relating to their Negative Interests in the Call and Maintenance of the Ministry III. Next it is but too evident that whatever be pretended this care for Defence of the Church's Patrimony from Dilapidation and Misapplications is the least part of the Patron 's business or concernment All the care he takes in this affair being meerly that no Body shall have Power to Dilapidate or Misapply the Church's Rents and Livings but Himself And certainly in this respect the Power of Patronage may most justly and deservedly be termed a Jus onerosum a very grievous and burdensome power to the Church of God so that if there were a particular Office appointed for preventing the Dilapidation and Mismanagement or Misapplying of the Church's Patrimony and for punishing of such as should be found guilty of it I am sure there is no sort of Men in the Nation that would feell the weight of Justice more deservedly upon that account than the most part of the Patrons themselves who as they are de Facto guilty with many other Sacrilegious Impropriators of the Dilapidating and Misapplication of the Church's Livings Patrimony without the least colour of Material Right so they do pretend as we may have farther occasion to observe that de Jure they may lawfully retain in their own hands whatever part of the Benefice they can agree with the Intrant to allow And that in the cases of vacancy the Fruits and Profites of the Benefice must return to their own private use IV. But thirdly the defence of the Church in her Rights and Patrimony and in her Liberties and Priviledges also Is indeed a thing very necessar and desireable and therefore it is a duty incumbent not only on every Christian in power in their several stations but in a special manner upon the civil Magistrat who by his office is the Church's Nursing Father And not only is it the duty of all Magistrats but their Honour and Profit also and it will likewise be their Comfort that they have imployed all their Power and Interest and brought all their Honour and Authority to the New Jerusalem for whose good our blessed Lord took upon him the state of a Servant and sends forth his Angels as ministring Spirits But any power the civil Magistrat hath in these matters is only a power circa Sacra and no power in Sacris with reference to a Negative Interest in the Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel to which they have a full and better Right by vertue of their Spiritual capacity and faithful Discharge of their duty therein than all the Powers on Earth can give them The Magistrats power is only Cumulative whereby he may confirm and maintain the Rights and Liberties of the Church but no way privative of them He may and ought to interpose his Interest and Authority for her defence in the injoyment of her Rights but can neither deprive her of them not confer or confirm the same in favours of any other that usurps or invads them to her prejudice V. Fourthly it is the constant opinion of Divines that the Church herself hath power to censure such as are guilty of Symoniacal or Sacrilegious Dilapidations and Misapplications of het Patrimony And this they gather by due Analogy from the Apostle Peter's inflicting Acts 5 Acts 8. of the punishment of Death upon Ananias and Saphira for their Sacrilegious Concealments of what they had Consecrate to God for the use of his Church and from the carriage of the same Apostle in the case of Simon Magus from whom the crime of Simony derives it's Name VI. But beside all this the word of God as it is compleatly perfect in every thing so it is noways deficient in settling institutions properly Ecclesiastical for the oversight of these matters For in the Primitive and Apostolick times we find that the care of the Collecting and Distributing of the goods of the Church was committed to the Deacons who being ordinar and standing Office-bearers in the Church were countable to her for their Administration and Censurable by her in case they were found to Maleverse These Office-bearers had truly a kind of power in Sacris or a lawful warrand to medle with a thing Consecrated and Devoted to God for pious uses And as this office was in it self most useful and necessary in the Church and founded upon a lawful warrand so it was ordinarly exerced by Men of Credit and Interest Acts 6. 1 Cor. 12 23 24 25 28. and such as were Eminent for Piety as is clear from 1 Cor. 12. And it is to be regrated that the Church for want of a Maintenance to such Officers stands deprived for the most part of their patrociny and protection VII They are styled in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word Importing the standing over against a Man for help in the lifting of a burden that is too weighty for him alone And is a term that very properly and more fully and significantly expresseth the Nature and Design of this Office than any word in our Language can For without such helps so our Translation renders the word who may take upon them the care of collecting and dispensing what was bestowed upon the Church for pious uses the work of the Ministry could not but meet with many Hinderances and Obstructions For when the Pastors of the Church like the neglected Levits Nehem. 13. must flee every one to his field and be entangled in Secular Affairs and Law suits for recovery of their Livings how is it possible that they can wait upon the duties of their function as they ought the diligent and Faithful discharge of the Ministerial Office is of it self without the unnecessar addition of other civil Affairs of so great a weight and requires so much assiduity and application that it made even the Apostle Paul himself one of the greatest and most eminent Ministers that ever the Christian Church had cry out who is sufficient for these things or how is it possible when the Pastors of the Church 2 Cor. 2 16. are so inveigled in civil business and debates but they must turn cold and faint in that edge and zeal that renders them useful and profitable Labourers in the Lord's Vine-Yard VIII And tho' this office of Deacons may seem to be among the lowest yet in the primitive times it was of no mean account Men of the best note and consideration for piety and wealth were ordinarly intrusted with it as is clear from that fore-cited place And that because of the great use and necessity the Church had of them And therefore in Diaconis potius quam Pastoribus elegendis curandum ut caeteris paribus lautioris Fortunae Homines qui infimum hoc officium Ornent eligantur Our own Church also in the second Book of Discipline Dicks in loc treats at large of this office and of the charge of the Church's goods thereto Intrusted IX From all which we may very
these duties As also in consequence of the same duty They are likewise oblidged to settle a sutable maintenance on such as are sequest rate and set a part from all other Imployments to attend this Worship and Service and to instruct their People in the Mysteries of Religion Quando enim aliquid conceditur id etiam concedi videtur sine quo concessum subsistere non potest And accordingly we find the practice of all Nations in all ages how barbarous so ever hath been sutable hereunto V. And therefore this being a Natural and acknowledged duty the burden of it must necessarly be charged upon such as have the only interest and property in the Lands and Rents within that bounds so that we may safely conclude that such Benefactors as these are so far from deserving such a Priviledge over the Church and her Liberties thereby that as our Blessed Saviour says when they have done all that is Commanded them to do Luke 17. they must acknowledge themselves to be unprofitable Servants and that they have done nothing but what was their duty VI Next such Heretors and Proprietars tho' the whole charge does Naturally ly upon them yet they have alwayes the concurrence of the rest of the Inhabitants of the bounds tho' these have no interest of property in the Lands And thereby a Proportional and perhaps a greater releife of the burden So that such Benefactors do not in that case so much as their duty oblidges them to do and therefore they do still less deserve such a priviledge VII Lastly we do not find that any of the People or Princes of Israel such as David Solomon for all the vast expence of treasure they laid out upon the building and repairing of the Temple at Jerusalem once and again or upon the many Synagogues that were spred up and down the Land some whereof were built at the privat charge of single persons Luke 7th And those Strangers and Foraigners too who were under no obligation by being born within the Land so to do I say we do not find that any of those Princes or people for all the vast expence they were at did ever lay claim to the least shaddow of such a priviledge in reference to the Call and Maintenance of the Officers of the Chnrch VIII And under the new Testament we find as little mention of such a priviledge for all the large possessions and donatives that were bestowed by the faithful upon pious uses Acts 4.32 to the end 2 Cor 8 Philip 4 Rom. 15.1 Cor 4. Gal 6. were given freely and frankly without reserve The practise of Ananias and Saphira and of Simon Magus do indeed look another way But sure I am neither their actions nor approbation will incline any man that is not altogether deserted of God to an imitation of their example The native use we are to make of these Beacons so early set up in the Christian Church is to Caution us from Steiring near these rocks on which they Split IX The second sort of Benefactors mentioned viz those who confer favours on the Church per modum Eleemosynae or by way of pure almes and free Charity are such persons as having no civil interest or estate within the bounds do build a Kirk or dote the same with a maintenance more or less meerly from a principle of Compassion to the people who dwell therein and perhaps ly at a great distance or otherwise inconveniently for other meeting places of publick worship with a single heart for advancing the Glory of God and for promoting the spiritual interest and welfare of the Souls of his people These tho' they be the only persons that can be said to confer real favour on the Church and to do true acts of Charity and so may seem to have a much fairer pretence to claim the Right of patronage than any of the other Benefactors I mean the first Donors themselves for as to heires and successors they are terms very unsutable in this affair as I have already hinted and shall yet farther cleare yet withall we must still conclude that even those can be allowed no such priviledge X. First because the design and nature of such good deeds can never be constructed so as to deprive the Church of her freedom of Election which she enjoyed before such a grant For this would truely bring those Benefactors under the guilt of a design of Robbery which is absolutely inconsistent with and destructive of the nature and design of Charity XI For if such favours be really conferred on the Church per modum purae Eleemosynae or by way of pure Charity there can be nothing more unsutable to the nature or design of alms-giving or more destructive of it than either to assume or expect a recompence of gain applause or any other temporal reward and much less can such an enslaving priviledge as this of Patronage be expected For almes as almes look for no recompence or reward from those on whom they are bestowed Job 31.16 to 24 Job 29.13 proverbs 19 7. mat 6 save that of a blessing from the Lord to whom Gifts of that nature are said to be lent and who hath engaged to repay them accordingly And the ordinar reddendo of pia animarum suffragia from those who receive the Almes cannot be otherways understood in any sound sense Thus Job glories that the Blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him And surely he that takes or expects any other return hath his reward as our Saviour sayes and can expect no other So that he who by such good Deeds expects to obtain either a Jus Vtile or a Jus Honorificum especially that part of it which is so prejudicial to the Church viz. the Patron 's negative Interests in the Election and Maintenance of the Ministry seems to say as much as that he neither is that chearful and liberal Giver whom the Lord loves nor that he looks upon God who hath promised to pay and requite him to be a sufficient Pay-master and therefore that he will betake himself to a recompence by this unsutable reserve XII Secondly That which is once given away and consecrate to the Lord for pious Uses is no more his that gave it as is clear from the case of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. and therefore no man can expect to retain any private Interest in it It is elegantly said by Emanuel Comnenus the Emperor Novel 1. de execus Test Christum haereden scribere quis videtur cum pauper ibus substantias suas dividi praecipit cum enim Mendicans accipit Christus astat ac una cum illo manuâ— porrigit Quatenus namque inquit uni ex minimâ—â— hisce meis fratribus fecistis mihi fecistis c. That is a man seems to design Jesus Christ for his Heir when he ordains his goods to be distribute to the poor for when a beggar receives Almes Christ himself stands by
and stretcheth forth his own hand with him for in as much says he as you did it to the least of my Brethren you did it to me c. XIII But to clear this yet farther it may be observed that any Right a Patron can pretend to give a Pastor to his maintenance is quoad the Pastor but a groundless pretence and so a super vacaneous and useless grant the Pastors Right to his maintenance being fully established in his person by his lawful Call to the Ministry and his faithful discharge of it So that unless the Patron will pretend that he can put a Minister in a spiritual capacity and so claim the power of Ordination which is indeed Christ's Power committed to his Ministers as well as that of Election he can give him no right to his maintenance but such as will be superfluous For as abundantia non vitiat so neither does it strengthen or confirm a right And tho' what the Patron gives should be granted to be a confirmation yet it can give no new right confirmatio enim nihil novi juris addit sed antiquum jus tantum roborat it being the Pastors spiritual capacity Mat. 10.10 Gal. 6.6 1 Tim. 5.18 and faithful discharge of his duty and that only which gives him a full and unquestionable Title to his Wages XIV Next it may be observed very Naturally that if what a man hath once given away and devoted to the Lord for pious uses be no more his that gave it then certainly the founder of a benefice cannot expect to retain to himself and much less to his heirs and successors a negative Interest in the maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel with so little use and advantage and so much prejudice to the Church And therefore tho' such Acts of Favour and Charity as are freely and gratuitously bestowed on the Church seem to plead more for the Rights of Patronage than such as are done per modum debiti or for satisfyng of a Moral duty and obligation to which the Donor or Founder was previously engaged yet there is none who perform such Acts out of the singleness of their Heart and from a true principle of advancing the Glory of God and a sincere motive of Compassion to their poor Brethren that will sciens volens wittingly and willingly desire or expect a Priviledge so useless and yet so hurtful to the interest of the Church and the good of Souls This were indeed a Flie in the Appothecaries Oyntment XV. The thrid sort of Benefactors to wit those who confer Favours on the Church partly per modum debiti and partly per modum Eleemosynae partly by way of debt and partly by way of almes and free Charity are such persons as have some civil interest and estate within the bounds where the Kirk lyes but not the whole And therefore their building or doting of a Kirk is neither wholly Duty nor wholly Charity but part of both They being indeed previously oblidged thereto but are not oblidged to do it alone and without the Concurrence of the rest of that bounds for bearing their share of the common Burden seing he that so dots or builds is but one of many having interest And those Benefactors can as little as the former expect to be gratified with the Priviledge of Patronage for the Reasons already mentioned For if neither he who acts in such matters wholly per modum debiti nor he who acts wholly and intirely per modum Eleemosynae can with any reason assume or expect such a priviledge Then also by a necessary consequence he who Acts in bestowing such favours on the Church partly the one way and partly the other hath as little if not less ground than either of them to expect or assume the same XVI There is a fourth sort of Benefactors if they deserve the Name and those are such as do their good deeds meerly out of ostentation and from a Pharisaical principle of Vain glory to be seen of Men to gain the applause of the World and not to advance the Glory of God or the good of his Church And for the most part those Men bestow their Favours where there is little or no need seldom or never consulting how or where they may place them with most advantage for the publick good but satisfie themselves if they can place them in such a way as they may bear most bulk in the eyes of the World. This is a truth so undenyable that it was certainly from this vanity that the Monastries Nunneries Abbacies Pryories Cloysters c. both in this and other Nations before the Reformation from Popery and in other Popish Countries to this day were endowed with so many rich livings that in some places they possest near or above a third of the whole Land in others near a full half as the devotion as it was then termed or rather the superstitious folly of a simple and ignorant People and the influence and interest of a cheating and idle Clergy inclined them Thus many Church-men turned in effect to be Temporal Princes And generally the interest of the Clergy in the Legislative Power and Exercise of the Government of these Nations became very large upon the account of the great Interest and Authority they enjoyed by such ample Revenues and Possessions which was the true Original of making the Clergy the third Estate in the Conventions and General Councils of State both in these Lands and else where But those Benefactors if they may be so named are so fully exposed by our Blessed Lord in that 6. of Matth. and elsewhere Matth. 6. that it will be needless to insist any farther upon them And certainly this sort of men less than any of the former deserve any trust or priviledge in the Church of God Their vanity and self-seeking which is the principal or rather the only Motive and Design of all their Actions deserves much rather the Censures of the Church than any encouragment by trusting them with a power that they are utterly incapable to manage with any measure of Wisdom or Discretion which are Qualities that men of such a vain and ostentive humor are seldom or never blessed with XVII As for the last sort of Benefactors To wit such as from an opinion of Merit confer such good Offices on the Church thinking thereby to deserve life and happiness at the hands of God and going about to establish their own righteousness by the works of the Law it is little wonder that such men who do so highly injure and rob our blessed Lord and only Saviour of the honour of that compleat ransom and satisfaction payed by him to divine Justice for the sins of his elect as to think that they can merit eternal felicity by their own works which is to say in effect that they will be their own Saviours and that Christ died in vain I say it is but little wonder that such men should expect to be gratified with
of Friends and Servants and many times from Motives and to Ends of a more dangerous and fatal consequence to send Presentations in favours of such as they never saw in the face nor so much as ever heard of either before or after that time without making the least shadow of a previous Inquiry into the qualifications and condition of either Preacher or People They being as unfit and incapable to discern in either as they were unable and inconcerned to improve any discovery they should make for the good of the People by looking out and presenting a Pastor that might be fit and proper for them Vbi ille Canon says Athanasius ut a palatio mittatur is qui futurus est Episcopus In Epist ad vitam Solit. agentes Neither need we forget how many that entered to the Ministry in this method were the occasion of no small trouble to the Church of God in this Nation SECT XIV The power of Patronage hath been grosly abused and scandalously offensive without any necessity or use I. THE next Ground I shall insist upon against the pretended right of Patronage is That as it is no Divine Institution but clearly destructive of the Institutions of Christ and of the Natural Freedom and Interests of the Church considered as a society So it is likewise an useless and unnecessary Invention and hath been the Fountain and Occasion of many gross abuses and most scandalously offensive to all sorts of Christians in the Church of God. And therefore ought not to be tolerat and allowed in any Christian Church or State. II. As for its usefulness or necessity I cannot understand neither have I ever heard any thing pretended in its defence from this Head. And it is impossible any end or use of it can be thought on but what may very well and far better be attained by the due and orderly method of Election set down in the Scriptures For as the Church is sufficiently and much better provided for in that method by her infinitely wise and loving King and Head so there needs no other right to give a Minister of the Gospel a lawful Title to his Maintenance and Living but his spiritual Capacity and faithful discharge of the duties of his Function The Workman says our Lord is worthy of his wages so that unless the Patron will pretend that he can state a Minister in a Spiritual Capacity and so assume a power of Ordination as well as of Election and truly he hath as good ground to claim the one as the other he can give him no right to his Maintenance as we have already proven And therefore such a power is not to be tolerate in the Church by any Christian Magistrate who ought to use all his Power and Authority for God and the edification of his People by being a terrour to evil doers and removing of such corrupt and useless Institutions as put an obstruction in the way of the precious Ordinances of Jesus Christ for the Calling of such as may be fittest for the Ministerial Charge as being the most special ordinary Means both of his own and his People's Eternal Happiness III. And the Church having in her purest times enjoyed her lawfully called Pastors e're such a thing as Patronage was heard of in the World and when she had no Christian Magistrate to protect and defend her It cannot but seem wonderful Quorsum or for what end such an Invention shall now be maintained in and over the Church when there are Christian Magistrates who Virtute Officij are bound to plead for and defend her in her Rights and Liberties seing all that is necessar in reference to the Call of a Gospel Ministry and to their true Right and Maintenance is far better provided for by Methods of Divine Appointment The right of Patronage is as little and less useful and I am sure far more prejudicial in this cafe than in the Call and Maintenance of Men of other Professions such as Lawyers Phisicians and common Mechanicks Only men have still a greater itch to be medling in the matters of God without a lawful Call than in other things that of their own Nature are subject and by Divine Appointment are left to a humane Regulation nitimur in vetitum And therefore as we had once good reason to bless God that the publick Authority of the Nation in the Year 1649. had abolished this corrupt custom so on the other hand it is to be regrated that there hath not been that same sense of Justice since with a suteable acquiescence to their so just and rational Determination especially considering that if there was any prejudice or loss of Patrimony sustained it was on the Church's part and not on the Patron 's as the Act 1649. will easily clear to any that will be at the pains to peruse it IV. In this manner do all Protestant Divines and our own Writers in particular argue against the superstitious Corruptions and Ceremonies of the Romish and English Churches And the truth is if we would but allow our selves calmly and without heat and prejudice to consider the matter it cannot but be very surprysing to see that men who pretend to act for the good and edification of the Church should yet hazard her Peace and Unity and the scandalizing and offending or the marring of the progress of their poor Brethren in the ways of God by forcing and violently imposing upon them as the only terms of Communion under the pain both of Church Censures and Legal Punishments The practice of what themselves confess to be at best but indifferent and no way necessar either upon the account of a Divine Command or Moral Use And which their Brethren upon solid and undenyable Grounds taken from the Word of God and the Principles of the Reformation believe to be superstitious and sinful Especially since they are forced to acknowledge that these Institutions in which they both agree are not only Lawful but do likewise abundantly satisfie all the necessary ends for which they are appointed there being nothing alledged in favour of these superstitious and unnecessary additions but a pityful and empty shadow of worldly decency and fashionablness so much decryed by the word of God Be not ye conform to this present evil world says the Apostle and which in no equity can ever come in competition with the least hazard of losing the Church Unity or offending the meanest of Christ's Followers These Practices must certainly render such men justly obnoxious to the heavy charge of Schism and to that Wo denounced by our blessed Lord against such as should be instrumental see Matth. 18.7 in bringing divisions and offences into the Church V. But to leave this and come to the next brench of this consideration we may observe that as there are few or no institutions either Civil or Ecclesiastick but what by reason of the weakness and wickedness of men are lyable to be abused and one way or another
morally impossible it should be otherwise for when people see themselves disappointed of a person more worthy and acceptable on whom they had set their Eye for a Pastor and another obtruded upon them in his place meerly by the Patron 's Election to whom they never consented and a Legal Force put upon both them and the Presbitry to receive the Person Presented and to give him the Maintenance due to their lawful Pastor How is it possible so long as men are men and subject to passion and weakness but that the effect of such untoward methods should be to produce a very cold backward and unchearful Submission and Obedience to such Pastors There being nothing that more alienates men's minds and affections than such courses and Love being the main ingredient in Reverence and that the great Ground of a chearful and hearty Submission is it any wonder to see this a mising where there is so much pains taken to destroy that which breeds it or how is it possible that a People can be perswaded that a Pastor is sent of God for their good when they see that he hath stept out of God's way and hath not entered by the right door of Christ's apointment XX. Beside all this the whole Nation can witness that this method of forcing Ministers upon People without or against their consent and inclinations hath had very sad and scandalous effects by raising of Riots and Tumults to the great hazard of both parties as well at the time of the entry as afterwards besides the loss and trouble the People sustained by subsequent prosecutions at Law upon that account Many other instances might be given of the gross abuses and scandals occasioned by this corrupt and useless priviledge but these may suffice And the truth is It is no savory imployment to rake into such a Dunghil of Corruption XX. Only I cannot omit to observe that which is the most Natural Effect of the unwarrantable mixture that appears in such a Call to the Ministry For beside the bad influence this may have on People to raise a just distaste and prejudice in their minds against such ministers It cannot but also be very hurtful to a Minister himselfe in marring his confidence and obstructing his comfort in performing the duties of his function when he sees himselfe disabled especialy in times of trial and persecution to behave in the discharge of his trust with that vigor and confidence that becomes a Sent Servant of Jesus Christ and a Workman that needs not be ashamed To this purpose 2 Tim 2 15. 2â— Cor. 4.1 there is a passage of the Apostle Paul in the second Epistle to the Corinthians very remarkable where he founds the cause of his not fainting in the Work of the Lord in the midst of difficulties upon the assurance he had of his having received the Call of his Ministry from no other hand but that which had been the Fountain of Mercy to him Having received this Ministry says he as we have received Mercy therefore we faint not And hence it is that generally in all the Epistles directed to the several Churches The Writer still begins with his Title of Apostle Servant of Christ Elder c. thereby intimating that their great ground of Confidence and Comfort in delivering the Message of the Gospel was founded on the assurance they had of their Lawful Call to the Ministry XXI This is a Truth that hath been confirmed by the experience of several Ministers in this Church For tho' some of them were both faithful and diligent in their duty to the intire satisfaction of their People yet when they came to discover the sinfulness of their entry by this unwarrantable method of Patronage they have been kept under long and sad exercise of Spirit and put to serious and deep humiliation before the Lord e're they could attain to any measure of confidence that they were authorized of God to deliver a Message in his Name or could get their Conscience brought to any calm and quiet from the fears of being under the guilt of such as run unsent or could think they had a good right to that Peace which our blessed Lord left as his last and farewell token to his Disciples and in them to all his Sent Servants John 20.21 as the natural and kindly Effect of their Lawful Call to the Ministry Peace be unto you says our Blessed Lord as my Father hath sent me so send I you XXII And many Ministers who have sitten down with too much satisfaction as to such a Call and way of Entry have been made to see that such of their Brethren and People as had skill to discern the Spirits and know the Voice of Christ in his Sent Servants had thoughts of them very different from their own These being able to discover in such Pastors but very little of that assistance and support which the Lord ordinarly vouchsafes to bestow on his own Ambassadors sent upon such a weighty and important Errand as the delivery of a Message of Reconciliation with God to a People in his Name XXIII Others have but too much endeavoured to stiffle and bear down the checks of their Conscience in this matter but have found themselves very much straitned to own avow as a Faithful Pastor should that they had a Warrand and Commission to speak to their People in the Name of Christ And if at any time they ventured upon it their Conscience would stare them in the face and tell them that their people did with too much reason suspect their sincerity in it seing their entry was not by the right Door but that in some one or moe steps they had clumb up another way XXIV And as in times of trial and difficulty the checks of a man's Conscience do ordinarly turn more sharp and uneasy so at such times especially the comfort of such Ministers as entered by Patrons have proven very faint and cold and the truth is it is but little wonder That such as have no sparks to warm them at in this case but these of mens kindling have this from the Lord's hand that they shall lye down in sorrow Esay 50.11 Confidence and Comfort in these matters especially are mutual Supports and Strengthners of each other and there is no such ground in the World for both as that calm serenity of Mind and peace of Conscience which flowes from the assurance a man hath of having regulate his Actions especially when they relate to the matters of God and his Church by the Divine and Unerring Rules of the Scripture XXV And tho' many pious and worthy Persons have entered to the Ministry in this method yet it is to be considered that multa sunt toleranda in Ecclesiae aut Reipublicae statu perturbato quae non sunt approbanda I shall not determine how farr such a toleration may be extended but sure I am to argue from their practice at a time when entry to the Ministry
against all such negative interests in the Election or Maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospel as are not of Divine appointment and institution IV. Next Bishops have no more warrand from Scripture for such an interest and priviledge than others have And the power of Patronage hath been as grosly abused if not more and as scandalously offensive and I am sure more prejudicial to the interests of the Church and to the thriving of Religion when in the hands of the Bishops than when in the hands of other persons And there is no ground from Scripture either by precept promise or example that any one Church Officer should ordinarly be intrusted with such an interest and priviledge in the Looking out Nomination and Election and in the Maintenance or Living of the Ministers of the Gospel V. But to cut of all farther debate we utterly disclaime any such Officer in the Church as a Bishop in a sense superior to or distinct from an ordinary preaching Presbiter or Elder These terms are of one and the self same signification in the Scripture as will appear to any that will be at the pains to read the Texts where ever the word Bishop is mentioned And I know no man or Angel that hath power to separate what the Spirit of God in the Scripture has joyned and made one and the same And consequently a Bishop can have no such priviledge Non entis nulla sunt accidentia nullae affectiones nullae proprietates VI. And tho' prelacy were a Lawful Office as it is not and tho' the Prelates were Successors to the Apostles as they most ridiculously pretend since as we already cleared it was impossible the design of their Office could admit of any Succession yet sure I am in this priviledge of Patronage they never did nor doe follow the example of the Apostles For even the Apostles themselves in the Election of Matthias to be one of their number made use of the Concurrence of the People And in the ordination of the Pastors of the Church they made use of the concurrence both of the Presbitry and People And if they joined the Presbitry and People and admitted them to an interest in relation to the highest acts of the Ministerial Call they questionless also left them a share 1 Tim 4.14 in the Looking out Nomination and Election of the ordinary pastors Nam qui vult majus vult etiam minus Act 15.2 25.27 Act 13.1 2.3 Act. 14 27 28 Nay which is more the ordinary Teachers of the Church and others did concurr in sending out of the very Apostles themselves to some special pieces of their Ministry And accordingly the Apostles think it not below their Dignity to give them an account how they had behaved in their Commission So that let the Prelates pretend Succession to whom they will they can never pretend to be Successors of the Apostles to whom a Sole power of Jurisdiction and Ordination was as much a Stranger as to any Presbyter in the Church VII But lastly if by Ecclesiastick Patronages the Lawful Church Judicatories be meant tho' in that case both the Title of Patronage and the extent of power thereby understood must be rejected yet there is no doubt but the Judicatories of the Church have a very special hand and interest in the Looking out Nomination and Election of the Ministers of the Gospel and have a power Ministerially to authorize them for their office and to send them forth to Labour in the Lord's Vine Yard And by consequence do also Ministerially invest them with a Right to meddle with their Maintenance A Ministers only Right thereto being a Lawful call to the Office and Faithful discharge of his duty in it as we have formerly marked SECT XIX A pretence from the failings and mistakes of the Church Judicatories c. I. THE last pretence that I shall notice is this that Presbitries and People are not infallible but are subject to Mistake and Erre in the Election and Choice of Pastors as well as the Patrons And therefore the Patron 's Power of Election is no more injurious to the Church than she is to her self II. For answer to this it may be considered First That the lawful and ordinary method of Electing the Pastors of the Church being an Ordinance and Institution of Divine Appointment and the power of Patronage on the contrary being nothing else but an useless Invention of Men and a most groundless and unreasonable Usurpation upon the Church and clearly inconsistent with and destructive of the Institutions of Jesus Christ The Church and People of God may very safely and confidently rely and depend upon the Lord for his Blessing and direction in the right choice of the Ministers of the Gospel when they Act in a way of his own appointment which they who Act in so unjust and unwarrantable a method as this of Patronage have no ground to expect And tho' the Lord for wise and holy ends may some times leave his Church and People to themselves and let them fall in errors and mistakes in this as well as in other cases yet duty must not be forsaken for fear of failings in the performance We must both Pray to God for a discovery of what is duty when it is unclear to us and when it is discovered we must Pray for strength and assistance to perform it a right and then set about it in the Lord's strength with a humble confidence and dependance upon him for his blessing and direction who hath never said to the house of Jacob seek ye my face in vain III. Next tho' as is already said there be no institution either in Church or State but what by Reason of the Weakness and Corruption of Men may be abused yet this is no sufficient ground for laying aside an institution that is either morally necessary or positively enjoined by God The only rule and remedie in this case is Tollatur abusus et maneat usus let the matter be regulate by Acting in it according to the word of God which fully and clearly discovers what both Church-Judicatories and People may or may not do in the case But â—n the contrary the abuse and offensiveness of unnecessary unwarrantable institutions does strongly militate against their farther use If the Presbitry do at any time miscarry in a way that they are warranted by God to follow we must pray that God may purge his own House and purifie the Sons of Levi And the help and assistance of Superior Church-Judicatories must be made use of And in cases of general and publick defection the Civil Magistrate may employ his power circa Sacra But those mistakes can never warrand us to leave the institutions of the infinite love and wisdom of God and betake our selves to our own weak and witless inventions in the matters of God. Christ's promised presence with his Church may be a sufficient encouragement for his People to cleave and adhere to him in wayes of his own appointment Whereas those who go astray and follow crooked Paths ingyring themselves as Officious and Busie Bodies in the affairs of the Church without a Lawful Call can expect nothing but that God in his Justice should leave them to be a Snare both to themselves and others Certainly were these things really believed as all profess they do peoples practise would be very far different from what it is But such is the Atheism of mans heart thâ—â— while we confess the truths of God with our Lips our Hearts are too oft far from him IV. I begin now to be weary of noticeing such trifles And the truth is it might be amazing to hear men otherways rational offer such empty pretences instead of Solid and Convincing reasons if the cause would admit of any better But it is Vitium Causae and so we need no more admire to see a weakness inevitably cleave to the ablest Wits in the defence of what is unjustifiable than to see the strongest of men succumb in raising a weight that is above his natural strength to undergo The strength of mens Spirits as well as of their Bodies have their limits and are not infinite And since I mind nothing farther that can be objected but what with very much ease may receive a full solution from the Grounds already represented I think it will be needless to give either the Reader or my self any farther trouble on this Subject V. I shall only add that it is the duty of all God's People in this land to wrestle with God that he may incline the hearts of all Ranks of Men in their several stations and capacities to return to a hearty and cordial Compliance with and a chearful Acquiescence in the just and rational Determinations that were once made by publick Authority in this Nation both in this and other steps of a true Reformation And that the Lord may not be provoked by a too open Contempt of the Gospel of Peace the Crying Sin of the Nation and our sinful slighting of his Mercies to suffer his Church after so much wrestling to sink under her present Bondage and Captivity by reason of this and other unjust and grievous usurpations into which after so many and great Deliverances we are again for our Sins brought into Subjection FINIS