I am most confident will by and by evidently appeare though all the former Arguments to the contrary should not so much as be thought of and withall it will also be obvious to any judicious man that in all respects their Argument makes much against themselves For if I should grant unto them That at this instant of time that that place speakes of the whole Church in Jerusalem or the number then of Beleevers were no more but that one place might have contained them all for the enjoying of all Ordinances which I cannot doe for innumerable reasons and some of them above specified yet it doth not follow nor evince that after there were daily such additions of Believers and such multitudes of new Converts added unto the Church that then also one place or roome could containe them all and that they might still meet in one Congregation and all together partake in all acts of worship For there is a vast difference betweene one hundred and twenty names for there was no more in this assembly and in many ten thousands which all the World knowes could not bee contained in any one place of Jerusalem to communicate in all the Ordinances though that place had equalized the most magnificent Structure that ever the World yet saw especially they could not have all met there to edification for they could not have all heard and understood and wee know that in the Church all must be done to edification and this would rather have hindred the mutuall edification of the assembly and have brought a confusion rather then any profit or benefit unto them But the truth is the number of names here spoken of if wee will goe to the genuine interpretation of the place not to speake of the universall consent of all the learned Interpreters who gather that in this assembly the seventy Disciples the Lord Jesus sent out to preach through all Judes and all those other Ministers of the Gospel that had beene Christs and Saint Iohn the Baptists Disciples every one of the which was thought fit for learning and divine knowledge to succeed Iudas in his Apostleship and to be a Disciple all these or most of them or such like were those that are included in the number of names I say to omit this Interpretation of all the most Orthodoxe Divines and their universall agreement and harmony in their learned Commentaries about this portion of Scripture the very words themselves following shew they were select and eminent men and men of note and Disciples of longest standing and all of them or the most of them Ministers and Preachers themselves and were indeed the Presbyters of the Church to whom with the Apostles the power of ruling was committed and who within themselves and without the consent of the common multitude of Beleivers had power to oâ—daine their own Officers and that by their own authority as we may see Vers 21. 22. Wherefore saith S. Peter of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Iesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptisme of Iohn unto that same day he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witnesse with us of the resurrection And they appointed two c. and they prayed c. and they gave forth the Lots c. all businesses here were managed and carryed in an Aristocraticall and Presbyterian way and all was done by a joynt consent and the common councell of them all Here wee finde none of the multitude of the people though Beleevers here were no Women that gave forth their lots Neither doth the Apostle Peter say Men Mothers and Brethren or Men Women and Brethren or Men Brethren and Sisters but Men and Brethren For howsoever in the foregoing Verses it is said that these meaning the Apostles and Elders all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus and with his Brethren by which they fitted themselves for the Ministery after they should receive the Holy Ghost though I say they joyned with them in those duties of humiliation and prayer which any women may do in the society and company of godly Ministers yet when they went about other acts of Church government as choosing of an Apostle then the Apostles and Elders onely by themselves to whom the power of the Keyes was given ordered that businesse and left the Women to their private devotions and their severall imployments for in this action of giving forth their lots there is no mention of the Women And it is manifest from the Text it selfe that this choosing of Matthias was at another time and without all doubt upon a set day for this purpose for it is said Verse 15. And in those dayes Peter stood up in the middest of the Disciples and said Men and Brethren Here was onely Disciples Men and Brethren and no Sisters Till Pope Joans time and our dayes Peters Keyes never hung at any womans Girdle and we heare not in Scripture that they had any voyce in choosing of Church officers and admi ting of members into the Church or casting out of any till these unhappy times an usurpation not beseeming that Sex as afterwards in its due place I hope to make appear But this by the way Now to the matter in hand I say it is apparent to any that will not shut their eyes that all those or most of them that were in Peters company and at that time met together were capable of an Apostleship and such as were the most eminent of all Christs followers and such as were best instructed in Christian Religion as having been bred up in the doctrine of Saint Iohn the Baptist and under the Ministry of Christ himselfe the Prophet of his Church and therefore they were the Teachers of the Church and people who were their flock which they all fed in common And from thence it argueth That the multitude of Beleevers in Ierusalem was not onely a distinct company from them but that it was exceeding great and numerous that had so many Pastors and Teachers over them For if they had been but so small a company as is here mentioned and that the whole Church had consisted but of sixscore names then the Pastors exceed the number of the flocke which is not onely absurd to thinke but against the evident truth of the holy Scriptures which relate unto us multitudes upon multitudes that were dayly converted by the ministery of John the Baptist and of Christ and his Apostles and added unto the Church before this their meeting So that by this I have now said it is most clear and evident that all or most of these were the most eminent Ministers of the Gospell and the Presbytery of the Church But in this that our Brethren do acknowledge That this assembly here spake of were the church it makes as much against them and greatly for us for it is manifest from the Text
like manner if they will still persist go on in these wicked and ungodly courses to seduce his people and pretend that they have authority from him for their preaching and practising of all these things notwithstanding they have neither precept nor example for them in all the holy Word of God that he may in justice let the devil loose upon them for the beating of them all out of their TUBS Certain I am they by all these their dealings highly provoke the Lord to jealousie and that daily so that if the Christian Magistrates do not take some speedy course for the vindicating of Gods Honor I do verily beleeve the Lord will from Heaven shew some fearful judgement upon this whole Kingdom and visit it with so many plagues and such sore calamities as all the Inhabitants thereof will desire wish that the Mountains may fall upon them and the Hills cover them from the presence of the Lamb and from him that sitteth upon the Throne the which that they may not happen upon this Nation shal be my daily constant prayer And this shal serve to have spake concerning the Church of Ierusalem the first formed Church and concerning the ordinary admission of members in it I will now come to the Church of Samaria and that of Corinth and Ephesus all formed Churches according to the Gospel-Form and briefly shew how members were admitted into them all and by whom and upon what conditions that all men may see there is no want of presidents to convince the Ildependents of their Grolleries In the eighth of the Acts it is related there that through the miracles of Philip and through his preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Iesus Christ they were baptized both men and women from the greatest to the least Verse 10 12. And were all admitted unto Church-fellowship and that by Philips sole authority and this his method of gathering of Churches was ratified by the authority of the Apostles Peter and Iohn and the whole Colledge of the Apostles at Ierusalem And this was a true formed Church after the New Testament Form For in this Christ himself had planted a Church and converted many as it is at large set down in the fourth Chapter of the Gospel of Saint Iohn and here it is said That the people with one accord gave heed unto those things that Philip spake and that there was great joy in that City Verse 6 8. And that they were all baptized both men and women Here we have neither any walking required at their hands for he better assurance either of Philip or the Church of the soundnesse of their conversion Here is no publike confession of their faith required before their admittance into Church-fellowship Here is no evidences of their conversion called for Here is no particular explicite covenant demanded of them Here is no consent of the people desired before their admission into Church communion and yet this was a Church established according to the Gospel-form So that according to the practice of the two Mother churches in Iudea and Israel all beleevers were admitted members and received into Church-fellowship without the conditions those of the Congregational way now require of all those of their new gathered Churches Whether therefore it be not a high presumption and arrogancy in all the Independents to slight the Laws of Christ the King of his Church and the example of Christ himself and the example of all the blessed Apostles I leave it to the judgement of all prudent and advised Christians I will now to satisfie my Brother Burtons desire visit some Churches of the Gentiles formed according to the New Testament Form and I will first in this visitation begin with that Church which he himself hath set before all Churches for a patern of imitation viz. the Church of Corinth In the eighteenth of the Acts it is recorded that when Silas and Timothy were come unto Paul to Corinth the Jewes refusing to receive the Gospel of Iesus Christ that hee shooke his rayment against them and said unto them your blood be upon your own heads I am cleare from hence-forth I will goe unto the Gentiles and departing thence hee entred into ones house named Iustus one that worshipped God and preaching the Gospel there it is said that Crispus a chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved on the Lord with all his house and many of the Corinthians hearing beleeved and were baptized Here wee see in a Church put into a Gospel forme the Members of that church were admitted by the sole authority of Saint Paul and that barely upon their hearing and beleeving for the Apostle required no other conditions of them for their admission into church Fellowship hee said not unto those many that were baptized that before they could be made Members of that church they must walke some time with the church that they might have experience of the truth of their conversion neither did he injoyn them for satisfaction of the people to make a publicke confession of their faith or to bring in the evidences of their conversion or to enter into any particular explicite covenant or to have the consent of the whole church nothing of all this did Paul require of the Corinthians in this church after the Gospel forme but following Christ the Kings commission upon their Faith Repentance and Baptisme hee hy his owne and sole authority admitted them The same way of admitting of Members wee shall find in the Church of Ephesus as it is at large to be seene in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts where the manner of admission of Members there is fully set downe and that was a Church also my Brother Burton sets downe amongst those that must be brought in for the making up of a compleate paterne now in all those Churches they were all admitted upon Christs owne termes and by the Apostles and Ministers sole authority without either walking sometime with the Church or without any publicke confession of their faith to the Congregation or bringing in their evidences or entring into any private explicite Covenant or without the consent of the people How unsufferable a thing therefore is it now then in all those of the congregationall way to demand other conditions of all their Members before they can be admitted into Church-fellowship with them then those that Christ the King of his Church and all his blessed Apostles demanded If this be not the highest point of presumption that was ever heard of I leave it to the consideration of the very ruggedest Independents upon due deliberation desiting they may all seriously lay it to heart and timely repent of it for if they doe not they will indeed be found fighters against God and dis-throners of Christ the King when they shall slight both his Lawes and example and the example of his blessed Apostles and the practise of all those glorious Gospel formed Churches and set up new Lawes and
a pattern of imitation to bind all Churches to the end of the world which both Master Knollys and my brother Burton learnedly inferre but as far as it makes for the advantage of the Presbyterian opinion and to shew that the Presbyters have the sole authority of admitting Members into Church fellowship from the example of Philip Ananias Paul in baptizing the Goaler and Lydia and Peters baptizing of Cornelius and admitting of him and those that were with him Members into Church communion by their sole authority without those conditions they propound and without the consent of the people then they cry out that they are extraordinary examples or meer extravagants Now whether this be not with the Papists to make the Word of God a nose of wax or a leaden rule that they may either work and mould it or bend it into what fashion they please I leave it to the judgement of the learned and experienced Christian But by the way also I desire the Reader to take notice what my brother Burton granteth viz. that the receiving of those Gentiles and the admitting of them by Peter into the Church by Baptism was to make them one Church with the beleeving Jews these are his own words From which it is sufficiently apparent that be men baptized and admitted into the Church either after an ordinary way or after an extraordinary it is sufficient to incorporate them into Church-fellowship both with the beleeving Jew and Gentile and to make them Members of Christs Church which is as much as I contend for So that it is most certain as those that are Members of any particular Church are by vertue of that Members also of the whole Catholique visible Church so in like manner those that are made Members of the Catholique visible Church may also by vertue of that be Members of any particular church for the Church of Christ is his Kingdome and it is but one Flock and one Sheepfold and there is but one Shepherd of it and King that governs it and therefore in whatsoever part of this Kingdome of Jesus Christ they are admitted Members and after what manner soever they be admitted whether in an ordinary or an extraordinary way they are Members of the whole Church and may communicate in all ordinances with any particular Church whatsoever as being subjects of Christs Kingdome and injoying all the immunities and priviledges that any of Christs subjects can challenge And all this I learn from my brother Burtons doctrine who so long as he holdeth out any truth unto me I will listen unto as he hath done in this point but no farther Again as all those viz. the Eunuch Paul Cornelius Lydia and the Goaler were admitted to be Members of Christs Church by the sole authority of the Ministers Evangelists and Apostles and without any of those conditions urged by the brethren so are all other Christians by the sole authority of the Presbyters to be admitted into church-fellowship and that upon Christs own conditions viz. Faith Repentance and Baptism Having upon the occasion of my brother Burtons and Hanserdoes words spake thus much I will now come to my Answer to them both And first whereas they peremptorily affirme from the interrogation of Peter to those that came along with him where he saith Can any man forbid water that these men should not be baptized c. that it doth imply that the brethren have power also of admitting Members into the church and ought to have their voices as in the receiving of them in so in the casting of them out It is a meer non sequitur and a very groundlesse illation and inference for the interrogation plainly manifests the contrary as will appear from other presidents and reason as for example in the eighth of the Romans ver 33. 34. Saint Paul saith Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Who is he that condemneth who shall separate us from the love of Christ All the which interrogations do not imply as the Apostle himselfe answereth that any creature can lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect or that any creature can condemn or that any creature can separate the Elect from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus Another instance to omit many we have of the same nature with that of Peter Acts 8. 35. Where the Eunuch said unto Philip See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized I demand of any whether or no this interrogation of his doth not imply as much as if he had said no creature now can hinder me from Baptism seeing that we have water that element that is appointed for it and I do beleeve And so much may be gathered from Philips Answer to him who saith nothing could hinder his baptism and admission into the Church if he did beleeve in Christ with all his heart whereupon the Eunuch answered I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he was forthwith baptized So that by this it is sufficiently manifest that that inference they would gather from Peters words cannot groundedly be made viz. that it is in the power of the people to hinder any as is yet more evident from Peters own words and reasons when he was questioned about this businesse in the 11. of the Acts the story whereof is there set down at large with Peters Answer to all their Objections Who told them ver 12. that the spirit bad him go with those that came from Cornelius nothing doubting c. saying in the conclusion of his discourse and that with an irresistible reason ver 17. For as much then as God gave them the like gifts as he did unto us who beleeved in the Lord Jesus Christ what was I that I could withstand God All the which discourse of Peter and this his reason do sufficiently prove that his interrogation saying Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptiâ—ed Doth not imply as my Brother Burton and Master Knollys would have it that it was in the power of those that were with Peter or any other to have hindred their baptism and admission into the church of Christ seeing they beleeved For if Peter himselfe should have refused it he had been disobedient to God himselfe and had doubted which he was forbidden and withall had resisted in as much as had been in him the spirit of God For so saith Saint Peter What was I that I could withstand God From which I gather and that by very good reason that all those of the congregationall way that will not admit all such as beleeve and are baptized into their new gathered churches without they walk some time with them and without the making of a publike confession of their faith and the bringing in of their evidences of their conversion and entring into a particular explicite covenant and without the consent of the whole church are all fighters against God and withstanders of his spirit And if they do
Epistle to the Hebrews ch 13. 7. Remember saith he them that have the rule over you who have spake unto you the Word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation And vers 17. Obey saith he them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your soules as they that must give an account c. And in vers 24. Salute all them saith he that have the rule over you and all the Saints Here againe he injoynes all the Churches to yeild obedience and to submit themselves unto the government of the Presbyterie shewing them that it is their place to obey and for their Ministers to rule and that so long as they command in the Lord they out of conscience ought to obey them and that for a double reason For they watch saith he for your souls and they must also give an account of their stewardship And in 1 Peter 5 1 2 3. The Presbyters that are among you saith Saint Peter I exhort who am also a Presbyter and a witnesse of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed feed the flock of God which is among you taking the over sight thereof not by constraint but willingly c. neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being examples to the flock And Saint James chap. 5. ver 14. Is any among you sick saith he let him call for the Presbyters of the Church He doth not say of the Churches but of the Church So that the Presbyterian government was in every Church and every Church was to submit it self unto the Presbytery And in Acts 15. it is said that Paul and Barnabas went up to the Apostles and Presbyters c. And when they came to Ierusalem they were received of the Church it is not said of the Churches but of the Church and of the Apostles and Presbyters c. and Verse 6. And the Apostles and Presbyters came together to consider of the matter c. and Vers 22. Then pleased it the Apostles and Presbyters with the whole Church c. and wrote Letters by them after this manner The Apostles and Presbyters and Brethren And Acts 21. 17. And when we were come to Ierusalem saith Saint Luke the Brethren received us gladly And the day following Paul went in with us in to Iames and all the Presbyters were present From all which places and many more which might be produced it is most clear and evident that in all Cities there was a Presbytery and that the Presbyters had the power of order namely of preaching and the power of jurisdiction that is of ruling which was ever to be exercised with others and not alone and that consisted in admitting of members and in conventing men before them upon occasion in admonishing if any offended in suspending them from the holy Communion till reformation or amendment and if they continued obstinate and incorrigble in excommunicating and casting of them out of the Church and upon repentance in receiving of them in again and in ordaining of Officers and in appointing the times of meeting and the places where And within these limits as I conceive is all the power given to the Presbyters terminated and this they are by Gods Ordinance joyntly and by the common-counsell of Presbyters to exercise and it peculiarly belongeth unto them and therefore the Presbyterian government was the order of ruling and governing all Churches that God himself established and is to be continued unto the end of the world neither do I ever read that the people or the congregations were joyned with them in their commission or had any power given them of ruling For Saint Paul professeth of himself in 1 Cor. 14. 37. that whatsoever he writ in his Epistles Were the Commands of the Lord. And the same may be said of all the other Apostles Now Paul writ to Titus that the Churches in all Cities should be governed by a Presbytery And in the first Epistle to Timothy he commands Timothy again and again in chap. 5. vers 21. and in chap. 6. v. 12 13. I give thee charge in the sight of God saith he That thou keep this Command without spot unblameable till the appearing of our Lord Iesus Christ Here Timothy and all Ministers in him are to the end of the world bound to maintain that government unblameable that was appointed by the Apostles and that was the Presbyterian government and the ruling of all Churches by joynt consent and a common counsell or Colledge of Presbyters so that nothing ought to be done or transacted of publick concernment without their joynt and mutuall accord or agreement and common consent of the Presbytery And therfore when Diotrephes assumed unto himself and his particular congregation a power and authority to rule according to his will and pleasure without the consent of the Presbytory opposed Iohn the Presbyter he sharply reproves his proceedings and signifies to the Church Epist 3. That when he came he would remember his words and teach him how to prate against the Presbytery with malicious words For he saith S. Iohn contenteth not himself only to prate maliciously against us but he will not receive his brethren nor suffer others but casteth them out of the Church which is an evill thing in him saith Saint Iohn But for you saith he speaking to the Church follow not that which is evill but that which is good It was evill in him to assume unto himself alone and his particular Congregation that power that belonged unto the colledge or councell of Presbyters and was to be moderated and exercised onely by the conjoynt and common consent of the Presbytery For God had appointed that his Church should be governed by a Presbytery and Diotrephes would have his Congregation Independent and have an absolute jurisdiction within it self Which saith Saint Iohn is an evill thing So that I cannot but wonder our brethren the Independents should call Diotrephes the Patriarch of the Presbyterians as one of them did to me not long since whereas if the place be duâ—ly weighed and considered it will appear that he was the first that opposed the Presbyterian Govenment and for the which he was by Saint Iohn sharply reproved and in him all that follow his steps and will not submit themselves to the Presbytery which is Gods Ordinance and that will not receive the brethren into the Churches but upon their own termes and conditions But of this businesse when I come to the second Question In the mean time I must here make reply to what Mr Knollys by way of Answer hath to say to this Argument drawn from Diotrephes his practise which was occasioned as I related before by reason of a discourse between me and an Independent who affirmed That Diotriphes was the patriarch of all the Presbyterians which opinion of his Mr Knollys doth seem to favour as by his words may appear but I hope to make the contrary
that I may not passe by lest he should glory I could not answer it I will therefore say something to that and conclude this point and then go on to all his other fond answers to such arguments as he thought himselfe best able to incounter with His words are these in the conclusion of his Babble If saith he nothing of publike concernment ought to be done and transacted without the joynt mutual agreement and common consent of the Presbytery John the Presbyter would not have transgressed so farr as to take upon himselfe this authority over Diotrephes to tell the Church of his faults and to say he would remember him and sharply reprove him and teach him to prate against the Presbytery with malicious words which belonged to the Court and Common-councell of Presbyters Thus Mr Knollys rather chatters than disputes in making such an inference from his own conceit And therefore for Answer let Mr Knollys know that there was no transgression in Saint Iohn against the Presbyters in taking such authority upon himselfe for S. John was an Apostle and an universall Pastor tyed to no one place or flock but had the same power and authority that Paul and all the other Apostles had over all the Churches the care of which lay primarily and principally upon them who were immediately inspired by God and in all their preachings and writings followed the dictates of his holy Spirit who spake in and by them so that whatsoever they taught or writ was to be the rule of all mens thoughts words actions and governments and it was their place to give Laws unto all Churches and Ministers in them what they should do in the ordering and governing of the same and therefore S. John had no lesse authority and power over this Church wherein Diotrephes was an Elder and in and over all other Churches then S. Paul and all the other Apostles had in all Churches Now if S. Paul could give a Law unto the Church of Corinth For the casting out of the Incestuous person and for the carrying of themselves with Order and Decency in their Assemblies and sharply reproove offenders in that Church and if all the other Apostles did the like and took such Authority upon them over all the members of those severall Churches and that without any transgression of any divine institution but with the very good liking and allowance of God himselfe who writ the Commandements of the Lord to all the Churches then I say Saint Iohn transgressed not at all in using his authority and power given him of God over Diotrephes in telling the Church of his faults and saying He would remember him and sharply reprove him for this he might well do by his sole Authority without any offence as he was an Apostle for what he did he did by immediate Revelation and had a warrant for it from Christ himselfe who sent his spirit to lead him into all truth And therefore it is a ridiculous if not an impious thing in Master Knollys to draw such an inference from a phantasie of his own brain in that he makes no difference between Saint Iohn and another ordinary Presbyter and Minister and would make that an offence which was none and infer that Saint Iohn took more upon him than he ought Besides it had been no transgression in any other Presbyter if he had writ so to any Presbytery under which he had been a fellow Presbyter to inform them of any miscarriage in either Pastor or member of that Church wherein he was an Elder and if he had said If I come I will remember his deeds c. For in his so speaking he would assume no more authority to himselfe then became a Presbyter to take upon him as both to witnesse to a truth and to give in evidence of what he knew of such a man to his fellow judges and then to leave it to the judgement of the Presbytery and Common Councell of Elders which Saint Iohn did whose place it was to censure such an offender and in his so doing he should no way impeach the power and authority of the Court or Common councell of Presbyters but rather ratifie and confirme it as all learned men will gather For by such words he declareth that there is a standing Court or Councell there where offenders are both to be questioned and censured for such an expression If I come I will remember his deeds sufficiently declareth that there was power in their hands and manifesteth that he was a judge there among the rest who with others had the hearing of all causes there and that all businesses of publike concernment ought to be done and transacted by the mutuall and joynt accord and agreement of the Presbytery and not to be managed by any one singly by himself or by the people whom God had never given the Keyes unto nor the power of rule and Government This I affirme will necessarily ensue and follow and not that which Mr Knollys vainly intimateth And I am confident that any judicious Christian upon due deliberation will say the same and will conclude That Saint Iohn in his so writing was no offender though all things of publike concernment in the Church were ever to be transacted by the joynt agreement and common consent of the Presbytery So that all men that are judicious may plainly behold the futility in both the answers and cavills of this man and well perceive that he was never cut out for a disputant or ever fitted for Government in church or State who if he might have his own minde would bring in a confusion in both and violate all order divine and humane and make the head the foot and the foot the head And truly if a man would but consider the manner of Government in their seven new Churches or rather seventy for every ten or twelve of them prove a Church he should find in them all so much disorder and discrepancy amongst them and yet every one of them pretending Divine authority for its particular government as he would advisedly conclude That God was never the author of them for God is a God of order and not of confusion for never since the world began was there such practiceâ— in any Christian Churches as are to be found in theirs And to speake the truth they are a meere mockery of all government for every one of those severall Churches be they never so slender and small assumes an absolute soveranity unto themselves Independent from all other Churches and Presbytries from the which there is no appeale be one never so much wronged And they are as so many free States and republicks every one of them ruling within themselves as absolute Magistracies And therefore upon all occasions if any difference arise betweene member and member in those Churches or betweene Church and Church as often they do as other Countries and Common-weales send their Embassadours to each other upon any difference or about states affayres
Lord but that they should also afford them the honour of maintenance and take order there be a sufficient and competent yea an honourable allowance for their support and that as they minister to them spirituall food for their soules they should likewise minister unto them all things necessary for the maintenance of them and their Families that they may comfortably and without solicitous care follow their holy imployments and wait upon their severall Ministeries So that the place and imployment of the Presbyters is to teach and rule the people and this is their proper worke and peculiarly belongs unto them and the imployment and place of the severall congregations under them is to hear and obey and therefore if the severall congregations do assume unto themselves the power of ruling they take more upon them then by God is allowed them and the Presbyters in yeilding unto it reject their own right and devest themselves of that authority that God hath put into their hands and by so doing in time may not onely bring confusion into the Church but to all those Countries where such usurpations are tolerated I cannot but speake my conscience in this point And truly very reason dictates unto a man that they only should have the authority of commanding and ruling over the Churches to whom the power of the Keyes is given Now it is given only to the Ministers and Presbyters as we see it in Iohn 20. 21. and Matth. 18. 15 16 17 18. Where our Saviour Christ established a standing government to be continued to the end of the World the violating and the overthrowing of the which was the cause of all those confusions both in doctrine and manners that is now come upon the world and was the cause not only of the rise but the growth of Antichrist And the reducing of it again into the Church and the re stablishing of it will be the confusion of that Man of Sin and of all the Antichristian-brood and be a meanes of establishing truth and peace through the Christian world But it will not be amisse a little to consider that place in Matth. 18. If thy Brother saith Christ shall trespasse against thee go and tell him of it between thee and him alone if he shall heare thee thou shalt gaine thy brother but if he will not heare thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to heare them then tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to heare the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man and a Publican Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven In these words our Saviour Christ has respect unto the order and custome of judicature in those times in censuring mens manners and doctrines which among the Jewes was ordered and administred by an assembly and counsell of learned experienced and judicious men and by a Presbytery Consistory or Colledge of able men for government chose and selected out of the people for this very purpose by such as could judge and discerne of their abilities the which assembly and company is by Christ himself called a Church because it did represent the Church and in this place Christ did establish the like to be continued in the Christian church to the end of the world making his Apostles this representative body and their successors all the godly and holy Ministers and Presbyters and gives unto them the same power and Authority to judge and determine of all things belonging unto faith and manners that was observed in the Jewish church in all Ecclesiasticall Discipline For otherwise the Christian church should be inferior to that of the Jews if they had not the same Priviledges for the censuring of manners and Doctrines and the same power of jurisdiction and ruling that they had Now all power of jurisdiction among the Jews was exercised not by the promiscuous multitude or by the whole congregation nor by any particular man nor by two or three as the place above specifies but by an Assembly Senate Councell or Presbytery of understanding men assigned to that purpose which our Saviour himself calleth a Church this government established in the Christian church are the severall Presbyteries where all things are transacted by common and joynt consent and this was the practise of the Apostles at Ierusalem who did all businesse of publike concernment by common and joynt consent as is manifest in the first chap. of the Acts in chusing of an Apostle in Iudas his place and in the 5. chap. in censuring Annanias and Saphira and in the 6. chap. in chusing Deacons and in the 15. chapter in determining the question there in hand all in a Presbyterian way and by common consent And this is that government that God hath commanded to be perpetuated to the end of the world in these words Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven So that the Presbyters onely have the power of the keyes it is their place only to ordain Ministers and Church Officers whatsoever Authority the people may exercise in the chusing of them as Paul writes unto Timothy and Titus and they onely are to judge and determine and to censure in matters of manners and doctrine and the people are to allow and approve it according to the Word of God Yea the very Synagogues of the Jews which were the same that our churches are were governed by a Presbytery as our brethren acknowledge called by the name of the Rulers of the Synagogue who governed by joynt and common councell as is evident and manifest in that there were superior and inferior Judges Commanders and Rulers according as their yeares gravity and wisdome made them more emninent then others and venerable to the people as may appeare in many places as Acts 18. ver 8. It is said there That Crispus the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved with all his houshould So that if there were a chiefe Ruler or Iudge or a President there must of necessity be a Councell or Segniory of inferiour ones that had Rule and Authority over others as well as he and where there is a chiefe Justice or Judge there are other Judges joyned with him as all reason perswades and there must needs be a Court of Judicature where all things are transacted by conjoynt and common consent and agreement and so it was in the Synagogues of the Jewes who were subject to and ordered by the determinations and abitrement of their Rulers and Governours So that the severall Churches or Synagogues under the Jews were in subjection to those Rulers and were governed according as by common councell they ordered And Mat. the 5. vers 22. And behold there came one of
widdows were neglected in their dayly ministration Then the twelve called the multitude of the Disciples unto them and said It is not reason that wee should leave the Word of God and serve tables Wherefore brethren looke you out among you seven men of honest report and full of the holy Ghost and wisdome whom we may appoint over this businesse But we will give our selues contiunally to prayer and to the ministery of the Word vers 7. And the Word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient unto the faith In the which words we may take notice briefly of these observables The first of the cunning and policy of the Devill who when he cannot by all his wiles and stratagems assault the Church without then he labours to assaile it within as here with civill discords and differences among brethren and in other Churches in all ages even in and from the Apostles times by dissentions in opinions by Sects Schisms Factions and Heresies and by these his wiles and craft he first bringeth in difference in opinion and afterwards diversity of affection and that among brethren and all this he doth that in fine he may bring ruine upon them all And thus he began with the Church of Ierusalem raising a controversie between the Hebrews and the Greeks who complained That their widdows were neglected in the daily ministration as either that they were not made Deaconesses as the widdows of the Hebrews were or that there was not an equall distribution of the Almes according to the intention of the Church who sold their possessions and goods to that end that they might be parted to all men as every one should have need Acts 2. vers 44 45. chap. 4. v. 35. And this their supposition was the cause of that controversie The second observable is To whom the differing and dissenting parties did apply themselves and appeal and that was to the Presbytery or Colleage of Apostles not to any one of them particularly but to the twelve as in that difference at Antioch Acts 15. Paul and Barnabas and certain other of the Brethren in the Church of Antioch appealed to the Apostles and Presbyters and in both those differences all the Churches submitted themselves to the Apostles Order and that willingly and this example of the Apostles is the Rule for ordering of all controversies that all the reformed Churches set before them deciding all debates in Religion by the Word of God and according to the president they have laid downe unto them by the Apostles and Presbyters in Ierusalem Here I say the whole Presbytery and Colledge of the Apostles determined the businesse neither do we reade that the Assemblies of the Hebrews and Greeks at Ierusalem or the Church of Antioch pretended their own Independent authority though severall Congregations or challenged a power within themselves of choosing their own Officers or determining of differences amongst themselves or pleaded that they had Authority within themselves to make their own Laws by which they would be orderd or that they challenged any such priviledges unto themselves but they all appealed unto the Presbytery at Ierusalem as the supreamest Ecclesiasticall Court and freely submitted themselves to their arbitrement and to the Order they set down as the story specifieth The third observable is the imployment in which the Apostles were all taken up and the effect of it and their imployment is said to be continuing in prayer and the Ministery and preaching of the Word and the effect of this their Ministery was That the Word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith By all which it is most apparent that such multitudes being dayly added to the Church and where there was such variety of teachers and so many Apostles and all of them taken up in preaching and where there was so many different Nations and such diversities of tongues and languages as was in the Church of Ierusalem they could not all meet together at any one time or in any one place to edification and that they might all communicate in all the Ordinances but of necessity they must be distributed into severall Congregations and Assemblies if they would avoyde confusion and all that I now speak is evident by the very light of Nature and all reason and therefore it followeth That there were many Assemblyes and Congregations in Jerusalem and yet all made but one Church and that that Church was Presbyterianly governed But that I may make this truth more evidently yet appear I will first out the former discourse frame severall Arguments and then go on to the ensuing history And out of all these six chapters I thus argue Where there were eight thousand new converts besides women and children by vertue of some few miracles and Sermons after Christs Resurrection added to the Church of Ierusalem and the society of beleevers besides those that were convertedby John the Baptist and Christ and his Apostles Ministery before his suffering and to the which also there were afterwards great multitudes of Beleevers both of men and women and a great company of the Priests joyned in so much that they kept the very Officers and Souldiers in awe and struâ—k a feare and terrour into them there they could not all meet together in any one place or Congregation to partake in all acts of Worship but of necessity must be distributed into divers Assemblies and Congregations But in the Church of Jerusalem there were eight thousand new converts besides women and children by virtue of some few miracles and Sermons after Christs Resurrection added to the Church and society of Beleevers besides those that were converted by John the Baptist and Christ and his Apostles Ministry before his sufferings and to which also there were after wards great multitudes of Beleevers both of men and women and a great company of Priests also joyned insomuch as they kept the very Officers and Souldiers in awe and struck a fear and terrour into them Ergo They could not all meet together in any one place or Congregation to partake in all acts of worship but of necessity must be distributed into divers Assemblyes and Congregations if they would all be edified For the Major it is so evident that I cannot beleeve that any rationall man will deny it for who yet did ever see an Assembly of above ten thousand people in any one place or Congregation that could partake in all the Ordinances to edification Yea to affirme this is to fight against common reason and dayly experience For the Minor it is proved by the severall places above quoted and therefore the conclusion doth also of necessity follow This Argument is so well grounded upon the Scripture of truth and corroborated also with such solid reasons as it is a wonderfull thing that there should bee any man
by the rest to make one entire platforme For the Scripture consists of many parts as so many Members in one body one Member cannot say to another I have no need of thee 1 Cor. 12. Againe the Church at Jerusalem if it must be a paterne for all other Churches then in this that all other Churches must be subject to some one Church because Acts 15. things in question were there debated and determined and sent to other Churches to be observed But for as much as that Church at that time in those things was infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost wherewith the Apostles there were inspired in which respect their resolutions were with authority it pleased the Holy Ghost and us that which no particular Church since the Apostles could ever say it followeth that the Church then at Jerusalem remaines not in all things a paterne for other Churches for a paterne must be in all things imitable and perfect Lastly for Appeales so much agitated and pressed I have said enough before and else-where as in my vindication to vindicate the right use of that in point of Church matters And so I passe briefly from your first question to your second which is concerning the manner of gathering of Churches and admitting of Members and Officers I have set downe my Brother Burtons expressions at large that all men may see how fairely I deale with hâ—m â—s for his censure upon all my Arguments that went before by which I proved my first Proposition that they are rather words and tautoligies then arguments by which I toyled my selfe and my Reader I passe it by as neither regarding his pr yses nor sleightings who was never yet constant to the Principles either of Humanity or Religion but like the Camelion hee speaketh of page 3. receives impressions of sundry formes changeable according to the present condition And as it is said of King Henry the eight that hee never spared any man in his rage so it may truly be averred of him that hee never spared any in his fury passion neither living nor dead upon the least conceived displeasure against them no not those hee was most obliged to as all that have beene familiarly acquainted with him and his frothy Pamphlets and language can testifie for he spares not the King himselfe nor Parliament upon all occasions to the one of which notwithstanding hee was not onely obliged in all Loyaltie as a subject but as a speciall servant and to the other if ever any man was ingaged in all the obligations of duty and veneration hee was who is bound unto that great Councell for his Liberty which is the life of life and for his honour and good name which is better then life and yet hee hath spared neither but hath most unchristianly and undutifully and that publickly and privately aspersed them upon all occurrences and therefore if at pleasure hee can vilipend sleight traduce and speake evill of those dignities I may not thinke my selfe agrieved if hee most unbrotherly in his scriblings abuse me Yea I am so farre from being offended at him for this his so dealing with mee as I thinke my selfe honoured by it and account it matter of rejoycing having learned that lesson of my heavenly Master That when men revile me reproach me and speake all manner of evill of me falsely for his names sake that I should rejoyce and be exceeding glad for so they have done by all the Prophets Matth. 5. Luke the 6. and Paul tooke such dealing from the false Teachers of his time for matter of triumph 2 Cor. 12. verse 10. saying I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weake then am I strong This I apply unto my selfe who have suffered as much from him and those of his party in reproaches in persecutions and in all manner of reviling and blasting language as their daily Pamphlets and words can witnesse as any man now living and for no other cause that I know of but that I maintaine the truth against error and oppose the novelties and groundlesse opinions of the times all the which will the more aggravate their judgement because they did as immoderately prayse me as can be proved before they knew my differing opinion from them as they doe now maliciously and causelesly vituperate mee and the Lord knowes that I am not changed in my opinion in any knowne truth from what I both beleeved and to my power practised above these thirty yeares neither had I any reason to vary from my Principles they being grounded upon the unerring word of truth and therefore for my brother Burtons and his parties sleighting of mee and my indeavours I wave them as meere Grolleries knowing that my bookes have beene read by more judicious men then either himselfe or any of his Fraternity and have had the approbation of learned men at home and abroad And now I come to his Argument for hee hath not so much candour and faire dealing in him as to lay downe my reasons that the Reader might see the grounds of truth but conceals them all and makes a Syllogisme of his owne or else hath borrowed it from some of his American friends and fetcht it out of the new World For I never read the like in either Europian or Asian Writer no nor in any African Author yet that Country was famous for Monsters and usually esteemed to be the Mother and Nursery of prodigious births and yet such a Syllogisme I never saw brought forth by any of that Nation as this of his framing and I am confident that every sucking Sophister will bee ready truly to say of it as hee falsely speakes of those multitudes baptized by Iohn Christs disciples that they were not formed into a Church or Churches the same I say will any but a Novice in the Art of disputation conclude of his Syllogisme that it hath neither forme mood or figure and that I could easily make evident were it not for mispending of precious time and that I desire not to displease the good old Father in discovering his nakednesse and infirmities who if hee were so highly offended with mee because hee conceived I meant him when I spake of a Basket-hilted beard how much would hee be inraged if I should discover his ignorance and make it appeare that hee is a meer stranger in the art of Logick which hee would perswade the world hee were so great a Master in But leaving that I will come the matter in hand which is of publicke concernment and in the first place I must needs blame him for his Sacriledge and unjust dealing who at one time robbs the Church of Christ of such multitudes of believers as were converted and baptized by the Baptist and Christs Disciples and by them added unto the Church of the Iews who were then the only visible Church upon earth and proclaimed by Christ himself Iohn 4. to be the
or for want of many things they now exact of all Christians for the compleating and moulding of them into Church bodies pro perly so called for we read That in the Church of Jerusalem they were perfectly converted and were Saints indeed and yet that for some wants they made no separation rent or schisme from their brethren but that they dayly met together in their publick Assemblies as in the Temple and in Solomons Porch and from house to house openly and that in all love and charity with one accord And yet if my brother Burton and the Independents may be beleeved they had neither Deacons nor Elders nor distinction of Officers nor a great part of Discipline nor many other of their requisites So that from the pious and godly example of those glorious Saints I learn this lesson That rents and scismes are not to be made amongst brethren for some failings in any Churches yea though there be some defects not onely in Officers and Members but a very want of Officers themselves and of a good Discipline also in any Church or Churches and that they that do make rents and divisions have a great deal to answer for Withall I learn that it may be a true Church though there be a failing in Discipline and a want of some chiefe Officers and Members For my brother Burton acknowledgeth That the Church at Jerusalem was a formed Church although it wanted both Officers and Discipline and all those things they now require of all such as desire to be made Members in their new Congregations And therefore if this he now preacheth be solid and orthodox Divinity and if he may be credited in what he writeth as there was at that time no just ground of separation from their publike Assemblies for want of those things so there is now in these our dayes no just cause of separation from our Assemblies if there be indeed a reall want of discipline and Church Officers which we might long since have injoyed had not he and his brethren hindred our happy begun Reformation Especially I say we ought not to separate when there is no failing or want in any dominative or fundamentall pointe of Religion necessary to salvation and where all the counsell of God requisite to eternall happinesse is dayly publikely taught in every one of our Congregations and Churches all which the Independents themselves do acknowledge we want not Besides it is granted by all orthodox Divines that Discipline makes not for the esse but the bene esse of a Church Yea the Independents themselves hold That Officers in a Church make not for the esse but the bene esse of it as the New Lights from the Summer Islands apparently delucidate For they say Though the Officers all dye yet the Church ceaseth not to be a church But to return to the matter in hand Whereas my brother Burton affirmeth that the Church at Jerusalem wanted Discipline and that it had not Deacons at first and that the Churches were not brought forth to full perfection in one day and that their very constitution had a graduall growth I maintain that in all he asserteth he is not onely exceeding erroneous and ignorant but understandeth not the very doctrine of the Independents who are all against him in those his assertions for they all acknowledg and in express words affirm it in their writings that all the Officers of the church were virtually in the Apostles saying they were Pastors Teachers ruling Elders and Deacons c. And therefore they wanted neither Deacons nor Elders if their concession be true nor any church Officers which is point blank against my brother Burton his opinion They confesse likewise that all the Apostles and every one of them had the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven that is the power of order and jurisdiction viz the key of knowledg and authority And therefore they had also in the church of Jerusalem that part of Discipline of casting out corrupt Members They acknowledge in like manner that all the Apostles had equall power amongst themselves and that they had authority over all the churches as having the care of all the churches who were committed to their charge and that they left both the Presbyters and people in their several churches to the exercise of all their particular rights impeached neither of them of their liberties And they do also confess that as Paul by his own authority did excommunicate Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1. ver 20. and others so might the other Apostles have done if they had had the like occasion given them and might have put any church not only in mind of their duty and reproved them for their neglect of Discipline but have injoyned and commanded them also to have put it in execution as both Paul did the church of Corinth and Saint John the seven churches of Asia which were all well constituted and well and perfect formed churches by their first constitution and brought forth to full perfection in one day so as they had no need of a graduall growth as my brother Burton affirmeth All these things I say the Independents do accord unto And all reason will perswade any well grounded Christians That the church of Corinth was a perfect church at its first constitution before the incestuous person appeared in it and the same they will say of the other seven churches in Asia before the doctrine of the Nicolaiâ—tans and that of Baalam and Jezabell sprung up in them and before those luke-warme Laodiceans appeared and all the other offenders there spake of all the which were so far from adding any perfection to those churches as it was a deformity to them all to have such creatures and failings amongst them and it was reputed their great sinne to connive at them and suffer them to be amongst them and in their bowels which by their first constitution they had power to have cast out For it is well known that all those churches at their first plantation and founding had all of them their Presbyters and Elders and all other Members and Officers as consisting of Saints and had in all those severall churches both the power of order and jurisdiction and the power of the Keyes and this in their first constitution and therefore had no neede of a graduall growth but were all brought forth to full perfection the first day contrary to my brother Burtons doctrine And it is confessed likewise by the Independents and by my brother Burton himselfe That where there are Church Officers as a Pastor and Teacher with an Elder or two and a Deacon and where there are a few visible Saints if they amount but to the number of twenty nay if they be but ten or twelve gathered together according to their method that there is a compleat formed Church where Christ is set up as King upon his Throne and that this Church is clothed with Christs power and honoured with his presence the which
likewise wanteth nothing for matter and forme but hath plenary authority within it selfe and therefore is as compleat a Church within it selfe as any church in the world by all which it must necessarily follow and that upon their own principles that it is brought forth in perfection in one day and hath no neede of a graduall growth Now I shall never beleevethat those glorious churches founded by the holy Apostles in every city in the which they had their Elders and Presbyters and all other Officers appointed them the which churches also consisted of visible Saints that they were not at their first constitution as compleat churches and in the which Christ was not as well set up upon his Throne as any of our new gathered churches of the congregationall way Yea it were an impiety to think that the blessed Apostles did not know how to gather churches and how to set up Christ upon his Throne in them and how to bring them to perfection in one day at their first constitution as well as our brethren the Independents who notwithstanding do all proclame they but imitate the Apostles both in the gathering and constituting of their new churches And therefore if the Independent congregations are all compleated at their first founding and constitution and be all compleat within themselves as having plenary authority and power within themselves much more had all the Apostolicall and Primitive Churches absolute jurisdiction within themselvs at their first constitution which is yet more manifest from the reproofe given to the Church of Corinth by S. Paul who blameth them for not casting out the incestuous person and from the reproof given to some of the 7 churches of Asia by Christ himself For otherwise they if they had not bin perfect and compleat at their first constitution might have replyed and answered That they had no power to cast out corrupt Members and that their churches were not compleatly moulded up at their first founding and that they wanted that part of Discipline but none of these churches pretended any such thing neither could they for Saint Paul had given the church of Ephesus by name a caveat to take heed of Wolves that would rise up among them after his departure and had armed them likewise with power and authority for the casting of them out as it is at large to be seen in the twentieth of the Acts and that church executed its power in finding out of false Teachers and is praised for it though the other are blamed So that the neglect of this their duty and not executing of their Discipline was that that was found fault with in them and that they had not exercised that power that was given them in casting out of those corrupt Members from amongst them This I say was their failing and for this were they blamed so that it was not for want of Discipline or that they were not perfect at their first constitution but their negligence and their not doing their duty was their sinne Neither was the Church of Ierusalem inferior to any other church in power or wanted that part of Discipline of casting out corrupt Members as my Brother Burton boldly and without all reason affirmeth for it is well knowne that the church at Ierusalem had power of life and death as wee may see in the storie of Ananias and Saphira his wife the which if it could take away the very life of offendors as it did theirs for lying to the Spirit of God then it had power to cast out any corrupt Members and scandalous persons if they had had any amongst them as all reason will dictate to any well grounded Christian But that wee reade not of any excommunicated in the Church at Ierusalem it was not for any want of Discipline or power in that Church of casting out offenders but because there was no open Delinquents and scandalous persons for they were all zealous of the Law as it is well knowne and would suffer none in the least to transgresse it without questioning them nay if they conceived but an offence in the Apostles themselves they would call them to an account as wee may see Acts the â—1 where they questioned Peter for going in to the Gentiles and it is conceived by learned and judicious Christians that the punishment also that was inflicted upon Ananias and Saphira strucke so great a terrour of offending into all the Ghurch as it is in expresse words declared that they durst not in publike be vitious and therfore that made them all afraid of publike open and scandall withall it is recorded that they were all true Beleevers and Saints in the Church of Ierusalem and that they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of bread and prayer and were all true converts and Saints indeed now no church useth to cast out Saints and men of a holy and unblameable conversation and such as persevere in goodnesse and doe their duty but the wicked and scandalous which when there was none in the church at Ierusalem there was no need of excommunication or at least they had no occasion of exercising that part of discipline at that time For discipline in any church is as Magistracy in a Common-wealth or Kingdome which is not a terrour to the good but to the wicked as Saint Paul speaketh Rom. the 13. it is a comfort to well doers and as the Magistrate useth the sword onely against Offendors and Delinquents so the Officers of the Church exercise that part of Discipline only in casting out corrupt and scandalous Members which is solely to bee put in execution against them and therefore that wee reade not of excommunication in the Church at Ierusalem it was not for want of that part of Discipline but because there were no publick and scandalous persons there as in the church of Corinth Besides all men know that Discipline is one thing and the execution of discipline is an other and is but the result and effect of discipline as the church is one thing and the Administration of the Sacraments is another Power and Authority in a court whether ecclesiasticall or civill is one thing and the execution of the power of that court is an other and as the execution of its authority makes it not a court nor giveth not the power to it but declareth it to be a court invested with authority as in the Parliament the great and supreme court of this Kingdome the cutting off of Strafford and the Prelates heads gave not power to the Parliament but declared the power they had by their first constitution for they were a court before and had the power of execution before but upon this occasion they exercised it but will any man say if they had not at this time exercised their authority as they have not done for these many years before that the great court had wanted that part of Discipline all men that should attempt to say that great councell
wanted that part of Discipline I beeleeve they would exercise some more of their authority to teach such an one better manners or more wit Even so it was in the Church at Ierusalem they had discipline in that Church though wee reade not of the putting of it in execution as we do in the Church of Corinth and Ephesus neither wil any rationall man conclude that all the other Primitive Churches wanted that part of discipline because I say wee reade onely of the execution of it in the church of Corinth and that of Ephesus which is commended for it and some of the other seven churches are blamed for not casting out their corrupt Members and because they had not at that time exercised their authority neither reade wee of it in the churches of Galatia Colosse nor amongst the Thessalonians nor in the church of Rome nor Antioch nor in Samaria will any man therefore say that all these churches wanted that part of Discipline because wee reade nothing of it in them I am confident they will not be so fanaticall as to make such a conclusion from so brainsick a premise much lesse will any intelligible christian argue as my Brother Burton does saying wee reade not of that part of Discipline in the church at Ierusalem of casting out corrupt Members Ergo it had it not this would indeed prove a non sequitur and such a consequenct or conclusion could least of all have been made from the Church at Ierusalem upon such an Antecedent then from any of the other churches because the church at Ierusalem had not only the power of the Keyes within it selfe but a legislative power also who gave Lawes to all other churches both for the ordering and ruling of them and for the exercising of their Discipline in every particular and that by Gods appointment for out of Sion shall goe forth the Law saith the Prophet Isa 23. and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem So that the Church at Ierusalem the Mother church gave power to all the daughter churches and that both the power of Order and Jurisdiction the power was radically in it and in that church was the fountain of all authority the streames of the which flowed to all the other churches of the world For out of Zion shal go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem And can any rationall man thinke it gave away all its power and did not keepe a reserve donec ad triarios redierit res I beleeve that all the Independents will much blame my brother Burton for this his rashnesse in affirming the church at Ierusalem wanted that part of Discipline for casting out corrupt Members when the Apostles themselves had all power in their hands bequeathed unto them by Christ himselfe who said Mat. 28. verse 18. 19. All power is given to mee in Heaven and Earth goe yee therefore and teach all Nations c. and Iohn the 20. verse 21 22 23. as my Father hath sent mee even so send I you and when hee had said this hee breathed on them and saith unto them receive yee the Holy Ghost whose soever sinnes ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins yee retaine they are retained Loe here was plenary authority given unto all the Apostles who as they had the Keyes promised them in the sixteenth of Matthew here they now received them and therefore they had the power in their hands both of order and jurisdiction which the Keyes imported as all the learned know and the very Independents doe not deny now this power was not onely given unto them but unto all faithfull Ministers their successors to whom Christ made a promise as well as to the Apostles Matth. 28. that hee would be with them to the end of the world neither doe wee ever reade that the Apostles and Ministers in the church of Ierusalem did ever relinquish their power and therefore they wanted not that part of Discipline as my Brother Burton grollishly affirmeth who begins now to doubt when hee begins to dote but if there had been any just occasion without all controversie they would have put it in execution but that church consisting of visible Saints and having no scandalous persons amongst them had no occasion of the exercise of that part of Discipline which they wanted not though they exercised it not for it is to be believed that the Apostles would have discharged their duty in punishing offendors if there had beene any And I believe that the Independents would blame any of their Schollers and Members if they should say their new congregated churches wanted that part of Discipline of casting out of corrupt Members though they have not as yet in some of them put it in execution for they have learned to distinguish between the power of a Church and the execution of that power in a church for as it doth not argue that a Court of Justice hath not power of life and death when notwithstanding it is invested with the Authority of hanging and drawing though perhaps after it is erected they either have no occasion of executing that authority that is given or them out of Clemency will for a time shew mercy and use lenity towards offendors not taking the extremity of the Law the more with humanity and kindnesse to reclaime them even so in all well constituted Churches the not executing of the power given them by Christ or the not having just occasion of putting that power in execution doth not prove a want of that power and if any of the Members of the new congregations should so argue against their new church Officers I believe they would soone make use of their Keyes to shut such a Member out of their Church doores as my brother Burton falsly complaines that Truth was lately shut out of Aldermanbury Church doores And truly if one of their whibbling congregations have no want of that part of Discipline though they execute it not shall any man be so temerarious and unadvised as to thinke that the power of the church in Ierusalem was evacuated or enervated or that they had not that part of Discipline when there was greater power in it then in any church in the world all who had all the Apostles amongst them and as Christs and Iohn Disciples all of them armed with the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and when the Magazine and treasury of all power resided continually in that church and therefore that part of Discipline when all other churches derived their power authority and jurisdiction from that as the mother church And to this I now say I am most assured all judicious men will easily consent and agree And therefore my brother Burton affirming that the church at Ierusalem wanted that part of discipline of casting out of corrupt Members saying That neither the Church at Ierusalem was a perfect patterne nor none of the Primitive churches were compleat within themselves but that they must
and pleasure of God in them and accordingly determined that difference and question by the written Word and from thence commanded that the Decrees of that Councell should be observed in all Churches After the very same manner in this their so doing the church of Ierusalem is a paterne to all other churches upon the like occasions it any difference of opinion rise amongst the churches or if any new heresies spring up tending to the subversion of the soules of the people how holy and godly so ever they seeme to be that broach them and what pretence so ever they make that they have them from divine Authority I say upon the like occasions in Imitation of the Apostles and Elders in the church at Ierusalem Kings and Princes and Christian Magistrates and those that are in Authority may call a councell or Synod of Divines together and as the Apostles and Elders there debated things by dispute and reason and by searching the holy Scripture found out the truth and determined the question and sent their Decrees which were binding to all other churches so I affirme also in this their so doing that church is a paterne of imitation to all churches in all Nations and Countries and Christian churches in them that Ministers out of severall Presbyteries in a representative body may meet together by the appointment of their Magistrates and dispute those questions by reasoning and discourse and finding by searching of the Word of God what his good will and pleasure is may determine the question accordingly and give out their decrees grouned upon the written Word with authority to be observed by all those churches under their severall Jurisdictions and as the people then did patiently wait till the determining of that difference without making of any rents schismes or separations one from another and did then yeild obedience to those decrees without any reluctation but observed them all willingly after the debate so ought all people in imitation of them and following their example with patience to wait without making any rents and divisions till things are fully discussed and determined in any such Synode or councell and then willingly and cheerfully submit themselves and yeild obedience to them and in their so doing they have the church at Ierusalem for a paterne and the Apostles and Elders of that church and the other churches for an example of imitation so long as they injoyne nothing contrary to the Word of God For this way of governing the church by Synods and Councells upon differing and dissenting opinions betweene church and church and upon occasion of any new Heresies sprung up in Christian Countries or any old ones revived as it hath its paterne from the church at Ierusalem and that of Antioch which is left for our imitation that all churches upon the like occasion should follow it So this way of ruling is grounded upon most excellent reason as most agreeable both to the Law of God and nature and the practise of all Nations and Kingdomes of which we have many presidents in the holy Scriptures besides this councell at Ierusalem and some others For as all Nations and Kingdoms have been ever governed by generall councells and have ever had their severall appeales from inferior Courts and councells to Superior upon either publicke grievances or upon any differences betweene Province and Province and County and County or betweene Corporation and Corporation or City and City or upon any Pressures or oppressions or impeachments or incroachments of each on the others liberties or through injustice or injuries done to each of them from some that are in power and authority So the church of Iesus Christ which is his Kingdome is inferior to no other Kingdome upon earth but in that also the severall Corporations that are under it which are so many Presbyterian churches have in like manner the liberty of their appeales upon any of the aforesaid or above named occasions And although they all injoy equall priviledges amongst themselves as the severall Provinces Counties Corporations and Cities in any kingdome do so as they cannot severally and by themselves considered give a Law each to other yet as in a generall councell in Kingdomes and Common-wealths when the Knights and Barons and Burgesses of each of them are all met together in their representative bodies in a Parliament or Diet may being so Assembled together not only redresse any abuses and punish Delâ—nquents but also for the better government of those severall Doâ—inâ—ons for the future give Lawes to each Province County City and Corporation yea and unto the whole Country And enact penall Statutes both to them and to the whole Countries under them according to the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdomes and Countries In the same manner it is in the visible Catholicke church which is Christs Kingdome although in it the severall Presbyteries and churches considered by themselves and as having equall Authority amongst themselves cannot give Lawes to each other severally and by themselves considered as the Church of Corinth and that of Antioch and Ephesus and the other could not prescribe to each other a rule or Law to walke by with Authority but only in an examplary way by well doing yet all these severall churches ioyning together in a generall councell as they did at Jerusalem Acts the 15. and having from each of them deligated and sent their Presbyters and Ministers as so many Burgesses of their severall cities and Corporations and they being all met together upon any grievances and having by debating of the matters and differences in question by dispute and by disquisition found What is the good will of God and what is his pleasure in his good Word and in the holy Scriptures which are the Fundamentall Lawes of his Kingdom may in any Christian councell so called and ordering their businesse as the councell and Synod of Ierusalem did give out their Decrees and those binding ones to all those severall churches that are under their jurisdictions and all these severall churches ought to yeild obedience to them And in this their so doing they have the church of Ierusalem and the other churches a president and a paterne For I say in all these respects the church at Ierusalem is a paterne to all other churches And as in the church at Ierusalem Corinth Philippi Samaria Ephesus c. the Apostles Evangelists and the Presbyters in every one of those churches had the charge of each of those churches committed to them in common as is manifest from all the places above quoted and through the holy Scripture and as they fed them all and governed them all in common so in that also both the church at Ierusalem and all the other churches according to my brother Burtons doctrine who saith they must all come in for the making up of a compleat platforme I say as all the Presbyters and Ministers fed those severall churches in common so they are a paterne to all churches in all
Presbyters or in common councell with them those actions I say were done and acted by men which were Apostles but not as they were Apostles exclusively so as they might not act them under another notion neither will our brethren affirme it for if the Apostles did preach take the trust of the goods of the Church ordaine Officers as Apostles exclusively and in an extraordinary way and as by a priviledge peculiar to themselves it would follow from thence that none may doe any of those things but Apostles which the Brethren will not assent unto as for some instances In that ordination of Deacons in the sixth of the Acts the Apostles there acted partly as Apostles and partly as Presbyters for in constituting an Office in the Church which was not before they acted their Apostolicall authority but in ordaining men to that office which the Church had chosen they did act as Presbyters and there is no doubt but the Brethren will yeeld to this for if they will not grant that the Apostles did herein act partly as Apostles partly as Presbyters they must then accord that they acted either onely as Presbyters or onely as Apostles If onely as Presbyters thence it will follow that all Presbyters have power not onely to ordaine men but to erect a new office in the Church If onely as Apostles then hence is no warrant for Presbyters so much as to ordaine men into any office nor for so much as to meet together to consult about acts of government either in a Presbyterian or in a Synodicall way and by this meanes all Church government would speedily be overthrowne Neither is it a difficult thing in our Brethren or any other man to distinguish betweene these two for looke by what infallible rule they make some thing in the practise of the Apostles to bee not onely a patterne and president for imitation but even a proofe of institution yet decline other things practised by the same Apostles as things not onely by institution not commanded to us but not permitted to bee imitated by us By the same rule they may infallibly distinguish betweene what they acted as Apostles and what they acted as Presbyters and as ordinary Counsellors Iudges and Governours and withall they may infer and conclude that what they acted as Presbyters and by joynt and common consent it was to give a patterne and president to all Presbyters and Synods in all succeeding ages and as the taking in of the consent of the Church in the choice of Deacons Act. 6. was to give a patterne for the sufferage and voice of the people in all Churches to the end of the world in chosing of their Deacons so for another instance as there were many Congregations in the Church of Ierusalem and divers Assemblies and all these congregations made but one Church and the Apostles and Presbyters who were Officers governed that joyntly and by a common Councell as our Brethren acknowledge Here likewise they left a patterne and president to all ages for severall Congregations and Assemblies in a Citie or vicinity to unite into one Church and for the Officers and Presbyters of these Congregations to governe that Church joyntly in a Colledge and Presbytery And for a third instance as the Apostles and Presbyters meet together in a Synodicall way and the Apostles in that Assembly acted not by an Apostolicall and infallible spirit no more then the Presbyters did as when they were writing of Scripture but stating the Question and debating it from Scripture in an ordinary way as it is at large discussed in Acts 15. which wee never reade they did when they writ the Scripture and having by disputing arguing and searching the Scripture found what was the good and acceptable will of God thereupon they determined the question saying it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us as the Assembly now of Divines or any other for ought I know upon like assurance of Scripture warrant may doe In this action also and their so doing the Apostles and Presbyters left an example and president to all the Presbyters in all succeeding ages what they should doe upon the like occasions for the deciding of controversies and differences of opinions in Religion viz. To congregate and meet together in some one place to state the questions and to debate from Scripture and to follow the written Word as their rule in all things and whatsoever they doe to doe it by joynt consent and the the Common-councell of them all or by the most voices but in all these their proceedings they must ever cleave to the rule of the Word of God or warrantable authority and evidence of reason deduced from thence as then the Apostles and Presbyters did yea the very name of the Presbyters in Jerusalem signifieth the Iudges Counsellors Magistrates and Rulers of that Church who had the Keyes committed unto them as well as the Apostles and by their place were more peculiarly overseers of that Church as they were tyed unto it then the Apostles as the Presbyters of Ephesus were in that Church and were assigned in their severall places to execute their office and to looke to their particular charges in the government so that whether the Apostles were present or absent the Presbyters had the government laid upon their shoulders and if the Apostles themselves had taught contrary to this Constitution or an Angel from Heaven Gal. 1. I am confident the Presbyters would not have obeyed them nor have relinquished their authority neither ought they but would still have kept that rule power and authority which God had put in their hands so that for my owne particular I looke upon the Apostles in all these severall actions and in all those acts of government joyned and met together with the Presbyters as I looke upon Counsellors and Iudges in the great Councell of both Kingdoms where all the Iudges have equall power and authority in decisive voting and doe verily beleeve that the Presbyters sitting at any time in councel with any one or more of the Apostles did act as authoritatively as the Apostles themselves and I am ever able to prove it and make it good against any man that the Presbyters might as well conclude It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us as well as the Apostles and may say we have written and concluded as well as the Apostles As any two or three of the Parliament whether of the Lords or Commons may as well say wee have made such an Ordinance as any twenty of them or the whole Councell and that without disparagement or impeaching the dignity of any when they joyned with them in that worke and assented to it and in this very notion I looke upon the Presbyters in Ierusalem joyned with the Apostles and consider them as in my contemplations I looke upon the Lords and Commons now sitting in the great Councell as the grand civill Presbytery of the Kingdome where all binding Ordinances are to bee
passed by the joynt consent and Common-counsell of them all and whose place and office it is to command and rule and the peoples office and place to obey and yeeld subjection to whatsoever they command and injoyne according to the will of God and for the common good and preservation of themselves and the whole Kingdome and that whosoever should resist this their just authority are guilty of contumacy and are high offenders and delinquents for God hath laid the government upon them and left the duty of obedience to the subjects who may not without a publicke call intermeddle with matters of government And so in the matters of Church-government I look upon the Presbyters as Gods peculiar servants and as upon the Stewards Councellours and Magistrates and Iudges in the Church as men set apart by God himselfe for this purpose to be the Teachers and Rulers of their flockes committed unto them in the Lord to whom in the matters of their soules all people under their severall Presbyteries so farre as they command in the Lord and according to the written word are to yeeld obedience and much to reverence and honour them and this according to Gods command for it is his Ordinance And they are not to be looked on and slighted as the fagge end of the Clergy as many black mouthes and prophane lips speake of them for the Presbyters they have their authority as well grounded in the word of God as Kings and States have theirs and therefore as they are imployed in a more supreame orbe and in matters of eternall concernment so they should bee venerated as men watching over our soules and all contumelious speeches against them deserve severe punishment and ought not to be tolerated and so much the more the Presbyters of this Kingdome in these our dayes have deserved better from the Church the Parliament and the whole Kingdome then any of their Predecessors not onely in their desiring a perfect and through Reformation in both Doctrine and Discipline but in that they have stood now so cordially to the common cause and more for the liberty of the Subject then any before them and have cleaved most faithfully to the Parliament and have beene also a most singular meanes of keeping the people wheresoever they were suffered to Preach in obedience to that great Conncell In all these respects I say they deserve well yea better not onely from the Church but from all the Kingdome for the present than any of their Predecessours and their memories ought to be famous to all posterity for this their good service And that governement that God has given unto the Presbyters if the Lords and Commons shall now labour to establish it in the Kingdome and to settle it on them they may not onely promise unto themselves a blessing from heaven and peace unto the Church and State but also immortall praise from all succeeding ages Having taken leave to make this digression I will now to my busines and prove that the Church of Jerusalem consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies were all governed by a common Presbytery and that the Apostles there acted as Presbyters among the Presbyters They that in the Holy Scripture are called Presbyters and acted and ordered things in a joynt body and Common-councell with the Presbyters and exercised that ordinary power that was committed to them in the 18. of Matthew they acted ruled and governed as Presbyters but the Apostles in governing the Church of Jerusalem consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies acted and ordered things in a joynt body and Common-councell with the Presbytery of that Church as Presbyters Ergo the Chuch of Ierusalem was Presbyterially governed and by a Common-counsell of Presbyters The Maior and Minor of this Syllogisme being proved the conclusion will necessarily insue And for proofe of the Major the Scripture is cleare as 1 Tim. chap. 4. ver 14. where Paul writing unto Timothy saith neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee to preach with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery in the which Presbytery Paul was one that laid his hands on him and ordained him as is evident in the second Epistle to Timothy ch the first vers 6 where putting Timothy in mind of his duty hee saith stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands so that Paul joyning in this publicke action of ordination though an Apostle yet acted as a Presbyter and counts himselfe in the number of them as any of the Presbyters that now ordaine the Ministers may say as well as all of them together to any new ordained Minister neglect not the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands As men ordinarily in a Iury may assume that unto themselves that all may doe as being Actors in common So Peter likewise in his first Epistle ch 5. verse 1 2 cals himselfe a Fellow-presbyter and Saint Iohn in his second and third Epistle stiles him so also The Presbyter unto the elect Lady c. The Presbyter unto the well beloved Gajus c. So that his Presbytership did not exclude his Apostleship nor the acting at any time of a Presbyter deprive him of his Apostolicall power for at that very time hee cals himselfe a Presbyter hee wrore Scripture by an Apostolicall and infallible spirit and yet continued still a presbyter So that for the Major although I should say no more it is sufficiently proved yet for a further corroboration of it it is not good to reject the consent of our Brethren in this point for they acknowledge that the Apostles are called Presbyters vertually because as they say Apostleship contained all offices in it yea they further assert the act of ministerial power to bee the same in the Apostles and Presbyters the onely difference they seeme to insinuate is in the extent from which it may be inferred that in all the affaires transacted by the Apostles properly concerning the Church of Ierusalem they did act as presbyters because in such acts there was no extent of their power to many much lesse to all Churches But when they affirme that the Apostles power over many congregations was founded upon their power over all Churches and so cannot be a patterne andpresident for the power of Presbyters over many For answer first I say that the Brethren in my opinion take more upon them then beseemeth them and usurpe a kind of unlimited authority to themselves that they can make what pleaseth them exemplary only and reject whatsoever agreeth not with their opinion and humour though they were all the acts of all the Apostles and transacted by joynt consent and common agreement and accord and left in the church of Christ as well for a patterne and president for the Presbyters and Ministers to follow in al succeeding ages to the end of the world as any of their other acts and so they pick and choose at pleasure and
in so doing under reformation be it spoke I say they assume unto themselves a greater authority then beseems them for they can make the Apostles joynt governing of one congregation for so they take it pro confesso that the church of Ierusalem was but one congregation to bee a patterne of many Ministers governing one congregation but whereas it is most evident that the Church of Ierusalem consisted of many congregations and were yet under but one Presbytery and was governed by the joynt consent of the Apostles and Presbyters as under a grand Common-presbytery this at pleasure they reject and make it no way exemplary and binding But for a further answer I assert that the Apostles power and authority over many assemblies as one Church to rule and governe them all as one Church joyntly and in common was not grownded upon their power over all Churches but upon the union of those Assemblies and Congregations into one Church which union layeth a foundation for the power of presbyters ruling and governing many Congregations and the Apostles practice in governing many Assemblies joyntly as one Church is the patterne and example of that government to all succeeding ages and this president of the Apostles the presbyters in all churches ought to set before their eyes in all reformation for what the Apostles did in the publicke affaires of government they did as presbyters and for imitation Neither doe our Brethren onely grant the act of ministeriall power to be the same in the Apostles and presbyters saving in the extent but they acknowledge also that they were called presbyters vertually as I said before and that the Apostles acted in a joynt body and by common consent and affirme that it was fit that they should so doe and say withall that the Apostles wherever they came left the presbyters and people to the exercise of that right which belonged to them although they joyned with them These are their formall expressions out of which their concession my argument yea the whole Syllogisme is not onely confirmed and strengthened but the truth doth more evidently shine forth for if the Apostles left the presbyters and people to the exercise of that right which belonged unto them in all churches and the presbyters right be to rule as Ecclesiasticall Magistrates as to whom the power of the Keyes peculiarly belongeth by Gods institution and the right of the people in all churches bee to obey as they are every where commanded then it followeth necessarily that it doth not belong unto the people to ordaine either Deacons or Presbyters whatsoever they may doe in the choosing of them nor to excommunicate or cast out any out of the Church or to make Members whom they please nor to rule and governe the Church which is the peculiar right of the Presbyters left unto them by Christ and his Apostles for none of all these things were ever left unto the people neither is there any President of it in holy Scripture so that while the brethren seeme to contend for the liberty of the people they plainly overthrow it for they grant That the Apostles left the Presbyters and people to the exercise of that right that belonged unto them in all Churches the right therefore of the keyes of Government and Jurisdiction belongeth properly unto the Presbyters in every Church who are the Officers and Magistrates appointed by God himselfe for that purpose Acts 20. ver 28. and therefore when the Apostles writ to the Church of Corinth to excommunicate that incestuous person although his Epistle be not directed to the whole Church yet the Presbyters in that Church onely executed that act of Government which of right belonged unto them though the people also assented unto it even as we see dayly and experience teacheth us in all well ordered Corporations when the King or Counsell writes unto any City or Corporation though their mandates be directed to the whole City or Corporation for the raising either of men or moneyes or about any other imployment of publike concernment the Mayors Aldermen and Common Councell and the Officers under them onely manage the businesse for that is their right and place and the people under them do yeeld obedience and submit themselvesto what they order and command and intermeddle not in that imployment as knowing very well it is their right and place onely to obey And even so it was in the Church of Corinth the Presbyters onely exercised the Government and ordered all according to the Apostles injunction and the people assented unto it and submitted themselves to their order and the mistaking of that place and many more hath been the cause of so much confusion in the Church at this time when not onely the men in every Assembly but the very women in many of the new Congregations as Members challenge a power and right both in the electing of Church Officers and of admitting of Members and of casting out and excommunicating which before these our times was never heard of in the world when as the right of Jurisdiction and of the Keyes as I have often proved peculiarly belongeth unto the Presbyters and that the people neither men nor women ought to intermeddle with it for if they should in short time it would overthrow all Government in Church and State and bring confusion into the world But I conceive the cause of so grosse a mistake of that place concerning the excommunicating of the incestuous person arose from this that they look upon the Church of Corinth and the other Churches spoken of in the New Testament not as Corporations as they were indeed but as on their now sucking Independent new Congregations and Assemblies consisting of twenty or thirty Members such as many of those be whereas those severall Churches are to be considered under another notion as consisting of many Congregations as that of the Church of Ierusalem united into one Church or body in the severall Corporations and each of them governed by a Common Councell of Presbyters and by the joynt consent of their severall Presbyteries all these severall congregations making but one Church though never so much dayly increased and keeping still the name and denomination of such a Church either from the place City Country or Nation or severall language as the Church of the Jewes the Greeke Church the Latine Church or from the Cities as the Church of Ierusalem of Ephesus Rome c. All the which though they consisted of never so many Congregations and Assemblies yet they ever kept the name of unity were accounted but one Church in their severall places and Precincts as at this day the Church of Geneva though it consist of many Congregations is counted but one Church as it is so that I say the conceiving of the Church of Corinth and those seven Churches in Asia under the notion of one of their Congregations caused through this mistake that great confusion that is now in the Church and was the originall
the Presbyters and none but the Presbyters received the Almes which sufficiently proveth that the Presbyters in all Churches were the men in government To the which argument of mine Master Knollys page 11. replyeth as followeth It is not denyed by the brethren saith he that the Presbyters in all churches were the men in the government of the Churches in which they are Elders But this I conceive by the Doctors favour doth not prove it to wit because the almes were sent unto the Elders Much lesse doth that Scripture prove that the Apostles and Presbyters governed and ruled the Church in Ierusalem by a common Councell and Presbytery But in the 15. chap. ver 2. 4. 6. 22. and and chap. 16. 4. and chap. 21. 17 18. The Presbyters of Ierusalem by name saith the Doctor are expressed These are Master Knollys his own words with his reply and answer to my first argument by which I proved my third assertion in the which I shall desire the Reader to consider what he denyeth and what he granteth It is not denyed saith he by the Brethren meaning the Independents that the Presbyters in all churches were the men in the government of the churches in which they are Elders Take I pray his own expression He acknowledgeth that the government in all churches was committed to the Presbyters and that it lay only in their hands as to whom it was solely delegated so that he granteth as much as I contended for by that argument by which all judicious and understanding men may now perceive that Mr Knollys and the brethren do accord unto this truth viz. that the people have nothing to do with the government of the churches in which they are Members so that I have as much assented unto by him and all the brethren as I desire by the which if I am not mistaken he hath utterly excluded the people in all their seven new churches and in all their new gathered assemblies of the congregational way from any hand in the government of the churches For saith he it is not denyed by the brethren that the Presbyters in all churches were the men in the government of the churches in which they are Elders So that hereafter I hope the brethren will not be so inraged against me if I beleeve as the seven new Churches beleeve and as all the brethren of the congregationall way beleeve those confiding men when Master Knollys saith that it is not denyed by them that the government in all Churches is laid upon the Presbyters shoulders and therefore not upon the peoples So that now there is little need of farther contesting between us about this businesse seeing he granteth that the Presbyters in all churches ought to have the government of them But it will not be amisse a little to take notice of the contentiousnesse of the mans spirit who grants the thing and yet wrangles about words and that wretchedly and poorly and therefore I shall desire the Reader to consider what he denyeth in my argument with the reason of it viz. these two things First that this doth prove it to wit because the almes were sent unto the Elders Secondly that that Scripture proveth that the Apostles and Presbyters governed and ruled the church in Ierusalem by a common Councell and Presbytery These two things Master Knollys affirmes will not insue from that portion of Scripture upon which I grounded my argument Now before I come to reply to both these cavills of Master Hanserdo I shall take this liberty to say unto him that as he is a meere novice in Divinity and a foreiner to all good learning so he is but a sucking polititian not knowing either his Primer in that art or his Catechisme in Theology or any thing in the government either of Church or State which is one of the grand errors and heresies of all his fraternity who while they pretend to learning and would perswade the world they are excellent Statesmen and Grandees in Government they will in time prove themselves as they are indeed a company of grolls and ninnyes and I hope yet to see that day that they wil be as much exploded bafled out of their fond whimsies as ever the Prelates were or any distempered Sect in the world But that all men may the better see the truth and discerne Master Knollys his errors and the groundlessenesse of his denyall of my argument who saith it doth not prove that the presbyters were the men in government because the almes were sent unto the Elders and that the Apostles and Presbyters governed and ruled that church by a common councell and presbytery because the relief was sent unto the Presbyters I shall now upon this occasion speak something concerning politicks and shew wherein the soveraign power and authority in all governments consists and in whose hands it resides and what are the essentiall properties or rather parts of Government in either of them So that wheresoever they are exercised in any country or common wealth those men only who are invested with them or to whom they are betrusted either immediately by God himself or by the election or choice of the people the soveraign authority in those severall governments lies and is deposited in their hands that mannage them and in no bodies else but such as are allowed of by their appointment or good liking and love And if men will then seriously consider and weigh the government secular in all States and Countries and compare the Ecclesiasticall with them which without any offence they may do the truth will more gloriously shine forth and the strength and force of my Argument will be the more obvious to every intelligible creature Now all men know that have either read or observed any thing in Politicks and the government of the world that in whose hands soever the legislative power lyeth so that they can either make or enact new Lawes and Statutes or repeale or abrogate any old ones and ratifie both with sanctions and who have also the power of life and death and the authority of punishing all Prevaricators against their Lawes all men I say know that the soveraigne power and authority resides and lyes soly and only in those mens hands that exercise it And this is the first essentiall part or property of soveraigne and supreame authority in any state and that declares unto all men who are the men in government there The second Essentiall part of soveraigne power in any government consists in this that they can erect and create new Offices and new Officers within their jurisdictions and set up new Courts and Iudges and can conferre Names Honours and titles of Dignity upon them severally and invest them all with power and authority to execute their severall places Offices and Iudicatures and this is the second essentiall property of supreme authority in any state so that in whose hands soever this power resides they onely are the Rulers in that government and no other
persons The third Essentiall part of soveraigne power in any state is this to make warre and peace at pleasure either forraigne or domesticall upon any just occasions and to have the managing of the Militia c. so that those only in whose hands this authority lyeth they are reputed and indeed are the supreme Rulers in that state The fourth Essentiall property of superlative power and authority in any government or state is this to have a Court of ultimate resort to the which all men may fly for reliefe and to the which all Appeales by all persons from all parts within their jurisdictions and from all inferiour Courts are made upon any unjustice done them there or upon any pressures or grievances by any one in authority and in whose power it is to end and determine all controversies and differences or to redresse all abuses and to relieve the oppressed so that in whose hands soever this authority resides they onely are said to exercise the soveraigne power and to bee the sole Governours and Moderators in that state The fifth and last paâ—t of supreme authority in any state consists in this that they have the power of pressing and stamping monies and coynes and setting the valution upon them or any other monies that are currant in their countries or have the disposing of the treasurie of those states in which they live and have the Exchequer in their hands and all the revenues of them and to whom all the tributes subsidies assessements customes benevolences and collections of the people that are gathered for the common reliefe and preservation of the whole countrey or state are sent and who have the disposing of them according to their wisedome in those mens hands I say that this power â—esideth of disposing the treasury or revenues they and they onely are the supreme Magistrates and Rulers in that state as at this day it resides with all the former essentiall properties in the hands of King and Parliament that great Councell of the Kingdome by all which it sufficiently appeareth that all soveraigne power resides in them onely and is soly exercised and managed by them so that if Master Knollys should say that it doth not prove that the government lyeth now in the hands of King and Parliament that great Court because the contributions collections and excises from all parts of the Kingdome are sent unto them and are now at their disposing I beleeve the great Councell would teach him a little more wit and all those his brethren that should joyne with him in this his argumentation a little better manners Now if wee will compare things together wee shall find that whatsoever can prove the soveraigne power in all secular governments to be in those mens hands which exercise it the same may be said concerning the Ecclesiasticall Government in the Church at Ierusalem and of the Apostles and Presbyters of that Church who were the chiefe Officers and men in authority in it that the government and soveraigne power in that Church lay in their hands onely So that it will then undeniably follow that my argument will for ever stand good against Master Knolly's fond cavils for the proving of these two truths viz. that the Presbyters in the Church at Ierusalem and in all other churches were the onely Governours in those churches and that from this reason because the almes were sent unto them and because they had the disposing of the treasury of the Church This I say will in the first place necessarily follow The second truth that will result out of the words is this that the Apostles and Presbyters governed and ruled that Church by a common-councell and Presbyterie both which Master Knollys vainely denyeth will follow from my Argument But for the farther elucidation of this truth and that it may the better appeare unto all men I will briefly run over the essentiall properties and parts of supreme and soveraigne power that were exercised in that church and shew that they resided onely and solely in the Apostles and Presbyters hands who were the Governours of that church and that the people had nothing to doe with them and for the first to wit the legislative power it was in the church of Ierusalem and committed onely into the hands of the Apostles and Presbytery of that church as who had received the Keyes Matth. 16. and Matth. 18. For so saith the Prophet Isaiah chapter the 2. verse 2. out of Zion shall goe forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem and Acts the 1. vers 2. 3. it is said that Christ for the time that hee remained upon the earth after his Resurrection through the Holy Ghost gave commandements unto the Apostles whom hee had chosen speaking to them of the things pertaining to the Kingdome of God and commanded them that they should not depart from Ierusalem but waite for the promise of the Father which was that hee would send them the Holy Ghost the comforter which should teach them all things and bring all things unto their remembrance whatsoever Christ had said unto them and that hee should abide with them for ever Iohn 14. verse 26. and leade them into all truth and in the fifteenth Chapter hee cals his Apostles his friends telling them that hee had made knowne unto them all things that hee had heard from his Father verse 15. and hee promised that the Holy Ghost should bring all those things to their memories and in the same Chapter in the 26. verse Christ saith when the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father hee shall testifie of me From all which places and from the 28. of Matth. verse 18 19 20. Mark the 16. verse 15 16 17 18. and Iohn the 20. verse 21 22 23. and many more that might be alleaged it is apparently evident that the Apostles and Presbyters in the Church of Ierusalem were invested with a legislative power so that whatsoever they preached or writ that wee find recorded in the Holy Word of God they are all the Statutes and Lawes of the King of his Church Christ Jesus and by the which all Christs subjects to the end of the world are to be regulated and governed The Apostles and Presbyters in the Church of Ierusalem had power also to abrogate old Lawes and to enact and establish new ones as wee may see Act. 15. and Act. 16. yea they had power of life and death of which wee have one example in Ananias and Saphira Act. 5. yea they raysed the dead cured the lame and healed the sicke with their very shadowes and all this power was given unto them for the ratifying of their authority and to shew they were sent of God withall they had the power of erecting new offices and creating new Officers not onely in Ierusalem but in all the Churches as that office of Deacons in the sixth of the Acts and the
office of Elders or Presbyters in the 14. chapter where it is said that Paul and Barnabas ordained them Presbyters in every Church and therefore they appointed them first in the Mother-church Jerusalem for out of Zion saith the Prophet shall goe forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem yea they gave those Officers their names and invested them all with power to execute their severall Offices as is manifest Acts the 6. and in the 20. of the same booke and in the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus They also had the power of making warre and peace with the Nations and all the Inhabitants of the earth for they preached and published the glad tydings of peace to all such as received the Gospel and denounced warre and death with all manner of judgements to those that obeyed not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ 2 Thess 1. verse 8. and to the Apostles and Presbyters in Ierusalem likewise as to their ultimate and extreme refuge and reliefe and helpe all appeales were made as we may see in the fifteenth of the Acts and in the 6. and in the 9. and in the 15. of the same booke as to the supreme Tribunall upon earth in Gods matters in whose hands all the highest power and soveraigne authority for Ecclesiasticall matters then resided and whose place it was not only to hear the controversies and differences of greatest concernment in Christs Kingdome his Church but also to decide and determine them and put a finall period unto them the which example of theirs was left as a presiâ—ent of imitation to all succeeding ages for Ministers to doe the like upon the like occasions as in that controversie that arose among the Christians at Antioch through false Teachers by whom that heresie was broched viz. that it was necessary to salvation that the ceremoniall Law should be observed and that Beleevers could not be saved without it by which great scandall was given to the weak lewes who by this meanes were alienated from the beleeving Gentiles because they did neglect those Ceremonies whereupon there arose a great schisme and rent amongst the brethren to the disturbance of the Church of God Now for the deciding and determining of this controversie the Christians of Antioch appeale to the Apostles and Presbyters at Ierusalem as knowing that all power was given unto them both Dogmaticall Diatacticall and Criticall yea authoritative and commanding who entring into a Councell and Synod and there debating the busines by Reason Arguments and Disputation and finding by disquisition of the whole matter what was the good will and pleasure of God what hee had revealed concerning the Gentiles and the New Covenant under the Gospel they determined the whole matter according to the written Word of God not pretending any new Revelation or new light or any extraordinary or superlative assistance in the deciding that debate but only exercised that ordinary soveraigne power in the church of God which God had invested them with and given unto them in his holy Word the rule and square of all Doctrines and not onely unto them but to all his faithfull Ministers his servants to the end of the world and in the deciding of this controversie they first shewed and put forth their dogmaticall power confuting and convincing the heresie and vindicating the truth Secondly they declared their diatacticall authority making a practicall Canon or Law for avoyding of scandall and abstaining from such things as gave occasion of it Thirdly they exercised their criticall power and judiciary authority verse 24. condemning and branding those Teachers with that infamous and blacke marke of Lyers subverters of soules and troublers of the Church Fourth and lastly they sufficiently manifested their imparative and authoritative power in sending those Decrees unto the Churches of the Gentiles with doe this and live v. 29. for so much the words imports all which are acts of soveraigne power and authority in all governments whatsoever as the learned know which when they resided in the Apostles and Presbyters of the Church at Ierusalem and were exercised by them there it is sufficiently manifest that all the power of government likewise remained and resided wholly and solely in the Apostles and Presbyters hands and that they exercised it by joynt consent and the Common-councell of them all for all acts of government ever run in the name of all the Apostles or in the name of the Apostles and Presbyters Lastly they had the disposing of the treasury of that Church in their hands as all the Presbyters of all the other Churches had for they brought the monies alwayes to the Apostles and laid them downe at their feet as it appeareth Act. 4. and afterwards all the monies and almes were sent to the Presbyters through all Churches as in whose hands the soveraigne authority lay which they never gave out of their hands or relinquished but upon all occasions gave directions to their severall Deacons how to distribute them for the good of the church and for the common emolument of the poore Saints for otherwise to what end should the almes and benevolences of the Gentiles be sent unto the Presbyters in the churches in Iudaea if they had not beene the men in authority in those churches and to whom the government of them belonged and who only and wholly had the disposing of them Now then when the contribution and releefe was sent unto the Presbyters of the church in Ierusalem as wel as the other churches it followeth that they and they only had the power and authority in that church which they ever exercised by the joynt consent and common councell and agreement of them all for it was sent unto all the Presbyters in every church and therefore they were in common to dispose of them Now before this reliefe was sent thither and long after that as the story of the Acts declareth most of the Apostles resided there and all the Apostles were Presbyters as the Independents themselves doe acknowledge and the same Scripture that relateth that the almes and reliefe were sent speaking in the plurall number saith they were sent unto the Presbyters now they were all Presbyters and therefore they were sent unto them in common and if wee observe the Dialect of holy writ through the whole story of the Acts wee shall find for the most part if there be any mention made of any act of government that either all the Apostles or some more of them are ever made mention of to be the chiefe Moderators and prime Agents in the busines which was never carried by any one of them or by the multitude or people and it it is credibly beleeved that most of the Apostles resided in Ierusalem or in Judaea till after the Councell and Synod at Ierusalem Act. 15. and for the Apostle Saint Iames it is the opinion of most of the Ecclesiasticall Writers that hee continued President of the Presbytery in Ierusalem his whole life time
as hee was President in that Councell in the 15. of the Acts and it stands with very good reason for many yeares after he continued still the prime man in authority there amongst the Presbyters and knew very well the condition of all the Beleevers there and what numbers and multitudes of Disciples there were Inhabitants in that Church all which sufficiently demonstrateth that hee had his residence continually or for the most part in Ierusalem so that Paul comming thither to the Feast as it is related Acts the 21 chapter was informed by him not onely that there were many ten thousands of Beleevers in that Church but what those Disciples had heard concerning his preaching which sheweth not onely that Saint Iames had his aboad in that Citie but that those beleevers likewise were dwellers and inhabitants there and that now hee had very good acquaintance and familiarity with them yea which is more at that very time that Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem with those almes Peter and Iames were then in that Citie if not other of the Apostles also as the twelfe chapter of the Acts abundantly sheweth and without doubt they all joyned with the Presbyters and in a Common-councell ordered how the Alms should be disposed of by the Deacons to the necessity of the Saints yea it doth most necessarily follow what so ever Mr. Knollys and those of his Fraternity shall be able to say to the contrary for the Scripture recordeth that the reliefe was sent to the Presbyters through Iudaea Ierusalem was the Metropolis citie in Iudaea and in the 12. chapter v. 25. it is related that Barnabas Paul returned from Jerusalem whither they had carried the almes so that many of the Apostles being at that time in Ierusalem and the princiall and chiefe Presbyters in that Church amongst the other Presbyters it may not bee credited that they I say being the prime Magistrates and Governours did sit still and leave the rule ordering and government of that Church to other of their fellow Presbyters and them of inferiour ranke but they also acted their parts in the government at that time as well as at others and therefore I say when the disposing of the treasury of the Church or State is an Act of soveraigne power and belongs only to those that are in authority in either and when all the Apostles and Presbyters governed that Church by a Common-councell and joynt consent and when the almes were sent unto all it necessarily followeth notwithstanding all Master Knollys his garrulity that my Argument out of that Scripture will ever stand good to prove that the sending of the reliefe to the Elders makes good these two things the first that the Presbyters were the onely men in authority there and secondly that the Apostles and Presbyters of that Church governed and ruled it by a Common-councell and Presbytery yea Master Knollys his owne words confirmes mee in my opinion who saith it is not denyed by the brethren that the Presbyters in all Churches were the men in the government of the Churches in which they are Elders so that all businesses of publicke concernment were to bee transacted and managed by the common consent and agreement of them all and not by the determination of any one particular Presbyter in either of those Churches much lesse by any other persons or people in them but the Presbyters And this shall suffice to have spake concerning the confirmation of my first Argument grounded upon that Scripture that the reliefe and almes were sent unto the Presbyters of Ierusalem And now I come to what he hath to say against my second argument by which I proved my third proposition which is this as he himselfe set it down in the 12. Page of his book They that in the holy Scripture are called Presbyters and acted and ordered things in a joynt body and common Councell with the Presbyters and exercised that ordinary power committed to them in the 18. of Matthew they acted as Presbyters But the Apostles in governing the Church of Ierusalem consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies acted and ordered things in a joynt body and common Councell with the Presbytery of that Church as Presbyters Ergo the church of Ierusalem was Presbyterially governed and by a common Councell of Presbyters The Major and Minor of this Syllogisme being proved saith the Doctor the conclusion will necessarily insue Thus Master Knollys relates this Argument wholly passing by all the rest And to this argument he first thus replies I know not saith he that the brethren ever deny ed that the Church of Ierusalem was presbyterianly governed So that he assenteth unto the conclusion which is all I contended for by that argument So that by this it followeth that the people had no hand in the government for they are not Presbyters by office And yet such is his ambition to be thought some body in the art of disputation that he quarrels the forme of my Syllogisme and takes upon him to shew me how I should have framed it aright but all those that know indeed what really belongs to learning will easily perceive the man doth but babble and if I should spend time in trifling with him about forms moodes and figures in Syllogisms who knows no more in Logick then the horse he preaches on I might be thought as vain as himselfe therefore intreating him hereafter to learn his Grand-dame to suck and not mee to make Syllogisms passing by all those his grolleries I will set down what he hath farther to reply to this argument in the 13. page and then answer to that and after I have done with him I will come to I. S. that learned Gentleman and profound Clerk Master Knollys to this argument thus farther answereth Though the Apostles saith he were called Presbyters in the Scripture yet it followeth not that they acted as Presbyters but as Apostles Act. 15. And they cannot therein be a pattern and president for Presbyters First because the Apostles had the care and charge of and over all Churches 2 Cor. 11. 28. But the Presbyters had the care and oversight of some one Church onely as Ephesus Act. 20. 28. or Philippi Phil. 1. 1. and this the Doctor often inserts in his book That all the Churches we read of in the New Testament though they were presbyterially governed were Dependent upon their severall Presbyters page 12. And secondly because this would make the Presbyters Independent indeed for so the Apostles were in the government of all the Churches the Presbyters of Jerusalem of Ephesus and of all the Churches were Dependent upon the Apostles and the Apostles only Dependent on Christ by whose holy spirit they were alwaies guided in the government of their churches and therefore they said Acts 15. 28. It seemed good to the holy Ghost and us And though the Doctor say the Presbyters might say so as well as the Apostles because the Elders and Presbyters are mentioned there The
sent to Samaria by the Apostles Act. the 8. and Paul and Barnabas were sent from Antioch by that Church there to Ierusalem and from Jerusalem they were sent againe to Antioch Syria Galatia so that they were as much dependent as any other Ministers of the Gospel and therefore M. Knollys is altogether in error in asserting that the Apostles were independent neither is that true also that the presbyters were dependent upon the Apostles any farther then they commanded in the Lord for there was a speciall caution caveat made to the contrary not only by Christ himselfe who said to all his Followers and Disciples beware of false Prophets and false Christs but also by the Apostles themselves and that in the Synod at Ierusalem Acts the 15. who bad all the Gentiles beware and take heed that they listned not to any as comming from them unlesse they taught according to the word of God and their decrees yea Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians Gal 1. verse 7 8. gives them and all Christians a speciall charge that if hee himselfe or any of the Apostles or an Angell from heaven should teach otherwise then hee had taught them that they should account him accursed and the same doctrine hee delivereth to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 10. and 11. charging them to take heed of fals Apostles although they transformed themselves into the Ministers of Righteousnesse and injoynes Timothy and Titus to doe the same and in them warnes all Christians to beware of false Teachers though they come in the name of Apostles if they bring not the doctrine of Christ and teach not according to sound words and the same doth Saint Peter in his Epistles and Saint Iohn in all his Epistles and commandeth them withall that they should not receive them into their houses nor bid them God speed and the same doth Saint Iude in his and the Church of Ephesus Revel the 2. verse 2. is commended for discovering and casting out the false Apostles by all which and many more proofs and reasons that might be alleaged it is apparently evident that the Presbyters did not depend upon the Apostles themselves but upon Christ whose Ministers and Angels they were and the stars in his right hand Apocalyp the 2. verse 1. who had their authority and Commission as well from Christ as the Apostles themselves had theirs and who preserved and protected them as well as hee did the Apostles bidding them not to be affraid what man could doe against them as the second and third chapters of the Revelations sufficiently declare and therefore they were all dependent upon Christ and not upon the Apostles as Master Knollys fondly saith who were their fellow servants though in a higher degree and order and if wee duly consider the transaction of all the busines in the Synod at Ierusalem Acts 15. the Presbyters were as much guided by the spirit in that Councell as the Apostles themselves as I said in my Argument and shall by and by by Gods assistance more abundantly prove that all the world may see the vanity of Master Knollys who thinkes all men should take for an Oracle every word that fals from his pen though it be never so erroneous and never so lyable to exception and just controule as that other of his expressions is where he saith that the Apostles were alwayes guided by the spirit in the Government of their Churches in the which words there is a twofold error for Peter was not guided by the spirit neither when Christ called him Sathan neither when he denyed his Master nor when he temporized amongst the Galatians besides the Churches were not the Apostles Churches as he erroneously and ignorantly speaketh but they were Christs golden Candlesticks Revel 1. ver 20. who walked amongst them And the Apostles professe 2 Cor. 4. ver 5. that they preached not themselves but Jesus Christ the Lord and themselves the servants of the Church for Jesus his sake and in the first of the Corinthians chap. 3. ver 21 22 23. Therefore let no man glory in men saith the Apostle for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods If the Churches therefore be Christs golden Candlesticks and his Churches and his houses as Paul in the 1 of Timothy averreth ch 3. ver 14 15. where he saith These things I write unto thee that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the house of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth if therefore I say Churches be the houses of God and the Churches of the living God and the golden Candlesticks of Jesus Christ and he be the Lord of them and there be also a speciall prohibition given by Christ himselfe to all his Apostles and to all ministers that they should not Lord it over his people as the Princes of the Gentils did over them that were their subjects how then can Mr Knollys say that the Churches were the Apostles Churches Every man I conceive that hath any ordinary understanding that with deliberation shall read Mr Knollys scriblings will conclude of him That he is altogether ignorant in sacred things and if he had not been a frontlesse man and without all shame he would never have published so many errors and so much ignorance as he hath done to the view of the world neither would he ever have said that though the Apostles were called Presbyters in the Scripture yet they acted not as Presbyters especially when it was proved unto him and all those of his fraternity in my first book that they acted in all acts of Government and in that Synod at Jerusalem Acts 15. as ordinary Presbyters But because Mr Knollys is not yet satisfied about that point nor perhaps never will be for the more ample satisfaction if not to him at least to others I will here prove that point a little more fully viz. that the Apostles acted as Presbyters in an ordinary way as the other did and after I have done that I will briefly also answer Mr Knollys his grolleries concerning the fufferage and votes of the Church and people in that Synod in Ierusalem But first I will prove that the Apostles in the debate and controversie in the Synod and in that whole businesse did not act as Apostles with a transcendent and infallible authority but as Presbyters in such a way as makes their meeting a president and pattern to ordinary Councels and Synods For first Paul an Apostle and Barnabas though both extraordinary men and indued with an infallible spirit yet were at that time sent to Ierusalem by the Church of Antioch ver 2. as servants of that Presbytery who willingly and in obedience to the order of that Church subjected themselves to their determination which they would not have done had they acted as
Apostles and not as Members for that present of the Presbytery of Antioch now all men know that they that are sent as Messengers by command and appointment as they were were not greater then those that sent them which is one of the reasons all orthodox Divines use against Peters Supremacy in that the Apostles which were in Ierusalem Acts 8. 14. sent him and Iohn to Samaria and therefore they conclude that the Colledge of Apostles had authority over him and that they were not subject to him And the same may be concluded concerning Paul and Barnabas that they were subject to the command of the Church And it is yet more evident out of the second verse of the 15 chapter of the Acts Where it is said that when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissention disputation with them that then they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Ierusalem unto the Apostles and Elders about this question out of the which words every one may observe these conclusions following First that Paul and Barnabas used not any transcendent extraordinary and Apostolicall authority in that Church neither did they challenge unto themselves an infallible authority for the deciding of that difference which they might have done if they had then and there acted as Apostles and put forth their Apostolicall power yea which is more it is in terminis said that Paul and Barnabas had no small dissention and disputation with them intimating by those words that they argued and debated the matter by Reasons and Arguments as the other ordinary Presbyters of that Church did which they would never have suffered if they had acted there as Apostles and with an infallible authority and this is the first conclusion may be gathered out of those words to prove that Paul Barnabas acted there as ordinary Presbyters and were not onely at that time subject to that Church but Members of the same The second conclusion that may be gathered out of those words is this That they were sent as the other ordinary officers and the same commands laid upon them that were laid upon the other Now if they of Antioch had looked upon Paul and Barnabas as extraordinary Messengers indued with Apostolicall authority they would have made some difference between them and the certain others spake of in that place but sending them all with equall authority and with one and the same Message and making no distinction between them it sufficiently proveth that they of Antioch in this imploiment lookt upon them but as ordinary Presbyters The third thing observable is this that Paul and Barnabas with those certain others were sent as well to the Elders or Presbyters at Ierusalem about the question as to the Apostles for so runs the text they were all sent unto as having equal authority and as the ordinary Governours and Councellours of the Church and as to such as sat by one and the same Commission Writ or Charter and governed with a joynt consent and by a Common Councel and Agreement And therefore they are all to be considered as ordinary Presbyters in that Councel and Synod and all this I say may be gathered out of that text But there are many other Arguments to prove it because the Presbyters all of them and that all along through the whole debate acted as authoritatively as the Apostles For as the Presbyters were sent unto as well as the Apostles and assembled themselves accordingly v. 6. So they did decree and write the Epistle as well as the Apostles ver 22. 23. and Act. 16. 4. they are called also the decrees of the Apostles and Elders and Act. 21. the Presbyters say Wee have written and concluded manifesting unto all the World that they in that Synod sat and acted by the same authority and were assisted and guided by the same spirit the Apostles were as sitting by the same Commission or Writ And therefore when the holy Ghost makes no difference between them in respect of their authority but only in regard of their names it is a very great rashnesse in Mr Knollys and those of his fraternity to say that the Apostles acted not as Presbyters which is indeed to confute the Scripture and all this to delude the poore people Many Arguments more might be produced to prove that the Apostles acted as Presbyters and were no more then guided by an Apostolicall and infallible spirit then the other Presbyters but for brevity sake I shall only name one more which is this in that they stated the question and debated it from the holy Scripture in the ordinary way disputing Con and Pro arguing and reasoning what they should write and what they should judge of that busines as it is apparent in the 7. verse and many more places in that Chapter by their deliberate suffrages and discourses in that Councell and having by searching the Scripture saith the Holy Ghost found what was the good and acceptable will of God thereupon they say it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us as any Synod or Councell of Divines upon the like assurance of Scripture warrant may doe Now I affirme had the Apostles at that time acted by an apostolicall and infallible Spirit a when they writ the holy Scripture and not as Presbyters they would never have admitted any disputation nor entred into a serious debate and consultation what they should write and judge of that matter but would speedily have dispatched the busines and by their Apostolicall authority and that infallible Spirit they were led with they would have decided the matter and either have said thus saith the Lord as the Prophets of old did or take notice that what wee write are the commands of the Lord dictated unto us by the Spirit of God and would never have gone to consult with others about it or debated the matter by Arguments and reasons which when they did it is a sufficient Argument to prove that the Apostles acted as Presbyters in that Councel and therfore from all that I have now said it is apparently evident that all the Apostles at Ierusalem acted as Presbyters and that the other Presbyters had equall authority and power with them notwithstanding all Master Knollys his bable And this shall suffice to have spake by way of answer to that part of his fond cavill and now I come to reply to his Grolleries concerning the votes and suffrage of the people in the Church at Ierusalem whom Master Knollys joyneth with the Apostles and Elders and makes them equall with the Elders in authority misconceiving what is meant by brethren there his words are these page 13. The Doctor saith hee might have also considered that the Brethren even the whole Church the multitude how many soever the Doctor can make of them were present as well as the Presbyters Act. 15. 4. 12. 22 23. 25. 27 28. and so have made the Brethren the multitude even the whole Church independent also
and the Doctor might as well have affirmed that the Brethren even the whole Church might say it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Thus Master Knollys disputeth not onely against all sound Divinity but against all reason whiles hee would make all the people to have equall suffrage and voices or votes with the Elders in that Councell and therefore Master Knollys shall never be my Master who had hee known any thing concerning governments either in Church or State or had hee ever read any thing concerning Councels in either hee would never have so argued For Councels in all governments consist of peculiar and select men who for their Gravity Wisedome Learning and their inveterate experience are made choyce of and set apart for that purpose and to whom the rule and government of the Kingdomes and Countries wherein they live is committed so that the ordinary people are not to intrude or intermeddle in those affaires whose place it is only to obey and to yeeld subjection to their Ordinances and they that would goe about or indeavour to change this order appointed by God himselfe would speedily bring confusion upon themselves and others and as it is and ever has beene in the matters and affaires of the State and in the Kingdomes of this world so it is in the Kingdome of Jesus Christ which is his Church all things are to be managed with order and decency and by such men only as upon whose shoulders God hath laid that government and into whose hands he hath committed the Keyes those ensignes of authority now when Christ the King of his Church hath given the Keyes to his Apostles and to the Presbyters only and to be continued in their hands to the end of the world they only are to manage the affaires government of the Church to the consummation of all things whose calling and place it is to rule and govern them as who have the care of the churches who are the prime men in authority in them for the ruling and governing of them and the people are onely to obey them and their Ordinances in the Lord and are not to intermeddle in the government of the Church or have their voices or votes in matters of government as hath beene often proved And therefore Master Knollys in saying That the Brethren even the whole Church the multitude how many soever the Doctor can make of them were present as well as the Presbyters and had their voices there is altogether mistaken in his commentary exposition for he by Brethren understanding that the whole Church the whole multitude of Believert men women and children then in Jerusalem for so his words doe import were present in that Councell speakes hee knows not what for it is most certaine by the holy Scripture that the tenth part of the Believers that were in Ierusalem could not have met together in any one place and therefore all the many ten thousands that were there could not possibly have come together in one Synod or Councell and besides the impossibility of it all men know that the Members of Synods and such as have their voices there are Presbyters and Ministers of the Gospel only and such as are sent Commissioners and delegated out of the severall Presbyteries to those Councels for the right ordering and well managing of the government in them and this is their calling and for the other people as the secular Magistrates Masters of Families Wives Children and Servants they are every one of them to continue in that calling and statiou God had placed them in 1 Cor. 7. and all under authority are therein to abide and every one of them to follow their particular negotiations and affaires yeelding obedience in their severall places to those that are over them and women especially by a statute Law from heaven 1 Cor. 14. are injoyned silence in all the Churches and are commanded if they have any doubts to aske their Husbands at home and to be subject and obedient unto them they are not to vote it in Synods neither were women ever that I have read or heard of before such Teachers as Master Knollys and his Fraternity appeared in the world permitted to have their voices in the Churches and Synods which when it is an apparent transgression of the Law of God I am confident that the Apostles and Presbyters then assembled in the Councell of Ierusalem would not have suffered any women to have brake the Lawes of God before their faces and therefore I may with good authority out of Gods Word conclude that there was not a woman in that Synod for the Scripture saith the Synod consisted of brethren and not sisters who had never the Keyes committed to them or any voice there as Mr Knollys vainly asserâ—eth and therefore for women they were not there so that there was not the whole multitude how many soever the Doctor can make them when the sisters are exempted there being none but brethren Besides it was against another statute law from heaven made by the Apostle Paul in the 14. of the Romans ver 1. that weak brethren should be admitted to doubtfull disputations who saith For those that are weak in the Faith receive but not unto doubtfull disputations or ambiguity of disputes for they being not well setled and grounded in Religion would have either been more imbittered against one another or filled more full of scruples then resolved as dayly experience teacheth all men who see what a confusion such paultry fellows as Master Knollys is have already brought inâ—o the world by admitting their weak brethren to their doubtfull disputations and vain janglings uâ—on all occasions Neither will I ever beleeve for my part that the Apostles â—ould be transgressors of their own Laws and teach one thing and practice the contrary now when Saint Paul had made that law that the weak brethren should not be admitted to doubtfull disputations shall we think that the Apostles and Elders at Ierusalem would have admitted the whole multitude of all the beleevers amongst the which there were so many weak brethren into the Synoâ— to those disputes and so have violated this law and statute from heaven especially can any rationall man believe this when they were not at that time so well acquainted with their Christian liberty For this would have tended to nothing but a confusion of all things would have put the people in an uâ—rore as is evident from very good reason for if many years after the preaching of the Gospell and the free grace of God and the teaching of them their Christian liberty they remained still so zealous for the observation of the ceremoniall law of Moses as we may read in the 21. chapter of the Acts that they out of a distempered zeal would have destroyed Paul and onely because they heard that hâ— taught the Gentiles not to observe the law of Moses how would all those weak brethren have been inraged against all the Apostles
that by this their doctrine they not onely rob Christ the King of his Church of his honour and dignity which I made good before but all the holy Apostles and Presbyters his Ministers and Servants also of their honour power and dignity which the King of his Church the Lord Jesus had invested them with and bestowed upon them all which will clearly appear if we shall again briefly consider and but take notice First what power and authority God gave unto his Apostles and to his Ministers which was the power of the Keyes Matth. 16. and Matth. 18. that is all power in his Church under him Matth. 28. and Mark 16. I say if we shall duly in the first place but consider that all the Apostles Christs speciall Ministers and Servants were by Christ himself invested with all authority and guided in their preaching and writing by his holy spirit so that whatsoever they taught or writ as his Ministers were the dictates of his spirit and the commandments of God and were for ever to be the rule of his Church to all succeeding ages to the end of the World and if we consider also what he promised to his blessed Apostles and all his Servants and Ministers that should succeed them viz. that he would be with them to the end of the World to all which Ministers likewise he had given the keys and made them stewards and overseers of his house which is his Church I say if we but duly weigh all these things we shall finde them all invested with plenary authority and by the very commission of God for ever inabled to exercise all acts of Government in the Church and that by themselves without the assistance and concurrence of the people who were never joyned with them in commission but received commands from heaven to obey those that God had made guides over them and made Rulers in his Church I say if we maturely consider all these immunities and priviledges and the power that the Apostles and Ministers of Christ were indued with and that from Christ the King of his church And on the other side shall but consider what learned I. S. in the name of all the Independents his brethren declareth concerning not onely all the ordinary Ministers of the church but what he delivereth concerning the blessed Apostles we shall clearly perceive that herobbs them all of that honour dignity and power which God hath given them and invests the people with it which is a double injustice First in taking from the Apostles and Ministers that which was their due and which God had bestowed upon them And secondly in giving unto the people that which pertained not to them and to which they had no right nor could lay no claime and with which they were not to meddle But take notice of his Doctrine what hee holds and beleeves concerning the ordinary Ministers page 12. In ordination saith hee election belongeth unto the brethren Jmposition of hands is proper to the Officers where there are Officers as in a Church constituted and compleate otherwise if the Church be not compleate according to his learning the people may doe it Thus I. S. speaks there and in the 11 page hee grants it is the Presbyters part to rule But as soone as hee hath spake the word as if hee repented of what he had said hee comes in with a but saying but wee distinguish betweene Authority and Iurisdiction on the one hand and Power and Jnterest on the other this latter belongs unto the people the other is proper unto the Officers which yet they exercise in the name of the Church The Officers saith hee ordaine they excommunicate they leade and direct in all government and disputes they have the executive power but the people have a power and interest too that is in his dialect as hee declared himselfe in the words going before the Officers must exercise all their authority and jurisdiction in the name of the Church and must doe as the people shall direct them for their power is onely the executive power they are onely the executioners of the church they can neither elect any officers nor excommunicate any without they have the leave and good liking from the people for the radicall and originall power lyes in the people and church which if it be not utterly to overthrow the authority of the Ministers and to make them nothing but cyphers in the Church and most sacrilegiously to rob them of that power Christ the King of his Church hath given them and to arrogate it and assume it unto themselves and whether this be not the greatest wickednesse and injustice in the Independents that can be committed against men I leave it to the consideration and judgement of all conscientious and learned men and whether such temerarious and bold impudent theives and Church-robbers ought not with greatest severity and justice to be proceeded against for this their malefice and unsufferable wickednesse who doe not onely take from the Ministers of Iesus Christ whom they ought ever to have in great reverence for their workes sake 1 Thess 5. that honour power and authority Christ hath given them but labour likewise now with all their might to take from them also that that God hath put into the hearts of men his servants to give them viz. their tythes and lively-hood and all that by which they should support themselves and their poore Families which is as intolerable an in justice and ingratitude both towards God and men as can by mortall creatures bee committed which wickednesse of the Independents and Sectaries if the Magistrates shall suffer to goe unpunished I most confidently beleeve that the Lord and King of his Church the Lord of heaven and earth will take the quarrell of his righteousservants into his hand and will poure downe his plagues both on them and all their complices and abettors And now I have made it evident how they rob all the ordinary Ministers and Presbyters of the Gospel of their due honour and power I will make it likewise appeare that the Apostles also are by their doctrine in the same predicament and that they deale no better with them whom they have robbed also and spoyled of their honour power and authority and count of them all no otherwise then of ordinary and common Ministers and but as of a company of Executioners for wee must take what I. S. speakes in this busines to be uttered in the name of all the Independents for hee is but their mouth and his booke came forth by the authority and approbation of them all and was esteemed of as a goodly peece and he highly honoured amongst them for it His words are these page 12. The Apostles and Elders saith he as a Committee first prepared the dispute as not counting it so safe perhaps to admit the weake to the same whiles it was intricate and then reported it and had their assistance and concurrence and the Letters of resolution
and humane learning yea contrary to the very opinion of the learnedst of the Independents for this I. S. his judgement is that the Apostles and Presbyters without the concurrence of the people and Church could not have made the Decrees valid and binding whereas all the Independents besides himselfe joyning with the Papists against the Protestants affirme that the Apostles onely in that Synod and Councell by their infallible authority ratified those Decrees and so they exclude all the Presbyters saying that the Apostles acted not as Presbyters in that Councell but as Apostles stles with a transcendent power and were onely the men who were led and guided in that Session by the Holy Ghost and by a spirit of infallibility which say they the Presbyters were not indued with and therefore their presence onely as Apostles made their Decrees binding which opinion of the Independents howsoever it is very erroneous as I have often shewed in the foregoing Discourse yet it is point blanke against the Doctrine of I. S. who places all the power in the people robbing both the Apostles and Presbyters of their authority and on the other side his brethren they place all authority upon the Apostles and deprive the Presbyters of it and count them but ordinary men and not infallibly there assisted by the Holy Ghost both which opinions as they are contrary unto the word of God so they sufficiently prove that these men are but Babel Builders whose tongues and language are divided and tend to confusion for they are diametrically fighting one against ano ther so that all the world may see that those men that begin once to fight against the truth like the Midianitâ—s they destroy one an other But this has generally beene observed that such men as these are that study to invent Engines to beate downe the truth yet all the vapours of their braine cannot so much as cloud so bright â— Sunne but it will evermore gloriously shine forth to the dazeling of the eyes of all the enemies of the same So that it is a wonder of wonders to mee to see the people generally so hardned by obstinacy that they cannot yet discerne into the craft and juggling of the Ill-defendents predicants who whiles they give the people or Church power and interest to humour them it is not so much out of love to them as hatred to the Presbyterians to build up their Diana Temple of Independency hoping by raysing it to ruine the truth it selfe and to overthrow the whole Fabricke of Presbyterian government which Christ the King of his Church hath appointed and in fine by this meanes to bring in a confusion of all things and a mâ—â—re Anarchy in Church and State But howsoever the Ill-defendents seeke to put out the light of the truth by this their snuffing at it they make it burne the brighter as I. S. and Hanserdo Knollys have done by their snuffing at it And this shall suffice by way of Answer to have replyed to what both these Gentlemen Master Hanserdo and I. S. had to say to my third Proposition I come now to my fourth which I will first set down with their Answers to it and then make my reply as I have done to all their former cavills and I will go on in the same order first answering to Hanserdo and then to I. S. My fourth Proposition is this viz. That the Church of Jerusalem and the government of the same is to be a pattern for all Congregations and Assemblies in any City or Vicinity to unite into one Church and for the Officers and Presbyters of those congregations to govern that Church joyntly in a Colledge or Presbytery And for the proofe of this there needs no great dispute for all men acknowledge that the mother Church must give an example of government to all the daughter Churches now then when it doth evidently appear that this mother Church of Jerusalem in her most flourishing condition and by her first constitution was consisting of many Congregations and severall Assemblies and that they were all governed by a Presbytery or a joynt and common Councell of Presbyters then it followeth that all other Churches should be governed after the same manner as the mother Church was to the end of the World neither doe the brethren deny but the government of the church of Jerusalem must be the patterne of government to all churches and therefore out of that misprision and mistake that she was consisting of but as many as could meet in one congregation they take the church of Ierusalem for imitation and teach all their severall congregations to do the same and to exercise the same power among themselves Independent and to govern with as absolute an authority in their severall Congregations as the whole Colledge of the Apostles and Presbyters did in the church of Ierusalem and from the which they allow of no appeale as all that know their tenents can witnesse So that this last Proposition being strengthned both by reason and the consent of the brethren needs no further proof Now to this my fourth Proposition and the Arguments contained in the same Master Knollys thus replyeth Page 14. Neither do the Brethren deny but the Government of the Church of Ierusalem must be the pattern of Government to all Churches But the Doctor knows that the brethren deny that the Church of Ierusalem consisted of divers Congregations and severall Assemblies under a common Councell Consistory Colledge or Court of Presbyters And this they have not granted neither hath the Doctor proved And this may be sufficient to be said in Answer to the four Propositions touching the first Question This is all Mr Knollys hath to say by way of Answer to this my last Proposition in the which Answer of his I desire the Reader to observe what he in the name of all the brethren granteth and assenteth unto and what both he and they all deny at least as he saith for he personateth them all He grants in behalfe of them all that the Church of Ierusalem must be the pattern of Government to all churches And this is as much as I desire But by the way take notice that Master Hanserdo reckons before his host for I. S. is one of the brethren and yet he Page 13. asserteth that the example of that Church is not bindingly presidentiall Now what he and all the brethren deny if Mr Knollys be worthy of credit are these two things viz. The first That the Church of Ierusalem consisted of divers congregations Secondly they deny that the Doctor hath proved it That all the brethren deny as Mr Knollys saith that the church of Ierusalem consisted of many congregations is not altogether to be believed For my brother Burton none of tne meanest of the Brethren doth not deny it yea he not onely grants it but by arguments proves that there were many Assemblies of Believers in the church of Ierusalem and therefore Mr Hanserdo in this also his assertion
truly preached the Sacraments rightly administred and the name of God rightly called upon and all those essentiall marks made that Church a true formed Church after the New-Testament forme if the Scripture and my Brother Burton may be beleeved and therefore I take notice of this as a speciall error in my Brother Burton that hee makes excommunication the Gospel forme of a true Church for which his tenent I beleeve he will find some moderate check or other from some of his brethren of the congregational way who hold that their particular explicite Covenant is the forme of the Church and this shall serve for answer to that second Grollery of my Brother Burton His third Grollery is that hee saith that the power of admitting and casting out Members was not in the Apostles and Ministers alone but in the Churches which is a notable error in my Brother Burton and Contrary unto many places of the holy Scripture for God gave the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel only the Keyes Matth. 16. Matt. 18. and Matth. 28. and they that had the Keyes and were the Stewards of Gods family could onely open and shut the doores to whom they pleased without the people and we see that the Apostles onely in the second of the Acts without the people received into the Church those three thousand first Converts yea and received Paul into their Fellow-ship contrary unto the Disciples and peoples mind Acts 9. and wee know that Paul by his owne power did excommunicate and deliver to Satan Hymeneus and Alexander and others 1 Tim. chap. 2. verse 1. and we learne in the second and third of the Revelation that the Lord writing unto the Churches sends his Epistles to the Angels as the chiefe officers and blames them for neglecting their duty in not casting out those wicked ones that were amongst them by all which testimonies and many more that might be produced it is sufficiently evident that the Ministers only ought by themselves to manage the government of the Church and that it is their peculiar office and the place of the people to yeeld obedience to what they do and even out of 2. Cor. 2. the same may be gathered where it is said he was excommunicate by many not al. And therefore it is a marvellous great error in my brother Burton to conclude because Paul writ to the church of Corinth for the casting out of the incestuous person therefore the power and authority lay in the peoples hands and not in the Apostles and Ministers alone But these are the unsound conclusions that those of the congregationall way gather too too often from the holy Scripture for the ingratiating of themselves amongst the people whom they pretend much to honour in telling them that they have a power and interest in the government as well as the Ministers have and that the Presbyterians challenge this to themselves joly it is onely to inslave the people and to Lord it over them and that worse then the Prelates and for no other end I am most assured did my Brother Burton bring in this cavill in opposition to my Argument which not withstanding stands firme to prove that John the Baptist did by himselfe and without the people execute his Commission and receive Members into the Church and that from his and the blessed Apostles examples all other Ministers may take this example and doe the same and that by Gods owne appointment as wee shall see more fully in the following Discourse and this shall suffice to have spake to this cavill also of my Brother Burton and all the Grolleries of the same concerning the Baptist and his gathering of churches But now to goe on after the Resurrection and Ascention of Christ and that the Apostles had received the gifts of the Holy Ghost and at their first entring upon their Ministry had preached unto the people and that the people were pricked in their hearts when they heard them it is said that the people addressed themselves onely unto Peter and the other Apostles saying Men and Brethren what shall wee do Then Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gifts of the holy Ghost c. Act. 2. 23 24 then they that gladly received the word were baptized and the same day were added unto them about three thousand soules Here wee may observe these two things The first that the Apostles by themselves alone without the multitude or church admitted the people into the society and company of beleevers Secondly that in the execution of their commission they did nothing but according to their warrant and according to their injunction that was given unto them by Christ they propounded no other condition or termes for the making all and every one of them Members of the Church but Baptisme and Repentance the which when the people had accepted of they were forthwith admitted and that upon their own word and testimony without any more adoe or further inquiry concerning the soundnesse of their repentance without any witnesse from others of their conversation and without the voyce allowance or approbation of the people or the multitude of beleevers in Jerusalem much lesse of the whole Church who were never joyned with the Apostles in their Commission or consulted with by them whether they should be admitted or no into the Fellowship of the faithfull or demanded or asked by the people whether it were not fit that they should take some time of further consideration that they might walke with them to the end that they might behold their conversation and by their owne experience might further be confirmed that their conversion was sound and well Neither did any call for at their hands that they should make a publicke confession of their faith to the Church and give in their evidences to the Congregation that they were converted really or that they should take a private covenant or enter into the Church by way of a peculiar covenant nothing of all this specified But it is onely related that the people upon their being pricked in their hearts applyed themselves unto the Apostles and that the Apostles by their owne authority and that power that was delegated unto them without reference to the Church or people admitted them into the number of Beleevers I expected in this place to have met with Generall Burton or cavalier Hanserdo Saint George his chaplaine knowing what daring men they are that they would have fought me here especially and that they would have indeavoured with all their forces to have beate mee from this ground a place so advantagious that they that are Masters of it may bid defiance to the powerfullest and potentest enemies of the truth and indeed I did so much the more expect their incounter here and that they would have given mee Battell and that wee should have had a pitcht field for it because they
have ever pretended an interest in it yea and challenge a right unto it saying that the church of Ierusalem is theirs and which is more they had by usurpation got this church into their hands and had the possession of it and having thus attained unto their designe being backt with great friends some Tobiasses and Sanballets they began to build castles in the ayre and made Fortifications in their braine and laid a foundation in their phantasie upon which they built an Independent Church consisting of no more then could all meet in one place to enjoy all acts of worship in Gods service and pretended that this Church being the Mother-church was to bee an example and paterne to all the Daughter-churches and that all Churches through the world must be governed after that modell and being by the assistance of many Sanballats and Tobiesses much strengthened as I said before they began to insult and to give Lawes of government to all Churches and to gather and set up churches after their owne modell and being much assured of their owne strength they bad defiance to the whole world flinging and casting their Gloves to all their enemies assembled and not assembled whereupon I being a Commander in the Presbyterian Army and taking up the Glove came out against them and by divine assistance reduced this place and tooke it from them which they had sometime unjustly detayned from the Presbyterians to whom indeed it belonged by the right of inheritance and succession I say I having by conquest taken this strong citie from the Independent Vsurpers that now labour to mannage all government by sea and land in church and state pretending they are Saints and that the Saints must governe the world and being in the possession of it I expected that those two confiding Commanders Saint Hanserdo valiant and venerable old Henry being so compleatly armed as he was with his sword and Phocions Hatchet and with his great white basket-hilted beard that both of them assisted also with I. S. would have come out in battell against me and would not have left the field as Van Trump lately left the sea especially seeing in their march they all passed by the church of Ierusalem and having also so great an advantage against mee they being three to one which makes mee conceive that they are all either desperate cowards or terribly treacherous and in that regard are not fit to be Generals and Commanders any longer in so great an Army as that of the Ill-dependents yea this their declining Battell with mee makes me boldly conclude of them that they deale unmanly on all sides for if the church of Ierusalem be theirs and that they have any interest in it or a right unto it why did they not now ingage themselves in her quarrell and fight for her especially when all their Army lay in the field certainly it had beene much for all their honours now to have shewen their valour and therefore they all of them not striking a stroke proclaime unto all the world their want both of animosity and all heroicall vertue and their want also of honesty in that they pretend a right unto that they have no just title or clayme to and for which they dare not fight in that they amuse the people and stirre up factions on every side and all to strengthen their owne party for the making of a groundless combustion in Church State telling the people that they have power and interest in the government of the Church and that authority and jurisdiction only belongeth unto the Presbyters which they ought alwayes to exercise in the name of the Church and thereupon they perswade them that if they relinquish this their right unto the Presbyters they will more Lord it over them then ever the Prelates did and they teach them farther that this right is derived unto them from the example of the Church of Ierusalem and the other Primitive Churches who when they were cast into a Gospel forme as they say the Apostles and Ministers had not the sole power of governing them but the people also were joyned with them and that they are all of them to have their voices both in electing of officers and in receiving in of Members and casting out of any offenders as well as the Presbyters and Ministers and wish all the people to stand and continue in that liberty wherein Christ hath made them free these and such like unsound Principles they season the people with for the inraging of them against the Presbyters and take all occasions to pervert the holy Scripture for the maintenance of their new-found way of Independency and labour continually by shifts and juglings to evade the dint of any Arguments that are brought against them for the proving that the power of government in the church resideth in the Presbyters and Ministers hands both for the admission of Members and the casting of them out as it did in the hands of Iohn Baptist and the Apostles and Disciples who onely had the authority with the Keyes committed unto them by God himselfe and who onely exercised it in their dayes as by innumerable examples may be proved as by that of Iohn the Baptist and the Apostles in the church of Ierusalem which latter example both my brother Burton and J. S. passe by with great silence wherein they deale most dishonestly as I shall by and by make appeare But for the example of Iohn the Baptist my brother Burton set upon that at first pretending to the people that the example of Iohns gathering in of people by his sole authority was not binding because as hee saith it was extraordinary and that the Churches and Assemblies gathered by him were not formedinto Christian Churches these are his words page 16. and that those Churches onely which were put into a Gospel forme after Christs Ascension are to bee a paterne of government unto all christian churches to the end of the world and he saith if we visit them wee shâ—ll find that in them the power of admitting and rejecting Members was not in the Apostles and Ministers alone and for an instance of this hee bringeth in the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 2. which hee saith is a sufficient President to all churches and thereupon concludes and so perswades the people that the example of Iohn the Baptist in receiving in and admitting of Members by his sole authority cannot bee an example patern to the Ministers under the Gospel to do the same and therefore labours with all his power to evade the dint of that Argument by such turnings and evasions as these telling the people That those Congregations that were gathered by him not being in a Gospel-Form nor moulded up after the New Testament form cannot be bindingly presidential and therefore for our imitation he affirms we must necessarily come to the Christian Churches constituted by the Apostles after Christs Ascension as that one for example the Church of Corinth in which
saith my Brother Burton The people had authority of admitting and rejecting members as well as the Apostles and Presbyters and therefore those primitive and Apostolike Churches onely are to be a patern of imitation to all Christians and Ministers of governing by and not that of the Baptist and by this their craft and juggling and by these fallacious means and unwarrantable wayes my Brother Burton Hanserdo Knollys and I. S. with all the fraternity of the Ill-dependent Predicants having prepossest the people with a prejudicate opinion against their faithful Ministers as if they affected a lordly power over them and more then Prelatical They have I say by this craft so infatuated them that there is scarse left an ear open in many of them to hear the just defence of the Presbyterians or an eye to see or read what they can say for themselves and against all their calumnies which wickednesse and deceitful dealing of the Ildependents itinetary Preachers is unexcusable But because my Brother Burton not onely carps at the example of Iohn the Baptist but likewise at those I brought of the Eunuch of Paul of Cornelius of Lydia and of the Goaler Mr. Knollys also joyning with him in this good service and skirmish the which after that both himself and Absurdo Know-lesse for so he may truly be called had spent their breath and strength to evade and yet perceiving evidence of truth in them so apparently perspicuous as it dazzled their eyes they cry out that those were extraordinary examples and not binding because those being baptized were not admitted or received members into any particular Church but into the Catholike visible Church and therefore say they those examples are not for our imitation we look onely for the example of such Churches as were cast into a Gospel-Form and into the mould of the New Testament-Form Now what a heighth of wickednesse is it in these men thus to trifle for the deluding of the simple people and to pretend unto them that there are divers wayes of admitting of members into Christs Church one way of admitting members into the Catholike visible Church and another of admitting members into a particular Church when in truth there is no difference for he that is a member of any particular Church is a member of the Catholike and so on the contrary as by the examples both ordinary and extraordinary by me produced is sufficiently apparent for they were all admitted after one and the same way and I had two examples of receiving in members into Churches constituted after the New Testament Form as that of Jerusalem and Damaseus both Churches according to the Gospel-Form and there were there three thousand received members at one time in the church of Jerusalem without any of those conditions they require at their members hands and Paul also was received a member of the Church of Damascus upon the same terms that all the rest were and therefore the example is bindingly presidential And these two examples are taken no notice of but are passed by and all the other counted extraordinary by them And the people by this means are deluded and miserably abused Now can there be a greater imposture or deceit in any that pretend unto Religion and honesty then that in these men When they say in their writings upon all occasions produce us some examples of Churches according to the New Testament Form wherein any members were admitted by the Ministers sole authority and without the consent of the people and without those conditions we require of all such as are to be admitted members into our Churches and then you do some thing Can there I say be a greater deceit in any men then this of theirs to make the people beleeve that there hath never been any such example produced when notwithstanding I had set that example of the Church of Jerusalem and that of Damascus both constituted after the Gospel-Form before their eyes in both of which their members were admitted by the sole and alone authority of the Ministers of those Churches without the consent of the people or without any of those requisites they now demand of their members in all their new gathered Churches By which their proceedings they make themselves guilty before God and all men of indirect dealing and of withholding the Truth from the people in unrighteousnesse and manifestly declare unto the world that they are resolved against all the Light of the Truth obstinately to persist in their erroneous wayes which is the greatest height of impiety and wickednesse in the world and no lesse then to resist the Spirit of God For if there had been but the least dram of candor and fair dealing in them they would never have uttered such words and had there been but any Christian honesty and love to the peace of the Church in them they would not have passed by the Church of Ierusalem and that of Damascus unsaluted and without taking any notice of them and fell upon the examples of the Eunuch Cornelius Lydia and the Goaler and then pretend that they were extraordinary But that all men may see my fair dealing with them and if it be possible that I may undeceive the deluded people I will in this place to gratifie my Brother Burton and Absurdo Know-lesse set before their eyes the examples of the two Mother Churches in their Gospel-Form viz. that of Ierusalem Samaria that so by the mouth of two witnesses the Truth may the better be confirmed Now because they took no notice of the Church of Ierusalem in my former Book but passe it by as not worth the regarding I shall desire them at this time and all those that read this Book duly to consider how members were admitted there not onely at one time but always And I shall desire them likewise seriously to weigh the practice of that Church in the admitting of their members the example of which according to their doctrine must ever be followed and imitated And because my Brother Burton says That the other Churches also are to be taken in for the making up of a compleat patern I will produce two other formed churches after the New Testament Form among the Gentiles and them eminent ones that there may be no want of witnesses for the confirming us in the right way of gathering Churches and for the receiving in of members First therefore I shall intreat the Reader to look into the second chapter of the Acts where he shall finde at the first admiâ—sion there were three thousand souls taken in and made Members of that Church by the sole power of the Apostles and where the people had no voice in the admission of them neither was it required that they should walk sometime in fellowship with them that they might have experience of the truth of their conversion neither was it required of them that they should make every one of them a publike confession of their faith and bring in the evidences
of their conversion or that they should enter into a particular explicite Covenant or that they should have the consent of the whole Church nothing of all this was required there neither had the people any hand in the admitting of them but the Apostles by themselves and by their sole authority managed the whole business for those that were converted and pricked in their hearts applying themselves unto the Apostles said Men and Brethren what shall we do and the conditions upon which they admitted them upon their repentance were these onely beleeve and be baptized in the Name of our Lord Jesus the blessed Apostles were not acquainted with our new modell nor with the conditions of the new Congregations But by the way let me tell the Illdependents that the Apostles and Disciples had then a just ground of making such conditions if ever any had for they might with great reason have said howsoever these souls be not miracle proof but that they are wounded to the heart by them and by the Sermon of Peter yet we are not by and by to confide in them and to admit them into church fellowship unlesse they will walk some time with us that we may have experience of the truth of their conversion and unlesse also they will make all and every one of them a publike and particular confession of his faith and bring in the evidences of their conversion and enter also into a particular explicite covenant for observing all the Laws of membership and that they come in by the generall consent and approbation of the church I say if ever there was a time that these conditions might have been required by any it might then especially have been because all those had had their hand in crucifying of the Lord of life as Peter told them and therefore they might all be well suspected that howsoever for the present they were all struck into a trembling condition yet that they could not judge upon so short a time of the soundnesse of their conversion and therefore they might well have urged all the former conditions and chiefly because they had our Saviours own example freshly before their eyes in the second of John where it is related that he would not commit himselfe unto men which had been convinced by his miracles although they beleeved in him so that I say in that regard when Christ would not commit himselfe unto them the Apostles and Disciples might much more have pretended in all these regards that they had no reason to confide in these men until they had had better experience of them for the truth of their conversion But when neither the Apostles nor none of all the Disciples so much as urged any conditions upon them beyond the commission given them by Christ to wit Repentance Faith and Baptism the example of this church is for ever binding to all churches that they in the admission of their Members should do the same and they that propound other conditions do no lesse then accuse the Apostles of injustice and imprudency as of taking that authority into their own hands from the people and of so suddenly and without any deliberation admitting of Members into church-fellowship which ought according to my brother Burtons doctrine ever to be done with great caution who saith in his 14. Page Multa cautela non nocet adding moreover that in things weighty we cannot be too wary in regard they look not so much at circumstances in conversion as the substance and in regard also there ought to be a provident care for preventing inconveniences and scandalls seeing turpius ejiciâ—ur quam non admittitur hospes it is easier for a guest to be kept out then to be cast out by all which his expressions and by their dayly practice they do no lesse then proclame unto the world that the Apostles took too much upon them and were not so prudent in the admission of Members into church-fellowship and communion as they should have bin for if they did not accuse the practice of all the Apostles of deficiency why do they not follow their examples and why do they impose new laws of admitting of Members and other conditions then either Christ the King of his church God blessed for ever or his holy Apostles did Which whether or no it be not one of the presumptuous and blasphemous wickednesses both in the Ministers and the people that exercise this new Government that ever was in the world I leave it to the judgement of all consciencious and solid Christians This one example in the church of Ierusalem might be a sufficient president for all churches imitation for ordinary admission of Members into church-fellowship But I will produce other admissions in the same church that there may be no want of witnesses to corroborate this truth In the last verse of the second chapter besides this first admission in terminis it is said there that the Lord added dayly unto the Church such as should be saved Here we finde additions of Members upon additions for they were dayly added saith the Scripture and that by the Lord and King of his Church Iesus Christ and that upon the former conditions for we learn of no other viz. of repenting beleeving and being baptized Here we finde nothing of walking sometime before their admission here is nothing of publike confession of their faith nothing of bringing in of the evidences of their conversion nothing of a particular explicite Covenant nothing of the consent of the Church the Lord Jesus whiles the Government of his church whose yoke was easie and his burthen light lay upon his shoulders and as long as the rule lay in his own hands and before it came to my brother Burtons fine white fingers which he saith in his learned Epistle that some of his friends would not have him foule with me I say whiles the Government of Christs Church lay in his own hands and before it came to my brother Burtons fingers and into the paws and clutches of those of the congregationall way all Christs Disciples and pretious ones were admitted into church-fellowship without that heavy burthen of those conditions they have most arrogantly brought into the Church of God by which in as much as in them lies they have not only put the whole world in a combustion but most blasphemously dis throned Christ preferring their own vain traditions before his most holy Laws and doing all in the Churches name and inslaved his people whiles notwithstanding they pretend they set up Christ upon his Throne and they preach the liberty of the Gospell unto the people which is most impiously to juggle on all sides But now to go on to the other presidents of admitting Members in that Church In the fourth chapter we have it recorded verse 4. that many of them which heard the Word beleeved and the number of the men was about five thousand And all these were admitted into church fellowship and into the Communion
of the Saints and that by vertue of their beleeving Repentance and Baptism as the Scripture relateth Here is nothing recorded of walking any time for they were suddenly admitted here is nothing of a publike confâ—ssion of their faith nothing of bringing in the evidences of their conversion nothing of an explicite particular Covenant not a word of the consent of the people And yet this was the first formed Church after the New Testament Forme by all which it doth sufficiently appear that all the practice and prattle of the new gathered Churches hath neither precept nor president for it in the Mother Church But it is not amisse to produce an example or two more omitting many through the Acts. In the fifth chapter upon the sudden and miraculous death of Ananias Saphira and through the other wonders and miracles that were wrought it is said that beleevers were the more added unto the Lord multitudes both of men and women that is to say many more Congregations and Assemblies of beleevers were added to the Lord and admitted to be Members of that Church And all these also were admitted to be Members by the Apostles sole authority and that as soon as they offered themselves to be entertained without any of those conditions they now require in their new gathered Churches And yet let me tell the Independents by the way that at this time also the Apostles and Disciples might have challenged a right to have propounded those conditions if they might at any time have been urged upon the people for they might have suspected that this suddain conversion proceeded more from the miracles then from any sound conviction of them from the conscience of their sinne And therefore they might have urged that it was now very fit that they should propound some other conditions of admission then they had formerly imposed upon them and that it was requisite and convenient that they should now walk sometime in church-fellowship with them that they might have more better assurance of their real and true conversion and that they ought therefore before their admission be urged to make all and every one of them a particular confession of their faith and bring in the evidences of their conversion and enter into a particular explicite Covenant for the better preserving of Church Communion especially they seeing now before their eyes a president of so grosse hypocrisie and false dealing in Ananias and Saphira and what a consternation came upon the whole church by it and by the which also God was so much displeased therefore I say in all these regards they might then with very good reason if at any time have urged all those conditions and withall they might well have added that they should not be admitted without the consent of the whole church of all which when there is no mention it is abundantly evident that they were received into church communion without them and that by the sole authority of the Apoâ—tlâ—s which is left for a rule for all other churches to the end of the World of admitting Members after the same manner which when the Independents in all their new gathered churches dayly swarve from in their admission of Members they are in their so doing prevaricators both against the precept of Christ the King of his church and against the example of the blessed Apostles and against the example of the church at Ierusalem which was the first formed church after the New Testament Forme by which practice of theirs they make themselves offenders in an elevated nature Now I will adde one example more of ordinary admission of Members and that in the same Church chap. 6. it is said verse 7. that the Word of God increased and the number of Disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith All these also were by the Apostles sole authority admitted Members of that Church And here likewise the Apostles and Disciples might upon very good ground have urged the imposing of new conditions of admitting Members if they might at any time have done it in regard of those Priâ—sts for they were notoriously knowne to have beene Christs enemies in his life and death and â—ad a great stroke in his crucifying and therefore if the Disciples were affraid of Paul as it is relâ—ted in the ninth chapter because hee had persecuted the Church and in that regard were unwilling that hee should be a joynt Member with them they had very good warrant here of being affraid of this great company of Priests and might therefore have desired that they might not bee admitted Members into Church-fellowship till they had walked some time with them that they might have some testimonies of their true conversion and that they might also for the satisfying of the whole Church every one of them make a particular confession of their faith and bring in the evidences of their conversion and enter into a particular explicite Covenant and be received in by the consent of the whole church all these things I say they might have urged with great authority and have beene as well affraid of these Priests as they were of Paul Now in that the Apostles admitted here of all those Priests as they did of Paul Acts 9. by their sole authority and without their either walking with them in Fellowship some time or without a publicke confession of their faith or bringing in their evidences of their conversion or without a particular explicite Covenant or without the consent of the people I say in all these regards it is manifest to all such as will not put out their owne eyes that all the Independents that impose other Lawes upon the people in their admission of Members into Church-fellowship with them are Trangrâ—ssors in a high degree against both the command and example of Christ who admitted of all that came to him and refused none and against the example of all the holy Apostles and against the practice of the Mother Church and the first formed Church after the New Testament Form and therefore I will be bold to say thus much That all those Ministers and people of the Congregational by-path that shall notwithstanding all that I have now set before them out of the good Word of God still persist in their unwarrantable practices against both the precâ—pâ— and president of Christ the King of his Church and of all his blâ—ssâ—d Apostles they will be found fighters against God and iâ— they do not all of them that have had their hand in these unwarrantable proceedings speedily repent and relinguish thâ—se theâ—â— râ—bellious courses they will highly provoke the Lord King of his Church to come out in wrath and indignation against them And who knows but as he let the devil loose upon the sons of Sceva those exorcists for abusing his Authority and using his Nâ—mâ— for all their wicked dealings I say who knows but the righteous and just God may in
of all things See what Saint James saith in his fifth chapter to all churches and christians in the world Is any man sicke saith hee let him send for the Presbyters of the churches and let them pray over him c. and the prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him The Apostle Iames here sends all christians to the Presbyters of every church who had the power of the Keyes delegated unto them for spirituall comfort and whose office onely it was to pronounce pardon and remission of sinnes unto the sicke upon their true Repentance if they had offended and sinned against God in the time of their health and so scandalized the Gospel and the Church and it was the Presbyters place and office to admit them againe into the fellowship and communion of the Saints upon their coâ—diall and untained repentance and that without asking the church any leave for as the Presbyters onely had the power of casting out offenders out of the Church so they onely had the authority of receiving them in againe upon their repentance and not the Church so if wee looke into all those Epistles that were written unto the seven Churches of Asia in the 2. and 3. of the Revelations we shall find them all directed to the Angels of the seven Churches which is as much as to say to the presidents of every severall Presbytrie established and constituted in every one of those Churches which is a sufficient Argument to me to prove a Counsell or Colledge of godly Ministers in every one of those cities according to that of Paul to Titus chap. 1. verse 5. for this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldest ordaine Presbyters in every Citie not one but many And in the 14. of the Acts verse 23. and when they had ordained them Presbyters in every Church c. many Presbyters a Colledge of them was appointed to every Church and so in the 20. of the Acts there were many Presbyters who had the charge and government of that Church committed unto them in common ver 28. there was a Colledge of them constituted in that church and therefore for order sake which the light of nature teacheth they must have a President who by the way of excellencie and to distinguish him from the other is called an Angel as the inscription of the Epistle Rev. 12. 1. declares saying Vnto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus As in our dialect when we speake of the great counsell of the Kingdome or of the reverend assembly of Divines if there be occasion of distinguishing the Presidents of those councels from the other Judges in those assemblies wee say Master Speaker in the house of Lords or Commons or of the President of the Ministers we say Master Prolocutor and if any have occasion to write to either houses or to the Assembly they direct their letters to the Speakers or to the Prolocutor who communicates them to each Assemblies as being the Presidents of each Society and yet none of all these Presidents by that their place of honour and eminency have any more power or authority then the rest but onely in the casting voyce when the parties upon any occasion are for number equall and for appoynting of the times and places of meeting and for the methodicall and orderly carriage of the busines yea it is ever observed wheresoever there is a President there is a colledge or councell or a court nature dictates this and the custome of all nations proves it and withall by the same light of reason that counsell or colledge to whom God himselfe writes and directs his letters for redressing of abuses has the power in their hands for the rectifying of things amisse and that it peculiarly belongeth unto them as to the Magistrates invested with authority to order things according to direction and to punish and cast out offenders and that by their own power without the consent and approbation of the people as it is now in the great Councell and Parliament of the Kingdome who make not the people acquainted with what they have to do but so far as it pleaseth themselves and not out of any duty And so it was in the government of Gods Church by the first constitution every Church consisting of many congregations were governed by a colledge of Presbyters as that of Ierusalem and this of Ephesus and the other six Churches in all the which the Presbyters by their sole authority governed them according to Gods Word without taking the people into councell with them who were no where joyned in commission with them and therefore it is most apparent by those examples I have now produced and many more that might be added and from the commission that Christ gave to the Apostles and in them to all Ministers that the people had not their voices either for the admitting of any to be Members in any church or in the casting out of any for their delinquency much lesse have they authority to require a publike confession of their faith to be made unto the congregation or to exact of them to bring in the evidences of their true conversion or to require that they should walk with them some time before admission or to enter into a solemn private Covenant before they be admitted as Members for we have no president for any of these things in Gods Word much lesse any command only in Acts the sixt there is mention made that the Apostles for the freeing of themselves from all unnecessary incombrances and that they might the better attend upon their Ministery and preaching gave the people liberty to make choice of their own Deacons but still keeping the power of ordaining them in their own hand which always was arbitrary in them whether they would exercise it or no neither would the Apostles have ordained them unlesse those that were to be ordained had been men so qualified as they had appointed for otherwise it lay in their choyce whether they would ordain them or no. But that ever the congregation or people had the power of admitting of members or of ordaining of Officers it is no where extant in Gods Word But that the women should have a voice in the Church either for receiving in or casting out of members or officers or should have any thing to do with Peters Keys it is against the law of God and nature For Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinths 14. makes it one of the marks of confusion in any Church where women have their voices saying God is not the Author of confusion but of peace as in all the churches of the Saints and in the next verse following in expresse words saith Let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law and if they will learn any thing
let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the Church And what Saint Paul writ to this Church of Corinth he writ to all Churches and proclames that what he writ to them were the commandments of the Lord ver 37. so that God had commanded that the women should not speak in the Church and saith that it is a shame they should and yet in these our dayes in many of the new congregations they have their voices in choosing of officers and admitting of Members and have all of them Peters Keys at their Girdle and make learned parts of speech in the congregation and dispute questions and debate of matters and give their reasons con pro as it is credibly reported and others of them set â—orth and print learned Treatises in polemicall Divinity with great applause and admiration of the Independent Ministers who cite their authority and quote them in their writings as classicall authors to the shame of the Nation and ludibry of Religion and howsoever there is not any that shall more honour the truly vertuous and pious of that sex than my selfe yet I must confesse when I see how far they become transgressors of the law of God and do those things that the holy Apostle hath not onely forbidden but proclamed a shame I cannot but exceedingly blame them and those Ministers that allow of and approve of such rebellion against God and nature And as if it had been the speciall care in the Apostle to prevent this evill of womens intermedling in matters of the Church he foreseeing the confusion that would be brought in upon it In his first Epistle to Timothy and in him to all Ministers to whom the Government of the Church was committed he gives him direction how to behave himselfe in the house of God which is the Church of the living God in chap. 2. verse 11. 12. hee saith Let the women learne in silence with all subjection for I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silence for Adam was first made then Eve and Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression c. Here the Apostle againe and againe twice in these few words enjoyns them silence in the church and imposes upon them subjection and obedience I suffer not saith he a woman to teach or to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silene and he giveth his reasons of this his command because saith he Adam was first made not by the woman nor of the woman but the contrary and therefore shee may usurpe no authority over the masculine sex especially in Gods matters and she is to be the disciple of the man and not the man her scholar and therefore that superiority that the God of order had established upon the man in the first creation hee doth now re-establish upon him againe in his holy Word after all things through sinne had beene disordered and confused and commands the woman to be both subject and silent especially in the Church Another reason of this his command is because the woman was first in the transgression and was the cause of Adams fall as hee accuses her and her disputing and voycing of it then brought confusion upon all man-kind and for this her so doing S. Paul concludes for ever hereafter that she ought to hold her peace be in subjection to her husband and ought to learne in silence at home but more especially in the Church for if they come to voice it once againe in the Church as Eve brought confusion upon man-kind by her disputation and reason so these with their loquacity and babble and confusion of voyces will bring in a new Babel into the Church and State as they have prettily well already begun to doe Saint Paul saith I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurpe authority over the man but to be in silence Here the Apostle as in the place above cited out of 1 Cor. chap. 14. commands them silence and permits them not to speake and expressely forbids them to usurpe authority over the man that is the viril sex Now I appeale unto any understanding creature whether or no to make large parts of speech in the Church as many of them upon occasions doe and dispute and give their reasons con pro be not to speak in the Church and whether to have their voices in either admitting of Members or Officers or in the casting of them out be not to usurpe authority over the man for all the world knows that they that have the power in their hands of either admitting of any into the fellowship or communion of the Church or of hindring their coming in or have their voices for the casting of them out when they are received exercise and usurpe authority over those they so deal with and there-fore they do against the expresse prohibition of the Apostles and all those women that have usurped this authority and all those Ministers that have permitted them so to do or taught this doctrine unto them are all guilty of great contumacy against God and ought seriously to repent for this their temerity and rebellion and it will be the imortall honour of those women that have not intermedled and if there be not some speedy course taken by authority to forbid such disorder we may promise nothing to the Church and whole Kingdome but confusion It hath ever been observed that Hermaphrodite councels in any Kingdome or Country when women that are subjects intermeddle in government and matters of state that that Kingdome and Country is very crased and not far from ruine and destruction and we need not look into many ages or countries for presidents of this kind and if Hermaphrodite counsels in Kingdoms have ever been so fatall unto them what may any man think in time will become of this Church and Kingdome when the women have gotten Peters Keys at their girdle and have their voices in many congregations and a power of ordering and disposing of things in Church affairs Certainly nothing but confusion can be expected for this their doing is against the expresse command of God who is the God of order and injoyns the contrary Yea it is not onely against the law of God but against the very law of nature and the practice of all Nations for never was it yet heard of in any well governed City or Commonwealth or Kingdome that women that were subjects had their voices in choosing officers or Burgesses or making of freemen or disfranchising of them or were permitted so much as to sit in counsell with them much lesse to rule and give laws to others out of their own houses And therefore as it is a thing odious to God and man and that which is a shame to that sex it ought to be cast out of all wel-governed Churches and States and as the women ought to know their
their own and therefore if the name of Presbyters be odious in the Ministers of the Church of England no reason can gainsay it but that they also should be as odious to the people as their brethren for they also are Presbyterians But that the truth may the better appear whether the Ministers of the Church of England or the Independent Ministers be most guilty of all the accusations laid to their charge it will not be a misse to compare the practice of the Ministers of the church of England and the proceedings of the Independent Ministers together and that both for their doctrine and discipline and in their severall studies and endeavours for the advancing of Christs Kingdome and by so doing it will be easie for any to judge which of their governments and which of the Ministers are more intolerable and which of them are most guilty of those foule reproaches the Ministers of the church of England are aspersed with by their Brethren for he hath a shallow understanding and a very dim sight that cannot discern whether those that advance Christs their Kings Word and Laws onely and follow his commission and the example of the holy Apostles in their Ministeries and that of John Baptist and the primitive Preachers or those that set up their own inventions and prefer them before the Laws of Christ and have neither precept nor president for their doings in all the holy Word of God He I say that cannot judge which of these most advance Christ for their King either those that obey Christs Laws or those that observe their own neglecting Christs is of a very shallow capacity But now let us compare them together the Ministers of the Church of England preach faith and repentance the Law and the Gospell according to Christs commission given to his Apostles and they receive all into the Church that beleeve and are baptized and such as but desire to be admitted they demanding of them what they should do to be saved and in their so doing they have both precept and presidents For Christ in his commission unto them hath given them authority so to do Neither did he ever say unto his Apostles and Ministers admit none into the church although they beleeve and are baptized without they walk with you some dayes weeks moneths or years that you may behold their conversation and manner of life and after you have had some tryall and experience of them see then that they make a publike confession of their faith before the church and give in the evidences of the truth of their conversion before the congregation and enter into a private and solemne Covenant and be admitted by the consent and approbation of the Church or otherwise if they will not submit themselves to this Law and come into the Church upon these conditions receive them not into your Assemblies nor admit of them for members Here is nothing of all this in Christs Commission nor in his holy Word nor any president of the same in sacred Authority and therefore John the Baptist and the holy Apostles and primitive Ministers admitted all that came unto them and such as but demanded of them what they should do to be saved and baptized them and received them into the Church without any gainsaying or question as we may see in the third of Luke and in the seventh chapter of the same book and in the second of the Acts and no sooner did the Eunuch desire baptisme but Philip granted it the Goaler did but aske Paul and Sylas What they should do to be saved and they said Beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and it is related that the Goaler and all his were streight way baptized Acts 16. vers 31 32 33. that is they were forthwith admitted into the Church without either walking any time with the Church for their approbation or without either making a publike confession of their faith before the Church or giving in evidences of the truth of their conversion to the congregation or entring into a private covenant and without the consent and allowance of the Church And Christ notwithstanding was imbraced by them as their Lord and King and was preached by Paul and Silas as the Lord and King of his Church and was set up upon his Throne as King by them as well as he is in any Independent Churches and yet they had none of all their new borne truths and they could then see how to set up Christ upon his Throne without their new lights and as Christ was then by Paul and Silas and the other Apostles set upon his Throne as King in all those primitive Churches so he is at this day in all the true Protestant Churches through the world as well as in any of the Independent Assemblies and yet they were and are all ignorant of their new way so that any understanding christian may gather that all their new borne truths are no way requisite for the setting up of Christ as King in his Church nor for the advancement of Christs Kingly government for if they had Christ would have put them into the Apostles Commission and the Apostles who were led into all truth by the holy Ghost who brought whatsoever Christ had taught them concerning the Kingdome of God Act. 1. into their memories would have suggested all these things The new way the new borne truth the new lights to them that they might have been recorded if they had been necessary for the setting up of Christ upon his Throne but when neither Christ nor the holy Ghost nor the blessed Apostles have prescribed any of all these to the church nor called for them nor required them of any that desire to be saved or made Members of the church whether this be not a great temerity in any men to preach all these things as the lawes of Christ I leave it to the judgement of any ingenuous minded christian and whether this be not to preferre their own inventions and traditions before the commandements of God and the lawes of Christ the King of his church and whether this be not rather to set up themselves than Christ I referre it also to any judicious and impartiall christians to weigh and consider I shall now demand of any moderate christian therefore and let him answer me candidly whether of those Ministers and people most advance the Kingdome of Christ and acknowledge him to be their onely Lord and Law-giver that both in their teaching and beleeving follow his commission and Word and teach nothing nor beleeve nothing as they are injoyned but what Christ their King commands them or those that to the commission and commands of Christ adde their own inventions and traditions and preferre them before the lawes of Christ the King and Law giver of his Church I am confident if he will deale impartially he will answer me that those Ministers and that people most advance Christ for their King
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men The old Puritans of England had fully learned this Lesson of obedience to all authority both civill and Ecclesiasticall being commanded to obey them that have the rule over them and to submit themselves unto them as who watched over their soules as those that were to give account c. Hebr. 13. 17. and this doctrine they did inculcate incessantly unto the people and for the government Ecclesiâ—sticall the old Puritans of England did beleeve it was that Presbyterian Government that is now contended for by all the Presbyterians as is to be seene at large in the learned Workes of that ever to be honoured Master Cartwright in his disputations against Bishop Whitgift who for his zeale to that government was called the Father of all the Puritans They also did beleeve that all government both Ecclesiasticall and Civill was radically originally and inherently in God and Christ and from them derived to the Kings Princes Nobles and Iudges of the earth and to all the true Ministers of the Gospel in his Church who all have their authorities immediatly from God and by whom alone according to the Holy Scripture they rule and command they never durst be so blasphemous as to rob God of his honour and glory and the Kings Nobles and Judges of the earth and the Ministers of the Gospel of their severall powers saying that Kings and Nobles and the Rulers of the earth and Ministers in Christs Church and Kingdome were the creatures of the people and that the people were the soveraigne Lord both of Kings Nobles Parliaments and Ministers and that the authority which they exercised was inherently in the people and that they might give it and deposite it into whose hands they pleased and where they lusted and call any of their Rulers and Governours to an account and appoint them their times and seasons when they should meet and tell them what they should doe and displace them at pleasure as they shall thinke fit all these Lessons of Blasphemy the old Puritans of England were ignorant of which learned nescience of theirs is commendable They had beene better taught from all the Holy Prophets and blessed Apostles who both by precept and example have instructed the people of God in all ages to yeeld obedience to those that were Governors over them as wee may reade through all the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament where we find what reverence even Father Abraham the Father of the faithfull shewed unto all Kings under whose government he lived in the time of his Peregrination and where wee reade also what reverence Ioseph yeelded unto Pharaoh and how Iacob his Father demeaned himselfe with all the Patriarks to Pharaoh and those that were over them in authority and how Ieremiah behaved himselfe to the King in his time and how the three Children and Daniel carried themselves to the very Kings of Babylon though heathen Princes never speaking unto them nor comming before them but with all reverence deprecating all evil from them upon all occasions praying for their welfare yea Christs example ought to be for our imitation who opened not his mouth the same we find in all the Apostles whensoever they were brought before authority with what sweetnesse of language they carried themselves towards them and what reverent expressions they used to all in authority though never so wicked when they were brought before them yea if they had fayled but in the least expression how soone they would recall themselves for when Ananias commanded them that stood by Paul to smite him on the mouth Act. 23. and he in passion beholding his injustice said God shall smite thee thou painted wall when it was replyed unto him revilest thou Gods High Priest Paul stands not upon the justification of his words but meekly answers I wist not brethren that it was the High Priest for it is written saith he Exod. 22. 27. thou shalt not speake evill of the Ruler of the people Paul had learned his Lesson well and soone recollected himselfe acknowledging his error that he had deviated from the rule which is there recorded for all mens imitation in after times to the end of the world to square their lives and obedience by they are not by that to speake evill of the Ruler of the people whether he be Ecclesiasticall or civill and if they may not speake evill then they may not resist their authority and unihilate their power which is the extremity of evill and rebellion yea all men are forbid so much as in their Bed-chamber to curse or think evil of those in authority how much more are those then blame worthy that not only think evill but speak evill yea write and publish evill against Kings Nobles and Judges of all sorts both civill and Ecclesiasticall and divest them all of their authority speaking evill of Dignities and assuming the Soveraignty of them all to themselves that from God himâ—elfe calling themselves the soveraigne Lords of them all giving them Lawes to rule by and denying them their due reverence in the face of the Kingdome as lately some of the Independents and Sectariâ—s have done both to the House of Lords and Commons Surely such mens damnation sleeps not whatsoever they pretend and how highly soever they carry themselves and by whom soever in these their evill doings they are supported backed and seconded For Saint Peter in his second Epistle that knew very well the mind of God concerning such men in the second chapter saith this of all the wicked verse 9 10 11 12. c. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished but chiefly them that walke after the flesh and despise Dominion and Government whom hee cals presumptuous selfe-willed that are not afraid to speake evill of Dignities which the very Angels saith hee though they were greater in power and might would not doe against the Devill being in authority though it were usurped but those as naturall brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speake evill of things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their owne corruption and shall receive the reward of unrighteousnesse Here is a fearfull Doome pronounced against all such people as spake evill of Dignities and Saint Iude likewise in his Epistle seconds Saint Peter verse 8 9 10 c. calling such men as despise authority and speake evill of Dignities filthy Dreamers and compares them to brute beasts and unto Cain and unto Balaam and unto Corah Dathan and Abiram pronouncing woe unto them all and proclaiming them spots and deformities in all companies and societies calling them moreover clouds without water creatures empty of all goodnesse trees whose fruit withereth yea without fruit twice dead here in this world in their sinnes and trespasses and eternally in the world to come and as if hee could never have spake enough of such men as
despise Dominion and speake evill of Dignities hee cals them raging waves of the Sea foming out their owne shame wandring stars to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darkenesse for ever against whom he saith the Lord will execute judgement for all their ungodly deeds and for all their hard speeches stiling them Murmurers complayners whose mouths speak great swelling words having mens persons in admiration because of advantage desiring all men to remember the words of the Holy Apostles and of our Lord Jesus Christ who fore-told the people of God that there should be such Mockers in the last times who should walke after their ungodly lusts and that they might the better take notice of them and know who these men both Christ and the Apostles spake of he saith they were such as should separate themselves sensuall not having the spirit he describes them to be an unsanctified race of men whatsoever seeming holinesse they make a shew of and such as ought to be avoyded and shunned of all such as desire to please God and avoyd that condemnation that was denounced against all such as despised dignities and resisted authority and even as the Lord by his servants commanded the people to separate from the company of Corah Dathan and Abiram and to goe from their tents lest they were involved in the same miseries and calamities that were coming upon them for their rebellion against Moses so ought all the people that indeed do truly fear God decline the companies and societies of all such as now oppose authority and make themselves the soveraign Lords of the Kings and Rulers and Judges that God hath appointed over them for surely a greater unrighteousnesse cannot be perpetrated against God then thus superciliously to trample upon authority and to despise those that are over them which is the dayly practice of the Independents and Sectaries all which unrighteousnesse the old Puritans of England were not guilty of having been better taught and therefore in this part of duty the Independents are different from the old Puritans of England who walked not in this way of unrighteousnesse and therefore the Sactaries have not out-stripped them in this point of obedience to authority but they are indeed overgrown and are become monstrous in their rebellious practices Yea so far they are from reverencing those in authority as they are grown to that height of pride and unrighteousnesse as many of them will not so much as pray for the very Parliament or the Assembly either privately or publickly as can sufficiently be proved by such as are acquainted with them and their practices for not long since in a great Assembly and Congregation of Independents one of their Predicants being in prayer after he had put up many petitions and requests in behalfe of their fraternity thus expressed himself speaking unto God Now Lord saith he we should come to pray for the Parliament and Assembly but they are not worthy the prayers of the Saints and so with disdain he passed them by as unworthy of their prayers then the which what could be spake more wickedly and contrary to the practice of all the old Puritans of England who in all their prayers and supplications private and publick ever with tears prayed for all in authority I affirme that this practice of the Independents is not onely one of the highest strains of all unrighteousnesse and contrary to the practice of all the old Puritans of England but contrary to all the practice of all the Saints that ever yet lived in the world and contrary to all the commands of God both in the Old and New Testament For we have read how earnestly Moses prayed for the rebellious Israelites wishing himselfe rather to be blotted out of the book of life then that the Lord should destroy them and so did Paul wish for his Countrymen the Jews Samuel also when the people desired him to pray for them 1 Sam. 12. v. 23. God forbid saith he that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you c. So that the holy Prophet makes it a sin in either Ministers or people not to pray for their brethren and especially those in authority for this was the practice of all the Prophets the Lord told a heathen King that Abraham his servant should pray for him yea father Abraham prayed for the very Sodomites and the Kingdoms in which they dwelt Gen. 18. And the people of Israel when they were in captivity in Babylon had a command from God himselfe to pray for the welfare of very Babylon and the Princes of the same and we have read what supplications Daniel Ezra and Nehemiah put up in behalfe of those heathen Princes under which they lived as well as for their own Countrymen And Saint Paul gives it in charge to all Ministers and people 1 Tim. 2. to pray for all men ver 1 2. I exhort saith he that first of all supplications prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men For Kings and all that are in authority that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godlinesse and honesty For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour So that here there is not onely an exhortation to all Christians in generall but in speciall to Ministers to pray for all men but primarily for those in authority and reasons grounds are also given by the Apostle of incouragement to this duty viz. because that it is a good and acceptable thing in the sight of God tending also for the peace quiet and tranquillity of them all and which is more to all godlinesse which is the glory of all peace and therefore that they ought to pray for those in authority And this exhortation of the Apostle all the old Puritans of England did ever most diligently observe and follow praying for them that were in authority night and day whereas the Sectaries were never in private heard pray for either King or Parliament or the Scots or Assembly How wicked a thing therefore is it in the Independents and Sectaries and what a part of unrighteousnesse is it in them dayly to omit this duty who will neither pray with their brethren nor for them but separate from all their societies as from a people unholy yea how impious and rebellious a thing is it in them against both God and all authority to say and that in a disdainfull manner even in their publike meeting places and congregations that neither the Parliament nor Assembly are worthy their prayers yea it is well known and can be proved that they pray against them and the King himselfe and that not onely privately but in their congregations publikely Surely if either the Parliament or Assembly or the Presbyterians were as bad as the Kings of Babylon or the persecuting Jews yet they ought to be prayed for For we have a command to pray for all men yea for our enemies and those that persecute us and
them and to convent any offender before them and to proceed against him by censure and punishment If the crime layd against him were sufficiently proved and that the people under them were to yeild obedience unto them in the Lord such a power was every Presbytery invested with through all the Apostolicall churches and this Mr Knollys hath acknowledged in divers places in this his Pamphlet in this his very answer concerning Diotrephes as we shall see by and by And all this S. Iohn could not be ignorant of and that in the Church of Ierusalem in which hee was both a Pastor and a Member that the Presbytery ruled there and that all the people made their addresses as well for the good of their soules as for the better rectifying of abuses to the Apostles and Presbyters of that Church and appealed alwayes unto them and never applyed themselves unto the people or the multitude as we may see in these particulars as First when they were pricked in their hearts they applied themselves unto the Apostles for direction saying men and brethren what shall we do Acts 2. they went not to the church or people but to the Apostles knowing that the Ministers were their guides and that they were to be directed by them and that they were bound to obey them And so in the fact of Ananias and Saphira his wife when they had purloyned the goods of the Church for whereas it was ordered and agreed upon by common consent that the price of those possessions that were sold should be layd down at the Apostles feet and that distribution should be made unto every man according as he had need contrary to this order Ananias kept back part of the price Saphira his wife also being privy to it Hereupon the people appeal unto the Apostles in whose hands the government then lay and who had power to censure and punish them as they did for that their delinquency as it is to be seen Acts the 5. they went not to the people and Church but applyed themselves to the Presbytery and of this proceeding Saint John was not ignorant Again when the widdowes were neglected in the daily ministration for the taking away of this abuse they appealed unto the Apostles as we may see in the sixt of the Acts and not unto the Church or people who ordered that businesse and determined the controversie amongst them to which the people assented This also Saint Iohn was not ignorant of And he knew very well that the Presbytery in Ierusalem and all other Churches had power to send any of the Apostles or their other Ministers into any other place to preach or upon any message as we may see it Acts the 8 and Acts 14 15. For the Presbytery of Ierusalem sent Peter and Iohn to the City of Samaria to preach amongst the people there which they could not have done except the Presbitry had had power and authority in their hands over theÌ„ we see also the same in the Church of Antioch where they sent Paul and Barnabas and their ministers to the Presbitry at Ierusalem the Presbitry of Ierusalem they likewise sent their decrees by their Ministers through all Cities and Churches which they could not have done had they not had authority over the Ministers Again S. Iohn knew very well that the power of admitting of members lay not in the peoples hands for we read Acts the 9. When Paul came to Ierusalem and assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples and that they being affraid of him believing not that he was a Disciple St Paul appeals from them to the Presbytery of the Apostles in whose hands the government lay and declaring unto them how matters were they admitted him into fellowship with them without the consent of the people their good liking for the government did not belong unto them All these proceedings Saint Iohn knew very well and therefore could not be ignorant that there was a Court and Councell to appeal to in all Churches Yea Saint Iohn knew also that the Presbytry of Ierusalem had power and authority over any of the Apostles and did upon any occasion convent them before them as we may see in the 11. chap. and 21. where Peter was called before the Presbytery for going in to the Gentiles and was therefore to give an accompt of his actions there which he did all with shews there was there a standing Court and so in the 21. chapter the Presbytry gave Saint Paul an order and direction how to behave himself toward the weak ones which he followed all which shewes that they only had the power in their hands and that there was a court there and that it belonged not to the people all these things I say S. Iohn was not ignorant of therfore knew very well that in that Church also where Diotrephes was a Presbyter there was a Court and Common-councell of Presbyters to appeal unto or else he would never have said If I come I will remember his deeds But why should I spend time in proving that which to any understanding man is as evident a nd clear as almost any other truth in the holy Scripture especially when Mr Knollys hath proved it himself in formall words in many places in this his answer for he confesseth that there was a Presbytery established in every Church and that the government of those Churches was put into the Presbyters hands and that the people were to obey those Presbyters as their guides and in expresse termes page the seventh saith Therefore the Apostle writes to the Church or particular congregation whereof Diotrephes was a Member and an Elder who he knew had power to judge him as well as the Church or particular Congregation of Corinth had power to judge them that were Members therein 1 Cor. 5. 12. 13. And therefore might as warrantably admonish Diotrephes as the Church of Colosse might Archippus Coloss 4. verse 17. in these words He confesseth that Saint Iohn knew that the Church whereof Diotrephes was a Member and Presbyter had power to judg him which doth necessarily infer that there was at that time a court there for judgement and censure and inflicting of punishment is the act of a court or Magistracy and of those that are in authority and armed with power besides for further illustration of his meaning he saith that the church Saint Iohn writ unto had the same power over its Members that the church of Corinth had over its Members Now all men that have read the first and second Eâ—istle of Paul to the Corinthians know very well that there was a court in the church of Corinth with plenary authority from Christ himselfe both to convent and censure and that with the severest punishment those that did publikely scandalize the Gospell as is evident by the excommunication of the incestuous person now if that church that St. Iohn writ unto were equall in power to that of Corinth and that
of Colosse and to all the other Apostolicall churches as Mr Knollys confesseth and laboureth to prove then these conclusions will necessarily follow from his argumentations The first that Saint Iohn could not be ignorant that there was a court and common-councell of Presbyters in that church to appeal unto for Mr Knollys saith that Saint John knew that that Church had power to judge Diotrephes and therefore in this contradicteth himselfe for in the sixth page he affirmed that Saint Iohn knew not any such court 2ly it follows that there was an Uniformity of government in all the Apostolicall and Primitive churches W ch wholy overthroweth the tenent of many of the Independents who hold the contrary so that one church had not one manner of government and another church another manner of government peculiar unto it selfe and distinct from the other but they were all governed alike by their severall Presbyteryes and had equall authority and power within their severall precincts as the church at Ierusalem Ephesus Corinth in all which there were many congregations and yet all of them made but each of them a particular church within their respective jurisdictions and were all to be governed by the joynt consent of there severall Presbytries And lastly that this order of government was to be perpetuated to the end of the world which when Saint Diotrephes laboured to violate in assuming it to himselfe and his congregation both hee and all these that follow his steps deserve severely to be punished for it as prevaricators against both precept and example of all well ordered churches and Christians And this shall suffice to have replyed by way of answer to what Mr Knollys had to say for proofe that Saint Iohn knew not of any Court or Common-councell of Presbyters either classicall or synodicall to appeal unto in his time And now I come to make good those appeals I made mention of page 10. which Mr Knollys thinketh a thing impossible for me to do to wit That every particular man as well as any assembly or congregation may have their appeal to the Presbytery of their Precinct Hundred or Division under whose jurisdiction they were and if they finde themselves wronged there then they have appeales to some other higher Presbytery or Councell of Divines for reliefe and justice These appeales Master Knollys saith I cannot make good to be according to the Scripture of truth although the having recourse by appeales from Inferiors to Superiors and from one Court to another is so evident by the very light of nature and approved of by the practice of all Nations and Churches in all ages and is also so apparent by the holy Scriptures both of the old and new testament as there is scarce any truth more obvious to all understanding men yet Master Knollys peremptorily asserteth that they cannot be made good out of the Scriptures of truth so that it is manifest to all men that be there any truth never so perspicuous he is resolved to beleeve nothing but what he conceiveth to be according to the Scripture of truth Therefore for the gratifying of Master Knollys and all such as with candour and ingenuity and without any prejudice shall reade the insuing lines I shall in this place adde something more fully and distinctly to that which I spake in the foregoing page for the proofe of those appeales I mentioned page 10. and sufficiently evince they are warranted by the Word of truth and for that purpose I shall first produce the authority of holy Scriptures and bring forth some Presidents out of the unerring word for the confirmation of the same and then I shall also ratifie the use of appeales by reasons and from the practice of all ages in all Nations And all this I shall the more willingly do in this place although it is done againe and againe in this treatise and onely because Master Knollys affirmeth that I cannot make good that appeales be according to the Scripture of truth And for proofe ofthis I will begin with that of our Saviour Matth. 13 vers 15. Wherefore saith he if thy brother shall trespasse against thee go and tell him of his fault betweene thee and him alone c. But if he heare thee not appeale higher to two or three more And if he shall neglect to heare them appeale yet higher tell it then unto the Church that is to the Court of Presbyters in that precinct So that from this place it is evident that appeales are warranted by the Word of truth for truth it self hath taught us the Doctrine of appeals And for Presidents of appeales there are many in the New-Testament to say nothing of the Old To begin with that in the 5. of the Acts which we finde recorded after Christ's ascension in the questioning of Ananias and Saphira whereas by conjoynt argrement it was appointed and ordered amongst them that all things should be common and that selling their possessions they should bring the price of them and lay it also at the Apostles feet which very expression signifieth and denoteth what great authority and power the Apostles and Presbyters in the Church of Jerusalem were then in and sufficiently declares that there was a Court there as all the carriage of that businesse doth abundantly prove I say therefore when they had made such an order by common consent and when it was found out that Ananias and Saphira his wife had not dealt faithfully in that businesse nor according to publike agreement but had consented together to deceive their brethren and by that had scandalized the Gospel the Church or people for the redressing of this abuse take not the matter into their owne hands nor challenge not any power unto themselves for the punishing of Ananias and Saphira as well knowing their place then and that the government did not belong unto them but to the Elders and Rulers over them they appeale therefore unto the Apostles and make their complaint unto them and exhibit their Articles against Ananias and Saphira as both guilty of the same crime whereupon they were convented before the Apostles as Delinquents Peter then being there president and chiefe judge and finding them guilty sentenced them both from God himselfe and punished them for their sinne with death by which we may take notice not onely of an appeale but that there was a standing Court of Presbyters in Jerusalem and that they had in it plenary power from Christ for the tryall and punishing of all offenders and of casting them out of the Church if Scandalous as well as the Church of Corinth and it stands with all reason for Jerusalem was the mother Church and therefore was inferior to none of the Daughter-Churches and to this Court of Presbyters were all appeales ever to be made by the people of that precinct as this one instance doth sufficiently declare And that other president in the 6. of the Acts where we have a second appeale upon an other publike
scandall which was the neglect of their widdowes in the daily Ministration where they applyed themselves unto the Apostles for the particular congregations assumed not the authority into their hands of redressing the abuse nor challenged not any right to the government but appealed unto the Apostles for remedy who ordered that whole businesse by joynt consent to which all the people willingly submitted themselves as it is at large to be seene in the sixt Chapter of the Acts. The third appeale we finde Acts the ninth where Paul assaying to joyne himself to the Disciples and they being afraid of him and doubting whether he were a beleever Saint Paul forth with appeals from them to the Apostles who he knew had the authority in their hands and making knowne his cause unto them they forthwith admitted him into Church-fellow-ship with them without the consent of the people who indeed had nothing to do either in the admitting of members of casting of them out and therefore they allowed of the appeale of Saint Paul to teach all men whether to fly to wit the to Presbytery if they be injured by the people or debard from any Church-priviledge by them for they only are the stewards of the Church and have the Keys of the kingdom of heaven to open and shut the doores to whom they shall thinke fit or unworthy and this is the place of the Presbyters and not of the people for they are injoyned to obey their guids and to submit themselves in the Lord to what they order and appoint according to the Word of God Here we have three presidents of appeales in the mother-church of Ierusalem to the Presbytery upon any abuse so that by the mouth of their witnesses out of the word of truth this truth of appeales is sufficiently confirmed And that the Presbytery at Ierusalem had plenary power over the very Apostles and could call them at any time to an accompt is manifest from the eleventh of the Acts where Peter was convented questionedbefore them and was forced to give an accompt of his going in to the Gentiles and Preaching unto them which he willingly yâ—elded unto knowing it was their place to question any yea the Presbytery in every Church could send the very Apostles Ministers to Preach in any place or city or upon any Message as we see they sent Peter and Iohn to Samaria and the Church of Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas with other Ministers to the Presbytery of Ierusalem as is evident Acts the 14. and Acts 15. and therefore all these examples sufficiently prove that all the people of every Church made their appeales to their severall Presbyteries if there arose any controversies and abuses among themselves and if there arose any difference between Church and Church or betweene Presbytery and Presbyterie about any points of Doctrine or Religion then they made their appeales for the determining of those controversies to Councells and Synods as we may see it Acts the 15. and this is one of Gods Ordinances as the Independents themselves doe acknowledge So that for the Doctrine of appeales it is so cleare that all the learned and judicious cannot doubt of it and I am most assured that those that shall but with due deliberation seriously examine the Scriptures above quoted and those that follow in this discourse for the confirmation of the same truth will wonder that any man that pretends to learning as Master Knollys doth should ever dare say that appeales cannot be made good to be according to the Scripture of truth whereas there is almost no truth in the holy Scripture more cleare and evident than this of appeales Yea this method of dealing and manner of handling of businesses of publike offences and scandals and for the redressing of them is ratified by the very light and Law of nature as we may reade in all the governments under the very Heathens and Paul made use of it by appealing from inferiour Courts to Caesars tribunall And I shall never be brought by all the arte and wit of man to beleeve that Christ hath left his Church under the New Testament in a worse condition then it was under the old where we know they had appeales from one Court to another Nay if Christians now had not the liberty of appeales in matters of conscience and Religion they should be inferior to the Pagan nations and surely Christ hath not left his Church which is his Kingdom in a worse condition then either the Iewish or Ethnicke Kingdomes were and therefore by all reason besides the Testimony of Christ Matth. the 13. and besides the Presidents I produced out of the Word of God to confirme appeales the lawfulnesse of appeales is sufficiently established and ratified So that I hope that which I have now briefly set downe may satisfie any rationall man But before I go on to prove that the people or Church have not power to judge their Ministers which is the last thing I undertake to make good I must say something by way of answer to a vaine and frivolous cavill of Master Knollys which is this If the Doctor can prove these appeales saith he I aske him whether that higher Presbytery or Councell of Divines be not as Independent as the brethren and their Churches against whom the Doctor hath written and if so then such a high Presbytery or Councell of Divines is not Gods Ordinance by the Doctors own confession and affirmation The very reading of this fond cavill had been enough for the confutation of it to any solid man and truly had not I to deale with such a trifling creature as he is in serious businesse who compts every word he scribleth an oracle I would have passed by it with silence as being nothing to the question between us and as little to his purpose as all his other wrangling is except it be to declare to all men that he knoweth not his owne principles nor no good learning But for answer all such as know any thing in the controversie betweene us and the Independents know that it is my opinion and settled beleefe that all Churches and Councels are to depend upon the Word of God and to be ruled and ordered in all their proceedings and Governments according to the direction of the same an Angel from Heaven is not be heard that speaks not according to the written Word Gal. 1. and this Word hath directed us to the law and to the testimony Isay 8. and proclamed all men that speak not according to that to be in darknesse and therefore according to this my opinion no Church or Councell in the world is Independent and therfore all such Churches and Councels as have not either precept or example for their proceedings in the ordering and governing of them out of the Word of God but follow their own vaine and idle phantasies and affect Independency in my opinion they in so ordering their Churches do not according to Gods Ordinances Now when the
and they onely in every Church had the rule of the people committed unto them as the head eyes ears and hands the more noble members and that the people as the other members under them were to yeeld obedience unto them in the Lord. And we find that in the holy Scripture every man is to look unto that Office that is committed unto him and that every one is to keep himselfe in that Station God hath placed him in as we may see it at large Rom. 12. ver 6. Having gifts differing according to the grace given unto us saith Saint Paul whether prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministry let us waite on our ministry c. He that ruleth with diligence c. Here we finde that every man according to his place and office he is injoyned to wait upon it and not to desert it they that are appointed to rule they are ever to rule and the others that are under them are ever to obey every Member is to keep his station in this mysticall body the Magistrates and Parents and Masters whether ecclesiasticall or civill are to continue in their severall places and to keep their ranks as long as they are in those places and all those that are under them whether Subjects children or servants they are likewise to keepe their places and to obey all those that are over them in the Lord and that is their place for so the holy Scripture everywhere teacheth us and especially in the 7. of the 1 of the Corinth ver 19 20 21 22. Circumcision saith the Apostle is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandements of God That is the yeelding of obedience to the commandments of God and the obeying of those God hath set over us and the honouring of those that are in authority and doing the will of God in every thing to our power is that that commends any men unto God especially the honouring of God himselfe and the reverencing of our godly Ministers and painfull Pastors according to that of Saint Paul 1 Thess 5. 12. Know them which are over you in the Lord and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake For God hath made them Pastors and all the people their flock them fathers and the people children begotten by their Ministry them builders and the people the stones layd by them in the building them Stewards and the people Domestiques under them and their conduct So that every one in the Church of God is to continue in that Station God hath placed them in untill they by their gifts and graces and eminent abilities be removed to a higher calling or else for their misdemeanours are cast out and therefore Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 7. ver 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called and as if it had not bin sufficient to have once specified his mind in this businesse in the 24 verse he reiterateth this precept saying Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God So that for the Ministers and Presbyters of the Church or for the Magistrates of the Common-wealth or for Masters or Parents of Families for either of them I say to leave their calling in their particular places of ruling and for either the flocks under the Pastors or subjects under the Magistrates or servants and children in the severall Families under their Parents and Masters to offer to take the Government into their own hands or to joyne themselves in Commission with them and to take the rule in either Church State or Families upon them is to leave their callings and so to transgresse against the commandements of God who hath injoyned the Magistrates Ministers and Pastors both in Church and State to command and all the people under them to obey and in their so doing they each of them abide in the same calling and station wherein they are called otherwise they will be found transgressours of the Laws of God and Violaters of that Order God hath appoynted in Church and State and bring confusion in both Now God is the God of Order and hath injoyned all men to keep his commandements and the commandement given to the Magistrates is to rule and the commandement given to the people in every Church is to obey their guides and yeeld double honour unto them the honour of reverence and subjection and the honour of maintenance they are ever bound to obey them in the Lord And this is the Order God appointed in all the Primitive Churches That the Presbyters only should rule in them and that the people should obey and not intermeddle in the government for that is not to keep themselves in their severall Stations and to abide in the same calling wherein they were called And to speake the truth the ignorance of this doctrine and the pride of too too many hath bin the onely cause of all those confusions that now the Church and State are imbroyled with for if every man had learned but this lesson To keep himselfe in the same calling wherein he was called he would know that the Magistrates place whether civill or ecclersiasticall is to command and that the subjects and peoples place under them in their severall aboads and habitations is to obey They would understand likewise that in every kingdome commonwelth corporation or in any Province and Country or church that howsoever businesse of publike concernment belongs unto the whole body in each of those governments yet the managing of them and ruling and ordering of them respectively belongeth and pertaineth onely to those in authority as in a kingdome or Republique howsoever the embasladours of other nations are sent into such a Kingdome and Common-wealth about businesse that may concern the whole Countrie yet none but the King and his Councell or the State have the ordering and managing of the businesse and the people and subjects under them intermeddle not in those high affairs for they are Arcana Regni and appertain not unto them And so it is in every Corporation howsoever the Letters or Mandates from either King Parliament or State are directed unto the severall Counties Hundreds or Corporations or Cities yet the Lieutenants Governors Sherifes Mayors Aldermen and Common-councells in each of them are to mannage the businesse and to put in execution what they are commanded and injoyned by either Letters or Mandates and the people under them severally are to yeeld obedience to what they order and command according to the severall exigences of the times as daily experience teacheth all men so that the directing of their Letters to the severall Counties or Hundreds or Corporations in generall doth not invest all the people with power or joyne them in commission with the Magistrates of those respective places but leaveth the transacting of all things to those onely in those severall jurisdictions that are in authority and armed with power which the people are not Yea
this truth is so well known and perceived by all such as will not wilfully blinde themselves as it cannot be denyed hourly experience furnishing men with Presidents of it For if any Delinquents be found out they are not hailed before the people but before such as are in authority there is not an ordinary Hew and Cry that is sent to any Parish but it is carryed to the Constable or his Deputy and to such in that Town or Village as are in place or authority so that the people trouble not themselves with it yea they will ordinarily say it concerneth them not it is not their place to intermeddle in the businesse of State that they affirme belonges to those that are in authority And as it is in the affaires secular and in the State so it is in the affaires of the Church those in authority in the Church are to mannage the affaires and businesses of the Church and not the people for God had appointed in all Churches in the New Testament which were but so many Corporations a standing Presbytery and Order of Ministers and Rulers in each of them in whose hands the government of them all within their severall Precincts and Jurisdictions lay the which Government they were ever to mannage and order by common consent and joynt agreement with which the people had nothing to do and with the which they ought not intermeddle for that had been to confound that Order God had established in each Church and this all well-instructed Christians knew and therefore in the Apostles times not any that I ever read of opposed that Government before Diotrephes who is blamed for this his temerity by St. John to teach all men not to do the like left they fall into the same condemnation so that they knew very well that howsoever all the Epistles of Sant Paul and the other Apostles were directed to the severall Churches of their times yet the managing of the affairs of those Churches belonged only unto the Presbyters Stewards and Angels of those respective Churches as we may see in those seven Churches of Asia where the Letters and the Epistles are directed to the Angels and Ministers of those Churches as those that had the Government of them in their hands and not to the people And so it was in the Church of Corinth a place that the Independents so much abuse Howsoever Pauls Epistles were directed to the whole Church yet the officers only and Presbyters of that Church had the managing of the whole businesse concerning the incestuous person both for the casting of him out and the taking of him in againe upon his repentance as is evident from the 2 Epistle and the second chapter where the Apostle saith sufficient to such a man is the punishment inflicted of many So that all the people did not censure him or inflict that punishment upon him but many to wit the Presbyters and those in authority in that Church And this agreeable to all reason and therefore Master Knollys is mightily mistaken in his Commentary exposition of this place and that of the Epistle to the Colossians in saying that as the Church or particular congregation of Corinth had power to judge them that were members therein 1 Cor. 5. 12. 13. and as the Church of Colosse had power to admonish Archippus Coloss 4. 17. so the Church whereof Diotrephes was a member might as warrantably admonish him These are his words in which there is a double yea a treble fallacy for first he taketh the word Church in another sense then the Scripture speaketh of it which in all the Epistles of the holy Apostles for the most part is taken collectively for a combination of many congregations under one Presbyterie within such a precinct and he onely understandeth it for a particular congregation and assembly and by this he deceiveth the reader 2ly By Church he understandeth the people the Presbyters excluded and saith that they had power to judge their Ministers whereas indeed though in all those churches there was a power yet it lay soely in the Presbyters hands and they only were invested with it and the people were ever to stand to their orders so long as they commanded in the Lord and the place of the people was to obey and therefore all that he saith about this businesse is a meere non sequiturâ—unc and this is the third error that insueth from groundlesse principles for this is not a good consequence Paul writing unto the Church of Colosse hath these words say unto Archippus that he take heed to his Ministry and writing unto the Church of Corinth the 1. and 5. saith vers 5. Deliver such a man unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh c. Ergo the people have the power in their hands over all the members of those Churches both Ministers and people This I assert doth not follow in all good reason No more then it will follow that if any Embassador should be directed to the kingdome of England now or if any Message should be sent unto any corporation of the Kingdome commanding such service from it to the State that the people in this Kingdom or the people in those corporations should intermedle in the affaires of publike concernment but all sound understanding men will say It belongeth to the great and grave Councell of the Kingdom to mannage publike affaires and to the Major and Aldermèn and the Common-councell of each Corporation to transact and order the publicke businesse and affaires and for this only reason because they are the men in those severall places that God and the people have invested with authority over them and it only belongeth unto them to order all affaires of publicke concernment who God and the people have called and appointed to this end and purpose And so it was in all the primitive and Apostolicall Churches the Epistles were writ to the churches but directed to the Angels and Ministers in them as whose place it was to watch over them for their good and who only had the power of the Keyes to bind and loose to cast out and take in according to Divine authority Yea all the world knowes that God never gave the Keyes to the people in any Church but to the Ministers therefore the authority of order and jurisdiction only belongeth to the Ministers and presbyters in every Church now when Master Knollys by Church understandeth a particular congregation or assembly and the people in it and not the Presbyteries in every Church he is much mistaken in his Commentary exposition and abuseth not only himself but all those poore deluded people that follow him Yea he destroyeth his own principles and those of the congregationall way for both he himselfe and I. S. do acknowledge That the Government lay in the Presbyters hands in every church Master Knollys his words to this purpose I have often ciâ—ed before and I. S. his words are these page 11. in asserting that the
and as the House of Commons sends to the House of Lords and the House of Lords to the House of Commons by their Messengers and as all businesses are to be done in the Name of the States and in the name of either Lords or Commons so those little sucking congregations and churches though they consist but of 10. or twenty a peece although never an one of them knowes any more what belongs to government then the horse Master Knollys preaches on when he goeth into the Countrey yet they send their Officers in the name of the Church to any other of their Churches upon any difference or about any of their Grolleyes with as great State and Grander as if they were very absolute principalities and they use by the report of those that have seene the manner of their carriage in their imployment in imitation of greatnesse the same garbe and gestures that Embassadours or those that carry a Message from the House of Commons to the House of Lords usually do making their honours and conges and they are such bunglers at the work as those that have seene them say it is one of the ridiculosest spectacles that ever was beheld for they make a thousand Jackinaps tricks and act their severall parts with such affectation of State that experienced men and such as well know what belonges to the entertainment of Embassadors affirme that they never beheld any thing so fanaticall It is reported that Iohn Lilburne my Scholler is Master of the Ceremonies amongst them and teaches them their postures of Court-ship If ever there were any people in the world that trampled all government both Divine and Humaine under their poluted feete or ever made a scorne of authority I may truly say the Independents are the â—en and yet they applaud themselves in all their actions and sticke not to say by these their doings they set up the Lord Christ upon his throne in his Kingdome and in their houses and compt all those that differ from them of their congregationall way as enemies of the Lord Iesus and of his kingdome and esteeme of them as of a company of Infidels and yet they have neither precept nor president for their so doing but St. Diotrephes in all the holy Word of God which constituted a Presbytery in every Church and committed the government of all the congregations under each Presbytery into the hands of a Common-councel and Colledge of Elders as that Church Saint Iohn write unto can witnesse which was governed by the conjoynt consent of them all in which Saint Iohn was a Presbyter and therefore writ If he came he would remember Diotrephes deeds which abundantly declareth that Saint Iohn acknowledged a Court a settled government in every church whether the members might have recourse for redresse of any abuse or scandalls and therefore took no more upon him then belonged unto his place and this shall suffice to have answer'd to Master Knollys his last whibbling cavill and to have spake of this point of controversie between us in this place I shall answer methodically to all his other evasions in their due places which the reader shall finde as they are scattered through the booke for he is very immethodicall in all his pamphlet where I will set downe Master Knollys his owne words But in the meane time it is sufficiently confirmed out of the Word God and out of all the Scriptures above quoted that all the churches we reade of in the New-Testament were so many corporations in Christs kingdome which were to be governed by a Common-councell of Presbyteries And so for many yeeres after the Apostles times they were Governed Communi consilio presbyterorum as our brethren the Independents do confesse and prove by antiquity and humane authority which weapon I wonder they will contend with in deciding of Gods matters which are only out of his holy Word to be proved which is to be the rule of our faith But it seemes Saint Ambrose his authority pleaseth them well though if we looke into it it makes much against them He lived as the author that cites him saith within the fourth Century His words are these upon the 1. of Timothy Synagoga postea ecclesia seniores habuit quorum sine consilio nihil agebatur in Ecclesia Quod qua negligentia obsoleverit nescio nisi doctorum desidia aut magis superbia dum soli volunt aliquid videri Take with it his own interpretation The Iewes Synagogue saith he and afterwards the Christian church had Elders without whose counsell nothing was done in the church which by what neglect it grew out of use I knew not unlesse it were perhaps the sloth or rather pride of the teachers whilest alone they would seeme to be some body However it is acknowledged by their owne testimony that in the Apostles time and many yeares after the Apostles nothing was done in the church without the Councell of the Presbyters So that it is evident the Primitive churches were governed by the joynt and common councell of the Presbytery and the people had nothing to do with it We may adde here unto Saint Ambrose Saint Ieromes testimony who in his Commentaries upon the first chapter of the Epistle of Paul to Titus largely declaring himselfe as in many other places concerning the occasion of the change of that government established by the Apostles saith Idem est ergo Presbyter qui Episcopus antequam diaboli instinoâ—u studia in religione fiâ—râ—nt diceretur in populis ego sum Pauli ego Apollo ego autem Cephe communt Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur c. In the which words he acknowledgeth by the first institution all Churches were governed by the common councell of the Presbyters and not by the advice of the people Yea the very Canons of the Pope in the first part and the 95. distinction giving the reason why the Presbyterian Government came to be changed and the Hierarchiall was put in the place affirmeth that it was through faction and for the avoyding of further Schismes and rents in the Church and cities using the very words before quoted out of Saint Ierome and confesseth that before that time the Churches were governed Commum consilio Presbyterorum not by the people or any one Prelate but by the Presbytery and their councell And if humaine authority were needfull in this businesse I might make a volume with their very expressions to prove the novelty of the Hierarchicall government and that of the peoples jurisdiction assuming the Authority of governing into their hands and the Antiquity of the Presbytery and that by the enemies own confession Bet I am resolved to cleave only unto the Word and sound reason deduced from thence for the deciding of this controversie being sorry that there was so much as occasion of naming humane authority in a point of Divinity As for the Presbyterian government in the sense that I understand it there is nothing more
the Rulers of the Synagogue whose name was Iairus here was a speciall Ecce added to take notice that a great man and one in authority came unto Christ and that in a publick way and one of the Rulers of the Synagogue So that wee may observe the people in every Synagogue were governed and commanded by their Rulers and they were to yeeld obedience unto them and were not joyned with them in Commission but stood to their determination as all men use to doe in Courts of Judicature that appeal unto them for justice And this custome and manner of government was transacted over to the Christian Churches and those that were called Rulers among them are among Christians sometimes called Presbyters sometimes Guides sometimes Rulers and by Christ himselfe and by his Apostles are appointed over all Christian Churches as so many corporations to which all the Assemblies and Congregations under them and committed to their charge are to yeeld obedience and submission in whatsoever they command in the Lord and according to his blessed Word for that must be the rule both of their commanding and of the peoples obeying And this Presbyterian government is that manner and way of ruling all Assemblies and particular Congregations under it that God hath appointed in his Church to be continued to the end of the world the which whosoever resisteth resisteth the Ordinance of God And this shall suffice to have spoken in generall in way of proofe That all Churches wee have mention of under the New Testament were Aristocratically and Presbyterially governed that is were under the Government of a Colledge or Assembly of Presbyters And now I come to prove in order the foure Propositions or conclusions I undertooke to make good The first was That there were many Congregations and severall Assemblies in the Church of Ierusalem in the which they had all acts of worship and did partake in all Ordinances of Church-Fellowship and that before the persecution we reade of Act. 8. and under the persecution and after the persecution And for the proofe of this Proposition and every branch of it I will first produce such places of Scripture as make for the manifestation of the truth and from thence frame and forme my Arguments Mat. 3. ver 1 2. 5 6. In those dayes came Iohn the Baptist preaching in the wildernesse of Iudaea and saying Repent ye for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand Then went out to him Ierusalem and all â—udaea and all the Region round about Iordan and were baptized of him in Iordan confessing their sinnes The Baptisme of Iohn as all the learned know was the same with that of the Apostles for he preached the Baptisme of Repentance for the Remission of sinnes and Baptized all that came to him into Iesus Christ saying unto the people That they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus Act. 19. ver 4. Hee had his Commission also from God as well as the Apostles and Baptized Christ himselfe hee preached also the Gospel and the Kingdome of the Messiah as well as the Apostles and had many honourable Testimonies from Christ himselfe as That he was the greatest Prophet that ever was borne of woman and That he was a bright shining light and That he was his witnesse and many other Encomiums and praises did Christ give of him to ratifie his Authority and to shew that he was sent of God and that he was that Elias that was to come before the Messiah And all the people owned and tooke him for a man sent of God and Ierusalem went out to him and all the Region round about and were Baptized of him In these words wee find that the people of Ierusalem were all turned Christians and made members of the Christian Church and were beleevers For which way soever the word Ierusalem be taken it signifieth a numberlesse multitude of men or an innumerable company For if we consider Ierusalem at this time she was a most populous City the Historians that write of that age relate That she had somtimes in her no lesse then eleven or twelve hundred thousand but let it be taken that these were but six hundred thousand inhabitants it is a vast multitude and yet seldome was there lesse inhabitants in Ierusalem if any beleife may be had to Historians for at that time it was one of the Metropolis Cities of the world and the glory of Nations and the joy of the whole Earth and besides there was then great expectation as we may read Luke 19. 11. That the Kingdome of God should immediately appear and all the Jewes out of all Nations where they were scattered now repaired to Jerusalem and returned into their own countrey expecting the Messiah So that at this time we cannot conceive but that there were infinites of people in Jerusalem and it is said That Jerusalem went out and was baptized by Iohn By Jerusalem here metonimycally the place is taken for the people Now when it is said that a City goeth out it is to be understood either of the whole people Man Woman and Child old and young with all the inhabitants as many times it happens in great Earth-quakes or some Pestilence or Inundation that all the Inhabitants are forced to leave a City and to seek some other habitation or of some great part but we cannot conceive the going out of Jerusalem to Iohn Baptist in that large sense and expression so that in this place it must be taken Synecdochycally and we are to understand a great part or a chiefe part for the whole as when a City is said to entertaine a King or to go out to meet a King here it is to be understood principally of the chief Officers as the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the Common-councell and all their severall Companies and chiefe Captaines and Commanders with all their magnificence so that in this notion the common people and the ordinary Citizens are not thought on or at least are not numbred As when JESUS was borne in Bethlem and the Wise Men came to Jerusalem to enquire where they should finde him that was borne King of the Iewes that they might worship him for they had seen his Star it is said That when Herod heard these things He and all Ierusalem was troubled with him Here by all Ierusalem is to be understood all the chiefe Officers and Courtiers for the common people were glad of it for that was the day they had long looked for and rejoyced at but Herod being an Usurper and a Tyrant and all his Nobles Peers and Great men being confederate with him and adjutors in his usurpation and tyranny and conceiving that Christ was an earthly Monarch and that after the manner of the Kings of the Earth he would not onely pull down the Usurper but likewise call all them in question as guilty of High Treason and cut them of as complices and abettors this made them tremble and feare and because it
that Church was wholly committed into the hands of the Presbyters who had the charge for the examination and tryall of the doctrine of all Teachers that came amongst them and that they were invested with power likewise and authority of casting them out that were Deceivers and fals Teachers and we farther learne that the care of all those severall congregations was committed to all the Bishops and Presbyters of that Church in common and although it consisted of many congregations yet it was but one church and therefore was classically governed communi consilio Presbyterorum and so were all the other six churches of Asia governed in all and every one of the which there were many congregations and churches of beleevers as is manifest from the manner of Christs concluding his Epistles sent by the Ministry of Saint John to all those Asian churches Rev. the 2. ver 7. Let him that hath an eare hear what the spirit saith to the churches From the which I thus argue He who maketh the particular or singular church he writeth to to be a multitude or company of Churches not one onely as the body is not one member onely he doth make that one church to which hee writeth to in singular or particular to be a Presbyterian Classicall or Collegiate Church But Christ in his Epiphonemicall conclusion to every Church which he had spoken to in singular or in particular doth speak of the same as of a company or multitude of Churches let him that hath an eare heare what the spirit saith to the Churches Ergo One Church hath many Churches in subordination to it and is classically or collegiately governed communi consilio Presbyterorum To the which argument the Independents answer by denying of the assumption saying that the words may be taken consequentér as well as antecedentér with relation to what followes as well as to what goes before and they cite Junius his testimony for the proofe of this their denyall nothing to the purpose They produce also Master Bains his authority to as little end Christ saith he doth not use the plural number in respect of the one Church preceding but in respect of the seven collectively taken it being his will that the Members of each singular Church should lay to heart both severally and joyntly whatsoever was spoken to them and to others This is the Answer the Author of the New Lights from the Summer Islands in the name of all the Independents makes to this Argument page 133. And if words may serve for answers those of the congregationall way will never want Answers and Replyes but we look for reasons and not for words in any men that shall deny our arguments And therefore when he hath no reason for his gainsaying the argument shall for ever stand in force to prove many Congregations and many Churches in the Church of Ephesus and in the other six Churches And truly he granteth the argument whiles he seemeâ—h to oppose it saying that the words may be taken consequenter as well as antecedenter So that he acknowledgeth the worâ—â— may be taken antecedenter as well as consequenter that is with relation to what goes before as well as to what follows viz both wayes which is as much as I require and as much as by the argument I laboured to prove For who ever denyed that when Christ spake to his Apostles bidding them watch that what he spake to them he spake to all men So who ever yet denyed that when Christ in the conclusion of every one of his Epistles to the Asian Churches said Let him that hath an eare hear what the spirit saith to the Churches that by Churches there Christ hath as well reference not onely to all the seven churches in Asia but to all succeeding Churches to the worlds end that they should by their examples be forewarned lest they likewise offend in the same manner For all men know That whatsoever was written was written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come Though primarily principally and antecedenter he hath reference to all the severall Congregations Assemblies or Churches in each of those Churches as first to those of Ephesus which is yet called but one Church in the singular number as the others also as consisting of many severall companies and severall congregations yet being all combined together in their severall Precincts and subordinate to each of their Presbyteries were all collectively taken but for one Church within their particular jurisdictions and therefore Christ speaks to them all severally in the conclusion of all his Epistles in the number of multitude as to many though in the beginning of his Epistles he writes to them all as particular and singular Churches because though each of them consisted of many congregations as I said before yet they were subordinate to their several Presbyteries and governed by the common counsel of their severall Presbyteries in a classicall way And there is all reason to convince any man that the word Church in those Epistles should as well be considered collectively as the word Angell Now all orthodox writers and the very Independent Ministers themselves hold that by Angell is meant all the Ministers and Presbyters in each of those severall Churches And therefore if the word Angell in those severall Epistles may or be to be taken and interpreted collectively for many Ministers then the word Church also may or is to be taken collectively for many Churches For those of the congregationall way do acknowledg that Pastor and â—lock are relatives and have reference one to another Now if there were many Pastors in each of those Churches then there must likewise be many Flocks in each of those churches but that there were many Pastors and Bishops in those churches it is manifest by their constitution For the Apostles ordained Presbyters in every Church Acts 14. and in the church of Ephesus by name we finde many Presbyters and Bishops a whole colledge of them Acts the 20 ver 17 and 28. And therefore it is manifest there were many congregations and assemblies of Beleevers as in that church so in the other six for in expresse words Paul sayes that he preached unto them in the Church of Ephesus publikely and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in every house which is by Master Knollys acknowledged to signifie many several congregations in that church And as it is at this day amongst us when the Independents preach publikely and from house to house or in every house every one of the shallowest understanding knowes that they have severall congregations and severall meeting places and therefore severall churches even so it is to be understood by the same expression that there were many churches in that one church of Ephesus because they had many assemblies and many meeting places which the Scripture saith they had both publikely and privately It seemes that the Magistrates there were converted and the Christians in that city had obtained so much
disposing of the very charity and bounty of the brethren to all the necessitated Disciples within their jurisdictions and who gave directions to the Deacons how they should be distributed to the best emolument and benefit of the poor and according to the intention of these benefactors which as it is an act of Government and that a principall one so of necessity the Presbyters must then meet together that by their joynt and common consent and councell all things may be rightly ordered But in the chap. 15. v. 2. 4. 6. 22. the Presbyters of Ierusalem by name are expressed and in chap. 16. and in Act. 21. v. 17. 18. in these words Then they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certaine other of them should go up to Ierusalem unto the Apostles and Presbyters about this question and they were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Presbyters to whom they declared all things that God had done with them and how that there rose up certain of the Sect of the Pharisees which beleeved saying that it was needfull to circumcise them and to command them to keepe the law of Moses and the Apostles and Presbyters came together to consider of this matter c. ver 22. Then pleased it the Apostles and Presbyters with the whole Church c. and chap. 16. v. 4. And as they went through the Cities they delivered them the Decrees to keepe that were ordained of the Apostles and Presbyters which were at Ierusalem c. and chap. 21. v. 17 18. And when we were come to Ierusalem the Brethren received us gladly and the day following Paul went in with us unto Iames and all the Presbyters were present and v. 25. As touching the Gentiles which beleeve we have written and concluded say the Presbyters that they observe no such thing Out of all which places before I forme my arguments to prove That the Church of Ierusalem consisting of many Congregations and Assemblies was governed by a Presbytery that is by the joynt consent and common Councel of the Apostles and Presbyters which made but a grand Presbytery I shall desire all men to consider that howsoever the Apostles in the places above specified are differenced by that title from the Presbyters yet in all acts of government performed by them in the Church of Jerusalem they were for the substance of them ordinary acts such as Presbyters dayly performe and therefore answerably the Apostles themselves are in them to be considered as Presbyters that is men governing in an ordinary way as such as had received the keyes which is the power of jurisdiction and therefore were in their ordinary imployment though at other times in their severall ministries and going from Nation to Nation to preach as Christs extraordinary Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5. they used superlative authority which God had invested them with and graciously bestowed upon them for the benefit of the Church and the good of his people and I am induced so to beleeve because the Apostles in holy Scripture are called Presbyters that is the ordinary Governours and Magistrates of the Church though the more principall and primary ones and therefore did act as Presbyters in ordinary acts of Church Government and for a pattern to all Churches in like administration Neither may any suppose for all this that the Apostles did fall lower in their power in that they acted as Presbyters for our brethren do acknowledge that at Ierusalem the Apostles acted as Presbyters of a particular Congregation Now then if they did not fall lower in their power by acting as Presbyters in a particular Congregation what reason will dictate to any man that they should fall lower in their power by acting as Presbyters in a joynt Presbytery The truth is to govern and to rule the Church was the ordinary imployment of the Apostles and therefore they are stiled Presbyters which is to say the Rulers Councellours Magistrates and Governours of the Church neither for all this did their Presbyterships exclude their Apostleships nor did their acting as Presbyters deprive them of their Apostolique power nor of that Apostolique spirit which guided them even in these things wherein they acted as Presbyters for although under one notion we looke upon the Apostles as extraordinary men yet under another as in all those affaires of publique concernment and in matter of government and for that end the assembling of themselves together we do not consider them as Apostles for therein they did not act as Apostles with a transcendent and infallible authority and in an extraordinary way but as Presbyters and ordinary Governours and Councellours and in such a way as makes their meetings and actions a patterne and president to succeeding ages and of the Presbyters congregating of themselves together for common acts of Government whether in a Presbyterian or Synodicall way And as it is in civill affaires and in the government of Kingdomes and States so it was then in the Church of God in a Kingdome some of the Counsellors are of the more secret admission and are generally called Cabbinet Counsellors and are counted of as extraordinary men and others of the generall ordinary Councel yet when all these sit in a Common Councell together to consult about matters of State and publique concernment they â—it then together as ordinary Councellours and every one of them has as much authority and liberty to debate things by reason and dispute in way of consultation and to give his vote about any thing as well as any of the most extraordinary Councellors and this hath been the practise of all ages We read that Hushy when he was by Absalon called into counsell had his voice and gave his vote as well as Achitophel the Oracle of that time and as in the Common-Councels and Parliaments of Kingdomes whatsoever honour dignity or extraordinary imployments any of them were taken up in before their session and meeting or whatsoever dignity or titles of honour they have extraordinarily above others and take their places accordingly before they come together into the Parliament yet they all sitting as Judges and Peeres in the Kingdome the meanest Lord in the Kingdome hath as much authority there as the greatest and so in the House of Commons as they are Judges and chosen by the people for that purpose have all of them even the meanest as much voice and authority in way of consultation as the greatest And so likewise in the Synod or Assembly now of Divines the meanest Presbyter hath as much voice and liberty in way of debate and voting as the greatest Prelate there And even so it was in the Church of Jerusalem when the Apostles those extraordinary gifted men and the Ordinary Presbyters met together in counsel they all acted there as counsellors and ordinary presbyters and therefore in all those particular actions of the Apostles wee have mention of in their severall meetings whether wee consider them by themselves alone and not joyned with the
Doctor might have also considered that the brethren even the whole Church the multitude how many soever the Doctor can make of them were present as well as the Presbyters Acts 15. 4. 12. 22. 23 25 27 28. and so have made the brethren the multitude even the whole Church Independent also and the Doctor might as well have affirmed that the brethren even the whole Church might say it seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us Thus Master Knollys pleaseth his own humour in heaping up a senselesse and confused multitude of words and that onely to delude the people But should I make a full discovery of all the errours of this his babble and nonsense and give a full answer to them truly I might make a very large discourse I will therefore study brevity and answer him in a few words though I will omit nothing worthy to be taken notice of But by the way I may say thus much that this his answer is nothing to the purpose and his reasons are as vain frivilous and fond as by the sequell will appear But whereas he denyeth that the Apostles though they be called Presbyters acted as Presbyters and that they cannot therein be a pattern and president for Presbyters it is a meer begging the question and a fond trifling in a serious and weighty matter when it was sufficiently proved and that out of the holy Scripture that the blessed Apostles were not onely called Presbyters but that they were Presbyters really as well as virtually which the Independents themselves deny not and that they acted also as Presbyters at Jerusalem that is as ordinary rulers and officers in all acts of government as also in that Councell in the 15. of the Acts for otherwise their example could not indeed have been a pattern of government to all Ministers and Presbytes in all succeeding ages if in either of them they had acted as extraordinary men by a transcendent and superlative power and by an inimitable authority and as men immediately assisted by the holy Ghost as when they wrought Miracles and when they writ the holy Scripture Now that the Apostles in all those acts of government were and are to be a pattern to all Ministers in the ages to come all the learnedst of the Independent tribe and all their brethren of New England do acknowledge it and take the ordination of Deacons and Elders in their new Churches from the example of the Apostles in the sixth of the Acts and the fourteenth chapter of the same book and they acknowledge and accord that Synods and Councells in like manner are one of Gods Ordinances and ground it upon the Apostles and Presbyters meeting in the 15. of the Acts and take their example for a pattern and president of gathering into Synods and Councells upon the like occasions all which they could not do if the Apostles in all those acts of Government had acted and managed them onely as Apostles and in an extraordinary way with a transcendent and infallible authority and by a speciall dispensation from heaven and as only peculiar unto themselves as miraculous and extraordinary governours So that whiles Master Knollys fights against the truth and against mee he with the same weapon wounds his own cause and overthrows the Independents doctrine who from the examples of the Apostles though extraordinary men take their ordination of Deacons and Elders and of calling Synods And therefore in the first place this may serve for the discovering of his ignorance and futility As for his reasons of his denyall that the Apostles cannot be a paterne and president for Presbyters because the Apostles as he saith had the care of all churches and the Presbyters were limited and confined to their particular charges they are foolish and vain and make nothing for the enervating or weakning of my argument for it doth not follow as the learned well know that because the Apostles in some respects were extraordinary men and rulers therefore in all acts of Government they did nothing ordinary or for the imitation of other Church governours I say this can never follow with any good reason neither will any judicious man thus argue because the Apostles were extraordinary men and officers therefore they did not the acts of ordinary governours whereas when they assembled themselves about the affaires of the Church and for the good of it it was for this very end and purpose that they might leave an example and president to the ages to come and to all Ministers that should succeed them of doing the like and therefore we are ever to consider the Apostles in all acts of government to have acted as ordinary governours and rulers and for a president and pattern to all Ministers to the end of the world But whereas Master Knollys grollishly saith that the Apostles were Independent in the Government of all the Churches and that the Presbyters of Jerusalem and Ephesus and all the Churches were Dependent upon the Apostles and the Apostles onely Dependent upon Christ by whose spirit they were alwayes guided in the government of their Churches and therefore they said Acts 15. 28. It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us In every sentence I might say word there is an error For first the Apostles were not Independent at all no more then the Presbyters but they were ever tyed unto the word of God and his revealed will and that by Christ himself who said John 5. search the Scriptures and Luke 14. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them Yea Saint Peter 2 Epist chap. 1. v. 19. teacheth us That we have a more sure word of prophecy whereunto we do well to take heed c. So that the Apostles themselves were tyed to the Scriptures And Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles in the 24. of the Acts and in many other places makes the Law and the Prophets the rule of his faith professing that he beleeved all things according to them So that when Peter swarved from that rule began amongst the Galatians to halt temporize Paul resisted him to his face and accused him openly of prevarication Nay which is more so far they were from being independents that they were alwayes to follow the guidance of the spirit they were not to move but as he directed Act. 16. Yea the Apostles themselves were subject to the Presbytery at Ierusalem and were to give an account of their actions to them at any time as we may see Acts 11. where Peter was questioned and was forced to give in his answer for satisfaction the other Apostles also were subject unto that Presbyterie and gave an account how they had spent their time amongst the Gentiles yea Paul himselfe received orders from the Presbyterie in Ierusalem Acts 21. and was ruled by them yea they were not onely subject to the Church in Ierusalem but to all other Churches also and were sent on their message at any time For Peter and John were
reade this Booke I will here againe repeate his answer to my Argument with his distinction The Jndependents saith hee grant that it is the Presbyters part to rule but saith he wee distinguish betweene authority and jurisdiction on the one hand and power and interest on the other this latter belongs unto the people the other is proper to the officers which they exercise in the name of the Church c. If hee had said in the name of Christ it had been better but all error is like unto sinne it seldome goes single and alone for here I. S. commits a multiforme error in robbing not onely the Presbyters and Ministers of Christ of their due honour but in robbing also the Lord of life himselfe of his dignity and royaltie and making all the Ministers and Officers of Iesus Christ and his peculiar servants but the vassales and slaves of the people who they call the Church so that according to I. S. his learning all the Officers and Ministers of Christ are at the peoples disposing for they are all of them to act as the Church directs them and they must doe it alwayes in the name of the Church and this is the Hysteron Proteron Divinity of the Independents in all which they deale most wickedly on every side so that when they seeme to speake the Ministers fairest they abuse them to their face for here I. S. by that distinction of his would perswade the world that the Independents give great honour to the Ministers in saying that authority and jurisdiction belongs unto them and is theirs properly and that only power and interest belongs unto the people and yet in the same breath before hee hath passed two steps by his owne description of the power and interest which hee grants unto the people hee gives away all that authority and jurisdiction that hee spake of a little before not onely from all the Ministers and Presbyters of the Gospel but from Christ himselfe the King of his Church and invests the people with it which hee cals the Church saying that the Officers are to exercise their authority and jurisdiction in the name of the Church so that it is evident according to his Divinity that the Ministers of Iesus Christ are but the slaves of the people and that all men may see that this is his meaning he in the 12. page saith that the very Apostles and Elders in the Councell and Synod at Ierusalem were but as a Committee to prepare the dispute and then to report it for the assistance nnd concurrence of the multitude these are his owne words by all which if hegives not the people by his distinction of power and interest a greater authority then hee gives unto the Apostles and Presbyters and to Christ himself let every ingenious man judge which is not only a horrid impiety but abominable in justice sacriledge yea every man may plainly perceive that out of his own words and from the language of al the Independents that he invests the people with all authority under that distinction of power and interest for in saying in the same pag. that in ordination election of officers belongs unto the brethren and imposition of hands to the officers where there are officers as in a Church constituted and compleate by these words hee invests the people with all full and ample authority as any men are capable of or can be betrusted with for amongst many of the Independents to my knowledge they make nothing of ordination and imposition of hands and count it but a complement that makes nothing to the essence of any officers as they say for they assert that it is sufficient to make any man an Officer or Minister if hee be once chosen by the people and it is the election of the church and their call as they say that makes officers without which they affirme they can bee no true officers so that if election be the maine and essentiall busines required for the making of Church-officers and as they teach their followers and they give the power of election to the church or people and affirme that all things are ever to be done in the name of the church it matters not with them whether they be ordained or have any imposition of hands or no that being in their dialect but a complement or a needless ceremony for so I have heard them speak the which ordination also though they say it belongeth unto officers notwithstanding the church and people make no scruple to exercise it at any time and to put it in execution if they thinke it fit as the practise of the new gathered Churches daily teaches all men yea wee may gather as much out of I. S. his owne expressions that the power of ordination as well as of election resides in the people and lies in their hands who saith that imposition of hands is proper to the officers where there are officers in a Church constituted and compleate intimating that if they have no Church-officers they themselves may then ordaine them and this is the practise of some of the churches of the congregationall way by all which their language and proceedings if by their distinction of power and interest they doe not assume arrogate all power to themselvs and take it into their owne hands and invest the people with plenary authority over all Ministers in Church and State I know not what it is to conferre authority on any people It is most notoriously knowne that our Independent Gentlemen would place all authority in the people and would have the Magistrates and Ministers in Church and State all dependent upon them and expect their election and ordination from them and they onely would be independent and all this may be gathered not only from their words and practises and out of all their Pamphlets but even from I. S. his owne distinction of power and interest which hee saith belongs unto the people having thus from their owne Principles sufficiently elucidated that by the Independents doctrine and by their distinction of power and interest they assume all authority to themselves whiles they pretend they give authority and jurisdiction to the Ministers I will now set forth their wickednesse in shâ—wing how they rob Christ of his honour and the Apostles also and Presbyters of Ierusalem of their dignity and power as well as they doe all other ordinary Presbyters of their due honour and authority And I will first begin with their dealing towards Christ the King and Lord of his Church which is his Kingdome All those that know how the Kingdomes and Empires of the world aâ—e governed know that all their Councels Embassadours Judges Rulers and Officers under them either in the time of peace or warre in all their acts of government and in all their precepts and mandates whether Imparative or Prohibitive and in all their Courts of Judicature transact and passe all things with all their writs and summons in the
his Throne all such as these are I say make Christ a Pagent King and salute him with haile Master as the Jews did to usurpe some of their own rhetorick and learned elequence but indeed they disthrone him For what is it to disthrone a King if writing of Warning Peeces and Pamphlets against Kings service and Kings-honour be not And what I pray is it to disthrone a King if this be not to passe all acts of Government in the peoples name and to send out all their warrants and mandates in the peoples name and to command all their officers to manage all their imploiments in the peoples name never so much as mentioning or taking notice of the King in a publique act of Government Are not all these actions and passages to any rationall creature a sufficient demonstration that the King in that Kingdome is either absolutely disthroned or is but a King to them in ludibry as Christ was to the wicked Jews I am confident that all understanding men will so conclude Now when in all the new congregations those new gathered churches the Ildependents there have such amongst them that write books and that with their approbation against Iesu-Worship that is against the Worship of Iesus who is the eternall King of his Church and when every day in all their particular churches they exercise all the acts of Government in the name of their churches and not in Christs the Kings name and that against the command of Christ and his Apostles I affirm and by the grace of God I hope ever to make it good that all this is not onely a robbing Christ our Lord and King of his due honour but a blasphemous and more then a Papall usurpation and derogating from his Kingly dignity and royalty yea it is indeed a plain disthroning of Christ their King and thrusting him out of his place and putting themselves in it which whether or no it be not the highest point of contumacy rebellion and blasphemy I leave to the judgment of others as for my self I know not what either of these things be if they be not blasphemy for when I learned Divinity I was taught that blasphemy consisted in this either to give unto God that that belonged not to him and to the excellency of his Majesty divine nature or to detract from him that that peculiarly belonged either to the essence persons or glorious attributes of the diety or to give the honour properly and peculiarly due to God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost or to any person in the glorious Trinity to any creature or malitiously or wickedly to speak evill of God his essence attributes word works c. or to do or act any thing obstinately and wilfully that is or may be derogatory to the dignity and honour of the Divine Majesty of God blessed for ever any of these things when I studied Divinity were thought blasphemy and worthy of severest punishments and those that perpetrated any of those crimes were reputed unworthy to live and proclamed blasphemers and men unsufferable and yet there are many such kind of creatures in our new gathered Churches who are guilty of all that can be called blasphemy and that rob Christ the Lord of his Worship and write against Iesu-worship blaspheme the holy Scriptures and deny the diety of Christ and the blessed Trinity c. and disthrone Christ in their new Congregations whiles they cry hail Master exercising all acts of Government amongst themselvs in the name of the Church never so much as mentioning the name of Christ the King and many more intolerable insolencies they dayly commit against the Soveraign Majesty of heaven and earth the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord and King and all these notwithstanding are counted Saints that commit these vices and malifices and great books are writ in defence of all these wicked blasphemous wretches and both their errors and their persons are countenanced and that by their great Rabbyes and Champions all which notwithstanding are in Gods dialect and in his holy Word both old and new counted abominable creatures and men unholy and displeasing unto God and the acters and abetters and countenancers of all such blasphemies and wickednesses were thought equally guilty and great and fearfull judgements were denounced against them all as it is apparently evident out of Gods holy Word and yet these great evills are counted but the infirmities of the Saints amongst our Independent masters Now then I say when the Illdefendents are guilty of all these crimes as partly acting them partly tolerating such as are both actors and abetters or conniving at them and countenancing them pretend they what they will of setting up Christ upon his Throne I hope to be ever able to make it good that they all of them disthrone Christ manifest to the world that as much as in them lies they would not have him raign over them and so make themselves guilty of that crime they lay to the Presbyterians charg whom they dayly accuse to be enemies of Jesus Christ his Kingdom and such as would not have Christ rule over them when notwithstanding the Presbyterians do and ever will by Gods divine assistance set up Christ King upon his Throne and shall ever desire that all honour and glory and praise may be given for ever and ever to the King eternall immortall invisible the only wise God the King of Saints and King of Kings and that he may solely rule for ever and that all his enemies and such as rob him of his honour and dignity may be made his footstoole in the number of which the greatest part of the Sectaries are and all such as comply with them And this shall suffice to have spoken concerning the first part of my undertaking against I. S. which was to set forth the wickednesse of the Independents and to shew how by their doctrine they rob Christ of his honour and Kingly dignity when they pretend they set him upon his Throne which is an unsufferable blasphemy in them And now I come to prove against I. S. that I undertook in the second place to make good viz. that by their doctrine they not only rob Christ of his honour but all Christs blessed Apostles Ministers and Servants of their power and leave them nothing but the name and shadow of authority which is a horrid injustice and wickednesse in the Sectaries and Independents to do which although I have briefly proved before yet I shall here again for the more full elucidation of the truth and for the better setting forth of the Ill-dependent wickednesse a little further expatiate in this business and answer to all that I. S. hath materially or with any colour to speak in behalfe of his cause where I presume he hath spake as much as he and his complices thought and conceived made for it and for which their vain and impious jangling they must one day give a dreadfull account I undertake therefore now to prove
were excluded who were not at any time permitted to vote in churches 1 Cor. 14. And therefore the whole multitude of beleevers were not there for women were part of the multitude neither were the weak brethren to be admitted to doubtfull Disputations by a speciall command from the Apostle Paul Rom. 14. v. 1. and this is accorded to by the wise I. S. that confident disputant who saith that the Apostles and Elders as a Committee first prepared the dispute and after reported it not counting it safe to admit the weak to the same whiles it was intricate so that from Saint Pauls Doctrine there were neither women nor weak brethen there and from I. S. his own concession the weak were not admitted all the time of the dispute and therefore the whole multitude of beleevers that were in Ierusalem were not in the Councell by all which it is apparently evident That by brethren and church and multitude there the whole company of Beleevers in Ierusalem cannot be understood and therefore by Brethren Multitude and the whole Church we are necessarily to understand the learned and godly Prophets Ministers and Members of that church chiefe and eminent ones such as Judas and Sylas were and with them are to be joyned the other Presbyters that came out of all the Churches of Iudea with those that came with Paul and Barnabas from Antioch which being all confidered together made up a great number and multitude all the which are called the Church v. 3. the Scripture there speaking Synecdochically and taking a part for the whole I say of all such as these are did that Synod consist and not of all sorts of believers w ch were not members fit for a Synod and Councell which was to be managed and ordered and consist of such men only as had received the Keys and upon whom the government of the Church was laid which was never committed to the people much lesse to women therfore I say in all these respects by the Brethren and Multitude and the whole Church we are to understand it Synecdochically as before for all those that were in the councell which were but a part of the whole for the eminent Ministers and Prophets that were Commissioners there and assistants to the Apostles and Eldâ—rs he which yet is more evidenâ— from this reason That they onely could bee Iudges and Voters in that Synod which had heard the whole debate and the full dispute on both sides for none can be Iudges in any cause to give righteous judgement that have not fully heard the allegations and probations on both sides which I. S. acknowledgeth the weak neither heard nor could judge of because they were intricate ergo they could not be Iudges nor give their voices there upon no terms for they could not be Judges of things they had not fully understandingly heard now the weake neither heard neither could they have understood if they had heard both which I. S. accordeth to and therefore by multitude and the whole Church the weak brethren cannot be meant much lesse the sisters and if men would but with deliberation weigh and consider of things as they ought to be pondered and considered of very reason without the warrant of holy Scripture would perswade every rational and wel grounded christian that none could or can be Iudges in any cause but such as have heard the pleading of the whole busines and controversie from the beginning to the ending which none but the apostles presbyters and the Commissioners and such as Sylas and Iudas and Barnabas were did for the Scripture saith verse 6. that the Apostles and Elders came together for to consider of this matter and when there had beene much disputing c. out of which words wee may gather that none but they that managed the disputation and heard the whole debate were or could be Iudges which all the people neither did nor possibly could doe neither may we conceive of the Councell of Ierusalem that they had any raw headed boyes or giddy braind creatures or Minors in it or any such as were ever running out and in for wee may not imagine that that great Councell was like a pigion house where they are continually fluttering out and fluttering in for that Councell consisted of such men onely as were holy grave and approved all Prophets such as Sylas Iudas and Barnabas were such as for gravity and experience were thought fit companions to sit with the Apostles and Elders in consultation so that it is apparently evident that Councell consisted of none but venerable pretious godly and staid men of whom wee can not by the Law of charity thinke that they did the worke of the Lord in that Synod negligently or to the halves or that they did not all sit close and diligently to the worke from the beginning of the Session to the conclusion of the same and therefore that as they met altogether at a set houre or time so that they continued and kept together in consultation and dispute as long as any other sate and till they in their wisedome by their joynt consents and agreements thought fit to sit to the full determination of the whole busines and till the Decrees were made were it fewer or more dayes or weekes and although it be not recorded how long the Councell continued yet wee reade no where in the 15. chapter but that they sate altogether in judgement the Apostles and Elders and Commissioners till they had heard the whole debate and diâ—pute and none but they This truth may be gathered not only from the holy Scripture and from that I have formerly spake but from I. S. his owne words above specified viz that there were neither weake brethren nor the sisters and therefore it is a great wickednesse in I. S. from such uncertainties as hee goes upon to raise and make such conclusions as he doth which tend to no other end but for the taking away all the authority and power from the Apostles themselves which God notwithstanding had invested them with and to put it into the hands of the people which they had nothing to doe with for as his words declare hee accounteth the Apostles and Elders but a Committee onely to prepare the dispute and then to report it that they might have the assistance and concurrence of the people without the which as hee affirmeth there were no great commendation of the resolution that is to say if the people had not assented unto the Decrees they had beene of no effect which if it be not wholly to devest the Apostles of all power and authority and lay it and place it upon the people I leave it to the judgement of the learned then the which there cannot be a greater sacriledge and injustice perpetrated against Ministers and servants of God in the world by any and as this dealing and proceeding of I. S. is most injurious to the Apostles so this his doctrine is contrary to all divine
is mention made in that Epistle of churches in the plurall number 1 Cor. 14. verse 34. Let the women saith the Apostle keepe silence in the Churches by which it followeth that in Gods dialect congregation and church are synonima's and not that onely but that there were many churches in this church of Corinth and that they were all but one church as being so many branches and depending all upon that stocke and therefore were all classically governed and subordinate to one Presbyterie The same may be concluded of the Church of Philippi where verse the 1. Paul and Timothy salutes all the Bishops and Deacons so that in the first entrance of that Epistle wee meet with a colledge of Bishops and Presbyters for they were all one and wee meete also with many Deacons all which proves to any understanding man that there were many congregations and churches for one Deacon would have served for one congrgeation or assembly and yet they all made but one church as being subordinate to one Presbyterie and governed by their joynt consent and common Counsell and that there were multitudes of Beleevers there it is evident from the variety of Teachers besides their good and godly Bishops for Paul saith there were dogs amongst them evill workers and those of the concision and he bids the Philippians to beware of those Chap. 3. verse 2. and there were many other of their Teachers which were worldly men that minded earthly things whom hee proclames enemies of the Crosse of Christ who made their belly their God as too many of the Independent Ministers now adayes doe chapter 4. verse 18 19. and gives them in command to shun their example and only to follow his and such as walked as hee did whose conversation was in Heaven and many such Teachers there were in the Church of Philippi and such as taught the Gospel out of good will and sincerely all which sufficiently prove there were many congregations of Beleevers in this Church and that it was yet but one Church and governed by a classis and colledge of Bishops and Presbyters And the same may be said of the church of Galatia where Paul complaines that there were many false teachers amongst them which hee wisht were rooted out and cut off or destroyed so that it followeth that in that church also there were many congregations and they were all governed by the joynt consent common counsel of a Presbyterie there for there were Presbyters ordained in every church and in every Citie And now I come to the seven churches of Asia and that by name my brother Burton speaks of viz. the church of Ephesus with which I will conclude and this was but one church in the singular number Revel the 2. of the which Paul called the Elders to him Acts the 20. verse 17. In the which church there were such infinites of Beleevers as they could not all possibly meet in any one place or a few yea Paul himselfe declareth as much in expresse words in the 20. chap. verse 20. where hee saith that hee taught them publickly and from house to house which in the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by Master Knollys his learning signifies per singulas domos and therefore by him acknowledged to be many congregations as in the forgoing discourse is sufficâ—ently proved and all reason indeed will perswade it had it not in words beene specified For Ephesus was a famous citie and a place of great trafficke where Paul preached two whole yeares by whose hands God wrought no small Miracles so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Iesus both Iews and Gentiles and through other wonders that were wrought in that city it is related that the word of God grew mightily and prevailed as it is at large ch 19. set down so that great multitudes of the very Schollers and such as studied curious Arts were also converted and burnt their Bookes the price of which amounted to fifty thousand peeces of silver in so much that feare came upon all the Greekes and Iewes that dwelt in Ephesus and the name of the Lord Iesus was magnified And can any man conceive or beleeve that all the Jewes and Greekes in Ephesus a mighty citie and a mart Towne could all meet in any one place together to communicate in all acts of worship yea were it not a madnesse to thinke so if the very diversitie of their languages and tongues of the people did not disswade it for if they would all be edified they must understand their Ministers preaching unto them which so many people of severall Languages and dialects could never do by any one for it was then a Miracle to have the gift of tongues which for the most part were conferred upon the Ministers and Publishers of the Gospel and upon such as were to be sent from place to place and from Citie to Citie to convert the Nations such as were the Apostles Evangelists and Prophets all extraordinary men and very seldome had the ordinary people the gifts of the Holy Ghost conferred upon them but it was chiefly upon some select and chosen ones not upon all promiscuously buâ— upon such as the Apostles laid their hands for if it had beene upon all then Simon Magus needed not have offered money to the Apostles for the purchasing of the gifts of the Holy Ghost if those graces had been promiscuously given but without all doubt it was but to some sortsof men for the most part that the gift of tongues was distributed such as the Apostles made speciall choyce of for so it appeares 1 Cor. 12. ver 10. 11. And therefore when the common people had not the understanding of all languages they if they would be edified must have such to preach to them as they could understand and therefore all the Jewes and Greeks in Ephesus must necessarily have divers places to meet in if the multitudes of them otherwise had not been so great but that they might have assembled themselves together and onely that they might be edified Besides the great multitudes that we read of at the first plantationof this church the Scripture saith Acts the 20. That for three whole years together Paul taught them night and day as an extraordinary Minister they had also Timothy sometime amongst them and other extraordinary teachers and a whole colledge of Bishops and Elders ver 28. who all had the care of the flock committed to them with a charge that they should feede that church which Christ had redeemed with his blood They had a commission likewise given them to oppose all false Teachers which they faithfully performed as the Lord beareth them witnesse Revel the 2. ver 2. saying I know thy workes and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not beare them which are evill and thou hast tryed them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them lyars By which we learne that the Government of