of Rome from the Truâ—h and Order of the Gospel upon this very Principle an External Judge in the Church one or more to have an Infallible Judgment to whom all are to submit though unconvinced the admitting whereof in any Christian-Church is the readiest way I know of to make void their great Principle of Union Conviction and Choice and to introduce the necessity of an Implicit Obedience to all manner of Innovations Church-Rulers shall please to impose without a possibility in the whole Church to remedy it For to add So long as he or they abide in the Conduct of that Spirit in their own particular and so not in a Decay Is no more than what they of Rome assert of themselves and the great question here remains undetermined Viz. Who shall be Judge of the Life or Decay of this one or more Whether the Pope and the Council of Trent or the Dissenting Protestants The very assuming such a Power in themselves at Trent was a sufficient evidence in the Consciences of Dissenting Protestants of their Decay then and it is so now Obj. But if there be no infallible Judgment to be expected now in the Church how are these words of our Lord 's to be understood Lo I am with you to the end of the World the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And how is the Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth I Answer The necessity of this infallible Judgment in one or more in the Church can no more be concluded from these words than the Pope's Supremacy over Emperours and Kings and the whole Catholick Church from the words of our Lord to Peter Feed my Sheep These Expressions in plainness importing only this That Jesus Christ will be so present with his Holy Catholick Church in the World so long as it shall last that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it so as in it the truth of the Gospel shall be preserved and prosessed which is not applicable to any one particular Church for many that were such in the days of the Apostles are long since so far prevailed upon by Heresies Persecutions and Devastations that they have lost not only a Church-State according to the Order of the Gospel but also their very Being in the World yet Christ's Presence remains with his Church so as it continues in the World the Ground and Pillar of Truth against which the Powers of Darkness shall never so far prevail so as it shall not have a Being in the World or shall cease to be the Ground and Pillar of Truth Obj. But if there be no Infallible Judgment now to be expected in the Church will not both the Dissenters they that are dissented from be in the Mist both hitting at Random And will not Religion degenerate into Sceptism I Answer There is no such hazard where the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures and the Illumination of the Holy Spirit of God in the understanding of them is owned and preserved and where People are called upon not to imbrace outward Appointments too hastily but wait the Conduct of the Spirit of the Lord to lead into all Truth according to the Scriptures and this can never be the necessary consequence of this Doctrine however these Masters of Order would impose such an Inference upon it but we do indeed then hit at random and are in the mist blindfolded when being denyed the use of our Reason and Spiritual Understanding we are required to submit to outward Impositions to be first blindfolded and then led by such blind Guides is the shortest way I know of to fall into the Ditch Obj. But if any through unclearness or disobedience do not submit is not the Church to deny them her Spiritual Fellowship If in Civil Corporations or Societies they have power to declare the Breakers of the Fundamental Articles of their Society to have forfeited their Right in the Society why should it not be so in Christian Societies without the brand of Tyranny I Answer The chiefest Liberty pleaded for in this Discourse is not on their behalf who break the Fundamental Spiritual Band of the Churches Unity which is the Spirit of God by Conviction and Choice uniting them together in one voluntary joynt Communion neither is it pleaded for on their behalf who break the Fundamental Articles of a Christian Society as such to wit those who walk scandalously in a disordered prophane Conversation unsuitable to the Holiness of the Gospel and those who avowedly maintain and obstinately adhere unto those damnable Heresies as are manifestly inconsistent with the very Fundamental Principles of the Christian Faith from all such as having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof and as having erred concerning the Truth overthrowing the Faith of some in the Apostles days the Christians were to turn from and it ought to be so now in all Christian Societies walking according to that Pattern as is clear in the New-Testament But if Persons make Outward Bands of church-Church-Unity as necessary Conditions of Church Communion which was not in the first Churches and impose them contrary to the Apostles Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity obliging all persons in the Church notwithstanding any unclearness in themselves to a submissive obedience thereunto as unto the Judgment of the Spirit of God in the Men's and Women's Meetings or be denied the Spiritual Fellowship of the Church In this Case the standing fast to Christian Liberty not to be subject to Ordinances after the Commandments and Doctrines of Men is no breach of the Fundamental Articles of a Christian Society but a necessary Testimony against Introduced Innovations contrary to them for in any Christian Congregation or Church though there be not an Uniformity in Outward Practices because of unclearness in the Consciences of the Disciples in matters that are not plainly manifest to them all to be of that weight as utterly to dissolve the Spiritual Union and break the Fundamental Articles of all Christian Societies as such the Congregation or Church is not to deny the Dissenters her Spiritual Fellowship Christian Liberty was thus allowed of in the first Churches and will be so still where Church Government is not turned into Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the hands of a few Church-Rulers to uphold their Authority over all in the Church Neither are Christian Societies like other Corporations because not gathered on the same Grounds nor being gathered preserved by the same Principles nor governed by the same Methods the ground of their being gathered in Societies is their being first joyned to the Lord by his Grace in their Hearts and then a voluntary joyning together for their mutual Edification in the holy things of the Gospel this Principle which first united them and that only preserves them in one joynâ— Body in the exercise of that Spiritual Government that is consistent with Christian Liberty in different Outward Practices which Principle of Union and Method of Government no Civil
further this Spiritual Government and Christian Liberty are not only consistent and was accordingly practised in the first Churches but iâ— was also necessary that it should be so because thereby the Spiritual Vnity and Peace of the Churches is preserv'd on the one hand from Confusion on the other hand from Tyranny all things being done decently and in order and yet in Charity and to Edification therefore the Apostle Paul finding Divisions to be entered into the Church at Corinth and to prevent the like at the Church at Rome in his Epistles to those Churches he leads them to the practice of this Spiritual Government and Christian Liberty as the most proper remedy to recover and preserve them in the Peace and Vnity of the Gospel which he that will be at the pains to read may perceive Indeed under the Old Covenant the Service thereof stood in Meats and Drinks and divers Washings observing Times and Days and carnal Ordinances until the time of the Reformation but now that time being come under the New-Covenant wherein the Lord saith I will write my Laws in their Hearts in the Exercise of Church-Government among a People under that Dispensation Christian Liberty is of absolute Necessity the Law requiring Obedience being not in Tables of Stone but in their Hearts they were to walk in the Order of the Gospel through the Convincement of that Law in their Hearts they were under And the necessity of the continuation of both these conjoyned together is also manifest by the sad Consequences which have followed there where Church Government hath been exalted on the Ruines of Christian Liberty at this Door this dark night af Apostacy entred into the Church at the first a Mystery of Iniquity that begun to work in the days of the Apostles not by a Demas that forsook them but by a Deotrephes that sought Preheminence among them for in the exercise of Church-Government in Christian Societies had the Apostles Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity the best and only Preservatives of Gospel Order and Vnity been observed in all Ages by Church Rulers the many Schismes that have rent and divided the Churchos of Christ had not entred and when contrary to Christian Liberty Innovations are imposed by Church-Authority the Dissenters cannot in truth be reputed the Breakers of the Churches Vnity though accounted such by the Imposers But the many Schismes and the sad Consequences of them in any Christian Society is then most justly laid to their charge who being Church Governours under the name of Comely Orders impose Vnscriptural Traditions of the Elders as necessary Conditions of Church-Communion upon the Consciences of the Disciples unto which they are required to submit though unclear or unconvinced as they would not be accounted Breakers of the Vnity of the Body and as such be refused the Spiritual Fellowshig of the Church Which kind of Imposition as it is manifest by what is said already to be contrary to the Doctrine of the New-Testament and tenour of the New-Covenant so it makes void the Foundation Principle of Protestancy is contrary to Right Reason really destructive both to the Spiritual Order and Christian Liberty of the Gospel and last of all is a direct contradiction to an immediate inward Revelation of the Spirit as being a Rule to every particular Christian for his Conduct in all Religious Practices and to that end implanted in every man as he comes into the World First let the serious Protestants examine the first and great Foundation Principle on which they founded their Separation from those of Rome and they will find that to assert the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures without us and of the Illumination of the Holy Spirit within us they protested that neither Traditions Councils Popes nor Cannons of any visible Church but the Scripture only interpreted by the Holy Spirit gives final Determination in Matters of Religion Which is so wholly at once made void by this kind of Church-Imposition if allowed that their Protestation becomes quite insignificant thereby Secondly it is contrary to Right Reason to allow of such an Imposition in a Christian Society because all in such a Society are of one joynt voluntary Communion it is therefore most unreasonable for one or more of that Society to impose their final determinations in matters controverted on their Brethren unconvinced and not referred to them in respect such Societies are to be governed according to their first Principle of Union which is Inward Perswasion and therefore is to be upheld by that same Principle least it degenerate into Tyranny Uniform Outward Practices they may be driven into but they cannot be the Bond of their Spiritual Union that being ever one and the same whil'st outward Practices are alterable so never to be imposed as necessary but to be perswaded into as they are found agreeable to the Rules of Conveniency Edification Peace and Charity It is Man's Glory that he is not Religious by any kind of outward force but that in his worshiping God he offers up to him a free and reasonable Sacrifice whereas this kind of Church Power once admitted deprives Persons of the use of their Reason who by submitting unconvinced do give the Lye to their Understandings in a word it leaveth a man neither the use of his Reason as a Man nor of his Spiritual Understanding as a Christian and therefore cannot be of the God of Truth that hath indued every man with a reasonable Soul and every Christian with a Spiritual Understanding Thirdly It is also destructive both to the Spiritual Order and Christian Liberty of the Gospel this is sufficiently proved in the sad Example of those of Rome where the many unnecessary and unscriptural Traditions Rites and Ceremonies imposed have wholly extinguished the Spiritual Order of the Gospel mentioned in the New Testament and where the Bloody Inquisition hath buried Christian Liberty and will infallibly produce the same event where it is received Lastly The Contradiction betwixt this kind of Imposition and an Immediate Revelation of the Light and Spirit of God in every individual as his unerring Rule and Conduct in every thing of Religion is manifest in this that this Inward Revelation is asserted to be therefore given to every man as he cometh into the World as being of it self sufficient if obeyed to lead him into all Truth without any necessity of hearkning unto any outward Writings or Instructions whatsoever but as this Light leads thereunto which if it be so and that a Society be united upon that Principle in one joynt Communion the uselessness of one or more in the Church having such a Power or of general or particular outward Laws and Instructions to order Matters in that Society requiring Obedience thereunto And of the fore appointed Standing Meetings Weekly Monthly and Quarterly and the frequenting the Set Times and Places of those Meetings further than it becomes necessary to every individual Person of the Society through the Inward
Gain-sayers could with an infallable certainty preface their Determinations in matters controverted in the Churches referred to them Viz. It seemeth good to the holy Ghost and to us which for any Person or Persons now to pretend to by an alledged uninterrupted succession from the Apostles or by a Revelation to that end now in this Age received withouâ— giving the like Evidence of their being so sent and conducted is but a vain empty boast to make void the certainty of the holy Scripture thereby to establish in themselves an unscriptural Ecclesiastick Papacy over all in the Church And as the Apostles were careful to establish the Spiritual Order of the Gospel in the Churches they were no less careful to preserve their Christian Liberty lest under the pretence of Order it should be incroached upon by Church-Rulers in whom the Form of Words might become stronger then the Power of Godliness as after the Apostles dayes it indeed came to pass Hence we also find in the New Testament Church-Rulers required to be apt to teach sober patient in Meekness instructing them that oppose no Striker no Railer but in much for-bearance to feed the Flock of God not as Lords over Gods Heritage but as Ensamples to the Flock not as having Dominion over their Faith but as helpers of their Joy For saith the Apostle the Authority given us of the Lord is not for Destruction but for Edification The Spiritual Authority intrusted of the Lord with Church Officers is to reach the Consciences of all in the Church to be manifest there and not to exalt Man over the Consciences of the Disciples Church-Rulers are not because of their authority to force by Church-Orders or Laws every one to submit to every particular appointment they judge necessary to be established in the Church because Practices or Doctrines imposed upon Persons to be believed and submitted to unconvinced edifies not but destroys the work of God in their Hearts the true Ministers beareth with the Vnclearness of the weak waiting till their Submission to outward appointments be made necessary to them of the Lord by inward Convincement whereas the false Minister allows not unclearenss in Dissenters as an excuse for non-obedience being satisfied in an outward formal bodily Compliance Those that are to be ruled in the Church are also required in the New-Testament to submit to those that have Authority over them in the Lord yet So as every one is to be fully perswaded in his own Mind Christs Government is to be exercised in the Hearts of his People Truth is to carry with it conviction in the Conscience first before it be submitted to outwardly Matters of this kind are not to be taken upon trust we are commanded to try the Spirits whether they be of God or not we are to examine Doctrines to hold fast that which is good Christ's Sheep they hear his Voice and follow him a Strangers Voice they will not hear they that are Christs are led by the Spirit of Christ this is the main thing in Religion Persons are not to be hurried too hastily into the Practice of the decent Church-Orders but are to wait on the Lord to clear the matter to their Understandings they are to do nothing of this kind doubtingly but in clearness and Faith for what is not of Faith is Sin an Error here is an Error in the Foundation because without Faith it is impossible to please God And further that Church-Government might not degenerate into Tyranny and to preserve Christian-Liberty the Apostle tells us wherein the Vnity of the Church consists the great end of Government is to preserve Church-Vnity that there be no Schism in the Body Christians are therefore required to be of one Mind but in the Lord their Vnity is in the Spirit not in an Vniformity of outward Practices We find that in the first Churches they walked in different outward Practices some observing a day and some not observing it some eating and some not eating and that in one and the same Church wherein they were commanded by the Apostle Paul as a rule in such cases to all Christian Societies not to judge one another because of them whence iâ—s mâ—nifest that not outward different Practices breaks the Spiritual Vnity of the Church but judging one another because of them he that observes a day or other outward appointment in the Church doing it in the Lord may have unity with him that observes it not also in the Lord It was so in the Apostles times and it will be so still where GOD and not Man POWER and not Form is exalted for indeed the true ground of Unity among Christians is not that such a Person is conform to me in outward Practices but because I find him in what he doth differing from me walking in his integrity according to his own understanding in the Lord and this is the stronger band of Unity betwixt us then if we were both without inward Convincement in one uniform practice nothing is more pleasant to behold in Christian Societies while we see but in part and every individual is to see for himself then different sorts and sizes of Christians every one in their own Station learning their own Lessons from Christ to whom they are to give an Account and yet in their different Practices having Vnity in the Lord one with another this is indeed lovely to a Spiritual Eye though to the Carnal Eye it seems undecent and disorderly Indeed Vniformity in a Christian Society is much to be desired but the Lord is to be waited upon to bring People to this Christianity was begun in the Spirit and so it must be continued nothing must be received by force of Church-Authority or Arguments of mans Wisdom but as by Convincement the Conscience is perswaded thereunto where the Lord alone is to rule who leads his People into the Vnity of the Spirit in the midst of different outward Practices Thus without forced or constrained Commentaries and Meanings by repeating the very Words of the New-Testament its manifest to him whom the Power of an outward Form of Words without Life or the Ways of Unrighteousness hath not blinded that both Spiritual Order and Christian Liberty were established by the Apostles in the first Churches Now that this Spiritual Government and Christian Liberty are consistent in one and the same Christian Society necessarily follows beyond the reach of Contradiction because it was so appointed by the Apostles in the first Churches Secondly because they walked in their Church-Fellowships in the practice of them both which is already cleared Neither can any man suppose either that the Apostles gave forth inconsistent and unpracticable Instructions to the Churches or that even in their own time while present among them they were never practiced though given forth except he design to lessen their Authority in the Churches or the divine Authority of the holy Scriptures conveying to us the truth of these things as I have already shewed But
Immediate Revelation of the Light in his own Particular then received which he is to abide in hearken unto and obey is so very manifest that indeed it is a deserting the Cause of Immediate Revelation once so fiercely contended for to be in every Man to lead him into all Truth and on 〈◊〉 acknowledgement of the Insufficiency of that Light within of it self so to lead them in whom it is or to preserve them therein It remains in order to the closing of this Discourse to examine some of the arguments of old mustered up by those of the Roman Church against the Protestants and long since refuted by them and manifest in their Consciences to have no force in them against this Doctrine of the New Testament treated of in this Discourse yet now again raised out of that Rubbish to uphold this little new erected Papacy Is the Body to be without Government And if so will it not turn into the confusion of the Ranters every one having liberty to do what he pleaseth Is not this rather a Carnal Licentiousness than Christian Liberty I answer It is not pleaded for here that every one or indeed any one should do what he pleaseth but that none should be constrained or imposed upon to do what others please but they should be left free to do what God pleaseth They that are Christ's are led by his Spirit whose Conduct cannot introduce Confusion or Licentiousness in them especially who own the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture as their Outward Rule Indeed such things may enter into a Christian Society but its only then when the Doctrine of the New Testament and the Leadings of God's Spirit according to them is departed from But are we not to believe as the True Church Believes Is not the Infallible Spirit of God in his Church If so what will you believe if not as the True Church doth believes I answer This is the old reasoning of Carnal Wisdom whereby Christ is justled out of his Office and the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture trampled upon to introduce an Implicit Blind Obedience the strength of which Argument is at large solidly refuted and the Deceit lurking under that Covering clearly laid open by W. Pen a Protestant in his Book entituled An Address to Protestants the Perusal whereof is recommended to the People called Quakers for their Information herein I am saith he to believe as the true Church believes but not because she so believes but because I am convinced in my Conscience of the truth of what she believes otherwise my Faith may be false though hers be true We have the same Rule for our Faith the true Church hath and the same Reasons to induce us to believe that she hath the whole multitude of the Believers who make up the whole Church having the same Rule of Faith with me in particular therefore I believe as the whole Church believes but upon the same Principles and Motives upon which every one in particular believed who first made up a Christian Church which was Conviction and Choice and though I ought thus to believe as the Holy Catholick Church believes and that the Spirit of God rests in his Catholick Church yet I am not therefore blindly without examination and convincement to give up my whole Concern Temporal and Spiritual unto any particular Society of Christians even though I be ingaged as one among them in Church-Fellowship as unto the Judgment of the Spirit of God in the Men's or Womens-Meetings the generality among whom may be in a Decay and the Dissenters may be the few who keep their Garments undefiled as most ordinarily in ages past it hath happened actually to be in other Christian Societies Obj. But was there not a Government in the Churches in the Apostles Days And were there not Governours and Governed And should it not be so still Were not the Elders to seed the Flock and rule over them and was not the Flock to submit themselves to them and to follow their Faith as they that must give an account of their Souls And it was not Tyranny then to exercise this Authority in the Church how comes it to be so now I answer Church-Government is Spiritual and only to be exercised Spiritually in the Consciences of the Governed not as Lording it over their Consciences by an Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction but by Perswasion and Conviction to become manifest in their Consciences waiting till the Lord shall reveal it to them thus was Spiritual Government exercised in the first Churches by their Governours according to the Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity and thus did the Governed submit themselves in the Lord whereby they were preserved in the Unity of the Spirit in different Outward Practices which being departed from the Government becomes Tyrannous Obj. But the infallible Judgment in reference to Differences in the Church though it be fixed in the Spirit of God according to the Testimony of the Scriptures ought it not to be exercised by one or more certain Person or Persons in the General Meetings of the Elders of the Body so long as he or they abide in the Conduct of that Spirit and are not in a Decay And what can be the hazard to say That in such a Church there is still an Infallible Judgment in one or more so guided to whom all are to submit In respect we are not to imagine that in a Christian Society there must be no Orders made or executed for the better regulating of the Society or that among them Matters controverted shall never be finally determined I answer In such a Society Matters controverted may and ought to be finally determined by Persons of the Society to whom they should be referred and it rests in the power of any one particular Church to make Orders for the better Governing of the Church the Exercise whereof may be committed by the Church to particular Elders and Overseers to whom in their acts of Government they are accountable but in the framing such Orders and in the Exercise of Church-Government the Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity are ever to be observed that the Consciences of the Desciples may be preserved tender under the feeling of Christ's Government within them that Obedience be never imposed as necessary upon them but as the Lord shall clear the Matter to them for this being departed from it ceaseth to be the Spiritual Government of Christ exercised in his Church according to the New Testament and becomes an Ecclesiastâ—cal Jurisdiction usurped and tyrannously exercised over the Consciences of the Disciples So that in any particular Church there is no necessity of any Person or Persons one or more Pope or General Council's having such a Power though Builders in Babylon would make it necessary for preserving in themselves an Ecclesiastical Supremacy over the Scriptures and the Consciences of all in the Church the hazard of which Doctrine is manifest in the Apostacy of those