God offendeth against the Common order of the Church hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Conscience of the weak Brethren Where by traditions I suppose is meant the Laws and Canons of the Church as the words following do intimate which speak of the Common order of the Church and Authority of the Magistrate Thus much of the Laws of the Church Neither are such meetings onely against the Laws of the Church but against sundry statute Laws of the Kingdom also in that behalf made and provided In the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1. It is provided that if any person or persons above 16 years old shall refuse to repair to some Church Chapel or usual place of Common-prayer to hear divine Service and receive the Communion or come to and be present at any Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under Colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes And if any person shall obstinately refuse to repair to some Church Chapel or usual place of Common-prayer or by any motion persuasion inticement or allurement of any other willingly joyn in or be present at any such Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under Colour or pretence of any such Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as is aforesaid which refers to other Statutes formerly made and yet of force against Conventicles as well as this one shall be committed to prison and there remain without bail untill be conform and untill he make an open Submission in the words set down in the Statute viz. I. A. B. do humbly acknowledge and confess that I have grievously offended God in contemning her Majesties Godly and lawfull Government and Authority by absenting my self from Church and from hearing divine Service contrary to the godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm and in using and frequenting unlawfull and disorderly Conventicles and Assemblies under Colour and pretence of Exercise of Religion And I am heartily sorry for the same c. And I do promise and protest without any dissimulation that from henceforth I will from time to time obey and perform her Majesties Laws and Statutes in repairing to Church and hearing divine Service and doe my utmost endeavour to maintain and defend the same Neither can it be pretended as it is by some that this Statute was made or stands in force against any other sort of People than those in question viz. against Popish recusants onely and not against Protestant dissenters as they call themselves The answer is easie out of the words of the said Statute For in the beginning of the Statute the Persons that are concerned in obedience to it are expressed in these general and large words Any person or persons whatsoever above the Age of 16 which shall refuse to repair to Church and willingly join in and be present at any Conventicle or Meeting c. Which words comprehend and take in Persons of all Religions Sects and Persuasions whatsoever And whereas the penalty of the Statute to all that shall refuse Obedience and Conformity to it is abjuration of the Realm or to be proceeded against as Felons There is a Proviso toward the End of the Statute that sixeth the penalty altogether upon Protestant recusants and not on Popish In these words Provided that no Popish recusant or feme Covert shall be compelled or bound to abjure by virtue of this Act. And lest the Popish recusants should be the onely Persons therein meant or intended the Conventiclers of our Age make themselves more perfect Recusants than that Statute supposeth For whereas that makes absence from the Prayers of the Church for one Month together a Crime sufficient to render them obnoxious to the penalties of that Act these men for the most part withdraw themselves for many Years together and for ought I see if they are let alone resolve so to doe all the days of their lives In Anno 22. Caroli 2di Regis there was a Statute made to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles as the Title of that Statute truly calls them wherein Every Person of the Age of 16 years and upward that shall be present at any Assembly Conventicle or Meeting under Colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion in other manner that according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England in any place within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed at which Conventicle or meeting there shall be 5 persons or more assembled together is made liable to suffer the penalties of 5 s for his first fault and for his second 10 s and so onward the Preacher to suffer the penalty of 20 ll And the owner of the house or ground that shall wittingly and willingly suffer such Conventicle Meeting or unlawfull Assembly to be held to suffer the penalty of 20 ll In the late Act for Uniformity all Non-conformist Ministers and disabled and prohibited from preaching any Sermon or Lecture indefinitely either publick or private And for as much as the King's Majesty by the Law of God and the Land of right is and ought to be master of all the assemblings together of any of his Subjects therefore what Meetings soever are not allowed and authorized by the Laws of the Realm are adjudged by the Learned in the Laws to fall within the compass of those Statutes that forbid and punish Riots and unlawfull Assemblies and are or may justly be presumed to be in terrorem populi and in the Event it is to be feared will prove to be contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King And by the Law all the King's Liege-people are commanded to assist in the suppressing of them upon pain of imprisonment and to make fine and ransome to the King Notwithstanding all which good Laws this practice hath continued in the Church these several years and still doth notwithstanding His Majesties reinforcement of their execution by his late Proclamation in open defiance and contempt of all Authority as if the Laws of the Church and Realm were but fulmen inane a shadow of a Cloud that vanisheth as soon as it is made and as if obedience to Magistracy were no part of Christian duty Concerning these Laws of the Realm to silence clamour I will touch lightly at five things I. That the King being next under God within his Dominions supreme in the Church on Earth hath Power and Authority over the Persons of Ministers as well as of any other his Subjects He being Custos utriusque tabulae having both tables committed to him as well the first that concerns our religious duties to God as the other that concerns our civil duties to men may and ought to make such laws as conduce as well to the peace and order in the Church as as godliness and honesty Pertinet hoc ad reges seculi Christianos ut temporibus suis pacatam velint matrem suam Ecclesiam unde
in that regard forbid us to minister to our Church I see not by what warrant in God's word we should think our selves bound notwithstanding to exercise our Ministry still except we should think such a Law of Ministry to lie upon us that we should be bound to run upon the Swords point of the Magistrate or oppose Sword to Sword which I am sure Christianity abominates 2. Yea suppose the Magistrate should doe it unjustly and against the Will of the Church and should therein sin yet doth not the Church in that regard cease to be a Church nor ought she therein resist the Will of the Magistrate nor doth she stand bound in regard of her affection to her Minister how great and deserved soever to deprive her self of the protection of the Magistrate by leaving her publick standing to follow her Minister in private and in the dark refusing the benefit of other publick Ministers which with the good leave and liking of the Magistrate she may enjoy 3. Neither do I know what Warrant any ordinary Minister hath by God's word in such a case so to draw any such Church or People to his private Ministry that thereby they should hazard their outward Estate and quiet in the Common-wealth where they live when in some competent measure they may publickly with the grace and favour of the Magistrate enjoy the ordinary means of salvation by another And except he hath a Calling to minister in some other Church he is to be content to live as a private member untill it shall please God to reconcile the Magistrate unto him and to call him again to his own Church From which words of this learned Non-conformist it may easily be gathered that those persons who are now by the unquestionable Legitimate power of the Kingdom for their Non-compliance with the present legal Establishment in the Church deposed from their Ministry if they contain not themselves in quietness and silence as other private Christians do and ought but will without a Call of Authority undertake still to preach the word and draw People after them to their private Ministry they are condemned by the most sober and judicious of their own party and the case of them and their followers is adjudged to be far different from that of the Apostles and primitive Christians their practice unwarrantable by the word of God and manifestly tending to Sedition and Schism But what speak I of the single Testimony and Judgment of one man of that way and perswasion though a learned and judicious one whenas we have extant to the World the like verdict agreed upon long since by the joint consent of sundry Godly and learned Ministers of this Kingdom then standing out and suffering in the cause of inconformity and published by Mr. William Rathband for the good of the Church and the better setling of mens unstable minds in the truth against the subtile insinuations and plausible pretences of that pernicious evil of the Brownists or Separatists For in the 4 th page of that Book First they justifie themselves against the objection of that faction in yeilding to the suspensions and deprivations of the Bishops acknowledging their Power to depose who did ordain them and their own duty to acquiesce therein and in quietness and silence to subject themselves thereunto in expressions so full to my present purpose that I should have transcribed them for the Reader 's satisfaction were it so that I had not been prevented by the reverend and worthy Authour of the Continuation of the Friendly Debate As to that place of Scripture Act. 4. 19. 20. which they acknowledge to be very unskilfully alledged by the adversary they make this threefold answer to shew the difference betwixt the Apostles case and theirs First they say they that inhibited the Apostles were known and professed Enemies of the Gospel Secondly the Apostles were charged not to teach in the Name of Christ nor to publish any part of the Doctrine of the Gospel Which Commandment might more hardly be yeilded unto than this of our Bishops who are not onely content that the Gospel should be preached but are also preachers of it themselves Thirdly the Apostles received not their Calling and Authority from men nor by the hands of men but immediately from God himself and therefore also might not be restrained nor deposed by men whereas we though we exercise as function whereof God is the Authour and we are also called of God to it yet are we also called and ordained by the hands and ministry of men and may therefore by men be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our Ministry I cannot think that any of the Learned sort of the Non-conformists now are ignorant of these things nor that if their hearts were known their Judgments differ in this case from that of their ancient brethren but I fear the busie upholders and promoters of Conventicles in our Age notwithstanding their prohibition by Law to preach at all sin against their own light and conscience in so doing But I proceed 4. Now Laws being thus made against all such unlawfull Meetings and all such His Majestie 's Laws being no way contrary to God's word all his Subjects stand bound in the obligation of obedience to them and that for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Tit. 3. 1. And under pain of Damnation if they wilfully resist and disobey Rom. 13. 2. And therefore it is that in the Schools they call disobedience to the King's Laws Sacrilege for though the trespass seem to be directed but against a man yet in that man whose Office and consequently his person is sacred God is opposed and his ordinance violated The King's Laws though in themselves in regard of their particular Constitution they put no special obligation upon us under pein of sin and damnation yet in a general relation to that God who is the original of all Power and hath commanded us to obey Authority their neglect or disobedience involves us in guilt and exposeth us to Sin and consequently to Damnation Civilibus legibus quae cum pietate non pugnant eo quisque Christianus paret promptius quo fide Christi est imbutus plenius Every Christian by how much the more he hath of the grace of faith by so much the more ready he is to conform to the Laws of men which are not contrary to the Laws of God All power is of God That therefore which Authority enjoins us God enjoins us by it the Command is mediately his though passing through the hands of men Hoc jubent imperatores quod jubet Christus quia cum bonum jubent per illos non nisi Christus jubet When Kings command what is not disagreeable with Christ's Commands Christ commands by them and we are called to obey not onely them but Christ in them But is not suffering obedience And if men are willing to submit
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
to the Penalty of the Law is not that sufficient to discharge the Conscience from the guilt of disobedience Casuists that are of that Judgment say it holds true onely in those Laws whereof there are but very few in the World that are purely penal And the Laws which we now speak of are not such for these are partly Moral binding to doe or to leave undone some moral Act and partly Penal in case of Omission of what the Laws command or Commission of what the Laws forbid then to undergoe the Punishment the Laws inflict Now in these mixt Laws suffering the Penalty doth not discharge the Conscience from the guilt of sin For it is a rule of sure truth which Casuists give in such cases Omnis praeceptio obligat ad culpam Every just Command of those who have lawfull Authority to command leaves a guilt of sin upon those mens Consciences who do not obey The reason is because where a Law made by lawfull Authority requires active obedience and imposeth a Penalty in case of disobedience the Conscience of the subject stands bound primarily and intentionally to the performance of the duty therein enjoined As for the Penalty threatned that is a secondary and accidental thing to the Law added to keep up the reputation and esteem thereof in the minds of those who are concerned in it and to affright them from the neglect and disobedience of it So that though the suffering the Penalty of the Law in case of the transgression of it be as much as can be required of the Law-giver yet God by whom Kings reign and who requires subjection to Authority and that for Conscience sake will not hold such persons guiltless that doe not the things commanded in the Law The malefactour satisfies the Law at the time of his execution but who will say that without repentance of his fact the guilt of sin remains not still upon his Conscience or that he shall be acquitted at God's tribunal 5. Neither are they the Laws of the Church and Kingdom of England onely that are against such Meetings and Ministry as are in question But the godly Kings and Princes of the primitive Christian-Church have ever made the like Eusebius tells us that Constantine the Great made a Law that no Separatists or Schismaticks should meet in Conventicles and commanded that all such places where they were wont to keep their Meetings should be demolished and that they should not keep their factious Meetings either in publick places or private houses or remote places but that they should repair to their parochial Churches And in the next Chapter he saith that by that Law the memory of most of those Sectaries was forgotten and extinguished Sozomen reports that Theodosius the great decreed that the Sectaries whose petition for liberty he had first torn in pieces should not assemble together but all of them repair to their own publick Congregations otherwise to be banished their Country to be branded with some infamy and not to be partakers of Common privileges and favours with others And our neighbours and brethren of Scotland of the Presbyterian judgment did in one of their late general Assemblies since the enacting of their solemn League and Covenant make a special Canon against all private Meetings the direct tendency there of being to the overthrow of that Uniformity by them covenanted to be endeavoured in all the Churches of the three Kingdoms The very Heathens themselves by their Laws have made all such Assemblies illegitimate which the highest Authority did not cause to meet though they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to doe solemn Sacrifice to their Gods as may appear by Solon's Laws and in their practice they have shewed themselves ready to yeild obedience to their Governours in desisting from such irregular Conventions when they have been required Though Demetrius his Assembly came together disorderly and of their own heads rushed into the Theatre and there kept a shouting and Crying two hours together some one thing some another not knowing most of them wherefore they came together Yet when the Town-clark who had Authority did dismiss them they added not one fault to another but broke off their disorderly Meeting presently And they shew themselves more refractary than Demetrius himself who doe otherwise And if it be well considered the practice in question will be found to interfere with it self and to carry in the very face of it a convincing Testimony of its evil and unwarrantableness For if it be lawfull for these men to preach in private Meetings as they do and have a long time done why do they not take upon them to adventure to preach in the publick and Church-assemblies also What is it that makes them abstain from the latter and yet take liberty in the former Is it in obedience to the Law of the Land which forbids them to preach in publick The same Law forbids them to preach in private also It cannot be denied but that one is forbidden as well as the other Then this must needs be turned upon them why do they not obey in the one as well as in the other since they cannot but acknowledge that both are forbidden in the same Law surely if it were the Care and Conscience and desire to obey lawfull Authority according as Christian duty binds them that makes them silent in publick the same Conscience the same care and desire would make them sit down in silence in private also If it be said that they therefore abstain from publick preaching because it more exposeth them to the danger and penalty of the Law than private doth Then this must be retorted upon them also that their obedience is not such as God requireth for Conscience but for wrath Good men obey for Conscience but those that obey for wrath have not the fear of God before their Eyes For none contemns the power of man unless he hath first despised the Power of God And shall that be accounted by any sober Christian to be the ordinance of God or means of his appointment to beget grace in mens souls that is so repugnant to good Laws both of Church and State which we all stand bound in Conscience to observe and obey is contradictory to it self and hath in it that which proclaims to all that will open their Eyes to look into it its unlawfulness and sin God forbid ARGUMENT II. THAT cannot be the ordinance of God or means of grace that is contrary to that order which God himself by his word hath established in his Church For God is not the Authour of disorder and confusion But the Devil In the Church God's Command is for order in all things Let all things be done decently and in order And St. Paul did as well rejoice to see the order as the faith of the Church of Coloss. Onely Death and Hell have no order And it is a kind of death to a godly Christian to see
disorder in the Church of Christ and his Service For what is a Church without order but a kind of an Hell above ground Where order is wanting what is a Kingdom but a Chaos of Confusion Yea But such a Ministry and such Meetings and Assemblies as are in question are contrary to the order God hath in his word established in his Church For the order God hath set in his Church is that his People should be distinguished into flocks and that every flock should have its own shepherd It is God's ordinance saith Mr. Hildersham as it is agreeable to good order that Christians should be sorted into Congregations according to their dwellings that they who dwell next together should be of the same Congregation and from thence the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a parish first came As it is against all reason and scripture that a people scattered about some here and some there in several parts of the Country should voluntarily associate and combine themselves in a distinct body under what Ministry they please and that best suits with their humour and call themselves a Church as the manner of some is So it is agreeable with the very light of nature and dictates of right reason that a people in a vicinity and neighbourhood dwelling together ought to join together with those of that neighbourhood according as most conveniently they may for the worship and service of God We reade of the Church of God at Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus c. And of seven Epistles written from Heaven to seven several Churches all which had their abode at the places whence the Churches bare their Names these are scripture Churches saith a Presbyterian It is the ordinance of God that every Flock or Congregation should have their own pastour Take heed to the flock over whom the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Timothy appointed Titus to ordain Elders in every City i. e. wheresoever there was a body of people for a fit Congregation there must be a Pastour or Elder placed Whence it appears that even in the Apostles days there was a distinction of Churches and Congregations for the Elders had their flocks over whom the Holy Ghost made them Overseers The like is said of Paul and Barnabas that they ordained Elders in every Church Hence saith Calvin may be gathered the difference betwixt the office of those Elders and that of the Apostles These had no certain station in the Church but still went up and down hither and thither to plant new Churches Rom. 15. 19. 20. 23. 24. 1 Cor. 4. 17. Act. 1. 8. Rom. 1. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 11. 2 Cor. 10. 14. 16. But the other were by God's appointment fixed and tyed to their own proper Congregations and Flocks Act. 14. 23. Act. 20. 28. Tit. 15. â—1 Pet. 5. 1. The diminutive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Luc. 12. 32. Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. 3. Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth intimate as much for parvum gregem significat it signifies a small part of the great flock distinguished from the rest And indeed the state and condition of the Ministers and Ministry of the Church requires that every Pastour should not take care of all the Flock or Church but that rather they should have certain portions or Congregations of God's People committed to them particularly amongst whom they should bestow their care and pains For this cause St. Paul took course to send certain Ministers to certain particular Churches as Crescens to Galatia Titus to Dalmatia and Tychicus to Ephesus Vnde rectissime colligimus saith a Learned Casuist auditores ordinariis pastoribus contentos esse oportere ne eos in crimen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conjiciant So 't is God's ordinance that Flocks Congregations should be contented with and depend on their own Pastours This appears by that charge of the Apostle We beseech you brethren to know them to own and acknowledge them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake Again remember them that have the rule over you which have spoken to you the word of God And again obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account that they may doe it with joy and not with grief In both places the Command of God is for Obedience to Pastours not any such as people themselves according to their own humours shall chuse but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the seventh verse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 17 th verse In both places YOVR RVLERS such as are lawfully set over you by those that are in Authority in the Church And even as St. Paul commends Epaphroditus to the Philippians as their ordinary Pastour and commands them to receive him in the Lord with all gladness and to hold such in repâ—tation So he doth the like to other Churches commanding them to honour and obey their own Pastours which he would never have done if it had been lawfull for people with neglect of their own Ministers to follow whom they please People are much mistaken if they think they are so much at their own disposal as that they may put themselves under the teaching and care of what Minister they have a mind to though never so excellent and orthodox For 1. First God is not so careless of the precious Souls of his People in his Church as to leave them at random to shift for themselves every one according to his own foolish fancy but doth dispose of them himself by his good providence by the hand of those who from and under him have Authority so to doe to the care and charge of Pastours of his own appointment the respective Ministers of those Parishes and places where they with other of his People do cohabite And therefore the form of our institutions to our several charges runs in these words Curam regimen omnium animarum parochianorum tibi plenarie in Domino committimus The definition that our Saviour Christ gives of a Church is a Shepherd and his Sheep that will hear his voice A lawfull Minister and a Flock or Congregation lawfully committed to his charge make up a true Church Hereunto accord the Judgment of the Fathers St. Chrysostome in an homily de recipiendo Severiano begins thus Sicuti capiti Corpus cohaerere necessarium est ita Ecclesiam Sacerdoti Principi Populum As it is necessary that the body cleave to the head so it is likewise of necessity that the Congregation cleave to the Priest and the People to their Prince To which the saying of St. Cyprian agrees Illi sunt Ecclesia plebs sacerdoti adunita pastori suo grex adhaerens The Church is a Congregation of believers united to their Minister and a
a prophane contempt or neglect of any part of publick worship for every imperfection and blemish nor to separate from a Church though never so corrupt so long as the Word Sacraments and Doctrine of Salvation may there be enjoyed Corruptions of a Church are commonly by Divines distinguished into two sorts They are either such as concern the matter of Religion which the Apostle calls demnable Heresies in fundamental points of Faith and Holiness which tend to the destroying of the very being of a Church Or else such as concern the manner of Religion in circumstantials and ceremonials which are matters of lower concern and inferiour alloy Such as to use the words of Learned Bp. Davenant Non continuo ad fidem fundamentalem spectant sed ad peritiam theologicam fortasse ne ad hanc quidem sed aliquando ad curiositatem theologorum belong not to the fundamentals of Faith but skilfulness in Divinity and not to that neither but rather to the curiosity of Divines Now errours even in fundamentals may be in a Church upon a double account either through infirmity and humane frailty the best of us knowing but in part in this Life God allows no separation in such a case The Church of Galatia through infirmity was quickly turned to another Gospel and erred even in matters fundamental holding justification by works and was fallen to the observation of Iewish Ceremonies which St. Paul calls beggarly Elements Their Apostle was become their Enemy and that for telling them the truth He was afraid of them lest all the labour he had bestowed amongst them was in vain and was fain to travel in birth with them again yet he owns them and writes to them as a Church notwithstanding Or else vitioso affectu immorigeroe voluntatis out of malice when men know they doe amiss and yet persist obstinately in so doing In such a case separation may be with a good Conscience When St. Paul had preach'd in the Synagogue of the Iews and they would not believe but began to blaspheme and speak evil of the ways of God then he withdrew and separated from them So that it must be no small matter that must be a sufficient ground to any one that means to keep a good Conscience to warrant his withdrawing from the publick Congregation in any part of God's worship If a man have not discretion he may easily run himself into a great evil of sin whilst he seeks to shun a light inconvenience and in avoiding that which he thinks to be superstition he may soon become really Schismatical and prophane which is as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him Suppose there were some evil mixtures in our administration of Church-worship yet in the judgment of the Presbyterian Divines themselves this is not a sufficient ground of a negative much less of a positive separation For say they the learned Authour before mentioned that is Camero tells us that corruption in manners crept into a Church is not a sufficient cause of separation from it This he proves from Matt. 23. 2 3. And he also gives this reason for it Because in what Church soever there is purity of Doctrine there God hath his Church though overwhelmed with scandals And therefore whosoever separateth from such an Assembly separateth from that place where God hath his Church which is rash and unwarrantable And in the next Page they say He that will never communicate with any Church till every thing that offendeth â—e removed out of it must tarry till the great day of Judgment when and not till then Christ will send forth his Angels and gather out of his Kingdom every thing that offendeth and them that doe iniquity And though to excuse themselves from the guilt of Schism they that do separate may pretend that they make not aâ— open breach of Christian Love wherein the nature of that great sin doth consist Let their own words answer themselves We grant that to make up the formality of a Schismatick there must be added uncharitableness as to make up the formality of an Heretick there must be added obstinacy But yet as he that denieth a fundamental Article of Faith is guilty of Heresie though he add not obstinacy thereunto to make him an Heretick so he that doth unwarrantably separate from a true Church is truly guilty of Schism though he add not uncharitableness thereunto to denominate him a complete Schismatick How unjustifiable then is the separation which some make themselves and cause others to make in these days from our Churches which in their Constitution for Doctrine Discipline and Worship are the envy of Rome and the admiration of the rest of the Christian World where there is nothing Idolatrous in Worship nothing Heretical in Doctrine nor Antiscriptural in Discipline where there is nothing taught believed or done but what is agreeable with the word of God or not contrary thereunto And to speak in the words of the learned and godly Dr. Henry More a Church so throughly purged from whatsoever can properly be styled Antichristian and is I am confident so Apostolical that the Apostles themselves if they were alive again would not have the least scruple of joyning in publick worship with us in our common Assemblies Separation from it can be no less than the fruit of Pride or bitter Zeal which tends to strife And where envy and strife is there is confasion and every evil work I have heard some Church-forsakers when they have been told of their Apostasie and falling off from the Church whereof they were Members excuse and please themselves in this that they are not Apostates from the Faith they hold the same Doctrine and believe the same Creed we do Though in that they doe no more than Papists doe But in the mean time they consider not That 1. This is an improvement and aggravation of their sin so far is it from excusing the fault to depart from a Church wherein they were born and baptized and which by their own confession continues sound in the Faith Separation is allowed by no Divines no not by the Presbyterians themselves but either in case of cruel Persecution damnable Heresie or down right Idolatry They then that separate from a Church where there is neither of these have the greater sin 2. That the hainousness of the sin of Schism doth not consist in renouncing the Faith but in the breach of Christian Charity without which all Faith is nothing A man may be very Orthodox in his Judgment and yet be a damnable Schismatick if he break that Union which ought to be religiously kept amongst Christians in God's worship especially And because this breach is manifestly perfected in refusing due Ecclesiastical Communion together therefore that separation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called Schism 3. That the breach
sometimes through so great a resort of People to him that neither the Synagogue nor Temple could hold them he was fain to take a Mountain for his Pulpit Sometimes being not able to stand quiet for the throng of People that crouded him he retreated to a Ship that he might be the better heard and taught the People from thence Yet all this was publickly and openly to the World As for Religious discourse with his Disciples or others in private Houses either by way of explanation or repetition of his publick Sermons that we deny not but he often used it For we reade that when he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone they that were about him with the twelve asked him of the Parable But as for substance of Doctrine it was allways publick He never spake privately to his Disciples or others but they were the same things which he Preach'd publickly He spake not other things to them in private than what he spake publickly but in another manner And therefore even to that exposition of his Doctrine which he made privately to his Disciples he adds Is a Candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed And not to be set on a Candlestick For there is nothing hid that shall not be manifested q. d. these Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven are therefore revealed unto you not that ye should Preach them in Corners but to the whole World As for that place of St. Mark which seems to speak of Christ's Preaching in a private House though it be craftily urged on ignorant People yet if rightly understood it cannot make ought against what hath been said For I demand was it a truth our Saviour Christ said I always taught in the Synagogues and in the Temple and in private I have said nothing or was it not To say the latter were no less than blasphemy and to give him the lye who is the God of truth who knew no sin neither was guile ever found in his mouth If it was a truth as it must needs without monstrous impiety be acknowledged to be then he ever taught in the Synagogues and in the Temple and in private he said nothing The occasion of it was his being called in question for his Doctrine his answer to which plainly declares that as for substantials of Evangelical Doctrines he ever taught them openly to the World in the Jewish Synagogues and Temple Otherwise it would have been absurd for our Saviour to have said as he did to Pilate why askest thou me of my Doctrine ask them that heard me Behold they know what I have said For Pilate could not ask the Iews that were then present of any thing that he had said in private seeing they were none of his private Companions or Followers If therefore there be any seeming Antilogy in any other Scripture it is not so in reality but appearance it may seem so to our weakness but it is not so in it self For the Holy Ghost who is the spirit of truth in one place is so throughout all the Scripture without any real contradiction to it self any where Therefore to that place of St. Mark I have two things to answer First our English translation in that phrase he preached the word unto them doth not properly nor genuinely answer the Original Greek which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he spake to them or as Beza renders it loquebatur eis sermonem he made a speech to them And Tremelius loquebatur cum eis sermonem he talked or discoursed with them Doubtless about Gospel-truths and Heavenly matters When ever our Saviour Christ preach'd or spake Sermon-wise the Scripture useth other words to express it by as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach or publish as an Herauld in open place in the hearing of a multitude or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospel But as for the word here used by the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is never used in Scripture properly and strictly to signifie to preach but to speak talk or discourse which differs much from preaching For though it be true that whosoever preacheth speaketh yet it is not true that whosoever speaketh preacheth In all Languages there have ever been held a difference betwixt speaking and preaching Solius sacerdotis est praedicare loqui autem communis vulgi Yea it is observed by the most skillfull in that Language that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst Greek Authours is still used for the worst kind of speaking or talking But in the New Testament indeed it is used in a better sense but never properly and strictly for to preach but to speak as we do in common talk or discourse When the Devil speaketh a Lye he speaketh it of his own Joh. 8. 44. When I was a Child I spake as a Child 1 Cor. 13. 11. Speak the truth every man to his neighbour Eph. 4. 25. And in many other places we have the same word used which were most absurd to render by the word preach So that all that can be rationally or certainly gathered from that saying of St. Mark is no more but this That our Saviour Christ seeing such a multitude of people flock about him took an occasion to fall into a religious discourse with them and to talk with them of divine and heavenly matters whether it were by minding them of what he had publickly thaught or explaining his Pulpit-doctrines to them we need not much trouble our selves to inquire But suppose he did preach though it was not privately but openly enough to the World as any one that looks into the history as it is recorded by the Evangelists may easily perceive in that house or any else as by his Divine prerogative he might doe what he would and that which every private Minister is not bound to follow him in yet how it can be made use of to countenance those that set up a course of house-preaching and that in other mens Parishes where there are Preaching Ministers established by Law and where they have no manner of allowance or Authority so to doe as our Saviour Christ had nay being forbidden by Authority as he was not I do not understand As for speaking to or with the people in that house or any other or making use of that or any other private meeting either in separation from or competition with much less in opposition to the publick Ordinances of God then in use as our Conventicles now-a-days are used that was far from our Saviour's meaning or practice who improved that and all meetings and occasions in subordination and direct subserviency to the Synagogue-service and Temple-worship of the Jewish Church And that Christ should be a publick and not a private house-preacher the Scriptures did foretell long before his coming By the Prophet Esay I have not spoken in secret in the dark places of the earth And by
preaching abroad out of his own precincts whether upon intreaty or otherwise we need not inquire seeing he had an Apostolical power which was of universal extent in it self and such as no Minister now can lay claim to His Commission was as the rest of the Apostles were general and originally not confined to any one place as other Ministers are but they were to teach all Nations Yet because every one of them could not travel and preach in every Countrey therefore it pleased the Lord afterwards in Wisedom for good Causes to order it as it were by a second Decree that Paul should specially have a care of and preach to the Gentiles Yet this did no way diminish his Apostolical Authority nor forbid him from preaching at all to the Iews or Peter to the Gentiles if occasion did serve for of Paul it is expresly said that he was to carry Christ's Name both to the Gentiles and to the Children of Israel And it is generally believed that he was the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews And of St. Peter it is not doubted that he both at Antioch and elsewhere preached the Gospel both to Iews and Gentiles The Apostolical power did extend to all Nations but the Conveniency of the Church did require that some of them should be fixed to one sort of People in one place and some to another 'T is true St. Paul saith he was troubled with the care of all the Churches i. e. as he was an Apostle so the care of all the Churches lay upon him quod ad jus attinet potestatem saith Camero he had right and power to take care of all the Churches as an Apostle and so differing from all Bishops and Presbyters now And doubtless as all good Ministers of Christ do he did take all the care that lawfully he might or could of the whole Church of Christ especially of all those within his own precincts and of his own planting which by an usual Synecdoche in Scripture are termed all Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for order and peace sake it pleased God that their persons and labours should be appointed for several distinct parts of the World as in his infinite Wisedom he saw was most convenient for the better propagation of the Gospel of Christ in all the World And it is the observation of the Excellent Divine Martin Chemnitius in his Commentary on that temporary precept of our Saviour Christ to his Disciples Goe not into the way of the Gentiles c. Hoc temporarium praeceptum fideles verbi Dei ministros admonet ut singuli se intra metas legitimae suae vocationis ad pascendum illum Dei gregem qui ipsis commissus est 1 Pet. 5. 2. contineant nec latiùs evagentur aut falcem suam in alterius pastoris messem nisi speciali concessione vel vocatione mittant This temporary percept doth warn all the faithful Ministers of God's word that all of them should contain themselves within the bounds of their lawfull Calling to feed that flock of God that is committed unto them and not to wander abroad or thrust their hook into the harvest of another Pastour without his special leave or calling By all which it appears that a forcible or surreptitious entry of one Minister into another's charge is destitute of all Scripture president or allowance and therefore cannot be the Ordinance of God The Example of the Apostles meeting and preaching sometimes in private Houses I conceive cannot but most impertinently be urged to defend the practice I here dispute against For 1. 'T is not to the question which is of a setled constituted Church where a preaching Ministry is established by Law The Christian Church in the Apostles days was not â—etled and established as is ours but in a way to be so 2. The Magistrate was then heathen all the World over ours now Christian Publick preaching and Christian meetings were not then suffered our Church-Assemblies are not onely allowed and protected but commanded by Sovereign Authority 3. They had then either none at all or very few Christian-Churches erected and so were forced to meet where they could we want not Churches but hearts to resort to them 4. The Apostles had a general and extraordinary call to preach any where through all Coasts and Parts of the World where they were appointed to plant Churches so have not the Persons in question The office of an Apostle or Evangelist is now ceased 5. It can never be proved that the Apostles did or would have made use of their private meetings either in competition with or opposition to the publick Ordinances of God as our modern Conventicles are but in subserviency according as the necessity of those times did require to what publick and solemn Assemblies they could then or might in after-times enjoy For as our Saviour made use of all private Conferences and Meetings not in separation from competition with or opposition against but in professed subserviency to the Synagogue-service and Temple-worship of the Jewish Church so I am perswaded that the Apostles of Christ together with the primitive Christians would have done the like had the case in their time with respect to the publick exercise of Christian Religion been the same or the like to what it was in our Saviour Christ's time with respect to the publick exercise of the Religion of the Iews But forasmuch as there were no Conventions for publick exercise of Christian Religion permitted or commanded in those times untill the Roman Empire and other Kingdoms of the World became Christian it was therefore a thing impossible that the private Meetings of the Apostles and those primitive Christians should be so made use of in subordination to the publick Assemblies as were the private Meetings of our Saviour and his Disciples in the Jewish Church So that the case and condition of Christianity in the primitive times is so different from and contrary to what it is in the Church of England where the publick worship is protected and commanded by Authority that their private Meetings cannot possibly hold any proportion or similitude with ours So that to argue from private Meetings in those times of persecution of Christianity to private Meetings in England in these days is to take away the subject of the question and then to argue the case 6. Neither did one Apostle then thrust himself into the place where another was to labour but contained himself within the compass of his Line and portion of God's People that he was appointed to preach to But the matter in question is of a quite contrary nature viz. of a silenced Minister's intruding himself in amongst a People over whom there is a preaching Ministry established and there taking upon him to gather Conventions teach that People and perform ministerial Acts amongst them contrary to good Laws without the consent yea against the allowance of the Pastour of the place So that neither the
potest The thing that a man cannot obtain by himself alone praying together with the multitude he shall obtain and why so for although not his own worthiness yet concord and unity prevaileth much When the whole Church joyned together in their devotions for St. Peter's enlargment Omnipotence exerted it self in a series of Miracles that their Prayers should not be unanswered Tunc est efficacior sanatior devotio quando in operibus pietatis totius ecclesie unus est animus unus est sensus Prayer is then more holy and effectual when in the works of piety there is but one mind and one meaning of the whole Church Besides God hath promised as hath been before shewed to be more comfortably present in our Church-Assemblies than in any other houses or places whatsoever If it had been all one to pray in a private house or in the publick assemblies of the Church St. Paul and the Godly Christians with him would never have put themselves to an hazard of their lives in times of hottest persecution by meeting together in multitudes in a place where there was an House of Prayer or where they were wont to assemble together to pray For it is read both ways The first pleaseth Tremelius best the latter Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim orationem oratorium significat The word signifies both Prayer and an House of Prayer The House of Prayer is a Court beautified with the presence of celestial powers there the Almighty doth sit to hear and his Angels intermingle with us as our associates and attend to further our Suits With reference hereunto the Apostle requires so great care to be had of decency in the Church for the Angels sake saith Mr. Hooker Sixthly it begets ill thoughts of his Majesty's most gracious Government as if he were a persecutor and suppressor of true Religion and an enemy to piety and godliness These meetings about in Barnes and private Houses look not as if we lived under a Christian Protestant Prince as if King Charles were upon the throne but as if Nero Dioclesian or Queen Mary were alive again and did rule Conventicles saith Bishop Lake make shew as if you had not freedom of Religion and thereby you derogate from the honour of the King 's most Christian Government and wrong your Pastour casting imputation upon him that he cannot or will not instruct you as he ought And indeed it lays the Axe to the Root and tends to the undermining and destruction of all Government and Governours Do not the Histories of all Ages give in evidence to the evil tendency of these private seditious and unlawfull meetings In the late years of war and confusion those meetings were effectually made use of by all parties as the great Engine to pull down the powers then in being By these means Presbytery did in a great measure prevail to the forceable and irregular throwing down of the legally established Episcopacy So by the same means Independency Anabaptism Fifth-monarchism hath been prevalent over and against Presbytery So that it is a wonder the Governours of our Church and State have not a more watchfull and jealous Eye upon all such illegal Schismatical and seditious conventions It is a sure rule of our Saviour A Kingdom divided cannot stand It was a principle of Machiavel divide impera divide and take all Whatsoever may be divided may be destroyed When a society is broken it may soon be brought to confusion 'T is Satan's way to destroy by dissolving unions Infirma est securitas ab alienis dissidiis nec unquam stabile est regnum vbi inter se discordant ii qui reguntur This practice then that tends so much to dividing tends as much to destroying both Church and State Seventhly Where this liberty is either taken or given there is or may be dissenting from yea contrariety of Doctrine to what is taught in publick And that can no way conduce to edification in faith and holiness but to the greatest confusion that may be The whole Church should be as the whole World was in Noah's time unius labii of one Language the building else will prove to be but a Babel and the Ministry for destruction and not for edification which is so far from being God's Ordinance that it is quite contrary thereunto This made St. Paul so earnestly to importune the Church of Corinth to speak all the same things And truly such is the condition of the Upholders and Masters of these unlawfull Assemblies in these days that there is great danger of their prevarication now and then in Doctrine and of suiting their discourses to their hearers palates I say they are under a very great temptation to gratifie mens vices by indulging their prejudices For as a worthy Prelate of our Church hath well observed Where Ministers depend upon voluntary benevolences if they do but upon some just reproof Gaul the conscience of a guilty hearer or preach some truth which disrelisheth the Palate of a prepossessed auditour he streightway flies out and not onely withdraws his own pay but the contribution of others also So as the free Tongue teacher must either live by air or be forced to change his Pasture Thereupon it is that those Sportulary Preachers are fain to sooth up their many Masters and are so gagged with the fear of starving displeasure that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors as being charmed to speak either placentia or nothing This is a truth easie to be apprehended For if even when the Laws enforce men to pay their dues to their Ministers they yet continue so backward in the discharge of them especially if never so little displeased at just reproofs and lawfull endeavours to reform their vicious lives how much less hope can there be that being left to their own free choice they will prove liberal or bountifull in their voluntary Contributions if never so little cross'd upon the like occasion by their new Masters Lastly it opens a door to all Errours and Heresies and is the ready way to bring all Religion to nothing For saith the Apostle when people heap up to themselves teachers to satisfie the itch of their Ears they will turn away their Ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables in a short time Elsewhere the Holy Ghost joins order and stedfastness together Though I be absent in the flesh yet am I present with you in the spirit joying to behold your order and stedfastness of your faith in Christ. It is impossible for men to be stedfast in Religion who keep not God's order How come so many in our days to fall from their stedfastness some to Anabaptism some to Quakerism and some to Atheism but by breaking first that order in Religion that God hath set If Souldiers in an Army keep their order every one abiding in