Civil Powers we need go no farther than to Geneva Rome and Scotland Hierusalem not Rome is the Mother of us all there was the Church of the Jews most eminent and perspicuous when Christ came From this Metropolis of the Holy Land or Palaestine of which God said more than ever he said of any place saying This is my rest here will I dwell for evermore Here did the Messias begin first to build his Church as foretold by the Prophets by teaching the Doctrines of the Messiah remission of sins his tru worship wherein his Spirit was so prevalent as he was acknowledged to be the tru Messiah and so embraced more eminently by Zacharias Elizabeth and John the Baptist Here according to Luke 2. was Christ presented by the impulse of the holy Spirit in the Temple according to the Mosaic Rite Here just and devout Simeon came by the Spirit into the Temple waiting for the consolation of Israel where he acknowledged the Son of Mary to be the true Messiah and prophesied that he was set for the fal and rising again of many in Israel and having sung his sweet Nunc dimittis blessed and declared him a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel Though the number of the faithful was but smal at first yet it did daily grow and encrease being baptized of John his Forerunner in the Temple at Jerusalem and afterwards teaching in their Synagogues and confirming his Doctrins by his Miracles His Doctrins were not confined to Jerusalem only but from thence were afterwards propagated unto other Cities Towns and Villages as to Bethany John 11.18 about 15 Furlongs from Jerusalem where Martha and Mary Sisters and their Brother Lazarus did inhabit amongst other good Christians famous for borrowing an Ass with its Foal to ride into Jerusalem to Emmaus famous for Christs appearing there after his Resurrection to Bethlem where Christ was born to Jerico where Christ instructed Zaccheus touching the Messiah remission of sins good works c. Luke 19.9 there he restored sight to the blind c. Matth. 20. Mar. 10. Luke 18. the like is tru of Ephrain Bethabara Aenon al Judaea al the Region about and beyond Jordan so in Idumaea Samaria Galilaea Capernaum Bethsaida Corazin Genezareth Magdalo Naim Caena the Region of the Gadarens and Girgasins Caesarea Philippi the Coasts of Tyre and Sydon al Syria that the tru Doctrin was preached and planted in al these and more places in the life time of Christ is manifest by the testimony of the Apostles and Evangelists according as Christ a little before his ascension had told them All which were so many separate or several Churches or Congregations as independent each of other as one Apostle was independent of another and the reason why they should be so is as demonstrable for that all the Apostles were alike insallible Whilst Christ was upon Earth he was the supreme Independent Head of al the Churches and so remains to the end of the World for it was he that chose and made the Body his Church and not the Body him to be their Head so that other Heads besides him there never was never will be Governors and Rulers there are and may be God having given the Body power over it self After his Ascension having given them their Commission viz. Go ye and teach al Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe al things whatsoever I have commanded you Matth. 28.19 20. and having filled all the Apostles with the Holy Ghost according to his promise and endued them with tongues they departed and separated and gathered several Congregations or Churches so that the sound went into al the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. 10.18 According as Christ had told them You shal receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shal be Witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in al Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth Act. 1.8 preaching repentance and remission of sins in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 And thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nations Rev. 5.9 As Palestine had the honour and happiness to have the Saviour of the World to be born in her after a wonderful manner and there first to teach his Doctrins the glad tydings of the Gospel and by his death there to seal eternal salvation to Mankind and there by his miraculous Resurrection to becom the first fruits of them that slept and swallowing up death in victory And after his glorious and joyful Resurrection having led captivity captive he gave gifts unto Men and called some to be his Apostles some c. who after they had chosen Mathias in the place of Judas the Traitor and cloven Tongues like as fire having sate upon each of them and al filled with the Holy Ghost and having preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and thereabouts and done many miracles whereby the Word of God and the number of Disciples daily increasing from 120 unto 3000 and more and more daily accruing the chief Pontiffs and Saduces being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead began to persecute them which seem to be the same year that Christ was crucified viz. Anno Aetatis suae 33. and 18 Tiberii scourging some and killing others which persecution occasioned divers of the Brethren to withdraw themselves into neighbouring places which gave opportunity to the Gospel to be more universally spread throughout Palestine the Apostles yet remaining in Jerusalem Act. 8. who afterwards dispersing themselves also spread the Gospel into al Nations after this sort and manner viz. when a certain number of Brethren being converted and well instructed in the true faith agreed among them themselves to build or hire a Temple Tabernacle or House for their joynt meetings and exercising of their Religion hired a Priest and constituted a Church and as the number encreased so that one Church and Priest being not sufficient for them al those who were most remote did build another and fit themselves with more conveniences And about the end of the first Century or beginning of the second for good order and concord and for civility and respect they did bear to their Bishop or Priest custom began to include his consent also which in process of time soon degenerated into usurpation by the Artifices of the Priests or Bishops of which Rome in process of time taking hold made great use to the abusing of the power of the Brethren and to incroach upon the priviledges of the Body of the Church Al this while the Apostles and their Successors were independent one of the other and so were their several and select gathered Congregations The like may be as truly verified of the several Churches gathered in the
wheresoever he heard there was a Treaty to hold a Council And after a certain time he took the power to himself which the Roman Emperors used to convocate a Council of the whole Empire and to be President himself if present if absent to send Legates to be Presidents But a little more than one Age being past it was very necessary that every Nation should Assemble by it self and resolve according to the Number of Voices and that the general decision should be established not by the suffrages of particular men but by the plurality of the voices of the Nations so it was observed in the Council of Constance and Basil which use as it is good where the Government is free as it was when the world had no Pope so it ill befits the Pope who desires all Councils to be subject to him § Having thus summarily given a short prospect of the state of the Church in the first and purer times and how in succeeding times it came by degrees to be altered I proceed and say again to the Independents that be it as they would have it that the gathered Churches by one Apostle were not subject to the inspection and subordination of an other or of all the Apostles the cause of such Independency being then and in them reasonable for that each Apostle was guided by an infallible Spirit and so not absolutely necessary and yet even in their times it was thought fit to call a Council for setling of some differences yet it doth not therefore follow nor cannot demonstratively be proved that every individual Pastor after the times of the Apostles had their select Congregations seperate and distinct from others or that those Congregations were Independent free and exempt from all inspection or superintendency of Magistrates or Bishops or other Presbiters The conjectures and probabilities and they have no Arguments of an other nature seem strong for the contrary for Religion did first take place in Cities which had their Ecclesiastical Colledges consisting of Presbiters and Deacons whom first the Apostles and their Deligats the Evangelists did both ordain and govern such were the Colledges of Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Rome Corinth aâ—â— the rest where the Apostles are known to have planted our Faith and Religion Now Religion in those days and places and the cure of Souls was their general charge in common over all that were about them neither had any one Presbyter for ought that appears by any ecclesiastical History his several cure or seperate title distinct and apart until the division of Parishes which was first made by the People when a certain number of Inhabitants having received the true Faith built a Temple for the exercising of their Religion hired a Priest and did constitute a Church which by them was called a Parish and when the number was increased if one Church and Priest were not sufficient they who were most remote did build another and sit themselves better And in process of time for the sake of good Order and concord custom began to have the Bishops consent also and †Hic Titulos in urbe Roma divisit presbiteris Evaristus Bishop in the Sea of Rome about the year 112. began to assign precincts to ever Church or Title which the Christians held and to appoint unto each Presbyter a certain compass whereof himself should take charge alone him †Hic Presbiteris ecclesias divisit coemiteria parochias dio diaeceses constituit Dionisius papa 24. followed Ao. 268. which was found so commodious that all parts of Christendom followed the example and among the rest our Churches in the reign of Ercombert the 7th King of Kent †Hoc de Honorio maxime memo rabile Godwins Episc p. 59. Honorius also being then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury about the year 636. became divided in like manner and have so continued ever since Other distinction of the Churches there doth not appear any in the Writings of the Apostles save those according to Cities only 15. Acts 36.1 Apocal. 20. wherein they planted the Gospel of Christ and erected ecclesiastical Colledges of Presbyters and Deacons ordained by the Apostles to exercise ecclesiastical functions promiscuously and at large till the said Evaristus did about 100 years after Christ distinguish the Church of Rome into Parishes tying each one to his proper station so that indesinite care of souls and indefinite ordination do approach nearer the Apostles times and example And prescription for the congregational way may be more justly grounded on the example of the People who are the Brethren who are the Church and of Evaristus then of any Apostle of Christ Moreover this the Independents will hardly evade each Church in the Apostles days had many Presbyters that laboured in the Word the Scriptures do plainly witness it In the Church of Jerusalem 15. Acts 6.23 of Antioch 13. Acts 1. of Ephesus 20. Acts 17.28 of whom 16. Rom. of Corinth 1 Corinth 14.29 of Phillippi 1. Phil. 1. of Thessalonica 1. Thes 5.12 of other Churches the like is affirmed 13. Heb. 7. James 5.14 1. Pet. 5.1 Now if each Church had more Presbiters and Pastors than one in the days of the Apostles as it is manifest they had then can it be hardly made out by right reason that every individual Presbyter or Pastor had his particular and circumscribed gathered Church free of all subordination they seem contradictory in themselves On the contrary in the more pure times no man was ever ordained for some hundred of years to whom there was not appointed both his proper and special Office and Charge and Antiquity knew no distinction between Ordination and Benefice and ordaining was the same thing as to give an Office and the right of having ones livelyhood from the common goods of the Church § The Independents do farther aver for their own justification and that most truly that it is a thing natural that all free and Independent Societies should themselves make their own Laws of which sort they take their gathered Churches to be which is the thing questioned and denyed and say they are not Independent for the reasons shewed But be it so yet then it is averred that it is as true and as natural that the Legislative-Christian-Power should and doth belong to the whole England for example and not to any certain Parish City or Country as to London York c. of a Politick Body though happily some one part may have a greater share therein than some others And as this right doth naturally belong to a Commonwealth so it must needs belong to the Church of God which in the truest understanding is the Commonwealth if Christian and the Peopele thereof do publickly embrace the true Religion As this very thing doth make it the Church so the whole England not any certain part as St. Paul in London St. Peter at Westminster or at York hath the power of making Laws and constitutions ecclesiastical A Law is the deed of
sent it by Stephanus and others signifying unto them that though he were absent in Body but present in Spirit had already judged as present him that had so done and therefore advised them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that being gathered together and his Spirit with the vertue of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Sathan Now it is observable that when St. Paul wrote this Epistle he was absent at Philippi a City of Macedonia and directed it not to any one single person Pope or other but unto the Church of God which was at Corinth and to them that were sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours He did not according to Romish Custom write by his Breves I excommunicate such a one and in one Scrap of Paper send as much as in him lieth Kings and Queens and Emperors nay whole Kingdoms and States to the Devil but he wrote to the Church a Collective Body that being gathered together with his Spirit they should deliver that Incestuous person to Sathan And again when he wrote his Second Epistle he directed it also unto the Church of God which was at Corinth with all the Saints which are in all Achaia declaring it sufficient to such a Man is this Punishment which was inflicted of many admonishing them to forgive and comfort him lest perhaps he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow whereby it is plain and not to be gainsaid that the Delivering of him unto Sathan be the Punishment be the Censure what it will it was inflicted by many 2 Cor. 2.6 Now if Paul an Apostle would not excommunicate or deliver unto Sathan at his own will and pleasure but would consult the Church that the Matter being transacted by common Authority and Approbation the Censure the Punishment might be performed by Common Consent It being most just and equal and of Moral Right that they who to morrow must deliver such a one to Sathan whom to day they account as a Brother dear in Christ should be fully satisfied why and wherefore Now how came Signore Papa alone to be entituled to exercise Powers greater than the Apostle Paul would use What hath he to do with it more than the rest of his Brethren If so interrogated I can make no other Answer but Ignoramus Moreover hath the practice of Christ's Vicars at Rome been correspondent to that of Paul the Apostle of such esteem and prevalency is publick consent with God himself even in the Affairs of the Church that though in his secret Decree Paul and Barnabas were to be set apart for the Work of the Ministry yet by God's own appointment were they separated after Fasting and Prayer to the same by the Church which was at Antioch Acts 13.2 Thereby teaching us not to despise the Office of the Church i.e. of the Multitude of Brethren where it may be had By these very small Hints it is easily discernable what a Nose of Wax the Papalins make both of Scripture and Tradition and Excommunication their great and terrible Thunderbolt even against Kings and Kingdoms not considering the little efficacy it hath What was the State of Venice and her Duke or Queen Elizabeth and her Dominions the worse for Romish Excommunications and Interdicts or what the worse the Kings of Spain for being excommunicated every Maunday Thursday And indeed what the worse his Holiness at Rome for being solemnly excommunicated every year by the Muscovite Fops § Some indeed of later days have intimated a great and just dislike of those who have hitherto endeavoured to hang Excommunication on some doubtful Places of Scripture but yet endeavour to settle it on another Basis viz. on the Nature and Constitution of the Church Christian as a Society Instituted by Jesus Christ whereby they say it is manifest that if Excommunication cannot be established upon some better and other Bottom than what hath hitherto been laid by their Predecessors on some doubtful places of Scripture it must necessarily decay and fall to the ground moreover they most ingenuously confess themselves unsatisfied as to any convincing Argument whereby it can be proved that any were denied Admission unto the Lords Supper who were admitted to all other parts of Church-Society and owned as Members in them § Though I have said enough already sparsim that if rightly applied doth demolish this Fabrick of Fundamental Right yet I will add a little and but a little more viz. that if by the Word Church in these Positions be meant only the Clergy met or not met in Councils Synods Consistories Convocations or Assemblies as the Representatives of the Church Assembled by their own power as by a Fundamental Right grounded on Christs Institution then to say no more is hereby justified Robert Bruce David Blake and those seventeen Scottish Ministers before-mentioned and their Tenets denying the King and his Council to have any Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical For certainly if God hath given them power of themselves to Assemble and Consult and make Laws and hath not withal given them Force and Power to put them in execution they have only a mock and ridiculous Authority which God never instituted nor ordained And if it be not so meant then they either say nothing to the purpose or equivocate But if herein by the Word * By the word Church may be meant either all Believers holding saving Truth in general of what condition or quality soever or else more striftly the collective Body of the Clergy for if we speak right of the Church Universal or this or that Particular Church as of Spain France England c. this Term may be taken in either of those two Sences Church be meant the Civil Power and Laity together with the Clergy then we are Friends and that Fundamental Right arising from the Constitution of the Church derived from Christ himself of Right belongs to the Commonwealth if Christian and to every congregated Number of Believers gathered in any Gentile State or People and united into one Society and not only to the Clergy thereof and the Laity are as capable and have as much Right to be of such Councils and Synods as the Ecclesiasticks Or that the Church be not semper and perpetuo a peculiar Society separate and distinct from the Commonwealth as certainly it is not or that the Officers thereof as limited by these Positions unto Teachers and Pastors injuriously enough if they pretend beyond Teachings Administrations of Sacraments Imposition of hands for Ordination and the publick use of the Keys are not only inflicters or executioners of Church-Censures as certainly they are not then the very Foundation of this Fabrick for the Support and Justification of Excommunication must necessarily fall to the ground It is true that every Church is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church every
having no other design herein then to manifest to the World how some kind of Men can take and leave object and refuse at pleasure more I fear to gratifie Humors Parties and Interest then in truth induced thereunto by sound reason Are we bound to these and the like Ceremonies still I say not so but I say that as they are to blame that would oblige us to all Ceremonious Traditions and Practises of Apostles according to the Letter allowing no Church Liberty to swerve therefrom be the Governments or posture of Affairs how different or variable soever So they are to blame and infringers of Church Liberty that will not allow the Church Power to innovate or impose some things in their Judgments necessary and behooful for the better regulating thereof tho there be no express Precept nor Practise of Christ or of his Apostles to Warrant the same Let the Church of God even in the dayes of our Saviour serve us for Example In their Domestical Celebration of the Passover which Supper they divided as it were into two Courses what Scripture did give Command them that between the 1st and the 2d he that was chief should put off the residue of his Garments and keeping on his Feast-Robe only to wash the Feet of them that were with him what Scripture did Command them never to list up their hands unwasht in Prayer unto God which custome Aristaeus de coenatori nuptialio sheweth wherefore they did so religiously observe what Scripture did Command the Jews every Festival day to fast till the sixth hour what Commandment had the Gileadites to erect that Alter which was spoken of in the Book of Joshua what Commandment had the Women of Israel to mourn yearly and lament in the memory of Jephtha's Daughter what Commandment had the Jews to Celebrate their Feast of Dedication never spoken of in the Law yet solemnised even by Christ himself what Commandment had they for the Ceremony of Odours used about the Bodies of the Dead after which Custom Christ was contented that his own precious Body should be Imbalmed In the Church of the Jews is it not granted that That appointment for the hour for daily Sacrifices the building of Synagogues throughout the Land to Pray and Preach in when they came not up to Jerusalem the erecting of Pulpits and Chairs to Preach in the Order of Burial the Rights of Marriage with such like being matters appertaining to the Church yet are not any where prescribed in the Law but were by the Churches discretion instituted The Conclusion § When I Consider through how difficult a Chapter Conclusion through what Contrarieties of Opinions what Contradictions of Men of different Tempers Principles Ends and Interests through how many Enemies both Forreign and Domestick and those of the highest Potency this Reformation did attain its accomplishment I cannot but wonder how any that seemed or thought themselves to have a Beam of Light of equal Lustre c. Should yet to add unto the other difficulties Injicere scrupulum cast in their bones also of Contention by speaking or Writing in derogation of that Reformation and that Liturgy contrary to the very Acts of Parliament made 2 Edw. 6.1 1º Eliz. c. 1. under several penalties which the Wisdom and Zeal to Gods Truth and Glory of that Age was endeavouring to accomplish which could never have been brought to that perfection it was brought unto had not God miraculously Blessed their endeavours by giving them a just ballance and a just weight of all considerations relating both to Church and State and also of moderation For the Parliament conveened in Nov. 1547. consisted of members disagreeing in Religion tho probably they agreed to serve the present time and preserve themselves for tho many both of the Nobility and Gentry stood well affected to the Church of Rome yet consented to all such Acts as were made against it not improbably out of a fear of loosing such Church-Lands and booty as they had got in case that Religion should prevail and get up again and for the rest who were either to make or improve their Fortunes they happily did promote a Reformation for their particular ends and interests § That at the time of Reformation and framing of a Liturgy others besides the Reformers were enlightned with a Beam of Truth of an equal Lustre and Brightness with that which shined in the minds of their Brethren I cannot gainsay nor will deny But by any thing that hath been yet Written it doth not in the least appear that those that then did or since have made the Liturgy a bone of Contention had a more clear beam of Truth in so disparaging that blessed Reformation and Liturgy and therefore more shame for such the Sons of the Church to vilifie and set at nought the Constitution of their Mother who Travailed so long with them and brought them forth with great so very great and exquisite difficulties Probrosa Ales quae Proprium nidum polluit If the Brethren of that Age then had or this Author now hath a new Light a new and clear Beam of Truth it would certainly make evident for the very nature of light is to make manifest 5 Eph. 8.13 But seeing no reasons demonstrative are brought to make good such positions is it not both prudence and duty in us rather to rely on our own Judgments being backt and reinforced with the Judgment of so many Learned Pious Reformers Liturgists that gave Testimony thereunto with their blood and of the Kings Privy Council and also of his great Council of Parliament both of those times and of the succeeding Generations all concurring in the Approbation and Imposition of the Liturgy rather then to follow the Fancy and Opinion of one or of a very few either of that or the Succeeding Ages that pretend indeed more light but in truth have less for ought that hitherto hath been Demonstrated But enough of this Subject I shall only leave all those of the Synagogue of the Libertines seriously to consider if ever such Liberty as is desired by all sorts of men of different perswasions were ever given under any Christian Government and yet if it hath been given if every Sect of them in their several alternate Courses and turns as they have happily got successively the Power and been uppermost have not endeavoured their utmost to depress and keep under all other Sects differing from themselves These things thus premised and well weighed I deem I may conclude without the imputation of much Arrogancy that Christ having Commanded Rem tho not formam Liturgiarum the Subject matter tho not the very Form and Words of our Liturgies that tho neither Christ nor his Apostles did ever Practise or intimate any such thing nor yet the Church of Christ for some Centuries of years next after Christ that they may still be imposed without the least desert of the Scandalous Imputation of being an unwarrantable Abridgment or Infringement of Christian Liberty
Civil Magistrate to be Custos utriusque tabulae unless be meant by Keeper the Defender only And averrs That it is a false and deceivable Maxime not to be defended or maintained by any Proof or Argument which hath not in that his Treatise been first or last refuted Therein also averring That there can be no place left for the Magistrate or his Force in the settlement of Religion by appointing either what we shall believe in divine or practice in religious things And that to compel but outward Profession is to compel Hypocrisie not to advance Religion And that Christian Liberty sets us free not only from the Bondage of Ceremonies but also from the forcible Imposition of Circumstances of Place and Time in the Worship of God though imposed with a confident perswasion of morality in them which he holds to be impossible in Place and Time And that the settlement of Religion belongs only to each particular Church by perswasive and spiritual means within it self And that the defence of things religious setled in the Churches within themselves and the repressing of their Contraries determinable by the common light of Nature only belongs to the Magistrate All which he endeavours to make good by four Spiritual Reasons as he calls them as on a firm square 1st That Protestants have no other Divine Rule or Authority from without them warrantable to one another as a common ground but the Scripture and no other within them but the illumination of the Spirit so interpreting that Scripture as warrantable only to our selves and to such whose Consciences we can so perswade can have no other ground in matter of Religion but only from the Scriptures And these being not possible to be understood without the Divine Illumination which no man can know at all times to be in himself much less to be at any time for certain in any other it must follow That no Man or Body of Men can be the infallible Judges or Determiners in matters of Religion to any other Mens Consciences but their own f. 6. Wherefore if we count it a crime for Papists to believe only as the Church believes how much greater crime will it be for a Protestant to believe as the State believes And it being the general consent of all Protestant Writers That neither Traditions nor Councils nor Canons of any visible Church much less any Edicts of any Magistrate or Civil Session but the Scripture only can be the sinal Judge or Rule in matters of Religion f. 7. and that only in the Conscience of every Christian to himself which Protestation made by the first publick Reformers of our Religion against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the 5th imposing Church-Traditions without Scripture gave first beginning to the Name of Protestant And therefore the Conscience not being the Magistrates Province he ought not to force or impose because he hath no right to judge and yet when he comes to the Toleration of Popery he seems to be of another mind averring § But as for Popery and Idolatry why they also may not hence plead to be tolerated I have much less to say For that their Religion the more considered the less can be acknowledged a Religion but a Roman Principality rather he might have said an entire Apostacy from the Apostolick Faith endeavouring to keep up her old universal Dominion under a new Name and meer Shadow of Catholick Religion being more rightly named a Catholick Heresie against the Scripture supported mainly by a Civil and except in Rome by a Forreign Power Justly therefore to be suspected not tolerated by the Magistrate of another Country besides of an implicit Faith which they profess the Conscience also becomes implicit and so by voluntary servitude to Mans Law doth forfeit her Christian Liberty who then can plead for such a Conscience as being implicitly enthralled to Man in stead of God almost becomes no Conscience as the Will not free becomes no Will Nevertheless if they ought not to be tolerated it is for just reason of State more than of Religion which they who force though professing to be Protestants deserve as little to be tolerated themselves being no less guilty of Popery in the most Popish Point And for Idolatry who knows it not to be evident against all Scripture Old and New and therefore a true Heresie or rather Impiety wherein a right Conscience can have nought to do and the work thereof so manifest that a Magistrate can hardly err in prohibiting and quite removing at least the publick and scandalous use thereof The Second Scriptural Reason is If we should grant the Civil Magistrate were able to judge in those things yet as a Civil Magistrate he hath no right because Christ hath a Government of his own sufficient of it self to all its ends and purposes in governing his Church and is much different from that of the Civil Magistrate 1st Because it deals only with the Inward Man and his Actions which are all Spiritual and to outward force not liable 2dly To shew us the Divine Excellency of his Spiritual Kingdom able without worldly force to subdue all the Powers and Kingdoms of this World which are upheld by outward force only That the Inward Man is nothing else but the Inward part of Man his Understanding and his Will and that his Actions thence proceeding yet not simply thence but from the Work of Divine Grace upon them are the whole matter of Religion under the Gospel The Third Scriptural Reason is from the wrong the Civil Power doth with its Force or Imposition by violating the Fundamental Priviledge of the Gospel the new birth-right of every true Believers Christian Liberty The Fourth Scriptural Reason is from the consideration of all those ends which the Magistrate can pretend to the interposing of his force therein which can hardly be other than 1st The Glory of God 2dly The Spiritual good of them whom he forceth or 3dly The Temporal punishment of their scandal to others § Mr. P. N. in his Treatise of the same Subject P. N. his Opinion P. 22. with the other of J. M. is far more ingenious herein not only asserting the Supremacy and Authority of all Kings and Civil Magistrates in general over all persons and things Ecclesiastical both by Scripture Reason and Authentick Authors but also of our Kings in particular most pertinently and particularly out of our own Municipal Laws and Constitutions to boot He doth therein also as strongly assert Independency which rightly stated and rightly understood is without doubt the Tenent and Practice of our Church both by Scripture and by the Opinion of sound Judicious and Orthodox Divines very great Friends unto and Contenders for Episcopacy as Bishop Bilson Dr. Jackson Mr. Hooker and others But the Independency of Churches which these Men and others as Orthodox as themselves plead for is not altogether the same with that which P. N. and other his Associates do contend for These Men maintain that
one place 1 Cor. 11.20 If therefore the whole Church he come together in one place 1 Cor. 14.23 Paul gave it in charge to the Elders of every particular Church as was that of Ephesus 20. Acts 17 28. That ye take heed unto all the Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood Paul doth entitle the particular Congregation which was at Corinth and which properly and immediately he did instruct and admonish to the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 12.27 To be the Temple of God 2 Cor. 16. And to be one Virgine spoused to one Husband Christ 2 Cor. 11.2 We may not therefore saith he under pretence of Antiquity Unity humane Prudence or any Colour whatsoever remove the Ancient Bounds of the visible and ministerial Church which our first and right Fathers to wit Apostles have set in comparison of whom the most ancient of those which are so called are but Infants and beardless There is indeed one Church one Body one Spirit one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism i. e. of one Kind and Nature not one in number as one Sea Neither was the Church of Rome in the Apostles days more one with the Church of Corinth than was the Baptism of Peter one with Pauls Baptism or than Peter and Paul were one neither was Peter or Paul more one whole intire perfect Man consisting of their Parts Essential and Integral without relation to other Men than is a particular Congregation rightly instituted and ordered A whole intire and perfect Church immediately and independently in respect of other Churches under Christ since the Pastor is not a Minister of some part of a Church but of the whole particular Church 20. Acts 28. If the Ministers Office be to be confined within the circle of a particular Congregation then also the Ministerial Church it self Now the Pastors Office is either circumscribed within these Bounds or else the Angel of the Church of Ephesus was also the Angel of the Church of Smyrna and so the Pastor of this Church is the Pastor of that and by consequence of all every Pastor is an universal Bishop or Pope by Office if not for execution yet for power according to which Power we are to judge of the Office § Before I proceed to return any answer I must make a general Paraenesis Paraenesis and lay it down as a general Precaution relating to the Applicacation of Texts of Scripture to which the Reader is to have respect throughout this Book in treating and handling of all Opinions which are divers and not few viz. It stands not with the Wisdom and Learning no nor yet with the sincerity of Ecclesiasticks how great soever how illuminated or how sincere soever they would be thought to be to alledge in favour of their Opinions Places and Texts of Scripture in a forreign or uncouth if not contrary sence to their own most natural meaning by urging some ambiguous or doubtful terms or Texts of Scripture that possibly may have a double meaning and accordingly setling a Position on some portion of Scripture in the one sense which is true and thereby purchasing some Credit and assent in the Readers minds by such Scripture Allegations and then in the Close conclude in another sense which is not true or contrary or at best not applicable to the Premisses or Positions first laid down It is I take it a received Axiome amongst Divines that that sense of Scripture which agreeth best with the literal words thereof is most genuine and most especially to be embrac'd and that which is farther fetcht as most forreign so least to be relyed on God be thanked this latter Generation is now come ex ephebis out of its minority and wardship wherein it hath been long held Captive by blind obedience and Romish Tyranny and begins now to relish and judge of Spiritual Viands not by the quality or condition or tast of them that cook it or serve it up unto us but by the savoury tast it hath of its own Indeed it is observable that an inordinate affection to find fault or to bring over others that are of a different perswasion to their own Opinions Volendi valde quicquid volunt of which they are so singularly fond that they on all occasions scruple not to intitle God and his Word to the patronage of them doth oftentimes transport Men yea zealous pious Men no less than any other affection whatsoever Hence is the Shop of transforming Texts of Scripture Ita veritatem amant ut velint vera esse quaecunque amant August Such lovers they are of truth that they wish all may be true which they love And vehement desires often reiterated are often metamorphosed into perswasions And therefore I heartily wish that Persons thus opinionated would consider that it is neither sound nor convenient no nor yet peaceable with a few ambiguous terms or with School quiddities or with Places of Scripture wrested or transformed to plant a Doctrine or introduce an opinion in the Church that will pervert or subvert the present setled state thereof Persons of great Learning and Reputation in the World ought above others to be so just as not to urge Scripture Allegations purposely to amuze or seduce the Readers but to look back unto the very Spring and Fountain wherefore they were recorded by the Prophets and Apostles and then to urge them in the truest understanding and intent thereof ☞ out of which no Writers with sincerity should dare with Sophistical Schoolies to seek or endeavour to carry them lest otherwise their Readers much biassed with the Abilities and Integrity of their Persons be thereby blindly led into errors by other Mens Passions and Interest So to handle Scripture is no new Artifice it was a trick even in our Saviours days and practised upon himself the putting of a wrong gloss upon Christs Word 14. Mark 58. made an evil ingredient towards his Condemnation The Pharises were most excellently gifted in this Art one while when Paul manifested Christs appearance unto them once in the way to Damascus and afterwards in the Temple commanding them to preach his Resurrection to the Gentiles they then with great indignation cryed Away with such a fellow from the Earth for it is not sit that he should live 22. Acts 8.17.18.22 Another while to serve their own turns and party against the Saduces who deny all Apparition of Spirit or Angel or hope of Resurrection from the dead which the Pharises confess Pauls conformity with the Pharises in manifesti g and proving the Resurrection from the dead doth relish so well with them that his other particular differences or dissentions from them no way displeases them For he giving express Testimony that Christ whom they had crucified did appear unto him did so please their humour that the Scribes which were on the Pharises part acquitted him by Proclamation viz.
We find no evil in this Man but if a Spirit or Angel hath spoken unto him let us not fight against God 23. Acts 9. This they did not out of true love to Paul or to the Truth he taught but from love of themselves their Party and their Opinions and from jealous impatiency of contradiction in publick by an Inferiour Sect so when Christ had fully satisfied a curious question captiously proposed by the Sadduces by proving the Resurrection out of Moses saying I am the God of Abraham of Isaack and of Jacob certain of them answered Master thou hast well said 20. Luke 39. Though the Pharises were well pleased of his Probat of the Resurrection against the Sadduces yet for all that they could judge him to death for avouching himself to be the great Judge of those that were raised from the dead whereby it appears that both their approbation and condemnation of our Saviour in these particulars did issue out of one and the same corrupt and monstrous Fountain that could send forth sweet water and bitter 3. James 11. viz. from love of their Party love of Authority over the People and applause of Men from a stubborn opiniative and envious desire to excel their opposites and not to be excelled by any so when John came neither eating nor drinking yet they say he hath a Devil and when the Son of Man came both eating and drinking then Behold a Man gluttonous and a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners 11. Mat. 18 19. The Devils and unclean Spirits in this kind were in some measure more ingenious than the Jews for when Christ had disobliged them by casting them out as soon as they saw him they fell down before him and cryed Thou art the Son of God 3. Mark 10. But the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem said he hath Belzabub and by the Prince of the Devils casteth he out Devils 21. Acts 22. So the Jews were pleased neither full nor fasting Thus can perverse Spirits and Wits turn and wind any thing never so innocently and plainly spoken or written unto a different or contrary sence The same Spirit of Contention and way-ward emulation reigns at this day through Christendome and rageth oft-times no less in defence of good Causes than of bad and makes many to concur with Schismatical or false Opinions in transforming particular places of Scripture which makes for private desires or designs as factious opposition to the Sadduces did the Pharises to consent unto our Saviour and unto St. Paul in the Points mentioned § The Monks Friars and Jesuits like the Pharises are rare Sophisters can handy dandy shuffle and cut Texts of Scripture with most admirable dexterity Their impertinent Collections to prove Purgatory from such places of Scripture as have no other semblance with it save only that they mention Metaphorical Fire would make an impartial Reader call to mind the Fable of the Apes or Monkies who espying Glow-worms in the night gathered sticks and blowed themselves breathless to make them burn Would not Impudence it self blush and Stupidity tremble at the senseless collections and deduction of these Men. As the Papists and among them the Jesuits more especially have no parallel except the Jews in this kind so in other main Points of their Religion as concerning the Infallibility of the Pope Transubstantiation the Authority of the Church the real Presence their Prayers in an unknown Tongue and the like they do not go so much beyond others as besides themselves The extream desire they have that Sacred Authority should countenance and abet their profitable Tenents makes them wrest and transform Places of Scripture beyond all Construction whereby they do not manifest the Truth but the poyson of their Doctrines and their Zeal and earnestness herein to be a Spice or Symptome of Spiritual madness or Phanaticisme Musing and dreaming are of near alliance He that thinks of nothing but of confirming his own conclusions or apprehensions will quickly perswade himself that the Word of God speaks just so As the Fool thinketh so the Bell clinketh the superstitious Phisiognomer and Palmister are not without their Scripture 13. Ex. 9. And it shall be a sign unto thee upon thy hand and for a memorial between thine eyes c. and that in 37. Job 7. he sealeth up the hand of every Man that all Men may know his Work What is this else but to make deformed Pictures of beautiful Colours or senseless and ridiculous Inferences out of Divine and Supernatural Antecedents or of plain Texts of Scripture Except we do strictly compare the Marginal Quotations of some Jesuitical Anabaptistical Quaking and Schismatical discourses with the Texts and both with the Conclusions intended by the Author one would hardly believe it possible for some Men to speak or write nothing but Gospel-language and yet to speak or write scarce a true or wise or pertinent word to the purpose Desire of Victory and to excel others is a Disease hardly cured in any Men Sects or Parties and oft-times work most indefatigably where it works most secretly Gods Gifts of Wit Learning and Judgment some can admire and magnifie in others and acknowledge them to be above their own yet will they not in conclusion be perswaded that any Men not of their own Sect or Opinion have so pure and clear a Beam of Light as themselves or know so much of Gods Eternal Will and Purposes as they do and it is no marvel that such who for expounding greatest Mysteries have betaken themselves wholly to the Spirit or to the Labours of Men whom they presume to be throughly sanctified i. e. that are free of their Brotherhood and Corporation only or at least served a compleat Apprentiship to their supposed Spirit But the wisest oft miscarry in their Projects and so do these by taking wrong measures in that they think there is no direct way to Grace but by undervaluing helps of Art or gifts of Nature of this misconceit the Quakers the Enthusiasts the Phanaticks are most guilty The first and immediate Issue of this Perswasion is that every action which is not warranted by some express Rule of Scripture apprehended by Grace is not of Faith and being not of Faith it must be a sin so that these two Propositions 1. All Actions warranted by the express Word of God must needs be lawful 2. All lawful Actions must needs be warranted by the express Word of God differ no more in their Logical and Grammatical sence than house-keeping and keeping house do in common understanding utitur Diabolus Testimoniis Scripturarum non ut doceat sed ut fallat S. Ambrose That admonition of St. Paul to the Philip. 2.3 concerns these times as much as those wherein he wrote and the Maintainers of true Religion most of all and it were most happy for Christianity if all Christians could in good earnest embrace it Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let
the Members of the holy Church Triumphant or Militant nor yet consists only of them or of men internally though ineffectually called but of them and of others called only vocatione merè externa by vocation meerly external Thus the several societies of Christian men unto every one of which the name of Church is rightfully attributed as the Church of Rome France Spain England and as of old the seven Churches of Asia which certainly hold a nearer resemblance unto National or Provincial Churches than unto the Gathered Congregations for most certainly each of these had certain particular Congregations under them as London hath must be endued with correspondent general properties and powers belonging of right unto them as they are publick Christian Societies And all the powers given by Christ to the Churches Militant or to visible Ministerial Churches are most properly attributed to such Churches and not to those where two or three or some few only in respect of the whole are gathered and such are our Independent Churches here in respect of the Church of England and such like are our several Parishes which more properly and strictly ought to be accounted of as Members or Homogeneal parts of the Church of England than so many several Churches endued with such powers though in common discourses we may allow them the title or appellation of Churches yet in discourses of this nature being disputative they ought to be distinguished § Unto the Attributes or Prerogatives attributed to the Church in the Apostles or Nicene Creed or unto the Promises annexed unto it in the Scriptures the Visible Ministerial Churches have no claim or title save only in reversion or reflection or in expectancy i. e. the Mystical Body of Christ is only instated in the Blessings Prerogatives and Promises made unto the Church yet from this Body or rather from Christ the Head of this Body both Blessings and Powers do immediately and successively like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aarons beard that went down to the skirts of his Garments descend though in different Measures unto the several Members of it as unto National Churches more and greater Powers and unto the several Congregations thereof Blessings and Powers though not in the same measure and fullness and indeed by Analogie and Participation unto all and every one that hath put on Christ by profession Thus we are to conceive of the Catholick Church as of one entire Body made up by the Collection and aggregation of all the faithful unto the unity thereof from which union there ariseth unto every one of them such a relation unto and such a dependance upon the Church Catholick as parts use to have in respect of the whole whereupon it followeth that neither particular persons nor particular Churches are to work as several divided Bodies by themselves which is the ground of all Schism but to teach and to be taught and to do all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned unto the whole and Members of the same Common-wealth or Corporation and therefore the Bishops of the Antient Church though they had the government of particular Congregations only committed unto them yet in regard of this Communion which they had with the universal did usually take to themselves the title of Bishops of the Catholick Church which maketh strongly as well against the new Separatists as the old Donatists who either hold it a thing not much material so they profess the Faith of Christ whether they do it in the Catholick Communion or out of it or else which is worse dote so much upon the perfection of their own Party that they refuse to joyn in fellowship with the rest of the body of Christians as if they themselves were the only people of God and all wisdom must live and die with them and their Generation § To prosecute their own simile of Fraternities or Corporations whereby they claim a power over one another by consent or agreement Be it that every Church exceeds an ordinary Assembly or Multitude in that it is a Society of Men incorporated and every Corporation or Society corporate supposeth an unity more than meerly local between the Members thereof an Union by Laws and Statutes or else they were no more significant than so many men meeting at a Play or Whitsun-Ale quod non est aliquid formatum non est aliquid vere unum that which hath no set form or fashion can have no true real unity for it is the form of every thing which giveth it a distinct entity or unity Hence it is that though all men are mortal yet Corporations consisting of such mortal men are yet accounted immortal because their Laws and Ordinances is the life the soul and spirit of every Corporation or Body Civil every Church in what usual sense soever it be taken is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church And that which differenceth the Church properly so called from a Society or Body meerly Civil is the diversity of Laws and Ordinances and the different manner of union between the Members All this is to fortifie and to make plain their simile and which they will not gainsay Yet withal I shall commit to their consideration that there are no Corporations in England nor in any well governed Commonwealth without a proper Charter from the Crown and Laws of the Kingdom to authorize them to be a Corporation and to make By-laws as they call them or to have power one over another So none of them are independent of the publick Laws of the Kingdom or Nation whereof they are Subjects or have any authority to form or establish themselves by any power of their own but by what is derivative from some other power paramount So also there is no Parish in England nor any Company of Christians that have power of themselves so to confederat or congregat into a Church such a Church as hath all the Powers and Attributes wherewith a National Church is endowed and to meet as an Independent Congregation to make Laws choose Officers censure Offenders make Canons and Orders in circumstantials without authority first obtained from the supreme Powers legislative or without any Supervisors or Superintendents or Laws over them if every particle of the Church hath this power derived unto it from Christ then certainly the same cannot be denied to a whole National Church and whether be more just or equal that a part should govern the whole or the whole the parts judg ye Power to meet to fast and pray to break bread and administer Sacraments which renders them capable of the appellation of a Church cannot reasonably and ordinarily be denied unto them yet this doth no way qualifie them to be Independent The strength and virtue even of the Law of Nations is such that no particular Nation can lawfully prejudice the same by any their several Laws and Ordinances more than a single person by his
and Judicature one of the other is not denied by any Protestant Divines that I know of and it is or ought to be as little gain-said that it could not then be otherwise And why Christ knew that the Messengers which he sent to gather a People to himself out of Saracens and Insidels Jews and Gentiles by perswasive means only were to build up his Church within the Bosom of Kingdoms which were and would continue avowed Enemies to his Gospel every where for a long time then to come And therefore he gave them such Doctrines and such Commissions for Doctrine and Discipline as they might any where publish and exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Common-wealth being any where therein concerned in goods or person by vertue of that spiritual regiment whereunto Christian Religion once embraced did make them lyable And indeed if they had not a Government within themselves they could have none at all concerning Christian Religion For Princes and all Nations were then professed and bitter enemies to Christian Religion which Government did also extend it self unto small matters even such as were otherwise impleadable and remediable in the Civil Courts and Judicatures of the Kingdome or State though heathenish wherein and under whom they lived as Subjects Dare any of you saith St. Paul having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world and if the world shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters 1 Cor. 6.1 2. So that upon the whole matter the Sum total of Religion that Christ committed to his Apostles and they to their successors consisted in the Doctrin and Discipline thereof viz. to preach him and him crucified and to perswade others to become Christians through the belief of one Lord one Faith and one Baptisme and when once admitted by the door of Baptism into the Christian Church then to become and to be accounted Members of the visible Church Christian As for Discipine that concerns moral righteousness and honesty of life and their contraries unrighteousness and dishonesty and therefore Christ gave them this General Precept viz. to love one another even our neighbours as our selves and if any did transgress the Vertues and Laws which belong unto moral righteousness and honesty of life which are not proper and peculiar unto Christian men as Christians but as Men what then the transgressors were first privatly to be admonished if the offence were private those that sinned openly were to be rebuked openly if they did not then repent and amend then to be admonished by two or three if still they remained incorrigible then to acquaint that Congregation of Christian Brethren of which they were Members and if still they continued refractory after private and publick Admonitions Warnings and Prayers then not to own them as Brethren nor to keep company with them with such no not to eat with them and in the end to pursue them as if Publicans and Heathens as not being worthy of the Name and Profession of Christians which they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel And this is the sum of the whol Government or Discipline which Christ after the death of the Apostles who having gifts extraordinary had also powers extraordinary which died with them left to his Church for ought appears by any Scripture extant And what need of more For if the Ministers of the everlasting Gospel have liberty to Instruct break Bread Baptize and Pray the Civil Christian Magistrat hath sufficient power by Gods own Ordinance to order all the rest § To me indeed it seems marvelous nay monstrous that out of so plain so intelligible so easily practicable directions for the Government of Christian Churches that so various so meerly wordly and pompous nay imperious and impious forms of Church Government should be drawn into use as have been hundreds of years practised both in the Eastern and Western Empires and all held forth to be according to the Gospel when in truth they all differ from the true Gospel Discipline as far as the East is from the West they being all degenerated into meer worldly forms set up for meer worldly self-ends and interests If any man can more plainly make out any other form from the Gospel it would be a favour my self I must confess to be Impar Negotio it is past my understanding Indeed to me it seems wonderful whilst I consider that though Histories are ful and plain how and when the several forms crept in and got Accruments partly by the supineness and negligence of the Brethren of their own Rights and Priviledges partly by the craft and subtlety of proud covetous and ambitious Clergy and partly by the carelesness of Princes who not willing to trouble themselves with the care of Religion devolved it upon others that they should yet endeavour to keep us hoodwinkt though they know that our eyes are now open If there be any other Gospel-form of Government let it plainly appear without offering violence to any Texts of Scripture if not why should we be wiser than Christ our Head and Lawgiver God only is truth and all men are subject to errors what remains but that all his Servants and more especially the Priests of the most high God whose lips above others should more especially preserve knowledg do abandon humane errors and fals superstructures and keep the praecepts of God only that they may remain stedfast in the truth only § Some are of opinion that there is no need at all of any Ecclesiastical Government as distinct from the Civil if Christian and Orthodox and if there be that yet the Body of the Church is to govern it self and not the Clergie or Officers the Body they are to teach them their duty but the provisionary coercive and executive power is seated in the Body and not in the Pope or Presbyter I know the grand objection against Independency is that it is destructive to Government and tends to Anarchy a meer slander rather than a just objection for if rightly considered it would be found the least Chagreen to any Civil Government of any Ecclesiastical Government at this very day in use in any Nation and if not mistaken I have Christ who was the Wisdom of the Father and his Apostles to justify me herein For the Government that is herein stated may be exercised under any Government how averse soever to Christianity it self without clashing or interfeering therewith And if Christ left no other Government as for certain he did not why should we pretend to be wiser than Christ himself The same was exercised by the Apostles and long after and how incroachments of power were gained to the Clergy Stories are full Vide Fra Paolo Sarpi his Treatise of Beneficiary Matters § On the contrary how thwarting Popish or Presbyterian Governments are to
neighbouring Villages and indeed throughout al Palestine The Persecution increasing 19 Tiberii Paul himself being as it were Signiser or Inquisitor Haereticorum great cruelty being used towards the Christians caused the Apostles and some of their Disciples to dispose of themselves into neighbouring Nations whereby the great wisdom and counsel of God was eminent that thereby the propagation of the Gospel became more universally spread yet so that some of the Apostles were always at Jerusalem as the principal Seat of the Church of Christ always ready to confirm and strengthen the Brethren under their Persecutions and though they made often excursions from Jerusalem into other Regions yet they many times returned thither again Paul himself returned thither five times after his conversion from whence he was carried prisoner to Rome where though detained two years a prisoner yet preached the Gospel even then and there All this while no footsteps of any Dependency that any one Church throughout all Palaestine or the Regions round about had of another Communications and Advisoes reciprocal there might be between the gathered Churches far and near but no dependencies obligatory upon one another Soon after Christs ascention the Gospel was preached by the Apostles to al Nations both in Asia Africa and Europe and in the mediteranean Islands as Cyprus Crete Samothracia and in the Aegean Sea Lesbon Chion Samon Trogyllium Pathmos Sicily Melita Though there were thousands of Churches gathered by the Apostles yet there are no footsteps remaining that the Churches gathered by any one Apostle were subject or did depend on any one or more Churches gathered by any other or more Apostles The like I may say after the death of the Apostles that no one Church by what Apostle soever gathered was left subject to any other Church gathered by any other Apostle no nor yet subject to any Church of their own converting and gathering but every Church was to be governed by its own peculiar Body observing Gospel precepts viz. to love one another and to do all things in decency and in order c. How and when the Supremacy of the Clergy came in Histories are ful and plain and would have been yet more ful and plain had but our Holy Fathers Inquisitors been as Innocent as Doves as they were cursedly wise as was that Divelish Serpent that beguiled Eve whilst they have scarce left us a Father or Monument of Antiquity whose very bowels they have not raked out and yet still retain that Hellish and daring Impudence to persevere in that embowelling trade and yet every hedge Priest to boast that All they cannot speak less than all the Fathers are on their side though their very Hearts and Intrals had they not been raked out by such unreasonable and cruel hands would have born witness against them and for us § By all which it appears that the Summ and meaning of the visible Church and of the Government thereof upon Earth lies in a very narrow room and is very plain and obvious to every understanding though Ecclesiastick's of all perswasions have by perverting plain truths and texts rendred them as obscure as they could that they might not appear clear unto poor Laick's And which aggravates the more we find by woful experience that as of old so now they still are very well content and pleased that we should yet be kept on in an amaze and Laberinth and to know no more of Church and Church-Government then what will stand with the grandeur benefit and domination of Ecclesiastick's only and still continuing blinded in extreme ignorance We should have them only in admiration as if Gods and Oracles indeed Bellarmine in his tract against Gerson magnifying the Popes Power above the Skies saith and saith truly that the holy Church is not like the Common-wealth of Venice or of Geneva La christ Santa non è similâ— aâ—la Rep. di Venâ—tia c. p. 318. or of other Cities which confer upon their Dukes that Power which themselves please in regard whereof it must be said that the Common-wealth is above the Prince neither is it like to an earthly Kingdom in which the People transfer their own Authority unto the Monarch and in certain cases may free themselves from Royal Dominion and reduce themselves to the Government of inferior Majestrates as did the Romans when they passed from Dominion Royal to Consular-Government for that the Church of Christ is a most perfect Kingdom and an absolute Monarchy which hath no dependance on the People neither from them had its Original but dependeth only on the Divine Will which Christ sheweth when he saith ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you 15. John 16. Luke 32.33 2. Psal 6. but what strange Blasphemous Conclusions he hath drawn out of these premises and texts which relate only to Christ himself by applying them to his Vicar General I will not in this place concern my self at all The position it self is thus far true that the Church is not a Common-wealth as Venice much less a Kingdom as England which hath a Blood Royal and Kings succeed by Birth nor as some other Kingdomes by Testament which hapily may change the Government because the Church which is Christs Body hath Christ for its perpetual and immortal Head and King who whilst Man in the daies of his flesh first made the Body the Church and not the Body him the Head thereof governed it both visibly and invisibly invisibly by influencing his Body and conferring Gifts and Graces upon men fit for his Body the Church now touching this inward and merely Spiritual Government it is not like unto any Government no Prince Pope or Prelate having any such Government at all but only Christ who knoweth the hearts of all men which are deceitful above all things and can only influence them and can confer Gifts and Graces upon them whereby they are made and may become free Denizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem And because Christ was always to have his Body the Church on earth even unto the end of the world to be composed of visible Men and Members and not of one visible Man the Pope as the same Bellarmine and others would make us believe he hath appointed the Authority which his Body should have after his Ascention with promise that he would be with them unto the end of the world and therefore he set some in the Church as Apostles Prophets Teachers and after that Miracles then Gifts of Healing Helps in Government Diversities of Tongues 1 Cor. 12.28 Some of which as Miracles Diversities of Tongues and Gifts of Healing died and ceased with the Apostles who only were extraordinarily and Infallibly Gifted and inspired as necessary only for the first planting of the Gospel Therefore when Christ Ascended on high he gave Gifts unto Men 68. Psal 18.4 Eph. 8. yet diversly and in divers Measures and according to his Promise John 14.26 Sent the Holy Ghost the Comforter amongst them which should
teach his Body the Church all things and should continue with them unto the end of the World § For soon after his Ascention the Apostles together with the rest of the Body being met together in a great Assembly and after they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and great Grace was upon them all 4. Act. 31.32.33 and accordingly the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal to one the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge to another faith c. and all by the same Spirit 1. Cor. 12.7.8 and all these for the edifying of the Body of Christ 4. Eph. 12 For though the Body be one yet hath it many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body whereof Christ is the head 1. Cor. 12.12 In the visible Government of the Church Christ appointed and instituted a Priesthood in which likewise it is dissimilar to all temporal Governments which quodam sensuis Independent of the Church though touching the application of the Authority to the Person it is elective and depending of the Body of the Church under this Priesthood is comprehended Bishops and Presbiters now what their Authority and Powers are vide their Commission 28. Mat. 19.20 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 loe I am with you always unto the end of the world other Powers besides these and laying on of hands especially coercive I know none derived unto them by any text of Scripture These Bishops these Presbiters these Ministers or Pastors are not Lords and Masters as in the Roman Church but are Servants to the Body of the Church For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake 2. Cor. 4.5 and these Authorities are not coercive but are given them to exhort reprove rebuke beseech intreat for Christs sake and by the mercies of God c. 12. Rom. 3. chap. 15.30 1 Thes 4.1 according to the Doctrines Precepts Rules and Commands set down in Scripture which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and which is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfected throughly furnished to all good works 2 Tim. 3.16.17 These and such like only are all the Powers that belong unto the Priesthood by any Law of God and there is no need of any other for what concerns punishment for Sins or the breach of moral Duties or municipal laws the Body hath Power to make laws and ordain punishments for any of its Members § I know that they have a long time hooked in by Head and shoulders a kind of coercive Power Excommunication by usurping to themselves the Power of Excommunication a thing I must confess that hath made a great noise and buzz in the world but in truth a magnificum nihil a meer ignis fatuus there being no such thing in the whole new Testament as now used and that which Pope and Presbiter would have to be it is as much in the Power of the Laicks against them as in them against the Laicks and most truly in the Body of the Church In the Romish Church the Bishop or his Vicar excommunicateth without the advice or participation of any many times also the Register only and that which is most important by Authority deligated a Clark of the first Tonsure deputed Comissary in some slight Cause doth excommunicate a Priest Yea Leo. 10. in the Council of Lateran in the 11. Session by a perpetual constitution of his hath granted faculty to a secular person to excommunicate the very Bishops and that which doth more import Navar saith c. 27 no. 11. that if any man shall obtain an excommunication of some Prelate if the obtainer shall not have an intent that the party be excommunicated he shall not be excommunicated moreover he saith ch 23. num 104. that the excommunication pronounced by the Law it self against him that payeth not a Pension for example sake on the Vigil of the Nativity is not incurred by him that payeth it not no not in many month's and years after if the Creditor thereof would not have it incurred But if on the other side after many Month's or Years he would have it incurred it is reputed to have been incurred from the day of the debt from the Vigil of the Nativity and so is the stile of the Court but the Council of Trent hath now expresly provided otherwise Ses 25. c. 3 forbidding secular Princes that they hinder not Prelates to excommunicate nor command that any excommunication be revoked considering that this is no part of their Office by this you may in little see what a nose of wax is made of excommunication and all this and much more grounded and occasioned from wrong Glosses put upon plain Texts But of this more fully hereafter § Though the Congregational men have not fully modelled out unto us the Platform of their Government and Discipline as the Presbyterians have done yet in general they do affirm Independency and Church-Government that to each gathered Church Christ hath given all Power and Authority requisite unto that Order and Discipline which he hath instituted for them to observe and to execute the same with Commands and Rules as before And negatively that there is not instituted by Christ any person or Church more extensive or Catholick entrusted with Power over other Churches and that each particular Church consists of Officers and Members which Members they call Brethren and the Officers they stile Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons and that there are no stated Synods in a fixed combination of Churches nor any Synods appointed by Christ in any way of sub-ordination to one another nor no one Church to have Power of Censures but of inspection only over other Churches and Members thereof that Counsel and Advice might mutually be communicated That it was so in the days of the Apostles and continued so for some Generations after every Individual gathered Church every Christian Societie as it is natural to all Societies as well Christian as Civil governing it self by its own Laws and Constitutions whithout being obliged to any other superintendency hapily is so manifest that it would not be gainsaid But when the Church became planted and spread its Branches and took root in divers Nations and whole Common-wealths became Christian and Kings and Queens and other Civil Governments became Nursing-Fathers and Mothers of the Church then of necessity for the quiet state of the whole the case came to be altered it being then impossible that every individual Member or Brother of any Christian Kingdom or Common-wealth should personally meet to make Laws
and Orders for the better reglement of the whole as they did whilst the Churches were in small particular Congregations or Cities in a Jewish or Gentile State And yet all Laws are presumed to be made by universal and common consent in which regard the Churches have been enforced to have as well Churches as Bodies Politick Representative and in as much when partly by the Supineness and inadvertency of the Brethren without foresight of any Peril or Incroachment upon their Rights and Powers by the Clergy and partly by the dexterity and usurpation of the then degenerating Clergy designing to advance themselves by ingrossing all Powers and Revenues to themselves not by any right derived to them by any Gospel precept the practise and custome injuriously enough to the Laity and consequently to the Church of God in the truest sence began soon to admit none but Clergy and Church men only as Members of the Body ecclesiastick or Church representative The name of the Church hath by such their wiles been in a manner appropriated and monopolized to the Clergy or Church-men only when in truth the Church in its truest and Scripture sence consisting of Laity and Clergy can have no representative of both which only makes the Church compleat except both have their peculiar Representatives in Councils Synods Convocations c. whether Provincial National or Oecumenical This Doctrine of which more hereafter though never so demonstrable and obvious to every understanding was so bitter a Pill that it could by no means be swallowed at Trent and therefore in the Consults and Discourses concerning the very title of that Council concerning which there were very great Debates and Disputes the Bishop of Feltre would not have it Christened Ecumenical and general least the Protestants should from thence argumentize that some of every Order of the universal Church ought to be present which because it consists of Clergy and Laity it cannot intirely and compleatly be represented if the Laity be excluded But on the contrary the Bishop of St. Mark did as erroneously as magisterially affirm that the Laicks were most improperly called the Church and that for that very reason it was very requisite to use the title that the Synod representeth the Church universal to make the Laity be understood that they are not the Church but ought to hearken unto and obey the Church which in Romish dialect is nought else but the Pope by which it is apparent that if packt Synods canonize us out of the Church to day they may canonize us out of our Christian names to morrow and out of our Christianity the next day But of this more hereafter when the Clergy and Laity shall be more fully discoursed Yet by the favour of the great Bishop of St. Mark nay by the favour of the Council of Trent it self in the beginning it was no so for in the Council of the Apostles and a more early and more Authentick could not be and which ought to be a Rule and Pattern the decree was not made by the Apostles alone but the Epistle was entituled with the names of the 3 degrees assisting in that Congregation viz. Apostles Elders and Brothers and Peter esteemed and stiled by the Romanists Princeps Apostolorum by the Popes good leave was included in the first without Prerogative though not always Sans reprimand by which it is apparent that the assembling of a whole Church to handle the Name of God the Disputes about Doctrine and Discipline is a thing most profitable used by the Holy Apostles in the choice of Matthias and the 7 Deacons with which the Diocesan Councils have great resemblance But of the meeting of Christians from many remote places to consult together the forementioned place 15. Act. is a famous example when Paul and Barnab as with others of Syria met with the Apostles and other Disciples in Jerusalem who were assembled about the question of keeping the Law By all which it is manifest that in the beginning of Christianity the Churches were Democratically Governed by a kind of Common Council as St. Jerome and others do confess but as the Ecclesiasticks by insensible gradations got Reputation and Power so they endeavoured a Monarchical Regiment which in tract of time they instituted and got to be established giving all the Superintendency to the Bishops whom all Orders of the Church did obey The neighbouring Bishops whose Churches were under one jurisdiction had likewise their commerce and communion and did govern themselves also as it were in common by Synods attributing much to the Bishop of the most Principal City ordaining him as it were the Head or Governour of that Body and in process of time by a more ample communion which all the Provinces of one Jurisdiction or larger Government held together the Bishop of the City where the Prince did reside gained a kind of Superiority or rather Priority by custom not by any right The more chief Jurisdictions were the imperial City of Rome with its neighbouring Cities Alexandria which governed Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis Antioch for Syria and other Provinces of the East There were other lesser Jurisdictions wherein the same was observed This Government being at first meerly prudential introduced and approved only by Custom was afterwards established by the first Council of Nice Can. 6. under Constantine and ordained by a Canon that it should continue yet withal it did ordain that those many Honorable preheminences which the Bishop of Hierusalem had should be continued unto him Cant. 7. yet so that nothing should be taken from the dignity of the Metropolitan then Bishop of Caesaria This Government which hath been ever held in all the Churches of the East was altered in the Latine not without great endeavours to make all other Churches stoop to the Lure and submit to the Will and Pleasure of the Bishop of Rome After that it pleased God to give peace to the Christians and that the Roman Emperors received the Holy Faith there then happening more difficulties in Doctrine and Discipline which did disturb the publick Peace and quiet another sort of Episcopal Assemblies had beginning congregated by Princes or their Lieutenants to remedy their troubles these Assemblies were guided and governed by those Princes and Magistrates yet so that the decision of the principal matters for which the Council was congregated was left to the common opinion of the Assembly After the Eastern and Western Empires were divided there remained still in the West some Marks of the Antient Councils and many were celebrated in France and Germany under the Posterity of Charles the Great and not a few in Spain under the Kings of the Gothes At last Princes being absolutely debarred to intermeddle in Ecclesiastical matters that kind of Council grew in disuse and that alone remained which was called by the Ecclesiasticks themselves the Convocation of which Provincial Councils was almost wholly ingrossed and usurped by the Pope by intruding and sending his Legats to be Presidents
it is possible so it is very probable that both the Independent and Presbyterian Government would incroach and intrench on the Civil Powers so natural is it for every power to incroach upon another and either jostle it quite out of doors or make the Civil subservient to the ecclesiastical Power the sad effects of which hath been manifested in Scotland already where the Presbytery when they will speak out plainly claim to be coordinate at least with the Civil Jurisdiction and if we consult their practises we shall find them Paramount § According to Sa. Rutherford there is a mutual and reciprocal subjection of Magistrate and Pastor Pastors as subject in a Civil Relation and Magistrates as they have Souls and stand in need to be led to Heaven are under Pastors and Elders For if they hear not the Church and commit incest they are to be cast out of the Church 18. Matth. 1. Cor. 5.16 Rom. 17.1 1. Thes 3.14.15 that God respecteth not the Persons of Kings and we find them not excepted If the Preachers of the Gospel be to all believers over them in the Lord 1. Thes 5.12 1. Tim. 5.17 they have some Authority over the Christian Magistrate Divine Right of Church Government and Excommunication Presbytery displayed printed 1644. and reprinted 1663. together with the forms of Church Policy claimed and presented to the Convention at Edenburgh in January 1560 drawn up by Knox and to the Parliament of Scotland and sitting in Striveling 1578. by Mr. Andrew Melvil and together with their particular proceedings justifying their Arguments by their Facts truly related by King Charles the first in his large Declaration concerning the late tumults in Scotland printed 1639. do abundantly make it appear that their Maxims relating to Church and State Policy are the same with the Jesuits their Sermons delivered according to the Dialogue of Becanus Scippius and Eudaeman Johannes and their Arguments to be taken out of Bellarmine and Suarez as may also appear by King James his monitory Preface and his Apologia for the Oath of Allegiance and by the Books written in Defence of them both To this Assertion also give Testimony the Writings of Buchanan and Knox c. of old and Sa. Rutherford in his Lex Rex printed 1644. and his Plea for Presbytery printed 1642. and his Divine Right of Church Government and excommunication printed 1646. and a 100 more Pamphlets of later days § If we examine their practises in particulars most notoriously known we shall find them answerable to their Positions Upon the return of Angus Arrol and Huntley Popish Lords Fugitives for some Rebellious designs into Scotland Anno. 1596. K. I. and convention meeting in August at Falkland intended to shew some favour to them which being ratified at another convention of the States at Dunfermling in Septemb. the Church forsooth took pet at it and thereupon entred into a Combination to cross and prevent it K. J. for the better preservation of his Realm in peace and setled quietness consulted with much kindness Mr. Robert Bruce as one for whom the King had a particular kindness and the most leading man amongst them who was very willing that Angus and Arrol should return on the conditions proposed but by no means would admit that Huntley should return though he marryed the Kings Cousin whom he accounted as his own Daughter and offered to satisfie the Church and fulfil the conditions required and one who had the greatest power amongst them and therefore his Interest most likely to do the K. most service or most prejudice whereupon Bruce most insolently replyed I see Sir that your resolution is to take Huntly into favour which if you do I will oppose and you shall choose whether you will lose Huntley or me for us both you cannot keep There 's your Presbiter in his right Colours This done the Commissioners of the Church which Stile they most wrongfully assume and monopolize to themselves only as if the King his Council and Parliament I might say the meanest of their Congregations were not as much of the Church as themselves assembled at Edenburgh where they ordained to acquaint all the Presbiteries with what had been done and passed finding great fault with the Conditions granted to Huntly and the rest by the King and the Conventions as bringing a manifest hazard both to Church and State and therefore was desired to inform their flocks and both by publick Doctrine and private Conference to stir up the Country people to apprehend the danger to be in readiness to resist the same Oh brave Sheba's Trumpeters of Sedition and Commotion a speedy way to set a whole Kingdom against the King in a trice they proceeded yet farther by proclaiming a day of Humiliation through the whole Country to be on the first Sunday mark that in December that in Nomine Domini they might with the better grace fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of Wickedness and the cause assigned was the return of the excommunicated Lords whereby danger was threatned to Religion mostly made a Dequoy to intice heady and highminded men and despisers of Government not modeled by themselves to Rebellion and therefore the Presbyteries should call before them their Entertainers Resetters and such as keep company with them and proceed summarily with the censures of the Church una citatione quia periclitatur salus ecclesiae Reipublicae I wonder where this Jure Divino Power is to be found that they assumed this Prerogative to Cite Summon c. any for causes of Rebellion or censure by excommunication A meer device of their own which they can never make clearly out either what it is or of what extent or if there be any such thing that they only have power to execute it or that they can delegate it Nor rested they here but ordained that a number of Commissioners selected out of all the quarters of the Country should reside at Edenburgh to receive advertisements as should be sent from other places and take advice upon the most expedient in every case and in every business that occurred by direction of this Council which by a new name was now forsooth called the Council of the Church And was not this to erect Regnum in Regno If the punishment and pardon of Rebels be not a civil affair I do not see what is But rather than they will have their power docked they will by their Inordine ad Spiritualia their Pastoral Sheep-hook hook even Crowns and Diadems within the verge of their mitered Caps and Powers Whilst these things were agitated divers conferences passed between the King and them wherein the King and his Council made many prudent and gracious Offers and condescentions with great respect to the priviledges of the Church but no reasonings prevailing with them the King was forced to express and said that there could be no agreement so long as the marches of the two Jurisdictions were not distinguished that in their
other Two according to common acceptation rather respect the governing and cleansing of Christs Church and therefore in the opinion of some no reason they should be committed to the power of every Presbyter as the Word and Sacraments are as Independents and Presbyters would have it For as there can be no order but confusion in a Common-wealth where every man ruleth so would there be no peace but confusion in the Church of Christ if every Presbyter might impose hands and use the Keys at his pleasure Though the Presbyter of each Church had charge of the Word and Sacraments even in the Apostles times yet might they not impose hands nor use the Keys without the Apostles or such as the Apostles departing or dying left to be their Substitutes and Successors in the Churches which they had planted At Samaria Philip preached and baptized 8 Acts 5.12 and albeit he dispensed the Word and Sacraments yet could he not impose hands on them but Peter and John came from Hierusalem and laid their hands on them and so they received the Holy Ghost 8. Acts 14.17 The Churches of Lystra 14. Acts 20. Iconium and Antioch were planted before yet were Paul and Barnabas forced at their return to increase the number of Presbyters in each of those places by Imposition of their hands v. 23. The Churches of Ephesus and Crete were erected by Paul and had their Presbyters yet could they not create others but Timothy and Titus were left there to impose hands and ordain Elders in every City as occasion required Tim. 1.5 Tit. 1.5 § Having thus briefly seen what Powers Christ left unto his Ministers to continue in the Church let us now consider to whom he committed them To whom were committed the Powers Christ left to continue in the Church I find several persons under several Names and Titles to whom these powers were committed and by them shared as Apostles Prophets Evangelists Teachers Pastors and Deacons § Touching the Apostles whom the Bishops did succeed they probably had a superior Vocation and Jurisdiction above Prophets and Evangelists Pastors Teachers Deacons and the 70 Disciples in the Church of God and had the government and oversight of them which will soon appear If we consider what Paul writeth of himself and unto them directing and appointing what to do and how to be conversant in the Church of God what to refrain in themselves what to rebuke in others In which cases it is not to be said that the Apostle presumed above his calling or had a several Commission distinct from the rest of the Apostles But in his doings and Writings we may perceive the height and strength of Apostolic Authority so guided by the spirit of wisdom that it displeased none in the Church but the proud and contentious troublers of the Church such as drew Disciples after them to reign over their Brethren or seduced the simple to serve their own turns as Diotrephes 3 John 9. These Prerogatives were so proper to the Apostles that no Evangelist nor Prophet in the New Testament came near it § Touching Prophets Prophets they were such as having otherwise learned the Gospel had a special gift of expounding Scriptures bestowed on them from above and of foreshewing things to come of this sort was Agabus and sundry others in Jerusalem Acts 11.27 Acts 21.10 who notwithstanding are not therefore to be reckoned with the Clergy because no mans gifts or qualities can make a Minister of Holy things unless Ordination do give him power And we no where find Prophets to have been made by Ordination but all whom the Church did ordain were to serve either as Presbyters or Deacons § Touching Evangelists they were Presbyters of principal sufficiency Evangelists whom the Apostles sent abroad and used as Agents in Ecclesiastical affairs wheresoever they saw need such were Annanias Acts 9.18 Apollos Acts 18.27 Timothy 2 Tim. 3.15.5.14.28 and others and were thus employed In Trajans days according to Eusebius many of the Apostles Disciples and Scholars to shew their willing minds in execution of that which Christ first of all required at the hands of Men they sold their Possessions gave them to the poor and undertook the labour of * Evangelista 1º qui Evangelium scripsit ut Matcus Luca c. 2º qui annunciat missus vel primo a Christo ante mortem sio 70 discipuli 10 Luke Vel 2º ab Apostolis sic Timotheus dicitur Evangelista a Paulo constitutus Presbyter Episcopus 3º A Christo post resurrectionem sic Annanias Acts 9.18 Evangelists they painfully preached Christ and delivered the Gospel to them who as yet had never heard the Doctrine of Faith § Touching Pastors and Teachers Pastors Teachers they were no other than Presbyters howbeit setled in some certain charge and thereby differing from Evangelists which title the Apostles likewise gave themselves 1 Pet. 1.5 The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder Albeit that Name was not proper but common unto them with others for of Presbyters some were greater some less in power and that by our Saviours own appointment the greater they which received fulness of spiritual power the less they to whom less was granted § Unto these 2 degrees appointed by Christ the Apostles soon after his Ascension annexed Deacons by Ordination Deacons whose office at first was to distribute the Churches Goods to provide therewith for the Poor and to see that all things of expence might be faithfully disposed of and they were also to attend upon the Presbyters at the time of Divine Service § By all which it appears that Churches Apostolic did know but 3 degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical order 1. Apostles 2. Presbyters 3. Deacons and afterwards instead of Apostles Bishops whether Bishops and Presbyters were two distinct Orders or one and the same I will not here enquire into only this is plain and beyond all contradiction viz. they have one and the same Ordination and Commission and not different and distinct and thereby become more essentially Officers of the Church § Many Errors have been broached and maintained and not without some more than ordinary warmth among the Ecclesiasties meerly through inadvertency through confounding and want of right distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity during which execution only they differ from others of the Laity which works and services they also may give over at any time and are no more of the Essence of the Church than Widows or indeed any other Laicks now are or were of old for that they are not admitted into the Church nor tyed by irrevocable Ordination as Bishops Presbyters and Deacons are which makes them to be of the Essence or more especially Officers of the Church These things considered there is no reason we should alter the Apostles Discipline without the Apostles warrant Produce that and we
acquiesce till then we are justly to be excused and I hope you will not blame us if we prefer the universal judgment of the Primitive Church touching the Church Government by Bishops before particular and late dreams They were nearer the Apostles times than Calvin whom for his other great pains and Abilities for the good of Christ's Flock I do much honour who broached not his new Church Polity until about Anno 1500. Was it possible I appeal to your selves that all the Churches of Christ dispersed far and near over the face of the Earth should at one time and that immediately after the last surviving Apostle and as it were Momento temporis joyn or jump in one and the self same Government Episcopal had it not been delivered and setled by the Apostles and their Disciples that converted the World We construe the Apostles Writings by their doings others measure the Scriptures by their own humours first framing Churches to their fancies and then conceit that the Scriptures answer and favour their Chimaera's and by their so doing come within the Verge of the Paroenesis If Bishops claim or usurp more than is their due or abuse the power which Gods Law or the favour of Princes justly alloweth to them and Pastors in Nomine Dei spare them not let the world know it but do not attempt to put out the lights of our Firmament because Phanatics and Men intoxicated stumble or miss their way whilst they shine § Gods promise to his People is Dabo vobis Pastores juxta cor meum 3 Jer. 41. pascent vos scientia doctrina It is evident that the firm of all Pastoral charge consisteth in preaching of the Gospel in administration of Sacraments and by mistake according to some in the punishment of such offences as absolutely exclude us out of the Kingdom of God These being the main things which Christ recommended to his Apostles committing them to their charge the which things only were practised by them as also by their immediate Successors and I hope our Bishops will not be found insufficient for these great Mysteries nor will be found to have warped or swerved from them though we have not wanted Coblers of Glocester the vanity of the present Churches and many other Ichabods heavily complaining § Besides for great and just reasons of State Concerning Innovators in general prudent Magistrates ought to be very circumspect and jealous and to fear the sequels of Church Innovations and Combinations even beyond all apparent cause of fear for that they who believe the Attempts for new Discipline without the licence of Civil Powers are lawful as most Innovators and Men given to change do and that not without some design as well to remove some persons out of the Saddle that themselves might be therein seated as to reform some errors will easily dispute what may be attempted against Superiors which will not have the Scepter of their new Discipline to rule over them For they that will not stick to affirm Amat â—ai ranam ranam nuit else Dianam That the Discipline which they say they have and we want is one of the essential parts of Gods Worship and therefore the better to introduce a good opinion of their own Diana they have not stuck andaciter calumniari and to style Episcopal Regiment Antichristian will as little scruple to affirm withal That the People themselves upon peril of Salvation without staying for the Magistrate may gather themselves into it always having in a readiness to say that they never found that God ever made any Precept or Command which to perform we must needs have leave of another § Moreover as every order of Religious men so every Form of Church-Government that only excepted which Christ instituted besits not every Civil Government nor Kingdom nor every State and therefore the Kingdom of France and renowned State of Venice for great reasons of State banished the Jesuits And we have an excellent example of this in the famous Government of the Kings of Castilia where without the Kings licence no new Religious Order and of such nature is every differing Church-Discipline from the Discipline by Law established could have entrance into those Kingdoms and therefore the Capuchin Friers could not be admitted thither The Foundations of these and the like Decrees are no less equal reasonable and lawful than most necessary and most antient For Cicero in oratione pro domo sua sheweth that no man could consecrate an Altar injussu populi so that the equity of such Laws hath time out of mind been apparently known unto the World And Mecoenas his counsel to Augustus in Dione was very prudent Eos qui in divinis aliquid innovant odio habe coerce non Deorum solum causa sed quia nova numina hi tales introducentes multos impellunt ad mutationem rerum unde conjurationes seditiones conciliabula existunt res profecto minime conducibilis-principatui legibus quoque expressum est quod in religionem committitur in omnium sertur injuriam For it would not in any wise be permitted to a great Number of a strange State and such are all Papists having sworn obedience to another Head contrary to their customs of life and divers ends from those of the present Governments to enter into the state of such a Common-wealth Gather themselves together into one or divers places to make amongst them one or more Heads or Governors and in secret to practise with the Princes Subjects seeing this would be presently accounted as one or more Conventicles of very dangerous consequence and accordingly would be prohibited and interrupted so under the pretext of some new Church Polity be it Popish Presbyterian or Quaking all alike as to the thing in question not by that State established many very many not only of the same but of other Nations also may frequently assemble and gather together under one or more Heads Presbyters or Teachers contrary in Customs and Affections to the established Church-Discipline and perhaps unto true Doctrine also and the many opportunities they have through Confessions Meetings Sermons and other spiritual Conferences insinuating with the Princes Subjects they may by such secret vast diffused scarcely to be discerned and powerful means and opportunities corrupt them in their sidelity and withdraw them from their Allegiances of which we are not without sad experience of elder and later days both from Papists and others not a few of several perswasions And the danger of union in an united confederacy or conspiracy is to be avoided for that it prevails more than number besides discontented minds in the beginning of tumults when any happen occasioned by themselves or others will easily agree though their ends be divers each one hoping thereby to get uppermost or to turn up that Trump that they have most mind to follow and so endanger the State For these many excellent causes all Church Congregations ought very diligently and narrowly to be
perfectly 18 Acts 24 25 26. For he knew only the Baptism of John So that it is possible that some Doctrines and some Truths may be revealed or revealed more perfectly to Auditors and sitters by than to the Priests themselves tho qualified as Apollos was besides the practice of former times even in the days of the Apostles and times of persecution nothing more common witness 20 John 19.26 Then the same day at Evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut ergo private when the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews c. And after 8 days again his Disciples were within and Thomas with them then came Jesus the doors being shut c. V. 26. The Rulers of the Jews being offended at Peters Sermon for that thousands were converted thereat did imprison him and John and commanded them to preach no more in that Name adding also threatnings but Peter and John boldly answered whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judg ye for we cannot but speak the things we have heard and seen whereupon they being farther threatned and let go they did not desist but went to their own company and having prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness 4 Acts 1.2.17.19.20.23.31 And it came to pass that a whol year they assembled themselves with the Church and taught much People 11. Acts 26. K. Herod having persecuted the Christians killed James and imprisoned Peter whom an Angel delivered on the prayers of the Church assembled in the House of Mary the Mother of John where many were gathered together praying 12. Acts 2.3.12 Upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them continuing his speech until Midnight there being many lights in the upper Chamber whereby it is apparent that Paul did not only teach publickly in the Temple but also from House to House not ceasing to warn every one night and day with tears 20 Acts. 7.8.20.31 Paul having escaped shipwrack and being upon Melita many came to him unto his Lodging to whom he expounded and testified the Kingdom of God c. and Paul dwelt two whol years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him 28. Acts 1.23.30.31 The application is easie and obvious without a Comment times of persecution can be no objection here nor alter the case if lawful then under Perscutors and Enemies of the Gospel nay a duty injoyned certainly much more lawful now under the Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Church Reasons of State only can have room here either pro or con Conventicles of such nature being so far from being against Scripture that they are warranted thereby both by Precept and Example of Christ and his Apostles and of the most pure and primitive times which may be a Document at least and caution to all in Authority that they do not hand over head and without due consideration suppress all Conventicles promiscuously as if Conventicles and Schism and Conspiracy were termini convertibiles least by mistake or inadvertency they act over again the Priests of old the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces or those lewd fellows of the baser sort who upon such like occasions being grieved that the Apostles taught the People and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead accusing them for turning the world upside down by acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar came upon them laid hands on them put them in prison and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus But Peter filled with the Holy Ghost and John answered them boldly saying whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judg ye 4. Acts 18.19 And being let go no fault having been found in them for so congregating and so preaching they went to their own Company and after report made of all that the Chief Priests and Elders had said unto them they lift up their voices with one accord and applied and said with David Why did the Heathen rage and the People imagine vain things the Kings of the Earth stood up and the Rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ V. 25.26 When many signs and wonders were wrought among the People by the Apostles few men daring to joyn themselves to them the temper and complexion of many in these our days I doubt but the People magnified them the High Priest with his Sect of Sadduces being filled with indignation imprisoned them whom the Angel of the Lord delivered miraculously by night the doors being shut with command to stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this life and they were sound so teaching when by the command of the High Priest that the Captain of the Temple with his Officers seized them in the Temple and brought them without violence for they feared the People least they should have been stoned before the Council who tho cut to the heart at the stout and resolute answers and deportment of the Apostles yet waved the counsel given to slay them and followed the advice of Gamaliel a Pharisee a Doctor of Law had in reputation among all the People who cautioned them to take heed what they did to these Men invited thereunto by the example of Theudas and Judas of Galilee who advised to refrain from these Men and let them alone upon this grand reason because if this counsel or this work be of Men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it least happily ye be found even to fight against God to whom they all agreed yet not without beating and commanding them that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus and yet they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ in the Temple and in every House 5. Acts 12.42 When Christ was ascending up to Jerusalem and being come even at the descent of the Mount of Olives the whole multitude of Disciples rejoyced and praised God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen whereat the Pharisees being offended said Master rebuke thy Disciples but instead of silencing them he rebuked the Pharisees and said unto them I tell you that if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out 19. Luke 37.40 If our Separatists our Schismaticks falsly so miscalled do so assemble contrary to Decrees of Caesar yet it is not without strict Precepts and great Examples of Christ the Lord Paramount and of his Apostles If Paul that great Apostle 1. Rom. 11.12 did long to see the Romans that he might be comforted together with
his own sanctions and to publish and teach his truths or to contradict impede or alter any of his Laws which are so Righteous and just that they may be exercised and practised under any worldly Government without clashing with it or interrupting it the Subjects of whose Kingdom being true to the Principles of Christian Religion viz. to love one another even their Enemies and their neighbours as themselves to do justly to love mercy to obey Kings and all that are in Authority in all civil and moral affairs and to pray for them and pay tribute c. can never fairly be accounted as seditious Separatists Schismatical or Trayterous or that they worshipping God innocently according as Christ himself hath instituted can be justly liable to Bonds Mulcts Imprisonments or can come under any other Jurisdiction as to their Worship and Service of God It is true the Jews did hate him de facto the chief Priests Sadduces Scribes and Pharisees being the chief Inquisitors and Instigators did by Menaces Prohibitions Prisons Dungeons Beatings Stonings what not Forbid him his Apostles and Disciples to publish his Gospel or teach in his Name Nay they did not use force only but craft also and yet all would not do They took Counsel how they might intangle him in his talk and sent unto him some of their own Disciples to catch him about paying of Tribute to Caesar 22 Mat. 15.12 Mark 13 14. Accused him of Blasphemy 14 Mark 64. and of perverting the Nation and for forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar for stirring up the people teaching throughout all Jury 23 Luke 2.5 And if we let him alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and will take away our place and Nation 11 Joh. 48. And yet for all this and more when some of the Pharisees spake to Christ to rebuke his Disciples for praising God for all the mighty works they had seen answered that if these should hold their peace the Stones would immediately cry out 19 Luk. 37.40 Did his Apostles and Disciples speed better than their Master I trow not They falsly accused Steven of Blasphemy and stoned him 7 Acts. The High Priest with the sect of the Sadduces put the Apostles in Prison for Preaching the Gospel but God sent an Angel by Night who opened the Prison doors and brought them forth and maugre all their rage against them commanded them to go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life and they accordingly without dread of farther Persecution and without asking leave of any Authority entred into the Temple early in the Morning and taught and when the Captain of the Temple had found them so teaching brought them again before the High Priest who strictly charged them that they should not teach in the Name of Jesus Christ for that they had filled Jerusalem with his Doctrine intending to bring his Blood upon them As high and as home a charge I confess as can be laid against any now What answer made they we ought to obey God rather then man Though they were cut to the heart at this convincing and unanswerable repartie and took Council to slay them Yet when Gamaliel had advised them that it was hard sighting against God they followed his advice and did refrain from them and let them alone on this grand reason for if this Council or this work be of Men it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it least happily ye be found to sight against God And to him they agreed yet beat them and commandâ—d that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus and let them go and they departed from the Council but yet ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ daily in the Temple and in every house 5 Acts 17.42 I 'le trouble you with no Applications or Reflections do but turn the Tables awhile and consider that if all the Reproaches Calumnies Lies and Slanders cast on our worthy Prelates and Priests of late should be taken for truth and they thereupon silenced and deprived without being impleaded or convicted would they not think themselves very hardly dealt withal And was not such their case fresh yet in our own memories And was it unjust then in them And is it just now in others because the Scene is altered and the Tables turned Doth God pervert Judgment Or doth the Almighty pervert Justice 8 Job 3. And shall we follow such examples of Men vile Men perverting all Judgment and Justice Absit It is unbeseeming no See episcopal no not that of Rome it self nor indeed any of that most reverend Coat high or low to become Servants unto all that they may gain the more nor to be made all things to all Men that by all means they might save some nor yet to humble themselves to all wayes and means conducing to the gaining of Souls to Jesus Christ no nor to warn every one night and day in Church or Conventicle with tears and from House to House 20 Acts 20. Cura animarum being undoubtedly the main duty and glory both of Priest and Prelate and to be apt to teach to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. 4.1.2 For hereunto most especially if not only they are called as was Aaron and if not called to this duty they are called unto none as I know of by any Patent or Commission from Heaven Salvation and Damnation of Souls is of everlasting consequence and of the highest concern in the World to every Individual and is it not reasonable then that every Man should have Liberty and free Access to that Ministry whether Publick or private under which he can profit most Moreover if causeless fears and jealousies that Conventicles may Nurse and nuzzle up a faction averse to present Constitutions and to preserve a party in animosity against the establisht Government of Church and State and that their Pastors will abuse their callings to the subversion of Church and State if such reasonings may prevail happily all the Orders of the Church and all the Ordinances of God nay Scripture it self may be forbidden as in the Church of Rome by the very same Logick For if a thing Lawful in it self may be forbidden out of causeless fears and jealousies only of being abused no Man can be assured of the exercise and enjoyment of his calling whether Priestly or Prelatical though never so Warrantable never so strictly commanded by the word of God It is not unworthy of consideration whether a Divine Precept so Solemnly binding conscience with a VVo attending the non-performance of the duty enjoyned can Lawfully be superseded by any humane Law for fear only that evil may ensue Besides this liberty is indulged to them in some Popish Countries as in France Poland Germany and even by Mahumetans and is it not bitter then to be wounded in the house of
it was miraculous and therefore it might be of use then when the Keys of Church-men could not err and when a Temporal Sword was wanting yet now it is utterly useless and abolished § For any other Excommunication of present or perpetual necessity in Ecclesiastical Regiment there is very little indeed no plain proof in Scripture if any at all it is the spiritual Scepter of the Pope and Presbyter without which their Empire would appear meerly Imaginary and therefore their Zeal is fierce and strong for it though their reasons be weak It seems to me a very obscure and lame deduction that the Keys of Heaven in the Gospel must needs import real Power and jurisdiction in Clergy men and in them only and that that Sword is as miraculous as it was or as useful as if it were miraculous and that the stroak of it is meerly Spiritual and not to be supplied by the Temporal Sword and that Princes are as well liable to it as other Laymen § In case of utter impenitency of open and obstinate perverseness Heaven is shut without the Pope or Presbyters Power and in case of feigned penitence neither the Popes nor Presbyters Keys can open effectually though they discern or discern not the hypocricy and in case of true penitence if Pope or Presbyter be mistaken yet Heaven will not remain shut § Some excellent writers against the usurped power of the Romish Church in use or exercise of St. Peters Keys as well before Luther as since have been of opinion that the visible Church hath only power to declare who are separated or excommunicated ipso facto from the holy Catholick Church and that she hath no power so to separate or excommunicate any unless they have first excommunicated themselves or voided their hopes or interests in the holy Catholick Church by heretical positions or opinions or by lewd and scandalous misdemeanors Of this opinion was that famous Wesselius which was intituled Lux Mundi before Luther arose or the so pure Light of the Gospel which we now enjoy Besides Divines themselves have not hitherto agreed nor are ever like to agree what this excommunication is or what the extent of it is or whether the Presbyter alone or joyned with the Laity or Lait without the Presbyter have power to execute it or whether it be so spiritually inherent in the Pope or Presbyter as that they can or cannot depute the execution thereof to Deligates or Proxies In these great straights and uncertainties concerning excommunication held out to be of such high concern as to make the excommunicated as it were accursed and cut off from the Church what shall poor Laicks do who are well assured that be their Commission what it will that it extends not to impower them to teach and much less to impose any Doctrines but what are undoubtedly and meerly true the Apostles themselves pretending to no other § Some endeavour to support this feigned pillar of their discipline by Arguments drawn from the Jewish manner of excommunication which according to some was twofold 1º called Niddui and was only a temporary separation commonly for 30 dayes from all commerce or society with any man within a certain distance This is it which is thought to be that which is called in the New Testament a casting out of the Synagogue 2o. The second more severe and terrible than the former was when a scandalous ossender with curses out of the Law of Moses in the publick audience of the whole Church without any limitation of time was excluded from the Communion of it This is that which is thought to be that which is called in the New Testament a delivering up unto Sathan in Hebrew this is called Cherim and in Greek Anathema which was twofold 1o. Simple when what I have now mentioned was performed 2o. with an addition of Anathema Maranatha or as the Syrian pronounce it Moranetho when besides all other maledictions out of the Law they added this clause Our Lord cometh by which form the excommunicated person as desperate without all hope of pardon or restitution was left unto the Lord to receive from him a heavy doom at his coming In imitation of this Jewish excommunication which generally is defined by almost all to be an exclusion of the Fellowship and Communion of Believers the Popish Divines have also framed 2 kinds of excommunication viz. 1o. A lesser 2o. the greater 1o. the lesser That the excommunicated is to be debarred not from the profession of the same Faith nor from giving his consent to the same Doctrine with the present Church whereof he is a visible Member but from the soel participation of the Sacraments have added also another which they term the greater Excommunication and Anathema and have against the clear sence of Scripture I wish the Presbyterians could herein plead not guilty defined it to be an interdiction of Churches private commerce and all other lawful converse because the Apostle Cor. 14. openly sheweth that neither the heathen nor any person whatsoever were forbidden from hearing of the Divine word from the Reading Thanksgivings and Prayers of Christians And I have not found extant in the Scripture any Precept or Example whereby it is commanded or taught that they who err only in life and manners should be removed from the Sacraments I do not read that any person at any time amongst the Jews was for such causes forbid by the Priests Levites Prophets Scribes or Pharases to come unto the Sacrifices Ceremonies or Sacraments The high Priests esteemed Christ and his Apostles most wicked persons yet we do not find that during Christs life or after his death that ever they went about to debar them of the Sacraments and Sacrifices instituted by God they reprehended indeed Christ for eating and drinking with Publicans and Sinners but not for praying in the Temple with them nor for going up with them and all others to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover neither did they debar any Publican Jew no nor the most cruel Hereticks the Sadduces from their Temple or Ceremonies but permitted them the honour to ascend the high Priest-hood and I do not indeed well see how the Priests could hinder the Scandalous sinners from eating of the Passover if they would for that they did not eat before the Priests but in their private Houses and I have not observed that the presence of a Priest was absolutely necessary to that matter And certainly if the law had permitted them to debar any from their Sacraments and Sacrifices but the Leprous and unclean they would certainly have debarred Christ and his Apostles such was their desperate and inveterate malice towards him and them presuming his design to have been to destroy their City and Temple their Name and Nation § Upon these and other like reasons and grounds there are some who do not stick to affirm that the Clergy hath not so much power to excommunicate the Laity as the Laity the Clergy all power being
Loving one another of Doing all things decently and in order of Laying Hands suddenly on no man and describing Qualifications sit for the same to be their Guide and Directions That the Bishops and Priests were chosen by Popular Election until the Days of Constantine and some time after hath been demonstrated out of St Cyprian and others Afterwards when Pride Ambition Covetousness Self-Interest and Affectation of Domination had more universally corrupted the Minds of men and after the Donations of Constantine had given more Honour and more Power to the Christians then more eminently began the Spirit of Antichrist to work and every Interest began to set up for it self and the Priests and Bishops began then to be chosen sometimes by the People or Brethren sometimes by the Emperors sometimes by the Emperors People and Clergy and sometimes by the Clergy and People according as the several Interests grew more or less potent till at last it devolved where now it is at Rome even on the Cardinals who are well advanced from being Parish-Priests of Rome to be Peers and Compeers with Kings and Princes Vid. Fra. Paolo Sarpi of Beneficiary Matters It is undeniable that the Popes themselves were so chosen An. Dom. 233. p. 158. sometimes by one Interest sometimes by another Cornelius the 20th Pope was made Bishop of Rome by Testimony of the Clergy and Suffrage of the People It is true the Council of Laodicea congregated An. D. 364. under Liberius the 35th Pope or according to Coriolanus An. D. 321. Ordained That it was not to be granted to the People that they should make choice of those that were to serve at the Altar c. 13. But what Right they had so to Ordain appeareth not Notwithstanding which Bishops were chosen by Popular Election after this Council as may appear by the Great Nicene Council Assembled according to Baronius 6 years after the Council of Laodicaea in their Synodal Fpistle to the Church of Alexandria and to the beloved Brethren of Aegypt Libia and Pentapolis apud Theodoret lib. 1. c. 9. And that they enjoyed the same Liberty before the Nicene Council is clear by St Cyprian Ep. 68. Sect. 4. The People obeying the Lords Commandments and fearing God ought to separate themselves from a sinful Ruler and not to intermingle themselves with a Sacrilegious Priest seeing they especially have power either to elect worthy Priests or reject unworthy All the Romans as well Laity as Clergy chose Leo the 45th Pope Pelagius the Second the 63d Pope was chosen by the People so was Gregory the First the 64th Pope And so was Vitilianus the 76th Pope § The Suffrages of the People are so clearly manifested by all Antiquity that Pamelius himself in Ep. Cypr. 68. saith We deny not the old Rite of Electing Bishops by which they were wont to be chosen the People being present yea rather by the Voyces of the People for that it was observed in Affrica is evident by the Election of Eradius the Successor of St Austin concerninig which there is extant his 100 Ep. In Greece in the Age of Chrysostom as appeareth by his Third Book of Priesthood In Spain by Cyprian and Isidore in his Third Book of Offices In France by the Epistle of Celestinus In Rome by those things which were spoken upon the Epistle to Antonianus yea every where else by the 87th Epistle of Leo and that this Custom continued until Gregory the First appeareth by his Epistle yea even unto the Times of the Emperors Charles and Lodowick as it is manifest enough out of the first Book of their Chapters And the same Pamelius in another place saith The Manner of choosing the Bishop of Rome was often changed First St Peter chose his Successors Linus Cletus and Clemens then Anacletus and the rest unto the second Schism between Damasus and Vesicinus were Created by the Suffrages of the Clergy and the People If Pamelius a Papist confess all this what need have we of farther proof tho Histories swell with more of like Proofs Besides the Antiquity the Reason that it ought to be so hath the general Gospel and moral Equity for its justification God having set down no certain Rule for the way of Election it is most just and equitable that the People should choose their own Pastors because their own Souls the most precious thing that ever God created were concerned therein and for that by their so Electing they were the more engaged more quietly to receive and more diligently to hear the Word of Truth from their Mouths more heartily to love and reverence their Persons and also more chearfully and bountifully to maintain their Pastors and Bishops whom they themselves had chosen Before Constantines Conversion which according to Baronius was about the Year 312. the Elections without dispute were made by Clergy and People both in the Eastern and Western Empires but after his Days and Donations there grew Disputes Animosities and great Troubles between several Interests about Elections and more especially about those of the Bishops of Rome In his Days succeeded 3 Bishops of Rome Sylvester Marcus and Julius all chosen by the Suffrages of the Clergy and People And though in the Choice of Liberius Successor to Julius Constantius intermedled not yet before that he did interpose in the East and cast Proclus out of the Church The truth is sometimes the power of Election was given to the Emperor by Pope Canons and Councils sometimes the Emperor devolved his power again to the Clergy P. Adrian Leo Clement all with a Council granted it to Charles Otho and Henry Senate and People The Custom of choosing by the Emperor continued from Vigilius to Benedict the Second in which space there were about Twenty Popes all Created by Imperial Authority And P. Adrian the First with a whole Synod gave to Charles the Great who confirmed the Donations of Pipin who gave the Possessions of the Exarch of Ravenna and also Pentapolis as a Patrimony to St Peter which first enabled and encouraged them to contend affront and set at nought Kings and Emperors in future Ages the Right and Power of choosing the Popes and disposing of the See Apostolick and granted to him the Honour of being Patricius and designed that Bishops in all Provinces should take Investitures from him and that a Bishop should be Consecrated by none unless he were first invested by the Emperor Theoderick de Niem saith De Jure Princip Imperii cited by the Bishop of Ely in Resp ad Apolog. c. 8. the Roman People granted to him and translated upon him all their Right and Power and according to their example P. Adrian with all the Clergy People and the whole Sacred Synod granted to the Emperor Charles all their Right and Power of Electing the Pope Here all Interests pretenders to have power of Election voluntarily without compulsion devolved all their Authority upon the Emperor Charles and consequently was then indisputably invested therewith which
done with what Right or Justice could any succeeding Popes divest them of it After this Henry being Crowned Emperor by Clement the Second Platinâ— in Vita Clem. 2. he caused the Romans to swear that they would not meddle at all with Elections but by the Emperors Command for that he saw the World was come to that pass that every factious Fellow were he never so base so he were Rich and Potent might corrupt their Voyces and obtain the Popedom by bribes And well he might An. 912. N. 8. for Baronius himself complains in the very preceding Century that most silthy Harlots did bear all the sway at Rome This was the time when Strumpets did thrust their Lovers into the Seat of Peter This was that time when all Canons were put to silence the Pontisical Decrees stisled the antient Traditions proscribed the old Customs sacred Rites and former use of choosing the high Bishop utterly extinguished This was the time to say nothing of Formosus Luit pr. l. â— c. 6. Sergius and others when P. John the Twelfth exceeded in all monstrous Abominations polluted his own Fathers Concubine made his Palace a Stews put out the eyes of his Godfather gelded one of his Cardinals plaid at Dice invocating Jupiter and Venus and drunk a Health to the Devil Notwithstanding all the Right of Elections inherent in Kings and Emperors as Nursing Fathers of the Church and all the Grants conferred on the Emperor by all that did or could pretend to have any power thereof as Pope Senate Clergy People who not and notwithstanding the Oath they had taken not to interpose in the Elections yet ungrateful persidious Gregory the Seventh in a Council holden An. D. 1080. he excluded all Secular Princes whatsoever from Investitures reserving Elections to the Clergy and People only and was seconded by his Successors and Vrban he deposed his own Lord and Sovereign who confirmed him in the Popedom and gave away the Empire to Rodolph a Rebel promised Forgiveness of Sins to all that obeyed him forcing him at last to redeem his Peace and rather lose Investitures than the Empire Thus the Right of Elections which was for many hundreds of Years practised by the Greek Roman and German Emperors and Ratified by Clement the Second by Leo the Eighth by Adrian the First with their several Councils and before them all by Pope Vigilius and before him by the Practice Use and Approbation of the more Antient and Purest Times was now wrested and extorted from him and them by Perjury Cursing and Banning And as they excluded the Emperor reducing Elections to the Clergy and People so afterwards they excluded the People and brought them only to the Clergy after that they excluded the Clergy and Monopolized them only to the Cardinals since which time there have been as monstrous Popes as ever were before To say nothing of the Liberties of the Gallican Church whose Kings had the Choice of Bishops almost 300 years before the Empire came to their hands nor yet with what Artifices Labour and Sweat the Pragmatical Sanction set up by Charles the Seventh was endeavoured to be made null and of no effect by P. Pius the Second in the days of Lewis and by Leo the Tenth in the Reign of Francis the First I cannot but wonder to see how tame Christian Princes have been in suffering themselves to be thus imposed upon Had they had but the Mettle of Lewis the Twelfth the French King who being Excommunicated by Julius the Second stampt his Coyn with Perdam Nomen Babylonis or had they had but the Wisdom and Courage of Hen. 8. of England or had but followed the grave Advisoâ—s that Theoderick of Niem gave to Rupert King of the Romans they had long since been brought to be like the rest of their Brethren good and honest Prelates faithfully labouring in Gods Vineyard without Usurping the Rights of Princes and of their Fellow-Bishops § This was so palpable and undeniable that in the very Council of Trent it was urged by Thomas Passio a Cannon of Valentia That it was very plain by the Canons that in the Choice of Bishops and Deputations of Priest and Deacons the People of all sorts were present and gave Voice or Approbation of which the Hereticks the Lutherans made most pestiferous Use and therefore moved that the Voyces and Consent of the People in Ordination should be taken away and that the Pontifical also ought to be corrected and those Places expunged which make mention thereof because so long as they continued there the Hereticks would make use of them to prove that the Assistance of the People is necessary and thereby destroy the Church which according to the Romish Court-Dialect is the Pope It was urged moreover that the Places were many that made mention of the People giving their Suffrages and Consent in the Ordination of the Ministers of the Church and that they should be all blotted out of the Pontifical yet he recited but one viz. That where the Bishop at the Ordination of a Priest Pontif. Rom. de Ordinat Presb. viz. 38. Neque fuit frustra a Patribus institutum ut de electione eorum qui ad regimen Altaris adhibendi sunt consulatur etiam populus quia de vita conversatione praesentandi quod nunquam ignoratur à pluribus scitur à paucis necesse est ut facilius ei quis obedientiam exhibeat Ordinato cui assensus praebuerit Ordinando saith It was not without good reason that the Fathers had ordained That the Advice of the People should be taken touching the Elections of those Persons who were to serve at the Altar to the end that having given their Assent to their Ordination they might more readily yield Obedience to those who were so Ordained The Design of this righteous Canon was to have all that made against the Grandeur of his Holiness blotted out of the Pontifical that there might be no Trace or Footsteps of them left remaining for the future For if this and other Rites shall remain the Hereticks will always detract from the Catholick Church as Luther did Pietro Soave Polano 590. Therefore in this as well as in other points Indices expurgatorii are of most excellent Use to serve a Papal Turn Moreover Paulinus saith of himself That having a purpose to apply himself to the Service of God in the Clergy he would for humiliation pass through all Ecclesiastical Degrees Ostiarius Lector Exorcista Acolythus Subdiaconus Diaconus Presbyter Episcopus beginning from the Ostiary but whilst he was thinking to begin being but yet a Laick the Multitude took him by force in Barcelona on Christmas Day carried him before the Bishop and caused him to be Ordained Priest at the first which would not have been done if it had not been the Use in those Times Ibid. 587. Many of the Fathers also of the Council of Trent much desired that a Decree should pass concerning the
Election of Bishops purporting that a Cathedral being vacant the Metropolitan should write unto the Chapter the Name of him who was to be promoted who should afterwards be published in Pulpit in all the Parish-Churches of the City on Sunday and hanged on the Door of the Church and afterwards the Metropolitan should go to the City vacant and examine Witnesses concerning the Qualities of the Person and all his Letters Patents and Testimonials being read in the Chapter every one should be heard that would oppose any thing against his Person of all which an Instrument should be made and sent to the Pope and read in the Consistory But such a Decree was too good to pass in that Packt Council which having too much publick respect to the publick Good even of their own Catholick Church Protestant Churches having not the same reasons to complain was oppsed by all Arts and Industry by the Bishop of Bertinoro General Laynez and by all the Pentioners and Favourites of the Court of Rome which by much was the major part for the many and great inconveniences that would ensue thereby And what were they Forsooth that such a Decree would be a Cause of Calumnies and Seditions and that thereby some Authorities long since taken away would be restored to the People Vâ—â— Ao 870. Distinct 73. Padre Paolo Defence 75. with which they would usurp the Election of Bishops which formerly they were wont to have that this was to bind the Authority of the Pope that he could not gratifie any one Just and pregnant Reasons I must confess to perswade unto Usurpation of the Right of others and therefore it could not pass The like Opposition was made against the Article concerning those who were to be promoted to the greater Orders in which it was also said that their Names ought to be published to the People three Sundays and affixed to the doors of the Church and that their Letters Testimonial ought to be subscribed by four Priests and four Laicks of the Parish alledging that no Authority ought to be given to the Laicks in these Affairs which are purely Ecclesiastical 725 726. what Right soever they had unto them In the Discourse also of the Reformation of Cardinals a Congregation was ordained on purpose to consult and find a means that Princes might not intermeddle in the Conclave in the Election of the Pope so jealous and unwilling are they to have any Laick great or small to come within their Verge their Scrinia sacra or to intermeddle in such their Concerns though they have none de Jure but their Priesthood but what they have either obtained by Power or usurped by Fraud or by the Supineness or Favours of Pious Princes But when some of the Council thought in order to Reformation to make a Constitution that no Bishop should have any Temporal Offices either in Rome or in the Ecclesiastical Dominions that even that also would be a great prejudice to the Ecclesiasticks of France Polonia and of other Countries and Kingdoms where they are Councellors of Kings and have the Principal Offices of which they would soon be deprived by the instigation of the Secular Nobility for their own Interests and therefore that String was not to be touched upon but left unto the Popes ordering Furthermore the Bishop of St. Mark in the Dispute about the Title of the Council of Trent had the boldness to aver that the Laicks are most improperly called the Church for that the Canons determine that they have no Authority to command but Necessity to obey and that the Council ought to Decree that the Seculars ought humbly to receive the Doctrine of Faith which is given them by the Church without disputing or thinking of it Petro Soave Polano 141. That is in Romish understanding that that Religion which the Pope Obedience unto him being made by them a true Mark of the Church doth please to give them ought to be embraced by the Laicks without dispute What is this else but plainly and grosly to mock the world and to think all men Fools and Cuddens but themselves and to perswade themselves that all their Absurdities should be believed without more ado What is this less than to perswade Rational men that they are Bruits Horses or Asses void of all understanding or that hearing they do not hear or that seeing they do not see or that perceiving they do not understand Qui vult decipi decipiatur § Thus have I unto the meanest Capacities made plain and evident both by Precept and Practice out of the Word of Truth the Title and Interest which the whole Congregation of Believers have unto the Appellation and Powers of the Church and unto Ecclesiastical Concerns without wresting or perverting any one Text of Scripture § Now the Pope would very much oblige us if he would vouchsafe unto us but only one plain Text to warrant the Powers he exerciseth and lays claim unto over the Laity or how he comes to be so essential to the Church as to be put into the very definition thereof It being plain downright nonsence if it be good manners to say so to aver that any one single person alone how great soever can suffice to make a Church a Congregation for that at least two or three are necessarily required to make an Assembly or Congregation Ecclesia or the Church even in its Natural and Grammatical Construction signifying a Plurality or Multitude be it Civil or Ecclesiastical And as it is a new so it is an absurd kind of Trope devised by the Romanists to make the Pope a single person to signifie the Church I know the Papalins are most excellent Artists most rare Alchymists surpassing even those our Brethren Roseae Crucis who are modest Mountibanks in respect of these Audaces Jesuitae for they took the whole Book of Genesis to found their Phanatick Chymaeraes upon but these can extract their extravagancies out of two or three words only viz. Pasce oves meas i.e. Feed my Sheep out of this Word Pasce Bellarm. hath extracted so many Quintessences so many Elixirs so many Legions of Diabolical or Antichristian Arguments for the Popes Pride and Grandeur that he can hardly desire any thing that these would not afford him will he be a King as well as a Bishop and will he have Temporal Power to be as extensive as his Spiritual Bellarmine assures him that it is so for that Christ said to Peter Pasce i.e. Regio more Impera Play the Rex at pleasure In the ancient Church when any Heresie disturbed the Truth and publick Peace a grave Assembly of Bishops and others were called and the Book of God fairly laid open before them and out of it were all Doubts determined Now Scriptures and Councils are needless Will the Pope be supreme Judge of all Controversies Lib. 4. De Rom. Pontif. C. 1. C. 3. Bellarmine thinks the Claim to be well grounded upon this Pasce Joh. 21.17 And it is
a great wonder in his Judgment that the Pope was never thought infallible till this last age since this Pasce implies this also so clearly and if the Hereticks do not believe that his Holiness hath power to make new Articles of Faith and when they cry shame upon Pope Pius the Fourth for adding Twelve new Articles to the old Apostles Creed it is because they are ignorant and know not what Pasce signifieth In sum this one Word with them contains more Matter than all the Bible besides It works Miracles makes the Pope omnipotent gives him all power not only in Heaven and on Earth but even in Purgatory a place that God knows nothing of for if you ask by what Authority he takes upon him to pardon Sins and Souls after Death to give or sell the Saints Merits to dispence with Oaths to depose Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms or if he list to murder them c. If you look the Popes Lexicon as Dr. Potter well observes you shall find that Pasce expresly denotes all this Authority and enables him to be not only a Prince or a Pastor or Bishop but even a Butcher too by the self-same Logick for what is murdering of Kings and that by Mariana his quacunque arte less than savage Butchery For according to Sententia Baronii Cardinalis super excommunicatione Venetorum Ministerium Petri est duplex pascere occidere Feed my Sheep Joh. 21.15 16 17. Kill and eat Acts 10.13 dixit enimei Dominus Pasce oves meas Joh. 21.15 16 17. Audivitque è Coelo vocem occide manduca Acts 10.13 The Words I confess are plain and words of truth and their natural Sence obvious to every Capacity but such Conclusions and Deductions from them as are drawn by the Popes Partizans and Sycophants are strangely uncouth and utterly unknown to right Reason and so notoriously false that they carry their own Confutation in their Foreheads that they that run may read them and need no other Answer yet in their due place they shall be touched § But to return The Esteem and Powers allotted to the Brethren or body of the Church by the Apostles they did preserve unto themselves above 250 years after Christ which is very plain and manifest by the abundant Testimony of the most Antient Fathers and Old Canons as by Clement First Bishop of Rome who lived in or near the Apostles days by Tertullian and Cyprian who lived in the Third Century with divers others but because to cite the whole Caravan of Witnesses at large and in particular would make this very Paragraph swell into a Volume I forbear and shall only gently touch some of them hereafter that by them you may guess at the rest § As in the first and purest times the Name and Title of Church was common to all Congregations and Societies of Believers so unto them also according to all antient Records did belong also the Use and Propriety of the Goods which were called Ecclesiastical in which times the poor and the Ministers had their Food and Rayment from one common Fund or Bank and which is observable those were more principally provided for than these But not long after this excellent Use was perverted by the Subtilty of the Clergy and the poor put in the lowest place which according to the former Use ought to have continued in the first and chiefest And when the Name of the Church became appropriated to the Clergy only all other Christians being excluded then that was applied to few which belonged to all and that to the rich which first served for the poor In the beginning of those Times the Clergy having divided among themselves all the Revenues of the Church the Charges which before were and were called Ministeries and Offices of Spiritual Care the Temporalty and Profits being now most esteemed were now called Benesices and so long as the Old Canons remained that one man should not be Ordained unto Two Titles Titulus was the Old Word for a Church Many Ages after Christ A Bishoprick before the World was divided into Parishes was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Parish and whoever was Ordeined in and for one Bishoprick he could not belong unto two And for many Ages there were no Tithes paid or due but the Church and Clergy were maintained by the Oblations of the People and those by the old Canons divided into four parts none could have more than one Benefice But the Revenues being by Wars or Inundations diminished and become not sufficient for their Maintenance one Man might hold two yet so as that he should attend them both This was begun in favour not of the Man Benesiced but of the Church which because it could not have a proper Minister might have at least some other Service upon pretence of the insufficiency of the Benefice and that none could be found to serve in them they began to grant more of them unto one though no necessity appeared for the Service of the Churches and the Mask being taken away by little and little they were not ashamed to do it for the Man Benesiced But the World being scandalized thereat there was a Moderation used whereupon a distinction began of Men tied to Residence and not tied and of Benesices compatible and not compatible calling those of Residency incompatible one with another Trattato delle materie benesiciarie 144 145 c. and the other compatible with these and with themselves yet the Gloss of the Canonist to make a shew at least of Honesty always declared that many Benefices should not be given to one but when one is not sufficient for maintenance But they cut this Sufficiency very large proportioning it not to the Person but to the Quality not esteeming it sufficient for an ordinary Priest if it were not enough for himself the Family of his Parents three Servants and an Horse and more if he were Noble and Learned And it is strange how much they allowed for a Bishop in regard of the Decorum he was to keep For Cardinals it is sufficient to note the common Saying of the Court that they are equal unto Kings by which they conclude Aequiparantâ—r Regibus 144. that no Revenue is too much for them except it be more than enough for a King The Custom being begun and neither the World nor Equity being able to resist it the Popes reserved to themselves power to dispence with the Incompatible and to have more than two of the other But to find a colourable way to put this in practice they laid hold on Commendaes Commendaes a thing instituted at first to good purpose but after used to this end only For when by reason of Wars Pestilence and other such Causes the Election or Provision could not be made so soon the Superiour did recommend the vacant Church to some honest and worthy man to take care of it besides the care of his own until a Rector were provided who
these are executed by the power of the Judge who enforceth submission so those only by the will of the Guilty to receive them who refusing them the Ecclesiastical Judge remaineth without execution and hath no power to enforce but to foreshew the Judgment of God which will follow in this Life or the next This kind of Proceedings and this kind of Judicature was according unto Christ's Institution and would not enterfeer with any Civil Government Christian or not Christian and unto which the Apostles did conform and which lasted some Centuries of years in the Church and was esteemed by the Saints of those more pure times the Judgment of Charity not of Jurisdiction because they did thereby charitably not judicially or magisterially reconcile the persons compose the differences and rebuke the Sins and Vices of the Believing Brethren and did thereby prevent the Scandal and Reproaches that otherwise they and their Religion would have been exposed and liable unto from Unbelievers This kind of Judicature was so far from being essential or peculiar unto the Bishops and Presbyters as that the least esteemed in the Church were as capable of it as the greatest indeed any that were wise and able to judge between the Brethren rather than to suffer them to go to Law before the Vnbelievers 1 Cor. 6.4 5 6. The Apostles who had greater Abilities and understood their Commission better than ever any Pope did refused to take this Charge upon themselves as being not fit for Preachers of the Gospel to take any Civil Employment that might any way impede the main End and Design which was to give themselves continually to Prayer and to the Ministry of the Word and by reason whereof they could not serve God in that whereunto they were chiefly called without distraction and therefore for the same reason would not serve Tables but would have such Duties devolved upon others Acts 6.2 3 4. Nay Paul most solemnly professeth that Christ sent him not to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 1.17 So wholly did he devote his Service to the exact performance of his Commission Of the same Opinion was the Bishop of Aiace in the Council of Trent who in the Debate of Residence which he held to be Jure Divino complained that the cause of their Non-Residence was that the Bishops did busie themselves in the Courts of Princes and in the Affairs of the World being Judges Chancellors Secretaries Councellors Treasurers there being few Offices of State into which Bishops have not insinuated themselves though forbid by St. Paul 2 Tim. 2.4 who thought it necessary that a Souldier of the Church should not entangle himself with the Affairs of this Life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier therefore he moved that the Council would constitute that it should not be lawful for Bishops or others who have Cure of Souls to exercise any Secular Office or Charge In the Ecclesiastical Laws there is a whole Title to this effect Ne Clerici vel Monachi Secularibus negotiis se immisceant And St. Chrysostom hath a long Discourse In Decretal in Mat. Hom. 26. Consid 1.24 complaining of Clergy-men leaving the Care of Souls become Proctors Economists c. practising things unbeseeming the Ministry Though the Papalins cannot deny these to be great Truths yet in this as in divers other Cases they please themselves with false Glosses upon plain Texts of Scripture asserting most Magisterially for their Justification the Popes Authority to dispense not only with Humane but Divine Laws that in Humane Laws his Authority is absolute and unlimited because he is superior to them all and therefore when he doth dispense though without any cause the Dispensation notwithstanding was to be held for good and that in Divine Laws he had power to dispense but not without a Cause alledging St. Paul for their justifications 1 Cor. 4.1 Who saith that the Ministers of Christ are the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God and that to him the Apostle the Dispensation of the Gospel had been committed 1 Cor. 9.17 And that howsoever the Popes Dispensation concerning the Divine Law be not of force yet every one ought to captivate his Vnderstanding and believe that he hath granted it for a lawful Cause and that it is Temerity to call it into question Hist Conc. Trent 675. Bonny Glosses I must confess and well calculated for the Zenith of the Popes Altitudes and Authorities but they are quite contrary to Apostolick Doctrine and the Conclusion drawn hath no warrant at all from the Text for the Text doth not prove a power of Dispensation to be in the Bishop of Rome i.e. a Disobligation from the Law and Commandments of God and the Gospel as the Popes would have us believe but only a power to dispense i.e. to publish and declare the Divine Mysteries and Word of God which is perpetual and remaineth inviolable for ever according to Eph. 3.2 8 9. Eph. 6.19 Col. 1.26 c. 4.3 What is this but to wrest and pervert the very Words and Sense of Scripture and as much as in them lieth to make a new Gospel as they made a new Creed at Trent In Human Laws happily a Dispensation may lie for that the Law-makers are subject to infirmities and fallibility and unable to foresee all Cases and future Accidents and Occurrences which when they come to be discovered and known may justly admit of some Exceptions and Dispensations But where God is the Law-giver from whose all-seeing Eye nothing is concealed and by whom no Accident is not foreseen the Law can have no Exception no Dispensation for that by such Dispensation the strength of all Gods Laws is taken away made null and in truth escheated into the Breast and Power of the Popes Holiness From such corrupt Glosses it is that there are few or no Cardinals without many Bishopricks how incompatible soever they are together Hence also the Use of Commendaes and Vnions for Life Administrations at first invented probably for good ends by which against all Laws many Benesices were given to one person alone really with appearance that he had but one only Therefore the Law of God and Nature ought not to be esteemed as a common written Law which in some Cases happily may be dispensed withal and made more gentle for that all his Laws are even Equity and Justice it self Besides the Pope who takes himself to be the great Dispenser Paramount cannot in any case free him that is bound Paul was obliged to preach the Gospel as being called thereunto and so was Peter and all the rest of the Apostles and all the Bishops and Priests are no otherwise sent and called than to preach the Gospel and feed Christ's Flock as all the Apostles were which includes the Pope himself if he be Peters Successor yea a necessity was laid upon him yea wo unto him if he did not preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 And therefore he most earnestly desires
they put such a Hook in the Noses and such a Yoke on the Necks of Laicks and Civil Magistrates that the Papalins themselves have never since been able to shake it off unto this very day And though the Laws of the Emperors remain in the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian and in the Capitulars of Charles the Great and Lewis the Debonaire and though all Stories both Ecclesiastical and Prophane do shew how when and by whom these Powers have been granted adding the Reasons and Causes yet so demonstrable so notorious a Truth hath not had such power but that a bare Ipse dixit of the Popes without any proof at all hath been able to overcome it which the Canonists have so far maintained as to declare those Hereticks who do not suffer themselves that have been thus long blindfold to remain hoodwinkt still Though the Light of this Truth was not so extinguished but that both Learned and Pious men in those very first times did oppose their Doctrine viz. That no Civil Magistrate could meddle in any of those Causes which the Clergy had appropriated because they are Spiritual and that Laicks are uncapable of things Spiritual yet the opposition of the better who had the Truth on their side could not overcome the greater part and so upon the Spiritual Power given by Christ to the Church to bind and loose and upon the Institution of St. Paul to compose Contentions among Christians without going to the Tribunal of Infidels in tract of time and by many gradations a Temporal Tribunal hath been built by their own Industry Arts and Ambition and for their own Use Ends and Interests more remarkable than ever was in the world or can be parallell'd for thereby they have erected Regnum in Regno raised to themselves an Empire independent of the Commonwealth and which is more intolerable established on such grounds such as Jus Divinum is it which have so prevailed with such admirable success that it hath given the Pope of Rome as much at once as former Bishops were getting in 1300 years before and all this by making not the Power to bind and loose the foundation of Jurisdiction but the power of seeding and so affirming that all Jurisdiction was given the Pope by Christ in the person of Peter when he said to him Feed my Sheep § But to return to the other Branch viz. Excommunication Excommunication for the lawful force and use whereof they also plead strongly out of the same Chapter Matth. 18.17 If he neglect to hear the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man and Publican of which a little more here pretending also that the Antient Writers lean very much that way It may be so yet happily if their full scope sence and meaning were fathomed and comprehended and not this and that Scrap and Sentence here and there expunged and picked out and wrested to serve a turn against the Meaning of the Fathers happily they would not be found so clearly on their side as they ween for but be it so that Excommunication may hereout be drawn and deduced yet certes it must then also be of the same Nature as binding and loosing is of in the same place and will then also belong to Privateers For they belonging both unto one thing and unto the same persons by the self-same words will naturally and necessarily fall into the same Predicament and then the meaning of those words are no more but Pursue them in those Courts that thou wouldest a Pagan and Publican that should do thee wrong and what affinity hath this with Excommunication used in the Church of Rome or else those words may be understood of a private forsaking of all company with the wrong-doer as thou wouldest shun Pagans or Publicans until he repent and reform himself which if you please to call Excommunication be it so but then also it belongs to every Individual of the Church and not unto Ecclesiasticks only and is sutable to many other Precepts of the Apostles viz. to withdraw our selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly 2 Thes 3.6 14 15. 1 Cor. 5.11 13. but that they should be kept from the Word and Sacraments and that Divine Service must cease if an obstinate excommunicate person will not quit the Church there is not any one plain Text nor Syllable in the whole Bible This is an Excommunication of their own making not of Christs Institution And yet Excommunication was declared by the then Brethren Presbyters in the Ordinance of Aug. 29. 1648. to be shutting out of a person from the Communion of the Church but what Warrant out of the Word of God they had so to do non constat Other Expressions and Powers there are recorded in Scripture of which they make use for the founding and upholding of Excommunication as the Delivery unto Sathan 1 Cor. 5.5 as Hymenaeus and Alexander and the Incestuous Person were the striking of Ananias and Saphira dead by Peter and of Elymas the Sorcerer blind by Paul owning himself to have vengeance in readiness against all disobedience 2 Cor. 10.6 and his professing that he will not spare 2 Cor. 13.2 As also when some for abusing the Lords Supper became weak and sick and fell asleep or became dead These and the like might have been Arguments for the like Powers had they not died with the Apostles but with Excommunication they have no Analogy no Resemblance they were Arrows indeed in the Quivers of the Apostles Tokens as one of them expresseth 2 Cor. 12.12 of an Apostle wrought with Signs and Wonders and mighty Deeds but no Arguments for Excommunication whereby it is evident that in their Days when as yet there were no Christian Magistrates to punish the Sins and Offences of the Brethren the power of God sometimes by himself sometimes by his Apostles did afflict and punish the disobedient more or less grievously according as their Sins were more or less heinous that thereby they might learn not to blaspheme nor yet to detain the Truth of God in unrighteousness and that the rest might fear to provoke his Wrath and Indignation by like Sins and Uncleanness For without all controversie the Delivery unto Sathan the smiting some with Death and others with Blindness and Sickness were Corporal punishments and of a far different Nature from that of Excommunication even according to their own shewing there being not any other punishment belonging to the essence of Excommunication but the sole debarring from the participation of the Word and Sacraments § However let us a little consider the Delivery of the Incestuous person unto Sathan 1 Cor. 5. of which no small use is made to justifie Excommunication Take the Story as it lies plainly in the Text without any Vizards or Equivocations St. Paul understanding that there was such fornication at Corinth as was not so much as named among the Gentiles viz. that one should have his Fathers Wife wrote unto them his first Epistle and
Year 1484. the King of Spain admitted it into his Dominions yet so cautionate and jealous was he as he reserved himself to be Lord paramount thereof of choosing the Inquisitor General whom the Pope confirms And for the rest the Court of Rome was not admitted to intermeddle any farther so that though the King seemed willing to gratifie the See Apostolick yet did he reserve his Supremacy of Power over all Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to himself and so doth the State of Venice by their Coadjutors and Inspectors of the Tribunals Inquisitory In which Republick the Inquisition doth not depend on the Court of Rome but properly belongs to the Republick Independent set up and constituted by the same and established by contract and agreement with Pope Nicholas the fourth prout in his Bull of 28. Aug. 1289. wherein is inserted the very determination of the greater Council made the fourth of the same Month. And therefore as they ought are to be governed by their own Customs and Ordinances without being obliged to receive Orders from the Pope And indeed before the admittance of the Inquisition there was in effect the same Office though meerly Secular to which Noble-men were raised to enquire after Hereticks and this the Republick made good afterwards against the See-Apostolick in the Years 1289. 1301. 1605. 1606. and 1607. upon Disputes maintaining their Civil Authority in Ecclesiasticis to be their undoubted Right and cannot be taken away by any Bull or Decree made in any manner by any Pope to whom soever Hist. Inquisit § By all which it appears that neither Monarchs nor Free States would be juggled out of their just Right of Commanding over Persons and Causes Ecclesiastical and that those Condescentions of the Civil Magistrates were only to gratifie some Popes out of special favour to them and not for any just Right the Popes had unto them For let Pope or Presbyter pretend what they please to the contrary they do as much as in them lies endeavour to erect Regnum in Regno by giving Temporal Monarchy only an imperfect broken Right in some things but controlable and defeasible by the Spiritual Monarchy in other things And the World hath had a long and sad experience of this whilst Kings had the Popes and Presbiters their Superiors in any thing they remained Supream in nothing whilst their Rule in Popish Countries was by Division diminished in some things they found it insufficient in all things so that they did command joyntly with the Pope but were commanded wholly unless by force they extricated themselves out of their snares So Calvin and his Followers complain and grumble much at the Power that the Civil Magistrate assumes in England France and Germany over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical holding Princes incompetent for Spiritual Regency accounting the intermedling of Princes therein as an Abolition or Prophanation of the same § But let us not doubt to submit all things under one Supream on Earth submitting and recommending him by our Prayers unto his Supream in Heaven for it is no small thing in such a Case to be left to the searching Judgment of God nor need we doubt or hold our selves utterly remediless whilst we can truly say Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum est And let us not mistake our Supream on Earth for if God had intended to have left us a Spiritual Sword or miraculous Judicatory never before known or useful to the World and that to be of perpetual necessity sans doubt he would have left us some clear command in Scripture and not have involved and mantled his meaning in Metaphors so intricate and ambiguous But to let pass this Theam of Excommunication so unpleasant to Popish and Presbyterian Ears let us examine the Magistrates Power as it relates to Religion in commanding Liturgies and concerning Toleration Compulsion and Government c. § All just Dominion and Empire is founded on true Religion and Piety i. e all Governours and Governments were ordained for the good of the Governed and they are obliged by the Law of God to govern according to Rules of Religion and Piety no Nation under Heaven having Statutes and Judgments so just and righteous as are prescribed by God himself and who act not according to them an Iliad of Curses will attend them and their Plagues shall be wonderful Deut. 28.58 It is Righteousness and Judgment that is the Establishment of Thrones A Kingdom is translated from one People to another for unrighteousness Eccles 10.8 And The King that faithfully judgeth the Poor his Throne shall be established for ever Prov. 29.14 If I am not much mistaken the necessity of a Liturgy and the warrantableness of establishing the use thereof is easily deducible nay doth naturally flow from the Charge and Right of Government which Kings have in the Government of the Church and granted unto them by their great Charter from Heaven their Command from God For Kings and all other just Governments being granted to be Custodes utriusque Tabulae it must necessarily follow that the Government of the Church is their Duty and consequently ought to be their chief Care And that they be so what need we other Proof or Argument than that through the whole Scripture Kings have been charged therewith and according to their countenancing or discountenancing Idolatry and other sins or abetting and supporting Gods true Religion or establishing or but conniving at Idolatry or other Impieties so they received from God by his Messengers the Prophets praise or dispraise reward or punishment accordingly and those of no less concern than the establishment or deprivations of their Kingdoms And it will as naturally follow that if the care of the Church be the Duty of Kings that then they both may and ought to set up and establish a publick Standard and Test within their Dominions to measure and try all Mens Religion by as to the outward profession thereof and outward conformity thereunto and to appoint and allow publick consecrated or to speak more inoffensively to all Parties seperated Places or Churches for publick Divine Worship and Service and administration of Gods Holy Sacraments and Ordinances to the frequenting of which they may make strict Laws or else how is it possible for the Magistrate to have cognisance of them and of their Religions and why else should the Magistrate be blamed for the Idolatry or other sins of his Subjects if he have no power to inspect take cognisance and to restrain from sinful practises nor yet to force unto the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel nor to the frequenting of Gods Holy Ordinances Now this Standard or Test I call a Liturgy without which or something equivalent how is it possible for Kings to give a good account to God of their Care and well-governing of the Church within their respective Dominions which Liturgy in general ought to contain so many Fundamentals of Christian Religion to the Belief of which if Christians joyn
answerable Practise it may certainly bring them to Heaven What the Particulars of this Liturgy should be I will not here meddle withal only thus If it contain any thing contrary to the Word of God it ought not to be and much less to be enjoyned and if it do the Magistrate must answer for it at the day of his Account and Dissenters thereunto not be blamed Therefore as he tenders the good of his own Soul it behoves him to take care that all therein be warrantable by the Word of God or at least no way contrary unto it and to leave nothing or as little as is possible upon a Moote Point Concerning our own established Liturgy I shall only say this in general for Justification thereof That whosoever consults it shall find no Point of Belief wanting in it absolutely necessary to Salvation and that the Method of it is incomparably good scarce capable of Melioration being but the History of Christ beginning with his Advent and so proceeding to his Nativity Circumcision Epiphany Passion Resurrection Ascention c. all very requisite at least if not absolutely necessary to be known and believed and all justified and made out by suitable Chapters Epistles Gospels Collects Prayers c. containing also a laudable and very reverend Form of Administring the Sacraments and the like for Marriage Burial of the Dead Ordination and Consecration of Bishops and Presbyters and all these according or at least not contrary to the Tenor of Holy Writ and therefore fit to be enjoyned and its use established and the disuse and abuse thereof to be discountenanced by the Magistrate If any be unsatisfied with any Part or Expression or Rite or Gesture or Habit or Vestment therein mentioned or therewith used I refer them to Judicious Hooker never yet answered and others for satisfaction it being not my design to justisie every Particular of this or any other Liturgy but to assert the necessity requisiteness and conveniency of Liturgies in general from the Antiquity and Universal Use of all Christian Churches in all parts of the World In rebus de quibus nil câ—rtislatuit Divina Scriptura mos Populi lâ—ei instituta majorum pro lege tâ—â—â—nd asunt August ad Casulanum which alone almost argues the necessity of it to be established by a Law of Nature or Moral Reason and not to be esteemed of as a thing indifferent that may or may not be used so necessary that without it I cannot see how any Prince can take general cognisance of the Religion of his People Take this also along with you in farther Justification of our Liturgy That by the Order contained in the Book of Common-Prayer on Sundays and Holy-days half an hour before Even-song so the Old Common-Prayer-Book and Canon as I remember or according to the Newer Books after the Second Lesson the Curate of every Parish ought to examine Children sent unto him in some Points of the Catechisme and all Fathers Mothers Masters Dames should cause their Children Servants and Apprentices to resort unto the Church at the time appointed there to hear and to be obediently ordered by the Curate until such time as that they have learnt all that in the said Book is commanded And when the Bishops shall appoint the Children to be brought before them for their Confirmation the Curate of every Parish shall bring or send the Names of those Children of his Parish which can answer to the Questions of the Catechisme And there ought none to be admitted to the Holy Communion until such time as he can say his Catechisme and be Confirmed SOME REMARQUES UPON A DISCOURSE CONCERNING LITURGIES c. NOtwithstanding all the great Care Piety and Prudence of our Fore-fathers successively used Age after Age in compiling of so excellent a thing as a Liturgy and of which this Nation hath received so great benefit that it hath proved by experience to be what once Paul the fourth averred of his great Darling the Inquisition for the Avail against Heresie and defence of the Apostolick See the true Ram to keep out Heresie and Popery yet as of Elder so of more Puny Days but especially since 1640. there have been published Pamphlets sans Nombre villifying and condemning the Use and Imposition of Liturgies besides much Gall which hath dropt from many a bitter Pen against them by the By from Writers writing on other Occasions But of them all that have come unto my view none prima facie carries more shew of Reason and Learning than that which bears the Title of A Discourse concerning Liturgies and their Impositions published 1662. by a nameless Author To answer which would require a large Volume which not being my Work or Design here I shall only tanquam Canis ad Nilum touch and away give you a very short Sum and Account of his large Discourse containing above 170 Pages in Quarto in a small Print and say something to the most material Arguments only of it for there be many of his Averments and Postulata which if we should both give and grant yet would be rather Arguments for than against Liturgies as that Christ never instituted nor appointed Liturgies that the Apostles never used them nor yet the Fathers in the Purest Times For though Christ never Instituted Liturgies it is enough that he commanded Rem Liturgiarum the Matter Worship and Doctrines contained in our Liturgies for of such and such only I desire to be understood If such Reasoning may be allowed for currant Doctrine it will certainly prove as strong against Sermons and Administrations that he or any other preacheth and useth as against Liturgies for certainly Christ never appointed the Form though happily he hath the Matter of the one and of the other jam sumus ergo pares they are both on the same bottom Besides is it reasonable to think it fit that Christ in whom even whilst on Earth dwelled all the fulness of the God-head bodily Col. 2.9 that had the Power of all Matter Form and Language and whatever he spake or thought was infallible should yet tie himself to any stinted Forms of Words The like say I for the Apostles in whom the Spirit also dwelt bodily as in Christ himself even after the same manner though not in the same measure witness those Emanations from their Words from their Touch from their Shadows curing Diseases by Handkerchiefs Aprons and Shadows and witness their Infallible Spirit that what ever they dictated as Truth was Truth and is come down as Scripture to us witness also the Cloven Tongues sitting upon each of them whereby they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and were endowed to speak with Tongues If the Apostles I say after all these Gifts and Graces so miraculously bestowed on them should have limited the Spirit by using stinted Forms happily they would not have been found so faithful in the House of God as was Moses Is it then rational from such Premisses to deduce this Conclusion that
that any should not have explicit knowledge of those Mysteries of Christ which are thus publickly plainly and frequently solemnized in the Church Vsh 25. Furthermore this very Discourse hath furnished me with one very good Quotation for the Justifying the command of Liturgies by the Magistrate and hath not impeached the Reasons thereof by any thing he hath written in derogation thereof though he hath endeavoured it After he hath told us f. 33. That in the Latin Church Ambrose used one Form Gregory another and Isidor a third and that it is not unlikely but that the Liturgies were as many as were the Episcopal Churches of those days Hence saith he in the beginning of the fifth he might have said in the fourth Century in which Ambrose flourished by which it appears ex ore tuo that they are no very Novel Invention and that the wisdom of Ages for the good they have found by them have thought fit to continue them to this day and therefore certainly not temerariously to be disputed against in an African Council Can. 70. which is the 103d in the Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Africanae it is provided that no Prayers be read in the Administration of the Eucharist but such as have been approved in the same Council or have been observed by some prudent Men formerly Ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum which Canon with some addition is confirmed in the Second Milevitan Council Can. 12. and the Reason given in both is Lest there should any thing contrary to the Faith creep into their way of Worship He farther adds f. 34. That many parts of the World especially the last in those days swarmed with Antitrinitarian and other Hereticks who many of them by unsuspected wiles and dissimulations and subscriptions of Confessions and why may not these be practised again and why may not Princes now use Liturgies a Remedy found out it seems by Prelates and derived to our days attested by many Ages to have been effectual against such and the like evil Machinations of Sathan and his Disciples as well as Prelates did of old endeavoured to creep into the Office of the Ministry of the Church partly out of blind zeal to diffuse the poison of their abominations partly out of carnal policy c. which increased the necessity of composing such Forms of publick Worship as being silled with the Expressions pointing against Errors of those times might be a means to keep Seducers from imposing themselves on Ecclesiastical Administrations Thus there is no Ancient Liturgy but it is full of the Expressions that had been consented upon in the Councils that were convened for the condemnation of those Errors which were in those days most rife and pernitious Though these very Reasons abstract from those relating to the Power of Princes herein prevail very much with me and I am confident will with most rational and most unbiassed Persons for the establishing of Liturgies yet our Author slights them because it doth not appear unto him that these Reasons could possibly be taken from the Word the Practise of the Apostles or the Churches by them planted or those that followed them for some Generations nor from any Council held before their days and so is not much concerned to know what they were If our Author as an unbiassed and disinteressed unconcerned Person had consulted Scripture as much about the Power of Kings in things pertaining to God as he hath done about the Liberties and Priviledges of his own Order he could never have said that these Reasons could not be possibly taken from Scripture for Kings have their Power from Scripture as well as Priests Though I have herein said something of the Kings Power and more I suspect than all of his Profession will cheerfully subscribe unto yet I will say somewhat more here In the Christian Church the Right and Office of the highest Power is not only conversant about the whole Body of Religion but about the single Parts also as Reasons and Examples do evince Indeed it cannot be otherwise for he that hath Right upon the Whole hath Right upon the Parts An Example is Ezekias who that he might suppress the Adorers Superstition took away the Brazen Serpent though set up by Moses and by the same Right against the Decrees of the second Nicene Synod Charles the Great forbade the Adoration of Images Moreover it is most plain that the Supream Powers used their Authority in defining things which the Divine Law hath left undefined The King of Ninevey proclaimed a Fast David commands the Ark to be transported Solomon orders all things for the Ornament of the Temple and after him Josiah who also takes care that the Treasure destined for Sacred Vses be not alienated The Constitutions in Theodosius and Justinians Codes and the Novels and the French Capitulars justifie the same but because not in Scripture I only mention them here It seems very reasonable that if Princes have power to pull down a Brazen Serpent though set up for the healing of the People by a Prophet when once the People commit Idolatry by offering Incense to it that they have also just Power to erect or command an unquestionable Liturgy that may really and effectually conduce to the preventing or suppressing of Idolatry And therefore if the very words of such Liturgy were not commanded precisely to be read but were only in the Nature of a Directory which happily may not be displeasing to our Author what could hinder but that some Popish Priests might again introduce at the time of Baptizing of Infants the use of Spittle the kissing of them the blowing in the face of them to blow away the Devil forsooth to give them the Eucharist and many more such Fopperies now generally difused amongst Protestants and others may baptize in Nomine Patris Filij Spiritus Sancti as we do others in Nomine Patris Majoris Filij Minoris as the Arrians did others in Nomine Patris per Filium in Spiritu Sancto others not in the Name of the Trinity but in the Death of Christ c. and who shall hinder them Other Sacrilegious Priests might also rob Gods dear Children of their Blessed Viands of half their just due in the Eucharist and give them Bread only keeping the Wine to themselves and teach them that the Bread in their Hands is a proper real and propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ for the Living and for the Dead and that which they eat under the shew of Bread to be the very Flesh of Christ whereas in truth they eat only the Substance of Bread and indeed may make them believe that the very Moon is made of Green Cheese infect their Flocks at their pleasure with Arrianisme Socinianisme the Doctrines of Adamites Ranters Quakers and indeed what not And if they did so why were the Prince to be blamed if he did not prevent it if he had no
Command or Power so to do If he have Power why so angry that he makes use of it If you know a better way teach it if not submit to this and acquiesee This our Author seems to contradict by opposing experience to the contrary and therefore f. 63. he desires that none would be offended if as his own apprehension he affirms that the Introduction of Liturgies was on the account insisted on the principal means of encreasing and carrying on that sad defection and apostacy in the guilt whereof most Churches in the World had enwrapped themselves A bold Charge I confess but not against us and much they have to answer for that impose and use such Liturgies and therefore I shall not be offended at this his Affirmation but shall grant him his desire and conclude upon the truth of it that if Idolatrous Superstitious erroneous and Heretical Liturgies Mass-Books call them what you will for such he must mean have been so powerful and effectual to keep out Truth and prevent the true Worship of God through most Churches in the World what should hinder but that Liturgies teaching nothing but what the Word of God teacheth nor prescribing any thing in the Worship of God but what is according to Scripture I must mind him that I plead for no other should be as powerful and as effectual for the keeping out of Heresie Idolatry Superstition and what ever is contrary unto sound Faith and Doctrine And that they have been so is as certainly verified and as plainly to be demonstrated in all Places where such Liturgies nay though happily not altogether such though I wish they were all reduced to such have been used as that which he affirms of erronious Liturgies § At the Conference that was before King James at Hampton-Court the Bishop of London put His Majesty in mind of what Monsieur Roguë the French Ambassador gave out concerning our Service and Ceremonies upon the solemn view and audience of them viz. That if the Reformed Churches in France had kept the same order among them which we have he was assured that there would have been many thousands of Protestants more there than now there are f. 38. If some Innocent Ceremonies were not commanded and others not so Innocent abolished what could hinder but that Shrines covering of Shrines Trindilles Rolls of Wax Pictures Painting and all other Monuments of feigned Miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and Superstition long since razed out of the Walls and Glass Windows might be brought into use again If no Liturgies were established and imposed what should hinder but the use of the Service of Th. Becquet and Prayers having Rubricks containing Pardons or Indulgences and all other Superstitions Legends and Prayers should be again introduced And also the use of Hallowing Water Bread Salt Bells Candles on Candlemas-day Ashes on Ash-Wednesday Palms on Palm-Sunday the Font on Easter Eve Fire on Paschal and a Sepulcher on Good-Friday and several Masses contrary to the Form and Order of the Book of Communion all long since abolished in Edw. 6. and Queen Elizabeth's days and we may conclude confidently yet without Arrogancy that such Liturgies are warrantable and profitable and that as many as do walk according to such Liturgies neither overthrowing that which they have built by superinducing any damnable Heresies thereupon nor otherwise vitiating their Holy Faith with a lewd and wicked conversation Peace shall be upon them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God and I appeal to all that shall read this if I may not with as good a Warrant affirm that our Liturgy hath kept out Popery and its Trinkets as he affirm as he doth and certainly they are both equally and alike powerful towards the encreasing and suppressing of true and false Faith Doctrine and Worship And it cannot be denied but that since 1640. since our Liturgy hath been thus vilisied set at naught and disused but that whole swarms of Sectaries like the Frogs and Locusts in Egypt have overspread the Land and that open Profanation Blasphemy Atheisme more in vogue since than before We have hitherto been openly battering his Out-works his main and strongest Forts are yet behind Vide Act Vniform f. 82.140 Car. 2. viz. That Liturgies are a Humane Invention that they occasion neglect and disabilities 63. That they hinder the due exercise and improvement of Spiritual Gifts and it is accordingly done in the imposed Liturgy 67. It says expresly That the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use or exercise any Spiritual Gift in the Administration of those Ordinances for which provision is made in the Book 68. That the Imposition of a Liturgy to be used always as a Form in all Gospel Administrations which he says do consist in Prayer Thanksgiving Instructions and Exhortations sutably applied unto the special Nature and End of the several Ordinances themselves and the use of them in the Church 63. is an unwarrantable Abridgement of that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and therefore sin in the Use and Imposition thereof And as it is a Sin in others to abridge us of the Liberty purchased for us by Jesus Christ so it is in us to give it up and not to suffer in our Testimony for it 69. and then concludes That the great Rule of Administrations is That all things be done to Edification And this is the main End of the Ministry it self in all the Duties thereof that are purely Evangelical and what ever is contrary unto or a hindrance of Edification ought not to be appointed or observed in the Worship of God and such is the state and condition of this Imposed Liturgy in Church-Administrations for the Reasons mentioned c. 10. f 65. § By which it appears that one great Objection in their Esteem though opprobrious only against Liturgies is That they are an Humane Invention Be it so what then Therefore nothing of Humane Invention be it never so consonant and advantagious unto the Truth or the true Worship of God is to be necessarily and indispensibly used in the publick Worship of God If so then by the same Rule and Reason we may conclude that no Man must teach in private or preach in publick for that such Sermons such Catechisings are as truly the Inventions of the Brains of every Individual Person as Liturgies are of the whole Church or its Representative for be it that the Forms of Liturgies were never instituted nor commanded by Christ no more were the Forms of any Sermon or Prayers preached or prayed by particular Men since the days of Christ and his Apostles It is enough that the Subject Matter both of the one and of the other be according to Holy Writ And we may rest assured that as God will bless the Gifts and Labours of private Men in publick Prayers and Sermons so will he also bless the publick delivery of his Word and Mind by such stinted Prayers and such selected portions of Scripture as many learned pious and gifted Pastors
appointed by God and practised by his People And if it appears that both Precept and Practice doth abet and favour the Liturgists then I hope our Author will not be so peremptory in casting Aspersions on Liturgies § First consult the Old Testament and you shall find that Moses gifted no doubt himself took the Book of the Covenant and read in the audience of all the People and therefore publick Service and they said all that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient Exod. 34.7 Likewise the command to the King Deut. 17. was That when he sate upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book c. and shall read therein all the days of his life c. v. 17 18 19. The like command was to the Priests and Elders of Israel to whom Moses delivered the Law written That when all Israel Men Women Children Strangers come to appear before the Lord thy God in the Place where he shall choose thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their hearing of Sermons in those days there is no mention to the end and Liturgies are to the same end that they may hear and learn and fear before the Lord your God Deut. 31.9 10 11 12. Moreover of Reading and of the success and benefit thereof the Scripture farther witnesseth That when the Book of the Law had been some time missing and was afterwards found the good King Josiah which heard it but only read by Shaphan tore his Cloaths and confessed that great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us and thereupon went up into the House of the Lord and all the Men of Judah and Inhabitants of Jerusalem and he read in their Ears all the Words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the House of the Lord c. 2 Chr. 34.18 19 c. whereby it is abundantly manifest that here was not only a Command performed according to Deut. 31.13 Thou shalt read this Law but repentance wrought by only reading of the Word the like effect I mentioned before Exod. 34.7 Again the Solemn and Religious manner of reading and hearing the Law and the Comfort and Instructions the People received thereby is plainly and in terminis set down Nehem. 8. And all the People gathered themselves together as one Man c. and they spake unto Ezra the Scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses c. And Ezra the Priest brought the Law before the Congregation and he read therein from the Morning until the Mid-day before the Men and the Women and those that could understand and Ezra the Scribe stood upon a Pulpit and opened the Book in the sight of all the People and therefore publick Service and Ezra blessed the Lord the great God and all the People answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands also day by day from the first day to the last day viz. seven days he read in the Book of the Law of God v. 1 2 3 4 5 6.18 There is also a Promise of blessing annexed to it That the Deaf shall hear the Words of the Book of the Lord Isa 29.18 and a Command from the same Prophet Seek ye out the Book of the Lord and read Ch. 34.16 § Having now out of some few of many places of the Old Testament made good the Precept and the Practise of the Old Prophets Kings and Priests let us now see what the New Testament Christ and his Apostles will afford us that by two such unquestionable and immutable Witnesses every word may be established first That Christ himself is of the same Opinion with the Prophet appears by Luke 16.31 where he saith That if they would not hear Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one arose from the dead Nay how often doth Christ send the Scribes Pharises and Saduces unto the Scripture saying How readest thou or have you not read as in the matter of pulling the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day Mat. 12.3 So concerning Divorces Mat. 19.3 The Peoples crying Hosanna Mat. 21.16 and concerning the Stone which the Builders refused 42. and the Resurrection of the Dead C. 22.31 nay when he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath-day and stood up for to read Luke 4.16 and Paul coming to Antioch went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath-day and sate down and after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogne sent unto them that if they had any word of Exhortation to the People to go on then Paul declared and laid the condemning of Jesus to the charge of those that dwelt at Jerusalem and their Rulers because they knew him not nor yet the Voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath-day Acts 13.14 15.27 28. So the Apostles and Elders being solemnly met together in Council at Jerusalem declared that Moses of old time had in every City them that preached Christ being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day Acts 15.24 By which it seems in the esteem of the Apostles and Elders in those days that reading was esteemed preaching and the result of their meeting being written in an Epistle and delivered to the Churches and read they rejoyced for the Consolation 30.31 Likewise the Apostle Paul required that those things which any one Churches Affairs gave particular occasion to write might for the Instruction of all be published and that by reading and therefore commands That when this Epistle is read among you that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that likewise that ye read the Epistle to Laodicea Colâ—s 4.16 the like charge he gave to the Thess 15.27 I adjure or charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the Holy Brethren 1 Thes 5.27 so you see that the Charge is peremptory or with great vehemency and therefore I shall confidently say with St. John Blessed is he that readeth because the Word it self doth pronounce him so if he also observe the same Rev. 1.3 Adjurations we find none in use amongst Gods Servants save when some duty of weight is charged upon the Adjured And so Paul uses it here adjuring to performance of it and thereby notising unto us of how great necessity and use to Gods People is the reading of Scriptures in the Congregation neither is it to be limited to this Epistle only for that all Scriptures have the same Author and are of the same use to the Church of God and the like charge is given for other Scriptures Coloss 4.16 Now consider the Use in all Ages to Jewish Church Nehemiah and others as before give Testimony for their times and no doubt but after-times continued it Josephus against Appian In unaquaque septimana ad legem audiendam conveniunt universi Every Week they all come to hear the Law and records the
Fruit thereof Nostrorum quilibet de legibus interrogatus facilius quam nomen suum recitat they knew the Law as well as their own Names To this agrees Acts 15.21 to after times Stories give witness Socrates of the Church at Alexandria once or twice a-week the Scriptures are read in the Assembly and so necessary they thought it that they ordained an Order of Readers who had to that Function their Solemn Consecration So was Julian afterwards the Apostate ordained a Reader in the Church of Nicomedia Then consider the Power of it 1. For discerning things that differ and trial of Doctrines taught by the Preachers to which End Esay calls to the Law and to the Testimony and Beraeans practised it with commendations 2. The People are thereby better acquainted with the Letter of Scriptures and Language of the Holy Ghost which always carries much more Awe Majesty and Conviction than what is not Scripture the Power of it being exceeding great to work knowledge God having in things necessary condescended even unto the meanest Capacity it confirms Faith and always is a strong Preparative to saving Faith and Conversion as to Austin was the obeying of the Voice from Heaven Tolle lege to Junius the reading of St. Johns Gospel in Josiah what remorse and compunction wrought it 2 Kings 22.20 what Godly Sorrow to Repentance wrought it in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.8 9. of such necessity and avail to Gods People is the naked reading of Scriptures in the Congregation These Considerations should and I hope will instruct us to beware how in our Judgment we vilisie this so holy and wholesom an Ordinance of God it being as much Gods Ordinance that the Scriptures be read in the Congregation as that they be interpreted and applied to the People by Preachments Let us not be Monsters in our Worship attributing a Nemis to some Ordinances thereby debasing or derogating from other Ordinances Sathans Policy herein is not inconsiderable that would thereby fain make us prophane Anabaptists or Quakers to contemn all Gods Ordinances by permitting us to over-admire some one that the rest may be despicable in our esteem Prayer amongst Romanists we see half Idolized Preaching too prophanely scoffed at Reading there are that most magnifie There are of another Strain desiring to turn our whole Liturgy after the French or Geneva Schomme into a meer Preachment Know ye not that these all are Holy Ordinances of God necessary useful powerful to their Ends assigned of them all may we not say they are ordained of God they that contemn shall receive condemnation who except prejudice or unpreparedness have forestalled his profiting hath not felt Gods Spirit by reading to enlighten admonish excite mortifie c. or can think God hath in vain with such adjuration enjoyned it to those that are Guides of the Congregation I say as our Saviour of the Commandments Whoso contemns the least of these Ordinances and teacheth Men so he shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.19.29 Petrus Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. lib. 2. c. 17. affirms That howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times either in publick or private yet the bare Text was only read without gloss or descant Interpretatio Magistrorum nulla Commentatio nulla but in the second Temple when there were no Prophets then did the Scribes and Doctors begin to Comment and make several Expositions on the Holy Text ex quo natae disputationes sententiae contrariae from whence saith he sprang up Debates and doubtful Disputations and most probable it is saith another upon him that from this Liberty of Interpretation sprung up diversity of Judgments from whence arose the several Sects of Pharises Essenes and Saduces who by their difference of Opinions did distract the Multitude and condemn one another even so c. Therefore thrice accursed is that practise of Rome monopolizing Scriptures to the Clergy all Participes Criminis Parties to the Cheat as their Priviledge and Prerogative interdicting the People acquaintance with them without faculty first obtained from the Ordinary to some few but at no hand may be publickly read in a Vulgar Tongue Luke 11.52 Is not this the taking away the Key of Knowledge and hindering those that would enter in what I beseech you was Gods aim in that Gift of Tongues what time he meant to set open to Gentiles the door of Faith but that every one might hear in that Tongue wherein he was born the wonderful Works of God Acts 2.8.11 To what purpose were the Labours of Ancients translating Scriptures into Vulgar Languages as Hierom into the Dalmatian Chrysostome into the Armenian Tongue Vulphilas into the Language of the Goths In Bedes time were extant Translations into six several Languages for the use of the People of this Island Vainly except to the Laity also their use was freely intended This Apostrophe by the By relating only to Romanists who by so doing Amongst Jews under Antiochus 1597. do vilifie the Gift of Tongues and act diametrically contrary to the whole Ch. 14. of the first of the Corinthians thereby making themselves wiser than Christ and his Apostles It can be but a frivolous Cavil for our Anti-liturgists to say that the Intendment of the before-recited Portions of Scripture is for the reading of Scriptures only and not for any thing that is composed by Man whereas St. Pauls Charge to Timothy was general viz. That he should give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine 1 Tim. 4.13 If this may be allowed for currant I doubt it may prove as strong against Sermons and where are we then The Sermons of our Priests and of our days are not so the Word of God as the Sermons of the Apostles were nay they are but quodam modo and interpretativè termed Gods Word because his Word is the Subject of which they treat and Liturgies in this sense are or should be as much the Word of God as Sermons for the Wit and Gifts of Man gives equally the Being and Form to them both Will you confine the Spirit and ascribe Vital Operation to Sermons alone or to the Administrations of every Individual Priest only and not unto those composed by Bodies Collective Is that to divide the Word aright nay is it not partial dispensation so to rob Peter to pay Paul to derogate from and to deprive one Gift and Way of Administration of its just Efficacy and Operation and to attribute it wholly to another Gift of the same Stamp Nay is it not imparting the most peculiar Glory of the Word of God unto that which is not properly his Word nor no more his Word than Liturgies are Apostolick Sermons were no doubt unto such as heard them the Word of God and are not their Writings so now to us Sermons are not the only Preaching which doth save Souls Writing or reading of what is written and spoken speaking either extempore or premeditately do differ indeed yet not
so but that they may all serve to one and the self-same general if not particular End and Effect and in our Case to the edification of the Church The Apostles indeed could not write with their Tongues but they did preach as well with their Pens when they writ as with their Tongues when they spake the Gospel of Christ and our usual publick reading of the Word of God with the rest of the Liturgy for the Peoples instruction by his good leave is Preaching Acts 15.21 22. Can any Man imagine or shew a Reason that reading it self is not one of the ordinary Means and Gifts which God hath appointed for the conveying of his Truths into the Hearts of Men which being received may be effectual for the saving of their Souls Belief in all Sorts doth come by hearing and attending to the Word of Life whether it be preached or read The Word it self whether read or heard some time convinceth the Judgment and perswadeth the Affections Sometime Truth is wrought in the Heart by private conference and instruction from private Persons so Apollos though an Eloquent Man and mighty in the Scriptures yet was taught the Way of God more perfectly by Aquila and Priscilla a Woman Acts 18.26 Some Truth is taught by those whom the Church hath publickly called to the publick reading or interpreting of the Word All these tend unto one and the same Glorious End viz. to the Knowledge of Jesus and him Crucified And as Preaching which is explaining by lively Voice and applied according to the Wisdom of the Speaker doth not in its own Nature justle out or prejudice the Efficacy of any other means or way of publick Instruction be it by Liturgy or otherwise or inforce the utter disability of any other means thought requisite in this Church for the saving of Souls So Liturgies in their own Nature are not exclusive of any other provision of Means that Christ hath ordained for the benefit and service of his Church as this Discourser avers For the saving Force of the Word is not restrained to any one certain kind of delivery but how ever the same shall come to be made known it hath its Force and Energy and doth ordinarily save by every Mean whether publick or private reading Liturgies or hearing Sermons or private Conference and Instruction whether they be premeditated or extemporary O! but though Liturgies are not in their own Natures exclusive of the use of other Talents yet the English Liturgy there is the grand Pique doth avowedly and expresly say That the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use or exercise any Spiritual Gift in the Administration of those Ordinances for which provision is made in the Book f. 67 68. And consequently the necessary and undispensable Use of Liturgies is directly exclusive of the Use of the Means provided by Christ and for the End for which the Liturgy is invented and imposed 63 67 68. And farther he saith That the Liberty which some say is granted for a Man to use his own Gifts and Abilities in Prayer before and after Sermon will he fears as things now stand upon due Considerations appear rather to be taken than given and is very questionable 42 43. And that however it concerns not our present Question because it is taken for granted by those that plead for the strict observation of a Book that the whole Gospel-worship of God in the Assembly of Christians may be carried on and performed without any such Preaching as is prefaced with that Liberty pretended 42 43. and for that many that are looked upon as skilled in that Law and Mystery of it do by their practise give another Interpretation of the intendment of its Imposition making it extend to all that is done in publick Worship the bare preaching or reading of a Sermon or Homily excepted 64. nor saith he is that the matter enquired into whether Ministers may at any time or in any part of Gods Worship make use of their Gifs but whether they may do it in all those Administrations for whose performance to the edification of his Body they are bestowed on them by Jesus Christ which by the Rule of the Liturgy we have shewed that they may not and he doubts not but it will be granted by those who contend for the Imposition of the Liturgy that it extends to the Principal Parts if not to the Whole of the publick Worship of God in the Church 64. § If all were true that is here alledged the day might probably be his own but me thinks in thus arguing our Author is not so candid as his other very Learned and Ingenious Writings speak him to be when he deals with others in Points of difference of a far more dangerous concern and consequence For though he cannot but most assuredly and demonstratively know that here all Ministers of the Gospel have not only a liberty but are expresly commanded to use and improve their Talents even in publick as often as they are called either to implore Blessings or deprecate Sins and Judgments to render Thanks or to discourse and enlarge themselves on all or any part of the Worship of God or Christian Doctrine and that it is the daily practise of them so to do throughout all the Kings Dominions yet for him to say that it is a Liberty rather taken than given and is very questionable and that upon what this Man says and that Man thinks or practises is not to be ingenious according to his old wont but to avoid all Sophistry and to come to the demonstration of the Truth this is meer matter of Fact and we cannot erre in it the demonstration of which will and must clear this Point and we must stand and fall thereby and therefore sit liber Judex together with the constant practise of the Church from the very Birth and first Introduction of our Liturgy unto this very day for we must take both together for that the constant and uninterrupted Practise Use and Custom is of that very great Force and Vertue as sometimes to wear out and obliterate the very Force and Vertue of an Enacted Law to the contrary The Matter of Fact alledged on his part is That the Liturgy says expresly that the Ministers of the Gospel shall not use nor exercise any Spiritual Gift c. but how or where to find this in the Liturgy I know not for I have turned it over once and again and cannot find the least footsteps of any such Prohibition yet I will not affirm that it is not there It 's possible I may have over-look'd it but grant it be in terminis as he hath worded it yet if from the first Institution of Liturgies the Use and Practise hath been contrary as most certainly it hath been and no Man ever questioned for using his Talents nay all commanded by Injunctions and Acts of Parliament to improve them and strict Inquiry made accordingly at the Bishops Visitations according unto Articles of
which come not in our Verge at this time and some things positive some whereof by the coming of Christ were necessary to be abolished and othersome indifferent to be kept or not of the former kind were Circumcision and Sacrifice The Apostle notwithstanding did not so teach the present and utter Abolition no not of those things which were necessarily to cease but that even the Jews becoming Christians might for a time continue in them and therefore in Jerusalem the first Bishops even till the overthrow thereof were Circumcised And as for those positive things which might either cease or continue prout the present posture or State of the Church should require the Apostles thought it necessary to bind even the Gentiles for a time to abstain as the Jews did from things offered unto Idols c. In other matters where the Gentiles were free and the Jews in their own Judgment still oblidged the Apostles Precept unto the Jews Condemn not the Gentiles unto the Gentiles despise not the Jews Rom. 14.10 the one sort they warned to take heed that Nicity and Scrupulosity did not make them rigorous in giving unadvised sentence against their Brethren which were free the other that they did not become scandalous by abusing their Liberty and Freedom to the Offence of their weak Brethren which were scrupulous whereby it is evident that the Apostle did impose upon the Churches of the Gentiles some things only in respect of conveniency and fitness for the present State of the Church as it then stood the words of the Councils decree are It seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things viz. That ye abstain from meats offered to Idols c. 28 29. Indeed to have commanded the Gentiles to have been conformable to the Jews in those things which were necessarily to cease at the coming of Christ had been to have continued a Yoak upon the Disciples which neither their Forefathers nor they were able to bear Acts 15.10 And indeed to impose the like things upon us now were to bring us again into such Bondage in respect of the Royal and perfect Law of Liberty James 1.25 and 28. as were insupportable to bring us back to Onions and Garlick and to leave the Land flowing with Milk and Honey But to conclude from hence the unlawfulness of imposing Liturgies as our Author here doth is such a deduction such a peace of Scholastick Divinity as is quite past my understanding Notwithstanding all these Texts of Scripture by the Author alledged I humbly conceive that all the Christian Liberty that can be meant by these Texts is fully allowed to our Dissenters and is not in the least impeached thereby § There is one Subterfuge yet more left which is drawn from the example of this very Council viz. If Imposition be lawful yet the Scandal the Offence or Inconvenience ought to be Antecedent to the Imposition And then with much confidence and very little truth as I humbly conceive avers that there is no thing Antecedent unto its thereby meaning the Liturgy Imposition that should make it necessary to be Imposed either I understand not his meaning or this is a very strange Doctrine contrary to the very attributes of God contrary to the very grounds of all Arts and Sciences and Governments in the World contrary to the very nature of Wisdom for what is it else but to deny even Gods Providence his foresight his preventing Workings and Graces and to deny in men the use of their Prudence their Reason their Foresight and their Forecast Must the Old good Axiomes made Venerable by the Universal Acceptations of all Ages all the World over be now thrust out of doors and be accounted Foolish and Invalid nay unlawful Venienti occurrere morbo turpius ejicitur quam non admittitur hostis to prevent Diseases to keep out an Enemy rather than beat him out are now grown absolete Of Old this Axiome was held good that he that is suddenly surprised is half Conquered and he that is forewarned is half Armed nay its two against one a Wise man in Peace prepares for War a Wise Marriner prepares in his Haven against Leakes and Batteries of Enemies and violent Storms and Tempests It was wont to go for currant that it is too late to provide against an Evil when it is come and that they are Fools and ill advised that say had I wist or who would have thought it But now it seems Evils at least in the Church must be Antecedent and consequently cast out not prevented though foreseen so that that which hath been approved Wisdom all the World over is according to this new light these new Doctrines esteemed Folly as a thing of naught nay unlawful to be used However let no man deceive himself by thinking there may be some difference in these Axiomes or in the persons Executing or Practising them as they may relate to Church or State to Civil or to Ecclesiastical concerns For in this the same wisdom and Foresight is equal indifferently respecting both concerns and the power of Superiours for restraint prevention or Imposition equal in both and the necessity of obedience in Inferiors equal in both And as no Man hitherto hath been so I think no Man ever will be able to shew a real and substantial difference between them to make an inequality But as Civil Magistrates may for just reason of State prohibite and Impose concerning some things and persons So Church Governors may upon as good and just reasons impose Liturgies either for preventing or removing Idolatry Superstition Scandal Inconveniences nay be it only for the sake of order or Conformity Wherefore I do conclude that it is much greater prudence to prevent evils and inconveniencies than to amend and Reform them when they happen But what do I trouble my self about this for that it will not appear to be our case Scandal and offence did precede the Imposition of our Liturgy if our Author be found Tardy in matter of Fact as I presume he will for he saith expresly that there is nothing Antecedent to its imposition to make it necessary to be imposed In which I will joyn Issue with him and let our Church History be Judge between us Whoever knows but little of Church History knows that long before we ever had a Reformed Liturgie established in England the first of that nature and also the second was in the Minority of Edw. 6. there was a Liturgie a Popish Breviary and a Mass Book long used and established in England as full of Idolatrous and superstitious Doctrines Ceremonies and Worship as Leaves which had so poysoned and infected all the Kings Dominions that it had run into the veins of every Parish Against this Poyson our Josiah-like Prince and Minor by the advice of his Spiritual Physitians and Councellors ordains several Antidotes both to expel that which was Corrupt and Venemous and to Ordain and
abominable Irreverent practices are prevented and thereby care is taken according as the Council of Milevis Can. 12. decreed Ne forte aliquid contra sidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum Lest by chance either through ignorance or want of due Study and Consideration Heterodox or unsound Tenets be Broached or unreverend practises used Moreover Calvin himself adviseth it with his Valde Probo Ep. ad Protect I do exceedingly approve of it 1º ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae As a means to help and supply the simplicity and unskilfulness of some 2º ut certus constet Ecclesiarum omnium inter se consensus that the consent and harmony of all Churches under one Government may the better be ascertained 3º ut obviam eatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui Novationes quasdam affectant That the Capriccious giddiness and Levity of such who like nothing but Changes and Innovations may be obviated Nay the same Calvin inforceth it farther with an Oportet statam esse oportet Sacramentorum celebrationem Publicam item precum formulam Epist Protectori There is no other remedy an established set Form there must be for Celebration of the Sacraments and also for Common Prayer which Opinion of his I doubt the Discourser doth not favour § It 's a strange Phanatick Opinion that hath long possessed the minds of some that nothing may be Lawfully done or used in the Churches of Christ unless there be express Command or Example for it in Scripture which Tenet is unsound in it self and pernicious in its consequences upon which also the great Doctors and Patrons of Liberty do graft another viz. that without some express Command from God there is no Power under Heaven which may presume by any Law to restrain the Liberty which God hath given which Opinions shake nay overthrow the very Fabrick and Foundation of all Governments and tend only to Anarchy and Confusion and to dissoâ—â—e all Families Cities Corporations Kingdoms Churches leaving every Man to the freedom of his own mind to the Quakers Light within them in such things as are not either Commanded or Prohibited by the Law of God and because only in these things the positive Precepts of Men have place which Precepts cannot possibly be given without some abridgement of their Liberty to whom they are given whereas in truth the Diametrically opposite Opinion is only Infallibly true viz. those things which the Law of God leaveth Arbitrary and at Liberty and whereof the Scriptures are silent are all subject to the positive Laws of Men which Laws for the common benefit may abridge particular Mens Liberty in such things as far as the Rules of Equity and common good will suffer If this be not sound Doctrine adieu to all Societies and all Government the World must be turned topsi turvy Of this so Poysonous root and branch I shall say no more but shall leave our Anti-Liturgists our Non-Assenters to consider if these late dayes of Liberty have not in very great part brought their own Axiomes home to themselves for as in the dayes of Yore the Non-Conformist asked our Prelates and Conformists what Command or Example in Scripture have you for kneeling at the Communion for wearing a Cap Hood Surplice For Lord Bishops or for their wearing of Lawn sleeves or of Pleated Velvet or Taffaty Hats For a Liturgy or keeping Holy-dayes so now Phanaticks Quakers and others to them where are your Lay-Presbiters your Congregational Classical Provincial Synodical and National Assemblies your Parochial and Classical Elderships c. to be found in Scripture where your Steeple Houses your National Churches your Tyths and Mortuaries your Infant Sprinklings Nay where your meeter Psalms your two Sacrantents your weekly Sabbaths nay your Ministery your Church shew us say they Command or Example for them in Scripture now seeing the one have lent the other their Premisses I shall leave them to wrangle among themselves about the Conclusion which in Sum is no other but to exchange with each other a Rowland for an Oliver Whilst one throws Stones at the Innocent Ceremonies used in the Sacraments and Church Administrations another strikes at the very Sacraments themselves whilst one Disputes against the comely Habits and reverend Titles of the Clergy the other by the same Logick Questions the very Functions of Bishops and Priesthood the one seeks to abolish the Festivals of the Saints and the other even that of the Lords-day the one would have no Churches nor Priests the other no Scriptures all which with divers others of the same Leaven are but the Spawn and Fruits of Idol-liberty so that the Dernier result must end in a sad Catastrophe Confusion disorder and every evil work Before I conclude this passant observation I will make by the way of all viz. that they are not so peremptory in demanding and peevish in insifting upon Scripture Precepts and Examples for things they like not to yield obedience unto as they are negligent in the use of other things for which there are far more plain Precepts and Example even of Christ himself and that with his own debet stampt upon them witness the Administration of the Sacrament which Christ Administred in the Evening first rising from Supper laying aside his Garments girding himself with a Towel powring Water into a Bason Washing his Disciples Feet and wiping them with a Towel wherewith he was Girded then taking his Garments and sitting down again and saying ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for 〈◊〉 I am if I then your Lord and Master have washt your Feet ye also ought to wash one anothers Feet for I have given you an example that ye would do as I have done unto you Verily I say unto you the Servant is not greater than his Lord neither he that is sent greater then he that sent him if ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them John 13.4.5.12.17 what more plain Precept greater Example or stronger inforcements for his Successors his Ministers to do the like can ye have and yet how little of this is performed by them is not unknown to any Greet one another with a Holy Kiss is a Precept likewise Apostolical 1 Pet. 5.14 and was in Customary use before their approaching the Lords Table until the dayes of Justine Martyr Apoll. 2 and Tertullian blames the Omission of that Right grown upon the Church in times of the Solemn Fastings and Prayers Then they withdrew that Osculum pacis when in his Judgment it was most convenient and necessary de Oratione When Widdows are to be chosen for the Service of the Church this Qualification is required She must be one that had Washed the Saints Feet 1 Tim. 5.10 and our Saviour by his Precept and Example Commends to his Disciples Washing each others Feet John 13.14 15. may not much of the like nature be said for the disuse of Anoynting Love Feasts c. but I forbear
or of the Rules which Christ gave to his Pastors and Teachers for the Regular Administration of his Word and Worship or of any spiritual Abilities given or promised to be continued to them for the discharge and performance of the whole Work of the Ministry and will answer the mind of Christ and will much very much conduce unto the main end proposed viz. Edification And that they are but mistaken Averments to affirm that Liturgies or prescribed or limited Forms of Prayer and Praises to be used or Read in the publick Administration of Evangelical Institutions cannot be made use of but by rejection of the Provision made by Christ. And that the Imposition of them doth impose on others the observation of things in the Worship of God which neither the Lord Jesus nor his Apostles did appoint or impose And that all such Imposition is destitute of any Plea or Pretence from Scripture or Antiquity And that Liturgies are an Humane Invention contrary to the mind of Christ I could now wish that this our Author seeing Liturgies do not please would so far have obliged this whole Church and State as to have prescribed us some better and more Adaequate mean for the supplying of the defects of Liturgies and for the more easie and Familiar teaching and keeping our fundamentals pure and clean and for the keeping out of Popery Idolatry Superstition and indeed all kind of Trash and Trumpery that like a Torrent hath overspread this Nation since these dayes of Liberty and decrying Liturgies from Ranters Quakers Adamites Enthusiasts Phanaticks Seekers Antitrinitarians Antisabatarians Famulists and indeed from an Iliad more of others ejusdem farinae 〈…〉 si quid novisti rectius Candidus Imperti si non his utere meâ—um It were done but like a Man in Buss to make here a proud Challenge to all our new and brightest Luminaries to give us any one Machin or Paralel so excellent or equal in all respects to that of Liturgies for the ends mentioned but I forbear and shall only crave Liberty most humbly to recommend unto all parties viz. Prelates Presbiters Independents c. that Admonition which St. Paul gave to the Phillippians which concern these times as much as those wherein he Wrote and the maintainers of true Religion most of all and it were most happy for Christianity if all Christians could in very good earnest embrace it viz. let nothing be done through strife or vain Glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better then themselves 2 c. 3. And that other Precept also of the same Apostle viz. to study to be quiet 1 Thes 4.11 Duties without doubt with all our might to be endeavoured and in no Age or Church more necessary to be pressed and urged then our own abounding with so many busie Spirits and rest-less male-contents Athens it self not more mad upon News and Novelties then our English Nation not only in vain things but in matters of far greater concern our love of change and that Israelitish humor revived in us even in Church Government to be like other Nations Tho we have seen Gods blessing on our Ministery to the envy of Adversaries and admiration of neighbour Churches and have demonstrated our Discipline to suit with the Primitive and Apostolick State of the Church this yet seems wanting that we have not experimented Forreign Formes nor shaped our Alter according to the fashion fetcht us from Damascus 2 King 16.10 11. from Geneva or other Forreign Countries I could wish our Tumultuous and almost mutinous stirrings and Sallies in that kind had not made us a Reproach among Papists and a scandal amongst the Enemies of the Gospel my Prayer to God shall be to settle us in unity of mind and affections that we may speak and think one thing Studying the things that concern Peace and wherewith we may edifie one another 1 Cor. 1.10 I shall now conclude the discourse concerning Liturgies with this observation that in using a Liturgy we have followed all the Churches in the World even the most Antientest of St. Chrysostome and Basil that never any Church in the World but had its set Formes of Prayer especially for the Publick And because our Discourser doth so peremptorily aver f. 3. that there were no Liturgies in the purest times next and nearest to the dayes of the Apostles and that the Fathers never used any All Negatives and which he can never prove I shall here give you a small Catalogue of some few of many Liturgies and Rituals which if the Legitimate Issue of their reputed Fathers then without all doubt and Controversie they were in use in the Apostles dayes and purest times But at worst if but Spurious and Illegitimate yet if such in truth they at least prove their own Antiquity and Universality to be very early and very general because used in divers Countries as appears by the divers Languages they are in viz. Hebrew Greek Latine Arabick Syriack Gothick Aethiopick c. viz. Liturgiae Grecae nomen Preferentes Jacobi Petri Marci Clementis Basilij Chrysostomi Gregorij Rom. Liturgia Ecclesiae Constantinopolitan Novum Anthologium Basilij Anaphora Syriaca Missa Angamallencis Christianorum St. Thomae Graecorum Euchologium Menaea Octoechum Anastasimum Pentecostarium Armenor Liturgia Missa Ambrosiana Liturg. Aegyptia Basilij Gregorij Nazianzini Cyrilli Alexandrini Gregorij Antiphonarium Sacramentarium Officium Muzarabum in Hispania Missale Gothicum Ordo Romanus Antiquus Missa Latina Antiqua Liturgia Ecclesiae Graecae lingua Prosica Officia Arabica Consider 1o. That in the Jewish Church they had set Formes 10 Numb 35 36. Moses prescribed a set Form of Prayer for the going out and coming in of the Ark. 68 Psal 1 2. The Lord prescribes 6 Numb 23. A set Form of Blessing Confession is prescribed every time they offered the Oblation they should use this Form 102 Psal was Penned for an afflicted Soul and 92 the Title 1 Chr. 16.7 2 Chr. 7 6. Christ taught his Prayer twice which is both a Prayer and Form of Prayer when we Pray this Prayer it is a most sure and excellent Comfort to us that we know that what we ask it is according to his Will 1 Joh. 22. 2o. In the Christian Church set Forms were used even in the dayes of Christ and his Apostles Christ gave his Disciples a set Form 6 Mat. 9. he uses a set Form himself 26 Mat. 44. The same Word 3o. He and his Apostles had their Hymn 26 Mat. 30. 4º Such Psalms and Hymns perpetually in the Apostles times and by their Command 3 Collossans 16.5 Eph. 19. 3o. Davids Psalms which contain Prayers Praises Thanksgiving c. which are the matter of all Liturgies have been Read and Sung in the Church in all Ages And our Non-Conformists who deny set Forms did in Olivers time when the Liturgy was taken away Sing Psalms in the Church many of which are Prayers and set Forms both as to the matter and Form 4o. For the
Administration of Sacraments Christ prescribed set Forms which all Christian Churches in all Ages have used and they and we ex precepto Christi bound to use them 28 Mat. 19. Go and Baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost So in the Lords Supper take eat this is my Body c. 5o. Justin Martyr in Apologia pro Christianis expresly tells us that in their publick Assemblies they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common Prayers no Directory and among other things Singing of Psalmes 6o. Missa Latina Antiqua published first by Flac. Illiricus afterwards by Card. Bona was in use in the 6th Century and is the freest from all Popish Errors and Superstition of any extant 7o. the Antient Liturgies of James Chrysostome Ambrose c. have been Interpolated and Corrupted is evident and that they had such Liturgies may be as evident from the Words of Cyril of Jerusalem for the Liturgy of James Chrysostome Ambrose others What more sure or sollid Foundation for the Building up Propagating and Establishing of Religion in these our Kingdoms even amongst those of meanest Capacities could be laid than this already laid in our Liturgy by the Fathers of our Church And yet so perverse and froward have many of her Sons been that they have even scorned to Build thereon which frowardness of theirs together with the Idleness and Insufficiency of other Conformists and Non-Conformists conspiring with the Frozen Zeal of the People and together with the open Prophanation of the Sabbath and not putting the Laws in Execution against open and scandalous sins against which there can be no excuse and countenance given to Sin and Sinners either by Sinful Examples or not discountenancing them and a temporising fearfulness in others and out of a cursed modesty not daring to call Vices by their proper names a shrewd sign as one observes of their Raign and Commonness and that great Persons whom it is not safe nor prudent to anger are Infected therewith have very much prejudiced and impeded the growth and spreading of the purity of Religion and Piety within these Realms and Dominions as well as in others for with what considence can we rebuke others for sins that we are Guilty of our selves or Perswade Invite or draw others to our Church If we cannot agree where and how to lay our Foundations and make superstructures § Of old it was the Imputation of Brownists that our Church held it a Piaculum not to wear a Surplice and a Venial Sin to be a Lewd-lived Minister and many late Ichabods and Coblers of Glocester and naked truths make many heavy Complaints against our Clergy Immerito I hope of Jehosaphat it is said that when he went to plant Religion among the People and to prevent Idolatry he sent Levites abroad into Cities of Judah to teach and instruct the People in the ways of the Lord 2 Chr. 17.8.9 The like have our Kings done by their Laws and Bishops yet if notwithstanding all the care to make Laws against Sin and Sinners none do execute them and to furnish his People with able and Laborious Pastors that may feed them with knowledge and understanding the present store of able well-lived-Conformists serve not may I not in compassion to the Churches necessity and to stop the Mouths of all Jchabods modestly wish the removal of some Injunctions that may be spared without prejudice to pure Faith and Worship and some Connivence granted to those that dissent from the Conformers in Judgment for matters of Circumstance and Ceremony whilst yet they Preach true Doctrine and carry themselves peacibly in the Church The Lord would not have the Canaanites at once cast out least the Wild Beasts should increase upon his People Exod. 23.29 Suffer me then having thus totis viribus asserted Liturgies to Plead for Israelites Scrupulous Conscientious Israelites indeed that it may suffice them to lack Livings and the Churches not be deprived of their pains at least let them help to bear part of the Burthen and draw Water for the People out of the Wells of Salvation let them be as Priscilla and Aquilla and Vrbane to Paul Rom. 16. Helpers in Christ Jesus or as Gaius to John who thought himself bound in duty 3 Joh. 8. To receive him and such like that they might be fellow-helpers to the truth And what inconvenience can insue by such Permission or Connivence I cannot foresee so that they Preach in Publick and that Conformity be still reserved as the Qualification to all Publick Ecclesiastical Prefermonts § In the great differences between the Romanists and the Lutherans which began about the beginning of the 16th Century about 1517. It seemed good to the Emperor about 1532. to settle a Peace of Religion called the Interim which was the first tho very small Liberty of Religion which those that adhered to Luthers Confession called the Augustine obtained by Publick Decree for which the Emperor was reproved at Rome as putting his Sickle as they said into another mans Harvest every Prince being obliged by the strictest Bond of Censures to the extirpation of those that were Condemned by the Pope as Luther and his Adherents were by Leo the 10th and also by the Emperor 1520 1521 wherein they ought to spend their Goods Estates and Lives and the Emperors much more because they do so Solemnly Swear unto it but others Commended the Piety and Wisdom of the Emperor for his so doing thereby securing the Lutherans unto him by granting some small Indulgences to them who were Christians tho dissenting from them in some particulars being tolerable differences lest they might have crossed him in his other great Concernments and Wars They said also that the Maxime so renowned in Rome viz. That it is more meet to Prosecute Hereticks Lutherans then Infidels was well fitted to the Popes Dominion and Meridian but not to the benefit of Christendome Alleadging also that Kingdoms and Principalities ought not to be Governed by the Laws and Interests of Priests who are partial for their own Greatness and Profits but according to the exigence of the Publick good of Church and State which requireth now and then some Connivence and Toleration of some defects Moreover that it was the duty of every Christian Prince to endeavour equally that his Subjects and every Bishop his Flock do maintain the true Faith as also that they observe all the Commandments there being no greater Obligation to punish Hereticks or Dissenters than Fornicators and Drunkards or Swearers which all Nations abhor and make Laws against And the Inconveniences by giving some Indulgences to some that do not defend or hold all our Opinions cannot be great but they may be very great by denying them some convenient Liberties and Priviledges thereby keeping up a considerable Party in Animosity that cannot Religiously Conform to every Minute particular § Let us look a little back and abroad and consider what other States even where the Pope and Inquisition do Domine have done
their desires tho but modest will give the party encouragement to believe that they were deservedly desired nay perhaps that they were enforced which opinion alone tho not true but believed to be so might endanger the quiet State of the Church or at least might be a great abetting to their party and obstinacy and keep others from Assenting and Consenting which say some amongst us ought not to be imposed affirming full Assent and Consent in respect of Veracity to be due not to the Scriptures themselves but as they are expressed in their first Original Tongues which opinion if true yet is it no just objection with us for that full Assent and Consent is not required by the Ast of Parliament establishing our Liturgy to the veracity of every thing contained therein but only to the use of it in general § On the contrary in Ballance to these it is averred that it is a Rule in Christian Actions that as evil is not to be done that good may follow so no good of obligation is to be omitted or forbidden for fear that evil may ensue And that the great Wisdom of Experience both of Elder and more puny dayes hath sufficiently taught Posterity that it is sometimes most necessary for the quiet and welfare both of Church and State to yield to the infirmities and scrupulous imperfections of others and to apply and accommodate themselves to that remedy which tho in rigor is not due yet in prudence and equity is convenient and may with good Conscience be tollerated for all Laws ought to be fitted to times and Persons as they alter and change most assuredly the using of some remission in yielding unto the desires of the People in matters which are de jure positivo or Pontisicio of humane sanction only may conduce to the quiet State of the Church but cannot disturb it what else is the whole Regiment or Brigade of things Adiaphorous wherein truth may be on either side without being dissimular to her self If no liberty allowed what availeth the blotting out the hand Writing of ordinances and the Nailing of it to the Cross 2 Col. 14.20 to what end is the purchase of Christian Liberty St. Paul so often boasts of his Doctrine is that he that eats all things or eateth Herbs only or he that esteems one day above another or he that esteems every day alike may do either to the Lord and Eat or not Eat regard or not regard a day Conform or not Conform use or not use Liturgies all may be done to the Lord and why should we then judge one another in the use or disuse of any of these the Kingdom of God is not Meat nor Drink nor Lawn Sleeves nor Surplice nor Capes nor Miter but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost 14. Rom. How many things of an indifferent nature might be tollerated in peace and left to Conscience only were it not for great thoughts of heart or for testy Spirits and had we instead thereof but pure Love and Charity and were it not for some secret Hypocrisie that prompts to be ever judging one another saying stand by thy self come not near me for I am Holyer than thou 65 Isay 5. contrary to the Apostolical precept 14 of Rom. 13. let us not therefore judge one another any more but judge this rather that no Man put a slumbling Block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way to impose more things as necessary than ever God made or imposed as necessary and that under severities what is it less than to create stumbling Blocks or contrive occasions for our Brethren to stumble and fall by It cannot be expected that all Man and things in a Church should be Gold and Silver and Precious Stones there will be some Wood some Hay some Stubble Wheat and Tares good and bad humane Ordinances must grow till the Harvest it is the Angels Ministery not ours that must sever them I intend not here that Superstitions Idolatry or Popery should be tollerated or countenanced which as it self extirpates all pure Religion and undefiled and all civil Supremacies to boot so it self ought utterly to be destroyed Root and Branch yet not by Fire and Faggot not by Crusadoes and cursed Inquisitions but by wholsome Laws and discountenances and other mild means that likewise which is absolutely evil either against Faith or manners as Popery is no Law can possibly Tollerate that intends not to unlaw it self but those bordering indifferent things whether of some point of Doctrine not fundamental or of Discipline which tho they may be many yet may be held without the violation or interruption of the unity of the Spirit or of the bond of Peace and may be permitted I appeal to their respective Judgments who they think in the day of their Account will rather be justified they that are instrumental to Impose or Command things that may be spared in the Worship of God or they that Conscientiously tho Erroneously cannot submit unto the use of such things tho in their own and true nature but indifferent Who made the Schisme between Rome and us Rome imposing or we refusing § The Counsel tho but of a poor Woman of Abel being sollowed saved the City and may not I tho the least in the Church of the New Testament Pleading thus impartially pro and con Dissenters now also intreat that Dissenting Brethren in point of Liturgies and Ceremonies imposed that seeing Atheism Apostacy and squinting toward Rome and the countenancing of sin and sinners is so much feared by them that they would be well advised how they forsake their Mother in this her necessity and not so wholly indulge and please themselves in their own fancies and opinions and thereby adventure rather to Sacrifice Church and State to Schism War and Ruine than forsake their Humors I counsel no Man to do ought no not in things in different with a doubting Conscience Fearful are the Examples of such as are unresolved yield to Practice Notwithstanding give me leave with a Worthy and Reverend Divine to propound as a matter not unworthy their Consideration and Deliberation whether this should not be a Ministers resolution viz. To lay down his Ministery for nothing for which also he ought not to lay down his Life and whether with Comfort may Ministers especially after their allowing of our Liturgy and Ceremonies at the time of their Ordination and by their several Subscriptions and otherwise having thus put their hands to the Plough look back and leave their Calling rather than use the Liturgy and enjoyned Ceremonies in our Church teaching as she doth and practising Gods pure Worship detesting all Idolatry and Superstition and urging Ceremonies Innocent Ceremonies not for Ornament much less for necessity of Gods Service but for decency order and policy only and as means to testifie Subscription to the Lawful Power of the Magistrate I appeal to your selves do you in good earnest think that Paul who accounted
I abhor the thoughts of it as will appear hereafter there being a Vast difference between such a Tolleration of Idolatry Superstition crying sins and therefore absolutely unlawful and a Remission only of some few severities in some Acts Canons and Injunctions which relate only to Formalities that tho in construction of Law may be exacted yet may be dispensed withal without prejudice to sound Doctrine or good Conversation and without which the Worship of God would be as pure and sincere Indeed all Acts Canons and Injunctions whether they relate unto Uniformity or not ought according to their own Nature to be sincere and free from all Traps and Covert designs to exclude any that Profess the same Faith and Worship tho many cannot perhaps thro meer tenderness of Conscience submit to every thing therein enjoyned In Concerns of this Nature Scripture in a more especial manner ought to be the Rule of Resolutions and that abstractly and purely without mixing and bringing with them Interest Usurpation or Artifices of men else what were it but by Edicts to lay Snares in Mispah and spread Nets upon Tabor to use Laws Menaces and subtleties to keep Gods People from his Court and Sanctuary and Confine them to State-Religion and to Walk after the Mode of the Commands of men Those Non-conformists Non-assenters that have received Order which they could not have had but permissu superiorum by the Licence and under the Authority of the King in our Laws expressed For no Man hath Power to give himself either Orders to be a Priest or Institution to a Pastoral Charge but must depend upon another Power who by Acts Canons and Edicts long since published and extant hath directed the qualifications of the Persons to be Ordained the manner and Form how the Persons who ought to Ordain them c. and they could not be ignorant that the Liturgy and enjoyned Ceremonies were by the Imperative Constitutive Government of this Church and State to be Countenanced and used in publick Churches by the Bishops Presbyters and Pastors either they consulted their Consciences when they entered on the Ministery by taking Holy Orders whether they could Comply and Submit unto the whole Frame of Government and Polity of this Church Constituted by Act of Parliament from whom they were to receive Authority and Licence to Exercise their Function Gifts and Talents or they did not If they did not they are inexcusable for entring on so Sacred a Calling Stamped with an Indelible Character so rashly so unadvisedly without perspect or foresight of Consequences and yet if they were so pur-blind as not to see one step before them yet their neglect herein cannot be Pleaded in their Excuse it being their own Fault in Common Justice no Court will permit any man to take Advantage of his own misdemeanors or failings Besides hath not every Minister that hath receiv'd Pastoral Charge twice or thrice if not oftner witnessed his allowance of all and singular the 39 Articles of our Church once at his Ordination before the Bishop then at his Institution into his Benefice before his Ordinary and both these by Subscription under his own hand and afterwards upon his Induction before his own Flock and that by verbal Approbation he hath not only acknowledged in the Church the Power of Ordaining Rites and Ceremonies 20 Articles But he hath after a sort bound himself openly to rebuke such as willingly and purposely break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church as Offenders of the Common Order of the Church and Wounders of the Consciences of the weak Brethren and hurters of the Authority of the Magistrate Artic. 34. and is it not enacted 1º Eliz. c. 2. that they shall be punished pro ut in the Act that shall Preach declare or speak any thing in derogation or depraving our Liturgy c. Are not then such Dissenters obliged both in Conscience and by virtue of their own Voluntary Acts and Subscriptions to be constant to their own Hands and Tongues if they would be accounted Faithful in Gods House as was Moses And is it reasonable then to hearken unto such Pleading against their own Voluntary Acts and Subscriptions their own Hands and Tongues Besides quo jure with what Face or Conscience can they expect Temples maintenance protection and all things requisite for their Ministery from that Law and Government that they will not Protect Countenance nor submit unto § Indeed it seems to me an old piece of Conscientiousness if not Impiety to enter the Holy Ministerial Function to day when they are sure without Conformity to be silenced to morrow Besides it is Nicety and Indiscretion to exact an express Rule of Scripture or Faith for the Cross in Baptism for standing at the Creed Kneeling at the Lords Beard for Habits in Divine Service the usual sear-Crows of scrupulous men In these cases consent of the Church or Tradition may suffice so there be no express Law of Command to the contrary He that exacts in these Points as express Rules of Faith or Warrant of Scripture for his Obedience to Ecclesiastical Government as he would or as every man ought to do for adventuring upon Worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints c. doth make his Brain or Fancy the chief Seat of his Religion which should be seated in the Heart and Intitles God to the Fancies and Chymaeraes of their own Brains Thus to disobey the Church in these Cases wherein it hath Authority to Command Obedience is to disobey those Mandates of God which give the Body of the Church Authority to make Laws to Govern it self by in things indifferent neither expresly Forbidden nor expresly Commanded by the Law of God I know the Apostles Rule is let every man be fully persâ—â—ded in his own mind 14 Rom. 5. And this full perswasion or assurance of Faith is in the Cases there mentioned necessary because whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin v. 23. This last Maxim is undoubtedly true and the former Precept most exactly to be observed in such Causes as the Apostle there speaks of that is where the positive Practise unless our Warrant be Authentick in it self and evident to us is very dangerous or deadly whereas on the contrary the forbearance of such Practise is either safe or not prejudicial to our Souls but to our Bodies only or State temporal such Ceremonies as be neither against Faith nor adverse to good manners in the Judgment of St. Austin ep 11.8 go for indifferent and may be Born in Christian Unity without Offence or Confusion If God hath left things indifferent what Authority can make them necessary Let them be so still and their nature not changed by any Injunction and Unity will necessarily ensue Quodam modo it may be true that in Ordination there is something which they receive thereby from God Independent of the King or any Civil Power viz. Authority to Tâ—â—ch Baptize and Administer Sacraments by Virtue of Ordination And â—â— is as true that
Romanists I will not say all Now out of these three Authorities before mentioned Bellarmine concludes that a Temporal absolute Prince altho he recognize no other Temporal Prince for his Superior yet of necessity he must recognize the Head of all Christendom Herein Bellarmine shews his admirable Sophistry in using terms of divers significations applicable to one or the other sence that he may the better amuze and catch the inadvertent and less sollicitous Reader It had been much more for his Honor to have defended his propositions by some other means rather than by relying on our sottishness in not discovering his Sophistical Arts and Cunning wherewith he goeth about to deceive us So that the Author's drift out of this whole discourse is to conclude that where Princes use their Power to the hurt of their own Souls or their Peoples and to the prejudice of Christian Religion the Pope may take the matter in hand to redress it According to these Doctrines after this rate of arguing and handling no Prince can be safe For suppose any King Protestant or Papist all a case go about to lay a Tax for the defence of his State against an Enemy this Imposition is not just but sinful unless the end and ground of it be lawful and unless his Subjects do consent thereunto according to the Rules of Justitia distributiva now comes Signior Papa and sayes I will know the end why this Tax is imposed and so he may dive into the Secrets of the State and may also examine the distribution and indeed come to pry into and know all Arcana Imperii condition and strength or feebleness of every Nation And being a Temporal Prince himself may in that right and quality wage War with any other Prince on very easie and advantageous terms to himself So Zealous an Advocate is Bellarmine to ascribe Almighty power to the Pope that he deems it no great matter non è gran cosa che il Papa sia stimato un dio in terra that the Pope should be reputed a God upon Earth seeing it is attributed to Princes Psal 82.6 I have said ye are Gods nor yet inconvenient ne è inconveniente che sidica che il Papa habbia ogni potesta in cielo in terra poiche Christo ha detto to affirm that the Pope hath all power in Heaven and in Earth because Christ hath said whatsoever thou shalt bind upon Earth shall be bound in Heaven Mat. 18.18 to say that the Pope hath all power in Heaven and in Earth Perche puo fare tutto quello che è cecessario a condurre L'anime in Paradiso puo levare tutti gli impedimenti che il mundo o' l' Demonio con tutta la lore forza o astutia possino opporre onde S. Cyrillo citato da S. Tomaso nel ' opusculo de primatu Petri dice che si come Christo hebbe dal Padre pienissima potesta sopra tutta le chiesa cosi Christo diede à san Petro alli suosi successori pienissima potesta sopra tutto la chiesa for that he is able to do all that which is necessary to the conducting of Souls to Paradise and can take away all the Impediments which the World or the Devil with all their force or craft are able to oppose whence it is that St. Cyril cited by St. Thomas in his Opuscle de Primatu Petri saith that as Christ had from the Father all plenitude of power over all the Church so Christ had given to St. Peter and to his Successors all plenitude of power over all the Church § That the Pope be termed a God in that sence as is attributed to Princes Psalm 82.6 which St. John 10.34 expounds to be due unto all those unto whom the word of God came being all Children of the most high and the Scriptures cannot be broken tho Bellarmine endeavors it on every occasion may be no great matter indeed but to conclude from thence and from Matth. 18.18 as he doth that the Pope is God upon Earth and to believe it not Inconvenient to hold that the Pope hath all power in Heaven and in Earth c. what is it less than Blasphemy in the highest degree and as much as in him lyeth by thus perverting of Scriptures to break them into all Blasphemous pieces and sences These Texts are true and have a Divine good meaning without any ambiguity but out of these to draw false consequences viz. Papa Deus constituunt Idem Tribunal Papae Dei idem consistorium what I say can it be less than Blasphemy thus to ascribe a kind of Deity to the Pope who yet shall dye like man and fall like one of the Princes If this be not Deum falsum pro vero colere I do not know what is He also thinks it no inconvenience to say that the Pope hath all power in Heaven and in Earth because it is sad Matth. 18.18 Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven of which Text I have said so much before of the abuse thereof that I shall only say here that this conclusion cannot be well drawn from this place because power belongs to the Active property and quodcunque belongs to the matter If I should say that the Parish Priest is he that makes all Marriages it doth not therefore follow that he hath all power in making of Marriages For to say quodcunque ligaveris c. therefore quocunque modo ligaveris after what manner soever thou bindest be it right or wrong follows not The Proposition it self viz the Pope hath all power in Heaven and on Earth being taken absolutely is absolutely false or being considered according to the mildest construction there is much more power both in Heaven and in Earth than the Pope hath If His Holiness should be interrogated as Job was Knowest thou the Ordinances of Heaven Canst thou set the Dominion thereof in the Earth Hast thou an Arm like God Or canst thou thunder with a Voice like him Canst thou send lightnings that may go and say unto thee here we are What could he answer Would he not with David cry out I am a Worm and not Man Ch. 40.3 4. Or with Job Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Can he put wisdom in the inward parts Can he give understanding to the Heart Nemo dat quod non habet he hath it not about him none to spare The fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from Evil that is understanding A wisdom utterly unknown to Popes How dares then this Servus jervorum Dei to brook and Countenance the Stile of his Flatterers Rex Regum and Dominus dominantium Is not this to say with Babylon I will ascend above the height of the Clouds I will be like the most high Esay 14.14 and to lift up bis heart with the Prince of Tyrus and say I am a God I
others very likely persons in whom the Spirit of the living God should dwell Silvester the Second Gregory the Seventh Poysoners and otherwise Murderers of all that stood in their way to the Popedom One Hildebrand in Thirteen years thus Devilishly made away Clement the Seventh Damasus the Second Leo the Ninth Benedict the Tenth Nicholas the Second Alexander the Second Prophane even to horror Hildebrand angry at his breaden God as before Luxurious to Incest Sodomy Bestiality John the Twelfth gave Orders in his Stable amongst his Horses abused his Fathers Concubine made his Palace a Stews put out his Ghostly Fathers Eyes Gelded one of his Cardinals drank Healths to the Devil ran about in Armes to Fire Houses and at Dice called for help of Jupiter and Venus and good reason for Jupiter's Dice alwayes ran luckily But why rake we in this Dunghil when Bellarmine who thus pleads for such Divine Attributes to belong to Popes without any Inconvenience confesseth these and many others amongst Popes to have been so tainted as Stories describe them and that of Fifty Popes together there was not one virtuous person very probable persons indeed and very likely above all other Priests and Bishops to be endued with power from on high to remove all Impediments which the World or the Devil can lay in the way with all their Subtilty men of such might are they Alack Alack they have no more such power than the rest of their Neighbors mortal weights all subject to passions and Infirmities Preces Lachrymae the only such means and Authority one or the other have and the Popes themselves have as much need of our Prayers as we of theirs the true Doctrine hereof is that God hath not only not given the Pope Authority to remove all Impediments which the World or the Devil can lay in the way with all their Subtilty but hath thought it fit for the good of his Church and his own glory to permit many of them quorsum tunc whither then tend all those struglings even to enlarge that power which God hath given to this High Priest beyond its just bounds within which God hath limited and restrained it the pest and bane of all peace and good Government in the World both in Church and State Bellarmine will not yet acquiesce but will make Scripture speak for him whilst he saith that whoso fears not Gods Vicar fears not God himself because he hath said to his Vicars he which heareth you heareth me Luke 10.16 Now Bellarmine could not be ignorant of the whole Scope of that Chapter where there is not the least mention of any Vicars or Supream Bishops but of the Preachers of Gods word who if they shall preach purely the Doctrine of Christ without humane erroneous mixtures who so heareth them heareth Christ and he that despisesh them despiseth Christ Luke 10. but if they Preach any other Gospel let them be accursed not hearkned unto not obeyed Gal. 1.8 for Christ appointed other seventy in the same Chapter that they should go before him into all places whether he was to go and he teacheth them how they should go and what they should Preach and what they should do when they were not received nor hearkned unto and in the conclusion of all he adds he which heareth you heareth me whereby it is plainly apparent not to School-men and great Clerks only but unto every indifferent understanding that Christ speaketh here as a Preacher to all other Preachers and so not exclusive the Pope of Rome Quatenus a Bishop but that Impropriety of Speech is not to be allowed as to say Christ saith to his Vicars he which heareth you heareth me For it will not follow as Bellarmine would have it that who so fears not God's Vicars fears not God himself because he saith to his Vicars he which heareth you c. As if to say that indiscreet and unrighteous commands and censures are not to be feared were as much as to say that God is not to be feared nor his Vicar and that he that will fear God must stand bound to subject himself even to the Indiscretion and errors of Prelates to whom God hath given no power at all farther than it shall be accompanied with discretion and be suitable and agreeing to his own just commands thus to Traverse plain Texts of Scripture and prevaricate with them proceedeth it not from minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ What is it less than to Preach another Jesus another Spirit another Gospel than whatever Christ or his Apostles did teach or deliver Is not this to make lyes their refuge and under falshood to hide themselves Gerson in the same Treatise Che quando il Prelato abusa la potesta della chiaui piu sprezza egli lechiaui piu gravemente pecca che non fa il suddito quando non obedisce al suo Praelato di qui si raccoglie che sia opera meritoria in simili casi resistere in faccia al Prelato come fece san Paolo à Pietro that when a Prelate abuseth the power of the Keys he doth more disparage the Keys and offends more grievously than doth any Man subject to his Jurisdiction when he obeyeth not his Prelate and hence it is gathered that it is a meritorious work in such like to resist the Prelate to his face as Paul did Peter Bellarmine on the other side saith Che la dottrina del Gersone pare poco sicura mene fundato le consideriamo solamente l'usar male la potesta il non valere obedire alla potesta maggiore peccato è non volere obedire che usar male la potesta perche chi usar male la potesta sa un peccato al' ingiustitia offende un huomo suo suddito ma chi non uuole obbedire al Prelato che giustamente comande dispregia la sua scommunica sa un peccato di rebelliâ—ne ossende la divina maestia nel suo vicario cosi disse Christo qui vos spernit me spernit Lue. 10.16 Apostolo nella 1 Thess 4.8 qui haec spernit non hominem spernit sed deum questo dispregiare Dio nel suo Vicario st chiama da Samuel Proseta nel 1. Samuel 15.22 23. una sorte d' Idolatriae that Gerson's Doctrine seems scarcely safe and less grounded and if we shall simply consider the misusing of this power and the disobeying of this power it is a greater sin willfully not to obey than it is to use this power amiss because he that abuseth this power commits but a sin of Injustice and offends a man subject to him but he that will not obey the Prelate that commands justly and despiseth his Excommunication commits a sin of Rebellion and offends God's Divine Majesty in his Vicar and so saith Christ He which despiseth you despiseth me Luke 10.16 and the Apostle Thess 4.8 qui haec spernit non hominem spernit sed Deum he
which despiseth these things despiseth not Man but God but our Translation is he therefore that despiseth despiseth not Man but God And this despising God in his Vicar is called 1 Sam. 15.23 a kind of Idolatry Here are two very geat Clerks very opposite each to other How shall we poor Laicks now behave our selves when so great School-men cannot agree the point one accounting it a meritorious Act to resist and the other Rebellion and a kind of Idolatry not to obey Christ's Vicar First Gerson wrote 150 years before Bellarmine's answer came out being in a quiet and sedate temper not ingaged in any disputes and consequently without Bias and void of passion on the other side Bellarmine then living and deeply ingaged in that great Controversie between Rome and Venice about Temporal and Ecclesiastical Power and consequently more subject to passion and Interest very strong Biasses Let us now consider his Texts of Scripture and reasons the first is the part of the same Luke 10.16 as before and must in part receive the same Answer viz. he that despiseth you despiseth me which words were undoubtedly spoken to the Seventy Disciples which represented the Preachers which were to publish Christs Doctrine and not to Peter singly so that what power soever devolves by this Text on Christs Vicar it is but in common with the rest of his Fellow Priests and Bishops so that he can challenge nothing peculiar to himself from this Text. To this Text we will oppose and leave to their consideration Matth. 25.45 that at the day of Judgment Christ will say to the Reprobate Quatenus in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me and likewise we shall oppose the 18. Matth. 6. But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his Neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea so that there is Authority of Scripture to shew that Christ takes it for an injury done unto himself that is done unto the least of his Faithful Servants But of Christs Vicar not one word not so much as once named in the whole Bible a term never heard of till about Anno 666. So that he which despiseth c. is alledged out of its natural sence by Bellarmine and in as much ye did it not c. alledged in its proper sence for that admonition or correction is indeed a work of Charity and incumbent on all Christians so it be done with prudence and with due observance of circumstances And on the contrary cum Authoritate imperare cum potentia is against Charity Besides the very construction of the words qui vos spernit c. cannot possibly bear it no more than Dic Ecclesiae can reasonably be understood of the Pope a single person for I never understood that Popes had Pigs in their Bellies tho I will not swear what Pope Joan had in her Weem when she was Delivered of a Son in the open Street as she went to St. John Laterans So that the 10. Luke 16. is to be understood of all Ministers in General among whom I will not deny His Holiness Quatenus a Priest or Bishop to have a right in Common with the rest of his Brethren but no other or greater For in the beginning Bishops and Priests were all one their Institution Commission Imploy and Duties were all one and the same and how when and by whom they came to be differenced and distinguished and an Ecclesiastical Regiment erected and regulated by * Canon Law Laws of their own making whereby they have Metamorphos'd it from a Democracy of all the Brethren together to an absolute Ecclesiastical Monarchy nay Tyranny of a Pope at Rome is not very hard to trace tho very hard to remedy If a Quaker like a bold Britain should Pilgrim it to Rome and there reprove and rebuke the Pope of Popish errors Superstitions and other false Doctrines and that by plain Scripture And the Pope should despise and scorn him not enduring sound Doctrine certainly at the day of Judgment qui vos spernit c. would be laid to the Charge of His Holiness and not unto the despicable Quaker assuredly whoever despiseth the word of truth tho in the mouth of the least of God's little ones despiseth Christ Teachings are not truth because uttered by the Supream Bishop Christ's Vicar the Head of all Christendom but because they are grounded on Scripture the word of Truth and so carry their own awe and warrant with them To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isay 8.20 but they that will not hear Moses and the Prophets as no perverters of Scripture will will not be perswaded tho one arose from the Dead Luke 16.31 If the Apostles or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel than that which they have preached may not only be despised but accursed Gal. 1.8 then may not the Pope be despised that thus troubles the Church and labors to pervert the Gospel of Christ The next Scripture which he useth at the same rate is Qui haec spernit non hominem spernit sed Deum 1 Thes 4.8 He that despiseth these things despiseth not Man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit How is it possible that this citation can be to the purpose St. Paul assisted with the Holy Spirit applied qui haec spernit to such things there spoken by himself who could not erre v. 2 3 4 5 6 7. viz that ye should abstain from Fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his Vessel in Sanctification and honor not in the lusts of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God c. How then can it now be applied to the Pope who for certain hath no other assistance of the Holy Ghost than the rest of his Brethren Neither yet hath he said himself nor his Sycophants for him that he hath any extraordinary Assistance of the Holy Ghost saving only when he doth determine a matter de Fide ex Cathedra and not when he gives Orders in a Stable How can he then freely and righteously according to their own Doctrine in a Decree or an Extravagant which is not in a matter of Faith say qui haec spernit c. he that despiseth these things c. When the Pope shall teach and command Gods own Indubitable Precepts we will not complain of him if he add with all that he that despiseth c. but to equal Popes to St. Paul and their Decrees and Extravagants to Canonical Scripture and make them subservient to their Dictates and Expositions Is not this to make them lyable to the Plagues denounced against them that add or diminish from Gods word Rev. 22.18 And is it not a strange Phanatick presumption and
or our Abilities It is one thing to stifle Books in the womb before ever they are permitted to see light or that before they are either known or understood and that perhaps by one single person who happily may be much less learned honest or orthodox then the Author and another thing to condemn both Author and Book when examined and found faulty and erroneous For it is most just and reasonable that all and every State should consider how Books as well as men do behave themselves and punish or not punish accordingly accordingly one Carter a Printer suffered in Queen Elizabeths days § Consider matter of Fact by looking a little back Although it was early foretold that Antichrist would come nay that many Antichrists were already come yet until after the 800th year about which time the Eastern Empire divided from the Western there were not many Hereticks found in the Western parts for 300 years after But after the year 1100. by reason of the continual Jars which for 50 years before had been between the Popes and the Emperors which continued unto the year 1200. with frequent Wars there did arise many Hereticks as the Popes were pleased to call them by as good Logick as the Lion is fabled to call the Foxes Ears Horns whose most common Heresies were against the Pope's usurped Authorities over Clergie and Laity This moved the Popes and their Conclaves for Ends not good to establish the two Religious Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominick pure Fanaticks which were soon filled with the most zealous and learned Persons that that Age could afford altogether devoted to the maintaining of the Court of Rome and the Authority of the Pope to which two Orders the care of the Inquisition newly erected was committed and what hath followed since is obvious to every intelligent man which soon spawned the first sanguinary Law against Hereticks by the help of the Emperor Frederick the 2d 1244. imposing fire on Hereticks § But before this we had no Charm nor Lock upon the Press no Purgatory for Books no Limbus Patrum for their Authors we had no proper real and propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass for the living and the dead nor dry or demi-Communions no Conventicle at Trent no new Creed with 12 new Articles either of Trent or of Johannes Baptista Posa a Spanish Jesuit never heard of before newly printed newly come forth no blotting out of the second Commandment no dividing of the tenth Commandment into two to amuse and cheat the People no Doctrine of Infallibility nor yet of Probability no Penance Sacramental no Satisfaction no Sacramental Confession as now used no Hurtado no Filliucius no Bauny no Lessius no Escobar no Jesuits Morals no power to depose Kings no dissolving Oaths of Allegiance no Gunpowder-Treasons and an Iliad more of such damnable Errors and Heresies I conclude therefore that it bears no shew that forbidding men to write tends to any good end but really to the end to conceal the Truth and to shew it to the World only under a Mask or some deceitful Light I shall conclude with this Observation concerning Printing it self That in the days of Luther and Troubles of Germany about Religion and Vices of the Clergie it was suggested unto Clement the 7th that the occasion of them all was from the new Invention of Printing By Faust and Guttenburg scarce 80 years found out and now not possible to be suppressed which though it had brought to light many Books and much Learning yet they found that in this short time it had made a great discovery of their Arcana Imperii their jugling Arts and Legerdemains much to their prejudice which whilst the Laity were kept ignorant of all went for currant on their side and imputed thereto all the Troubles of Germany about those Centum gravamina then complained of for that now men being better enlightned by printed Books began to call in question the present Faith and Tenets of the Church of Rome and to examine how far Religion was departed from its primitive Institution and Purity Among which one great Crime was that the Laity and vulgar sort of men were taught and exhorted to read the Scriptures and pray every one in their own native Language A great Crime I confess and much to be dreaded for if this were permitted to pass for currant Doctrine the Vulgar would quickly discover their Cheats and Usurpations and believe that the Clergie had abused and cheated them hitherto For if men were once perswaded that they could make their own way and court to God by their own prayers and addresses in their own Tongues which they understood and that they would be heard and be more prevalent in Heaven than mumbled in Latin without understanding what they prayed for it would certainly bring Contempt on the Mass and Mass-Priests on Pardons and Pardon-mongers on auricular Confession and Confessors and on the power of the Keys and in sum would impeach all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which by sinister Artifices had been got and kept secret by the Clergie for many generations For without all doubt the keeping of these and the like Mysteries rather of Iniquity than of Religion wickedly obtained and as wickedly kept in the hands of Priests only participes Criminis parties to their Cheats have given that esteem the Priests now have amongst the Romanists through many Ages to this very day Now since Printing hath made such Discoveries of such Mysteries of Iniquity and brought to light the more pure Word and Doctrine so that their Traditions their Indulgences their false Glosses and their other like Trumperies could not prevail as formerly Romish Craft sought out other pestilent Inventions to maintain their Impieties whereof padlocking the Press was not the least to keep the Laity ignorant And though they could not wholly suppress Printing yet in Romish Territories they ordained that no Book should be printed without an Imprimatur first obtained from some Inquisitor or some such like Myrmidon digging deep to hide their Counsels from all the Laity and to stifle any Light or Truth that was not suitable to their deeds of Darkness hence hath proceeded the obstructions of many Truths fit to be made common but have not been able to appear in the light but by stealth Instead thereof they now set up heathen Philosophy and Metaphysicks against Scripture to make good their mysterious Juglings disputing and reasoning more out of them than out of holy Writ Thus they set up Learning or rather quirks of Learning against Learning and old musty Traditions of former Times and such obscure passages as needed their Interpretations and Explanations and all to keep the Laity in suspence between fear and controversal Juglings and Equivocations Nay they rather have recourse to Tropes and Allegories where none are needful if not to Cabala it self than allow that all the parts of Religious Worship tho' never so clear and plain to every Understanding as to fall easily within common Understandings should be without their Explications or Expositions so that they cannot monopolize the Mysteries of their Church-Government so closely and wholly within their Ecclesiastick Circle but discoveries are made of their Cheats These things well weighed and considered the Conclusion is natural that it bears no shew that forbidding men to write tends to any good end but really to the end to conceal the Truth and to shew it to the World in Mascarata or some deceitful Light only ERRATA PAG. 1. l. 20. for Spiritual r. Scriptural p. 2. l. 9. for neiter r. neither p. 17. for pro r. per in the Margin p. 20. l. 37. after Christians r. to Bethphage John 12. p. 29. l. 9. in the Margin dele Deo p. 78. in the Margin for Soozm r. Sozom. p. 98. Margin for satisfactoriis r. satisfactionis ut p. 146. l. 8. for peace r. piece l. 29 for absolete r. obsolete p. 151. l. 7. dele p. 152. l. 44. for absolete r. obsolete p. 153. l. 34. for ramanded r. remanded p. 160. l. 4. 8. for St. r. Sir p. 163. l. 7. for coenatori nuptialio r. coenatorio nuptiali p 166. l. 18. for Prosica r. persica p. 171. l. 5. for were r. was p. 173. l. 24. for no. r. any p. 183. l. 6. for perspect r. prospect p. 217. l. penult for thing r. think p. 219. l. 18. for pare r. pari l. 37. after Jupiter r. and Venus their p. 234. l. 6. for Alieno r. Aheno l. 9. for dignity r. divinity p. 236. l. 17. for hariretur r. hauriretur l. 37. for Apello r. Apella p. 239. l. 8. for and r. c. l. 13. next unto to r. be
of Humane Authority then there are no things left for the exercise of Christian Liberty but only things indifferent among which Liturgies may be reckoned which Liberty if invaded or infringed by any Humane Authority A great Gospel priviledge is thereby infringed which ought not to be Then I must retort on them also and return their own Weapons upon themselves if every restraint in things indifferent be injurious to Christian Liberty then themselves are no less Injurious by their Negative Restraint viz. use no Liturgy wear not cross not kneel not c. like that Col. 2.1 touch not taste not handle not then they would have the World believe our Church is by her positive restraint unto the use of our Liturgies and Ceremonies therewith used let themselves be Judged whether it is more Injurious to Christian Liberty Publick Authority by mature advice Commanding what may be forborn or Private Spirits through humourous dislikes or at best not upon any demonstrative reasons forbidding what may be used the whole Church Imposing the use Or a few Dissenters requiring the forbearance of such things as are otherwise and in themselves equally indifferent for use or for forbearance Besides if I am not much mistaken the true Nature of Evangelical Liberty as intimated before consists chiefly if not wholly about things of a higher strain and Nature than of matters Indifferent and it will be very hard to prove by any one plain Text of Scripture without Wresting the Liberty so much contended for to be their Gospel and inviolable right when the Power of the Magistrate doth interpose Pro or Con. For if indifferent things be the only subject matter both of Publick Christian Authority and of Christian Private Liberty in every Individual Christian whereon to exercise themselves then the whole Gitt of the Contest will be whether Publick Authority or every Private Person be to be Indulged and Obeyed Judge even ye your selves Judge § Now the best way to my apprehension to understand what the Apostles in their Writings do mean and intend by the Words and Terms of Liberty and Freedom will be to consider them with their opposites viz. Bondage and Servitude and this St. Paul doth as in other of his Epistles so most fully and most plainly in his Epistle to the Galatians where he pursues these two opposite Terms Allegorically under the two Titles of two Mothers the one viz. Agar a Servant gendring unto Bondage the other viz. Sarah a Free Woman gendring unto Freedom thereby signifying the Two Testaments viz. the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace and thereby shewing that the Jews in respect of the Christian Church of the New Testament were as Children differing nothing from Servants but were under Tutors and Governours and in Bondage under the Rudiments of the World i.e. the Law or Ministry of Moses so called in respect of a more full and clear Doctrine in the Ministry of the New Testament Now the Law is a grievous Yoak which none can bear because First it did bind the Church of the Old Testament to the Observation of many and those very costly and burthensome Ceremonies and Sacrifices Secondly because it did bind every Offender to everlasting death Gen. 2.17.3 Gal. 13.3 it is a Yoak as it increaseth Sin not casually but occasionally and as it is the strength of it 1 Cor. 15.56 5. Rom. 20.7 8. and whose property it is to gender unto Bondage But after the fullness of time was come and Christ had Redeemed them that were under the Law they did then receive the Adoption of Sons God had sent forth the Spirit of his Son into their Hearts they were then no more Servants but Sons i. e. such as enjoy the liberty of Sons and were Free indeed because the Son had made them Free John 8.36 so Agar which typifieth the Law is in Bondage with her Children but Jerusalem which is above and typifieth the Gospel is free Gal. 4.25 26. Now Christian Liberty consists first in our being delivered from the Curse of the Law for the breach thereof and from the Obligation of the Law whereby it binds us to bring perfect righteousness in our Own Persons according unto do this and live Secondly From the Observation of the Ceremonial Law of Moses Col. 2.16 Thirdly It delivers from the Tyranny and Dominion of Sin For Sin shall not have Dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 Fourthly Christian Liberty is to have a freedom in good things we are delivered from our Enemies that we may serve God in righteousness and holiness before him all the daies of our lives without sear Luke 1.47 75. and Paul saith where the Spirit is there is Liberty Cor. 12.3 17. Fifthly It consists in the free use of all the Creatures of God Whatever is sold in the Shambles that Ea◠asking no Questions for Conscience sake 1 Cor. 10.25 27. I have perused these and divers others if not all the places of Scripture urged by several of the Synagogue of the Libertines whereby they lay claim unto their exhorbitant dearly beloved and much Idolized Liberty to do what they list without controle or Inspection into their Actings in and about Holy things and do and whosoever shall soberly and seriously consider them together with their Contexts shall find them all to Center into their own one and the same most naturall and genuine sence and meaning viz. that by Liberty and Freedom in them mentioned is mainly if not meerly meant the Liberty from the Yoak Bondage and Curse of the Law it being a Spiritual liberty in all the parts of it freeing the true Christian from the Servitude of Sin and from all other Yoaks of Spiritual Bondage wherewith Sin hath intangled us and from which Christ the Author of this Liberty hath redeemed us and that the Law of this Liberty is the Gospel and that neither in the Texts of Scripture urged by this Author nor in any other that I know of is there any one Syllable of force to support the Liberty that this Author seems to plead for that is Impeached or Contradicted by the Imposition of sound Orthodox Liturgies Mostly all the Texts wherein Liberty and Freedom are but Named are generally Mustred up as a Cloud of Witnesses to shadow and shelter the Pleaders for their fancyed Liberty that under the pretence and umbrage of them and their corrupt glosses upon them they may with the better grace deny obedience to the Lawful Magistrate in Lawful things in and about the Worship of God and so use or rather abuse their true Gospel Liberty which no man can take from them for a Cloak to cover their Non-compliance with the Lawful Commands of the Civil Magistrate which indeed are the Commands of the National Church which to do is certainly not to approve themselves unto God Workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth 2 Tim. 2.15 but by thus perverting and shaping Texts of
Scripture to suit with their own fancies they walk and dispute in Craftiness handling the word of God deceitfully and do not commend themselves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God by manifestation of the truth 2 Cor. 4.2 § Here I must call to mind the General Paraenesis or admonition laid down in the beginning of this Book viz. p. 4. without any particular reflection or respect unto this or that Author or Sect of any perswasion being as lyable my self to the lash thereof as any other if a transgressor In my opinion with submission to better Judgments all the Texts mentioned by this our Author do mainly if not meerly intend a Liberty from the Yoak and Curse of the Law For first Christian Liberty is opposed to Jewish Bondage and Servitude to that Yoak and Curse which lay upon them and from which the Gospel freed them Now that Gospel freed them and us first from the Curse of the Moral Law Rom. 8.1 3. Gal. 10.13 not from the obedience of that Law the obligation of it is Eternal and Indispensable Parents Ministers and Magistrates are as much to be obeyed now as then Secondly From the Yoak and Burthen of the Ceremonial Law Acts 15.10 28. This Law was abrogated at the death of Christ as to its obligation and though it was observed by the Jews for some time after even by St. Paul Acts 21.20 21 c. yet this observation was not necessary ex obligatione vi legis but voluntarily submitted unto in Christian prudence to gain the Jews Secondly This is that Christian Liberty which Christ purchased for us and the Bondage from which he freed us and would have us stand fast in the maintaining of it Gal. 1.4 And let us now see how candidly this Author deals herein with his Scripture Quotations Of this Liberty purchased for us by Jesus Christ so far as it relates to the Worship of God he makes two parts first a Freedom from those Pedagogical Institutions of God himself which by his own appointment were to continue only to the time of Reformation F. 69. this we will not question Secondly a Freedom from subjection to the Authority of Men as to any new Imposition in or about the Worship of God 1 Cor. 7.21 And the same Rule is given out as to our duty and deportment in reference unto both these Gal. 5.1 1 Pet. 2.16 f. 70. unto this second part of Liberty only I must crave leave to give check and ask what he means by New Imposition If by New Imposition be meant a new and false kind of Worship or Doctrines that are not agreeable to the word of truth but are plainly and clearly contrary thereunto I say so too but if thereby be meant a Liturgy and another cannot significantly be intended having set up that for his mark and instance not commanding nor expressing any new divised or other Doctrine or Worship than what is agreeable to the Gospel of Truth and other I defend not and his main force is bent against Liturgies in general I shall take Liberty to be a dissenting Brother until better informed If I should appeal to himself that if he had the same Liberty allowed him that he contends for would he not adorn and deliver this Gospel Worship Truth and Doctrines in his own dress of flourishing Retorick Eloquence and Expressions whereof he is a great Master And is the Liturgy any more or other than Gospel-Worship Truth and Doctrines expressed and made manifest by the various expressions of men as capable of the same knowledge and of the dictates and illapses of the same Spirit as himself O! but its Imposition and the necessity of its observance by virtue of that Imposition is the grand Pique indeed that cannot be digested it being in his Judgment very unreasonable to impose forms on others who desire to stand fast in the Liberty with which Christ hath made them free f. 31. God having never delegated his power to any to appoint or institute any thing in his Worship or about it that seemeth meet unto their Wisdom f. 50. this I take to be generally true that whatsoever is lawful to be used without Imposition may lawfully be imposed and as lawfully used when imposed therefore Imposition or not Imposition alters not the Case but is quite out of Doors then this Liberty rightly stated rightly understood and not wrested is not denyed to this Author nor unto any other that I know of no nor yet so abridged by the Liturgy but that he may have his desire and stand fast therein But how he will prove this Christian Liberty to extend to such Dimensions and Latitudes as he pretends a right unto hic labor hoc opus For though God never deligated his power to any without consideration of right or wrong to introduce a new or other false Worship yet sure this Author upon Second and better thoughts and considerations will not deny but that God hath delegated power to some on earth that are no Priests to regulate and Order some things in and about his own Worship that seemeth meet unto their Wisdoms that are not contrary thereunto as to appoint publick places for the Congregation to meet in and to see that they do meet accordingly and to appoint Pastors to read and Preach his word and Administer his Sacraments rightly and duly and to provide a maintenance that they that serve at the Altar may live of the Altar that all things may be done decently and in order among which some things Liturgies may justly claim a Room and to be imposed § Now let us examine his Scripture Proofs The first Text he brings to prove his Second Part of Christian Liberty having divided it into two parts as before viz. that we have a Freedom from Subjection to the Authority of Men as to any New Impositions in or about the Worship of God 1 Cor. 7.21 Art thou called being a Servant care not for it but if thou maist be made Free use it rather What of this Doth this prove that we have a Freedom from Subjection c. unto me any Sentence out of the Apocrypha Alcaron or Talmud might have been as good a Proof The Scope of the Apostle in that verse and indeed almost of that whole Chapter being only to perswade the Corinthians unto contentedness of mind in what Estate or condition of life soever they shall be called unto or placed in and therefore in the Verse immediately before he Commands that every Man abide in the same calling wherein he was called v. 20. and then follows art thou called to be a Servant c. and in the subsequent Verses he reasons it thus For he that is called in the Lord being a Servant is the Lords Free-man likewise he that was called being Free is Christs Servant v. 22. and then follows let every Man herein abide with God v. 24. By all which the Apostle only teacheth that all men ought to be contented with