case looks very like a case of defection and deformation and this Book of his hath helped on the deformation He looks on the Indulged Ministers and the Ministers who are for hearing of them and those who adhere to them as in a course of defection But though at other times he makes a very general defection and alledges that the outed Ministers who are not Indulged are Acted by a Spirit of Anti-christ yet here he will not grant a defection or deformation for fear lest he be obliged by his own concession to grant the Magistrate a Power of making Rules and I suppose before he granted that he would deny all that he hath said in other places of the defection and deformation of the Church And further says he I wonder how he thinketh any can judge otherwise than that Interpretatively at least the receiving of these papers on these terms was a giving up of the right of the Church with their own hands But what if his wondering be as ordinarily wondering is the Daughter of Ignorance O not so his wondering is the Daughter of manifest Light for he subjoyns Seeing it is so clear and manifest by what we have said And then he makes another Inference from the manifest clearness of what he hath said And what is that And says he seeing it is so himself that 's the Informer will I suppose grant that every Minister is called highly to resent this Treachery And thus he supposes that the Informer is turned one of his Proselytes if ye will do him the favour to believe without any Evidence that all that he hath said is clear and manifest he will bring you to believe that the Moon is made of green Cheese He will set every mans hand against his Brother and bring every Minister to account all that Treachery which he himself calls Treachery But the Informer is none of these credulous Persons to grant any thing that the Historian would impose upon him as clear and manifest because he hath said it What followeth hath been answered before his mistaking of Mr. H's purpose in ascribing to the Magistrate a Power objectively Ecclesiastical hath led him into many absurdities Page 83. he looks on it as an absurdity to infer from the judgment of Discretion which every private man hath to judge of his own Act about things Civil to infer that therefore private Persons can prescribe Rules to Regulate Magistrates in the exercise of their Function and he had good Reason to judge so But the seeds of Sedition and Schism of the contempt of Magistracy and Ministry which are sown in this History and the Letter before it in the Cup of cold water and in other Letters written by these Authors have grown up so fast for ill Weeds wax well that they have brought forth a late Band and Declaration Published at Sanchar in which private Persons does much more than the giving Rules to Magistrates and Ministers amounts to for they in these papers exauctorates the Magistrates and appoints their execution for purging the Land and overturns the established Civil Government and appoints a new one and new Laws for this new Common-wealth and they renounce communion with all who joyn not with them in these things and will own no Ministers who differs from them for Ministers till they stand in judgment before the Ministers who are of their way which at most for any thing I could learn were but three and two of them young men whose Ordination was questioned I hear now also of a new Excommunication which I have not seen There is neither judgment nor discretion in these Practices but a dreadful judicial giddiness which should make all tremble and take heed of the first Seeds of Sedition and Schism which leads to confusion and desolation His granting pag. 83. to the Magistrate a Power about the same things wherein the Ecclesiastical Power is exercised in so far as concerneth the outward disposing of Divine things in this or that Dominion and then leaving it without explication to limit this outward disposing is a concession that if an Indulged Minister had said it all the explications he could have added would not have cleared it from a homologation of the Act of Supremacy O what Tragical exclamations would the Historian have made against them This outward disposing of Divine things would have been made as much of as the Act of Supremacy amounts to This Author hath been one of the unhappiest ridder of Marches betwixt the Magistrates and Ministers that I have met with for he is ordinarily in extreams either giving too much or too little In the end of pag. 84. he says That this Testimony was general impertinent confused indistinct and defective and that there was much pusillanimity dis-ingenuity carnal consultation in it and that it was a meer cothurnus that is that which may be turned any way Answ It 's strange that the Author who professes elsewhere that Testimonies should be made much of that he could make nothing of this Testimony but makes it worse than nothing even a betraying of the Cause Seeing there were none who had said so much before the Magistrate by way of Testimony to the Truth as the Indulged Ministers did If he had not been much distempered and byassed with Passion and Prejudice he would for the Truths sake have made as much of this Testimony as he could in truth but he contrary to truth and common sense perverts and wrests it to turn it into Treachery The Reverend Brother who hath Answered this History hath shewed that the Indulged Ministers had concurred with the rest of the outed Ministers 1. In a real and practical Testimony which consists positively in adhering to all their former Principles Professions and Engagements and in practising them as far as was possible And negatively in keeping themselves free from every piece of defection and from all impositions inconsistent with the truths and Institutions of Christ their former Principles Professions and Engagements which was a holding fast of their Profession without wavering Heb. 10.23 The keeping of their Garments clean Rev. 3.4 And being faithful to the Death This is the principal thing upon the account whereof those who suffered in the Primitive times were called Martyrs and the faithfulness of the Indulged Ministers in holding up this Testimony he clears at great length 2. In a Doctrinal or Concional Testimony in Preaching against the evils of the Times discovering and confuting them from the Word of God and exhorting to abstain from them And herein says he the Indulged Ministers have not been behind with any other faithful Ministers though they made not this the All of their work having many other necessary gospel-Gospel-truths to explain inculcate and press 3. As for that third sort of Testimony by way of publick Declaration in their own name and in the name of all adhering to them which is the proper work of a Church-Judicatory and more formally of a general Assembly or
prescriptions and that they could receive no other prescriptions besides Christs prescriptions to regulate them in the exercise of their Ministry 4. They declare how desirable and refreshing the exercise of this their Ministry was to them 5. They declare what power they acknowledged in the Magistrate it 's not a lawless but lawfuâ— Authority which they acknowledge they acknowledge no other power in the Magistrate but what is the Ordinance of God for so they describe lawful Authority the excellent Ordinance of God They declare it 's the work of Magistrates to protect the Ministers of Christ in the exercise of their Ministry 6. That they purposed and resolved to behave themselves in the discharge of their Ministry with that wisdom and prudence which became faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ 7. They declare that they continued in their known judgment in Church-affairs they did let the Magistrates know that they had not altered their Judgement in Church-affairs that they were still Presbyterians Their judgment is known from the Confession of faith chap. 23. Art 3. ch 25. Art 6. ch 30. Art 1. ch 31. Art 3. and all who have any knowledge of the Judgment of Presbyterians know that they own Christ for the alone head of the Church and fountain of Church-authority and that they are as opposite to Erastianism as they are to Prelacy That they are so far from ascribing a Supremacy of spiritual power to the Magistrate that they profess that the Magistrate hath not any power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to him and that it doth not belong to the Magistrate to ordain or depose suspend excommunicate or to exercise any Church-censures and that it doth not belong to him to form Church-Canons or to prescribe Instructions for regulating Ministers in the exercise of their Ministry and that they are of that Judgment that no Magistrate nay nor all the powers on earth though they were united can dispose of Ecclesiastical matters according to their Wisdom or pleasure seeing the things of the house of the God of Heaven must be done according to the wisdom and pleasure of the Lord and not according to the wisdom and pleasure of Creatures These and many other Tenets are known by all who know what Presbyterians are to be their known and professed Judgement Now seeing they declared their continuance in their known Judgement and adherence to their former principles and that to the Magistrate and had declared before their resolutions to behave as faithful Ministers of Christ and that they believed the account they were to give of their Ministry to Jesus Christ They did shew to the Magistrate that they did not nor could not approve of power or acts of the Magistrate which were contrary to their Judgements for that had been so far from becoming the faithfulness of the Ministers of Jesus Christ that it could not consist with common Ingenuity 8. And they clearly enough insinuate that there was an opposition betwixt their known Judgements and the actings of the Magistrate in subverting Presbyterial Government and setting up of Prelacy and other actings contrary to Presbyterial Principles some whereof I mentioned before This opposition is clearly insinuated and imported while they say And to demain our selves towards lawful Authority notwithstanding of our known Judgment in Church-affairs as well becometh Loyal Subjects for if the Affairs of the Church had been then according to their known Judgment that notwithstanding had been impertinent and could have had no sufferable sence But Church-affairs being setled by the Magistrate contrary to the known Judgment of Presbyterians some might have alledged that Presbyterian Ministers would not be Loyal towards lawful Authority to obviate this they say That notwithstanding their known Judgements they would behave as Loyal Subjects 9. And hence they declare to the Magistrate that there was no disloyalty in their Principles or practice of their Principles that their known judgement in Church-affairs and the faithful discharge of their Ministry according to their known Judgement did well consist with loyalty and with that respect which from a principle of Conscience they did owe to lawful Authority though it did not consist with some of the actings of those who were in Authority 10. They modestly declare the low esteem they they had of themselves in saying they were the unworthiest of many of their Brethren and they so far from selfishness in desiring to partake of this liberty alone that they express their desire that others of their Brethren may be sharers of the liberty which they enjoyed It appears from what is said that these Brethren witnessed a good Confession before the Council and the Author of the History of the-Indulgence hath in this respect done right to these Brethren and good service to the Church in Printing the Speech which Mr. Hutcheson spoke in their name before the Council If any object that their Testimony is not good because they do not expresly and in terminis testifie against the Invasions made upon the Church I would desire these to consider that in saying so they condemn the Testimonies of many Martyrs who in their Confessions only expressed the truths which they did believe and some of them only in the general asserted that they were Christians They condemn also our Confession of Faith which doth not so expresly and in so many words refute and reject many dangerous and damnable errors but doth only assert the truths opposite to these errors yea they condemn the Testimony of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures which is good and perfect and yet doth not in terminis and expresly mention every error which is contrary to the truth but leaves the refutation of many of these errors to be gathered by good consequence from what is said in the Holy Scriptures and they condemn also that good Confession which Christ witnessed before Pontius Pilate in asserting himself to be a King for he doth not expresly mention and reject all the errors which are contrary to his Spiritual Kingdom And seeing I am speaking of Testimonies I shall mention what the Indulged Ministers who were called before the Council for not keeping the 29. of May declared in the face of the Council As they had agreed that Mr. Hutcheson should declare that the Magistrate had not a power formally Ecclesiastical and that they could not receive Rules intrinsecally Ecclesiastical from the Magistrate So Mr. Hutcheson to prevent the Councils giving them any such instructions desired that their Lordships would be pleased not to burden them with impositions in the matter of their Ministry wherein they were the Servants of Christ And after Mr. Alexander Blare who was called before Mr. Hutcheson had shewed that he could not receive such instructions to regulate him in his Ministry Mr. Hutcheson before he was called spoke against their L. L. imposing Rules intrinsecally Ecclesiastical for regulating Ministers in the exercise of their Ministry who were the Servants of Christ in these matters
And after when he was called he shewed that a formal Ecclesiastick power could not be allowed to the Magistrate and several others of them spoke to the same purpose As these Ministers have not received these Instructions so they have declared to the Council that they could not receive them beside what we observed from M. Hutchesons Speech at the first Indulgence there are here other things observable 1. That he designs them Impositions and so he shews that they looked upon them as incroaching and intrenching upon their Ministerial calling 2. In asserting that the Magistrate had not a power formally Ecclesiastical he testified against Erastianism and did further shew That the Magistrates work is not to form Rules or Instructions which are formally Ecclesiastical for all Acts which are intrinsecally and formally Ecclesiastical must be elicite by a power which is formally Ecclesiastical the giving instructions formally Ecclesiastical is the formal effect of an Ecclesiastical Instructor as it is not proper for the Magistrate but for Physitians to give medicinal Receits which must be drawn from the art or faculty of Medicine Nor is it proper for the Magistrate to make a Physical Directory to regulate Physitians in their giving of Physical Receits for this were an intrenching and breaking in upon the Physitians Calling So it is not proper for the Magistrate to make Rules intrinsecally Ecclesiastical for these must be drawn from the Word of God seeing they are for the ordering of the Matters of God and when there is need of forming any such Rules or Instructions it 's the proper Work of those to whom the publick Explication and Application of the Word of God belongs The forming of such Canons hath in all Ages been the work of Ecclesiastical Synods who had not the power of the Sword and consequently the forming of such Rules is not an Act of the power of the Sword 3. In asserting That in their Ministry and these matters which were the exercise of it they were the Servants of Christ they did shew that they could not admit of any Impositions which would prejudice their Masters service and that in these matters they were not at their own disposal and must not act ex proprio arbitrio nor pro hominum imperio but ex Christi obsequio that is That they were neither to be ruled by their own will nor the will of men but by the will of Christ in these Matters They did put in the words formally and intrinsecally Ecclesiastical because the Magistrate may make civil laws about Church-matters as is acknowledged in the second Book of Discipline Chap. 10. where it is said That he may make Civil Laws and Constitutions agreeable to Gods word for the advancement of the Kirk and policy thereof though he may not make Canons intrinsecally Ecclesiastical These were good Confessions made before the Magistrate by the Indulged Ministers and the fullest I know hath been made by any before the Magistrate Although persons while they are under perjudices against these Ministers make nothing of any thing these say or do yet when these humours and perjudices are removed and the carriage of these Ministers is impartially considered ingenuous and unbyassed persons will not only clear them of the unjust aspersions cast upon them but commend them and wonder that that they have been so unjustly abused and that they have so long born so many injuries with so great patience The attempts of the Author of the History of the Indulgence to make nothing of these Testimonies as they discover the strength of humour and prejudice so the vanity of his attemps will appear when we come to examine them I come to the second Question in the Epistle to the Reader Secondly saith he let me ask Are they so very clear and confident in the case that they cannot only in dealing with men hold up their face and affirm without hink or hesitation that this is their rejoycing even the Testimony of their Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God they have had their Conversation before all men and more abundantly towards these backsliding Rulers before whom they appeared now declared enemies to the work of God and Invaders of his Throne and Prerogative But are they also content to be carried before the Tribunal of Christ with this acceptance from those which have exauctorate their Lord and Master in their hand and to have the quality of their love to the coming of his Kingdom and their Loyalty unto Christ Jesus now opposed and put from the exercise of his Royal Government by the party indulging in this very Indulgence tried by such a test It were fit sure to think on this and lay it to heart for each Receiver may lay his account with it that soon or syne he shall be put to it Ans Before I come to answer this Question I cannot but advertise him that in saying without any limitation or restriction that not only the Magistrate hath exauctorate Christ but also that Christ is put from the exercise of his Royal Government he hath laid a stumbling-block before weak and ignorant people which may occasion them to imagine that Christ is quite vanquished and denied of all Authority and put from all exercise of his Kingly Office There are such loose Rhetorications in the Cup of cold Water which may occasion simple people to think that Christ is quite dispossest of his Crown and Throne If any will read the Answer to that Question in the larger Catechism How doth Christ execute the Office of a King they will see that he exercises his Kingly Office not only by Governing his Church visibly in calling it out of the World in giving Officers Laws and Censures but also in bestowing saving Grace upon the Elect rewarding them for their obedience correcting them for their sins preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings restraining and overcoming all their enemies and powerfully ordering all things for his own Glory and their own good and also in taking vengeance on the rest who know not God and obey not the Gospel Now I suppose the Author of the Letter will not imagine that the Magistrate intended to put Christ from the exercise of his Royal Government as to many of these Acts of his Kingly Office It 's a sad truth that the Magistrate hath subverted Presbyterial Government which is a part of the visible Kingdom of Christ but it is not the all of Christs Kingdom wherever there is a visible Church called out of the World where the Word of God is preached where the truth is born witness to and the Sacraments Administred there Christ executeth his Kingly Office and there is something of his visible Kingdom I do not think that the Author of the Epistle will say that the Magistrate intended that there should be no Church nor any Preaching of the Word of God in Scotland 2. What ever may be said
Kirk-judicatory may not judge what is seditious as he granteth then it would seem that the Magistrate must judge what is seditious in prima instantia if he judge at all in that matter And it seems very hard to bind up the Magistrate that he may not judge of seditious Doctrine or whether Doctrine was seditious or not till there be a precedent Judgment of the Church for what if there be no Church-Courts or none to which the Minister who is accused of seditious speeches hath clearness to answer what if the Magistrate think and it may be have reason to think that the Church-Court is disaffected to the Magistrate and favours seditious discourses Suppose the Court be incorrupt and not suspected to the Magistrate what if the Magistrate think it dangerous to suffer the Minister who preaches seditiously to preach on till the Ecclesiastick process against him be ended seeing such processes use to be long and they be apprehensive that his seditious Discourses may bring forth very dangerous effects before the Ecclesiastick Court can observing their Order and way of proceeding inflict any Ecclesiastical censure upon him and they apprehend that the fire of sedition must be quickly suppressed that it do not spread I would gladly know what the Author would have a Minister do when he is cited to appear before the Magistrate for speaking seditious speeches would he have him refuse to come till the Kirk-judicatories ended their process But what if the Magistrate will not wait so long then either the Minister hath uttered speeches really seditious and in that case the Author grants That the Magistrate is the only Judge of Sedition If his speeches have not been seditious but the words of Truth then he hath an opportunity not only of vindicating himself of the crime of Sedition but also of vindicating the truth and of instructing and edifying the Magistrate and who knows but a plain sober solid Vindication of the truth may be blessed of God to discover to the Magistrate his Error and the Innocency of the Minister accused and that any injury done to the Minister for preaching the truth of God would be a fighting against the God of truth Every Christian should be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3.15 2 Tim. 2.24 25 26. with meekness and fear And especially the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God paradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken Captives by him at his will Jeremiah is brought before the Princes and accused for the Doctrine he had taught he does not refuse to answer to the Accusation but shews That his Doctrine was of God and takes that occasion to exhort all that were hearing him to amend their doings and assures them that if they put him to death they would bring innocent blood upon themselves and this Doctrine hath a good effect upon the Princes Jer. 26.10 c. The Apostle Paul refuses not to declare what he had taught to the Roman Judges he sought and took all opportunities of preaching the Gospel he did not submit his Doctrine to their decisive Judgment for though they had condemned the Truth he would have still justified it and would have pitied them as blind but he was always before all persons ready to preach the Gospel of which he was not ashamed The true strength of the cause of the Ministers of Christ when they are brought before Rulers for preaching of the Truth doth not consist in some formalities which men use in litigious Pleas but in the plain declaring of the Truth of God which is mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ If the Magistrate take upon him to judge of Causes that are meerly Ecclesiastical the Ministers of Christ do their duty when they tell the Magistrate That such causes are to be determined by the Church-Courts and not by the Magistrate but Sedition by the Confession of this Author is none of these Causes which are meerly Ecclesiastical for he grants that the Magistrate can only properly judge of what is truly seditious The Historian doth not faithfully relate the History of Mr. Andrew Melvine for in Calderwoods History pag. 144. we find that Mr. Melvine at his first compearance before the King and Council declared what he said in his Sermon without any Protestation At his second compearance he protests that he spoke nothing in that Sermon tending to the slander or dishonour of the Kings Majesty his Sovereign any ways on the contrary he exhorted always all his Highness's Subjects to obedience and reverence of his Majesty and most earnestly prayed for the preservation and prosperous estate of his Majesty And after this he humbly protests that in respect of Gods ordinance Acts of Parliament and a late Conference betwixt some Lords and Ministers deputed by the King and Kirk That the Trial might be remitted to the Judge Ordinary which was the Assembly of the Kirk then he pleads the priviledge of the University of St. Andrews the Members whereof were to be judged in prima instantia by the Rector and his Assessors And then again he declares what he had spoken in that Sermon that he might clear his Innocency and remove all sinistrous suspitions Thus it appears that Mr. Melvine answered concerning his Sermon before he gave in that Protestation And as to Mr. David Blakes declinature we see pag. 340. of Calderwoods Story That the Commissioners of the General Assembly declare that their intention in the Declinature was no ways to diminish hurt or prejudice his Majesties Authority by exeeming from the same Judicatory any matter or cause civil or criminal committed by whatsoever persons and in this Mr. Guthrie agreed with them In the close of that 8. Section pag. 14. he blames the Indulged Ministers for silence and their silence and not giving a Testimony was as he says a Declaration that they were willing that all their Doctrine should be immediately and in prima instantia judged and examined by the Council Ans 1. As this part of the Kings Letter was not intimate to them so though it had been intimate I do not see how they could in reason have protested against it is there any Magistrate in the World who will suffer Ministers to preach seditious discourses if they can hinder them and if for a reason of their Protestation they had said That by that means all their Doctrine would be brought under the Magistrates Judgment the Magistrate might have replyed that by that reason they gave them to understand that all their
make it appear so but the pertinency and clearness of it is manifest to all who will not shut their eyes and the impertinency of his confused questions which have their rise from his own confused fancy and not from the matter which gave no occasion for them is sufficiently discovered He says it 's defective Answ I refer the Reader to the Answers of the fore-going Questions which are the words or the obvious and manifest sense of their words before the Council and then to the consideration of all the genuine consequences which necessarily and clearly follows from these truths asserted in these Answers and then let him judge whether their Testimony was defective In denying to the Magistrate a Power formally Ecclesiastical all Erastianism properly so called is excluded and in asserting that in the matters of the Ministry they are Christs Servants and consequently not the Servants of men in these matters and in designing Acts burdening their Ministry by the name of impositions they have clearly shewed that these matters are not at the will and pleasure of men for if the Magistrate might warrantably command what he pleased in these matters his commands would not be impositions but Lawful commands Now if the Lord would incline the hearts of Rulers to forbear to assume a Power formally Ecclesiastical that 's the Power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and to forbear to burden the Church with impositions commanding what the Lord hath forbidden or forbidding what the Lord alloweth or hindring and marring the Servants of Christ in his Service I suppose none who were judicious would complain though they used their objective Power in commanding what God hath commanded and forbidding what he hath forbidden and pressing these commands where there is need with Civil Penalties And the Servants of Christ would rejoyce to see the Civil Magistrate using the Civil Power which he hath from God for the glory of God in putting the Ministers of Christ to their Duty He says There was in this way of vindicating Truth much pusillanimity disingenuity carnal consultation occasioning misconceptions and blindness Answ The Historians blindness in and misconceptions of this matter hath occasioned and caused this false and uncharitable accusation All who know these Ministers knows their candour and ingenuity and their Brethren who were with them at their meetings at that time can witness their integrity and their words uttered before the Council do evidence They evidenced much more courage before the Magistrate than the Author did when brought before the Magistrate for any thing I can hear but ordinarily men who have least courage are most vehement exacters of it in others and most ready to upbraid others with pusillanimity they use to talk much of courage when they are at a good distance from the place where danger is but when they come where the fray is they are as afraid as other folk The Brother who hath answered this History relates that a Minister who was brought before the Council in the year 1662. for calling his Neighbour a Knave because contrary to his promise he had gone to the first Diocesan Synod being interrogate wherefore he called his Neighbouring Minister a Knave He answered because he said one thing and did another This Answer was much more general and abstract from Prelacy or Supremacy and Covenant-breaking than the Answers of the Indulged Ministers the reason why he called him a Knave really was his conforming to Prelacy established by the Supremacy and his Covenant-breaking But the Brother who is so much for particular plain distinct Testimony in others he contented himself with this confused general He adds that another Brother who in the preceeding year was brought before the Parliament for asserting the Obligation of the Covenant in a Sermon when he compeared all his Testimony was a mincing of these expressions made use of in that Sermon But saith he I pitied him because he was in hazard of his Life And yet both these Brethren have exclaimed much against the Indulged Ministers for not giving a plain open full Testimony before the Rulers Several People would have a Testimony as the Cat would have fish without wetting their feet Catus amat piscem sed non vult tangere lympham or as the Ape would have Chesnuts out of the fire without burning their own fingers and therefore makes use of the Cats foot to pull them out They would have Indulged Ministers giving plain Testimonies to the Magistrates face but all their own Testimonies are given behind the Magistrates back and they look rather like Satyrick invectives and railing accusations than the Gospel-Testimonies of Gospel-Ministers who should with meekness Instruct even those who oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance and who should not do any thing that really tends to harden or irritate but do all things that are allowed of God to mollifie the hearts even of these who oppose themselves Their way puts me in mind of the way of some fresh-water Souldiers who when they are called to fight and shoot have neither heart nor hand to draw or present their Muskets let be to give fire but flees as fast and far as their feet will carry them and when they are at a great distance they give brave fire and shoots abundance of great volleys at the wind and if upon the Report of these volleys they be enquired after they disappear nusquam apparent The Historian shuts up this matter by desiring the Informer to tell him If he think not that more plain clear and full expressions might have been fallen on Answ Here he seems to grant that their expressions were plain clear and full for the comparative supposes the positive and must honest men be condemned of Treachery because they fell not upon the plainest words and fullest expressions Must there be Confusion and Treachery in every Testimony that is not clear in the superlative degree These Brethren used the expressions which Divines who writ most deliberately and distinctly and soundly in these matters use and I am very confident if they had known clearer expressions to have exprest their mind in that matter they would have used them The Author of this History hath noâ— fallen upon more distinct words for any thing Is remember For the words which he suggests pag. 75. where he says Why was it not more distinctly and in fewer words said that they could not receive the Instructions as being intrinsecally and formally Ecclesiastical Regulating them who were the Servants of Christ in these matters For 1. Though this had been distinct yet it would not have been true for by his own confession the confinement was wholly Political 2. It 's confused at least I do not distinctly understand what matters these matters are which are in the end of his distinct words no doubt these words mean matters but what matters he means I can hardly imagine If he had spoken before of the matters of the Ministry as Mr. H. did
prevent Division his heart should have smitten him who hath been so untender and so careless in this matter It 's true light is light but 1. There may be an unseasonable bringing forth of light as if a man would bring a light to a large dark Room where a man fleeing for his Life had hid himself to let the pursuer see to find and murder the lurking man Or if one told what way an innocent man had fled to his Enemy who were pursuing for his Life though Light be Light and Truth Truth yet that Light was unseasonably brought in to the dark Room and that Truth unseasonably brought forth But ye will say that doth not hold as to truths revealed in the Scripture I shall Answer in the words of Mr. Durham whose memory is precious in the Churches in his Treatise concerning Scandal which was his Testament to the Church of Scotland Part 4. Chap. 11. Pag. 358. A second way of composure is when such agreement in judgment cannot be obtained to endeavour a harmony and keep Unity notwithstanding of that difference by a mutual forbearance in things controverted which we will find to be of two sorts The first is to say so total that is when neither side doth so much as Doctrinally in writ word or sentences of Judicatories press any thing that may confirm or propagate their own Opinion or condemn the contrary but do altogether abstract from the same out of respect to the Churches Peace and for the preventing of Scandal and do in things wherein they agree according to the Apostles direction Phil. 3.16 Walk by the same Rule and mind the same things mutually as if there were no such differences and waiting in these till the Lord shall reveal the same unto them This way is safe and where the Doctrine upon which the difference is is such as the forbearing the decision thereof doth neither marr any Duty that the Church in general is called to nor endanger the Salvation of Souls through the want of clearness therein nor in a word infer such inconveniences to the hurt of the Church as such unseasonable awakening and keeping up of differences and divisions may have with it Because the scope of bringing forth every truth or confirming the same by any Authoritative Sanction c. is the Edification of the Church and therefore when the bringing forth thereof doth destroy more than Edifie it is to be forborn Neither can it be ground enough to plead for such decisions in Preaching that the thing they Preach for is Truth and the thing they condemn is Error Because 1. It is not the Lawfulness of the thing simply that is in Question but the necessity and expediency thereof in such a case now many things are lawful that are not expedient 1 Cor. 10.23 2. In these differences that were in the Primitive times concerning Meats Days Genealogies c. there was a truth or an error upon one of the sides as there is a right and a wrong in every contradiction of such a kind yet the Apostle thinketh fitter for the Churches Peace that such be altogether refrained rather than any way at least in publick insisted upon or decided 3. Because no Minister can bring forth every Truth at all times he must then make choice and I suppose some Ministers may die and all do so who have not Preached every truth even which they knew unto the People Beside there are no question many truths hid to the most Learned neither can this be thought inconsistent with a Ministers fidelity who is to reveal the whole Counsel of God because that Counsel is to be understood of things necessary to mens Salvation and is not to be extended to all things whatsoever for we find the great Apostle expounding this in that same Sermon Acts 20.20 I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you which evidenceth that the whole Counsel of God or the things which he shewed unto them is the whole and all that was profitable for them and that for no by-respect or fear whatsoever he shunned to reveal that unto them Also it 's clear that there are many truths which are not decided by any Judicial Act and among other things sparingness to decide truths which are not fundamental judicially hath been ever thought no little mean of the Churches Peace as the contrary hath been of Division The third way which is the second sort of the former of composure is mixed when there is some medling with such questions yet with such forbearance that though there be a seen difference yet there is no Schism or Division but that is seriously and tenderly prevented as upon the one side some may express their mind in Preaching and Writing on a particular Question one way others may do it differently yet both with that respect and meekness to those they differ from that it doth beget no rent nor give just ground of offence nor marr Union in any other thing or it may possibly come to be decided in a Synod yet with such forbearance upon both sides that it may prove no prejudice to Union Those who have Authority for them not pressing it to the prejudice of the Opinion Names Consciences of the other or to their detriment in any respect but allowing to them a liberty to speak their minds and walk according to their own light in such particulars and on the contrary the other resting satisfied in the Unity of the Church without condemning them or pressing them to condemn themselves because so indeed their Liberty is no less than others who have the decision of a Synod for them And he adds an instance in the Church of Africa where that Question was first debated If Hereticks after their Conversion should be again Baptized And a Synod of 300 Bishops concluded that they should be re-baptized yet that Synod carried so that they did not onely not censure any that dissented nor pressed them to conform in practise to their judgment but also did entertain most intimate respect to them and formality with them And upon the other side we do not find any in that Church making a Schism upon the account of that Judicial erroneous decision though at least by three several Synods it was ratified but contenting themselves to have their Consciences free by retaining their own judgment and following their own practice till time gave more light and more occasion to clear that truth And we will never find in the Writings of any time more affection among Brethren and more respect to Peace than was in that Church at that time amongst those that differed And there is not any practice more commended in all the Church-History and Writings of the Fathers than this practice and partly may be gathered from what was formerly touched out of Augustine And if we will consider the case rationally we will find that it is not impossible to have Union in a Church where there is such a difference and
Authority That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty Which shews that the Assembly of Divines at Westminster did not think that the Kingdom of Christ is to be set up by ruining earthly Kings and Kingdoms and that they take not the right way to advance Christs Kingdom who reject the Magistrates countenance and maintenance of the Church Or who by despising and provoking Magistrates to wrath tempts them to discountenance the Church And seeing they look on the Church as Christs Kingdom the Historian hath not taken the right way to advance this Kingdom but hath taken the way to ruine it by dividing it For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand And if he had pondered the explication of the third Petition it might have been a mean to have prevented his giving so much place to his own Humour and Will in this History and helped him to more submission unto the Holy Providence of God than doth appear in this History I wish he had ere he began to write this History put up that Petition And lead us not into temptation Or at the close of it put up that Petition And forgive us our sins We have great need ere we begin Debates and Controversies even when they are necessary to pray that we be not led into temptation And great need to close such Debates even when the cause maintained is right with praying Lord forgive us our sins I have examined all that had any appearance of Reason in this History and refuted many things which needed no refutation if it had not been for the sake of simple People who are often deceived by big words where there is no shew or colour of Reason I have often by Reason refuted the unreasonable clamours both of the Author of the Epistle and of the History whereas I might have opposed clamour to clamour for what is founded upon meer clamour may be as easily cried down as it 's cried up Let none because of the Authors errors in this History cast at other useful Books which he hath published nor reject any thing that is true and right in this History Good men have their failings and we may not take our measures of them from their miscarriages under a fit of temptation Job's Friends had a just hatred against Hypocrisie and they mistake Job and falls foul upon him as a Hypocrite and speaks many things that are not right things in the heat of Debate This Author had a just indignation against Erastianism and a Spiritual Supremacy in Magistrates and he apprehended that his brethren had interpretatively homologate this Erastian and Spiritual Supream power in the Magistrate and having mistaken them he hath fallen foully upon them and spoken much evil of them without cause These things which in the Epistle and History are wrong are things for the most part which several people had drunk in and the printing of these errours hath given occasion to rectifie the mistakes of erring people if they will not shut their eyes against the light The Lord who is excellent in working draws good out of evil and maketh all things work together for good to them who love him and are the called according to his purpose he can over-rule the darkness of error so as it shall be subservient to clear the truth In the worst times the Elect hath obtained and shall obtain The Lord reigneth and ruleth in the midst of Enemies he can when men are scattering the dust of Zion be making way for laying a solid foundation in the deep humiliation of his people for building his house The Church hath been before as dry and scattered bones as bones scattered at the graves mouth and yet he who raiseth the dead hath made these bones to come together and live It 's our best to leave the answering of that Question Can these Bones live To the Lord himself to Jehovah who makes things that are not to be who doeth great things and unsearchable marvellous things and without number If we would take shame and confusion of face to our selves and would humble our selves in the sight and sense of our sins our darkness and stumblings and justlings in the dark and justifie the Lord in his judgments that are come upon us and yet ascribe to him the glory of his Mercy and out of our depths and darkness cry to him that he would cause his face to shine and enlighten our darkness and send out his Light and Truth and pour out the Spirit of a sound mind and that he would quicken us by the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus that we might call on his Name and look on him whom we have pierced and mourn that when mens endeavours to gather the scattered sheep are not effectual that he the great Shepherd would seek out his sheep and deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day And if we would wait on him in the way of his Judgments and hope in his Word his Covenant which he uses to remember for his People and to repent according to the multitude of his Mercies and though we have no ground of hope in our selves yet hope against hope on the Lord who is the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble and that because with him there is Mercy and plenteous Redemption And so continue humbly praying hoping waiting for him He could soon redeem us from all our Iniquities and all our Troubles and cure all our distractions and distempers and give Light and Life and Unity and Peace Let us take shame to our selves and give him the glory due to his Name that his Name may endure for ever and be continued as long as the Sun that men may be Blessed in him and all Nations call him Blessed Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel who onely doeth wondrous things And Blessed be his Glorious Name for ever and ever and let the whole Earth be filled with his Glory Amen and Amen The Conference continued Farmer SIR there are many things considerable in this Answer to the History of the Indulgence which I purpose to consider but there is one thing which not a little troubles me That the withdrawing from hearing the Indulged Ministers is called Schism Now I remember we are by Covenant bound to extirpate Schism and if I have been practising Schism in withdrawing from hearing the Indulged Ministers I have been Acting contrary to the Covenant Minister They who deal truly in the matter of the Covenant will study to fulfill their Vows not onely in some things but in all things Schism is a dissolution of that Union which ought to be among Christians and especially it appears in refusing that Church-fellowship or Ecclesiastical Communion which ought to be observed or in an unwillingness to communicate or to have communion with the true Church in Holy Actions Casuists shew that it is a most grievous
20. Servants be Subject to your Masters with all fear not only to the good but to the froward or perverse as it 's also rendered This Scripture is cited in the larger Catechism in explication of the fifth Commandment to shew what is the Honour that Inferiours owe to Superiours If the miscarriages of Magistrates Masters Parents or the miscarriages of Inferiours did dissolve the Relation and make it void And if the miscarriages of Married Persons did nullifie the Marriage-relation and loose the Party wronged from all Obligation towards the Party that 's injurious this would quickly dissolve the Bonds of all Humane Society and make Men like a multitude of loose Cartel If Subjects were not bound to give due Obedience to Magistrates except they did preserve the true Religion then all the Directions that Christ and his Apostles gave to Honour and be Subject to and pay Tribute to and pray for the Magistrates and Powers that then were did not oblige the People to whom they were first directed for all the Magistrates then were Infidels and Idolaters In the Confession of Faith Chap. 23. Art 4. It 's the Duty of People to pray for Magistrates to Honour their Persons to pay them Tribute and other dues to obey their Lawful Commands and to be Subject to their Authority for Conscience sake Infidelity or difference of Religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and Legal Authority nor free the People from their due obedience to him And the General Assembly Anno 1639. in their Supplication to the Commissioner and Council say We have Solemnly sworn and do swear not only our mutual Concurrence and Assistance for the cause of Religion and to the utmost of our Power with our Means and Lives to stand to the Defence of our dread Sovereign his Person and Authority in the Preservation of true Religion Liberties and Laws of this Kirk and Kingdom but also in every Cause which may concern His Majesties Honour shall concur with our Friends and followers as we shall be required Preach Subjects are not obliged to concur with and assist Rulers in doing ill Min. That 's true for to concur with them in assisting them to do evil were to partake of their sin But though we may not partake of their evil yet that will not follow that we must not maintain their Person and Authority Although the Israelites would not assist and concur with Saul in destroying Jonathan but rescued him yet they thought themselves bound to defend Saul's Person and Authority It 's one thing not to concur with Superiours in evil and another thing to destroy their Persons and their Power because they do evil But ye cannot deny but the Covenant obliges to defend and maintain the King in so far as he maintains the true Religion and Righteousness and I think ye will not deny that the King doth in part maintain the true Religion and Righteousness and therefore ye are bound to defend his Person and Authority and how can ye defend his Person and Authority in doing any good if ye destroy his Person and Power as is designed and sworn in this Band. There are many other Absurdities in that fourth Article of the Band which were tedious to repeat and refute In the fifth Article they say We then being made free by God and their own doings he giving the Law and they giving the transgression of that Law which is the cause that we are loosed from all Obligations Divine and Civil to them It 's strange that men who cry out against these who break other Articles of the Covenant should so boldly shake off the Obligation of the third Article of the Covenant and so increase the sin of the Nation by adding the breach of the Civil part of the Covenant to the breach of the Religious part of it To make out what they assert it 's not enough to prove that the Rulers have transgressed the Law of God for they must also shew from the Law that it is the will of God that Subjects should upon such and such transgressions shake off all Obligations towards such Rulers But this they have never attempted because they could not I would enquire at them doth every transgression loose these Obligations If not then how many and how great must these transgressions be And then shall a few private Persons who have very little Interest in the Nation determine this Question How many and how great transgressions makes Rulers no Rulers and Subjects no Subjects Then they promise to set up Government and Governours according to the Word of God especially Exod. 18.21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness c. I wish they had pondered Prov. 24.21 22. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both The Dutch Interpreters expound it of these who are addicted to changes and novelties departing from the Obedience which they owe to God and their Lawful Magistrates and rising up in Rebellion against them Moses was King in Jesurun and his setting up subordinate Rulers is no pattern for their shaking off the Yoke of Subjection and setting up Usurpers and an unlawful Government The 16 of Numbers where Subjects do Seditiously exalt themselves against Moses and Aaron quadrats better with their case than the 18 of Exodus where Moses makes subordinate Rulers for his own and the Peoples ease And how could they in Reason expect that able men wise and prudent men fit for Government or men fearing God or men of Truth would undertake to be Governours over them For wise men would see the sin and snare and hazard in breaking down the hedge of Civil or Ecclesiastical Government Eccles 10.8 Men fearing God they also fear the King and fear an Oath and men of Truth will not deal falsely in the matter of their Covenant with God or Man And who but foolish rash Persons would take upon them to Rule such an unruly and disorderly People who had destroyed all Order Civil and Ecclesiastical It 's strange that they durst speak as they do of Kingly Government and Lineal Succession seeing the Lord established both among his People in the House of David the man after his own heart Kingly Government as established in these Nations in which King and Parliament make Laws is a form of Government so excellent that few except Persons byassed with prejudice will find fault with it The faults of Rulers should not be imputed to the form of Government They engage to set up the Judicial Law but they apprehend it would not reach far enough and they reject some parts of it but beside these things which they mention there are several other things which would not suit with us Some even of their Capital Laws have intimate connexion with their Ceremonial Law and derive much of
Councils ministerially to determine controversies of Faith and cases of Conscience to set down Rules and Directions for the better ordering of the publick Worship of God and government of his Church Art 5. Synods and Councils are to conclude nothing but that which is Ecclesiastical and are not to meddle with Civil affairs which concern the Commonwealth unless by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary or by way of advice for satisfaction of conscience if they be thereto required by the Civil Magistrate Chap. 23. Art 3. The Civil Magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of word and Sacraments as the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven yet he hath authority and it is his duty to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the Church that the truth of God be kept pure and intire that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed all corruptions and abuses in worship or discipline prevented or reformed and all Ordinances of God duly setled administred and observed for the better effecting whereof he hath power to call Synods to be present at them and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the word of God These Articles and the Scripture-proofs do clearly hold out and confirm That Christ not the Magistrate is the Head King Lord of the Church which is the Body House and Kingdom of Christ that Church and not the Magistrate is the Fountain of the Spiritual Power of the keys of the kingdom of Heaven that the Offices in the Church are of divine institution given by Christ and that these Offices which Christ hath given are sufficient for gathering and perfecting the Church seeing he hath given them for that end and that they are Ministerial and not Lordly and hence it follows that the Office of a Prelate who claims a majority of Directive and Coercive power over Ministers who not only takes upon him without election to moderate Synods but also is above the censure of the Synod and who can hinder the Synod from concluding any thing how necessary soever they find it and without whose Authority the Synod is no Synod who imposes Moderators upon the meetings for exercise and to whom these meetings are countable for their actings without whom there can be no ordination deposition excommunication relaxation from it who exacteth an Oath of Canonical obedience from Ministers not being in the Rolls of the Offices and Officers given by Christ and being a Lordly and so more than a Ministerial Office Presbyterians cannot own it nor judg it useful for gathering or perfecting of the Church They shew also that the Magistrate to whom God hath given the Lordly power of the sword is so far from having a spiritual Supreme power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven that he hath not the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven given to him at all for the power of the keys which Christ hath given is Ministerial and makes those who are invested with it Ministers of the Church but the power of the Sword is Magistratical and a Lordly Dominion and that it belongs to Synods and Councils and not to Magistrates to make Ecclesiastical Rules c. and that none neither Magistrates nor Ministers may order Ecclesiastical matters according to their mind and pleasure but those things must be ordered according to the mind and will of God revealed in his word And all true Presbyterians believe That seeing both the Lordly Power of the Magistrate in general and in special the Kingly Power and the Ministerial Power of Church-Officers are of God and his Ordinances that they are not contrary to one another for the Ordinances of God do not justle one against another but sweetly agree and any justling or clashing which hath proceeded from the corruptions of Magistrates or Ministers are not to be imputed to the Lords Ordinances and it 's the earnest desire of all truly godly and loyal subjects who seek the glory of God and the Magistrates true honour and interest That whatsoever in the actings of their rightful Magistrates hath exceeded the bounds which the Lord hath set to them may be in mercy discovered to them and in time reformed That all occasions of grief and stumbling may be taken out of the way of truly loyal subjects and all occasion of doing mischief may be cut off from those who take advantage from those excesses to render the Magistrate contemptible and to overthrow that Power which they have from God As for what they say of Ministers hindering those who would have given a testimony and censuring others who did give it the truth is Presbyterian Ministers endeavoured to restrain some young men who instead of preaching the Gospel made it their work to revile the Magistrate and Ministers who made use of the liberty granted by the Magistrate but these youths discovered themselves not to be of Presbyterian Principles by their refusing to be subordinate to the Ministers and by reproaching them who would have reclaimed them from their disorderly and Schismatick practices By this the Magistrate may perceive if the Presbyterian Ministers who are Presbyterians indeed had by allowance of the Magistrate the peaceable exercise of their Ministry and liberty of meeting for regulating their own actings and the actings of those who profess themselves to be Presbyterians such unruly persons who stir up the people to Schism and Sedition would not be admitted to the Ministry or if they after their admission discovered themselves to be of pernicious principles they would be put from the Ministry and so the people who are true to Presbyterian Principles would not own them and so they would not have access to pervert the people with Seditious and Schismatick doctrine this would be found the most proper Remedy for these distempers But what wonder is it if young men who are ordinarily rash being but Novices who have not studied the Body of Divinity and who have no experience and know not the Principles and Practices of Presbyterial Government who are not put ro Presbyterial Exercises for their trial and instruction and who it may be have never seen any thing of the Exercise of Presbyterial Government in Presbyteries or Synods and who are not under the iâ—spection of meetings of Presbyterians but wander to and fro at random not thinking themselves accountable to any meeting of Ministers nor censurable by any What wonder is it if such persons when they are blown up with the vain applause of some ignorant and humorous people who under their sad sufferings have taken up such prejudice against the Magistrate and all to whom the Magistrate shews any favour that they think what is most cross to the Magistrate is most right and any thing which the Magistrate allows they think it wrong and so they cry up those Preachers most who speak most invectively against the Magistrate and against those Ministers to whom the Magistrate shews any favour I say what wonder is
c. But the donation of the Office and spiritual authority annexed thereunto is only derived from Jesus Christ our Mediator he alone gives all Church-Officers and therefore none may devise or superadd any new Officers Ephes 4.7 8 10 11. 1 Cor. 12.28 And he alone derives all authority and power Spiritual to these Officers for dispensing the Word Sacraments Censures and all Ordinances Mat. 16.19 28.18 19 20. Joh. 20.21 22 23. 2 Cor. 10.8 13.10 and therefore it is not safe for any creature to intrude upon this Prerogative Royal of Christ to give any power to any Officer of the Church And thus we see that these Learned and Godly Ministers who solidly in that same Book refute Erastianism yet assert that it belongs to the Magistrate to protect countenance authorize defend maintain Ministers in the publick exercise of their Ministry which they have received from the Lord Jesus But it 's the ignorance of the solid writings of Presbyterians which makes some folks so confident that they are true Presbyterians and adhering to Presbyterian Principles when in the mean time they are publishing to the world that they are strangers to the solid writings of sound Presbyterians And there is no Orthodox Divine who would find fault with these Ministers who when they appeared before the Council did give humble thanks to the Kings Majesty and the Lords of his Majesties Council for the peaceable exercise of the Ministry which they had received from the Lord Jesus The elicite act of the Will is too Philosophical for common people to subscribe or swear to for they can hardly be made to understand it And what they say concerning it is not Philosophical enough to be approven by those who understand what an elicite act is for elicite acts of the Will are such as immediately flow from the Will as love or hatred volition or nolition Now translation of power from Ministers to Magistrates is not made by these inward acts of the Will but by some external imperate acts as speaking writing c. Politick acts of surrender or translation of power are not effectuate by meer elicite internal acts of the Will But their ignorance of the nature of an elicite act of the Will and their opposing acts of force and constraint to elicite acts whereas elicite acts use to be contra-distinguished from imperate acts and their insinuating That if an act be not an elicite act of the Will it is an act of force and constraint whereas the imperate acts of the Will are not elicite acts and yet being commanded by the Will they are not acts of force and constraint these are more harmless mistakes But it is a very injurious calumny that those Ministers who appeared before the Council translated the power of sending out ordering and censuring Ministers to the Magistrate It 's a ridiculous ignorant conceit to imagine that what these Ministers did in appearing before the Council was a translation of the power of order of Potestative mission or else such censuring to the Magistrate or changing their Master and making themselves the Ministers of men and a quitting of the Government and succession of a Presbyterian Ministry These are meer calumnies and ridiculous fopperies that none who understand any thing in these matters will think worthy of any answer They were very injurious to the poor people many of whom are simple and ready through prejudice to believe any ill word spoken against indulged Ministers who in their Papers and Pamphlets abused them with such slanders But they are more injurious to them who would have them to subscribe and swear such injurious calumnies and ridiculous fopperies which are not only far from truth but from any appearance of truth And so much hath been said in several Papers written in vindication of the practice of the Indulged Ministers that it were to waste time and paper to answer any more to these Calumniators and the best answer to them is to pray that the Lord would give them repentance for these abominable reproaches whereby they have very actively driven on the design of Satan and his instruments the Papists and Quakers c. which is to render the Ministry contemptible And it was seen and told long ago that they would not rest satisfied with the reproachieg of a few Ministers but would proceed to render all contemptible The contrivers of this Bond have made a great progress in this Devilish work of rendering Ministers contemptible and useless for they have casten all except some few who for any thing known did not exceed the number of four and some think that they were but three at most and one of them was casten by the other two It is strange that any person who had the use of reason could be so far blinded with prejudice as to think that these Ministers did translate the power of sending out Ministers or the power of Potestative mission to the Magistrate for as was said the Magistrate supposed them to be Ordained ministers and so to have a Potestative mission to Preach the Gospel already for ministers are potestatively sent to preach the Gospel when they are Ordained ministers this clearly appeared by the Councils inquiring if they were and where or by whom they were Ordained ministers if the Council had called some persons who were not Ordained and sent them to Preach and Baptize c. then they might have alledged that the Magistrate did assume the power of sending out ministers or of a Potestative mission but they never pretended to any thing like that Preacher But Sir did not the Council send these ministers to these Congregations Minist 1. The Council did not so much as use the word of sending 2. Suppose they had used the word of sending that would not have imported a Potestative mission because the Magistrate did suppose that they were already Ordained Ye heard also that Mr. Welsh in his Preface to King James desires the King to send ministers throughout the Land it were great ignorance and perverseness to gather from that word that he translated to the King the power of a Potestative mission 3. Suppose the Magistrate had said nothing concerning their being Ordained Ministers before it had been great perverseness to have concluded from the Magistrates sending of them that they ceased to be the Ministers of Christ and became the Ministers of men Will any be so perverse as to conclude because Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 17.8 9. sent Priests and Levites through all the Cities of Judah to teach the people that therefore these Priests and Levites ceased to be the Lords Ministers and became the ministers of the King Preach But Jehoshaphet was a godly reforming King Minist That is nothing to the purpose in hand Ye might have remembred that Mr. Rutherford shews that the magistratical power in reference to the Church is the same in Nero and in a Christian magistrate and if a godly King 's sending ministers does not annul their ministry then
what Doctrine they should preach which was an encroachment beyond any thing done by the secret Council Some talk of Presbytery and Presbyterian parity and of their detestation of Prelacy and in the mean time set up Prelacy it 's a great evidence of a Spirit of giddiness when people run round as those who run in a Circle and so run to that point from which they once did run The Declaration at Sanquair is refuted in the Confutation of the Bonds and the truth is such principles and practices are so absurd and destructive to all Rule and Government that they are not worthy of Refutation and should be answered with detestation and abhorrence They conclude that Declaration hoping that none will blame them for or offend at their rewarding those that are against them as they have done to them if they had considered Prov. 20.22 Say not thou I will recompence evil but wait on the Lord and he shall save thee and Prov. 24.29 Say not I will do so to him as he hath done to me I will render to the man according to his work Rom. 12.14 17 18 19 20 21 1 Thes 5.15 1 Pet. 3.9 10 11 12 13 14. They might have seen how groundless and absurd this hope was The 8 and 9 veses of the 137 Psalm are wrested when applied to justifie such unchristian Practices for that Scripture is a prediction of the prosperous success that the Medes and Persians should have in destroying Babylon which is also foretold Isa 45.1 3 4 13. and not a Rule to warrand us to revenge our selves and to dash out the brains of Infants It 's among the delusions of the time that some know not of what Spirit they are and imagine that to be the Zeal of God which is nothing but the wrath of man which worketh not the Righteousness of God It is meet to shut up this sad Subject with humble and earnest Supplications That the Lord would humble us in the sight and sense of our sins which have procured the dreadful Judgments and Plagues which have come upon this sinful Generation That he would convince us of our sins and make every one sensible of the Plagues of his own heart and of the Plagues that are upon the hearts of others which are among the most dreadful evidences of the anger of God that Magistrates Ministers people of all ranks may take with their sins and take shame and confusion of face to themselves because of their own sins and the sins of others That he would so turn in mercy and loving-kindness and turn us again that our backslidings be not perpetual and turn the hearts of Rulers and the hearts of people to himself and the hearts of Rulers to the people and the hearts of people to the Rulers the hearts of the fathers to the children and of the children to the fathers that Rulers may have the love kindness pity and compassion of fathers towards the people and may not by rigor and severity provoke the children to wrath and may pity those who are distempered by sad sufferings and that the Lord would incline their hearts to take speedy course that the poor people who wander as sheep without shepherds and who through their own ignorance and humours and distempers are exposed as a prey to seducers to Jesuits and those who are influenced by them who drive poor unstable people who are destitute of faithful Teachers to discover to them the devices of Satan and of his Instruments into snares and mischievous practices and makes them imagine that those pathes of the destroyer are the way to an outgate from their calamities That the Lord would incline I say their hearts to take speedy course that these poor wandering sheep may be provided with Pastors after the Lords heart who may feed them with knowledg and understanding with sound doctrine with the wholesome words of Christ that they may not be turned from the truth unto fables but by the words of the Lords mouth they may be keeped out of the paths of the destroyer and any who are intangled through the devices of Satan and subtil deceivers may be recovered in time out of these snares And that the Lord would incline the hearts of people to be subject to principalities and powers and to obey Magistrates to fear God and honour the King and keep them that they be not tempted by grievous pressures to cast off the yoke of lawful Authority but may possess their souls in patience and wait on the Lord in the way of his judgments who often makes use of lawful Magistrates to punish his people for their sins and though the Magistrate may be wrong yet God is righteous and we should be humbled under his hand It 's a very humbling dispensation when Parents and Magistrates are alienate from and rigid against their children and subjects and we should not be chafed and enraged but humbled under the mighty hand of God and carry with that lowliness and meekness patience and respect to lawful Authority that we may commend ourselves to the consciences of all in the sight of God that being reviled we may bless being persecuted we may suffer it being defamed we may entreat And seeing the Devil is so active to rent the Church and to ruine it and to render the Ministers of the Gospel and so the Gospel it self contemptible we should if we can do no more pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that the Lord would let people see the devices of Satan and Seducers who draw them away from under the eye of the Shepherd that they may destroy them and that he would convince people that it 's their duty to esteem Ministers very highly in love for their works sake and for their Masters sake for they who despise them despise Christ and the Father who sent Christ Farmer Sir I think my self much obliged to you for the pains you have taken for my information and I ingenuously acknowledg I am by what I have heard instructed in many things of which I was ignorant I shall desire before we part that ye would give me some directions how to order my way in this dark and dangerous time in which my lot hath fallen it 's seldome that I have occasion to converse with Ministers which makes me the more desirous to make the best use of their company I can when any of them come this way Minist There are many excellent directions in several of these Papers that I was speaking of before it were your advantage to have them I shall only give you a few 1. Let that be your earnest study to be in Christ and to walk in him to know him and to be found in him having his righteousness and to be conformed to him to walk at he walked The Apostle Paul counted all things loss for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ and to be found in him c. and he travelled as in birth to have Christ formed in the
suggesting that such or such a Scripture makes for his deluding suggestions Peter roved even when he was in the Mount beholding Christs Transfiguration when he moved that Christ might abide in the Mount and after he had given that excellent Confession of Christ That he was the Son of God which not flesh and blood but the Father had revealed to him Satan suggests to him to disswade Christ from going to Jerusalem to suffer which drew that sharp rebuke from the blessed mouth of Christ Get thee behind me Satan The Devil can back his suggestions with Scriptures which he perverts as we see he did when he tempted Christ to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple and therefore there is the more need to search the Scripture and to compare Scripture with Scripture and to consider what goeth before and what followeth in the Scripture and to know the Analogy of Faith from the Scriptures that are more clear and as it is holden forth from the Scriptures in the Confession of Faith and Catechisms that ye may not receive any sense of Scripture which is contrary to the Analogy of Faith to the Doctrine which is according to godliness received in the Reformed Churches Beware of adding to the word of God by making these things Duties which God hath not commanded or making any thing sinful which God hath not forbidden there are too many who will confidently impose their Conceits upon others and too many who are easily imposed upon simple people who believe every word and are tossed to and fro with every wind Study to be well founded in the Scriptures that with the Bereans ye may try Doctrines and Practices by the Rule of the holy Scripture It 's lamentable that there is so great ignorance of the Scriptuees and many are more in reading other writings than in reading the holy Scriptures Walk exactly according to the light which the Lord hath given to you from his word detain it not in unrighteousness and beware ye go no further than the light of the word directs you for if ye go out of the light and be in the dark ye know not how far ye may wander they who without direction from the word do blindly follow the example of others and know not whether it be right or wrong or take what others do to be right because such or such persons does it they are in an ill taking Beware ye go not without the word walk in the Law of the Lord in the light of the word which is a light to the feet and a Lamp to the paths 4. And that ye may be nourished up in the knowledge of the Scriptures of truth go to the publick Ordinances forsake not assembling together with the Lords people who meet in his name the Lord hath commanded his Ministers to teach and baptize c. and hath promised to be with them to the end of the world and hath promised That where he records his Name there he will come and bless his people he hath appointed Ministers for this end to feed his people with the knowledge and understanding of the word with the sincere Milk of the word and therefore if ye would glorifie the Name of the Lord if ye would have fellowship with God if you would have his presence and his Blessing if ye would know his mind and will revealed in his word frequent his Ordinances beware of those who would draw you away from the Shepherds Tents for they draw you away from Christ himself for it 's there that he feeds and makes his Flocks to rest Believe not those who say That he is not to be found in his own Ordinances for there he is and hath trysted his people to meet him there and he hath promised to come there and bless them whenever they are met in his name He is present he is not to come when they are met in his Name for he is come already There am I saith he in the midst of them The sins of those who are present at the Lords Ordinances shall not deprive those who upon his call comes to record his Name of his Presence and blessing for he is faithful who hath promised and they who come according to his appointment to glorifie his Name in his own Ordinances may be assured that he comes and blesses them though it may be they do not sensibly discern it and they are bound to believe it that he hath come and blessed them because he hath said it Beware of those who think they are the best and most tender Christians who are readiest to cast Ministers as no Ministers and Churches as no Churches there were many great faults in the Church of Corinth in several of the Churches of Asia and their Angels and yet Christ himself owns them and their Angels as Chuches and Angels and we find not that the Lord directs any to separate from these Churches or their Assemblies for publick worship because of those scandalous sins which were among them We find Christ himself present in the Church of Lacdicea which was the worst of them and standing at their door and knocking It 's insolent boldness to cast these as no Churches and Ministers whom Christ owns or who condemn going to these Meetings where Christ himself comes and blesses his people remember that your great busines in Ordinances is with the Lord himself for they are his Ordinances he hath appointed them the efficacy of them depends upon his Institution and Blessing and not upon the worthiness and intention of Ministers whoever absent themselves ye may be sure he is present whom your soul should seek come because he calls you and because he comes and blesses his people where he causes his Name to be recorded Learn to hear the Word not as the word of man but as the word of God Esteem the Ministers of Christ very highly in love for their works-sake and for their Masters sake Beware of the way of those who cast at the Ordinances if they be not dispensed by Ministers of the most eminent gifts or by Ministers who are in all things of their opinion receive the Lords message of the hand of any of his Messengers Beware of idolizing any Minister Remember that neither he that planteth nor he that watereth is any thing but God who giveth the encrease And beware of undervaluing any of the Lords Ministers seeing they are the Ministers of Christ 1 Cor. 4.1 In which Chapter the Apostle disswades the Corinthians who overvalued some and undervalued others of their Ministers from this comparing and rash judging of Ministers and among other Arguments uses this That they judge before the time he desires them to let alone that judging till the Lord come ver 5. who knew the counsels of the heart and the hidden things of darkness Neglect not the private exercises of Religion upon the Lords day but beware of the way of those who neglect the publick Ordinances though they have the
and his Mother he payed tribut to Caesar and directed others to do so It adorns the Doctrine of God when those who profess it are dutiful in their several places and Stations when they join Righteousness with Religion when they fear God and honour the King when they are subject to Magistrates out of a principle of Conscience when they are obedient Children faithful servants doing their work heartily as to the Lord. And when it is other ways the name of God is blasphemed and the way of God is evil spoken of 7. Beware of the first beginnings of sinful courses beware left any root of bitterness spring up if ye give way to the first motions of evil they will encrease to more ungodliness if the desire after the sincere milk of the word begin to languish if ye look not to it in time ye may come to an indifferency whether you hear the word or not and that may increase to a loathing and lightlying of the word and that may increase to a contempt of the Preaching of the word and then God in his righteous judgment may leave you to be plagued with Papers and Pamphlets and Teachers after your own lusts which will foster you in the contempt of the Ordinances and make you imagine that it's tenderness and zeal and a testimony to despise the Lords Ordinances and so far delude you as to make you imagine that profanity is Religion If you let that honour and respect which by the command of God is due to Magistrates decay you may come next to despise them and curse them in your heart and thought and then mutter out these revilings in private and then vent them openly and from virulent words come to open violence to design and endeavour to turn them out of their places and murther them and then be plagued with Papers and Doctrines deluding you to that height as to bring you to think that this fury is the zeal of God If ye lose the esteem and love that ye should have to the Ministers of Christ ye may come by degrees to despise them and revile them and to think it good service to God to make their Ministry useless and contemptible yea ye may come to that to think it good service to God to kill his servants and in the righteous judgment of God you may be left to the delusions of Satan to imagine that these abominations make you holier than others tremble at the deceitfulness of the desperately wicked heart of man and at the dreadful but holy judgments of God who gives over the backslider in heart to be filled with his own ways and plagues those who receive not the truth in love and who harbours and entertains lusts contrary to the word of God with strong delusions and with deluding Teachers who tickle the itching ears of those who after their lusts heap up Teachers to themselves with Doctrines which are suitable to their lusts 8. That you may see the mischief of error and schism and be guarded against it Read Mr. Durham's excellent Treatise of Scandal and the Preface prefixed by Mr. Robert Blair that eminent Servant of the Lord in whom holiness learning wisdom prudence zeal experience Ministerial authority and gravity were contemperate in an eminent degree in the end of that Preface he saith 〈…〉 much longer the Reader from the Treatise it self having added these few considerations for heart-uniting in the Lord which of all other I conceive ought to be most weighty in the judgment and on the affections of all the lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ 1. From Eph. 2.14 15 16 17. the great peace-maker in offering up himself in a sacrifice for the sins of the Elect intended with the reconciling of them to God to unite them in one body among themselves yea even those who were at furthest distance and greatest enmity Jew and Gentile and consequently other his Elect in their several differences and divisions throughout their generations He took on him the debt of their sins and enmities and lâ—fâ—ed up with himself these on his Cross representatively virtually and meritoriously to expâ—â—te them in his flesh and by his Spirit efficiently to slay and abolish them in due time by making them one 〈…〉 in himsâ—lf Mark I pray from that Scrâ—â—â—â—re cited that this complex business is the grâ—at 〈◊〉 of our blessed and great peace-maker 〈◊〉 2ly in the Sacrifice-feast of his Supper this is still represented and exhibited till he come again So that this standing Ordinance destinated and appointed of God to carry on and seal up uniting with God and one with another till he come again at his coming will stand up and testifie against all who comply not with Christ but following their own inclination act rather against his design And 3ly in his solemn prayer Joh. 17. which is a Specimen of his future Intercession he mainly presseth after the Salvation and Sanctification of those that are given him v. 21. That they also may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me Do not these words significantly and shiningly hold out what the Mediator is still about and that uniting in God is his design still And 4ly upon the same very ground the great Apostle speaking to Jews and Gentiles who had embraced the Gospel and in them to all dissentients who love the gospel-Gospel-truths and Ordinances saith Rom. 15.7 Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God Meritoriously and virtually the Elect are received to the glory of God And to the end they may be actually received Receive one another saith the Apostle as it were suspending the one upon the other And now upon these grounds Christ our Lord his grand design being so conspicuous his Supper-Ordinance standing as a land-mark in the way having this engraven upon it Union Communion the Glorious Mediator his Intercession running in the same channel and the blessed Apostle making â—his the upshot of his Doctrine what lover of our Lord well advised and recollecting himself dare stifly stand out from complying with him to satisfie their own inclination and habituated custom and carriage My fear is that every one of us will look to some others rather than themselves as obstructing the desired uniting in the Lord. But upon mature after-thoughts it will be found the mind of Christ that we narrowly search our selves every one of us how we have provoked the Holy One to smite us so in his displeasure and accurately to try what yet remains in us obstructive to this union and withal to flee to our slighted duty as in a city they run to the quenching of a publick burning laying this evil to heart more than Sword or Pestilence All the writings and actings against Presbyterian Government which is the wall of the house of God have never wronged or hurt it so much as our ill-raised
and worse continued contests Our nakedness-discovering writings what have they done but added oyl to the flame For Christs sake my reverend and dear Brethren hearken to this word in season from the Oracles of God and treasures of pure antiquity pointing out the way of a godly and edifying peace It will be no grief of heart but sweet peace and consolation when we are to appear before the Judg of the quick and the deed Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus So heartily prayeth your Brother and fellow-â—ervant ROBERT BLAIR Thus far Reverend Mr. Blair who was both a Son of Thunder â—nd a Son of Peace a Peace maker O with what authority and seriousneâ—s did I hear him press unity in Preaching before a Synod from these words Phil. 2.1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind And I heard him say upon Preaching before a general Assembly That he could be content to be carried from the place in which he was Preaching to his grave to have the rent that then was in the Church cured Ignorant and rash youths who have not experience and consider not what an abominable sin Schism is and what are the mischievous consequences of it and how it ordinarily ends in the ruin desolation of a Church they know little what they are doing when they are blowing up the fire of contention and it 's a sport to some to cast such fire-brands But they who have Heavenly wisdom see that that sporting is mischievous madness that it will be bitter in the latter end It is not for nought that the Spirit of God directed the Apost Paul in writing to the Church of the Corinthians in which there were many things wrong to fall first upon the ill of divisions 1 Cor. 1.10 and when he is shutting up that Epistle he exhorts that all these things be done with charity and to greet one another with an holy kiss And when he is shutting up the 2 Epist he concludes Finally Brethren farewell be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you Greet one another with an holy kiss So thus he begins and ends with this unity and peace 9. And because no speaking nor reasoning will prevail against the working of a spirit of error and schism without the effectual working of the pirit of the Lord let us humbly and earnestly pray that the Lord would have mercy upon us for his Sons sake who came to destroy the works of the Devil pour upon us the spirit of grace and of supplications the spirit of faith repentance that we may look on him whom we have pierced mourn the spirit of a sound mind the spirit of love peace And that every one Magistrates Ministers and people may be made sensible of their own sins We should pray that the Lord would send his Spirit that convinces the world of sin to let us see our sins and to let us see them written in our judgments that we may accept of the punishment of our sins justifie the Lord when he judges The Lord often writes the sins of men in so great and legible letters in their judgments that they who run may read them David despised the Lord and occasioned the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme by his adultery and murther incestuous filthiness breaks out in his house the sword departs not from his house his people despise him and follow Absalom Shimei an exasperate Benjamite is let loose upon him to revile and curse him and cast stones at him he disowns him as no King gives him no title of honour but only calls him a man and which was worse a bloody man a man of Belial and does not cry and then flee but goes along in the sight and hearing of the King Courtiers and Soldiers cursing casting stones and dust David sees that tho' Shimei did this contrary to the Law of God which says Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the ruler of thy people Yet that he did it not without the over-ruling Providence of God he saw that the Lord had let Shimei loose upon him is humbled under the hand of God Uzziah will needs go to the Temple exercise the Priests Office the Lord by Leprosie cuts him off from the House of the Lord and from the exercise of his Kingly Office When the Priests did not impartially apply the Law of God to reclaim the people from their sins no doubt they thought thus to keep in with the people but this brought them to be base contemptible before all the people Mal. 2.9 The Jews that remained in the land after the ruin of the Temple though they had but one Prophet yet they despise him they will not hear the word which Jeremiah spoke in the name of the Lord but they would do what went out of their own mouth and therefore the Lord leaves them to live like Pagans swears by his great name that his name should not be named any more in their mouths they should not have so much as the form profession of the worship of the true God Jer. 44.16 26. they would not be reproved by Ezek. ch 3.26 they are plagued with the want of a reprover When people will reject the counsel of the Lord will not hearken to his voice nor take his gracious offer made in the Gospel when they will not endure sound Doctrine nor desire the sincere milk of the word nor receive the truth in love the Lord justly gives them up to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own counsels to strong delusions to believe lyes to be tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine to turn aside to fables When they despise his servants will not receive his mâ—ssengers their message count them enemies for telling the truth the Lord removes his servants from them leaves them to be deluded with teachers which are after their own humours and lusts When people refuse to hear the Lords words and walk after the imaginations of their own heart Jer. 13.10 the Lord fills them with drunkenness that they destroy one another like drunken men who know not what they are doing v. 13. Behold I will fill all the Inhabitants of this Land even the Kings that sit upon Davids Throne and the Priests and the Prophets and all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness And I will dash them one against another even the Fathers and the Sons together saith the Lord I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy but destroy them Hear ye and give car be not proud for the Lord hath spoken Give glory to
the Magistrate and some of them are not ashamed to calumniate Presbyterians as if they gave as little to the Magistrate as Papists do 2. From the touchy sense that all in Authority have of any thing that diminishes or but seems to diminish their Power or to derogate from it 3. From my L. Chancellours displeasure at Mr. B. and his question proposed about the Magistrates Power of confining and Mr. H's beginning and ending his Discourse with that desire that their Lordships would not mistake Mr. B. That it 's a wonder how a Person that had any imagination at all could miss the purpose of this Discourse But yet all these objective Evidences which might have as Guides led his imagination to the true design of Mr. H's Discourse were overswayed by two more intimate Guides which like ill Ghosts haunted his imagination in the matters relating to Indulged Ministers I mean his Passion and Prejudice which habitually mis-guided him in these matters and led him out of the right way which was obvious into extravagant phantasms and imaginations which are so wild that it 's a wonder how any man who had but common sense to rectifie his imagination could give way let be with-gate to them or how he could suffer them to arise or if they had started when he was not adverting how he could behold them without laughter or indignation but that he should have entertained them and bewildered himself and his followers in following them is one of the wildest Wild-goose Chases imaginable There is one thing somewhat singular in this Authors imagination in these matters that his imagination hath a habitual mishap of missing the right way and taking the wrong I do not remember of any Person to whom I can compare him in this except one who was a Servant to a Gentleman of my Acquaintance of whom I heard his Master say that when his Servant took the guiding of the way he constantly mistook when he came where there were two ways he was sure to take the wrong way which his Master having often observed he resolved when there was any doubt of the way never to take the way which his man took but the way which he left and so he was sure not to be mistaken But yet I must give the Historian the pre-eminence in wandring for that Servant took but one wrong way at once but the Historian when he hath prosecuted one wrong imaginary way in which no foot hath trod before him and followed it out till he could win no further he immediately comes back and at the same pass where he began to wander he takes another wrong way and then another and so forth till he hath wearied himself and his followers to no purpose and which is yet worse after all these wandrings he never comes right That Servant I spoke of came back to his Master to the right way but the Author having no other Guide but his own imagination miscarried by Prejudice and Passion wanders habitually when he begins to guess at the Indulged Ministers meaning and upon a false imagination that they meant something which never came in their head he pursues after them in a way which they never took nor dreamed of and then to be sure to overtake them some way he begins again if they meant not that they meant this and then again pursues and so fashes himself in following his own fancies but for the true meaning of these Ministers he ordinarily misses it though it be most obvious to any who will not hood-wink himself Any who looks but with half an eye into this Controversie about the limits of the Magistrates and Ministers Power and into this business which was before the Council will see that it was most necessary to add what Mr. H. added to Mr. B's words both for clearing Mr. B's meaning and for preventing the Objections that the Magistrate or others for the Magistrate might make against an Assertion which seemed to exclude the Magistrate from having any Power about Church Canons or the exercise of the Ministry to which there was nothing added to clear what Power the Magistrate had in reference to matters of Religion Might they not have Objected Ye will we see take no Instructions from Magistrates nor commands to Regulate the exercise of your Ministry Ye will make Rules your selves for Regulating your Ministry but ye will admit us to make none for any thing we hear from you Ye ascribe no Power to us about matters of Religion What can the Magistrate do nothing for the Reformation and preservation of Religion and for Reforming Ministers Is the Magistrate bound up that he cannot hinder the making or execution of wrong Canons What if a Church-Assembly a Council agree upon Arrianism and resolve to Preach this to the Magistrates Subjects What if they make Canons for Idolatry for adoring Images as the 2d Nicen Council did What if they agree to publish the error of Transubstantiation and to lift up the Bread in the Eucharist to be adored by the People What if they agree upon a Church-policy manifestly contrary to the Scripture and require the Subjects to subject themselves to be ruled by these Rules of Policy of their own making Shall the Magistrate suffer his Subjects to be poisoned with Heresie Idolatry corrupt Church-mens Tyranny Can he do nothing to hinder the making of such Heretical Idolatrous Tyrannical Canons or to crush them and hinder the execution of them when they are made Must he blindly assent to all the Canons Kirk-men enact and add his Civil Sanction to them and see to the execution of them that is to promove the eternal destruction of his own Subjects Does not the confession of Faith allow to the Magistrate a Power for Reformation and conservation of Religion And our latest Confession of Faith though it assert Chap. 31. Sect. 3. That it belongs to Synods and Councils Ministerially to determine Controversies of Faith and Cases of Conscience to set down Rules and Directions for the better Ordering of the Publick Worship of God and Government of his Church to receive complaints in cases of male Administration and Authoritatively determine the same yet it doth not assert that though these Decrees be contrary to the Word of God that they are to be received by any and much less by the Magistrate for it 's added in that same Article Which Decrees and Determinations if consonant to the Word of God are to be received with Reverence and Submission not only for their agreement to the Word but also for the Power whereby they are made as being an Ordinance of God appointed thereto in his Word And though that same late Coâ—fession Chap. 23. Article 3. affirm that the Civil Magistrate may not assume to himself the Administration of the Word and Sacraments or the power of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven yet he hath Authority and it is his Duty to take Order that Unity and Peace be preserved in the Church
that the truth of God be kept pure and entire that all Blasphemies and Heresies be suppressed all corruptions and abuses in Worship and Discipline prevented or Reformed and all Ordinances of God duly settled administred and observed for the better effecting whereof he hath Power to call Synods to be present at them and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God Thus might they say the Confession of Faith acknowledges that the Magistrate hath Authority for doing much in reference to the Reformation and preservation of Religion but we hear nothing from you of any Power the Magistrate hath in reference to matters of Religion ye onely tell what the Magistrate may not do in reference to you and the exercise of your Ministry and is this all the respect ye have to Authority Now this and much more would have been Objected and had not Mr. H. then very good reason to add this second part of his Discourse The Learned and Judicious Author or Authors of the Course of Conformity saw it necessary after they had shewed what the Magistrate might not do in matters of Religion to subjoyn a Discourse shewing what they might do and because the Book is not common I shall transcribe somewhat to this purpose Page 147 148 149. ye will see how tender they are in the matters of God and how respectful also to Lawful Authority they shew pag. 147. that no man may command what he will in any controverted matter Ecclesiastical And then they relate this History When Alexander the Great came to Jerusalem he desired his Image to be erected in the Temple The High Priest was willing to please him in any thing wherein God was not displeased and therefore refusing with all Reverence that Idolatry what he might and what served more for the Kings Honour he offered chearfully first to begin the Account of their times from his entry into Jerusalem and 2. To name all their first-born Sons Alexanders from him Then they add What is Civil what is Domestick what is Caesar's what is ours let them be forbidden Water and Fire and their City sown with salt who refuse it let Christs Royal Prerogative who will not give his Glory to another be kept for himself May we not in so narrow a strait where we can see no way to turn neither to the right hand nor to the left open our mouths with the Obedient Asse Have we used to serve so in other matters Then they cite Peter Martyr who shews that if a Minister teach or administer the Sacraments against the Word of God he is to be repressed by the Civil Magistrate and yet not from him but from the Word of God shall he seek the Rules and Reasons of his Function And then they cite Franciscus Junius saying 1. By what Authority or example is the Magistrate moved to think that the holy Kirk of God and the simplicity of the Mysteries of Christ whose voice alone his sheep know and follow because the Father commanded that it should be heard onely John 10.27 should be clothed about with humane Traditions 2. To what end thinketh he must his things be sowed unto the Ordinances of God for if it be that she may be conform to others it were more equitable that other Kirks should conform to them who come nearest to the Word of God according to Cyprian's Counsel not that they should joyn themselves to other Kirks If it be that all things may be more decent what can be more decent than the simplicity of Christ What more simple than his decency If it be fulfilling of his own will let it be so but it must be remembred that the Will of God is the greatest necessity and that the Kirk of God in things Divine is not subject to the will of Men and what events may follow upon humane Traditions as daily experience hath shewed Then Archippus excepts saying You ever tell me what he should not do but I would hear something positive of his Power in things Ecclesiastical what he should and may do in times of contention especially Epaphras Answereth That is not my part ye know yet this I may say that as in the matter of Heresie so in the time of Schism for matters of Ceremony the Magistrate calleth a Synod representing the whole Kirk having Power definitive and the judgment of Jurisdiction according to the Word right as naturally in the Soul of Man to make it plain by a comparison the Imperial power of the Will may command the understanding quoad exercitium that is to pause upon a certain purpose and to give her determination but not quoad specificationem that is to assent or dissent or to determine to the one side more than to the other and as the same will hath actum elicitum as her essential and most proper operation and actum imperatum produced by another power of the Soul at the commandment of the Will as the Understanding to ponder and consider the Appetite to exercise Temperance Fortitude c. and out of her desire and choice of the Soveraign good of the Soul and Body setteth all the Powers of Soul and Body to work even so the Magistrate hath actum elicitum in Civil Affairs his essential and most proper Object In the matters of Gods Kirk whether for Order or Jurisdiction albeit he hath not actum elicitum he may neither Preach the Word nor minister the Sacraments nor define by himself regularly yet he hath actum imperatum he may command Ministers to Preach the Word to Celebrate the Sacraments and to Convene and determine according to the Word Archip. And say you no more is that all Epaphras And more than this he hath in all Ecclesiastical Canons or conclusions a three-fold judgment One common as a Christian another proper as a Magistrate the third Personal as a man singularly gifted As a Christian the judgment of Discretion that he believe not or practice any thing of all that which the Kirk concludeth if he find it to be against the Word As a Magistrate he must have the judgment of his Vocation to discern what concerneth the Spiritual weal and Salvation of his Subjects and accordingly to add or suspend the Sanction And as a singular Magistrate having more than ordinary gifts of Knowledge and Piety he ought to have such Interest in Determination and Jurisdiction with the Kirk as others who have more than ordinary gifts Thus we see these Godly Learned Ministers saw it necessary to shew not only what Power the Magistrate had not but also positively what Power he had in things Ecclesiastical and Divines generally who treat of these matters use to do so for preventing mistakes in so ticklish a matter And therefore Mr. H. did as became a Godly Learned and Wise man and a man who had a tender respect to Lawful Authority and that from a Principle of Conscience He speaks against all the Magistrates impositions which burdened their