Nonconformists say is contained in their communion booke and hence the same is called divine service as for preaching it is held to be no part thereof we will follow here the same method And first I will shew what a true divine worship is according to their owne discription of it 2 How farre that in the Church of England by their owne confession differs from and is contrarie to it 3 Lay downe arguments to prove our separation lawfull by the former grounds 4 Answer D. Ames reasons alleaged to the contrary It is certaine that the Lord hath given a perfect platforme and absolute rule how he will be worshipped in the time of the new Testament an excellent direction for vs how we may acceptablie performe the same vnto him is laid downe in Iohn 4. 23. 24. Two things are there mentioned spirit and truth first it must be a true matter of worship grounded on the word it must be no devised worship For nothing may goe vnder the name of the worship of God which he hath not ordained in his owne word and commaunded to vs as his owne worship All the parts and meanes thereof must be don according to his revealed will Even as the service which is given to an earthly prince by his attendants at court must be onely according to that Kings commaundement so the outward solemne worship to be performed vnto the King of Kings ought to be that onely which he alone is the author and institutor of As for rules given by men not grounded on the Scripture in case of Religion matters of faith c. They are not of any moment neither are we bound to the observation of them For the truth is whosoever vseth those wayes and inventions in worshipping God which are not commaunded of God in his word but be devices of men Christ saith that they worship him in vaine c. If it have no further begining then mans braine God will give no blessing to it but sends a curse vpon it for cursed is he that addes any thing to the word of God God will ad so much to his plagues and the reason is because he makes himselfe wiser or better then God For if God be perfectly wise then he knew best what worship would please himselfe and if he be perfectly good then he would reveale vnto vs what ever he knew fit for vs to practice A gaine it is a great injurie offered to God when we will let his deadly enimies have the ordering and appointing of his service rather then himselfe A King would thinke it a great indignitie that his servaints should not yeeld to his direction but some base person that were a professed enemie should set downe what service he must have and in what manner he must be obeyed who shall be his attendants and what his provision But much more absurd and injurious it is that we will let the wit and will of the flesh bear sway in Gods worship for these two doe joyne with the devil and are enmity to God And if we will have this preheminence in our houses that our servants must doe as we bid them not what they themselves thinke good for he is a good servant that doth his masters will not his own then why should not we thinke it right that God must be Lord in his house and we must doe his service after his appointment and not our own And not onely doe they teach these wholesome and good doctrines but also doe lay downe sundry effectuall reasons to prove that men may not worship God otherwise then he hath appointed and revealed in his word 1. Because we can have no true comfort in our devotions so long as they be but limmes of that which Paul termes voluntary Religion so long as they are onely taken vp by vs and not prescribed to vs make we never so great a shew of zeale in the performance of them yet it is nothing 2. All worship devised by man is abhorred by the Lord for he likes nothing but what he appointeth himselfe 3. It is against his expresse commaundemeÌ„t that men should bring any of their owne devising neare his ordinances because he will have no more don in his worship then he teacheth and commaundeth in his word Therefore whatsoever is added that we are to esteeme to be an Image which he detesteth and abhorreth 4. Because whatsoever God would have vs either to know or doe he hath fully revealed it by Christ 5. It is the property of superstitious andâ—dolatrous things to infect the places and persons where they are 6. It argues certainly that men doe not love the Lord and his commaundements but hate rather both when they worship God otherwise then he commaundeth for although every wil worshipper will say that he loveth God yet God witnesseth in the second commaundement that he is a liar and that he hateth God in that he hateth the worship which he commaundeth in the love whereof God will have experience of his love 7. The Lord will blesse the true worshippers of him vnto many generations both in themselves their children and posterity and in whatsoever belongs vnto theÌ„ 8. We must learne to proportion our worship to Gods nature which is simple in that which is simple there is no composition or diuision therfore in our worship there must be no composition it must be vayd of mixture a linsey woolfey patch worship sauced spiccd sophisticated with humane inventions doth nothing sort with the spirituall simplicity of the divine essence 9. God promiseth his presence onely in his owne worship and therefore neither accepteth nor blesseth a worship that is not directed by his owne word For conclusion worthily speaketh M. Perkins The second way of erecting an Idoll is when God is worshipped otherwise and by other meanes then he hath revealed in the word For when men sett vp a devised worship they sett vp also a devised God Augustine saith of the Gentiles that they refused to worship the God of the Hebrewes because if their pleasures were to worship him in another sort then he had appointed they should not indeed worship him but that which they had faigned The Samaritans worshipped the God of Abraham Isaac Iacob and they waited for the coming of the Messias yet Christ saith of them Ye worship ye know not what because they worshipped the true God by a worship devised of old set vp by men The Lord saith to the Israelites ye shall call me no more Baali whereby he signifieth that because the Iewes did somtime worship God in the same manner with the same images rites and names whereby the Heathen worshipped the false God Baali therefore they made him indeed to be even as the Idol Baal c. Againe Iohn saith in his first Epistle chapt 2. vers 24. If that which ye have heard from the beginning remaine in you ye shall continue
power is of absolute necessity for the Churches of Christ an essentiall property therof and serves not onely for their well beeing but the beeing it selfe for without this there can be no coupling of the parts and members together And so much D. Ames testifyeth Now the assemblies of England were not gathered by any such power but in their first constitution wanted the same and had this false power which is exercised at this day as the Nonconformists doe aknowledge Our Arguments which we have used in this point have been to this effect Every true visible Church hath a power immediately vnder Christ to execute Church Government But the publike congregations of England have not any such power vnder Christ to execute Church Government Therefore they are not true visible churches What they will say to this I know not but hitherto they have either beene silent or answered to no purpose in the world For it is usually their manner to tell us how the Churches in Corinth Pergamus Thyatira c. neglected to execute discipline as though there were no difference betweene omitting to administer the ordinance and the want wholy of it yea and to have an Antichristian Divelish in the roome of it Indeed herein they well resemble children which being not able to read the lesson given them doe skip over and take another easie one So these leave altogether the point in hand which is to prove by Gods word that a true Church may want in it selfe immediate power under Christ to execute Ecclesiasticall Government and may be subject to that which was brought-in by the Romish Beast and talke of a matter which I thinke no man ever denyed It is true some have assayed to prove it but after many thoughts spent about it we have had nothing but wind from them namely of a city wiihout a wall of a vinyard garden Orchard c. Wanting a hedge fence bounds c. And such broken stuffe not worthy of any answere For where doe they read in Scripture that this power which Christ hath given to his Church is compared to a wall hedge c. But rather may be better likened to the power of the body which receives food and whereby excrements are purged and avoyded the want whereof were prodigious in nature neither could the body possiblie subsist and live And here by the way I thinke it convenient to answere breifly vnto some reprochfull passages writen by D. Laiâ—en against the Separatists he accuseth them of strange and vnsound conclusions but names nothing onely from M. Park Polit. Eccles he Englisheth a sillogisme in this manner If Discipline be so necessary and also vnchangable it is lawfull to separate from such Churches as doe not vse it say the Prelats but Discipline is vnchangablie necessary say the Separatist Ergo it is lawfull to separate from such Churches as doe not vse it The minor he grants to be true but denies the Major and to prove it false he gives this reason For want of an integrall part of the whole or of some essentiall part in it selfe though not of the whole is no sufficient ground for separation He might with more credit and good conscience have granted the Major also then sought to refute it by frothy empty and impertinent words for first he speakes as a man most ignorant of the nature of Church power for were he able truely to define it he should see that it is of such necessity as a people cannot constitute themselves in the right order of the Gospell without it as we have before expressed 2. If the Bishops Major as he termes it be wel vnderstood it caries this meaning discipline is so necessary that where it is not there can be no Church ordinances rightly administred no true ministery worship Sacraments Censures c. And it is certainly so and if M. D. have any thing to object against it let him speake out he knowes his liberty 3. If M. D. will but hold vp his words against the light he shall see they have not the face of an answere for let his words be graunted what is this to the necessity of discipline vnlesse he could prove that the same is not so essentiall but a true Church may wholy want it The which thing neither he nor any man is able to prove and therefore he only beggs baselie the matter but proves nothing and therfore for the warme cloathes whereof he speaketh he may even keepe them himself to cover the nakednesse of his Argument I will not here speake of his irreligious phrase comparing the holie way of God to hatching neither of his untruth to say that separatisme was not before B. Whitgift wrote for Ceremonies I think the man knowes better to wit that from false ministers worship c. the Saints have separated before Whit. either wrote or was borne If our practise be otherwise even by the testimonies of the Nonconf let it be manifested If this will not serve the turne let him then take knowledge of what D. Ames saith In the beginning of Queene Elizabeths Reigne there was a Company of honest men that for the Ceremonies refused to joyne with the Parish assemblies at London as appeareth in the examination of Iohn Smith W. Nixson extant in a booke called part of a Register We could prove if there were need in King Edwards Reigne that there were some good Christians which would not communicate with the Parish Assemblies but there is no use hereof seeing we have the word of God to justifie our practise There is one thing more which Mr. Dr. much talkes of and makes it even the burden of his song i. e. that the Bb. are the authors of the Separatists Scisme their practise butteth full vpon the others vnreasonable and vnsound reasoning But what if it appeare that Mr. Dr. Arguments doe lead rather to separation and that he speakes one thing and practiseth another Would not this be a strange sight especially to himselfe Now whether this be so we will here trie by some reasons in his owne mood and figure If the booke of Common-prayer vsed in the assemblies of England be an insectious Leiturgie Romish stuffe a devised service and raked out of 3 Romish Channells it is lawfull to separate from such churches as doe vse it say the Learned but the Booke of Common-prayer vsed in the Assemblies of England is an in sections Leiturgie Romish stuffe a devised service and raked out of 3 Romish Channells saith Mr. Dr. Ergo it is â—awfull to separate from such chuâ—â—hâ—â—â—s doe vse it specially when they continue obstinate and incorrigible in the practise thereof after due dealing and conviction as I suppose Mr. Dr. will freely confesse they have done even after due meanes used both by manie godly Learned from time to time now at last by himself If the ministerie of the church of England be vnlawfull and Antichristian it is lawfull to separate from it
visible Church which is a company of people called and separated from the world by the word of God and joyned together by voluntary profession of the faith of Christ in the fellow ship of the Gospel Before we â—ome to examin the reasons if they may be so termed which he alleageth against this definition I desire the reader to minde it well that we herein do say no more then what in effect is fully acknowledged by the Nonconformists Conformists the Church of England the learned generally and all the reformed Churches upon earth as is to be seene in their books here named Yea Mr. Brad. although no friend of the Separatists yet confesseth the whole as it is here laid downe to be true and good Notwithstanding this man commeth boldly forth against us as if he had been either asleepe all his life time or lived in some unknowne parts of the world and so could not tell what any body had said about this thing And now for his reasons in which he is as confused as is the subject for which he pleadeth notwithstanding such as I finde here and there disorderly written of him I will reduce into some particular heads The maine and chiefe argument wherewith he fighteth against us for saying a true visible Church is a company of people called and separated from the world is because hypocrites and reprobates may beein the Church And to proove this he is very large and tedious for I dare say more then halfe of his booke is spent about it in alleaging for it Scriptures Examples and Reasons But a few words will serve for answer to it in regard he talkes of a thing which neither helpes him nor disadvantageth us for the question betweene them and us hath ever beene about the true and naturall members whereof Gods Church is orderly gathered and planted and not about the decayed and degenerate estate thereof But of this he saith nothing onely reasoneth much to this purpose If a mans body may have sores boyles broken limmes c. then is not the body whole and sound in the definition If in a garden vineyard or orchard after the constitution there grow weeds thornes and thistles then cannot the same in the description be said to bee planted at first of all good herbes vines and trees But the first is true therefore the second Now if such Philosophie be to be laughed at then truely much more is Mr. Dayr Divinitie here to be pittyed for he denieth our definition to wit that a true visible Church in the first collection consisteth of a people called and separated from the world and why because forsooth afterwards some of them may fall into unlawfull and sinfull courses If all our writings should bee read over yet will it not be found that ever we have denied but many hypocrites may be in the true Church yea open and vile transgressours but here lyeth the poynt if any shall affirme that the same may be first gathered of knowne lewd and unconverted men that indeed wee deny utterly and can proove the contrary or if they shall say that obstinate and incorrigible sinners may lawfully be suffered therein this also we affirme to be untrue But if they say that in a true visible Church there may be great evils committed yea and a long time tolerated wee assent unto it Howbeit it is certaine as Dr. Ames saith this forbearance is a grieveus sinne before God If Mr. Dayr therefore had well understood what our negative and affirmative positions are hee might have spared most of his writing For throughout his booke he hath most falsely reported of us by insinuating as if we held all of the visible Church to be saved and that no wickednesse therein can be committed now our words tend onely to shew what a Church is and how every member ought to walke but if in some respects they bee not so yet may the Congregation notwithstanding be true and good Mr. Dayr tells us verie often of the sinnes committed in the Iewish Church so in Corinth Pergamus c. If he were alive I would aske him whether they did well herein If he should say yea then were he a blasphemer if nay then he gave us the whole cause and so might cast his booke into the fyre For the thinge which we affirm is that every member of the church ought to be holy not that they are allwayes so but should be so and it is their great fault they are otherwise And here the reader may observe how greatly he hath mistaken the matter For whereas Mr. Barrow Mr. Ainsw and others doe shew from the scriptures what a true Church is whereof gathered how every member should walke how abuses are to be reformed c. He either through ignorance or mallice or both still inferreth from their writings that they held perfection of Churches that there can be no Hypocrite or reprobate in the Church c. Things groundlesly collected of him Of the same nature are the reports which many of them publish dayly in their Sermons and Bookes namely that the main cause of our Separation is because wicked men are suffered in their church But this is untrue for howsoever as I said before such a tolleration can not be justified yet this is not properly the reason but because their Parishes were at first constituted as now they stand of the members of Antichrist to wit the idolatrous Papists and of all other kind of most notorious sinners as whorems witches atheists swearers usurers cursers scoffers at religion c. This prophane multitude without any profession of faith and repentance were forced and compelled by human authority in the beginning of QElizabeths raigne to be members of their Church and so have continued they and their seed ever since contrary to the expresse word of God and this is so evident and certaine as the Nonconformists acknowledge it most true beside we leave them in respect of their ministery worship and Church government which is also prooved unlawfull and Antichristian by their owne testimony Another exception which he taketh against our description is because we say a people called by the word of God this he denies to be true and affirmes that men may come to be members of the visible Church and not be called by the word and therefore verie unfitly is it placed in the description of a visible Church pag. 62. 63. Ans We need not wonder when a man undertakes to justifie a bad cause that he useth ordinarily vile and profane arguments for it First this which he affirmeth is directly against the Holy Scriptures of God 2. Contrarie to all example in the old and new Testament 3. Wholy against the doctrine of his brethren and fellow Preists and the learned everie where c 4. The Scriptures which he names are both untruly and unadvisedly applyed of him for first touching that in Exod. 12. 38. Howsoever many Egyptians
our changing come ISA. 48. 18 19 20. O that thou haddest hearkened to my commaundements then had thy peace been as a River and thy righteousnesse as the waves of the Sea Thy seed also had been as the sand and the off-spring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me Goe ye forth of Babilon flee ye from the Câ—ldeans c. FINIS A TABLE Of the principall things contained in this Treatise A. ADministrations performed according to the booke of Common prayer and Canons unlawfull pag. 219. Administrations in themselves good may be done by false ministers pag. 236. Apocripha unlawfull to be read in the Church and reasons thereof pag. 108 109. Dr. Ames writing for their ministery answered pag. 55. 56 c. and for their worship p. 113 114 115. and about their Church Government p. 162. 163. Archbishops see Bishops B. Baptisme in the church of England unlawfully administred p. 104. Benefices how they are obtained by the ministers of the Church of England p. 17 18 19 20 c. Bels as they are used in their Assemblies unlawfull p. 112. The English Service-booke taken out of the vile Massebooke p. 78 79. The wickednesse of the Bishops described p. 31 32 33. Their offices false and Antichristian and reasons for the same p. 33. 34. 35. They cannot give a true ministery p. 37. Their booke of ordination taken out of the Popes Pontifical p. 12 The manner of burialls in EnglaÌ„d unlawful p. 102 Mr. Bradsh his scoffing p. 212. 227. 235. 240. Vncharitablenesse p. 212. Absurdnesse p. 215. 216. 240. 250. Ignorance p. 236. Contradictions p. 221. 232. 234 Dr. Burgesse Protestation to become a Separatist if he did beleeve the Nonconformists Principles p. 2. 113 C. No man may administer in the Church without a lawfull calling p. 8. 9 The calling of their Ministers doth essencially depend upon the Bb. calling p. 55. 56 Ceremonies condemned and why p. 92. 93. 94 They are the least evills of many in their Churches p. 116. 117 Canon Law unlawfull and reasons for it p. 139. No person by their Canons may speake against the abuses of their church p. 246. 247 No true visible church but a particular ordinary congregation p. 164 To the right constitution of a true visible Church it is of necessitie that all the members be holy and good p. 165. 174. 176 177. 178. 185. 193. 242 Churches of England false and reasons thereof p. 149. 169. 179. 180. Civil offices in Ecclesiastical persons unlawful p. 242 All their spiritual Courts in Eng. unlawfull p. 141 No man ought to appeare at them reasons for it p. 148. The manner of their proceedings in these Courts p. 145. 146 The Commissaries Court described p. 141. 142 The high Commission like the Spanish Inquisition The Convocation-house described p. 143. 144 Church wardens Office unlawfull reasons for it p. 138 Conversion no signe of a true ministery p. 66 Their Collectes in their Assemblies Idolatrous p. 107 Confirmation of Children unlawfull and reasons for it p. 100. 101 Crosse in Baptisme unlawfull and reasons for it p. 95. 96 Excommunication and the absolution of the person are actions common to the whole Church p. 134 Churching of women see women D. There ought to be Deacons in every true church reasons thereof p. 4. 5. Their Office consisteth only in receiving and distributing the benevolence of the Church and arguments for it Idem The Deaconrie of their Church Assemblies is an unlawfull office p. 48 The office of a Doctor is distinct from that of a Pastor and reasons for it p. 4 Mr. Dayrels description of a visible church refuted p. 182. 183. The reasons which he layes downe to prove their Parish Assemblies true Churches answered p. 185. 186. 187. 188. 189 c. Discipline see Government E. The Election of every Ecclesiast Officer must be by the free choyse of the whole Church where he is to administer p. 7. 8 The Ministers of the Church of England are not Elected according to Gods word p. 12 Obstinate sinners must be excommunicated p. 131. Reasons for it p. 132. How the Church is to walke towards such p. 133. And when and how to receive them againe p. 134 70. Grosse Errours practised in the Church of England p. 243. 244 Examples proveing the unlawfulnesse of communicating in a false worship p. 84. 85 c. F. The Court of Faculties described p. 141 Their Fasts are Popish p. 106 So is the Font. p. 104 G. A certaine forme of Church Government is prescribed by Christ reasons for it p. 128. 129. The same is unchangeable ordinary and common to all Churches p. 135. A matter of fayth and necessary to salvation p. 136 It cannot be a true Church which wants it p. 149 This Government must be set up and practised though the civil Magistrate allow not thereof pag. 15â— and reasons for it p. 156. 157. 158 c. The Church Government in England taken wholy and every part from the Pope page 138. 147 Men cannot submitt to it without breaking the Law of the Land pag. 148. 149 Governours or Ruling Elders ought to be in every true Church page 4 Godfathers in Baptisme Popish p. 104 The manner of reading the Gospells and Epistles condemned pag. 107 Gifts make not ministers pag. 65 H. Homilies unlawfull to be read in the Church Reasons for it p. 109. 110. The observation of holy dayes superstitious p. 106 107 The Hierarchie impaires the authority of the civil Magistrate pag. 227 I. What Ieroboams Preists could have said for their Religion page 85. 86 c. Such as maintaine ill causes upbraid others with ignorance page 211 K. The example of the Kings of Iudah vainely alleaged to justify King Edwards Queen Elizabeths compelling of their subjects to be members of the Church p. 201. 202 Kneeling in the act of receiving of the Lords Supper an idolatrous gesture reasons why unlawfull p. 97 The sitter is accessary to the sinne of the kneeler p. 252. 253 King Iames his saying of the Puritans p. 205 L. The ministery of Lecturers in the Assemblies of England new and strang from the scriptures and reasons thereof p. 49. 50 c. Dr. Laiton answered and his principles proved tolead unto separation p. 151. 153. 154 Such as take any Ecclesiastical Office from the Bb. transgresse against the Law of Realme p. 71. 72 Letanie no better then blasphemie and conjuration p. 107 The Learned against communicating in a false ministery p. 27. 28. 29. and false worship p. 90. 91 M. The manner of marrying in England unlawfull p. 101 Members are to be taken into the church by making publick profession of faith and repentance p. 135. 167 Every man that is a member ought to have his voice in the Ecclesiastical causes of the Church p. 134 Reasons why men should make themselves members of true visible Churches p. 166 What makes members of the Church of England p. 169.
The great wickednesse of them p. 170. 171. 172. The ministery of England taken wholy from Antichrist p. 11. Proved to be false p. 219. 222. Their manner of making ministers p. 12. 13. 14 What they are for qualification p. 15. 16. and practises p. 21 Men may be unlawfull ministers though never ordained by the Bb. p. 68. 215 Vnlawful ministers not to be communicated with in any thing they doe p 26. Reasons for it p. 27 Conversion of men to God no note of a true ministerie p. 64 The Ministers of England of one constitution p. 56 True ordinary ministery tyed to a particular Assembly p. 10. A roving unsetled false p. 9 Musick in the Church unlawfull p. 111 N. The profession practise of Nonconformists how they differ p. 205. 206 Their Minors and the Conformists Majors lead to separation p. 179. 180 Not so true to their grounds as the Conformists p. 38. 241 O. Oath ex officio why unlawful pag. 140 No Obedience must be yeelded to the Bb. Government p. 148 Five kinds of ordinary Ecclesiastical Offices only belonging to every true Church p. 3. 4 Officers not simply necessary for the publicke administrations in the Church p. 135 The Church may depose her officers p. 130 Offences how to be suppressed in the Church p. 130. 131. and why p. 168 The Officers of the spiritual Courts in England described p. 137. Their places Antichristian p. 1â—8 Brethren out of Office may teach publickly in the Church p. 54 Order and forme required in the collection of all true Churches p. 186 P. Pastors are all equal by Gods institution p. 3 These are wanting in the English Assemblies p. 11 Parsons Vicars c. unlawfull officers p. 44. 45 Parents ought not to bring their children to be Crossed in Baptisme and reasons for it p. 96 Patrons places unlawful p. 242. To be present at Idolatrous worship unlawfull p. 119. 120. And namely where the Ceremonies are used p. 98. 99 Power given to every particular Church p. 257 An essencial property there of p. 149 Preaching of the Gospell no part or property of the ministery in Fngland but a thing casual p. 259 The manner of preaching there p. 248. 249 Neither preaching nor administring the Sacraments argue a true mininistery p. 232 Not enough to be Professours p. 251 Their Preists and Deacons take their ministery from the Prelates and no where else p. 241 They have not the essencial ministery of Pastors and Teachers pag. 214 Prelates why worse then the Papists p. 82 Of Pollution by other mens sinns p. 208. 209 Q. None must be chosen into any office but such as are wel qualifyed for it and reasons thereof pag. 9. 10 13. Questions propounded with request to be answered p. 262. 263 c. R. Reading Preists described p. 38. Their ministery unlawfull and reasons for it p. 40. 41. A sinne to communicate in their ministery p. 42. What service they doe p. 44. The greatest number of the English ministers are such p. 43 Every Officer must be Resident in his place and why p. 10 Rome and England how like in Church Ordinances p. 261 The judgement of the Reformed Churches no good argument to prove the Church of England true by p. 188. 189 S. Sacraments prophanely administered in the church of England p. 105. 172 More Sacraments then Christ ordained administered in their Churches p. 259 Sacraments administred in private houses unlawfull p. 105 Service booke a devised worship and reasons for it p. 80. 81. 82 The Scribes and Pharisees misapplyed to justifie the ministery of England p. 231 Sidemens office unlawfull p. 138 Our separation why p. 196. 207 Lords Supper how abused p. 103. 104 Surplices unlawfull reasons for it p. 94. 95 Scriptures how abused in the Church of England p. 108 T. Toleraticir of sinne in the Church hurtfull and why p. 168 V. Visitation of the sick as used in England Popish p. 112 Bb. Visitation described p. 142 143 W. Widdowes an office in the Church and reasons for it p. 6 God hath prescribed a perfect platform how he wil be worshipped p. 72 Reasons why he should be worshipped according to the same p. 74. 75 The worship of the church of England is contained in the booke of common prayer p. 78 Churching of Women unlawfull and reasons for it p. 99 The word of God the only meanes to fitt men for Church-estate Z. True Zeal will not endure any thing of Antichrists p. 107 FINIS ERRATA For Eder read Elder p. 9. lin 13. For honestly read honesty p. 14. lin 25. For as read at p. 28. lin 20. For thelr read their p. 103. l. 23. For nor read not p. 131. l. 2. For Hierom read Hieron p. 161. l. 29. For number 38. in marg read 61. after Arrow ag Br. p. 224. * Our Apologie Mr. Bar. refutation of Mr. Giffard A treatise of the minist of the Church of England Mr. Robinsons Iustification of Separ Mr. Penry of the ministery of England An answ to Mr. Stone ‡ I mean only in the point of Separation for in other things he bath answered D Burg. fully and laid him flatt on the grouÌ„d ‡ Hooker Eccles Pol. pref p. 34. Whitg 2. Treat c. 1. div 2. p. 81 Sutclif treat of Disc c. 15 p. 165. D. Bils perpetual Goverm ch 15. p. 339. Bancr Surv. of Disc c. 33 p. 430 431 432. Loe Quaerimon Ecclesiae p. 59 60. Answ to the Petition by the Vice Chanc. Heads of Oxf. p. 15. D. Morton D. Burg. ð„ Repl. to D. Mort. Sect. 14. p. 31. Defence of Petition to the K. p. 103. a Dayr Treat of the Ch. p. 41. b Mr. Nichols plea of the innocent p. 33 34 c The scurrulous Libels published under the names of Lawne Fowler Bullard c. ‡ Serm. on Rom. 12. p. 65 66. Sold. Bar. Abridgm p. 23. Cartw. Catechis p. 315. 316. Rev. 16. 15 Ioh. 17. Chap. 42. 43. ‡ he speaks thus by false ministers Prov. 14. 15 ‡ Yet we beleeve their principles to be true is there be no Nonc that will defend them we will ð„ ð„ ð„ ð„ ð„ Magis veritas elucet quò saepius ad manuÌ„ venit Senec. lib. de ira Pag. 5. Pag. 232. Necessit discip 38 73 74. Offer coÌ„fer pag. 2. T. C. l. 1. p. 22. l. 2 pa. 3. p. 5. 15. Demonst discip 46 Mr. Bates 27. Informat froÌ„ Scott p. 28 29. Necessity discip 71. Defen ag Slaund of Bridg. 127. Forme ecclesias govern p. 123 124 125 c. Demonst discip 53 54. Inform. froÌ„ Scott pag. 30. Forme eccles Govern 128 129 c. Rom. 12 8 â— Cor. 12 28. 1 Tim. â— 17. Mr. Bate 89 c. Demons disc p. 56. Inform. from Scot. p. 13. Eccles gover p. â—â—9 M. Bates p. 117. Answ to Bancr ser p. 14. T. C. l. 1. 190. 2. Admo p. 61. T. C. l. 1. p 190. disc Eccles 119 Infor. Scott 31 demonst discip 61. 62. c.
constitution there followes not the like effect It is even so in the cause of the soule such as vnfeynedly desire to know the truth and have a conscionable resolution towalke in it doe receive much profitt by the fruitfull counsell which is given them either by word or writing But on the contrary Those which seeke the truth with no better affection than Pilate did neither purpose to obey the same more then did the dissembling Hypocrites in Ieremie Certainly good advise given to them is but as Pearles cast before swine and dogs therefore my desire is that the former sort may be viewers only of these lines and to them I say in the words of the Apostle consider what I say and the Lord give understanding in all things The following Principles touching a true Church Ministery Worship and Government as also hew quite contrary hereto the English is are not taken out of our writings but from the Nonconformists yea even from the cheifest of them which for learning Zeale judgement holinesse of life c. have ever held that cause Moreover they are not barely affirmed but sufficiently confirmed and therefore it standeth every one vpon to take them the more to heart for else not one but many of themselves even Prophets of their owne will condemne them I know the devill vseth many meanes to keepe people in cursed ignorance and among other one specially is by disswading them from hearing such persons and reading such books which might shew vnto them their evil sin and this he doth vnder a pretence of doeing good vnto them Oh! saith he you must beware of false Prophets and not hearken to that counsel which causeth to erre avoyd the companie of all deceivers and not once looke into their books c. Now by such Syren songs the crafty Serpent keepes them fast asleepe till he have brought the poore soule into the pitt of endlesse perdition We would thinke that man to be sencelesse who taking his enimies counsel would shutt all his doores windowes in hope to get the more light into his house thereby The devil dayly makes many thousand worse fooles in the world in causing them to shutt close their eyes against the saving light of the Gospell in exspectation that their soules by this meanes shal be filled with the more wisedom and spiritual vnderstanding It is not my meaning that any one should beleeve things suddenly rashly but I would have him as Salomons counsell is to looke wel to his going and as we take gould by weight Corne Cloth c. by measure so to receive the doctrines of every man by due examination And this is onely the thing which I doe request of thee good reader whosoever thou art be thou but pleased to put the Principles inferences here written vpon their proof to hold that only fast which after good triall by the scriptures thou findest to be good and it is sufficient and I have my desire of thee to the full One thing more I desire others to take notice of namely That I judge not my self bound so much to justifie their Principles as our Inferences from them Jf therefore any shall deny them to be true my purpose is to give place to such whome it more nearly concerneth to write in the defence thereof But if any shall oppose vs in the Conclusions I would have them leaving all by matters to follow the truth in love without gall and bitternesse that so things may come to a happy and speedy issue It is wel said of a Heathen man the oftner truth commeth to hand the more the l ght therof appeareth I hope this wil be verified in the point now in controversie for howsoever I doubt not but we have said here enough to justifie the matter undertaken notwithstanding much more I could have alleged from their writings concerning these things but for the present I content my self herewith till there be a further just and necessarie occasion given thereof I. CANNE A MANVDVCTION To the following TREATISE HOwbeit not any religion should be judged the lesse true because few embrace it neither the sooner to be followed for the generall good liking and approbation which it hath among men notwithstanding having now so just and necessarie an occasion to vrge men to practise what they professe I shall indeavour by the grace of God clearely to prove that this our Waye is of the Apostolique primitive institution even frō their Tenets which walk contrary to it Among other crimes charged upon Nonconformists as they are called by the Prelates and their Favorites one chiefely is that their Principles layd downe against the churches of England doe lead vnto separation and therefore if they were true to their owne grounds they should not communicate in the church assemblyes of England Many of the Bishops parasites heretofore have thus accused them and of late one Doct. Burgesse most confidently maintaines the same against them The which by Doct. Ames is vtterly denyed Now which of these two Doctors in this thing have the truth J hope it shall evidently be declared in this treatise following CHAPT 1. DOctor Burgesse having read and sereouslie as it seemes examined the nature true consequence of the many particular arguments published to the world by the Nonconformists against the great abuses in the ministerie worship and Church government of England Affirmed in his Rejoinder to D. Morton that the same are the maine grounds of separation and for his part if he beleeved them to be true he would in all good conscience he protesteth proclaime separation from idolatrous worship and worshippers before he slept and not halt as these men by their owne positions doe betwixt idolatrie and religion Doctor Ames in his new booke intituled a fresh suit against Ceremonies denyeth that any such thing can be necessarilie concluded from their principles but I will here shew by evident and sound reasons that the former assertion is true and certaine and all the arguments brought by the other to the contrary are of no weight or force to make good his deniall thereof And because I much desire that the reader may well understand our points in dispute I shall therefore if God will write in order of them And first I will begin with their ministerie and touching it will lay downe 4 things 1. How the Nonconformists doe describe a true ministery 2. How far that of England by their owne confession differs from and is contrary to it 3. I will shew what inferences and conclusions doe necessarily follow upon it 4. Answer the reasons brought by Doct. Ames in defence of their ministerie NOt to speake of Apostles Prophets and Evangelists which were extraordinary ministeries and therfore as themselves say are now wholy ceased The ordinarie Offices perpetually belonging to all true churches are onely these five 1. a Pastor or Bishop which is the highest ordinarie Ecolesiasticall Officer in
idle ceremonies now marke reader how he pleads for his mother as touching the worship he saith nothing of it but of the rites onely which are evils a hundred fould lesse then the other Againe that every Church is not to be left which hath some thing in it by participation idolatrous I know no man holds the contrarie therefore I cannot tel for what end he speakes it much lesse why he puts a scismaticall conceit vpon the Rej. whose words if they be wel considered have substance and weight in them and not conceits to speake truely what I thinke D. Ames his conceit in framing this answer was not of the best For thus they seem to argue a Church which hath somthing in it by participation idolatrous is not to be separated from The Church of England is such Ergo. Now according to this argument no false worshippers should be left Papists Iewes nor Turkes who sees not the lightnesse of it Notwithstanding except it be this way applied for my part I cannot tell what to make of it If any object he meant that the ministerie worship and Government of the Eng. Assemblies is not so bad as to be separated from I answer this is yet to prove the which thing lay now full vpon him to doe if he would have taken the right point and not needlessly to tell us of that which no man either asked of him or doubted of 3 Though everie Church is not to be condemned c. Yet such may be the corrupt state of some as separation from them is both lawfull and necessary the Nonconformists say as much So the cause of seperation be good the separation from a companie where with we were first vnited cannot be blamed much lesse condemned of heresie The thing which the Rej. cheifelie insisted vpon was that the cause of separation from the Church of England is good if the Nonconformists principles be true what they are he names D. Ames neither saith they be true or false nor one word to any purpose vnlesse this be viz. it is not lawful vtterly to condemne and so to separate from a Church for everie thing therefore not for any thing 4. Touching the matter here insinuated against the person of D. Burg. as if he meant not to practice what he professeth I will leave it to himselfe to answer onely this I say if he and others are so minded as he writes certainly they shall find nothing in D. Ames answere to informe them otherwise But that they may safely retaine still the same opinion and separate from the Church of England when they doe beleeve the Nonconformists principles to be true 5. I wonder what moved the D. to mention onely ceremonies and to intimate as if the difference between them and the Bb. lay now mainly in this considering as he knew wel that these rites are very toyes to other things in question heare what they say The controversie betwixt vs and the Bishop is not for trifles as they would beare the world in hand as for a cap a tippet or surplusse c. But for great matters concerning a true ministerie and regiment of the Church according to the word which things once established the other would melt away of themselves Againe another thus the question is not as it is every day in publike Sermons uncharitablie upbraided about triffles and things of no weight as of variable ceremonies and matters of circumstances which yet are to be squared by the sacred Canons of holie Scripture but about matters of no small importance even about the great and weightie cause of Christs Kingdome by what lawes and offices his heritage is to be governed and protected that is of the whole disciplin of the church of Christ whether it be to be ordered by the vncertain deceivable weights of humane constitutions or by the infallible oracles of Gods most holie testimonies Others thus our principall greifes about the which alas brethren We have now too long and vnhappilie contended are that all false ministeries and false Government devised by men may be taken away and a lawfull ministerie and a right church-power restored as for the square cap and such other toyes which not without cause we disalow yet they doe not so sore wound vs as those greater and weightier matters doe from the which all the rest are derived and drawne To the like purpose Mr. Cartwright and others And are not those great and weighty things in question still Yes surelie and therefore for what reason D. Ames passeth them over without any words and speakes of toyes and triffles in comparison Let the reader judge Moreover he had little need to make himself so ignorant what the Rei meant by a principle what by separation for if he had had any list to the thing he could easilie have understood the same for in truth a child may perceive if he read the place that D. Burg. intended such principles as I before named from their writings to wit that they say they want a right ministerie worship and Church-government But the Proverbe is here true who so blind as he that will not see The author of the Preface to his booke speaketh much like thereabout this point a little there is added namelie that Christ our Teacher and his Aposiles did joyne in the Iewes worship vnto which were added many superstitions as vnlawfull as their Ceremonies Answ 1. I may use his owne words he doth not prove that which he concludeth For howsoever many superstitious traditions were used by the Iewes yet whether they were brought in and added to their sacred worship instituted of God as any parts therof is doubtfull and the contrary more probable 2. To say that Christ and his Apostles did joyne in that worship to which many superstitions were added is too presumptioeslie spoken and I wish men to be more sober and not so bouldlie to affirme such groundlesse positions to justifie a corrupt and halting practise I know D. Ames hath the like saying that Christ was present when the traditions of men were observed in Gods worship But he delivers this onely upon his owne word and therefore we may beleeve it accordingly 3. He saith these superstitions in the Iewes worship were as unlawfull as their Ceremonies What testimonie brings he for it as before none at all If such arguments will passe a man may soone have enough to fill a cart with But note here how greatly they contradict one another they said even now that their Ceremonies are such idolls as a man cannot lawfullie joyne with that worship where they are used yet here they say that they are not worse then were the superstitions in the Iews worship vnto which Christ and his Apostles joyned Now which shall a man beleeve of them not the later for he gives no reason for what he speakes but the others doe 4. If it should be all granted him howbeit he proves nothing yet it
was commaunded to the 7 Churches to be practised vnder persecuting Magistrates opposing that we must not omitt though the Magistrate doth not tollerate it The practise of Church Government was commaunded to the 7 Churches Revelation 2 and 3. Therefore we must not omitt the practise of Church Government though the Magistrate doth not tollerate it 8. If the Church Government may be omitted wheresoever and whensoever the Magistrate doth not allow it then it doth depend wholy for the practise of it on the will of man But it doth not depend neither ought it to depend wholy vpon the will of man Therefore the Church Government may not be omitted when and wheresoever the Magistrate doth not allow it 9. If the Magistrate may forbid mee the practise of the ordinances of God then he may forbid me to be so good a subject as I can be or may be But the Magistrate may not forbid me to be so good a subject to Christ as I can be or may be Therefore the Magistrate may not forbid me the practise of the ordinances of God The Nonconformists are not alone in this thing for all the reformed Churches affirme the same viz. that it is the part and dutie of all the faithfull to submitt to the Doctrine and discipline appointed by Christ yea though the contrarie edicts of Princes and Magistrates doe forbid them vpon paine of death And so have their practises beene many ages together and there is good reason for it For the Regiment and Government of the Church dependeth not as the Nonconformists well teach upon the authoritie of Princes but upon the ordinance of God who hath most mercifullie and wiselie so established the same that as with the comfortable ayde of Christian Magistrates it may singularly flourish and prosper so without it it may continue and against the adversaries thereof prevail For the Church eraveth helpe and defence of Christian Princes to continue and goe foreward more peaceably and profitably to the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ but all authoritie she receiveth is immediately of God Before we proceed to another point we may here frame this argument If the professours of the Gospell in England have not among them a true church Government but are vnder that which came from the great Antichrist then are they bound to set vp that ordinance of God and to to practise it not withstanding the Magistrate doe forbid the said practise But the professours of the Gospell in England have not among them a true church Government but are vnder c. Therfore are they bound to set vp that ordinance of God and to practise it notwithstanding the Magistrate doth forbid the said practise These are both their owne positions and so soundlie proved that no man liveing is able to confute them But some will say this is hard to doe I answer difficulties must not hinder duties where we have an expresse commaundement laid upon us there al disputation must cease of hardnesse daungers losses c. Excellently for his purpose speaketh Calvine There is no travell or labour so great which we must not endure to the end we may enjoy the face of God how perilous soever the passage be be it as they say betwixt fyre and water yet let men goe foreward to have libertie to serve and worship God purâ—lie Is a man in going pinched with famin or thrist yet let him not faint but scrape the earth rather with his nailes for food and maintenance then be turned or driven back from comming to the Temple of God Many use to say they wish all were well and pray for reformation To this I answer it is not enough that we desire to have all things well except we endeavour to make them so He that wants and hungers for bodilie food deserves to starve except with all he use diligence and sore labour also as he is able to get it Againe prayers I confesse are good but without practise they profitt not The heart which setts the hand at worke and is full of zeale obedience sincerity c. shall doe well and prosper When Moyses stood crying at the red sea what saith God unto him speake unto the children of Israel that they goe forward I am perswaded the Nonconformists pray dayly for their deliverance from the Bb. government but here is their fault they goe not forward but are like him in the Prov which lyes in the ditch and cries God help but doth not seeke to help himselfe though he can and is able Others think because mens laws are against Christ that they shall therfore be excused in omitting their service unto him but they will finde it otherwise and as for this shift it denotes a most unsound heart for as we would repute that servant verie naught who being commanded by his maister to do divers things doth onely that which serves for his own credit profit pleasure c. but the rest not being so though more weighty and necessarie he purposly omitteth so certainly they carry the broad Characters of notable hipochrites even in their foreheads which walk onely in such waies of Christ as ly open for them by the authority of man where they may go with good leave safely and free from all bodily daunger but where the commandements of God are hedged up with thornes by mens prohibitions there they fowllye step aside and walke corruptly when the Apostles were sent forth to plant Churches if they should have left the Lords worke because they were forbidden to preach in the name of Iesus they had surely sinned and would have beene greatly punished for it are not the ordinances of the Gospell as strictly to be kept now as heretofore yes surely Mr. Hierom saith that such outward observances in matters of religion as are of divine institution not the least of them are to be neglected dispised or difused vntill he that ordained them shall be pleased in expresse termes to disanul them If not the least must be omitted then not Church government because it is a cheife ordinance and without the which as I said before no publick worshipp can be rightlie administred There are some which out of tendernesse of conscience refuse to kneel in the act of receaving and doe take the Sacrament sitting Moreover doe meet in private families to Fast and Pray together and are persuaded that herein they doe well though their practise be forbidden by the Magistrate Now I desire these seriouslie to consider if they may lawfullie performe some religious duties against Human Lawes why not others and specially if they be such duties as serve more for Gods glory the furtherance of the Gospell the edification of the Church and salvation of their owne soules I doe not finde any thing written by Dr. Ames about this point although he well knew that one maine ground of our separation from their Parish Assemblies is because as the Nonconformists affirme they want the power of Christ and
stand under that which was taken wholy from the Pope yet it may be he thought that he had said enough hereof in the Addition of his first booke pag. 26. where he repeates certaine words which had beene before printed in his reply to D. Morton If Gaius saith he had made a separation from the Church wherein Diotrephes lived whether the Apostle Iohn had been the cause of that scandall because he condemned his abuse of excommunication This speach saith D. Burgesse is the weakest pretence that could be devised and truly so it is and therefore I marvaile seeing he was tould so much that he had not either said somethinge for his owne defence or blotted it out that so the weakenesse and impertinēcy of it might never have been seen Could not D. Ames perceive any difference betweene the abuses there noted by Iohn in Diotrephes and those which are mentioned by the Nonconformists against the Church of England we doe not read that Diotrephes is said to be an vnlawfull and Antichristian minister that he had brought into the Church a devised worship had sett up a false Government yet such are the faults which the Nonconformists have found out in the Church of England I wonder therefore that the Doctor should so much overshoot himself For though we doe not thinke that it was lawfull either for Gaius or any other member of that Church to separate because Diotrephes playd the Diocesan but they were to stay and seeke his reformation notwithstanding we thinke yea and doe know of a certainty that from a church where the ministerie worship and government is vnlawfull and Antichristian we may warrantablie depart and such is our Separation by the Nonconformists Principles Thus Reader thou hast heard the most and all which Dr. Ames hath said to maintaine the reputation of their grounds charged with Separatisme now if thou considerest how effectually he hath refuted the Rejoinder in the matter of Ceremonies but contrary wise about this point of Separation how he speaks either nothing or nothing to any purpose thou mayst well perceive that in the former he had the truth with him but not in the other although it seemes he was unwilling in plaine termes to give the case away CHAP. IV. THat the ministerie worship and church government of England is not lawfullie to be joyned with we have evidentlie allreadie proved by their owne Principles In this Chapter we will speake of their Church observing still the former order that is 1. I will shewe their Tenets touching a true visible Church 2. How farre their English Church by their owne testimonie differs from and is contrary to it 3. I will lay downe our inferences and conclusions 4. Answer to such Objections as may seeme to carie most weight against them To let passe the strict significatiō of the word church and also the sundry acceptations of it concerning true visible churches the Nonconformists say that there are none but particular ordinarie congregations such Churches and such onlie they affirme God erected but as for Nationall Provinciall Diocesan they are now of human institution altogether unjustifiable by the scriptures The author institutor and framer of every true visible Church is only Christ for he alone hath the disposing of the word vouchsafing it to some and denying it to others and it is his spirit which converteth mens soules and begetteth them to everlasting life and so they become stones for this building For the persons whereof the same are constituted they ought to be a Faithfull People called and separated from the world and the false worship and the wayes thereof Such I say as keepe the Commaundements of God and the faith of Iesus for how else should the Church be the House Mountaine and Temple of the eternal God his Vinyard Kingdom Heritage and enclosed Garden the body of Christ his spcuse love sister Queene a chosen generation a holy nation a peculiar people and the joy of the whole Earth Howsoever therefore there may be Hypocrites which beare the face of godlie men in the church whose wickednesse is onelie knowne to God and so cannot be discovered by men yet in the churches of Christ there ought to be admitted no drunkard no whoremonger c. at least which are knowne because the temple of God must be kept as neere as it is possible free and clean from all pollutions and prophanations whatsoever The meanes whereby men are made fitte for this Church of God is by the word when they have well proffited by hearing the same they are then freely and of their owne accord to present themselves to the Lord that is either to joyne themselves to some true Church already constituted or by voluntary profession of faith and obedience of Christ to knit themselues together in a spirituall outward societie or body politick Now everie true particular congregation assembled lawfully in the name of Christ is an independent body and hath by Christs ordinaunce power to performe all publick worship for unto it appertaineth the covenant the worship the sacraments and all ecclesiasticall discipline having also the promises of peace love glory and salvation and of the presence of God and his continuall protection and for this cause it is the dutie of everie faithfull christian to make himselfe actually a member thereof 1 In respect of Gods institution Matth. 18. 17. in which not onely the precept is contained but a certaine necessitie of the meanes 2. In respect of the presence of God of Christ For if we wil com to God we ought then to com to that place where his presence is in a speciall manner where he is to be found of all such as secke him with the whole heart 3. In respect of Gods glorie the which by this meanes is publikely propagated and advanced For as the name of God in the old Testament was placed in Ierusalem so now it is in the Churches of the Saints although not in this or that place 4. In respect of Gods covenant and promise for those which are in the Church are directlie as it were joyned to his blessings the which are there powred forth abundantlie upon them 5. In respect of our profession for otherwise it cannot be but those evidences will be darkened whereby the faithfull are discerned from unbeleevers 6. In respect of mutuall edification which necessarily followes upon our joyning together in the fellowship of the Gospell Touching the manner and order of this joyning unto true visible Churches the Nonconformists doe describe it thus He which is to be received first is to goe to the Elders of the Church to be well informed and instructed by them and to have his cause by them propounded to the congregation afterwards he is to come himselfe into the publike assemblie all men looking upon him with love and joy as upon one that commeth to be maryed and there he is to make a profession of Faith and to be
the mouth of the blasphemous swearer is not tyed vp and the hands of the idolatrous generation of Atheists and prophane persons be not chained when the most holie and precious word of God is manifestly contemned the joyfull and heavenly tydings of salvation so negligently and vngratefully troden vnder foot the true and faithfull messengers pursued arraigned and divers wayes afflicted then if the old world for malitious imaginations Sodom and Gomorra for pride fullnesse of meat and vnmercifullnesse If Ierusalem for abusing Gods Prophets wilsuâ—nes were dâ—stroyd what may we poor carelesse people loke for if we doe not repent but as it is allmost vniversallie feared speedy ruine and vtter desolation Another saith What Christian heart is so stony that doth not mourne what eye so dry that doth not shed teares yea rather gush out with teares to consider and behold the miserie of our supposed glorâ—â—us Church by the spirituall nakednesse blindnesse and povertie thereof I meane the great ignorance the superficiall worship of God the fearefull blasphemies and swearings in houses and streets so also the direfull cursings the open contempt of the word and Sacraments the wicked prophanations of the Lords dayes the dishonour of superiours the pride the crueltie the fornications the covetuousnesse the vsâ—ries and other the like abominations allmost as greivous as either heretofore in the time or now in the places of poperie when and where there was no preaching at all of the Gospell It is also further testifyed that the holy thinges among them are prostituted and sett open to adulterers fornicators drunkards and all kind of vicious and sinful livers They sett no porters at their church dores to keepe out the polluted but every uncleane person is permitted to enter freely I say all may come boldlie to the Lords supper they looke after nothing but this that they kneele which if they doe but observe be their life and religion then what it will it matters not Thus are the misteries of God prophaned in that they communicate with Papists other unclean people To draw unto a conclusion not onlie are their congregatioÌ„s said to be vnrightly constituted to be impure vnholy lumps but which is the depth of misery they have no meanes as they stand of reformation for the wholesome remedies appointed by the Lord to keep out unworthie persons to preserve pure and cleane Gods ordinances and to take away offences is not among them and here the reader may see what the reason is that they say the walls of Syon ly even with the ground and they have not scarse the face of a Church For if it be as these men report it is Babel no Bethel which they have erected I could name others of them which write the same things but we have enough to rayse our conclusion the which I will lay downe thus All true visible churches gathered and planted according to Gods word consisted in their constitution of Saints onelie But the Churches of England after Poperie were not so constituted but on the conirarie for the greatest number of prophane people even mockers and contemners of religion as Atheists Idolaters Sorcerers Blasphemers and all sorts of miscreants and wicked livers Therefore the Churches of England are not true visible churches gathered and planted according to Gods Word There is never a part of this argument that they can denye unlesse they will let fall their owne Principles For the assumtion I make no question but it will passe without exception and none of them will have the face to oppose it considering how generally the thing hath been affirmd stil is upon all occasioÌ„s both in word and writing Now that the Proposition may appeare as true also I will prove the same 1. by Scriptures 2. by reasons 3. by the testimonie of the Learned Of all which in the next Section SECT III. IF we take a strict view of all the Churches which the Lord hath constituted since the beginning of the world it will appeare that at the orderly gathering and planting the members of them were all holie and good I here intend of visible external holinesse and so farre as men may judge and not of that which is within and and hid from us For I doubt not but in Gods sight the purest congregation on earth might consist at first of good and bad and yet of men every person to be judged truely faithfull and sanctified untill any one by his iniquitie outwardly committed appeared otherwise Not to speake of the Church of Angells which God created in heaven and which were all holy and good till some by transgression fell away Neither of it in Paradise consisting of two persons both true beleevers After the fall the constitutioÌ„ of theâ— church in the covenant of grace was of good matter such was the Lords care to have the practise of it still preserved that he thrusted out Kain from the same for the great wickednesse which he fell into The Lord sealed not up with Abraham the seale of the righteousnesse of faith untill he left his Fathers house and that idolatrous place wherein he had lived which signifieth to us that all men must necessarily come out of the world and from worldlie corruptions or else they are uncapable to have a Church covenant in Christ confirmed unto them of God As for the visible Churches planted by the Apostles it is evideÌ„t that in their collectioÌ„ they consisted of such none other as were called by the Gospell confessed their sinnes beleeved walked in the spirit and separated themselves from the false state in which they stood members before Such a beginning had the congregations in Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus Phillipp Colosse Thessalonica c. who dares affirm that there was one man or woman admitted a member at the constitution of any of these Churches which had beene known to be an il liver and did not first manifest sound repentance thereof The matereall Temple was a tipe of the visible churches under the gospel now we read that it was built from the verie foundation of costly stones of Cedars Algum Fiâ—â—e and the like choice and speciall trees and those all prepared aforehand hewed and perfect for the building so that neither hammer nor axe nor anie toole was to be heard in the house in the building of it no common or vile thing was used towards it neither might anie polluted person enter into it and offer untill he had repented and embraced the faith and been clensed from his filthinesse by the gates of the house were Porters sett to keep the unworthy out Vpon the Altar there might be offered no uncleane beast no nor that which was cleane having a blemish upon it What in all this was signifyed Surely this Such as will build a spirituall house for the Lord to dwell in must be a holy people for he is of that infinite puritie that
he will not vouchsafe his speciall presence unto profane companies which joyne themselves together and therefore let it be farr from all men to prepare a place for him with such trash or to defile his holy things with such uncleane persons or to offende his nostrels with the stench of such sacrifices The reasons upon which our proposition is grounded are these 1. All wicked men are forbidden expresslie by the word of God from meddling with his covenant or ordinances Now if men to escape temporall punishment are affraid to transgresse against the Lawes of worldly Princes Much more fearefull should they be to breake his who is the King of Kings and will inflict for it upon their soules and bodies torments eternallie 2. That which destroyeth a Churchâ— and makes it either to become a false Church or no church at all cannot be a true Church or be true matter wherof it is made but men visiblie wicked and prophane make the Church a Synagoge of Satan Babylon Sodom Aegypt and so to be spued out and removed 3. It is against sence and common reason that a Church should be constituted of vnholie People For as in a materiall house the wood and stones must be first prepared and then laâ—d orderlie in the building So in the spiritual men and women must by the word of God necessarily be first reformed before they are any way fitt to have any place therin 4. They which have no right to the holy things of God in the church are not to be admitted into it neither is that Church which is gathethered of such persons rightly constituted But men of wicked conversation have no right to the holy things of God in the Church and therefore that Church which is gathered of such is not rightly constituted 5. They cannot performe the services and duties of members for they are spirituallie dead If a master will not covenant with one to be his servant which hath in him no natural life much lesse c. 6. They have not Christ for their head and therefore cannot be of his bodie For as in the natural bodie there must be first a natural union of the parts with the head before there can be any action of natural communion between the head and the members or one member and another So in this spiritual bodie the members must be first united with Christ the head and become one with him before they can any way partake in his benefits or have communion one with another as members of the same body under him the head 7. They are altogether uncapable of this covenant For as a woman which hath been once a wife cannot mary againe with another man untill her first husband be deceased or she from him lawfullie divorsed so neither can these be maried to the Lord till they have mortifyed their corruptions and put the world and Satan away unto which before they were as it were maried 8. The Godlie and wicked are contraries guided and led by different causes Now two contraries are not capable of one and the same forme Thirdly for this we have the judgment of the learned also There must be saith Molierus a profession of true religton and obedience yealded thereto at least outwardly to become a member of the visible Church Beza saith He is rightly joyned to the church which separates himselfe from the wicked Paul calls the Romans Saincts saith Aretius to put a difference between their former estate wherein they lived which was unholy and impure and the condition to which they were now called Piscator affirmes The matter of a particular church to be a companie of beleevers Mr. Iacob in his definition of Christs true visible Church saith that those which joyne in a spiritual outward society or body Politick together must be a faithfull people Mr. Bradshaw saith they must be a people called and separated from the world and the false worship and wayes thereof by the word The same speaketh Mr. Attersoll and alleageth these Scriptures for it Gen. 4. 26 and 12. 1. Iosh 24. 2. 3 23. 7. 8. Num. 6. 2. Lev. 20. 24. 26. Ioh. 15. 19. Act. 2 40. 41. I could name many others which write the same thing but there is no use thereof Onelie it cannot be amisse to shew how the Church of England makes this an Article of her Faith as the Prelates have published it in her behalfe The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of Faithfull men in the which the pure word of God is preached and the Sacraments dulie be ministred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessitie are requisite to the same Thus the Proposition beeing proved and the assumption acknowledged to be true the conclusion must needs stand firme viz. that the Churches of England are not true visible churches rightly gathered and planted according to the Scripture and therefore by necessarie consequence lawfully to be separated from Before I end this point I will here lay downe some few Syllogismes intyrelie made up betweene the Inconformists and Conformists all concluding the forenamed position That Church which hath not a Lawfull ministery is not a true visible Church But the Church of England hath not a Lawfull ministerie Ergo the church of England is not a true visible church The proposition is affirmed of the Conformists as Burton Sutcliffe c. The assumption is granted by the Nonconformists as we have in the first chapter largelie shewed The true visible church of Christ is a society of beleeving and Faithfull people and a communion of Saints so say the Conformists but the church of England is not a society of beleeving and Faithfull people a communion of Saints thus write the Nonconform see p. 169. c. Ergo the church of Engl. is not a true visible church The true church is the Kings daughter described in Psal 45. But the church of England is not the Kings daughter so described Therefore the church of England is not the true church of Christ The Proposition is laid downe by the Conformists wherby they prove Rome a false Church The assumption is the Nonconformists For if they say the truth their members have not those qualities belonging to the Kings daughter neither their Preists nor people See pag. 15. 16. 39. 137. 169. 170. The true church of Christ is the Flock of Christ but the church of England is not the true Flock of Christ Therefore the church of England is not the true church of Christ. The proposition say the Conformists is undeniable Son 1. 6. 7. Act. 20. 28. Ioh. 10. 16. The assumption is proved by the Nonconformists Principles compared with Ioh. 10. 3. 4. 27. Christs flock heare his voyce and know it follow it but the Church of England submitting to an vnlawfull ministerie worship and discipline heare not Christs voyce nor know nor acknowledge nor follow it but
the voyce of Antichrist The church of God doth keep the doctrine of the Apostles Prophets without addition alteration or corruption thus the Conformists But the Church of England keepes not the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets without addition alteration and corruption say the Nonconformists see pa. 108. Ergo she is not the church of God No society can be termed Gods church which retayneth not Gods true worship thus say the Conformists But the church of England doth not retayn Gods true worship say the Nonconformists see pag. 78. to 113. Ergo she cannot be termed Gods church The true church consisteth not of feirce Lyons Wolves Tygers and such like wild and feirce beasts but of sheepe and Lambes which learne of Christ and are meeke humble gentle c. so say the Conformists But the English church doth consist of Lyons Wolves Tygers and such like wild and feirce beasts and not of sheepe and Lambes which learne of Christ and are mâ—eke humble gentle c. thus affirme the Nonconformists see pag. 31. c. 145. 169. 170. therefore it is not a true Church Here the reader seeth clearly how the Conform majors and the Nonconform minors make up intyre Syllogismes of Separatisme And how they will be able to unlose these knots I know not except by revoking utterly their owne grounds which if either of them doe yet I doubt not but we shall well enough be able to maintaine them against men SECT IV. NOw we come to take a view of such exceptions as may seeme to cary most weight against our former conclusion And these are laid down cheifly by Mr. Dayrell in his treatise of the Church this man made a shift to fill up there with words above thirty sheets of paper The which subject if some men had tooke in hand they would easily have comprised all the matter of it in 12. or 14. leaves My purpose is not to follow him in his idle repetitions neither to speake much of his contradictions absurdities but in short to give a full answer to his tedious tyresome discourses Touching the description which he makes of a visible church he saith thus All that be and remaine vnder the voyce and call of God that is the ministerie of the word c. be of the visible church Answ This is a false and prophane errour for first then the vilest Hereticks that ever have beene in the world may be members thereof as the Appellites Cerdonians Macedonians Paternians Patricians c. such as held two contrarie beginnings or Gods the one good the other evill such as held that Christ is not rysen from the dead denyed the Holy Ghost to be God affirmed the bodie to be created of the devill c. 2. Then may excommunicate persons be of the church before they acknowledge their sinnes yea Tuâ—â—es Iews and Infidles 3. Whereto leadeth this Position but indeed to make the Church a very stincking ditch to receave all filthinesse and to be like the whorish woman which openeth her knees to every passenger contrarie to the patterne given us of God Rev. 21. ult 4. If this were true then should no man for any offence be censured so long as he remaines vnder the voyce and call of God For that which is enough to state one in the Church is enough to keepe him there still if he retaine it 5. He speakes contrary to the judgement of all Reformists and Conformists that ever I have heard or read of and contrarie to his owne writing in other places for in pag. 22. 35 c. he defines a Church to be a company called out from the rest of the world and such as doe submit themselves to the true worship of God Now there is a great difference betweene this calling from the world submitting to the true worship of God c. and onely to be under the ministerie of the word 6. I cannot tell from whom Mr. Dayr receaved this strange doctrine unlesse it were the Heretick Eunomius which taught that so men were of his religion it was no matter what their conversation was nor how many sinnes they committed He doth often affirme in his booke that it is not Faith and repentance but the Profession thereof which is necessarie to the making of a member of the visible Church Marke how blasphemously he speakes intimating if men with their mouth speake some few good wordes they may be taken lawfullv into the Communion of the Saints and partake with the rest in the Sacraments and Prayer All be it knowne to be notorious murderers theeves traitors sorcerers witches whoremoungers c. and so resolved to live and continue It is very likely this Mr. Dayr had a great Church seeing he made the doore unto it broad and wide just like the way to hell I could here lay down many grosse absurdities which might be truly concluded from his words viz. that a Church cannot cast out some obstinate sinners neither is she and the world to be distinguished c. but because the vanitie and evill of this speach is enough allready shewed I purposely passe them over We have seene one of Mr. Dayr definitions now followes another Let there be an assembly joyned together in prayer hearing the word and receaving the Sacraments according to Christs institution and it is a true visible Church Answ It is so indeed and hence this argument against them may be framed If in the Ecclesiastical Assemblies of England there is neither prayer preaching nor sacraments administred according to Christs institution then are they all false Churches But the first is true therefore the second The proposition hath sufficient confirmation from their Principles before named the assumption is certaine and manifest by the doctrine and description which he here makes of a true visible church and there lyeth against it no exception In the next page he delivers a Paradox viz. that men outwardly may submitt to true worship and yet be irreligious and prophane Now this is either falsely or foolishly spoken If he meane of visible prophanesse and irreligion then it is a contradiction and indeed plaine Nonsence for to say that a person may outwardlie submitt to God and yet outwardlie be prophane and ungodly If he intended of secret and inward irreligion of the heart In this sence it is true but answereth nothing at all to the matter for which he brings it Here also he layeth downe Mr. â—insw wordes as he saith unto which he makes no direct reply but runnes to another matter whereof he had now no cause at all to speake He denyeth that either the Papists or Anabaptists doe professe true Religion although they professe some true and sound doctrine What moved him thus to thinke I know not unlesse it were because these have many errours in their religion Now if this reason will stand firme and good against them then it must needs follow that the Church of England professeth
not true religion though she profâ—sse some true and sound doctrins in regard she maintaineth many lyes and vile errours Mr. Gilbâ—e a forward minister reckoneth up above seven score grosse points of poperie remaining in their Church and many others of them have don the like as I have in this treatise manifested And I think it would aske a better witt and head then ever Mr. Dayr had to proove that there are halfe so many corruptions in the religion professed by the Eng. Anabaptists From pag 41. to 51. there are certaine reasons as he calls them to prove the Church of Eng. and their Parish assemblies true visible churches As for the first of them I deny both the Proposition and Assumption He saith Whatsoever people or nation is within the dayly voice and call of God c. the same is a true visible Church This is untruelie affirmed as I have proved before and for his speaking of it againe it sheweth the more his ignorance in the way of God For will any wise man take Lyons Wolves Foxes c. into his sheepsould sow tares or darnel in his garden plant thistles or thornes in his Orchard The Church is the Lords speepcfowld his garden orchard c. and therefore if Mr. Dayr had been so wise as he should he would not have spoken so corruptly but have given rather counsell to keepe out vncleane persons considering what the Prophet saith Holynes becommeth thy house o Iehovah to length of dayes Againe we may perceive by his wordes that he understood not the nature of a visible Church For as to the constitution of it there belongs a holie people as the matter so also a uniting and coupling of them together which is the forme whereof it consisteth As the constitution of a common wealth or of a cittie is a gathering and knitting of people together in a civill Policie so the Constitution of the common wealth of Israel as the Church is called and of the cittie of God the new Ierusalem is a gathering and uniting of people into a spiritual Policie The forme of which Policie is order as the Philososophers acknowledged calling Policie an order of a citty which Order is requisite in every administration of the Church as the Apostle teacheth and cheifly in the collection thereof And therefore next unto Faith in God it is to be esteemed most necessarie for all holie societies This was one thing for which Paul rejoyced in the Church at Collosse as for their steadfast Faith in Christ so their Order also But Mr. Dayr will have his Church without Order or Forme and what is it then but a meere atâ—xie or confuse Chaos a state onlie fitt for the devills Goates to be in which desire liberty and not for Christ sheepe which are to make streight pathes to their feet He saith there lyeth no exception against the Assumption And why so because their Pastors and Teachers are true ministers Me thinkes the man should have beene ashamed to have begd so much at one time But to let his folishnesse passe we do deny them to be lawfull Officerâ— and have brought their owne hands against them for it Secondly he writes here against his brethren yea and I thinke against his owne conscience For the greatest number of their Bb. Preists Deacons are dumb dogs ignorant asses c. such as either cannot or through pride sullnesse bread and abundance of idlenesse Sodomes sinnes will not preach and therefore it is untruely said that the people generally of England are within the dayly voyce and call of God 3. The later part of his reason is wholie against himselfe sor whereas his wordes import that the people generally of England are impenitent sinners and unbeleevers it must follow necessarily that they are alltogether uncapable of any Church estate and so much we have formerly proved Were it not a ridiculous thing to set up a house with wood and stones and afterward to take Axes Sawes Hammers and other tooles to cutt saw and fitt them for the building yet such an unskilfull builder Mr. Dayr sheweth himselfe in his whole booke For hee will have idolaters adulterers theeves conjurers murderers and any villain in the Land to be placed in the Lords spirituall house and afterward will have meanes used to prepare them for the same Not to contend about the proposition of his second argument howbeit it is verie faulty I denie the assump viz. that the people of England doe injoy and outwardly submit themselves to the true worship of God for the worship which they have is affirmed of the Nonconformists to be antichristian and unlawfull but let us heare his reason If such as both in their life and at theire death served God with the verie same worship we doe have in that worship beene saved then iâ— the worship wee now have true divine worship But the first is true therefore the second If Mr. Bradshaw had found such a reason in Mr. Iohnsons writing he would surely have called him idle head crackt braind foole c. but I leave such terms to men of his intemperate spirit and doe thus answer 2. A Papist Arminian or Anabaptist may say as much and upon as good ground and who dares denie but manie of their religion have found mercie with the Lord must it therefore follow that their worship is good indeed Mr. Dayr logick so concludeth it 2 Men may serve God with an outward worship not agreeable to his word and yet be saved for who knoweth how infinitely good hee is to his poore creature 3. It is apparent this man had a very ill case in hand that could not tell how to maintaine it but by revealing the secret and hid consell of the Lord for I wonder how he came to know who in their worship have beene saved if he should say in the judgement of charitie he thinkes thus then his argument must be of an another fashion namely that he thinkes their worship is true for otherwise it will want shape and proportion 4. It hath beene the constant practice of the godly to proove their positions by the scriptures but it is likely he saw that there was no helpe for him there and therefore onely makes use of this reasonlesse reason His third argument is foolish and carnall and both parts of it false For first it is incident to the best and purest Churches upon earth to erre and to bee deceived and therefore their sentences and approbations must be examined by Gods word 2. If the reformed Churches doe justifie the English therein they condemne greately their owne practice for in theire constitution ministery worship and governement they are as opposite as light and darkenesse one to the other and so much the Nonconformists confesse 3. Seeing the Prophets Christ and his Apostles condemne their Church their case is never a whit the better though all men in the world speake well of it 4. The
strictest professors do hold the Church of England as it is Nationall Provinciall and Diocessan false howbeit they thinke some particular congregations in the Land to bee true 5. With such weapons as these doe the Papists fight and where they can bring one the others ten to witnesse for them and their Romish superstitions I meane antiquity universality and such like popular reasons whereby they seeke to uphold their cursed Kingdome Lastly it is untruely affirmed that all the Churches of God in the world doe acknowledge the people of England to be a true Church For there are many which have both professed and prooved the contrary Now for his last argument I deny also both parts of it and affirme that neither the mother nor daughters are true Churches the reason which he layeth downe is as the rest sillie and most impertinent to proove the thing for which he brings it The summe and effect of that which hee hath written in five or sixe pages is this that their worship and religion is true because in Q. Maries dayes divers Martyrs professed the same and died in it Answ 1. Here the thing in question is brought for confirmation the Martyrs allowed of their worship be it so what then should hee not yet have prooved the same to be lawfull Yes doubtlesse if hee would have written either according to rule reason or religion 2. If a Papist should suffer death under Heathen or Turkes because he would not denie Christ â—esus wee think he may in some respect be judged a martyr and yet the Romish worship which he professeth remaine still false and idolatrous 3. I desire the Reader to marke how absurdly he speaketh the thing which he undertakes to proove is that their assemblies are true for this he alleageth the Martyrs now to what purpose I can not tell in the world unlesse he meant that there was such vertue and efficacy in their sufferings as the whole Nation thereby was sanctified and made Churches Lastly this reason is one and the same with that which he brought to confirme the second Syllogisme save that for the more authority of it hee addeth the name of the Mâ—rtyrs the insufficiency whereof I have there shewed and thither doe referre the Reader In the conclusion he saith Answer me this one argument and so I end If Mr. Hooper Mr. Bradford with others knowing the corruptions then in the worship and ministery being the same also with ours now notwithstanding this knowledge and not separating were saved then men at this day notwithstanding their knowledge of the corruptions and not separating because of them may likewise be saved But the first is true therefore the second Ans His former reasons were not more false and foolish than this is wicked and profane for first wherefore serves it but in truth to teach men to cast off all care in seeking Gods glorie by an even walking and to doe so much of his will as is sufficient to bring them to heaven and no more thus he counselleth people to be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God yea to love God for themselves and to serve him for a reward onely but let all persons in all places take heede that they follow not this mans advice for if they resolve to doe no more but what they think will serve their turne to be saved they will surely misse of that and for their self love suffer wrath and vengeance eternally 2 Howsoever Iwill not judge another mans servant yet it is more then he or anie mortall man that can infalliblie tell whether Mr. Bradford Mr. Hooper and others were absolutely saved and therefore hee reasoneth still most childishly to prove his matter by things secret and known to God onely 3 When Luther Calvin and others left the Church of Rome might not anie popish priest have said as much to them If Mr. W. Mr. C. with others knowing the corruptions then in worship c. Now I perceive if Mr. Dayr had been in their place he would not have separated from that Synagogue of Satan and to speake the verie truth he could not do it lawfully upon his own groundes 4. That these men knew some corruptions to be in their worship ministrie I grant it but not in that kinde and degree which the Nonconformists since have manifested for if they had certainly known that these things were unlawfull and antichristian and their Church government taken wholly from the Pope I beleeve they would not have joyned in spirituall communion therewith therfore Mr. Dair shamfully abuseth the reader to say the martyrs saw their corruptions and they are the same which they have now whereas he should have proved that they saw them according to the nature of them and as his fellow brethren have since seene them affirmed them to be for unlesse this can be shewed they differ herein asmuch from the martyrs as if one sinned ignorantly aud another against his knowledge and conscience 5. The saintes are taught of God not to be servants of men but to live by their owne faith to presse forward toward the mark and therefore hee sheweth litle skill in the course of religion to sette downe this or that mans practise for a rule to walke by unlesse he had professed himselfe to be a Familist or perfectist and so would make the world beleeve that none could erre which took such for example whom he prescribed to them 6. I cannot tell for what end be propounded this argument for imagin it should be granted him that the Martyrs knew the corruptions of their Church c. and yet were saved and so are many now in England which understand the same what would hee from hence conclude I thinke there is no man on earth that knowes if there be they might doe well at the next impression of his booke to set it in the margin for to cover what they can the mans empty naked and absurd writing Mr. Dayr having shewed his best skill wit and learning to proove their parish assemblies true Churches in his second booke according to his division hee attempteth to confute the description which Mr. Barrow and the Brownists as he maliciously names Gods people have laid downe of a true visible Church and about this point hee writes more then an hundred and fifty pages all the matter whereof leaving out his Battalogies and impertinenr speeches might well have beene written in sixe leaves of papier But it seemes the man wanted no money and therefore would make it up to his reader in Taile what he could not doe in weight forgetting in the meane time the proverbe a little and good and also what the learned use to say The worth of a writing doth not consist in bulke and belly but in the sinewes veines and arteries which with good blood and spirit may be comprehended in a little body But let us see how he confutes us First he layeth downe our definition of a true
comfort and pleasure of so heavenly blessed a husband Answ 1. Though it should be granted that in a true constituted Church some matters incerely Ecclesiastical may be imposed through humane srailty yet this helpeth their cause nothing at all in regard that a false worship an Antichristian Hierarchy or Church Government and unlawfull ministery therefrom derived is imposed upon and by the people slavishly submitted unto 2. Though every humane Ordinance be not of that nature as to make that Church and Ministery false where it is vsed yet some are or else there are no false Churches and Ministers in the world and such humane Ordinances there be many in their Parish Assemblies as from their owne Principles we have shewed 3. Though it were generally granted of all that thoses Churches and Ministeries are to be communicated with all that have some thing in or appertaining to the constitution thereof not instituted by Christ yet it will not thence follow that we may with such as in their constitution were wholy false but such are theirs 4. Grant this that all are not false Churches which doe not or by the Laws of man are not suffered to vse their power Notwithstanding such congregations as doe altogether want this power and stand under that which was taken every part from the Devill Antichrist are certainly false and so not to be communicated with all And this is their present state if they speake truely themselves 5. Admitt that those may be true Pastors who are outwardly by mans Lawes subjected to a superiour Ecclesiastical Officer Yet can it not hence be concluded that their ministers are true seeing neither their Offices calling administrations c. are agreable to the word of God 6. If the Offices of Provincial and Diocesan Bishops be contrarie to the Scripture then necessarily that ministery which is derived from it must be so also And this conclusion the Papists have drawne from the writings of the Conformists If our English Prelates be no true Bishops then surely neither be the Preists or Ministers or Deacons that be ordained by them and so consequently the congregation of England is not the true Church of Christ. Here we have againe much rude scoffing and such crowing to use his owne termes as if he were some cock of the game that hath picked out the eyes and broken the neckes of all that have beene set against him The proposition sayth he is false the Assumption is false the consequence is false But for proofe a man may finde assoon a needle in a bottle of hay as any for the things which he boldly denyeth Moreover the points in controversy which are of greatest weight moment he either puts quite off by a fine trick they need no answer or else answereth to them besides the matter For an instance to this purpose writeth Mr. Iohnson Every true visible Church of Christ or ordinary Assemblie of the faithfull hath by Christs ordinance power in it selfe immediately vnder Christ to elect and ordaine deprive and depose their ministers and to execute all other Ecclesiastical Censures But none of the Parish Assemblies of England have such power Therefore they are not true visible Churches of Christ. Both parts of this reason he proves from their owne writings now marke his reply to it All are not false Churches which doe not vse this power c. And is not this thinke ye wittily answered We say from their Principles that a true Church cannot be without power But their Churches are wholy without it For answere he tels us a true Church mâ—y want the vse of it We say so too But doth it follow because a man in a sound hath not the use for the time of that life which is in him therfore one may be quite without life yet not dead To this effect he reasoneth or else as Paul sayth of som he understood not what he said nor wherof he affirmed but spake evil of the things which he knew not Mr. Bradsh having used all the witt and skill he had to refute the former Reasons in these pag. in a mocking contradiction of Mr. Iohnson he undertakes to prove that the publick ministery of the Church Assemblies of England is true and lawfull I have neither time nor mind to follow him in his vagaries idle repetitions but will set downe in few wordes the summe of his long talke and give answer to it breifly First thus he sayth To have such gifts as Christ ascended to heaven for the worke of his ministery to be outwardly called to that worke by such a Church as professeth the fundamentall points of the Gospell to instruct the people committed to their charge in the Doctrine of the Law and Gospell to administer vnto them the holy Sacraments of Christ and to be their moâ—th in prayer vnto God are all the things essencial appertaining to the office of true Pastors and Teachers Such is the ministery of our assemblies Howsoever I will not contend much with him about the Proposition which is lame to the ground and a farre better might have beene framed breifly thus To have such an office as Christ in his Testament hath given to his Church a lawfull calling and enterance therevnto and a lawfull administration thereof according to the said Testament are all the essencial c. The Assumption is false 1. Their ministers have not the gifts whereof he speaketh and so we have manifested from their owne writings 2. I doe denie that their Bb. of whome they take their ministery are a Church in any sence saving the malignant and therefore if all the rest were granted yet hence would his whole argument like the unwise mans house fall to the ground 3. Though they instruct the people in some Doctrines of the Law and Gospell as doe Papists all other Hereticks notwithstanding the reading of the Servicebooke in forme and manner the celebrating of marriage Churching of women burying of the dead conformity and subscription are more essencial to their ministery more necessarily required by the Lawes of their Church then preaching either of the Law and Gospell is And so much Mr. Bradsh elsewhere affirmeth Those that yeeld to Ceremonies need not preach at all in their Churches except they will no nor doe any other part of divine service if they will maintaine a Curate that will keepe the Ceremonial Law and fairely read or singe the Kinges Service as they call it 4. For the Sacraments they are as they say wickedly mingled and prophaned and wickedly administred Besides if we will beleeve Mr. Bradsh when he speakes out against the Hierarchy they have divers Sacraments which are not of divine institution administred in their Churches viz. the Crosse Ring in marriage Surplesse c. 5. The prayers which they are to make unto God must of absolute necessitie without partiall dispensation or manifest violation of their oath to the Bishops
be foolish false and superstitious But I desire the reader to observe how wittily he confirmeth the Assumption It shall be sufficient sayth he that we can set forth vnto him such a ministery in sundrie of our Church Assemblies of which all those points may be truely verified Who would have thought that Mr. Bradsh having blotted many leaves of his booke with meere scoffing at Mr. Iohnson about his Logick should so grossely overshoot himselfe in termes of reasoning For what wise man but he would have laid downe a Position that comprehended indefinitely generally all the ministers of their Assemblies and to prove it saith we can shew some such It seemeth then that those some such must make all the rest true Intruth so he inferres or else his argument as he saith often of Mr. Iohnson is crackt braind and lacks not truth only but sence also There are some merchants who to put off the false wares which lie upon their hands will shew the buyer a little that is good and by this meanes cunningly shift all the rest upon him and so deceive him The like subtilty useth Mr. Bradsh here and often in his booke that he might perswade the reader to beleeve that all their Ministers and Churches are true he sheweth him some of the best in hope that under these he shall craftily put all the rest upon him I mention these his deceiveable shifts the oftner that we may have hereafter more honest dealing If they will justifie all their Ministers and Churches let them say so directly If but som few as in their writings they still intimate I desire them to speake it out plainely and not to cary the thing so covertly as if they would have the poore people to beleeve that they meant all when themselves are perswaded the greatest number are false and Antichristian Another reason which he brings to prove their ministery Lawfull is because they professe the Pope to be Antichrist renounce all Ecclesiastical homage to him and maintaine all the members of the Church of Rome to be Hereticks and Idolaters c. To this I say quid verba audiam cum facta videam It is true I know many great errours of that Church they opppose and have left notwithstanding they retaine the selfe same Ministery Church Government Service Courts Canons c. which they brought out from thence uphold them still I say to the uttermost of their strength and power and hate revile imprison banish kill c. those which will not conforme thereto And hence it is the Papists say that from their treasure house the religion now established in England hath learned the forme of Chrining marying Churching of women visiting of the sicke burying of the dead and sundry other like as the book translated out of theirs declared So Iacobus Gretzerus alleadgeth against the Reformed Churches their Service-booke for their Popish holydayes Dr. Tucker and their Late booke of Canons both for the signe of the Crosse for kneeling in the act of receiving the Sacrament For the whole Hierarchy from the Archbishop downewards divers other their superstitions So Cornelius Scultingius citeth Whitgift and taketh whole leaves out of him for defence of their Hierarchie Stapleton also useth the foresaid Doctors arguments to uphold thereby their discipline and professeth that they are built upon one foundation I could multiply authors of this nature but it needs not only let it be here minded that all these testimonies are acknowledged to be true of the Nonconformists Is not therefore their profession great against the Pope they clal him they say Antichrist and the Beast c. Yet notwithstanding in respect of many maine and foundamental Orders and Ordinances of his Church they wallke along hand in hand with him So that they are much like to one which cals a woman c. Whoore Whoore and lyeth with her all the while in the bed and commits folly with her Nothing is here said but the former thinges againe repeated Indeed he undertooke to answer certaine demaunds but he kept himselfe off so covertly from the points that he hath left them farre more obscure darke then they were before For this cause I have thought it necessarie to propound unto them 13. questions all gathered from Mr. Bradsh shifting answeres idle putt offs with request that they would answere them directly and sincerely and from the scriptures and so doubtlesse the controversie betweene them us will be brought the sooner to an end 1. Whether the office of Lecturers in the Ecclesiastical Assemblies of England be not new and strange from the scriptures If not whether they be Apostles Evangelists Pastors Teachers Elders c. 2. Whether the civill Magistrate hath power to set over the Churches of Christ in his Dominions such Commissioners and overseers as the present Hierarchie is or no 3. What be those Ecclesiastical Officers which some true Churches in England have these many yeares beene without either all oâ— cheifest of them 4. Whether the calling enterance administration and maintenance of any of the publicke Ministers of the Church of England be unlawful and Antichristian or no 5. Who are those Ecclesiasticall Officers in the Church of England which neither in name nor in deed are true as he himself confesseth 6. Whether it be lawfull for the Ministers of the Gospell to be maintained by tithes and offerings c. in the manner and forme as it is practifed now in England or no 7. Whether all the Parish Assemblies of England be true visible Churches or no 8. Where are those Churches in our Kingdom from whence we have separated which doe consist as now they stand of a companie of people called and separated from the world and the false worship and wayes thereof by the word of God and are joyned together in the fellowship of the Gospel by voluntarie profession of faith and obedience of Christ 9. What are those parts and parcells in the booke of Common prayer which is not the true worship of God whereof he speaketh 10. Whether it be Lawfull to have communion with the English Leiturgie as it is ordinarily now used in their Churches 11. If the true worship of God be prescribed in the booke aforesaid we demaund then in what part thereof the same is contained 12. Whether those which joyne to the Ecclesiastical Ministerie Worship and Orders of their Cathedral or Parishional Assemblies in those things which are not performed therein according to the true meaning intent of their Lawes doe sin or no 13. What is the true intent and meaning of these Lawes and to whom doth it properly belong to give the interpretation of them Thus having finished what I purpose to write for this time I commend now the same to the best acceptance of every wel disposed reader Beseeching God to make us more and more of one mind in the truth and to give us all hearts to walke sincerily in it untill
but specially that it be sett on by one that hath authority therevnto So much more it is in the case of the Sacraments for to receive the same in a false ministery is to deny Gods ministery and to give the glory of it there where he hath not given it and to deprive our selves of this comfort that our hearts may say Gods solemne voyce speaketh his solemne hand offereth and giveth which is here the lively stay of our fayth By this it appeareth that the daunger is marvelous great to communicate in a false ministery a man would pull a sore punishment upon his head if he should have a hand to putt by a Princes lawfull officer whether Iudge Mayor Bayliefe c. and sett up a rebel in the roome thereof and come to him for justice He that receives in a false ministery denies Gods ministery sayth the former Author And so puts a traitor in his place and takes the holy things from the handes of a traitor which is a fearfull transgression and surely will procure extreame wrath without true and sound repentance From all that hath beene before spoken we may here frame this Argument None may heare or joyn in spirituall communion with that ministery which hath not a true vocation and calling by election approbation and ordination of that faithfull people where he is to administer But the present ministery of the ecclesiasticall assemblies of England hath not a true vocation and calling by election approbation and ordination of a faithfull people where they administer Therefore none may hear or joyne in spirituall communion with the present ministerie of the Ecclesiasticall assemblies of England Which of the propositions the Nonconformists will deny I know not but sure I am they are both Theirs Howbeit it may be they doe not so well weigh their owne principles as they should And hence it is that their practice is not strictly answereable to their profession and therefore doe give just occasion I speake it with greife unto the Prelates and their Parasites to insinuate against them hypocriticall ends in condemning so greivously the ministery worship government of the English Church and yet to partake in the knowne evills and abuses thereof But for my part I am otherwise minded then the Bishops in this thing and doe thinke that they doe of conscience condemne the state of that Church But doe not maturely consider the responsive conclusions which follow upon their principles For which cause I haue written of purpose this treatise to prove that they cannot justify their Tenets against that Church and stand members lawfully thereof Concerning their ministerie I have shewed before that by their owne confession it is false and so not to be joyned with And if I should here end the point I thinke every indifferent reader would sufficiently be satisfied But because I judge the same to be of importance to justifie a seperation from them and also that their ministers are of sundry sorts degrees therfore I will speake a little more thereof and prove further from their writings that every kind degree of their ministery is false and Antichristian According to the Prelates Canons their ministers are divided into 3. Heads or orders Namely Bishops Preists and deacons The first comprehends the superiour the other two the inferior ministers What the superior are few but know viz. Archbishops and Lordbishops against whose courses and callings whole books have beene written to manifest the same to be evill and vnlawfull I shall onely here breifly lay downe some of their passages touching both referring the reader for more full satisfaction to that which is published at large by them As for their Bishops if they be as the Nonconformists report of them surely they are not fitt for Church or common wealth for they oppose say they with tooth and nayle every thing that is good They have had their hand in all the great evils that hath befallen their Church and state never any good thing prospered that they put their hand too the King state stood never in need but they allwayes deceived thē if oppertunity serve they will make peace with their head he meanes the Pope if it be with the losse of all their heads if they continue their places And hence it is that all the professed enimies of state and Church make vse of them to effect their evill ends as David sayd of Goliahs sword there is none to that fo sayth the Pope Spaniard and Arminian for overturning of a state and making havock of a Church there is none to a Bishop give them that To the same purpose others They are the greatest and most pestilent enimies that the state hath and are likely to be the ruin thereof Take them for better who will they are no other then a remnant of Antichrists brood a viperous generatiō Caterpillers Moaths Canker wormes sonnes of that monstrous Giant the man of sinne men of bloods base fellowes murderous tyrants vsurpers time servers cages of vncleane birds vnnaturall false and bastardly governors Lordly Epicures proud Popish presumtious perfidious Prophane Paltry and pernitious Prelates open enimies to the sincere preaching of the gospell the scepter of Christs Kingdom and the glory of the Land men contented to be bawdes vnto all kind of sinnes and therefore all the professed and notorious Atheists Papists blashemers adulterers drunkards and most infamous persons in the Kingdom are with them they have further with them the counsell of Achitophel the courting of Shebna the roaring and brawling of Goliah the cruell pride and vanity of Hamon the flattery of Amaziah the falshood of Samaiah and the bloody cunning of Doeg these wax worse and worse and growe to a height of iniquity greiving at the encrease of good men and persecute nothing more then holinesse they care not for King country nor their own souls but for a Bishoprick And therefore if they can by flatteries invectives whisperings or other evill courses keepe the King and counsel so ignorant and blind as to be firme on their side they care for no more to be short the best of them in some sort are the worst because they hold vp the reputation of that vnlawfull office and make way for more wicked successours and their traditions Much more then this yea and worse too is sayd of their Bb. but I passe it over as blushing to speake it Only I here thinke of that saying in the Proverbes when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn It was just so with the Israelites when Pharaoh sett cruell tas kemaisters over them And it seemes their case is much like unto it indeed some difference there is for the Egyptian Lords onely beate the Lords people But their Prelates say they imprison and kill them also I should wonder at such horrible injuries committed in any common wealth but that the scripture sayth the Kings of the earth shall give their strenght and power
of some ministers in the Land which were mostly vnconformable Now it had been wel if he had publickly declared so much and shewed the differences between the true and false and proved soundly by Gods word such to be true ministers whome he so judged For a little of this kind of writing would have profitted more the professors in England than a multitude of wordes and yet all but one thing about 2. or 3. foolish ceremonies and which are the least evils of many hundreds among them There are others of them to my knowledge in this thing of the D. mind to weet that some few ministers onely in the land are true and privately they doe expresse so much But in the meane time the people are ignorant hereof and therefore walke disorderly and so greivously sin against God and their own soules But of this enough elsewhere Therefore to the matter I wish the D. had declared what the â—ssence is of a minister in his judgement and whence the calling of his ministers doth essentially depend if not upon the Bishops calling For then to use his owne words this question would easily be decided but seeing he thought it best in this to be silent I answere directly 1. The ministery of England as it is established by law doth certainly depend vpon the Bishops calling wholy no mans else if any in the Land stand otherwise he cannot properly be said to be a minister of that church but rather is a schismatick from it according to the formall constitution of it And for this we have the testimony of another other Doctor and a man better experienced then ever Mr. Ames was in the making of English Preists and Deacons If you sayth he writing against Mr. Penry repel the vnpreaching minister because of his outward calling you may by the same reason discharge the worthiest ministers in the land of the holy ministery For all have one and the same externall calling in the church of England This witnesse is true all their ministers indeed have one the same outward calling I say their best preachers no other then their ignorant asses idols have the difference betweene them is onely in their qualification for a calling and in the execution thereof and not in the outward calling it selfe For in this respect if any ministerie be false and Antichristian there is never a ministerie then true among them all And so much D. Ames seemes to acknowledge in p. 410. for there he saith that power of ordinatioÌ„ is not given by our lawes to individua vaga that is to say vagrant men of whome the law taketh no notice such as were wont to be called Hedge-preists but to authorized Prelates Now if none by their law have power to ordaine but Bb. then are his ministers either made officers by them or else as I said before they are not of that church and so he speakes not any thing to the matter in hand Secondly there is not any congregation in the land that hath any power to ordaine a Church-officer neither is this either formallie nor I thinke intentially any where practised For the most free Parish hath but only a liberty to admitt of a minister before made by the Bishops so that the people give him not any part much lesse the substance of his callingâ— as Mr. Paget vntruely speaketh but a bare permission onely to exercise by vertue of that calling which he had of the Prelates Such therefore doe horribly abuse the people which ascribe that unto theÌ„ which they neither doe can doe nor inteÌ„d to doe we blame justly the Familists for their idle pretence of inward devotion they manifesting no outward obedience whereby we should judge well of them Yet truely as bad as they are this in them can better be justified then Mr. Doct. new principle to wit that the calling of their ministers doth essentially depeÌ„d vpon the peoples calling For so I know he meanes for it is so palpably false as there cannot be a leafe found to cover the nakednesse of it For as I said how can it with any coulorable shew be affirmed that the people should doe that thing concerning which they neither doe nor intend to doe any thing belonging to it nay more which they make account is done before and not only so but doe thinke at least most of them that it doth not at all appertain unto theÌ„ Vpon this ground a man might devise and say any thing but I spare to urge it further because the man is not alive to answer me If any list to make a rejoinder he shall heare more in my next answer But before he goe forth hastily to strive let him first make diligent search among all the Parish assemblies in the land whether there be any that doe make their own ministers according to Gods word that is choose them by a generall and free consent ordaine them by imposition of hands with fasting and prayer c. For about this is our question and not of their fittnesse to be ministers neither of the leave which the people give to administer among them after they are made ministers by the Bishops Moreover I thinke that D. Ames in pag. 412. doth contradict himselfe his words are these If the rejoynder would have brought a fitting example he should have shewed vs that Paul or Barnabas beeing at Ierusalem ordeyned a minister and sent him to Antioche Iconium or Listra signifying by letters that such a man was appointed their Pastor though they never knew or heard of him before for that had been somthing like vnto the practice of a Bishop who vpon the Patrons praesentation wheresoever he be sendeth his minister from the place or Palace of his residence vnto a congregation 20. 30. or 40. miles of which poore despised people must be content with towling of a bell as sufficient notice given of their ministers fittnesse and their necessitie to acknowledge the same he speaketh so generallie as I take it his ministers are here comprehended and I have good reason so to thinke in regard of a busines which he writes of his experience I was saith he once and never but once I thanke God before a Bishop and beeing presented vnto him by a cheife Magestrate of an incorporation for to be a preacher in their towne the lowly man first asked them how they durst choose a preacher without his consent you said he are to receive the preacher that I appoint you For I am your Pastor though he never fed them And then turning to me how durst you said he preach in my diocesse without my leave so that without any other reason but meer Lordship the whole incorporation and I were dismissed to wait his pleasure which I for my part have don this twenty yeare and more By this little the reader may judge whether the calling of their ministers doth essencially depend vpon the Bishop or peoples calling 3. If it should be granted
intention to honor God is not good vnlesse it be an intentioÌ„ to honour him by yeelding that obedience which he commaundeth now seeing these refuse to keepe strictly his order and ordinances they take not the right course to honour him And in this respect can have little assurance to receive glory and honour of him Therefore it is better a man never preach then doe any evil in preaching Object 3. But they hope to doe much good by staying in their places Ans 1. The least sin may not be committed if one were sure the whole world might be saved thereby 2 It is a great dishonour to God to doe any sin to a good end as though he could not provide for mens soules without sining against him and serving the devil 3. Although we invent a 1000. wayes yet we have no reason to thinke that we shall profit others but onely by those meanes and instruments which he hath appointed for his worke For with those his blessing is joyned but if we passe the bounds sett by God himselfe and institute of our own head meanes and instruments to doe good by not onely may we feare the want of his blessing but the fearefull exspectation both of temporall and eternall judgments Object 4. But the people doe much desire that they would retaine their office Ans Beit so yet seeing God commaunds them to leave it they ought to obey him rather then men If one had borne armes a while against his prince yet should he doe wel to lay them downe though his father mother and a thousand more should counsel him to the contrarie I leave the application of it to others It was worthily answered by Gideon when the Kingdome with the Alteration of the Government which God had sett over his people was presented vnto him I will not rule over you c. The Lord shall rule over you to weet according to such order as he hath appointed Such a holy answere should they give the people We will not stand over you by an Antichristian authority but exhort you to forsake the false wayes of the world and to make a covenant with God that so Christs Iesus may raigne as King Preist and Prophet over you 2. Let it be considered that every one shall beare his owne barden Though Adam took the womaÌ„s counsel she the devils to sin against God yet they both in their owne persons caried the just punishment thereof 3. The people vnderstand not so generally the vnlawfullnes of their ministerie as the others doe for if they did I thinke they would as much perswade them yea more to leave it by repentance then they ever vrged them to retaine the same Object 5. many of them have good gifts great learning and able to preach the word profitably therefore in this respect they may be true ministers Answ 1. Be a man never so godly never so learned indued with never so many lively faculties of the ministery yet he is no minister indeed vnlesse he have the ordinance of God vpon him by a true outward calling He which vnderstands wel the office of a justice and could sufficiently execute the place yet is he not a lawfull justice of peace except he be rightly called thervnto even so c. 2. If gifts onely make men ministers then many of the Popish Preists are true Pastors For they as the Nonconformists acknowledge have great learning and gifts very great knowledge and skill in the arts and in languages are of excellent vtterance expâ—rt and ready in holy Scriptures can speake and write truely agreeing with the Scriptures of sundry of the seâ—rets of the Kingdome of heaven as of God his nature persons attributes of Christ Iesus his incarnation his birth life preachings sufferings coming to judgment of the resurrection of the life to come with many other of this kind The like may be said of many Lawyers Phisitians c. These by the former reason are ministers also Object 6. many are converted by their doctrine therefore it seemes they are true ministers Answ 1. men in no office may and often doe turne their neighbours from much euill If this be not so to what purpose should privat persons exhort instruct and reprove any vpon any occasioÌ„ whatsoever 2. Good Prophets have seene little fruit to follow their labour Therefore if this had argued a true note of their calling they might have been judged false 3. If fruit be a signe of a true minister Then are many of the Bishops in England and Rome too true ministers For without doubt some of both have been instruments vnder God of mens conversion 4. It hath been the manner alwayes of wise and learned men to esteeme of things by the causes and not by the event and that specially in matters of Religion for if they should be esteemed of the event who would not commend the midwives lying vnto Pharoah for much good followed amongst the Israelites But what if the Lord give his blessing vnto his word is it to be thought therfore that he liketh wel of a false calling nothing lesse but rather a man might reason thus for as much as those which preach in an vnlawfull office doe somtime edifie their hearers surely then such would doe much more good if they stood in a right and true calling 5. To convert is not the most proper worke of a Pastor but to feed Christ sheepe with sound and wholesome doctrine and therefore if it should come to passe that he never converted any yet his ministery neverthelesse would still be true and lawfull Object 7. Many worthy men did never leave their ministerie in England and yet dyed comfortablie Ans 1. Without doubt they never saw fully the vnlawfullnesse of it 2. Men must doe as they are further inlightened and guided by the spirit of God who from step to step leads his people 3. Many of the fathers vnder the law had many wives at once the which thing if any now should practice he could not exspect the mercy which they obtained because they did it ignorantly 4. No mans â—xamplie must be further followed then the same agrees with the Scripture for where David Peter c. doe differ from the truth therein we ought to differ from them 5. Had they duly considered the conclusions of their owne grounds layd downe against the abuses of their Church I am perswaded they would have changed their course Object 8. But many have their gifts tried by some godly ministers and so have their consent and allowance and this gives them they thinke the true substance of a true calling Ans 1. These must consider that it is against rule to make that which is in question the ground of the thing in dispute For we doe deny that those here intimated are true ministers and therefore their consent and allowance is nothing to make the thing warrantable 2. If they were ministers yet is their officiall power confined
within the freedom of their owne church and so have no authority delegated to them from Christ to give the substance of the ministers calling to another people For to doe thus were to be like unto the Pope and Prelates the which practice in them they doe abhorre 3. It is a fearefull mocking of God and a high prophanation of his ordinance When men will take a holy worke in hand pretend they doe it and yet doe nothing touching the true substance thereof A man which hath but a little path to keepe and great sea lying on both sides of him would surely be drowned if he should turne out of his way but a little either to the one hand or other the like may be said of Gods pathes and institutions if a man keepe not full in the way doe not every thing according to the patterne It is all one whether turning on the left hand he embrace the idolatry of the Bishops or turning on the other hand follow the new devises of mens foolish braines for utter destruction certainly followes them both Now for conclusion if these lines by Gods providence shall come to any of your hands which stand at this present ministers in the church of England my desire truly is that you will be pleased ingeniously to consider the things here written and specially how the Nonconformists such as you cannot but much reverence and love for their learning and graces have by invincible reasons and arguments proved clearely your offices to be false vnlawfull Antichristian Now if you cannot justifie your standing before men ah how doe ye think that ye shall be able to stand comfortably before the holy God if you stand longer therein The Lord give you eyes to see how exceedingly you have broken the sacred order of the Gospell and hearts tender against every sinne that the evill may be put away And thinke not scorne I pray you to take any fruitfull counsell of me but harken to the Lord that it may goe well with you And looke as the men which had maried them wives of the Heathen did put them quite away at Nehemiahs commaund Even so seeing you have taken upon you a strange ministery put it away at Gods commaund and doe not continue one houre in it If you say what shall we doe for the hundred talents how shall we our wives and children be releeved if we leave our benefices our stipends freinds benefactors I answer you as the man of God did Amasiah the Lord is able to give you more then this Christ sayth as you know well he that will forsake father and mother house and land for his name sake shall receive a hundred fould in this world beside the possession of life and glory hereafter Truly there is a great reward in this promise me thinks you should value it to be much more worth then all the personages vicarages Lecture-profitts c. in England Mind well therefore good freinds what a large offer the Lord makes tobuy â—ou out of your vnsanctifyed places whereas he might cast you forth headlong and inflict upon you many visible and sencible punishments as he did on Corah vzziah vzza c. for their usurpation and intrusion But he offers you a hundredfould profitt which is a great matter indeed and therefore ye are alltogether unwise if ye doe refuse it I may say to you as David to the men of Iudah Why are ye the last to bring home the King Surely ye are too flow in helping forward Christ to his Kingdom You doe indeed complaine that the office of Christ as he is King is no wise acknowledged vnder the jurifdiction of your Bishops in many places of the Land But are not you in part the cause thereof in walking hand in hand with the rebellious Prelates to support that divised ministery which they have received from the Pope and doe thrust upon the people Thinke therefore oh what a blow it would give to Antichrists Kingdome and how it would even shake and overthrow the very foundation of his house if such as you would breake the bonds of iniquitie draw your necks out from the Bishops yoke and bring your learning and other good gifts as the people did the Lords Vessells which had beene a long time kept in Babilon to the building and beautifying of Sion This would make your faces to shine and make your names to florish in all ages after as those doe in our generation which according to that light received did powre out their vtals upon the seat of the beast to the great discovering of his lies and beastly vanities Ye know that some who were sometime cheif among you have layd downe their ministery as unlawfull For it beeing a dependent office of the Hierarchie they found it by scripture unwarrantably to be used for the edifying of the body of Christ If you have these for an example you shall doe wel otherwise if either for cafe profit credit liberty or other worldly respects you retaine still this â—iverie of Antichrist and Popes creature you will loose that honour and reward which the other if they make straight pathes for their feet shall vndoubtedly obtaine notwithstanding as Mordecay sayd to Esther enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Iewes from another place For God surely will fulfil his word in abolishing vtterly that great scarlet whoore and all the accursed offices and ministeries which she hath devised in spight of all humane policie and power to the contrarie and establish one day his owne ordinances more largely and perfectly to the singular joy and comfort of all true beleevers both Iewes and Gentiles Moreover let it be considered whether those ministers which have taken orders and offices of the Prelats and stand by their power and authoritie are not in this transgressors against the King and the Lawes Yea and might be legally executed for treason and felony if the King and state were not pleased to interpret the statute contrary to the very letter form and truth of the same The words of the statute Eliz. 27. 2. are these It shall not be lawfull for any Seminary Preisâ— or other Preist or Ecclestastic all person whatsoever made or ordained without or within any of her Majesties dominions by any authoritie derived chalenged or pretended from the sea of Rome by or of what name title or degree soever the same shall be called or knowne to be or remaine in any part of her highnesse dominions And every person so offending shall be judged a traitor shall suffer as in case of high treason And every person which shall wittingly and willingly receive releive comfort and or maintaine any such Preist or Ecclesiasticall person shall be judged a felon without benefit of Clergie and suffer death loose and forfeit as in case of felony CHAP. II. IN this Chapter we will speake of the outward worship vsed in the assemblies of England the summe whereof as the