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A39395
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An Endeavour after further union between conforming & nonconforming Protestants in several particulars by a minister of the Church of England.
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Minister of the Church of England.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing E726; ESTC R43143
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32,518
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38
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for Ecclesiastical Rule Authority and Jurisdiction over one another all Affectation Claim and Exercise of Imperial Power over one another for they were all equal in Office Brethren in the Ministry Fellow-Apostles no one was Pope and Monarch over the rest neither might be 11. If Bishops were Spiritual Lords in respect of inward spiritual Worth and Goodness then they would be Spiritual Lords while they are but Presbyters and before they are made Bishops For first they are Presbyters which the Advocates for Prelacy suppose to be an Order or Degree in the Ministry inferiour to a Bishop Now it is plain that what inward spiritual Worth and Goodness is in the new-made Bishop it was in him before he was Bishop even whilst he was a Presbyter But no one did repute him a Spiritual Lord while he was but a Presbyter though he was a good and worthy Man His assuming of the Episcopal Office adds no inward spiritual Worth and Goodness to his Soul it being but a thing common to worthy and unworthy Men. Mr. Prideaux in his Introduction for reading all sorts of Histories pag. 67. divides the Bishops of Rome into seven Ranks 32 good Bishops 33 tolerable Archbishops or Patriarchs 38 usurping Nimrods 40 luxurious Sodomites 40 Egyptian Magicians 41 devouring Abaddons and 20 incurable Babylonians 12. It is then plain that Lord-Bishops are so by Humane Law and not by Divine Law they are made by Man and not by God their Office Power and Authority as they are Lord-Bishops is Humane and not Divine I say not that it is unlawful but that it is not Divine many things are lawful which yet are not Divine as the Offices of Constables Head-Constables Sheriffs Mayors Lord-Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal are all lawful and yet they are not Divine and Evangelical but Humane and Civil 13. Lord-Bishops being but Civil and Temporal Lords of Man's making their Courts cannot be Spiritual Courts but only Civil and Temporal By Permission of the King and Parliament they hold their Courts not expresly in the King's Name but in their own Name Yet are they nevertheless but Civil and Temporal Courts deriving their Authority from and dependent on the King and Parliament which under God are the highest Judicature in this Nation from whom there lies no Appeal save to God But there lies an Appeal from the highest Ecclesiastical Court in the Nation to the King and Parliament The contrary Doctrine brings in foreign Jurisdiction and sets up the Papacy and is destructive both of Church and State 14. Many of the Nobility and Gentry of England and others of the Laity hold Courts not expresly in the King's Name but in their own Name And yet no one doubts but that they are Civil and Temporal Courts derived from and dependent on the Crown and there lies an Appeal from them to a superiour Civil Court 15. True it is that in the first Ages of the Church after Christ's Ascension the Holy Ghost by Paul reproves the Christians at Corinth for going to Law with one another before the Heathen Judges about worldly and secular Matters there being then no Christian Magistracy I speak to your Shame Is it so that there is not a wise Man amongst you 1 Cor. 6 5â— no not one that shall be able to judg between his Brethren Upon which it is like the Christians from thenceforth did desist from going to Law with one another before the Heathen Judges about small Matters pertaining to this Life and chose some judicious and understanding Christian as an Umpire or Arbitrator for the ending and deciding of their litigious Causes about worldly Matters which continuing for some hundreds of Years unto the Reign of Constantine the first Christian Emperor it is very likely that he by his Imperial Sanction confirmed the aforesaid Apostolical Decree and the Way of the Primitive Churches ending and deciding their Suits about secular Matters pursuant to and grounded on the same and did enlarge and add to it and so made it an Ecclesiastical Court and called it the Bishops Court and the Judg thereof the Bishops Chancellor or the Chancellor of the Ecclesiastical Court But before this Sanction by the Emperor it was no Ecclesiastical Court neither had it any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction it was only a prudential Institution without all external Jurisdiction 16. The King of England is by God's Grace a Christian King Being so he must needs be a Christian and as such he is a Member of God's Church in England in common with all other Christian People therein and he is no more he is not Head thereof for only Christ is Head of God's Church in England like as he is sole Head of the whole Church on Earth it being a Contradiction to be sole Head of the whole and not of every Part. Considered as a King so he hath no more Power and Jurisdiction over the Church and its Causes than he would have if he were a Heathen King his being a Christian doth not inlarge and add to his Regal Power but only qualify him supposing him truly godly with Grace and spiritual Wisdom to use his Regal Power aright for God which a Heathen King cannot 17. The King is sole Supream under God and Christ the Mediator over all the Souls in the Nation as to coercive Rule by the Sword yet is he limited by fundamental Laws whereby the Rights of Prince and People mutually consist and which he is bound inviolably to observe But all his Power is only Civil and Temporal and not Spiritual and therefore he can grant no Spiritual Jurisdiction he can create no Spiritual Office For no Effect can exced its Cause neither can the Streams differ in kind from the Water in the Fountain 18. The King and Parliament will meekly and reverently hear a common Presbyter or Minister preach the Gospel and be awed by the Word in his Mouth as the Word of God and not the Word of Man though Man be the Preacher and they will reverently own and submit to Baptism and the Lord's Supper dispensed by him as Divine and not Humane Institutions Convincing Evidence will go along with the Preacher's Word being scriptural sound good and faithful whereby it will evidence it self to be Divine and from above to all such as believe it will to them be the Savour of Life unto Life and the rest who do not believe yet will stand condemned by it and it may be with Felix tremble under it as being through their own Sin the Savour of Death unto Death to them Here it is plain Jesus Christ as sole Lord of the Conscience doth by the Ministry of a weak Man a coâ—â—â—â— Presbyter exercise Spiritual Lordship and Jurisdiction over the King and all the Lords and Commons inwardly in each one's Bosom over such as are good willingly and in Love over such as are wicked against their Will for if wicked ones might have their Will they would all be above God and lord over him at
Christ can do that 2. The Office of a Bishop as the Office of an Apostle is common to a Peter and a Judas to godly and ungodly Men. But nothing common to godly and ungodly Men can be a ground of spiritual Lordship and Dominion because every ungodly Man while such is a spiritual Slave a Slave of Sin a Bondslave of Satan And as no Man can in the same instant be both alive and dead both godly and ungodly so can no Man in the same instant be both a spiritual Lord and a spiritual Slave because they are contradictorily opposite 3. Spiritual Lordship and Dominion is founded in heavenly Grace and in spiritual Worth and Merit And thus all godly Men and godly Women are spiritual Lords â—ev 1.5 6. â—al 3.28 in such sort as they are spiritual Kings and Priests unto God There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither Bond nor Free there is neither Male nor Female for they are all one in Christ Jesus All things are theirs 〈◊〉 Cor. 3. â—1 22 23. whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are theirs and they Christ's and Christ is God's So that if Bishops be godly Men then they are spiritual Lords not because they are Bishops but because they are godly in common with all other godly Men But if they be ungodly Men then they cannot be spiritual Lords 4. Bishop Bonner and Bishop Gardiner in the Reign of Queen Mary were Civil and Temporal Lords made and upheld by the State and so now are the Popish Bishops in France and Civil Honour is due to them as to any other Temporal Lord made and upheld by the State But spiritual Lords they are not but spiritual Slaves lorded over by base and impotent Lusts because they do like the Idolatrous Worshippers in Israel in the time of the Prophet Elijah who did halt between God and Baal so do the Popish Bishops they join Idolatry with the Worship of the true God and adhere to and confederate with the Antichristian Bishop of Rome against God's true Church and People and those Words of the Apostle may be truly applied to them Their Feet are swift to shed Blood Destruction and Misery are in their Ways and the Way of Peace have they not known There is no Fear of God before their Eyes 〈…〉 1 And if such Men be spiritual Lords then I confess I know not what spiritual Lordship and Dominion is 5. Christ at his Ascension gave some Apostles and some Prophets Eph. 4.11 12. and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers But none of these in respect of their Office and Calling were spiritual Lords but Ministers of the Gospel appointed and given by Christ for the Work of the Ministry which is a thing very different from lording over God's Heritage plainly forbidden by the Holy Ghost 1 Pet. 5.3 6. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets 1 Cor. 12 28 thirdly Teachers By which it is plain that the Apostles are the chiefest Ministers in the Church and so acknowledged by all Bishops cannot be superiour to them But the Apostles were not spiritual Lords in respect of their Office Let a Man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ 1 Cor. 4 1 and Stewards of the Mysteries of God and not as of spiritual Lords And again Not for that we have Dominion over your Faith 2 Cor. 1.24 But if in respect of their Office and Function they were spiritual Lords then they must needs have Dominion over our Faith and be Lords and Masters of it no less than Christ One Lord one Faith one Baptism Eph. 4.5 To us Christians there is but one Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 8.6 who is the sole Lord and Master of our Faith as being the Author and Finisher thereof Heb. 12.2 7. Elijah being a Man of God an eminent Prophet and a Person of extraordinary Note and Renown with all God's People in Israel because of his extraordinary Worth therefore good Obadiah did well in performing to him extraordinary civil Reverence and Honour 1 King 18.7 for he fell on his Face and said to Elijah Art thou that my Lord Elijah This was more than ordinary Worship and Reverence and yet it was but Civil For if it had been more than Civil no doubt but Elijah would have refused it and checked him for it like as Peter did Cornelius and the Angel John 8. When Cornelius met the Apostle Peter and fell down at his Feet Acts 10.25 26. and worshipped him as though he had been a spiritual Lord and more than a Man Peter tacitely reproved him for it and refused such kind of Worship saying Stand up I my self also am a Man So when the Apostle John fell down to worship before the Feet of the Angel Rev. 22.8 9 he forbad him saying See thou do it not for I am thy fellow-Servant worship God Thereby plainly intimating that Religious and Spiritual Worship is due to none but God and that more than Civil Worship and Reverence may not be given to the highest Angel to the most noble Creature as being but our Fellow-Servant and not God But if Bishops were in respect of their Office Spiritual Lords then we should be bound to adore them as God and as the Lord Jesus Christ who is true God equal with the Father which would be Idolatry 9. Our Saviour perceiving this Sin of Papal Lording over God's Heritage to be creeping in among the Apostles presently called them unto him Mat. 20.25 26 27 28. and said Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his Life a Ransom for many 10. Dr. Gr. Williams in his Book of the True Church p. 899. holds that these Words of Christ do most plainly prove a Superiority and Inferiority among these Ecclesiastical Governours Indeed these Words do not hinder but that the Apostles were bound to strive with holy Emulation to excel one another in inward Heavenly Grace and Vertues in Faith in Hope in Love in Humility in Meekness and Lowliness of Mind and labouring in the Word and Doctrine for the Conversion of Souls and the Inlargement of God's Church by the Increase of Believers like as the Apostle Paul did exceed and go beyond all the other Apostles in Ministerial Labour and Diligence himself truly says I laboured more abundantly than they all 1 Cor. 15.10 But nothing can be more plain than that Christ in the forementioned Words doth absolutely forbid the Apostles all Lording and Domination over one another all Striving and Competition