When Paul writ his Advice about the incestuous Person he directed his Epistle unto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours They perverted the Spiritual Arms of Excommunication which was used only for the Correction of Sinners into the defence of their Temporal Possessions The Law of Tithes is indeed Mosaically Divine but not a Law naturally Divine nor Christian and it obliged only that People at that time now it obligeth none In the many Troubles and Uproars occasioned by the Bishops confederating with the Popes against the Emperor the Bishops obtained the Publick Incomes and the Regal Rights or Duties and when the Differences were composed they had taken so firm Possession that the Princes were necessitated to grant them in feudo that which de facto they had usurped to themselves by which they acquired also the Titles of Dukes and Marquisses and Earls Many of them are still in Germany remaining such both in Name and Fact but in Italy in Name only The Canonists say That the Poor are obliged to pay Tithes for that which is given them by Alms in Begging at Doors and the Harlots are bound to pay Tithes of their gain by Whoredom The greatest and most frequent Legacies and Gifts are from Harlots Prohibitions for Alienating which were made against Clergy-men in favour of the Laiety are turned about against the Laiety in favour of the Clergy The Popes never failed to get any Abuse whatever to be justified by Doctrines Tho' the Popes ought to feed and not share the Sheep yet they make themselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Gods holy Church and People 1 Sam. 2.29 Having thus briefly declared the Government of the Church in general which is more at large set forth by Padre Paolo that incomparable Servite in his Treatise of Beneficiary matters let us consider how the Government of the Church of England now stands In brief thus First In the British times before the Conversion of the Saxons the particular modes of Administration as all things else concerning the British Church are very obscure But this is clear enough That the Popes Tyranny and Usurpation being then unborn and Princes enjoying their whole Power both in Ecclesiasticks and Civils nothing was ordained without their Authority and Permission who yet gave large Powers to their Clergy both for Debating and Judging in their own Consistories things proper to their Care and Inspection as at large appeareth in the Imperial Constitutions of Theodosius Justinian and others Seconldy The English Saxons Church being planted by Augustine the Monk through the care and direction of Gregory the Great did bear a respect to the Roman See but owned none of its Authority and Dominion in Ecclesiastical matters The Bishops and others of the Clergy assembled often and made Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions but not without the License and Allowance of the Kings who by their own Authority indeed by Ecclesiastical Usurpation and Tyranny enacted also many things of Religious and Ecclesiastical Practise as appeareth largely in the Saxon Laws collected by Lambert and others and Sir Henry Spillman's Councels Thirdly For about 1000 Years after Christ the English Church refused thus the Roman Yoke till that proud Priest Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury first was so bold as to shake off the King's Rule and Authority in matters Ecclesiastical denying him Obedience without the Condition of Salvo Ordine suo and so as much as in him lay destroyed the Liberty of the English Church and the King's Prerogative This appeareth from Anselm's 36 Epist to Paschalis Matthew Paris and others Peter Pence indeed were formerly paid out of respect to the Bishops of Rome but the Pope never obtained the Investiture of Bishops and the right of receiving Appeals and consequently that Soveraignty and Headship over the Church till such time as Becket being killed Henry the Second to get Absolution subjected himself and his Kingdom to the Roman Jurisdiction about An. 1172. Fourthly This Foreign Authority was after 200 Years restrained by the Statute of Praemunire and other Acts of Parliament yet the Pope still kept his Foot here tho' not his Body or rather his Hand which scraped up a World of Treasure The Canon Law was the Law of the Church Archbishops without the King's leave assembled their Provincial Synods the Decrees of which bound all Men by no other Authority than that meerly Ecclesiastical and provided that they were not contrary to the Jus commune as it is called of the Pope rather than that of the King Great were the Priviledges and Exemptions of the Clergy from Secular Courts and Jurisdictions as is to be seen in Articuli Cleri and other old Laws and the History of those times abundantly testisie Fifthly This Exorbitant and Foreign Power was in part banished by Act of Parliament in Henry VIII his time Now it s provided that the King should be ordained Supreme Head or Chief and Supreme in Ecclesiastical Affairs as the Jewish Kings of old and the Ancient Christian Princes were and it is made High Treason to deny it Now consideration being had of the old Canon Law it was considered how to reform and reduce it to such a temper as would sute with this new Alteration and it was then thought fit that it should rather be quite Abolished and a new intire Body collected for the Government of the Church Sixthly To this purpose it was Enacted that Thirty or more Persons should be deputed by the King to make this Collection But it being better to live where nothing than where every thing is lawful they were not so rash to run down Root and Branch and take away the old Building before a new one was modelled and therefore till this Model should be prepared and confirmed in Parliament it was Enacted That the Canon or Ecclesiastical Laws should stand in the same force as formerly they did at that time except in such Cases wherein they thwarted the Laws of the Land Seventhly This new body of Ecclesiastical Laws was by Edward the Sixth attempted and an Essay made by Dr. Haddon since printed by the name of Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum but never was perfected nor confirmed by Act of Parliament and therefore the Canon Law is still in force as formerly but where it contradicts the Law of the Land Thus is the Crown with much ado pluckt out of the Paws of the Ecclesiastical Man of Sin and restored in Parliament to its Ancient Rights in matters Ecclesiastical It being by Act of Parliament Established That the Clergy should not Assemble without the King's License and Authority By all which it appears That the Kingdom the Church of England now hath a Supreme independent Right and Power within it self to make Coerceive Laws for the Welfare of it self without running to Rome or to
excellent Spirit that ought to be in true Gospel Preachers For in the end such Pulpiteers do but foam out their own Shame daring in that Sacred Place to do more than Michael the Arch-Angel who contending with the Devil himself durst not bring a railing accusation against him But I hope their Eyes are now inlightned by seeing that destructive Doctrine bafled by a Miriad of Priests and Pulpits which the former Government would not bear and yet the true Doctrine of Passive Obedience with its just Limits and Qualifications remains as true and as firm in the Church of England as ever These Priests are not alone in vilely Characterizing our Conventicles for if you consult our Sermons of late Years especially those Preached on certain Solemn Days as those on the 30th of January on the 9th of Sept. 1683 and the like you will find them generally be-spattering our Conventicles either in broad glances or plain terms as tho' it were the business of Christianity to revile and persecute Men for their Consciences differing from them in small things and those indeterminate by plain places of Scriptures Whether the Characters that these Men and those of the same quorum or the Character that I have given of them be the truest I appeal to God and the whole Nation however I have this for my Justification or at least for Extenuation viz. the several Addresses of several Parliaments to the King on their behalf and against their Persecutors And if I am in an Error it is an Error on the Right-hand to judge them Pious that seem so tho' in truth they were not so I am no discerner of Hearts God only knows them but Charity believeth all things hopeth all things and covereth a multitude of faults This good Opinion of mine of them is not without the Testimony of many of their grave sober pious peaceable learned and understanding Auditors averring the same and that they constantly pray as fervently and heartily for the King Church and State as any Conformist Church of England Priests And which is yet more demonstrable their Sermons and Works in Print manifest the same to all the World as the Works of Dr. Bates Dr. Owen Tho. Godwin R. Baxter R. Allen and a hundred more which declare to all the World their Sentiments their Learning and their Piety wherein they are as Orthodox as other true Church of England Men are tho' neither one nor the other are Infallible And must we after such Testimonies and Demonstration of their Abilities their Soundness of Doctrine their Labours and Endeavours for Holy Living and Conversation esteem them as Monsters of Priests revile them take up evil Reports against them and load them with the guilt of all the late horrid Rebellious Plots the Assosiation Fire at New Market the Rye and that of the late Duke of Monmouth without infallible Proof and Demonstration Sure sure this ought not to be What if some few of many hundreds have been so phanatick so mad to ingage in some or all of these Rebellions must all the rest be esteemed guilty therefore Sure this can be no Righteous Judgment Were all the Eleven Apostles Traitors because Judas was Happily if a fair computation could be made there would be found guilty of some or of all these Rebellions many more Atheistical Debauchees and ill-lived Persons than Conventiclers or Non-conformists Mr. J. T. himself for all his hard Speeches against them is not so uncharitable as to believe but that most of the Dissenters knew nothing of the Duke of Monmouth 's Design yet he is certain that if it had taken effect they would all have sided with the Conspirators against the Laws the Monarchy and the Church of England pag. 29. Though the Hearts of Men are deceitful above all things yet it seems this Church of England Priest knows them all I know the Opinion that the high Church of England Men have of the Non-conformists in general is that of Villanies the well-meaning Zealots it 's well known whom they mean thereby are the most dangerous So the Ecclesiastical Politician If we reflect on the severe Reprimands and Censures laid upon Sibthorp and Manwaring for their destructive Principles and Doctrines of Government and the Remonstrances of a Kingdom reprefented in a Parliament against those that discountenanced good and Pious Ministers of the Gospel and their Assembling one would think should for ever have deterred all future Ages from entertaining any such like Principles again and from discouraging and discountenancing Assemblies meeting only to serve God and to save their own Souls But I see Hogen-Mogen Church of England Men will be so still maugre all the Judgments Censures and Punishments that a whole Kingdom can inflict upon them If our Conventicles are such as are represented Factious Rebellious Schismatical why do not our Tory Priests assemble themselves and teach and practise better things But to be like Dogs in the Manger neither eat Hay nor let the Horses eat neither assemble themselves nor suffer others that would is no Character of a good Shepherd As it cannot be denied that God requires his Worship to be Publick and Celebrated in great Congregations in the beauty of Holiness as in Temples Altars Forms of Service Set times c. so it cannot be denied that God requires the inward and private Devotions both in Heart Closet and Houses and that all Assemblings of Christians for Mutual and Reciprecal help of Piety and Devotion wheresoever and by whomsoever Celebrated ought to be permitted without exception or stint It is a shame to publish it but it is a sad truth that the Pride and Haughtiness of the Clergy in all Ages and the Villanous Doctrines they teach concerning Kingly Powers and their own have abused and seduced and misguided Kings into all Misgovernments viz. That Kings have an Arbitrary Power from above to direct what Laws and to take what Tribute they please that they have Power to bind the Consciences of their Subjects to the Religion they think best that they are unaccountable to any on Earth and that all private Consciences must be subject to the publick Conscience without which they are no better than Statues and Images of Authority These and worse if worse may be are the frequent Documents of our high Church of England Mens Pulpits and Prints which are destructive to all Governments and human Societies So that upon the whole matter it is no matter what Religion or what Government God hath established but what Kings and Princes command These Tory Church of England Men have no consideration how easily uncontrolable Authority degenerates into Tyranny till the Poor have scarse a hole to hide their Heads in or a rag to cloath their naked Backs or a morsel of Bread to fill their hungry Bowels Masterless Power on Earth is apt to make even Kings to forget their King and Judge in Heaven as if Providence slept because Judgment is not speedily executed Consider it all yet that forget
is not necessary for the Raising of Aids and Subsidies Rush 602. An. 1628. That there was a general fear of secret Working and Combination to introduce into this Kingdom Innovation and change of our pure Religion by Persons much favoured and advanced not wanting Friends even of the Clergy near to your Majesty namely Dr. Neal Bishop of Winchester and Dr. Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells who are justly suspected to be unsound in their Opinions that way It being generally held to be the High-way to Preferment and Promotion in the Church many Scholars do bend the course of their Studies to maintain those Errors that their Books and Opinions are suffered to be printed and published and others written against them and in defence of the Orthodox Church are hindered and prohibited And we find that there hath been no small labouring to remove that which is the most powerful means to strengthen and increase our own Religion and to oppress Popery which is the diligent Teaching and Instruction of the People in the true Knowledg and Worship of God and therefore means have been sought out to depress and discountenance Pious Painful and Orthodox Preachers peaceable in their Disposition and Carriage and yet their Preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits hardly permitted to Lecture 602 632 634. 1628. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Quae peperit saepè scelerata atque impia facta 195. And our high and mighty Church of England Men did in our memories so superciliously manage their own haughty Resolutions that they necessitated the Parliament to take away their High Commission and their Parliamentary Priviledge forbidding them to meddle with any Temporal Affairs And I do not find that they are grown much more prudent yet for that they manage themselves in this intricate juncture of time at such a rate that all Mens Mouths are ready and stand half cockt against them and I fear may in time provoke the Parliament to do the like or more again they monopolizing all Government over others of themselves which is far from being Apostolical for in the Apostles times and divers Ages after all the People being under the inspection of one Bishop vulgarly the the Pastor of a Parish were wont to meet together not only for Worship but other Church Administrations all publick Acts passed at the Assemblies of the whole People they were consulted with their concurrence was thought necessary and their presence required that nothing might pass without their Cognizance Satisfaction and Consent This was observed not only in Election of Bishops Priests and Officers but in Ordination and Censures in Admission of Members and Reconciling of Penitents and in Debates and Consultations about other Emergencies but not one plain word in Scripture that one Apostle was subject to another nor one gathered Church subject to another or that any Man had lawful Authority to forbid Assembling of the Brethren together whether with or without a Priest In summ when Priest-craft had enlarged their Territories beyond their ancient Bounds which was but one Parish or a select Number scarce exceeding 150 or 200 unto many whereby they became Cardinals and Diocesans c. They thereby cajoled the People of their undoubted Rights and Priviledges and necessarily introduced an essential change of the True and Primitive Government of the Church set up by Christ and set up one to fit their own turn and ends In the very next Ages succeeding the Apostles and so for 400 Years and more one Parish or single Congregation was thought sufficient for one Bishop or Pastor so that as Christians multiplied so separate Congregations Bishops or Pastors so that there were as many Pastors or Bishops as there were several Congregations or Churches in a Province and not one Church or Congregation subject to the Laws Usages or Ordinances of any other No Churches gathered by St. Paul were subject to those gathered by St. Peter nor è contra of them or of any other of the Apostles or of any Churches gathered by their Successors Hence came several and diversity of Rites and Usages in the Ancient Churches without being accounted Schismaticks Separatists Non-cons or Phanaticks and with perfect Love Unity and Uniformity because they held the same Faith and Doctrine And 150 or 200 Souls was thought as many as one Bishop or one Pastor could take charge and give a good account of So that a single Congregation or gathered Church was esteemed a competent Charge for an Episcopal Pastor for the Episcopal Churches were daily multiplied and each Church had Power to govern and order it self and so followed such orders as every Church or gathered Congregation thought fit without being obliged to conform to those of any other Church or Congregation they had no Rule or Order in things of this nature requiring observance or did they regard such Uniformity as later Ages have been fond of to the prejudice of the Unity and Peace of the Church even to the persecuting of Righteous Men in our Kingdoms none of those Churches used the same Prayers all of them had not the same Creeds they had not the same Rites in Baptism or the Lord's Supper nor the same way in Confirming Marrying or Burying they used not the same mode either in reading the Scriptures or Singing they observed not the same methods in admitting Members or preparing them for the Communion neither proceeding to Censures or reconciling Penitents they differed also in their Habits and Postures they varied in their Fasts both for time and manner and observed not the same Festivals This was the Uniformity of the more Pure and Primitive times and no Persecution ensued no Appeals allowed from one Bishop or one Congregation to another So that the Uniformity the latter Ages have been so fond of is a down-right Novelty and Innovation which hath broken the Bond of Charity and Unity and instead thereof hath brought in Animosities Divisions and Separations nay Persecutions on God's Holy People very unworthy and unbeseeming Christian Pastors to make such actings more their business than the suppressings of Sin and promoting of real and strict Holiness All this and much more is so plain in ancient Writers that none but Novices and Chits in Story can be ignorant hereof If you will believe one of the greatest Prelates of the West and at no less than 600 Years distance from Christ In una fide nibil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae diversa consuetudo saith Gregory the first where there is one Faith it s no harm to the Church if there be diversity of usages i. e. the Church hath no harm for want of Uniformity And before him Innocent the first who lived about the Second Century in his Epist ad Decen writes that diversè in diversis locis vel Ecclesiis obtineri aut celebrari videntur To the Justification whereof and to the constant Practice thereof even from the Days of the Apostles unto
offend in Doctrine than in Discipline Sure much Learning or Haughty Pride and Ambition Self-ends and Interest hath made these Men mad And so fulfilled the Prophecy of Hosea 9.7 The Prophet is a fool and the Spiritual man mad Sure God hath turned these wise Ecclesiastical Polititians backwards and made their knowledge foollish Isai 44.25 However I will say thus much to them That Liberty of Conscience is undeniably the right of every true Believer viz. to judge of such things as belong chiefly to the knowledge and service of God whether they are above the reach and light of Nature and therefore liable to be variously understood by human Reason or enjoyned or forbidden by Divine Precept and to follow that full perswasion whereby every one is assured that his Belief and Practice as far as he is able to apprehend is according to the Will of God and his Holy Spirit within him which undoubtedly we ought to follow much rather than any publick Conscience or Law of Man Magistrate or not Magistrate as both the Word of God bids us and the very dictate of Reason tells us Acts 4.19 Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye And we have no other outward Divine Rule to judge by than the Scriptures nor no other within us but the illumination of the Spirit so interpreting that Scripture as warrantably only unto our selves which commands us to search the Scriptures daily whether those things are so Acts 17.11 and gives us Reason also let every man prove his own not his Magistrates work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another tho' publick Conscience for every man shall bear his own burden Gal. 6.4 5. Is it not false Doctrine in the Papists to teach that Believers only as the Church believes are discharged in God's Account Is it not the general consent of sound Protestants that neither Traditions Councils nor Canons of any visible Church much less any Edicts of any Magistrate or Civil Session but the Scripture only can be the final Judge or Rule in matrers of Religion and that only in the Conscience of every Christian to himself For if the Church be not sufficient to be implicitly and blindly believed as certain it is not what can there else be named of more Authority than the Church but the Conscience than which God only is greater 1 John 3.20 But if any shall pretend that the Scripture judges to his Conscience for other Men as this proud and saucy Politician doth he makes himself greater than the Church Scripture or Consciences of other Men a presumption too high for any mortal since every true Christian able to give a reason of his Faith hath the word of God before him the promised holy Spirit and the mind of Christ within him 1 Cor. 2.16 A much better and safer guide of Conscience than this Polititian in publick Conscience who in this is no less a Pope than the Pope at Rome The Spiritual man judgeth all things but himself is judged of no man 1 Cor. 2.15 And is not the Pope deservedly esteemed Antichristian for appropriating to himself such Infallibity over both Conscience and Scripture Whether tends all this but to make themselves to have Dominion over our Faith and Lords over God's Heritage which the Aposties utterly disclaimed and accounted themselves only helpers of cur joy and to be feeders of the flock not by constraint but willingly 1 Pet. 5.2 3. 2 Cor. 1.24 If Bishop Saunderson can judge The Word of God doth expresly forbid us to subject our Consciences to the Judgment of any other or to usurp Dominion over the Consciences of any other Saunderson's 10 Lectures 1660. v. 3. Lect. 30. § p. 103. None but God alone hath Power to impose a Law upon the Conscience of any Man to which it ought to be subjected as obliging by it self For there is but one Law-giver who can both save and destroy James 4.12 not one picked out amongst many not one above many but one exclusively i. e. one and but one onely who art thou that dost judge another It doth not belong to thee to thrust thy sawcy Sickle into the Harvest of another Man much less to fling thy self into the Throne of Almighty God to him it belongeth alone to judge of the Consciences of Men to whom alone it doth belong to impose Laws on the Consciences of men which none can do but God alone Conscientiis Dominari velle est Arcem Coeli invadere said Maximilian the first To exercise a Domination over Consciences is to invade the Power of Heaven He is a plunderer of the Glory of God and an usurper of that Tower that is due unto him that claims a right to the Consciences of Men or practise an usurpation over them v. Lect. 4. § 9 10 11. He tells us moreover That if Princes will be Resolute and if they will Govern so they must be they may easily make the most stubborn Consciences to bend to their Resolutions pag. 271. Princes must be sure to bind on at first their Ecclesiastical Laws with the straitest knot and afterwards keep them in force by the severity of their execution pag. 221. So easie is it for Men to deserve to be punished for their Consciences that there is no Nation in the World in which were Government rightly understood and duly managed mistakes and abuses of Religion would not supply the Gallies with vastly greater Numbers than Villanies pag. 223. Brave Doctrines for a Tory Church of England Man to Preach impuné Sure this Anonimus Ecclesiastical Polititian would make a brave Mufty or Inquisitor General or a Compito with a Dog-whip in his Hand which would affright worse than the Inquisition and make many much honester Men than himself know sorrow in abundance These and many more Positions of the same complexion are the Farci of that Pestilent Book which well becomes a thorough-paced Church of England Priest such Positions and Doctrines brings contempt on such of the Clergy as being a reproach to any Church and which the Church of England doth not Teach and which are so vile that they much more deserve Fire and Faggot than those burnt in Oxford July 1683. but instead thereof he was made a Bishop Whether tends all this treacherous dealings with the People of God Whilst like the Ministers of Jeroboam ye lay such Snares in Mispah and spread such Nets upon Tabor teaching and perswading Kings to use Laws Menaces and Subtilties to force and confine the People to Regal and State Religion be it true or false or at least to force them to dissemble or to walk in a neutrality or indifferency between God and Baal or else to make the Souls of Men and God's Glory subordinate to the Lusts and Risings of Kings and Priests who Balaam-like for the hope of Honour or Preferments or like Micha's Levite for a little better reward crouch and cringe and
any Foreign State or Power Upon this Popish Foundation which hath not the least ground in Scripture stands our Darling Ecclesiastical or Church-Discipline and Regiment a meer Popish Relick and Hierarchy set up only not to minister unto but to domineer contrary to Christ's Precepts and Examples And our Ecclesiasticks have not as yet made it their concern or business to endeavour a farther Reformation thereof tho' designed even from the beginning of the Reformation in Henry the Eighth's Days but are very well pleased to eat the Fat and drink the Sweet thereof And tho' they know that their Incroachments and Usurpations have been all got by Popish Priest-craft and by which they have for above 1000 Years cajoled and fooled both Crowns and People out of their just Rights and subjected Caesars and great Princes and Principalities to their own Empire And instead of a pure Gospel Government have Established to themselves a mighty Throne of Iniquity and Abominations fitted for Pride Domination self-ends and Interest c. Which Priest-craft togegether with Antichrist began to work in the Days of the Apostles even from Judas's Purse and continues to this very Day which is demonstrably made out as by many Histories so more punctually and particularly by Father Paul s Treatise of Beneficiary matters shewing how and when and by what Priest-craft all their Acquisitions Friars Annals Arms Spiritual Benefices Unions and Vacancies of Benefices Canons Cardinals Coajutors Commendam's Election of Bishops and Priests Exemptions Goods Ecclesiastical Appeals Monks Monasteries Indulgencies Investitures Pluralities Non-residence Excommunication Episcopal Audience Absolutions Dispensations Prebends c. were acquired used and abused A foul Mistake and Crime to think to Establish the Church with good Government taken from human Reason as if t were a Temporal State The Church and Kingdom of Christ as it is more Excellent than any other Kingdom in the World the Scepter of Righteousness being the Scepter of his Kingdom and to which Kingdom all other Kings and Princes ought to bow down and be subservient so it and the Government thereof differs from all other Governments and Kingdoms First It hath but one Head and that not by Election or Succession but by everlasting Continuation Secondly This Head chose his Church or Kingdom and not the Church him John 15.16 Luke 32.23 Thirdly The Laws of this Kingdom are more excellent and more unchangeable than the Laws of any other Commonwealth or Kingdom as being the Dictates and Precepts of Christ the onely and Eternal Head and are the unchangeable Copies and Expressions of his Immutable and most Holy Will Fourthly The Obligements and Conformity of every Member thereof unto these Laws are far more strickt and severe than in any other Commonwealth or Kingdom viz. That every one should love his Lord and King above all and his Neighbour and fellow Citizens as himself should abstain from all appearance of Evil and resist unto Blood striving against Sin c. Fifthly In the visible Government of his Church and Kingdom he hath appointed a Priesthood by irrevocable Ordination in which it is dissimular to all Temporal Governments as Officers of his Church and Kingdom to continue after his Ascension viz. Priests and Bishops and soon after his Ascension the Apostles added Deacons also by Ordination What Powers Christ gave them what Duties be obliged them unto are visible by their Commission written in great and indelible Characters viz. Go teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and so I am with you to the end of the world Matth. 28.19 20. and they were to Preach not themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves the servants of his Church for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4.5 This is the Summ of their Commission and Authorities that Christ left them Christ well knowing that his Apostles and Ministers and their Successors were to gather him a Church from among both Jews and Gentiles all bitter Enemies to him and his Gospel and to Establish it in the Bosom of their Kingdoms did prescribe them such a Government and Laws as they might any where execute peaceably without prejudice to the Subjects of any Commonwealth or Kingdom either in their Lives or Fortunes no other Subjects being subject unto that Spiritual Regiment but onely such as embraced the Christian Religion In this Christian Church Christ ordained Officers to Teach Baptize Ordain and Administer his Sacraments but for what concerned Honesty and Dishonesty doing Good and working Wiekedness and breaking the Laws of Morality Christ gave many general Rules and Precepts to the whole Church who were to Govern its own Body and the Officers thereof and not the Officers the Church or Body viz. to love one another even our Neighbours as our selves c. And if any did trangress the Laws not peculiar to them as Men but as Christians if the Offence were private then they were privately to be admonished If publick then they that transgressed openly were to be rebuked openly but if after Friendly Admonitions and Reprimands private and publick they still continued incorrigible then not to own them as Brethren nor keep company with them with such no not to cat and in sine pursue and proecute them as Publicans and Heathens i. e. Sue them in the Civil Courts And this is the Summ of the whole Government and Discipline which Christ left to his Church and any other there is not extant in Scripture nor is there need of any more or other as is hinted before Let the Pope Prelate or Paesbyter demonstrate any other Form of Church Government if they can they know they cannot but they will pelt us with Stories of another Government and of its Antiquity and general Use thereof for many Ages Be it so let them derive it as high as they can from that very Day and Date the very beginning of Popish Priest-craft will appear which by good management heaping Pelian upon Ossa now one thing and then another it early arrived at that monstrous heap of Irregularities nay Impieties it is now at in the Irregular use of the same in both Churches Take it as it is with the best Construction can be made of it What Concord what Agreement had it with the Government set forth in the Gospel even the same that Light hath with Darkness and Christ with Belial To Day to burn Books and Tenets of Men as pious and learned and having as precious Souls to save as themselves and to morrow suspend and extravagantly punish Ministers and others for writing Rebukes of Sin or not reading a Book of Sports or for Lecturing Excommunicate others for not paying Fees or not observing the Orders of their Courts and of their Officers Chancellors Surrogates Archdeacons Officials Sumners c. And if an Excommunicate Person come into the Church in the time of Divine Service the Celebration thereof is to
submitting to the narrow and more strict Rules of the Apostles of abstaining from all appearance of Evil of resisting unto Blood siriving against sin of endeavouring to be holy as our Heavenly Father is Holy and perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect And certainly it is much more agreeable tot he Mind of Christ to Conventicle with Assemblies of the Faithful than to be blind watch men ignerant dumb Dogs that cannot bark sleeping lying down loving to slumber yea greedy Dogs that cannot have enough shopherds that cannot understand that look to their own way every one for his gain 〈◊〉 56.10 11. that feed themselves but not the flock Ezek. 34.2 3 4. Such as these are they that teach for hire and divine for money that soist their own Straw and Stubble upon the foundation laid by Christ our Lord that will understand God other wise than he will be understood and will not account that sense of Scripture truest that most restraineth their corrupt humours that thwarteth and crosseth their high imaginations and designs We have with us and amongst us thousands that ask Counsel at their Stocks and whose Staff declareth unto them for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err and they have gone a whoring from under their God Hos 4.12 and yet not excommunicated nor so severely persecuted as those that Conventicle and Assemble with the Brotherhood We have also with us thousands of worthy very worthy pious and learned Prelates Priests and People that labour in the Word and Doctrine and mourn in secret for the violences done to such Assemblies in whom the Light of the Glorious Gospel most eminently and gloriously shineth and who preach and practice God's pure and sincere Ordinances so that no Nation under Heaven hath them more purely taught and exalted in Mercies than our own It is the rotten part of the Clergy only whose Popish and other Books publishing Doctrines destructive to whole Kingdoms only herein meant that occasions such contempt of the Clergy the very tail of Priests Isai 9.15 that teach Lyes and Doctrines that subject the whole Race of Mankind unto slavery and vassallage whose Hearts the love of the Wrold of Riches Honours and Preferments hath debauched and prevailed with to hearken to the Flesh when she pleads her secular contentments no need of this zeal this accurateness this pressing this violence for Heaven and upon presumptuous and false prejudices to account such strictness unnecessary presuming on the easiness of a future Reformation not considering that the least sin doth desile the Soul and that the smallest omission qualifie for Hell but can delight in sinful and desperate fellowships blessing themselves in their own wickedness and yet revile and malign our Conventicles much better imployed than themselves being bewitcht to dore on present Contentments to dispence with much unjust Liberty using lawful things unlawfully to steal even from God's own Day to gratifie their own corrupt humours and fleshly desires Rom. 8.5 6 7 13 14. by promoting and countenancing a Book of Sports but discountenancing and prohibiting Sermons on Sundays in the Afternoon and Lectures on the Week-days Pulpit-preaching is the least part of a Ministers work Paul taught from house to house day and night with tears Acts 20.20 Most certainly St. Paul was more Heavenly minded who accounted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge not notional only but experimental also of Christ Jesus our Lord for whom he suffered the loss of all things and accounted them but dung that he might win Christ Phil 3.9 If these sticklers against Conventicles did but live now as they will wish they had done when they come to die a time speedily approaching they would be of another mind and would not be of the Bedlam opinion of the World who like not such zeal such strictness such violence for Heaven Assembling together for edification and comfort is a Command from Heaven and no human Law ought to contradict it nor hath any Government more Power to forbid private than publick preaching of the Gospel Human Laws and Ordinances or Customs against the Law of God or Nature are corruption and derogate from the Authority of the Almighty and are ipso facto void and null Pope Paul the Fourth usually cursed Colloquies Councils Dyets for that they were always upon his Back I lay no such charge to our Clergy that do not favour of fancy such Conventicles But I vehemently suspect that they look upon them as reproaches to themselves as being the more diligent and the more laborious and the more zealous in the word and Doctrine than themselves These differences would not be if they would be governed according to the Scriptures which ought to be the rule of Resolutions without respect to private Ends and worldly Interests and manifest vices corrected according to the Wrod of God For which Reasons I conceive it a Spiritual Tyranny to forbid the Assembling of Bretheren together for the glory of God the increase of Godliness and of Brotherly Love among the Faithful And therefore conclude that suppressing such Conventicles cannot proceed from the Wisdom which is from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good sruits without partiality and without bypecrisie James 3.17 but from that wisdom which is earthly sensual devillish For why should not that Liberty be granted to this Age which other Ages have enjoyed with Spiritual Fruit even in the infancy and purest Ages of the Church and when all Nations were bitter and accursed Enemies to christ and his Gospel Certainly to forbid the Faithful to assemble to improve and make use of their proper Gifts and Graces in publick or in private to bring Souls to Heaven cannot proceed from any good intent For the Holy Ghost is nto the Clergy Petultar but variety of Spiritual Gifts and Graces belongs so essentially to the perfection of the Church that it is the very glory thereof and of every individual We are all so addicted to Sin and so prone to Impieties that all the allurements and inticements to holy living ought to be encouraged not discountenanced nor prohibited lest the care of strict Piety and eact walking in the ways of Holiness be abandoned And those Solemn Assemblies are but to husband are precious moments of lie for one Hour whereof tormented Souls in Hell would give all the World if they had the disposal thereof to be but in the same possibilities of Salvation to make their Peace and Reconciliation with their provoked God to the advantage of the Lord of the Harvest that when he comes he may find them so doing It seems very strange to thinking Men and to right Reason it self to deprive Men of their true Spiritual Liberty and their just Right and then perswade them to be content and speak evil of them accounting them Seditious Schismatical and Phanatical if they do not acquiesce And they are not only against the liberty of
be ignorant that Christ hath service much more than enough without Secular Imployments to take up all the Might Strengths Studies Abilities Times Callings of all his servants especially those of the Ministry whose peculiar Duty it is to teach others and watch over them and must give an account of them that they may be always worshipping communing of him and conversant with him and Enoch-like walk all the day long with him not minding their own things only but the things of others also that as Instruments and fellow Members by taking the hint of every fit opportunity they shall be put upon by the way of Providence and may be always Exhorting Reproving Directing Instructing Restoring Relieving and Helping others always Mourning Rejoycing Praying with their flocks and serving them in all ways of Love always doing that which may bring in most Spiritual good to themselves and their Flocks most true comfort to their own Souls and their Flocks and most glory to their Maker and Redeemer which is the true end and design of Conventicling and which the absurd love and attendance of the World is too prevalent to steal from us and to cheat us of tho' things of most precious spiritual and everlasting consequence They cannot be ignorant that if the seed be sown among thorns that the cares of this World and the deceitfulness of Riches and the lusts of other things fears of disappointment and miscarriage of earthly Ends and Interests entring in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful Mark 4.18 19. Erasmus was wont to say of Luther That he medled with two precious but dangerous concerns when he touched the Popes Crowns and the Monks Bellies who are apt enough even whilst their Meat is jet in their Mouths whilst distenti crepantes to cry out Heu quanta patimur But if Socrates say true Monachus qui non laborat manibus similis est praedoni Those Priests that feed themselves and do not feed the Flock whether through Laziness or multitude of Secular Imployments are at best but Pillagers and Robbers even Locusts that eat up the best of the Fruit of the Church and Ecclesiastical preferments for which severe Character I have Ezek. 34. for my undoubted warrant Certainly it is no very wild conjecture of him who hath printed that nothing offended Julian the Apostate so much or was so great an occasion of his Apostatizing as were the Vices and vile Hypocrisie of the then Christian Clergy who besides their coining of contrary Creeds in the Reigns of Constantine and Constantius and modelling Religion by Court Intrigues which seemed almost wholy to dispence even with Morality placing Sanctimony not so much in a Holy Life as in the shict observance of their Rituals and the Symbolical Representations of Christian Religion such as Baptism the Eucharist Chrism but above all in submitting to the formalities of Confession Penance Indulgences Absolutions Holy Water c. upon which the greatest Sins were so easily remitted What Flesh could indure to hear the Murderers of ones Father Uncle two Brothers six Cousin Germans harangue to Heaven in Pulpits as Saints because forsooth absolv'd by their own Friends the Priests who haply set them on work The ground of this his conjecture is because Julian is not so Satyrical on any occasion as upon this In his Caesars we find this flouting out-cry viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ho! whoever is either Sodomite Murderer Rogue or Villain let him dread nothing but repair hither with this Water I 'll make him clean in a trice and if he shall happen as human Nature is frail to reiterate the same Crimes if he will but thump his Breast and box his Noddle I 'll warrant him as innocent as the Child unborn Tho' this Julian a Man of excellent Parts and Learning became an accursed Apostate yet he was against those that discountenanc'd and persecuted Men of honest Principles and against those that paid devout Visits to the Bones of dead Friars calling them Holy Reliques and the like This fully appears by his Epistle to the Citizens of Bostra wherein he complains of his Predecessor for Persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing many of them nay whole Corporations of them they term Hereticks were put to the Sword insomuch that at Samosata Cizicum Paphlagonia Bythinia Galatia and many other Countries and whole Towns were laid level with the Earth whereas Julian himself practised the clean contrary recalling the exiled home and restoring such as were proscrib'd their own intire and vehemently complaining of the Clergy acting as Tyrants not as Men as above the controul of Laws and that upon one another and he laid the cause of all Tumults Insurrections and Tyranny to the seduction of those they call Clergy and all because they are restrain'd from their former excesses and because they may not be Judges nor make Peoples Wills and possess themselves of other Mens Patrimonies and so get all into their own Clutches quo jure quâve injuria and therefore advised the Laity not to tumultuate with the Clergy but to live in Peace one with another and commanded that in no wise any Injury Affront or Abuse should be offered to the Galilaean Laity for that Men ought to be brought over by Reason and Perswasion and not by ill Usage Blows and Stripes I wish all our most Christian Kings had imitated him in this particular I know I am harping upon an unpleasing String but it matters not I am at a point for that it may crush Arts and designs of Wealth Honour Preferments and Plausibility but God can recompence maugre all black Mouths that may either barke or bite Magna est veritas prevalebit These are not my sentiments alone but they have been the complaints of many Generations both of Lay and Ecclesiasticks Witness Guicciardine Sleydan Thuanus Padre Paolo and others Even in the Council of Trent some were so honest as to make the same complaints and desire Reformation of them averring that all the evil did arise from the large Donations of the Church especially that of Jurisdiction a thing inconvenient that they who ought to give themselves to Prayer and Preaching should exercise Power which is no ways essential to their Calling nor was ever receiv'd immediately from Christ nor any Authority ever given by Christ but what was meerly and purely Spiritual but that packt Conventicle was not so honest as to redress them Dr. Jeremy Taylor Lord Bishop of Down and Cannaught hath written a very learned Discourse justifying the liberty of Prophesying c. and Naked Truth supposed to have been written by another worthy Prelate makes the like complaints and laments them Of all which more largely in Jus Caesaris Ecclesiae vere dictae As to the Reformation of them Religion was certainly then most pure and sincere when there ws not one Ceremony used nor one Bishop nor Priest ingaged in Secular Imployments And no Reformation can be so good so pure as that which doth reduce things to
their first innocent Beginnings and Institutions against which no Objection can reasonably be made The Primitive Church did continue very many Years in perfection with increase of Saints and propagation of the Gospel without the use of any ceremonies or suppressing any holy Assemblies Conventicles or Excommunicating as now used or any Priest imployed in Secular Affairs in Princes Courts and the purity thereof can by this means only be restored they knew full well that the Kingdom of God did not consist in Cringings Ceremonies Vestments or Colours but in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 and may be so governed again if the Clergy would give it countenance and encouragement and be as active in good earnest to divest themselves of all Temporal Dominion and be content to live the life and practice of the Apostles yet with plentiful Revenues as they are to persecute their fellow Members in Christ for acting as the Apostles taught and did Be wise now therefore O ye Prelates be instructed yet Priests of the most High do not offend little onesS that believe in their and your god and that assemble in secret to imploy and improve precious time and holy Talents its better a Milstone were banged about your necks and you drowned in the depth of the Sea Mat. 18. than that you should be found guilty of such offence remember that he that toucheth such toucheth the Apple of his Eye Zach. 2.8 If they are weak in Faith yet receive them but not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14.12 and 15.1 for he that eateth and he that eateth not and he that conformeth and he that conformeth not may both meet in Heaven and see the Face of God with comfort It is hard kicking against the pricks if briars and thorns will set themselves in battle against the Lord he will go through them and burn them with unquenchable fire Isai 27.4 To me it seems marvellous nay monstruous that Ministers of the Gospel should preach pure Doctrine Holiness and Strictness of Life and Conversation and that most zealously and yet at the same time in the same Pulpit revile and speak evil of Ministers of the same Gospel preaching the same Doctrines as fervently as themselves in private Assemblies or Conventicles and out of their Pulpits to rail persecute and trouble those that practise the same Doctrines that they themselves teach them differing from them only about things indifferent Doth a fountain send forth sweet water and bitter James 3.11 12. Are these Pastors according to God's own Heart Is this to feed us with Knowledg and Understanding Jer. 3.15 Is it not rather to be bruitish in Knowledg Jer. 10.15 Falsest Priests that teach one thing and yet revile and persecute them that practise it to me it seems impossible that there should be sincerity in such Pulpits is not this to prevaricate with God and Man to speak lyes in hypocrisie and by slight and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive Will you talk deceitfully for God or as one man mocketh another will you so mock him Job 13.7 9. Tho' I thus argue yet am of Opinion that the Ceremonies of the Church of England are so innocent that they may be and are used with very good Conscience by some and may be injoyned But I know no Power under Heaven that hath lawful Authority rigorously to command submission to them upon Penalties and Severities that if any through either indiscreet Zeal or truly conscientious Scrupulosities cannot use them they must not therefore preach the Gospel either publickly or privately or partake of Church Offices and Benefices O! they are things indifferent and may be commanded be it so And therefore they ought so to continue and not be made necessary by any commands of Men. Let them so continue and Unity will necessarily ensue Rites and Ceremonies tho' by nature indifferent do then become bad and of ill consequence when imposed under Penalties and when they that do impose them have an Opinion that they are good or necessary Preaching and Praying and Assembling are of absolute necessity use of Ceremonies not so And the Holy Ghost would have no greater burthen imposed than things necessary Acts 15.28 To press these things so severely is with the Ministers of Jeroboam to lay snares in Mispah and spread nets upon Tabor Hos 5.1 And to sham and use Laws Menaces and Subtleties to keep the People from God's Temple and Sanctuary and to smother and dissemble the strictness and purity of God's Holy Ways but the righteous Lord will how the snares of the ungodly in pieces Psalm 129.4 Preaching of the Gospel and Administration of the Sacraments are things commanded by God and therefore ought not to be forbidden by Men and are so far exempt from human Laws that the prohibition of them is of no force it being in such cases better to obey God than Man Acts 5.22 and for that no Man's right ought to be denied him either in things Civil or Spiritual for fear they should abuse it for tha then no Man's Right shall be preserved safe and intire unto him And for certain God hath given no Power at all either to Princes or Prelates but what is accompanied with Divine Wisdom and sincerity and therefore to forbid any to preach the Gospel because they refuse to submit and conform to commands of things indifferent and no way Essential to the saving of Souls or to the Sincerity or Purity of the Gospel is utterly unlawful and sinful and as arrant persecution as was that of the Jews towards the Apostles and no ways to be countenanced in a Christian State but such Abuse of Power is a plain demonstration that they hate them that rebuke in the Gate and abhor them that speak uprightly Amos 5.10 Besides the matters in Difference between Conformist and Non-conformist are confessed by both to be but about things indifferent and therefore ought not to be imposed necessarily because their imposition cannot be justified infallibly and because indeterminate by plain Scripture and therefore can have no warrant from them What are we then to conceive of those our Ecclesiasticks who have been so far from promoting such a Reformation that they have always opposed it with strong opposition Witness of late Days their earnest and importunate solicitations of the Members of both Houses of Parliament to Repeal that Act of Parliament made 17 Car. disenabling all Persons in Holy Orders to exercise any Temporal Jurisdiction or Authority which by good management they have effected by another Act made 13 Car. 2. by which they are now re-instated on the old rotten Papal Foundation and are at such ease therein that if any do but mutter or peep against it they are ready with the two Men in the Gospel possessed with Devils coming out of the Tombs exceeding fierce and to cry out Why are you come to torment us before the time Matth. 8.28 29. Are not such Priests those that teach for hire and
Prophets that divine for money and pimp for domination Mich. 3.11 and Demas-like forsake the fellowship of Saints and embrace this present World So that unless the Apostles return from Heaven or that Christ himself come again in Person and lasn them as he did the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple I see small hopes of Establishing the Government of the Church on a right Basis If they would be active in good earnest to divest themselves of all Temporal Domination and Jurisdiction and content to be reduced to the life and practise of the Apostles as they are to persecute their fellow Members for Conventicling we might be happy Yet I must do the right Reverend Author of Naked Truth that right That if the Ecclesiasticks were all of his mind and first seek the Kingdom of God it would easily be done and I do with him humbly conceive That the Bishops with the rest of the Clergy are bound in Conscience to implore the Assistance of both Houses of Parliament to Petition his Majesty for the Redress of the Abuses by Pious Laws settling the Church Government in the Primitive Purity and Authority which most evidently was very great and as greatly reverenced Bishops and Priests being the Persons to whom Christ and his Apostles committed the Souls of Men bought with his most precious Blood Therefore I think they do such Clergy-men not Priesthood not Episcopacy not true Church of England Men no wrong who esteem them as they manage their matters the very worst Interest that Protestant Kings and Kingdoms have but that of the Papists These Animosities and Differences have been ever since the beginning of the Reformation between the Conforming and Non-conforming Clergy and I may truly prophesie ever will be so long as Conscience shall be on the Earth and as long as Ministers will not be Servants but Lords over Gods heritage and will not condescend to let things made by God Almighty indifferent so to be and remain the Reasons are pregnant for that Conscience will be Conscience while the World stands and therefore there ever will be Scrupulonties and Obligations upon Conscience which are greater than all other Obligations in the World And therefore King James the First would say and that truly That the Puritans were never to be obliged and for that Reason Whereas if things indifferent might so remain and the Conventiclers permitted to preach in publick to take away all Fears Jealousies and Suspicion we should be all at quiet for then there would not be left so much as the pretence of Religion to occasion Dislentions or Quarrels Besides it is the time-serving Clergy only the Drones that vilifies and abaseth that caluminates and disturbs the Dissenters and not the Dissenters them EXtremities used against them at their Instigation Silencing Imprisoning Excommunicating making use of Laws against them that in their primary 35 Eliz. simple and sincere Institution were intended and enacted against Papists only and they not proceeded against so violently according to those very Laws in full force against them as against the Non conformists who have been Indicted under the Notion of Popish Recusants and Penalties levied upon them and the Papists either totally connived at or remissly prosecuted many Crimes through ungrounded prejudices laid to their charge as disturbing of the Government which they abhor and teach not of which they are no otherways guilty than by that Logick that the Fox his Earon his Head were Horns meer Surmizes Calumnies and Libels and nothing proved but that contrary to a human Law they following the Command and Example of Christ and his Apostles meet and assemble together to keep a more intimate near and dear Communion with their and our God and with one another and to make Peace and Reconciliation with God whilst they are yet in the way yet in the possibility of Salvation whcih Law in it self is null and void because it contradicts the Law of God which Commands all Men every where to call on the Name of the Lord Jesus and all Priests to teach all Nations Baptizing c. and to preach in every Church in season out of season c. to reprove exhort rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. Is not this with the Priests of old and the Captain of the Temple to be grieved at the heart that they teach the People and therefore laid hands on them and put them in hold and like Elymas the sorcerer being full of all subtlety and all mischief children of the Devil enomies of all righteousness never ceasing to pervert the right ways of the Lord Act. 4.2 and 13.10 But lying lips shall be put to silence which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous Psalm 31.18 It was St. Paul's Glory that Christ was preached any way though through strife or vain glory and I fear it is the glory of the more violent and haughty Tory Church of England Party as the road to Preferment to decry Conventicling and Preaching contrary to such a Law and to stop the Mouths of them that would Preach whereby they intitle themselves to the Character of the Shepherds described and deciphered Isai 56.10 11. Consider that in Preaching contrary to such a Law they do no more than what Christ and his Apostles did in their Days The Rulers of the Jews offended with Peter 's Sermon imprisoned him and John and having strictly examined them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus Did they therefore forbear Preaching or were they obedient to such Commands of the Rulers I tell you nay but answered and said unto them Whether it be right in the sight of God to bearken unto you more than unto God judge ye and continued speaking the Wrod of God with great boldness Acts 4. The like did the rest of the Apostles even from house to house though accused of turning the World up-side down and of doing contrary to the decrees of Caesar yet preaching the Word of God boldly Act. 17.26 Either the Author to the Hebrews Preacht false Doctrine when he exhorteth us to consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is And so did St. Paul when he wrote his Chap. 14. to the Corinthians wherein he adviseth all to desire Spiritual gifts but rather that they may prophesie that they may speak unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort when the Church is come together in one place with particular Directions how all should behave themselves in such Assemblies that all may profit with a general Rule that all things be done decently and in order Either I say these Apostles taught false Doctrines in so Teaching or else they that preach and prate against such Assembling as the manner of some is are false teachers I know no medium take it as you please Can it it be imagined that if St. Paul who rejoyced
that Christ was preached in season and out of season though out of envy and strife though not sincerely though but in pretence and not in truth were living now and here would condemn our Conventicles or would not rather be in the midst of them himself I appeal to God and your own Consciences if you your selves ought not to continue stedfast in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread from House to House and Prayers If Conventicles in our Days do endeavour to come as near as they can to continue stedfast in the Doctrine and Fellowship of the Apostles why should they be interrupted Were not Spiritual Men mad doting upon mediocrities of Grace they would never burlesque the purity and simplicity of the Gospel nor the most strict ways of Piety and by ungrounded prejudices mis-judge them as Shagreen to good Government According to my Divinity Preaching in season out of season though not sincerely though but in pretence though not in truth Crimes of which I hope our Conventicles are no ways guilty and to become all things to all men that by all means they may save some is but to do the Will of their Master but more especially when their assembling and associating in such Conventicles is only to redeem and improve precious time by endeavouring to make all moments of their life comfortable and beneficial to themselves and others sparing sufficient time to humble themselves and to keep a constant communion with their and our God Pope Pius the Fourth could say That he would humble himself to Heresie in regard what ever was done to gain Souls to Christ did become that See And shall Protestants Clergy and not Clergy be like the Saduces and be grieved at heart that the People be taught the right ways of the Lord Absit I hope the Church of England tho' there have been and still are scab'd Sheep among them is not yet so corrupted as to have that laid to her charge which Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees That in vain they worshipped God teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and of which St. Austin complained in the Church wherein he lived which was so corrupted that the Commandments of God are laid aside teaching for Doctrines Mens Commandments and those exacted with such Severity nay with Tyranny that they were more severely censured who transgressed them than those who transgressed the Laws of God It is certainly so in Rome I will I could say it had never been so in England It is absurd to cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord boasting of the Priviledges that the Gospel doth afford us and at the same time to prevaricate with God and the Redeemed of his own Blood to give them stones instead of bread and serpents instead of fish by such their destructive Doctrines and punish more for Non-conforming than for not Preaching and as by Excommunication to deny and abridge the excommunicate the participation of Sermons Sacraments Sabbaths c. all outward means of Grace and Repentance Did St. Paul and the Corinthians forbid him whom they had delivered to Satan to come to their Assemblies or partake of the Sacraments Did Christ ever forbid Publicans and Sinners to come unto him Did he not eat the Passover with Judas the greatest of Sinners When the Pharisees objected his eating and drinking with Sinners as a crime did not he tell him That they that are whole need not a Physician but they that are sick Matth. 9.11 12. Did he not converse daily with them Did he not cast out unclean Spirits nay Devils out of them And yet our excommunicates tho' but for Niff-Naffs must not approach the Temple of the Lord nor assemble in the Holy Congregations This hath been the practise of some Centuries of Years both of the Popish and Protestant Churches when in truth there 's no such thing in Holy Writ as it hath been and still is used in both Churches And that Excommunication that is mentioned in Scripture if any at all is in the body of the Church and not in the Officers thereof and which the Laity have as much Authority to exercise against the Clergy as the Clergy against the Laity it cannot be denied Is it recorded in any Scripture Old or New that the Church doors were to be shut against the vilest Sinners or Sacraments or Communion denied unto them and yet the use of Excommunication hath been and still is such in both Churches I should account it a marvellous happiness if any thing that I have written might so far prevail with our Clergy as seriously to take into their consideration their interessing and intermedling with Civil Affairs and Imployments and also Excommunication which bring so much odium and contempt upon them and lay to Heart how many hundreds of Years the Church hath been imposed upon and abused by them The abuse of which by the Roman Pontiffs hath been abominable even against Emperors Kings Princes and States that all Histories swell therewith and stinks in the Nostrils of God and Man But not so much abused by any Protestant Churches By Excommunication as now used they have done as much as in them lay to frustrate the whole design of the Gospel by debaring the Excommunicates the use and enjoyment of the outward means of Grace and Repentance What strange kind of Sacriledge is this that when Christ hath appointed Sabbaths Sermons Sacraments c. for the conversion of Sinners to him and for establishing and confirming them when converted our Priests out of self-Ends and Interests preach up another Doctrine viz. Excommunication which debars the benefit of them all and so by a new Gospel of their own do as much as in them lieth send People to the Devil instead of allowing them the means of Salvation How contrary how unlike were the Gospel-censures of old to this now in vogue they were for Edification not for Destruction as this knack or spell of Excommunication is Besides the Spiritual prejudices to the Salvation of Souls by Priests-craft it is extended also unto Temporals as that the Excommunicate cannot sue at Law for any Debts Land or for redress of injuries done unto him nor at his Death dispose of his Goods or Estate If this be Gospel I understand not Gospel-truths It 's a shame that Religion should be thus made use of and used so dirtily as to make it serve turns and Godliness to wait upon Gain Pride and Domination of Priests It would be a marvellous happiness to these Nations if the Church of England Men would yet be so wise and considerate in these evil and confounding times as to fettle among themselves the distracting Doubts of taking our New Oaths of Passive Obedience of Non-resistance of Allegiance of Praying for our KING For whilst they are of such different Opinions among themselves what would they have us sid Mortals the Laicks to do A separation if not worse must ensue and that of the highest nature and