remissions of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost c. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day were added unto them about three thousand souls And they continued stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayer And feare came upon every soule and many signes and wonders were done by the Apostles and all that believed were together and had all things common and they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladnesse and singlenesse of heart praysing God and having favour with all the people And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should he saved Here we see that by vertue of one Miracle and Sermon God working with them were added to the Believers that Saint Iohn the Baptist and Christ and his Disciples had converted and such as were formerly baptized three thousand more a great Miracle all which with the many other that were converted afterward are called but one Church For it is expresly said that the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved We heard of the great multitudes and of a world of such as believed in Christ before this Miracle and Sermon And can any man in reason conceive that all these could meet in any one place or congregation to partake in all acts of worship But let us go on In the 3 and 4 Chapter by means of that Miracle that was wrought upon the Impotent Man who was known to all the people to have bin a Cripple from his Mothers wombe and through the powerfull preaching of Peter who exhorted them to repent and to be converted that their sinnes might be blotted out when the time of refreshing should come from the presence of the Lord c. It is said that many which heard the Word believed and the number of those new Believers is there specified to be about five thousand men which were also added unto the Church and joyned to all the former Believers so that we have here eight thousand new Members added unto the Church in a very little time and this was a greater Miracle then the former So that the Prophesie in the 110 Psalme vers 3. was not fulfilled That in the day of Christs power his willing people from the wombe of the morning should be multiplyed as the Dew upon the Earth And which is not to be passed by without due notice It is supposed by the best Interpreters and the most orthodox Writers and there is good reason for it that these new Converts were Men not Women and Children And without doubt these new Believers endeavoured to convert their Wives Children Servants and Neighbours and there is good reason also why we should be induced to believe that Truth with such wonders and miracles annexed to it should be as prevalent to convert Women Children Servants and Neighbours and whole Families as errors and novelties in these our dayes are able to mis-leade those poore creatures that are ever learning and never come to knowledge and the which are carried about with every winde of doctrine and believe every new-born truth as they tearm it and follow every New Light and every new-found way though it tend to the confusion of the Church and Kingdome It is said of that man of Sinne that Sonne of Perdition that he shall come after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceiveablenesse and unrighteousnesse in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thess 2. But to see people so deluded without Miracles is a Miracle So that those poor Women that are carried about with every winde of doctrine from that truth that was taught by Christ and his Apostles and confirmed by so many Miracles and those that do and have mis-led them have all of them a great deal to answer for But this I speak by the way conceiving that all those new Converts would endeavour as the good Samaritan Woman did after conversion not only to bring their Wives Children and Families but their Neighbours also and whole Cities to the same faith And I have that opinion also of all the Women and people of that Age that they were as ready to imbrace the truth as the Women and people of this Age and in these our times are to follow errors But let us now see what effects the other Miracles wrought upon the people that are related in the fifth Chapter as of Ananias and Saphira his wife who for tempting the Spirit of God were both stricken down dead and gave up the ghost and the other Miracles wrought by the Apostles It is said in Vers 11. That fear came upon all the Church and to as many that heard these things and that to the rest viz. the Scribes and Pharisees the Malignant party durst no man joyne himselfe And Believers were added unto the Lord multitudes both men and women Here come in the good Women now And in Vers 26. it it is said that the Captaine with the Officers brought the Apostles without violence for they feared the people least they should have stoned them It will not be amisse briefly to take notice of the severall effects these Miracles wrought The first is that great fear of offending God came on all the Church Gods own people which notwithstanding of the many additions of Believers is called still but one Church The second that none durst joyne themselves to the contrary party the Pharisaicall malignant crew The third that Believers were added to the Church and that multitudes no small companies both of Men and Women Here is a new increase and that a great one The fourth is that the very Captain and Officers were awed and kept in fear by reason of the multitude of Believers so that those that feared not God were afraid of his servants By which it may be gathered that the party of Believers did ballance the number of the incredulous and Pharisaicall party if not by far exceed them And therefore by all probability must needs be an innumerable company and a mighty multitude and such a number as could not all meet in any one place or congregation to partake in all the Ordinances And to say nothing of the diversity of Tongues and Languages which were not given to the Apostles to be uselesse and of no profit nor to speak any thing of the divers Jewes that were then dwelling at Jerusalem devout Men and Women out of every Nation under Heaven which notwithstanding may be a sufficient argument to prove that they all had their severall meeting places and their severall Ministers to preach unto them in their severall Languages that they might be edified I say for the present to wave all this let us take notice what is positively set down in the last Verse of the fifth Chapter
of God he was both ordained and put in office without the approbation and consent of the people who knew nothing of the businesse but onely stood amazed and said Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the high Priest The Ministers in those dayes when they were all taught of God they onely admitted members by their owne authority into the Church without the approbation of the people but in these our dayes wherein people have gotten itching eares and teachers after their owne humours such as S. Paul speaks of in his Epistles to Timothy they teach a new doctrine and bring forth new borne lights to the darkning of truth it selfe and to the bringing in of confusion on all things See what Saint James saith in his 5. chapt to all Churches and Christians in the world It any man sick saith he let him send for the Presbiters of the Churches and let them pray over him c. and the prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shal be forgiven him The Apostle James here sends all Christians to the Presbiters of every Church who had the power of the Keys delegated unto them for spirituall comfort and whose office onely it was to pronounce pardon and remission of sinnes unto the sick upon their true repentance if they had offended and sinned against God in the time of their health and so scandalized the Gospell and the Church and it was the Presbiters place and office to admit them againe into the fellowship and communion of the Saints upon their cordiall and unfained repentance and that without asking the Church any leave for as the Presbiters onely had the power of casting out offenders out of the Church so they onely had the authority of receiving them in againe upon their repentance and not the Church so if we look into all those Epistles that were written unto the seven Churches of Asia in the 2. and 3. of the Revelations we shall find them all directed to the Angels of the seven Churches which is as much as to say to the presidents of every severall Presbitry established and constituted in every one of those Churches which is a sufficient argument to me to prove a Counsell or Colledge of godly Ministers in every one of those Cities according to that of Paul to Titus chap. 1. ver 5. for this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest ordaine Presbiters in every City not one but many And in the 14. of the Acts ver 23. And when they had ordained them presbiters in every Church c. many Presbiters a Colledge of them was appointed to every Church and so in the 20. of the Acts there were many Presbiters who had the charge and government of that Church committed unto them in common ver 28. there was a Colledge of them constituted in that church and therefore for order sake which the light of nature teacheth they must have a President who by the way of excellency and to distinguish him from the other is called an Angel as the inscription of the Epistle Rev. 11.1 declares saying Unto the Angel of the church of Ephesus As in our dialect when we speak of the great counsell of the Kingdome or of the reverend assembly of Divines if there be occasion of distinguishing the Presidents of those councels from the other Judges in those assemblies we say Master Speaker in the House of Lords or Commons or of the President of the Ministers we say Master Prolocutor and if any have occasion to write to either houses or to the Assembly they direct their letters to the Speakers or to the Prolocutor who communicates them to each Assemblies as being the Presidents of each Society and yet none of all these Presidents by that their place of honour and eminency have any more power or authority then the rest but onely in the casting voyce when the parties upon any occasion are for number equall and for appointing of the times and places of meeting and for the methodicall and orderly carriage of the businesses yea it is ever observed wheresoever there is a President there is a colledge or councell or a court nature dictates this and the custome of all nations proves it and withall by the same light of reason that counsell or colledge to whom God himselfe writes and directs his letters for redressing of abuses has the power in their hands for the rectifying of things amisse that it peculiarly belongeth unto them as to the Magistrates invested with authority to order things according to direction and to punish and cast out offenders and that by their owne power without the consent and approbation of the people as it is now in the great Counsell and Parliament of the Kingdome who make not the people acquainted with what they have to doe but so farre as it pleaseth themselves and not out of any duty and so it was in the government of Gods Church by the first constitution every Church consisting of many congregations were governed by a colledge of Presbiters as that of Jerusalem and this of Ephesus and the other six Churches in all the which the Presbiters by their sole authority governed them according to Gods Word without taking the people in to counsell with them who were no where joyned in commission with them and therefore it is most apparent by those examples I have now produced and many more that might be added and from the commission that Christ gave to the Apostles and in them to all Ministers that the people had not their voyces either for the admitting of any to be members in any church or in the easting out of any for their delinquency much lesse have they authority to require a publike confession of their faith to be made unto the congregation or to exact of them to bring in the evidences of their true conversion or to require that they should walk with them some time before admission or to enter into a solemne private covenant before they be admitted as members for we have no president for any of these things in Gods Word much lesse any command only in Acts the sixt there is mention made that the Apostles for the freeing of themselves from all unnecessary incombrances and that they might the better attend upon their ministry and preaching gave the people liberty to make choice of their owne Deacons but still keeping the power of ordaining them in their owne hand which alwayes was arbitrary in them whether they would exercise it or no neither would the Apostles have ordained them unlesse those that were to be ordained had been man so qualified as they had appointed for otherwise it lay in their choyce whether they would ordain them or no. But that ever the congregation or people had the power of admitting of members or
ceremoniall law with the Gospell cals it a perverting of the Gospell of Christ wishes that such teachers were cut off Gal. 5. v. 12. and blames likewise those Galatians that received their doctrine saying Oh foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth and yet they onely urged the ceremoniall law which God by Moses had appointed to remaine till the fulnesse of time but was now abrogated they were not their owne traditions they were no new borne lights no new wayes no new truths Now if Paul was so displeased or God rather with the Galatians both teachers and hearers the one for bringing in or joyning the ceremoniall law to the Gospell and the other for admitting of them how highly would God have been displeased with them if they had set up their owne inventions for the lawes of God and had brought in new borne truths and intruded them upon the people as necessary to salvation and for the setting up of Christ upon his Throne Without doubt the Apostle would most sharply have reproved them and have given speciall caveats against them as he did in his Epistle to the Colossians the second chapter of the which being chiefly spent in condemning all humane traditions yea in his first chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians ver 8 9. He chargeth them that though the Apostles themselves or an Angel from Heaven should preach unto them otherwise than that they had received they should count him accursed and as I said before saith the Apostle so say I now againe if any man preach unto you otherwise than that you have received let him be accursed But none of the Apostles ever taught the Church that christians and beleevers though baptized should not be admitted as members into the church unlesse they had walked some time in church-fellowship with them and had first made a publike confession of their faith and had brought in the evidences of the truth of their conversion and entred into a solemne private covenant and were admitted by the consent of the church none of all this did ever the Apostles teach or the christians of those times embrace or beleeve and therefore such doctrines as these ought not to be received In the first of the Corinthians in many places he reproves those that made scismes and brought in heresies and sects into the church and in the fourth chapter and sixt verse under his owne and Apollo's name he sets an example before them that they should containe themselves with in the limits and bounds of that doctrine and manner of preaching prescribed and set downe in the Word of God and used by the Spirit of God and commands them that they should learne in the Apostles not to presume or to be wise above that which is written and enjoynes all christians to reject all wayes of teaching that have not Gods Word for their warrant Now in all Gods Word there is nothing of all this written that after men beleeve and are baptized they should not yet be admitted into the church without they had walked sometime with them for their approbation and without they had made a publike confession of their faith before the congregation and brought in the evidences of their true conversion and had entred into a private covenant and were admitted by the consent of the church none of all this is written in Gods Word and therefore we ought not to embrace it And in the second of the Corinths chap. 11. ver 4. the Apostle signifieth unto the Corinthians that no man can teach the Gospel more exactly tahn he and the other Apostles have taught them nor set before them a more perfect doctrine of Jesus Christ than that that they have taught them for the converting of any unto Christ and for the setting up of Christ as King upon his Throne and for the making of them members of the church and for the building of them up in their most holy faith and commands the Corinthians to take heed of all false teachers whatsoever piety and godlinesse they make shew of calling them deceitfull workers such as transforme themselves into the Apostles of Christ And no mervaile saith he for Satan himselfe can transforme himselfe into an Angel of light and therefore it is no wonder his ministers transforme themselves as though they were the ministers of righteousnesse Now if men will consider what those false teachers were we shall find them to be no other but such as under shew of holinesse and piety taught their owne inventions and grolleryes and abused the simplicity of the people for their owne advantage and brought them into bondage and devoured them verse 20. as the Pharises did the Widowes houses under pretence of their long prayers which our Saviour Christ sharply reproves them for and denounces a woe against them for their so doing after the same manner did these fals teachers amongst the Corinthians who made their owne traditions joyned members with the Gospel as if they had had a more fine neat and eliganter way of gathering of Churches and admitting of members than Paul and the other Apostles But the Apostle bids the Corinthians take heed of all such how glorious soever they seem to appeare and tels them they cannot teach the way to Heaven and happinesse better than he and the other Apostles have done and yet neither Saint Paul or any of the Apostles in preaching of the Gospel taught them that they should admit of none to be joyned members of the Church although they beleeved and were baptized except they walked some time in fellowship amongst them that they might have approbation and tryall of their conversation first and after make a publike confession of their faith before the church and did give in evidences of the truth of their conversion to the congregation and entred into a solemne private covenant and were admitted members by consent of the church Not a word of all this in the Gospel that Saint Paul and the other Apostles taught and therefore all that teach their new wayes their new-borne truths and set up their new lights are wise above that which is written and teach otherwise than Christ and his Apostles have taught or the christians of the primitive times had received and therefore ought by the Apostles command Gal. 1. ver 8 9. to be accursed Saint John also in his second Epistle to the Elect Lady ver 9 10. saith Who soever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God he that continueth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son If there come any unto you that bringeth not the doctrine of Christ receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is a partaker of his evill deeds Now the doctrine that the Independent Ministers teach for the gathering of Churches and admitting of members and joyning and jumbling of them together was never taught
by Christ nor any of his Apostles for they themselves confesse it is a new way and a new-borne truth and a new light and therefore not the doctrine of Christ and therefore such novelties are not to be entertained nor imbraced nor the teachers of them if we will be obedient to Apostolicall precepts I desire therefore those of the Independent brethren to produce any one testimony or any one president out of the Word of God where these things following are taught or have been practiced First that although men and women beleeve and are baptized they are not yet to be admitted as joyned members till they have walked some time in fellowship with the church for approbation of their conversation this is the first thing I desire of the brethren either a precept or an example for this in Gods Word The second where it is commanded that those that beleeve and are baptized should not be admitted as members of the church without a publike confession of their faith before the church The third where it is enjoyned that to their faith and baptisme they should bring in the evidences of the truth of their conversion before they can be capable of their membership The fourth where it is commanded that they should enter into a solemne and private covenant before they can be admitted to Church-fellowship The fifth where it is imposed upon those that beleeve and are baptized that they should not be received into the church without the consent of the congregation Sixthly where it is commanded that the Ministers of the Gospel shall run about from their own places and charges into the sheepfolds of their fellow-shepheards and separate and pick out all their best sheep and bring them into their owne folds and debarre them from all church-fellowship and communicating with the other beleevers in Gods holy Ordinances and Sacraments or where ever it is commanded that the preachers of the gospel shall gather beleeving christians from amongst beleeving christians separate them from the other sheep into Independent congregations and shall proclaim all that are not thus molded up after this new modell to be people out of covenant and to have no right to the seales of the new covenant neither they nor their children though beleevers All these things I desire the brethren by evident places of the holy Scripture to make good and to confirme or by any president or example to declare to have been practiced either by Christ or his blessed Apostles for I looke for a law from Christ the King of his church who was as faithful in the house of God as Moses was and hath not left the ordering and disposing of his church to the will of men but has commanded the church to heare his voyce who is the great Pastor and Bishop of our souls and the teacher of his church his Word therefore I look for for a warrant for the ratifying of all these doctrines and I have good ground and reason to demand of them a warrant and authority out of Gods Word for what they both teach and practice for we are taught by Christ the onely Prophet of his church that they that serve God after the precepts of men offer him a vaine worship and it stands with all good reason that if all humane traditions though of never so ancient standing and of never so long antiquity were all cast out of the church because they had no footing or ground in Gods Word that all novelties or new inventions of men which notwithstanding are imposed upon the people as the wayes of God should be abrogated and nullified and cast out of the church It is recorded in holy writ Joshua 9. that the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and the people of Israel under pretence that they came from a farre country and for proofe of that they produced their mouldy bread and their tattered boots their old shooes and they taking what they said pro confesso and not consulting with the mouth of the Lord as it is fully related in that chapter were deceived by them and entred into a League with their enemies And thus the Papists and Prelats for these many hundred yeers have deluded the world under pretence of their mouldy antiquities tattered ragges of traditions and in all this time they prevailed to mislead the poore people because they consulted not with the mouth of God nor examined things by the Word of God and the holy Scripture as the noble Bereans did Now whatsoever was written was written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come and therefore as it was the errour of the Israelites that they received things barely upon report without consulting with the mouth of God and as it was the honour and praise of those noble Bereans that they searched the Scriptures to see whether the preaching of Paul were according to the holy Scripture so if we shall receive these new borne truths these new lights these new wayes without consulting with the living Oracles we shall offend as the Israelites did in beleeving the Gibeonites upon their words and shall degenerate and be unlike to those the renowned Bereans who would not receive Paul's doctrine though an Apostle without searching the Scriptures whether things were so or no as he taught them and surely now much more ought we to try all things by the Word in these erroneous times whosoever they be that preach them unto us and if they be not evidently proved unto us out of the Scriptures we may not admit of them for it will be not onely a sinne but for our immortall shame to be deluded with novelties much more than it was our ancestors disgrace to be deceived by pretended antiquities And therefore it is the duty of every christian seriously to consider with themselves that these are matters of God and concerne no lesse than our eternall welfare and in that regard we may not call mens wayes Gods wayes but we are to seek for the old wayes Jer. 6. we are to examine Christs and his holy Apostles wayes in gathering of churches and making of members and if we find no footstep in all Gods Word of these new wayes we ought to relinquish them and turne againe into the pathes that God has commanded us to walk in wherein we shall be sure to find rest for our soules and comfort in life and death and it will be no disgrace to any to be undeceived for they are deceived and that greatly and dangerously that thinke or beleeve that any men mortall can shew or teach a better way to Heaven or set downe a better way of converting soules and of gathering of churches and making of members and of setting up Christ as King upon his Throne than that which Christ himselfe and his blessed Apostles have taught and set downe to all posterity and from the which rule we ought not to swerve though an Angel from Heaven should teach us otherwise Gal. 1. ver 8 9.
evidences of the truth of their conversion before the congregation and enter into a private and solemne covenant and be admitted by the consent and approbation of the Church or otherwise if they will not submit themselves to this law and come into the Church upon these conditions receive them not into your assemblies nor admit of them for members Here is nothing of all this in Christs commission nor in his holy Word nor any president of the same in all sacred Authority and therefore John the Baptist and the holy Apostles and primitive Ministers admitted all that came unto them and such as but demanded of them what they should doe to be saved and baptized them and received them into the Church-without any gainsaying or question as we may see in the third of Lake and in the seventh chapter of the same book and in the second of the Acts and no sooner did the Eunuch desire baptisme but Philip granted it the Goaler did but ask Paul and Silas What they should doe to be saved and they said Beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and it is related that the Goaler and all his were streightway baptized Acts 16. ver 31 32 33. that is they were forthwith admitted into the Church without either walking any time with the Church for their approbation or without either making a publike confession of their faith before the Church or giving in evidences of the truth of their conversion to the congregation or entring into a private covenant and without the consent and allowance of the Church And Christ notwithstanding was imbraced by them as their Lord and King and was preached by Paul and Silas as the Lord and King of his Church and was set up upon his Throne as King by them as well as he is in any independent Churches and yet they had none of all their new borne truths and they could then see how to set up Christ upon his Throne without their new lights and as Christ was then by Paul and Silas and the other Apostles set upon his Throne as King in all those primitive Churches so he is at this day in all the true Protestant Churches through the world as well as in any of the Independent Assemblies and yet they were and are all ignorant of their new way so that any understanding christian may gather that all their new borne truths are no way requisite for the setting up of Christ as King in his Church nor for the advancement of Christs Kingly government for if they had Christ would have put them into the Apostles commission and the Apostles who were led into all truth by the holy Thost who brought whatsoever Christ had taught them concerning the Kingdome of God Acts 1. into their memories would have suggested all these things The new way the new borne truth the new lights to them that they might have been recorded if they had been necessary for the setting up of Christ upon his Throne but when neither Christ nor the holy Ghost nor the blessed Apostles have prescribed any of all these to the church nor called for them nor required them of any that desire to be saved or made members of the church whether this be not a great temerity in any men to preach all these things as the lawes of Christ I leave it to the judgement of any ingenuous minded christian and whether this be not to preferre their owne inventions and traditions before the commandements of God and the lawes of Christ the King of his church and whether this be not rather to set up themselves than Christ I referre it also to any judicious and impartiall christian to weigh and consider I shall now demand of any moderate christian therefore and let him answer me candidly whether of those Ministers and people most advance the Kingdome of Christ and acknowledge him to be their onely Lord and Law-giver that both in their teaching and beleeving follow his commission and Word and teach nothing nor beleeve nothing as they are injoyned but what Christ their King commands them or those that to the commission and commands of Christ adde their owne inventions and traditions and preferre them before the lawes of Christ the King and Law-giver of his church I am confident if he will deale impartially he will answer me that those Ministers and that people most advance Christ for their King and most set him upon his Throne that owne his law and that onely for the rule of their faith and obedience for Christ himselfe hath said it John 10. My Sheep heare my voyce they will not listen unto the voyce of a stranger Christs voyce onely the King of his church is to be heard and they onely that obey it advance him for their King and set him up on his Throne which when the Ministers and beleevers in the church of England doe and the Independents doe not they more advance Christ for their King than they for the Independents to Christs law and commission adde their owne traditions and inventions and enjoyne all that will be admitted as members into their congregations besides their beleeving being baptized to walk with them some time for approbation and to make a publike confession of their faith before the church and to bring in the evidences of the truth of their conversion and enter into a private and solemne covenant and not to be admitted as members without the consent of the Church all which Christ the King of his church never commanded and those that will not submit themselves to these their traditions they will not permit or suffer to enter into their church as joyned members which they call the onely true churches of Christ and count of all others that differ from them as enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and as men without the covenant and if this be to set up Christ upon his Throne then the Pharisees set up Christ upon his Throne who preferred their own traditions before the commandments of God yea the pope himself the Prelats set up Christ upon his Throne who preferred their own traditions and idolatries before the lawes of Christ Now if all the traditions of the Papists were justly abhorred and cast out of the church as things derogatory to the Kingly and Propheticall dignity of Jesus Christ and as things repugnant to his royalty I see no reason but all other popery under whatsoever name or title it be intruded upon the people should be eliminated and cast out of the church and whether this be not a new kind of popery to bring in new wayes and new borne truths and new lights and impose them upon the people as the commands of God and to excommunicate and unchurch all churches in the world but their owne assemblies I referre my selfe to the judgement of any intelligible christian Saint Paul writing to the Galatians blames those false teachers amongst them that would have joyned but the
〈◊〉 164◠Man's dayes are vaine and as a flower they fade Heere 's one proclames whereon man's life is stay'd His sufferings Changes Comforts in strict thrall Shen's GOD alone preserves and Gouernes all INDEPENDENCY NOT GODS ORDINANCE OR A Treatise concerning Church-Government occasioned by the Distractions of these times Wherein is evidently proved that the Presbyterian Government DEPENDENT is Gods Ordinance and not the Presbyterian Government INDEPENDENT To vvhich is annexed a Postscript discovering the uncharitable dealing of the Independents towards their Christian brethren and the fraud and jugglings of many of their Pastors and Ministers to the misleading of the poor people not only to their own detriment but the hurt of Church and State with the danger of all Novelties in Religion BY JOHN BASTVVICK Dr in Physick 2 CORIN 13.8 For we can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth 1 THESS 5.21 Prove all things and hold fast that which is good LONDON Printed by John Macock for Michael Spark junior and are to be sold at the sign of the blue Bible in Green-Arbour 1645. A Treatise proving the Presbyterian Government DEPENDENT to be Gods Ordinance and not the Presbyterian Government INDEPENDENT THe Apostle Saint Paul in the fourth of the Ephesians exhorting all Christians to walk worthy of the Vocation whereunto they were called and to behave themselves as beseemed brethren wisheth them with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long suffering and patience to bear one with another in love And useth a forceable Argument to move them to brotherly kindnesse Because saith he there is but one body and one spirit and one hope of Salvation We all worship one God we are all consecrated to him with one Baptisme and we all hope for one and the self-same glory Therefore as there is but one Lord one faith one Baptisme so be ye also of one minde live in love and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace If ever there was need of this Exhortation there is now singular use of it especially in this distracted Nation wherein we live For the division of a Kingdome is the ruin of it the division of a family destroys it the division between brethren brings a confusion amongst them It hath ever bin observed That diversity of judgement opinion hath made a difference in affection The difference between the Jews the Samaritans in points of Religion made the Disciples desire That fire might come down from heaven to end that controversie The difference between us and the Papists and the diversity of opinions between us made them because they could not bring down fire from heaven fetch it out of hell to blow up the Parliament and because that had not the desired effect and the diversity of opinion stil remaining makes the difference of their affection from us so great that nothing can expiate their indignation against us but the utter internetion and destruction of us all and this and this only next unto our own sins is the cause of all those fatall calamities this miserable kingdome is now imbroyled with And therefore all care and diligence among brethren should be used to get a right understanding one of another and to move them to bear one with another and ever to call to mind the saying of Abraham to Lot Gen. 13. Let not us contend together for we are brethren I am most assured if there were a right understanding of the differences that are now among brethren there could not be such bitter expressions one against another and such alienation of affection as is now too frequent and too well known to the common enemy We are commanded If it be possible as much as lies in us to be in peace with all men Rom. 12.18 And the fruits of discord are set down in the 5th of the Galathians verse 15. If saith the Apostle ye bite and devoure one another take heed ye be not consumed one with another and in the 20. verse Hacred saith the Apostle varience emulation strife c. and envyings are of the flesh and they that do such things shall not enter into the Kingdome of God A double misery follows those that do these things misery here and misery hereafter it excludes men out of heaven The contemplation of the sad condition that will inevitably come upon that Land Kingdome and Church where those variances and heart-burnings are and where there is such diversity of opinions and by reason of them such difference in affection put me chiefely upon this imployment to see and try if by any possible means I could by shewing wherein the difference between the brethren lyeth be an instrument of a good accord amongst them resolving with my self by Gods assistance whatsoever others do to observe to the uttermost of my abilities the royall Law Jan. 2.8 I do conceive that if there were a right understanding one of anothers opinions the world would wonder there should be such invectives in every pamphlet one against another and such varience among those that are joyned together and that with nighest relations The truth is the mis-understanding of each others opinions and the mis-prisian of each others intentions is the onely cause of this diversity of affection which to the dishonour of God and of our holy profession and indeed to the disgrace of Christian Religion every where too much venteth it self And therefore as Abraham said unto Lot so say I to all those that love the truth in sincerity and wish the Peace of Zion Let not us contend especially with evill language for we are brethren we have one father we worship one God we have one light one truth one way And this I professe to all the world That I contend not for victory but for that ancient light the faith once delivered unto the Saints Jude 3. For that truth which we have heard from the beginning 1 John 2. ver 14. for the old way verse 6. The way the truth and the life Joh. 14. and for the honour of that Church against which the gates of hell can never prevaile in the which these are all those undeceiveable marks as are able for ever to declare her to be built upon the foundation of Peter in which the Gospell of Jesus Christ is purely and sincerely both preached and beleeved and where the Sacraments are rightly administred and in the which there is the true invocation of God and all other requisites that make her a true Church and from which there is no just cause of separation That I have dedicated this Treatise to no man nor sought the patronage of any Authority no mortall creature I presume will blame me knowing my Reasons For writing in defence of the Prerogative Royall of Kings against Papall Usurpation I dedicated my book unto the King of great Britaine France and Ireland supposing my self safe under his protection whose honour and imperiall dignity I maintain but all men know what misery to the ruin of me my
Presbytery in that sense I take it I am so well assured that it is Gods Ordinance as I am of any point of Religion But as I said before if men may argue afthis way The Presbyters in the Apostles times did miracles and spake with strange tongues and their Scholers and Disciples did the same do you likewise and then we will acknowledge you to be true Presbytters otherwise we will not Thus the Jewes might have argued against all their Prophets as against Isaiah Ieremy Ezekiel c. Moses and Elias fasted forty dayes and forty nights and did many miracles do you so and then we will believe you are true Prophets and sent to us of God otherwise we will not believe you to be true Prophets Yea all the wicked and ungodly men of these times may argue thus also God gave unto his Church Apostles Evangelists Prophets c. and they spake all strange tongues and divers languages and did many miracles but you and your Congregations have neither Apostles Prophets nor Evangelists nor ye have not the gifts of Tongues nor ye can do no Miracle Ergò you are not the true Church The Primitive Christians and the servants of God in those times had the gifts of Tongues and Prophesie and the Holy Ghost came down upon them and they spake by direction from God his infallible truth and Gospell whose speeches were not tied to time and to one speaker but many spake one after another by interpreters as it is at large set down in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 14. vers 27 28 29 30. c. So that they spake infallible truth by direction from God but you have none in your congregations so miraculously inspired with sundry languages and divers tongues nor ye do not speak infallible truths by direction from God nor you cannot cure diseases nor do miracles Ergò your religion is not the same Religion nor your congregations the true Church shew us these miracles and then we will beleeve you to be the true Church otherwise we may not we dare not acknowledge you to be the true Church Again they may argue thus The Apostles and Primitive Pastors and Teachers preached freely and laboured with their own hands and were helpfull to the necessities of others and were not burthensome and exacting from others and spake ex tempore by direction from God but your Ministers in your Congregations do not preach freely nor labour not with their own hands nor are not helpfull to others necessities but are rather burdensome and exacting from others nor they do no miracles nor speak not immediately by inspiration and ex tempore but by Study and out of their Books and are confined to time and speak not in strange tongues and languages one after another by Interpreters Ergò your ministers are not Gods Ministers nor your Congregations the true Church nor your people true Christians for you want all those things that the Primitive Christians and the Primitive Churches had There is a Pamphlet lately come out and highly esteemed and prised amongst many full of such consequences as these which if they hold good against the Presbyters they may also for ought I know be of equall validity to overthrow not onely all Christian Congregations but indeed all Christian Religion But briefly to answer We look upon the Apostles and Primitive Presbyters as men miraculously and extraordinarily gifted and as wonder-working men for the confirmation of the truth of the Gospell to all succeeding ages and we consider in them and in the Christians of those times something extraordinary and temporary as their working of miracles and speaking of strange tongues and gifts of healing c. And those we conceive were to continue no longer in the Church then for the confirmation of the truth of the Gospel Christ himself proclaiming those blessed that believe without seeing of miracles speaking unto Thomas Iohn 20.29 Because thou hast seen me saith he thou believest blessed are they that have not seen and have believed So that miracles now are not ordinary and we are tied to the written Word But we consider likewise in the Apostles and Primitive Presbyters that that was permanent and to continue in all Ministers and Presbyters in all succeeding ages to the end of the world and that was the power of order and preaching and the power of jurisdiction that is of ruling which is not denied by the most learned of the Independents themselves and this I have proved by the Word of God to be transacted over to all Christian Churches whose Presbyters have that power given unto them neither will the Learned Brethren deny it what so ever the ignorant may do Yea the very name of a Presbytery as I said before if we look through the whole Scripture signifieth a Magistracy or Signiory or Corporation invested with authority of governing and ruling and such a counsell and company of men as upon whom the government under Christ is laid and to be extended so far as their jurisdiction extendeth and as far as by common consent it may make for the good and edification of the Church and for the safety of the same And such was the government of all those Churches of the New Testament which were as so many Committees their limits and bounds prefixed them as at this day all Committees through the Kingdome have in their severall Hundreds Wapentakes and Cities to whom the ordering and government of those places that are under them are committed so that all that is done or transacted must be done by the joynt consent and counsell of the whole Committee not any particular man or any two of them severally considered by themselvs can make an order but that order only is binding which is made by the joynt consent and common agreement of them all or the greatest part of them assembled together Even so all those particular Congregations that are within the compasse and jurisdiction of the severall Presbyteries are to be ordered and governed by the common and joynt counsell of the severall Presbyters or the greater part of them For this was the order the Apostles established appointing in every City a Presbyterie and when they had so ordered the Churches they set them all to their severall imployments the Presbyters to command and all the people and particular assemblies and congregations under them to obey neither is it ever found in the holy Scriptures that the people were joyned with the Presbyters in their commission So that they that oppose this government resist Gods Ordinance And if we looke into all the Epistles writ by the Apostles to the severall Churches we shall finde in them that they enjoyne all the severall congregations to yeild obedience to their Pastors and Rulers over them and signifie unto them that they owe unto them double honour especially such as labour in Word and Doctrine that is they must yeild unto them not only due reverence and subjection and obedience to their counsell and just
commands in the Lord. But that they should also afford them the honour of maintenance and take order there be a sufficient and competent yea an honourable allowance for their support and that as they minister to them spirituall food for their soules they should likewise minister unto them all things necessary for the maintenance of them and their Families that they may comfortably and without solicitous care follow their holy imployments and wait upon their severall Ministeries So that the place and imployment of the Presbyters is to teach and rule the people and this is their proper work and peculiarly belongs unto them and the imployment and place of the severall congregations under them is to hear and obey and therefore if the severall congregations do assume unto themselves the power of ruling they take more upon them then by God is allowed them and the Presbyters in yeilding unto it reject their own right and devest themselves of that authority that God hath put into their hands and by so doing in time may not only bring confusion into the Church but to all those Countries where such usurpations are tolerated I cannot but speak my conscience in this point And truly very reason dictates unto a man that they only should have the authority of commanding and ruling over the Churches to whom the power of the Keys is given Now it is given only to the Ministers and Presbyters as we see it in Iohn 20.21 and Matth. 18.15 16 17 18. Where our Saviour Christ established a standing government to be continued to the end of the world the violating and the overthrowing of the which was the cause of all those confusions both in doctrine and manners that is now come upon the world and was the cause not only of the rise but the growth of Antichrist And the reducing of it again into the Church the re-establishing of it will be the confusion of that Man of Sin and of all the Antichristian-brood and be a means of establishing truth and peace through the Christian world But it will not be amisse a little to consider that place in Matth. 18. If thy Brother saith Christ shall trespasse against thee go and tell him of it between thee and him alone if he shall heare thee thou shalt gaine thy brother but if he will not heare thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to heare them then tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to heare the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man and a Publican Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven In these words our Saviour Christ has respect unto the order and custome of judicature in those times in censuring mens manners and doctrines which among the Jewes was ordered and administred by an assembly and counsell of learned experienced and judicious men and by a Presbytery Consistory or Colledge of able men for governement chose and selected out of the people for this very purpose by such as could judge and discerne of their abilities the which assembly and company is by Christ himself called a Church because it did represent the Church and in this place Christ did establish the like to be continued in the Christian Church to the end of the world making his Apostles this representative body and their successors all the godly and holy Ministers and Presbyters and gives unto them the same power and Authority to judge and determine of all things belonging unto faith manners that was observed in the Jewish Church in all Ecclesiasticall Discipline For otherwise the Christian Church should be inferior to that of the Jews if they had not the same Priviledges for the censuring of manners and Doctrines and the same power of jurisdiction and ruling that they had Now all power of jurisdiction among the Jews was exercised not by the promiscuous multitude or by the whole Congregation nor by any particular man nor by two or three as the place above specifies but by an Assembly Senate Councell or Presbytery of understanding men assigned to that purpose which our Saviour himself calleth a Church and this government established in the Christian Church are the severall Presbyteries where all things are transacted by common and joynt consent and this was the practise of the Apostles at Jerusalem who did all businesse of publike concernment by common and joynt consent as is manifest in the first chapter of the Acts in chusing of an Apostle in Judas his place And in the sixt chapter in chusing of Deacons and in the 15. chapter in determining the question there in hand all in a Presbyterian way and by common consent And this is that government that God hath commanded to be perpetuateds to the end of the world in these words Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven So that the Presbyters onely have the power of the keyes and it is their place onely to ordain Ministers and Church Officers whatsoever Authority the people may exercise in the chusing of them as Paul writes unto Timothy and Titus and they onely are to judge and determine and to censure in matters of manners and doctrine and the people are to allow and approve it according to the Word of God Yea the very Synagogues of the Jews which were the same that our Churches are were governed by a Presbytery as our brethren acknowledge called by the name of the Rulers of the Synagogue who governed by joynt and common councell as is evident and manifest in that there were superior and inferior Judges Commanders and Rulers according as their yeares gravity and wisdome made them more eminent then others and venerable to the people as may appear in many places as Acts 18. ver 8. It is said there That Chrispus the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved with all his houshould So that if there were a chief Ruler or Judge or a President there must of necessity be a Councell or Segniory of inferiour ones that had Rule and Authority over others as well as he as where there is a chief Justice or Judge there are other Judges joyned with him as all reason perswades and there must needs be a Court of Judicature where all things are transacted by conjoynt and common consent and agreement and so it was in the Synagogues of the Jewes who were subject to and ordered by the determinations and arbitrement of their Rulers and Governours So that the severall Churches or Synagogues under the Jews were in subjection to those Rulers and were governed according as by common councell they ordered And Mat. the 5. vers 22. And behold there came one of the Rulers of the Synagogue whose name was
But before I come to the proof of the particulars I must answer to some Objections made by our Brethren the Independents the first of the which is out of the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles from which they endeavour to prove that the number and multitude of Believers in the Church of Jerusalem was not so great but that they might all meet in one room or place and in one congregation to partake in all acts of worship the words on which they ground their Argument are these And in those dayes Peter stood up in the middest of the Disciples and said the number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty Men and Brethren c. From whence they conclude that the whole Church in Jerusalem that is to say all the Believers did meet in one place for in this number of names they would have all the whole Church in Jerusalem included or confined which to me is a wonder that such Learned Men as many of them are should so argue for this must be the scope of the Argument if they intend to prove That the whole Church in Jerusalem and all the Believers there were not so numerous but that they might all meet in one place and partake in all acts of worship and that these in Peters company were all that Church and all the Believers that were in Jerusalem this I say must of necessity be their meaning or else their Argument concludes nothing to the purpose The invalidity of the which I am most confident will by and by evidently appear though all the former Arguments to the contrary should not so much as be thought of and withall it will also be obvious to any judicious man that in all respects their Argument makes much against themselves For if I should grant unto them that at this instant of time that that place speaks of the whole Church in Jerusalem or the number then of Believers were no more but that one place might have contain'd them all for the enjoying of all Ordinances which I cannot do for innumerable reasons and some of them above specified yet it doth not follow nor evince that after there were daily such additions of Believers and such multitudes of new Converts added unto the Church that then also one place or room could containe them all and that they might still meet in one congregation and all together partake in all acts of worship For there is a vast difference between one hundred and twenty names for there was no more in this assembly and in many ten thousands which all the World knows could not be contained in any one place of Jerusalem to communicate in all the Ordinances though that place had equallized the most magnificent Structure that ever the World yet saw especially they could not have all met there to edification for they could not have all heard and understood and we know that in the Church all must be done to edification and this would rather have hindred the mutuall edification of the assembly and have brought a confusion rather then any profit or benefit unto them But the truth is the number of names here spoken of if we will go to the genuine interpretation of the place not to speak of the universall consent of all the learned Interpreters who gather that in this assembly the seventy Disciples the Lord Jesus sent out to preach through all Judea and all those other Ministers of the Gospell that had been Christs and Saint John the Baptists Disciples every one of the which was thought fit for learning and divine knowledge to succeed Judas in his Apostleship and to be a Disciple all these or most of them or such like were those that are included in this number of names I say to omit this interpretation of all the most orthodox Divines and their universall agreement and harmony in their learned Commentaries about this portion of Scripture the very words themselves following shew they were select and eminent men and men of note and Disciples of longest standing and all of them or the most of them Ministers Preachers themselvs and were indeed the Presbyters of the Church to whom with the Apostles the power of ruling was committed and who within themselves and without the consent of the common multitude of Believers had power to ordaine their own Officers and that by their own authority as we may see Vers 21.22 Wherefore saith S. Peter of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptisme of John unto that same day he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witnesse with us of the resurrection And they appointed two c. and they prayed c. and they gave forth the Lots c. all businesses here were managed and carried in an Aristocraticall and Presbyterian way and all was done by a joynt consent and the common counsell of them all Here we finde none of the multitude of the people though Believers here were no Women that gave forth their lots Neither doth the Apostle Peter say Men Mothers and Brethren or Men Women and Brethren or Men Brethren and Sisters but Men and Brethren For howsoever in the foregoing Verses it is said that these meaning the Apostles and Elders all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and with his Brethren by which they fitted themselves for the Ministery after they should receive the Holy Ghost though I say they joyned with them in those duties of humiliation and prayer which any women may do in the society and company of godly Ministers yet when they went about other acts of Church government as choosing of an Apostle then the Apostles and Elders only by themseves to whom the power of the Keyes was given ordered that businesse and left the Women to their private devotions and their severall imployments for in this action of giving forth their lots there is no mention of the Women And it is manifest from the Text it self that this choosing of Matthias was at another time and without all doubt upon a set day for this purpose for it is said Vers 15. And in those daies Peter stood up in the middest of the Disciples and said Men and Brethren Here was only Disciples Men and Brethren and no Sisters Till Pope Joans time and our dayes Peters Keyes never hung at any Womans Girdle and we heare not in Scripture that they had any voyce in choosing of Church-officers and admitting of Members into the Church or casting out of any till these unhappy times an usurpation not beseeming that Sex as afterwards in its due place I hope to make appear But this by the way Now to the matter in hand I say it is apparent to any that will not shut their eyes that all those or most of them that were in Peters company and at
that time met together were capable of an Apostleship and such as were the most eminent of all Christs followers and such as were best instructed in Christian Religion as having been bred up in the doctrine of Saint Iohn the Baptist and under the Ministery of Christ himself the Prophet of his Church and therefore they were the Teachers of the Church and people who were their flock which they all fed in common And from thence it argueth that the multitude of Believers in Jerusalem was not only a distinct company from them but that it was exceedingly great and numerous that had so many Pastors and Teachers over them for if they had been but so small a company as is here mentioned and that the whole Church had consisted but of sixscore names then the Pastors exceed the number of the flock which is not only absurd to think but against the evident truth of the holy Scriptures which relate unto us multitudes upon multitudes that were daily converted by the ministery of Iohn the Baptist and of Christ and his Apostles and added unto the Church before this their meeting So that by this I have now said it is most clear and evident that all or most of these were the most eminent Ministers of the Gospell and the Presbytery of the Church But in this that our Brethren do acknowledge that this assembly here spake of were the Church it makes as much against them and greatly for us for it is manifest from the Text that they were the Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel and in that they give them the name and title of the Church it followeth that the representative body and Presbytery is a Church and that to them only belongs the power and authority of the Keyes according to that of our Saviour in Matth. 18.17 18. Tell it unto the Church c. and whatsoever ye binde on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven By which words all authority is put into the true Ministers hands so that they only have the power and authority of ordaining Pastors and Presbyters among themselves as Paul sufficiently declares in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus and that they have not only the title of the Church but a Charter and Warrant also granted unto them of ruling and governing the Church and of ordaining Church-officers and that by joynt and common consent among themselves without the help and assistance of the people and congregations under them which by God were never joyned in commission with them And howsoever Paul in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 6. For the taking away the scandall in going to Law before unbeleevers gave them liberty to make choyce of some that were least esteemed in the Church for the deciding of their controversies yet that did not authorize them to make choyce of all other Church Officers for he limits them to go no farther then to the choyce of such as are of least esteem And howsoever likewise the Apostles in the 6. of the Acts to free themselves from all impediments that they might the better attend upon their Ministeries and that without interruption they might Preach the Gospell gave them liberty to chuse their Decons and Deconesses yet they prescribe the Rule by which they shall chuse them and keep the authority of ordaining them still in their own hands Look you out among you say they men of honest report full of the holy Ghost and wisedome whom we may appoint over this businesse and when they had chose such saith the Scripture They put them before the Apostles and when they had prayed they layd their hands on them So that howsoever they gave unto them a Liberty to chuse yet it was with limitation not an absolute liberty for if they had chose men that had not been of approved honesty well gifted and wise and qualified as they appointed it was arbitrary in the Apostles to reject their choise for they keep the power of Ordination still in their own hands and to them it did belong to ratifie their Election so that the people had not the power of Ordination then nor have not to this day no not of the meanest Deacon or Deaconesse that belongs onely unto the Presbytery much lesse have they power of ordaining Presbyters Indeed for the deciding of controversies and differences they have a liberty given them of making choise of some petty men amongst them and that they may do without the Presbytery but they have no power of Ordination Neither did I ever yet read in the Sacred Scriptures that the people or Congregation had any hand at all in choosing of Ministers and Presbyters neither were they fit for that imployment for it is one thing to judge of a mans externall carriage and manners and another thing of his sufficiency for his indowments and abilities of learning and that men of learning and knowledge onely can do and the Sons of the Prophets and it is in speciall given in charge to the Presbyters and Ministers as it is manifest in the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus 1 Tim. 4.14 Tit. 1. And they onely know how rightly to examine them in the knowledge of the tongues and Sciences and such Arts as are requisite besides the knowledge of the holy Scriptures all which are little enough for the making of a Minister compleat and fit for that Sacred imployment And all the Primitive Churches in the Apostles times willingly submitted themselves to what the Presbytery then did and assented to their choyce as in the 14. of the Acts vers 23. it appeareth But I say in that our brethren do acknowledge this company this hundred and twenty names to be a Church and in that it is also sufficiently manifest that they are considered in a distinct notion from the people which also in the holy Scriptures when they are joyned with their Ministers are called a Church as is frequently to be seen through the acts of the Apostles and in that it doth abundantly appear by what hath formerly been spoken and will yet in the following discourse be farther elucidated that there were many congregations and Assemblies of beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem and that they were all governed by the joynt consent and Common Councell of the Apostles and Presbyters to whom the Apostles themselves were subject who were sent this way and that way by their direction and to whom they were to give an account of their Ministry as we see in divers places in the Acts and were ordered by them what they should do and also made their appeals unto the Apostles and Presbyters in any businesse of common concerement I say in all these respects it is evident that the Church of Ierusalem consisted of many Congregations and Assemblies and was yet but one Church and that governed by a Presbyterian Government and by a Common Councell of Ministers to whose order all the severall Congregations
were to submit themselves And therefore this their Argument maketh much against them and greatly for us And this shall suffice to have answered to this their first Objection which to speak the truth is that that carrieth the most appearance of any Argument they produce to prove their Assertion and tenent for all their other Objections raised from the severall meetings of the Apostles and people and from the multitude comming to them about the ordaining of Deacons by which they would perswade the world that the company of Believers in the Church of Jerusalem was not so numerous at any time but that they might all meet in one congregation or in one place to partake of in acts of worship they consist most of them in Homonymies and meer Paralogismes which indeed beseem not the gravity of reverend men and in the weighty matters of Divinity would be undecent in a sucking Sophister and therefore are much more blameworthy in them who by such fallacies labour to amuse the people to the disturbance of the whole Church and Kingdome and alienating the affections of Brethren one from another I shall briefly run over them Acts 2.46 where it is related that the Believers and new Converts continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house From these words the Brethren conclude that the multitude of Believers was not so great but that they might all meet in one congregation and in one place to partake in all acts of worship for here in expresse words the place where they met is specified and it is said to be the Temple I appeale to the wisdome of any learned man or but of a rationall Christian whether this be a candid or ingenuous way of arguing That because three thousand Christians might meet together in the Temple of Jerusalem Ergò all that believed in Jerusalem that were converted by Iohn the Baptist and all that believed by Christs ministery and miracles and all that were converted by the Apostles and the seventy Disciples before Christs sufferings and all that were after his Resurrection converted for twenty years together by the Ministry of all the Apostles and all the other Ministers of the Gospell they might yet all meet in any one place or Congregation to partake in all acts of worship and to edification I refer this I say to the consideration of any Learned man or any intelligible Christian whether this be an ingenuous way of arguing I believe if one should argue against them after the same manner they would laugh at him If one should thus dispute within these seven years all the Independents continued daily with one accord in such a place and they all met together in one congregation Ergò there is but one congregation and but one Church still of Independents in London and they all meet together in one congregation Would not the Brethren make themselves as merry with such a way of disputing as they have made others sad with their way of arguing yes doubtlesse The truth is their way of arguing is not to their own honour to speak but favourably of it as will appear For should I grant unto them that at that time this place of Scripture speaks of there had been no more Believers in Jerusalem but those hundred and twenty names specified in the first Chapter of the Acts and these three thousand new Coaverts and accord also unto them that all these did meet together in one place and in one congregation and did partake in all the Ordinances which notwithstanding I cannot grant them for divers reasons for in the same place it is said that although they continued daily in the Temple yet they brake bread from house to house that is to say some of them did daily meet to hear the Word in the Temple and then followed their severall imployments and others in private and they had the holy Communion or Sacrament in severall houses from which it is manifeltly evident that then when there were newly added to the Church but three thousand Believers they had many and severall congregations and assemblies and without all doubt as the multitudes of Believers increased they were still distributed into more congregations for it is said They brake bread from house to house that is they had their assemblies and meetings in severall houses and places besides the Temple and in those severall houses they had not only the preaching of the Word and Prayer but the administration of the Sacraments and communicated in all the Ordinances which they could not do in the Temple as afterward will appear and all that I now say is evident from the 41 Verse of the same Chapter to the 47. But I say should I silence my own reason and suffer it to speak nothing and should I grant to our Brethren that there were but three thousand and that these three thousand Believers might all meet in one congregation and partake in all the ordinances to edification would it follow that when ten thousand were added unto them and twenty thousand more to them and thirty thousand more to all these and it may be in a short time many hundred thousands more would any man think or believe that ten thousand men can meet in one congregation to edifie and to partake in all the Ordinances much lesse when there is so many thousands more added to them that they could still meet in any one place or congregation I think no man that hath not abdicated his understanding will so conclude So that all men may see not only the weaknesse of this argumentation but the strength of truth For this very weapon with which they had thought to have defended themselves and wounded the Truth they wound themselves and overthrow their own tenent as God willing I shall more fully by and by make appear But out of Chap. 5. our Brethren conceive they have a very strong invincible Argument where it is related that after Ananias and Saphira were miraculously taken away for lying unto the Spirit of God It is said That great fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things And by the hands of the Apostles were many signes and wonders wrought among the people and they were all with one accord in Solomons Porch Ergò say they the number of Believers in Jerusalem was not so great but that they might all meet together in one congregation for the place where they did meet is set down viz. in Solomons Porch and it is further specified That they were all with one accord in that place This is their Argument faithfully and truly set down and with the best advantage for their cause But to speak the truth this kinde of arguing hath no force in it neither doth it beseem grave men to trifle thus in the matters of God and Religion For should I grant unto them that all the Believers that then were in Jerusalem and had been converted by John
that is that the Apostles daily in the Temple and in every house ceased not to teach preach Jesus Christ. That is to say they preached both publickly and privately and the very places where they preached are set down as in the Temple and in every house So that of necessity there must be severall congregations and assemblies of Believers in Jerusalem according to that in the 2. of the Acts vers the 46. where it said That they continued dayly with one accord in the Temple and breaking of bread from house to house which by all Interpreters is understood the administration of the Lords Supper and that the severall assemblies and congregations were wont usually to meet in private houses is frequent mention in the holy Scriptures as in the 16. of the Romans verse the 5. and in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 16. vers 19. Col. 4.14 and Saint Paul in the 20. of the Acts vers 20. saith That he kept back nothing that was profitable unto them but taught them publikely and from house to house so that they had their Assemblies as well private as publicke even in the Church of Ephesus where they did partake in all acts of worship and in that Church also they had many Presbyters and yet were but one Church But now I will passe on to the sixth chapter where in the 1 2 3 and 7 verses it is said That in those dayes when the number of Disciples was multiplyed there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widdows were neglected in their dayly ministration Then the twelve called the multitude of the Disciples unto them and said It is not reason that they should leave the Word of God and serve tables Wherefore brethren look you out among you seven men of honest report and full of the holy Ghost and wisdome whom we may appoint over this businesse But we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministery of the Word vers 7. And the Word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient unto the faith In the which words we may take notice briefly of these observables The first of the cunning and policy of the Devill who when he cannot by all his wiles and stratagems assault the Church without then he labours to assaile it within as here with civill discords and differences among brethren and in other Churches in all ages even in and from the Apostles times by dissentions in opinions by Sects Schisms Factions and Heresies and by these his wiles and craft he first bringeth in difference in opinion and afterwards diversity of affection and that among brethren and all this he doth that in fine he may bring ruine upon them all And thus he began with the Church of Jerusalem raising a controversie between the Hebrews and the Greeks who complained That their widdows were neglected in the dayly ministration as either that they were not made Deaconesses as the widdows of the Hebrews were or that there was not an equall distribution of the Almes according to the intention of the Church who sold their possessions and goods to that end that they might be parted to all men as every one should have need Acts 2. vers 44 45. chap. 4. v. 35. And this their supposition was the cause of that controversie The second abservable is To whom the differing and dissenting parties did apply themselves and appeal and that was to the Presbytery or Colledge of Apostles not to any one of them particularly but to the twelve as in that difference at Antioch Acts 15. Paul and Barnabas and certain other of the Brethren in the Church of Antioch appealed to the Apostles and Presbyters and in both those differences all the Churches submitted themselves to the Apostles Order and that willingly and this example of the Apostles is the Rule for ordering of all controversies that all the reformed Churches set before them deciding all debates in Religion by the Word of God and according to the president they have laid down unto them by the Apostles and Presbyters in Jerusalem Here I say the whole Presbytery and Colledge of the Apostles determined the businesse neither do we reade that the Assemblies of the Hebrews and Greeks at Ierusalem or the Church of Antioch pretended their own Independent authority though severall Congregations or challenged a power within themselves of choosing their own Officers or determining of differences amongst themselves or pleaded that they had Authority within themselves to make their own Laws by which they would be ordered or that they challenged any such priviledges unto themselves but they all appealed unto the Presbytery at Ierusalem as the supreamest Ecclesiasticall Court and freely submitted themselves to their arbitrament and to the Order they set down as the story specifieth The third observable is the imployment in which the Apostles were all taken up and the effect of it and their imployment is said to be continuing in prayer and the Ministery and preaching of the Word and the effect of this their Ministery was That the Word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith By all which it is most apparent that such multitudes being dayly added to the Church and where there was such variety of teachers and so many Apostles and all of them taken up in preaching and where there was so many different Nations and such diversities of tongues and languages as was in the Church of Ierusalem they could not all meet together at any one time or in any one place to edification and that they might all communicate in all the Ordinances but of necessity they must be distributed into severall Congregations and Assemblies if they would avoyde confusion and all that I now speak is evident by the very light of Nature and all reason and therefore it followeth That there were many Assemblies and Congregations in Ierusalem and yet all made but one Church and that that Church was Presbyterianly governed But that I may make this truth more evidently yet appear I will first out of the former discourse frame severall Arguments and then go on to the ensuing history And out of all these six chapters I thus argue Where there were eight thousand new converts besides women and children by virtue of some few miracles and Sermons after Christs Resurrection added to the Church of Ierusalem and the society of beleevers besides those that were converted by Iohn the Baptist and Christ and his Apostles Ministery before his sufferings and to the which also there were afterwards great multitudes of Beleevers both of men and women and a great company of the Priests joyned in so much that they kept the very Officers and Souldiers in awe and struck a fear and terrour into them there they could not all meet together in any one
common understanding and ordinary reason which confirm it it is manfest from the 2.3 and 5. Chapters of the Acts which in expresse words signifieth That they met dayly in the Temple and from house to house yea in every house and therefore that is true and out of all doubt and for the Minor it is evident from the place above cited where it is said The Churches that is to say all the Churches in Judea of which Ierusalem was the mother Church were multiplyed the word in the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth properly an increase in number and multitude and not in measure and is so to be understood in this place and cannot being applyed unto persons be otherwise taken whatsoever it may of sinnes and graces and then also the word is capable of this construction as may be proved if need required So that the conclusion doth follow And truely that of Saint Paul in the 1. of the Galatians is an excellent Argument to evince there were more Congregations in Ierusalem then one where proving that he had not received the Gospell which he preached from men but from God he useth this reason That if he had received it from men it must be from the Iews and from the Apostles for the Gentiles were ignorant of it and he was to carry the Gospell unto them and therefore they could not teach it him and to prove that he received it not from the Apostles he thus speaketh of himself When it pleased God to reveal his son unto me that I might preach him amongst the Heathen Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood neither went I up to Ierusalem to them that were Apostles before me but I went into Arabia Then after three yeares I went up to Ierusalem to see Peter and aboade with him fifteen dayes but other of the Apostles saw I none save Iames the Lords brother Out of the which words besides the singular testimony we have that the preaching and writings of S. Paul are the Gospell of Iesus Christ and the Word of the living God against the Papists we may evidently gather against the Independents that after the persecution there were more believers in Jerusalem then either did or could all meet in one place for in saying that he was with Peter fifteen dayes but in all that time saw none of the Apostles save Iames this I say is a sufficient Argument to prove more Congregations and assemblies of beleevers in the Church of Jerusalem which so imployed the Apostles in their severall ministeries as they had not so much spare time to visit Paul and that Paul also was so taken up in preaching there that he had no leisure to visit them And for the diligence of the Apostles in their Ministry it is said in the sixth of the Acts That they gave themselves continually to prayer and to the Ministery of the Word and therefore they were never idle and that the Apostles either all or the most of them continued resident for many years in Jerusalem before they distributed themselves into severall Nations and Countries and that very few of them were sent abroad there are frequent testimonies in Acts of the Apostles neither as yet did I ever hear it scrupled or call'd in question whether the Apostles were then there or no when Paul was at Jerusalem for it is taken pro confesso that either all or the most of them were at that time in Ierusalem neither doth Saint Paul say I saw none of the other Apostles because they were absent or were gone to Preach the Gospell in other places And for Saint Paul we read that wheresoever he came he went into their Synagogues and into their Assemblies to Preach and that he preacht from house to house and he that gave so strict a charge to Timothy and in him to all Ministers that he should Preach in season and out of season he himself without all doubt would not neglect his duty who in the 20. of the Acts sets his own example before all the Presbyters for their imitation in their diligent preaching and he ordinarily preached by the day and by the night as is manifest out of the same Chapter and many other places and surely the time he remained with Peter in Ierusalem he was as diligent in Preaching as he was in any of the other Churches and he professeth of himself that the care of all the Churches lay upon him and that he laboured more then all the other Apostles in their particulars so that it standeth with all reason that while he was in Ierusalem he was very sedulous in Preaching as who had both strength of body and Gods speciall assistance and his immediate inspiration alwayes to help him in his Ministery so that I conceive as of charity I am bound that Paul was dayly in one assembly or other now if there had been at that time no more beleevers in Ierusalem then could have met in one place congregation and Assembly then of necessity Paul must have seen the other Apostles there as well as Peter and Iames for they also were good Church-men to speak a little in the Prelates dialect and they never left the Word but were alwayes taken up either in praying or preaching amongst them in the Temple and from house to house yea in every house and if there had been but one Congregation or Assembly of beleevers in Ierusalem the Apostles would dayly upon all occasions have been with their flock Now in that Paul saw them not in all that time he was in Ierusalem it is evidently apparent there were more Congregations of beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem then one and more Christians then could all meet in any one or a few places But to proceed to a place or two more for the further confirmation of this truth Acts 12. verse 24. It is said there that the word of God grew and multiplyed Here also we have another good effect of a new fierce persecution in Jerusalem it increased the number and multitude of Believers there after the Persecutor was taken away For the Word of God grew and multiplyed saith the Holy Ghost Out of which words I thus argue Where the Word of God daily more and more grew and multiplyed after the persecution that is to say where there were more multitudes and greater numbers of Believers added unto the Church through the Ministery and preaching of the Gospell then was before which notwithstanding was then so numerous as they could not all meet in any one place or roome to enjoy all the Ordinances to edification there of necessity they must be distributed into diverse assemblies and congregations to enjoy all the Ordinances to edification But in the Church of Jerusalem after a double persecution the Word of God daily more and more grew and multiplyed that is to say there were more multitudes and greater numbers of Believers added unto the Church through the ministery and preaching of the Gospell by the
churches and among beleevers and brethren and that upon groundlesse pretences The second quere is whether for the making of any man or woman a member of the church it be requisite or necessary to the beleeving and being baptized that they should walk some dayes weeks moneths perhaps years with them that they may have experience of their conversation before they can be admitted and after that a confession of their faith should be publikely made before the congregation and the evidences of their conversion as the time when the place where the occasion how they were converted should likewise openly be produced for satisfaction to the church before they can be admitted to be members and if any either men or women shall except against their evidence that then they are not to be admitted this is the second quere The third is whether for making any man or woman a member or an officer of a church the consent of the whole congregation or the greater part of them besides the Presbyters and Ministers be requisite The fourth quere is whether for the admission of any one into church-fellowship communion a private solemn covenant be requisite or necessary for the making of any one a member the neglect or refusall of the which makes them incapable of their membership and admission There is no question between us and the brethren about a publike covenant for we have presidents of that in holy Scripture in all publike reformations The fifth quere is whether the women and people as well as the Presbiters and Ministers have the power of the Keyes and whether the women have all their voices in the church both for election and reprobation of members and officers as well as the men and whether the consent of all the women or the greatest part of them be requisite for the making of any one a Member or Officer so that if they gainsay it being the greater number or allow of it the most voices carry the businesse this is the fifth quere the practice of the which as of all the former the brethren in some of their congregations hold for orthodox and think all these things required of any that offer themselves to be a member The last quere is whether the practice and preaching of all these things and the gathering of churches after this manner be to set up Christ as King upon his Throne and whether churches and assemblies thus congregated be the onely true churches and in the which onely Christ rules and reignes as King and all other that are not moulded up after this fashion be no true congregated churches and in the which Christ is not set up as King upon his Throne which is the opinion of the brethren as will afterward appeare If I have failed in any thing in stating the question or in any of these Queres the brethren must pardon me for I speake according to the practice of some of their congregations and according to the doctrine many of them teach not onely in their owne assemblies but in every Pulpit through the Kingdome where they come as I shall be able to prove And therefore if I have been mistaken in any thing they may blame their owne practice and teachers and thank themselves also that in the space of almost two yeers though it has been againe and again desired at their hands they have not so much as set down the modell of their government and what they would have with all the appertainances belonging unto it that all the world might be out of doubt What therefore I find practised amongst some of the most zealous of them and the most approved for integrity and what I shall be able to prove that I have without any spirit of bitternesse specified But now I shall set downe Gods method and the Apostles practice in gathering of churches and the manner they used in making Members in every church and compare it with the method our brethren the Independents use in gathering of their congregations that all men may the better discerne truth from errour and may all be undeceived in this businesse of so great concernment And I will first begin with Christs Commission given to his Apostles and in them to all Ministers and then consider the practice of John the Baptist and of all the Apostles and Ministers in the primitive church and the order that God himselfe used for the gathering of those that belong unto his election and for the congregating of the lost sheep of the house of Israel into the fold of Jesus Christ who is that great Shepheard and Bishop of our soules and I conceive that Gods order and the Apostles practice is rather to be followed than any other new-found way But to begin with Christs commission to his Apostles Matth. 21. verse 19.20 Goe yee therefore saith Christ and teach all Nations baptizing them In the Name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you and lo I am with you even to the end of the world Amen And in the 16. of Mark verse 15 16. He saith unto them Goe yee into all the world and preach the Gospell unto every creature He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned And in the 26. of the Acts Saint Paul after he had declared the manner of his conversion to King Agrippa he likewise made knowne unto him the commission he had received from Christ Jesus in the words following verse 15 16 17 18 19 20. And I said who art thou Lord and he said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest but rise and stand upon thy feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a Witnesse both of these things which thou hast seene and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith which is in me whereupon I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision but shewed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and through all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turne to God and doe works meet for repentance Out of these severall places from the commission of Christ given to his blessed Apostles and to all Ministers and preachers of the Gospel to the end of the world here observe these things First that their bounds and limits were set them how farre they should goe in their teaching all Nations and beyond which they might not passe and they were these that they should teach no other things but what Christ commanded them and appeared to them in and for the which they had his word and warrant and so long
Brethren what shall we do Then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost c. Act. 2.37 38. then they that gladly received the word were baptized and the same day were added unto them about three thousand soules Here we may observe these two things The first that the Apostles by themselvs alone without the multitude or Church admitted the people into the society company of beleevers Secondly that in the execution of their commission they did nothing but according to their warrant and according to their injunction that was given unto them by Christ they propounded no other condition or termes for their making all and every one of them members of the Church but baptisme and repentance the which when the people had accepted of they were forthwith admitted and that upon their owne word and testimony without any more adoe or further inquiry Concerning the soundnesse of their repentance without any witnesse from others of their conversation and without the voyce allowance or approbation of the people or the multitude of beleevers in Jerusalem much lesse of the whole Church who were never joyned with the Apostles in their comission or consulted with by them whether they should be admitted or no into the fellowship of the faithfull or demanded or asked by the people whether it were not fit that they should take some time of further consideration that they might walke with them to the end that they might behold their conversation and by their owne experience might further be confirmed that their conversion was sound and well Neither did any call for at their hands that they should make a publike confession of their faith to the Church and give in evidences to the Congregation that they were converted really or that they should take a private covenant or enter into the church by way of a peculiar covenant nothing of all this is specified But it is onely related that the people upon their being pricked in their hearts applied themselves unto the Apostles and that the Apostles by their owne authority and that power that was delegated unto them without reference to the church or people admitted them into the number of beleevers We further may take notice that when the Angell appeared unto Cornelius in the tenth of the Acts he sent him unto Joppa to call for one Simon whose surname was Peter he did not send him unto the Church in Joppa And it is related that when Peter came to Cornelius and that he had recited unto him the manner of the vision and that he was commanded by the Angell to send for him it is further also declared what Peter there did and that he said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnes is accepted with him And after a Sermon made unto Cornelius and all that were assembly there with him It is said that the holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word and that all the beleevers that came with Peter were astonished at it for they heard them speake with divers tongues and magnified God Then answered Peter can any man forbid water that these men should not be baptized which have received the holy Ghost as well as we And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Here we see first that Peter was sent unto and not the Church Secondly that he admitted Cornelius and those that were with him into the number of beleevers and into the fellowship of the Church by his owne authority and never consulted with the Church to aske their leave or voyce but concludes the businesse with an interrogation which hath a greater force of binding that no man ought to hinder any beleever from comming into the society of the Church and communion of Saints in whom the graces of God spirit evidently appeare as in these so that if either the Ministers come into their houses or they goe into the Ministers and make sufficient testimony by themselves of their faith and that they feare God of what nation soever they be they are by the Ministers to be admitted the congregation hath nothing to doe to hinder any such nay they may not it is more than belongs unto them neither did those that came with Peter intermeddle in that businesse or require a covenant at their hand or a publike confession of faith Againe when the Lord of his infinite mercy was purposed to reveale himself unto the Eunuch in the 8 of the Acts he sendeth Phillip the Evangelist unto him whom he found reading in his Chariot the prophesie of Isaiah and after that he had interpreted unto him that prophesie and preached unto him Jesus and Baptisme in his name it is related that when they came unto acertaine water the Eunuch said unto him what doth hinder me to be baptized and Philip said if thou beleevest with all thine heart thou mayest And he answered and said I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God and he commanded the Chariot to stand still and they went downe both into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him Here we see that Philip and not the Church was sent unto the Eunuch and that Philip by his owne authority and upon the Eunuch his owne testimony without any reference unto the Church or without consulting with the Congregation admits him into the number of beleevers and makes him a member of the Church and here was neither a publik confession required of him by any of the Church or any covenant exacted by the people and so when Saul in the 9. of the Acts was fallen downe out of astonishment and afterwards was converted as the story there fully declareth the whole manner of it the Lord sent one Ananias a Disciple and Minister unto him he did not send the Church unto him neither did Ananias when he came to Saul say unto him I will consult with the Church to see whether they will admit thee to be a member for thou hast greatly wasted the Church and made havock of the Saints and therefore I will have their approbation and consent and I will have thee first walk with the Church some time that they may behold thy conversation and then thou shalt make a confession of thy faith publikely before the Congregation and give in thy evidences of the truth of thy conversion and enter in a private and solemne covenant and so be received and admitted But without all this adoe he baptizes Paul and admitteth him into the number of beleevers and makes him a member of the Church and that by his sole authority and he was received immediately among the Disciples at Damascus without any reluctation or so much as any scruple and strait-way he preached Christ in the Sinagogue that he was the Son
Church and the Saviour of all those that truly beleeve in him and this is to set up Christ upon his Throne and the brethren themselves accord unto this Now when the Ministers of England teach this doctrine in their preachings and writings how can they be truly said to deny disclaime and preach against Christs Kingly government over mens consciences and Churches and how can that people be said truly to deny Christs Kingly government who doe both beleeve and to the uttermost of their power practice this doctrine and follow onely the guidance of his holy Spirit and Word both for doctrine and government who is King of the Church whether therefore this be not an unjust and unchristian calumny laid both upon the Ministers and people of the church of England I leave it to the consideration of any moderate minded christian doubtles all charitable minded christians if they consider althings aright will not think so dishonourably neither of the Ministers of England nor of the people under their ministry for they deserve not to be accounted the profest enemies of Christ who are freed from that heavy accusation by Christs owne testimony who when it was related unto him by Saint John Mark 9. ver 38. That they had seen one casting out devils in his name which followed them not and that the Disciples had forbad him because hee did not follow them Our Saviour Christ replying forbid him not saith he for whosoever is not against us is on our part Now these Ministers that open the eyes of the blind and turne them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God they cannot be eâ—â—â—emed enemies of Christ and to be against Christ but for him and ought highly to be honoured for their works sake 1 Thes chap. 5. ver 13. and singularly to be beloved and deserve not to be maligned and reproached especially by brethren who owe all their conversions next unto God to their ministry yea both the Pastors and people of all the new congregated Churches are beholding unto them for their conversion for they admit none into their Assemblies but beleevers and they were made beleevers and converted by their ministry and therefore they are friends of Christ and not his enemies and they ought all of them to look upon them as their Fathers and on the Church of England as their Mother and on the beleevers of England as their brethren and ought not thus unchristianly and ungratefully to cast durt in all their faces Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Phillippians chap. 1. has these words Some saith he preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will the one preach Christ of contention and not sincerely thinking to adde affliction to my bonds but the other of love What then notwithstanding every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ be preached I therein doe rejoyce yea and I will rejoyce S. Paul speakes here of such as preach pure doctrine though not with a pure mind and was glad that Christ was preached and counts them not the enemies of Christ as he did the false teachers among the Galatians who joyned the ceremoniall law and their owne inventions with the Gospell and therefore he wisht that they were cut off but in this place he rejoyces that Christ and the Gospell were purely preached though it were of envy Now when the Ministers of the Church of England doe not onely preach the Gospell purely but of sincerity and of love and mingle not their owne traditions and inventions with the Gospell but follow their commission how can any men without intolerable injustice proclaime them the enemies of Jesus Christ and make them odious to the people under the name of Presbiterians whom they perswade all men that they will prove more cruell Taskmasters than the Prelates yea and they have generally possest the people with so prejudicate an opinion of them all as if they would more lord it over them than ever the Bishops did and causelesly have moved the people to hate the name of presbitry And notwithstanding they themselves pretend they contend for the ancient presbitry and by this make themselves Presbiterians as well as the other What justice or equity then is there in their dealing to make their brethren odious to the world for endeavouring to set up a Presbitry after Gods Word when they themselves are Presbiterians and labour to set up a Presbitry of their owne and therefore if the name of Presbiters be odious in the Ministers of the Church of England no reason can gainsay it but that they also should be as odious to the people as their brethren for they also are Presbiterians But that the truth may the better appear whether the Ministers of the Church of England or the Independent Ministers be most guilty of all the accusations laid to their charge it will not be amisse to compare the practice of the Ministers of the Church of England and the proceedings of the Independent Ministers together and that both for their doctrine and discipline and in their severall studies and eudeavours for the advancing of Christs Kingdome and by so doing it will be easie for any to judge which of their governments and which of the Ministers are more intolerable and which of them are most guilty of those foule reproaches the Ministers of the Church of England are aspersed with by their Brethren for he hath a shallow understanding and a very dim sight that cannot discerne whether those that advance Christs their Kings Word and lawes onely and follow his commission and the example of the holy Apostles in their ministries and that of John Baptist and the primitive Preachers or those that set up their owne inventions and preferre them before the lawes of Christ and have neither precept nor president for their doings in all the holy Word of God He I say that cannot judge which of these most advance Christ for their King either those that obey Christs lawes or those that observe their owne neglecting Christs is of a very shallow capacity But now let us compare them together the Ministers of the Church of England preach faith and repentance the Law and the Gospell according to Christs commission given to his Apostles and they receive all into the Church that beleeve and are baptized and such as but desire to be admitted they demanding of them what they should doe to be saved and in their so doing they have both precept and presidents For Christ in his commission unto them has given them auhority so to doe Neither did he ever say unto his Apostles and Ministers admit none into the church although they beleeve and are baptized without they walk with you some dayes weeks moneths or yeeres that you may behold their conversation and manner of life and after you have had some tryall and experience of them see then that they make a publike confession of their faith before the Church and give in the