of Presbyter Which he proceedeth to shew that he thinks was done that there might be a store of Bishops prepared for all Countries Pag. 25. he thus far differs from Doctor Hammond but not from the truth as to hold that Plures in eadem Ecclesia velut Ephâ—sina Episcopi fuere There were many Bishops in one Church as in that of Ephesus Which he taketh for a particular Church and not a Province and saith that the simple manners of the Church would then bear this till Ambition had depraved men and Charity and Humility and the imitation of Christ waxed cold then came that which Hierome speaketh of that For a remedy of Schism one was chosen out of the company of Presbyters and set above the rest So Pag. 26. In eadem capita passim ambo conferebantur And p. 27. Hoc si ita est quid aliud restat nisi ut penes eosdem Nam plures una in Ecclesia fuisse tales iisdem ex locis argumentum ducitur tam nomen illud duplex quam conveniens nomini potestas authoritas utraque fuisse dicatur that is If this be so what else remaineth but that both the double name and the agreeable double power and authority be said to have been in the same persons for that there were many of them in one Church may be proved from the same places And Pag. 95 96 97 98 99. he sheweth out of Justin Martyr first That all things in the sacred Assemblies and Sacraments were done by the Bishop alone and that he was the Curator and Moderator both of the Sacraments to be administred and of teaching the people and of the Churches money The Bishop consecrated the Sacraments and by the Deacons administred them to the people He prayeth and preacheth He had the care of the Church-moneys and kept them with it he relieved the Orphans Widows Sick Prisoners Travellers c. And from Tertullian that the Christians received not the Sacrament from the hands of any but the Bishops Were there not then as many Bishops as Church-Assemblies And that they chiefly did baptize And p. 112. he citeth the Can. 7. 8. Concil Gangrensis which anathematizeth those that without the Bishops consent durst give or receive the Church Oblations c. And p. 141. out of Prosper de vita contempl c. 20. that a Bishop must excel in knowledge that he may instruct those that live under him And p. 144 145 147. he citeth Can. 3. Concil Arelat 3. an 813. That every Bishop in his own Parish do perfectly and studiously teach the Presbyters and all the people and not neglect to instruct them And Concil Turonens 3. Can. 4. Let every Bishop diligently study by sacred preaching to inform the flock committed to him what they must do and what they must avoid And Concil Rhemens 2. Can. 14. That Bishops preach the Word of God to all And Concil Cabilonens 3. Can. 1. That Bishops be diligent in reading and search the mysteries of Gods Word that they may shine by the brightness of Doctrine in the Church and cease not to satiate the souls subject to them by nutriment of Gods Words And p. 147. That in the formula by which the Kings of France committed Episcopacy to any it is said You shall study by daily Sermons to edifie or polish the people committed to you according to Canonical Institution And ibid. Can. 19. Concil Constant in Trullo The Church Presidents must every day but especially the Lords day teach all the Clergy and people the things that belong to piety gathering from the Scriptures the sentences and judgments of verity And p. 149. he citeth Concil Lateran sub Innoc. 3. c. 10. allowing Bishops to take helpers in preaching when business or sickness hindred them And p. 150 152 153. he mentioneth it as somewhat rare that at Alexandria Presbyters preached and at Antioch Chrysostom and at Hippo Augustine while Flavianus and Valerius were Bishops I do not cite all this now as to prove the sense of Antiquity but the sense of Petavius who plainly intimateth that the Churches were no larger of a long time than that a Bishop might preach to all the Clergy and People every Lords day and that in Scripture times all or near all the Presbyters were Bishops which is it that we contend for and consequently you may judge what the Churches were And though it still look much farther than Scripture times I will shew you what Petavius thought of the Magnitude of City-Churches even near four hundred years after Christ in Epiphanius's days in his Animadvers on Epiphan ad Haer. 69. p. 276. Singularem tunc temporis Alexandriae morem hunc fuisse vel saltem paucis in Ecclesiis usurpatum c. i. e. That this was a singular custom of Alexandria or at least used in few Churches you may hence conjecture because he so expresly mentioneth this custom as peculiar to the Alexandrian Church to wit that in the same City there should be many Titles to each of which should be assigned a proper Presbyter who should there perform the Church Offices But yet the same was formerly elsewhere instituted that is at Rome where the Presbyters did every one rule his own people being distributed by Titles that is setled Sub-Assemblies To them the Bishops on the Lords days sent Leaven or hallowed Bread in token of Communion See what a shift they were at first put to lest the several Assemblies should seem several Churches For it is not to be imagined that this was done to signifie that common Christian Communion which they had with all other Christian Churches but that nearest Communion which belongeth to those that are embodied under one Pastor or the same Pastor in Common that is one particular Church Even as if these divers Altars or Tables were at a distance in the same Church and the Bishop would signifie the Union of the several Companies in the same Society by sending some of the Bread which he had blessed to them all But Petavius proceedeth Non dubito majoribus duntaxat in urbibus c. I doubt not but that it was in the Greater Cities only that there were more than one Titles within the bounds or Liberties when within the same Walls they would not be contained and meet together and so had Presbyters put on the several Churches But in the smaller and less frequented Cities there was one only Church into which they all did come together Of which sort were the Cities of Cyprus And therefore Epiphanius noteth the custom of Alexandria as a thing strange to his Country-men and unusual Hence was the original of Parishes which word was transferred from the Country Churches to the City Churches And adding the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their Bishops or Curators setled in Rome by Servius Tullius he saith Quibus Christianorum in agris Paroeciae quam simillimae fuerunt Nam illic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To which the Parishes of the
As the heavenly Angels are the Guardians of the Churches so these Stars are those Angels in whose Person I speak to the Churches themselves that are signified by the Candlesticks Or As the Angels are the Guardians of the Churches so by that title I signifie the whole Ministry that guide them and by the Candlesticks the Churches and I write to the whole For as every Message begins with To the Angel so it endeth with To the Churches Obj. The Bishop was to deliver it to the Churches Ans This is precarious 1. The Apostle wrote it that both Pastors and People might immediately read it and did not intrust it as an unwritten tradition to one to be delivered to the rest 2. All the Pastors were to deliver or teach it to the People and not one Bishop only This therefore is no cogent Argument 10. As for the Disputers for Episcopacy at the Isle of Wight with King Charles they manage Saravia's Argument fetcht from the Continuance of the Ordinary part of the Apostles Office as he did before them and many others so well that for my part I cannot confute them but remain in doubt and therefore have nothing to say against them But that 's nothing to our Case whether every particular Organized Church should have a Bishop or the full Pastoral Office in it 11. As to Joh. Forbes his Irenic he maintaineth but such an Episcopacy as we offered to his Majesty in Bishop Usher's Reduction He pleadeth for such a Bishop as is the Moderator of a Presbytery p. 242 243. and as must be subject to censure himself p. 145. and that shall do nothing of weight without the Presbyteries consent p. 145. and as is still bound to the Work of a Presbyters Office p. 146. And that an Orthodox Church that hath no Bishop or Moderator hath but a certain Oeconomical defect but is still a true Church and hath the power that other Churches have that have Bishops p. 158. And that jure divino Presbyters have the Power of Ordaining as well as of Preaching and Baptizing though they must use it under the Bishops inspection in those places that have Bishops page 164. And he is more full for the Power of Presbyters Ordaining and the validity of it than any man that I now remember 12. The two Books of the Bohemian Government of the Waldensian Churches Written by Lascitius and Commenius contain that very Form of Government which I think the soundest of any that I have yet seen 13. The Learned and Judicious Grotius before he turned to Cassander's and Erasmus's temperament in Religion in his book de Imper. sum pot circa sacra in almost all things speaketh the same which I approve and plead for though he be for some Episcopacy 1. As to the Pastoral power it self in whomsoever he affirmeth it to be but Nuntiative Declarative Suasory and per consensum and not any Imperium Like the power of a Physitian a Counsellor and an Embassadour Chap. 4. But then by Imperium he meaneth that which is coactive by the Sword And he acknowledgeth the power of the Ministry by the Word upon Consenters to be of Divine Institution so that they sin against God who do reject it And if the Pastors of the Church did meddle with no other power we should the sooner be agreed For my part I take the very power of the Keys to be no other than a power of applying God's Word to the Consciences of the Penitent and Impenitent and the Church and a power of judging who is fit or unfit for Church-communion according to God's Word which judgment we can no otherwise execute but by the same Word and by forbearing or exercising our own Ministerial actions to the person As a Physitian may refuse to Medicate the unruly In chap. 6. He speaketh justly of the Princes power as in the former And so he doth chap. 7. of the use and power of Synods or Councils Chap. 8. He well vindicateth the Magistrate and denyeth to the Church or Bishops the Legislative power circa sacra and sheweth that Canons are not proper Laws Chap. 9. He sheweth the Jurisdiction properly so called belongeth to the Magistrate and not to the Pastors as such Though of old they might be also Magistrates He sheweth that the use of the Keys is called Jurisdiction but by the same figure by which Preaching is called Legislation which is true as to the Declaration who is bound or loose in foro caeli but Pastors more properly judge who is to be taken into Church-communion or excluded The prescript of Penance he saith is no Jurisdiction but as the Councel of a Physitian or Lawyer or Philosopher That the denying of the Sacraments is not properly Jurisdiction he thus excellently explaineth p. 229. As he that Baptizeth or as the old custome was puts the Eucharist into ones mouth or hand doth exercise an act of Ministry and not of Jurisdiction so also he that abstaineth from the same acts For the reason of the visible signs and of the audible is the same By what right therefore a Pastor denounceth by-words to one that is manifestly flagitious that he is an utter alien to the Grace of God by the same right also he doth not Baptize him because it is the sign of remission of sin or if he be Baptized giveth him not the Eucharist as being the sign of Communion with Christ For the sign is not to be given to him that the thing signified doth not agree to nor are pearls to be given to swine But as the Deacon was wont to cry in the Church Holy things are for the Holy Yea it were not only against Truth but against charity to make him partaksr of the Lords Supper who discerneth not the Lords Body but eateth and drinketh judgment to himself In these things while the Pastor doth only suspend his own act and doth not exercise any Dominion over the acts of others it is apparent that this belongeth to the vse of Liberty and not to the exercise of Jurisdiction Such like is the case of a Physician refusing to give an Hydropick water when he desireth it or in a grave person who resuseth to salute a profligate fellow and in those that avoid the company of the Leprous Only it must be remembred that this avoidance is by a Society governed therein by an Officer of Divine Institution Next he proceeds to the Churches duty and sheweth 1. That as Cyprian saith The Laity that is obedient to God's commands ought to separate themselves from a sinful Pastor or Prelate that is that is grosly bad 2. That they ought to avoid familiarity with scandalous Christians As a Schollar may forsake a bad Teacher and as an honest Man may leave the friendship of the flagitious As for the names of Deposition and Excommunication he saith That we must interpret the name by the thing and not the thing by the name And that the Church deposeth a Pastor when
and according to that word to declare them Impenitency openly Characterizing them to be persons unmeet for Christian Communion and such as till they repent are under the wrath of God and must expect his dreadful judgment and to command the Church in Christs name to withdraw from the Impenitent person and to have no Communion with him And all this is but the application of Gods word to his Conscience and the Churches If his seared Conscience deride it all we can do no more If he will forcibly intrude into the Communion of the Church against their wills it is like ones breaking into my house the Magistrate must restrain him as a violater of the peace as well as of the Churches liberties If the Magistrate will not the Church most remove from him If they cannot they must pronounce him morally absent as a forcible intruder and none of their Communion If the Church will not obey the Pastors sentence he hath no instrument but the same word to bring them to it Now all this being past denial let us come more particularly to enquire in all this what part there is essential to a Bishops office as such 1. Is it the making of Church Lawes or Canons About what 1. Either these Canons are but the Commanding of that which Gods Law made a duty before or of somewhat newly made a duty by themselves 2. Either they are Lawes or Commands to the Laity only or to the Presbyters or to the particular Bishops or all 1. If they do but urge the performing of some duty already made such by God in Scripture or Nature who ever doubted but Presbyters may do that even to teach and charge the people from God to obey his Laws And note that God daily maketh new duties by the Law of nature even providentially altering the Nature of things And so he maketh this or that to become Decent and Orderly and so a duty And maketh it my duty to speak this or that word to this or that person or to do this or that particular good work Even by varying occasions accidents and circumstances of things 2. But if these Canons make new duties which God hath not made 1. If it be to the Laity the Presbyters may do the like for they are Guides also of the Laity unless they are forbidden by a superior power If it be only to the Presbyters that will not reach our present case as shall be further shewed afterward 3. If it be to the Bishops themselves they cannot be Laws but meer agreements because one Bishop is not the proper Governour of another nor many of one nor the present in Council of the absent as such And here by the way it is worthy to be noted how much the Diocesanes contradict themselves in this claim of Government They say that they are of a distinct order and office from meer Presbyters because they have power to Govern them And yet they make 1. A Council of Bishops to have as high a governing power over particular Bishops of the same order 2. And an Arch-Bishop to be the Governour of Bishops 3. And a Primate or Patriarch to be the Governour of Arch-Bishops and yet not to be of a distinct Order or office but only of a distinct degree in the accidentals of the same order If Government prove a distinct Order or Office in one it will do so in the other And why may not the Magistrate make all the same Canons who ruleth them all But let us consider what these Canons may be 1. The Bishops make Canons how often Synods or Councils shall be held and when and where and when they shall be dissolved But 1. May not the King do the same And can that be proper to Bishops which the King may do Yea which all Emperours have formerly used 2. And is not this Cannon made to rule Bishops themselves who is it but Bishops or so much as them that you think should be called unto Councils And are the Bishops in Council of another order than themselves out of Council Need we an office of Bishops to rule Bishops of the same office 2. Canons are made about Temples Buildings Tithes Glebes Bells Pulpits Seats Tables Cups Fonts and other utensils And 1. who doubteth but the Magistrate may do all this yea that it belongeth to him to regulate such things as these 2. And who knoweth not that even Bishops are under these Canons also who are of the same order 3. And that Presbyters even in England are members of these Synods and so make Canons to rule the Bishops Ergo they are of a superior order to Bishops by your reasoning 3. Canons are made for the regulating of Ministers attire in the Church and out and for officiating garments as surplices c. And of these I say the same as of the former The King may do the same as Bishops may do and Bishops themselves are bound by them and Presbyters make them which three things prove that it is not the proper work of Bishops as a distinct order from meer Presbyters 4. Canons are made for worship Geâ—ures in what gesture to pray to receive the Sacrament to use the Creed c. And the same three answers serve to this also as to the case in hand 5. Canons are made for Holidaies publick Fasts and Thanksgivings and Lecture daies And the same three considerations fall in here 6. Canons are made for the ordering officers fees and such like in Bishops Courts And here all the same three things fall in 1. The King may do it 2. It is Bishops that are ruled 3. Presbyters also make the Canons therefore it is not jure divino the proper work of a distinct Order 7. Canons are made for the choice of what Translation of the Bible shall be used in all the Churches and what version or meetre of the singing Psalmes And of this also the three former things hold true 8. Canons are made to impose a Liturgie in what words Ministers shall speak to God and to the people And 1. This also the King may do and doth 2. And it obligeth Bishops 3. And Presbyters make it 9. Canons are made against Schismaticks new Discipline and constitutions non-subscribers unlicensed Preachers for the book of Articles of ordination for Catechizing Preaching Marrying Burying Christing and such like In all which each of the said three answers hold 10. Canons are made to keep Parents from open covenanting to God for their Children in Baptism that they shall not be urged to be present that God-fathers do that office and not they As also that none be baptized without the transient Image of a Cross and such like whether this be well or ill done the three former answers all hold in this 11. All the Canons that are for the restraint of sin as neglect of Church worship prophaning of it and other abuses have the same censure 12. The circumstantiating Canons how oft Bishops shall confirm and whom they shall
Many a time I have tried it and could never satisfie my Conscience without more frequent long and earnest exhortation and prayer with it than ever I knew Chancelor or Bishop use to fourty delinquents set together The present Pastor hath opportunity to do this But the Chancelor or Diocesane hath not I never heard of any such means used in their Courts that was of such a nature as true Pastoral exhortations are to melt a sinners heart into repentance But of this before 2. Another case of perticular judgment is what sinner in his sicknness before death is fit for Absolution Here they cannot make the Bishop Judge who is many a mile off nor can they tell how to deny it to be without the office of the Parish Pastor and therefore they allow him to be the Absolver and yet lest he be the Judge they bind him to Absolve all that require it and do but say they repent which must needs be a pernicious deceiving course to impenitent souls when it is known that nothing is more ordinary with many in sickness and in health than to say I repent of some one gross disgraceful sin and live in others worse without any profession of repentance and die so at last And must I absolve him from that sin which he repenteth of without the rest or from all because he repenteth of one yea commonly men have a Confession which is like a Profession of their sin and a Repentance which declareth it self to be Impenitence it self some stoutly some stupidly saying I comfess I am a swearer and a drunkard a whoremonger but you Precisians are as bad and worse for you are but hypocrites I repent of my sins daily and aske God mercy though I commit them daily and I doubt not of forgiveness for all are sinners and if one of these say also on his sick bed he repenteth without any signs of serious contrition or change of heart we must Absolve him But yet though we are not free in this it is no Diocesanes proper work and therefore requireth not their office 3. Another Judgment of individuals necessary is who is to be baptized at least of persons at age in Infidell Countries or such as ours where many thousand Anapabtists Children are unbaptized till they come to age The question is not what shall be the Law and Rule whether Scripture or Canon but who shall judge whether the person be capable according to the rule Doubtless every one hath not faith The profession that entitleth to baptisme must be 1. Of the whole essence of our part of the Covenant faith consent and future obedience 2. With tolerable understanding of what they say 3. With seeming seriousness 4. With seeming Voluntariness and fixed resolution Now how can a Diocesan judge of this that is not within many miles of the place nor never saw the person in his life It hath ever been confessed to be part of the Baptizers work though under the Government of Magistrates and in the Church the present Bishop is not denyed a negative vote or a guiding judgment in the affair 4. The very fame throughout is to be said of judging what individual persons in a Parish are grown up to a capacity of the Lords Supper whither it be done in confirmation or at any other time certainly they must renew their baptismal Covenant and moreover understand the sense of the Sacrament c. But shall the Diocesan that never seeth one of an hundred of his Diocese judge of every one of these I will stay no longer on such instances I think we need no more III. If the cases of Testaments Administrations Licenses to marry judgement of cases of divorce dispensations and such like be pretended as the proper works of Bishops I think I need not stay to confute them while it is known that so much as is not every Pastors work in it belongeth to the Magisirate and is done among us by his Commission and that usually by Laymen IV. We have therefore the Government of the Ministers themselves to speak of next which consisteth 1. In ordination 2. Instituting and inducting 3. Licensing 4. Suspending ejecting silencing and degrading 1. And ordination being that great and notable work which anciently was taken to be all that was proper to the Bishop by many of the Fathers as well as Hierome this above all must be well considered And 1. Let us consider of the Reasons for it and 2. Of the different cases 1. The reasons given for appropriating ordination to Diocesans or Bishops are these 1. Because no man can give that which he hath not 2. Because it is an act of superiority 3. Because none but Bishops ever did it in Scripture times or since without the Churches condemnation 1. The first of these reasons Dr. Hammond Praemon Dissert is earnest in urging To which I say 1. It is granted that no man giveth that which be hath not But Presbyters have the office of Presbyters therefore by your supposition they may give it Obj. But saith he Presbyters had never a power given by the ordainers to ordain Ans I deny it and prove the contrary whatever the ordainers mean 1. Those who in their ordination had an Office Power or Keys of Christs making conteining the power of ordination delivered to them Ministerially had the power of ordination delivered to them Ministerially But all true Pastors or Presbyters ordained in England had an Office Power or Kâ—yâ—s of Christs making conteining the power of ordination delivered to them Ministerially Ergo they had the power of ordination so delivered Nothing needs proof but the Minor And 1. That Christ and not the Bishops made the true Pastoral Office or Keyes is past doubt among sober Christians 2. And that it was the ordainers meaning to deliver them no new humane office but that which Christ by his Spirit and Apostles at least made instituted and described I will stand to the ordainers own profession 3. And if so I think they will confess that if they did mistake and think that the office conteined not what it conteined indeed their mistake will not disable the ordained Minister no more than the Errour of a Recorder or Steward who thinketh when he giveth the Mayor his Oath that his office hath lesser power than it hath But Gods making and not mans meaning must determine of the power 4. Therefore all the question is whether God put the power of ordination into the Pastoral office Of which now I will say but this that Dr. Hammond confesseth that there was no Pastor ordained in Scripture times that had not the power of ordination And I shall after prove that no other should be introduced since by men 2. And farther the Church of England appointeth Ministers to impose hands with the Diocesan in ordination Therefore they take not ordination but only a Superiority in ordination to be proper to their office As Bishop Downame and other of them also openly hold and profess
effect in order to concord or order they do it by the Magistrates power and not by the Keys without the Magistrate they would be so contemned a sort of men that instead of silencing us by their keyes one of us now silenced could do more to silence them were that according to our Judgment I mean it were easier to perswade ten people from Hearing one of them specially of late than for them to perswade one from hearing us in many places And what the Magistrate doth he can do by others if he please as well as now he doth by them 3. The Churches that have no Bishops have incomparably lesse Heresie Schism Wickedness and more concord then we have here The Church of Scotland is an eminent instance which hath known but little by experience what Schism or Heresies are And so are the Protestant Churches of France of Geneva of Helvetia and other places 4. Were but the true Episcopacy forementioned restored we should yet less know any shew of need for our Diocesane Magistrate Ministers and they would suffice to do what on earth may be expected Obj. Were not Bishops the meanes of the Churches concord in all ages Ans True Bishops such as afore described did their parts but when such as our Diocesans sprang up the Church was presently broken into pieces and by odious contentions and divisions became a sandal and scorne to unbelievers To read but the Acts of Counsels and the History of the Church and there find the horrid contentions of Prelates against each others the parties which they made their running up and down the world to Princes and Rulers and Synods to bear down one another it will do as much to grieve and amaze the Soul of a Sober Christan almost as an History in the world that he can peruse Obj But they silenced Hereticks and deposed them and so kept Doctrine sound and safe Ans Before they had the Sword of the Magistrate to second them they silenced none For how could they do it They only judged them to be cast out of their Communion and deposed which they could no way execute but by avoiding them and perswading the people to disown them and avoid them For they neither did nor could hinder them from gathering Churches and Preaching to their followers And there the rejected ones did reject their Rejecters and excommunicate their excommunicaters and in the eyes of their followers were the better men and only Orthodox So that their silencing was but changeing their Congregations And so numerous were the sects that followed such Teachers that they sometimes seemed more than the Orthodox Epiphanius found enow in his time to fill a large Volume And the Donatists alone were so numerous in Africa as to pretend to be the Catholick Church and by their numbers and insolency deterred Augustine into a change of his opinion and to call for that help from the Princes Sword which before he had denyed Never had the Church in any place so many Sects and Heresies as since the times that Prelacy grew up and in those Countries and where it wasmost exercised Andindeed the ignorance and pride of Prelates was not the least cause For some of them and no small number became the Authors of Heresies themselves such as Paulus Samosatenus the Apâ—linarii the great Patriarcks Dioscorus Nestorious Macedonius and alas how great a number more and others of them did by their dominering insolency rise up with so much pride and wrath against those that humoured them not especially if indeed they erred as that they forced some into Schisms and by silenceing the dissenters did but drive themâ—â—â—t up for themselves in separated assemblies And they so disaffected the zealous people as drove them away from the Orthodox Churches to the Sects and Hereticks as the English Prelates do at this day so that multitudes of the most strict and temperate Christians followed the Novations the Donatists and much worser sects And when the Prelates grew up to a secular terrour and twisted with the Civil power and were backed by the Sword 1. They made the more sober and mortified Christians the more dislike them as may appear by what Eusebius Socrates and others write of them and the Characters that are given of Cyril and Theophilus Alexander and such others And by Martins separation from Ithacius and Idacius and their Synods and by the increase of the Priscilianists by their pride and violence mentioned by Sulp. Severus and others 2. And it was not by the Keys indeed but by the Sword which backt them that they did all that they did be it good or evil in silencings and in keeping up their order 3. And they did but teach the Hereticks to strengthen themselves by the same means So that the Priscilianists once got countenance from Gratians Courtiers against the Bishops And Ambrose was persecuted or endangered by Valentinian as Athanasius at last was by Constantine himself and Chrysostome deposed and many others by such means Yea till at last the Bishops found that evil is more commonly befriended by corrupted nature than good and that Goodness is usually lowest where wealth and honours make men highest and that few Princes were the best of men and therefore that if one befriended the truth many were like to be against it and till the Arrians by the help of Emperours and Vandal and Gothish Kings had almost turned all the Church into Arrians and had got the General Councels on their sides and had cruelly persecuted the Orthodox Bishops and taught them what it was to trust to the Sword for the clensing and concord of the Churches And when the controversie of Images came up one Emperour was for them and another against them By which means and by the contending of the Eastern and Western Patriarcks and Prelates who should be the greatest the Churches have been torne to pieces and so continue lamentably to this day as in the History was before declared And it was the Prelatical Tyranny of the Romanists that since raised so many parties against them and then had no way to Cuâ—b them but by prosâ—câ—ting them by the Sword and flames as in the case of the Waldenses Albigenses and Protestants appeareth And as the Murders of many hundred thousands in Piedmont France Germany Ireland England c Besides their Inquisitions shew Thus Solitudinem fecerunt unitatem pacem â—â—carâ—nt When they have hanged burnt and slain the people and Priests they have quieted and silenced them and when they have made a solitude and depopulation by killing those that disserâ—d from them they have brought all to concord and been all of a mind And let none be offended that I mention the Papists in describing Prelacy For I do it not to raise an Odium on them but I refer it to the consideration of sober men 1. Whether as Herbarists give us the picture and description of herbes not in their spring but in their full grown stalk blossom and fruits
that the Presbyters office which was instituted by God and used by the ancient Churches contained an obligation and Authority not only to Teach and Worship but also the rest of the Power of the Keys to Rule the Churches committed to their care not by the sword or force but by a pastoral perswasive power judging who is to be taken in and put out and what persons are fit objects for the respective exercises of their own Ministerial acts which was the thing I was engaged to make good CHAP. XV. Whether this Government belonging to the office of Presbyters be in foro Ecclesiae exteriore or only in foro Conscientiae interiore THe last shift that some Prelatists have is to distinguish between the forum internum Conscientiae poenitentiale and the forum externum Ecclesiasticum and to tell us that indeed Presbyters have the Power of the Keys in private or in the first sense but not in Publick or in the second Answ 1. Note that the question is not whether they have the sole power or the chief power or with what limitations it is fit for them to exercise it nor what appeals there should be from them But whether the power of the Keys be part of their office 2. That the question is not of the power of Governing the Church by the sword which belongeth to the King and is Extrinsick to the Pastoral office and to the being of the Church As protecting the Church punishing Church-offenders corporally c. For this is proper to the Magistrate and belongeth neither to Bishops nor Presbyters as such We claim no part with the Prelates in any such secular Government as their Courts use except when they come to Excommunication and Absolution At least no coercive power at all 3. All the question is of the power of the Keys of Admission Conduct and Exclusion of judging who shall have Sacraments and Church-Communion with our assemblies that is Who shall be pronounced fit or unfit for it by our selves And that this belongeth to Presbyters in foro publico Ecclesiae I prove 1. Because they are Publick officers or Pastors over that Church and therefore their power of the Keys is a publick Church power else they had none of the Keys as Pastors of that Church at all For the Keys are to Let in and put out They are the Church Keys and he that hath power only to speak secretly to a single person doth not thereby take in to the Church or put any out nor Guide them publickly A man that is a Minister at least may convince satisfie comfort any mans conscience in secret of what Church soever he be even as he is a member of the Universal Church But he that is a publick Officer and Governour of the Church may publickly Govern the Church But a Presbyter is a publick officer and Governour Ergo. 2. The rest of his office may be publickly performed Coram Ecclesia and not in secret only He may Preach to the Church Pray with the Church Praise God with them Give them the Sacrament Therefore by parity of Reason he may publickly exercise discipline unless any by-accident pro tempore forbid it 3. Else he must be made a meer Instrument of another and not a rational free Agent and Minister of Christ Yea perhaps more like to an Asse who may carry Bread and Wine to the Church or like a Parrot that may say what he is bid than a man who hath a discerning judgment what he is to do I must publickly baptize and publickly preach and pray and publickly give the Lords Body and Bloud And if I must be no Judge my self to whom I must do this then 1. Either I may and must do it to any one without offending God to whom the Bishop bids me do it And if so I may Excommunicate the faithful and curse Gods children and absolve the most notoriously wicked if the Bishop bid me And how come they to have more power than King Balak had over Balaam or than a Christian Emperour had over Chrysostom He that saith to the wicked Thou art righteous Nations shall curse him people shall abhor him Prov. 24. 24. Wo to them that call evil good and good evil But what if the Bishop bid them If I may not preach lies or heresies if the Bishop bid me then I may not lyingly curse the faithful nor bless the wicked if he bid me If I may not forbear preaching the Gospel meerly for the will of man when God calleth me to it much less may I speak slanders yea and lie in the name of God when men bid me The French Priest did wiselier than so that being bid from the Pope to Curse and Excommunicate the Emperour said I know not who it is that is in the right and who is in the wrong but I do Excommunicate him that is in the wrong whoever he be 2. Or else it will follow that I am bound to sin and damn my soul thereby whenever the Bishop will command me which is a contradiction 3. Or else it will follow that I am a beast that am not to judge or know what I do and therefore my acts are neither sin nor duty 4. If he have not the Keys to use publickly in foro Ecclesiae he hath no power of Excommunication and Restitution at all For to Excommunicater is publickly to notifie to the Church that this person is none of them nor to be communicated with and to charge them to avoid his company 5. The Bishops themselves put the Presbyters to proclaim or read the Excommunication and if this be any Ministerial or Pastoral act certainly it is in foro Ecclesiae 6. Most of the Acts before named as their concessions as to be in the Convocation c. are acts in foro publico 7. The full proofs before brought from Antiquity of Presbyters sitting in Councils Judging Excommunicating c. are of publick not private exercise of the Keys 8. They are the same Keys or Office power which Christ hath committed to the Pastors even the Guidance of his Church to feed his lambs And ubi Lex non distinguit non est distinguendum Where doth Christ or Scripture say You shall use the Keys of Church-power privately but not in the Church or publickly 9. All this striving against Power in the Ministers of Christ is but striving against their duty work and the ends and benefits of it He that hath no Power for publick discipline hath no obligation to use it and so he is to neglect it And this is it that the Devil would have to keep a thousand or many hundred Pastors in a Diocese from doing the publick work of Discipline And as if he could confine Preaching to Diocesans only And I verily believe they are better of the two at Preaching than at Discipline he knoweth that it is but few souls of many thousands that would be taught Even so when he can confine Church discipline to the Diocesanes