not savouring the things of God but of men for dissuading his Master from going up to Ierusalem The means as well as the intention must be good if we would have our actions pleasing to God We grant God may and doth often bring good out of evil but that is no thanks to those that doe it Evil can naturally produce nothing but evil It must be no lese than the infinite Wisdom and Almighty power of God that must over-rule it into good As good Ends cannot justifie Evil means so neither will evil beginnings ever bring forth good conclusions unless God by a miracle of mercy create light out of darkness order out of confusion and peace out of our passions And as he hath not allowed us to doe any evil for the obtaining or procuring of the greatest good so he needs it not Wilt thou speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him q. d. his cause his glory needs not any â—in of ours to promote it He will never thank any man for seeking his honour by sinfull means he can get himself glory and save mens souls otherwise He will say as Achish Have I need of mad-men that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad-man in my presence The way God hath taught us to gorifie him by in seeking or procuring the salvation of our own or the souls of others is always to doe that which is good and though he can bring good out of evil yet he never Commands ordains or allows our evil for that end But such Preaching and Meetings as are in question are sinfull acts Which will appear as by other reasons which shall be shewed hereafter so in this place onely because they are done in disobedience and opposition to the known Laws of the Church and Kingdom wherein we live and which we stand bound in Conscience towards God to observe and obey I begin with the Laws of the Church The Eleventh Canon of the Church of England saith Whosoever shall affirm or maintain that there are in this Realm other Meetings Assemblies or Congregations of the King's born-subjects than by the Laws of this Realm are held and allowed which may rightly challenge to themselves the names of true and lawfull Churches Let him be excommunicated and not restored but by the Arch-bishop after his repentance and revocation of such his wicked errour The sense of this Canon is large and comprehensive and contains in it virtually a prohibition of all Meetings Assemblies or Congregations whatsoever which are not allowed by the Laws of the Land as the Meetings in question will and God willing shall be made appear to be Neither can it be restrained onely if at all to any other Meetings than such as are under pretence of joyning in religious worship not authorized by the Laws of the Land which according to the title of the Canon are called Conventicles for there can be no other unlawfull Meetings so called for any other end but onely these two viz. First for Ministers and Lay-men or either of them to joyn together to make Rules Orders or Constitutions in Causes Ecclesiastical without the King's authority And that is censured and forbidden as unlawfull in the twelfth Canon Or else Secondly to consult about a course to be taken to impeach or deprave the Doctrine of the Church of England the book of Common Prayer or any part of the Government or Discipline established in the Church And this is forbidden under pain of Excommunication in the 73 Canon Any other end for any other unlawfull Meeting or Assembly other than what is aforesaid cannot easily be imagined therefore unless we will make the Reverend Pious and Learned Authors and Composers of those Canons and Constitutions which are so solemnly established by Supreme authority guilty of a gross tautology this Canon flatly prohibits all Meetings Assemblies or Congregations except the publick which are commanded and allowed by the Laws of the Land of any manner of persons in private houses or elsewhere which under pretence of religious worship take upon them to be called Churches Besides it is expressed in such terms as are commonly competible to none but such Meetings as are under pretence of religious worship What other Meetings are commonly called Congregations or do challenge to themselves the name of Churches but such Meetings as are in question The place and order of the Canon do prove the same for immediately after the impugners of the King's Supremacy the publick worship of God Articles of Religion Rites and Ceremonies Government established in the Church of England the Authours of Schism and maintainers of Schismaticks in the Church are censured is subjoyned this Canon censuring Conventicles as being the Nursery of all the former In the 71 Canon all Ministers whatsoever are forbidden to preach or administer the holy Communion in any private house except in be in time of necessity when any is either so impotent as that he cannot go to the Church or very dangerously sick under pain of Excommunication In the 72 Canon it is ordained that no Minister whatsoever shall without licence from the Bishop of the Diocese first obtained and had under his hand and seal presume to appoint any meetings for Sermons or Exercises in Market-Towns or other places either publickly or in private houses under pain of Suspension for tho first fault Excommunication for the second and Deposition for the third Now if a Minister may not doe this in his own Parish but onely in a case of necessity much less may a stranger intrude himself into another man's Parish where there is a Preaching Ministry established by Law and there set up a course of private house-preaching administring of Sacraments and performance of all Ministerial acts where there can be no need of his so doing so much as pretended But is will be thought by some that the Laws and Constitutions of the Church are not so greatly to be regarded as that the breach of them should be sinfull and that her Canons lay no such obligation on Conscience as that the neglect of their observation and contrary practice should be criminal Nay such is the state and condition of our times that is is rather thought a vertue to despise them than any fault to disobey them And they are reputed most pure and holy who with greatest boldness quarrel and cavil against the Authority Government and Lawfull Precepts of the Church Yet certainly the judgment and practice of Christians in former ages was otherwise When vertue and true piety did more abound they made more conscience of observing the Precepts and Constitutions of the Church which were made for decency order and good government And if any frowardly wilfully or constantly lived in any opposition or contrariety thereunto they were adjudged as evil doers Nec his quisquam contradicit quisquis sane vel tenuiter expertus est quae sunt jura Ecclesiastica And truly I see not why the same regard and respect
ought not to be shew'n in the observation of the Laws of our Church now as hath been to the like Laws and Canons in former and purer times Especially if we enquire into these four things 1. What Power the Church hath to make Laws Canons and Constitutions 2. Who were the Authours and Composers of these of our Church 3. What is the subject matter of them 4. What hath been the judgment of Divines of unquestionable learning judgment and piety concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature Concerning the first That the Church hath a maternal power to decree and make Laws to bind all her children is such a clear truth as no sober person I think will question By Church I understand not all the number of the faithfull but those that have the lawfull rule and government of the Church Which is the sense that our Saviour Christ useth it in when he saith Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church for there is Ecclesia collectiva and Ecclesia representativa I take it in the latter sense By Laws I understand not any new Article of faith or any thing contrary to what God hath commanded in the holy Scriptures For it is a true maxim whoever was the Authour of it Potestas descendit non ascendit None have power in those things that are above them but in those things which are beneath them So the Church hath no power in those things which are above her but in those things which are below her Now all Doctrines of faith and other things already commanded of God are above the Church and out of her reach so that the cannot meddle with them by any Law de novo otherwise than to see them duly obeyed and observed But as for things of an indifferent and adiaphorous nature serving to external order and decency in these she hath power to ordain and make Laws and Constitutions though not contrary to yet other than what are already made in God's word holding still as near as the can to the general rules of Scripture The doctrine of Salvation is always in all places the same and can never be changed But external rites and order are alterable and variable according to the diversity of time and place and the variety of the minds and manners of men The Church of the Jews had power of ordaining other things than what were expresly set down in God's word and that for perpetual observation She ordained the two days of Purim as perpetual festivals Moreover Iudas and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israel ordained that the days of the dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days from the five and twentieth day of the month Casleu with mirth and gladness This feast was instituted by Iudas Machabeus and his brethren when Antiochus Epiphanes was expelled out of Ierusalem the worship of God restored and the Temple prophaned by the Heathen again consecrated which was about 167 years before the Coming of Christ. Which feast was yearly kept ever after and our Saviour Christ himself honoured it with his own presence And if the Jewish Church had that power why then hath not the Christian the like And that the Primitive Church of Christians had and did exercise the like power is plain to any that shall reade Act. 15. and 1 Cor. 11. Secondly The Authours and Composers of these Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical were the reverend learned and godly Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons and other Clergy-men of every Diocesee within the Province of Canterbury met together neither with multitude nor with tumult but lawfully and duly call'd and summoned by virtue of the King's Majesties Writ and receiving legal confirmation of that which was done by them So then the composers of those Canons were such persons as were ordained of God to rule the Church and to order what in their Wisedom should be thought convenient to whom in all things not contrary to God's will revealed in his word we are commanded obedience Luk. 12. 42. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Thirdly The subject matter of these Canons and Consitutions is of such things as concern External order decency and edification which God hath not particularly determined in Scripture but hath left to the rulers and governours of the Church to ordain and appoint within the compass of that general rule of the Apostle Let All things be done unto edifying and in order In which place those things that concern the external polity of the Church are generally expressed but the particulars are not mentioned but left to the wisedom and liberty of the Church Fourthly What have been the judgment of Divines of whose learning and piety and Church of God never yet since their times made the least doubt or question concerning Laws Canons and Constitutions of this nature They have always thought them sacred and venerable and their observation an act of Religion and Obedience to the general commands of God Instead of many take a few testimonies of Divines of the highest rank both foreign and domestick Two I shall quote out of learned Zanchy Quatenus hae leges consentaneae sunt cum Sacris Literis aut saltem non sunt dissentaneae Eatenus verae sunt Ecclesiasticae eoque admittendae nos illis obedientiam debemus ac reverentiam So far forth as these Constitutions are agreeable with the Scriptures or at least not disagreeing with them so far forth they are truly Ecclesiastical and to be received and we owe reverence and obedience to them And he gives his reason in these words Si Consentaneae sunt hae leges verbo Dei qui illas rejicit verbum Dei rejicit Si non repugnant contemnit Ecclesiam Dei qui illas contemnit Contemptus autem Ecclesiae quam Deo ingratus sit apparet cum aliis ex locis Sacrarum Literarum ubi illam magnificat tum maxime ex Evangelio Mat. 18. 17. If those Laws are agreeable with the word of God he that rejecteth them rejecteth the word of God if they are not contrary to the word of God he that rejecteth them despiseth the Church of God and how odious a thing unto the Almighty it is that any should despise his Church as it appears in many places of Scripture where the Church is magnified so especially in Mat. 18. 17. whrere God hath commanded that that person should be accounted as an heathen man and a Publican who hears and obeys not the Church Hear the same Learned Authour again Credo ea quae a piis patribus in nomine Domini congregatis communi omnium Consensu citra ullam Sacrarum Literarum Contradictionem definita recepta fuerunt Ea etiam quanquam haud ejusdem cum Sacris Literis authoritatis A SPIRITV SANCTO ESSE Those things saith he which have been concluded and received by the Holy Fathers gathered together in the
by Law should be bonum positive that it should be an act of vertue but it is sufficient if it be bonum negative that is nothing sinfull or morally evil as all vices are Otherwise there should be no room for Laws about middle and indifferent things And suppose a Law should be defective in regard of the efficient final or formal cause yet if the matter of it be such as may be done without sin â—t binds the Subject to obedience And that the forbearance of such illegal meetings as are in question may be done without sin and that those dissenting brethren who have been ejected for their non-compliance in Uniformity to the present legal establishment being under a legal restraint as to the use of their Ministerial Function may without sin forbear the irregular use of their gifts and labours in the said private meetings to the undermining and confronting of the Laws the increase of Sedition Schism and divers other Horrid Evils I think is out of question Learned Beza thought so or else he had never returned such an answer as he did to that Case of Conscience which was proposed to him by certain English Ministers who in the Reign of Q. Eliz. were silenced for non-conformity The case proposed being Whether they might or ought not to preach notwithstanding their being prohibited by man's law His answer verbatim is Tertium illud nempe ut contra Regiam Majestatem Episcoporum voluntatem Ministerio suo fungantur magis etiam exhorrescimus propter eas causas quae tacentibus etiam nobis satis intelligi possunt He was so far from thinking it lawfull that he trembled at the thought of such a thing that they should exercise their Ministry contrary to the Queen's Laws and the will of the Governours of the Church And the same hath been the judgment of Antiquity in the like case The ancient and orthodox Fathers of the Church being met together in Council at Antioch in the first year of the Reign of Aurelianus the Emperour and in the year of Christ according to Eusebius 269. decreed Non licere Episcopo vel Clerico si exauthorizatus fuerit ministrare That if any Bishop being condemned by a Council or any Presbyter or Deacon by his Bishop should presume to Preach or meddle with any thing of or belonging to the Sacred Office of the Ministry there should never be any hope for him ever to be restored again by any other Council or Synod And all that Communicated with him should be cast out of the Church As may be seen more at large in that Canon Of the like judgment were the Divines of the Presbyterian-way touching those learned Godly and orthodox Ministers who suffered ejection out of their livings and deprivation of all they had in the late times of troubles by a pretended authority of Parliament for their adherence to his late Majesty of ever Blessed memory When the Earl of Northumberland discoursing with Mr Calamy about the supplying of above fifty Churches in London void of Ministers told him That they must restore some of the sequestred Clergy of London and admit them to preach again for unless they did so the Parliament could not find men of ability to preach in London Mr Calamy replied God Forbid As it is recorded and published to the world in a Book called Persecutio undecima Printed in the year 1648. page 42. And if the thought of the Restauration of those worthies to their Office how unjustly soever they were suspended from it was in the judgment of that person rejected with indignation as a thing offensive and either forbidden or wished to be forbidden of God how much more execrable and abominable a thing would he have thought it to be if they should have taken upon them as some now do under a lawfull power to preach again without any readmission by that power that silenced them yea in opposition and defiance of it And because no testimony is so fit to convince any party as that which proceeds from their own Mouths Let therefore the Judgment of a Non-conformist otherwise a Person in Learning Sobriety and Solidity inferiour to few of his generation be heard and weighed in this case He writes in defence of our Church assemblies against those who being silenced for Non-conformity as he was yet not as he did separated themselves from the publick Congregations and not enduring to have their Mouths stopped or to sit down in silence thought themselves bound according to the Example of the Apostles Act. 4. 19. and 5. 29. to exercise their Ministry though not in publick yet in private Meetings notwithstanding any Legal prohibition to the contrary First he distinguisheth betwixt the calling of the Apostles and that of the Ministers now The former as they had their ministry immediately from God so had they the designation of that ministry to their persons immediately from God also And therefore the exercise of it was not restrainable or to be forborn at the Commandment of men The latter though their ministry be from God also yet have their Calling to that ministry or the designation of that office to such and such particular persons from men in God's ordinary way and cannot exercise that function but by virtue of that Calling wch they have from men And therefore saith he in common sense they ought to obey man forbidding them the exercise of a Calling which they do exercise by virtue of a Calling from men Otherwise there should be no power so to depose a man from his Ministry but that notwithstanding any Command from the Church or State he is still to continue in the exercise of his ministry and should be bound to give that example which the Apostles did which is not onely absurd but a conceit tending plainly to manifest Sedition and Schism Afterwards he hath these words Neither were some of the Apostles onely forbidden so as that others should be suffered to preach the same Gospel in their places but the utter abolition of the Christian Religion was manifestly intended in silencing them But over Churches whereof we are Ministers are no private and secret Assemblies such as hide themselves from the face of a persecuting Magistrate but are publick professing their worship and doing their Religion in the face of the Magistrateâ— and State yea and by his Countenance Authority and Protection And we Are set over those Churches not onely by a calling of our People but also by Authority from the Magistrate who hath an armed power to hinder such publick actions who is also willing to permit and maintain other true Ministers of the Gospel in those places where he forbiddeth some And thereupon the said Authour makes this threefold Conclusion 1. If after our publick Calling to minister in such a known and publick Church not by the Church onely but by the Magistrate also the Magistrate shall have matter against us just or unjust as to our obedience it matters not and shall
Christ's presence and blessing with them all in ways so abominable to God and so apparently destructive to his intire body the Church which he hath purchased with his most pretious bloud 3. Where were then the threatnings of his withdrawing from our Assemblies upon just occasion God hath said Your Sabbaths your Calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even your solemn Meetings my Soul hates them they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them And I hate I despise your Feast-days I will not smell in your solemn Assemblies i. e. I will not accept with Favour as I did Noah's Sacrifice their solemn Assemblies In another place the Holy Ghost useth the same expression I will not smell the Savour of your sweet Odours It is a Judgment saith Ainsworth opposed to that blessing promised in v. 12. I will walk among you God threatens to deny his presence to their Assemblies and one reason is given by a Divine of the Presbyterian Judgment Because they were not any way of Divine institution but of their own invention and therefore all along they are called your or thine Now shew me where Christ in all the Old or New Testament doth either command or allow any such Ministry and attendance on it as is in question and then I shall acknowledge it to be the Ordinance of God and that this promise belongs to it but not till then In the mean time I may well without any digression retort upon the objectours and tell them that in my Judgment they are far out of the way either of obedience to Christ's Command or of hopes of enjoying his blessing promised who in resorting to such kind of Meetings for which they have neither a command nor promise separate and withdraw themselves from the publick assemblies and attendance on his worship and ordinances there where God hath assured us of his presence and blessing and whither he hath enjoyned us constantly to repair For as that Minister who shall upon any pretence whatsoever of his own forsake a Congregation over whom he was placed by God and goe to another without any lawfull call is like Ionah who being sent by God to Nineve sinned greatly in going to Tarshish though he had preached never so duely and diligently there So those People who in any measure neglect the publick for those private assemblies are like Micah who in the time of the Iudges when there was a publick Ministry in the place which the Lord had chosen for that purpose instituted a private worship and ministry in his own house a certain peculiar Levite being called and set apart for that work And no wise man that shall reade his story will think it safe to follow his example Well may such a Person flatter himself in his course and say in his heart as he Now I know the Lord will doe me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest But as Iunius hominis imperiti sermo est in pietate parùm instituti That saying of his shews him to have but little wit less religion and that he was but in a golden dream or Fool 's Paradise all that while though he thought himself wiser and in a better case than his neighbours But this was done when there was no King in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes otherwise so abominable an act could never have passed so clearly as it did By such I would be soberly and soundly resolved of this demand Are the People of England in their present state and condition assembling themselves together in publick places appointed for God's worship under the teaching and ministry of their lawfull Pastors that are set over them by Authority a true Church or true Churches or not If they say no they doe that which God blessed be his name hath not yet done unchurch us and lay us under a judgment which he hath not yet laid upon us viz. a divorce from Iesus Christ. Yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not Through the infinite goodness of the most high we have wherewithall to consute that unchristian and uncharitable judgment of theirs since we have both the matter and the form of a true Church The matter is a multitude of rational Creatures that profess saving truth contained in the word of God Simon Magus and the Eunuch upon their profession were admitted Members of the Church and Members do constitute the body The form of a true Church is a gracious call into the dignity of the Children of God so as that Christ becomes â—nited to them As the form of a man â—s the Soul united to the body so the â—orm of a Church which is his body 〈◊〉 Christ united to it We have the â—ord and laws of Christ and those he â—akes effectual for the convincing of â—ll and conversion of some And this 〈◊〉 an irrefragable argument to evince 〈◊〉 Church to be a true Church even in the judgment of the Presbyteriaâ— Divines themselves For to those of the Independent way that separated from them these are their words We beseech you to consider whether ye did not receive the work of conversion from sin to God which ye presume to be wrought in you first of all in those publick assemblies from which ye now separate And if ye found Christ walking amongst us how is it that 〈◊〉 do now leave us If the presence 〈◊〉 Christ both of his power and grace be with us why do ye deny your presence Are ye holyer and wiser than Christ Is not this an evident token that we are true Churches and have a true Ministry because we have the seal of our Ministry even the conversion of many Sons and Daughters to God Doth not the Apostle from this very ground argue the truth of his Apostleship 〈◊〉 it not apparent that our Ministers are sent by God because their Embassage is made succesfull by God for the good of Souls Did ye ever reade of true conversion ordinarily in false Church Will the Lord concur with those Ministers he sends not Doth not the prophet say the quite contrary Jer. 23. 23. And therefore either renounce your conversion or be converted from that great sin of separating from us Again where there are the infallible marks of a true Church there is a true Church But we have the infallible marks of a true Church viz. the word of Christ truly taught and his Sacraments rightly administred First for the word of Christ. The Church is according to the proper signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a People called forth from the rest of the world called to be Saints Now the best note to know a People called is by the voice calling this was ever an infallible mark of Christ's Church First among the Apostles who were called out from amongst others by the word of