about the final Judgment If all these be little tollerable differences why may not we be tollerated If not judg Reader who they be that are intollerable when you hear them plead against tolleration § 3. I. For the first we judg that there is a God who is the Governour of the World by an universal Law which is above all humane Laws or will and that he is the fountain of all power and there is none but what he giveth and limiteth and that no man is above him nor hath true authority against his Laws But Mr. Dodwell saith That it is irreconcileable to Government in this life or to due subordination of subjects to superiours to practice differently and defend it by pretending Divine authority and appealing to writings Scriptures is our word by excellency so called And so God shall be God and be obeyed if the Clergy please § 4. II. As to the second we suppose that the Holy Scriptures are Gods Laws indited and recorded by the Holy Ghost to be the first obliging Rule of Faith and holy living which all men are to be obedient to before and against all contrary Laws of men But Mr. Dodwell as aforesaid alloweth no such prime obligation as will warrant an appeal to the Word of God from the visible Church-Governours that contradict it § 5. III. And for the third we suppose that all humane Powers are derived from God and have no authority but what he giveth them and are more under him and his Laws than the Justices are under the King and his Laws and can oblige no man against the Laws of God But how far Mr. Dodwell thinks otherwise you have heard He saith not indeed that we must break Gods Laws but we must not pretend them or appeal to them against our Governours In charity I hope he meaneth no worse but that we must take our Rulers word or exposition and judg nothing to be in the Scripture contrary to their commands And whether he give them the same dominion also over the Law of Nature let him tell you Paul disclaimed dominion over mens saith and the written Law of God § 6. IV. And for the fourth We take moral good to be a conformity to Gods Law and moral evil or sin to be a breach of it But Mr. Dodwell is for measuring them by the Clergies or Governours will though Gods Law be against theirs § 7. V. And for the fifth we take the Catholick Church to have no Supreme Government but God and our Glorified Redeemer God and man and that there is no such thing as a Catholick-Church of Gods making under any other Supreme Rulers But that as God is the invisible King of this visible world and Kings are subordinate Supremes in their Kingdom but neither one of them or many conjunct in an Aristocracy Supreme over all the earth so Christ is the partly visible and partly invisible supreme Ruler of the visible Church of Christians and each Pastor is under him over his proper flock bound to keep concord and peace but none under him Supreme over all whether Monarch as the Pope or Aristocracy as Councils Cardinals or ' others But Mr. Dodwell is for a visible Society with a visible humane Supreme But who the Supreme is I despair of getting him to acquaint us § 8. VI. And for the sixth we suppose that God sent forth Preachers to convert the world and turn them from darkness to light and the power of Satan to God and that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word preached and that whoever believeth shall be saved and the word of God is powerful to this end and sufficient to make us wise to salvation But Mr. Dodwell thinks that it is not Preaching but the delivering men the Sacraments that giveth them the first true saving grace and title to Salvation And that none in the world have this Sacrament or Covenant-title to life but those that receive it from a hand that had an Ordination by Bishops in his sense of uninterrupted succession from the Apostles by the like Ordination § 8. VII Accordingly we hold that Preaching is for the converting of souls and the means of saving faith and holiness But what he thinks it is good for I know not well nor whether he would send the Indians the Sacraments instead of Preachers § 10. VIII We take it to be our duty though men forbid us to confess Christ and assemble for Gods worship to read and hear the Scripture and to praise God But he thinks we must not practice differently from the ruling Clergies will if they forbid us nor alledg Divine authority for it § 11. IX We suppose that the office of a Prophetical Ministry bringing new Doctrines or Laws from God and the office of the Teachers and Rulers by these Laws are greatly different and must necessarily be distinguished Moses was a Prophetical Mediator in Legislation and he confirmâ—d his Mediation by uncontrouled Miracles The Prophets afterward came but on particular applicatory messages But the Priests and Levites as such were no Prophets nor had power to make any new additions or alterations of the Law but only to teach it the people and as guides apply it to their several cases so Christ and his Apostles commissioned to deliver and record all his Doctrines and Commands to the following ages did by the Holy Ghost Prophetically deliver to the world that body of Doctrine and Law which must rule them to the end and judg them and thus sealed and confirmed all by a multitude of uncontrouled Miracles but all following Bishops and Pastors are not to do the like nor add or alter nor are such Legislators being not Prophets nor workers of Miracles but only to teach and apply the Laws already recorded in Scripture and guide their Congregations in variable circumstances time place translations c. according to the general rules of Gods Law This is the truth But how much Mr. Dodwell equals the Bishops and Apostles and sets their words above the Scripture as to obligation you have seen before § 12. X. And as he giveth Bishops power to silence Presbyters and forbid the Preaching of the Gospel and Gods worship so how little knowledg or godliness or common sobriety or honesty he requireth to a saving Sacramenting Priest who must not be separated from you heard before contrary to Cyprian and many a Councils Canons But we know that Paul had no power to destruction but only to edification And they have no more § 13. XI We suppose that we must love honour and communicate with all such as true Ministers or Churches who have true faith and repentance and sincere obedience to Christs Laws and are able godly willing Pastors chosen or consented to by the flocks approved and ordained by senior Pastors especially in Synods where City-Pastors preside and especially if also authorized by the Christian Magistrate But he thinks if they have not also successivâ— Ordination from the Apostles by Bishops
Congregational or Parochial Bishops or Pastors without such as our Diocesans It must be Pastoral or true Episcopal regular Communion 3. Many Individual Bishops separating from one another have been and may be in one City 4. If e. g. the Bishop of Lincoln have many Counties and one differing from him were chosen by the Clergy at Leicester Hartford c. as he was by the King which of them is the Bishop on the place If Gloucester Clergy and People had chose another when Goodman a Papist was Bishop which was the Bishop 1. 1. Salvation is pronounced by Conformists to be certain upon Baptism without any other Sacrament 2. Popes and Papists are as much as any for tying salvation to Sacraments and yet a Pope Victor and his Council at Benevent 1078. decree that rather than Communicate with a Simonist they should persist without visible Communion and in mind joined to Christ have his Communion 3. What shall they do ordinarily in Italy Spain France c. that have none but Papist Bishops 1. Wilful neglect of any known means sheweth wilful disobedience against God But many means may be ignorantly neglected without destroying assurance of salvation Turtullian thought children should stay from Baptism unless in danger of death and Nazianzen was for some years delay This ignorance damned not the practisers Apocryphal books divers Sacraments Ceremonies Church-Offices Doctrines have been controverted means among true Christians 2. Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10. Christ blesseth them that hear and do it Thousands are mentioned as believing by hearing and salvation is promised to Faith 2. 1. Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Ask and ye shall have True faith and conversion wrought by hearing Gods word and working by true love and prayer hath many a promise of pardon and salvation 2. Is a baptized praying believer out of the Communion of Christs Church though he doubt of Diocesans or Patriarchs He is not 2. 1. Ordinarily faith comes by hearing and hearing by preaching and he that truly believeth shall be saved Iohn 13.16 2. I think many Score or Hundreds of Protestant Divines have proved that Baptism giveth not the first Right to life but only solemnly confirmeth sealeth and by Ministerial investiture publickly delivereth that which true Faith received before See Gataker's two Tracts on Dr. Ward 's and Dr. Davenant's Theses 3. What 's Baptism to Episcopacy till King Iames alter'd it Women might Baptize in England and Priests still may And are men Baptized into the Name or Belief of Diocesans as Bellarmine saith Baptism binds them to the Pope Prove this if you can 2. If Baptism undoubtedly save at what Age doth the effect cease 2. The Lords Supper is necessary for corroboration and for expressing true obedience and living by Faith on Christ where it can lawfully be had and the need and use of it is understood B. This is false If they be given by a Lay-man falsly pretending Orders or by one who hath no Authority through uncapacity or usurpation yet the receiver loseth not his Right he taketh it as from God and if his ignorance be not culpable there is not so much as disobedience in it 2. If I prove that Papists have no such Authority as you plead for are all their Baptisms and Ordinations null III. Episcopal Communion is the Cothurnus the Hose drawn over your ulcer and snare 1. We have mental Communion in Essentials with all true Bishops in the world 2. We have Subject Communion with true Parish-Bishops 3. And with their Ruling Bishops at least as Magistrates 4. Novatians Luciferians Donatists and others in time of Schisms had all Orders in Episcopal Communion and so have Papists Greeks Moscovites Armenians 5. Parish-Bishops have more proof of Authority from Christ than the Diocesans or many hundred Congregations that have no other Bishops 6. Authority may be given by God without any Ordination where it cannot be had or not without sinning 1. No doubt but all true Authority must be derived from God 2. Those to whom it was first given were the Twelve Apostles They are considered 1. As the Inspired Prophetical Declarers and Recorders of the Laws and Doctrine and Promises of Christ. 2. As chief Pastors of the Church to gather and rule it All Gods gifts and graces that come to us by the mediation of the Gospel come by the Apostles mediation in the first sense as declaring Christs Will how Ministers shall be made in all Ages And as chief Pastors gathering and setling the first Churches which by Christs Charter shall call their Pastors and so others to the end of the world they may be said to be Mediators herein 3. But they mediate not as the Donors of the Pastoral power as being Pastors themselves but only as Ministerial investers The Sacraments come not to us without the mediation of the Apostles but they made them not nor make them effectual nor make new Apostles to deliver them 3. This is deceitful confusion 1. Authority to Administer Sacraments and Authority to call others to administer them are different things 2. And so is succession of Apostolical power and succession of common Ministry 3. And so is giving power as the Donor and giving it as an investing servant 4. And proper giving it and improper which is but qualifying the persons to receive it 1. Apostolical Prophetical conveyance harh no such succession 2. The Flock that have no Authority to Administer Sacraments partake of the Authority to call others to do it 3. Inferiors may have Authority to call Superiors else the highest could not be made 4. None of these people give the power but their Election is part of the receivers qualifications to whom God giveth it by his Law or Charter And then as serâ—ants they solemnize the Investiture 5. The power of this Law or Charter is never interrupted But if all Pastors were dead an Hundred years it would renew Pastoral power in the Church without uninterrupted Donors or Investers 4. This conveying power is where-ever Gods Law and capable receivers are A capable receiver is 1. One personally qualified with sufficiency and willingness 2. And that hath the Churches and Ordainers necessary consent when ordinary for order sake the Ordainers then must invest him by declaring him authorized by God c. The regular Ordination like publick Matrimony after contract is to be by authorized Ordainers and most Bishops Diocesan Papists Greeks Moscovites Armenian c. are of more doubtful Authority than Congregational or Parish Bishops though the former usurp the name as appropriated to them b. 2. 1. Then men in Rome Italy Spain France c. must be of the Papists Prelates Churches and Communion 2. Paulinus and Flavian Donatists Novatians Arrians c. may have Bishops in the same place And the Orthodox two or more at once Grotius thought as many as there were Synagogues in a City 3. Then if I prove the chief Pastor of a Parish or City-Church to be
him a damnable schismatick 14. And hereby there are as many hundred new Articles of Faith made as there are things lawful which a Prelate will command For though all is not to be done that is to be believed yet all must be believed to be lawful and duty which must be done as such e. g. We cannot love God worship him hear and read his Word c. as by Divine obedience unless we believe it to be our duty by a Divine command Therefore when as Mr. Dodwell Dr. Saywell and such others tell us what damning schism it is to disobey such commands of the Bishops or to suffer our selves to be Excommunicate it plainly includeth that it is as damning a sin to take any lawful thing to be a sin and not to believe it to be lawful whatever the Bishop shall command And so to how many hundred indifferent things may the Articles of our Faith be extended while it is made ordinarily necessary to Salvation to do them and therefore to believe them to be lawful 15 By this he confoundeth Communion and Obedience I may have communion with many Bishops whom I am not bound to obey But I cannot hinder them from Excommunicating me without obeying them 16. Yea he maketh Communion and Salvation to lye not only on such obedience but on such perfection of obedience as reacheth to every lawful indifferent thing Whereas God himself under the Gospel accepteth of sincerity instead of perfection which the Law required of perfect man 17. This is the way to make Bishops absolute Lords of Kings and States and all the world if they can make them believe that on pain of damnation for schism all must obey them even in every indifferent thing 18. If you would ferret him out of his Burrough ask Mr. Dodwell what if the Bishop of the place where I live contradict the Archbishop or the Synod or most of the Bishops in the land which must I obey to escape damning schism Doubtless he will allow me to disobey my Bishop But what if the National Synod gainsay the Provincial He will say I may disobey the Provincial But what if a Council of many Nations called General gainsay the National and it be known that our National Church is gainsayed by the far greatest part of the Bishops in the world which must I obey If the National why not a Provincial against them And why are not they Schismaticks for disobeying a General Council If it be the greater Council that I must obey 1. What 's become then of his doctrine of obeying the Episcopacy of the place where we live 2. And then we are brought under a foreign Jurisdiction 3. And who but the Pope must call that General Council preside approve c. 4. And among all the erroneous and contradicting Councils called General how shall all Christians know which of them to obey We see whither all will come at last But saith Bishop Bilson To such Councils called General we owe respect for concord if they abuse us not by error or usurpation but subjection and obedience we owe them none 19. How hardly will these men ever resolve one's conscience which is to be taken for the Episcopacy of the place when there are in the same place both different species of Bishops and also divers Bishops of the same species and all pretending to be right In Ireland both the Papist and Protestant Bishops pretend to just succession and so they did in Bohemia Poland Transylvania Hungary c. And doth salvation lye on mens knowledg who hath right 20. And how contrary is it to the way of Christ and the ancient Church that made the Baptismal covenant the terms of salvation for men to make it necessary for every poor man and woman that will have Covenant-right to salvation and escape damning schism to be able to decide the controversies between all such pretenders and to know whether their Bishops be of a true species and have true Ordination and to be such rare Historians as to know that all the line of Ordainers down from the Apostles to their Bishops were truly ordained O difficult terms 21. Doth he not condemn all those Ancient and Modern Christians as Fautors oâ— damning Doctrine who thought that when there were none of the Clergy to do it lay-men might baptize and give the Lords Supper Grotius told us his judgment for it in Dissertat de Caenae administrat ubi Pastores non sunt And he hath vindicated Tertullian's judgment for it confessed by Rigaltius Anton. Govea tells us it was the case of the Christians of Malabar c. called of St. Thomas whose Bishops being all destroyed they caused a Deacon to administer the Eucharist as the Bishops and Presbyters had done which Grotius also repeateth Ionan Antiochenus magnified by Socrates lib. 6. cap. 3. when at Antioch there were two Churches with two Bishops Meletius and Paulinus stuck to Meletius till he died and after for three years would communicate with neither Did he by this become a damned Schismatick or lose his Covenant-right to salvation 22. Many of old were chosen for Bishops before they were baptized the cases of Ambrose Nectarius Synesius c. are known If the Church thought them all to be in a state of damnation for want of the Sacrament it 's strange that they would choose them to be their Bishops though it was irregular Indeed it 's true that Grotius saith ibid. in fine that Chrysostomes Nazianzenes and others cases tell us that it was ordinary in the Greek-Church to delay baptizing even the children of the faithful till at full years about Twenty Were they all that while without any promise of salvation or ordinary hope 23. What a task will it be for Mr. Dodwell to tell us what state the baptized are in till they receive the Lords Supper Baptism saveth them once but yet till they receive the Lords Supper by a Minister in successive Episcopal Orders they have no Covenant-title to salvation by his way But some Communicate not till Thirty years old some not till One and Twenty and in England scarce any before Sixteen Are they all this while the children of God or of the Devil And when is it that their Christianity ceaseth for want of the other Sacrament I believe that if they truly believe they are Gods children before they come to the second Sacrament or the third as some call it Was Constantine Mag. in a state of damnation who was not baptized till near his death Or the good Emperour Valentinian who died unbaptizâ—d but taken by Ambrose for a blessed man What absurdities are men fain to use to get the Mastery of the Christian world by making men believe that they can save or damn them by the power of Sacraments 24. And how is this man for Conformity by which they subscribe assent to the certain salvation of Infants so dying without Confirmation and ordain that the Lords Supper be not Administred to any till they are
should be judged as sacrilegious perfidious hypocrites and yet we are told by wiser and greater men that our labours and sufferings do but damn us may not a man be damned at a cheaper rate than Forty pound a Sermon or the loss of all his worldly Estate and lying with malefactors and perhaps dying in a Goal under the published sacred infamy of being Schismaticks and enemies of the publick Government and peace c But this also we must be fortified against For Satan is sometime utterly impudent and will say Damn your selves by perfidiousness and let the people be damned quietly or else you shall be damned for Schismaticks But the long noise of damning Papists and Quakers have somewhat hardned or emboldened us It was an early trick Act. 15. Except ye be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses ye cannot be saved When lands and livings will not prevail when profit pleasure and honour fail when poverty reproach and prisons will not serve then comes You cannot else be saved How many Sects say Say as we say and do as we do and follow us or you cannot be saved But saith St. Paul It is a small thing with me to be judged of man or at mans day I have one that judgeth me even the Lord to whom we will appeal whatever you say against it But you must give me leave to think that to draw men from their great duty and the saving souls to heinous sin as in the name of Christ and to frighten men into Hell with the fear of damnation and the abused Word of God hath heinous aggravations which enticing men by sensuality to drunkenness whoredom or theft hath not VII To the next the matter of fact and antecedent Suppositions cannot be denied viz. 1. That it is probably supposed that there are inhabitants more than can hear the Preachers voice in the Parish-Churches in Martins Parish about 40000 in Stepney Parish near as many in Giles Cripplegate 30000 in Giles in the Fields near 20000 in Sepulchres Algate White-chappel Andrews Holborn and many other Out-Parishes very many thousands The last Bill of Mortality that I saw saith there died in Stepney Parish as many wanting one as in all the Ninety-seven Parishes of London and in Martins as many within six and in Giles Cripplegate as many within eight or thereabout 2. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe if they hear not and how shall they hear without a Preacher If the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost Where Vision faileth the people perish even for lack of knowledg 3. Yet people by our Church Laws must be presented and prosecuted as Recusants if they come not to Church and so 40000 or 30000 should be presented and punished for want of room but it is a greater punishment to be strangers unto the Gospel 4. The Canon forbiddeth them going to and communicating in other Parishes and forbiddeth the Ministers to receive them 5. The Children of Christians are born with no more knowledg than the children of Heathens and need teaching as well as theirs to bring them to knowledg when they grow up 6. God will not save any adult person that is an Infidel impenitent unsanctified because he is bred up among Christians and Churches or born of Christians and Baptized but it will go worse with such unholy persons in the day of Judgment that have had the greatest means 7. If you can cast the fault on the people and say that they might remove their dwellings or break the Law and go to other Parishes or read at home c. that excuseth us not For the worse they are the more need they have of help If they were faultless what need had they of us 8. As to my own case whom you condemn I have told you that I have the Ordination of a Bishop and the License of the Bishop of this Diocess not nulled or recalled which by your principles one would think might serve if it had been against Gods own Laws And yet Gods Law and the Bishops License will not serve 9. Some other may say What 's your case to many others I answer To pass by a great deal not now to be said Let it be understood that the case is this Men are first silenced and excommunicated and so forbidden the publick Churches and all publick worship of God and then the Excommunicate are prosecuted and accused for not coming to Church Divers Canons do ipso facto that is sine sententiâ excommunicate all that do but say that any thing in the Liturgy or Discipline is unlawful or may not be done with a good conscience which all Nonconformists hold And it is not possible for us to repent of that as a wicked Error which after all means that we can possibly use appeareth unto us an undoubted truth that so our Excommunication may be taken off Now these silenced men are assured that God disobligeth them not from the duty of Preaching and these excommunicate men are assured that God doth not disoblige them from the duty of publick worship and Church-communion Therefore they must use it as they can when they may not use it as they would Men say the Papists should not call us Schismaticks because they cast us out and went from us and will you silence and excommunicate men as they undertake to prove for obeying God and then call them Schismaticks for not communicating with you or for worshipping God in such Church-communion as they can Indeed many of us communicate with you because we think not our selves bound tho' you excommunicate us ipso facto to do execution on our selves or to go further from you than necessity compelleth us tho' I must profess that Cyprians 68. Epistle p. 200. and St. Martin's Separation from the Bishops confirmed by Miracle sometimes sticks in my stomack But I cannot make so light as you do 1. Of such Texts as 2 Tim. 4.1 2. I chaâ—gâ— thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine 2. Nor of the murderous famishing of thousands of souls when to murder one child by famine deserveth death and hell 3. Nor of Christs Law of preferring Mercy before Sacrifice necessary Morals before Rituals Circumstantials or Ordinals which are all but propter rem ordinatam I remember you have told me That if the Bishop forbad all Gods publick worship in the Assemblies we must forbear Such sayings and this That I must let so many souls be untaught though they be damned because it is the Bishops fault and not mine do make me ready to tremble to think of them If Christs works be saving whose work is it to make so light of mans damnation Is it any wonder if such Principles be called Antichristian I cannot but
life and light and love and that the destroying of these by hiding the Scriptures unintelligible worships Imagery dead hypocrisie silencing and persecuting and killing Gods servants making dividing engines to tear and Canons to batter the peace of the Church and this by an ignorant ungodly worldly Ministry seeking not the things of God but of men all this is the Devils work and to do the Devils work against Christ is not a sign of Christs servants he bids us judg of our selves and others by the fruits His servants we are whom we obey If a Peter once give Christ such worldly fleshly counsel he shall hear worse than I said of Church-Tyrants get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Mat. 16.22 hating the good silencing thousands of faithful Ministers excommunicating and sinning against God in obedience to Prelates and for using the needful means of their own salvation and serving God but as Peter and Paul did this is the Devils work if he have any in the world And Mr. Dodwell must trust more to swords than words to keep it up for there is a spirit in true Christians that will never suffer them to believe that it is pleasing to God what name soever is pretended for it § 7. I will reverence the Iews visible Church to whom were committed the Oracles of God but will not say that they sinned not in persecuting Christ and his Apostles nor say that they are not now under their own curse and cut off from the Church who once cast out Christians from their Synagogues I will give due honour to Primogeniture and yet not equal Cain and Abel Ismael and Isaac Esau and Iacob c. but expect that as he that was born after the flesh did persecute him that was born after the spirit even so it will be now And the world was the world still when it was taken into the Church The Heathen Romans were less Persecutors than the Iews and so are the Turks than the Papists § 8. I shall in due place take notice of Mr. D's confining the Essence of the Ministry to transacting between God and man in covenanting requiring essentially no more skill than any man is capable of who is but capable of understanding the common dealings of the world p. 73 74. And that Immoralities of such mens Lives excuse us not from Schism for turning from such to better Teachers p. 72. contrary to the Epistle of the Carthage Council in the case of Martial and Basilides and even of Popes and Councils that forbid hearing Mass from a Fornicator And his denying the â—cripture to be intended or designed to be a Charter to appeal to for all future generations and for the extent of Offices and preventing litigious dispute about government and subjection p. 80 81. But that recourse ought now to be had to the intention of the Ordainers for these And what he saith p. 81. against appealing to Writings as he calls them against the sense of all the visible authority of this life as unreconcilable to the practice of any visible government on earth p. 81. And that subjects cannot preserve their subordination to their superiors if they practice differently and defend their practices and pretend Divine Authority for them where he speaketh indefinitely and excepteth no practices And if we may not appeal from man to God and Scripture we may appeal from Scripture to man And if mans Law be above Gods it is not from him for the inferior maketh not his superior And the root of all this iâ— p 82 That God hath made his Church and not only particular Churches that are parts of his Church a visible Society and constituted a visible Government in it Did I know what Mr. D. taketh this one visible Government to be whether General Council or Pope or all the Bishops of the world by a major vote or all the people of the Christian world or what I should know what to say to him But for this I must not hope § 9. But I shall after speak to his securing subterfuge p. 90. That there is but one sense of all terms which causes oblige men to mean and that every one ought to know who pretends to skill in causes Which I am so defective in that I know not at all what his cause is till he tell me Nor know I among many senses of most of his chief terms which it is that he meaneth I know not what he meaneth by a Papist and whether he take those for Papists that are as the Councils of Constance and Basil and the French for the supremacy of a Council the Pope being President or Principium Vnitatis and Patriarch of us in the West I know not who he meaneth by the Supreme Church-power in the visible Universal Church I know not by what he essentiateth the very Episcopacy which he so much pleads for no nor their Ordination I know not what he taketh to be the Supreme Church-power over the Church of England And how can I know by the bare general name when Dr. Stillingfleet denieth any such thing CHAP. II. His Schiswatical Church destroying Scheme Confuted § 1. BEcause he dealeth so falsly with my Doctrine by pretence of putting it into his words and order I will deal better with him and deal with his Scheme word by word as he hath laid it down As for his exceptions thâ—t I refel not his charge of the sin against the Holy Ghost c. I am not yet so idle having formerly written a Treatise of that sin His wilful refusal to answer Voetius de desperata Causa Papalus when he knoweth that this Plea is the Papists chief strength and Iansenius is so fully answered is but a dishonourable tergiversation And it 's like he knoweth how Melancthon in his Epistles copiously shameth Mr. Dodwell's cause as trusted to by the Papists when yet the Protestants here plead Melancthon's judgment for their Reformation And though Mr. D. told me that it is not for the Christian Interest to hold that the Roman successive Ordination hath been interrupted I think they that believe their own most flattering Historians must believe that the intercision there hath been more notorious than in those Reformed Churches which Mr. Dodwell nulleth or than those German and Danish Bishops whom Bugenhagius a Presbyter ordained But I will briefly examine the words of his destructive deceiving Frame 1. That all are obliged to submit to all unsinful conditions of the Episcopal Communion where they live if imposed by the Ecclesiasiastical Governours thereof And 2. That the nature of this obligation is such as will make them who rather than they will submit to such conditions either separate themselves or suffer themselves to be excluded from communion by such Governours for such a refusal of submission guilty of the sin of SCHISM Here are two parts a 1. That all are obliged to
ready to be Confirmed by learning the Catechism and recognizing the Covenant c. 25. Doth he not make the chief Bishops and Reformers of the Church of England to be the promoters of the Doctrine which he accounteth so damnable when Dr. Stillingfleet in his Irenicon recites the words of Cranmer and others of them at a Consultation down-right against not only the necessity of his uninterrupted succâ—ssion but also even of Episcopal Ordination it self And I have elsewhere cited about Fourteen of them for the validity of Ordination without Bishops And Dr. Stillingfleet Bishop Edw. Reignnolds and many more held that no Form of Government was of Divine determination Did all these plead for damning Schism against all title to salvation 26. And what could more directly contradict the main tenor of the Gospel which tells us of the saving power of the Word Preached how it converteth souls and promiseth salvation to all that truly believe and repent Insomuch that Paul thanks God that he baptizâ—d few of the Corinthians because God sent him not to baptize but to Preach the Gospel 27. But his Doctrine feigneth that God will damn them that truly believe repent love God forsake sin for want of the Sacrament or else that the Word converteth none but only Sacraments convert men 28. And then it will follow that none but unbelievers impenitent wicked men should be first admitted to the Sacrament for if that only converteth then it is only the unconverted that must first be received to it 29 When all 's done he doth but contradict his end for it 's hard to find a National Episcopacy on earth which imposeth no unlawful thing on Ministers or people And with all such he speaketh not for our Communion 30. Either Ordination and Collation of Church-power must be given by Superiors or by Equals if by Equals why may not Presbyters make Presbyters If by Superiors then who shall give the Pope his Power Or if you think any other be the highest who makes them such Who giveth the Archbishop of Canterbury his Power 31. In short as far as I can understand these men deny all Covenant-right to salvation to all men living and all true Sacraments and Church-Communion or at least all knowledg of any such thing seeing as it is certain that in most Churches such Ordination as they describe hath not had an uninterrupted succession so no man is sure that any one Church or man hath had such And they that silence us for not subscribing declaring and swearing obedience to our Diocesans and other Ordinaries are bold men if they dare swear themselves that they are true Bishops and have any Authority to rule and command us by an uninterrupted succession of a Canonical Episcopal Ordination down from the Apostles But I have already in my Book of Concord Part 3. Chap. 9. opened so many palpable and pernicious absurdities and ill consequents of Mr. Dodwell's Doctrine which he dare not undertake to answer but sâ—ly passeth by that I must expect the Reader will there peruse them who will judg uprightly between him and me and therefore will hear what both have said And those that will judg falsly upon partial trust to save themselves the labour of tryal are out of the reach of ordinary means to be saved from deceivers CHAP. IV. My words of Gods Collation of Ministerial Authority Vindicated from the forgeries and fallacies of Mr. Dodwell § 1. CHRIST hath taught me to judg of Prophets or Teachers by their fruits more than by their cloathing Mat. 7. And the fruits which are of God are those which express the Divine Nature and Image viz. holy Light and Truth holy Love and holy Life and Practice and the promoting of these in the world And Christ hath taught me that the Devil is 1. Against holy Light and Truth the Prince of Darkness and a Lyar and the Father of Lyes 2. Against holy Love accusing slandring and rendring as odious the servants and ways of Christ. 3. Against holy righteous and sober living and an opposer of it and a persecutor and murderer of the Saints And those that are likest Satan in these three parts of his Image and whose works are more certainly the works of these three Diabolical Principles I am taught by Christ to judg of by their fruits So much as there is in Mr. Dodwell's labours of holy Truth holy Love and helps to holy living so much sure is of God But so much as there is in his or any of his Parties cause of deceit and falshood and defence of ignorance so much as there is of Malignity Calumny or making odious the servants of Christ so much as there is of cruelty and destruction and silencing faithful Ministers and promoting ungodliness by upholding its defences I am obliged to resist as being from him against whom in my baptismal Covenant I was engaged § 2. He giveth his Reader the sum of my doctrine in this point p. 29 c. a chain of forgeries or putid falshoods Either he knew that he wrote falsly or he did not if yea then it seems he thinks that God or his Church needed his lyes if not how unfit is he to write against what he understandeth not But what made him devise a frame of his own words of above six pages to express my words by if he meant not to deceive those that would believe his writing without reading mine § 3. And whether it be from the Lord of love or the enemy of love that he goeth so far to the unchurching and damning of so many of the Reformed Churches besides the Churches of the Southern and Eastern parts of the world if not of all Churches on earth let the sons of Love consider § 4. And whether his endeavours to persuade all the Nonconformists to give over preaching Christs Gospel and all publick Worship of God till they can conscionably conform and his reasonings for that frame that hath long excluded true discipline and sheltered ignorance and ungodliness be of God and all his copious discourses to that end are to save souls or to starve and murder them I leave to mens impartial trial § 5. I so often and fully repeated my judgment of the Calling of the Ministry as leaveth his Forgeries inexcusable The sum is this 1. There is no power but of God 2. Gods universal Laws are the prime Laws and the only universal Laws of the Church or world 3. In his Laws God hath established or instituted the work and the species of that Ecclesiastical Ministry which he will have to teach and guide his Church to the end of the world And therein signified his owning of them as sent by him and promised them his help and blessing 4. In that Law he hath told us what men they are that he will thus own and bless and described the Essentials and the Integrals of their Receptive disposition or qualifications 5. He hath in that Law told us who shall be the tryers and
Parliament by Charter yet if they are unqualified when they come thither the choice is judged null If a City choose and Invest a proclaimed Rebel for Mayor I will believe it null or invalid though Mr. D. will not And if he write Forty Books with such streams of confident words to prove that the Election and Investiture of the dâ—â—lared Heretick Bishops at Alexandria Antioch Constantinople and most of the Empire in many Ages Arrians Eutichians c. were yet judged valid by the Councils of the Orthodox no man that ever read the Councils will believe him 5. Nor will I believe him that any Bishops Ordination can make a true Bishop or Priest of a Woman an Infant or a professed Heathen Infidel or proper Heretick or any uncapable person any more than he can make a Woman to be a Husband or a dumb man the University Orator § 23. He saith They cannot give an Instance of any Power setled by Charter whereupon a failure of all who are by the Charter empowred to dispose of Offices the power must devolve to those who are not by the Charter empowred to dispose of them and where such a Charter is not thought in Law to fail by becoming unpracticable till the supreme power interpose c. Ans. Still the same fraud If all empowred to dispose of Offices is an ambiguous word The Prince disposeth of them by giving the Power and the Electors by choosing the Receivers and the Minister by delivering the Insignia If Electors and all die indeed there are none to determine of the Receiver And yet if the Plague kill most of the Electors at Age and leave not a due number when the rest left come to Age and choose the Charter will renew the Office-power 2. But if it be only the Ministerial Invester that faileth the sense of the Lawgiver must be judged of by the words and by other notices and the light of common Reason e. g. Whether it be the meaning of the Charter which saith that the Recorder shall give the Oath or the former Mayor shall deliver the Insignia that if the Recorder or Mayor be dead or sick or mad or wilfully refuse the City shall have no Mayor or if no Priest will Marry folks all England must live unmarried or if the Archbishops and Bishops will Ordain none but Hereticks all the Churches must have no other Ministers And here Nature and Christ teach us that the Means is only for the End and Order for the thing ordered and God will have us understand his own Laws so as that Rituals give place to Morals I will have mercy and not sacrifice And sure if the King of Spains Charter for the making of Governours at the West Indies should not express or reasonably imply a Remedy in case of the failure of circumstances of meer Order his Countrey might be lost before they could send to Spain for a new Charter or new power And Mr. D. saith Which is the very case impugned by me of the Nonconformists And so judg whether he must not turn a Seeker and say that all Ministry Churches and Sacraments cease till a new Commission comes from Heaven upon the failure of every such circumstance yea when almost all the Churches charge each other with failures and intercisions and the very species of the Ordainers is so much altered If the King send his Army into the Indies or his Navies and mention no power but the Generals as chief or no way of choosing a new General but by the Field-Officers choice and giving him an Oath by the Secretary c. yet no man doubteth but it was his meaning that if the General die or turn Rebel yea and the major part of the Field-Officers or the Secretary the Army should choose another General rather than perish and the Kings service miscarry § 24. He addeth They cannot give an Instance of any humane Charter that ever allows any person empowered to extend his own power by a private exposition of the Charter against the sense of all the visible supreme powers of the society Ans. This opens the Core of the Aposthume 1. We deny as confidently as any French or Italians affirm that there is any such thing at a supreme visible power over the universal Church under Jesus Christ and therefore none such is disobeyed or contradicted 2. And we maintain That by Divine appointment there is no visible National supreme Church-power but that of the Civil Christian Soveraign and therefore none such disobeyed 3. And we hold that no man can extend his own power further than Christs own Law extendeth it False expositions give no power 4. And therefore we prove by your own Rule that Christ being the only supreme universal Ruler and having described and specified the Office of a Pastor and order of a Church no Bishops can by their private exposition turn a single Church into a Diocesan or a Presbyter of Christs description into an half Presbyter of their own making But if they make a man a Pastor his power and work shall be what Christ saith and not what the Ordaâ—ner will Investing-Ministers Acts are null if they contradict the Order of the Donor If the King give you a Parsonage of 300. l. a year and the Instituter say you shall have but 100. l. out of it it 's vain he instituteth you but as the Donors instrument in the same Benefice and power given by him § 25. He addeth p. 38. Where can they find such a Charter for the power of Presbyters in Scripture as they speak of Ans. Nay then we are far from agreeing if you think that the very Species of a Pastors Office is not found in Scripture as of Christs institution Thâ—n it seems the Bishops make the very Species The Italian Bishops at Trent scarce gave so much to the Pope Then why may not the Bishops put down Presbyters if they make the Species or make as many Species as they please Indeed Dr. Hammond thought that there was no evidence of the Order of Subject Presbyters in Scripture-times And if God instituted none let us have none But I have told you before and often where in Scripture the true Pastors Office is described § 26. He adds They may find some actual practices but will they call that a Charter Ans. This is indeed to strike at our foundation If we prove not Christ to be King and Lawgiver and that his Laws or Governing-precepts were partly given by himself and partly by his Spirit in his Commissioned Apostles and these Recorded Sealed and Delivered in Scripture If we prove not that these as the authorized Agents of Christ delivered his Will by words and practice in setling and describing the Pastors of his Churches then take the Ministry and spare not for mans invention I cited you before the Texts that are our proof But if the Office which you call Priestly be of mans making in specie I doubt the Diocesans will prove so much more
that was Ordained in our Synods § 33. And he hath half disabled me to answer him from p. 50. forwards where he feigneth me to maintain that Authority must necessarily result from true qualifications For it is taken for uncivil to give his words their proper name But if the Reader will pardon the Repetition I may remind him how probable it is that Mr. Dodwell trusted that his Reader would believe his words without perusing what I wrote where he might have seen 1. That I say that the Authority resulteth not from the qualifications but from Christs Law Grant or Charter 2. That personal qualifications of gifts or grace are but part of the necessary Dispasitio Recipientis but that moreover there is needful 1. Opportunity 2. And need of his Office 3. And to a Bishop the flocks consent if not election And ordinis gratia where moral necessiâ—y dispenseth not with order the Ordainers approbation and consent 5. And to regular possession where it may be had a due Investiture so that there is a Relative part as well as a Qualitative of the Receptive disposition necessary And all the following leaves in which he disputeth against me as maintaining a power resulting from meer qualities are so unbeseeming a Divine and a Câ—ristian that I will not soul my paper with their due confutation But they are suitable to that man who thinks himself wise good and fit enough to Unchurch and condemn so much as he doth of the Christian world on pretence of pleading for obedience to the Diocesans § 34. And where he adds p. 50. Or that it so depends on them qualifications as that where the persons ordained may want any of them there the whol Ordination must be null because of the incapacity of the matter This also he denieth Ans. 1. I still distinguish between the Qualifications necessary ad esse and those only ad bene esse or integral If he would perswade the Reader that I null Ordination for want of the latter his weakness or designed ill intent is such as warneth his Readers to take heed of believing him If he mean it only of the former as I speak I have before confuted him that dare say that no qualification is necessary ad esse Then a Pope Ioan or woman-Priest or Prelate or a professed enemy of God or Christ may be a Priest And he may be a Pastor of a Church to feed them by the Word who never heard or know what was the Word or Church Cannot the best believer go to Heaven if all your Priests will but deny him the Sacrament and yet may a man be validly a Bishop and the Key keeper of Heaven that believeth not that there is a God a Christ or Heaven and so professeth This maketh me remember the old Roman Canons how no Bishop must be deposed for lying with his own Sister unless a great multitude of Witnesses testifie it and the Councils that decreed no Layman shall witness against a Clergy-man c. But Election consent the Ordainers approbation ordinarily are part of my Qualifications And if these be unnecessary what doth the man plead for And is a false approbation of a man that wanteth Essentials more necessary than having them How contrary is this to the Doctrine of the Council of Carthage in the Epistle in Cyprian of Martial and Basilides and to many honest Councils § 35. P. 90. At the end of this insinuated false accusation he asketh Where do we find that God ever gave Bishops Presbyters and Deacons though he gave Apostles Pastors and Teachers those extraordinary Offices indeed seem to have been made neither of man nor by man but by God immediately c. Ans. 1. Hath he said a word to prove that Pastors and Teachers are not ordinary Officers contrary to the common judgment of the Church in all ages 2. Whether he mean Bishops in the Dative Case or the Accusative I know not If the later let him speak out and say God gave not Bishops But how proveth he that Presbyters and Bishops are not Pastors or Teachers 3. The Text tells you Ephes. 4.14 15 16. that these offices were given for the continued stated use of the Church For the perfecting of the Saints the work of the Ministry for the edifying the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledg of the Son of God to a perfect man c. Was this temporary 4. It seems he disclaimeth Bishops being made in making Apostles 5. Christ by his Spirit in the Apostles ordered the Churches § 36. P. 65. he saith They never find any of those Officers to whom succession is at present pretended made immediately by God but by the intervention of men c. Ans. Still deceiving confusion 1. Intervention is a word of fraud and may signifie only that act which determineth of and qualifieth the receiver and it may signifie the Donation or making of the office It is this that we speak of 2. The Intervention of infallibly inspired men commissioned to deliver and record Christs own will hath an efficiency instrumental in making the office in that the Spirit in them doth it and they do make instrumentally the Charter or Law which giveth the power and Christ doth what they did by his Commission and Spirit If you can prove that our Diocesans have this Commission spirit and power if they write new Sacred Scriptures or make new Sacraments and Church-forms and offices we will obey them But prove it well 3. Did any man but Christ send forth the Seventy Yet most Prelatists hold that those were the predecessors of the Presbyters 4. By this it seems he again denieth that Christ himself instituted the Order of Bishops by making Apostles And if so he will sorely shake his standing for then they must prove all their power from the Apostles or following persons institutions and not make them successors of the Apostles own Office for they made not their own Office And Dr. Stillingfleet thinks there were no Bishops or few made in the Apostles times as Dr. Hammond thinks of subject-Presbyters And if Christs Spirit in the Apostles made not these Offices who made the Scripture which is Gods Law I despair of seeing it proved that any since them were authorized to make them And if men only made the Episcopal and Presbyters Office men may unmake them § 37. A case put to me within this hour remindeth me how much these men prefer Ordination not only in it self but in this circumstance of Prelatical uninterrupted succession before Baptism which is our Christning There are some godly young men that have Communicated in the Lords Supper that were the children of Quakers and Anabaptists some were never baptized and some know not whether they were or not and being born near Two hundred Miles hence cannot learn or come to any certainty The question is Whether these that have Communicated should yet be baptized which is to make Christians of
Christians Or whether the higher Sacrament do not eminently contain the lower as making a man a Bishop containeth making him a Presbyter and that containeth eminently his Deaconship as some say If they must be baptized yet it implieth the Nullity of their Sacramental Communion before And if so Mr. Dodwell must confess that Priestly exhibition or investiture is null to an uncapable Subject But I think most will say that he should not be baptized it being done interpretatively And if so is his Prelatical mode of Ordination more necessary than actual Baptism Besides that as is said they make Lay-mens or womens baptizing sufficient ad esse And yet the Church of England professeth that only the Two Sacramens Baptism and the Lords Supper are generally necessary to salvation § 38. Pag. 67 68. He would persuade us that the Imposition of hands in Ordination signifieth what he asserteth But he giveth us not one word of proof of it Was it the Holy Ghost which was in the imposing Apostle or Prelate that was given by him and out of him into the Ordained No he was never in Scripture said to be the Ownor Donor or efficient conveyer of the Holy Ghost But Gods will made the Imposition of the Apostles hand a conditional act to qualifie the recipient to receive the Holy Ghost immediately from God as the Texts before cited and many more prove What if it be once said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when many other Texts expound it It 's well known that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth many other causes mediums conditions as well as efficient conveying causes Is it like to signifie more here than in the Doctrine of Justification when it is so oft said that we are justified by faith And yet faith there is no efficient instrument conveying or giving us pardon and relative Justification but only a necessary qualification of the Recipient called by Dr. Twisse Causa dispositiva which is part of the Materialis upon which Gods Covenant immediately pardoneth and justifieth the believer so both there and here it is by or through the Act of man as a moral qualification of the Recipient made a condition by God § 39. After all this the man cometh himself pag. 72. to distinguish of Qualifications necessary to the being of the office and to the well-being yea and hath the face to say that I should have distinguished them as if I had not ever done it Is it not an unprofitable toil to dispute with such men that will pretend that a case by me constantly stated was not stated and then will long dispute himself for the unqualified without distinction and after all distinguish in the fag end This beseemeth not any man that will pretend to plead for truth But yet he will not be over-liberal to us he saith p. 13. All the skill that is requisite essentially is only in general to know the benefits to be peâ—formed on Gods part and the duties to be promised on mans and the nature and obligation of Covenants in general and the particular solemnities of Ecclesiastical Covenanting And of this how can any one be uncapable that is but capable of understanding the common dealings of the world Ans. 1. And yet must we have Universities and must the Holy Ghost be given by the Bishops for this And is there any need to open the Bible to know it and must so much riches and honour maintain this much and all be damned Schismaticks that turn to better 2. Set this qualified Ministry and his great zeal to perswade the Nonconformists to cease Preaching and his Unchurching the Reformed Churches altogether and it 's easie to see what this humble diligent man is labouring for 3. Do not many millions understand the common dealings of the world that understand not the Gospel The natural man receiveth not the things that be of God for they are spiritually discerned 4 Is not this a plain design to set up a carnal Kingdom of ignorant vicious Clergy-men such as St. Paul saith Rom. 8 neither are nor can be subject to Gods Law instead of a holy Catholick Church and Communion of Saints and to make Mahometans think that they are Saints in comparison of us and that Christians are an unholy sort of men 5. Either he includeth all that is necessary to the things named by him or not If not then his Priest must know the benefits of Gods Covenant without knowing what God is or that Christ is the Purchaser Covenanter c. If yea which I doubt not he will say then O what an excellent body of Theology is included in these few general words Then he must know all those Attributes of God and his Relations to man by which he is said to be our God He must know all the necessary articles of faith about the Person of Christ as God and man in two Natures and one Person his Incarnation Birth Life Sufferings Death Burial his Doctrine his Merits his Resurrection Ascension Glory Intercession Kingly and Prophetical office and last Judgment and Glorious Kingdom He must know what Covenant God formerly made and man broke and what sin original and actual and what curse and condemnation followed on mankind And Oh how many great and mysterious things are contained in Gods Covenant-benefits On Union with Christ Reconciliation Justification Adoption Sanctification The Doctrine of the Holy Ghost as the Third person in the Trinity and as the Inspirer of Prophets and Apostles and Inditer and confirmer of the Scriptures and the Witness of Christ and the Sanctifier and Comforter of the Elect besides Resurrection Glorification c. And what a deal is contained in mans necessary qualification Faith Repentance and promised duty And the true nature and use of the Sacraments themselves And is all this such a small or easie matter as he seems to intimate 6. But hath he yet proved that a true Minister of Christ hath no necessary work but thus to administer Sacraments I will yet believe 2 Tim. 4.1 2. that he must preach the Word in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort partly to convert the unconverted partly to confirm and guide believers and that the people should ask the Law at his mouth as being the messenger of the Lord of Hosts And that the very essence of his office is to be a Minister under the Teaching Priestly and Ruling office of Christ. 7. And if he had proved that a sorry Priest hath all that is essential to his office that proveth not that I must take him for my Pastor no not though the Diocesan command me Souls are more worth than to be wilfully made the Priests and Prelates merchandize If a man have all essential to a Physician and no more I will not trust my life to his skill which is less than my soul though the Bishop bid me If a woman have all that 's essential to a woman he is a fool that will take her for his wife because the Bishop bids him
the wisest and best man had right to the Crown or Church-power If copious discourses to the contrary will not hinder such busie disputers from such inhumane slanders are they meet to be disputed with I have over and over said that 1. Gifts or the best abilities 2. And due election or approbation of the Ordainers 3. And the peoples election and consent all set together do but make up the Qualification or Receptive disposition of the Recipient 4. Yea and his consent conjoined and that where all these in the necessary degree concur the power resulteth to that capâ—ble person from none of them all but immediately from God Law which is his instrument giving power to persons so qualified And that besides all these Ministerial Investiture for Orders sake when it may be had should introduce him into possession yea and the Magistrate must be judg whom he will countenance protect or tolerate But the case of Ordination and Investiture are necessary only where they may be had lawfully and without crossing their end as sacrifice was compared with mercy and the Rest of the Sabbath compared to works of charity and necessity § 43. And as it is the trick of such dealers p. 81. he must have Governours to do his work and therefore must not leave out that which may make us odious to them but tells men that our Hypothesis is unreconcilable with government in this life in that it permits persons to assume Authority and to extend it as far as they think fit by appealing to Writings against the sense of all the visible authority of this life Ans. 1. But â—f this Hypothesis be none of his Adversaries but come out of the Meal-Tub or forge of Inventers what shall such men be called 2. We permit no person to assume Authority But Writings are not so contemptible to us in comparison of that which you take to be all the visible Authority of the Church It is your Richard Hooker that saith that the Law maketh the King and giveth and measureth his power and that it's usurpation which obligeth no mans Conscience when power is taken and usâ—d which the Law never gave What I think of this I have elsewhere shewed The Statutes are not so contemptible in this case but the great Lawyers think they may be appealed to from visible Rulers in several cases And you must talk at other rates than you have done in your tedious fallacious Vagaries before wise Christians will believe that we may not appeal from Prelates to the written Word of God when the power used by them is justly questioned If not how caâ—e the Reformed Churches to justifie their Reformation Was it not by appealing to Scripture against the visible Church Rulers that were commonly against them Were not Pâ—pes Council Prelates and Priests against them for the far greatest part Did it overthrow all Government of the world to appeal from these to the â—cripture I hereby undertake to prove that neither Popes Prelates or Priests have any Church-Authority bâ—t what God hatâ— given them by his Word And is it not thâ—â— necessary to try it by that Word Must we take thâ—â—r own words for all that Popes or Prelates câ—â—im And it will put the Pope and Council hard to it to prove any Authority from God if the Scripture do not give it them And if it give it them it may give it others § 44. And whâ—n 〈◊〉 done we are far from granting that we have lesâ— to shâ—â— for our succession from the Apostleâ— than Popes or 〈…〉 have 1 We are 〈◊〉 that we have the same â—aptism Eucharist Creed Lâ—â—ds Praâ—â—r Dâ—calogue and Scriptâ—re delivered down from the Aâ—ostles 2. We are sure that we have a Ministry of the same species which Christ and his â—pirit in the Apostles instituted 3. We know that our Churches and Worship and Doctrine are the â—ame that are described and setled by the Apostles 4. We know that our present Ministers are qualified as the Apostâ—â—â— requiâ—ed 5. And that they are Elected or 〈◊〉 to by the 〈◊〉 is the Apostles required 6. And that they have as good an Ordination and Investiture as the Apostles ever made necessary to the Ministry That is 1. They have the Approbation of senior Pastors and many of them of Diocesans All that were put into any places by the Parliament when the Bishops were down were to have the Westminster Assemblies Approbation under their hands And that Assembly as called consisted of many Diocesans with many score grave Eminent Divines though the Diocesans were not actually present And a signed Approbation and Allowance hath the Essence of all that is of absolute necessity in Ordination 2. They were Ordained by true Bishops 1. All true Presbyters are Episcopi gregis and joyn in Ordination here in Enggland 2 The chief Pastors of City-Churches having Curates under them are Episcopi Eminentes vel Praesides such as Ordained for above Two hundred years after the Apostles And 3. The chosen Presidents of Synods were such Bishops But all these concurred in the Nonconformists Ordinations when the Diocesans were down They were Ordained at and by a Synod of Presbyters in some great Town or City where the Moderator and the chief City-Pastors were part 3. Many of them were Ordained by Diocesans 4. Many Ordained as aforesaid were after approved by Diocesans some by Imposition of Hands and all by Word or Writing for Archbishop Vsher did in my hearing by Word and in Writing more publickly declare his opinion of such Presbyters Ordination as valid â—though he excused not such as deposed the Diocesans from the guilt of Schism and so did the many other Bishops whom I formerly cited yea even Bancroft himself And surely all this hath all that is essential to Ordination 5. And we know that such a Ministry hath continued to propagate the Church and Gospel in the world since the Apostles days But we confess 1. That we cannot prove that such Ministers have still succeâ—ded in the same Towns 2. Nor that no one from whom their Ordination came down from the Apostles did pretend to have Orders or Authority when he had none 3. Or that no one of them in 1660. years was an Heretick or a Schismatick or a Papist 4. Or that no one Ordained in wrong words 5. Or that no one Ordained contrary to the Canons out of his own limits or without three Bishops or without the Presbyters 6. Or that no Competitors were Ordained by several Bishops Mr. Dodwell is a great Historian when he hath proved all this of all or any of his Clergy-friends he hath done something more than multiply words § 45. But on the other side we can easily prove and have proved 1. That our Diocesans are not of the same species with those of old 2 That the Apostles did not make them I think Mr. Dodwell will say that the Presbyters first made them by consent the Children begot the Fathers 3 And Dr. Hammond will defend it that
to say I supposed in it but a single Pastor You are not accountable to me for such errors be they never so causless in my opinion It may be you had Reason to write against the old Nonconformists that are in another world and to think that for the Names sake it concerned us and to plead that Conformity to all the present Covenants and Oaths and Subscriptions is necessary because you could wish the Discipline more Regular as if we were to Subscribe to what is in your wishes It may be you had Reason to suppose the Parish-Priests to have the Government of the People even the power of the Church-Keys and yet sometimes to unsay it again without answering my Proof to the contrary when I take it for the chief supposition that causeth my Nonconformity And to prove copiously that a Bishop may govern a Diocess when he hath a Governor under him in every Parish without answering my Proofs that he hath no such under him but hath quantum in se half degraded the Presbyters And when I said that Discipline is not possible under such Diocesans as are with us you might have Reason that I know not of to leave out as are with us and to prove it possible with other Diocesans that have governing Presbyters under them Perhaps you had Reason to confound the Convincing Perswasive Declarative Power of a Iudg with that of a private man and thence to raise the supposition which you raise Perhaps you know some Medium between corporal force and Mulcts proper to the Magistrate and Authoritative perswasion and prevailing on the Conscience by the Reverence of Gods Laws though I know none And you were not bound to teach me what you know Perhaps you had Reason to think that I may Subscribe That no man in Three Kingdoms that hath Vowed it is bound to endeavour to alter our Church-Government by Lay-Chancellors because you defend it not but wish it altered And it may be you have Reasons unknown to me that none but Irregular endeavours are there disclaimed and that our Lawgivers spake universally and would be interpreted particularly with many such like But abscondita quae supra nos nihil ad nos What I may not pretend to understand I will not presume to censure but only say That I am uncapable of being informed by them This I am satisfied of that my Schismatical Principles take into Church-Communion such as you and those that are in knowledg below not only you but me even the weakest true Christians But upon your Catholick terms no man of my measure of knowledg must be tolerated to be a Preacher or a Christian in Church-Communion nor live at least out of Goal or some such penalty And if one at Muscovy can get a Courtier to make him a Bishop he and such other are the Church which why you still put it in the feminine Gender when it consisteth of Masculine Court-Bishops I know not And if he command us to do that which we account the most inhumane perjury if he think it to be but the renunciation of an unlawful Oath as I understand you we are Schismaticks if we obey him not Whether in cases of commanded blasphemy and all other crimes we must accordingly renounce our understandings I know not Though there be somewhat of Irony in all this there is nothing but what is consistent with the high estimation of your extraordinary worth And I must say that our different Educations I doubt not is a great cause of our different sentiments Had I never been a Pastor nor lived out of a Colledg and had met with such a taking Orator I might have thought as you do And had you converst with as many Country-people as I have done and such I think you would have thought as I do My great deceiver is Sense and Experience I am inclined to look near me in judging of present matters of fact As if our Controversie were Whether one Schoolmaster can govern a thousand Schools without any but Monitors under him and Teachers that have no Government And your way is from old Histories to prove that some body did so 1400 years ago or a thousand in some places of the world if stories deceive us not and therefore it may be so now Though none of those excellent men do it who are put into the places of the silenced Schismatical Ministers nor none of the excellent Bishops that are over us who are so good that one of them no doubt would do it were it possible But seriously I take it for a great mercy of God that honest Christians of little learning have that experience in the Practicals of Religion which the studied accurate plausible Orations of contradictors cannot overcome though they are not so well skill'd at the same weapons as to answer them Sir pardon and accept this short and thankful acknowledgment that I have received your Learned Tractate till I take the leisure if I so long live to return you an answer suitable to your discourse and expectations I rest Aug. 5. 1673. Your Servant RICH. BAXTER Mr. Dodwell desiring me not to make haste in answering him I sent him only this intending more but want of time and the quality of the task being put but to answer a multitude of words delayed it till he came to London and then I thought we might talk it out which we oft tried to little purpose His great proof of large Churches of many Altars from the only two that swelled first Rome and Alexandria are so fully answered in this annexed Letter which worthy Mr. Clerkson wrote to me that I think he needs no other answer since published by me As is a fâ—ll discourse on the Subject by Mr. Clerkson himself against Dr. Stâ—llingfleet A Copy of the Letter to Mr. Dodwell March 12. 1681. SIR SInce your Speech with me I have thought again of what you insisted on and find it consist of these four Points 1. Whether I charge you with Popery or at least do not vindicate you when so accused 2. Your reasons against answering Voetius and me 3. Your desire to know my terms of concord 4. Your perswading me to give over Preaching Lest words be mis-understood or forgotten I send you my Answer to each of these I. I take it to be none of my business to tell what Religion other men are of till I am called to it And then I take my self bound to judg every man what he professeth to be till I can disprove it 2. I distinguish the Name e. g. of Protestant or Papist from the Thing Accordingly 1. I am sure you deny your self to be a Papist and I believe you 2. What you mean by the word I refer all men that talk of it to your Books which are fitter to tell your mind than I am that know no mans heart Grotius took a Papist to be one that flattered Popes taking all to be just which they said and did and not one that
I swore to obey them but in licitis honestis And I do not know that ever I therein disobeyed those that I sware to no nor the latter reduced stock Either I have proved the degenerate sort described in this Treatise to be a heinously sinful depravation of the Church and its Government and an injury against Christ by deposing his Church Form Discipline and Officers or not if not evince it and I will thank you if yea to comply with such sin or in any calling to forbear detecting it by writing is an Omission which is not licitum vel honestum An unlawful Oath against a thing indifferent will not bind me if the King do but command that indifferent thing much less will an ignorant Oath to obey Church-Usurpers and corrupters oblige me against Christs commands Nor do I think it licitum vel honestum to renounce my Ministry sacrilegiously and perfidiously break my Ordination-Vow to God and forbear Preaching Christs Gospel to needy souls because they forbid me In a word Sir I unfeignedly thank you for your desire to save me from dying in sin I have great reason to make it my greatest care Constant pain and languor call to me neither to dissemble nor delay When I cannot know my own heart so well as you do I may come to believe you that it is unruly Pride Till then I am past doubt that could any abasement any labour any cost help me to know that you are in the right and I in the wrong I would most joyfully undertake it But such warnings as your's awaken my Conscience so that I dare not die in the guilt of active or omissive compliance with those men 1. Whose degenerate state I confidently judg to be the dangerous Malady of the Church and destructive to a right Church-state Church-Officers and Government 2. Whose Canons of Government are such as they are 3. Who have since I had any understanding done that against serious godliness in England which they did and these near Twenty years done what they have done procuring the silencing and outward ruin of about Two thousand such Ministers of Christ as I know to have been the most pious faithful and successful in true Ministerial work of any that ever I could know and such as I am fully perswaded no Nation under Heaven have Two thousand better And yours or other mens accusations or contrary judgment cannot make me ignorant of this which experience and great acquaintance have told me 4. And Church-History which tells me what such have done in former Ages increase my fear of dying in the guilt of participating of their sin I know of no other Motives that I have The sum of my request to you is That instead of telling me what the Pope or any Usurper may say that I should be humble and obedient you will but tell me what means I should use which I have omitted to get my judgment informed if I err and to become of your mind and as wise as you I again intreat you to tell me the way and I shall give you most hearty thanks Did I not know your judgment and mine to be so distant as puts me out of hope of attaining my end I would have sent you Nine or Ten Proposals for the meer reducing of the Parish Churches to their necessary state without altering any thing of the Diocesans power or grandure save only their power of the Sword which yet as they are Magistrates we submit to That your former Letters brought me not to your judgment you may see by the book which I send you cometh not to pass by hasty judging nor without that which seemeth Reason to me after my long and best consideration I am fully assured not byassed hereto by worldly interest which hath long lain on the other side Accept this Account from Nov. 15. 1680. Your unfeigned though dissenting Friend Ri. Baxter July 9. 1677 For my much honoured Friend Mr. Henry Dodwell SIR SINCE the writing of my last to you your own words have acquainted me 1. That you take my Principles to have some inconsistence or contradiction 2. That you think I have not yet told you what Church-Government it is that I would have or how it can attain its end 3. That you suppose that denying men the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a coercive power sufficient to force unwilling men to obey Church-Governours 4. That you hold that all Religious Assemblies not allowed by the Bishops are unlawful and therefore that we must rather use none than such I. As to the first no reason obligeth me to believe you till you prove it which must be by citing the inconsistent words How easie is it to tell you or any man that you speak contradictions Is accusing proving And you have told me by experience that mistaking Hearers and Readers understand not mens words so well as the Speakers or Writers do When you so widely mistook a speech of mine when I had told you that as far as I could learn by my own acquaintance and the report of the Members themselves there was but one known Presbyterian in the House of Commons when the Wars began I named you a credible witness yet living and you report that I said there was but one Presbyterian in the Assembly of Divines May not my writing be as much mistaken by you Prove your Charge and I will confeâ—s my contradictions and give you thanks II. As to the second I was afraid I had used more words than needs if all that I have said tell you not what I mean you may excuse me from adding more which are like to be no more significant you must name me the particulars that you are unsatisfied in before I can know what is needful to be added One particular you did name viz. whether I hold a power in the Church to deny men the Sacrament that would have it I left you no reason to make a doubt of it If this be it pardon the repetitions which you make me guilty of and I shall renew my account 1. I believe that Christ hath instituted the office of the Sacred Ministry which the Ancients called Sacerdotium as subordinate to his Teaching Ruling and Sacerdotal office and that being obliged to Disciple and baptize the Nations and to teach them Christs commands and to guide them in holy Doctrine Worship and Discipline they are authorized to all that they are obliged to and that it is their office-work to administer Baptism and the Lords Supper and that they have the Church-Keys to judg whom to take in by Baptism what food to feed the children of the Church with and whom to cast out of its Communion 2. I believe that this power is limited and regulated by Christs own universal Laws and that they are not lawless or arbitrary but he hath bound them by a just description whom to take in what food to give them and whom to cast out And that he hath given them