derogateth from his glory XIV Of Baptism 1. That Baptism was instituted only for the first times or for reception of Infidel countreys when converted and not for to be continued in Christian Countreys and Churches 2. That outward Baptism by water will save the adult that have not true Repentance and faith and sincere consent to the baptismal Covenant 3. That all the children of Infidels Heathens Hereticks or wicked men are certainly saved if they be baptized and have Godfathers professing Christianity though those Godfathers be wicked hypocrites and take not the infants by adoption or otherwise as their own nor really intend to educate them as they promise and if they die before they actually sin and that this is certain by the word of God 4. That all the baptized are delivered from all culpable pravity of soul or inherent sin 5. That it is certain that all baptized Infants of what parents soever have special grace infused into their souls by the Holy Ghost in Baptism 6. That baptism entering all into the Catholick Church obligeth all the baptized to the Bishop of Rome as the supreme head or pastor 7. That the Infants of believers dedicated to God are holy only as legitimate and not bastards but are not as a holy seed under promise to be entered into the Church and Covenant of God by baptism but all baptized in Infancy must be taken as no visible Christians till they are rebaptized 8. That none that sin grosly after baptism are upon their repentance to be received into the communion of the Church 9. That it is not necessary to baptism of the adult that they make any covenant promise or vow to God nor to the baptism of Infants that Parents or Proparents devote them to Christ by entering them into an obliging Vow or Covenant 10. That Baptism was not instituted to invest the baptized in his right to pardon and life but only to enter him into the visible Church where as a disciple he may learn how to come to such right and pardon hereafter 11. That the adult duely baptized have no right to the Communion of the Church though they profess to continue their Covenant-consent and none disprove the truth of their profession unless they have some higher qualification and title XV. Of the Lords Supper 1. That the Lords Supper is but an ordinance for young or carnal Christians but they that have the Spirit must live without it as being above outward signs and ordinances And so of the Lords Day 2. That the Bread broken and Wine poured out to be eaten and drunk are not the representative Sacramental body and blood of Christ delivering us the real benefits of his sacrifice to be received by faith 3. That after the words of Consecration duly uttered there remaineth no true substance of bread or wine but all is turned into the very body and blood of Christ 4. That the wine may justly be denyed the Laity and they be required to communicate by receiving only the bread consecrated or the body of Christ as they call it without the other half of the Sacrament 5. That Christs flesh and blood is really and properly sacrificed by the Priest 6. That ordinarily the Priest is to partake alone and the people only to be Spectators 7. That the consecrated host being Christs body is to be adored as very God 8. That this sacrifice is to be offered by the Priest for the living and the dead and to ease the pains of Purgatory 9. That God himself here deceiveth the soundest senses of all men making that to be no bread or wine which their senses and intellects of things as sensate apprehend as such 10. That it is heresie and deserveth extermination or death to deny these things of the Sacrament and to believe our senses that there remaineth true bread and wine after Consecration 11. That unbelievers and wicked men in the Eucharist truly eat the real body of Christ 12. That the bare receiving of the Sacrament though without true faith and repentance will procure pardon of sin from God and Salvation XVI Of the Church 1. That the Church of Christ as visible is lost or ceased or hath been lost since the Apostles days so that there was a time when Christ had no visible subjects and disciples 2. That the Church differeth from Heathens and Infidels only in opinion and not in real holiness 3. That only the Clergy or Rulers are the Church of Christ 4. That Christ hath instituted a vicarious visible Head of all the world or of all the Church on earth under himself to whom all Christians must be subject as their chief Pastor 5. That this Head or universal Church Monarch is the Bishop of Rome or else a general Council 6. That this Head or chief Ruler Pope Council or both hath universal Legislative power to make Laws obliging the whole world or the whole Church 7. That this Head is made the judge to all Christians what shall be taken for articles of faith and what for heresie and all are bound to believe such judgement or at least to acquiesce in submission to it 8. That no one is bound to believe the Scripture or the Christian Verity but for or upon the proposal of the Pope Council or both 9. That such judgement and proposal is certain and infallible 10. That this Church and its authority must be believed to be given by Christ before men can believe in Christ himself 11. That this Pope Council or both have power from Christ to excommunicate such as deserve excommunication throughout all the world and to judge who deserve it 12. That the Pope hath power to call general Councils out of all Christian Churches or nations on earth and to preside in them and to approve or reject and invalidate their decrees 13. That all Churches are bound to send Bishops or Delegates to â—uch Councils if required by the Pope 14. That a General Council approved by the Pope is infallible in all points of faith else not 15. That the Pope or Council or both may judge all Christian Kings and depose such as they judge deserve it and give their Countreys to others and disoblige their subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance 16. That they may interdict Gods worship to whole Countreys and Kingdomes and the Clergy must obey such interdicts 17. That whom they or the Clergy judge hereticks all are bound to avoid as hereticks be they never so falsly judged such 18. That at least in ordine ad spiritualia the Pope hath power over Princes and their Crowns 19. That the Clergy owe not obedience to Princes nor may be judged by them 20. That the universal Church can have no errour in any point which God hath revealed in his word 21. That the universal Church hath erred or may err in points essential to Christianity or absolutely necessary to Salvation and so become no Church and Christ no King or Head of it 22. That no one is a
Rector of the Bishops under him and their people but only the Orderer or Guide of the Modes and Circumstances of the Council as such And therefore could the Pope prove a right to preside in General Councils orbis Romani vel orbis terrarum which he cannot it were no proof that he is Regent Head of the Church universal The same I may say of the other Presidents § 13. If it hold that God instituted only Congregational or Parochial Churches as for present Communion then it must needs follow that none of the rest instituted by man have power to deprive such single Churches of any of the Priviledges granted them by Christ And therefore whereas Christ hath made the terms of Catholick Communion himself and hath commanded all such to worship him publickly in holy Communion under faithful Pastors chosen or at least consented to by themselves which many hundred years was the judgement of the Churches no humane order or power can deprive them of any of this benefit nor disoblige them from any of this duty by just authority § 14. Nay seeing that the universal Church is certainly the highest species none hath authority on pretence of narrower Communion in lower Churches to change Christs terms of Catholick Communion nor to deprive Christians of the right of being loved and received by each other or disoblige them from the duty of loving and receiving each other Humane power made by their own contracts cannot change Christs Laws nor the Priviledges or forms of Christs own Churches § 15. They that say that these several Church species are of God must prove that God instituted them and that can be only by Scripture or else that he gave some power to institute them since Scripture times which till they prove none are bound to obey them at least when they over rule Christs own institutions § 16. To devise new species of Churches without Gods authority and impose them on the world yea in his name and call all dissenters schismaticks is a far worse Usurpation than to make and impose new Ceremonies or Liturgies § 17. Dr. Hammond Dissert cont Blond Annot in Act. 11. pass affirmeth that it cannot be proved that the order of subject Presbyters was existent in Scripture times and consequently holdeth that Bishops had but single Congregations as Ignatius speaketh with One Altar Now if Diocesans Metropolitans Provincials Patriarchs or Pope as constitutive of Church-species were made after either these new Churches were made by the Bishops of Parochial Churches or by those that were No Bishops or Pastors of any Churches at all For the Apostles were dead and no institution of these but Scriptural can be truly proved And other Churches besides the Catholick and Parochial or single distinct from a compound of Churches there were then none For the lower to make the higher Churches is that which they will not grant who grant not that Presbyters may propagate their own species and deny that power ascendeth ab inferioribus And that men of no Church made all these new Church species is no honour to them § 18. Two contrary opinions herein now reign One of the Papists that think Christ instituted the Pope with power to make inferiour Church species That other is that Christ or his Apostles instituted Diocesans giving them power both as rulers to make Parish Churches or Chapels under them and by Contract or Consent to make the highest species over them Provincial National Patriarchal and say some Papal But as to the Papists so much is said against their supposition that it 's not here to be confuted And it 's certain that single Church order was constituted by no Pope and that all the Apostles had power thereto And as for the latter which affirmeth the lower degrees to make the higher we still want the proofs of their authority so to do of which more afterwards § 19. As for them that say that it is Magistrates that have power to make new species of Churches I grant them that whatever alterations of Church-Orders may be made Magistrates may do much in them The Power of Princes and the Guidance of Pastors and the Consent of the people have each herein their special place But what these alterations or additions are which they may make is the chief question Both the Catholick Church and single Church assemblies being instituted by Christ are not left to them The circumstantiating of other Assemblies and Associations are left to them to be done according to Gods general Law But that making new Political Societies that are properly called Churches or Religious bodies consisting of the Pars regens pars subdita is left to them by Christ I never saw proved any more than the making of new Sacraments But if that could be proved yet that these humane Churches or their makers may change those that are of Divine institution or deprive them of their priviledges or forbid them commanded duty cannot be proved § 20. And it is certain 1. That if Princes or Bishops or the people did institute Diocesan or Metropolitan Provincial or Patriarchal Churches they may yet make more and other species And who knoweth how many new forms of Churches we may yet expect 2. And they that made them upon good reason may unmake them or alter them when they please § 21. But though the Legislator and not the Subjects be the institutor of the Vniversal and particular Church-policies yet men are the constitutive matter and mans consent and faith is the dispositio materiae without which the form is not received and mans welfare is part of the final cause and Ministers are the instruments and Gods word written and preached for the gathering of Churches by such qualification of the persons and also of revealing the Institution of Christ and investing of particular persons in their Church-relations § 22. By all this it appeareth that as it belongeth to Christ to institute the political species of Churches though circumstantiating may be left to man at least undoubtedly of the Vniversal and of the single species so it belongeth to Christ and not to man to institute and describe their terms of Union For this is the very institution of the species And we are not to receive humane Church-policies without good proof of mens authority to make them and impose them CHAP. XI The danger of the two extreams And first of despairing of any Concord and of unjust Tolerations § 1. SOme men having seen the Christian world so long in Sects and contending parties do think that there is no hope of Vnity and Concord and therefore that all should be left at liberty And others think that there is no hope but on terms so wide as shall take such as Christ receiveth not nor would have us receive And on such accounts there were very early great contentions about the qualifications of the baptizers and baptized and the validity of baptism and about re-baptizing As to the Baptizers some thought
of such things indifferent as the Church had not setled by any Law and would not so settle but that it 's nothing to such as the Church either hath or will so command This opinion hath carried it in England and other Nations of the world Being once commissioned to plead this cause by his Majesty among others I then presumed to say 1. That St. Paul here writeth not only to the laity but to all the Roman Church That therefore he writeth as Christ Rev. 2. 3. to the Angels of the seven Churches to the Rulers of the Church as well as to the People 2. And therefore he forbiddeth those Rulers what he forbiddeth others and so forbiddeth them the imposing of any thing contrary to this his full determination 3. Yea himself was an Apostle and a Church-Governor of as great authority as those that he wrote to And these his words signified his own judgement and what he would do himself Yea they were as good a Law as any the Romans could make that he wrote to Therefore when an Apostle by the Spirit of God shall write thus plainly and peremptorily to Priests and people thus to tolerate and receive each other he that now expoundeth it with an except the Church otherwise decree maketh this the sence I do by all these great reasons charge and perswade you not to judge despise or reject one another unless you decree to do it or not to make such rejecting Laws unless you make them And the Holy Ghost speaketh not in the holy Scriptures at this rate § 10. Yea I prove from the arguments used by St. Paul that he extended his speech to the Clergy or Rulers as well as to the people and so forbad them making such Laws And indeed the knack of making Church-Laws without the Holy Ghost in Apostolick persons was not as then learnt and used by the Churches 1. Because St. Paul argueth from Universal reasons 2. and from Moral and necessary arguments and 3. Speaketh by the Spirit and Apostolical Authority § 11. I. His reasons touch not only some singular persons and case but the case of all Churches in all Ages He argueth from the difference between well-meaning Christians as Weak and Strong as doubting and as assured as mistaken and as in the right as in danger of being damned if they act doubtingly and of stumbling and being offended c. Now such weak mistake◠Christians in such matters ever have been and ever will be and so the reason from their case and necessity will hold in all Countreys and Ages to the end § 12. II. And many great and pressing Moral reasons that all Christians are bound by are here heaped up 1. One is from Christian Love to brethren 2. Another from humane Compassion to the weak 3. Another is from Gods own example who receiveth such whom therefore we must not reject 4. Another is from Gods prerogative to judge 5. and another from his propriety in his own servants 6. Another is from our having no such judging power in such cases 7. Another is from Gods Love and mercy that will uphold such 8. Another is because what men do as to please God must not be condemned without necessity but a holy intention cherished so it be not in forbidden things 9. Another is that men must not go against Conscience in indifferent things 10. Another is from Christs dreadful judgement which is near and which we our selves must undergo and must be that final decider of many things which here will not be fully decided 11. Another is from the sin of laying stumbling-blocks and occasions of offence 12. Another is from the danger of crossing the ends of the death of Christ destroying souls for whom he dyed 13. Another is that it will make our good to be ill spoken of 14. Another is that the Kingdom of God or the Constitution of Christianity and the Church lyeth in no such matters but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost 15. And another that Christ is pleased in this without the other and God accepteth such 16. Another is that such are approved of men that is This righteousness peace and holy joy without agreement in such Ceremonies and by-matters beareth its own testimony for approbation to the judgement of all impartial men humanity and Christianity teach us to love and honour such 17. Another is from our common obligation to live in peace with all 18. Another is from our obligation to do all to the edifying of one another 19. Another is because Gods work else is destroyed by us 20. And our own lawful acts are turned into sin when they hurt another 21. Another from the obligation that lyeth on us to deny our own liberty in meat wine c. to avoid the hurting of another that is weak 22. Another is from the damnation of such as are driven or drawn to act doubtingly 23. Another is from the special duty and mercy of the strong that should bear the infirmities of the weak 24. Another is from the common duty of pleasing others for their good and edifying 25. Another is from the example of Christ himself that pleased not himself 26. Another is from Gods patience to us 27. Another is from our great obligation to imitate Christ 28. Another because indeed this is the true way to Love and unity that with one mind and one mouth we may glorifie God while we lay not our concord on impossible terms 29. Another is in the concluding precept because Christ receiveth us and it is to Gods Glory therefore we must thus receive each other If all these moral arguments signifie no more than this Receive and tolerate such till you make Laws against it I cannot understand the argumentations of God or holy men § 13. III. And to conclude Paul spake by the Holy Ghost and by Divine authority himself and his words recorded are part of Christs Law indited by the Spirit and no man that cometh after him or to whom he wrote had power to contradict or obliterate it All this methinks should satisfie men of the meaning of so full a decision of an easie case about things indifferent which it's strange that so many yet for nothing do oppose And that the authority of an Apostle in Sacred Scripture the peace of the Church and the souls and peace of all dissenters and doubting persons should seem so contemptible to them as not to weigh down their humour and domineering will in an unnecessary and indifferent thing But it is the nature of sin especially Pride to be unreasonable and unpeaceable and the troubler of the soul the Church the world § 14. The same Apostle in the Epistles to the Corinthians 1. c. 1. v. 10. c. importuneth them to peace and unity and sharply reprehendeth their divisions 1. c. 3. He desireth them to be perfectly conjoyned in the same mind and in the same judgement But what are the terms and means of such a
giveth Let them not deceive men by making a Verbal strife of it If they will call either electing or investing a Giving of the Power I will not contend against their liberty of speaking as unfitly as they list if they will but well explain it But the thing is plain and sure that 1. The election doth but determine of the Receiver 2. and that the Investing act is but a ministerial publick delivery of a Right which resulteth immediately from the Charter or Law of Christ If a Bishop say I ordain you to the office of a Presbyter the Scripture must tell us what that is If the Bishop say Take the office of a Presbyter but preach not or only preach and administer the Sacraments or do both but you shall have none of the Church Keyes or power of discipline it is null as to the restraint There is no contract freer than that between a husband and wife as to the choice of persons And yet when a woman chooseth a man for her husband it is not she that properly giveth him the Ruling power she did but choose the receiver God by his Law is the Giver If she bargain with him that he shall not be her Governour it is null because against Gods Law And so it is in the present case If the power of Ordination and Church Government can be proved to be setled by Christ on the Presbyters either conjunct with the Bishop or alone he that ordaineth a Presbyter by virtue of Christs institution cannot deprive him of that power by his own will and act by saying You shall have no such power For God is the describer and the giver § 14. Yea some would perswade men that the very office of Presbyters is of humane institution As some Papists in the Council of Trent would have had it pass that Christ having made the Pope the Pope maketh the office of Bishops and they hold their power from him so some Prelates would have it believed that Christ only instituted the Order of Bishops and that Bishops made the Order of Subject Presbyters and that after Scripture-times there being none till then existent but the word Presbyter in Scripture everywhere signifying only a Bishop Which those that are against the distinct order of Bishops thankfully accept and say that indeed Subject Presbyters having no ordaining power are a humane invention since Scripture-times and that God instituted no such order But the difference is that these say man had no authority to do it and bid the other prove by what authority it was done and where the Bishops had such power given them to make a new species order or office of sacred Ministers But the other say that it was well done But proof is all § 15. And here come in many other Church-distracting contentions As 1. Whether any Bishops Ordination be valid that holdeth not his Power from the Pope 2. Whether he be a true Bishop that is not Canonically ordained by three Bishops 3. Whether he be a true Bishop that is not chosen or consented to by the people and Presbyters of his Church 4. Or if he have but the minor part the rest not being allowed or called to choose 5. Or if the major part be against him 6. Or if three neighbour Bishops be for him and ordain him Bishop and many more be against it or forbid it 7. Whether he be a true Presbyter that is not ordained by a Bishop of distinct and superior Order And whether an uninterrupted succession of such ordination is necessary 8. Whether he be a true Bishop that is ordained only by Presbyters 9. Whether he may be a true Bishop or Presbyter that hath no Ordination 10. Or he that hath no Election but the Kings or the Patrons nor other proved Consent of the people 11. Whether he be a true Bishop or Presbyter that the King alloweth not or forbiddeth 12. Whether the Ordination of hereticks be null 13. Whether the Ordinations of prohibited degraded or excommunicate Bishops be null Abundance of such controversies ignorance and faction have torn the Churches with § 16. I. As to the first I need not answer it to any but Papists and as to them I and others have said enough that is unanswered § 17. II. As to the second where the Churches agree to take none for a Bishop that is not ordained by three four or more that person cannot be the Bishop of that particular Church which by such agreement doth refuse him Not for want of any thing necessary to a valid ordination but for want of the Consent of the people or subjects that are to receive him For he cannot be their Pastor against their will But the Ordination of One may make a man a Minister in the Church-universal unfixed and to a particular Church if the receivers of him do consent § 18. III. As to the third Election oft signifieth the first determining nomination distinct from after consent This is not necessary to the office or power But Consent is necessary at least to the exercise and therefore to the office which is for that exercise If people were as much under Princes for choosing Guides for their souls as a daughter in her fathers house is under her father for the choice of a husband which yet I never saw proved to be so yet as he can be no husband to her without her consent though she culpably deny consent so is it here he can be no Pastor to them till they consent § 19. IV. and V. In all Societies where consent is necessary the consent must be either of All or of the Most or else they will divide § 20. VI. To the sixth The question of the Validity of the Ordination dependeth not on it but on the peoples acceptance and consent If ten Bishops ordain one man Bishop of a Church and three ordain another to the same Church and one a third as sometimes there have been divers ordained Popes that only is the true Bishop whom the Church which he is to be over consenteth to Other decisions will not serve § 21. VII I will answer this largelier by it self in the third part Here I only say 1. so far as any Ordination is necessary the Ordination of a Bishop is necessary But the question 〈◊〉 what a Bishop is If he be defined by the Power of ordaining alone some think there is no such because by the old Canons the Presbyters were to joyn in Ordination Others think that when none else are there any one Presbyter may ordain alone If he be defined by the Power of Ordaining simply or of having a Negative vote in ordaining the doubt is whether every Presbyter have not Power to ordain as in nature the Propagation of its own species is common to all living things Either Ordination is a Governing act of superiority or a propagation of the species If the later Presbyters may do it If the former then Bishops cannot ordain Bishops as such nor
cannot take from them what they never had nor are capable of But we in London never had local Communion with them of Vienna Paris Rome c. nor ever saw them All therefore that they can do is to account those Hereticks or wicked or Apostates whom before they accounted good Christians and to declare that they own them not as fellow Christians and would not communicate with them did they live among them and to warn others that are in danger of them to avoid them and this not as an act of Government over them but of common Christian duty for the honour of our common religion and in charity to others The just renouncing of mental or local Communion by equals or neighbours much differs from a Governing commanding excommunication forbiding other Churches as their subjects to communicate with such on certain penalties which is the usurpation of Popes Patriarchs and some others who claim such governing power without proof CHAP. VIII VI. What is necessary to the Civil Peace and concord of Christians and what is the part of the Christian Magistrate about Religion as to his promoting or tolerating mens doctrines or practices therein § 1. THe contentions of the world here call us to resolve these several doubts 1. Who it is that should have the power of the sword or Magistracy 2. How it is to be used towards all men as men in society 3. How it is to be used for the service of Christ and good of the Church in encouraging some and tolerating others and keeping peace among them all § 2. It is here supposed that the subject is understood and that we are agreed what the Magistrates power is at least de re though not de definitione vel de nomine that is it is the power of Governing by the sword that is of making Laws and judging according to them and executing them by outward force on mens bodies or estates And so it is contradistinguished from the power called Ministerial Pastoral Priestly or Ecclesiastical which is the gathering and guiding of Christian Churches by Gods word preached expounded and applyed The nature of each and their differences I have formerly opened in a small treatise written purposely on that subject to end the Erastian controversie And Bishop Bilson fuily openeth them in his excellent book of Christian Obedience c. The Magistrate hath power forcibly to seize on offenders estates and bodies to imprison mutilate scourge strike and kill them that deserve it and to make Laws and judge men unto such punishments The Ministers of Christ or Pastors of the Churches have no such power but only to declare Gods Laws to the people and convert and baptize the wicked unbelievers and teach them the word and will of Christ and guide them in publick worship and Communion and judge who is capable thereof and to require the people in the name of Christ to love and receive the worthy and to avoid the unworthy and to resolve the peoples particular doubts and by personal application to pronounce and declare Gods acceptance of penitent believers and his promise to save them and his decree to condemn the ungodly unbelievers impenitent and Hypocrites § 3. This difference is commonly acknowledged by the generality of sober Christians But one schismatical Writer against schism will needs call this Pastoral power Coactive coercive or forcing also though he confess that it is not a power to touch mens Bodies or estates that so by casting out all differencing names he may hide the acknowledged difference of the power and execution And his reason for this errour de nomine is because suspension and excommunication are executed on the involuntary and compel those that believe the power and fear them to obey Where 1. The word compel containeth the confusion compelling the mind by meer argument being not the compelling by corporal force which we are speaking of 2. And every man that chideth reproveth or threatneth a sinner usually doth it to the involuntary And if he believe him and yield he will obey And if you argue from his future danger or suffering it is the fear of it that moveth him But the fear of Gods declared threatnings is not the same as the fear of mans stripes imprisonments unless c. 3. And excommunication worketh on no mans body further than it worketh on his conscience to make him a voluntary agent If you denounce damnation against him it moveth him no further than he believeth you as applying to him the word of God If you forbid him to be present or take the sacrament and he refuse to obey you may not forcibly thrust him out without the Magistrates consent but only suspend your own act of delivery or depart If you command the people to avoid him they will no further obey you than they perceive Gods authority in your words and are convinc't in Conscience of their duty And every sermon may thus compel men And all that judge the sentence unjust and powerless will despise it § 4. 1. There are four or five opinions about the possessors of this forcing power by the sword or violence The first of them that say It belongeth to all Magistrates Christian and unchristian The second of them that say It belongeth only to Christian Magistrates The third of them that say It belongeth to Orthodox Magistrates or Catholick only and not to Hereticks The fourth of those that say that the Judicial part in cases of Religion belongeth to the Pope Prelats or Presbyters and the executive only to the Magistrate The fifth of those that say that both judicial and executive belong to the Pope Prelats and Priests I may add a sixth of them that say it is radically in the people § 5. 1. As to the first it is undoubtedly true if you distinguish between the Office Power and the aptitude of the person to perform it The Office of a Supreme Ruler is the same in all but all are not equally capable of performing it That is It is the same as described by Gods command of their performance As he commandeth infidels to believe and communicate with the Church but not to communicate before they believe so he commandeth Infidel Princes to believe and to govern the Christian affairs but to govern them as they are capable The common Laws of nature justice and peace among Christian subjects an Infidel Prince may and must see executed The Laws of Christ revealed supernaturally he ought to understand believe and execute But till he understand and believe them he cannot execute them And therefore wants the disposition and ability to do what he had command and authority to do but to do it only in the due manner to which his sin disableth him and so his Power is in him incomplete § 6. I confess it is a very hard question How an Atheist can be said to have any Governing right from that God whom he denyeth any more than a Constable from the King from whom by
renounce all doctrines and practices of Rebellion sedition or Schism I believe not that subjects may take up Arms or use any force or conspiracy to violate the Rights Authority or Persons of those in supreme Power over them I believe not that by any Laws of God or Man the Bishop of Rome hath the right of Governing all the world or all Christian Kings and Kingdomes nor the King or Kingdome of England in particular in matters secular or religious Nor that it is the duty of this Kingdome or the King to subject themselves unto him and obey him Nor that the said Bishop of Rome hath any true authority or right to impose oaths on Kings or other temporal Lords or otherwise oblige them to judge their subjects to be Hereticks who deny the Popes universal Supremacy over all the Churches on earth or who deny that the universal Church hath any Visible Head but Christ or who believe that the truly consecrated Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper remain true Bread and Wine after the Consecration or that believe they are not to be adored as their God nor the Wine to be denyed to the Laity communicating Nor may the Pope oblige Kings or any others to exterminate burn or kill or punish any such as hereticks nor excommunicate Kings or temporal Lords for not doing it nor depose them being excommunicated nor give their Kingdomes or Dominions to others nor authorize any to kill them or to raise arms against them and to invade their Countreys by hostility Nor hath he right or authority to forbid Kingdomes or Countreys the publick celebration of Gods worship or holy Christian Communion Nor to oblige any Rulers or others to destroy any as Hereticks or judge them such because they are so judged by the Pope or Councils And I believe not that the Clergy are exempted from obedience to the Secular Powers or from being judged and punished by them by any Laws of God or any valid Laws of man not made or consented to by the said Powers And I unfeignedly believe that if any Pope or Council how great soever do decree or assert any of these things which I have hereby renounced and disclaimed or shall hereafter decree or assert any of them they err and sin against God in so doing and are not to be believed therein nor do oblige any thereby to obey them And all this I profess as in the sight of God my Judge without fraud or dissimulation in the sincerity of my heart THe errours which men should be restrained from preaching or propagating are innumerable and not necessary to be all put into a subscribed or professed renunication so they be actually forborn I will recite part of a Catalogue of false and doubtful dangerous points not fit to be published by preachers I. Of the nature and acts of God 1. The God is corporeal or material 2. That God is essentially only in Heaven or in some finite space 3. That God hath parts and is divisible 4. That God hath the parts or shape of humane bodies head face eyes hands feet c. properly so called 5. That God is the Universe or whole world or that he is meerly or properly the soul of the world as his body and so but a part of the world 6. That God or any essential of God is really new changeable or finite 7. The God can suffer hurt or hath proper real grief and passion 8. That God knoweth not all that hath been is or will be and all that is intelligible 9. That Gods own essential perfection goodness and love is not the ultimate and chief object of mans love to be loved chiefly for himself as most amiable and above our selves and all things created but that he is only or chiefly to be loved as our Benefactor or as good to the creature And so that man is Gods end and his own chief and ultimate end and not God mans chief and ultimate end 10. That God is the first and chief or any proper cause of sin or that God doth by efficient premotion as the first cause predetermine every mans mind will tongue and members to every forbidden act that is done as it is determined to and specifyed by the object with all its forbidden circumstances and modes and so to every lie perjury hatred of God and goodness murder c. that is committed 11. That God ruleth the world only as an engine by physical motion and doth not rule any free agents by moral means as precepts prohibitions promises c. in any acts saving as these are parts of his physically necessitating motion 12. That God may or ever doth lie or by his inspiration or his works of nature or providence necessitate innocent persons de facto or oblige any as a duty to believe that which is false 13. That God hath so committed the affairs of this world to Angels or any creatures or natural means as not to mind them or particularly govern and dispose of them himself 14. That God is essentially or virtually absent from the effects which he causeth 15. That God hath not power to do any more or otherwise than he doth though he would 16. That Gods will is not the fountain and the measure of all created good or that things are not good because they are willed by God 17. That Gods proper and absolute will desire and decree may be disappointed and not come to pass 18. That somewhat of or in the creature may be a true or proper cause of somewhat not only relative but real in God or make a real change on God 19. That God hath no vindictive or punishing and no rewarding justice 20. That God may be formally conceived of and comprehended by man and not only known analogically and as in a glass II. Of the Blessed Divine Trinity 1. That there are three Gods or three divine essences or substances 2. That the Trinity are but Three Names of God or three relations of him to the creature 3. That they are Three parts of God 4. That the three Persons are one God only in specie as Abraham Isaac and Jacob are One man because they have but one humane sort of nature 5. That one person in the Trinity is in time or dignity before or after other or greater or less than other 6. That in the Trinity there are three Fathers three Sons or three Holy Ghosts 7. That the doctrine of the Trinity is contradictory or impossible to be true 8. That it is unnecessary to be believed or preached 9. That there are no Impressions or notes of the Trinity on the soul of man or any other known works of God 10. That the works of Creation Redemption or Sanctification are no more eminently or otherwise ascribed in Scripture to any one Person in the Trinity than to the other That Creation is no otherwise ascribed to the Father than to the Son and Holy Ghost nor Redemption to the Son than to
Subjects that are not of their religion or may compell all to those ways of worshipping God which they shall judge best be they right or wrong 6. That Gods Laws are not obligatory to Kings and Kingdomes 7. That Princes or people may preferr their worldly interest before the interest of Religion Souls and God or may set them in opposition against it 8. That Princes must imprison or otherwise punish such as are excommunicated and not absolved by the Clergy without knowing whether the cause be just or unjust by their own exploration 9. That Princes may break Oaths and Covenants when their interest requireth it 10. That subjects have no liberty or propriety in any thing either life wives children or estates but what is at the meer will of Princes to dispose of as they please 11. That it is lawful for subjects to disobey the authority and commands of the higher powers because Christ hath freed us from subjection to men 12. That all Governing authority is originally in the people and by them given to Rulers on what terms they please 13. That therefore the people may depose any Princes where they see cause or may call them to their bar and judge and punish them having themselves the highest governing power 14. That if Princes injure the people the people may therefore rebel take arms against them and depose them 15. Contrarily that no people may defend their lives houses or posterity nor the chastity of their wives by resisting any Tyrants or against the will of Rulers that have no true authority to destroy them 16. That subjects may break their oaths of allegiance whenever their own worldly ends require it or if the Pope disoblige them 17. That if one King wrong another the wronged King may destroy all the others innocent subjects 18. That no war is lawful 19. That it is lawful to defame and dishonour Princes if they are sinners though the contempt tend to disable them from necessary government 20. That none but sanctified persons have true Governing power or dominion 21. That children are bound to obey their parents subjects their Princes and servants their Masters in nothing but what they think is wisely or justly commanded them though it be good or lawful in it self 22. That Parents may not teach children forms of Catechism or prayer nor command them any duty which the child will but say is against his Conscience nor restrain him from any sin which he pleadeth Conscience for 23. That Christian Parents in want may â—ell their Children for slaves to Idolaters or Infidels for supply 24. That Children may disobey their parents in any matters of Religion if the Pope Bishop or Priest so command them XIX Of Duties to our equals or neighbours as such 1. That no man is bound to love another but for his own sake and so far as he is beneficial to him 2. That we are not bound to do another a greater good to the least hurt to our selves 3. That men are not bound to love and preferr the common good of multitudes of their Countrey or the world before their own commodities or lives 4. That no killing of malefactors is lawful by laws and judgement 5. That it is lawful to kill our enemies for meer private revenge or to prevent some evil to our selves though they are innocent 6. That it is lawful to have many wives at once 7. That it is lawful to put away wives or for wives to depart whenever their fleshly or worldly interest seemeth to require it 8. That it is lawful to commit adultery at least by the husband or wives consent 9. That fornication is no sin or no great sin 10. That it is lawful when our need doth urge us to rob steal defraud or oppress others 11. That restitution or reparation is no duty 12. That it is no sin to deceive another by borrowing when we are unable and unlikely to repay and do conceal this 13. That it is not a duty for them that are able to labour in some lawful useful calling for their own maintenance and the common good 14. That it is lawful to lie for our commodity when it hurts not others 15. That it is lawful by backbiting slandering and false witness to disgrace our enemies or be revenged on them 16. That it is lawful for Judges knowingly or rashly to pass unjust judgement against the innocent or just and for advocates or others to promote it 17. That it is lawful for the poor to covet other mens goods and for men to desire and endeavour to draw from others whatever seemeth desirable or needful to our selves 18. That it is no sin to love the world flesh and life better than God Christ grace and glory 19. That it is no sin to be discontent and impatient in our sufferings nor a duty to deny our fleshly pleasure profit or reputation and life for God and for spiritual and everlasting benefits 20. That it is no duty to love our enemies forgive wrongs and forbear each other in their infirmities and provocations XX. Of Death Judgement Heaven and Hell 1. That the souls of believers go not to Christ and happiness nor the souls of the wicked to misery before the Resurrection of the body at the last judgement 2. That there is no Resurrection of the body at least of the wicked or of Infants 3. That Christ will not come in glory to judge the world 4. That we shall not be judged according to what we have done in the body 5. That the faithful shall not be justified and judged to life everlasting 6. That the wicked shall not be condemned to hell or everlasting punishment with the Devils but without holiness men may see God and be saved 7. That no man can know that he hath certain right to Salvation 8. That there is a fire of Purgatory where those that after shall be saved must make penal satisfaction for some of their sins and from which the Popes pardons and masses and other mens merits may deliver souls 9. That the justified shall not live in Glory with God and Jesus Christ and the Angels and the triumphant Church 10. That there is an aereal life of trial before the final judgement where the justified and wicked souls shall again live under conditions of yet winning or losing their heavenly glory 11. That the Devils and damned shall all be delivered at last and either be saved or have another life of tryal And the Glory of the blessed also will have an end and they must by revolution be tryed in flesh here again 12. That it is not a duty to seek first the Kingdome of God and its righteousness and lay up a treasure in heaven and there have our hearts and conversations and thence to fetch our motives and our chiefest hopes and comforts under all the sufferings of this transitory life and the expectation of our certain change THis or such a Catalogue of dangerous doctrines is not to be
us the Britains rejected them and the Scots would not eat or converse with them The Abassine Empire was never under them nor those of India and Persia And the Councils in which they had the first seat were but of one Empire as is after proved And as for the first three hundred years under Pagan Emperours their own Writers confess the Church of Rome was little set by that is it had no governing power over the rest nor is there any pretence to think they had The first that talk'd very high was Leo the first who called himself the Head of the Catholick Church But by Catholick was then meant usually the Churches in the Empire only and by Head he meant the prime Bishop in order but not the Governour of all Nor was his claim if he meant any more approved by the Churches in that Age. Though the Council of Chalcedon highly applauded him and his Epistle as an advantage to carry their Cause against Dioscorus who had excommunicated the Pope and took him for the prime member of their Council yet they thought meet in their Canons to declare that it was but by humane mutable right in the Roman Empire Let them shew us if they can when and where the universal Church on Earth ever subjected themselves at all to the Pope Much less can they bring any pretense of it for the first three hundred yeas Had they any Meeting in which they agreed for it Did they all receive Laws Ordination or Officers from Rome or from its Emissaries If we were so foolish as to believe that his precedence in General Councils was a proof of the Popes Monarchy yet it 's easie to prove 1. That for 300 years there was no General Council 2. And that it was not the Pope that presided at Nice 3. And that those Councils were but Imperial and not truly Universal But if all the Church ever had been subject to the Pope as being at first except Abassia almost confined to the Roman Empire it doth not follow that it will ever be so again when it is dispersed into so many Kingdoms of the World The Jesuites at first were all under the King of Spain and the Mahometans at first all under one Prince but they are not so now Is it likely that ever all Christian Mahometan and Heathen Kings will suffer all their Christian Subjects to be under the Government of a Foreign Priest But their own Writers agree that the Apostles at first were dispersed into many Countreys besides the Roman Empire and that Ethiopia was converted by the Eunuch mentioned Acts 8. initially its like before Rome and fullyer by St. Matthew And you may see in Godignus Alvarez Damianus a Goez and others full evidence that they were never Subjects to the Pope of Rome I conclude then 1. That Rome is not owned this day as the head of Unity by all Christians 2. That it never was so taken for the Governing and Uniting Head 3. And that the reason of the thing fully proveth that it never will be so I may adde that indeed it is not known among themselves who are the consenting Subjects of the Pope or Members of their Church It is indeed Invisible or a Church not knowable For 1. They are not agreed nor ever like to be what is the essential qualification of a Member of the Church Or what that Faith is that must make a Member Some say it must be the Belief of all the Creed explicitely others of some few Articles others that no more is necessary ad esse than to believe explicitly that God is and that he is a Rewarder of good works and to believe that the Church is to be believed Of which see Fr. a Sanct. Clara in his Deus Natura Gratia 2. And their forcing men into their Church with Tortures Fire and Sword leaveth it utterly uncertain who are Consenters and who are in the Church as Prisoners to save Limbs and Life And if they ever recover England Scotland Ireland Germany and the other Reformed Churches it must be by the Sword and Warrs and Violence and never by force of Argument And if they should conquer us all which is their hope and trust it will not follow that men are of their minds because they cannot or dare not contradict them no more than because they are dead Experience Reason and Scripture then do fully prove to men that are willing to know the truth that the Universality of Christians will never be united to the Roman Papacy Yea that this Papacy is the greatest of all Schisms 1. By setting up a false Head of Union and 2. By cutting off or renouncing three parts of the Christian World even all Christians except the Subjects of the Pope CHAP. V. The Vniversal Church will never unite in Patriarchs or any other humane Form of Church-Government Sect. I. WHether or how far such Forms may consist with Union is a Question that I am not now debating any further than shall be anon intimated by the way But that they will never become the Bond of Union or be received by all and that to make any such thought Necessary to universal Unity is Schism I am easily able to prove Sect. II. And this needeth no other proofs than what are given against uniting in the Papacy in the former Chapter As 1. Patriarchs and other humane Institutions being not of God but Man the whole Church can never unite in them 1. Because they will never all agree that any men have true Authority given them by God to make new Church-Officers and Forms that shall be necessary to the Unity or Concord of the Church Universal 2. They will never agree who those men are that God hath given such power to if they did suspect that such there are A Prince hath no Power out of his Dominions 3. They will never agree that if man made such Forms or Offices they may not unmake them again if they see cause or that their Acts bind all their Posterity never to rescind or change them 4. They will never find that all the Christian World ever agreed herein and so in all Posterity is obliged by their Ancestors 5. Much less will any ever prove that the Institution was Divine Sect. III. If any say that the Apostles settled this Form by the Spirit the Universal Church will never believe it For 1. No Scripture saith so 2. No true credible History saith so 3. If the Apostles settled Patriarchs it was either as their own Successors or as a new Office And it was either by joynt consent or man by man each one apart But 1. Had they settled them as their Successours they would have settled twelve or thirteen But there were but five settled at all besides some new petty Patriarchs as at Aquileia when they cast off Rome 2. No Writer tells us of any meeting of the Apostles to agree of such a Form 3. No nor that ever they settled them 4. History assureth
down Sect. XI 3. They turn all the Parish-Churches into Chappels or meer parts of one Church and Unchurch them all in the judgment of those that take a Bishop to be essential to a Church And all will not agree to Unchurch all such Parishes Sect. XII 4. It maketh true Discipline as impossible as is the Government of so many score oâ— hundred Schools by one Schoolmaster or Hospitals by one Physician without any other Schoolmaster or Physician under him but Ushers and Apothecaries which all Christians will not agree to Sect. XIII 5. It is contrary to the Practice of the Primitive Churches and casteth out their sort oâ— Parochial Bishops as I have elsewhere fully proved 1. From the Testimonies of many such as that oâ— Ignatius before cited 2. From the custom of choosing Bishops by all the People 3. And of managing Discipline before all the Church 4. By the custom mentioned by Tertulliâ—â— and Justin Martyr of receiving the Sacrament onely from the hand of the Bishop or when he Consecrated it 5. By the custom of the Bishops onely Preaching except in case of his special appointment 6. In every Church the Bishop sate on a high Seat with the Presbyters about him 7. The Bishop onely pronounced the Blessing 8. Many Canons after when the Churches grew greater command all the People to be present and communicate with the Bishop on the great Festivals These and many more Evidences prove That in the Primitive Times the Bishops had but single Churches and every Altar and Church had a Bishop Sect. XIV 6. The very Species of the old Churches is thus overthrown and the old office of Presbyters therewith which was to be assistant Governors with the Bishop and not meer Preachers or Readers And all these Changes all Christians will not agree to Sect. XV. 7. Especially the sad History of Councils and Prelacy will deter them from such Concord when they find that their Aspiring Ambition and Contention hath been the grand Cause of Schisms and Rebellions and kept the Church in confusion and brought it to the lamentable state in East and West that it is in Sect. XVI 8. And constant Experience will be the greatest hinderance As in our own Age many good Men that had favourable thoughts of Diocesans are quite turned from them since they saw Two thousand faithful Ministers silenced by them and that it is the work of too many of them to cast out such and set up such as I am not willing to describe And such Experience After-Ages are like to have which will produce the same effects When Experience persuadeth Men That under the name of Bishops they are Troublers Persecutors and Destroyers they will account them Wolves and not agree to take them for their Shepherds It will be said That Good Bishops are not such It 's true and that there are Good Ones no sober Man doubteth But when 1300 years Experience hath told Men That the Good Ones are few in comparison of the Bad Ones ever since they had large Dominions and Jurisdictions And when Reason tells Men That the worst and most worldly Men will be the most diligent seekers of such Power and Wealth and that he that seeketh them is liker to find them than he that doth not and so that Bad men are still likest to be Diâ—cesans And when the divided scattered persecuted Flocks find that the work of such Men is to silence the most conscionable Ministers and to be Thorns and Thistâ—es to the People though they wear Sheeps cloathing Men will judge of theâ— by their fruits and the Churches will never be united in them Sect. XVII 9. The greatest Defenders of Episcopacy say so much to make Men against them as will hinder this from being an uniting course I wiâ—l instance now but in Petavius and Doctor Hamâ—â—d who followeth him and Scolus who saith 〈…〉 Clara led them the way These hold That the Apâ—stâ—â—s setled a Bishop without any subject sort of Presbyters in every City and single Congregational Church And Doctor Hammond Annot. in Act. 11. Dissertat adversus Blondel saith That it cannot be proved that there were any subject Presbyters in Scripture-times but that the word Presbyter every where in Scripture signifieth a Bishop And if so 1. Men will know that the Apostolical Form was for every Congregational Church to have a Bishop of its own 2. That no Bishop had more setled Congregations than one For no such Congregation could worship God and celebrate the Sacrament of Communion as then they constantly did without a Minister And one Bishop could be but in one place at once and so without Curates could have but one Assembly 3. And Men will be inquisitive By what Authority Subject Presbyters and Diocesan Bishops and Churches were introduced after Scripture-times in which they will never receive universal satisfaction If it be said that the Apostles gave Bishops Power to make a subject order of Presbyters and to turn Parish or Congregational Churches into Diocesan and so to alter the first Forms of Government when they were dead this will not be received without proofs which never will be given to satisfie all Nay it will seem utterly improbable and Men will ask 1. Why did not the Apostles do it themselves if they would have it done Was not their Authority more unquestionable than theirs that should come after If it be said that there were not qualified Men enow it will 2. Be asked Were there not like to be then greatest Choice upon the extraordinary pouring out of the Spirit 3. Do we not find in Corinth so many inspired gifted persons in one Assembly that Paul was put to limit them in their Prophecying yet allowing many to do it one by one And Acts 13. there were many Prophets and Teachers in Antioch And at Jerusalem more and at Ephesus Acts 20. and at Philippi Phil. 1. 1 2. there were many Bishops or Elders And such Deacons as Stephen and Philip c. would have served for Elders rather than to have none 4. Doth not this imply that after-times that might make so great a change may also do the like in other things 5. And that Diocesans and subject Presbyters be but humane Institutions and therefore Men may again change them 6. Doth it not dishonour the Apostles to say that they setled one Form of Government for their own Age which should so quickly be changed by their Followers into another species All these things and much more will hinder Universal Concord in Diocesans Sect. XIX Yet I must add that there is great difference between Diocesans both as to their Government and their Persons whence some Churches may comfortably live in Concord under them though 〈◊〉 be divided and afflicted under them 1. Some Diocesans have Diocesses so small that Discipline is there a possible thing Others as ours in England have some above a thousand some many hundred or score Parishes which maketh true Discipâ—â—â— impossible 2. Some Diocesans exercise
all 21. What if a thousand honest weak Men mistake and think that the things imposed as necessary to their Sacramental Communion are great Sins and it be not so as our Doubts against Conformity are thought to be Mistakes yea the Anabaptists Error Can he prove that all such are damning Errors for want of Sacraments 22. Gods Oath is also to confirm our Faith And if a Man may be saved that beâ—ieveth Gods 〈◊〉 and knoweth not of his Oath why not he that believeth it and knoweth not of the Sacrament 23. Doth not his Doctrine make the Priests the absolute Lords of all Mens Souls that can deny Salvation to any or all Men by denying them the Sacrament Is this the sense of their having the Power of the Keys 24. Is not this abuse of Tibi dabo Claves and the office of Key-bearing the knack by which Popes have subdued Kings and Kingdoms 25. Is not the Argument which this Man manageth against the Reformed Churches to prove them â—o Churches and to have no Ministery and Sacrament the Achilles of the Papists in which is their chief coâ—fidence but often baffled as by Voetius against Jarâ—nius aforesaid 26. Nay the Papists themselves are far more moderate than this Man for they take a Laymans Baptism yea a Womans to be sufficient to salvation when this Man denieth it of all the most learned and holy Pastors that have not uninterrupted Episcopal Ordination 27. Bishops have too oft conspired to corrupt Gods Sacraments witness the Lateran Council sub Innc. 3. and to interdict Kingdoms and oppress Princes and People and may do so again And have the People no remedy against them 28. A Minister justly ordained and unjustly suspended or silenced by a Bishop hath more authority than Laymen and their Sacraments are not Nullities by the Romanists Confession 29. Is not this Mans Doctrine far grosser than Cyprians and the Africans yea the Dâ—natists that denied the validity of Heretick Baptism 30. A Lay-Chancellor in these mens judgments useth the Keys of Excommunication and Absolution validly and yet are not the Sacraments or Ordination of the Reformed Churches aforesaid valid 31. Surrogate Priests by the Bishops consent validly Excommunicate that are no Bishops 32. No People can be sure by this Mans Rule that they have Sacraments or shall be saved except by faâ—lible presumption not knowing that their Priest hath uninterrupted successive Ordination 33. When your presumptuous Ordination is discovered to be Null must all the People be Re-baptized 34. The Church of England giveth none the Lords Supper till 16 years old Doth it become absolutely necessary to Salvation just at that Age and not before 35. The Burial Office pronounceth all saved that never Communicated so they be Baptized and not Excommunicate nor kill themselves 36. What work would this Man make for Rebaptizers if all the Protestanâ—s of all Nations must be Re-baptized that have not the foresaid Ordination 37. Is it suitable to the description of God and his grace in Scripture to believe that he layeth all mens Salvation upon Sacraments performed by men Ordained as he describeth 38. Are not we Reproached Silenced Ministers as like to be good Protestants as such men as this that say that 1. The Reformed Churches that have not Episcopal Ordination from uninterrupted Succession are no true Churches 2. Have no true Ministers 3. Nor true Sacraments 4. Nor part in the Covenant of Grace 5. Nor hope of Salvation by promise from God 6. That their Ministery and Sacraments is the Sin against the Holy Ghost 7. That the Church of Rome hath this uninter rupted Succession as he tells me 8. That as will hence follow the French Protestant were better turn Papists than be as they are Sect. XXXI There are as many and greater Objections that I should lay before him about his Doctrine of an Universal Church-Policy and that sort of Episcopacy which he rather supposeth than proveth necessary and such other Points But I will no more tire the Reader herein Sect. XXXII All the definition of the Protestant Religion that I can extort from him is Communicating with the Church of England and those that it holds communion with 1. And so did the Papists saith Dr. Heylin in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign till the Pope forbad them 2. The Church of England never renounced Communion with the Reformed Churches which he renounceth 3. A particular Church is no Standard of Religion Nor England more than the rest Sect. XXXIII If he renounce Communion with all these Reformed Churches and with the Romans also what a Separatist is this Man and how narrow is his Communion and into how small a number hath he reduced the Universal Church If neither Papists nor any Churches that have not Ordination from uninterrupted Succession be parts of the Catholick Church it is very little if not invisible Sect. XXXIV He thus teacheth almost all the Christian world instead of Love and Concord to Unchurch Unchristen and Condemn each other The Romans on such accounts already Unchurch all the rest The rest will far more easily prove that Simony Heresie uncalled Popes uncapable ones and manifold Schisms have oft interrupted his described Succession at Rome And so Turks and Heathens have matter given them against us all Already by such kind of Schismatical Principles there are few parts of the Church on Earth that are not by others Unchurched and Unchurch not others But yet it is but few of them that have proceeded to that Anabaptistical height as to nullifie all their Sacraments and to expect that almost all the Christian world should be again baptized Yea this is far more Schismatical than common Anabaptism For the Anabaptists with us Re-baptize not them that were baptized at age by such Ministers as this Writer and such others degrade much less do they damn almost all the Christian world or other Reformed Churches and say They have no part in Gods Covenant of Grace and Promise of Salvation and that they sin against the Holy Ghost as this Man doth CHAP. X. None of these terms will unite a National Church or any Associated Churches nor well any single Church Though by other means a competent Vnion may be kept in some Churches notwithstanding such Schismatical Courses § I. THE same Reasons which prove that none of these terms will ever unite the Universal Church but that all are fitted to promote Divisions will prove also that they tend of themselves to the dividing and distracting of all lesser Church Societies and Communions Though yet we do not deny but de facto a particular Church may easilier agree in an Error or be kept in some Concord under the same Pastor where a Sin or Error prevaileth than the Universal Church on Earth can As the Church of Rome may agree in Popery but all the Christian world will not And as a great part hath agreed in Arianism called Christians and a great part in Nestorianism and to this day in Eutychianism
Sins are not within his Cognizance 3. To do the work of Parents Pastors Tutors or Physicians is no part of the Office to which he is appointed and authorized 4. But he may drive on all these to do their duties by due means 5. It is unlawful to seek to cure a lesser Evil with a greater That is to be numbred with the things which the Prince cannot do which he cannot do by lawful means or such as do more hurt than good 6. The Mischiefs before enumerated against the Princes Safety and Honour and against Love and Justice and Conscience and Religion are so great as that no Severity must be used which procureth them and doth not a greater good 7. The punishing of small Faults by great Punishments is Injustice and Unlawful 8. Abundance of Infirmities and humane Frailties and Errors are such as must be endured so they be but by Doctrine Love and gentle Reproofs rebuked and disowned without Punishments Ecclesiastical or Corporal else there will be no Love or Peace 9. Preachers must not be suffered to persuade Men from the Faith Love or Obedience of God in Christ against any Article of the Creed or Petition of the Lords Prayer or Precept of the Decalogue or any essential part of the Christian Religion 10. If such speak a damnable Error or Heresie by Ignorance or Heedlesness they must have a first and second Admonition and they 〈◊〉 repent But if they forbear not upon Admonition they do it studiously and wilfully and such are to be Silenced till they Reform because the Preaching of one that opposeth an essential Point of Religion will do more harm than good except among Heathens or where no better Preachers can be had 11. It will not be unmeet for the Rulers to draw up either a Catalogue of integral Points of Religion of great moment which all shall be forbidden to Preach or Dispute against or else a Catalogue of Errors contrary to such which none shall have leave to propagate But it is not every one that violateth the Law that is to be forbidden to preach Christs Gospel but lesser pecuniary Mulcts may be sufficient punishment to many and the bare denying them preferment or maintenance and casting them among the disowned that are but tolerated may be better punishment and more effectual in case of tolerable Faults than the more severe 12. Rulers should do much more to restrain from Evils than to constrain to Religious Duties And those Evils are of these sorts First Such as blaspheme God Secondly Such as draw the Hearers Souls into damnable Error or Sin Thirdly Such as tend to overthrow the Honour and Safety of the Governors Fourthly Such as tend directly to breed Hatred in men against each other and kindle the fire of Contention and Enmity Fifthly Such as draw men from the common duties of Justice towards Neighbors or Relations into Fraud and Injury 13. It is the greatest part of the Magistrates duty about Religion First To see Gods own Laws kept in Honour Secondly And to keep Peace by Church Justices among Clergymen and People that are apt to take occasion from Religion to abuse and calumniate one another 14. Yet Rulers may and must compel Persons that are grosly ignorant or erroneous to hear what can be said against their Error and for their Instruction As Parents so Magistrates may compel Children and Subjects to be Catechized and to hear Gods Word and may compel them to hear such Teachers as have the Rulers Licence either as Approved or Tolerated to Teach 15. Men ought not to be compelled to receive the Sacraments of Baptism or the Lords Supper by the Sword or Force because it is to receive a sealed Pardon of Sin and Donation of Christ and Life which no unwilling person hath right to or doth receive For to say I am unwilling is to say I receive not and so the reception of the outward sign is Hypocrisie Prophanation and taking the Name of God in vain 16. Yet those that being Baptized and at Age avoid Communion are after Admonition to be taken for Revolters so far and to be declared such as so far cast themselves from the Communion of the Church And the Christian Magistrate may well deny them many Priviledges in the Commonwealth which he should appropriate to sound persevering Christians 17. Places in Government Trust Burgess-ship and Votes in Elections of Governors and such like are best appropriated to the Approved part of Christians and some the Tolerated but never granted to Apostates proper Hereticks or any that are intolerable 18. Pastors of the Churches should not be constrained to give the Sacrament of Baptism or the Lords Supper to any one against their Consciences because First It is their Office to be Judges who is to be Baptized and to Communicate This is the power of the Keys Secondly If they may not judge of the very Act which they are to perform they have not so much as that judicium discretionis which belongeth to every man as a man and so must act brutishly Thirdly If they may administer against Conscience when they think it Sin the same reason would hold for all men to sin whenever a Ruler commandeth them that judgeth it no Sin what Bounds shall be set against absolute blind Obedience Fourthly Whereas the Objection is from Inconveniences As Then every Pastor may deny Men Sacraments I answer 1. So every Tutor Physician c. may abuse his Trust 2. Therefore men must have care whom they choose and trust 3. There are better Remedies than sinful slavery in the Minister even consulting with Synods of Ministers or where Bishops rule appealing to them 4. The persons that expect the Sacrament may have it from some other Pastor that is willing It is a less inconvenience that a single person remove or else communicate in another Assembly than that the Pastor whose Office is to use the Church Keys be enslaved to sin against his Conscience 5. We suppose that of ancient right the Church is not to have a Pastor over them whom they consent not to Therefore if the Church find themselves wronged by the Pastors Fact they have their Remedy They may admonish the Pastor and if he hear not tell the Bishop Synod or Magistrate for I am not now determining the case of superior Bishops but tell what is the actual Remedy where such bear Rule And if he hear not the Church Synod Bishop or Magistrate they may desert him and choose a fitter Pastor and yet neither Excommunicate nor Silence him but the same man may be more sutable to another Flock which will desire him They that object Inconveniences in this motion should consider First That a Mischief and Sin is worse than an Inconvenience Secondly That there is nothing desirable here without Inconveniences which may furnish an unwise Contender with Objections Thirdly That they that cry up the Canons and Traditions Custom or judgment of Antiquity Bishops Councils Fathers and the Catholick
Church should not hastily set their own Wit or Authority against them all who for 600 if not nearer 1000 years after Christ did not only judge that Bishops must come in by the Peoples Election and Consent but that he was to be accounted an Usurper and no Bishop of theirs that had it not Fourthly And we have reason to think St. Cyprian and the Carthage Council of Bishops as wise as the Objectors who in the Case of Martial and Basilides before described judged that the People ought to forsake an uncapable scandalous Pastor though other Bishops even he of Rome absolved him And that the chief power of choosing or forsaking was in them and if they did otherwise it was not the contrary Sentence of Bishops that would excuse them before God It is easie to say St. Cyprian erred and we are in the right and this would overthrow all Government But neither the persons that object nor their Reasons have ever yet seemed to me sufficient to make me prefer their judgment even in this before Cyprian and the African Fathers XI In all probability FREE SACRAMENTS administred by such Ministers of Christ as by the Christian Magistrates Licence are either Approved or Tolerated would heal most of all the Discords about Religion in England I mean Sacraments not constrainedly but freely given and received I shall tell you why I think so by instances 1. The Thing call'd Strict Presbytery with a power of Classes and National Assemblies composed of Ordained and Unordained Elders as a Judicature whose Excommunication is to be enforced by the Magistrates Sword is approved by few of my acquaintance in England But those that Prelatists calâ— Presbyterians here commonly are Ministers that desire but the exercise of so much of their proper Office and the freedom of a Christian and a Man as not to be forced to administer Sacraments against their knowledge and conscience to the uncapable because a Lay-Chancelor or a Diocesane that knoweth not his Neighbours and Flocks so well as he shall say that they are worthy and command him to renounce his knowledge in obeying them And if God had made all such Ministers to be only the Lay-Chancellors or the Diocesanes Agents or Servants to Baptize and give the Lords Supper only in the Chancellors or Bishops name as a Messenger and if it be done amiss that not we but the Chancellor or Bishop should answer it to God then we could joyfully thus obey them But while we believe That we must answer our selves for our own actions and that we must Baptize and give the Lords Body and Blood in Christs Name and not the Bishops we dare not obey Men before God nor renounce our own judgment in the matters of our own Office and Trust Therefore it would satisfie us had we but freedom in our Ministerial action not to go against our Conscience however blind malice would make the world believe that it is some Papal Empire even over Princes that we desire Nay we desire That if the Magistrate will allow us Parish-Churches and Maintenance and Countenance in our work that any person that cannot remove his dwelling without great detriment and cannot be satisfied in our Order of Worship and Communion but can receive more Edification from another Minister may have leave to join in Communion with any other Approved or Tolerated Church keeping the Laws of Loyalty and Peace Why should I envy anothers desires or benefits Or think it hard that any can profit more by another than by me Or why should I be against it And we desire not that the People may be Ordainers or Church-Governors or have the power of the Keys but that if any Flock cannot be satisfied after full hearing to rest under the conduct of our Ministery they may freely chooâ—e another and remove us And for my own part as I never did so I wonder how any ingenious Minister can obtrude himself on any People and pretend to be their Pastor against their wills As my Conscience condemneth it as against God and them so I confess my Prudence is against it for my self and I am not so base as to endure such a life 2. And as for the Party called Independant I have reason to think that it is the main of that Toleration which they desire For Mr. Philip Nye who led them more than any one man known to me did purposely write to prove That the Christian Magistrate may set up Teachers all over his Dominions whom the People upon his Command are bound to hear But that to take any for their Pastors he thought they might not be compelled 3. And even the Anabaptists would be contented with the same liberty if they be but near as peaceable as Mr. Tombes was who wrote for even Parâ—chial Communion and persuaded the Anabaptists to it Though few so far followed him most I think would be contented with Free Sacraments in which I include the Eucharistical Lords-day worship § X. And what harm will this do where Love prevaileth and where Pride and Envy make not 〈◊〉 Priests to think all wrong them that do not Adore or Idolize them or give them more than is their due What harm will it do me if an hundred of my Parish hear and prefer another man by whom they can profit more than by me What if they worship God in other sound words or in Cloaths of another make or colour as long as they are restrained from reviling and the breach of Peace Are they any better in my Auditory with censuring or dissenting â—â—dgments hearing me against their wills than where they can freely join in Love and Peace If a bad or weak Minister grudge at all that go to an able Conformist in the next Parish few wise men will think that he doth it more for God or for his Brothers Soul than for himself and yet that person breaketh the Canon that goeth to the next Parish as well as he that goeth to a Nonconformist And why should we be more impatient with this man than with that § XXI The Pamphlets that are spread abroad for Rigor and Severity of late under the pretence of Conformity do many of them savor so rankly of Church-Tyranny and a bloody Mind and Principles and are made up of such Reasons as give us just cause to suspect that more of them are written by Papists than some think I instance in one called A Representation of the State of Christianity in England and of its decay and danger from Sectaries as well as Papists Printed 1674 for Benjamin Tooke in which the Staâ—e of Religion here is unworthily slandered and the Follies of some few such as the Quakers pretended to be the State of our Religion and words beseeming Mad-men which we never hear fathered on those that he pleaseâ— to call Sectaries and they are represented as 〈◊〉 of the Creed Lords Prayer and Commandments and what not that is reverend good and holy and the Papists much preferred before them