee of one mind and preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace How comes it then about that we see so many minds among brethren who will all passe for the Disciples of Christ and that from the diversity of minds wee see so many rents and separations whereby the bond of Peace is broken and the spirits of men disunited Certainly when it commeth so far it can proceed from no other root then from our lusts which war in our earthly members Otherwise difference of judgement among true beleevers in the sincere search of truth may well stand with unity of affections without breach of Peace For it is manifest enough that the true beleevers over the whole world are not of one mind in all things that concerne Religion and the worship of God Witnesse the severall formes of outward worship among all Nations no lesse various then their fashions And this may also happen among the faithfull aswell in the same as in severall Nations nay if we consider it home wee shall find the like difference in our selves that we need not wonder at it in others for what Christian is there who in pursuit and study for truth observeth not in himself degrees and diversities of judgement every day teacheth knowledge this life being a time of growth not of perfection neverthelesse no man hateth himself because he formerly knew not so much as now he doth but rather praiseth God for hauing revealed to him a greater measure of knowledge by this rule wee should deale with others as we do with our selves for that is the rule of Charity We are all Gods building and albeit they may chance to differ among themselves They are not for that to make a breach in the building but in Love and Peace suffer their opinions to bee tryed by the word of God making that the decider not the breeder of controversies This being premised I will proceed to the subject lying before me and take my beginning from the beginning it self Almighty God doing all his own works in order was pleased to make Man a sociable creature first in himself associating an earthly and heavenly nature that one might guide and governe the other and himselfe receive glory from both Then by ingrafting in that compounded nature rules of spirituall and humane duty whereby he might be fitted for a well-being in the society of others For as the conjunction of flesh and spirit though parts far differing in nature make one man so the conjunction of many men though of severall ages complections humors passions callings and degrees make up a common-wealth for the good of all in their temporall well-being Even so likewise the conjunction of many spirits and minds of men though dissenting in opinions wayes and strength of judgement yet ayming at the same end by faith in Christ to attain salvation Maketh a common union or a Church for the good of all in their eternall wel-being Flesh alone nor spirit alone cannot make a man but the union of both no more can a Common-wealth by it self nor a Church by it self make men temporally and eternally happy but the unity and harmony of both They are so conjoyned and intwined together that as the soule is in the body so is the Church in the Common-wealth single they cannot subsist For there never was nor can there be any multitude of men that bodied themselves into a Common-wealth who agreed not in some kind of Religion neither can any multitude of men body themselves into a Church but they must be subject to some kind of government These two cannot be separated without the ruine of both Seperation destroying Society wherein consisteth the happinesse of man for in heaven wee cannot bee happy alone nor on earth without society These principles are written by the God of order in the tables of humane nature which are commonly called the light or the Law of nature But sin and time having so fullyed that Character that it was scarce legible by posterity God was pleased to revive it againe to his peculiar people writing it with his own finger in Tables of stone to authorize and moralize it to all generations for their good therein giving power to the Magistrate to take care for the keeping and preserving of both Tables placing our duty to him between our duty to God and towards our neighbour that hee might
looke for the good of man both wayes Our duty to God is contayned in fewer precepts but more words it seeming necessary that God should explaine himselfe in his own cause leaving no power to any man to adde or diminish or interpret his Lawes but by his own word which made Moses though he were a Law-giver in Israel yet he would not judge the gatherer of sticks upon the Sabbath day without consultation with the Lord Before the written Law every father of a family was both Priest and Magistrate to looke to both and the greater the family or society was so much higher was the Magistrate and reverenced with more honour as being the common parent caring for the whole Country This Law therefore of Nature being the very dictate of God himself may not improperly be termed a divine Law There were also other Lawes which God prescribed by his servant Moses to the people of Jsrael politicke and Iudiciall Lawes for preserving humane society and governing the Common-wealth and Ceremoniall Lawes for the outward manner and forme of his publike worship for performance whereof he ordained divers Sacrifices and Sacrificers allotting maintainance for them both But when the time fore-appointed came that God would restore man to that happinesse he had deservedly lost by the sin of the first Adam he sent his onely Son Iesus Christ the second Adam in the flesh who after he had manifested his divine power to the world by his Doctrine and miracles did by his last words on the Crosse and by the first visible testimony of the power of his death finish and consummate the Law and rent from the top to the bottome the vaile of separation by both declaring the necessity of types and ceremonies places and times of worship differences of people Sacrifices and Sacrificers fixed and impropriated maintainance for any of them was no longer to bee continued strictly in the letter although a morall equity shadowed by them was to be perpetuall Neither did our Saviour in the constitution of his Evangelicall Church revive any of them nor ordain any set form of worship rule for goverment or a certained and speciall maintainance for his Ministers but only repaired and restored man to that way and manner of worship which Adam had in his innocency prescribing him to serve God the Father of spirits in spirit and in truth without otherwise confining him to time place gesture posture or other circumstances which of their own nature are not permanently confineable In like sort the blessed Apostles whom Christ sent into the world to publish the glad tydings of Salvation laid no other foundation as necessary thereunto then Iesus Christ and what he had laid himself for they were only master builders on that corner stone Christ Iesus What they declared to any people converted to the Gospel concerning any rule of order about the outward man or his Christian behaviour in publike service it was only a temporary advise sutable to the times Countries and occasions wherin they lived not universally binding to all Nations and generations to come In their dayes there was neither Christian State nor Christian Magistrate nor any publike power to countenance or appoint the outward government of the Church in default whereof it was necessary for them to make such orders and constitutions as might serve for those present times neverthelesse as Christ himself took upon him no civill authority so gave hee none to his Apostles nor they to the Ministers succeeding For when Christ was required to divide an inheritance betwixt two brothers he asked with indignation who had made him a Iudge or divider over them and when the case of the Incestuous person fell out at Corinth St. Paul inflicted no temporall punishment upon him only advised the brethren that whiles hee stood obstinate against all reproof to shun his company and cast him out of their communion that the shame thereof making him sensible of his sinne it might beget repentance and make him returne to the fellowship of true beleevers I verily thinke that if all the directions which the Apostles have left recorded in Scripture were laid in one view together no man nor multitudes of men how learned soever could collect or frame out of them all an exact body of Church government in all the parts and Circumstances thereof to bee imposed as a divine binding infallible rule upon all Christian Churches and Kingdomes in the world Indeed where we meet with any Councels or constitutions of the blessed Apostles who were holy men indued with more immediate power from Christ with a larger measure of the spirit of truth and consequently with a greater certainty of judgment then any of their Ministeriall successors we may rely upon them and make them our patternes only remembring the distinction of times that the Apostolicall Church was in infancy and under persecution and the English in full growth and dominion in so much that in the framing of Ecclesiasticall orders an eye and regard must ever bee had to the civill Government which alwayes aymeth at the publike good both of Church and State wherein the Church is lodged The Ministers doubtlesse have power by their office to advise and instruct exhort and rebuke out of the word in a brotherly way but it is as doubtlesse that the power is in the Christian Magistrate upon hearing their advice to constitute and establish under the naturall notion of order such decrees as upon due debate and deliberation they shall find most wholsome and agreeable to the present State This is also to be observed that no man ought to take unto himself the office and honour to Minister for his brethren in things pertaining unto God unlesse hee be lawfully called thereunto Christ himself was sent by the Father and annointed by the spirit to his heavenly office by Christ the holy Apostles were sent into the world from whom they had their immediate Commission and the blessed Apostles following their pattern did not only send and appoint Pastors over all Churches in their present times but also lest rules and directions for ordaining all others for the time to come till the worlds end I make no question but God doth in our dayes call and stirre up many to this holy office by particular motions of his Spirit yet that exempteth not the persons so called from manifesting and approving their vocation according to the rules left in Scripture where we are commanded to try the spirits of men whither they be of God and the Spirits of the Prophets peculiarly such as are called to the Ministery are subject to the Prophets as fitting to be tryed and examined by them who by long experience and without reproach have conversed in the Church and dispenced the misteries of Salvation From this brief and plaine deduction I shall lay down some few Positions as ground-lines of the discourse ensuing 1. That God hath by his Son taken away all ties of necessity for observing any part or
circumstances thereof we have also the word of man as infallible as mans can be for that we may take upon good trust to be morally infallible which proceeds from men who neither deceive nor are deceived Now I suppose that the Parliament hath so fully declared their sincerity and discharged their trust in establishing this government that the most opposite thereunto cannot admit of such an unworthy thought as if they intended to impose any government upon the people which in conscience they thought not most agreeable to Gods word which as it cleareth them from the least suspicion of deceiving so it is also manifest that they have used the best and most approved means allowed to mortall man not to be deceived For in this waighty worke they have begun with the invocation of Gods infallible Spirit which is the Author and leader into all truth and have assembled Learned and religious men of the holy calling to enter into free deliberation and debate of that kind of Church-government which they should find most consonant to Gods word and if after all this we can imagine they have erred in their decrees How can we without presumption conceive the judgement of any private men to be more infallible Now if any shall think that this kind of government in every part thereof is established with such a perpetuall decree that it can never be changed We must know that many things may be infallibly true yet not alwayes necessary to be continued True in the Author of truth and true in the means of truth and yet may be laid aside when they are no longer usefull for edification an example hereof we may see in the ceremoniall Law which being appointed by God himselfe no man will doubt but it was infallibly true and being abolished by the same power that ordained it no man need doubt but that it was justly removed Infallibility doth not alwayes inferre immutability Things are not onely continued for their truth but also for their goodnesse and fitnesse and applicablenesse to present use So long as the Ceremoniall Law was to indure it was of divine infallibility needfull for the Church of the Jewes and during that time immutable by any power but divine but when the Evangelicall Law succeeded which by fulfilling ended the Ceremoniall the worship of God became more spirituall leaving the decencies circumstances and outward manner to the humane infallibility of the Magistrate set in authoriiy by God whose decrees in such matters are unchangeable by any inferiour power yet alterable by the same power that decreed them Moreover the Papists object against our doctrine that before Luther it was not known in thy world and the Prelates object against our discipline that before Calvin it was never known by both with aspersions they think to disgrace our doctrine and our discipline putting upon them the stamp of novelty as though they were but inventions of men But as our doctrine hath been sufficiently asserted against their calumnies to be the very doctrine of the spirit of God left recorded in the holy Scriptures So it is also plain that this government of Gods Church by the Presbytery was known and practised in the world before either Popery or Prelacy was in being both which are indeed novelties and the very spawn of corrupted men It is clearly demonstrated from the bosome of Antiquity That the Apostles and Evangelists knowing the mind of Christ did in all Cities and places where they collected Churches ordain a Colledge of Presbyters called the Presbytery with equall power to feed and govern the same This form of government continued in the Primitive Church about 1500 yeares in puritie and parity Afterwards by pride and contention of the leaders Bishops were set up above Presbyters and when that equality was once broken there was no stop Then Metropolitans were put above Bishop and Patriarks above Metropolitans and at the last whereunto all tended they brought forth that man of sin or son of perdition the Pope who perked above all and hath ever since contrary to the rules of Christ and his Apostles maintained by fraud fire and blood a prodigious tyrannie and oppression in the Church Bâ—t there is one testimony more which we can produce as a cleare light out of the very darknesse and dungeon of popery when there was no day of knowledge in the Christian world but all was overspread with Antichristian error and that was about 500 yeares ago when God moved Waldo a Citizen of Lions to discover the impostures of the popish Church who drawing after him many disciples were persecuted by the bloody Synagogue and driven from the society of men into mountains among beasts which they found lesse savage then their own kind there they multiplied into many Congregations and spreading themselves into divers places were called by divers names Then they found it necessary that the worship of God might be perfect among them to establish a discipline and government over all their Churches In which deliberation they had no pattern to follow no steps to tread in no helps from stories or records of antiquity which were all destroyed or corrupted Their onely guide and light to direct them was the word of God which the world was never able to extinguish and by his divine power was preserved among them There they sought and there they found the platform of their discipline and what was it no other then Presbyterian every Congregation governed by Pastors Elders and Deacons and as occasion required by a combination of them into Synods Councells and Assemblies Now if this way was practised among them wherein they were onely led by divine light How unjustly do some despise it as a novelty others reject it as a humane ordinance When as our own age also searching in the same holy monuments hath pitched upon the same discipline as in them held forth to the Churches of God Me thinks this would move the spirits of meek and sanctified men not to be wise above sobriety nor contest against such a cloud of witnesses For if the Primitive Apostolicall times the middle age of the Church under persecution and now the last generations wherein we live have all by the light of Gods word and guidance of his spirit concurred in one and the same discipline Why should any combine against it or suffer themselves to be perswaded rather to disturb the peace and unity of Gods Churches then yield a Christian conformity thereunto 3 But against this power of the Magistrate it may be further objected that although power be given him over the bodies and estates and outward adjuncts of men yet the conscience is the peculiar Court of God wherein man hath nothing to do but by intrusion when the body lies in prison the Judge by a habeas corpus can remove it but when the conscience is under bond no Judge can send a habeas conscientiam to deliver it and having no power to release he can have none to bind it
there to be tried and examined by the spirit of the Prophets judging and determining by the word of God and if perchance they neither approve of his opinion nor yet be able to convince him then to refer him to the next Nationall Councell to which he must stand or fall In the mean time if he publish his opinion under hand to the breach of brotherly unity in the Church he ought to be taken as a disturber of publike peace and subject to the penalties mentioned in the third Article By these and such like means the power of the civill Magistrate may be preserved from contempt and the consciences of weak brethren from constraint till they shall pluck off their mask and discover themselves to be obstinate and unsufferable clamouring for toleration under pretence of weaknesse but indeed making a breach and separation in confidence of their own strength and perfection disdaining with supercilious eies the infirmities of their brethren by which falacie they think to blear the eye of the Magistrate and make the weak to overthrow the strong To such wolves in sheeps cloathing whether they be Papists Hereticks Schismaticks or whatsoever they be for a weak conscience is now-adaies become a cloak for all shoulders my meaning is not that any indulgence or connivence of the Magistrate should be extended to them who it is plain enough are employed in malicious designes working under-ground the divisions and ruine of the State Therefore to conclude with the same spirit as I began which is a spirit of unity peace and love In the fear and before the face of Almighty God and by the bowells of that love wherwith Christ Jesus loved us all I do beseech the brethren whether they be leaders or followers that agree with us in the same doctrine but dissent in government to lay their hands upon their hearts and examine what they would be at Is it at the advancement of truth the practise of holiness the purity of Gods worship Let them consider whether all these may not be had as they are all intended under the present government is it at spirituall perfection whiles they are present in the flesh Let them consider that the perfection of a Christian consisteth in humility love peace meeknesse sobriety and uprightnesse which are truly spirituall and none of them excluded by this government Is it at the setting up of the kingdome of Christ Jesus that he might raigne as Lord omnipotent upon earth Let them consider that the kingdome of Christ Jesus is not of this world he prescribeth no forms nor modells of civill government as he findeth them so he leaveth them where he is received he sublimeth and refineth them where he is not received hee doth not destroy them Let them consider that this present governmet doth no waies eclipse the kingdome of Christ Jesus for whither it be placed in a single Congregation or in a generall Assembly or in the last resort of the supreme Magistrate all are under the government of Christ Jesus who ruleth among them by his Word whereunto they conform their government is it at the setting up of any other government which they think is onely divine and necessary to salvation Let them consider that by such assertions they do not onely blast all reformed Churches at this day and leave them in a state of condemnation living under another government but also condemn multitudes of soules departed which under other governments lived Saints upon earth died martyrs for the faith of Christ and are now triumphants in heaven Or els is it at no government at all till they receive on revealed from heaven Let them consider whether any such promise be made us in Scripture which we ought to expect This wee find that God is not the Author of confusion but of peace order and government which ought to be setled in all Churches of the Saints Or lastly is it to set up an infallibility of private judgement taking themselves to abound in the spirit and be able to judge all above them Let them consider that the hearts and spirits of men are deceitfull above all deceits aâ—â— that to strive and contend to make rents and separation for these things to despise the powers and ordinances of God are reckoned among the workes of the flesh rank and carnall But if it be as I will hope it is a pure and sincere weakness of conscience arising from a weaknesse of judgement not yet seeing the clearnesse of that light which hath in lightned the Magistrates and Ministers and greatest part of the Kingdome Let them be intreated in the fear of God to seek to him for further illumination and in the mean time to suspend their opinions and forbear contentions by Christian modesty and moderation becomming the Saints to maintain Christian charity which is the bond of perfection and make it manifest unto the world and to the Angells in heaven that they are not led by the spirit of error strife and vain-glory but by the spirit of truth which worketh by love and lowlinesse patience and meeknesse minding the same things and improving the gifts of faith grace and knowledge whereunto they have already attained And in other things of lesser moment concerning the formes of discipline and government and the outward face of order and decency in the publike worship whereunto perhaps not having yet attained they may be otherwise minded therein to wait Gods time with quiet and patience who hath promised to reveale even that also unto them that one may not be perfect without another It may be they may thinke themselves unkindly dealt withall and very ill requited that having so frankly adventured their lives and estates and done so valiantly against the enemies of God and the Land they should after all this be denyed any request especially that which so nearly toucheth their freedome of conscience and inward peace Truly it is on all hands confessed and no man that I know seeketh to cast a vaile over their worth or suppressed their atchievements God hath done wonderfull things by many of their hands and the lesse honour they take to themselves the more will be given them by the voice of the Nation and Rulers of the band who ought to take care that their names be written in the Registers of fame from generation to generation But what will our dissenting brethren say if Jesuits and Malignents converse among them in sheeps-clothing If transformed into Angels of light they carry on these workes of darknesse and by secret suggestions and insinuations of the Serpent make them blow this cole and widen this breach against their own intentions It is not for nought that there be so maâ—y popish spies and Agents among us whose employment is to weaken the hands of the Magistrate by sowing factions and disobedience among the people They feele their blow and know well enough that their form is broken they are upon their last gaspe and their last refuge is this to compasse that by trechery and mischiefe which they could not do by force in the field If they can divide the civill and Military power and fling fire-balls of division into the tents of brethren they have yet a fainting hope to recover strength and destroy them both Let not our brethren think this to be an eary or empty admonition for there be men so finely spirited and rarified to the invisibility of the divell that if it were possible they would deceive the very Elect and weave their hypocriticall webbs with liberty that commonly the simple and many times the circumspect are involved and taken Happy it were that by some marke they might be known for then they were easily avoided but when they come to strike up division and separate the hearts of the brethren the safest remedy is to stop our eares as against Inchanters and Negotiators for the divell Return then ô Shulamite return return be not intrapped in the snares of division but return to the tents of peace what will ye see in the Shulamites we shall see when he returneth and joyneth his body to the State and his conscience to the Church that his countenance is faire as the Moon clear as the Sun terrible as an Army with banners and that his company united to the Common-wealth is like the association of two Armies linked together by one heart invincible and undissolvable by the powers of darknesse and of Antichrist Thus have I delivered my poor judgement and discharged my duty which I owe to the publike peace I pretend not to revelations nor an unerring spirit but being privy to the evennesse of mine own heart and unbyassed intentions my conscience is my testimony that I have not erred to cause any other man to erre In regard whereof I may hope that all men who are spirituall and dis-interessed in their ends will acknowledge this to be the mind of Christ so far-forth at least as it aimeth and tendeth to piety and peace Neverthelesse if any will be still contentions and dissent neither I nor the Churches of God have any such custome nor do I intend for this difference of judgement to breake charity and communion with them But I rather beseech them for a close of all to put on milde and gentle affections and whiles they approve of our faith not to disapprove our workes by excommunicating of us or separating from us till our workes go before us and condemn our selves Leaving them in this assurance that when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come the Judge and Master of us all to whom we must stand or fall it will be better for them and for us in that day that he find our hearts established in grace then our selves at variance about Church-government FINIS