spirituall man can nothing more avail him in that point than if he were not so And for this last cause it nothing also avails though the Clergie themselves actually vote amongst seculars for where the carriage of matters cannot certainly follow the votes of the Clergie but be subject to the votes of the Seculars their votes so given cannot have the authority of Ecclesiastique votes but of Lay. And both for the peace of private consciences and also for the peace of the Church it would advisedly be examined whether the votes of Clergy-men chosen by the Seculars say by the Body representative of a whole State be of more authority for deciding matters of Religion in question than the votes of the Seculars themselves that chose them be for when by the expresse Word of God The spirits of the Prophets are to be subject to the Prophets the Prophets must either all of them together hear and determine or all of them freely make choice of such of their Brethren as shall do it for them lest if the secular power assume the choice of the men they by assuming the choice of those that shall give the Clergies vote assume the giving of their vote and upon the matter reject the vote and judgement of the Clergie for the few men that so be chosen have no authority of themselves to judge by themselves but have the authority of those onely that made the fiduciary commitment of power to them and if they that committed the authority be Seculars then is the judgement and executing of the spirit of Seculars only And it would further be taker into consideration Whether as the Bishop of Romes usurpation of the authority of the universall Church manifested him to be the great spirit of Antichrist so in every particular Church any usurping or undue assuming of the authority thereof will not amount to an inferiour exercise of the same spirit Now whereas it is conceived that Forms of Government Ecclesiastique are not tyed to the Judgement of the Clergie but are arbitrary as the State shall judge expedient it is not denyed but that Church-Government may be accommodate to the occasions of the State but then those cautions are to be observed 1 That as the State is Judge what form of Church-Government will be most commodious for the well-fare thereof so the Clergie be Judges whether the form desired be safe for the Church and agreeable to the Word of God otherwise the one may be oppressed while the other is accommodate Therfore we see that upon every change and remove of the Camp not onely the taking down and folding up of the Tabernacle and all things belonging to it was committed to the Priests but even the utmost act of carrying of it when all was disposed and ordered by the Priests was given in charge to those onely that were Levites And whereunto are helps in Government reckoned among Apostles Prophets Teachers and other Members which Christ hath set in his Church if the Government of the Church be to be managed by those that are not to be numbred among them And if among Pastors which God hath set in his Church he hath ordained some to be helps in Government how dangerous a matter will it be for those that are not of their calling to iustifie them out of their authority and in that point usurp their Function Moses hath long since put terrour in the case when with a Propheticall spirit praying for Levi he saith Smite thorow the loyns of them that rise up against him And the Prophet likewise where speaking of the Church he saith No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that crieth against thee in Judgement thou shalt condemn And our Saviour himself where he saith to his Apostles What ye binde on earth shall be bound in Heaven Another Caution to be observed is That in accommodating church-Church-Government to the frame and occasion of the State nothing be disestablished or unsetled that seems to have been setled by any authority of the Scripture Therefore whereas we see there the Government of the Church first setled in the hands of Bishops that is of Pastors that had authority over Pastors To rebuke with all authority Not to suffer themselves to be despised a To ordain Elders b To receive accusation against them c To charge some to preach no other Doctrine d To step the mouthes of unruly deceivers e To set in order things that are wanting c. And we finde not any other form of Church-Government neither in the Scripture nor in the practice of the Universall Church as well where the Pope never ruled as where he did that therefore men make not such an accommodaâ—ing as by an entire rejecting of the Ordinance set on foot by the Apostles themselves so appearing in the Scripture and Universally so followed by the Church they reiect both the Judgement of the Universall Church and also of the Spirit of God revealed in the Scripture For as in the change of the Sabbath from the Saturday to the Lords Day the Church hath clearly shown that she had power to make such a change but that change being once made for important causes the like whereof hereafter can never happen that power of hers once lawfully used can never lawfully come to be used again because there can no more such ground and cause to do it come again to passe So it is likewise in point of Episcopall Government though the whole form and frame of it is not so expressely prescribed but that the Church may in many things have power of making therein accommodations to the times and exigence of State yet may not those acts of accommodation amount to such a height as to subvert or abolish the Government which by the iudgement of her Members than infallible was set on foot because no judgement of her present Members now can come in any competition with her first And if any State shall so accommodate it self the accommodators may perhaps be found fighters against the Spirit of God manifested both in the Scripture and in the Judgement and practice of the Universall Church of God One further particular depending upon these points and necessary for every one to have his conscience clear and well assured is the lawfulnesse of the Liturgie of our Church concerning which these considerations present themselves The Church being freed from the tyranny of the Heathen persecutors and setled in peace it was necessary that God that had done so great things for her should be honored not onely by the private devotion of her single Members but also with the publike service of her greatest Congregation And seeing that in the Church Jerusalem ever since Christianity becoming inhabited without walls occasions the making of as many places of Worship as there are places of severall cohabitation it was necessary both for observing decency and order for avoiding confusion and for
Church of God confusion When now there is so great offence taken at divers Ordinances of our Church what is there in any of them so erroneous or corrupt as to discharge ones conscience from the terror of these Precepts and from the obedience that they command Is there any thing in the Ordinances of our Church against the expresse command of God If there be Why do not the offended shew it that they may justifie themselves vindicate Gods Truth and stop the mouthes of all gain-sayers But when instead of things expresly crossing Gods Commadments they finde no exceptions but what at the most are disputable grounded upon inferences and collections and those not generally received nor yet all approved by the judgement of any particular Church but late imaginations of men of a few and them private men whether it be meet in the sight of God upon such grounds to follow men or indeed ones own self rather than God every one may judge And were that granted which indeed cannot be proved nor may be granted that the Ordinances of our Church are superstitious How yet will that warrant the disobeying of them to a conscience that is guided onely by the Word of God For where is superstition by the Word of God forbidden Or where is it there described Though then we grant superstition to be the foulest corruption a Christian Church can be depraved with and neerest approaching to Idolatry yet being a corruption discovered by the judgement of the Church rather than any expresse Word of God With what warrant can any mans conscience against Gods expresse command disobey the Ordinance for fear of superstition when concerning it he hath received no command from God especially when disobedience being like the sinnes of Witchcraft and Idolatry he commits a sin that is equall to them and onely to avoid superstition which is lesse than either Nay that is not all but while he disturbs his duty with false apprehenhensions of superstition he with his disobedience commits the superstition which he fears for when superstition properly is an over-strict religious insisting upon the doing or not doing of that which in it self is but indifferent his own scrupulousnesse not to kneel not to bow not to stand up not to be uncovered not to answer c. according to the use of the Church is not onely disobedience but very superstition it self placing Religion in that wherein there is no Religion to be placed and teaching the conscience more to fear pollution from without by things externally enioyned than to fear it within from the haughtinesse stubbornnesse or self-conceitednesse of the heart than which nothing doth sooner defile the actions of a man and make his Religion vain But will he say His conscience cannot be satisfied but that the Ordinance of the Church in some things is superstitious so as he may not submit unto it We must answer Let him use the liberty of his consciâ—nce but let him withall take heed he use it not for a cloke of maliciousnesse for if through weaknesse of conscience he takes offence at the Ordinance of the Church as superstitious which otherwise he knows himself tyed to reverence and observe let him in true humiliation of his soul behave himself like one afflicted that laments the breach between the Church and him let him labor for satisfaction by the help of those whose integrity in that behalf shall not by any aversenesse to the Ordinance be suspected let him forbear rayling language on Governours and contemptuous behaviour towards the Ordinance that so though he cannot be conformable he may not yet become refractory but may be piously embraced of the Church till in the spirit of meeknesse he be at last restored to his strength But if he will not do thus but will contend hold his own opinion sufficient to oppose against the Judgement of the Church adde contempt to his non-conformity seek to possâ—sse others with his opinions glory in their association and towards the Governors of the Church be as one of those that controll the Priest yea that controll the whole Priest-hood that man in pretending conscience lyeth unto the holy Ghost he is not prest with conscience but a lift up heart self conceited and affecting singularity hath seduced him and makes him maintain an affected scruple of his own before the iudgement yea and the peace of the whole Church From these generalls we come somewhat more particularly to consider that which some affirm that for remedy of the corruptions of the Church any Assembly representative of the whole Body of any State seeing it implicitely comprehends all Orders Degrees and Conditions that are parts of the State have full power and authority of doing whatsoever any order or part of the State may do and that therefore they as well as the Clergie may in that State determine what form of Ecclesiasticall Government what discipline what Ceremonies are most fit for the Church and most agreeable to the Word of God Who knows not but that by the same reason they may as well determine what Doctrines are most agreeable to the Word of God but we shun captiousnesse and seek our own and every ones clear satisfaction It is true a Body representative of the whole State hath the power of the whole State to do whatsoever the whole Body of the State if it could be all assembled could do but the whole State if it were gathered together in one and the whole Clergie in it could not by their promiscuous Vote determine of any thing that God hath subjected to the judgement of the Clergie onely Some argue That the whole State be Christians and every true Christian a spirituall man The Spirituall man judgeth all things And it is true but that judgement is onely as to himself to discern and judge for his own right governance but not to binde others therewith he may exercise such judgement as grace administreth but cannot exercise directive judgement for that is not to be practised but by especiall Commission of Authority It was the ground of Corah's fearfull sinne that because all the Congregation were holy every one of them and the Lord among them that therefore Levites and Lay-men might offer Incense as well as the Priests one without lawfull authority may not more meddle with decreeing the suppression of vice and encouragement of vertue in a way that belongs onely to the Jurisdiction of another then might the sonnes of Sceva use the authority of Christs Name to casting out of devills Therefore particular men must have expresse Warrant before they can decree any thing And were it granted that they if known might in this life exercise directive judgement in Ecclesiastique affairs yet being so small a number in respect of worldlings and it being impossible in this world to distinguish them or to avoyd but that while they vote together with worldlings their votes will be over-ruled by worldlings for these causes the being inwardly a
contrarily Antichristianisme or fighting against God walks in singularities partialities sects separations and the like It is too apparant that the wayes wherein men now pretend that the true exercise of Religion lyeth do very much hold the byasse of Sectarisme who sees it not in our extraordinary running after choice and affected Teachers In which though the shew of godlinesse so awes our judgements that we distrust no errour in it yet does it concern us to take heed of a deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse in it To love desire and seek the lively delivery of Gods Word is good and our duty and so is it also to love and honour the Preacher for the Words sake But there is great danger in the comparing preferring and despising of one in respect of another For while we assume the judgement and choice of our Teachers and hear and follow them according as we like their Doctrine and no otherwise We under the shew of godly longing after Gods Word and honouring the choice Preachers of it discover an hidden exaltation of our selves and of our own mindes and judgements both above the Preachers and the Word they preach On the other side toward the Ordinance of the Church and our proper Ministers we do not only unduely exalt our selves but adde unto it disobedience yea even a faulting of Gods providence we make our own Jordans too shallow brooks to cleanse our Leprosies Our Siloams that are sent too unclean pooles to help our blindnesse Yea and we refuse the waters of Shiloah for no other reason then that they runne softly We choose our selves streams to our liking which like the Rivers of Damascus must be better waters and of more approved depth and current Every one must follow his Paul his Apollo his Cephas his Christ And as our selves encline to these wayes so have we Teachers that cherish that inclination in us and finde it no small advantage to them that by applying themselves to the present affectations of men they can so draw Disciples after them For the effecting of which Though the weak in faith ought not to be received to doubtfull disputations yet they making no difference between strong and weak School and Pulpit Governours and private Men do unto their vulgar Auditories who they know have neither capacity to judge nor authority to reform frequently preach their own apprehensions concerning the Government of the Church and the right exercise of Religion not only in things apparent and agreed on but even in things which they themselves have lately questioned and drawn in doubt whether they be right or no By which means private presumption insolence self-conceipt disdain uncharitablenesse and disobedience sins most incompatible with true Religion are grown so great and generall as that they are become like an Epidemick contagion putting all men in a maze what shall be the end and consequence of them Of which when we cannot have a greater admonition then where the Spirit of God sets forth the last and perilous times of the Church It is not amisse to summe up into one entire view what it is that the Holy Ghost doth there admonish us of Our Saviour himself first warnes the Church to beware of false prophets that come saith he in sheeps cloathing but inwardly are ravening Woolves Whom that we may know he gives a rule Ye shall know them by their fruits and in another place by their works Where we must note the fruits and works are to be taken as they are in themselves and as they are naturally taken notice of in all mens understandings otherwise we make our Saviour teach ignotum per ignotius It is true that in every fruit and work that is good in it self if an evill circumstance or way or end accompany it the fruit that was good in it self may by way or end be made evill as if mercy charity zeal c. be shewed for ostentation or for a cloak of pretence c. But in evill fruits and works it is other wise for no end or circumstance whatsoever can make that work good that is evill in it self as disobedience sedition treason c. For God having no need of a wicked man and forbidding us Thou shalt not do evill that good may come thereon he takes from evill works all the help that their good end or circumstances may do them When therefore we finde a deed that in it self is evill we must not make that good for the good end or good intent of the doer but contrarily we must make him a misdoer notwithstanding the good end and intent of the action Our Saviour further reveals That many shall come in his name and shall deceive many the manner of whose coming he intimates to be by way of secret insinuation here in the Chamber or by way of seperation there in the Wildernesse In the Acts of the Apostles Saint Paul gives warning of the like false Teachers and tells the Pastours of the Church Of your own selves shall men arise preaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them In the second of the Thessalonians he foretells of a falling away and of the revealing of the man of sinne that exalteth himself above all that is called God or worshipped whose coming he shews to be after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse Again in the first of Timothy he foretells a departing of some from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and that speak lies in hypocrisie forbidding marriage and meats In the second of Timothy he declares that in the last dayes perilous times shall come the perilousnesse of which he shews to be in this That men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud truce-breakers false-accusers incontinent fierce despisers of the good traiterous heady high minded c. having a form of godlinesse but denying the power thereof c. Of which sort are they that creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth And lastly That the time would come when they would not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts heap to themselves Teachers Saint Peter forewarneth also of false Teachers shewing that they should privily bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and an especiall description of whom he maketh in this that they despise Government are presumptuous self willed and not afraid to speak evil of dignities Saint John tells us That as we have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists And them he deciphers by their inconformity and disobedience They went out from us saith he but are not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us Lastly Saint Iude in his generall Epistle warneth the universall Church of men of like singularities noted by this that they
from the concurrent Judgement of all the Prophets of that Church to which they ought to submit their judgements so ought the concurrent Judgement of all the Prophets of every particular Church to be received of that Church untill it appear that it is contrary to the Judgement of the Church Universall But then as the Universall Church must be heard before the particular so must the Universality of the particular before any particulars of that particular Church for God saith Saint Paul is not the author of confusion And therefore he not onely obiects against the refractory particulars of Corinth We that is the Church of Corinth have no such Custome But lest they should alleadge errour also in that particular Church he justifies their practise by the practice of the Universall Neither saith he have the Churches of God By which it appears private men are tyed to submit to the judgement of their particular Church and that unto the judgement of the Universall But if any ask what is the Catholique Church when and how is her judgement to be had The Catholique Church properly so called is the whole number of Christians in all places Universally professing Christ And this since the Apostles times never was nor can be assembled into one to give sentence upon any thing But as in the Politique Body of Civill States the reall assembling of all the Members personally being unnecessary inconvenient and almost impossible some persons representative of the whole being by intimation of the superiours from all parts delegate to give the common suffrage of the whole do by the Laws of God and man give the binding sentence of the whole Body Universall So in the mysticall Body of the Church the Ecclesiasticks which are the onely authorized Members for discerning and judging matters that depend upon the Word of God because that to them and to them alone were the promises of the holy Ghosts assistance made they I say either all assembling themselves together or at least in their severall Diocesses chosing and delegating from among themselves trusty men to do the office of the Clergy in that point do truely and properly give the entire Vote of the whole Catholique Church And in this way we have many sentences and Decrees thereof remaining to us which being from age to age successively received do stand in force and speak unto this very present against which whosoever shall in practice or doctrine attempt any thing to the prejudice of what is so established shall apparantly declare himself an insolent and schismaticall exalter of himself and of his own private judgement against the judgement of the whole Catholique Church and in the same way that the Church Catholique speaketh in the same also if need be speaketh every particular Church This being the extraordinary way wherein the Church speaketh not but upon extraordinary occasions she hath also for ordinary occasions a continuall constant voyce in an ordinary way The Church considered in it self is not nor cannot be lesse than the whole Body of it but considered in the actions of it any part by which it duely worketh as to that work onely which it so intendeth is truely and properly enough called the Church If we speak of a man as of his being as that he lives is in health young lusty c. we mean by the man no lesse than the whole man with all his members but if we speak of the particular actions of the man as that he did hear see speak take c. we do not then intend that every distinct member of his body did actually hear see speak take c. but that the man performed those actions by the proper members respectively ordained for the doing of them and that neverthelesse the office of each member so ministring was the proper act of the whole man so that though the eyes of the man onely saw his ears heard his tongue spake and his hands handled yet is the whole man said truely to hear see speak and handle As then in the body naturall so in the Body mysticall the Church though the Church in her being comprehend all members as well Lay as Clergie yet in her work and actions she worketh not promiscuously by all but by her proper and ordained members for if every one were an eye to see a head to judge or a mouth to give sentence then were they all but one equipotent member and where then were the body saith S. Paul therefore though in the question of circumcising the believing Gentiles the letters of Ordinance went in the name of the Apostles Elders and Brethren yet plainly the Brethren had no vote in the decision of the question but as the Apostles and Elders are onely said to have come together to consider of the matter so the debate and decision there is onely theirs and the Decrees thereupon are in the 16 Chapter called onely the Decrees that were ordained of the Apostles and Elders and if we will have the Brethren to have been named in the Apostles Letters to shew that Lay-men have authority to vote in matters of Religion then must we also confesse that Lay-men aswell as the Man of God have authority to judge in matters of Doctrine also for they that writ the Letters say of the point of Doctrine We gave no such Commandment Therefore plainly the judgement of the Apostles and Elders was in that matter the judgement of the Brethren and of the whole Church there by their unanimous submission and agreement unto them And when all is done the voting of Apostles Elders and Brethren together is a thing farre differing from the voting of Lay-men onely and from Lay-mens choosing of the votes In the same manner the voyce of the ordayned Governours and Ministers in every particular Church in those things that are committed to their Care and Charge is the voice of the Church it self and the voyce of that particular Church not being repugnant to faith nor the declared judgement of the Catholique Church is as to the Members of that Church the voice of the whole Church Catholique so that he that refuseth to hear the voice of the Governours of his particular Church refuseth to hear his particular Church and not that Church onely but the whole Church Catholique Again as in the body the most usefull members thereof the eyes the ears the tongue the hands the feet would not onely be uselesse but make a confused deformity if they were every one annexed immediately to the grosse of the body and not joyned by the mediation of some noble limb the eyes the ears and tongue by the head the hands by the arms and the feet by the legs so would it be in the Church Catholique if every particular Member should hold it self immediately to depend on it and not on the noble and mediating limb of his particular Church that so by a usefull and decent subordination of the Members under the head The