interests are concerned are free to it If they can and doe why may not the same authority determine the circumstantials of the Second and Fourth Commandment as well as of the Third Are they not equally Precepts of Divine Worship And why may not the same require our conformity to their Constitutions in the adjuncts of religious Worship as well as command and enforce submission to their Acts for the modifying limiting and enlarging the duties of the Second Table Is not holy Text as much a rule of perfection for the Offices of Justice and Charity as for religious Duties Is not Christ the Lawgiver to both And can there be a fairer acknowledgment of the plenitude of his power than that by Commission he hath settled and delegated his Officers here on earth to make rules for the honest and honorary performance of what he hath indispensably commanded What therefore they by their Legantine power duly executed do order is ordered by him Quod quis per alium c. he that heareth you heareth me SECT 2. Ceremonies thus stated are in some degree necessary as we usually call ornamentals in an House necessaries because such is the exigence of all external actions that without them they cannot be solemnly performed which in all religious affairs as well as civil transactions ought to be respected All Societies have their ceremonial Observations as well as fundamental Constitutions to which they have so great respect that they suspect these to be sore shaken when the other are removed and the Catholick Church hath ever thought Ceremonies so subservient to the decent regular and reverend performance of Christian Institutions that without them the Service could not receive nor retain its due value and esteem In the Christian Community Unity and Uniformity are commanded duties and all Christians have hitherto believed Ceremonies are the best fences and securities for them and such as add much lustre and honour to exercises of Religion How great a part of the judicial Law was Ceremonial not onely by types and figures of good things to come which as carnal Ordinances were to expire when the fulness of time came but appendants and attendants of those good duties then enjoyned which are not abrogated by Christ That Text Matt. 5. 17. respects not one division of the Law but every part so that the whole remains in force to receive its perfection by the Gospel The moral Law though nulled in its presumed ability to justification which the grace of Jesus Christ supplieth yet liveth as a rule of obedience The judicial stands still in its full strength in matters of common equity though as to those Laws which peculiarly respected the Jewish State its rigour is abated to supply which God hath given to supreme Powers authority to enact such Decrees as are conducible to the great ends of Government The Ceremonial as it consisted of weak and beggarly rudiments is determined yet it holds as a directory to the Church for signification For one great end thereof was to teach us to serve God regularly and reverently Amesius Med. Theol. l. 2. c. 15. n. 16. confesses Institutions merely Ceremonial do yet contain in them a general equity and do yet teach us that certain fitting days therefore fitting Rites by parity of reason be assigned for God's publick Worship Substantia Legis Ceremonialis est perpetua Zanch. de Relig. Observ c. 15. Aphor. 4. J. Frig. p. 9. of his Ref. Pol. thus expresseth it in reference to the whole There is no abrogation well there may be some derogation which he hath borrowed from the Canonists and Casuists who thus distinguish Derogatur Legi cùm pars detrahitur abrogatur cùm prorsus tollïtur Barth Fum. Tit. Abrog and he thus explains it A derogation doth but expound an Edict as we see the Gospel derogateth from the Law by taking away the Letter and requiring it be taken after the Spirit now the spirit of the Law is the equity thereof but the letter is the rigour of the words We have a Saying the reason of the Law is its soul and every sense affixed contrary to the reason of its enacting is unreasonable Now as in several Statutes of Repeal some useless or prejudicial things are nulled but what conduceth to good ends is by cautious proviso's strengthened so the Mosaical Law in those things which were burthensome and inconvenient is quite out of all but those that are no way derogatory to the Discipline of Christ and his easie yoke and which are very agreeable with the Constitution of Christian Society and community have their full virtue It was the observation of Melancthon that the fourth Commandment was Morale praeceptum de Ceremoniali which if I understand him aright the ultimost reason of the Law is moral but what is specially commanded is Ceremonial and if so then plainly it is moral that some things should be Ceremonial And because Ceremonies have been by all almost adjudged serviceable to the common interchangeable good of Religion therefore they are not to be esteemed trivial or superfluous for nothing is so which is a concurring good mean to a good end or hath a social good end in good resolutions SECT 3. If the quarrel be at their significancy certainly the more significant they are the more expedient also they are and the Church hath good authority to expedients for what is both lawfull and laudable is in that degree necessary and if S. Paul thought it incumbent on every single Christian to provide things honest in the sight of all men Phil. 4. 8. then much more is the Church bound to take care in that respect for her self and her members Now these honest things which are to be provided are such as in the approbation of all wise men whether good or bad are grave venerable attractive and obliging and such are our Ceremonies which are experimented to be wholsome preservatives of the golden mean betwixt nakedness and vanity veneration and superstition gaudiness and rudeness and therefore of the kind of those honest things But S. Paul is yet more particular seeming to put significant Ceremonies sub Praecepto 1 Tim. 2. 8. I will therefore I appoint it by Apostolical authority saith Diod. that men lift up holy hands by this Ceremony saith he to express the devotion of the heart Pisc seconds him the lifting up the hands says he is a sign of the elevation of the heart with this proviso not that this gesture is so necessary that we are indispensably tyed to it For we find the Publican used it not but smote upon his Breast yet therein he was a true Conformist who observed an uncommanded significant rite according to the then received custome if Dr. Lightfoot's warranty be good that in Christ's time they prayed with their hands laid on their breasts the right hand being placed on the left Prostration was no commanded Rite yet approved 2 Chron. 7. 3. All these had their proper significations that of lifting up the
and perfected it with a happy success even to the envy and admiration of the Christian world Certainly there hath not in any age in any part of the world in that space of time appeared such a race of Kings as our five Reformed Princes for all manly Kingly and Christian accomplishments neither hath there been a more Clergy-like Clergy than hath been under their Reigns We can esteem them to be no other than such as S. Paul Tit. 3. 10. notifies to be men subverted that 's desperate utterly perverted in understanding and will whom the Governour of the Church is to reject excommunicate him after two admonitions which if they work no good effect he is to reject with a severe censure take no pains to dispute with them any more hearken no more to their Replies and Objections faith Diod. they have by their contumacy and non-submission to their Governours put themselves into an helpless and hopeless condition they have excommunicated themselves without the Sentence of a Judge saith Dr. Ham there is no hopes of them and so leave them to the judgment of heaven as hath been accustomed What shall we say of half Conformists conforming Non-conformists who when they take the fit can come to Church and attend there by outward Conformity This will not clear them from the guilt of Schism bonum est ex integra causa and it 's to be feared there is hypocrisie in the case outward conformity may cheat the Law and mock men but it cannot be an holy living acceptable sacrifice to God because the good works of Faith must be done with a good and honest heart in sincerity and truth out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. and every duty must be done with respect to God's Commandment But do you see them come to Church Thanks to the King who will have Laws put in execution but when they come they come as Countrey-men do to Fairs and Markets some sooner some later and with the same reverence that they enter their Inn some not at the beginning or not till Sermon begin some go out in an hurly burly after the Sermon is ended this is contrary to the Act of Vniformity so that this coming to Church is neither Christian nor Legal Tea but many come early neither loll nor lubber nor hang down their heads like a bulrush as too many do but hold out to the last and demean themselves unless sometimes through inadvertency as the Law requireth This is confessed but for all that it will not denominate them true Members of the Church of England because many of them dispute scruple deny and undervalue the Authority of the Church rebell against its Governours Associate pack Juries in a design to ruine the Church and as opportunity serves take to a Conventicle hold correspondence with its professed enemies familiarly converse with the excommunicated by the Church and now and then commend them for their piety nay we are sure several of these late Conspiratours and Associatours were such as these all which acted directly contrary to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and shall these pass for true Conformists who are but counterfeits do not the grossest Fanaticks reproach and upbraid us with them when they tell us tauntingly Take up your Church of England men you often declaim against us as Traitours and Rebels but who are such now Were not most of the Conspiratours such as observed and kept the Church They did so in part but we disown them because we look upon them as the most dangerous enemies to the Crown and the Church being most false to both by their juggling pretences to them both Church-Papists and Church-Puritans do undermine the Church whilst others profess an open hostility against it but a declared enemy without is not so dangerous as a pretended traiterous friend within But what esteem is to be given to new Converts Thanks to the King again my Lord Chief Justice and the Reverend Judges we have old Converts too if they prove not better than most of them have done we have no great reason to confide in them If the new be Converts indeed they are to be treated with all civility and by love without all dissimulation to be entertained and welcomed with the same rejoycings and caresses the Father ordered for his penitent Son to lay them on our shoulders as the Shepherd his stray Sheep because we have found what was lost yet this we cannot either with prudence or safety project till we have good security for their sincerity Let the old Converts be as forward and active for the service to the Crown and Church as they have been for the Ordinances of the Junto 's Keepers and Oliver as respective to the Episcopal Clergy as they were to the Presbyterian Trimmers c. then welcome good Friends if not adieu but for this we need not look into their hearts they may be known by their fruits and overt Acts Let the new bring forth fruits worthy of repentance promote the concerns of the Crown and Church as faithfully and strenuously as they have of the Faction of Conventiclers and Associatours let them come and welcome but if they cross or the King's service and dally in their duty good night to them also What is your opinion of those learned men who think there is no determinate Government of the Church I do not like a walking Church but for this Mr. Alexander Henderson in his Second Paper thinks that is built on a sandy foundation which is not built upon the foundation of Christ and the Apostles and all they doe so who content themselves with the Constitutions of the Church and munificence of Princes I desire them to satisfie his late Majesty's Quaere How can it be made appear that our Saviour and his Apostles did so leave the Church at liberty as they might totally alter its Government at their pleasure I think if we once think of an ambulatory Church-Government at the next turn we must expect an ambulatory Creed Lastly Whereas we have had four successive excellent Princes to maintain the Reformation and many Parliaments too and one King with his Clergy thought it a necessary duty to reform this Church it s therefore the indispensable duty of their Subjects to conform not barely because it was established by their authority though that is necessarily required but also from the nature reasons excellency and goodness of the establishment it self which to evidence is the design of the following Treatise both in regard of it self and in comparison of other late Models both à priori and à posteriori which if I have sufficiently cleared to the satisfaction of any considering men who are willing to be convinced or confirmed I have done one part of a Christian Priest of the Reformed Catholick Church of England No Reformation OF THE Established Reformation EVER since the Reformation was happily compleated in this Kingdom there hath
Diocesan or Patriarchal Churches as well as Rome yet even this would justifie our Separation because it was our duty to reunite our selves to the Catholick Church all several Churches being but partes simulares homogeneal parts of the whole Whereupon it followeth that that Church which keeps closest to the primitive Catholick Pattern and holds the nearest alliance with it is the purest and that several Churches having such a relation to and dependence upon it neither particular persons nor particular Churches are to act as divided Bodies by themselves which is the ground of all Schism but are to teach and to be taught and to doe all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned to the whole and as Members of the same indeterminable Society Sect. 4. Suppose we should yield to another project of Reformation the issue will be confusion and desolation for if we may conclude their intentions from their former practices and present principles the design is to over-rule or abolish all their way was to strike at all root and branch and now they are for removing the Laws Their course of regulation is to rase the Walls of the City if they can if not to undermine them Down with the Church of England is the Popish Plot and the direct way to this is to divide it All the Papist Pot Cannons and Sophisms could never batter or shake our Jerusalem till some of the Citizens thereof made breaches in it Nay the Romanists never made an approach upon it till the Puritans had made an assault these gave the other both the opportunity and encouragement to attack it Tush say the Popelings let us levell this the Mushrome Sectaries will either fall in the ruines of it or else into our hands they have been very serviceable Tools to us in all our attempts and no doubt will be so on to the end if ever we effect it and then we know how to engage their tender Consciences let it but appear to them which we will not fail to doe they can gain by the barter they forsooth have a new light a new dispensation of Providence and they must wait on Providence and follow that light Sect. 5. What will the consequence of this work be if it go on Is it to remove what is established before we resolve where to fix This were certainly mad work to demolish old Structures before we have advised of the fashion of the new Perhaps a model is fansied but are all the Dissenters agreed about it When they had power too much and time too long to resolve on a settled way even then they neither would or could unite nor ever will or can This we are sure of none of the schismatical Parties can have their own ends unless all be taken away which crosseth their humours or interests and if this be done by violence or by Law not one of ten shall have his own ends which because they cannot obtain their feuds will be high till one party get the full mastery and then the Plot of Union is marred But who shall be taken into this motion to have the benefit of it If all nothing can follow but confusion without remedy and scandal beyond an Apology If one onely Party which yet is unknown what it is then the others if they dare will stand out and oppose it if not they will murmur and repine and thus expostulate Why should they be secluded Members debarred of the privilege of Comprehension This say they we can say for our selves we were drawn into the Lines of Communication by the persuasions and solicitations of their gratified Partizans and Comrades and though they say it have as much promoted the good Old Cause In this indeed we are all agreed we shall never enjoy Liberty of Conscience till we have power to kill and take possession neither likely to have Free Trade till without any respect to Law we can plunder and sequester Malignants and shall we who are fully accorded with them be laid aside If it be pretended the favoured will give good security for their good behaviour for the future whereof there is yet no evidence we are as free as they not doubting to affirm we are the more sober and peaceable in whom there is a more sweet and gratious spirit of love and zeal and have been more constant to their principles than they For we can prove many of them were active Conformists soon after proved persecuting Presbyterians then dough-baked Independents and now again have tacked about and are Cologueing Compliers However if some be received into favour and others rejected there is plain partiality in the case if all must be entertained a downright unaccountable Schism follows But to wave the Persons to be comprehended what Things must be granted them for an Union If onely a few unsatisfactory alterations be tendered the project is baffled we should be as far from Unity as now we are for then the clamour would be our burthens are a little mitigated but not removed our grievances are abated but not fully satisfied we must not leave an hoof behind us when we go out of Egypt If many and great alterations be submitted to then they triumph in their Conquests they had not onely Providence on their side but reason also and argument and then we shall hear of nothing in Pulpits Clubbs and Coffee-houses but stories of their mighty Acts that their Enemies are now under great convictions that they are the Godly conscientious Gods secret Ones and the good Old Cause must needs be God's Cause Having premised these Considerations let us next reflect upon the matters on which this motion of Reformation must proceed and first of that which is most opposed the Government CHAP. II. COncerning it the most proper method will be to discuss these following Propositions 1. That Church Government is necessary 2. That necessary Church Government ought to be one and the same throughout the Christian world at all times 3. That one Church Government is Episcopacy which hath prevailed ever since the first plantation of Christianity Sect. 1. Church Government is necessary for these reasons The Church is a Society which cannot subsist without it It is a Body whose parts are compacted each whereof hath its proper Office and Service it is that Body whereof Christ is the Head who therefore will provide for its preservation and peace by placing Governours over it which de facto he hath done 1 Cor. 12. 28. It is the House of God whereof Christ is the Lord who hath reserved this prerogative to himself to nominate and constitute the Stewards of his Houshold and Family as he did Luk. 12. 42. hence those commissionated by him are called the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God Therefore for any to exercise a power in his House who is not authorized by him or to reject those powers which he hath entrusted to provide for his Family and rule his House is a most sacrilegious invasion and
the Elderships should have the power of excommunicating all offenders even Princes themselves Hereupon in a just indignation he expressed his abhorrence of this bold seditious Proposition yet with great indiscretion he causelesly vented his wrath against Excommunication as it was a Church Discipline His Arguments improved by his Followers are these He supposed Excommunication did totally cut off the excommunicated from the internal and invisible Communion of the Church whereupon his Followers argued If the power of Excommunication be in the Church Officers then it lies in their power to save or damn men But his supposition is false and the inference of his Followers is wild as one and the most learned of them hath observed for he saith finis hujusmodi disciplinae c. The end of this discipline not final Sentence was is so still that the censured being deprived of the spiritual privileges of the Church they might be humbled to salvation This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth for its onely a barr from the external visible Society of Believers not to exclude men from heaven but to encline them to put themselves in a capacity to be received again into the peace of the Church for the enjoyment of those great privileges of holy commerce which all men religiously affected earnestly desire and value A method of Discipline which Christ and his Apostles thought proper to reduce and reclaim sinners It is medicinal in Saint Augustine's expression To. 9. Serm. de Poeniten med if that Tract be his ordained and applied for edification not destruction if for destruction it is for that of the Flesh that the Spirit might be saved 1 Cor. 5. 15. or it s a Chastisement the censured are thereby chastised of the Lord that they should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. 32. which Chastisement is not sweet or joyous for the present but grievous yet yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12. 11. 2. Excommunication say they is a censure inferring a civil Penalty therefore if the Church makes use of it she enlargeth her Phylacteries by an encroachment on the civil Power But where do those wrathfull Objectours find this or how can they prove it It was always reckoned in the Catalogue of spiritual gifts practised by the Church for spiritual ends and uses and exercised upon the members of the Church qua tales in that capacity onely if upon contempt hereof a civil Penalty was incurred this proceeded not from the quality and nature of the censure but from the authority of the civil Magistrate who so far respected the Church that he made provisions against the contempt of her Discipline That which the Church aims at is either to reduce the offender or to warn others or to discharge her duty in discountenancing and disowning dangerous prevailing Heresies Schisms and Scandals all which are of spiritual concernment and cognizance 3. The Bishops claim this power by Divine Right and why not Forsooth this is contrary to the Oath of Supremacy and sets up two Supremes in one Kingdom This is an high Charge I am persuaded if the great Turk was acquainted with this noble Argument he would in a rage destroy all the poor Christian Bishops in his Empire or else he would scorn and deride it as it justly deserveth For the Argument runs thus Ministers by a Divine Right challenge a power to baptize Proselytes communicate Christians and doe other offices belonging to their Functions Therefore they set up two Supremes in one Kingdom or thus The Scripture declareth the Holy Ghost made them Overseers to feed the Church of God sure they may pretend to Divine Right who derive their title from the Holy Ghost Therefore the Scripture contradicteth that Supremacy which it establisheth But in sober sadness did none of the first Christian Emperours or after Kings understand their Religion and Prerogative did they ever declare the Imperial and Episcopal power were incompatible were they all so blind they could not espie this so obvious an inconsistency or did any of our own great Councils before that of 40. ever make such a determination As for our own Kingdom we may without disparagement to their great wisedoms compare many of our Kings with the ablest of any or all of them King Henry the Eighth was a wise Prince one that would not bate an Ace of his Sovereignty yet he never scrupled at the Divine Right of Episcopacy Q. Elizabeth was as jealous of her Prerogative and as zealous for it as the highest and most masculine Spirit yet she reverenced and maintained the Order The greatest for Learning and Judgment the Father and the Son were as Prelatical as the Prelatists What King James his opinion was of Episcopacy is before related what it was concerning his Supremacy which he cogently asserted he thus expressed Premonition p. 108. It consists not in making Articles of Faith but in commanding obedience be given to the word of God in reforming Religion according to his prescribed will in assisting the spiritual Power this is to be noted with the temporal Sword in procuring due obedience to the Church mark this too in judging and cutting off all frivolous Questions and Schisms as Constantine did and finally in making a decorum to be observed in all things and establishing Order in all indifferent things King Charles the First of blessed memory hath above and beyond all others resolved the case in his answer to Henderson's Papers in his Reply to the Answer of the Isle of Wight Divines Rel. Car. fol. 691. and in his final Answer fol. 709. Sir Henry Spelman in his large History of Titles p. 157. thus stated it God hath committed the Tabernacle to Levi as well as the Kingdom to Judah and though Judah hath power over Levi as touching the outward Government even of the Temple it self yet Judah meddled not with the Oracle and the holy Ministery but received the will of God from the mouth of the Priest This is evident God for the promoting of Piety and Justice among men hath ordained two distinct Powers the Regal and the Sacerdotal which in the times of the Patriarchs were formally united and inseparably followed the first born of the male kind in every Family This he seemed to alter in the persons of Moses and Aaron investing Moses the younger Brother with the Regality Aaron the elder in the Priesthood both these received their Commissions from God Num. 16. Every power is the Ordinance of God but the Regal as Supreme the Sacerdotal as Subordinate which subordination is not essential or causal but moral by virtue of God's Constitution and accidental for Order's sake Certainly God who gives all power can order a subordination of powers derived from him the one to be superiour the other inferiour and God was pleased to dispose the distribution of those under the Mosaical dispensation that as the Priests were not to usurp the Regal for Abimelech was
Servant to Saul 1 Sam. 22. 12. and David was Lord to Nathan 1 Reg. 1. 24. so neither were the Kings to execute the Sacerdotal Function but were bound to consult their Priests and Prophets as Joshua was Eleazer Num. 27. 21. by God's appointment and David did Abiathar 1 Sam. 23. 6. We are sure Saul Jeroboam Vziah were severely checked for exercising such Acts as formerly belonged to the Priests not that they were debarred from regulating and providing for the due discharge of the Priestly Offices for that is a part of their duty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. and Arist l. 1. Ethic. c. 13. was herein Orthodox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they are to permit the Priests the exercises of their Functions and in matters of Religion to require the Law at their mouths Mal. 2. 7. which all Christian Kings have always granted Mr. Hobbs owneth that after the Ascension of our Lord the power Ecclesiastical was in Apostles after them in such as they had ordained and so delivered downward to others ordained by them and the great Erastian name hath yielded them a power to decide cases of Conscience and to declare what is lawfull what not This was respectively done but he fell far short of the mark for certainly to baptize Proselytes is a larger portion of power than bare interpreting or teaching the Law even a power to admit Members into the Christian Society and in all reason they who have power to admit have power occasionally to exclude hence that Gentleman was forced to confess they had power to bind and loose which in Scripture signifies to forbid and decree which is more than any Casuist or Preacher as such pretends to and is rather proper to a Legislative or Judicial Power which was sometimes exercised by the Church as when the Apostles upon a complaint where no less men than S. Paul and Barnabas were Advocates for the Plaintiffs passed an obligatory Decree Act. 15. 28. 16. 4. That Precept or Permission Tell the Church at least implies the Church had then power to take cognizance of trespasses and to say the civil Magistrate is that Church is ridiculous for then the sense would be Tell the trespass to Constantine three hundred years after it was committed for till then there was no certainly known Christian Emperour and Christians were not by the Discipline of the Church to seek for remedy at heathen Tribunals in the first instance Now as there was a subordination of these Powers so there was a distinction the one was the power of the Sword committed to the civil Magistrate to reward well-doers and to punish evil-doers of all kinds Rom. 13. 4. an Heretick a Schismatick an Idolater or Blasphemer as well as a Thief a Murtherer or a Traitor and this hath its immediate effect upon the outward man body and goods with reference to the concerns of this life Ezr. 7. 26. the other is the power of the Keys to labour in word and Doctrine to exhort and rebuke with all authority to rule well in spiritual concerns to bind and to loose 1 Tim. 1. 17. Tit. 1. 5. Matt. 16. 19. the proper operation whereof is upon the Soul with reference to the world to come There is a difference saith the above cited Joh. Frig. Refor Pol. between Dominion and Jurisdiction neither the Apostles nor chief Bishops exercised Dominion but their Offices having Jurisdiction p. 16. as in France saith he p. 17. the King hath the civil Dominion the Parliaments the Jurisdiction so in England the Queen hath the Dominion but the Bishops the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction hence Arist l. 10. Ethic. c. 9. n. 10. resolves Legislatours are differenced from Practitioners of Faculties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Professours are to Act Legislatours to prescribe rules for acting The King's power is the supreme that of Priests subordinate which difference proceeds not from the natural excellency of the one power above the other but from the all-wise disposition of God who is the chief power empowring as he is said to be natura naturans The Bishops with their subordinate Ministers are the Executours of Christ's last Will and Testament the King is the Supervisor and the Judge too to grant them Letters of Administration Bishops and Priests are the Ministers of Religion Kings are the Rulers of it and them The substance of the whole is the true Sons of the Church of England are the sole Assertors of the King's Supremacy not onely in expressions and complement but in fact and real operation not upon reasons of State or dictates of Prudence but the rule of Conscience which none of the Dissenters therefrom will allow Not the Erastians for they play at fast and loose with the King's Supremacy and by distinctions and limitations fix it certainly no where but make it as variable as their fortunes One of the most esteemed Partizans made this interpretation thereof The King is the supreme Governour but not the supreme Power Gallant Law Sophistry as if it were possible he could govern in chief who had not a power sutable thereto The Independents plead an exemption from it The Presbyterians utterly deny it Such a Supremacy as the Kings claimed and the two Houses of Parliament Erastian-wise craved indeed at first they did but beg it which after they plundred I disclaim said Henderson second Paper num 7. The true Nonconformist makes it the main work of his Book to charge it with Antichristianism The Pontificians perfectly abhor it The Prelatists are the onely defenders of it The Pontificians make Kings their Churches Ministers and Presbyterians make them their Kirk Ministers not the Ministers of God The Erastians and Independents are agreed they are originally the People's Ministers not God's The Prelatists assent with the Law of Christ and the Laws of the Kingdom the King is God's Minister Rom. 13. The Presbyterians and Independents resolve the Kingdom is in and under the Church and then the Government of that must be conformed to that of this If then the Presbyterians be rampant the civil Government must be Aristocratical If the Independents be the masters of Misrule it must be Democratical but if it happen the Erastians be the Sultans then the Game is King and no King at the best he is but their Trustee he must stand on his good behaviour and pass his accounts to the Patriots for the contracting good People If the Pope be the great Cham the civil Government must truckle SECT 3. To bring the matter nearer home there was a time when the blades of Fortune in 40 thought it prudent to declare they had no intentions for any alterations It was when the Earl of Essex his Army had scented and followed the Scent very hotly and when the King had objected the designs amongst them they formed a Declaration to renounce all such purposes Aug. 9. 42. as before they had protested against it as a slander and for once such an one as the Father of lies had
to enterprise any thing which might infringe or abate the tenour of the Law The Presbyters and Deacons of Rome writing to S. Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 7. are very positive Quid magis c. What can be more necessary either in times of peace or persecution than to exercise due severity according to Divine order S. Augustine fully Tract 11. in Joh. Admirantur Donatistae c. The Donatists wonder that Christian Princes should bestir themselves against the detestable dividers of the Church but to abate their wonderment he subjoyns this reason Si verò c. If they did not labour to suppress them how could they give an account to God of their power which they had received from him because it is the duty of Christian Kings that they in their times preserve their Mother the Church in peace That smart saying of his Ep. 73. Possid is not to be forgotten Magis quid agas c. Think rather what course you are to take with those who will not obey Laws and how to handle them than to trouble your self to make it appear that their disobedience to Laws is sinfull This also shews that the Christian Emperours did make severe Laws against the Schismaticks of those times so did Constantine and his Sons Aug. Ep. 166. Ed. Bas To. 2. so did Valentian Gratian Theodosius Arcadius but Justinian took the safest course for the Hereticks being great traders he came even with them none should trade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but the Orthodox the rest had six months given them to consider whether they would conform or no. Evident it is that as the Emperours handled them sometimes more severely sometimes more remissly as the exigence of their affairs and state of the Empire would permit the Church and State did accordingly enjoy their peace and quiet or else were pestered with intestine broils and mischiefs The Governours of the Church were not behind hand to doe their part for the Laodicean Council forbids them admission into the Church c. 6. prohibits any Orthodox man to give his Sons or Daughters in marriage unto them c. 31. yea not to pray with them c. 33. and though it be true S. Aug. and Optat. called the Donatists Brethren yet at last they would not that was after that they had rejected or laid aside the use of the Lord's Prayer as many of our Fanaticks have done But above all Solomon prohibits the removal of what had been long settled by paternal power Prov. 22. 28. which the Ephesine Fathers with many other Ancients have applied to Church Customs and Constitutions Hereupon all wise men have dreaded the dissolution and abolition which is the Puritans work of Reformation of what hath been firmly established by good authority finding the provoking and irritating of humours by medicines in order to a cure have oft proved mortal and have oft resolved a tolerable sore is much better than an hazardous application for a remedy The Lawyers have a saying Better a mischief than an inconvenience which can signifie onely this that a remedy by admitting onely an inconvenience hath oft proved more mischievous in the event than the mischief they endeavoured to avoid because every notable change of State is apt to produce a world of unavoidable mischiefs it being morally impossible upon the exchange of a mischief for an inconvenience to prevent a new set of mischiefs which are not ordinarily found till they be felt It is notorious that even preposterous and unseasonable pressures of present remedies against either some present conceited mischiefs or fansied inconveniences hath choked the heart of all the main and principal concerns which ought first to have been respected and frustrated all those great ends whose advancement hath been pretended and whilst the greatest care of our Patriot Reformers should have been neither to tempt God nor to weary and harden his Vicegerent they have most impudently imprudently and wickedly provoked both by their rebellious actings and preposterous courses Heu probatum est witness not to go farther back our late Exclusioners and No-money-men Num. 3. Admitting a change be submitted to this will not gain nor secure those that are given to change For upon every such change they are ready ever and anon to change their principles and practices The Donatists the great Grandsires of our Sectaries did so at first they yelped Quid Imperatori c. What had the Emperour to doe in Church affairs but S. Augustine tells us with the change of the times they changed their note for taking their time they petitioned Julian the Apostate supplicantibus Rogatiano Pontio saith Opt. for liberty of Conscience which he readily granted them upon an hellish design ut per sacrilegas dissensiones as S. Aug. that by their sacrilegious dissensions he might destroy Christianity hip and thigh root and branch if possible Thus it fared with our Boutefeus they sadly complained and heavily declaimed against those Laws and do yet which our most Christian Kings had enacted for the keeping their Subjects in obedience with penalties upon the seditious disturbers of the peace and transgressours of Law upon the same Donatistical principle yet upon the lamentable change of the times they procured from the Junto's Keepers and Noll cruel Edicts against the regular Sons of the Church which were executed as Bishop Sanderson truly noted without justice or mercy that they had reason to complain as S. Augustine did of the Donatists they were so mischievous ut Barbarorum facta c. That the actings of Barbarians were more mild than theirs Aug. Ep. 122. Num. 4. All the forementioned Petitioners did earnestly solicite for the Religion established by Law avouching a change thereof was unjust most impious and uncharitable They had reason so to doe for that above-cited Text Prov. 22. 28. doth at least insinuate that it is contrary to all Religion equity and prudence upon every motion or singular humour of absurd and unreasonable Male-contents or Phantasticks to discompose or unhinge what our prudent and fatherly Governours have industriously set for the publick peace and tranquillity and have been long received with the approbation and full satisfaction of all good and peaceable Subjects But there is another Text Prov. 24. 21 22 which probably wrought on them to be so zealous for the established Religion My son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both A sad caveat this destruction is awarded not onely on the changelings but on the moderate medlers who are agitatours mediatours and apologizers for them who though they will not justifie them yet dare plead for them speak a good word for them and as much as they can with safety to themselves palliate and smother their crimes These though stylo novo they be called or miscalled the moderate sober party yet they answer not the name For they are either crafty designing
been a great noise and bustle for a better in the chief Materials and Superstructures thereof It is confessed Doctrine Worship and Government are the Essentials of a regularly constituted Church each of which hath been impugned traduced and defamed The Doctrine hath been least debated though too much the Worship hath been more scrupled and with great heats opposed the Government most of all canvassed and bandied against Upon which accompt this being most contemned by all Sectaries and least respected by many who retain a kindness for the Doctrine and Worship is first to be reflected on where it will not be amiss before that be considered to premise something in general relating to all and every of the contested particulars CHAP. I. Sect. 1. MAny things conducing to the well-being of a regularly formalized Church may be and are in their kind alterable which yet as Mr. Calvin observes nec subinde nec temerè nec levibus de causis should not be altered Considered precisely in themselves they may but if the reasons of their Constitution be regarded they are practicè moraliter unchangeable These terms are borrowed from a great Jesuit yet made use of by several reformed Divines in several important instances and approved by them for this reason because the first reason of their origination is moral and perpetual Those of this nature being not merely occasional temporary Proviso's which often vary either upon some sudden unexpected emergent or for the avoidance of some greater evil but were ordained for the great end of Christian Society and in the ordination founded on the general rules of the Gospel Whereupon with the Greeks they passed as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Constitutions for their serviceableness to the great Concerns of publick Religion with the Latins as Divina Magisteria Divinae Dispositiones Divinae Sanctiones quae publicâ Lege celebrantur quas universa Ecclesia suscipit Mr. Calvin saith of them Sic sunt humanae ut simul sunt divinae which if I understand aright hath this clear sense They are humane in their composition but divine in their foundation and reason of their Constitution Sect. 2. To attempt a second Reformation will be a great reproach to our first Reformers who confessedly were men of great learning piety and zeal For if they failed in their undertaking either through ignorance oscitancy or interest it will be readily concluded they designed onely a Change and endeavoured an innovation which at once blasts their reputation and justifies all the imputations of their Romish Adversaries who impeached them of novelty and Schism And if we set upon a new refined Reformation as their former charge will hardly be evaded so with difficulty will we solve their latter Objections viz. Protestants have no Principles or which is as bad are so given to change they will not stand to their principles whereas if we maintain the Reformation to be onely a Reduction of affairs to the primitive Apostolical and Catholick order and state we do not onely thereby render a second Reformation unpracticable but also invalidate all the Romish contumelies and calumnies This was the avowed profession of our first Reformers they would onely retrieve the Primitive Christianity and settle this Church according to the Catholick Pattern concluding all other methods of Reformation to be irrational and schismatical Bishop Jewel in his famous Apology p. 176 177. fully declares it Accessimus quantum potuimus asserting the whole and every main part to be Apostolical and consonant to the judgment and practice of the ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers This Apology not onely Peter Martyr in his Epistle prefixed to it but also the learned Divines of Tigur Bullinger Gualther Wolphius c. have so highly approved that they resolved no Book extant in the Protestant cause was comparable to it Other eminent Transmarine Divines might be mentioned yea a Jesuit in his Pamphlet against Mr. Chillingworth hath confessed that of all other courses in the Reformation that which the English followed was the most effectual for the establishment of our Religion against the Romish Church The more shame for a presumptuous Ignoramus publickly to remonstrate We might as easily persuade the modish Ladies of Court and City to Queen Elizabeth's Ruffs as to gain him and his rabble to be content with her Settlement of Religion Sect. 3. This Church being thus Reformed and restored to its primitive strength and splendour to move for a second Reformation dissonant therefrom is in effect to renounce the Communion of the Primitive Catholick Church with which all successive Churches ought to hold as near as possibly they can a perfect correspondence and where this cannot be obtained by reason of some cross circumstances to reflect upon it as an infelicity The reason hereof is obvious for the primitive and successive Churches are but one Body having the same dependencies upon and relation to the one Lord one Faith and one Baptism and the Catholick visible Church and every regularly constituted particular Church is an organized Body having several Members for several Offices all which conspire for unity that there be no Schism in the Body which certainly would happen if successive Churches observe not the same Laws and retain not the same Government which the primitive maintained For that which maketh the Church one is the unity of these and that which distinguisheth one Body or Society from another is the diversity of Laws and Government and so long as the same Laws and the same Government are in force the Body is still the same Now as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever so is his Church which at first was embodied into an indeterminable Society For the Scripture assures us the Church is a Body and that Body whereof Christ is the Head Col. 1. 18 24. Eph. 4. 11 12 15 16. which we profess to be Catholick not onely in respect of persons and place but also of time The Catholicism whereof not onely includeth variety of places and multitudes of men but is to be extended to universality of succession Now evident it is that all Bodies Corporate whether aggregate such as the Church is or sole by their succession are immortal as long as they retain the same fundamental Laws and remain under the first settled Government If therefore we condescend to a new Reformation distinct from the first Settlement or opposite thereto we design a schismatical separation from the primitive Catholick Church if we put it in execution we fall under the same condemnation we sentence against the Romanists this being the common Protestant Apology We have departed from Rome no farther than she hath from the ancient Church and her self and if there were no other reason for this our secession as there is viz. That we embraced Christianity before S. Peter planted a Church there and when the Western apartment was set out by the Fathers this of ours had the honour of being one of the Seven