The Lord protesteth that such as refuse to obey his Calls to come out of Babylon shall partake of her Plagues Rev. 18. 4. 5. Where the Lord is not in respect of his special Presence and Grace there is no ground to expect any Blessing but God is not so in the midst of the Parochial Assemblies of England Where are the souls that are converted comforted strengthened stablished that are waiting at the doors of their house Though many will not see it yet a sad spirit of withering and visible decaies is to be found upon many that are waiting upon the teachings of the Ministers of this day And we hope the Lord will in mercy cause those that are indeed his to see it that they may remember from whence they have fallen repent do their first works and watch to strengthen the things that remain that are ready to dye for God hath not found their works perfect before him Argument 12. That the doing whereof is one step to Apostacy is not lawful to be done But the hearing the present Ministers of England is one step to Apostacy Therefore The Major Proposition will readily be granted by all The beginnings of great evils are certainly to be resisted Apostacy is one of the greatest evils in the world The Minor or second Proposition viz. That the hearing of the present Ministers of England is one step to Apostacy is evident 1. It cannot be done especially by persons of Congregational Principles without a relinquishment of Principles owned by them as received from God That the Church of England as National is a Church of the institution of Christ That persons not called to the Office of the Ministry by the Saints are rightful Ministers of Christ must be owned and taken for granted ere the conscience can acquiesce in the hearing of the present Ministers for we suppose 't will not be asserted by those with whom we have to do that there can be a true Ministry in a False Church or that False Ministers may be heard and yet the present Ministers are Ministers in and of the National Church of England and were never solemnly deputed to that Office by the suffrage of the Lords People 2dly Nor can it be done without the neglect of that duty which with others is eminently of the appointment of the Lord to secure from Apostacy instanc'd in by the Author to the Hebrews Hebr. 10. 25. Not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching In which the duty of Saints assembling of themselves together as a body distinct from the world and its Assemblies as also their frequent and as often as may be exhorting one another as a medium to secure them by the blessing of the Lord thereupon from a spirit of Degeneracy and Apostacy from God is clearly asserted Whence it undeniably follows That the hearing of the present Ministers of England being inconsistent with the constant and diligient use of the means prescribed for the preservation of the Saints in the way of God for whilst they are attending upon their teachings they cannot assemble themselves according to the prescription of God in the forementioned Scripture is at least one step to the dreadful sin of Apostacy from God and therefore is it utterly unlawful for Saints so to do And thus far of the 12th Argument for the proof of the assertion under our maintenance viz. That t is not lawful for Saints to hear the present Ministers of England to which many others might be added But we doubt not to the truly tender and humble enquiring Christian what hath been offered will be abundantly sufficient to satisfie his conscience in the present enquiry We shall only in the close offer a few Queries to be in the fear of the Holy One considered by the intelligent Reader Quer. 1. Whether the Lord Jesus be not the alone Head King and Lawgiver to his Church 2. Whether the Laws Statutes Orders and Ordinances of Christ be not faithfully to be kept though all the Princes in the world should interdict and forbid it 3. Whether to introduce other Laws for the Government of the Church of Christ and the Worship of his House be not an high advance against and intrusion into his Kingship and Headship 4. Whether the Lord Jesus as King and Head over his Church hath not instituted sufficient Officers and Offices for the administration of Holy Things in his House to whom no more can be added without a desperate undervaluation and contempt of his Wisdome Headship and Soveraignty over it 5. Whether the Officers instituted by Christ are not onely Pastors Teachers Elders Deacons and Helpers 6. Whether the Offices of Arch-Bishops Lord-Bishops Deans Sub-Deans Prebendaries Chancellors Priests Deacons as an order of the first step to a Priesthood Arch-Deacons Sub-Deacons Commissaries Officials Proctors Registers Apparitors Parsons Vicars Curats Canons Petty-Canons Gospellers Epistollers Chaunters Virgers Organ-Players Queristers be Offices any where instituted by the Lord Jesus in the Scripture 7. Whether the calling and admission into these last mentioned Offices their administration and maintenance now had and received in England be according to the Word of God 8. Whether every true visible particular Church of Christ be not a select company of People called and separated from the world and False Worship thereof by the Spirit and Word of God and joyned together in the Fellowship of the Gospel by their own free and voluntary consent giving up themselves to Christ and one another according to the Will of God 9. Whether a company of People living in a Parish though the most of them be visible Drunkards Swearers c. or at least strangers to the work of regeneration upon their souls coming by compulsion or otherwise to the hearing of Publick Prayers or Preaching are in the Scripture account Saints and a Church of Christ according to the Pattern given forth by him Or rather be not to be esteemed Daughters of the old Whore and Babel spoken of in the Scriptures 10. Whether in such a Church there is or can rationally be supposed to be a true Ministry of the institution of Christ 11. Whether the Book of Common-Prayer or stinted Lyturgies be of the prescription of Christ and not of mans devising and invention 12. Whether if one part of a Worship used by a People be polluted the whole of their Worship be not to be looked upon in a Scripture account as polluted and abominable according to 1 Kings 18. 21. 2 King 17. 33. Isa 66. 3. Hos 4. 15. Ezek. 43. 8. Zeph. 1. 5 so that if their Prayers be naught and polluted their Preaching be not so too 13. Whether a Ministry set up in direct opposition unto a Ministry of Christ which riseth upon its fall and falls by its rise can by such as so account of it be lawfully joyned unto 14. Whether such as have forsworn a Covenant Reformation
Deut. 4. 2. and 12. 32. Mat. 15. 9. Lev. 10. 1. their sin lay not in this that they offered strange fire which was forbidden but which God commanded them not Prov. 30. 6. Jer. 7. 31. 9. Of the same mind with us in this matter are the renowned VVitnesses of Christ in all ages generally all that write upon the second Commandment speak fully hereunto Cyprian in his Epist to Caecilius de Sacram. sayes roundly Et quod Christus solus c. i. e. that Christ alone ought to be heard we have the Father himself witnessing from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son hear him Wherefore if Christ only be to be heard we ought not to attend to what others did before us but what he hath prescribed Beza on Phil. 1. 1. sayes Episcopos igitur c. The Apostle meaneth by Bishops such as were set over others in the preaching the VVord viz. Pastors Teachers and Elders for so were Bishops of old called until he which for Polities sake did preside in the Assembly began peculiarly to be call'd Bishop hereof the Devil began to lay the first foundation of Tyranny in the Church of God Behold sayes he of how great moment it is to decline from the Word of God though but an hairs breadth So he To whom may be added the Testimony of that lively Witness of Christ Martin Luther †In a Translation of the New-Testament in Edward the 6ths time the Author of the Notes on Matth. 15. saith God will not be worshipped after the doctrine precepts of men but as he himself hath prescribed and taught us in his Word who sayes on 1 Pet. 4. 11. To the Office of preaching that properly belongs which the Apostle Peter prescribeth viz. unto whomsoever the vocation and charge of Preaching the Word is allotted let him speak as the Words of God which Caveat and Lesson ought most carefully to be taken heed unto that no man presume to preach and teach any thing whereto he hath not the express words of God for his warrant and except he be most certain that the same be directly to be avouched out of the sacred Scriptures Which being so what may be thought of the Pope we may add of the Hierarchy and his dirty Traditions And anon after he saith A Bishop ought to do nothing in the Church unless he be certain and sure of the warrantise thereof by God's Word for God cannot abide to have his Service jumbled and mingled at pleasure with every foolish gewgaw and light trumpery yea further saith he And therefore we are strictly forbidden not to rely unto nor to allow whatsoever decree or constitution the Bishops list to obtrude and enjoyn unless they stand upon a sure ground that the things which they do are allowed of God and unless they be able to say Do this for it is the Will and Commandment of God and we have his express Word and Commandment for our warrant if they be not able to say thus they ought to be accounted as Liars and Deceivers much less ought any Christian to yeeld unto them therein any obedience or subscription And afterwards There is nothing saith he so pernitious nothing so monstrous nothing so beastly as to go about to govern the Church of God without the Warrant of God's own Word Of the same mind is learned Whitaker We acknowledge saith he no Oyl in God's Service because we reade nothing of Oyl in the Scriptures can you shew that ever Christ or his Apostles used it To whom many others might be added The minor or second Proposition consists of two parts 1. That Hearing is part of instituted Worship one would wonder should it be denied however 't is evident it is so from the light of this single demonstration That in which we wait upon God in the way of an Ordinance for the communication of good beyond the vertue of any creature to conveigh to us is part of the instituted Worship of God for what I wait for not being in the thing it self in which I am waiting no ground can be assigned for my expecting of good through it but Divine Institution but in the Hearing of the Word we wait upon God in the way of an Ordinance for the communication of good beyond the vertue of any creature to conveigh to us Therefore 2. That Hearing the present Ministers of England is not warranted in the Scripture This will be manifested when we come to the ventilating and scanning of those places which are usually produced for the abetting of the practice of some in this matter in the mean while we crave liberty to profess that it is not opinionativeness singularity vain-glory uncharitableness or any thing of that nature as some are apt uncharitably enough to censure but the dread and awe of God who is a jealous God and especially in point of Worship and an holy fear of offending him that hinders us from complying in these matters could but one word tittle or iota be produced from the Scriptures of God for the warranting the Hearing the present Ministers of England we should quickly lay our mouths in the dust confess and bewail our guilt and folly in refusing to conform thereunto but this we are fully assured those that dissent from us are not able to do what they say herein shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be sifted to the uttermost CHAP. II. A second Argument proposed to consideration That 't is not lawful to hear the present Ministers of England as Ministers of Christ nor as Gifted Brethren proved A Separation from them if Brethren evinced That the best of them walk disorderly proved Argument 2. IF it be lawful to hear the present Ministers of England 't is lawful to hear them either as Ministers of the Gospel or as gifted Brethren But 't is not lawful to hear them either as Ministers of the Gospel or as Gifted-Brethren Therefore The major or first Proposition will not be denied That Christ hath appointed some as Ministers by vertue of an Office-power to dispense the Ordinances of the Gospel until his second coming is granted by all that 't is permitted to others as their liberty enjoyned them as their duty having received Gifts and Enablements from the Lord thereunto to improve those Gifts in preaching praying c. for the Edification of the Body of Christ though not solemnly invested into Office is assented unto at least by some of those with whom we have to do whence a lawfulness to hear them as Ministers or as Gifted-Brethren doth necessarily arise 'T is the minor or second Proposition that is capable in the thoughts of some of a denial which we prove per partes thus 1. 'T is not lawful to hear them as Ministers of the Gospel they are not such therefore may not be heard as such That they are not Ministers of the Gospel but Thieves and Robbers is manifest Such as come not in by the Door which is Christ Joh. 10. 9. viz. by
Order lies therefore the Church hath power to determine in this matter are such Non-sequiturs as will not in hast be made good But let this be granted suppose that 't is the priviledge and duty of the Church to make Laws and Constitutions for the binding of the consciences of men in matters of Decency and Order this Church herein is bounded by the Scripture or it is not If it be †Learned Maccovius in loc com cap. 83. p. 851. sayes Leges secundum quas judicare debent rectores Ecclesiae sunt leges in verbo Dei praescriptae The Laws he tells you by which the Governours of the Church are to judge are such as are prescribed in the Word of GOD. bounded by the Scripture then when it hath no prescription therein for its commands it s not to be obeyed and so we are where we were before that Decency and Order is to be determined by the Scripture If it be not bounded therby then whatever Ceremonies it introduceth not directly contrary thereunto they must be subjected to which how fair an inlet it is to the whole Farago of Popish Inventions who sees not yet were this also yielded them they were never a jot nearer the mark aimed at except it can be proved that supposing a power of introducing Ceremonies to be invested in the Church thence a power for the institution of new Orders and Ordinances the introducing of Heathenish Jewish and superstitious practices in the Worship of God may be evinced And yet should all this be yeelded them none of which will they be able to prove to the worlds end how will they manifest those Lordly Commands and Constitutions are the Constitutions of a truly-constituted Church of Christ a strong supposition hereof is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the present Objection and yet fail they in the making good their ground herein who sees not that their plea hitherto impleaded sinks of it self what is it then they mean by the Church whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are without disputing to subject to is it the National Church of England But where find they any National-Church of the institution of Christ in the Oeconomie of the Gospel how prove they that the Church of England is so Yet should this also be granted where are the Constitutions and Laws of this Church that we may pay the homage to them as is meet when was it assembled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same place together in its several Members freely to debate 1 Cor. 11. 20. 14. 23. and †Maccovius in loc com append de Adi p. 861. sayes Conditio tertia quae requiritur in adiaphoris est haec quod haec non debeant introduci in Ecclesiam nisi communi consensu Ecclesiae Acts 15. Things indifferent he tells you ought not to be introduced into the Church but by the common consent thereof according to Acts 15. determine what Laws and Constitutions were fit to be observed by them If it be said That this is not requisit it is enough that it be assembled in its several Officers or such as shall be chosen by their Officers whose Laws every Member is bound to be obedient to We answer But these Officers are the Church or they are not if they are not as there is nothing more sure I owe no subjection to their Laws or Constitutions it being pleaded that 't is the Church that hath only power in this matter if they are the Church let them by one Scripture prove they are so or where the true Officers of a true Church are so called and as Nonius saith out of Naevius to them Dum vivebo fidelis ero Yet except this also be yeelded them there is nothing of moment in the Objection produced It remaineth therefore that the present Ministers of England submit own and subscribe to Laws and Constitutions that are not in any sense of Christ's revealing and therefore oppose the Kingly Prophetical Office of Christ But this is not all 2dly The present Ministers of England do own submit and subscribe to Laws Constitutions and Ordinances that are contrary to the Revelation of Christ whence an opposition to the Kingly and Prophetical Office of Christ may rationally be concluded This also by the induction of a few particular instances will be evinced beyond exception They own and acknowledge 1. That there may be other Arch-Bishops and Lord-Bishops in the Church of Christ besides himself which is contrary to 1 Pet. 5. 3. 1 Cor. 12. 5. Eph. 4. 5. Heb. 3. 1. Luk. 22. 25 26. 2. That men may and ought to be made Ministers only by these Lord-Bishops which is contrary to Heb. 5. 4. Joh. 10. 1 7. 13. 20. 14. 6. Act. 14. 23. with 6. 3 5. 3. That Prelates their Chancellors and Officers have power from Christ to cast out of the Church of God contrary to Mat. 18. 16 17. 1 Cor. 5. 4. 4. That the Office of Suffragans Deans Canons Petty-Canons Prebendaries Queristers Organists Arch-deacons Commissaries Officials Parsons Vicars and Curats are lawful and necessary to be had in the Church evidently contrary to 1 Cor. 12. 18 28. Rom. 12. 7. Eph. 4. 11. The Officers instituted by Christ are sufficient for the edification and perfecting of the Saints till they all come unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ ver 12 13. in what sense the fore-mentioned being not one of them of the institution of Christ may be owned as lawful or necessary without an high contempt of the Wisdom and Soveraignty of Christ cannot by such dull persons as my self be conjectured That any others see them any way useful to the Church of Christ may be imputed to such a sharp-sightedness as was that of Caius Caligula to whom when he enquired of Vitellius whether he saw him not imbracing the Moon 't was answered Solis Domine vobis Diis licet se invicem videre 5. That the Office of Deacons in the Church is to be imployed in publick Praying Administration of Baptism and Preaching if licensed by the Bishop thereunto Contrary to Act. 6. 2. Eph. 4. 11. 6. That the Ordinance of Breaking-Bread or the Sacrament of the Lords Supper may be administred to one alone as to a sick-man ready to dye which is diametrically opposit to the nature and institution of that Ordinance 1 Cor. 10. 16. 11. 33. Mat. 26. 26. Act. 2. 42. 20. 7. 7. That a prescript form of words in Prayer a ceremonious pompous Worship devised by Man and abused to Idolatry is according to the will of God and may lawfully be used under the New-Testament-dispensation contrary to Mat. 15. 9. 28. 20. John 4. 23. Deut. 12. 32. Jer. 51. 26. Rom. 8. 26. 1 Cor. 14. 15. 8. That wicked and ungodly persons and their Seed are lawfull Members of the Church and if they consent not willingly to be so they may be compell'd thereunto contrary to
thought had not bin own'd by any Idolater in the world viz. That Images are to be worshipped not as the representatives of the Deity c. and per accidens but properly and per se so as that they terminate the Worship Inter delicias uberis lateris Et dico si forte oculos super ubera tendo Diva parens mammae gaudia posco tuae Sed dico si deinde oculos in vulnera verto O Jesu lateris gaudia malo tui Rem scio prensabo si fas erit ubera dextrâ Laevâ prensabo vulnera si dabitur Lac matris miscere volo cum sanguine nati Non possum antidâ—to nobiliore frui Vulnera restituant turpem ulceribus mendicum Testa cui saniem radere sola potest Ubera reficient Ismaelem sitientem Quem Sara non patitur quem neque nutrit Agar Ista mihi ad pestem procul procul expungendam Ista mihi ad longas evalitura febres Ira vomit flammas sumatque libidinis Aetna Suffocare queo sanguine lacte queo Livor inexpleta rubigine saevit in artus Detergere queo lacte cruore queo Vanus honos me perpetua prurigine tentat Exsaturare queo sanguine lacte queo Ergo parens nate meis advertite votis Lac peto depereo sanguinem utrumque volo O sitio tamen O vocem sitis intercludit Natae cruore sitim comprime lacte parens Dic matri meus hic sitit optima mater Vis e fonte tuo promere deque meo Dic nato tuus his frater mi mellee fili Captivus monstrat vincula lytron habes Ergo Redemptorem monstra te jure vocari Ubera si reliquis divitiora geris O quando lactabor ab ubere vulnere pascar Deliciisque fruar mamma latusque tuis To which might be added as second hereunto the blasphemous poetry of Franciscus de Mendoza in viridario utriusque eruditionis lib. 2. Prob. 2. The usual ascription of Laus Deo Virginique matri Mariae in the close of their writings in which Divine honour with God is ascribed to the Virgin Mary is known to all Any ordinary Reader knows where to furnish himself with many more instances of the like nature equalizing if not exceeding in expression the greatest Idolaters that ever were in the world We judge it not necessary to stand longer upon this matter 't is beyond exception evident that that Assembly of men that are usually known by the name of the Church of Rome are Idolaters If there be any such in the world they are so 2. That the present Ministers of England act by vertue of an Office-Power from this Combination and Assembly of Idolaters they themselves will not deny Succession from hence being one of the best pleas they have for the justification of their Ministry which when they have proved that ever the Lord Jesus did entrust an Assembly of the greatest Murderers Adulterers and Idolaters in the world with any power for the sending forth Officers to act in the Holy Things of God to and for the Church his Spouse will be admitted but this they shall never be able to do So hugely importunate are some of them herein that they are not ashamed to ask us why Ordination may not be received from the Church so called of Rome as well as the Scripture To which we shall onely say that when it is proved that we received the Scripture from that Apostate Church by vertue of any Authority thereof as such somewhat of moment may be admitted in that enquiry but this will never be done 'T is true the Bible was kept among the People in those parts where the Pope prevaileth yet followeth it not from hence that we received it from their Authority as Ordination is received if we did why did we not keep it as delivered from them to us in the vulgar Latine so that of these things there is not the same reason It will not then be denied but the present Ministers of England act in the holy things of God by vertue of an Office-Power received by Succession from the Church of Rome and so from Idolaters that Church being eminently so as hath been proved 3. Nor can it be denied but they offer up to God a Worship meerly of Humane Composition as the Common-Prayer-Book-Worship hath been proved to be once abused to Idolatry with the Modes and Rites of Idolaters That the Common-Prayer-Book-Worship is a VVorship that was once abused to Idolatry being the VVorship of that Church whose VVorship at least in the complex thereof is so cannot with the least pretence of Reason be denied That the whole of it is derived from and taken out of the Pope's Portuis as are the Common-Prayers out of the Breviary the Administration of the Sacraments Burial Matrimony Visitation of the Sick out of the Ritual or Book of Rites The Consecration of the Lord's Supper Collects Epistles Gospels out of the Mass-Book The Ordination of Arch-Bishops Bishops and Priests out of the Romane Pontifical hath been asserted and proved by many Which might be evidenced if needful beyond exception not onely by comparing the one with the other but also from the offer was made by Pope Pius the 4th and Gregory the 13th to Q. Elizabeth to confirm the English Lyturgy which did it not symbolize with the Service of the Church of Rome they would not have done Yea when the said Queen was interdicted by the Popes Bull Secretary Walsingham procures two intelligencers from the Pope who seeing the Service of London and Canterbury in the Pomp thereof wonder that their Lord the Pope should be so unadvised as to inderdict a Prince whose Servive and Ceremonies did so symbolize with his own When they come to Rome they satisfie the Pope That they saw no Service Ceremonies or Orders in England but might very well serve in Rome upon which the Bull was recalled Not to mention what we have already minded viz. the Testimony of King Edward the 6th and his Council witnessing the English Service to be the same and no other but the old the self-same words in English that were in Latine which was the worship of England and Rome in Queen Maries dayes it 's evident that the present Ministers of England offer up a Worship to God once abused to Idolatry That they do this with the Rites Ceremonies and Modes * Maccovius loc com append de adiaph p. 860. saith Non licet mutuari aut retinere res aut ritas Sacros Idololatrarum sive Ethnicorum sive Pontificiorum c. etsi in se res fuerint adia Phorae quia vitandam esse omnem conformitatem cum Idololatris docemur Lev. 19. 4 27. and 21. 5. Deut. 14. 1. of Idolaters viz. such as are in use in that Idolatrous Church of Rome needs not many words to demonstrate what else is the Priests change of Voice Posture and Place in Worship enjoyned them not to mention their Holy Vestmentes Bowings