4.1 2. Acts 20.28 31. Col. 1.28 2 Thes 2.11 Gen. 31.40 Act. 15.6 Mat. 18.17 he is personally to instruct and catechise and confer with all of his charge he is to visit the sick he is to admonish reprove comfort counsel warn and charge every one night and day with tears as a Father his Children he is to assist in neighbour-meetings and Church-associations of Pastors and Brethren for concord and communion he is to hear all such Causes as need due and regular discipline And is any one man able to do all this as it should be done to any of those Parishes in City o◠Country which abound with multitudes of Souls that would find work for many Minsters to do it faithfully as it should be done Whereas if there be one in a Parish and in some one with a Reader or Curate that is thought enough I confess at that rate that many do the work of the Ministry it is an easie matter for one man to be a Pastour to a Parish of a dozen Miles compass in the Countrey and St. Giles's in the Fields St. Martins Stepney and Cripple-gate in the City of London But to do the work of a Pastour faithfully and entirely to all the Souls within any one of these and such like Parishes would require a whole Colledg and combination of Ministers We see in a Troop of Horse of but some fourty or fifty men there is a Captain and a Lieutenant besides other Officers In a Regiment of Fifteen hundred much more of fifteen thousand what a vast number of Officers are there Captains over thousands Captains over hundreds Captains over fifties and Captains 〈◊〉 tens Deut. 1. 15. Every tenth man was to have a Captain or Officer But there is many a Parish in England that may have Ten thousand Souls in it and but one or two Pastours appointed to look to all these fouls When King Solomon built his Temple He set threescore and ten thousand to be bearers of burdens and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountains and three thousand and six hundred to be overseers to set the people a work 2 Chron. 2.18 But in the building of the Lords spiritual Temple there is not one Pastour to a thousand Souls in many Parishes of England I know many will think there are too many Ministers I think there are to many bad ones but I never read or heard of any Kingdom or place or people to this day that had too many faithful Ministers And I shall think it a holy and happy time when such a thing is but I despair to see it in this world Were it not that there are not Ministers enough to do all the pastoral work of each Congregation I should think most of the godly Ministers in England notoriously guilty before God of gross neglect and unfaithfulness for want of personal and private oversight of all their people though I think a great deal more might be done by many than ordinarily is Well then there being so great a want of Ministers and no want of Magistrates would you have Ministers to turn Magistrates too must those few that are be hindered and distracted by calling them off to worldly and secular businesses Is it not enough that Ministers have more work upon their hands than they can do and would you make them more and that too diverting and alien work extra Episcopal and almost if not altogether pragmatical work What is this but to serve Satan in the name of Christ and under pretence of Order to pull down Order and make the Church more low and weak by much than it is The holy Apostles of our Lord were of another mind when they saw they could not both look to the corporal necessities of the poor and the spiritual necessities of Souls too they contrived an expedient for both They appointed a new office of Deacons in the Church to see to the bodily necessities of the poor but say they We will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministry of Gods word Act. 6.2 4. Far unlike to those that leave the Word of God and Prayer and give themselves to the doing of worldly matters and secular businesses and teach men so and plead for it as their priviledg and a means of advantaging the Church and of promoting holiness and peace Non tali auxilis nec defensoribus istis tempus eget 15. Arg. 8. Those who maintain it to be good to have Clergy-men armed with secular jurisdiction do urge for reason the practise of the ancient Bishops and Churches for the first three hundred years while the Church was without Christian Princes and Magistrates It was usual in those times for the people to refer their dissentions about worldly things to the decision and arbitration of their Bishops who to prevent going to Law before Heathen Magistrates and to prevent and compose differences and strifes and keep peace among their people would give themselves the trouble to hear and arbitrate Causes and Pleas and worldly differences referred to them And hence it is argued that if it was lawful for Clergy-men to be Arbitrators and elected Judges to decide between brethren it is lawful for Clergy-men to be Judges made and constituted by authority and commission from the higer powers 16. As to this I take it to be true as to matter of fact that it was usual for the Bishops of those times to hear and arbitrate civil Causes and Rights And it grew by occasion I was a saying by a misconstruction of the Apostles words 1 Cor. 6.5 I speak to your shame Is it so that there is not a wise man amongst you no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren Thinking none more wise and consequently more fit to arbitrate and decide their Causes than their Bishops And this continuing to the time of Constantine and he finding them in possession thereof continued it to them and confirmed it in their hands by Law which was the beginning of Clergy-mens lordliness and domination the fruits and consequents whereof have been very calamitous to the Church ever since 17. I have many things to say as to this As 1. That it is very likely the ancient Bishops who took upon them this trouble of hearing and arbitrating the civil Rights and Causes of their people did it with no joy they were not fond of it they thought it a burden and if they might have had their choice would rather have been free from all such trouble So much is intimated in a passage which Davenant in his Determ quest 11. aforenamed quoteth out of Augustine They did not esteem them priviledges or easements but molestias for so are Augustines words as cited molestations and troubles But the Bishops and Clergy of our times seek them contend for them and are tenacious of such things as priviledges 2. Either the Bishops imployed in the hearing and arbitrating those Causes were the same with our Diocesan Bishop or they were
A DISPUTATION PROVING That it is not convenient to grant UNTO MINISTERS SECULAR JURISDICTION And to make them Lords Statesmen IN PARLIAMENT LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXIX It is not expedient to grant unto Clergy-men secular Jurisdiction 1. I Do not undertake to prove that it is simply unlawful And the worthy and judicious Bishop Davenant doth grant and assert Determ quest 11. That the Law of Prudence and Equity it self doth forbid Kings to burden Clergy-men with it so far as it will let and avocate them from their spriritual office and function 2. It will be demanded who must be Judge what is and what is not expedient To which the forenamed Davenant makes answer That is to be accounted expedient which a Wise Man shall so judge and determine whereunto I assent He afterwards adds That which a wise and religious Prince shall so determine Neither do I dissent in this provided it be soundly understood For that which a wise and religious Prince shall judge to be expedient if it be so indeed all wise men will at least they ought so to think for sound wisdom is the same in all But it is too possible for the most wise and prudent Prince to enjoyn things not good and expedient King David thought it most prudent to number the people who was a most wise Prince but in that his wisdom fail'd him Joab his General that was much inferiour to David in goodness and heavenly wisdom thought it very imprudent and the event proved Joab to be the wiser man in that 3. Some things are more evidently other things are less evidently expedient The Scales may hang so even and equilibrious that a wise comparing judgment can scarce tell whether is the heavier end and whether part hath the stronger reasons and the Scales may be so odd and unequal so much solid reason may be said for the one side and so little for the other that to a wise comparing judgment the case is not doubtful to decide Now I shall manifest that it is evidently inexpedient to grant secular jurisdiction to Ministers and Glergy-men that is That the same person be a Minister Bishop or Pastor of Souls and a Magistrate or â—oâ—â—lve Judge one that heareth the Sword Rom. 13.4 4. Arg. 1. Jesus Christ did not see it meet to exercise any such power while he was upon earth being moved to be a kind of worldly Judg between two Brethren he refused saying Who made me a Judg or a divider over you Determ quaest 4. Luk. 12.14 As if he should say says Davenant upon the words Neither by divine nor by humane Ordination do I exercise Judiciary power over private persons much less over Kings By which argument the same Davenant goes about to prove the nullity of the Popes power in Temporals Now if his argument be of force against the Bishop of Rome I see not but it is of equal force against worldly Jurisdiction in all Bishops and Pastors whatsoever Now if Christ saw it not meet for him to exercise worldly Jurisdiction methinks all Bishops and Pastors of Souls who have their office and calling particularly from him should see it meet to learn of him and imitate him herein and Princes themselves should not think it expedient to burden Ministers with that which Christ himself refused and put from him as either unlawful in it self or inexpedient Mat. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me 5. Arg. 2. The Apostles and the successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Pastors of the Churches for the space of three hundred years unto the time of Constantine had no Temporal Jurisdiction nor did exercise any And those are counted the best and purest times of the Church If we may not make the Apostles of Christ and their immediate successors the Bishops and Pastors of the Churches for the first three hundred years our pattern what shall we make our pattern and by what law and rule shall we determine what is and what is not expedient Can we better govern our selves and the Churches than they Have we more wisdom to invent and find out ways of good governing the Church than they had Have we more holiness and goodness and faithfulness to God our selves our calling and the Church than had they If the Church did well and best subsist when it had no Magistrates but what were Pagan Infidel and Jewish many of whom were great Persecutors all of them deâ—â—â—â— of the Christian name will it not well and better subsist if better can be where Magistrates are Christian and desenders of the Faith if Bishops and Pastors contenting themselves with no more but the Episcopal and Pastoral office and refusing all worldly Jurisdiction shall wisely and faithfully behave themselves in their office as those first and most ancient Bishops and Pastors of the Churches did 6. Unto this the worthy Davenant makes answer That those â—â—nes and ours are not alike Those times were exceeding 〈◊〉 and good ours be exceeding bad There needed no secular authority in Pastors then there was so much holiness and piety the Word and Discipline were abundantly enough but now the Christian World is so exceeding corrupt and degenerate that unless Ministers be armed with Secular Jurisdiction their authority will be despised and the Discipline which God hath appointed to be in his Church will be scorned as base and contemptible rather than be reverenced for any good it will do Non tam usui esset quam ludibrio those are his very words Davenant is the man whom I do highly esteem and so do all that be wise and knowing in the things of God but in this Davenant hath fallen much below himself and the feebleness of his reasoning doth much confirm me in my judgment and perswasion that the cause which he oppugneth and which I do here defend is too strong to be overthrown 7. His answer is partly not true not to say it is directly and flatly false For let any impartial man make a due estimate of things and compare the Pastors and Churches under the Apostles I except the persons of the Apostles themselves and during their abode upon earth and their successors the Pastors and Churches immediately following to the time of Constantine I say compare these with the Pastors and Churches of our times and it will be found that there is no such inequality as he suggests Bradford and Philpot and Rogers and Cranmer and Latimer and Ridley and Hooper and Bilney and Sanders and other of the English Martyrs were worthy and famous Martyrs of Christ as well as were those first and most ancient Martyrs And Grindal and Jewel and Vsher and Davenant and Gataker and Vines and Hildesham and Preston and Sibbs and Dod and Joseph Allen and many more of our own and foreign Divines were able to vye with the ancient Bishops and Pastors of the Churches such as died not Martyrs And the private Christians and Families and Congregations of our times
are not much inferiour to those ancient ones both Greek and Latin and even to those we have mention of in the New Testament namely the seven Churches of Asia those of Galatia and Judea that at Corinth and others 8. Admit it were true which questionless is not I should rather think that the way to reduce an unreformed Church and people from heresie and unholiness to foundness in the faith and holiness is for Pastors to content themselves with the work of Pastors and give themselves wholly to it and suffer no lets Will the Sword convert souls or awe mens consciences would it likely do more good if a Minister should come into the Pulpit with a Sword in one hand and a Bible in the other The Sword is not appointed of God for the conversion of Souls the office of the Magistrate is to make way for the work and office of the Minister It is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God which must cut in pieces mens lusts and breed in them sound faith holiness and reformation and not the sword of the Magistrate Let the Magistrate do or not do his duty let him be Pagan or Persecutor and let the people be more loofe and unreformed than they are let but Pastors and Ministers do their duty well and we shall soon see that Gods Word and Discipline is of the same force now that ever it hath been otherwise there is a change in God and his promise fails and Satan is stronger now than he hath been and Christ and the Holy Ghost are much weaker Read and consider well these Scriptures Mat. 28.18 19 20. 1 Pet. 3.13 Mich. 2.7 Isa 45.19 Isa 49 4 5. 1 Cor. 15.58 Psal 84.11 2 Cor. 2.15 16. 2 Cor. 4.1 2. 2 Cor. 10.4 5 6. to name no more and let but Ministers be wise and faithful and try if it be not the best and speediest way to reform what is amiss in the Church contenting themselves with no more but their own office and leaving all force and secular authority to the Magistrate 9. If we be the same that the ancient Pastors were be sure God and Gods Word will be the same we cannot do Gods part nor the Magistrates part nor the peoples part we can only do our own part which we may do if we will do our own part and be sure God will be with us and do his What hinders but Pastors may be as wise and holy as they have been of old If we be not it is our own fault The more corrupt the times are the more need Pastors have to bestir themselves and to double their diligence and lay out themselves more vigorously to be more Exemplary to abound in the work of God to be mortified to lose no time to suffer no let To make them Magistrates were to let them and take away much of their time and rather hinder and distract than further them If the Pastors office he as much as they can wisely and faithfully do would it further them in their work to have another effice and work added to them Ministers of the Gospel are not so fit as others to be worldly coercive Judges and Secular Magistrates For their office is purely Pastoral and is to have no terrour in but the terrour of Gods Word and spiritual denunciations that the people may have no temptations to withdraw their love and esteem from their Pastors A Thief at the Bar had rather have a Minister than the Judg to reprove him though both should pronounce the same truth and hit upon the same words and have equal wisdom and integrity For properly Magistrates are for outward terrour to evil doers and for outward desence and protection to them that do well Rom. 1â— 3 1 Pet. 2.14 But Ministers are to be gentle to souls even as a nurse cherisheth her children and to exhort and comfort and charge every one as a father doth his children 1 Thes 2.7 11. But if parents and nurses and tender mothers should rule their children by the sword too that would not add to their office nor further their work 10. Arg. 3. If it be so as Davenant says that unless Ministers be armed with Secular Jurisdiction their office and authority in the Church and the Lords Word and Discipline as administred by them will be despised and trod upon then necessarily all Ministers should be mad Magistrates and Princes are too blame if they do not put the sword into all their hands and make every Minister throughout the Nation a Justice of Peace or a Sheriff or a Judg by giving him power to imprison and lay fines and penalties upon offenders and to use coercive means And then the Scriptures themselves even the wisdom of God will be found faulty if he have ordained and appointed no such thing in all the Bible as I no where find that he hath done And by the same reason Magistrates may say they also must be Ministers and there will be a confusion of offices and the bounds and banks of order in Church and Commonwealth will be thrown down and if order be not oblerved good government cannot be For good government is nothing but the observance of right order when Magistrates do the duty of Magistrates and meddle with no more but what comes within the compass of their office that is right order and it breeds peace 1 Cor. 14.33 40. And when Ministers and Pastors do their duty and what properly pertains to their office medling with no more this also is right order and the way of true and good government in the Church and produceth peace But if you leave this way and order you err And where your error may stop and what mischiefs and inconveniences it may produce who is able to declare For there is no safety but by keeping in Gods way and close walking by his rules Vno absurdo dato seqâ—untur mille is as true in Practicals as in Doctrinals 11. A 4. Either Christian faithful Magistrates are a help and defence to Gods Church and to Ministers in their calling and office or they are not If they are then methinks if the Church and Ministers did well when they wanted such helps they should rather do better at least they should do as well or not be much worse when they have such helps But to say they cannot do at all or that Ministers and their Discipline and Ministration barely without Secular Jurisdiction added to them will be of no use but rather a scorn and mockery under Christian Magistrates is stark shame and reproach to all such Ministers and they should rather be cast out of the Church as intolerable and as dung and dead unsavoury salt than be made Magistrates What should they do Magistrates that are not able by all they can do to preserve themselves from sordid ignominy and contempt or if not this it is an intolerable shame to all excepting Ministers both Magistrates and people that they should be so
Gods will that he who is best be best esteemed and that the less wise do learn of the more wise that the younger submit themselves unto the elder yea all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility 1 Pet. 5.5 Ministers cannot always be executing their Office as Praying Preaching Baptizing c. And there may be some parts and branches of the Office which they may never be called to exercise as Ordination authoritative Excommunication and Absolution And no authority is given but for use and edification and where there is no use of it or where it cannot be used without making things worse and doing more hurt than good it is to be forborn But it is fit that Ministers be Ministers and Pastors and Bishops be Pastors and Bishops and be invested and intrusted with compleat Pastoral and Episcopal power and that they do use and exercise every branch and part of their office and authority when and so often as sanctified Conscience and sound prudence and discretion shall say it is convenient and they cannot forbear to do it without manifest damage and inconvenience as it is convenient a Captain have his Sword though he may not be put to use it in fight against any And it is fit that a Schoolmaster have power to use his Ferula and moderately correct untoward and misruly Scholars though possibly he may have none such and so never be put to use the Rod. 29. This being so I must needs grant that if it be convenient and advisable that the whole tribe of Ministers who be of the order of Presbyters be accounted Lord-Bishops Lord-Presbyters Lord-Pastors and Lord-Preachers and have equal right to be Lords and Statesmen in Parliament and supream Judges in all causes and questions both Political and Ecclesiastical which shall come before that honourable Assembly then I yield the cause my position is erroneous and I do ill to say it is inconvenient that Clergy-men be Lords and Statesmen in Parliament But if it be inconvenient and against sound prudence to honour or rather burden the whole Tribe of Ministers and right-ordained Pastors and Presbyters with these honours preferments greatness and authority then I see not but my position will hold sound and good for if all appearance of evil is to be avoided then all appearance of partiality is to be avoided and of that partiality which hath conjoined with it many snares and which a wise man is bound to avoid as distractions precipices and burdens I have no envious partiality against Arch-bishops and Bishops I am neither against the name nor the office and thing imported by the name Every Pastor unto whom God doth give more than ordinary gifts and graces is in my judgment a real Archbishop in Gods Church jure Divino a chief Pastor and eminent Prelate in Gods Church above his fellows of which rank I do estimate the famous Vsher Augustine Athanasius Calvin Zanchy Bradford Davenant Cranmer Dâ—d Bains Hildersham Preston Sibbs Gataker Joseph Hall Babington Joseph Allaine and many more both ancient and modern Divines all burning and shining lights in Gods Church more eminent than vulgar Divines I think my self not worthy to carry their Books after them I think they better deserve the Title of Lord than many a temporal carnal Lord that is honoured with that name The fifth Commandment bindeth me to honour my Father and my Mother and my Catechism teacheth me that by Father and Mother is to be understand all superiors in office age and gifts Good Obadiah says to Elijah Art thou that my Lord Elijah 1 Kings 18.8 The truth is our ordinary word Master or Sir which we give to almost all importeth the same with the title Lord it being in Greek Kurios and Kurie in Latin Dominus and Domine save that custom which is the great arbiter of Speech doth appropriate this title Lord to the temporal nobility If we must give honour to whom honour is due and honour all whom God doth honour or else we are disobedient to Gods word and unholy then both Clergy-men and Lay-men Magistrates Pastors Parents and private Christians are to be honoured with decent and seemly honour without denying them what all wise and peaceable Christians account to be their due and to be safe and decent to be given to them or giving them more out of flattery and baseness having mens persons in admiration because of advantage See Job 32.22 Jude 16. 30. But now it is not the custom with us nor with the Churches of Christ and Christian people and custom in this case creates a Law 1 Cor. 11.16 to give the Title Lord to the Parish-bishops and Presbyters though never so eminent and it is but meet that according to the use of all Nations and the Scripture it self a difference be made between the temporal Nobility and the Clergy And why it should be given to a Popish Bishop meerly because a Bishop such as Bonner Gardiner and many of the Popes and Cardinals who have been wretched men or to a Ridley a Hooper a Davenant rather than to a Bradford a Philpot a Dod a Joseph Alleine I know not If the honour be due to the Office then all Ministers must be counted Lord-bishops and Lord-pastors I am clear in that Act. 20.28 Phil. 1.1 This I know will not please our Lord Arch-Bishops and Bishops and those whose zeal upholds them All that I contend for is that all that be equal in office be equal in honour and no one partially preferred no one assume to himself carnal state and superiority over his Brethren Jam. 3.5 Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth This advancing of equals above their equals and brethren above their brethren and pastors above pastors in Gods Church is not good 31. I do not impugn bare names and titles but my aim is to impugn factious partiality and pride in Clergy-men occasioned by the over-indulgence of Princes and supream Magistrates It is simplicity humility and sincerity in Bishops which I contend for Either the Arch-bishops and Bishops must come down and abate of their honour their lordliness their principalities and worldly state and be upon even ground with the rest of their Brethren who have as good insides as they and are as real Bishops and Overseers of souls as they and have equal office authority and commission with them Matt. 28.19 20. Joh. 20.23 and will pass for as much at death and judgment as they or else the rest of their Brethren who be equal in office and merits to them must be heightned and advanced and made to be upon even ground with them This latter is not advisable nor will be granted it is not fit it should The other is both feisiable and convenient It will make our Arch-bishops and Bishops to be no worse men nor worse Arch bishops and Bishops if they be but meer and simple Bishops of Souls and meddle no more in State-matters and secular affairs than needs they