whole Gospel In a word the condition required of us is faith hope charity self-denial repentance a careful and industrious husbanding of Gods grace daily prayer for daily encrease and attending diligently to the means of grace To strengthen the faith of Abraham and his seed in the assurance of what was promised and for a memorial of what was to be performed it pleased God to have a seal set in his flesh and in the flesh of his seed for that time which was circumcision To this seal all the males of the Jews had a right and this seal was cut into them yea and as many Proselytes also who were content to become proselytae foederis Proselytes of the Covenant The other whom they call'd the Proselytes of their gates they entred them into the Covenant and bound them to the observation of the seven Commandments of Noah by a kinde of purification by water and the blood of oblation in the same kinde as they admitted their women The Covenant is the self-same under the Gospel that then God made with Abraham on the same conditions of the same extent only it hath another seal theirs was circumcision and ours baptisme the cutting of the flesh gave entrance to them the washing by water gives an entrance and admission to us And about this the question is whether it be to be with-held from the children of any who bear the name of Christians And it is observable how this question fiâ—st grew and what progresse it had At first some good-minded men set it on foot being occasioned by the children of professed Pahists living among them whom they conceived to be Idolatrous and consequently out of Covenant this caused Farel to write to Calvin about it Calvin Ep. 149. whose answer to him is this but not sound Where both the parents are Popish we think it an absurd thing for us to baptize them which are not members of our body and sith Papists children are such we see not how it should be lawful for us to administer Baptisme unto them But sounder by much is that answer of the Ecclesiastical Colledge of Geneva unto Knox who scrupled at the same and grew more rigid and wrote to them that he held it not only unlawful to baptize the children of Idolaters but even Bastards Ep. 283. and excommunicate persons till reconciled to the Church To whom they returned this sentence that wheresoever the profession of Christianity hath not utterly perished and been extinct Ep. 285. infants are beguiled of their right if the common seal be denied them which conclusion as I will by and by prove is sound But I go on for the mistake staid not here for when it came to Mr. Cartwright Anvil he beat it broader for he asserted that none might receive the Sacrament of Baptisme but they whose Parents at least the one of them are by the soundnesse of their Religion and by their vertuous demeanours known to be men of God Hook lib. 5. pag. 155. and by this rule the children of those they called Hereticks Misbelievers and Profane livers also came to be excluded Next the Brownist took it up and conveyed it over to you of the Combinational Church both imparting Baptisme to very few infants Burtons vindication pag. 62. viz. to those alone whose immediate Parents are members of their Congregation Out of you arise the Anabaptists and they peremptorily deny the Baptisme of all infants born to the members of the Combination or to any other till they are able to give an accompt of their faith and enter into a Church Covenant for themselves At last the Shaker comes upon the Stage and gives out of his Cup of trembling a vomit to all Ordinances these are outward Rites Baptisme the Eucharist needlesse seals to any old or young since he and his company are inwardly sealed by the Spirit This was the stratageme of that old Serpent for had he presented this bewitching position to the world at fiâ—st in the last ugly shape it now appears he knew that all men would have with honour heard it therefore he insinuated it and caused it to be taken down by certain gulps steps and degrees that the potion might be swallowed and the poyson not at all perceived Now this errour that I call it no worse in some hath been nourished in that they have not fully weighed the purport of this distinction of the mystical and visible body of Christ This is but one and we usually call it the Church which contains in it two sorts of people either outward Professours or true inward believers These last belong to the mystical body of Christ which therefore is called mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is altogether removed from sense in these their love is sound and sincere and comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned and they no doubt do and shall obtain whatsoever was made over by the second Covenant Those outward professours who either before Christs coming or since his appearing in the flesh have been called by the name of Christians we call the visible body because being Jews or Gentiles they are incorporated into one body have but one Lord whose servants they professe themselves to be have one faith which they all acknowledge one Baptisme by which they are all initiated For although we know the Christian Faith and allow it we are then but entring entred we are not into this visible Church till our admittance by the dore of Baptisme and who they are that enter that way is very well known even to the eye whence we usually call these the visible Church which is not so to be understood as if those of the invisible Church were not visible Christians also For both moleties whether mystical or visible as touching their profession are the object of the eye easie it is for any man to say this man is a Christian that man a Heathen But this distinction ariseth from the sincerity or unsincerity of the professours because we are never able to see and discern who they are that sincerely professe the Truth therefore we call these invisible but because we are easily able to judge of the men who enter by Baptisme therefore the whole is called a visible Church In whomsoever therefore is found the profession of one Lord one Faith one Baptisme those the Church doth acknowledge for her children and all those none of hers in whom they are not found as Jews Turks Heathens c. Others for their external profession are Christians and are of the visible Church of Christ And among these there are some who professe the Truth but not wholly and entirely and these are Hereticks some that professe the whole saving Truth but not in unity and these are Schismaticks some that professe the whole saving Truth in unity but not in sincerity and sanctity and these are hypocrites and profane persons others that professe the whole saving Truth in unity
7. and the Lion shall eat straw like the Oxe 8. and the suckling Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand to the Cockatrices den They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain 9 for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Which that it may come to passe is the hearty prayer of him who is Yours Dâ—o Opt. Max. filio suo Jesu Christo Spiritus sancto sit laus gloria honor in saecula saeculorum Amen Janu. 15. 1656. Amphora caepit Institui currente rotâ nunc uiceus exit FINIS Books printed or sold by William Leak at the signe of the Crown in Fleet-street between the two Temple Gates YOrks Heraldry Fol. A Bible of a very fair large Roman Letter 4. Orlando Furioso fol. Perkins on the Laws of England Wilkinsons Office of Sheriffs 8. Parsons Law 8. Mirror of Justice 8. Topicks in the Laws of England 8. Delamans use of the Horizontal Quadrant Wilbeys second Set of Musick 3 4 5 and 6 parts 4. Corderius in English 8. Dr. Fulks Meteors with Observations 8. Malthus Artificial Fire-works Nyes Gunnery and Fire-works Cato Major with Annotations Mel Heliconium by Alex. Ross 8. Nosce te ipsum by Sir John Davis 8. Animadversions on Lillies Grammer 8. The History of Vienna and Paris 4. The History of Lazarillo de Toroms Hero and Leander by George Chapman and Chr stopher Marlow The Posing of the Accidence Guilliams Heraldry fol. Herberts Travels fol. Man become guilty by John Francis Senalt and Englished by Henry Earl of Monmouth Aula Lucis or the house of Light Christs Passion a Tragedy by the most learned Hugo Grotius Mathematical Recreations with the Horological Dyal by William Oughtred 8. The Garden of Eden or an accurate description of Flowers and Fruit now growing in England with particular Rules how to advance their nature and growth as well in seeds as herbs as the secret ordering of Trees and Plants by Sir Hugh Plat. Knight Solitary Devotions with man in glory by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 12. Exercitatio Scholastica Book of Martyrs fol. Adams on Peter fol. Willet on Genesis and Exodus fol. The several opinions of sundry Antiquaries viz. Mr. Justice Dodrige Mr. Ager Francis Tate William Cambden and Joseph Holland touching the Antiquity Power and Proceeding of the High Court of Parliament in England The Idiot in four books first and second of Wisdome third of the Mind fourth of the experience of the ballance The Life and Raign of Hen. 8. by the Lord Herbert fol. France painted to the life in four books the second Edition Sken de significatione verborum 4. The Fort Royal of Holy Scripture by J. H. the third Edition 8. The summe of what is contained in the answer to the first part of the Admonitory Letter THe controversie about the subject of the Keys opened fol. 1. Sect. 1.2 3 4. The Authour studious of Truth and Peace fol. 3 4. The Admonitours distinction of three Visible Churches improper fol. 5. Some observations about the Domestical Church and some mistakes in the Admonitory rectifyed fol. 9. The alledged Texts examined fol. 10. Sect. 5. The words of the Admonitory drawn into Propositions and answered severally The Propositions out of the Letter these 1. That the Church of the last and longest constitution was a Presbyterial or Combinational Church this examined fol. 13. 2. That it is the opinion and practice of the Combinational Church to subject their earthy erring and unruly will to the heavenly infallible and uncontrolable will of Christ 'T is examined what truth may be in this assertion fol. 15. 3. That Christ peremptorily wills and enjoyns all Professourâ— to be indoctrinated and disciplined by the present Ministry This granted 4. That this prescribed Ministry must consist of Presbyters and Teaching and Ruling Elders This proposition fully examined and refuted fol. 18. 5. That these Presbyters Teaching and Ruling Elders must be of the Professing Members own voluntary Election and regular Ordination This also fully examined and refuted fol. 24. 6. That the Ministerial Office must reach from Christs ascension to the dissolution of all things This granted Sect. 6. An answer to all the Texts produced by the Admonitour as Rom. 12.7 8. fol. 31. 1 Cor. 12.28 fol. 33. Ephes 4.14 fol. 36. Revel 4.6 5.6 19.14 fol. 36 37. Sect. 7. A Paraenetical conclusion fol. 39. ad finem The Summe of the second part pag. 46. THe danger to assert the Church brought to a Sceleton Sect. 1. fol. 47. The corruption came not into the Church by such degrees as is supposed in the Admonitory Letter Sect. 2. The government of the Church proved to be Aristocratical 52. ad 59. A Presbytery with a Bishop the Apostles living 59 60. Of Patriarchs Primates Metropolitans Bishops 63. A little knowledge in some men an occasion of errour 66 67. Sect. 3. That the Combinational Churches corruption was not the Cathedâ—al Churches generation 71. Churches at first could not be Combinational 73. Of the names of Teacher Pastour Ruler Lord-Bishop Dean Chancellour Surrogate Arch-Deacon 75. No usurpation for Bishops assembled in Synods and Councils to excommunicate offenders 81 82. This was not contrary to the Orthodox pattern Acts 15. 84. To censure any mans person not the priviledge of the Presbyterian Church 85 86. That Alexander of Alexandria began not this usurpation against Arrius 88 89. Sect. 4. That the Presbyterial Church in respect of its primitive constitution consisted not only of living stones 91. That the rise of the rottening of the Church was not its falling from a poor pure presbyterial Church into an impure unpolished parochial Church 92. Of a Parson Vicar Warden Over-seer of the Poor Widow Midwife 94. Of Polycarp and Iraeneus 97. Sect. 5. The original of the Provincial Church the Metropolitane that this was no degeneration nor wisdome of the flesh 99. The name office of the Arch-Bishop not profane and blasphemous but honorable 101. Of the subservient names Prebend Surrogate Vicar-General 102. Of Austin the Monks conversion of Britane and Pope Gregory 105 106. Of the conversion of Britane to Christianity ibid. Sect. 6. That there is a National Church and that this is consonant to Scripture reason experience 108. That the customes charged upon the National Church taken up by Jewish imitation is more than can be proved or if true yet not therefore to be rejected 116. The five instances examined 1. National times and feasts 120 ad 127. 2. National places as consecrated meeting houses c ibid. 3. National persons as universal Preachers Office-Priests c. 132. 4 National performances as stinted worship Choristers c. 135. 5. National payments as Offerings Tithes Mortuaries c. 146. Sect. 7. The charge is upon the Oecumenical or Romane Church which concerns not the Church of England and therefore let them answer it The Summe of the third
AN APOLOGY FOR THE Discipline OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH Intended especially for that of our MOTHER THE CHVRCH of ENGLAND In answer to the Admonitory Letter Lately published 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. Ephraim feeds on winde Hosea 12.1 By William Nicolson Archdeacon of Brecon LONDON Printed for Willim Leake at the Crown in Fleet-street betwixt the two Temple-gates 1659. THE COPY OF A LETTER Written by a Divine A Friend of the AUTHOUR SIR I Thank you for the favour you did me in imparting those papers to me composed by our learned friend in defence of the Ecclesiastical Government under which the Church of God hath liv'd ever since it was establish'd by the Preachings Apostolical I see and love his zeale and honour his learning but am most pleased with his method and order of argument for having prosperously defended and illustrated the Doctrine of the Church of England in his material and grave discourses upon the Church Catechism he does to very good purposes proceed to defend her Government that as it already appears that her Doctrine is Catholike so it may be demonstrated that the Government of the Church of England is no other than that of the Catholike Apostolike Church she by the same way being truly Christian and a Society of Christians by which all Christendome were put into life and society that is became collective and united bodies or Churches And indeed they are both of them very weighty and material considerations For more things are necessary to the being of a Church than to the being Christian First the Apostles preached Jesus Christ and him crucified and every day winning souls to Christ did adopt them into his Body and joyned them to that Head and there they had life and nourishment But until their multitudes were much encreased they were no Body Politick they were so many single persons till the Apostles according to their places of abode gathered them under one Pastor and they grew into Communion and were fastned to one another by the Masters of Assemblies This Government with the alteration onely of some unconcerning circumstances hath continued in the Church of God and the Church of England was baptized by it at the same time it was baptized into the faith of Christ onely of late some endeavours have been to rifle this Government and to dissolve her being a body Politick and almost reduc'd her onely to the being Christian which because it seemed also to be in some danger Being and Unity having so near relation to each other I suppose it very advisedly done of him first to do what he thought fit for the securing the Doctrine and then by the method Apostolical proceeding to the immuring of that Doctrine by the walls and towers of Government and I finde he hath done it well His arguments are grave and close not florid but pressing his observations choice his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and little by-discourses pleasant and full of instructions his refutation sharp and true his returnes pertinent and nothing trifling but his adversarie who because he speaks but weak things ministers not occasions worthy enough for this learned man to do his best But he hath made supply I perceive and by taking little occasions by the hand he hath advanced them to opportunities of handsome discoursings and to my sence hath to better more full and excellent purposes than any man before him confuted the new fashion of Congregational and gathered Churches which must now needs appear to be nothing but a drawing Schisme into Countenance and Method and giving a warranty to partialities it is a direct crumbling of the Church into minuits and little principles of being just as if the world were dissolved into Democritus his dreame of Atomes and minima naturalia Every man loves Government well-enough but few of the meaner sort love their Governours especially if they think themselves wise enough to governe for then they are too wise to be governed Now this Independant or Congregational way seemes to me the finest compendium of humouring and pleasing all those little fellowes that love not that endure not to be subject to their betters for by this meanes a little Kingdome and a royal Priesthood is provided for every one of them a Kingdom of Yvetot and some had rather be chief but in a garden of Cucumers and govern but ten or twenty absolutely so they do than be the fifth or the twentieth man in a Classis or inconsiderable under the Apostolical and long-experienced government by those Superiours which Christ by himself and by his Spirit and by his blessing and by his providence and by the favour of Princes hath made firme as heaven and earth never to be dissolved until the Divine Fabrick of the house of God it self be shaken I pray give my service to the good Man and I do heartily thank him for my share of the book by which I have already had some pleasure and some profit and hope for more when my little affairs will give me leave strictly to peruse every unobserved page in it When I onely heard of it I was confident he would do it very well and now I see it is so very well done and in that grave judicious manner if you had not told me I should have been confident it had been his Vox hominem sonat I pray God that he may finde encouragement according to the mertt of his labours and acceptance according to his good intentions and that his book may not receive its estimate according to the cheap and vast numbers of others but according to its own weight The strength that was put to this would have resisted a stronger adversary but it could not readily have supported a worthyer cause and because I beleeve it was done with as much charity as learning I hope it will have the blessings of God and of the Church and the peace of all good men I onely have this to adde further I wish that this worthy man would enter into no more warre but against the open enemies of mankinde that he would dispute for nothing but for the known Religion of Jesus Christ that he would contend for no interests but the known concernments of the Spirit in the matter of good life which is the life of Religion and my reason is not onely because I finde that he calls his adversary Brother and it is not so good that Brethren should contend but because men are wearied with disputes and the errors of this or any age after the first batteries and onsets by the Church are commonly best confuted by the plaine teaching of positive truths and the good lives and the wise governments of our Superiours and after all I believe that though he does manage this contest prudently and modestly yet the spiritual warre against direct impiety he would manage much more dexterously and prosperously and for his auxiliaries he would be more confident of the direct and proper aides of the Spirit of God This
provokes the appetite Reader it was the Authours purpose sometime to delight thee but most of all to edifie informe confirme thee which if it may be effected he hath his end For it is my hearty prayer that a period may be set to this wrangle and that we may all turn to the way of truth and peace Farewel W. N. A KEY to open the Debate about a Combinational Church and the power of the KEYES The first Part. THE chief point of the Controversie lies in this to know in whose hands the power of the Keys shall be or rather who shall be the Prime subject of the Keys Of this I finde three opinions Cotton Burton Goodwin Nye Assert the name Bayly p. 132. The first defended by the Independents or Combinationals A second defended by the Presbyterians and a third by the Prelates 1. The Combinational Churches are divided in this point for some seat power in the whole Congregation so soone as associated in Covenant even before they have any Officers Others after the Officers are chosen settle it in them alone A third even then conjunctim make the whole body the subject of the Keys Which of these or whether any of these is like to be true will appear if we consider these two or three things 1. That the Presbyters and Ruling-Elders cannot be the prime subject is apparent because that the Keys were seated in some before they were in them if you be constant to your own principles For how came they to be Elders and Rulers were they not created by the power of the Keys and who created them was it not they who did elect and ordaine The prime power then must be in the electors and ordaiâ—ers not in the elected and ordained whence it will follow inevitably that the Ruling Elders are not the prime subject of power for a power there is which precedes theirs 2. After Election and Ordination they viz. Ruling Elders cannot be so neither because it is your common Tenet that the Congregation may again upon displeasure resume the Key Depose Excommunicate cast out their own Elders which they could not do were they not the prime subject of the Keys and authority primarily in them 3. But if you shall say that conjunctim people and Elders together are the prime subject this cannot be neither Because before they are thus conjoyned the Electors and Ordainers had the true essence of a Church as you teach both for matter and forme though they had no Officer nor Elder and then must radically and originally be invested with this power in the first combination without any reflexion on this conjunction So that as they are an organical Church heightned by Rulers and Elders it makes them not the prime subject of the Keys for this you say they had before That the people divisim without the Elders and Rulers are not the prime subject of this authority I prove in this Tract demonstratively I onely here adde that the power of the Keys consists in binding loosing preaching administring Sacraments c. which till you can prove to be in the people originally I shall never yeeld the power to be originally in their hands The difficulties are so many and the subtleties so nice among you in this dispute that they have forced your finest heads Robinson Cotton Goodwin Norton to invent so many distinctions divisions subdivisions that a man must needs think himself in a maze that reads them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Schoolmen which you so much complaine of are exceeded by you And yet when all 's done by these you could never yet satisfie your own party and therefore expect not to settle others It shewes you are in a Labyrinth and would faine help your selves out by the small threads of these prettily invented distinctions In a word that there are very many knots and objections to which your Tenet is liable For you know that all distinctions were invented to give light to that which is very perplexed intricate dubious ambiguous and aeâ—uivocal 2. That this your assertion is mainly denied opposed battered and beat down by the Presbyterians I need not tell you or that they deny the the Congregation to be either conjunctim or divisim the prime subject of the Keys and settle it upon the Eldership primò immediate adaequatè Finalitèr objectivè they will grant you that the whole Church is the subject but autoritativè formalitèr they place it in the Guids or Presbyters without a Bishop And of this opinion Rutherford is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he runs into the same inconvenience with your Rabbies For to make his thoughts good he hath so many nicities so many new-coined distinctions of power of the Church of I know not what that he is able to confound any Reader and indeed drives on the point till he becomes almost unintelligible Is not this think you a rare device in him and in yours to finde out a Truth and settle a conscience about Church-government 3. The Pâ—elates are opposite to both they deny the Congregation conjunctim or divisim to be the first subâ—ect of the Keys They deny the Presbyterian Eldership to be the prime subject of Church power And they place it under Christ in the Apostles and their successors and for this they plead our Saviours promise Matth. 16. and his donation John 20. They plead again the Apostolical practice extant in the Scriptures Acts 8.17 Acts 14.23 1 Tim. 4.14 1 Tim. 5.22 2 Tim. 1.6 Tit. 1.5 and again the perpetual practice of the Catholick Church ever since according to that of Jerome Decretuâ— est toto orâ—e ut unus è Presbyteris electus ceteris superponeretur which testimony I have at large afterwards cited and opened at full This is the state of the whole question and which of these is likelyest to be most true I shall leave it to the unbyassed Reader to judge after he hath read over this Treatise In nomine Domini October 29. 1656. ad honorem Iesu Christi ipsius Ecclesiae ad veritatis aram haec offero An answer to the Admonitory Letter The words are these SECT I. Reverend Sir THat the glorious God who is the giver of all grace as well as of every good and perfect gift would never be weary of conferring on you or of continuing in you or yet of encreasing by you those real and rich gifts and graces which he out of his good will and meere goodnesse was pleased to indue and adorne your precious soul withal for the due and daily use and exercise whereof his maine aime and uttermost end was his own service and your own solace to traine you up higher in holinesse and happinesse as I am hopefully perswaded in my very heart then most of your companions or acquaintance kindred or countrey and that at the least by the head and shoulders 1. An humble motion for you is one of those motions with
of Christ either really hath for the present or else earnestly longs and desires to have for the future both a name and a naile according to what is promised to the beleeving Gentiles and was performed to the beleeving Jews Isa 56.5 Ezra 9.8 such a naile was Eliakim the Type of Christ Isa 2. An hearty motion to you 22.23 Upon this you move me to spend sometimes a few of my morning thoughts maturely to peruse ponder and apply what is by you set before my eyes and propose to my consideration And I assure you I am not now to begin to do it for I could present you if I pleased with many animadversions on this subject many years since collected I am not such a stranger in Israel to be ignorant of these things which are obvious to any one that hath been conversant but meanly in the Scriptures however for your monition I thank you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SECT III. The Letter NExt you begin to enlarge upon your distinction and move first That some others especially such of yours whom it may more nearly concern to be well seene and skill'd therein may have made known unto their souls by your that is my self how and where you shall see cause and think fit that the firt visible Church c. This motion I embrace and it shall be perform'd But whom you note out by such of yours I know not If you meane those of my own Order I know many of them as well if not better seene and skill'd in these things already than my self so that this were operam oleum perdere however they shall have notice of it But if you meane of the common sort it hath been so often inculcated by me into them that to do it again is actum agere Yet by the way give me leave to intimate that I am not pleased with the phrase Such of yours for it seemes to me to be distinctive and among Protestants I never liked these pronowns Yours and Ours they border too near upon separation which I would not have amongst us who are all one in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.15 We may in some things think otherwise and yet belong to the same fold God in his good time will reveale the Truth away then with these termes of distance Yours and Ours Now I proceed with your words The Letter The first visible Church which was constituted by the wise Builder thereof was a Domestical Church being outwardly guided and governed by the first borne of the family who were types and shadowes of Christ Jesus in the several houses of professing Saints and did continue from Adam and Abels dayes to the time of Moses and Aarons pilgrimage in the wildernesse of Sin as doth plainly appear to all that do deliberately weigh both what is exprest and what is necessarily implyed in Gen. 4.4 compared with Exod. 12.7 Answer IN the substance I agree with you But I pray take it not ill that I cleare up some expressions that may be mistaken 1. You say the first visible Church is Domestical and did so continue from Adam to Moses That at first the discipline and government of the Church began and continued in certaine families cannot be doubted but that it so continued till Moses dayes is not easie to conceive because as families multiplied there must be a multiplication of these Chuâ—ches as there was of houses whence it will follow that every eldest sonne must be King and Priest in his own house and then what will become of the prerogative of the first-borne Gen. 27.29 who during life was to be Lord over his brethren Better therefore I conceive it is to say that this reglement was Paternal and that all the several families were to depend on him durante vitâ both for instruction and discipline For while the first father liv'd he was 1. a Prophet to teach 2. A Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sacrifice intercede to blesse and give thanks 3. A Prince to rule and punish Thus Adam as a common father guided the Church for nine hundred and thirty years Seth the sonne of Adam was his fathers assistant for five hundred years and taught his children who were then the Church to call on the name of the Lord Gen. 4. and continued that charge one hundred and twelve years after his fathers death Enosh did the like to Seth and all the heirs of the promise to the fathers God alwayes stirring up the spirits of some excellent men to preach in his Church while their fathers yet liv'd and guided the number of the faithfull as for example Enoch that prophesied three hundred years Gen. 5.22 2 Pet. 2.5 Gen. 5.27 first under Adam and after under Seth in whose dayes he was translated So Noah a preacher of righteousnesse began under Enoch and held on for six descents till the year the flood came the very year his grandfather Methusalem died I would call these then extraordinary and immediate Prophets raised up by God to instruct his Church during the time of their fathers principality and priesthood Noah after his grandfather Methusalems death govern'd the Church for three hundred and fifty years and left the reglement to Sem who succeeding his father in the Covenant and adopted into the dignity of the first-borne govern'd the Church one hundred fifty and two years after his father even till Abraham was dead Isaac dimme and Jacob fifty two years old and therefore might be the Melchizedech Gen. 14. Heb. 7. the Priest of the most high God The next that succeeded Sem was Jacob by Gods especial choise too Esau having sold his birth-right As for Abraham and Isaac they could not lay claime to theâ—e rights of primogeniture Sem being yet alive Call'd indeed Abraham was and promised to inherit it but possessed of he was not because Sem out-lived him he therefore is called a King and the Priest of the most high God In Jacob this primogeniture was estated among whose sonnes God divided the honours and dignities of Sem 1 Chron. 5.1 appointing the Scepter and seed to Judah the Priesthood to Levi the double portion to Joseph which never were again conjoyned in any but in Christ Jesus the onely Priest that ever succeeded according to the order of Melchizedech By whom the Church was after Jacobs and Josephs decease governed in Egypt is not so certaine but very probable it is that it was done by the fathers and heads of the twelve tribes over which I conceive Judah was the chief Gen. 49.8 according to the tenor of Jacobs blessing Thy fathers children shall bow down before thee The summe of this is that when the people of God increased and multiplyed into a Nation and diverse Nations for ought we know as before the flood they did and when after the flood they did the like it is not so proper to call it a Domestical Church that was so farre extended And if the instruction
strong as you may read in Rutherford and Bayly out of him yet this one drawn from this Apostolike Synod I suppose were unanswerable No Synod can impose Decrees upon any Combinational Church That 's your own Maxime But this Synod did impose her Decrees upon those Churches which you say were Combinational This proposition is evident in the Scripture Acts 15. and verse 22 and 35. Therefore now if this Church of Antioch were subject to the authority of Synods what Church might plead a freedome from the like subjection and consequently none is Independent Thus have I as it were in a Table presented you with the plain face of Truth and sent it you bare and naked as Truth should be If the visage seem old the better 't is as I intended it that hinders not but she may be comely venerable amiable for he that will reverence and love truth he must do it because she is an Ancient Matron For Quod primum verum sed enim in omnibus veritas imaginem aniccedit pâ—stremo similitudo sucoedit Tertull. Praes c. 29. cap. 31. Ex ipso ordine manifestatur id esse Dominicum verum quod sit prius tradijtum id autem extraneum falsum quod sit posteriùs immissum A rule which that learned father often inculcates but nowhere more clearly then in this fourth book against Marcion where he hath these words by aggravation Tertull. l. 4. adversus Marcion c. 5. In summa si constat id verius quod prius id prius quod est ab initio ab initio quod ab Apostolis pariter utique constabit id ab Apostolis traditum quod apud Ecclesias Apostolicas fuerit sacrosanctum which Chapter is worth your reading for there the learned man refers the Original of Bishops to the Apostles intimates their succession which in many Churches he doth more clearly in the thirty second Chapter of his prescriptions This prime Truth I have here represented with her Ancient Officers about her the Bishops with a Presbytery of which in wisdome she thought fit to raise some higher not in Office but in Degree ne quid detrimenti Ecclesia capiat And this advancement was no new device neither for we read of Metropolitans and Primates before the Nicene Council as I have prov'd after of Patriarchs Yet all this while the Church remain'd a pure Virgin Thebulis being the fiâ—st that corrupted the Church Hegesipp apud Euseb l. 4 c. 21. Tertull. because he could not be a Bishop as did afterwards Valentinus and Marcion upon the same occasion and I had almost said Tertullian himself This certainly shewes that the Office of a Bishop even then was no contemptible dignity For certainly the rejection of such men from the over-sight of a Congregational Church could never work such men to so great discontent Of such parties they were the chief even after they had failed of their expected hopes No question they were of Diotrephes minde John Epi. 3.10 they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they desired to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primates so old is that word in the Church to which because they could not be admitted they corrupted it with their doctrines Ambition is by Charron call'd the shirt of the soul Charron of wisdome being the first garment that it puts on and the last that it puts off for men while there be men will be of aspiring minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even a beggar will strive to be chief of his company and a tradesman to be Master over those of his own profession this cannot nor ever will be avoided Such thoughts have alwayes tickled Church-men Now to satisfie this desire God hath appointed higher places in his Church and so they be desired in a fair way and to lawful ends it is commendable 1 Tim. 3.1 ver 31. Conc. Afric Chalced. Sardic Naz. in Athanasij vitâ This is a true saying saith the Apostle If a man desire the office of a Bishop he desires a good work and again in the same Chapter they that have used the office of a Deacon well purchase unto themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a faire step to ascend to a higher degree as first to a Presbyter then to a Bishop And it is written of Athanasius that he ascended by all these steps till he became Patriarch of Alexandria then he was set upon the highest step and yet this advancement of his or any other cannot hinder the government of the Church for being Aristocratical but confirms it rather since in this eminence he was to guide the Church not according to his own pleasure but according to the prescribed Canons of Synods and Councils from which if he erred he was liable to answer to the supreme Court of an Oecumenical Assemblie I have you see laid the foundation of the Churches government in Aristocracy of which Monarchy and Democracy are the extremes If you can shew me any Church that hath deviated from the middle way I shall confesse it to be corrupt And for the first it is easie to instance viz. the Romane Church whose Patriarch affects a Monarchy and his Courtiers and learned Rabbies the Jesuites plead stifly for it But then you must not take that way you do to prove it for the erection of Cathedral Parochial Diocesan Provincial and National Churches through his Patriarchate will never do it Since these were from the beginning in other Patriarchates and in his too when no Monarchy was ever dream'd of or challeng'd That his challenge I acknowledge to be a corruption And if any Church shall affect Democracy I shall say it is corrupted also in that it observes not that Apostolical rule of government and discipline which was then used as I have demonstrated It is then a great mistake in you to make the Presbyterial or Combinational Church to be the sole pure and Apostolical Church and that all Churches that are fallen off from that government are corrupted This if you can confirme fairely and firmly by unanswerable arguments as you make shew of then you have reason to fasten your degeneration and corruption on Cathedrals Parishes Diocesses Provinces and Nations but if this can never be done as I am assured it cannot then I shall affirme that the casting the Church into Cathedrals Parishes c. was not errour since by that the discipline of the Church might be better administred and the Aristocratical government far advanced and furthered And so having express'd unto you my thoughts in the general I now come to examine what you lay to the Churches charge in particular in the discussion of which I hope you will give me leave to prosecute my own method and I shall begin with the Cathedral which you say was the second degree but I conceive it the first Of this your words are SECT III. The words of the Letter The second degree of the Combinational Churches corruption
was the Cathedral Churches generation which did presume to alter and elevate the places and appellations of the Teacher Pastour Ruler and Deacon unto those unscripture-like titles of Lord-Bishop Dean Chancellor Surrogate Arch-Deacon who ventur'd to usurp the power of excommunication against the Members and Ministers of many Congregations in their Synods and Councils contrary to what was practic'd in that Orthodoxe pattern Acts 15.24 which is laid down and left as well for the imitation as information of after-ages whose work it was by Scripture-proofs to confute soul subverting positions and to confirme Christian doctrines without using any manner of authority to censure any mans person being that that is the expresse priviledge of the Presbyterial Church 1 Cor. 5.4 5. 2 Thes 3.15 The babe-age of which usurpation is made mention of as newly appearing in the world by what was exercised by Alexander of Alexandria against Eusebius of Nicomedia as well as against Arius in the reigne of Constantius and Constance the sonnes of Constantine the Emperour as it is to be seen in Socrat. Schol. Lib. 1. c. 3. compared with the 32 cap. lib. 2. and Evagr. lib. 1. cap. 6. Reply That I may return you a full answer I must take asunder into propositions what you here deliver You say 1. The Combinational Churches corruption was the Cathedral Churches generation 2. The corruption was by changing the places and appellations of Teachers c. into the titles of Lord Bishop Dean Chancellour Arch-Deacon 3. That they ventured to usurp the power of excommunication in their Synods and Councils 4. That this was contrary to the Orthodox pattern Acts 15. 5. Authority to censure any mans person is the expresse priviledge of the Presbyterial Church 1 Cor. 5.4 5. 2 Thes 3.15 6. Alexander ab Alexandria began this against Arrius and Eusebius of Nicomedia so that it was an usurpation and a new age in the Church 1. Proposition That the Combinational Churches corruption was the Cathedral Churches generation IT is a rule in Philosophy Non entis non sunt accidentia that corruptio is mutatio entis ab esse ad non esse tale That which is corrupted then must have an entity for else it can never be corrupted Now your Combinational Church in the time you speak of was a non en◠there was no such thing and then it could not be corrupted nor any other Church rise from that corruption Which shall further appear if we shall distinguish of the terme Cathedral which I hinted at first for as among Logical notions there be termini primi and à primo orti so also it is in this the word Cathedral being taken in a primitive and in a derivative sense If you take it in the prime sense it denotes unto us those places or chief Cities where the Apostles for some time or Apostolical men by their appointment took up their residence for conversion of the people and reglement of the Church hence it is that we so often read of in the fathers Cathedra Jacobi which was at Jerusalem Cathedra Petri which was for seven years at Antioch after at Alexandria and last of all Cathedra Apostolorum Petri Pauli at Rome In those Churches where they staid for any long time and preach'd and planted Religion which were commonly the Metropolis of that Province or Country as Ephesus Corinth Philippi at their departure they left a Bishop with a Presbytery to govern and thence these Churches were call'd Ecclesiae Cathedrales This is the prime importance of the word But after as Christianity was extended and Bishops were seated and erected in divers Diocesses they began to build Churches in which at first the Bishop and the Presbyters did reside who were to over-see the Diocesse and because of their residence in this place the Church in imitation of the Apostles Chairs was call'd the Cathedral Church Neither was this Cathedral so new Euseb l. 2. c. 17. as most men suppose For I shall not stick to call the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Egypt mentioned by Eusebius out of Philo the Jew a Cathedral it will seem so to any man that shall advisedly read that Chapter for he writes of their government of them to whom the Ecclesiastical Liturgies are committed Of their Deaconships of the presidency of Bishops placed above all To which that of Palladius will give much light for he saith Palladius in Histor Lausiaca that in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there were eight Presbyters and that so long as the chief over them liv'd none of the rest might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here the Scriptures were read prayers continued Hymnes and Canticles in every kind of Meeter sung to God penances transacted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the old Sabbath and every Lords day I cannot conceive but this might be a Cathedral even in this last sense I shall instance in another which was old Euseb l. 3. c. 23. even in Saint John's time the Apostle He commended the young man to the chief of all the Bishops can any man think he was lesse than a Metropolitane the man prov'd deboist ran from the Church and became a thief At his return John demanded of the Bishop his charge the Bishop sobbing and sighing said he is dead dead to God for he is become wicked and pernicious and to be short a Thief for he keeps this Mountain over against this Church together with his associates 't is more then probable this was a Material Church for how else could the hill be over against it and presently it is said that the Apostle hastened out of the Church Now I judge it to be Cathedral because he that was the chief of the Bishops had his residence in it Let it be also considered what Eusebius writes in his tenth book Euseb l. 10. c. 2. cap. 2. that in the beginning of Constantines reign that the Temples were again from the foundations erected to an unmeasurable height and received greater beauty than ever they enjoy'd before their destruction They were then before and were but now again erected And we of all other have least reason to doubt of this since Joseph of Arimathea erected a Church at Glastenbury as the best of our Historians record Gildas Spilman Cambden and Spilman hath in picture given us the extent and fashion and materials of it After divers other Cathedral Churches were erected in this Island by King Lucius if there be any truth in our Records at Landaff at London at Chester c. as you may read in Ephraim Pagetts Christianography part 3. page 1 c. Now take the Cathedral in which of these acceptions you please your assertion cannot have any truth in it Not in the first for then you make the Apostles the authours of this corruption since they were the erectors of these Cathedrals not in the last because they were erected after the Apostolical patterne The plain truth is that the corruption of
30. Bede lib. 2 c. 2. Galfr. Monum lib. 11. cap. 12. Godw. page 45. But the answer which the British Bishops gave to Austin being summoned to give him a meeting where by perswasions threats and all manner of means he endeavoured to draw the Britaine Bishops to an entire conformity to the Church of Rome is so clear an evidence that I cannot see how it can be evaded for the answer was short and peremptory that they might not submit themselves to him having an Arch-Bishop of their own c. And in a second meeting being offended with his pride Sir H. Spelman Conc. Britan An. 590. ex Manusc Saxon. Bed lib. 2. c. 2. Bale Cent. 1. fol. 35. Bede lib. 2. c. 2. because he would not rise to them at their coming into the Assembly they gain-said him in every thing for say they si modo nobis assurgere noluit quanto magis si ei subjici ceperimus nos pro nihilo contemnet This repulse occasioned the slaughter of the Monks of Bangor over whom Dinoth was the Caenobiarcha as Bale calls him who as it is supposed was that holy man in Bede that taught them how to discern whether he was sent of God to them or no. For saith he if he be a meek and an humble man it is an evident signe that he bears the yoke of Christ and offers the same to you but if he be stout and proud he is not of God you may be sure and his deportment was such as I said which alienated the Bishops minds and the Monks with them Our adversaries of Rome take it very ill that Austin should be thus accused of pride and cruelty and use all their wits in his excuse They would perswade us he was dead when this Massacre was committed but Bishop Juel hath evidently confuted their allegations and made it appear that in that Warre he was alive Juel defens Apolog quinta pars cap. 1. divisio prima and the instigator of it Had you then set the saddle upon the right horse and fixed those Epithites of proud and profane upon Austin you had some colour for it But to fasten it upon the whole order upon Arch-Bishops and Metropolitans for one mans sake is want of charity of which he was not the founder neither in this Land as I have proved to you Nor Fox nor any English Historians nor Evagrius say any such thing Evagrius could not for nor Gregory was Bishop of Rome nor Austin sent hither when he writ ended his History All that Fox or any other Historian can say is that Austin was the first Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and that shall readily be yielded you now when I hear how you can improve that concession to your advantage you shall receive an answer I could if I pleased anticipate your objections but I will not now do it because I hasten to what follows SECT VI. The words of the Letter THe fourth degree of the Combinational Churches infamous defection was its notably naughty enlarging it self into a National Church where and whence without controversie arose that Jewish imitation and irregularly Religious observation of five frivolo s and foundationlesse customes and traditions of which the first was of National times as the fifty yearly Festivals or holy working-dayes Cursed-Masse Candle-Masse c. The second was of National places as the Consecrated meeting houses Porches Chancels and Church-yards The third was of National persons as the Universal Preachers Office-Priests Half-Priests or Diocesan Deacons The fourth was of National pious performances as stinted Worship Quiristers singing of Psalmes with all the Rubrique Postures And the fifth was of National payments or spiritual profits as offerings tithes and mortuaries all which fruitlesse and fantastical fashions were the illegitimate legal off-spring of National Parliaments in this and in the Neighbor-Nations Witnesse the publick Acts Statutes and other Ordinances in that behalf The Reply SIr that affection which I have alwayes borne you as a friend and that duty which I owe you as a Christian moves me in plain words to tell you that the indulgence you bear to the Combinational Church hath in this Paragraph transported you beyond the bounds of moderation and truth For to omit your common Sophisme petitio principii which is the foulest in all Logick that there was at first a Combinational Church and that this did precede a National which is as if you should say the parts are before the whole when the contraty in nature hath hitherto been received for truth that omne totum sive universale sive integrale est prius partibus But to omit this you over-load your assertion with many unnecessary Epithets and those sometimes unapt whereas attributes are ornaments and where they are not decently affixed they become our speech no more than a fair gold lace doth a coarse garment or a rich jewel fastned to a straw hat Thirdly the five frivolous customes and traditions you reckon up are no proper accidents of the National Church but were common to the Provincial Cathedral and Parochial and so no distinct notes to know that the National Church was corrupted more than they should I yield them to be corruptions Lastly you say they were brought in by a Jewish imitation which if granted it would not at all help your cause as I will after make appear These are your undertakings in this Section and I shall not need to analyse it as I have done before because you have methodiz'd it to my hand for which I thank you The first thing then I shall prove unto you is that there is such a thing as a National Church and that it was before your Combinational so that it cannot be true which you affirme that the fourth degree of the Combinational Churches defection was its notably naughty enlarging it self into a National Church 1. That there is a National Church and that this was first is consonant to Scripture to reason to experience 1. FIrst it is very consonant to Scripture God after Adams fall made a Covenant with mankinde for salvation The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head The words of the Covenant were obscure and therefore God was pleased to adde light to them Gen. 3.15 Gen. 12.3 Gal. 3.8 in that promise he made to Abraham In thy seed i. e. Christ shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed That this promise was made to the Church is beyond all question and who were this Church but all Nations not to Abrahams seed after the flesh Rom. 4.13 9.8 but to Abrahams seed through the righteousnesse of faith was the promise made not to the Jewes but to the Gentiles also was the promise made and both go here under the name of Nations and what should hinder now but the Church into which both should be gathered should be called a National Church The argument is drawn à Denominatis Natio is Denominaus National denominativum Jewes and Gentiles Denominatum
the proposition then is true that Jewes and Gentiles make one National Church Hence it is that what God said of the Jew Exod. 19.6 ye shall be to me a Kingdome of Priests and an holy Nation is by Saint Peter affirmed of the Christian Church ye are a chosen generation 1 Pet. 2.9 a royal Priesthood an holy Nation Which when effected our Saviours words were fulfilled other sheep I have which are not of this fold John 10.16 them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice that there may be one fold and one Shepherd Farther yet a prophesie is extant Isa 2.2 Isa 2.2 Mic. 4.1 2 c. Jer. 4.2 Isa 65.1 Zach. 2.11 Zach. 14.9 Psalm 2.8 Psalm 22.27 Matth. 21.43 Rom. 4.17 And it shall come to passe in the last dayes that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it Let other texts be compared with this which speak the same thing Thus it was foretold and that what was foretold might accordingly be fulfilled our Saviour gave his disciples a Commission in these general words Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost c. Matthew 28.19 And I pray call to minde that when Peter baptized the penitents Acts 2.39 he comforted them with these words for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as our Lord God shall call And yet after this even Peter himself and the Apostles and the brethren that were in Judaea of this had but a confused notion for when Peter came up to Jerusalem Acts 11. Acts 10. they that were of the Circumcision contended with him about it to whom he was feigne to make his Apology opening to them the vision of the sheet which when they heard these things they glorified God saying then hath God also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life In effect they attested the truth of Peters words Verse 34. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons looks now no more upon a Jew than he doth upon a sinner of the Gentiles but in every Nation he that feareth him and doth righteousnesse is accepted of him The partition wall being broken down what could they be but one church I can never sufficiently wonder at your words when you call this accesse of all Nations a naughty enlargement What is that which God by Covenant with Abraham promised naught that naught which he foretold should be that naught which Christ gave Commission to his disciples to do that naught which the Disciples did All Nations Isa 2.2 All flesh Isa 66.23 All the kindreds of the earth Psal 22.26 27. A multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people Rev. 7.9 are said to be the people of God under the New Testament and yet you will not allow them the name of a National Church But a stronger foundation for this Truth there cannot be than that which Saint Paul hath laid under the similitude of an Olive which had two kinds of branches natural verse 21. and wild 17. Rom. 1â—â— The natural were the Jewes the wild the Gentiles the natural were broken off through unbelief and the wild by faith graffed in These wild now being naturalized are in the same condition that the Natural were before they were broken off But the Natural branches were in the Olive totally the whole Nation they and their children which made the National Church of the Jewes and therefore the wild branches must be so inserted they and their children also which will make the National Church of the Gentiles which is the full scope and intention of the Apostle in that chapter Finally the very same Covenant that was made with Abraham 2 Cor. 6.16 is made with the Corinthians 2 Cor. 6.16 I will be their God and they shall be my people As that then was extended to the whole Nation of the Jewes Lev. 26.12 Levit. 26.12 so also is it now to be extended to the whole Nation of the Gentiles so that all those Nations that have had the Gospel preached unto them and answering that Gospel have received the doctrine of Christ submitting to his Ordinances in the profession of his Name are to be reckoned as they were 1 Pet. 2.10 Acts 8.12 13. John 6.66 Acts 11.26 1 Cor. 1.2 1 Cor. 12.13 Matth. 8.11 the people of God 1 Pet. 2.10 Beleevers Acts 8.12 13. Disciples John 6.66 Christians Acts 2. Saints by calling 1 Cor. 1.2 The Church of the Gentiles 1 Cor. 12.13 The Kingdome of Christ Matth. 8.11 Thus have I shewed you that since the whole Church quoad materiale doth consist of Nations there can be no impropriety or absurdity in it when we call any part thereof a National Church or the Church of Beleevers in any one Nation And now let us see what help you can have for the confirmation of this besides Scripture out of the principles of reason 2. We believe in our Creed the Catholique Church and Catholique it is called in respect of all ages and times because before under and after the Law it alwayes was and secondly in respect of persons for there is not any person of what degree sex condition or age that may not be a member of it And thirdly in respect of places in that as formerly the Jewes so now all persons in all Nations have a capacity to be of the Church of Christ Universality then being an attribute of the Church it cannot be found in any one Church limited either in respect of time or place Either then make your Combinational Church the Catholique or you must extend it farther and if so why not to a Province and if to a Province why not to a Nation nay many Nations And be it you should assume the name of Catholique and fasten it to every particular Combinational Church yet particular Societies of Christians can lay no farther claime to it than they can demonstrate themselves to belong to that Church that hath a true and a just title to it which no particular Church can do but by proving that it holds the common faith once delivered to the Saints without heretical innovation Ames lib. 1. c. 31. Sect. 20. or schismatical violation of the Unity and Peace of the Christian world This being the way for particular Churches to demonstrate themselves to be Catholique necessary it is that they be united at least to those Congregations of that Nation whence we may infer that there must needs be a National Church which also that must do and shew clearly that it maintaines whole and undefiled the foundations of faith before it can be acknowledged to be Catholique 2. That which makes men mistake in this point is that they make the Church to be species
and heady animosities fall asunder and break into several fractions and subdivisions so that they by reciting a certain forme of words seem to meet as pieces of wood finely glued together which a little spittle or wet dissolves Then again it is uselesse to them who are bound already by a higher and more solemn Covenant for this is as it were to binde a man with wisps of straw that is already bound with chains of gold For every true and conscientious Christian knows and owns himself to have upon his conscience farre more strict and indissoluble ties not onely of nature and creation but of the Law and word of God yea and of Christian Covenant and Profession by his Baptismal vow besides that bond of the other Sacrament that I speak not of his vowes renewed by often promises in his prayers and repentant promises All which binds the consciences of all good Christians to all duties of piety and charity according to the relations wherein they stand to God and man farre more firmly than any external profession in a Church way can do An external I say for so it is and being meerly external it cannot ingredi rei essentiam make any man formally a Church member that which doth this is the call of God and not the profession of man And now having removed this rub out of my way I shall go on to give you a fourth argument for a National Church 4. That to whom the proper essential and inseparable notes of the Church belong is a Church but to a National Church these notes belong therefore a National Church is a Church The major is certain for it is nota proprii the minor I easily prove The essential notes of the Church as Junius hath excellently demonstrated against Bellarmine Jun. de Ecclesia cap. 16. Doctor Field of the Ch. lib. 2. cap. 2. Whites Orthodox cap. 3. Sect. 6. first the entire profession of these supernatural verities which God hath revealed in his Sonne Secondly the use of such holy Ceremonies and Sacraments as he hath instituted and appointed Thirdly an union and connexion of men in this profession and use of these Sacraments under lawful Pastours and guides appointed authorized and sanctified to direct and lead them in the happy wayes of eternal salvation Now do not these belong to a National Church is there not in it a profession of supernatural verities is not the Word of God publickly preached in it are not holy Rites and Sacraments administred according to Christs institution is there not a succession of lawful Guides and Pastours in it as I have elsewhere proved what then can hinder but there should be a National Church Whatsoever you can say against these notes I have so clearly as I conceive proved that I hold it superfluous to adde any more and therefore I come unto my third proof experience 3. Experience is that wisdome and knowledge of any thing that a man hath by the trial of particulars For when upon a sad examination he finds that so many Individuums agree in aliquo tertio he presently concludes that they all partake of the same nature Let us then take a view of several Churches and those most eminent at first and if it appear that those were National we may from hence easily inferre that the constitution of a Church may be National It is in all Church Histories most evident that as soon as the Gospel was first planted it spread from great Cities into the Neighbour Territories and adjacent Countries which Christians so converted though they exercised the acts of Religion in particular Congregations yet still continued in a fraternal subjection and filial submission to that Bishop and Presbytery which resided in the Mother City It is a foule mistake for men to conceive of the Church of Ephesus Smyrna Thyatyra c. of Corinth Antioch Jerusalem Rome c. as confined to that City whereas he who is acquainted with Histories profane and sacred must know that under these Cities were principalities and so the jurisdiction of that Church was extended to all Christians in that Territory Which to deny is to sleight all Records and to preferre his own single imagination before all antiquity Titus was Bishop of Crete an Island Timothy of Ephesus a Province Polycarp of Smyrna a Territory and what is true of these is as true of all the rest whence we may conclude that a Church may be National for if jurisdiction of one Bishop may extend over so great Cities as they were being then the chief of the world why not then to a Province why not to a Nation especially since by this way mutual peace truth and good order is best preserved This consideration caused the first small company of believers multiplyed from a Church in one family to a Church in many Congregations that could not meet together in one place yet as branches to continue still united to the root Christ Jesus and also to the main body and bulk of the Church by union to that part whence they descended and to which they related For reason taught them that they should be weaker and exposed to more danger if they should be disunited and rent from the body and quickly wither as boughs separated from the stock I need not minde you of that old Apologue of Menenius Agrippa that the head and feet quickly starved and windred away when they would not hear of any longer dependence upon the belly He that would be magnified for Simon Magus or magnus Simon the great and wise for his invention of rarities and Paradoxes in any art or science ought to furnish himself not with popular and specious but with solid and sound arguments if he intend to winne prudent and sober men to be of his judgment for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wise men will not be catch't with those sophisms with which it is easie to take the multitude After the flood there were but eight persons in the world they lived together in a family for some time and Noah as a Prince ruled them But they quickly encreased spread multiplyed grew into those Nations that now live and being dispersed over the earth they yet joyned in societies and for their mutual preservation thought it fit to be governed that way that we now behold Suppose now some great and wise Magus should in these words charme and bewitch the people Non sic fuit ab initio in Noahs dayes the ordering of the world was not as we see it now there were then no mighty Monarchs no surly Lords no Judges no Magistrates Who then spoke of National societies or civil confederations Oh 't was a brave world then when the government was domestical a golden age when no man ruled beyond his own doors but every one was a King at home Could we but contrive a way and live to see it so in our dayes 't would be no question a brave world again When Adam dugge and Eve span who was
their posterity And the Jew strictly so taken need be cast in our teeth no more Thirdly Suppose it were granted that these customes were brought in by a Jewish imitation yet it will not hence follow that they are ere the worse or are therefore to be rejected The objection is old Hook Eccl. pol. lib. 4. Sect. 11. and to it Mr. Hooker hath given a satisfactory answer For the Jewish Ordinances were of two sorts positive or moral The moral were never to be abolished the positive again were such which were not necessary for ever to be retained or such as were left indifferent to be kept or not Sacrifice and circumcision were of the first kind and must necessarily be removed which was done in their due time in these the Christian Gentiles no not at first after the decree Acts 15. must not imitate the Jews But for the second sort such which were of an indifferent nature to be kept or not to be kept of which kinde I will by and by produce many instances the Gentile Christians were no way blameable if they conformed themselves to the Jewish custome Leo Serm. sept de jejun mensis septim which gave Leo occasion thus to begin his Sermon Apostolica institutio dilectissimi quae Jesum Christum Dominum ad hoc venisse in hunc mundum noverat ut legem non solveret sed impleret ita veteris Testamenti decreta distinxit ut quaedam ex iis sicut erant condita Evangelicae eruditioni profutura decerperet quae dudum fuerant consuetudinis Judaicae fierent observantiae Christianae And this very fast of the seventh month then kept may serve for one instance Another shall be that Apostolical decree Acts 15. imposed on the Gentiles that they abstained from meats offered to Idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication Acts 15.29 R. Solomon liber qui Seder Olam inscribitur For the understanding of which decree know we must that among the Jews were two kind of Proselytes the first were called Gertzedek or Proselytae justitiae or foederis for he submitted himself to circumcision and the whole Mosaical Law The second were called Ger-sahagnar Proselytae portae a Proselyte or stranger within thy gates Deut. 14.21 such was Naaman the Eunuch c. He was not circumcised nor bound to observe all the Mosaical Rites Only it was an opinion constantly received among the Jewes that God delivered unto the sonnes of Noah seven precepts which went under the name of Noahs seven Commandements 1. Judgments and punishment for Malefactours 2. Blessing and calling on the Name of God under which was contained the keeping of the Sabbath 3. Disclaiming Idolatry 4. Uncovering of ones nakednesse or all unclean knowledge in the flesh 5. Shedding of blood 6. Robbery and rapine 7. Not to eat of any living creature whereof the blood was not let out Foure of these Commands the Gentiles were apt to observe of their own accord nature leading them thereunto but the other three the Apostles thought good to impose upon them viz the third the fourth and the seventh to give content to the Jewes that the Gentiles being conformable unto them in the observation of these Laws of Noah they might cleave the better together Dare any man now say the Apostles were too blame to bring the Gentiles to a Jewish imitation what should I tell you that all the East Church and we in this Island did celebrate the Feast of Easter upon the fourteenth day of the first moneth upon what day of the week soever it fell untill Constantines time and was not this a Jewish imitation for which indeed Pope Victor condemned excommunicated the Eastern Churches and all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he himself for this presumption and rashnesse is condemned and censured by Irenaeus That the Christians at first kept the Jewish Sabbath as well as the Lords day That the West Church celebrated the Eucharist in unleavened bread is a known truth to all that are acquainted with antiquity and what were these but Jewish Rites and whence could they learn them but from the Jewish Synagogue and yet I never read any condemnation of the Primitive Church for these Whence had they their osculum pacis whence then Agâ—pae but from the Jewes From hence then two conclusions there are which may be evidently drawn The one that whatsoever positive Laws the Apostles or their Successours did bring in between the Churches of Jewes and Gentiles it was in those things onely which might either cease or continue a shorter or a longer time as occasion did most require The other that things indifferent though brought in by the pattern of the Jewish Synagogue yet are not to be condemned and cast out upon this ground because they are of a Jewish imitation If these instances be not sufficient I yet shall adde more that may convince any man who will not be obstinate It is an ordinary observation which P. Fagius in his notes on the Targum first suggested to me and after him Dr. Godwin Fagius in praeced Hebr. Godwin antiq lib. 3. cap. 2. Hamm. vind Liturg. Sect. 43. Cass Liturg. pag. 1. Gen. 48.14 Godw. ant lib. 1. cap. 3. and Dr. Hammond and George Cassander assert that many of the Jewish Ceremonies were imitated by Christ himself under the Gospel I might shew it you in the imposition of hands a forme of benediction among the Jewes as ancient as old Jacob in blessing Manasseâ— and Ephraim and as often used by Christ to the same purpose But I rather choose to do it in the two Sacraments and in the censures of the Church To the making of a Proselyte one of the three Ceremonies required as purification by water which yet was not Sacramental till Christs institution now the Baptisme by water commanded by our Saviour related to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or washing of Proselytes which was used by the Jews at their admission or initiation After the Jewish Feasts they had a Postcaenlum of which Cassander at large thus discourses Primum omnium Judaeus Paterfamilias cum fuis convivis mensae accumbit Cass Liturg. cap. 1. pâ—culum vino plenum dextra manu tenens Precatur in haec verba Benedictus sis tu Domine Deus noster Rex mundi qui creas fructum viâ—is Quo dicto primus omnium vinum degustaâ— quod idem continuo onnibus mensae accumbenibus bibendum porâ—igit Postea panem quem intâ—gram esse massam oportet accipit eumque utraque manu tenendo his verbis consecrat Benedictus sis tu Domine Deus noster qui educis panem de terrâ Hoc dicto pan m frangit ex eo particulam comedit ac singulis mensae accumbentibus singulas buccellas distribuit Hinc consâ—quenter prolixam dicit precem qua in prece gratiâ—ram actiones non solum pro concesso omnibus alimento sed pro omnibus beneficiis olim patribus
These are the words of that Authour which I thought good to transcribe that you should not impute to me any Satyrical expressions let him who hath printed the passage answer for it Farther yet that I may a little allay your odiun and spleen to these Universal Preachers I pray tell me the meaning of those words of your New-Englands constitution delivered in these words Synod at Cambridge cap. 9. Sect. 6. Nor can constant residence at one Congregation be necessary for a Minister nor yet lawful if he be not a Minister to one Congregation onely but to the Church Universal because he may not attend to one part onely of the Church whereto he is a Minister but he is called to attend upon the whole flock I see that magna est veritas praevalebit that Truth when men are out of their heats shall have a fair testimony even from its enemies For what could be said more clearly by us for Universal Preachers than is here delivered And what is more consonant to our Saviours charge to Peter which Saint Paul ingeminates to the Pastours of Ephesus Feed the flock Joh. 21.15 16 17. Acts 20.28 over whom the Holy Ghost hath made you over-seers Every Minister is a Minister of Christ Jesus and ought to have a care of the whole Church though more particularly of that Congregation to which he is designed yet with this proviso that he remember that the whole is within his charge and that therefore he ought to promote the welfare of the Catholick so far forth as lies in his power 2. Office-Priests You delight in compounded words which the Greek elegantly but our language kindly bears not I must then take your compound asunder and aske you which of the words displease whether the Priests or their office The word Priest is derived some say from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then 't is the same with St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence you derive your Ruling Elders and will you catch up the Office Etymolog magn and not own the Name But others more probably from the French word Prebstre in which the letter b is quiescent as all know that know the language and then I hope you will not so much scorne the name hereafter since that Prebstre is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word so often used in Scripture you say for a Lay-Elder we for a Priest yea for that very Priest you jear at the Office-Priest For what is an Office but that duty which every one is bound to do and shall a man be mocked for doing his Office The Office of him who is sometime by us called the Priest sometime the Minister sometimes by other names and yet all 's but one and the same man is to preach the word to administer the Sacraments to make prayers and supplications to give thanks and make intercessions for all men which when he performs he does his Office and for the doing you ought not to condemn him If you or any other in your place shall not conscientiously performe these Offices I shall say he is unworthy to carry the name of a Presbyter which is all one as if I call'd him Priest But make the most and worst you can of it I tell you that there was to remain a Priest-hood under the New Testament not that of Aaron but that of Melchizedech For Christ was to be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedech Heb. 10.10 Thom. part 3. 9. 48 art 3. Jewels reply Art 7. Sect. 9. Id. art 17. 14. Fulk in Matth. 26. Casaub exer 16. Sect. 43. Rom. 12.1 And an Analogy there is betwixt these two They had their bloody Sacrifices then and we have our Sacrifices now to offer For as Christ offer'd up himself once for all a full and all-sufficient Sacrifice for the sinne of the whole world so did he institute and command a Memory of this Sacrifice in a Sacrament even till his coming again For at and in the Eucharist we offer up unto God three Sacrifices One by the Minister only that 's the Commemorative Sacrifice of Christs death represented in bread broken and wine poured out Another by the Minister and people joyntly and that 's the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for all the Benefits and Graces we receive by the blood of Christ The third by ever particular man for himself only and that 's the Sacrifice of every mans body and soul to serve God in both Then in this for ought I know to the contrary we all agree that though the propitiatory Sacrifice was made by Christ himself only yet that in the Eucharist there remains a sacrifice of Duty and a sacrifice of Praife and a sacrifice of Commemoration And therefore I see no reason but the name of Priest may be retain'd also who is to do the chiefest work in the offering of all these sacrifices 3. Half-Priests or Diocesan Deacons But you are not offended with the whole Priests only but with the half-priests also as you call them and you interpret your self by the Deacons whom in scorne you call Diocesan But I pray over what Diocesse were they ever set in what Diocesse imployed That the Bishop of the Diocesse ordained them and permitted them as Probationers sometimes to preach no otherwise than the Catechizers were allow'd in the Church of Alexandria or as Origen by the Bishops of Jerusalem and Caesarea this is certain Euseb lib. 6. c 20. but that they were Diocesan Deacons I never heard before I know what you drive at that the Deacons must only be viduarum mensarum Ministri as at first and must not meddle with the word But to this Mr. Hooker if you please to consult him will give you a full answer which is the same I formerly gave in its due place Hook Eccl pol. lib. 5. Sect. 78. Distribution of the Church stock and attendance on the divine service was the use for which the Deacons were first made but if the Church hath since extended their Ministery further then the circuit of their labour was first drawn we are not herein to think the order of Scripture violated except there appear some prohibition that had abridg'd the Church of that liberty Suppose we the office of teaching so repugnant to the Office of distributing that they cannot continue in one and the same person How was it with the Apostles before that Election How with the 70. out of which they were chosen It seems then that these duties are not so incompatible but they may be found in one man When the duties are such that they cannot be well discharg'd by one then it is good to make a division and substitute under officers as did Moses But when the same man is of ability to do what is laid upon him and to undergo somewhat more it can be no errour to lay a double Task upon him I proceed You say 4. The fourth was of National
tollitur corruptione nisi rotati quam vocant interitum Ecclesia non tollit partialis corruptio sed infirmat Ecclesia Romana omnia habet corrupta sed non omnino haet non interitus est fed partialis corruptio ejus disendu est And therefore to your accusation it is fit for them to answer not for me who maintain none of their corruptions God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ grant by his eternal Spirit that Spirit of eternal Truth that all the deceits and fallacies of Satan being laid asidet we may daily grow up in Christ and his Church and in the truth of Christ and his Church and that we may confirme and establish one another more and more by unfeigned Charity and the bonds of peace to his glory and the common salvation of our selves and all Christians Amen A KEY to open the Debate about a Combinational Church and the power of the KEYES The Third Part. HItherto you have held forth the doctrine in your Letter now you come to the use and application and that you may be the better understood you have thought upon five heads and upon every one of these fastned either a bitter or a joculary Epithite one is vile and virulent another is violent a third is haughty and horrible the fourth is idle and addle and the last an odde head The Spaniard gives us this caution that he whose head is of glasse ought to take heed how he casts up stones into the aire left by chance they fall upon his own pate and crack his crown Before then you made your self so merry with these heads you should have considered whether some ridiculum caput could not have created to himself and others laughter at the invention of more heads in your Combinational Churches than yet you could finde in the Catholick and tell you that you are a Monster of many heads that the Presbyter is a vile and virulent head the Independent a violent the Anabaptist a haughty and horrible the Notioner an idle and addle the Quaker an odde head You perhaps will ask him how it will be proved I will answer for him on the same day when you prove your words true of these Churches you jest at 'T is but the imagination of your own head it is so and I know not anybody that is bound presently to fall down and worship it But I come to your Letter The words of the Letter MAy not any one to whose inwards the knowledge of these particulars is come ingenuously confesse that his very soul is clearly convinced of the mighty and wonderful corruptions which have crept into are cherisht within and contested about by many yea by too too many Christians of too too many Churches The Reply Those indeed who are convinced that they are mighty and wonderful corruptions in ingenuity can do no lesse but confesse it But it is not a bure relation or recital without any proof as you for the most part have done that will convince any ingenuous man You must set to work again and fortifie your words with plain Scripture or sound domonstration yea and remove those blocks I have cast in your way before you shall convince any one who is not of a weak and servile judgment If they crept in you must shew when and by whom which you have not done your bare affirmation being of no validity That they were cherished was well because no corruptions as I have shewed That too too many Christians and too too many Churches contest about them I am sorry for it Better it were we were at peace with our selves and imploy'd our forces against the common enemy to whose entrance by our dissensions we have opened too wide a gap I fear me we shall contest so long that his words will be verified who said at his death Venient Romani The words of the Letter ANd may not I though a stranger to my nearest friends because an Exile newly arrived in the Land of my Nativity safely appeal to any person either of conscience or common sense whither Christ Jesus our supreme Lord Protectour upon whose shoulder the government of the Churches is laid hath not of late years bo n a loud witnesse against every one of those five aforementioned kinds of deformed Churches and that in these very Countries which are counted and commonly call'd Christendome If so God forbid that there should be any Christian man and more especially any Clergy man so carnal or so carelesse in all those coasts as not to be both able and willing to conceive and to conclude himself to be called upon for to consider and lay to heart the great and grievous desolations which his hand hath made amongst the most and mightiest of the sonnes of men The Reply And here I shall with teares in my eyes Eccho back unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid it should be otherwise Oh never let any Christian of what rank soever add that talent of lead to that sinne which hath so highly provoked our good God to pour out the vials of his wrath against this our Church and these three Nations that I mention not the other of Christendome as not to lay it to heart Conceive not there can be so much carnality or carelessenesse yet left in any person imbued with conscience and common sense who hath not considered what God hath done unto us in the fiercnesse of his wrath Mic. 2.3 Lam. 2.17 Dan. 19.14.12 Psal 79.1.2 3 4. We do acknowledge that Gods Word hath taken hold of us that the Lord hath devised a device against us and hath done that which he devised that he hath watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem O God the people are come into thine inheritance thy holy Temple have they defiled and made Jerusalem an heap of stones the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the foules of the aire and the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was no man to bury them we are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us Gods sinking the gates his destroying the walls his slighting the strong holds of Zion his polluting the Kingdome his swallowing the Palaces his cutting off the horne of Israel Gods hating our Feasts his abominating our Sabbaths his loathing our Solemnities Isa 1. Gods forgetting his footstoole his abhorring his Sanctuary his suffering men to break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers Psal 74.6 Lam. 2.6 are all evidences to me that in the indignation of his anger he hath despised the King and the Priest Neither are we so carnal nor carelesse neither but to consider why this is done Justly justly we suffer For the Lord our God is righteous in all his works
which he doth for we obey'd not his voice We have sinned Dan. 9.14 5. 6. and have done wickedly and have rebell'd even by departing from his precepts and from his judgements neither have we hearkened to his servants the Prophets which spake in his Name to our Kings our Princes and our Fathers and to all the people of the Land Yea further that I enter no Apologies no not for them I plead for I set my self now before Gods Tribunal not yours I never read those piercing Scriptures 1. Sam. 2. 3. Jer. 23. Ezek. 33. Hos 4. Mal. 2. I never reflect upon the common conversation in the day of our prosperity and behold Hophni and Phinehas with a flesh-hook in their hand ravening for their fees and wallowing in their lust at the door of the Tabernacle but I find we were highly defective in every duty and thence conclude that our sufferings are not the sufferings of pure Martyrs but of grievous transgressours There is no credit lost by giving glory to God And therefore we shall not stick to acknowledge as much as Cajetan did of the Romish prelates when the Army under Charls the fifth 1527. took Rome He was then upon the interpretation of the 5. chapter of St. Matthew Ver. 13. Ye are the Salt of the earth if the salt have lost his savour what is it then good for but to be cast out c. The Army had then entred the City and had offer'd great abuse to the Clergy in it which he presenting in a Christian meditation inserts these words We Prelates of the Church of Rome do at this time find this truth verified on us in a special measure we who were chosen to be the salt of the earth Evanuimus we are become light persons and unsavoury and therefore by the just judgment of God we are cast out and become a spoile and a prey and Captives not to Infidels but Christians Habes jam confitentes reos and yet I see not what advantage you ever shall be able to make of it no more than Romanists They tell us these miseries are fallen upon us because we departed from them you because we oppose your forms for this you intimate Christ of late years to have borne a loud witnesse against every one of those fire afore-mentioned kinds of deformed Churches But both they and you are mistaken assigning Non causam pro causâ For the cause was not because the Church was either Parochial Cathedral Diocesan Provincial National or a true part of the Oecumenical but that which I have said the abominations that were committed by us our formality and coldnesse in Gods service our ill administration of the keys our not profiting and bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance This hath provoked our God to jealousie This hath moved him to remove for ought yet appears our Candlestick This hath caused him to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children And for this there be yet those that mourne in Zion and melt in the threns of Jeremy câ—ing night and day unto him Joel 2 17. Isa 18. Exod. 34.6 7. saying Spare thy people O Lord and give not thy heritage to reproach wherefore should they say among the people Where is their God And who can tell if the irreversible decree be not past but the merciful Lord will be jealous for his Land and pity his people For he is a merciful and gracious God long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquities transgression and sinne I will not despair when I shall see a sincere national humiliation for this national sinne or sins rather but God will return and have mercy on this National Church He that would have spared Sodome upon Abrahams request could ten righteous men have been found in it will yet I hope spare this Church Jer. 14.20.21 Isa 5.30 Isa 1.25.26 27. in which there be hundreds of tens who pour forth their hearts with Jeremy We acknowledge O Lord our wickednesse and the iniquity of our fathers for we have sinned against thee Do not abhor us for the name sake do not disgrace the throne of thy glory remember break not thy Covenant with us And that though now if one look unto the land behold darknesse and sorrow and the light is darkned in the heavens thereof yet these penitent sighs and groans will be so effectual that God will turn his hand upon us and purely purge away our drosse and take away all our tinn and will restore our Judges as at first and our Councellours as at the beginning and that afterward our Church shall be call'd the City of righteousnesse the faithful City Zion shall be redeemed with judgement and her Converts with righteousnesse This was considered before you returned into the land of your Nativity from which I knew not that you were exil'd before but thought you voluntarily departed and shall be consider'd after your return For you appeal to men of conscience and common sense And now also I shall make my appeal to you whether or no it be not a bitter thing to help forward affliction when God is but a little displeased Remember the insultation of Edom and what came of it Men should take small content in being flagellum Dei For Jerusalem shall be a burdensome stone and a cup of trembling to all them that cry down with it Zach. 12.2.3 Isa 10.5.6 7. ver 16.17 Assur was the rod of Gods anger and the staff in his hand was his indignation sent he was against an hypocritical nation and against the people of Gods wrath to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down as the mire in the streets howbeit he means not so neither doth his heart think so but his heart is to destroy and to cut off nations not a few c. Therefore shall the Lord the Lord of hosts send among his fat ones leannesse and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire and the light of Israel shall be for a fire and his holy One for a flame and it shall burn and devour his thornes and his bryars in one day c. Compare this with the 14. Chapter and tell me then what comfort any man can have in being the rod of Gods wrath against his people An office which I must plainly tell you I read not any of Gods servants ever imployed in Howbeit we shall patiently submit unto it and kisse the rod For thou Lord hast ordained him for our destruction and established him for correction even for our correction to purifie us sons of Levi from our drosse and by his hand who punisheth us for our sins to put upon us Confessours Robes by that contrivance both chastening and covering our sins as the Persians used their Nobles beating their cloaths and sparing their persons Though by it qui foris est the out-side be scorch't yet qui intus est the
cura commissa est A Law there was made by Solon that all Assemblies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Solone were unlawful that the highest authority did not cause to meet Among the Heathen Nebuchadnezzar makes a Law Darius a Decree the King of Nineveh sends forth a Proclamation for a Fast for a Religious service which certainly they had never done had it not been received that they were empowred And among the Romans there was no sooner an Emperour but he took upon him potestatem pontificiam In the Acts we read that the City of the Ephesians was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Mr. Selden teacheth us was an Office to take care of the whole worship and Temple of Diana Seld. not in Marmor Arundel Now this could not be done by any warrant from Scripture evident therefore it is that even by the light of nature seen it was that the supreme power is invested with anthority in Religious duties Care they ought to take that God be served as well as the people governed since they have been hitherto taken to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae 2. Thus it was while reason bare the sway But now let us look into the Scripture How is it written in the Law how read you There it was ordained that the King should have a book of the Law written by the Priests and the end was Deut. 17.18 19 20. that he might fear the Lord and keep it And in this Law there be many precepts that concern him as a man many as a Prince for as Austin Rex servit Deo aliter qua homo aliter qua Rex as a man by a holy Conversation as a Prince by making and executing holy constitutions Austin Ep. 50. As he is the Superiour he is there made the Guardian of Gods Law and the whole Law is committed to his charge By vertue of which Commission when the Kingdome and Priesthood were divided Moses the Civil Magistrate made use of his power over Aaron and reproved him for the golden Calf Joshua a Prince no Priest by the same authority circumcised the sonnes of Israel erected an Altar of stone caused the people to put away their strange gods and renewed the Covenant betwixt God and the people And what other Kings did you have heard before These Acts of these famous Kings performed in Ecclesiastical causes shews clearly what power Kings had under Moses Law And one thing more let me put you in mind of that when there was no King in Israel that was a supreme power for it was no more every man did that which was good in his own eyes and that good was extream bad as the story shews 3. Yea but it may be said that thus it was while the Judicials of Moses were in force but why so now Now the Superiours authority is confined to Civil Lawes Now the Kingdome is Christs and he must rule Indeed could we finde in the Gospel any restriction or rather revocation of what power had formerly belonged to Superiours this plea were considerable but since the rule is true that Evangelium non tollit precepta naturae legis sed perficit The Commission once granted to the Superiour by nature and the Moral Law must be good And be it that the Kingdome is Christs and all power in his hands yet this will be no impediment to what I contend for neither That Christ wants no Vicar on earth but as head of his Church doth govern it is a truth beyond exception But this is to be understood of the spiritual internal government not of that which is external because he must be serv'd with the body as well as with the Spirit in an outward forme of worship as well as an inward therefore he hath left superiours to look to that Their power extends not their accompt shall not be given for what is done within for they cannot see nor cannot judge what is done in that dark cell they have nothing to do with the secret affections of the heart with the sacred gifts of the Spirit with the stedfast trust of future things They are only to moderate and direct the outward actions of godlinesse and honesty and what may externally advance Christs Kingdome So that the question is not here of the internal and properly Spiritual but of the external government order and discipline of the Church which when the supreme power administers as it ought it sets up and no way pulls down the Kingdome of Christ These two are then well enough compatible that the Kingdome is Christs and yet the Superiour way make use of his power in Christs Kingdome A Prophesie there was that under the Gospel Kings should be nursing fathers and Queens nursing mothers to the Church Isa 49.23 Nourishment then they must give that ordain'd for babes that for men the Word and Sacraments they cannot give no more then Uzziah could burn incense or Saul burn Sacrifice no nor yet ordain any to do it The sustenance then which Christians are to receive from them must be that of external discipline and government Those that gave such food were call'd nursing fathers those that denyed it tyrants and persecutors without the favour and execution of this duty Christian Religion had never been so highly advanc'd and therefore the Apostle ordains that Christians pray for those in authority that we may live a quiet and a peaceable life in all godlinesse 1 Tim. 2. and honesty Godlinesse comprehends all duties of the first Table Honesty all duties of the second and where those who are in authority are careful both will be observed both shall be preserved because they know they have a charge of both Thus you see reason Law and Gospel have given a supremacy to those in power non solum in ijs quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam in ijs quae attinent ad religionem divinam I have enlarg'd my self on this subject beyond my intention least you should split upon that dangerous rock of Jesuitisme while out of a dislike of the British King you make him a violent head of the National Church for what you say of him is as true of all others and what is denyed of him is denyed of all others in that their claim and right is all alike and in case it be not just their violence and usurpation is all alike which to affirm is perfect Jesuitisme And wheresoever this doctrin is turn'd into practice it sets up regnum in regno and if it should be brought into this Common-wealth would reduce again what Henry the eight cast out though under another notion for every Eldership of a Combinational Church would be perfect Papacy absolute independent answerable to none to be guided by none in Church matters punishable by none but themselves to which if you will give a right name it is meere Popish power This is it which Superiours have wisely disclaimed and not admitted themselves like children to be
time being not taken as it is now with us strictly for one determinate Town as London Bristol c. but for a whole people which enjoyed the priviledges and immunities of that republick as in A hens Lacedaemon Corinth c. and is now at Florence Venice and divers other places A holy Temple you say it is and what of that must it therefore be of necessity a Combinational Church this would shrink your Combination to a small number nay to principium numeri to one alone if you presse the Metaphor too far for St. Paul asks every Christian Know you not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any man defile the Temple of God 1 Cor. 3.16.17 2 Cor. 6 16. him shall God destroy for the Temple of God is holy which Temple ye are You see then out of this Metaphor you cannot conclude a Combination Yea and much lesse out of that which followeth a spiritual house For the house of God is taken for the whole Church nay a National Church Moses was faithful in all his house Heb. 3.2.5 and that I am sure was a National Church Again judgement shall begin at the house of God 1 Pet. 4.17 what shall judgement the judgment of afflictions begin at the Combinational Church only I have hitherto thought it the cup of which all that are of Christs houshold must taste for datum est vobis pati for our Saviours words must be verified Philip. 1.23 Joh. 16.33 In the world you shall have tribulation And to return to this very house of which the Apostle speaks that of the Ephesians over which Timothy was appointed the Bishop St. Paul writes his Epistles to him that in case he tarry long he might know how to behave himself in the house of God which is the Church of the living God which is the ground and pillar of the Truth St. Paul calls the Church indefinitely without addition 1 Tim. 3.15 either of National or Combinational the house of God and who can conceive that the Combinational as put case that of Swansea Ilston c. should be the pillar to hold out or the foundation to support the Truth This is somewhat worse then those of Rome who plead these words for their Church with more colour with more reason and yet we believe them not because they are but a particular Church and why then should we believe you Observe farther the absurdity that would follow upon your collection The Church of God is a house therefore it must be a Combinational Church Possibly it may fall out that a house may consist of two persons only Tota domus duo sunt an old man and an old woman and thus much you confesse when you bring your proof for it when two or three are gather'd together Now say that one of these two trespasse against his brother what will become of Dic Ecclesiae to whom shall the Plaintiff complain where be the witnesses he shall bring with him who shall be judge Do not then use to presse Metaphors too far for they will bring you into inextricable difficulties I shall therefore put you in mind of an old rule Kecker 1. Syst log part 1. c. 4. Similitudo seu parobola adaequetur principali scopo intentioni declarantis atque extra eam non extendatur To which had you had a regard you would never have brought these comparisons of a City a Temple a house to prove your Combinational Church Similitudes do very well in a Pulpit they are of excellent use to illustrate to amplifie a doctrin but they are of little use in the Schools because they prove nothing that is not true without them The position must be true in proper and plain words before it can have any truth at all in the improper and Tropical As for example it must be true that the Minister was not to be debarr'd of his just allowance and maintenance before St. Paul could prove it by that text out of Moses thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the Co n. And so you must prove there is a Combinational Church before you produce these allusions to prove it Then indeed I shall give you leave to illustrate your position by them and descant as you please by these excellent Metaphors upon them but not till then For nulla Theologia symbolica est argumentativa and the reason is Chrys in Mat. hom 65. because omne simile est etiam dissimile Whence saith Chrysostome excellently In parabolis non oportet miniâ in singulis verbis curá angi sed cum quid per parabolam Dominus intendat dicimus inde utilitate sumptâ nihil ulterius anxiis cogitationibus investigandum And so as I have shew'd out of your Metaphors is nothing prov'd SECT III. The words of the Letter Of the Provincial Church and its haughty head the Arch-bishop THirdly did not Christs own mouth marvellously condemn the prevailing corruptions of the Provincial Church whereof the chief Prelate or Arch-bishop was the haughty and horrible head which was therefore so much the more absurd and bold head because of its base and blasphemous blindnesse in daring to take up and ascribe to its self such a stile and title as is not communicable to any creature but is proper and peculiar to Christs own sacred person being that besides himself none can be safely said to be an Arch-bishop or chief Shepherd if one of the Eminenst of the Apostles may be believed whose words imply no lesse 1 Pet. 5.4 When the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive an incorruptible crown of glory Who was that Church Minister what was his name or where did he dwell who came once into a capacity to be accounted such a Superlative Counsellour or Comforter as was indued either with ability or authority as to confer a spiritual Crown on any one of the sincere Elders of a Church of Saints which is such a matter as a dying sonne of man should not dare to have much lesse to make any mention of without some measure of amazement in his very soul The Reply Two of your heads I have considered already and now out of your own shop you present me with three more for I never heard any one of them call'd heads before And the first of these is the Arch-bishop about whom you are pleased to open your purse and very liberally to bestow your benevolence presenting him unto me for a haughty a horrible an absurd and a bold head He is haughty that is puff'd up with pride horrible that a man cannot without some amazement approach absurd that acts against reason bold that will attempt any thing I will not deny that it is possible to meet with such an Arch-bishop but then blame the man fly not upon the Office Only before you be over hasty to do it look at home And perhaps you may find that true which hath been
observ'd That there hath been more haughtinesse horrour absurdity boldnesse found in some of your Pastours then you can exemplifie in any Arch-bishop If among you or us any Prelate were guilty of these foul enormities I excuse him not only object not these faults of particular persons till you be free But how do you prove your aspersion by a demonstrative reason no question It was say you in daring out of base and blasphemous blindnesse to take up and ascribe to its self such a stile and title as is not communicable to any creature c. To this I have given you your answer before and I list not to repeat it The rest of this Section I understand not well not your interrogation who is that Minister what was his name where doth he dwell c. To the Arch-Bishop sure they belong not for none that I know that was ever in that place did conceive himself in a capacity to be accounted such a superlative counsellour or comforter that was endued either with ability or authority as to conferre a spiritual Crown on any one of the sincere Elders of the Church Among us there never was nor never will be any such man if you can finde him in the society of your Combinationals you should do well to name him for to us he is a non ens These words therefore I passe by as I would the noise of a sounding brasse or a tinkling Cymbal that make a great disturbance in the eare but signifie just nothing The words of the Letter FOurthly was it not Christs own hand that did poure out a dreadful Vial of visible vengeance upon the Cathedral Church where the Lordly Diocesan was not so much the idle as the addle head which therefore under that notion was not venerable nor tolerable because of its direct and point-blank opposition unto divers and down-right peremptory prohibitions as Mat. 20.26 Ye know that the Lords of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them but with you it shall not be so c. 1 Pet. 5. Feed the flock of God which depends on you not as though you were Lords over Gods heritage Which Royal Laws do testifie all such lofty Lords and Lordlesse Out-Lawes to be such illegal and irregular livers as that their unhallowed dwellings appear to be long since destined and appointed for hedg-hoggs to house and harbour at yea for Iim and Ohim with the wild Satyrs to dance in and for Owles and Vultures to dungâ—on being afraid of none to drive them away thus verifying that terrible threat to be performed and fulfilled at length which was proph sied of old witnesse what is written Isa 13.19 c. The Reply We are ready to acknowledge more than you can say that Christs hand hath fallen heavy upon us that the vengeance is just visible Rev. 16.5 7. and with the Angel of the Waters at the pouring forth the third Vial we are ready to praise him saying Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shall be because thou hast judged thus and to eccho unto you those words from the other Angel out of the Sanctuary even so Lord God Almighty true and righteous are thy judgments Verse 10.11 For whereas that Antichristian train under the Throne of the Beast blasphemed the God of heaven for their pains and for their sores and repented not of their works we under the Crosse blesse God and are heartily sorry for our misdoings For this is a true difference betwixt the servants of God and Vassals of Antichrist that under Gods severe hand the one blesseth Jer. 5.3 1 Tim. 3.13 Bernard in Cant. 26. Serm. the other blasphemeth the one rejoyceth the other rageth the one repents and amends the other goes on and growes worse and worse Stellae nocte splendent quae die non videntur And we have hope in this our sorrow and amendment that God may yet stay his hand and not make us drink the dregs of the Cup. For remember that this plague was poured out of a Vial which is a certain measure and more or lesse he can dispense of it Jonah 3.9 as he pleaseth Insult not then over us in our misery For who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not 2. But whereas you say this Vial was poured out on the Cathedral 't is true but you must prove that it was poured out upon it quatenus or because it was Cathedral or else your censure is uncharitable and rash For many enormities and misdemeanours there might be in the Cathedral which I excuse not that might cause God in his fierce wrath thus to proceed against her and yet she no way guilty quatenus Cathedral God punisheth his servant David the sword shall not depart from his house for the matter of Vriah but was this heavy judgment inflicted on him because he was King of Israel The punishment overtook him for his sin not for his regality his power was justifiable not his wickednesse and God shewed his anger against his sinne not his Crown The case is the same the Cathedral I grant was sinful and for that God proceeded against it but not in that Notion as Cathedral for that was justifiable as I have before proved unto you It is then a great shortnesse of discourse in you to conclude that as Cathedral it was punished which if you conclude not you conclude nothing since this vengeance proceeded against the sin of the Cathedral not the Church 3. Of this Cathedral you joy that the lordly Diocesan was not so much an idle as an addle head I little doubt but you pleased your self with this paranomasia as much as the Mathematician did with his Diagramme for the invention of which he offered to Jupiter a whole Hecatombe But what now were these qualities proper or common to the Diocesan if common then it is possible that the Pastour of a Combinational Church may be an idle and an addle head as well as the Diocesan because common accidents are communicable to subjects of divers kinds if proper then it must agree omni to every Diocesan and so every Diocesan an idle and an addle head Cranmer Ridly Latimer Hooper idle and addle heads Jewel Armagh Andrews Morton White Montague Bilson both the Abbots all those eminent and learned Bishops of our Church that have stood up in the gap and fought the battels of the Lord against that Goliah of Rome idle and addle heads Do you not blush at these obloquies by which you impute idlenesse to them who wore out their bodies in continual study and labour in defence of the Truth and addleness such as in a rotten egge to such whose names say you what you please will be venerable to posterity for their wisdome and constancy You usually call all yours painful Preachers and yet what is their pains more then that of the lungs since by your own principles they may not take
and sincerity of a good and sanctifyed life and these are true beleevers and good Christians Yet Christians by external profession those all are who carry that external mark I now named yea although they be impious Idolaters wicked Hereticks Schismaticks Hypocrites profane persons and excommunicable yea and cast out for notorious improbity For they are but so cast out that they may be taken again upon their repentance and that without the setting the seal anew which might not be done if they had been utterly cast off There is but one way onely after a man is entred by Baptisme that can make him forfeit his whole estate in Church society and that is a general revolt and Apostacy from his Christian profession as turning Turk Jew or Infidel All these except the sincere professours we deny not may be the Imps and Limbs of Satan even as long as they continue such is it then possible for the self-same men to be the Synagogue of Satan and to be the Church of Jesus Christ unto that Church which is his mystical body it is not possible because that body consisteth of none but true Israelites true sonnes of Abraham true servants and Saints of God Howbeit that they be true and real and not equivocal Members of the outward visible body it is very possible notwithstanding the unsincerity of their profession and the wickednesse of their conversation which is worthily both hateful in the eyes of God himself and in the eyes of the sounder part of the visible Church most execrable If you doubt of the truth of this remember the Parables of the Corne Field the Net the ten Virgins the Barn-floor the house in which were vessels of honour and dishonour And if these satisfie not then look upon those two plain Texts 1 Cor. 5.11 12. There are scandalous persons enumerated a Fornicatour Covetous a Drunkard yet within that is within the Church and Covenant yet a brother of the visible society for all that and indeed except he be looked upon as a brother and as within how could he be cast out by excommunication for what have we to do to judge those who are without The other place is 2 Thess 3.15 Among whom there was a disorderly person yet he was not to be counted as an enemy not to be esteemed as one out of the Church an Unbeliever an Heathen but to be admonished as a brother For lack of diligent observing this difference first betwixt the Church of God mystical and visible then betwixt the visible sound and corrupted corrupted sometimes more sometimes lesse Thirdly in not taking notice of the latitude of the Covenant which belongs to the visible Church as a proprium quarto modo i. e. as an essential mark the oversights are not few nor light that have been committed To passe by others you because Christs true body is made up of none but sincere professours presently conclude that none but sincere professours are of Christs body which is true of the mystical but not of the visible Then you restraine the Covenant as if it belonged to none but the Elect whereas it belongs to all those to whom God said to Abraham I will be to the a God and thy seed after thee whether sonnes ex lege or ex fide Thirdly whereas the Covenant was made with the Catholick visible Church you restrain it to your Combinational so that they who are not Members of that shall have no right to the seals nor to it not any other shall they claim any right at all who are not regenerate whereas this distinction observed would set you right We must distinguish betwixt the effectual benefits of Christ held forth in the Ordinance and a right to the external Ordinance The former right and priviledge belongs only indeed to the regenerate for they only effectually to life receive the seals But the latter to all within the Church to all Church Members for a night they have to the external Ordinance Or you may if you please conceive it thus The Sacrament may be considered in sensu composito that is with the entire fruits and benefits of the Covenant unto which truth of grace and faith is necessarily required and so to the Reprobate the Sacrament belongs not or else in sensu diviso precisely in the Ordinance it self abstracted from those graces and so it is Church-membership alone or external Covenant-relation denominating men subjects sonnes Saints believers disciples brethren Christians that gives men right unto the seal Fifthly You over-hastily and uncharitably censure all Hereticks Papists wicked persons and excommunicable or excommunicate to be without the Covenant and that therefore if they be Parents of children the applying of publick or private Baptisme to their children is groundlesse Which mistake of yours how great it is I shall make it farther appear by these evident arguments 1. That which is unjust may not be done but to debarre a Christians child from the seal of the Covenant is unjust therefore it may not be done Minor probatur It is unjust to punish the child for the fathers sinne Ezek. 18.20 But to debarre from the seal it is to punish the child for the fathers sinne therefore to debarre a Christians childe from the seale of the Covenant is unjust If to the Major it be answered that this is sometimes done and that the child suffers for the fathers offence it may be admitted in a temporal punishment but never in a spiritual of which kind this is and therefore may not be inflicted 2. They who were not to be kept from the seal of the Covenant under the Law for their fathers iniquity may not be kept from it for that cause under the Gospel But under the Law children were not kept from the seale for their fathers iniquity therefore not to be kept from it under the Gospel and consequently not to be hindred from Baptisme The Major of this Syllogisme is easily proved because the Covenant of the New Testament is said to be better than the Old Heb. 7.22 8.6 But to accompt this priviledge of the seal to belong onely to some Christians children which was in common to the Jews is to make it worse in the New Testament than in the Old Calvin institut lib. 4. cap. 16. Sect 6. which is injurious to do Arbitrari Christum adventu suo patris gratiam imminuisse aut decurtasse execrabili blasphemia non vacat Upon this ground then to keep a childe from Baptisme is great injustice Minor probatur This was not done among the Jews for make the Jewish Parents as bad as you will a generation of unbelievers who knew not God that tempted him and grieved his Holy Spirit in the Wildernesse yet for this the children were not to be deprived of the seal for their fathers sinne for Joshua was commanded to circumcise the children of these Rebels So again they came to be worshippers of the golden Calf adored the Brazen S rpent bowed the knees to
of the City of God are the dispensations of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments Imposition of hands the application of the Power of the Keys with all the other accessories and circumstantials to these Were your words true then no Sermon must be begun or ended no prayer begun or ended and the like is to be said of all the rest nothing of them or about them begun transacted or ended but by their advice and decision Of which there is not one syllable that I beleeve and therefore for such a claim it behoved you to produce a very fair and clear Charter for else all those that bear no good will to your Discipline and Combination will endite you for incroachment and usurpation of anothers right Which aspersion you will never be able to get off by telling us barely on your word this is the Elders power Nor by affirming The words of the Letter THat the Reformed Church should have all her Elders for to stand and sit together in the face and full view of the whole Assembly The Reply I cannot think what you aime at here except at that place which in the Ancient Church was appointed for the Presbytery to sit together in For they had a place enclosed from all the Laity where the Lords Table was set the Bishops Chair and Presbyters seats being round about it This place Sozomen calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacrary with us the Chancel which divided the Bishops and Presbyters from the people Cyprian would have this granted to Numidicus Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 24. Cypr. Ep. 35. Pammel editionis Concil Laod. Caâ— 56. Theod. l. 5. c. 18. Numidicus Presbyter ascribatur Presbyterorum Carthaginensium numero nobiscum sedeat in Clâ—ro The Councel of Laodicea calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason it was somewhat higher than the rest of the Church the Canon Law Presbyterium Into this place when Theodosius the Emperour would have entred to have received the Communion Saint Ambrose then busied at divine service sent him word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These places were in the Sacraries of the Church to be entred by those who were in orders only where they sate together with the Bishop there was not any place then for Lay-Elders And therefore si quid tale forsan vestras pervenerat aures you see it makes nothing at all for you till you will admit your Lay-Elders to be of the Clergy which I know you abhor I proceed to your proofs The words of the Letter ANd by so much the more seeing they are so plainly warranted and so punctually prescribed as they be to waite and to walk according to the patterne prescribed in the Mount witnesse Exod. 25.40 Acts 7.44 Heb. 8.5 The Reply Et cui non hic dictus Hylas there being not any one who pleads for change of Ecclesiastical Discipline or that hath been discontent with any custome or Ceremony of the Church who hath not made this Axiome the head Theoreme of their discourse and when well it might have gone a mile with them they have anger'd it forcing it to go twain The Anabaptist to prove his Antipaedobaptisme hath often in his mouth these words and every new light this Oggannition all must be done according to the pattern in the Mount and that we may take the more notice of it as a firme argument for your Elders seats and proceedings you have cited here three Scriptures one upon the neck of another for it all which as Joseph said of Pharaohs dreams are but one The occasion of these words are in Exodus 25. When God gave order to Moses for the erecting of the Tabernacle about which God left him not to his own choice but commanded him to frame it according to the pattern shewed him in the Mount This Tabernacle and order Saint Stephen mentions Acts 7. But Saint Paul Heb. 8.5 opens the mystery and applies it to wit that the Tabernacle of Moses was but a shadow and exemplar of heavenly things or of that Tabernacle which Christ had set up for his in heaven Here then are to be considered three distinct things the body it self the reality or truth of this shadow and that is the true Tabernacle of the Saints in heaven The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or type of it that was presented for a pattern to Moses in the Mount and the exemplar or picture or copy of it fair drawn by Moses in the Tabernacle which he is commanded to frame according to the pattern presented to his eyes when God was pleased to call him up to him into the Mountain which things he also after did Now I wonder what you or any body else can for your purpose collect from hence Moses was commanded to make the Tabernacle according to the pattern in the Mount therefore the Lay-Elders are plainly warranted and punctually prescribed to stand and sit together in the face and full view of the Assembly A strange thing it is that out of a particular pattern you should frame a general rule For before you shall be ever able to bring this rule home to your purpose prove you must that it was thus prescribed in the Mount which I know will be a very hard task Besides suppose you extend the rule further as I know you do to beat down that which you ordinarily call will-worship and the inventions of men Yet so it will not come home neither in that the Apostle applies it not to any such purpose but only what was done in the Mount was a shadow of things to come the Tabernacle on earth a representation of our being with God in heaven And to stretch it further is to deal by it as the Cobler doth with his leather that tugs it so far with his teeth till it crack again Farther yet if in that sense you intend it this Text had laid an injunction upon any it had certainly tyed up the Jewes the pattern in the Mount must certainly have restrained them from adding any thing even the least in the external worship of God which yet it did not For in the Church of the Jews it must be granted that the appointment of the houre for daily sacrifices the building of Synagogues throughout the Land to hear the Word of God and pray in when they came not up to Jerusalem the erecting of Pulpits and Chairs to teach in the order of Burials and Rites of Marriage the Musical Instruments invented by David the Ordinance for Priests to serve in their courses with others of the like nature being matters appertaining to the Church yet had not their pattern from the Mount nor are any way prescribed in the Law but were by the Churches discretion instituted and continued What shall we then think they did hereby adde to the Law and so displease God by what they did none yet so hardly perswaded of them the Truth is that Rule and Canon-Law which is written in all mens hearts and Saint Pauls reduced into
you the sole wise men were all men blinde till you arose Besides 't is not long since there was an Oath and a Covenant eagerly pressed and then the Covenanters served themselves with these Texts then they sounded in our ears these words of Jeremy Come let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Then the people were terrifyed with the words of Ezekiel I will cause you to passe under the rod and will bring you into the bond of the Covenant Then the Covenant of Moses of Joshua of Asa of Josiah of Nehemiah in a word all places that mentioned a Covenant were pressed and urged to attest the necessity of that Oath What is now Gods Word become a ship-mans hose that it may be worn on either side what Presbyterians and Combinationals justifie their way from the same Texts this cannot be for if it serve one it will not serve the other if it serve to prove a National Covenant as that was it will never prove a Combinational since these two are disparata and admit no reconciliation no more then a National and Combinational Church can be one One of you 't is certain juggle with us and go about to impose upon us and the truth is you do both so as shall appear upon farther examination A custome it was among the Jews when they had revolted from God to Idols solemnly to renew their first Covenant with him and to take him to be their God renouncing all other and to be his people and observe his Laws which gave occasion to all the former practices In Jeremies time for their Idolatry especially the Jews were to be carried into Captivity but the Prophet in this Chapter and the next foretells the ruine of the Babylonians their severe Masters and their return which when it came to passe then saith he they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward c. It then cannot be denyed but this Text must primarily be understood of the Jews and if ever it were literally fulfilled it was when in Nehemiahs dayes Nehem. 9.38 10.28 29. the Princes Levites Priests made and wrote and sealed the Covenant in which the people engaged wiih them and let me tell you that the Jews in the principal point ever after kept this Covenant and so it may well be called perpetual for after their return from Babel though they were divided into divers Sects to the corruption of sincere Religion and were guilty of many other abominations yet no man can charge them with the worship of strange gods Of the Jews then these words were spoken and in them verifyed and cannot be applyed to the Christian Church any other way but by the way of accommodation For say I shall allow you that the Jewish Church was the type of the Christian then the Christian must be the antitype and what then will you gain by it except the overthrow of your own cause for the antitype must every way resemble the type which in this it will not For this Covenant was voluntary Come say they let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant You presse necessity upon mens consciences this explicite Covenant is the essential form of a Combinational Church so that no Covenant no Member of the Church to which Christ hath promised salvation The Covenant in which the Jews engaged was of the whole Nation yours is of a selected people in a Nation They the whole Corporation of them notwithstanding this Covenant continued to be a National Church went up to Jerusalem at their solemn Feasts separated not into private divisions and subdivisions You by your Covenant are enemies to all National Churches make it a distinctive note not of true and sincere worshippers from Idolatours but of those which professe the same faith with you from those of your Congregation that I say not you have as many Covenants as there be factions and fractions among you That every good Christian daily come up closer to his God by joyning in a perpetual Covenant and by renewing his vow made in his Baptisme to renounce to beleeve and obey I exceedingly approve But that this cannot be done except he enter a new Covenant in your Congregation or that he is bound to do it or can be no Member of a visible Church I shall never believe for mark what will follow upon it First there must be a dissolution made of all the reformed Churches of Christendome that there may be way made for this new erection for the Covenant sealed to their Members in Baptisme will not serve the turn till they have a new admission and matriculation by this seal and engagement Then again consider what countenance is hereby given to the whole order of Romane Votaries which to me seem very like to so many Combinational Churches in that every order have their particular statutes to the observation of which they tye all they take into their societies and upon the Vow and Covenant made they are admitted Only that in this they are a little more charitable than you are that they acknowledge such as are out of their fraternities for good Christians and Members of the Catholick Church But you judge those who are not of one or other of your Combinations to be Members of no Church And this is all you have gained by your Text of Jeremy I now come to that of the Prophet Ezekiel 20.37 where we thus read And I will cause you to passe under the rod and I will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant The full scope of this place is at ver 33. a promise made to the Jews that they should be gathered under the Gospel To this end God tells them that I will cause you to passe under the rod which whether it signifies a sharp affliction in which the Jews we know have had their share or else a trial by the rod as a Shepherd doth his flock as was used in decimation I cannot say if thls last then the sense is I will reject the bad and choose the good Jun. in loc Levit. 27.32 and will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant or as Junius reads it in exhibitionem foederis I will impart the Covenant of the Gospel unto you and all the blessings and promises of that Covenant as it is here amplifyed in the 45. ver Now let any man which is not swaid with prejudice judge whether any thing can be picked from hence that can countenance your assertion What is the Covenant that God hath made with his people in the Gospel of no longer extent than the Combinational Church Out of this Covenant I know none can be saved without your Combinational Covenant I know they may or else heaven before you rose would be very empty and the time since you rose being not long you have not sent many thither Monopolize not then thus the mercies of God to your selves and ingrosse not
the bounty of the Covenant to your own Churches lest you damn all the World besides I must tell you the Covenant of God with man will stand and be made good were there nere a Combinational Church in the world he can cause his people to passe under the rod and bring them into the Bond of the Covenant without conducting them through that new way of your Combinational Church This place then makes nothing at all for you and it is a plain fallacy to argue à genere ad speciem by which you collect that what is spoken in general of the Covenant must be understood of your Covenant just as if a man should collect est substantia ergo est corpus Your third place is out of Isa 44.5 One shall say I am the Lords and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel As if all this could not be done but within the walls of your meeting houses As if none could surname himself an Israelite or subscribe with his hand Jehovae sum but he must enter your Combination Interpreters have not thus restrained these words I omit many of the Ancients and make choice of the Moderns not Junius not Piscator not Sculetus they unanimously teach that under the Gospel every one should subscribe and professe them sons and servants of God sons of the Church and Christians who are called the sons of Jacob and Abraham Rom. 4.11 12. 11.26 Gal. 3.29 6.16 and Scultetus so applies it Sic hodie omnes reformatae Ecclesiae mente confessione adjungimus nos Catholithae illâ— Ecclesiae piorum Jacobitarum Israelitarum ubi per orbem sint dispersi See then what injury you do the Reformed Churches Sculâ—et in loc and how far you are from their judgment They could be content to be joyned to the Catholick dispersed all the world over they thought that enough to make them Israelites you are more strait laced they must be no Israelites with you no parts of the Church except they be joined by a Covenant together in your Combination But remember in these words of the Prophet there is no mention at all of a Covenant and therefore it makes nothing at all to your purpose From the Old Testament you come to the New and the first place you bring is Acts 2.47 And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Till you have made these two propositions good that the Church here mentioned is the Combinational Church and that this Church was joined together in such a Covenant as you imagine I see not to what end you should produce it when that is done you shall receive my answer In the mean time I shal tell you what you might well have collected from hence that ordinarily there is no salvation to be had out of the Catholick Church therefore it is the mercy of God by the Ministry of the Word to adde daily to it such as shall be saved These conclusions are rightly drawn but to assert God added to the Church daily such as should be saved therefore they that will be saved must be Members of a Combinational Church therefore added by your Formal Covenant savours neither of Logique nor Charity Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Reply The farther I go still the weaker I finde your proofs and I heartily wish that you would not deceive those who are weak in the faith with such shews being those little birds that are over eager to peck at your painted grapes such you present here in colours laid over with your own Art for there was Art in it in figures to point me to the Chapter and Verse and not at full to cite the words as indeed you have done in all the rest which had you produced it would have at first amaz'd a Reader to finde out your Riddle or what was to be found in them there being no syllable of Church or Covenant that might be useful to you in this debate as it did me till at last I cast my eye upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 receive him for than I began to think that that might be it and that from it you would conclude that a man weak in the faith must be received into the Combinational Church but that methought could not well be it neither since the man about whom the precept is given is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a weak and sickly Christian whereas all those that you receive must be healthy strong Christians no Babes but Men all tryed and approved for regenerate persons Bayly pag. 134. such of whom every Member of the Church may be fully satisfyed in the truth of the grace that is in them Cottons way pag. 7. and the sutablenesse of their spirits with the Spirit of the Church All this considered I could not tell what to make of your allegation and I was once resolved to let it passe without any farther examination But being desirous to remove every scruple I thought it best fully to open the Apostles intent and meaning in this Chapter which being cleared the mist you brought over it would easily vanish Though the Apostle inscribes his Epistle to the Romans yet among them there were many natural Jews dispersed thither who could not be disswaded easily from the Mosaical abstinences but continued their obligation to the Law even after they had received the Christian Faith There were also among these some who were Proselytae portae who were bound to observe the seven Commandments of Noah but being not circumcised were not strictly bound to observe the Law of Moses Christians both these were in the positive part acknowledging so much as was required by the new Articles of the Creed c. yet in the negative part they were not they held the Judaical Law not to be evacuated and so weak and feeble some of these were in the faith that lest they should offend in eating forbidden flesh some would eat no flesh at all and came to eat nothing but herbs About these sick these weak Ver. 2. these scrupulous these tender-hearted and lesse-instructed Christians the Apostle gives these directions First that the stronger and healthier more orthodox and knowing do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assume and take them to them First friendly to afford them communion and not to separate from them for this errour next to labour to cure their malady get them out of their mistake Thirdly that they do not vilifie them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 3. set them at naught as if they were senslesse empty fellows Lastly that they be not over contentious and hot in disputations with them for though they erre yet they were not to be disquieted but to be informed and tolerated God hath received him ver 3. who then art
Analogy or rule of faith or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach any vaine things he might according to that direction that Saint Paul gives Timothy have his mouth quickly stopt For Discipline is the preservation and hedge of Doctrine and Discipline can never be well administred among them that have an equal power I pray tell me what was the reason that moved his Highnesse the Lord Protector to take upon him the government of this Common-wealth was it not because he foresaw that all would come to ruine in a parity of Governours which was the aime of those who fancied a fifth Monarchy This is the very reason that he himself assignes And say what you will to the contrary this is and will be the fate of the Church except in one Province there be one chief Could I give no other instances of it yet that which we have lived to see is enough This Calvin Bucer Zanchy in their testimonies before alledged foresaw Bezae responsio ad tractatum de ministrorum evang grad fol. 143. and therefore commended and allowed the ancient Primitive institution I shall onely adde the testimony of Beza and so shut up this point especially having said so much before about it when I spoke of Patriarchs Dicamus ergo Primatum illum ordinis per mutuae successionis vices for such the Presbyterians plead for ipsa tandem experientia compertum fuisse non satis virium nec ad ambitiosos pastores nec ad auditores quidem vanos alios vero adulatorio spiritu praeditos compescendos habuisse communicata viz. singulis pastoribus per vices hujus primatus dignitate Itaque quod singulorum secundum successionem commune fuit visum fuit ad unum eum quidem totius Presbyterii judicio delectum transferre quod certe repraehendi nec potest nec debet quum praesâ—rtim vetustus hic mos Presbyterum deligendi in Alexandrina celeberrima Ecclesia jam inde à Marco Evangelista esset observatus c. Yea but say you say 2. This man was not afraid nor ashamed to assume the Name and Office of an Arch-bishop and Metropolitan AND what fear or shame then should be in this assumption I see not The Office was very useful and the Name not so impious and profane as you imagine 1. His office was to call the rest of the Bishops of the Province to the Synods which were to be held twice every year Concil Antioch Can. 19. Conc. in Trullo cap. 8. Antiochenum Can. 9. Conc. African cap. 127. 28. Concil Sard. cap. 14. to appoint the place of their meeting when the Ordinations of Bishops were examined and determined and the deprivation and rejection of all such as were found unworthy of that honour and place was handled In the Synod he sate as President and things were so moderated that neither the rest might proceed to do any thing without consulting him nor he without them but was tyed in matters of difference to follow the major part when they assembled but once a year many causes that abide no delay were committed by them to the Metropolitan hearing the judgment To him then lay Appeales And yet his power was not absolute and arbitrary for he was to execute the decrees of the Synods onely and to judge according to the Canons And if he neglected his duty he was by the Canons lyable to Censure and punishment in a general Council And the Church story is a plentiful record that by Councils Metrapolitans have been punished censured deposed Now say truly what is there that in this Office or Order that should offend any discreet man 2. Oh but his name is profane and it is blasphemy to assume it and for this afterward you give in this reason because it is such a stile and title as is not communicable to any creature but is proper and peculiar to Christs own sacred person being that besides himself none can be safely said to be an Arch-bishop or chief Shepherd I shall first encounter your reason and invalidate it For first you impose upon me for Saint Peters word is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.4 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly were it so yet it is but an argument à notatione nominis which of all Topick arguments is the weakest Thirdly if this reason were good then it would hold as well in all other names of Christ and it were profane and blasphemous for any man to bear any of them And yet I read there is not one of them except Immanuel which hath not been attributed to man Psal 105.15 Matt. 2.6 Heb. 2.17 Heb. 3.1 1 Pet. 2.25 Jesus is attributed to Joshua Hebr. 4.8 Christus to Kings and Patriarchs Nolite tangere Christos meos He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so are the praepositi Heb. 13.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet how many in the Gospel are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he the Apostle and High Priest of our profession and yet Saint Paul often calls himself an Apostle he by Saint Peter is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet under him the Ministers of the Church are often stiled Shepherds and Bishops There can be no strength then in this reason which is everted by so many examples it must needs be as much profaness and blasphemy for any creature to bear any of these appellations since they were the names of Christ as it can be for an Arch-Bishop to take that name if it had been his which it was not But it was no profanesse or blasphemy in them and therefore not in him But that the name may the lesse offend you call to minde the antiquity of it and what kinde of men have born it and yet the Church never held them for profane persons It is as old as are Metropolitans and they are as old as Metropolies or chief Cities where Christianity was planted Chrysostome sticks not to call Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and well he might who had seven Bishops under him Cypr. Epist 45. Edit Pammelii Cyprian was Arch-Bishop of Carthage a Martyr a great Arch-Bishop for he saith latè paâ—et nostra provincia habet Numidium Mauritaniam sibi cohaerentes Athanasius who stood against all the world for the truth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had all the world against him was Arch-Bishop of Alexandria What should I tell you that the first thirty two Bishops of Rome who were all Martyrs except one bear that name and that Chrysostome Epiphanius Basil Nazianzene Cyril c. were all called Arch-Bishops And that you be not quite out of love with it that glorious Martyr of our Church Cranmer dyed Arch-bishop of Canterbury I can never be drawn to imagine that had there been profanesse and blasphemy in the name such glorious lights of the Church such pious good learned men such pillars of the Faith such Martyrs in defence of the
Truth would ever have owned it been once stiled by it And so you see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. When he left the servile and subservient names of Prebend Surrogate Vicar General to inferiour Officers his underlings THese names or titles I never heard the Arch-Bishop or Metropolitane had therefore I know not how he could leave them Under him perhaps these were but for the Prebend he was no Officer The Bishop and his Colledge of Presbyters first lived together and were maintained out of a common stock or treasury of the Church the Bishop allotted to every one his salary monthly which in Tertullian is called stipes in Cyprian sportula Tertull. Apol. c. 39. 42. and it was an honourable stipend or portion as appears by the words of Cyprian when he would have Clemens and Aurelius who were Confessors admitted into the Colledge of Presbyters that they might be honoured with this stipend Sciatis nos honorem Presbyteris illis jam d signasse Cypr. Ep. 34. Edit Pammel 27. 36. ut iisdem sportutis cum Presbyteris honorentur and in another Epistle he calls these menstrae divisiones agreeing with his Master Tertullian who saith these stipes were given menstruâ die Thus it was at first but afterward when Cathedral Churches were built these Presbyters were called Prebends and their salary Praebenda Spalatens lib. 2. cap. 9. Sect. 6. not that they had a separate part or portion of that Church revenue to themselves as afterwards it was thought fit sed quod cuique ex communi illius Ecclesiae reditu alimenta praebebantur Now this was the Original of Prebends neither was he any more a Church Officer then as a Presbyter which if you take in the old sense you have no reason to carp at 2. As for the Surrogate I do not finde that ever any Arch-Bishop had such an Officer I suppose that you should aime at Conc. Ancyr Can. 13. Neoces 13. Antioch 10. Conc. Sardic cap. 6 Laodic cap. 56. Socrat. Schol. lib. 5. cap. 21. Possidon in vita Aug. Aug. Ep. 110. Naucler Vol. 2. Generat p. 667. is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Rural Bishops who were brought into the Church to supply the Bishops place in absence or sicknesse who because they abused their power were disliked and timely abrogated Or if not these yet the suffragan Bishops or Coadjutors for such then were as it appears in the Church Records Agelius the Novatian Bishop being ready to dye first imposed hands on Sisimius to succeed him but upon the request of the people made choice of Marcian then of Sisimius the story is worth your reading in Socrates Austin was also made the Suffragan to Valerius in Hippo and afterward Austin himself took for his Coadjutor Eradius Thus you may see a Coadjutor was allowed but such a one as should be onely a Presbyter while the Bishop lived and therefore long after the time of Augustine when Zachary Bishop of Rome associated another Bishop as a Coadjutor to Boniface the Bishop of Mentz he confessed it to be a thing forbidden by the Canons and worthy reprehension but that upon his importunity of special favour he had yielded so much unto him that he might have such a Coadjutor whom with the advice of his brethren he might appoint to succeed him when he should dye Now if you do aime at these there could be no great errour in the institution if the Bishop either when he was in remotis agendis as the Lawyers speak or disabled by infirmity or age he made choice of some worthy person to be his Coadjutor no otherwise then the High Priests among the Jewes did of their Saganim For I read not of any expresse text of holy writ that could or did warrant them to do it 3. Thirdly the last name that doth displease is the Vicar General but neither was he properly any Church Officer A Judge he was in the Arch-Bishops Court for such matters as were reserved by Princes to the Christian judicature to visit for the Metropolitane the whole Province and and so came into the place of them whom the Laodicean Council calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caranza translates the word Visitatores but Meursius Circitatores Lustratores quorum munus esset circumire per omnes universae regionis Ecclesias Laodic Conc. Can. 57. Meursii Lexico mixobarb Balsam in Can. 57. Conc. Laodiceni inquirere de illarum statu And of these Balsamâ—â— upon the Canon of the Laodicean Council hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Commission to this purpose I finde given by Henry the eighth to Thomas Cromwel after Earle of Essex that great instrument of expulsion of the Popes power out of England by which authority he visited all the Abbies and Monasteries of the Land and finding in them foul enormities opened them in Parliament the next year in which he sate with the title of Vicegerent or Custos spiritualitatum this power was not much unlike a Vicar General And were it safe to utter my thoughts I should not stick to put you in minde of those who have lately done the same work under other names For what else I pray were the Propagators of the Gospel what else the Commissioners for scandalous and ignorant Ministers what else the Committee men under whom I am sure the Clergy felt a sharp visitation yea and sharper then that of the Custos spiritualitatum for then the ejected had a competency of maintenance allowed them for their lives which by these is not done Lastly if I should call your Approvers Vicar Generals too I should not much erre for have they not the care of all the Churches Modesty retains me or else I could say that some of your Pastours of Congregational Churches have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and been Informers or Agents to the prejudice of many an honest and laborious Minister But you say these Officers were Underlings how otherwise could it be if they were Officers for Officers must be under they were subservient so they must be also for indicitur ministratio whosoever will be great among you Mat. 20.26 let him be your Minister To be under was humility to be subservient their duty but if among them any were servile so slavish as to be at the Arch-Bishops or Metropolitans beck and to drudge for his ends this was basenesse and if you note the men they shall not be defended but condemned by me as well as you But while I go along with you in the pursuit of these I finde my self in some danger for I finde a Pest-house nigh in which plaguey people are used to be put and to this those you mention are sent for their pride and profanesse and I wish that all who are infected with the same Leprosie were placed there with them for then 't is possible we might meet with Corah Dathan and Abiram there as well as Moses