THE WAY OF TRUE PEACE and VNITY In the true CHURCH OF CHRIST In all humility and bowels of love presented to them By WILLIAM DELL One of the least and unworthiest of the Servants of God in the Gospel of his dear Son Psal. 120.7 I am for peace but when I speak they are for war Utrum nos schismatici sumus an vos nec ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut indicet Ecclesiam suam August contr liter Petil. l. 2. c. 85. London Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls near Ludgate 1651. To the Honourable the Commons of England Assembled in PARLIAMENT IT is written that the Kingdoms of the World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and now when all almost that is great and honourable and noble and Royal and wise and learned is found against this Counsell and design of God how highly are you honâ—ured of him and how happy are you that You yet are found for it You after a manifold Apostacy and defâ—ction of many of your Members seem yet to remain as pillars in the House of our God yet you seem to be among those called and chosen and faithful ones that now continue with the Lamb who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords in his engagement against and conquest over the TEN-HORN'D BEAST And to turn aside from this work would be to give up your selves to double ruine to wit both from heaven and earth And therefore the Lord make you faithful that you may do this work for God and to fulfill his Word and not for your selves and to fulfill your own Ends. And now as you are busie about the Peace of the Kingdom to settle and establish that upon a right and sure foundation so God hath engaged my heart to meditate the peace of the Church And though I have excluded your power from having a hand in this Work yet I have not in any measure wronged you as you shall perceive but rather endevoured to preserve you from dashing your selves against that Rock against which all the ignorant and unwise Rulers and Kingdoms of the world both have and yet shall dash themselves in peeces It shall be your wisdom to be built up together with the Church on Christ but it would be your confusion to go about to build the Church on your selves and your power seeing this building is too weighty for any foundation but Christ himself Your power will do well in the Kingdoms of the world but not in Gods Kingdom which is Christs inheritance from the beginning to the end You shall be happy to be subject in it but none must be Lord or Law-giver here but Christ himself Let not the Devil who in these last times hath in many places translated the mystery of iniquity from the Ecclesiastical Kingdom of the Clergy into the temporal Kingdom of the Magistrate any longer keep it there seeing it will be as pernicious in this as in that for it will be no less dangerous an evil for the Magistrate to make himself Lord and Law-giver in the Church then for the Pope or General Councel in all the Kingdoms called Christian or for the Archbishop or National Assembly in particular Kingdoms Men have commonly thought that to preserve the godly in worldly peace and prosperity is to preserve the Church whereas to preserve them in faith hope love in union and communion with Christ and the Father in and through the Spirit this only is to preserve the Church and this oft-times is better done by Christ whose work only it is in affliction then in prosperity Wherefore do You look to the care of the State and trust Christ with the care of his Church seeing he is both faithful and able to save it perfectly The peace of the Church lies in Christ only and no part of it out of him no not for a moment and this their peace Christ is able to preserve in Himself in the midst of the most cruel and desperate evils of the world Now what the true Church of Christ is and wherein its Peace and Unity lies is here in some measure declared for the good of the faithful every-where and particularly for Your good lest you being glorious instruments in the hand of God for one work should miscarry in another And this I have done through God not because I was worthy to do it but because it was worthy to be done For why should the Church any longer be ignorant of the things that belong unto its peace and why should the Members of it any longer lie as scattered bones dry and dead and not gathered up into the unity of a living body and who could longer indure to see unskilfull Physitians under pretence of healing the Church wound it still deeper and under pretence of procuring its peace hurry it into endless dissentions and divisions In this case of necessity I could not but speak both out of duty and love and I hope none of You will despise to hear who consider that God when he layes aside the wise and prudent chooses Babes and Sucklings to perfect his praise out of their mouths that so he himself may be the more glorified and admired in his weak and mean instruments Now let his praise be above the earth and the heavens and let him give you the honor that all his Saints have and this is his hearty desire who humbly writes himself Your servant in the Gospel William Dell. To his Excellency the Lord General FAIRFAX And the Honorable Lieutenant-General CROMWEL Together with the Councel of VVar. THE presence of the Lord having turned your course backward like Iordan from what it was a year ago and all former inchantments and divinations used against you being dissolved through the renewing of the same presence of God with you after a manifest with-drawing of it and You through a blessed necessity being now doing that work of God which once you had little minde to viz. The procuring the Peace of the Kingdom by subduing the great enemies of Pâ—ace and removing all the enmity against peace that was inwrapped in our very Laws and degenerated Constitution of the Kingdom I thought good whiles You are thus busie about the peace of the Kingdom which is a peace without you to put you in minde of the true peace of the true Church which is a peace within you and an eternal peace as the former is but a temporal for what advantage will it be for you to have peace among men to want peace with God to do the work of God in the world and to be destitute of the work of God in your own hearts to destroy the enemies to worldly peace and yet to maintain in your own hearts the corruptions of unrenewed nature which are the enemies of heavenly peace Take heed therefore that your present employments do not so over-ingage you in this world that you neglect the world to
by this means their idle and vain thoughts and speculations of governing the Church of God by humane power and methods would soon vanish and they would soon give over to trouble themselves and the faithful about things that have neither power in them to free from eternal death nor to procure eternal life And thus much for that two-fold Government of the Church which God himself exercises immediately in and over it whereof we must not be ignorant if we desire to preserve the peace of the Church both in our selves and others Now besides this immediate Government of God there is another sort of Government of the Church which Christ exercises mediately by the Church And this also is Christs Government and not mans and men who have not known not understood the former Government of Christ have mistaken this also through the same unbelief wherefore they not so much as minding the former Government of Christ which is immediate and by himself have made this mediate Government of the Church by man to be all And this also I say they have understood most grossly and carnally and not according to the Word but according to their own ignorant and seduced hearts I shall not trouble the Reader with their particular mis apprehensions in this matter seeing it is far more profitable to content our selves with the plain and evident truth then to enquire after variety of errors Wherefore letting alone their darkness I shall onely endeavour that the light of the word may shine unto us in this matter that herein also we may be taught of God if it be the will of God This mediate Government then of Christ in the true Church I conceive to be nothing but this Christs ordering all things by the faithful among the faithful in reference to the communion of Saints Now because many Christians desire instruction and light in this matter I shall be willing to hold forth to them that measure of knowledge which I have received herein being desirous also to learn my self of them that can teach me better by the Word And that I may proceed the more distinctly I shall propound several things to which I shall speak in order and they be these 1. To whom Christ hath committed the power of ordering and managing all things in the true Church in reference to the communion of Saints 2. What kinde of power this is which the true Church hath 3. What is the extent of this power 4. What is the outward instrument of it 5. What the true Church can do by vertue of it And this comprehends these particulars 1. It can gather it self together 2. It can appoint its own order 3. It can choose its own officers and if need be reform them or depose them 4. It can call its own councels 5. It can judge of all Doctrines both of its Officers and Councels And all these things I reckon needful for the true Church to know for the preserving among themselves that peace and unity they have in Christ. They first thing then is 1. To whom Christ hath committed the power of ordering and managing all things in the true Church in reference to the communion of Saints I Answer He hath given it to the true Church it self as formerly described even to each and all the members of it for as natural power belongs to all natural men alike so spiritual power which is the true Church-power to all spiritual men alike Christ in a Believer is the root of true Church-power and because Christ dwels in all Believers alike through unity of faith therefore all Believers partake alike of spiritual and super-natural power and no one partakes of this power more then another any more then he partakes of Christ more then another but Christ in them all is the self-same power of God to do all things that are to be done in the Kingdom of God And according this sense that place in Math. 16.19 is to be understood where Christ saith to Peter And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven The Pope and Papal Church under colour of this place have made great merchandise and have exceedingly abused and cheated the Nations for many hundred years together but the light of the Gospel hath shined forth and the days of their traffique are at end And yet since others have been trucking with the world by their false interpretations of this place and have thought to use it to their great advantage but the day hath so far dawned that their shadows also are flying away But not to keep you longer from the words themselves Peter had said to Christ Thou art Christ the Son of the living God And Christ replyed to Peter Blessed art thou for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father which is heaven and then adds Vnto thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of heaven c. that is not to Peter as an Apostle or Minister but as a Believer who had the Revelation of the Father touching the Son and so also they are given equally to each faithful Christian who hath the same Revelation with Peter as also to the whole communion of Saints And so these Keys are not given to any particular person or persons consisting of flesh and blood or imployed in such or such an Office but that man whoever he be that hath the Revelation of the Father he it is to whom these Keys are given and to none else and so they are given to each Believer in particular and to the whole Church of Believers in general But what are these Keys about which there hath been so great a do in the Church I answer They are not any outward Ecclesiastical power whatever that men have devised to serve their own turns withal but to pass by the many false conceits wherewith many former and present Writers have and do still trouble the Church Iohn doth tell us plainly Ioh. 20.22 what Matthew means by the Keys of the Church Christ saith he appearing to his Disciples after his Resurrection breathing on them said Receive the holy Spirit here are the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and then adds Whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained that is when ye have received the Spirit then you have received the Keys to binde and loose to remit and retain sin and that not according to your wils but wholly according to the minde and will and direction of the Spirit And so Christ then before his ascention gave these Keys truly to his Disciples but more solemnly and fully at the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was given by Christ glorified and after the Gentiles who by the preaching of Peter received the Spirit even as the Apostles
did they also received these Keys and so all that have received the Spirit have the Keys of the Kingdom equally committed to them and the power of binding and loosing by the ministration of the Spirit And so these Keys appertain not only to greater Congregations of Christians but to the very least communion of Saints as Christ hath promised Where two or three are met together in my name there am I present in the midst of them Where we see that two or three gathered together in Christs name have as much power as Peter and all the Apostles because Christ is equally present with these as with those Again Christ hath commanded that if the offending brother will not hear the admonition of two or three other brethren the offended brother should tell the Church Mat 18.17 Now the Church is not the Officers but the Congregation of the faithful seeing men are not of the Church through any Office but only through faith And by all these things it is evident That the power of Church-government that is the power of acting and ordering all things among the faithful belongs to every faithful man alike in the Congregation of the faithful 2. What kinde of power this is which the true Church hath I answer in general that it is a power sutable to the Church or Kingdom whereof it is the power now as the Church we speak of is that Church which is born of God and of the Spirit and so is not at all of this world so the power that is agreeable to this Church is the power of God and his Spirit and not at all of this world that is it is not any civil or secular power I may add nor any Ecclesiastical power according to the common understanding it that hath any place in the true Church but meerly a spiritual and heavenly power without any conjunction or mixture of the other seeing Christs power is perfect and every way sufficient for his own Kingdom and Christs Kingdom is Gods Kingdom as well as the Fathers and so men may as well carry worldly and secular power into the Fathers Kingdom as into the Sons seeing this is no other then the Kingdom of God though it be among men and no other then the Kingdom of Heaven though it be upon earth which hath not been understood nor considered by them who have been so busie to being secular power into a spiritual Kingdom as if Christs own power in his own Kingdom were either weak or imperfect More particularly this true power of the true Church is as I said Christs power in the faithful which is the self-same with Christs power in himself and so 1. It is not a power of violence but a power of influence even such a power as the Head hath over the members and the soul over the body it is not a coercive but a perswasive power a power that makes men willing that are not willing and doth not force the unwilling against their wils 2. This power is humble and not proud as worldly power is for the power of the world sets men over others but the power of the Church sets men under others I saith Christ of himself am among you as one that serves and again He that will be the chief among you let him be the servant of all 3. This power is for edification and not for destruction as Paul acknowledges again and again that the power the Lord gave him was this and no other power viz. not to cast men out of their native Kingdoms but to translate them into Gods Kingdom not to take away their outward Liberties or Estates but to bring them into the Liberty and Inheritance of the Saints to bring men to eternal life and not to destroy men by temporal death 4. This power seeks the good of others more then its own yea good of others with the neglect of its own So Moses was not busie to have a most rebellious people blotted out of the Book of life but rather desired his own name might be blotted out of that book that if it had been the will of God theirs might have been written in And Paul desired that himself might be separated from Christ that his brethren and kinsmen after the flesh might have been united to him And if this power seek the good of others after this high rate even to the neglecting as it were and laying aside their own eternal good how much more to the neglecting and laying aside their temporal good their worldly profits advantages and dignities 5. This power doth not make others suffer to enlarge the Church but suffers it self to bring this about So Christ as Wickliff saith through his poverty humility and suffering injury and death got unto him the children of his Kingdom and not by force and the Martyrs enlarged the Church of Christ by dying themselves and not by causing others to die the blood of the Martyrs being the seed of the Church 6. This power only acts to a spiritual end salvation and only according to spiritual Laws but not to any temporal and worldly ends according to civil and humane laws And thus you see that this true Church power for the nature and quality of it both in general and in particular differs very much both from the apprehensions and practise of the most of our Ecclesiastical men 3. What is the extent of this true Church power I answer that this power extends it self full as far as the Church but no further For what hath the Church to do with those that are not of the Church What have we to do saith Paul with them that are without For Church power which is spiritual is no more sutable to the world then worldly power which is fleshly is sutable to the Church The power of the Church which is Christs power onely reaches so far as Christs Kingdom that is the people that are born of God and his Spirit True Church Government reaches as far as Christs and the Spirits effectual influence and operation but no further that is to all that are willing but to none that are unwilling As nothing hath more troubled the Church then to govern it and give it Laws after the manner of the world by secular force and power so nothing hath more troubled the world then to govern it and give it Laws after the manner of the Church by the aforesaid compulsion Wherefore as the Government of the world is not to be spread over the Church so neither is the Government of the Church to be spread over the world but as the world and the Church are distinct things in themselves so they are to be contented with their distinct Governments 4. What is the outward instrument of this power I answer The word only which is the only scepter and sword of Christs Kingdom to govern his people and subdue his enemies Christ himself the Head of the Church used no other instrument to
to presume to deny the Church this power which it hath received from him that hath all power in heaven and in earth Neither ought the true Church to suffer this power to be taken from them which they have received from so good a hand but still to use their own Christian meetings though the Powers of the world never so much oppose them as the Apostles and Believers in their time began and as Believers after for 300 years continued notwithstanding the barbarous cruelties of the persecuting Emperours 2. As the Church of the faithful hath power from Christ to meet together so secondly to appoint its own outward orders For the Church whilst it dwels in flesh and bloud uses some external Rites by which it is neither sanctified in soul or body but they are things meerly of outward Order and decency And these things each Church or Communion of Saints may order by it self according to the wisedom of the Spirit so it observe these Rules 1. That they do all things in love seeing all Laws without love are tyranny and so whatsoever is not from and for love is not to be appointed and if it be it is again to be abolished seeing no Text of the Scripture it self if it build not up love is rightly interpreted 2 They are to do all things for peace and all outward Orders in the Church must be to procure and to preserve Peace among the faithful and not to break it They are most unhappy and pernicious Orders that do not only offend a few of Christs little ones which it self is a sad thing but do grieve disquiet and prejudice the peace of the generality of the faithful 3. They must do all things after the wisdom of the Spirit and not after the manner of the world seeing the Church is not to be ordered according to the manner of the world but rather against it as the Apostle saith Be not conformed to this world 4. They must appoint nothing as of necessity For there is no more pestilent doctrine in the Church then to make those things necessary which are not necessary For thus the liberty of faith is extinguished and the consciences of men are ensnared We doubt not but Believers may order any outward things for their own good so they do not impose them necessarily on any as if the observing of them were righteousness and the omission of them sin And so the Church after all its Orders it is to leave indifferent things as it found them that is free and at the liberty of the faithful to observe or not observe as they shall see cause or judge convenient For all these kinde of things are indifferent in their own nature and God regards no more the manner and form and time and circumstances of spiritual duties then the manner and form c. of our eating and drinking and working and marrying and trading for all which it is sufficient if they be done in Christian wisdom and discretion without being tied necessarily to a set and unchangeable form 5. They may perswade their Orders if they see cause by the spirit of love and meekness but must not enforce them upon pain of secular punishment or Church censure as those use to do that make themselves Lords and Tyrants in the Church For these outward things the Church can order onely for the willing but not for the unwilling And so if some Believers shall think good upon just grounds to do otherwise in these outward things then the generality of the Church yet ought the Church to be so far from censuring them that it is to entertain Communion with them notwithstanding any such differences For when Christians are knit to Christ by faith and do receive and walk in his Spirit all other things are indifferent to them to do or not to do to use or not to use at their own freedom And Christ onely being sufficient for all his whatever is besides Christ is a perishing thing and so is so far from being to be imposed that in it self it is not to be valued Now if the Church do appoint any outward Orders these rules it is to observe yea the spiritual Church doth always observe them and never made rules in it self upon other terms then are here set down But on the contrary the carnal Church or Churches of men they especially trouble themselves about these outward things and of these they make Laws and Constitutions yea sin and righteousness and by these things they judge the Church and the members of Christ In such sort that they that will submit to their Rules and impositions shall be the Church of Christ but they that will not shall be reckoned Hereticks and Schismaticks And hereby they declare that they are fallen from the power of godliness to the form and from the substance of Religion to the circumstances inasmuch as they advance empty forms and shadows in the place of righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit And to these we may say with Peter Why tempt ye God in putting such a yoak upon the Disciples and Members of Christ And though this kinde of Church will with these things still be troubling us and biting us by the heel yet in the power and prerogative of the seed of the Woman we will by degrees bruise its head till at last we break it quite in pieces Now one thing more I shall adde touching the Churches power to appoint its own Orders as conceiving it very necessary to be known and that is this That the true Church hath power to appoint these outward Orders not for it self onely but also for its Officers which also are part of it self and it is not to suffer its Officers to frame or impose such on it For the Church is not the Officers but the Officers are the Churches as Paul hath taught us saying to the Church All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas And so the Officers are the Churches and are to be ordered by it in these things but are not to order it And if the Officers of the Church forgetting that they are servants shall presume by themselves to order outward things for the Church without the Church as now is done the Church still remains above the Officers and hath power to interpret change or wholly take away all those things as it sees occasion to wit so far as they are a stumbling block to the weak and a grief to the strong and tend to work division among the faithful Presumptuous Officers are they and know not where Christ hath set them who instead of being ordered by the Church go about to order it and make themselves the Lords of the Church being but the servants of it 3. The true Church hath power to chuse its Officers and if there be cause to reform them or depose them The Church hath power to chuse its own Officers True indeed it is that as in
voice so neither do they obey the command of a stranger The Pope he arrogates both swords to himself when neither belongs to him and therefore in due time shall perish by both and if the Magistrate shal assume to himself power of both Kingdoms Christs and the Worlds when of right but one belongs to him to wit the Worlds and not Christs it will be very dangerous lest by encroaching on Christs Kingdom he lose his own Let the Magistrate therefore use his power in the state and let him suffer Christ to use his power in the Church seeing his presence is alwayes there and then there will be quietness in both but else in neither seeing Christ will as assuredly trouble the Magistrates Kingdom as the Magistrate trouble his The third Rule is Not to bring or force men into the Church against their wills The Kingdoms of the world are unquiet because many that are unwilling are under those Regiments but Christs Kingdom is therefore quiet because all the people in it are willing and none of them are forced in but all are perswaded in as it is written God perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem That is the Gentiles were to be perswaded and not forced into the Church And so Christ commanded his Disciples to go and teach all Nations and not to offer them outward violence and to perswade peace but not to threaten or enforce it For such is the nature of the Church that inward perswasion is required nowhere more then here For none may be compelled to the faith against their wils and God will be loved with the whole heart and also hypocrisy is a sin chiefly hated of God Whereby it comes to pass that the whole manner of governing the Church must have this scope that they that are perswaded may be first called unto it and after kept in it upon the same account And so the more this manner shall be free from dominion so much the more fit it is to govern increase and confirm the Church And this way onely was used as long as the Apostles lived and those that succeeded them in the same Spirit and that unquestionably for 300 years after Yea and when the Church came to be countenanced by worldly authority yet this same freedom still was allowed of which I shall produce a few testimonies I read that Constantine the Emperour would have no man enforced to be of one religion more then another Also the same Constantine in his Epistle to his Subjects inhabiting the East saith Let no man be grievous one to another but what every man thinketh BEST that let him DO For such as are wise ought thorowly to be perswaded that they onely mean to live holily as they should do whom the Spirit of God moveth to take their delight and recreation in reading his holy will And if others wilfully will go out of the way cleaving to the Synagogues of false Doctrine they may at their own perill As for us we have the worthy House of Congregation of Gods verity which he according to his own goodness and nature hath given us And this also we wish to them that with like participation and common content they may feel with us the same delectation of minde And after Let no man hurt or be prejudiciall to his neighbour in that wherein he thinketh himself to have done well If by that which any man knoweth or hath experience of he thinketh he may profit his neighbour let him do the same if not let him give over and remit it till another time For there is a great diversity between the willing and voluntary embracing of Religion and that whereunto a man is forced and constrained I read also that Ethelbert King of Kent Being converted to the faith ann 586. after his conversion innumerable others dayly did come in and were converted to the faith of Christ whom the King did especially embrace but COMPELLED NONE for so he had learned THAT THE FAITH AND SERVICE OF CHRIST OUGHT TO BE VOLUNTARY AND NOT COACTED The Church then at first consisted onely of the willing and such as were perswaded unto it by the word till Antichrist began to prevail and then they fell from perswading to forcing and they no longer went about to make men willing by the word but to get power from the Kings of the earth to force them against their wils And this main piece of the mystery of iniquity was perfectly brought forth by Boniface the third who was the first that used these words in the Church Volumus mandamus statuimus ac praecipimus We will we require we appoint we command which is not the voice of the true Ministers of Christ but the true voice of theeves and murderers And from that time the peace of the Church decayed apace when there were moe unwilling forced unto it then willing perswaded And true peace will never be restored to it again till men shall abandon the power of force and onely use the perswasion of the word that the Church may consist onely of a willing people The fourth Rule is To make void the distinction of Clergy and Laity among Christians For the Clergy or Ecclesiastical men have all along under the reign of Antichrist distinguished themselves from other Christians whom they called the Laity and have made up a distinct or several Kingdom among themselves and separated themselves from the Lay in all things and called themselves by the name of the Church and reckoned other Christians but as common and unclean in respect of themselves Whereas in the true Church of Christ there are no distinctions nor sects nor difference of persons no Clergy or Laity no Ecclesiastical or Temporal but they are all as Peter describes them 1 Pet. 2.9 A chosen generation a royall Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar people to shew forth the virtues of him that called them out of darkness into his marvelous light And so all Christians through the Baptisme of the Spirit are made Priests alike unto God and every one hath right and power alike to speak the word and so there is among them no Clergy or Laity but the Ministers are such who are chosen by Christians from among themselves to speak the word to all in the name and right of all and they have no right nor authority at all to this office but by the consent of the Church And so Presbyters and Bishops or which is all one Elders and Overseers in the Church differ nothing from other Christians but onely in the office of the word which is committed to them by the Church as an Alderman or Common Councel man in the City differs nothing from the rest of the Citizens but only in their Office which they have not of themselves neither but by the Cities choice or as the Speaker in the House of Commons differs nothing from the rest of the Commons but only in his office which he hath also by
way of peace and therefore do not thou dare to say it is the way of confusion seeing God knows better how to order the affairs of his own Church then thou doest Wherefore seeing Prophesying is Gods Ordinance in the Churh for the peace of it if any sort of men shall nowithstanding what hath been said still attribute to themselves a proper and incommunicable Ministry or the onely power to speak in the Church I shall but use the Apostles words to them and so pass on from this thing What came the word of God onely unto you and is it to come out onely from you Nay it is come to every believer as well as to you and it is also to come forth from all them unto whom it is come seeing they cannot but speak what they do believe 5. The last means I shall name whereby the true Church may keep errour out of it self is To exercise its power in judging Doctrines as Paul commandeth 1 Cor. 14.29 Let the Prophets speak two or three and let the rest judge If they that publish Doctrine should also be judges of it and the people be bound to subscribe to their judgement error would not only by this means have opportunity to be vented but would also be established and confirmed without the least contradâ—ction But now God hath appointed it otherwise in the Church for whoever speak there the hearers are to judge of the truth of the Doctrine and accordingly are either to receive it or reject it having power to do either as they see occasion and so errour cannot prevail in that Church where the faithfull have liberty to judge of all Doctrines and do exercise that liberty But where they that publish Doctrine are also the judges of it and the people are bound up to the Doctrine of the Teachers and may not question or contradict it there errour reigns as in its proper Kingdom And thus by these means errour may certainly be kept out of the Church that the Church may live in truth and peace But here now a great question wil be moved and that is this Whether the Magistrate hath not power to suppress errour by the sword and whether the Church may not use this remedy against errour as well as all those before named I answer that many men of great eminency have attributed such a power to the Magistrate and have done him the honour besides his throne in the world to erect him a throne in Gods Kingdom at the least equal to Christ thinking that Religion would soon be lost if he should not uphold it And to make this good they have produced many Scriptures of the Old Testament which seem to arm the Magistrate against the authors and spreaders of errours But I desire the wise-hearted to consider whether as clear Scriptures may not be produced out of the Old Testament to prove that temporal power in the world belongs to Ecclesiastical men as that spiritual power in the Church belongs to worldly Magistrates And to this purpose because I would not be too large in this matter now I shall desire him who hath a minde to be instructed to reade and weigh the Reply of the French Prelates to the Lord Peters which he may finde in Fox his Book of Martyrs vol. 1 p. 467. Wherefore seeing the Scriptures of the old Testament are every whit as strong to give Ministers power in temporal matters as Magistrates in spiritual it is without all question the only sure and safe way to determine this cause by the new Testament or the doctrine of Christ and the Apostles by whom in these last dayes God hath spoken fully to the Church and after whose doctrine there is no other word to be expected And because herein I finde no such power given to the Civil Magistrate to judge and determine in spiritual matters therefore I conclude he hath none Now if any shall say This is a great wrong to the Magistrage to thrust his power out of the Church and to confine it to the world I answer That to make the Church and Ecclesiastical Kingdom standing in outward Laws orders authority dignity promotion goverment all which are to be granted established and managed by state power and yet to deny the Magistrates authority and influence into these things which flow from his own power and consist in it and by it this is to streighten and to wrong him indeed But to declare the true Church to be a spiritual Kingdom as Christ hath made it and not at all of this world but the very Kingdom of heaven upon earth and thereupon to deny him power in it is no more to prejudice the Magistrate then to deny him power in heaven Seeing the Sons Kingdom which is heaven on earth is to be as free from worldly and humane power as the Fathers Kingdom which is heaven in heaven Christ being to be all in all in this as God is to be all in all in that And so to deny the Magistrate that power which Christ never granted him is no wrong to him at all but to grant him and gratifie him with such power would be a great and intolerable wrong to the truth and Church of Christ as in many other things so in this present matter we are speaking of as you may see in the following particulars For the putting the power of the sword into the Magistrates hands to suppress errour is attended with these evils 1. Hereby the Magistrate is made a Iudge of Doctrines and hath power given him to pronounce which is truth and which is errour being yet no more infallible yea everywhit as liable to erre as the meanest of the people And what Magistrate is there that hath the power of the sword but will uphold his own Religion and judgement to be the truth though never so false and will sentence what ever is contrary thereunto to be errour though never so true and so the truth and word of God which only is to judge all and it self to be judged of none by this means is made subject to the judgement of vain man and shall either be truth or errour as he pleases to call it and errour when it pleaseth the Magistrate shall be adorned with the glorious title of truth and shall have his authority to countenance and uphold it And how great a prejudice this hath been and is to the truth and how great an advantage to errour it is very easie to judge Now if any shall say that the Magistrate may not judge of doctrine by himself and use his sword accordingly but he may take to him the councel and advice of godly and able Ministers as now of the Assembly and so may judge and punish according to their judgement I answer Is it fit that the Magistrate in so great matters should be blinde folded himself and see onely by other mens eyes Again if the Magistrate judge according to the judgement of
the Law in an other the Believers under the Gospel in another yea these being free from all forms used any according to the wisdom of the Spirit Christ himself and Iohn Baptist who both lived in the same time observed no Vniformity between them for Iohn lived retiredly in the wilderness and came neither eating nor drinking and Christ lived in the frequency of the world and did both eat and drink And their Disciples observed no Vniformity for Iohns Disciples fasted oft and Christs not at all in those days Besides at first the believing Iews used another form then the believing Gentiles and after among the Gentiles the Greek Church used one form the Latine another and several Churches under both several forms and so the Church on earth according to the infirmity of the flesh still uses some or other form and the Church in Heaven is without all form Now then if we shall have no Vnity but where is Vniformity what an Earthquake of confusion and division will this make through the whole Church of God in all ages and under all Gods own dispensations in the world yea through the whole Church in Earth and Heaven Wherefore I dare be bold to affirm that imposed and inforced Vniformity is one of the greatest enemies to the true Churches unity that Antichrist himself could devise And therefore let not the true Church suffer it self to be reduced under this bondage again through specious pretences of Reformation but let the Church know it may use what forms seem good to it self and that its true unity stands in being one body and one spirit c. as hath been before declared And thus onely the Church in all ages is one yea thus onely the Church in earth and heaven is one And therefore I desire the faithful to know that Vniformity is to be kept out or if it be brought in it is to be cast out for the preserving of peace in the Church For that God might make Iews and Gentiles one He abolished the Laws of Commandments contained in Ordinances Ephes. 2.15 Whence it is evident that God so highly valued the peace of the faithful that to bring this about he repeals his own Institutions and dissolves his own outward Ordinances Now if the Ceremonies of Gods own ordaining were to be made void rather then to continue to the prejudice of the Churches unity how much more any Ceremonies or outward rules of our own or other mens devising Let him that reads understand And these are the practical rules in the way of the Churches peace that are more absolute and general And now we hasten to the rules that are more special and occasional in case of difference among the faithful In which case we are necessarily in the first place to consider the weight of the things wherein they differ to wit whether those things be such as are necessary to salvation or no. If they be not such things as are necessary to salvation then first they are either things Ceremonial and Circumstantial Or secondly very truths themselves yet such wherein a Christian may for the present erre without danger of salvation If the difference be in Circumstantial and Ceremonial things we should minde these things to preserve peace 1. That we ought not to contend for vanities nor to trouble our selves and the Church of God with trifles and things of no weight or moment at all It is a wonder to us in these days that the ancient Christians should so earnestly contend about the day on which Easter as they called it was to be celebrated and upon difference herein should divide into Sects as they did seeing there always shone light enough in the Gospel to declare this to be a slight circumstance not worth the minding The Apostle exhorts the Philippians to strive together for the faith of the Gospel but no where for the form of it in one thing or other 2. We ought not for contrary mindedness in these things to avoid Christian converse and communnion with one another for strangeness of Christians in these cases both breeds and increases suspitions and jealousies causes that we harbour hard thoughts brother against brother and it takes away all opportunities of conference and of understanding and perswading one another and so of Reconciliation 3. In these things whereof neither commend us to God we are not to condemn one another for to condemn one another for every difference in judgement produces innumerable Sects in the Church then which nothing can be more destructive to the peace of it seeing such deadly enmity arises among Sects as we see by daily experience And therefore that rash judgement that produces these Sects is the great enemy to the peace of the Church and the great advancer of the Devils work of division 4. Let us know wherein the essence of Gods Kingdom stands to wit in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit in Faith and Love c. and not in outward Ceremonies and Orders and where the power and substance of Gods Kingdom is let us be contented though there 's a difference in form and circumstances Let us take careful heed that we do nothing against the power and substance of godliness under pretence of the form and circumstance The highest good in the Church is salvation in Christ and the end of all gifts given to all Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Teachers is to bring us all to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God And if so be that this be done the Church is not to be troubled with other things yea all other things are to give way to this Where the heavenly things themselves are present we ought not in these dayes of grace and truth to contend about the shadows of them 5. In case men differ in judgement in these circumstantial things such as are in present power ought take care especial 1. That they do not entertain men into the communion of Saints that are onely of one judgement but that every one to whom the keys of the Kingdome of Heaven are given may have free liberty to go in and out and finde pasture It is a most Antichristian thing to make another key to the Kingdom of Heaven or true Church besides that which Christ hath given for then it will soon come to pass that Christs keys will not be sufficient without mans also yea soon it will come to pass that mans key shall be sufficient without Christs that is it will not be reckoned sufficient for men to be believers and to have received the gift of the Spirit to make them of the Church unless they also conform to the judgements of such and such men but to be of their judgements will be enough to make them of the Church though they be destitute of faith and the Spirit And thus by making another key to Gods Kingdom besides the key that Christ hath given and so to let in