scandall which was the neglect of their widdowes in the daily Ministration where they applyed themselves unto the Apostles for the particular congregations assumed not the authority into their hands of redressing the abuse nor challenged not any right to the government but appealed unto the Apostles for remedy who ordered that whole businesse by joynt consent to which all the people willingly submitted themselves as it is at large to be seene in the sixt Chapter of the Acts. The third appeale we finde Acts the ninth where Paul assaying to joyne himself to the Disciples and they being afraid of him and doubting whether he were a beleever Saint Paul forth with appeals from them to the Apostles who he knew had the authority in their hands and making knowne his cause unto them they forthwith admitted him into Church-fellow-ship with them without the consent of the people who indeed had nothing to do either in the admitting of members of casting of them out and therefore they allowed of the appeale of Saint Paul to teach all men whether to fly to wit the to Presbytery if they be injured by the people or debard from any Church-priviledge by them for they only are the stewards of the Church and have the Keys of the kingdom of heaven to open and shut the doores to whom they shall thinke fit or unworthy and this is the place of the Presbyters and not of the people for they are injoyned to obey their guids and to submit themselves in the Lord to what they order and appoint according to the Word of God Here we have three presidents of appeales in the mother-church of Ierusalem to the Presbytery upon any abuse so that by the mouth of their witnesses out of the word of truth this truth of appeales is sufficiently confirmed And that the Presbytery at Ierusalem had plenary power over the very Apostles and could call them at any time to an accompt is manifest from the eleventh of the Acts where Peter was convented questionedbefore them and was forced to give an accompt of his going in to the Gentiles and Preaching unto them which he willingly yâ—elded unto knowing it was their place to question any yea the Presbytery in every Church could send the very Apostles Ministers to Preach in any place or city or upon any Message as we see they sent Peter and Iohn to Samaria and the Church of Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas with other Ministers to the Presbytery of Ierusalem as is evident Acts the 14. and Acts 15. and therefore all these examples sufficiently prove that all the people of every Church made their appeales to their severall Presbyteries if there arose any controversies and abuses among themselves and if there arose any difference between Church and Church or betweene Presbytery and Presbyterie about any points of Doctrine or Religion then they made their appeales for the determining of those controversies to Councells and Synods as we may see it Acts the 15. and this is one of Gods Ordinances as the Independents themselves doe acknowledge So that for the Doctrine of appeales it is so cleare that all the learned and judicious cannot doubt of it and I am most assured that those that shall but with due deliberation seriously examine the Scriptures above quoted and those that follow in this discourse for the confirmation of the same truth will wonder that any man that pretends to learning as Master Knollys doth should ever dare say that appeales cannot be made good to be according to the Scripture of truth whereas there is almost no truth in the holy Scripture more cleare and evident than this of appeales Yea this method of dealing and manner of handling of businesses of publike offences and scandals and for the redressing of them is ratified by the very light and Law of nature as we may reade in all the governments under the very Heathens and Paul made use of it by appealing from inferiour Courts to Caesars tribunall And I shall never be brought by all the arte and wit of man to beleeve that Christ hath left his Church under the New Testament in a worse condition then it was under the old where we know they had appeales from one Court to another Nay if Christians now had not the liberty of appeales in matters of conscience and Religion they should be inferior to the Pagan nations and surely Christ hath not left his Church which is his Kingdom in a worse condition then either the Iewish or Ethnicke Kingdomes were and therefore by all reason besides the Testimony of Christ Matth. the 13. and besides the Presidents I produced out of the Word of God to confirme appeales the lawfulnesse of appeales is sufficiently established and ratified So that I hope that which I have now briefly set downe may satisfie any rationall man But before I go on to prove that the people or Church have not power to judge their Ministers which is the last thing I undertake to make good I must say something by way of answer to a vaine and frivolous cavill of Master Knollys which is this If the Doctor can prove these appeales saith he I aske him whether that higher Presbytery or Councell of Divines be not as Independent as the brethren and their Churches against whom the Doctor hath written and if so then such a high Presbytery or Councell of Divines is not Gods Ordinance by the Doctors own confession and affirmation The very reading of this fond cavill had been enough for the confutation of it to any solid man and truly had not I to deale with such a trifling creature as he is in serious businesse who compts every word he scribleth an oracle I would have passed by it with silence as being nothing to the question between us and as little to his purpose as all his other wrangling is except it be to declare to all men that he knoweth not his owne principles nor no good learning But for answer all such as know any thing in the controversie betweene us and the Independents know that it is my opinion and settled beleefe that all Churches and Councels are to depend upon the Word of God and to be ruled and ordered in all their proceedings and Governments according to the direction of the same an Angel from Heaven is not be heard that speaks not according to the written Word Gal. 1. and this Word hath directed us to the law and to the testimony Isay 8. and proclamed all men that speak not according to that to be in darknesse and therefore according to this my opinion no Church or Councell in the world is Independent and therfore all such Churches and Councels as have not either precept or example for their proceedings in the ordering and governing of them out of the Word of God but follow their own vaine and idle phantasies and affect Independency in my opinion they in so ordering their Churches do not according to Gods Ordinances Now when the
that they were the Ministers and Preachers of the Gospell and in that they give them the name and title of the Church it followeth that the representative body and Presbytery is a Church and that to them onely belongs the power and authority of the Keyes according to that of our Saviour in Matth. 18 17 18. Tell it unto the Church c. and whatsoever ye binde on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven By which words all authority is put into the true Ministers hands so that they onely have the power and authority of ordaining Pastors and Presbyters among themselves as Paul sufficiently declares in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus and that they have not onely the title of the Church but a Charter and Warrant also granted unto them of ruling and governing the Church and of ordaining Church officers and that by joynt and common consent among themselves without the helpe and assistance of the people and congregations under them which by God were never joyned in commission with them And howsoever Paul in the 1. of the Corinthians chap. 6. for the taking away the scandall in going to Law before unbeleevers gave them liberty to make choyce of somethat were least esteemed in the Church for the deciding of their controversies yet that did not authorize them to make choyce of all other Church Officers for he limits them to go no farther then to the choyce of such as are of least esteeme And howsoever likewise the Apostles in the 6. of the Acts to free themselves from all impediments that they might the better attend upon their Ministeries and that without interruption they might Preach the Gospell gave them liberty to chuse their Decons and Deconesses yet they prescribe the Rule by which they shall chuse them and keep the authority of ordaining them still in their own hands Looke you out among you say they men of honest report full of the holy Ghost and wisedome whom we may appoint over this businesse and when they had chose such saith the Scripture They put them before the Apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them So that howsoever they gave unto them a Liberty to chuse yet it was with limitation not an absolute liberty for if they had chose men that had not been of approved honesty well gifted and wise and qualified as they appointed it was arbitrary in the Apostles to reject their choyce for they keep the power of Ordination still in their own hands and to them it did belong to ratifie their Election so that the people had not the power of Ordination then nor have not to this day no not of the meanest Deacon or Deaconesse that belongs onely unto the Presbytery much lesse have they power of ordaining Presbyters Indeed for the deciding of controversies and differences they have a liberty given them of making choise of some petty men amongst them and that they may do without the Presbytery but they have no power of Ordination Neither did I ever yet read in the Sacred Scriptures that the people or Congregation had any hand at all in choosing of Ministers and Presbyters neither were they fit for that imployment for it is one thing to judge of mans externall carriage and manners and another thing of his sufficiency for his indowments and abilities of learning and that men of learning and knowledge onely can do and the Sons of the Prophets and it is in speciall given in charge to the Presbyters and Ministers as it is manifest in the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus 1 Tim. 4. 14. Tit. 1. And they onely know how rightly to examine them in the knowledge of the tongues and Sciences and such Arts as are requisite besides the knowledge of the holy Scripture all which are little enough for the making of a Minister compleat and fit for that Sacred imployment And all the Primitive Churches in the Apostles times willingly submitted themselves to what the Presbytery then did and assented to their choyce as in the 14. of the Acts vers 23. it appeareth But I say in that our brethren do acknowledge this company this hundred and twenty names to be a church and in that it is also sufficiently manifest that they are considered in a distinct notion from the people which also in the holy Scriptures when they are joyned with their Ministers are called a church as is frequently to be seen through the acts of the Apostles and in that it doth abundantly appear by what hath formerly been spoken and will yet in the following discourse be farther elucidated that there were many congregations and Assemblies of beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem and that they were all governed by the joynt consent and Common Councell of the Apostles and Presbyters to whom the Apostles themselves were subject who were sent this way and that way by their direction and to whom they were to give an account of their Ministery as we see in divers places in the Acts and were ordered by them what they should do and also made their appeals unto the Apostles and Presbyters in any businesse of common concernment I say in all these respects it is evident That the Church of Ierusalem consisted of many Congregations and Assemblies and was yet but one Church and that governed by a Presbyterian Government and by a Common Councell of Ministers to whose order all the severall Congregation were to submit themselves And therefore this their Argument maketh much against them and greatly for us And this shall suffice to have answered to this their first Objection which to speak the truth is that that carrieth the most appearance of any Argument they produce to prove their Assertion and tenent for all their other Objections raised from the severall meetings of the Apostles and people and from the multitude comming to them about the ordaining of Deacons by which they would perswade the world That the company of Believers in the Church of Ierusalem was not so numerous at any time but that they might all meete in one congregation or in one place to partake of in acts of worship they consist most of them in Homonymies and meere Paralogismes which indeed beseeme not the gravity of reverend men and in the weighty matters of Divinity would be undecent in a sucking Sophister and therefore are much more blameworthy in them who by such fallacies labour to amuse the people to the disturbance of the whole Church and Kingdome and alienating the affections of Brethren one from another I shall briefly runne over them Acts 2. 46. where it is related that the Believers and new Converts continued daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house From these words the Brethren conclude That the multitude of Believers was not so great but that they might all meete in one congregation and in one place to partake in all acts of
only true worshippers who saith that Salvation was of the Iews and that the Samaritans worshipped they knew not what Now to the Church of the Iewes those true worshippers those that were converted by Iohn the Baptist and Christs Disciples and baptized into Christ were added and therfore they were worthy to have been taken notice of by my brother Burton as formed into a Church or Churches if believing in Christ repenting and being baptized in his name and by his authority be sufficient to make men members of a Church for as the Catholicke visible Church consists of many Nationall Provinciall and Presbyterian Churches so did the Nationall church of the Iews of many citie Countries Churches which were in their Dialect called Synagogues which is the same with our Churches both in cities and countries as all the learned well know for in all those Synagogues they partaked daily in the morall worship and had the Preaching of the law and the Keyes of Heaven Now then when those multitudes that I enumerated in my arguments baptized by Iohn and the blessed Apostles and the seventy Disciples were all gathered into Christs fold and made his sheepe and true believers and that by the Preaching of the Gospell and hearing of the voyce of their Pastors and had amongst them all those sealing and discriminating Ordinances that were sufficient not only to forme them into a church or churches but to difference them from Pagans and Infidels as who were Israelites to whom pertained the adoption and the glory the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the promises as Saint Paul speaketh Rom. 9. vers 4. all which I conceive were sufficent and avaylable to make any then living members of Christs Church I say when they had circumcision and the Passoever baptisme and the Law and the Gospell and that worship of God that he had established amongst them and were his peculiar people of whom Christ had given this testimony that they were his true worshippers and when they were also gathered in according to Gods own appointment by the sound of the Gospell and by the preaching of Faith and Repentance and by the Ministry of the Word as all the Prophets had formerly gathered Churches then those that were Baptized by Iohn who was a Prophet sent of God Luke the 3. and sent to baptize Iohn the 1. 33. and those that were baptized by the Disciples who were sent from Christ as he was from his Father who said Go teach all nations baptising them c. all they I say ought by my brother Burton and all the Independents to be taken notice of as formed into a Church or Churches what so ever he and I. S. say to the contrary who in this agree that those that were baptized by John and by Christs Disciples were no Christians much lesse cast into a Church mould according to the New-Testament forme and lest of all that they were members of one Christian Church at Ierusalem These are J. S. his formall words pag. 9. So that whiles these men vvill dispute against the truth they blaspheme and give the Spirit of God the lye for Christ hath said that they that heare his Disciples heare him and that they that heare his voyce are his sheepe novv vvhen all those that vvere converted by their Ministry and vvere in token of their faith and obedience baptized and had given up their names unto Christ they were all incorporated into his fold which is his church his Mysticall body and were moulded into a church or churches and so they are set down to us in the holy Scriptures as believers and true members of Christs church and therefore formed into a church or churches for there is but one Shepherd and one sheep-fold and Christ had then no other church on earth that we reade of but that of the Iewes and which is yet more it was a reformed church for Christ had cast out all the Buyers and Sellers John 2. out of the Temple and cals it his Fathers house and the house of prayer so that it was now a pure church and clensed from all pollutions and in the which all Christs Ordinances were in their purity here was the Preaching of the Gospell the Teaching of the Law and all the sealing Ordinances both old and new here was Circumcision the Passeover Sacrifices and Ceremonies here was Baptisme and the Lords Supper or breaking of bread here was the true Invocation or calling on the name of God and that in the house of Prayer where all Supplications were heard and that before Christs death Here we have all the materialls for the making or forming of a church or churches or casting of Christians into a church mould according to the new-testament forme to speak a little in the Independents dialect for here we have visible Saints in multitudes devoute men and true worshippers from out of all the Nations under heaven Acts 2 here we have Christ and his twelve Apostles and his seventy Disciples Elders and Teachers in abundance besides many Women that followed him and ministred unto him here was no want of Ministers and Officers and Members of all sorts besides innumerable multitudes of believers and cryers Hosanna and all this before Christs death as well as after and all these Christian believers and such as did partake of all sealing and saving Ordinances sufficient to cast them into a church mould and to forme them into a church or churches as well as after Christs ascension and therefore my indefinite enumeration of those that were baptized by Iohn and Christs Disciples ought by my brother Burton and I. S. and all the Independents to have been taken notice of as formed into a church or churches without Christ and his blessed Apostles who partaked in all Ordinances be not in their esteeme reputed Christians and formed into a church or cast into a church mould which were blasphemy in any to thinke and therefore is much more the height of wickednesse in my brother Burton and I. S. to affirme and Print for I. S. his expressions I produced them often before I will now set downe my brother Burtons formall words which I cannot but reiterate For your indefinite enumeration saith he of those mulititudes baptized by Iohn and by Christs Disciples we take no notice of them unlesse formed into a church or churches but following the expresse Scripture the first formed church we finde is in Acts 2. These are his words and that in the name of all the Independents saying we take no notice of them So that by this all men may gather that in the Independents language and in their Divinity Iohn Baptist and all Christs Disciples with Christ himself and all Christian believers in Christs time and all that by baptisme were received into Christs fold and church and such as had given up their names to Christ were not worthy to be taken notice of by the Independent brethren who esteeme of
as yet any particular visible formed churches for all these severall congregations are but so many branches of that one catholicke visible church and a branch and a member of a church is not a church properly so called in my brother Burtons Dialect and therefore wee have no true visible churches or church bodies upon earth properly so called this I say will necessarily follow upon my Brother Burtons unsound Principles and this his opinion which I am confident upon his more serious thoughts and when he makes not such haste as he confesses he did when he writ this his book against me he will acknowledge to be very erroneous But if he shall against all reason undertake to maintaine the same doctrine concerning the Catholicke visible church he doth about the church of Ierusalem I am assured he will be highly condemned by the learnedest of his party as well as by the universall consent of all the judicious Divines in the world who I know are of a contrary judgement But I say if upon mature deliberation he shall acknowledge and grant that the severall congregations or churches of believers mentioned in the Scriptures as that of Corinth Ephesus Galatia c. and their own severall congregations in their new gathered churches howsoever he will not grant that title unto our assemblies I say if he shall but accord that both the primitive churches and their new congregations be churches properly so called or church bodies though but so many branches and members of the Catholicke visible church which yet is but one and the same church then likewise of necessity it will follow and he must yeild unto it that all those severall congregations and assemblies in the church of Ierusalem were churches properly so called though but so many branches of that one and the same particular church because as the learned know all particular congregations and churches that partake in all the Ordinances as they are similar parts of the whole church so they doe all partake of the name and nature of it and are all of them churches properly so called and therefore by the very same reason I say all those severall congregations and assemblies in the church of Ierusalem being parts of that Nationall city or Presbyterian church that one and the same church as partaking both of the name and nature of that church are all of them churches properly so called one of those conclusions I affirme will necessarily follow from my brother Burtons principles And for the better evidencing of what I have said I will adde a few words more by way of a corollary that whatsoever the whole church at Ierusalem had in it to make it the first formed church properly so called the same had all the congregations and assemblies respectively and severally considered to make every one of them churches properly so called And therefore if the whole church at Ierusalem may challenge the name of a true formed church as the Independents acknowledge then the severall congregations and assemblies respectively and severally considered might do the same and were churches properly so called For if the whole consisted of visible Saints so did every one of those severall congregations and assemblies consist of visible Saints And if the whole had the blessed Apostles in it and Christs seventy Disciples and all sorts of church Officers so had every severall congregation and assembly of that church though but a part and a branch of the whole And if the whole church inioyed all the saving and sealing ordinances and all acts of worship and continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking bread and in prayer so did every one of those congregations and assemblies severally and respectively considered And therefore when all the branches of that one particular church at Ierusalem viz every congregation and assembly severally considered and as a part were equall to the whole church in all priviledges immunities and in whatsoever is required for the making of a true formed church so that there was nothing wanting to either of those congregations that the whole church partaked in and injoyed or could challenge for the making it a compleat Church then it followeth and that necessarily that if the whole church be a true formed church and a church properly so called as the Independents confesse that all those congregations assemblies severally considered were churches properly so called This I thought good to premise And now I come to make good what I undertooke which is to prove those severall Assemblies in the church of Ierusalem to be churches properly so called which I do by this argument All such assemblies congregations as daily met together in diverse companies in the Temple and in Solomons Porch and in severall private houses in the fellowship of the Gospell and in the name of Christ and clothed with his power and honoured with Christs presence being all believers and Saints and such as gladly received the word and were all baptized and continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayer and injoyed amongst themselves in their severall congregations all the saving and sealing Ordinances and all Acts of worship and whatsoever priviledges and immunities the whole church partaked in and the which the Independents themselves repute and thinke sufficient for the making and constituting of a formed church and who also had amongst them in those severall assemblies Ministers immediately sent them of God and inspired with the holy Ghost every one of the which had the keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven given unto them by Christ himselfe with a promise to be with them to the ende of the world and that whatsoever they loosed on earth should be loosed in heaven and whatsoever they bound on earth should be bound in heaven and that his spirit also should leade them into all truth the which Ministers likewise taught them whatsoever Christ had commanded them and that daily in the Temple and in every house all and every one of them respectively and severally taken were true and compleate churches properly so called But in the church of Jerusalem there were many such assemblies and congregations as dayly met together in diverse companies in the Temple and in Solomons Porch and in several private houses in the fellowship of the Gospell and in the name of Christ and clothed with his power and honoured with Christs presence being all believers and Saints and such as gladly received the Word and were all baptized and continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers and injoyed amongst themselves in their severall congregations all the saving and sealing Ordinances and all acts of worship and whatsoever priviledges and immunities the whole church partaked in and the which the Independents themselves repute and thinke sufficient for the making and constituting of a formed church and who also had amongst them in those severall
assemblies Ministers immediately sent them of God and inspired with the holy Ghost every one of the which had the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven given them by Christ himselfe with a promise to be with them to the end of the world and that whatsoever they loosed on earth should be loosed in Heaven and whatsoever they bound on earth should be bound in Heaven and that his spirit also should leade them into all truth the which Ministers likewise taught them whatsoever Christ had commanded them and that dayly in the Temple and in every house Ergo all and every one of those Assemblies and Congregations respectively and severally taken were true and compleat churches properly so called For the Major no well grounded Christian will deny it especially the Independents cannot gain say it for if two or three met together in the fellowship of the Gospell and in Christs name make a true visible church as those of the congregationall way hold and teach then much more where two or three hundreds are met together in the fellowship of the Gospell and in the name of Christ and in the which also they partaked in all the saving and sealing Ordinances as in the preaching of the Word and Prayer and in the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper and that by lawfull Ministers and Officers appointed and sent by God himselfe I say by far better reason such a congregation is a true and visible and compleate church properly so called as all rationall and intelligible men will easily conclude and therefore this cannot be denied by the Independents especially when as I noted before it is their owne Doctrine taught in all their writings and Preached by every one of the congregationall way and confirmed by their own daily practice And to passe by many books writ of late by the Ministers of New-England and some of the Independent Ministers here amongst us I will only at this time pitch upon one who hath in my opinion dealt more candidly then any of his brethren for he kepes no reserves Donec ad triarios redierit res but sets downe plainly what they hold I will make bold therefore with his new blasing lights lately set up upon that learned Beaken called Truth gloriously appearing from under the sad and sable cloude of obloquy In the which treatise pag. 22. and 23. the author in the name of all the Independents declares their judgement concering this businesse whose words I will set down at large desiring to deliver their minde in their own expressions rather then in mine that they may not hereafter accuse me to have pickt and chose what made most for me and against them and left the rest His words are these Object It may possibly here be objected how will it appeare that so small a number as two or three joyned together in the fellowship of the Gospell do constitute a visible Church Answ It will appeare evident by this insuing argument Christ hath given his power and promised his presence to two or three ioyned together in the fellowship of the Gospell therefore two or three so joyned together do constitute a visible church The Antecedent is proved from the Words of Christ Matth. 18. If thy brother offend thee tell him of it if he refuse to heare thee take two or three if he heare not them tell it to the church if he neglect to heare the church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican I say unto you whatsoever you shall binde on earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever yee shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven Loe Here 's their power given them by Christ The presence of Christ is promised by them vers 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the middest of them The consequent cannot be denied for what people in the world may be called a church if they may not to whom Christ hath given his power and promised his presence If the gifts of Christ be of any force if the power of Christ be of any efficacy then they have a right to be so called Neither is this destitute of learned men who have given their suffrage to it Humfred de religione vera conservanda pag. 24. Ecclesiam cum dico non unum aut alterum sacerdotem aut ministrum sed legitimum ac Christianum catum nomino et innuo Besides the definition of a visible church will prove the consequent A visible church is a mysticall body whereof Christ is the head the members be Saints called out of the world united together into one congregation by an holy covenant to worship the Lord and to edifie one another in all his holy Ordinances This definition though it properly looke upon a compleate church it is appliable to two or three that are joyned together in the fellowship of the faith of the Gospell 2 Object But is it like that two or three there is taken for the church mentioned vers 17. to which Christ hath given his power Answ I do not say that it is alwaies so taken for because the church doth frequently consist of many but this I say that it may be so taken as the very coherence of the words shews Beside it will further appeare thus if two or three may meet together clothed with Christs power and honoured with Christs presence then two or three may be the church mentioned vers 17. but two or three may meet together clothed with Christs power for they meet in his name as the text speakes 1. e. clothed with his power for name signifieth power in severall Scriptures Prov. the 18. 10. Philip. 2. 10. and honoured with his presence and therefore two or three may be the church there mentioned 3. Object But such a company being destitute of Officers can be no church Answ If it had been said they could have been no compleate church I would have consented But to say that they are not a compleat church therefore they are no church is a Non sequitur A man that wants a hand or foot or both is notwithstanding a man though a maimed man Officers do not concurr to the esse or being of a church but to the bene esse or well being of a church for otherwise put case the Officers of a church dye then must the church be unchurched and so Toties quoties as such a thing happens which in times of mortality may be often Againe a company of believers ioyned together in the fellowship of the Gospell hath the matter and forme of a church even before it hath any Officers and therefore is a Church without them it hath the matter of a Church a company believing 1 Cor. 1. 2. Ephes 1. 1. and it hath the forme of a Church viz. a combining and uniting of themselves together into one body by the bond of an holy Covenant I have spoke some thing the more in this particular to strengthen
or for want of many things they now exact of all Christians for the compleating and moulding of them into Church bodies pro perly so called for we read That in the Church of Jerusalem they were perfectly converted and were Saints indeed and yet that for some wants they made no separation rent or schisme from their brethren but that they dayly met together in their publick Assemblies as in the Temple and in Solomons Porch and from house to house openly and that in all love and charity with one accord And yet if my brother Burton and the Independents may be beleeved they had neither Deacons nor Elders nor distinction of Officers nor a great part of Discipline nor many other of their requisites So that from the pious and godly example of those glorious Saints I learn this lesson That rents and scismes are not to be made amongst brethren for some failings in any Churches yea though there be some defects not onely in Officers and Members but a very want of Officers themselves and of a good Discipline also in any Church or Churches and that they that do make rents and divisions have a great deal to answer for Withall I learn that it may be a true Church though there be a failing in Discipline and a want of some chiefe Officers and Members For my brother Burton acknowledgeth That the Church at Jerusalem was a formed Church although it wanted both Officers and Discipline and all those things they now require of all such as desire to be made Members in their new Congregations And therefore if this he now preacheth be solid and orthodox Divinity and if he may be credited in what he writeth as there was at that time no just ground of separation from their publike Assemblies for want of those things so there is now in these our dayes no just cause of separation from our Assemblies if there be indeed a reall want of discipline and Church Officers which we might long since have injoyed had not he and his brethren hindred our happy begun Reformation Especially I say we ought not to separate when there is no failing or want in any dominative or fundamentall pointe of Religion necessary to salvation and where all the counsell of God requisite to eternall happinesse is dayly publikely taught in every one of our Congregations and Churches all which the Independents themselves do acknowledge we want not Besides it is granted by all orthodox Divines that Discipline makes not for the esse but the bene esse of a Church Yea the Independents themselves hold That Officers in a Church make not for the esse but the bene esse of it as the New Lights from the Summer Islands apparently delucidate For they say Though the Officers all dye yet the Church ceaseth not to be a church But to return to the matter in hand Whereas my brother Burton affirmeth that the Church at Jerusalem wanted Discipline and that it had not Deacons at first and that the Churches were not brought forth to full perfection in one day and that their very constitution had a graduall growth I maintain that in all he asserteth he is not onely exceeding erroneous and ignorant but understandeth not the very doctrine of the Independents who are all against him in those his assertions for they all acknowledg and in express words affirm it in their writings that all the Officers of the church were virtually in the Apostles saying they were Pastors Teachers ruling Elders and Deacons c. And therefore they wanted neither Deacons nor Elders if their concession be true nor any church Officers which is point blank against my brother Burton his opinion They confesse likewise that all the Apostles and every one of them had the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven that is the power of order and jurisdiction viz the key of knowledg and authority And therefore they had also in the church of Jerusalem that part of Discipline of casting out corrupt Members They acknowledge in like manner that all the Apostles had equall power amongst themselves and that they had authority over all the churches as having the care of all the churches who were committed to their charge and that they left both the Presbyters and people in their several churches to the exercise of all their particular rights impeached neither of them of their liberties And they do also confess that as Paul by his own authority did excommunicate Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1. ver 20. and others so might the other Apostles have done if they had had the like occasion given them and might have put any church not only in mind of their duty and reproved them for their neglect of Discipline but have injoyned and commanded them also to have put it in execution as both Paul did the church of Corinth and Saint John the seven churches of Asia which were all well constituted and well and perfect formed churches by their first constitution and brought forth to full perfection in one day so as they had no need of a graduall growth as my brother Burton affirmeth All these things I say the Independents do accord unto And all reason will perswade any well grounded Christians That the church of Corinth was a perfect church at its first constitution before the incestuous person appeared in it and the same they will say of the other seven churches in Asia before the doctrine of the Nicolaiâ—tans and that of Baalam and Jezabell sprung up in them and before those luke-warme Laodiceans appeared and all the other offenders there spake of all the which were so far from adding any perfection to those churches as it was a deformity to them all to have such creatures and failings amongst them and it was reputed their great sinne to connive at them and suffer them to be amongst them and in their bowels which by their first constitution they had power to have cast out For it is well known that all those churches at their first plantation and founding had all of them their Presbyters and Elders and all other Members and Officers as consisting of Saints and had in all those severall churches both the power of order and jurisdiction and the power of the Keyes and this in their first constitution and therefore had no neede of a graduall growth but were all brought forth to full perfection the first day contrary to my brother Burtons doctrine And it is confessed likewise by the Independents and by my brother Burton himselfe That where there are Church Officers as a Pastor and Teacher with an Elder or two and a Deacon and where there are a few visible Saints if they amount but to the number of twenty nay if they be but ten or twelve gathered together according to their method that there is a compleat formed Church where Christ is set up as King upon his Throne and that this Church is clothed with Christs power and honoured with his presence the which
wanted that part of Discipline I beeleeve they would exercise some more of their authority to teach such an one better manners or more wit Even so it was in the Church at Ierusalem they had discipline in that Church though wee reade not of the putting of it in execution as we do in the Church of Corinth and Ephesus neither wil any rationall man conclude that all the other Primitive Churches wanted that part of discipline because I say wee reade onely of the execution of it in the church of Corinth and that of Ephesus which is commended for it and some of the other seven churches are blamed for not casting out their corrupt Members and because they had not at that time exercised their authority neither reade wee of it in the churches of Galatia Colosse nor amongst the Thessalonians nor in the church of Rome nor Antioch nor in Samaria will any man therefore say that all these churches wanted that part of Discipline because wee reade nothing of it in them I am confident they will not be so fanaticall as to make such a conclusion from so brainsick a premise much lesse will any intelligible christian argue as my Brother Burton does saying wee reade not of that part of Discipline in the church at Ierusalem of casting out corrupt Members Ergo it had it not this would indeed prove a non sequitur and such a consequenct or conclusion could least of all have been made from the Church at Ierusalem upon such an Antecedent then from any of the other churches because the church at Ierusalem had not only the power of the Keyes within it selfe but a legislative power also who gave Lawes to all other churches both for the ordering and ruling of them and for the exercising of their Discipline in every particular and that by Gods appointment for out of Sion shall goe forth the Law saith the Prophet Isa 23. and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem So that the Church at Ierusalem the Mother church gave power to all the daughter churches and that both the power of Order and Jurisdiction the power was radically in it and in that church was the fountain of all authority the streames of the which flowed to all the other churches of the world For out of Zion shal go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem And can any rationall man thinke it gave away all its power and did not keepe a reserve donec ad triarios redierit res I beleeve that all the Independents will much blame my brother Burton for this his rashnesse in affirming the church at Ierusalem wanted that part of Discipline for casting out corrupt Members when the Apostles themselves had all power in their hands bequeathed unto them by Christ himselfe who said Mat. 28. verse 18. 19. All power is given to mee in Heaven and Earth goe yee therefore and teach all Nations c. and Iohn the 20. verse 21 22 23. as my Father hath sent mee even so send I you and when hee had said this hee breathed on them and saith unto them receive yee the Holy Ghost whose soever sinnes ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins yee retaine they are retained Loe here was plenary authority given unto all the Apostles who as they had the Keyes promised them in the sixteenth of Matthew here they now received them and therefore they had the power in their hands both of order and jurisdiction which the Keyes imported as all the learned know and the very Independents doe not deny now this power was not onely given unto them but unto all faithfull Ministers their successors to whom Christ made a promise as well as to the Apostles Matth. 28. that hee would be with them to the end of the world neither doe wee ever reade that the Apostles and Ministers in the church of Ierusalem did ever relinquish their power and therefore they wanted not that part of Discipline as my Brother Burton grollishly affirmeth who begins now to doubt when hee begins to dote but if there had been any just occasion without all controversie they would have put it in execution but that church consisting of visible Saints and having no scandalous persons amongst them had no occasion of the exercise of that part of Discipline which they wanted not though they exercised it not for it is to be believed that the Apostles would have discharged their duty in punishing offendors if there had beene any And I believe that the Independents would blame any of their Schollers and Members if they should say their new congregated churches wanted that part of Discipline of casting out of corrupt Members though they have not as yet in some of them put it in execution for they have learned to distinguish between the power of a Church and the execution of that power in a church for as it doth not argue that a Court of Justice hath not power of life and death when notwithstanding it is invested with the Authority of hanging and drawing though perhaps after it is erected they either have no occasion of executing that authority that is given or them out of Clemency will for a time shew mercy and use lenity towards offendors not taking the extremity of the Law the more with humanity and kindnesse to reclaime them even so in all well constituted Churches the not executing of the power given them by Christ or the not having just occasion of putting that power in execution doth not prove a want of that power and if any of the Members of the new congregations should so argue against their new church Officers I believe they would soone make use of their Keyes to shut such a Member out of their Church doores as my brother Burton falsly complaines that Truth was lately shut out of Aldermanbury Church doores And truly if one of their whibbling congregations have no want of that part of Discipline though they execute it not shall any man be so temerarious and unadvised as to thinke that the power of the church in Ierusalem was evacuated or enervated or that they had not that part of Discipline when there was greater power in it then in any church in the world all who had all the Apostles amongst them and as Christs and Iohn Disciples all of them armed with the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven and when the Magazine and treasury of all power resided continually in that church and therefore that part of Discipline when all other churches derived their power authority and jurisdiction from that as the mother church And to this I now say I am most assured all judicious men will easily consent and agree And therefore my brother Burton affirming that the church at Ierusalem wanted that part of discipline of casting out of corrupt Members saying That neither the Church at Ierusalem was a perfect patterne nor none of the Primitive churches were compleat within themselves but that they must
Lord but that they should also afford them the honour of maintenance and take order there be a sufficient and competent yea an honourable allowance for their support and that as they minister to them spirituall food for their soules they should likewise minister unto them all things necessary for the maintenance of them and their Families that they may comfortably and without solicitous care follow their holy imployments and wait upon their severall Ministeries So that the place and imployment of the Presbyters is to teach and rule the people and this is their proper worke and peculiarly belongs unto them and the imployment and place of the severall congregations under them is to hear and obey and therefore if the severall congregations do assume unto themselves the power of ruling they take more upon them then by God is allowed them and the Presbyters in yeilding unto it reject their own right and devest themselves of that authority that God hath put into their hands and by so doing in time may not onely bring confusion into the Church but to all those Countries where such usurpations are tolerated I cannot but speake my conscience in this point And truly very reason dictates unto a man that they only should have the authority of commanding and ruling over the Churches to whom the power of the Keyes is given Now it is given only to the Ministers and Presbyters as we see it in Iohn 20. 21. and Matth. 18. 15 16 17 18. Where our Saviour Christ established a standing government to be continued to the end of the World the violating and the overthrowing of the which was the cause of all those confusions both in doctrine and manners that is now come upon the world and was the cause not only of the rise but the growth of Antichrist And the reducing of it again into the Church and the re stablishing of it will be the confusion of that Man of Sin and of all the Antichristian-brood and be a meanes of establishing truth and peace through the Christian world But it will not be amisse a little to consider that place in Matth. 18. If thy Brother saith Christ shall trespasse against thee go and tell him of it between thee and him alone if he shall heare thee thou shalt gaine thy brother but if he will not heare thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to heare them then tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to heare the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen man and a Publican Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven In these words our Saviour Christ has respect unto the order and custome of judicature in those times in censuring mens manners and doctrines which among the Jewes was ordered and administred by an assembly and counsell of learned experienced and judicious men and by a Presbytery Consistory or Colledge of able men for government chose and selected out of the people for this very purpose by such as could judge and discerne of their abilities the which assembly and company is by Christ himself called a Church because it did represent the Church and in this place Christ did establish the like to be continued in the Christian church to the end of the world making his Apostles this representative body and their successors all the godly and holy Ministers and Presbyters and gives unto them the same power and Authority to judge and determine of all things belonging unto faith and manners that was observed in the Jewish church in all Ecclesiasticall Discipline For otherwise the Christian church should be inferior to that of the Jews if they had not the same Priviledges for the censuring of manners and Doctrines and the same power of jurisdiction and ruling that they had Now all power of jurisdiction among the Jews was exercised not by the promiscuous multitude or by the whole congregation nor by any particular man nor by two or three as the place above specifies but by an Assembly Senate Councell or Presbytery of understanding men assigned to that purpose which our Saviour himself calleth a Church this government established in the Christian church are the severall Presbyteries where all things are transacted by common and joynt consent and this was the practise of the Apostles at Ierusalem who did all businesse of publike concernment by common and joynt consent as is manifest in the first chap. of the Acts in chusing of an Apostle in Iudas his place and in the 5. chap. in censuring Annanias and Saphira and in the 6. chap. in chusing Deacons and in the 15. chapter in determining the question there in hand all in a Presbyterian way and by common consent And this is that government that God hath commanded to be perpetuated to the end of the world in these words Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven So that the Presbyters onely have the power of the keyes it is their place only to ordain Ministers and Church Officers whatsoever Authority the people may exercise in the chusing of them as Paul writes unto Timothy and Titus and they onely are to judge and determine and to censure in matters of manners and doctrine and the people are to allow and approve it according to the Word of God Yea the very Synagogues of the Jews which were the same that our churches are were governed by a Presbytery as our brethren acknowledge called by the name of the Rulers of the Synagogue who governed by joynt and common councell as is evident and manifest in that there were superior and inferior Judges Commanders and Rulers according as their yeares gravity and wisdome made them more emninent then others and venerable to the people as may appeare in many places as Acts 18. ver 8. It is said there That Crispus the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved with all his houshould So that if there were a chiefe Ruler or Iudge or a President there must of necessity be a Councell or Segniory of inferiour ones that had Rule and Authority over others as well as he and where there is a chiefe Justice or Judge there are other Judges joyned with him as all reason perswades and there must needs be a Court of Judicature where all things are transacted by conjoynt and common consent and agreement and so it was in the Synagogues of the Jewes who were subject to and ordered by the determinations and abitrement of their Rulers and Governours So that the severall Churches or Synagogues under the Jews were in subjection to those Rulers and were governed according as by common councell they ordered And Mat. the 5. vers 22. And behold there came one of
was the generall fear of all the great men in Jerusalem and of all the Courtiers and Officers under Herod therefore it is said that Herod and all Ierusalem with him was troubled So that Tyrants and their complices never have any reall peace But in this sense also it cannot be understood that Ierusalem went out to John and was baptized it must therefore by a Senecdoche be taken for all the common people promiscuously or for a mighty multitude of all sorts and of all ranks of people and of all professions as Publicans Souldiers and the ordinary Inhabitants and in this sense the word Jerusalem must be taken for a mighty multitude of men in Jerusalem that were made Christians for otherwise the Evangelist would have said many went out of Ierusalem also as well as out of other places but in saying that all Iudea and all the Regions round about and Jerusalem went out this metaphoricall expression doth signifie That an infinite number of people in Ierusalem it selfe were made Christians and Members of the Church and that it is so to be understood the places following will evidently evince it for in Matth. 11. 12. our Saviour saith That from the dayes of Iohn the Baptist untill now the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force then the which there could nothing be spoke more emphatically to set forth the growth and increase of Beleevers and the multitude of Christians as Luke also in ch 16. v. 16. expresseth saying That the Law and the Prophets were untill Iohn since that time the kingdome of God is preached and every man presseth in to it that is the generality of the people became beleevers and were baptized as it is yet more evident from Luke 7. 29 30. by the very testimony of our Saviour who saith That all the people that heard him and the Publicans justified God being baptized with the Baptisme of Iohn but the P harisees and Lawyers rejected the councell of God against themselves being not baptized of him So that by the witnesse of our Saviour Christ except the Pharisees and the Priests all the people or the generality of the people in Ierusalem were baptized and became Christians and imbraced the Gospell and this was accounted among the miracles that was wrought in those dayes and as a thing of speciall observation and as a matter of wonder as we may see in the message our Saviour Christ sent unto Iohn the Baptist by his Disciples when he bad them relate unto their Master what they had seen and heard in the 22. Verse Tell him saith he That the blinde see the lame walke the Leapers are cleansed the deafe heare and the dead are raised and the poore receive the Gospel this I say was among the miracles that the generality of the poore imbrace the Gospel and were baptized and made Believers which must needs import a mighty multitude and a great increase or else it would not have been a thing of such wonder and have been sent unto Saint Iohn as a miraculous thing and a thing worthy to prove Christ himself to be the Messiah looked for for no meere man could have wrought such a work asto draw the hearts of the the people to imbrace the Gospel but the Messiah himself For Paul may plant and Apollo may water 1 Cor. 3. but God only the Messiah must give the increase he must move the heart to imbrace the Gospel and to believe for faith is the gift of God Ephes 2. and therefore this was the wonder that the generality of the people did believe and were baptized and this was the sole work and operation of Christ and therefore proved him to be the Prophet they looked for And it stands with all reason that there were infinites of people in Jerusalem that believed and that Iohn was greatly magnified of the people and publickly followed because for a time Herod himselfe countenanced Iohn Mark 6. 20 and feared him knowing that he was a just man and an holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly And although we read not that he was baptized by Iohn yet he highly honoured him till Iohn reproved him and told him it was not lawfull for him to have his Brothers Wife And in this interim of his seeming favour we may conceive that the Courtiers also and the great men would do as their Master did for if we observe the manner of all Courts to this day what the King does the Courtiers also do if the King laugh though there be perhaps a cause of mourning they will all laugh and if he frownes though there be a cause of cheerfulnesse and smiling they will al frown and if the King commends any man they will all admire him and if he hears any Minister gladly they will all heare him willingly and if he when he is reproved be angry and displeased and will cut off his head whom he had so honoured but the day before then all the Courtiers they will helpe him and further the worke as we may see not only in the example of Iohn Baptist but in Haman as soon as the King frownd upon him the Courtiers they covered his face and up they trussed him be it right or wrong it is all one to Courtiers But in that interim I say that Iohn Baptist was in favour with the King without doubt it animated the people greatly to follow him and by hearing him many thousand Saints were converted and the multitudes of them were numerous as is manifest from Matth. 14. 5. for it is said That when he would have put him to death he feared the multitude because they counted him as a Prophet Here are two observables the one That he that feared not God was afraid of his servants The second that it was a mighty multitude of Believers that were in Ierusalem for a few could not have awed the King and kept him in feare and therefore he was forced to defer the cutting off of his head till he had got to him all the strength of Galilee all his Lords and high Captains and his chiefe Estates and Commanders Mark 6. 21. And when he thought himselfe strong enough then he exercised his tyranny Yea when Iohn was taken away yet the multitudes of the people continued stedfast in the faith as we may see in Luke 20. by the confession of the very enemies for when our Saviour asked them concerning the baptisme of Iohn Whether it was from Heaven or of Men And they reasoned among themselves saying if we shall say from Heaven he will say why then believed ye him not and if we say of Men all the people will stone us for they be perswaded that Iohn was a Prophet Here by the confession of the very enemies all the people or the generality of them were Believers and it must of necessity be a mighty multitude that kept all the Priests and all the Elders that had
him up upon his throne but by this meanes they dis-throne him And therefore J. S. and all those of his fraternity that not onely unchristian and unchurch all those that were baptized by Iohn the Baptist and Christs Apostles before Christs death but at this day unchurch and unchristian all Christians and Churches but their own are guilty of high contumacy against the King of Saints and King of Kings and are most injurious to all their christian Brethren And truly there cannot be found scarse in the world such an example of temerity and unadvised rashnesse and want of charity and common wisdome as is every day to be observed amongst the Independents who are ever talking of a Church mould after the New Testament forme and excluding all from being true Churches that are not so moulded and yet never tell us what it is For in the holy Scripture we have never read of any other Church mould or of any New Testament forme but of publishing the Gospel and of preaching faith and repentance and of yeelding obedience unto it and of beleeving and repenting and being baptized which both John the Baptist and all Christs Disciples and the blessed Apostles and all the faithfull Ministers of the Gospel had a commission to do and a command withall and a blessing annexed unto it that whosoever did repent beleeve and was baptized should not onely be admitted a visible member of the catholicke visible Church but should be saved The words of our Saviour Christ unto his Disciples Marke 16. ver 15 16. are these Go saith he into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature he that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Out of the which words and commission of our Saviour I evidently gather that when John the Baptist and Christs Disciples in their severall ministryes went according to their commission preaching from place to place and from city to city and publishing the glad tydings of the kingdom of the Messiah and baptizing such as beleeved they cast them into a Church mould after the New Testament forme and therefore made them all members not onely of the Catholique visible Church but of all those severall particular Churches and Synagogues through all the cities of Judaea and through the world where they preached the Gospel as well as at Ierusalem and that as many of Ierusalem as were baptized by Iohn and Christs Disciples were all members of that Church and as truly moulded into a Church mould after the New Testament forme and made as reall members and free denizons of Christs Kingdome as any of the new congregations at this day unlesse any will think and beleeve that John the Baptist and the blessed Apostles were ignorant how to gather Churches and nescient of the right mould and forme of the New Testament churches and had not learned their lesson so well as our Independent Ministers which were a piece of impiety and horrid wickednesse to affirme For then it would follow that those that were baptized by Iohn and by the Apostles and Christs seventy Disciples were never saved For I. S. denyes they were Christians and that they were cast into a church mould after the New Testament forme or members of the christian church and therefore by consequent they were in the state of damnation But if all this be wickednesse so much as to think then there is a way yet to Heaven and that a safe one which the Independents are ignorant of for they preach up their way as the narrow way to heaven proclaiming all those that are out of it to be enemies of Jesus Christ and his kingdome and in the state of perdition and yet Iohn the Baptist was ignorant of their way and cast not his Disciples into their mould and yet they went safely to the Kingdome of heaven yea they entred into it by violence as our Saviour speaketh And therefore by this that I have now said by way of answer all men may see the futility and impiety of I. S. and how groundlesse all his arguments are and may very well conclude That all those that were baptized by John the Baptist and by Christs Disciples before his death were members of Christs Church and true beleevers and that as many of them as came from Jerusalem were members of that church and they may also from the foregoing arguments gather That those that came out of Jerusalem to his baptism were in such multitudes for all Ierusalem went out unto him and were baptized as they could not all possibly meet in any one place or congregation or a few therfore I am confident that all those that shall read both what Mr Knollys and I. S. have fondly and impiously replyed to my arguments and what by way of answer I have here set down will adjudge that such unworthy wranglers and cavillers as these are ought by their severall Churches to be severely censur'd for this their ignorance and impiety And this shall serve to have replyed to these their exceptions against my first arguments concerning the multitudes baptized by Iohn the Baptist I shall answer to all their other severall cavills in their due places I will now therefore go on to shew the increase of beleevers that were made by the miracles and preaching both of Christ and his Apostles and from the severall places out of the holy Scripture frame my arguments as out of the former to prove the same conclusion John the 4. ver 1 2. Now when the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Iesus made and baptized more Disciples then Iohn though Iesus himselfe baptized not but his Disciples Here observe that where there was a mistake in the relation there the Evangelist forthwith shews it to rectifie mens understandings as where it was reported that Christ baptized he shewes it was a mistake for his Disciples onely baptized but where it is said that Iesus made more Disciples then Iohn that is taken pro confesso and it was true for Iohn himselfe in the 3. chapter ver 30. had said He must increase but I must decrease Christ therefore made many more Disciples and Beleevers then Iohn and added dayly to the church that was then in Jerusalem such as should be saved for he came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel and he received all that came to him John the 6. 37. And as many as received him to them he gave power to become the sonnes of God even to them that beleeve upon his name John 1. 12. And these were infinite multitudes as we shall see by and by In Iohn the 7. 31. it is said that many of the people of Ierusalem beleeved on him And verse the 40. they said of a truth this is that Prophet And in the same chapter when the high Preists sent the officers to apprehend Christ and returning without him and the high Priests demanding the reason why they had not brought him
complices only but all the other people of Ierusalem they beleeved in him in their esteeme and therefore they adjudged them accursed which they would never have done if they had followed Christ for no other end but to have looked upon him for their words doe import as much as if they should have said in plaine termes all the people or the greatest part of the people in Ierusalem saving the Rulers and Pharisees beleeve in Christ and there is none oppose him but they and that this is their very meaning and sense of the words as learned men may easily gather Thirdly the same is confirmed by Nicodemus his witnesse in private also who knew very well how the people of Ierusalem stood generally affected towards Christ and what opinion they had of him heare therefore what hee saith Iohn the 3. of whom the Evangelist speaketh thus There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a Ruler of the Iewes the same came to Iesus by night and said unto him Rabbi we know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can doe these miracles except God bee with him Here Nicodemus gives in testimony devideneâ— that the generality of those in Ierusalem and of the principallest of them as well as of the meanest that they beleeved in Jesus saying we know that is to say all the people know that thou art a Teacher come from God they knew it with the knowledge of Faith and approbation and did really beleeve that hee was come from God and he gives a reason of his and their faith saying that no men can doe those miracles except God bee with him and therefore they beleeved in him so that Nicodemus which was a Disciple of Christ though in secret and a great honourer of him would give in no false verdict nor make no false Musters and he knew very well the opinion and the esteeme the people had of him and he asserteth that both himselfe and the people knew that Christ was sent of God which is as much as to beleeve in him for the same confession did the Apostles make Matth. 16. and Iohn the 6. saying we know that thou art the Sonne of the living God So that to acknowledge Christ and to beleeve in him is all one in the language of holy Scripture and to follow and go after Christ out of sincerity and love and to beleeve in him is the same if the word of God may be judge in this controversie So that to goe after Christ then and to follow him cordially and without worldly ends both in the language of God and men is to serve Christ and to beleeve in him and therefore for all the above mentioned reasons the world that went after Christ the people and multitudes that followed him were all beleevers and the others that either tarried at home and followed their owne imployments or opposed him were unbeleevers Now then when a multitulde from Ierusalem followd Christ and when a world within Ierusalem went after him and when all the cursed people as they called them beleeved in him not only by the very testimony of the enemies of Christ but by the witnesses of the holy Scripture it is sufficiently apparent that the World spake of in the 12. of Iohn were all beleevers amongst the which also out of same Chapter is proved That many of the Rulers also believed in him So that Master Knollys denying all this is little better then an Infidell For an Infidell can do no more then deny the holy Scripture and the manifest truths discovered in them and by this that I have now said though I should not adde a word more it is manifest That there were more beleevers at that time in Jerusalem then could all meete in any one place to partake in all the Ordinances except a mighty city and a world of beleevers may all meete together in one roomâ— or Congregation to communicate in all Acts of worship to edification Which was yet never heard of nor never believed by any man that was not bereaved of his senses and all his wit But yet for farther Illustration and proofe of this truth that if it be possible I may undeceive the poore deluded people I will adde a reason or two more The Scripture is so cleare in this point that there were innumerable believers in Ierusalem as in the second of the Acts besides those that were natives there it is said there were dwellers in Ierusalem worshippers or devout men that is to say beleevers out of all nations under heaven And all these sayeth the Scripture had their dwelling there And without all doubt all these severall Nations had their severall Synagogues in Ierusalem where they heard the Word of God in their owne language as the Dutch and French and other Nations here in London have their churches And the multitudes of the inhabitants in Ierusalem at all times by the relation of the Historians of those dayes were scarse ever lesse then seven or eight hundred thousands and without all controversie the number was now increased because they daily and hourely expected the comming of the Messias whose appearing they every moment looked for and therefore all the believing Iewes out of all Countries repaired in multitudes to Ierusalem So that such numberlesse numbers both of the native Iewes and strangers required a mighty number of Teachers and a many places to heare and to be taught in and that there were above foure hundred Synagogues in Ierusalem which are churches in our dialect the pen-men and Historiographers of those times have recorded it and all this is probable from the numerosity of Preachers and Teachers there which the holy Scripture relateth as the Priests Levits Scribes Pharisees Lawyers which all sate in Moses Chaire and all of them diligently taken up in Preaching to the people and in instructing them upon whose Ministery by Christs command all the multitude and his very followers were to attend Matth. 23. vers 1. 2. 3. So that there was no separation then to be made from the publicke Assemblies where the Law and Gospell was taught nor no gathering of new Churches under pretence of easting them into a Church mould according to the New testament forme Christ and his Disciples were not then so deepely learned as to be in that high forme of Divinity Christs followers notwithstanding were all Gospell Christians and were all in a Church way and I am sure of it in the right way to heaven if the way the truth and the life could teach them the straight way thither and yet they all followed the old lights still Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles were all their Masters we heare then of no new lights nor new borne truths nor of new Church moulds and yet then the Kingdome of heaven suffered violence and the violent tooke it by force Matth. 11 12. they went all well to Heaven as well and as cheerfully as any of our Independents with
be credited all that the holy Scripture hath related unto us concerning the conversion of these men is a meere fable for the Scripture saith they believed and he affirmeth the contrary and sayth they were only called men and not converts not believers Whether this fellow therefore ought not to be cast out of the seven Churches and out of all the Churches of the world for this his wickednesse and temerity I leave it to the judgement of all the learned either dependents or independents and so I will passe to his other good stuffe which in its due place you shall meete with But in the meane time out of all the above quoted places of Scripture I thus farther argue Where there was almost an hundred preachers and Ministers besides the twelve Apostles and all these continually taken up in prayer and preaching and could not leave their Ministry to serve tables and where there was such a company of believers and people as did imploy them all there of necessity they must be distributed into diveâ—se congregations and assemblies if they would all be edified and avoyd confusion and partake in all ordinances But in the Church of Jerusalem there was almost an hundred preachers and Ministers besides the twelve Apostles and all these were continually taken up in prayer and preaching and could not leave their ministry to serve tables and where there was such a company of believers and people as did employ them all there of necessity they must be distributed into diverse congregations and assemblies if they would all be edified and avoyd confusion and partake in all Ordinances For the major very reason and the common light of understanding without any reluctation will assent unto it And for the Minor it is manifest from Chapter the 1. ver 21. 22. and from chapter the sixt ver the 2 and 4. and chapter the 8. ver 1. So that the conclusion is undenyable But out of all the former places I thus farther argue Where there were people of al nations under the heavens and them in some multitudes and most of them believers and devout men and women which waited upon the Ordinances and had a desire daily to heare the Word there of necessity they must be distributed into divers and sundry congregations and assemblies and have such to preach unto them severally in their owne language or else they could not partake in all acts of worship to edification But in the Church of Jerusalem there were people of all Nations under the Heavens and them in some multitudes and most of them Believers and devout Men and Women that waited upon the Ordinances and had a desire dayly to heare the Word Ergo of necessity they must be distributed into divers congregations and assemblies and have such to preach unto them severally in their owne language or else they could not partake in all acts of worship to edification For the Major no reason can gainsay it for the Apostles and the other Ministers imployed all those gifts of the Holy Ghost and those divers languages which they had received for the edification of the Church to the utmost and did improve all opportunities for the converting of the people committed unto their charge and for the further building of them up in their holy faith which was their calling and imployment and this they could not have done unlesse they taught those Nations in their severall Languages and that they could not do without confusion unlesse they were distributed in severall assemblies where they might distinctly heare their own Languages For otherwise as Saint Paul saith in the 1 Cor. 14. 23. if men should speak to the people with unknown tongues if the unlearned saith he come in and unbelievers will they not say that they are all mad And therefore Tongues are given for a signe not to them that believe but to them that believe not Now they were devout Men in Ierusalem and Believers and therefore the Apostles and Ministers were to speake to them severally in their own languages and for that purpose God gave them those Tongues and that diversity of languages that those that were Believers might be more edified and that the unbelievers and unlearned such as belonged unto Gods election might be convinced and judged of all and that the secrets of their hearts might be manifested that so falling down upon their face they might worship God and report that God was in them of a truth as the Apostle there saith So that I say for the Major no reasonable creature will call it in question And for the Major it is manifest out of the Chap. 2. Vers 5. c. and in Chap. 6. Vers 1. and Vers 2. 4. And for the conclusion that from the Premises doth also ensue Againe I thus further argue out of the former Chapters That which the holy Scripture in expresse words and in diverse places hath declared unto us that every Christian is bound to believe but the Scripture in expresse words and in diverse places hath declared unto us that there were diverse assemblies and congregations of Believers in the Church of Jerusalem and that the Apostles and all the Believers in Jerusalem did continue daily with one accord in the Temple and that they brake bread from house to house and that daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Iesus Christ Ergo there was diverse congregations and severall assemblies of Believers in the Church of Jerusalem where they did daily partake in all the Ordinances and enjoyed all acts of worship For the Major no Christian can deny it For the Minor it is manifest from 46 Verse of the 2 Chapter and Chap. 5. vers 12. and vers 42. and Chap. 3. vers 12 13. and many more places that might be produced And in those places it is not onely said they preached in every house but that they brake bread from house to house by which expression all Writers interpret the holy Communion and partaking of the Lords Supper and if it should not so be understood we never can reade that any Christians in Ierusalem besides the Apostles ever enjoyed all acts of worship especially those that are peculiar to Church Communion It is related often that they preached the Word daily in the Temple which was common to Iewes and Christians though no Jewish worship as all men acknowledge And by evident Arguments it may be proved that they never administred the Sacraments in the Temple those discriminating and distinguishing Ordinances of the Christian Church as all the most Orthodox Interpreters gather from the ensuing words where it is said They continued daily with one accord in the Temple but when they speake of the Administration of the Lords Supper it is expressed in these words and breaking of bread from house to house which is interpreted by all Divines of Sacramentall bread which phrase and manner of speaking is usually so expounded by all the Learned upon Acts the
and in the Baptist as it is at large set downe Matth. 3. and it was ratified by all the blessed Trinity as by the immediate descension of the Spirit of God upon Christ in the likenesse of a Dove who was the person baptized with a voice from God the Father out of Heaven saying this is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased So that Christ God the Father and God the Holy Ghost did sanctifie and confirme this ordinance not only to all those that had beene baptised by Iohn and Christs disciples who were also baptized by Iohn but to all those in all future ages that should be baptized by Christs disciples and all his faithfull Ministers which hee sent into all nations to preach and baptize them Matth. 28. to all which hee promised his presence to the end of the world So that I am most assured all good Christians beleeve that Christ was well baptized and if he was well baptized it cannot be denyed but that all those that were baptized by Iohn and Christs disciples were all likewise well baptized and were all good Christians for both Iohn and the Disciples had their commission from God and Christ himselfe for their so doing and therefore if any authority from Heaven and a speciall command from God and a mission from him be of any force to ratifie and ascertaine any ordinance then the baptisme of Iohn and Christs disciples was authenticke and all those that were baptized by them ought to have beene taken notice of by my brother Burton and all the Independents as formed into a church or churches except they doe indeed beleeve that Christ the King and head of his church with his blessed Apostles and all his seventy Disciples whose names were written in Heaven and all those multitudes of men and women that administred unto him and followed him of whom hee gave this testimony Matth. 12. ver 49 50. Behold my mother and my brethren for whosoever shall doe the will of my father which is in heaven the same is my brother sister and mother except I say they beleeve all these cannot make up a formed Church or churches which were impiety to thinke Now I referre it to the judgement of any well grounded christians whether or no they doe not beleeve that the great Pastor and Shepheard of our soules Christ Iesus with his mother brethren and sisters with all those that heard the voice of this their Shepheard and knew it and therefore followed him and beleeved in him with all Johns Disciples and those that were baptized by his and Christs disciples Ministry cannot as well make up a formed church or churches as any of our new formed congregations with a Pastor and Teacher and a few other of their conceited Members I am fully perswaded that upon due deliberation they will say they can see no good reason but that Christ the chiefe Pastor of his sheepe and so many true beleevers and Saints with him should not all of them as well make up a formed church or churches as ten or twelve in one of our new congregations and therefore that they ought to have beene taken notice of by my brother Burton and those of his Fraternity as formed into a church or churches which notwithstanding they doe not asserting in expresse termes that they take no notice of them as formed into a church or churches which if it be not the highest point of blasphemy and temerity I know not what either blasphemy or rashnesse is in any The Ildependents have unchurcheâ— all the reformed churches and all churches but those of the congregationall way and now they unchurch all those glorious Christians that were baptized by the Baptist and Christs disciples wee saith my brother Burton in the name of them all take no notice of them unlesse formed into a church or churches So that wee may not wonder at least wee may not take it in ill part that they unchurch us and deny our churches here in England and all other reformed churches to bee formed churches after the New Testament forme for they say the same of Christ and all that beleeved in him and that were baptized into him whiles hee was upon earth affirming that they were not formed into a church or churches So that having so good company we may the more quietly sit downe when wee are so like our Master and his Disciples and Followers of all the which they say they take no notice of them as formed into a Church or Churches These words may not slightly be passed over Wee saith my brother Burton take no notice of them unlesse formed into a Church or Churches c. What men ordinarily take no notice of they slight or little regard especially if they speake those words from the judgement of deliberation and not upon extemporary passion or except they be in very great haste and then they may be somewhat excused if they passe by their best friends and take no notice of them otherwise if they speake it out of seriosity that they take no notice of men it is as much as to say they slight them regard them not or despise them But I have a better opinion of my brother Burton though he thinketh very unworthily of me then that hee should slight his best friend Jesus Christ and take no notice of him and his disciples and all the beleevers in Christs time especially when hee pretends That hee onely labours to set him up upon his Throne as King and counts all his dissenting brethren from his wayes enemies of Iesus Christ and his Kingdome I say in this regard I harbour a more favourable and a more charitable opinion of my brother Burton then that upon mature deliberation and serious thoughts he should take no notice of Christ and his Apostles and Followers and of all the faithfull baptized by Iohn and Christs disciples as not formed into a church or churches and yet these are his words we saith he take no notice of them as formed into a Church or Churches I therefore conceive more venerably of him as that it was in his haste when he thus spake and printed for so hee intimateth in his learned Epistle to the Reader therefore saith hee I hasted at length as fast as before I was slow if possible to recover our brother a charitable Gentleman toward a brother though not well advised It seemes here was some tumour began to grow and made him giddy and run like a chicken without a scalpe which needs timely lancing to prevent some inflammation to a head whiles the humor flows in so fast to use some of his own Rhetorick This humour of his made my good brother idle-brained and occasioned him to make more haste then good speed certainly it either perverted his judgment or put him into a lunacy or into one of his odd dreams for otherwise he would have taken notice if not of those multitudes baptized by Iohn and Christs Disciples atleast of Christ
himselfe his good Friend his Lord and Master the King of Saints and King of Kings the mighty Potentate the sole and only head and Lawgiver and Governour of his Church I say if he had not been in very great haste indeed and giddy withall in his brain or in some distraction He would have taken notice of Christ and have thought him and his blessed Apostles and seventy Disciples and those likewise that were baptized by John with Christs Mother Brethren and Sisters worthy to be esteemed a formed Church or Churches yet he and his brethren passe by them all saying we take no notice of them as formed into a Church or churches so that it is no wonder they at this day take no notice of our Churches and that they absolutely deny them to be formed into a church or churches after the New Testament forme when they do the same to all the beleevers in Christs time Surely that Subject that should passe by his King and Soveraign and all his retinue and Courtiers and take no notice of him and them and should yeild him no reverence would be thought crased in his brain especially if he should in a slighting manner say He tooke no notice of them And all men that should hear such an expression from him would not onely judge such an one a very unbred man and an uncivill fellow but that deservedly he ought to be taught better manners And without doubt a King that should understand of such a Subject if he at any time had need of his favour would reply unto him Sir you woud take no notice of me and my servants go now to those for help that you think worthy to be taken notice of As the Lord said unto the Israelites who when they were oppressed by their cruell enemies and came then flying unto him for his assistance Go saith he to your gods that in your prosperity yee served and seek help from them And truly if the businesse be seriously considered this my brother Burtons and his associates dealing with Christ and his Disciples and Followers is not altogether unlike the dealing of the Israelites with the Lord at least in words For in plain termes they say we take no notice of them as formed into a church or churches so that Christ and his Disciples are very little beholding to those of the congregationall way Certainly the man was in very great haste when he uttered these words or exceedingly distemperd in his brain for otherwise Christ had been worthy to have been taken notice of if his followers had not Our Saviour speaks of some that at the last day shall say unto him Lord Lord have we not preached in thy Name and in thy Name have we not done wondrous works Mat. 7. ver 22 23. To whom Christ saith he will reply Depart from me I know you not And doubtlesse if my brother Burton and his complices deeply repent not of these their words and of all their evill dealing in seducing and mis-leading of the poor people and of making rents and schismes in Church and State but shall still persevere in the errour of their wayes and will not yet take notice of those multitudes baptized by John the Baptist and Christs Disciples and of Christ himselfe and his Followers nor of their brethren at this day through all the Reformed churches as formed into a Church or Churches it is to be feared that whatsoever both he and those of his party shall pretend As that they have preached in his name and done wondrous works in gathering of new churches and preaching up the congregationall way and publishing of new truths and setting up of new lights and placing Christ upon his Throne I say whatsoever they shall in this kinde pretend Except they all repent of this their wickednesse and uncharitable dealing towards all their Christian Brethren it is to be feared that Christ will say to them as he professeth he will say to the others I know ye not depart from me ye that worke iniquity and they all likewise perish For what can any man that hath not resigned his understanding think lesse of this so weighty a businesse but that Christ may say unto them at that day You have taught it in your congregations and printed in your bookes set forth by authority by all your consents and that upon deliberation that you take no notice of all those multitudes that were baptized by John and my Disciples to be formed into a Church or Churches These will he say are your owne words and that in capitall letters nay you deny them to be Christians for so J. S. speaketh page 8 and 9. in the name of all the brethren giving many reasons there to the contrary asserting that by the baptisme of John they were not made Christians much lesse cast into a church mould according to the New Testament forme and least of all that they were all Members of one Christian church at Jerusalem These are his expressions For which he hath been much applauded by all of that fraternity who usually say of him when he rideth through the streets there goeth he that beat up Doctor Bastwicks quarters approving of this good worke of his in unchristianing all those that beleeved in mee and were baptized by the Ministry of my servant John the greatest Prophet that ever was borne of woman and sent by me and my father to baptize them And of Mr. Burton they never speak but in high praises blessing God that he hath answered Bastwicks Book which he writ in defence and maintenace of my honour and for the reputation of all that beleeved in me and were baptized in my name So that all those books that were set forth by those of the congregationall way to my dishonour and the disrepute of my followers are approved of by you all and in them you say you take no notice of those multitudes that were baptized by John as formed into a church or churches Now amongst those that were baptized by John I was one and my Disciples and my Mother and my Brethren c. So that you slight us all and take no notice of us as formed into a Church or churches that is in plain words you are ashamed of us and deny us Now those that are ashamed of me and deny me before men and take no notice of me and my Disciples and of my Brethren and Sisters and Mother and of those that beleeved in me and followed me whiles I was upon the earth to be formed into a church or churches I will be ashamed of them and deny them and take no notice of them before my Father in Heaven to be formed into a church or churches For he that despiseth my Disciples and my Followers despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Yea whosoever shall despise one of these little ones that beleeve in me it were better that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were cast into
it as the insuing places sufficiently prove Rom. 16. ver 17 and 18. Now I beseech you brethren saith the Apostle marke them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoyde them 1 Cor. chap. the 5. ver 11. But now I have writ unto you saith Saint Paul not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an Idolater or a raylor or a drunkard or an extortioner with such an one no not to eat 1 Tim. chap. the 6. ver the 3. and 5. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godlinesse from such withdraw thy selfe and 2 Tim. chap. 3. ver 1 2 3 4 5. In the last dayes saith the Apostle shall perilous times come For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents without naturall affection covenant or truce-breakers false accusers or make-bates incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good trayterous heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God hauing a forme of godlinesse but denying the power thereof from such tâ—rne away for of this sort are they which creep into widdowes houses and lead captive silly women laden with sinnes c. Tit. 3. ver 10. A man that is an hereticke after the first and second admonition reject saith the Apostle 2. John ver 10. If there come any unto you saith Saint John and bring not the doctrine of Christ receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evill deeds And Gal 1. ver 8 9. If we or an Angell from Heaven saith the Apostle preach otherwise then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed as I said before so I say now againe if any man preach unto you any other Gospell then that you have received let him be occursed Out of all the which places and many more that might be produced we are taught to shun and decline the society and fellowship of all such Christians as are corrupt in their doctrine or manners and such as either preach or practise otherwise then they have precept or example for in the holy word of God especially we are to have no communion with them when they not only preach another way to Heaven then that which Christ and the holy Prophets and blessed Apostles have chalked out unto us and delivered unto the Church but have joyned themselves in a wicked and unwarrantable Covenant to persist and continue in this practice for they are no Saints But such are those of the Congregationall way whose Teachers and Members are combined together to persevere in their wicked practices and courses and therefore by expresse command from Heaven we are to have no communion with such unlesse we will be found fighters against God and partake in their punishments And these places of holy Scripture with these reasons shall suffice for the proofe of the Major proposition For the Minor that the churches and assemblies of those of the congregationall way consist of Raylers Revilers Slanderers and covenant-breakers c. it is evident and well knowne to all such as are acquainted with the practise of the Independents and are verst in their doctrine and have read their Pamphlets which consist chiefly of errors untruths and right-downe raylings as amongst others those of my brother Burton and Iohn Lilburne not to mention the Pamphlets of all the other Independents the very names of which would make a booke in all the which there is little other but rayling and dangerous novelties Some of my brother Burtons and Iohn Lilburnes expressions with an other or two more which write in the name of all the Independents I will produce that by the mouth of two or three of their witnesses the truth of their proceedings in their Raylings Errors and Lyes and bad practises may be yet more evident My brother Burton in his Vindication hath these insuing words against all the Presbyterians both Ministers and people and first against the Ministers of whom hee saith that they deny disclaime and preach against Christs kingly Government over mens consciences and churches so that such a conversion as is wrought by them comes not home to whole Christ and such with their converters doe deny Christs kingly Government or at least and best they are converted but in part and that maine thing is wanting to wit Christs kingly Office And in his Vindiciae veritatis hee accuseth mee pag. 21. for taking Christs name in vaine because in my Booke I asserted that the Ministers of the church of England set up Christ upon his Throne which for mee to affirme hee saith it is to take the name of Christ in vaine his words are these And here saith he I challenge our brother for taking Christs name in vaine when insteed of finding Christ set upon his Throne in their congregations we find there no more but an Image such as Michal had made up insteed of King David or as those that in mockery made of Christ a Pageant King stripping him and putting on him a scarlet Robe and on his head a Crowne of Thornes and in his hand a reed saluting him with Haile King of the Iewes with which title over his head they crucified him therefore saith he those passages quoted out of my Booke will stand good against their opposers These are his words against all the Ministers of the Church of England Now of all the people that are not of the congregationall way and of their new Assemblies my brother Burton in his Vindication hath these words Wee exhort them saith he to set up Christ King in their hearts Wee exhort them to become and professe to be those Saints of whom Christ is King for hee is King of Saints Revel 15. 3. but they will not beleeve us saith hee they will not depend upon Christ as the only Law-giver and King over their consciences Now what would you have us to doe in this case saith hee baptize the Infants of such parents as will not in this respect professe or confesse Christ to be their King why doe you not know saith hee that no Infants have any title to Baptisme that are not within the Covenant visibly and how are they within the Covenant visibly but by vertue of their parents faith outwardly professed and what outward profession of faith is there in their parents that refuse Christ for their onely King that are ashamed or afraid to professe to be in covenant with Christ as their King if therefore the parents professe not yea refuse thus to be in visible covenant can the children be said to be in visible covenant and so to have a right in Baptisme the externall Seale of the Covenant here is an obex a barre put These are my brother Burtons owne
shall desire all judicious Christians duly to consider both their expressions for all men know that branches either of a vine or tree as we see it in the fifteenth of S. Iohn and in the eleventh of the Romans they are all dependent upon the Vine and root as drawing life and sap from them for being severed and cut off they do forthwith dye and wither Now then if according to my brother Burtons opinion and learning and if his similie be good That there is the same relation between the severall companies in those severall private houses and the whole particular Church in Jerusalem that is between either the branches of the Vine or Tree which ever depend upon their stock or root for sap and life and for the compleating of them then I say by my brother Burtons own concession There were not onely many Congregations of beleevers in that Church but they all of them were dependent of that one particular Presbyterian Church and were all subordinate unto it and were to be regulated and governed Communi consilio Presbyterorum And the same may be concluded out of the words of Saint Hanserdo And whether this be not true or no I refer it to the judgement of all such Christians as have not either morgaged their reason and put it out of their own possession or absolutely sold the fee simple of their understanding and to all such I say as have not been prodigall in eyther of these kindes or have not forfeited all their wit and knowledge and so are to be begged for punies and fools I refer my selfe as most assured they will all say and affirme That my brother Burton with one stroke of this his Phocions hatchet hath cut in two the long thred of all the alribiadian fluent and luxuriant rhetorications to usurpe his own words of all his brethren of the Congregationall way by which they bound and tyed up their ill-shrouded Ill-dependency and by this hath given a fatall stroak to that their Hydra and indeed utterly overthrown their whole Congregationall Fabrick and the same they will conclude concerning Saint Hanserdo Yea I dare in this controversie between us make my brother Burtons and Mr Knollys their greatest friends and my greatest enemies arbiters and judges especially if they be not so wedded to their own resolves and opinions that be they never so adulterated they are yet resolved never to give them a bill of divorce except I say they be men desperately besotted and doting upon their filthy and deformed novelties were they I say much their friends and very much my enemies I dare leave the deciding of this businesse and difference between us unto their judgement and determination And I shall rest most assured and be ever confident if my brother Burtons and Hanserdoes words be true and to be credited and if they both stand to what they have said to wit That there were many companies of beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem and that in severall houses where they did communicate and that all these congregations were but so many branches of that one particular Church which brake bread from house to house or in every house as they both affirme that they will all accord judge and conclude That they both of them have overthrown the Doctrine of Independency and that of the Congregationall way and delucidately proved That the Church of Ierusalem was Dependent and Presbyterianly and Classically governed And withall by that I have now said I hope that Mr Knollys himselfe will in time be convinced of his errour and will not hereafter so boldly affirme That the brethren have not acknowledged it especially when he shall deliberately read what my brother Burton and Saint Hanserdo that faithfull brother and witnesse hath written But as I accused my brother Burton and Mr Knollys before of jugling and of indirect dealing in this so serious and weighty a matter so here I will make it good for First They make all the beleevers of Ierusalem till the receiving of the gifts of the holy Ghost which we read of Act. 2. ver 1. to amount to no more then an hundred and twenty names and so would perswade the poor ignorant people that there were no more beleevers then in Ierusalem which I affirm is a great wickednesse in them both so to betray the truth and to give the spirit of God the lye when it is manifest out of all the Evangelists that there were infinite multitudes of beleevers then in Ierusalem all inhabitants there and when in expresse words in the second of the Acts it is said That there were devout men and true worshippers from out of all the Nations under heaven at that time in that City Secondly whereas it is related in the second chapter That there were three thousand souls at the first miracle and sermon of Peter converted besides many others that the Lord added dayly to the Church ver 47. And whereas it is recorded in the fourth chap. That there were five thousand men more converted by another miracle and Sermon and whereas it is storied in the 5 chap. upon the miraculous and fearfull death of Ananias and Saphira his wife and through the other signs and wonders the Apostles wrought that beleevers were more added unto the Lord multitudes both of men womē v. 14. mark I pray the expression it is said there were multitudes now multitudes among the Romans and in all nations is ever taken for turba or agmen a great company that is for a great Assembly or Congregation and here the word of God affirmes in the plurall number That by that miracle and by those other wonders of the Apostles multitudes both of men and women were added to the Lord that is to say many more great Congregations and Assemblies of beleevers then were before were added to that Church in Ierusalem all this I say is evident out of those words And whereas it is farther related in the sixt chapter ver 7. that the word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith And whereas in divers other places of the Acts it is witnessed that there was increase upon increase of beleevers in that Church And whereas in the 21. of the Acts it is recorded that there were many ten thousand beleevers there all Inhabitants my Brother Burton and Mr Knollys in their enumeration of the Beleevers in Ierusalem at first and last make them but five thousand in all My brother Burtons words are these Growing saith he from an hundred and twenty Acts 1. 15. to three thousand more chap. 2. ver 41. and then in all five thousand chap. 4. ver 4. and all these but one Church Master Knollys his words are these Page 8 Those places in Matthew and Mark and Luke saith he tell us of very many who were baptized by John and by Christs Disciples but do not declare how many
his Throne all such as these are I say make Christ a Pagent King and salute him with haile Master as the Jews did to usurpe some of their own rhetorick and learned elequence but indeed they disthrone him For what is it to disthrone a King if writing of Warning Peeces and Pamphlets against Kings service and Kings-honour be not And what I pray is it to disthrone a King if this be not to passe all acts of Government in the peoples name and to send out all their warrants and mandates in the peoples name and to command all their officers to manage all their imploiments in the peoples name never so much as mentioning or taking notice of the King in a publique act of Government Are not all these actions and passages to any rationall creature a sufficient demonstration that the King in that Kingdome is either absolutely disthroned or is but a King to them in ludibry as Christ was to the wicked Jews I am confident that all understanding men will so conclude Now when in all the new congregations those new gathered churches the Ildependents there have such amongst them that write books and that with their approbation against Iesu-Worship that is against the Worship of Iesus who is the eternall King of his Church and when every day in all their particular churches they exercise all the acts of Government in the name of their churches and not in Christs the Kings name and that against the command of Christ and his Apostles I affirm and by the grace of God I hope ever to make it good that all this is not onely a robbing Christ our Lord and King of his due honour but a blasphemous and more then a Papall usurpation and derogating from his Kingly dignity and royalty yea it is indeed a plain disthroning of Christ their King and thrusting him out of his place and putting themselves in it which whether or no it be not the highest point of contumacy rebellion and blasphemy I leave to the judgment of others as for my self I know not what either of these things be if they be not blasphemy for when I learned Divinity I was taught that blasphemy consisted in this either to give unto God that that belonged not to him and to the excellency of his Majesty divine nature or to detract from him that that peculiarly belonged either to the essence persons or glorious attributes of the diety or to give the honour properly and peculiarly due to God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost or to any person in the glorious Trinity to any creature or malitiously or wickedly to speak evill of God his essence attributes word works c. or to do or act any thing obstinately and wilfully that is or may be derogatory to the dignity and honour of the Divine Majesty of God blessed for ever any of these things when I studied Divinity were thought blasphemy and worthy of severest punishments and those that perpetrated any of those crimes were reputed unworthy to live and proclamed blasphemers and men unsufferable and yet there are many such kind of creatures in our new gathered Churches who are guilty of all that can be called blasphemy and that rob Christ the Lord of his Worship and write against Iesu-worship blaspheme the holy Scriptures and deny the diety of Christ and the blessed Trinity c. and disthrone Christ in their new Congregations whiles they cry hail Master exercising all acts of Government amongst themselvs in the name of the Church never so much as mentioning the name of Christ the King and many more intolerable insolencies they dayly commit against the Soveraign Majesty of heaven and earth the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord and King and all these notwithstanding are counted Saints that commit these vices and malifices and great books are writ in defence of all these wicked blasphemous wretches and both their errors and their persons are countenanced and that by their great Rabbyes and Champions all which notwithstanding are in Gods dialect and in his holy Word both old and new counted abominable creatures and men unholy and displeasing unto God and the acters and abetters and countenancers of all such blasphemies and wickednesses were thought equally guilty and great and fearfull judgements were denounced against them all as it is apparently evident out of Gods holy Word and yet these great evills are counted but the infirmities of the Saints amongst our Independent masters Now then I say when the Illdefendents are guilty of all these crimes as partly acting them partly tolerating such as are both actors and abetters or conniving at them and countenancing them pretend they what they will of setting up Christ upon his Throne I hope to be ever able to make it good that they all of them disthrone Christ manifest to the world that as much as in them lies they would not have him raign over them and so make themselves guilty of that crime they lay to the Presbyterians charg whom they dayly accuse to be enemies of Jesus Christ his Kingdom and such as would not have Christ rule over them when notwithstanding the Presbyterians do and ever will by Gods divine assistance set up Christ King upon his Throne and shall ever desire that all honour and glory and praise may be given for ever and ever to the King eternall immortall invisible the only wise God the King of Saints and King of Kings and that he may solely rule for ever and that all his enemies and such as rob him of his honour and dignity may be made his footstoole in the number of which the greatest part of the Sectaries are and all such as comply with them And this shall suffice to have spoken concerning the first part of my undertaking against I. S. which was to set forth the wickednesse of the Independents and to shew how by their doctrine they rob Christ of his honour and Kingly dignity when they pretend they set him upon his Throne which is an unsufferable blasphemy in them And now I come to prove against I. S. that I undertook in the second place to make good viz. that by their doctrine they not only rob Christ of his honour but all Christs blessed Apostles Ministers and Servants of their power and leave them nothing but the name and shadow of authority which is a horrid injustice and wickednesse in the Sectaries and Independents to do which although I have briefly proved before yet I shall here again for the more full elucidation of the truth and for the better setting forth of the Ill-dependent wickednesse a little further expatiate in this business and answer to all that I. S. hath materially or with any colour to speak in behalfe of his cause where I presume he hath spake as much as he and his complices thought and conceived made for it and for which their vain and impious jangling they must one day give a dreadfull account I undertake therefore now to prove
that by this their doctrine they not onely rob Christ the King of his Church of his honour and dignity which I made good before but all the holy Apostles and Presbyters his Ministers and Servants also of their honour power and dignity which the King of his Church the Lord Jesus had invested them with and bestowed upon them all which will clearly appear if we shall again briefly consider and but take notice First what power and authority God gave unto his Apostles and to his Ministers which was the power of the Keyes Matth. 16. and Matth. 18. that is all power in his Church under him Matth. 28. and Mark 16. I say if we shall duly in the first place but consider that all the Apostles Christs speciall Ministers and Servants were by Christ himself invested with all authority and guided in their preaching and writing by his holy spirit so that whatsoever they taught or writ as his Ministers were the dictates of his spirit and the commandments of God and were for ever to be the rule of his Church to all succeeding ages to the end of the World and if we consider also what he promised to his blessed Apostles and all his Servants and Ministers that should succeed them viz. that he would be with them to the end of the World to all which Ministers likewise he had given the keys and made them stewards and overseers of his house which is his Church I say if we but duly weigh all these things we shall finde them all invested with plenary authority and by the very commission of God for ever inabled to exercise all acts of Government in the Church and that by themselves without the assistance and concurrence of the people who were never joyned with them in commission but received commands from heaven to obey those that God had made guides over them and made Rulers in his Church I say if we maturely consider all these immunities and priviledges and the power that the Apostles and Ministers of Christ were indued with and that from Christ the King of his church And on the other side shall but consider what learned I. S. in the name of all the Independents his brethren declareth concerning not onely all the ordinary Ministers of the church but what he delivereth concerning the blessed Apostles we shall clearly perceive that herobbs them all of that honour dignity and power which God hath given them and invests the people with it which is a double injustice First in taking from the Apostles and Ministers that which was their due and which God had bestowed upon them And secondly in giving unto the people that which pertained not to them and to which they had no right nor could lay no claime and with which they were not to meddle But take notice of his Doctrine what hee holds and beleeves concerning the ordinary Ministers page 12. In ordination saith hee election belongeth unto the brethren Jmposition of hands is proper to the Officers where there are Officers as in a Church constituted and compleate otherwise if the Church be not compleate according to his learning the people may doe it Thus I. S. speaks there and in the 11 page hee grants it is the Presbyters part to rule But as soone as hee hath spake the word as if hee repented of what he had said hee comes in with a but saying but wee distinguish betweene Authority and Iurisdiction on the one hand and Power and Jnterest on the other this latter belongs unto the people the other is proper unto the Officers which yet they exercise in the name of the Church The Officers saith hee ordaine they excommunicate they leade and direct in all government and disputes they have the executive power but the people have a power and interest too that is in his dialect as hee declared himselfe in the words going before the Officers must exercise all their authority and jurisdiction in the name of the Church and must doe as the people shall direct them for their power is onely the executive power they are onely the executioners of the church they can neither elect any officers nor excommunicate any without they have the leave and good liking from the people for the radicall and originall power lyes in the people and church which if it be not utterly to overthrow the authority of the Ministers and to make them nothing but cyphers in the Church and most sacrilegiously to rob them of that power Christ the King of his Church hath given them and to arrogate it and assume it unto themselves and whether this be not the greatest wickednesse and injustice in the Independents that can be committed against men I leave it to the consideration and judgement of all conscientious and learned men and whether such temerarious and bold impudent theives and Church-robbers ought not with greatest severity and justice to be proceeded against for this their malefice and unsufferable wickednesse who doe not onely take from the Ministers of Iesus Christ whom they ought ever to have in great reverence for their workes sake 1 Thess 5. that honour power and authority Christ hath given them but labour likewise now with all their might to take from them also that that God hath put into the hearts of men his servants to give them viz. their tythes and lively-hood and all that by which they should support themselves and their poore Families which is as intolerable an in justice and ingratitude both towards God and men as can by mortall creatures bee committed which wickednesse of the Independents and Sectaries if the Magistrates shall suffer to goe unpunished I most confidently beleeve that the Lord and King of his Church the Lord of heaven and earth will take the quarrell of his righteousservants into his hand and will poure downe his plagues both on them and all their complices and abettors And now I have made it evident how they rob all the ordinary Ministers and Presbyters of the Gospel of their due honour and power I will make it likewise appeare that the Apostles also are by their doctrine in the same predicament and that they deale no better with them whom they have robbed also and spoyled of their honour power and authority and count of them all no otherwise then of ordinary and common Ministers and but as of a company of Executioners for wee must take what I. S. speakes in this busines to be uttered in the name of all the Independents for hee is but their mouth and his booke came forth by the authority and approbation of them all and was esteemed of as a goodly peece and he highly honoured amongst them for it His words are these page 12. The Apostles and Elders saith he as a Committee first prepared the dispute as not counting it so safe perhaps to admit the weake to the same whiles it was intricate and then reported it and had their assistance and concurrence and the Letters of resolution
and most set him upon his Throne that own his Law and that onely for the rule of their faith and obedience for Christ himselfe hath said it Iohn 10. My Sheep hear my voiyce they will not listen unto the voyce of a stranger Christs voyce onely the King of his Church is to be heard and they onely that obey it advance him for their King and set him up on his Throne which when the Ministers and Beleevers in the Church of England doe and the Independents do not they more advance Christ for their King than they for the Independents to Christs Law and Commission adde their owne traditions and inventions and enjoyne all that will be admitted as Members into their congregations besides their beleeving and being baptized to walke with them some time for approbation and to make a publike confession of their faith before the Church and to bring in the evidences of the truth of their conversion and enter into a private and solemne Covenant and not to be admitted as members without the consent of the Church all which Christ the King of his church never commanded and those that will not submit themselves to these their traditions they will not permit or suffer to enter into their church as joyned members which they call the onely true Churches of Christ and count of all others that differ from them as enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and as men without the covenant and if this be to set up Christ upon his Throne then the Pharisees set up Christ upon his Throne who preferred their own traditions before the commandements of God yea the Pope himselfe and the Prelates set up Christ upon his Throne who preferred their owne traditions and idolatries before the Lawes of Christ Now if all the traditions of the Papists were justly abhorred and cast out of the church as things deâ—ogatory to the Kingly and Propheticall dignity of Iesus Christ and as things repugnant to his Royaltie I see no reason but all other popery under whatsoever name or title it be intruded upon the people should be eliminated and cast out of the church and whether this be not a new kind of Popery to bring in new wayes and new borne truths and new lights and impose them upon the people as the commands of God and to excommunicate and unchurch all churches in the world but their owne assemblies I referre my selfe to the judgement of any intelligible christian Saint Paul writing to the Galatians blames those false Teachers amongst them that would have joyned but the ceremoniall Law with the Gospel and cals it a perverting of the Gospel of Christ and wishes that such Teachers were cut off Gal. 5. v. 12. and blames likewise those Galatians that received their doctrine saying Oh foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth and yet they onely urged the ceremoniall Law which God by Moses had appointed to remaine till the fulnesse of time but was now abrogated they were not their owne traditions they were no new borne lights no new wayes no new truths Now if Paul was so displeased or God rather with the Galatians both teachers and hearers the one for bringing in or joyning the ceremoniall Law to the Gospel and the other for admitting of them how highly would God have beene displeased with them if they had set up their owne inventions for the Lawes of God and had brought in new borne truths and intruded them upon the people as necessary to salvation and for the setting up of Christ upon his Throne Without doubt the Apostle would most sharpely have reproved them and have given speciall caveats against them as hee did in his Epistle to the Colossians the second chapter of the which is chiefly spent in condemning all humane traditions yea in his first chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians verse 8 9. Hee chargeth them that though the Apostles themselves or an Angel from Heaven should preach unto them otherwise than that they had received they should count him accursed and as J said before saith the Apostle so say I now againe if any man preach unto you otherwise than that you have received let him be accursed But none of the Apostles ever taught the Church that christians and beleevers though baptized should not bee admitted as members into the Church unlesse they had walked some time in church-fellowship with them and had first made a publicke confession of their faith and had brought in the evidences of the truth of their conversion and entred into a solemne private covenant and were admitted by the consent of the church none of all this did ever the Apostles teach or the christians of those times embrace or beleeve and therefore such doctrines as these ought not to be received In the first of the Corinthians in many places he reproves those that made schismes and brought in heresies and sects into the Church and in the fourth chapter and sixth verse under his owne and Apollo's name hee sets an example before them that they should containe themselves within the limits and bounds of that doctrine and manner of preaching prescribed and set downe in the Word of God and used by the Spirit of God and commands them that they should learne in the Apostles not to presume or to be wise above that which is written and enjoynes all christians to reject all wayes of teaching that have not Gods Word for their warrant Now in all Gods Word there is nothing of all this written that after men beleeve and are baptized they should not yet be admitted into the Church without they had walked some time with them for their approbation and without they had made a publike confession of their faith before the congregation and brought in the evidences of their true conversion and had entred into a private covenant and were admitted by the consent of the church none of all this is written in Gods Word and therefore wee ought not to imbrace it And in the 2 of the Corinths c. 11 v. 4. the Apostle signifieth unto the Corinthians that no man can teach the Gospel the things of of heaven more exactly than he and the other Apostles have taught them nor set before them a more perfect Doctrine of Jesus Christ than that that they have taught them for the converting of any unto Christ and for the setting up of Christ as King upon his Throne and for the making of them Members of the Church and for the building of them up in their most holy faith and commands the Corinthians to take heed of all false Teachers whatsoever piety and godlinesse they make shew of calling them deceitfull workers and such as transforme themselves into the Apostles of Christ And no marvaile saith he for Sat an himselfe can transforme himselfe into an Angel of light and therefore it is no wonder his Ministers transforme themselves as though they were the Ministers of righteousnesse Now if men will
consider what those false teachers were wee shall find them to be no other but such as under shew of holinesse and piety taught their owne inventions and grolleries and abused the simplicity of the people for their owne advantage and brought them into bondage and devoured them verse 20. as the Phatisees did the Widowes houses under pretence of their long prayers which our Saviour Christ sharpely reproves them for and denounces a woe against them for their so doing after the same manner did these false Teachers amongst the Corinthians who made their owne traditions joyned Members with the Gospel as if they had had a more fine neat eleganter way of gathering of churches and admitting of Members than Paul and the other Apostles But the Apostle bids the Corinthians take heed of all such how glorious soever they seeme to appeare and tels them they cannot teach the way to Heaven and happinesse better than hee and the other Apostles have done and yet neither Saint Paul or any of the Apostles in preaching of the Gospel taught them that they should admit of none to bee joyned Members of the Church although they beleeved and were baptized except they walked sometime in fellowship amongst them that they might have approbation and tryall of their conversation first and after make a publick confession of their faith before the church and did give in evidences of the truth of their conversion to the congregation and entred into a solemne private covenant and were admitted Members by consent of the church Not a word of all this in the Gospel that Saint Paul and the other Apostles taught and therefore all that teach their new wayes their new-borne truths and set up their new lights are wise above that which is written and teach otherwise than Christ and his Apostles have taught or the christians of the Primitive times had received and therefore ought by the Apostles command Gal. 1. verse 8. 9. to be accursed Saint Iohn also in his second Epistle to the Elect Lady verse 9 10. saith Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God hee that continueth in the doctrine of Christ hee hath both the Father and the Sonne If there come any unto you that bringeth not the doctrine of Christ receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed for hee that biddeth him God speed is a partaker of his evill deeds Now the doctrine that the Independent Ministers teach for the gathering of churches and admitting of members and joyning and jumbling of them together was never taught by Christ nor any of his Apostles for they themselves confesse it is a new way and a new borne truth and a new light and therefore not the doctrine of Christ and therefore such novelties are not to be entertained nor imbraced nor the teachers of them if we will be obedient to Apostolicall precepts I desire therefore those of the Independent brethren to produce any one testimony or any one president out of the Word of God where these things following are taught or have beene practised First that although men and women beleeve and are baptized they are not yet to be admitted as joyned Members till they have walked sometime in fellowship with the church for approbation of their conversation this is the first thing I desire of the brethren either a precept or an example for this in Gods Word The second where it is commanded that those that beleeve and are baptized should not be admitted as Members of the church whithout a publike confession of their faith before the church The third where it is enjoyned that to their Faith and Baptisme they should bring in the evidences of the truth of their conversion before they can be capable of their membership The fourth where it is commanded that they should enter into a solemn and private covenant before they can be admitted to church-fellowship The fifth where it is imposed upon those that beleeve and are baptized that they should not be received into the church without the consent of the congregation Sixthly where it is commanded that the Ministers of the Gospell shall run about from their own places and charges into the sheepfolds of their fellow-shepherds and separate and pick out all their best sheep and bring them into their own folds and debar them from all church-fellowship and communicating with the other beleevers in Gods holy Ordinances and Sacraments or where ever it is commanded that the Preachers of the Gospel shall gather beleeving Christians from among beleeving Christians and separate them from the other sheep into Independent congregations and shall proclame all that are not thus moulded up after this new modell to be people out of covenant and to have no right to the seals of the new covenant neither they nor their children though beleevers All these things I desire the brethren by evident places of the holy Scripture to make good and to confirme or by any president or example to declare to have been practised either by Christ or his blessed Apostles for I look for a law from Christ the King of his church who was as faithfull in the house of God as Moses was and hath not left the ordering and disposing of his church to the will of men but hath commanded the church to hear his voice who is the great Pastor and Bishop of our souls and the teacher of his church his Word therefore I look for for a warrant for the ratifying of all these doctrines and I have good ground and reason to demand of them a warrant and authority out of Gods Word for what they both teach and practice for we are taught by Christ the onely Prophet of his church that they that serve God after the precepts of men offer him a vain worship and it stands with all good reason that if all humane traditions though of never so ancient standing and of never so long antiquity were all cast out of the church because they had no footing or ground in Gods Word that all novelties or new inventions of men which notwithstanding are imposed upon the people as the ways of God should be abrogated and nullified and cast out of the church It is recorded in holy writ Ioshua 9. that the Gibeonites deceived Ioshua and the people of Israel under pretence that they came from a farre country and for proofe of that they produced their mouldy bread and their tattered botles and their old shooes and they taking what they said pro confesse and not consulting with the mouth of the Lord as it is fully related in that chapter were deceived by them and entred into a League with their enemies And thus the Papists and Prelates for these many hundred years have deluded the world under pretence of their mouldy antiquities and tattered raggs of traditions and in all this time they prevailed to mislead the poore people because they consulted not with the mouth of God nor examined things
by the Word of God and the holy Scripture as the noble Bereans did Now whatsoever was written was written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come and therefore as it was the errour of the Israelites that they received things barely upon report without consulting with the mouth of God and as it was the honour and praise of those noble Bereans that they searched the Scriptures to see whether the preaching of Paul were according to the holy Scripture so if we shall receive these new borne truths these new lights these new ways without consulting with the living Oracles we shall offend as the Israelites did in beleeving the Gibeonites upon their words and shall degenerate and be unlike to those the renowned Bereans who would not receive Paul's doctrine though an Apostle without searching the Scriptures whether things were so or no as he taught them and surely now much more ought we to try all things by the Word in these erroneous times whosoever they be that preach them unto us and if they be not evidently proved unto us out of the Scriptures we may not admit of them for it will be not only a sin but for our immortall shame to be deluded with novelties much more then it was our ancestors disgrace to be deceived by pretended antiquities And therefore it is the duty of every Christian seriously to consider with themselves that these are matters of God and concerne no lesse then our eternall welfare and in thâ—â— regard we may not call mens ways Gods ways but we are to seek for the old ways Jer. 6 we are to examine Christs and his holy Apostles ways in gathering of Churches and making of Members and it we find no footstep in all Gods Word of these new ways we ought to relinquish them and turn again into the pathes that God hath commanded us to walk in wherein we shall be sure to find rest for our souls and comfort in life and death and it will be no disgrace to any to be undeceived for they are deceived and that greatly and dangerously that think or beleeve that any men mortall can shew or teach a better way to Heaven or set down a better way of converting souls and of gathering of Churches and making of Members and of setting up Christ as King upon his Throne than that which Christ himself and his blessed Apostles have taught and set down to all posterity and from the which rule we ought not to swerve though an Angel from Heaven should teach us otherwise Galatians 1. ver 8. 9. When therefore the Ministers of the Church of England follow Christs and his Apostles way and method in their teaching and for the converting of men and hear only the voyce of Christ their King and the Christian Beleevers through the Kingdome under their Ministeries do all faithfully cleave unto the written Word and square both their faith and obedience according to that rule there is no just cause why the Independents should proclame them all enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and such as oppose his royalty and preach up themselves and their congregations as the onely people of God and his Saints and account all those that dissent from them as opposers of Christs government telling the people in their Sermons that they come over from beyond the seas thinking that they would have set up Christ upon his Throne and that they would have embraced him for their King and would have established his government and have gone on in a church-way and have set up the ways of God but they find it otherwiise that they deny disclaime and preach against Christs Kingly government and persecute the wayes of the Lord Christ so that they can find more favour from moderate Papists and common Protestants than from them by which their dealing say the Brethren they have so taken off the edge of Gods peoples affection from them that the Saints and servants of God cannot pray for them proclaiming themselves the Saints and people of God as if all the other beleevers through the Kingdome dissenting from them in their opinions were no Saints nor people of God Nay they affirme it in their Pulpits and in every Pamphlet that both Ministers and people are enemies of Iesus Christ and his Kingdome and all such as will not joyne with them in their new wayes And one of them not long since affirmed unto me that the church of England was a Strumpet and an arrant Whore and that shee being once a Whore could never be presented unto Christ as a chaste Spouse which was an expression not onely uncivill and unbeseeming a christian but untrue also for grant shee had beene so shee is now come out of Babylon and has entred into a publicke covenant against her and we reade of Judah and Samaria howsoever they had defiled themselves and played the Harlots yet upon their unfained repentance and true faith in Iesus Christ and renewing their covenant publickly of new obedience were presented unto Christ as a chaste Spouse so that what is impossible with man is possible with God But this is the generall opinion of the brethren and howsoever they will not all of them speake it out in plaine words as some of them doe yet they preach and practise a separation from all our assemblies and congregations as from a people not to bee communicated with and declare that by their deeds which they will not as yet publish in their writings nor in expresse words as hee did And one of the Independent Ministers not long since denouncing Gods judgements against all those that would not assent unto their new wayes nor light their candles at their new lights nor embrace their new-borne truths told them that by their standing out against the wayes of God for so they suppose these are and by their unkind usage of the Saints and persecuting of them they would at last drive from amongst them the praying people meaning themselves as if no other prayed but they onely and then they might looke that the judgements of God would speedily come downe upon them as it hapned to the Lutherans in Maydenburge in Germany who thrust out all the Calvinists out of their Towne a praying people and immediatly after the enemy came upon them with fire and sword and destroyed them all With these and such like expressions are their preachments stuffed and to say the truth of many of their Sermons they are like Taylors cushions consisting of a hundred severall shreds of various colours all independent making a fine shew but comely no where but in a Taylors shop and surely such kind of expressions as these are may beseeme their Pulpits but no grave and learned honest ministers for they have no just cause to complaine of persecution amongst us it is a calumny neither deale they christianly with us to accuse us that wee oppose the wayes of God for we doe not so we onely contend for the faith
once delivered to the Saints and against the wayes of Men and such as were brought into the Church by the cunning craftinesse of some and thrust upon the people as the Lawes and Ordinances and wayes of God when they are but their owne inventions and tend to no edification but to the trouble and disturbance of Church and State and such as already have brought a confusion upon us all and if the Lord do not speedily from Heaven send his helping hand we can expect nothing but desolation and all from these divisions that their new wayes have brought in and therefore it is high time for all good christians and such as love the peace of Sion more exactly to examine all these new wayes and to put them upon the proofe of them But that the Brethren should complaine of persecution amongst us and of evill usage it is against all reason and humanity and sheweth little gratitude in them to all the christians both thorow citie and countrey for if they remember when they came over though they had deserted the cause when they had most need of them they were more honoured then any of those famous and learned Ministers that had undergone the labour and heat of the day and they were preferred before them all and setled in the prime Lectures of the Kingdome and had more honourable maintenance then was usually given to any Lecturers before them and therefore they deale not brotherly in any of all their proceedings nor humanely so to asperse them as they ordinarily doe both publickly and privately I am confident there is not such a president in the world of humanity as that shewed here to them it is well knowne and their books practices declare it that they preach new ways new-born truths as they call them and set up new lights Now where was it ever heard of either in the Christian or Pagan world that it was ever permitted unto any Ministers or Preachers to have all the Pulpits in any nation to preach a diverse doctrine to that which is set up by authority and such as tends to make a faction and division amongst the people I doe most assuredly beleeve that there cannot the like president be produced Amongst the Heathen the Iewish Religion in many countries was tolerated but they were confined to their owne Synagogues they might not come in the Heathens Pulpits to preach up the Iewish worship amongst them or to set up another service contrary to the custome of the Nation It was an abomination to the Egyptians that the Iewes should sacrifice in their land they would not have suffered them then to have preached up their Religion in all their Pulpits In Turkey at this day Christians in many places have the liberty of their consciences amongst themselves and have their places for worship to assemble in but they are not so much as permitted to come into their Temples much lesse to preach up their Religion in their Pulpits In France the Protestants are permitted to preach but it is only in such places as are appointed for them they may not preach in Popish Pulpits thaâ— is not permitted unto them In the Low-Countries there is liberty of conscience which they so much plead for of which afterwards and yet the divers sects that are there are not suffered to preach out of those places assigned unto them or to preach publikely in any of their Pulpits against the Religion established by authority neither are they permitted to unchristian them or unchurch them and publikely and in print to proclame them enemies of Christs government and if any should dare attempt such a thing or go about to disgrace their Ministers and Church-government or in the least intrench upon the Magistrates authority they would be made slie like lightning before thunder And yet the bâ—ethren â—mong us have the liberty of all the Pulpits thâ—oâ—h the kingdome without controule and vent all their new wayes and their new borne truths and setup their new lights without any moâ—estation and have all respectfull usage and the onely esteeme of the peoâ—le and are more followed than all our learned godly and painfull orthodox Ministers and yet they cry out of persecution and unchurch and unchristian us all and proclame both Ministers and people all enemies of christ and his Kingdome and count of us little better than of Infidels and keep our children from Baptism and debarre us from Communion with them and exercise a kinde of absolute Lordship over all their brethren so as Diotrephes never did the like nor the Pope moâ—e and yet they cry out of persecution against the aints and lay odious aspeâ—â—ions upon their brethren and fellow Presbyters perswading the people that the Presbyterian way will be as bad or worse then thaâ— of the Prelates But if we as duly examine the manner of the Independent government and compare it with the Presbyterian as we have done the manner of their preaching with theirs we shall finde there is little reason why they should so vilipend the Presbyterian and magnifie their own and why they should make it so hatefull and odious to the people laying aside therefore all pâ—ejudice let us examine things with deliberation and then it will be soon evident that the Presbyterian government is not as bad or worse than that of the Prelates nor so lordly as that of the Independent government which is also Presbyterian and they as well Presbyters as their brethren It is well known that the Prelates assumed and arrogated unto themselves to be the onely Pastors of their Diocesses and ruled all the Ministers and people under them by their own authority and spoiled all both Ministers and people and the severall congregations under them of their liberty and made them all both Ministers and people their vassals and slaves and from whoseâ— ourts there was no appeal Whereas the Presbyterian manner of government is not as that of Lords and Masters oâ—er Subjects and Servants but social as between equalls between brethren friends and collegues who all judg are alâ— judged according to the Word of God where no congregation is above another congregation no Minister is above another Minister but only for order-sake where every Presbyter is left to enjoy the whole office of a Presbyter and each congregation to the freedome of a congregation and what belongs unto them and they able to performe it and the classes to corroborate and strengthen them And if any man be wronged by the Presbytery he may have the benefit of his Appeal and be cleared by more righteous Judges a course ever followed by the Churches and agreeable to the light of nature so that I say if men would without a prejudicate opinion weigh and consider all things and compare the government of the Prelates with that of the Presbyterian they would speedily be undeceived And again if they would compare the Presbyterian Government Dependent with the Presbyterian Government Independent they would have more honourable
possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need and that they continued daily with one accord in the Temple and that they brake bread from house to house and did eate their meat with Gladnesse and singlenesse of heart Thus the Holy Ghost describeth those three thousand converts unto us as not onely skilfull in the theory of church-fellowship but also exceedingly well verst in the practicall part of it whether therefore in this particular also in that J. S. saith it is suspicious that the three thousand converted at once were not so soone instructed in Church fellowship as converted when the Scripture reporteth the contrary it be not to give the Spirit of God the lye I leave it to the judgement of all the godly and impartiall Râ—aders who I am confident will give their verdict against I. S. For certainly there is no act of church fellowship that was omitted by them and although I love not such as will groundlessly be suspicious as I. S. is here and those of his Fraternity yet I am confident the Independnnts will never be induced to imitate the example of those three thousand and I have very good reason to make mee continue in this beliefe for what I already know in their daily practises and therefore they are rather to be suspected that they are not well instructed in church fellowship they make notwithstanding so great a noys about therefore whether this be not a great temerity in these men thus upon all occasions not onely to censure their christian brethren that live harmelessely by them but to suspect all those that were converted by the Baptist and the Apostles themselves before Christs death yea and to suspect even those three thousand also that were converted by Peter after Christs ascension and to adjudge both Pastors and people to bee all ignorant what church government and church fellowship was I leave it likewise to the judgement of the prudent advised Reader And yet this is the daily practise of al the Ill dependents thus to speake of them all as if they had not learned their lesson as well as the congregationall Predicants and their disciples and knew not how to cast them into a church mold after the New Testament forme and to instruct them concerning church fellowship when not withstanding it is recorded of those Ministers that they revealed the whole counsell of God and whatsoever was needfull to be knowne or practised by all christians to the end of the world Acts the 20. and therefore could bee ignorant of nothing that tended to edification and the building up of beleevers in their most holy faith But yet notwithstanding I. S. and his brethren are still full of suspicions and yet never satisfied in any thing that can be produced out of the holy Scripture to confute their erroneous novelties for although I had sufficiently confirmed my first proposition and proved by both Scripture and reasons that all those that were baptized by John and Christs Disciples were good Christians and true Believers and that there were many Congregations of Beleevers in the Church at Jerusalem yet I. S. page 11. sayes He is not satisfied by any thing that hath been alledged by me that the Church of Ierusalem consisted of many Congregations and Assemblies and that upon the scruples before instanced And Mr Knollys in his 11. page affirmeth the same So that it is certain these men are resolved never to be satisfied though things be never so evidently proved unto them And it is no wonder that there is at this day such a brood of creatures in the world for there has ever been a generation of such men in all ages that will never be satisfied Christ the great Doctor of his Church with all his blessed Apostles and faithfull Ministers could never satisfie the Jewes but they ever resisted his spirit Acts 7. Neither can the holy Scriptures now satisfie all gainsayers but they will still be doubting amongst the which Sir I. S. and Saint Hanserdo with many of their fraternity may well be numbred But for all such Christians as whom the god of this world hath not blinded their eyes that they should not see the glorious light of the Gospel of truth I am confident they will be satisfied that I have sufficiently proved that there were many Congregations and several Assemblies of beleevers in the Church of Ierusalem from that satisfaction they will learn to abhor the errors of all the sectaries and straglers of our times and to decline shun their company and fellowship And for all such as they are that will receive the good seed of the word into good and honest hearts I desire ever to satisfie them and not those that are resolved to be ever scepticall and ever learning yet never attaining or coming to knowledge or at least withhold the truth from others in unrighteousnesse And for all such I shall not much study to give them satisfaction as being a company of unreasonable men from whom we ought daily to pray to be delivered for all such the Lord hath given over to strong delusions that they should beleeve a lye because they received not the love of the truth that they may be saved 2 Thess 2. Notwithstanding I say I have very little hope ever to satisfie any such and therefore may be thought to go about an impossible worke if I should indeavour it yet that all men may sâ—e my fairer dealing with I. S. because he saith that he hath not been satisfied with any thing alledged by me that the Church of Jerusalem consisted of many Congregations and Assemblies I will therefore adde a few reasons more or at least call some of the former briefly to his minde which I am most assured if there were no other in the whole book would perswade any rationall man that there were many Assemblies and Congregations of beleevers in the Church of Jerusalem which if they cannot yet satisfie him I am confident they will satisfie and content others And to the reasons I shall produce I will also adde some testimonies of those of his own party for his farther satisfaction or conviction at least All such as have read I. S. his learned works know that he hath not only cut of all those that were baptized by Iohn and Christs Disciples before Christs passion and ascension from the Church of Ierusalem but razed them out of the Kalender and Roule of the Saints absolutely denying them so much as the very name of Christians all this I say those that have read his scruples very well know They know likewise that he granteth there were three thousand converted by the first Miracle and Sermon of Saint Peter though he uncharitably saith That it is suspicious that they were not so soon instructed in Church fellowship as converted So that here by his own confession we have a very ample Congregation consisting of three thousand and six score persons And in the same
chapter it is related that there were devout men true beleevers out of every Nation under Heaven all Inhabitants and Dwellers there and that the Lord added dayly to those such as should be saved and these were without doubt great numbers they being indefinitely set down And in the fourth chapter we finde a new addition of five thousand men more converted and withall I may tell I. S. that it is suspicious to use his own language that the three thousand first converts were all men likewise for so many learned men conceive of those converts but for the five thousand it is out of doubt for the holy Word of God saith in terminis that they were all men And by the law of charity we are bound to beleeve that all those converts were as zealous for the publishing and spreading abroad of the truth of this their Christian Faith and Doctrine as any other people ever were and therefore that they did make known the wonderfull things of God and what he had done for them to all their acquaintance and neighbours especially we are obliged to beleeve that they did teach and instruct their wives children and servants and their whole families in the nurtrature and fear of the Lord and in the knowledge of the Gospell And it is also to be believed that the women and all sorts of people were then as docible and intelligible and as ready to give attendance unto wholesome and sound words and to imbrace any truth of the Gospell as our giddy-headed people and women are now ready to imbrace and follow novelties especially we may with all reason be induced to beleeve this that they would then be the sooner perswaded to receive the doctrine of the Gospell in regard it came ratified and confirmed unto them with such mighty signes and wonders for the Iewes had often before desired signs and miracles saying unto Christ What signe she west thou that we may beleeve in thee intimating that if he could shew unto them any sign that then they would beleeve in him and so they said unto him when he was upon the crosse If thou wouldest have us beleeve in thee said they come down from the crosse and save thy selfe and then thou shalt perswade us that thou art indeed the sonne of God Now then when the Lord by his Apostles and Disciples did dayly gratifie them with such signes and wonders as that the very high Priests and Rulers themselves were forced to confesse upon the cure of the criple that no body could deny but it was a wonderfull miracle I say therefore when the preaching of the Gospell was concomitated upon all occasions with such mighty wonders it cannot be doubâ—ed but that the ordinary people both men and women were easily perswaded to beleeve it when the Magistrates themselves were astonished to see those wonders and therefore yeelded the more credit unto their husbunds and masters instructions yea we read of many women Luke 23. ver 27 28. that mourned for Christ when they carryed him to crucifying And if we look also into the story of holy writ we shall finde that there were many women that followed him in his life time those honourable ones which ministred dayly unto him Now then if we beleeve which we ought in charity to do that there were but as many beleeving women converted as men as we may for ought any thing can be said to the contrary then we have already sixteen thousand beleevers in the Church at Ierusalem according to the new stile of the Church Neither did the Church stand then at a stay For in the fifth chapter upon the dreadfull death of Ananias and Saphira and by reason of some other miracles Beleevers saith the text were more added to the Lord multitudes both of men and women Now this word multitude as I shewed before in all languages it ever signifies some great company or some great assembly or concourse of people whether it be taken in a good sense or a bad therefore saith the holy Scripture follow not a multitude to do evil So that here many new great congregations of beleevers were added to the Church besides all those before specified and in the 6. chapter v. 7. it is recorded that the word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith In the which words there is these four things observable The first that the word of God increased that is brought forth many children which were begotten to the Faith by the preaching of it Secondly in expresse words it is said that the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Ierusalem the place it selfe where being specified that is to say they were increased and that in no small companies in that very Church and City of Jerusalem Thirdly it is said that they multiplyed greatly both the words having a great emphasis in them the number of Disciples multiplyed saith the Scripture and that greatly to shew the miraculous and wonderful increase of them as if the Scripture should have said that the number could not be set down Fourthly it is said also for the setting forth of the efficacy of the Gospell that a great company of the Priests were obedient to the faith not a few but a great company also of the Priests those inveterate enemies of Jesus Christ every one of these words hath weight in it and being but a little pondered will create belief from any ordinary understanding man that there were by this means and after their conversion infinites of people dayly added unto the Church of Ierusalem not onely by the powerfull preaching and miracles of the Apostles but by the helpe and preaching of these Priests also of whom we ought to harbour this opinion that now they were as diligent considering the great love of Christ towards themselves to convert and bring men unto him as ever they were before to disswade the people from following him this I conceive the law of charity binds all men to beleeve that they being now converted would study to convert others For we see that as soon as Andrew had found Christ John 1. he brought his brother Simon to him And after Christ had called Philip unto him he finding Nathaniel bringeth him also unto Christ And if we observe it it is the nature of true grace that it is ever operative and fruitfull and will loose no opportunity of doing good and gaining friends unto it So that all those that are really and truly converted they will ever study and indeavour to convert others yea they are bound unto it according to that of Christ who when he related unto Peter that the devill soughts to winnow him as wheat and told him farther that he had prayed for him that his faith might not faile added withall this lesson unto Simon Peter saying When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren This duty lay not only upon Simon Peter but it
a pattern of imitation to bind all Churches to the end of the world which both Master Knollys and my brother Burton learnedly inferre but as far as it makes for the advantage of the Presbyterian opinion and to shew that the Presbyters have the sole authority of admitting Members into Church fellowship from the example of Philip Ananias Paul in baptizing the Goaler and Lydia and Peters baptizing of Cornelius and admitting of him and those that were with him Members into Church communion by their sole authority without those conditions they propound and without the consent of the people then they cry out that they are extraordinary examples or meer extravagants Now whether this be not with the Papists to make the Word of God a nose of wax or a leaden rule that they may either work and mould it or bend it into what fashion they please I leave it to the judgement of the learned and experienced Christian But by the way also I desire the Reader to take notice what my brother Burton granteth viz. that the receiving of those Gentiles and the admitting of them by Peter into the Church by Baptism was to make them one Church with the beleeving Jews these are his own words From which it is sufficiently apparent that be men baptized and admitted into the Church either after an ordinary way or after an extraordinary it is sufficient to incorporate them into Church-fellowship both with the beleeving Jew and Gentile and to make them Members of Christs Church which is as much as I contend for So that it is most certain as those that are Members of any particular Church are by vertue of that Members also of the whole Catholique visible Church so in like manner those that are made Members of the Catholique visible Church may also by vertue of that be Members of any particular church for the Church of Christ is his Kingdome and it is but one Flock and one Sheepfold and there is but one Shepherd of it and King that governs it and therefore in whatsoever part of this Kingdome of Jesus Christ they are admitted Members and after what manner soever they be admitted whether in an ordinary or an extraordinary way they are Members of the whole Church and may communicate in all ordinances with any particular Church whatsoever as being subjects of Christs Kingdome and injoying all the immunities and priviledges that any of Christs subjects can challenge And all this I learn from my brother Burtons doctrine who so long as he holdeth out any truth unto me I will listen unto as he hath done in this point but no farther Again as all those viz. the Eunuch Paul Cornelius Lydia and the Goaler were admitted to be Members of Christs Church by the sole authority of the Ministers Evangelists and Apostles and without any of those conditions urged by the brethren so are all other Christians by the sole authority of the Presbyters to be admitted into church-fellowship and that upon Christs own conditions viz. Faith Repentance and Baptism Having upon the occasion of my brother Burtons and Hanserdoes words spake thus much I will now come to my Answer to them both And first whereas they peremptorily affirme from the interrogation of Peter to those that came along with him where he saith Can any man forbid water that these men should not be baptized c. that it doth imply that the brethren have power also of admitting Members into the church and ought to have their voices as in the receiving of them in so in the casting of them out It is a meer non sequitur and a very groundlesse illation and inference for the interrogation plainly manifests the contrary as will appear from other presidents and reason as for example in the eighth of the Romans ver 33. 34. Saint Paul saith Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Who is he that condemneth who shall separate us from the love of Christ All the which interrogations do not imply as the Apostle himselfe answereth that any creature can lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect or that any creature can condemn or that any creature can separate the Elect from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus Another instance to omit many we have of the same nature with that of Peter Acts 8. 35. Where the Eunuch said unto Philip See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized I demand of any whether or no this interrogation of his doth not imply as much as if he had said no creature now can hinder me from Baptism seeing that we have water that element that is appointed for it and I do beleeve And so much may be gathered from Philips Answer to him who saith nothing could hinder his baptism and admission into the Church if he did beleeve in Christ with all his heart whereupon the Eunuch answered I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he was forthwith baptized So that by this it is sufficiently manifest that that inference they would gather from Peters words cannot groundedly be made viz. that it is in the power of the people to hinder any as is yet more evident from Peters own words and reasons when he was questioned about this businesse in the 11. of the Acts the story whereof is there set down at large with Peters Answer to all their Objections Who told them ver 12. that the spirit bad him go with those that came from Cornelius nothing doubting c. saying in the conclusion of his discourse and that with an irresistible reason ver 17. For as much then as God gave them the like gifts as he did unto us who beleeved in the Lord Jesus Christ what was I that I could withstand God All the which discourse of Peter and this his reason do sufficiently prove that his interrogation saying Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptiâ—ed Doth not imply as my Brother Burton and Master Knollys would have it that it was in the power of those that were with Peter or any other to have hindred their baptism and admission into the church of Christ seeing they beleeved For if Peter himselfe should have refused it he had been disobedient to God himselfe and had doubted which he was forbidden and withall had resisted in as much as had been in him the spirit of God For so saith Saint Peter What was I that I could withstand God From which I gather and that by very good reason that all those of the congregationall way that will not admit all such as beleeve and are baptized into their new gathered churches without they walk some time with them and without the making of a publike confession of their faith and the bringing in of their evidences of their conversion and entring into a particular explicite covenant and without the consent of the whole church are all fighters against God and withstanders of his spirit And if they do
not speedily repent for all their wickednesse and relinquish their ungodly unchristian and unbrotherly practises the Lord from heaven will shew his wrathfull displeasure upon them all for he will vindicate his honour and the honour and priviledges of his people Shall not he avenge his own Elect and that speedily Luke 17. And this shall suffice for answer to that impious cavill of my Brother Burton and Hanserdo Now for that instance that Master Knollys bringeth it quite overthroweth their doctrine for it is point banke against it and their practise For although it be not denyed but that all true beleevers may at any time make their complaint to the Church that is to say to those that are in authority in the Church to wit the Presbyters as the extreamest refuge upon just offence yet it must ever be granted that it lyeth in the brest of those that are Iudges to determine of the busines according to the allegations and probations so that those that complaine may not be both Plaintifs and Iudges this I say is so known a maxime that none can deny it Besides we must take notice that we never read inall the New Testament that the disciples ever so much as questioned any that desired to be admitted into church fellow ship or refused communion to any but Paul the reason was as the Scripture relateth because they knew that hee had beene a mortall enemy unto them and had beene a great Persecutor and were then ignorant of his conversion and therefore it is said they were affraid of him and upon the like occasion I beleeve any of the brethren in any church may doe the same and they may feare such an one and suspect him and complaine of him and that is all they can doe but power they have none to keepe him out of Church-fellowship if upon the Ministers and Presbyters examining of the busines they find that the man is a beleever and converted from his sinfull courses for by their sole authority without their good liking or the consent of the people they may admit him into church fellowship and if the people should refuse to receive him upon his assaying to joyne himselfe with them hee may appeale from them to the Presbyters and Ministers who are Gods Stewards and who have the power of the Keyes to open the doore of the church to whom they conceive are fit and for this his so doing and for the Presbyters accepting of his appeale they have the Apostles and Presbyters of Ierusalem for an example for when the Disciples feared Paul and seemed to be unwilling to admit him into communion with them Hee forth with appeals to the Apostles who upon his appeale admitted him into church fellowship according to their commission which was that whosoever beleeved and was baptized hee should be received into the church and that without the consent of the people or any of those conditions the Independents now impose upon their Members as by this very example and instance of Mr. Knollys doth abundantly appeare which makes wholly against their doctrine and practise and utterly overthrowes their tenent for most certaine it is that the power of admitting of Members and casting out of offenders lies in those mens hands only and solely that have the power of the Keyes and are by God himselfe made Stewards and Over-seers and Guids of his Church his house which when they peculiarly belong unto the Presbyters and not to the people they onely and not the people ought to have the managing of the government of the church and this hath beene sufficiently proved by the receiving in of Members both in an ordinary way and in an extraordinary manner by all the examples I have produced and by this very instance of Saint Paul alleaged by Master Knollys himselfe who when hee was admitted into Church-fellowship not onely without the consent of the brethren but against their good liking it is abundantly manifest that the people have nothing to doe with the government of the Church but that it lyeth wholly in the Presbyters hands And all this I say is clearly proved out of the good Word of God within the wals of the which it is ever safe to abide and in the action of obedience to the which all men may promise to themselves perpetuall security and this shall suffice to have answered to all that Mr. Knollys and my Brother Burton had to say to all my Arguments And by all that I have now spoke I hope it doth sufficiently appeare that there is neither precept nor example through all the Holy Scripture to warrant the practise of these men in the gathering of their new Churches and if a man will but looke a little more upon the practice of Christs seventy disciples of all the Apostles in the gathering of Churches they shall not find one footstep through the whole Booke of God of the gathering Churches after the manner of their congregating of their assemblies as for Christs Disciples they were all sent to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel they went not to gather in converted men from amongst converted men for they were to bring the lost sheepe into Christs fold and wee are taught there is but one Shepheard and one sheep-fold wee never read that after they were once folded and brought into the Church that any true Pastors came into the fold and flocks of their fellow-shepheards and picked out all the best and the fattest sheep and the most wholsome and molded them into an Independent Fold by themselves as separate and distinct from the others and with the which they would have no fellowship and communion in the Ordinances this was never heard of before these dayes Paul was so farre from getting away of others sheepe that hee tooke it for a dishonour to him to build upon anothers foundation Rom. 15. and preached Christ in those places where they had never heard of him before and planted the Church of Corinth himselfe and left Apollo to water it and committed all the flocks that he had gathered as that of Ephesus to the charge and care of faithfull Pastors and commands both the flocks and the Pastors and in them all Shepheards and Folds to keepe unity and love one with another Ephes 4. verse 1 2 3 4. c. and forbids them to make separations and divisions and schismes betweene flock and flock and this method hee used wheresoever hee came yea as soone as hee was converted and entred upon his ministry as wee may see in the first of the Galathians hee went into Arabia and preached there among the poore Infidels hee got not other mens sheepe from them neither did hee ever make any separation of sheepe from sheepe yea even in those flocks and churches as that of Corinth Galatia and Colosse where there were many that walked disorderly and against the rules prescribed and taught false doctrine and heresies and made schismes in the Church and were very